Thousands of rogue bankers sacked since financial crisis

Patrick HoskingFinancial Editor

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article4001125.ece

Almost six thousand bankers, brokers and financial advisers in Britain have been sacked or suspended for dishonest or reckless conduct since the start of the financial crisis.

Figures extracted from the Financial Conduct Authority under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Britishbased banks and other authorised financial firms have forced out 5,873 rogue managers and staff since 2008 — which amounts to almost three every day for the past six years.

While the expulsion rate last year was down from 2012, when the Libor cheating scandal erupted, it is still higher than at the start of the financial crisis.

With 150,000 people in Britain now working in authorised roles in financial services, the figures show that one in 160 of them was booted out for wrongdoing last year. That is worse than the figure of one in 210 expelled in 2008.

Brooks Newmark, a Tory member of the Treasury Select Committee, said that the numbers were disappointing. “Given the opprobrium thrown at the banking community over the past five years, you’d think they’d be extra careful. The message isn’t getting through. Where is their moral compass?”

Danielle Paffard, co-founder of the Move Your Money campaign, said: “This is a huge number. It underlines how broken and dishonest the banking industry still is.”

Employers in financial services have to tell the FCA when someone is dismissed or suspended over wrongdoing considered to impinge on their fitness to work in finance, filling in a “qualified Form C” notice, which alerts regulators that the employee may not be suitable for City roles. Qualified Form C notices were issued in 939 cases last year, down from 1,373 in 2012, but up on the 803 in 2008. Over six years the average number of notices per year has been 979.

Kirsty Ayre, a partner with City lawyers Pinsent Masons, which gathered the data, said the offences ranged from the most serious, such as Libor offences, to the seemingly trivial, such as lying about having seen a document.

She said that the high numbers were partly down to banks wanting to be tougher in stamping out dishonesty: “People are keener to get rid of bad apples. I don’t think this is evidence of any increased malpractice.”

The numbers come on the eve of the bank reporting season, when the biggest banks are expected to reveal even higher costs of mis-selling scandals such as payment protection insurance.

The bill for mis-sold PPI has reached £22 billion after Lloyds last week increased its estimate of the cost to it alone to £9.8 billion. Barclays is expected tomorrow to unveil a drop of about £1.5 billion in annual profit to £5.5 billion, mainly because of redress over a string of scandals.

Tomorrow Sir Richard Lambert, the former Director-General of the CBI, is due to publish a report on the creation of a professional body to champion higher standards and qualifications in banking. The Parliamentary Banking Standards Commission has already recommended a new system for approving senior bankers, and the Government has agreed to introduce legislation that could pave the way for reckless senior bankers to be jailed.

There are growing concerns that investigations into the manipulation of foreign exchange rates could be the next scandal to convulse the industry.

 

The Ground Breaking Mathematics That Proves Free Energy Is Possible Has Been Discovered

January 30, 2014 by Joe Martino

It has been said that the ability to prove that free energy is possible is non-existent because it defies various physical laws. But what if those physical laws are not entirely correct? What if the mathematics that proves the possibility of free energy was just not known, suppressed or hidden? In the video below, Randy Powell discusses Vortex Based Mathematics, which is a concept he was taught by Marko Rodin. He suggests that this mathematics proves that free energy is possible.

On a side note, I remember hearing at one time in the last few years (in a video interview) that there was about 25 equations that help to prove the existence of systems such as free energy, and these 25 equations were purposely suppressed and removed from educational institutions. Unfortunately I have not been able to locate the source of this claim and so it sits as nothing but a memory of once coming across it. If anyone reading this happens to know what I’m talking about, please let me know in the comments.

Free Energy Research

At first glance it might be easy to brush this off as not being possible since one of the main objections going around about free energy is that it simply is not possible. This rumor is spreading with no real evidence and therefore it is important to look into the evidence that does exist to support it. Below will be one example followed by an article which illustrates many examples.

The Casimir Effect is a proven example of free energy. The Casimir Effect illustrates zero point or vacuum state energy, which predicts that two metal plates close together attract each other due to an imbalance in the quantum fluctuations. You can see a visual demonstration of this concept here. The implications of this are far reaching and have been written about extensively within theoretical physics by researchers all over the world. Today, we are beginning to see that these concepts are not just theoretical, but instead very practical and simply very suppressed.

