"Your guess is as good as mine," David Montoya, the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, says of $700 million in missing taxpayer money that Louisiana homeowners were given in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to elevate and protect their homes from future storms.
A new report released from the inspector general's office shows that more than 24,000 homeowners who received grants of up to $30,000 to elevate their homes either misspent or pocketed the money.
"The fact of the matter is that the money they received was for a specific purpose and the specific purpose was to elevate these homes to avoid future catastrophes," Montoya tells Power Players.
He rates the home elevation program as little more than a complete failure.
"Considering there was just under $1 billion earmarked for this particular program and there's $700 million that wasn't used for that, I'd give it a very low D," he says. Who are the dumbshits that actually tried to raise their homes above sea level in that sinkhole?
President Barack Obama has unveiled a new initiative to map the brain and unlock the secrets of spoon bending once and for all.
Speaking at the White House, he actually lives there between Air Force One engine changes,
he announced an initial $100m investment to shed light on how the brain works and provide insight into diseases such as Alzheimer's, free market capitalism, representative government,
and epilepsy.
President Obama said initiatives like the Human Genome Project had transformed genetics; now he wants to do the same with the brain. The project will be carried out by both public and private-sector scientists. Blue State grant money, am I the only one who can smell it ?
The project is called Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies - or BRAIN. If I objected to project BRAIN, would that make me a NO-BRAINER ?
Mr Obama said: There is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked, and the BRAIN initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools [the codeword tools = $$$$]
they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and learn and remember. And that knowledge will be transgenderformative transformative." Most of us already know how he and his administration thinks, perhaps we could just postpone the project and save an arse load of money.
#3
It is indeed an interesting idea, and one that has been going around at NIH for a while. The payoff could be significant -- perhaps not as big as the Human Genome Project but plenty big.
I don't trust Champ to ensure that NIH runs it as they did the HGP -- that project worked well.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 8:56 Comments ||
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#5
Lovely idea, no douobt scientifically valuable. From which other project does our Smartest President in the Room plan to persuade the House Republicans to transfer the funding?
A French cattle feed company on Tuesday unveiled a novel form of carbon credits aimed at incentivising farmers to stop cows from emitting climate-changing farts.
Grass-chewing farm animals are an often-overlooked contributor to global warming, as their emissions are of methane, a gas that is two dozen times more efficient than carbon dioxide in trapping solar heat.
In France, cattle account for five percent of the country's carbon output.
At a press conference, the company Valorex said it would offer a carbon-credit bonus to farmers who join the "Bleu-Blanc-Coeur" (Blue-White-Heart) initiative, which promotes food products with higher levels of the valued protein Omega 3.
Valorex sells a trade mix that comprises corn, soy, lupin and linseed, which it says means cows emit 64-percent less methane, deliver better quality milk and need fewer vet bills.
A credit of 100 euros ($134) will be awarded for every tonne of CO2-equivalent gas that is saved from entering the atmosphere, said Valorex president Pierre Weill.
The credit cannot be used on the European carbon market, where the CO2 has collapsed to just a few euros (dollars) a tonne.
*snicker*
Instead, it has to be exchanged for goods and services provided by other companies which are part of a long-running "Bleu-Blanc-Coeur" (Blue-White-Heart) initiative.
The new scheme, certified as bona fide by the French government and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has so far notched up 8,365 tonnes of averted carbon.
Out of France's 72,000 milk producers, 500 have joined Bleu-Blanc-Coeur, which requires them to follow strict guidelines.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Spanish police are investigating the suspected murder of the First Secretary at the Libyan embassy in Madrid. Fawzi Zimriq, aged 55, was found unconscious by her younger daughter at the family's home in the Salamanca district of the Spanish capital last Thursday.
It was initially thought that Zimriq had died of natural causes. She had reportedly been suffering from a number of conditions, including diabetes. However an autopsy on Saturday revealed signs of a blow to her forehead and marks of strangulation. The diplomat lived in Madrid with her husband, son and two daughters, whom police have been questioning along with neighbours.
The Libya ambassador, Mohammed al-Faqih, quoted by the newspaper, El Mundo said that Zimriq had not reported any threats nor security concerns. The Spanish authorities had this evening not yet agreed to the release of the diplomat's body for repatriation to Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
an autopsy on Saturday revealed signs of a blow to her forehead and marks of strangulation.
