Kenya: 68 Killed in Terror Attack on Mall
September 22nd, 2013Via: CNN:
Authorities in Kenya appeared close to ending a deadly siege Monday at an upscale Nairobi mall, where attackers have killed at least 68 people, injured 175, and are believed to still be holding about 10 people hostage.
Huge Cocaine Haul Seized on Air France Plane in Paris
September 22nd, 2013Via: BBC:
Police at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport have seized 1.3 tonnes of pure cocaine on board an Air France flight from Venezuela, French officials say.
The drugs were found packed inside 30 suitcases on 11 September, but the operation was revealed on Saturday.
France’s Interior minister, Manuel Valls, said it was the biggest drug haul ever made in the Paris area.
Six people were arrested, accused of being members of an international drug smuggling ring, Mr Valls said.
Officials say they believe the drugs were meant for sale in France and had a street value of 200m euros (£169m; $270m).
The Air France flight came from Caracas.
The suitcases with the cocaine reportedly were not registered to any of the passengers.
Related? Zurich-Bound Gold Bars Stolen from Air France Plane
The Near Detonation of a Mark 39 Hydrogen Bomb Over North Carolina in 1961
September 22nd, 2013Via: Guardian:
A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima.
The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was narrowly spared a disaster of monumental proportions when two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on 23 January 1961. The bombs fell to earth after a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, and one of the devices behaved precisely as a nuclear weapon was designed to behave in warfare: its parachute opened, its trigger mechanisms engaged, and only one low-voltage switch prevented untold carnage.
Each bomb carried a payload of 4 megatons – the equivalent of 4 million tons of TNT explosive. Had the device detonated, lethal fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and as far north as New York city – putting millions of lives at risk.
Though there has been persistent speculation about how narrow the Goldsboro escape was, the US government has repeatedly publicly denied that its nuclear arsenal has ever put Americans’ lives in jeopardy through safety flaws. But in the newly-published document, a senior engineer in the Sandia national laboratories responsible for the mechanical safety of nuclear weapons concludes that “one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe”.
Venezuela Takes Over Toilet Paper Factory
September 21st, 2013This is where price controls will eventually land a country. All wiped out.
Here’s what the crooked Venezuelan regime could do if it wants to provide competition in the market for toilet paper: Build a toilet paper factory and (try to) offer the products at a cheaper price.
Via: Reuters:
A Venezuelan state agency on Friday ordered the temporary takeover of a factory that produces toilet paper in what it called an effort to ensure consistent supplies after embarrassing shortages earlier this year.
Critics of President Nicolas Maduro say the nagging shortages of products ranging from bathroom tissue to milk are a sign his socialist government’s rigid price and currency controls are failing. They have also used the situation to poke fun at his administration on social media networks.
A national agency called Sundecop, which enforces price controls, said in a statement it would occupy one of the factories belonging to paper producer Manpa for 15 days, adding that National Guard troops would “safeguard” the facility.
“The action in the producer of toilet paper, sanitary napkins and disposable diapers responds to the state’s obligation to ensure a steady supply of basic goods for the people,” Sundecop said, adding it had observed “the violation of the right” to access such products.
Calls to the Manpa factory went unanswered.
Fukushima Forever
September 21st, 2013Via: Huffington Post:
Recent disclosures of tons of radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima reactors spilling into the ocean are just the latest evidence of the continuing incompetence of the Japanese utility, TEPCO. The announcement that the Japanese government will step in is also not reassuring since it was the Japanese government that failed to regulate the utility for decades. But, bad as it is, the current contamination of the ocean should be the least of our worries. The radioactive poisons are expected to form a plume that will be carried by currents to coast of North America. But the effects will be small, adding an unfortunate bit to our background radiation. Fish swimming through the plume will be affected, but we can avoid eating them.
Much more serious is the danger that the spent fuel rod pool at the top of the nuclear plant number four will collapse in a storm or an earthquake, or in a failed attempt to carefully remove each of the 1,535 rods and safely transport them to the common storage pool 50 meters away. Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.
‘Glitch Blocked Goldman at Treasury Auction’
September 20th, 2013[???]
