Archive
America’s Space Weakness
On August 15, 2010, the U.S. Air Force almost lost a $2-billion communications satellite. A team of military and contract space operators eventually saved the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite, built by Lockheed Martin. But the rescue, admittedly an impressive technological feat, is also a window into the greatest weaknesses of the world’s leading space power, according to one space insider.The seven-ton “AEHF-1,” part of a planned six-satellite constellation meant to support radio communication between far-flung U.S. military units, had been in orbit just one day when the problems began. The satellite started out in a highly-elliptical, temporary orbit. The plan was to use the spacecraft’s on-board engine to boost it to a permanent, geo-stationary orbit. But when the Air Force space operators at Los Angeles Air Force Base activated the engine, nothing happened. The Government Accountability Office would later blame Read more…
US customs can and will seize laptops and cellphones, demand passwords
The American Civil Liberties Union has brought a suit against the US government over its seizure of the laptop of a computer security consultant – a seizure carried out at a Chicago airport about a year ago without a search warrant or any charges of crimes.
According to a report in Sunday’s Boston Globe, the consultant – a former MIT researcher, David House – was returning from rest and relaxation in Mexico when federal agents seized his laptop.
According to the Globe, the government wanted to know more about House’s connections to Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.
The seizure comes as no surprise. As Globe writer Katie Johnston notes, United States ports of entry are dubbed “Constitution-free zones” by civil liberties advocates.
Barring invasive techniques such as strip seizures, government agents are free to Read more…
China planning military base in Pakistan, Indian report says
China is planning a military base in Pakistan, India Today reported, citing “a secret report prepared by the government’s joint intelligence committee.”
According to the report:
China is keen to build military bases in FATA, or the Northern areas, while Pakistan wants to counterbalance Indian naval forces by having a naval base in Gwadar. But it does not spell out the exact location of these bases.
At a time when Pakistan-US relations are strained — chiefly over drone missile attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the covert Navy SEAL operation attack that took out Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil — China has made no secret of its interest in strengthening its own ties with the nuclear-armed nation.
Last Thursday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hosted Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Beijing and vowed to Read more…
China warns US to be ‘careful’ in military refocus on Asia
US Military Bases Pacific Ocean
BEIJING — China’s Ministry of defense warned the United States on Monday to be “careful in its words and actions” after announcing a defense rethink that stresses responding to China’s rise by shoring up U.S. alliances and bases across Asia.
The statement from the ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng was Beijing’s fullest reaction so far to the new U.S. strategy unveiled last week. It echoed the mix of wariness and outward restraint that has marked China’s response to the Obama
administration’s “pivot” to Asia since late last year.
“We have noted that the United States issued this guide to its defense strategy, and we will closely observe the impact that U.S. military strategic adjustment has on the Asia-Pacific region and on global security developments,” Geng said in a statement issued on the ministry’s website.
“The accusations leveled at China by the U.S. side in this document are totally baseless,” said Geng.
“We hope that the United States will flow with the tide of the era, and deal with China and the Chinese military in an objective and rational way, will be careful in its words and Read more…
Unexplained Object Near Sun Appears To Be Heading Towards Earth
Please view this video full screen so that you can see what I am pointing out. Here is visual proof that there is something in front of our sun between us and it. Everyday it is getting closer and now you can actually see there is seven or more objects orbiting the larger dwarf star.
Global warming: European species lag in habitat shift
PARIS — Fast-track warming in Europe is making butterflies and birds fall behind in the move to cooler habitats and prompting a worrying turnover in alpine plant species, studies published Sunday said.
The papers, both published by the journal Nature Climate Change, are the biggest endeavour yet to pinpoint impacts on European biodiversity from accelerating global temperatures.
A team led by Vincent Devictor of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) found that from 1990 to 2008, average temperatures in Europe rose by one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
This is extremely high, being around 25 percent greater than the global average for all of the last century.
In order to live at the same temperature, species would have to shift northward by 249 kilometres (155 miles), they calculated.
But during this period, butterlies moved only Read more…
Iran, Russia Replace Dollar with National Currencies in Trade Exchanges
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and Russia have replaced US Dollar with their own currencies in their trade ties, a senior Iranian diplomat announced on Saturday.
Speaking to FNA, Tehran's Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Reza Sajjadi said that the proposal for replacing US Dollar with Ruble and Rial was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting.
“Since then, we have acted on this basis and a part of our interactions is done in Ruble now,” Sajjadi stated, adding that many Iranian traders are using Ruble for their trade deals.
“There is a similar interest in the Russian side,” the envoy stated, adding that that Moscow is against unilateral sanctions on Iran outside the UN Security Council, specially the recent sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank (CBI).
“The move (imposing sanction on the CBI) is unacceptable. Russians have clearly announced that they will not accept these sanctions and Iran’s nuclear issue is resolvable just through negotiations.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit back at the US after Washington introduced new sanctions against Iran’s central bank.
President Ahmadinejad told an annual meeting of senior central bank officials that Iran’s central bank would respond with Read more…
US intervention in Iran will drag China & Russia into war
Iran is accusing the EU of waging an economic war. It’s in response to Europe considering banning Iranian oil imports in the coming weeks. There’s already a verbal standoff over sanctions imposed by the U.S. at the end of last year, aimed at pressing Iran into abandoning its nuclear programme. Tehran threatened to block a key maritime trade route in the Persian Gulf, and later backed off, but is still warning U.S. ships against sailing in the area. Iran will reportedly hold another naval drill next month. But anti-war activist John Rees sees Western worries over Iran’s supposed nuclear ambitions, as an excuse to curtail Iranian influence in the region.
Sinkhole epidemic spreads worldwide!
All within the last several days, and all over the place.
Some may be associated with the Earthquakes, but most are not.
Allentown, Pennsylvania — [link to www.lehighvalleylive.com]
Kansas City, KS — [link to www.kansascity.com]
Cambridge, Neb — [link to www.mccookgazette.com]
Charlotte, NC — [link to www.wbtv.com]
Polk City, FL — [link to www.cfnews13.com]
Sleepy Hollow, NY — [link to www.thedailysleepyhollow.com]
El Paso, TX — [link to www.waterworld.com]
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — [link to www.nst.com.my]
Christchurch, New Zealand — [link to www.emirates247.com]
1/6/2012 — Planet Venus has been HIT by a massive object?! On December 27, 2011
If you can recall as many mainstream news articles have reported about it, Venus has been unusually bright during that time span…
view this on the SECCHI-B HI-1: what looks like a large impact on the planet Venus. Just as comet Lovejoy passes nearby. The SECCHI website was “out of service” for the past several days — now I think I may understand why.
A possibly large planetary collision occurred.
search the dates starting on 12/24/2011 – through today 1/6/2012 (several recent days not yet available).
here is the link to the blog post on this with screenshots and the direct link to SECCHI:
http://sincedutch.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/162012-planet-venus-has-been-hit-b… Read more…
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