4/29/11
An ounce of gold hit a high of $1,569.30, rising 2 per cent, in the biggest one-day percentage gain, since December.
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US meteorologists warned Thursday it would be a mistake to blame climate change for a seeming increase in tornadoes in the wake of deadly storms that have ripped through the US south.
It would be "a terrible mistake," to relate the up-tick to climate change.
Wednesday's deadly tornadoes, according to Imy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were unusual for being "long track," meaning they were on the ground for a longer period of time than usual -- in this case, roiling across the land for 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more.
An average track would be less than five miles.
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The Mississippi River is predicted to rise almost three feet higher than it did during severe flooding in 2008.
4/29/11
More than 75,000 job-seekers, applied for 2,000 area positions, with McDonald's
4/29/11
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) —
Authorities say the death toll from the devastating tornado outbreak across the South has climbed to 318.
Making it the deadliest day for twisters, since the Great Depression.
Some of the worst damage, was in Tuscaloosa; a city of more than 83,000, that is home to the University of Alabama.
The storms did the brunt of their damage in Alabama. More than two-thirds of the victims lived there, and large cities bore the scars of half-mile-wide twisters that rumbled through. The high death toll seems surprising in the era of Doppler radar and precise satellite forecasts. But the storms were just too wide and too powerful to avoid a horrifying body count.
As many as a million homes and businesses there were without power.
"It was God up there, letting us now that He is the boss; what he could tear up, and what he could destroy.
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The worse it gets, and the more the world descends to lower and lower levels; the closer we are to the End Times [Redemption].
From the book Hesed L'Avraham- of Rabbi Avraham Azulai.
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4/29/11
People with suspected thyroid disorders are being mistreated and misinformed, experts have warned.
British Thyroid Association doctors say some people are being given the wrong tests and the wrong treatment.
Around 3% of the UK population has an underactive thyroid, which should be diagnosed with a blood test and treated with a synthetic hormone.
Symptoms can include: being very tired, feeling the cold, having difficulties with memory or concentration, weight gain, and fertility problems.
These are symptoms that can mimic other conditions, and experts warn an incorrect diagnosis could mean some patients could suffer harmful effects from excess thyroid hormones, while other serious conditions may go undiagnosed.
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4/29/11
Many elderly people may be taking "excessive" medication for their thyroid problems, increasing their fracture risk, researchers warn.
A synthetic hormone, thyroxine, is given to people whose thyroid glands produce too little naturally.
It has been estimated that 20% of older people are on long-term treatment for an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism).
Patients are supposed to be checked regularly to ensure they are on the right dose, but for many it often remains unchanged into old age.
This can lead to people developing the opposite problem, an over-active thyroid - caused by having too much thyroxine - which can increase the risk of fractures, particularly in older women.
Ideal thyroxine doses may vary with age and be "unexpectedly low" in elderly people.
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4/28/11
A new census reveals that the Chinese population has reached 1.34 billion people, with a sharp rise in those over the age of 60.
4/28/11
Storms and tornadoes batter southern US states, with the death toll reaching 250 - including 142 people killed in Alabama alone.
Deaths and widespread devastation are also reported in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Virginia.
The US National Weather Service has reports of nearly 300 tornadoes since the storm began on Friday, more than 150 of them on Wednesday alone.
"I don't know if I've ever seen in my life anything as destructive," Mayor Walter Maddox said.
"We have never experienced such a major weather event in our history," the Tennessee Valley Authority said in a statement.
Storms have hit states across the southern US for weeks, and another major storm system is forecast to bring heavy rain in the coming days.
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4/27/11
“Any delay in making an interest or principal payment by Treasury even for a very short period of time would put the US Treasury and overall financial markets in uncharted territory and could trigger another catastrophic financial crisis.”
These included the dumping of US government debt by foreign holders and the downgrade of the US triple-A credit rating, following last week’s move by Standard & Poor’s to change its outlook on the US from “stable” to “negative” for the first time in 70 years.
Other effects were a “run on money market funds”, such as the one that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and a wave of “acute deleveraging”.
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“Because Treasuries have historically been viewed as the world’s safest asset, they are the most widely used collateral in the world and underpin large parts of the financial markets.
A default could trigger a wave of margin calls and widening of haircuts on collateral, which in turn could lead to deleveraging and a sharp drop in lending,” Mr Zames said.
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But Republicans remain adamant that they want to take advantage of the need to raise the debt limit in order to extract additional budget cuts – and stringent fiscal rules on government spending over the long term.
4/26/11
An extremely dangerous outbreak of tornadoes will endanger many lives and property from northeastern Texas into Arkansas, northern Louisiana, northwestern Mississippi and western Tennessee this afternoon into Wednesday.
These are the same areas that were just hit by tornadoes Monday afternoon and night, and today's outbreak is expected to be worse than Monday's.
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4/24/11
Weakness in the US dollar, which is causing everything to go up—including gas prices, food and stocks—is unlikely to go away soon as a selling frenzy hits the currency market.
The greenback is approaching pre-financial crisis lows and threatening to smash through its all-time low when measured against the world's predominant national currencies.
A combination of factors accounts for the weakness, with the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies, huge national debts and deficits and the consequential possibility of a debt downgrade because of the financial mess in Washington leading the way.
In short, as trader Dennis Gartman noted Thursday, "the rout of the US dollar" is in full effect.
"Panic dollar selling is setting in,"
This may carry farther, than any of us dream of; or worse, have nightmares of."
Even as currency pros wonder, how the dollar could be falling against the euro; considering the near certainty, of sovereign debt defaults, in smaller European Union nations.
No defense is being offered in the US, where neither Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, nor most of the rest of the central bank's Open Market Committee, seems much in the mood, to raise rates despite the anemic dollar. Though the Fed is ostensibly apolitical, there is no pressure as well from the Obama administration, to boost the dollar's value.
That, of course, is not the case for consumers buying food and energy. Some economists believe that a weak dollar is contributing heavily to the surge in prices at the pump.
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4/24/11
One of India's most revered spiritual leaders, Sri Satya Sai Baba, who had millions of followers worldwide, dies in hospital, aged 84.
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4/23/11
The Higgs boson is predicted to exist by prevailing particle-physics theory, which is known as the Standard Model. Physicists think the Higgs bestows mass on all the other particles — but they have yet to confirm its existence.
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U.S. Fed to buy 600 billion dollars government bonds.
In a move known as the "Quantitative Easing" (QE2) monetary policy to boost the sluggish economic growth.
On the unemployment front, with 14.8 million Americans unemployed and unemployment rate hovering at double digit.
Consumers and businesses that are still suffering, from the worst recession, since the Great Depression.
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The Federal Reserve has issued $755B of paper money, called Federal Reserve notes. If this currency were backed by gold at 100%, the gold price would be $2,892.
At some point foreigners may decide they have enough of our dollars, forcing the whole system to fall apart. The dollar would devalue, and then we wouldn’t be able to buy as many things as we want from foreigners, like energy to drive our cars.
Japan has $700B of accumulated Treasuries, and China $200B.
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4/23/11
Inflation.
In February, we had the highest monthly increase in the price of food since 1974. In March the price of corn set a record high. The price of gasoline has doubled, since Barack Hussein Obama became president, and is expected to reach its record high by Memorial Day.
Under the old method of calculating inflation, the annualized rate for February was 9.6 percent.
With wages flat, those who have jobs will lose ground. And for those poor souls without jobs...
There is unemployment, lack of economic growth, massive debt, etc.
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4/23/11
The US airport of Lambert-St Louis Missouri, has been closed indefinitely after a tornado ripped through its main terminal.
The storm, one of a series, to pass through central and eastern Missouri.
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4/23/11
President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, agrees to step down; under a 30-day transition plan, to end increasingly violent unrest over his rule.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen agrees to step down under a 30-day transition plan to end increasingly violent unrest over his rule.
If Mr Saleh steps down as expected, he will join; Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, as the latest Arab leader to lose power, because of a popular revolt this year.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh in power since 1978.
Population 24.3m; land area 536,869 sq km.
The population has a median age of 17.9, and a literacy rate of 61%
Youth unemployment is 15%.
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"He has always ruled, by creating confusion, crisis, and sometimes fear, among those who might challenge him."
Mr. Saleh has led one of the most challenging countries in the region: an impoverished state, vulnerable to militancy. Positioned between the oil-rich authoritarianism of the Gulf states, and the lawlessness of Somalia. and still healing from a Korea-like division, during the Cold War.
Now approaching his 70th year, he has likened the task of ruling Yemen to "dancing on the heads of snakes".
Elected its first president, after unification in 1990, 21 yrs.
Abroad, Mr Saleh largely achieved the delicate task, of keeping both Western and Arab powers, on his side.
His battle to control al-Qaeda (who have sensed in Yemen a base comparable to Afghanistan in the late 1990s) won him friends in Washington.
With outrage, now added to anger, at corruption and poverty, he had failed to tackle for decades.
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4/22/11
The Antarctic ozone hole is about one-third to blame for Australia's recent series of droughts, scientists say.
They conclude that the hole has shifted wind and rainfall patterns right across the Southern Hemisphere, even the tropics.
Their climate models suggest the effect has been notably strong over Australia.
Many parts of the country have seen drought in recent years, with cities forced to invest in technologies such as desalination, and farms closing.
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Much of the cold weather felt in the UK over the last couple of winters, for example, was caused by blocking of the Northern Hemisphere stream.
The Columbia team found that overall, the ozone hole has resulted in rainfall moving south along with the winds.
But there are regional differences, particularly concerning Australia.
"In terms of the average for that zone, [the ozone hole drives] about a 10% change - but for Australia, it's about 35%.
Although natural climate cycles are also thought to be important, as Australia suffered severe droughts in the era before ozone depletion and before the warming seen in the late 20th Century.
"It's very important to include all factors, rather than assuming, that any impact we see, is simply due to greenhouse gas-mediated warming affect."
Desalination, is one of the approaches being used, to combat Australia's dwindling supply of water.
Earlier this month, the World Meteorological Organization revealed that the Arctic was experiencing the worst ozone depletion on record.
Australia's persistently dry weather, has caused major impacts on communities, farms, and nature.
In recent years, the volume of water flowing into the reservoirs of Perth, (the Western Australian capital), has been just one third, of what it was during most of the 20th Century.
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4/22/11
Chinese demand for oil, is still increasing, at faster than 1 million barrels per day."
China is the world's second largest oil consumer, behind the U.S. China needs about 9.2 million barrels a day.
Demand is up 10.5 percent from a year ago; which is about half, of U.S. daily oil consumption.
The average price of gas is $3.84 for a gallon of regular. That's about 30 cents higher than a month ago, but almost a dollar higher, than a year ago.
The eye-popping prices at the pump, are changing Americans' vacationing and traveling plans.
4/22/11
McDonald's and other restaurant operators are getting squeezed by accelerating food costs and must figure out how to raise prices without scaring away already skittish diners.
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4/22/11
Moshiach's Seudah
The last day of Pesach, the eighth day, is therefore the day of the circumcision, which is "the beginning of the entry of the holy soul." Moshiach is the yechidah - the most sublime level of the soul - of the Jewish people. Until the body of Jewry has undergone circumcision it is not whole; its holy soul is missing. Moreover, the Alter Rebbe writes, the highest level of circumcision will take place in the future, when "The L-rd will circumcise your heart."
The Haftorah read on the last day of Pesach, is also connected with the Messianic Era. It states: "The wolf will lie down with the lamb...He will raise a banner for the return...the earth will be full of the knowledge of the L-rd." All of these verses, refer to the Messianic Era.
Our intellectual awareness, must be translated into concrete action - by eating of Moshiach's seudah. Moreover, the food from Moshiach's seudah, becomes part of our flesh and blood; so that our faith in, and yearning, for Moshiach, permeates not just the soul's faculties, but also the physical body.
The Baal Shem Tov's was the first, to teach and spread– Chassidus, which will bring Moshiach; and it is therefore particularly appropriate, that it was the Baal Shem Tov who initiated Moshiach's seudah, on the last day of Pesach.
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In the time of the Baal Shem Tov, the principal element of the seudah was matzah.
But the Rebbe Rashab, fifth Rebbe of Chabad, added, the drinking four cups of wine. Matzah is poor man's bread, flat and tasteless. (no taste- above understanding)
Wine, in contrast, not only possesses taste, but induces joy and delight
(understanding).
As time progresses, we are to elevate, lower levels of physicality. Until the Geula, which will elevate all levels and aspects of the creation.
In the times of The Baal Shem Tov, the level of faith was able to be elevated.
But in the time of the Rebbe Rashab – wine- intellect Chabad, understanding, "taste" and "delight" into Torah through Chassidus, was able to be elevated.
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The four cups of wine, allude to the Messianic Age, and the four letters of G-d's Name, which will then be revealed.
4/22/11
Drones are used in situations where manned flight is considered too risky or difficult. They provide troops with a 24-hour "eye in the sky", seven days a week. Each aircraft can stay aloft for up to 17 hours at a time, loitering over an area and sending back real-time imagery of activities on the ground.
Those used by the United States Air Force and Royal Air Force range from small intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance craft, some light enough to be launched by hand, to medium-sized armed drones and large spy planes.
These strange-looking planes carry a wealth of sensors in their bulbous noses: colour and black-and-white TV cameras, image intensifiers, radar, infra-red imaging for low-light conditions and lasers for targeting. They can also be armed with laser-guided missiles.
Each multi-million dollar Predator or Reaper system comprises four aircraft, a ground control station and a satellite link.
The MQ-1B Predator since 2002, has been equipped with two Hellfire II missiles; meaning, it can strike at a range of up to five miles. Cost $20m per system.
By contrast, the newer MQ-9 Reaper, $53.5m per system, was conceived as a "hunter-killer" system.
It can carry four Hellfire missiles, and laser-guided bombs, such as Paveway II and GBU-12. Its cruise speed is 370kph (230mph); much faster than the 217kph (135mph) of the Predator; which is more vulnerable to being shot down at low altitudes.
In recent years there has been a surge in further research and development of unmanned aircraft, leading to predictions of future "robo-wars".
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4/22/11
Japanese exports fall 2.2% in March due to tsunami.
The first drop in 16 months.
Shipments of cars tumbled 28% as the sector continued to be hit by shortfall of parts and slowdown in production.
The earthquake and tsunami, has damaged factories, and disrupted the supply chain.
Shipments of semiconductor products and electronics, also fell by 6.9%.
"At least for March, some manufacturers were able to keep limited output by relying on stock. But by now, stock will be gone, forcing companies to completely shut down production.
The fall in exports could widen to as much as 20-30% in the coming months.
There has also been damage to infrastructure, like ports and airports.
One of the biggest issues crippling Japan's component makers is the shortage of electrical power.
The situation is likely to become more complicated as the demand for electricity reaches its peak in the coming summer months.
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Apple devices appear to be tracking their owners' locations and storing data about people's whereabouts without their knowledge, according to a report posted Wednesday on a site called iPhone.
started in June 2010, when iOS 4.0 was released.
“Cell phone providers collect similar data almost inevitably as part of their operations, but it's kept behind their firewall. It normally requires a court order to gain access to it; whereas, this is available, to anyone who can get their hands on your phone, or computer.”
Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements.”
The location data appear to be collected at random intervals over time, using cell phone towers to triangulate approximate locations, they write.
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Japan: Officials say: radiation leaks are continuing, and could eventually exceed those at Chernobyl.
1986 Chernobyl: Contamination of an area as far as 500 km (300 miles) from the plant, according to the UN. But animals and plants were also affected much further away.
