XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Powder at Kennedy Space Center tests positive for cocaine - Second time in a year

Powder at Kennedy Space Center tests positive for cocaine - Second time in a year -

NASA's Inspector General's Office says an investigation is under way after a white powdery substance found at the Kennedy Space Center tested positive for cocaine.
"Law enforcement personnel field tested the substance, which indicated a positive test for cocaine," said Renee Juhans, an executive officer with the office.
"The substance is now at an accredited crime lab for further testing," she said.
Juhans said that 4.2 grams of a white powdery substance was found in a NASA facility March 7. She could not confirm where, at the Kennedy Space Center, the drug was found.
"A NASA Office of Inspector General investigation is ongoing," she said.
NASA has a zero-tolerance drug policy. All employees may be randomly tested. It is not known whether any employees have been asked to submit to drug testing in this investigation.
"We have no further comment," Juhans said.
In January 2010, about 200 Kennedy Space Center workers were tested when a small bag of cocaine was found inside a space shuttle processing facility where Discovery was being readied for flight. That case was closed, and there were no arrests.

Read more - http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/03/15/nasa.powder.investigation/index.html?hpt=T2

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Germany to shut down pre-1980 nuclear plants - 10 of Germany's 17 nuclear plants to stay open -

* Only 10 of Germany's 17 nuclear plants to stay open

* About a third of German nuclear capacity to be shut down

* Merkel's conservatives face defeat in regional elections

* Opposition accuses Merkel of transparent trickery

(Adds details of capacity to be shut down, share falls)

By David Stamp

BERLIN, March 15 (Reuters) - Germany will shut down all seven of its nuclear power plants that began operating before 1980 at least till June, the government said on Tuesday, leaving open whether they will ever start up again after Japan's crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the closures, which will leave only 10 nuclear stations still generating, under a nuclear policy moratorium imposed as Japan faced a potential catastrophe at its earthquake-crippled Fukushima complex.

"Power plants that went into operation before the end of 1980 will ... be shut down for the period of the moratorium," Merkel told a news conference, adding that the decision would be carried out by government decree as no agreement with the plants' operators had been reached.

Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said it was not clear if the reactors to be shut down in the three-month moratorium would remain closed or be reconnected to the grid afterwards.

Merkel astonished German politicians on Monday by suspending an unpopular coalition decision taken only last autumn, under which the life of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants would be extended by years. [ID:nLDE72D1PN]

She drew accusations on Tuesday of transparent trickery for the move, with the opposition and media saying she was trying to avoid a regional election disaster later this month.

PANIC AND PARTY POLITICS

The seven ageing plants account for about a third of Germany's nuclear capacity. However, one of them has been offline since an accident in 2007, and another shut down last month for maintenance. [ID:nLDE72E0OD] [ID:nLDE72E1U0]

Business leaders urged caution when making major decisions on nuclear plants, which in total supply about a quarter of all electricity needed to power Europe's biggest economy. "Panic and party politics make bad advisers," said Hans Heinrich Driftmann, who heads the German Chamber of Industry and Trade.

U.S. Surgeon General Encourages West Coast Residents to Buy Iodide Tablets... -

View more videos at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com.

The fear that a nuclear cloud could float from the shores of Japan to the shores of California has some people making a run on iodine tablets. Pharmacists across California report being flooded with requests.

State and county officials spent much of Tuesday trying to keep people calm by saying that getting the pills wasn't necessary, but then the United States surgeon general supported the idea as a worthy "precaution."

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is in the Bay Area touring a peninsula hospital. NBC Bay Area reporter Damian Trujillo asked her about the run on tablets and Dr. Benjamin said although she wasn't aware of people stocking up, she did not think that would be an overreaction. She said it was right to be prepared.

On the other side of the issue is Kelly Huston of the California Emergency Management Agency. Huston said state officials, along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the California Energy Commission, were monitoring the situation and said people don't need to buy the pills.

14 Reasons Why The Economic Collapse Of Japan Has Begun -

The economic collapse of Japan has begun. The extent of the devastation is now becoming clear and many are now projecting that this will be the most expensive natural disaster in modern human history. The tsunami that struck Japan on March 11th swept up to 6 miles inland, destroying virtually everything in the way. Countless thousands were killed and entire communities were totally wiped out. So how does a nation that is already drowning in debt replace dozens of cities and towns that have suddenly been destroyed? Many in the mainstream media are claiming that the economy of Japan will bounce right back from this, but they are wrong. The tsunami decimated thousands of square miles. The loss of homes, cars, businesses and personal wealth is almost unimaginable. It is going to take many years to rebuild the roads, bridges, rail systems, ports, power lines and water systems that were lost. There are going to be a significant number of Japanese insurance companies and financial institutions that are going to be totally wiped out as a result of this great tragedy. Of course in the days ahead the Japanese people will band together and work hard to rebuild the nation, but the truth is that it is impossible to "bounce right back" from such a massive loss of wealth, assets and infrastructure.

