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4.07.2009

You are being lied to

http://books.google.es/books?id=KALsz08ijnkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=you+are+being+lied+to

[...or at least most of the book is previewed! So, go ahead and print it out or whatever. This here's just the front cover, so hit the link!]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q4ddrgUWL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

[...and the extended 'You Are Being Lied To', is out! Although not easily accessible... :) ]

http://hivskeptic.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/youarestillbeingliedto.jpg
[...sorry, no link for this one...saying it's 'commercially' available... :( ]

What Does a Trillion[*] Dollars Look Like?

[*en castellano, un billón!]

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/07/What-Does-a-Trillion-Dollars-Look-Like.aspx


Last week the Federal reserve decided to inject ANOTHER trillion to buy treasury bonds and mortgage securities. In another words they simply decided to print another trillion dollars. So I [Mercola.com] thought you would really enjoy this graphic illustration to help you put that number into perspective.

$100

Start with a simple $100 bill.
Money

$10,000

A packet of $100 bills worth $10,000 is less than 1/2 inch[1,25 cm.] thick.
Money

$1,000,000

This little pile of cash can easily fit into any backpack and weighs just about 22 lbs[10 kilos].
Money

$100,000,000

$100 million fits neatly on any standard pallet, weighing in at a little over one ton.

Money


$1,000,000,000

$1 billion[mil millones] is ten pallets worth of cold, hard cash.

Money


$1,000,000,000,000

Finally, here’s one trillion[1 billón] dollars:

Money

[ ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ]

An IQ of 47, and a prison sentence of 100 years

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-paris7-2009apr07,0,6948133.story

Aaron Hart's sexual assault case in Paris, Texas, has left court officials pondering if justice was served. A new attorney will seek a new trial with testimony about the teen's mental disability.

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/media/AlbertoGodoy/LadyJusticeAlbertoGodoy.jpg

Reporting from Houston -- The crime Aaron Hart confessed to was undeniably repellent.

In September, the 18-year-old was charged with sexually assaulting a 7-year-old neighbor boy behind a tool shed in the small east Texas town of Paris. A relative of the victim said she walked outside and saw Hart with his pants pulled down, standing next to the boy.

Police read Hart his Miranda rights, and he quickly admitted his guilt. On Feb. 11, Hart's court-appointed attorney entered guilty pleas to each of five related felony counts, a jury recommended multiple sentences, and a judge ruled that the prison terms be served consecutively, for a total of 100 years.

That might have been the end of Cause No. 22924 in the 6th Judicial District Court of Lamar County, Texas. Except that now, every court official who had a hand in the case seems to agree that Hart doesn't belong in prison for the rest of his life.

That's because Hart has an IQ of 47, and his parents say he functions at the level of a 9-year-old. The boy he confessed to molesting is mentally disabled as well.
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Public Policy That Makes Test Subjects of Us All

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/science/07tier.html?hpw


Suppose you wanted to test the effects of halving the amount of salt in people’s diets. If you were an academic researcher, you’d have to persuade your institutional review board that you had considered the risks and obtained informed consent from the participants.

You might, for instance, take note of a recent clinical trial in which heart patients put on a restricted-sodium diet fared worse than those on a normal diet. In light of new research suggesting that eating salt improves mood and combats depression, you might be alert for psychological effects of the new diet. You might worry that people would react to less-salty food by eating more of it, a trend you could monitor by comparing them with a control group.

But if you are the mayor of New York, no such constraints apply. You can simply announce, as Michael Bloomberg did, that the city is starting a “nationwide initiative” to pressure the food industry and restaurant chains to cut salt intake by half over the next decade. Why bother with consent forms when you can automatically enroll everyone in the experiment?

And why bother with a control group when you already know the experiment’s outcome? The city’s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, has enumerated the results. If the food industry follows the city’s wishes, the health department's Web site announces, “that action will lower health care costs and prevent 150,000 premature deaths every year.”

