January 13, 2011

• Baby Boomers Become Granny Wave
• Space Elevator Comes Closer
• Wharton Analyst Worries About Mutual Funds Holding $650b In Public Debt
• California Cities Top In Unemployment
• China and Russia Help Iran’s Strategic Weapons Efforts
• U. S. Ally Qatar In Military Maneuvers With Iran
• Super Bowl Tribute to President Reagan First
• New Flouride Regulations
• New Army Makes Patton Look Like Piker: In Fuel Use
• Cashiered Colonel Speaks About Islam
• Turkey’s Alliance With Syria

 The Himalayan Country of Bhutan is the first in the world to ban tobacco smoking even permitting police to raid homes were smoking is suspected. Buddhist Bhutan, where smoking is considered bad for one’s karma, banned the sale of tobacco in 2005. Smuggling from neighboring India is said to be rampant.

The tens of  millions Americans born between (and including) 1946 and 1964 are the so-called  ”baby boomers. The result of millions of men returning from World War II and starting families. The suburbs blossomed as hundreds of thousands of new cookie cutter homes seemingly just popped up all over America. Car, household appliance plants boomed amd everyone who wanted to work could. Soon TV antennas sprouted  almost magically from nearly every rooftop. Millions of redeyed college students used to GI bill while holding down fulltime jobs. The greatest generation had come home.

Demographers predicted another mini baby boom as their children came of age. But, because of massive societal and other changes that did not happen.But their spawn because counter-culture hippies

 Now 10,000 baby boomer will retire every day for the next 20-years as their children and children’s children grapple with paying for their DSocial Security pensions and medicare health care costs. The granny wave is a swell of voters

Violence emerged Monday in the disputed region of Abyei along Sudan’s north-south divide, where observers fear the unrest could spark more fighting amid an otherwise peaceful and jubilant independence referendum in the south. Several hundreds were killed in what is seen as a last gasp to stop the referendum voting.

 Research is fast progressing in advanced countries on designing a space elevator, according to an Indian space expert.

“Space scientists and engineers are looking at the possibility of designing an elevator to travel into space. It is also time that Indian research institutions looked at developing carbon nanotube composite fibre, nano epoxy and laser power beaming,” A. Senthil Kumar, deputy head at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told IANS in an interview.

VSSC is part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Kumar, who addressed the 98th Indian Science

“The space elevator consists of a cable from an anchor in the ground to a counter weight located beyond geostationary orbit (GSO) that is 35,786 km away. A climber will move up on a carbon nanotube tether between earth and space.”

The space lift would be utilised as a transportation and utility system for moving people, satellites and other items from earth to space.

According to Kumar, once the infrastructure comes into position, the cost of carrying anything from earth to the GSO will be reduced to less than $250 per kg from the current $40,000 per kg.

“The elevator can travel at 200 km per hour and reach the GSO in eight days,” Kumar said.

He said 94 percent weight of the conventional rockets consists of fuel and other expendable infrastructure.

“What space agencies are looking at is safe access to the space at low cost,” Kumar said.

He said a tall building on earth could be the anchor, from which a tether made of carbon nanotube composite fabric would extend to about 50,000 km towards the heaven.

“A climber/elevator powered by laser beaming of energy can travel over this tether. The payloads can be transported using these climbers to different orbits,” Kumar said.

Speaking about the rope on which the climber would go up, the scientist said theoretically the carbon nanotube has a tensile strength of 300 gigapascal whereas the required strength for space travel is only 130 gigapascal.

The carbon nano fibres currently developed has tensile up to five gigapascal.

“The cable will be thickest at the top and taper down towards the earth. First a satellite will take the cable to the space wherefrom it will be unrolled towards the earth. The cable could be brought down without much movement and tied to the base station,” Kumar explained.

And the challenges?

“Radiation, lightning, wind, meteors, space debris…but these are issues that can be dealt with,” Kumar said.

Rasmussen has found just 28% of Adults say the shooting in Arizona was the result of political anger in the country. Fifty-eight percent (58%) say instead that it was a random act of violence by an unstable person. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.

Wharton economist Jeremy J. Siegel worries that mutual funds hold more than $850 billion in municipal debt. But he thinks the federal government would likely step in to deal with repercussions from threatened defaults.

As for the massive federal debt, Siegel writes that most of the current deficit is due to the recession and will shrink when the economy recovers.

