The Discoverie of Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot (1584)
One topic that I’ve long had a fascination with is the history of skeptical and scientific thought. Human beings are naturally endowed with the ability to reason, but that reason is a far cry from a belief in a world governed by immutable natural laws. This is why I consider scientific education to be very important on a societal level; ignorance and fear combined with credulity can lead to devastating consequences: the bloody period of witch hunting in Europe resulted in somewhere between [more...]
Date: 2009-09-22 19:32:32
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Bulletins From Clunkerville
Green Shoots or Scorched Earth? Bulletins From Clunkerville By MIKE WHITNEY writing at Counterpunch Is the economy really recovering or is it all just hype? Here’s what we know. The Fed doesn’t drop rates to zero unless its facing a 5 alarm fire and needs to pull out all the stops. The idea is to flood the markets with liquidity in order to avoid a complete financial meltdown. It’s a last-ditch maneuver and the Fed does not take it lightly. [more...]
Date: 2009-08-14 21:50:14
"Paranoia Strikes Deep..."
Study Links 45,000 U.S. Deaths to Lack of Insurance Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday. "We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-19 04:23:00
GREEN SHOOTS OR SCORCHED EARTH?
Posted: Friday, August 14, 2009@ 8:12:57 PM (Pacific Time) By Tom Usher Last Edited: Friday, August 14, 2009@ 8:12:57 PM (Pacific Time) "Bulletins From Clunkerville," by Mike Whitney. August 14, 2009.Is the economy really recovering or is it all just hype?Here's what we know. The Fed doesn't drop rates to zero unless its facing a 5 alarm fire and needs to pull out all the stops. The idea is to flood the markets with liquidity in order to avoid a complete financial meltdown. [more...]
Date: 2009-08-15 03:12:57
The U.S. Housing Market’s False Dawn
Why Did These Companies Cream the S&P 500? By Martin Hutchinson Contributing Editor Money Morning Is the U.S. housing market truly at a turning point, as investors seem to increasingly believe? Or is this actually a false dawn, meaning that there are problems and pain ahead for those who turned bullish too soon? New home sales jumped almost 10% in July, while the Case-Shiller home price index rose for the second successive month. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-01 16:36:21
2009 Ian Stuart Donaldson Memorial Gig : Melbourne
Readers, Encounter with Nazis - Watch more Videos at Vodpod. White men! White women! The swastika is calling you. The sacred and ancient symbol of your race, since the beginning of time. The Jew is using The Black, as muscle, against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? Just sit there? Of course not! You, are going to join, with us. The members of The Southern Cross Hammerskins and Blood & Honour Australia. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-03 03:06:11
Posts about Foreclosures as of September 7, 2009
Simple Steps To Success As A Bulk REO Investor – athomenetjobs.com 09/07/2009 There are more foreclosures in the United States right now than we have ever experienced before. Yet well-funded investors in real estate are seizing upon this opening to profit from an profoundly profitable new opportunity. This new opportunity – known as ‘ Bulk REO Investing’ – is so huge it’s captured attention from wealthy investors and private investment funds alike. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-07 12:05:35
August 19 2009: A credit crunch on crack
Dorothea Lange Cotton June 1935 Somewhere in California. "Motherless migrant children. They work in the cotton." Ilargi: Shanghai stocks are taking a whoopin’. China's exports are down 23% from a year ago. Direct foreign investment in the country decreased by 35.7% over that same timeframe. Much of the downside has been papered over so far in 2009 by massive amounts of government stimulus and government-ordered lending by the banking system. [more...]
Date: 2009-08-19 16:00:00
Who is Funding the Taliban? You're in for a Big Surprise!
Britons Unite To Defend Their National Health Service By Nicole Belle - Crooks and Liars I guess the UK is sick of hearing we namby-pamby Yanks brag on our health care system and trash theirs, disregarding the fact that the UK pays significantly less per capita for health care and achieves far better outcomes. And they've decided to push back: Britons love to mock their National Health Service — just don't let anyone else poke fun at it. [more...]
