Vatican Bank Investigated Over Money-Laundering
September 21st, 2010Via: BBC:
The head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry, police sources say.
Prosecutors also seized 23m euros ($30m; £19m) from the bank’s accounts with another smaller institution.
The inquiry was launched after two suspicious transactions were reported to tax police in Rome.
The Vatican said it was “perplexed and astonished”, and expressed full confidence in Mr Tedeschi.
The Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), was created during World War II to administer accounts held by religious orders, cardinals, bishops and priests.
Research Credit: Ebbing
U.S. Hunters Shoot Down Google Fiber
September 21st, 2010Via: IT News:
Google has revealed that aerial fibre links to its data centre in Oregon were “regularly” shot down by hunters, forcing the company to put its cables underground.
The search and advertising giant’s network engineering manager Vijay Gill told the AusNOG conference in Sydney last week that people were trying to hit insulators on electricity distribution poles.
The poles also hosted aerially-deployed fibre connected to Google’s $US600 million ($A635 million) data centre in the Dalles, a small city on the Columbia River in the US state of Oregon.
“What people do for sport or because they’re bored, they try to shoot at the insulators,” Gill said.
“I have yet to see them actually hit the insulator, but they regularly shoot down the fibre.
“Every November when hunting season starts invariably we know that the fibre will be shot down, so much so that we are now building an underground path [for it].”
Research Credit: JL
Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?
September 21st, 2010A Cryptogon reader ordered this book on Amazon and I thought I’d mention it for any of you who might be interested:
I have no idea what to make of this, but after reading around on various sites, many people are certain that this helped them with chronic health issues.
I haven’t read the book, but it apparently promotes a number of products. Keep in mind that making your own grounding/earthing gear would be simple and inexpensive. Also, there’s a wide variety of inexpensive grounding products, meant for use by people who deal with static sensitive electronics, that could be used as well.
I’ll just leave comments closed because, on something like this, the most closedminded people will be leaving the poison pen comments, while the curious and empirically minded of you will be off experimenting.
The beauty of this is that it’s extremely simple to try, for no cost, or almost no cost, and the worst that can happen is that it has no effect at all.
I would like to hear from anyone who has made a conscious effort to ground themselves, by going barefoot or using any of the many other ways of grounding oneself. Did it help you, or not?
Rendell’s Office Releases Content of All Bulletins on Planned Protests
September 21st, 2010Here’s the document dump: PA Intelligence Bulletins.
Via: Philadelphia Inquirer:
The bulletins, issued to police, public officials, and commercial interests three times a week since October, were prepared by a private contractor that the state Office of Homeland Security hired last year for $103,000 without competitive bidding. Much of their content – such as announcements of protest events – was readily available through Internet searches.
The contractor the state hired, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, lists offices in Philadelphia, Washington, and Jerusalem. The state Homeland Security Office in turn disseminated the information to a yet-undisclosed list of police, elected officials, and others in the private sector, Rendell spokesman Gary Tuma said.
Rendell said Tuesday that the contract would be terminated next month when it comes up for renewal. The state still receives alerts from the institute, but none has been disseminated since Monday, Tuma said.
Research Credit: PP
Pope’s Astronomer Says He Would Baptise an Alien
September 21st, 2010Why is the pace picking up?
Via: Guardian:
Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as “bad theology” that had been “hijacked” by American creationist fundamentalists.
Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope’s astronomers, said he would be “delighted” if intelligent life was found among the stars. “But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it’s probably not a practical question.”
Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul.” Would he baptise an alien? “Only if they asked.”
Consolmagno, who became interested in science through reading science fiction, said that the Vatican was well aware of the latest goings-on in scientific research. “You’d be surprised,” he said.
Alien Field Trip
September 21st, 2010Related: Britain: Children Traumatized by ‘War of Worlds’ Abduction of Teacher
Research Credit: HS
Pentti Linkola, Finnish Environmentalist: “Kill Defectives”
September 21st, 2010Via: penttilinkola.com
“We will have to…learn from the history of revolutionary movements — the national socialists, the Finnish Stalinists, from the many stages of the Russian revolution, from the methods of the Red Brigades — and forget our narcissistic selves.”
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“Our only hope lies in strong central government and uncompromizing control of the individual citizen.”
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“Birthgiving must be licenced. To enhance population quality, genetically or socially unfit homes will be denied offspring, so that several birth licences can be allowed to families of quality.”
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“Kill defectives.”
Saudi King Meets Top U.S., Canadian Counter-Terror Officials
September 20th, 2010Via: AFP:
Saudi King Abdullah and security czar Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz have held talks with top intelligence and counter-terror officials from the United States and Canada, the SPA news agency reported.
John Brennan, assistant to US President Barack Obama for homeland security and counter-terrorism, discussed in Jeddah on Sunday “issues that concern the two countries” with King Abdullah, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, the state news agency said without elaborating.
Afterward, Brennan held talks with Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the country’s senior domestic security official for 35 years.
“The meeting focused on the need to … build strong and fruitful cooperation to reduce the spread of terrorism in all countries in the world, especially in the Middle East, and the importance of working together to fight Al-Qaeda and terrorism,” SPA said.
Separately the Saudi king and his security officials met Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, to discuss “issues of mutual interest.”
The meetings with King Abdullah were also attended by Saudi ambassador to the United States Adel Jubeir, a close advisor to the Saudi king on foreign affairs.
Ally’s GMAC Mortgage Halts Home Foreclosures in 23 States
September 20th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit told brokers and agents to halt foreclosures on homeowners in 23 states including Florida, Connecticut and New York.
GMAC Mortgage may “need to take corrective action in connection with some foreclosures” in the affected states, according to a two-page memo dated Sept. 17 and obtained by Bloomberg News. Ally Financial spokesman James Olecki confirmed the contents of the memo. Brokers were told to stop evictions, cash-for-key transactions and lockouts, regardless of occupant type, with immediate effect, according to the document, addressed to GMAC preferred agents.
The company will also suspend sales of properties on which it has already foreclosed. The letter tells brokers to notify buyers that the company will extend the closing date on all sales by 30 days. Buyers will be able to cancel their agreement to purchase and get their deposit back, according to the letter.
Related: GMAC Mortgage: “Proudly Executing Up To 10,000 Fake Documents Per Month”
FDA Rules Won’t Require Labeling of Genetically Modified Salmon
September 20th, 2010Via: Washington Post:
As the Food and Drug Administration considers whether to approve genetically modified salmon, one thing seems certain: Shoppers staring at fillets in the seafood department will find it tough to pick out the conventional fish from the one created with genes from another species.
Despite a growing public demand for more information about how food is produced, that won’t happen with the salmon because of idiosyncracies embedded in federal regulations.
The FDA says it cannot require a label on the genetically modified food once it determines that the altered fish is not “materially” different from other salmon – something agency scientists have said is true.
Perhaps more surprising, conventional food makers say the FDA has made it difficult for them to boast that their products do not contain genetically modified ingredients.
