"North Sentinel Island is located in the Bay of Bengal off of the coast of India. It is well away from landlocked earth, and while it is officially administered by India, no one has been able to make contact with the native inhabitants. The island is one of the last remaining uncivilized areas of the earth, existing in a rare state of conceded sovereignty.
An indigenous tribe has lived on North Sentinel Island with extremely limited contact with outsiders. Anyone who has attempted to explore the island has been attacked or outright killed. North Sentinel is so dangerous for outsiders that India’s government has established a three-mile exclusion zone in an effort to prevent more violence."
"Syrians call [Chancellor Angela] Merkel ‘Mama Merkel’,” he said, referring to the German leader’s relatively compassionate response so far to the crisis."
"Chinese scientists on Saturday tested the installation of the "retina" of the world's largest ever radio telescope to be completed in September next year.
Technicians lifted a 30-tonne feed cabin of the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope - or FAST - above a half-finished dish-like reflector measuring 500 meters in diameter and 1.6 kilometers in perimeter.
Once completed, the cabin, home to a feed source which collects signals from the universe, will be suspended 140 to 160 meters above the reflector made up of 4,450 panels.
Each panel is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 meters, and has cables fixed to the back of it so that it could adjust angles and positions in synchronization with the source cabin, which is driven by cables, servomechanisms in additional to a parallel robot as a secondary adjustable system.
"If you compare the FAST to an eye, then the feed source is its retina," said Sun Caihong, a chief engineer with the FAST program, "All signals we collect eventually comes here."
Sun said control of high-precision and long-distance movements of the source cabin using steel cables had been a serious challenge for experts, but they managed to narrow down maximum error to less then 10 millimeters.
"This is one of our greatest innovations," he said.
Construction of the FAST began in March 2011 with an investment of 1.2 billion yuan.
The installation of the test feed cabin means the construction of FAST has enter its final stage.
Technicians are still continuing the work that started months ago to assemble the reflector, which is hung over the ground supported by thousands of steel pillars and cables in a valley deep in southwest China's mountainous Guizhou Province.
The Karst formation in the local landscape is good for draining rainwater underground and protecting the reflector, Sun said.
The surrounding area has "radio silence" as there are no towns and cities within a sphere of five km and only one county center within a sphere of 25 km, he said.
Upon completion, the telescope will be the world's largest of its kind, overtaking Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter.
It will also be 10 times more sensitive than the steerable 100-meter telescope near Bonn, Germany, according to Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"FAST will be the top level facility in the world for at least 20 to 30 years," Zheng said.
Unlike optical telescopes used to observe the universe by visible light, a type of electromagnetic radiation, radio telescope operate in the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum where they can detect and collect data on radio sources.
The key science goals of FAST are based on observables between 70MHz and 3 GHz, including the 21 cm HI hyperfine structure line, pulsar emissions and radio continuum.
Earlier reports said it will enable astronomers to jumpstart many science goals. For example, they could survey natural hydrogen in distant galaxies, detect faint pulsars, look for the first star shining, or even hear possible signals from other civilizations."
'other civilizations' ? Wot are those then ... quackers... the NHS..
Fast Fuuuuoood. Fridge ... do they sell fridges when it snows.
I was wondering where does GK gets ", St 2 = $3.4bn" - hardly 'a modest incremental'?
AGM Prez says S2 :
Shaft fit-out
Pit bottom development
MTS fit-out
MHF and Port construction
Targeted first production in year 4
Slides 58 & 59 ... clear as mud.
Jul Prez slides 20 & 21
4 No CM's 6mtpa targetting 10.4. Must be those big boats ;-)
Hmmm . Ice.
Fridges in Norway "Most of Liebherr’s fridges now come with ‘Biofresh’ technology where temperatures can be varied amongst different compartments of fridges and fridge freezers. Other features like fizzy water taps and smooth door technology ensure that technology in this category is constantly evolving."
Fridges in Brazil "In 2014, refrigeration appliances posted a 5% decline in retail volume sales, registering a total of 7 million units. This performance was the result of the worsening of macroeconomic scenario in the year, when the GDP posted real growth close to zero and inflation remained persistent, hovering above the central bank’s 2.5%-6.5% target band. This contributed to reduced consumer confidence, which had a stronger negative impact on durable goods."
Fridges in Greece "In the context of the recession, mass unemployment and shrinking disposable incomes, Greeks postponed replacing their refrigeration appliances, and this resulted in steep declines in sales over the review period. However, refrigeration appliances began to show signs of recovery in 2014, registering growth of 5% in volume terms, as for many households repairing their old appliance or postponing its replacement was no longer an option."
