Technology

Researchers Expose Cunning Online Tracking Service That Can’t Be Evaded

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– Researchers Expose Cunning Online Tracking Service That Can’t Be Dodged (Wired, July 29, 2011):

Researchers at U.C. Berkeley have discovered that some of the net’s most popular sites are using a tracking service that can’t be evaded — even when users block cookies, turn off storage in Flash, or use browsers’ “incognito” functions.

The service, called KISSmetrics, is used by sites to track the number of visitors, what the visitors do on the site, and where they come to the site from — and the company says it does a more comprehensive job than its competitors such as Google Analytics.

Read moreResearchers Expose Cunning Online Tracking Service That Can’t Be Evaded

US House Of Representatives Committee Approves Broadened ISP Snooping Bill

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– House panel approves broadened ISP snooping bill (CNET News, July 28, 2011):

Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers’ activities for one year–in case police want to review them in the future–under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today.

The 19 to 10 vote represents a victory for conservative Republicans, who made data retention their first major technology initiative after last fall’s elections, and the Justice Department officials who have quietly lobbied for the sweeping new requirements, a development first reported by CNET.

A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers’ names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses, some committee members suggested. By a 7-16 vote, the panel rejected an amendment that would have clarified that only IP addresses must be stored.

It represents “a data bank of every digital act by every American” that would “let us find out where every single American visited Web sites,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill.

Read moreUS House Of Representatives Committee Approves Broadened ISP Snooping Bill

CAD Mammography Useless

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– Widely used CAD mammography tool fails to find invasive breast cancer, causes needless tests and stress (NaturalNews, July 28, 2011):

Computer-aided detection (CAD) technology, which analyzes mammography images and marks suspicious areas for radiologists to review, has been widely hyped and pushed on women as a way to insure invasive breast cancer is spotted on mammograms. And it has grown into a huge industry, adding millions of dollars to the cost of healthcare.

The problem is, CAD simply doesn’t work — at all. That’s right. Despite the fact CAD is now applied to the large majority of screening mammograms in the U.S. with annual direct Medicare costs exceeding $30 million (according to a 2010 study in the Journal of the American College of Radiology), new research by University of California at Davis (UC Davis) scientists shows the expensive technology is ineffective in finding breast tumors.

But it does something extremely well. It causes enormous stress by greatly increasing a woman’s risk of being called back for more costly testing following a CAD analyzed mammogram.

The new research, just published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, used data from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium to analyze 1.6 million mammograms. Entitled “Effectiveness of Computer-Aided Detection in Community Mammography Practice,” the study specifically looked at screening mammograms performed on more than 680,000 women at 90 mammography facilities in seven U.S. states, between the years of 1998 and 2006.

The results are being hailed as the most definitive findings to date on whether the super popular mammography tool is effective in locating cancer in the breast. The findings? CAD is a waste of time and money.

The false-positive rate increased from 8.1 percent before CAD to 8.6 percent after CAD was installed at the medical centers in the study. What’s more, the detection rate of breast cancer and the stage and size of breast cancer tumors were similar regardless of whether or not CAD was used.

“In real-world practice, CAD increases the chances of being unnecessarily called back for further testing because of false-positive results without clear benefits to women,” Joshua Fenton, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Family and Community Medicine, said in a statement to the media. “Breast cancers were detected at a similar stage and size regardless of whether or not radiologists used CAD.”

Read moreCAD Mammography Useless

Russia Launches New ‘Spektr-R’ Telescope With 10,000 Times The Resolution Of The Hubble Telescope

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– Russian telescope launch pulls national space program out of black hole (Christian Science Monitor, July 19, 2011):

Russian scientists are jubilant at news that the Spektr-R, a powerful space telescope conceived in the depths of the cold war, was finally lofted into orbit aboard a Zenit rocket Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Once it is fully operational, the new radio telescope will sync up with ground-based observatories to form the biggest telescope ever built. It will be known as RadioAstron, with a “dish” spanning 30 times the Earth’s diameter. Experts say it will be able to deliver images from the remote corners of the universe at 10,000 times the resolution of the US Hubble Space Telescope.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for such a long time,” says Nikolai Podorvanyuk, a researcher at the official Institute of Astronomy in Moscow.

