Clipmarks | Monopoly Clips

Chess and monopoly

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:40:38 GMT

clipped by: pjnasser
clipper's remarks: I hope this isn't true, but I often fear that it is.

Think of it this way: Russia is playing chess, while the Americans are playing Monopoly. What Americans understand by "war games" is exactly what occurs on the board of the Parker Brothers' pastime. The board game Monopoly is won by placing as many hotels as possible on squares of the playing board. Substitute military bases, and you have the sum of American strategic thinking.

Chess players think in terms of interaction of pieces: everything on the periphery combines to control the center of the board and prepare an eventual attack against the opponent's king. The Russians simply cannot absorb the fact that America has no strategic intentions: it simply adds up the value of the individual pieces on the board. It is as stupid as that. But there is another difference: the Americans are playing chess for career and perceived advantage. Russia is playing for its life

Tags: us, russia, geopolitics

Game of Monopoly

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:19:43 GMT

clipped by: susie45891
clipper's remarks: What it really means.

Clip Source: www.unexplained-mysteries.com

Charles B. Darrow came out with the game Monopoly in 1933, right after the Federal Reserve and the Government confiscated all the gold.

The plan was to get people use to the idea of using fake money so Federal Reserve Notes wouldn’t seem so unnatural. Now Parker Brothers, who bought the rights to Monopoly in 1935 have come out with a new version called “Monopoly Brand Electronic Banking Edition”. It uses no money. It comes complete with six debit cards and all transactions are done electronically.

Like it or not the cashlessness will be force fed to us by the Government the same way they pried the gold from your Grandfathers hands. And once all the funds are ones and zeros in a computer, it will be that much easier to turn it off in an accident or act of terrorism, leaving you with no money. But as I have proven in my earlier articles there already is no money. Wake up people, the money matrix has you.

Tags: game, monopoly

War on Terror boardgame branded criminal by police

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:47:38 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Idiotic police. Sounds like a great game.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

It may not be fun for all the family – well, not in the same way as Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or Mousetrap, say. The themes of empire building and terrorist-style attacks on opponents would probably provoke an outbreak of spluttering over the Christmas sherry.

It is rare, however, for a board game to be seized by the police. This week that distinction befell War on Terror: The Boardgame; a set was confiscated from climate protesters in Kent.

Following a series of raids on the climate change camp near Kingsnorth power station, officers displayed an array of supposed weapons snatched from demonstrators: knives, chisels, bolt cutters, a throwing star – and a copy of the satirical game, which lampoons Washington's "war on terror".

For the game's creators, Andrew Sheerin and Andy Tompkins, web designers from Cambridge, the inclusion of their toy was a shock.

Tags: uk, police, idiots, war on terror, boardgame, fun for the whole family

The Truth about Wal-Mart, continued

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:25:03 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Since that long thread of differing opinions about the 'Merikan Dream and Wally world where I was attacked as being a non-productive, lazy Hippie (untrue--I was a semi-productive, Happy Hippie), I found this interesting, informative Anti-Wally site....see if you can defend these charges about Wally's relationship with Communist/monopoly Capitalist China and the US consumer rip=off, Willie, Esundby, and the rest of you bozos who think I was some non-productive lazy Hippie all my life.

Clip Source: www.wakeupwalmart.com

[Video]

Learn more about Wal-Mart's cozy relationship with China and take action

Tell Congress that Wal-Mart "just isn't American anymore."

Read our report "Wal-Mart & China: The Ultimate Joint Venture", and watch the related video



2	Spread the Word Tell your friends about our campaign
3	Adopt a Wal-Mart Become a leader for change
4	Donate Fund the campaign
5	Take Action Fight Wal-Mart in your community

The Great Illusion

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:56:19 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

By itself, as I said, the war in Georgia isn’t that big a deal economically. But it does mark the end of the Pax Americana — the era in which the United States more or less maintained a monopoly on the use of military force. And that raises some real questions about the future of globalization.

So, can things fall apart again? Yes, they can.

Most obviously, Europe’s dependence on Russian energy, especially natural gas, now looks very dangerous — more dangerous, arguably, than its dependence on Middle Eastern oil

Most of us have proceeded on the belief that, at least as far as economics goes, this doesn’t matter — that we can count on world trade continuing to flow freely simply because it’s so profitable. But that’s not a safe assumption.

Angell was right to describe the belief that conquest pays as a great illusion. But the belief that economic rationality always prevents war is an equally great illusion.

