Britain: Police Break Into Homes; Lecture People About Burglary Risks
June 28th, 2011I didn’t believe that this was real. I thought that some hoax had been picked up by a tabloid newspaper and that it was off to the races from there.
Nope. It’s real. This is the ‘Operation Poppins’ page on the London Metropolitan Police website.
Via: The Sun:
COPS are breaking into homes in a dramatic bid to highlight the risk of being a victim of burglars.
Police from Fortune Greens Safer Neighbourhood Team in West Hampstead, north London, are climbing through windows left open to alert residents to the sinister threat.
Officers are carrying out the mock raids in a high-profile initiative to slash the number of burglaries.
They are committing break-ins across their patch, locking up the property and leaving a calling card to notify the stunned owner that they were there.
A young woman on her own was startled when a uniformed cop strolled into her living room after clambering in through an open bedroom window.
Police said that after her initial shock she was grateful when they gave her crime prevention advice and tips on making her home safer.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Intentionally Flooded Farmland, Now Offering to Buy It
June 28th, 2011Via: KMBC:
Some river bottom property owners say they received a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers’ Kansas City district office asking them if they want to sell their land.
KMBC’s Micheal Mahoney reported that the letter is angering some of the people who received it because some of them are fighting for their land from a flood they believe the Corps caused.
…
Kneuvean said this may be a case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. But Mahoney reported that some people believe the Corps deliberately released massive amounts of water in hopes of driving down the sales price on flooded ground.
“We’d never tie the two together. This has nothing to do with the Missouri River ecosystem,” Kneuvean said.
Greece: Possibility of a Military Coup?
June 28th, 2011Via: CityWire:
While the IMF stalls on its rescue package for Greece, many in the market are beginning to question whether the country would not in fact be better off out of the euro altogether.
But for Steven Cordell, manager of Cazenove’s Pan Europe fund, that is a scenario that should be avoided at all costs.
‘Unless the Greeks are turkeys voting for Christmas then I don’t see an exit for them out of the Euro.’
‘The Greek state employs something like two thirds of the population so the number of losers would be massive.’
He says the reaction of the military is also a significant factor to consider when discussing any potential break away from the Euro for Greece.
‘Spending on the Greek army is amongst the highest per capita in the whole of the EU, so if a plan didn’t materialise you could see a military coup. We’re talking controlled order here and it has happened before in ‘74.’
Cordell says at the moment much of the diplomacy is currently focusing on huge austerity plans, this he thinks is missing a key point. ‘All the talk is about cut, cuts, cuts, “do as you’re told you naughty boy” type thing, but there has been no incentive for the Greeks to create a better future for themselves.’
Wildfire Spreads to Within One Mile of Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab
June 28th, 2011Update: 30,000 55-gallon Drums of Plutonium-Contaminated Waste, Stored in Fabric Tents Above Ground [???]
Via: AP:
The anti-nuclear watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, however, said the fire appeared to be about 3 1/2 miles from a dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground. The group said the drums were awaiting transport to a low-level radiation dump site in southern New Mexico.
Lab spokesman Steve Sandoval declined to confirm that there were any such drums currently on the property. He acknowledged that low-level waste is at times put in drums and regularly taken from the lab to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project site in Carlsbad.
Sandoval said the fire was “quite a bit away” from that storage area. But he could not say what would happen if drums containing such waste were to burn.
—End Update—
Via: Reuters:
A raging wildfire has spread to within one mile of the nation’s preeminent nuclear weapons facility, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, authorities said on Monday.
The blaze has grown to 43,597 acres and caused the evacuation of hundreds of people, with thousands encouraged to evacuate voluntarily.
Researchers Discover New Alloy That Converts Heat Directly Into Electricity
June 28th, 2011Still waiting… (Not holding breath.)
MIT: Turning Heat to Electricity
University of Utah: A Sound Way to Turn Heat Into Electricity
Via: PhysOrg:
University of Minnesota engineering researchers in the College of Science and Engineering have recently discovered a new alloy material that converts heat directly into electricity. This revolutionary energy conversion method is in the early stages of development, but it could have wide-sweeping impact on creating environmentally friendly electricity from waste heat sources.
Researchers say the material could potentially be used to capture waste heat from a car’s exhaust that would heat the material and produce electricity for charging the battery in a hybrid car. Other possible future uses include capturing rejected heat from industrial and power plants or temperature differences in the ocean to create electricity. The research team is looking into possible commercialization of the technology.
“This research is very promising because it presents an entirely new method for energy conversion that’s never been done before,” said University of Minnesota aerospace engineering and mechanics professor Richard James, who led the research team.
Research Credit: neverwas
FOIA’d Documents Raise New Questions About Airport Body Scanner Radiation Risks
June 27th, 2011Cancer clusters…
Via: Electronic Privacy Information Center:
In a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC has just obtained documents concerning the radiation risks of TSA’s airport body scanner program. The documents include agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs, and results of some radiation tests. One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters – safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure. Another document indicates that the DHS mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stating that NIST “affirmed the safety” of full body scanners. The documents obtained by EPIC reveal that NIST disputed that characterization and stated that the Institute did not, in fact, test the devices. Also, a Johns Hopkins University study revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the “General Public Dose Limit.” For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security – Full Body Scanner Radiation Risks and EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of Body Scanner Program).