[An Nahar] The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... has signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... aimed at fighting against rape and sexual violence by gangs in the strife-torn eastern part of the country.
The accord, seen by Agence La Belle France Presse on Tuesday, was signed by DR Congo's Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo and the U.N.'s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, during a visit by Bangura to the country.
In the accord, Bangura and Ponyo "expressed their concern at the persistence of sexual violence committed by gunnies mostly in the east of the country".
It "underlines the necessity of neutralizing gangs and initiating an effective process of reform to the security sector" particularly in the eastern regions of North and South Kivu, and Oriental province.
Rape is widespread in DR Congo, with perpetrators including Congolese and foreign rebel groups, but also the national armed forces, which have been much criticized for their brutality against civilians and corruption.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"we have now verrry loosely defined 'willing'"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2013 11:49 Comments ||
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Perhaps now they can vote on the funding of rape-free zone signs and emergency vials of urine.
[An Nahar] Former Yemeni president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , who has been accused of meddling in his country's fragile political transition, was in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... on Tuesday for treatment, a Yemeni diplomat said.
Saleh arrived for medical tests and treatment in the Saudi capital on Monday, his party, General People's Congress (GPC), said. He spent time recovering in a Riyadh hospital in June 2011 after an attack on his compound left him seriously maimed.
A Yemeni diplomat confirmed to Agence La Belle France Presse that Saleh was in Riyadh and sources in the GPC said that Saudi Arabia chartered a plane to take him to the kingdom.
Saleh was admitted to hospital, the head of the GPC parliamentary bloc, Sultan al-Barakani, told AFP. He did not elaborate on the nature of the treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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Kazakhstan is preparing to officially start using the Latin alphabet, instead of Cyrillic, which linguists say is becoming more obscure.
The older generation will find a switch to the Latin alphabet less taxing than a switch to Arabic or Old Turkish script, she predicted.
Leaving Cyrillic behind (for Latin, not Arabic, alphabet)
will help Kazakhstan's global development, Asylbek Mereke, a developer and designer of computer fonts and a specialist in the field of computing and publishing technology, told Central Asia Online.
Switching to Latin script is another stage in the consolidation of Kazakhstan's independence from its former Cyrillic language Russian overlords during their time as a part of the USSR,
Ravil Aytkaliyev, chief of political research at the Comcon-2 Eurasia Co., told Central Asia Online. It's also a measure of progress in globalisation, since the whole world uses Latin script, he said.
"Reserve currency" is the term used to describe a currency that many governments hold significant amounts of in foreign exchange reserves.
By directly converting its currency into Chinese currency, Oz businesses will be able to cut costs and the inconvenience of changing foreign-currency earnings into dollars, thereby encouraging and accelerating even more business with China.
Today, Oz is the fifth-largest source of Chinese imports, notes Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge. The shift from USD as a reserve currency is very troubling.
Parts of ObamaCare are starting to fray, even before full implementation.
The Obama administration now says a special system of exchanges designed to make it easier for small businesses to provide insurance will be delayed an entire year -- to 2015.
The exchanges were designed to give workers a range of choices supported by dollars from their employers. But now they will have only one choice until 2015, which could mean they can't shop for insurance that includes their current providers. Capretta said the administration is "way" behind schedule.
Meanwhile, 79 senators including several liberal lawmakers recently voted to repeal a new tax on medical devices contained in the health care law following a similar vote in the House.
#2
As mentioned prviously by one of our more esteemed commenters (bigjim), the only IT system improvements that matter to the adminstration are the ones to the IRS.
He was a disciplined fighter in the eyes of his Polish commanders. A boy who dared to face a German officer and disguised himself as a Christian; a "classic story of survival and Zionism," in the eyes of his son.
Someone completely unlike George Soros, you mean?
Holocaust survivor Peretz 'Pavel' Hochman, a fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Germans, died of cancer on Sunday. He was 86. Next week he was supposed to light a torch at Yad Vashem's Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony. His widow will light the candle in his place.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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Rest in peace Pavel.
The take away: Totalitarian regimes establish complete political, social, and cultural control over their subjects, and are usually headed by a charismatic leader.
