Kool inventions

I though these were some cool inventions. See all of them here

3. ReWalk: A Robotic Exoskeleton

Radi Kaiof tests the ReWalk. The inventor of ReWalk, Israeli engineer Amit Goffer, learned the hard way that wheelchair mobility is terribly outdated. In 1997, he broke his neck as the result of a fall, and the wheelchair's limitations were experienced by Goffer first hand. He set to work on a design for a wearable exoskeleten, kind of like a battery powered suit of armor for the lower body.

When he discovered that a whole body device would need too many batteries and be too heavy to be efficient, he decided to build instead a lower body exoskeleten that depended on the use of crutches as well as motors and batteries. Because Goffer can not use his arms to use the crutches, he will not be able to make use of the ReWalk himself.

The ReWalk is more complicated than it looks. Its 44 pounds of off-the-shelf components are controlled by hundreds of algorithms and codes and sensors that all enable standing, sitting, walking, and even climbing stairs. Radi Kaiof, a ReWalk tester had not walked in 20 years, but when he's strapped into the ReWalk, he's a different man.

"I speak eye-to-eye with people, not from the bottom up," he says. "There is one life in a wheelchair, and this is a new life."

4. Rescue Reel: Emergency Escape From Tall Buildings

Kevin Stone an inventor and orthopedic surgeon began working on the Rescue Reel after 9/11 when he vowed to come up with better escape equipment from skyscrapers. Modelled after a fishing reel, the Rescue Reel requires no special knowledge and can take less than a minute from deploying to safety.

"As the cord unwinds, a self-adjusting braking system ensures that the wearer descends at a constant rate." A Kevlar cord must be hooked to a secure object or connection point, like between a door and its door frame. Then, after sliding into the one size harness, the escapee would climb out of an open window, and rappel himself down the side of a building. Stone's Rescue Reel has a centrifugal braking system that controls the rate of descent, ensuring a smooth ride down to safety. The Rescue Reel is expected to be available in 2010 for about $1500 and will be able to lower a person to the ground from up to 100 floors.

5. GenShock: Shock Absorbers As A Source Of Vehicle Power

Zack Andersen and Shakeel Avadhany, 2 of the 5 inventors of GenShock

Five guys BS'ing late at night in their dorm room tossed around the idea of a shock absorber that produces power for a vehicle. Next thing you know, the five MIT students -- Shakeel Avadhany, Zack Anderson, Zack Jackowski, Ryan Bavetta and Vladimir Tarasov — had accomplished it, creating an electric motor generator out of a shock absorber by using a hydraulic system.

The diagram on the right shows the basic construct of GenShock: "As the vehicle moves, the shock compresses and its piston pumps fluid to drive a hydraulic motor and an electric-motor generator. The power that's produced lets the engine-driven alternator do less work, saving fuel." (Bland Designs)

Now the GenShock group, having graduated MIT are working with Humvee® on creating its version of the GenShock and they're exploring possibilities with the Office of Naval Research; the Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center; and truck builders such as Navistar® and Mack® Trucks.

6. Audeo: Speech And Voice Synthesizer For Neurological Impairments

Invented by Michael Callahan, who at 17 lost his ability to speak as the result of a skateboarding accident, the Audeo is for others who lose that same very valuable ability. Though fortunately Callahan's voice returned within a few weeks, he will probably never forget the experience of losing control of his speech mechanism.

The Audeo is a speech synthesizer to help those who's neurological pathways from the brain to the lungs and speech muscles are impaired, though the pathways from the brain to the vocal cords are undamaged. The device lifts electrical signals from the cords with three electrodes at the neck, which send the signals to a computer that translates them into audible speech sounding through the computer's speakers.

There is still a bit of time before the Audeo is perfected for sale. Callahan hopes, for example, to be able to use a cell phone as a replacement for the computer to synthesize and amplify the speech.

7. Vascular Pathways: An Easier, Safer Method To Insert IV Catheters

Anyone who's been poked by a medical technician trying to find your veins will appreciate this invention: a no-fail IV! Designed by Israeli physician Amir Belson, the new catheter IV was inspired by a patient of Dr. Belson's, an infant in the pediatric ward with whom he spent an entire work shift while he tried to insert a catheter into the poor child.

In the Vascular Pathways system, once the needle has entered the vein, a guide wire is advanced from the device and a catheter slides over its curlicue shape. Then the catheter slides directly into the vein without hitting the side walls. The needle and guide can then be retracted leaving the catheter in place. The advantages of the Vascular Pathways system are time saving, cost saving, and patient saving -- as the amount of bruising to a patient by misdirected catheters can leave patients bruised, in pain, and without a fresh vein to poke a hole in....

8. Greensulate: Absolutely 100 Percent Green Insulation

An invention we at InventorSpot have covered no fewer that three times, Greensulate is the natural equivalent of plastics used in insulation and Styrofoam used in plastics. Created by Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, two Rensselaer Polytech grads. this invention is already being produced and is being trialed in a school.

Greensulate is a mix of mostly mushroom roots which grows fast and clean in agricultural by-products instead of soil. The mix is pressed into the desired form and left to stand 10 to 14 days. Once dried in a 100° oven to stop its growth, Greensulate is ready to install. The whole process takes about two weeks without expensive equipment and no specific growing environment.

Bayer and McIntyre have won a $16,000 award from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, as well as a $700,000 prize at the PICNIC Green Challenge in Amsterdam for Greensulate.

