Rumors with Kim Jong Un Death,...[ 2695 ]

Twitter, Weibo Light Up with Kim Jong Un Death Rumors

Reuters

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Adam Martin 17,481 Views Feb 10, 2012/ Posted 11 Fen.2012

 

Update 5:45 p.m. Finally, some reporting. Even Twitter and Weibo can't out-rumor the intelligence community: A U.S. intelligence source told CNN that they'd been trying to nail down rumors of Kim Jong-Un's death for more than a week by the time the Internet caught up on Friday, and could find no evidence he'd died. Rather, an unnamed official told CNN's Security Clearance's Barbara Starr that intelligence analysis of the rumor had concluded it was a ploy "to disrupt the economy of South Korea at a fragile time by suggesting things are going haywire up north." But the official hedged: "With that society you can never be 100 percent sure," which is why these kinds of unsubstantiated claims grow legs in the first place, as one did Friday.

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Update 1:08 p.m. The rumor that Kim Jong-Un was killed (or died, or even that there was an attempt made on his life, or that anything else untoward happened to him) has been out for more than an hour now, and no legitimate news organizations have reported it. So for now it looks like pure fantasy. It's also firmly in Twitter-meme territory. Kim Jong-Un's name is fertile fodder, as @AngryMnkyFight demonstrates: "Kim Jong Un dead or Kim Jong Undead. 

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Remember kids, spacing is the difference between assassinations and zombies." So's the leader's weight, as comedian Chris Jenkins shows us: "Due to mistranslation, there are rumors that Kim Jong Un was assassinated in China. What it actually said was that he assassinated a buffet."

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Original: It is nothing more than a rumor, but China's Twitter equivalent, Weibo, posts that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has died in a possible coup have gone viral and now spread to Twitter. As MIT journalism instructor Seth Mnookin tweeted, "Rumor of assassination also floating around; no confirmation RT @KSHartnett Hearing word of #NorthKorea coup. Kim Jong Un on the run." But everybody with half a brain is treating the rumor with a good deal of suspicion. "Probably fake like last rumor of coup," tweeted Chinese journalist Joe Xu.

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Still, the closest thing to actual facts to back up the current round of rumors, as Xu mentions is a photo of cars at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, which some are saying is more than usual. "More rumors on #Weibo dealing with North Korea, usual number of cars at NK embassy, Kim Jong-un assassination attempt, etc," Xu tweeted. 

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Still, as Gawker points out, rumors like this almost always turn out to be false. Kim Jong-un's brother did predict his sibling wouldn't last long. But without any confirmation at all, it's too early to call him prescient.

Europe's Vega rocket ...[ 2694 ]

Vega rocket set for maiden voyage

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent
BBC., 11 Feb.2012 

Esa's Vega programme represents an investment of more than one billion euros

Europe's Vega rocket is finally set to make its maiden flight on Monday.

The 30m-tall vehicle, first conceived in the 1990s, will launch on what is termed a qualification flight from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.

It will carry nine satellites into orbit but the object of the mission is really to prove the rocket's systems all work as designed.

Vega has been developed to assure European access to space for payload classes weighing less than 2.5 tonnes.

At the moment, these smaller satellites tend to ride converted Russian ICBMs to get into orbit and they can sometimes wait many months to get a launch slot.

Vega should allow European operators to have more control over the schedules of their space projects. It also means that the value of what it is an immensely high-tech enterprise will return to the European economy, not to foreign industry.

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"Vega gives Europe the ability to launch small satellites," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency (Esa).

"New technologies - and in particular the miniaturisation of technologies - are making for more and more small satellites. This is particularly true of scientific satellites such as Earth observation spacecraft. So, Vega has a fantastic perspective in front of it provided we succeed," he told me.

The launch in French Guiana is scheduled to take place between 10:00 and 12:00 GMT.

