CBS’s David Martin breaks story of SEALs disciplined

This story has now made it around the web and print media, See Navy SEALs punished for revealing secrets to video game designers Robert Burns, AP Correspondent, published at the Christian Science Monitor’s website, CSMonitor.com. Burns credits David Martin, CBS News National Security Correspondent, for breaking the story. Our reading is that Mr. Martin broke the story in two pieces, 7 Navy SEALs disciplined for role with video game and SEALs disciplined for role in “Medal of Honor” video game video.

It’s hard to imagine 7 active-duty SEALs giving away important tactical details. Indeed, Noam Cohen, writing in the Times’ Media Decoder, notes that the SEALs were cited for two violations: First, consulting on the video without prior permission, and second, showing the game producers classified equipment carried by SEALs on missions. Since the second violation might have involved something as trivial as the rails system (which allows attaching flashlights, IR lights, UV lights, video equipment – all manner of gear – to customized versions of standard rifles) – we suspect the more serious violation is the first – failing to ask permission – and perhaps if permission had been asked, it would have been granted – with guidance about what could and could not be discussed.

FEMA & Red Cross Links

FEMA Links: CERT / Medical Reserve Corps / Ready.Gov / Veterans
Red Cross Volunteer / Disaster Volunteer / Blood Drives

Power, Infrastructure, Hurricanes, and Emergencies

Hurricane Sandy, the 1,000 mile diameter storm brought rain, wind, water and power failures to 10.4 million from North Carolina up to Maine, and west to Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan in the USA and another 145,000 people in Canada, over 1.5 million people. As NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, here, “We have old infrastructure and new weather patterns… climate change is a reality, extreme weather is a reality, it is a reality that we are vulnerable.”

We need to build infrastructure that is more resistant to extreme storms, and resilient in the face of these kinds of storms.

Map showing people without power from Hurricane Sandy

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Hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm

Hurricane Sandy, NOAA handout satellite image taken on October 27, 2012. Note the size and position of the storm.

Hurricane Sandy, aka “The Frankenstorm,” a Hurricane with Snow, the 19th named storm of the 2012 season, is projected to hit Delaware, then New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Snow is expected in West Virginia. Winds and rain are expected as far west as Ohio. Additional satellite images are available at NOAA. Note that the Frankenstein monster was created by man.

While some are calling this the storm of the century, I see it, like Hurricane Irene of 2011, discussed here, and Katrina and Rita a few years ago, as a harbinger of things to come.

Several natural phenomena are combining with several man-made factors to interact in ways that will make this a very significant storm, and one that we expect to see repeated every few years. ABC News, National Hurricane Center, NOAA, other news and information media are providing up-to-date coverage. Popular Logistics provides analysis.

Natural Phenomena:

Hurricane Sandy is 900 miles wide – bigger than Irene.
It will interact with a cold front coming from Canada that will form a Nor’ Easter.
It will also interact with the Jet Stream, that will pull it northward, then refocus it back south-westerly arc toward New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey.
The full moon – which triggers higher tides – will trigger a storm surge.

Man made factors that will exacerbate the storm’s damage:

Atmospheric CO2 and water vapor – the concentration of carbon dioxide and water vapor is higher today due to burning fossil fuels. This means the atmosphere can hold more heat, and is holding more water, the oceans are warmer; thus storms will be bigger and more severe.
Coastal development – sand dunes gone from Long Island make us more vulnerable to storm surges and flooding
Crumbling infrastructure gives us a diminished ability to weather the storm.
Lack of emergency preparedness gives us a diminished ability to weather the storm.
Satellites, in need of repair, give us a diminished ability to monitor the storm.
Nuclear Power plants in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will need to be monitored. Some will be shut down, as they were last year during Hurricane Irene, leading to power outages. See “Nuclear Power, Natural Disasters, and Security.”This gives us diminished ability to weather the storm, and forces us to deploy resources to safeguard infrastructure.