An Art in Consumerism ... NB: Thermos Flasks in Solikamsk.
"tight credit availability in Brazil, weakcrop prices, currency volatility against US dollar and inventory destocking were forcing down farmer demandin the region and causing a drop in potash prices amidstrong competition in the region. In the first six months of 2015, Brazilian potash imports fell 21% y-o-y to 3.2 million tonnes. Potash demand in the region is expected to fall to 9.8-10.0 million tonnes in 2015 compared to 11.8 million tonnes in 2014"
The 'k' content in P4 is lower than MOP so why would Brazil buy P4 if the future of MOP in the UK is with SXX? (according to Capt. Pugwash for the last 4 years)
"The men were arrested on board a ship owned by an American company which offered armed protection services to vessels sailing through an area known as "pirates' alley" between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
Customs officials and police found 35 guns, including semi-automatic weapons, and almost 6,000 rounds of ammunition on board the ship which did not have permission to be in Indian waters.
A court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu upheld the claim by the Indian authorities that the vessel was not properly licensed.
The men have consistently denied any wrongdoing and claim they have been abandoned by their American employers.
They also say they have not been paid since November 2013."
"The five men freed on bail were: Billy Irving, 33, of Oban in Argyll, John Armstrong, of Wigton, in Cumbria, Nick Dunn, 28, of Ashington in Northumberland, Ray Tindall, 38, of Chester, and Nicholas Simpson, originally of Cottingham in East Yorkshire.
All of them must remain in India.
Their employer AdvanFort, a maritime security patrol specialist, has always insisted the men were working to provide protection to other ships from pirate attacks."
"ON Saturday, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council Resolution on Syria. This was the fifth time in five years that Russia used its power of veto within the context of the Syrian war.
It came amidst warnings by the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, that US-Russian relations are now “more dangerous” than during the Cold War. The statement captured a growing international concern that this multi-faceted war has national, regional, international, and generational ramifications.
To make sense of the deadlock over Syria, it is important to place the crisis within the context of global power relations. To do this, I turn to three concepts in international relations.
Firstly, anarchy. Within international relations, anarchy refers to the fact there is no world government at the international level. Unlike the domestic level, people and governments at the international level cannot ring 999 to seek help when they are in a crisis. Accordingly, there is no world government to enforce a peace in Syria.
Second, is the security dilemma. The logic here is that because it is impossible to know what is going on in the minds of other human beings, governments operate within a perpetual cycle of mistrust and fear. The leaders of the US, Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, the UK, and France (to name just a few) may make bold declarations but how do we know what their intentions are?
Think of all the times you have read or heard the statement “we will judge person x based on their actions not on what they say”. This reflects an attempt to infer the intent of the person involved by focusing on their behaviour rather than on words.
In relation to Syria, the US is interpreting the air strikes against hospitals in Aleppo as further evidence that the intentions of the Russian government is to support the Syrian regime at all costs, despite the fact that President Assad has committed crimes against humanity.
The third factor is co-operation (or lack of it). Organisations such as the United Nations are intended to mitigate the impact of anarchy and the security dilemma by creating a safe environment in which government representatives can discuss things.
The thinking is that states will be more willing to accept the outcome of a decision-making process, even if it is not the outcome they initially desired, because they felt as though they were part of that process in the first place.
In relation to Syria, however, there have been five years of negotiations and proposed ceasefires amounting to very little indeed. The UN Resolution in 2014 which endorsed the delivery of aid to Syria, was judged by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as something that should not have even needed to be negotiated because it is ‘something allowed by the virtue of international law’.
Although there are many other factors the three concepts of anarchy, the security dilemma, and co-operation help us make sense of the global power relations shaping the Syrian crisis. For which the West too bears responsibility.
It is far too easy to stand back and decry the actions of Russia without understanding the role that the West plays in creating conditions of mistrust at international level.
Here it is important to recognise that Syria cannot be analysed in isolation. For example, the crisis in Ukraine since 2013 has further exacerbated hostility between the US and Russia.
On this, the leading US political scientist, John J. Mearsheimer, condemned Western decision-making, or more specifically, the Eastern expansion of Nato as a misguided foreign policy.
How can Russia trust the intentions of the West when it continues to expand Nato right up to its border? Such action only goes to unintentionally reproduce the cycle of mistrust and fear that overshadows all East-West relations.
