Showing posts with label speedlinking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speedlinking. Show all posts

April 07, 2008

Global food crisis "dots"

Of COURSE there are the "usual suspects" running on the google alerts - BLAME it on overpopulation, BLAME it on market manipulation, BLAME it on bad leadership in "developing" nations, but whatever "you" do, don't point any fingers of BLAME on Monsanto!!

No, please NOT THAT!!

Below are some current "dots" on google.

Here are a couple of links I dug up - well I would but my computer gets messed up everytime I try to post on this blog today. So here are JUST the google ones which are good for pinpointing future location crises. But I'll have to do some updating later on food crises and MONSANTO


Veeger

Food riots fear after rice price hits a high
The Observer - UK
Already China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia have imposed tariffs or export bans, as it has become clear that world production of rice this year will ...
See all stories on this topic

‘Fields of Glo’
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism - Quezon City,Philippines
The proposed bill also includes a guarantee fund from the government, which can back up farmers, in case of low rice production. Instead of rice imports, ...
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Conversion of rice fields created rice shortage
Manila Times - Philippines
“With the RP-China agricultural deals, at least 1.2 million hectares will be added to for planting jatropha trees, so the land allotted for rice production ...
See all stories on this topic

Hungry ye kya? Remember Malthusian theory
Commodity Online - Kochi,Kerala,India
For example in South Asia, approximately half of the land has been degraded such that it no longer has the capacity for food production. In China there has ...
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ANALYSIS-Price controls are counterproductive, experts say
Reuters - USA
From Argentina and Venezuela to Russia, China and Thailand, governments are meeting the challenge of rising food prices by imposing price controls -- fixing ...
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People’s Food Summit seeks radical reforms
Manila Times - Philippines
The Philippine food crisis is man-made, not a mere outcome of the global food shortages. It states that the Philippines has the land resources to grow and ...
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NOT JUST SUPPLY AND DEMAND: The real reason food prices are ...
Trading Markets (press release) - Los Angeles,CA,USA
India?s export ban on non-Basmati rice and wheat has worsened Nepal?s shortage (See also: ?Food insecurity?, p 2) But this is not the only reason for the ...
See all stories on this topic

Rice crisis ‘imminent’ a long time ago
Manila Times - Philippines
The former food minister said that a slight decrease in worldwide rice production, as low as 5 percent, would affect many rice-producing countries, ...
See all stories on this topic

April 06, 2008

Books of Note speedlinking!! (Part. native American history)



About Eco Books

Eco Books sells books at events and conducts school programs on environmental topics. We maintain ecobooks.com as a reference website. We discontinued online sales because we did not meet the minimum sales requirements of our major distributor, Ingram Books. We are exploring new distribution options.

Our mailing address is:

Eco Books
7988 Van Amburg Road
Hammondsport, NY 14840

You may reach us by telephone at 607-569-2114.

Independent Booksellers Selling Online

Independent booksellers selling online the types of books listed on ecobooks.com include:

100 Fires, Arcata, CA

Seasoned Books, Rochester, VT

Sunfood Nutrition, books on raw food

The independent bookstores selling online at Booksense.com

To learn more about the issues facing independent booksellers read Rebel Bookseller by Andrew Laties.



Books on ecology and the environment

We have discontinued online sales.

We maintain our website as a reference only. These books are not available from us.


Agriculture
Animal Rights
Black American History
Eco Books for Children
Clean Energy
Corporate Power and Globalization
Design with Nature

Ecological Economics
Food Politics
Genetic Engineering
Green Cities
Green Politics
History
Learning and Education
Literature and Criticism

Native American History
Natural Building Techniques
Peace and Nonviolence
Permaculture
Simple Living
Trees and Forests
Vegan and Vegetarian

