77246 is a popular integer, but it isn't an area code in trendy Gangnam or the birthdate of a K-pop starlet who's past her prime.
It's the serial number of a banknote that a South Korean man reproduced more than 50,000 times over a period exceeding eight years until he was tossed in the jug early this month. One serial number for the whole run of bogus bills? He was lazy...
Known only by his surname, Kim, the counterfeiter produced and used some 250 million won ($215,000) "worth" of the fake 5,000-won ($4.30) bills since March 2005, according to police and the Bank of Korea. That's the largest amount of funny money produced by any individual and the longest period over which any one serial number is known to have been continuously counterfeited. "I've made a mint with this funny money scheme."
The central bank said Tuesday it is rewarding the shopkeeper who reported Mr. Kim with a 2 million-won prize. It will also reward the police officers who caught him and the precinct they work out of with a 3 million-won prize. Mr. Kim lost; the cops won.
The counterfeiter majored in computer graphics at college, according to a Yonhap news report, and was so skillful that it was hard for people on the street to tell the dubious dinero from genuine article.
The latest central bank data show there were 2.2 fake banknotes per million in circulation as of the end of 2012. This is pretty low compared with per-million figures 42.8 for euro notes and 133 for U.K. pound bills in 2011.
"Counterfeiting attempts are declining here after we strengthened antiforgery features such as color-shifting ink and holograms on banknotes," said an official at the BOK's currency-issuance department.
That's true for the 5,000-won notes, but not for the highest denomination in the country, the 50,000-won note, which is increasingly a favorite among illegitimate minters. Note: If you try to counterfeit money, the bill will come due eventually.
The number of fake 50,000 won bills that were detected last year almost tripled to 329. Counterfeit 10,000-won and 5,000 won notes declined 11% and 20%, respectively, last year. You could say that this run of bogus 5,000's declined in the accuse-ative.
"Just take a little extra care, and you can easily tell fake bills" from the genuine articles, the BOK official said.
If you [the news site is in South Korea]
get a suspicious banknote, you can always use a tool on the BOK website to check it out by typing in the serial number in the appropriate box.
[Pak Daily Times] Three European women with the radical protest group Femen, jugged Please don't kill me! in Tunisia for baring their breasts, apologised at their appeals trial on Wednesday and promised not to repeat the protest.
"I regret this act and I apologise," Josephine Markmann, the German member of the group, told the judge, who said Mohammedan law prohibited such acts. "We didn't expect to shock Tunisians to this extent. It is out of the question that we would do it again," said Pauline Hillier, one of the two French women also appealing a four-month prison sentence for their demonstration last month in support of a fellow Tunisian activist.
The three women appeared at the court of appeal in Tunis dressed in the traditional Tunisian veil, or safsari. Lawyers for a number of Islamist groups angered by the protest, who are seeking to participate in the trial as a civil party, asked for another delay to the appeal to allow them to consult the file. But the judge rejected the request and ordered them to argue their case. One of the lawyers, Seifeddine Makhouf, demanded a "symbolic dinar for injury," and condemned the "exceptional pressures on the prosecutor to arrange the hearing in the shortest time possible." French defence lawyer Patrick Klugman said "the (Islamist) associations have had ample opportunity to study the file; it is part of their strategy to prevent the case from ever being resolved."
Like other lawyers defending the women, he argued there was nothing sexual about their protest. "You cannot pervert the message of Femen. Their breasts were visible to the public but they were carrying a message you can't ignore. Stop looking at their breasts... and listen to them," Klugman told the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"I regret this act and I apologise," Josephine Markmann, the German member of the group, told the judge, who said Mohammedan law prohibited such acts.
BULLSHIT
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/27/2013 5:01 Comments ||
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#2
"Please don't kill us" She whined.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/27/2013 6:29 Comments ||
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#3
"he[the mouthpiece] argued there was nothing sexual about their protest."
If the radical Femen protesters look anything like the photos I've seen of the bare-breasted San Francisco protesters, I would agree with his argument!
[Pak Daily Times] Two US political bloggers who founded an anti-Mohammedan group have been banned from entering Britannia following reports they were to attend a march by the far-right English Defence League (EDL), the government said on Wednesday.
Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who set up Stop Islamization of America and operate the website Jihad Watch, have been forbidden from entering Britannia on the grounds their presence would "not be conducive to the public good".
In response to the decision, Spencer said on the Jihad Watch website: "The nation that gave the world the Magna Carta is dead."
The EDL is planning a march on Saturday, ending in the Woolwich district of London, where a British soldier was brutally murdered last month. Geller and Spencer had been expected to attend.
