Saturday 8 August 2009

New York Times: Having Children is Bad for the Environment

'Having children is the surest way to send your carbon footprint soaring, according to a new study from statisticians at Oregon State University. The study found that having a child has an impact that far outweighs that of other energy-saving behaviors.

Take, for example, a hypothetical American woman who switches to a more fuel-efficient car, drives less, recycles, installs more efficient light bulbs, and replaces her refrigerator and windows with energy-saving models. If she had two children, the researchers found, her carbon legacy would eventually rise to nearly 40 times what she had saved by those actions.'

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Saturday, 08 August 2009

Old Banks, New Lending Tricks

'That didn't take long. The economy hasn't yet recovered from the implosion of risky investments that led to the worst recession in decades—and already some of the world's biggest banks are peddling a new generation of dicey products to corporations, consumers, and investors.

In recent months such big banks as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) have rolled out newfangled corporate credit lines tied to complicated and volatile derivatives. Others, including Wells Fargo (WFC) and Fifth Third (FITB), are offering payday-loan programs aimed at cash-strapped consumers. Still others are marketing new, potentially risky "structured notes" to small investors.'

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Saturday, 08 August 2009

Behind The Clinton 'Rescue' In North Korea

'The capture of two US reporters of Chinese descent, who worked for Al Gore, and their subsequent rescue from North Korea's clutches by former President Bill Clinton was a setup from the beginning. Nothing reported about this story comes close to the real truth. As I covered the story in a prior brief, the initial capture of the reporters on the frozen Yalu River (where no one could prove which side of the China-NK border they were really on) was a predictable tactic used by North Korea to obtain secret concessions from the US.

The two women were railroaded into a North Korean court and sentenced to hard labor in one of NK's notorious prison camps. This was done for the shock effect to illicit horror around the world. In reality, they never suffered a day of hard labor. The harsh sentence's only purpose was to stimulate world pressure on the US to do something to gain their release. The secret concessions NK would demand for their release had to be kept secret by the US, and trotting out Bill Clinton was the perfect cover.'

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Saturday, 08 August 2009

A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush

'Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse. Honest. This isn’t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins".'

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