“It’s been planned since the 1980s, but has repeatedly fallen through for a variety of reasons. But now it’s here, and we’re bracing for all the new information it’s going to deliver, especially about black holes,” he says.

Read moreRussia Launches New ‘Spektr-R’ Telescope With 10,000 Times The Resolution Of The Hubble Telescope

And Now … Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs): Broadband Access Can Be Provided Up To 100 Km At 22 Mbps

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“100km network won’t interfere with TV”

…which is of course the most important thing in life!

– IEEE publishes long range wireless standards (Tech Eye):

100km network won’t interfere with TV

New standards for long range wireless networks have been published today by the IEEE.

The 802.22 standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) means that broadband access can be provided over long distances, up to 100 kilometres.

This will mean that rural areas could more easily benefit from broadband access, with developing countries targeted by the IEEE.

Read moreAnd Now … Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs): Broadband Access Can Be Provided Up To 100 Km At 22 Mbps

Sufficient ‘Bank Activity’ Required For Wisconsin Voter ID

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– Bank ‘Activity’ Required For Wisconsin Voter ID (Disinformation, July 27, 2011):

In the state of Wisconsin, you may be denied the ability to vote for lack of sufficient recent “bank activity”. A woman surreptitiously filmed the interactions as her 18-year-old son leaps through hurdle after hurdle in an attempt to get a constitutionally-guaranteed state ID so that he could vote. At the DMV, the pair is told that voter IDs were not issued when voters’ bank accounts did not show enough “activity.” The clerk had no answer when asked what would happen in the case of a resident who was homeless or unemployed, or too poor to maintain the minimum balance required for a checking account.


YouTube

New Fingerprint Analysis Tech Aims To Revolutionize Drug Testing

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– Fingerprint analysis tech aims to revolutionize drug testing (The Raw Story, July 26, 2011):

A new technology that analyzes the sweat from a person’s fingertips looks to revolutionize the drug testing market, providing on-site results in minutes with a test so advanced it can even detect marijuana intoxication.

Using gold nanoparticles and special antibodies, the tech produced by British firm Intelligent Fingerprinting latches on to metabolites on the fingerprint and turns a specific color depending on which drug byproducts are detected.

While it can be configured to search for drugs like nicotine, methadone and cocaine, it also presents another innovation: helping to determine if someone is actively intoxicated on marijuana.

Read moreNew Fingerprint Analysis Tech Aims To Revolutionize Drug Testing

150 HUMAN ANIMAL HYBRIDS Secretly Produced In UK Labs

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– 150 human animal hybrids grown in UK labs: Embryos have been produced secretively for the past three years (Daily Mail, July 23, 2011):

Scientists have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos in British laboratories.

The hybrids have been produced secretively over the past three years by researchers looking into possible cures for a wide range of diseases.

The revelation comes just a day after a committee of scientists warned of a nightmare ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario in which work on human-animal creations goes too far.

Last night a campaigner against the excesses of medical research said he was disgusted that scientists were ‘dabbling in the grotesque’.

Figures seen by the Daily Mail show that 155 ‘admixed’ embryos, containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act.

This legalised the creation of a variety of hybrids, including an animal egg fertilised by a human sperm; ‘cybrids’, in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell; and ‘chimeras’, in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos.

Scientists say the techniques can be used to develop embryonic stem cells which can be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses.

Read more150 HUMAN ANIMAL HYBRIDS Secretly Produced In UK Labs

Melt-Through Simulation Done By The Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization BEFORE Fukushima (Video)

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– Melt-Through Simulation Created by Japan’s METI Well Before #Fukushima (EX-SKF, Friday, July 22, 2011):

This animation was created by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, a government corporation under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (which regulates the nuclear industry), to train Senior Specialists for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness on the severe accident of loss of cooling, using a Mark-1 Boiling Water Reactor.

It was created before the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, though there is no information as to when it was created. (The Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization itself was created in 2003.)

The accident sequence in the animation:

  1. Control rods are inserted, and the reactor stops.
  2. A big pipe connected to the Reactor Pressure Vessel breaks, and all methods of cooling the reactor fails.
  3. Water starts to leak. Water level in the RPV gets low, exposing the fuel core.

