Scientist claims it is possible to reverse extinction

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | MARCH 1, 2013

The statement makes many Jurassic Park fans rub their hands. According to scientist Stewart Brand, colleagues are attempting to reassemble the genome of extinct animals and other beings in order bring them back to life.

While speaking at a TED conference in Sausalito, California, Brand said that scientists are that much close to developing a process which would allow humans to generate enough material to recreate animals that no longer live on Earth.According to the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, “de-extinction” would be a fantastic tool to bring back organisms and complete ecosystems that disappeared through time.

“Biotechnology is about to liberate conservation, at least a part of conservation, in a pretty spectacular way,” said Brand. He fancies himself as a “cheerleader” who encourages researchers to take on the type of challenges he spoke about at TED. He said scientists are working on a way to use DNA to re-create the passenger pigeon, a bird that became extinct in 1914.

The passenger pigeon is considered a keystone species because it aided the survival of the buffalo. Researchers believe it is possible to change the genetic code of a type of bird known as the band-tailed pigeon, to then re-engineer the passenger pigeon.

“The result won’t be perfect, but it should be perfect enough because nature doesn’t do perfect either,” he added.

So far, attempts to bring back ancient creatures have failed. Back in 2010, an extinct variety of mountain goat created in a lab, died after just a few minutes due to lung defects, reports the Marine Independent Journal. Mr. Brand took his opportunity to remind the audience that, according to him, humans are to blame for the extinction of many species.

“Humans have made a huge hole in nature in the last 10,000 years,” Brand said. “We have the ability now, and maybe the moral obligation, to repair some of the damage,” he said. However, Mr. Brand did not explain much about the impact that these experiments would have in today’s environment, or detailed what are the dangers of recreating ancient organisms.

If we take into account modern history, it is clear that scientists have perfected the ability to reproduce bacteria, viruses and other pathogens mainly for the sake of warfare. In many occasions, these pathogens have escaped –accidentally or not– high security labs causing panic on populations exposed to them. The use of recreated organisms, chemical and biological agents to subdue populations has also been a reality in the 20th and 21st centuries and genetically modified organisms are already poisoning the planet.

Perhaps Mr. Brand should point out very clearly who are humans he refers to when blaming people for environmental damage. Also, as we learned from Jurassic Park, no one enjoys having a tyrannosaur Rex roaming their neighborhoods.

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Documents Detail a March 23 Greek Default Plan

Government to Freeze Bank Accounts, Eliminate Euro, Restrict Capital Flow

by Mac Slavo
SHTFPlan.com
February 16, 2012

That a default in Europe is coming has never been the question. For the astute observer the only thing at issue is how and when it will happen.  While the mainstream financial media and government officials have tried to spin this story as one that involves only Greek debt, the fact of the matter is that this isn’t isolated to a single country. Italy, Portugal, Ireland and most other European countries are in exactly the same boat.

Despite all of the propaganda and machinations from leading financial powers like the United States, Germany, and France, it’s should be clear that there is no viable solution to the debt debacle facing Europe. As such, we should understand that a situation similar to what led to the Great Depression of the 1930′s is now unfolding once again. The ability of entire nations to pay off their debt is now in question, and given the sheer size of the numbers we’re talking about, any reasonable person could agree that there is simply no plausible resolution that will make all parties whole again.

This has been playing out in Greece for nearly three years, and we may very well be just weeks away from the dreaded moment when it finally becomes official. An exclusive report detailing internal bank documents from two major Wall Street players says that we may have much less time than we think as insiders prepare for a financial doomsday next month.

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Bankers Play the Fear Card on Economic Outlook

by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
September 6, 2011

Any time a major bank releases a report saying a given course of action is too costly, too prohibitive, too blonde, or simply too impossible, it is nearly guaranteed that that is precisely the course of action about to be undertaken. Which is why all non-euro skeptics are advised to shield their eyes and look away from the just released report by UBS (of surging 3 Month USD Libor rate fame) titled “Euro Break Up – The Consequences.”

