White House: There's no sign of E.T. or UFO cover-up - 
The White House has responded to two petitions asking the U.S. government to acknowledge formally that aliens have visited Earth and to disclose any intentional withholding of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings."The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race," Phil Larson from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy reported on the WhiteHouse.gov website."In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye."More about UFOsNBC NewsShare your stories about UFOsCosmic Log: The UFO debate usually focuses on reports that are many years old — but strange things are still being seen in the sky, by folks just like you.The case against UFOs: Are sightings reliable?The case for UFOs: More investigation neededBritish UFO files trace sightings (and hoaxes)WWII secret study cited in UFO filesWhat to do if you see a UFOThe petition calling on the government to disclose any knowledge of or communication with extraterrestrial beings was signed by 5,387 people, and 12,078 signed the request for a formal acknowledgement from the White House that extraterrestrials have been engaging the human race.“Hundreds of military and government agency witnesses have come forward with testimony confirming this extraterrestrial presence,” the second petition states. “Opinion polls now indicate more than 50 percent of the American people believe there is an extraterrestrial presence and more than 80 percent believe the government is not telling the truth about this phenomenon. The people have a right to know. The people can handle the truth.”These petitions were sparked by an Obama administration initiative called "We the People." Initially, the White House said staffers would respond and consider taking action on any issue that received at least 5,000 online signatures within 30 days. The requirement has since been raised to 25,000 signatures.
Read more -
Workers at Morton’s of Chicago steakhouse in Boca Raton stuck raw vegetables in their underwear before serving them - 
Kitchen workers at the Morton’s of Chicago steakhouse in Boca Raton stuck raw vegetables in their underwear before serving them to unsuspecting diners, according to a lawsuit filed in a Palm Beach County court.
As-paragus anyone?In his harassment action against the restaurant chain, sous-chef Reggie Williams claims he witnessed a colleague at the fancy Town Center Mall eatery “place stalks of asparagus inside his underwear, next to his anal/genital area in order to simulate his penis,” then “serve that asparagus to Morton’s unsuspecting paying customers.”
And, I’m told, cucumbers were involved, too.
All together now: Ewwwwww!
Read more - http://www.gossipextra.com/2011/11/03/mortons-steak-lawsuit-veggie-asparagus-underwea/
Gold company heavily promoted by Glenn Beck charged with 19 criminal counts - 
A California-based precious metals seller Goldline International, promoted by pseudo-conservative talk radio hosts like Glenn Beck, was charged with 19 criminal counts on Tuesday by Santa Monica’s City Attorney’s Office.Among those implicated in the formal complaint are the CEO, Mark Albarian, two other company executives and two salespeople.Some of the charges filed against them include: conspiracy, grand theft by false pretenses, and false advertising, and all 19 counts carry a maximum of one year in prison or a $10,00 fine.Goldline was reportedly using aggressive telemarketing tactics employing highly questionable methods to pressure customers into buying overpriced coins as early as 2010 as revealed in a Mother Jones investigative report. The report revealed that Goldline was pressuring customers into buying marked up coins on a regular basis which were so wildly overpriced that customers would likely never make their money back.Beck took this a step further by saying that in the event of a total economic collapse, government would confiscate citizens’ gold bullion so instead recommended that listeners invest money in the overpriced gold coins hawked by Goldline.Beck was far from alone in his endorsement of Goldline, which gave the entire operation a false sense of legitimacy.Indeed, other individuals who promoted the possibly criminal Goldline International operation are: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Monica Crowley, Lars Larson, Jerry Doyle, and Alan Colmes.Goldline features an entire page devoted to the celebrity endorsements they have paid to receive with a graphical header with “CREDIBILITY” emblazoned prominently at the top of the page. Instead of simply selling gold bullion or gold coins which is far from an illegitimate or criminal practice, Goldline directed their salespeople to “’get the money in’ from customers on the promise of delivering gold bullion bars or gold bullion coins (collectively ‘Bullion’), with the intent not to deliver the Bullion but instead to later persuade the customers to buy far more overpriced, so-called semi-numismatic or numismatic coins” according to the official Santa Monica v. Goldline complaint. This is clearly a highly deceptive and unethical practice and the charges are the product of an in depth year-long investigation.I wonder what Glenn Beck and the other “celebrities” who endorsed Goldline will have to say now that it has come out that their favorite “trusted” gold company was actually ripping off their gullible listeners who actually thought they were operating with a conscience and not in the name of the almighty dollar?It will be interesting to see how they react to this as this is a pretty damning indictment of a company that they put their names behind.Will it ruin Beck’s credibility? Well, honestly, I don’t think that anyone who still gives Beck any credence cares about any semblance of credibility or else they would no longer take him seriously.
