How London became the money-laundering capital of the world
Speaking on the Marr Show on BBC One on March 23rd, the former Daily Telegraph editor and historian Max Hastings said a “senior central banker” recently told him that London is now considered to be the “money-laundering capital of the world”.
Hastings was discussing the shooting of a Russian banker in London. The remark was all the more pertinent since Russia is now said to be controlled by a ‘gangster culture’ and because of the large number of Russian oligarchs and other business people who now live and work in the UK. A lot of these people carry criminal baggage, but the authorities seem entirely comfortable with the idea they should reinforce London’s position as the world’s “funny” money hub.
How did this state of affairs come about when, on paper at least, the UK has some of the strictest anti-money laundering legislation in the world?
The answer, I believe, lies in the fact that our many laws and regulations have never been effectively enforced by financial regulators, and banks and other financial institutions know they can get away with paying lip service to the rules.
Only this year has the Financial Services Authority managed to bring a money laundering charge against a UK-based financier, and he is a very small fish indeed. In an insider trading case against Richard Anthony Joseph, the FSA added two money laundering charges. It charged him with eight counts of insider dealing and two counts of money laundering.
read more: http://www.ianfraser.org/how-london-became-the-money-laundering-capital-of-the-world/
Real aliens or the NWO who is playing with DRONES, LRAD and Blue Beam?!
Aliens? We’ll probably have a close encounter this century says leading physicist who warns governments to be ready
It’s a scientific prediction that will get dollar signs pinging in Steven Spielberg’s eyes: We could make contact with aliens in less than 100 years.
But according to one of our leading physicists, it is a matter for governments – rather than Hollywood – who should start preparing for our first extra-terrestrial encounter now.
Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum conference in Dublin, Jocelyn Bell Burnell said: ‘I do suspect we are going to get signs of life elsewhere, maybe even intelligent life, within the next century.
How well prepared are we? Have we thought of how we approach them? Should we put them in a zoo, eat them, send in GIs to bring them democracy?’
[Top]Don't fear Smart Dust, CT's, Drones, Nuclear bombs, GM-food, HAARP or the FEMA-camps…they say the MOON is our enemy!
Earth’s friend, Man’s enemy: The Moon is layered in dust bathed in radiation, which could prove deadly for pioneers
Living on the moon is surely humanity’s goal as we make our first baby steps into space.
But our constant neighbour may not treat us so well – for scientists now think that the very dust on our luna partner is poisonous to humans.
The surface of the moon is coated in a layer of thick, undisturbed dust, which is not only ultra-fine – and therefore easy to inhale – but can increase the risk of various cancers, similar to breathing asbestos and volcanic ash.
Researchers from the University of Tennessee, referring to Neil Armstrong’s first steps onto the moon, said: ‘The Apollo astronauts reported undesirable effects affecting the skin, eyes and airways that could be related to exposure to the dust that had adhered to their space suits during their extravehicular activities and was subsequently brought into their spacecraft.’
Humans have only spent, at max, two or three days on the moon in total, and this time has often been spent in spaceships or airtight suits.
But with long-term exposure, the team says that inhalation would be harmful – even when wearing protective gear, as dust trails the astronauts back into living quarters.
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No longer just a US toy, drones go global
FARNBOROUGH: Having revolutionised warfare for the United States in the last 15 years, unmanned aerial drones are going global as the number of countries building and operating them soars.
Until now, such systems have largely been the exclusive purview of the US and a handful of allies. Washington allowed Britain, Italy and Turkey to buy US-built drones and operate them usually alongside US forces, but largely rejected requests from other nations keen to acquire the same capability.
But that is quickly changing. US firm General Atomics expects to make its first sales of an unarmed version of its Predator drones this year, with Latin America and the Middle East seen to be particularly fertile markets.
“There has been very considerable international interest,” retired US Navy Rear Admiral Christopher Ames, now director of international strategic development for the company, told Reuters at this week’s Farnborough International Airshow.
Flanked by video screens showing the firm’s products in action in Iraq, Afghanistan and tracking pirates over the Indian Ocean, Ames said their combat record spoke for itself.
Not only were human air crew not put at risk, he said, but use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) also offered huge savings in fuel and personnel costs over conventional manned aircraft.
[Top]Oh great…we are going to be shut by terrorists and eaten by dinosaurs!
Jurassic Park in a Petri dish: Scientists bring 500 million-year-old bacteria back to life – what could possibly go wrong?
Mini-Frankenstein: The researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene and inserted it into a modern E Coli bacteria
- Frankenstein’ germ spliced with gene from 500-million-year-old bacteria
- Bacteria is now thriving in lab
- Some of the ‘chimeric’ E Coli is now stronger than normal bacteria
- Scientists hope to ‘restage’ evolution
- Will answer questions about how and why organisms evolve
A 500 million-year-old bacteria has been brought back to life in a laboratory at Georgia Tech in an experiment with echoes of Jurassic Park’s disastrous recreation of the dinosaurs.
The researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene and inserted it into a modern E Coli bacteria.
The ‘Frankenstein’ germ has thrived. In the lab, the creation has now lived through 1,000 generations.
The scientists hope to find out whether the ‘ancient’ bacteria will evolve the same way it did ‘first time round’ – or whether it will evolve into a different, new organism.
‘This is as close as we can get to rewinding and replaying the molecular tape of life,’ said scientist Betül Kaçar, a NASA astrobiology postdoctoral fellow in Georgia Tech.
The new ‘chimeric’ bacteria has mutated rapidly – and some have become stronger and healthier than today’s germs.
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Well the moment is finally here, the rich are leaving the planet!
Sir Richard Branson will fly into space next year – along with Angelina Jolie and 529 other passengers paying £128,000 each
- Tickets on craft cost £125,000 with stars such as Ashton Kutcher, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie already signed up
- Richard Branson and family will be first passengers
- Virgin to launch ‘cheap’ satellite-launch service using plane
- Commercial flights will begin next year
Sir Richard Branson today announced that he and his children will be the first passengers when the Virgin Galactic space tourism programme begins.
Virgin boss Sir Richard and son Sam and daughter Holly are expected to be flying 60 miles up into space on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft by the end of next year.
Today, Sir Richard joined around 120 other tourists who have signed up for the two-hour flights, at £128,000 a trip – a total of 529 guests have already signed up.
As the travellers and Sir Richard posed at Farnborough Air Show beside a replica of SS2, Sir Richard also announced that the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft that will help launch SS2 into space will also be used for a new launch vehicle – LauncherOne – which will take small satellites into space for around a tenth of the present cost.
The Virgin Galactic team said a number of companies were keen to use LauncherOne.
From a spaceport built in New Mexico, USA, by UK architect Lord Foster, WhiteKnightTwo will take the SS2, with six passengers and two pilots, to a point about 50,000ft (up before the SST rockets into space.
Sir Richard and other passengers will be able to float around the cabin due to weightlessness before the SS2 effectively becomes a glider for its return to the spaceport.
Scientists discover where the mysterious sounds of the Northern Lights are generated
The noises have inspired folktales and created both fear and awe in wilderness wanderers.
But for the first time, the strange crackling noises and muffled bangs of the Northern Lights have been explained through science.
Researchers at the Aalto University in Finland located where the sounds are created, and discovered that the sounds form about 70 meters above the ground level.
Compare this the the lights themselves, for the dramatic displays caused by disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field occur around 120km above the Earth’s surface.
Hmmm, I think that LRAD and HAARP also were present….
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