The authorities evacuated, in 1986, about 115,000 people from areas surrounding the reactor; and subsequently relocated, after 1986, about 220,000 people from: Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine
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Gold price hits record at $1,500 an ounce.
After concerns about global economic recovery lifted the metal's appeal as a haven.
Silver also touched a 31-year high of $44.34 an ounce.
"In a word, sensational. Everything's feeding into this, sovereign debt, weak dollar, inflation," said one analyst.
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4/20/11
Texas wildfires destroy a million acres.
One official told CNN fires were burning "from border to border", with some covering more than 100,000 acres.
Long-term drought, high temperatures and gusting winds have created ideal conditions for the fires to spread.
Several towns have been evacuated and flames are now close to Fort Worth, one of the state's largest cities.
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4/18/11
Rising food and petrol prices, pushed the annual rate of US inflation, up from 2.1% in February, to 2.7% in March.
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4/18/11
The US has been warned, that the credit rating on its government debt, could be cut by Standard & Poor's.
S&P is concerned, that Democrats and Republicans, will not be able to agree a plan, to reduce the growing US deficit.
Republicans are pushing for plans, to massively cut, US government spending.
It has downgraded its outlook, from stable to negative; increasing the likelihood, that the rating could be cut, within the next two years.
The agency said: we consider to be, very large budget deficits, and rising government indebtedness; and the path to addressing these, is not clear to us.
The surprise move sent US and European shares lower. The S&P 500 fell the most in a month, and the US dollar dropped against the euro and Swiss franc. Oil was also sharply lower.
In Europe, the main UK, German and French indexes all fell by at least 2%.
The US federal deficit currently stands at $1.4tn (£858bn) and is expected to reach $1.5tn in the current fiscal year.
The US has the top AAA credit rating on its long-term bonds.
Since the US is the world's largest economy, and its debt is considered the backbone of the world's financial system, any concern over the US ability to pay its debt creates huge ripples in the world economy.
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4/18/11
The New Cold War
There has long been bad blood between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but popular protests across the Middle East now threaten to turn the rivalry into a tense and dangerous regional divide.
Many see a heightened possibility, of actual military conflict in the Gulf, where one-fifth of the world's oil supplies, traverse the shipping lanes.
For three months, the Arab world has been awash in protests and demonstrations. It's being called an Arab Spring; referring to the Prague Spring of 1968, 43 yrs. ago.
The most notable impact on the region thus far, hasn't been an upswell of democracy. It has been a dramatic spike in tensions, between two geopolitical titans: Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Iran is trying to expand its influence.
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Growing hostility between the two countries could make it more difficult for the U.S. to exit smoothly from Iraq this year, as planned. And, perhaps most dire, it could exacerbate what many fear is a looming nuclear arms race in the region.
A former head of the Saudi intelligence service and ambassador to the U.K. and the U.S., pointedly suggested that if Iran were to develop a weapon, Saudi Arabia might well feel pressure to develop one of its own.
There has long been bad blood between the Saudis and Iran. Saudi Arabia, is a Sunni Muslim kingdom of ethnic Arabs; Iran a Shiite Islamic republic, populated by ethnic Persians.
Shiites first broke with Sunnis, over the line of succession, after the death of the Prophet Mohammed, in the year 632. Sunnis have regarded them, as a heretical sect ever since.
The two sides have assembled loosely allied camps:
Iran holds in its sway Syria and the militant Arab groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
In the Saudi sphere, are the Sunni Muslim-led Gulf monarchies, Egypt, Morocco and the other main Palestinian faction, Fatah.
The Saudi camp, is pro-Western, and leans toward tolerating the state of Israel.
The Iranian grouping, thrives on its reputation in the region, as a scrappy "resistance" camp, defiantly opposed to the West and Israel.
Two years ago, the Saudis discovered Iranian efforts to spread Shiite doctrine in Morocco and to use some mosques in the country as a base for similar efforts in sub-Saharan Africa.
As far away as Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, the Saudis have watched warily as Iranian clerics have expanded their activities—and they have responded with large-scale religious programs of their own there.
Iran's clerical regime, has worked to spread the revolution, across the Middle East.
There were large demonstrations and purported antigovernment plots in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, which has a large population of Shiite Muslim Arabs, and in Bahrain, where Shiites are a distinct majority.
In Riyadh, Saudi officials watched with alarm. They became furious, when the Obama administration betrayed, to Saudi thinking, a longtime ally in Mr. Mubarak, and urged him to step down, in the face of the street demonstrations.
Losing Mr. Mubarak means, that the Saudis now see themselves, as the last Sunni giant left in the region.
The Saudis saw calls for reform, as another in a string of disappointments, and outright betrayals by he US.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has recently compared the region's protests to Iran's 1979 revolution.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: This is the same as 'Islamic Awakening,' which is the result of the victory of the big revolution, of the Iranian nation.
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The regional troubles have come at a tricky moment domestically for Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah, thought to be 86 years old, was hospitalized in New York, receiving treatment for a back injury, when the Arab protests began.
The Crown Prince, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, is only slightly younger and is already thought to be too infirm to become king.
Third in line, Prince Nayaf bin Abdul Aziz, is around 76 years old.
The Saudis, who recently negotiated a $60 billion arms deal with the U.S. (the largest in American history), say that later this year they will increase the size of their armed forces and National Guard.
There is traditional security arrangement with Washington, which is based on the understanding: that the kingdom works to stabilize global oil prices, while the White House protects the ruling family's dynasty.
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Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu warned: The pro-democracy uprisings sweeping through the Arab world, are in danger of being manipulated, by Iran's Islamic Republic.
What we hope to see is the European Spring of 1989," he said, referring to the year, which marked a turning point for the wave of revolutions sweeping through the Eastern bloc. Which two years later, led to the break-up of the Soviet Union.
He warned: “We could find, that the Arab Spring, turns into an Iranian winter."
In February Netanyahu warned: "In a time of chaos, an organized Islamic group, can take over the state. It happened in Iran, and it also happened in other places."
In Iran, mass protests against the Western-backed Shah, erupted in January 1978; and he was forced out a year later, leaving a power vacuum that was grasped by the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who returned to set up the Islamic Republic.
Since then, the Iranian regime, has become Israel's most virulent enemy.
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4/18/11
FBI Counter-Terror Official: Al Qaeda 'Thrives' After Dictators Fall.
Reports have emerged, of a new al Qaeda video, that praises the revolutions, sweeping the Arab world.
Al Qaeda thrives in such conditions, and countries of weak governance and political instability. Countries in which governments, may be sympathetic to their campaign of violence."
In the hour-plus long video, al-Zawahiri orders Muslims in Egypt, to create an Islamic state there, and calls for the Arab armies of the Middle East, to intervene in Libya, to oust dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, expressed her fears, that the revolt in Libya would be exploited by terror groups, at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, in early March.
Eastern Libyan towns, now associated with the rebel cause, were just a few years before considered by the U.S., as havens for al Qaeda fighters, according to government documents.
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4/18/11
From Thursday, April 14, 2011 to Saturday, April, 16, 2011, devastating tornadoes rampaged across communities of the southern United States.
The tornado outbreak, led to a total of 241 tornado reports, in 14 states, over the three-day period. This will likely rank, as the largest tornado outbreak in history.
Jackson, Miss., and Raleigh, N.C., are among the large cities that were struck by large, devastating twisters.
Numerous homes, businesses, churches and even schools have been severely damaged or destroyed in the path of the tornadoes.
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Home prices are popping in Brooklyn, with average prices up 7 percent over the last year, new market data show.
Crown Heights, where prices are up by 5.1 percent.
The average home price in the borough jumped to $569,799 in the first three months of 2011, up from $532,061 during the same period of 2010.
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4/17/11
North Queensland has been rocked by its largest quake in years: a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, with reports from across the region of buildings "shuddering''. This was followed by a 4.7 quake a couple of hours later. No damage has been reported. This
is the same part of Australia hit by Cyclone Yasi and the severe flooding.
Earthquakes are very unusual for Queensland, but strangely enough they also had one 31 days ago on March 16.
New Zealand city Christchurch was hit with an aftershock of 5.2 magnitute just 18 minutes after the Queensland quake.
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4/17/11
The UK was sending remote-controlled robots into one of the reactors.
Japan is a world leader in such technology, but its robots are not adapted for dirty work, such as meltdowns at nuclear plants.
Japan's recovery bill has been estimated at $300bn (£184bn) - already the most expensive disaster in history. But the government said last week, that figure might be an underestimate.
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4/17/11
Governor of North Carolina Beverly Purdue: "I declared a state of emergency for North Carolina"
Three days of severe spring storms. Sixty-two tornadoes were spotted in the state; and left a trail of destruction, in the worst storm to hit the state in two decades.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue, said the number of tornadoes, was the highest since 1984.
Storm chasers have tracked tornadoes across the south, and Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland were put under tornado watch.
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Virginia have also been hit.
Much of the damage in the south was attributed to high winds, with Alabama and
Arkansas among the worst-hit.
Hailstones the size of grapefruit were reported as the storms swept through the region, creating flash floods as well as tornadoes.
The storms first struck Oklahoma on Thursday before sweeping eastward through other states.
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4/17/11
In revolutionary moments, the status quo is not a winning hand."
Because of youth unemployment... there is now a risk that this will be turned into a life sentence, and that there is a possibility of a lost generation," he said.
Food price changes Q1 2010 to Q1 2011
SOURCE: WORLD BANK DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS GROUP
Maize 74%
Wheat 69%
Palm oil 55%
Soybeans 36%
Beef 30%
Rice -2%
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4/15/11
The two high-level US official visits to Riyadh in six days attest to the fierce discord between Saudi King Abdullah and the administration - not just over Iran and its nuclear activity but the entire gamut of US Middle East policy.
The king declared angrily that the lax American attitude toward Islamic Republic's nuclear aspirations places the very existence of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf nations in peril.
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Rabbi Yitzchok said, “The year in which Melech HaMashiach will be revealed, all the nations of the world will be provoking each other...The king of Persia [Iran] will provoke the King of Arabia. The King of Arabia, will go to Edom [the leader of the Christian nations- US] to take counsel and the King of Persia [Ahmadinejad] will threaten to destroy the entire world." [Medrash Yalkut Shemoni [Yeshiya 60] ]
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4/14/11
Many analysts in Washington, have scored the budget bill, as a victory for the Republicans.
"It stops the bleeding. It halts the spending binge and starts us moving us back in the right direction," Mr Boehner said of the legislation on Thursday.
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4/14/11
New York and San Diego, no longer have white majorities.
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4/14/11
The world's banks face a $3.6 trillion "wall of maturing debt" in the next two years and must compete with debt-laden governments to secure financing, the IMF warned on Wednesday.
The debt rollover requirements are most acute for Irish and German banks, with as much as half of their outstanding debt coming due over the next two years, the fund said. Heightening competition for scarce funding resources.
the most pressing challenges in the coming months will be funding of banks and sovereigns, particularly in vulnerable euro area countries, it said.
European banks, hold large amounts of euro zone sovereign debt; making them vulnerable to losses, if countries are forced to restructure.
Without these reforms, downside risks will re-emerge."
It repeated it’s warning that the United States and Japan faced particularly dangerous debt dynamics.
Advanced economies face the difficult task of trying to pare deficits without choking off the economic recovery.
For 2011, Japan and the United States face the largest public debt rollovers of any advanced economy at 56 percent and 29 percent of gross domestic product, respectively.
"While the United States and Japan continue to benefit from low current (borrowing) rates, both are very sensitive to a potential rise in funding costs," it said.
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Suicide rates in the U.S. tend to rise during recessions and fall amid economic booms, according to study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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4/14/11
SANYA, China (Reuters) - The BRICS group of emerging-market powers kept up the pressure on Thursday for a revamped global monetary system that relies less on the dollar and for a louder voice in international financial institutions.
The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The development banks, of the five BRICS nations, agreed in principle on Thursday, to establish mutual credit lines, denominated in their local currencies, but not in dollars.
Meeting on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, they said the recent financial crisis had exposed the inadequacies of the current monetary order, which has the dollar as its linchpin.
Thinly veiled criticism of what the BRICS see as Washington's neglect of its global monetary responsibilities.
The BRICS are worried that America's large trade and budget deficits will eventually debase the dollar. They also begrudge the financial and political privileges that come with being the leading reserve currency.
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Burdened by heavy debt, the United States, the euro zone and Japan are struggling to shake off the lingering effects, of the 2008 global financial crisis.
Rich countries will grow 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2012, the International Monetary fund forecast this week.
By contrast, less well-off countries have emerged relatively unscathed. The IMF is forecasting that emerging and developing countries will grow 6.5 percent both this year and next.
The main aim of the BRICS is to forge a common emerging-market negotiating stance on issues from climate change to world trade and to act as a counterweight to the West in settings such as the Group of 20 forum of advanced and developing economies.
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4/14/11
Suicides reached a record high of 22 people per 100,000 in 1932 during the Great Depression.
That was double the rates seen in 2000, when 10 people per 100,000 took their lives as the economy prospered, the study found.
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4/14/11
Esther Jungreis
We blindly scurry about, vainly seeking remedies, indulging in every new fad, and shunning the age-old truths given to us by G-d, which for thousands of years have enabled us to make very home a citadel of joy.
We the Jewish people have been charged with the sacred mission of illuminating the world with G-d`s holy flame. Our Torah has been the fountain from which all religions and all nations have drawn their inspiration and sustenance.
Today, a generation of Jews has risen which dwells in darkness, not knowing how to kindly the eternal light of G-d…
The eternal truths which enabled us to survive in the midst of darkness, which made our homes impervious to the destructive forces which plague mankind, will once again become the possession of the children of Israel.
Marriage Manuals = Destruction of Sex
If You Are A Jew, Your Search Is Ended!
The Jewish View
G-d – Your Partner in Creation
Judaism views marriage as the most sacred function of man. In the Hebrew language, marriage is called “kiddushin”, which when translated, literally means “sanctification”. Our Rabbis liken the day of marriage to Yom Kippur.
To the young couple, it is a moment of sanctity. It is a time for prayer and fasting. All the sins and misdeeds of the past are forgiven.
In short, the young couple is reborn and given an opportunity to embark upon a new life with a clean slate. The groom is regarded as a king, the bride as a queen, and the spirit of the Almighty rests upon their marriage canopy. To the Jew, the most intimate relationship between husband and wife is holy.
The Almighty Himself rejoices when husband and wife love each other and become His partners in creating a new generation.
This concept of marriage is in complete contrast to that of other religions, in which marriage is regarded as a necessary concession to the demands of nature, and which consider abstention to be the mark of saintliness.
the child who has been raised in a truly Jewish home, understands that sex is a gift from G-d. It is holy and beautiful … and only through the consecration of marriage, does man become complete.
Bodies United and Hearts Apart
In marriage, husband and wife form a unity that is so complete and harmonious, that there can be no barrier between them.
The Torah teaches us that Eve, the first wife, was fashioned from Adam`s rib. When she was presented to her mate he voiced his delight by proclaiming: “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh”.
And so, in a meaningful marriage, the partners regard each other as “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh”… the two become one.
It is not mere coincidence that the Hebrew world “ahavah” (love) is numerically equivalent to the number one. Only when love exists, are husband and wife justified in uniting as one.
