Presentation on China/Japan (video, audio, updated slides)

I gave a presentation on China/Japan at the “Rethinking Seminar” at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.  My presentation was videotaped; video (both streaming and download), audio, and even cliff notes may be found here (by the way, make sure to take a look at other presentations on their website).  Also, I updated my slides on China/Japan; you can download them here.

It was a slightly surreal experience, because the presentation was right across the street from the Pentagon.  So the Russian immigrant who until 1987 believed Americans were horrible people (read the story of how my family emigrated from Russia) was lecturing Americans on the virtues of capitalism at the doorstep of the Pentagon!

Here are some random thoughts on subjects unrelated to investing.

I had been in DC a few times before but never really had time to see the city.  I took my almost-ten-year-old son Jonah with me on this trip, and we had an amazing experience.  It was father-and-son, embrace history, see new things, eat donuts every morning for breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts time (mother was not there to set us straight).  Here are some pictures from this trip.

We spent a lot of time browsing Smithsonian museums – Air and Space, American History, and the Air and Space Udvar-Hazy (giant hanger with over a hundred planes, by Dulles Airport).  The Wright brothers’ first plane (the Wright Flyer) was really a shocking exhibit.  The Wright Flyer looks like an oversized wooden kite, with strings and a few levers.  It barely looks like a plane.  In its first flight it only went 120 feet – that was it!  If  you look at the planes that came out a decade or two later, they were real planes – metal wings, wheels, a pilot’s seat, etc. But the Wright Flyer was the paradigm breaker, it proved that an object heavier than air, powered, and operated by a human, could fly.  It unleashed the imagination of the generations who followed.

Fast forward six decades, and you find us standing in front of the plane that impressed the most: the Blackbird.  The Blackbird is a reconnaissance plane; it has no weapons, just cameras.  It was the first plane to use stealth technology, though it wasn’t until decades later that that technology was perfected. The Blackbird’s engines are each the size of a small plane.  Despite being developed 47 years ago, it is still the fastest plane today, flying at Mach 3, over 2,100 miles an  hour!  It flew from LA to DC in 64 minutes.  It flew so high, at 80,000 feet, and so fast that if it was detected by radar the pilot’s strategy was not to go to evasive maneuvers but to push on the throttle.  Not a single Blackbird was ever shot down. What’s ironic about Blackbird is that it was discontinued not because the US came out with a better or faster plane, no, but because of the development of satellites.  Satellites don’t cause international incidents, don’t put pilots at risk, and don’t cost $85,000 an hour to operate.

Productivity is very difficult to observe in the short run, but in the long run it is really incredible how we manage to do ever more with ever less.  In the American History Museum there was an exhibit on ports and ships, where I found this remarkable statistic:  “1960: 25 million tons handled by 15,000 longshoremen at the West Coast ports.  2000: 250 million tons handled by 10,000 longshoremen at the West Coast ports.”  Two-thirds of the people did 10 times more – that is productivity!

I was really reluctant to go to the Holocaust museum, as I did not want to subject myself to the pain I knew would come with it, but my wife convinced me and Jonah to go.  I am glad we listened to her.  There are two things that stuck with me.

There was a wall of photos, five hundred or so family pictures and portraits from a small Lithuanian town that was home to 4,000 Jews for 900 years.  I was magnetically attracted to the photos, but it took me a few minutes to figure out that these people looked like my relatives.  A young fellow in his thirties looked just like my uncle at that age, a 15-year-old kid looked like Jonah will look five years from now, a Hassidic gentleman looked just like my cousin who is a rabbi in Rego Park, Queens, and so on.  These pictures impacted me a lot more than the pictures of dead bodies, pictures from the concentration camps, that I’ve seen so many times over the years, which my brain has learned how to dehumanize.  I could relate to these photos a lot more.  Nazis killed ALL the Jews in that village, including women and kids, in two days.  900 years of history and tradition were wiped from the face of the Earth in just two days!  I have to admit I could not keep my eyes dry after.

A quotation on the wall at the very end of the exhibit really underlined why this museum is so important.  It was written by a German pastor, Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

As a parent you try to instill values into your kids that you may not always possess; but you want your kids to have them, and your children inspire you to be better people.  Jonah and I had a long discussion about how, when we see injustice that doesn’t really touch us, we should not sit still.

