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USA builds largest non nuclear weapon in the World

28/11/2015

Death from 22, 000 feet

The Americans have a new weapon – MOPs. No it’s not a device for cleaning floors. It’s a massive bomb. In fact, it is the world’s largest non-nuclear exploding device. The 22 ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator is designed to penetrate and destroy structures buried deep underground.

The weapon has been in development since 2004 with revamps and upgrades since 2012. It has been speculated that the MOP was originally conceived as a possible weapon to drop on Iran’s underground uranium enrichment plant which was built underground. The first working iteration of the MOP was designed to be dropped from 20,000 feet to achieve supersonic speed by the time it reached the earth. A GPS guidance system would enhance its accuracy. It is expected to be able to penetrate earth, rock and 60 feet of concrete to then explode, destroying any underground complex.

Its power rivals a small nuclear device.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into the building and testing of this new mega-bomb.

Will it deter unfriendly states that wish to develop nuclear weapons facilities?

The US is often referred to as the world’s policeman. It comes with a high cost in people’s lives and money. For the past three years, according to the CIA’s World Factbook, the US has used 4.35% or more of its GDP(Gross Domestic Product) value on the military. This added up to USD$610 billion in 2014, more than any other country.

Supplying other countries with arms, ammunition and the latest in planes, drone, robots, etc., is big business. The multi-billion dollar trade has the US leading in sales, followed by Russia. Of the top ten companies supplying military gear, six are based in the US. Hundreds of thousands of people are employed by what has been called the industrial/military complex.

Some peaceniks have even been so bold as to opine that the business of war is too profitable to abandon.

Sources:
Defense Industry Daily
Business Insider
Peter C. Peterson Foundation
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

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Digital warfare our new reality

28/11/2015

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There’s a new class of weapons of mass destruction. Digital weapons can now join those of atomic, chemical and biological weapons. Der Spiegel has released more of Edward Snowdon’s documents regarding the NSA and its activities.

The documents reveal an ongoing cyber war that is well underway. The prize is control of the Internet. As we become ever more “connected” we increase our vulnerability to cyber-attacks. Attacks by computer hackers usually involve implanting bogus instructions(viruses) or denying service. We saw an example of the hackers' work against a nation that was widely publicized when the Iranian nuclear weapons programme was derailed by a virus that damaged equipment.

With much of our urban infrastructure now hooked to the WEB, it is vulnerable to tampering. The results could be catastrophic. Picture a major city like New York with a non-operational electrical grid or the Netherlands without pumping capability and you can imagine damage and loss of life without a shot being fired.

Radicals and terrorists have grasped the power of social networks and have utilized their global reach to propagate their messages.

Concern is mounting among police and defence personnel about the radicalization of young, impressionable people. “Home grown terrorists” has unfortunately become an everyday phrase in the 21st century.

"World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation." Marshall McLuhan*

Nation states have been accused of attacking others in concerted hacking episodes. An incident in 2013 saw the Associated Press hacked. False information told the American public that a bomb had been exploded in the White House, killing the president. The stock market plummeted. The Syrian army claimed credit or blame for that incident.

Sneak attacks and information theft can give an enemy state insider information about industrial design or secret political plans.

Some new words to add to your vocabulary:

TAO – Tailored access operations
Stealthy implants
ROC – remote operations centre
Endpoint Operations – tailored to actively subvert systems

*Marshall McLuhan died in 1980

Sources:
Der Spiegel
Rand Corp

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Brazil Toxic ooze from mine reaches ocean

26/11/2015

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Bento Rodrigues now

The massive breach in the Samarco mine tailings pond has now been described by Brazil’s environment minister as “the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history”. When the earthen dam was breached November 5, it unleashed about 50 million cubic metres of water mixed with mine wastes. The resulting mud flow devastated a small town. The immediate death toll was eight confirmed dead and 20 more missing and presumed dead.

Emergency workers found a human arm 55 miles from the destroyed town on Thursday.

The toxic sludge made its way down the Rio Doce, poisoning the aquatic life and gradually moving into the ocean. The small town at the mouth of the river is dependent on tourism and environment to make its living. Now they are hoping for the small mercy of the sludge not covering the beaches where the endangered leatherback turtles lay their eggs. Those beaches are the only ones in Brazil where the leatherbacks return.

The nightmare has not played itself out yet. It has been disclosed that two more dams are in imminent danger of collapsing, releasing even more sludge onto the town site and river.