Yes, Divorce Is Permissible
For millennia, Jewish family life was the envy of all peoples. Divorce was virtually unknown (not because divorce was not permissible, for Jewish law is most lenient in this regard), but simply because our homes were built upon foundations of peace, understanding and sanctity
There was an invisible bond between husband and wife; a bond which was established and solidified through knowledge of G-d. But conditions have changed radically since then. The vast majority of our people are unaware of Jewish law in regard to marriage. They remain totally ignorant of the fact that Torah is a way of life, rather than a subject to be studies… and that it is relevant to every aspect of existence.
If, for example, man were to believe that his only goal was to achieve happiness, then happiness would always elude his grasp. Making happiness an objective in itself can only lead to frustration and madness. Happiness can be achieved only if it is the by-product of a meaningful, worthwhile life.
Love is like a plant, and must be continually cultivated.
When the most intimate and tender relationship becomes commonplace, it loses its beauty and meaning. That which is too familiar becomes the object of contempt.
The observant Jewish couple however, is safeguarded from such perils by the “laws of separation”. Once a month, the Jewish husband waits for his wife, counting every day until he may be reunited with his beloved in purity, in devotion and love. Their marriage remains ever new, as delightful as their courtship, as romantic as their honeymoon. The plague of boredom never invades their most intimate relationship.
It is a basic truth, that qualitative satisfaction, is longer lasting.
The purpose of mikveh, is not physical cleanliness, but rather spiritual purification.
The Torah bids us, that our children be created in a moment of sanctity; in a moment when love is pure, when G-d is present.
Sheva Brachas” with family and friends, is more beautiful, than the over-romanticized “honeymoon,” in foreign surroundings.
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For what sins does the scapegoat atone?
Rambam: The scapegoat atones for the entire Jewish people...for all transgressions of the Torah, both severe and less severe sins; those violated intentionally and those violated unintentionally, whether the person was aware of his sin or not - all are atoned for by the scapegoat. But this is provided that one does teshuvah. If one does not do teshuvah, the goat atones only for less severe sins.
Which sins are considered "severe" and which are considered "less severe"?
The "severe" sins are those for which a person is liable either for execution by a court or soul excision (kares)... Other prohibitions and all positive commands that are not punishable by soul excision are "less severe sins".
Now that the Temple no longer exists and there is no Altar to atone, there is only teshuvah, and teshuvah atones for all sins. [Laws of Teshuva 1:2-3]
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4/14/11
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13086979
The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty.
World food prices are 36% above levels of a year ago, driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa, and remain volatile, the bank said.
That has pushed 44 million people into poverty since last June.
A further 10% rise would push 10m more below the extreme poverty line of $1.25 (76p) a day, the bank said.
And it warned that a 30% cost hike in the price of staples could lead to 34 million more poor.
The World Bank estimates, there are about 1.2 billion people, living on less than $1.25 a day.
The prices of wheat, maize and soya, all rocketing.
The only exception is rice, which has fallen slightly in price in the past year.
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4/14/11
The underground volcanic plume at Yellowstone in the US, may be bigger than previously thought; according to a new study by geologists.
It straddles the US states of: Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
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The Yellowstone "super-volcano," has erupted violently in the distant past, and could do so again at some point.
The plume of hot and molten rock, extended 240km (150mi) west-northwest to a point at least 660km (410mi) under the Montana-Idaho border.
The new study shows that it is, 400 miles from east to west.
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There have been three huge eruptions of the Yellowstone super-volcano: Two of these eruptions, blanketed a large area of North America, with volcanic ash.
The most recent full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano, ejected some 1,000 cubic km (240 cubic miles) of hot ash and rock, into the atmosphere. There have been smaller eruptions, in between the largest outpourings.
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A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Moslem world to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people.
In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:
*Any Moslem who has syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew.
*If a Moslem suspects that he has gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.
*A Moslem who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.
*Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.
*If a Moslem has diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew.
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4/13/11
There is an accelerating rush, to a very possible near-future, fiscal collapse of government at all levels; bankruptcy, default, the destruction of the dollar as a currency, and the increasing dysfunction of markets, under increasing loads of regulations and taxes.
4/13/11
While we don't need to go apocalyptic, but it's obvious to anyone who goes grocery shopping, that food prices are skyrocketing. And while we may complain about this here in the US, it's getting worse around the world; and in many places, a lot worse.
This is more serious, than the price of oil, and that's bad enough. Gas in the US, is headed to $5 a gallon; while in many European countries such as Portugal, it's already close to $9.
It's easier to cut down on driving, than eating. We can scrimp and save on food, but no one wants to starve. This is why, food-riots are taking place across the globe.
From December 2008 to February 2010, global food prices have risen more than 60%. Research by IMF economists, shows that: every 10% increase in food prices, causes a 100% increase, in antigovernment protests.
This is particularly true, in low-income countries – such: as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Which is why, antigovernment revolutions there, started with food-riots.
The IMF researchers found, much less of a correlation between food prices and political unrest, in high-income countries. But that's going to change, certainly in the US.
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4/13/11
The US Military, ended conscription ("the draft"), 28 years ago, in 1983.
When we had a draft, most of our political leaders got some military experience.
The number of veterans in Congress, has fallen by two thirds, since the end of the draft in 1973; says the Military Officers Association of America.
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The US budget deficit shot up 15.7 percent in the first six months of fiscal 2011.
The Treasury reported a deficit of $829 billion for the October-March period, compared with $717 billion a year earlier, as revenue rose a sluggish 6.9 percent as the economic recovery slowly gained pace.
4/12/11
Hosni Mubarak, was thrust by violence into the leadership, of the Arab world's most populous country.
Hosni Mubarak, was one of the world's longest-serving presidents. Mubarak became Egypt's fourth president, after the killing of Anwar Sadat.
Emergency law - which prevented gatherings of more than five people, - lasted throughout, the 30 years of his rule.
But in January 2011, inspired by the revolution in Tunisia, Egypt erupted in unprecedented protest.
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As Commander of the Egyptian Air Force and Deputy Minister of Defense, he was instrumental, in planning the surprise attack, on Israeli forces ,occupying Egypt's Sinai peninsula, at the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
His reward came two years later when President Sadat, under pressure to appoint a deputy, made Mr. Mubarak vice-president.
He was elevated to the presidency, in the wake of Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981.
Few expected, that the little-known vice-president ,would hold on to the country's top job for so long.
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He was intimately involved in negotiating the Camp David peace agreement with Israel, signed in 1979 by Sadat and the Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin.
It cemented his relations with the US, which supplied the country with billions of dollars of military aid.
To the West, Egypt was a key ally - a voice of moderation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, his position earned him the ire of Islamist extremists.
Mr. Mubarak, survived at least, six assassination attempts.
Members of the largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, were frequently put in jail, where torture was common.
The intelligence services were pervasive and Egyptians felt stripped of dignity.
The support of the military eventually dissipated, and the commander-in-chief, left office.
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The army showed signs of impatience with the president's handling of the crisis.
"Mr Mubarak was in a very bad shape for the last three or four days of his rule. He was losing his command of things, he was not meeting many of his advisers and the military were getting very uncomfortable," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the BBC.
"They were suggesting to him in a very polite way that it was in everyone's interest he step down."
They were getting messages, from sources within the army, that Mr Mubarak was on the brink.
We had some sources from within the army saying, that it was close," And the protesters saw this as a sign, that if they were to escalate their action further, Mr. Mubarak, would be forced out.
The pressure was too great.
it was the man at the very top of the army, Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who delivered the final blow.
"My understanding is that Tantawi went and met with the president. He told him: 'Mr President, I think the time has come for you to make a patriotic decision. You've served this country for 30 years and the time has come for you to ask the vice-president to announce that you are stepping down.'"
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4/12/11
Yuri Gagarin, was the first astronaut in space. Since his flight in 1961, more than 500 men and women have followed in his footsteps.
On 12 April 1961, to the cry of "Let's go!" Yuri Gagarin embarked on a voyage lasting 108 minutes in a tiny two-metre-wide (6ft) capsule, then ejected and parachuted down into a field in central Russia.
Our five to six years of hard work, had paid off.
The US responded 10 months later, when John Glenn made the first US orbital light.
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4/12/11
Japan
I'd be lying if I said I had complete faith in what the authorities are telling us. We are given little pieces of information that we have to patch together ourselves.
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12 April, 1861:
The Civil war lasted four years, claiming the lives of more than 600,000 soldiers, and an unknown number of civilians.
The South was defeated, and slavery outlawed.
Slavery, was "the only substantial dispute."
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It has been claimed that as many as two out of five humans on the planet today owe their existence to the discoveries made by one brilliant German chemist.
Fritz Haber was born in 1868 in Breslau, in what is now Poland.
As a young man he was bursting with ambition. "We only want one limit, the limit of our own ability," he wrote.
Crops needed better supplies of nitrogen to produce more food.
But in 1909 Haber found a way of synthesising ammonia for fertiliser from nitrogen and hydrogen.
Working with Carl Bosch, an engineer from the chemical company BASF, the Haber-Bosch process was born, making it possible to create huge amounts of fertiliser.
It seemed miraculous, described as creating "bread from air".
The fertiliser went on to be used on a large scale, bringing about a huge increase in crop yields, and practically banishing the fear of famine in large parts of the world.
One observer describes it as "the most important technological invention of the 20th Century".
4/11/11
Japan raises the severity measure of its nuclear crisis, to the highest level.
The decision was taken, due to high radiation measured, at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
The highest level for nuclear accidents (seven), had previously only applied to the Chernobyl disaster, in 1986.
Meanwhile a 6.3-magnitude earthquake was reported off eastern Japan, the second tremor in as many days.
The level seven signifies, a "major accident."
"We have upgraded the severity level to seven as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water and the ocean.
One official from the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which operates the nuclear plant, said: that radiation leaks had not stopped completely; and could eventually exceed those at Chernobyl.
The severity level of Japan's nuclear crisis has so far been set at five, the same as that of the accident at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979.
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4/11/11
US firm Raytheon, has unveiled its anti-aircraft laser at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire.
The US Navy, has fired a laser gun from one of its ships, for the first time.
The US military, has been experimenting with laser weapons since the 1970s.
Early systems used large, chemical-based lasers which tended to produce dangerous waste gases.
More recently, scientists have developed solid state lasers that combine large numbers of compact beam generators, similar to LEDs.
Until now, much of the development of HELs has focused on shooting down missiles or hitting land-based targets.
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The Laser Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) can either be used on its own or alongside a gunnery system.
In May, the laser was used to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a series of tests.
Raytheon said the solid state fibre laser produces a 50 kilowatt beam and can be used against UAV, mortar, rockets and small surface ships.
The idea of using lasers as weapons has been around almost as long as the laser itself, invented in 1960.
Solid state lasers, consist of a glass or ceramic material to generate a laser beam.
They are smaller, more compact and only require an energy input to generate the beam, although the energy required is still significant.
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Two problems that have dogged laser weapon development for some time are weather conditions and the target itself. Damp maritime air can absorb the laser energy before it reaches the target and - as developers discovered in the 1960s when trying to target Russian Mig aircraft - a reflective surface can negate much of the laser's effectiveness.
The firm is also working on a sister land based system that can be used to target mortar and rocket rounds.
"On land, it could be mounted in trailers so it has applications across the globe," said Mr Booen.
Mr Booen acknowledges this, but said that these problems could be overcome.
"Every material reflects, but you can overcome this with power; once you get over a certain threshold - measured in multiple kilowatts - then the laser does what it is designed to do," he said.
Mr Booen said that once a material started getting hot, it affected the reflective ability, making the target absorb more energy and eventually leading to its destruction.
We're still some way off being able to take out an [Intercontinental Ballistic Missile] missile with laser technology, but we're on the path to that," he added.
4/11/11
A powerful earthquake has hit north-east Japan, exactly one month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
The 7.1-magnitude tremor.
The latest tremor struck shortly after the country stopped to observe a minute's silence to remember the nearly 28,000 dead or missing in the 11 March disaster.
The prime minister has tried to reassure survivors that the fishing industry - which many in the area rely on for their livelihoods - would resume as soon as possible.
The tsunami wrecked boats and piers, closing down big fishing operations.
But the damage to the nuclear plant has also hit the fishing industry, as public and international buyers ditch Japanese food products over fears of contamination.
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The word hijab comes from the Arabic for veil, and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in myriad styles and colors. The type most commonly worn in the West, is a square scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.
The niqab is a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear. However, it may be worn with a separate eye veil. It is worn with an accompanying headscarf.
The burka is the most concealing of all Islamic veils. It covers the entire face and body, leaving just a mesh screen to see through.
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4/11/11
At least two women have been briefly detained in France while wearing Islamic veils, after a law banning the garment in public came into force.
France is the first country in Europe to publicly ban a form of dress some Muslims regard as a religious duty.
Offenders face a fine of 150 euros (£133; $217) and a citizenship course.
People forcing women to wear the veil face a much larger fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.
We were held for three and a half hours at the police station while the prosecutors decided what to do,"
It is a small fine, but symbolically this is a huge change, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.
Guidelines issued to police say they should not ask women to remove their veils in the street, but should escort them to a police station where they would be asked to uncover their faces for identification.
The French government says the face-covering veil undermines the basic standards required for living in a shared society and also relegates its wearers to an inferior status incompatible with French notions of equality.
The ban on face coverings - which does not explicitly mention Islamic veils, but exempts various other forms - has angered some Muslims and libertarians.
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Nitrogen pollution from farms, vehicles, industry and waste treatment is costing the EU up to £280bn (320bn euros) a year, a report says.
The study by 200 European experts says reactive nitrogen contributes to air pollution, fuels climate change and is estimated to shorten the life of the average resident by six months.
Livestock farming is one of the biggest causes of nitrogen pollution, it adds. The problem would be greatly helped, if less meat was consumed, the report says.
Agriculture produces 70% of the nitrous oxide emissions in Europe.
80% of the nitrogen in crops feeds livestock, not people.
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4/10/11
Japanese auto makers have been among the businesses hardest hit by the quake and tsunami.
4/10/11
Alcohol
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12999000
Drinking more than a pint of beer a day can substantially increase the risk of some cancers, research suggests.
One in 10 of all cancers in men and one in 33 in women were caused by past or current alcohol intake.
More than 18% of alcohol-related cancers in men and about 4% in women were linked to excessive drinking.
Previous research has shown a link between alcohol consumption and cancers of the oesophagus, liver, bowel and female breast.
When alcohol is broken down by the body it produces a chemical which can damage DNA, increasing the chance of developing cancer.
Of the cancers known to be linked to alcohol, the researchers suggest that 40% to 98% occurred in people who drank more than the recommended maximum.
"In the last 10 years, mouth cancer has become much more common and one reason for this could be because of higher levels of drinking - as this study reflects.
4/8/11
The city's Department of Environmental Protection commissioner will propose a 7.5 % increase in the water rate Thursday, which will continue more than 15 years of rising rates if it's approved.
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4/8/11
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said in 2007, that sea levels would rise at least 28cm (1ft), by the year 2100
Places like New York are going to have a larger contribution than the average - 20% more in this case - and Reykjavik will be better off."
Of the 13 regions where the team makes specific projections, New York sees the biggest increase from the global average, although Vancouver, Tasmania and The Maldives are also forecast to see above-average impacts.
Of the 13 regions where the team makes specific projections, New York sees the biggest increase from the global average, although Vancouver, Tasmania and The Maldives are also forecast to see above-average impacts.
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4/8/11
Alcohol
Drinking more than a pint of beer a day, can substantially increase the risk of some cancers, research suggests.
More than 18% of alcohol-related cancers in men and about 4% in women were linked to excessive drinking.
Previous research has shown a link between alcohol consumption and cancers of the oesophagus, liver, bowel and female breast.
