TELEGRAPH CO. U.K.
Energy crisis is postponed as new gas rescues the world
Engineers have performed their magic once again. The world is not going to run short of energy as soon as feared.Oil shale is rock containing deposits of oil and is pictured here burning.
America is not going to bleed its wealth importing fuel. Russia's grip on Europe's gas will weaken. Improvident Britain may avoid paralysing blackouts by mid-decade after all. 
The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected.
Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, said proven natural gas reserves around the world have risen to 1.2 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, enough for 60 years' supply – and rising fast.
"There has been a revolution in the gas fields of North America. Reserve estimates are rising sharply as technology unlocks unconventional resources," he said.
This is almost unknown to the public, despite the efforts of Nick Grealy at "No Hot Air" who has been arguing for some time that Britain's shale reserves could replace declining North Sea output.
Rune Bjornson from Norway's StatoilHydro said exploitable reserves are much greater than supposed just three years ago and may meet global gas needs for generations.
"The common wisdom was that unconventional gas was too difficult, too expensive and too demanding," he said, according to Petroleum Economist. "This has changed. If we ever doubted that gas was the fuel of the future – in many ways there's the answer."
The breakthrough has been to combine 3-D seismic imaging with new technologies to free "tight gas" by smashing rocks, known as hydro-fracturing or "fracking" in the trade.
The US is leading the charge. Operations in Pennsylvania and Texas have already been sufficient to cut US imports of liquefied natural gas (LGN) from Trinidad and Qatar to almost nil, with knock-on effects for the global gas market – and crude oil. It is one reason why spot prices for some LNG deliveries have dropped to 50pc of pipeline contracts.
Energy bulls gambling that the world economy will soon resume its bubble trajectory need to remember two facts: industrial production over the last year is still down 19pc in Japan, 18pc in Italy, 17pc in Germany, 15pc in Canada, 13pc in France and Russia. 11pc in the US and the UK and 10pc in Brazil. A 12pc rise in China does not offset this.
OPEC states are cheating on quota cuts. Non-compliance has fallen to 62pc from 82pc in March. Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela et al face a budget crunch. Why comply when non-OPEC Russia is pumping at breakneck speed?
The US Energy Department expects shale to meet half of US gas demand within 20 years, if not earlier. Projects are cranking up in eastern France and Poland. Exploration is under way in Australia, India and China.
Texas A&M University said US methods could increase global gas reserves by nine times to 16,000 TCF (trillion cubic feet). Almost a quarter is in China but it may lack the water resources to harness the technology given the depletion of the North China water basin.
Needless to say, the Kremlin is irked. "There's a lot of myths about shale production," said Gazprom's Alexander Medvedev.
If the new forecasts are accurate, Gazprom is not going to be the perennial cash cow funding Russia's great power resurgence. Russia's budget may be in structural deficit.
As for the US, we may soon be looking at an era when gas, wind and solar power, combined with a smarter grid and a switch to electric cars returns the country to near energy self-sufficiency.
This has currency implications. If you strip out the energy deficit, America's vaulting savings rate may soon bring the current account back into surplus – and that is going to come at somebody else's expense, chiefly Japan, Germany and, up to a point, China.
Shale gas is undoubtedly messy. Millions of gallons of water mixed with sand, hydrochloric acid and toxic chemicals are blasted at rocks. This is supposed to happen below the water basins but accidents have been common. Pennsylvania's eco-police have shut down a Cabot Oil & Gas operation after 8,000 gallons of chemicals spilled into a stream.
Nor is it exactly green. Natural gas has much lower CO2 emissions than coal, even from shale – which is why the Sierra Club is backing it as the lesser of evils against "clean coal" (not yet a reality). The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said America may not need any new coal or nuclear plants "ever" again.
I am not qualified to judge where gas excitement crosses into hyperbole. I pass on the story because the claims of BP and Statoil are so extraordinary that we may need to rewrite the geo-strategy textbooks for the next half century.
