All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Spider Man is for real: The Dutch combine spider webs with human skin, makes bullet proof skin

Human skin has been bio-engineered to include spider silk.  Scientists in the Netherlands then fired a bullet at it.  Turns out it’s bullet proof!

Don’t get too excited, it was only a .22 caliber bullet.  But it shows promise, after all spider’s silk is the strongest thing in nature.

https://youtu.be/iX3LtVuGp4c

The experiment is known as 2.6g 329m/s (a reference to the .22 bullet), and was actually the invention of an artist, Jalila Essaidi.  She was inspired by a U.S. scientist, Randy Lewis, at the University of Utah.

The spider silk came from Utah, it was combined with skin in a Dutch dermatology lab, and Essaidi paid for the experiment.  The spidey skin has spider silk between the dermis and the epidermis.

Essaidi said her main motivation was simply to see if it could be done.  She also fired a few .22 rounds at the spidey skin.  She doesn’t think the spider silk is harmful because it’s biodegradable, so it would degrade over time.  She also thinks that, unfortunately, that would result in loose skin.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Nokia Siemens helping governments to spy on you through social media

“If the U.S. or the EU are proudly focusing on internet freedom, while security and other ICT products made in the West are used to repress the same citizens we are trying to protect, this is clearly neither credible nor effective.”-Marietje Schaake, EU Member of Parliament from Netherlands

In Bahrain, where the U.S. supported government has been cracking down on peaceful protestors, and detaining and torturing them, human rights groups have revealed that Bahraini officials are tracking people’s activities through their cell phones.

Bahrain is using technology developed by Nokia Siemens.  Bahraini activist Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar said while he was being tortured his own cell phone conversations were being read back to him.  He was detained for seven months.

This is not the first time the company has been accused of enabling spying and torture.  Last year, two Iranians attempted to sued Nokia Siemens in U.S. Federal court. They alleged that the surveillance technology helped Iranian security forces to arrest and torture them.

Nokia Siemens Networks is a joint venture between the Finnish Nokia and the German Siemens.

 

Business/Economics, International

Global Economic War: German government spliting up, growing numbers of leaders criticize Merkel’s economic policies

Recently, the President of Germany criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for going along with the European Central Bank in bailing out Greece, and other countries in economic trouble.

“That is asking for trouble in the long run and can only be tolerated in the interim.” and “I consider the sizeable purchase of individual states’ bonds by the European Central Bank to be legally questionable.”-Christian Wulff, German President

The statements were made to a group of economists.  What’s unusual about Wulff’s statements is, for one the office of President in Germany is ceremonial, and secondly Wulff is a member of the same political party as Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union).

Wulff is not the only Christian Democratic Union member upset with current policies.  Fellow CDU member, and head of the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee, Wolfgang Bosbach, said: “We should take the president’s comments seriously, it’s also a question of being fair to generations of people.”

Also, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merkel’s mentor, has blasted Merkel’s policies: “We must take care not to gamble everything away. We must urgently return to our former dependability.”

German politicians are starting to mirror public polls, which show many Germans do not want their government bailing out anymore countries.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? German Auto Makers making big profits, but economists say the party is over

The Germany auto industry has seen skyrocketing sales this year, mainly in China and India.  But a Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, study predicts dire sales in the near future.

CAR boss Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, says the growing debt problems of Europe, United States, and even Japan, will eventually drag down the world economy.  He predicts a “significant fall in growth” for the German auto industry.

Germany has the strongest performing car makers in the world.  According to the Center of Automotive Management, VW holds 1st place, Daimler 2nd, and BMW holds 4th place (Korea’s Hyundai holds 3rd).

However, Center of Automotive Management predicts German car sales in China will soon drop off.  So far Germany has seen 20% to 30% sales gains year after year.  CAM analysts believe that in the near future German car makers will be lucky to see 5% sales growth in China and India.

5% sales growth will not be enough to make up for predicted loses in other markets (like the U.S.): “The gains that will be made in China and India won’t be able to compensate for the slight losses in other markets.”-Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, Center Automotive Research

 

 

International

United Kingdom admits they have British soldiers on the ground in Libya, Britain & Rebels violate Geneva & Hague Conventions

The Daily Telegraph quoted Ministry of Defense officials, saying the SAS (Special Air Service) is on the ground and taking part in the battle for Tripoli.

Not only that, but the British officials admit they’ve had “boots on the ground” for several weeks.  The British SAS dress like civilians and use the same weapons the rebels are using.

It is a violation of the Geneva and Hague Conventions, for soldiers to dress like civilians.

