Category Archives: International

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Will Sony join Hitachi and stop making TVs in Japan?

Believe it or not the electronics giant Sony has been losing money big time on TV sales.  Prior to the March 11th disasters Sony lost about $95 million from TV sales.

Hitachi recently announced they would shut down their last Japanese TV factory by March 2012.  They claim they’re losing to competition from South Korea.

Sony says it wants to continue to make TVs in Japan, in fact they say making TVs is “the biggest and critical issue” for Sony.

Sony would not give any details of their plans to rebuild their TV business, but analysts think Sony is hoping to expand sales in emerging markets.

The concern over TV production is overshadowing Sony’s next generation video game system, the PlayStation Vita, which is due to be released at the end of the year, or beginning of next year.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

U.S. Debt: The Big Three countries U.S. taxpayers are beholded to, U.S. government bonds drop in rank

Most people know that China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt.  Japan is the second biggest, and the United Kingdom (Britain) is the third.

According to the most recent information, China holds a little more than $1 trillion in U.S. government debt (bonds), Japan holds $912 billion and the U.K. holds $346 billion.  Those bonds are held not only by foreign governments, but by private banks and corporations.

Standard & Poor’s downgrade means that U.S. government bonds are now ranked 2nd place.  Germany, United Kingdom and France still hold their triple A 1st place ranks.  Interestingly the Federal Reserve Bank (not a government agency) says the drop in ranking will not change how they handle U.S. bonds.

The problem is that foreign banks will surely change how they handle U.S. bonds.

The majority of U.S. government debt is still held within the United States, by banks, corporations, individuals and taxpayers via the U.S. Treasury.

 

 

International, U.S.

Russian envoy to NATO reveals planned NATO attack on Syria, says Iran is next

“This statement means that the planning of the military campaign is well underway. It could be a logical conclusion of those military and propaganda operations, which have been carried out by certain Western countries against North Africa.”-Dmitry Rogozin, Russian envoy to NATO

The “statement” refers to the recent UN Security Council’s statement against Syria.

Rogozin also says the U.S. led NATO attacks on Libya, and the build up against Syria are all part of the “west’s” plan to invade Iran, and finally take total control of the oil rich region: “The noose around Iran is tightening. Military planning against Iran is underway.  And we are certainly concerned about an escalation of a large-scale war in this huge region.”


International, Technology

No more need for men? Japan makes sperm from stem cells

Japanese scientists have successfully made sperm from stems cells, called iPS cells.  Note only that but they have a bunch of baby mice to show for it.

The iPS cells were mixed with a protein, which turned the iPS cells into primordial cells that can develop into sperm.

Don’t worry men, you’re still involved.  The primordial cells are then injected into the male’s testis, where they develop into sperm.  The experiment worked with mice.  It’s hoped this process could help men who can’t develop their own sperm.

 

 

International, U.S.

Proof that the U.S. military is controlled by Christian Crusaders: USAF “ethics” course is an in your face course on Christianity

30 U.S. Air Force officers revealed that a nuclear “ethics” course they were required to attend was nothing more than a promotion of Christianity, and a bad one at that.

The course constantly referred to biblical quotes, and quotes from Christian saints.  Most of the justification is based on versus from the Old Testament. I like to point out that there were no “Christians” in the Old Testament.  Also, the course uses Saint Augustine’s “Christian” justification of war.  Augustine was born more than 3oo years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth.  Augustine made the statements in order to justify the continued war mongering of the newly Christianized Roman Empire.

One part of the ethics course even stated that Christians view nuclear war as a good thing.

I’d like to remind people that no Hebrew official can speak for Moses, just as no Imam can speak for Mohammad.  And definitely no Saint can speak for Jesus of Nazareth.  Here’s a quote from the New Testament: Mathew 5:39; “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”-attributed to Jesus of Nazareth, New American Standard 1984 edition

Amazingly (well, from my experience, maybe it’s not so amazing) USAF officials claim they never realized there was anything “Christian” about the ethics course.  The U.S. Air Force has been teaching the officer ethics course for nearly 20 years.

The USAF says they’ve stopped teaching the course.  There is a detailed report at truth-out.org.  Also the original USAF powerpoint presentation was made available online, you can find it at the Washington Post website.  It was after the presentation hit the internet that the USAF stopped their nuclear “ethics” course.

 

International, U.S.

