Leaked Video Shows “God Particle” Discovered

Leaked Video Shows “God Particle” Discovered

Stephen: Can you feel it? Is this the beginning of the revelations we have been told to expect regarding new technology, science and our true history within the universes?

The official announcement was due later this week. It leaked… Obviously someone – or something – couldn’t “contain” it any longer.

Joe Incandela, spokesman for the CMS experiment at CERN, confirms in a video posted online that the European physics laboratory has discovered a new particle.

Watch Video Here

‘We’ve Observed a New Particle’: Leaked Video Reveals Apparent ‘God Particle’ Confirmation

By James Manning and Deborah Smith, Sydney Morning Herald – 4 July 2012

http://tinyurl.com/88rbfeb

A video mistakenly posted online appears to confirm that scientists have discovered the elusive Higgs boson particle.

According to a video that was briefly made public on the website of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the search for an answer to one of science’s greatest mysteries may be over.

“We’ve observed a new particle … we have quite strong evidence that there’s something there,” Joe Incandela, spokesman for the CMS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, says in the video.

This graphic shows traces of colliding particles measured with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the CERN lab (AFP/File, Fabrice Coffrini)

“This is the most massive such particle that exists, if we confirm all of this – which I think we will.”

After being available to the public for a brief period of time by mistake, the video now exists in a password-protected part of the website.

“It may in the end be one of the biggest discoveries, or observations, of any new phenomenon that we’ve had in our field in the last 30 or 40 years,” Incandela says in the video.

“When we say we’ve observed a particle, it means we’ve just got enough data to say that it’s definitely there and it’s very unlikely to go away … we then need more data to start to ascertain its characteristics, what are its properties.”

The researchers are expected to announce the successful results tonight at a joint seminar in Geneva and Melbourne, where the International Conference on High Energy Physics is being held.

Commonly described as the last ingredient to the standard model of particle physics, scientists have been hunting the Higgs boson for almost 50 years.

It is often know as the “God particle” as it is thought to give all other particles in the universe their mass, and will help scientists understand how the universe was formed.

Research into the the mysterious particle has taken place at the $9.78 billion Large Hadron Collider, a giant atom smasher that was built underground on the Swiss-French border.

A spokeswoman for CERN confirmed that the video was not meant to have gone up online, and is one of several that was pre-produced to cover different possible results of the research.

“Even we in the press office do not know what they are going to announce,” said Corinne Pralavorio.

Read more

Report: Countrywide Used Loan Discounts To Buy Congress, Fannie Mae Execs and Other Government Officials

By Larry Margasay. Huffington Post – July 5, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7frgone

WASHINGTON — The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose sub-prime loans helped start the nation’s foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said that the discounts – from January 1996 to June 2008, were not only aimed at gaining influence for the company but to help mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Countrywide’s business depended largely on Fannie, which at the time was trying to fend off more government regulation but eventually had to come under government control.

Fannie was responsible for purchasing a large volume of Countrywide’s sub-prime mortgages.

Countrywide was taken over by Bank of America in January 2008, relieving the financial services industry and regulators from the messy task of cleaning up the bankruptcy of a company that was servicing 9 million U.S. home loans worth $1.5 trillion at a time when the nation faced a widening credit crisis, massive foreclosures and an economic downturn.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also named six current and former members of Congress who received discount loans, but all of their names had surfaced previously. Other previously mentioned names included former top executive branch officials and three chief executives of Fannie Mae.

“Documents and testimony obtained by the committee show the VIP loan program was a tool used by Countrywide to build goodwill with lawmakers and other individuals positioned to benefit the company,” the report said. “In the years that led up to the 2007 housing market decline, Countrywide VIPs were positioned to affect dozens of pieces of legislation that would have reformed Fannie” and its rival Freddie Mac, the committee said.

Some of the discounts were ordered personally by former Countrywide chief executive Angelo Mozilo. Those recipients were known as “Friends of Angelo.”

The Justice Department has not prosecuted any Countrywide official, but the House committee’s report said documents and testimony show that Mozilo and company lobbyists “may have skirted the federal bribery statute by keeping conversations about discounts and other forms of preferential treatment internal. Rather than making quid pro quo arrangements with lawmakers and staff, Countrywide used the VIP loan program to cast a wide net of influence.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2010 slapped Mozilo with a $22.5 million penalty to settle charges that he and two other former Countrywide executives misled investors as the subprime mortgage crisis began. Mozilo also was banned from ever again serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company.

He also agreed to pay another $45 million to settle other violations for a total settlement of $67.5 million that was to be returned to investors who were harmed.

