Archive for September, 2011
Japan: Kan Considered Evacuation of Tokyo in Wake Nuclear Disaster, but Feared Chaos and Collapse of the State
September 30th, 2011Via: ABC: Japan’s former prime minister Naoto Kan has revealed he contemplated evacuating as many as 30 million people from Tokyo and surrounding areas during the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Speaking to Japan’s Kyodo News, Mr Kan, who was prime minister during the nuclear crisis, said evacuations on such a scale may have led to Japan […]
Police Device Used To Steal Your Cell Phone Data During Traffic Stop
September 30th, 2011Via: AOL Autos: You may have heard about the Cellebrite cell phone extraction device (UFED) in the news lately. It gives law enforcement officials the ability to access all the information on your cell phone within a few short minutes. When it became known that Michigan State Police had been using the tool to access […]
A Form of ‘Neo-Stagflation’ Has Emerged
September 30th, 2011Via: Globe and Mail: This neo-stagflation is characterized by rising prices for food, fuel and metals – which were also key drivers in the 1970s stagflationary spiral. “An OECD economic cycle in which prices of foods, fuels and precious metals rise far more strongly than prices of manufactured goods – or workers’ wages – is […]
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions
September 30th, 2011Thank you. CB2 $75 DL £30 PM $50
Morgan Stanley Seen as Risky as Italian Banks
September 30th, 2011Via: Bloomberg: Morgan Stanley (MS), which owns the world’s largest retail brokerage, is being priced in the credit- default swaps market as less creditworthy than most U.S., U.K. and French banks and as risky as Italy’s biggest lenders. The cost of buying the swaps, or CDS, which offer protection against a default of New York-based […]
Rare Earth Elements: ‘Demand Destruction’
September 30th, 2011This is a pretty good article that goes into several reasons for the price declines; speculators selling, companies finding alternative materials, companies re-designing products, recycling and others. Via: Bloomberg: Rare-earth prices are set to extend their decline from records this year as buyers including Toyota Motor Corp. and General Electric Co. scale back using the […]
A Japanese Response to Nuclear Disaster: The Smartphone that Measures Radiation
September 30th, 2011Via: Telegraph: A mobile phone that doubles as a radiation detector? If there is one country that can pull off (and sell) such a device, it’s Japan. A leading Japanese telecommunications company will unveil a smartphone next week that also acts as a radiation dosimeter to help users detect potential contamination. In Japan, it’s a […]
Navigating NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
September 29th, 2011Very, very cool. Via: SF Signal: Over the summer, NPR solicited the input of its listeners to rank the top science fiction and fantasy books of all time. Over 60,000 people voted for the top picks which were then compiled into a list by their panel of experts. The result? This list of 100 books […]
U.S. Considers Fencing Along Canadian Border
September 29th, 2011Yeah, keep criminals out. That’s the ticket. *wink* Via: CTV: Building fences along the Canadian border is one of the options the U.S. government is considering as it mulls how to handle “trouble spots” and keep out criminals and other threats. In a new draft report, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency includes among […]
New Zealand Credit Rating Downgraded
September 29th, 2011Via: New Zealand Herald: Fitch ratings agency has lowered New Zealand’s credit rating by one notch to “AA” and expressed concern over its high external debt. “New Zealand’s high level of net external debt is an outlier among rated peers – a key vulnerability that is likely to persist as the current account deficit is […]