Books on Native American History

A Face in the Rock: The Tale of a Grand Island Chippewa
Graham, Loren R., University of California Press, 1998, paperback, $15.95
A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present
Churchill, Ward, City Lights Publishers, 1997, paperback, $19.95
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
LaDuke, Winona, South End Press, 1999, paperback, $16.00
American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World
Stannard, David E., Oxford University Press, 1993, paperback, $19.95
American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492
Thornton, Russell, University of Oklahoma Press, 1990, paperback, $24.95
American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice, and Ecocriticism: The Middle Place
Adamson, Joni, University of Arizona Press, 2001, paperback, $19.95
Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans
Chatters, James C., Simon & Schuster, 2002, paperback, $15.00
And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes
Debo, Angie, Princeton University Press, 1973, paperback, $26.95
At the Desert's Green Edge: An Ethnobotany of the Gila River Pima
Rea, Amadeo M., University of Arizona Press, 1997, hardcover, $65.00
Atlas of Indians of North America
Legay, Gilbert, Barron's Educational Series, 1995, hardcover, $21.95
Atlas of the North American Indian
Waldman, Carl, Facts on File, 2000, paperback, $21.95
Beyond Geography: The Western Spirit Against the Wilderness
Turner, Frederick, Rutgers University Press, 1992, paperback, $21.95
Bighorse the Warrior
Bighorse, Tiana, University of Arizona Press, 1994, paperback, $15.95
Biodiversity and Native America
Minnis, Paul E., University of Oklahoma Press, 2000, hardcover, $34.95
Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
Black Elk, Nicholas, University of Nebraska Press, 2000, paperback, $14.95
Brother Crow, Sister Corn: Traditional American Indian Gardening
Buchanan, Carol, Ten Speed Press, 1997, paperback, $11.95
Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians
Wilson, Gilbert L., Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1990, paperback, $11.95
Chippewa Customs
Densmore, Frances, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1992, paperback, $12.95
Comanches: The Destruction of a People
Fehrenbach, T. R., Da Capo Press, 1994, paperback, $22.50
Crazy Horse, the Strange Man of the Oglalas: A Biography
Sandoz, Mari, University of Nebraska Press, 1992, paperback, $14.95
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto
Deloria, Vine, University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, paperback, $19.95
Debating Democracy: The Iroquois Legacy of Freedom
Johansen, Bruce, Clear Light Books, 1997, paperback, $14.95
Defending Mother Earth: Native American Perspectives on Environmental Justice
Means, Russell, Orbis Books, 1996, paperback, $24.00
Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples
Grinde, Donald A., Clear Light Books, 1998, paperback, $14.95
Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema, and the Colonization of American Indians
Churchill, Ward, City Lights Publishers, 1998, paperback, $16.95
Founders of America: America's First People from Their Beginning
Jennings, Francis, W. W. Norton & Company, 1994, paperback, $16.95
From a Native Son: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985-1995
Churchill, Ward, South End Press, 1996, paperback, $22.00
Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo
Harper, Kenn, Washington Square Press, 2001, paperback, $19.95
God is Red: A Native View of Religion
Deloria, Vine, Fulcrum Publishing, 2003, paperback, $21.95
House Made of Dawn
Momaday, N. Scott, Harper Perennial, 1999, paperback, $13.00
Illustrated Atlas of Native American History
Crompton, Samuel Willard, Book Sales, 1999, $24.99
In a Pig's Eye: Reflections on the Police State, Repression, and Native America
Churchill, Ward, AK Press, 2002, $19.98
In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations
Mander, Jerry, Sierra Club Books for Children, 1992, paperback, $16.95
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Matthiessen, Peter, Penguin Books, 1992, paperback, $17.95
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World
Weatherford, Jack, Fawcett Books, 1989, paperback, $13.00
Indian Giving: Economies of Power in Early Indian-White Exchanges
Murray, David, University of Massachusetts Press, 2000, paperback, $20.95
Ishi in Two Worlds
Kroeber, Theodora, University of California Press, 1988, $16.95
Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans
Wallace, Anthony F. C., Harvard University Press, 2001, paperback, $18.95
Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee
Smith, Paul Chaat, New Press, 1997, paperback, $16.95
Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance
Vizenor, Gerald Robert, University of Nebraska Press, 1999, paperback, $15.00
Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America
Weatherford, Jack, Ballantine Books, 1992, paperback, $12.95
Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing about American Indians
Mihesuah, Devon A., University of Nebraska Press, 1998, paperback, $16.95
No Word for Time: The Way of the Algonquin People
Pritchard, Evan T., Council Oak Books, 2001, paperback, $12.95
Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance
Peltier, Leonard F., St. Martin's Press, 2000, paperback, $14.95
Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writing of North America
Harjo, Joy, W. W. Norton & Company, 1998, paperback, $17.95
Repatriation Reader: Who Owns American Indian Remains?
Mihesuah, Devon A., University of Nebraska Press, 2000, paperback, $20.00
Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations
Gedicks, Al, South End Press, 2001, paperback, $18.00
Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes
Wright, Ronald, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993, $16.00
The Ecological Indian: Myth and History
Krech, Shepard, W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, paperback, $15.95
The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose Property?
Messenger, Phyllis Mauch, University of New Mexico Press, 1999, paperback, $22.95
The Invasion of Indian Country in the 20th Century: American Capitalism & Tribal Natural Resources
Fixico, Donald L., University Press of Colorado, 1998, paperback, $24.95
The Last Algonquin
Kazimiroff, Theodore L., Walker & Company, 1996, paperback, $12.95
The Nations Within: The Past and Future of American Indian Sovereignty
Deloria, Vine, University of Texas Press, 1998, paperback, $12.95
The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area
Margolin, Malcolm, Heyday Books, 2002, paperback, $14.95
The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization
Richter, Daniel K., University of North Carolina Press, 1992, paperback, $21.95
The Rights of Indians and Tribes: The Basic ACLU Guide to Indian and Tribal Rights
Pevar, Stephen L., Southern Illinois University Press, 1992, $15.00
The Story of the Trail of Tears
Jahoda, Gloria, Random House Value Publishing, 1995, hardcover, $ 9.99
The Way to Rainy Mountain
Momaday, N. Scott, University of New Mexico Press, 2001, paperback, $13.95
The Way We Live: California Indian Stories, Songs & Reminiscences
Margolin, Malcolm, Heyday Books, 1993, paperback, $14.95
These Were the Sioux
Sandoz, Mari, University of Nebraska Press, 1985, paperback, $ 8.95
To Defend Our Water with the Blood of Our Veins: The Struggle for Resources in Colonial Puebla
Lipsett-Rivera, Sonya, University of New Mexico Press, 1999, hardcover, $49.95
Treaty of Canandaigua: Relations Between the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States
Jemison, G. Peter, Clear Light Books, 2000, paperback, $14.95
Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations
Deloria, Vine, University of Texas Press, 2000, paperback, $15.95
White Roots of Peace: The Iroquois Book of Life
Wallace, Paul, Clear Light Books, 1994, paperback, $12.95

April 02, 2008

speedlinking Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk: How Ireland exorcised the ghost of empire

On the 92nd anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, our Middle East correspondent sees numerous parallels between the bloody, intractable conflicts in Ireland and Israel – and says that the war in Iraq has shown us the true value of neutrality.

