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Archive for June, 2011

Pakistan tells US to leave `drone attack base`

June 30, 2011 Comments off

paktribune

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan on Wednesday told the United States to leave a remote desert air base reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone attacks.

“We have told them (US officials) to leave the Shamsi Airbase,” Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said while talking to journalists here. His remarks are the latest indication of Pakistan attempting to limit US activities since a clandestine American military raid killed Osama bin Laden.

The minister reiterated that the trust deficit between Pakistan and the United States has increased after the Read more…

Categories: Pakistan, United States Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Britain in list of countries ‘most at risk’ if an asteroid strikes

June 30, 2011 Comments off

telegraph

Britain has been identified among a host of countries scientists believe would be worst affected in the event of an asteroid strike.
Scientists have named Britain among a list of countries most at risk from an asteroid strike

Scientists have named Britain among a list of countries most at risk from an asteroid strike Photo: AP / NASA

Experts at Southampton University have drawn up a league table of countries most likely to suffer severe loss of life or catastrophic damage should a large asteroid hit Earth.

The list is largely made up of developed nations including China, Japan, the United States and Italy, on the basis that the size of their populations would mean millions of deaths.

The US, China, Indonesia, India and Japan are most in danger on this basis. Canada, the US, China, Japan and Sweden are rated most at risk in terms of potential damage to their infrastructure.

The report comes after a rock the size of a house came within 7,500 miles of Earth earlier this Read more…

Categories: astronomy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Long Island Officials Warn Of Rapidly Spreading Whooping Cough Virus

June 30, 2011 1 comment

cbslocal

Whooping cough vaccine

A bottle of the pertussis vaccine against whooping cough and a syringe are show in a pharmacy in Pasadena, Calif. on Sept. 17, 2010. (Photo credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

SMITHTOWN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A cluster of whooping cough is growing on Long Island, with dozens of people infected by the virus.

As CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez reports, a warning was sent out as children begin to head to summer camp – a certain breeding ground for the illness.

Parents in Smithtown are on high alert, as the highly contagious whooping cough is spreading through their community.

“It’s one of those diseases you don’t think you’ll ever hear about again,” parent Rick Vollkommer said.

Donna Wilson said she’s not taking any chances with her daughter, Kayla.

“She has been coughing a little bit here and there, so I’m Read more…

Categories: disease and pestilence, New York Tags: , , , ,

Rich Dad Advisors Discuss Food Storage for the coming 2012 Depression

June 30, 2011 Comments off
Categories: Coming Events Tags: , , ,

Riyadh will build nuclear weapons if Iran gets them, Saudi prince warns

June 30, 2011 1 comment

guardian

Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi ambassador

Prince Turki al-Faisal: he said that if Iran came close to developing nuclear weapons Riyadh would not stand idly by. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AFP/Getty Images

A senior Saudi Arabian diplomat and member of the ruling royal family has raised the spectre of nuclear conflict in the Middle East if Iran comes close to developing a nuclear weapon.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, warned senior Nato military officials that the existence of such a device “would compel Saudi Arabia … to pursue policies which could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences”.

He did not state explicitly what these policies would be, but a senior official in Riyadh who is close to the prince said yesterday his message was clear.

“We cannot live in a situation where Iran has nuclear weapons and we don’t. It’s as simple as Read more…

Categories: Iran, Saudi Arabia, WMD Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Scientists discover brightest, earliest quasar

June 30, 2011 Comments off

ap

Since quasars are so luminous, they guide astronomers studying the conditions of the cosmos following the Big Bang, the explosion believed to have created the universe 13.7 billion years ago. Researchers are constantly trying to outdo one another in their quest to see the universe as an infant. The deeper they peer into space, the further back in time they are looking. The previous record holder was a quasar that dated to when the universe was 870 million years old. The new quasar - with the tongue-twisting name ULAS J1120+0641 - was identified in images from a sky survey taken by the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope perched near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The discovery was confirmed by other telescopes. "It's like sifting for gold. You're looking for something shiny," said lead researcher Daniel Mortlock, an astrophysicist at Imperial College in London. In an editorial accompanying the research, Chris Willott of the Canadian Astronomy Data Center called the quasar a "monster" that could upend current theories about the growth of black holes. "The existence of this quasar will be giving some theorists sleepless nights," said Willott, who was not part of the discovery team.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A team of European astronomers, glimpsing back in time to when the universe was just a youngster, says it has detected the most distant and earliest quasar yet.

