Don't touch! Study confirms your worst fears about public potties

msnbc.com/ By Bill Briggs

No. 1: A new study on the germ orgies going down in America’s public restrooms truly puts the “P” in repulsive, repugnant and “Hey, how awesome are my Depends?”

No. 2: If you can, maybe just hold it until you get home.

Going for a bathroom break? You may want to rethink that.

Yes, we’re talking about relieving those two basic bodily functions and doing so in some of most bacteria-bedecked spaces anywhere. As long suspected, bathroom surfaces in U.S. restaurants, airplanes, stores, hospitals and other busy locales are often heavily contaminated with illness-causing microbes – and, in some cases, the bug colonies are even too large to measure, according to a paper to be presented Friday to the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Boston.

“I was surprised (at the sheer quantity of creepy crawlies) but, at same time, I wasn’t surprised because people use these things and people touch things,” said Dr. Lennox Archibald, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine.

“It does make you step back a bit and stake stock of the whole hand-hygiene thing,” added Archibald, who will present the findings. “And yes, it could make one paranoid.”

From December 2010 through last February, Archibald and his colleagues swabbed and cultured faucets, paper-dispenser levers, and door handles inside the bathrooms of four aircraft and 18 other crowded spots such as fast-food restaurants. Names of the businesses were not released. Among the types of microscopic critters commonly discovered were staphylococcus (which can cause fevers and chills) and bacillus (which can cause diarrhea).

“For several restrooms, the quantity of microorganisms was too numerous to count,” Archibald’s paper reports. “…To date, there have been virtually no quantitative or qualitative assessments of the range of bacteria contaminating public restrooms.”

Given these invisible fecal fests, should we simply cross our legs, squeeze our thighs and endure the pain instead of accessing public restrooms?

“If you have to use it, you have to use it,” Archibald said. “You just have to be careful where you touch after you wash your hands.” Ideally, public bathrooms should be stocked with paper towels so that your skin needn't come into contact with anything yucky.

Then again, he added: “You can wash your hands till the cows come home. (If we swab your freshly scrubbed palms and culture the results), you are going to grow something.”

Footage shows Gaddafi's bloodied body

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Piel y cabello de Laura irán al extranjero para determinar la causa de su muerte

Publicado por Net for Cuba International

Por Rev. Ricardo Medina Salavarría, recibido en Univisión Online por cortesía de Húber Matos, CID.

En la lluviosa tarde del 14 de octubre partía a la casa del Padre Laura Inés Pollán Toledo, sin que se hubiesen precisado aun las causas de muerte.

El periodista independiente Lucas Garves se encontraba de visita en mi casa cuando recibió en su móvil una llamada telefónica. Era el ex prisionero de conciencia Adolfo Fernández Saínz, desde Radio Martí, con la intención de confirmar la noticia de que Laura había sufrido un paro cardíaco. Nosotros aun no estábamos al corriente de eso, pero prometimos informarnos con inmediatez.

Laurita confirmó la noticia de la muerte de su mamá.

Llamé a Berta Soler, su móvil decía que estaba apagado o fuera del área de cobertura. Logré contactar con Laurita y me confirmó la noticia. Ella ya iba camino al hospital Calixto García. Lucas se fue al hospital y se comprometió a mantenernos informados. Llegando nos llamó y nos informó que hacía 15 minutos había fallecido. Mi esposa Katia se sumió en llanto y yo elevé mis primeras oraciones por el eterno descanso de su alma. Allí comenzamos una red de comunicación con todos los delegados del Partido Cuba Independiente y Democrática (CID) a nivel nacional.

Katia y Aimé Cabrales salieron rumbo al hospital temiendo que la policía política les impidiera participar en el funeral. Una vez allí supieron que aun se desconocía lo que harían con el cuerpo sin vida de Laura. Se valoraban dos opciones: velarlo e incinerarlo o incinerarlo sin ser velado. Felizmente, resolvieron velarla y anunciaron que sería en la funeraria Calzada y K, del Vedado. Katia me lo comunicó enseguida.

Salí con Abdel Rodríguez Arteaga rumbo al hospital a esperar por el traslado del cuerpo.

Llegando allí se decidió que siguiéramos para Calzada y K. Tomamos un taxi. Al llegar al Vedado solo la funeraria estaba sin electricidad. El parque del frente estaba minado de agentes de la seguridad del estado. Berta nos dijo que fuéramos para la funeraria nacional ubicada en Infanta y Benjumeda, municipio Centro Habana. Así, continuamos viaje en el mismo taxi y comencé a comunicar con Yoani Sánchez a quien le había prometido informarle de cualquier cambio.

Ya en la funeraria nacional esperaban las agencias de prensa. Esperamos por el cuerpo hasta pasadas las 12 de la madrugada. Coordiné con la oficinista para que nos prestara una bandera cubana para cubrir el ataúd y no tener que regresar a mi casa —a dos cuadras de allí— por temor a ser detenido. Ella se comprometió a prestarla.

Llegó el cadáver y pidieron que dos personas pasaran a vestirlo.