Employer pays employees in gold coins-- LOL--

Employer's gold, silver payroll standard may bring hard time

May. 26, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Employer's gold, silver payroll standard may bring hard time

'This is a case about money, greed and fraud'

By JOAN WHITELY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Robert Kahre, who owns numerous construction businesses in Las Vegas, is standing trial on 57 counts of income tax evasion, tax fraud and criminal conspiracy. If convicted on most counts, he could live out his life in prison.

But attorney William Cohan paints Kahre as an American "hero" who believes his payroll system helped keep the U.S. monetary system sound, and was also a form of legal tax avoidance.

A self-made entrepreneur, Kahre, 48, paid his workers in gold and silver coin, and said they could go by the coins' face value -- rather than the much higher market value of their precious metal content -- for federal tax purposes. He did not withhold taxes from their wages, and he provided the same payroll system to 35 outside clients, which were other local businesses.

Judge David Ezra is presiding over the criminal trial, which began May 19 in U.S. District Court. Joining Kahre as defendants are his longtime girlfriend, a sister who works in his businesses, and a former business assistant.

Three of the four present defendants were among the nine people tried on similar charges two years ago, but no convictions resulted. In the 2007 trial, four others of the nine defendants, including Kahre's mother, were entirely acquitted. Two individuals were only partially acquitted, but dropped from the indictment that forms the basis for the trial before Ezra.

This time around, the only new defendant is Danille Cline, Kahre's girlfriend of 19 years, and the stay-at-home mother of his four children. The government claims she obstructed the Internal Revenue Service by allowing Kahre to place several homes in her name, thus attempting to conceal his assets.

Cline's former brother-in-law, Thomas Browne, also was indicted this time, for his role as broker in some of the real estate transactions, but has since reached a plea bargain. He is expected to testify against the defendants.

"This is a case about money, greed and fraud." The line appeared on screen in court during the government's opening statement by Christopher Maietta, a trial lawyer from the Washington, D.C., office of the Department of Justice.

According to the government, Kahre and others concocted a fraudulent cash payroll "scheme" and then peddled it to other Las Vegas contractors. Defendants did not report to the IRS any payments made to workers, "either at the true amount or at the bogus amount, ... being the face value of the coin or coins," according to the indictment.

The now-suspended payroll service handled about $114 million over six years, according to court records. Between 17 and 25 percent of that went to Kahre or his workers; the rest went to the 35 client businesses to pay their workers, court records show.

The government did not indict most of the outside businesses or their personnel as co-conspirators with Kahre; although on May 6, Daniel McCartan of Action Concrete, which was one of Kahre's payroll clients, was finally sentenced in connection with a plea agreement reached in December 2006. McCartan received five months in prison and five months of home detention for one count of tax evasion.

Kahre contends his workers had agreed to be independent contractors, so he did not have to withhold taxes for them. His six businesses are in the trades of painting, drywall, tiling, plumbing, heating-cooling and electrical work.

Further, the $50 gold coins and the silver dollars Kahre used for payroll are designated by Congress as legal tender, so people are entitled to value them at their stamped denominations, he also contends. Taken at face value, each defendant's annual coin income placed him below the threshold for filing a federal tax return.

Earlier cases on the question of how to value gold or silver coins have focused on collectible coins that had been pulled from circulation but still have value as property, according to the defense. Kahre used coins minted after 1985, which are allowed to circulate.

"It's not whether what Mr. Kahre did was legal under the law," defense attorney Michael Kennedy told the jury in his opening statement. "It's whether he believed what he did was legal," in the absence of explicit instructions by the IRS -- on its Web site, in its publications or in response to written correspondence from Kahre -- on how to value post-1985 gold or silver coins.

"We're not here to determine if moneys are owed," said Kennedy on behalf of his client, Lori Kahre, who had relied on her brother's tax theory. A tax mistake is different from a tax crime, so the IRS can still use administrative channels to force the defendants to pay back taxes, Kennedy has noted in the past.

A sincere, but mistaken understanding of the tax-filing process is different from adopting a "pretextual" belief system in order to dodge taxes, Ezra acknowledged in court Wednesday.

Cohan described Kahre's payroll system as a "boycott of the Federal Reserve." But when the lawyer attempted to elaborate on Kahre's view that the nation has debased its paper currency by abandoning its former gold standard, Ezra added, "We're not here to convince the jury that the ... (U.S.) monetary system belongs to an international cabal."

Contact reporter Joan Whitely at jwhitely@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0268.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/FDIC-Fund-Running-zacks-15360529.html?sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

FDIC Fund Running Dry

• Dirk van Dijk, CFA
• On Wednesday May 27, 2009, 2:22 pm EDT

We highlight JP Morgan Chase & Co., Inc. (NYSE: JPM - News), BankUnited Financial Corp. (NasdaqGS: BKUNA - News), Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC - News) and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC - News).

As the FDIC has had to step in to take over more and more insolvent banks, the fund has dwindled to dangerously low levels. At the same time, the number of problem banks continues to grow at a rapid pace.

At the end of the first quarter there were 305 'problem institutions' with a total of $220.0 billion in assets, up from 252 institutions and $159.4 billion in assets at the end of 2008. At the end of the quarter, the Deposit insurance fund was at just $13.0 billion, or 0.27% of insured deposits, a decline of 24.7% in the quarter alone.

The first graph (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the steep drop in the coverage ratio. Just a year ago, the fund was equal to 1.01% of covered deposits. The current level is its lowest since the first quarter of 1993, when we were digging out from the S&L fiasco.

