Archive for May, 2012
Fukushima: Radioactive Bluefin Tuna Found Off California Coast…
Posted: May 31, 2012 in Money, People, Politics, World0
Radioactive Sushi: Academy of Science Finds Tuna Radiation Levels 10 Times Higher Than Normal; Declares Food Safe to Eat?
Posted: May 30, 2012 in Money, People, Politics, WorldTags: Fukushima
Next time you head over to your local sushi joint you may want to take a Geiger counter with you. According to researchers at the National Academy of Sciences radiation from the Fukushima disaster has found its way across a 6,000 mile ocean to the coasts of California:
Across the vast Pacific, the mighty bluefin tuna carried radioactive contamination that leaked from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant to the shores of the United States 6,000 miles away — the first time a huge migrating fish has been shown to carry radioactivity such a distance.
“We were frankly kind of startled,” said Nicholas Fisher, one of the researchers reporting the findings online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The levels of radioactive cesium were 10 times higher than the amount measured in tuna off the California coast in previous years. But even so, that’s still far below safe-to-eat limits set by the U.S. and Japanese governments.
But scientists did not expect the nuclear fallout to linger in huge fish that sail the world because such fish can metabolize and shed radioactive substances.
To rule out the possibility that the radiation was carried by ocean currents or deposited in the sea through the atmosphere, the team also analyzed yellowfin tuna, found in the eastern Pacific, and bluefin that migrated to Southern California before the nuclear crisis. They found no trace of cesium-134 and only background levels of cesium-137 left over from nuclear weapons testing in the 1960s.
The results “are unequivocal. Fukushima was the source,” said Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who had no role in the research.
Source: AP
Despite warnings from various international organizations about the dangers posed from radiation contamination to global food supplies, researchers funded by the US and Japanese governments maintain that the food is safe to eat.
Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP files for Chapter 11 in record law firm Collapse…
Posted: May 30, 2012 in Money, People, Politics, World
(Reuters) – The crippled law firm Dewey & Leboeuf LLP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday night and will seek approval to liquidate its business after failing to find a merger partner, marking the biggest collapse of a law firm in U.S. history.
Once one of the largest law firms in the U.S., Dewey has been hit by the loss of the vast majority of its roughly 300 partners to other firms amid concerns about compensation and a heavy debt load.
Dewey had warned employees earlier this month of the possibility the firm may shut down, and a person familiar with the matter had told Reuters that the firm was considering a bankruptcy filing.
“Dewey’s failure is rocking the industry in the sense that most firms are saying to themselves, if Dewey could go down, could we?” Kent Zimmermann, a legal consultant at the Zeughauser Group, said in an email Monday night.
Dewey said in a filing it had decided to wind down its business following unsuccessful negotiations with other law firms to strike a deal. It said it would ask about 90 employees to remain on staff to assist in the liquidation, which it expects to be completed in the next few months.
Negative economic conditions, along with the firm’s partnership compensation arrangements, created a situation where its cash flow was insufficient to cover capital expenses and full compensation expectations, Dewey said.
“During the first quarter of 2012, the firm was confronted with liquidity constraints that led to the precipitous resignation of over 160 of the firm’s 300 partners by May 11,” the New-York based firm said.
Dewey listed liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million, according to the filing. It had already terminated 433 of its 533 New York employees earlier this month, according to the state’s labor department.
MONTHS OF TURBULENCE
The firm’s collapse is expected to be the subject of years of court proceedings, and a number of former partners have already retained lawyers to represent them.
Monday’s filing follows months of turbulence, as wave after wave of partner defections shattered the high-profile firm from within. In April, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office launched a criminal probe of former firm chairman Steven Davis. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The result of a 2007 merger between Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Green & MacRae, Dewey & LeBoeuf had about 1,450 attorneys at its peak, according to The National Law Journal.
But the firm was eventually undone by a combination of the economic downturn, excessive compensation and governance problems, according to former partners and others in the industry. In particular, Dewey’s management promised millions in packages to about 100 partners, according to the court filing, leaving it strapped for cash when revenues fell during the recession.
Dewey has retained Joff Mitchell of Zolfo Cooper LLC as Chief Restructuring Officer and Albert Togut of Togut Segal & Segal LLP as bankruptcy counsel.
“The full extent of the partner compensation arrangements is subject of continuing investigation,” Mitchell said in the filing.
Dewey is one of a handful of major law firms to declare bankruptcy since the recession that began in 2007. They include Coudert Brothers, Heller Ehrman and Howrey.
PENSION PLANS
As of the petition date, Dewey’s assets consisted of about $13 million in cash, accounts receivable of about $255 million, various pieces of artwork, and about $11 million invested in an insurance consortium, among other potential claims, according to the filing.
In the interim, Dewey said the firm will be operating on a budget to be determined by the court. The firm has petitioned the court for permission to continue to pay salaries, benefits and paid time-off for current employees.
Dewey said that the 401(k) plans and qualified pension plans of its current and former employees and partners are held in trust and cannot be accessed by the firm’s creditors.
