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Researchers find superbug gene in New Delhi water
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
LONDON – A gene that can turn many types of bacteria into deadly superbugs was found in about a quarter of water samples taken from drinking supplies and puddles on the streets of New Delhi, according to a new study.
Experts say it’s the latest proof that the new drug-resistance gene, known as NDM-1, named for New Delhi, is widely circulating in the environment — and could potentially spread to the rest of the world.
Bacteria armed with this gene can only be treated with a couple of highly toxic and expensive antibiotics. Since it was first identified in 2008, it has popped up in a number of countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and Sweden.
Most of those infections were in people who had recently traveled to or had medical Read more…
MAJOR EARTHQUAKE HITS JAPAN, BLACKOUTS IN SENDAI AND FUKUSHIMA
Could there be a connection with the Solar Storm from yesterday? Definitely.
A major earthquake between 7.1 and 7.4 magnitude hit northeastern Japan at 11:32 Tokyo time. It was focused 60 kilometers below the seabed off Miyagi Prefecture, which also got slammed last time.
The quake has caused scattered gas leaks and fires. A few dozen injuries have been reported.
U.S. markets turned down on the news and Nikkei futures have plunged.
Tsunami warnings were issued, but then lifted an hour after the quake.
Power is out around Sendai and in parts of Fukushima and Yamagata. Even as two of the three local plants are blacked out, however, cooling activities will continue at Fukushima nuclear plant. No new damage is reported at the Fukushima nuclear plant or others. Workers at the Fukushima plant were briefly evacuated.
NHK reports Rokkasho plutonium reprocessing plant has lost off site power and is on emergency backup.
Bullet trains have started running again less than an hour after the quake. All highways are shut in Miyagi, local police tell Kyodo.
12:16 ET: Japanese officials say there is still a high risk of mud slides and collapsing buildings.
Here’s a video of the tremor in Sendai: What could that strange blue light be??? Read more…
CBO: Deficit on the rise
The federal government’s deficit continues to grow, according to the latest numbers from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The government is expected to run a deficit of $830 billion in the first six months of fiscal 2011, a $113 billion increase from the same period last year, the CBO reported Thursday.
The latest numbers could serve as fresh ammunition for Congressional Republicans caught in a fight over government spending with their Democratic counterparts. Lawmakers are currently haggling over both a short-term spending package to avert a government shutdown and a longer-term budget proposal for fiscal 2012. And indications the deficit is still on the rise could bolster arguments to make major spending cuts.
The CBO reported that both government spending and revenue collection were up in 2011 when compared to 2010, by 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
In March alone, the federal deficit stood at $189 billion, which is $124 billion more than the same month last year.
The organization’s data shows government spending rising in nearly every major category. Spending on defense, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were up in preliminary fiscal 2011 numbers when compared to 2010, as CBO estimated government outlays were up $179 billion in the first six months of fiscal 2011. Spending dropped 22 percent on unemployment benefits over that same period.
Government revenues were also slightly up over that time frame, growing 6.9 percent or $66 billion. However, receipts in March were down about $3 billion when compared to March 2010, driven by declines in individual income as well as payroll, estate and gift taxes.
The CBO noted that vital information about the government’s fiscal picture will be coming in the next several weeks, as individual income tax returns are filed for 2010 and estimated payments of income taxes will be made by corporations and individuals for the first quarter of 2011.
Earthquake shakes wide area of southern Mexico
Could there be a connection with the Solar Storm from yesterday? Definitely.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A magnitude-6.5 earthquake shook a wide area of southern and central Mexico on Thursday, sending people fleeing into the streets, but causing only minor reported damage.
The epicenter was located near Las Choapas, a town of about 83,000 residents about 370 miles (600 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City. It swayed buildings for several seconds in the capital, and in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, people ran from their homes and school children assembled on playgrounds.
Near the epicenter, cracks in walls forced the evacuation of one elementary school, said Bernabe Hernandez Perez, head of civil protection in Las Choapas.
