How to feed the world ? from Denis van Waerebeke on Vimeo.

a film directed by Denis van Waerebeke for the « Bon appétit » exhibition,
aimed mainly at the kids aged 9 to 14.

written by : Sabrina Massen & Denis van Waerebeke
design : Montag /// animation : Juliette Hamon-Damourette
sound design : Ruelgo /// voice : Mark Jane

production Montag for the french « Cité des sciences et de l’industrie »
CSI team: Dorothée Vatinel, Maud Gouy, Manon Courtay, Alisson Boiffard
CSI production: Sabrina Massen

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issued by the federal bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because the state and local building codes and fire Marshal’s inspection, and in additional to which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post rants on freerepublic.com and FOX News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

Say no to ObamaCare

NEW YORK – Drugstore operator Walgreens will offer free clinic visits to the unemployed and uninsured for the rest of the year, providing tests and routine treatment for minor ailments through its walk-in clinics — though patients will still pay for precriptions.

Walgreens said patients who lose their job and health insurance after March 31 will be able to get free treatment at its in-store Take Care clinics for respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. Typically those treatments cost $59 or more for patients with no insurance.

Hal Rosenbluth, chairman of the Take Care Health Systems division, described the plan as something close to an experiment: He said Walgreens isn’t sure of patient demand or how much providing the services might cost the company.

It’s likely to generate more attention for the clinics, however. Rosenbluth said a typical Take Care patient tells eight other people about his or her experience. So far, about 30 percent of Take Care patients were new customers to Walgreens.

The program is expected to last through the end of 2009. Walgreens runs 341 Take Care clinics in 35 markets around the country, including Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and Cleveland.

Free services will be offered only from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Walgreens said it will not offer free checkups, vaccinations or other injections because it is focusing on providing services patients might otherwise get at an urgent-care center or even an emergency room.

Patients must present proof they are unemployed, including a federal or state unemployment determination letter and an unemployment check stub. They will have to sign a form at the clinic saying they have lost their jobs and health benefits. If they find a new job or get new health insurance, they will no longer be eligible for free care.

Spouses and children are also eligible for free services if they don’t have insurance of their own.

Medical lab operator Quest Diagnostics is participating in the program by offering free tests for step throat and urinary tract infections.

Walgreens bought the Take Care clinics in May 2007. Take Care says it has seen about 1.2 million patients since its launch in November 2005 and estimates that up to 30 percent of them were uninsured.

from Yahoo News!

We all know the impact that the current economic slowdown has had on Circuit City, but the question over what ultimate impact Circuit City’s collapse will have on the economy will take a little longer to figure out. One thing is for sure, the company’s collapse could not have come at a worse time for the overall economy.

The first ripple that the market is going to feel is the vacancies that the company is going to leave in its wake after closing its doors. The company was operating 567 stores at the time it announced it was going under, and these stores represented a total square footage of 18.71 million square feet.

The real estate market is fragile enough at this time, and adding this much unused property to the mix is not going to help things out. Shopping centers that are already feeling the impact of a slowdown in consumer spending are going to be hit with less rental income at a time when every penny counts.

But the ripple effect is only beginning at this point.
The country is dealing with a sharp rise in unemployment over the past year, and Circuit City is about to unleash a massive amount of workers into an already fragile workforce. The company employed roughly 40,000 workers that are going to be looking for new work, and this is on top of an additional 7,000 employees that the company was forced to lay off during 2008.
What impact will all these workers losing their jobs have on the economy is tough to say. We already know that they are increasing an already rising unemployment situation, but it goes deeper than that. What percentage of these people are going to find themselves behind on their bills, mortgages, credit cards, etc.? This would create even further pressure on the housing market and the credit markets.
The company’s suppliers are also going to take a hit. Companies such as Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Samsung and Sony (NYSE: SNE) are just a few that will find it hard to collect monies owed to them. The company owes Hewlett Packard $120 million, Samasung $115 million and Sony $60 million. While these companies are big enough and diverse enough to deal with these losses, all of these companies have been dealing with tough times of their own, and this will definitely not help the situation. continued at BloggingStocks.

I think you’ve seen the super bowl commercial with Ed McMahon and Mc Hammer. If not its embedded.

You see, i thought, Cash4Gold seems a little too good, no way they offer the right amount for peoples gold and i did some searching around on Google. Turns out people who send in $2000 worth in gold get offered $27! for their goods, if you dont like that and call it back they offer you double that, if not then triple the original amount. if you choose not to get any of those you give them $10 dollars to ship the items back to you.

Its the standard triple offer and waste your time deal where if you are careless they will take advantage of you, Especially if you use the Fast Cash option and have them direct deposit their FIRST offer directly into your bank account. After Fast Cash there is no one to complain to and get your items back or get a higher appraisal. You are screwed.

The internet is filled with stories about Cash4Gold and here is the kicker, an ex Cash4Gold employee explains how the company handles gold, diamond, and ruby submissions. More consumer complains, info, and links at the end of the post.