That’s exactly what happened at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

They must have known all along that it was not even a meltdown but melt-through.


YouTube

Core melts 30 minutes after the loss of coolant accident.

Corium drops to the bottom of the RPV after 1 hour of loss of coolant.

Corium melts through the 15-centimeter RPV bottom after 3 hours, drops to the concrete floor of the pedestal that supports the RPV.

Corium melts through the concrete floor of the pedestal and drops to the floor of the Containment Vessel.

Gas is generated by the corium melting the concrete, and the gas fills the Containment Vessel raising the pressure and the temperature.

Gas starts to leak at the franges of the Containment Vessel and fill the reactor building, necessitating the venting.

The animation has this reassuring message at the end:

“Even if it gets to the worst case scenario (that you’ve just seen), we are trying our best to learn and upgrade our skills in dealing with nuclear emergencies by training the nuclear emergency specialists, so that the residents near the nuclear power plants can feel safe and secure.”

A Senior Specialists for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness is a METI (NISA) official stationed full-time in the area where a nuclear power plant is located.

Independent Scientist Leuren Moret: Nuclear Genocide Of Babies And Children In Japan, US, Canada Grows – Elitist Depopulation Agenda – Global Nuclear Holocaust

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For your information…

Before:

– Independent Scientist Leuren Moret On The Horrendous Events At Fukushima And The Ever Present Dangers Of Nuclear Energy

– Examiner Interview With Independent Scientist Leuren Moret: Fukushima HAARP Nuclear Attack By CIA, DOE, BP for London Banks

Leuren Moret explains why this data is correct:

– US: Infant Deaths Up 48% In Philadelphia Since Japan Meltdowns (FOX NEWS)

– Dramatic 35% Spike In Infant Mortality In Pacific Northwest Cities Since Fukushima Meltdown

– Is Iodine-131 Killing Babies In Philly? Death Rate Up 48 Percent Since Iodine-131 Has Been Detected In Philadelphia’s Drinking Water

And yes, it is still raining down high levels of radiation:

– Canada: Dangerous Levels Of Radiation – Highly Radioactive Rain in Lake Louise, BC (1.66 mcSv/hr) (07/18/2011)


YouTube Added: 17.07.2011

– Leuren Moret – Nuclear genocide of babies and children in Japan, US, Canada grows (Examiner, July 17, 2011):

In an exclusive ExopoliticsTV interview (released July 17, 2011) with independent scientist Leuren Moret, MA, PhD (ABT) by Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd, Ms. Moret reveals that the hidden nuclear genocide of babies and children resulting from the March 11, 2011 Fukushima false flag tectonic event can now be documented and is growing.

Leuren Moret also released her court statement as an expert witness in a lawsuit brought to force government officials to evacuate more than 350,000 children from the Fukushima area where they are being forcibly exposed by the government to lethal doses of radiation.  Ms. Moret’s court statement is reprinted below in this article as a public service.

Leuren Moret Court statement in Koriyama City, Fukushima, Japan

In her court statement as part of a lawsuit in Japan to force the evacuation of more than 350,000 children from lethal levels of radiation in the Fukushima area, Leuren Moret states,

“FUKUSHIMA RADIATION EFFECTS THOUSANDS OF MILES ACROSS THE OCEAN

“The west coast of North America is thousands of miles across the vast Pacific Ocean, a long way from Fukushima Daiichi and the radioactive solids, liquids, and gases being released daily and recklessly to poison both near and far. Already we are seeing the effects in North America.

Read moreIndependent Scientist Leuren Moret: Nuclear Genocide Of Babies And Children In Japan, US, Canada Grows – Elitist Depopulation Agenda – Global Nuclear Holocaust

CBS Watts Bar Nuclear Reactor Investigation Part II: Whistleblowers ‘Terrified’ At TVA Nuke Plants (Video)

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See also:

– CBS Investigation Regarding New Watts Bar Nuclear Reactor: Whistleblower Ann Harris: ‘The Books Are Being Cooked’ – ‘You Can See A Fukushima Happening Here In The US’ – ‘They Wired My Car For Firebombing’ (VIDEO)

– Chief Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen: Why Fukushima Can Happen In The US: What the NRC and Nuclear Industry Dont Want You to Know

– Whistleblowers “terrified” at TVA nuke plants? (CBS News, July 20, 2011):

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released a task force report on the safety of America’s 104 nuclear reactors.

