Links del 10-12-2008

• Spanish unemployment poised to surpass 3m - Finacial Times - L'economia spagnola va a rotoli: "[...] Unemployment in Spain, at about 12 per cent of the workforce, is at its worst since 1996 and is already the highest in the European Union. “There is general agreement that 2009 is going to be worse than 2008,” said Pedro Solbes, finance minister. More than 5,700 jobs were lost each day in November, taking the total to 2.99m at the end of the month. Services and construction were the hardest hit sectors. [...]"


• Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here - fed.gov - articolo risalente al lontano 2002, in cui un Bernanke profetico anticipa l'attuale situazione del mercato del debito delle agenzie: "[...] Yet another option would be for the Fed to use its existing authority to operate in the markets for agency debt (for example, mortgage-backed securities issued by Ginnie Mae, the Government National Mortgage Association). [...]"


• Feds Set to Eliminate Water Regulations for Toxin - wired.com - "Among the Bush administration's final environmental legacies will be a decision to exempt perchlorate, a known toxin found at unsafe levels in the drinking water of millions of Americans, from federal regulation. The ruling, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in October, was supposed to be formalized on Monday. That deadline passed, but the agency expects to announce its decision by the year's end, before president-elect Barack Obama takes office. It could take years to reverse. [...]"

Links del 03-12-2008

Rassegna a cadenza casuale:

• Contro la scuola - La Voce del Gongoro - "[...] lo scopo dell'educazione pubblica non è colmare di conoscenza i giovani della specie e svegliare la loro intelligenza... Nulla potrebbe essere più lontano dalla verità. Lo scopo... è semplicemente ridurre quanti più individui possibile allo stesso livello di sicurezza, per alimentare ed addestrare una cittadinanza standardizzata, per reprimere il dissenso e l'originalità. Questo è lo scopo negli Stati Uniti... ed è lo scopo in ogni altro posto. [...]"


• Evidence Suggests CIA Funded Experiments at State Hospital - cryptogon - "Few people in Vermont remember Dr. Robert W. Hyde, but one of his former patients can’t forget him. The doctor was involved in one of the nation’s darkest chapters in medical science: In the 1950s, Hyde conducted drug and psychological experiments at a Boston hospital through funding that apparently originated with the CIA. Later, he became director of research at the Vermont State Hospital. [...] News accounts and histories of the experiments have not mentioned the Vermont State Hospital, but a congressional committee concluded that dozens of institutions, some of which have never been identified, were involved in secret experiments for the CIA."


• U.S. Military Boosting “Homeland” Force to 20,000 by 2011 - MSNBC - "The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials. [...] Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response — a nearly sevenfold increase in five years — “would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable,” Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted “a fundamental change in military culture,” he said. [...] In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized “preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents."