Month: January 2015

Newsweek – by ZACH SCHONFELD

There aren’t any New Yorkers left who lived through the Great Blizzard of 1888, and maybe that’s a good thing: They’d never shut up about it, especially on a day like today, with an epic snowstorm called ‘Juno’ about to land in the city.

More than 125 years later, the blizzard remains among the most severe the New York area has experienced, producing as much as 60 inches of snowfall in some places and towering snowdrifts of up to 40 feet. With the railroad and roads shut down for days, thousands of New Yorkers were housebound, and hundreds died.   Continue reading “Forget Juno, Look at These Wild Images of the Blizzard of 1888”

UPI – by Thor Benson

KEY WEST, Fla., Jan. 25 (UPI) — Nearly 140,000 Floridians have signed a petition against a proposal to let a British company release genetically modified mosquitoes in their state.

The company, Oxitec, is hoping to release male mosquitoes that have been modified to produce offspring that won’t “survive to adulthood.” The genetically modified mosquitoes will instinctually seek out wild female mosquitoes, and their producing offspring that won’t survive will lower the total population. They want to do this in an effort to fight the extremely painful and often lethal dengue virus, which is spread by mosquitoes.   Continue reading “Nearly 140,000 Floridians have spoken out against genetically modified mosquito proposal”

The Guardian – by Alec Hogg

With growing inequality and the civil unrest from Ferguson and the Occupy protests fresh in people’s mind, the world’s super rich are already preparing for the consequences. At a packed session in Davos, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes. “I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said.   Continue reading “As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes”

Breitbart – by Robert Wilde

Federal authorities have shut down at least six U.S. schools in recent years over allegations of immigration fraud. The schools often dupe students into believing that they are accredited and collect hefty tuition fees, but provide little if any instructional education.

Brian Smeltzer, chief of the Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations says frankly, “If there’s a way to make a buck, some people will do it.”   Continue reading “Fake Schools Serve as Visa Mills for Foreign Students”

Washington Examiner – by Paul Bedard

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is stepping up his criticism of President Obama’s plan to regulate the internet, warning that new rules will lead to the types of taxes and fees slapped on telephones and cable service.

“Under this new regulatory regime, Internet service providers will be subject to these fees as well, and then pass them on to you, the consumer,” said Lee. “This is essentially a massive tax increase on the middle class, being passed in the dead of night without the American public really being made aware of what is going on,” he added.   Continue reading “Obama’s Internet ‘takeover’ means ‘massive’ taxes, warns Sen. Mike Lee”

RT

The whistleblowing website has learned that Google handed over to US authorities the digital correspondence and other data from three of its employees on suspected espionage-related charges related to the Chelsea Manning case.

Google informed WikiLeaks on December 24 that it had complied with a March 2012 order by the US Justice Department to hand over the emails and other information pertaining to Sarah Harrison, a British citizen who is Wikileaks’ investigations editor, the spokesperson for the organization, Kristinn Hrafnsson, and Joseph Farrell, a senior editor at the site.   Continue reading “WikiLeaks ‘astonished and disturbed’: Google gave its major staff data to US govt”

MuckRock – by Michael Morisy

Starting on April 19, 1956, the federal government practiced and planned for a near-doomsday scenario known as Plan C. When activated, Plan C would have brought the United States under martial law, rounded up over ten thousand individuals connected to “subversive” organizations, implemented a censorship board, and prepared the country for life after nuclear attack.

There was no Plan A or B.   Continue reading “Plan C: The top secret Cold War countermeasure which would have brought the United States under martial law”

Natural News – by JD Heyes

A number of experienced scientists have died, often under mysterious conditions, over the past couple of years, the latest being a NASA expert in robotics who worked on space missions.

As reported by Britain’s Daily Mail, the latest scientist casualty is Alberto Behar, 47, of Scottsdale, Arizona, who was killed instantly when the small plane he was piloting recently crashed into a Los Angeles intersection in a nosedive shortly after take-off.   Continue reading “Why have so many scientists been mysteriously killed over the last 24 months?”

Zero Hedge

For all those following the relentless rise in the USD and assuming this is a great thing for global markets, here is a must read take from SocGen’s Kit Juckes.

* * *

GOOD DOLLAR, BAD DOLLAR

The ECB is buying more bonds than expected, and from longer maturities. ECB President Mario Draghi was almost scornful of concerns about the lack of burden-sharing in the event of losses. Equities rallied, credit spreads tightened, and both yields and spreads fell across European government bonds. The Euro has fallen against every major currency except for the Danish Krone today and every major currency except for the Canadian dollar and Czech Koruna this year. Continue reading “When A Soaring Dollar “Reflects Loss Of Investor Confidence And Is Potentially Devastating””

The Guardian – by Justin McCurry

A worker at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has died after falling into an empty water storage tank, in the latest of a series of accidents at the site of the worst nuclear disaster for a quarter of a century.

The death was the second at Fukushima Daiichi in less than a year, but the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), insisted that it was doing everything possible to prevent accidents.   Continue reading “Worker dies at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant”

ABC News – by CAIN BURDEAU

Throughout the quieter parts of the French Quarter, residents and businesses have posted signs that read “Caution: Walk in Large Groups. We (heart) N.O.P.D. We Just Need More.”

It’s an unsettling message about violent crime in the Big Easy for the 1 million revelers about to descend for Carnival season, which this year ends on Feb. 17, Fat Tuesday.   Continue reading “Residents: Police Shortage Is a Security Risk for Mardi Gras”

CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A teenage boy from Bushwick, Brooklyn has learned the hard way that you can’t just post anything you want on Facebook.

As CBS2’s Dave Carlin reported Friday evening, police said not just the words that Osiris Aristy posted, but also the digital cartoon images – or emoji – led to his arrest.

Police said Aristy, 17, posted what they call threatening and harassing content.   Continue reading “Brooklyn Teen Arrested For Alleged Facebook Threat To Officers Using Emoji”

Wall Street Journal – by PERVAIZ SHALLWANI and REBECCA DAVIS O’BRIEN

A former employee of a Fox station in Texas shot and killed himself outside the front doors of the News Corporation building shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, a law-enforcement official said.

The building houses 21st Century Fox and News Corporation, which owns The Wall Street Journal.   Continue reading “Former Fox Station Employee Shoots Himself Outside News Corporation Building”

New York Times – by David Carr

Microsoft made a big announcement last week, revealing that Windows, a lucrative legacy franchise, was about to be unleashed into the physical environment through a set of goggles called the HoloLens that superimposes the operating system on the actual world. In one sense, it was heartening. Business reporters are frequently hung up on the new and the insurgent, but seeing mature companies adapt to a changed world is equally interesting.   Continue reading “Unease for What Microsoft’s HoloLens Will Mean for Our Screen-Obsessed Lives”

Breitbart – by ILDEFONSO ORTIZ

REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — A special detail of Mexican federal authorities have arrived to this Mexican border city in an effort to locate the final resting place of hundreds of individuals who have been reported missing and are believed to have ended up in shallow mass graves.

The team, which is made up of specialists with Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR), Mexican marines, soldiers, and a search and rescue dog named Maki, was deployed to Reynosa following a recommendation made by Mexico’s human rights office, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the PGR revealed.   Continue reading “Mexican Federal Authorities Search For Mass Graves Near Texas Border”