From futurist Stephan A. Schwartz - Trends That Will Affect Your Future …

[giovonni]

The 1 Percent's Problem



Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, both Nobel Laureates have, over time, proven the validity of their assessment. We need to heed their warnings, and implement the model they suggest. They're right, and they have proven it.

JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, Nobel Laureate Economist - Vanity Fair

Let’s start by laying down the baseline premise: inequality in America has been widening for dec­ades. We’re all aware of the fact. Yes, there are some on the right who deny this reality, but serious analysts across the political spectrum take it for granted. I won’t run through all the evidence here, except to say that the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is vast when looked at in terms of annual income, and even vaster when looked at in terms of wealth-that is, in terms of accumulated capital and other assets. Consider the Walton family: the six heirs to the Walmart empire possess a combined wealth of some $90 billion, which is equivalent to the wealth of the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society. (Many at the bottom have zero or negative net worth, especially after the housing debacle.) Warren Buffett put the matter correctly ...

Read More - http://readersupportednews.org/opini...rcents-problem

[giovonni]

Solar Shingles: An Alternative to Solar Panels




There are a number of new solar technologies emerging; here's one I have been particularly following.

COURT RYE - Solar Power Authority

For the past decade, the popularity of solar energy has been growing rapidly worldwide. Most people have seen solar panels being installed on houses and businesses in their community, usually in the form of large silver rectangular panels spread out across a roof or other free-standing structures, such as a parking cover, or even a car

When it comes to choice, vanity almost always yields to functionality. A few companies such as SunPower have created all black solar panels that blend in a bit more than other models, but this doesn’t change the clunky look of the panels themselves. Fortunately, recent breakthroughs in thin-film design have lead to the more integrated approach offered by solar 'shingles”.

Solar shingles, or photovoltaic shingles, were first released in 2005. Similar to solar panels, solar shingles capture sunlight and transform it into usable energy. Solar shingles are typically smaller, though - 12″ ...

Read More - http://solarpowerauthority.com/solar...-solar-panels/

[giovonni]

WikiLeaks Exposes Corruption as France Bans Monsanto’s GMO Maize


Here is an example of how the Virtual Corporate States own and control the U.S. government, showing how the government works on behalf of its corporate masters. This is a major failure of the Obama Administration but, once again, as bad as it is, under a Rightist administration it would be much worse.

ANNE SEWELL - Digital Journal

Coming soon after France bans GMO maize, WikiLeaks cables expose details of 'military-style trade wars' against countries who reject Monsanto GMOs.

France banned the Monsanto MON 810 "Yieldgard" maize due to environmental and health concerns. And now the European Union is stepping in to re-secure Monsanto's presence in that country, against the will of the nation itself.

Back in 2007, the U.S. ambassador to France, Craig Stapleton, who is a business partner of George W. Bush, stated that nationals who do not accept Monsanto's GMO crops will be "penalized". He stated that the nations should be threatened with "military-styled trade wars".
So it is no surprise that the move to maintain Monsanto's grip on France is all about the fact that the U.S. and other nations are continually pushing Monsanto's agenda.

Monsanto has major (and most likely financial) connections with political heads that have actually threatened to ...

Read More - http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/326009

[deridan]

like the thread, while i have not read all, it seems that the overall theme is that we are in a rough ride, and that it will get rougher in the coming decades.
i don't think disclosure is so great in the emotions of many, just for its affirmation of knowledge from the governments that we are not alone,
but that it is so great a pressure, for we want the knowledge that things can be better*,
that we are not living in a meat grinder

*--free energy, more technology, utilization of all human assets [/jobs for all].
the economic assessment is critical here.,,,our present environment does not allow us to utilize more roles, and as such, it could be that most are just waiting to die.
(maybe there should be a suspension of the money system, but we still like the idea of scoring more rewards based on how well we've done. it has to be a broad-front covering many things ..especially when it comes to the utilization of human potential, rather then needing a dumbed down worker [for we'd be competing in a galactic system, rather then ensuring a corrupt politician a job for another half-decade term])

has one noticed that at avalon and at similar places, that we have separated the good from the bad in alien matters,
the flavour i've seen from younger initiates when it comes to drawing information from mainstream media, is that they are still manipulable for the good and bad has been clumped together, ..they are more in fear, needing the government or collective to be a protector, which the powers that be then can utilize to still exploit siding with negative ets

