Feed aggregator
Scientists Find Evidence That Oil And Dispersant Mix Is Making Its Way Into The Foodchain
Dan Froomkin
Huffington Post
July 31, 2010
Scientists have found signs of an oil-and-dispersant mix under the shells of tiny blue crab larvae in the Gulf of Mexico, the first clear indication that the unprecedented use of dispersants in the BP oil spill has broken up the oil into toxic droplets so tiny that they can easily enter the foodchain.
Marine biologists started finding orange blobs under the translucent shells of crab larvae in May, and have continued to find them “in almost all” of the larvae they collect, all the way from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Fla. — more than 300 miles of coastline — said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.
And now, a team of researchers from Tulane University using infrared spectrometry to determine the chemical makeup of the blobs has detected the signature for Corexit, the dispersant BP used so widely in the Deepwater Horizon
“It does appear that there is a Corexit sort of fingerprint in the blob samples that we ran,” Erin Gray, a Tulane biologist, told the Huffington Post Thursday. Two independent tests are being run to confirm those findings, “so don’t say that we’re 100 percent sure yet,” Gray said.
FBI reading your email?
Russia Today
July 31, 2010
The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to make companies turn over records of individual’s Internet activity without a court order. As long as the agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation, it is legal under this potential bill. Many electronic privacy organizations see it as a major violation of privacy and the constitution.
Israel launches air strikes in Gaza after rocket fire
Reuters
July 31, 2010
Israel carried out air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded in the city of Ashkelon, witnesses said.
The air strikes hit a training camp in Gaza City used by the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the enclave, and smuggling tunnels along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Another air strike struck an empty caravan in the central Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical workers said four people were lightly wounded from debris in Gaza City. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Ashkelon on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, blowing out the windows of an apartment block and damaging parked cars in a residential area of the city.
Gingrich: Roosevelt would have attacked Iran, N. Korea
Muriel Kane
Raw Story
July 31, 2010
In a speech Thursday before the conservative American Enterprise Institute, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich charged that the United States had failed to take George W. Bush’s 2002 “axis of evil” speech seriously when it ignored the opportunity to attack Iran and North Korea following the invasion of Iraq.
Treating Bush’s rhetorical phrase as though it had referred to a formal military alliance equivalent to the Axis Powers during World War II, Gingrich claimed, “If Harry Truman had done that, the world today would be communist. If Franklin Roosevelt had done that in ‘41, either the Japanese or the Germans would have won. If Lincoln had done that, we would have become two and then multiple countries.”
Gingrich, who appears to be entertaining presidential aspirations, has recently been jumping on the anti-Islamic bandwagon. Last week, he came out against the building of an Islamic community center a few blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center, saying, “There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.”
He later reaffirmed this position in even stronger language, decrying “the idea of a 13-story building set up by a group many of whom, frankly, are very hostile to our civilization.”
Will Washington’s Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A ROBBINS
Investors.com
July 31, 2010
The Internet is a large-scale version of the “Committees of Correspondence” that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington’s failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.
People are asking, “Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?”
Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.
Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There’s no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.
Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.
Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He’s diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.
He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.
He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most “consequential” president ever.
The Wall Street Journal’s steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is “an alien in the White House.”
His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him “anti-business.” Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced “redistribution of income” in history.
Bomb Iran? Neocon Nutballs Ramp Up Campaign
GARETH PORTER
Counterpunch
July 31, 2010
Reuel Marc Gerecht’s screed in the Weekly Standard seeking to justify an Israeli bombing attack on Iran coincides with the opening of the new Israel lobby campaign marked by the introduction of House resolution 1553 expressing full support for such an Israeli attack.
What is important to understand about this campaign is that the aim of Gerecht and of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is to support an attack by Israel so that the United States can be drawn into direct, full-scale war with Iran.
That has long been the Israeli strategy for Iran, because Israel cannot fight a war with Iran without full U.S. involvement. Israel needs to know that the United States will finish the war that Israel wants to start.
Gerecht openly expresses the hope that any Iranian response to the Israeli attack would trigger full-scale U.S. war against Iran. “If Khamenei has a death-wish, he’ll let the Revolutionary Guards mine the strait, the entrance to the Persian Gulf,” writes Gerecht. “It might be the only thing that would push President Obama to strike Iran militarily….”