The Young Indiana Jones got his start in Mexico, turns out the fictional story may have some truth to it

The popularity of the Indiana Jones movie character lead to the short lived TV show, Young Indiana Jones.  The character spent a lot of time doing rogue archeology in Mexico, at the time of the First World War.

If you remember (oh well, most people don’t) the United States actually invaded Mexico at that time (it wasn’t the first time).  It was to try to capture the revolutionary Fransisco “Poncho” Villa.  Turns out the U.S. Army did a little archeological research as well.

Now Mexican officials are reporting that they found 11 (out of 13) mound sites, that were previously explored by U.S. Army soldiers.  The sites are located near San Joaquin, Chihuahua, where 50 U.S. soldiers spent their off duty time digging around.

The testimonies of two U.S. officers are kept in the National Archives of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Museum, in Washington DC.  Mexican archeologists spent time reading those testimonies.  The documents include photographs, maps, sketches and drawings of the sites.

Mexican archeologists say the maps of the U.S. officers were very accurate.  It turns out that a path indicated on the map was actually a major transport route in ancient times.  However, only 11 of the 13 mound sites on the maps have been found, so far.

The U.S. soldiers estimated the sites to be 800 years old, about the time of the Middle Paquimé period (between 1200 and 1450 AD).

No details have been given about what was found.  I guess we have to go to the National Archives of Anthropology in Washington DC, and beg them to let us read those documents.

 

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International

Argentina has so much wheat they’ve released 450,000 tons from their surplus stockpile

The Argentine officials announced that they have plenty of wheat.  As a result of predicted high crop yields from upcoming harvests, the government decided to issue 450,000 tons of surplus wheat.

The surplus wheat will be split up among three provences of Argentina.  Those provences can then sell the wheat on the export market.  The action was encouraged by the Argentine Interior Commerce Secretary, Guillermo Moreno.

Argentina has a policy of maintaining large wheat surpluses, for food security.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery, What Global Warming? It’s summer time and Crops in Mexico are being threatened by Frost, yet more reasons why food prices will go up

“The involvement is significant, because they are threatening more than 7 million hectares of crops planted in the spring-summer 2011, which are at risk for losing a harvest of 20 million tons of basic grains as well as lost income and liquidity of more 3.5 million basic grain producers.”-Salazar Arriaga, National Confederation of Corn Producers

To be sure Mexico’s agriculture industry is dealing with severe drought, but also flooding and…frost.

23 of Mexico’s 32 states are dealing with drought, but, now that the rainy season is about to start it looks like they’ll get hit with severe flooding, neither of which are conducive to growing crops.

In northern Mexico, winter is predicted to come on colder than normal, resulting in frost damage to many struggling crops.

Some of the worst hit states in Mexico are Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Durango, Sonora, Chihuahua, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Colima, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán and Zacatecas.  Farmers in those states have lost too much of the growing year, which means it’s too late to plant anything.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Japan’s biggest paper maker closing down, Hitachi & Mitsubishi merging

Japan’s biggest paper maker, Nippon Paper Group, will lay off at least 1,300 workers and close at least five factories.

Part of the blame is on the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which damaged three factories.  Company officials say it’s not worth it to rebuild the damaged factories.

In fact business is so bad that Nippon Paper says it will close down factories, and lay off employees, as part of plans to cut production by 800,000 tons of paper.

And two industrial giants in Japan are merging in an attempt to save themselves.  Hitachi and Mitsubishi will merge some of their businesses that are involved with energy and environment, to create a new company.

This continues a trend between the two companies.  They’ve already created a joint rail transportation company.  Analysts say eventually the two companies will fully merge.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? China bans local businesses from getting loans from foreign banks

In a move that’s officially meant to tighten money supply, to counter rising inflation, China has banned all domestic businesses from taking loans from foreign banks.

The specific type of loan is called RMB (RenMinBi, a type of international currency). The People’s Bank of China, told all other banks that it would stop accepting applications for direct offshore borrowing.

An unnamed source said one of the reasons China is banning RMB loans, is because they have no control over the interest rates of those loans.

China has already tightened lending by Chinese banks, again, to try and control inflation by restricting the amount of money in the consumer market.  The RMB loans are controlled by foreign banks, and have increased their lending in China since the beginning of the year.

An official with the People’s Bank of China said they are going to come up with a system in which they can influence the lending of foreign money in China.