Jonah had a blast in DC, but the culmination for him was our trip to the Pentagon.  I had a meeting at the Pentagon, and to keep Jonah occupied while I was busy, he received a private tour of the place from a lieutenant colonel.  Jonah was absolutely stunned – a few days later his eyes are still glowing when he talks about it.

Copyright Vitaliy N. Katsenelson 2011.  This article may  be republished only in its entirety and without modifications.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (1 vote)

View the original article here

Presentation on China/Japan (video, audio, updated slides)

I gave a presentation on China/Japan at the “Rethinking Seminar” at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.  My presentation was videotaped; video (both streaming and download), audio, and even cliff notes may be found here (by the way, make sure to take a look at other presentations on their website).  Also, I updated my slides on China/Japan; you can download them here.

It was a slightly surreal experience, because the presentation was right across the street from the Pentagon.  So the Russian immigrant who until 1987 believed Americans were horrible people (read the story of how my family emigrated from Russia) was lecturing Americans on the virtues of capitalism at the doorstep of the Pentagon!

Here are some random thoughts on subjects unrelated to investing.

I had been in DC a few times before but never really had time to see the city.  I took my almost-ten-year-old son Jonah with me on this trip, and we had an amazing experience.  It was father-and-son, embrace history, see new things, eat donuts every morning for breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts time (mother was not there to set us straight).  Here are some pictures from this trip.

We spent a lot of time browsing Smithsonian museums – Air and Space, American History, and the Air and Space Udvar-Hazy (giant hanger with over a hundred planes, by Dulles Airport).  The Wright brothers’ first plane (the Wright Flyer) was really a shocking exhibit.  The Wright Flyer looks like an oversized wooden kite, with strings and a few levers.  It barely looks like a plane.  In its first flight it only went 120 feet – that was it!  If  you look at the planes that came out a decade or two later, they were real planes – metal wings, wheels, a pilot’s seat, etc. But the Wright Flyer was the paradigm breaker, it proved that an object heavier than air, powered, and operated by a human, could fly.  It unleashed the imagination of the generations who followed.

Fast forward six decades, and you find us standing in front of the plane that impressed the most: the Blackbird.  The Blackbird is a reconnaissance plane; it has no weapons, just cameras.  It was the first plane to use stealth technology, though it wasn’t until decades later that that technology was perfected. The Blackbird’s engines are each the size of a small plane.  Despite being developed 47 years ago, it is still the fastest plane today, flying at Mach 3, over 2,100 miles an  hour!  It flew from LA to DC in 64 minutes.  It flew so high, at 80,000 feet, and so fast that if it was detected by radar the pilot’s strategy was not to go to evasive maneuvers but to push on the throttle.  Not a single Blackbird was ever shot down. What’s ironic about Blackbird is that it was discontinued not because the US came out with a better or faster plane, no, but because of the development of satellites.  Satellites don’t cause international incidents, don’t put pilots at risk, and don’t cost $85,000 an hour to operate.

Productivity is very difficult to observe in the short run, but in the long run it is really incredible how we manage to do ever more with ever less.  In the American History Museum there was an exhibit on ports and ships, where I found this remarkable statistic:  “1960: 25 million tons handled by 15,000 longshoremen at the West Coast ports.  2000: 250 million tons handled by 10,000 longshoremen at the West Coast ports.”  Two-thirds of the people did 10 times more – that is productivity!

I was really reluctant to go to the Holocaust museum, as I did not want to subject myself to the pain I knew would come with it, but my wife convinced me and Jonah to go.  I am glad we listened to her.  There are two things that stuck with me.

There was a wall of photos, five hundred or so family pictures and portraits from a small Lithuanian town that was home to 4,000 Jews for 900 years.  I was magnetically attracted to the photos, but it took me a few minutes to figure out that these people looked like my relatives.  A young fellow in his thirties looked just like my uncle at that age, a 15-year-old kid looked like Jonah will look five years from now, a Hassidic gentleman looked just like my cousin who is a rabbi in Rego Park, Queens, and so on.  These pictures impacted me a lot more than the pictures of dead bodies, pictures from the concentration camps, that I’ve seen so many times over the years, which my brain has learned how to dehumanize.  I could relate to these photos a lot more.  Nazis killed ALL the Jews in that village, including women and kids, in two days.  900 years of history and tradition were wiped from the face of the Earth in just two days!  I have to admit I could not keep my eyes dry after.

