What in the World Just Appeared in the Clouds Over the World Trade Center Memorial?

Arch Of Temple Baal To Be Resurrected in New York

A piece of history recently reduced to rubble by ISIS’ bombs in Syria will be resurrected thanks to advanced 3-D imaging in New York’s City Hall Park on September 19. 

The U.K.’s Institute for Digital Archaeology, a group of scientists from Oxford and Harvard and Dubai’s Museum of the Future, have recreated the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra’s recently destroyed Triumphal Arch in marble using photographs of the site taken by high tech 3-D cameras.

A statement on the IDA’s website for the event reads:

There are few cities in the world as much defined by their architecture as New York…It is also a city that has known terrible loss—first and foremost the loss of life, but also the loss of familiar landmarks that helped inform the city’s identity. The Triumphal Arch, a symbol of resilience in the face of loss, will be a fitting tribute to America’s great metropolis. The arch will stand in City Hall Park, surrounded by buildings adorned with classical features suggesting the common cultural roots of East and West.

The IDA’s 20-foot-tall reproduction weighs nearly 11 tons, according to the New York Times. The arch was first displayed publicly in London’s Trafalgar Square outside the National Gallery last April. This exhibition in New York City marks the second stop on planned three-city tour that also includes Dubai.

Credit to Observer.com

China Discovers Earth "Killer Asteroid" Coming

Take Your Money Out of the Bank, While You Still Can

It is now clear, the government of Cyprus was given two options by the IMF and the EU in which they were told that they could steal  money from private bank accounts or they could leave the Eurozone all together and face total economic annihilation. This theft involves seizing the funds of all accounts over 100,000 euros, then stealing up to 40% of those funds sometime over the next few weeks, or whatever EU finance ministers decide exactly how much to steal.
I However, no accounts containing less than 100,000 euros will be impacted. This amount was not arbitrarily chosen. The 100,000 mark was chosen because all EU bank accounts are insured up to 100,000 euros. Therefore, the criminal banksters believe that they can steal anything over 100,000 euros because it is not insured.

Except for the 132 preferred insiders who got their money out of Cypress the day before the announcement of the grand banking theft, the Eurogroup finance ministers  have subsequently announced that the large Bank of Cypress depositors’ above the 100,000 level now have their accounts frozen. The 132 preferred insiders reminds me of Goldman Sachs doing put option, for preferred insiders in Transocean stock the morning of the Gulf oil explosion.

Lars Christensen, the CEO of Saxo Bank, in a previous blog post, chastised the thievery of the IMF and the EU with the following statement.

“This is a breach of fundamental property rights, dictated to a small country by foreign powers and it must make every bank depositor in Europe shiver. Although the representatives at the bailout press conference tried to present this as a one-off, they were not willing to rule out similar measures elsewhere – not that it would have mattered much as the trust is gone anyway. It is now difficult to expect any kind of limitation to what measures the Troika and EU might take when the crisis really starts to bite.

if you can do this once, you can do it again. if you can confiscate 10 percent of a bank customer’s money, you can confiscate 25, 50 or even 100 percent. I now believe we will see worse as the panic increases, with politicians desperately trying to keep the EUR alive.

Depositors in other prospective bailout countries must be running scared – is it safe to keep money in an Italian, Spanish or Greek bank anymore? I don’t know, must be the answer. Is it prudent to take the risk? You decide. I fear this will lead to massive capital outflows from weak Eurozone countries, just about the last thing they need right now.”

Plain and simple, the Cypress fiasco is a bankster beta test which is being used to test the intestinal fortitude of bank depositors. If there is no uprising in Cypress, the banksters will move on to Greece, then to Italy, and on to Spain. Even New Zealand is rumored to be in the cross hairs of the banksters. In short, these tactics will spread like wildfire to every G20 nation on the planet including the United States.

Helicopter Ben Bernanke , former Fed chair, refuses to address the possibility of the this grand theft from spreading to the United States.  However, recent DHS actions have spoken volumes to that end, as they have declared that, under the Patriot Act, they can enter any safe deposit box and seize any bank account. Further, any bank employee caught leaking DHS memos to the public can and will be prosecuted under the same act. Subsequently, the US will not need a Cyprus like Deposit tax since they can take whatever is deemed as contraband by an inspecting DHS agent and they will not likely stop with seizing safety deposit boxes. Now America should know why the DHS has purchased 2.2 billion rounds of ammunition and 2700 armored vehicles as  they know that this planned theft will be met by resistance by American account holders. And DHS will not stop with the theft of our bank accounts, my sources tell me that Obama is going after every investment including our pensions and 401k’s. The banksters on Wall Street are also acquiring firearms, ammunition and control over private mercenary corporations like DynCorp and Blackwater, as authorized by Department of Defense (DOD) directive 3025.18.  It is interesting to note that this is the same DynCorp that was caught trafficking in child sex rings and got off with only a small fine. The bankers have revealed themselves for who they really are.

