Tag Archives: ows

Kit Bashing, Technology

Kit Bashing: Iran to display life size model of U.S. Stealth Drone, sends Obama a smaller hot pink version

Iranian media reports that a full scale model of the U.S. RQ-170 stealth drone will be used in upcoming parades celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Also, Reuters reporting that Iranian officials answered U.S. President Barack Obama’s demands to have the drone sent back to the U.S., by sending him a small hot pink model of the drone instead.

The model sent to Obama is said to have an inscription that reads “we will step on the United States”.

The Iranians say the toy stealth drone is selling like hot cakes in Iran, at $4 per model, they will be sending Obama his toy model via the Swiss embassy: “We made the ‘RQ’ in pink as it is Mr. Obama’s favorite color and we will send it to him via the Swiss embassy.”-Seyyed Saeed Hassan-pour, Aaye Company (they make the toy model)

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? The maker of the world’s first digital camera, Kodak, will make cameras no more

Eastman Kodak, a U.S. pioneer in camera and film production since 1880, and the first company to make a digital camera, will no longer make cameras of any kind.

Kodak went bankrupt in January 2012.  At least 400 employees in New York will lose their jobs.  The company will focus on its lagging printer brand (ranked sixth place in the U.S. market).

Kodak officials say they will still sell cameras, they just won’t be the ones making them.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Forget Greece, Japan in deeper debt, analysts call for action now. Things to get worse in 3 to 4 years!

Forget the European Union crisis, Japan’s sovereign debt (such as government bonds) is now almost double that of Italy, and more than Greece.  Some analysts say there is not enough money in Japan to pay the debt.

NHK interviewed two Japanese economic/finance analysts.  One, Hiromichi Shirakawa, of Credit Suisse, said Japan’s economic problems are not cyclic, but structural.  This means there is something inherently wrong with Japan’s economic/finance system, and if not dealt with now things will get even worse in three to four years.

The other analyst, Yasunari Ueno, of Mizuho Securities, said Japan’s government needs to implement “total fiscal reforms” now!

International, U.S.

2009 Greek study says new strain of H3N2 is drug resistant! U.S. CDC says anti-flu drugs no longer work!

The European Union’s Eurosurveillance published a report in 2009, about Greece’s efforts to combat flu viruses: “Greece is a known crossroads among three continents (Europe, Asia, Africa) through which resistant strains can spread.”

From 2004 to 2008, Greek researchers looked at how the various viruses reacted to available anti-viral drugs.  Anti-viral drugs work mainly by attacking protein cells.  In flu viruses the specific proteins are called “M2”.  However, they are only effective in the early stages of infection.

For those of us who don’t like reliance on petroleum products, some anti-virals (like the now ineffective adamantanes) are based on petroleum hydrocarbons.

The Greek study concluded that current flu viruses have become resistant to most anti-viral drugs, precisely because the drugs were being used so much: “Resistance to M2 inhibitors first appeared following extensive drug use in Asia and the U.S. after the SARS epidemic in 2004. The worldwide spread of these resistant strains occurred through replacement of sensitive with resistant viruses, probably because of other selective advantages of the resistant strains connected to other genes than M2.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention backs the Greek study up. After studying the 2009 flu epidemic in the U.S. the CDC concluded that the viruses are now drug resistant!

 

Influenza

WHO says H3N2 will dominate this year’s flu season, Romania & Sweden at Epidemic levels!

On February 3, 2012, the UN’s World Health Organization said the new strain of H3N2 will dominate the 2011/2012 flu season.  This came after 1.74 million Japanese were infected in January.

The WHO said notable increases in flu cases are expected in North America, Europe and northern China.

The dominant flu is H3N2 (a type of influenza A, aka swine flu).  But Mexico is still being hit by H1N1 (also a type of swine flu), and China is dealing with influenza B (a type of virus that infects humans and seals).

Canada is seeing a steady increase in H3N2 cases.  The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control is reporting increases in H3N2 cases in Bulgaria, Iceland, Italy and Spain.  Romania and Sweden are now at epidemic levels.

 

International, U.S.

Canadian study says Flu shots not effective against new version of H3N2

On January 27, 2012, it was reported that a Canadian study concluded that  outbreaks of H3N2, from 2009 to 2011, could not have been prevented with flu shots!

It also showed that young adults were the best able to fight off H3N2, children and older people are at the most risk.  Also, despite health officials claiming flu shots protect against several types of influenza, the Canadian researchers reported that flu shots do not protect against H3N2/H1N1 related flu viruses!

