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Sovereign Citizens — a 21st Century counter culture

Study estimates up to 300,000 Americans defy federal, state laws

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins

updated 8/12/2010 12:06:45 AMET

COLUMBUS, Ohio — They call themselves sovereign citizens, U.S. residents who declare themselves above state and federal laws. Many don’t register children’s births, carry driver’s licenses or recognize the court system.

Some peddle schemes that use fictional legal loopholes to eliminate debt and avoid foreclosures.

A few such believers are violent: Two police officers in Arkansas died in a shootout in May after stopping an Ohio sovereign citizen and his son.

As many as 300,000 people identify as sovereign citizens, the Southern Poverty Law Center found in a study to be published Thursday that was obtained by The Associated Press. Hate group monitors say their numbers have increased thanks to the recession, the foreclosure crisis, the growth of the Internet and the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

Jay LaPrete / AP

James T. McBride

Adherents expect the current American system of government to end one way or another.

“I’m the Patrick Henry of the 21st century. I’m here to regain our freedom,” James McBride said in a jailhouse interview. “I’m going to, or die trying.”

'Straw man' belief
At the heart of their belief system: The government creates a secret identity for each citizen at birth, a “straw man,” that controls an account at the U.S. Treasury used as collateral for foreign debt. File enough documents at the right offices and the money in those accounts can be used to pay off debt or make purchases worth thousands of dollars.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38668124/ns/us_news-life/

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12-Aug-2010 18:04

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Perseid meteors appear to emanate from a point in the constellation Perseus, as shown in this graphic depicting the northeastern sky at around midnight. Although the meteors can appear in any part of the sky, their tails can be traced back to that point..

A couple of years ago, I put together a top-ten list of tips for maximizing your meteor-watching experience. Here's an updated game plan for making the most of the meteors, assembled with Cooke's help:

Pick a viewing spot far away from city lights, where the skies are likely to be clear and wide-open. Higher elevations are usually better than lower elevations, and you don't want to be surrounded by trees, buildings or other obstacles to viewing.
For help in site selection, you can check out the Clear Sky Chart website, which provides weather conditions for skywatching ... and links to popular viewing locations on a state-by-state basis. Your local astronomy club can also point you in the right direction. This year, some events for amateur astronomers are timed to take advantage of the Perseids - for example, star parties in California's Mojave Desert, in Michigan, in Oregon and Washington state.
Bring a blanket or a chaise lounge to lie back on. Have layers of clothing available in case the air turns chilly at night. Bring snacks or drinks. Bring a flashlight so you can find your way through the dark. Bring a music player or radio if you need a diversion. And bring your friends. Meteor-watching sets a great mood for chatting about cosmic issues, or meditating on the wonders of the heavens.
Don't give up too quickly. Give your eyes plenty of time to get accustomed to the dark. Although the meteors appear to emanate from the radiant in Perseus, don't focus exclusively on that point. "The closer the meteor is to the radiant, the shorter the trail is," Cooke explained. "I always tell people to look straight up, because that way, they'll catch plenty of meteors far enough from the radiant to see a trail."
The later you can stay up, the better. "It's a late-night shower," Cooke said. You could start seeing Perseids at around 9:30 p.m., and those "Earth-grazers" tend to leave the longest, most impressive trails. But the show doesn't get good until after midnight, and the peak usually comes just before morning twilight begins.
To get a better sense of what to expect at which time, use NASA's Fluxtimator. When you click in the right coordinates for meteor shower, date, location and viewing conditions, the Java-based calculator charts what the estimated meteor flux will be at different times.
If you're totally clouded out, you can try listening to the meteors. NASA's Perseid Web page includes a video feed that shows what Cooke's cameras are seeing, accompanied by a soundtrack of radio blips created by the meteor streaks. Cooke said it's also possible to hear the radio blips by tuning your FM radio to a station so distant that all you can hear is the hiss of a carrier wave. "When a meteor passes, you'll hear a blip kind of like a sonar blip," Cooke said. Here's a spooky audio file that gives you an idea what the radio echoes sound like.
The meteors aren't the only game in town: Saturn, Mars and Venus form a striking planetary triangle in western skies just after sunset, and the International Space Station is visible from many North American locations just before sunrise. Impress your friends by telling them that the bright star near the zenith at around 11 p.m. is Vega (made famous by the "Contact" movie). and that the bright "star" in the southeast is the planet Jupiter. If you're far enough north (or south), you might even see an aurora.
If you want to share your meteor sightings with the world via Twitter - and find out where the sightings are sizzling - the MeteorWatch website is the place for you.
Even if you miss the meteor shower completely, you can click through SpaceWeather.com's meteor gallery and catch up on the highlights. And you can start making plans for the Leonid meteor shower (peaking Nov. 17-18, unfortunately during a nearly full moon) as well as the Geminid meteor shower (peaking Dec. 13-14).