Gerecht suggest that the same logic would apply to any Iranian “terrorism against the United States after an Israeli strike,” by which we really means any attack on a U.S. target in the Middle East. Gerecht writes that Obama might be “obliged” to threaten major retaliation “immediately after an Israeli surprise attack.”
That’s the key sentence in this very long Gerecht argument. Obama is not going to be “obliged” to joint an Israeli aggression against Iran unless he feels that domestic political pressures to do so are too strong to resist. That’s why the Israelis are determined to line up a strong majority in Congress and public opinion for war to foreclose Obama’s options.
EPA denies global warming petitions
Tom Nelson
July 31, 2010
EPA denies global warming petitions | Washington Examiner
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday denied 10 petitions, one of which was filed by Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, challenging the agency’s 2009 determination that climate change is occurring due to the emission of greenhouse gases and threatens human health.
One basis of Cuccinelli’s petition, filed in February, was the so-called “Climategate” flap, in which internal e-mails from climatologists alleging to have manufactured data were revealed. An investigation into the matter largely cleared the scientists involved of wrongdoing.
“These petitions — based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy — provide no evidence to undermine our determination,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
U.S. recovery hopes fade as economic growth dips
Neil Irwin and Sonja Ryst
Washington Post
July 31, 2010
The recovery is fading, and a troubling new pattern is setting in: economic growth that is too slow to put Americans back to work.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the April-through-June period, the government said Friday, down from 5 percent at the end of 2009 and 3.7 percent at the beginning of this year.
The good news is that it was the fourth consecutive quarter of economic growth and that the expansion continued despite a crisis overseas and palpitations in global financial markets. The bad news is that the growth was below the long-term trend rate at which the U.S. economy expands and is not strong enough to drive down unemployment. And more worrisome, many of the details of the report point to a continued slowdown of expansion this year.
“The post-recession rebound is history,” said Bart van Ark, chief economist of the Conference Board, a business research group. “We don’t foresee a double dip, but we do expect growth to slow even more markedly . . . in the second half of the year.”
U.S. bank failures total 108 after 5 shut on Friday
Corbett B. Daly
Reuters
July 31, 2010
U.S. bank failures reached 108 so far in 2010 on Friday as regulators seized five small banks in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast, none publicly traded.
Bank failures are expected to peak this quarter, with the industry slowly recovering from large portfolios of bad loans, many tied to commercial real estate.
The banks seized on Friday were LibertyBank of Eugene, Oregon; The Cowlitz Bank of Longview, Washington; Coastal Community Bank of Panama City Beach, Florida; Northwest Bank & Trust of Acworth, Georgia; and Bayside Savings Bank of Port Saint Joe, Florida, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Foreclosures Continue To Dramatically Increase In 2010
The Economic Collapse
July 31, 2010
In a very alarming sign for the U.S. economy, foreclosures have continued to dramatically increase in 2010. But there has been a shift. Back in 2007 and 2008, experts tell us that most foreclosures were due to toxic mortgages. People were being suckered into mortgages that they couldn’t afford with “teaser rates” or with payments that would dramatically escalate after a few years, and when those mortgages reset, the people who had agreed to them no longer could make the payments. But now RealtyTrac says that unemployment has become the major reason for foreclosures. Millions of Americans have become chronically unemployed during the economic downturn and many of them are losing their homes as a result. But whatever the cause, one thing is certain – foreclosures have continued to skyrocket at a staggering rate.
According to a new report from RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings climbed in 75% of the nation’s metro areas during the first half of 2010. At a time when the Obama administration believes that we are “turning the corner”, things just seem to get even worse.
Some areas of the country continue to be complete and total disaster areas when it comes to real estate. For example, you have got to feel really sorry for anyone trying to sell a house down in Florida right now. According to RealtyTrac, Florida led the way with nine of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates in the country during the first half of 2010.
Ouch.
But the worst city for foreclosures continues to be Las Vegas.