However, don't worry about losing the money in your checking account if your bank goes under. Congress has already approved a $500 billion line of credit to the FDIC. Without a doubt, that line of credit is going to have to be tapped. This does emphasize the insanity of having the FDIC provide the guarantees for the PPIP [Public-Private Investment Program]. The fund simply does not have the resources available to do it. The money for the inevitable large losses that the fund will take on the program will come from that line of credit.

The prospect of the FDIC paying back that loan anytime soon from increased assessments on the banks is extremely remote. This is simply a back-door bailout of the FDIC, structured as a line of credit so it does not increase the reported budget deficit.

Using the FDIC to backstop the PPIP program is simply a way to bypass Congress. There is no way that Congress could not have approved the line of credit and let the FDIC become insolvent. By all rights, the assessments on the banks should be raised to make up for the shortfall in the FDIC, but now is not exactly the time to do it, since it would simply deplete their capital at a time when they desperately need to improve their capital base.

To bring the fund up to a more normal 1.2% of insured assets would require $44.8 billion, not counting the losses that the fund has incurred so far in the second quarter, or any subsequent losses. That would be a pretty hefty tax for the banks to pay. Still, fairness demands that it be paid by the banks, not by the general taxpayer.

During the quarter, 21 banks with $9.5 billion of assets failed, at an estimated cost to the fund of $2.2 billion. In the 12 months to 3/31/09 there have been 44 failures with $381.4 billion in assets at a total cost to the fund of $20.1 billion. The 5.3% of failed assets cost to the fund over the last year is somewhat misleading since by far the largest failure was Washington Mutual, which was bought by J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM - News) at no cost to the FDIC (but very generously backstopped by the Fed).

It is noteworthy that Wamu never showed up on the 'problem bank' list. This is a good reminder than not all problem banks fail, and not all failures are identified as problem banks before they go under. The 23.2% cost of failed assets in the first quarter is much more representative of a typical bank failure.

Since the end of the first quarter, 15 more banks have failed, and one, BankUnited (NasdaqGS: BKUNA - News) had more assets ($12.8 billion) and cost the fund more ($4.9 billion) than all the failures of the first quarter combined. It is thus very likely that the fund is already approaching a single-digit basis-point coverage ratio of insured deposits.

If we simply subtract out the $4.9 billion from the $13.0 billion at the end of the quarter (very generously assuming that assessments coming in equal the cost of the other 14 smaller failures) the fund is down to just $8.1 billion, or 3.7% of identified problem assets. As commercial real estate tanks, hundreds of smaller banks with massive exposure to it will be in danger of failing.

It is very likely that the list of problem banks and their assets will continue to grow. When looking at the second graph (from the FDIC, by way of http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) note that the difference between the last bar and the second to last bar is only a quarter, while the other bars are annual differences. Thus the increase in the assets of problem banks is actually accelerating by increasing $60.6 billion in the first quarter, almost twice the $34.3 billion average increase per quarter during 2008.

Similarly, the quarterly increase in the number of problem institutions, 53, is significantly higher than the average quarterly increase during 2008, which was 44. In short, we still have many significant problems in the banking system, and the rate of increase shows no sign of slowing down.

While the big boys like Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC - News) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC - News) may be in the process of raising enough capital to repay the TARP, there are many smaller banks which are in deep trouble. While individually they do not pose a systemic risk, collectively they will prove to be a significant drag on any economic recovery.

Read the full analyst report on WFC

Zacks Investment Research

© 2008 Zacks.com. All rights reserved.

County Trying To Stop Home Bible Studies

video here
POSTED: 5:31 pm PDT May 25, 2009

UPDATED: 1:45 pm PDT May 28, 2009

SAN DIEGO -- A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold Bible studies in their home, 10News reported.Attorney Dean Broyles of The Western Center For Law & Policy was shocked with what happened to the pastor and his wife.Broyles said, "The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say amen?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say praise the Lord?' 'Yes.'"The county employee notified the couple that the small Bible study, with an average of 15 people attending, was in violation of County regulations, according to Broyles.Broyles said a few days later the couple received a written warning that listed "unlawful use of land" and told them to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit" -- a process that could cost tens of thousands of dollars."For churches and religious assemblies there's big parking concerns, there's environmental impact concerns when you have hundreds or thousands of people gathering. But this is a different situation, and we believe that the application of the religious assembly principles to this Bible study is certainly misplaced," said Broyles.News of the case has rapidly spread across Internet blogs and has spurred various reactions.Broyles said his clients have asked to stay anonymous until they give the county a demand letter that states by enforcing this regulation the county is violating their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion.Broyles also said this case has broader implications."If the county thinks they can shut down groups of 10 or 15 Christians meeting in a home, what about people who meet regularly at home for poker night? What about people who meet for Tupperware parties? What about people who are meeting to watch baseball games on a regular basis and support the Chargers?" Broyles asked.Broyles and his clients plan to give the County their demand letter this week.If the County refuses to release the pastor and his wife from obtaining the permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.

Obama breaks his own rule

U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level, Faber Says (Update2)

U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level, Faber Says (Update2)

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NEWS

By Chen Shiyin and Bernard Lo

original source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=avgZDYM6mTFA&refer=us#

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy will enter “hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe because the Federal Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates, investor Marc Faber said.

Prices may increase at rates “close to” Zimbabwe’s gains, Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong. Zimbabwe’s inflation rate reached 231 million percent in July, the last annual rate published by the statistics office.

“I am 100 percent sure that the U.S. will go into hyperinflation,” Faber said. “The problem with government debt growing so much is that when the time will come and the Fed should increase interest rates, they will be very reluctant to do so and so inflation will start to accelerate.”

