October 30, 2013

Marine could be booted from Corps for warning troops about rapist Afghanistan cop

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/29/marine-could-be-booted-from-corps-for-warning-troops-about-rapist-afghanistan-cop/



Marine could be booted from Corps for warning troops about rapist Afghanistan cop
By Arturo Garcia
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 22:23 EDT

A 13-year Marine Corps veteran has drawn lawmakers’ support as he faces the end of his career for using classified information to warn his colleagues serving in Afghanistan about a local police official fired for raping children, CNN reported on Tuesday.

“The only person who’s being penalized, or potentially punished, is the person who tried to warn the Marines,” Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told CNN in describing Maj. Jason Brezler’s case. “I cannot possibly understand it.”

Brezler’s attorney, Kevin Carroll, told CNN that Brezler turned himself in to superiors in summer 2012 after using classified material to alert troops Forward Operating Base Delhi in Afghanistan about police commander Sarwar Jan, whom he encountered while serving in the country’s Helmand province from 2009 and 2010, and had been hired to command Afghan officers in another district. The classified file Brezler sent to Delhi contained allegations that Jan was connected to the Taliban.

“He caused Sarwar Jan, a police official, to be fired from that position because he was raping children,” Brezler explained to CNN. “Jason immediately responded with everything he knew, including some extraordinarily derogatory information he knew about this man indicating that he was a threat not only to local children but to Marines.”

October 29, 2013

Appearances and Reality: Merkel Balks at EU Privacy Push

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/germany-impedes-eu-privacy-efforts-despite-outrage-at-nsa-spying-a-930488.html



Chancellor Merkel has put on a good show of being outraged by American spying. But, at the same time, she has impeded efforts to strengthen data security. Does she really want more privacy, or is she more interested in being accepted into the exclusive group of info-sharing countries known as the 'Five Eyes' club?

Appearances and Reality: Merkel Balks at EU Privacy Push
By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Brussels
October 28, 2013 – 06:08 PM

One particular point of clarification was especially important to Angela Merkel during the EU summit in Brussels last week. When she complained about the NSA's alleged tapping of her cellphone, the German chancellor made clear that her concern was not for herself, but for the "telephones of millions of EU citizens," whose privacy she said was compromised by US spying.

Yet at a working dinner with fellow EU heads of state on Thursday, where the agenda included a proposed law to bolster data protection, Merkel's fighting spirit on behalf of the EU's citizens seemed to have dissipated.

In fact, internal documents show that Germany applied the brakes when it came to speedy passage of such a reform. Although a number of EU member states -- including France, Italy and Poland -- were pushing for the creation of a Europe-wide modern data protection framework before European Parliament elections take place in May 2014, the issue ended up tabled until 2015.

Great Britain, itself suspected of spying on its EU partners, and Prime Minister David Cameron, who has former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as one of his advisors, put up considerable resistance. He pushed instead for the final summit statement to call simply for "rapid" progress on a solid EU data-protection framework.

October 29, 2013

Killer Storm: Hurricane-Force Winds Batter Germany

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/powerful-fall-storm-st-jude-kills-15-in-northern-europe-a-930607.html



Several countries in Northern Europe are recovering after a powerful autumn storm swept across the region on Monday night, leaving 15 dead in its wake, including seven in Germany.

Killer Storm: Hurricane-Force Winds Batter Germany
October 29, 2013 – 01:54 PM

Northern Germany is cleaning up Tuesday morning after a powerful fall storm with hurricane-force winds battered the country and most of Northern Europe Monday. The storm, called "Christian" in Germany and "St. Jude" in England, left seven people dead in Germany and at least 15 across Europe.

In Germany, the storm brought winds of up to 170-kilometers-per hour, knocked down trees and disrupted air and train travel.

The trains were up and running again Tuesday morning in the German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, albeit with delays, though in other aprts of the country there was limited service.

A damaged section of the line between Marienborn and Helmstedt was repaired Monday night, allowing the routes between Dresden and Hanover and Berlin and Hanover to reopen. Commuters and travelers were told Tuesday morning to expect continued delays.

October 29, 2013

Construction starts on U.S. base in Romania

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/10/construction-starts-us-base-romania



Construction starts on U.S. base in Romania
The Associated Press
© October 29, 2013

DEVESELU, Romania

Construction has begun on a U.S. base in Romania that will form part of a ballistic missile defense system that has angered Russia.

The Deveselu base in southern Romania is expected to be operational in 2015. It will house SM-3 interceptor missiles and radar equipment.

James Miller, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, attended a ceremony Monday at the base.

