Tag Archives: taxes

International, Technology, U.S.

Pacific Ring of Fire: Busy April 11, 2012; Indonesia, Mexico and U.S.A.

April 11, 2012, has turned out to be a busy day for magnitude 5+ earthquakes, around or adjacent to the Pacific Ring of fire.

Oregon, United States, experienced a 5.9 quake just off its coastline.

Alaska, United States, had a 5.5 quake.

Michoacan, Mexico got hit with a 6.5 quake.

The Banda Sea area (east of Indonesia, north of Australia) had a 5.3 quake.

And then there’s Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean area.  32 quakes ranging from magnitude 5 to 8.6 in just 24 hours!

The west coast of the northern island of Sumatra got hit the most and the hardest: 22 times, including an 8.2 magnitude and an 8.6 magnitude!

The North Indian Ocean got hit ten times, including a 6 magnitude quake.

Altogether, at least 36 magnitude 5 or greater earthquakes around, or adjacent to the Pacific Ring of fire in a 24 hour period (using USGS records).

Business/Economics, International, Technology

World War 3: Iran reveals military upgrades; stealth detecting radar, laser targeting and gatling guns

April 11, 2012, Iranian military officials announced their indigenous tank, Zolfaqar-3, has been upgraded with the latest in laser targeting.

The Zolfaqar tank (not to be confused with many other Iranian weapons using the same name) was developed over the decades by experimenting with U.S. M60 tanks, British Chieftain tanks and Soviet/Russian T-72 tanks.

The production version looks a lot like the U.S. M1 Abrams but armed with a Russian 125mm auto-loading main gun.

It probably uses the same “chobham” armor that the British Challenger tank uses, as it was Iranian engineers who developed it and then requested the British company Vickers to make them a new tank with it.  That tank became the Challenger, but it never made it to Iran because of the 1979 Revolution.

The Zolfaqar-3 reportedly weighs 36 metric tons (39.6 tons) and has a 780 hp diesel piston engine (the U.S. M1 has a 1,500 shp turbine/jet engine which uses diesel).

Iran has built their own version of the M134 Minigun.  The Iranian gatling gun fires 7.62mm bullets (not sure if its x39mm, or x51mmNATO, or x54mm) at a rate of 4000 to 6000 rounds per minute (it’s designed to take out a lot of troops in one pass).

Iran announced this weapon in 2010, but they are claiming that all their military units, designated to use the minigun, are now equipped with it.

Iran has also developed a radar system designed to detect stealth aircraft. Iranian media reported that the radar can detect aircraft with a “very low radar cross section”.

The new radar is called Samen, and is due to begin operations by March 19.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Iran major exporter of Cement & Carpets

“Today our country has become a main exporter of cement. By launching the second phase of Orumieh cement factory, Iran’s cement production capacity increased by one million tonnes!”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

With the end of the Iranian year (on March 19, 2012) came news of increased exports of products other than oil, and despite U.S. and European sanctions.

Cement and clinker (a kilned then quenched cement product) has increased 17.44% and reached 10,119,780 metric tons (11,154,960 tons)!

In August 2011, Iran became a world exporter of cement.

In March 2012, Iran revealed it had developed “smart cement” which could withstand the impact of a bunker busting bomb. The smart cement was originally developed to counter the shaking of earthquakes, which Iran is prone to many.

Hand made rugs are one of Iran’s biggest sellers.  In the United States they’re called Persian rugs.

An estimated 1.2 million people in Iran are employed in the hand made rug industry.  They produce five million square meters of carpets, 80% are exported!

In the past year Iran exported $560 million USD worth of Persian rugs.

 

Business/Economics, International

Global Economic War: Iran sitting on huge Gold reserves

“Three new net gold mines with 16 tons of proven reserves have been found in Saqqez city in Kurdistan province!”-Behrouz Borna, Deputy Head of Iran’s Geology Organization for Exploration Affairs

April 11, 2012, Iranian officials announced they found gold in them there hills!

Iran already has several gold mine operations.  The latest finds bring Iran’s estimated gold reserves to 320 metric tons (352.7 tons).

Before the discovery of three more gold mines the U.S. CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) ranked Iran as the 22nd biggest holder of gold (and foreign currencies) in the world.

At the end of 2011, beginning of 2012, Iran set record gold reserves in USD value: $17.5 billion!

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

Oil & Gas Prices: Iran can stop all oil sales for three years, without harm to its economy

“Some people think that they can trouble Iran through oil sanctions but I should say that we have so much reserves that even if we don’t sell oil for two to three years, the country will be administered easily.”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, April 10, 2012

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

World War 3: Iran stops oil shipments to Germany, Iran imposes sanctions on 100 European companies

April 11, 2012, Iran follows through on threat to cut off oil to Germany, now Italy is next.

Iran also announced sanctions against 100 European Union companies.  Sasan Khodaei, Deputy President of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, said the companies will no longer be able to sell products to Iran.

One reason for the sanctions is that Iran is now able to make the products for themselves.

 

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

No Longer Made in the U.S.A.? Former Ohio company now owned by China

Hydraulic Press Manufacturing (HPM) was a 135 year old Ohio plastics company, but it went bust in 2009.

However, you can still buy products with the HPM brand, but it’s not a U.S. company anymore.

In 2011 a Chinese company called Guangdong Yizumi Precision Machinery, bought all the rights to HPM and all its products.   Production has been started in southern China.

The Chinese company says they’ve even hired former U.S. employees of HPM.  They are setting up shop in the United States and already have contracts in north America worth $3 million USD.

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: China demands “responsible protection” for Syria

“Recently, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution draft on Syria. Some people accuse China and Russia of not being ‘cooperative’ or ‘responsible’. In my view, our decision was the responsible one. We should not forget the lesson in Libya.”-Le Yucheng, Assistant Foreign Minister of China

Chinese officials believe a U.S. led war on Syria would have the same results as in Libya.  They compered the U.S. led war on Libya to “surgery that kills the patient”.   Libya is now in a full on civil war.

China’s Assistant Foreign Minister blasted the United States: “China does not do things just to please certain countries. China never takes its cue from others or pays the bill without asking the price. Being responsible means saying ‘no’ to such ‘protection’. What we need is not just ‘the responsibility to protect’ but also ‘responsible protection’.”

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Utah health worker releases private info, hackers steal even more info. 800,000 people affected

The U.S. state of Utah experienced a leak of personal information on the internet after a state Medicaid worker accidentally published the info of 280,000 people  on the internet.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also looking into a possible hack job as well, that affected another 500,000 people.

In total almost 800,000 people, who’ve applied for help with medical care, are affected.

Utah state officials claim they will notify those whose info was made public.  They also warn that people should expect scammers to try to use their personal info to get to their money.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Oil & Gas Prices: Iran officially stops oil shipments to Spain & Greece. Germany and Italy next.

April 10, 2012, Iran has officially halted oil exports to Spain and Greece.

The official government announcement comes after Iran canceled oil shipments to two Greek companies on April 5.

Back on March 16 Iran had named the next countries on its oil export ban list.  Those countries are Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.  This is in retaliation for the up coming European Union oil sanctions that go into effect on July 1.

Iran had already halted oil shipments to France and United Kingdom back in February.

According to an April 10 Reuters report, Iran is now considering halting oil exports to Germany as well.