Fears grow over global food supply

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:44:24 +0000

Two days of unrest in Maputo, Mozambique, left seven people dead and 280 injured after the government decided to raise bread prices by 30%

Wheat prices rose further on Friday in the wake of Russia’s decision
to extend its grain export ban by 12 months, raising fears about a
return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08.

In Mozambique,
where a 30 per cent rise in bread prices triggered riots on Wednesday
and Thursday, the government said seven people had been killed and 288
wounded.

http://www.ft.com/

7.0 Quake Shakes New Zealand Awake

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:18:42 +0000

A strong magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck close to New Zealand

‘s
second-largest city of Christchurch early Saturday local time, wreaking
havoc on older buildings and roads, damaging water pipes and power
lines and leading to an airport shutdown.

There were just two reports of serious injuries,
and authorities were responding to looting in the aftermath of the
quake. The USGS did not warn of the threat of tsunamis, a common
after-effect of an earthquake.

http://foxnews.xom

Sun storm to hit with ‘force of 100m bombs’

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:46:03 +0000

The first solar storm of this cycle hit the Earth early this month, causing it to light up spectacularly / NASA

AFTER 10 years of comparative slumber, the sun is waking up – and it’s got astronomers on full alert.

This week several US media outlets reported that NASA was warning the massive flare that caused spectacular light shows on Earth earlier this month was just a precursor to a massive solar storm building that had the potential to wipe out the entire planet’s power grid.

NASA has since rebutted those reports, saying it could come “100 years away or just 100 days”, but an Australian astronomer says the space community is betting on the sooner scenario rather than the latter.

Deadly fungus spreading across US and Canada

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:18:51 +0000

(NaturalNews) A research study out of Duke University has found that a
dangerous mutated form of an airborne fungus called Cryptococcus gattii
is spreading across the Northwest United States and some parts of
Western Canada. The fungus, which typically only infects people with
autoimmune disorders and compromised immune systems, now seems to be
infecting healthy people as well, worrying experts.

Published in PLoS Pathogens,
a journal of the Public Library of Science, the report explains that
the new fungus is currently infecting people across the Pacific
Northwest region and its scope is continuing to expand. Though the
fungus was originally discovered in tropical and subtropical regions, it
is somehow thriving in temperate regions far different than its native
home.

Church of God Faithful Flock

“Enron Accounting” Has Bankrupted America: U.S. Deficit Really $202 Trillion, Kotlikoff Says

admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:02:01 +0000

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts the U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.3 trillion this year. An astronomical figure, to be sure, but that’s lower than was projected in March. It’s also less than last year’s record $1.41 trillion deficit, which was close to 10% of GDP.

And, that’s the good news.

As the deficit grows so does the national debt, which is currently more than $13.3 trillion, according to official figures.

But the situation is actually much, much worse, according to Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff.

http://finance.yahoo.com

Teachable Moments

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:24:08 +0000

Why we know socialism works for the few, not the many.

Is not there some old Harry Truman Democrat still around to advise the
new Democratic aristocracy to live it down a bit in these tough times?

After presidential calls for sacrifice in our rough days of
recession — and coming on the heels of the Gatsby-like Clinton wedding,
the H.M.S. Kerry, the Gore getaway in Montecito, and “John’s Room” —
the enormous movable feast of Michelle Obama’s from Marbella to
Martha’s Vineyard does not go well with “two nations,” “raise the bar,”
downright mean country,” and all the other progressive complaints.
What was that about one selfish America living one way and another less
fortunate America living quite another? More mundanely, who says a
life in government doesn’t pay?

Aristocrats: Raising the Bar on the Costa del Sol

The problem with Michelle Obama’s Marabella-to-Martha’s-Vineyard
August is not that the first family doesn’t deserve time off but that
Michelle, in the past, has gone on the record that the country’s elite
(of which she claimed not to be a part) had created one nation for
themselves and quite a different for most others — at least that’s how I
interpreted never having been proud of her country until the rise of
hope and change.

So the Versailles-like aura around her trips suggests that her
prior angst arose not because millions were not able to share the
lifestyles of the elite but that she herself had not yet quite partaken
in the sort of life she felt she deserved — which she is now
apparently enjoying to the fullest. The fact that her Costa del Sol
trip coincides with hard times back in the states, comes on the heels
of the Kerry yacht and the Clinton wedding, and clashes with her
husband’s anti-wealthy rhetoric (e.g., “at some point you’ve made enough
money”) makes it all the more weird, both for her adminstration’s
equality-of-result politics and for the larger liberal narrative of
talking truth to power.

by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner

The truth behind America’s ‘civilian militias’

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:11:09 +0000

Armed and extremely… patriotic. Why a growing number of Americans are preparing for a war against their government.

In heavy camouflage gear, Johnny Cochran squats down and shuffles noiselessly along the ground. His target is a large man who, like Cochran, is in military fatigues. Seconds later, Cochran leaps up and stabs the man once, hard, in the neck. The movement is swift, and would almost certainly be lethal, were it not for the fact that the ‘weapon’ Cochran is wielding is a pen.

The scenario I have just witnessed may be simulated, but its protagonists are deadly serious. This is a ‘close combat training’ session given by ‘Fireteam Diamondback’ – an armed militia group, or civilian ‘army’, based in west Texas, in the United States. Cochran, a chain-smoking 39 year-old with a handlebar moustache and goatee whose T-shirt reads: ‘Disgruntled Combat Vet – Right Wing Extremist’, is their leader. Biro-wielding or not, he’s not someone you would wish to encounter in combat.

Church of God Faithful Flock

Will The Bizarre Weather Of 2010 Set The Stage For A Major Global Food Shortage In 2011?

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:50:42 +0000

Record-shattering heatwaves all over the world, massive wildfires in Russia, truly historic flooding in Pakistan and China and devastating droughts in many other areas are playing havoc with harvests all over the globe. This is leading many analysts to predict a sharp rise in food prices for the rest of 2010, and there are even whispers that 2011 could see the outbreak of global food riots that are even worse than what we witnessed back in 2008. The truth is that things are starting to get more than a bit frightening out there. One quarter of Russia’s grain crops have already been wiped out by the unprecedented heatwave and the massive wildfires that have been ravaging that nation. In fact, the Russian government has announced that they have banned all grain exports for the rest of this year. This has caused a dramatic surge in the price of wheat on world markets. Unfortunately, Russia is far from alone in dealing with bad harvests this year. So what happens when global food prices go so high that the hundreds of millions of people existing on the edge of poverty around the world can’t afford to buy food any longer?

That is a very sobering question.

Will The Bizarre Weather Of 2010 Set The Stage For A Major Global Food Shortage In 2011?.

Activist Post: 10 Signs The U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:47:26 +0000

The United States by every measure is hanging on by a thread to its First World status. Saddled by debt, engaged in wars on multiple fronts with a rising police state at home, declining economic productivity, and wild currency fluctuations all threaten America’s future.

The general designations of the ranking system for world status date back to the 1950s, and have included countries at various stages of economic development. Since the Cold War, the definition has come to be synonymous with repressive countries where a wealthy class of ruling elites segment society into the haves and have-nots, many times capitalizing on the conditions that follow an economic crisis or war.

via Activist Post: 10 Signs The U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country.

Residents Flee Moscow As It Chokes In Smog

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:54:33 +0000

Airline flights have been halted from Moscow and residents started to flee after choking dense smoke descended on the Russian capital.

Forest and peat fires have caused the worst smog in living memory to smother the city. Air pollution levels are more than six times higher than safe limits.

via Moscow Smog Flights Diverted From Airport And Residents Flee As Face Masks Sold Out | World News | Sky News.