Dr. John's Hiding Place
UFO over Moscow or what...?
http://my.opera.com/nepmak2000/blog/2009/10/12/ufo-over-moscow-or-what
It needs quite a bit to baffle me. This was one of those weekends. A UFO weekend actually. After receiving some e-mails about an assumed UFO crash over Galicia, Spain, which appeared to be another 'viral' YouTube attempt, the news from Moscow was far more intriguing. Here in the afternoon of October 8th people saw a strange luminescent 'UFO cloud' hanging around. Luckily it was filmed. In but a few days the various copies of this movie on YouTube reached the impressive score of about 1 million viewers. Quite different from the Galician 'UFO' movies that could be related to a prank from Terra television for a program about SF-writer H.G. Wells. What was going on above Moscow? Was HAARP involved and projecting an ionospheric beam upon that city? Was it the coming of Wells's aliens from Mars? Or were unusual atmospheric circumstances involved that caused a 'hole in the skies'?
SpiceBird - incredible mail and more
http://my.opera.com/nepmak2000/blog
With a smile I read a comment from a Ubuntu user: 'Please make Incredimail run for us'. I mentioned earlier that having an 'intelligent' email-program could make or break a Linux distro. The rather incomprehensible decision to add Novell's (Ximian) 'Evolution' to Ubuntu made me think so. It is claimed that Evolution is some kind of replacement for MS Outlook. I shake a shoulder or two on that claim. It is an email program with an agenda and task 'manager' belonging to the category of 'email netiquette' antiquities, limiting me to design my emails to my desire for suspiciously vague reasons. A glance in its manual reveals how vague. Incredimail for Windows offers, next to fun, seriousness and integration of media to some minor extent. Sitting on top of Microsoft's software it can't be ported to the Open Source world. There one has no alternative for it. However, that could change in a new way with SpiceBird...
What you must know...
- Guineans in post-massacre protestBanks and shops closed as thousands strike in protest at last month's killings.
- US woman shares economics NobelAmerican Elinor Ostrom, 76, becomes first woman to win award since it began in 1968.
- Palestinian unity hopes dimGaza report fiasco puts on hold Egypt-mediated agreement to bring Fatah and Hamas together.
- Pakistan suicide blast kills dozensSecurity convoy targeted near Swat in NWFP as Taliban claims responsibility for GHQ siege.
- N Korea 'fires five missiles'South Korean media report short-range missile launches off North's eastern coast.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091010/national/northwest_passage_journey
Who Didn't Get the Memo--Israel's President or its D.C. Ambassador?
http://www.prospectsforpeace.com/2009/10/who_didnt_get_the_memoisraels.htmlsrael's parliament, the Knesset, reopened today after a long break for the summer and the Jewish holidays. In line with protocol, Israel's president opened the winter session and Shimon Peres had this to say on the linkage between reaching peace with the Palestinians and addressing the Iran issue:
In my opinion, if we move forwards with peace and make peace with the Palestinians, and if we start negotiations with Syria and Lebanon, we will remove the main pretext for the Iranian madness - against us and against the other residents of this region. (President Peres, October 12th in the Israeli Knesset).Now Mr. Peres is in reality not exactly the dove he is portrayed to be (he authorized many of the settlements, he supported Israel's recent wars with Lebanon and Gaza, and he never really earned his own Nobel peace prize), but this was nonetheless an interesting acknowledgement of the linkage from Israel's head of state--and it seems to directly contradict the messaging coming from Israel's ambassador to Washington D.C., Michael Oren.
Here's Michael Oren in an interview on October 3rd for Newsweek:
Q: Do you believe that the Arab states would make their support of action against Iran contingent on progress in the peace process? A: No, there is no linkage whatsoever. The Arab states understand that the peace process is going to take a while, and we don't have a while with Iran. The peace clock and the Iranian nuclear clock are running at completely different speeds.Oren was simply, and spiritedly, sticking to a lame PR line that has now been exposed as rubbish by none other than Israels' own president. On entering office six months ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu tried a similar trick, arguing that Iran would have to be dealt with first and that the Palestinian issue could be placed on the backburner. But President Obama wasn't buying any of that, insisting that both issues be addressed in parallel, and much to the chagrin of the Likud hawks, making Israeli-Palestinian peace a priority--something he repeated when responding to being awarded the Nobel peace prize last Friday.
The linkage, though aggressively denied by occupation apologists, is all too real (and credit to President Peres for acknowledging that). Here's how it works.
