Petite Veritas

Oakland Occupy Wall Street Protest

2011-10-26T08:31:00.000-05:00

KRON4 NEWS (Bay Area News) "No Injuries have been reported from todays events"

2011-09-27T09:21:00.003-05:00

PUMPED UP KICKS | DUBSTEP

Obviously done with magic. Or just amazing skill!

West Africa Rising: Nigeria shifting currency reserves from dollars to Chinese yuan - CSMonitor.com

2011-09-06T21:47:00.001-05:00

West Africa Rising: Nigeria shifting currency reserves from dollars to Chinese yuan - CSMonitor.com

Nigerian Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi said inBeijing today that Africa's top oil exporter will convert as much as 10 percent of its $33 billion in foreign reserves from US dollars into Chinese yuan. Central banks use foreign reserves to manage their own currency's value.

In Nigeria's case, the up to $3.3 billion it may convert to yuan isn't an enormous sum – not, at least, for the oil-rich exporter. What is enormous, economists say, is what the bank's decision says: The yuan, pegged to the dollar until not long ago and managed more recently to keep Chinese exports cheap -- is turning into a global reserve currency. Africa – particularly West Africa – may be China's earliest, easiest zone of success.

Printer Ink Secret, Revealed!

2011-02-20T20:54:00.000-06:00

AddThis – Email, Bookmark, Share, Translate « Google Chrome Extensions

2010-02-03T22:59:00.001-06:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

AddThis – Email, Bookmark, Share, Translate « Google Chrome Extensions

'The Extended Mind' Rupert Sheldrake

2009-10-26T13:34:00.009-05:00

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Rupert Sheldrake's Theories

In 2003, Sheldrake published The Sense of Being Stared At on the psychic staring effect, including an experiment where blindfolded subjects guessed whether persons were staring at them or at another target. He reported that, in tens of thousands of trials, 60% of subjects reported being stared at when being stared at; 50% of subjects reported being stared at when they were not being stared at. According to Sheldrake, this suggested a weak sense of being stared at but no sense of not being stared at. He also claimed that these experiments were widely repeated, in schools in Connecticut and Toronto and a science museum in Amsterdam, with consistent results

Video available here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6285430996722410689#

Here is an old audio recording that is interesting: http://www.sheldrake.org/Trialogues/trialogues_98-1.mp3

The Rich Have Stolen the Economy by Paul Craig Roberts on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

2009-10-17T10:07:00.004-05:00

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Paul Craig Roberts was Asst Secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan and is hailed as the "Father of Reaganomics". Whether you agree or disagree with Reagan's policies, you should see what Dr. Roberts has to say about the economic climate today.

The Rich Have Stolen the Economy by Paul Craig Roberts on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

"Bloomberg reports that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's closest aides earned millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other Wall Street firms. Bloomberg reports that none of these aides faced Senate confirmation. Yet, they are overseeing the handout of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer funds to their former employers.

The gifts of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money provided the banks with an abundance of low-cost capital that has boosted the banks' profits, while the taxpayers who provided the capital are increasingly unemployed and homeless.

JPMorgan Chase announced that it has earned $3.6 billion in the third quarter of this year.

Goldman Sachs has made so much money during this year of economic crisis that enormous bonuses are in the works. The London Evening Standard reports that Goldman Sachs' "5,500 London staff can look forward to record average payouts of around 500,000 pounds ($800,000) each. Senior executives will get bonuses of several million pounds each, with the highest paid as much as 10 million pounds ($16 million)."

In the event the banksters can't figure out how to enjoy the riches, the Financial Times is offering a new magazine — "How To Spend It." New York City's retailers are praying for some of it, suffering a 15.3 percent vacancy rate on Fifth Avenue. Statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reports that retail sales adjusted for inflation have declined to the level of 10 years ago: "Virtually 10 years worth of real retail sales growth has been destroyed in the still unfolding depression."

Meanwhile, New York City's homeless shelters have reached the all-time high of 39,000, 16,000 of whom are children.

New York City government is so overwhelmed that it is paying $90 per night per apartment to rent unsold new apartments for the homeless. Desperate, the city government is offering one-way free airline tickets to the homeless if they will leave the city and charging rent to shelter residents who have jobs. A single mother earning $800 per month is paying $336 in shelter rent."