In the long run, he argues that Medicare is the biggest concern. “Fixing it will require a fundamental reworking of our entitlement programs, but that won’t threaten stocks in the near future,”

Siegel observes that the financial crisis hasn’t resulted in a backlash against capitalism. Rather, recent elections indicate a public rejection of the notion that government can run the economy better than private enterprise.

The U.S. market has always surmounted crises, he adds. “I see no reason the future should be any different.”

Maw (maw) noun: 1. The mouth, throat, or stomach of an animal, especially a carnivore. 2. A gaping hole. Etymology From Old English maga. Earliest documented use: 1150.

A California metro area once again stands at the top for locations in the United States with the worst unemployment rates. Overall, the month of November proved to be a bad month, as there was a reversal in the small progress that had been seen previously. Specifically, two-thirds of the nation’s 372 largest metro areas experienced an increase in unemployment. The LA Times points out that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Of the 13 metro areas with unemployment rates of 15% or higher, 11 were located in California.” The highest unemployment rates in the country are as follows:

    *  El Centro, Calif. 29.1
    * Yuma, Ariz. 24.8
    * Yuba City, Calif. 19.3
    * Merced, Calif. 18.6
    * Stockton, Calif. 17.5
    * Modesto, Calif. 17.2
    * Fresno, Calif. 16.9
    * Visalia-Porterville, Calif. 16.8
    * Palm Coast, Fla. 16.6
    * Hanford-Corcoran, Calif. 16.4

Notably, California metro areas continue to dominate the list. Metro areas in North and South Dakota have the lowest overall unemployment rates in the country. As for why El Centro is the spot in the nation with the worst unemployment, the LA Times reports: “Why does the labor force keep growing even as the unemployment rate remains high? Ruben Duran, the city manager, attributes it to people moving back home to El Centro after working throughout the state. ‘We have more people here than before,’ he said, in a previous interview. ‘We’re a little confused.’”

 A classmate describes the Arizona shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, as a pot head, quite liberal and oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy. Another who says he was his best friend calls him apolitical, who never watched TV or listened to talk radio. A reported loner police say he acted alone. Congresswoman Gifford (D) Arizona was shot in the head and six others were killed

 China and Russia have been helping Iran develop strategic weapons, a report in the Middle East Quarterly asserted that Beijing and Moscow have been quietly assisting Iran’s missile and nuclear programs. The report, authored by George Simpson, a professor at High Point University, said Moscow could be providing technology for Teheran’s intercontinental ballistic missile program.

“Currently, the Iranian military is trying to develop the Shihab-6 missile, which will have a range of 3,500 miles, putting Europe within its sights,” the report, titled “Russian and Chinese Support for Teheran Iranian Reform and Stagnation,” said. “There is some speculation that Moscow is helping Teheran with a missile that will have a 6,300-mile range, enabling it to reach the eastern seaboard of the United States.”

The report said both China and Russia view their alliance with Iran as a way to stop the United States from extending its influence in the Middle East. Iran has also become the leading supplier of oil to China, replacing Saudi Arabia in 2009.

“Beijing’s exports are more diversified, with machinery, electrical appliances, textiles, vehicles, and aircraft comprising the most important commodities in demand from Iran,” the report said.

Still, China has sought to reduce its profile in Iran. The report said that until 1997 China was the biggest supplier of nuclear technology to Teheran.

The report said Russia has been Iran’s largest weapons supplier, including the sale of such air defense systems as Pantsyr-S1E and TOR-M1. He said Russia might have transferred rocket engine technology for Iran’s Shihab-6 missile.

“There are numerous reports that Russia and China have also covertly sold Iran an array of surface-to-air missiles, combat aircraft, sophisticated radar systems, and fast-attack missile vessels,” the report said. “Some of the SAMs have apparently made their way to insurgents fighting coalition forces in Iraq. Sources also claim that either China or Kyrgyzstan has sold the Iranians high-speed torpedoes originally produced by the Russians.”

China has supplied technology and missiles to Iran. The report cited the Chinese-origin C-801 and -802 cruise missiles, deemed as a threat to shipping in the Gulf.

Critics blame Sarah Palin for Giffords shooting in part because she posted a map with cross hairs over targeted districts. Saturday the Noew York Post front page featured a fullpage photo of Indianpolis Colts’ Quarterback Payton Manning with cross hairs over his face.

Iran said Qatar, regarded as a leading ally of the United States, participated in Iranian military exercises last year. They said Qatari commanders attended Iranian air and ground maneuvers and were briefed on Teheran’s indigenous combat platforms and battle doctrine.

