Waiting Springs Silk Gown

Fantasy Fair 2012 in Second Life

I am extremely excited for this event and cant wait to get there. The best fantasy designers in Second Life will show their best creations and I alreayd know it will be a fireworks of colors and imagination. Dont miss this event, you wont!

It is not only a good thing to contribute to the fund rising that will go to the American Cancer Society through the Relay For Life organization – but it is also that you will have the chance to see the most wonderous things you can expect to see in Second Life.

FANTAVATAR & MOONSTRUCK will be there of course as featured store in the sim called Meandervale that will be built by the very much talented Markus Inkpen and his partner Sharni Azalee.

The Wet Bathing Suit Limited Edition is a free gift dedicated to the people in the !! FANTAVATAR & MOONSTRUCK GOLD !! group in Second Life.

From 8th to 16th February the group members will be able to get the free gift in the mainstore

As usual the group will be not available for being joined in the same period – so if you want the bathing suite better you join before!

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Visit the inworld MAINSTORE

For the third year MoonstrucK & Fantavatar is going to participate the Fashion for Life, the kick off event for the RFL season,  a big way for all the fundraising that goes on in SL for RFL through their season. All donations go to SL Relay for Life, benefiting the American Cancer Society. This event is SL’s longest running fashion fair and one of the biggest on the grid. I hope to see you all there to contribute and enjoy the spectacular creations of the best fashion creators of Second Life (click the banner above to visit the website)

Joe Cassano: President of AIG’s financial products division. Cost so far to U.S. taxpayers: $180 billion. Cassano made $300 million before leaving AIG last year.

Angelo Mozilo: Countrywide Financial. In 2007, Mozilo unloaded $121 million in options. That same year, the company announced it had lost $704 million, and the share prices tanked. Last fall, Countrywide’s new corporate owner agreed to pay up to $8.7 billion to settle a massive predatory lending suit.

Frank Raines and Daniel Mudd: Fannie Mae. In 2006, Fannie paid a $400 million civil fine to settle charges that Raines and others? overstated earnings. Raines walked away from his six-year tenure $91 million richer. Starting in 2005, successor Mudd continued the reckless policies. He left last year more than $10 million richer. Your bill: tens of billions

Senator Chris Dodd: Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Dodd was behind bailout language that protected bonuses for Wall Street companies—including that shocking $218 million given to AIG execs. In 2003, he accepted two special “VIP” mortgages from Mozilo’s Countrywide, reportedly saving up to $70,000.

Phil Gramm: Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said in 2001. “I see the American Dream in action.” The Texas Republican, who has since retired from the Senate, fought to deregulate those infamous credit-default swaps that brought down AIG and other derivatives. He also blocked attempts to limit the kind of predatory lending that wiped out thousands of families. Today, Gramm is a well-paid executive at Swiss banking giant UBS.

Federal regulators: The Federal Reserve and the SEC failed to stem the reckless behavior of big banks—despite clear warning signs of potential collapse as early as 2006. Regulators took at face value assurances from banks that they had enough capital to back up their financial gambles.

Alan Greenspan: The Federal Reserve’s former chairman dismissed the idea of a nationwide housing bubble as “most unlikely” while further fueling home sales with low interest rates. In 2004, he even encouraged home buyers to pursue risky adjustable rate mortgages against the advice of other experts. And he opposed attempts to regulate the exotic financial instruments at the heart of the current mess. Greenspan recently admitted that he has “found a flaw” in his worldview, which strongly favored unrestrained markets.

Jim Cramer: “Bear Stearns is not in trouble,” the host of CNBC’s Mad Money shouted on March 11, 2008. “Don’t move your money from Bear!” The Wall Street bank collapsed days later. Cramer made similarly bad calls about Lehman Brothers and Bank of America. His excuse? He relied too heavily on personal assurances from insiders at those banks.

Us: Many of us borrowed too much and bought homes we knew we couldn’t afford. And by not paying attention to and not participating more in our political system, we made it too easy for those in Washington to get in bed with corporations and special interests.

