Google says e-mail traffic down in Iran

“Whenever we encounter blocks in our services we try to resolve them as quickly as possible because we strongly believe that people everywhere should have the ability to communicate freely online,” Google said in its statement about Iran. “Sadly, sometimes it is not within our control.”

According to Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post’s Tech Blog, Ryan Flinn of Bloomberg in Business Week, and in the LA Times, Google has reported that e-mail traffic is down in Iran, after an Iranian government announcement that it would suspend Google and force citizens to use a government e-mail service.

Google said it has seen a sharp drop in traffic among Iranian users of Gmail, and confirmed that users there say they are having trouble accessing their e-mail accounts.

The company’s statement comes after a report by Christopher Rhoads, Chip Cummins, and Jessica Vascellaro in The Wall Street Journal that the Iranian government said it put a “permanent suspension of Google’s email services.”

The nation’s telecommunications agency said that instead, it would soon roll out its own e-mail service for Iranian citizens, accoridng to the Journal. Iranian leaders have issued stern warnings to citizens against participating in protests Thursday, the day marking the establishment of the Islamic Republic there.

Google drew international attention earlier this year when it announced that it may withdraw from China because of that nation’s censorship practices. The State Department has supported the company’s move and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton included the firm’s experiences in China among the reasons to push for Internet freedom as part of the U.S. government’s diplomatic agenda.

Google says email traffic down in Iran




Toyota Recalls and the Dept of Transportation

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood

Ray LaHood

“Safety is our No. 1 priority when it comes to planes, trains and automobiles,” said Dept. of Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, in his interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News 2/10/10. Secretary LaHood also said,

“I’ve been in this job a little over a year. On my watch,  we have not been asleep at the switch when it comes to Toyota.

“There are three recalls going on right now, two of them as a result of our people either going to Japan or me on the telephone with the president of Toyota holding their feet to the fire on this.”

Stephanopoulos also rolled tape of Joan Claybrook, who served as head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under President Carter, alleging that  some of the problems at Toyota were known before 2007. While Secretary LaHood did not openly criticize the DoT under the Bush Administration, he made it clear that the DoT in the Obama Administration is focused on safety.

“We feel a strong obligation to the driving public … to make sure that every car is safe. …  We are holding Toyota’s feet to the fire to make sure that every car is safe.”

Links:

BBC: Pakistani police killed in suicide car attack

According to the BBC, Pakistani police killed in suicide bomb attack:

A suicide bomber has killed at least eight policemen in Pakistan’s volatile tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, officials say.

The attacker rammed his explosive-laden car into a police vehicle travelling on a highway in the Khyber area.

At least five civilians were also killed in the blast, the officials say.

No group has yet said it carried out the attack. The region is well known as a stronghold of militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The officials said the policemen were on a routine patrol when the suicide bomber attacked them.

Several other vehicles were damaged by the force of the blast.

BBC: Lord Chief Justice orders release of CIA document on torture of British citizen

From Government loses Binyam Mohamed torture appeal:

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has lost a bid to prevent the disclosure of secret information relating to the alleged torture of a UK resident.

Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed says UK authorities knew he was tortured at the behest of US authorities during seven years of captivity.

Mr Miliband had said releasing the material would harm national security.

But judges ruled the documents, which say his treatment was “cruel, inhuman and degrading”, should be released.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, said the court would now publish a summary of what the CIA had told British intelligence officials about Mr Mohamed’s treatment in 2002.

Mr Mohamed was secretly flown to Morocco in 2002 having been arrested in Pakistan over a visa irregularity and handed to US officials.

There, he says, he was tortured while interrogators asked him questions about his life in London that could only have come from British intelligence officers.

Government loses Binyam Mohamed torture appeal via BBC News.

Energy and Green Business – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

Siemens Wind Farm

Siemens Wind Farm, Courtesy Siemens.

Lars Kroldrup reports, on the Green Inc. blog at the Times, that Siemens has announced its intention to expand in the United States market. From Siemens Touts Growth in Renewables and the Value of the American Market:

Since acquiring the Danish wind turbine company Bonus Energy in 2004, the German industrial giant Siemens AG, has become one of the larger players in the wind power game with roughly 7 percent of the market.

Still, with rivals like GE Energy and Vestas controlling roughly 18 percent and 19 percent of the market, respectively, Siemens suggested at a financial presentation in Copenhagen on Monday that it’s looking to climb the rankings — and that it sees the fledgling American wind power market as a way to do that.

“We want to be one of the leading companies on the American market,” Andreas Nauen, the chief executive of Siemens Wind Power, told Green Inc. on Monday. “We are on our way, and would like to play an important role. The U.S. market is, and will be in the future, an important market to us.”