[giovonni]

it is truly time for an equable redistribution of everything

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Great Recession Erased Nearly 40% of Family Wealth



Everybody got bailed out but the middle class. We are going in exactly the wrong direction. What we should be doing is hiring public employees to rebuild the infrastructure. That tactic is what every Republican President since Nixon has used to reverse the ravages of recession. I now believe that the Republican Party is willing to crash the country's economy in order to defeat Obama and regain power whereupon, they will immediately begin following this proven path to recovery.

DON LEE - Los Angeles Times

Washington-

The Great Recession took such a heavy toll on the economy that the typical American family lost nearly 40% of its wealth from 2007 to 2010, shaving the median net worth to a level not seen since the early 1990s.

The Federal Reserve said in a new report Monday that median family net worth, the point smack in the middle of those richer and poorer, fell to $77,300 in 2010 from $126,400 three years earlier after adjusting for inflation.

The fall came with the collapse in the housing market and massive layoffs that slashed people’s incomes, and the pain was felt by families across the board -- young and old, well-educated and less so, with children or not.

But the biggest impact was felt by young middle-age families, those headed by people ages 35 to 44. For this group, the median net worth -- ...

Read More - http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,5418853.story

[giovonni]

more good news...

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Cities' Homeless Crackdown: Could it be Compassion Fatigue?


This is how a country eats itself alive. By failing to compassionately manage poverty as, say, the Scandinavian nations do, we are condemning growing populations to live outside of society. It began under Nixon when public residential mental health facilities were closed, and patient populations were dumped on the streets.

These people, now far greater in numbers because of the financial collapse and the loss of the social safety network, are not going to vaporize and disappear. When there are enough of them they will begin to congregate somewhere and create squatter settlements like the favelas of Brazil.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR - USA TODAY

A growing number of cities across the United States are making it harder to be homeless.

Philadelphia recently banned outdoor feeding of people in city parks. Denver has begun enforcing a ban on eating and sleeping on property without permission. And this month, lawmakers in Ashland, Ore., will consider strengthening the town's ban on camping and making noise in public.

And the list goes on: Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, Oklahoma City and more than 50 other cities have previously adopted some kind of anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

The ordinances are pitting city officials against homeless advocates. City leaders say they want to improve the lives of homeless people and ensure public safety, while supporters of the homeless argue that such regulations criminalize homelessness and make it harder to live on the nation's streets.


Read More - http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ess/55479912/1

[giovonni]

Made in America: Visa Process Slows Down Tourism



Read this and think about it in the context of what that lost $606 billion -- nearly two thirds of a trillion dollars -- would have meant in terms of jobs, and small business profits. Ask yourself how many middle class families who have fallen into poverty would be prosperous today if those tourists had come to our shores. Our paranoia and fear is cutting us off from the rest of the world. And if people don't know you how can they like you? I think this is contributing to the rising anti-Americanism in the world.

DAVID MUIR, CHRISTINE BROUWER and MAGGY PATRICK - ABC News

In the decade between 2000 and 2010, the number of foreign overseas tourists travelling the world grew by an astounding 60 million. You would think the numbers would grow in the United States as well, but they haven't. Ten years ago 26 million overseas visitors visited the U.S. In 2010, 26.4 million, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group. That's hardly any growth at all.

Take a look at the numbers. The average Chinese tourist who visits America spends $6,243 while they're here, according to the U.S. Travel Association. Visitors from India spend $6,131. Brazilian tourists coming to America spend $4,940.

"I want to go to New York and California, maybe Las Vegas -- the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park," said one man waiting for a visa in Rio de Janiero.

But there is a catch, and it's a big one. There is no guarantee ...

Read with video report - http://abcnews.go.com/US/made-americ...9#.T9t7mPFq0y-


Also_____________________________

Charting the Cozy Connections between JP Morgan and the Senate Banking Committee

We have reached a level of public corruption at the top of government that equals any Central or South American banana republic of the 1920s through 1970s. It is one of the several great lies we tell ourselves about ourselves that we have this vaunted democratic republic. The truth is we have government for the rich, by the rich. Of the 535 members of the Senate and the House, about 47 per cent -- 249 -- are millionaires.


