Monthly Archives: April 2011

New economics hip-hop music video: Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two 1

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“Fight of the Century” is the new economics hip-hop music video by John Papola and Russ Roberts at EconStories.tv | April 28, 2011.

Main Characters:

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB: (5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of government. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, as well as its various offshoots.

Friedrich August Hayek, CH: (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992), born Friedrich August von Hayek, was an Austrian-born economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought. He is considered to be one of the most important economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century, winning the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974.

The Video:

EconStories: “According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession ended almost two years ago, in the summer of 2009. Yet we’re all uneasy. Job growth has been disappointing. The recovery seems fragile. Where should we head from here? Is that question even meaningful? Can the government steer the economy or have past attempts helped create the mess we’re still in?

In this video, Keynes and Hayek weigh in on these central questions. Do we need more government spending or less? What’s the evidence that government spending promotes prosperity in troubled times? Can war or natural disasters paradoxically be good for an economy in a slump? Should more spending come from the top down or from the bottom up? What are the ultimate sources of prosperity?

Keynes and Hayek never agreed on the answers to these questions and they still don’t. Let’s listen to the greats….”

(Interested in learning more about the ideas debated in the video? If so check out these links that will help you get the story behind “Fight of the Century”.)

“Fight of the Century” Lyrics | Written by John Papola and Russ Roberts

KEYNES

Here we are… peace out! great recession
thanks to me, as you see, we’re not in a depression
Recovery, destiny if you follow my lesson
Lord Keynes, here I come, line up for the procession

HAYEK
We brought out the shovels but we’re still in a ditch…
And still digging. don’t you think that it’s time for a switch…
From that hair of the dog. Friend, the party is over.
The long run is here. It’s time to get sober!

KEYNES
Are you kidding? my cure works perfectly fine…
have a look, the great recession ended back in ’09.
I deserve credit. Things would have been worse
All the estimates prove it—I’ll quote chapter and verse

HAYEK
Econometricians, they’re ever so pious
Are they doing real science or confirming their bias?
Their “Keynesian” models are tidy and neat
But that top down approach is a fatal conceit

REFRAIN
Which way should we choose?
more bottom up or more top down
…the fight continues…
Keynes and Hayek’s second round

it’s time to weigh in…
more from the top or from the ground
…lets listen to the greats
Keynes and Hayek throwing down

KEYNES
we could have done better, had we only spent more
Too bad that only happens when there’s a World War
You can carp all you want about stats and regression
Do you deny World War II cut short the Depression?

HAYEK
Wow. One data point and you’re jumping for joy
the Last time I checked, wars only destroy
There was no multiplier, consumption just shrank
As we used scarce resources for every new tank

Pretty perverse to call that prosperity
Rationed meat, Rationed butter… a life of austerity
When that war spending ended your friends cried disaster
yet the economy thrived and grew ever faster

KEYNES
You too only see what you want to see
The spending on war clearly goosed GDP
Unemployment was over, almost down to zero
That’s why I’m the master, that’s why I’m the hero

HAYEK
Creating employment’s a straight forward craft
When the nation’s at war, and there’s a draft
If every worker was staffed in the army and fleet
We’d be at full employment with nothing to eat

(REFRAIN REPEATS)

HAYEK
jobs are the means, not the ends in themselves
people work to live better, to put food on the shelves
real growth means production of what people demand
That’s entrepreneurship not your central plan

KEYNES
My solution is simple and easy to handle..
its spending that matters, why’s that such a scandal?
The money sloshes through the pipes and the sluices
revitalizing the economy’s juices

it’s just like an engine that’s stalled and gone dark
To bring it to life, we need a quick spark
Spending’s the life blood that gets the flow going
Where it goes doesn’t matter, just get spending flowing

HAYEK
You see slack in some sectors as a “general glut”
But some sectors are healthy, and some in a rut
So spending’s not free – that’s the heart of the matter
too much is wasted as cronies get fatter.

The economy’s not a car, there’s no engine to stall
no expert can fix it, there’s no “it” at all.
The economy’s us, we don’t need a mechanic
Put away the wrenches, the economy’s organic

(REFRAIN REPEATS)

KEYNES
so what would you do to help those unemployed?
this is the question you seem to avoid
when we’re in a mess, would you just have us wait?
Doing nothing until markets equil-i-brate?

HAYEK
I don’t want to do nothing, there’s plenty to do
The question I ponder is who plans for who?
Do I plan for myself or leave it to you?
I want plans by the many and not by the few.

We shouldn’t repeat what created our troubles
I want real growth not just a series of bubbles
Let’s stop bailing out losers and let prices work
If we don’t try to steer them they won’t go berserk

KEYNES
Come on, Are you kidding? Don’t Wall Street’s gyrations
Challenge your world view of self-regulation?
Even you must admit that the lesson we’ve learned
Is more oversight’s needed or else we’ll get burned

HAYEK
Oversight? The government’s long been in bed
With the Wall Street execs and the firms that they’ve led
Prosperity’s all about profit and loss
When you bail out the losers there’s no end to the cost

the lesson I’ve learned? It’s how little we know,
the world is complex, not some circular flow
the economy’s not a class you can master in college
to think otherwise is the pretense of knowledge

(REFRAIN REPEATS)

KEYNES
You get on your high horse and you’re off to the races
I look at the world on a case by case basis
When people are suffering I roll up my sleeves
And do what I can to cure our disease

The future’s uncertain, our outlooks are frail
That’s why free markets are so prone to fail
In a volatile world we need more discretion
So state intervention can counter depression

HAYEK
People aren’t chessmen you can move on a board
at your whim–their dreams and desires ignored
With political incentives, discretion’s a joke
The dials you’re twisting… are just mirrors and smoke

We need stable rules and real market prices
so prosperity emerges and cuts short the crisis
give us a chance so we can discover
the most valuable ways to serve one another

FINAL REFRAIN
Which way should we choose?
more bottom up or more top down
the fight continues…
Keynes and Hayek’s second round

it’s time to weigh in…
more from the top or from ground
…lets listen to the greats
Keynes and Hayek throwing down

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How 480 Taliban prisoners broke out of jail in Afghanistan (Article/Videos) Reply

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In the early hours in the morning on Monday, April 25, 2011, at least 480 Taliban prisoners escaped.

According to people involved in the break-out, the Taliban’s great escape began with a team of 18 insurgents on the outside spending five months burrowing hundreds of metres underground through the brown soil west of Kahandar city and into Sarpoza prison, taking their tunnel right into the prison’s political section where hundreds of Taliban were held.

The starting point was a compound directly opposite the prison that from the outside looked like any one of hundreds of building companies that have popped up in areas awash with reconstruction dollars.

According to one of the escapees, the tunnel was of sufficient diameter and high enough for the prisoners to stand upright for most of their walk to freedom. Sections were lit by electric light and ventilated with fans, he said.

One official who visited the prison said the tunnel had two exits, and that the second branch led to a wing of the prison housing ordinary criminals. For whatever reason, that equally grand escape did not come off.

“I only found out that we were going to escape at midnight,” the 28-year-old insurgent, who did not give his name, said during a phone interview with the Guardian.

The man, who had served three years of five-year sentence for fighting foreign forces in Afghanistan, said that a mere 20 minutes later he and his cellmates were taken to the entrance of the tunnel, a hole in the concrete floor that dropped down five feet to the tunnel passage itself.

When the escapee prisoners got to the construction company compound at the end of the tunnel, they were met by their commanders and taken off in cars to safe locations.

From about 11pm to 3.30am, cell after cell of prisoners trooped through the passageway to freedom.

The unfortunate guard who came into the wing first thing on Monday morning was confronted with an entirely empty building, save for prison clothes, shoes and turbans that the inmates had for some reason left behind.

“The guards are always drunk. Either they smoke heroin or marijuana, and then they just fall asleep. During the whole process no one checked, there was no patrols, no shooting or anything.”

The prison break also comes just weeks after a Taliban suicide bomber succeeded in blowing up Kandahar’s police chief, and another came close to killing Afghanistan’s defence chief in the heart of his sprawling ministry in Kabul.