Gov. Javier Duarte de Ochoa said earlier that he had no reports of damage in the oil-producing state.
“Veracruz is completely quiet without problems,” he told state television. “It was felt all over the state, but nothing major happened. It was only a scare.”
The temblor also was felt strongly in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, where there also were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, as well as the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
The U.S. Geological survey said the quake hit at a depth of 104 miles (167 kilometers).
Lindsey Williams: Arab Monarchies To Be Overthrown (Video
The Federal Reserve Must Implement QE3
Gold prices surged today to a new all time high of $1,463.70 per ounce, while silver prices soared to a new 31-year high of $39.785 per ounce. Silver is now up 129% since NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade on December 11th, 2009, at $17.40 per ounce. The gold/silver ratio is now down to 37, compared to a gold/silver ratio of 66 when NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade. This means that not only is silver up 129% in terms of dollars since December 11th, 2009, but silver has also increased in purchasing power by 1.78X in terms of gold.
Gold is the world’s most stable asset and the best gauge of inflation. This brand new breakout in the price of gold leads us to believe that the Federal Reserve is getting ready to unleash QE3 at the end of June. The Fed will surely not call it QE3, but NIA can pretty much guarantee that the Fed will continue on with their purchases of U.S. treasuries. If the Fed pauses after QE2, it will mean that treasury bond yields will need to surge to a level where they attract enough private sector and foreign central bank Read more…
Researcher cites ancient Minoan-era ‘computer’
(ANA-MPA) — The Minoan civilisation on pre-Classical Crete discovered the first rudimentary analog computer in mankind’s history, according to researcher Minas Tsikritsis, an academic who specialises in ancient Aegean writing systems.
Tsikritsis, who also hails from Crete — where the Bronze Age Minoan civilization flourished from approximately 2700 BC to 1500 century BC — maintains that the Minoan Age object discovered in 1898 in Paleokastro site, in the Sitia district of western Crete, preceded the heralded “Antikythera Mechanism“ by 1,400 years, and was the first analog and “portable computer“ in history.
“While searching in the Archaeological Museum of Iraklion for Minoan Age findings with astronomical images on them we came across a stone-made matrix unearthed in the region of Paleokastro, Sitia. In the past, archaeologists had expressed the view that the carved symbols on its surface are related with the Sun and the Moon,” Tsikritsis said.
The Cretan researcher and university professor told ANA-MPA that after the relief image of a spoked disc on the right side of the matrix was analysed it was established that it served as a cast to build a mechanism that functioned as an analog computer to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. The mechanism was also used as sundial and as an instrument calculating the geographical latitude. (ANA-MPA)
The Deadly Effect of Fiat Currency
Many of the world’s woes can be attributed to our global fiat currency system—price inflation, food shortages, political instability, and speculative booms and busts. But perhaps the most devastating and horrible of the consequences of our fiat currency system is the terrible and unceasing prevalence of war. Today, we wince as we watch the U.S. enter into a third current foreign conflict, under the guise of a multi-national, humanitarian Libyan intervention. Yet, with the amount of excess currency flooding the global economy and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s seemingly limitless willingness to create more, history tells us it is practically inevitable that the result would be more war.
It is no coincidence that, even in ancient societies, the invention of fiat currency—currency Read more…
In Case of Govt Shutdown, IRS Would be Closed but not Federal Reserve or POMO
In order to make the biggest strawman so far in 2011 really scary and nasty, the administration just announced that as part of a government shut down, the IRS would end up being closed. While according to some this is the ulterior motive all along to avoid the premature outflow of tens of billions in cash due to federal tax refunds hitting the IRS next week, which without a debt ceiling hike would push the country into technical default possibly as soon as next week (debt subject to the limit was $14.2 trillion two days ago, just $94 billion under the ceiling and with about $74 billion in debt to be issued next week a $20 billion tax refund withdrawal would push the Treasury over the limit), what is far more amusing is that as the WSJ reminds us, the Fed would still be able to monetize debt regardless if the government was operating or not. Ergo nothing can end POMO ahead of Read more…
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