Two Mohammedan converts have been nabbed Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and are the chief suspects in the murder.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are subject to an exclusion decision.
"The Home Secretary will seek to exclude an individual if she considers that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.
"We condemn all those whose behaviours and views run counter to our shared values and will not stand for extremism in any form."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"The nation that gave the world the Magna Carta is dead."
Hard to believe these are the same people that told King John to piss off. I weep.
And to be fair, no, I don't see much of the Founding Fathers in our current generation of legislators either.
#2
SteveS, I think ours died around the time of the Clinton Presidency, when during the impeachment proceedings he was let off for lying under oath to a Federal Judge, after that all bets were off. -- Look what has transpired since with Obama - at least 10 impeachable offenses, not a movement by Congress. Yup, I agree the Constitution and the Republic is on its knees.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
06/27/2013 2:23 Comments ||
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#3
I recall Ben Franklin saying, to a questioner asking "What have you decided"?, and he answered. "A Republic, if you can keep it".
We're NOT "Keeping it". Not till Obama's OUT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/27/2013 5:06 Comments ||
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#4
What about "Anti american Muslims"?
They're permitted?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/27/2013 5:39 Comments ||
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#5
Of course, Jim. Anti-Muslim Americans don't cut your head off. Muslims have been known to do that.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/27/2013 5:47 Comments ||
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#6
No surprise.
We finlandize Western nations so as to appease islamofascists. The islamofascists in turn stop their support for terrorism.
This has been the strategic consensus among the Western political class for years.
[REUTERS] The head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Wednesday he would seek to end preferential trade access for Ecuadorean goods if the South American nation offers political asylum to runaway former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the foreign relations panel, warned in a statement that accepting Snowden "would severely jeopardize" preferential trade access the United States provides to Ecuador under two programs that expire next month.
"Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior," Menendez said.
Snowden was in hiding on Wednesday at an airport in Moscow awaiting a ruling on his request for asylum from the South American country's leftist government. The United States wants him extradited to face charges that he stole and leaked details of secret U.S. government surveillance programs.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2013 00:00 ||
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"Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior," Menendez said.
An unusual amusement park attraction in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo offers visitors the thrills and chills of an illegal border crossing. The attraction takes visitors through a fake United States-Mexico border, complete with fake smugglers and fake border patrol agents.
The aim is to dissuade would be migrants from making the trip. The coyote, or smuggler, leading this simulated illegal border crossing used the name Simon and wore a face mask. Before setting off, he addressed his charges that evening, about 40 students from a private school in Mexico City.
"Tonight we're going to talk about migration," Simon said in Spanish. "But for us it isn't just something rhetorical, but rather the opposite. Because we have endured, we have suffered, of hunger, thirst, injustice, heat, cold, we have suffered from everything."
Then, under the cover of night, Simon herded them into the woods, toward the fake frontera.
The actual U.S.-Mexico border is nearly 800 miles away from the Parque EcoAlberto. The park is part of the indigenous HñaHñu community. Tourist can enjoy other recreational attractions like hot springs and rappelling, in addition to the recently added fake border crossing.
But for those who want to simulate the experience of fleeing across the border, without the real danger, the latter attraction is for you. For three hours, tourist groups endure sirens, dogs, chases and the fake border patrol yelling threats.
Maribel Garcia works as an administrator for the park. She says the purpose of the Night Walk is simple.
"Our objective is to stop the immigration that exists amongst our citizens, principally from the state of Mexico to the U.S.," Garcia said in Spanish.
Garcia says traditionally this region subsisted on agriculture, but that wasn't bringing the community what it needed.
"Because we didn't have sewer systems, light, telephone, roads," she said.
So people went north. The HñaHñu community has lost about 80 percent of its population to the U.S., Garcia estimates, mainly to Arizona and Nevada. Garcia says it was the HñaHñu youth returning home after crossing the real border who thought up this tourist attraction as a way to create income for the community and encourage others to stay in Mexico.
#4
The South Koreans have some automated turrets for defending the DMZ. We can install them all along the border and not use a fence. They pretty much shoot anything that moves.
#1
Gov should issue new SSN's, provide help changing credit cards, phone numbers, set up credit monitoring, etc. Force protection these days can be cyber.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/27/2013 17:44 Comments ||
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#8
And in today's Seattle Times online, the WA state DNR relocates a western diamondback rattlesnake that was found in Seattle. we have a huge deficit, can't keep our bridges in one spot but have money to move this thing.
[BBC.CO.UK] The US economy grew by less than previously estimated in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department has said.
Gross domestic product - which measures annual economic output - grew at an annualised pace of 1.8%, down from an earlier estimate of a 2.4% rise.