This new version of H3N2 is a descendant of a long forgotten flu virus:  “Recent analysis has shown that swH3N2 viruses and zoonotic transmissions to humans, including A(H3N2)v, are descendants from a common human influenza virus ancestor, the A/Wuhan/359/1995(H3N2)-like virus [7]. Influenza A/Wuhan/359/1995 has not circulated in humans nor been a component of the trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) since 1998 [this is why flu shots are not effective against H3N2!], when it was replaced by influenza A/Sydney/5/1997(H3N2) [8-10].”

The report was published, on January 24, 2012, in the European Union’s Eurosurveillance online publication concerning infectious diseases.

The following are from the report’s conclusion: “…our results suggest broad susceptibility to swine-origin H3N2 infection in young children, consistent with early epidemiologic features of A(H3N2)v in the U.S.”

“The H3N2 subtype of swine-origin influenza may show a different age-related pattern of risk in the human population compared to the H1N1 subtype…”

“We observed little TIV-induced improvement in cross-reactive antibodies…” Meaning flu shots don’t work.

“Additional studies should explore age-related and vaccine-induced effects…” Meaning this virus is so new that they don’t know how to fight it!

International, U.S.

H3N2 hits Epidemic levels in France, too late for Flu shots to be effective!

France is now the second European country to sound a warning about the latest version of H3N2 swine flu!  Unlike Norway, France says the number of infections in their country are nearing epidemic levels!

Cases are escalating in the French areas of Ile-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.  Health care providers are seeing an average of 148 cases per 100,000 people.  Officially, epidemic levels would be 168 per 100,000 people.

On February 8, Norwegian health officials warned of a potential outbreak in their country.  At the end of January, Japan officially reported 1.74 million people infected with H3N2!

Norwegian health officials are urging people to get flu shots, but back in France health officials say it’s too late!  It takes 15 days for a flu shot to be of benefit, but it’s obvious that Europe is indeed getting whacked by H3N2 right now.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic recovery, What Holiday Mailing Rush? U.S. Postal Services sees huge drop in Xmas mailings, loses $3.3 billion in revenue!

Normally the end of year holiday mailing rush generates the most revenue for the USPS, but not in 2011.   Postal officials revealed that people in the U.S. cut back so much, because of bad economic times, that it even affected the shipping of holiday packages.

The huge drop in mailings cut expected revenues for the USPS by $3.3 billion! Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, said the unexpected loss of revenue will mean that the USPS will run out of cash sooner.  He expects the postal service to be broke by October 2012. 

This news comes after the USPS won an international competition for most efficient postal service.  Each U.S. letter carrier handles more than 200,000 letters per year.  That’s about double what letter carriers from the second place winner, Japan, handle!  The study was done by United Kingdom’s Oxford Strategic Consulting, and released at the beginning of February 2012.

The loss in revenue could affect the planned closings of post offices and distribution centers.  Earlier, in December, postal officials decided to delay such action until May 2012.  But who knows what will happen, now?

By the way, don’t think closing down the USPS is going to save taxpayers money, it wont. The Postal Service operates on money that comes from you and me buying postal products, not taxes!

In fact the U.S. Congress is stealing money from the non-taxpayer funded Postal Service (just like taxpayer funded Social Security and Medicare): “The Postal Service actually has somewhere between $50 billion and $125 billion in their other funds that is not taxpayer money. They haven’t used a dime of taxpayer money in over 30 years! And the Congress just needs to act responsibly and quickly to give them access to that — those funds.”- Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, during PBS interview on September 6, 2011

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Corporate Incompetence: EU calls for saftey checks on Super Jumbo A380 airliner, cracks appearing in wing brackets

The European Aviation Safety Agency is concerned about the strength of wing brackets in the superjumbo A380 airliner.  This after routine inspections revealed that after numerous landings cracks have appeared in some of the 4,000 brackets used on the giant wings.

Safety checks have been ordered for the 68 superjumbos in use out of Europe.  Airbus officials say there is nothing to worry about, but those are famous last words if you know the history of passenger airliners.

The A380 (A for Airbus) can hold 500 to 600 people.

Fukushima

What Global Warming? Mother Earth to the Rescue? Record snowfall in Japan will help clear radiation contamination. Don’t eat the yellow snow!

Despite claims of overall global warming, Europe and Japan are still getting hit with record low temps.  In Japan record snowfall could actually help fight the radiation contamination from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster reactors.

The heavy snow would help sweep the air of radiation, and sweep the surfaces of buildings, plants, cars and the ground of “external” radiation.  But this in turn would make the snow radioactive, so a new twist on the joke about not eating yellow snow!

Another problem is that any snowmelt getting into the ground will be absorbed by plants, making them “internally” contaminated.  It would be a good idea for Japanese to test the snow for contamination.