Christie was arrested by federal agents on July 8, 2010, along with 13 members of his congregation. All of the “Green 13″ — as they are known locally — have been released on bond. But Christie himself was denied bail and remains behind bars at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center (FDC) awaiting trial next year on Marijuana Trafficking charges.

In July, US Federal District Court Judge Alan Kay in Honolulu supported the prosecutor’s claims that Christie represents a “danger to the community”.

In August, the U.S. Ninth District Court of Appeals in San Francisco summarily denied Christie’s appeal without a review.

“Roger Christie’s incarceration without bail and before trial is shocking and unjust,” said Hilo attorney Paul Sulla.  “It is intended to drive fear into the public debate over the de-criminalization of the cannabis plant. ”

Sulla is one of Directors of the Cannabis Charity Education and Defense Fund, or CCEDF, the organizer of the March and Rally.

“After the appeal of the bail decision was denied,” Sulla told Hawaii News Daily, ”the US Attorney’s Office next requested a continuance of the trial date on the grounds that the case against Christie was a ‘complex trial’ necessitating more time to prepare. The court then granted the prosecution another 7 months to prepare for trial without addressing the release of Christie during this extended period.”

Christie and the Green 13’s trial has now been re-scheduled for April 26, 2011 in Honolulu, a 50 minute plane flight from Christie’s home turf in Hilo.

The cost of Christie’s incarceration at the FDC was reported to be $150 per week, or $600 per month for such necessities such as telephone, fax, and email privileges — and to purchase healthy meals and for other necessities from the prison commissary. Because Christie has been jailed before trial, his ability to mount an effective defense has been substantially impaired. Many of these costs are associated with Christie’s ability to communicate with witnesses, gather information to support for his defense and work on his case while being held without bail.

A previous march and rally for Christie sponsored by the group was held in Hilo on August 18. That event drew a crowd of 200, according to KITV in Honolulu.

Last week, members and guests of the Cannabis Charity met in Hilo to plan the next rally and to address the conditions surrounding Christie’s continued incarceration.

Members of board expected the turn-out for the next Rally to increase on public outrage and indignation over Christie’s continued confinement before trial — now exceeding 60 days.

Sulla said Christie’s plight was within the charter of the Cannabis Charity to assist those in need on account of their criminal prosecution for medical, religious or adult private use and/or cultivation of the cannabis plant.

“We can help Roger,” Said Paul Sulla. “Our group was formed to help people who are criminally in peril as a result their private personal use and/or cultivation of the cannabis plant and its derivatives. The public through CCEDF can do something to help defray Roger’s out of pocket legal costs while he is incarcerated and we intend to follow through with this support as long as it is needed.”

Sulla said the theme of next March and Rally will be to “Get Up, Stand Up for Your Rights.”

“The approach of the CCEDF is to align with existing cannabis churches, support groups, politicians and the supporting citizens to increase awareness of the real medical and social benefits of the cannabis plant,” said Sulla. “The Cannabis plant is sacred to many, and the criminalization of its use is not the answer. This is a public health concern — not a matter for criminal courts.”

The Rally for Roger Christie will be held in Hilo on September 22, beginning at 3pm, followed by a march beginning around 4:30pm. Location to be announced.

______________________________
For more information, visit cannabischarity.org. or call 808-430-3924.

• To learn more about the case visit: http://the-last-marijuana-trial.com.
• Case documents are located here:  http://the-last-marijuana-trial.com/court-documents/

Widespread damage extending beyond Christchurch has damaged infrastructure, including substantial disruption to the power and water supply. Two people were reported seriously injured, and local residents have also reported that chimneys have fallen in through roofs, ceilings cracked and brick walls collapsed. Several aftershocks were also felt as far north as New Plymouth.

Bob Parker, the mayor of Christchurch, told the New Zealand Herald that he is “thankful there has been no loss of life but there had been considerable damage across the city and outlying areas.” “We are very happy and blessed that no one died,” Prime Minister John Key said; he further pledged that “we are here to support them. We are not going to let Christchurch suffer this great tragedy on their own.”