According to Siemens, over the next 20 years, the percentage of global power generation arising from renewable sources will grow from less than 5 percent now to about 17 percent by 2030. About half of that, the company said, will come from wind power.

Just 15 years from now, the company expects the global wind energy market to be worth nearly $300 billion, compared to a little over $40 billion today.

Much of that growth, the company is betting, will be in North America, the company estimated. “We have recieved big orders in both the United States and Canada,” Mr. Nauen said.

Of course, just how much the United States will benefit economically from any wind power expansion by foreign companies entering the market — particularly as it relates to the creation of manufacturing jobs — is a matter of some debate.

Read Mr. Kroldrup’s complete piece here: Siemens Touts Growth in Renewables and the Value of the American Market.

Via Green Inc.

Brad Horn: Alexander Kendrick invents low-frequency antenna which works in caves

We’re tempted to follow the editorial lead of others who’ve covered this story – emphasizing that Alexander Kendrick is 16 years old and won a science fair prize for his new low-frequency radio system. We agree that it’s more remarkable that he’s only 16 – but think this would be a remarkable achievement if he were 61.

It’s our impression, based on Brad Horn’s excellent coverage, that this system is lightweight, portable, easily assembled, and relies on relatively inexpensive components.  Check out Brad Horn’s piece on NPR, Texting Underground Can Save Lives And Caves.

Caves are some of the last places on the planet left to explore. Though caving is relatively safe, if something goes wrong deep inside the Earth, a rescue can take days — in part because cell phones and walkie-talkies don’t work underground. But a remarkable teenager in New Mexico has invented a device that may significantly speed that process with the ability to text from underground caves. The young man’s invention may have other applications, as well.

We hope to have an update with images and more information in the near future.

See also:

Brad Horn multimedia (some of his other work) and the Veterans’ Listening Project.


Entergy official "relieved of duties" for false statement about Vermont Yankee nuclear plant

Vermont Yankee, on the banks of the Connecticut River

Vermont Yankee, Courtesy of US NRC

There’s no question that nuclear power will be part of our energy supply mix for the foreseeable future.  The United States has 104 nuclear power plants in operation at present, according to Matthew Wald on the Green Inc. blog of The New York Times, relying on NRC data. Incidents like this – in which a corporate official makes a false statement with serious health and safety implications – give us pause.

Which is worse – that the official was mistaken, and not aware that Vermont Yankee had water pipes which could leak – or that he knew and lied?

Incompetence or dishonesty, it would seem.  Nuclear power can’t be a safe part of our energy future on those terms. Entergy is responsible for knowing everything there is to know about the plants it operates. A material and incorrect statement – under oath, no less – seems explainable only by three hypotheses: (1) the official lied; (2) the official failed to make himself aware of the plant, in which case the question shouldn’t have been answered; (3) the official was misinformed by subordinates.

If the first explanation is correct, perjury charges are, of course, in order. If the second or the third – Entergy hasn’t met its obligations to mind the store.

From the Associated Press via NPR: Top Vermont Yankee Official ‘Relieved Of Duties’:

A top official at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant was permanently relieved of his duties and placed on leave, the plant owner’s CEO said Tuesday, less than a week after Gov. Jim Douglas demanded management changes over misstatements made to state officials.

Entergy Nuclear chief executive J. Wayne Leonard did not identify the official by name. But he described the executive relieved of his duties in a way that could only apply to Vice President Jay Thayer.

Douglas’ urging for management shake-up followed revelations that plant officials misled state regulators and lawmakers by saying last year the plant did not have the sort of underground pipes that could carry radioactive tritium.

“In May 2009, an Entergy executive testified in a hearing on the state’s report that he didn’t think we had any such pipes, but he would get back to them,” Leonard said. “He did not get back to them. He has issued a public apology and made clear that he failed to provide full and complete information, either on the witness stand or by failing to get back to them.

Continue reading →

Ways to make sand tables "without sand" – and sometimes without a table

Uses of LEGO:

From The Brothers Brick (Recovering from BrickCon 2009, at the moment)  ((From the blog’s “About” page.

The Brothers Brick is a LEGO blog for adult fans of LEGO. Though we started out back in 2005 featuring mainly minifigs, today we highlight the best LEGO creations of every type from builders around the world, including ever-popular LEGO Star Wars, steampunk, and mecha creations. You can also find the latest LEGO news, opinions, and reviews right here on The Brothers Brick.

When is a “Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical” just a “clippy bit”?

With shared resources like Bricklink and Peeron, LEGO fans active on the Web today use fairly standard terminology for referring to individual LEGO elements. Whether you’re describing a building technique or drafting, shared language is a key to communication.