According to RealtyTrac spokesman Rick Sharga, unemployment has replaced bad loans as the number one cause of foreclosures there….
“Las Vegas has seamlessly shifted from having a high level of foreclosures due to bad loans to defaults caused by a high level of unemployment.”
But other cities with high unemployment rates are having huge problems as well.
For those who believe that the economy is supposed to be “improving”, it must seem really odd that foreclosure rates in major cities such as Chicago continue to soar.
RealtyTrac says that foreclosure filings in Chicago have increased 23 percent year-over-year to one out of every 48 households.
But it isn’t just cities like Las Vegas and Chicago that are nightmares right now.
The truth is that this is a national crisis.
The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10% of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one mortgage payment during the January to March time period. That was a new all-time record and represented an increase from 9.1 percent a year ago.
Unfortunately, new all-time records are being set all over the place….
*The number of home foreclosures set a record for the second consecutive month in May.
*Banks repossessed 269,962 U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010, which was a new all-time record.
*As of March, U.S. banks had an inventory of approximately 1.1 million foreclosed homes, which was a new record and which was up 20 percent from a year ago.
So is there any hope that things are going to get better soon?
Well, according to RealtyTrac’s CEO James Saccacio, that depends on the U.S. economy….
“The fragile stability achieved in many local housing markets hinges on improvements in the underlying economy, specifically job growth. If unemployment remains persistently high and foreclosure prevention efforts only delay the inevitable, then we could continue to see increased foreclosure activity and a corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas.”
Without good jobs, the American people are not going to be able to pay their mortgages.
So are the millions upon millions of jobs that have been lost coming back soon?
No, unfortunately they are not.
As we discussed at length in a previous article, the big global corporations that dominate our economy are figuring out that they don’t really need the rest of us anymore. The American worker is becoming obsolete. After all, why pay an American ten times as much to do the same job? Big corporations can hire two people in China or India to do the same job and still pocket 80% of the difference.
In addition, big corporations don’t really need the headache of making employer contributions to Social Security, setting up benefit packages and pension plans or of trying to comply with the thousands upon thousands of ridiculous regulations that the U.S. government continues to spew out.
At this point, the American worker has become extremely unattractive for large corporations, and so jobs will continue to migrate to other areas of the world.
We allowed our politicians to merge us into a “global economy”, so now we are all going to have to deal with being part of a “global workforce”.
As jobs continue to be offshored and outsourced, more Americans are going to become unemployed and the foreclosure crisis is going to continue to be a nightmare.
It would be nice to put a positive spin on all of this, but there isn’t one.
Tax Code Goof: BP's $10B Credit for Gulf Oil Spill Loss
This was posted at my blog on Tue. July 27, and I just now got around posting on zh. To those bullies chasing my post all over net: I stand by my opinion, so let it rip!!
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By Dian L. Chu, Economic Forecasts & Opinions
There is no shortage of news from BP on Tuesday:
- The oil major reported its first quarterly loss--$17.15 billion--in eighteen years, and will sell about $30 billion in assets.
- The company also announced that CEO Tony Hayward will step down on Oct. 1 to work at TNK-BP--BP’s joint venture in Russia.
- Bob Dudley, an American BP executive, will succeed Hayward as the new Chief Executive
The more eyebrow-raising news; however, is that BP plans to claim almost $10 billion in U.S. tax credit as a direct result of the Gulf oil spill. Here is how the tax code and math work.
Under the U.S. corporate tax law, companies can take credits up to 35% of their loss. Since BP reported $32.2 billion charge related to the cost of the spill, 35% of that will give you roughly $10 billion in credit. So BP’s claim is pretty much what its spokesman said.
The intention of the tax code is to encourage investments and to help companies even out profit and loss, along with the associated taxes. Lawmakers just forgot to incorporate a rider clause for public safety and/or environmental damage related expense.
The tax credit, if claimed, could mean $10 billion of the Gulf aftermath costs would come out of taxpayers’ pocket. This could potentially be quite an embarrassment for the Administration as President Obama vowed that BP will "pay every dime owed" for the spill damage.
