The man arrested in a home invasion Thursday night in which he and two victims were hospitalized was injured when the two people in the house fought back, records show.
The sheriff's report shows Michael Lessard, 25, was wearing a bulletproof vest, mask and gloves when he barged into the home on Athens Court near Apopka and fired a shotgun at a former friend. No such thing as a mad mom proof vest though.
The incident report also shows the gunman fired at the former friend, but he jumped up as the pellets struck the floor and they missed. The former friend, Vu Nguyen, 25, and his mother, Tuyet To, 47, then struggled with the intruder. They rushed him, and Nguyen was able to pull the shotgun away and they continued to fight over a handgun.
The fight soon moved outside, where Nguyen's mother continued to batter the attacker's face with the shotgun. To, the mother, kept up her barrage until the man gave up and neighbors came and helped keep him on the ground until deputies arrived.
Lessard, Nguyen and To were hospitalized with injuries from the fight, but as police spoke to witnesses, Lessard's car was identified as one at the scene when the house was bombed March 20. A police dog identified the car as possibly containing bomb material and the county bomb squad was called out. Squad members went over the car and the scene was cleared.
Nguyen said their friendship soured when he claimed Lessard began treating their friendship as an "intimate relationship" in 2008.
Items found in the car with ties to the March bomb incident were turned over to the FBI's Jopoint Terrorism Task Force.
Lessard remained -- beaten and bruised --in the Orange County Jail on Tuesday without bail. Imagine this clown trying to explain to his fellow inmates that his victim's mother beat him senseless with his own shotgun.
#1
Meanwhile in Chicago: 80-year old Army vet shoots, kills home invader -- 'He saved our lives,' says wife of the shooting of a gunman who intruded into the couple's bedroom on West Side. After the intruder missed with the first round, the homeowner, who had a handgun of his own, fired a single shot, killing the intruder, a police source said. The shooting comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June on Chicago's decades-old ban on possessing handguns. During oral arguments in March, the court's majority appeared almost certain to strike down the city ordinance and rule that residents have a right to a handgun at home.
Chicago police have long aggressively been trying to remove guns from the public, saying they are the principal weapons used in murders and employed by gangs to enforce turf through violence. Police let the Korean War veteran, who walks with the aid of a cane, go without filing immediate charges because he appeared to act in self-defense, according to police sources.
A Manhattan investment guru to the stars was arrested by federal authorities this morning, according to law enforcement officials, for perpetrating a massive fraud and Ponzi scheme.
Ken Starr, who reportedly boasts a client list that includes Annie Leibowitz, Uma Thurman, Martin Scorcese, is expected to appear in federal court today to face charges related to the investment fraud. He was arrested this morning.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Phareet Barrara is expected to hold a press conference this afternoon to details the charges.
A British scientist says he is the first man in the world to become infected with a computer virus. "Stop me before I spam again!"
Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading contaminated a computer chip which was then inserted into his hand. "... and after I inject myself with the Klez... Klez... ungh! urgh!... gasp!"
"God Gawd, doctor!"
"Igor! The antidote! Quickly!"
[FUMBLE! CRASH! SPLATTER!]
The device, which enables him to pass through security doors and activate his mobile phone, is a sophisticated version of ID chips used to tag pets. "Mo-om! Sparky's spamming again!"
In trials, Dr Gasson showed that the chip was able to pass on the computer virus to external control systems. If other implanted chips had then connected to the system they too would have been corrupted, he said. "Oleg! I think we should... thank the doctor for his modifications to the security system!"
"Duh... Yeah, boss!... [crack!]"
"Aaaaiiieeee!" Medical alert
Dr Gasson admits that the test is a proof of principle but he thinks it has important implications for a future where medical devices such as pacemakers and cochlear implants become more sophisticated, and risk being contaminated by other human implants. "With the benefits of this type of technology come risks. We may improve ourselves in some way but much like the improvements with other technologies, mobile phones for example, they become vulnerable to risks, such as security problems and computer viruses." "V1G0REX!... AD1PEX!... V1AGR@!"
"Stop it, doctor! [SLAP!] STOP IT!"
However, Dr Gasson predicts that wider use will be made of implanted technology. "This type of technology has been commercialised in the United States as a type of medical alert bracelet, so that if you're found unconscious you can be scanned and your medical history brought up." "Doctor Bob! What's the matter?"
"The MRI machine! There's something dreadfully wrong!"
"Look out, Doctor Bob! [BZZZDDDDPPP!]"
Professor Rafael Capurro of the Steinbeis-Transfer-Institute of Information Ethics in Germany told BBC News that the research was "interesting". "If someone can get online access to your implant, it could be serious," he said. "Yasss... Y'might say so." Cosmetic surgery
Professor Capurro contributed to a 2005 ethical study for the European Commission that looked at the development of digital implants and possible abuse of them. "From an ethical point of view, the surveillance of implants can be both positive and negative," he said. "Oh. Thanks for clearing that up, Professor."
"'Capurro'? That's Italiano for 'dumbass,' isn't it?"
"Surveillance can be part of medical care, but if someone wants to do harm to you, it could be a problem." "No! Reeeally?"
In addition, he said, that there should be caution if implants with surveillance capabilities started to be used outside of a medical setting. "Helen! What's wrong?"
"It's your implant, Phil! It's looking at me... funny!"
