Chevron Sued for Billions After Poisoning Waterways in Ecuador; One of the Largest Environmental Damage Cases in History
November 17th, 2009Via: Sydney Morning Herald:
Tens of thousands of Amazonians are suing Chevron, the American oil company, for poisoning their waterways in what is billed as one of the biggest environmental cases in history.
The Ecuadorean claimants said the company illegally dumped toxic waste from its oil production, which filtered into the lakes used by thousands of people for washing and drinking.
The result, they claimed, was one of the worst environmental disasters in history, which led to a public health crisis with rising levels of cancer, birth defects and miscarriages.
Some 30,000 Amazonians are behind a case to be heard by an Ecuadorean judge. Experts said the company might have to pay damages of up to $US27 billion ($29 billion).
The company said there was no proof that any illnesses were caused by its operations. It said the responsibility for cleaning the area lay with the Ecuadorean government and Petroecuador, the state oil company.
U.S. Special Forces Tracking and Countertracking Manual TC 31-34-4
November 17th, 2009I thought I’d just take a quick look, out of curiosity, because it’s a restricted manual…
Don’t click through unless you have at least an hour to blow.
Can you tell the difference between male and female footprints? Want to know what footprints left by someone walking backward over vegetation look like? Wonder how weather affects the clarity of footprints? Wonder about the difference between prints left by wrapped boots vs. unwrapped boots???
It goes on and on. While there’s a lot of potentially useful information here, it’s probably best for feeding any Aspergerian tendencies that you might have.
Check it out on Wikileaks: US Special Forces Tracking and Counter-Tracking, TC 31-34-4, Sep 2009
Active Duty Military Personnel “Volunteer” as Counterinsurgency Advisors with Salinas Police Department
November 17th, 2009This is an astonishing story.
Via: Washington Post:
Famed to readers as the birthplace of John Steinbeck and in supermarket produce circles as the “Salad Bowl of the World,” the city of Salinas carries darker renown in the netherworld of California’s prisons. Instant respect is accorded any inmate tattooed with the words “Salad Bowl” or “Salis” — gang shorthand for a city now defined most of all by ferocious eruptions of violence.
In the space of 11 days this year, seven people were murdered in Salinas. Each killing, like the record 25 homicides the previous year, spilled from the gang warfare that this summer pushed the homicide rate in the city of 140,000 to three times that of Los Angeles. Residents retreated indoors at night, and Mayor Dennis Donohue affirmed his decision to seek help from an unlikely source: the U.S. military.
Since February, combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have been advising Salinas police on counterinsurgency strategy, bringing lessons from the battlefield to the meanest streets in an American city.
“This is our surge,” said Donohue, who solicited the assistance from the elite Naval Postgraduate School, 20 miles and a world away in Monterey. “When the public heard about this, they thought we were going to send the Navy SEALs into Salinas.”
In fact, the cavalry arrived in civvies, carrying laptops rather than M-16s and software instead of mortars. In this case, the most valuable military asset turned out to be an idea: Change the dynamic in the community and victory can follow.
“It’s a little laboratory,” said retired Col. Hy Rothstein, the former Army career officer in Special Forces who heads the team of 15 faculty members and students, mostly naval officers taking time between deployments to pick up a master’s degree. Their effort in Salinas counts as extracurricular and is necessarily voluntary, given the constitutional bar on the military operating within U.S. borders.
“Obviously, there are restrictions,” said Salinas Deputy Police Chief Kelly McMillin. “Not only the constitutional part of it, but just the idea we are going to have choppers fast-roping onto Alisal Street.”
Research Credit: Zenc
Destroying al Qaeda Is Not an Option (Yet)
November 17th, 2009Via: Foreign Policy:
The world would be wise to keep al Qaeda alive, paradoxically enough, for security reasons. Like it or not, keeping a battered al Qaeda intact (if weak) is the world’s best hope of funneling Islamist fanatics into one social network — where they stand the best chance of being spotted, tracked, and contained. The alternative, destroying the terrorist group, would risk fragmenting al Qaeda into thousands of cells, and these will be much harder to follow and impossible to eradicate. It’s the counterterrorist’s dilemma, and the only real choice is the least unsavory: Al Qaeda must live.
