U.S. New-Home Sales Unexpectedly Fall to Lowest on Record
March 23rd, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
Purchases of new U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in February to the slowest pace on record and prices dropped to the lowest level since December 2003, adding to evidence the industry is floundering.
TOKYO TAP WATER TESTS 2.5 TIMES ABOVE RADIOACTIVE LIMITS FOR INFANTS
March 23rd, 2011Via: Globe and Mail:
Tap water in Tokyo tested two times above the limits for radioactive iodine considered safe for infants, officials said Wednesday amid burgeoning concerns about food safety in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.
Levels of radioactive iodine in tap water at a water treatment centre in downtown Tokyo that supplies much of the city’s tap water contained 210 becquerels per litre of iodine-131, officials from the Tokyo Water Bureau said at a news conference.
That amount is more than twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels per litre for infants, the most vulnerable segment of the population. Babies in Tokyo should not be fed tap water although the level is not an immediate health risk for adults, officials said.
China’s Real Time Voice Analysis Systems Drop Calls When People Mention the Word ‘Protest’
March 23rd, 2011Flashback 2005: Narus Opens New Office in China, Signs Two Partner Agreements in Region; New Office Further Strengthens Narus Presence in Asia:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Narus, Inc., the leading Carrier-Class IP Platform software provider, announced its opening of a new office in Beijing, China, to support direct sales in China. In conjunction with this, Narus has signed two partner agreements, one with Beijing Taiji Information Security Technology Corporation Limited and the other with CITIC Guoan Information Technology Corporation Limited. These partners are widely recognized premier telecommunications vendors in China.
Related: Narus Stories on Cryptogon
Via: New York Times:
If anyone wonders whether the Chinese government has tightened its grip on electronic communications since protests began engulfing the Arab world, Shakespeare may prove instructive.
A Beijing entrepreneur, discussing restaurant choices with his fiancée over their cellphones last week, quoted Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The second time he said the word “protest,” her phone cut off.
He spoke English, but another caller, repeating the same phrase on Monday in Chinese over a different phone, was also cut off in midsentence.
A host of evidence over the past several weeks shows that Chinese authorities are more determined than ever to police cellphone calls, electronic messages, e-mail and access to the Internet in order to smother any hint of antigovernment sentiment. In the cat-and-mouse game that characterizes electronic communications here, analysts suggest that the cat is getting bigger, especially since revolts began to ricochet through the Middle East and North Africa, and homegrown efforts to organize protests in China began to circulate on the Internet about a month ago.
“The hard-liners have won the field, and now we are seeing exactly how they want to run the place,” said Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing analyst of China’s leadership. “I think the gloves are coming off.”
FUKUSHIMA: 500 MILLISIEVERTS PER HOUR [???] CORRECTED: 500 MICROSIEVERTS PER HOUR
March 23rd, 2011
UPDATE: Corrected: Radiation at 500 Microsieverts/hr at Japan No. 2 Unit
*shaking head* Come on guys.
Via: Reuters:
Agency corrects radiation level to 500 microsieverts per hour, not millisieverts. Corrects to show level was recorded on March 18, not Wednesday; and removes reference to highest level of radiation since crisis began.
—End Update—
Via: Reuters:
Workers at Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant temporarily halted work on Wednesday at the complex’s reactor No.2 because of high radiation levels, the nation’s nuclear safety watchdog said.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the workers had withdrawn after radiation monitoring showed levels of 500 millisieverts per hour, which is into the danger zone.
There are hundreds of workers at the plant trying to avert nuclear disaster and, at times, they have had to withdraw from parts of the complex as radiation levels spike.
Fukushima Engineer Says He Covered Up Flaw at Shut Reactor
March 23rd, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
One of the reactors in the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may have been relying on flawed steel to hold the radiation in its core, according to an engineer who helped build its containment vessel four decades ago.
Mitsuhiko Tanaka says he helped conceal a manufacturing defect in the $250 million steel vessel installed at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 4 reactor while working for a unit of Hitachi Ltd. in 1974. The reactor, which Tanaka has called a “time bomb,” was shut for maintenance when the March 11 earthquake triggered a 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that disabled cooling systems at the plant, leading to explosions and radiation leaks.