However, Dr Gasson believes that there will be a demand for these non-essential applications, much as people pay for cosmetic surgery. "If we can find a way of enhancing someone's memory or their IQ then there's a real possibility that people will choose to have this kind of invasive procedure." "First the good news, Mr. Jones: the chip has raised your IQ ten points and enabled you to retain the contents of the entire Microsoft Encarta for instant retrieval."
"And the bad news?"
"You're the last surviving son of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, and you need assistance to secretly move USD 16,000,000 (sixteen million U.S. dollars) out of the country..."
Dr Gasson works at the University of Reading's School of Systems Engineering and will present the results of his research at the International Symposium for Technology and Society in Australia next month. Professor Capurro will also talk at the event. "And here he is, ladies and gentlemen: Professor Dumbass!"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 10:08 ||
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#1
In trials, Dr Gasson showed that the chip was able to pass on the computer virus to external control systems.
I am tech illiterate, but wouldn't this be a dream weapon for terrorists or corporate espionage? Impossible to detect, it could infect and corrupt security systems that use biometric ID.
Accused of marrying military men and stealing their money, Bobbi Ann Finley picked up the phone and called Q13 FOX reporter Dana Rebik this afternoon.
While Finley disagrees with some of the accusations, she isn't shy about what she's done.
"I grew up very poor and sheltered so if someone offers me something, I'm not going to turn it down." Finley said she knows an Army investigator is trying to find her. She knows she's accused of conning dozens of soldiers across the country, including a marine in western Washington.
Victims say for nearly two decades, Bobbi Ann Finley has been stalking, marrying and ruining the lives and bank accounts of men serving our country.
"She tends to go for guys that are leaving the country. They are being deployed outside of the country so when they are gone they can't close their accounts," says Katie Wegg.
Wegg's son was wooed in 2004. He met Bobbi Ann in San Antonio while he was in the Army Reserves. She told him she was the daughter of a Marine Corp General about to inherit a lot of money, but in order to get it, she had to get married. It's a story Katie Wegg says dozens of service members fell for, and she's done the digging to prove it.
"I've spoken to 40 victims and 11 ex-husbands," says Wegg.
One of them is a marine who was stationed at the naval base in Bremerton a few years back. A Kitsap County Superior Court document shows a warrant for Bobbi Ann's arrest in December 2006. The prosecuting attorney noted, "It is believed she has become associated with other military males in the state of Washington and that she is in the process of defrauding them."
#5
There's even an old pop song about this situation: She left twenty-nine broken hearts
Broken in twenty-nine parts
Now there are twenty-nine fellas complainin' to their moms
About the lady from 29 Palms
She got twenty-nine Cadillacs
Twenty-nine sables from Sach's
They came from twenty-nine fellas who never had their arms
Around the lady from 29 Palms
John Finn, the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, died Thursday morning at the age of 100 at the Chula Vista Veterans Home.
He was stationed at Keneohe Bay Naval Air Station on Dec. 7, 1941 when he found himself firing at Japanese planes from an exposed position at Pearl Harbor for more than two hours despite being hit 21 times by bomb and bullet fragments.
The longtime East County resident was credited by some with single-handedly shooting down a Japanese aircraft but he would later say I can't honestly say I hit any, but I shot at every damn plane I could see.'
Friends and fellow veterans said Lt. Finn was a rock star in military circles. People clamored for a handshake or to have a picture taken with him wherever he went. Fellow Medal of Honor recipient Tom Kelley said Lt. Finn was a big hit at a Veterans Day event in Massachusetts last year.
He's kind of a legend,' Kelley said. He was a very warm person and had a phenomenal memory. He could remember everything and tell stories and not repeat himself. He made everyone who met him feel like they were the most important person in the world.'
He grew up near Los Angeles and had been in the Navy 15 years by the time he was stationed in Hawaii. He left the Navy as a lieutenant in 1947 after 21 years of service because he dreaded having to assume a ship command, according to a 1984 interview with the San Diego Union.
He downplayed his heroic efforts during World War II and said he was just doing his job. I read about other guys with the medal who lost their lives or really suffered in wars and I think about myself. I was just an uneducated man who got mad as hell one day,' he said in 1984. Only 90 living Medal of Honor recipients remain.
#2
Born on July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles, California, Finn dropped out of school after seventh grade.[1] He enlisted in the Navy in July 1926, shortly before his seventeenth birthday, By December 1941, Finn was stationed at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. As a chief aviation ordnanceman
Finn then found a movable platform used for gunnery training, attached the .50 caliber machine gun, and pushed the platform into an open area, from which he had a clear view of the attacking aircraft. He fired on the Japanese planes for the next two hours, even after being seriously wounded, until the attack had ended. In total, he received 21 distinct wounds, including a bullet through the foot and an injury which caused him to lose feeling in his left arm.
Deepest respects and condolences to his family.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2010 19:56 Comments ||
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#3
He grew up near Los Angeles and had been in the Navy 15 years by the time he was stationed in Hawaii. He left the Navy as a lieutenant in 1947
At just 18-months-old, Ardi Riza's father gave him his first cigarette. Now two-year-old from Sumatra, Indonesia is smoking 40 cigarettes a day! Despite bribes from officials to give the family of the child a new car if he quits, it won't be happening anytime soon.
His mother says, He's totally addicted. If he doesn't get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick.'
Unfortunately his dad doesn't see it as a problem. He looks pretty healthy to me. I don't see the problem,' he said. Either someone is just unaware or is in serious denial!
