Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

The Agonist | thoughtful, global, timely Guerrilla News Media Lens Australian Debt Clock Blog Post 12| 27th December 2015 U.S. Federal Reserve Breaks Bad In the wind up of 2015 the Federal Reserve (FED, U.S. ‘…inflation at the rate of 2 percent (as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, or PCE) is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve's mandate for price stability and maximum employment.’ Source: U.S. Although this is a relatively small increase to the rate at which U.S. private banks borrow from the FE, and future increases are forecast to be gradual; inflation only averaged 0.07% from January 2015 to November 2015. ‘…it is reasonably confident that inflation will rise, over the medium term, to its 2 percent objective.’ Source: U.S. However, modern central banking theory and empirical evidence only support the use of, what is conventionally known as contractionary monetary policy (reducing the money supply through raising interest rates), to invoke a decrease to inflation. What is the probable outcome?

Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters | Journal of the mental environment Democratic Underground Accidental discovery dramatically improves electrical conductivity Quite by accident, Washington State University researchers have achieved a 400-fold increase in the electrical conductivity of a crystal simply by exposing it to light. The effect, which lasted for days after the light was turned off, could dramatically improve the performance of devices like computer chips. WSU doctoral student Marianne Tarun chanced upon the discovery when she noticed that the conductivity of some strontium titanate shot up after it was left out one day. "It came by accident," said Tarun. The phenomenon they witnessed—"persistent photoconductivity"—is a far cry from superconductivity, the complete lack of electrical resistance pursued by other physicists, usually using temperatures near absolute zero. And while other researchers have created persistent photoconductivity in other materials, this is the most dramatic display of the phenomenon. The research, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, appears this month in the journal Physical Review Letters.

INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE. NEWS, COMMENTARY & INSIGHT News.com 2011: A Brave New Dystopia - Chris Hedges' Columns 2011: A Brave New Dystopia Posted on Dec 27, 2010 By Chris Hedges The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through sensual gratification, cheap mass-produced goods, boundless credit, political theater and amusement. Orwell, as Neil Postman wrote, warned of a world where books were banned. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake,” Orwell wrote in “1984.” The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin uses the term “inverted totalitarianism” in his book “Democracy Incorporated” to describe our political system. The corporate state does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader. The result is a monochromatic system of information. Get truth delivered to your inbox every week. Previous item: Let’s Not Spin the Civil War Next item: The Game-Changer List New and Improved Comments

Old-Thinker News TomDispatch