Relatively recent proposals have been made in the literature for extracting energy and heat from electromagnetic zero-point radiation via the use of the Casimir force. The basic thermodynamics involved in these proposals is analyzed and clarified here, with the conclusion that yes, in principle, these proposals are correct.

For an in depth look at the science behind free energy check out this article which goes through the available scientific studies.

The video below is of a TEDx talk where Randy Powell describes the mathematics and its applications.

‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health Long Term

By Maia Szalavitz @maiasz
http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/16/magic-mushrooms-can-improve-psychological-health-long-term/ 

The psychedelic drug in magic mushrooms may have lasting medical and spiritual benefits, according to new research from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The mushroom-derived hallucinogen, called psilocybin, is known to trigger transformative spiritual states, but at high doses it can also result in “bad trips” marked by terror and panic. The trick is to get the dose just right, which the Johns Hopkins researchers report having accomplished.

In their study, the Hopkins scientists were able to reliably induce transcendental experiences in volunteers, which offered long-lasting psychological growth and helped people find peace in their lives — without the negative effects.

“The important point here is that we found the sweet spot where we can optimize the positive persistent effects and avoid some of the fear and anxiety that can occur and can be quite disruptive,” says lead author Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology at Hopkins.

Giffiths’ study involved 18 healthy adults, average age 46, who participated in five eight-hour drug sessions with either psilocybin — at varying doses — or placebo. Nearly all the volunteers were college graduates and 78% participated regularly in religious activities; all were interested in spiritual experience.

Fourteen months after participating in the study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one of the top five most meaningful experiences of their lives; 39% said it was the single most meaningful experience.

Critically, however, the participants themselves were not the only ones who saw the benefit from the insights they gained: their friends, family member and colleagues also reported that the psilocybin experience had made the participants calmer, happier and kinder.


Ultimately, Griffiths and his colleagues want to see if the same kind of psychedelic experience could help ease anxiety and fear over the long term in cancer patients or others facing death. And following up on tantalizing clues from early research on hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, mescaline and psilocybin in the 1960s (which are all now illegal), researchers are also studying whether transcendental experiences could help spur recovery from addiction and treat other psychological problems like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

For Griffiths’ current experiment, participants were housed in a living room-like setting designed to be calm, comfortable and attractive. While under the influence, they listened to classical music on headphones, wore eyeshades and were instructed to “direct their attention inward.”

Each participant was accompanied by two other research-team members: a “monitor” and an “assistant monitor,” who both had previous experience with people on psychedelic drugs and were empathetic and supportive. Before the drug sessions, the volunteers became acquainted enough with their team so that they felt familiar and safe. Although the experiments took place in the Hopkins hospital complex in order to ensure prompt medical attention in the event that it was needed, it never was.

As described by early advocates of the use of psychedelics — from ancient shamans to Timothy Leary and the Grateful Dead — the psilocybin experience typically involves a sense of oneness with the universe and with others, a feeling of transcending time, space and other limitations, coupled with a sense of holiness and sacredness. Overwhelmingly, these experiences are difficult to put into words, but many of Griffiths’ participants said they were left with the sense that they understood themselves and others better and therefore had greater compassion and patience.

“I feel that I relate better in my marriage. There is more empathy — a greater understanding of people and understanding their difficulties and less judgment,” said one participant. “Less judging of myself, too.”

Another said: “I have better interaction with close friends and family and with acquaintances and strangers. … My alcohol use has diminished dramatically.”

To zero in on the “sweet spot” of dosing, Griffiths started half the volunteers on a low dose and gradually increased their doses over time (with placebo sessions randomly interspersed); the other half started on a high dose and worked their way down.

Those who started on a low dose found that their experiences tended to get better as the dose increased, probably because they learned what to expect and how to handle it. But people who started with high doses were more likely to experience anxiety and fear (though these feeling didn’t last long and sometimes resolved into euphoria or a sense of transcendence).

“If we back the dose down a little, we have just as much of the same positive effects. The properties of the mystical experience remain the same, but there’s a fivefold drop in anxiety and fearfulness,” Griffiths says.