More at EndtheLie.com - http://EndtheLie.com/2011/11/02/gold-company-heavily-promoted-by-glenn-beck-charged-with-19-criminal-counts/#ixzz1cZZB7Op4
Texas judge is under police investigation after a video, showing him beating his disabled teenage daughter with a belt -
A Texas judge is under police investigation after a video, purportedly showing him beating his teenage daughter with a belt, was released on the Internet.
“Aransas County is aware of the video posted on YouTube regarding County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, and the matter is now under review by the Police Department,” read a statement posted on the county website.
County attorney Richard Bianchi confirmed to the San Antonio Express-News that the individual in the video is Judge Adams. The child was reportedly being punished for using the Internet without permission.
“Obviously it is a very disturbing video,” he told the newspaper. “We in my office as well as everyone on Earth is taking a look at it at this time.”
Judge Adams expressed remorse to KXTV – and said his conduct in the video was “not as bad as it looks on tape.”
“It happened years ago,” he told the Texas television station. “I apologized.
The video was believed to have been shot in 2004 – but was posted Tuesday on YouTube – by someone identifying themselves as Adams’ disabled daughter. The graphic video shows the child being whipped with a belt as the man curses.
“It’s disturbing,” County Judge C.H. Mills, Jr. told Fox News.
Mills said he’s talked to his colleague and said “he’s pretty upset.”
“I’m not at liberty to tell you what our conversation was about because the county attorney told me I shouldn’t,” Mills said.
The Texas Dept. of Public Safety confirmed to Fox News that they’ve been asked to assist the Rockford Police Dept. as they investigate the video.
But at this point it’s unclear what – if any crime has been committed – and whether or not there’s a statute of limitations.
The video has caused turmoil in this tiny community about 30 miles north of Corpus Christi.
“It’s very hard to take care of business today because every phone is ringing with the same question,” Mills said.
For the time being Judge Adams has not been removed from the bench.
However, he agreed with the county attorney to have a visiting judge for the immediate future, Judge Mills said.Read more - http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/463.html
Toyota Shows experimental robots to Help Sick, Elderly Move - 
Toyota unveiled its ambitions for high-tech health care Tuesday, displaying experimental robots that the auto giant says can lift disabled patients from their hospital beds or help them walk.
The company aims to commercialize products such as its "independent walk assist" device sometime after 2013 — seeking to position itself in an industry with great potential in Japan, one of the world's most rapidly aging nations.
Eiichi Saitoh, a professor in rehabilitation medicine, demonstrated the "walk assist" device on Tuesday, strapping the computerized metallic brace onto his right leg, which was paralyzed by polio.
He showed reporters at a Toyota facility in Tokyo how the brace could bend at the knee as needed, allowing him to walk more naturally and rise from a chair with greater ease than the walker he now uses. Wearing a backpack-like battery, Saitoh walked up and down a flight of stairs, smiling with delight.
Saitoh said he had tried Toyota's machines with patients and was confident they helped people recover more quickly from strokes and other ailments that curtailed movement.
"It may be difficult to predict the future, but the era of an aging society is definitely coming," he said. "We need partner robots to enrich our lives."
Read more - http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/toyota-shows-machines-sick-elderly-move-14855252
Will Greece Pull an Iceland … And Tell the Banks to Pound Sand? - 
Iceland told the banks to pound sand. And Iceland’s economy is doing much better than virtually all of the country’s who have let the banks push them around.
Barry Ritholtz noted in May:
Rather than bailout the banks — Iceland could not have done so even if they wanted to — they guaranteed deposits (the way our FDIC does), and let the normal capitalistic process of failure run its course.
They are now much much better for it than the countries like the US and Ireland who did not.
Bloomberg pointed out in February:
Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country’s banks, whose assets had ballooned to $209 billion, 11 times gross domestic product.
***
“Iceland did the right thing by making sure its payment systems continued to function while creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks,” says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University in New York. “Ireland’s done all the wrong things, on the other hand. That’s probably the worst model.”