Naming and shaming some of the key culprits is only a start.

Source – http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/outrageous-worst-of-america/article140039.html

The automobile did not come to dominate American transportation by chance or by public choice. It happened as part of a plan by auto makers to buy up and destroy mass transit companies. General Motors led the way. As recently as the 1920s, many American cities and towns were connected by a network of electric railroads and interurban trolleys. Within cities, electric street railways, trolleys, and elevated trains, moved large numbers of people easily and cheaply, with minimal congestion and pollution. But steel-wheeled electric/rail mass transit systems did not serve the needs of the automobile manufacturers and their allies in the steel, rubber, glass, concrete, and oil industries.

GM’s ‘reinvention’ starts with $25 million battery lab

General Motors took a big step toward its reinvention as the “New G.M.” today when it opened what it calls the largest automotive battery laboratory in the United States, a move the struggling company believes will hasten the development of electric vehicles.

General Motors opens largest automotive battery laboratory in the U.S.

GM invests $25 million in the 33,000-square-foot Global Battery Systems Lab

Lab will develop and test the drivetrains underpinning alternative vehicles

Opening comes one week after company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

General Motors CEO resigns as part of bailout deal

General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner announced his resignation early Monday — the latest change for the troubled automaker. White House and GM sources had told CNN Sunday that Wagoner would resign as part of the federal government’s bailout strategy for the troubled automaker.

Departure of General Motors’ CEO part of government’s bailout strategy

GM’s president and chief operating officer, Fritz Henderson, to replace Rick Wagoner

GM to get 60 days of financing; Chrysler could get $6 billion

Tehran is running scared of the uncontrollable forces of freedom

The surge of revolt threatened to become a tidal wave. So the Islamic republic responded with ‘a coup against the coup.

Iran seldom admits the international media. It makes an exception at election times because it wants the world to see the Islamic republic’s glorious democracy in action. Thus some 400 foreign journalists and television crews were given ten-day visas to cover Friday’s presidential election, and for a week we really did see a vibrant and impressive democratic process.

Admittedly the four candidates were handpicked by the regime, but they ranged from the liberal to ultra-conservative, offered starkly contrasting visions for the future and engaged in remarkably outspoken TV debates. The people responded. Armies of supporters took over the streets, festooned every square with posters and banners and, on election day itself, flocked to the polling stations in numbers that shamed most Western democracies.

The charade ended abruptly on Friday night. Scarcely had polling ended than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cronies in the Interior Ministry and Elections Commission declared him the winner. They gave him not a razor-thin victory, which might just have been credible – the President did have legions of diehard supporters among the pious and rural poor. They gave him nearly two thirds of the vote, a figure that defied belief and raised two unmistakable fingers to the Iranian people and the world. They claimed that the main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, lost heavily even in his own village. The number of votes allegedly cast for Mr Ahmadinejad, 24.5 million, was probably chosen so that he could claim to have more support than any president in the republic’s 30-year history. The previous high was just over 20 million, cast for the reformist Mohammad Khatami in 1997.

The crackdown began instantly. Mobile phone and text messaging systems were taken down so the opposition could not organise. Opposition websites and international news services were blocked. Baton-wielding security forces flooded on to the streets. Overnight the festive atmosphere turned to fear, exuberance to terror, as the regime showed how evil it is.

All weekend protests were ruthlessly suppressed. Demonstrators were beaten. Foreign journalists, including a reporter and photographer from The Times, were detained. Leading reformists were arrested. Iran’s “Prague Spring”, its “Velvet Revolution”, was crushed with Soviet-style ruthlessness by a regime practised in silencing dissent. Mr Ahmadinejad, the self-styled man of the people and champion of the oppressed, unleashed the full force of the state machinery on his own population.

Some of the facts that should be plain that clearly show that revolution and economic collapse are coming:

1. 15% of all subprime mortgages were foreclosed in May with foreclosure rates climbing. Alan M. White of the Valparaiso Law School.