Some past experiments with psychedelics in the ’60s used initial high doses of the drugs — the “blast people away with a high dose” model, says Griffiths — to try to treat addiction. “Some of the early work in addictions was done with the idea of, ‘O.K., let’s model the ‘bottoming-out’ crisis and make use of the dark side of [psychedelic] compounds. That didn’t work,” Griffiths says.

It may even have backfired: other research on addictions shows that coercion, humiliation and other attempts to produce a sense of “powerlessness,” tend to increase relapse and treatment dropout, not recovery. (And the notorious naked LSD encounter sessions conducted with psychopaths made them worse, too.)

Griffiths is currently seeking patients with terminal cancer to participate in his next set of experiments (for more information on these studies, click here); because psychedelics often produce a feeling of going beyond life and death, they are thought to be especially likely to help those facing the end of life. Griffiths is also studying whether psilocybin can help smokers quit.

Griffiths and other researchers like him are hoping to bring the study of psychedelics into the future. They want to build on the promise that some of the early research showed, while avoiding the bad rep and exaggerated claims — for example, that LSD was harmless and could usher in world peace — that became associated with the drugs when people started using them recreationally in the 1960s. The resulting negative publicity helped shut down the burgeoning research.

This time around, caution may be paying off. Dr. Jerome Jaffe, America’s first drug czar, who was not involved with the research, said in a statement, “The Hopkins psilocybin studies clearly demonstrate that this route to the mystical is not to be walked alone. But they have also demonstrated significant and lasting benefits. That raises two questions: could psilocybin-occasioned experiences prove therapeutically useful, for example in dealing with the psychological distress experienced by some terminal patients?

“And should properly-informed citizens, not in distress, be allowed to receive psilocybin for its possible spiritual benefits, as we now allow them to pursue other possibly risky activities such as cosmetic surgery and mountain-climbing?”

Read more: Study: Psilocybin, the Drug in 'Magic Mushrooms,' Lifts Mood and Increases Compassion Over the Long Term | TIME.com http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/16/magic-mushrooms-can-improve-psychological-health-long-term/#ixzz2s3mPPi9e

Meditation triggers molecular and genetic changes: New study

By Herbert Dyer, Jr.
Source: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16442013-meditation-triggers-molecular-and-genetic-changes-new-study

A new study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology provides scientific proof – for the first time – that the regular practice of meditation causes beneficial molecular changes within the human body.

The study was conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Institute of Biomedical Research in Barcelona. Subjects who participated in an intensive, eight-hour mindfulness-meditation regimen showed significant beneficial molecular and genetic changes.

The study group was composed of experienced meditation practitioners who meditated for the whole eight hours, while a control group simply remained quiet and participated in non-meditative activities.

The meditation group experienced observable genetic changes including lower levels of inflammatory genes like RIPK2 and COX2, indicating faster recovery from stressful situations.
As Medical News Today reports:

The extent to which some of the genes were down-regulated was associated with faster cortisol recovery to a social stress test, where participants were challenged to make an impromptu speech or complete mental calculations in front of an audience.

Put another way, meditation allows and encourages participants to subconsciously maintain their mental and physical equilibrium despite and/or in the midst of whatever pressures and potentially worrisome issues may be closing in.

“The regulation of HDACs and inflammatory pathways may represent some of the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic potential of mindfulness-based interventions. Our findings set the foundation for future studies to further assess meditation strategies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions,” explained Perla Kaliman, co-author of the study.

Meditation studies abound, of course. Countless anecdotes and surveys have revealed that meditation yields direct physical benefits.

But none of those studies or stories have provided the rock-hard evidence for the benefits of meditation that this one does. This study provides genetic proof that mediation works. That is, this is the first to scientifically demonstrate molecular changes caused by the ancient practice of simply emptying one's mind of all thoughts, feelings, concerns, issues.

“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression,” said Dr. Richard J. Davidson of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.

Thus, it is clear: Meditation relieves stress; it provides digestive relief; it helps regulate blood pressure. It even eases symptoms of the common cold.