Weak business investment, a slowdown in consumer spending and falling exports led to the downward revision.
In the final quarter of 2012, the annualised growth rate had been 0.4%.
The revised figure surprised analysts, who had expected it to remain unchanged at 2.4%.
US stocks rose as analysts said the revised figures could alter the Federal Reserve's intention to slow down its $85bn-a-month bond purchases, which was based on its anticipation that the economy will strengthen.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
See also BREAKING DEFENSE > BILLIONAIRE TELLS AMERICANS TO PREPARE FOR "FINANCIAL RUIN" | [Money News] BILLIONAIRES DUMPING STOCKS, ECONOMIST KNOWS WHY.
and
* FREEREPUBLIC > [Zero Hedge] THE LARGEST SINGLE DRIVER OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY IS ABOUT TO COLLAPSE.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > INTERNATIONAL FORUM: MICKEY EDWARD: US POLITICAL PARALYSIS ARE INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES, i.e. "systemic".
#8
The way they have cooked the books on some many figures, like unemployment/underemployment and the rate of illegal immigration, I assume they cooked this figure too, This time, it benefoits them to scare the Fed into more cheap borrowing for the Administration so the true disaster is pushed down the road again. A huge swath of the population has no savings a another huge chuck has less that six months living expenses banked or liquid. If the govt checks stopped or were cut back becasue of the cost of borrowing, the free fall would be catastrophic. Trouble is, they have taken it so far its a Hobesian Bargain, terrible now, worse later, but if you can just get past 2014......
[An Nahar] Turkish riot police fired tear gas and water cannon early on Wednesday to disperse some 2,000 protesters in the capital Ankara, making 16 arrests.
Protesters had gathered overnight in the Dikmen district of the capital and attempted to erect barricades to block traffic on a main artery.
Local television pictures showed demonstrators chanting against the release of a police officer who stands accused of fatally wounding a 26-year-old protester during the country's recent unrest.
Protests initially sparked by a brutal police action against a local conservation battle to save Istanbul's Gezi Park snowballed into nationwide demonstrations against the Islamic-rooted government, leaving four dead and nearly 8,000 injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Wednesday said that Pakistain's huge alternative energy potential holds the key to overcoming the
acute energy crisis facing
the country.
"All avenues need to be explored and every effort needs to be put in to tap in the alternative energy potential of the country," the prime minister emphasised while speaking at a presentation given to him on solar energy resources in Pakistain and investment opportunities for a consortium of foreign and local companies. Nawaz expressed these views while speaking at a presentation given to him on solar energy resources in Pakistain and investment opportunities by a consortium of foreign and local companies.
The consortium showed confidence in the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and said that the pro-investor policies of the present government have attracted them towards investment opportunities in Pakistain. While addressing the meeting, the prime minister said that his government would go an extra mile to facilitate those companies and firms which transfer technology through their investments in the alternative energy sector in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm building (Yes , It's slow) A solar panel system, I know it's more expensive, but solar panels DON'T wear out. My Grandchildren can enjoy free electricity, for life.
And since I'm paying for it as I build, it's relatively cheap, NO mortgage, so NO possibility of losing the House. (AND no expense paying for it)
I have 5 Panels so far, that's enough to start.
It shuld be producing electricity when Electricity is too expensive. (I can foresee the day)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/27/2013 5:21 Comments ||
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#2
No doubt the government will soon tax the energy it produces.
#3
Since you are building it, Redneck Jim, it'll be done right... and you are getting a master mechanic's labour for free. ;-) That house will be a gem by the time you are done with it.
#8
They wear out in a LOT less time and that is what the solar panels vendors says (ie the people who have an interest in exagerating their life). And I am not speaking about Chinese solar panels.
#9
Solar panels definitely wear out and their output declines over time. Every vendor knows this. How much accelerated aging testing do you think the Chinese vendors do?
#10
They DO. And at end of life when you divide total cost by electry produced you find it is about six times more expensive.
I've talked two clients out of installing solar panels by that straightforward cost / benefit analysis; I'd install panels myself if it was cost effective.
#11
There are locations where the investment is worthwhile -- isolated in the country where the electricity doesn't flow, like Alaska Paul's cabin in Alaska.
[Pak Daily Times] Iranian security forces handed over 41 Pak nationals to Levies force on the Pak-Iran border in Taftan, Chaghai District, late on Tuesday. According to Levies force, the Pak workers had been jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by Iranian security forces because they did not have valid travelling documents. Levies force has conduced initial interrogation from the deportees and they would not be handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for further questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2013 00:00 ||
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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.
77246 is a popular 
Nawaz Sharif