The report said that until the housing market became swamped with foreclosures, “Countrywide’s effort to build goodwill on Capitol Hill worked.”

The company became a trusted adviser in Congress and was consulted when the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee considered reform of Fannie and Freddie and unfair lending practices.

“If Countrywide’s lobbyists, and Mozilo himself, were more strictly prohibited from arranging preferential treatment for members of Congress and congressional staff, it is possible that efforts to reform (Fannie and Freddie) would have been met with less resistance,” the report said.

The report said Fannie assigned as many as 70 lobbyists to the Financial Services Committee while it considered legislation to reform the company from 2000 to 2005. Four reform bills were introduced in the House during the period, and none made it out of the committee.

Hit with staggering losses, Fannie and Freddie came under government control in September 2008. As of Dec. 31, 2011, the Treasury Department had committed over $183 billion to support the two companies – and there’s no end in sight.

Among those who received loan discounts from Countrywide, the report said, were:

- Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn;

- Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D; Mary Jane Collipriest, who was communications director for former Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, then a member of the Banking Committee. The report said Dodd referred Collipriest to Countrywide’s VIP unit. Dodd, when commenting on his own loans, said that he was unaware of receiving preferential treatment but knew his loans were handled by the VIP unit. The Senate’s ethics committee investigated Dodd and Conrad but did not charge them with any ethical wrongdoing;

- Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee;

- Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., former chairman of the Oversight Committee. Towns issued the first subpoena to Bank of America for Countrywide documents, and current Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., subpoenaed more documents. The committee said that in responding to the Towns subpoena, Bank of America left out documents related to Towns’ loan;

- Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif.;

- Top staff members of the House Financial Services Committee;

- A staff member of Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, a member of the Financial Services Committee;

- Former Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif.;

- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretaries Alphonso Jackson and Henry Cisneros; former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. The VIP unit processed Cisneros’ loan after he joined Countrywide’s board of directors;

- Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, was an exception. He told the VIP unit not to give him a discount, and he did not receive one;

- Former heads of Fannie Mae James Johnson, Daniel Mudd and Franklin Raines. Countrywide took a loss on Mudd’s loan. Fannie employees were the most frequent recipients of VIP loans. Johnson received a discount after Mozilo waived problems with his credit rating. The report said Mozilo “ordered the loan approved, and gave Johnson a break. He instructed the VIP unit: `Charge him 1/2 under prime. Don’t worry about (the credit score). He is constantly on the road and therefore pays his bills on an irregular basis but he ultimately pays them.” Johnson in 2008 resigned as a leader of then-candidate Barack Obama’s vice presidential search committee after The Wall Street Journal reported he had received $7 million in Countrywide discounted loans.

The report said those who received the discounts knew the loans were handled by a special VIP unit.

“The documents produced by the bank show that VIP borrowers received paperwork from Countrywide that clearly identified the VIP unit as the point of contact,” the committee said.

The standard discount was .5 waived points. Countrywide also waived junk fees that usually ranged from $350 to $400.

European Central Bank Cuts Interest Rates to Zero

By David McHugh, Huffington Post – July 5, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/05/european-central-bank-rate-cut_n_1650693.html

FRANKFURT, Germany — The European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low Thursday to spark economic growth but gave little sign it would take further action soon to ease Europe’s financial crisis.

By cutting its key refinancing rate by a quarter percentage point to 0.75, a move that was widely expected, the ECB sought to give Europe’s sagging economy a lift by making it cheaper for businesses and consumers to borrow.

Financial markets were underwhelmed, though, and even ECB President Mario Draghi conceded during a press conference that the impact of the rate cut could be “muted” given the low demand for credit in the slow economy. Analysts noted that interest rates were already low, that banks remain wary of lending to each other and that businesses and consumers see little reason to take on more debt.

In a more surprising move, the ECB also cut the interest rate it pays banks on overnight deposits by a quarter percentage point – to zero. The move could nudge banks to lend more money, rather than sock it away with the ECB and earn no interest. But even that move could have limited effect, analysts said, since there are other safe havens for banks to park their money.

Draghi said the bank acted in the face of economic pressures being felt by the 17 countries that use the euro, nearly half of which are in recession.

He said there is more the ECB could do to stimulate growth – “we still have all our artillery ready” – and indicated inflation should remain low, which gave the bank room to reduce rates.

But Draghi, who has said Europe’s problems cannot be solved without stronger political and economic ties, offered little hope the bank would take more emergency measures to ease the debt crisis, such as cheap loans for banks. He did, however, indicate the ECB could make it easier for banks to borrow from it by accepting a wider range of collateral.