Of course, BP could conceivably “do the right thing” and drop its tax credit claim to avoid a crashing tsunami of public anger and outrage. However, don’t expect BP to give up on this sizable cost offset that easily, since BP has made considerable concessions such as a voluntary $20 billion oil spill fund, and speculation of U.S. government’s involvement in Hayward’s dismissal and Dudley's appointment.
As reputation goes, it is hard to imagine the IRS would let this $10 billion slip by. Could revenge of the IRS be in the cards, or as Leona Helmsley famously said “Only the little people pay taxes”?
Dian L. Chu, July 27, 2010
Gold, New Gold Reporting & GDP 7-31-2010
On the Beach 7-31-2010
Energy 'Pearl Harbor' or Collapse? 7-31-2010
DC Sniper Tells William Shatner He Worked With Multiple Conspirators
Source: AOL News
Convicted D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo made shocking new claims about his crime spree — during an interview with actor William Shatner.
In the interview that aired on A&E on Thursday night, Malvo not only admitted to committing approximately 42 shootings around the country with John Allen Muhammad; he also claimed the duo had initially worked with two co-conspirators.
“Getting the opportunity to speak with Lee Malvo is a moment I’ll never forget,” Shatner said in an A&E press release. “He was only 17 when he committed these horrific acts, a monster forged by the only father figure in his life, and it was simply astonishing that he’s found the maturity and humility to admit so many new crimes in his effort to make amends.”
Authorities in Virginia said the claim had no credibility, but police in Maryland want to interview him.
The interview with Malvo was conducted for Shatner’s new series “Aftermath With William Shatner.”
Malvo and Muhammad were arrested in 2002 after a three-month crime spree that terrorized the Washington metro area and culminated in the deaths of 10 people. Because of his age at the time, Malvo was sentenced to life without parole. Muhammad was sentenced to death and was executed by injection in November 2009.
Speaking with Shatner via telephone from Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, Malvo, now 25, spoke candidly about the shooting spree and revealed new details that had never before been made public, including the revelation that he and his partner were involved in a total of 42 shootings and not 13 as originally reported.
“He would send me to do a crime, and then he would watch the crime,” Malvo said. “[He would then] evaluate me after we finished … what was wrong, what I needed to change … [and] my tactics.”
Perhaps most shocking of all, Malvo shared details about two co-conspirators he said were involved in the shooting spree.
“There were two other people who were supposed to be involved, but in the end, they ended up backing out,” Malvo said.
“What was supposed to happen was that there was supposed to be three to four snipers with silenced weapons, silenced rifles, and in this way, you could do a lot more damage along the entire Eastern Seaboard. … In the end, there was only Muhammad and myself,” Malvo continued.
Shatner also interviewed survivors and family members of victims, law enforcement officials and Malvo’s forensic psychiatrist.
As interesting as the new revelations are, authorities have dismissed them as lies and fantasy, according to The Washington Post.
“I think Malvo’s full of crap,” Lt. Bruce Guth, a Fairfax County, Va., homicide detective who headed the task force that helped convict Malvo, told the newspaper. “He’s changed his story at least five or six different times.”
Despite Guth’s skepticism, officials at the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland have confirmed to ABC News that they will “definitely” send detectives to interview Malvo about his latest claims.
The interview with Malvo is not the only crime case Shatner will be tackling in coming months. According to A&E, “Aftermath,” a show that “takes an in-depth look at what happens when people are tragically or infamously transformed from unknown citizens into household names overnight,” will also include interviews with subway shooter Bernhard Goetz, the brother of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, the daughter of Randy Weaver, and Mary Kay Letourneau, a Washington state teacher who had a sexual relationship with a student and later married him. Related Posts:
The International Money Changers Reward the Euro for Forcing Austerity
Source: Activist Post
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Euro has reached an 11-week high against the dollar.
NEW YORK –The euro rose above $1.31, hitting its highest point in 11 weeks as improving euro-zone economic data helped the common currency extend a strong rally that’s seen it rise more than 10% since early June.
The euro has been perhaps the most visible beneficiary of easing concerns about the European sovereign debt crisis. After hitting a four-year low of $1.1876 on June 7, the currency has steadily gained ground amid confidence that policy makers have forestalled a European sovereign debt default.
