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Posts Tagged ‘Germany’

Einstein was right – honey bee collapse threatens global food security

February 8, 2011 Comments off

The bee crisis has been treated as a niche concern until now, but as the UN’s index of food prices hits an all time-high, it is becoming urgent to know whether the plight of the honey bee risks further exhausting our food security.

Almost a third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, largely by honey bees.
These foods provide 35pc of our calories, most of our minerals, vitamins, and anti-oxidants, and the foundations of gastronomy. Yet the bees are dying – or being killed – at a disturbing pace.
The story of “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) is already well-known to readers of The Daily Telegraph.
Some keep hives at home and have experienced this mystery plague, and doubtless have strong views on whether it is caused by parasites, or a virus, or use of pesticides that play havoc with the nervous system of young bees, or a synergy of destructive forces coming together.
The bee crisis has been treated as a niche concern until now, but as the UN’s index of food prices hits an all time-high in real terms (not just nominal) and grain shortages trigger revolutions in the Middle East, it is becoming urgent to know whether the Read more…
Categories: Food Crisis, Strange Events, world Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Germany deploys contactless national ID

February 3, 2011 Comments off

Germany began issuing the new contactless national ID to citizens in November. The program is one of the first contactless-only electronic ID programs. It also employs a unique privacy scheme to protect cardholders.

National ID cards aren’t new in the European Union and many countries use smart card technology to power the credentials. But the contactless German ID is a bit of a departure from what other countries have done and thus necessitated a slightly different take on existing contactless smart cards.

The country expects to issue 60 million cards over the next 10 years to replace existing paper documents, says Rudy Stroh, executive vice president of the ID business and country manager for Germany at NXP Semiconductors. NXP is providing the chip–its 128-kilobyte SmartMX secure contactless microcontroller–for the German e-ID.

“The contactless technology used in the e-ID enables strong privacy protection,” Stroh says.

The first difference between the German ID card and other contactless smart cards is that is can only be read from four centimeters, whereas most other cards can be read from Read more…

Categories: Big Brother, Biometrics, Freedom, Germany, Technology Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Something Large This Way Comes

February 3, 2011 1 comment

And so it picks up steam.  What started in Iceland,  instigated by Wall St,  has now engulfed Tunisia,  Yeman,  Sudan,  Egypt,  Syria,  Jordan and others yet to be made manifest.  Saudi Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has warned the country’s royal family to step down and flee before a military coup or a popular uprising overthrows the kingdom.

Julianne the Apostate can take the credit of kicking this ball down the hill as it was his release of some of those documents which demonstrated selected venality amongst certain countries’ leadership.  It would have happened anyway,  but the Apostate,  it seems,  was the spark.  How this could be to Israel’s benefit is beyond me.

The control system is blowing apart at the seams.  Anyone thinking the unrest across North Africa to the Middle East is part of a planned paradigm has got to be crazy.  Certainly,  there are organizational forces at work trying to ride on top of the chaos,  but all Read more…

Categories: Coming Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,