6 Jan 2012

Soros Says EU Break-up Would Be Catastrophic


(Reuters) - A collapse of the euro and break-up of the European Union would have catastrophic consequences for the global financial system, billionaire investor George Soros was quoted as saying.

"Today, the euro is potentially endangering the political cohesion of the European Union," the Business Line newspaper cited Soros as saying in the south Indian city of Hyderabad.

"If the common currency were to break down, it will lead to the break up of the European Union itself. And this will be catastrophic not only for Europe but also for the global financial system." The euro zone crisis is "more serious and more threatening than the crash of 2008," the Economic Times reported, quoting Soros. In the near term, some of the euro zone countries may have to take more austerity measures because of the imbalances between the "creditor and the debtor countries," Soros said at a business school event, the Mint newspaper reported. "Unfortunately, they haven't yet solved the acute financial crisis and that is causing the situation to deteriorate...and (it) is not at all clear it will have a solution," he said. Source

Syrian Girl Unveiled - Fallujah War Crimes

The signature of America and her allies is war crimes. Source

What If There Were Two Internets? Can Hackers Create A SOPA-Proof Internet?

What’s the shortest distance between two points? If you said a straight line, then you just earned a self-high five.
We here at WebProNews we have already given you a guide on how to navigate the post-SOPA Internet, but suppose there was an alternative that would obviate any need to even deal with an Internet burdened with the bureaucratic cangue of the United States government. In other words, what if you could use a different Internet altogether?
What if there were two Internets? Is freedom of speech and access to information important enough to you that you’d hop aboard a user-created and -controlled Internet? Does SOPA scare you that much? Let us know in the comments below.
If one is to ever exist, the architects of that straight line to Internet freedom will be Hackerspace Global Grid, a cabal of hackers that have taken up the cause of creating a satellite-based communication network that would be capable of establishing an “uncensorable” Internet. It’s just one of the many goals of their ambitious project to pioneer a global grass-roots space program. Think of it as open-source outer space mission.
It all started in August at the Chaos Community Camp when Nick Farr issued a call to hackers to begin planning to build an Internet that couldn’t be censored by any government, citing the possibility of a SOPA’ed Internet as to why hackers – and everybody, really – should have an Internet unencumbered by censorship. HGG responded with the proposal of creating a satellite-based network capable of “defense against terrestrial censorship of the Internet.”
While HGG states that an alternate Internet incapable of being censored is one possible utilization of such an ambitious project, it’s just one of the many uses from a distributed satellite ground station network. Essentially, it’s a communication network that puts an emphasis on an open-source community of technology development. While there are numerous goals with undertaking this satellite-for-hackers project, the first goal of Farr is to establish a resistance against Internet censorship. “The first goal is an uncensorable Internet in Space,” Farr told BBC. “Let’s take the Internet out of the control of terrestrial entities.”
So how will this ambitious goal of hacking space pan out? Two members of the HGG team, hadez and Andreas Hornig, spoke with WebProNews about how this mission developed and where it will go. As mentioned above, this call to arms is “a direct answer to Nick Farr, Lars Weiler, and Jens Ohlig’s call for a ‘Hacker Space Program,” said hadez.
Hornig, who is actually is more engineer than actual hacker, adds, “Members of our two groups, shackspace and Constellation (me), came together and joined efforts. For my side I had an idea about a distributed ground station network for my group and my university. I asked in HAM radio boards for help and a shackspace member found me and invited me to the shackspace, because I’m also from Stuttgart. Because both groups share a lot of goals and we knew the project’s tasks are very challenging, we joined forces and combined our objectives and technical goals.”
And speaking of that collaborative effort required to succeed on far-reaching projects, some readers out there might be wondering how on earth (oh, the pun) can a group of private individuals possibly hope to finance a mission to essentially colonize space? Hornig and hadez welcome any contributions to HGG’s cause since, as you can imagine, this is going to eventually tally up a pricy bill. “We’re open for any support because this project is ambitious,” Hornig said. hadez estimates that the group is “still below 500 EUR in total at this point in huge parts thanks to the fact that there’s a lot of infrastructure present at our local hackerspace “shackspace” in Stuttgart, Germany which we can use.” Eventually, they admit that “there will be a point where a more significant investment will have to be made, especially once we’re going to build more than a few initial ground stations. We have not yet made any decision whether to ask for funding or who to ask.”
Both members of HGG are adamant about maintaining the focus of the project on keeping the system open to both users and contributors while not compromising the goal with monetary contributions. hadez explains that “the core objective is building a fully open system (hardware, software, documentation) and keeping it that way. Funding which does not interfere with this goal and leaves us the same freedom we have currently would be a possibility.” Hornig emphasized the appeal of the importance of the open-source aspect because the group “will rely on volunteers all over the world forming our global sensor and station grid (via Constellation) and higher costs for the hardware will result in less volunteers.”
Everybody got this? Not only will everybody have Internet freedom but we might even be going to space. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure, Future Edition. But before everybody gets ahead of themselves there, lets make sure everybody’s on the same page: this communication system isn’t going to support the bandwidth you’d need to stream the final season of Arrested Development in HD. The FAQ from HGG explains:
If you’re in desperate need to communicate you do not care about watching videos on YouTube nor do you want to download the latest album of your favorite band to have the perfect soundtrack for whatever the hell you’re doing. You want to get a message out and receive updates. You want to inform and stay informed yourself. A first step will be providing bare-minimum communication infrastructure for that moment of feaco-rotary intersection that will hopefully never happen. But it did happen, several times during 2011 alone in several places. It will happen again.

