Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Monday 01.28.2013
China to introduce gold exchange-traded funds
China News.Net
China's securities regulator has published provisional rules for the operation of gold exchange-traded funds (ETF), paving the way for introducing such business into the country's financial market.
There is no specific timetable yet for the listing of gold ETFs, or mutual funds traded on stock exchanges that track the price of gold and have most of their assets invested in gold, according to an official from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
China's Yi Warns on Currency Wars
as Yuan Close to 'Equilibrium'
By Jeff Black & Zoe Schneeweis - Bloomberg.com
China's foreign-exchange regulator urged Group of 20 nations to improve collaboration to avoid any so-called currency wars while signaling he's comfortable with the value of the yuan.
On a global level, there needs to be "better communication and coordination" on foreign exchange among the G-20, Yi Gang, who is also a deputy governor of China's central bank, said in an interview at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 26. "Right now, it is pretty much close to the equilibrium level," he said, referring to the Chinese currency's exchange rate.
Jim Sinclair About Gold: Do Nothing To Confuse The Shorts
GoldSilverWorlds.com
When Jim Sinclair (JSMineset) talks you better listen carefully. He is one of the most experienced investors in the gold industry. He has made a fortune with gold trading in the 70′s and is now running a royalty based gold company in Africa.
In a two part series to his subscribers he explains his prospects for gold. More importantly he advices what every "gold investor" should do and explains the current market dynamics. Hence he puts the recent sudden price take downs and the 1.5 year consolidation into perspective.
Jim Sinclair confirms once again that the gold price fundamentals and ongoing currency wars underwrite a recovery in the gold price. We can expect a move to new highs soon. The core of his message is the following:
My guess is that 2013 and 2014 are going to be big up year for the precious metals, but we still have to contend with the central planners and the various government policies, which have been actively trying to keep the gold and silver prices from reaching fair value. The central planners are losing the war. They may win an occasional battle or two, but they're losing the war, and eventually gold and silver are going to go higher.
So predicts James Turk, founder and Chairman of GoldMoney.com.
From James' perspective, gold is not an investment. It's a sterile asset, meaning it does not generate income. What it is, is money. Its function is to store wealth.
If China likes silver, maybe we should too
By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Silver's drawing more and more attention as an investment these days, especially from China.
That appetite has made silver bulls giddy and lifted prices closer to a record.
"Investment demand, not industrial demand, is what drives silver prices right now," said Mark Thomas, author of email-alert service provider SilverPriceAdvisor.com. "World investment demand is starting to really pick up."
Why can't Germany get its gold back?!
Interview with David Morgan
David Morgan from The Silver Report chats with Cambridge House Live anchor Bridgitte Anderson about silver, gold and the global economy. Taped at Cambridge House International's Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in January 2013.
There will be long-term demand for commodities
Casey Research's Chief Metals & Mining Investment Strategist Louis James chats with Cambridge House Live anchor about a myriad of issues pertaining to economics and mining. Taped in January 2013 at Cambridge House International's Vancouver Resource Investment Conference.
Fed Pushes Into 'Uncharted Territory' With Record Assets
By Joshua Zumbrun & Jeff Kearns - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's unprecedented bond buying pushed the Fed's balance sheet to a record $3 trillion as he shows no sign of softening his effort to bring down 7.8 percent unemployment.
The Fed is purchasing $85 billion of securities every month, using the full force of its balance sheet to stoke the economic recovery. The central bank began $40 billion in monthly purchases of mortgage-backed securities in September and added $45 billion in Treasury securities to that pace this month.
Peter Schiff: Coming debt crisis
will make 2008 look like a Sunday school picnic
A best-selling author and one of the world's most in-demand financial pundits, Peter Schiff is interviewed by Cambridge House Live anchor Bridgitte Anderson about the U.S. debt situation, potential collapse of U.S. dollar and his prediction of $5000 gold. Taped at Cambridge House International's Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in January 2013.