People in the Christchurch area have been told not to enter the CBD, and a curfew has been established there from 7pm to 7am. Other towns have also had parts closed off to be inspected for safety. The NOAA’s evaluation of the situation predicts that significant damage will not progress beyond New Zealand: “Based on the earthquake magnitude, location and historic tsunami records, a damaging tsunami is not expected along the California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska coasts. At coastal locations which have experienced strong ground shaking, local tsunamis are possible due to underwater landslides.”

source: wikinews

To the Editors of the Los Angeles Times:

The recent Op-Ed authored by current and former American “drug czars” once again misrepresented the Dutch experience with cannabis “coffee shops” as a warning to Americans about removing cannabis from the black market.

First, they refer to “Amsterdam’s ‘coffee shop’ marijuana sales.” Cannabis coffee shops are not just restricted to Amsterdam. Local councils have the right to decide whether or not to allow coffee shops, and they can be found in more than 50 cities and towns across the country, not just in tourist centers, like the capital. Some coffeeshops have even been established by local councils, because the situation without decriminalized access to cannabis for adults was worse.

Right now, only the retail sale of five grams is tolerated, so black market production remains a problem, just as it is in the US. The mayors of a majority of the cities with coffeeshops have urged the national government to also decriminalize growth, wholesale and transport – the supply side.

A poll taken earlier this year indicated that some 50% of the Dutch population thinks cannabis should be fully legalized while only 25% wanted a complete ban.

Second, while it is true that the number of coffee shops has fallen from its peak of around 2,500 throughout the country, there are still more than 700 – if that is a “few hundred”, then okay.

Third, the problems with “drug tourists” are largely confined to cities and small towns near our borders with Germany and Belgium. These problems, mostly involving traffic jams, are at least as much the result of cannabis prohibition in our neighboring countries as they are the result of Dutch tolerance.

Fourth, “public nuisance problems” with the coffee shops are minimal when compared with bars, as is demonstrated by the rarity of calls for the police for problems at coffee shops.

Fifth, it is true that lifetime and “past-month” use rates did increase back in the seventies and eighties, but the Czars shamefully failed to report that there were comparable and larger increases in cannabis use in our neighboring countries which continued complete prohibition.

Most outrageously, the drug czars ignore the well known and undisputed statistics that show that Dutch use of cannabis remains about half that of the US and is comparable to – or less than – use in our neighboring countries with more repressive policies. Moreover, Dutch heroin use rates are also less than half of US rates. We attribute that fact to what we call the “separation of the markets” for hard and soft drugs.

My organization, ENCOD, European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies, spreads the scientifically based claim that the theory of prohibition has been falsified by the Dutch experience with cannabis decriminalization.

It is my firm belief that the American people, and certainly Californians, would support decriminalizing drugs and regulating drug markets, if only they knew that the drug problem in their country is much worse than in countries with more liberal policies. The problem is that Americans do know that their country has a serious drug problem, but they also believe or are convinced that in the Netherlands and other European countries the situation is even worse. This is what they have heard from their governments and drug czars.

There is a tradition of lies being told by US officials, especially about the Netherlands. An earlier drug czar, I believe it was Lee Brown, warned that visiting Amsterdam means stumbling over junkies in the center of town. In 1998, just before the start of a “fact-finding mission” to the Netherlands, then US Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey claimed that Dutch drug policy was an “unmitigated disaster”. He claimed that the U.S. had less than half the murder rate of the Netherlands — 8.22 murders per 100,000 people in 1995 compared to 17.58 in the Netherlands. “That’s drugs,” he explained.

The Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics issued a special press release explaining that the actual Dutch murder rate is 1.8 per 100,000 people, or less than one-quarter the U.S. murder rate.

It is not known whether McCaffrey understood the implications of the link which he implied between murder rate and drug policy for the American situation.

I hope that the American people will at least have access to accurate information when they decide what cannabis policies will work best. Americans have not ceased to be smart or pragmatic. They have been systematically misled. If they absorb the knowledge about the state of the drug problem in their own country and elsewhere, I cannot imagine that they will continue to support drug prohibition.