The U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation filed suit this month to take control of three of the firm’s pension plans, which the agency said were underfunded by $80 million.
The London and Paris offices of the firm are operated through a separately incorporated UK entity, which was placed into administration on Monday.
Administration is a UK legal process under court supervision, broadly similar to Chapter 11. The UK partnership is following broadly the same approach as that of Dewey in the United States, the firm said.
The firm had two dozen offices worldwide, including in Washington, Los Angeles and London. Some of the firm’s biggest clients included General Motors Corp, eBay, Novartis, Ambac and Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Division.
The case is Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, Case No. 12-12321, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore and by Joseph Ax and Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) – Low levels of nuclear radiation from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima power plant have turned up in bluefin tuna off the California coast, suggesting that these fish carried radioactive compounds across the Pacific Ocean faster than wind or water can.
Small amounts of cesium-137 and cesium-134 were detected in 15 tuna caught near San Diego in August 2011, about four months after these chemicals were released into the water off Japan’s east coast, scientists reported on Monday.
That is months earlier than wind and water currents brought debris from the plant to waters off Alaska and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
The amount of radioactive cesium in the fish is not thought to be damaging to people if consumed, the researchers said in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Without making a definitive judgment on the safety of the fish, lead author Daniel Madigan of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station noted that the amount of radioactive material detected was far less than the Japanese safety limit.
“I wouldn’t tell anyone what’s safe to eat or what’s not safe to eat,” Madigan said in a telephone interview. “It’s become clear that some people feel that any amount of radioactivity, in their minds, is bad and they’d like to avoid it. But compared to what’s there naturally … and what’s established as safety limits, it’s not a large amount at all.”
He said the scientists found elevated levels of two radioactive isotopes of the element cesium: cesium 137, which was present in the eastern Pacific before the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in the spring of 2011; and cesium 134, which is produced only by human activities and was not present before the earthquake and tsunami hit the Japanese plant.
Because cesium 134 is generated only by human activities – nuclear power plants and weapons – and there was none in the Pacific for several years before the Fukushima accident, they reckoned that any cesium 134 they found in tuna off California had to come from Fukushima.
SWIMMING THROUGH CESIUM
There was about five times the background amount of cesium 137 in the bluefin tuna they tested, but that is still a tiny quantity, Madigan said: 5 becquerels instead of 1 becquerel. (It takes 37 billion becquerels to equal 1 curie; for context, a pound of uranium-238 has 0.00015 curies of radioactivity, so one becquerel would be a truly miniscule proportion.)
The researchers figured that the elevated levels of cesium 137 and all of the cesium 134 they detected came from Fukushima because of the way bluefin tuna migrate across the Pacific.
Bluefin tuna spawn only in the western Pacific, off the coasts of Japan and the Philippines. As young fish, some migrate east to the California coast, where upwelling ocean water brings lots of food for them and their prey. They get to these waters as juveniles or adolescents, and remain there, fattening up.
Judging by the size of the bluefin tuna they sampled – they averaged about 15 pounds (6 kg) – the researchers knew these were young fish that had left Japanese water about a month after the accident.
Most of the radiation was released over a few days in April 2011, and unlike some other compounds, radioactive cesium does not quickly sink to the sea bottom but remains dispersed in the water column, from the surface to the ocean floor.
Fish can swim right through it, ingesting it through their gills, by taking in seawater or by eating organisms that have already taken it in, Madigan said.
Bluefin tuna typically have low levels of naturally occurring radioactive material, such as potassium 40, which was present in the world’s oceans long before human beings walked the Earth.
Compared to these natural levels of radioactivity, the amount contributed by Fukushima raised the level about 3 percent, Madigan said.
He said there were probably much higher levels of cesium 134 present in bluefin tuna off Japan soon after the accident, as much as 40 to 50 percent higher than normal. Cesium 134 decays quickly, with a half-life of two years. Bluefin tuna excrete it on a daily basis and it also gets diluted in their bodies as they grow.
(Reporting By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Philip Barbara)
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Posted: May 27, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Where Do I Go If Fukushima Blows? (Northern Hemisphere Nuclear Fallout Map)…
Posted: May 27, 2012 in Money, People, Politics, WorldWith warnings about the Fukushima disaster getting more dire every day, many are wondering how they can avoid the inevitable radioactive fallout should things worsen in Japan.
The bottom line is, unless you’ve got a fully stocked nuclear bunker and radiation suits, there’s not much you can do to prevent exposure – other than to get the heck out of Dodge.
Over the years there have been numerous maps developed to identify nuclear safe zones in the event of war between nuclear powers like the United States, Russia and China. While not exactly perfect, as the Fukushima nuclear release is not the same as multiple, simultaneous nuclear detonations across the Northern Hemisphere resulting from war, the following map may provide some insight as to where nuclear radiation will be limited and significantly lowered based on global weather patterns.