“Who knows what would have happened if that reactor had been running?” Tanaka, who turned his back on the nuclear industry after the Chernobyl disaster, said in an interview last week. “I have no idea if it could withstand an earthquake like this. It’s got a faulty reactor inside.”
Tanaka’s allegations, which he says he brought to the attention of Japan’s Trade Ministry in 1988 and chronicled in a book two years later called “Why Nuclear Power is Dangerous,” have resurfaced after Japan’s worst nuclear accident on record. The No. 4 reactor was hit by explosions and a fire that spread from adjacent units as the crisis deepened.
Libya’s Sea of Fresh Water Beneath the Desert, But Wait, There’s More
March 23rd, 2011Update: NATO in Libya: Besides the Oil, Is It Also a Gold Robbery?
—End Update—
We all know about the obvious oil component to what is happening in Libya, but that’s definitely not he full story. Here are some other factors to keep in mind as the U.S. leads a war in Libya for “humanitarian” reasons.
Saudi Aramco, Seas Beneath the Sands:
Libya is already pumping water from the Kufra Oasis, in its southeast corner, through a four-meter-diameter pipeline to its thirsty coastal cities. When fully operational, that project will pump some 3.6 million cubic meters per day. Still, at current extraction rates, the aquifer is not likely to be depleted for a thousand years.
Christian Science Monitor, Libya’s Qaddafi Taps ‘Fossil Water’ to Irrigate Desert Farms:
While many countries in the Middle East and North Africa bicker over water rights, Libya has tapped into an aquifer of ‘fossil water’ to change its topography – turning sand into soil. The 26-year, $20 billion project is nearly finished.
As I was reading about how bone dry (on the surface) and sunny Libya is, I thought, “Wow, sounds great for solar power.” And then I found this, from the Tripoli Post:
Moreover, since this report came out, there has been some encouraging progress in Libya on the practical front regarding the issue of solar power. In October this year (as reported by the Tripoli Post in issue 171) the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it was sending a team of experts from its National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado to collaborate on concentrating solar power in Libya. The DOE confirmed that Libya, with its low humidity and numerous sunny days, had the ideal conditions for the possible exploitation of solar power technologies.
This is indeed encouraging news. Libya has an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres, 90% of which is hot sunny desert. Libya, through its proximity to mainland Europe, already supplies Europe energy by pipeline via the Greenstream pipeline – the longest sub-sea pipeline in the Mediterranean. If this new technology is realized, it would hopefully put Libya in the centre of any future post-oil era energy industry.
Shortage of Japanese Parts Affecting Variety of Companies
March 22nd, 2011Via: Reuters:
Sony Corp cut output at five more plants and Toyota Motor delayed restarting assembly lines, as the global supply of parts and products began to feel the full impact of Japan’s catastrophic earthquake.
Global electronics and autos companies have been hardest hit by the turmoil, but in an illustration of how the ripples are spreading, Rio Tinto, the world’s No.2 iron ore miner behind Brazil’s Vale, warned the disruptions posed a threat to its expansion plans.
…
Companies from Apple Inc to General Motors Co and Nokia are feeling the impact.
…
Japan’s grip on the global electronics supply chain is causing particular concern. It produces around a fifth of the world’s computer chips and exported 7.2 trillion yen ($91.3 billion) worth of electronic parts last year, research from Mirae Asset Securities shows.
“There are a huge number of little bits of the high-tech food chain which are done nowhere but in Japan,” said Sam Perry, senior investment manager of Pictet Japanese Equity Selection Fund. “Nobody else has the quality or the consistency, and in some cases the technology, to do it.”
FBI Tries to Blackmail Honorably Discharged Marine Into Becoming an Informant Because He Emailed a Muslim Cleric for Advice on Raising Children
March 22nd, 2011Man oh man. I think we need to let the mighty eagle soar once more for this one:
Via: Chicago Sun Times:
Abe Mashal, a 31-year-old dog trainer from St. Charles, says FBI agents told him he ended up on the government’s no-fly list because he exchanged e-mails with a Muslim cleric they were monitoring.
The topic: How to raise his children in an interfaith household.