Dr. Frederik Polak
Amsterdam Psychiatrist
President of ENCOD, European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies

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Gold tends to maintain its value. It doesn’t go up; it doesn’t go down. It just holds its purchasing power and keeps pace with inflation. On average it stays constant, but only on average. In the short term, gold fluctuates wildly, at times even more than the stock market.

In January 1980, gold reached its high of $850 an ounce on the expectation of rampant inflation. But such inflation did not follow the doomsday predictions of straight-line projections. In fact, gold prices reversed and began dropping as chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker took action to strengthen the dollar and broke the back of inflation.

Under a sounder monetary policy, gold continued to drop from $850 in 1980 all the way down to $260 in 2001. It lost 69% of its value over a 21-year period for a consistent annualized loss of 5.5%. It didn’t return to $850 until 2008, 28 years later. You can’t afford nearly three decades of no return while inflation eats away your buying power.

That $850 in 1980 had the same buying power as $2,249 in today’s dollars. Gold trading at $850 an ounce then was like gold trading at $1,000 more than its current price. Those people who purchased gold in 1980 have lost over half their buying power during a 30-year investment.

Had they invested $850 in the S&P 500, their investment would have grown not merely to $1,250 but to $17,261. Which investment would you rather have chosen in 1980: gold that is up 47% while inflation has been up 166% or the S&P 500 that is up 1,931% and averaging 10.8% a year?

In his book “Stocks for the Long Run,” Jeremy Siegel analyzes investments over the past 200 years. Gold typically just maintains its value over time. If you bought a dollar’s worth of gold 200 years ago, after adjusting for inflation it would be worth about a dollar today. Because of inflation, a dollar today would only have had the buying power of about 7 cents back then! However, the stock market, on average, has been appreciating about 6.5% above inflation.

Inflation has been running at about 4.5% and equities have been averaging 10.8% over the last 30 years. You need to exceed inflation to grow the purchasing power of your portfolio and fund a long and successful retirement. Holding gold may help you sleep well tonight, but you won’t eat well 10 years from now.

Although gold generally holds its purchasing value, it can fluctuate wildly based on other factors. The price of gold generally rises with expectations of inflation or worries about economic or political security. The recent appreciation of gold stems from an expectation that prolific and wanton spending by the federal government will excessively devalue the dollar and run up deficits that will lead to a catastrophic financial meltdown as well as worries that Iranian president Ahmadinejad is determined to nuke Israel and America.

Perhaps such dire predictions are correct and we are headed to Armageddon. If so, gold should not be your first purchase. First you should stock a year’s supply of food. Then buy a gun to protect it. Only after you’ve purchased plenty of seed corn should you think about buying gold. Even then I would think that gold isn’t a liquid asset at the end of the world as we know it. At that point a loaf of bread will buy a bag of gold. If you want liquid assets in such a catastrophic situation, try buying cases of Jack Daniels. It is cheaper, keeps just as well and will fetch more in trading value.

Perhaps we are rushing toward the meltdown of society as we know it. But perhaps not.

As strongly as I believe in the foolishness of government-created solutions to solve government-created crises, I believe even more strongly in the fickleness of the American voter. Who would have thought a Republican would be elected to Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat?

Perhaps the pendulum is swinging back and reckless governmental socialism and spending will be repudiated in the midterm elections. If that happens, all the dire expectations that worried individualists have priced into the gold market will evaporate along with some of the value of gold investments.

We don’t recommend holding more than 3% to 5% of your net worth in gold coins. You don’t need any Eagles or Krugerrands to reach your financial objectives. Hard asset stocks do better than simply buying the underlying commodities. Holding diversified foreign equities protects against government monetary folly and would have protected even the citizens of Zimbabwe. Emphasizing those countries with a sound monetary policy is even better.

Having said all that, holding a few gold coins has had its benefits historically.

Some of our clients are old enough to remember Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6102 in 1933 that restricted gold ownership. Owning gold was illegal until the early 1970s when Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard for our currency and Gerald Ford signed a bill that legalized private ownership of gold.

