Venezuela detains crew after seizing oil ship – Americas – Al Jazeera English
Venezuela detains crew after seizing oil ship – Americas – Al Jazeera English.(FULL ARTICLE)
A US-chartered oil exploration ship seized by the Venezuelan navy in Caribbean waters disputed with neighboring Guyana has arrived at Venezuela’s Margarita Island.
Venezuelan authorities say the ship’s 36 crew members, including five US citizens, will be held on board while an investigation continues.
Admiral Angel Belisario Martinez told local station Union Radio on Sunday that the research ship was conducting “unauthorised scientific work” in Venezuela’s exclusive economic zone.
He said the case had been turned over to prosecutors.
The vessel was conducting a seismic study for Anadarko Petroleum under a concession from Guyana.
Guyana’s government says the crew was well within Guyana’s territorial waters.
…
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How Much Longer Will the Dollar be the Reserve Currency? – Patrick Barron – Mises Daily
How Much Longer Will the Dollar be the Reserve Currency? – Patrick Barron – Mises Daily. (FULL ARTICLE)
We use the term “reserve currency” when referring to the common use of the dollar by other countries when settling their international trade accounts. For example, if Canada buys goods from China, it may pay China in US dollars rather than Canadian dollars, and vice versa. However, the foundation from which the term originated no longer exists, and today the dollar is called a “reserve currency” simply because foreign countries hold it in great quantity to facilitate trade.
The first reserve currency was the British pound sterling. Because the pound was “good as gold,” many countries found it more convenient to hold pounds rather than gold itself during the age of the gold standard. The world’s great trading nations settled their trade in gold, but they might hold pounds rather than gold, with the confidence that the Bank of England would hand over the gold at a fixed exchange rate upon presentment. Toward the end of World War II the US dollar was given this status by international treaty following the Bretton Woods Agreement. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was formed with the express purpose of monitoring the Federal Reserve’s commitment to Bretton Woods by ensuring that the Fed did not inflate the dollar and stood ready to exchange dollars for gold at $35 per ounce. Thusly, countries had confidence that their dollars held for trading purposes were as “good as gold,” as had been the Pound Sterling at one time.
However, the Fed did not maintain its commitment to the Bretton Woods Agreement and the IMF did not attempt to force it to hold enough gold to honor all its outstanding currency in gold at $35 per ounce. The Fed was called to account in the late 1960s, first by France and then by others, until its gold reserves were so low that it had no choice but to revalue the dollar at some higher exchange rate or abrogate its responsibilities to honor dollars for gold entirely. To it everlasting shame, the US chose the latter and “went off the gold standard” in September 1971….
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Garlic Compares Favorably To A Best-Selling Blood Pressure Drug | The Daily Sheeple
Garlic Compares Favorably To A Best-Selling Blood Pressure Drug | The Daily Sheeple. (FULL ARTICLE)
A groundbreaking new study published in Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences has revealed that garlic is at least as effective as the blockbuster blood pressure lowering drug atenolol in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure in patients diagnosed with essential hypertension, a condition linked to the #1 cause of death in developed countries.[1]
Hypertension is called a ‘silent killer,’ as it often goes completely unnoticed, along with the decades long subclinical march of atherosclerosis that is largely the cause of elevated blood pressure, often culminating suddenly in a deadly cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke.
Researchers at the Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia gave test subjects either, one of five doses of garlic (300/mg, 600/mg, 900/mg, 1200/mg, 1500/mg) in divided doses per day, a tablet of atenolol, or a placebo, for 24 weeks. Blood pressure readings were recorded at weeks 0, 12 and 24.
The study results showed significant decreases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in both dose and duration dependent manner in all the treatment groups. The results of the treatments on systolic blood pressure were reported as follows:…
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Why I Won’t Be Charitable When The SHTF | The Daily Sheeple
Why I Won’t Be Charitable When The SHTF | The Daily Sheeple. (FULL ARTICLE)
I have learned a great deal since I came on board here at The Daily Sheeple. I have read and listened to the opinions of many who are far further down the line of preparedness than I am, and although it may make me unpopular, I disagree with a some of what they say.
