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Bachmann: I begged the Fed not to do this
Fresh from her victory in last night's election, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann says she begged the Federal Reserve not to go ahead with controversial plans to monetize the national debt, and is calling its purchase of hundreds of billions of dollars in Treasury bonds "a disaster" for America.
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EndrTimes: God Has a Church
It is the people who love God and keep his commandments.
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, There I am in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18: 20
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Boehner and Brown: Birds of a Feather - The Flock's Together
John Andrew Boehner and Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. Religion Roman Catholic See link for more: http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/2010/11/boehner-and-brown-birds-of-feather.html
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Boehner and Brown: Birds of a Feather - The Flock's Together
John Andrew Boehner
Reading, Ohio
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Deborah L. Gunlack (from 1973)
Children
Lindsay Boehner
Tricia Boehner
Residence West Chester, Ohio
Alma mater Xavier University
Profession Business Consultant
Religion Roman Catholic
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr.
Born April 7, 1938 (1938-04-07) (age 72)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Anne Gust
Residence Oakland, California, U.S.
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Yale Law School
Religion Roman Catholicism[1]
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Dead Democrat wins election - TIME NewsFeed
This Democrat really was dead. But her election hopes weren't.
Jenny Oropeza, who died Oct. 20, was re-elected to the California State Senate on Tuesday.
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Group Demands Immediate Halt of Full-Body Airport Scanners
A leading privacy group is urging a federal appeals court to suspend the government’s program of introducing full-body imaging machines at airports across the country.
The Transportation Security Administration began deploying 450 of them in March to dozens of airports nationwide.
“The suspicionless search of all airport travelers in this most invasive way violates the reasonableness standard contained in the Fourth Amendment,” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Tuesday. He said the devices, costing $1 billion, were designed “to store and record and transmit the unfiltered image of the naked human body. ”
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Group Demands Immediate Halt of Full-Body Airport Scanners
A leading privacy group is urging a federal appeals court to suspend the government’s program of introducing full-body imaging machines at airports across the country.
The Transportation Security Administration began deploying 450 of them in March to dozens of airports nationwide.
“The suspicionless search of all airport travelers in this most invasive way violates the reasonableness standard contained in the Fourth Amendment,” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Tuesday. He said the devices, costing $1 billion, were designed “to store and record and transmit the unfiltered image of the naked human body. ”
The government is expected to respond next month to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
A test image shown to reporters at Logan International this spring “showed the blurry outline of a female volunteer,” The Associated Press reported at the time. “None of her clothing was visible, nor were her genitals, but the broad contours of her chest and buttocks were. Her face also was blurred.”
The constitutional challenge aside, EPIC also charges that the Department of Homeland Security, in rolling out the devices, violated a host of bureaucratic policies requiring public review, including the Administrative Procedures Act.
What’s more, the group claims the machines, among other things, violate the federal Video Voyeurism Prevent Act, which protects against capturing improper images that violate one’s privacy.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a recent statement that the deployment is “enhancing our capability to detect and disrupt threats of terrorism across the nation.”
The so-called “backscatter machines,” however, cannot detect so-called “booty bombs” in which an explosive is inserted into the body.
Travelers can opt out of going through the imaging machines and instead undergo a pat-down, including the crotch area.
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High Oxygen Levels Spawn Monster Dragonflies
Biologists have grown super-size dragonflies that are 15 percent larger than normal by raising the insects, from start to finish, in chambers emulating Earth’s oxygen conditions 300 million years ago.
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High Oxygen Levels Spawn Monster Dragonflies
Biologists have grown super-size dragonflies that are 15 percent larger than normal by raising the insects, from start to finish, in chambers emulating Earth’s oxygen conditions 300 million years ago.
The research, presented Nov. 1 at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, provides more support to the idea that big ancient animals and high-oxygen concentrations weren’t coincidental. It may also offer an instrument to help gauge Earth’s ancient atmospheric conditions.
“No one has been successful growing dragonflies under controlled laboratory conditions before, at least to my knowledge,” said paleobiologist John VandenBrooks of Arizona State University, leader of the work. “This has allowed us to ask the question, ‘how have oxygen levels through time influenced the evolution of insects?’”
During the Paleozoic era, around 300 million years ago, huge dragonflies zipped around with wingspans stretching more than two and a half feet, dwarfing modern relatives. Back then, however, the planet’s atmosphere had roughly 50 percent more oxygen than today.