When I first saw the video of the two-year-old smoking cigarettes I thought it was amusing. Seeing the baby smoke like a pro was like watching a cartoon! Then I realized that if this story happened in the United States, I'd be absolutely appalled. Why should my feelings for a child in a third world country be any different? In fact, this is even more depressing because it makes you so aware of how uneducated Ardi's father and other residents of Sumatra must be about their children's health.
Watch the video of the two year old smoking cigarettes here
#2
Leftover joke from the days of prairie medicine was, "one for the baby, and one for dad" but the idea was to just dip the finger into the whiskey and swipe the gums (while dad took the shot; late night teething stuff). I was in Paris a while back and tried not to stare when papa and baby bellied up to the bar and l'enfant had, what would be a choker scaled up to a grownup, an assisted sip of vodka.
Fort Knox has long been known for its heavy metals gold bricks and armored tanks.
But the tank's 70-year connection to the Army post in the hills of central Kentucky ended Thursday as the Armor Center, the training school for generations of tank soldiers, began its move to Fort Benning in Georgia.
It's a bittersweet day,' said retired Lt. Col. Richard Ardisson, a former tank commander who attended the transfer of command ceremony. You always hate to see change, especially change that's as symbolic as this is for old tankers and cavalrymen.'
The ceremony symbolized the shift of authority over Fort Knox from the Armor Center to Accessions Command, making the base the Army's home for recruiting, training and human resources. The changes are part of a military reorganization announced by the Pentagon five years ago.
More than 180 M1 tanks and about 1,000 other vehicles will depart Fort Knox over the next year and a half.
#1
"Earlier seismic energy release at Katla is associated with the inflation of the volcano, which indicates it is close to failure, although this does not appear to be linked to seismicity around Eyjafjallajökull," it added.
"We conclude that given the high frequency of Katla activity, an eruption in the short term is a strong possibility," the report said. "It is likely to be preceded by new earthquake activity. Presently there is no unusual seismicity under Katla."
A concert by Elton John has tested the limits of Morocco's drive for modernity, probing this Muslim nation's complex and ambiguous attitudes toward homosexuality like rarely before.
Islamists in the North African kingdom were outraged by the gay pop star's visit, while the royal palace, government and his many fans backed his appearance Wednesday night.
No riots or violence was reported, said Rabat's governor, Hassan Amrani. Authorities had beefed up security with thousands of police and plainclothes officers.
In a sign of John's popularity, several thousand of his fans appeared to know his lyrics by heart even though most people in this French and Arabic speaking country know little or no English.
"He is a very big name in the music world, he's a great artist. And his private life is nobody's business," said Leila Hassan, a 43-year-old housewife.
The tension over the concert is part of a tussle between conservatives and modernizers in a nation that criminalizes homosexuality but has long been famous for a swinging party scene. Morocco has attracted gay celebrities such as designer Yves Saint Laurent and writer Paul Bowles, and recently saw the launch of its first gay magazine.
Across the Islamic world, strictly hidden but sometimes tacitly tolerated traditions of homosexuality are surfacing fitfully -- and John's concert is the latest litmus test.
The public dispute between organizers for the Mawazine Festival that invited John and the Justice and Development Party, or PJD, Morocco's largest authorized Islamist group, illustrates the growing rift between Western-leaning Moroccan authorities and the more conservative Muslim movements that are on the rise in the kingdom.
"This singer is famous for his homosexual behavior and for advocating it," said Mustapha Ramid, a leader and spokesman for the PJD, the biggest opposition party with 40 lawmakers in parliament.
"We're a rather open party, but promoting homosexuality is completely unacceptable," Ramid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Ramid said homosexuality is against Muslim values, and he feared the British singer would "encourage the phenomenon" and be a bad influence for Moroccan youth.
Like nearly all Arab and Muslim countries, Morocco is officially hostile to homosexuality. Homosexual practices are a crime punishable by fines and prison sentences of six months to three years. In practice, however, such penalties are almost never applied, and Morocco has a long history of leniency toward homosexuality or other practices forbidden by Islam, like drinking alcohol.
Though most observers consider homosexuality common in the Arab world, most Arab countries frequently crack down on gays. Simply mentioning the topic is often taboo, and Morocco is viewed as an exception simply by allowing the public debate. Interesting background to this. Morocco has long thought of itself as the sophisticated, intellectual, almost European part of the Ummah, so is relishing this as one in the eye to the less 'cultured' Muslims. Add to that due credit to homosexuals, especially in Africa, who have in recent years very bravely taken to challenging the status quo of Sharia law and cultural prudishness.
[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran are the countries that are the most vulnerable to natural disasters, according to a study released yesterday.
Asia's twin giants, China and India, join them in the 15 countries that, out of 229, are rated as "extreme" risk.
The Natural Disasters Risk Index (NDRI) is compiled by a British risk advisory firm, Maplecroft, on the basis of disasters that occurred from 1980 to 2010.
It draws on a basket of indicators, including the number and frequency of these events, the total deaths that were caused and the death toll as a proportion of the country's population.
Disasters include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms, flooding, drought, landslides, heat waves and epidemics.
"Poverty is an important factor in countries where both the frequency and impacts of natural disasters are severe," said Maplecroft's environmental analyst, Anna Moss.
"Poor infrastructure, plus dense overcrowding in high-risk areas like flood plains, river banks, steep slopes and reclaimed land, continually result in high casualty figures."