Jamie Dimon, chairman of the board, president and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. testifies before a US Senate Banking Committee full committee hearing on June 13, 2012 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

CORA CURRIER - ProPublica

This morning, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, faced a Senate hearing over more than $2 billion in bank losses caused by risky hedges that blew up. Dimon said that the hedges-investments meant to protect the bank-had grown into 'complex and hard-to manage risks.” The losses 'let a lot of people down, and we are sorry for it.”

Many lawmakers are holding up the losses as evidence of the need for stronger financial regulation. The chairman of the Senate banking committee, Tim Johnson, D-S.D., in his opening remarks, asked for 'a full accounting” of JP Morgan’s losses.

But through campaign contributions and well-connected staff, JP Morgan appears to have already taken its own accounting of the Banking committee. Here’s a picture of connections between the company and the committee:

Revolving Door

One current staffer on the Senate banking committee, Dwight Fettig, is a former ...

Read More - http://www.propublica.org/article/ch...e-banking-comm

[giovonni]

Europe Should See Iceland As Recovery Role Model: PM


This is the latest on Iceland, the one country that didn't cave to the austerity gurus, the one country in which the people themselves decided the course of action, and the one country that has actually come through the crisis. Something like this is what we should have done. Instead we screwed the poor and the middle class, and bailed out the rich.

BALAZS KORANYI - Reuters

TROMSOE, NORWAY -- Europe's struggling economies should look to tiny Iceland as a model for managing their crises and returning quickly to growth, especially in winning public support for moderate austerity policies, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said.

The North Atlantic island has had one major advantage as it recovers from a crash in 2008 which countries locked in the euro zone do not have - a currency of its own.

Nevertheless, Sigurdardottir told Reuters that Iceland's mix of measured austerity and unorthodox policies - such as private debt forgiveness and defending welfare payments as much as possible - could offer some lessons to euro zone members.

"We believe and so does the IMF that our case can be a role model for some of the countries in crisis now," she said in a rare interview. "I've met with several leaders over the past years, some from Greece, ...

Read More - http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...85B12O20120612

[giovonni]

Why Europe's Laws On Vacations Are Better Than Your Wildest Dreams (and How Badly Americans Get Screwed)


Anyone who has friends in Europe knows this is the truth. We just keep lying to ourselves concealing the reality of our society. Click through to see the graphs comparing vacation time in other countries.

Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor Institute and Public Health Institute in New York, and author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity-and What We Can Do About It (Chelsea Green, 2009).

LES LEOPOLD - AlterNet (U.S.)

Imagine this: You work 25 hours a week at the McDonald’s in Cairo, New York, and have finally earned two weeks of paid vacation. You set out on a bike trip. On the first day in the saddle, you hit a pothole and crash, cracking your collar bone. You sit on your couch for the rest of your vacation watching the Tour de France. Tough luck.

Unless you worked for McDonald’s in Europe. If you did, you would be entitled to a fully paid do-over, according to a June 21 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest court in Europe (whose rulings must be followed by all member states). This court ruled that all European workers are entitled to their full vacation after they have healed:

'A worker who becomes unfit during his paid annual leave, is entitled at a later point to ...

Read More - http://www.alternet.org/story/156131...povTn&rd=1&t=2

[giovonni]

'Britain's Atlantis' Found at Bottom of North Sea - a Huge Undersea World Swallowed by the Sea in 6500BC



This extraordinary discovery -- which actually has nothing to do with Atlantis, which is a precognitive myth, we are Atlantis -- opens yet another new chapter of our past.

Click through to see the pictures and maps.

ROB WAUGH - Mail (U.K.)

'Britain's Atlantis' - a hidden underwater world swallowed by the North Sea - has been discovered by divers working with science teams from the University of St Andrews.

Doggerland, a huge area of dry land that stretched from Scotland to Denmark was slowly submerged by water between 18,000 BC and 5,500 BC.