The company in charge of the Samarco mine, Imperial Metals Corp., aka BHP Billiton, has agreed to pay damages of just under USD 300 million as well as a fine, but critics say that that amount comes nowhere near compensating people for the loss of their relatives, their homes, their livelihoods and their environment.

Mines create large amounts of waste material and polluted water in the process. The cheapest way for mine operators to deal with the pulverized rock and contaminated water is to impound it in earthen dams until the tailings(solids) settle out. Unfortunately the dams may be too weak to hold back the water and sludge. The sludge is often acidic as well as high in heavy metals, burning the flesh that it touches and poisoning both the environment and the people in it.

Tailings from mines, whether stacked in piles or behind dams in ponds, fail too often. In the past five years there have been 15 major failures around the world. Some result in loss of life. All result in damage to the environment.

Sources:
Mining.com
The Guardian UK
Wikipedia

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Syrian refugees in Canada by year end

24/11/2015

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Maple leaves come in many colours

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau told the country of the strategy for bringing in Syrian refugees.

The timeline for transporting and integrating 25000 people has been revamped. Originally, Trudeau promised to bring the refugees in before the end of the year.

While 10000 will be here before year end, the remaining 15000 will be transported in early 2016.

"This is not just about welcoming 25,000 Syrian refugees, this is about welcoming 25,000 new Canadians," he said. CBC

Those coming to Canada are being screened abroad. People currently housed in refugee camps are being interviewed. The emphasis is on families and children. Members of the LGBT communities in Syria are also being considered. Those who are single males or those with a complicated story are not being currently considered for asylum at this time.

The screening process is quite thorough. Candidates must be registered with the UN Refugee Agency or the Government of Turkey. Their identities and papers are thoroughly checked.

While some Canadians are not happy about bringing such a large number of people into the country, many others sincerely support it. The vast majority of refugees who have found a safe haven in Canada have contributed much to the building of a modern nation. The newly elected federal government has a cabinet minister who came to Canada at the age of ten as a refugee.

For those who cannot be immediately housed in private homes will be accommodated temporarily in military housing. Currently, there is housing ready for about 6000 people.

Canadians will start to welcome the Syrians next week. Those who have been privately sponsored will go directly to those homes. Those who are government sponsored will likely head to the military bases and then sent to the 36 “destination cities” for housing and help with integration. The military bases are non-custodial.

Sources:
CBC News
The Globe and Mail

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New super resistant bacteria spreading

23/11/2015

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Will pigs get their revenge?

A new variant of the common gut bacterium, E. coli has been identified in China. In a study financed by China and published in The Lancet, the world has been told of a new variant of the common gut bacterium that has developed resistance to the antimicrobial colistin.

The antimicrobial colistin is one of the last weapons available in fighting bacterial infections. This is bad news. The research led by Hua Liu found that the new variant is already widespread in China. There is the possibility that it may have travelled to Malaysia. Because E. coli live in warm blooded animals’ guts, including humans, it is easy for it to hitchhike undetected.

This latest “superbug” has emerged from animals on pig and aquaculture farms. It is commonly used to boost the growth rate of animals in China. China is not alone in its enthusiastic use of antibiotics in agricultural settings. The majority of antibiotic use is in agriculture. From spraying fruit crops to prevent spotting to speeding growth rates in meat animals, tonnes of the precious life savers are used to increase profits.

The emergence of MCR-1 heralds the breach of the last group of antibiotics, polymyxins, by plasmid-mediated resistance. Although currently confined to China, MCR-1 is likely to emulate other global resistance mechanisms such as NDM-1. The Lancet

TV news regularly trots out a health care provider to lecture us on the overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics have widespread effects and should only be used after careful thought, but many countries do not respect that admonition and if you have the money you can acquire the drugs. The agricultural use of antibiotics to encourage rapid growth is rarely mentioned.

It may be that some of the research being done on bacterial phages – viruses that attack bacteria – will fill in the weak spots. That research was pioneered by the Soviets, and phage therapy is used in Georgia, Russia and parts of Poland currently.

Sources:
Discovery News
Scientific American
The Lancet

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USA builds largest non nuclear weapon in the World

Digital warfare our new reality

Brazil Toxic ooze from mine reaches ocean

Syrian refugees in Canada by year end

New super resistant bacteria spreading

Barbara McPherson

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