Light from this brilliant, starlike object took nearly 13 billion years to reach Earth, meaning the quasar existed when the universe was only 770 million years old – a kid by cosmic standards. The discovery ranks as the brightest object ever found.

To scientists’ surprise, the black hole powering this quasar was 2 billion times more massive than the sun. How it grew so bulky so early in the universe’s history is a mystery. Black holes are known to feed on stars, gas and other matter, but their growth was always thought to be slow.

The discovery was reported in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

Since quasars are so luminous, they guide astronomers studying the conditions of Read more…

Categories: astronomy Tags: , , , , , , ,

Dead Penguins Washing Ashore With Disturbing Regularity

June 30, 2011 Comments off

treehugger

penguin dead on beach photo Photo: elisfanclub / cc

Last week, several dozen dead and dying Magellanic penguins were discovered on beaches throughout south Brazil, apparent victims of an oil spill. So far more than 140 penguins have been transfered to animal care facilities to be cleaned and rehabilitated, while an untold number more have already perished from contaminated waters. If this fact alone weren’t cause enough for concern, what’s more troubling is that it’s hardly an isolated incident. For the last ten years, with disturbing regularity, penguins have been washing ashore starving or covered in oil. And while the origins of these annual mass deaths remain officially a mystery — one biologists believes Read more…

Categories: Animal deaths Tags: , , , , , , ,

Giant statue of Jesus Christ opened in Peru

June 30, 2011 Comments off

 

Giant statue of Jesus Christ opened in Peru

The statue, which was built in Brazil and shipped to Lima, is 37 metres (122ft) tall when its 15 metre (49ft) pedestal is taken into account Photo: AFP/GETTY

President Alan Garcia formally opened the monument, known as Cristo del Pacifico or Christ of the Pacific, on a hill in the capital Lima.

He personally helped fund the cost of the statue to the tune of around 100,000 Peruvian soles (£22,000) and has said it will “bless and protect Lima”.

But he has faced strong criticism from several quarters, with many seeing it as a vanity project he chose to pursue before leaving office at the end of July.

Susana Villaran, the Mayor of Lima, condemned the lack of consultation over Read more…

Categories: Peru Tags: , , , , ,

Wildfire creeps closer to N.M. nuclear weapons laboratory

June 30, 2011 1 comment

freep

A helicopter flies over the Los Alamos Laboratory on Wednesday as smoke rises from the Las Conchas fire in Los Alamos, N.M. Scientists are sampling the air, looking for chemicals and radiological materials.

 A helicopter flies over the Los Alamos Laboratory on Wednesday as smoke rises from the Las Conchas fire in Los Alamos, N.M. Scientists are sampling the air, looking for chemicals and radiological materials. / JAE C. HONG/Associated Press

 

BY P. SOLOMON BANDA AND SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — The U.S. government sent a plane equipped with radiation monitors over the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory Wednesday as a 110-square-mile wildfire burned at its doorstep, putting thousands of scientific experiments on hold for days.

Lab authorities described the monitoring as a precaution, and they, along with outside experts on nuclear engineering, expressed confidence that the blaze would Read more…

Categories: Fires, New Mexico Tags: , , , , , ,

Buy silver if price drops: Jim Rogers

June 29, 2011 Comments off

commodityonline

Global commodities guru Jim Rogers says that Silver remains the hottest commodity these days. Despite the current downtrend in commodities in the recent weeks, the bull market in the sector is still intact, Rogers said.

In an interview to IndexUniverse.com, Rogers who is regarded as the most authentic voice on commodities investing in the world said that the downtrend in commodities is nothing unusual.

“This is the way the world works. If you look at oil, for instance, it has gone down over 50% three or four different times since 1998. That’s what markets do, and they will Read more…

Categories: Silver Tags: , , ,