Under the Geneva Convention, soldiers who wear civilian clothes are considered “illegal combatants”, and can be treated the same way that the United States is treating prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay (GITMO), and other prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and other secret locations.  A “legal combatant” must wear a uniform, or an obvious sign indicating they are a government soldier.

The Hague Convention states that soldiers “…have a fixed distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance.”

However the Hague Convention says any civilians defending their territory from invasion (like the U.S. invading Afghanistan & Iraq) are considered “legal combatants” even if they’re wearing civilian clothes.  If captured they must be treated as an official “Prisoner of War”, under Hague Convention POW rules, as a uniformed soldier would be treated.

Since Libya was not invaded, under the Hague Convention the civilian rebels are not allowed the same rights as a uniformed soldier, even if the rebels are wearing a uniform.

The rebels have been officially recognized by many countries, giving the Trans National Council the status of a government.  This means the TNC should have issued some kind of standardized uniform, or sign, for their “soldiers” to be legal under international law.  On top of that they are not defending from an outside invader.

So, the Libyan rebels, and the civilian clothed British SAS, are “illegal combatants”.  After all, isn’t the United States about the rule of law?

 

 

 

 

 

U.S.

United Police States of America: NYPD using CIA tactics to spy on non-white Americans, NYPD officials call it “fiction”

“Some in the department, including lawyers, have privately expressed concerns about the program.”-Associated Press

The Associated Press (AP) revealed that the New York Police Department is using spy tactics “that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government” and “does so with unprecedented help from the CIA in a partnership that has blurred the bright line between foreign and domestic spying.”

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne says the report is “marked by outright fiction.”

The AP says their months long investigation included interviews with more than 40 current and former members of the NYPD, as well as Federal officials.

CIA veteran David Cohen, was hired in 2002 by NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.  The anti-terrorist program targeted non-white communities.  Cops detained people based solely on how they looked.

The NYPD even asked New York taxi companies to spy on their employees.

Police attorneys told AP that when they warned police officials they were breaking the law, on the grounds that many of the people rounded up were innocent, the cops started shredding their files.

A possible reason why federal cops ratted on the NYPD, to the Associated Press, is because the NYPD overstepped their bounds.  New York cops launched operations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, possibly interfering with federal operations.  That made federalis like the FBI mad.

International, Technology, U.S.

United Police Kingdom: British Bobbies taser to death another man, at least three police killings in 8 days

For the third time in eight days British Bobbies have killed using a taser, and pepper spray.

August 23, Greater Manchester Police officers tasered to death a 53 year old truck driver. They say they were trying to stop him from killing himself!

August 22, a 25 year old amateur rugby player, died after he was hit in the face with pepper spray and subdued by up to 11 cops.

August 16, a professional bodybuilder, and father of two, was pepper sprayed and then tasered three times with 50,000 volts, before dying.  He became the first Brit to be killed with a taser.

Until last week no one in United Kingdom had been killed by the use of a taser. In United States, Amnesty International says that since 2001, more than 460 people have been killed with a taser.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Original Lager Beer Yeast came from South America, not Germany! Proof that Vikings made it all the way to South America?

Researchers from around the world have been looking for the source yeast used in Lager beers.  They found it, in Argentina!

Germany has laid claim as the creator of lager beers, more than 600 years ago.  But scientists realized that the yeast used, Saccharomyces Pastorianus, is not native to Bavaria.

Scientists combed five continents, and found only one source of origin: Patagonia, Argentina.

Now the question is how did Europeans get the yeast?  After all the first German Lagers were created decades before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.   Could it be those daring Vikings who got to North America 400 years before Columbus, made it all the way to South America, then back to Europe?

International

Chronic overeating caused by the same condition that causes Anorexia

Researchers from the University of New South Wales think they’ve figured out what causes people to overeat, to the point of obesity.  It’s the same thing that causes anorexia: Executive Function Disorders.

EFD is a brain condition that prevents people from being able to organize their lives.  The Australian scientists think that obese people, and anorexic people are just the extreme opposites of the same condition.

Anorexics deal with not being able to deal with food by not eating it.  Obese people deal with not being able to deal with food by not thinking about what, and how much they’re eating.

The researchers think therapies used for anorexics, should work with chronically obese people.

International, Technology

Bacteria can stop Dengue Fever

“This is a simple, non-chemical, non-harmful way to reduce the threat of dengue to humans. It could have a transformative effect on the health of literally millions of people worldwide.”–Alun Lloyd

North Carolina State University researchers have discovered that common bacterias can stop the spread of Dengue fever.  The research involved scientists from Australia.

The researchers found that a bacterium called Wolbachia, which is not harmful to humans, can block the transmission of Dengue in mosquitoes.  They think by releasing mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, it could radically reduce cases of Dengue fever.