There is even a study indicating that mediation reduces pain better than morphine.
However, none of these studies, including this latest one, explain precisely how the simple act of meditation does all of these wonderful things. That answer will come soon enough with more research, more study.

Until then, though, it just stands to reason that maintaining one's cool, especially in the face of adversity, allows one to more rationally deal with whatever situation is at hand.

References:

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/01/30/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes/

http://www.infowars.com/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes/

http://www.news.wisc.edu/22370

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/01/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes-january-30-2014-by-wakingtimes-2887460.html

http://truthbroadcastnetwork.com/new-study-meditation-alters-genes-rapidly-triggers-molecular-changes/

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269910.php

Scientist says psychedelic brew consumed by Amazonian shamans could fight cancer

By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, January 27, 2014 11:57 EST
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/27/scientist-says-psychedelic-brew-consumed-by-amazonian-shamans-could-fight-cancer/

A powerful psychedelic brew consumed by shamans deep in the Amazon could help in the fight against cancer and should be researched, according to a Brazilian scientist.

Ayahuasca — meaning the “vine of the souls” – is traditionally prepared using the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and Psychotria viridis leaves, though other combinations of plants are sometimes used. Psychotria viridis contains N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the leaves, while Banisteriopsis caapi contains beta-carbolines such as harmine and harmaline.

For centuries, the psychedelic brew has been used in shamanistic healing rituals. A Natural Geographic reporter who participated in an ayahuasca ritual described the experience as “terrifying—but enlightening.”

Eduardo E. Schenberg of the Federal University of Sao Paulo thinks some of the healing powers attributed to ayahuasca deserve scientific attention, particularly when it comes to cancer.
“There is enough available evidence that ayahuasca’s active principles, especially DMT and harmine, have positive effects in some cell cultures used to study cancer, and in biochemical processes important in cancer treatment, both in vitro and in vivo,” he wrote in an article published in SAGE Open Medicine. ”Therefore, the few available reports of people benefiting from ayahuasca in their cancer treatment experiences should be taken seriously, and the hypothesis presented here, fully testable by rigorous scientific experimentation, helps to understand the available cases and pave the way for new experiments.”

Rumors of ayahuasca helping people with cancer are common, according to Schenberg, and there are at least nine case reports of cancer patients using ayahuasca during their treatment. Of these nine reports, three showed improvements after consuming the psychedelic brew.


Rumors and less than a dozen case reports are hardly substantial evidence. But the physiological effects of the drug suggests there might be some truth behind them, Schenberg said.

DMT produces a powerful psychedelic experience by binding to serotonin receptors in the brain. More importantly, for Schenberg, the drug also binds to the sigma 1 receptor, which is found throughout the body and is involved in many cellular functions. The sigma 1 receptor appears to be implicated in the death signalling of cancer cells.

In addition, harmine has been shown to induce the death of some cancer cells and inhibit the proliferation of human carcinoma cells.

Other physiological factors suggest the combination of DMT and harmine could have medically-important antitumor effects, though more research is need.

“In summary, it is hypothesized that the combined actions of β-carbolines and DMT present in ayahuasca may diminish tumor blood supply, activate apoptotic pathways, diminish cell proliferation, and change the energetic metabolic imbalance of cancer cells, which is known as the Warburg effect,” Schenberg  wrote. ”Therefore, ayahuasca may act on cancer hallmarks such as angiogenesis, apoptosis, and cell metabolism.”

DMT is currently prohibited as a Schedule I drug by the U.S. Controlled Substances Act and the international Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The drug is relatively unknown compared to other illicit substances like cannabis, but researchers have found that DMT appears to be increasing in popularity.

“If ayahuasca is scientifically proven to have the healing potentials long recorded by anthropologists, explorers, and ethnobotanists, outlawing ayahuasca or its medical use and denying people adequate access to its curative effects could be perceived as an infringement on human rights, a serious issue that demands careful and thorough discussion,” Schenberg wrote.

Originally published by PsyPost

["Woman Touching Her Third Eye With Hand Mudra." on Shutterstock]

Water in stardust suggests widespread life in the universe

Jason McClellan
http://www.openminds.tv/water-stardust-suggests-widespread-life-universe/25796
Scientists have determined that stardust contains water, a discovery that suggests the universe is rife with life.