UBS conveniently sets up the straw man as follows: “Under the current structure and with the current membership, the Euro does not work. Either the current structure will have to change, or the current membership will have to change.” So far so good. Yet where it gets scary is when UBS quantifies the actual opportunity cost to one or more countries leaving the Euro. Notably Germany. “Were a stronger country such as Germany to leave the Euro, the consequences would include corporate default, recapitalisation of the banking system and collapse of international trade.

If Germany were to leave, we believe the cost to be around EUR6,000 to EUR8,000 for every German adult and child in the first year, and a range of EUR3,500 to EUR4,500 per person per year thereafter. That is the equivalent of 20% to 25% of GDP in the first year. ” It also would mean the end of UBS, but we digress. Where it gets even more scary is when UBS, like many other banks to come, succumbs to the Mutual Assured Destruction trope made so popular by ole’ Hank Paulson : “The economic cost is, in many ways, the least of the concerns investors should have about a break-up. Fragmentation of the Euro would incur political costs. Europe’s “soft power” influence internationally would cease (as the concept of “Europe” as an integrated polity becomes meaningless).

It is also worth observing that almost no modern fiat currency monetary unions have broken up without some form of authoritarian or military government, or civil war.” So you see: save the euro for the children, so we can avoid all out war (and UBS can continue to exist). The scariest thing, however, by far, is that for this report to have been issued, it means that Germany is now actively considering dumping the euro.

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Germany and France to Lose AAA Rating

Reuters
August 9, 2011

PARIS/LONDON – France and Britain are most vulnerable within Europe to a rating review following the U.S. downgrade, with anemic growth and hefty borrowing placing them among the shakiest of the world’s triple-A rated lenders.

Both countries have stable rating outlooks, making a sudden downgrade unlikely and markets have been so impressed by Britain’s debt-cutting strategy that they have pushed its bond yields to record lows.

But a surge in the cost of insuring French debt against default on Monday highlighted alarm sparked by Friday’s U.S. rating cut as banks and brokerages warned that rating agencies could now have top-rated European lenders in their sights.

“France has slipped into borderline AA+/Aa1/AA+ (one notch below AAA) territory, so risks to its AAA are rising as stresses spread,” financial services firm BBH said in a note to clients.

In another indication of mounting concern over France, spreads between French and German 10-year bond yields hit all-time highs last week and remained wide on Monday.

The most likely trigger for France to be put on negative watch would be a failure by the government to get parliamentary backing for a constitutional limit on future public deficits, with opposition left-wing lawmakers vowing to reject it.

Euro zone outsider Britain looks less vulnerable, having its own currency which could slide in value and its own interest rate, but it could also come under review given its weaker economic fundamentals.

“There are … lots of countries in Europe that should be downgraded just as the U.S. has been downgraded,” U.S. investor Jim Rogers, co-founder of the Quantum Fund, told Reuters Insider as world leaders battled to calm a market rout driven by concern about U.S. and European debt levels.

After making history by stripping America of its AAA-rating, Standard and Poor’s reaffirmed France’s top-notch status and stable outlook at the weekend. Moody’s and Fitch declined to comment, but neither has given any indication they could change their outlooks on the United States, France or Britain.

Providing further comfort, fund managers poured into French and British bonds in early trading as Friday’s U.S. downgrade forced them to shift funds out of U.S. treasuries.

However, French five-year credit default swaps (CDS) surged 15.5 basis points on the day to a record-high 160 bps, according to data monitor Markit, taking it closer to the level of AA-rated states such as Belgium, though analysts warned the market often overreacts.

“The CDS market is very dysfunctional,” said Mark Schofield, global head of interest rate strategy at Citi.

“Although France from the perspective of fiscal fundamentals looks the weakest of the triple-A issuers in Europe, I still think that given very low levels of yields, the depth of the domestic market, the ability to continue to fund at low levels, it’s unlikely France will be downgraded in the near future.”

As for Britain, he added: “It’s unlikely that the UK will be downgraded. At this point in time, we’ve seen very significant fiscal tightening put in place.”

FRENCH POLITICS IN FOCUS

In the euro zone, only Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have a triple-A rating, and French debt costs the most to insure.

France also has the highest deficit, debt and primary deficit of any of them and it is the only triple-A euro zone country running a current account deficit.