And on “The Early Show” Wednesday, CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian offered Part Two of his investigation into one troubled nuclear power plant, in Spring City, Tenn.

On Tuesday, he reported on whistleblower Ann Harris, a 71-year-old great-grandmother who’s made it her life’s calling to hold those operating the plant accountable when it comes to safety.

On Wednesday, he looked into the culture war at the facility known as Watts Bar.

Linda Nadeau worked for more than 20 years as a security guard for the Tennessee Valley Authority, the government-owned electricity corporation, patrolling the most secure areas of its nuclear power plants, including Watts Bar.

“I want people to know how we were treated,” she told Keteyian. “I’m not the only one. There was other people.”

Over the years, hundreds of such *people* have found their way to Harris’s home — long a safe haven for insiders seeking counsel from the former Watts Bar employee who has won a record six whistleblower lawsuits against the TVA.

“Not on anybody’s life,” says Harris, “would I let anybody know who come through here.”

She’s not alone.

A 1986 report documents what investigators called “widespread intimidation, harassment and discrimination by TVA management,” along with “widespread mistrust.”

A crying Janice Overall told CBS News her husband, Curtis, “paid the ultimate price.”

In the comfort of Harris’s kitchen, Overall spoke of Curtis, an award-winning employee who helped run Watts Bar’s unique ice containment system, designed to prevent a nuclear meltdown.

But in 1995, after Overall discovered what he believed were problems with the system on the eve of Watts Bar’s long-delayed startup, he got harassed with threatening notes, and even a fake bomb discovered in the back of his pickup. Battling a bad heart and deep depression, Overall died in 2007 at the age of 56, without any proof of who had harassed him.

Read moreCBS Watts Bar Nuclear Reactor Investigation Part II: Whistleblowers ‘Terrified’ At TVA Nuke Plants (Video)

1 BILLION BECQUERELS PER HOUR Emission of Radioactive Materials from Fukushima I Nuke Plant at the End of June

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– 1 Billion Becquerels Per Hour Emission of Radioactive Materials from Fukushima I Nuke Plant at the End of June (EX-SKF, July 19, 2011):

That’s an amazing reduction from the maximum emission of 2,000 terabecquerels per hour on March 15, it is actually one-2 millionth of the maximum, says TEPCO in the Reference No. 2 of the progress report on the “roadmap” to God knows where.

Is this number, 1 billion becquerels per hour emission, good? TEPCO’s Matsumoto, in the press conference on July 19, avoided the judgment, and said he didn’t know, but it was one-2 millionth of what it had been on March 15.

On closer reading of the document, though, I noticed one strange thing about this emission number. TEPCO is talking about the radiation emission measured in cesium (cesium-134 and -137), not in iodine equivalence.

To come up with the iodine-131 equivalence, you have to multiply cesium-134 by 3, and cesium-137 by 40 (according to INES handbook). TEPCO doesn’t even give the breakdown of cesium 134 and -137 in its calculation of 1 billion becquerels/hour number. Other nuclides have even higher multiplier: americium-241 is 8,000, plutonium-239 is 10,000.

If half of 1 billion becquerels is cesium-134 and the other half is cesium-137, then in iodine-131 equivalence like in the previous calculations, the emission would be:

(0.5*3)+(0.5*40)=1.5+20=21.5 billion becquerels/hour

Instead of 1 billion becquerels/hour, it would be 21.4 billion becquerels/hour in iodine equivalence, or 516 billion becquerels in one day. In less than 2 days, we would be talking about over 1 terabecquerels.

Read more1 BILLION BECQUERELS PER HOUR Emission of Radioactive Materials from Fukushima I Nuke Plant at the End of June

CBS Investigation Regarding New Watts Bar Nuclear Reactor: Whistleblower Ann Harris: ‘The Books Are Being Cooked’ – ‘You Can See A Fukushima Happening Here In The US’ – ‘They Wired My Car For Firebombing’ (VIDEO)

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YouTube Added: 19.07.2011

Investigative reporter Armen Keteyian comes to Rhea County Tennessee to interview whistleblower Ann Harris and tour the Watts Bar Plant.