Having gold during World War II was the only way to get family members safely out of Nazi Germany using bribery. Owning gold coins can provide some flexibility in dark and uncertain political times.

Although holding a small number of gold coins won’t jeopardize your financial objectives, be prepared for their value to decline if the world’s debt, deficit, socialist tendencies and Armageddon start looking a little less bleak.

from http://www.emarotta.com/article.php?ID=412

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James Lee protesting Discovery Channel in 2008

James Lee, the man who held three hostages at the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, has been shot and killed by police.

No one else was hurt.

In a press conference, a spokesman for police told the media that police were on scene and talking to a man with a gun and explosives, who has been described as an Asian male.

Employees were sent to the building’s upper floors and then evacuated from the building after the gunman entered. A day care center located inside the building, which had over 100 people inside of it at the time, was also evacuated. Roads surrounding the building have been closed to traffic, and witnesses state that SWAT teams and law enforcement from several areas were at the scene, along with three bomb technicians.

Lee posted a manifesto on his website, savetheplanetprotest.comaccording to sources, which criticized the Discovery Channel.

Lee’s list of demands are posted below:

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:
1. The Discovery Channel and it’s affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn’s “My Ishmael” pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other’s inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs’ places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR!

4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn’t, then get hell off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??

5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don’t build more housing pollution which destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet!

7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people’s brains until they get it!!

8. Saving the Planet means saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! You’re the media, you can reach enough people. It’s your resposibility because you reach so many minds!!!

9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy. Find solutions for their disasterous Ponzi-Casino economy before they take the world to another nuclear war.

10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. Stop Future Weapons shows or replace the dialogue condemning the people behind these developments so that the shows become exposes rather than advertisements of Arms sales and development!

11. You’re also going to find solutions for unemployment and housing. All these unemployed people makes me think the US is headed toward more war.

Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what’s left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.

For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new addition over the course of 60 to 100 YEARS of that new human’s lifespan! THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!! All human procreation and farming must cease!

It is the responsiblity of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis. Even one child born in the US will use 30 to a thousand times more resources than a Third World child. It’s like a couple are having 30 babies even though it’s just one! If the US goes in this direction maybe other countries will too!

Also, war must be halted. Not because it’s morally wrong, but because of the catastrophic environmental damage modern weapons cause to other creatures. FIND SOLUTIONS JUST LIKE THE BOOK SAYS! Humans are supposed to be inventive. INVENT, DAMN YOU!!

The world needs TV shows that DEVELOP solutions to the problems that humans are causing, not stupify the people into destroying the world. Not encouraging them to breed more environmentally harmful humans.

Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.

The humans? The planet does not need humans.

You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world, and YET you encourage the exact opposite instead of discouraging human growth and procreation. Surely you MUST ALREADY KNOW this!

I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.

These are the demands and sayings of Lee.

It has been reported that police were initially called to the scene upon recieving a report of a suspicious package. CNN has reported the man could be a former employee of the network, and a police officer at the scene said that the suspect has “concerns” with Discovery.

wikinews contributed to this report.

Peter Girouard: Voiceover Guy

What do Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, and Peter Girouard have in common?

They are all voice-over guys.

Not that there’s anything “Star Trek” about Peter Girouard. More like “Columbo: The Miami Years“, if you’re looking for a catchphrase.

Peter Girouard grew up in New England, and he has the rolling humor of a wise and urbanized Easterner.

By the time he got to Kentucky, he was already seasoned with a sharp sense of humor and a passion for talking.

About 15-years ago, Girouard started putting his mouth where his money was: “I was a morning drive-time DJ for WDHR, a 50,000 watt FM radio station in East Kentucky,” Girouard recalled. “I worked with a local guy, Randy Jones, for the 6-9am morning commute slot. We had as many as 5 guys in the studio every morning. It was the best of times. We called it ‘the AM Asylum’.”

Girouard worked the AM show for 4-years.

“Our philosophy was, if we make each other laugh, everybody else will catch-up eventually.”