Its debt to GDP ratio — set to hit 86.9 percent next year and described by the national audit office as nearing the danger zone — could be pushed even higher by France’s contribution to a new Greece bailout.

S&P said in June it would probably downgrade France in the long term without further reforms and that to preserve its AAA rating France must balance its budget in the next five years, something not achieved since 1974.

It could re-examine its rating outlook as soon as the autumn if President Nicolas Sarkozy fails to win backing for his constitutional budget-balancing rule. Winning would require a three-fifths majority in a two-chamber parliamentary vote and the opposition Socialist Party has vowed to vote against.

“It would be a call for action,” for ratings agencies, said Deutsche Bank analyst Gilles Moec.

He said France was “intrinsically in a better situation” than the United States and could stave off a downgrade by accelerating deficit cuts, one idea being to raise value-added taxes and trim social contributions on labor.

Also weighing on France is a possible swing to a left-wing government after a presidential election next April. The Socialists have vowed to tinker, if they win, with a 2010 retirement reform aimed at cutting future pension costs.

WEAK GROWTH UK’S MAIN RISK

Britain has an even bigger deficit, primary deficit and debt to GDP ratio than France, and also runs a current account deficit but weak growth — and the damaging effect that would have on its debt pile — is its main threat.

Moody’s warned in June that it could reconsider its stance on Britain in the event of lower growth combined with weak fiscal consolidation.

Citi’s Schofield agreed, saying: “The big risks would be a very sharp slowdown in growth and/or huge political upheavals, if you started to get a breakdown in the coalition.”

Broadly, however, markets have faith in Britain’s ability to pay back its debt, despite a budget deficit of some 10 percent, because of an austerity plan that includes tax increases and unprecedented cuts in public spending.

Yields on 10-year gilts hit a record low of 2.59 percent last week and British debt continued to outperform European debt on Monday as investors looked for safe havens.

Yet, the economy has basically stalled over the last nine months and even the government’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has acknowledged its growth forecast of 1.7 percent for 2011 looks too high.

Lower growth means lower tax receipts and maybe a higher welfare bill if unemployment rises, all of which will add to debt.

The opposition has called for emergency tax cuts and some observers were quick to blame riots in London over the weekend on public spending cuts and dire economic prospects.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the UK is still struggling with its own economic recovery, we are pretty confident that the coalition is going to hold in the UK,” David Beers, head of Standard & Poor’s sovereign ratings, told Reuters Insider.

The Debt Crisis Is A Trojan Horse To Cause The Fall of America

by Saman Mohammadi
The Excavator
August 2, 2011

“A sovereign nation can always find the money to pay debts owed in its own currency. The U.S. could, if it wished, pay its bills using debt-free U.S. Notes or Greenbacks, just as President Lincoln did to avoid a crippling debt during the Civil War. Alternatively, it could eliminate the deficit with Ron Paul’s plan, which amounts to the same thing.” – Ellen Brown, “Forget Compromise: The Debt Ceiling Is Unconstitutional.”

Behind all the flim-flammery of this manufactured “crisis,” we are watching the creation of a new form of government — or rather, the further mutation of the new form of government that the United States has been crawling toward for a long time. We called it a “neo-feudal oligarchy backed by a militarist police state” here the other day. No doubt there are many other ways you could describe this murderous, ravenous, lopsided monstrosity of a system. But the one thing you cannot call it is a “republic.” – Chris Floyd, “If the Republic Had Not Died A Long Time Ago, This Would Indeed Be the Death of the Republic (Reprise).”

“Well, we are reportedly 48 hours out from a total default on the debt to the foreign governments and private Federal Reserve that have taken over this country through economic fraud, and have engaged in a conquest that the British Empire couldn’t succeed in, that Hitler couldn’t succeed in, that the Soviets couldn’t succeed at. They have conquered us through fraud by stealth. But, the moment you become aware of the private banking cartel’s global government that they’re publicly admitting now they’re setting up, that you’ll pay your VAT taxes to, your carbon taxes, and the rest of it – the minute you’re aware of it then their power begins to wane.