Iran's ability to spread influence and use leverage in the region is partly a product of the largesse it spreads around and of the allies it has through denominational allegiance or simple patronage. But crucially, it also depends on the narrative that Iran espouses--and the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict is central to that. Iran does not have an appealing story to tell the region when it comes to it system of governance based on an interpretation of Shia jurisprudence (Velayat-e Faqih) or when it comes to its internal freedoms and achievements.
Rather, the narrative which allows Iran to speak to the Muslim and notably Sunni street, above the heads of Arab leaders, can be paraphrased as follows:
Only we, Iran, are standing up to the Israelis and the Americans in defense of our downtrodden Palestinian brothers and sisters; you, the Arab leadership who are close to America, host American troops, visit Washington and do Washington's bidding, and are even openly or sometimes secretly in contact with the Israelis--all these friendships have done nothing to help the Palestinians or address their grievance; our version of resistance is therefore honorable when compared to your shameful collusion.It may be grating to the ear and make us feel uncomfortable, but that is a message that resonates. And that is what President Peres seemed to understand in suggesting that peace with the Palestinians would, in his words, "remove the main pretext for the Iranian madness."
Ending the occupation and delivering peace would fundamentally undermine Iran's narrative and its leverage.
( And the U.S. sale of 2 reactors to India without any NPT commitments would seem to have shot the wad of the rest of the narrative too. )
Obama, US media ignore Palestinian suffering
http://suzieqq.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/obama-us-media-ignore-palestinian-suffering
Obama, US media ignore Palestinian suffering
October 12, 2009 by sudhan
John S. Hancock, Concord Monitor, Oct 12, 2009
Continues >>
Obama Administration: Fox News Is a Political Opponent
http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/411086_tvgif12.html
The Obama administration says it's treating Fox News Channel as a political opponent, and executives at the top-rated cable news network are responding that the White House can't tell straight reporting from opinion.
White House communications director Anita Dunn recently told Time magazine that she thinks the channel offers "opinion journalism masquerading as news," and kept up the criticism on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday and in The New York Times Monday.
Fox's senior vice president for news, Michael Clemente, issued a statement Monday, saying: "It's astounding the White House can't distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part." ( You have to give Fox credit : they stand behind their bullshit 150%. )
The Galloping Beaver
Gay issues, the "fringe left" and the liberal veal pen
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/12/fringe/index.html
Just this weekend, a "top gay Democrat close to Obama" was granted anonymity by Politico to dismiss administration critics on gay issues as "naive." Just six weeks ago, an equally cowardly "senior White House adviser" hiding behind anonymity told told The Washington Post that the only people who cared about the public option in health care were "the left of the left" -- those same fringe, irrational extremists. In June, an anonymous "friend of John Brennan's" told Jane Mayer in The New Yorker that the people who prevented Brennan's nomination as CIA Director (because of his support for some of the most radical Bush Terrorism policies) were nothing more than "a few Cheeto-eating people in the basement working in their underwear who write blogs." Last year, "Democrats on the Hill" anonymously dismissed opposition to telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping as nothing more than a fringe issue being exploited by Chris Dodd for his presidential campaign, and then anonymously warned Dodd to abandon his left-wing obstructionism if he wanted to resume good standing in the Democratic caucus. Can anyone miss the pattern?
Every standard form of Washington behavior is on display here: reporters like Harwood with absolutely no standards who grant anonymity to pass along playground insults. Obama officials -- part of the Most Transparent Administration Ever -- who seem incapable of speaking about anything without cowardly hiding behind anonymity, even for on-the-record briefings. Snide, Fox-News-mimicking dismissals from the Democratic establishment of any discontent or criticism of the President as coming from the fringe, Far Left. And particular disdain for any instruments -- blogs, marches and protests -- which the White House cannot control, which exist independent of the tightly coordinated, Rahm-dominated "veal pen" messaging system to which so many leading progressive organizations have meekly submitted themselves in order to ensure their own continued access, funding and future career options within the Democratic establishment.
