Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Strange Coincidence in Radiation Readings


Bakersfield, Yuma, Fresno, San Diego and Phoenix ALL HAVE DATA MISSING for both beta and gamma from Jan 27 to Jan 29 (roughly) for EPA's Radnet. 

And each of these cities has a beta spike after the missing time period.


After looking at more cities across the nation I see that the entire system was offline during this time period.

How is it that data are missing for all of these cities during the same time period when the data monitoring stations are physically independent?

I hope there is a good (i.e., non-alarming reason) for these cities being offline together.
Phoenix was up to 450 CPM beta today. Was it even higher 2 days ago?

My measured mind suggests a technical issue.

My suspicious mind wonders whether the readings from Fukushima were just too high to report.

My conspiratorial mind wonders whether the system is taken offline whenever an American nuclear plant has a significant event, as reported in IL.

wondering...

 

William Black: Failure to Prosecute Financial Crimes

 

Holder & Obama’s Propaganda is “Belied by a Troublesome Little Thing Called Facts”

By William K. Black

[excerpt] "The Obama administration’s record of prosecuting elite financial frauds is worse than the Bush administration’s record, which is a very large statement. Syracuse University’s TRAC issued a report on November 11, 2011 entitled “Criminal Prosecutions for Financial Institution Fraud Continue to Fall.”

Neither administration has prosecuted any elite CEO for the epidemic of mortgage fraud that drove the ongoing crisis." [end excerpt]



More Corruption in the Housing Market



"Treasury Investigates Freddie Mac Investment" By SHAILA DEWAN Published: January 30, 2012 the New York Times

[excerpted] "The Treasury Department is investigating a report that Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, bet against homeowners’ ability to refinance their loans even as it was making it more difficult for them to do so, Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said on Monday..."

read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/business/freddie-mac-investments-under-scrutiny-by-treasury-dept.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

The issue here is that Freddie Mac was betting against customers it had a mission to serve while making it difficult for those customers to successfully keep their homes.

The New York Times cites an investigation by Propublica and NPR. However, the Propublica story does not go into the specific details of the type of security used by Freddie Mac to bet that homeowners would not be able to refinance and therefore would lose their homes:

Here is what Propublica states: "Public documents, checked by NPR and ProPublica, show that in 2010 and 2011, Freddie Mac set out to make gains for its own investment portfolio by using complex mortgage securities that brought in more money for Freddie Mac when homeowners in higher interest-rate loans were unable to qualify for a refinancing"
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/01/31/146110055/report-prompts-calls-to-end-freddie-macs-conflict-of-interest

The article does name, but fails to explicate, the investments as "inverse floaters" and states that Freddie holds $5 billion of these still.

Investopedia defines inverse floaters: "A bond or other type of debt whose coupon rate has an inverse relationship to a benchmark rate. An inverse floater adjusts its coupon payment as the interest rate changes. When the interest rate goes up the coupon payment rate will go down because the interest rate is deducted from the coupon payment. A higher interest rate means more is deducted, thus less is paid to the holder..."
Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inversefloater.asp#ixzz1l3JlWRFz

New York University provides a detailed article here on inverse floaters: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/eelton/debt_inst_class/Floaters%20&%20Inverse%20Floater.pdf

The best quick analysis of this latest scandal can be found here: http://dealbreaker.com/2012/01/freddie-mac-profits-from-the-misery-of-american-homeowners-so-that-banks-dont-have-to/

The broader implication is that another institution designed to serve the public has subordinated its mission to the acquisition of wealth for private interests and, in so doing, has contributed to the ongoing problem of home foreclosures and a deflating real estate market.








Monday, January 30, 2012

Like Sheep going to the slaughter


Ex-SKF and Enenews are both running articles covering the offline nuclear plant in Ill that is spewing tritium infused steam that is purportedly safe

At Ex-SKF I find this comment posted. It is worth re-posting:

Anonymous said...
"The steam contains low levels of radioactive tritium, but the levels are safe for workers and the public, federal and plant officials said."

Yes, and we ignorant bastards are just supposed to accept the "safe" levels chosen by "the officials" without question like sheep going to the slaughter. The safe level for tritium is ZERO.

Called


I was called by social conditioning in my family and biographical details.
I was born relatively poor in Berkeley in the 1960s and experienced the Civil Rights Movement.

I was called by education and by teaching.
Education taught me to analyze how & why; teaching taught me why it matters. 

An environmental disease or two taught me how pressing is the time for us all, as well as me personally.
From Wikipedia: "Most pituitary tumors arise spontaneously and are not genetically inherited. Many pituitary tumors arise from a genetic alteration in a single pituitary cell which leads to increased cell division and tumor formation. This genetic change, or mutation, is not present at birth, but is acquired during life..."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acromegaly  

Mine is causing chiasmal compression.

