Russia : Struggle against drug trafficking..[ 1958 ]

Russia seized 50 tons of drugs in 2010 - official

 MOSCOW, December 31 (RIA Novosti) 
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Russian authorities confiscated a record 50 tons of illicit drugs, mostly heroin and marijuana, in 2010, said Viktor Ivanov, head of the Federal Drug Control Service.

"A total of three tons of heroin and 33 tons of marijuana were confiscated. In addition, some 39 drug laboratories were destroyed," Ivanov said in an interview with Russia 24 television on Thursday.

An estimated 90% of heroin consumed in Russia is trafficked from Afghanistan via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Russia has some 5 million drug addicts, mostly young people between the ages of 30 to 35. Up to 40,000 Russians die from drug abuse every year.

Safest Car is it a Volvo?..[ 1957 ]

World’s Safest Car

By Mike

Think it’s a Volvo?  Think again…

There’s only a handful of countries known for building cars. Most of them are in Europe or the Far East.  Colonel Muammar Gaddafi wants to add Libya to that list, and this is what he’s cooked up to do it.  Called the Libyan Rocket, the car was designed to solve the problem of high instance of road deaths in the north African country.  Gaddafi’s people say it’s the safest car ever made, but don’t go into any details to back up the claim.  Still, the Colonel’s revolutionary government is building a plant in Tripoli to put it together.  

Gaddafi’s car seats five, has a 230-hp V6 and the nose and tail of a rocket. The Libyan Rocket does come with airbags, an electronic defense system and collapsible bumpers that supposedly help out in a crash. So what is the “electronic defense system”? Apparently, nobody knows what it is or how it works. So even the secret is safe with this car!

You may want to add some diamond studded rims complete with their own bodyguard if you want to make this car even safer.

Source: Autoblog

Sharp's Galapagos tablet computer ..[ 1956 ]

Sharp to start marketing Galapagos tablet computer overseas in 2011

Sharp's Galapagos tablet computer

(Mainichi Japan) December 30, 2010

 

Sharp Corp. will start selling its Galapagos tablet computer in the U.S., China, India, Brazil and other areas from next year, the company has announced.

In the U.S., where sales will initially begin, the device will be equipped to handle the EPUB digital book format, which the company hopes will appeal to U.S. publishers and consumers purchasing e-books.

Early next year, Sharp will make a joint announcement with at least one major U.S. communications company on the launch of sales in the U.S.

In Japan, the Galapagos uses Sharp's XMDF format to read digital books, but the company hopes that by also catering to the EPUB format, which is becoming the world standard, the device will appeal to U.S. customers.

Furthermore, the U.S. models will add a 3G mobile communications function, and Sharp is expected to jointly operate a website offering downloads of digital books with a major U.S. communications firm.

Japanese models have only a wireless local area network connection, but for the U.S., which with its much larger land area has a poorer wireless network environment than Japan, the company decided to add 3G functionality.

The company will later sell the device in China, India, Brazil and other emerging countries, hoping to spread the tablet computer around the world.

Click here for the original Japanese story

NASA Image of the Day, Dec 30th..[ 1955 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Sparkle

This Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 1275 reveals the fine, thread-like filamentary structures in the gas surrounding the galaxy. The red filaments are composed of cool gas being suspended by a magnetic field, and are surrounded by the 100-million-degree Fahrenheit hot gas in the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster. 

 

The filaments are dramatic markers of the feedback process through which energy is transferred from the central massive black hole to the surrounding gas. 

 

The filaments originate when cool gas is transported from the center of the galaxy by radio bubbles that rise in the hot interstellar gas. At a distance of 230 million light-years, NGC 1275 is one of the closest giant elliptical galaxies and lies at the center of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The galaxy was photographed in July and August 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

 

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: A. Fabian (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK)

Πέμπτη, 30 Δεκέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Athens ,Greece: Stupid and dangerous anarchists..[ 1954 ]

Bomb explodes near Athens courthouse

By the CNN Wire Staff

December 30, 2010 -- Updated 1237 GMT (2037 HKT)

Explosion rocks heart of Athens

(CNN) -- A strong bomb blast shook one of the main courthouse buildings in central Athens on Thursday morning, Greek police said.

Also Thursday morning, a bomb exploded in front of the Greek Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is not known whether the blasts are linked.

The explosion in Athens occurred about 40 minutes after an unidentified person placed warning calls to a local TV station and newspaper, saying a bomb would explode outside the "administrative first instance courthouse." The advance notice gave police enough time to evacuate the building.

Police said the blast came from a motorbike rigged with explosives that was parked in the median across from the courthouse in the Ambelokipi district. The caller provided the plate number on the bike.

A cloud of smoke was visible in the area and there was some damage to the front of the building and nearby cars from the explosion.

In the Argentine capital, no one was injured in the blast at the Greek embassy, the state-run Telam news agency reported.

The explosion happened about 2 a.m. (midnight Wednesday ET), police said, according to Telam. The bomb was left at the entrance to the embassy. The blast broke some windows on the embassy building and other properties on the block, the news agency reported.