for bored mindz | bored4u.com | illuminati blog: September 2012

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Cities across the U.S. are marketing “micro”-apartments scarcely bigger than jail cells. Any takers? (It’s for the Earth.)
Melissa Melton
Infowars.com
September 25, 2012
Image by Melissa Melton of Infowars.com

While some people are still debating whether or not the United Nations’ Agenda 21 plan is real, major cities all over the country are about to offer more proof of its implementation in the form of tiny, “shoebox-style” housing units barely big enough for one person to live in.
New York and Boston are already beta testing itty bitty apartments, and yesterday the LA Times reported that San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is considering official revisions to the city’s building code to allow for even less living space.
If approved, the new quarters — branded as “affordable by design” — would drop minimum housing code requirements to a mere 220 square feet from 290, only 150 of which could be considered actual living space (unless sleeping in a closet counts). To give some perspective on just how small 220 square feet of space really is, the inside of an average school bus is approximately 250 square feet. A person’s entire apartment would be small enough to fit inside the bus — bathroom, kitchen, and closet included. This vision of an austere lifestyle could hardly accommodate one person, let alone someone with a spouse, children, or pets.
While such housing is designed to dissuade people from owning a car in favor of bicycles and mass transit use, opponents are right to note that such a move could spike population density and strain both community spaces and public transportation systems.
The question remains, will anyone actually go along with this scheme? In a recent man-on-the-street report for Infowars Nightly News, I asked people if they would live in these prison-like units if it would benefit the Earth. As you can see below, many said they would:

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Although such ridiculously small spaces are being publicized as cheaper, more plentiful housing that will help protect the environment, the intent behind such moves is clear. Using adjectives like “micro” to sell tiny living spaces as cute and trendy does not change the fact that concentrating growth and density in urban areas is one of the main tenets of Agenda 21′s control grid takeover.
Many have pointed out the fact that these initial developments are no big deal because people residing in large metro areas like New York City and San Francisco already live in smaller places on average. However, the truth is that the practice of building jail cell-sized accommodations under Agenda 21 was never intended to stop at just big cities — this is only the beginning.
The ultimate plan is a trickle down takeover where “smart growth” is concentrated in every city in the country. As extensively reported on by Infowars.com, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in league with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are gracing towns all across the U.S. with grants to promote sustainable development. People are told it is in their community’s best interest to focus a town’s resources on eco-friendly “concentrated and balanced growth.” This is despite the fact that some of these towns, such as Elgin, Texas, have less than 9,000 people residing in them.
The ultimate goal of Agenda 21 is to end national sovereignty and private property rights, restructure the family unit, and increase limitations on individual movement and opportunity. The plan works at the local level and uses Delphi technique manipulation and “green guilt” — the idea that humans are overpopulating the Earth, causing global warming, and straining resources regardless of a lack of valid proof to substantiate such a claim — to repeatedly force feed people the idea that living in a hole in the wall is the best thing they can do for the environment. One brazen planner at a recent Hutto, Texas sustainable development meeting told the townspeople, “This is your vision for your community,” even though the plans had been put in motion by unelected local boards years before they were even made public.
As with the new rules imposed by Mayor Bloomberg in New York City which would cut salt in restaurant food and ban the purchase of sugary drinks over 16 ounces, all of these new policies and regulations are about one thing: control. Herding people into smaller and smaller housing in tighter and tighter areas allows them to be more easily controlled while the system ratchets up its plan for domination.
So, is you and your family and neighbors living in a 220-square-foot space in a densely populated urban area with limited freedom under the tight grip of government control “your vision for your community”?

RBS traders boasted of Libor 'cartel'

Senior traders at Royal Bank of Scotland boasted about operating a “cartel” that made “amazing” amounts of money by rigging interest rates, it has been disclosed.

A general view of The Royal Bank of Scotland Headquarters on February 9, 2009 in London, England

RBS trader Tan Chi Min: "It’s a cartel now in London." Photo: Getty Images

By Steven Swinford, and Harry Wilson

11:00PM BST 26 Sep 2012

Internal messages revealed in court documents apparently show how traders claimed they could manipulate Libor, which is used to set borrowing costs for millions of businesses, consumers and investors.

The messages, some sent just months before the taxpayer was forced to bail out RBS at a cost of more than £40bn, suggest the practice was condoned and encouraged by senior executives at the bank, and have now dragged the taxpayer-backed lender to the heart of the Libor scandal.

MPs have warned that the scale of RBS’s involvement in the scandal means it could face an even bigger fine than Barclays, which paid a record £290m in July after admitting attempting to manipulate Libor. The bank could also be hit with billions of pounds in damages claims.

Tan Chi Min, a former senior trader at RBS’s global banking and markets division in Singapore, has alleged that managers “condoned collusion” between staff to maximise profits by rigging Libor.

