XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 08/09/11

Tuesday, 9 August 2011

China's first aircraft carrier starts sea trial - sought to downplay saying would be used for training and "research" -

China's first aircraft carrier on Wednesday left its shipyard in the country's northeast to start its first sea trial, the state news agency Xinhua said.
The revamped old Soviet ship's sea trial was in line with the schedule of its refitting project and would not take long, the news agency said, quoting military sources.
After returning from the trial, the carrier will continue its refit and test work, the report said, adding that the vessel had set sail from its shipyard in the city ofDalian.
Beijing last month sought to downplay the capability of its first aircraft carrier,saying the vessel would be used for training and "research", amid concerns over the country's military build-up.
The project has added to regional worries over the country's fast military expansion and growing assertiveness on territorial issues.
It also comes amid heightened tensions over a number of maritime territorial disputes involving China, notably in the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas and is claimed by several countries.
The issue has heated up recently with run-ins between China and fellow claimants Vietnam and the Philippines, sparking concern among its neighbouring countries and the United States.
In September, a erupted between Japan and China over the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in Chinese, located in the East China Sea.
Chen Bingde, the nation's top military official, only provided the first official acknowledgement of the aircraft carrier in a Hong Kong newspaper interview in early June.
But media reports and military analysts have for years said the 300-metre (990-foot) ship was in development.

Read more -
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.9e214cd05d006bc55e2b5fc33bdea0f3.f81&show_article=1

Entire U.S. Stealth Fighter Fleet Grounded - Air Force currently has zero flyable stealth fighters. None. -

In past few decades, the U.S. Air Force has spent untold billions researching and developing a family of stealth fighter jets that are supposed to be generations ahead of any dogfighters in the sky.

But after building more than 170 F-22 Raptors and a handful of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, not a single one is available for service. The Air Force currently has zero flyable stealth fighters. None.

The vaunted F-22 has been grounded with a possible faulty oxygen system since May. Production of the last few Raptors is even on hold, because the jets can’t fly from the factory.

Last week, test flights for the newer F-35 were suspended, too, because of a valve problem in the plane’s integrated power package. It’s the third time this year that JSFs have been grounded. Tests may resume as early as next week. Then again, they may not.

Yesterday, the U.S. military committed to spending another $535 million to buy 38 more Joint Strike Fighters — a family of stealth jets that are supposed to become the multipurpose, affordable workhorses of tomorrow’s fleet. Ninety percent of America’s combat aviation power is eventually supposed to come from the jets’ three variants.

But the jets have been anything but cheap. The current cost for the JSF program is $382 billion and rising for more than 2,400 aircraft. No wonder just about every major deficit reduction plan scales back the JSF effort in some way.

And, at the moment, they’re not producing any combat power, either.

Back in 2002, the plan was to have more than 90 JSFs flying by next year. As things currently stand, the Air Force and Navy might not get their variants until 2016. The Marines — who knows?

For now, every available penny in the JSF program is tied up in getting the jets back into the air and their programs on track.

Pentagon’s Mach 20 Missile Ready for Ultimate Test - the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 - Wed. 7AM PDT -

The Pentagon has been working for nearly a decade on an audacious plan to strike anywhere on the planet in less than an hour. Wednesday could prove to be the do-or-die moment for that plan.

At approximately 7 a.m. PDT, a three-stage Minotaur IV Lite rocket is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will puncture the atmosphere, and then release an experimental aircraft. That aircraft, known as the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, will then come hurtling back to Earth at nearly 20 times the speed of sound, splashing down near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 4,100 miles away. Total flight time: about 30 minutes.

That is, if the flight goes as planned. The first HTV-2, launched by Pentagon bleeding-edge research arm Darpa in April of 2010, disappeared over the Pacific after just nine minutes of flight. The vehicle was never recovered.

It was a loss not just for this single effort, but for the entire concept of “Prompt Global Strike,” the Pentagon plan to eliminate its enemies anywhere around the world.