But that prediction is based on an estimate based on extrapolations based on assumptions that have yet to be demonstrated despite a half-century of efforts. No one knows how people would react to less-salty food, much less what would happen to their health.
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Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-04-05-scrip_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip&poe=HFMostPopular



A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.

Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.

Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.

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Hora Cero: Hoy sentencian a Fujimori por delitos de lesa humanidad

http://peru21.pe/noticia/270109/juicio-alberto-fujimori-llega-hoy-su-punto-final

La sentencia por el caso de violación de los derechos humanos será leída desde las 9:00 a.m. La pena no sería alta pese al pedido de 30 años de prisión del Ministerio Público.[Qué raro...por acá no se dice nada.]

http://www.diariocorreo.com.ec/imagenes/2009/03/mundo9.jpg

A las 9 de la mañana de hoy, tras más de 160 audiencias, Alberto Fujimori, ex presidente de la República, estará en el banquillo de los acusados, listo para escuchar la sentencia de la Sala Penal Especial que, por 16 meses, lo ha juzgado por los crímenes de Barrios Altos y de La Cantuta y por los secuestros del empresario Samuel Dyer y del periodista Gustavo Gorriti.

Aun cuando se desconoce la decisión de los vocales, el fallo ya ha sido calificado de “histórico” y, qué duda cabe, sentará un precedente internacional pues es la primera vez, en este lado del hemisferio, que un ex mandatario civil es sentenciado por crímenes de lesa humanidad.

Si bien ha trascendido que el tribunal condenará a Alberto Fujimori, la pena no sería alta pese al pedido de 30 años de prisión del Ministerio Público. Hasta el cierre de esta edición, las especulaciones crecían en torno a la cantidad de años que se le impondrían.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7me5-ItZ31cndApSW5mvP0lRQjDrKOhvPlKWRuVTzD9NOyW7N7XbHwglitPNBvKAKpEb3LibiTBn586nVt4DoQpYiF_z_mbU6TRnaCMSSGoRGQigGEdqYq7Fij8FcI_6qMdd0UotdVZ8/s400/C%C3%A1rcel.bmphttp://www.elpais.com/recorte/20071210elpepuint_15/LCO340/Ies/Comienza_juicio_Fujimori_violaciones_derechos_humanos.jpg

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Violento despertar del [volcán chileno] Llaima provoca emergencia agrícola por aluviones y cenizas

http://diario.elmercurio.com/2009/04/07/nacional/nacional/noticias/AE77CB1D-EAE2-4A56-9F1B-88D750CCED98.htm?id={AE77CB1D-EAE2-4A56-9F1B-88D750CCED98}

·Vulcanólogos dicen que el comportamiento del nevado es impredecible
·Diez mil agricultores de cinco comunas son los potenciales afectados, de persisitir la emisión de lava y de cenizas volcánicas

Llaima volcano spews lava, ashes and smoke.
[Llaima lanzando lava y ceniza, volcán a 700 kms. al sur de Santiago, Chile.]

TEMUCO.– Los aluviones provocados por el derretimiento de las nieves del volcán Llaima aumentaron ayer los daños causados por la erupción que comenzó la noche del viernes. El arrastre de material volcánico, rocas y troncos, destruyó puentes y caminos, y ocasionó además de la acumulación de cenizas daños en suelos agrícolas, principalmente praderas que sustentan ganado y cultivos, lo que hizo al Gobierno declarar en emergencia agrícola a las comunas de Vilcún, Cunco, Melipeuco, Curacautín y Lonquimay.