WDHR - The AM Asylum

Girouard also voiced the station’s news broadcasts, and was its News Director.

Since he left broadcasting in 2007, Girouard has applied his talents as an independent voice actor.

“Voice acting is my passion,” said Girouard, “I work in a medium that allows clients to express themselves through my voice. I become somebody you hear, but don’t see. It’s the message that’s important.”

“Think of everything you hear but don’t see,” he continued. “Answering machines, video games, announcements, radio ads, audio books. The identity of the voiceover actor is unknown. That means a voice actor has successfully presented his message.”

Besides his experience at WDHR,  Girouard also has professional training in audio production techniques.  He also has his own recording studio and editing facilities at his home office.

Girouard has attended auditions for parts as a voice actor.  ”I even took a series of classes in audio production to get a job for a company in Schenectady, New York,” he said.

Nowadays Girouard’s clients usually find him through word of mouth. “Clients typically email me their script. I record and edit it, and then email the mp3 back to them for review. The client gets exactly what they want.”

What’s the biggest kick for Peter Girouard? “I love what I do,” he said. “I look forward to working with people for the first time. It’s a collaborative process. Everyone is excited and so full of creative energy.  Everyone gets to think and laugh.”

Click here to hear samples of Peter Girouard’s voice over work.

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A press release has been issued by UAMAU PRODUCTIONS:

Our Unalienable (Akua/God given) individual rights are under constant assault by the expanding government matrix (regulation, debt, wars, surveillance etc.) and transnational corporate greed.

People (not Sheeple) everywhere are fed up with local/state/and federal government corruption. The American empire is self destructing and it is high time that the people of Big Island prepare, to survive and thrive beyond the inevitable mega-storm which is well on the way.

Here on the Island of Hawaii, as is the case in local communities worldwide, the People have been largely abandoned by the institutions created to serve and protect them. We now live in a social/political crisis, where elite global interests and international corporations have taken control of the US government. This dangerous condition has almost completely usurped the voice, destiny and power of the people:

by the manipulation of our free press,
by the misuse of our peace officers and law enforcement,
by increased restrictions upon free speech,
by intrusions upon our privacy,
by the abuse of our military,
by the manipulation of local governments through federal funding,
by the abuse of our executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government
by manipulating free markets in favor of giant corporations
by the destruction of our currency (see Audit the Fed.com)
by restrictive threats to our right to defend ourselves from tyranny,

All Akua/God given power rests with the individual and is delegated from them. Everyone has the right from Akua/God to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and a corresponding duty to protect those rights as an individual and through the establishing of governments to do the same.

The event will begin at the  Hawaii Island Memorial for “9/11 PULE” at 9am.

The parking lot at Hilo Lanes will host music, speakers, local produce, arts and crafts.

Scheduled musical performers: (subject to changes)

• Kaliko Guys (Hawaiian/Jazz/Tribal Flute)
• Margo Kimball (Folk/Soul/Rock)
• Jean Alena (Awakened Acoustic Originals)
• Nanea (Classic Hawaiian Rock sweet harmonies)
• Old Habits Die Hard (Positive Punk/Trash/Metal)
• Ismaila (West African Drum and Dance)
• Lisa Chaly (Versatile vocals/originals with power and soul)
• Rick Barbati (Original guitar stylings and grooves)
• Kava John (Ukulele and Didgereedoo)

Link c/o peacefulskyalliance.org

Nanodot technology is a form of information storage that could be used in the future. Nanodot technology today can store over one hundred times more data than today’s hard drives. The nanodots are billions of little magnets which can switch polarity to represent a binary unit of data (for example, a single digit — 1 or 0 — of a binary numeral).

Nanodots: Magnetic Micro Constructors

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Washington excels at blame shifting. The financial crisis began and ended with the exercise of political privilege and power. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were given a lending environment superior to the private sector while the latter was forced to loosen lending requirements beyond reason. The blame for the financial meltdown belongs on federal regulators, not on a lack of regulation.

But beyond all this blame mongering is the assumption that the current legislation can bestow enough power in the hands of a few to steer the course of global finance for the better. As William F. Buckley, Jr. has often remarked, “Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.”