2. The Federal Reserve needs to “borrow up to $3.25 trillion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30″. Bloomberg

3. China has agreed to buy only 200 billion of Treasury T Bills (sold to finance the debt) total next year, while the oil exporting nations and the rest of the world have agreed to buy 300 billion total. This leaves over 2 trillion dollars that domestic investors will have to buy to float the deficit of the fiscal year that starts September 30th. Congressional Budget Office (After private investors had their private investments taken by the Government and the Unions in the Chrysler and General Motors deal, the experts say that the vast majority of the T Bills will not be sold, meaning the Government will have to print the money monetizing the debt)

4. Dozens of US cities (Like Flint Michigan) may have to bulldozed entire neighborhoods “as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline in the nation’s cities.” London Telegraph

5. Democrats in Congress hid a $100 billion bail out of the world’s credit system by the International Monetary Fund, tucking it into the war supplemental intended for operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, according to lawmakers’ aides quoted in a Reuters report.

6. “I will tell you what the problem is,” Collin Peterson (Democratic Chairman of the Agriculture Committee) told the New York Times, “they give three times more money than the next biggest group. It’s huge the amount of money they put into politics. The banks run the place (US Congress).”

7. “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin

8. “After yesterday’s widespread announcement of a “new world order” by the world’s media, “The world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity.” Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of London Telegraph

9. “Toxic Asset Plan Will Leave The Same Amount Of Toxic Assets In The System, But With the Taxpayers Now Liable For Most Of The Losses” Financial Times

10. “The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.” This is three times the actual Bush deficit in spending in the first 100 days of President Obama’s Presidency. Bloomberg

11. “Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.” June 12, Bloomberg

12. Across the country growing numbers of tax payers are stating that they will not pay anymore taxes. Promising to not file and just to refuse to pay, growing numbers of US tax payers have said enough is enough; “We Are Not ATMS!”

13. The Tea Party movement continues to grow, as the anger of the American people over government waste; The Tea Party Movement Grows & The Tea Party Movement Grows 2

On the Streets of China, Electric Bikes Are Swarming

Right now the future buzzes along at a sedate pace. Government regulations limit the top speed of e-bikes to about 12 mph. But manufacturers are building bigger and bigger machines with speed regulators that are easily removed. E-bikes that are basically pedal-powered machines with an electric boost are common in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but e-scooters with heavier motors and top speeds of around 30 mph, fast enough to rival mopeds, are growing in popularity.

The e-bike boom owes much to Chinese policy. The government made developing e-bikes an official technology goal in 1991. Major Chinese cities have extensive bicycle lanes, which means riders can avoid the worst of rush-hour congestion.

Indeed, as engineers around the world scramble to create eco-friendly, plug-in electric cars, China is already ahead of the game. Says Frank Jamerson, a former GM engineer turned electric-vehicle analyst: “What’s happening in China is sort of a clue to what the future will be.”

Don’t Call What Happened in Iran Last Week an Election

It was a crudely stage-managed insult to everyone involved.

Iran on Fire

The BBC says clashes between demonstrators and police in Tehran are the most violent in a decade.

 Below are thousands of Iranians chanting not “Death to America” or “Death to Israel,” but “Death to the Government.”

Oppressive governments that face ferocious resistance in the streets often don’t last very long. The Islamic Republic regime has been durable so far, and reports of its imminent demise have been premature, but there is only so much it can withstand.

Hatred, chaos and savage beatings in Tehran

He was surrounded and pleading for them to stop but six men with clubs, batons and metal rods kept battering a young Iranian man with ruthless force. The swing that keeps replaying in my head was the black baton that smashed the man in the skull behind his left ear.

Seconds earlier the man had dared to stand up to the baton wielding men because they had shoved a 14-year-old girl. For his chivalry he got one of the most savage beatings I have ever seen at the hands of four Iranian riot policemen and members of the Baseej, Iran’s plain clothed volunteer militia.

“To hell with Iran,” he said as he sat beaten and battered along the sidewalk. “This is not my government. This is not my country.”

A grown man who watched the beating burst into tears.

