Japanese Government Considers Building ‘Back-Up’ Tokyo
November 3rd, 2011Via: Wired:
The Japanese government has unveiled radical plans to build a standby city for Tokyo’s political functions to move to in the event of a disabling earthquake or other natural disaster.
The back-up city, which has been codenamed IRTBBC (Integrated Resort, Tourism, Business and Backup City) will sit 300 miles west of Tokyo on the site of Itami Airport, which is politically unpopular and has been largely superceded by other airports, including Kansai and Kobe.
The site, which is approximately five square kilometres in area, will contain facilities for parliament and ministries, so that government will be able to continue in the event of a disaster. However it will also include office complexes, resort facilities, casinos and parks, as well as a 652-metre-high office building.
The infrastructure has been planned for a population of 50,000 residents (which we should note is some way short of Tokyo’s population of 13 million) and a workforce of 200,000 — most of whom will commute from Osaka, Japan’s second city, which the site lies to the north of.
Hajime Ishii, a member of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party, said during the public launch of the project: “The idea is being able to have a back-up, a spare battery for the functions of the nation.”
GlaxoSmithKline Will Pay $3 Billion to Resolve U.S. Criminal and Civil Investigations
November 3rd, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve U.S. criminal and civil investigations into whether the U.K. company marketed drugs for unapproved uses and other matters, its biggest legal settlement.
Negotiations over the terms are ongoing and will be completed next year, the London-based company said in a statement today. The cost is covered by existing legal provisions and will be paid from the company’s cash resources, Glaxo said.
NYPD Holds College Student in Jail for Three Days Because She Wasn’t Carrying ID
November 3rd, 2011Via: New York Times:
Early in the morning on Oct. 22, a Saturday, Ms. Zucker, 21, and her friend Alex Fischer, also 21, were stopped by the police in Riverside Park and given tickets for trespassing. Mr. Fischer was permitted to leave after he produced his driver’s license. But Ms. Zucker, on a visit to New York City with a group of Carnegie Mellon University seniors looking for jobs in design industries, had left her wallet in a hotel two blocks away.
She was handcuffed. For the next 36 hours, she was moved from a cell in the 26th Precinct station house on West 126th Street to central booking in Lower Manhattan and then — because one of the officers was ending his shift before Ms. Zucker could be photographed for her court appearance, and you didn’t think he was going to take the subway uptown while his partner stayed with her at booking, did you? — she was brought back to Harlem.
There she waited in a cell until a pair of fresh police officers were rustled up to bring her back downtown for booking, where she spent a second night in custody.
The judge proceeded to dismiss the ticket in less than a minute.
Fission Detected at Damaged Fukushima Atomic Power Plant
November 2nd, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
Tokyo Electric Power Co. detected signs of nuclear fission at its crippled Fukushima atomic power plant, raising the risk of increased radiation emissions. No increase in radiation was found at the site and the situation is under control, officials said.
The company, known as Tepco, began spraying boric acid on the No. 2 reactor at 2:48 a.m. Japan time to prevent accidental chain reactions, according to an e-mailed statement today. The detection of xenon, which is associated with nuclear fission, was confirmed today by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, the country’s atomic regulator said.
“Given the signs, it’s certain that fission is occurring,” Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tepco who regularly talks to the media, told reporters in Tokyo today. There’s been no large-scale or sustained criticality and no increase in radiation, he said.
Fission taking place in the reactor can lead to increases in radiation emissions and raises concerns about further leaks after another radioactive hot spot was discovered in Tokyo on Oct. 29. It’s possible there are similar reactions occurring in the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors, the other cores damaged at the station, Matsumoto said.
“Melted fuel in the No. 2 reactor may have undergone a sustained process of nuclear fission or re-criticality,” Tetsuo Ito, the head of Kinki University’s Atomic Energy Research Institute, said by phone. “The nuclear fission should be containable by injecting boron into the reactor to absorb neutrons.”