Pedí permiso para colocarle un rosario que me habían obsequiado de Tierra Santa. Katia trajo una docena de gladiolos que había en mi casa. Pasé al recinto y quedé perplejo al ver el grado de inflamación del cuerpo. Descubrí que habían mentido en los partes médicos cuando decían que las funciones renales estaban perfectas, esos edemas podrían haberse evacuado con diuréticos y sinceramente no creo lo hayan hecho por dos razones:

 1.Porque con esa retención de líquidos se inhibe la capacidad de ventilar de los pulmones, la sangre fluye menos y se provoca el paro cardiorespiratorio.

 2.Porque en caso de no producirse el paro cardiorespiratorio la falta de oxígeno en el cerebro dejaría secuelas cerebrales severas; Laura sería entonces un vegetal.

Dos personas entraron al lugar como servicio de necrología. Berta me entregó la ropa y vestí el cuerpo sin vida de mi hermana Laura. Coloqué el rosario en sus manos y sobre el lado izquierdo tres gladiolos, símbolo de su lucha por la libertad de todos los presos políticos. Berta pintó sus labios; yo le maquillé los ojos y peiné su cabellera. Le pedí ayuda a los funerarios y se negaron. Ni aun ofreciéndoles dinero accedieron a ayudarme; sólo la depositaron en el ataúd. Berta besó su frente; hice lo mismo diciéndole que siempre quedaría entre nosotros.

Allí tomé la última foto del cuerpo sin vida de Laura Pollán (es la que ilustra este post).

Subimos a la capilla. Ya se habían concentrado cerca de doscientas personas en la funeraria. Pedí la bandera y la oficinista se negó diciéndome que era sólo para combatientes. Me encontré con Maceda (esposo de Laura); me pidió que estuviese presente en la cremación y accedí con honor. Pedí a todos en la capilla que me acompañaran a rezar el rosario por el eterno descanso de su alma. Así lo hicieron con mucha devoción. Las Damas de Blanco presentes mantuvieron una guardia de honor; luego fue el turno de los ex prisioneros y en general de todos los presentes.

A la 1:45 am un oficial de la seguridad del estado y un funerario con una carretilla subieron a llevarse el cuerpo. Le avisé a Ángel Moya y a Berta. Los tres les salimos al encuentro alegando que nos habían dicho que serían dos horas. Buscamos a Héctor Maceda que indistintamente había accedido a la solicitud y nos negamos. Maceda pidió 15 minutos más. Así, a las 2:15 am cantamos solemnemente el himno nacional.

El Rev. tomó partículas del cuerpo y cabellos de Laura...

Acto seguido, fue bajado el cuerpo, momento que aproveché para tomar una muestra de cabello con partículas de piel para que una mano amiga la llevara a un laboratorio en el extranjero con el fin de determinar a través de un estudio genético la verdadera causa de la muerte de Laura Pollán, pues el certificado médico en ningún momento reflejó DENGUE como la causa de su muerte. En su lugar se indicó “diabetes mellitus tipo II, bronconeumonía, virus Cincinnati”.

No volvimos a ver el cuerpo de Laura. Nos llevaron al crematorio del cementerio nuevo de Guanabacoa. Según la seguridad del estado el cuerpo debía ser revisado por medicina legal para aprobar la cremación. Al entrar al cementerio un oficial de la seguridad del estado nos vio llegar desde el portal y se escondió en una oficina donde luego —en un momento en que entraban a llevarles una bandeja de café—, vimos a cuatro más. Después vi entrar un carro fúnebre; le pregunté al oficinista y me confirmó: “sí, es el caso de ustedes”. Berta y yo pedimos ver por última vez el cuerpo de Laura. Una señora muy enérgica nos dijo que estaba prohibido. La desmentí diciéndole que tenía información de una mirilla por donde se veía el proceso. Me repitió con fuerza: “está prohibido”.

Maceda nos pidió ser disciplinados y que le acompañáramos en el salón de espera.

Accedimos por ser el doliente directo. La prepotente señora trajo en un sobre los aretes de Laura y una hebilla de pelo y Maceda firmó como constancia de que le fueron devueltas sus pertenencias.

Nos comunicaron que el proceso había terminado. Maceda me pidió que recibiera las cenizas y las entronizara en su casa donde había anunciado para las 9:00 am la apertura de un libro de condolencias. Eran casi las 5:00 am cuando llegamos a la sede de las Damas de Blanco. Cerca de cincuenta personas ya estaban allí. Colocamos la bandera. Ángel Moya y yo desocupamos una mesa donde deposité el ánfora.

Entre los presentes estaba Diosdado González (otro de los 75), mi ex compañero de prisión. Aproveché para saludarlos a él y a su esposa, Alejandrina García de la Riva.

Rezo de rosarios

A las 6:00 am todos rezamos el rosario junto a Laurita (hija de Laura Pollán). Para dar cumplimiento a la voluntad de su madre, anunció que había decidido compartir las cenizas de su cuerpo: una parte sería llevada al panteón familiar en Manzanillo; la otra sería esparcida en un campo de flores. Las cenizas no fueron expuestas porque Maceda encontró contraproducente hacerlo. Laurita se llevó el ánfora a Manzanillo. Luego, en la mañana del domingo, me comunicó que las había depositado junto a los difuntos de la familia Pollán.

A las 9:30 am dirigí el rezo de otro rosario y a las 12:00 meridiano rezamos el Ángelus por el alma de Laura, con el Santo Responso.