Just think about what happened after Hurricane Katrina. Did the economy of New Orleans bounce right back? No, there are some areas of New Orleans today that still look like war zones.

Well, this disaster is much worse.

The truth is that this is going to be one of the defining moments in the history of Japan. Hundreds of miles along the coast of Japan have been absolutely devastated. Authorities are finding it difficult to even get food and water into some areas at this point.

Even before this great tragedy Japan was one of the nations that was on the verge of a national economic collapse. Their economy had been in the doldrums for over a decade and their national debt was well over 200 percent of GDP. Now the Japanese economy has experienced a shock from which it may never truly recover.

The Bank of Japan is already flooding the Japanese economy with new yen, and so we may indeed see some impressive "economic growth" statistics at the end of the year. But just because lots more yen are being passed around does not mean that the Japanese economy is in better shape.

The truth is that a tsunami of yen is not going to undo the damage that the tsunami of water did. A massive amount of Japanese wealth was wiped out by this disaster. An economy that was already teetering on the brink is now very likely going to plunge into oblivion.

It is fine to be optimistic, but the cold, hard reality of the situation is that this is a knockout blow for the Japanese economy. The extent of the devastation is just too great. This truly is a complete and total nightmare.

The following are 14 reasons why the economic collapse of Japan has now begun....

#1 The Bank of Japan has announced that they have decided to flood the Japanese economy with 15 trillion yen. That is the equivalent of roughly $183 billion dollars. This is going to provide needed liquidity in the short-term, but it is also going to set Japan on a highly inflationary course.

#2 Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average declined by more than 6 percent on Monday. As the full extent of the damage becomes apparent more declines are likely.

#3 Oil refineries all over Japan have been severely damaged or destroyed. For example, six refineries that combine to process 31 percent of the oil for Japan have been totally shut down at least for now.

#4 The damage to roads, bridges, ports and rail systems is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. The damage done to power lines and water systems is almost unimaginable. It is going to take many years to rebuild the infrastructure of Japan.

#5 Right now the flow of goods and services in many areas of northern Japan has been reduced to a crawl, and this is likely to remain the case for quite some time.

#6 Many cities and towns along the east coast of Japan have essentially been completely destroyed.

#7 Japan's nuclear industry is essentially dead in the water at this point. Even if there is not a full-blown nuclear meltdown, the events that have transpired already have frightened people enough to cause a massive public outcry against nuclear power in Japan.

#8 Japan is going to need even more oil and natural gas in the long run to replace lost nuclear energy production. Prior to this crisis, Japan derived 29 percent of its electricity from nuclear power.

#9 Japan is the second largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, but that is about to change. Japan currently has about $882 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds and they are going to have to liquidate much of that in order to fund the rebuilding of their nation.

#10 Many factories in Japan are closing down at least temporarily. For example, Nissan has shut down four factories and Sony has shut down six factories.

#11 Toyota has shut down all production at its factories in Japan until at least March 16th.

#12 A substantial number of Japanese financial institutions and insurance companies are absolutely going to be devastated by this nightmare.

#13 Japan's budget deficit was already 9 percent of GDP even before this tragedy. Now they are going to have to borrow lots more money to fund the rebuilding effort.

#14 Japan's national debt was already well over 200 percent of GDP even before this tragedy. How much farther into the danger zone can they possibly go?

Sadly, as the economy of Japan goes down it is going to have a huge affect on the rest of the world as well. For example, Japan is no longer going to be able to buy up huge amounts of U.S. Treasuries. So who is going to pick up the slack? Will our government officials beg China to lend us even more money? Will the Federal Reserve just "buy" even more of our government debt?

Right now there are more questions than there are answers, but what is clear is that the Japanese economy has just been dealt an incapacitating blow. Hopefully this tragedy will bring out the best in the Japanese people, but no matter how resilient they are, the truth is that this is something that no nation would be able to bounce back from quickly.

Let us hope that the economic damage from this tragedy will be contained and will not spread to the rest of the world. The global economy is already in enough trouble, and hopefully this tragedy will not cause a cascade of economic failures to sweep the globe.