But for the Taliban escapee enjoying freedom for the first time in three years, an experience he compared to the Islamic festival of Eid, there was a belief that the government would not recover from its display of ineptitude.
______________________________________

Full article here:
Jon Boone in Kabul
guardian.co.uk | Monday 25 April 2011 19.38 BST
______________________________________

Indiana To Cut Planned Parenthood Funding – An update Reply

All, For the Women, Politics - US

A follow up to my previous post: Indiana Votes To Cut Planned Parenthood Funding | April 27, 2011

April 29, 2011

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels said Friday he will sign restrictive abortion legislation and make Indiana the first state to cut off all government funding for Planned Parenthood, a move likely to boost his credentials among social conservatives as he considers whether to run for president.

Daniels said he supported the abortion restrictions from the outset and that the provision added to defund Planned Parenthood did not change his mind. He said women’s health, family planning and other services will remain available.

“The principle involved commands the support of an overwhelming majority of Hoosiers,” Daniels said in a statement announcing his intention to sign the bill when it arrives on his desk in about a week.

But the measure also puts Daniels’ state at risk of losing $4 million a year in federal family planning grants likely to be cut off because of the legislation. Daniels, known as a fiscal hawk, did not address the loss in his statement.

The bill wasn’t part of Daniels’ agenda and he did not publicly advocate for the Planned Parenthood provision, but signing it might help his chances of winning the GOP nomination. Daniels opposes abortion rights, but his call for a Republican “truce” on social issues has drawn the ire of the social conservatives.

State Rep. Linda Lawson, a Democrat from Hammond who opposes the bill, said the legislation wouldn’t win Daniels any friends among independents and women.

“It might be a maneuver, but I don’t know if it’s in his best interest,” Lawson said.

Daniels said he has ordered Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration to ensure Medicaid recipients receive prompt notice of nearby care options.

“Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions,” Daniels said.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana had urged Daniels to veto the bill and started a series of statewide rallies against it Friday.

Daniels, 62, has said he will decide on a run for president after the Indiana Legislature adjourns, which is expected Friday. He’s also said he will not have a decision this weekend.
______________________________

PERSONAL VIEW: In 1981, when I was but 16 years old, like most girls my age, I became sexually active. However, unlike a few of my friends – I did not want to become pregnant. My parents were “old school” and approaching them would be like walking up face to face to a hungry lion with a slab of meat in my hands. Just was not an option. But Planned Parenthood was. I choose wisely, called the clinic and made my appointment. Shortly thereafter, I walked out with birth control pills in my hand, and never regretted that day.

Because I made this choice, and Planned Parenthood provided me with this option to do so, I went on to college, graduated, and became a productive member of society. Had it not been for this clinic I would have most likely become pregnant, as hormones were raging and I would have not stopped having sex with my boyfriend. Thankfully, I was never put into a position of either having to choose an abortion, or live on welfare as an unwed teenage mother.

Thank you Planned Parenthood.

Cutting off funding will not stop abortion. It will only move it into the back rooms, STD’s will increase, and women will have a harder time finding health care.

Several amazing footages of killer tornado in Tuscaloosa AL 04/27/11 1

All, Natural Disasters, News: US • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Video footage by Clay Hasenfuss | Tuscaloosa AL
Governor Robert Bentley of Alabama declared a state of emergency after 25 were killed by storms on Wednesday alone. That was before the tornado hit Tuscaloosa, where 100 were said to have been injured. Another 11 people were killed in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee.

The Tuscaloosa tornado was one of several that hit Alabama. It tore through the city after 5pm, sweeping past a major medical centre, the University of Alabama campus and a high school.

Many parts of the state had been on a tornado watch throughout the day, prompting schools, government offices and businesses to close early or shut down. One of the Mississippi dead was a father trying to shelter his daughter at a campsite when he was killed.

Mayor Walter Maddox of Tuscaloosa said that sections of the city had been destroyed. News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened home, with many other buildings in the city of more than 83,000 people also reduced to rubble.

“The city experienced widespread damage from a tornado that cut a path of destruction deep into the heart of the city,” Mr Maddox said in a statement.
_____________________

4/28/11 UPDATE:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of the killer tornadoes that ripped across the South may have been among the largest and most powerful ever recorded, experts suggested, leaving a death toll that is approaching that of a tragic “super outbreak” of storms almost 40 years ago.

“There’s a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph,” said Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.

Full story, please click here.

Latest from BBC: More than 300 dead in US storms (click here) | 29 April 2011 Last updated at 01:53 ET

Good Morning America: Tuscaloosa, Alabama Terrorized by Tornadoes, Hundreds Dead video | April 28, 2011
_____________________

PERSONAL NOTE: I grew up in tornado alley, but have never witnessed anything like this…. There are no words to describe what these people have gone through, and will go through….

_____________________
Video footage by Clay Hasenfuss | Tuscaloosa AL

_____________________

Indiana Votes To Cut Planned Parenthood Funding 1

All, For the Women, Politics - US • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

PERSONAL VIEW: In 1981, when I was but 16 years old, like most girls my age, I became sexually active. However, unlike a few of my friends – I did not want to become pregnant. My parents were “old school” and approaching them would be like walking up face to face to a hungry lion with a slab of meat in my hands. Just was not an option. But Planned Parenthood was. I choose wisely, called the clinic and made my appointment. Shortly thereafter, I walked out with birth control pills in my hand, and never regretted that day.

Because I made this choice, and Planned Parenthood provided me with this option to do so, I went on to college, graduated, and became a productive member of society. Had it not been for this clinic I would have most likely become pregnant, as hormones were raging and I would have not stopped having sex with my boyfriend. Thankfully, I was never put into a position of either having to choose an abortion, or live on welfare as an unwed teenage mother.

Thank you Planned Parenthood.

Cutting off funding will not stop abortion. It will only move it into the back rooms, STD’s will increase, and women will have a harder time finding health care.

____________________________________________________

Indiana is poised to become the first state to cut off all government funding for the Planned Parenthood organization, providing a significant victory for the anti-abortion movement but presenting a political predicament for the state’s governor, Mitch Daniels, as he considers running for president.

The Indiana House voted 66-32 Wednesday to approve a bill cutting the $3 million in federal money the state distributes to the organization for family planning and health programs.

The measure also ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy unless there is a substantial threat to the woman’s life or health and requires women seeking an abortion be told that life begins at conception and that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges in a nearby hospital. The Senate approved the measure earlier this month.

The action opens a new legislative front in the conservative assault on Planned Parenthood, which has been targeted for its abortion services. Efforts to cut off federal funds in Congress failed this month, but bills are moving in a number of statehouses.

Indiana’s measure is now in Daniels hands, which could force him to make a decision between the state’s fiscal interests and a prime goal of his party’s social conservatives.

If he signs the measure, Indiana risks losing $4 million in federal grants for family planning services. If he vetoes it, Daniels could antagonize ardent social conservatives already wary of his public statements about the importance of focusing on economic issues this year.

But signing it also could provide Daniels with the political cover he needs from those who question his commitment to social conservative causes. He could point to it throughout the presidential campaign as evidence that opposition to abortion rights and other social causes are part of his political makeup.

A Daniels spokeswoman said the governor would not comment until the bill arrives on his desk for action. He’ll have seven calendar days once he receives the bill to take action. He also could allow it to become law without his signature once those seven days pass.

Daniels has said he will decide on a run for president after the Legislature adjourns, which is expected Friday.

Planned Parenthood says abortions account for just 3 percent of the services it provides. Planned Parenthood clinics across the country perform 1 million screenings for cervical cancer, 830,000 breast exams and some 4 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases. Abortion-rights supporters say cutting funding for Planned Parenthood would primarily hurt poor women who often have few choices for health care.

Conservative lawmakers say, however, that any money the organization receives at least indirectly supports abortions.

“If we’re buying the roof over their head or their paper clips, we’re still subsidizing abortion,” said Republican Rep. Matt Ubelhor, who sponsored a bill to ban state grants or contracts to Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

Planned Parenthood officials urged Daniels to veto the bill and said they would go to court to challenge the funding cut-off.

Indiana social agencies say federal law doesn’t allow states to choose which medical providers receive payments from Medicaid, which pays Planned Parenthood of Indiana about $1.3 million a year.

Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures see state action as an effective new tactic against Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. The push has been intensified since last fall’s midterm ballot elected more Republican governors and larger Republican majorities in many statehouses. Other tough restrictions on abortions have already been approved in many conservative states.

Abortion-rights supporters expect they’ll be fighting the de-funding issue in other state legislatures.

“These battles have been going on for decades,” said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state legislation for the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health research organization that supports abortion rights. “They rise and they fall, but right now they seem to be the worst that we’ve seen.”