( Read the whole thing. It's fair for the Obama camp to complain about Faux News : and it's fair for the rest of us to observe the distinction in practices between the two is becoming miniscule. )
bottm feeder nation
http://bloodandtreasure.typepad.com/blood_treasure/2009/10/bottm-feeder-nation.html
Spyblog has more on that snoop on your neighbours for cash scheme I blogged about last week. Looks kind of scammy as well as kind of scummy:
Afghan Witnesses Trapped in Chicago
It's the never-ending vacation from hell. An Afghan driver named Ziaulhaq, and two other Afghani men were brought to the U.S. under false pretenses in 2008 and have since been forced to remain in the country for over a year as potential witnesses in a bribery case involving U.S. servicemen and Afghan contractors. The men were told that they were embarking on all-expenses-paid trip to Columbus, Ohio, to attend a conference honoring Afghan businesses, but have instead been stuck inside an airport hotel in Chicago, where they must follow nightly curfews and check in with probation officers. Ziaulhaq has not been accused of any crime but has been legally required to stay in the country, despite a sick wife and six children at home in Afghanistan, because of a post-9/11 Bush statute that says prosecutors can hold material witnesses in ongoing investigations, even if they have not been charged with a criminal act.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/afghan-witnesses-trapped-in-chicago/trying-times/?cid=bsa:cheatsheet2
Contrary to most of the media and blog headlines about this scheme, which falsely report that the public is somehow going to be paid to watch these CCTV feeds, it turns out that Internet Eyes are not actually planning to pay people to snoop at all. Instead they are only offering them the vague hope of winning a monthly prize.Via. This is so contemporary Britain: Exploit people’s worst instincts. Get them to pay for the privilege. Dance about in the fuzzy zone between dishonesty and incompetence. Enroll them in a lottery. The Dragons should be putting their money in it, and room should be made for an installation in Tate Modern.
However "Viewers" /snoopers have to pay for SMS "alert credits" at £1 per alert, and "Customers" / camera operators, may have to pay £20 a month at least.
Afghan Witnesses Trapped in Chicago
It's the never-ending vacation from hell. An Afghan driver named Ziaulhaq, and two other Afghani men were brought to the U.S. under false pretenses in 2008 and have since been forced to remain in the country for over a year as potential witnesses in a bribery case involving U.S. servicemen and Afghan contractors. The men were told that they were embarking on all-expenses-paid trip to Columbus, Ohio, to attend a conference honoring Afghan businesses, but have instead been stuck inside an airport hotel in Chicago, where they must follow nightly curfews and check in with probation officers. Ziaulhaq has not been accused of any crime but has been legally required to stay in the country, despite a sick wife and six children at home in Afghanistan, because of a post-9/11 Bush statute that says prosecutors can hold material witnesses in ongoing investigations, even if they have not been charged with a criminal act.http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/afghan-witnesses-trapped-in-chicago/trying-times/?cid=bsa:cheatsheet2
http://www.counterpunch.org/bovard10092009.html
For 8 years, the American people have been fed one big lie after another regarding Afghanistan. Now, when the Pentagon is saber-rattling to vastly increase the number of U.S. troops sent there, a refresher course on the Biggest Lies is in order.
In his State of the Union address on January 29, 2002, Bush frightened Americans with a bogus nuclear threat: “Our discoveries in Afghanistan confirmed our worst fears. . . . We have found diagrams of American nuclear power plants and public water facilities” in caves used by Al Qaeda.
Senior CIA and FBI officials followed up with “background” briefings to the media, revving up the threat that Afghan-based Al Qaeda fighters were targeting U.S. nuclear power facilities. This made the terrorist threat far more ominous and spurred support for Bush’s preemptive war policy against Iraq.
Two years later, Bush administration officials admitted that the president’s statement was completely false and that no nuclear power plant diagrams had been discovered in Afghanistan. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Edward McGaffigan, who had testified in 2002 on this falsehood at closed hearings on Capitol Hill, commented that Bush was “poorly served by a speechwriter.” This was a farce - as if the deceit stemmed from some speechwriter’s poetic fancy - as opposed to the conniving of a phalanx of high-ranking officials.
Pat Tillman was a star defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals who, in the wake of 9/11, turned down a multimillion dollar contract extension to enlist as an Army Ranger. Tillman was the highest profile military recruit of the Bush era.
Tillman was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Within minutes of his demise, it was clear he had been slain by fellow soldiers. The Pentagon responded with an information lockdown -cutting off all communication to the military base where Tillman had been stationed.