Date: 2009-08-17 04:17:00
Posts about Junk Science as of September 7, 2009
Four Plastic Surgery Treatments You’ve Never Heard Of - sensible-health.com 09/08/2009 The world of plastic surgery is always changing. As soon as somebody has a simple idea for improvement, imagination becomes science. These days you can get nearly anything you want done at a plastic surgery clinic. Here are 4 new treatments you’ve probably never heard of before! Get The Washboard With Ab Etching “Ab etching” is the treatment that gets you the “six pack” stomach. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-08 04:03:19
Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting
Review”The best book on the real history of MMA that I’ve seen. . . . This book really is so great I couldn’t put it down . . . it’s a thorough history dating back to the turn of the 20th century, covering the heydays in Brazil, Japan, and major UFC opposition groups over the past 15 years in North America. “ —Wrestling Observer”If the history of MMA was taught as a college course, Total MMA would be the official textbook used for the class. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-17 11:58:06
Posts about Mobile Internet as of August 25, 2009
Mobile Ad Spend to Rise, But Still Leave Room to Grow - blog.byohosting.com 08/25/2009 Mobile Internet ad spending is expected to increase fourfold over the next five years, according to new projections from Juniper Research, with emerging markets fueling much of the growth. Despite all the hype, though, mobile ads will remain a small sliver of overall advertising dollars for the foreseeable future. [more...]
Date: 2009-08-25 18:48:42
Is Pelosi Selling Us Out?
Ray McGovern Warns of 'Two CIAs' By Brad Friedman - Consortium News Editor’s Note: Some years ago, before his death in 1991, legendary CIA officer Miles Copeland talked cryptically about what he called “the CIA within the CIA,” a self-appointed group of intelligence insiders who knew America’s “interests” better than the elected politicians did. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-14 04:37:00
Where's the Outrage for Unemployed, Underemployed and Paycheck-to-Paycheck Living?
60% Living Paycheck to Paycheck by Karen Datko - MSN.com Counting down the hours until payday? You're not alone. As the economic downturn trudges on, many workers are struggling with household budgets. About six in 10 workers -- 61% -- report they always or usually live paycheck to paycheck just to make ends meet, compared with 49% last year and 43% in 2007, according to a new nationwide survey of more than 4,400 workers by CareerBuilder. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-24 05:57:00
Reader Mail #69
I liked this article, via Hacker News. Depressed people can more accurately measure reality than "normal" people. What if the reverse is true? If you're better at sensing reality, then you become depressed?Also, such scientific studies are usually blown out of proportion. They were writing about a single carefully-controlled experiment [more...]
Date: 2008-11-18 17:00:00
5 Reasons Why Stocks and Commodities Will Soar Over Next 9 Months
Right now we're in an Alice in Wonderland world where the government not only wants to spend $700 billion on buying up banks' bad debt but it also ... , you realize you’ve got one last option. You have $25,000 worth of unused credit lines you could tap ... the credit lines and pull a rabbit out of a hat -- come up with a brilliant marketing campaign [more...]
Date: 2008-09-24 19:28:43
Identification of “Red Flags” for Possible Violations of Key U.S. Laws for Companies Operating Overseas
(This post was contributed to Corporate Compliance Insights by Ms. Sharie Brown, a partner at DLA Piper (US) LLP and the Chair of FCPA and Corporate Compliance. Ms. Brown was recently recognized by Ethisphere in its list of “Attorneys Who Matter” for her excellence in FCPA compliance.She can be contacted via telephone at 202.799.4570 or via email at sharie.brown dlapiper com.)——————–Identification of “Red Flags” for Possible Violations of Key U.S. [more...]
Date: 2009-09-09 16:51:40
Newt Gingrich, Light Bulbs and Market Disruption
I was digging through old paper files this weekend and found a note I had scribbled on a hotel phone message notepad that read simply " ... , the news would report it as 'Candle making industry threatened'". Put the quote in historic context ... , networking, and the .com boom of the late 90s and how the ability to directly interact with customers [more...]