When alcohol is broken down by the body it produces a chemical which can damage DNA, increasing the chance of developing cancer.
Cutting back on alcohol, is one of the most important ways of lowering your cancer risk”
Sara Hiom
Cancer Research U
Of the cancers known to be linked to alcohol, the researchers suggest that 40% to 98% occurred in people who drank more than the recommended maximum.
Even more cancer cases would be prevented, if people reduced their alcohol intake, to below recommended guidelines, or stopped drinking alcohol at all,"
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"In the last 10 years, mouth cancer has become much more common and one reason for this could be because of higher levels of drinking - as this study reflects.
"Along with being a non-smoker and keeping a healthy bodyweight, cutting back on alcohol is one of the most important ways of lowering your cancer risk."
Cancer Partners UK medical director Prof Karol Sikora said the message had to be "drink occasionally, but not regularly".
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Uralsk, kasekstan, almata levi yitzchak
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4/7/11
Antibiotic-resistant infections have reached unprecedented levels and now outstrip our ability to fight them with existing drugs, European health experts are warning.
The World Health Organization says the situation has reached a critical point.
A united push to make new drugs is urgently needed, it says.
Without a concerted effort, people could be dealing with the "nightmare scenario" of a worldwide spread of untreatable infections, says the WHO.
These superbugs are resistant to carbapenem antibiotics, which is concerning for experts because they are some of our most powerful weapons and are used for hard-to-treat infections that evade other drugs.
Worryingly, the gene had spread to bacteria that cause dysentery and cholera, which can be easily passed from person to person via sewage-contaminated drinking water.
"Given the growth of travel and trade in Europe and across the world, people should be aware that until all countries tackle this, no country alone can be safe."
The UK's Health Protection Agency said it was monitoring the spread of NDM-1 closely.
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4/7/11
The economies of Greece, the Republic of Ireland, Portugal and arguably Spain remain trapped by large debts, high unemployment, weak consumer spending, and uncompetitiveness.
On Wednesday, Portugal's prime minister said, he would ask for financial assistance from the European Union.
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4/6/11
African migrants, abandon the American dream.
The American dream is not all it is cut out to be and some Africans are turning their backs on life in the US.
People here don't have money any more," complains Mr Maina, who says the "American Dream" of a big house, flashy car and piles of money was unrealistic.
Instead he found long hours, little pay and limited joy.
Life in America is so demanding, says Mr Maina, that it has cost several of his African friends their marriages and even led some to commit suicide.
"It is very difficult right now and so many people are packing and going back to Kenya in big, big numbers."
There are an estimated one million Africans in the US. According to the homeland security department, 130,000 Africans migrate legally, to the US, each year.
In Africa, there is a lot more hope and optimism, about the economic prospects."
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4-Apr-11
The 2nd quarter of this year a plethora of article touting dramatic drops in shooting and homicides in New York City have been release,
but the 71st Precinct, had major increases, in all major crime categories; with some having between 22% and 31% spike.
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Ecuador's Amazon culture, under renewed threat.
The Huaorani, still hunt with blowpipes, that take a week to make.
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3-Apr-11
Mexico
President Calderon deployed the army, in an effort to curb the violence perpetrated by the country's drug cartels in which more than 34,000 have been killed since he took office.
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3-Apr-11
A strong 7.1 earthquake, hit south of the main island of Java.
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Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged military personnel at the reactor site, to "fight to determine Japan's fate".
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3-Apr-11
Denver 84 degree heat, the next day snow!
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After blasting ABC over the working title of its dramedy pilot, “Good Christian Bitches”, now the TV watchdog is attacking the NBC drama pilot The Playboy Club, over the nudity clause, in the actors' contracts.
"NBC now says, it will air a pilot with Playboy in its name; and the production company is requiring performers to sign a nudity clause; -- something virtually unheard of for broadcast TV.
But, given its setting, a Chicago Playboy club in the 1960, and its subject matter, The Playboy Club would certainly be a sexy drama, that no one envisions as a 8 PM show.
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3-Apr-11
Obama’s campaign, which could raise $1 billion or more, will be based in Chicago, just a few blocks from the headquarters of his historic 2008 race.
David Axelrod, who returned to Chicago after serving as a White House senior adviser for the first two years, will once again be Obama’s strategic guru.
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Kentucky senator Rand Paul told the crowd: "It's not enough just to be a Republican. It's not enough just for the Republican parties to exist. Political parties are empty vessels, unless we imbue them with values. We have to stand for something, and we have to mean it."
Paul lashed out at President Barack Obama, by accusing him overseeing "the most anti-business administration we've ever had."
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Carmakers need the right components delivered in the right order to complete each vehicle; which can contain some, 20,000 parts.
Dwindling supplies of many components, will inflict huge damage everywhere. Firms across the world, fear shortages of parts, that used to be made in the Japanese factories; which are now shuttered, because of power and water shortages, or because of road and port closures; following the quake and the floods.
In Japan, dozens of carmakers, component suppliers and electronic firms have shut down both factories and showrooms. Goldman Sachs estimates, that the closures are costing the country's automotive industry, some $1.4bn (£875m), per week.
Globally, prices have been rising, in response to fewer cars going on sale, with car dealers reining in discounts. In turn, this has sent second-hand prices, higher.
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Parts rationing has started, with some carmakers having cancelled shifts, slowed down production and delayed new model launches over the past couple of weeks.
This will have, "the biggest impact, ever in the history, of the automobile industry".
Semiconductor shortages, have hit carmakers and other industries, across the world.
But it is also a question of ownership: Under patent law, for instance, a carmaker might not own the rights to produce its own voltage regulators or lithium ion batteries - the patent might be owned by a supplier that is currently struggling with a shattered factory.
Even if a company owns the copyright, of a part made by a supplier, it might find it hard to switch, because of existing contractual obligations.
And off course, it is also a question of safety - or at least safety regulation. Any replacement parts would require type approval, which would invariably be a phenomenally costly and time-consuming affair.
Shortages, will force firms to mothball their plants.
Production will fall some five million short, of a previously predicted production target of 72 million vehicles.
But the shortages are expected to last weeks, rather than months; with some carmakers - such as Volkswagen and Peugeot Citroen – insisting, they will not be affected.
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4/1/11
The evacuation of residents close to Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant will be long-term, officials say as high radiation levels are found for the first time in groundwater near a reactor.
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A 19 mile exclusion zone, remains around Chernobyl.
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U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.
Along with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs for transportation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will start increasing at all retailers in June.
MARCH 2011
3/31/11
The world’s largest concrete pump, deployed at the construction site of the U.S. government’s $4.86 billion mixed oxide fuel plant at Savannah River Site, is being moved to Japan in a series of emergency measures to help stabilize the Fukushima reactors.
The 190,000-pound pump, made by Germany-based Putzmeister has a 70-meter boom and can be controlled remotely.
It can move, 210 cubic yards of concrete, per hour.
Putzmeister equipment was also used in the 1980s, when massive amounts of concrete were used to entomb the melted core of the reactor at Chernobyl.
_____
"The Japanese economy, is going to need its electric power from oil-based sources, as a backup to their nuclear problems.
China and India, especially, have had a voracious appetite for manufacturing inputs.
China is the second biggest consumer of oil, behind the U.S.; and is expected to increase its demand by 6.5 percent this year.
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3/31/11
Gas Prices See Highest March Price Ever,
and 7th Consecutive Weekly Increase.
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3/31/11
The travel industry in Japan, has been one of the hardest hit, by the earthquake and tsunami.
Earlier this week, Japan's national carrier Japan Airlines (JAL), announced that passenger numbers on its international routes, had fallen 25% since 11 March.
3/31/11
India has added 181 million people to its population, over the last decade; taking the overall count to 1.21bn.
3/30/11
People with diabetes, are 70% more likely to die from liver disease, than those without the condition.
It is already known, that diabetes can increase the risk of some types of liver disease, with poor blood sugar control, boosting the risk.
This can lead to scarring of the liver - also known as cirrhosis - and cancer.
Diabetic patients, are advised not to drink too much alcohol, because of its potential impact on blood sugar levels, and the risk of weight gain.
The major risk factor for it is being overweight, which is also an important risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.
"Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease increases the risk of cirrhosis which in turn increases the risk of liver cancer.
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3/30/11
New evidence has emerged, that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East, as a signal that the Mahdi--or Islamic messiah--is about to appear.
3/30/11
CBN News has obtained a never-before-seen video produced by the Iranian regime that says, all the signs are moving into place, -- and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times.
While the revolutionary movements gripping the Middle East have created uncertainty throughout the region, the video shows that the Iranian regime believes the chaos is divine proof that their ultimate victory is at hand.
'The Coming is Near'
The propaganda footage has reportedly been approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government.
It's called The Coming is Near and it describes current events in the Middle East as a prelude to the arrival of the mythical tweflth Imam or Mahdi -- the messiah figure who Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days.
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Thailand- Severe flooding and mudslides.
3/30/11
Japan is to decommission, four of the quake-hit reactors, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant; after failing to bring them under control.
___
3/30/11
Doses at 1,000 millisieverts per hour have been measured - the highest readings recorded in the crisis so far.
Just 15 minutes exposure to this water would result in emergency workers at Daiichi reaching their permitted annual limit of 250 millisieverts.
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Japan
If the rods are fully exposed to the air, they would rapidly heat up, melt down; and spew out far greater plumes of radiation.
Plutonium data suggested "certain damage to fuel rods.
The US environmental protection agency says: internal exposure to plutonium, "is an extremely serious health hazard." It stays in the body for decades, exposing organs and tissue, to radiation, and increasing the risk of cancer.
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Japan has lost the race, to save nuclear reactor.
The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel, and on to a concrete floor; experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site.
The major concern when molten fuel breaches a containment vessel is: that it reacts with the concrete floor of the drywell underneath, releasing radioactive gases into the surrounding.
They are detecting water outside the containment area, that is highly radioactive, and it can only have come from the reactor core."
It's not going to be anything like Chernobyl, where it went up with a big fire and steam explosion, but it's not going to be good news for the environment."
The task is a race against time, because as the fuel melts it forms a blob that becomes increasingly difficult to cool.
What is fundamentally disturbing the public is reports of drinking water one day being above some limit, and then a day or two later it's suddenly safe to drink. People don't know if the first instance was alarmist or whether the second one was untrue."
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3/29/11
13% of all U.S. homes are vacant, And it's only getting worse: That's up from 12.1% in 2007.
"More vacant homes, mean more downward pressure, on home prices.
Maine had the highest proportion of empty housing stock, at 22.8%.
Other states include: Vermont (20.5%), Florida (17.5%), Arizona (16.3%) and Alaska (15.9%).
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In Libya, a no-fly zone was established two weekends ago, with little resistance. The U.S. and its partners, then launched airstrikes on Gadhafi supply lines; and other military targets, not only near Benghazi, but around other contested areas as well.
_______
Obama still faces questions, about why Libya, and not Yemen, or not Syria.
The use of America's military power, and America's broader leadership in the world, under my presidency."
"We know that the United States, as the world's most powerful nation, will often be called upon to help," Obama said Monday. "In such cases, we should not be afraid to act, but the burden of action should not be America's alone."
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3/29/11
One week after an international military coalition intervened in Libya, the cost to U.S. taxpayers has reached at least $600 million, according figures provided by the Pentagon.
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3/29/11
Syrian cabinet resigns amid unrest, says state TV.
The resignation is the latest concession by the government aimed at curbing pro-democracy protests in which dozens of people have been killed.
The government has little power in Syria, where it is concentrated in the hands of the president, his family and the security apparatus.
Mr. Otari has been prime minister since September 2003, with at least four cabinet reshuffles over the last eight years.
Tens of thousands of people have been staging a demonstration in central Damascus, as well as in other major cities.
The unrest has become the biggest threat to the rule of the president, who succeeded his father Hafez on his death in 2000.
Syria's emergency law, which effectively suspends most constitutional protections, has been in place since the Baath Party came to power in a military coup in 1963.
Syrian governments have justified the continued imposition of the law by the state of war that exists with Israel, and by threats posed by militant groups.
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3/29/11
US single family home prices, fell for the seventh month in a row in January.
The average annual price fall, across the 20 cities, was 3.1%.
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3/28/11
China is on course, to overtake the US in scientific output, possibly as soon as 2013 - far earlier than expected.
In 1996, the first year of the analysis, the US published 292,513 papers - more 10 times China's 25,474.
By 2008, the US total had increased very slightly to 316,317 while China's had surged more than seven-fold to 184,080.
Previous estimates for the rate of expansion of Chinese science had suggested that China might overtake the US sometime after 2020.
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China's massive boost to investment in R&D spending, has grown by 20% per year since 1999, now reaching over $100bn. And as many as 1.5 million science and engineering students, graduated from Chinese universities, in 2006.
This is yet another indicator, of China's extraordinarily rapid rise, as a global force.
There is a determination in china, not to be dependent on foreign know-how - and to reclaim the country's historic role as a global leader in technology.
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3/28/11
Japan
Joe Cirincione, an expert in his field, talks to CNN, about the inability of Japan to contain the nuclear meltdown.
Frankly, no one knows, how to end the situation…
We will see at least, two core meltdowns, and two spent fuel pool fires…
It will end very, very badly. That is what I actually think, is going to happen… I hope I'm wrong.
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3/28/11
Walnuts are the healthiest of all the nuts.
Eating raw walnuts, gives the full benefits of antioxidants, which are known, to help protect the body, against disease.
Antioxidants are good, because they stop the chain reactions, which damage cells in the body, when oxidation occurs.
The antioxidants found in walnuts. were also two to 15 times as powerful. as vitamin E; which is known to protect the body, against damaging natural chemicals, involved in causing disease.
Nuts are known to be healthy and nutritious, containing: high-quality protein, lots of vitamins and minerals, as well as dietary fibre. They are also, dairy and gluten-free.
Previous research has shown, that regular consumption of small amounts of nuts: can reduce the risk of heart disease, some types of cancer, type two diabetes, and other health problems.
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3/28/11
Many people in Japan are becoming increasingly concerned about what is going to happen in the future.
Highly radioactive water has been found for the first time outside one of the reactor buildings at Japan's quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, officials say.
The leak in a tunnel linked to the No 2 reactor has raised fears of radioactive liquid seeping into the environment.
Plutonium has also been found in soil at the plant. Tepco later said that, plutonium had also been detected in soi,l at five locations at the plant.
Radiation levels were measured at 1,000 millisieverts an hour, a dose that can cause temporary radiation sickness.
In Miyagi prefecture - another of the worst-hit areas - the authorities estimate it will be three years before all of the rubble and debris has been cleared.
As well as shortages of food, water and fuel; survivors are also having to endure, frequent aftershocks.
3/28/11
Japan's nuclear watchdog said the level of radiation in water near reactor 2 was confirmed at 1,000 millisieverts an hour.
"It is an extremely high figure," said spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama.
3/28/11
Some 20,000 US troops are bolstering Japan's Self-Defense Forces, delivering aid to some of the worst-hit areas in what is said to be the biggest bilateral humanitarian mission the US has conducted in Japan.
3/28/11
A 6.5-magnitude quake struck at 0723 local time on Monday (2223 GMT Sunday).
3/28/11
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) had said radiation levels were 10m times higher than normal before correcting the figure to 100,000 times.
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3/27/11
Japan cars
More than two weeks since the natural disaster, inventories of crucial car supplies — from computer chips to paint pigments — are dwindling fast as Japanese factories that make them struggle to restart.