This rise in strength comes just 3 months after the austerity measures were forced on the Greek people and the same steps being taken for the other PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain). At the time, the global financial community debated whether the Euro would even survive because of fears that soveriegn debt of economically weak European Union member nations would destroy the Euro. Now that the International bankers got the austerity measures that they wanted, the money manipulators have rewarded them.
The same game plan is playing out in the United States; ratchet up the rhetoric about debt and deficits with the veiled suggestions (threats) by the IMF for austerity, and then weaken the currency to a point where the body politic is forced to act on behalf of the banksters who manufactured the extreme over-leveraging. The growing noise for “solutions” to America’s very real debt problems is becoming louder as the calls for confiscating Social Security and Pensions are now everyday news. Related Posts:
Senate Votes to Double Fines, Jail Time for Pot Brownies
By Mike Whitney – BLN Contributing Writer
Last night the United States Senate voted to double the penalties for the nation’s newest existential threat: brownies made with marijuana!
The Senate unanimously passed Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)’s “Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act of 2009″ (S. 258) that targets pot brownies and other marijuana edibles preferred by some medical marijuana patients. The bill next moves to the House; if it passes that chamber, anyone making pot brownies or similar products could be subject to double the fines and jail time for regular marijuana.
This bill’s passage marks a step backwards for Congress, which this week also passed the Fair Sentencing Act that reduced the sentencing disparities between cocaine and crack from 100:1 to 18:1. Now we have a new disparity: pot brownies and other marijuana edibles are now treated as something twice as bad as just distributing marijuana.
“Candy Flavored Meth”
Marijuana prohibitionists often hide behind vague threats to children, and DiFi’s bill is no different. Her “Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act” is framed to make politicians afraid to oppose. “How dare you voted against saving kids from dangerous drugs?”
But DiFi doubled down on the “Reefer Madness”-style hysteria. In championing this bill, Feinstein raised the spectre of “candy flavored meth” as the target of her bill. Something tells me that once, sometime, somewhere, someone claimed to have found candy-flavored meth, probably cut with pixie stix. DiFi ran with this to cover for her true target: marijuana edibles.
Really? Pot Brownies?
Yep. While DiFi’s public line was all “candy flavored meth,” the bill is written broadly enough that pot brownies and other marijuana edibles can be grouped into the law. She mentioned marijuana products in her support of the legislation, of course, but she sought to distract. Here’s the relevant text of the bill:
(1) UNLAWFUL ACTS- Except as authorized under this title, including paragraph (3), it shall be unlawful for any person at least 18 years of age to knowingly or intentionally manufacture or create, with intent to manufacture, create, distribute, or dispense, a controlled substance listed in schedule I or II that is–
‘(A) combined with a candy product;
(B) marketed or packaged to appear similar to a candy product; and
‘(C) modified by flavoring or coloring the controlled substance with the intent to distribute, dispense, or sell the controlled substance to a person under 18 years of age.
‘(2) PENALTIES- Except as provided in section 418, 419, or 420, any person who violates paragraph (1) of this subsection shall be subject to–
(A) 2 times the maximum punishment and at least 2 times any term of supervised release
The text singles out “candy products,” which is a broad grouping; it also specifies products “modified by flavoring or coloring,” which expands the scope of the law. While the bill is ostensibly aimed at distributing drugs to people under the age of 18, it’s broad enough to pose serious problems for both medical marijuana patients and for dispensaries selling these products to patients.
What’s DiFi got against pot brownies? Prop 19.
Feinstein’s was one of the first bills introduced in the Senate in 2009, and sat idle after it was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. That is, until California’s Prop 19 to legalize marijuana started gaining momentum in the spring.
Dianne Feinstein is one of the most vocal opponents to Prop 19. Thought she’s not up for reelection, like other Democratic opponents of legalization in California, Feinstein not only opposes Prop 19, but is actively supporting the campaign to defeat the initiative. In order to help the cause of marijuana prohibitionists, she started to move her anti-pot brownie bill.
How did the bill pass?
