“If the sea floor doesn’t crack”
July 16th, 2010Via: AP:
The oil has stopped. For now. After 85 days and up to 184 million gallons, BP finally gained control over one of America’s biggest environmental catastrophes Thursday by placing a carefully fitted cap over a runaway geyser that has been gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico since early spring.
Though a temporary fix, the accomplishment was greeted with hope, high expectations — and, in many cases along the beleaguered coastline, disbelief. From one Gulf Coast resident came this: “Hallelujah.” And from another: “I got to see it to believe it.”
If the cap holds, if the sea floor doesn’t crack and if the relief wells being prepared are completed successfully, this could be the beginning of the end for the spill. But that’s a lot of ifs, and no one was declaring any sort of victory beyond the moment.
Cheney Has Mechanical Blood Pump Installed in His Rotting Heart
July 16th, 2010
Via: MSNBC:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that he underwent surgery last week to have a tiny pump implanted to assist in the functioning of his heart as he experiences “increasing congestive heart failure.
The surgery, to insert a left ventricular assist device, was performed at Fairfax Hospital in Virginia.
Cheney, 69, has suffered five heart attacks, the first when he was 37. His most recent heart attack, described as “mild,” was in February, but late last month he was admitted to George Washington University Hospital for a few days after reporting he was not feeling well. He received medication to treat a fluid buildup related to his aggressive form of heart disease.
“A few weeks ago, it became clear that I was entering a new phase of the disease when I began to experience increasing congestive heart failure,” Cheney said in a statement. “After a series of recent tests and discussions with my doctors, I decided to take advantage of one of the new technologies available and have a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implanted.”
A doctor, who is part of his medical team, told NBC News that Cheney is “doing well now,” but that the former vice president was short of breath and was experiencing “heart failure” before the device was implanted. He was “running on 3 cylinders. Now he’s on 8,” the doctor said.
The American Heart Association website defines the LVAD device as “a battery-operated, mechanical pump-type device that’s surgically implanted. It helps maintain the pumping ability of a heart that can’t effectively work on its own.”
The kind of heart pump that Cheney received can be implanted next to the heart to help its main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, pump blood through the body. Such devices are used mainly for short periods, to buy potential transplant candidates time as they await a donor organ.
But they are being studied for use as a permanent therapy for people with severe heart failure who are not transplant candidates.
About 5 million Americans have congestive heart failure, where the heart weakens over time, often as a result of heart attacks, and cannot pump enough blood. Heart transplants are one solution, but few patients find a donor and many are too old or sick for transplants.
The heart pump Cheney received, known as an LVAD for short, is not a cure, said Dr. Samer Najjar, medical director of the heart transplant and LVAD division at Washington Hospital Center. But by rerouting the blood to take over the job of the left ventricle, the pump relieves pressure on the heart.
And once patients recover from the open-heart surgery, they can experience a much better quality of life, said Najjar, who had no firsthand information about Cheney’s case.
The typical life expectancy of the recipient depends on whether the device is to be temporary and the person goes on to receive a heart transplant, or if the device is intended for permanent therapy. Recent studies suggest that 63 percent of patients who receive a permanent LVAD can survive two years, Najjar said. Those awaiting a heart transplant tend to have a slightly higher survival.
The details of Cheney’s scenario were not immediately available.
Goldman Paying $550 Million to Settle Civil Fraud Charges
July 16th, 2010Pocket lint.
Via: ABC:
Resolving a high-profile government case linked to the mortgage meltdown, Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex investments.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement Thursday with the Wall Street titan, just hours after Congress gave final approval to legislation imposing the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street firms since the Great Depresssion.
For Goldman, it was a chance to put behind it a case that had tarnished its reputation after it emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis. For the SEC, emerging from the embarrassment of a series of lapses, the charges and the settlement were a high-stakes opportunity to prove it could be tough on Wall Street.
And the agency’s sweeping investigation of the conduct of financial firms in the run-up to the mortgage market collapse could bring more cases.
The deal calls for Goldman to pay a $535 million fine and $15 million in restitution of fees it collected. Of the total $550 million, $300 million will go to the government and $250 million goes to compensate two European banks that lost money on their investments.
The penalty was said to be the largest against a Wall Street firm in SEC history. But the settlement amounts to less than 5 percent of Goldman’s 2009 net income of $12.2 billion after payment of dividends to preferred shareholders — or a little more than two weeks of net income.