"I would like an article to be posted pertaining to the refinery Cash 4 Gold, located in Pompano Beach, Fl. I am a former employee, who would like to alert/warn the public on the scamming process involved with this company. There are many of us who would like to vouch on behalf of this fast growing scam. We would like to get the word out to everyone on this step by step scam which involves so many people in this country and their valuables.

Below I have attached the full details on the scam involving this company. We know this first hand, because this is how we were trained. Please take note of this information and do what you can to get the word out there, especially in a time when the economy has truly affected everyone for the worst. Thank you!

I am a former employee of Cash 4 Gold. I did not know much about the company before being hired. On my first day of being hired, I was taught the "Cash 4 Gold Scam" from beginning to end.

1. The "refiner’s pack" that is used for you to put your jewelry is "insured for UP TO 100 dollars, " according to how much they determine from a description from you, the worth of your items to be, NOT an actual fully researched appraisal.

2. We receive your "Refiner’s Pack" within 3-4 days, BUT we are instructed to tell you that it takes "7-10 business days, for us to receive your pack, ALTHOUGH many times, your package has already arrived.
(All cash4gold customers who have called customer service to track a package can vouch for this)

3. Your jewelry gets appraised by hand, a magnifying glass, a plastic container, a small weight pad, and a bottle of ORANGISH fluid, which your items are then determined a value for. Not million dollar equipment or specially trained jewelry experts. The company was temporarily closed recently due to health and code violations. I have witness testers being transported to Medical Centers, due to the testing department environment. There is literally a cloud of smoke in the air from acid and other testing material. If you were thinking it was some state-of-the-art testing facility, you thought WRONG.

4. Although the payment (check) for your item is dated within 24 hrs of testing your jewelry, we SOMETIMES DO NOT actually send out the check until up to 3-4 days later. (if you are a customer check the date the check was issued against the stamped date on the envelope.)

5. We do offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee or your jewelry returned, BUT THE CATCH IS, that the guarantee is to contact us within 10 DAYS from when your check is DATED. (This begins with the time it took for the accounts payables dept. to ISSUE the check and also including the TRANSIT TIME for you to receive your check in the mail. **** NOTATE THE COMMERCIALS THAT INSINUATE THAT YOU GET YOUR CASH IN 24 HRS.*** If you request (sign) for FAST CASH (direct deposit) you automatically WAIVE your rights to have your items returned, EVEN if you are not satisfied with amount of your deposit.

6. You generally receive your check around the "7th-10th" business day, AND majority of the time Customers are outraged when they lay eyes on the amount of their check. Some Customer’s even receive a check for 0.01 cents.

7. There have been times when we have received your package and MISPLACED or LOST it at the facility. We CLAIM to not have received the items and even try to convince you that it was lost in the hands of USPS. At which point we begin an insurance claim process on your package. We ask you to send us an itemized list of the content of the package, trying to be as descriptive as you possible can (if you can remember everything in full detail) and a copy of your state issud ID. We then issue an INSURANCE CLAIM for UP TO 100 dollars. GOD FORBID your items are worth more then a 100 dollars. If you call customer service to check on the status of your shipment, and we actually have not received your package, we inform you of the insurance claim process. For those who know that their items are worth more than a hundred dollars, they become very upset and threaten to take action against the company, at that point we inform the customer that if they knew their items were worth more they should have added additional insurance at the Post Office. BUT unless you are paying to ship your items in a completely different package other then the refiner’s kit, you are unable to add insurance to the package.

8. For those who do get in touch with us within the allotted time frame, we already know what you are calling about. Customers want their items returned, because there
check amount is so insultingly LOW. The first thing a Rep will
ask you is "HOW MUCH WERE YOU EXPECTING TO GET BACK?" This way we can know how much to "BONUS" you.

*Definition of a BONUS: We issue low checks just to have you call us back if you are smart enough to realize that you just got scammed. For the smart one’s we are paid to offer u a bonus up to 3x the original amount of your check and you accept. For ex: Sally Smith receives a check for $27.86 for a Rolex watch(which we don’t issue value for), a class ring, a ring with diamond chips, a pair of earrings with emeralds, as well as a few sterling silver pieces, and maybe a few items that were really of no value. Now Sally Smith calls the cust srvc dept, where she speaks to a rep who seems so concerned and will see if she can do better with the amount by speaking to a "SUPERVISOR". We then place the caller on Mute, and speak to our neighbors or doodle on a sheet, or twiddle with our hair for about 45 seconds, while we are supposedly speaking to our supervisor about Ms. Smith’s complaint. We then come back with an offer to "BUMP UP YOUR MELT DATE or any other lies the cust srvc reps can think of, and offer you a total amount of $53.20 which is a little under double the amount of your original check; in which case if you accept, the cust srvc rep makes a 15.00 bonus off of your transaction. If the customer service rep offers you under triple the amount of your orig check, he/she makes 10.oo in bonuses.

9. If you accept the offer, the deal is done, and you are told that the call is recorded (which most of the time, the record button does not work, or the box if full.)It’s just a way to make your feel binded by a verbal contract. IF you do not accept the deal, you have to return your check, and it takes sometimes up to a month to receive your items back after we receive the check.