Inside Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk: Where is our man for all seasons?

Saturday, 29 March 2008

I suppose it was inevitable that when that glorious Shakespearean actor Paul Scofield died last week, we would reflect on his role in the finest film ever made in the history of the world. I am, of course, talking about A Man for All Seasons , whose magnificent screenplay by Robert Bolt so illuminated the spirit of the Renaissance and of humanism and which is now – in Scofield's performance as Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England – more relevant to the times we live in than ever before. So much for the superlatives and the hyperbole. But are there any Thomas Mores left?

Robert Fisk: It's not a straight road to dictatorship

Saturday, 22 March 2008

An Italian restaurant in the Irish village of Dalkey caused quite a kerfuffle when it opened a few months ago. It is called Benito's and – yes – it is indeed named after Il Duce. And there are Italian fascist newspaper front pages on the wall to remind you just how bravely his men fought in the Second World War. A 1941 cover of La Domenica del Corriere carries a dramatic painting of six RAF Hurricanes crashing into the rooftops of Malta after vainly taking on the Italian air force. On another front page of the same year, four frightened British Tommies – a few of the 19,000 captured in the siege of Tobruk – surrender to black-feathered Bersaglieri troops at Sollum on the Egyptian-Libyan border.

Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a "hell-disaster".

Robert Fisk: Silenced by the men in white socks

Saturday, 15 March 2008

Shut them up. Accuse them. Imprison them. Stop them talking. Why is it that this seems to have become a symbol of the Arab – or Muslim – world? Yes I know about our Western reputation for free speech; from the Roman Empire to the Spanish inquisition, from Henry VIII to Robespierre, from Mussolini and Stalin to Hitler, even – on a pitiable scale – to Mr Anthony Blair. But it's getting hard to avoid the Middle East.

Robert Fisk: The cult of the suicide bomber

Friday, 14 March 2008

Khaled looked at me with a broad smile. He was almost laughing. At one point, when I told him that he should abandon all thoughts of being a suicide bomber – that he could influence more people in this world by becoming a journalist – he put his head back and shot me a grin, world-weary for a man in his teens. "You have your mission," he said. "And I have mine." His sisters looked at him in awe. He was their hero, their amanuensis and their teacher, their representative and their soon-to-be-martyred brother. Yes, he was handsome, young – just 18 – he was dressed in a black Giorgio Armani T-shirt, a small, carefully trimmed Spanish conquistador's beard, gelled hair. And he was ready to immolate himself.

Robert Fisk: Offended by Shakespeare? Let's ban him

Saturday, 8 March 2008

When I first read of the nine 14-year-old students at the Jewish Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School in east London who refused to sit a Shakespeare test because they believed the Bard was anti-Semitic, I could well understand their feelings. Their protest against Shylock in The Merchant of Venice – reported in this newspaper last week – seemed well grounded.

Robert Fisk: The gardens of the devil, still sowing death

Saturday, 1 March 2008

The first time I saw one, my first instinct was to pick it up. It shone in the sunlight, bright green, something new and fresh amid the dry grass of the south Lebanon hills. The little cluster bomblet seemed to have been made to hold in the hand. No wonder the little children died.

Robert Fisk: Dreams of becoming Hitchcock's hero

Saturday, 23 February 2008

When I was at university, I wrote to every journalist known to me for advice. Should I return to my old job on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle or try for Fleet Street? How could I become a foreign correspondent like Huntley Haverstock, the hero of Hitchcock's wartime movie of the same name who filed a scoop after crashing into the Atlantic? Should I really be studying Latin and Roman history if I wanted to be an intrepid warrior for truth among the guns?

Robert Fisk: The remnants of war in the desert sands

Saturday, 16 February 2008

Don Sheridan rang me a few days before his death. I was walking on the Beirut Corniche when my mobile purred and there was my 78-year-old Irish friend, calling, as he often did when life was dangerous in the Middle East, anxious to know that his friend Robert was still safe and well.

Robert Fisk: Bloody end of man who made kidnapping a weapon of war

Thursday, 14 February 2008

It wasn't the staring eyes, nor the way he picked up an apple in front of me and cut it open with such careful deliberation. It was the vice-like handshake, the steely grip that made my fingers hurt. "Imad Mougnieh," he said, as if to show he wasn't on the run, wasn't afraid to use his real name.


Robert Fisk: Seduced by the power of historic books

Saturday, 9 February 2008

There is nothing to match the smell of old books. "Musty" is the cliché that comes to mind but there is something more attractive, more refined about the perfume of ancient volumes. It's the same kind of smell you find in Anglo-Saxon churches, the smell of wood pulp, of trees.

Robert Fisk: Torture does not work, as history shows

Saturday, 2 February 2008

"Torture works," an American special forces major – now, needless to say, a colonel – boasted to a colleague of mine a couple of years ago. It seems that the CIA and its hired thugs in Afghanistan and Iraq still believe this. There is no evidence that rendition and beatings and waterboarding and the insertion of metal pipes into men's anuses – and, of course, the occasional torturing to death of detainees – has ended. Why else would the CIA admit in January that it had destroyed videotapes of prisoners being almost drowned – the "waterboarding" technique – before they could be seen by US investigators?

Robert Fisk: The curious case of the forged biography

Friday, 1 February 2008

It arrived for me in Beirut under plain cover, a brown envelope containing a small, glossy paperback in Arabic, accompanied by a note from an Egyptian friend. "Robert!" it began. "Did you really write this?"