Some inexplicable force convinced me. I don’t know what to say about that.

I hesitate bringing my professional career and my public advocacy into OVERT convergence.

Particularly after the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the indefinite detention of US civilians if national security is at issue.

I did not know a conference I will attend and present at will be broadcasted globally on the internet.

I know there will be consequences for taking a stand as an academic.

Many before me have taken stands in their respective areas on this particular issue: as Pediatricians and other medical doctors, as nuclear plant engineers, as biologists, as health physicists, as former government employees, as nuclear physicists (in Japan no less), etc.

I can do it too.


MF Global's Missing $1.2 Billion in Missing Funds


"Funds From MF Global Feared Gone." The Wall Street  Journal, Jan 30, 2012 p. A1, A2.

The article reports that $1.2 billion in customer money has "vaporized" due to "chaotic trading."

Most of the funds reported missing are from "customer segregated" accounts.

These accounts were primarily (or even exclusively) collateral accounts that customers posted in order to do business with the company. These accounts are technically off-limits for trading purposes.

However, it appears that MF Global did trade with this money. Where did it go?

The article states that "As money poured out of MF Global, much of it likely passed through J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. and other banks..."

What the heck?

Some background is in order.

Christopher Elias wrote an illuminating article titled "MF Global and the great Wall St re-hypothecation scandal" Dec 2011 at Thomas Reuters News and Insight http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Securities/Insight/2011/12_-_December/MF_Global_and_the_great_Wall_St_re-hypothecation_scandal/

[excerpted] (Business Law Currents) A legal loophole in international brokerage regulations means that few, if any, clients of MF Global are likely to get their money back.... it appears that MF Global and some of its Wall Street counterparts have been actively and aggressively circumventing U.S. securities rules at the expense (quite literally) of their clients. 

MF Global's bankruptcy revelations concerning missing client money suggest that funds were not inadvertently misplaced or gobbled up in MF’s dying hours, but were instead appropriated as part of a mass Wall St manipulation of brokerage rules that allowed for the wholesale acquisition and sale of client funds through re-hypothecation. A loophole appears to have allowed MF Global, and many others, to use its own clients’ funds to finance an enormous $6.2 billion Eurozone repo bet.... 

I recommend reading the entire article at the link above.

Several weeks ago (sorry I cannot find the particular episode), Max Keiser suggested that MF Global may not have been alone in re-hypothecating customer accounts.
That is, Max stated that MF Global, J.P. Morgan and other entities may have all drawn upon the same pool of customer funds pledged as collateral at MF Global. 

So, MF Global employees could have used customer accounts as as collateral while JP Morgan employees then used the same pool as collateral for trades and so on. http://maxkeiser.com/ 

What happens when the collateral is called in?
It gets vaporized, that is what happens, at every step that re-hypothecation occurred.

The significance of re-hypothecation of re-hypothecation is that the structure of debt is based on such a tiny pool that if the system starts crumbling there is grossly insufficient capital reserves in the system to shore up losses.

Re-hypothecation produces a house of cards.
MF Global appears to be one of the bottom cards.

Who knows were the markets will go as this unfolds.

Greed and corruption at every level and yet it will be the populace who pays the price as small and mid-sized companies find it more and more difficult to access capital for their businesses as the big players actively destroy it.


 

WSJ: "Exxon Mobil to Unload Its Subsidiary in Japan"


Wall Street Journal Jan 30 2012, p. B3 print edition.

The article explains that Exxon Mobil plans to sell its subsidiary in Japan for $3.9 billion and to relinquish control of refiner TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK.

The deal stipulates that TonenGeneral will acquire 99% of Exxon's issued shares at Exxon's arm, Exxon Mobil Yugen Kaisha. 

Further, the deal means that Exxon will give up its controlling interest in TonenGeneral, "Japan's second-largest refiner, maintaining a 22% voting share instead."

Think about what this article is stating. Exxon Mobil is extricating itself from a major role in Japan's refining, despite the shutdown of the vast majority of Japan's nuclear plants. 

One would think that refining would be even more important in the context of the closed nuclear plants.

However, the article states that "TonenGeneral's shares are off 11% this year" because of over-capacity stemming from the "sluggish" economy and Japan's use of energy-efficient technologies."

Reading between the lines, I interpret this article as indicating that Japan's industrial capacity is shuttering and Exxon Mobil is seeking to sell off majority shares while the fantasy of near-normality continues to be spun in the global media.

I have commented before about corporate flight from Japan and collapsing exports.

Japan's economy is vital to the global economy. This is not good news from an economic perspective because it suggests ongoing capital flight.
Japan holds considerable US foreign debt. I imagine markets will "swoon" if Japan starts selling off this debt.

Most important, the lives and well-being of Japan's citizens are at stake. One hopes that the Japanese government will institute measures to protect the livelihood of citizens whose jobs are destroyed in the shadow of the largest nuclear disaster ever.

