Obama’s Teleprompter Goes Out

And This Time Obama Gets Ahead Of Teleprompter

Obama once again proved how effective he is, without his teleprompter, today, when he addressed the National Academy of Science. Apparently, Obama didn’t actually know what was in the speech, because he began the speech by introducing members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, then, later in the speech, started to introduce them again, because the teleprompter told him to.

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?

Key Concepts

• Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos.
• Such “failed states” can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and refugees.
• Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production.
• Without massive and rapid intervention to address these three environmental factors, the author argues, a series of government collapses could threaten the world order.

One of the toughest things for people to do is to anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of the time this approach works well. But sometimes it fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by events such as today’s economic crisis.

For most of us, the idea that civilization itself could disintegrate probably seems preposterous. Who would not find it hard to think seriously about such a complete departure from what we expect of ordinary life? What evidence could make us heed a warning so dire-and how would we go about responding to it? We are so inured to a long list of highly unlikely catastrophes that we are virtually programmed to dismiss them all with a wave of the hand: Sure, our civilization might devolve into chaos-and Earth might collide with an asteroid, too!

For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.

I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy-most important, falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures-forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.

To read the rest of this Scientific American article go to: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=civilization-food-shortages

China’s Stockpile Of Gold

China revealed on Friday that it had secretly raised its gold reserves by three-quarters since 2003, increasing its holdings to 1,054 tonnes – or about US$30.9-billion – and confirming years of speculation it had been buying.

Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, told Xinhua news agency in an interview that the country’s reserves had risen by 454 tonnes from 600 tonnes since 2003, when China last adjusted its state gold reserves figure.

Only six countries hold more than 1,000 tonnes, and China is ranked fifth, having leap-frogged Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands with its announcement.

America’s Most Dangerous Cities

In March 2008, Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with eight felonies, including perjury and obstruction of justice. In August, he violated his bail agreement and was thrown in jail. His actions were deplorable for anybody, but Kilpatrick was no Average Joe–he was the mayor of Detroit.

Unfortunately for the Motor City, Kilpatrick, 38, is just one ripple in the area’s sea of crime. Detroit is the worst offender on our list of America’s most dangerous cities, thanks to a staggering rate of 1,220 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people.

“Detroit has, historically, been one of the more violent cities in the U.S.,” says Megan Wolfram, an analyst at iJet Intelligent Risk Systems, a Maryland-based risk-assessment firm. “They have a number of local crime syndicates there–a number of small gangs who tend to compete over territory.”

Detroit was followed closely on the list by the greater Memphis, Tenn., and Miami, Fla., metropolitan areas. Those three were the only large cities in America with more than 950 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people.

Behind the Numbers

To determine our list, we used violent crime statistics from the FBI’s latest uniform crime report, issued in 2008. The violent crime category is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. We evaluated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas–geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics–with more than 500,000 residents.

Though nationwide crime was down 3.5% year over year in the first six months of 2008, the cities atop our list illustrate a disturbing trend: All 10 of the most dangerous cities were among those identified by the Department of Justice as transit points for Mexican drug cartels.

Run by crime lords like Joaquin Guzman Lorea, these gangs–and their violent turf wars–are spreading into the American Southwest and beyond. Places like Stockton, Calif., nearly 500 miles from Tijuana, have seen an uptick in related violent crime.

“Stockton is a major transit point along the I-5 corridor on the way to Seattle and Vancouver,” says Wolfram. “A lot of it is similar to crime happening in the Southwest. For the most part, it’s drug gang on drug gang.”

To read the rest of this article, go to http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/106978/America%27s-Most-Dangerous-Cities;_ylt=AtI48P82LLOvvnWnLyL0a8.7YWsA

New Flu Strain Is A Genetic Mix

Here are some facts about the virus and flu viruses in general:

* The World Health Organization has confirmed at least some of the cases are a never-before-seen strain of influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1.

* Although it’s called swine flu, this new strain is not infecting pigs and has never been seen in pigs. The threat is person to person transmission.

* It is genetically different from the fully human H1N1 seasonal influenza virus that has been circulating globally for the past few years. The new flu virus contains DNA typical to avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses.

* Flu viruses mutate constantly, which is why the flu vaccine is changed every year, and they can swap DNA in a process called reassortment. Most animals can get flu, but viruses rarely pass from one species to another.

* From December 2005 through February 2009, 12 cases of human infection with swine influenza were confirmed. All but one person had contact with pigs. There was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in those cases.

* Symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to those of seasonal influenza — sudden onset of fever, coughing, muscle aches and extreme tiredness. Swine flu appears to cause more diarrhea and vomiting than normal flu.

* Seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people globally in an average year.

* The last pandemic was in 1968 and killed about a million people.

* In 1976 a new strain of swine flu started infecting people and worried U.S. health officials started widespread vaccination. More than 40 million people were vaccinated. But several cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a severe and sometime fatal condition that can be linked to some vaccines, caused the U.S. government to stop the program. The incident led to widespread distrust of vaccines in general.

Don’t Say He Didn’t Warn Us

Don’t take my word for it that Comrade Obama is deliberately setting the stage for energy prices to go through the roof, crippling the economy, weakening the country, and dramatically lowering our standard of living. Here it is, straight from the horse’s ass:

Obama quote:

“Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

It’s fitting that the contemptible fools who voted for this saboteur will soon be living at a Third World level. Unfortunately, so will the rest of us.

Government Forecast: If Flu Problem Explodes, Two Million Americans Die

Somewhere in the basement of a government warehouse, federal employees with too little to do have come up with estimates of what the effects of an all-out flu pandemic would be. Like most estimates, these have a significant chance of being wrong. They draw on theoretic models which cannot do much to take into account the most recent advances in science and disease control.

According to the AP, which has gotten hold of documents put together by the federal government and large companies, the country would face devastation. The most important figure in the forecast is the number of people who would die. The information from the news service is “A full-scale pandemic – if it ever comes – could be expected to claim the lives of about 2 percent of those infected, about 2 million Americans.” Ninety million citizens would get sick. The economy would shut down. US economic output could drop 5.5%.

All of the frightening information almost certainly points to a remarkably unlikely case. The government’s ability to partially isolate major diseases geographically has improved since the SARS outbreak six years ago. Flu treatment drugs have become more effective and widely available. The Internet is a far superior way to spread detailed information to tens of millions of people than TV, radio, or newspaper ever were.

The press will deluge the public with reports about “worst case scenarios”. But, scenarios are all they are.

DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary.

DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: “The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines.”

McGaw appears to have been referring to the section of federal law that allows the Surgeon General to detain and quarantine Americans “reasonably believed to be infected” with a communicable disease. A Centers for Disease Control official said on Tuesday that swine flu deaths in the U.S. are likely.

Federal quarantine authority is limited to diseases listed in presidential executive orders; President Bush added “novel” forms of influenza with the potential to create pandemics in Executive Order 13375. Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term.

A Homeland Security spokesman on Tuesday did not have an immediate response to follow up questions about the memo, which said “DHS is consulting closely with the CDC to determine appropriate public health measures.”

The memo from McGaw, who is DHS’ acting assistant secretary for the private sector, also said: “U.S. Customs and Coast Guard Officers assist in the enforcement of quarantine orders. Other DOJ law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may also enforce quarantines. Military personnel are not authorized to engage in enforcement.”

The CDC’s error is one example of how quarantines can raise civil liberties issues. If a suspected swine flu patient is confined to a hospital isolation ward for a week or two, who pays for the bills? What if private businesses find their buildings requisitioned in an emergency? Or if hospital employees charged with enforcing the quarantine fail to show up for work?

McGaw’s memo on Monday also said that the federal plan to respond to pandemic influenza was “in effect.”

A Defense Department planning document summarizing the military’s contingency plan says the Pentagon is prepared to assist in “quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic” and aiding in “efforts to restore and maintain order.”

Is ‘Possible Pandemic’ A Diversion?

Diversion by design? Look over here, not over there.

While everyone’s attention was being focused by the Obama administration and the media on the “‘possible pandemic”‘ of swine flu virus, Nancy Thorner at American Thinker swept back the curtain to reveal that Democrat congressional leaders and the White House spent “‘the weekend hammering out final details of the proposed $3.5 trillion FY 2010 budget bill, with no Republican input, in a push toward final approval of the 2010 budget proposal by Wednesday.”‘

A curious coincidence that the media stayed focused on the swine flu “‘epidemic,”‘ but barely a mention about a $1.2 trillion dollar health care budget contained within the overall package?

Thorner wrote: “‘Because health care is one of the big drivers of government spending in Obama’s budget – nationalized health care for Democrats has been a dream since FDR – Democrats have decided to use a process called “‘reconciliation“‘ to pass the budget bill in the Senate, (reconciliation waives the need for a super majority vote of 60; a majority vote will do) so there is no chance that Republicans will be able to derail the bill. Also distressing is that debate will be limited without the possibility of amendments. This sounds like a power grab to me.”‘

Chuck Schumer Bragged about Cutting Flu Pandemic Money from Stimulus