Think twitter updates, not video streaming.
While the Internet capability is one of HGG’s many goals, Hornig points out that their broader mission is to create a “fusion” between science and society. “The sensor grid allows us to do research in various fields and communication could also be possible as a side effect,” he said. “Especially in aerospace a lot of people think, what is it good for and they forget that they use space technology all the time, like satellite navigation in their cars and cell-phones, weather forecasts and HD-channels via satellite-TV. But they just use it, they are not an essential part. In HGG they can be part and, even more important, they are relevant for the system in general.”
At any rate, HGG doesn’t want to rule out “high-bandwidth links and geo-stationary community controlled satellites” in the future, but for now this would be an incredible gift to society. And before any of you started feeling deflated about this limitation: stop. Allay any of your first-world disappointments because this is a bigger deal than some people may appreciate. Recall when Egypt’s government “turned off” the Internet last January or when Syria tried to suppress users of iPhones or even China’s Great Firewall – all of these obstacles could potentially be circumvented by HGG’s project. And even here in the United States where a Congressional gerontocracy would limit the expression of speech and access to information via SOPA or PIPA, how far behind is the spectre of a total shutdown of the Internet?
That possibility is a big If (hopefully), but if it becomes a real possibility, people like HGG will be your new best friends.
So, do you think it’ll work? I know it sounds like The Future, but can individual hackers and scientists work together to really create a sustainable communication network that would support an alternate Internet? How do you think private industries would respond to such a bold endeavour? Source


S.O.P.H.I.A. (support online piracy humanity's intelectual awakening) will defeat SOPA in the end!

Congressional Bill to Monetize the 'Libertad' Silver Ounce in Mexico

"BILL PRESENTED BY CONGRESSMAN JOSÉ OSCAR AGUILAR GONZÁLEZ, IN THE NAME OF CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS OF DIVERS PARLAMENTARY GROUPS, WHICH CONTAINS THE PROJECT FOR A DECREE BY MEANS OF WHICH ARTICLE 2 OF THE MONETARY LAW OF THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES IS MODIFIED IN ORDER TO PROTECT AND PROMOTE POPULAR SAVINGS THROUGH THE INSTITUTION OF A SILVER COIN WITHIN THE CIRCULATION OF MONEY."

We present here for our readers the whole text of the Congressional Bill which proposes the monetization of the "Libertad" silver ounce, which several Congressmen ("Diputados") associated with various political parties introduced into the Congress on April 28, 2011. The Bill includes the exposition of the economic and social reasons which support the Bill's proposal, as well as the precise changes that must be made to the present Monetary Law in order to introduce the "Libertad" silver ounce into circulation, in parallel with the fiat peso.
At the present time the Bill has been turned over to the Finance Committee of the Congress and has considerable support among legislators of all political parties; the only obstacle to approval is the opposition of the Bank of Mexico, which adduces risks which are actually non-existent and which has systematically refused an open dialogue in the Congress in order to analyze the Bill.
We present the full text of this Bill because we are very proud of our country and of our legislators, who for the last eight years as members of four separate elected Legislatures have patriotically insisted upon the monetization of the "Libertad" silver ounce, despite the obstinate opposition of the Bank of Mexico, Mexico's Central Bank. (Legislatures LVIII, LIX, LX and LXI 2009 - 2012).
Mexico is the one and only country in which a Legislative Body is insisting, and has been insisting for the last eight years, on the imperative need for real money, which can only be regained by inserting a silver coin into circulation in parallel with the fiat peso.
The world is now going down to its destruction in the throes of the present fiat money episode. This period will pass. Silver will, someday, once again be money. When fiat money destroys itself, which it must, the silver placed in circulation alongside it will remain in the field, reaffirming its millennial status as real money for the people - along with gold.
Mexican Civic Association Pro Silver
Hugo Salinas Price, President. 
FULL TEXT AT SOURCE: Includes "EXPOSITION OF MOTIVES" "Historic antecedents"

