Monthly Archives: July 2013

Wyoming teen builds nuclear reactor in dad’s garage, gets kicked out of science fair

"A Wyoming high school student who built a nuclear reactor in his dad's garage was disqualified from the International Science and Engineering Fair this month on a technicality. His crime: competing in too many science fairs. The infraction was reported by the former director of Wyoming State Science Fair, who later did not have her contract renewed. Officials at the University of Wyoming, the fair's sponsor, said the director acted outside her authority." Continue reading →

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Facebook Billionaire Sean Parker Fined $2.5 Million For His $10 Million Wedding

"New government documents show just how over-the-top Sean Parker's extravagant $10 million wedding in the Big Sur forest really was. The state of California actually fined the Facebook billionaire $2.5 million over it. That's because he built a cottage, fake ruins, waterfalls, staircases and a huge dance floor in an ecologically sensitive area near ancient redwoods and a stream with endangered steelhead trout. Parker even created an LLC company, Neraida, to run his wedding, reports The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal. But he didn't get permission from the Coastal Commission, which regulates the area." Continue reading →

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Paul Craig Roberts: Putin Dresses Down The Group of Eight

"'You want President Bashshar al-Asad to step down? Look at the leaders you’ve made in the Middle East in the course of what you have dubbed the 'Arab Spring.' [...] 'In Syria all of you are standing on the side of the forces that for the last 10 years you have claimed to be fighting against under the rubric of ‘fighting terror.’ Now today you are with them, helping them to take power across the region. You declare that you’re going to arm them and work to facilitate sending their fighters to Syria to bring it down, weaken it, and break it up.' Putin asked, 'In God’s name what kind of democracy are you talking about?'" Continue reading →

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How to Use Sex Like a Russian Spy

"If a Romeo wants to recruit women, Wolf told Melton once, 'you don't go to them, have them come to you. You become the center of the party, you buy the drinks, you tell the jokes. You're the life of the party. She will come to you. And then naturally that will make it easier.' The next step in East Germany's playbook was to escalate the relationship. The agent would propose marriage and later reveal to his wife that he was a spy -- but for a friendly country (like Canada!). The finishing touch was for the agent to explain that he would have to be recalled, ruining their precious relationship, unless the wife could cough up some information to satisfy the bosses back home." Continue reading →

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Glenn Greenwald: U.S. should be ‘on its knees begging’ that nothing happens to Snowden

"'Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,' said Greenwald. “The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.' Snowden is currently working with Russian authorities to secure temporary asylum in that country. He said Friday that U.S. officials are blocking every effort he makes to seek safe passage to any place that will not extradite him into U.S. custody." Continue reading →

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Justice Department backs off on secret seizure of reporters’ records

"Under heavy criticism from media organizations and others, the Obama administration has pulled back on one important aspect of its crackdown on government leaks: the ability of prosecutors to secretly seize reporters' records while investigating leaks to the media. In an announcement Friday, the Justice Department said it is toughening the guidelines for subpoenaing reporters' phone records while also raising the standard the government needs to meet before it can issue search warrants to gather reporters' email." Continue reading →

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Loophole lets Colorado lawmakers avoid photo radar fines

"A loophole in state law has allowed Colorado state senators and representatives to avoid photo radar tickets because of special treatment given to lawmakers when they get license plates. Most license plates are issued to specific vehicles. But license plates for lawmakers are issued to individuals and aren't registered in state computers. The city has an aggressive photo radar program that sends out millions of dollars in photo radar tickets every year. However, police have not been able to send citations to legislators whose cars carry the special plates." Continue reading →

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The Hidden Edge of Junior Mining Companies

"The problem with investing in natural resource projects, says Rick Rule, is that there’s a very low chance of success for any individual property. 'When I was in university, some forty years ago, the experts claimed that roughly one in three thousand mineralized anomalies (exploration targets) would become a mine,' Rick explained. 'With those odds of success, any particular property has a pretty slim chance of being worth something. The way people are successful in this business is by identifying the opportunities with the best characteristics – and having the ability to quickly figure out what’s in the ground.'" Continue reading →

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Fed Puzzle: The Massive Collapse in Money Velocity

"With the velocity of money plummeting, it's clear that something in the fractional reserve banking system is broken -- the money remains trapped in the financial system. Yet another indicator of this is the Fed's Money Multiplier, or an indicator of how the money injected in the banking system is multiplied by lending and economic activity. That's reached new lows recently too, indicating that the fractional reserve system is not living up to expectations. This means that traders with access to large amounts of cheap trading capital can continue to make big bets as the Fed supports their access to capital -- but small businesses can't get the same access to capital." Continue reading →

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