Robert Fisk: Eight dead, and echoes of Beirut's bloody history reverberate around its streets

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

When is a civil war a civil war? A bomb a week? A street battle a month? For after yesterday's funerals in Beirut, this question is no longer academic. Eight Shia Lebanese Muslims were killed in just two hours in the Mar Mikael district of the city in a shootout involving unknown assailants in – and this is the most sinister part of the carnage – the very streets where the 15-year Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975. Then it was a busload of Palestinians ambushed on their way home from the Tel el-Zaatar refugee camp. On Sunday night, it was a large group of Lebanese Muslims protesting against high prices and power cuts.

Robert Fisk: Visions that come to men as they sleep

Saturday, 26 January 2008

As a little boy, I had a recurring nightmare and it always featured my grandfather's dog. Arthur Rose had a Labrador called Sir Lancelot – Lance for short – and I adored this dog. I think he liked me too, because we raced around Arthur's great lawns together and when I tried to trip him up, he tried to trip me up and when I lay on the ground, he would sit with his back to me and bang his heavy, powerful tail into my face.

Beirut's assassins kill the detective on their trail

Saturday, 26 January 2008

The assassins of Beirut are getting personal. Yesterday morning, they killed the most important detective on their trail, the very man who is leading the Lebanese government's investigations into the murder – and attempted murder – of so many of the country's politicians, journalists and soldiers.

More speeldinks here ....


February 06, 2008

this morning's great urls .. 6 feb 2008 great snips

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/IN8LUO095.DTLSan Francisco Chronicle

STIMULUS PLAN A SCAM TO BENEFIT THE RICH,

Higher loan limits will lead to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac bailout


Annie's letters: America’s whoredom season By Khalid Amayreh in ...

America’s whoredom season. By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem. 5 February, 2008. “And the governor said, Why, what evil that man (Jesus) has done? ...
annies-letters.blogspot.com/2008/02/americas-whoredom-season-by-khalid.html - 4 hours ago - Similar pages - Note this

Tuesday, February 5, 2008 Geostrategy-Direct.com
Cheney: Eavesdrop because terrorists don't fight by the rules of international law
Vice President Dick Cheney said last month that the terrorist threat to the United States remains a real danger and so U.S. intelligence agencies need strong authority to conduct electronic eavesdropping and other intelligence-gathering activities.

“The terrorists waging war against this country don't fight according to the rules of warfare or international law or moral standards or basic humanity, and we have to be clear-eyed about the character and objective of these adversaries,” Cheney said in remarks at the Heritage Foundation on Jan. 23.
“They have a strategic goal to create the old 7th century caliphate, an empire stretching from Europe through the Middle East all the way around to Southeast Asia. They want to arm themselves with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and they would not hesitate to use such weapons.”

Banks lose billions
Published on Wednesday, February 06, 2008.

Banks losing billions, and replace it with more money, Citigroup and Lynch holding lion share of market risk, local services slashed, Yahoo! bounces back from layoffs by buyout notice
Banks are losing hundreds of billions of dollars and those in the banking industry tell us only losing $1 billion is considered a good news event these days. This is the kind of sociopathic insanity we have to listen to these days. Then their answer is to give us more money to throw at the problem and we will solve it. They are lying and they simply can't help themselves. They get totally divorced from reality. They are in total denial. We are also told that the infusion of capital from foreign institutions into the banking system to cover up their mistakes is a sign of strength. That is mindless. All the foreigners are doing is dumping dollars, which are the wages of de-industrialization, deregulation, free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. Better known as the termination of your livelihood. It has made us dependent on capital from the outside world. We have become junk-bond junkies. We are no longer the most productive nation in the world. We have been converted into sniveling, pathetic debtors who have been betrayed by our large transnational conglomerates.
Colleges and universities are concerned about the state of their financial aid programs. Sallie Mae does not deny it has problems, yet its CEO Albert Lord sold 1.2 million of his shares.
Private loans are available but they have variable interest rates that allow for higher rates.
Concerned about amounts of pension money that are being moved to outside managers and into opaque investments such as private equity, two trustees of the Texas teacher retirement system board, want to curb political contributions from investors, who do business with the fund. These trustees, who are both school superintendents and the only educators on the nine-member board, said that the $115 billion fund needs to disclose more information about the firm's it hires to invest its money and how they got the job.
Besides limits on campaign contributions the board will also consider whether the fund should publicly disclose placement fees and other payments made in connection with hiring money managers.
Texas has become only the fourth state with a pension fund that limits campaign contributions. Others are California, New Jersey and Connecticut. They should all do so.
Sometimes with financial dislocation comes tragedy. A high-ranking executive of a collapse subprime lender killed his wife and then jumped off a bridge in New Jersey.
Junk bonds are off to their worst start since 1990, falling 1.8% in January triggering $17 billion in losses.
In case you missed it at the State of the Union address by our president he said, "and tonight I am pleased to announce that, in April, we will host this year's North American Summit of Canada, Mexico and the United States in the great city of New Orleans." You'll get the same message from McCain and Clinton. Only Ron Paul can give us the kind of government we need.
A quarterly survey from Financial Executives International and Baruch College showed its optimism index sinking 6.6 points. CFOs have steadily for three years been expressing less confidence about the economy. They have seen recession coming. Of the 361 polled, 73% were concerned about the recession over the next year. 46% said a weaker dollar would have a negative impact on their business and 26% said it would have a positive impact.
Mortgage applications jumped to a four-year high as activity rose 75%. Remember the average applicant is submitting three applications, so the numbers are misleading.
Refi applications rose 22.1%, the highest since July of 2003, but the application index fell 17.7%. Refi's were 73% of all applications up from 66%. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose 11 basis points to 5.6%.
Banks may have to post additional write-downs of $70 billion or more as credit ratings for bonds are further downgraded.
Citigroup and Merrill Lynch hold 45% of the entire market risk. The fate of mono-line insurers is of paramount importance to financial stocks. If MBIA follows Ambac to double A, the game is over. Such an event could take the Dow to 9,000.
Merrill Lynch will no longer underwrite collateralized debt obligations.
Morgan Stanley wrote down $169 million after helping its money market funds by taking on bonds issued by their SIV's. They bought $1.06 billion in SIV's including $160 million since December the first.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns are under investigation by the SEC and the FBI, as well as the states of New York and Connecticut in the default of mortgage-backed bonds. The largest banks and securities firms have posted more than $133 billion in credit losses due to subprime loans. The FBI is pursuing violation of subprime lenders, housing developers and Wall Street banks that packaged loans as securities. They are also looking for criminal activity and insider trading.
Cities, towns, counties and states are slashing municipal services past the point of pain. They are cutting police patrols, laying off teachers and slashing municipal services. It's either do that or go into savings and that usually only lasts a year and the savings are gone. Even the more affluent communities are starting to show signs of strain. Spending by states has fallen precipitously forcing communities to rely more on property tax revenues, or use savings or services. The loss in revenue and inflation are killing these entities. Wait until they have to cut real estate taxes due to falling values. That is when the real problems will begin.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing is going to expand layoffs as a result of the recent $4 billion acquisition of Harcourt Education.
A rumor is bouncing around Wall Street, the City of London and in Paris and on Kaiserstrasse in Frankfurt that J.P. Morgan Chase has a $4 billion loss on a derivatives trade coming soon.
Yahoo is preparing to lay off 1000 workers in Sunnyvale, California the largest purge since the dot-com bust seven years ago. Yahoo reported a 23% drop in fourth-quarter earnings.
Yahoo shares then rose 45% when Microsoft offered to buy it.
The Conference Board said the December help-wanted index was 22 versus 21 month on month

