The Obama administration and the Republicans are currently negotiating the terms for the Democratic Party’s surrender to right-wing demands for an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. This will cost $700 billion over the next decade, or $70 billion a year, more than the cost of all federal nutrition programs combined.
Meanwhile, Obama has praised the proposal from the chairmen of his deficit reduction commission to impose drastic cuts in social programs for the elderly and the poor along with lower taxes for the rich and for corporations and higher taxes for the working class. The mantra of the White House, the political establishment and the media is that the American people have been living beyond their means and must accept a reduction in their consumption.
Monday, November 29, 2010
An enzyme leads the dance of immortality and death
http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/rethinking-healthcare/an-enzyme-leads-the-dance-of-immortality-and-death/2196/
Now Harvard scientists have opened this door, using telomerase to reverse the aging process in mice. Writing in the journal Nature, a group under Ronald DePinho (above, from Harvard) say they “engineered a knock-in allele” that turned the cap-making process back on, making old mice young again.
Now Harvard scientists have opened this door, using telomerase to reverse the aging process in mice. Writing in the journal Nature, a group under Ronald DePinho (above, from Harvard) say they “engineered a knock-in allele” that turned the cap-making process back on, making old mice young again.
Massive garbage patch discovered in Atlantic Ocean; 1,000 miles long
http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/smart-takes/massive-garbage-patch-discovered-in-atlantic-ocean-1000-miles-long/4804/?tag=content;col1
Billions of pieces of plastic trash are accumulating in a massive garbage patch in the Atlantic Ocean, mirroring the Texas-sized one in the Pacific, scientists have found.
(This could be utilized by a mad scientist make disposable islands
Billions of pieces of plastic trash are accumulating in a massive garbage patch in the Atlantic Ocean, mirroring the Texas-sized one in the Pacific, scientists have found.
(This could be utilized by a mad scientist make disposable islands
China is menacingly inching towards the Indian subcontinent
http://southasiantribune.com/chinas-provocative-language/
the Dragon is imbued with imperialist designs. It has started prowling in Gilgit-Baltistan region —constitutionally and legally a part of India— in north-west corner of the undivided state of Jammu and Kashmir. China wants India to cut to size. In fact, Pakistan, which is in de facto control of the region, has handed it over to China.
There are confirmed reports that China has deployed an infantry battalion of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), at the Khunjerab pass (15,397-feet) on the Karakoram highway. The pretext for deployment is ‘security of its workers’, engaged in building a railroad, which will connect Xinjiang to the port of Gwadar in Balochistan, Pakistan.
China’s ‘aggressive approach’ should be seen in the vertex of its close proximity to Pakistan. Inter alia, the two countries want to keep India ‘boxed in’. China has gone crazy for its ‘new sense of power’. It is suffering from narcissism. Beijing has ‘warned’ the international community that to be ‘friendly’ with China, due ‘deference’ must be shown to its ‘core interests’, which include sovereignty over Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang
But it was Nehru who overlooked Chinese trespasses into India, leading to 1962 war with China. According to noted writer D R Mankekar, Nehru was “carried away by his own crusading zeal for world peace and romanticism about peaceful co-existence with China. ….He accommodated Chinese whims …until one bleak autumn morning he was rudely awakened to find that he was not dealing with an honest friend but with a cunning, unscrupulous, cynical foe.”
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=37017&tx_ttnews[backPid]=13&cHash=4ea9bf1e13
The joint China-Pakistan project to link Kashgar in Xinjiang to Havelian near Rawalpindi in Pakistan through the Khunjerab Pass in the Karakoram Range through a rail corridor is indeed ambitious (Rupeenews.com, July 7). It has been noted that the rail track running nearly 700 kilometers "will transform the geopolitics of western China and the subcontinent" and "while the technical aspects of the trans-Karakoram rail link are daunting, there is no denying the Chinese audacity in embracing projects that are grand in conception, challenging in their execution, and consequential in their impact"
China is also concerned about the insurgency in the restive Baluchistan province. Chinese engineers working on infrastructure projects have been kidnapped in the past. In a recent attack in July 2010, unidentified assailants fired rockets at a five -star hotel where Chinese engineers working on an oil refinery were staying (Daily Times, July 8). Significantly, the rockets were fired "from the sea" and Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), an insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned foreign investors not to invest in Balochistan.
Yet, there are several challenges for Beijing in its drive to build infrastructure in POK. While China may be able to overcome the tyranny of geography and absorb the financial cost of infrastructure projects, Islamabad’s apparent inability to control Islamic groups, and above all the unpredictability of the security situation, as well as the impact of climate change in the Himalayas, will be daunting—even for the Chinese.
the Dragon is imbued with imperialist designs. It has started prowling in Gilgit-Baltistan region —constitutionally and legally a part of India— in north-west corner of the undivided state of Jammu and Kashmir. China wants India to cut to size. In fact, Pakistan, which is in de facto control of the region, has handed it over to China.
There are confirmed reports that China has deployed an infantry battalion of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), at the Khunjerab pass (15,397-feet) on the Karakoram highway. The pretext for deployment is ‘security of its workers’, engaged in building a railroad, which will connect Xinjiang to the port of Gwadar in Balochistan, Pakistan.
