XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Friday 5 February 2010

Oasis singer wants to be here for sentencing - Noel Gallagher to read his victim impact statement in person -

Reading - Oasis singer wants to be here for sentencing - Noel Gallagher to read his victim impact statement in person -



A Toronto judge has approved an “eleventh hour” request by Oasis star Noel Gallagher to appear in court at a sentencing hearing for a man who assaulted him while he performed on an outdoor Toronto Island stage.

Danny Sullivan, a 48-year-old contractor from Pickering, pleaded guilty in November to assault causing bodily harm for the Sept. 7, 2008 attack that broke three of Gallagher’s rib.

Oasis cancelled five concerts after the incident, which was caught on camera by concertgoers, posted on YouTube and seen around the world.

Crown attorney Ruth Kleinhenz told the Ontario Court Justice Gallagher wants to read his victim impact statement in person.

Defence lawyer John Collins had asked Ontario Justice Richard Schneider to turn down Gallagher’s request, saying he should not “control the proceedings.”

Sullivan did the right thing by pleading guilty and this continues to hang like an “albatross around his neck.”

“He and his family have suffered significant emotional distress.”

Court adjourned to pick a date when Gallagher can appear.

Oasis disbanded last summer. Gallagher, 42, plans to continue as a solo act.

Read more -http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/761171--oasis-singer-wants-to-be-here-for-sentencing?bn=1

Space Shuttle Endeavour 'Go' for Sunday Launch - 4:39 a.m. EST - last time an orbiter lifts off in darkness -

Reading - Space Shuttle Endeavour 'Go' for Sunday Launch - 4:39 a.m. EST - last time an orbiter lifts off in darkness -


NASA's space shuttle Endeavour is ready for its Sunday launch to the International Space Station – a planned predawn liftoff that is expected to be the last time an orbiter lifts off in darkness.

The weather forecast is pristine for Endeavour's upcoming launch from a seaside pad here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff is set for 4:39 a.m. EST (0939 GMT), with an 80 percent chance of good weather.

"We're in really good shape," said Mike Moses, NASA's shuttle integration manager, in a morning briefing. "Everybody is ready to go."

Endeavour's launch is the first of NASA's five final shuttle missions before the space agency retires its aging, three-orbiter fleet later this year.

The shuttle will launch six astronauts on a 13-day mission to deliver a new room and observation portal to the International Space Station. It is the last major assembly job for the $100 billion space station, which has been under construction since 1998.

"Every launch is a little bittersweet because it's one closer to the end," Moses said.

The new room, called Tranquility, will house station robotic arm controls, life support systems and exercise gear. It will also include the Cupola, a new seven-window observation portal launching on Endeavour that promises to give astronauts stunning views of the Earth and space.

Sunday's predawn launch is also expected to be the last time a space shuttle will blast off in darkness. Weather permitting, it is expected to be visible from much of the eastern United States.

Read more -http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/nasa-shuttle-go-launch-100205.html

Unusually hot weather makes sports commentator faint on Live TV -

Watching - Unusually hot weather makes sports commentator faint on Live TV -


16-year-old Turkish girl discovered buried alive by relatives carried out as punishment for talking to boys -

Reading - 16-year-old Turkish girl discovered buried alive by relatives carried out as punishment for talking to boys -


The body of a 16-year-old Turkish girl has been discovered after being buried alive by relatives in an “honor” killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.

Police discovered the body after receiving an anonymous tip.

The police was told that the girl was killed after a family council meeting, and had been buried under a chicken pen.

Police say that the girl had complained two months earlier that her grandfather beat her for talking to boys.

The girl was identified by her initials, and was said to have large amounts of soil in her stomach and lungs.

"The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl — who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood — was alive and fully conscious when she was buried," an unnamed expert said, Huffington Post reported.

Police have arrested her mother, father and grandfather who had reported her as missing.

Official figures indicate that more than 200 honor killings take place in Turkey each year.

It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt -

Reading - It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt -


A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.

And the U.S. government would still be massively in debt.

So why doesn't the U.S. government just fire up the printing presses and print a bunch of money to pay off the debt?

Well, for one very simple reason.

That is not the way our system works.

You see, for more dollars to enter the system, the U.S. government has to go into more debt.

The U.S. government does not issue U.S. currency - the Federal Reserve does.

The Federal Reserve is a private bank owned and operated for profit by a very powerful group of elite international bankers.

If you will pull a dollar bill out and take a look at it, you will notice that it says "Federal Reserve Note" at the top.

It belongs to the Federal Reserve.

The U.S. government cannot simply go out and create new money whenever it wants under our current system.

Instead, it must get it from the Federal Reserve.

So, when the U.S. government needs to borrow more money (which happens a lot these days) it goes over to the Federal Reserve and asks them for some more green pieces of paper called Federal Reserve Notes.