La medida anunciada por la ministra de Agricultura, Marigen Hornkohl, responde al plan de contingencia diseñado para enfrentar potenciales efectos que podría ocasionar la nueva fase eruptiva. Ésta muestra signos de ser más violenta que la del 1 de enero de 2008 y se caracteriza por explosiones, emisión de lava y cenizas, más deshielos que generan aluviones volcánicos (lahares) y que ya han destruido un puente de madera en el sector del río Calbuco y tres kilómetros de caminos al interior del Parque Nacional Conguillío, en el área del río Captrén.
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Going for a more expensive song: iTunes raises prices

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6051017.ece

http://media1.podtech.net/media/2008/03/PID_013433/Podtech_Kevin_Edwards_on_iTunes.jpg

Apple introduced variable pricing to its iTunes online music store today, raising the top price for a song to 99p[25% increase!!].

Most songs used to cost 79p, and some still will, but the company's new three-tier pricing system means some will also be sold for 59p.

In the US, the prices will be $1.29, 99 cents and 79 cents. Anticipating a backlash before the announcement, Apple pointed out that for every one song they raise to $1.29 they will be reducing 10 songs[which 10 songs might they be? hum?] to 69 cents. All tracks are also now DRM-free, and so can be played on all types of music player.

The new price changes are the first big test of how much fans are willing to pay for digital music[...aahhh, the truth!]. Record labels have been lobbying Apple to raise the top rate of tracks, which in the US has been 99 cents since the iTunes store was launched in 2003. Apple previously rejected their pleas saying a price rise would dent sales.
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Legalisation of drugs could save UK £14bn, says study

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/apr/07/drugs-policy-legalisation-report

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_yt7mNBpoWKcqrrujaDMy3-XGgAnhfI4_u0OLujub1_54c_HkgkuQGIc5wVMDgPDwBx06Bto14wlykKcWRGNG2HqVX-MlIdkGDtEXoGUilYvaDjMGeIt_pVcVuW2uJt0vEtA3VIUOCXBr/s400/economist+-+case+for+legalising.jpg

[Front page from July/August, 2001 issue of The Economist.]

The regulated legalisation of drugs would have major benefits for taxpayers, victims of crime, local communities and the criminal justice system, according to the first comprehensive comparison between the cost-effectiveness of legalisation and prohibition. The authors of the report, which is due to be published today, suggest that a legalised, regulated market could save the country around £14bn.

For many years the government has been under pressure to conduct an objective cost-benefit analysis of the current drugs policy, but has failed to do so despite calls from MPs. Now the drugs reform charity, Transform, has commissioned its own report, examining all aspects of prohibition from the costs of policing and investigating drugs users and dealers to processing them through the courts and their eventual incarceration.

As well as such savings is the likely taxation revenue in a regulated market. However, there are also the potential costs of increased drug treatment, education and public information campaigns about the risks and dangers of drugs, similar to those for tobacco and alcohol, and the costs of running a regulated system.

The report looked at four potential scenarios, ranging from no increase in drugs use to a 100% rise as they become more readily available.

"The conclusion is that regulating the drugs market is a dramatically more cost-effective policy than prohibition and that moving from prohibition to regulated drugs markets in England and Wales would provide a net saving to taxpayers, victims of crime, communities, the criminal justice system and drug users of somewhere within the range of, for the four scenarios, £13.9bn, £10.8bn, £7.7bn, £4.6bn."

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Satélites de la NASA revelan la persistente reducción del hielo en el Ártico

[ATENCIÓN: para una visión 'diametralmente' opuesta a la contenida en este artículo, ver el post de marzo del 2009, Rise Of Sea Levels Is Greatest Lie Ever. Pero mejor visitar el blog Heliogenic.]

http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=601904&idseccio_PK=1021
Imagen captada por satélite en la que se observa la extensión máxima del hielo sobre el mar en el período 2008-09. Foto: EFE / NASA HANDOUT
Imagen captada por satélite en la que se observa la extensión máxima del hielo sobre el mar en el período 2008-09. Foto: EFE / NASA HANDOUT

Las últimas imágenes de los satélites han revelado que los hielos marinos y la plataforma gélida del Ártico continúan reduciéndose como resultado del aumento global de las temperaturas, según ha informado la NASA.