To explore the effects of ancient oxygen levels, VandenBrooks’ team raised 11 other “living fossils,” including beetles and cockroaches, in three habitats with different oxygen concentrations — one at the late Paleozoic’s 31 percent oxygen level, another at today’s 21 percent level and the third at 12 percent from 240 million years ago (Earth’s lowest oxygen level since complex life exploded onto the scene half a billion years ago).
They found that dragonflies and beetles grew faster, as well as bigger, in a high-oxygen environment, while cockroaches grew slower and remained the same size. All but two bug species grew smaller than normal at low concentrations of oxygen.
Measurements of insect breathing-tube volume from the experiment could be correlated with that of insects trapped in amber, VandenBrooks said, providing a solid tool to determine oxygen levels in poorly understood eras.
“We started out with insect physiology to understand the fossil record better, in light of data from modern species,” he said. “Then we realized we might have a biological tool to estimate ancient oxygen levels — a proxy — using that physiology in specimens trapped in amber.”
Dragonflies are born as water-loving nymphs and spend about half a year wolfing down small worms, crustaceans and, eventually, larger prey such as guppy fish. When adults emerge as speedy terrestrial fliers, they begin breathing through a network of tracheal air tubes and live only for a couple of weeks.
“It wasn’t quick, but it paid off,” VandenBrooks said of raising the critters in the lab, adding that 225 nymphs (75 per atmospheric habitat) had to be hand-fed worms and guppies every day for almost half a year.
After the dragonflies and other bugs molted into adults, the researchers measured their breathing-tube volumes. They discovered that high oxygen concentrations lowered tracheal volume, while low oxygen concentrations boosted it. VandenBrooks said tracheal volume may be tied to prehistoric dragonfly body size.
“As you become a larger insect, more of your body is taken up by tracheal tubes. Eventually you reach a limit to how big you can be,” VandenBrooks said. “The more oxygen that is available, the smaller that system needs to be and the bigger you can grow.”
Dragonflies in the modern habitat grew normally, with wingspans of about 3.5 inches, while the hyperoxic chamber spawned dragonflies with 15 percent larger bodies and 4-inch wingspans. Beetles also grew proportionally larger but, conversely, cockroaches didn’t swell to monsters in rich oxygen levels. Instead, they remained the same size and developed more slowly.
“We’re not sure why this happened,” VandenBrooks said, adding that cockroach tracheal volume, however, still decreased along with most of the other bugs.
“We might be able to correlate this modern tracheal data with tracheal volumes we measure in amber fossils to find out what oxygen concentrations were during some contentious periods in history,” VandenBrooks wrote in an e-mail. He also noted that oxygen levels around 300 million years ago are better known than from 120 to 65 million years ago, a period with “conflicting and poorly resolved” oxygen models.
“One model out there says levels were lower than now, another says higher-than-present levels,” he said. “We need a good proxy to estimate historic conditions. Amber fossils are promising if we can more tightly correlate breathing-tube volume to oxygen.”
VandenBrooks said he’d like to “take a more in-depth look at the fossil record and expand forward to the present and backward to the past” to see if amber is a viable proxy. In addition, he wants to repeat the oxygen-level experiment focusing more tightly on dragonfly behavior.
“We want to know how it affects their metabolism,” VandenBrooks said. “How does it affect their ability to perform? Their speed? Their efficiency? I’d love to know these things.”
Images: 1) Flickr/Al Power. 2) Micrograph of a modern honey bee’s internal tracheal tubes, the means by which all insects exchange oxygen with their body’s tissues./USDA 3) A dragonfly raised in one of VandenBrooks’ hyperoxic habitats./John VandenBrooks.Read more at www.wired.com
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Home ownership, is for suckers
"Renting, not owning, is this century's American dream. You’ll save money, feel happier, and have the world at your service."
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Abandon Ownership! Join the Rentership Society!
By Chris Suellentrop
November 1, 2010 |
12:00 pm |
Wired November 2010
Photo: Mauricio Alejo
In the American mind, renters are regarded as an unsavory lot, willful dissidents from the American dream. They do things like put cars up on cinder blocks in their front yard or, worse, live in your basement. The vision of an Ownership Society was about more than just houses, but the promotion of homeownership was, for a time at least, its most successful element. You know the story by now: The rate of homeownership climbed to almost 70 percent, sellers walked out of closings trundling wheelbarrows full of cash, and the phrase “granite countertops” seemed to hold as much promise as “plastics” did in The Graduate. Then it all fell apart. We woke up in a Rentership Society, and it’s starting to look permanent. And you know what? Thank goodness. Ownership, it turns out, is for suckers.