Because parts and supplies are shipped by slow-moving boats, the real drop-off has yet to be felt by factories in the U.S., Europe and Asia. That will come by the middle of April.
"This is the biggest impact ever in the history of the automobile industry.
Much of Japan's auto industry — the second largest supplier of cars in the world — remains idle. Few plants were seriously damaged by the quake, but with supplies of water and electricity fleeting, no one can say when factories will crank up. Some auto analysts say it could be as late as this summer.
It exposes the vulnerability of the world's most complex supply chain, where 3,000 parts go into single car or truck. Each one of those parts is made up of hundreds of other pieces supplied by multiple companies. All it takes is one part to go missing or arrive late, and a vehicle can't be built.
Sweden's Volvo has warned, that its production could be disrupted, because it is down to a week's worth of some parts.
Car buyers will soon see, higher prices, and fewer choices.
Customers also face rising prices for models like Toyota's Prius, which is made only in Japan.
Toyota and Honda expect shutdowns at North American plants. Honda says production could be interrupted after April 1. Even though most of its parts are sourced in the region, a few critical ones still come from Japan.
Goldman Sachs estimates the shutdowns are costing the Japan automakers $200 million a day, which adds up to $2.8 billion for just the past two weeks.
Companies will shut down plants as soon as some parts start running out, which could start happening in the next four to six weeks, he says. "You will see it happen almost daily."
IHS Automotive predicts that one-third of daily global automotive production will be cut because of supply chain disruptions. That means about 5 million vehicles worldwide won't be built, out of the 72 million vehicles planned for production in 2011.
An example of Japan's importance in auto parts: its suppliers make many of the electronic components that control music systems and the sensors that monitor fuel levels and airbags.
Even if suppliers could be up and running again in April, it could take until May or June, for the entire supply base to be back.
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3/27/11
Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have ruled Baden-Wuerttemberg since 1953, but anger over her nuclear policy in light of the Japan crisis as well as decisions on Libya and the euro drove away voters in the run-up to the poll.
Green party Candidate Winfried Kretschmann, who could become the party's first state leader in Germany, called it a "historic victory".
Germany’s Green party Candidate Winfried Kretschmann, who could become the party's first state leader in Germany, called it a "historic victory".
"It's a dream come true... we could never have dreamed of a result like this a few days ago," added Franz Untersteller, a Greens spokesman.
________
Campaigning in the state was dominated by the nuclear catastrophe in Japan.
Nuclear power is unpopular in Germany, but polls indicated that voters saw Merkel's zigzagging as an electoral ploy: it has cost her support while boosting the Greens.
In addition to the nuclear climb-down, conservatives have frowned on Berlin's abstention from a UN Security Council vote to create a no-fly zone in Libya, in a historic break with Western allies.
Critics saw the move as another sign of pandering, this time to a strong pacifist streak in the German electorate.
Finally, the media savaged Merkel for agreeing at an EU summit Thursday to commit to a giant new eurozone rescue fund.
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3/27/11
Magnitude 6.5 quake in north Japan triggers small tsunami
Low-level radiation found in Massachusetts rainwater.
Japan appeared resigned on Monday, to a long fight, to contain the world's most dangerous atomic crisis, in 25 years.
Radiation at the nuclear plant has soared in recent days. Latest readings on Sunday showed contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea.
Those were the most alarming levels since the crisis began.
"I think maybe, the situation is much more serious, than we were led to believe.”
"This is far beyond what one nation can handle - it needs to be bumped up to the U.N. Security Council. In my humble opinion, this is more important than the Libya no fly zone."
"Regrettably, we don't have a concrete schedule at the moment to enable us to say in how many months or years (the crisis will be over)."
Employees fled the complex's Unit 2 reactor, when a reading showed radiation levels had reached, 10 million times higher than normal, in the reactor's cooling system.
Airborne radiation in Unit 2 , measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour, -- four times the limit deemed safe, by the government.
The radioactive water is coming from is "almost certainly" seeping from a cracked reactor core, in one of the units.
On Sunday night, Minoru Ogoda of Japan's nuclear safety agency said: each unit, could have hundreds of tons, of radioactive water.
Radiation has been found in food, seawater and even tap water supplies in Tokyo.
Just outside the coastal Fukushima nuclear plant, radioactivity in seawater tested about 1,250 times higher than normal last week -- but that number had climbed to 1,850 times normal by the weekend.
Last month's low approval led to speculation that Kan's days were numbered. While the latest figure is still low, it suggests he is making some gains with voters.
______
Sea water samples taken from about 330 meters south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Japan's east coast showed radioactive iodine 1,250.8 times above legal limit near the drain outlets of the reactors.
__________
Very low levels of radioactive Iodine 131, have been detected in the air, throughout the U.S.
Iodine 131, is a form of radiation, typically released into the air by nuclear reactors.
Iodine travels through the air very easily, which is why it can be detected, across the world from Japan.
________
Japan is Roughly, the size of Montana.
Area in square miles:
California: 164k
Montana: 147k
Japan: 145k
N. Mexico: 122k
Japan, an island country, of 143,619 square miles. (slightly smaller than California).
Total distance from northern Hokkaido [4 islands] to the southern most island in the Ryukyu chain is about 1,400 miles; or similar to the distance, from northern New York State, to Alabama.
Less than twenty percent of their land, can be used for agriculture. And about seventy-five percent of the total land area is mountainous. Most of the mountains are covered with forests.
There's not very much of residential land. Less than five percent of land area, is suitable for residential use. That's one of the reasons that land is so expensive, especially in the cities.
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The Los Angeles Times - 3-11-2011
Size of Japan's quake, surprises seismologists.
The 8.9 magnitude earthquake, is among the top 10 ever recorded; and occurred on an irregular fault line, where a smaller temblor would have been expected.
Geologists had expected the portion of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" that produced this quake to yield a temblor on the order of magnitude 8 or perhaps 8.5, she said. "Something as big as an 8.9 is a bit of a surprise," she said.
A quake that big usually requires a long, relatively straight fault line that can rupture, such as those found in Peru and along the eastern coast of South America. Friday's quake occurred in the Japan Trench, where the Pacific tectonic plate slides under the Japan plate.
The quake was so close to land, about 80 miles offshore, that people on the shore really had no warning that a 15-foot wave was imminent.
The Indonesian earthquake that produced the Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, was a magnitude 9.1. The largest quake on record was the 9.5 temblor that struck Valdivia, Chile, in 1960.
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Within about a month of the Chernobyl accident, workers began dumping more than 5,000 tons of sand and concrete on the burning reactor to snuff out the flames and prevent further release of radiation.
But there are major differences between the two facilities that could make it very difficult to carry out a similar operation in Japan.
Chernobyl's damaged reactor did not have a containment vessel, but was exposed to the open air. It was thus imperative to encase the plant in concrete to prevent further escape of radioactive ash.
Because the fuel rods and the reactors are so hot, the concrete would undergo a phenomenon called flash-set, in which it would solidify extremely rapidly.
But the result would be a material with a consistency much like gravel, rather than stone.
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3/27/11
Doses of 20 millisieverts per hour, were measured in the control room, at the site.
Radiation levels reached 10 million times higher than normal in the cooling system, but because the level was so high, the worker taking the reading had to evacuate, before confirming it with a second reading.
A spokesman for Japan's nuclear watchdog, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said the level of radiation in puddles near reactor two, was confirmed at 1,000 millisieverts an hour.
"It is an extremely high figure," Mr Nishiyama said.
A cancer risk is evident, with an exposure of 100 millisieverts a year.
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3/26/11
Prypyat had 45,000 residents, was totally evacuated, in the first three days after the Chernobyl blast.
The radioactive fallout at Fukushima, is less than 1% of that at Chernobyl.
At Chernobyl, the full inventory of iodine and caesium, was released in the initial explosion.
Patients receiving a course of radiotherapy, usually get a dose of more than 20,000 mSv, to vital healthy tissue close to the treated tumor. This tissue survives, only because the treatment is spread over many days, giving healthy cells time for repair or replacement.
Japan
Emergency workers are still battling to cool the reactors and prevent a meltdown. They have now switched to using more favoured fresh water as a coolant, rather than sea water.
There had been fears the salt in sea water could further corrode machinery.
Four of the reactors are still considered volatile.
The US 7th Fleet is sending barges loaded with 500,000 gallons of fresh water.
Mr Amano told the New York Times that Japan was "still far from the end of the accident".
Main fears were that the lack of coolant would mean spent fuel rods would remain exposed to the air, and then heat up, releasing radioactive material.
On Friday, levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the Fukushima plant were recorded at 1,250 times higher than the safety limit.
The readings were taken about 300m (984ft) offshore. It is feared the radiation could be seeping into groundwater from one of the reactors.
But the radiation will no longer be a risk after eight days because of iodine's half-life, officials say.
China, Singapore, Hong Kong and other Asian importers have banned some imports of vegetables, seafood and milk products for fear of contamination.
Australia, the European Union, the United States and Russia have followed suit.
The Japanese government has put the rebuilding cost at, $309bn.
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3/25/11
A suspected breach in the core at one reactor at a stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday - a situation the prime minister called "very grave and serious."
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note, at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials said, they suspected a breach at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant; that would be a major setback, in the urgent mission to stop the facility from leaking radiation.
A breach could, mean a much larger release of contaminants.
Several countries, have halted some food imports, from areas near the plant; after milk and produce were found to contain, elevated levels of radiation.
The day marks two weeks.
The United States has recommended, that its citizens stay at least 50 miles away.
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3/24/11
A powerful 6.8 earthquake, hit Myanmar (Burma) Thursday; near its borders with China, Thailand and Laos.
_____
3/25/11
The growing Hispanic population in the United States has reached a new milestone, topping 50 million, or 16.3% of the nation, officially solidifying its position as the country's second-largest group, U.S. Census Bureau officials said Thursday.
Growth is concentrated in metropolitan areas and in the American West and South.
The fastest-growing communities are suburbs such as: Lincoln, California, outside Sacramento.
El Paso, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
U.S. population of 308.7 million.
The Hispanic population grew 43% since 2000, officials said.
In stark contrast, all other populations together grew by only about 5%, officials said. The nation as a whole expanded by, 9.7%.
The birth rate, rather than immigration, is the primary driving factor in the Latino boom.
Hispanics now account for nearly one-quarter, of children under the age of 18.
America's overall undocumented immigrant population -- estimated at between 10 million and 11 million people.
Home to the busiest border crossing for illegal immigration, Arizona has been the nation's hotbed for several laws targeting illegal immigrants.
_____
The census data show that while the white population increased by 2.2 million to 196.8 million, its share of the total population dropped to 64% from 69%, officials said.
The Asian population also grew 43%, increasing from 10.2 million in 2000 to 14.7 million in 2010, officials said. Asians now account for about 5% of the nation's population.
The African-American population, which grew by about 4.3 million, is now about 40 million, or 12.6% of the population, a slight increase over 12.3% in 2000,
whites are the largest group, accounting for about 70% of Americans.
Previously, the Hispanic population was concentrated in eight or nine states; it is now spread throughout the country.
Minorities will have a greater presence among future generations, he said. For example, in Nevada, 61% of children are minorities, compared with 41% of adults.
In border states like Texas, demographers say, Hispanic populations are expected to surpass non-Hispanic populations within the next decade.
"Without question, we are becoming a Hispanic state," said Texas state demographer Lloyd Potter.
"I live in San Antonio, and there you see Spanish advertisements, television shows and newspapers everywhere," he said.
"In New York City, Italians once had a much higher high school dropout rate," Camarota said; noting an Italian immigration flux in the United States, that spanned the years of 1890 to 1920.
"It took them 60 to 70 years to lower those levels and close the socioeconomic gap."
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3/24/11
Japan
CNN Situation Room correspondent Brian Todd, spent a week traveling in some of the most devastated areas in Japan, searching for bodies and survivors:
To stand in the middle of it and look around at the complete devastation and realize the force of the water, and what it must have been like to stand there and watch everything just get swept away, that was just an amazing sensation.
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3/24/11
Dr. Brad Spellberg, an infectious disease expert at Harbor UCLA Medical Center says: there is no current teatment for CRKP bacteria — and there might not be any in the future either.
“There’s been a complete collapse, in the development of new antibiotics over the last decade…and in the next decade, there isn’t going to be anything that becomes available, that’s going to be able to treat these bacteria.”
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3-10-2011
Iran is moving in on the Arab revolt, now in its third month. Its agents are whipping together, the most radical domestic Muslim elements, Sunni and Shiite alike; as a vehicle for importing its own influence, into the heart of the turbulent capitals. With funding from Tehran, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, is moving in on city streets, as the country sinks quietly into anarchy.
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3/24/11
China will overtake the US, and dominate global trade, by 2030.
Currently, China's international trade is worth $2.21 trillion (£1.36tn), compared with the $2.66tn (£1.64tn) for the US.
China was confirmed as the world's second-biggest economy earlier this year, overtaking Japan.
According to the report by PwC, the coming years will see global trade undergo "fundamental change" as emerging economies such as China and India begin to "dominate the top sea and air freight routes".1
Its chief economist Justin Lin said on Wednesday that, if China continued to grow at an annual rate of 8%, it would be twice the size of the US economy in 20 years.
China is responsible for much of the world's production of material goods.
China is the world's largest goods producer, with 19.8% of all manufactured products.
________
3/23/11
Radiation 1,600 times higher than normal levels, has been detected in an area about 20 kilometers, from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant
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3/23/11
The pace of new home sales plummeted to a record low last month, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday in a further sign that the battered housing market is only slumping further.
Sales fell 16.9 percent from January, delivering a shock to analysts who had expected a gain for last month. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 250,000 homes sold marks the slowest pace recorded since the data series began in the 1960s.
Median sale prices fell 13.9 percent, which represents the sharpest one-month drop on record.
Overall, though, the bitter news seemed to cement a darkening picture of the housing market, and it follows closely on the heels of a disappointing 9.6 percent drop in existing home sales reported earlier this week.
_____
Japan
Radioactive iodine levels in some areas were twice the recommended safe level.
People in Fukushima prefecture, where the nuclear plant is located, have been told not to eat certain vegetables because of contamination worries.
3/23/11
Radiation levels in Tokyo's tap water, make it unfit for babies to drink.
The situation is expected to last, for the long term.
The Food and Drug Administration in the US said that all milk and milk products and fresh fruits and vegetables from four Japanese prefectures - Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma - would be stopped from entering the United States.
Countries including China, Taiwan and South Korea have already been carrying out rigorous checks of Japanese food imports.
Japan has said it will cost as much as 25 trillion yen ($309bn; £189bn) to rebuild the country after the disaster.
Tepco has said, restoring power to all the reactor units, could take weeks or even months. Engineers' efforts, have been frequently hampered, by smoke and spikes in radiation.
We continue to see radiation coming from the site... and the question is where exactly is that coming from.
______
3/21/11
Southern part of Sidney floods.
______
3/21/11
Japan may need up to five years to rebuild from the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that has caused up to $235bn (£145bn) of damage, the World Bank said in a report. (The bank estimates the damage to be between $123bn and $235bn.)
It also estimates about 0.5% was shaved from the country's economic growth this year.
The 11 March earthquake and tsunami, disrupted production networks in the automotive and electronic industries.
"Damage to housing and infrastructure has been unprecedented," The World Bank said.
"In the immediate future, the biggest impact will be in terms of, trade and finance.
Japan's north-east region, where the earthquake and tsunami hit, is home to: ports, steel mills, and manufacturers of auto and electronic components.
________
The other worrying factor for the region, is that about one-fourth of East Asia's long-term debt, is denominated in yen.
