Uncompromising Photos Expose Juvenile Detention of 60,500 in America Every Night. Six times rate of all other developed nations

On any given night in the U.S., there are approximately 60,500 youth confined in juvenile correctional facilities or other residential programs. Photographer Richard Ross has spent the past five years criss-crossing the country photographing the architecture, cells, classrooms and inhabitants of these detention sites. The resulting photo-survey, Juvenile-In-Justice, documents 350 facilities in over 30 states. It’s more than a peek into unseen worlds — it is a call to action and care.

“I grew up in a world where you solve problems, you don’t destroy a population,” says Ross. “To me it is an affront when I see the way some of these kids are dealt with.”

The U.S. locks up children at more than six times the rate of all other developed nations. The over 60,000 average daily juvenile lockups, a figure estimated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), are also disproportionately young people of color. With an average cost of $80,000 per year to lock up a child, the U.S. spends more than $5 billion annually on youth detention. On top of the cost, in its recent report No Place for Kids, the AECF presents evidence to show that youth incarceration does not reduce recidivism rates, does not benefit public safety and exposes those imprisoned to further abuse and violence.

99% Choir Forecloses on Bank of America

The 99% Choir forecloses on Bank of America's Seattle Headquarters whilst caroling about naughty bankers and their outrageous holiday bonuses. Source

Wildlife Thriving After Nuclear Disaster? Radiation from Chernobyl and Fukushima Nuclear Accidents Not as Harmful to Wildlife as Feared

Radiation from the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents may not have been as harmful to wildlife as previously thought.

New research by Professor Jim Smith, of the University of Portsmouth, and colleagues from the University of the West of England has cast doubt on earlier studies on the impact on birds of the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl in April 1986.

Their findings, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, are likely to also apply to wildlife at Fukushima in Japan following its nuclear disaster in 2011 and represent an important step forward in clarifying the debate on the biological effects of radiation.

Professor Smith, an environmental physicist at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: "I wasn't really surprised by these findings -- there have been many high profile findings on the radiation damage to wildlife at Chernobyl but it's very difficult to see significant damage and we are not convinced by some of the claims.

"We can't rule out some effect on wildlife of the radiation, but wildlife populations in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl have recovered and are actually doing well and even better than before because the human population has been removed."

Why You Should Care: SOPA

The Internet is under attack, but Tim's robopal is too busy watching dog videos on YouTube to care. Can Tim prove to him that things like SOPA and ACTA are a threat to our online liberty? Source

A Look at how Central Banks are Steering our Society off an Economic Cliff

With debt troubles brewing in Spain, a European Central Banker is triggering talk of ECB intervention...again...So now people are speculating about another bond purchase program to lower Spain's borrowing costs. Oh geez -- how much more money will be conjured out of thin air and pumped into Europe's cesspool to make things "look" stable?? We'll talk about the cost of all this easy money with economist and chairman of the Ludwig Von Mises Institution, Lew Rockwell.

11 Year Old Ron Paul Supporter Slams the Federal Reserve +

What Do Europe's Pirate Parties Stand for?

What kind of country would put pirates in charge of the government? The answer is: a country like Germany. Last fall, voters in Berlin elected members of the German Pirate Party to state parliament. In March, the party won further seats in the tiny state of Saarland. According to a recent poll, it’s poised to continue storming the ship of state. With national support at 13 percent, it has overtaken the Green Party to become the country’s third most popular party. All without ever having decided on a clear party platform.

Indeed, given its name, the German Pirate Party is appropriately anarchic, with a history of hammering out policy disagreements via venomous (and public) Twitter spats. Its hierarchy is largely flat and often evolving. Founded in 2006 as an offshoot of a similar party in Sweden, on a platform of defending copyright infringement and illegal downloads, it has since cast about for something more to stand for. Civil liberties remain central, including calls for drug legalization, digital privacy, and the separation of church and state, but so are such issues as free public transport and Wi-Fi

In Vietnam They Will Pay You To Store Your Gold

Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man

They Will Actually Pay You To Store Your Gold

Here’s something you don’t see every day: Banks in Vietnam will actually pay YOU to store your gold in one of their safe deposit boxes. I was pretty surprised to find this out for myself; neither Simon nor I have seen it anywhere else in the world except here.

This is actually how banking used to be. The original bankers were goldsmiths– big burly guys who worked with gold on a daily basis. They had the security systems already established, and, for a fee, they were willing to let you park your gold in their safes.

Eventually, goldsmiths got into the moneylending business; instead of charging a security fee, they would pay depositors a rate of interest for the right to loan out the gold at a higher rate of interest.

Goldsmiths’ reputations lived and died based on the quality of their loan portfolios, and their consistency of paying back depositor savings.

Today that’s all but a footnote in history. Except in Vietnam.

$8,250/oz Silver and ONE BANK!

The silver markets are rigged. Every day. Every trade. Every option. Every derivative. The silver markets have been rigged since the early 1970's when Alan Greenspan introduced computer market trading systems to the world beginning the long term commodity market rigging operation. http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/101.cfm

Since that time there has not been a day when the silver markets have been "freely traded". Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, knows the true "Fair Market Value" of silver!

But like all price suppression schemes, the silver manipulation must come to an end and we are on the brink of that moment. The only remaining question should be "What is the true value of silver in terms of money?"
First a little background to set the stage.
Computer Commodity Trading

Impeach Obama 2012! Join the National Campaign! +

Kurt Nimmo, Film director, producer, actor and writer Sean Stone has thrown his weight behind a resolution introduced in the House last month by North Carolina Republican Walter Jones. Resolution 107 states that should the president use offensive military force without the authorization of Congress that such an act would be "an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor."

'Israel conspires to destabilize Syria'

UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan has warned against the familiarization of the situation in Syria, insisting that the issue cannot be solved through military approaches. Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, author and Islamic Studies expert from Madison, to further explore the issue. Source

The Economics Spring - Krugman v Keen

For economics nerds like me the last week has been riveting. Paul Krugman, a Nobel-prizewinning member of the economics establishment, has been debating with Steve Keen, a radical who’s long argued that the conventional economics taught in universities is woefully unrealistic because it ignores important features of the real world like uncertainty, the role of banks, debt and how money is created.

The Tipping Point

I may be wrong, but it looks like a tipping point. A host of concerned economy-watchers are beginning to understand that most economists failed to understand or predict the global economic crisis, and should therefore be deposed.
Just as the despots of north Africa and the middle East crumbled in the face of a critical mass of popular opposition, so too mainstream economics is looking shaky in the fresh-faced glare of laymen.