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said on May 21 inflation may rise to 2.5 percent in 2011. That exceeds the central bank officials’ long-run preferred range of 1.7 percent to 2 percent and contrasts with the concerns of some officials and economists that the economic slump may provoke a broad decline in prices.

“There are some concerns of a risk from inflation from all the liquidity injected into the banking system but it’s not an immediate threat right now given all the excess capacity in the U.S. economy,” said David Cohen, head of Asian economic forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. “I have a little more confidence that the Fed has an exit strategy for draining all the liquidity at the appropriate time.”

Action Economics is predicting inflation of minus 0.4 percent in the U.S. this year, with prices increasing by 1.8 percent and 2 percent in 2010 and 2011, respectively, Cohen said.

Near Zero

The U.S.’s main interest rate may need to stay near zero for several years given the recession’s depth and forecasts that unemployment will reach 9 percent or higher, Glenn Rudebusch, associate director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said yesterday.

Members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee have held the federal funds rate, the overnight lending rate between banks, in a range of zero to 0.25 percent since December to revive lending and end the worst recession in 50 years.

The global economy won’t return to the “prosperity” of 2006 and 2007 even as it rebounds from a recession, Faber said.

Equities in the U.S. won’t fall to new lows, helped by increased money supply, he said. Still, global stocks are “rather overbought” and are “not cheap,” Faber added.

Faber still favors Asian stocks relative to U.S. government bonds and said Japanese equities may outperform many other markets over a five-year period. “Of all the regions in the world, Asia is still the most attractive by far,” he said.

Gloom, Doom

Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, said on April 7 stocks could fall as much as 10 percent before resuming gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has since climbed 9 percent.

Faber, who said he’s adding to his gold investments, advised buying the precious metal at the start of its eight-year rally, when it traded for less than $300 an ounce. The metal topped $1,000 last year and traded at $949.85 an ounce at 12:50 p.m. Hong Kong time. He also told investors to bail out of U.S. stocks a week before the so-called Black Monday crash in 1987, according to his Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chen Shiyin in Singapore at schen37@bloomberg.net; Bernard Lo in Hong Kong at blo2@bloombeg.net

Last Updated: May 27, 2009 00:54 EDT

This is really strange video

Crazy world out there



http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=10427244


Trooper, Paramedic Fight Caught on Tape

Posted: May 26, 2009 10:18 PM EDT Updated: May 27, 2009 10:39 PM EDT

By Dave Jordan,
From the New9 website:

PADEN, Oklahoma — An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and a paramedic were caught on tape scuffling Sunday while a patient was being taken to the hospital.

The fight happened on Highway 62, near Paden, after a OHP and first responders argued over a close call on the road.

OHP alleges that one of the paramedics on the video assaulted the trooper, but the assault was not caught on tape.

“We’re like trying to tell the guy, ‘Dude, my mom is in the back,’ and my stepdad was like, ‘My wife is in the back. Can we do this at the hospital?’” said Kenyada Davis.

Kenyada Davis’ mother was the woman in the back of the ambulance being treated for heat exhaustion.

He was able to shoot the altercation with his cell phone’s camera.

Davis said it all started because the ambulance failed to yield to OHP troopers, who were en route to a call along highway 62 in Paden.

Davis said the driver of the ambulance was trying to avoid hitting a car that slowed down and wasn’t aware of troopers nearby until it was too late.

“He slowed down, and as the car was getting over, that’s when he passed us,” Davis said. “I didn’t hear him.”

But after OHP troopers finished their official business, they pulled the Creek Nation ambulance over. One of the troopers chided Paul for failing to yield.

Once the ambulance was pulled over, Davis pulled out his phone and shot video of the scene.

Watch the full video of the altercation between the trooper and first responders.

According to the OHP, the paramedics assaulted the trooper just before the fight broke out.

“It didn’t look like it was being handled very well, at least form the tape I saw from the troopers’ standpoint,” said NEWS 9 Legal Analyst Irven Box.

The entire scene, including the alleged assault was captured on dash cam video and has not been released.

The Okfuskee County District Attorney’s office is reviewing all of the footage and could file criminal charges against the paramedic by the end of the week.

Jesse Ventura Tell Fox and Friends where to go

The Atlantic Monthly
February 1982
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond

An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign

by Edward Jay Epstein

Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?

The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value—and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems.

The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control production and perpetuate the illusion of scarcity of diamonds. The instrument they created, in 1888, was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., incorporated in South Africa. As De Beers took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, it assumed many forms. In London, it operated under the innocuous name of the Diamond Trading Company. In Israel, it was known as "The Syndicate." In Europe, it was called the "C.S.O." -- initials referring to the Central Selling Organization, which was an arm of the Diamond Trading Company. And in black Africa, it disguised its South African origins under subsidiaries with names like Diamond Development Corporation and Mining Services, Inc. At its height -- for most of this century -- it not only either directly owned or controlled all the diamond mines in southern Africa but also owned diamond trading companies in England, Portugal, Israel, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland.

De Beers proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains, fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price every year since the Depression. Indeed, the cartel seemed so superbly in control of prices -- and unassailable -- that, in the late 1970s, even speculators began buying diamonds as a guard against the vagaries of inflation and recession.