Divers from oil companies have found remains of a 'drowned world' with a population of tens of thousands - which might once have been the 'real heartland' of Europe.

A team of climatologists, archaeologists and geophysicists has now mapped the area using new data from oil companies - and revealed the full extent of a 'lost land' once roamed by mammoths.
Divers from St Andrews University, find remains of Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis'

Divers from St Andrews University, find remains of Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis'...

Read More - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...years-ago.html

Note ~ For further information on the exhibit, visit: http://sse.royalsociety.org/2012/exh...ed-landscapes/

[giovonni]

Posted by giovonni (here)
'Britain's Atlantis' Found at Bottom of North Sea - a Huge Undersea World Swallowed by the Sea in 6500BC



This extraordinary discovery -- which actually has nothing to do with Atlantis, which is a precognitive myth, we are Atlantis -- opens yet another new chapter of our past.

Click through to see the pictures and maps.

ROB WAUGH - Mail (U.K.)

'Britain's Atlantis' - a hidden underwater world swallowed by the North Sea - has been discovered by divers working with science teams from the University of St Andrews.

Doggerland, a huge area of dry land that stretched from Scotland to Denmark was slowly submerged by water between 18,000 BC and 5,500 BC.

Divers from oil companies have found remains of a 'drowned world' with a population of tens of thousands - which might once have been the 'real heartland' of Europe.

A team of climatologists, archaeologists and geophysicists has now mapped the area using new data from oil companies - and revealed the full extent of a 'lost land' once roamed by mammoths.
Divers from St Andrews University, find remains of Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis'

Divers from St Andrews University, find remains of Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis'...

Read More - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...years-ago.html

Note ~ For further information on the exhibit, visit: http://sse.royalsociety.org/2012/exh...ed-landscapes/

UPDATE: From the Schwartz Report:
Editor's Note - Atlantis

Today's email brought over 30 inquires asking me to expand on my comment about Atlantis. Almost all challenged me citing one book or another, asking me whether I had read it.

I have been studying the subject of Atlantis since 1968, and was part of the original archaeology team that explored the Bimini area in the 60s. I wrote the first piece about what we thought then was an Atlantean structure -- it turned out to be a turtle pen. And I made the initial contact with geologists, for my friend Peter Tompkins, to determine whether the "Bimini Road" was natural or human worked (it is natural beach rock). In the course of this research I have read virtually every book or paper ever published on the subject of Atlantis, including all of the Edgar Cayce readings about this subject. And I have discussed the subject with most of the writers who have ventured an argument on Atlantis over the past half century. So the answer is: yes, I have read that book, paper, or report, and have probably talked with its author. I do not consider any of it dispositive.

There are many "lost" civilizations to be sure. One thinks of the St. Augustine Culture in the mountains between Columbia and Ecuador, or Poverty Point in southeastern Louisiana. Or the red-headed Celtic people whose tartan clad mummies fill graves in China. Cultures for which we have actual ruins and artifacts, but which remain fundamentally mysterious. But Atlantis as described by people such as Edgar Cayce, and Michael Cremo, constitutes something of a different order. Could a technologically sophisticated culture have existed 10,500 years ago, as Cayce describes? A civilization that "flew cargo to the stars with sails," as he would have it? The answer I think is, no.

The mitochondrial DNA research now gives us a pretty clear picture of the great human diaspora, and its chronology. It takes millennia to develop sophistication in anything. We know for instance that acupuncture developed thousands of years before the Chinese codified it. There simply is no place in the wondrous story of our past for the time and concentration of civilization required to create the Atlantis of popular imagination. Yet what are we to make of the recurring story of such a culture beginning with Plato's Timaeus and Critias essays? This story threading through time, I think, results from precognition, not retro-cognition. In nonlocal consciousness time has meaning but it is not the limitation it is in space time. It is hard for those who have access to this aspect of consciousness to be sure when something is happening, and the inclination is to assume something this complex must have happened in the past. We know this from decades of experimental research.

We are Atlantis. What everyone from Plato on has been seeing is our world today. Think about what a space probe looks like: a piece of cargo with solar "sails."