The bill mostly just asks federal agencies to make sure that nothing bad happens in the future. It doesn’t really tell them how to do that. But it does make it clear they will be held accountable. And they can’t complain they didn’t have the needed authority or clout. In the bill they are given a wide range of new and unchecked powers to do whatever it might take to make sure bad things don’t happen.

Unfortunately, we now have to fear their exercise of these powers. Only if you swear by the genius of Caesar, trust in his altruism and believe in his divinity is this bill a cause for celebration.

For example, the bill creates a Financial Stability Oversight Council. The ten regulators in this group have the task of monitoring any systemwide risks in our financial system. They have also been given nearly unlimited power to address these risks by forcing financial firms to sell assets or close a portion of their business.

The utopian hubris of believing such a group will do more good than harm is unfounded by human history and experience. And the assumption that such a council will be untouched by self-interest is naive beyond belief.

In the chapter on politics in his book “The Blank Slate,” Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker says, “We are all members of the same flawed species. Putting our moral vision into practice means imposing our will on others. The human lust for power and esteem, coupled with its vulnerability to self-deception and self-righteousness, makes that an invitation to a calamity, all the worse when that power is directed at a goal as quixotic as eradicating human self-interest.”

Congressmen Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank themselves were given the simpler task of overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Their own self-deception and self-righteousness led them to defend and even praise Countrywide’s reckless lending practices. In the meantime, they accepted more than $2 million in campaign donations from Countrywide, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The new bill is ripe for lobbying by special-interest groups. Almost all of the actual rule writing has been delegated to regulators. The legislation will be revised endlessly for decades, and all the power players with a stake in the game will be able through their contributions and lobbying efforts to leave their fingerprints on the rules.

Such concentrated power will be used to benefit one firm at the expense of another. The winners will be the most powerful financial firms, lobbyists and legislators. The losers will be smaller banks and financial firms, fee-only fiduciaries and consumers. Anyone who doesn’t have millions of dollars at stake will not be a big enough stakeholder to bother gaming the system.

According to the Washington Post, “Some liberals have criticized the bill for failing to more aggressively alter the structure of Wall Street and for leaving so many critical decisions to federal regulators, who missed many of the warning signs before the crisis.”

“‘It’s the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard,’ Dodd countered. ‘What do they expect me to write, a 100,000-page bill? This is far beyond the capacity, the expertise, the knowledge of a Congress to detail every new regulation,’ he said.”

Truer words could not have been spoken. Such work is also far beyond the agencies to which Congress has delegated the task. The bill is 2,319 pages long. It establishes 355 potential new agency rules. It mandates funding 47 studies. And it requires 74 different reports.

It will probably create more jobs than any of the bailouts efforts. But none of those hires will be working for consumers. Their number-one priority will be their personal reputation and power. Only tangentially will any of their interests align with yours.

None of this work will encourage competitiveness. No one will manufacture products for sale. These efforts will produce no real wealth. And hundreds of the potential new rules have nothing to do with financial stability.

The report has thousands of potential unintended and unanticipated consequences. For example, the Federal Reserve will now be authorized to limit the swipe fee that credit card companies charge merchants for debit card transactions. Such price controls have popular support. After all, who wants credit card companies to rake in high fees? But price controls are never good economics.

How will they decide what the limit should be? If limiting the fees to $6 is good, is limiting the fee to $3 even better? Why stop there? Why not limit the fee to $1? What are those fees for anyway?

Currently there isn’t a limit on the fee because the fee can be a percentage of the total transaction amount. Part of the reasoning is that such a transaction may be fraudulent identity theft and the money transferred could be unrecoverable. Because the fee serves as insurance against this possibility, it is a percentage of the transaction. If the Fed limits the fee, such transactions could be eliminated as well. Alternatively, banks could simply charge the maximum and allow smaller transactions to subsidize the risks of larger transactions. None of this is good economics.

This is a consequence of price controls. Transactions that all parties would otherwise want to make become illegal. Either the price control is set too high and has no effect or it is set below the equilibrium and upsets the balance, making the service disappear altogether.