Of course agreeing or disagreeing with someone is purely personal choice. I am not saying they are wrong, just that I disagree with them.
Take for instance the charity aspect of prepping.
Many of the big names in prepping advocate that we should show solid Christian values in times of crisis and lay aside some essential items to give away to those that pass through who are less fortunate that ourselves.
NOT A CHANCE.
It has nothing to do with the fact that I have prepared, that I have scrimped and saved, and they possibly have not. It has nothing to do with greed on my part and to hell with all others. It has to do with the survival of my family.
A great deal is made on all prepping sites about OPSEC. Keeping low and not attracting attention, and this is where the trouble starts.
I know for a fact that if I had been given food, water and maybe a few other essential items by someone I passed along the way I would remember them.
I know that if the survival of my children was at stake and I couldn’t provide for them I would revisit the person that had assisted me in the hope of getting more supplies.
I know I would do anything I had to do to feed my kids, to keep them alive. Now if I could trade something, work for the food I would certainly do so. What happens though if the answer is no, we’re fine thanks, off you go?
Think about this….
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Report: Security Breakdown In America’s Nuclear Command Centers
Report: Security Breakdown In America’s Nuclear Command Centers. (FULL ARTICLE)
Last month a high level source speaking with Infowars revealed insider details of a nuclear weapons transfer within the domestic United States that was executed without an official directive or paper trail. One expert noted that such re-positioning of nuclear warheads doesn’t happen unless they “plan on using them.”
Curiously, just a day later, Senator Lindsey Graham warned that a failure to attack Syria could lead to a nuclear weapon being detonated in South Carolina. It was a notion that raised eyebrows in mainstream media, but more so throughout alternative media circles, which suggested that the sequence of events were indicative of a false flag attack.
Yesterday, we learned that a senior member of U.S. nuclear command and head of the Air Force’s nuclear arsenal was relieved of his command. This has prompted questions about what is going on in the secret nuclear control centers around the country and it’s raising concerns about the security of America’s nuclear weapons.
Now, a report from the Associated Press goes further down the rabbit hole.
Together, the Carey and Giardina dismissals add a new dimension to a set of serious problems facing the military’s nuclear force….
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You Can’t Frack France | Motherboard
You Can’t Frack France | Motherboard. (FULL ARTICLE)
After a constitutional court review, France’s ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil has become “absolute,” in the words of Environment Minister Phillipe Martin. In its decision, the court found that the ban, which dates back to 2011 but was challenged by fossil fuel companies companies, was not “disproportionate.”
The method companies used to challenge the ban was to challenge the fact that hydraulic fracturing was and is still permitted to be undertaken in production of geothermal power. After reviewing the state of the technology involved, the court found that there is enough difference in the practice and potential environmental harm caused when applied to geothermal versus fossil fuels that prohibiting the latter and permitting the former did not violate France’s constitution.
For opponents of fracking around the world, it’s being hailed as a victory, rightly so. But the thing I find most interesting in this all is that it’s a perfect example of what is the most direct, if in some ways rockiest, method of preventing climate change—simply deciding, and mandating, that a certain resource, or extraction method in this case, will not be used.
As Bill McKibben famously pointed out in his Rolling Stone article two years ago, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math,” and has been brought back to the fore by former Irish president Mary Robinson, we have to leave the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves in the ground to avoid the worst of climate change. We need to leave the oil in the soil. (Well, rock… but the principle remains sound even if the rhyming doesn’t align with geology.) …
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Pro-Privacy Protesters Adopted the Highway to the NSA’s Data Center | Motherboard
Pro-Privacy Protesters Adopted the Highway to the NSA’s Data Center | Motherboard. (FULL ARTICLE)
This is what democracy looks like. The privacy activist group Restore the Fourth, which has been protesting the US government’s Orwellian surveillance, has had no luck taking their complaints to the heart of the snooping operation: the NSA’s massive new data center in Utah. Until now.