In North Carolina, the proposed state budget includes a ban on state contracts with Planned Parenthood for teen pregnancy prevention and family planning. In Texas, the Republican-controlled House stripped more than $60 million from the state budget for family planning services, shifting some of the money to anti-abortion programs and crisis pregnancy centers. Last year, New Jersey’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, cut $7.5 million from the state budget for 58 clinics specializing in women’s reproductive health.

Indiana’s Ubelhor said he campaigned on de-funding Planned Parenthood last year, when he defeated an incumbent Democrat and helped Republicans gain control of the Indiana House. He said state legislatures shouldn’t wait on Congress to act. “I think as a state we should do as much as we possibly can,” he said.

Sue Swayze, a legislative lobbyist for Indiana Right to Life, said she expects more state action.

“I think it will give folks who might otherwise have been reluctant to either face the controversy, period, or to put their state on the line, motivation to know that there is some support in Congress for it,” Swayze said.

Nash said abortion rights supporters will argue that the measures hurt state budgets as well as women’s health.

“Those efforts are not in the interest of public health, they are ideological,” she said.

Although the issue could be politically awkward for Daniels, whose term ends next year, it should be welcome for Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, who is considering a run for governor. Pence, a Republican, led the drive in Congress to block Planned Parenthood funding.

by The Associated Press | April 27, 2011

Keith Olbermann on Jean Schmidt (OH) and Planned Parenthood… ala Olbermann style Reply

All, For the Women, News: US, Politics - US • Tags: , , , , , ,

“The best part about being Republican? When you need facts, you can just make them up.” Keith proceeds to embarrass Jean Schmidt, 2nd Congressional District of Ohio. Keith, “The Schmidt has hit the fan once more.”

Keith continues to say, “Federal law already prohibits taxpayers money from funding abortions. But to hear the Jean Schmidt’s of this world tell it, Democrats are practically kidnapping pregnant women off the streets, driving them to Planned Parenthood, and aborting fetuses with 1040 forms and food stamps.”

Which is in response to Schmidt’s statement, “For every 33 pregnant women that walk into a Planned Parenthood clinic, 32 receive an abortion.”

Just watch….


From FOKNEWS / Keith Olbermann’s site | April 27, 2011

Fukushima is actually the FOURTH nuclear accident – there was one before 3-Mile Island… Reply

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In light of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, which has followed the news of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, I did a bit of poking around and discovered there was a nuclear accident prior to Three-Mile Island (1979).

The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the main control rod, responsible for 80% of neutron moderation in the poorly-designed reactor core. The event is the only known fatal reactor accident in the United States.

The facility, located at the National Reactor Testing Station approximately forty miles (60 km) west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was part of the Army Nuclear Power Program and was known as the Argonne Low Power Reactor (ALPR) during its design and build phase. It was intended to provide electrical power and heat for small, remote military facilities, such as radar sites near the Arctic Circle, and those in the DEW Line. The design power was 3 MW (thermal). Operating power was 200 kW electrical and 400 kW thermal for space heating. NASA system failure studies have cited that the core power level reached nearly 20 GW in just four milliseconds, precipitating the reactor accident and steam explosion.

The accident

On December 21, 1960, the reactor was shut down for maintenance, calibration of the instruments, installation of auxiliary instruments, and installation of 44 flux wires to monitor the neutron flux levels in the reactor core. The wires were made of aluminum, and contained slugs of aluminum-cobalt alloy.

On January 3, 1961 the reactor was being prepared for restart after a shutdown of eleven days over the holidays. Maintenance procedures were in process, which required the main central control rod to be manually withdrawn a few inches to reconnect it to its drive mechanism; at 9:01 p.m. this rod was suddenly withdrawn too far, causing SL-1 to go prompt critical instantly. In four milliseconds, the heat generated by the resulting enormous power surge caused water surrounding the core to begin to explosively vaporize. The water vapor caused a pressure wave to strike the top of the reactor vessel. This propelled the control rod and the entire reactor vessel upwards, which killed the operator who had been standing on top of the vessel, leaving him impaled to the ceiling by the control rod. The other two military personnel, a supervisor and a trainee, were also killed. The victims were Army Specialists John A. Byrnes (age 27) and Richard Leroy McKinley (age 22), and Navy Electrician’s Mate Richard C. Legg (age 26).

Events after the power excursion

There were no other people at the reactor site. The ending of the nuclear reaction was caused solely by the design of the reactor and the basic physics of heated water and core elements vaporizing, separating the core elements and removing the moderator.
Heat sensors above the reactor set off an alarm at the central test site security facility at 9:01 p.m., the time of the accident. False alarms had occurred in the morning and afternoon that same day. The first response crew, of six firemen, arrived nine minutes later, expecting another false alarm. and initially noticed nothing unusual, with only a little steam rising from the building, normal for the cold (−20 °F or −30 °C) night. The control building appeared normal. The firefighters entered the reactor building and noticed a radiation warning light. Their radiation detectors jumped sharply to above their maximum range limit as they were climbing the stairs to SL-1′s floor level. They were able to peer into the reactor room before withdrawing.

At 9:17 p.m., a health physicist arrived. He and a fireman, both wearing air tanks and masks with positive pressure in the mask to force out any potential contaminants, approached the reactor building stairs. Their detectors read 25 Roentgens per hour (R/hr) as they started up the stairs, and they withdrew.

Some minutes later, a health physics response team arrived with radiation meters capable of measuring gamma radiation up to 500 R/hr—and full-body protective clothing. One health physicist and two firefighters ascended the stairs and, from the top, could see damage in the reactor room. With the meter showing maximum scale readings, they withdrew rather than approach the reactor more closely and risk further exposure.

Around 10:30 p.m., the supervisor for the contractor running the site and a contractor health physicist arrived. They entered the reactor building and found two mutilated men: one clearly dead, the other moving slightly. With a one minute and one entry per person limit, a team of five men with stretchers recovered the operator who was still breathing; he did not regain consciousness and died of his head injury at about 11 p.m. Even stripped, his body was so contaminated that it was emitting about 500 R/hr. They looked for but did not find the third man. With all potential survivors now recovered, safety of rescuers took precedence and work was slowed to protect them.

On the night of 4 January, a team of six volunteers used a plan involving teams of two to recover the second body. Radioactive gold 198Au from the man’s brass watch buckle and copper 64Cu from a screw in a cigarette lighter subsequently proved that the reactor had indeed gone supercritical.

The third man was not discovered for several days because he was pinned to the ceiling above the reactor by a control rod. On 9 January, in relays of two at a time, a team of eight men, allowed no more than 65 seconds exposure each, used a net and crane arrangement to recover his body.

The bodies of all three were buried in lead-lined caskets sealed with concrete and placed in metal vaults with a concrete cover. Army Specialist Richard Leroy McKinley is buried in section 31 of Arlington National Cemetery.


Removal of core from SL-1
_____________________________________________________________

Consequences

The remains of the SL-1 building did not go to the Burial Ground. After abandoning early thoughts of restoring the building, GE concluded that hauling the contaminated debris to the Burial Ground, a distance of sixteen miles and partly on Highway 20/26 would subject laborers to too much avoidable risk. Instead, it built two large pits and a trench about 1,600 feet away from the SL-1 compound. The walls of the silo, the power conversion and fan-floor equipment, the shielding gravel, and the contaminated soil that had been gathered during the clean-up all went into the pits. Three feet of clean earth shielded the material. An exclusion fence with hazard warnings went up around the area, the only monument to the reactor.

From the Arlington National Cemetary Records:

HEADQUARTERS
MILITARY DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON 28, D.C.
In Reply Refer To
AMHRC 31 January 1961

SUBJECT: Internment of Radioactive Remains

TO: Superintendent
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington 11, Virginia

1. Radioactive remains of SP4 Richard L. McKinley were interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 25 January 1961.

2. It is desired that the following remark be placed onthe permanent record, DA Form 2122, Record ofInternment:

“Victim of nuclear accident. Body is contaminated with long-life radio-active isotopes. Under no circumstances will the body be moved from this location without prior approval of the Atomic Energy Commission in consultation with this headquarters.”

I have not been able to find more details post-event, such as the health of those that were exposed during the rescue of the three workers killed. Life, news, and facts were handled much differently during these days….


