U.S. Doubles Down on Afghan Air War; 650 Strikes in July
August 5th, 2011Via: Wired:
In July of 2010, when Gen. Stanley McChrsytal handed over command of the war in Afghanistan to Gen. David Petraeus, air strikes had become a tool of absolute last resort. NATO planes were only making about 10 attack runs a day — in the middle of Afghanistan’s fighting season, and with an influx of tens of thousands of new allied troops colliding with dug-in militants.
In July of 2011, Petraeus passed the baton to Gen. John Allen. But it’s a whole new — and much more ferocious — air war. Allied jets and bombers are unloading their weapons on more than 20 sorties a day, according to U.S. military statistics, for a total of 652 attack runs.
It’s part of a war effort that has grown more aggressive in nearly every way. Special operations forces now launch a dozen “kill/capture” raids a night, and have taken 3,775 insurgents off the battlefield in the last year. Massive surface-to-surface missiles have been used to clear the Taliban out of Kandahar; tanks have been sent to Helmand province to help crush opponents; civilian homes taken over by insurgents have been leveled without apology.
Disclosure
August 5th, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell of hold any financial instrument.
Update: Out DIA
That’s not a good way to pay for groceries for the month, but so it goes…
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Update: WEEEE!
Rally monkey pumps it, I dump it.
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I’m long DIA. Stop $111.
Inside North Korea
August 5th, 2011Via: Atlantic Wire:
Earlier this year, David Guttenfelder, chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, along with Jean H. Lee, AP bureau chief in Seoul, were granted unprecedented access to parts of North Korea as part of the AP’s efforts to expand coverage of the isolated communist nation. The pair made visits to familiar sites accompanied by government minders, and were also allowed to travel into the countryside accompanied by North Korean journalists instead of government officials. Though much of what the AP journalists saw was certainly orchestrated, their access was still remarkable. Collected here are some of Guttenfelder’s images from the trip that provide a glimpse of North Korea.
Did Crashed Lockheed Martin HALE-D Airship Have EEStor Systems On Board?
August 5th, 2011If you’re not familiar with the EEStor story, I’ve done several posts on it over the years.
With regard to this HALE-D airship crash, let’s first note Lockheed Martin’s links to EEStor. This is from 2008: Lockheed Martin to Use EEstor’s Ultracapacitors for Military and Homeland Security Applications:
Lockheed Martin has signed an exclusive international rights agreement to integrate and market Electrical Energy Storage Units (EESU) from EEStor, Inc., for military and homeland security applications. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In the years since then, virtually no EEStor news has come out.
According to Global Security, “The HALE-D is powered by thin-film solar cells and rechargeable lithium ion polymer batteries.”
However, pay close attention to what Joe Myers, Harrison County Sheriff, says in this video starting at 1 minute 37 seconds:
You know it’s top secret through the military, but the batteries was a big thing.[sic] They didn’t want anybody going around that…uh aircraft once it was down. And they wanted us to provide security.
“The batteries was a big thing…”
Lockheed Martin was concerned about the public finding out about lithium ion polymer batteries, commonly used in remote controlled toys, mp3 players and portable computers?
Via: SpaceWar:
The U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin launched the first-of-its kind High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator this morning, demonstrating a number of key technologies critical to development of unmanned airships.
The aircraft successfully launched at 5:47 a.m. out of the Airdock in Akron, Ohio. The airship reached an altitude of approximately 32,000 feet, however, a technical anomaly prevented the airship from attaining its target altitude of 60,000 feet and the HALE-D team decided to terminate the flight.
The aircraft descended without incident at 8:26 a.m. in southwestern Pennsylvania to a predetermined landing location. Lockheed Martin is coordinating with state and local authorities to recover the airship. We have confirmed that no injuries or damage were experienced during this landing in a heavily wooded area.
“While we didn’t reach the target altitude, first flights of new technologies like HALE-D also afford us the ability to learn and test with a mind toward future developments,” said Dan Schultz, vice president ship and aviation systems for Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Sensors business.
“We demonstrated a variety of advanced technologies, including launch and control of the airship, communications links, unique propulsion system, solar array electricity generation, remote piloting communications and control capability, in-flight operations, and controlled vehicle recovery to a remote un-populated area.”
The HALE-D is an unmanned solar-powered lighter-than-air vehicle designed to hover 12 miles above the earth’s surface for extended periods of time. The airship is designed to demonstrate advanced new technologies and capabilities for keeping American soldiers safer through improved communications.
Lockheed Martin is in the process of recovering the airship and will conduct a full evaluation.
Markets Wreck
August 4th, 2011Update: FTSE and DAX Are Down Another 2% in Early European Trading
Monitoring…
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Update: Expected Follow Through Sell-Off Across Asia
Via: Reuters:
World stock markets fell for the eighth straight session on Friday to the lowest since late 2010, with more losses feared if policymakers do not come to the rescue soon to stabilise the euro zone’s debt crisis and prevent the U.S. economy from sliding back into recession.
After panic overnight triggered the worst sell-off on Wall Street since the global financial crisis, investors in Asia slashed positions in equities and commodities and scrambled for the safety of cash and government bonds.
Some Asian stock markets fell by more than 5 percent.
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Via: Breakout:
Stocks posted a severe drop today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 4.3% and the Nasdaq crumbling over 5%.