For China it is only about 8%, but for Thailand it is about 60%.
A 1% appreciation in the Japanese yen, translates into about a $250m increase in annual debt servicing, on the yen-denominated assets, held by the nations, the report points out.
The region is expected to see, less robust growth in 2011, as it fights inflation.
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3/20/11
The Rideau Canal in Canada (Montreal) , dates back to 1832 and runs through the heart of downtown Ottawa. A Unesco World Heritage Site, the full length of the canal stretches from the foot of Lake Ontario to Canada's capital.
But during the winter months, this meandering waterway freezes over and becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway, the world's largest skating rink at 7.8 kilometres long, the equivalent surface area of 90 Olympic hockey rinks.
______
3/20/11
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has fired his cabinet, amid continuing protests against his rule.
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3/19/11
In Syria, it is not the Facebook generation that is taking to the streets. It is people who are tired of poverty and repression.
The mourners called for "revolution" - the boldest challenge to Syria's rulers since uprisings began sweeping the Arab world.
"God, Syria, freedom. Whoever kills his own people is a traitor," they were quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
President Bashar al-Assad told the Wall Street Journal in January that Syria's leadership was "very closely linked to the beliefs of the people" and there was no mass discontent.
Syria suffers similar problems to Egypt and Tunisia - poverty is high and the country has been under one-party rule for almost 50 years.
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3/19/11
Japan has 127 million people, Tokyo is a city of 30 million people.
Japan=- Back-up diesel generators that might have averted the disaster were positioned in a basement, where they were overwhelmed by waves.
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3/19/11
Saudi King Abdullah announced on Friday, billions of dollars in handouts for his people; and boosted his security apparatus, in a renewed effort, to shield the world's top oil exporter, from unrest rocking the Arab world.
King Abdullah last month, announced an economic package, worth an estimated $37 billion; in an initial move, to ease social tensions.
Friday's measures are significantly more costly, with plans for a building spree set to cost $66.7 billion alone.
With more than $400 billion in foreign reserves, Saudi Arabia is in a more comfortable position than many neighbors to alleviate social pressures such as high youth unemployment.
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3/19/11
Obama closed Friday's remarks by saying, "I've taken this decision with the confidence that action is necessary, and that we will not be acting alone. Our goal is focused. Our cause is just. And our coalition is strong."
Nearly a decade earlier, when President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces were launching military strikes in Afghanistan, Bush said: "To all the men and women in our military ... I say this: Your mission is defined. Your objectives are clear. Your goal is just." Bush used similar wording in other remarks at the time.
Also on Friday, Obama said, "The United States did not seek this outcome. Our decisions have been driven by Qaddafi's refusal to respect the rights of his people and the potential for mass murder of innocent civilians."
On Oct. 7, 2001, Bush said of operations in Afghanistan, "We did not ask for this mission, but we will fulfill it. ... We defend not only our precious freedoms, but also the freedom of people everywhere to live and raise their children free from fear."
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3/18/11
Japan has raised the alert level at a stricken nuclear plant from four to five on a seven-point international scale for atomic accidents.
The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site is now two levels below Ukraine's 1986 Chernobyl disaster; an accident with wider consequences".
It also places the crisis on a par with 1979's Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the US.
If the ponds run dry, a nuclear chain reaction could release more radiation into the atmosphere.
An electricity line has been bulldozed through to the site and engineers are racing to connect it, but they are being hampered by radiation.
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3/17/11
US prices rose 0.5% in February compared with the previous month, as food and fuel prices continued to exert pressure on the economy.
The change, higher than the 0.4% seen in January, was the fastest monthly rate of increase in nearly two years.
The core rate of inflation, which strips out food and energy costs, rose by 0.2% - the same as in January.
Consumer Price Index inflation hit an annual 2.1%, up from 1.6% in the year to January, the Labor Department said.
Food price inflation was a key driver of the increase. Food costs went up by 0.6% month-on-month, the most in two-and-a-half years.
Petrol prices rose even faster, up 4.7%.
On Wednesday, US producer price figures for February showed a 1.6% increase, the biggest since June 2009. This rise in wholesale inflation was also fuelled largely by higher food and energy costs.
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It is estimated, that there are 370,000 pieces of space junk, floating in Earth's orbit.
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3/17/11
A special index created by the Labor Department to measure the actual cost of living for Americans hit a record high in February, according to data released Thursday, surpassing the old high in July 2008.
The Chained Consumer Price Index, released along with the more widely-watched CPI, increased 0.5 percent to 127.4, from 126.8 in January.
In July 2008, just as the housing crisis was tightening its group, the Chained Consumer Price Index hit its previous record of 126.9.
One can assume that Americans will be paying more for unquantifiable services such as police enforcement and education; but getting them, at a lesser quality.
Bottom line: The cost of living for Americans, is now above where it was, when: housing prices were in a bubble, stock prices at a record, unemployment low, and consumer confidence was soaring. Something has go to give.
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3/17/11
Fed up with a president “who can’t make his mind up” as Libyan rebels are on the brink of defeat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is looking to the exits.
At the tail end of her mission, to bolster the Libyan opposition, which has suffered days of losses to Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, Mrs. Clinton announced that she’s done with Obama after 2012 — even if he wins again.
“Obviously, she’s not happy with dealing with a president who can’t decide if today is Tuesday or Wednesday, who can’t make his mind up,” a Clinton insider told The Daily. “She’s exhausted, tired.”
She doesn’t have any power. She’s trying to do what she can, to keep things from imploding.”
In the past week, former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton’s former top adviser Anne-Marie Slaughter, lashed out at Obama for the same reason.
“Frankly we are just completely puzzled,” one of the diplomats told Foreign
Policy magazine. “We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States.”
Or as the insider described Obama’s foreign policy shop: “It’s amateur night.”
Clinton revealed her desire to leave yesterday, in an interview with CNN’s
Wolf Blitzer.
Clinton has grown weary, of fighting an uphill battle in the administration.
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3/17/11
Cows are efficient at picking up the iodine from eating contaminated feed, and it appears to pass easily into their milk. In humans, iodine tends to accumulate in the thyroid and raise the risk of cancer in the organ.
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3/17/11
Each dose of radioactive material ingested, is associated, with a small increased risk of cancer.
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1-21-2011
The high jobless rate among educated young Saudis, is the greatest peril to the throne. The class most likely to cause trouble, is that of young educated Saudis, who are bitterly frustrated, by the dearth of jobs for high school and university graduates.
Unemployment in the oil kingdom, stands at 30 percent for men, and 50 percent for women.
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3/14/11
Washington confirmed, the worst Saudi and Israeli suspicions, that Barack Obama had come to terms, with a nuclear-armed Iran; after the US, long restrained Israel, from nipping this menace in the bud.
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Islamic law is the most radical and intolerant system of governance, on the face of the earth. It denies: the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and legal equality for women and non-Muslims.
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In late January, New York State Senator Kevin Parker introduced a bill to set up an alternative bond market that would comply with Islamic law regarding financial transactions.
Has Kevin Parker ever heard of, the separation of church and state; or in this case, mosque and state?
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The ICANN action in September gave the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and other unfriendly nations a prominent internet role -- something they never could get during the administration of George W. Bush.
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3/13/11
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas, in Sendai, says the scenes of devastation are astonishing.
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3/13/11
Prime Minister Naoto Kan says: Japan is experiencing its greatest hardships, since World War II.
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3/12/11
Boron, disrupts nuclear chain reactions.
The tsunami, authorities resorted to drawing sea water mixed with boron in an attempt to cool the unit's overheated uranium fuel rods.
The move likely renders the 40-year-old reactor unusable. Officials said, the sea water will remain inside the unit, possibly for several months.
The temblor, which struck Friday afternoon near the east coast of Japan, killed hundreds of people, caused the formation of 30-foot walls of water: that swept across rice fields, engulfed entire towns, dragged houses onto highways, and tossed cars and boats like toys.
Some waves, reached six miles (10 kilometers) inland, in Miyagi Prefecture, on Japan's east coast.
The quake was the most powerful, to hit the island nation in recorded history.
The tsunami it unleashed, traveled across the Pacific Ocean, triggering tsunami warnings and alerts, for 50 countries and territories, as far away as the western coasts of Canada, the U.S. and Chile.
The quake triggered more than 160 aftershocks, in the first 24 hours; 141 measuring 5.0-magnitude or more.
The quake was "hundreds of times larger," than the 2010.
The Japanese quake was of similar strength, to the 2004 earthquake in Indonesia, that triggered a tsunami that killed over 200,000 people, in more than a dozen countries, around the Indian Ocean.
The Japanese quake, comes just weeks after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, struck Christchurch on February 22; toppling historic buildings,, and killing more than 150 people.
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Japan’s powerful earthquake, that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday, appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters), and shifted the Earth on its axis by nearly 4 inches.
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3/11/11
Japan's most powerful earthquake, since records began, a 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Off the Coast, caused a Tsunami, that did major damage, in north-eastern Japan.
The quake was the fifth-largest in the world, since 1900; and nearly 8,000 times stronger, than the one which devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, said scientists.
Many people in the Tokyo said, they had never felt such a powerful earthquake.
The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at 800km/h (500mph) - as fast as a jetliner - before hitting Hawaii and the US West Coast; but there were no reports of major damage, from those regions.
Cars, trucks, and buildings were swept away by a tsunami, in Onahama city,
in Fukushima prefecture.
It struck about 250 miles (400km) from Tokyo, at a depth of 20 miles. There have been powerful aftershocks.
The tremor hit at 1446 local time (0546 GMT). Seismologists say, it is one of the largest earthquakes to hit Japan, for many years.
A 10-metre wave (33ft), struck the port of Sendai, in Miyagi prefecture.
Many people in Tokyo said, they had never felt such a powerful earthquake.
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The history books show, there have been seven quakes rated at 8.0 or greater, since 1891 in Japan. And with big tremors, come big aftershocks.
The largest of the aftershocks, was a 7.1.
Each step in magnitude, equates to a 32 times jump in the release of energy. As a consequence, Friday's 8.9 event was some 250 times more powerful, than anything seen, on Wednesday this week; and about 1,400 times more powerful, than the Great Hanshin, or Kobe, earthquake in 1995
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3/10/11
Nouriel Roubini, the economist, who correctly predicted the global financial crisis; warned on Thursday, that some advanced economies could experience a double dip recession, if the price of oil climbs to $140 a barrel.
Several analysts have forecast, oil could again reach the record $147, it set July 2008, before the onset of the global financial crisis; if unrest spreads through the Middle East.
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3/9/11
Governments should launch a vaccination program now, to guard against a possible H2N2 flu pandemic, according to an article in the journal Nature.
The US authors say, immunity to the H2N2 flu strain, is very low in people under the age of 50.
Between 1957 and 1968, the strain is thought to have caused up to 4 million deaths in a global outbreak, during which time a vaccine was developed.
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Another major influenza pandemic is likely to cost far more and create a much greater health burden than a well-planned pre-emptive program.
"The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, that a pandemic outbreak costs the United States, between $71 billion and $167 billion."
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3/8/11
At the moment, the biggest illegal trade in the world, is drugs; and number 2 is human trafficking.
Everybody says, that within five years, it will be the biggest illegal trade in the world. The reason for that is, with trafficking you have repeat business," he said. "So you can sell a person again, and again, and again.
One woman can make up to £100,000 to £200,000 a year [approx. $170,000 - $270,000 a year], Wallis said.
The United Nations has called Romania: "a hot spot" source, of trafficking victims.
The UN estimates, up to 800,000 people a year, are sold into slavery. The slaves have no rights, they are used and abused; and exist only, to make money for their owners.
I saw one of them removing the eye of a girl because she wasn't making enough money," the girl said. "Another time I saw them cut another girl's leg. They were all afraid to run away or tell the police. When they weren't happy with us, they took us away into a house and tortured us."
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3/7/11
Pump prices have jumped an average of 39 cents per gallon since the Libyan uprising began in mid-February, forcing motorists to pay an additional $146 million per day for the same amount of fuel. The national average hit $3.509 per gallon on Monday.
Libya sits on the largest oil reserves in Africa; has been engulfed in a four-week rebellion, as militants try to oust Gadhafi, after 41 years in power.
The government started to stockpile oil, after the 1973 Arab embargo. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, located in massive underground salt deposits in Texas and Louisiana, currently holds 727 million barrels of oil -- enough to supply the nation for 37 days.
The supply problem exists mostly in Europe, where many refineries rely on Libyan crude. In contrast, U.S. refineries have access to a relatively large supply.
Most of the world's spare capacity lies in OPEC nations, primarily Saudi Arabia.
Global spare capacity fell below 2 million barrels per day in 2008, before oil prices spiked to an all-time record of $147 per barrel.
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3/6/11
Pro-democracy activists in Egypt, have been attacked by men in plain clothes, armed with knives, outside the interior ministry in Cairo, reports say.
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3/6/11
An opinion poll suggesting, that far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, could win the first round, of next year's presidential election; has caused a shock in France.
The survey for Le Parisien newspaper, puts the National Front leader, who took over from her father Jean-Marie in January, ahead of all other candidates.
It gives her 23% of the vote; 2% ahead of both, President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Socialist leader Martine Aubry.
Jean-Marie Le Pen was the shock runner-up in the first round of the 2002 election, only to be massively defeated in the second against Jacques Chirac.
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Marine Le Pen, 42 , has proved a canny successor to her father.
Where he was a brash provocateur with a devoted but clearly circumscribed following, her trump card is a kind of woman-on-the-street ordinariness which potentially has an even wider appeal among working and middle class voters, our correspondent says.
She has been at pains to junk some of the more overtly offensive aspects of the National Front's program.
She is riding high on the sense of dissatisfaction, that is not so much a wave, as a permanent condition in France.
As this poll suggests, there is in the country, an entrenched appetite for anti-establishment, curse-on-all-your-houses, populism - which the mainstream parties, would be most unwise to ignore.
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3/5/11
March 19/20 (Purim is the 20th) this year will see the moon at its closest point to Earth in 18 years, an event that is known as a “lunar perigee”.
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3/4/11
Sperm quality significantly deteriorated, and testicular cancers increased, over recent years.
Scientists have been concerned for some time, about the possibility that younger men, may be producing less sperm, than their fathers and grandfathers did, at the same age."
"The fact that sperm counts have dropped so quickly, and mirrors the increase in the incidence of testicular cancer in Finland, suggests that the effect is probably environmental."
He added: "The best working theory we have to explain why sperm counts may be declining is that chemicals from food or the environment are affecting the development of testicles of boys in the womb or in their early years of life.
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3/4/11
Jet fuel prices have risen about 13 percent in two weeks, and are now up 46 percent from a year ago.
In turn, U.S. airlines have raised fares, six times this year.
The price of oil has risen 21 percent since Feb. 15, when Libyan protestors began clashing with the government.
Libya controls the largest oil reserves in Africa.
Americans are now paying 29 cents more for a gallon of gas, than when the Libyan crisis started; an increase of about 10 percent. That means, an extra $108 million a day, goes towards gas, instead of other discretionary purchases.
Consumers will feel the pinch beyond the gas pump. Food merchants, airlines, shipping companies, and other businesses, will likely try to pass along higher costs.
The impact can be seen, at the grocery store, where consumers buy lettuce, onions, strawberries, avocados, eggplant, and other produce, shipped from Mexico and California.
Flying is already more expensive. Jet fuel prices have risen about 13 percent in two weeks; and are now up 46 percent, from a year ago.
In turn, U.S. airlines have raised fares, six times this year.