AND NOW … TEPCO Plans For IMPOSSIBLE Cold Shutdown By January!

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Again:

– TEPCO’s ‘Cold Shutdown’ Lie And What They ‘Forgot’ To Tell You About Fukushima:

TEPCO says they are planning a “cold shutdown” of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants in 6 to 9 months.

“Cold shutdown” means the reactor cores – and the used fuel pools – decrease in temperature through 100 degrees C and continue to go down after a couple of days without additional cooling.  If that doesn’t happen within 48 hours, it isn’t going to.  E-V-E-R. The reactors are still ‘in service’ – which means the fuel is still reacting.  It hasn’t happened at Fukushima and it never will.

– Tepco plans for cold shutdown by January (Japan Times, July 20, 2011):

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday they have successfully achieved consistent and stable cooling of the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant and will by mid-January reduce the amount of radioactive materials being released.

They also said some evacuated residents may be able to return home after “Step 2” is completed.

With “Step 1” — stable cooling of the reactors — complete, Tepco said it will now try to bring them into a state of cold shutdown.

Read moreAND NOW … TEPCO Plans For IMPOSSIBLE Cold Shutdown By January!

Video Of ‘MORIS’ Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech Which Police Across The Nation Will Roll Out This Year

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Don’t miss:

– Police Across The Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year (POPSCI, July 14, 2011):


YouTube

Demonstrates the use of MORIS – the first of its kind mobile multi-modal biometric recognition device based on the iPhone. It is utilizing iris recognition in addition to face and fingerprint. For more information, please visit: http://www.bi2technologies.com/MORIS

Police Across The Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year

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– Amid Privacy Fears, Police Across the Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year (POPSCI, July 14, 2011):

A controversial piece of facial recognition technology (and a PopSci “Best of What’s New 2010” alum) is rolling out in police stations across the country this fall, and naturally not everyone is happy about it. The Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System (MORIS) uses an augmented iPhone to snap pictures of faces, scan fingerprints, and even to image irises, and then combs through police databases looking for matching identities. This, understandably, has privacy and civil liberties advocates crying foul.

The MORIS device attaches to the back of an iPhone, adding roughly 1.75 inches to the thickness of the smartphone. Police officers armed with the tool can take a photo of a person’s face from about five feet away, or scan his or her iris from about six inches, and wirelessly beam that data to law enforcement databases elsewhere to look for a match. It can also perform remote fingerprint matching.

Similar biometric technology has been deployed by the U.S. military in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to confirm the identities of civilians entering military safe zones and to search for known insurgents at checkpoints. But rolling it out in the streets of the U.S. has plenty of people concerned with privacy and Constitutional issues.

Read morePolice Across The Nation Will Roll Out Face-Recognizing iPhone Tech This Year

New JP Morgan Supercomputer Runs Complete Risk Analysis In 12 Seconds (Instead Of 8 Hours Before)!!!

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“The project took JP Morgan around three years, and the bank is now looking to push it into other areas of the business, such as high frequency trading.”


– JP Morgan supercomputer offers risk analysis in near real-time (Computerworld UK, July 11, 2011):

JP Morgan is now able to run risk analysis and price its global credit portfolio in near real-time after implementing application-led, High Performance Computing (HPC) capabilities developed by Maxeler Technologies.

The investment bank worked with HPC solutions provider Maxeler Technologies to develop an application-led, HPC system based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology that would allow it to run complex banking algorithms on its credit book faster.

JP Morgan uses mainly C++ for its pure analytical models and Python programming for the facilitation. For the new Maxeler system, it flattened the C++ code down to a Java code. The company also supports Excel and all different versions of Linux.

Prior to the implementation, JP Morgan would take eight hours to do a complete risk run, and an hour to run a present value, on its entire book. If anything went wrong with the analysis, there was no time to re-run it.

It has now reduced that to about 238 seconds, with an FPGA time of 12 seconds.