“Such programs will definitely pave the way for mutual cooperation,” Iranian Vice Adm. Ali Reza Tangsiri, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, said.

Tangsiri said Qatari military commanders participated in several Iranian exercises in 2010. He said the cooperation would be extended to the navies of Doha and Teheran.

On Dec. 21, 20 IRGC Navy commanders arrived in Qatar for a three-day visit. The IRGC force consisted of five warships, including two missile boats, as part of what officials termed enhanced military cooperation between Teheran and the Gulf Cooperation Council emirate.

“By consultation and harmony Iran and Qatar can strengthen unity among regional countries and implement security and stability,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt
should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and 
controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest 
Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on 
public assistance.” Cicero  - 55 BC

A special tribute to mark President Ronald Reagan’s birth will occur during the Super Bowl, which will kick off on the 40th president’s birthday this year. Details about the tribute at Super Bowl XLV in Cowboys Stadium in Texas are a “tightly kept secret,”

Other plans to mark the Feb. 6, 1911, birth of Reagan in Tampico, Ill., are coalescing around the globe. The National Archives has opened an exhibit in Washington of memorabilia concerning Reagan’s foreign policy and plans to host several other exhibits during the years, the Post reported. The U.S. Postal Service will release a postage stamp on Feb. 10, and a joint session of Congress is planned.

Capitals of former Soviet bloc countries, such as Budapest and Prague, are also planning to host conferences and raise statues to the president instrumental in ending the Cold War.

“A good number of people we’re dealing with were in prison or threatened during Reagan’s presidency. They’re very emotional about this,” John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, told the Post.

The Foundation and Jelly Bellys sponsored a float in the recent Rose Bowl Parade and was honored with a special award. It was the first time in history a float honored a president

A 20-year-old Duarte man is obsessed with French bull dog puppies and has been jailed on $50,000 bail for dog napping at least three champion puppies valued at $3,000 each from local breeders.

Fluoride was first added to water in the United States in the 1940s to help prevent tooth decay in children 8 years and under, considered the tooth-forming years. The feds are recommending the  amount for fluoride in drinking water be set at 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. The proposal would replace the current recommended range of 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams per liter, which has been in place since 1962.

Two out of five teenagers experienced tooth spotting and streaking due to too much fluoride, according to a new government study. The Department of Health and Human Services says one reason is because Americans now have access to fluoride from a variety of sources, including toothpaste, mouth rinses and prescription supplements.

“Dental fluorosis in the United States appears mostly in the very mild form — as barely visible lacy white markings or spots on the enamel.

 Critics say the reduction is ill-advised and could mean more tooth decay. Others say the 0.7 milligrams per liter - if maintained at that level - is sufficient, and afterall has been the minimum standard for decades. The American Dental Assocation supports that new regulation suggesting a pea sized amount of floridated toothpaste is all that’s required.

 The original regulation was enacted to provide floride to young children to avoid early cavities.

 The CDC website http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/MWF/Index.asp lists floride concerntrations by city but not all are listed.

Univ. of Illinois researchers have found that biofuel crops cultivated on available land could produce up to half of the world’s current fuel consumption-without affecting food crops or pastureland. The study did not estimate costs.

The Department of Defense is the single largest  U. S. consumer of petroleum  at 395 000 barrels per day, almost as much as total daily energy consumption of Greece a country of 11 million. By comparison Patton’s Third Army had about 400,000 men and used about 10,000 of those 40 gallon barrels a day. Today the Pentagon has about a third that number of troops in Iraq yet they use more than four times as much fuel and twice as much as used in the Gulf War..

Investigators for the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs-have issued a report that was eight months in the making-buried in it is the question of how the US military gave a crucial wartime fuel contract worth $2 billion to a company that operates completely out of the public view: they have no website; their listed physical address is a corporate drop-box on Gibraltar; until April, their operations were run out of a second-floor hotel suite at the Hyatt in Bishkek; and their beneficial ownership is buried deep under layers of shell companies formed in countries whose corporate laws are designed to facilitate secrecy and tax avoidance.

Nobody seems to know who is being paid or how much is being paid.. This is something that Representative Darrell Issa (R) California subcommittee should get to the bottom of. Rumors have been rife that beneficiaries include notable American and Euro liberals, as well as Russians. We shall see.

