romunov’s blog et al

A blog by the Haskell family is a place for all you ever wanted to know (and more) about the Flight 253, the flight that carried the Underwear bomber on the Christmas day in 2009 from Amsterdam to Detroit. Kurt and his wife were eye witnesses to the event and offer an inside scoop which would otherwise go unnoticed. Someone has tried to silence them or bury their stories, but thanks to their profession and wits, they have managed to fight this off so far.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free (as engraved at the CIA headquarters).

While we’re observing IPCC slowly flying off the radar (into the ground), there is another bleep on the radar that is being missed or ignored by most. It’s the swine flu (do you still remember it?) and the way WHO reacted to the threat.

For those of you who remember, the outbreak started in Mexico and slowly spread over the globe. Even after WHO prematurely proclaimed this pandemic (it was still “localized”) ban on air travel was not put into place. I guess these sort of things are not pretty high on to-do list when you’re being faced by A FUCKING VIRUS THAT IS GONNA KILL YOU, YOUR FAMILY AND RAPE YOUR PETS. Nail one into the coffin of the world “authority” responsible for keeping up healthy and ready and willing to slave for the bank.

Fortunately there are some sane people out there, who wield some sort of power and had an opportunity to investigate. Chair of council of Europe’s sub-committee on health, Wolfgang Wodarg has let an investigation into the 2009 swine flu outbreak and here are a few nuggets from here (visit the link for the entire story and audio of the visit on Alex Jones Show):

Appearing on The Alex Jones Show, outgoing Chair of the Council of Europe’s Sub-committee on Health Wolfgang Wodarg said that his panel’s investigation into the 2009 swine flu outbreak has found that the pandemic was a fake hoax manufactured by pharmaceutical companies in league with the WHO to make vast profits while endangering public health.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a 47 nation body encompassing democratically elected members of parliament, began hearings last month to investigate whether the H1N1 swine flu pandemic was falsified or exaggerated in an attempt to profit from vaccine sales.

Ever wondered how to compare group means (when you have more than two groups) and test if there is a difference between them? One way ANOVA does just that. You can compare group means between each other and avoid a Type I error you would get if you compared the groups pair-wise with a t-test. Each group can have only one factor, though (if you happen to have more factors, see two-way ANOVA, for example). To find out how to do ANOVA in R (freeware, downloadable from http://www.r-project.org/) see post @ SEDASM.

I have been bestowed upon a task to create a sample pdf of a recently published book on butterflies of Primorska and Notranjska (Slovenia). The full title reads Metulji Notranjske in Primorske (this is just too lure in google/start page searches ). It was authored by Slavko Polak with accompanying pictures from a number of lepidopterologists (butterfly experts). It is a pocket guide and ready to be used out in the field. Highly recommended.

But I digress. I had to create a sample pdf of a few pages to be put online for some spreading the word about the book. I have tried two methods to create these pdfs. One is extremely long, one is extremely short. Both produced a similar result.

1)
I exported certain pages from the full pdf into png (ImageMagick). I joined two by two pages (GIMP) and transformed them into a jpeg (of lower quality and dimensions to keep the file size down) in ImageMagick again. This produced a 600 kB file which is OK, given that I don’t have a source file from which the pdf was created (which is about 8 MB), but has degraded the quality of the pages. This was partially the intent, but I’m having more and more reservations about it.

2)
I used pdftk to extract desired pages into an output file. This took about 40 minutes less (seconds, actually) than the first method and produced an output file of superior quality and similar size (difference of about 50 kB).

pdftk is a pdf processing tool and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Kudos to the authors. pdftk is accessable through your repos (if you’re running a debian based distro).

Our minister for Environment has stepped down, beating his colleagues to call a nay vote on him. The sit is now empty, there is rumor that at least eight candidates await the commission. We anxiously wait who will assume the position and sign an illegal Regulation on shooting of bears and wolves in 2010? Bets are up!

This sort of reminds me of the MEMRI moment a while back (see my post from 2006), when a story how Ahmadinejad (Iranian president) called on the destruction of Israel. It was later revealed that this was an erroneous claim at best, as an Israeli run translational service mis-translated the speech.