The group’s come up with a brilliant workaround to get access to the closely guarded spy center: The activists just “adopted” a two-mile stretch of Route 68 that runs right by the data center’s front door.
A representative of Restore The Fourth’s Utah branch, Lorina Potter, signed an agreement with the Utah Department of Transportation on Tuesday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Once the paperwork is all settled, the group will essentially own that stretch for the foreseeable future, under the state-sponsored “Adopt a Highway” program.
As part of the deal, the state Department of Transportation will install “Restore the Fourth” signs on both sides of the adopted stretch of road—an ever-present protest sign right outside the data center and pretty brilliant way to get visibility for the group’s message….
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Canadian environmentalists paint catastrophic picture of oilsands for U.S. lawmakers | canada.com
Canadian environmentalists paint catastrophic picture of oilsands for U.S. lawmakers | canada.com. (FULL ARTICLE)
WASHINGTON — Five prominent Canadian environmentalists told Washington lawmakers this week that the Keystone XL pipeline will lead to such a huge growth in oilsands’ carbon emissions, it will help tip the world into catastrophic climate change.
Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently told Americans that Canada would not take “no for an answer” on the pipeline, until the project is approved, the environmentalists said further expansion of the oilsands should be immediately stopped – followed by a gradual shutdown of all operations.
“The current trajectory for the growth of the tar sands is consistent with the International Energy Agency’s prediction of a six-degree (Celsius) growth in the temperature on the planet,” Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada, told reporters Friday at a news conference. “That is a catastrophic scenario.”
“Most of the oil that remains in the ground in Alberta has to stay there,” he added.
The environmentalists, who included broadcaster and scientist David Suzuki, came to the U.S. capital to counter what they claim is a disinformation campaign waged over the last eight months by Canadian politicians….
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Q&A: Privacy implications for aerial drones – Features – Al Jazeera English
Q&A: Privacy implications for aerial drones – Features – Al Jazeera English. (FULL ARTICLE)
New York, US – The Drones and Aerial Robotics conference – a weekend-long event highlighting innovations and uses in civilian drone technology – was a thing to behold.
A certain cognitive dissonance was necessary to ignore what many think of at the mention of the word “drone” (pilotless crafts used to kill thousands in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen). Instead, participants were urged to focus on how small, unarmed crafts carrying a camera and, perhaps, sensors could be used for educational and recreational purposes.
There were, of course, participants at the New York University conference who brought up the consequences of drone warfare, and others who questioned the legal issues surrounding the widespread use of civilian drones.
Woodrow Hartzog, an assistant law professor at Samford University in Alabama, was among those voices. He specialises in privacy, human-computer interactions and cyberlaw.
Al Jazeera: We’re at a conference where the focus seems to be on the whiz-bangery of this technology. What’s being lost in all this when it comes to privacy issues?
Woodrow Hartzog: There’s a fair amount of hand-wringing over drones and privacy, but I think in many instances it’s often dismissed because drones fly in public and they fly in public spaces and the law, as it’s traditionally been conceived, does not protect privacy when you’re walking out in the middle of the street. But I don’t think that’s entirely true….
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Everyone The U.S. Government Owes Money To, In One Graph | Zero Hedge
Everyone The U.S. Government Owes Money To, In One Graph | Zero Hedge. (SOURCE)
If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. government won’t be able to pay its debts. Here’s NPR’s simple (and complete) illustration to who the government owes money to — all the holders of U.S. Treasury debt, broken down by category and by how much government debt they hold. It would appear the government’s ponzi self-financing may be exposed for all to see… (and is it anywonder the Chinese are complaining?)
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Olduvaiblog: Musings on the coming collapse 