CHINA HALTS SHIPMENTS OF ALL RARE EARTH METALS TO JAPAN
September 23rd, 2010Update: No Ban on Rare Earth Shipments?
Via: China Daily:
A Chinese trade official on Thursday denied a New York Times report that China had banned exports of rare earths to Japan following the detention of a Chinese trawler captain near the Diaoyu Islands.
The report, which was sourced to unnamed industry experts, said an initial trade embargo on all exports of rare earth minerals would last through the end of this month.
“China has not issued any measures intended to restrict rare earth exports to Japan. There is no foundation for that,” said Chen Rongkai, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce.
“I don’t know how the New York Times came up with this, but it’s not true. There are no such measures.”
—End Update—
Via: New York Times:
Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.
Chinese customs officials are halting all shipments to Japan of so-called rare earth elements, industry officials said on Thursday morning.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao personally called for Japan’s release of the captain, who was detained after his vessel collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels about 40 minutes apart as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China. Mr. Wen threatened unspecified further actions if Japan did not comply.
A Chinese commerce ministry official declined on Thursday to discuss the country’s trade policy on rare earths, saying only that Mr. Wen’s comments remained the Chinese government’s position.
China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.
Related: Japan Developing Alternatives to Rare Earth Metals
Research Credit: eo
‘U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects’
September 23rd, 2010Update: Videos from Press Conference
—End Update—
This is another case of me posting a story to stop the submissions from coming in.
Guys, this is old information.
Also see:
4 Hour Witness DVD – Part 1 of 2
4 Hour Witness DVD – Part 2 of 2
My linking to those videos is not to be seen as an endorsement of Steven Greer, but the witness accounts are interesting.
Via: Press Release / Reuters:
Witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as 2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. Six former U.S. Air Force officers and one former enlisted man will break their silence about these events at the National Press Club and urge the government to publicly confirm their reality.
Stuxnet Worm
September 22nd, 2010Update: Worm Hits Computers of Staff at Iran Nuclear Plant
Via: AP:
A complex computer worm capable of seizing control of industrial plants has affected the personal computers of staff working at Iran’s first nuclear power station weeks before the facility is to go online, the official news agency reported Sunday.
The project manager at the Bushehr nuclear plant, Mahmoud Jafari, said a team is trying to remove the malware from several affected computers, though it “has not caused any damage to major systems of the plant,” the IRNA news agency reported.
It was the first sign that the malicious computer code, dubbed Stuxnet, which has spread to many industries in Iran, has also affected equipment linked to the country’s nuclear program, which is at the core of the dispute between Tehran and Western powers like the United States.
Experts in Germany discovered the worm in July, and it has since shown up in a number of attacks — primarily in Iran, Indonesia, India and the U.S.
The malware is capable of taking over systems that control the inner workings of industrial plants.
—End Update—
Via: Christian Science Monitor:
The Stuxnet malware has infiltrated industrial computer systems worldwide. Now, cyber security sleuths say it’s a search-and-destroy weapon meant to hit a single target. One expert suggests it may be after Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Cyber security experts say they have identified the world’s first known cyber super weapon designed specifically to destroy a real-world target – a factory, a refinery, or just maybe a nuclear power plant.
The cyber worm, called Stuxnet, has been the object of intense study since its detection in June. As more has become known about it, alarm about its capabilities and purpose have grown. Some top cyber security experts now say Stuxnet’s arrival heralds something blindingly new: a cyber weapon created to cross from the digital realm to the physical world – to destroy something.
At least one expert who has extensively studied the malicious software, or malware, suggests Stuxnet may have already attacked its target – and that it may have been Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, which much of the world condemns as a nuclear weapons threat.
…
Stuxnet surfaced in June and, by July, was identified as a hypersophisticated piece of malware probably created by a team working for a nation state, say cyber security experts. Its name is derived from some of the filenames in the malware. It is the first malware known to target and infiltrate industrial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software used to run chemical plants and factories as well as electric power plants and transmission systems worldwide. That much the experts discovered right away.
But what was the motive of the people who created it? Was Stuxnet intended to steal industrial secrets – pressure, temperature, valve, or other settings –and communicate that proprietary data over the Internet to cyber thieves?
By August, researchers had found something more disturbing: Stuxnet appeared to be able to take control of the automated factory control systems it had infected – and do whatever it was programmed to do with them. That was mischievous and dangerous.
But it gets worse. Since reverse engineering chunks of Stuxnet’s massive code, senior US cyber security experts confirm what Mr. Langner, the German researcher, told the Monitor: Stuxnet is essentially a precision, military-grade cyber missile deployed early last year to seek out and destroy one real-world target of high importance – a target still unknown.