The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever -- "forever" in the sense that they should never be resold.

read rest of the article

Destroying the Family Farm

Destroying the Family Farm

America has lost so much of its industry but the small business man is also in danger of extinction. Now Food Lobbyist from Tyson Food and others are passing regulations to put the family farm out of business!
find out more at:
FARM AND RANCH FREEDOM

http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/articles-and-newsletters

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/opinion/11hayes.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

March 11, 2009

Op-Ed Contributor

Tag, We’re It (i.e. Destroying the Family Farm)

By SHANNON HAYES

Warnerville, N.Y.

AT first glance, the plan by the federal Department of Agriculture to battle disease among farm animals is a technological marvel: we farmers tag every head of livestock in the country with ID chips and the department electronically tracks the animals’ whereabouts. If disease breaks out, the department can identify within 48 hours which animals are ill, where they are, and what other animals have been exposed.

At a time when diseases like mad cow and bird flu have made consumers worried about food safety, being able to quickly track down the cause of an outbreak seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, the plan, which is called the National Animal Identification System and is the subject of a House subcommittee hearing today, would end up rewarding the factory farms whose practices encourage disease while crippling small farms and the local food movement.

For factory farms, the costs of following the procedures for the system would be negligible. These operations already use computer technology, and under the system, swine and poultry that move through a production chain at the same time could be given a single number. On small, traditional farms like my family’s, each animal would require its own number. That means the cost of tracking 1,000 animals moving together through a factory system would be roughly equal to the expense that a small farmer would incur for tracking one animal.

These ID chips are estimated to cost $1.50 to $3 each, depending on the quantity purchased. A rudimentary machine to read the tags may be $100 to $200. It is expected that most reporting would have to be done online (requiring monthly Internet fees), then there would be the fee for the database subscription; together that would cost about $500 to $1,000 (conservatively) per year per premise. I estimate the combined cost for our farm at $10,000 annually — that’s 10 percent of our gross receipts.

Imagine the reporting nightmare we would face each May, when 100 ewes give birth to 200 lambs out on pasture, and then six weeks later, when those pastures are grazed off and the entire flock must be herded a mile up the road to a second farm that we rent.

Add to that the arrival every three weeks of 300 chicks, the three 500-pound sows that will each give birth to about 10 piglets out in the pastures twice per year (and that will attack anyone who comes near their babies more fiercely than a junkyard pit bull), then a batch of 100 baby turkeys, and the free-roaming laying hens. Additional tagging and record-keeping would be required for the geese and guinea fowl that nest somewhere behind the barn and in the hedgerows, occasionally visiting the neighbors’ farms, hatching broods of goslings and keets that run wild all summer long.

Each time one of those animals is sold or dies, or is trucked to a slaughterhouse, we would have to notify the Agriculture Department. And there would be penalties if we failed to account for a lamb quietly stolen by a coyote, and medical bills if we were injured when trying to come between a protective sow and her piglets so we could tag them.

For my family, the upshot would be more expenses and a lot more time swearing at the computer. The burden would be even worse for rural families that don’t farm full-time, but make ends meet by keeping a flock of chickens or a cow for milk. The cost of participating in the system would make backyard farming prohibitively expensive.

So who would gain if the identification system eventually becomes mandatory, as the Agriculture Department has hoped? It would help exporters by soothing the fears of foreign consumers who have shunned American beef. Other beneficiaries would include manufacturers of animal tracking systems that stand to garner hefty profits for tracking the hundreds of millions of this country’s farm animals. It would also give industrial agriculture a stamp of approval despite its use of antibiotics, confinement and unnatural feeding practices that increase the threat of disease.

At the same time, the system would hurt small pasture-based livestock farms like my family’s, even though our grazing practices and natural farming methods help thwart the spread of illnesses. And when small farms are full participants in a local food system, tracking a diseased animal doesn’t require an exorbitantly expensive national database.

Cheaper and more effective than an identification system would be a nationwide effort to train farmers and veterinarians about proper management, bio-security practices and disease recognition. But best of all would be prevention. To heighten our food security, we should limit industrial agriculture and stimulate the growth of small farms and backyard food production around the country.

The burden for a program that would safeguard agribusiness interests would be disproportionately shouldered by small farmers, rural families and consumers of locally produced food. Worse yet, that burden would force many rural Americans to lose our way of life.

Shannon Hayes, a farmer, is the author of “The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook” and the forthcoming “Radical Homemakers.”

Man Made Global Warming a Hoax for Taxes

Man Made Global Warming a Hoax for Taxes

by mark

The popular theory of Global Warming seems to depend on the theory that the Earth is heating up because of increase of Carbon-dioxide caused by man-made products and energy use, (We will refer to this as Man Made Global Warming).

Dr. Tim Ball, Historical Climatologist, PhD. (Doctor of Science) from the University of London, England seems skeptical about scientific method used in analyzing the Global Warming phenomena. He is old enough to remember in the early 1970's the “scientific” panic of the next ice age coming, which turned out to be bad science, so he is skeptical of the present Man Made Global Warming Theory (4):

"...The majority of the scientists who are on the Kyoto and global warming bandwagon know nothing about the science...The other problem is that so many of the scientists who are quoted as being on side with global warming are actually doing studies on the impact of global warming and climate changes and their studies then are listed as evidence for support of it. They are not, they are just starting with the assumption that global warming is going to occur, and what effect that would have. That is not support or proof at all. "(5)

Was Global Warming a political movement before it had scientific momentum, as Dr. Ball implies in his comment above? Yes. He is correct; surprisingly the first proponent of Man Made Global Warming was arch-conservative politician Margaret Thatcher. She promoted the theory that fossil fuels not only polluted the air with toxins but they also were heating up the earth to dangerous levels, as reported by the Toronto Sun Newspaper:

"By the mid-1980s, Thatcher had lost faith in coal and oil as secure energy sources for Great Britain, due to her confrontations with British mine workers and the oil crisis of the 1970s. Thatcher favored nuclear power and upon learning that nukes, unlike coal and oil, didn't emit carbon dioxide, used it to forward her agenda...Thatcher poured government money into research on global warming, creating the climate modeling unit that would serve as the basis for the now famous (or infamous) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change." (6)

She promoted this theory in an effort to get more nuclear power plants built and win public opinion to support her brutal treatment of the coal miners when she destroyed that industry in Great Britain.