10. If you only want the items that we do not find of any value back, you have to pay 10.00 shipping and handling fee to have your own items returned, which varies. Although it is listed under the terms and conditions, this charge varies from a 10.00-15.00 charge to NO charge, reason being, UNSURE.

Cash 4 Gold is definitely not a trustworthy or credible company to do business with. You are almost better off taking your items to a local pawn shop or shopping around for other companies. With the economy the way it is, Cash 4 Gold seems to be a way out of financial stress for some, but in actuality becomes a stress of its own. I would advise you to think twice before sending in valuables or items inherited and of sentimental value, its not worth it." from ComplaintsBoard

Cash 4 Gold even went as far as offer a blogger money to remove his negative review of them. $3000 to be exact. What a ludicrous company. Everyone feel free to spread this around.

Consumerist How to Avoid Getting Ripped off by Cash4Gold

Consumerist article 2

Stem-cell transplants may control and even reverse multiple sclerosis symptoms if done early enough, a small study has suggested.

Not one of 21 adults with relapsing-remitting MS who had stem cells transplanted from their own bone marrow deteriorated over three years.

And 81% improved by at least one point on a scale of neurological disability, The Lancet Neurology reported.

Further tests are now planned, and a UK expert called the work “encouraging”.

MS is an autoimmune disease which affects about 85,000 people in the UK.

It is caused by a defect in the body’s immune system, which turns in on itself, causing damage to the nerves which can lead to symptoms including blurred vision, loss of balance and paralysis.

At first, the condition mostly causes intermittent symptoms that are partly reversible.

Over a 10-15 year period after onset, most patients develop secondary-progressive MS, with gradual but irreversible neurological impairment.

It is not the first time this treatment – known as autologous non-myeloablative haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation – has been tried in people with MS, but there has not been a great deal of success. continued at BBC Health.

A record number of active-duty soldiers killed themselves last year, top Army leaders reported Thursday, acknowledging that they are losing a battle to reverse a years-long rise in suicides, many of them by soldiers deployed to Afghanistan 0or Iraq.

The 128 confirmed suicides last year — with 15 others pending confirmation — mark a new high since the Army began tracking them in 1980. Soldier suicides have risen each year since they totaled 67 in 2004, the first full year of the Iraq war. At least 171 soldiers, including those in the Army Reserve and National Guard, have killed themselves while deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq from the start of the military operations there in 2001 and 2003, the Army reported.

On Thursday, Army Secretary Pete Geren and other top Army officials unveiled training programs and initiatives aimed at reaching soldiers on the brink. They noted that, for the first time, the Army suicide rate exceeded the adjusted national suicide rate of about 19.5 people per 100,000.

“This is not business as usual. We need to move quickly to do everything we can to reverse this very disturbing number of suicides,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff. “We need to help our soldiers and their families understand that it’s OK to ask for help.”

Defense officials have not released overall suicide statistics in the military, but the numbers for Marines also reportedly rose in 2008. Army doctors said that troubles with intimate relationships, poor job performance, alcohol or drug abuse sparked some of the suicides. Stress from long deployments and multiple tours can play a role, often straining relationships at home; some soldiers have killed themselves after returning home and receiving new deployment orders, the Army confirmed.

However, officials also said that most of the suicides for deployed soldiers came during their initial deployments. Overall, the suicides were split about evenly among deaths in Afghanistan or Iraq, soldiers who had returned from deployment and those who never deployed.

“The numbers represent tragedies that have taken place across our Army,” Geren said. “As long as there is a single soldier out there struggling with this personal crisis, we are going to consider that a crisis of our Army family.”

In October, the Army announced it would embark on a $50 million study with the National Institute of Mental Health — the largest suicide study ever by the military. On Thursday it announced plans to step up its suicide training regimen, and ordered a “Stand Down” for suicide outreach beginning Feb. 15 that is designed to reach every soldier. However, the Army already has added hundreds of psychiatrists and psychologists and pushed videos and training through the ranks, with no sign of a turnaround. continued at Mercury News.

Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson sends out wonderful e-mails about every day. I just got a new one today, and he included this incredible quote from Karl Marx:

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism. (Das Kapital, 1867)

What does it all mean? I’m not really sure. But Karl Marx’s theory that capitalism would inevitably lead to communism has mostly been dismissed — proven wrong by the survival of capitalism and the fall of communism. From Blogging Stocks.

While I don’t agree with what Marx’s comment, I do believe a free market system without any oversight will lead to what we have today, the problems orchestrated by the privately owned Federal Reserve world banks. They caused the housing bubble with their man made interest rates. Interest rates that didn’t reflect the market, caused the bubble and a spending rate that couldn’t be maintained.

Three gallons of the wet stuff is required to produce one gallon of what you will happily pay a dollar for, largely because of the length and complexity of the various “purification” processes and the evaporation loss that takes place while the water is in the plant. This is quite an ugly statistic, when juxtaposed to the fact that less than one ..

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