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/11/4869749-see-and-hear-the-meteor-show

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12-Aug-2010 18:01

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An all-sky camera captures a fireball streaking over Alabama on Aug. 3 during the Perseid meteor shower.

The Perseids are produced by trails of grit left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle during its 133-year orbit. Earth starts plowing through the Swift-Tuttle debris in late July, and the height of the shower comes annually around Aug. 12-13. The Perseids are so named because they appear to emanate from a point in the constellation Perseus, also known as a "radiant." Because the radiant is in northern skies, Northern Hemisphere observers are in a more favorable position to see the shower.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/11/4869749-see-and-hear-the-meteor-show

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12-Aug-2010 17:58

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A bright Perseid meteor streaks over buildings at the Stellafane amateur astronomy convention in Springfield, Vt., on Aug. 7.

Alan Boyle writes:When the late show is over, turn off the TV, step outside and catch a late, late show in the night sky. It's prime time for the Perseids, arguably the most accessible meteor shower of the year.

"If you want comfort, this is the shower to see," said Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/11/4869749-see-and-hear-the-meteor-show

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12-Aug-2010 17:54

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38663094/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/

iPhone users have had more sex partners than Android and BlackBerry users

OkCupid's study of sex and smart phones is pretty hard to refute

Image: A bar chart showing relative sexual partner averages between iPhone, BlackBerry and Android users.

OkCupid

A snapshot of 30-year-old smart phone owners and their sexual partners, based on a study of 9,785 members of the online dating community OkCupid.

By Wilson Rothman

msnbc.com

updated 8/11/2010 3:47:47 PM ET

commentary

There's no bait 'n' switch headline here. What you read above is indeed a discovery, one made using solid data from a large group of fairly random people. In other words, argue all you want, but it's true.

OkCupid, the self-styled "best dating site on Earth," is by extension also the best repository of anonymous (or, rather, anonymized) data on socially active single people. While conducting a site-wide survey on photography, the Cupideers realized they had a data set of almost 10,000 people that showed two things: A type of smart phone and a number of lifetime sexual partners. The results were strangely non-random.

At every age group, the iPhone-owning posse has significantly more liaisons under their collective belt, with BlackBerry owners coming in second and Android bringing up the rear. In a controlled snapshot of the 30-year-old age group, depicted in the bar chart above, iPhone-owning women had had 12 sexual partners on average, twice the number named by Android-carrying women of the same age. In fact, although the trend applies to men and women, it's 30-year-old iPhone-owning women who come off as particularly promiscuous — statistically speaking, that is.

So, what's the takeaway? First, if iPhone-owning singles are not more sexually promiscuous, they're at least bigger liars and/or braggarts. And second, if you're under the impression that — thanks to OkCupid's study — you can actually gauge your chances of getting lucky by the type of phone your intended mate is carrying, you will most certainly fail. I mean, I'm no Dr. Phil, but just don't go there.

Update: A talented social scientist — who also happens to be my wife — casts some doubt on the statistical accuracy of OkCupid's findings. She writes:

- OkCupid's report shows *correlation* not *causality.* It may be that there's something about iPhones that attracts sexual partners (doubtful, but possible I suppose) or that people who have more sex are more likely to choose an iPhone.
However, cause and effect are impossible to decipher here.