The ramifications of a government's impure intentions are important when a wealthy country like Great Britain supports the research of Global Warming with grants. Those looking for grant money will add support the Global Warming theory, if this will get them grants. Nigel Calder, former editor of New Scientist, comments on this problem in the Documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle”:

“If I wanted to do research on the squirrels of Sussex any time from 1990 onwards, I would write my grant application saying, 'I want to investigate the nut-gathering behavior of squirrels with special reference to the effects of global warming', and that way I get my money; if I forget to mention Global Warming, I might not get the money. The whole global warming business has become like a religion. People who disagree are called heretics.” (7)

Al Gore picked up where Thatcher left off. His documentary, ”An Inconvenient Truth,” uses ice core samples to show increase CO2 and increased temperature correspond as one of his main scientific proofs for Man Made Global Warming. Unfortunately, he left out part of the data and its conclusions. CO2 is not the cause of Global Warming but a product of it. Jeff Severinghaus, Professor of Geo-sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography– University of California, San Diego, explained that an increase of CO2 happens after a warming period not before – CO2 levels are more like a thermometer than an engine. Increase of CO2 levels lag, by 800 years on average, behind increased temperatures.(8) The British High court ruled that Gore's film was misleading political propaganda in this major point and 8 other major assertions.(9) Gore seems to be unaware that the earth's surface temperature has fluctuated greatly throughout history.

A review on global temperature change through out history, carried out by a team from Harvard-Smithson Center for Astrophysics, reviewed more than 200 climate studies and found an extremely hot climate period, commonly called the “ Medieval Warm Period of 800 to 1300 A.D. and an equally cold period, called the Little Ice Age of 1300 to 1900 A.D. These periods were worldwide phenomena not limited to the Europe and North America. While 20th century temperatures are much higher than in the Little Ice Age period, many parts of the world show the medieval warmth to have been greater than that of the 20th century.” (10) Both these periods are before industrialization; therefore Man Made Global Warming is shown false by these higher and low climate periods.

So the evidence seems to be contrary from popular belief and the evidence keeps mounting. The Arctic ice has been decreasing and reached a record low in 2007, but satellite images show the contrary in Antarctic sea. New Scientist Magazine reported that ice in Antarctic is increasing every month of the year expect January (2007-2008). Man Made Global warming proponents, like John Turner of the British Antarctic Survey predict that, 'By the end of the century we expect one third of Antarctic sea ice to disappear,' but he is confused because '... we're trying to understand why it's increasing now, at a time of global warming.' "(11)

The evidence seems confusing because it doesn’t fit his theory.

Research from NASA's “Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment,” noticed another possible answer for Global Warming -- solar activity.

“[In the] late 17th century astronomers observed that no sunspots existed on the Sun’s surface during the time period from 1650 to 1715 AD. This lack of solar activity, which some scientists attribute to a low point in a multiple-century-long cycle, may have been partly responsible for the Little Ice Age in Europe.” (12)

The Little Ice Age made regular freezing of the Thames in London common, (13) while the Medieval Warm period allowed wine vineyards to grow in London. (14) Both these periods are extreme to our own present period and could not have happened because of industrialization. Both seem to have been related to sun activity.

More proof that Sun activity is most likely the Cause of Global Warming is that Mars' ice caps have been melting. This was pointed out in a recent National Geographic article “In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide 'ice caps' near Mars' south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.”(15)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has also found other warming signs in our solar system observed with the “NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based instruments reveal that Neptune's largest moon, Triton, seems to have heated up significantly since the Voyager space probe visited it in 1989. “The warming trend is causing part of Triton's surface of frozen nitrogen to turn into gas, thus making its thin atmosphere denser.” (16) Sun activity can only explain this, Mars and our own planets recent warming trends.

Now we have an opportunity to see how the sun affects us, since National Geographic has reported: “The sun is the least active it's been in decades and the dimmest in a hundred years.” (17) This lull could be a good opportunity to see if sun activity is driving climate change, rather than greenhouse gases and so far there has been a cooling trend that coincides with lower sun activity. (18) We must not forget Global Warming has been happening on other planets and some scientists have predicted we will start a Global Cooling period, because of less sun activity, so far their predictions are correct. Thus, it is logical to assume some other reasons for Global Warming other than man-made pollution. Pollution is bad but it must be fought for the right reasons otherwise the environmental movement will lose integrity.

Quo Bono?—(Possible real reasons for the Man Made Global Warming movement)

We have already seen how that Margaret Thatcher affected those seeking grant money motivated the Global Warming theory in England, but is there any other reasons for its global appeal? Yes, taxes. Global Warming leaders like Al Gore propose a cap an trade or carbon tax. As Thomas Friedman of the New York Times points out, supporters of cap-and-trade like it because it doesn’t use the word “tax” ― even though it amounts to one. “Worse, cap-and-trade will be managed by Wall Street. If you liked credit-default swaps, you’re going to love carbon-offset swaps.”(19) Ralph Nader in a resent op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal pushed to support Al Gore’s carbon tax with his considerable influence. (20) There seems to be a lot of self interest involved to support Man Made Global Warming, especially governments seeking new tax revenue.

