Gold Selling Off
February 5th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Goldbugs may want to review, Weekly Gold Chart Has Formed a Shooting Star… or Something, especially the second part about the multilane highway.
I really didn’t want to get that one right.
Abu Dhabi Commits US$15 Billion to Alternative Energy, Clean Technology
February 5th, 2008Via: masdaruae.com:
In an address before delegates of the World Future Energy Summit here today, His Highness, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the U.A.E. Armed Forces, announced the most ambitious sustainability program ever launched by a government – an initial investment of US$15 billion in projects targeting solar, wind and hydrogen power; carbon reduction and management; sustainable development; education; manufacturing; and research and development.
Magazine Article About Wave Power from 1932
February 5th, 2008Tell me another one about the energy “crisis.”
Via: Modern Mechanix:
The cover of Modern Mechanix magazine, August, 1932
Putting Nature’s Power to Work
Methods of Harnessing Natural Energy Described by DICK COLE
Upward of 40,000 inventions a year are granted patents by Uncle Sam, but not one of these offers a practical solution of the problem which scientists agree is the most pressing of them all— that is, how to harness natural sources of energy for power. Mr. Cole does not profess to have solved the problem, but the methods he describes here point out the trend of probable development.
WHAT is the most needed invention? Not television—not new kinds of airplanes—not speedier automobiles. Men of science are agreed that what the world needs most is a motor which converts the sun’s rays and other forms of natural energy into usable power. Orville Wright, Lee De Forest, Elihu Thomson, and other leading scientists are among those who proclaim the need for a new motor.
There are two sources of inexhaustible energy which at once occur to the inventor —wave or tidal power, and solar rays. A. Los Angeles inventor has developed a wave motor—an “inertia” motor, he calls it— which gives promise of being developed into a practical commercial project.
Some other interesting Modern Mechanix pages related to energy:
Batteries of Robots Scoop Power From Sea With Shovels (May, 1934)
New Efforts May Harness SUN LIGHT (Oct, 1934)
Related: The International Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project
Related: Chevron Plans to Build Wave Power Farm Off California Coast
Related: Geothermal Power Could Meet World’s Annual Energy Needs 250,000 Times Over
Cui Bono: Exxon Mobil: Biggest Annual Profit in History for U.S. Company
Exxon Mobil: Biggest Annual Profit in History for U.S. Company
February 5th, 2008Maybe I need a Shakedown category on here.
Via: CBS News:
Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company – $40.6 billion – as the world’s largest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at year’s end.
Exxon Mobil also set a U.S. record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, besting its own mark of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil reported for 2006.
The eye-popping results weren’t a surprise given record prices for a barrel of oil at the end of 2007. For much of the fourth quarter, they hovered around $90 a barrel, more than 50 percent higher than a year ago.
Crude prices reached an all-time trading high of $100.09 on Jan. 3 but have fallen about 10 percent since.
Australia: Moody’s May Cut A$83 Billion of Mortgage-Backed Bonds
February 4th, 2008Via: Bloomberg:
Moody’s Investors Service may cut the ratings on A$83 billion ($75 billion) of Australian mortgage- backed bonds linked to PMI Group Inc. on concern the U.S. home- loan insurer will find it harder to pay claims.
Moody’s is reviewing the ratings on bonds tied to loans insured by the local unit of PMI, it said today in a statement. They account for about 45 percent of the A$180 billion mortgage- backed bonds issued in Australia, making for the biggest review Moody’s has done in the nation, said Henry Charpentier, structured finance analyst at the ratings company in Sydney.
Any downgrades will stifle sales of Australian mortgage- backed bonds, which fell 87 percent in the six months to Dec. 31. Australian lenders will find it more costly to raise capital to fund mortgages if Moody’s cuts the ratings.
“There is still a big question mark as to how non-bank originators fund themselves,” said David Goode, a credit analyst at Challenger Financial Services Group Ltd. in Melbourne. “The banks are certainly affected as well; this makes illiquidity worse.”
Australia’s five largest banks increased mortgage interest rates last month to recoup higher borrowing costs, marking the first time in more than a decade that the nation’s biggest lenders made a change in home loan rates that didn’t follow the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Yield margins on Australian mortgage-backed debt have surged as much as fourfold amid the global credit squeeze and no public mortgage-backed bond has been sold this year.