Photo from 1961 of the damaged top of the SL-1 reactor vessel reused in 1981 to convey a safety message
_____________________________________________________________

References:
SL-1, The Aftermath
SL-1.co.tv
SL-1 Wikipedia
Full video on SL-1 from Public Resource Org

Other information of interest:
Measures Relative to the Biological Effect of Radiation Exposure

Benghazi rebels create own weapons from old spare parts/weapons Reply

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Benghazi, Libya (CNN) — Two months ago, Massoud Ojeli was in college, studying English — but now, he works at a secret makeshift weapons factory in Libya, welding together spare parts to make arms for the country’s opposition forces.

“It’s a very weird feeling, but I’m proud of this,” the 20-year-old Ojeli says with a smile, in between his work crafting rocket launchers in a hot concrete warehouse space in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

The rebels granted CNN rare access to a place where elbow grease and ingenuity turn damaged and dented old weapons into rough-and-ready killing machines.

About 200 men volunteer at the factory, arriving around 8 a.m. and leaving around 3 p.m., when the sun is hottest over the dusty landscape.

They don’t get paid, but there is no shortage of help. Ojeli’s father volunteers at the factory, too, and his two little brothers hang around to offer moral support.

“I do this for my country,” Ojeli says.

Many of the men are soldiers who have defected from the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but others are newcomers.

Asked whether he knows what he’s doing at the weapons factory, Rami Tarhouni smiles and laughs.

“I don’t have idea,” he says. “I don’t have idea, but I’m trying.”

A few weeks ago, Tarhouni was an insurance agent. Another volunteer, Ali Abdul Salam, was in pharmaceuticals. He flashes a victory sign.

“People who’ve never seen weapons in their lives are making them from nothing,” says Col. Mohammed Algarobelli, who says he defected from Gadhafi’s air force.

In one part of the factory is an old weapons pod from an old jet fighter. By the time they’re done with it — if all goes well — the volunteers will have turned it into 32 shoulder-fired missile launchers.

Elsewhere, Soviet-era rocket launchers are broken up to fit on smaller vehicles like pickup trucks to go to the front lines.

Using whatever they can get their hands on can pay off in a place like this; a panel fitted with household light switches is used to launch the rockets from the back of the trucks. There’s never a guarantee of success, however.

“Sometimes we have something that doesn’t work,” Ojeli admits.

He says if he had his way, Gadhafi would be gone and he could go back to college. Until then, he says, he’s keeping his new job.

By Reza Sayah, CNN
April 25, 2011 10:42 a.m. EDT

After 67 years, lawmakers apologize to rape victim Reply

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_ In this Oct. 7, 2010 file photo, Recy Taylor is seen her home in Winter Haven, Fla. The Alabama Legislature has officially apologized to an Taylor, who was raped nearly seven decades ago by a gang of white men as she walked home from church. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)_
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Legislature has officially apologized to an elderly black woman who was raped nearly seven decades ago by a gang of white men as she walked home from church.

The Senate gave final approval Thursday on a voice vote to a resolution that expresses “deepest sympathy and deepest regrets” to Recy Taylor, now 91 and living in Florida. She told The Associated Press last year that she believes the men who attacked her in 1944 are dead but that she still wanted an apology from the state of Alabama.

The House approved the resolution last month. It now goes to Gov. Robert Bentley, who said Thursday he’s not personally familiar with details of the case, but sees no reason why he wouldn’t sign it.

Reached by phone Thursday by the AP, Taylor said she welcomed the Legislature’s action.

“I think that’s nice,” she said. “It’s been a long time. I’m satisfied.”

The resolution by Democratic state Rep. Dexter Grimsley of Newville says the failure to prosecute the men was “morally abhorrent and repugnant.” He has said police bungled the investigation and harassed Taylor, and local leaders recently acknowledged that her attackers escaped prosecution in part because of racism.

The AP does not typically identify victims of sexual assault but is using her name because she has publicly identified herself.

Taylor was 24 when she was confronted by seven men who forced her into their car at knife- and gun- point and drove her to a deserted grove of trees where six of the men raped her in Abbeville in southeastern Alabama. She was then left on the side of the road in an isolated area.

Two all-white, all-male grand juries refused to indict the suspects after the attack. Recy Taylor’s brother, 74-year-old Robert Corbitt, said law enforcement authorities tried to blame the attack on his sister. He said his family was threatened after the attack, his sister’s house was firebombed and his father had to guard the house.

“I’m so glad they (the Legislature) decided to do the right thing,” Corbitt said.

Corbitt said Taylor is in poor health, but he hopes she will come back to Abbeville by Mother’s Day in May. Grimsley said he hopes to present her with a copy of the resolution at that time.

Taylor said officials in Abbeville expressed regret that she was not present earlier this year when her hometown issued an apology in the case.

“Since I wasn’t there, they said they should’ve had somebody on the phone to let me know that they were sorry about the length of time that it’s been,” she said. “I don’t even know what they said. They said they did the wrong thing.”

Taylor has returned to Abbeville frequently since moving to Florida more than 30 years ago and said she expects to visit her brother there next month. She is not sure she will feel differently now that the town has apologized.

“A lot of people have gone on,” she said. “There’s nobody to fear there now.”

There was no opposition to the resolution in the Legislature and no debate in the Senate before Thursday’s vote.

“The family deserves someone to say that was a tragedy and the lady was done wrong,” said Republican Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale, chairman of the Rules Committee that asked the Senate to approve the resolution.

Democratic Sen. Billy Beasley, whose district includes Abbeville, said Taylor wanted an apology and the Senate wanted to provide one.

“The state of Alabama apologizes for the incident that occurred to Mrs. Taylor many years ago, and we wish God’s speed for her and continued best wishes,” Beasley said.

Grimsley said the apology shows Alabama officials were able to do the right thing on a racial matter.

“I think it’s going to take things like this for the state to move forward” from the racial turmoil of the past, he said.

Grimsley said he pushed the apology through the Legislature for Taylor.

“I just knew I had to do something for her while she’s still here,” he said.

Taylor’s story, along with those of other black women attacked by white men during the civil rights era, is told in “At the Dark End of the Street,” a book by Danielle McGuire, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. Activists including Rosa Parks took up the causes of Taylor and others, but their efforts were later overshadowed by other civil rights battles.

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BOB JOHNSON,Associated Press
Associated Press writer Errin Haines contributed to this report from Atlanta
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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Six arrested in brutal murder of Fla. boy Seath Tyler Jackson Reply

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(CBS/WKMG) OCALA, Fla. – Six people, including a 15-year-old girl and three other teens, were arrested Tuesday in the murder of 15-year-old Florida boy Seath Tyler Jackson, who was lured to his murder by text message and whose remains were hidden in paint cans, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

According to deputies, Jackson was shot multiple times by 18-year-old Michael Bargo, who is charged with first-degree murder, in a house in Summerfield, about 60 miles north of Orlando, reports CBS affiliate WKMG.

Michael Bargo, 18, who is charged with first-degree murder

The others arrested were:

Charlie Kay Ely, 18, of Summerfield, who is charged with first-degree murder

Amber E. Wright, 15, of Summerfield, who is charged with first-degree murder

Justin Soto, 20, of Summerfield, who is charged with first-degree murder

James Havens III, 37, of Summerfield, who is charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder

Kyle Hooper, 16, of Summerfield, who is charged with first-degree murder

Deputies said Hooper, Wright, Ely, Soto and Bargo were involved in the planning and luring of Jackson to the home.

On Tuesday, a woman told deputies her 16-year-old son had witnessed Jackson’s slaying in a house in Summerfield.

Authorities said the 16-year-old, who is not being identified because of his age, told investigators the group plotted the slaying because Bargo hated Jackson. Authorities say Jackson was lured to the house by a text message.

Deputies said once Jackson arrived at the house, Ely and Bargo began hitting him in the head with wooden objects.

According to the sheriff’s office, Bargo then shot Jackson several times. When Jackson tried to escape, Soto held him down while Bargo continued to shoot him, authorities said. Then, according to the report, Bargo broke the teen’s knees and group members hog-tied him and put his body in a sleeping bag, which was placed in a fire pit in the backyard and burned.

At that point, the sheriff’s office said, the group used bleach to clean the house and shoveled Jackson’s remains into 5-gallon paint cans.

Investigators are still searching for a .22-caliber revolver used in the slaying. The Sheriff’s Office said a dive team found three 5-gallon paint buckets Wednesday afternoon in a lime rock pit. The contents of the cans are being tested to determine if they contain Jackson’s remains.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, some of the suspects told investigators that Bargo shot Jackson. Bargo was located and arrested in Starke, where he fled to stay with friends, deputies said.

