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Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • British Terror Cell Wanted to Violate Sharia Law for AK-47s

    A British terror cell allegedly planned to buy five AK47 assault rifles by borrowing £100,000 in loans, a court heard.  … In one conversation recorded by the police the group are discussing how to obtain weapons. Naseer said that “out there in the market: “You can buy M16 you can buy AK.” He added: “You…

  • The Coming Bond Bubble (Is Going to be Huge)

    Europe is on the ropes as investors shun peripheral euro-area government debt. In the United States, interest rates are fixed at zero, and government bonds are arguably already quite far along in an epic 30-years-and-running bull market. Given the state of global debt markets and the apparent lack of value across the investment landscape, it’s…

  • An Intimate Photo Essay of Ann Romney

    She said: ‘When I was first diagnosed with MS and my husband was taking care of me, he discovered rotisserie chicken. ‘Rotisserie chicken is every cooks best friend,’ she said. ‘You want to buy it at the end of your shopping so it doesn’t heat up the food that’s in the rest of your basket.’…

  • Obama a Real Contributor to Subprime Loan Failures

    President Barack Obama was a pioneering contributor to the national subprime real estate bubble, and roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in his landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices. As few as 19 of those 186 clients still own homes with clean credit ratings, following…

  • Teen Loses Stomach After Drinking Liquid Nitrogen

    Gaby Scanlon, from Heysham, Lancashire, was celebrating her 18th birthday with friends at Oscar’s wine bar and bistro in Lancaster earlier this month when she drank two shots of the liqueur Jagermeister, which was laced with liquid nitrogen.  … It was made popular by celebrity chefs, including Heston Blumenthal, and is completely harmless as a…

  • Over $60,000 Spent Per Household in Poverty

    “According to the Census’s American Community Survey, the number of households with incomes below the poverty line in 2011 was 16,807,795,” the Senate Budget Committee notes. “If you divide total federal and state spending by the number of households with incomes below the poverty line, the average spending per household in poverty was $61,194 in…

  • TSA PreCheck System Flawed – No One Surprised

    “Using a website I decoded my boarding pass for my upcoming trip. “It’s all there PNR [passenger name record], seat assignment, flight number, name, etc. But what is interesting is the bolded three on the end. This is the TSA PreCheck information. The number means the number of beeps. 1 beep no PreCheck, 3 beeps…

  • More Dem on GOP Violence in WI

    A story on the Daily Caller, a national conservative website, says Kyle Wood, a full-time volunteer for Lee, reported that he answered his door Wednesday morning and a man wrapped a ligature around his neck, slammed his head into the doorway, smashed his face into a mirror and kidney-punched him. via Madison.com. I wrote a…

  • CPD Brass Wasting Money Trying to Track Gunshots

    The Police Department began using gunshot detection technology early last month in two 1.5-square-mile areas to try to better pinpoint the location of gunshots, Superintendent Garry McCarthy disclosed Thursday. The sensors sometimes give officers information before 911 calls are made, he said. In the past decade, the city twice installed the devices but ultimately removed…

  • Pension’s Rate of Return Plummets to 0.76%

    This sounds like a problem: The pension fund for most public school teachers in Illinois generated just 0.76 percent in fiscal 2012, a big drop from the 23.6 percent rate of return in the previous fiscal year, the Teachers’ Retirement System reported on Thursday.  … It is the long-term results that matter and the system’s…

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