On a final note, we should not overstate the current crisis. The claim that US-Russia relations are now “more dangerous” than the Cold War seems questionable, after all, there is no current Cold War-like threat of nuclear war.
That said, with no world government to intervene, combined with heightened cycle of mistrust and fear hindering all attempts to forge co-operative bonds, the future looks bleak.
To use the words of Mearsheimer, this is ‘the tragedy of great power politics’ in which Syria finds itself.
Dr Adrian Gallagher is an Associate Professor in International Security in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds."
14 Comments
Breaking News
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
http://rt.com/news/252965-earthquake-nepal-india-damage/
Canada: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/earthquakes-rattle-west-c...
and on CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/24/us/yellowstone-supervolcano-magma-rese...
Cold outside? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-32425370
take a hike.
Tour De 'Nepal' - Nuns
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
Ah, so ....
Fabulous:
http://road.cc/content/news/175497-250-kung-fu-nuns-cycle-2200-kilometre...
A phew facts: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/nepal-s-kung-fu-nuns-are-pedalling-t...
Fantasy. http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/film/the-assassin-film-review-kung-fu...
Blowing in the Wind
Submitted by Captain Qahn on
http://www.crondallweather.co.uk/earthquake.html#.VTtTrJPLJhM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLI3NQoRat4
Wackulus ...
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
... cracking :-)))
http://wackulus.com/people-live-island-kill-anybody-tries-come-ashore/?u...
"North Sentinel Island is located in the Bay of Bengal off of the coast of India. It is well away from landlocked earth, and while it is officially administered by India, no one has been able to make contact with the native inhabitants. The island is one of the last remaining uncivilized areas of the earth, existing in a rare state of conceded sovereignty.
An indigenous tribe has lived on North Sentinel Island with extremely limited contact with outsiders. Anyone who has attempted to explore the island has been attacked or outright killed. North Sentinel is so dangerous for outsiders that India’s government has established a three-mile exclusion zone in an effort to prevent more violence."
(via Beyond Green)
Strange Worlds?
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/pictures-inside-boulby-p...
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/07/17/huge-western-australia-lithium-mine-...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DED812HKWyM
Shheeeez ...shop.
Climate Change
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33850710
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33870056
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33861390
Ah ... "The Tears of St Lawrence" ....
Streams.
A date for the Diary :-)) http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/resources/Paris%202015-getting%20a%20gl...
lol - Le Bourget has been twinned with Amityville & Zhukovsky ... Nov 30th to Dec 11th.
Hmmm ... gatecrashing ... Chanel tunelling, works.
Candy ;- ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrQbER5NUO4
If Surrey was Syria
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpm4XJK12oo
https://www.globalpolicy.org/world-hunger.html
http://www.iflscience.com/physics/quantum-mechanics-just-got-spookier
Aww, bless the EU ;-) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/trains-of-refugees-reach-ge...
"Syrians call [Chancellor Angela] Merkel ‘Mama Merkel’,” he said, referring to the German leader’s relatively compassionate response so far to the crisis."
If?
China Updates
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
Ah, so
Obama on his South Specific
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34853646
That must have been a long conversation ...
China unites in world at war with ISIS
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/china-declares-war-isis-after-68...
Eighteen is a lucky number ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-11/22/c_134840763.htm
Not for sum;-/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-34889064
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/china/
Ah, So ... ffs tis not even Chinese, tis Japanese.... Hikikomori
Oh 'Ull ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGoEmhQP774&list=RDkGoEmhQP774
wtf ... 'Ull? A city of culture & very strange creatures ... & the award to the most scarey find of the day ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mSWYiRkOqQ&index=2&list=RDkGoEmhQP774
SOFA !!!
FAST ... not Feast
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-11/21/c_134840670.htm
"Chinese scientists on Saturday tested the installation of the "retina" of the world's largest ever radio telescope to be completed in September next year.
Technicians lifted a 30-tonne feed cabin of the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope - or FAST - above a half-finished dish-like reflector measuring 500 meters in diameter and 1.6 kilometers in perimeter.
Once completed, the cabin, home to a feed source which collects signals from the universe, will be suspended 140 to 160 meters above the reflector made up of 4,450 panels.
Each panel is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 meters, and has cables fixed to the back of it so that it could adjust angles and positions in synchronization with the source cabin, which is driven by cables, servomechanisms in additional to a parallel robot as a secondary adjustable system.
"If you compare the FAST to an eye, then the feed source is its retina," said Sun Caihong, a chief engineer with the FAST program, "All signals we collect eventually comes here."