The Federal Reserve swaps these green pieces of paper for pink pieces of paper called U.S. Treasury bonds. The Federal Reserve either sells these U.S. Treasury bonds or they keep the bonds for themselves (which happens a lot these days).

So that is how the U.S. government gets more green pieces of paper called "U.S. dollars" to put into circulation. But by doing so, they get themselves into even more debt which they will owe even more interest on.

So every time the U.S. government does this, the national debt gets even bigger and the interest on that debt gets even bigger.

Are you starting to get the picture?

As you read this, the U.S. national debt is approximately 12 trillion dollars, although it is going up so rapidly that it is really hard to pin down an exact figure.

So how much money actually exists in the United States today?

Well, there are several ways to measure this.

The "M0" money supply is the total of all physical bills and currency, plus the money on hand in bank vaults and all of the deposits those banks have at reserve banks. As of mid-2009, the Federal Reserve said that this amount was about 908 billion dollars.

The "M1" money supply includes all of the currency in the "M0" money supply, along with all of the money held in checking accounts and other checkable accounts at banks, as well as all money contained in travelers' checks.
According to the Federal Reserve, this totaled approximately 1.7 trillion dollars in December 2009, but not all of this money actually "exists" as we will see in a moment.

The "M2" money supply includes everything in the "M1" money supply plus most other savings accounts, money market accounts, retail money market mutual funds, and small denomination time deposits (certificates of deposit of under $100,000).
According to the Federal Reserve, this totaled approximately 8.5 trillion dollars in December 2009, but once again, not all of this money actually "exists" as we will see in a moment.

The "M3" money supply includes everything in the "M2" money supply plus all other CDs (large time deposits and institutional money market mutual fund balances), deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements. The Federal Reserve does not keep track of M3 anymore, but according to
ShadowStats.com it is currently somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 trillion dollars. But again, not all of this "money" actually "exists" either.

So why doesn't it exist?

It is because our financial system is based on something called fractional reserve banking.

When you go over to your local bank and deposit $100, they do not keep your $100 in the bank. Instead, they keep only a small fraction of your money there at the bank and they lend out the rest to someone else. Then, if that person deposits the money that was just borrowed at the same bank, that bank can loan out most of that money once again. In this way, the amount of "money" quickly gets multiplied. But in reality, only $100 actually exists. The system works because we do not all run down to the bank and demand all of our money at the same time.

According to the New York Federal Reserve Bank, fractional reserve banking can be explained this way....

"
If the reserve requirement is 10%, for example, a bank that receives a $100 deposit may lend out $90 of that deposit. If the borrower then writes a check to someone who deposits the $90, the bank receiving that deposit can lend out $81. As the process continues, the banking system can expand the initial deposit of $100 into a maximum of $1,000 of money ($100+$90+81+$72.90+...=$1,

000)."

So much of the "money" out there today is basically made up out of thin air.

In fact, most banks have no reserve requirements at all on savings deposits, CDs and certain kinds of money market accounts. Primarily, reserve requirements apply only to "transactions deposits" – essentially checking accounts.

The truth is that banks are freer today to dramatically "multiply" the amounts deposited with them than ever before. But all of this "multiplied" money is only on paper - it doesn't actually exist.

The point is that the broadest measures of the money supply (M2 and M3) vastly overstate how much "real money" actually exists in the system.

So if the U.S. government went out today and demanded every single dollar from all banks, businesses and individuals in the United States it would not be able to collect 14 trillion dollars (M3) or even 8.5 trillion dollars (M2) because those amounts are based on fractional reserve banking.

So the bottom line is this....

#1) If all money owned by all American banks, businesses and individuals was gathered up today and sent to the U.S. government, there would not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.

#2) The only way to create more money is to go into even more debt which makes the problem even worse.

You see, this is what the whole Federal Reserve System was designed to do. It was designed to slowly drain the massive wealth of the American people and transfer it to the elite international bankers.

It is a game that is designed so that the U.S. government cannot win. As soon as they create more money by borrowing it, the U.S. government owes more than what was created because of interest.

If you owe more money than ever was created you can never pay it back.
That means perpetual debt for as long as the system exists.

It is a system designed to force the U.S. government into ever-increasing amounts of debt because there is no escape.

Of course if we had listened to our very wise founding father Thomas Jefferson, we could have avoided this colossal mess in the first place....

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

But we didn't listen, did we?

We could solve this problem by shutting down the Federal Reserve and restoring the power to issue U.S. currency to the U.S. Congress (which is what the U.S. Constitution calls for). But the politicians in Washington D.C. are not about to do that.

So unless you are willing to fundamentally change the current system, you might as well quit complaining about the U.S. national debt because it is now mathematically impossible to pay it off.