Saturday 13 December 2014

Headlines - 12/12/2014

## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards ##
About a third of German, and more than half of French development aid payments made since 2005 were in fact loans to poorer countries on which they will receive interests, EurActiv can reveal.

## Airline Death Spiral ##
Airspace over London was restricted following an air traffic control computer failure Friday that triggered chaos at the British capital's five airports.

## Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##

## Global unrest/mob rule/angry people/torches and pitchforks ##
A rash of recent Internet and phone outages prompted Gov. Peter Shumlin to call Friday for Vermont's dominant landline phone carrier and about 1,700 striking workers to resolve their labor dispute.

## Energy/resources ##
Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. will drop below 1,100 for the first time in three years as drillers pull out of fields made unprofitable by a 43 percent plunge in crude prices, forecasts prepared by Genscape Inc. show.
Ain't gonna happen. -- RF

## Infrastructure scavenging ##

## Got food? ##

## Lifestyle Solutions ##

## Environment/health ##

## Intelligence/propaganda/security/internet/cyberwar ##
Breathtaking. -- RF

## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
Now the top officer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the condition of much of our waterway infrastructure is as bad or worse, and the numbers involved in solving the problem are almost prohibitive.

## Japan ##
Two Japanese utilities have transmission network capacities that can accept only half the amount of renewable energy suppliers had planned to generate under a so-called feed-in tariff system, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
The government in 2020 is expected to set a goal of reducing the number of new residents in Tokyo by 70,000 per year from the 2013 level to ease overpopulation in the capital, a draft of the policy showed Friday.
Standard operating procedure for politicians when things begin to fall apart. -- RF
Journalists and media researchers issued a statement Dec. 11 calling on the ruling party to stop trying to control content on TV programs.

## China ##
While the project, which originally started out as an idea by then-leader Mao Zedong in 1952, is expected to ease the draught in the north to some degree, it will not be a cure-all.

## UK ##

## US ##
U.S. Treasury yields fell on Friday as a relentless slide in crude oil prices hurt stocks and increased demand for safe-haven U.S. debt on rising concerns about falling inflation.

And finally...

A tongue-in-cheek study in the British Medical Journal calls this proof of "male idiot theory," noting that out of 318 verified cases from the last 20 years, 282 Darwin Awards were awarded to males and just 36 to women. That gives men a "highly statistically significant" 88.7% of the awards for those "who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it."
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