The Defense Department is pursuing three different families of technologies to accomplish the task. One is to rearm nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional warheads. But that runs the risk ofaccidentally triggering a response from another atomic power, who might mistake it for a nuke. Oops.

A second effort is to build shorter-range cruise missiles that can fly at five or six times the speed of sound. But that X-51 Waverider project is running into complications: A June flight test ended prematurely, for reasons that are still unclear.

Some variation of the HTV-2 is the third choice; to some in the defense community, it’s the most appealing. The HTV-2 spends most of its time flying through the atmosphere, before it dives down to hits its target. That means it’s unlikely to be mistaken for a nuclear missile, which spends most of its time above the atmosphere. World War III averted.

CHICAGOLAND: Clerk Complains About 'Jurassic Park-Size' Cockroaches in City Hall... -

Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza wants her staff removed from the basement of City Hall, due to a persistent problem with cockroaches.

Mendoza tweeted Monday that it was “time to clean up, move out of the city Clerk’s City Hall basement, and ask the Orkin Man for help.”

A photo she shared on Facebook showed two large cockroaches lying on their backs of the floor of the office. A broader shot showed at least seven cockroaches scattered on the floor, around the cables for the computer system in the office.

Mendoza and about 30 others work on the first floor, but most of her staff is in a basement that, to compound problems, is already poorly ventilated.

Mendoza didn’t mince words during in an interview with CBS 2’s Roseanne Tellez later Monday.

She said the insects her staff members have encountered are “Jurassic Park-size roaches.” She has called on Mayor Emmanuel for help moving all of her employees upstairs.

“I wouldn’t want to work like that. I’m sure none of your viewers would want to work like that,” Mendoza said. “(The mayor) has given me his commitment that he will work with me to make sure we can get our employees out of there as soon as possible.”

The roaches are not a new problem in Mendoza’s office. The Chicago Tribune reported back on May 16 – the day she was inaugurated along with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other elected city officials – that the office had a roach problem and that she wanted to get her employees out of the basement.

“We have live roaches and usually in the morning there are a lot of dead roaches laying on the floor,” says city clerk employee Monica Carranza, who has worked in the basement for four years. “It’s disgusting.”

She is thrilled at the prospect of moving.

“Everybody really appreciates the fact that we might have some sunshine and less roaches,” she said.

GM Launches China-Only Baojun Brand - name means "treasure horse" in Chinese -

The name means "treasure horse" in Chinese, but General Motors is hoping will turn out to be a cash cow.

Today GM launched its new China-only Baojun brand with sales of a low-priced sedan designed specifically for the quickly emerging market. Through its partnerships, the automaker currently builds and sells more cars in China than it does in the United States.

The Baojun 630 is initially being targeted at drivers in the country's second and third tier cities outside the major markets of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, GM said in a news release. Other cities will be targeted at a later date, it said.

Global automakers are looking to China to boost sales amid weak demand in the developed world, and are increasingly focusing on smaller inland cities that have been overlooked in the drive to snag wealthy customers along the more prosperous coast.

Auto sales in China last year climbed 32 percent to 18 million vehicles.

Other automakers are also increasingly tailoring their production to the Chinese market. Nissan Motor Co. is planning to offer a China-produced electric car to be sold under the low-priced Venucia brand, part of an $8 billion expansion plan with local partner Dongfeng Group.

GM's Baojun 630 will be equipped with a 1.5-liter engine and come in three models that range in price from 62,800 to 73,800 yuan ($9,760 to $11,470), the company said.

GM sells passenger cars and commercial vehicles in China under the Baojun, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Jiefang, Opel and Wuling brands. The company reported sales of more than 2.35 million vehicles in China last year, up 28.8 percent over 2009, claiming the top spot among global automakers in the country for the sixth year in a row.

GM's China ventures sold a record 1.27 million vehicles in the first half of this year, though growth slowed sharply from the double-digit pace of recent years.