Date: 2008-10-19 15:01:05
The Sunday Funnies
Sotomayor To Add Ballistics Expertise To Already Deadly Supreme Court The Onion WASHINGTON—In addition to her extensive command of corporate law, intellectual property cases, and arbitration, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor also brings a world-class knowledge of ballistics and experimental weaponry to an already deadly Supreme Court, analysts said this week. [more...]
Date: 2009-08-16 06:10:00
who i look like part 1
Ok, first I need to thanks Shannon for posting those pictures to facebook. I really got a kick out of them ... (when I wear my green hat) 2) Mr Tumnus (the fawn-man in chronicles of narnia) 3) The “free-credit-report-dot-com guy” (the one that sings) Oh there are so many more… ps…i need to create a category [more...]
Date: 2009-01-09 06:02:34
Why Did Bank of America Pay ACORN?
On September 29, the article “Bank of America Pulls ACORN funding” appeared on the CNN political ticker. While the short piece thankfully does list some of ACORN’s recent scandals, such as the Breitbart video investigation and the voter registration fraud, it didn’t answer the question that was surely on every reader’s mind: What exactly [more...]
Date: 2009-10-01 07:08:36
Aye Matey, Beware of Pirates!
A Sea of Unwanted Imports By MATT RICHTEL - The New York TimesLONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times [more...]
Date: 2008-11-21 10:00:00
Shilly or Chalet Man?
The Diogenes Club is a strange collection of enquiring minds and often encourages its members to follow their noses wherever their occupations or interests take them. Stories from the Diogenes Club otherwise would be merely coffee table affairs. We are drawn to the world of intriguing phenomena and one arm of our collective enquiries is trying to [more...]
Date: 2008-12-19 08:23:00
THE MIND OF A LIBERAL
Dear Readers: Governor Patterson in his "State of the State Address" stood before the legislature and said "It is has been reported that today's children will not live as long as us because of obesity. When parents find that out they will come to Albany and say why didn't you do anything about this?" Were I the governor, I would say, me? [more...]
Date: 2009-01-10 22:43:00
Internet Security Alliance Review 8-22-09
From The Internet Security Alliance In The News… August 21, US-CERT – Current Activity - Adobe Releases Security Bulletin for Flex SDK . Adobe has released security bulletin APSB09-13 to address a vulnerability in Flex 3.3 SDK and earlier versions. This vulnerability may allow an attacker to conduct a cross-site scripting attack. US-CERT encourages users and administrators to review Adobe security bulletin APSB09-13 and update to Flex 3.4 SDK to help mitigate the risks. [more...]
Date: 2009-08-22 14:35:02
The mortgage crisis and the economy
A reader recently asked me to share my thoughts and opinions on the current economy and the mortgage crisis. I took a couple economics classes in college, but that is about all I have going for me as an “economist.” Thankfully I found a great article on Between Two Worlds from someone who has a better educated opinion on the whole topic [more...]
Date: 2008-09-24 15:48:14
The article below, by Joe Nocera of the NYT, appears in today's Magazine section. Nocera explains the role, and type, of financial models that contributed to the near demise of our heretofore much vaunted economy over the past three decades or so. A highly inflated economy, based on "leverage" which is the fancy word for "debt," as in IOU [more...]
Date: 2009-01-05 05:58:36
How to Survive the Current Economic Crisis
November 19, 2008 By Steve Strang The financial crisis that developed on Wall Street in the fall of 2008 is unlike anything I’ve seen in my career ... expected. Why? Because people want answers, and Hagee gives them. As a bonus to the Strang Report readers ... to a report at the end of this e-newsletter from Janet Folger Porter, founder and president [more...]