According to the NDRI's figures, Bangladesh has suffered more than 191,000 fatalities as a result of natural disasters in the past 30 years, and Indonesia a nearly equal number, the vast majority of which were inflicted by the December 2004 tsunami.
In Iran, the big vulnerability factor is earthquakes, which claimed 74,000 lives over this period.
India, ranked 11th, lost 141,000 lives -- including 50,000 to earthquakes, 40,000 to floods, 15,000 to epidemics and 23,000 to storms -- while the tally in China, rated 12th, was 148,000 lives, of which 87,000 were lost in the 2008 Sichuan quake.
Three G8 countries are considered "high risk," the next category down from "extreme."
They are France (17th in the overall rankings) and Italy (18th), which were hit by killer heat waves in 2003 and 2006, and the United States (37th), whacked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The countries least at risk are Andorra, Bahrain, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Qatar, San Marino and the United Arab Emirates.
Moss pointed to experts' warnings of the impact of climate change on rainfall. Disruption of weather patterns is predicted to lead to more frequent and bigger episodes of drought and flood.
"Our research highlights the need for even the wealthiest countries to focus on disaster risk reduction," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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The Mexican government has announced it respects the Obama administration's decision to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S. southern border to counter cross-border drug and weapons trafficking just as long as the troops don't enforce U.S. immigration laws.
The Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C., released the following statement on May 25:
Regarding the administration's decision to send 1,200 National Guard servicemen to the U.S. Southern border, the government of Mexico trusts that this decision will help to channel additional U.S. resources to enhance efforts to prevent the illegal flows of weapons and bulk cash into Mexico, which provide organized crime with its firepower and its ability to corrupt.
Additionally, the government of Mexico expects that National Guard personnel will strengthen U.S. operations in the fight against transnational organized crime that operates on both sides of our common border and that it will not, in accordance to its legal obligations, conduct activities directly linked to the enforcement of immigration laws [emphasis added].
Upon learning of the statement, former Rep. Tom Tancredo told WND, "The Mexican government can be assured that there will be no attempt to enforce immigration law by the National Guard because there is no attempt to enforce immigration law by the president of the United States."
Tancredo said 1,200 troops for a 2,000 mile border is an inadequate number because there have been requests for up to 8,000, with 6,000 in the Arizona area alone.
"Remember, 1,200 means 400 in three shifts," he said. "If you do not have three shifts, what does it matter? You have 1,200 out there for eight hours a day and then you pull them back? It's ludicrous!"
The Venezuelan economy is viewed with skepticism in a report, entitled 2010 World Economic Situation and Prospects,' prepared by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which was released on Wednesday and showed positive results about Latin America economy.
"Despite the recent surge in oil prices, economic recovery in Venezuela will remain sluggish as electricity shortages affect production and private demand remains subdued," the report stated.
According to the report, the economic activity in Latin America and the Caribbean has recovered more strongly than previously expected, benefitting in part from commodity demand. This will allow a 4 percent GDP growth in the region in 2010 and 3.9 percent in 2011.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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economic recovery in Venezuela will remain sluggish as long as Hugo is in power.
Fixed.
This means individuals and small businesses are rapidly running through their financial reserves and not getting new credit.
The M3 figures - which include broad range of bank accounts and are tracked by British and European monetarists for warning signals about the direction of the US economy a year or so in advance - began shrinking last summer. The pace has since quickened.
The stock of money fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6pc. The assets of insitutional money market funds fell at a 37pc rate, the sharpest drop ever.
"It's frightening," said Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research. "The plunge in M3 has no precedent since the Great Depression. The dominant reason for this is that regulators across the world are pressing banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. This is why the US is not recovering properly," he said.
The US authorities have an entirely different explanation for the failure of stimulus measures to gain full traction. They are opting instead for yet further doses of Keynesian spending, despite warnings from the IMF that the gross public debt of the US will reach 97pc of GDP next year and 110pc by 2015.
Larry Summers, President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, has asked Congress to "grit its teeth" and approve a fresh fiscal boost of $200bn to keep growth on track. "We are nearly 8m jobs short of normal employment. For millions of Americans the economic emergency grinds on," he said.
David Rosenberg from Gluskin Sheff said the White House appears to have reversed course just weeks after Mr Obama vowed to rein in a budget deficit of $1.5 trillion (9.4pc of GDP) this year and set up a commission to target cuts. "You truly cannot make this stuff up. The US governnment is freaked out about the prospect of a double-dip," he said.
M0: The total of all physical currency, plus accounts at the central bank that can be exchanged for physical currency. M1: The total of all physical currency part of bank reserves + the amount in demand accounts ("checking" or "current" accounts).
M2: M1 + most savings accounts, money market accounts, retail money market mutual funds,and small denomination time deposits (certificates of deposit of under $100,000).
M3: M2 + all other CDs (large time deposits, institutional money market mutual fund balances), deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements.
#3
I have had my own small business for more than 20 years, and work with several others who have as well.
I can tell you that outside of rent-seekers whose businesses only exist due to government regulation, and except for statisticaly insignificant exceptions otherwise, small businessmen, given the choice, would take a reduced tax load and regulatory burden over bailouts and handouts every time.
