http://www.youtube.com/v/uev5rsHE3S8?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Excerpt from: Recession takes toll on the Netherlands
Shut Them Down! – Payday Loan Companies Are Making Billions Preying On The Misery Of The Poor
The payday loan companies know exactly who to target. They have set up thousands of shops in the poorest communities all over the nation over the last several decades. Each year, approximately 12 million Americans take out payday loans and they pay approximately 7.4 billion dollars in interest and fees on those loans. … Read More
Betrayal of Trust – How the NRA Bargains Away Our Second Amendment
You need to understand that the largest organization of and for gun owners in the country doesn’t necessarily mean the best, and that the political clout of that organization doesn’t necessarily work in your favor or to protect your rights. … Read More
Mysterious Sea of Galilee stone structure part of ancient ‘well-organized society’ – Israeli scientists
The monument, which is made off large boulders, has the shape of a cone and an estimated weight of around 60,000 tons. It rises ten meters tall and has a diameter of around 70 meters. The anomaly was first detected in the summer of 2003 during a sonar survey of the southwest part of the Sea of Galilee, which is the largest freshwater lake in Israel and lowest freshwater lake on Earth at 211 meters. The divers have shared their findings in an entry published at the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. “The shape and composition of the submerged structure does not resemble any natural feature. We therefore conclude that it is man-made and might be termed a cairn,” the article said.The construction was most probably built on shore and was submerged due to a rise in sea level. But it’s not ruled out that the structure could’ve also been assembled under water as part of the marine-based economy because it attracts plenty of fish. ”Close inspection by scuba diving revealed that the structure is made of basalt boulders up to 1 m (3.2 feet) long with no apparent construction pattern,” the scientists stressed.”The boulders have natural faces with no signs of cutting or chiseling. Similarly, we did not find any sign of arrangement or walls that delineate this structure.” But in order to talk precisely about the building’s dating and purpose, the researches need to find associated artefacts, for which archaeological excavation is required.Yitzhak Paz, of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ben-Gurion University, believes it could date more than 4.000 years back.”The more logical possibility is that it belongs to the third millennium B.C., because there are other megalithic phenomena [from that time] that are found close by,” he told LiveScience.The most notable of which is Khirbet Beteiha, which was “the most powerful and fortified town” situated on the territory of modern Israel 4,000 ago. The underwater construction is located 30 kilometers away from it. Paz added that the ten-meter-tall construction indicates that those, who made it, had a “well-organized society, with planning skills and economic ability,” otherwise such a project would’ve been impossible.The scientist expressed hope that an underwater archaeological expedition, which will help clear the uncertainty, will take place in the near future as the research branch of the Israeli Antiquities Authority has everything ready for the endeavour.”We will try to do it in the near future, I hope, but it depends on a lot of factors,” Paz said. … Read More
Majority of Americans want marijuana legalized
The new survey, which was conducted by the Pew Research Center, indicates that 52 percent of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, which is 11 points higher than the results of the 2010 survey asking the same question.The results also portray a drastic shift from public opinion held in the 1960s, when the overwhelming majority believed pot use should be criminalized. In 1969, Gallup found that 84 percent of Americans opposed the legalization of marijuana, and only 12 percent supported it.”For the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana,” Pew said in a statement.The polling organization also found that the largest group of marijuana supporters were young people between the ages of 18 and 32, but that Baby Boomer generations were also more likely to favor the drug’s legalization. Only about one tenth of the respondents said they had used marijuana in the past year, indicating that although the majority of Americans had not themselves smoked weed, they were open to the idea of letting others do so.”The survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 13-17 among 1,501 adults, finds that young people are the most supportive of marijuana legalization,” Pew writes. “Fully 65 percent of Millennials – born since 1980 and now between 18 and 32 – favor legalizing the use of marijuana, up from just 36% in 2008. Yet there also has been a striking change in long-term attitudes among older generations, particularly Baby Boomers.”In November, Gallup found that 50 percent of Americans favored legalizing marijuana. In December, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 51 percent of registered voters felt that way.And in a Los Angeles Times poll posted this week, 93 percent of respondents said marijuana should be legalized for recreational use, as of Thursday afternoon. … Read More
Daily Report: Dispute on Spam Stirs Big Assault on the Internet
A squabble between a group fighting spam and a Dutch company that hosts Web sites said to be sending spam has escalated into one of the largest computer attacks on the Internet, causing widespread congestion and jamming crucial infrastructure around the world, John Markoff and Nicole Perlroth write on Wednesday in The New York Times. … Read More
Yandex eyes $600mn SPO as executives plan to dump shares
More than 24mn A-class shares will be on offer, which is around7.4% of the company’s capitalization. Two of the Yandex founders, Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich,will be selling their shares during the SPO. At the end of 2012 CEOVolozh owned 12.2% of the firm with CTO Segalovich had 2.6%.“The bid book will be closed on the night of the 12th / 13thof March,” Kommersant daily quotes a source close to the dealas saying.In May 2011, Yandex earned $1.3bn during the IPO, organized byMorgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. This time, giventhe price of the shares at $25 they plan to bring in another$608mn.Yandex is the biggest Russian internet company, which operatesthe largest search engine in Russia with about 60% market share inthe country.Yandex.ru, also operates in Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine andTurkey, and is currently the most popular website in Russia. Thecompany attracts more than 56million users per day.In the final quarter of 2012 Yandex pulled in $290.4 mn inrevenues, a rise of 37% compared to the same quarter last year, andnarrowly beating analyst expectations of $286 million. Full-yearrevenues are $955 million for the company, up 44% on 2011. On theother hand, the company’s search share in Russia has largelystagnated over the last couple of quarters. … Read More