Date: 2008-11-19 22:20:00
A Different Problem, But The Same Kind Of Bubble
The Flathead Beacon reports from Montana. “In the current national housing slowdown, real estate auctions have gained popularity as a way to speed sales in a sluggish or paralyzed market. Now, the trend has made its way to the Flathead Valley where next month 14 Whitefish condominiums will go to the highest bidder [more...]
Date: 2008-09-18 18:50:02
become infamous for its ballooning costs, which have swollen to four times the original estimate in just three years. The velodrome and main stadium are also bulging beyond the confines of their original budget. That said, CLM can perhaps take credit that they're far from the greediest kitten at the teat. Olympic [more...]
Date: 2008-07-18 16:12:03
Online Video Marketing: How To Optimize Your Web Site Conversion Rates Through Video
How can you optimize your web site conversion rates by using online video? Sure enough, there are several things you can do to make your web published videos help you increase your web site conversion rates. Whether you want more ad clicks, more time on your site or more downloads of your latest PDF, video can greatly help. The key is knowing which are the variables that make a difference when adding video to your content. How do you find out? Photo credit: Ruben Sarkisyan By testing . [more...]
Date: 2009-09-02 10:14:00
The definitive rebuttal to skepticism about global warming!
Here we have the finale of Mclaren’s discussion of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming (AGW) ... to be true. If folks like Mclaren keep this up, people will accuse me of inventing these pro-AGW ... of interest, with little or no analysis. He posted to “This week’s report on the news in climate science“ [more...]
Date: 2008-12-10 12:00:08
There Will Come A Bust In Every Boom
The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. “One out of every four previously owned homes purchased in the Denver area during the heart of the summer sales season was a foreclosure. And in Adams County, one out of every two homes closed from mid-June to the end of July was a foreclosure sold by a bank or other lender, [more...]
Date: 2008-08-14 15:15:06
tigmoo.co.uk blogwatch: Why can’t we unionise lap dancers?
Why can’t we unionise lap dancers? tigmoo.co.uk blogwatch - 1 hour 25 min ago Liberal Conspiracy: Now, I’m not going to get into the pros, cons, ... com read more Categories: fringe blogs We are still winning - keep it up Action Without Theory ... that the minimum wage could be “allowed to wither on the vine”. Is the story true? Well, it certainly [more...]
Date: 2008-10-16 14:55:45
Evolution of the apocalypse - financial meltdown
Saturday, October 25, 2008 redpill8 (Carol Brouillet is a mother, a 9/11 Truth and Peace activist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. This courageous woman is running as the Green party candidate in the 14th congressional district in California. You can hear her platform and read her running statement here: www.carol4congress.org [more...]
Date: 2008-10-26 11:44:00
THE FINTAG NEWSLETTER @ 10 December 2008
FINTAG COMMENT The irony. One of the joys of running your own business is you can make up the rules, ... . Just like after the Dot Com crash, we all started wearing suits again and tried to look ... for stating a CDS was a Credit Derivative Swap. My wine loving oz commentator rightly berated me and I shall [more...]
Date: 2008-12-10 08:32:27
2008: An Emotional Year in Review
2008: An Emotional Year in Review I know it’s customary to “predict” the future, but frankly, I think we need to look back and realize just how remarkable and stressful the year 2008 was. No one called it The Great Depression in 1929, and my guess is that it will take 5 years or more for historians to label 2008 as a turning point when [more...]
Date: 2008-12-31 20:44:01
Media & Politics
Media & Politics 13-Jan-09 Permanent link to MTA daily media news Our Little Shop of Horrors (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter) ... Credit (The Trail, Washington Post) President-elect Barack Obama will address Senate Democrats ... as negotiations unfold, Obama is expected to drop his least popular proposal, a $3,000 tax credit for companies [more...]
Date: 2009-01-08 06:35:02
Weekly Roundup - December 19 Edition
Lots of news on the "Weekly Roundup" today, so once again I've recruited an army of paperboys to make the rounds in our neighborhood. Enjoy...Library Releases Report on Flickr Pilot ProjectLibrary of Congress - News from the Prints ... comments and more than 67,000 tags, according to a new report from the project team overseeing the project [more...]