America's major problem is unlimited spending
Commentary: A rational, national debate is in order
By Diana Furchtgott-Roth - MarketWatch.com
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — I felt better about Uncle Sam's fiscal situation when I read Rex Nutting's report that "spending is already coming down." But then I checked the numbers and it was déjà vu all over again. America's budget problems are as real as ever.Read Nutting's column: "It's time to stop whining about spending cuts."
What's worse, President Obama in his inaugural address appeared oblivious to fiscal problems. He listed new spending programs, but no cuts. Yet America's major problem is unlimited spending and a Congress that sees no need to trim federal outlays.
The Failing Pretense of Growth
By Wolf Richter - ZeroHedge.com
Hasbro, the second largest toymaker in the US behind Mattel, confessed that it would miss fourth-quarter revenue estimates. Christmas wasn't kind. Despite "double digit growth in our emerging markets business," as CEO Brian Goldner said, revenues fell by 2% for 2012 and by 3.8% for the quarter. But 4% inflation, preferably more, would have covered up that debacle.
The consequences are brutal. There will be a pile of restructuring charges, and 10% of the people will be axed—a collective punishment that the Romans used to dish out to lackadaisical legionnaires. They called it "decimation" (Latin for "removal of the tenth"). One in ten soldiers, determined by drawing lots, would be stoned or clubbed to death by his buddies. It did wonders for morale, and the whole empire collapsed.
The Debt Tax for Americans Grows Ever Larger
By Evan Feinberg - The Hill
The Fiscal Cliff debate ultimately came down to a narrow choice between two options: tax increases or massive tax increases. Given the size of government spending, however, both of these options always assumed a third: government continuing to take out more loans that will have to be repaid by taxing future generations.
Make no mistake, that's why the American people are being asked to once again take on more debt by increasing Congress' borrowing authority. Politicians have maxed out their credit card of $16.4 trillion, and the recently agreed to tax hikes do little to nothing to prevent the sea of red ink drowning our government.
Preparing for a Perfect Storm Stagnation in the developed world, uncertainty in China, and political instability in the Middle East could make for a rough 2013.
By Nouriel Roubini - Slate.com
The global economy this year will exhibit some similarities with the conditions that prevailed in 2012. No surprise there: We face another year in which global growth will average about 3 percent, but with a multispeed recovery—a subpar, below-trend annual rate of 1 percent in the advanced economies, and close-to-trend rates of 5 percent in emerging markets. But there will be some important differences as well.
Painful deleveraging—less spending and more saving to reduce debt and leverage—remains ongoing in most advanced economies, which implies slow economic growth. But fiscal austerity will envelop most advanced economies this year, rather than just the Eurozone periphery and the United Kingdom. Indeed, austerity is spreading to the core of the Eurozone, the United States, and other advanced economies (with the exception of Japan). Given synchronized fiscal retrenchment in most advanced economies, another year of mediocre growth could give way to outright contraction in some countries.
'Dr. Doom's' risks for the global economy
Nouriel Roubini says instability in the Middle East, geopolitical disputes in Asia, and fiscal drags in Europe and the U.S. are still major risks.
George Soros: U.S. needs more stimulus
George Soros says that Washington needs to spend more on projects that could pay for themselves like infrastructure and education.
How Iceland Overthrew The Banks:
The Only 3 Minutes Of Any Worth From Davos
by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
"Why do we consider banks to be like holy churches?" is the rhetorical question that Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimson asks (and answers) in this truly epic three minutes of truthiness from the farce that is the World Economic Forum in Davos. Amid a week of back-slapping and self-congratulatory party-outdoing, as John Aziz notes, the Icelandic President explains why his nation is growing strongly, why unemployment is negligible, and how they moved from the world's poster-child for banking crisis 5 years ago to a thriving nation once again. Simply put, he says, "we didn't follow the prevailing orthodoxies of the last 30 years in the Western world." There are lessons here for everyone - as Grimson explains the process of creative destruction that remains much needed in Western economies - though we suspect his holographic pass for next year's Swiss fun will be reneged…
Olafur Ragnar Grimsson Iceland president
'Let banks go bankrupt'
Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson tells Al Jazeera's Stephen Cole that Europe should let banks that are ran "irresponsibly" go bankrupt.
Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Grimsson also held his country as a model of economic recovery after its near-collapse four years ago.
"We didn't follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies. And the end result four years later is that Iceland is enjoying progress and recovery."
When will the markets turn on the U.S.?
Economist and chairman of UBS Axel Weber says the U.S. 'can kick the can down the road,' but at some point needs to resolve its debt issues.
European cap-and-trade market takes a nose dive
By Michael Bastasch - DailyCaller.com
The European Union's cap-and-trade system took a huge hit on Thursday, with carbon prices plummeting a record 40 percent after a panel rejected a plan to delay emission permit sales to alleviate the overabundance of permits already in the system.
"The market is panicking, really," Daniel Rossetto, managing director of Climate Mundial, told Bloomberg, adding that traders fear that Europe's carbon emissions market won't continue past 2020.
Austerity forcing Europe recession - Soros
Billionaire George Soros says Europe 'remains in a trap' with France being vulnerable due to the lack of reforms they've made.
Financial Reform's Unfulfilled Promises
By Wallace Turbeville - PolicyShop.com
The General Accounting Office has issued a report on the progress of the regulatory agencies as they implement the Dodd-Frank Act financial reforms. It is a depressing read. Fewer than half of the 236 rules required by the act have been adopted. There are not even proposed rules that the public can read and comment on for almost a quarter of the required rulemakings. Congress set deadlines for implementation of about two-thirds of the required rules. The regulators missed 89% of those deadlines.
Ryan: Bill Clinton would have solved fiscal crisis already
By David Eldridge - The Washington Times
Rep. Paul Ryan thinks President Obama could learn a thing or two from one of his predecessors in the White House, Bill Clinton.
Mr. Ryan, appearing in a wide-ranging interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," said Mr. Clinton would have sat down with Republicans and hammered out a deal on the fiscal crisis facing the country.
Tim Geithner's legacy: an unpopular bailout
that helped save the economy
By Zachary A. Goldfarb - WashingtonPost.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sat around a conference room table with his advisers as they relayed the concerns of banks protesting President Obama's push for new rules for Wall Street.
Geithner, widely thought to be a friend of the financial industry, did not lend a sympathetic ear.
"F--- the banks," he said, according to people familiar with the episode.
Geithner's Legacy: The "0.2%" Hold $7.8 Trillion,
Or 69% Of All Assets;
And $212 Trillion Of Derivative Liabilities
by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
As of this morning Tim Geithner is no longer Treasury Secretary. And while Tim Geithner's reign of clueless pandering to the banks has left the US will absolutely disastrous consequences, an outcome that will become clear in time, the most ruinous of his policies is making the banks which were too big to fail to begin with, so big they can neither fail nor be sued, as the recent fiasco surrounding the exit of Assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer showed. Just how big are these banks? Dallas Fed's Disk Fisher explains.
Rep. Paul Ryan says he thinks 'sequester is going to happen'
By Jonathan Easley - TheHill.com
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) predicted Sunday that "the sequester is going to happen," and blamed Democrats for not producing an alternative set of spending reductions to circumvent the across-the-board cuts.
"We think these sequesters will happen because the Democrats have opposed our efforts to replace those cuts with others and they've offered no alternative," Ryan said on NBC's Meet the Press.
Republicans think the sequester gives them leverage.
They're wrong.
by Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
Now that Republicans have delayed the debt ceiling for three months, their next point of attack, they say, are the deep spending cuts in the so-called "sequester." House Speaker John Boehner told the Wall Street Journal editorial board that the sequester is "as much leverage as we're going to get." He meant that to sound reassuring to conservatives. But I can't figure out why they're reassured.
The problem with the GOP's plan to use the sequester as leverage is evident as soon as you stop using the vague term "sequester" and instead call the policy what it is: A bunch of very dumb — but extremely Democrat-friendly — spending cuts.
House Republicans Are the Real Reason
Entitlements Can't Be Cut
By Matthew Yglesias - Slate.com
One of the developments of the past few years that's so peculiar that few people have really gotten their heads around it is the way in which conservative members of the House of Representatives have emerged as the key institutional roadblock to large cuts in American social insurance programs.