Evacuation tip: If you’ve made the decision to evacuate due to nuclear fallout north of the equator, you’ll want to head to the Southern Hemisphere as depicted by this map made available by Nuclear Darkness:
This may explain why elite members of society, most notably George Soros and the Bush family, have purchased thousands of acres of land in South America, directly above a major aquifer.
For those who cannot evacuate, the following map from the Federal Emergency Management Agency depicts a potential radioactive fallout pattern for the United States.
*Fallout would be everywhere during a nuclear disaster, but this map provides for some some safe zones that may have lowered radiation levels.
Collapse Investing: Money and Wealth Preservation During Times of Uncertainty and Instability…
Posted: May 27, 2012 in Money, PeopleEditor’s Note:
The following article was a contribution to Tess Pennington’s 52 Weeks to Preparedness weekly newsletter.
With some 403,000 Americans losing their jobless benefits in just the last few weeks, considering some alternative investment strategies may be in order. While traditional stock, bond and cash investments still have a place in today’s economy, so too do strategies that your financial adviser would not only never recommend, but never even contemplate as “investments.” For those who have lost their jobs and unemployment benefits to boot, the S has already hit the fan. The safety net on which millions have come to depend, for all intents and purposes, is progressively being torn to shreds. Unemployment assistance is no longer sufficient because there are no jobs to make up for those that have been lost, so eventually everyone will run out of these benefits and be left to fend for themselves. That’s tens of millions of people that will have no way of paying their mortgage, their credit card payments, car loans, students loans, monthly utility bills and, most importantly, food (because let’s be honest, $400 in nutritional assistance per month just isn’t going to cut it).
We hate to say it, but had those individuals taken preventative investment and preparedness measures several years ago, when we first recommended our physical commodity investment strategy, they would at least have been able to alleviate some of the pain they are experiencing today – especially the pain in their bellies.
In the following article we touch on this strategy, as well as several others that, while not a silver bullet, can at least provide some insulation in case the worst comes to pass. While we certainly want to make every effort to prepare for the mass collapse of a paradigm that is simply unsustainable, the most likely scenario we’ll face is one that may not necessarily affect the entire nation all at once, but rather, crushes individuals one at a time through the elimination of their income, rising prices and the ability to maintain a decent standard of living.
We can pretend, as President Obama suggested in last year’s State of the Union, that we have avoided a Great Depression and boom times are dead ahead, or we can look around, see what’s actually happening, and understand that none of us are immune from the economic destruction to come. The consequences for not preparing will be brutal.
Collapse Investing: Money and Wealth Preservation During Times of Uncertainty and Instability
We could spend a significant portion of our time outlining the various reasons for why the world’s economic, financial and political systems sit on the brink of an unprecedented paradigm shift that promises to change the landscape of the entire system as it exists today.
I could try to convince you that it’s a good idea to prepare for what’s coming, but the fact that you are reading this article via Tess’ Ready Nutrition newsletter means that you’re already in action planning and execution mode. If you’ve been following the 52 Weeks to Preparedness from the beginning, then you’ve spent the last 44 weeks establishing an emergency and disaster response plan that would probably make FEMA jealous.
Like Tess and I, you’ve probably done your research and spent months or years gathering as much information as you can about the many possibilities that could significantly impact your life and the lives of your family members and close friends, and you’ve actively involved yourself in making sure that you’re as insulated as possible from whatever may befall us.
My initial inclination when Tess asked me to contribute some thoughts on wealth preservation during times of uncertainty was to point out the fundamental economic problems and fraud facing the system. I realized after delving into this topic that, while the ramifications of an economic or currency collapse are life alteringly severe, my family’s personal preparedness plans have always been focused on ensuring we’re ready for anything that gets thrown our way – not just an economic crisis.
The strategy that we try to employ is well rounded and considers as many variables as possible.
- Natural Disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, flood, solar flare
- Man-made calamities like currency hyperinflation, cyber attack, EMP detonation, nuclear fallout or global conflict
- Personal emergencies like a job loss, injury or over-extension of credit
With this idea in mind, when we look at the concept of investing and wealth preservation for uncertain times, we want to employ a strategy that will provide as much coverage as possible so that if we are hit out of the blue with something totally unexpected, we’ll at least have the basic necessities to survive.
While I’ll stop short of advising you to sell all of the stocks and bonds in your 401(k) account and investing all of your proceeds into ‘preps’, a little diversification could mean the difference between surviving a disaster, or succumbing to it.
Keep your 401(k), IRA or other investment accounts, but consider expanding your horizons with a new 401(Prep) strategy as well.
Man Ticketed For Dropping Money On The Ground… Drinking with Bob…
Posted: May 26, 2012 in Money, People, PoliticsTags: drinking with Bob
Must Watch…Ann Barnhardt, a Constitutional Review w Solutions…Cancel your cable now…Cut the cord…
Posted: May 26, 2012 in Movies, People, Politics, WorldTags: warren pollock
Total Economic Collapse Awareness on the Streets of Huntington Beach???
Posted: May 26, 2012 in Uncategorized
Total Collapse! 