By the end of the day there were few places left to hide. Gold, silver, crude and yields on Treasuries all fell sharply as traders looked for safety and were met by nothing but falling prices. Over the last 10 trading days stocks have lost more than 10%, the traditional definition of a market correction.
Today’s selling started in Europe and picked up steam as American investors, already twitchy in the wake of the debt ceiling debacle, suddenly preferred cash over all other assets. The selling began overseas, but we have more than our share of problems in the U.S. as well.
There’s a growing realization among even the most optimistic investors that the United States is entering a new recession — a dreaded “double-dip.” Adding to the pain is the sense that the government and Federal Reserve are out of both ideas and ways to stimulate the economy. Corporate America is sitting on record amounts of cash but is refusing to make new investments with so little end demand for its products. Consumers and corporations are hoarding cash, and the economy appears to be seizing. The debt ceiling debate was a fiasco, snuffing any remaining confidence traders had for help from Washington, D.C.
U.S. Special Forces Will Be Deployed in 120 Countries by End of 2011
August 4th, 2011Via: Counterpunch:
Somewhere on this planet an American commando is carrying out a mission. Now, say that 70 times and you’re done… for the day. Without the knowledge of the American public, a secret force within the U.S. military is undertaking operations in a majority of the world’s countries. This new Pentagon power elite is waging a global war whose size and scope has never been revealed, until now.
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Last year, Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post reported that U.S. Special Operations forces were deployed in 75 countries, up from 60 at the end of the Bush presidency. By the end of this year, U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me, that number will likely reach 120. “We do a lot of traveling — a lot more than Afghanistan or Iraq,” he said recently. This global presence — in about 60% of the world’s nations and far larger than previously acknowledged — provides striking new evidence of a rising clandestine Pentagon power elite waging a secret war in all corners of the world.
Research Credit: noncompliant
Feds Allowed Sinaloa Cartel to Move Cocaine Into U.S.
August 4th, 2011Via: El Paso Times:
U.S. federal agents allegedly allowed the Sinaloa drug cartel to traffic several tons of cocaine into the United States in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to court documents filed in a U.S. federal court.
The allegations are part of the defense of Vicente Zambada-Niebla, who was extradited to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in Chicago. He is also a top lieutenant of drug kingpin Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman and the son of Ismael “Mayo” Zambada-Garcia, believed to be the brains behind the Sinaloa cartel.
The case could prove to be a bombshell on par with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Operation Fast and Furious,” except that instead of U.S. guns being allowed to walk across the border, the Sinaloa cartel was allowed to bring drugs into the United States. Zambada-Niebla claims he was permitted to smuggle drugs from 2004 until his arrest in 2009.
Randall Samborn, assistant U.S. attorney and spokesman for the Justice Department in Chicago, declined comment.
U.S. Wants to Build Cybersecurity Protection Plan for Cars
August 4th, 2011Better make sure your car’s firewall and antivirus definitions are up to date. *grin*
Via: Network World:
As cars and other forms of transportation increasingly rely on online systems for everything from safety to onboard entertainment, the cybersecurity threat from those who would exploit such electronic control packages has also increased.
That’s why the US Department of Transportation (DOT) today issued a Request For Information to the security industry to help it devise a roadmap to build “motor vehicle safeguards against cybersecurity threats and assure the reliability and safety of automotive electronic control systems.”
More: Hackers Unlock a Subaru Outback and Start the Engine Remotely
Facebook Comes Before Tap Water as India’s Poor Get Smartphones
August 4th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
In a two-room shanty with no running water in northern Mumbai, Darshana Verma makes tea on a small stove. On a bench nearby, her 18-year-old son, Vishal, messages Facebook friends on the keypad of his Nokia smartphone.
“This is the Internet age,” said the 36-year-old domestic helper, who spent more than half her $300 monthly income on Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) mobile phones for her children. “Facebook is there, all these things happen there now — they make friends, maybe they can even find jobs there.”
Cheaper Internet-ready phones may make India Facebook Inc.’s biggest market after the U.S. next year with more than 50 million users, according to Nielsen Co. As Google Inc.’s rival social network also gains in popularity, companies including Pepsi Co. are boosting Internet advertising to reach the 352 million children under age 15 who are coming online.
Rawsome Farm Buying Club Raided Again
August 4th, 2011Look at all of the agencies associated with this nonsense!?
Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office:
Agencies taking part in the ongoing investigation include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the California Franchise Tax Board; the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Milk and Dairy Food Safety Branch and the department’s Division of Measurement Standards; the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office; the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, the Ventura County Department of Public Health; the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.
Via: Weston A. Price Foundation:
Public Health Officials today descended once again on a buying club, that specializes in raw foods. Club organizer, James Stewart was arrested at his home, the locks to his personal residence were changed, his papers, money and computer seized. At the same time, farmer Sharon Palmer and Weston A. Price Foundation volunteer chapter leader Victoria Bloch Coulter were arrested. All three were charged with Section 182A-Conspiracy to Commit a Crime. Bond for James Stewart was set at $123,000. Bail for Bloch is recommended at $60,000. Bail for Palmer is recommended at $121,000.
All this, in a state where raw milk is perfectly legal to sell, and even available through retail stores. The issue seems to be the club’s use of a herdshare or boarding agreement for its dairy goats.