Sun said control of high-precision and long-distance movements of the source cabin using steel cables had been a serious challenge for experts, but they managed to narrow down maximum error to less then 10 millimeters.
"This is one of our greatest innovations," he said.
Construction of the FAST began in March 2011 with an investment of 1.2 billion yuan.
The installation of the test feed cabin means the construction of FAST has enter its final stage.
Technicians are still continuing the work that started months ago to assemble the reflector, which is hung over the ground supported by thousands of steel pillars and cables in a valley deep in southwest China's mountainous Guizhou Province.
The Karst formation in the local landscape is good for draining rainwater underground and protecting the reflector, Sun said.
The surrounding area has "radio silence" as there are no towns and cities within a sphere of five km and only one county center within a sphere of 25 km, he said.
Upon completion, the telescope will be the world's largest of its kind, overtaking Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter.
It will also be 10 times more sensitive than the steerable 100-meter telescope near Bonn, Germany, according to Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"FAST will be the top level facility in the world for at least 20 to 30 years," Zheng said.
Unlike optical telescopes used to observe the universe by visible light, a type of electromagnetic radiation, radio telescope operate in the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum where they can detect and collect data on radio sources.
The key science goals of FAST are based on observables between 70MHz and 3 GHz, including the 21 cm HI hyperfine structure line, pulsar emissions and radio continuum.
Earlier reports said it will enable astronomers to jumpstart many science goals. For example, they could survey natural hydrogen in distant galaxies, detect faint pulsars, look for the first star shining, or even hear possible signals from other civilizations."
'other civilizations' ? Wot are those then ... quackers... the NHS..
Fast Fuuuuoood. Fridge ... do they sell fridges when it snows.
Fascinating Fridge Facts
Submitted by Captain Qahn on
http://www.euromonitor.com/refrigeration-appliances-in-norway/report
Houston I think ICL have a problem
I was wondering where does GK gets ", St 2 = $3.4bn" - hardly 'a modest incremental'?
AGM Prez says S2 :
Shaft fit-out
Pit bottom development
MTS fit-out
MHF and Port construction
Targeted first production in year 4
Slides 58 & 59 ... clear as mud.
Jul Prez slides 20 & 21
4 No CM's 6mtpa targetting 10.4. Must be those big boats ;-)
Hmmm . Ice.
Fridges in Norway "Most of Liebherr’s fridges now come with ‘Biofresh’ technology where temperatures can be varied amongst different compartments of fridges and fridge freezers. Other features like fizzy water taps and smooth door technology ensure that technology in this category is constantly evolving."
Fridges in Brazil "In 2014, refrigeration appliances posted a 5% decline in retail volume sales, registering a total of 7 million units. This performance was the result of the worsening of macroeconomic scenario in the year, when the GDP posted real growth close to zero and inflation remained persistent, hovering above the central bank’s 2.5%-6.5% target band. This contributed to reduced consumer confidence, which had a stronger negative impact on durable goods."
Fridges in Greece "In the context of the recession, mass unemployment and shrinking disposable incomes, Greeks postponed replacing their refrigeration appliances, and this resulted in steep declines in sales over the review period. However, refrigeration appliances began to show signs of recovery in 2014, registering growth of 5% in volume terms, as for many households repairing their old appliance or postponing its replacement was no longer an option."
An Art in Consumerism ... NB: Thermos Flasks in Solikamsk.
A nice warm glow : -0 http://www.uralkali.com/press_center/press_releases/item231115-1/
"tight credit availability in Brazil, weakcrop prices, currency volatility against US dollar and inventory destocking were forcing down farmer demandin the region and causing a drop in potash prices amidstrong competition in the region. In the first six months of 2015, Brazilian potash imports fell 21% y-o-y to 3.2 million tonnes. Potash demand in the region is expected to fall to 9.8-10.0 million tonnes in 2015 compared to 11.8 million tonnes in 2014"
http://suppliersandequipment.mining.com/2015/11/23/icl-fertilizers-launc...
The 'k' content in P4 is lower than MOP so why would Brazil buy P4 if the future of MOP in the UK is with SXX? (according to Capt. Pugwash for the last 4 years)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUJ-yTp0-Os
Anti-Pirates - Knicked
Submitted by Mortal Mindy on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35279074
"The men were arrested on board a ship owned by an American company which offered armed protection services to vessels sailing through an area known as "pirates' alley" between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
Customs officials and police found 35 guns, including semi-automatic weapons, and almost 6,000 rounds of ammunition on board the ship which did not have permission to be in Indian waters.