Regresé a mi casa con un ramo de flores blancas que serían llevadas el domingo a la iglesia de Santa Rita, acción que no consumamos porque Katia, Aimé Cabrales, Elizabeth Kawooya Toca, Abdel Rodríguez Arteaga, Hans Delgado Arteaga y Juan Manuel Lara Vidal fueron arbitrariamente detenidos al salir de mi casa. Durante el arresto el teniente Juan de la seguridad del estado rompió el arreglo floral en la vía pública.

Sólo me queda rezar por el eterno descanso de su alma, continuar su infatigable lucha, apoyar al colectivo de mujeres que fundó tras los sucesos de la Primavera Negra de Cuba (2003) y que dirigió por ocho largos años. Seguiré brindando mi humilde vivienda para sede alternativa de las Damas de Blanco y viviré con la confianza de que Laura Pollán Toledo permanecerá para siempre entre nosotros.

© 2011 Univision Communications Inc.

Internet 'may be changing brains'

By Helen Briggs Health editor, BBC News website 

Social network sites may be changing people's brains as well as their social life, research suggests.

Brain scans show a direct link between the number of Facebook friends a person has and the size of certain parts of their brain.

It's not clear whether using social networks boosts grey matter or if those with certain brain structures are good at making friends, say researchers.

The regions involved have roles in social interaction, memory and autism.

The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, looked at 3-D brain scans of 125 university students from London.

 

Grey matter

Researchers counted the number of Facebook friends each volunteer had, as well as assessing the size of their network of real friends.

A strong link was found between the number of Facebook friends a person had and the amount of grey matter in certain parts of their brain.

“Start Quote

We cannot escape the ubiquity of the internet and its impact on our lives, yet we understand little of its impact on the brain, which we know is plastic and can change over time”

Dr John Williams, Head of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Wellcome Trust

The study also showed that the number of Facebook friends a person was in touch with was reflected in the number of "real-world" friends.

"We have found some interesting brain regions that seem to link to the number of friends we have - both 'real' and 'virtual'," said Dr Ryota Kanai, one of the researchers from University College London.

"The exciting question now is whether these structures change over time. This will help us answer the question of whether the internet is changing our brains."

One region involved is the amygdala, which is associated with memory and emotional responses.

Previous research has shown a link between the volume of grey matter in the amygdala and the size and complexity of real world social networks. Grey matter is the brain tissue where mental processing takes place.

Three other areas of the brain were linked with the size of someone's online social network but not their tally of real-world friends.

'Plastic' brain

The right superior temporal sulcus has a role in perception and may be impaired in autism. The left middle temporal gyrus is associated with "reading" social cues, while the third - the right entorhinal complex - is thought to be important in memory and navigation.

The data

• Volunteers were asked questions such as: How many friends are in your phonebook? How many friends have you kept from school and university? How many people would you invite to a party? How many friends do you have on Facebook?
• These questions led to an estimation of someone's social network size

Professor Geraint Rees, from UCL, who led the research, said little is understood about the impact of social networks on the brain, which has led to speculation the internet is somehow bad for us.

"Our study will help us begin to understand how our interactions with the world are mediated through social networks," he said.

"This should allow us to start asking intelligent questions about the relationship between the internet and the brain - scientific questions, not political ones."

Cause and effect

Facebook, the world's most popular social networking site, has more than 800 million active users around the world. The site allows people to keep in touch with friends, from a handful to a thousand or more.

Dr John Williams, Head of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Wellcome Trust, which funded the study, said: "We cannot escape the ubiquity of the internet and its impact on our lives, yet we understand little of its impact on the brain, which we know is plastic and can change over time.

"This new study illustrates how well-designed investigations can help us begin to understand whether or not our brains are evolving as they adapt to the challenges posed by social media."

Although the study found a link between human brain structure and online social network size, it did not test cause and effect.

Dr Heidi Johansen-Berg, reader in Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford's Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, said the study found only a weak relationship between the number of Facebook friends and the number of friends in the real world.

"Perhaps the number of Facebook friends you have is more strongly related to how much time you spend on the internet, how old you are, or what mobile phone you have," she said.

"The study cannot tell us whether using the internet is good or bad for our brains."

NATO Chronicles - Cyber Defense, Fighting the Invisible Enemy, IT Version

Natochannel - Courtesy Video

 

Researchers warn of new Stuxnet worm

BBC News

Researchers have found evidence that the Stuxnet worm, which alarmed governments around the world, could be about to regenerate.

Stuxnet was a highly complex piece of malware created to spy on and disrupt Iran's nuclear programme.

No-one has identified the worm authors but the finger of suspicion fell on the Israeli and US governments.

The new threat, Duqu, is, according to those who discovered it, "a precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack".

Its discovery was made public by security firm Symantec, which in turn was alerted to the threat by one of its customers.

The worm was named Duqu because it creates files with the prefix DQ.

Symantec looked at samples of the threat gathered from computer systems located in Europe.

Initial analysis of the worm found that parts of Duqu are nearly identical to Stuxnet and suggested that it was written by either the same authors or those with access to the Stuxnet source code.

"Unlike Stuxnet, Duqu does not contain any code related to industrial control systems and does not self-replicate," Symantec said in its blog.

"The threat was highly targeted towards a limited number of organisations for their specific assets."