A member of the Judiciary Committee, DiFi started to push Chairman Pat Leahy to move the bill through the committee. While the bill didn’t go anywhere for 16 months, DiFi had the Judiciary Committee consider the bill on May 27, which passed it on June 17. Then, with the August recess approaching,
At first, the bill wasn’t supposed to go anywhere. But within the last 36 hours, the picture shifted. Firedoglake was ready with an organizing alert to mobilize opposition to the bill. (Though the excellent Students for Sensible Drug Policy were out early with an action to the Senate.) Then, late yesterday, the Senate passed the bill through unanimous consent. Not only did no sane Democratic Senator step up to put a hold on the bill, no Senators even voted against it.
Do do we really need to put more people in jail for marijuana?
Absolutely not. More people are arrested for marijuana possession than any violent crime combined. Blacks and Latinos are unfairly targeted with marijuana arrests; while whites make up a third of marijuana users, relatively few are in prison. Moreover, since 1984, the country’s prison population has quadrupled. Half of our prisoners are in for drug offenses. We now have 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of its prisoners.
This week Congress voted to reduce sentencing disparities and to reduce prison populations. At a time when the country is taking significant steps to tackle this important issue, Dianne Feinstein and the Senate voted to increase those numbers for… marijuana brownies.
What’s next?
This is one of the many subversive attacks on marijuana legalization by prohibitionists opposing Prop 19. DiFi is only happy to oblige. Countering the prohibitionists will require a massive movement of organized action to give Prop 19 the support it deserves in California. But it goes beyond this election: much needs to be done to sustain activism and organizing in every state that will be voting on marijuana legalization and reform in 2010, 2012, and beyond. Related Posts:
Bath entrepreneur ‘holds the key’ to internet security
Paul Kane (r) with Simon Bond, director of the Bath Innovation Centre
A Bath entrepreneur has been selected to safeguard the future of internet security across the world.
Paul Kane – who lives in the Bradford-on-Avon area – has been chosen to look after one of seven keys, which will ‘restart the world wide web’ in the event of a catastrophic event.
Mr Kane, based at the University of Bath’s SETsquared Innovation Centre, will be the key holder for Western Europe.
Six other people from across the globe have also been asked to look after a key.
In the event of a security breach – such as a terrorist attack – Mr Kane may be required to travel to a secure location in the US.
Here he will meet five other key holders, to recover the master signing key.
Mr Kane said: “I’m honoured and excited to be recognised for past achievements and current contributions to global internet security.
“We are very pleased to be part of stimulating innovation in the Bath area and see the University of Bath becoming a global centre of excellence for enabling internet technologies.”
Mr Kane and his team at CommunityDNS were brought in as internet specialists to work in partnership with the university.
Simon Bond from SETsquared Innovation Centre said: “We’re delighted to provide an environment where leading British entrepreneurs like Paul Kane can develop globally significant businesses.
“It’s an honour for Bath to be one of the locations for the ‘keys to the internet’ and it is an acknowledgement of the strength of our region and the individuals who live here in global internet security.”
From this month, the internet will become more secure through a new international agreement and process which verifies web sites and helps protect email accounts from fraud, using high tech cryptographic keys.
DNSSEC (domain name system security) is a new online security system that ensures people reach a genuine website, rather than a look-alike pirate site.
It is estimated that up to 8% of internet traffic is fraudulent, and it is hoped that this agreement is a ‘major advance’ in increasing internet security.
You can find out more about the ‘keys’ via a short video on the CommunityDNS website.
Related Posts:
In The News Today
U.S. Economy Grew 2.4% in Second Quarter, Below Forecast
By Timothy R. Homan – Jul 30, 2010 6:41 AM MST
Growth in the U.S. slowed to a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than forecast, reflecting a larger trade deficit and an easing in consumer spending.
The increase in gross domestic product compared with a median forecast of 2.6 percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and follows an upwardly revised 3.7 percent pace in the first quarter that showed a jump in inventories, according to figures from the Commerce Department today in Washington. Business investment climbed at the fastest rate since 1997.
“The economy is muddling through,” Ethan Harris, head of North America economics at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Global Research in New York, said in an interview after the report. “We’re probably not going to see a really strong number for a while. We need to see some pickup in job growth.”