There are rumors that Japan's government is building cities in other countries, such as India. 

Let us hope that Japan's government does not plan on abandoning its citizens, as well.







Sunday, January 29, 2012

OWS Update: New Violence Against Protesters


Washington's blog covers the story

Why are police responding so violently?

I believe the police brutality stems from a deliberate policy aimed at militarizing police in order to crush long-anticipated civil unrest.

Police have been trained to regard civil demonstrations as low level "terrorism."

Police have been trained to respond using military techniques, especially repressive apparatuses and strategies.

Civil unrest was expected in response to the crushing economic impact of a great recession brought on by greed and corruption.

A 30-something year old man today makes less than his father did, on average.

College graduates may find employment in retail, restaurants, or call centers; however, most of the recent college graduates I know are having a very hard time finding a professional job with any opportunity for advancement.

Fewer and fewer people have access to employer sponsored health insurance and retirement.

Foreclosures continue to occur even when people haven't missed any mortgage payments!

People are outraged by the lack of reform and the still-collapsing economy.

I believe the violence we saw against PEACEFUL student demonstrators at UC Berkeley and UC Davis was deliberately designed to CRUSH any further college demonstrations.

Middle-America might consider showing up themselves at a demonstration if they see their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren peacefully demonstrating against their dispossession at universities across the country.

The violence is being tolerated by higher-ups because a message is being sent.

America needs to find the strength to send a message back about its voice, agency, rights and interests using NON-VIOLENT means.

Any response using violence will bring out the full power of the fascist state.

You will find background on these developments and sources supporting my contention at my post here:



Childhood Leukemia and Nuclear Plants: Is Tritium the Main Culprit?


Childhood Leukemia Spikes Near Nuclear Power Plants By John LaForge, CounterPunch 28 January 12 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/26/childhood-leukemia-spikes-near-nuclear-power-plants/


[excerpted] "French researchers have confirmed that childhood leukemia rates are shockingly elevated among children living near nuclear power reactors.
The "International Journal of Cancer" has published in January a scientific study establishing a clear correlation between the frequency of acute childhood leukemia and proximity to nuclear power stations. The paper is titled, "Childhood leukemia around French nuclear power plants - the Geocap study, 2002-2007."
Here is a link to the original article

Majia here: My friend Capt Clyde Stanger has just completed a book on tritium that will be soon available. The book is an exhaustive analysis of tritium releases from the Palo Verde nuclear plant and a discussion of the significance of those releases for human health, particularly for the health of children and women, who are especially vulnerable.




Saturday, January 28, 2012

A Day of Infamy

The War Against Internet Freedom Has BEGUN in EARNEST Despite the Failure of PIPA and SOPA


Barrett, Devlin (2011, Jan 28-29). Retaliation Fears Spur Anonymity in Internet Case. The Wall Street Journal, p. A3.

Paraphrase: Officials have been keeping their names out of press accounts after the government shut down the website Megaupload.com 

"charging company officials with violations of copyright law. Those people have denied the allegations."

The explanation for why the government would actually fear retaliation heads the story. It is an example: a government official investigating Wikileaks was subject to a privacy invasion purportedly launched by Anonymous.  Apparently, Anonymous subscribed the person's email address to a pornography site.

I wonder if it was really Anonymous that subscribed that person's email to the pornography site?

This story would be hilarious if it were not so serious.

It appears that Megaupload was a place where people could upload all sorts of information that could be filed and viewed.

Such a site is very democratic because it promotes transparency and that, of course, is the reason it had to be shut down.

Copyright violation is an easy one to charge because if a document exists in Megaupload's files that has more than 10% of copyrighted material, then that document can be considered a copyright violation.

At least, that is what my university is telling its faculty. As I understood the message, 10% is new; it used to be a bit more.

So, It is easy for a government or a corporation to take down a democratic file sharing site for copyright infringement, particularly if the law just got stricter.

Here is some of what Wikipedia says about the case. I would read the full entry at the site:
[excerpted] Megaupload Limited,[1] better known for its closed websites including the top-15 file hosting service megaupload.com,[1] is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005 that ran a number of online services related to file storage and viewing. The domain names were seized and the sites shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on 19 January 2012, following their indictment and arrests of the owners for allegedly operating as an organization dedicated to copyright infringement.[5]
The shutdown led to denial-of-service attacks on a range of websites belonging to the U.S. government and copyright organisations.[6][7] The case has not yet been heard at trial.