Stock markets initially rose after the ECB’s rate announcement, but fell back down as investors worried about a slowdown in the global economy. Germany’s DAX stock index closed 0.5 percent lower while the Dow fell 0.1 percent. The euro was down 1.1 percent at $1.2380.

“Today’s ECB interest rate cut does little to alter the bleak economic outlook,” said Jennifer McKeown, analyst at Capital Economics. She said the ECB is likely to now wait and see how the financial markets and the economy react to the emergency measures announced by European leaders last week.

The leaders agreed to make it easier for troubled countries and banks to receive rescue loans from Europe’s bailout fund and also signaled greater willingness to use emergency funds to purchase government bonds. The goal would be to drive down troubled countries’ borrowing costs. They also agreed to create a single Europe-wide banking regulator to prevent bank bailouts from wrecking individual countries’ government finances.

Collectively, the moves sent a message to financial markets that eurozone leaders could work together to fix their problems. Draghi welcomed the measured, though they will take some time to put in place. The markets also cheered the measures, pushing down the high borrowing costs for financially stressed countries such as Italy and Spain, the euro region’s third- and fourth-largest economies.

But fears remain high that a bankrupt Greece could eventually leave the euro, or that Spain or Italy could need bailouts that would strain the resources of other countries in the euro.

Joerg Kraemer, chief economist at Commerzbank, said the latest ECB action wouldn’t fix what was wrong. The reason the eurozone economy is weak is not because of “high ECB rates but because of uncertainty stemming from the sovereign debt crisis. This can’t be cured by lower rates.”

Cutting the ECB’s refinancing rate to 0.75 percent will give some further relief to banks by lowering the amount they pay on (EURO)1 trillion in cheap, three-year emergency loans they took from the ECB on Dec. 21 and Feb. 29. The cost of that money is the average refinancing rate over the life of the loans.

The quarter percentage point cut in the deposit rate is meant to push banks to stop using the ECB as a safe haven by parking money there overnight. Before the debt crisis exploded, banks would typically deposit less than (EURO)100 billion with the ECB overnight, often much less. On Wednesday, banks had placed (EURO)790 billion with the ECB overnight.

A central bank is an ultra-safe place for banks to deposit their money, but there are other havens such as the government bonds of financially strong countries like Germany.

The eurozone crisis has battered investor confidence for 2 1/2 years. It has seen Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus need bailouts from the other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund to keep paying their debts and covering their budget deficits. Spain has asked for as much as (EURO)100 billion in rescue loans for its banks. Cyprus is still negotiating its own bailout, which is expected to be used to help both its banks and the government.

Earlier in the day, the central banks of China and Britain took action to stimulate their economies.

The Bank of England decided to purchase another 50 billion pounds in government bonds from financial institutions. The hope is that the banks will use the extra cash to lend to businesses and households.

China’s central bank, meanwhile, cut interest rates for the second time in a month to shore up its economy, the second-largest in the world. Interest on a one-year loan was reduced by 0.31 percentage points to 6 percent effective Friday. Chinese authorities have rolled out a series of stimulus measures since March after economic growth slowed to a nearly three-year low of 8.1 percent in the first quarter.

In the U.S., weak economic indicators have raised speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve may also have to do more to keep the U.S. economy growing. Some think the Fed might carry out a third round of bond purchases aimed at driving down interest rates on business and consumer loans.

The Fed took more limited action at its meeting ending June 17, extending its so-called Operation Twist effort in which it sells short-term bonds and buys longer-dated issues to push down long term interest rates. The Fed meets next Aug. 1.

British Armed Forces Cut to Smallest Size in Over 200 Years

As peace for all comes closer with each passing day, Britain has announced plans to cut 20,000 men and women from its armed forces.

While this has been announced under the guise of budget cuts amid current austerity needs, and they are saying it will take place over several years (really?), it is an indication of our war-free future at a time when we also see US and other countries’ troops being reduced and/or removed from many of the world’s current battle zones.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), this will mean the UK’s armed forces numbers will fall to levels not seen since around the 1750 – shortly before the Rothschild family, under the leadership of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, began their move towards financial world dominance and “invested” heavily in both instigating, financing and then reaping the profits of major horrific historical wars.

The British defence secretary, Philip Hammond, says five battalions will disappear and 17 units will be axed in the biggest overhaul of the British army for decades.

In a Commons statement, Hammond says the changes will reduce the army’s overall strength by 20,000.

There will be at least two more tranches of redundancies next year and in 2014.

Somehow, I don’t think they’ll need to wait that long…