It would take me an entire essay, maybe even a book, to expand the full argument as to why I believe we are Atlantis, and that Plato and others have been looking forward not backwards. I am willing to put in the time to write it; indeed, have had this in mind for some years. But where would one publish such a work? I don't know the answer to that, which is why I haven't written it. It is way too long for an editor's note, and it would take far too much work to justify doing it with no hope of any remuneration, unless one were very wealthy. But if any of my readers is an editor of a publication that might be interested in such a work please let me know. It is a great detective story.

-- Stephan

[giovonni]

California Legislature Approves High-speed Rail Spending, Governor Will Sign off...





I consider this to be the best news in some time. It is going to change for the better -- in many ways -- the future of California. It is the sort of big picture infrastructure project we should be carrying out all over the country. It is the kind of stimulus we have needed these past four years. It will create thousands of jobs that will, with the railroad's completion, create yet tens of thousands more long lasting good middle class enabling jobs. It will reduce California's carbon footprint, improve its economics, and change the face of the state. Governor Jerry Brown, the best governor California has had in a generation, should be applauded for getting this through the legislature.

Legislature approves high-speed rail spending

MARISA LAGOS, Staff Writer - San Francisco Chronicle

SACRAMENTO -- A divided state Senate approved billions of dollars in funding to start construction on California's ambitious high-speed rail line Friday, handing the controversial project $7.9 billion in state and federal money for the first 130 miles of track and a series of local transit upgrades.

The funding measure, which was easily approved in the Assembly Thursday, will now head to Gov. Jerry Brown, who pushed lawmakers to approve it. In all, the Legislature this week authorized the issuance of $4.6 billion in state bond funds - about half of the $9.9 billion approved by voters in 2008 - and opened the door for California to obtain $3.3 billion in federal grants, for a total of $7.9 billion.

It was a key vote: Federal transportation officials had warned that if the money were not made available this summer, they would yank the $3.3 billion in stimulus funds ...

Read More -http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/L...ng-3689191.php

[giovonni]

Fraud: Major Drug Company Exposed

Here we see, in their own words, the criminality of Big Pharma, and its complete disdain for national wellness.

VIVIAN GOLDSCHMIDT, MA and KATIE THOMAS - Save Our Bones

It could be the plot of a best-selling medical thriller. A web of deception and lies tied to a new blockbuster drug is uncovered during a financial fraud investigation of a major pharmaceutical company. Unfortunately, this plot is not imaginary.

Back in the year 2000, Pfizer and its partner Pharmacia, makers of the pain drug Celebrex, purposely released partial information on a study to (erroneously) show that the drug was safer on the stomach than common over the counter pain killers such as ibuprofen.

'They swallowed our story, hook, line and sinker,” wrote Pfizer’s research director in an email to a colleague, when the manipulated Celebrex study results were lauded during a pivotal medical conference.”1

That’s just one email that was uncovered during the investigation; there were many more. For example, Pharmacia employees planned ahead ways to hide the true study results, in ...

Read More - http://saveourbones.com/wp-content/t...brex-fraud.jpg

[giovonni]

Natural, Organic Items Grab Bigger Share in Supermarkets



I think this report is not only good news it reveals what citizen choice can achieve. People are voting with their pocketbooks for natural organic food and against the corn fructose, fat filled, sugar laden processed crap that Big Agra is pushing.

DANA HUNSINGER BENBOW - USA Today

INDIANAPOLIS -- There's shower gel made from carrots. Egg-white protein powder. Diapers with no chlorine. Medjool dates and dried papaya.

This isn't some exotic, hippy supermarket au natural. This is Kroger, one of the largest mainstream grocers in the nation.

"Used to be this was all very faddish," said Gregg Proctor, who heads up natural foods for Kroger's central division, which includes Indiana. "Not anymore. We're adding new items constantly because if we don't get it when it comes out, our competition will."

There seems to be a race to pure foods among the nation's largest supermarkets as they ramp up their offerings, even launch their own brands of organics and naturals, and then heavily advertise the healthy choice.

It all makes sense, considering sales of this segment of groceries are outpacing traditional grocery sales.

Nationwide, natural and organic food sales grew 8 percent in ...