An interesting article by Giles Turnbull has been making the rounds among LEGO fans on the ‘net this past week. The article surveys four families who play with LEGO and how they talk about LEGO. In the absence of externally driven standards, it’s interesting to see how these families have developed their own LEGO language.

Read the full article, A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families, on The Morning News.

Toyota Recall: Instructions and Observations

2009 Corolla Sedan

2009 Corolla Sedan

If your car is accelerating out of control, whether it’s a Toyota, a BMW, or any car,

  1. Put your foot on the brake – and press the brake with a steady pressure.
  2. Put the car in Neutral. (Just like manual tranmissions, automatic transmissions have a “Neutral” setting. You shouldn’t drive if you don’t know this.)
  3. Turn on the Hazard lights.
  4. Pull over.
  5. and Above All,Don’t Panic.

Putting the car in “Neutral” disengages the transmission from the accelerator, assuming there isn’t a transmission problem. Don’t turn off the engine: you will lose the ability to brake and steer. Don’t put the car in “Park.” It will slam to a halt, throw you and your passengers against the steering wheel or the windshield, damage the engine, and you will be rear-ended by the jackass tailgating you.

It also works regardless of what is causing the problem – and it might not be because of sticky accelerators. Writing in the LA Times, Jan 30, Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Benslinger, note that:

The pedal maker denies that its products are at fault. Some independent safety experts also are skeptical of Toyota’s explations. ‘We know this recall is a red herring,’ one says.

Federal vehicle safety records reviewed by The /LA/ Times also cast doubt on Toyota’s claims that sticky gas pedals were a significant factor in the growing reports of runaway vehicles. Of more than 2,000 motorist complaints of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles over the last decade, just 5% blamed a sticking gas pedal, the analysis found.

Continue reading →

US: "We’re Prepared to Listen" – to possible Iranian compromise on uranium

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Laura Rozen reports on Politico.com:

In what was being reported as a potentially significant shift, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iranian State Television today that Iran is ready to send its uranium abroad.

“We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad,” Ahmadinejad told state television, according to Reuters.

“We say: we will give you our 3.5 percent enriched uranium and will get the fuel. It may take 4 to 5 months until we get the fuel,” he said. “If we send our enriched uranium abroad and then they do not give us the 20 percent enriched fuel for our reactor, we are capable of producing it inside Iran.”

The U.S. reacted cautiously to the interview, saying it was willing to listen if Iran has genuinely changed its position on the fuel swap deal, while indicating it was continuing preparations with key allies on sanctions for further pressuring Iran. Iran has previously publicly said it was willing to send its low enriched uranium abroad, but it had balked at sending it out all in one batch, as a proposal worked out by the UN atomic energy agency last fall had stipulated. U.S. officials said it remained to be seen if Iran had changed its position on that.

Continue reading →

KE2YK Reports on Ham Radio in Haiti

Ham Radio

Ham Radio

[Many thanks to Bill Seidel of Revanche, a long-time ham operator, for his infinite patience in explaining ham and RF operations. We’re going to try to keep reporting on ham operations in, to, and from Haiti.]

KE2YK’s Random Oscillations reports on ham radio efforts in Haiti. From ARRL Sends Ham Aid To Haiti:

Even though the communications infrastructure in earthquake-ravaged Haiti is being rebuilt, there is still need for Amateur Radio communications. To assist in this effort, the ARRL’s Ham-Aid program is providing equipment for local amateurs to use.

On Friday, January 22, the League sent a programmed Yaesu VHF repeater with a microphone, as well as ICOM handheld transceivers, Yaesu mobile 2 meter rigs with power supplies and Kenwood mobile 2 meter rigs. Comet antennas, Larsen mobile antennas with magnet mounts, coax and batteries were also included in the package that was shipped to the home of the President of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) for distribution. All items were donated by their manufacturers.

Haiti

Haiti

“In the horror of this tragedy, there still are stars and the cooperation between the ARRL, IARU Region 2 and the Radio Club Dominicano and has been bright,” said ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP .

“It was donations from our members and friends that began the Ham Aid program in Katrina’s aftermath. Now once again, that sharing between hams will provide help in another worst-case incident. ARRL members and donors need to know that their gifts will be used very well indeed.”

How You Can Help in Haiti

Continue reading →

Canadian controversy about Afghan torture

Via PiePalace.ca: Sorry to say that we’ve just become aware that, last November, a

Richard Colvin by Pawel Dwulit for the Toronto Star

career Canadian diplomat blew the whistle on Afghani torture of prisoners turned over by Canadian troops.

a senior Canadian diplomat, Richard Colvin, who told a parliamentary committee last week that “the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured” during his time as second in command at the embassy in Kabul in 2006 and 2007.