But to the current story. A few days ago Venezuelan presidenet Hugo Chavez blamed the US for the earthquake in Haiti using its geo-weapon. This has been repeated throughout the web and print media ever since. Monthly review reports that this claim was falsely attributed to the Venezuelan president, saying the claim came from an obscure opinion post on a Venezuelan state TV.

Before I start ranting, a few explanations are in order. To anyone not familiar with our system, a high school or college student can legally work, which becomes part of their income. Students are contracted and paid through a private business mediating “small” jobs for students.

Student organization of Slovenia has recently produced a video regarding working hours of students. They are banging the drum to rally students against a proposition of a bill that may be passed into law. They claim forced reduction of working hours, which will, according to their forecasts, result in streets full of homeless students… or something. In the video they also claim a student requires around 500 €/month to “survive”. There are also other outrageous claims, which you better see for yourself.

Students are contracted to perform a number of tasks, from bar-tending to high skill jobs like working on a multi million € projects. Students are often (most of the time) equivalent to a newly graduate, which makes it harder for a young unemployed person to compete. My biggest beef with small jobs for students is the way business owners exploit it as a means to get cheap labor force. In a sense I understand them, as it’s more economical to get a student(s) who does work equally well as a regular hired person would. I feel this issue needs to be addressed as a priority. This would not only take the load off of a busy student (don’t laugh), but will also stimulate to hire more young people, who are most vulnerable when seeking or keeping employment. This is why I’m more in favor of making newly graduated student more attractive to hire over students. In my opinion this could be elegantly achieved with amending current laws.

I feel small jobs are a way of destroying what several generations of people have shed sweat and blood to get working rights as we have them today (paid leave, sick days, working hours…). Students are forfeiting a number of acquired rights hand over fist, which I think should be stopped.

At last, I think this deserves at least a mention. In the entire video, they fail to mention that the Organization has a direct stake in this. The Organization is funded by a certain percentage of earnings from mediating small jobs and with slashing of working hours, their piggy bank will shrink. They fail to confront the listener/watcher that they are using public funds to promote the security of their jobs.

There were some applauses heard at the back. I wonder who was that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYj5baVfB0Y&feature=player_embedded

As you might have learned, just rising from the dead, that the poor nation of Haitians experienced a rather shocking day. They little island was rather unfortunately standing on the epicenter of a giant earthquake. I will not get into why the nation ranks pretty high on the poor country list, but this has several rather important consequences. Confer Japan, which is shock proof, Haiti infrastructure doesn’t use reinforced concrete, which makes building fragile at best (come to think of it, I live in a concrete house with little or no steel reinforcement - gulp). This is one of the reasons why about 90% of their infrastructure has been laid in ruin.

With a weak government (which is definitely not a pre-condition, let us all remember hurricane Katrina and its aftermath) and their cultural heritage, looting and pillaging is nothing new. It would seem chaos has erupted, but no need to worry, the US has already send 10.000 troops and god knows how many mercenaries from Xe (BlackWater). Several people have already warned that this may be a prelude to occupation. Maybe.

… happened squat. The “pandemic” swine flu didn’t killed scores, just like promised by the WHO and its “affiliates” (governments). I have called our hotline for swine flu and their model predictions were totally off. That didn’t get in the way of spending thousands of Euros for panic propaganda material, though.
According to the authority on body county, the World health organization (WHO), death toll from the “pandemic” swine flu is about 13.000. Well, if this constitutes a pandemic, then I don’t wanna be right (or how the expression goes?). For comparison, from regular seasonal flues, about quarter to half a million people die each year. And they ask why I don’t trust the government… Of course, at the end of the day, all we have to ask is “why”. I would wager a hefty bet that big pharma and vaccines may have had something to do with it. Maybe.

Numbers here.

The United States will eventually pass a huge bill, that may force everyone to buy health insurance. Unwillingness or inability to do so may result in a fine or jail time. Pretty much what we have here. If you’re employed, your employer takes care of it (but takes from your pay check).

The interesting part about this is how Obama campaigned (and also when in office) talked how the discussion on the bill will be televised. Here’s the clip:

Guess what happened. Yes, he has flip flopped on the issue, just like any other. The Congress wanted an open debate, but White House demanded (like they’re ABOVE the Congress?!) limited televised session of one hour. I will let you find out how long the debate has been and will be, lasting. That way, you can draw your own conclusion why this is such a big deal.