A week after Tillman’s death, Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then a top commander in Afghanistan, notified the White House that Tillman was killed by U.S. troops: "I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders that might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of CPL Tillman's death become public." The same day McChrystal sent his memo, the Pentagon announced that Tillman had received a posthumous Silver Star and was killed while leading an attack on Al Qaeda forces. Pentagon emails referred to the “Silver Star Game Plan” (to distract attention from the “friendly fire” killing).
On May 1, 2004, Bush exploited Tillman’s death for the finale of his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The Pentagon and White House delayed admitting that Tillman had been killed by Americans until after a high-profile memorial service rallied public support for the war and Bush’s policies.
The Bush administration perennially claimed that the U.S. invasion in 2001 resulted in “freedom” for Afghan women. But women in many parts of Afghanistan continue to be oppressed even worse than characters in American country music songs. Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently approved a new law in August that entitles a husband to starve his wife if she refuses his sexual demands.
Both Bush and Obama touted the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan as promoting democracy. But the election in August showed Afghan democracy as an onion-layer of frauds. Peter Galbraith, a top United Nations official in Afghanistan, estimated that a third of Karzai’s votes may have been bogus. (He was fired after he refused to muzzle himself).
Some Obama administration officials probably cringed at the scale of the Karzai’s conniving. But it is only a question of time until we are again told about our duty to defend democracy in Kabul. The elections did not fool the Afghan people: they know Karzai is an American puppet. But the election may help the U.S. government con slow-witted Americans into believing the war has a redeeming purpose.
There are other perennial four-star howlers - the claims that the U.S. is speedily building up the Afghan army, that the U.S. is striving to make sure Afghan opium no longer floods the world, that U.S. experts are helping the Afghan government become non-corrupt.....
There is no reason to expect the U.S. government to ever become trustworthy on Afghanistan. At best, Washington will rotate its lies, the same way it rotates the National Guard units sent to the Afghan badlands. Americans need to recognize that, once their government commences warring, truth will be target number one.
A Dogged Taliban Chief Rebounds, Vexing U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/world/asia/11mullah.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
In late 2001, Mullah Muhammad Omar’s prospects seemed utterly bleak. The ill-educated, one-eyed leader of the Taliban had fled on a motorbike after his fighters were swiftly routed by the Americans invading Afghanistan.
Skip to next paragraph 
A wanted poster for Mullah Muhammad Omar, who remains largely a mystery. His followers praise his humility and bravery.
Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Eight years later, Mullah Omar leads an insurgency that has gained steady ground in much of Afghanistan against much better equipped American and NATO forces. Far from a historical footnote, he represents a vexing security challenge for the Obama administration, one that has consumed the president’s advisers, divided Democrats and left many Americans frustrated.
“This is an amazing story,” said Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who coordinated the Obama administration’s initial review of Afghanistan policy in the spring. “He’s a semiliterate individual who has met with no more than a handful of non-Muslims in his entire life. And he’s staged one of the most remarkable military comebacks in modern history.”
American officials are weighing the significance of this comeback: Is Mullah Omar the brains behind shrewd shifts of Taliban tactics and propaganda in recent years, or does he have help from Pakistani intelligence? Might the Taliban be amenable to negotiations, as Mullah Omar hinted in a Sept. 19 statement, or can his network be divided and weakened in some other way? Or is the Taliban’s total defeat required to ensure that Afghanistan will never again become a haven for Al Qaeda?
The man at the center of the American policy conundrum remains a mystery, the subject of adoring mythmaking by his followers and guesswork by the world’s intelligence agencies. He was born, by various accounts, in 1950 or 1959 or 1960 or 1962. He may be hiding near Quetta, Pakistan, or hunkered down in an Afghan village. No one is sure.
“He can’t operate openly; there are too many people looking for him,” and the eye he lost to Soviet shrapnel in the 1980s makes him recognizable, said Alex Strick van Linschoten, a Dutch-born writer who lives in Kandahar, where Mullah Omar’s movement was born, and who has helped a former Taliban official write a memoir.
“There are four or five people who can pass messages to Omar,” Mr. Strick van Linschoten said. “And then there’s a circle of people who can get access to those four or five people.”