U.S. Drug Stores Report Sudden Increase in Potassium Iodide Sales -

One drug supplier says it has sold a quarter million anti-radiation pills to people in the U.S. concerned about possible exposure from Japanese nuclear reactors.
Troy Jones, president of Nukepills.com, said his company sold out over the weekend of potassium iodide pills, which prevent against radiation poisoning of the thyroid gland. Jones said in an interview with FoxNews.com that the pills were sold to dozens of U.S. pharmacies, corporations, hospitals and nuclear labs.
"You name it," he said.
Jones said that he has back ordered over a million tablets is and expected to get another 10,000 of the liquid potassium iodine. He also said that he's donated about 50,000 pills to Japan, many of them going to a hospital in Tokyo.
Despite assurances from health officials that Americans are not at risk from Japanese nuclear reactors, U.S. drug stores are reporting a sudden increase in sales of the over-the-counter anti-radiation pills.

Potassium iodide pills are reportedly flying off the shelves at drug stores in at least three West Coast states -- Oregon, California and Hawaii -- according to several local press accounts.
The Wall Street Journal also reports that one Virginia-based supplier, Anbex Inc., sold out of its entire supply of 10,000 14-tablet packages on Saturday.
Alan Morris, president of the company, reportedly said that the supplier is receiving about three orders a minute for $10 packages of its Iosat pills.
"Those who don't get it are crying. They're terrified," Morris told the newspaper.
U.S. health officials have said that dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant in Japan pose little or no risk to people on the U.S. West Coast. But the reassurances have not stopped worried Americans from clearing out potassium iodide supplies at drug stores in Hawaii, Oregon, and California.
Stores in Eugene, Ore., for example, have reported a sudden spike in sales of the pill. Janell Davis, vitamin manager at Sundance Natural Foods, told the Register-Guard that the store was sold out of the tablets by Saturday afternoon. In Redding, Calif., some store owners say they can't stock their shelves fast enough with the tablets.
“As soon as we found out people were calling and coming in and emptying our shelves this morning, I called my boss and she told me to go ahead and order a bunch," Jan Gertner, who works at Whitney's Vitamin and Herb Shop, told krcrtv.com.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/15/drug-stores-report-sudden-increase-potassium-iodide-sales/#ixzz1Ggw0NXG3

More Than 10,000 Pounds of Lean Cuisine Recalled - spaghetti with meatballs may contain foreign materials -

Nestle Prepared Foods Company is recalling over 10,000 pounds of Lean Cuisine Simple Favorites, spaghetti with meatballs because they may contain foreign materials.

There have been complaints of hard, plastic in the product from consumers in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. No injuries have been reported.

The frozen dinners were sold at stores east of the Rocky Mountains.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/03/15/10000-pounds-lean-cuisine-recalled/#ixzz1GgBVq7UC

Monday, 14 March 2011

Gamma Radiation In Fukushima-Downwind Ibaraki Disclosed, 30 Times Above Normal -

For all who have been looking for realtime radiation data from Japan, you are in luck. Or maybe not, as the data unfortunately indicates nothing good. The System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI) releases gamma radiation data online. The site is jittery and apparently not suited for major traffic which is why we represent several screen captures of the data. While it is not surprising that according to the website both Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are entirely "Under Survey" as it makes sense that the government does not want to generate panic, SPEEDI has disclosed some tell-tale data about cities in Ibaraki prefecture, which is just a hundred or so miles north of Tokyo, and is just south of the ill-fated Fukushima prefecture. And the data is stunning: based on a N, NE and NNE wind direction (where it originates), meaning all coming from Fukushima, with a normal reading in the 80 nGy/h range, the city of Kounosu Naka is at 3,024, Kadobe Naka is at 2,416, Isobe Hitachioota is at 1,213 and many others are in the mid to upper triple digit range! Again, this is based on wind coming out of Fukushima and ultimately headed toward the capital. Indicatively, normal terrestrial plus cosmic gamma radiation is about 80 nGy/h.

Below we present screencaptures as of moments ago, as apparently the Japanese government seems to believe that abnormal gamma radiation levels are perfectly notmal:

A map of all prefectures, showing maximum gamma radation readings. Note Ibaraki at 3,024 nGy/h, and Kanagawa right below it (and downwind) at 224 nGy/h compared to low double digts for all other prefecture.

Not surprisingly, Fukushima is completely N/A, as every single reading is Under Survey, also known as censored.