He said that "as the (NATO) Alliance has entered new times, it has also addressed new threats. One of these is the threat of ballistic missile attack."

October 29, 2013

Navy's giant, stealthy new destroyer gets hull wet

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/10/navys-giant-stealthy-new-destroyer-gets-hull-wet



Our new $5~$7 billion dollar stealth destroyer

Navy's giant, stealthy new destroyer gets hull wet
The Associated Press
© October 29, 2013

BATH, Maine

There was no band. No streamers. No champagne.

The Navy's stealthy Zumwalt destroyer floated out of dry dock without fanfare Monday night and into the waters of the Kennebec River, where the warship will remain dockside for final construction.

The largest destroyer ever built for the Navy, the Zumwalt looks like no other U.S. warship, with an angular profile and clean carbon fiber superstructure that hides antennas and radar masts.

"The Zumwalt is really in a league of its own," said defense consultant Eric Wertheim, author of the "The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World."



unhappycamper comment: "The Zumwalt is really in a league of its own..." Indeed it is. This is the first destroyer to cost more than a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.

October 29, 2013

Congress ended the government shutdown, but ...

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/10/congress-ended-government-shutdown

Congress ended the government shutdown, but ...
By Bill Bartel
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 28, 2013

When Congress ended the government shutdown by agreeing to fund federal operations through mid-January, lawmakers gave themselves some breathing room to draft a more complete budget for the rest of 2014.

But the extra time is little comfort for those in Hampton Roads whose livelihoods are tied to the defense industry.

That's because Congress has not slowed the forward march of automatic federal budget cuts - known as a sequester - that could mean the cancellation of lucrative ship maintenance or construction contracts, the elimination of base construction and repair projects, and a general slowdown of other military-related work. Defense contracts provide thousands of skilled jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the region's economy.

With no certainty that a divisive Congress will agree to stop the deep cuts, 2014 "is going to be a very uncertain, high-anxiety year that we're just going to slog through the best we can," said Craig Quigley, executive director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance. "The immediate effect right now is a lot of angst and worry."



unhappycamper comment: Keep in mind we are talking about a 5% cut in the military budget.



Five fucking percent.

Let's put this in perspective.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=4036

November 1 SNAP Cuts Will Affect Millions of Children, Seniors, and People With Disabilities
By Dottie Rosenbaum and Brynne Keith-Jennings
October 24, 2013

The 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary boost in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits ends on November 1, 2013, which will mean a benefit cut for each of the nearly 48 million SNAP recipients — 87 percent of whom live in households with children, seniors, or people with disabilities. House and Senate members who are now beginning to negotiate a final Farm Bill should keep this benefit cut in mind as they consider, in reauthorizing the SNAP program, whether to make even deeper cuts.

The November 1 benefit cut will be substantial. A household of three, such as a mother with two children, will lose $29 a month — a total of $319 for November 2013 through September 2014, the remaining 11 months of fiscal year 2014. (See Figure 1.) The cut is equivalent to about 16 meals a month for a family of three based on the cost of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s “Thrifty Food Plan.” Without the Recovery Act’s boost, SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2014 will average less than $1.40 per person per meal. Nationally, the cut totals about $5 billion in 2014 and a total of $11 billion over the fiscal year 2014 to 2016 period.[1] (See Table 1.)

The SNAP benefit cut will make it even harder for families to put food on the table. More than 80 percent of SNAP households have monthly income below the federal poverty line ($19,500 a year for a family of three), and more than 40 percent live in deep poverty, with income below half of the poverty line. The Recovery Act’s temporary benefit increase boosted the ability of households to provide adequate food for their families, known as “food security,” research shows.

The benefit cut will affect all households that receive SNAP, the majority of which include children, seniors, or people with disabilities. Nationally, more than 21 million children — that is, more than 1 in 4 of all children — live in a household that receives SNAP. At least a quarter of children receive SNAP benefits in more than 30 states and the District of Columbia; in some states, this figure is more than 40 percent. November’s SNAP cut for households with children will total $3.5 billion in the remaining 11 months of fiscal year 2014. Similarly, more than 9 million seniors and people with disabilities receive SNAP. Their households will experience a $1.2 billion benefit cut over the same period. Table 2, below, shows the number of children and senior citizens or people with disabilities in each state who live in such households.


..

Honestly, I am tired of all "the sky is falling!" crap coming from the Generals, Defense Contractors and war hawks.

October 29, 2013

Pope shutdown recovery slow

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/10/29/1290289?sac=fo.militaryBy Drew Brooks



Pope shutdown recovery slow
By Drew Brooks
Published: 09:17 PM, Mon Oct 28, 2013

The federal government is open for business, but the effects of the shutdown could linger at Pope Field for as long as a year, officials said.