Fed waits for job market to perk up
By Alan Wheatley, Global Economics Correspondent
LONDON | Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:05pm EST
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's ultra-loose monetary policy is a root cause of the "currency wars" that some see as a looming threat to the worldeconomy, but don't expect the U.S. central bank to signal a shift back to normal any time soon.
The Fed, whose policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday, said just last month that it expects to keep short-term interest rates exceptionally low until the U.S. unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent, inflation permitting.
SHILLER: All This Housing Optimism Is Way Too Premature
Henry Blodget and Lucas Kawa - BusinessInsider.com
We sat down with Professor Shiller in Davos to get his take on the future of the housing market.
* * * Henry Blodget: Everybody in the U.S. seems convinced that the housing market is going to come roaring back, it's going to save the economy, house prices are going to rise, houses are a great investment again. Are they right? Professor Shiller: First of all, I challenge your statement a little bit. The Pulsenomics survey of experts – they had 105 experts in their December survey – and not one of them predicted a return to the boom that we had. The most optimistic had a real return for the next 4–5 years of something like 6 percent
US to go into recession: Danielle Park
Danielle Park, the author of "Juggling Dynamite" chats with Cambridge House Live anchor Bridgitte Anderson about global economics and the junior mining sector. Taped at Cambridge House International's Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in January 2013.
Lessons Conservatives Need to Learn Obama is a formidable foe.
He means to change the country and crush the GOP.
By Peggy Noonan - PatriotPost.us
Two lessons on how conservatives and Republicans might approach the future, and a look at the meaning of Barack Obama.
Lesson one: Golf star Phil Mickelson this week complained about taxes -- "I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state" -- and suggested he may leave California. Before anyone could jump down his throat, he abjectly apologized: He didn't mean to hurt anyone, he shouldn't have said it, taxes are a "personal" issue.
Gov. Walker: Conservatism thriving in states
By Seth McLaughlin - The Washington Times
Despite taking their lumps in the November election, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Saturday that Republicans should be "optimistic" about the future because the conservative movement is thriving on the state level.
Mr. Walker told the crowd gathered here for a National Review Institute summit in Washington that Republicans now control the governorships in 30 of the 50 states and nearly half of the state legislatures — putting them in a position to make "bold" moves on tax, entitlement and education policy.
Recipe for Conservative Revival
By George Will - PatriotPost.us
WASHINGTON -- Happy days are not here again, but they are coming for conservatives. Barack Obama -- with the lowest approval rating (according to Gallup, 50 percent, four points lower than that of the National Rifle Association) of any re-elected president when inaugurated since the Second World War -- has a contradictory agenda certain to stimulate a conservative revival.
Consider his vow to expend political capital on climate change. The absurdity of the Kyoto approach -- global climate treaties agreed to by 190 nations -- is now obvious even to most former enthusiasts. Obama can propose cutting U.S. fossil fuel emissions (just 16 percent of the global total) with a carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme, but Congress will pass neither. So he will be reduced to administrative gestures costly to job growth, and government spending -- often crony capitalism -- for green energy incommensurate with his rhetoric.
Social Security's disability trust fund
could fail to cover all benefits early as 2016
By Jim Angle - foxnews.com
As President Obama faces pressure on the left to defend federal entitlement programs from the benefit cuts that the Republicans say are necessary to keep the programs solvent decades down the road, one part of Social Security could fall short of paying out full benefits within a few years -- even while Obama is still president.
Over the long term, Social Security and Medicare have promised tens of trillions of dollars more in benefits than the nation can pay for under current policies. But Social Security's disability trust fund is in even worse shape, and current estimates say by 2016 it won't have enough money to pay full benefits.
Tennessee lawmaker's bill
would cut welfare benefits if children fail in school
By Eric Owens - DailCaller.com
A Tennessee state senator has introduced legislation that would reduce welfare benefits for parents if their children fail to make "satisfactory academic progress" in school, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Knoxville Republican Stacey Campfield says his proposed law — SB132 — is a step toward "breaking the cycle of poverty" because it would motivate parents on the dole to become more involved in helping their children learn.