Ex-Clinton Fundraiser Gets 12 Years in Prison
July 15th, 2010Via: AP:
A wealthy Manhattan investment banker who was once a top fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton and other big-name Democrats has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for bank fraud.
Hassan Nemazee (hah-SAHN’ nah-MAH’-zee) was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.
He had reached a plea deal in March. He has admitted to three counts of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud.
Prosecutors say he forged signatures and concocted bogus account statements to conceal a scam in which he was using proceeds from new loans to pay off older ones.
Nemazee had been the national finance chairman of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He also raised money for President Barack Obama and other prominent Democrats.
Banks Repossess U.S. Homes at Record Pace
July 15th, 2010Via: Reuters:
Banks repossessed a record number of U.S. homes in the second quarter, but slowed new foreclosure notices to manage distressed properties on the market, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.
The root problems of job losses and wage cuts persist, making a sustained U.S. housing recovery elusive.
Banks took control of 269,962 properties in the second quarter, up 5 percent from the prior quarter and a 38 percent spike from the second quarter of last year, RealtyTrac said in its midyear 2010 foreclosure report.
Repossessions will likely top 1 million this year.
“The underlying conditions haven’t improved,” RealtyTrac senior vice president Rick Sharga said in an interview.
The housing market still grapples with “unemployment, economic displacement in general, and still sits on over 5 million seriously delinquent loans that in all likelihood will at some point go into foreclosure,” he said.
In 2005, the last “normal” year in housing, Sharga said, about 530,000 households got a foreclosure notice and banks took over a comparatively minuscule 100,000 houses.
This year more than 3 million households are likely to get at least one foreclosure filing, which includes notice of default, scheduled auction and repossession, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac forecasts.
U.S. Home-Buying Applications Sink to 13-Year Low
July 15th, 2010Via: Reuters:
Demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes sunk to a 13-year low last week, and refinancing demand also slid despite near record-low mortgage rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.
Requests for loans to buy homes dropped 3.1 percent in the week ended July 9, after adjusting for the Independence Day holiday, to the lowest level since December 1996, the industry group said.
Refinancing applications fell 2.9 percent, and the mortgage market index that reflects total loan demand also fell 2.9 percent.
Average 30-year mortgage rates edged up 0.01 percentage point to 4.69 percent, but were near the record low of 4.61 percent set in March 2009, based on MBA records dating back to 1990.
Questions, Questions: Terawatt Research
July 15th, 2010How many “free energy” companies have a former Director of the CIA and FBI on their payrolls? By my math, there’s just one: Terawatt Research, LLC.
Here is William Webster’s bio on the Terawatt Research website:
Judge William H. Webster
(Milbank Tweed Hadley & Mc Cloy)
Strategic AdvisorWilliam H. Webster was sworn in as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on May 26, 1987. In this position he headed the United States intelligence community and directed the CIA until September, 1991. Following his departure from the CIA, he joined the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP in Washington, DC.
Webster served as United States attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1960 to 1961. In 1970, he was appointed a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and in 1973 was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. During his service on the bench, Webster was chairman of the Judiciary Conference Advisory Committee on the Criminal Rules and was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Habeas Corpus and the Committee of Court Administration. He resigned on February 23, 1978 to become director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he served for nearly a decade before moving on to lead all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States as CIA director.
On July 1, 1991 Judge Webster was presented the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and on July 25, 1991 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Security Medal.
Webster earned bachelor’s degrees in history and political science, as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, from Amherst College in Massachusetts. He received his law degree from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1949. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy in World War II and again in the Korean War.
Judge William H. Webster is current Chairman of the Homeland Security advisory Council (HSAC)
The other publicly acknowledged Terawatt Research personnel with obvious black world connections are James G. Magee (Internal Security, Strategic Advisor, Finance) and Gary W. Caille, Ph.D., P.E. (Scientific Advisor).