In other words, Duqu is not designed to attack industrial systems, such as Iran's nuclear production facilities, as was the case with Stuxnet, but rather to gather intelligence for a future attack.

The code has, according to Symantec, been found in a "limited number of organisations, including those involved in the manufacturing of industrial control systems".

Symantec's chief technology officer Greg Day told the BBC that the code was highly sophisticated.

"This isn't some hobbyist, it is using bleeding-edge techniques and that generally means it has been created by someone with a specific purpose in mind," he said.

Whether that is state-sponsored and politically motivated is not clear at this stage though.

"If it is the Stuxnet author it could be that they have the same goal as before. But if code has been given to someone else they may have a different motive," Mr Day said.

He added that there was "more than one variant" of Duqu.

"It looks as if they are tweaking and fine-tuning it along the way," he said.

The worm also removes itself from infected computers after 36 days, suggesting that it is designed to remain more hidden than its predecessor.

The code used a "jigsaw" of components including a stolen Symantec digital certificate, said Mr Day.

"We provide digital certificates to validate identity and this certificate was stolen from a customer in Taiwan and reused," said Mr Day.

The certificate in question has since been revoked by Symantec.

Cyber warfare

The discovery of the Stuxnet worm was a game-changer in the world of malware and forced governments around the world to beef up the security behind critical systems such as power and water.

Cyber warfare

The discovery of the Stuxnet worm was a game-changer in the world of malware and forced governments around the world to beef up the security behind critical systems such as power and water.

 

Iran admitted that Stuxnet had damaged some of its nuclear centrifuges.

 

It brought the issues of cyber warfare, government-to-government espionage and cyber terrorism firmly to the top of the agenda.

Experts who have studied the Stuxnet worm say that it was configured to damage motors used in uranium-enrichment centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control.

Iran later admitted that some of its centrifuges had been sabotaged although it downplayed the significance of Stuxnet in that.

Stuxnet is not the only example of malware designed to cause government-level disruption.

In 2009 China was accused of spying on Google and in the summer US defence firm Lockheed Martin was victim of a "significant cyber-attack" although it said that none of its programmes had been compromised.

This week the US Department for Homeland Security warned that politically-motivated hackers such as the Anonymous co-operative could begin to target industrial control systems.

Central Planning and The Fall of the US Empire

Global Guerrillas

Here's some thinking that draws on decision making theory.  It's very much in line with how the late John Boyd (America's best strategist) would approach it. Reminder:  I'm @johnrobb on twitter or +John Robb on Google if you want to listen in on my daily thinking.

___________

One of the most interesting underlying reasons for the decline of the Soviet Union, and soon the US, is misallocation of resources due to a reliance on central planning.

Misallocation in this context means that year after year, decade after decade, the wealth of a nation is spent on the wrong things.  The wrong projects are funded.  The wrong infrastructure is built (or not built -- the US is 38th in the world in Internet connectivity and falling).  The wrong things were bought and so on.  Eventually, the accumulation of bad investment made the USSR so fragile that even the smallest shock could topple them.  

The reason for this failure was that the Soviets relied on central planning.  A system of economic governance where small group of people -- in the Soviet Unions case bureaucrats -- had all the decision making power.  They decided what was spent and where.  Even with copious amount of information, they decided badly.

Why did they decide badly?  The massive economy of a modern superstate is too complex for a small group of people to manage.  Too much data.  Too many uncertainties.  Too many moving parts.  

The only way to manage an economy as complex as this is to allow massively parallel decision making.  A huge number of economically empowered people making small decisions, that in aggregate, are able to process more data, get better data (by being closer to the problem), and apply more brainpower to weighing alternatives than any centralized decision making group.

Of course, the misallocation due to centralized decision making wasn't supposed to be a vulnerability of the West.  To allocate resources in our economy, we had a conceptually more efficient mechanism: markets.  Markets are supposed to be a mechanism that allows massively parallel decision making.

Those assumptions are proving false. The succession of market bubbles, the global financial collpse of 2008, and the recent US debt problem is prima facie evidence that gross misallocation has occurred for decades.  The wealth of the West, particularly the US, is being spent on the wrong things year after year, decade after decade.   We are now as fragile as the Soviet Union in the late 80's.

What happened?

Central planning took over the decision making process in the US, both through the growth of government and through an unparalleled concentration of wealth.

The parallels between the rapid growth of US government bureaucracy and the Soviet bureaucracy is straight forward.  As more and more of US economy was controlled by a narrow group of decision makers allocating government resources, the more sluggish the entire economy became (most of this was due to massive growth and mis-allocation in entitlements and defense).  Further, the ability of government bureaucracies to extend their decision making to remaining majority of the economy through regulatory action, is also a form of centralization.  However, even with all of this government growth, it's is still not enough to account for the level of misallocation we are seeing.  

There's is something else at work.

The answer is that an extreme concentration of wealth at the center of our market economy has led to a form of central planning.   The concentration of wealth is now in so few hands and is so extreme in degree, that the combined liquid financial power of all of those not in this small group is inconsequential to determining the direction of the economy.   As a result, we now have the equivalent of centralized planning in global marketplaces.  A few thousand extremely wealthy people making decisions on the allocation of our collective wealth.  The result was inevitable:  gross misallocation across all facets of the private economy. 