All praise Jebus, a country with kohones exists:

Iceland’s president has refused to sign a controversial bill to repay $5bn (£3.1bn) to the UK and the Netherlands.

As a matter of fact, the president will issue a referendum to decide on the matter:

Announcing the decision to hold a referendum on the bill, President Grimsson said that the Icelandic public had the right to choose.

Yeah, why should the people pay for bad decision by bankers?

Read more over here.

By now, I would guess, almost everyone has heard about the foiled attack on the Delta airliner en route to Detroit by a Nigerian fellow. He has been brewing bad temper since 9/11, they say. This will no doubt tighten the airport security even harder. If this will have any effect only god knows. One also has to wonder why no one reports that Umar Farouk Abdumutallab boarded the plane without the passport. It’s reported that a “sharply dressed” man helped him board without a passport. One has to wonder why no one mentions that the entire flight, including the foiled plot, was filmed by a second person. Umar’s father has contacted the US officials regarding his extremist views, but nothing happened. If all the above is true, it looks like we have just another young person dim witted enough to become a patsy.

The message is clear. If Koebehaven fails, the sea level will rise and the sharks will eat you. Unless you pay a carbon tax, then all will be fine.

Get ready to be swamped by your local government how the summit at Koebenhaven went well. I’m sure it did, who alive and sane could say a week of free hookers is a bad week? Of course they have to justify the money spent to the taxpayers. They will tell you how a “meaningful agreement” has been coined which will bring new this or that. Don’t believe them and go read it yourself (here). Read and interpret at will. I will call the lazy card and wait for someone to break the document down, word for word.

If you follow the link here you will arrive at a page that lists top 25 censored stories of the past year or so. I would number the stories a bit differently, but never the less, here are the titles for your amusement (see full stories by following the aforementioned link).

* 1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
* 2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
* 3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
* 4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
* 5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
* 6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
* 7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
* 8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions
* 9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
* 10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
* 11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine
* 12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connell—Karl Rove’s Election Thief
* 13. Katrina’s Hidden Race War
* 14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts
* 15. World Bank’s Carbon Trade Fiasco
* 16. US Repression of Haiti Continues
* 17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
* 18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature
* 19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor
* 20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
* 21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare
* 22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team
* 23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud
* 24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion
* 25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon

Hat tip to Simona and Drug monkey blog

The UN is planning a big climate change conference in Copenhagen, dubbed Kyoto 2. The discussion will be how to reach a legal-binding agreement to stop global warming. This is, as the politicians say, the most dire thing next to a nuclear holocaust that is pestering the human species.

We have been bombarded with news items of rising sea levels, cannibalistic polar bears and skinny dipping in hot Greenland. Al Gore even produced a film and has educated a number of people to pass on his Gospel. The IPCC (something along the lines of “Intergovernmental panel on climate change”) has produced a report claiming that well over 3500 scientists are peddling the idea of human caused global warming. In the report, only about 60 of the scientists explicitly claim this.

However, the global warming proponents have ignored a plethora of evidence presented by their opponents, who have earned the nickname of “climate change denier/global warming deniers” or simply “deniers”. In this camp, there are a number of people who deny global warming is happening and there are a number of people claiming global warming is happening, but with little or no help from humans. It is unfortunate that they all get lumped into one basket, but have been done so, maybe, due to brevity reasons.

And finally, in November, a number of files and emails has been made public through a Russian anonymous FTP server from the Cliamte Research Group. Actually, those files were sent to a British weatherman who has expressed doubts about global warming on his blog a whole month earlier. The scandal that is yet to be picked up by the main stream media has been dubbed Climategate and hopefully, it will reach the Copenhagen to expose “some bad apples” who apply the science inappropriately in order to land grants and perhaps for other goals as well.

It’s no secret that the EU is built on layer upon layer of bureaucracy. Check out the video of Nigel Farage (UK) lambasting some high EU stock and how the top EU politicians have created the bureaucratic dictatorship. He points out the problem of unelected officials running the show.

Mr. Farage was reprimanded according to a 1993 EU law that forbids criticizing the EU.

With recent snow fall all over the world, which may be a bit unusual for autumn, I wonder how long will it take someone to put together a number of snow pictures and write something to akin of “Global waming? FAIL!”.