This was a glimpse of the ugly aftermath of Iran’s presidential elections, which sparked outrage among supporters of candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi.

Moussavi’s backers are calling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory a sham. They’re demanding the vote be annulled. The government’s response has been a ruthless and violent crackdown.

Excerpt: “The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay a $15.5 million settlement to avoid a trial over its alleged involvement in human rights violations in the Niger Delta. The case was brought on behalf of ten plaintiffs who accused Shell of complicity in the 1995 executions of Nigerian writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others. Ken Saro-Wiwa was the founding member and president of MOSOP, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, a group committed to use nonviolence to stop the repression and exploitation of the Ogoni and their land by Shell and the Nigerian government.

Shell was accused of working closely with and financing the Nigerian military government to brutally quell the peaceful resistance against its presence. The plaintiffs had promised to unveil extensive evidence of Shell’s complicity in the killings during the trial.”

Excerpt: “Western leaders were convinced that they were at the helm of the right system and of a well-functioning, almost perfect economic model. Scholars opined that history had ended. The “Washington Consensus,” the dogma of free markets, deregulation and balanced budgets at any cost, was force-fed to the rest of the world.

But then came the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, and it became clear that the new Western model was an illusion that benefited chiefly the very rich. …The current global crisis demonstrates that the leaders of major powers, particularly the United States, had missed the signals that called for a perestroika. The result is a crisis that is not just financial and economic. It is political, too.”

The Venus Project

Excerpt: “When one considers the enormity of the challenges facing society today, we can safely conclude that the time is long overdue for us to reexamine our values, and to reflect upon and evaluate some of the underlying issues and assumptions we have as a society. This self-analysis calls into question the very nature of what it means to be human, what it means to be a member of a “civilization,” and what choices we can make today to ensure a prosperous future for all the world’s people.

At present we are left with very few alternatives. The answers of yesterday are no longer relevant. Either we continue as we have been with our outmoded social customs and habits of thought, in which case our future will be threatened, or we can apply a more appropriate set of values that are relevant to an emergent society.

Experience tells us that human behavior can be modified, either toward constructive or destructive activity. This is what The Venus Project is all about – directing our technology and resources toward the positive, for the maximum benefit of people and planet and seeking out new ways of thinking and living that emphasize and celebrate the vast potential of the human spirit.”

The Zeitgeist Movement

Excerpt: “We intend to restore the fundamental necessities and environmental awareness of the species through the advocation of the most current understandings of who and what we truly are, coupled with how science, nature and technology (rather than religion, politics and money) hold the keys to our personal growth, not only as individual human beings, but as a civilization, both structurally and spiritually. The central insights of this awareness is the recognition of the Emergent and Symbiotic elements of natural law and how aligning with these understandings as the bedrock of our personal and social institutions, life on earth can and will flourish into a system which will continuously grow in a positive way, where negative social consequences, such as social stratification, war, biases, elitism and criminal activity will be constantly reduced and, idealistically, eventually become nonexistent within the spectrum of human behavior itself.

This possibility is, of course, very difficult for most humans to consider, for we have been conditioned by society to think that crime, corruption and dishonesty is “the way it is” and that there will always be people who want to abuse, hurt and take advantage of others. Religion is the largest promoter of this propaganda, for the “us and them” or “good and evil” mentality promotes this false assumption.”

Modern Deism

Excerpt: “Deism is a reason-based faith that postulates a belief in God through a foundation of Reason, Personal Experience and Nature (nature of the universe) with emphasis on freethought rather than a foundation of Divine revelation(s) and Holy texts. Essentially, through the use of Reason, God’s existence is revealed by the observation of nature and our own personal experiences. For the Deist, the order and complexity found in nature coupled with our rational experiences of nature leads to a belief in God.

It must be noted that Deism has been defined as the religion in which God abandoned the creation. This was rarely the case. During the Second Great Awakening, Deism was attacked by the revialists who wanted to degrade its influence. They created the notion that Deists believed that God had created and then abandoned his creation in favor of greater things. No Deists truly believed this. Some believed that God was no longer active in creation but had not abandoned it but watched to observe.