But the stunner is Ibaraki. We will let this one speak for itself:

As a reference, based on background radiation measurements in the lower atmosphere at different altitudes above sea level up to 1100 m and over the land were made at a temperate latitude (40°) in the Thessaloniki region, North Greece, before and after the Chernobyl accident (26 April 1986), using a portable γ-ray scintillation detector and a Cutie-pie survey meter with an ionization chamber, the average value of the total background radiation at ground level was 87 nGy h^-1 (10.0 μR h^-1, 25 cps), i.e. 60% from terrestrial radiation, 55 nGy h^-1 (6.3 μR h^-1, 15 cps) and 40% from cosmic radiation, 32 nGy h^-1 (3.7 μR h^-1, 10 cps), before the Chernobyl accident, while, after it, the total background radiation was doubled, due to the long-lived radioactive fallout suspended in the atmosphere and or deposited onto the ground.

Russia Hikes Price of Rocket Rides for U.S. Astronauts to $63 Million -

NASA, already committed to paying Russia millions of dollars to hitch rides into space, had some expensive news to announce Monday: Russia plan to start charging even more.
With the United States phasing out the shuttle program, the new way for U.S. astronauts to get to the International Space Station will be to catch a ride with the Russians, and NASA's existing contract for that transport priced each rocket ride at just under $56 million.
Now, Russia is hiking the price for each rocket ride to nearly $63 million in 2014. The contract extension with the Russian Space Agency totals $753 million, which covers trips for a dozen astronauts from 2014 through 2016.
Why such a price hike? NASA officials chalk it up to inflation.
NASA chief Charles Bolden says it's critical for U.S. companies to take over this transportation job. The space shuttles used to do that job are being retired this summer.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/14/russia-hikes-price-rocket-rides-astronauts-63-million/#ixzz1GccNod2x

Company to freeze dead people in liquid nitrogen then shatter them into dust - Terminator-style nitrogen shattering -

A Swedish company wants to make burials more eco-friendly, and they're doing it by freezing dead people in liquid nitrogen, shattering them into dust with focused sound waves, and then sucking all the leftover moisture out with a vacuum.

Traditional funerals are apparently pretty bad for the environment. Embalming fluid is toxic stuff. Coffins are often made of metal, which doesn't biodegrade, or wood finished with nasty chemicals. Tons of concrete are often poured into the ground to create a stable vault and protect against zombies. And even the cremation route uses scads of energy and releases mercury into the atmosphere.

A Swedish company called Promessa has come up with a crazy new way of handling the remains of the deceased, and it's straight out of science fiction. First, a body is chilled down to 18 degrees Celsius. Then it's entirely submerged in liquid nitrogen, which freezes it solid, and makes it brittle enough that it can be shattered and pulverized into dust using high power sound waves. Next, the dust (which is still about the same mass as the body was) is exposed to a vacuum which boils off all the moisture contained in the dust, reducing its mass by 70% or so. Lastly, all of the inorganic stuff that may be left over is removed with an electromagnet, and the dust is placed in a coffin made of corn starch, all ready for a shallow burial that'll turn everything into compost within a year.

Of course, this whole process is fairly complicated and certainly takes some amount of energy to perform on its own, but at the very least the end product is a bit better for the planet than some more traditional methods. Plus, unlike burial or cremation, it's also guaranteed to destroy killer robots.

Read more - http://dvice.com/archives/2011/03/the-latest-in-e.php

Aflac fired the voice of its duck, Gilbert Gottfried, after comedian made insensitive remarks about the disaster in Japan -

Aflac fired the voice of its iconic duck, Gilbert Gottfried, after the comedian made insensitive remarks about the disaster in Japan.

The decision by the insurer on Monday came after the actor, long known for making inappropriate comments, posted messages onTwitter that made light of the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

“Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac,” Michael Zuna, the company’s chief marketing officer said in a statement. “Aflac Japan – and, by extension, Japan itself – is part of the Aflac family, and there is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times.”

Several of the tweets were sexual in nature, a common theme on Mr. Gottfried’s Twitter feed. The actor has previously used his account on the social media blogging site to post jokes, sometimes in questionable taste. The messages related to Japan have since been removed from Mr. Gottfried’s Twitter feed.

Mr. Gottfried is not new to controversy. Three weeks after 9/11 attacks, he made light of the tragedy at a Friars Club roast for Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. The comments prompted boos from the audience, one of whom said it was “too soon,” according to a New York Observer article at the time.

Aflacc is now conducting a nationwide search for a new actor to play its beloved duck. The company — which noted that Mr. Gottfried is not the voice of the duck in Japan — last week announced that it was donating 100 million yen to the International Red Cross for disaster assistance.