Get ready for health-care reform changes New insurance rules will soon change costs, coverage
By Elizabeth O'Brien - MarketWatch.com
Not entirely sure what's in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? You're hardly alone. Only the most die-hard of policy wonks could claim mastery of the sprawling health-care legislation, which was written by five different congressional committees and runs to nearly 1,000 pages.
For the rest of us, now is a good time for a refresher, because the next 12 months will bring significant changes, particularly for small-business owners, the currently uninsured and self-employed people with pre-existing conditions—a group that includes more baby boomers than younger workers.
ACLU takes on the DEA
for seeking prescription records without a warrant
By Eric W. Dolan - RawStory.com
The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to block the Drug Enforcement Administration from obtaining prescription records without a warrant in Oregon.
The state of Oregon filed suit against the DEA last year after the agency sought to access the Oregon Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), a database of prescription records for certain drugs. The ACLU and its Oregon affiliate hope to join the lawsuit on behalf of patients and doctors.
Eric Cantor: Spending is 'the problem'
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he hopes Congress can work together to cut massive government spending due to health care costs.
Driving Older Americans Into Debt How Out-of-Pocket Medical Costs
Drive Even Insured Older Americans Into Debt
By David Callahan - PolicyShop.com
One obvious way to reduce the deficit is to squeeze Medicare recipients by forcing them to pick up more of the tab for their healthcare costs. And any number of proposals floating around in Washington would do exactly that.
The problem, though, is that older Americans covered by Medicare are already spending a lot on healthcare -- and there's growing evidence that these costs are driving them into debt or poverty.
10 states have banned the surcharge... Credit Card Surcharges Could Begin Today
By Rich Smith - Fool.com
Today, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, is a day that may live in infamy. Or it may not. Really, it all depends on how retailers decide to play things.
Last year, as you may recall, MasterCard and Visa settled a long-running legal battle against a group of retailers who had been complaining about alleged "swipe-fee" price-fixing by the card giants. Along with the banks that issue their branded cards, the defendants agreed to pay merchants more than $7.2 billion to settle the dispute.
…. 10 states -- California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas -- have banned imposition of the surcharge.
Postage Rate Increase Info on the 2013 USPS Postage Rate Increases
Stamps.com
On January 27, 2013 the U.S. Postal Service® will implement a postage rate increase for all mail classes including First Class Mail®, Priority Mail and Express Mail along with many special services.
Summary of the 2013 USPS postage rate increase:
The U.S. Has An Even Larger Gap
Between The Rich And The Poor Than Downton Abbey Does
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
There are two very different Americas today. In one, the stock market is soaring, high end homes are selling briskly, big banks and hedge funds are rolling in money as if the last financial crisis never even happened, and life is really, really good. In the other America, good jobs are incredibly scarce, incomes are declining, and poverty is skyrocketing to levels that we have never seen before. The gap between the wealthy and the poor in America is getting wider with each passing day. In fact, it is my contention that the U.S. has an even larger gap between the rich and the poor than Downton Abbey does. If you have never seen Downton Abbey, you really should. It is one of the most extraordinary shows to appear on television in years. It is a drama set in the UK which follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants throughout the early part of the 20th Century. It can be a bit jarring to watch servants wait on their masters hand and foot and refer to them by such titles as "Lord" and "Lady", but the truth is that in many ways there is more inequality today than there was back then. As far as people living in the worst areas of cities such as Detroit and Cleveland are concerned, the socialites that live on Fifth Avenue in New York City or in multi-million dollar homes out in the Hamptons might as well be from another planet. If you have lots of money, America is still a really great place to live. If you barely have any money, America can be really cold and cruel. Sadly, our politicians continue to pursue policies that make things even better for those working for the establishment in places such as Washington D.C. and Manhattan, and worse for all the rest of us.