With all the discourse covering this volatile situation in which nobody’s money is safe. The “legal precedent” has already been set in stone courtesy of the United States justice system. Who could ever forget the MF Global (MFG) scandal which stunned American financial centers when Jon “the Don” Corzine, CEO of MF Global, oversaw the disappearance of $6.3 billion dollars, from secured and segregated accounts, which were used as collateral  on bad gambling bets placed upon indebted European nations. The subsequent European nation’s credit ratings went down the toilet and JP Morgan, the mastermind behind this theft of secured investment funds, handsomely profited. And where was the Securities and Exchange Commission during this criminal debacle? Well, the agent in charge of the division which would have overseen the MF Global theft by former Goldman Sachs, Jon Corzine, was given a free pass by former Goldman Sachs enforcement agent, Gary Gensler. And let’s not forget about the stunning decision made in August of 2012, in which the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, from Illinois, ruled that once a person deposits their personal money in the bank, the bank is free to do with whatever it wants to do with the depositor funds including covering their bank losses, engaging in risky investments and presumably, even stealing the funds. Is it clear why Jesus chased the money changers from the Temple?

Get your money out of the bank immediately. Leave just enough in the bank to pay bills. Buy a fireproof safe and install it in a secure and hidden location within your home. Do not keep anything in a safety deposit box because very soon it will become the property of DHS.

Could this be the beginning of the trigger event which will ultimately lead to revolution in this country, complete with roundups and mass exterminations of dissidents? Time will tell. Meanwhile, get your money out of the banks, now, while you still can.

Credit to Common Sense

Science is One Step Closer to Cloning a Race of Super Humans

Most of us like the idea of superpowers. Though we may never have the strength of Superman, we could be made stronger, faster, and even better-looking, with total control over our genome, or genetic makeup. What about becoming disease-resistant, weight gain resistant, and even slowing down the aging process? This might be possible in decades to come, as geneticists are now getting ever closer to, not just removing and replacing genes, but rewriting entire genomes. It sounds like the realm of science fiction. Yet, consider that geneticists at Harvard recently recoded the genome of a synthetic E. coli bacteria. Prof. George Church and colleagues conducted the study.

Researchers replaced 62,214 base pairs of DNA. What they have done is recreate the DNA from scratch, though they haven’t actually brought the bacteria to life, yet. What was once thought impossible is no longer. This is the first synthetic genome ever assembled, and is being hailed as the most complex feat of genetic engineering, thus far.

With this technique, we could create any kind of life form we wanted, reprogram organisms, and even create synthetic proteins and compounds. MIT bioengineer Peter Carr, told the journal Science, "It's not easy, but we can engineer life at profound scales.” Note that he was not involved in this project. So how exactly are they rewriting a genome? DNA is made up of four nucleobases which arrange themselves as base pairs, A and T, C and G. These create one strand of the double helix, known as RNA.



Nucleobases. Photo by Difference DNA_RNA-DE.svg: Sponk (talk)translation: Sponk (talk) - chemical structures of nucleobases by Roland1952, CC BY-SA 3.0,

Each combination equates to a certain amino acid, which is what cells are essentially made up of. Cell’s read combinations of nucleobases to know which amino acids to produce. There are only 64 possible combinations. When put in a group of three—called codons, they create a certain kind of amino acid. There are 20 different kinds in total. C-C-G for instance creates the amino acid proline. C-C-C does as well. So there is some overlap. In this way, geneticists can erase redundant genes without affecting the development of the organism.

That’s what Harvard geneticists did here. They edited out the overlap. Scientists removed seven of 64 codon types throughout 3,548 genes. Instead of editing the genome one gene at a time, researchers used machines to synthesize whole segments of RNA from scratch, each portion containing several alterations. Then they inserted these segments into the E. coli’s DNA, one-by-one, making sure as to not make changes that would destroy the cell. So far, 63% of recoded genes have been tested. Very few have caused any problems for the cell. Researchers still have several years of experimentation and testing ahead. Still, geneticists are marveling at how malleable the genome actually is.



Bacteria.

In the near term, scientists are excited about the prospect of creating bacteria that is invulnerable to viruses. Usually, a virus infects a living cell by adding its own DNA to the host’s genome. In this way, it replicates itself. Genetically recoded organisms (GROs) would have a genome so different, the virus wouldn’t be able to read it and so couldn’t inject its DNA, making it unable to replicate.

One possible use for GROs is manufacturing. By rewriting a bacterium’s genetic code, it would change what kind of protein it makes. Synthetic bacteria could become living factories, programmed to produce whatever amino acid wished for. These would then churn out the next generation of synthetic materials, perhaps even medicines. Such engineered bacteria could also become reliable test subjects for future scientific research.

Prof. Church’s experiments have been controversial in the past. In that, one issue is whether or not this technique is 100% safe. The concern is that recoded bacteria could produce a toxin. Since it would be resistant to viruses, it would have an edge over competitors in the environment. If it should say get loose, it could result in ecological damage or even cause the next great plague. To overcome this concern, Church and colleagues have built a few safety measures into the system.



Model of the human genome.

