23 August 2012, after buying back control of its Swedish cell phone operation, Sony announced it will lay off 15% of the employees.
Sony will also move most of the Mobile Communication division back to Japan.
Until Sony’s buyback, the Mobil Communication division was a joint venture with Sweden’s Ericsson. The cuts are on top of planned lay offs in Sony’s television division.
Famous last words: “Sustainable, renewable energy is going to play a big role in Idaho’s future.”-Butch Otter, current Governor of Idaho, 2011 statement
Reality check: “New projects are non-existent. There’s no support for renewables in this state.”-Peter Richardson, Boise attorney
As of 21 August 2012, Hoku Corporation stock was worth only 9 cents per share!
According to a recent Associated Press (AP) report, all of the promises of support for renewable energy related companies in Idaho, were false.
Pocatello’s Hoku Materials polysilicon factory for solar power panels is now officially mothballed. Boise’s Micron Technology’s energy venture is dead, and Emmett’s biomass power project failed.
Large scale wind power in Idaho is also being targeted.
The AP says the reasons range from federal tax breaks ending for the alternative energy industry, to economic war between China and the United States, to the fact that electricity rates in Idaho are already the second lowest in the country.
But what happened to all those promises of support from the State? The bottom line is that the government of Idaho does not want to throw money at new alternative energy companies, state officials are all talk, no walk (but they love to take the credit for companies moving to Idaho, Butch Otter did with Hoku in his 2007 State of the State speech). After all, Idaho’s main source of electricity already comes from decades old renewable and reliable hydroelectric dams (maybe that’s what Governor Otter was referring to in his 2011 statement).
Another thing, state lawmakers have not required local utility companies to buy into these new energy companies, as have the states of Oregon and Washington. In fact many of these new companies were required to buy their electricity from Idaho Power, Rocky Mountain Power and Avista!
“…HP carries so much weight in the area, when they do something, when HP sneezes, you know, there is a ripple effect.”-Matt Rissell, Idaho Technology Council’s Software Alliance, interview with Boise State Public Radio
22 August 2012, Hewlett Packard (HP) is expected to report a record quarterly loss of almost $9 billion USD. It’s the largest loss for HP ever!
HP is already in the process of laying off 27,000 employees. People in Idaho are worried because HP has a huge campus in Boise, and any layoffs there will definitely hit other Boise area businesses: “For every hundred workers you lose, you’re going to lose at least another fifty.”-Don Holley, economics professor Boise State University
But despite all this doom and gloom, HP is actually benefiting Boise State University, in fact it’s benefiting another chip/computer maker, Idaho’s own Micron.
On 21 August 2012, it was announced that Hewlett Packard donated half a million U.S. dollars worth of equipment to the new Micron Business and Economics Building, located on the Boise State campus.
“We are working with Boise State to provide key technology that will enhance the student experience and help build future business and community leaders.”-Von Hansen, HP Boise
Notice Hansen didn’t say anything about employment, the focus is on “business and community leaders”. Most leaders actually have a poor history of new job creation.
21 August 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) announced it has caught fish near the failed Fukushima Daiichi reactors that have as much as 38,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium!
TEPCo says they’ve caught 20 kinds of fish and shellfish from 5 locations along the Pacific coast, just 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) off Minamisoma City, from mid July to the beginning of August.
A type of trout was contaminated with the most cesium, 38,000 becquerels. That’s 380 times the safe limit set by the Japanese government! To top that, the last time TEPCo tested local fish the amount of contamination was 18.8 times the safe limit!
Fishing was allowed to resume about 50 kilometers northeast of Fukushima Daiichi, on a trial bases, but not for rock trout or other fish that are showing up highly contaminated in TEPCo’s surveys.
“Inside this embassy in the dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through its internal fire escape……. If the U.K. did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching.”-Julian Assange, 19 August 2012 statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London
“We are continuing to seek a diplomatic solution. We remain ready to continue the conversations we have had, but that is now a question for the Ecuadorians.”-British government statement
“We warn the government of the United Kingdom that it will face grave consequences around the world if it directly breaches the territorial integrity of the embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in London!”-Bolivian Alliance for the People of Our America
“I ask President Obama to do the right thing. The United States must renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks. The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation. The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters. The United States must pledge, before the world, that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful!”-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London
“We believe this is a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom and that the OAS [U.S. created Organization of American States] has no role to play in this matter.”-U.S. State Department statement
“They’re [United Kingdom] out of touch. Who do they think they’re dealing with? Can’t they see that this is a dignified and sovereign government which will not kneel down before anyone?”-Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador
“And to the [U.S.] Army private who remains in military prison in Ft Leavenworth, Kansas, who was found by the United Nations to have endured months of tortuous detention in Quantico, Virginia, and who has yet, after two years in prison, to see a trial, he must be released. Bradley Manning must be released! If Bradley Manning did as he was accused, he is a hero and an example to all of us, and one of the World’s foremost political prisoners. Bradley Manning must be released! On Wednesday Bradley Manning spent his 815th day on detention without trial. The legal maximum is 120 days!”–-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London
“This is a sort of declaration of war. The U.S. has degenerated into a rogue state. What the U.S. wants, the U.S. gets from its allies, regardless of if it’s legal or if it’s ethical or in breach of human or legal rights. We’re all lackeys.”-Christine Assange, mother of Julian Assange
“This is not a bilateral dispute between two countries, it is about respect for international law, respect for humanitarian law and respect for embassies and diplomatic corps!”-Nicolás Maduro, Chancellor of Venezuela
“This Friday, there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America, in Washington DC, to address this very situation.”-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London
“Britain….is wrong. The threat is not only an aggression to Ecuador, it’s against Bolivia, it’s against South America, against the whole of Latin America!”-Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
“To my family, and to my children who have been denied their father: Forgive me, we will be reunited soon.”-Julian Assange, 19 August statement from Ecuadorian embassy in London (see video of speech here)
17 August 2012, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) ordered an investigation into TIBOR, or Tokyo Inter-Bank Offered Rate.