Keep your money, Summers, and leave me alone. THAT is what will stimulate my business.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/27/2010 5:58 Comments ||
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#4
regulators across the world are pressing banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. This is why the US is not recovering properly
WRONG. The US is recovering properly, after the porkulus stops. It is not recovering painlessly. Cleaning up the banks' balance sheets is a necessary condition for return to responsible financial health. But as no mo implies, many Americans understand that we have been living beyond our means and that readjusting will be painful and take time. And the more the government interferes, the longer it will take to return to growth.
This is just like the liberal desire for equality of outcome. How it happens doesn't matter, only the result. To them, prosperity is a matter of what you get, not what you earn.
#7
"This is just like the liberal desire for equality of outcome. How it happens doesn't matter, only the result. To them, prosperity is a matter of what you get, not what you earn."
Well said, NS.
Or as White once said about Mike Dukakis and his ilk, they try to achieve equality of excellence and happiness by spreading wealth around, and instead get equality of misery and mediocrity.
Dale, the real stinky stuff is when the business community needs government capitalization in order to exist.
Think about it.
As NS says, live within your means. A couple of posters here on the 'burg have been testifying the truth for years - that you should be able to get credit unless you don't need it. In other words, you can't borrow $100,000 unless you have that much sitting in a bank somewhere that you don't touch until your loan is paid off. Borrowing shouldn't create capital, it should be there so that you can grow existing secured capital with hard work and entrepreneurial discipline. You borrow, you have an imagination and creativity and a work ethic and the ability to sacrifice, and you increase value. Giving people who have nothing money and hoping for the big kill works some of the time, but certainly not even most of the time. Certainly not enough to justify the policy and philosophy.
The crisis we see is a tribute to that fact.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/27/2010 8:16 Comments ||
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#8
That should have read "shouldn't be able".
PIMF.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/27/2010 8:19 Comments ||
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#9
BP, you are confusing credit in the sense of loans in various forms and credit in the accounting sense.
BTW, in a bank's accounts, customer deposits are debits.
#10
in a bank's accounts, customer deposits are debits.
Suppose that's why they call my credit card a cr...
well that makes sense, seeing that I owe them money.
#11
At a personal level, this indicates a strong risk of hard and fast deflation. This is made worse by banks now being authorized to suspend both demand (checking) and savings deposit withdrawl, on their own recognizance.
I keep warning that there is increasing risk of a bank paper run leading to an institutional suspension followed by a mandated bank holiday, so it is a very wise idea to have several thousand of mattress money in a safe place at home, where you have absolute control over it.
In the article, banks are being advised to raise their capital asset ratios ASAP. This sucks money out of the M3. The wiser ones have been doing this for a while now, on their own.
But what isn't said is that many corporations are doing the same thing. Credit is hard to get right now, so they go as liquid as possible in a defensive mode, for money to operate if the credit market seizes up. Much, much more money sucked out of the M3.
Then to get as much cash as fast as possible, companies dump inventory. This is the great fear, a deflationary stampede.
So by keeping mattress money, you are in effect doing what the banks and many other corporations are doing. You are dumping (non-paying) assets currently extended as credit to the bank (savings and checking), and putting them under your exclusive control, out of the economy.
So good enough for them, to cover their buns, good enough for you, to cover your buns.
#12
Humorous side-note: my university is in the process of planning a "Milton Friedman Institute of Economics". Prof. Friedman was on our faculty, he won a Nobel, he's one of the most influential economists of all time, and we have perhaps the very best, most influential School of Economics on the planet, so it's a natural, right?
Oh noes. Certain faculty (who teach in non-economic fields, the disciplines you'd expect from what they're writing) are angry and are trying to stop this. According to these progressive-leftist-Marxists, Friedman is discredited, nothing he said was right, and he dared to advise Pinochet, so he's 'bad' and naming an institute after him can't be allowed. Along the way the usual faculty, who of course can only exist in the cultured, hothouse environment of academia, have broadened their complaints about the 'corporate university', the influence of money, grants, etc., and are demanding 'faculty governance' of our university.
Sure, folks, the Board of Trustees will get right on that.
It's especially humorous yesterday in that I, along with every other faculty person, received a long, tedious e-mail inviting us to sign a petition about the matter. I read that, then this morning I read this story about monetary supply, and realized that Prof. Friedman WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2010 9:24 Comments ||
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#13
Please, having intimate knowledge of bank accounting I beg you don't get into a discussion of debits and credits on a banks statements versus in your mind.
#15
I wonder how much of this is our foreign trade rivals refusing to fund the US budget and trade deficits any longer?
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2010 12:43 Comments ||
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#16
having intimate knowledge of bank accounting I beg you don't get into a discussion of debits and credits on a banks statements versus in your mind. Sorry, we in the electorate (at least those of us who need to spend money to live) generally need to learn a great deal more about how banks run & how credit affects our lives. Eschew superfluous obfuscation.
#17
Look for NEW (Color/style/denominations) bills to be printed shortly Zimbabwe style to
Inflate" the treasury back to health.
Look for it to fail exactly as Zimbabwe did.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/27/2010 13:24 Comments ||
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#18
I suspect this article is related: Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governor, summed it up best: "Dealing with a banking crisis was difficult enough," he said the other week, "but at least there were public-sector balance sheets on to which the problems could be moved. Once you move into sovereign debt, there is no answer; there's no backstop."
In other words, were this a computer game, the politicians would be down to their last life. Any mistake now and it really is Game Over. Or to pick a slightly more traditional game, it is rather like a session of pass-the-parcel which is fast approaching the end of the line.