For renters today, finding a new apartment on craigslist is almost as easy as streaming a movie. (OK, not quite, but you get the point.) Homeowners don’t reside in this frictionless economy: They’re stuck in one place, unable to quickly downgrade to a cheaper residence when times are lean (or upgrade when times are flush). And it costs thousands of dollars in renovations to beat the depreciation curve.
I speak from experience. My wife and I bought and sold two condos during the latter stages of the real-estate boom, escaping both as break-even propositions (after transaction costs). When we moved into a rental apartment a couple of years ago, we realized that ownership had been a burden, a time sink, and a money pit. Now we ask the landlord to fix things when they break, and we don’t mind that the floor is not the one we would have chosen. We pay less each month than we would on a mortgage, and we bank money that once would have gone into installing central air.
We discovered that this emancipating, and remunerative, mindset applies to a lot of things that in the pre-Internet age you had to accumulate in order to enjoy. We sold our car and now use Zipcar or Avis when we need one — my somewhat technophobic wife refers to Zipcar as “Netflixing a car.”
Granted, I live in Manhattan, where you don’t need a car to get around every day. But no matter where you live, you’ve probably begun to embrace the Rentership Society without even realizing it. When was the last time you bought a DVD? Sales have plummeted because we all stream our video or get discs by mail. Amazon reportedly wants to get into the rental business, too, by creating a streaming service — their current (failed) model sells TV shows by the episode. I get my music from Microsoft’s Zune Pass service these days — $15 a month buys me flexibility, mobility, and freedom from having to upgrade when a new standard replaces MP3s (which it inevitably will).
I’m no freegan, mind you. I don’t dig through dumpsters for my dinner, and I believe in the virtues of property rights. The Rentership Society doesn’t have to mean the Tragedy of the Commons — the stuff I rent isn’t owned by the government or by everyone. It’s owned by someone — someone else. I just pay for use. Those of you with a profit instinct (and storage space) can even become landlords: Websites like SnapGoods and Zilok let people rent out their stuff — lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, tools — to the tenant class (as discussed by Clive Thompson in issue 18.09).
For the rest of us, we’ll always own some things. There’s stuff we use all the time, like furniture and clothing, and objects with sentimental value (take your stinking paws off my Yoda figure with plastic snake). But the Internet is creating markets that enable us to own much less. The winner of the ebook sweepstakes will be the bookseller who becomes a bookrenter. I don’t want to own hundreds of books on a Kindle at $10 a pop. I want to Netflix them — pay for access to every book ever published. I’d rather be a renter in Borges’ library than the owner of my own.
Everything, everywhere, all the time. That’s the dream of the Rentership Society. And we’re almost there. If you want to be able to possess some things, in some places, some of the time, well, keep on buying. But I vote for infinite abundance, on demand. Doesn’t that sound like the new century’s American dream?
Chris Suellentrop (chris.suellentrop@gmail.com) is a story editor at The New York Times Magazine.
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11-Year-Old Boy Shot By Police Officer - Video - WGAL The Susquehanna Valley
A Dallas mother says police are supposed to serve and protect, not shoot her innocent 11-year-old son.
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Is Flu Vaccination Safe ???
The Makers of Flu Vaccine refused H1N1 Vaccine - There is mercury in Flu Vaccine, remember mercury in dental filling. Mercury is known as the most neurotoxic substance known to man. What is in flu vaccine anyway?
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Is Flu Vaccination Safe ???
The Makers of Flu Vaccine refused H1N1 Vaccine
There is mercury in Flu Vaccine, remember mercury in dental filling. Mercury is known as the most neurotoxic substance known to man. What is in flu vaccine anyway?
See more at thesearethey.blogspot.com
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Be Strong and Of A Good Courage
Never Give Up for The Lord is With Thee - Ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you. Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Deu 31:5-6 KJV
For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear. Heb 13:5-6 KJV
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Be Strong and Of A Good Courage
Never Give Up for The Lord is With Thee
Ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you. Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Deu 31:5-6 KJV
For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear. Heb 13:5-6 KJV
Read more at thesearethey.blogspot.com
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Peace Safety then Sudden Destruction
One Global Family for Global Peace - But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1The5:1-3
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Peace Safety then Sudden Destruction
One Global Family for Global Peace
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1The5:1-3
Read more at thesearethey.blogspot.com
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Okla. Voters Approve Sharia Law Ban
With more than half of the vote, Oklahoma voters overwhelming approved a state amendment banning state judges from consulting Islamic law in deciding cases.
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