A quotation on the wall at the very end of the exhibit really underlined why this museum is so important.  It was written by a German pastor, Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

As a parent you try to instill values into your kids that you may not always possess; but you want your kids to have them, and your children inspire you to be better people.  Jonah and I had a long discussion about how, when we see injustice that doesn’t really touch us, we should not sit still.

Jonah had a blast in DC, but the culmination for him was our trip to the Pentagon.  I had a meeting at the Pentagon, and to keep Jonah occupied while I was busy, he received a private tour of the place from a lieutenant colonel.  Jonah was absolutely stunned – a few days later his eyes are still glowing when he talks about it.

Copyright Vitaliy N. Katsenelson 2011.  This article may  be republished only in its entirety and without modifications.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (1 vote)

View the original article here

Presentation on China/Japan (video, audio, updated slides)

I gave a presentation on China/Japan at the “Rethinking Seminar” at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.  My presentation was videotaped; video (both streaming and download), audio, and even cliff notes may be found here (by the way, make sure to take a look at other presentations on their website).  Also, I updated my slides on China/Japan; you can download them here.

It was a slightly surreal experience, because the presentation was right across the street from the Pentagon.  So the Russian immigrant who until 1987 believed Americans were horrible people (read the story of how my family emigrated from Russia) was lecturing Americans on the virtues of capitalism at the doorstep of the Pentagon!

Here are some random thoughts on subjects unrelated to investing.

I had been in DC a few times before but never really had time to see the city.  I took my almost-ten-year-old son Jonah with me on this trip, and we had an amazing experience.  It was father-and-son, embrace history, see new things, eat donuts every morning for breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts time (mother was not there to set us straight).  Here are some pictures from this trip.

We spent a lot of time browsing Smithsonian museums – Air and Space, American History, and the Air and Space Udvar-Hazy (giant hanger with over a hundred planes, by Dulles Airport).  The Wright brothers’ first plane (the Wright Flyer) was really a shocking exhibit.  The Wright Flyer looks like an oversized wooden kite, with strings and a few levers.  It barely looks like a plane.  In its first flight it only went 120 feet – that was it!  If  you look at the planes that came out a decade or two later, they were real planes – metal wings, wheels, a pilot’s seat, etc. But the Wright Flyer was the paradigm breaker, it proved that an object heavier than air, powered, and operated by a human, could fly.  It unleashed the imagination of the generations who followed.

Fast forward six decades, and you find us standing in front of the plane that impressed the most: the Blackbird.  The Blackbird is a reconnaissance plane; it has no weapons, just cameras.  It was the first plane to use stealth technology, though it wasn’t until decades later that that technology was perfected. The Blackbird’s engines are each the size of a small plane.  Despite being developed 47 years ago, it is still the fastest plane today, flying at Mach 3, over 2,100 miles an  hour!  It flew from LA to DC in 64 minutes.  It flew so high, at 80,000 feet, and so fast that if it was detected by radar the pilot’s strategy was not to go to evasive maneuvers but to push on the throttle.  Not a single Blackbird was ever shot down. What’s ironic about Blackbird is that it was discontinued not because the US came out with a better or faster plane, no, but because of the development of satellites.  Satellites don’t cause international incidents, don’t put pilots at risk, and don’t cost $85,000 an hour to operate.

Productivity is very difficult to observe in the short run, but in the long run it is really incredible how we manage to do ever more with ever less.  In the American History Museum there was an exhibit on ports and ships, where I found this remarkable statistic:  “1960: 25 million tons handled by 15,000 longshoremen at the West Coast ports.  2000: 250 million tons handled by 10,000 longshoremen at the West Coast ports.”  Two-thirds of the people did 10 times more – that is productivity!

I was really reluctant to go to the Holocaust museum, as I did not want to subject myself to the pain I knew would come with it, but my wife convinced me and Jonah to go.  I am glad we listened to her.  There are two things that stuck with me.

