Another Escalation: Obama to Send 30,000 More Troops to Afghanistan
December 1st, 2009Via: New York Times:
President Obama issued orders to send about 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan as he prepared to address the nation Tuesday night to explain what may be one of the most defining decisions of his presidency.
Mr. Obama conveyed his decision to military leaders late Sunday afternoon during a meeting in the Oval Office and then spent Monday phoning foreign counterparts, including the leaders of Britain, France and Russia.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, declined to say how many additional troops would be deployed, but senior administration officials previously have said that about 30,000 will go in coming months, bringing the total American force to about 100,000.
On top of previous reinforcements already sent this year, the troop buildup will nearly triple the American military presence in Afghanistan that Mr. Obama inherited when he took office and represents a high-stakes gamble by a new commander in chief that he can turn around an eight-year-old war that his own generals fear is getting away from the United States.
Stealth Starbucks Experiment Flops
December 1st, 2009HA.
Via: Reuters:
Apparently the experiment isn’t working. A former Starbucks insider said that Seattle’s 15th Ave. Coffee and Tea – the first of the new not Starbucks stores (its website, by the way, is called www.streetlevelcoffee.com) – is doing only a third of the business of the regular green-logoed Starbucks store that used be at that site.
Perhaps consumer really do want something more than branded artifice; they want something genuinely local.
The revolt against sameness may actually be real, too real for a fake Starbucks. And certainly this growing rejection of brands presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs and small business owners to create something authentically local for their customers.
New Sharp Flat Panel Factory: No Humans on Assembly Line
December 1st, 2009Via: AP:
Huge sheets of glass are guided by robotic arms, sliding and turning in a towering germ-free plant, the world’s first making giant “10th generation” panels for flat screen TVs.
Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp.’s futuristic-looking plant doesn’t have a single worker on the floor. Each sheet, measuring about 3 meters (3.3 yards) by 3 meters, is being made and tested by computerized machines.
Scientists Grow Pork Meat in a Laboratory
December 1st, 2009Oh yummy.
Via: Telegraph:
SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.
The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing to eat it.
So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time.
They initially extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig. Called myoblasts, these cells are programmed to grow into muscle and repair damage in animals.
The cells were then incubated in a solution containing nutrients to encourage them to multiply indefinitely. This nutritious “broth” is derived from the blood products of animal foetuses, although the intention is to come up with a synthetic solution.
The result was sticky muscle tissue that requires exercise, like human muscles, to turn it into a tougher steak-like consistency.
Research Credit: cptmarginal
Morgan Stanley Fears UK Sovereign Debt Crisis in 2010
December 1st, 2009Via: Telegraph:
Britain risks becoming the first country in the G10 bloc of major economies to risk capital flight and a full-blown debt crisis over coming months, according to a client note by Morgan Stanley.
The US investment bank said there is a danger Britain’s toxic mix of problems will come to a head as soon as next year, triggered by fears that Westminster may prove unable to restore fiscal credibility.
“Growing fears over a hung parliament would likely weigh on both the currency and gilt yields as it would represent something of a leap into the unknown, and would increase the probability that some of the rating agencies remove the UK’s AAA status,” said the report, written by the bank’s European investment team of Ronan Carr, Teun Draaisma, and Graham Secker.
“In an extreme situation a fiscal crisis could lead to some domestic capital flight, severe pound weakness and a sell-off in UK government bonds. The Bank of England may feel forced to hike rates to shore up confidence in monetary policy and stabilize the currency, threatening the fragile economic recovery,” they said.
Morgan Stanley said that such a chain of events could drive up yields on 10-year UK gilts by 150 basis points. This would raise borrowing costs to well over 5pc – the sort of level now confronting Greece, and far higher than costs for Italy, Mexico, or Brazil.
High-grade debt from companies such as BP, GSK, or Tesco might command a lower risk premium than UK sovereign debt, once an unthinkable state of affairs.
Off to Auckland for a Couple of Days
December 1st, 2009Update: All Go in Auckland
It’s five out of five bars on the mobile Internet system where we are in Auckland.
—End Update—
Becky’s grandmother has died. She was 95. We are going down to Auckland for the funeral and family gathering.
While I’m assuming that my mobile Internet system will work where we will be staying, I can’t say for sure that it will work.
Anyway, if updates aren’t happening as usual, you’ll know why.
More Openness and Transparency: Obama Regime Prevents Millions of Pages of Military and Intelligence Documents from Being Declassified; Had Been Scheduled for Release by the End of the Year
November 30th, 2009Via: Boston Globe:
President Obama will maintain a lid of secrecy on millions of pages of military and intelligence documents that were scheduled to be declassified by the end of the year, according to administration officials.
The missed deadline spells trouble for the White House’s promises to introduce an era of government openness, say advocates, who believe that releasing historical information enforces a key check on government behavior. They cite as an example the abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War, including domestic spying and assassinations of foreign officials, that were publicly outlined in a set of agency documents known as the “family jewels.’’
The documents in question – all more than 25 years old – were scheduled to be declassified on Dec. 31 under an order originally signed by President Bill Clinton and amended by President George W. Bush.
But now Obama finds himself in the awkward position of extending the secrecy, despite his repeated pledges of greater transparency, because his administration has been unable to prod spy agencies into conformance.
…
The documents, dating from World War II to the early 1980s, cover the gamut of foreign relations, intelligence activities, and military operations – with the exception of nuclear weapons data, which remain protected by Congress. Limited to information generated by more than one agency, the records in question are held by the Central Intelligence Agency; the National Security Agency; the departments of Justice, State, Defense, and Energy; and other security and intelligence agencies.
None of the agencies involved responded to requests for comment, saying they could not discuss internal deliberations.
“They never want to give up their authority,’’ said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel at the National Security Archive, a research center at George Washington University that collects and publishes declassified information. “The national security bureaucracy is deeply entrenched and is not willing to give up some of the protections they feel they need for their documents.’’
The failure to meet the disclosure deadline “does not augur well for new, more ambitious efforts to advance classification reform,’’ said Steven Aftergood, a specialist on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. “If binding deadlines can be extended more or less at will, then any new declassification requirements will be similarly subject to doubt or defiance.’’
BBC Photographer on Being Stopped by Police
November 30th, 2009Via: BBC:
BBC News photographer Jeff Overs was stopped and questioned for taking photographs in Westminster.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, for which he takes photographs, Mr Overs said he was worried that policing against terrorism was making the UK feel like “the Eastern Bloc”.
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions
November 30th, 2009Thank you all very much.
BF $30
MW $20
JA CA$20
SM $10
TB $30
Eileen $40
AZ CA$10
Blind Man Able to Read With Visual Prosthesis System
November 30th, 2009Via: Times Online:
A blind man fitted with a “bionic eye” in a trial at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital has delighted doctors by being able to read simple words.
The implant uses a camera mounted on spectacles to send wireless signals to nerves that control sight. The brain then decodes the image.
Peter Lane, 51, from Stretford, who began to lose his sight in his twenties, is one of 32 people taking part in an international trial.
Doctors have been stunned by his progress. The device allows him to see the outline of objects as a series of dots of lights. Mr Lane said: “It was an amazing feeling after not being able to see anything to be seeing letters and words on a special screen. I was there reading dad, mat, cat.