The maker of Power Balance sports wristbands has reached a tentative agreement to take over naming rights at Arco Arena. Arco’s agreement runs out after the end of the NBA season, ending a 25-year relationship. Its departure leaves the Maloof family, which owns the team and the building, searching for a replacement in a down economy. Arco has paid the team an estimated $700,000 a year for the rights; terms of the Power Balance deal weren’t immediately known.

This new Florida Congressman Allen West, a ‘retired’ US Army Colonel was an extremely popular commander in Iraq .  He was forced to retire because during an intense combat action a few of his men were captured.  At the same time his men had captured an enemy combatant who was with the Iraqis who captured his men.  Knowing that time was crucial and his interrogators were not getting anywhere with the prisoner COL West took matters into his own hands. 

 West burst into the room and demanded thru an interpreter that the prisoner tell him where his men were being taken.  The prisoner refused so COL West took out his pistol and placed it into the prisoner’s crotch and fired.  Then the COL told the prisoner that the next shot would not miss. 

 So the prisoner said he would show where the Americans were being taken.  The Americans were rescued. 

 Someone filed a report accusing COL West of improperly treating the prisoner.  COL West was forced to retire. 

 COL West was just elected in November 2010 as a Congressman from Florida .

 During the elections he was part of a panel on how to handle or how to relate to Muslims.  You will see his answer here.                      

 Here is one of the new congressmen from Florida explaining very definitively in just over a minute the truth about Islam. Please watch and forward if you want.  

   http://secure.afa.net/afa/activism/takeaction.asp?id=384  

Below is most of Col. West statement about the murders at Fort Hood, Texas

“On Thursday, 5 November 2009 Ft Hood became a part of the battlefield in the war against Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.

There may be those who feel threatened by my words and would even recommend they not be uttered. To those individuals I say step aside because now is not the time for cowardice. Our Country has become so paralyzed by political correctness that we have allowed a vile and determined enemy to breach what should be the safest place in America, an Army post.

We have become so politically correct that our media is more concerned about the stress of the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The misplaced benevolence intending to portray him as a victim is despicable. The fact that there are some who have now created an entire new classification called; “pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” is unconscionable.

This is not a “man caused disaster”. It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack.

We have seen this before in 2003 when a SGT Hasan of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) threw hand grenades and opened fire into his Commanding Officer’s tent in Kuwait. We have seen the foiled attempt of Albanian Muslims who sought to attack Ft Dix, NJ. Recently we saw a young convert to Islam named Carlos Bledsoe travel to Yemen, receive terrorist training, and return to gun down two US Soldiers at a Little Rock, Arkansas Army recruiting station. We thwarted another Islamic terrorist plot in North Carolina which had US Marine Corps Base, Quantico as a target.

What have we done with all these prevalent trends? Nothing.

What we see are recalcitrant leaders who are refusing to confront the issue, Islamic terrorist infiltration into America, and possibly further into our Armed Services. Instead we have a multiculturalism and diversity syndrome on steroids.

Major Hasan should have never been transferred to Ft Hood, matter of fact he should have been Chaptered from the Army. His previous statements, poor evaluation reports, and the fact that the FBI had him under investigation for jihadist website posting should have been proof positive.

However, what we have is a typical liberal approach to find a victim, not the 13 and 30 Soldiers and Civilian, but rather the poor shooter. A shooter who we are told was a great American, who loved the Army and serving his Nation and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) stating that his actions had nothing to do with religious belief.

We know that Major Hasan deliberately planned this episode; he did give away his possessions. He stood atop a table in the confined space of the Soldier Readiness Center shouting “Allahu Akhbar”, same chant as the 9-11 terrorists and those we fight against overseas in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of operation.

No one in leadership seems willing to sound the alarm for the American people; they are therefore complicit in any future attacks. Our Congress should suspend the insidious action to vote on a preposterous and unconstitutional healthcare bill and resolve the issue of “protecting the American people”.

The recent incidents in Dearborn Michigan, Boston Massachusetts, Dallas Texas, and Chicago Illinois should bear witness to the fact that we have an Islamic terrorism issue in America. And don’t have CAIR call me and try to issue a vanilla press statement; they are an illegitimate terrorist associated organization which should be disbanded.

We have Saudi Arabia funding close to 80% of the mosques in the United States, one right here in South Florida, Pompano Beach. Are we building churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia? Are “Kaffirs” and “Infidels” allowed travel to Mecca?

So much for peaceful coexistence.

