200 dairy cows were found dead in a Wisconsin field. Image: Wikimedia Commons

In yet another mass animal die-off, 200 cows, dead, were discovered on a Wisconsin farm. The National Wildlife Heath Center is investigating the 200 dead cows. These mass die-offs, however, are likely not anything unusual.

Wisconsin farmer finds 200 cows dead

A Portage County dairy farmer came out to his fields on Friday to make a grisly discovery. 200 cows were lying dead in his field of no obvious cause. Semi trucks were called in to haul away the carcasses, and samples from the cattle were sent into a lab for tests. The farmer has not yet been identified, and wishes to remain anonymous at the moment. Stockton, Wis., newspapers are reporting that the dairy farmer and officials say that there is “no reason to think that whatever killed the cows could kill humans, too.”

Investigating the mass cow die-off

There are several possibilities for what could have killed off the 200 dairy cattle. Bovine virus diarrhea or infectious bovine rhinotracheitis are both good possibilities for the cause of the death. Pneumonia is also a possible cause. The National Wildlife Health Center is a U.S. Geological Survey department that investigates major animal “mortality events.” The NWHC has been in existence since the 1970′s. The cause of the cow die-off in Wis., may be reported by the media, but likely will take months to investigate and enumerate.

The prevalence of mass animal deaths

Though mass animal deaths from Romania to Idaho have been making headlines over the last six months, they are not as unusual as they may seem. The Associated Press reports that about 163 “mass animal mortality events” are average for a year. There have been mass die-offs much larger than the ones recently reported that simply did not make headlines. Most often, it is trauma or disease at cause for mass animal die-offs, and sometimes the cause remains a mystery.

Sources:

News One
City Pages

Image of Bernard Kerik from Wikimedia.

Bernard Kerik knows that committing tax fraud is a no-no. He made that clear in 2004, when he withdrew his name from consideration for Secretary of Homeland Security. At that time, Bernard Kerik admitted that he had committed tax fraud.

Bernard Kerik had employed an illegal immigrant to work for him as a nanny. Although he had failed to pay taxes on his employee, Kerik said he didn’t know the worker was undocumented. This was only the beginning of his legal troubles. He apparently didn’t know, or didn’t care, that confidential information must remain confidential when one is being investigated for conspiracy, fraud and possible mob connections. But let’s back up.

More charges flood in

Shortly after Bernard Kerik withdrew his name from the running for Secretary of Homeland Security, investigations began regarding ethics violations, unclassified misdemeanors. He pleaded guilty to those and paid a $221,000 fine.The court said “pay the money now, and you’ll be free,” so he did.

But it wasn’t over. Near the end of 2007, Bernard Kerik was indicted by a grand jury. His charges include conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements. That brings us to the present, where Bernard Kerik was out on bail and waiting for his trial, which begins Monday.

Breaking the rules

Just a quick primer on the justice system: When someone gets arrested on charges, they get thrown in jail and have the opportunity to post bail. If the accused pays the bail money, they can be let out of jail until they get their sentence, which happens after the trial. However, people who are out on bail generally must agree to certain conditions in order to remain out of jail.

In major cases such as Bernard Kerik’s, it’s imperative that the accused does not share sensitive information about the case with the public. So although Bernard Kerik posted his $500,000 bail, he violated the conditions of his release when he posted confidential documents on his defense web site, according to USA Today. The judge ruled that this action could potentially sway jurors and that Bernard Kerik could not be trusted to honor the terms of his release, so he was hauled back to the slammer.

Who cares about Bernard Kerik?

So why is everyone so interested in this Bernard Kerik fellow? He was police commissioner in New York City during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. He was seen often on television with Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Giuliani recommended him for Security of Homeland Security.

Bernard Kerik also served as Interim Minister of Interior of Iraq for a few months in 2003, just after the start of the Iraq War.

It’s been a good year for scammers — or a bad year, depending on how you look at it. From Bernie Madoff to Sky Capital, people who bilk others out of their money are getting caught. You can add Raj Rajaratnam to that list now, as he was arrested yesterday and charged with four counts of conspiracy and eight counts of securities fraud.