The Sheriff’s Office said it was later discovered that Havens was aware of the plan to kill Jackson and assisted with the disposal of the remains. Also, Havens gave Bargo a ride to Starke in an effort to avoid capture, deputies said.

All six were being held in the Marion County Jail.

What a stinker! World’s smelliest flower opens for the first time in a DECADE Reply

All, Environmental, Lighter side of life • Tags: , , , , ,

For botanists, it doesn’t get more exciting than this – after 75 years, the Titan Arum plant has unfurled its leaves and is in full bloom.

For curious crowds who gathered, they perhaps realised that a once-in-a-lifetime look is more than enough – thanks to its pungent odour of rotting flesh.

The flower, nicknamed ‘Corpse flower’, bloomed late on Good Friday at the University of Basel, Switzerland and is expected to remain open until Easter Sunday.


Miracle-Gro: The flower opened for the first time in 75 years on Friday, April 22, 2011
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The eight foot plant, which is indigenous to Sumatra’s rainforests in Indonesia, has the largest unbranched shoot in the world. On average, they bloom once in a decade.

Titan Arum is coveted by collectors and plant enthusiasts around the world because of its strange blooming patterns.


Once in a lifetime: Crowds capture Titan Arum in bloom at the University of Basel, Switzerland
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It produces umbrella-sized petals which open to a diameter of three to four feet.

Its distinctive smell can be detected from half a mile away. The odour, which is usually strongest at night, is meant to attract pollinators such as carrion beetles and flesh flies.


Rare sighting: Botanists love the plant because it blooms so infrequently – despite the smell of rotting flesh
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Twelve of them are housed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the Princess of Wales Conservatory among hundreds of other tropical plants.

When the plants are ready to pollinate, the stem heats up to release a pungent smell, which lasts for about three days.


Beauty: The plant originates from Sumatra in Indonesia
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The largest Arum at Kew gardens weighs 200lb and grows at a staggering rate of a quarter of an inch an hour.

It guzzles liquid fertiliser and potassium each week to keep up its strength while bedded in roomy surroundings.


Captivating: Crowds gather as the plant prepares to open its leaves
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Sir David Attenborough, who invented the name Titan Arum, was the first to capture it flowering on film for his BBC TV series The Private Life of Plants.

He dropped the plant’s original name – Amorphophallus – perhaps because of the reference to male genitalia.
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Can anyone say, “Little Shop of Horrors?”
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By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 1:55 AM on 24th April 2011

Five women brutally murdered in Mexico beach resort Reply

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MEXICO CITY | Sat Apr 23, 2011 4:31pm EDT

(Reuters) – Five women, all apparently connected to a beauty parlor, were found brutally murdered in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco on Saturday morning, state police said.

The semi-naked and bound bodies of two women and a 14-year-old girl were discovered in the salon in the early hours of Saturday morning. All three had their throats slashed.

Police later found the corpses of another two women with cut throats dumped in the streets. Mexican media said both victims worked at the beauty parlor. No motive was given for the killings.

Acapulco, famed in the 1960s as a glamorous haunt for Hollywood stars, has been convulsed by drug violence in recent months as powerful cartels battle for smuggling routes, prompting the United States to warn tourists against visiting the downtown center of the resort.

Mexican officials have been anxious to downplay the impact of the violence on tourism, one of the country’s main foreign exchange earners, pointing out that the number of visitors arriving in Mexico has continued to rise in recent years.

Spreading drug violence that killed more than 15,000 people last year has prompted foreign governments to issue a number of travel warnings for parts of Mexico.

(Reporting by Robert Campbell and Tomas Sarmiento)

The truth behind Arizona SB 1070 5

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The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (introduced as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and thus often referred to simply as Arizona SB 1070) is a legislative Act in the U.S. state of Arizona that is the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in recent U.S. history. It has received national and international attention and has spurred considerable controversy. More…

Private Prisons… Incarcerating people for a profit 4

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A private prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a local, state or federal government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with local, state, or federal governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in the facility. More…

Cellmate of Dubai cell-death Briton says he was attacked by SIX guards then left for four days – only to die Reply

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A prisoner who shared a cell with a British tourist allegedly beaten to death by guards in a Dubai police station has revealed how he begged him to help save his life.

The witness said Lee Brown, 39, told him: ‘Please, please help me. Call my embassy, call my family . . . They beat me badly. Please help me otherwise I will die.’

His testimony includes the claim that after being attacked by six officers, Mr Brown was left alone for four days to die in his cell and that no officers checked on him. The officers, he says, even joked: ‘He’s crazy. Let him die in there.’


Left alone to die: Lee Brown died in the notorious Bur Dubai police station after being beaten up by police officers, according to his cellmate
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Mr Brown, a handyman from Essex, had flown first class to the Gulf city and was staying at a £1,400-a-night hotel when he was arrested after a row with a maid and jailed.

Reports from inside the notorious Bur Dubai police station claimed that his police guards had beaten him and smashed his head against the concrete floor. But no credible, in-depth testimony has surfaced from anyone who was inside the prison – until now.

The Mail on Sunday tracked down the one inmate who shared a cell with him – making him one of the last people to see and speak to him before his death.

The witness – whose identity cannot be revealed because of fears for his safety – has since been released and is assisting the victim’s family to find the truth. In an interview, he describes being thrown into the same cell after arriving at the police station in the aftermath of the alleged beating.


Shocked: The witness who is willing to testify in court how he saw Lee treated appallingly in Bur Dubai
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His evidence reveals how Mr Brown was covered in blood from ‘awful’ head injuries and how the guards had apparently humiliated him by pulling down his jeans so his genitals were visible. Four days after leaving Mr Brown to die, the witness says police removed his body in a black bin bag.

Mr Brown, a man of modest means from Ilford, Essex, set off on what should have been a spectacular holiday in Dubai less than three weeks ago. Flying first-class on Emirates and staying in the seven-star Burj Al Arab, billed as the world’s most luxurious hotel, it is believed he was planning to meet a woman he had befriended on the internet.

But early on Thursday, April 7 – just hours after checking into the hotel – he was arrested after a confrontation with a chambermaid. Officers took him to the Bur Dubai police station – notorious as the most brutal in the city. Other prisoners later told the witness they had seen a gang of six guards laugh as they beat Mr Brown with kicks, punches and batons. They said they smashed his head against the ground and a wall.

It was soon after this alleged attack that the witness was taken to the jail on April 8, after being arrested for a minor offence.

He said: ‘When I got there the officers were immediately aggressive. One shouted: “Go, go, go. Get inside! Stupid boy. I will slap you. I hope you die in here.” ’

He was taken, by accident he believes, to a tiny, windowless cell where Mr Brown had been dumped and was alone with him for a crucial ten minutes before he was moved.
‘The door opened,’ he said. ‘I saw Lee leaning against the far wall of the cell with handcuffs on his wrists and ankles. He was naked apart from his dark green jeans which had been pulled down. It looked like they had done that to humiliate him. He was half-conscious but he noticed me when I came in.

‘He was in a very bad way and clearly needed emergency treatment. He was bleeding from many wounds on his head and face. It was mainly coming from his right forehead and was running all the way down his chest. The blood was fresh so I would have said he was injured one hour before. There were streaks and pools of blood across the concrete floor.

‘His skin had been ripped off his arms and shoulders and there were large scratches down his chest.

‘The shackles were fastened so tightly they cut into his skin and so his hands and feet were white. And, despite it being at least 86F in there, his body was shaking and his lips and face were blue.’

He recalls how the Briton told him in a low voice: ‘Please, please help me. Call my embassy, call my family.’ Asked what happened, he said: ‘They beat me. They beat me badly. Please help me otherwise I will die.’ After this, the witness says, he closed his eyes and did not respond again.

After ten minutes, the guards moved the witness into the main cockroach-infested room, where 600 prisoners sleep crammed in on ‘disgusting’ mattresses.

Over the next four days, he says he was stunned by the actions of the police officers as they left Mr Brown to rot in his cell, not once checking on him, tending to his injuries or feeding him. The inmates could not see him through the flap as the bed was to one side, but they could see a plate of food on the floor.

The witness said: ‘Through the flap I couldn’t see him, but I could see a plate of disgusting chicken and rice that had been there on Friday. Over all those days, it was never eaten and the plate was never changed.’