A special nutrient must be fed to these bacteria or else they die off. Unless they find this selfsame nutrient in the environment, which Church says is unlikely, they would not be able to survive. Another fail-safe is a special barrier which has been erected to make it impossible for the bacteria to mate or reproduce, outside of the lab. But other experts wonder how “unbeatable” Church’s fail-safe’s actually are. Carr says that instead of discussing these measures as foolproof, we should be framing it in degrees of risk.

The next step is further testing of the artificial genes that have been made. Afterward, Church and colleagues will take this same genome and produce an entirely new organism with it. Since DNA is the essential blueprint for almost all life on earth, being able to rewrite it could give humans an almost god-like power over it. That capability is perhaps decades away. Even so, combined with gene editing and gene modification, and the idea of a race of super humans is not outside the realm of possibility.

Credit to bigthink.com

http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/researchers-are-close-to-rewriting-our-dna-entirely-taking-us-ever-closer-toward-human-cloning

Harvard Crushes The "Obama Recovery" Farce With 9 Simple Charts

A couple of months back we posted 9 charts that, at least in our minds, debunked the myth of the "Obama Recovery" despite suggestions from the administration that any such efforts were just a futile attempt at "peddling fiction" (our original post: "These Are The 9 Zero Hedge Charts Showing "Obama's Recovery" That Angered The Washington Post").  

Turns out that Harvard likes to dabble in "fiction peddling" as well:

In a recent study entitled "Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided" (study can be viewed in its entirety at the end of this post), Harvard University points out that, despite claims of an "Obama Recovery," in fact, the U.S. economy has continued to deteriorate in the aftermath of the "great recession."  Among other things, Harvard attributes the economic deterioration to a "lack of economic strategy, especially at the federal level" and a "political system was once the envy of many nations" but has now "become our greatest liability."  Below are a couple of the key conclusions:

America’s economic performance peaked in the late 1990s, and erosion in crucial economic indicators such as the rate of economic growth, productivity growth, job growth, and investment began well before the Great Recession.

Workforce participation, the proportion of Americans in the productive workforce, peaked in 1997. With fewer working-age men and women in the workforce, per-capita income for the U.S. is reduced.

Median real household income has declined since 1999, with incomes stagnating across virtually all income levels. Despite a welcome jump in 2015, median household income remains below the peak attained in 1999, 17 years ago. Moreover, stagnating income and limited job prospects have disproportionately affected lower-income and lower-skilled Americans, leading inequality to rise.

Meanwhile, Harvard points out that "pessimism about the trajectory of U.S. competitiveness deepened in 2016" for the first time in 5 years.  

Pessimism about the trajectory of U.S. competitiveness deepened in 2016, for the first time since we started surveying alumni in 2011. Fifty percent of the business leaders surveyed expect U.S. competitiveness to decline in the coming three years, while 30% foresee improvement and 20% no change.

Harvard argues that one of the primary causes of the sustained economic downturn has been a lack of an economic strategy from the federal government which has instead chosen to rely exclusively on accomodative Fed policies.

The U.S. lacks an economic strategy, especially at the federal level. The implicit strategy has been to trust the Federal Reserve to solve our problems through monetary policy.

We assume Chuck Schumer agrees with that characterization...

Meanwhile, Harvard points out that the other key affliction of the U.S. economy is a completely broken political system that is "no longer delivering good results for the average American."

The U.S. political system was once the envy of many nations. Over the last two decades, however, it has become our greatest liability. Americans no longer trust their political leaders, and political polarization has increased dramatically. Americans are increasingly frustrated with the U.S. political system. Independents now account for 42% of Americans, a greater percentage than that of either major party.

The political system is no longer delivering good results for the average American. Numerous indicators point to failure to compromise and deliver practical solutions to the nation’s problems. Political polarization has especially made it harder to build consensus on sensible economic policies that address key U.S. weaknesses. It is at the root of our inability to progress on the consensus Eight-Point Plan.

With that, here's a look at some of our favorite charts.

First, the labor force participation rate has continued to decline after the "great recession" and currently stands at the lowest level since 1982.

But the total labor participation rate over the past couple of decades has benefited from women entering the work force.  If you just look at male labor force participation the drop off is even more pronounced.  

The key problem is that job creation has failed to recover to the levels experienced prior to the "great recession."

Meanwhile, labor productivity has collapsed.

And, of course, poor job growth and declining participation rates results in lower real household income.

Per the chart below, the only counties across the country that have experienced real income growth in recent years has been areas where the economy is dominated by oil production...ironically, the industry that Obama has tried hardest to crush (as evidenced by his recent decision to unilaterally halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline).

Moreover, people in the lowest income brackets, those Obama claims to care most about, have suffered the most under his presidency.  

While stalling in the early 2000's, entitlement spending has soared under the Obama presidency as investment has declined.  

Meanwhile, the Harvard survey finds that all of Obama's major policy initiatives were identified as the key reasons for our under-performing economy, including, a health care, high personal income taxes, high corporate taxes and a burdensome regulatory environment.

And, lastly, this all comes as the American electorate has completely lost all faith in politicians.

Harvard Study on US Economy Under Obama

Credit to Zero Hedge