There was a wall of photos, five hundred or so family pictures and portraits from a small Lithuanian town that was home to 4,000 Jews for 900 years.  I was magnetically attracted to the photos, but it took me a few minutes to figure out that these people looked like my relatives.  A young fellow in his thirties looked just like my uncle at that age, a 15-year-old kid looked like Jonah will look five years from now, a Hassidic gentleman looked just like my cousin who is a rabbi in Rego Park, Queens, and so on.  These pictures impacted me a lot more than the pictures of dead bodies, pictures from the concentration camps, that I’ve seen so many times over the years, which my brain has learned how to dehumanize.  I could relate to these photos a lot more.  Nazis killed ALL the Jews in that village, including women and kids, in two days.  900 years of history and tradition were wiped from the face of the Earth in just two days!  I have to admit I could not keep my eyes dry after.

A quotation on the wall at the very end of the exhibit really underlined why this museum is so important.  It was written by a German pastor, Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

As a parent you try to instill values into your kids that you may not always possess; but you want your kids to have them, and your children inspire you to be better people.  Jonah and I had a long discussion about how, when we see injustice that doesn’t really touch us, we should not sit still.

Jonah had a blast in DC, but the culmination for him was our trip to the Pentagon.  I had a meeting at the Pentagon, and to keep Jonah occupied while I was busy, he received a private tour of the place from a lieutenant colonel.  Jonah was absolutely stunned – a few days later his eyes are still glowing when he talks about it.

Copyright Vitaliy N. Katsenelson 2011.  This article may  be republished only in its entirety and without modifications.

Your rating: None Average: 1 (1 vote)

View the original article here

UFO Norway airport report video

This is the same story but pilot says green UFO:

It was nice weather and good visibility when the plane came over Sandvika from Frankfurt on the way to Oslo.
Suddenly the captain Johan Kylborn discovered something unexpected in the air.
- I am sure that it was some kind of aircraft. It had a clear wing profile with an unusual green colour…
Check out the latest news in Norwegian media:
LINK: http://www.vg.no/reise/artikkel.php?artid=10099434

 zteffanmusic

View the original article here

Transcript for Video on The Best Performing Currency of All

I have a new video for Uncommon Wisdom Daily today.  You can watch the video here: http://www.uncommonwisdomdaily.com/the-best-performing-currency-of-all-11638

And you can read a PDF transcript of the video here: UWD for 032911 The Best-Performing Currency of All

View the original article here

The reality of wind turbines in California – video

As many know, I was on a road trip for two weeks. On my return into California, I traveled a road I had done many many times – California Highway 58 through Tehachapi pass, one of the windiest areas of California, and loaded with wind turbines like you see in this photo from www.wind-works.org which seems to be taken during 2003. All the turbines seem to be spinning.

But, the reality I encounter when I drive through there is much different than what you see in the photo above. I often drive this road, but always wished I had a video camera with me to show how many turbines are inoperable since this doesn’t show up well in still photos. Unless you have a slow shutter speed to show “blade blur”, they all look inoperable.

But this day was different. I did have a video camera with me. Plus, the day I drove through, Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 was near perfect for wind turbines. There was a front coming in, and strong winds ahead of it.

Here’s the wind data from the ASOS at the Tehachapi airport during the time I drove through:

The wind data displayed above are measured at 1000' lower elevation than the wind turbines on the top of the ridge, where the wind velocity will be higher.

And here is what I saw of the wind turbines along the ridge top, there were quite a few inoperable on this windy day. This video was taken right about 11AM PST:

There were many more inoperable turbines, but could not be filmed from a safe vantage point along the highway. This video was take from the semi-truck staging area near the agricultural inspection station.

My best guess from the video and others I saw that I could not film is that about one in four turbines were not operating.

The problem is maintenance. The location, while perfect for wind, is treacherous for work and support equipment. Even on a flat terrain, like in Texas (shown below) where I photographed these turbines, doing maintenance on gearboxes and generators high up on a post isn’t easy.

Imagine the complications on a mountain ridge for maintenance.

