Furverts

(Thanks, snarky!)

Freedom

"It took just 10 minutes for a dozen prairie dogs to outwit the creators of the Maryland Zoo's new $500,000 habitat. . . . Aircraft wire, poured concrete and slick plastic walls proved no match for the fast-footed rodents, the stars of a new exhibit that opens today.

* * * * *

"Zookeepers had to bring out the nets to catch the escapees.

"'They find all the weak spots and exploit them,' said Karl Kranz, the zoo's vice president for animal programs and chief operating officer." More at the Baltimore Sun.

As Robert Frost put it, Something there is that doesn’t love a wall . . . .

Banksy Exhibition in His Home Town,

installed without blowing his cover(?):

Two Japanese Carrying $134 Billion in US Bonds Detained

"Thursday 11th June, 06:18 AM JST
ROME —

"Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. . . ."

More at Japan Today; and some helpful analysis at Blue Sky Sunshine. The two men were also carrying a considerable amount of "original bank documents." It should be mentioned, it's uncertain at this point whether they're really Japanese.

Speculation's rampant (about this incident, that is; you knew it's rampant elsewhere). The main theories seem to be: (1) China and Japan hold large amounts of US bonds, and one of them is nervous about the dollar and want to unload the bonds without panicking other holders or depressing the price – an interpretation that bodes ill for the US economy – but per Bloomberg, "[i]f the notes are genuine, the pair would be the U.S. government’s fourth-biggest creditor, ahead of the U.K. with $128 billion of U.S. debt and just behind Russia, which is owed $138 billion"; (2) they're fake, possibly counterfeited by North Korea, and the Italians happened to stumble across a really ambitious counterfeiting operation (but not the most ambitious; apparently a similar, much larger attempt's been busted before) – and the counterfeiters could have been trying to capitalize on the current plausibility of alternative (1), an interpretation that also does not bode well for the US economy; and (3) it relates to ill-gotten gains or tax evasion (considered least likely; the amount's too big).

Another theory notes ties between the Bush family and the Yakuza, Japanese crime syndicates with a significant Korean constituency. For now, I think I vote for alternative (2) above.

As jberryhill said, "Dang . . . NOW I know what happened to my luggage."

As proteus_lives said, "They f---ed up a deal worth $134 billion!?! Sepukku time."

UPDATE: See Denninger, inferring that the circumstances suggest the bonds are real and represent off-book issuances by the U.S. to the Japanese or Chinese. This keeps getting odder.

FURTHER UPDATE: Per Bloomberg, according to Colonel Rodolfo Mecarelli of the Guardia di Finanza in Como, Italy, the securities were purportedly issued in 1934. "The seized notes include 249 securities with a face value of $500 million each and 10 additional bonds with a value of more than $1 billion, the police force said on its Web site. Such high denominations would not have existed in 1934, the purported issue date of the notes, Mecarelli said. Moreover, the 'Kennedy' classification of the bonds doesn’t appear to exist, he said. . . . Mecarelli said he expects a determination from the SEC “'within a few days.'”

The bonds were seized on June 3; I'm writing this on June 18; so we're over 2 weeks in and the Feds haven't yet confirmed whether these bonds in the highest denominations ever issued – some allegedly never issued – are the real thing?

FURTHER FURTHER UPDATE: Per the WSJ, the Feds say the bonds are fake.

FURTHER FURTHER FURTHER UPDATE: I understand that per a Japanese publication, Mainichi Shimbun (translated at cryptogon), the two Japanese men involved have been released by Italian authorities without being charged with any crime –– curiouser and curiouser.

Female Adapter

I'm pretty sure this is an improvement.

Genetically Modified Foods

This is not my usual issue, but I feel compelled to share this article by Jeffrey M. Smith at Seeds of Deception. I hadn't realized that, when they say GM'd foods are "resistant" to insects, what they really mean is that the plants have been engineered to produce food that's literally chock full o' poison. Salient points (out of order per the original article):

"GM corn and cotton are engineered to produce their own built-in pesticide in every cell. When bugs bite the plant, the poison splits open their stomach and kills them. Biotech companies claim that the pesticide, called Bt—produced from soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis—has a history of safe use, since organic farmers and others use Bt bacteria spray for natural insect control. Genetic engineers insert Bt genes into corn and cotton, so the plants do the killing.

"The Bt-toxin produced in GM plants, however, is thousands of times more concentrated than natural Bt spray, is designed to be more toxic,[10] has properties of an allergen, and unlike the spray, cannot be washed off the plant.

* * * * *
["Not a single human clinical trial on GMOs has been published", but] "[w]hen GM soy was fed to female rats, most of their babies died within three weeks—compared to a 10% death rate among the control group fed natural soy.[3] The GM-fed babies were also smaller, and later had problems getting pregnant.[4] When male rats were fed GM soy, their testicles actually changed color—from the normal pink to dark blue.[5] Mice fed GM soy had altered young sperm.[6] Even the embryos of GM fed parent mice had significant changes in their DNA.[7]"

* * * * *
"Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had warned about all these problems even in the early 1990s. . . . [T]he scientific consensus at the agency was that GM foods were inherently dangerous, and might create hard-to-detect allergies, poisons, gene transfer to gut bacteria, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged their superiors to require rigorous long-term tests.[27] But the White House had ordered the agency to promote biotechnology and the FDA responded by recruiting Michael Taylor, Monsanto’s former attorney, to head up the formation of GMO policy. . . . Mr. Taylor later became Monsanto’s vice president.

* * * * *
"There is a pocket Non-GMO Shopping Guide, . . . which is available as a download . . . ."

(Please see the original article at the link above for the footnotes and much more.)

Wild Thang, I Think I Love You

As a palate-cleanser après Kitty Wigs, from a post at KittyWittgenstein; as the author put it: "Pillow-fighting, bikini-wearing Princess Leias" (click on the image to enlarge).

I note all the pillow tags are still on – that's Leia for you; or maybe someone planned to return them?

Obama: Brilliant Schiz?

Not Rachel's words, but.