Read More - http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...ies/56085280/1


Also related ~


Top 5 GMO Foods To Watch Out For

Here is the antipode to the Kroger story. Once again I counsel that you buy organically grown local produce, or grow your own. The story of the evils of GMO crops is just beginning. Time will reveal much more, as the data accumulates. But, by then, the damage to you and your family will have been done.

I ask every one of my readers to go into the markets where you shop and tell them you want non GMO foods. And to get 10 friends to do the same. Consider the Kroger story. You would be amazed what will happen if even 10 shoppers tell a manager this.

BETH BUCZYNSKI - Care2

As you may or may not know by now, the United States government has allowed genetically modified and engineered organisms to enter the public food supply with no warning. Every day, millions of people unknowingly ingest these GMOs because corporations like Monsanto (and the politicians they’ve bought and paid for) claim it’s unfair to require them to label their products.

Multiple scientific studies have linked GMOs to illness, disease, and mutation in plants, animals and humans. These adverse affects have been found to be especially pronounced in pregnant women and children, consequently a demographic that is more apt to eat the low price, processed foods that carry most of the world’s GMO’s.

Until such time as the state or federal government decides to finally stand up for the American consumer by passing mandatory GMO labeling laws, the only way to protect yourself from these toxic 'foods” is to ...

Read More - http://www.care2.com/causes/top-5-gm...h-out-for.html

[giovonni]

Contraception Saves 250,000 Lives Each Year: Study


Having studied and meditated on the issue for almost half a century this is my definition of the true pro-life position:

1) A woman owns her body and has absolute control over it;

2) It follows then that a woman has the complete unalienable right to regulate conception and pregnancy;

3) Society has a vested interest in the national wellness of its citizens, and a pro-life society supports pre-natal care to assure that healthy babies are born, and healthy mothers deliver them;

4) A pro-life society supports early childhood healthy development and minor child healthcare because only this policy will result in the spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy citizens necessary to create a wellness-oriented society.

Agence France-Presse (France)

Contraceptive use saves the lives of more than a quarter of million women each year, either from death in childbirth or unsafe abortions, according to estimates published on Tuesday.

In 2008, 355,000 women died while giving birth or from illegal or dangerous abortions, a study published by The Lancet said.

But more than 250,000 deaths were averted that year because contraception reduced unwanted pregnancies, it said.

"If all women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy use an effective contraceptive method, the number of maternal deaths would fall by a further 30 percent," according to the research.

The paper, led by John Cleland, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, appears in The Lancet on the eve of a "London Summit on Family Planning," promoted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

It is campaigning for the rights of 120 ...

Read More - http://www.france24.com/en/20120710-...ach-year-study

[giovonni]

Survey: 24 Percent of Financial Executives say Illegal Conduct Is Necessary for Success



Here is the truth about the modern financial culture. Think about this: Nearly one quarter of those in this culture believe that corruption and criminal behavior are essential to success.

If you are a non-Caucasian teenager caught stealing a cellphone, or found selling a handful of joints you stand a good chance of going to jail for years. But if you are a Caucasian with a Harvard MBA, and manipulate a deal illegally so you end up with $300 million you're a master of the universe.

This social hypocrisy has produced a trend whose manifestations are destabilizing our society.

The Raw Story/Agence France-Presse

A quarter of Wall Street and British financial executives think unethical or illegal conduct is needed to succeed, according to a survey by law firm Labaton Sucharow released Tuesday.

A full 24 percent of senior managers polled by the New York-based firm said they 'may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct in order to be successful.”

And 16 percent admitted they would commit a crime, like insider trading, if they could get away with it.

The survey comes after a string of controversies, legal investigations and denunciations of the financial profession, which is blamed for helping to run the global economy into the ground via the 2008 financial crisis.

'When misconduct is common and accepted by financial services professionals, the integrity of our entire financial system is at risk,” said Jordan Thomas, chair of Labaton Sucharow’s whistleblower representation practice.

The latest controversy to ...

Read More - http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/1...y-for-success/

[giovonni]

so it's official ...

Dark Matter ‘Scaffolding’ Of Universe Detected For First Time

In the midst of the rising denierism concerning science, researchers continue to pull back the veil revealing how the world actually works. It is both wonderful and sad.