Gulf Oil Stories
September 22nd, 2010Here are a few stories near the top of Florida Oil Spill Law right now. They just go on, and on and on:
“Entire food web at risk” say researchers just back from Gulf: OIL “may be HIDDEN in LARGE MARINE MAMMALS” — “Discolored” zooplankton found
Gulf Biologist: “Stunned” if oil product isn’t washing up for at least 20 years (VIDEO)
Gulf researchers discover SIX INCHES of “oily snow” on seafloor
Eat it Gulf Coast: BP says “It’s SAFE for YOUR KIDS to get SAND in their MOUTH” from beaches near where EXPLOSIVE sample was collected (VIDEO)
Snorkeler encounters submerged oil just offshore — “Proof oil is buried” just off coast (VIDEO)
State officials did NO TESTING on any dead fish from the FOUR major kills near oil-impacted areas — Because they “didn’t see any oil related pollution” (VIDEO)
FDA collected only ONE shrimp sample while trawling offshore Louisiana — For the entire month of July (VIDEO)
Scientists find “areas in the water column where there is NO OXYGEN” (VIDEO)
“50,000 workers and others exposed during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill” — “Leukemia, multiple myeloma, and melanoma are of particular interest”
Cryptogon Reader Signs Up for Hosting with BlueHost
September 22nd, 2010Thanks to the owner of radiolibertycentral.com for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $90.
Inside Norway’s Underground Military HQ
September 22nd, 2010Everything old is new again.
Click through for video.
Via: BBC:
In November, Norway will officially move its military command base to its former Cold War complex in Bodo inside the Arctic Circle.
As Russia is strengthening its armed presence on the other side of their shared border, there is no better illustration of the militarisation of the Arctic, and of its serious strategic value for Norway.
The BBC’s Paul Henley has been given exclusive access to the underground Norwegian headquarters.
Related? Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO Giants Know Something We Don’t
Gold Futures Top $1,290 an Ounce on Globex
September 22nd, 2010Via: MarketWatch:
Gold futures climbed to new heights above $1,290 an ounce on Globex during Asia’s morning trading Wednesday with investment demand on the rise after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it was worried about deflation and was prepared to consider more action to boost the economy.
Gold for December delivery touched a high of $1,290.90 in electronic trading on Globex during morning trading in Tokyo. It was last up $15.40, or 1.2%, at $1,289.70.
Bullion had traded around $1,273 an ounce on Globex before the Fed announcement in Washington.
More: Fed’s Concern Over Inflation Broadens Rationale for More Easing
Vatican Bank Investigated Over Money-Laundering
September 21st, 2010Via: BBC:
The head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry, police sources say.
Prosecutors also seized 23m euros ($30m; £19m) from the bank’s accounts with another smaller institution.
The inquiry was launched after two suspicious transactions were reported to tax police in Rome.
The Vatican said it was “perplexed and astonished”, and expressed full confidence in Mr Tedeschi.
The Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), was created during World War II to administer accounts held by religious orders, cardinals, bishops and priests.
Research Credit: Ebbing
U.S. Hunters Shoot Down Google Fiber
September 21st, 2010Via: IT News:
Google has revealed that aerial fibre links to its data centre in Oregon were “regularly” shot down by hunters, forcing the company to put its cables underground.
The search and advertising giant’s network engineering manager Vijay Gill told the AusNOG conference in Sydney last week that people were trying to hit insulators on electricity distribution poles.
The poles also hosted aerially-deployed fibre connected to Google’s $US600 million ($A635 million) data centre in the Dalles, a small city on the Columbia River in the US state of Oregon.
“What people do for sport or because they’re bored, they try to shoot at the insulators,” Gill said.
“I have yet to see them actually hit the insulator, but they regularly shoot down the fibre.
“Every November when hunting season starts invariably we know that the fibre will be shot down, so much so that we are now building an underground path [for it].”
Research Credit: JL
Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?
September 21st, 2010A Cryptogon reader ordered this book on Amazon and I thought I’d mention it for any of you who might be interested:
I have no idea what to make of this, but after reading around on various sites, many people are certain that this helped them with chronic health issues.
I haven’t read the book, but it apparently promotes a number of products. Keep in mind that making your own grounding/earthing gear would be simple and inexpensive. Also, there’s a wide variety of inexpensive grounding products, meant for use by people who deal with static sensitive electronics, that could be used as well.
I’ll just leave comments closed because, on something like this, the most closedminded people will be leaving the poison pen comments, while the curious and empirically minded of you will be off experimenting.
The beauty of this is that it’s extremely simple to try, for no cost, or almost no cost, and the worst that can happen is that it has no effect at all.
I would like to hear from anyone who has made a conscious effort to ground themselves, by going barefoot or using any of the many other ways of grounding oneself. Did it help you, or not?
