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Wondering if I can push the hit count higher on this dog of a video.
Iceland’s voters expressed their outrage on Saturday against bankers, the government and what they saw as foreign bullying, overwhelmingly rejecting a plan to pay $5.3 billion to Britain and the Netherlands to reimburse customers of a failed Icelandic bank.
With all but 2,500 of the 143,784 votes counted, the authorities said, 93 percent voted “no” and 1.8 percent voted “yes” in the first public referendum ever held on any subject in Iceland. The remaining ballots were declared invalid.
But the referendum was more symbolic than substantive, and the Icelandic government hastened to make clear that Iceland would still pay back the money, albeit on different terms from the ones rejected.
[…]
How to repay the debt, which represents more than 40 percent of Iceland’s gross domestic product, has consumed this small, isolated nation for the last year and a half, since its banks failed, its stock market crashed and its currency collapsed.The money represents a portion of the losses incurred by more than 300,000 Dutch and British customers of Icesave, an Internet branch of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. The bank went bankrupt in October 2008, along with 85 percent of Iceland’s banking sector. The Netherlands and the British reimbursed their citizens, and are now pushing to get the money back from Iceland.
The three countries have been fighting over the deal’s terms ever since. An agreement this fall that would have given Iceland 15 years to pay the money, at 5.5 percent interest, only narrowly passed the country’s Parliament.
But on Jan. 5, [Icelandic President] Mr. Grimsson unexpectedly refused to sign the bill into law, setting off the need for a nationwide referendum.
Seems to me the referendum was a stunt by the government to let the public vent and try to get them onside. I suspect Americans would have voted similarly had the US had a referendum on the bailouts.
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This Episode’s Executive Producer: Shane Brady Listen to show by clicking ► Direct link to show. |
Arctic methane and cow farts be damned! Yes, it’s obvious that the science is in: American’s cars are at the heart of climate change. Therefore, it’s only right that we cripple our recovering economy to save the planet! [For members of the ‘literal Internet’, that was sarcasm.]
To meet the Obama administration’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon.
To reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the cost of driving would simply have to increase, according to a report released Thursday by researchers at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The research also appears in the March edition of the journal Energy Policy.
The 14 percent target was set in the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget for fiscal 2010.
In their study, the researchers devised several combinations of steps that United States policymakers might take in trying to address the heat-trapping emissions by the nation’s transportation sector, which consumes 70 percent of the oil used in the United States.
Most of their models assumed an economy-wide carbon dioxide tax starting at $30 a ton in 2010 and escalating to $60 a ton in 2030. In some cases researchers also factored in tax credits for electric and hybrid vehicles, taxes on fuel or both.
In the modeling, it turned out that issuing tax credits could backfire, while taxes on fuel proved beneficial.
On the other hand, if the taxes were used to pay down the deficit… Riiight.
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This is just now coming out? And there is no test that will reveal you’ve smoked it.
Will K2 synthetic marijuana get you high?
Last week, The Kansas City Star and metro TV news were brooding over K2, a legal synthetic pot.
It supposedly gives you the same high as marijuana and was legally available for purchase for $15 a bag at shops in Lawrence.
Of course, the cops don’t like it. And legislators want to ban it.
But in all this fuss, no one has actually said whether K2 gets you high.
The answer is important because (a) if it doesn’t get you stoned, lawmakers have better things to do than pass unnecessary laws to curry political points and (b) you have better things to do than drive around searching for barely legal faux-reefer if it doesn’t work.
So in the interest of investigating political intent and protecting consumers, the Pitch Action News Team took a day trip to the Sacred Journey — a Lawrence botanical store — bought two bags of K2 and smoked up in the parking lot like a bunch of high school kids getting stoned before first bell.
From a regular pot smoker: “I was satisfied with the high I got. It didn’t last long, but I did feel some visual effects (things appeared bright, slightly blurry) and a relaxed physical state. I thought the Blonde was more smooth on the lungs and tasted better.
From a moderate: “As a sometimes-to-moderate pot smoker, I think K2’s high is pretty comparable to the buzz you get from smoking a oney of middies. We smoked two joints.
Click pic to take a ride
Make sure your speakers are turned up!
Can there possibly be another explanation for this car from Franco Sbarro (no relation to the mall Italian food chain)?
Starting from the front (or at least what we think is the front), the Autobau looks like an early prototype of a Cylon Raider so frightening even homicidal robots were forced to change it for fear of getting the heebie-jeebies. Moving backwards there’s a windshield so flat it’s unlikely anyone over the age of six will be able to see through it.