James G. Magee
(Internal Security, Strategic Advisor, Finance)Mr. Magee is the CEO of Level 4 Group LLC, a multi-million dollar strategic consultancy and capital funding provider to companies in the defense and security sector markets. Mr. Magee is a recognized expert on ballistic protection systems, special operations and national security issues, and has been the president of three industry leading body armor manufacturers, Point Blank Body Armor, Inc.; ArmorShield USA, Inc.; and Select Armor, Inc. during the past decade. At Point Blank, he designed the US Army’s Interceptor™ vest, still the benchmark body armor worn by US Armed Forces personnel today. Defying conventional industry history, he led Point Blank to a position of industry leader from Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in less than 12 months. After leaving Point Blank, Mr. Magee managed the Modular Body Armor (Interceptor™) program for the US Army’s Prime Contractor for MBA, Arthur D. Little, Inc. Magee served as the president of Exothermal Technology Corporation, Inc. (ETC), a torso cooling protective vest system company, and after a year’s service as president, was appointed to ETC’s Board of Directors for another two years. Mr. Magee served as the President of HIPERTEX, Inc., a manufacturer of high output lightweight diesel engines for DARPA, and a pioneer in alternative energy solutions. Mr. Magee led GartnerGroup’s Performance Management Practice for five years. His team was responsible for the Eastern half of the USA and for Federal government clients. At Gartner, Mr. Magee was the global leader in providing efficiency, effectiveness, cost and performance consulting for Fortune 500 commercial clients, as well as for major Federal and state government agencies. In his first sortie into industry after retirement from the US Marine Corps, Mr. Magee served as a senior operations analyst with Kapos Associates, Inc. (KAI, now part of L3Comm). His clients included The White House, the National Security Council (NSC), and The Atlanta Olympics, the federal departments of Defense, Army, Navy, and Treasury. While at KAI, Mr. Magee led KAI teams that assessed the interoperability for the NSC including the Defense Department’s command, control, computers and intelligence systems (C4I3) at combatant commands around the globe.
Mr. Magee periodically consults for Georgia Tech and the U.S. Marine Corps on combat systems and armor optimization, and has been an on-screen consultant to NBC News and PBS’s The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on armor systems and military procurement issues. Mr. Magee has been published in Armed Forces Journal, the Marine Corps Gazette and the Washington Post on these and other national security issues.
He served a full career in the Marines, retiring as a highly decorated infantry Colonel in the 1990’s after service as the Marine’s special operations expert, and commander of the largest anti-terrorist organization in DOD, the Marine Corps Security Forces with 3400 Marines and Sailors at 82 sites in 16 countries. He enjoys the distinction of having stood up and commanded the Marines first Light Armor Battalion, as well as having been selected as the 2002 recipient of the National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the Nation’s ability to wage special operations.
Mr. Magee lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA with his wife, Carole. They have three grown children.
Education:
MBA Studies: Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
BS: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
MA Equivalent: NATO Defense College, Rome, Italy Virginia
Did you check out Level 4 Group? For all your counter intelligence and clean energy needs? Unique Experience : Battlefield to Boardroom??? (Nope, this isn’t The Onion.)
Next up: Gary W. Caille:
Gary W. Caille, Ph.D., P.E.
(Scientific Advisor)Current:
Director, Systems Solutions Group, CSU Ventures
Background:
PRE/Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech Research InstituteDr. Caille has extensive experience in the theoretical and practical development of armor and blast resistant systems. Recently he led systems development of the ULTRA Armored Personnel Concept Vehicle and the USMC Marine personnel Carrier, focusing on the survivability and mobility of armor vehicles and their personnel. For the ULTRA APV, he delivered a next generation armored patrol vehicle and developed a new armor for under 3 million dollars all in approximately 1 year. Dr. Caille has also used his expertise in thermal systems by forming systematic solutions to energy generation that use renewable sources such as geothermal, solar and wind combined with gasification and plasma systems using other waste streams to provide optimized solutions that have positive environmental and economic impacts to the community.
Dr. Caille was commissioned in the United Stated Navy after graduation from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (1977). He completed a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Central Florida (1985) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech, 1988). He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Georgia, New Jersey (inactive) and Florida (inactive).
After completing nuclear power training and submarine training, Dr. Caille served on a fast attack nuclear submarine. He served as the Reactor Controls Division Officer, Sonar Division Officer and Weapons Department Head from 1978 to 1982. From 1982 to 1984, he served as an instructor and director of the Officer Chemistry, Materials and Radiological Fundamentals Division at the Navy’s Nuclear Power School.
In 1988, Dr. Caille reported to the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Submarine Directorate where he served as the Deputy Program Manager and Technical Director for research and development programs with an annual budget of approximately $100M. He also directly supervised the planning, installation, execution, and data analysis of ten, multi-platform, highly complex at-sea experiments. Dr. Caille retired from the Navy Reserve as a Captain with 4 commands.
