Gulf of Mexico Underwater Oil Plumes 10 Miles Long, 3 Miles Wide and 300 Feet Thick in Spots
May 16th, 2010Via: New York Times:
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.
“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”
The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.
Dr. Joye said the oxygen had already dropped 30 percent near some of the plumes in the month that the broken oil well had been flowing. “If you keep those kinds of rates up, you could draw the oxygen down to very low levels that are dangerous to animals in a couple of months,” she said Saturday. “That is alarming.”
The plumes were discovered by scientists from several universities working aboard the research vessel Pelican, which sailed from Cocodrie, La., on May 3 and has gathered extensive samples and information about the disaster in the gulf.
Prominent Mexican Politician Kidnapped
May 16th, 2010Via: Reuters:
A major figure in Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s conservative party was missing and feared dead on Saturday after his abandoned car was found with signs of violence, the attorney general’s office said.
Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, 69, an outspoken lawyer who was a presidential candidate for Calderon’s National Action Party, or PAN, in the 1990s and has been an influential lawmaker, disappeared late on Friday, local officials said.
His car was discovered near his ranch in the central state of Queretaro with some of his personal belongings inside and blood on a pair of scissors thrown on the ground nearby, Queretaro state public prosecutor Arsenio Duran told local radio.
FYI: Amazon Now Pays Commissions on Kindle Ebook Purchases
May 16th, 2010Really quick: Amazon began paying affiliate commissions on Kindle Ebook purchases in May. The notice says:
In addition to earning advertising fees on Kindle devices and Kindle books, Associates can also earn advertising fees on qualifying sales of Kindle accessories and magazine, newspaper, & blog subscriptions.
Thanks for remembering to generate earnings for Cryptogon by beginning your Amazon sessions via Cryptogon. It’s incredible how it all adds up at the end of the month.
Cryptogon Readers Sent Contributions in First Half of May
May 16th, 2010Thank you.
Pookie $75
HC NZ$35
PK €10
metalsdb.com $25
MW $20
AS £10
April Earnings
May 16th, 2010Earnings in April came to a total of $1248.37. Thank you to everyone who supported Cryptogon in April with direct contributions and the use of affiliate links.
Conficker Worm: The Enemy Within
May 16th, 2010Via: The Atlantic:
When the Conficker computer “worm” was unleashed on the world in November 2008, cyber-security experts didn’t know what to make of it. It infiltrated millions of computers around the globe. It constantly checks in with its unknown creators. It uses an encryption code so sophisticated that only a very few people could have deployed it. For the first time ever, the cyber-security elites of the world have joined forces in a high-tech game of cops and robbers, trying to find Conficker’s creators and defeat them. The cops are failing. And now the worm lies there, waiting…
Facebook Founder Called Trusting Users “Dumb Fucks”
May 16th, 2010Via: Register:
Loveable Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg called his first few thousand users “dumb fucks” for trusting him with their data, published IM transcripts show. Facebook hasn’t disputed the authenticity of the transcript.
Zuckerberg was chatting with an unnamed friend, apparently in early 2004. Business Insider, which has a series of quite juicy anecdotes about Facebook’s early days, takes the credit for this one.
The exchange apparently ran like this:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend’s Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don’t know why.
Zuck: They “trust me”
Zuck: Dumb fucks
The founder was then 19, and he may have been joking. But humour tells you a lot. Some might say that this exchange shows Zuckerberg was not particularly aware of the trust issue in all its depth and complexity.
Facebook is currently in the spotlight for its relentlessly increasing exposure of data its users assumed was private.
Phantom Ray UAV Capable of Completely Autonomous Operation
May 15th, 2010Via: MSNBC:
Boeing’s sleek fighter-size Phantom Ray stealth jet will make its first flight by year’s end. This unmanned airborne system is designed for a variety of warfighter roles ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance to aerial refueling, electronic attack and hunter/killer missions.
The 36-foot-long aircraft, which will serve as a test bed for advanced technologies, was rolled out May 10 at the Boeing Defense, Space & Security plant in St. Louis, Mo. With its 614-mph (0.8 Mach) cruising speed, operating altitude of 40,000 feet and 50-foot wingspan, the 36,5000-pound Phantom Ray advances the state of the art for unmanned aircraft. The bat-shaped flying wing has a combat radius of 1,200 nautical miles. Power comes from a General Electric F404-102D engine.
Unlike earlier generation drones serving with the military in hot spots such as Afghanistan, where the aircraft is remotely controlled from the ground by a pilot using a joy stick, the Phantom Ray is capable of completely autonomous operation without the need for anyone to be at the controls, according to Boeing.
It’s more fly-by-mouse than fly-by wire. You upload a mission profile to the Phantom Ray’s onboard computer and the aircraft runs the entire mission from takeoff through mission and landing without the needs for human intervention or control unless the need arises to make changes in the mission profile.
Why We Could All Use a Heavy Dose of Techno-Skepticism
May 15th, 2010Via: Technofascism Blog:
A new prophet, Jason Silva, joins the ranks of Ray Kurzweil as evangelist for the emerging Singularity techno-religion.
In his new film, “Turning Into Gods”, Mr. Silva promotes the central tenet of this new cult: that all of us will one day become all-powerful deities, that will play with genes and atoms like circus clowns juggling balls. And, it is only our old-fashioned, superstitious notion of what it means to be human, that is holding us back from an eternal techno-utopia; in which, we will finally assume our pre-ordained role as a Divine Programmer.
Sound ludicrous? Well, Mr. Silva is definitely not alone with his unsettling hopes for the future. If you’re not familiar with the relatively new Singularity religion, you might also want to take a gander at Kurzweil’s “Age of Spiritual Machines” or Eric Drexler’s “Engines of Creation.” In those books, the authors not only spell out a vision of the future that would make any sane person’s hair stand on end; they believe a future spent locked into a virtual-reality vault is our inevitable destiny.
Ten Things For 2010
May 15th, 2010Via: Market Ticket:
Yes, I expected the game to end in 2009. I did not believe that our government could sell a net $1.5 trillion of new issuance (debt) for more than a year or so, nor could they roll over some $600 billion every month to keep the Ponzi going for long. They got away with it for two years, one more than I thought they would, but now cracks are appearing in this facade globally, not just here in the US.
The “powers that be” have done a fine job of trying to give the appearance of solvency. But you can’t create solvency where it doesn’t exist, and appearances don’t last forever. We are now in the phase of this mess where recognition of the Ponziconomy of the 2000s is showing up not in bank stocks (bad) but in nations (ruinous.)
Research Credit: dagobaz