Safe harbor provisions

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides safe harbor for sites that promptly take down infringing content. However safe harbor does not exist if the site has actual knowledge and does nothing about it.[48]

read the full article

New Potrblog Video



Saturday, January 28, 2012 Weaponized Fukushima Fallout: Radioactive Fullerenes and Endofullerenes



Abstract of Potrblog video:
"The improvised use of salt water to cool the Fukushima reactors and spent fuel pools resulted in the weaponization of Uranium fallout via the formation of Fullerenes and Endofullerenes. The term weaponization is based on our belief that this process significantly improved Probability of Kill (PK) values from a survivability / vulnerability analytical standpoint. See the attached video for further detail"

This article may be relevant for understanding why uranium from Fukushima could be "weaponized," as described by Potrblog:



How sea water could corrode nuclear fuel. January 26, 2012





[excerpted] "Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 -- and that was probably the best action to take at the time, says Professor Alexandra Navrotsky of the University of California, Davis.



"But Navrotsky and others have since discovered a new way in which seawater can corrode nuclear fuel, forming uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles. The research team published its work Jan. 23 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...."




 

Our Dying Bees: An Indispensable Canary in the Coal Mine

 

Dying Honeybees: It Was the Insecticides All Along By Jeanne Roberts, Celsias 28 January 12 http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/9659-dying-honeybees-it-was-the-insecticides-all-along

[excerpted]
ith news that the U.S. honeybee population has been so devastated that some beekeepers will qualify for disaster relief dollars, comes a report from Purdue University that one of the causes of honeybee deaths is - as long suspected - neonicotinoids.

I say one of the causes, because the article does. In fact, the levels of neonicotinoid contamination of the powder used to spread seeds - up to 700,000 times the lethal dose - suggest that this pesticide may be the major, or precipitating, cause, with Varroa mites and other problems simply the straw that breaks the camel’s back..."

read the entire article at the link above
For background on the bee collapse, and an analysis of how the pesticide industry co-opts science on the problem, see here:





There is a Better Way



I just discovered that my serious migraines and worsening photophobia are no doubt caused by a pituitary tumor that I was diagnosed in 2008, but the doctor neglected to tell me was the cause of my migraines.

Apparently pituitary tumors can cause serious headaches no matter what size they are.[i]
Furthermore, it is also the case that pituitary tumors can grow into the optic nerves, causing chiasmal compression.[ii]

Photophobia has actually been documented as the “presenting visual symptom of chiasmal compression” caused by a pituitary tumor, although peripheral vision loss is a more common major symptom.

My photophobia is getting worse and worse. I cannot bare a normal level of reading (or less) light over my head for any length of time.

My migraines have gotten worse; although my herbal remedy is keeping them under control (what a blessing that has been).

No doubt the tumor that I was diagnosed with, which was never discussed in Jan of 2008 as a cause of my migraines, has grown.

Where did this tumor come from?

Well, it is not quite clear.

In the past tumors were difficult to diagnose in the pituitary gland because the gland is so small.

Today’s MRIs make diagnosis easier.

What we really don’t know are the rate of occurrence and whether the rate is growing.

The range of occurrence is from 2% to 20% based on a variety of screening factors. Someone needs to sort out what those factors are and see if age plays a role because if the incidence is increasing at a younger age then we have a problem here.

My bet is we have a problem here and it is part of the same complex of problems as autism, Parkinson’s’ syndrome, allergies, asthma, and thyroid disease/cancer.

These diseases all occur within “normal” populations, but the rate seems to be growing rapidly for all of these diseases.

Some people will argue against a real increase in autism (saying an increase in diagnosis is not the same as an increase in incidence) and I don’t want or need to argue that now because allergies, Parkinson’s, asthma, and thyroid disease have been clearly linked to environmental contaminants.

We are living in a chemical soup seasoned with excess levels (for our body’s evolved levels of tolerance) of radionuclides, some of which are NOT found in nature.

I was born in the SF Bay Area in mid 1960s, 4th generation in the area.

Makes one wonder about what I was exposed to growing up because for some reason or other those deposition maps of the US from atmospheric testing always show the Bay Area as rather hot.

1963 was the peak of atmospheric testing because of subsequent bans (thankfully). We have Kennedy to thank for that.

A lot of fallout would have been around in the mid-1960s.

I could also have been exposed to contaminants from research at Lawrence Livermore Lab.

When one finds a constellation of environmentally mediated diseases within close family members—such as the complex of Parkinson’s, autism, and pituitary tumor found within my immediate family, one has to wonder why we are not paying more attention to the environmental risks that compromise human well-being.

Hunger, malnutrition, dysentery are ancient diseases that plague our world still because we care not enough to share what we have with all.

Now we have created new diseases to eat away at the health and well-being of those who thought they had plenty.

There is a better way.


[i]               Laurie Barclay, MD Pituitary Tumor Size Unrelated to Headache Symptoms. Arch Neurol. 2004;61:721-725

[ii] Kawasaki (2002, Mar) Photophobia as the presenting visual symptom of chiasmal compression. Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology, 22(1), 3-8