Mashal said he has never had any links to terror or terrorists and is a “patriotic,” honorably discharged Marine Corps veteran.
He found out he’d been flagged last April, when he tried to board a flight to Spokane, Wash., to train dogs for a client. Since then, his family members and friends have been questioned, and he said he has lost business because he isn’t allowed to fly.
Mashal is one of 17 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union over the list.
FBI agents questioned him at Midway Airport, then at his home. Finally, he was summoned to a hotel in Schaumburg, where more FBI agents told him he’d been placed on the no-fly list because of an e-mail he had sent to an imam — a Muslim cleric — whom they’d been watching.
Mashal said he had sought the imam’s advice about raising children in a mixed-religion household. Mashal is Muslim; his wife is Christian.
He said the agents offered to get him off the list — if he would become an undercover informant at mosques. He refused and said he feels he was being blackmailed.
“I feel like I’m living in communist Russia, not the United States of America, for someone to jump into my life like that,” he said.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces the no-fly list, wouldn’t comment. In October, Homeland Security sent Mashal a letter saying that it had reviewed his file and that “it has been determined that no changes or corrections are warranted at this time.”
The FBI’s Next Generation Identification System
March 22nd, 2011This sounds pretty similar to what the DoD did in Afghanistan.
And don’t miss the last sentence below.
Via: Charleston Gazette:
The Clarksburg FBI complex is taking part in a $1 billion project that will enable law enforcement agencies to identify criminals and terrorists by physical characteristics more quickly and accurately, an FBI official said Monday in Charleston.
Earlier this month, the FBI center unveiled its “Next Generation Identification System,” which will slowly replace an older system that can no longer handle the volume of fingerprints sent to Clarksburg.
…
The NGI system, built by Lockheed Martin, allows FBI employees to conduct automated fingerprint searches and exchange information with more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies.
The FBI’s fingerprint examining staff also received new “advanced technology workstations” that will help increase accuracy, Morris said.
Under the system, state and local police officers also will eventually use hand-held devices to scan suspects’ fingerprints and send the images electronically to the FBI center.
“It’s a quick scan to let police officers know if they should let the person go, or take him into custody,” Morris said.
In later stages, NGI system also will be expanded to include the analysis of palm prints, handwriting, faces, human irises and voices.
…
The FBI plans to increase the size of the Clarksburg complex significantly with the opening of a new 350,000-square-foot Biometric Technology Center in 2014, Morris said. The FBI plans to share the facility with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Second ATF Agent Talks About Sanctioned Gun Trafficking to Mexican Drug Cartels
March 22nd, 2011Via: CBS:
South of El Paso, Texas, on Mexico’s side of the border, lies Juarez – the most dangerous city in the world. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports ATF Special Agent Rene Jaquez has been stationed there for the past year, trying to keep U.S. guns from being trafficked into Mexico.
“That’s what we do as an agency,” Jaquez said. “ATF’s primary mission is to make sure that we curtail gun trafficking.”
That’s why Jaquez tells CBS News he was so alarmed to hear his own agency may have done the opposite: encouraged U.S. gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexico’s drug cartels. Apparently, ATF hoped that letting weapons “walk” onto the street – to see where they’d end up – would help them take down a cartel.
Jaquez is so opposed to the strategy, he’s speaking out. “You don’t let guns walk. I’ve never let a gun walk.”
Yet ATF agents told us they were ordered to let thousands of weapons walk. Two of them, assault rifles, were later found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona last December. Another gunrunning suspect under ATF surveillance was linked to the shooting of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata. And sources say many more “walked” weapons turned up at Mexican crime scenes.
Jaquez said, “I think this incidence is probably one of the darkest days in ATF’s history.”
But ATF wasn’t working alone on the case known as “Fast and Furious.” Documents show ATF had conference calls with “DHS” (Homeland Security). “USMS” (U.S. Marshals) and DEA. An “ICE,” or Customs agent, was on ATF’s Fast and Furious team. They were advised by an “AUSA,” or Assistant U.S. Attorney under the Justice Department.
Related:
ATF Let Hundreds of U.S. Weapons Fall into Hands of Suspected Mexican Gunrunners
