Two Kinds of Black Swans - John Azis

The black swan is probably the most widely misunderstood philosophical term of this century. I tend to find it being thrown around to refer to anything surprising and negative. But that’s not how Taleb defined it.

Taleb defined it very simply as any high impact surprise event. Of course, the definition of surprise is relative to the observer. To the lunatics at the NYT who push bilge about continuing American primacy, a meteoric decline in America’s standing (probably emerging from some of the fragilities I have identified in the global economic fabric) would be a black swan. It would also be a black swan to the sorry swathes of individuals who believe what they hear in the mainstream media, and from the lips of politicians (both Romney and Obama have recently paid lip service to the idea that America is far from decline). Such an event would not really be a black swan to me; I believe America and her allies will at best be a solid second in the global pecking order — behind the ASEAN group — by 2025, simply because ASEAN make a giant swathe of what we consume (and not vice verse), and producers have a historical tendency to assert authority over consumers.

COMEX we have a problem - by Allan Flynn

Two Simple Questions for Lawmakers

1. Is it lawful, as they advertise, for the Bank of International Settlements to undertake joint efforts to influence gold asset prices through intervention in the gold market? And
2. Is it acceptable, as they advertise, for the Bank of International Settlements to undertake joint efforts to influence gold asset prices by intervention in the gold market, where citizens and institutions otherwise are led to believe they are investing in free and fair markets?

During the third quarter of 2011, in the midst of the European banking crisis, with the Swiss Franc soaring to new safe haven heights, the Swiss National Bank came under increasing pressure to ease the burden of a too strong a currency on the swiss economy. Following ineffective actions in August, the SNB finally bit the bullet on September 6th, selling a reportedly 40-50 billion Euro to significantly devalue the Swiss Franc, which was otherwise becoming a much sought after alternative to the faltering Euro. Jeremy Cook, Chief Economist at currency brokers World First described the action on that calamatous day, in The Guardian, as:

the single largest foreign exchange move I have ever seen … The Swiss franc has lost close on 9% in the past 15 minutes. This dwarfs moves seen post-Lehman brothers, 7/7, and other major geo-political events in the past decade

German Prohibition: Nobel Prize-winner Gunter Grass has been declared persona non grata by Israel

A prominent German writer and Nobel Prize-winner Gunter Grass has been declared persona non grata by Israel following harsh criticism for his new poem published last week. In his latest work Germany's most famous living author accused Israel of endangering world peace in its standoff with Iran - his work was condemned at home and in Israel. Joining us now from Tel Aviv to discuss the scandal is Gideon Levy - who's a columnist for Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "Israel won't nuke Iran on the first attack." Source

Ten Minutes After the Titanic Struck the Iceberg - Charles Hugh Smith

We are like passengers on the Titanic ten minutes after its fatal encounter with the iceberg: the idea that the ship will sink is beyond belief.

As we all know, the "unsinkable" Titanic suffered a glancing collision with an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. Ten minutes after the iceberg had opened six of the ship's 16 watertight compartments, it was not at all apparent that the mighty vessel had been fatally wounded, as there was no evidence of damage topside. Indeed, some eyewitnesses reported that passengers playfully scattered the ice left on the foredeck by the encounter.

But some rudimentary calculations soon revealed the truth to the officers: the ship was designed to survive four watertight compartments being compromised, and could likely stay afloat if five were opened to the sea, but not if six compartments were flooded. Water would inevitably spill over into adjacent compartments in a domino-like fashion until the ship sank.

The Militarization of Police in America: Being Trained by Mossad + Operation Gladio

US police forces train with Israel's Mossad agents, treating peaceful American protesters like terrorists

GLOBAL SCREAMING REVOLUTION - MUSIC - X Art v the New World Order

Evolution at Sea: Long-Term Experiments Indicate Phytoplankton Can Adapt to Ocean Acidification

Fossil fuel derived carbon dioxide has a serious impact on global climate but also a disturbing effect on the oceans, know as the other CO₂problem. When CO₂ dissolves in seawater it forms carbonic acid and results in a drop in pH, the oceans acidify. A wealth of short-term experiments has shown that calcifying organisms, such as corals, clams and snails, but also micron size phytoplankton are affected by ocean acidification. The potential for organisms to cope with acidified oceanic conditions via evolutionary adaptations has so far been unresolved.

Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) have now for the first demonstrated the potential of the unicellular algaeEmiliania huxleyi to adapt to changing pH conditions and thereby at least partly to mitigate negative effects of ocean acidification. These results raised by the biologists Kai Lohbeck, Prof. Ulf Riebesell and Prof. Thorsten Reusch are published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.

Experimental Emiliania huxleyistrains were isolated in Norwegian coastal waters and cultured in the laboratory under projected future ocean CO₂ conditions. After about one year, which translates into 500 generations in this rapidly reproducing species, the biologists detected adaptation to high CO₂ – adapted populations grew and calcified significantly better than non adapted control populations when tested under ocean acidification condition.

We Are Winning: How Pirate Parties Are Changing The World

Among all the bad laws being passed right now, change is coming. The Pirate Party’s plan for changing the world is proceeding much, much faster than expected. While the laws on the drawing board are still asinine, we’re at a tipping point where the net repressors are about to lose their influence on lawmaking.

After the Pirate Party’s political entry in the 2006 Swedish elections, we set out on a five-step plan to make sure that the offline civil liberties would carry over into the online world, against the wishes of the old guard. Each of these five steps would traditionally be impossible, and we’re done with the first two and are approaching the fourth:

How To Be a Crook - Pass It On!

Ever wanted to rob your fellow man? Learn the different methods you can use... and learn who is using them on YOU right now.

Pakistani president makes rare trip to India India’s prime minister accepts invitation to visit Pakistan

The leaders of India and Pakistan met Sunday, with both vowing to pursue better relations between the nuclear-armed nations, according to media reports.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke for nearly an hour in New Delhi, with Singh saying he would accept Zardari’s invitation to visit Pakistan by the end of the year.

Billed as private yet still important diplomatically, the meeting marked their first face-to-face meeting since 2009 and the first visit by a Pakistani head of state to India in seven years.

“We would like to have better relations with India. We have spoken on all topics that we could have spoken about and we are hoping to meet on Pakistani soil very soon,”

PM Cash for access and Syria -- Double Standards, Afshin Rattansi

The drinks listed in White House dinner are kept as a US state secret, we ask why? Did the accidental open microphone for Obama and Medvedev in Korea reveal something about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's prostitution scandal? We also talk to Ammar Waqqaf, from the Syrian Social Club in London about continuing attempts to destabilize the government of Syria. These and much more are all reviewed in this edition of Double Standards with Afshin Rattansi. Source