Read the rest here: The Rich Have Stolen the Economy

The Behavioral Economics Of Playing Hard To Get

2009-10-06T17:06:00.003-05:00

Gore Vidal: We'll have a dictatorship soon in the US... - UK Times Online

2009-09-30T15:06:00.005-05:00

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Gore Vidal: We'll have a dictatorship soon in the US... - Times Online

Excerpt:

"In a flash, this memory reminds you of the swathe of history Vidal has experienced with great intimacy: he was friends with JFK, fought in the war, his father Gene, an Olympic decathlete and aeronautics teacher, founded TWA among other airlines and had a relationship with Amelia Earhart. (Vidal first flew and landed a plane when he was 10.) He was a screenwriter for MGM in the dying days of the studio system, toyed with being a politician, he has written 24 novels and is hailed as one of the world’s greatest essayists."

and later in the article:

"Today religious mania has infected the political bloodstream and America has become corrosively isolationist, he says. “Ask an American what they know about Sweden and they’d say ‘They live well but they’re all alcoholics’. In fact a Scandinavian system could have benefited us many times over.” Instead, America has “no intellectual class” and is “rotting away at a funereal pace. We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the corruption of the people and that happened under Bush.”

Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds

2009-07-24T08:09:00.005-05:00

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Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds

Super high speed computers with sophisticated algorithms have the edge over individual investors on Wall Street. Does This explain why Goldman Sachs can make huge profits in today's market conditions?

From the New York Times, July 23, 2009

20 Brands & Products that Died in 2009

2009-07-16T10:49:00.002-05:00

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2009 is 50% over, but has already left a decade’s worth of brand carnage in its wake. In May alone, 376 companies per day sought protection from creditors in bankruptcy court, according to Aacer's court records.

Everyone was affected, from small, family-run outfits to major corporations. This list represents a sampling of brands and products that died in 2009. You may be familiar with some of the brands. Others are smaller or regional, but symbolize the story of what happened many other businesses this year. Even a Wal-Mart generic brand got the shaft.

It’s worth noting that when a brand dies, it doesn’t necessarily get buried, the way humans do. Some brands, like Circuit City, are resurrected in a different form. Others, like Saab, go dormant, then reemerge in a new form. Still others find themselves gobbled up by bigger fish.

The brands and products in this list reflect all possibilities. Sadly, most are gone forever.

Story Follows HERE on the Business Pundit

What broadband stimulus funds can mean for your community

2009-07-16T09:33:00.005-05:00

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What broadband stimulus funds can mean for your community...

Access to high speed broadband and internet service can have a huge positive impact on a local community. It opens the local work force up to global opportunities that can be accessed via their home computers.

(Knight Center of Digital excellence)

Partial map of the Internet based on the January 15, 2005 data found on opte.org. Each line is drawn between two nodes, representing two IP addresses.

F-18 Buzzes Detroit Apartment

2009-07-16T08:20:00.004-05:00

Full story here at the Daily Mail

Why Are Southerners So Fat?

2009-07-09T16:19:00.004-05:00

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Why Are Southerners So Fat?

Time magazine discusses the high obesity rates in southern states.

One conclusion the author proposes is that it is just too damn hot to exercise in the deep south. I'll go with that.

5 News Outlets That Do Social Media Well And 1 That Doesn’t.

2009-07-05T23:31:00.004-05:00

Image by stevegarfield via Flickr

Some media outlets do a passable job with social media, but most don't. Here is a list of a few that really do a good job and an example of one that fails. The FAIL example is actually representative of most news outlets today that know they need to have social media exposure, but really don't have a clue as how to go about it.

(click the title above or the link below to read the story from Tremendousnews.com...)

5 News Outlets That Do Social Media Well And 1 That Doesn’t.

(Tremendous News is a great blog - check out their archives.)

The Big Whorehouse On The Potomac

2009-07-05T01:00:00.002-05:00

The Big Whorehouse On The Potomac

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan official and one of the "father's of Reaganomics" gives his view on sell-outs on Capitol Hill and the Washington Post's sell out to special interest groups.

Fourth of July

2009-07-05T00:32:00.006-05:00

We had an exceptionally good time with friends and family this 4th. It wrapped up with a fireworks extravaganza on the Tchefuncte river in Mandeville, LA. It was really hot and humid, but a good time was had by all.

Demand Broadband: Broadband Stimulus: You so 2000 and late

2009-07-01T21:21:00.002-05:00

Image by tvol via Flickr

The speeds defined by the government in the BTOP & BIP (stimulus packages) are not very aggressive.

This article by Susan Estrada provides a great perspective:

Demand Broadband: Broadband Stimulus: You so 2000 and late

Other reading:

Broadband Stimulus Opens With Rural Emphasis

2009-07-01T16:41:00.007-05:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

NTIA offering $1.6 billion of its $4.7 billion allocation in first round of broadband stimulus.