To see what this extreme wealth concentration looks like as a distribution, we don't have to look further than income distribution in the US (classic power law).   The liquid wealth of those on the extreme left of the curve completely outweighs the 99.5% of the population to the right (the distribution is FAR more skewed than most people even imagine -- Republican or Democrat).  This graph would also be a good way to demonstrate how decision making in a bureaucratic dictatorship in a country like the Soviet Union looked like before it collapsed.

The result of central planning in the US has finally hit the wall.  The list of problems is endless. The misallocations range from the dangerous $600 trillion derivatives market to the destruction of the US middle class (by exporting jobs and the substitution of income with debt).

The end result is that our economic and political system has become very fragile.  All it will take is is one extremely bad decision and the cascade of failure that follows will catch everyone off guard.

Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world

The 1318 transnational corporations that form the core of the economy. Superconnected companies are red, very connected companies are yellow. The size of the dot represents revenue (Image: PLoS One)

 
by Andy Coghlan and Debora MacKenzie

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.

The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere. But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).

"Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it's conspiracy theories or free-market," says James Glattfelder. "Our analysis is reality-based."

Previous studies have found that a few TNCs own large chunks of the world's economy, but they included only a limited number of companies and omitted indirect ownerships, so could not say how this affected the global economy - whether it made it more or less stable, for instance.

The Zurich team can. From Orbis 2007, a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, they pulled out all 43,060 TNCs and the share ownerships linking them. Then they constructed a model of which companies controlled others through shareholding networks, coupled with each company's operating revenues, to map the structure of economic power.

The work, to be published in PloS One, revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships (see image). Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. What's more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world's large blue chip and manufacturing firms - the "real" economy - representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.

John Driffill of the University of London, a macroeconomics expert, says the value of the analysis is not just to see if a small number of people controls the global economy, but rather its insights into economic stability.

Concentration of power is not good or bad in itself, says the Zurich team, but the core's tight interconnections could be. As the world learned in 2008, such networks are unstable. "If one [company] suffers distress," says Glattfelder, "this propagates."

"It's disconcerting to see how connected things really are," agrees George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, a complex systems expert who has advised Deutsche Bank.

Yaneer Bar-Yam, head of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), warns that the analysis assumes ownership equates to control, which is not always true. Most company shares are held by fund managers who may or may not control what the companies they part-own actually do. The impact of this on the system's behaviour, he says, requires more analysis.

Crucially, by identifying the architecture of global economic power, the analysis could help make it more stable. By finding the vulnerable aspects of the system, economists can suggest measures to prevent future collapses spreading through the entire economy. Glattfelder says we may need global anti-trust rules, which now exist only at national level, to limit over-connection among TNCs. Bar-Yam says the analysis suggests one possible solution: firms should be taxed for excess interconnectivity to discourage this risk.

One thing won't chime with some of the protesters' claims: the super-entity is unlikely to be the intentional result of a conspiracy to rule the world. "Such structures are common in nature," says Sugihara.

Newcomers to any network connect preferentially to highly connected members. TNCs buy shares in each other for business reasons, not for world domination. If connectedness clusters, so does wealth, says Dan Braha of NECSI: in similar models, money flows towards the most highly connected members. The Zurich study, says Sugihara, "is strong evidence that simple rules governing TNCs give rise spontaneously to highly connected groups". Or as Braha puts it: "The Occupy Wall Street claim that 1 per cent of people have most of the wealth reflects a logical phase of the self-organising economy."

So, the super-entity may not result from conspiracy. The real question, says the Zurich team, is whether it can exert concerted political power. Driffill feels 147 is too many to sustain collusion. Braha suspects they will compete in the market but act together on common interests. Resisting changes to the network structure may be one such common interest.

The top 50 of the 147 superconnected companies

1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
23. Northern Trust Corporation
24. Société Générale
25. Bank of America Corporation
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
27. Invesco plc
28. Allianz SE 29. TIAA
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
31. Aviva plc
32. Schroders plc
33. Dodge & Cox
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc*
35. Sun Life Financial Inc
36. Standard Life plc
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc
39. The Depository Trust Company
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
45. Vereniging Aegon
46. BNP Paribas
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
48. Resona Holdings Inc
49. Capital Group International Inc
50. China Petrochemical Group Company
* Lehman still existed in the 2007 dataset used

FBI questioning 5 muslims who broke into Texas courthouse

"Aloha Snackbar!" shouted on Southwest Airlines Flight 3683

Remembering Shelley Wolochow, murdered by Palestinian terrorist

#Conspiracy - US State Department Agitator Behind Egyptian Leftist Uprising, Now #OWS 1/29/11

State Dept. Agitator Ahmed Maher, Advising 'OWS' Movement

Ukrainian arms transfers to Cuba

By Armando F. Mastrapa III

in Armed Forces, Commentary, Government, Havana, International Relations, Military, Military & Defense, Military expenditures

 

Ukraine’s T-84U “Oplot” main battle tank. Russia Today

Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovich, will visit Cuba during his six-day tour of Latin American, which begins tomorrow, as announced by his press office.

During his visit to Cuba, Yanukukovych will meet the country’s leadership. Several bilateral documents will be signed in the framework of the talks.