Letter Re: A Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Disaster

Dear Jim,
I just read on a[nother] blog about an imminent Federal Reserve disaster.

There's no [mainstream] news coverage on it yet so this qualifies as a serious heads up.

Note the second numeric column. $40 Billion, has been since 1913, by law. Then notice it suddenly drops to $198 million and then two days ago the report lists the banks as minus $8.7 Billion, something which has never happened before.

How bad is it? Think Weimar Republic. The Fed can no longer stop inflation because the banks can't secure new money with debt. People aren't buying debt anymore. Ergo, hyperinflation is the natural consequence. Mark this day on your calendar. Best, - InyoKern
JWR Replies: In case you missed it, I mentioned the following in Friday's Odds 'n Sods: Hawaiian K. pointed out this Federal Reserve chart, showing that the Net Free or Borrowed Reserves (NFORBRES) of Depository Institutions just fell off a cliff. Let's pray that there aren't any bank runs soon, because the till is empty. It is a jolly good thing that the Fed is handing out so much cheap money these days, so the member banks can list part of these funds as "reserves."

Letter Re: Question on Body Armor "Expiration" Dates

Dear Jim:
There is an "urban myth" that Body Armor "expires" after the official manufacturer warranty runs out. Actually, the standard five year warranty is simply based on the insurance companies legal need to limit their liability - not on the actual performance of armor. (I have a sneaking suspicion that manufacturers don't complain too much about being able to sell new Body Armor every five years either!)

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has found that 10 year old used armor tests as good as new. Since we deal with a lot of Police Surplus we run tests on the oldest and worst looking vests we see (vests we would never sell because they are over 25 years old, on the old NIJ 0101.02 standard). Oddly enough, these old and beat-up vests always stop 9mm +P FMJ and .357 Magnum +P JSP for us.
Here is a direct link to data and photos.

Of course decertified Zylon vests are not to be trusted - regardless of age. However, good Body Armor lasts much, much longer than the five year warranty/insurance policy.
Thanks, - Nick Taylor, BulletProofME.com Body Armor
2007 into 2008
• Linguistically 2007 was the “Year of
emergence” where we see macro trends
forming
• 2008 is “Year of manifestation” and it will be
“ruled” to use the astrological context by two
memes (thought viruses) “Secrets Revealed”
and “Economic Collapse”

George Ure's presentation on coast to coast .. highly recommended



January 22, 2008

Keeping up the watch on KURDISTAN Speedlinks

There are as many reasons to watch Kurdistan as there are Kurds - and US occupying forces to watch them = and that's not counting all the neocolonialists over there to take advantage of a poor situation. So may factors. I don't analyze - I just supply the dots.

If I were in the diplomatic corps and I had a choice - despite the craziness going on - I really think I would not mind being stationed there. It's VERY interesting.

So here are google's latest, great hits on Kurdistan. The Ocalan item should raise some eyebrows if you've read the story - it's on the links here, btw.

