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Japan Quake Shifts Earth Axis: Though Slight, Days Will Be Shortened In Centuries
The Montreal Gazette
By Carmen Chai, Postmedia News
Initial results out of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology show that the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rattled Japan Friday shifted the earth’s rotation axis by about 25 centimetres.
INGV’s report, which came hours after the devastating incident, is equivalent to “very, very tiny” changes that won’t be seen for centuries, though, Canadian geologists say.
Only after centuries would a second be lost as each day is shortened by a millionth of a second, according to University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall.
“Ten inches sounds like Read more…
Magnetic north shifting towards Russia
Scientists say that magnetic north, which for two centuries has been in the icy wilderness of Canada, is currently relocating towards Russia at a rate of about 40 miles a year, reported The Independent.
The speed of its movement has increased by Read more…
North Korean Nukes Might Fit on Missiles, Aircraft: U.S.
(Mar. 11) – U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper, left, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess attend a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. Burgess warned North Korea might now possess nuclear weapons suitable for delivery by missiles and bomber aircraft (Mark Wilson/Getty Images).
North Korea could now possess nuclear warheads compact enough to be fitted to missiles and carried by bomber planes, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess said on Thursday (see GSN, March 10).
(Mar. 11) – U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper, left, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess attend a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. Burgess warned North Korea might now possess nuclear weapons suitable for delivery by missiles and bomber aircraft (Mark Wilson/Getty Images).
“The North may now have several plutonium-based nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles and aircraft as well as by Read more…
The Sprotts Expect Silver to Keep on Sizzling
Sprott Money executives Eric Sprott (chairman) and Larisa Sprott (president), sing the praises of the “poor man’s gold” in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report. “All the data supports the thesis that silver is undervalued,” says Eric—who serves as chairman of Sprott Inc., as well as CEO, CIO and senior portfolio manager of Sprott Asset Management LP. “We’ll certainly see a three-digit price,” he adds. Larisa explains how the company’s business model differs from others in the space and reveals plans to open Sprott Money USA within the year.
The Gold Report: Your Markets at a Glance commentary last November said it seemed unlikely that silver would stay under $30 for long. Four months later, the spot price is about $35. Are you surprised by how quickly your prediction came true?
Eric Sprott: Read more…
Russia warns the West against interference: Medvedev suggests that revolts in the Arab world were instigated by outside forces
Moscow is concerned that the turmoil in the Arab world aggravated by western interference may destabilise Russia’s restive North Caucasus and former Soviet Central Asia
-Although Russian leaders have not named any country, experts and politicians have pointed a finger at the United States.
“The Arab revolt may have begun as spontaneous protests, but the West has now moved to take the endgame under its control,” says Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma. Analysts say the U.S. is using the same techniques in the Arab East it earlier used in staging “coloured revolutions” in the former Soviet Union — in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. They noted the role of CIA-linked foundations such as the Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in supporting and training civil activists and Twitter and Facebook organisers of the protests in Egypt and Tunisia.
“The events [in the Arab world] bear all the traits of a total ‘network war’ (netwar) as formulated by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt of the RAND Corporation back in 1996,” says Alexander Knyazev of the Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Read more…
Floodwaters are still rising in Wayne, other N.J. towns
WAYNE — Floodwaters continued to rise in Fairfield, Little Falls and Wayne today, submerging entire neighborhoods under water and leaving some with no other option but to travel by boat to reach their homes.
“It sucks, but you have to live with it. What can you do?” said Wieslaw Borek, as he Read more…
Twitter must give user info in WikiLeaks probe
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal magistrate ruled Friday that prosecutors can demand Twitter account information of certain users in their criminal probe into the disclosure of classified documents on WikiLeaks.
The prosecutors’ reasons for seeking the records remain secret and it’s unknown how important they are to the investigation of the largest leak ever of classified American documents.
The Twitter users argued that the government was on a fishing expedition that amounted to an unconstitutional violation of their freedoms of speech and association.
But in a ruling issued Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan said the government’s request was reasonable and did nothing to hamper the Twitter users’ free speech Read more…
Japan may have hours to prevent nuclear meltdown
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Japanese officials may only have hours to cool reactors that have been disabled by Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami or face a nuclear meltdown.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T) is racing to cool down the reactor core after a highly unusual “station blackout” — the total loss of power necessary to keep water circulating through the plant to prevent overheating.
Daiichi Units 1, 2 and 3 reactors shut down automatically at 2:46 p.m. local time due to the earthquake. But about an hour later, the on-site diesel back-up generators also shut, leaving the reactors without Read more…
Google to run US Commerce Department?
Rumor has it US President Barack Obama may name Google CEO Eric Schmidt as the next US Secretary of Commerce.
According to sources close to the matter, who expressed the search is still preliminary; the US president is considering both Schmidt and Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler.
Obama has actively considered non academic and political elites to fill roles in his administration, including past executives from JPMorgan Chase and Read more…
Richard Lehmann: China May Corner Gold Market
China has likely begun a campaign to convert its dollars to gold that could end up with the nation cornering the gold market, says Richard Lehmann, editor of the Forbes/Lehmann Income Security Investor newsletter.
China is alarmed about potential weakness for the dollar, he says in an interview with Steve Forbes.
So “I’m concerned that basically China is probably already on a program to diversify the dollar into gold. I don’t think they want any other fiat currencies or want to minimize that amount.”
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| Gold bars |
If China buys enough gold, at some point it can simply dictate the price, Lehmann says. And it has the means to do so, given that Chinese currency reserves total almost $3 trillion, and the world’s gold supply is now worth about $5 trillion, he says.
So China could “in one stroke, basically take control of the gold market and tie the dollar to gold so that effectively, if every six months the dollar deteriorates 5 percent, they can just upgrade the stated price at which they wanted to buy gold and thereby upgrade and up-value their gold reserves, but also keep the dollar in check.”
With plenty of other investors buying gold too, many experts expect it to continue rising. Richard Russell, author of the Dow Theory newsletter, says in a commentary obtained by King World News that the precious metal may reach $6,000 an ounce.
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