Of course, Raj Rajaratnam couldn’t do it alone; it takes more than one person to conspire. Six people, including ex-directors at a Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund were charged in the scheme, which federal prosecutors said involved insider trading. While regular Americans are just trying to scrape by with installment loans for bad credit, Raj Rajaratnam and his alleged partners in crime are accused of conducting a $20 million scheme.

Who is Raj Rajaratnam?

Raj Rajaratnam is a billionaire and the founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund. He was born in Sri Lanka, but moved to the U.S. in 1981. He is now the 236th richest American, though I doubt that will be true anymore after his trial Bloomberg.com says:

Prosecutors said they used wiretaps on the billionaire’s phone. “A number of the calls intercepted over the wiretap consist of Rajaratnam either providing, receiving, or seeking material nonpublic information about various publicly traded companies,” a complaint says.

Federal prosecutors say Raj Rajaratnam and his co-conspirators conducted the biggest ever hedge fund insider trading scheme.

Raj Rajaratnam and friends

The  other people accused in the insider trading scheme are Rajiv Goel, of Intel Capital, Anil Kumar, who was a director at McKinsey & Co., IBM Corp. executive Robert Moffat, Bear Stearns Asset Management official Danielle Chiesi and Mark Kurland, also from Bear Stearns. Bloomoberg.com says:

It’s the first time wiretaps were used to target insider trading, and the arrests show a new level of prosecutorial aggressiveness towards Wall Street. Tips came from insiders and others at hedge funds, investor relations firms, and companies including Intel, IBM, McKinsey, and companies whose shares were traded in the scheme.

In closing, I’ll leave you with the words of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who wins the award for most obvious quote of the decade:

“Greed, sometimes, is not good.”

Some people believe this picture is real...and we let them vote.

Ever since NASA announced that they had lost the back up tapes from the Apollo 11 moon landing, the conspiracy theorists and peanut gallery has been touting their belief that there is an Apollo 11 Moon Landing Hoax – in that NASA filmed all of it in a studio as a cover up.  Of course, the missing tapes prove nothing, but we’ll get to that in a minute.  (I’d give some fast cash to makes this and other ill-conceived conspiracies go away.)

The tapes were backups, get over it!

The tapes in question were telemetry tapes, meaning that they were broadcast from the moon with the video signal, audio signal, and the other information being relayed from the command module, and video and audio were transferred to two inch television tape in Parkes, Australia, and broadcast world wide. The missing tapes, in essence, were negatives – back ups – it’s a non-issue, but they are having the original tapes restored. Click Here, for part one of this series.

A Conspiracy of dunces

This is a widely popular subject, and there is an extensive page on Wikipedia about it. Now to the meat of the thing:

It first started with a book written in 1974 by Bill Kaysing, a former employee of Rocketdyne, who wasn’t an engineer; he was part of their publishing unit, and held a degree in English. (English is NOT a science.) Kaysing has been denounced every step of the way, and ultimately was told by his own publisher he was full of it.

As to the tapes: NASA Flight Director Eugene Kranz (Ed Harris in the film Apollo 13) has repeatedly admitted the telemetry tapes got erased and reused, as it was procedure back then.

The science of conspiracy doesn’t add up

Certain objections are raised from a scientific point of view – for instance, the flag appearing to be waving. Several pictures exist of the flag in the same position, with Buzz Aldrin in different poses. This is because the flag was crinkled due to being folded, and didn’t completely unfurl in a vacuum due to the crease.
Aldrin has been repeatedly harassed about the conspiracy, especially by one Bart Sibrel, who viciously stalked him, and when Aldrin made it clear that he wanted to be left alone, punched Sibrel in the face.

Also, it’s been announced that a lunar orbiter has just captured pictures of the remnants of lunar landing modules, which were taken a few days ago.

Also, the peanut gallery has yet to summon a response to the following – putting the moon landing hoax on would have been far more expensive and elaborate than actually GOING to the moon.  I’d give a cash advance to hear someone explain that one….

And now, for your viewing pleasure – Bart Sibrel Punched in the Face!