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Archive for July, 2011

Mount Etna Volcano Erupts

July 20, 2011 1 comment

irishweatheronline

Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy, erupted on Tuesday night resulting in the closure of the island’s main airport at Catania.

This is the sixth time that Mount Etna, which is popular among tourists, has erupted in 2011.

The last eruption occurred on Saturday. Italian officials had since said the 11,000-foot-tall volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, had calmed down after a week of activity.

Residents in surrounding areas had been warned however, that the Sicilian volcano might have fallen back into a short-lived slumber and Read more…

Categories: volcano Tags: ,

Iran’s acceleration of its nuclear programme angers the west

July 20, 2011 Comments off

guardian

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inspecting the Natanz nuclear plant

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, inspects the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran. Photograph: Iran’s Presidency Office Handout/EPA

Western capitals have reacted angrily to an announcement by Iran that it is installing more advanced centrifuges in a uranium enrichment plant with the aim of accelerating its nuclear programme.

“The installation of new centrifuges with better quality and speed is ongoing,” Ramin Mehmanparast, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters at his weekly press briefing.

“We have announced it and the agency [the International Atomic Energy Agency] has full supervision of them. They are fully aware that Iran’s peaceful nuclear activity continues to progress. This is another Read more…

Categories: Iran, nuclear technology Tags: , , ,

NSA Is Building An Artificial Intelligence System That Can Read Minds

July 20, 2011 Comments off

businessinsider

The NSA is working on a computer system that can predict what people are thinking.

“Think of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the most memorable character, HAL 9000, having a conversation with David. We are essentially building this system. We are building HAL. The system can answer the question, ‘What does X think about Y?'”

These are the words of an unnamed researcher who discussed an amazing artificial intelligence system she was building at the NSA.

It sounds like something right out of science fiction — a system that can literally read thoughts like a magician.

It’s called “Aquaint” (Advanced QUestion Answering for INTelligence), and PBS’s James Bamford takes a stab at explaining how it works:

“As more and more data is collected — through phone calls, credit card receipts, Read more…

Categories: Coming Events, NSA, Technology Tags: , ,

Strong earthquake hits Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan border area

July 20, 2011 Comments off

channel6newsonline

 10-degree map showing recent earthquakes

BISHKEK (BNO NEWS) — A strong earthquake struck the southwestern Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan border area on early Wednesday morning, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The 6.2-magnitude earthquake at 1.35 a.m. local time (1935 GMT Tuesday) was centered about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) east of Okhna, a village in the Batken Province of Kyrgyzstan near the border with Uzbekistan. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the Kazakhstan National Data Center (KNDC).

The United States Geological Survey (USGS), which measured the strength of the Read more…

Categories: Earthquake, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan Tags: , ,

Biometrics for Indian cabs

July 20, 2011 Comments off

homelandsecuritynewswire

Officials at India’s New Delhi International Airport will soon begin using biometrics to monitor taxi drivers; the move comes after a Saudi businessman was abducted and murdered by two cab drivers in 2008

Officials at India’s New Delhi International Airport will soon begin using biometrics to monitor taxi drivers. The drivers of prepaid taxis will soon have their biometric data recorded on to cards that will be scanned every time they leave the airport with a passenger.

The move comes after a Saudi businessman was abducted and murdered by two cab drivers in 2008. Prior to that, an Australian Read more…

Categories: Biometrics, India Tags: ,

OPEC: Venezuela Has Largest Oil Reserves, Surpassing Saudi Arabia

July 20, 2011 Comments off

 

Venezuela’s crude oil proven reserves exceeded those of Saudi Arabia last year according to OPEC’s annual statistical report. In 2009, OPEC listed Saudi as having the highest reserves at 264.59 billion barrels or 25.9% of OPEC’s overall reserves and Venezuela at 211.17 billion barrels or 19.8% of OPEC reserves.

According to OPEC’s latest annual report, Venezuela’s proven crude oil reserves reached 296.5 billion barrels in 2010, up 40.4% on the year and higher than Saudi Arabia’s 264.5 billion barrels.

The data confirms statements by Venezuela’s national oil company (PDVSA) which reported it had this level of reserves as early as January of this year. Venezuela began certifying its oil reserves in the Orinoco belt in 2007 and since then the corporate media accused PDVSA of Read more…

Categories: Venezuela Tags: , , , , , ,

Court Papers Suggest Pakistani Interest in Thermonuclear Weapon

July 19, 2011 Comments off

globalsecuritynewswire

The United States in federal court documents offered its first open suggestion that nuclear-armed Pakistan could be seeking to build a thermonuclear weapon, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported on Sunday (see GSN, July 7).

The Justice Department has charged a Chinese woman living in the United States with illegally exporting high-tech paint coatings that could aid Pakistan’s nuclear weapons development. As the ex-managing director of a Chinese branch of PPG Industries, Xun Wang is accused of shipping the material five years ago in direct disobedience of the Pittsburgh-based company and nonproliferation guidelines issued by the U.S. Commerce Department.

Pakistan holds nuclear arms outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and is a known past proliferator of sensitive technology and information through the black market operation once led by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. As such, the United States has placed a number of restrictions on the trade of sensitive goods with the South Asian nation.

The U.S. Justice Department questions in court filings whether the paint coating shipments could Read more…

Categories: nuclear technology, Pakistan Tags: , , , , , , ,

Puerto Rico, Gulf and Atlantic States — plate slippage soon

July 19, 2011 Comments off
Categories: Tetonic Plates Tags: , , , ,

As The Dollar And The Euro Continue To Collapse, How High Is That Going To Push The Price Of Gold?

July 19, 2011 Comments off

endoftheamericandream

Right now, the global financial system is facing a crisis that is really unprecedented.  The reserve currency of the world (the U.S. dollar) is collapsing and the second most powerful currency on the planet (the euro) is also collapsing.  As the major paper currencies of the globe crumble, the hunger that investors around the world have for gold continues to grow.  Today, the price of gold hit an all-time record of $1607.90 an ounce.  But that record surely will not live for long.  The truth is that gold has been steadily climbing for quite some time now.  A year ago, the price of gold was hovering around $1200 an ounce and and many “mainstream economists” scoffed at the idea that the price of gold could go significantly higher.  Well, nobody is laughing now.  As colossal debt loads continue to crush both Europe and the United States, the euro and the dollar are Read more…

Categories: GOLD, World Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Taiwan says China’s military advantage is growing

July 19, 2011 Comments off

miamiherald

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s military advantage over Taiwan is increasing amid Beijing’s attempts to block foreign forces from intervening in a possible conflict, the island’s defense ministry said Tuesday.

The military balance between Taiwan and China has become a sensitive issue in the United States, which remains Taiwan’s major security partner despite shifting its recognition from Taipei to Beijing 32 years ago.

Bipartisan critics in Congress have accused President Barack Obama’s administration of neglecting Taiwan’s defense needs by refusing to sell it 66 relatively advanced F-16 jet fighters. They also say the administration is deliberately holding up the publication of a classified Pentagon report believed to Read more…

Categories: China, Taiwan Tags: , , ,