Greek report: Öcalan to sue Greece for helping his capture
Today's Zaman - Istanbul,Turkey
Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is preparing to sue Greece for its alleged assistance in his capture, ...
See all stories on this topic

BAGHDAD OBSERVER BLOG: Kurdish lawmaker expresses resentment toward US
Kansas City Star - MO,USA
But he is angry at the US policy on the Kurdistan Worker's Party, the PKK, a militant Kurdish nationalist group that wants an independent Kurdistan in parts ...
See all stories on this topic

Iraqi inflation falls to lowest in over 17 years
Reuters - USA
... have fuelled high unemployment and low growth. But along with higher oil prices, business is booming in the country's more stable northern Kurdistan region.
See all stories on this topic

Three PKK members surrender in Turkey
Xinhua - China
ANKARA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Three members of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) surrendered to Turkish security forces in the southeastern province of ...
See all stories on this topic

Addax Petroleum announces update to continued appraisal program at ...
Canada NewsWire (press release) - Toronto,Ontario,Canada
We are pleased with the positive and proactive nature of our partners in the Kurdistan Regional Government and we are delighted that Addax Petroleum has ...
See all stories on this topic

Analysis: US puts Kurds on terror list
United Press International - USA
21 (UPI) -- Kurdish groups are angry that the US National Counter-Terrorism Center included the symbol of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- the political ...
See all stories on this topic

US-Iranian escalation threatens Iraq economy
Alsumaria - Iraq
Iranian-US military escalation and oil contracts crisis between Kurdistan region and the central government in addition to the three plus one agreement, ...
See all stories on this topic

Former minister calls for dialogue with Iraqi Kurds
Today's Zaman - Istanbul,Turkey
Türkmen was referring to the refusal of the government to talk to Iraqi Kurdish leaders, criticizing them for supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' ...
See all stories on this topic

Turkey Asks UK to Pressure Iraqi Kurds on PKK, Vatan Reports
Bloomberg - USA
... Kurdish administration in northern Iraq to do more to deal with militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the Vatan newspaper reported. ...
See all stories on this topic

Google Blogs Alert for: Kurdistan

ISLAMIC IRAN - GET ARRESTED AND DIE MYSTERIOUSLY
By Alan Peters(Alan Peters)
An Iranian student detained in the capital of Iran's Kurdistan Province has died in prison under circumstances described by his family and human rights activists as "suspicious," Radio Farda reported. ...
Anti-Mullah - http://noiri.blogspot.com/

Disputes between Iraq’s national government and Kurdish region ...
By Iraq Oil Report
The national Oil Ministry intends to move forward on developing the oil and gas sector, while it cuts out companies who have signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government, deals Baghdad calls illegal. Meanwhile there’s no sign of any ...
Iraq Oil Report - http://iraqoilreport.com

Lionel Beehner: The Case for Non-Violence Against Terrorists
By Lionel Beehner(webmaster@huffingtonpost.com)
Like Turkey's conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or Israel's recent skirmish with Hezbollah, war will be primarily fought in the unruly frontiers of countries and entail cross-border incursions by Special Forces or surgical ...
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raw_feed_index.rdf

US puts Kurds on terror list
21 (UPI) -- The US National Counter-Terrorism Center says it was a mistake to include the symbol of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- the political party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani -- on a list of "terrorist logos" that ...
Democratic Underground Latest... - http://www.democraticunderground.com

Is Iraqi Kurdistan a Good Ally?
By farquar
Yale professor's opinion: On a strictly emotional level, US support for Iraqi Kurdistan makes sense.[1] In the wake of World War I, the Kurds missed their opportunity for statehood when other peoples gained their independence. ...
Investor's Iraq Forum - http://www.investorsiraq.com

Greek report: Öcalan to sue Greece for helping his capture
Today's Zaman - Istanbul,Turkey
Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is preparing to sue Greece for its alleged assistance in his capture, ...
See all stories on this topic

BAGHDAD OBSERVER BLOG: Kurdish lawmaker expresses resentment toward US
Kansas City Star - MO,USA
But he is angry at the US policy on the Kurdistan Worker's Party, the PKK, a militant Kurdish nationalist group that wants an independent Kurdistan in parts ...
See all stories on this topic

Iraqi inflation falls to lowest in over 17 years
Reuters - USA
... have fuelled high unemployment and low growth. But along with higher oil prices, business is booming in the country's more stable northern Kurdistan region.
See all stories on this topic

Three PKK members surrender in Turkey
Xinhua - China
ANKARA, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Three members of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) surrendered to Turkish security forces in the southeastern province of ...
See all stories on this topic

Addax Petroleum announces update to continued appraisal program at ...
Canada NewsWire (press release) - Toronto,Ontario,Canada
We are pleased with the positive and proactive nature of our partners in the Kurdistan Regional Government and we are delighted that Addax Petroleum has ...
See all stories on this topic

Analysis: US puts Kurds on terror list
United Press International - USA
21 (UPI) -- Kurdish groups are angry that the US National Counter-Terrorism Center included the symbol of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- the political ...
See all stories on this topic

US-Iranian escalation threatens Iraq economy
Alsumaria - Iraq
Iranian-US military escalation and oil contracts crisis between Kurdistan region and the central government in addition to the three plus one agreement, ...
See all stories on this topic

Former minister calls for dialogue with Iraqi Kurds
Today's Zaman - Istanbul,Turkey
Türkmen was referring to the refusal of the government to talk to Iraqi Kurdish leaders, criticizing them for supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' ...
See all stories on this topic

Turkey Asks UK to Pressure Iraqi Kurds on PKK, Vatan Reports
Bloomberg - USA
... Kurdish administration in northern Iraq to do more to deal with militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the Vatan newspaper reported. ...
See all stories on this topic

Google Blogs Alert for: Kurdistan

ISLAMIC IRAN - GET ARRESTED AND DIE MYSTERIOUSLY
By Alan Peters(Alan Peters)
An Iranian student detained in the capital of Iran's Kurdistan Province has died in prison under circumstances described by his family and human rights activists as "suspicious," Radio Farda reported. ...
Anti-Mullah - http://noiri.blogspot.com/