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• Vega will lift off from a refurbished pad formerly used by the Ariane 1
• Its four stages and satellite payload are assembled on the launch site
• Satellites will weigh from a few 10s of kg up to a maximum of 2,500kg
• The "reference mission" is a 1.5t satellite in a 700km-high polar orbit

There will inevitably be a degree of nervousness in launch control at Kourou come lift-off time. According to statistics compiled by the Ascend aerospace consultancy, 58% (11 out of 19) of new rockets since 1990 have experienced a major anomaly on their first flight.

It is for this reason that the satellites carried on Vega's maiden voyage have all been given a "free ride".

Stefano Bianchi, Esa's Vega programme manager, explained: "Of course, we understand more about [the way rockets perform today] - we have more modellisation capability, computers, etc, but it is clear that at system level you have things you cannot test on the ground. And you have to rely on the first flight.

"You do all the verification, you take all of the margins on what is unknown, but still the first flight is always a test."

Vega is a four-stage vehicle. Its first three segments burn a solid fuel. Its fourth and final stage uses liquid propellants and can be stopped and restarted several times to get a spacecraft into just the right orbit. The stage can also bring itself out of the sky - something deemed very important these days given the rising concern over space debris.

 

New manufacturing techniques used on the Vega stages are designed to reduce cost and improve performance

A significant innovation is the way the motor cases are prepared for the first three stages employing a high-strength graphite fibre and epoxy resin.

Avio, the Italian aerospace manufacturer at the heart of the Vega project, has set up a facility where filaments of this material can be wound into the desired shape.

"The use of carbon fibre is very important and allows us to reduce cost and improve performance, because there is less weight in that ratio between the frame and the fuel," said Avio CEO Francesco Caio.

 

Free ride: The scientific payloads on the first flight have not had to pay any launch fees

"At the moment, we're talking about a cost of 22 million to 25 million euros for the launcher before you add in the launching costs. It is difficult to gauge how things will evolve - and it is likely to be a function of volume and overall organisation of industry and the value chain in Europe - but frankly I certainly think there is potential to drive costs down further," he told me.

Esa expects an operational Vega to be launching about twice a year, carrying mostly small scientific and government satellites.

Vega will take its place alongside its "big brother" at Kourou - the Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, and the new medium-lift "Europeanised" Soyuz rocket that has only recently started launching from the spaceport.

With all three vehicles, Arianespace, the company that runs Kourou, will now be able to offer satellite operators a ride for any type of spacecraft to all kinds of orbit - from the low, pole-crossing orbits used by Earth observation missions, to the high, geostationary locations favoured by big telecommunications platforms.

Preparation for the launch has been pushing right up against the end of the available time window.

If Vega should need to delay its flight through this coming week because of technical concerns, it is highly likely it will be asked to stand down for a month or so.

An Ariane 5 rocket has been booked to launch Europe's third ATV cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) on 9 March and this mission takes precedence over all other activity at Kourou.

The frequent comings and goings at the station require a carefully co-ordinated traffic schedule and this cannot be disrupted for Vega's introduction - as important as it is.

L.Kanelli on CNN and "US Cavalry" .. [2693]

To CNN cancels the charge of "US Cavalry" after the interview of Kanelli 

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In an interview (Video) CNN hosted the Liana Kanellis showing forth the title as Member of the "Communist Party" (a red flag for the American audience) and the interview was framed by the gestures and theatrical antics  of the journalist Richard ..

Well done CNN, now take also an interview from  Karatzaferis in order to complete  the provocation of influence to the American public opinion,  that Greece is supposedly composed of Communists and Fascists so the Greeks in vain to expect the advent of the "US Cavalry" for to salvage the situation ... with the Indian-Europeans .. 

In Greek :[1607], Η Λ.Κανέλλη στο CNN και το “US Cavalry”..  

Nafagos.Blog, Saturday, February 11, 2012

Financial crisis in Greece...[ 2692 ]

Greece Approves New Austerity Measures

Greece Approves New Austerity Measures//© AFP/ Louisa Gouliamaki

ATHENS, February 11 (RIA Novosti)

The Greek cabinet has approved a pack of new austerity measures requested by the Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund to secure a 130-billion euro ($170bln) bailout to avoid default, the Greek national television reported on Saturday.

