Ontario city mystified by whole lotta shakin' underground

WINDSOR — For months, residents of south and west Windsor have been wondering and worrying about vibrations of unknown origin.

And now, those mysterious rumblings under the city have found a new believer — the city's Ward 10 Coun. Al Maghnieh, who says it's time to start taking the phenomenon seriously.

"It's very present and real," he said.

Maghnieh added that those who think the phenomenon is a joke or that its proponents are "crazy" need to grasp the implications in terms of health and the environment.

"I mean, it's actually scary to think that this is going on and we still can't pinpoint what it is," he said.

"This is potentially very dangerous."

Maghnieh said he first started receiving calls from concerned citizens back in March.

But it wasn't until the early hours of Friday morning — when he'd arranged to visit the homes of rumble witnesses — that he experienced the sensation himself.

"It's a very sharp, consistent rumble sound," Maghnieh said. "Sometimes it's like a hum."

The city councillor said that at one point, he put a half-full water bottle on the ground and could see the vibrations causing ripples on the water's surface.

At another point, he could hear the aluminum siding of a house rattle due to the vibrations.

"It was very obvious. It was very evident," Maghnieh said. "It sent shivers up my spine."

Maghnieh said he's so far received about two dozen calls and a half-dozen emails from different people in his ward with complaints about the rumble.

When he followed up on some of the recent reports, two homeowners agreed to let him on their properties and investigate.

The time period between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. was chosen because that's when the vibrations are reportedly the most distinct.

"I don't know if it's stronger then or not. Maybe it's just because it's quieter outside," Maghnieh said.

Although the Ministry of the Environment has studied the matter and has ruled out industrial sources, Maghnieh said there needs to be further and fuller investigation.

"You can't have hundreds of people just imagining these things," Maghnieh said. "We need resources. We need co-operation. We need somebody assigned to this."

Now Maghnieh is preparing a map of his ward to track the location of the rumblings, with radii indicating where the rumblings have been the strongest.

It might not be long until the issue hits Maghnieh even closer to home: He recently finalized purchase of a house on Everts Avenue, and some of the rumbling reports he's received are from fellow Everts Avenue residents.

"On my own street," Maghnieh exclaimed. "On my new driveway, my first day arriving at my home — three different residents from three different homes came to welcome me to the neighbourhood, and the first thing they said was: 'There are rumblings here. It's bad.'"

Maghnieh said he doesn't regret buying the house. "In fact, now I'm even more motivated to get to the bottom of this."

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/Ontario+city+mystified+whole+lotta+shakin+underground/5248858/story.html#ixzz1V9C07JZq

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NASA Sun-Watching Satellite Spots Comet Elenin in Deep Space

A NASA spacecraft aimed at the sun shifted its unblinking gaze to an approaching comet last week to snap a new photo of the icy object as it flew by.

The image shows the comet Elenin as it passed within 4.3 million miles (7 million kilometers) of one of NASA's twin Stereo sun-watching spacecraft during a series of deep space photo sessions that began on Aug. 1. NASA rolled the Stereo-B satellite to give its instruments a view of the comet flyby, officials said.

From Stereo's observations, the fuzzy comet Elenin can be seen streaking across a small portion of the sky. The comet was seen by Stereo's HI-2 telescope between Aug. 1 to 5, and by the higher resolution HI-1 telescope between Aug. 6 to 12, NASA officials said. Stereo mission scientists planned to take photos for one-hour every day through Aug. 12. [See the Stereo probe's new comet Elenin photo]

"From August 15 onward, the comet enters the HI-1 telescope's nominal field of view, at which time we should enjoy continuous viewing of the comet," NASA researchers explained in an update posted to the Stereo mission website.

Comet Elenin is expected to become brighter over the next few days, and could be detectable using Stereo's coronagraph instrument between Aug. 20 and Sept. 1, NASA officials said. Mission managers are then expecting the comet to become visible to another sun-watching spacecraft – NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) – for six days, beginning on Sept. 23.