Obama's Declaration of Collectivism
By Lawrence Kudlow - PatriotPost.us
One of the least remarked upon aspects of President Obama's inaugural speech was his attempt to co-opt the Founding Fathers' Declaration of Independence to bolster his liberal-left agenda.
Sure, the president quoted one of the most important sentences in world history: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
* * * * *
Chinese want America's assets for their debt…
Gov's goal to bankrupt America and Americans... Obama's Soviet Style Plan to Destroy America Revealed
On today's worldwide broadcast, Alex talks with author and journalist Jerome Corsi in-studio. Alex and Mr. Corsi will talk about Obama's second term agenda and Dr. Jim Garrow's claim that Obama is using a "litmus test" to determine who in the military will fire on U.S. citizens. Corsi is the author of numerous books including, America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty and Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President.
The Obama administration is quietly allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the U.S….
Fed increase surveillance of Google users by 33 percent in 2012
By Josh Peterson - DailyCaller.com
Federal government requests for Google user data continue to rise year by year, and 2012 was no different, according to Google's newly released biannual Transparency Report.
Government requests for Google user data have risen 70 percent since 2009, and the U.S. government has led the way each year. 40 percent of user data requests came from the U.S. government in 2012.
Anonymous Hacks Department Of Justice,
Threatens To Release Secret DOJ Information,
Warns "There Will Be Chaos"
By Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Nearly two years ago, the hacktivist group Anonymous made waves around the fringes of financial media by announcing "Operation Empire State Rebelion" whose goal was to "engage in a relentless campaign of non-violent, peaceful, civil disobedience until Ben Bernanke steps down and the Primary Dealers within the Federal Reserve banking system be broken up and held accountable for rigging markets and destroying the global economy effective immediately." Needless to say nothing came out of it, and OperationESR was promptly forgotten as Anonymous had apparently met its match in the face of the Fed and the Primary Dealers.
Unlocking Your Mobile Phone Is No Longer Legal
BY DAVID KRAVETS - Wired.com
Mobile phones purchased beginning Saturday can no longer be legally unlocked by U.S. consumers to enable them to work on different networks.
The reason, as we reported three months ago, was that the U.S. Copyright Office is no longer granting unlocking an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA makes it illegal to "circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access" to copyrighted material, in this case software embedded in phones that controls carrier access.
AT&T Pays $1.9 Billion to Verizon for More Spectrum
By Paul Ausick - 247WAllSt.com
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) announced this morning that it is acquiring wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz B band from Verizon Wireless for $1.9 billion. The spectrum covers 42 million people in 18 states, according to AT&T's announcement. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone PLC (NASDAQ: VOD).
The sale is related to the deal Verizon made to gain federal government approval for its $3.9 billion purchase of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from SpectrumCo. SpectrumCo is a joint venture of Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), BrightHouse Networks and Cox Communications Inc.
These are really early days for 3-D printing Such devices are still weird and alien to our lives
By John C. Dvorak - MaketWatch.com
BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — The most interesting technology of the 21st century may be what is called additive manufacturing, better known as 3-D printing. It's fascinated me since I first saw this in mid-1997 and did not know then what to make of it.
Unlike a device that does machining, the 3-D printer is just the opposite. With machining, you take a large block of material and carefully remove pieces (by milling usually) until you get what you want. The 3-D printer uses various liquids and powders and builds up the object from nothing; it literally "prints" the object.
11 Body Parts Defense Researchers Will Use to Track You
BY NOAH SHACHTMAN AND ROBERT BECKHUSEN - Wired.com
Cell phones that can identify you by how you walk. Fingerprint scanners that work from 25 feet away. Radars that pick up your heartbeat from behind concrete walls. Algorithms that can tell identical twins apart. Eyebrows and earlobes that give you away. A new generation of technologies is emerging that can identify you by your physiology. And unlike the old crop of biometric systems, you don't need to be right up close to the scanner in order to be identified. If they work as advertised, they may be able to identify you without you ever knowing you've been spotted.
