SEC Eyes Goldman Sachs' Good Fortune
As the world watches the once almighty U.S. dollar implode, it can be somehow reassuring to read the few people who understand and are willing to divulge what's really going on.

The author of the article above, John Crudele, has FOIA'ed the President's Working Group on Financial Assets - mentioned in the article and known to its would-be intimates as the Plunge Protection Team - with tragicomic results that have provided fodder for an ongoing saga. This group of masters of the universe is the financial equivalent of the National Energy Policy and Development Group, the equally elusive and powerful enclave whose meeting minutes the Sierra Club, among others, sought in vain to obtain.

Why Kuwait Wants to Shift to Heavy Oil
One guess.
OPEC May Launch Currency Basket
Clearcutting the Climate Conference
Thanks, Global Warming!
Written without irony in a usually astute and subtle publication. But the prospect of profit makes demons of the best of us.
White House May Stop Distribution of Anti-Radiation Pills
They're such a downer, after all.
Global Warming Could Kill Half of All Plant and Animal Species
California Plans Global Warming Suit Against EPA
London Review of Books on True Motives of Iraq Invasion
U.S. Disclosure Cited as Proof of Gold Cartel's Price Capping Efforts

Bhutto's Husband Blames Pakistani Intelligence for Attack
Pentagon Backs Plan To Beam Solar Power from Space
Megadroughts May Have Driven Human Evolution
Teaching Peak Oil to People with Limited English
"Dave," who manages this website, teaches ESL in China. Having taught ESL in New York, I'm intrigued by his ambitions for a number of reasons, the first being that people who've sacrificed to come to the U.S. don't like to hear that they might be better off back home. On the other hand, they're less invested in the belief that America is an honorable country. Many of them have reason to know better.


Moment of Zen:

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888


1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

Biofuel Plans to Hit Water Supply in India, China
UN Rapporteur Calls for Moratorium on Biofuels
Peering Into Investors' Skulls
Who's Ben Chatting With About the Economy?
Inconvenient Truths About Al Gore
How Global Warming Will Save Us From Peak Oil
Tongue-in-cheek response in Salon to New York Times article critiqued in this blog several weeks ago.
Five Ex-Communist Countries Sign Oil Pipeline Deal Bypassing Russia

New Frontiers in Computer Technology

Where Has All the Oil Gone? (Wall Street Journal)
A Quest for Energy in the Globe's Remote Places
"There are no easy barrels left."
"[T]he world’s fast-rising use of fossil fuels, by contributing to global warming, could eventually make the Arctic more accessible for oil and gas production."

Belgian Court Reportedly Reopens Case Against Total in Myanmar
Myanmar is the latest in a series of conflicts that appear to be about democracy and oppression but are really about oil. Not that the oppression isn't real; just that world censure is selective.

Kurds Reach New Oil Deals, Straining Ties with Baghdad
The tri-partite division of Iraq -Kurdish in the North, Sunni in the middle and Shia in the South - proceeds according to FTW prediction and Neocon plan.

Nuclear Industry Gets Burst of Energy: GAO Report
Equatorial Guinea Energy Profile
U.S. Called Lax at Handling Bio Hazards
Marshals Arrest NH Tax Evaders
What would the late Aaron Russo have said about this? Perhaps the couple in question (and now in custody) were inspired by his movie.
Pataki Named to Global Warming Task Force
Fall of the Consumer Economy
All That Glisters [sic] May Not Be Gold

At Least Someone Has Energy To Burn: Man Circumnavigates Globe on Own Power
We may all need to take a leaf from his book and a deep breath.

Guantanamo and Cocaine Traffic
Who Owned Drug Plane That Crashed in Mexico?
Lovelock's Solution to Global Warming
Why I Distrust Goldman Sachs' Good Fortune
Citigroup Acknowledges Central Bank Scheme to Suppress Gold Price
How Central Banks Control the Gold Price


"Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalistic System was to debauch the currency. . . Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million can diagnose." John Maynard Keynes