Comet Elenin was discovered in December by Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin, who spotted the icy wanderer using the International Scientific Optical Network's robotic observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico.

Viewed from Earth, comet Elenin presently appears as a faint smudge of light in deep sky exposures. By late August the comet could be visible to the naked eye as a dim "fuzzy star" with a tail. [Best Close Encounters with Comets]

Comet Elenin will fly through the inner solar system in October 2011 and be 22 million miles (35 million kilometers) away at its closest approach to our planet, NASA scientists have said. The comet is not expected to be particularly dazzling, but the flyby may be a good chance to study a relatively young comet from the outer solar system.

Some doomsday theorists have pinned the Nibiru rogue planet hypothesis on the small comet.

Conspiracy theorists say a planet, known as Nibiru, will swing in from the outskirts of our solar system and collide with Earth and wipe out humanity in 2012. Since no rogue planet has been found in the outer solar system, some people have argued that comet Elenin will be the true culprit in the Nibiru-Earth collision.

NASA has dismissed the notion that comet Elenin is anything other than a dim, wimpy comet. It poses no threat to Earth, making its closest pass at a distance roughly 100 times farther than the distance from Earth to the moon.

NASA's identical twin Stereo spacecraft were launched in October 2006. They are offset from one another, one flying ahead of the Earth and the other behind. The name "Stereo" is short for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory.

Space.com

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Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses

A hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could transform medical sensing, computer gaming and even spy operations, according to a US study published Thursday.

The micro-electronics technology, called an epidermal electronic system (EES), was developed by an international team of researchers from the United States, China and Singapore, and is described in the journal Science.

"It's a technology that blurs the distinction between electronics and biology," said co-author John Rogers, a professor in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"Our goal was to develop an electronic technology that could integrate with the skin in a way that is mechanically and physiologically invisible to the user."

The patch could be used instead of bulky electrodes to monitor brain, heart and muscle tissue activity and when placed on the throat it allowed users to operate a voice-activated video game with better than 90 percent accuracy.

"This type of device might provide utility for those who suffer from certain diseases of the larynx," said Rogers. "It could also form the basis of a sub-vocal communication capability, suitable for covert or other uses."

The wireless device is nearly weightless and requires so little power it can fuel itself with miniature solar collectors or by picking up stray or transmitted electromagnetic radiation, the study said.

Less than 50-microns thick -- slightly thinner than a human hair -- the devices are able to adhere to the skin without glue or sticky material.

"Forces called van der Waals interactions dominate the adhesion at the molecular level, so the electronic tattoos adhere to the skin without any glues and stay in place for hours," said the study.

Northwestern University engineer Yonggang Huang said the patch was "as soft as the human skin."

Rogers and Huang have been working together on the technology for the past six years. They have already designed flexible electronics for hemispherical camera sensors and are now focused on adding battery power and other energy options.

The devices might find future uses in patients with sleep apnea, babies who need neonatal care and for making electronic bandages to help skin heal from wounds and burns.

Breitbart
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Short Selling of Stocks Banned in France, Spain

France, Spain, Italy and Belgium’s bans on short-selling may fail to reverse the fall in financial stocks and instead may concentrate bets against banks elsewhere in Europe, according to lawyers, investors and academics.

British financial stocks dropped 41 percent in the four months after regulators imposed a ban on short selling following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. in September 2008. The benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 15 percent in the period. When the Securities and Exchange Commission prohibited short-sales for three weeks in September 2008 a Bloomberg Index tracking the 880 U.S. stocks affected fell 26 percent, outpacing the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 22 percent decline.

European regulators are divided over how to respond after a rout that sent the region’s bank stocks to their lowest in almost 2 1/2 years this week. Germany and the Netherlands have said they don’t plan further restrictions on short sales, while British regulators said they don’t plan to limit the practice.