The inmates went through Lee’s belongings and found a phone number for his family, which they called on April 11 on a smuggled mobile. His family contacted the Foreign Office early the next day. Later on that morning – at least four days after the alleged beating – the British Embassy contacted Dubai police, to be told that Mr Brown was in a good condition and was declining consular assistance.

According to the witness, at about 8pm that evening six officers finally arrived in the cell.

He said: ‘One was very senior-looking. From the way their faces looked and they talked, they were very scared. They went in and took pictures of the cell. Then we saw them carrying his body out in a black rubbish bag. You could see one of his naked legs sticking out.

‘An hour later they opened the cell again. Once the officers had gone we went in. There was blood on the bed and the floor. And that same food was there untouched.’


Notorious: The Bur Dubai police station where Lee Bradley Brown was put after being arrested for assault and swearing, along with allegedly trying to throw a woman over an internal balcony at the £1,000-a-night Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai
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The witness also revealed the bizarre hierarchy that was enforced among prisoners in the jail. He said: ‘Locals had a clean area with proper beds, air-conditioning, mineral water, television and could order restaurant-style food such as spaghetti bolognese from the canteen.

‘The other prisoners are woken at 5am to be fed a breakfast of five haricot beans in a horrible salty sauce with tough Arabic bread. It is disgusting, not even food. I would not give it my dog.’

The witness was released from the police station days later.

Last week Mr Brown’s brother Steve and sister-in-law Su flew to Dubai to speak to the authorities and the British Embassy.

Last night Steven said: ‘Lee was dearly loved by his family and friends. He was a caring son and a wonderful brother and his loss will leave a gaping hole in our lives. We will not rest until the truth about Lee’s death comes to light.’

Steven and Su also met the witness featured in this article, who has promised he will testify to a court.

He said: ‘The police made a big mistake with Lee and hopefully they will now have to pay for it.’

dailymail.co.uk | MailOnline – news, sport, celebrity, science and health stories
By Matt Sandy
Last updated at 10:25 PM on 23rd April 2011

“Dog Wars” New Google Android app glorifying dog fighting – please request removal Reply

All, Dogs Cats and Other Pets, Science & Technology • Tags: , , , , , ,

I came home and found a posting on my Facebook page about this new app on dog fighting! I have never been so shocked! I have two rescues, a mother/son duo with the son genetically born deaf and blind in one eye (aka a “lethal white aussie”). I have have helped with dog rescue, trained shelter dogs and adopt them out, etc etc etc. And have personal friends in the dog world who rescue pit bulls who often were rescued from fighting circles. And now, to see this app come out… it truly sickens me. Not that there’s enough violence in the world amongst men… then to glorify such a horrific illegal activity…. I am at a loss for words.

Here is an excerpt from the app page on the description:

“Feed, water, train and FIGHT your virtual dog against other player’s… action games, chatroom, many characters and dogs to choose from, virtual store, etc.

This is a fresh Beta version, come try it out. Drop your cred codes and ideas in the comments section or message boards on the web. Check the shoutbox in the game for news and game updates, or just talk fight and talk smack with other players.

Remember this is a Beta release…”

This is a legitimate app. I am only listing the link to it here so you may check this out for yourself… please do not download and play… Dog Wars, by Kage Games, LLC

The site calling for action is: BSL News

Now, it is very easy to request removal of this app… and any android app for that matter. Simply enter the name of the app and the developer. In this case, name: Dog Wars. Developer: Kage Games, LLC. You don’t enter in email, name or any other personal information. Please help make a stand against this app – and any other Android app you feel is inappropriate for that matter. Here is the link to request removal:

Android Market: Report Inappropriate Apps

Please be an activist, do not sit back and hope others get this done….. All dogs are begging you….

“PLEASE STOP THIS APP”, cries my two dogs…

ANALYSIS — An illuminating expedition to the world of the uninsured Reply

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By Wendell Potter | February 17, 2011 | Click here to view his complete post
News analyst Wendell Potter, a former insurance company executive, is the author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.

As Congressional Republicans seek ways to starve the new health care reform law of necessary funding — and Democrats try to keep that from happening — it’s easy to lose sight of the reasons why reform was pursued in the first place.

If they arrived in Nashville by Friday afternoon, those legislators would see an ever-growing line of cars and trucks outside a locked gate at McGavock High School. At midnight, the gate will be opened, enabling the occupants of those cars and trucks to camp out in the parking lot for hours, maybe even days. Many of these folks will have driven hundreds of miles to receive care from doctors and nurses and other caregivers volunteering their time to treat as many people as possible before they all pack up and go home Sunday evening.

Most of the people in those vehicles will get no sleep. They will immediately begin forming a long line in the cold Nashville night in hopes of getting into the high school when it opens at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning. At 3:30 a.m., volunteers from the Tennessee State Guard will help Stan Brock, a 75-year-old British native and former star of the 1960s TV show “Wild Kingdom”, begin handing out numbers to those in line. Only those with a number can get in.

“I will start calling out the numbers, about 50 at a time,” said Brock. “We will get 200 people in there (the school auditorium) pretty quickly, and they will get registered and directed to various stations, depending on their needs. It is hectic for the first two hours. After that, it settles down and runs on auto-pilot.”

Out of curiosity, I decided to go to RAM’s (Remote Area Medical) expedition that July, which was being held over three days at the Wise County, Va. fairgrounds. It changed my life.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I walked through the fairgrounds gate. I felt as if I had stepped into a movie set or a war zone. Hundreds of people, many of them soaking wet from a morning rain, were waiting in lines that stretched beyond view. As I strolled the fairgrounds, I noticed that some of those lines led to barns and cinder block buildings with row after row of animal stalls, where doctors and nurses were treating patients. And unlike health fairs I had seen in shopping centers and malls, this was a real clinic. Dentists were pulling teeth and filling cavities, optometrists were examining eyes for glaucoma and cataracts, doctors and nurses were doing Pap smears and mammograms, surgeons were cutting out skin cancers, and gastroenterologists were conducting sigmoidoscopies.

I later learned that most of the people being treated had jobs, but their employers did not offer coverage. Many of them had pre-existing conditions and had been told by insurance firms they were not eligible for coverage. They couldn’t buy health insurance at any price. Many others had insurance but were enrolled in plans with such limited benefits or high deductibles that they had to forego care. Even though these people paid premiums, they simply did not have enough money to pay for care they needed before they had met their deductibles. Many Americans are now in plans that have $30,000 annual deductibles.

As I took in the scene that day, I realized that what I was doing for a living was at least partly responsible for making these people stand in long lines to get care that was being provided in horse stalls. I decided that day that I would soon leave my job. A few months later, I did.

10 Notorious Tax Evaders Who Didn’t Get Away with It Reply

All, News: US, Politics - US • Tags: , , , ,

10. Dennis Kozlowski

In May 2006, Dennis Kozlowski was ordered to repay $21.2m in owed New York sales taxes. The tax had been dodged on 12 paintings, including a Monet, a Renoir and a Bouguereau. Added to this charge were several other scandals relating to his former company, Tyco, including $81m in unauthorized bonuses. Kozlowski had reportedly liked to throw his money around; he bragged of his shower curtain costing $6,000. However, 8.5-25 years in prison was a bonus he wasn’t expecting.

9. Steve Rubell

After publicly commenting that his prominent New York Disco, Studio 54, was only outmatched in profits by the Mafia, Steve Rubell drew considerable attention from the Feds. Comparing his income to that of the world’s most prominent criminal organization was probably not the wisest move. After a raid on the club, Rubell and his associate were charged with tax evasion to the tune of $2.5m in unreported earnings. Heavy fines and a 42 month jail term were handed out. I guess the judge felt unable to just blame it on the boogie.

8. Joe Francis

Joe Francis, creator of the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ brand, has a strangely drooping face that carries an arrest-worthy suggestion of sleaze; but it was on his tax return that the law caught up with him. Accused of filing over $20m in fabricated business deductions on corporate tax returns, Francis pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns as well as bribing Nevada jail workers in 2009. He was ordered to pay fines totaling $250,000 in addition to racking up jail time. ‘Girls Gone Wild’ may have been a financial success, but ‘Calculators Gone Wild,’ in the end, proved a terrible investment.