That’s why the banksters are setting up a homeland security control grid in every country they’re in under international agreements and rules to crackdown and go after anybody that criticizes the private central banks running those nations. When you get the internal training manuals from England to Australia, from Germany to Canada, to the United States, it is the same thing. The public is told, “Give your rights up because al-Qaeda is hiding underneath every table,” but when you get the actual manuals its people that don’t want to give up their sovereignty to the global government.” – Alex Jones, “The Debt Crisis: Banksters, Thugs and Crooks,” from 04:42 to 06:04.

“They are slaves who dare not be in the right with two or three.” – James Russell Lowell

The long transformation of America from a relatively free society into a full-fledged, technocratic police state is now complete. President Barack Obama and political leaders from both major parties are getting ready to completely turn over America’s sovereignty to the traitorous private banking cartel and multinational corporations.

The gang of liars and crooks behind the private Federal Reserve Bank seized America’s sovereignty on December 23, 1913, when the illegal and unconstitutional Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.

The Act ensured the protection of a criminal monopoly of America’s credit in the hands of a few powerful banking families who have no loyalty to any nation, people, or system of law: they only have loyalty to their own power and their own bottom line.

With America in their pockets, the private banksters went ahead with phase two of their deceitful plan to dominate the world’s credit, natural resources, and peoples – the creation of a global authoritarian state that is beholden to their interests.

Generations of anti-freedom and anti-American turncoats in Washington have went along with this treasonous, century-long plan by elite private banking families and multinational corporations to covertly establish an unlawful global economic, governmental and political infrastructure to phase out the nation-state system and consolidate world power into a tiny global oligarchy.

The plan to destroy the American economy and establish a dictatorial global government was accepted by the political and technocratic elite in Washington a while ago. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are simply going through the motions in the historic farce that is being presented to the American public and the world as a political debate about a debt crisis.

The truth is that most of America’s debt is fictitious debt. It is odious debt. The traitors who control the Democratic and Republican parties, the Federal Reserve, and the Department of the Treasury will never tell the American people the truth because the truth is the greatest threat to their existence and treasonous schemes.

If the American people knew the truth about the Federal Reserve they would hang their political leaders, from George H. W. Bush to Bill Clinton, to George W. Bush and Barack Obama. As Henry Ford said, “It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

The last real American president was John F. Kennedy. The Presidents who came after him made peace with the fact that America is owned and operated by an international financial oligarchy that views the American people as slaves. Most politicians who climb the ladder of blood and lies in Washington believe the elitist arguments that the American people are not fit for self-government and deserve to be ruled by a small power elite.

But the exact opposite is true. Society has more to fear from an arrogant and psychopathic elite than an undisciplined mob. The dangers of a dictatorial, collectivized and privately controlled world government to humanity are beyond words. And the fact that so many people refuse to see the writing on the wall and point out the construction of this monster from hell is a big sign that we’re heading for disaster. Millions of innocent people die, get beaten, and tortured whenever political and economic power is centralized, and controlled by a ruthless, unaccountable elite.

If we do not resist the treasonous private banks and criminal corporations with our words and our lives, generations of men and women will live through a global catastrophe caused by these savage tyrants. It is a tragedy that the Russian people know well because of their experience of living under a godless, and centralized system.

America is the one nation that has been in the grips of the traitorous forces who are bringing this global government beast into the world through acts of deception, treason and fraud. America is also the one nation that can change the fate of the world by bringing down this beast before it sets the whole world on fire and reclaims it as its own after the rubble has settled.

But first, America must rediscovers its destiny as a revolutionary nation that put the freedom of the individual and the rule of law above the whim of tyrants.

In 1976, two hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, American philosopher William Irwin Thompson wrote in his book, “Evil and World Order,” that modern America has lost touch with its founders’ vision for the country and the ideals of America when it was created, saying:

As the Church lost the vision of its founder, so has the country lost the vision of its founding fathers, but now that industrial society is strangling in its own contradictions, we have one last chance to re-vision human society. (Thompson: Evil and World Order; Harper & Row, Publishers: New York; pg. 13-14).

The restoration of the rule of law and the survival of freedom rests in the hands of the American people, but the enemy of both is an undemocratic oligarchy that is destroying America’s constitutional institutions and national sovereignty from within Washington, not Jihadist terrorists.