Although scientists have previously suggested that dust grains floating through our solar system contain water, it has actually been detected for the first time in the results from a recent study. A research team that includes John Bradley of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California inspected the outer layer of interplanetary dust particles collected from Earth’s stratosphere. Using ultra-high-resolution microscopy, the team inspected the tiny specks of space dust and discovered pockets of water just beneath the surface.

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)

Researchers concluded that the dust is mostly composed of silicates–an oxygen-containing compound. New Scientist describes how scientists speculate the water forms: “As stardust travels through space, it encounters the solar wind. This stream of charged particles including high-energy hydrogen ions is ejected from the sun’s atmosphere. When the two collide, hydrogen and oxygen combine to make water.”

According to New Scientist, “Combined with previous findings of organic compounds in interplanetary dust, the results suggest that these grains contain the basic ingredients needed for life. As similar dust grains are thought to be found in solar systems all over the universe, this bodes well for the existence of life across the cosmos.”

Clashes in Kiev after new protest law signed

A line of scorched buses and trucks mark the boundary between protestors and police as unrest continues in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. So far, over two hundred demonstrators, journalists, and police have been injured and/or hospitalized.

The situation began in November as Ukranian President Yanukovych made the decision to freeze ties with the European Union and seek a large bailout from Russia. This decision generated mostly peaceful protests, which increased in size and intensity after police used violence to disperse demonstrators on two occasions.

Anger grew substantially as President Yanukovych enacted measures on Thursday which included:

• A ban on the unauthorized installation of tents, stages or amplifiers in public places

• The provision to arrest protestors wearing masks or helmets

• A ban on protests involving more than five vehicles in convoy

• Hefty fines or jail for breeches of law

On Tuesday, the UN’s High Commisioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, called the situation in the Ukraine “very worrying” and said the government should suspend the laws.

"I call on the authorities to suspend application of the laws to allow time for a thorough review of their content which must be in full compliance with international human rights standards, in particular Ukraine's obligations under the treaties it has ratified," she said in a statement.

The White House blamed the increased tensions on Ukraine’s government for failing to acknowledge its people’s legitimate grievances and threatened sanctions if the use of violence continues. (1)

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Ukraine's government:

"has moved to weaken the foundations of Ukraine's democracy by criminalizing peaceful protest and stripping civil society and political opponents of key democratic protections under the law."(1)

She called on Ukraine to repeal recent laws limiting protests, remove riot police from downtown Kiev and start talking to the opposition.(1)

"The U.S. will continue to consider additional steps -- including sanctions -- in response to the use of violence," Hayden said in a statement. (1)

According to a the ACLU and the New York Times, demonstrators are now receiving text messages saying “Dear User, you have now been registered as a riot attendant.” A scare tactic the government is trying to use to quell protests.

The device used in Kiev is most likely what's known as an 'IMSI catcher', which tricks cell phones into thinking it is a cell phone tower. Any phone within a certain distance of the device will therefore send identifying information to it, allowing the operator to automatically compile a list of every person nearby with a cell phone.(2) 

The intimidating surveillance tactic appears not to have succeeded in Kiev, however. Hours after the government sent the mass text message, "the riot police pushed past barricades of burned buses on Hrushevskoho Street near Parliament but were nonetheless met by a crowd of protesters in ski masks and helmets carrying sticks and ready to fight."(2)

“I can understand why people behaved this way and I can’t call them provocateurs,” Kateryna Kruk, a 22-year-old activist who has been one of the key voices of the movement on Twitter, wrote in The Guardian. “It is sad and wrong that they have expressed their feelings this way, but when there is no leader in the crowd to control people, they start to act as the street teaches them.”(3)

For now, Ukrainians will have to stay angry and, unless things change, get angrier still. And until that happens, they will have to find other outlets for their anger — at Yanukovych, at the police, at the opposition, at Western inaction, at other Ukrainians, at everything. Sunday’s burnt-out police buses may only be the beginning.(3)

(1)  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ukrainians-protest-tough-anti-dissent-legislation

(2)  http://privacysos.org/node/1305

(3)  http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/how-ukraines-protest-movement-turned-into-a-bitter-standoff