Research Credit: EO
Flood Berm Collapses at Nebraska Nuclear Plant
June 27th, 2011Via: AP:
A berm holding the flooded Missouri River back from a Nebraska nuclear power station collapsed early Sunday, but federal regulators said they were monitoring the situation and there was no danger.
The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station shut down in early April for refueling, and there is no water inside the plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. Also, the river is not expected to rise higher than the level the plant was designed to handle. NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said the plant remains safe.
The federal commission had inspectors at the plant 20 miles north of Omaha when the 2,000-foot berm collapsed about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Water surrounded the auxiliary and containment buildings at the plant, it said in a statement.
The Omaha Public Power District has said the complex will not be reactivated until the flooding subsides. Its spokesman, Jeff Hanson, said the berm wasn’t critical to protecting the plant but a crew will look at whether it can be patched.
Greece: ‘A Sovereign Debt Crisis of Sophoclean Dimensions’
June 27th, 2011Via: Telegraph:
The essence of ancient Greek tragedy is that the audience knows it will end in disaster, but feels compelled to watch the horror unfold. And so it is with the modern version, a sovereign debt crisis of Sophoclean dimensions. Themes of the great dramatist’s finer works are all there: how arrogance, pride and deception result in unbearable pain; the inevitability of retribution and (not yet witnessed in Athens or Brussels) the arrival of wisdom through suffering.
Tomorrow, Greek MPs are scheduled to vote on a fresh austerity package. If it’s passed, the country will receive the next 12 billion euros of a 110 billion euro bail-out. Sadly, this is little more than a financial hors d’oeuvre. Still required is an additional 100 billion euro deal if Greece is to remain solvent until 2013. In effect, the country is borrowing enormous sums to service existing debts, which it cannot afford to repay. As Sophocles reminds us, when divine and human purposes conflict, the gods will always prevail. In this case, Athena, the deity of endeavour and reason, is deeply offended by Olympian self-indulgence. The upshot will not be a miraculous economic recovery, but a spectacular flame-out. As far as Greece is concerned, there is no deus ex machina. The tragic denouement will involve its default or withdrawal from the single currency, perhaps both.
Greece is bust; it already owes 160 per cent of its GDP. Its economy is staggeringly inefficient. Many in the public sector enjoy retirement at 50 and pensions close to full final salary. The private sector is blighted by corruption. The tax-collecting system operates on the basis of a tips box, with only 5,000 Greeks admitting to an income of more than 100,000 euros. When in January 2001 the country flagged its intention to ditch the drachma for the euro, the then prime minister, Costas Simitis, promised: “Our inclusion [in the eurozone] ensures for us greater stability and opens up new horizons”. That was the comedy.
Now for the tragedy. Greece’s entry was based on a false prospectus, as the European Commission admitted in 2004: “It is clear Greece would not have joined the euro with the figures we have now.” Greece hid massive budget deficits between 1997 and 2003 by understating military spending, exaggerating VAT receipts and overestimating social security surpluses. Thereafter, while the Brussels elite was suspending disbelief, the Greeks were borrowing cheaply, paying themselves lavishly and spending uncontrollably. The state became a vehicle for pillage and patronage. Dionysos, god of parties and pleasure, had his day.
Threat of $100 Billion Hit if U.S. Top Rating Lost
June 27th, 2011I definitely wouldn’t assume that the impact of a credit rating cut would be limited to $100 billion. I doubt there is any way to know what the impact will be because so many derivatives have been struck off the underlying debt. In other words, this $100 billion number may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Via: Financial Times:
Investors in the US government bond market could face losses of up to $100bn if the largest economy loses its triple A rating, according to a research arm of McGraw-Hill, the parent of Standard & Poor’s.
A ratings downgrade that results in higher bond yields and lower prices could also mean the US Treasury paying $2.3bn-$3.75bn a year more in interest on financing a $1,000bn annual budget deficit.
“If Standard & Poor’s or any of the other major rating agencies downgrade the US, Treasuries would likely drop in value, possibly by as much as $100bn,” said analysts at S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies, a research team separate from the agency.
Fukushima Residents’ Urine Now Radioactive
June 27th, 2011Via: Japan Times:
More than 3 millisieverts of radiation has been measured in the urine of 15 Fukushima residents of the village of Iitate and the town of Kawamata, confirming internal radiation exposure, it was learned Sunday.
Both are about 30 to 40 km from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, which has been releasing radioactive material into the environment since the week of March 11, when the quake and tsunami caused core meltdowns.
“This won’t be a problem if they don’t eat vegetables or other products that are contaminated,” said Nanao Kamada, professor emeritus of radiation biology at Hiroshima University. “But it will be difficult for people to continue living in these areas.”
Kamada teamed up with doctors including Osamu Saito of Watari Hospital in the city of Fukushima to conduct two rounds of tests on each resident in early and late May, taking urine samples from 15 people between 4 and 77.
Radioactive cesium was found both times in each resident.
Radioactive iodine was logged as high as 3.2 millisieverts in six people in the first survey, but none was found in the second survey.
The data indicate accumulated external exposure was between 4.9 and 13.5 millisieverts, putting the grand total between 4.9 to 14.2 millisieverts over about two months, they said.
“The figures did not exceed the maximum of 20 millisieverts a year, but we want residents to use these results to make decisions (to move),” said Kamada.