This would give the EPA the authority to tax greenhouse gas for not only transportation and manufacturing, but also livestock. Livestock has been marked as a major greenhouse gas producer by the UN. (21) The dairy industry is already warning about this possible new tax. “The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog... Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”(22)

Man-Made Global Warming has been a large waste of time, money and distracting humanity from real human made environmental problems. If we want to work together to “Save the Planet,” let us start with saving our greatest natural resource – humankind. Humans are not a disease but part of the Eco system and should be treated with just consideration as other parts of the system. Humans have a get capacity for problem solving and all that is needed is the healthy environment and education to let true creativity to emerge to solve environmental problems and have social responsibility flower.

Five foundational points are needed to help utilize human resources of the Developing World:

1. Clean Drinking Water – More damage is done to the environment and human life by tainted or polluted drinking water than almost any other problem.This is well covered by a UN report:

“More than 2.6 billion people - over 40 per cent of the world's population - do not have access to basic sanitation, and more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water, warns a report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.” (23)

With an increase access to clean water, hygiene would improve and with it health and disease control.

2. Energy – Increase energy resources to the developing world would increase standards of living as United Nation studies have shown:

“The linkages between energy and poverty have implications for the development of strategies to alleviate poverty. The standard poverty-alleviation strategies—macroeconomic growth, human capital investment, and income redistribution—do not address directly the energy-poverty nexus. If patterns of energy use result in adverse effects on nutrition, health, and productivity, the benefits of economic growth are likely to be absorbed only very slowly by the people living in poverty. For instance, schooling will continue to promote earning capacity, but by less when biomass is the dominant energy carrier because of poor lighting, limited access to knowledge via radio and television, and poor school attendance due to respiratory illness.” (24)

If over population is considered a problem, energy would help since less people would be needed for any given job.

3. Land – “My home is my castle” the Christian understanding of private property increases a sense of civic responsibility as Medieval Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas points out:

“Private ownership of property is the normative means ( not absolute) by which the principle of common use is realized... individuals tend to shirk responsibilities that are nobody's in particular, and people tend to take better care of what is theirs than of what is common to everyone. [But]...after one has satisfied one's own needs and those of one's families, one ought to use the surplus in ways that benefit others.” (25)

4. A Just Wage – Production of Goods is not a problem but a living wage to consume these goods produced without going into debt is; a national credit should be given to all workers as GDP increases. Thus making each country a co-operative institution and the citizens reaping some of the profits as a dividend:

“I believe, as I think many of you do here, that the right to income security must be viewed as an absolute. This right, I believe without apology, is ultimately based on a spiritual value, that every human being who comes to life on the planet has a right to a minimally secure existence, which governments exist to ensure. I believe that income security is what people must have to express their right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Without income security, that is a hollow phrase.”(26)

5. High Ideal- only by promoting a high ideal like Christian individualism or the like, such as an Aristotelian ethic, which promotes the dignity of the person with education and virtue, in this way civic responsibility can make a global change. We all need to work toward virtuous society so there will be more freedom and benefits available for each individual to develop. Virtue is to society like fusion is to the sun; the more active the more brightly it gives light.

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footnotes

(4) Gwynne, Peter, “The Cooling World”, Newsweek, April 28, 1975; also:“Another Ice Age?” Monday, Jun. 24, 1974.

(5) Interview with Dr. Tim Ball, Ph.D. in Climatology; professor University of Winnipeg, The Frontier Centre for Public Policy – http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=864

(6) Goldstein, Lorrie "Very strange bedfellows (Maggie Thatcher and global warming)" Toronto Sun 2007-05-20 ; http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1836667/posts

(7) Documentary “Global warming Swindle”, Channel 4 London England, First quote: 46min.;20sec.--Second quote: 7min.;40 --http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2889526806551008706minutes)--(total running time 1hr & 16min.)

(8) Seringhaus, Jeff, Professor of Geosciences,Scripps Institution of Oceanography – University of California, San Diego, “What does the lag of CO₂ behind temperature in ice cores tell us about global warming?,” 3 December 2004. --http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/co2-in-ice-cores/

also cf. – “Timing of Atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic Temperature Changes Across Termination III” by:Nicolas Caillon, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Jean Jouzel, Jean-Marc Barnola, Jiancheng Kang, Volodya Y. Lipenkov. – http://icebubbles.ucsd.edu/Publications/CaillonTermIII.pdf

also cf. – SCIENCE VOL 299 14 MARCH 2003--Page two-- www.sciencemag.org

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=3719791&page=2

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3310137/Al-Gores-nine-Inconvenient-Untruths.html

(9) Harvard-Smithson Center for Astrophysics, Press Release No.: 03-10; March 31, 2003--http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/archive/pr0310.html

(10) “Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age and 20th Century Temperature Variability from Chesapeake Bay” United States Geological Survey – http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eespteam/Atlantic/GPCabs.htm

(11) Brahic, Catherine, “Why Antarctic Ice is Growing Despite Global Warming,” NewScientist Magazine issue 2705, April 20, 2009 – http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16988-why-antarctic-ice-is-growing-despite-global-warming.html

(12) NASA “Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment,” Factsheet – http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/SORCE/sorce_03.php

(13) BBC, “Frost Fairs, London, UK,” March 11, 2003, – http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A970733

(14) ”First vineyard is planted in London since Middle Ages,” London Telegraph, May 06, 2009 – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/5285160/First-vineyard-is-planted-in-London-since-Middle-Ages.html

(15) Ravilious, Kate, “Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says,” National Geographic News,February 28, 2007 – http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

(16) “Hubble Reveals Neptune Moon, Titan, Warmer”, NASA-Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas,VOL. 37 NO. 13, July 17, 1998, Page 1 – http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/roundups/issues/98-07-17.pdf.