7. Edward and Elaine Brown

Believing that the world was locked in a conflict between God and the secretive Illuminati-backed US government, Elaine and Edward Brown felt quite justified in not paying tax, and indeed going to great lengths not to. Bolstered by the material support of sympathizers, the couple locked themselves in their New Hampshire home and protected their fortress with armaments and booby-trapped surroundings. Undercover federal officers infiltrated their home, however, and promptly arrested them before any violence could break out. In October 2009 and January 2010, Elaine and Edward were sentenced to 35 and 37 years in prison respectively.

6. Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff, an influential lobbyist and businessman, was convicted in 2006 of charges of conspiracy, honest services fraud and tax evasion, though the investigation which led to his conviction was just the tip of an iceberg that revealed focal-points of corruption deep within the American political system. Owing the IRS $1.7m, notwithstanding the other charges he faced, Abramoff was sentenced to 6 years, of which he served 3 and a half.

5. Igor Olenicoff

It doesn’t matter how rich one gets, some people just want more! This was the case with Russian-born billionaire real estate developer Igor Olenicoff, who filed dodgy tax returns which omitted accounts holding up to $200m. Pleading guilty at trial in Santa Anna, CA, in 2007, he paid back the $52m in owed taxes and received 2 years’ probation. With a net worth of almost $2bn, however, he’s unlikely to feel the pinch.

4. Victor Posner

Victor Posner was an innovative businessman and ruthless corporate raider who is credited with popularizing the term “leveraged buyout” and pioneering the hostile takeover. He was also a noted philanthropist, but given that his 1987 conviction for tax evasion was based on deliberate overvaluing of a charitable donation in order to deny the IRS millions of dollars, one has to wonder if he was motivated by his heart or his number-crunching head. As well as paying out $4m in back taxes, penalties, interest and fines, he had to give $3m of his fortune to the homeless (in 1984 he had a net worth of $250m) and work with them for twenty hours a week, every week, for five years.

3. Leandro P. Rizzuto

Despite a 2008 net worth of $1.4bn, the founder of Conair, Leandro Rizzuto, hasn’t always had it easy. Perhaps with the aim of climbing higher up the Forbes Rich List, or perhaps simply because he could, Rizzuto funneled millions of dollars of kickback money into various foreign bank accounts, the existence of which he neglected to mention to the IRS. In 2002 he pleaded guilty to tax fraud and was sentenced to just over three years in prison, while also paying the IRS almost $2m for the six year’s worth of federal taxes he had dodged. Con-air indeed…

2. Leona Helmsley

Shockingly, someone with the nickname “The Queen of Mean” turned out to not be the kind of person who abides by the rules of civil society – like paying taxes. Billionaire hotel operator Leona Helmsley had a particular philosophy when it came to taxes. As her housekeeper famously testified, Helmsley felt that: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” Apparently, Helmsley also didn’t feel that she should pay her bills, and when disgruntled contractors took her to court over a $8m mansion remodeling contract they felt it only fair to mention that Helmsley had been deducting the cost as hotel expenses. A sentence of 16 years in prison swiftly followed, although it was later significantly reduced.

1. Walter Anderson

Some people say that if you’re going to lie, you may as well tell a big lie. This certainly seems to have been telephone entrepreneur Walter Anderson’s philosophy when in 1998 he claimed he owed only $495 in tax on a reported income of $67,939. His actual income was around $126m, but he didn’t stop there. He admitted as part of his plea that he had hidden $365m overall, and was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $200m in restitution. Clearly nobody ever told him that not only does crime not pay, but it can end up leaving you with the bill.

Charles Manson Breaks Silence: Discussing President Obama, Global Warming And His Followers Reply

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After twenty years of silence Charles Manson speaks … about the environment. Discussing topics such as President Obama and Wall Street, he emphasizes his concerns for global warming. Manson has gathered yet another group of followers, this time agreeing with his thoughts towards saving the environment, our ‘one world.’ ABC News reports:

Manson, who was convicted 40 years ago in the gruesome murders of eight people — among them the pregnant actress Sharon Tate — also talked about killings and his group of followers who came to be known as the “Manson family.”

Manson: ‘I’m a Bad Man’

Other comments revealed the familiar, chilling Manson.

“I am a bad man. I’m nasty. I’m in the bull ring. I don’t play. I shoot people … I’m an outlaw. I’m a criminal. I’m everything bad,” he said.

Murdered on Aug. 9, 1969, were Tate — who was the wife of film director Roman Polanski — and their houseguests, Jay Sebring, a hairstylist; heiress Abigail Folger; writer Wojciech Frykowski and teenager Steven Parent. Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were killed the next day.

All the victims were brutally stabbed to death.

Manson didn’t carry out any of the killings during a two-day rampage in Southern California, but he was sentenced to death for ordering the murders.

In the middle of the interview, Manson began to ramble in Spanish.

“I’m very mal hombre, nasty,” he said, meaning “bad man.”

He added, “La mala hierba nunca muere,” a take on a Spanish phrase that translates as “a weed never dies,” which can be taken to mean that the devil looks after his own.

Asked by the reporter if Manson knew Spanish, Manson replied: “Muy poco, muy poco,” or “very little, very little.”

Manson said he learned Spanish from his fellow prisoners.

He is housed in the prison’s protective unit.

By DAVID MUIR (@DavidMuirABC) , ANNA WILD and SUZAN CLARKE / April 20, 2011

iSpy Conspiracy: Your iPhone Is Secretly Tracking Everywhere You’ve Been, All The Time 1

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Sam Biddle — This is a map of everywhere I’ve been for nearly the last year. Everywhere. I didn’t carry around a special tracking device. The FBI isn’t sending goons in unmarked vans to track me. All I did was use an iPhone. And if you have an iPhone, you’re being tracked right now, too, whether you like it or not.

It turns out that all our iPhones are keeping a record of everywhere you’ve been since June. This data is stored on your phone (or iPad) and computer, easily available to anyone who gets their hands on it. Updated: 5:50 PM EST

And now, we’re wondering whether the same goes for our other smartphones. The opt-in wording of phone location service agreements is pretty nebulous (as agreements tend to be). When starting up a fresh Android, you’re prompted to agree to the following: “Allow Google’s location service to collect anonymous data. Collection will occur even when no applications are running.” We asked Google what exactly this meant, and they refused to answer on the record whether this “anonymous” location data is logged persistently, a la iPhone (The UK security duos says they haven’t uncovered an file so far). But, importantly, unlike the iPhone, it appears to be totally opt-in for users. Microsoft told us the only locational data stored on your Windows Phone 7 device is your last known location, for use with the Find My Phone feature. We’ve also reached out to Apple and BlackBerry-maker RIM for similar clarifications on data collection, but haven’t gotten a response yet.

We know that AT&T and other cellphone providers can always store this data, for any cellphone. And law enforcement can get to it when they need to. But I don’t want this information bouncing around on my computer and in pocket, too, for no good reason, with no way to opt out. That’s just not right.

The privacy startle, apparently enabled by this summer’s iOS 4 release, was discovered by two security researchers, one of whom claims he was an Apple employee for five years. They’re equally puzzled and disturbed by the location collection: “By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements,” they explain. All it would take to crack the information out of your iOS device is an easy jailbreak. On your computer, the information can be opened as easily as JPEG using the mapping software that the security experts have made for download—Try it yourself.

For now, there is no fix. The only way to remove it from your computer is to wipe your back up files from your computer. But then you have no back ups to restore your phone in case you lose it. And every time you sync your computer, though, it’ll create a new file. And if you do lose your phone, all your tracking data goes with it, right into the hands of whoever found it. And if you upgrade your phone to the next iPhone, the location tracking history goes with it. For now, the best to keep your location data safe is to encrypt your backup files—but that still leaves the roaming device itself vulnerable.

Update 1, 12:48 PM EST: Security expert Kevin Mitnick says he’s “Quite shocked and disturbed” by the revelation, noting that the logged data could be of great interest to a variety of entities—prying spouses, private investigators, and, he reckons, the government. He speculates that the existence of the log itself “could have been at the request of the government,” as such data “can’t be used for advertisements. It seems to me more to be a governmental request.” He added, “I like to know what my device is doing.” And, that the phone’s logging of data was in this case like “carrying around a bug and a tracker at the same time.”

Update 2, 3:37 PM EST: Google has declined to comment on the record as to the exact nature of their locational data collection.

Update 3, 5:32 PM EST: Microsoft tells us the only locational data they’re storing on your Windows Phone 7 device is your last known location—a single data point that’s erased as soon as it stores a new one.