Several years ago, Kiev sold in bulk light to medium military equipment to Cuba and Venezuela, which included light infantry weapons coupled with small and medium sized military vehicles, reported Jane’s Intelligence Digest.

Ukraine’s state-run arms exporter Ukrspetsexport exported $1B worth of arms in 2010.

Will these bilateral agreements also include arms transfers to Cuba?

Sergio Pino: A Century Man

ProPublica
A refugee from Cuba who transformed himself into a multimillionaire, Pino is a major force in Miami business and politics. Despite repeated requests and emailed questions, Pino declined to speak with ProPublica. He has never been charged with any ...More >

Cuba y la corrupción gubernamental

Horóscopo Katungo

City of Cuba: "Mural City"

Cuba, Missouri

The Army's New Suicide Drone In Action [Video]

Image: AeroVironment

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

Robert Johnson 

The Army has added to its fleet of drones with a batch of portable robotic devices that hold a high-explosive warhead and a camera, allowing battlefield soldiers to detonate them wherever they'd like.

The new Switchblade drone made by AeroVironment is just two feet long, fits in a backpack, and is launched from a tube by an operator that guides the plane through a handheld viewer.

One of the benefits of the new device will be to reduce collateral damage involved when calling in airstrikes or artillery fire.

The Switchblade's precision detonation system allows the controller to detonate at any distance from the target and to even deactivate the explosive before impact.

Able to operate autonomously or by controller, the drone has an electric motor than can be switched off at final approach for a completely silent strike.

Brookings points out that while the U.S. has a monopoly on the new "agile munition systems" or "suicide drones" that edge can't last and imitators will inevitably follow.

The only question that remains is how long until the weapons are in the hands of terrorists or insurgents.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/switchblade-suicide-drone-2011-10?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business%20Insider%20Select&utm_campaign=BI%20Select%20Recurring%202011-10-19#ixzz1bGix9QuM

Key European Nuclear Firms Attacked By Variation On Stuxnet Virus

Image: Flickr Swobodin

Adam Taylor

Several European firms that create software that controls industrial facilities, including nuclear reactors, have been hit by a virus that extracts information from their systems, The New York Times reports. The virus, known as Duqu, appears to have been made by the same people who made the Stuxnet virus, an infamous cyber weapon that attacked the Iran nuclear program last summer.
Internet security organization Symantec describe Duqu on their website:

Duqu is essentially the precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack. The threat was written by the same authors (or those that have access to the Stuxnet source code) and appears to have been created since the last Stuxnet file was recovered. Duqu's purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party. The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility.

One key point outlined by Systemac is that whoever created the file has access to the source code of Stuxnet, and is likely the creator of the previous virus.
But who created Stuxnet? While initial reports suggested Israel, other reports suggested China or even the United States. Could any of them have an interest in European nuclear security?
Vikram Thakur of Symantec told the Times, “This is extremely sophisticated, this is cutting edge.”

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/duqu-stuxnet-nuclear-europe-2011-10?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business%20Insider%20Select&utm_campaign=BI%20Select%20Recurring%202011-10-19#ixzz1bGi6XpiK

The Latell Report (October 2011): Filling Raul’s Boots

“Whoever it is Raul ultimately selects could easily be the man who will lead post-Castro Cuba into a new era”, concluded Brian Latell and that’s why have to be an insider of Raul’s family

Leer en  Penultimos Dias >

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Fishing tourists: Las Salinas Bonefish #Cuba

Another way to give money to Castro's regime for repression and corruption.

CNN making noise on favour of strategic weapon of Neo-Castroism to blackmail the United States

More >

Susan Sarandon: La Atea y la Terrorista

Posted by: Andrés Pascual

 No habra un alma bondadosa en Hollywood que le explique a la Sra. que esos pellejos no van con ese escote

Susan Sarandon, buena sin exageraciones como actriz (ni la chancleta de Meryl Strep), de cara bonita durante su era de joven modelo (cuerpo parecido al de Eduardo Gómez, de Aquí no hay quien viva, pero con tetas); filocomunista para la que no existe una causa
cercana a todo lo que signifique tiranía de izquierda por la que no se desviva
(caso de defensa absoluta de los cuatro terroristas de los Castro aún presos y
de exigencias para que se le permita el retorno a La Habana al que ex
carcelaron); del lado de unos pobres que nadie sabe cuánto de
“necesitados” son los que los manejan por la izquierda (Ocupa Wall
Street), con quienes ha pernoctado en su “headquarters” como
“una más” a pesar de su dinero, recién acaba de ser puesta en su
lugar (pensé que no se produciría), por dos ligas antidifamatorias: la católica
y la judía.

¿Resultará para que la actriz “liberal” se retracte de lo dicho? ¿Leerá o escuchará alguien
“lo siento mucho, siento respeto por el Papa y lo que dije…” en
actitud imploratoria por la ex de Tim Robbins para aplacar la ira provocada
porque llamó nazi al Sumo Pontífice? No lo creo, este elemento vicioso,
decadente, amargado, insatisfecho de casi todo lo terrenal disfrutable  por efectos de la envidia y las bajas
pasiones, no acostumbran a darle “por la vena del gusto” a quienes
odian.