Travelers will see fewer available flights and more crowded planes this spring and summer.
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3/4/11
U.S. Unemployment Hitting 10.3% in February.
Twenty months after the worst recession in decades, job creation remains anemic,
job openings remain 30% below their level when the downturn hit in December 2007. Gross hiring is down by 843,000 jobs.
The jobless rate is seen ticking up 0.1 point to 9.1% as more people entered the labor force. Many of those new or returning job-seekers, will likely find only disappointment.
December job openings fell by 139,000 to 3.06 million, the third straight decline,
"We are still very near the bottom of a very huge crater."
Uncertainty about ObamaCare costs, have also made firms cautious about hiring, analysts said.
Average time out of work, has hit a record 36.9 weeks, from 16.6 weeks at the recession's start.
Many lost factory and construction jobs, will never return.
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Hyperinflation, led to Hitler and Mao.
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3/1/11
Largest earthquake in 35 years, hits Arkansas.
The central Arkansas town of Greenbrier.
A magnitude 4.7 earthquake, was also felt in: Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi.
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3/1/11
If a person pulled a gun on you, demanded your wallet, and then said:
"I am going to use 50 percent of your money for good purposes; and I am going to waste and mismanage 30 percent; and the final 20 percent I am going to use for my own pleasure, to pay off my cronies who protect me,"
would you think the robber should be sent to jail, or praised as a public servant?
Feel free to alter the percentages in the above example based on your own impressions of how well the government spends your money, remembering that much of the stimulus money went to unions and political allies of Mr. Obama.
And note that Thomas Jefferson said, "Democracy will cease to exist, when you take away from those who are willing to work, and give to those who would not."
Unless the advocates of ever-more government spending, are exposed for the self dealers and/or socialists they are, the economy and our liberties are doomed.
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3/1/11
Out of approximately 50,000 regular troops, only a hardcore of about 5,000 soldiers and special forces, can be considered reliable; and it's simply impossible to retain dictatorial control, over a population of almost 7,000,000 people. with only a single brigade of soldiers.
It is now out of the question, as to whether the government can retake the entire country. It can only hold out, for as long as possible.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s “spiritual leader,” Yusuf al Qaradawi, an unrepentant Islamist, has returned from exile, and is drawing enormous crowds.
In Iraq, radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr, has returned from exile in Iran.
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3/1/11
The northeastern United States, has been coated in heavy snowfall, from major Category Three storms or larger, three times, in each of the past two winters: storms that are unparalleled, since the winter of 1960-61.
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FEB
2/25/11
The US Department of Commerce has unexpectedly cut its estimate of fourth-quarter growth to an annualized 2.8%, from 3.2% previously.
Analysts had instead expected the figure to be revised up slightly to 3.3%.
There are widespread concerns in the US that economic growth is not strong enough to bring down the high unemployment rate, which currently stands at 9%.
Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke estimated, it would take about 10 years, for the unemployment rate to fall to a more sustainable 5%-6% at current economic growth rates.
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2/22/11
"For decades the great unknown in the oil industry has been what would happen if the House of Saud were to collapse," says Holly Pattendon, head of oil and gas analysis for Business Monitor International.
With production of 10 million barrels of oil a day, any hint of unrest in Saudi Arabia could upset global oil prices, as could further trouble in another big producer, Iran.
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2-21-2011
In his Cairo speech, Mr. Obama explicitly rejected President Bush’s “freedom agenda,” for the Middle East.
Mr. Obama reinforced that message, when he gave the back of his hand, to the masses of people, who protested the dictatorship in Iran that summer; and when he cut in half, the funds President Bush had budgeted, for support of democracy movements.
Mr. Obama did make a nice speech in support of democracy in Egypt...after Mr. Mubarak resigned. He’s had less to say on behalf of those protesting dictatorial regimes in Libya, Iran and China, and who are being violently suppressed.
Liberals have little interest in popular uprisings, if those uprisings are against anti-American regimes. This would be odd (if liberals really cared much about human rights) since anti-American dictatorships, treat their people more harshly, than do authoritarian regimes, allied with the United States.
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2/22/11
Oil price jumps 8.5%, in one day.
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2/16/11
32 years ago, on Motzei Shabbos Ki Tissa, the Lubavitcher Rebbe said: "Saudi Arabia is faltering, Egypt is faltering; and all of the Arab regimes around Saudi Arabia, are faltering."
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Sefer Rashim u'ramyim, brings down the teaching from the Arizal, where it says that; before the coming of Moshiach, a king in Egypt will be thrown out, and the people will fight with one another.
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2/15/11
The Sun has unleashed, its strongest flare in four years, observers say.
The eruption is a so-called X-flare, the strongest type; such flares can affect communications on Earth.
Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft, recorded an intense flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation, emanating from a sunspot.
Solar flares, are caused by the sudden release, of magnetic energy, stored in the Sun's atmosphere.
The unpredictable activity on the Sun can interfere, with modern technology on Earth, such as electrical power grids, communications systems, and satellites, - including the satellite navigation (or sat-nav) signals, used on Earth.
In 1972, geomagnetic storm, provoked by a solar flare, knocked out long-distance telephone communication, across the US state of Illinois.
And in 1989, another storm plunged six million people into darkness, across the Canadian province of Quebec.
Researchers say, the Sun has been awakening, after a period of several years of low activity.
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2/15/11
One of the main obstacles, to the formation of a coherent US strategy, is the Obama administration's move, to outlaw any discussion of the basic threats to US interests. Shortly after entering office, President Barack Obama banned the use of the term "War against terror," substituting it with the opaque term "overseas contingency operation."
Last April, Obama banned use of the terms "jihad," "Islamic terrorism" and "radical Islam" in US government documents.
Given that US officials are barred from using all the terms that are relevant for describing reality in places like Pakistan, it is obvious why the US cannot put together a strategy for contending with the challenges it faces there.
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In secular terms, Alan Veingrad can be called an accomplished and successful man. As an American football offensive lineman he played for the Green Bay Packers for 5 seasons, and 2 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys (who won Super Bowl XXVII).
After I got closer to Yiddishkeit, my father told me one day, that the proudest moment for him was, when he saw me wearing a Yarmulka."
His journey back to his roots, was profiled in the New York Times.
After his team won the Super bowl, he decided to retire and moved to Florida; where a religious cousin convinced him, to come to a Torah Shiur.
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2/15/11
The World Bank says food prices are at "dangerous levels" and have pushed 44 million more people into poverty since last June.
According to the latest edition of its Food Price Watch, prices rose by 15% in the four months between October 2010 and January this year.
Food price inflation is felt disproportionately by the poor, who spend over half their income on food.
Rising food prices, were an aggravating factor, of the unrest in the Middle East; although not its primary cause.
Rapid food price inflation in 2008 sparked riots in a number of countries. At that time, the World Bank estimated 125 million people were in extreme poverty.
The World Bank says prices are not quite back at those levels - just 3% below - although they are 27% higher than a year ago.
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2/15/11
The novelty of the computer virus in iran, combined with attack mechanisms that targeted several previously unknown and unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows, have led many to describe Stuxnet, as "one of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever".
Elements of the code and some of the techniques it uses are relatively simple. But, she says, that misses the bigger picture.
"If you look at the sum of its parts, then it is certainly very sophisticated," she said.
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Chinese people lived to 73 in 2008; compared to just less than 47 years in 1960.
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Jordan's economy has been hard-hit, by the global economic downturn, and rising commodity prices, and youth unemployment is high, as it is in Egypt.
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2/13/11
Mahmoud al-Zahar, the chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip:
‘The U.S. empire is in decline, and will fall because of the country's "immorality," promotion of "open sexuality," and political "injustice."
These were his first public comments, on the recent chaos in Egypt.
After claiming Americans "live like animals," Zahar told Klein: the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood – the most organized opposition in Cairo – is the "most moderate organization, the most democratic organization, even more than the Western people."
Hamas is an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in Egypt.
Israel, has a 270-kilometer border, with Egypt.
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2/14/11
President Obamas budget for America, is on track for a record federal deficit; and will see the government’s overall debt, surpass the size of the total U.S. economy.
Mr. Obama‘s budget projects that 2011 will see the biggest one-year debt jump in history, or nearly $2 trillion, to reach $15.476 trillion by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. That would be 102.6 percent of GDP - the first time since World War II, that dubious figure, has been reached.
And the budget projects, that the government will run a deficit of $1.645 trillion this year; topping 2009’s previous record, by more than $230 billion. By contrast, 2007’s deficit, was just $160 billion altogether.
In one often-cited study, economists Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff have argued that when a nation’s gross debt passes 90 percent it hinders overall economic growth.
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But the recovery could have other, less-beneficial effects, including higher interest rates. The government currently is benefiting from rates that are a fraction of their historic level, which means substantially lower borrowing costs for corporations and individuals.
Lawmakers said those low interest rates can’t last. Sen Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, said for every point that interest rates increase, the government would be paying an extra $140 billion a year on its debt right now.
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2/14/11
Hosni Mubarak and his family have moved a large part of their assets – guesstimated at between $20 and $70 billion - from European banks to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republics
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2/14/11
ALBANY — The number of New Yorkers on food stamps, has soared to a record 3 million - an 11% jump from 2009; and a 65% increase in the past five years, the Daily News has learned.
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Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is trying to generate economic growth while keeping the world’s largest debt from increasing.
He has so far failed to persuade opposition lawmakers to agree on financing bills for his record 92.4 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) budget for the year starting April.
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Toyota Motor, is the world’s largest carmaker.
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2/13/11
China’s economy, overtook Japan’s, as the world’s second largest for 2010.
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2/13/11
Planemaker Boeing, is set to unveil its new jumbo jet.
The 747-8 Intercontinental will seat 467 passengers - 51 more than the current 747 - while burning less fuel, the firm says.
Other features of the new plane include: new wings, a new tail, a sharper nose, state-of-the-art engines, and a new cockpit.
And while it carries fewer passengers, than the Airbus A380, it will be the world's longest airliner.
The first Boeing 747 was launched 42 years ago, with more than 1,400 sold until the 747-400 was withdrawn from sale last year.
Its new model is seen as competition for the Airbus A380 superjumbo.
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But many analysts say, carriers were interested in smaller wide-bodied planes, such as the 787 and the Airbus A350, which are designed to bypass busy hubs, and take passengers closer to their final destination.
On Monday, Boeing will give an update on the progress of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner, - whose late arrival has heavily damaged its credibility.
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Approximately at the end of 1980, a few years after Begin signed the Camp David (1977) accords with Sadat from Egypt, a Professor from Israel came to America, and had Yecidus (A Private Audience) with the Lubavitcher Rebbe; and asked him: “Why are you against giving land for peace in Egypt, doesn’t it bring peace to Israel?
The Rebbe answered something like: “The area is politically unstable. Who knows what will happen, next year, or in 30 years from now.”
The "next year," was when Egypt's President Sadat was assassinated (1981). And the "30 years from now" is 2011, and Mr. Mubarak has left the leadership of Egypt.
So signing a piece of paper with Egypt, is not a guarantee for peace.
________
Sadat was assassination, by fundamentalist army officers, on 6 October 1981.
He led the Yom Kippur War of 1973 against Israel, making him a hero in Egypt and, for a time, throughout the Arab World.
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Afterwards he engaged in negotiations with Israel, culminating in the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
This won him the Nobel Peace Prize, but also made him unpopular among some Arabs, resulting in a temporary suspension of Egypt's membership in the Arab League, and eventually his assassination.
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Mubarak: "What does the Lubavitcher Rebbe, want from me?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtsz1Wn-us
Mr. Yisroel Katzover is a senior journalist who covered the IDF for several decades, for numerous Israeli newspapers and media channels. Through the years, he consulted, and received much advice and guidance, from the Rebbe.
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July, 1977 Begin sees the Rebbe, before President Carter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPQuAQH7uKA&feature=player_embedded
On July 17, 1977, Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin went to seek the Lubavitcher Rebbe's blessings, before going to meet with President Carter.
During a walk at the Presidential retreat in Camp David during September of 1978, P.M. Begin told the then National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski "my right eye will fall out, my right arm will fall off, before I ever sign a single scrap of paper permitting the dismantling of a single Jewish settlement."
As President Carter himself relates in an interview: "Begin had taken a solemn oath, that he would not dismantle a single settlement in the Sinai".
But in March of 1979, Menachem Begin the P.M. of Israel, and Anwar El Sadat President of Egypt, signed a peace treaty, in which Israel agreed to transfer all control over Sinai to Egypt, despite the fact, that large oil reserves had recently been found in the region.
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2/10/11
Nanowire computer processor
Instead of etching chips down from chunks of material, the Nano processors, can be built up from minuscule parts.
The manufacturing methods used in making current chips are projected to reach a limit of size, a threshold, below which the relentless shrinking of the chips seen in recent years would not be possible.
The nanowires can in principle be made to occupy an area just one-eighth of what many think that limit is.
However, Professor Lieber and his team do not expect their approach to replace current chips, because their devices operate at significantly slower speeds.
So while current designs will keep the lead in number-crunching power, nanowire chips could win out in terms of size and efficiency.
The nanowires suffer less leakage of electrical current than current transistors, so chips should be as much as 10 times more efficient.
"Because of their very small size and very low power requirements, these new nanoprocessor circuits are building-blocks that can control and enable an entirely new class of much smaller, lighter-weight electronic sensors and consumer electronics."
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2/8/11
Every interest,' says the Marquis d'Agenson, ‘has its different principles. Harmony between two interests is created by opposition to that of a third.' He might have added that the harmony of all interests is created by opposition to those of each."
-Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), The Social Contract (page 73, footnote)
Let's distinguish, the common usage of the term selfless, from what it actually means; and what in practice, it has meant for revolutionaries, from the French Revolution, through the Communist revolutions; and in fact, for all of the revolutions of the left: A complete abandonment, of your own personal interests, and sense of individual identity.
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2/8/11
John Paul Getty, was once, the richest man in the world.
Most of Sir Paul's wealth - estimated at up to $2bn - was tied up in the family's trusts, and he merely lived on the income.
Asked once about the key to becoming rich, John Paul Getty replied: "Rise early every morning, work hard all day, and find oil."
He was an instinctive entrepreneur, who made his first million by the age of 24.
Before his death in 1976, Getty's name had become synonymous with vast wealth, - and the playboy lifestyle, that goes with it.
Most of the fortune, has been held in various trusts, since the sale of the Getty oil assets to Texaco, in 1984.
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The Getty dynasty was founded by Sir Paul's grandfather, George Franklin Getty, a Minneapolis lawyer; who moved his family to Oklahoma, and then to Los Angeles, to seek his fortune in the oil business.
John Paul Getty, set up his first oil venture, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, with a loan from his father.
The two continued as business partners - and occasionally feuding rivals, - until George's death in 1929.
John Paul, nicknamed Oklahoma Crude, continued to expand his Standard Oil empire, and began exploration in Saudi Arabia.
In 1949, Getty signed a deal with the Saudi government, that catapulted him into the super-rich league.
Getty's Western Pacific Oil Corporation, was given access, to the Saudi half, of the neutral zone, between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
After just three years, and a $30m investment, the oil deposits discovered there, made Getty a billionaire.
He had a colorful private life, and five marriages.
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Meanwhile, Sir Paul, had been groomed by his father, to enter the family business.
After attending the University of San Francisco, and doing a brief stint in the army, he took charge of Getty Oil enterprises in Rome.
But he resigned within six years, telling his father "it doesn't take anything, to be a businessman".