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The agreement should now be passed by Greece’s parliament and receive approval of European finance ministers.

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The country’s Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has warned against failing to agree spending cuts, saying Greece was facing “uncontrolled economic chaos.”

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“We cannot allow Greece to go bankrupt,” he told the cabinet as quoted by the BBC. “A disorderly default would plunge our country in a disastrous adventure.”

Papademos also said parties and ministers that do not back the agreement will not be present in the coalition government.

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Related News

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• Greece Agrees to Fresh Austerity Measures
• Greek parliament backs 2012 austerity budget
• Greek opposition leader refuses to back new austerity plan
• Greece Hopes for Aid Despite Pension Cut Deadlock
• Greece Wants No EU Control on Country's Budget - Official

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Radiation: an invisible demon...[ 2691 ]

Japan priest fights invisible demon: radiation

Related Video

Monk tackles Fukushima nuke "hotspots"

 
By Ruairidh Villar and Yuriko Nakao

FUKUSHIMA | Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:35am EST/

(Reuters) - On the snowy fringes of Japan's Fukushima city, now notorious as a byword for nuclear crisis, Zen monk Koyu Abe offers prayers for the souls of thousands left dead or missing after the earthquake and tsunami nearly one year ago.

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But away from the ceremonial drums and the incense swirling around the Joenji temple altar, Abe has undertaken another task, no less harrowing -- to search out radioactive "hot spots" and clean them up, storing irradiated earth on temple grounds.

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The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, some 50 km (31 miles) away, suffered a series of explosions and meltdowns after the massive earthquake and tsunami last March 11, setting off the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986 and forcing 80,000 people from their homes.

Radiation, carried on winds and by snow, spread far beyond the 20 km (12 miles) evacuation zone around the plant, nestling in hot spots across the region and contaminating the ground in what remains a largely agricultural region.

Many of those who fled have no idea when, if ever, they can return to land held by their families for generations.

"The damage here in Fukushima is different from the destruction caused by the tsunami," Abe said.

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"You can't see it. Nothing looks as if it's changed, but really, radiation is floating through the area. It's hard for those hit by the tsunami, but it's hard to live here too."

Last summer, Abe grew and distributed sunflowers and other plants, such as field mustard and amaranthus, in an effort to lighten the impact of the radiation and cheer local residents.

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CHANGE OF FAITH

Now he is trading his ceremonial robes for a protective mask, working with volunteers to track down lingering pockets of radiation and cleaning them up.

One participant is Masataka Aoki, a 65-year-old engineer at nuclear plant maker Hitachi for more than 40 years. None of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors were made by Hitachi.

Aoki had long been a believer in nuclear power, but he had a change of faith after the meltdowns and now seeks to assuage a sense of guilt.

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"The thing I'd come to believe was good and useful to society turned out to be useless and caused everybody trouble," Aoki said. "I feel a deep sense of remorse."

On a recent weekend volunteers including Aoki looked for radioactive hot spots along a small path which local parents said was mostly used by children on their way to school.

Tests with hand-held Geiger counters yielded results of more than 9 microsieverts per hour, higher than in some areas of the evacuation zone near the plant itself.

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Figures from government testing stations within the exclusion zone the same day read between 3.6 microsieverts and 13 microsieverts an hour. A typical chest x-ray is about 20 microsieverts a scan.

Volunteers dig up the earth in any hot spots they find and load the soil into trucks. The surrounding area is then washed down with high-powered hoses.

Abe said he and the other monks are storing the soil on a hill behind the temple as neither the government nor the nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) are helping with the clean-up.

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"No-one else would take the soil. If there's nobody to take care of it, the decontamination can't get going because there's nowhere to get rid of it," Abe said.

Volunteers have gathered some 400 kg (800 pounds) of radioactive waste.

But it is likely to take years to remove all of the "invisible snow," as Abe describes the radiation -- if that is even possible.

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"Real snow is cold but it is much better than the invisible snow. The visible snow will eventually melt away," he said.

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(Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Michael Perry)