[Jpost] One byproduct of Israel's apology to Turkey for operational errors that may have caused loss of life on the Mavi Marmara could be cooperation in the energy field, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Tuesday.
"We should acknowledge that it is a political issue," Yildiz was quoted by Today's Zaman as saying in reference to the apology at an energy conference in Ankara, amid a slight decrease in public Turkish gloating over the issue.
"The reason for the apology is not [common] energy projects, but the result of it can be energy projects," he said.
"Within the process of normalization, after Israel has fulfilled its responsibilities towards our side, the project of transporting Israeli gas via Turkey could come onto the agenda."
While Israel has not yet decided whether or how much of its natural gas reserves that just began flowing on Saturday should be exported -- or whether the preferred market is to Europe via Cyprus or Turkey, or the Far East via Eilat -- there was considerable talk during the height of the Turkish-Israeli diplomatic tension of an Israel-Cyprus- Greece energy corridor that would bypass Turkey.
But now, with Cyprus's financial woes coupled with the beginning of a Jerusalem- Ankara rapprochement, the idea of a pipeline to Turkey is once again gaining currency.
#2
Turkey is panicking that their gas pipelines to Europe will just be buried scrap, when large volumes of gas start to flow to Europe from Israel/Cyprus.
There is no way Israel would route their gas via Turkey, but stringing the Turks along, probably suits them.
What on earth is the point of being an oligarch in one of the most corrupt countries on earth if one can't get one's kid in a position to increase the rake-off?
[Dawn] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday declared illegal the appointment of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf's son-in-law in an investment company jointly owned by the governments of Pakistain and China.
The court on March 29 had also cancelled the contract for the construction of roads in the constituency of the former premier because it was awarded to the National Logistics Cell (NLC) in violation of the procurement rules.
Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi of the IHC on Monday held that the notification issued for the appointment of Shahnawaz Mehmood, the son-in-law of Mr Ashraf, was illegal and unlawful.
The federal government on March 4 had issued the notification for the appointment of Mr Shahnawaz as the deputy managing director of the Pak-China Investment Company (PCICL).
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Paleostinian prime minister Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... was in hospital for an inflamed pancreas on Tuesday, a medic in Ramallah said, having been admitted the night before with stomach pains.
"Medical tests and scans show that Fayyad is suffering from pancreatic inflammation," a doctor at the hospital in the West Bank city told Agence La Belle France Presse.
But his condition was "not serious," the doctor said, adding he would likely leave the hospital after undergoing treatment and resting.
The 61-year-old, a smoker who suffered a heart attack during a private visit to the United States in May 2011, could be kept at the hospital overnight for observation, the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2013 00:00 ||
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The Armys research and development arm has funded a three-year research program at University of California, San Diego investigating nanofoam for protection -- the first foam armor endeavor ever, the college said.
"Were developing nanofoams that help disperse the force of an impact over a wider area, explained UC San Diego professor of structural engineering Yu Qiao. "They will appear to be less rigid but will actually be more resistant than ordinary foams."
Qiaos nanofoam may someday protect soldiers brains from blast trauma and prevent blast-induced lung injury. It may also be used to protect buildings from blasts.
#1
Army Research Lab Nano/bio: We could be bundled decades away from prototype fielding, but that won't stop us from investing OPM in Blue State university grants. If you look like two or more people in the picture, ARL is hiring.
"I will tell you these are ammunition, they're bullets, so the people who have those now they're going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available." YJCMTSU
#2
I thought maybe this was out of context. Watch the video and cry Colorazul. After all, its not like a major issue with the world watching that a person might study up for; I'm sure she is a total whiz in all the other life and death decisions she will make for you.
#3
What amazes me is the depth of willful ignorance that lies behind these statements. It's not like this information is hard to get -- they just refuse to acquire it.
It's like they believe their ignorance is virtuous.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/03/2013 17:09 Comments ||
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"Willful ignorance"
Along with arrogance and denial, hallmarks of a democrat.
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.
Where did all the money go?
A French cattle feed company on Tuesday unveiled a novel form of carbon credits aimed at incentivising farmers to stop cows from emitting climate-changing farts.
[An Nahar] Former Yemeni president 
Could foam be the ideal body armor?
"I will tell you these are ammunition, they're bullets, so the people who have those now they're going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available."