“Being able to run the book in 12 seconds end-to-end and get a value on our multi-million dollar book within 12 seconds is a huge commercial advantage for us,” Stephen Weston, global head of the Applied Analytics group in the investment banking division of JP Morgan, said at a recent lecture to Stanford University students.

“If we can compress space, time and energy required to do these calculations then it has hard business values for us. It gives us ultimately a competitive edge, the ability to run our risk more frequently, and extracting more value from our books by understanding more fully is a real commercial advantage for us.”

The faster processing times means that JP Morgan can now respond to changes in its risk position more rapidly, rather than just looking back at the risk profile of the previous day, which was produced by overnight analyses.

The speed also allows the bank to identify potential problems and try to deal with them in advance. For example, JP Morgan can now run potential scenarios to assess its exposure to problems such as the Irish or Greek bank problems, which Weston said “wouldn’t have even been thinkable” before.

Read moreNew JP Morgan Supercomputer Runs Complete Risk Analysis In 12 Seconds (Instead Of 8 Hours Before)!!!

Chief Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen: Why Fukushima Can Happen In The US: What the NRC and Nuclear Industry Dont Want You to Know

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Why Fukushima Can Happen Here: What the NRC and Nuclear Industry Dont Want You to Know from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Vimeo

The well-known safety flaws of Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactors have gained significant attention in the wake of the four reactor accidents at Fukushima, but a more insidious danger lurks. In this video nuclear engineers Arnie Gundersen and David Lochbaum discuss how the US regulators and regulatory process have left Americans unprotected. They walk, step-by-step, through the events of the Japanese meltdowns and consider how the knowledge gained from Fukushima applies to the nuclear industry worldwide. They discuss “points of vulnerability” in American plants, some of which have been unaddressed by the NRC for three decades. Finally, they concluded that an accident with the consequences of Fukushima could happen in the US.

With more radioactive Cesium in the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant’s spent fuel pool than was released by Fukushima, Chernobyl, and all nuclear bomb testing combined, Gundersen and Lockbaum ask why there is not a single procedure in place to deal with a crisis in the fuel pool? These and more safety questions are discussed in this forum presented by the C-10 Foundation at the Boston Public Library. Special thanks to Herb Moyer for the excellent video and Geoff Sutton for the frame-by-frame graphics of the Unit 3 explosion.

And Now: Japan Government, TEPCO: Removal Of Melted Fuel Rods May Start In 10 YEARS, IF Technology Essential For The Work Has Been Developed Before That!!!

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Oh, sure!

– Govt., TEPCO draw roadmap to reactor decommission (NHK, July 09, 2011):

A roadmap toward decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant indicates that the removal of melted nuclear fuel rods at the plant may begin in 10 years.

NHK has obtained the mid- and long-term roadmap which was presented when officials from the operator of the Fukushima plant, government officials in charge of nuclear safety, and manufacturers of nuclear reactors met last week.

The draft roadmap drawn up by the government’s Nuclear Safety Commission and Tokyo Electric Power Company says they tentatively set a target date to begin removing fuel rods that melted and fell to the bottom of the reactor.

The work is considered to be the most important phase in the decommissioning process. The roadmap indicates that removal will start in 2021 if technology essential for the work has been developed before that.

Read moreAnd Now: Japan Government, TEPCO: Removal Of Melted Fuel Rods May Start In 10 YEARS, IF Technology Essential For The Work Has Been Developed Before That!!!

Mall Uses Airport Body Scanning Technology for Clothes Shopping

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This is not comparable to airport full-body scanners.

– Mall Uses Airport Body Scanning Technology for Clothes Shopping (Daily Tech, July 1, 2011):

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding body scanners at the airport since they began producing nude photos of the public. While many have complained about the new technology, Unique Solutions Limited has found a new use for it that keeps the public’s clothes on.

Unique Solutions Limited, which was established in 1994, specializes in personalized shopping. It originally started out as a company that provides custom sewing patterns tailored to fit customers’ body shapes perfectly. Its goal is to provide clothing that fits an individual, since many clothing stores offer set sizes that may or may not fit the way they should. The company has expanded to offer technology that can provide this convenience.