The paper is titled 'A filament of dark matter between two clusters of galaxies.” Read the text at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture11224.html.

MATT ROUSH - CBS (Detroit)

ANN ARBOR -- Scientists have, for the first time, directly detected part of the invisible dark matter skeleton of the universe, where more than half of all matter is believed to reside.

The discovery, led by a University of Michigan physics researcher, confirms a key prediction in the prevailing theory of how the universe’s current web-like structure evolved.

The map of the known universe shows that most galaxies are organized into clusters, but some galaxies are situated along filaments that connect the clusters. Cosmologists have theorized that dark matter undergirds those filaments, which serve as highways of sorts, guiding galaxies toward the gravitational pull of the massive clusters. Dark matter’s contribution had been predicted with computer simulations, and its shape had been roughed out based on the distribution of the galaxies. But no one had directly detected it until now.

'We found the dark matter filaments... Read More - http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/07/...or-first-time/

[giovonni]

GMO Labeling Measure Receives Prop Number for November Ballot



Finally, we may get GMO labelling, thanks to what happens in California. Because the state is so large, and is such a big market, if California compels GMO labelling, it will become nationwide, despite what the Congressional lackeys of Big Agra do to protect their masters. The alternative would be different labelling for virtually all processed foods, and much produce -- one for California, one for the rest of the country. That would cut into profits, so it is not going to happen.

JUDSON PARKER - San Francisco Examiner

California’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act will be on November’s ballot as Proposition 37, according to proposition numbers released late yesterday by the California Secretary of State’s office. The Right to Know measure calls for labeling genetically engineered foods and, if passed, would be the first law in the United States requiring labeling of a wide range of genetically engineered foods.

'Prop 37 is about our fundamental right to know what’s in the food we eat and feed our children,” said Stacy Malkan, a spokesperson for the California Right to Know campaign. 'Given the broad support in the state-and across the country-for the right to know if our food is genetically engineered, we are confident California voters will make history by passing Prop 37 in November.”

Polls show nearly unanimous support across the political spectrum for labeling of genetically engineered foods. Nine out of ten voters ...

Read More - http://www.examiner.com/article/gmo-...ovember-ballot

[giovonni]

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Native American Populations Descend From 3 Key Migrations


The DNA research that has been going on for almost two decades has transformed our understanding of the great human diaspora. Here is the latest, this time on how "native" Americans immigrated into North America.

GEORGE WIGMORE - University College London (U.K.)

Scientists have found that Native American populations — from Canada to the southern tip of Chile — arose from at least three migrations, with the majority descended entirely from a single group of First American migrants that crossed over through Beringia, a land bridge between Asia and America that existed during the ice ages, more than 15,000 years ago.

By studying variations in Native American DNA sequences, the international team found that while most of the Native American populations arose from the first migration, two subsequent migrations also made important genetic contributions. The paper is published in the journal Nature today.

"For years it has been contentious whether the settlement of the Americas occurred by means of a single or multiple migrations from Siberia," said Professor Andres Ruiz-Linares (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment), who coordinated the study. "But our research settles this debate: Native Americans do not stem from a single migration. Our study also begins to cast light on patterns of human dispersal within the Americas."

In the most comprehensive survey of genetic diversity in Native Americans so far, the team took data from 52 Native American and 17 Siberian groups, studying more than 300,000 specific DNA sequence variations called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms to examine patterns of genetic similarities and differences between the population groups.

The second and third migrations have left an impact only in Arctic populations that speak Eskimo-Aleut languages and in the Canadian Chipewyan who speak a Na-Dene language. However, even these populations have inherited most of their genome from the First American migration. Eskimo-Aleut speakers derive more than 50% of their DNA from First Americans, and the Chipewyan around 90%. This reflects the fact that these two later streams of Asian migration mixed with the First Americans they encountered after they arrived in North America.

"There are at least three deep lineages in Native American populations," said co-author David Reich, Professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. "The Asian lineage leading to First Americans is the most anciently diverged, whereas the Asian lineages that contributed some of the DNA to Eskimo–Aleut speakers and the Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyan from Canada are more closely related to present-day East Asian populations."