The European financial crisis may look and smell rather different to the American banking crisis of a couple of years ago, but strip away the details the breakdown of the euro, the crumbling of the Spanish banking system to take just two and what you are left with is the next leg of a global financial crisis. Politicians temporarily "solved" the sub-prime crisis of 2007 and 2008 by nationalising billions of pounds' worth of bank debt. While this helped reinject a little confidence into markets, the real upshot was merely to transfer that debt on to public-sector balance sheets.
This kind of card-shuffle trick has a long-established pedigree: after the dotcom bust, Alan Greenspan slashed US interest rates to (then) unprecedented lows, which helped dull the pain, but only at the cost of generating the housing bubble that fed sub-prime. It is not so different to the Ponzi scheme carried out by Bernard Madoff, except that unlike his hedge fund fraud, this one is being carried out in full public view.
The problem is that this has to stop somewhere, and that gasping noise over the past couple of weeks is the sound of millions of investors realising, all at once, that the music might have stopped.
#19
Look for NEW (Color/style/denominations) bills to be printed shortly Zimbabwe style to
Inflate" the treasury back to health.
Look for it to fail exactly as Zimbabwe did.
When is your best guess this might happen?
Or is this the usual Kookage?
Give me a date. I'll wager money on you idiociy anytime, I like taking candy from babies morons
#22
Reading history the bank runs were because the banks didn't have enough paper money to cover withdrawals, it could happen today, at least until a truck from the treasury gets there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/27/2010 21:35 Comments ||
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#23
Comment from zerohedge,
What might happen is the credit will just stop - i.e., banks will stop lending completely, but I don't think it will be sudden - although that is possible. It seems more likely to me that it will start getting tougher and "some" lenders will begin to tighten standards. I have not seen that this year at all. (From 3 years ago yes, but since January of this year, no.)
Which was my suspicion. The problem is primarily people running through their savings rather than a lack of credit.
Expect a sudden fall in demand in the next few months.
[Dawn] Pakistan received a stern 48-hour deadline to take tough actions that include hiking of electricity tariffs by six per cent and implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) from July 1. On failure to do so, Pakistan will not receive $300 million under the poverty reduction support credit, the World Bank (WB) said.
If Pakistan succeessfully implements the two conditions, the approval of $300 million will be made during the World Bank meeting which is to take place on June 29 in Washington.
According to sources, authorities were alarmed and clueless about how to fulfill the conditions till May 27.
Authorities in Islamabad are aware that even if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allowed Pakistan not to impose VAT in its budget, World Bank would show stiff resistance in providing any aid, as VAT is its brainchild.
The World Bank has been assistng Pakistan in preparations to introduce the VAT law to Pakistan during the past one year. However, there has been hue and cry from the business communities across Pakistan against the imposition of VAT.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION PAKISTAN DAILY > US, INC. WORRIED OVER CLIMATE CHANGE [ CC + GW "Dubya" seen by Business as de facto "SOURCES OF/FOR DESTRUCTION" [Capital, Asset, Revenue-Loss, etc BIZZ RESOURCES]. SCHEMAS IN WORKS FOR CORPORATION-LED SUBSTANTIAL INCREASES IN BIZZ-SPECIFIC SPENDING AGZ CLIMATE CHANGE.
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The National University of Modern Languages (NUML) continues to remain in headlines as now a unique case has come to light, involving its Rector Brig (retd) Aziz Ahmad, who awarded a PhD degree to himself in his own university and his subordinate professors were his supervisors to approve his doctorate.
This 2003 case has surfaced as the NUML is already facing embarrassment because a professor was beaten by a retired brigadier-registrar of the university and an enquiry committee predominantly composed of retired brigadiers then found the professor guilty.
When The News contacted the NUML's rector, he confirmed being supervised internally and externally by his own subordinates and found no harm in doing this. "They were never under any pressure to favourably examine my work," he said.
Asked how it feels that the head of an institution is a student in his own university and awarding himself a degree, the rector said it was done on merit. The doctorate of Brig (retd) Aziz was funded by the Army, and he had enrolled himself for PhD in the university, headed by himself. His external and internal examiner and those who convened defence were his subordinates. And when he finished his doctorate in 2003, it was Brig (retd) Aziz Ahmad, awarding and receiving degree to himself as his sheet carries his name twice being a candidate and the awarding authority.
As the rector started work on doctorate in 1995, four years before the NUML was authorised to conduct PhD programmes, he completed research work from the Pakistan Futuristic Foundation Institute (PFFI), affiliated with American University of London (AUL), a phony institute that only exists on the internet website and is non-accredited. The AUL is among the HEC's list of universities that were declared "illegally operating in Pakistan".
"The degrees from such institutions are not recognized by HEC. Parents are therefore cautioned not to send their children to these institutions as they may face subsequent problems in procurement of jobs etc," said an HEC announcement issued in August, 2007.
By the time his research work was in progress through AUL-affiliated PFFI, Brig (retd) Aziz was head of the National Institute of Modern Languages (NIML), later upgraded as NUML in 2000, and he became its rector.
Now, when the rector is a certified PhD, the whereabouts of his thesis have become a mystery. According to the rules, all the PhD thesis are made available in the HEC digital library and can be seen on Internet.
When the rector was asked about the thesis, he denied it was missing and said it was in NUML's library. Asked why it has not been displayed in HEC's digital library, he said the library was set up long after he completed his doctorate.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Seemingly appears to be better than CHINA...