Mr Tan, who worked for RBS from August 2006 to November 2011, was eventually sacked for gross misconduct, but claims the bank made him a “scapegoat” for malpractice condoned by managers.

A 231-page affidavit filed by Mr Tan at the Singapore High Court, obtained by Bloomberg, includes alleged transcripts of instant messages from RBS traders and executives.
On August 19, 2007, Mr Tan sent a trader based at Deutsche Bank a message. “It’s just amazing how Libor-fixing can make you that much money or lose it if opposite,” he wrote. “It is a cartel now in London.”
A day later Mr Tan sent a message to Scott Nygaard, global head of RBS’s London treasury markets. “We want high fix in 3s [a reference to three-month interbank lending],” Mr Tan wrote. “Neil is the one setting the yen Libor in London now and for this week and the next.” Mr Nygaard replied: “Go Neil, hahahahaha.”
On August 21, 2007, Jerzi Mohideen, another senior banker working for RBS in Singapore, wrote: “What’s the call on Libor?”
Neil Danziger, a trader who has since been sacked by RBS, allegedly sent a message asking: “Where would you like it, Libor that is?”
Another trader wrote: “Mixed feelings, but mostly I’d like it lower so the world starts to make a little sense.” Mr Danziger replied: “OK, I will move the curve down 1 basis point, maybe more if I can.”
Mr Danziger declined to comment.
On April 2, 2008, Mr Tan said: “Nice Libor, our six-month fixing moved the entire fixing, hahahah.”
The Serious Fraud Office is considering whether to bring criminal proceedings against individuals found to be involved, while regulators in the UK and US are also conducting investigations. This week, Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, who joined the bank in October 2008 following its bail-out, said he expected the fines and legal claims related to scandals such as Libor to cost the bank “a lot of money”.
A spokesman for RBS said: “Our investigations into submissions, communications and procedures relating to the setting of Libor and other interest rates are ongoing. RBS and its employees continue to cooperate fully with regulators.”
Mr Nybaarg and Mr Mohideen, who are both still employed by RBS, declined to comment.
RBS is among several of the world’s biggest banks being investigated over their role in fixing the rate, known as Libor. The issue has prompted renewed calls for an overhaul of the banks.
Martin Wheatley, head of financial conduct at the Financial Services Authority, will on Friday publish his proposals on ways to reform Libor to prevent it from being manipulated. Mr Wheatley is expected to recommend that responsibility for Libor is taken away from the British Bankers’ Association, which has seen its role in the oversight of the rate heavily criticised.
John Mann, a Labour MP on the Treasury Select Committee, said: “The situation at RBS was even worse than Barclays. This is potentially significant criminal activity and there needs to be a full police investigation.”

iPhone 5: 5 Million in 3 Days

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 24th, 2012

Apple today announced it has sold over five million iPhone 5s, just three days after its launch on September 21, and more than 100 million iOS devices have been updated with iOS 6. The iPhone 5 is available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on September 28 and more than 100 countries by the end of the year.

iPhone 5 is available in the US for $199 (US) for the 16GB model with a 2 year contract from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, which pay Apple $600 for the device.
That number blasted past sales of the iPhone 4s, which Apple introduced it in October 2011. It sold more than 4 million units in its first weekend.
According to the latest study from ComScore, AT&T leads in pre-orders with about 68% of total online sales in the first three days. This records the best order ever received by AT&T for the iPhones. The other two major rivals – Verizon and Sprint – accounted for just 24% and 8% share of iPhone 5 sales, respectively.

When compared to the 68% share of iPhone 5 sales, AT&T received merely 48% of pre-orders for iPhone 4S in the first three days and was followed by 35% for Verizon and 17% for Sprint. This suggests that though AT&T is behind Verizon in deploying 4G LTE services needed for iPhone 5, the existing customers, who are eligible for upgrades, are boosting demand for the new product.

The company now has to pay $100 extra per phone to Apple, when compared to previous iPhone 4S, in the form of subsidy. This subsidy of $400 per iPhone 5 will dilute the company’s earnings for the next several quarters, but the revenue expected from a 2-year data contract should reap big profits, longer term.
The increase in percent of AT&T sales surprised some observers, who believed that Verizon’s LTE lead would compel many to jump ship.

Google: Apple’s Call on Maps

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 25th, 2012

Google has made no move to provide Google Maps for the iPhone 5, according to Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Apple launched its own mapping service earlier this month, along with its update to iOS 6 which is also included with the iPhone 5.
But users have complained that Apple’s new map service, based on Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker TomTom, contains glaring geographical errors and lacks features such as street view that made Google Maps so popular.
“We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?” Schmidt told a small group of reporters in Tokyo. “What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It’s their call.”
Schmidt said Google and Apple were in constant communication “at all kinds of levels.” But he said any decision on whether Google Maps would be accepted as an application in the Apple App Store would have to be made by Apple.