The team also found that once in the Americas, people expanded southward along a route that hugged the coast with populations splitting off along the way. After divergence, there was little gene flow among Native American groups, especially in South America.

Two striking exceptions to this simple dispersal were also discovered. First, Central American Chibchan-speakers have ancestry from both North and South America, reflecting back-migration from South America and mixture of two widely separated strands of Native ancestry. Second, the Naukan and coastal Chukchi from north-eastern Siberia carry 'First American' DNA. Thus, Eskimo-Aleut speakers migrated back to Asia, bringing Native American genes.

The team's analysis was complicated by the influx into the hemisphere of European and African immigrants since 1492 and the 500 years of genetic mixing that followed. To address this, the authors developed methods that allowed them to focus on the sections of peoples' genomes that were of entirely Native American origin.

"The study of Native American populations is technically very challenging because of the widespread occurrence of European and African mixture in Native American groups," said Professor Ruiz-Linares.

"We developed a method to peel back this mixture to learn about the relationships among Native Americans before Europeans and Africans arrived," Professor Reich said, "allowing us to study the history of many more Native American populations than we could have done otherwise."

The assembly of DNA samples from such a diverse range of populations was only possible through a collaboration of an international team of 64 researchers from the Americas (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Russia and the USA), Europe (England, France, Spain and Switzerland) and Russia.


Source?references:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-nap070912.php

[giovonni]

no surprises here...



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NSA Whistleblower: They’re Assembling Information on Every U.S. Citizen

It is in the nature of surveillance entities to want to acquire more and more information about more and more people. That's what they do. This is the latest on America's emerging "soft" police state. Much of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of Obama. It began with Reagan, but it has continued to grow like a cancer year by year, with the years of the Obama administration the worst of all.

I counsel you again to assume that everything you write, text, video, or say over an electronic medium is being recorded by some government agency, as well as a spectrum of corporations.

My prediction is that within a decade, if not before, there will be a public relations campaign, argued probably on the basis of assisting with health care -- "even if you are unconsciousness we will know what to do" -- to start implanting information/GPS chips in children at birth, and in older people when they experience any kind of medical crisis. Within a generation everyone will be chipped. It will probably also have a financial angle -- "this will replace credit cards and checks, and make it much easier for people to move around and pay for what they use." Orwell on steroids is coming.

Click through to see the video of the interview.

MURIEL KANE - The Raw Story

NSA whistleblower William Binney was interviewed by internet journalist Geoff Shively at the HOPE Number 9 hackers conference in New York on Friday.

Binney, who resigned from the NSA in 2001 over its domestic surveillance program, had just delivered a keynote speech in which he revealed what Shively called 'evidence which we have not seen until this point.”

'They’re pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country … and assembling that information,” Binney explained. 'So government is accumulating that kind of information about every individual person and it’s a very dangerous process.” He estimated that something like 1.6 billion logs have been processed since 2001.

Shively and livestreamer Tim Pool, who was filming the interview, concluded by noting that videos of Binney’s keynote address will be available shortly.

This video was uploaded to Youtube by Timcasts on July 13, 2012. ...

Read More - http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/1...y-u-s-citizen/

Also related...

Feds OK Florida Access to U.S. Citizens List

Here is another example of the emerging surveillance society. This will be tried in Florida and, if it works well, expect to see it across the country by 2016.

STEVE BOUSQUET - Miami Herald

TALLAHASSEE -- A year-long stalemate between Florida and Washington ended Saturday when the federal government gave the state access to a comprehensive federal citizenship database, which the state will use to resume an election-year purge of noncitizen voters.

After repeatedly refusing, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed to open its database to the Department of State, which oversees Florida’s voter registration system. The state will now cross-check the names of Florida voters against a federal citizenship database known as SAVE, or Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements.

It wasn’t clear why DHS changed course and the department had no comment Saturday. But the reversal comes after a federal judge in Florida refused to halt purge efforts.

The news is a victory for Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has said the purge is necessary to guarantee fair elections. Democrats and voter advocacy groups have criticized Scott for the ...

Read More - http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/1...-citizens.html