To wit,
CHINESE MIL FORUM > [Poll]MOST CHINESE BELIEVE CHINA HAS NO WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITY. Approxi 75% of Respondents feel that UNiversity Admins, Staff + Educators + Board, are more MONEY/PROFIT-ORIENTED, + NOT TRULY DEDIC TO EDUCATION PROPER.
The night before Israel's exercise for defending the home front against missile attack entered its fifth and last day on Thursday, May 27, the Syrian Chief of Staff placed all Syrian military units on standby, followed in the morning by a second directive for missile units to go on a war footing and take up firing positions. Reporting this, debkafile's military sources disclose that missile battery commanders were given "target updates," meaning new Israeli targets for attack.
Western intelligence sources report that Wednesday night, long military convoys carrying mobile missiles were sighted rolling down Syrian highways - especial in the North.
In Athens, Greek military sources announced a joint Israeli-Greek naval and air force two-day exercise beginning next Tuesday, June 1, over the mainland and the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Exercise Minoas 2010 would serve Israeli Air Force F16s and F15s (five each) for drilling long-range flights covering roughly the same distance as between Israel and Iran and new in-flight refueling methods using Israeli KC-807 flying fuel tankers. Greece will deploy 15 F16s.
With all parties on the move, including the boosting of Lebanese army units on the Israeli border, the war tensions swirling around Israel's northern borders show no signs of early dissipation.
Two years ago, 100 Israeli Air Force bombers of different types covered the distance between Israel and Greece and back to demonstrate that Iran and its nuclear sites were within reach. Then, Athens permitted Israeli jets to practice strikes against the Greek Army's sophisticated S-300 interceptor missiles of the type Iran expects to procure from Russia.
The same drill may be repeated in the coming joint maneuver.
debkafile's military sources have learned that across the border the just-boosted Lebanese army units Wednesday afternoon practiced firing anti-air missiles and other weapons against Israeli warplanes near the village of Kuzah in southern Lebanon.
They also report that, back in March, Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas prepared for the current war escalation by setting up a joint staff center for coordinating their missile and rocket attacks on Israeli military and civilian locations. The center which is staffed with liaison officers of the four participants was installed at Syrian Military General Headquarters in Damascus.
As debkafile reported May 26, a colossal Iran-funded and directed armament program has permitted Syria to field 1,000 ballistic missiles and Hizballah 1,000 rockets - all pointed at specific Israeli military and civilian locations, including the densely populated conurbation around Tel Aviv.
The Navy is keeping quiet about the Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions that will guard Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor's shoreline, except to say they'll arrive sometime this year.
The dolphins and sea lions are the stars of a new swimmer interdiction security system, but like nuclear warheads, the Navy will neither confirm nor deny their presence.
"Because it's a security system, we are not going to discuss when or if the animals are there," said Tom LaPuzza, spokesman for the Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego. He added, however, that, "You can go by there in your boat and see them and know they are there."
They're evidently not there now because their homes haven't been built, LaPuzza said. Construction can't begin until the fish window closes in July.
LaPuzza doesn't know yet how many animals will be heading north. There will be a total of no more than 20, according to the Final Environmental Impact Statement prepared for the program.
Four floating enclosures, 30 feet long by 30 feet wide, will each house up to four dolphins. Their water temperature will be kept at a minimum of 52 degrees.
The sea lions will have three enclosures of the same size, each of which can accommodate up to six of animals, according to the FEIS. The marine mammals' waste will go into the base's wastewater treatment system instead of into Hood Canal.
A maximum of 37 people will work with the animals, depending on how many of them wind up here, according to the FEIS. The staff will include a few Navy civilians and the rest will be contract employees, LaPuzza said.
The dolphins and sea lions are ready and waiting. They've been selected and trained, and will continue to sharpen their skills daily.
"They're ready to go momentarily, whenever we decide they need to be there," LaPuzza said.
It had been stated in November that the marine mammals will only work at night, but that was inaccurate, LaPuzza said.
"They'll be patrolling when they're patrolling," he said.
Confirming or denying whether marine mammals are at Bangor, how many are here or when they're working compromises their deterrence value, LaPuzza said. It's no secret that they've been patrolling the Navy's other Trident submarine base at Kings Bay, Ga., for years.
"Everybody knows they're there, so you can't deny they're there," LaPuzza said. "And if they catch you, they get to keep you."
Apple Inc shot past Microsoft Corp as the world's biggest tech company based on market value on Wednesday, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which nearly went out of business in the 1990s.
Apple's shares rose as much 2.8 percent on Nasdaq on Wednesday, as Microsoft shares floundered, briefly pushing its market value above $229 billion, ahead of its longtime rival.
Both stocks ended down after a late-day sell-off, but Apple emerged ahead with a market value of about $222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion, according to Reuters data.
Apple shares closed down 0.4 percent at $244.11 on Nasdaq, while Microsoft fell 4 percent to a seven-month low of $25.01.
Shares of Apple are worth more than 10 times what they were 10 years ago, as it has profited from revolutionizing consumer electronics with its stylish, easy to use products such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops.
The last time Apple had a higher market value than Microsoft was December 19, 1989, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.
Microsoft, whose operating system runs on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers, has not been able to match growth rates from its hey-day 1990s. Its stock is down 20 percent from 10 years ago.
Apple, which struggled for many years to get its products into the mainstream, resorted to a $150 million investment from the much larger Microsoft in 1997 in order to keep it afloat. At that time, Microsoft's market value was more than five times that of Apple.