Broadband Stimulus Opens With Rural Emphasis
By Kenneth Corbin
July 1, 2009

The agencies administering the broadband stimulus programs took a big step toward getting that money flowing today, announcing the application guidelines for the first tranche of funding.

The secretaries of Agriculture and Commerce joined Vice President Joe Biden in Erie, Penn., today to kick off what the White House is billing as the National Rural Tour, a whistle-stop junket with future sessions to focus on issues like health care and education.

The long-awaited notice of funding availability (NOFA) released today establishes the application process for $4 billion of the $7.2 billion set aside for broadband projects in the stimulus package, a more aggressive deployment schedule than officials indicated when they announced their roadmap for the stimulus programs in March.

"Today's announcement is a first step toward realizing President Obama's vision of a nationwide 21st century communications infrastructure -- one that encourages economic growth, enhances America's global competitiveness and helps address many of America's most pressing challenges," Biden said.

The programs are being administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a division of the Commerce Department, and Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The statute allocated $4.7 billion to NTIA and $2.5 billion to RUS, but the agencies said today that they will review applications submitted through a common form.

The first round of funding is heavily weighted toward rural connectivity, with RUS making available about $2.4 billion of grants and loans, and NTIA offering just $1.6 billion, leaving the bulk of its share available for future application periods...
Continues at:
Read the rest of the story here...

Broadband Stimulus Rules (NoFA)

Broadband Stimulus Bill Notice of Funding Availability $7.2 Billion

2009-07-01T13:18:00.005-05:00

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Here are the rules for both the NTIA and RUS Broadband Stimulus:

Broadband Stimulus Rules (NoFA)

Stimulus Players to Convene For Broadband Event

2009-07-01T10:48:00.003-05:00

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Stimulus Players to Convene For Broadband Event: "Sources confirm that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will travel to Wattsburg, Pa., Wednesday for a broadband-related event that will unite some major players.

Also scheduled to attend the event are Vice President Joe Biden, who hails from Scranton; Commerce Secretary Gary Locke; and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

They will reportedly talk about the broadband initiative in the economic stimulus package. The venue will be Seneca High School.

There may be only a few billion in the stimulus package for broadband deployment, but the issue is big with the Obama administration since it implicates everything from telemedicine and energy to education, agriculture and even, say some groups, full citizenship in an increasingly wired nation. For example, some local governments grant discounts for online applications, essentially taxing those without ready Internet access.

The meeting of those particular minds suggests that NTIA and the USDA's Rural Utilities Service, will likely by that time have released their guidelines for the $7.5 billion in economic stimulus money they must give out over the next couple of years.

For its part, NTIA told Congress that the guidelines would be out by "early summer," and speculation has increasingly centered on June 30 as the magic day, though NTIA spokespeople say it never set that date officially.

Potential bidders have been waiting to see just how the process will be set up, including what access and interconnection conditions will be placed on the money."

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/30/2009 1:52:52 PM EDT

The Broadband Stimulus

2009-07-01T10:10:00.004-05:00

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Time for the Grownups: 8 Points for Understanding Today's Broadband Stimulus Regulations

Here is the South Carolina Broadband Report: SC Broadband Report

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Can American Farms Make Bamboo the Next Big Cash Crop?

2009-06-30T21:51:00.004-05:00

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Bamboo as a new american cash crop? The Southeastern U.S. may have a new crop to replace cotton. This bamboo has the tensile strength of steel.

Click the headline for the complete story in the article from Popular Mechanics...

Zemanta in Firefox

2009-06-30T14:07:00.002-05:00

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Now I'm testing Zemanta in Firefox. So, if I was going to write about Mardi Gras in New Orleans, I should get some good suggestions.

And, right on cue - I did. OK - I like Zemanta. Now for some real blog posts...

Trying Zemanta's Blog Tool

2009-06-30T13:16:00.008-05:00

Image by wallyg via Flickr

A friend recommended using Zemanta on my blog. So here it goes, I'm giving it a shot. It supposedly reads your post as you write it and recommends links and photos.

For example, if I were writing about New Orleans, it should give me some suggestions. And, as I type - it did. It linked "New Orleans" to a Google map and the photos were automatically suggested and then generated by Zemanta. Cool.

The free download is available at Zemanta.

They have an add-on for firefox (haven't tried, yet). In this example I'm using Zemanta as a bookmarklet utility in Chrome.

The 30 / 70 Formula

2006-11-11T09:59:00.000-06:00

Evidence that the adaptive allele of the brain size gene microcephalin introgressed into Homo sapiens from an archaic Homo lineage

Patrick D. Evans, Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, Eric J. Vallender, Richard R. Hudsonand Bruce T. Lahn

30% of humans don't have the "intelligence gene". This explains a lot....¶