Light hits near infinite speed in silver-coated glass

By Jeff Hecht: A nano-sized bar of glass encased in silver allows visible light to pass through at near infinite speed. The technique may spur advances in optical computing.

Metamaterials are synthetic materials with properties not found in nature. Metal and glass have been combined in previous metamaterials to bend light backwards or to make invisibility cloaks. These materials achieve their bizarre effects by manipulating the refractive index, a measure of how much a substance alters light's course and speed.

In a vacuum the refractive index is 1, and the speed of light cannot break Einstein's universal limit of 300,000 kilometres per second. Normal materials have positive indexes, and they transmit at the speed of light in a vacuum divided by their refractive index. Ordinary glass, for instance, has an index of about 1.5, so light moves through it at about 200,000 kilometres per second.

The new material contains a nano-scale structure that guides light waves through the metal-coated glass. It is the first with a refractive index below 0.1, which means that light passes through it at almost infinite speed, says Albert Polman at the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. But the speed of light has not, technically, been broken. The wave is moving quickly, but its "group velocity" – the speed at which information is travelling – is near zero.

Fixing The Problem Isn’t Difficult "WITH A HAMMER"

Monty Pelerin's World: The following was received via email. Supposedly it appeared in the Waco Tribune. I don’t know the author, but I assume those interested could look her up. Since the Constitution no longer matters, I assume we can make her President, even though she doesn’t meet the (formerly valid) age restriction.

“IF YOU CAN’T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER,

YOU’VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM”

Wow, this girl has a great plan! Love the last thing she would do the best.This was written by a 21 yr old female who gets it. It’s her future she’s worried about and this is how she feels about the social welfare big government state that she’s being forced to live in! These solutions are just common sense in her opinion.This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX , Nov 18, 2011

PUT ME IN CHARGE . . . Put me in charge of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.
Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, or smoke, then get a job.

Ireland's copyright fascists: Newspapers demand $400 for sharing links

The body representing Ireland’s main newspapers is demanding a minimum of $400 for third parties to directly link their articles, sparking an unprecedented copyright row which strikes at the very heart of sharing content on the World Wide Web.

RT: The National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) – which represents 16 national daily, Sunday and weekly newspapers, and 25 regional newspapers – defended their contentious position on Irish newspapers being linked to by third parties.
The union argued that "that display and transmission of links does constitute an infringement of copyright" under current Irish law if done for commercial purposes without prior consent and payment.
The NNI claimed it is not attempting to crack down on private persons sharing links on social media websites like Facebook or Twitter, saying "there is a distinction between the sending and receipt of links for personal use on the one hand and the sending and receipt of links for commercial purposes on the other."
Opponents of the move have argued that there is no legal basis to view the publication of hyperlinks as a copyright infringement.

Queen's 2013 Speech: "Blood Thirsty Dictators" for tea - Her "Slave Labour Survivors" - Convicted Banksters are Knighted!

The British royal family's accession law, its meddling in politics, the recent Jubilee celebrations, etc. seems to have disappointed many citizens in the UK. Economy: A brief review on unemployment, inflation, bank corruption and the impacts of the Olympics on the economy in Britain. International: What did Britain do in the global arena in 2012? And what were its policies toward Iran, Syria, Islamic Awakening, Libya, Israel, the Malvinas Islands, Cyprus (we don't need your stinking colonial military bases, we want our land back! Response... Silence) and Scotland? Source

Libya: the Revenge after Gaddafi

Fascist NATO's so-called 'humanitarian intervention' in Libya was supposed to bring peace while, every day, stories come out highlighting the tribal divide engulfing the country. A recent report by Amnesty International shows that human rights abuses are rampant in Libya and that the country has been in chaos since Gaddafi was murdered.

Secret and Lies of the (US) Bailout - Matt Taibbi

The federal rescue of Wall Street didn’t fix the economy – it created a permanent bailout state based on a Ponzi-like confidence scheme. And the worst may be yet to come

By Matt Taibbi: It has been four long winters since the federal government, in the hulking, shaven-skulled, Alien Nation-esque form of then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, committed $700 billion in taxpayer money to rescue Wall Street from its own chicanery and greed. To listen to the bankers and their allies in Washington tell it, you'd think the bailout was the best thing to hit the American economy since the invention of the assembly line. Not only did it prevent another Great Depression, we've been told, but the money has all been paid back, and the government even made a profit. No harm, no foul – right? Wrong.
It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people.