Rahimullah Yusufzai, of The News International, a Pakistani newspaper, who interviewed Mullah Omar a dozen times before 2001, called him “a man of few words and not very knowledgeable about international affairs.” But his reputed humility, his legend as a ferocious fighter against Soviet invaders in the 1980s, and his success in ending the lawlessness and bloody warlords’ feuds of the early 1990s cemented his power.
“His followers adore him, believe in him and are willing to die for him,” Mr. Yusufzai said. While even Taliban officials rarely see him, Mullah Omar “remains an inspiration, sending out letters and audiotapes to his commanders and fighters,” the journalist said.
A recent assessment by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, identified the Taliban as the most important part of the insurgency, coordinating “loosely” with groups led by two prominent warlords. He concluded that “the insurgents currently have the initiative” and “the overall situation is deteriorating.”
The statement from Mullah Omar, one of a series issued in his name on each of the two annual Id holidays, offered a remarkably similar analysis. He, or his ghostwriter, praised the success of “the gallant mujahedeen” in countering the “sophisticated and cutting-edge technology” of the enemy, saying the Taliban movement “is approaching the edge of victory.”
For a recluse, he showed a keen awareness of Western public opinion, touching on the history that haunts foreign armies in Afghanistan (“We fought against the British invaders for 80 years”), denouncing fraud in the recent presidential election and asking of the American-led forces, “Have they achieved anything in the past eight years?”
American military and intelligence analysts say the Taliban have definitely achieved some things. They describe today’s Afghan Taliban as a franchise operation, a decentralized network of fighters with varying motivations, united by hostility to the Afghan government and foreign forces and by loyalty to Mullah Omar.
The Taliban have deployed fighters in small guerrilla units and stepped up the use of suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices. The movement has expanded military operations from the Taliban’s southern stronghold into the north and west of the country, forcing NATO to spread its troops more thinly.
(There's more: An epic tale, worthy of a Paul Bunyan or Dan'l Boone. )
The Secret Surge
http://www.thedailybeast.com/?cid=bsa:topnav:hp
Is Football the New Dog Fighting?
Malcolm Gladwell says
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10373677-264.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Hearst Launches Aggregator Site LMK [Voices]
http://buzznewsroom.com/tech/hearst-launches-aggregator-site-lmk-voices/
Hope Not Hype: The Future of Agriculture Guided by the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/books/Hope.not.Hype.htm
The Impact of Compost Use on Crop Yields in Tigray, Ethiopia, 2000-2006 inclusive
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/end/end10.htm
The Debris of an Occupation
http://firedoglake.com/2009/10/09/the-debris-of-an-occupation
Well, it’s a start — U.S. troops may not be flowing steadily out of Iraq yet, but a lot of our stuff is. From the New York Times this morning:
A lot of what the U.S. spent our money to build will be left behind:There is no more visible sign that America is putting the Iraq war behind it than the colossal operation to get its stuff out: 20,000 soldiers, nearly a sixth of the force here, assigned to a logistical effort aimed at dismantling some 300 bases and shipping out 1.5 million pieces of equipment, from tanks to coffee makers.
It is the largest movement of soldiers and matériel in more than four decades, the military said.
. . . just as the buildup in the Kuwaiti desert before the 2003 invasion made it plain that the United States was almost certain to go to war, the preparations for withdrawal just as clearly point to the end of the American military role here. Reversing the process, even if Iraq’s relative stability deteriorates into violence, becomes harder every day.
What Financial Reform Should Look Like, and Doesn’t
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/9198According to this post, the White House is kicking off its push to sell its financial reform package. The problem for us, not so much the Obama Administration, is that there is no reform, and certainly none of the needed reforms, among the proposals. The one positive component is the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). It is a good idea that has already been considerably weakened.
Health Insurance Industry's Latest Double-Cross
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/10/health-insurance-industry-latest-double-cross
Study: Foreclosure Crisis Worsened by Scarcity of Legal Assistance for Struggling Homeowners
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/9/study_foreclosure_crisis_worsened_by_scarcityA new study by the Brennan Center for Justice concludes the national foreclosure crisis is also “a legal crisis. Many homeowners are losing their homes because they lack the ability to navigate the landscape of our lending laws…and too few people are ever able to obtain qualified legal guidance.” We speak to report co-author and attorney Melanca Clark
Pakistani army facing threat from Punjabi, al-Qaida and Taliban militants
Pakistan's army made a stark admission today of the scale of the threat it faces from a nexus of Punjabi, al-Qaida and Taliban militants whose attacks are increasingly coordinated, include soldiers in their ranks and span the country.