U.S. Government Glossed Over Cancer Concerns As It Rolled Out Airport X-Ray Scanners
November 2nd, 2011Via: Pro Publica:
On Sept. 23, 1998, a panel of radiation safety experts gathered at a Hilton hotel in Maryland to evaluate a new device that could detect hidden weapons and contraband. The machine, known as the Secure 1000, beamed X-rays at people to see underneath their clothing.
One after another, the experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration raised questions about the machine because it violated a longstanding principle in radiation safety — that humans shouldn’t be X-rayed unless there is a medical benefit.
“I think this is really a slippery slope,” said Jill Lipoti, who was the director of New Jersey’s radiation protection program. The device was already deployed in prisons; what was next, she and others asked — courthouses, schools, airports? “I am concerned … with expanding this type of product for the traveling public,” said another panelist, Stanley Savic, the vice president for safety at a large electronics company. “I think that would take this thing to an entirely different level of public health risk.”
The machine’s inventor, Steven W. Smith, assured the panelists that it was highly unlikely that the device would see widespread use in the near future. At the time, only 20 machines were in operation in the entire country.
“The places I think you are not going to see these in the next five years is lower-security facilities, particularly power plants, embassies, courthouses, airports and governments,” Smith said. “I would be extremely surprised in the next five to 10 years if the Secure 1000 is sold to any of these.”
Today, the United States has begun marching millions of airline passengers through the X-ray body scanners, parting ways with countries in Europe and elsewhere that have concluded that such widespread use of even low-level radiation poses an unacceptable health risk.
Fresh Record High for U.S. Food-Stamp Use; 45.8 Million
November 2nd, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
The number of Americans receiving food stamps reached a record 45.8 million in August, the government said.
…
The number of Americans receiving food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has set records every month but one since December 2008.
GREEK MILITARY CHIEFS REPLACED
November 2nd, 2011Via: Telegraph:
As Greek poltics grew ever more chaotic strong political protests erupted as the government moved to replace military chiefs with officers seen as more supportive of George Papandreou, the prime minister.
In a surprise development, Panos Beglitis, Defence Minister, a close confidante of Mr Papandreou, summoned the chiefs of the army, navy and air-force and announced that they were being replaced by other senior officers.
Neither the minister nor any government spokesman offered an explanation for the sudden, sweeping changes, which were scheduled to be considered on November 7 as part of a regular annual review of military leadership retirements and promotions. Usually the annual changes do not affect the entire leadership.
“Under no circumstances will these changes be accepted, at a time when the government is collapsing and has not even secured a vote of confidence,” said an official announcement by the opposition conservative New Democracy party.
“It has no moral or real authority any more, and such surprise moves can only worsen the crisis currently sweeping the country”.
Flashback: Greece: Possibility of a Military Coup?
Markets Dive on Greek Referendum
November 1st, 2011Via: BBC:
US and European markets have fallen following Monday’s announcement of a Greek referendum on the latest aid package to solve its debt crisis.
Eurozone leaders agreed a 50% debt write-off for Greece last week as well as strengthening Europe’s bailout fund.
But the Greek move has cast doubt on whether the deal can go ahead.
New York’s Dow Jones fell 2% on opening. London’s FTSE 100 was down 3%, while the Dax in Frankfurt and the Cac 40 in Paris were down about 5%.
Shares in banks saw the biggest falls, with Societe Generale falling 16.9%, BNP Paribas down 14%, Credit Agricole down 12.9%, Commerzbank falling 10.7%, Deutsche Bank down 10.3% and Barclays 10.5% lower.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to discuss the Greek announcement with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the telephone.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it was “an unexpected decision that generates uncertainties”.
Will Be Monitoring Stock Market Sell Off
November 1st, 2011S&P500 futures are down 3% premarket. The dollar is ramping higher.
FTSE 100 -3.67
DAX -6%
CAC 40 -5.18
Buckle up.
MF Global: Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Missing from Customer Accounts
November 1st, 2011Via: New York Times:
Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the company’s operations as it filed for bankruptcy on Monday, according to several people briefed on the matter.
The revelation of the missing money scuttled an 11th hour deal for MF Global to sell a major part of itself to a rival brokerage firm. MF Global, the powerhouse commodities brokerage run by Jon S. Corzine, had staked its survival on completing the deal.