Ecuadorian president warns CIA aim to assassinate him before elections

RT: Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has said the CIA may try to kill him prior to upcoming elections. Citing reports of a plot to “destabilize the region,” Correa said the threats were “credible,” given the history of US involvement in Latin America.

Correa alluded to reports by Chilean journalist Patricio Mery Bell, who allegedly passed on information to the Ecuadorian government that President Correa’s life was “under threat” by a CIA plot.
“There are many cases of [the CIA] interfering” in Latin American affairs, Correa said during a campaign tour in the coastal province of Guayas. “These are credible [reports] because this has happened before in Latin America.”
The head of the US diplomatic mission in Quito, Adam Nann, responded to Bell's claims by saying that Washington “would never get involved” in Ecuador's electoral process.
Although Correa conceded that he believed the statements of the US ambassador, he warned that agencies such as the CIA often follow their own agenda and maintain links with organizations representing the extreme right in the countries in which they operate.

Bolivia slams US over 'irrefutable evidence' of meddling

RT: Bolivia has “concrete evidence” that the US is plotting to destabilize the Latin American nation, Minister Juan Ramon Quintana said. Proof of US “harassment” of the Bolivian government will be handed over to President Obama, he added.

The Bolivian government is “scrupulously following” US activity in Bolivia, Minister for the Bolivian Presidency Quintana said in a press conference
“There is so much evidence to hand over to the President of the USA to say to him: Stop harassing the Bolivian government, stop politically cornering and ambushing us!” Quintana stressed. He added that investigations into drug-trafficking and human rights abuses would reveal a “permanent battle” waged by the US to impede progress in Bolivia.
“In the offensive against the government there are no visible subjects… What we’re seeing are the political machinations of the US Embassy,” which seeks to damage the image of the Bolivian government, Quintana said.

Gilberton Police Chief: Disarming Americans is Treason

AJ: A police chief in Gilberton, Pennsylvania, a small burough in Schuylkill County with a population of only 867 people, is proposing a '2nd Amendment Preservation' Ordinance that he plans to present to the city council during its January 24, 2013 meeting.
The ordinance, if adopted, would formally require the city to "enact any and all measures as may be necessary" to prevent the violation of the 2nd Amendment by any federal, state or local entity.

On the Economic Calculation of “Fair Share”

By Dušan Petrovski: When one speaks of a concept it is important that it is properly qualified so as to be correctly understood. Failure to accomplish that makes impossible for either the problem to be identified or a desired solution to be found. Perhaps this is why politicians have a tendency to speak of ill-defined and oft muddled concepts, like “social justice,” “a living wage” or “fair share.” These concepts are impossible to define in a way consistent with how they are represented, since their proponents represent them as definite, rather than abstract matters. In our time the demand for “the rich” to pay their “fair share” trough higher taxes has become a standard war cry broadcast from every public and crony source of media. Yet, there is no objective means of defining either what constitutes “the rich” or “fair share.” Politicians and demagogues alike may debate these issues for as long or as short as they may desire, but whatever level they agree on is sure to be arbitrary, save for the only objective conclusion that such concepts are impossible to qualify.
Given a communistic ownership of schools, roads, streets, parks, healthcare institutions, libraries, schools and universities, how is one to be able to calculate each person’s use—“fair share”—of each? What share of a road belongs to a particular taxpayer? What usage is “fair share”? How many books in any given library belong to a specific person and which specific books? Who owns the walls and who owns the library’s carpets? Does the person paying more in taxes own more of the roads, libraries or schools than the person who pays less? What of the person who pays no tax at all?

Future civilization - Deek Jackson

Assad’s new plan rejected by rebels, US and UK as American troops arrive in Turkey

By Madison Ruppert: In Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s recent speech he continued to identify the rebels as terrorists, showed no interest in stepping down or dealing with the terrorists in the opposition, while also calling for national dialogue and a new constitution to face a public referendum.

Every single time Assad or others have attempted to offer any kind of solution or to engage in dialogue with the opposition, they have flatly refused. The rebels – which indeed are in many cases terrorists – even refused to engage in dialogue when it was called for by the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria in February of 2012.

The U.S. rejected this latest plan, just as they rejected the demands for written ceasefire guarantees from the armed rebels last year.

This latest speech came soon after U.S. troops reportedly arrived in Turkey to man NATO Patriot missile systems which are supposedly purely defensive and will not be used to support a no-fly zone.