Ian Austen, General Says Canada Fears for Afghans (The New York Times, November 22, 2009).

In the same piece, Austen reports a  “vigorous campaign by the Conservative government to discredit [Colvin’s] testimony.” Continue reading →

119 Researched GTD Software Programs and Counting

Priacta.com has, at least for the last eight months or so, maintained a list of GTD (an abbreviation of “Getting Things Done” and near-GTD-compliant applications – searchable/sortable, by OS, price, and each accompanied with a very concise description of the critical characteristics of each application.  119 Researched GTD Software Programs and Counting. Continue reading →

Drobo external storage devices

Via GDGT: This is one of a family of devices from DROBO – (DROBO page on gdgt.com) external

Data Robotics DROBO 2nd gen

storage arrays. The DROBO 2nd Gen, pictured at right, has four hot-swappable drive bays with a maximum capacity of 16TB (In/out ports include Firewire 800 and USB 2.0). Current street price about $200 USD.

The DROBO S, has five swappable drive bays, with capacity of up to 10 TB  total. FireWire 800, USB2.0 or eSATA connections. According to the
Data Robotics Drobo S specs page,

Accommodates from one to five 3.5” SATA I / SATA II hard drives of any manufacturer, capacity, spindle speed, and/or cache. No carriers or tools required.

In other words – this can be used to back up a 10 TB volume. It can accomodate five different drives, and drives from different manufacturers, reducing the risk of simultaneous failure due to design flaw (you may be chuckling – but there’s more than one church that’s had multiple light-van rollovers with same models, and we had dual contemporaneous Seagate external drive failures – same modeland design, and same power circuitry problem). Redundancy for risk reduction can require more than additional layers of the same material. At about $800 street – it’s a bit pricey at the moment – plus the drives themselves (e.g. this Western Digital Caviar 1 TB for $99 or a Western Digital Caviar Green for $299.

We’ll continue to look around – but the general trend of cheaper, hot-swappable, redundant devices is good news for organizations involved in disaster preparation and management – it means that with a little planning and a decreasing financial outlay – we can keep necessary information at hand – for instance, to restore or maintain installations.

Barack Obama, a Systems Thinker in the White House

President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama.

In his State of the Union Address <video, transcript Englsh, en español>, President Obama said “The best anti-poverty program is a world classeducation

.” He described a positive, or reinforcing, feedback loop. Education enables people to accomplish more, earn more, and better educate their children, who also accomplish more and earn more. It is one of the most important differences between the populations of New Jersey and West Virginia. This is described in detail in Thinking in Systems, by Donella Meadows<link>, (C) 2008, published by Chelsea Green<link>, ISBN 978-1-60358-055-7.

The President also asked for a better health care plan. I can answer that in five words: “Single Payer; Medicare For All” <link>  just approved by the California Senate. Medicare works for my octogenarian father. Health Insurance Care doesn’t work for a 20-something friend of mine. He just graduated from college. He has no job and therefore no medical insurance. If he was a full-time student he’d be covered on his parents’ insurance. A simple reform would cover recent graduates until they find a job that pays a living wage and provides health insurance benefits. Another would be by expanding Medicare to cover all citizens. This is much easier said than done. Our medical care system cannot adequately care for approximately 50 million people – one out of six. This can’t be changed overnight – we need to train more doctors and nurses, and build more hospitals, but it must be changed.

Image showing mountain strip mined for coal.

Mountain strip mined for coal. Chris Dorst, Charleston, WV Gazette.

Energy is another set of systems problems. No one who has seen a once pristine valley after strip mining or “mountain-top removal”  uses the term “Clean Coal.” Countries like Denmark, Ireland, Israel, Japan, and Sweden built their economies with education not extraction of natural resources. As the President alluded to, conservation and clean, renewable energy technologies – solar, wind, geothermal, hydro – can be implemented faster, at a lower cost, and with fewer negative economic externalities than traditional fuel intensive resource based technologies like fossil fuel and nuclear power. This suggests another of the differences between New Jersey and West Virginia – the “Blessings of Education” versus the “Resource Curse” <link> from which economies built on extraction of natural resources suffer.

Arklow at Sunset

Arklow Bank Wind Park, off Arklow Bay, Ireland. Image courtesy Oneworld.net, UK.

The President needs economic advisors who start think in terms of ecological economics <link1 / link2>, of metrics like the Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI <link>, rather than Gross Domestic Product, GDP <link>. Simply put, ecological economics is neoclassical economics with a better understanding of the long term and of costs. Spending one dollar – or one trillion dollars – to clean up a mess is not as good as allocating those resources to build factories, houses, libraries, museums – the infrastructure, culture, and community of a nation.