A court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu upheld the claim by the Indian authorities that the vessel was not properly licensed.
The men have consistently denied any wrongdoing and claim they have been abandoned by their American employers.
They also say they have not been paid since November 2013."
"The five men freed on bail were: Billy Irving, 33, of Oban in Argyll, John Armstrong, of Wigton, in Cumbria, Nick Dunn, 28, of Ashington in Northumberland, Ray Tindall, 38, of Chester, and Nicholas Simpson, originally of Cottingham in East Yorkshire.
All of them must remain in India.
Their employer AdvanFort, a maritime security patrol specialist, has always insisted the men were working to provide protection to other ships from pirate attacks."
G7 & the Badass
Submitted by Benefitz Betty on
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/27/g7-nations-pledge-to-...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36399303
Anyone seen Cambo?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/29/missing-japanese-boy-yamato...
Oh, OK: Would anyone go looking for Cambo ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36410802
The 7 Year H'itch ...
Submitted by Benefitz Betty on
http://www.bearsoftheworld.net/japanese_black_bears.asp
Stating the obvious ;-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36441612
Tough Cookies ... 7 years :-)
YP: Global Cycle
Submitted by Benefitz Betty on
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/adrian-gallagher-syria-confl...
"ON Saturday, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council Resolution on Syria. This was the fifth time in five years that Russia used its power of veto within the context of the Syrian war.
It came amidst warnings by the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, that US-Russian relations are now “more dangerous” than during the Cold War. The statement captured a growing international concern that this multi-faceted war has national, regional, international, and generational ramifications.
To make sense of the deadlock over Syria, it is important to place the crisis within the context of global power relations. To do this, I turn to three concepts in international relations.
Firstly, anarchy. Within international relations, anarchy refers to the fact there is no world government at the international level. Unlike the domestic level, people and governments at the international level cannot ring 999 to seek help when they are in a crisis. Accordingly, there is no world government to enforce a peace in Syria.
Second, is the security dilemma. The logic here is that because it is impossible to know what is going on in the minds of other human beings, governments operate within a perpetual cycle of mistrust and fear. The leaders of the US, Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, the UK, and France (to name just a few) may make bold declarations but how do we know what their intentions are?
Think of all the times you have read or heard the statement “we will judge person x based on their actions not on what they say”. This reflects an attempt to infer the intent of the person involved by focusing on their behaviour rather than on words.
In relation to Syria, the US is interpreting the air strikes against hospitals in Aleppo as further evidence that the intentions of the Russian government is to support the Syrian regime at all costs, despite the fact that President Assad has committed crimes against humanity.
The third factor is co-operation (or lack of it). Organisations such as the United Nations are intended to mitigate the impact of anarchy and the security dilemma by creating a safe environment in which government representatives can discuss things.
The thinking is that states will be more willing to accept the outcome of a decision-making process, even if it is not the outcome they initially desired, because they felt as though they were part of that process in the first place.
In relation to Syria, however, there have been five years of negotiations and proposed ceasefires amounting to very little indeed. The UN Resolution in 2014 which endorsed the delivery of aid to Syria, was judged by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as something that should not have even needed to be negotiated because it is ‘something allowed by the virtue of international law’.
Although there are many other factors the three concepts of anarchy, the security dilemma, and co-operation help us make sense of the global power relations shaping the Syrian crisis. For which the West too bears responsibility.
It is far too easy to stand back and decry the actions of Russia without understanding the role that the West plays in creating conditions of mistrust at international level.
Here it is important to recognise that Syria cannot be analysed in isolation. For example, the crisis in Ukraine since 2013 has further exacerbated hostility between the US and Russia.
On this, the leading US political scientist, John J. Mearsheimer, condemned Western decision-making, or more specifically, the Eastern expansion of Nato as a misguided foreign policy.
How can Russia trust the intentions of the West when it continues to expand Nato right up to its border? Such action only goes to unintentionally reproduce the cycle of mistrust and fear that overshadows all East-West relations.
On a final note, we should not overstate the current crisis. The claim that US-Russia relations are now “more dangerous” than the Cold War seems questionable, after all, there is no current Cold War-like threat of nuclear war.
That said, with no world government to intervene, combined with heightened cycle of mistrust and fear hindering all attempts to forge co-operative bonds, the future looks bleak.
To use the words of Mearsheimer, this is ‘the tragedy of great power politics’ in which Syria finds itself.
Dr Adrian Gallagher is an Associate Professor in International Security in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQX2q6WCrbE