El hielo espeso y antiguo ha comenzado a disminuir y está siendo sustituido por hielo nuevo y delgado que es mucho más vulnerable, según ha indicado la agencia espacial estadounidense.

El anuncio de la reducción de la masa de hielo ártico ha sido difundido tres días después de que el Instituto Geológico de EEUU (USGS) informara de que el cambio climático está derritiendo los glaciares antárticos mucho más rápido de lo que se creía hasta ahora.
Si quieres saber qué más tiene que decir la NASA sobre esto, continúa aquí...

[Además, por si hacía falta, los de LaVanguardia no se querían quedar atrás y publicaron su propio artículo titulado (con la misma fecha!), La NASA revela la persistente reducción del hielo Ártico.]

[ATENCIÓN: para una visión 'diametralmente' opuesta a la contenida en estos artículos, ver el post de marzo del 2009, Rise Of Sea Levels Is Greatest Lie Ever. Pero mejor visitar el blog Heliogenic.]

Pfizer pagará 55 millones por sus experimentos mortales en Nigeria

http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=601806&idseccio_PK=1021&h=

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Africa/2009/feb/Nigerian-Lawyers-and-Pfizer-Approach-Settlement/news/0/image.jpg.jpg


[...algo es algo.....en fin.]
La farmacéutica indemnizará a las familias de 11 menores para evitar el juicio
La empresa ensayó, sin permiso, un nuevo fármaco contra la meningitis en 200 niños


Después de negarlo durante más de una década; de afirmar que aquellos niños no habían fallecido por culpa de su fármaco sino por las enfermedades que entonces, a mediados de los 90, hacían estragos entre la población nigeriana; de, según denunciaron los abogados de las víctimas, dilatar y seguir dilatando el proceso judicial hasta el cansancio, la multinacional farmacéutica Pfizer ha reconocido --al menos tácitamente-- que actuó al margen de la ley cuando en 1996 mandó a un equipo a Nigeria a probar un medicamento para curar la meningitis. El irresponsable arrojo de la compañía estadounidense, que utilizó sin permiso a 200 niños, acabó con la muerte de 11 de ellos y toda clase de gravísimos problemas para los demás: ceguera, sordera, lesiones cerebrales y parálisis.

Ese reconocimiento tácito ha quedado consignado en la decisión de la empresa, hecha pública el viernes, de pagar 55 millones de euros --poco más de la mitad, para las familias, y el resto, para la reconstrucción de un hospital-- con la condición de que los afectados retiren la causa. El estado de Kano, de donde procedían todos los pequeños utilizados en el experimento, reclamaba 2.000 millones, así que, al menos comparada con esos objetivos iniciales, la indemnización es exigua. Pero la causa que abrió más tarde el Gobierno nigeriano, pidiendo 7.000 millones, sigue abierta.
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[Esquema de ganancias de Pfizer...queda claro su motivación]
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Sweet dreams are made of geomagnetic activity

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16871-sweet-dreams-are-made-of-geomagnetic-activity.html

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Looking for an explanation for recurring nightmares of leaving the house without your trousers on or losing your teeth? New research suggests you can blame the Earth's magnetic field, rather than a repressed childhood.

Darren Lipnicki, a psychologist formerly at the Center for Space Medicine in Berlin, Germany, found a correlation between the bizarreness of his dreams, recorded over eight years, and extremes in local geomagnetic activity.

Other studies have tied low geomagnetic activity to increases in the production of the melatonin, a potent hormone that helps set the body's circadian clock. So, based on anecdotal evidence that melatonin supplements used as a sleeping aid can cause off-kilter dreams, Lipnicki wondered whether local magnetic fields could induce the same effects.

Journal reference: http://www.sciencedirect.com

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OVNI en Los Arenales, Córdoba, Marzo/2009



[Video grabado por Bartolomé Olivares, miembro de la sociedad ecologista Guadalquivir]