Research Credit: Zenc
Britain: Ex-Soldier Faces Jail for Handing in Gun to Police
November 17th, 2009Via: This Is Surrey:
A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for “doing his duty”.
Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.
The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year’s imprisonment for handing in the weapon.
In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: “I didn’t think for one moment I would be arrested.
“I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets.”
The court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.
In his statement, he said: “I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.
“I didn’t know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.
“At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall.”
Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at Reigate police station, and taken to the cells.
Defending, Lionel Blackman told the jury Mr Clarke’s garden backs onto a public green field, and his garden wall is significantly lower than his neighbours.
He also showed jurors a leaflet printed by Surrey Police explaining to citizens what they can do at a police station, which included “reporting found firearms”.
Quizzing officer Garnett, who arrested Mr Clarke, he asked: “Are you aware of any notice issued by Surrey Police, or any publicity given to, telling citizens that if they find a firearm the only thing they should do is not touch it, report it by telephone, and not take it into a police station?”
To which, Mr Garnett replied: “No, I don’t believe so.”
Prosecuting, Brian Stalk, explained to the jury that possession of a firearm was a “strict liability” charge – therefore Mr Clarke’s allegedly honest intent was irrelevant.
Just by having the gun in his possession he was guilty of the charge, and has no defence in law against it, he added.
But despite this, Mr Blackman urged members of the jury to consider how they would respond if they found a gun.
He said: “This is a very small case with a very big principle.
“You could be walking to a railway station on the way to work and find a firearm in a bin in the park.
“Is it unreasonable to take it to the police station?”
Paul Clarke will be sentenced on December 11.
Judge Christopher Critchlow said: “This is an unusual case, but in law there is no dispute that Mr Clarke has no defence to this charge.
“The intention of anybody possessing a firearm is irrelevant.”
Research Credit: dagobaz
Short Video About UAV Combat Operations
November 17th, 2009I wonder if Captain Dan is allowed to have a Bobblehead Jesus on the “flight” deck?
U.S. Army Opens New Ground-Vehicle Energy Research Lab in Michigan
November 17th, 2009What does all of this mean for GM?
I have no idea. But if something really, really strange happens, it might make much more sense in hindsight.
I’m going to quote from Blank Spots on the Map again:
The Manhattan Project, a project lasting roughly five years from start to finish, had cost $2.3 billion in 1945 dollars. A contemporary sum of about $26.8 billion: a tremendous amount. But here, a startling fact: The budget for the entire Manhattan Project was still billions of dollars less than the present day’s annual black budget. Every year, the United States spends more black dollars than it took to build the bomb.
In the few short years it took to build the bomb, and with the ensuing Cold War, the notion of having classified industries, multibillion-dollar secret budgets, legions of security-cleared personnel, and entire branches of science devoted to secret science went from being unthinkable to being so natural that few people even bothered questioning it.
What technologies might someone like Kent Kresa be tasked with providing to GM?
—Obama Fired GM’s CEO; What’s Stirring Behind the Black Curtain?
This isn’t, “really, really” strange, but it’s close enough.
Let’s review.
The Obama regime installed a senior black world operative as the Chairman of the Board at GM, and several months later, a U.S. Army alternative energy lab opens in the neighborhood.
Interpretation:
It’s a false flag lab. A patsy lab. The black budget will never need to enter polite conversation when the technologies—that have probably been in existence for some number of decades—are rolled out.
Go back to sleep, gentle citizens, the invisible hand of the market is hard at work…
Via: United States Army:
The U.S. Army will lead the way in producing safer, more efficient and more high-powered ground vehicles in the future with the construction of the Department of Defense’s Ground System Power and Energy Laboratory, or GSPEL.
The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren, Mich., will host an official groundbreaking ceremony for the lab Aug. 17. Army, government and industry leaders are scheduled to be on hand for the event.
The GSPEL will be a one-of-a-kind research and testing laboratory complex. Eight different labs will be housed in the 30,000-square-foot facility and they are being designed as the cornerstone for the Army’s next generation of power and energy initiatives. The facility will provide scientists and researchers with the ability to integrate hybrid-electric and fuel-cell technologies into advanced military vehicles.
TARDEC worked with the Southwest Research Institute, an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization in San Antonio, Texas, to develop the demanding equipment and facility specifications necessary to make the GSPEL a reality.