Jewish settlers invade village on frequent basis - more than 46 times in the past year



Thousands of Jewish settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, have filled a Palestinian village in order to perform Talmudic rituals. A spokesman for Kafl Hares municipality said that the soldiers cleared the streets and established guard posts on the roofs of various buildings around the village.
According to Ma'mon Boze, the settlers then arrived in dozens of buses, wandering around the village singing and shouting. The villagers, said Mr Boze, were alarmed and disturbed throughout the night. The number of settlers on this occasion is estimated to have been around 10,000.
The settlers claim that the village contains Jewish shrines, but Mr Boze explained that the only religious sites in Kafl Hares are Muslim shrines linked to important personalities mentioned in the Qur'an. "No Jewish connection has ever been made," he added, pointing out that Jewish settlers invade the village on a frequent basis - more than 46 times in the past year - and, as the keys for the shrines are held by Palestinians, the Israeli soldiers break the locks and doors every time. Source

Iran To Hold New "Massive" Naval Exercise Near Straits Of Hormuz, To Run Parallel With Joint US-Israel Wargame


Tyler Durden's picture
The selloff in crude yesterday, provoked by this Reuters article stating that Iran is ready to resume nuclear talks with the West, is now well over and the accumulation has again resumed, following (not so) stunning news that merely days after its 10 day Straits of Hormuz military exercise ended, the country is already preparing for yet another, "massive" naval exercise. As RT reports, "Iran is planning to hold new “massive” naval exercises near the strategic Strait of Hormuz within the next few weeks, the country’s Fars news agency has said, as Tehran’s tensions with the West continue to escalate following threats of new sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its controversial nuclear program." And this time the wargame comes with a twist - it will likely occur just across from a comparable drill ran jointly by the US and Israel: "The newly announced Iranian drills, codenamed The Great Prophet, may coincide with major naval exercises that Israel and the United States are planning to hold in the Persian Gulf in the near future. AP quoted on Thursday a senior Israeli military official as saying the drills would be held in the next few weeks." And since the Tonkin Gulf Resolution script is being used point by point, any lost escalation "chances" in the end of 2011 will surely be regained within days.
Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was quoted in the Fars report as saying the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps was planning to conduct “its greatest naval war games” near the Straight of Hormuz in the near future.

The announcement came just days after the Iranian navy completed its 10-day naval exercises near the Strait of Hormuz. The drills were held after the Islamic Republic threatened to block the waterway, where an estimated 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil passes, in response to Western plans to ban oil imports from Iran. The Islamic Republic derives some 60 percent of its budget revenues from oil exports.

The exercises, called Austere Challenge 12, which both Israeli and U.S. officials have described as the largest-ever joint drills by the two countries, are designed to improve missile defense systems and co-operation between the U.S. and Israeli forces.
Got CL? Source

"I Quit, I Think!" John Taylor Gatto - The Ultimate History Lesson

Quoted: Teacher of the year for 1989, 90 and in 91 for all New York State. He quit  "I quit, I think." " I no longer wish to hurt kids to make a living." What do public schools teach children? "Dumbing us down."





Silver in the roaring 20's and great depression

How silver performed during the decade of the 1920's and great depression. Source

Syrian Girl - Syria, Sectarianism & Iraq US Iraq Withdrawal Reasons

Iraq traded Iran for the US, and it still aspires for independence, yet it is in Syria's advantage now that the US has left, suspicion for sectarian strife is still on the US. Interesting how the resistance was not sectarian only a few years ago. There is also some discussion of the role of women in Syria. Source 
"Turkey is Syria's enemy number 1 at the moment." 
"The Iraqi Resistance is the reason the US left."

Massive American troop build-up in Israel: War with Iran on the horizon

President Obama announced today that funding for the military will be cut back, but at the same time the US has sent thousands of US troops to Israel. The two countries are doing a joint exercise called "Austere Challenge 12." The exercise is meant to develop defense systems and collaboration between American and Israeli forces. US officials have denied this is in retaliation to Iran's war games and allege this was planned way in advance. Jamal Abdi, policy director for the National Iranian American Council, gives us his take on this US troop deployment. Source