In August of 2011 the Millstone 2 & 3 plants in Connecticut and the Brunswick 1 & 2 plants in North Carolina were operated at reduced capacity during and after Hurricane Irene, while the Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, and the North Anna 1 & 2 plants in Virginia, were offline. The North Anna plants were shut down before the hurricane due to the earthquake. I expect Hurricane Sandy will effect most of those plants, and also the Calvert Creek plant in Maryland, Hope Creek, and Salem in Jersey, Indian Point in New York, and Vermont Yankee, in Vermont.

Solar power, wind, and wave power won’t work during a hurricane, but don’t need emergency crew on hand to make sure cooling systems are operational. And geothermal will function.

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As an analyst with Popular Logistics, I am available for research and analysis on a per project or a per diem basis. I can be reached at ‘L Furman 97” @ G Mail . com and US 732 . 580 . 0024.

“Grandpa” Wen Worth $2.7 Billion: NY Times Blocked in China

Wen Jaibao, NY Times, 10/25/12

Guangxi River

Child in Linfen

The NY Times reported, here, that Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister of China, has amassed approximately $2.7 billion, and so according to the Guardian, here, access to the Times has been blocked within China by the “Great Firewall of China.” In term’s of China’s population, Wen’s family fortune is approximately $2.08 for every man, woman, and child in China. This is ¥12.978 , at current rate of ¥6.2465 CNY to the $1.0 USD. The Times also details the Wen family empire, here.

Nicknamed “Grandpa Wen” because of his reputation of concern for the underprivileged, or, in Marxist parlance “The Proletariat,” for there are no “Privileged” people in the People’s Republic, Wen has called official corruption a threat to the ruling Communist Party. He should know. This is what happens when a disregard for rights is coupled with tremendous power. However, given that the Chinese leadership has embraced a form of capitalism, wherein the people who run the state own or manages the corporations that produce things or allocate resources, it must be noted that China seems to be following a fascist political and economic model, rather than a Marxist or Maoist communist political and economic model.

What would Mao say? Hard to tell. He ate well during the “Bitter Years” from 1958 to 1962, when an estimated 15 to 43 million people died (wikipedia).

Political and economic theory aside, when coupled with what we know about air and water pollution, working conditions in Chinese factories and coal mines, official attitudes toward intellectual property (Business Week / Popular Logistics) , the challenge posed by a demographic imbalance of a population of 700 million men and 600 million women, cultural attitudes towards homosexuality, prostitution, and HIV AIDS; the long term prospects for socio-economic stability in China seem low.

A small boy walks through the smog of Donglu, on the outskirts of Linfen, where villagers have difficulty in selling their crops because of the severe pollution. Linfen, a city of about 4.3 million, is one of the most polluted cities in the world. China's increasingly polluted environment is largely a result of the country's rapid development and consequently a large increase in primary energy consumption, which is almost entirely produced by burning coal.

Linfen, a city of about 4.3 million, one of the most polluted cities in the world. Courtesy Greenpeace.

Air and water pollution in China, as documented by Elizabeth Economy in The River Runs Black, in 2004, ISBN: 978-080-1442-20-9, available at the Strand Bookstore, here, and also documented by Greenpeace here and here here and here, present tremendous long term threats to the people of China to breathe, drink, and to eat.

River Guangxi

As a public service to the people who make smart phones, laptops, routers, and clothing for use here in the USA, the NY Times article is reproduced below. It is not the policy of this blog to quote entire articles. However, given that the entire article – and the entire web-site – is blocked from within “The Great Firewall,” we have made an exception in this case. We trust that the writers, editors, and publishers of The Times will understand. Continue reading →

Amphibious vehicles: images

We hope to follow up with more details about particular applications of amphibious vehicles. However, these images are intended to illustrate the variety of amphibious transport which already exist: even a small number of these can replace a bridge, be used as ferries, and can make transportation (supply, bringing rescue personnel in, wounded or immobile persons out) during floods a simple matter. Clearance no longer matters; the question of vehicles shorting out as water hits the electrical system through the underbody is moot.

Plus – in our opinion – some of them look pretty cool.

[imagebrowser id=106]

Apple: Worms Eating the Core or Golden?