Georgia/Russia - The story behind the story

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:04:24 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "No sooner was BTC completed, however, than Western officials began exploring the possibility of other pipelines that could reach beyond Georgia and Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan, which was thought to have some of the world's largest gas reserves. Their interest was not only in "energy security" and the prospect of oil riches for Western energy companies, but also in promoting Western-style democracy and free-market capitalism in the former Soviet republics. "

"Putin understands better than anyone that oil and gas are the source of Russia's resurgence as a military and economic power and his own control over the Russian government and key sectors of its economy. It is oil and gas that provide the money to maintain Russia's powerful military, along with a vast internal security apparatus and network of government-controlled enterprises that allow the president-turned-premier to maintain his iron grip on the levers of political and economic power. "

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

A little pipeline history: It was just as Putin was coming to power in 1999 that an agreement was reached to create the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. The project would allow Azerbaijan and its production partner, BP, to bypass Russia and transport their newly drilled oil instead through Georgia and Turkey to a port in the eastern Mediterranean.

Because of its control of the only pipeline system linking former Soviet republics with the West, Russia had been able to extract most of the profit from any oil and gas that these newly independent countries could produce. But with BTC, which had the active support of the U.S. and European governments, Russia would lose its monopoly chokehold, opening the way for Western oil companies to make multibillion-dollar investments in the energy-rich Caucasus states.

Tags: russia, georgia

The Energy War Begins: From Russia With Bombs

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:44:02 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The U.S. and E.U. are also backing an associated project for a natural gas pipeline that would, again, traverse Georgia and Turkey and bypass Russia, thereby lessening Europe’s dependency on gas either sourced from Russia or sourced from Central Asia but controlled by Russia.

Tale of Two Pipelines: Europe Seeks to Lower Dependency on Russian Gas
Friday, March 07, 2008
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor

(CNSNews.com) - Russia's latest standoff with Ukraine over natural gas supplies has been resolved for now, but the dispute has reinforced the view in Europe that alternatives to Russian energy are sorely needed.

Russia's state-owned Gazprom monopoly early this week cut supplies of gas to Ukraine by 50 percent over a longstanding financial dispute. Gazprom says Ukraine owes it $600 million. But after high-level negotiations the company said the restrictions had been lifted.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=18989

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

A country smaller than South Carolina, Georgia is noteworthy for its strategic location, squeezed between Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and the Black Sea.

In 2005, an 1,100-mile pipeline was launched to carry crude oil from Azerbaijan via Georgia and Turkey to world markets, bypassing Russian territory. Strongly supported by the U.S. and opposed by Russia, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project bolsters former Soviet republics’ independence from Moscow.

On Sunday, Georgia’s government claimed that Russian bombers had targeted but missed the BTC pipeline, which runs about 60 miles south of Tskhinvali, although the claim could not be confirmed by British energy giant BP, which holds the largest stake in a consortium running the pipeline.

The pipeline’s operations have in fact been disrupted since last week, after a blast on the Turkish section, claimed by Kurdish rebels.

Tags: natural gas pipelin, u.s. and e.u., georgia, turkey, azerbaijan and the black sea, russian hegemony

An Explanation for the Gas and Oil Price Swindle..!

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:18:51 GMT

clipped by: TJColatrella
clipper's remarks: Why is the media allowing the Republicans and John McCain to lie to all of America..?

This article is great follow the link to the entire piece there's a lot more there..!

Clip Source: www.star-telegram.com

Everybody Was Warned!

As USA Today wrote of this fiasco in January of 2002, "But, as a power marketer, [Enron] could buy enough energy-futures contracts in a region to create a virtual monopoly." That’s right: As early as the winter of 2002, it was widely known that the 2000 Commodities Futures Modernization Act had created a monster, capable of running up energy prices outside of the normal law of supply and demand. Worse, our government had been warned this was going to happen. Representatives of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC had already told Congress not to deregulate energy because "the market was ripe for manipulation." Everybody was warned; that’s why this deregulation bill was stealthily inserted into that appropriations bill without a floor debate.

Tags: bush, oil, gas prices, republicans, john mccain, cftc, drill here drill now, opec, cheney, halliburton

Putin Makes His Move

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:39:09 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Putin's aggression against Georgia should not be traced only to its NATO aspirations or his pique at Kosovo's independence. It is primarily a response to the "color revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia in 2003 and 2004, when pro-Western governments replaced pro-Russian ones.

Ever since, Putin has been determined to stop and, if possible, reverse the pro-Western trend on his borders. He seeks not only to prevent Georgia and Ukraine from joining NATO but also to bring them under Russian control. He seeks to carve out a zone of influence within NATO, with a lesser security status for countries along Russia's strategic flanks. That is the primary motive behind Moscow's opposition to U.S. missile defense programs in Poland and the Czech Republic.