(17) Minard,Anne "Sun Oddly Quiet -- Hints at Next 'Little Ice Age'?" National Geographic News May 4, 2009 – http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090504-sun-global-cooling.html

(18) Calder, Nigel, “An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change – Nigel Calder, former editor of New Scientist, says the orthodoxy must be challenged,” The Sunday Times, February 11, 2007

(19) Friedman, Thomas L., Op-Ed Columnist, "Show Us the Ball," New York Times,April 7, 2009 – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/opinion/08friedman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

(20) Ralph, Nader and Heaps, Toby, "We Need a Global Carbon Tax -- The cap-and-trade approach won't stop global warming" Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2008 – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122826696217574539.html

(21) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations "Livestock a major threat to environment --Remedies urgently needed" -FAO News Room, November 29, 2006-http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

(22) Dairy Industry Newsletter "EPA Charge of $175 per Cow to Curb GHGs?" The Dairy Site News, December 31, 2008-- http://www.thedairysite.com/news/25647/epa-charge-of-175-per-cow-to-curb-ghgs

(23) UN:World Health Organization,"World facing "silent emergency" as billions struggle without clean water or basic sanitation, say WHO and UNICEF", News release,AUGUST 26, 2004 – http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2004/pr58/en/index.html

(24) United Nations Development Programme, “Energy After Rio: Prospects and Challenges” (New York: United Nations Publications, 1997), p. 11

(25) Gregg, Samuel, Dr.Phil. “Private Property and Public Good,” – Acton Institute- http://www.acton.org/publications/randl/rl_article_539.php

(26) Cook, Richard C., "The Basic Income Guarantee and Monetary Reform: A Tale of Two Ideas", Atlantic Free Press, Saturday, 24 March 2007 – http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/1232/81/

Obama planned to take away Veterans Insurance

Reimbursement plan dropped by Obama

VA&R

Tuesday, March 24, 2009--The American Legion newsletter
Original article: http://www.legion.org/dispatch/2602/reimbursement-plan-dropped-obama

National Commander David K. Rehbein applauded President Barack Obama for dropping a plan to bill private insurance companies for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries.

"We are glad that President Obama listened to the strong objections raised by The American Legion and veterans everywhere about this unfair plan," Rehbein said. "We thank the administration for its proposed increase in the VA budget, and we are always available to assist by providing guidance to ensure a veterans health-care system that is worthy of the heroes that use it."

During a March 16 meeting at the White House with Rehbein, the president revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs for care provided for veterans suffering from service-connected disabilities and injuries. Rehbein quickly objected to the plan and began a grass-roots campaign to rally support against the measure.

Obama's plan prompted outrage from dozens of servicemembers, veterans and non-veterans who e-mailed Rehbein and National Headquarters. An op-ed by Rehbein that criticized the plan also appeared in the March 18 Wall Street Journal.

Following a meeting on March 18 with The American Legion and other veterans service organizations, the White House announced that it will no longer consider billing insurance companies or veterans for treatment of their service-connected disabilities.

In a written statement, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, "In considering the third-party billing issue, the administration was seeking to maximize the resources available for veterans. However, the president listened to concerns raised by the [veteran service organizations] that this might, under certain circumstances, affect veterans' and their families' ability to access health care."

"Although we disagreed with the proposal, additional revenue streams are needed by VA," Rehbein said. "I strongly encourage Congress and the administration to allow VA to begin billing Medicare for the treatment of veterans who qualify for the program. They paid into Medicare for their entire working careers, and should be able to use it in the medical system that was built specifically for them."

Below are excerpts from comments received by American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein and National Headquarters, following President Barack Obama's decision to drop his plan to bill private insurance companies for the treatment of veterans with service-connected disabilities and injuries.

I was motivated to join The American Legion today because of the way the commander stood toe-to-toe with President Obama about health care for wounded vets. I am glad the Legion seems to be well led and is such a strong advocate. I, myself, wasn't wounded or sickened due to my service (thank God), but I stand with our brothers and sisters who have made this sacrifice.
Thank you for honoring our wounded.
Mike O'Leary

When I saw the story about the president wishing to bill private insurance for veterans' service-related care, I was appalled and immediately wrote my congressmen. I haven't written letters to Washington much before, but this awful idea really needed rebutting.
I want to congratulate you for getting the word out and (we hope) quashing this immoral and outrageous proposal so quickly. Thank you for your courage in standing up for the right thing here.
Sarah Unfried

Thank you for standing up to the president regarding charging private insurance companies for veterans medical care. I'm a Marine Corps veteran with no medical problems, but I work with many Marine veterans (combat veterans) who need medical care. Thank you, again.
Denne Howard

Thank you for responding the way you did to the ... presidential intent to make veterans pay for their medical services. Our veterans are in good hands as long as you are speaking for them, their families, and the benefits they so very much deserve. Thank you.
Ann-Marie Kimble

David, a big thank you and well done for objections raised on our behalf. We (100-percent service-connected veterans) need all the help we can get. Iowa is well served, as is the nation. Thanks, again.
Rod Skinner

The American Legion Dispatch