Apple stock closed on October 9, 2012 at $635. While up $247, or 64%, for the year, the stock price has dropped 70 points, 10%, from the peak of $705 reached on Sept. 21, 2012. Where will it go next? What caused this 10% drop? And what about Amazon, Google, Microsoft, & Research in Motion?

Here’s what I think:

Apple (AAPL) will announce earnings on October 25, 2012. I expect $46.79 to $48.9 per share on an annualized basis, up 10 to 15% from the current $42.54 per share.
Apple’s share price will increase back to $700, and then to $750 by year-end, 2012.
Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) will be stable thru to year-end, 2012.
Research In Motion (RIMM) will be acquired by June 2013.

Continue reading →

The Approach of Danger

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? No! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with the treasures of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is this approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was likely right for the most part, as he was on most matters. What he doesn’t seem to have foreseen – and how could he have – was that we’d foul our own environment sufficiently to poison entire communities, laying waste to our fellow citizens in ways that Lincoln knew was beyond the reach of outside armies.

Urgent Private Admin Message

Have started to close in on the bug which was preventing me from toggling function frames in the New/Edit Post page. Started by disabling plugins one at a time. Too slow. So I disabled all plugins except those which are security related, and WP-Footnotes, which we’ve used since the first year, and seemed an unlikely suspect. So – I stayed up way too late, bad, but have solved the basic problem, and will, by the end of the day, have identified and deleted.

I’ve forced the evil troll out of the blog, and reclaimed my right to post on it.

Victory is within sight. Please be careful when – or refrain entirely from — activating plugins.

Jon

CBC’s Q: intense, intelligent conversation of urban bicycle policies

Do bike helmet laws discourage cycling? is a fascinating and intelligent conversation which starts with the assumption that encouraging bicycle usage is an important objective, for the type of multiple, overlapping outcomes which underly our policy views at Popular Logistics. Public health, energy consumption, carbon footprint, community, transportation, and even urban noise can be positively affected by increased bicycle use. Q, a brilliant CBC-produced show carried on many U.S. public radio station, shows that it’s not looking for simple answers or single-variable equations.

CBC’s “Q” on bicycle policy

Weapons-Grade Uranium essentially unguarded

Bush, Gore, Al Queda, and Sept. 11

Damadged sculpture that stands in Battery Park in New York City

The Sphere, by Fritz Koenig, in Battery Park. Image by L. Furman

Should the President have been able to foil the attacks of September 11?

Throughout the 1990’s we sustained:

The 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City,
The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,
The 1998 bombings of the Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
The 2000 bombing of the U. S. S. Cole,
And in 1999 we foiled Al Queda’s Millennium plot.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore knew that Osama bin Laden was a threat. They knew he had been trained by the CIA in the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. They also knew that he financed and or masterminded the simultaneous attacks on U. S. embassies in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998, and the October, 2000 attack on the U. S. S. Cole. And President Clinton told us that after his January 2001 inauguration he briefed President Bush on bin Laden.

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Ahmadinejad Hints About Robert Levinson

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has implicitly admitted that Robert Levinson in in Iranian custody, while simultaneously evading personal responsibility by saying that he thought Mr. Levinson had been part of a prisoner exchange which had already been negotiated and concluded.

Here’s an excerpt from CBS’s coverage:

[P]ressed by Charlie Rose in an interview for “CBS This Morning,” Ahmadinejad did not deny Iran still has Levinson in its custody, and he hinted that there had been talks about a prisoner exchange. “I remember that last year Iranian and American intelligence groups had a meeting, but I haven’t followed up on it,” said the Iranian president. “I thought they’d come to some kind of an agreement.”

John Miller [CBS News senior correspondent a former FBI assistant director] says that, “tacit admission that he’s in their custody and that there have been talks,” in and of itself, “is a big step.” “I think that’s going to give a ray of hope to the family, too,” adds Miller.

From Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drops clue about Robert Levinson, ex-FBI agent who vanished 5 years ago in Iran – CBS News. There’s a link to video and more coverage on that page.

For more background, here’s are additional links on ABC News (From 12/9/11) Facebook, and Wikipedia.