“In contrast to the regulators’ hopes, the overall evidence indicates that short-selling bans at best left stock prices unaffected and at worst may have contributed to their decline,” said Alessandro Beber, a professor at Cass Business School in London who’s studied short-sales bans in 30 countries.

Short-sellers sell borrowed shares with plans to buy them back later at a lower price, a practice politicians and some investors blame for roiling markets.
Partial Ban ‘Problem’

“The problem with a partial ban -- which is what we have now -- is that it moves the problem to other parts of the system,” Bob Penn, a financial regulation partner at law firm Allen & Overy LLP in London, said. “It would be reasonable to expect the short sellers to turn their attention to non-Italian or non-French banks with significant exposures to those jurisdictions, for example.”

Dexia SA (DEXB), KBC Groep NV (KBC) and Mediobanca SpA led the Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index up 2.7 percent as of 1:20 p.m. in London. Dexia, Belgium’s biggest bank by assets, climbed 13 percent and KBC advanced 9 percent. The index is still down 25 percent this year.

“European bank stocks, while bouncing up in a knee-jerk response in September 2008 when a short-selling ban was announced, dropped sharply over the next few months as the financial and economic crisis worsened,” Barclays Capital analysts wrote in a report to clients today. “Short-selling bans have proven ineffective in the past, tend not to address the real underlying issues in Europe, reduce liquidity and increase the related risk premiums.”

Bloomberg

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-11/france-spain-italy-belgium-ban-short-sales-to-halt-rout-in-bank-shares.html

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Obama: "Islam Has Always Been Part Of Our American Family"

At the Iftar dinner, a White House sponsored Ramadan event, President Obama says "Islam has always been part of our American family." Obama also says "this has been especially true over the past 10 years," referring to the attacks on September 11, 2001. Here's what he said:

"This evening reminds us of both the timeless teachings of a great religion and the enduring strengths of a great nation. Like so many faiths, Islam has always been part of our American family, and Muslim Americans have long contributed to the strength and character of our country, in all walks of life. This has been especially true over the past 10 years."

"In one month, we will mark the 10th anniversary of those awful attacks that brought so much pain to our hearts. It will be a time to honor all those that we’ve lost, the families who carry on their legacy, the heroes who rushed to help that day and all who have served to keep us safe during a difficult decade. And tonight, it’s worth remembering that these Americans were of many faiths and backgrounds, including proud and patriotic Muslim Americans."

Real Clear Politics


Video:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/08/11/obama_islam_has_always_been_part_of_our_american_family.html


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Lots Of Countries In Europe Should Be Downgraded

There are ...... lots of countries in Europe that should be downgraded just as the US has been downgraded.

Jim Rogers

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Bank of American (Debt Man Walking)

This morning we learned that the first major quasi bailout of the 2011 crisis has begun, Bank of America has agreed to sell part of its home-loan portfolio to taxpayer controlled housing giant Fannie Mae. The 400,000 loans have an unpaid principal balance of $73 billion, Fannie Mae (taxpayers) are buying the rights to process and collect payments for more than $500 million. Now according to Bank of America, they gave the taxpayers a great deal, unloading loans that have a super high delinquency rate of 13% with more than half of all the loans located in troubled U.S. real-estate markets. By the way, Fannie Mae just last week requested another 5.1 billion from taxpayers in order to make up for continuing losses from supporting an unsustainable real estate market.

Freddie Mac recently requested an additional 1.5 billion as well, of course the Treasury Department is currently responsible for funding 90% of mortgages, so there is no doubt that the taxpayer funded giants will get more of our money. Experts love to say how we have to keep bailing them out or we would see a complete collapse in the real estate market, as if more affordable and sustainable housing prices is a bad thing. Ending the fraudulent  housing market would be painful for those depending on the fraud, but for those who would actually like to OWN their home and not rent it from the bank, seeing prices decline to affordable levels would be a great thing. 

Future Money Trends

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