China’s ‘aggressive approach’ should be seen in the vertex of its close proximity to Pakistan. Inter alia, the two countries want to keep India ‘boxed in’. China has gone crazy for its ‘new sense of power’. It is suffering from narcissism. Beijing has ‘warned’ the international community that to be ‘friendly’ with China, due ‘deference’ must be shown to its ‘core interests’, which include sovereignty over Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang
But it was Nehru who overlooked Chinese trespasses into India, leading to 1962 war with China. According to noted writer D R Mankekar, Nehru was “carried away by his own crusading zeal for world peace and romanticism about peaceful co-existence with China. ….He accommodated Chinese whims …until one bleak autumn morning he was rudely awakened to find that he was not dealing with an honest friend but with a cunning, unscrupulous, cynical foe.”
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=37017&tx_ttnews[backPid]=13&cHash=4ea9bf1e13
The joint China-Pakistan project to link Kashgar in Xinjiang to Havelian near Rawalpindi in Pakistan through the Khunjerab Pass in the Karakoram Range through a rail corridor is indeed ambitious (Rupeenews.com, July 7). It has been noted that the rail track running nearly 700 kilometers "will transform the geopolitics of western China and the subcontinent" and "while the technical aspects of the trans-Karakoram rail link are daunting, there is no denying the Chinese audacity in embracing projects that are grand in conception, challenging in their execution, and consequential in their impact"
China is also concerned about the insurgency in the restive Baluchistan province. Chinese engineers working on infrastructure projects have been kidnapped in the past. In a recent attack in July 2010, unidentified assailants fired rockets at a five -star hotel where Chinese engineers working on an oil refinery were staying (Daily Times, July 8). Significantly, the rockets were fired "from the sea" and Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), an insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned foreign investors not to invest in Balochistan.
Yet, there are several challenges for Beijing in its drive to build infrastructure in POK. While China may be able to overcome the tyranny of geography and absorb the financial cost of infrastructure projects, Islamabad’s apparent inability to control Islamic groups, and above all the unpredictability of the security situation, as well as the impact of climate change in the Himalayas, will be daunting—even for the Chinese.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
N Korea Prison
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_North_Korea#The_prison_system
Political prisoners are subject to guilt by association punishment. They are deported with parents, children and siblings, sometimes even grandparents or grandchildren without any lawsuit or conviction and are detained for the rest of their lives.[41]
One section for political prisoners in lifelong detention, another part similar to re-education camps with prisoners sentenced to long-term imprisonment with the vague hope of eventual release.
Onsong prison camp, Kwan-li-so No. 12, following a defeated riot with around 5000 dead people in 1987
Due to the dire prison conditions with hunger and torture,[50] a large percentage of prisoners do not survive their sentence term.
Political prisoners are subject to guilt by association punishment. They are deported with parents, children and siblings, sometimes even grandparents or grandchildren without any lawsuit or conviction and are detained for the rest of their lives.[41]
One section for political prisoners in lifelong detention, another part similar to re-education camps with prisoners sentenced to long-term imprisonment with the vague hope of eventual release.
Onsong prison camp, Kwan-li-so No. 12, following a defeated riot with around 5000 dead people in 1987
Due to the dire prison conditions with hunger and torture,[50] a large percentage of prisoners do not survive their sentence term.
Brazil police raid gang-ridden Rio slum
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jz2jpwxNU9SJqggb3853MHFZmLAg?docId=51328eb879124ab3a797552f36443a67
It was the biggest victory yet in a two-year effort to drive drug gangs from their strongholds in the hundreds of shantytowns, many draped across the hills around Rio's beaches, a crusade driven in part by the need to make foreign visitors feel secure for the final matches of the 2014 World Cup and for the 2016 Olympics that are meant to be showpieces of Brazil's emergence as growing world force.
The gangs, feeling threatened, reacted violently, mounting mass robberies of motorists on key highways, burning more than 100 buses and cars and shooting up police outposts.
The government counterattacked with hundreds of soldiers and thousands of police in armored vehicles, first driving the gangsters from the Vila Cruzeiro slum on Thursday, then neighboring Alemao — their most ambitious target yet — 72 hours later.
At least 36 people, mostly suspected drug traffickers, have died in the gang violence and resulting police raids in the past week.
Some residents said the government had a negligible presence in the area for at least a decade and feared it would not last.
"The gangs will be back. I have no doubt they escaped and will return after the police leave,"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11920645
The army in Brazil is to take on peacekeeping duties in the poor areas of Rio de Janeiro, which saw a week-long stand-off between security forces and drug dealers last month.
Soldiers will patrol the Alemao and Penha districts to ensure hundreds of drug traffickers who had made the areas their stronghold would not return. Security forces arrested more than 100 people during their sweep of the area.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Anti-North Korea protests in Seoul (1:56)
http://www.reuters.com/news/video/story?videoId=164512032&videoChannel=2602
How can there not be war again?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/world/asia/27korea.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&src=me
This introduced into the mix China’s decade-old efforts to equate economic waters, which usually extend about 200 nautical miles off a country’s coast, with territorial waters, which usually reach about 12 nautical miles off a coast. In 2001, Chinese fighters intercepted and collided with a United States spy plane flying outside territorial waters but inside the economic zone, saying the American plane had violated China’s sovereignty.