From canceled training to a pile-up of maintenance demands, Pope was particularly hard hit in part because of its reliance on 1,200 Reserve airmen who were unable to work or train during the 16-day shutdown this month.

The backlog will take months to overcome because crews no longer have the benefit of built-in bottlenecks in maintenance and training, officials said. Without those bottlenecks, there isn't enough manpower to do all the necessary work, officials said.

When coupled with cuts made during sequestration, Air Force Col. Sharon Johnson said, officials at Pope were close to taking dramatic steps to address their budget issues. Johnson is commander of the 44th Maintenance Group.

October 29, 2013

BP flexes computing muscle in search for oil

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/BP-flexes-computing-muscle-in-search-for-oil-4927142.php

BP flexes computing muscle in search for oil
By Zain Shauk, Houston Chronicle : October 25, 2013 : Updated: October 25, 2013 8:41pm

HOUSTON — BP opened a new computing center this week that it says is home to the world's largest supercomputer for commercial research, part of the oil giant's efforts to out-geek its competitors in finding more crude. “This is a facility that other nerds are going to be quite jealous of,” said Keith Gray, manager of BP's high-performance computing.

The computers in the center have a combined 2.2 petaflops of processing power, which means they can make 2,200 trillion calculations per second.

The added speed will help BP basically cut in half the time it takes to process data from seismic surveys — in some cases from one week to 3.5 days, Gray said.

The computers also will help with future data challenges, some of which are already underway, said Jackie Mutschler, head of upstream technology for BP.



unhappycamper comment: This is one of those articles that make me go "Hmmmm." Does BP also use computer cycles to determine the short and long term effects of oil spills? Corexit?

Like I said: "Hmmmm."

October 29, 2013

Wingtip modifications will save Alaska Airlines $20 million annually

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/10/28/2860750/wingtip-modifications-will-save.html



The Aviation Partners "split scimitar wingtips" will cut drag on Alaska Airlines jets.

Wingtip modifications will save Alaska Airlines $20 million annually
By John Gillie — Staff writer
Published: October 28, 2013 Updated 12 hours ago

Just when you've become used to seeing upturned blended wingtips on many commercial jets, Alaska Airlines is moving on to the next generation of the fuel-saving wingtips.

The airlines said it plans to install so-called "split scimitar wingtips" on most of its fleet of 130 Boeing 737s beginning next year. The new wingtips are made by Seattle's Aviation Partners, the company that developed the existing upward turning blended wingtips.

The split scimitar wingtips will modify the top of the existing wingtips and add a downward slanting wingtip to the end of the wing. The resulting wingtip will resemble a V-shape with upward and downward slanting elements.

The new wingtips are expected to save the airline about $20 million and 58,000 gallons of fuel per aircraft per year. That fuel savings is enough to power nearly 12,000 automobiles for a year, the airline said.

October 29, 2013

The US Spying Scandal

http://watchingamerica.com/News/224851/the-us-spying-scandal/

The US Spying Scandal
Raya, Qatar
By Editorial
Translated By Kristine Anderson
27 October 2013
Edited by Gillian Palmer

The fallout from the “scandal” that former American spy Edward Snowden broke, revealing the comprehensive spying operations U.S. intelligence practices on heads of state and foreign governments, some of them U.S. allies, has snowballed, demolishing the wall of trust between allies and revealing the darker side of international relations.

This scandal has motivated two diplomats from Germany and Brazil, among the nations whose officials U.S. intelligence has monitored, to prepare a United Nations resolution allowing for protection of personal freedoms. This resolution would be an expansion of the International Bill of Human Rights,* which the U.N. approved in 1966 and which was put into practice in 1976 to protect individual rights, including Internet activities.

If the U.N. were to successfully issue a law that would require nations to protect the private lives of individuals, this would send a message to all who exploit the system to spy on or arbitrarily and illegally intervene in a person’s life or that of their family, residence and mail. It would also send a message to those who would impinge on a person’s honor or his or her reputation, in that international law would not allow for such infringements, under penalty of legal action.

Now up to its ears in scandal, after the news that it had tapped the phones of 35 world leaders, the U.S. is attempting to convince its allies that “information gathering is a basic element of counterterrorism.” However, the increasing number of U.S. ambassadors to ally countries, who have been called back to Washington to come up with an explanation for why the U.S. set out to spy on its allies and friends, reveals the major hole the U.S. has fallen into, as well as the climate of distrust that has clouded Washington’s relations with its Western allies in particular.