Driverless Car Legislation Passed in CA

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 25th, 2012

Gov. Jerry Brown plans to sign legislation today, at the headquarters of Google, that will pave the way for driverless cars in California.
Google’s driverless cars may soon be legal in California. Legislation passed 37-0 in the Senate and 74-2 in the Assembly. It is now awaiting action by Gov. Jerry Brown, reports Bay Citizen.

A similar law won approval in Nevada last year, and Google is lobbying other states to follow suit. The company reported spending $8.95 million during the first half of 2012 to lobby federal officials on numerous issues, including the driverless car.
While Google had no immediate plans to commercially develop the system, the company hopes to develop a business which would market the system and the data behind it to automobile manufacturers, says Wikipedia.
Google says its self-driving cars have completed 300,000 miles of test-drives, under a “wide range of conditions,” all without any kind of accident. By comparison, the average U.S. driver has one accident roughly every 165,000 miles.

Slashgear explains how it works. It appears to be a combination of science and faith.
Does this mean we can get our “free zone” for mass transit back?

Google Play: 25 Billion Downloads

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 26th, 2012

Google Play is celebrating its 25 billionth download with some discounted deals for the next five days. Google says it is now home to 675,000 apps and games. Google Play topped 20 billion app installations back in June.

A collection of apps will be available for 25 cents from some of the world’s top developers including Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, runtastic, Full Fat and more. Some special collections like 25 movies you must own, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world and our 25 top selling magazines, are also available at special prices.

At the iPhone 5 media event a few weeks ago, Apple said their App Store now has more than 700,000 applications, with 250,000 of those written specifically for the iPad. Apple’s App Store topped 25 billion downloads in early March, nearly 7 months before Google. Apple’s App Store launched three months before Google Play, then known as the Android Market, in 2008, but Apple had a significant head start in iPhone sales at the time.

Underwater Streetview

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 26th, 2012

Today, Google Maps unveiled a new Street View feature: underwater panoramic views of six special sea spots. The idea is to create a virtual map of the oceans, documenting the state of fragile ecosystems as they change over time, and sharing a vivid experience of part of our world that few humans get to see up close and in person, in real life.

The ocean collection on Google Street View is now available at maps.google.com/ocean, and includes coral reefs and the creatures who live in them, in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.

The panoramic images were collected by Google’s partner, The Catlin Seaview Survey used a specially designed underwater camera, the SVII, to capture the photos. It travels at 3-4km per hour utilising 3 separate Canon 5D cameras taking in excess of 3,600 images per run.
Xeni Jardin spoke with Richard Vevers, Project Director at Catlin, and asked why the organization chose to partner with Google on this project.
The Ocean Observatory Network landed in Oregon last summer. This year the Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Scale Nodes team completed a significant construction milestone in August with installation of the primary nodes for the cabled component of the Ocean Observatory infrastructure that extends some 300 miles off the Oregon Coast.

A team of scientists studying last year’s eruption of Axial Seamount now says that the undersea volcano some 250 miles off the Oregon coast gave off clear signals hours before the eruption. Scientists, using seismic analysis, were able to see how the magma ascends within the volcano about two hours before the eruption.

Oceanographers John Delaney, Deborah Kelley and others at the University of Washington are guiding the development of the regional cabled ocean observatory, off the coast of Oregon that encompasses the Axial Seamount.

The primary nodes on the underwater network distribute 8 kilowatts power and 10 Gbs bandwidth to sensors. Those sensors are supplemented by a network of long-range oceanic gliders and autonomous underwater vehicles equipped with side looking sonar and other sensors. They dock underwater to recharge their batteries and upload data.
BTW, isn’t it time somebody invented a box that lets you plug in at least 5 HD cameras? Three of those cameras might be dedicated to an ultrawide panoramic video (720 x 4000 pixels) and two could be dedicated to static views. Alternatively, all five could create a 360 degree panoramic video. After shooting, you could “virtually zoom” to any part of the video image (without multiple camera operators). Handy for high school sports.
Maybe that’s a cloud service using Elemental Technologies and AppFog. Surround imaging companies in Portland include iMove, Immersive Media and GigaPan.

AT&T Likely to Get 2.3 GHz

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 27th, 2012

The FCC will likely approve AT&T’s plan to use WCS spectrum during the next open meeting scheduled for October 17, 2012, the FCC said today. AT&T wants to offer mobile broadband service on 20MHz of 2.3 GHz spectrum it purchased in August along with spectrum holding company NextWave Wireless.