"The End Game" - as the market is about to set off on yet another dead cat bounce courtesy of vapor volume -

As always, just as the market is about to set off on yet another dead cat bounce courtesy of vapor volume and the lack of concerted selling (after all the Fed is front and center today which means nothing can possibly go wrong... at least until someone actually does some Mark to Market accounting on the left side of Bank of America's balance sheet), here comes David Rosenberg with a cup of very cold water, thrown right in the face of the misguided optimists who carry the deluded idea that this story could possibly have a Hollywood ending..

The End Game

Well, all the major averages have sliced through their respective 50- and 200- day moving averages and have radically undercut the June lows. And recall, QE2 started November 10, 2010. All the gains from QE2 are now gone. In fact, as it now stands, 20 months of hard earned capital appreciation in the S&P 500 has been wiped out in just three weeks ... bear markets are merciless; malevolent beasts. Global growth prospects are clearly being marked down — the action in the once-hot BRICs say it all as these areas are in full-fledged bear mode:
Brazil: -33%

Russia: -21.6%

India: -20%

China: -27%

The bond market also clearly has recession in its sights — none of this namby- pamby "35% odds" stuff out of Wall Street. The 10-year U.S. note yield closed at 2.31% in yesterday's session, undercutting last October's QE2-related low; dead air all the way down to 2%, which would be a test of the December 2008 trough.

In terms of the end game, it seems obvious now. If we can agree that the problem is excessive indebtedness at a whole bunch of levels (each country seems to have its own unique situation, for example the nonfinancial private sector credit outstanding relative to GDP in Spain is around 200%!) in many countries then there is really only one answer. This is not really about the EFSF, which helps reduce debt servicing costs but does not help alleviate the problem of overall debt burdens — that is just a swap. I think the ECB and the Fed (watch for some big changes in the press statement today), but especially the ECB, has to buy bonds en masse and reduce the amount of European debt outstanding and sharply boost the money supply. I believe that is the only way out right now. The central banks have to be the ones to absorb the debt and bring debt ratios down to more comfortable levels.

As for the Fed, when Ben Bernanke gave his testimony to Congress back on July 13th, the Dow was sitting at 12,492 (10,809 at yesterday's close), the 10-year was at 2.92% (2.31%) and oil was at $98/bbl ($81.21). Recall that back then, he did not shut the door on more Fed easing policy if the situation called for it. The only question is whatever it is the Fed decides to do, will it bolster aggregate demand any more than taking rates to 0% and embarking on two rounds of quantitative easing programs. These are the vagaries of a central bank burdened with the task of stimulating an economy saddled with so much debt and so many scars from years of real estate deflation and lingering joblessness.

The gold price seems to understand the end game, since it will involve an explosion in the monetary pace. The bond market is doing what it's doing— and now equities with a lag— because this asset class doesn't believe the next reflation wave will really do much to ignite confidence and spending, even if it manages to save the euro and the region's undercapitalized banks.

U.S. Representative Barney Frank farting on live TV -

Police urge holster use after man shoots his own penis - with his girlfriends pink handgun -

As Chandler residents Joshua Seto, 27, and his fiancée, Cara Christopher, walked over to a Fry's Food Store for refreshments, he tried securing her pink handgun in the front waistband of his pants.
The gun fired, striking Seto's penis and continuing through his left thigh. The bleeding started immediately and was heavy, according to police dispatch recordings released Sunday.
"He is still conscious, there is just a lot of blood," Christopher , 26, told 9-1-1 operators and dispatchers.

One operator told Christopher to apply direct pressure to the wound with a dry towel or T-shirt, but to avoid looking at the wound.
"I did look at it," Christopher said. "It's pretty bad."
The accidental shooting took place about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on the 900 block of W. Elliot Road.
When the emergency call first went through, Chrisopher was asked if they needed paramedics, she said yes.
"He's still coherent and everything but he's bleeding quite a lot," she said.
In the wake the accident, police are warning armed residents to use holsters, not waistbands.
The movies and TV shows, like Sons of Anarchy, that show tough guys with guns shoved into their jeans are not realistic, Chandler Police Detective Seth Tyler said Sunday.
The cops and robbers of the silver screen most likely use rubber weapons, which weigh far less than the real things, Tyler said.
"Whenever you handle a firearm, whether you are a novice or experienced, always treat firearms as though they are loaded, said Tyler, a spokesman for the department. "If you are going to carry a handgun on your person, use a holster, not your waistband."
Meanwhile, it is not clear if Seto has been released from the hospital or suffered any permanent damage, Tyler said.
"He is recovering," Tyler said.
He may possibly face charges, too, Tyler said. "The case agent is still determining that," Tyler said Sunday.