On the wind-works.org website “tour” section, they lament the condition of the Zond (Enron) wind power sites:

Wind Plant Maintenance Items to Note

Throughout the Tehachapi-Mojave area look for turbines without nose cones, turbines without nacelles (blown off and not replaced), oil leaking from blade-pitch seals, oil leaking from gearboxes, road cuts in steep terrain, erosion gullies, non-operating turbines, and “bone piles” of junk parts. One Zond bone pile of abandoned fiberglass blades is visible on the east side of Tehachapi-Willow Springs Rd. near Oak Creek Pass. (Kern County doesn’t permit on-ground disposal of fiberglass.) While touring wind farm sites look for blowing trash and litter (plastic bags, soft-drink cups, bottles, electrical connectors, scrap bits of metal, and so on). These all reflect management’s attention to maintenance and general housekeeping. At the better sites, you won’t see any of this.

Even on the valley floor, the smaller four turbines just west of the Tehachapi airport that greet visitors who drive in from Bakersfield had a problem, and these are on flat ground and accessible:

In Palm Springs, CA, another windy place, they have similar problems:

=============================================================

Florida’s broken windmills:  A California problem

The permit allowing windmills to go in didn’t say they could sit there broken. Palm Springs is getting tough. If windmills are going to exist in the city they must be operational. A city that has welcomed windmills since it was first approached about them in the early 1980's is finding that many of those windmills are no longer working and it wants them fixed. The question is who’s responsible for fixing them? Florida Power and Light (FPL), the owner of the inoperable windmills, was allowed to install and operate local windmill farms under a conditional use permit (CUP) stipulating if the windmill does not run for six months, it’s declared a public nuisance and without a hearing, must be abated.

================================================================

Here’s a video showing the inside operations of a wind power facility in Washington State

And, the lack of maintenance problem is not just in California. In 2001, I visited Kamoa wind farm near Southpoint in the big island of Hawaii. The wind is so strong there, trees grow horizontal like this one:

As much as I was surprised by the horizontal trees, I was equally surprised to see dead wind turbines there. It was my first experience with a wind farm.

From this American Thinker article “Wind energy’s ghosts”:

=========================================================

Kamaoa Wind Farm, Hawaii. (image)

Built in 1985, at the end of the boom, Kamaoa soon suffered from lack of maintenance. In 1994, the site lease was purchased by Redwood City, CA-based Apollo Energy.

Cannibalizing parts from the original 37 turbines, Apollo personnel kept the declining facility going with outdated equipment. But even in a place where wind-shaped trees grow sideways, maintenance issues were overwhelming. By 2004 Kamaoa accounts began to show up on a Hawaii State Department of Finance list of unclaimed properties. In 2006, transmission was finally cut off by Hawaii Electric Company.

===========================================================

Image from Waymarking.com

Again, like in California, Hawaii’s turbine problem is lack of maintenance.

But isn’t that the way it always has been with windmills?

It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: It appears Idaho is getting set for putting a wind power moratorium in place:

State Lawmakers Look At Wind Energy Moratorium

Mar 18, 2011 6:16 p.m.

BONNEVILLE COUNTY, Idaho — Construction of wind turbines may be coming to a halt in Idaho.

State lawmakers are considering a bill that would prevent the construction of any new wind farm for the next two years.

Over the last year, dozens of new wind turbines have gone up on east bench just outside Idaho Falls, but many of the neighbors and their legislators want to put a temporary end to new construction.

When the legislature adopted the 2007 energy plan, it did not envision so many energy companies wanting to build wind farms in Idaho.

Bill sponsor Erik Simpson said he and both his Republican and Democratic colleagues agree they need to take a look at the long-term consequences.

“Local governments need some direction as to what should be included in some of their ordinances, recognizing some of the impacts that are out there on wind, and we need to find out what those impacts might be,” said State Affairs Committee member Tom Loertcher.

To conduct the study, the bill proposes a two-year moratorium on wind farm construction.

“It may be a problem mostly in eastern Idaho now, but it’s likely to be a problem in (other legislators’) communities as well unless we take this two year pause and study this a little more in depth,” Simpson said.

Wind power is not the cheapest way to produce energy, and lawmakers want to make sure their constituents don’t have to pay top rate.

“Utility rate payers are paying more for this unreliable intermittent energy source,” Simpson said.