Ireland guaranteed all the liabilities of its banks when they ran into trouble and has been injecting capital — 46 billion euros ($64 billion) so far — to prop them up. That brought the country to the brink of ruin, forcing it to accept a rescue package from the European Union in December.
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Countries with larger banking systems can follow Iceland’s example, says Adriaan van der Knaap, a managing director at UBS AG.
“It wouldn’t upset the financial system,” says Van der Knaap, who has advised Iceland’s bank resolution committees.
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Arni Pall Arnason, 44, Iceland’s minister of economic affairs, says the decision to make debt holders share the pain saved the country’s future.
“If we’d guaranteed all the banks’ liabilities, we’d be in the same situation as Ireland,” says Arnason, whose Social Democratic Alliance was a junior coalition partner in the Haarde government.
***
“In the beginning, banks and other financial institutions in Europe were telling us, ‘Never again will we lend to you,’” Einarsdottir says. “Then it was 10 years, then 5. Now they say they might soon be ready to lend again.”
Even the IMF praises Iceland’s strategy:
As the first country to experience the full force of the global economic crisis, Iceland is now held up as an example by some of how to overcome deep economic dislocation without undoing the social fabric.
Greece Faces the Same Choice
As Robert Reich notes, the same choice – telling the foreign banks to pound sand or caving in – is now faced by Greece:
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou decided in favor of democracy yesterday when he announced a national referendum on the draconian budget cuts Europe and the IMF are demanding from Greece in return for bailing it out.
(Or, more accurately, the cuts Europe and the IMF are demanding for bailing out big European banks that have lent Greece lots of money and stand to lose big if Greece defaults on those loans – not to mention Wall Street banks that will also suffer because of their intertwined financial connections with European banks.)
***
We’ve been here before, remember? Here in the United States, at the end of 2008 and start of 2009. Wall Street had made lots of bad loans, and the question we faced then was whether to bail out the Street.
The difference is, we didn’t hold a referendum. Instead, the Bush administration told Congress the nation risked “economic Armageddon” if it didn’t immediately authorize a giant bailout of the Street – with no strings attached. [Our comment: Indeed, Paulson threatened martial law if the bailouts weren't approved.] Of course Congress hastily agreed. Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Tim Geithner (as head of the New York Fed) then doled out the money. And the Obama administration (with Geithner installed as Treasury Secretary) gave out more.
So instead of allowing the Street to live with the consequences of its negligence, we bailed it out – and allowed the Main Streets of America to suffer the consequences.
If Americans had been consulted about the bank bailout, I doubt it would have happened the way it did. [Our comment: Polls showedthat Americans were overwhelmingly against the bailouts. And see this.] At the very least, strict conditions would have been placed on the banks in return for the money. The banks would have had to eat the losses of the predatory mortgages they sold, and help homeowners reduce those mortgages. They’d be required to improve the capitalization of small banks in communities across the country. They’d be forced to accept stringent new regulations, including resurrection of Glass-Steagall. [And see this, this and this.]
But Americans weren’t really consulted. It was an inside job.
Read more - http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/will-greece-pull-an-iceland-and-tell-the-banks-to-pound-sand.html
Remember Fukushima? It's Back - TEPCO finds sign of fresh nuclear fission at Fukushima reactor - 
The problem with sweeping unresolved problems, especially of the unstable gamma decay variety, is that they tend to pop up at the most inopportune of times. Such as during global coordinated fiat ponzi bailouts. Kyodo reports that according to TEPCO a fresh fission reaction has restarted at Fukushima Daichi, and that boric acid is being injected to control a "possible nuclear reaction." Hardly the encouraging news that the world needs right about now.
From Kyodo:
TEPCO finds sign of fresh nuclear fission at Fukushima reactor Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday there may be signs of fresh nuclear fission in the No. 2 reactor at its quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant and that it has begun injecting boric acid to control a possible nuclear reaction.There has been no change in the temperature, pressure and radiation levels at the reactor, whose nuclear fuel is believed to have melted when the cooling system failed following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the utility known as TEPCO said.Gas samples taken Tuesday from inside the reactor's containment vessel may contain radioactive xenon, a gas typically generated by nuclear fission, the company said.What is the conventional wisdom thinking on Fukushima anyway? Out of sight, out of mind? Yeah, we thought so.Read more - http://www.zerohedge.com/news/remember-fukushima-its-back