Date: 2008-12-19 19:00:00
Reducing Post-Purchase Anxiety: Order Confirmation Emails & Thank You Pages
The order confirmation email. So important. The sender name, even more important. Do we spend so much time optimizing images, product copy and site usability to reduce friction ... assures the customer that you’ve got their credit card information. He/she still lives on a prayer until [more...]
Date: 2009-01-08 11:30:29
The Flaw at the Heart of the Internet
Seeing Trouble: Security researcher Dan Kaminsky first spotted a basic vulnerability in the Internet last winter. Credit: John Keatley Multimedia View an outline of a cache-poisoning attack. Dan Kaminsky, uncharacteristically, was not looking for bugs earlier [more...]
Date: 2008-10-22 14:11:00
What’s the deal?
The Pubs are already obstructing the stumulus bill, which ‘Bama was hoping to put in place immediately; ... our way out of it — the ‘liquid’ money that was to calm the credit problems hasn’t really ... Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers, The Progress Report January [more...]
Date: 2009-01-05 21:09:51
DrumBeat: October 24, 2008
Heating Oil Distributors Fear Tough Winter Amid Credit Freeze NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The tight credit market is forcing weak links in the heating oil supply chain, from wholesale ... to carry them into winter, despite the global credit crisis that has made it difficult for even solid [more...]
Date: 2008-10-24 12:30:39
Daily Aid 26: How to understand how the economy is really doing
The Coming Financial Aid Crisis, $6 billion is too conservative a number. Much, much more will be required, because you’re only now seeing the financial markets losses bleed into the real economy, into Main Street. Jobs are being lost, hours cut, raises forfeited, for the average American family [more...]
Date: 2008-10-16 11:55:29
Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/17/2008
Once again it’s a night for immigration stories.First of all, read about Lampedusa and the Greek islands, places that are being overwhelmed with unprecedented numbers of illegal immigrants. They arrive in little ramshackle boats, often starving and dehydrated [more...]
Date: 2008-10-18 03:44:00
Anonymous Judgment on All of Us IA Parents - Pt. 1
I received an interesting and quite lengthy comment on the blog this afternoon, and while I am sure it was a "hit and run" spam-like comment to any international adoption blog I thought it raised some extremely important issues and I thought it provided an interesting opportunity for some thoughtful dialogue [more...]
Date: 2008-11-08 22:30:00
Did Barack Obama Just Break the Law? Fundraising Lottery Could be Illegal.
Unauthorized lotteries are illegal in most jurisdictions, and it is illegal to promote them through the U.S. Mail. by Bill Levinson The Obama campaign has already been warned by law enforcement officials against running “Backstage with Barack” and “Dinner with Barack” lotteries in Minnesota and possibly Colorado [more...]
Date: 2008-11-01 17:46:08
This crisis will prove that Americans are not sheep (unless we are)
Here is an excerpt of a report by Joan McCullough of East Shore Partners, 24 November 2008:Questions: There are over 3 hundred million of us ... , noting that “unintended” is a substitute for “who gives a fig”?Not the least of which is a credit [more...]
Date: 2009-01-08 00:01:07
Lakeview’s Got Bed Bugs
my experience with 311 was any indication, the City of Chicago has no procedure for handling calls about bed bug infestations at all. But Cincinnati, Ohio does? How is that possible? I can hear the argument now, and it goes something like this: “Well, obviously, [more...]
Date: 2009-01-02 04:15:29
BREAKING: Obama Runs Another Online Lottery After Being Warned by Law Enforcement
by Bill Levinson Law enforcement warned the Obama campaign against running lotteries, but Obama is doing it again anyway. We encourage our readers to report this Web page to their states’ gambling law enforcement ... : from mta-inap8.bluestatedigital.com ( 69.25.74.166 ) by vms172051.mailsrvcs.net (Sun Java System Messaging Server [more...]
Date: 2008-10-31 23:08:55