Read more -
http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2011/08/07/20110807cr-penisshot0811.html

Teacher accused of filming sex act with student -

Teacher accused of filming sex act with student -
Tara Driscoll.

A high school teacher in New York City has been charged for having sex with a 16-year-old student in a motel and filming it after police were tipped off by the boy's mother.

Police arrested 33-year-old Tara Driscoll after the teenager's mother contacted authorities when her son admitted to having had sex with his teacher at a Lynbrook motel last March, the New York Postreports.

Authorities also seized a home video which allegedly documented the encounter.

A spokesman from the Nassau County Police said the victim admitted to the affair after his mother confronted him.

"This was a one-time incident in which she picked up the victim in Queens and drove him to the Capri Motel in Lynbrook," a spokesperson from the Nassau County Police said.

The Bay Shore resident had been a teacher at Campus Magnet High School in Queens for five years, and was removed from classroom duties when the allegations first surfaced in May.

As the age of consent in New York is 17, Driscoll was charged with third-degree rape and third-degree criminal sexual act. She has pleaded not guilty.

Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model contestants dare to bare it all in first nude photoshoot -

Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model (UK) tv show photo

In tonight's episode of Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model the drama hots up as the wannabe models are told they must strip off in a photoshoot for beauty brand All For Eve.

After an emotional makeover session - Lady Gaga and Madonna stylist Paul Percival crops and dyes one girl's hair and turns another pink - the young models are informed that the latest challenge is to be a nude photoshoot.

With the second round of eliminations looming, each of the 11 remaining girls is desperate to impress but, despite nerves and hang ups, faces the daunting challenge head on and plucks up the courage to strip for the camera.

Strong and sexy: Holly Higgins impressed Elle Macpherson with her beautiful, athletic figure

Forced to strip naked - Shocking scenes as rioters steal clothes and rifle through bags as people make their way home -

Forced to strip naked - Shocking scenes as rioters steal clothes and rifle through bags as people make their way home -
Stripped: A worrying picture from Twitter shows a man apparently in Deptford appearing to have his clothes removed as another man looks on

Stripped: A worrying picture from Twitter shows a man apparently in Deptford appearing to have his clothes removed as another man looks on

This is the shocking moment a young man is apparently forced to hand over all of his clothes after appearing to be stripped naked during lawless riots overnight.

Internet rumours last night claimed that on top of the widespread destruction across London and Birmingham, people were having their clothes removed by looters as police attempted to contain the criminality.

Reports on Twitter claimed some people were being stripped, while another shocking video shows a bleeding teenager being robbed in broad daylight by lawless thugs who pretend to help him to his feet.

On Twitter, numerous posters claimed there had been incidents of people being stripped naked in Birmingham, although the reports are unsubstantiated.

Kelly Rowland suffers wardrobe malfunction - her top fell off while performing -

Singer Kelly Rowland suffered an embarrassingwardrobe malfunction at a gig after her top fell off while performing.

The former Destiny's Child group member was performing a selection of solo songs, including her latest single "Motivation", at New Jersey Aug 7 when the accident happened.

Her black top slipped away as she danced, reports dailystar.co.uk.

The singer rushed backstage to adjust her bustier and later apologised for the incident at microblogging site Twitter.

"New Jersey crowd was amazing!! hope you enjoyed the show and didn't mind the peekaboo LOL (laugh out loud)!!!... Stuff happens," the 30-year-old posted.
Read more -
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/music/news-and-interviews/Kelly-Rowland-suffers-wardrobe-malfunction/articleshow/9540366.cms?intenttarget=no

Disaster Movie Gets a Sequel, With Subtitles - It is beginning to feel a lot like 2008 all over again -

It is beginning to feel a lot like 2008 all over again. But it’s not the same.