Disputes between Iraq’s national government and Kurdish region ...
By Iraq Oil Report
The national Oil Ministry intends to move forward on developing the oil and gas sector, while it cuts out companies who have signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government, deals Baghdad calls illegal. Meanwhile there’s no sign of any ...
Iraq Oil Report - http://iraqoilreport.com

Lionel Beehner: The Case for Non-Violence Against Terrorists
By Lionel Beehner(webmaster@huffingtonpost.com)
Like Turkey's conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or Israel's recent skirmish with Hezbollah, war will be primarily fought in the unruly frontiers of countries and entail cross-border incursions by Special Forces or surgical ...
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raw_feed_index.rdf

US puts Kurds on terror list
21 (UPI) -- The US National Counter-Terrorism Center says it was a mistake to include the symbol of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- the political party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani -- on a list of "terrorist logos" that ...
Democratic Underground Latest... - http://www.democraticunderground.com

Is Iraqi Kurdistan a Good Ally?
By farquar
Yale professor's opinion: On a strictly emotional level, US support for Iraqi Kurdistan makes sense.[1] In the wake of World War I, the Kurds missed their opportunity for statehood when other peoples gained their independence. ...
Investor's Iraq Forum - http://www.investorsiraq.com


December 05, 2007

depleted uranium speedlinking

Crews Find Missing Uranium Box
MyFox Dallas - Dallas,TX,USA
The box reportedly contained depleted uranium from an X-Ray camera used to examine sewer lines. A driver with a company identified as Desert Industrial ...
See all stories on this topic

Police track down missing uranium in Fort Worth 6:55 AM CT
Dallas Morning News - Dallas,TX,USA
Fort Worth police located a metal cylinder containing depleted uranium early Tuesday morning after a lengthy search. Police began looking for the ...
See all stories on this topic

Google Blogs Alert for: depleted uranium

Radioactive Container Found
By Temptress
The World Health Organization says depleted uranium is an extremely dense metal that is commonly used as a radiation shield. It has approximately 60 percent of the radiation contained in purified natural uranium.
Photochopz.com - Photoshop forum... - http://www.photochopz.com/forum

Greens, Democrats And Impeachment
By GreenPartyMike Minnesota
materials such as depleted uranium, which causes radioactive contamination of humans (US troops as well as Iraqi civilians) and the environment; white phosphorus, a chemical whose use in warfare is proscribed by international agreement; ...
portland indymedia - newswire - http://portland.indymedia.org/

Depleted Uranium Cover-up in Colonie?
By robinia
You see, my grandparents lived and gardened on Central Ave. in Colonie, right down the street from this plant that, if this article from the UK is correct, spewed depleted uranium around the neighborhood for decades.... depleted uranium ...
the albany project - Front Page - http://www.thealbanyproject.com

Revolution by Any Other Name...
By Timothy V. Gatto(Timothy V. Gatto)
It also encompasses whether or not their children or their grandchildren will be fighting in some nation that is saturated with depleted uranium in order that the defense industries like General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin and ...
LiberalPro - http://liberalpro.blogspot.com/

December 03, 2007

Carbon Dioxide at Record High: more SPEEDLINKS

Don't believe the Carbon Dioxide Crisis exists? Check this out.

The item at the bottom won't work on this blog, but go to the link and there is a box to use to search out environmental links that is just nifty. Includes earthchange articles, which is quite shocking really. Check it out and see and then you'll have a very nice storehouse of articles when you need them.

Planet Ark.org


Here are the catagories

zoos, whaling, wildlife, wilderness, wetlands, weather, water pollution, waste management, waste, volcanoes, tourism, toxics, trees, sustainable development, soil erosion, salinity, renewable energy, recycling, rare species, rain forest, public health, pollution general, pollution smog, pollution ozone, pesticides, pcbs. ozone layer, organic foods, oceans, oil spills, nuclear waste, nuclear power, natural gas, natural disasters, natural disasters hurricanes, natural disasters droughts, natural disasters floods, marine issues, lead issues, land mines, landfill, Kyoto, keiko, insects, insecticides, hydrocarbons, hunting, herbicides, heavy metals, hazardous waste, green politics, Greenhouse gases, Greenhouse effect, Global warming, genetically modified food, fur, fuel cells, fossil fuels, fossil fuels, Exxon Valdez disaster, fishing, erosion, environmental health, energy tax, energy - solar, energy - wind, energy - solar, energy - wind, energy - hydro, energy- fuel cells, energy - cogeneration, endangered species, emissions - carbon dioxide, emissions - carbon monoxide, emissions - methane, emissions - nitro oxide, emissions - smog, emissions - trading, El Nino, electric cars, eco groups (including PETA, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, WWF, Sierra Club), Driftnet Fishing, Dioxin, deforestation, Dams and reservoirs, coral reefs, conservation, coastal issues, climate change, Chernobyl disaster, biodiversity, animal rights, asbestos, air pollution, acid rain

I've put all those links on here, so when one goes to the search box you can access their site And all the stuff already posted on this blog (and there's a LOT on here - my links tend to be very multidimensional. One thing quite different about this 2000+ item blog is there is alot on mining and the disruption it causes for people, animals. I doubt that there is one topic on this list I haven't covered but I have MORE like indigenous sovereignty and so on. )

My desire is to keep YOU uptodate and have an easy to find resource to show your kids that isn't way over their heads while not keeping things so uncontroverial that link between politics and environmental concerns cannot be seen. I don't anticipate that those with greed agendas are going to go away any time soon, and we must be highly aware of the fact they mess with the agenda ALL THE TIME as it suits their own aims.