Microsoft still leads Apple in sales. In the latest quarter, Microsoft reported $14.5 billion in revenue compared with Apple's $13.5 billion.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is now the second-largest company on the Standard & Poor's 500 index by market value, behind energy behemoth Exxon Mobil Corp.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2010 10:08 ||
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#1
Microsoft: 93,000 employees.
Apple: 34,000 employees including those in around 300 retail stores.
I know which one adds more wealth to the US and which one adds more to China.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2010 12:39 Comments ||
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#2
Oh please, they both add wealth, and to both countries.
Where do you think all those PCs are made? Not here in the US, that's for sure.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2010 12:59 Comments ||
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#3
Microsoft doesn't build PC's. Except for a few devices (mice, keyboards, etc..) they mostly develop software.
Apple on the other hand builds computers, and sophisticated devices like the Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, Itoaster, Ispouse, etc...
This is kind of like comparing apples and oranges.
#5
Steve, incomes for both companies are within one billion of each other. One has 3X the number of employees (almost all in the USA) and I suspect better paid too since it would have a higher percentage of technical positions. Now which company do you honestly think adds more to the USA's wealth?
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2010 15:14 Comments ||
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#6
Apple on the other hand builds computers, and sophisticated devices like the Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, Itoaster, Ispouse, etc...
#3
Update on size of oil spill from scientists has it surpassing Valdez: anywhere from 17M to 39M barrels
Posted by: Chaque Stalin6841 ||
05/27/2010 11:41 Comments ||
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#4
I don't think it is possible to tell whether it is working yet. It has not yet failed though. I see it as a race between the earth spewing out oil & gas and man pumping in 'kill mud'. Kind of like trying to stop a water main leak by pointing a fire hose at it, but with mud instead of water coming out of the fire hose. Most of the mud will be washed right back out, but a little with get through. If you can keep the hose going long enough, maybe enough mud will get through and stay in the water main to restrict its flow, allowing more mud to get through and stay, until maybe the main is plugged. How much mud does BP have? It had better be a lot (my guess is they have all that is available right now and they hope it's enough.)
The process involves pumping heavy drilling fluids through two 3-inch (7.6 cm) lines into the blowout preventer that sits on top of the wellhead. This would first restrict the flow of oil from the well, which then could be sealed permanently with cement. The top kill procedure, approved by the Coast Guard on May 25, commenced at 1 p.m. CDT on May 26 and, according to BP sources, while failure could be evident in minutes or hours it may take "a day or two" before its success could be determined.
#6
I forgot a complication - if BP is TOO successful, it fails. If they succeed in getting too tall a column of kill mud in the hole, the pressure of that fluid against the rock near the bottom of the hole would be enough to fracture it, and then the kill mud would escape into the fracture, and allow the oil to come back into the well and out into the Gulf.
#8
Obama: Gov't in charge of oil disaster response
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama defensively and sometimes testily insisted on Thursday that his administration, not oil giant BP, was calling the shots in responding to the worst oil spill in the nation's history.
"I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure this thing is shut down," Obama declared at a news conference in the East Room of the White House. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill dominated the hour-long session.
I look forward to the fawning, drooling "Obama Fixes Oil Spill!" stories in the coming days.
Unless, of course, it blows out again...
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/27/2010 18:05 Comments ||
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#12
Workers on the ocean's surface have been reporting sickness after exposure to either the crude or to the dispersant(s) used. I think the crude itself is the problem. ABC evening news tonight showed a $25 particle mask that in their minds would prevent inhaling the fumes. Separating air from a high concentration of volatile hydrocarbons is a bit more difficult than that. Workers may well need self-contained breathing apparatus and a suit to prevent skin absorption of hydrocarbons also. Then you need some type of cooling system to prevent workers from overheating in that environment. The EPA completely misunderestimated the toxic effects of dust for workers cleaning up after 9/11 in Manhattan. EPA appears to be making new mistakes along the same old lines now in the BP spill. A few years down the line, there will be the big class action lawsuit for all the workers sickened by the fumes, and the contingent fees going to tort lawyers, again similar to 9/11.
The Air Force tests an unmanned X-51 WaveRider off the coast near Point Mugu. Launched from a B-52 bomber, it hits 3,500 mph and travels for 200 seconds before plunging into the ocean as planned.
#1
Talk about an awesome stand off weapon. You wouldn't even need to put a warhead on it since the kinetic energy alone would be enough to leave quite a crater.
#2
Six months into the future: China launches the totally indigenously developed Chengbo. Launched from a H-6 bomber, it hits 3,500 mph and travels for 200 seconds before plunging into the ocean as planned.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The man arrested in a home invasion Thursday night in which he and two victims were hospitalized was injured when the two people in the house fought back, records show.
A British scientist says he is the first man in the world to become infected with a computer virus.
Accused of marrying military men and stealing their money, Bobbi Ann Finley picked up the phone and called Q13 FOX reporter Dana Rebik this afternoon.
[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran are the countries that are the most vulnerable to natural disasters, according to a study released yesterday.
Apple Inc shot past Microsoft Corp as the world's biggest tech company based on market value on Wednesday, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which nearly went out of business in the 1990s.
Shares of Apple are worth more than 10 times what they were 10 years ago, as it has profited from revolutionizing consumer electronics with its stylish, easy to use products such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops.