Saudi Arabia is sponsoring radical Imams who enter into our prisons and convert young men into a virulent Wahabbist ideology….one resulting in four individuals wanting to destroy synagogues in New York with plastic explosives. Thank God the explosives were dummy. They are sponsoring textbooks which present Islamic centric revisionist history in our schools.

We must recognize that there is an urgent need to separate the theo-political radical Islamic ideology out of our American society. We must begin to demand surveillance of suspected Imams and mosques that are spreading hate and preaching the overthrow of our Constitutional Republic……that speech is not protected under First Amendment, it is sedition and if done by an American treason.

There should not be some 30 Islamic terrorist training camps in America that has nothing to do with First Amendment, Freedom of Religion. The Saudis are not our friends and any American political figure who believes such is delusional.

When tolerance becomes a one way street it certainly leads to cultural suicide. We are on that street. Liberals cannot be trusted to defend our Republic, because their sympathies obviously lie with their perceived victim, Major Nidal Malik Hasan.

I make no apologies for these words, and anyone angered by them, please, go to Ft Hood and look into the eyes of the real victims. The tragedy at Ft Hood Texas did not have to happen. Consider now the feelings of those there and on every military installation in the world. Consider the feelings of the Warriors deployed into combat zones who now are concerned that their loved ones at home are in a combat zone.

Ft Hood suffered an Islamic jihadist attack, stop the denial, and realize a simple point.

The reality of your enemy must become your own.”

Rising food prices are stoking global inflation with many agricultural commodity markets driven higher by bad weather in key producing countries, a senior trader at JPMorgan said.

“If you break down the inflation numbers then the impact of food has been extremely significant,” Will Shropshire, head of investor trading, product development and agriculturals for JPMorgan said in an interview.

In December Turkey and Syria signed 11 “security” agreements and confirmed their “determination to deepen this cooperation, which also constitutes a contribution to regional security and stability,” a joint statement said.

In the latest agreement Syria and Turkey reaffirmed previous cooperation and enhanced security relations. They said the latest accord called for joint cooperation “against terrorism and terrorist organizations.”

In the latest agreement, the two countries agreed to construct a border crossing outside the Syrian city of Qamishli. The joint statement also said Syria and Turkey would cooperate in unidentified air and naval areas.

“Turkish and Syrian sides are also determined to further enhance their cooperation in the fields of maritime and aviation affairs,” the statement said.

Elsewhere the Turkish military has concluded arrangements for an exercise with Afghanistan and Pakistan this March. The exercises were approved by the leaderships of the three countries as part of intensified cooperation.

“Development [of our countries] is a strategic tool to maintain peace, stability and serenity,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Dec. 24.

Turkey has been a leading member of the NATO stabilization campaign in Afghanistan. They said part of the mission was Ankara’s engagement with Pakistan’s intelligence and military community.

Turkey has also decided to focus military exercises in the area of counter-insurgency and anti-drug trafficking. Officials said the three countries would also cooperate on police issues.

“Friendship among the people of our countries has deep historical roots,” Gul said.

In 2010, Turkey conducted an unprecedented air combat exercise with China. Beijing’s participation in Turkey’s Anatolian Eagle exercise was said to have alarmed the United States and other NATO members.

Meanwhile, Turkey plans to restructure its air force amid multi-billion-dollar procurement projects.

Turkish Air Force commander Gen. Hasan Aksay said the military service would undergo a significant expansion and restructuring over the next decade. In a briefing on Dec. 21, Aksay cited air force plans to procure a range of U.S.-origin fighter-jets as well as a spy satellite.

“Before 2050, the Turkish Air Force would retain its success as the most powerful in the region,” Aksay said.

The Air Force chief did not detail plans to restructure the air force. Earlier, officials said the entire military would undergo significant changes in manpower and force structure as Turkey revises its combat doctrine.

Aksay said the Air Force was focusing on operating in space. He said Turkey’s first spy satellite, Gokturk, would ensure that the Middle East state becomes independent in space capabilities by 2021. The Italian-origin Gokturk was said to contain a high resolution capability of less than one meter.

The commander said the air force sought to achieve persistent reconnaissance throughout the Middle East and surrounding regions. Aksay said Gokturk, with an electro-optic payload, would be aided by Turkey’s new fleet of fighter-jets, particularly the U.S.-origin Joint Strike Fighter.

“The F-35, stand-off jammers, unmanned aerial vehicles, long-range air defense systems and airborne early warning and control systems will all be integrated into our current system,” Aksay said.

Most notable in all this is the complete exclusion of Israel in any way.