He dropped out, to pursue a freewheeling, hippy lifestyle; that eventually found him living as a virtual recluse, in London.
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2/8/11
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which has roughly 1.3 million residents, has become one of the world's most dangerous cities, due to an ongoing war between drug cartels in the region. The city saw more than 3,000 murders, last year.
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2/8/11
Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, but it is a secular nation.
International human rights groups say, more hardline fringe groups, have been harassing religious minorities, in recent years.
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2/5/11
David Cameron, the Prime Minister of England, has criticized "state multiculturalism”.
At a security conference in Munich, he argued: the UK needed a stronger national identity, to prevent people from turning to all kinds of extremism, not just Islamist extremism.
He also signaled a tougher stance, on groups promoting Islamist extremism.
He argued: Ministers should refuse to share platforms, or engage with such groups; which should be denied access to public funds, and barred from spreading their message in universities and prisons.
"Frankly, the Prime Minister said: we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years, and much more active, muscular liberalism."
"Let's properly judge these organizations: Do they believe in universal human rights - including for women, and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all, before the law? Do they believe in democracy, and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage, integration, or separatism?
"These are the sorts of questions we need to ask. Fail these tests, and the presumption should be, not to engage with organizations," he added.
In the speech, Mr. Cameron drew a clear distinction between, Islam the religion, and what he described as "Islamist extremism" - a political ideology he said, that attracted people who feel, "rootless" within their own countries.
"We need to be clear: Islamist extremism and Islam, are not the same thing," he said.
The government is currently reviewing its policy, to prevent violent extremism, known as “Prevent”, which is a key part, of its wider counter-terrorism strategy.
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A genuinely liberal country, Mr. Cameron said: "believes in certain values, and actively promotes them":
"Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Democracy, The rule of law. Equal rights, regardless of race, sex or sexuality.
"It says to its citizens: This is what defines us, as a society. To belong here, is to believe these things."
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He said, under the "doctrine of state multiculturalism", different cultures have been encouraged, to live separate lives.
"We have failed to provide a vision of society, to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities, behaving in ways, that run counter to our values."
Building a stronger sense of national and local identity, holds "the key to achieving true cohesion" by allowing people to say, "I am a Muslim, I am a Hindu, I am a Christian; but I am a Londoner... too", he said.
"There's a widespread feeling in the country, that we're less united behind values than we need to be."
"There are things the government can do, to give a lead, and encourage participation in society, including all minorities."
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Former home secretary David Blunkett said: while it was right that the government promoted national identity, but it had undermined its own policy, by threatening to withdraw “citizenship lessons” from schools, from the national curriculum of secondary schools in England, at a time when "we've never needed it more".
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2/4/11
Obesity affects one in 10 adults, around the world.
Obesity, cholesterol and high blood pressure, are all risk factors, for heart disease.
In 2008, 9.8% of men and 13.8% of women in the world were obese - they had a BMI above 30kg/m2.
This is compared with 4.8% for men and 7.9% for women in 1980.
BMI rose among most high-income countries.
Body mass index (BMI), BMI rose the most in the USA between 1980 and 2008; followed by New Zealand and Australia for women; and the UK and Australia for men.
Blood pressure levels, were highest in the Baltic, and East and West African countries.
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The "climate of hate," the Left constantly accuses the Right, of creating, is a creation of theirs.
The examples of vicious vitriol towards President Bush, including a film depicting his assassination (it won awards and praise, from film critics!)
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Iran has executed at least 66 people this year, an alarming surge that has defied outside pressure, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Wednesday.
Most executions, were for drug offenses, she said; but at least three were for political activism. Two executions were held in public, which Pillay said, compounded their cruelty and inhumanity.
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Matthew Paul Miller
Facebook, the world's largest social network, with nearly 600 million members.
Twitter, has more than 175 million registered users.
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January 2011 - Snowiest in NYC History!
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JAN.
1-29-2011
Forget about PCs. For every desktop computer, there are 10 mobile devices.
Hyper-connectivity will change every business model and supply chain; it's at an inflection point this year... and the uptake of connectivity is accelerating ever more."
It’s the biggest revolution, in information technology.
Real-time flow of data, has brought "incredible productivity gains."
It also works at home. Connectivity is making us more powerful shoppers. We can watch the films that we want, when we want them. It connects us better to our networks of friends.
"There was a time when no one lived more than five miles away from their parents. Now we live all over the place, but for the first time [social networks] allow grandparents to see the activities of their grandchildren in real time," says a top executive working for a well-know social network.
Information overflow, the "abundant distractions of the internet" can change our cognitive abilities.
I was watching a movie with my kids, and they were both sitting there, and at the same time, chatting with their friends on the web.
"When the railroads were built, there were people who argued that humans would suffer brain damage from seeing the landscape rush by so fast,
In the wider world, it means that companies can't control their brands anymore. At best, they shape them.
In the wider world, it means that companies can't control their brands anymore. At best, they shape them
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A radical nexus outside the White House, help to craft key administration policy and legislation.
Obama's health-care policy, masked by moderate populist rhetoric, was pushed along and partially crafted by extremists, some of whom reveal in their own words that their principal aim is to achieve corporate socialist goals and a vast increase in government powers.
Extremists are among Obama's "czars" and other top advisers. New information, links top advisers Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, to communist activists. Correspondence in which a communist confesses to mentoring and educating Axelrod, and helping the top Obama aide to secure his first job. Obama then, later worked with the same communist,
1995 Obama was a member of the socialist New Party, which sought to infiltrate the Democratic Party to ultimately mold it into a socialist-leaning organization. Perhaps more startlingly, New Party founders are currently helping to craft White House legislation
Obama's associations, with the Nation of Islam, Black Liberation Theology, and black political extremists.
A socialist-led, ACORN-affiliated union, helped facilitate Obama's political career, and now exerts major influence in the White House.
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1/27/11
The eastern US, has begun digging out from a storm, that dumped 19in (48.3cm) of snow in New York City, and parts of the state of New Jersey.
Two of America's largest airports - Newark, in New Jersey, and John F Kennedy, in New York City - reopened on Thursday after closing their doors on Wednesday evening.
Also in New York, city government offices were closed on Thursday.
"New York City almost never takes a snow day, but today is one of those rare days," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
The city, which typically sees 21in of snow per season, had already seen 36in this winter prior to Wednesday night's storm.
New York declared a weather emergency, for the second time, since a storm on 26 December, trapped hundreds of buses and ambulances.
US East Coast grind to a halt, battered by worst snowfall in thirty years.
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled, schools closed, and workers sent home early, as the worst storm in thirty years batters the US East Coast – and forecasters are warning, that more bad weather is on the way.
More than 600 flights were cancelled at New York-area airports – LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Liberty. About 300 flights were cancelled at the Philadelphia airport.
Snow has fallen eight times on the New York region since December 14 – or an average of about once every five days. That includes the blizzard that dropped 20 inches on the city after Christmas, paralyzing the city.
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1-27-2011
World leaders have warned, that rising food prices, could lead to social unrest, and even "economic war".
The global population, could rise from seven billion now, to more than nine billion by 2045. Imagine the pressure on food, energy, water and resources.
"The next economic war or conflict, can be over the race, for scarce resources.
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1-27-2011
Twenty years ago, the world had about 1.1 billion Muslims. Twenty years from now, it will have about twice as many - and they'll represent more than a quarter of all people on earth, according to a new study released Thursday.
That's a rise from less than 20 percent in 1990.
Pakistan will overtake Indonesia, as home of the largest number of Muslims, as its population pushes over 256 million.
The number of Muslims in the United States, will more than double, to 6.2 million, it anticipates.
Afghanistan's population will nearly double, to about 50.5 million; making it home to the ninth largest Muslim population in the world.
Israel will become nearly a quarter Muslim. The Palestinian territories, have one of the highest growth rates in the world.
Fractious Nigeria, where Christian-Muslim violence has left thousands dead in the past decade, will become a Muslim-majority country by 2030, the Pew Forum projects.
And two western European countries - France and Belgium - will become more than 10 percent Muslim. Sweden will hover just below that level, at 9.9 percent.
Iran, on the other hand, will see very slow growth. Iranian women, have among the fewest children of anyone in the Muslim world. They use birth control, at exactly the same rate as American women, 73 percent.
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The Muslim share of the global population, will rise primarily because of their relatively high birth rate, the large number of Muslims of childbearing age, and an increase in life expectancy in Muslim-majority countries, according to the report,
Conversion will play relatively little part in the increase, the report anticipates. It says little data is available on conversion, but what little there is suggests Islam loses as many adherents via conversion as it gains.
Because of the existing Muslim "youth bulge," or unusually high percentage of young people, Muslim population growth has a certain momentum
Despite the rapid growth of Islam, Christianity seems set to remain the biggest religion in the world for the next 20 years. There are currently more than 2 billion Christians - 30 to 35 percent of the global population
"Tremendous numbers are being added, in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Lack of sleep needs to be treated as a major health issue, according to a report published by the Mental Health Foundation.
The Great British Sleep Report suggests a link between insomnia and poor relationships, low energy levels and an inability to concentrate.
Poor sleep has already been linked to depression, immune deficiency and heart disease.
People with insomnia were four times as likely to have relationship problems, three times as likely to feel depressed and three times as likely to suffer from a lack of concentration.
Believes people can get stuck in a spiral, where poor sleep, leads to mental health problems, which leads to even worse sleep.
We can no longer just ignore, the impact of sleep problems in this country. They are affecting our health, our economy, and our everyday happiness."
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It was an audacious double-cross, that fooled the Nazis and shortened World War, a newly-released document reveals, the crucial role played by Britain's code-breaking experts, in the 1944 invasion of France.
An elaborate British wartime plot, succeeded in convincing Hitler, that the Allies were about to stage the bulk of the D-Day landings in Pas de Calais, rather than on the Normandy coast. - A diversion that proved crucial, in guaranteeing the invasion's success.
It was information, that saved countless Allied lives, and arguably hastened the end of the war.
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The Rebbe worked on anti-subramine warfare. During WW2, the Nazi subs would see American aerial planes approaching, and dive.
The Rebbe worked on stealth technology, to hide allied planes using light i.e Yehudi lights, to cover up their attack and sink submarines before they had a chance to dive.
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1-26-2011
Scientists are slowly unlocking the secrets of ageing; and some suggest, treatments may soon be at hand, to slow or even reverse, the ageing process.
The telomeres protect the chromosomes from damage, but also shorten with age, until the cells are no longer able to replicate.
"By understanding the ageing process, we can help combat arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, all these things which are age-related."
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1-26-2011
The unusually cold winter weather, has continued to affect southern states. Kentucky has received around 6 inches (15cm) of snow; and driving conditions are treacherous in Tennessee.
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1-26-2011
Continuing economic woes, and the recent tax cut package, will drive the US budget deficit to a high of $1.48tn, in 2011.
"The United States faces daunting economic and budgetary challenges.
Even if assumptions turn out to be correct, the CBO said, US government debt would rise from the current 62%, to 77% of economic output, by 2021.
And with interest rates likely to rise as the economy recovers, the Office said, the cost to US taxpayers of the interest payments on that debt was "poised to skyrocket over the next decade" from 1.5% to 3.3% of output.
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Sales of newly built homes in the US, hit their lowest level in 2010, since records began 47 years ago.
There were only 321,000 sales across the US; down 14% from 2009; and the fifth year of decline, the Department of Commerce said
For the year Banks repossessed a record one million US homes in 2010;
and could surpass that number, this year.
Among the worst hit states were: Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California: once at the heart, of the housing boom.
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January 25, 2011
Since 1973, nearly 50 Million Abortions Have Been Performed in U.S. Since Roe v. Wade Decision Legalized Abortion.
The United States has dropped precipitously since the early 1980s, but the procedure still remains a prevalent form of birth control in this country and around the world.
According to the U.S .Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, there were 846,181 abortions in the U.S. in 2006.
35 percent of all U.S. women, will have had an abortion by age 45.
93 percent of all abortions, occur for “social reasons,” such as a mother’s decision, that the child is unwanted or “inconvenient.”
Black women, are more than four times more likely than non-Hispanic white women, to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.7 times as likely.
BlackGenocide.com, a pro-life campaign to stop abortion in the African American community, estimates that 13 million abortions have been performed on African American women since 1973.
They also estimate that, on average, 1,876 black pregnancies are terminated in the U.S. each day.
Over 60 percent of abortions are among women who have had one or more children, and 90 percent of abortions occur within the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.
-- About 20 percent of women having an abortion report using Medicaid to pay for abortions despite laws that prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to fund abortions.
-- One significant change that has occurred over the last decade comes as a result of the development of the drug RU-486 or the “Morning After Pill.”
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Guttmacher estimates that use of the pill has risen significantly since 2005 and now accounts for 17 percent of all abortion procedures.
Worldwide, Guttmacher estimates that 42 million abortions are performed each year with nearly half of those being performed by “unskilled” professionals or in nations where abortion is restricted or prohibited.
According to the United Nations, the country with the highest number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44, in 2007, was Russia: 53.7 abortions per 1,000 women. The corresponding number for the United States that year, according to the U.N., was 20.8 abortions per 1,000 women.
For another comparison, Guttmacher reports that, "In 2008, 153,110 women obtained abortions in New York, producing a rate of 37.6 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age."
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When the students of a famous figure in the Lithuanian yeshiva world, Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, tried to hide, that their teacher had dedicated a large part of his time to learning Chassidus, the Rebbe criticized their behavior.
In his short lifetime, he served on the rabbinate in London, headed a Kollel in Gateshead, and later in approx. 1947, the mashgiach ruchni in Ponevezh.
Despite efforts on the part of many of his students to conceal the facts, Rav Eliyahu Eliezer was proficient ,in many Chabad works, including the Tanya.
His magnum opus, the Michtav M'Eliyahu, was based on the writings of Rav Tzadok of Lublin and Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk's "Pri Ha'Aretz".
In Homel, where R' Dessler grew up, he became acquainted with a brilliant Lubavitcher chasid known as R' Itche Masmid.
Whenever R' Dessler encountered a difficulty in learning, the Baal Ha'Tanya would appear to him in a dream and resolve it. This apparently reflects the profundity of the shiur in Tanya that he gave in the Gateshead kollel.
It is also symbolically significant, that Rav Dessler passed away on 24 Teves, the same yartzeit, as the Baal Ha'Tanya.
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1-24-2011
A prolonged dry spell in parts of northern, central and eastern China is threatening both crops and water supplies, Chinese state media says.
Shandong province is experiencing its driest weather for 60 years.
Half the wheat-growing land there is affected, while almost a quarter of a million people face drinking water shortages, the China Daily said.
Beijing has also been experiencing its longest dry spell for more than 30 years, another state daily said.
The Chinese capital has had no significant rainfall for three months, the Beijing Times reported.
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Analysts say this drought, is likely to put further pressure on food prices, which have been rising sharply for months.
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1-24-2011
The 10 billionth download, has been made from Apple's app store. It's taken just two and a half years.
Apple says, seven billion of those have come, in the last 12 months.
There are 350,000 apps available, to more 160 million iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users, in 90 countries around the world.
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Callensonic- varicose veins, throat, tonsils
Kakadu, Northern Territory, Australia
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The top three music movies illegal download sites- RapidShare.com, Megavideo.com and Megaupload.com –
generated more than 21 billion visits. 1-11-2011
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In beating the H1N1 virus, the body makes antibodies, which can kill many other flu strains.
The H1N1 swine flu virus reached pandemic levels last year (2010), infecting an estimated 60 million people.
It will take at least five years, before anything, could be widely available.
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