According to AT&T’s FCC filing, the carrier would acquire between 5 and 30 MHz of WCS spectrum from NextWave Wireless in 476 cellular market areas, achieving a maximum of 30 MHz WCS spectrum. AT&T wants between 10 and 25 MHz of WCS spectrum from Comcast in 149 markets and 10 MHz of WCS spectrum from Horizon Wi-Com in 132 markets. Currently AT&T owns 12 MHz on average of WCS across the country.

Currently there is 30 MHz of WCS spectrum broken into two 5×5 MHz paired channels (the A and B Block) and two 5 MHz unpaired channels (the C and D Block). The C and D Blocks are next to the spectrum used by Sirius XM. Under the proposal from AT&T and Sirius XM, AT&T would not use the C and D Block spectrum for mobile service in exchange for more liberal rules on the A and B Block spectrum, thus allowing AT&T to deploy FDD-LTE service in that band.
In June, AT&T and Sirius/XM offered a series of proposals to allow mobile broadband on the spectrum and minimize interference. XM uses satellite repeaters at 2.3 GHz, which can be thousands of watts. The adjoining 2.3 GHz WCS frequency would be effectively swamped in urban areas.
In May 2010, the agency approved initial rules to allow mobile broadband providers to offer services on 25MHz of the adjoining WCS band. That vote opened the door to eventual mobile broadband uses on that portion of the spectrum, in addition to fixed wireless services, which had previously been permitted.
The Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) is used by Sirius, which uses 12.5 MHz of the S band between 2320 and 2332.5 MHz and XM, which uses 12.5 MHz between 2332.5 to 2345.0 MHz.

XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite radio use different kinds of satellite coverage.
Sirius uses a highly elliptical orbit with three satellite, but only two of them broadcast at any given time. Because they can be seen at a higher angle on the horizon, the need for terrestrial repeaters is lessened.
XM has traditionally used geosynchronous satellites, which result in reception problems in canyons or cities. Consequently, XM developed satellite “repeaters” on rooftops in metropolitan areas, providing improved reception. But the satellite repeaters put out thousands of watts and would swamp nearby WCS basestations.
The agreement between Sirius/XM and AT&T would place a 5 MHz guardband between satellite radio and the 2.3 GHz broadband service.
AT&T thinks it will take around four and a half years to make repurposed 2.3 GHz Wireless Communication Service (WCS) spectrum usable for LTE services. The 2.3 GHz band is often used for 4G (LTE) service in other countries, such as China and India. AT&T did ask the FCC to extend the existing build-out requirements for WCS spectrum holders.
The new FCC proposal would allow mobile broadband on 20MHz of the total 30MHz in the WCS spectrum, according to Tammy Sun, an FCC spokeswoman.
AT&T recently acquiring NextWave for $600 million, with additional WCS spectrum deals planned with Comcast and Horizon Wi-Com. But the spectrum footprint is a long way from nationwide.
“Today’s action is part of Chairman Julius Genachowski’s continued efforts to remove regulatory barriers that limit the flexible use of spectrum, which is one way he has led the Commission towards helping address the continued ‘spectrum crunch,” said the FCC in a statement.

Mobile: The New Television

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 26th, 2012

The global advertising market is big. Half a trillion dollars big in 2012, says Matt Cohler in TechCrunch. Television is the primary focus of all those ad dollars, world-wide.

TV ad spending is more than twice as big as Internet ad spending and represents close to half of all ad spending in the world across all media.

Why is that?

First of all, people spend a lot of time watching TV. In America, the only thing people spend more time doing is sleeping and working. This time is important to marketers not only for sheer quantity of inventory, but also for the society-wide reach and broad social context it provides.
Second, watching TV is a focused, immersive experience. There’s really only one thing happening on the screen at a time and the only distraction available is changing the program to a different version of the same thing.
TV beats the web on time spent and on focus of attention. But you know what TV doesn’t beat?

Mobile.
People are going to spend more time staring at mobile screens than television screens. Your smartphone is with you pretty much all the time. Smartphones are also inherently social devices. Advertisers know all about you and your preferences.
Every ad can be targeted to you. What you buy. Where you are.

What’s not to like?
It’s the cost of a data plan, silly. It needs to be free.
The licensed 2.6 GHz band, I believe, could become the new WiFi. With 120 MHz of available spectrum, seamless roaming, and cheap microcells, bandwidth could be moving towards free. Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft will make it happen.
Fiber to the streetlamp is the first step on the road to “wireless cable”. That’s what Google Fiber is really all about. Trenching is too expensive. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of cellular Multicast or 600 Mbps LTE-A? Wireless cable. That’s Entertainment.
Screw group owners. To hell with corporate media. They don’t “own” our frequencies. The FCC shouldn’t pay off broadcasters with “incentive auctions”.
They should eviscerate them.