¿Cuántos liberales, progresistas, socialistas, filocomunistas…piensan como Susan Sarandon? Al modo mío de ver las cosas, muchísimos; por ejemplo, Hollywood es un corral de
liberales con la Academia incluida. En la mal llamada Meca del Cine (debería de
ser Europa, aunque no exenta de liberalismo) quedan pocos exponentes del
necesario conservadurismo, digamos como James Wood, que defiendan las ideas contribuyentes a mantener a Estados Unidos fuerte “en cuerpo y alma”, tal vez por
eso este magnífico actor no logra trabajar con la frecuencia de otros paquetes
que juegan al defensor del negro y del proletariado; que votan, contribuyen y
cabildean demócrata porque saben que con este partido en control (la media
sobre todo), es que pueden lograr la patente de corso que les ampare sin
sobresaltos sus actos corruptos, inmorales y decadentes que tienen al país (y
arrastran al mundo) al borde del abismo.

La Sarandon es, sobre todas las cosas, un casi vejestorio que busca llamar la atención, que pretende protagonizar, porque ya hizo estragos el tiempo sobre ella como para mantenerse
activa en roles de interés para una industria que, como Clinton y Obama en lo político,
significa veneno que no entra por la boca, sino por los ojos y por los oídos y
a ella le falta belleza para ser admirada físicamente; además de juicio, moral
y decencia para convencer de cualquier otra forma.

Lo que hace para defender a la tiranía castrista, lo que cree que le van a considerar como “un acto de valor” al llamar nazi al Papa, o por su “consecuente actitud
comprometida” al acompañar a la legión de la izquierda mundial que
esconden su objetivo verdadero de llamado a cambiar el sistema capitalista con
la impresión de que se confundieron con una petición de trabajo en una oficina
del Labor americano o en otra de Workforce, por lo menos aquí, es el reflejo de
la peor generación deamericanos “in”, nacida en las entrañas de
aquel movimiento que comenzó con una flor, protestando contra la guerra de
Viet-Nam, favorable al Black Power y al Black Panthers y con la intención de
imponer el sexo libre, el LSD…desde Monterey 67 y 68 con Grace Slick o
Santana, continuó en Woodstock y se mantiene como “ocupas” peligrosos
de la Casa Blanca, el Senado estadounidense y el circuito de la media más el
gremio artístico.

Carlos el Chacal, el  asesino terrorista de origen venezolano héroe de Hugo Chávez, dijo hace poco en una entrevista que: “si salgo en libertad, iré a la tumba de Bolívar a
rezar…” ¿Por quienes? ¿Acaso por el rosario de infelices civiles muertos
por la metralla de sus artefactos detonados en cualquier lugar, mientras más
gente indefensa mejor? Por favor…si algo tiene de malo la democracia es no
establecer un código de justicia universal que obligue a que a gente como este
animal se le ejecuta en el lugar que se le capture si no se le ajustició en la
acción; después, que critiquen, que la humanidad será mejor y más segura para
todos sin estas hienas sueltas.

Con este tipo deben tener cuidado los venezolanos, porque pudiera reaparecer como el “superhéroe” de historietas sustituto de los tradicionales; a fin de cuentas, ya el simio
“cantó el Itá” contra la nociva influencia del comic americano, lo
demás es habilitar el canal, la imprenta y a disfrutar, lo malo es que deberá
recrear las escenas de los atentados y sabotajes como son: con niños, mujeres,
ancianos…destrozados por las bombas.

Hasta que no se tome conciencia del daño real que le hacen a la libertad, a la democracia y a la vida humana gente como el Chacal, como la Sarandon, como los Castro, como Danny
Glover, como Sean Penn, como Silvio Rodríguez…hasta que no se logre un
dictamen unánime de castigo basado en la necesidad de proteger los intereses
del hombre con 100 años de cárcel sin derecho a condicionales, en unos casos, o
a muerte por ahorcamiento en otros, la gente como el asesino venezolano y la
activista americana continuarán bandeándose como quieran, llevando toda la
carga de daño material y espiritual que asola a más de un par de países.

The Same "New" Story of Cuba Drilling

Capitol Hill Cubans

Yesterday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on oil drilling in the foreign Outer Continental Shelf.

As expected, Cuba and the heralded (re-)drilling plans of Spain's Repsol with the Castro regime took center stage.

But what really stood out was the testimony of Paul Schuler from the oil spill response cooperative, Clean Caribbean and Americas, who explained:

"In the past 20 years CCA has responded to a number of spills in the Caribbean, Latin America and North America. We have been involved with Cuba since 2001, when we first applied for and received licenses from the Department of Treasury and Department of Commerce to travel to and export our equipment to Cuba. This was in response to drilling that took place by Repsol and Petrobras. CCA staff, including myself, have traveled to Cuba for Contingency Planning, training, and drills and exercises with these companies. With the new round of drilling coming up, we have recently been back to Cuba to work with Repsol and Petronas."

That's right -- since 2001.

So why these "new" (and head-scratching) headlines that the "Embargo Will Limit U.S. Oversight of Planned Oil Drilling Off Cuba Coast"?

Because as Reuters reported back in 2006: "Havana is eager to see American oil companies join forces with the anti-embargo lobby led by U.S. farmers who have been selling food to Cuba for four years."

It apparently works -- we've already seen Halliburton increase its Cuba anti-sanctions lobbying this year.

Let's not forget that -- for over a decade -- the "spectre" of oil drilling has been a geo-political tool used by Cuba's dictatorship.