His war against Georgia is part of this grand strategy. Putin cares no more about a few thousand South Ossetians than he does about Kosovo's Serbs.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

It is a war that Moscow has been attempting to provoke for some time. The man who once called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" has reestablished a virtual czarist rule in Russia and is trying to restore the country to its once-dominant role in Eurasia and the world. Armed with wealth from oil and gas; holding a near-monopoly over the energy supply to Europe; with a million soldiers, thousands of nuclear warheads and the world's third-largest military budget, Vladimir Putin believes that now is the time to make his move.

Georgia's unhappy fate is that it borders a new geopolitical fault line that runs along the western and southwestern frontiers of Russia. From the Baltics in the north through Central Europe and the Balkans to the Caucasus and Central Asia, a geopolitical power struggle has emerged between a resurgent and revanchist Russia on one side and the European Union and the United States on the other.

Tags: putin, georgia, ukraine, nato aspirations, kosovo's independence

The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:06:35 GMT

clipped by: akipta

Clip Source: personalmba.com

Top MBA programs don't have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work. The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List features only the very best business books available, based on thousands of hours of research. So skip b-school and the $100,000 loan: you can get a world-class business education simply by reading these books.

About The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List:

This page lists all PMBA-recommended books and resources for easy printing, bookmarking, and reference. For more information about the Personal MBA, book selection criteria, and project history, read the manifesto.

For in-depth descriptions of each book, click on the name of the category.

To jump directly to Amazon.com, click on the name of the book.

To purchase this entire library of books from Amazon.com at a substantial discount, check out the Personal MBA Complete Business Library.

Tags: dmba personal-mba

South Stream Russia-Europe Pipeline to Cost $20B

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:46:21 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.rigzone.com

Russia's Energy Ministry has announced a preliminary cost assessment of the South Stream pipeline project, a major gas export route to Europe, at $20 billion,

The pipeline, which according to plan should carry 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year to Europe starting in 2013, will be built jointly by Russia's gas export monopoly OAO Gazprom and Italy's Eni SpA.

The initial assessment of the project cost, reported by Eni at the beginning of 2008, was about $10 billion.

The pipeline is to extend under the Black Sea, from Russia's southern port of Novorossiysk to Bulgaria, and then onwards to Austria and Italy.

It is meant to become a gas transportation route bypassing Turkey and Ukraine, which pose potential transit risks for Gazprom.

Analysts regard the cost increase as negative for Gazprom. Construction of the pipeline would mean a 3% increase in Gazprom's capital expenditure from 2010 to 2013, which would lower the company's fair value by about 1.5%,

Tags: energy, oil, pipelines, i-cost, i-increase, i-record

The future of science...is art

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:30:20 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "But before any of this can happen, our two existing cultures must modify their habits. First of all, the humanities must sincerely engage with the sciences. Henry James defined the writer as someone on whom nothing is lost; artists must heed his call, and not ignore science's inspiring descriptions of reality.

At the same time, the sciences must recognize that their truths are not the only truths. No single area of knowledge has a monopoly on knowledge. As Karl Popper, an eminent defender of science wrote, "It is imperative that we give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and admit that all knowledge is human; that it is mixed with our errors, our prejudices, our dreams, and our hopes; that all we can do is to grope for truth even though it is beyond our reach." The struggle for scientific truth is long and hard and never ending. If we want to get an answer to our deepest questions—the questions of who we are and what everything is—we will need to draw from both science

Clip Source: www.bryanchristiedesign.com

Clip Source: www.seedmagazine.com

the early 1920s, Niels Bohr was struggling to reimagine the structure of matter. Previous generations of physicists had thought the inner space of an atom looked like a miniature solar system with the atomic nucleus as the sun and the whirring electrons as planets in orbit. This was the classical model.

But Bohr had spent time analyzing the radiation emitted by electrons, and he realized that science needed a new metaphor. The behavior of electrons seemed to defy every conventional explanation. As Bohr said, "When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry." Ordinary words couldn't capture the data.

Clip Source: www.seedmagazine.com

the epic questions that modern science must answer cannot be solved by science alone.

What does this novel or experiment or poem teach us about ourselves? How does it help us understand who we are, or what the universe is made of?

we will discover that poems and paintings can help advance our experiments and theories. Art can make science better.