A slower pace of growth means employers may be reluctant to hire workers and more likely to keep a lid on prices in order to boost sales. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said the central bank is prepared to take further policy actions if the world’s largest economy “doesn’t continue to improve.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 1.1 percent to 1,089.97 at the 9:36 a.m. in New York. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 6 basis points, or 0.06, to 2.92 percent.
Median Forecast
The projected gain in GDP was based on the median estimate of 81 economists surveyed. Forecasts ranged from gains of 1 percent to 4 percent.
The worst U.S. recession since the 1930s was even deeper than previously estimated, reflecting bigger slumps in consumer spending and housing, according to the Commerce Department’s annual revisions also issued today.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
3 bank failures so far this weekend
Bank Closing Information – July 30, 2010
These links contain useful information for the customers and vendors of these closed banks.
Coastal Community Bank, Panama City, FL
Bayside Savings Bank, Port Saint Joe, FL
NorthWest Bank & Trust, Acworth, GA
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Both you and I need to follow the real stats.
This for payment service is an absolute necessity to me.
Harry Schultz, Shadow Stats and JSMineset should provide all you need for gold.
- Worst Economic Downturn Since World War II Just Got Worst
- Bulk of First-Half GDP Growth Due to Inventories, Setting Up Likely Third-Quarter Contraction
- Lingering Market Hopes for Recovery Should Fade Quickly
"No. 313: Second-Quarter GDP and Revisions "
http://www.shadowstats.com/article
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
John Embry is spot on. The title tells you all.
Gold’s On The Cusp Of A Parabolic Move Up
John Embry
Gold moved to several new all time highs in the month of June despite the absence of any overt enthusiasm for the yellow metal amongst the general public. Sentiment is remarkably negative when one considers the fact that were it any other asset class making new highs in a powerful multi-year bull market, the mainstream press would be trumpeting the news and the public would be falling all over themselves to buy.
Jim’s Mailbox
Wall Street edges lower as investors mull slow recovery
CIGA Eric
Stocks fell on Friday, rebounding for a second day in a row from more substantial losses, as concerns about slower economic growth held trading to a tight range.
Do not associate a technical sell-off with any significant economic conclusions. The direction for stocks, sitting at or near support, will have little to do with lie and deny economic data series. Capital flows, seeking protection against further currency debasement, are driving this market.
As for the slow recovery, my response to that is what did you expect? Consumption, the main driver of US national income, is beginning to fade as the size of the stimulus begins to fade and America begin to defy pop culture by saving. That’s right saving a portion of their incomes. In addition, the engine of future growth, domestic private investment, remains flat at best, and the structural trade deficit is beginning to reassert itself. Government consumption and investment, based largely federal spending, continues to support a weakening private sector.
In other words, the massive quantitative easing to date has done affect the economic trends that are just beginning to intensify.
Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) As A %GDP and Personal Consumption Expenditures As A %GDP Average from 1947: 
Gross Domestic Private Investment (GDPI) As A %GDP and Gross Domestic Private Investment (GDPI) As A %GDP Average from 1947: 
Net Exports (NETEX) As A %GDP and Net Exports (NETEX) As A %GDP Average from 1947: 
Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment (GCEI) As A %GDP Average from 1947: 
Federal Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment (FED) As A %GDP and Federal Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment (FED) As A %GDP Average from 1947 
Savings (SAV) As A %GDP and Savings (SAV) As A %GDP Average from 1947: 
Source: news.yahoo.com
Time to Accumulate metals and mining stocks-UBS
CIGA Eric
Word continues to leak out, buried within the deep recesses of the Internet, despite the selling-induced fear created by the paper operation. As we have been saying for awhile, it will be today’s enemy of gold – bullion banks and agents rather than the gold community that will profit most from gold’s secular rise.
Positive View on Gold
"We believe that ongoing pressure on sovereign debt markets, combined with persistent concerns over private sector credit contraction will raise the spectre of debt monetization repeatedly over the next few years," the analysts advised. "We expect that this background will remain very supportive for gold prices over the period, and that informs our above consensus gold price outlook and our inclusion of two gold stocks in our top ten picks…"
Source: mineweb.co.za