Biometrics had a boom after 9/11. Gobs of government money poured into face and iris recognition systems; the Pentagon alone spent nearly $3 billion in five years, and the Defense Department was only one of many federal agencies funneling cash in the technologies. Civil libertarians feared the worst as face-spotters were turned on crowds of citizens in the hopes of catching a single crook.
Nature's Capital Is The Limiting Resource
By Paul Craig Roberts
Only in science fiction can humans escape the consequences of destroying their own habitat. In Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough For Love, the "Great Diaspora of the Human Race" began "more than two millennia ago" and has spread to more than "two thousand colonized planets." The once "lovely green planet" Earth is a slum planet barely able to support life where only the poorest live, Earth's natural capital having been consumed over two thousand years ago. Humans have found the ability to rejuvenate themselves and to live almost endless lives, but they are unable to rejuvenate the planets whose natural capital they devour. Humans have not encountered "one race as mean, as nasty, as deadly as our own." As homo sapiens use up the environments of colonized planets, "human intergalactic colony ships are already headed out into the Endless Deeps," leaving their ruins behind them.
Keiser Report: Plunderers Pumping Pelf (E398)
In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the American legal system that authorizes plunder, a moral code that glorifies it and a financial system that profits from it. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Professor Steven A. Ramirez, a former Enforcement Attorney at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, about the broken social contract, when that contract got broken and how to mend it.
Obama EPA kills power plant, 3,900 jobs in Texas
By Conn Carroll - WashingtonExaminer.com
Chase Power, the parent company behind the $3 billion Las Brisas coal power plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, announced yesterday that it was cancelling the project.
"Chase Power … has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and is seeking alternative investors as part of a plan of dissolution for the parent company," Chase CEO Dave Freysinger told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
The terrifying mindset of Secretary Clinton
By Joseph Curl - WashingtonTimes.com
Her words are already long gone from the daily flow; in fact, they never really resonated at all, were all but ignored by the mainstream media, and were characterized more as a feisty in-your-face comeback than what they truly were.
And what they truly were was horrifying — but at the same time a deep insight into the Democratic mindset, as well as a peek at what may be coming in 2016.
Leading Democrat: Gun control faces uphill climb
AP Staff Writer - WashingtonExaminer.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who's leading the push to restore an assault weapon ban, acknowledged on Sunday that the effort faces tough odds to pass Congress and she blamed the nation's largest gun-rights group.
Feinstein, D-Calif., on Thursday introduced a bill that would prohibit 157 specific weapons and ammunition magazines that have more than 10 rounds. The White House and fellow Democrats are skeptical the measure is going anywhere, given lawmakers who are looking toward re-election might fear pro-gun voters and the National Rifle Association.
Sen. Feinstein:
Passing gun-control legislation is 'hardest' challenge
By Jeremy Herb - TheHill.com
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Sunday that she will push her assault-weapons ban as an amendment if it doesn't get into the package that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) allows on the floor.
Reid has said he will allow an open amendment process for gun-control legislation on the Senate floor — which gun-control proponents fear could weaken a final bill — but Feinstein said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that she would also force a vote on renewing the assault-weapons ban.
Is gun ownership Christian?
By Lisa Miller - WashingtonPost.com
According to the startling results of a survey released last week by the Public Religion Research Institute, 57 percent of white evangelicals live in homes where someone owns a gun (compared, for example, with 31 percent of Catholics.) And more startling, even after 20 first-graders were slaughtered in Connecticut at the hands of a madman with an assault rifle, 59 percent of white evangelicals continue to oppose tighter restrictions on gun laws.
An obvious question occurs in light of these results: How do such Christians reconcile their stalwart commitment to the Second Amendment with their belief in a gospel that preaches nonviolence? The Christian Lord allowed himself to be crucified rather than fight the injustice of the death sentence imposed on him. "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also," he says, in the Gospel of Matthew. The Bible is mute on the matter of guns, of course, but it is impossible to imagine that Jesus would find anything good to say about them.
McChrystal: Women will serve in,
improve special-forces units
By Jeremy Herb - TheHill.com
Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal predicted Sunday that women will eventually become part of special operations units like the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, saying that including female servicemembers could improve the elite groups' operations.