One state-of-the-art piece of equipment to be installed in the GSPEL is AeroVironment’s AV-800 Power Processing Unit. The unit, delivered to TARDEC in June, is the highest power-level power-processing unit in the United States. The AV-800 uses power from a grid to test batteries and vehicles, and is capable of returning energy back to the grid at more than 90-percent efficiency.
The amount of energy generated by the system makes it ideal for testing the Army’s next-generation fleet of hybrid-electric manned and unmanned tactical vehicles, officials said. The unit is also used for assisting with the development of stationary devices, such as grid-connected batteries and fuel-cell systems by simulating application-specific load profiles.
As both the Army and the automotive industry look for ways to improve fuel efficiency and reduce energy consumption, TARDEC is working to be a leader in energy security and the development of hybrid-electric technology for ground vehicle systems.
“As the nation’s laboratory for advanced military automotive technology, TARDEC is at the forefront of developing tomorrow’s automotive solutions,” said Michael Bissonette, AeroVironment’s senior vice president and general manager of Efficient Energy Systems. “This new system will enable the development of high-powered electric automotive solutions, representing an important new capability for TARDEC and for the electric transportation industry.”
Deadly Flu Spreads Across Ukraine
November 17th, 2009Via: Zero Hedge:
Deadly flu continues to spread across Ukraine, criminal World Health Organization lies to the public, MSM maintains radio silence.
There are many aspects to this story. It is impossible to know where to begin — let alone cover all the pertinent facts in just one article. Those who have followed my Zerohedge columns in the past may be aware the subject of pandemic influenza has been a regular feature, precisely because there have been multiple signs indicating a global pandemic would be exploited (and perhaps even initiated) by governments and international banks for political purposes.
Research Credit: sh4m.w0w
Apple Patents Technology That Would Force Users to Interact with Ads
November 16th, 2009Via: New York Times:
Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn’t simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.
The system also has a version for music players, inserting commercials that come with an audible prompt to press a particular button to verify the listener’s attentiveness.
The inventors say the advertising would enable computers and other consumer electronics products to be offered to customers free or at a reduced price. In exchange, recipients would agree to view the ads. If, down the road, users found the advertisements and the attentiveness tests unendurable, they could pay to make the device “ad free” on a temporary or permanent basis.
Would anyone have guessed that Apple, so widely revered, would seek patent protection of a gimmick not unlike one used to sell vacation timeshares? (Agree to attend the sales seminar and get a free weekend getaway!) Or could anyone have predicted that the Apple of 2009, a company with premium products, would file a patent application that could make it a latter-day descendant of Free PC and ZapMe, companies that in 1999 gave away PCs engineered to always display on-screen ads?
What the application calls the “enforcement routine” entails administering periodic tests, like displaying on top of an ad a pop-up box with a response button that must be pressed within five seconds before disappearing to confirm that the user is paying attention.
These tests “can be made progressively more aggressive if the user has failed a previous test,” the application says. One option makes the response box smaller and smaller, requiring more concentration to find and banish. Or the system can require that the user press varying keyboard combinations, the current date, or the name of the advertiser upon command, again demonstrating “the presence of an attentive user.”
Doomed: South African Gold Production
November 16th, 2009Via: Mineweb:
The apparent bottom line in a paper published in the South African Journal of Science is that South Africa’s gold industry is on final deathwatch, despite claims of massive existing below-ground reserves. Chris Hartnady, research and technical director of Cape Town earth sciences consultancy Umvoto Africa, has found that South Africa’s Witwatersrand goldfields are around 95% exhausted, and anticipates that production rates should fall permanently below 100 tonnes a year within the coming decade.
Gold production from the Witwatersrand, the biggest known gold field in the world, peaked at around 1,000 tonnes in 1970 and has declined ever since. Hartnady says that while initially (1970-1975) the decline was “quite precipitous”, it has been interrupted by only short periods of slight trend reversal (1982-1984 and 1992-1993).
Leon Esterhuizen, a London-based specialist analyst at RBC Capital Markets, has reacted to the research by saying that “South African gold is dying — this is not new news”, but adds “that it may be dying faster than we currently believe is novel”. On the levels of reserves, Hartnady finds that the South African “residual gold reserve” after production through 2007 is only 2 948 tonnes, a little less than three times the 1970 production figure, and much less than 10% of the officially cited reserve.