Maybe the genius of the Fed will set the swipe fee limit high enough so it will have no unintended consequences. But Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should have been able to set lending requirements high enough to avoid the financial crisis in the first place. If politics did not allow something that simple, we certainly won’t avoid mistakes with regulations as complex as this bill invites.

The Dodd-Frank bill can be likened to giving the government unlimited powers and asking them to eliminate evil. It sounds like a good idea in theory, but the task is impossible, and the means by which they will make the attempt is dangerous to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Libertarians can’t tell you exactly why the bill is a bad idea. No one can understand the complex interaction of our financial systems that well. And that is exactly why we know the bill will do more harm than good.

from http://www.emarotta.com/article.php?ID=411

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Previous smell sensors were based on quartz rods, which vibrate when a substance binds to them. The gases are distinguished by their molar masses, which can be similar for molecules with different structure, thus relatively often triggering a false positive. Trying to find a more accurate solution, Takeuchi decided to follow an example from insect world. As he explained, “when you think about the mosquito, it is able to find people because of carbon dioxide from the human. So the mosquito has CO2 receptors. When we can (extract) DNA (from the mosquito) we can put this DNA into the frog eggs to detect CO2.”

Genes of several insects (the silk moth, diamondback moth and fruit fly), injected into African clawed frog Xenopus laevis eggs, allowed them to produce relatively inexpensive and useful sensors. The choice of the species was caused by their widely studied and well-understood protein expression mechanism.

The modified cells responded to three kinds of pheromones and one odourant, which have similar chemical properties. When a molecule of an odorous substance adhered to the receptor on the membrane protein, ion channels opened for a certain period of time, and a current was generated. Its magnitude was clearly different for all four tested substances, allowing to distinguish between them accurately.

The colleagues embedded the sensor into a mannequin, so that it could shake its head when a gas was detected. It was easier to observe. Pheromones and molecules with quite similar molecule structure produced clearly distinguishable reaction, with higher accuracy than other biological or human-made sensors. As the research group said, the detection sensitivity of the odor sensor is several tens of parts per billion (ppb), and it is as high as the sensitivity of an existing odor sensor that uses an oxide semiconductor. The distinctive feature of the new sensor is its capability to selectively detect some odorous substances, rather than its sensitivity. Very few false positives were possible due to the biological mechanism involved.

At normal temperature, the sensor lifetime is about 12 hours, which can be extended by putting it into a refrigerator before first use.

Shoji Takeuchi says has a great hope for research use in future, since the frog eggs are very practical for genetic engineering, and can be conveniently used to develop smell sensors for a wide range of gases. He said, “The X. laevis oocyte has high versatility for the development of chemical sensors for various odorants. We believe that a shared ability to smell might open a new relationship between man and robot. .. The research will have wide implications… If the sensor is embedded in a nursing robot, it will be able to identify certain mouth odors or body odors. Also, it can be used for detecting CO2, air pollution, water pollution and food. It’s very important for the environment.”

Credit: wikinews.org

• Dan Nosowitz “Super-sensitive robotic nose created with frog eggs” – SmartPlanet, August 27, 2010

• Daily Mail Reporter “Scientists use genetically engineered frog eggs to make a robot with a sense of smell” – Mail Online, August 24, 2010

• Paul Marks “Frog cells give artificial nose the power of super smell” – New Scientist, August 23, 2010

• “Scientists create smell detector using frog eggs” – ABD News, August 24, 2010

• Tetsuo Nozawa, Nikkei Electronics “Insect Cells Used to Develop Odor Sensor With High Selectivity” – techon.nikkeibp.co.jp, August 24, 2010

• “Scientists create smell detector using frog eggs” – Yahoo News, August 24, 2010

• Nobuo Misawaa, Hidefumi Mitsunob, Ryohei Kanzakic, Shoji Takeuchi (2010). “Highly sensitive and selective odorant sensor using living cells expressing insect olfactory receptors“. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107 (34). doi:10.1073/pnas.1004334107. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/08/16/1004334107.

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