It’s a system similar to Britain’s LIBOR, and tries to regulate interest and currency rates.
18 financial institutions in Japan have been ordered to reveal their TIBOR operations. Specifically the FSA is looking for evidence that bank employees unfairly manipulated rates. FSA is concerned about the credibility of the TIBOR system.
The Japanese Bankers Association gave an immediate response to the order, saying their were no TIBOR irregularities, despite the European and U.S. investigations into TIBOR.
17 August 2012, people forced to flee their homes, because of the General Electric designed nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, have been living in temporary prefab homes. Now the Japanese government wants to know if they will accept living in ‘temporary’ towns as well.
A year ago the ignorant Japanese government told nuclear evacuees that they’d be returning home in a few weeks or months. It’s finally become clear to the exalted leaders that radiation contamination could last years. Some areas will exceed 20 millisieverts per year for at least a decade!
The Japanese government admits they are now considering the wishes of the evacuees for the first time! At least 15,000 people can never go back to their homes, and the government says it is willing to build new villages for the victims.
14 August 2012, the Japanese government is now trying to find owners of hundreds of abandoned pets in the 11 March 2011 disaster areas. Last year the Environment Ministry was able to pick up 750 dogs and cats and place in shelters, 300 are still unclaimed.
Government officials believe there are still hundreds of abandoned pets still living in the radiation zones.
The prefectural government of Fukushima is asking people who are known to have lost their pets if they want them back, or not. Fukushima officials say they have contacted at least 1,000 people so far. Officials say they will try to find homes for pets that are no longer wanted, and they will continue to try and capture those pets still loose.
Some owners fear their pets are radioactive, others say they can not afford to take in their pets as they are living in temporary housing, and many owners are still unemployed.
NHK (nippon housou kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) recently ran a sad documentary about pets who are being kept in private shelters, until the owners can take them back. The owners are paying for the shelters. However, in one sad example, the owners of one old dog were finally able to take their dog back only to learn that their dog died just days before they arrived at the shelter.
Visit American Humane Association Visit globalanimal.org
ONE YEAR LATER: FRESH WATER FISH MORE RADIOACTIVE THAN SALT WATER FISH! MORE PROOF THAT YOU NEED LOTS OF SALT IN YOUR DIET!
GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE: MORE RADIOACTIVE BEEF SOLD TO PEOPLE, JAPANESE CATTLE FARMERS ARE NOW BEING TOLD NOT TO USE LOCAL FEED, FARMERS SAY ADVISE IS TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
The following are quotes from U.S. state judges, attorneys and federal government officials regarding the Too Big to Fails’ lawsuits against debtors:
“I would say that roughly 90% of the credit card lawsuits are flawed and can’t prove the person owes the debt.”-Noach Dear, civil court judge Brooklyn, New York
“Our concerns center on the fact that debt collection lawsuits are a pure volume business. The documentation is very bare bones.”-Tom Pahl, Federal Trade Commission
“I do suspect flaws, but there is little I can do.”-Harry Walsh, superior court judge Ventura, California
“This is robo-signing redux.”-Peter Holland, Consumer Protection Clinic at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
The quotes came from a New York Times article
12 August 2012, on the same day that Japan announced it was sending minesweepers to join the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, a USN destroyer collides with a Japanese oil tanker.
It happened in the middle of the night, near the Hormuz Strait. The USS Porter is badly damaged and must be repaired. No injuries were reported. The USN is investigating why the crew of the USS Porter did not see the huge Japanese oil tanker.
There has been no word about damage to the tanker.
Japan had recently allowed the government backing of insurance for Japanese tankers carrying Iranian oil, as a way to get around U.S./European sanctions. Japan also discussed with Iran the possibility of using Iranian insurance companies.