Many are also concerned about the environment.

“A lot of these projects are going up in pristine wildlife areas,” Simpson said.

But not everyone agrees. Some local people like Bonneville County farmer Tory Talbot want to continue to see more turbines.

“The moratorium will basically limit businesses wanting to come into Idaho. Southeastern Idaho and southern Idaho has a huge wind energy potential,” Talbot said.

The State Affairs Committee plans to continue the debate on Monday when they hear from utility companies and energy companies.

They will then vote on whether they should move the bill to the House floor.

If the bill passes, any project already approved would be allowed to move forward.

View the original article here

New, Just-Released Video: “American Apocalypse”

Our leaders in Washington are knowingly sentencing our once-great nation to an economic Armageddon of biblical proportions.

They have done nothing to fix the biggest federal deficits of all time.

They have done everything to accelerate the tragic decline in the U.S. dollar.

And they have stood by complacently — even cheered — as the Federal Reserve prints paper money at the fastest pace in recorded history.

Unless they make an abrupt, 180-degree turn, the American way of life will end. Nothing will ever be the same again.

That’s why I have just recorded a brand new video, American Apocalypse.

In it, I reveal what Washington does NOT want you to know.

I show you why your liberty … your financial security … your retirement … your family’s physical safety … are now in grave danger.

And I give you a clear plan to insulate yourself, your family and your wealth as this historic catastrophe unfolds.

Click this link, and it will begin playing on your screen right away.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin

Dr. Weiss began his career in 1971 when he founded Weiss Research, dedicated to evaluating the safety of financial institutions and investments for consulting clients.  He is the publisher and contributing editor of the financial newsletter, Safe Money, known for its track record in picking major turns in interest rates, and serves as co-editor for a number of Premium Services. He is also the author of The Ultimate Safe Money Guide and The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide.

View the original article here

Video Highlights Of Today's Unreported Iranian Protest

As the Russell 2000 index, better known to the Chairsatan as the US economy, surges on no news, except of course for the huge, massive 0.5% drop in the WTI, demonstrations in Iran are once again front and center, except in the US media, which deems it irrelevant to report on what is happening away from the NYSE Borse. From JPost: "Heavy police presence reported in Tehran; dozens of women rounded up, beaten in Khartoum while attempting to stage anti-rape protest." Being that it is international women's day, one can see why even Iranian women believe that something like rape may be a little anachronistic. Alas, the Tehran police did not take too kindly to these ridiculous demands for equal treatment, as the clip below shows.

More from JPost:

A heavy police presence was reported in north-west Tehran on Tuesday and a video uploaded on YouTube showed Iranian security forces beating protesters in what was apparently a demonstration for International Women's Day.

Women's rights activists have called for demonstrations to advocate and defend the rights of both men and women in Iran, as well as more general democratic principles, BBC Farsi reported.

The BBC also reported a heavy police presence in various parts of Tehran.

Also on Tuesday, Sudanese riot police in Khartoum arrested more than 40 women minutes after they started a protest against rape and rights abuses, witnesses said in the latest sign of a crackdown on dissent.

Sudanese women's groups organized the protest against discriminatory laws on Tuesday -- marked as International Women's Day across the world.

Before the rally, organizers said they were enraged by reports of the arrest and rape of Safiya Eshaq, a supporter of anti-government activist group Girifna, in Khartoum last month.

Up to 60 women, waving banners and shouting slogans, gathered in the middle of one the busiest streets in the Khartoum suburb Omdurman just before 4 p.m. (1300 GMT), and were watched by more than 250 police and security officers said a Reuters witness.

Within 10 minutes officers bundled 30 of the women into the back of a truck. When the women continued to protest inside the vehicle, officers entered and beat some of them with batons, said the witness.

Police later rounded up around 12 women in the streets around the scene and drove them to a police station, said the witness.

"It is a demonstration against women's discrimination. It is not a political organization," protest organizer Rasha Awad told Reuters before the event.

However, since the Bernanke Put will make everything ok in Tehran in a few hours, and central planning's motto of pray for the best continues to work without reproach, today's manic buying spree makes all the sense in the bizarro banana world.

Your rating: None Average: 4.9 (7 votes)

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