Unique Solutions’ newest technology is called “mybestfit,” and it utilizes the body scanning technology used in airports — except it keeps your clothes on.

Read moreMall Uses Airport Body Scanning Technology for Clothes Shopping

Creepy New App Uses Facial Recognition To Count Women In Bars

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– Creepy app uses facial recognition to count women in bars (Reuters, July 4, 2011):

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A new app aims to maximize the chances of meeting a member of the opposite sex by using facial recognition technology to show how many men and women there are in any given bar.

Scene Tap’s app also records how crowded a bar is by logging the total number of people inside.

It operates using cameras installed at the doors of participating bars which can distinguish between men and women and give the approximate age of the patrons.

So far some 200 bars in the United States have signed up ahead of the imminent start of the scheme, 50 of them in Scene Tap’s home base of Chicago.

Read moreCreepy New App Uses Facial Recognition To Count Women In Bars

Japan Scientists Find Huge Rare Earth Deposits In Pacific

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– Huge rare earth deposits found in Pacific: Japan experts (Reuters, July 4, 2011):

Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said on Monday.

“The deposits have a heavy concentration of rare earths. Just one square kilometer (0.4 square mile) of deposits will be able to provide one-fifth of the current global annual consumption,” said Yasuhiro Kato, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Tokyo.

The discovery was made by a team led by Kato and including researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

They found the minerals in sea mud extracted from depths of 3,500 to 6,000 meters (11,500-20,000 ft) below the ocean surface at 78 locations. One-third of the sites yielded rich contents of rare earths and the metal yttrium, Kato said in a telephone interview.

Read moreJapan Scientists Find Huge Rare Earth Deposits In Pacific

New Jersey: Salem Nuclear Reactor No. 2 In ‘Hot Shutdown’ After Cooling Pump Failure

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– Salem Unit 2 nuclear reactor shuts down after cooling pump failure (NJ, June 28, 2011):

LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. — The Salem Unit 2 nuclear plant remained shut down this afternoon following a problem with a reactor coolant pump, according to a spokesman for the plant’s operator.

Salem 2 automatically went offline Sunday at 6:01 p.m. when the coolant pump tripped, said Joe Delmar, spokesman for PSEG Nuclear.

When the pump shut down, the auxiliary pump system automatically started to provide water to cool the reactor.

The cause of the pump failure is still being investigated, according to Delmar. The plant functioned as designed, he said.

The plant remained in “hot shutdown” mode this afternoon.

Read moreNew Jersey: Salem Nuclear Reactor No. 2 In ‘Hot Shutdown’ After Cooling Pump Failure

Los Alamos Takes Supercomputers Offline

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– Los Alamos Takes Supercomputers Offline (Data Center Knowledge, June 30, 2011):

The wildfire threatening Los Alamos, New Mexico has gained national attention, largely due to concerns about the safety of nuclear waste at Los Alamos National Labs, which played a key role in the Manhattan Project and nuclear weapons development and testing. As we noted Monday, the Department of Energy facility also houses two of the world’s leading supercomputers, the Cielo and Roadrunner systems. Those systems have been taken offline, Computerworld reports.“

A Los Alamos spokeswoman said the laboratory conducted an ‘orderly shutdown’ of two of its largest supercomputers,” writes Patrick Thibodeau at ComputerWorld. “IBM’s Roadrunner, the first the break the petaflop barrier in 2008, and now the 10th ranked most powerful supercomputer in the world, and Cielo, a Craig system that is ranked No. 6 on the Top500 list. The supercomputer shutdowns were conducted ‘early on,’ but an exact day or reason for the action wasn’t clear.”

Read moreLos Alamos Takes Supercomputers Offline

New And Improved Fukushima Reactor Cooling System Down After 1.5 Hours

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System down after 1.5 hours?

– #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: New and Improved Reactor Cooling System Using Treated Water Shuts Down After 1.5 Hour of Operation (Ex-SKF, June 27, 2011):

Yes, yes it is a big system, which should have been carefully prepared and tested for at least one or two years and they did it in 2 months.

A leak was found on a joint of PVC pipes that transport the treated water.

Read moreNew And Improved Fukushima Reactor Cooling System Down After 1.5 Hours