Via: Wall Street Journal:
A glitch in a computer system at the center of the $11.6 trillion market for U.S. government debt last week blocked Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s multibillion-dollar order at an auction of Treasury bills, leaving the bank empty-handed and altering prices in the U.S. debt market.
The Treasury Department on Sept. 9 sold $30 billion of bills that mature in three months. Goldman was left out when its order didn’t go through the computers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which conducts debt auctions for the Treasury. When Treasury officials noticed the botched order, they manually allotted Goldman more T-bills that mature in six months than the bank had asked for in a simultaneous auction.
The Treasury Department has released few details about what happened, saying only that it suffered “a technical issue” in its web-based portal that “resulted in one bidder being unable to access the 3-month auction,” according to a statement on its Web site last week. The Treasury didn’t identify Goldman as the bidder.
The Treasury is investigating the glitch, said people familiar with the situation. A spokeswoman at the New York Fed referred questions to the Treasury Department.
The mishap is the latest in a string of technical hiccups in U.S. financial markets that have raised anxieties among investors about losing money because of balky computers. The glitches are coming as banks and regulators push for trading to become more automated and electronic.
The orderly processing of debt auctions is critical to funding U.S. government programs and obligations. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York gathers and processes orders for Treasury auctions several times a month.
On Constitution Day, California College Student Ordered to Stop Handing Out Constitutions
September 20th, 2013Via: Huffington Post:
Robert Van Tuinen, a student at Modesto Junior College in California, had a theory. He believed that the policies at his college limiting protests and expression were so restrictive that the college would try to shut him down even if he tried to hand out copies of the United States Constitution on September 17–Constitution Day.
Sadly, he was correct.
You can check out the video for yourself…
Not 10 minutes after Van Tuinen began handing out copies of the Constitution, a campus police officer arrived to stop him. Van Tuinen was informed that anytime someone wants to pass out anything on campus, it must first be registered and approved by the Student Development office.
Billionaire Investor: Fed Robbing Poor to Pay Rich
September 19th, 2013Via: CNBC:
The Federal Reserve isn’t just inflating markets but is shifting a massive amount of wealth from the middle class and poor to the rich, according to billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller.
In an interview on “Squawk Box,” the founder of Duquesne Capital said the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing was inflating stocks and other assets held by wealthy investors like himself. But the price of making the rich richer will be paid by future generations.
“This is fantastic for every rich person,” he said Thursday, a day after the Fed’s stunning decision to delay tightening its monetary policy. “This is the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever.”
Research Credit: Tru3Magic
Shinola Is Bringing Watchmaking to Detroit
September 19th, 2013Google’s Moto X smartphone is made in Texas. And now watches… Made in Detroit?
Yep.
Via: The Verge:
Detroit stories come in two kinds. There’s “the collapse of the Motor City” — the story of a once-great city now abandoned and bankrupt, its people gone or dug in, its once-grand buildings now majestic ruins, its streets overrun with stray dogs. And then there’s the story of “Detroit resurgent” — a hope as much as a truth, found on ubiquitous T-shirts emblazoned with “Detroit Hustles Harder” and “Detroit vs. Everybody.” It’s a hope embedded in the city’s motto, adopted way back in 1827: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus. “We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes.” It’s a comeback story felt deep in the city’s blood and bones, and glimpsed through the ashes.
Shinola wants to be part of that hopeful story. You might recognize the name: it’s a resurrection, too, a brand of shoe polish popular around World War II, best remembered now through the phrase, “You don’t know shit from Shinola.” That earthy authenticity beckoned to Bedrock Manufacturing Co., a Dallas, TX, investment firm that revived the brand for its newest venture: an American-based watch manufacturer. So Shinola came to Detroit.
Torvalds On Being Asked to Insert a U.S. Government Back Door Into Linux Kernel
September 19th, 2013Via: eWeek:
NSA Backdoor
Torvalds was also asked if he had ever been approached by the U.S. government to insert a backdoor into Linux.
Torvalds responded “no” while shaking his head “yes,” as the audience broke into spontaneous laughter.