After returning to Georgia Tech in 1993, Dr. Caille served as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Electro-Optics, Environment and Materials Laboratory, a 250-person, $25 M highly diversified research organization. In 2008, Dr. Caille formed the Systems Solutions Group of CSU Ventures which is focused on developing applied technical research from Colorado State University and partnering with industrial corporations to develop systems level solutions.
I would be most interested in knowing where the money is coming from. If you have any information on who is actually behind this, let me know.
Related: Terawatt Research LLC Defies Free Energy Stereotypes
Retired NASA Flight Director: 9/11 Aircraft Speed Is The “Elephant In The Room”
July 14th, 2010Via: Pilots for 9/11 Truth:
A Responsibility to Explain an Aeronautical Improbability
Dwain Deets
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (Senior Executive Service – retired)
AIAA Associate Fellow
The airplane was UA175, a Boeing 767-200, shortly before crashing into World Trade Center Tower 2. Based on analysis of radar data, the National Transportation and Safety Board reported the groundspeed just before impact as 510 knots. This is well beyond the maximum operating velocity of 360 knots, and maximum dive velocity of 410 knots. The possibilities as I see them are: (1) this wasn’t a standard 767-200; (2) the radar data was compromised in some manner; (3) the NTSB analysis was erroneous; or (4) the 767 flew well beyond its flight envelope, was controllable, and managed to hit a relatively small target. Which organization has the greater responsibility for acknowledging the elephant in the room? The NTSB, NASA, Boeing, or the AIAA? Have engineers authored papers, but the AIAA or NASA won’t publish them? Or, does the ethical responsibility lie not with organizations, but with individual aeronautical engineers? Have engineers just looked the other way?
Boeing Unveils Phantom Eye Hydrogen-Powered Spy Plane
July 14th, 2010Via: BBC:
Boeing has unveiled its unmanned hydrogen-powered spy plane which can fly non-stop for up to four days.
The high-altitude plane, called Phantom Eye, will remain aloft at 20,000m (65,000ft), according to the company.
The demonstrator will be shipped to Nasa’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California later this summer to prepare for its first flight in early 2011.
Boeing says the aircraft could eventually carry out “persistent intelligence and surveillance”.
It is a product of the company’s secretive Phantom Works research and development arm.
Boeing says the aircraft is capable of long endurance flights because of its “lighter” and “more powerful” hydrogen fuel system.
“We flew Condor [the company’s previous reconnaissance drone] for 60 hours in 1989 on regular jet fuel, and that was the maximum,” said Chris Haddox from Boeing Phantom Works. “Now we’re talking 96 hours.”
The company explained in a statement that Phantom Eye was “powered by two 2.3 litre, four-cylinder engines that provide 150 horsepower each”.
It is also very large, with a 46m (150ft) wingspan.
U.S. Company Set to Ship Billions of Gallons of Water from Alaska to India
July 14th, 2010Tell me this is a hoax.
Via: TreeHugger:
India is hurting for water. With rapidly growing populations of people and a rising middle class that is mimicking the wasteful water consumption habits well known here in the United States, coupled with poor water management practices, India is set to be one of the first parts of the world hit by a major water crisis. Still, does that mean shipping water from Alaska all the way to India is a smart solution? One Texas-based water supply management company, S2C Global Systems, thinks it is — at least, it’s smart for their bottom line, if not for the environment. They’re all lined up to ship billions of gallons of water annually from an Alaskan city to India, and other parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Circle of Blue brings our attention to a press release on the company’s website.
Sitka, Alaska will sell water from its Blue Lake Reservoir for a penny a gallon to Alaska Resource Management, a company formed by S2C and True Alaska Bottling, will export as much as 2.9 billion gallons each year, providing the city with as much as $26 million annually. It could earn as much as $90 million annually if it can sell off the rest of its maximum water right of 9 billion gallons.
According to Circle of Blue, “This will be the world’s first large-volume exports of water via tanker: companies have tried unsuccessfully for more than two decades to break open the bulk water export market. Past attempts have been thwarted by daunting logistics, concerns about natural resource sovereignty and commodification as well as the availability of cheaper local sources.”
Fresh water is set to be the next “big oil” of the world, with supplies in some areas growing exceedingly tight. Technologies from smart metering to irrigation management to purification all seem to be slower to reach areas like India than tankers of exported water. However, while businesses are dashing to find a profit in water exportation, water management will need to become far more popular globally if we’re to avoid a worldwide water shortage.
S2C is set to start shipping water within eight months, using tankers that have a “Ozonating” system onboard to keep the water clean.