Starting on Sunday, the George Washington, which makes its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, and sails with a complete wing of combat aircraft, will lead four other American surface warships in the exercise with the South Korean Navy.
George Washington (commonly known as GW) is 1,092 ft (333 m) long, 257 ft (78 m) wide and 244 feet (74 m) high. The super carrier can accommodate approximately 80 aircraft and has a flight deck 4.5 acres (18,000 m²) in size, using four elevators that are 3,880 ft² (360 m²) each to move planes between the flight deck and the hangar bay. With a combat load, GW displaces almost 97,000 long tons (99,000 t) and can accommodate 6,250 crewmembers. Its four distilling units can make 400,000 U.S. gallons (1,500,000 L) of potable water a day; its food service divisions serve 18,000 meals per day. There are over 2,500 compartments on board requiring 2,520 refrigeration tons (8.6 MW) of air conditioning capacity (enough to cool over 2,000 homes). The warship uses two Mark II stockless anchors that weigh 30 tons[vague] each, with each link of the anchor chain weighing 360 pounds (160 kg). It is currently equipped with two 20 mm Phalanx CIWS mounts and two Sea Sparrow SAM launchers. One CIWS and one Sea Sparrow mount were removed to make way for two RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launchers, installed during the 2005 Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA).
How can there not be war again?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/world/asia/27korea.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&src=me
This introduced into the mix China’s decade-old efforts to equate economic waters, which usually extend about 200 nautical miles off a country’s coast, with territorial waters, which usually reach about 12 nautical miles off a coast. In 2001, Chinese fighters intercepted and collided with a United States spy plane flying outside territorial waters but inside the economic zone, saying the American plane had violated China’s sovereignty.
Starting on Sunday, the George Washington, which makes its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, and sails with a complete wing of combat aircraft, will lead four other American surface warships in the exercise with the South Korean Navy.
George Washington (commonly known as GW) is 1,092 ft (333 m) long, 257 ft (78 m) wide and 244 feet (74 m) high. The super carrier can accommodate approximately 80 aircraft and has a flight deck 4.5 acres (18,000 m²) in size, using four elevators that are 3,880 ft² (360 m²) each to move planes between the flight deck and the hangar bay. With a combat load, GW displaces almost 97,000 long tons (99,000 t) and can accommodate 6,250 crewmembers. Its four distilling units can make 400,000 U.S. gallons (1,500,000 L) of potable water a day; its food service divisions serve 18,000 meals per day. There are over 2,500 compartments on board requiring 2,520 refrigeration tons (8.6 MW) of air conditioning capacity (enough to cool over 2,000 homes). The warship uses two Mark II stockless anchors that weigh 30 tons[vague] each, with each link of the anchor chain weighing 360 pounds (160 kg). It is currently equipped with two 20 mm Phalanx CIWS mounts and two Sea Sparrow SAM launchers. One CIWS and one Sea Sparrow mount were removed to make way for two RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launchers, installed during the 2005 Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA).
Propulsion
Two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors are used for propulsion (the ship is capable of steaming more than three million nautical miles before refueling) turning 4 five-bladed screws that weigh 66,220 pounds (30,040 kg) each driving the ship at speeds over 30 knots (56 km/h).Nigeria detains 12 in Halliburton bribery case
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AQ1SX20101127
Houston-based engineering firm KBR pleaded guilty last year to U.S. charges that it paid $180 million in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
KBR and Halliburton reached a $579 million settlement in the United States but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.
KBR split from Halliburton in 2007. (So they could fragment and bury their corruption?
Houston-based engineering firm KBR pleaded guilty last year to U.S. charges that it paid $180 million in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
KBR and Halliburton reached a $579 million settlement in the United States but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.
KBR split from Halliburton in 2007. (So they could fragment and bury their corruption?
Teenage boys survive 50 days adrift in South Pacific
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AP3L620101127
survived on coconuts, a seagull they managed to catch and by drinking rain and then sea water
drifted 1,300 km (800 miles) across an empty, and little traveled, section of the Pacific Ocean.
survived on coconuts, a seagull they managed to catch and by drinking rain and then sea water
drifted 1,300 km (800 miles) across an empty, and little traveled, section of the Pacific Ocean.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
North Korea's aging army
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/24/north.korea.capability/index.html?iref=NS1
Jane's estimates that its standing army numbers just over 1 million personnel, with reserves estimated at more than 7 million. But North Korean soldiers are poorly fed, according to analysts and reports from defectors, and rarely train due to scarcity of fuel and ammunition
Jane's estimates that its standing army numbers just over 1 million personnel, with reserves estimated at more than 7 million. But North Korean soldiers are poorly fed, according to analysts and reports from defectors, and rarely train due to scarcity of fuel and ammunition
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