The unusually frank assessment, made after the audacious assault on the military's headquarters this weekend, came as a Taliban suicide bomber struck an army convoy as it passed through a crowded marketplace in a small mountain town near the Swat valley, killing 41 people and wounding 45.
It was the fourth militant atrocity to hit Pakistan in eight days of bloodshed that have killed more than 120 people. One television channel reported that the bomber in Shangla district in North West Frontier province was a 13-year-old boy.
Scratch Lowers Resistance to Programming
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/scratch-lowers A new language from MIT’s Media Lab makes it easy for kids to develop programs that interact with things in the real world: Pencils, paper, water, and even vegetables.
Called Scratch, it’s not so much a procedural language as an environment for creating interactive animations, annotated stories, slideshows, prototypes and games. It’s designed to be as simple to use as possible, so kids as young as 8 can get started building their own animations with minimal preparation.
Swedish Solar Car Runs on Fool’s Gold
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/03/quantum-mechani/
New Battery Could Recharge in Seconds
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/superbattery
- Bird Cam Captures Albatross, Killer Whale Rendezvous
- Anatomy of an Asteroid
- Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: NASA’s Lost Female Astronauts
- The Making of a Mind-Blowing Space Photo
- 7 Glow-in-the-Dark Mushroom Species Discovered
- Nobel Winners Isolate Protein Behind Immortality, Cancer
- Infrared Video: 500,000 Bats Emerge From Cave
- Roman Coin Hoards Show More War Means Fewer Babies
- Termite Altruism Might Have Roots in War
- Dark Energy Hunters Catch a Wave
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/03/video-britains
Britain’s military launched a new, robot-heavy Defence Technology Plan last week. And it’s packed with everything from morphing, unmanned copters to drone swarms to liquid armor.
You can see the full Plan here which covers everything from ships and submarines to ground systems, the
Joint Supply Chain. The British MoD may not be able to match the
Pentagon’s budget on R&D, but they have an impressive track record and no lack of talented scientists. They may even produce some technology worth borrowing…
Drone Strike (Apparently) Kills Pakistan Taliban Chief
- Blackwater Chief is a Super Villian: Ex-Employees
- More Innocents Caught in Afghanistan’s Crossfire
- Military Still Trying to Replace Dangerous Stun Grenades
- Danger Room in Afghanistan: Rebranding the ‘Civilian Surge’
- Former Somaliland Resistance Fighter: Arm Us, to Beat Islamists
- Hanging with South Sudan’s All-Female Mine Squads
- ‘Pain Ray’ First Commercial Sale Looms
- Danger Room in Afghanistan: MRAPs Out, Motorcycles In
- Think Tank: China Beats U.S. in Simulated Taiwan Air War
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/10/militarys-disaster-proof-cuisine-tastes-like-soap
- Gates Hints at More Secret Nuke Sites in Iran
- Navy Looks to Stop Enemy Ray Guns
- Military’s Mini-Monster Truck Arrives in Afghanistan
- Five for Fighting 10/6/09
- Gates: Fight Afghan War to Deny Qaeda Propaganda Win*
- Surprise! Pakistan Siphoned off Billions in U.S. Military Aid
- Does Iran Have the Know-How to Build the Bomb?
- After Deadly Assault, Questions Linger Over Afghanistan Strategy
- Shootouts, Pot Fields and Spy Drones: Danger Room in Afghanistan (Bumped)
- Yes, It’s Time to Contain Al Qaeda.
Radioactive mirage
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20091015&filename=news&sec_id=9&sid=27
Ever since the Indo-US nuclear deal signed in October last year lifted 34-year-old global sanctions that denied India access to the international atomic energy market, including uranium, Delhi has been on a shopping spree, buying nuclear fuel and reactors (see India goes shopping ).
When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Delhi in July this year, India said thank you for lifting sanctions by assuring usa a deal to set up two nuclear power plants, in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
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