July 28: Today In History

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:43:32 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The Fourteenth Amendment became part of the United States Constitution

Soon after ratification, the Slaughterhouse Case tested the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment. Brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1873, the suit argued that the monopoly the Louisiana legislature granted to a New Orleans slaughtering company abridged other businessmen's privileges as American citizens and deprived them of property without due process of the law. The court ruled against the slaughterhouses, narrowly interpreting "the privileges and immunities" of citizens and stating that the amendment did not extend to the property rights of businessmen. In their dissenting opinion, Justices Field, Bradley, and Swayne wrote that, in considering the Fourteenth Amendment,

the right to pursue any lawful trade or avocation, without other restraint than such as equally affects all persons, is one of the privileges of citizens of the United States which can not be abridged by state legislation.

Clip Source: www.loc.gov

Clip Source: lcweb2.loc.gov

On July 28, 1868, Secretary of State William Seward issued a proclamation certifying without reservation that the Fourteenth Amendment was a part of the United States Constitution. The required number of states had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment a few weeks earlier on July 9, 1868. Known as one of the "Reconstruction Amendments" along with the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the Fourteenth Amendment forbids any state to deny to any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws." With its broadly phrased language, the Fourteenth Amendment continues to provide a basis for civil rights claims in the United States.

Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution Considered…,
1873.
African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907

Tags: united states constitution, ]the fourteenth amendment

Obama Considers Monsanto, Bush Sec. Of Agricuture for VP

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:19:26 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: So, when Barack Obama even CONSIDERS a Monsanto person for his VP, we are looking at one hellish choice on his part and one large one on ours. Because ANYONE connected to Monsanto, at a time when our family farmers and ranchers (we are losing 1000 ranchers a month) are facing imminent collapse, is a threat to our land, our democracy and our lives.

I hope you read the following with the horror it deserves and then get hold of every farming, environmental, human rights group you know and with them, let Obama know that some things are impossible to swallow, and monopoly over food with the loss of our farmers is TOP of the list.

And in case you are late to who Monsanto is, you can read this to understand the dire significance of Obama's even considering such a choice and what it says about him as a "grass-roots" anything:

Obama's Uniquely Awful Veep Prospect 2 hours, 4 minutes ago
The Nation
July 26, 2008

The Nation -- Barack Obama's vice presidential search team

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

Friends, control of all food, animals, plant DNA, fish, natural therapeutic substances, land, and water is being lost RIGHT NOW to multinational corporations - Monsanto being one of the largest threats. This is not just about liberal neglect of our own seemingly-not-worth-standing-up-for farmers and ranchers or of all the pathetic indigenous peoples around the world who are being pushed off their land (8 million in the last ten years in India since our Big Ag companies went in there) but about your own survival and that of every single one of us on the planet.

This is about totalitarian control, people.

It is coming in through control of food and water and means of healing click here and through large plans moving into place to crush farmers (NAIS) click here and to cut off YOUR access to all the nice organic things you have come, rightly, to think is important for your health and that of your family.

Chavez Meets Russia's Medvedev For Trade Talks

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:23:39 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: "We expect the signing of a range of contracts" in the arms sector, a member of the Venezuelan delegation was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

He added that purchases could include Russian tanks and submarines.

Chavez was also due to meet Sergei Chemezov, who oversees Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport, a Kremin source said Tuesday.

Rosoboronexport spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko declined to comment about specific weapons deals, but he told AFP the two sides had drafted a document providing a "legal basis" for future arms deliveries.

The Kommersant daily said Tuesday that a complicating factor in talks could be Venezuela's relationship with its neighbour Colombia, which accuses Chavez of aiding the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a rebel group.

If Russian weapons surface in the conflict zone, Moscow would be threatened not only with a significant worsening of relations with Bogota, but with Washington too,"

Clip Source: afp.google.com

I watch the rebirth of Russia with great respect and great love," Chavez, a fierce critic of US President George W. Bush and US foreign policy, said at the beginning of his meeting with Medvedev, who was inaugurated in May.

Chavez's two-day visit to Russia -- a top oil power like Venezuela -- is the first leg of a European tour that will take in Belarus, Portugal and Spain. In Spain, Chavez has said he will hug King Juan Carlos following a spat last year.

"Russia and Venezuela must become strategic allies in the oil sphere and in military-technical cooperation," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Chavez as saying upon arrival.

"This will guarantee the sovereignty of Venezuela, because we are now threatened by the United States," he added.

Lukoil and TNK-BP will be allowed to explore for oil, while a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom will be allowed to assess gas reserves there, according to deals signed at Medvedev's residence in Barvikha, near Moscow.

Tags: president medvedev, president chavez, russian tanks and submarines, arms contracts, lukoil and tnk-bp, gazprom