Along the sides the design incorporates Lamborghini Gallardo cutlines through the windows, which alone would look good. Unfortunately, the designer slapped a set of windows on behind the passenger cockpit making it look absolutely revolting. And the clamshell-like way in which it opens to swallow driver and passenger? Hideous.
And the rear end? We’ll let you know if we find one. The car essentially ends with an overhang so gigantic anything over a four-degree incline will cause the Autobau to get stuck. According to the creator, there’s a Ferrari V12 engine stuffed in the back of the car producing 500 HP — power you’ll need to escape anyone with a camera.
Click pic for “America’s Prophet’s” website
Who could possibly guess that a psychic would be a fraud? Especially when he’s investing your life savings!
-The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil suit against “America’s Prophet” Sean David Morton, alleging he lied about using his psychic expertise in investing more than $6 million from investors.
Morton, of Hermosa Beach Calif., solicited individuals over nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, public appearances and newsletters to put money into Delphi Associates Investment Group. He claimed his psychic ability would be used to invest in foreign currencies, the SEC said in a suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In one newsletter, the SEC quoted Morton as writing “I called ALL the highs and lows of the market, giving EXACT DATES for rises and crashes over the last 14 years.”
[…]
The SEC charges Sean David Morton invested “only about half of the funds” with the foreign-currency trades he had promised the money would be put into. Further, the SEC said, the Mortons used at least $240,000 of the funds for their own nonprofit religious organization, PRI.
Morton, 51 years old and known as “America’s Prophet,” appears on a nationally syndicated radio show, “Coast to Coast AM,” with an audience of nearly 3 million listeners, the SEC said. He also publishes the monthly newsletter The Delphi Associates Newsletter, a paid, subscription-only newsletter that the SEC said has about 20,000 subscribers.
Ionia kindergartner suspended for making gun with hand — More from Michigan? What’s going on there?
To the little boy’s mother, it was just a 6-year-old boy playing around.
But when Mason Jammer, a kindergarten student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, curled his fist into the shape of a gun Wednesday and pointed it at another student, school officials said it was no laughing matter.
They suspended Mason until Friday, saying the behavior made other students uncomfortable, said Erin Jammer, Mason’s mother.
School officials allege Mason had displayed this kind of behavior for several months, despite numerous warnings.
“I do think it’s too harsh for a six-year-old,” said Jammer, who was previously warned that if Mason continued the practice he would be suspended. “He’s six and he just likes to play.”
Principal of Ionia, stylin’
Found by Bunni.
 Royal Oak D-Bag Mayor, Jim Ellison.Click to Facebook “wall.” |
City Won’t Return Medical Marijuana — You have to wonder how some of these dipshits can sleep at night. It’s disgusting.
ROYAL OAK — The city won’t return medical marijuana confiscated from a registered patient during a traffic stop or compensate him for it, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the American Civil Liberties Union.
City Attorney David Gillam said the patient, a 46-year-old Royal Oak man with multiple sclerosis, violated the 2008 Michigan Medical Marijuana Act by possessing marijuana obtained from someone who is not his registered caregiver.
- Apple delays launch of iPad.
- Google buys DocVerse to jam-up Microsoft.
- New Windows Phone is nice they all say.
- Ballmer hints at new and more X-Box form factors.
- Tivo shares skyrocket.
- New Sony gadgets arriving all aimed at Apple.
- Photoshop for Android appears. Who needs it?
Show presented by e-Harmony. Get a date.
Go to www.eharmony.com
and use the code EHTECH for a great discount.
Go to www.eharmony.com
and use the code EHTECH for a great discount.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
I’ll have my Margarita with extra salt please. OK… that’s enough.
The Wall Street Journal via CNet News
Sometime this year, Sony will launch a new smartphone and a portable tablet-like device, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The smartphone will be able to play PlayStation games, and the tablet device will be some combination of a Netbook, e-reader, and PlayStation Portable, according to “people familiar with the matter” who spoke to the Journal. The reading/gaming/computer gadget is intended to better compete with the Apple iPad and an expected wave of similar devices from other gadget makers. Both products are supposed to hit store shelves this year, though there are not yet any details on price.
Sony has already announced it is launching a digital download service called Qriocity (pronounced “curiosity”), later this month as a rival to iTunes. Movies, TV shows, music, and video games will be available for download, and these new devices are intended to work with the service.
Though Sony won’t confirm it’s working on such a device, it’s clear the company has its eye on Apple. At a press conference last month, Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda expressed his company’s interest in competing in the touch-screen tablet market with Apple.
Seems like whenever Apple comes out with something new, all the other companies follow suit… good for the consumer.
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