Chile’s Atacama Desert has been hit by record snowfall, 80 centimeters (2.6 feet). A bus full of people had to be rescued after it got stuck in the snow, for 48 hours.
The record snow has shut down some of Chile’s copper mines. There is concern that the snow, along with ongoing strikes by mine workers, will cause copper prices to soar.
New Zealand was hit by yet another major earthquake, the third this year. The 7.6 quake hit July 7, but this time it was off the north end of the island country.
A tsunami warning was issued, 1 meter (3.2 feet) tall waves were seen off of Raoul Island.
Standard & Poor’s is warning that a French plan to “rollover” Greek debt will force Greece into default. The plan was put forth by the Fédération Bancaire Française.
S & P’s is not the only finance rating company to make such a claim. It’s complicated, but basically they claim the French plan would result in current “investors” in Greek bonds receiving much less of a return on their investment, so much so that S & P’s is willing to declare Greece in default.
The plan was approved by the only economic powerhouse in the European Union: Germany.
“In our view, Greece’s near-term reliance on European Union and International Monetary Fund official financing, the government’s difficulty in reducing its sizable fiscal deficit, and the current pricing of Greek government debt in the secondary market all underscore the Hellenic Republic’s weak creditworthiness and, consequently, point to a ‘realistic possibility’ that financing option would fit the ‘distressed’ category.”-Standard & Poor’s
First the Germans blamed Spanish cucumbers. Then they blamed sprouts, from a northern German farm. Then the French blamed a German owned grocery store selling French grown sprouts. Then the French blamed a U.K. seed company which supplied the seeds to grow the sprouts. Then the Swedish blamed the Germans, then backed off when they began having e.coli cases in people who’d never been to Germany, or eaten sprouts. Now the Europeans are blaming Egyptian fenugreek seeds for the deadly e.coli. Fenugreek is used as an herb and a spice.
The Europeans have gone so far as to ban any more imports of Egyptian fenugreek. On top of that they’re banning other Egyptian agricultural products, until they can be proven safe.
Here’s the problem; no one has proven conclusively where the deadly e.coli strain is coming from!
Fact: German health officials traced some of the e.coli cases back to a typhoid Mary suspect, a woman who worked for a catering company. The woman seems to be a carrier. She thinks she might have eaten sprouts.
Fact: E.coli comes from humans, not plants. The only way plants could get infected is if they came into contact with humans waste.
So far at least 49 people have died, and more than 4,000 are sick. Knowing the facts about the case, how can European officials now blame Egyptian fenugreek? Of course they claim the seeds were used to grow the sprouts that made people sick. But up ’till now the claim has been that “bean” sprouts are the culprits. Now suddenly it’s fenugreek sprouts?
Seeds get contaminated when they come into contact with the bacteria. This could be at anytime in the planting, growing and harvesting process. It only takes a tiny bit of the bacteria, once the seeds are planted not only does the plant grow, but some does the e.coli, and it spreads. That’s the traditional way.
Here’s a new way: In an earlier posting I wrote how some scientists say it looks like the deadly e.coli strain was engineered in a lab. If you understand the way genetic engineering of plants works, then it actually makes sense. In order for scientist to make their genetic modifications ‘stick’, they must use a bacteria that is resistant to almost all forms of self preservation by the original plant genes. Yes, e.coli is one of those deadly bacterias that agricultural giants like Monsanto could be using to create GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).
They also want their newly modified plants to be super resistant to natural diseases, and man made chemicals. Again, that’s where the deadly bacterias come into play. GMOs contain bacteria that are intentionally made to be super resistant.
Are we looking at the first cases of deadly results from genetically modified plants?
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Epidemiology reports a study done by Australian researchers, into the effects of hypoallergenic whey based infant formula.
620 babies were divided into three groups. One group got the whey formula, another group got cow’s milk, and the third got soy milk.
