If the media portrayal of the weekend attacks by hackers group anonymous are to be believed, the country is faced with a deceptive, manipulative and highly skilled group of hacker-protesters bent on taking down every major Internet site.

They have only one part right – that the group is highly skilled.

If you’ve read my past writings about the V for Vendetta masks at Occupy protests, then you know that I stand squarely on the side of the hackers group anonymous. In fact, I’ve found myself smiling each time I see the latest website they’ve brought down.

I think that every reader that recognizes the true state of our country at the moment can appreciate the need for a group like Anonymous.
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On January 21st, thousands of protesters and union workers gathered at a massive rally in London, Ontario, to speak out against the Electro-Motive plant lockout that took place three weeks prior.

The actions that led up to the massive rally included the company management informing workers that pay would be cut nearly 50 percent across the board.

With such massive cuts in labor costs, one would expect that the company is in dire financial straights. However, the reality is that Electro-Motive is owned by Caterpillar – and Caterpillar is anything but financially strapped.

In fact, in October of 2011, the company posted record profits – a 44% increase in profits that even surprised market observers on Wall Street (1).
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It's not the Mini-Cooper, it's a cheap Chinese knock-off

Contrary to what our American corporate leaders are saying about Chinese innovation, the Chinese themselves are not buying it.

Li Bin, an IPR lawyer from China says that the growth of Chinese patent filings is more a reflection of ‘trash patents’ than China’s ability to innovate (89).

Mr. Si Weijang, Chairman of the IPC of the All China Lawyers Association, is in agreement and believes that attention should be paid to innovation instead of pure numbers (90).

And Chen Naiwei, director of the Intellectual Property Research at one of China’s premier universities says that most Chinese patents consist of new appearance and design, because those are faster to obtain and require less scrutiny, among other things (91).

Others question the quality of Chinese patents for a different reason. They point out that innovation as pertaining to patents and R&D is highly politicized and has less to do with quality as with ‘guanxi’ or contacts.

It can further be argued that the Chinese are playing a ‘numbers games’ in order to meet patent quotas or targets (92)(93). What this means is that by any means necessary, China may be attempting to flood the patent market.
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Dogs have been domesticated for more than 15,000 years, and, according to a book titled “Genetic Evidence for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs,” dogs may have been the first animal to become pets.

Asides making great companions, dogs have an ultra-sensitive sense of smell, with more than 220 million olfactory receptors in its nose. A dog’s sense of smell is said to be a thousand times more sensitive than that of humans.

Dogs are also adept at locating everything from survivors trapped in the rubble of an earthquake, to forensic cadaver material.

A new book that has been co-written by a family for whom dogs have always played a central role, tells a tale that goes beyond the those facts about dogs, and dives into more mythical realms – suggesting that dogs may actually have some kind of sixth sense.
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Things are disturbingly unsettled in the world of horses at present, with horrific horse mutilations happening in the UK.

Oddly enough, in parallel with those mutilations has been the spread of a neurological form of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1), currently making its way across the western United States and threatening horse populations across the world.

Speculation into what is causing the disturbing deaths of so many horses is inevitably surfacing, with animal lovers making their feelings of horror known on the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

The most recent appalling case of horse mutilation occurred in the English south-western county of Devon.

A two-year-old horse, called Eric, suffered severe injuries to its head and body at its home in Devon, in what Maureen Rolls, of South West Equine Protection told the BBC, “…was the worst case of horse mutilation she had seen in 30 years.” (1)
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The FDA has declared that Gulf seafood is now as safe as it was before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April 2010.

This accident caused an unbelievable amount of damage. Could it really be restored in less than two years?

In order to determine the safety of Gulf seafood, the FDA has tested polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. They chose this method of testing because PAHs stay in seafood longer than other hydrocarbons.

If the level of PAHs is low, then it can be concluded that other hydrocarbons are lower.

Over 10,000 specimens were tested for levels at 100 times lower than the levels of concern, as well as levels at 1000 times lower.

They found that 99% of the samples tested had no detectable residue.

Gulf Seafood Completely Free of Contaminants

Levels are so low that Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods, stated:

“Someone could eat 63 lbs of peeled shrimp (that’s 1,575 jumbo shrimp); or 5 lbs. of oyster meat (that’s 130 individual oysters); or 9 lbs. of fish (that’s 18 8-ounce fish filets) every day for five years and still not reach the levels of concern.” (1)

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Blame it on age: I was 14 when Timothy McVeigh and his cohorts blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City (or did they… cue evil laughter).

I was also an early adopter of the Internet and before that, bulletin board systems.

Late nights spent downloading text files dedicated to Project Bluebook and Majestic-12 caused me many sleepless nights. I was convinced the Men in Black were coming for me at any moment.

But I never actually began to question my sanity until I crossed paths with the one and only David Icke.

The exact details are vague, but I recall that I was at Borders one day and happened upon The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change The World!

While skeptical that the world was really controlled by a clandestine network of shape-shifting reptilian creatures from the lower fourth dimension – as Icke apparently claimed – I couldn’t really figure out why the hell George Washington was posing like Baphomet.
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If you are concerned about the effects of greenhouse gases on the environment, you may find new data from the EPA very interesting.

For the first time, greenhouse gas emissions data is available to the public in a format that is easy to understand.

Through a new EPA reporting program, you can see who the biggest offenders are in your part of the country.

This report provides information on nine industry groups all over the US that reported their emissions in 2010, under mandatory EPA reporting laws.

Industries include power plants, refineries, chemical manufacturing, landfills, metals manufacturing, mineral production, pulp and paper, government and commercial and other industrial facilities.

Data is reported to the EPA directly from each facility in response to the Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule issued by the EPA in 2009. The reports include facilities that produce 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year as well as suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial gases.
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