McChrystal, the former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that he supported the move from the Pentagon this week to lift the ban on women serving in combat.
North Korea's Kim vows 'important state measures'
after new U.N. sanctions
By Ashish Kumar Sen-The Washington Times
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed Sunday to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures" that could include conducting another nuclear test and launching more long-range rockets to retaliate against new U.N. sanctions pushed by the United States.
At a meeting with senior military and Communist Party officials, Mr. Kim "advanced specific tasks to the officials concerned," the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. It didn't say what measures were planned.
North Korea Will Defend Itself Against U.S. Hostility, Kim Says
By Paul Tighe & Saeromi Shin - Bloomberg.com
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to defend his country against hostility from the U.S. after the totalitarian state said last week it will test a nuclear weapon.
Kim supported government statements that "powerful physical countermeasures would be taken to defend" the dignity and sovereignty of the nation, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a report yesterday. Kim expressed the resolution to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," KCNA said, without elaborating.
North Korea threatens war with South over U.N. sanctions
By Jack Kim
SEOUL | Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:27pm EST
(Reuters) - North Korea threatened to attack rivalSouth Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened U.N. sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.
In a third straight day of fiery rhetoric, the North directed its verbal onslaught at its neighbor on Friday, saying: "'Sanctions' mean a war and a declaration of war against us."
Egypt's Mursi Declares State of Emergency
Amid Mounting Unrest
By Tarek El-Tablawy & Salma El Wardany - Bloomberg.com
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi declared a state of emergency and curfew in three provinces wracked by days of unrest that have left almost 50 dead, and said he was ready to take additional steps to protect the nation.
In a late-night televised address yesterday, Mursi said attacks on civilians and state installations won't be tolerated and that he had ordered security forces to deal with transgressors with "all firmness and strength" to halt further violence. The Islamist leader also said he was calling on leaders of political parties to gather for a national dialogue today -- an offer his opposition has so far largely shunned.
Israeli Troops Swap Guns for Computers
as Cyber Attacks Increase
By Gwen Ackerman - Bloomberg.com
At an army base outside Tel Aviv, soldiers sit in front of screens glued to scrolling colored computer code, keyboards at the ready to deflect attacks.
They're Israel's cyber defense team in training, among the uniformed men and women learning how to stalk hackers and pounce on virtual enemies as the state shields everything from ministry websites to the systems running the Tel Aviv stock market.
Israel Deploys Missiles as Netanyahu Sees Syria Collapse
By Jonathan Ferziger & Calev Ben-David - Bloomberg.com
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel must prepare for the threat of a chemical attack from Syria as the army deployed its new Iron Dome anti- missile system near the border with its northern neighbor.
Netanyahu told members of the Cabinet during the weekly meeting in Jerusalem today that Israel faces dangers from throughout the Middle East. Top security officials held a special meeting last week to discuss what may happen to Syrian stocks of chemical weapons amid the civil unrest there, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told Army Radio.
Israel warns of attack on Syrian chemical weapons
AP StaffWriter - WashingtonExaminer.com
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike to stop Syria's chemical weapons from reaching Lebanon's Hezbollah or al-Qaida inspired groups, officials said Sunday.
The warning came as the military moved a rocket defense system to a main northern city, and Israel's premier warned of dangers from both Syria and Iran.
Israel threatens Syria strike if rebels get chemical arms
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM | Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:33am EST
(Reuters) - Any sign that Syria's grip on its chemical weapons is slipping as it battles an armed uprising could trigger Israeli military strikes, Israel's vice premier said on Sunday.
Silvan Shalom confirmed a media report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had last week convened a meeting of security chiefs to discuss the civil war in Syria and the state of its suspected chemical arsenal.
Henry Kissinger warns of Iran nuclear crisis
in 'very foreseeable future'
By Agence France-Presse - RawStory.com
Israeli officials said Thursday that military action against Iran needed to stay on the table, as former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned of a crisis over Tehran's nuclear ambitions in the "very foreseeable future".
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the threat of military action was vital to efforts against Iran's nuclear programme.