Two years later the babies were checked. Surprise! More than half the 620 babies developed allergies regardless of what type of formula, or milk they drank.
Further more, when researchers looked at just the babies who drank the hypoallergenic whey formula, they discovered that the incident rate for developing allergies, was no different than for the cow’s milk or soy milk.
A study in France followed more than 3,000 people and the amount of water they drank over a nine year period.
Over the nine years it was discovered that people who drank at least 1 liter (34 ounces) of water per day, had 21% less blood sugar, than those who drank less water.
Researchers admit there are other factors that could account for the results, and they want to do more studies.
Denmark announced that starting July 5, no more open borders. They blame drug trafficking and illegal immigrants.
Since the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan drug trafficking has skyrocketed across Central Asia and into Europe. Many of the drugs come from U.S. occupied Afghanistan.
The NATO attacks on Libya have greatly increased what European governments are calling illegal immigration (most of whom are actually war refugees, no thanks to the European/U.S./NATO war on Libya).
Denmark is not the first EU member to close its borders. France and Italy closed their borders with each other, for the same reasons as Denmark. In the case of France and Italy, French officials discovered that Italy was giving refugees (I mean illegal immigrants), mainly from Tunis and Libya, EU visas then putting them on trains bound for France.
Other EU members are complaining about the violation of the European Union’s “open borders” policy, but Denmark claims their border closure will not affect commerce.
A British newspaper reports that a secret meeting was held between NATO and Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal. The subject was nuclear weapons, and how Saudi Arabia could get some.
The Guardian quoted an unnamed Saudi official as saying: “We cannot live in a situation where Iran has nuclear weapons and we don’t.”
The meeting concerned Saudi fears that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia is a Semitic country. Iran is technically Aryan (Aryans originate in Central Asia, and spread from India to Europe, the politically correct term in the West is Indo-European). Also, most of the Saudi royal family are Wahhabi (aka Salafi) Muslims (the main stream western media incorrectly says most Saudis are Sunni Muslim). Most Iranians are Shia Muslims. Al Qaeda, also made up of mainly Wahhabis, declared jihad against Shia Muslims. The dominating tribe of Saudi Arabia (the royal family) considers Iran a mortal enemy.
One analysts says what’s really happening is that Saudi Arabia is trying to push the United States closer to going to war with Iran: “I think the point is less that Saudi Arabia is really planning to make nuclear weapons, it’s about impressing on the U.S. how urgent it is to react to Iran’s nuclear program.”-Guido Steinberg, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
The German Parliament is investigating the sale of 200 of the latest version of Germany’s Leopard 2 tank to Saudi Arabia. It was an unnamed Saudi source that revealed the sale.
German law bans the sale of major weapons systems to countries in crisis hit regions: “Selling 200 Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia is far from ethical foreign policy. The country is in the middle of a regional powder keg. You shouldn’t be giving out matches there.”-Andrea Nahles, SPD General Secretary
Der Spiegel revealed that it was Chancellor Merkel’s security council that approved the sale.
What makes this even more controversial is that Germany already gave Saudi Arabia a $93 billion ‘stimulus’ package, specifically for military/security use. It’s rumored that Saudi Arabia needs the military help after invading the tiny island country of Bahrain, and after constant military action on their border with Yemen.
Makes you wonder where all their oil money went?
German car makers are scrambling to keep up with international orders. They expect that by the end of the year they will have exported 4.15 million German made cars. But the majority of those cars are not going to the U.S., they’re going to China, and to some extent India.
“We are seeing international markets pick up much more rapidly than many had expected. The drivers of growth are above all Asian markets.”-Matthias Wissmann, German Car Industry Association
Audi alone saw a 64% increase in their sales to China and Hong Kong, in 2010. But BMW is turning out to be the big money maker, just in the first six months of 2011, their sales in China exploded by 101%!
Executives for German car makers admitted they are scrambling to rethink their corporate strategy, because they never expected such high sales in China, so soon.