The Castro regime has used it to extort the Brazilian government into shunning pro-democracy activists and to create a China-drilling scare (which never materialized) in the U.S.

Meanwhile, commercially, Repsol's previous Cuba drilling effort (in 2004) was unsuccessful and the most credible non-U.S. regional oil companies -- Brazil's Petrobras and Canada's Sherritt -- pulled out of Cuba (in 2011 and 2008, respectively) saying it wasn't a viable venture.

But apparently that's "old" news.

Otra Dama de Blanco grave despues de recibir un pinchazo

Alana 1962

Noticias recibidas desde La Habana, hablan de que la Dama de Blanco Rita María Montes de Oca, se ha sentido muy mal y que sus familiares se disponían a ingresarla de urgencia. Rita María relató que después de sentir un pinchazo en un acto de repudio, su salud comenzó a resquebrajarse y en las últimas horas se ha deteriorado a ojos vista. De confirmarse esta noticia, se hace imprescindible que aunemos voluntades para exigir a la Cruz Roja Internacional, una urgente investigación. Hay que hacer la denuncia ante La ONU y cuanto organismo internacional sea pertinente

Gerald O'Driscoll on stimulus, the USA and Europe

Dalai Lama Prays for Tibetans Who Self-immolated

Herman Cain: Empty calories?

WP/By Tim Carman

GOP candidate Herman Cain wants to be your president. He wants to get you off the couch and back to work, put government on a short leash and, if possible, plug the hole in the sinking ship called the U.S. economy. One of his primary credentials for the job involves his nearly miraculous healing of the once-moribund Godfather’s Pizza, as if America were a midgrade Midwestern chain whose many problems could be solved with a few deaths in the family (read: store closings) and a tough-talking thug in a pin-stripe suit and fedora.
More than 15 years after Cain left his position as president of Godfather’s, the presidential candidate still has one thing in common with the Omaha-based chain: They both have a distaste for Washington. Cain hopes to ride his outsider status all the way to the Oval Office, but Godfather’s prefers to keep its distance from the nation’s capital. There is not a single Godfather’s in Washington — nor in Maryland, for that matter.
More > 

#OWS and the best of Bernanke: Fed may need to pop asset bubbles

As in the asset bubbles that the Bernanke's Fed policy has created?

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday that central banks may need to resort to monetary policy to combat asset bubbles, although regulation should be a first line of defense.

"The possibility that monetary policy could be used directly to support financial stability goals, at least on the margin, should not be ruled out," he said at a conference at the Boston Federal Reserve Bank.

US admits limits in monitoring Cuba's offshore oil drilling/... SO WHAT?

Then in this oil-ecological blackmail that the Cuban regime has placed the U.S. authorities, the solution to protect the southern territory of the United States is the unilateral lifting of trade restrictions between the two countries, which is precisely the strategic objective of Castro and all the pro-Cuba lobbyists.
Because you have to put it bluntly, the site of the oil rig Scarabeo 9 is the new strategic weapon of Neo-Castroism to blackmail the United States and as such should be considered by the Administation of President Obama and U.S. lawmakers.

------------------------------------------------

McClatchy Newspapers/ By ERIKA BOLSTAD

WASHINGTON -- As exploratory oil drilling is set to begin in December off the coast of Cuba, the U.S. government acknowledged Tuesday that because of chilly diplomatic relations it could have a limited ability to control the response to an oil spill there, let alone one the magnitude of last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. regulators said their main leverage to encourage safe drilling practices in Cuba is with the oil company doing the first round of offshore exploration in the communist country: Spain's Repsol.
Because of its other extensive U.S. interests, Repsol is likely to exercise caution in a project less than 100 miles from the Florida coastline, said Michael Bromwich, director of the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which is within the Department of the Interior.
Repsol's wide U.S. interests have likely "played a significant role in why they've been as cooperative as they have," Bromwich told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday morning.
Bromwich also said the company has pledged publicly that it will adhere to U.S. regulations and the highest industry standards while working in Cuban waters. The company has given U.S. regulators permission to inspect the rig it will be using, Bromwich said, although that inspection would have to be done before it enters Cuban waters. The agency, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, already has participated in a mock response drill at Repsol's facilities in Trinidad.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/18/2460190/us-admits-limits-in-monitoring.html#ixzz1bELJzQ3v

Fukushima Update (Video)

Police Seek Escaped Exotic Animals in Ohio

Violent clashes as UK police begin clearing illegal Traveler camp

Peter MacDiarmid / Getty Images

 

The AP reports from CRAYS HILL, England:

 British police in riot gear on Wednesday used sledgehammers to clear the way for the eviction of a community of Irish Travelers from a site where they have lived illegally for a decade.

A large force of police and bailiffs faced resistance from several dozen residents and supporters who threw bricks and struggled with officers at the Dale Farm site, set amid fields 30 miles east of London. One mobile home was set on fire as police moved in at dawn, and several protesters chained themselves to barricades with bicycle locks in a bid to slow down the evictions. Others scaled a 40-foot scaffolding tower, from which police began removing them one by one.

Essex Police said two protesters were Tasered and one person arrested and that police officers had been attacked with rocks and other missiles.

Fhotoblog >

President Obama Spending Our Money