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New York Moves to Deploy Body Scanners on Street in Search for Guns

The NYPD and Department of Defense are working together testing Terahertz Imaging Detection, a new way to get concealed illegal weapons off the streets. (Photo courtesy: NYPD)
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS in New York his department is looking to deploy Terahertz Imaging Detection scanners on the street in the war on “illegal guns.”
Kelly said the scanners would be used in “reasonably suspicious circumstances” and intended to cut down on the number of stop-and-frisks on the street. So called stop-and-frisks are considered a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
New York City is largely a Second Amendment free zone. The city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has said that citizens “acting outside of any governmental military effort” should not be allowed to protect themselves with firearms.
“The NYPD and Department of Defense are working together testing Terahertz Imaging Detection, a new way to get concealed illegal weapons off the streets,” CBS reports. Terahertz Imaging Detection measures energy radiating from Read more…
China to Require Microblog Users to Register Using Real Names

China’s top Internet regulator says Beijing will soon require all users of microblogs to register under their real names to post comments online.
Wang Chen, who heads China’s State Council Information Office, said Wednesday increased Internet monitoring is necessary in order to prevent the spread of harmful information.
“We must impose control and management measures on some phenomena on the Internet, such as inventing rumors, damaging social stability, delivering bad information such as pornography, and even conducting illegal commercial activity,” said Wang.
Last month, Beijing and several other major Chinese cities began a trial program requiring all new microblogs users to disclose their identities to the government. Wang said the program will be expanded to Read more…
Sudan Confiscates Southern Oil, What Will China Do?

Sudan’s government announced this weekend that it had confiscated petroleum exports from newly independent South Sudan as compensation for unpaid transit fees but it promised that it would not shut down a pipeline carrying the south’s oil.
The move is likely to exacerbate tension between the two Sudans and could force China, which is major Sudanese oil buyer, to adjust its policy of noninterference if it isn’t to lose access to the region’s oil reserves.
South Sudan declared independence last year after decades of conflict with the north. Despite a 2005 peace deal, many disputes remain unresolved. Among them, possession of oil reserves which are situated close to the border.
Land locked South Sudan has two thirds of the former unified Sudan’s oil output but needs access to northern export infrastructure to sell overseas. South Sudan pumps around 350,000 barrels per day, according to government data. The north needs the entirety of its oil production, some 115,000 barrels per day, to meet domestic demand. The two parties haven’t agreed on transit fees yet but resumed talks sponsored by the African Union on Tuesday.
In the meantime, Khartoum has confiscated Read more…
Rare Caterpillar-like Horizontal Earthquake Discovered
Imagine that, as you sit at your desk or in your living room reading this story, your entire city suddenly snaps a foot to the south.
That’s what happened to the city of Kohat, Pakistan, in 1992. A magnitude-6.0 earthquake moved a 30-square-mile (80-square-kilometer) swath of land one foot (30 centimeters) horizontally in a split second, leveling buildings and killing more than 200 people.
The area hadn’t experienced many temblors before, making the earthquake an unusual occurrence. Now, 20 years later, geologists have used satellite and seismic data to track down the cause of that rare quake — an equally rare type of fault.
“The pattern we saw was absolutely a dead ringer for a horizontal fault,” said Roger Bilham, a geophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “But here’s the problem: How do you get a horizontal earthquake?”
Perfectly horizontal
Most earthquakes occur at near-vertical faults, such as the strike-slip San Andreas Fault or the thrust fault that caused the 2011 Japan earthquake. The Kohat Plateau earthquake occurred on a Read more…
Indonesia Military Powers Up
On Monday, Indonesian Defense Minister Purmono Yusgiantoro, flanked by the country’s military leadership, announced that after 10 years of frugality on the part of the military designed to give precedence to political reform, the country was now entering an intensive period of military procurement. Coming from many countries, such talk would sound reckless, if not dangerous. But coming from Indonesia, it should be welcomed.
Purnomo also spelled out his 2012 wish list, which includes tanks, multiple launch rocket systems, a guided missile destroyer, and retrofits for ex-U.S. F-16s and ex-Australian C-130 transport planes. And much more new equipment is to follow before the end of President Yudhoyono’s term in 2015, not least three new South Korean submarines.
For the first time in recent memory, the Indonesian defense ministry has money in its pocket. Announcing the acquisition of an additional six Su-30 Sukhoi fighter aircraft over the weekend, Purnomo could be heard to boast: “Our economy is very strong and we have a defense budget of Rp 150 trillion [$16.3 billion].” While that figure represents a multi-year procurement budget, Purnomo is right to feel flush. In December, the government decided to revise the defense allocation upwards, giving defense a Read more…
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