As with the past, modern Deists have many different beliefs regarding the nature of God. This is because that nature can never truly be known but only infered from our perspective. As such, there are many different beliefs among Deists regarding what God may or may not be like. This is encouraged as Deists want all to use their own Reason and Experiences to develop their views on God and associated aspects.”

The Quiet Coup

Excerpt: “The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.

…Oversize institutions disproportionately influence public policy; the major banks we have today draw much of their power from being too big to fail. Nationalization and re-privatization would not change that; while the replacement of the bank executives who got us into this crisis would be just and sensible, ultimately, the swapping-out of one set of powerful managers for another would change only the names of the oligarchs.”

Economic Revolution 2009: The Suppression Of Free Energy Inventions

Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice

Excerpt: “Having relatives that are in the medical field, you hear of rumors that there are cures for cancer and aids. My mom was very interested in looking up reports on this research and she had read reports on experiments done on curing aids that were sucessful and drugs that were developed that cured cancer. If this were actually true, they would never put it out there until they found the next “incurable disease” that was probably (and most likely) developed in some lab. It’s all about money and control. Big money is involved in the medicines and treatments for cancer/aids, why would they want to give that up unless they had a good replacement.

Maybe that’s why they bring attention to different diseases, pandemics, epidemics (SARS, Swine Flu, to name a few) because they are trying to find the next big one. Many posters on this site are in love with the idea of population control, but they overlook the fact that this is what cancer/aids and diseases are doing. War, disease, poverty, perfect for controlling the population and getting rich at the same time. If money/greed weren’t the driving force in our world, we would all probably never be sick and would live well into the hundreds in a healthy way. What’s always the first question when you show up the the E.R very sick or with a gun shot wound “insurance card, or how do you plan to pay?”.”

The Declaration of Independence 2009

Excerpt: “When in the course of Human events it becomes necessary to dissolve the realities prescribed for the masses, and to establish Truth where the tenets of Honesty are missing, it becomes our duty to advance the movements of Truth and Liberty, to respect and enforce the Natural Rights of Man that the God of Nature hath bestowed upon us.

Human history has shown that a people vulnerable to despotism suffer the most when the veil of secrecy is cast upon them, for it is this veil that hides the crimes and transgressions of the leadership to be carried out in the name of the people these guards are supposed to represent.

The Declaration of Independence of the Original 13 colonies dictates that the most heinous of grievances be enumerated. We must declare our independence as we have been left to it without recourse or representation for some years.
Let it be known the crimes of the Federal Government:

In each instance the American people, using their Constitution as a guide, have petitioned the government for a redress of grievances, be it by vote, protest, or direct contact. All attempts, peaceful in nature, have been met with contempt and answered with further injury to the Rights of the Several States and the People. Such injustices have been suffered patiently. History shows that such a patient suffering of injustices are natural to the People, as the People are often reluctant to fundamentally change or dissolve the establishments to which they are accustomed. But when these establishments become destructive to the Liberty of the People, it is their right and duty to establish new government, and new guards to their future security:

Therefore, We the Undersigned Declare our Independence from the Tyranny of the Federal Government and it’s regimes. And to this end we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”

Sign The Declaration Of Independence 2009 petition

SEIU Head Urges Unions “Join Today’s Economic Revolution”

Excerpt: “STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — The leader of North America’s largest labor union came to the Graduate School of Business April 21 to talk about a revolution. Not one he plans to start, but one we’re already in.

“Our country, joined by the rest of the world, is living through the most profound, the most significant, the most transformative economic revolution in world history,” Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern told the student-sponsored View from the Top event.

“When you think about it, there have only been three economic revolutions in world history. … The agricultural revolution—it took 3,000 years. The industrial revolution—it took 300 years. This revolution—and we should be clear—this is the third economic revolution, as we transform ourselves from a national to an international economy, from an America [economy] in manufacturing to a service/knowledge/finance/green economy. This revolution will only take 30 years. … No single generation has ever witnessed so much change in a lifetime.”