As markets tumble — the Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.6 percent on Monday — it is instructive to hear from someone who knows a thing or two about a financial crisis: Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former Treasury secretary.

And he turns out to be more sanguine about the United States, after the Standard & Poor’sdowngrade, than some other voices being heard amid the tumult.

“While the players in Washington certainly haven’t performed at AAA level, I would certainly take U.S. Treasuries over other AAA sovereigns any day,” Mr. Paulson told me.

Yes, there has been much hue and cry over S.&P.’s cut in the credit rating of the United States. But the credit rating downgrade almost seems like a bad joke considering what happened in the bond market: Treasuries rallied as yields fell on Monday to their lowest levels since 2009. In other words, investors felt Treasuries were a safer — yes, safer — bet after S.&P. downgraded them than they were before. (What does that say about S.& P.’s credibility in the bond market?)

The downgrade may point up the enormous challenges facing the country — persistent unemployment and the possibility of slower economic growth is a hard truth that may ultimately force the cost of borrowing to rise for the nation over the long term.

But the downgrade is almost a sideshow compared with the real reason that stocks started falling Monday morning, before panic set in and the momentum of the market took over: the intractable problems in the European Union, which look a lot more like the United States banking crisis circa 2008 than what’s happening on this side of the Atlantic now.

Pretend for a moment that countries like Greece, Spain and Italy are our banks in 2008. They are close to insolvent. (And the actual banks in Germany, Britain and France that are supposed to be strong are horribly undercapitalized and are holding too much debt from countries like Greece, Spain and Italy — all countries that truly may not be able to pay it back in full.)

School bus driver fired for picking up stranded police officers... -

A school bus driver on Long Island is fighting to regain his job after being fired last week for being a Good Samaritan, apparently against company policy.

George Daw claimed he was terminated because he helped three Nassau County police detectives during last Monday's hail and rain storm.

"I felt this was something anyone would do under the circumstances," said Daw, 58.

Daw was driving a mini-bus carrying a teenage passenger and a bus matron last Monday as golf ball-size hail and torrential rain pelted New Hyde Park. On Hillside Avenue, Daw came upon on a stalled unmarked police car carrying detectives, according to Detective Lt. Raymond Cote. The car had been filling with water.

"They're saying, you've got to help us, you've got to help us," said Daw. "You've got to get us to the third precinct. We're police officers."

Daw did just that, pushing through the flood waters to pick up the detectives and deliver them to their precinct.

"I felt they were in danger," explained Daw.

Daw's employer, Educational Bus Transport of Copiague, didn't agree.

After Daw filed a report about what happened, he was terminated from his job of nine months.

Company paperwork supplied by Daw showed he was fired in part because he violated policy prohibiting drivers from picking up unscheduled passengers.

"We have policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety of the children we transport," responded the bus company's vice-president, Tim Flood.

"When these policies and procedures are not followed, we will address them in an appropriate manner," Flood continued. "This particular employee was not terminated solely because of the pick-up of unscheduled passengers."

Flood would not elaborate further.

When asked if Daw's actions endangered his passengers, Detective Lt. Cote said, "No."

"It's sad when we hear his good deed cost him his job," Cote added.

Cathay Pacific investigates alleged cockpit sex photos - stewardesses giving oral sex to a pilot in the cockpit -

Cathay Pacific airline said Saturday it is investigating photographs that appear to show one of its stewardesses giving oral sex to a pilot in the cockpit of an aircraft, a report said.

The existence of the photos was first reported in Chinese blogs on Saturday. Industry sources said they suspected the photos were a malicious stunt designed to hurt the company.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) confirmed that the Hong Kong-based airline had launched a "full investigation" into the cockpit sex allegations.

The paper reported that a video was also rumored to have been posted online, but it was not clear where the sex act had taken place nor if any airline staff were involved.

"One of the photos appears to have been taken inside an aircraft cockpit," an airline spokesman said, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur quoting the SCMP