Archive for March, 2011
More Flash Crashes
March 31st, 2011Via: Reuters: Ten new exchange-traded funds suffered their own mini “flash crashes” shortly after the U.S. stock market opened on Thursday, suggesting recent measures put in place to protect against extreme market moves may not be enough. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc said it canceled trades in 10 new ETFs sponsored by Scottrade affiliate FocusShares, some […]
Corn: Limit Up
March 31st, 2011Via: Bloomberg: Corn rose the most allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade as concerns mounted that food costs will climb after the latest U.S. government forecasts on supplies and acreage. Soybeans and wheat also jumped.
Fukushima Daiichi: Groundwater Radiation 10,000 Times Over Legal Limit
March 31st, 2011Via: Kyodo: More signs of serious radiation contamination in and near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected Thursday, with the latest data finding groundwater containing radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold and the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in nearby seawater rising to the highest level yet. Radioactive material was confirmed from groundwater […]
Fed Releases Discount-Window Loan Records Under Order
March 31st, 2011Via: Bloomberg: The Federal Reserve released thousands of pages of secret loan documents under court order, almost three years after Bloomberg LP first requested details of the central bank’s unprecedented support to banks during the financial crisis. The records — 894 files in PDF form that must be individually opened and read — reveal for […]
Oil Climbs to Highest Since 2008
March 31st, 2011Via: AP: The price of oil rose to a 30-month high on Thursday as fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi pushed back rebels from key areas in eastern Libya. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2 to $106.27 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At one point it hit $106.77, the […]
EPA Ready to Massively Increase ‘Permissible Radioactive Release’ Guidelines
March 31st, 2011Via: Tennessean: The EPA is preparing to dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after “radiological incidents,” according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. … The radiation guides called Protective Action Guides or PAGs are protocols for responding to radiological events ranging from nuclear power-plant accidents to dirty bombs. Drinking water, […]
Libyan Rebel Leader Spent Much of Past 20 Years in Suburban Virginia
March 31st, 2011Easily the best line in a couple of weeks. *chortle*: Since coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself… Via: McClatchy: The new leader of Libya’s opposition military spent the past two decades in […]
‘CIA Operating in Libya’
March 31st, 2011This story is a month old: “We’ve been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and, as the revolution moves westward, there as well,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said en route to Geneva for talks on Libya. The U.S. will provide “any kind of assistance” to those […]
U.S. Marines, Specializing in Nuclear Emergency Response, Deploying to Japan
March 31st, 2011Via: ABC News: The ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan has prompted the U.S. military to send a marine unit specializing in nuclear emergency response to be on hand if needed, ABC News has learned. Trained in personnel decontamination and monitoring of radiation levels, the team would not be involved in the efforts to stabilize the […]
Berkey Water Filter Question
March 31st, 2011[Update] It’s Much Less Turbid Than I Indicated Initially In email and through the story suggestion form, I’m being flooded with pre-filter related stuff. Ok, I gave the wrong impression in my initial description. A pre-filter isn’t going to do anything with this water. I poured a glass of steam distilled water and set it […]