Update 4, 5:50 PM EST: IT security expert Jonathan James has poked around inside the iPhone location database file in question and discovered tables labeled “Harvest” and “HarvestCounts,” although their use is still unknown.

April 20, 2011 Gizmodo

Renowned war filmmaker, prize-winning photojournalist killed while documenting in Libya Reply

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Tim Hetherington, Chris Hondros hit by explosion in besieged city of Misrata

MISURATA, Libya — On Saturday evening, Tim Hetherington, the director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Restrepo,” and Chris Hondros, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer, hitched a ride to this besieged city on the Ionian Spirit, where they prepared sandwiches for refugees and talked about their plans back home. On Wednesday evening, the ship ferried the bodies of the two renowned journalists back to Benghazi.

The two journalists were fatally wounded during an attack by Moammar Gaddafi’s forces against rebels in Misurata. Two other photojournalists suffered injuries, some critical, according to doctors at the hospital where they were treated.

Hetherington, 40, (photo on the right, below) a photographer and filmmaker who famously recounted the plight of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, died shortly after the attack, according to his family and a Washington Post reporter at the scene.

Hondros, 41, (photo on the left, below) a photographer for Getty Images, died several hours later, according to Emma Daly, a spokeswoman for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. Hondros’s depictions of war’s toll have appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including the front page of Wednesday’s Post.

The journalists had accompanied rebel fighters to Tripoli Street in the city center, which Gaddafi’s forces pounded with mortar fire in an attempt to retake the strategic road that divides Misurata. An ambulance took Hetherington and Guy Martin, 28, a British freelance photographer working for the news agency Panos, from the battle to the makeshift triage tent next to the Hikma hospital about 5 p.m. Hetherington was bleeding heavily from his leg and looked very pale.

“Come with me. Come with me. Everybody is injured,” an American photographer who had seen the attack shouted to ambulance drivers, imploring them to return to the scene. Her bulletproof vest was splattered with blood. “I’ll come with you. I’ll show you where they are.”

As she sought help, doctors attended to Hetherington and Martin, who had suffered a stomach wound and remained in surgery Wednesday evening. About 15 minutes after the ambulance’s arrival, doctors in the tent pronounced Hetherington dead.

About 10 minutes later, another ambulance carried Hondros and Michael Christopher Brown, who also suffered shrapnel wounds, to the triage unit. Doctors examining a scan of Hondros’s brain explained that shrapnel had hit the photographer in the forehead and passed through the back of his head. They asked a reporter at the hospital to look after his battered helmet. Brown’s medical condition was considered less dire.

The group of American and British photojournalists were following rebels into heavy fighting. “I told them not to gather,” one rebel outside the tent recalled advising the photographers about the dangers of sticking too close together. “They hit groups. I told them not to.”

Hetherington’s family released a statement mourning the loss: “It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed today in Misrata, Libya by a rocket-propelled grenade.” They added, “Tim was in Libya to continue his ongoing multimedia project to highlight humanitarian issues during time of war and conflict. He will be forever missed.”

Cathy L. Saypol, Hetherington’s manager, said in an interview that she learned of his death as she spoke on the phone with author Sebastian Junger, with whom Hetherington had directed the Oscar-nominated documentary.

“There is no way to express my devastation and sorrow at the death of my dear friend,” Junger said in a statement. He added, “I can’t believe he’s truly gone.”

Hetherington and Junger were recently in Libya together, working on an assignment for Vanity Fair, according Beth Kseniak, a spokeswoman for the magazine. Hetherington was not on assignment for the magazine at the time of his death, she said.

Hetherington and Hondros are the third and fourth journalists, and the first Western journalists, killed in Libya since fighting began in February, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Hetherington, the recipient of the 2007 World Press Photo Award for his photos of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan for Vanity Fair, reported on the heavy bombardment earlier in the week via his Twitter account. “In besieged Libyan city of Misrata,” he wrote. “Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO.”

Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.

“It is overall quite bad,” Gypsy Guillen Kaiser, a spokeswoman for the committee, said of the situation in Libya. “As we speak, there are journalists — at least 18 — missing and detained, and we don’t know their fate.”

Last week, Hondros and Hetherington joined other colleagues on the Ionian Spirit, dispatched to evacuate foreign workers from the embattled city. During the 20-hour voyage, Hetherington ate chips while Hondros told the colleagues about his recent engagement to a woman from New York. “I don’t want to be a really old dad,” he confided.

On Wednesday evening, that same vessel waited at port in Misurata for another cargo of migrant workers but was enlisted for a different mission. Before Hondros died at 10:45 p.m., Human Rights Watch reached out to the ship’s handlers and asked whether it could be used to transport him and Martin back to Benghazi for additional medical care. Instead, the bodies of Hetherington and Hondros were due to leave aboard the Ionian Spirit on Wednesday evening.

( Outpost Films via Associated Press ) – Directors Sebastian Junger, left, and Tim Hetherington at the “Restrepo” outpost in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, during the filming of their documentary. Hetherington was killed Wednesday in Misurata.

Horowitz reported from Washington.
By Leila Fadel and Jason Horowitz, Wednesday, April 20, 2011

WikiLeaks, Twitter Records Case Heads Back To Court Reply

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On Friday, the case to bar federal prosecutors from accessing Twitter records related to users associated with WikiLeaks heads back to court. A Magistrate judge heard the users’ motions earlier this year and turned down their request to toss the order out. Now the case is going to be heard in front of a District Court judge.

The case, if you recall, started back in December, when Twitter received an order from the Department of Justice to turn over records related to the use of the service by five people associated with WikiLeaks, among them WikiLeaks impresario Julian Assange. The order, whose technical name is a 2703(d), is part of an investigation into who leaked confidential U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks. Bradley Manning, the Army private accused of the crime, was among the five whose Twitter records were requested.

The initial order was secret, but Twitter managed to get it unsealed in January and subsequently notified the affected users. The ACLU and the EFF are now fighting on behalf of three of those people to get the order tossed out–U.S. computer security expert Jacob Applebaum, Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir, and Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp.

In addition to getting the order tossed out, the three petitioners are also trying to get the court to unseal the government documents requesting the order in the first place. It’s possible that the order is part of a larger fishing expedition on the part of prosecutors, and the original application could contain information about other services that are also in government sights.

In February, the petitioners’ motions were heard by a Magistrate judge in Virginia. In March, the judge denied their motion, saying there wasn’t anything inappropriate about the government’s request. The judge also disagreed with the users’ assertions that the order violated their First Amendment rights and as well as their Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure. The opinion stated that, because prosecutors weren’t asking for the content of Twitter messages, only for information like IP addresses used to access the service, contact information associated with the accounts, and usage logs, the order didn’t impinge on rights to free speech.

Friday’s hearing takes place in front of Judge Liam O’Grady in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It’s unclear when O’Grady will make a decision, though probably not for at least a few weeks after the conclusion of oral arguments.

Twitter is staying out of the case. It has maintained that its responsibility was to notify the users of the order and let them fight it if they found it objectionable. If the users lose their case, Twitter will be required by law to turn the records over.

BY E.B. BOYDWed Apr 20, 2011

Update: EFF has informed us that Judge O’Grady canceled oral arguments in this case. He will still review the motion and submit an opinion at a later date.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Considering Career Move – Back To Europe – Prez of European Union? Reply

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Arnold Schwarzenegger considering saying “Hasta la vista, baby” to the United States?

Possibly, as the Terminator star is mulling over a move back to his native Europe to run for the presidency of the European Union.

His chief of staff, Terry Tamminen, insists the former California governor is “somebody who can unify Europe.”

“In the next few years, the EU will be looking for a much more high-profile president,” Tamminen told Newsweek. “The French won’t want a German, and the Germans won’t want an Italian.

“How about a European-born person who went off to America and — could return to be the Washington or Jefferson of a new unified Europe?”

Schwarzenegger’s wife Maria Shriver told the magazine that: “No matter what Arnold decides to do, I’m sure he’ll have fun doing it, and it will have impact.”

…wwwwhat???? And….

Schwarzenegger spoke with Leno about the Prop 19 pro-marijuana bill he just signed…

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” that “No one cares if you smoke a joint or not” in California.

Schwarzenegger spoke with Leno about the Prop 19 pro-marijuana bill he just signed, which would make consequences for possession of the substance “like a speeding ticket.”

The “governator” added that Prop 19, which would have semi-legalized recreational marijuana use, was not passed because the bill was not written well, and not because it was a bad idea.