The “No Internet in Iran” Story is Bullcrap, but that Didn’t Stop 17 People from Submitting it
February 4th, 2008I don’t expect people to know much about computers, but the story about Iran having no Internet access is complete nonsense.
It scares the living crap out of me that so many Cryptogon readers are propagating this nonsense without even trying to verify whether or not the story is true. (In fairness, one Cryptogon reader who submitted it later wrote that, by the same measure, Florida had no Internet services. HAHA)
The page that all of you are submitting monitors one router, which happens to be down, at the Iran University of Science and Technology. Somehow, through the magic bullshit amplification powers of the Intertubes, the fact that one router is down at an Iranian university has snowballed into “Iran is off the air.”
Oh really?
Why not check out the Iran University of Science and Technology’s homepage?
http://www.iust.ac.ir
IP: 194.225.230.89
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran
How about the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
http://www.mfa.gov.ir
IP: 217.172.99.41
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran
How about the Central Bank of The Islamic Republic of Iran?
http://www.cbi.ir
IP: 217.218.174.178
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran
Hint: Don’t believe everything you read on Reddit and Slashdot.
More: ATTENTION: Iran is not disconnected!
Egypt: Ships Did Not Cut Internet Cables
February 3rd, 2008“Anyone who tells you that this is some sort of fluke is a f*@$^!& idiot, and that’s being kind.”
— Third Undersea Internet Cable Cut in Mideast
Imagine my shock.
Via: AFP:
Ships are not responsible for damaging undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean, Egypt’s Government says.
Two cables were damaged earlier this week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia.
A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said.
Egypt’s transport ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.
“The ministry’s maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area,” a statement said.
“The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships.”
Earlier reports said that the damage had been caused by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because of bad weather.
A repair ship is expected to begin work to fix the two Mediterranean cables on Tuesday.
More than One Million Iraqis Dead Since 2003 Invasion
February 3rd, 2008Via: AFP:
More than one million Iraqis have died because of the war in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to a study published Wednesday.
A fifth of Iraqi households lost at least one family member between March 2003 and August 2007 due to the conflict, said data compiled by London-based Opinion Research Business (ORB) and its research partner in Iraq, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS).
The study based its findings on survey work involving the face-to-face questioning of 2,414 Iraqi adults aged 18 or above, and the last complete census in Iraq in 1997, which indicated a total of 4.05 million households.
Respondents were asked how many members of their household, if any, had died as a result of the violence in the country since 2003, and not because of natural causes.
“We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been in the order of 1,033,000,” ORB said in a statement.
The margin of error for the survey was 1.7 percent, making the estimated range between 946,000 and 1.12 million fatalities.
The highest rate of deaths throughout the country occurred in Baghdad, where more than 40 percent of households had lost a family member.
According to a July 2007 estimate by the United States, Iraq’s population is around 27 million.
The country has been wracked by conflict since the March 2003 invasion which deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, with United Nations estimates putting the number of displaced people from the conflict at more than four million, nearly half of which have fled to neighbouring countries.
Historical Costs of U.S. Wars (In 2007 Dollars)
February 3rd, 2008Via: Center for Arms Control and Non Proliferation:
World War II $3.2 trillion
Iraq and Afghanistan To Date $695.7 billion
Vietnam War $670 billion
World War I $364 billion
Korean War $295 billion
Persian Gulf War $94 billion
Civil War (both Union and Confederate costs) $81 billion
Spanish-American War $7 billion
American Revolution $4 billion
Mexican War $2 billion
War of 1812 $1 billion
New York: Heavily Armed Police to Patrol Subways
February 3rd, 2008Via: New York Times:
In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.
Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
Officials said the operation would begin in March.
…
Each team in the operation will comprise a bomb-sniffing dog and six officers: a dog handler and a sergeant and four officers from the Emergency Service Unit who will be outfitted in heavy, bullet-resistant vests and Kevlar helmets and will carry automatic weapons, either an M-4 rifle or an MP5 submachine gun.
Related: NYPD Intelligence Division Officer: “We Are in the Business of Scaring People.”