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12-Aug-2010 17:36

Genting Sing / GenSp starts to move up again

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CIMB Securities is conducting

Genting Singapore Investors' Meetings

on Genting Singapore's Outlook ?

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12-Aug-2010 17:34

Genting Sing / GenSp starts to move up again

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GENTING DARK BELLY DANCING

Since LAST WEEK ?

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12-Aug-2010 17:28

SGX / SGX

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WHO are the TARGET TRADERS / INVESTORS ? ? ? ?

7:30am - 9:00am ? ? ? ?

12:30pm - 2:00pm ? ? ? ?

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12-Aug-2010 17:22

User Research/Opinions / ~~~~ CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ~~~~

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SGX to extend trading hours of derivatives market from Aug 30
Posted: 11 August 2010

Photos 1 of 1

SGX Centre

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is extending the trading hours of its derivatives market from August 30. Trade will close at 2am, instead of 1am.

[7th mOOn ? ? ? ? Or fOreign tOlent ? ? ? ?]

Pre-opening continues to begin at 7.30am, when trading orders can be placed.

SGX is also shortening the trading break to 30 minutes between the T session close and the start of the Pre-Opening of the T+1 session.

This applies to the SGX Nikkei 225 Index and SGX MSCI Taiwan Index suite of products.

SGX senior vice president of Derivatives, Janice Kan, said the new hours will allow customers to better manage their positions in response to news and market movements during the European and North American trading hours.

The enhancement is also in line with SGX's strategy to make its market more accessible to international and domestic customers.

- CNA/al

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1074660/1/.html

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12-Aug-2010 17:15

User Research/Opinions / %%%% WORLD ECONOMIC SUMMIT %%%%

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SGX to extend trading hours of derivatives market from Aug 30
Posted: 11 August 2010

Photos 1 of 1

SGX Centre

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is extending the trading hours of its derivatives market from August 30. Trade will close at 2am, instead of 1am.

[7th mOOn ? ? ? ? Or fOreign tOlent ? ? ? ?]

Pre-opening continues to begin at 7.30am, when trading orders can be placed.

SGX is also shortening the trading break to 30 minutes between the T session close and the start of the Pre-Opening of the T+1 session.

This applies to the SGX Nikkei 225 Index and SGX MSCI Taiwan Index suite of products.

SGX senior vice president of Derivatives, Janice Kan, said the new hours will allow customers to better manage their positions in response to news and market movements during the European and North American trading hours.

The enhancement is also in line with SGX's strategy to make its market more accessible to international and domestic customers.

- CNA/al

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1074660/1/.html

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12-Aug-2010 17:11

SGX / SGX

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Photos

1 of 1

SGX Centre

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is extending the trading hours of its derivatives market from August 30. Trade will close at 2am, instead of 1am.

[7th mOOn ? ? ? ? Or fOreign tOlent ? ? ? ?]

Pre-opening continues to begin at 7.30am, when trading orders can be placed.

SGX is also shortening the trading break to 30 minutes between the T session close and the start of the Pre-Opening of the T+1 session.

This applies to the SGX Nikkei 225 Index and SGX MSCI Taiwan Index suite of products.

SGX senior vice president of Derivatives, Janice Kan, said the new hours will allow customers to better manage their positions in response to news and market movements during the European and North American trading hours.

The enhancement is also in line with SGX's strategy to make its market more accessible to international and domestic customers.

- CNA/al

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1074660/1/.html

AK_Francis ( Date: 02-Aug-2010 16:00) Posted:

Singapore
August 2, 2010, 2.13 pm (Singapore time) BT.
Update: SGX Q4 net falls 13%; warns of higher capex But SGX said it was confident about the future and that heavy investment in IT and the launch of new investment products and trading platforms would translate into higher revenues in coming years SGX raised its final dividend to 15.75 Singapore cents a share from 15.50 cents the year before. -- REUTERS Strange, Int Bk record 2H of 19 cts, previous leh. SINGAPORE - Singapore Exchange Limited, Asia's second-largest bourse by market capitalisation, posted a 13 per cent fall in fourth quarter net profit and warned expenses will continue to rise as it spends more on technology.

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