We must make our children more aware of this link so that they don't fall for the TV propaganda that leaves the responsibility totally on THEM, when the corporations must CHANGE and SOON. Kids are not to blame for this mess. We must keep telling them this. Some change is man made, some is NOT.

Veeger


Carbon Dioxide at Record High, Stoking Warming - WMO


Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version

NORWAY: November 26, 2007


OSLO - Levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels, hit a record high in the atmosphere in 2006, accelerating global warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.


But concentrations of methane, the number two heat-trapping gas, flattened out in a hint that Siberian permafrost is staying frozen despite some scientists' fears that rising temperatures might trigger a runaway thaw.

"In 2006, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded," the WMO said. Carbon dioxide is the main gas from human activities blamed by the UN climate panel for stoking warming.

The WMO said levels rose 0.53 percent from 2005 to 381.2 parts per million of the atmosphere, 36 percent above levels before the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century.

Levels of nitrous oxide, the number three greenhouse gas produced by burning fuels and by industrial processes, also rose to a record with a 0.25 percent gain in 2006. Levels are 320 parts per billion, 19 percent above pre-industrial times.

"Atmospheric growth rates in 2006 of these gases are consistent with recent years," the WMO said in a report. Rising levels could disrupt the climate, producing more heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising ocean levels.

But levels of methane, which comes from sources such as rotting vegetation in landfills, termites, rice paddies and the digestive process of cows, dipped 0.06 percent to 1,782 parts per billion in 2006.

"Methane levels have been flattening out in recent years," Geir Braathen, WHO's senior scientific officer, told Reuters. Still, methane levels are 155 percent higher than before the Industrial Revolution.

"A widespread melt of Siberian permafrost is a possibility but there is no sign of it in this data," he said, referring to some scientists' fears that frozen methane in the permafrost could be released by rising temperatures and accelerate warming.

"If it was happening it would turn up in these figures," he said.

Braathen also said the relative importance of carbon dioxide was increasing, contributing 91 percent of the total heating effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in the past five years from 87 percent in the past decade.

Emissions of some heat-trapping gases blamed for depleting the planet's protective ozone layer also dipped in 2006.

More than 190 nations will meet in Bali, Indonesia, from Dec. 3-14 to try to launch two years of negotiations on a new global treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the main UN plan for fighting global warming.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Tim Pearce)


Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent



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Carbon Dioxide at Record High, Stoking Warming - WMO
Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version

NORWAY: November 26, 2007


OSLO - Levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels, hit a record high in the atmosphere in 2006, accelerating global warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.


But concentrations of methane, the number two heat-trapping gas, flattened out in a hint that Siberian permafrost is staying frozen despite some scientists' fears that rising temperatures might trigger a runaway thaw.

"In 2006, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded," the WMO said. Carbon dioxide is the main gas from human activities blamed by the UN climate panel for stoking warming.

The WMO said levels rose 0.53 percent from 2005 to 381.2 parts per million of the atmosphere, 36 percent above levels before the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century.

Levels of nitrous oxide, the number three greenhouse gas produced by burning fuels and by industrial processes, also rose to a record with a 0.25 percent gain in 2006. Levels are 320 parts per billion, 19 percent above pre-industrial times.

"Atmospheric growth rates in 2006 of these gases are consistent with recent years," the WMO said in a report. Rising levels could disrupt the climate, producing more heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising ocean levels.

But levels of methane, which comes from sources such as rotting vegetation in landfills, termites, rice paddies and the digestive process of cows, dipped 0.06 percent to 1,782 parts per billion in 2006.

"Methane levels have been flattening out in recent years," Geir Braathen, WHO's senior scientific officer, told Reuters. Still, methane levels are 155 percent higher than before the Industrial Revolution.

"A widespread melt of Siberian permafrost is a possibility but there is no sign of it in this data," he said, referring to some scientists' fears that frozen methane in the permafrost could be released by rising temperatures and accelerate warming.

"If it was happening it would turn up in these figures," he said.

Braathen also said the relative importance of carbon dioxide was increasing, contributing 91 percent of the total heating effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in the past five years from 87 percent in the past decade.

Emissions of some heat-trapping gases blamed for depleting the planet's protective ozone layer also dipped in 2006.

More than 190 nations will meet in Bali, Indonesia, from Dec. 3-14 to try to launch two years of negotiations on a new global treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the main UN plan for fighting global warming.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Tim Pearce)


Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE


ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS SEARCH

Enter your keywords to search our news archive by subject. Type "Greenpeace", for example, into the box below and you will be given a listing of all Planet Ark's news and images relating to Greenpeace.


Sort by relevance Sort by date

Alternatively, why not check out our news archive on an issue by issue basis? Select a topic from the list below to learn everything you need to know about the topics contained within this search engine.


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top

Speedlinking

Going, Going, Green

From Composting to Clubbing, Innovations to Expand Your Eco-Vision

By Eviana Hartman
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, August 6, 2006; Page M01


I don't REALLY like posting alot green speedlinks.

Why? You can read them and end up doing NOTHING. No activism or responsibility entailed.

but this link is quite good at putting on some things one doesn't often think about in such lists (like I checked out Oprah's list and left it off as it is just the same old, same old) but have a read of this if you haven't checked out these lists lately. It's surprisingly good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2006/08/03/AR2006080301454_2.html


You might even forward to people who want to KNOW.

SPEEDLINKING; going green MSNBC

From the archives





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