U.S. defense in the Persian Gulf is strengthened...[ 2739 ]

US Beefs Up Defenses in Persian Gulf

Feb. 14, 2012: A photo taken from the bridge of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) shows US aircraft parked on the flight deck of a US destroyer, background, patrols the Arabian sea in the Strait of Hormuz.

Skooter reporting 02/25/12

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U.S. sea and land-based defenses in the Persian Gulf is strengthened to offset any attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon officials said.

Congress has been informed by the U.S. military of plans to position in advance new mine-detection and clearing equipment and increase surveillance capabilities in and around the strait, according to defense officials. What’s more, the defense officials said that the military also wants to immediately adapt weapon systems on ships to be used against Iranian fast-attack boats, on top of shore-launched missiles.

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The military Central Command leads the readiness push which keeps an eye on U.S. forces in the Gulf region, these officials said. It shows the degree to which war strategists are taking concrete steps to prepare for a possible conflict with Iran, even as top White House and defense leaders try to discourage talk of war and highlight other options.

The modifications points up on what officials have pulled out as potential U.S. inadequacies in the event of conflict with Iran. After reviews by war planners, the head of Central Command, Marine Gen. James Mattis, asked for the equipment upgrades last spring and uncovered "gaps" in U.S. defense capabilities and military preparedness should Tehran close the Strait of Hormuz, officials said.

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The Central Command assessment, in particular, have spiked up apprehensions about the U.S. military's ability to react swiftly in the event Iran mine the strait, through which nearly 20% of the world's traded oil passes.

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Source: Foxnews/Wall Street Journal

The Antikythera Mechanism...[ 2738 ],

The Antikythera Mechanism

From the Guardian,
Greek Text :[1732], Ο Μηχανισμός των Αντικυθήρων …

Two years ago, a paper was published in Nature describing the function of the oldest known scientific computer, a device built in Greece around 100 BCE. Recovered in 1901 from a shipwreck near the island of Antikythera, this mechanism had been lost and unknown for 2000 years. It took one century for scientists to understand its purpose: it is an astronomical clock that determines the positions of celestial bodies with extraordinary precision. In 2010, a fully-functional replica was constructed out of Lego. 

Sponsored by Digital Science, a new division of Macmillan Publishers that provides technology solutions for researchers.

For those of you who, like me, wish to learn more about this ancient computer, here's a video interview that documents how scientists went about examining this device.

After a lot of study, a group of scientists determined that the Antikythera Mechanism could predict eclipses, and that it had a dial to record the dates of the ancient Olympiads. The 2,000-year-old box of intricate gearwork provides a glimpse of the engineering prowess of the Hellenic world. The team discuss their results here, in this video:

Part 1:

 
This video is from 11 December 2008 (part 1). 

Part 2:

This video is from 11 December 2008 (part 2).

Presidential elections in Russia...[ 2737 ]

Putin to Win in First Round with 63-66% - Poll

Topic: Presidential elections in Russia (2012)

Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin will win the presidential election with 63-66 percent of the vote, according to Russia's largest independent pollster Levada Center.;;© RIA Novosti. Sergei Mamontov//13:14 24/02/2012

MOSCOW, February 24 (RIA Novosti)

Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin will win the presidential election with 63-66 percent of the vote, according to Russia's largest independent pollster Levada Center.

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"Forty-three to forty-six percent of eligible voters are ready to vote for Putin. Among those who have decided to come to the polls, 63-66 percent will vote for Putin," head of Levada Center Lev Gudkov said on Friday.

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Russian presidential election is scheduled for next weekend, March 4. Five candidates are running for the election.

According to Gudkov, 35 percent of voters are in doubt about the honesty of the election and believe that the election will be “dirtier,” 44 percent of the respondents think that the election will be fair.

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He added that 70-71 percent of respondents showed a weak interest in the elections.

Fifteen percent of respondents will vote for Communist party candidate Gennady Zyuganov, 8 percent for Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 6 percent for billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov and 5 percent will vote for A Just Russia's Sergei Mironov.

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Levada Center predicts that there will not be a second round in the presidential elections.

According to a survey conducted by state-run pollster VTsIOM on February 11, Vladimir Putin will win 58.6 percent of the vote, Gennady Zyuganov will take second place with 14.8 percent, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky will come in third with 9.4 percent. Mikhail Prokhorov will get 8.7 percent of the vote and Sergei Mironov will get 7.7 percent. According to VTsIOM, 67 percent of those surveyed said Putin would win after the first round of the presidential election, 20 percent said he would have to go through a second round.

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According to a survey conducted by the Kremlin-backed pollster Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), Putin may get 58.7 percent of votes, Zyuganov will follow with 16.2 percent of votes, Zhirinovsky with 8.8 percent. Prokhorov may gain 8.6 percent and Mironov 6.1 percent. Pollsters say 61.8 percent of eligible voters will come to polls.

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Related News

• Changing Tack, Putin Takes His Politics to the Public Square – ANALYSIS
• Putin supporters hail ‘stability’ at glitzy Moscow rally
• 'We Are Defenders of Fatherland': Putin
• Putin: Foreign Meddling Cannot Bring Democracy
• Pollster Shows First Round Victory for Putin with 58.6%

America’s Next Spacecraft...[ 2736 ]

Image of Students Shaping America’s Next Spacecraft

 

Students from Texas A&M University visited the Orion Medium Fidelity Mockup as part of the SSANS, or Students Shaping America’s Next Spacecraft, program. 

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 The students, who are Industrial Engineering majors at Texas A&M, partnered with the Orion Program on two senior design projects: Orion Lighting System hardware for the Orion Full-scale Mockup and the Orion Budget and Planning Project. 

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During their visit on Feb. 22, 2012, the students presented their work as part of the Preliminary Design Review at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. While at the center, they had an opportunity to see the Orion mockups and tour center facilities.
Image Credit: NASA

Greek Gain, European Bank Pain...[ 2735 ]

Greek Gain, European Bank Pain: Debt Write-downs Continue

Βυ Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff//23/2/2012 @ 10:35AM

 Image by AFP/Getty Images via daylife

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Bank of Cyprus was the first to take the ax to its holdings of Greece’s government bonds this week, reporting a billion-euro loss after the second European bailout package for the country was announced Tuesday. 

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A host of other banks joined in Thursday, with RBS, Credit Agricole and Commerzbank, among others, lowering the value of their holdings.

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The write-downs come after Tuesday’s agreement on €130 billion in loans from the European Commission, ECB and IMF, the so-called Troika. Alongside that deal, negotiators for private sector bondholders agreed to take a 53.5% haircut. 

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While that aspect of the deal still needs to win the favor of a majority of Greek creditors, European banks have begun to remark their sovereign debt portfolios accordingly.

 
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Greece Secures Bailout, Default Risk Remains Abram Brown Forbes Staff
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Buyers Of Worthless Debt Keep Greece Afloat Charles Biderman Contributor
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Greece Is Managing, Not Avoiding, Default
  Jared Bernstein Contributor

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Royal Bank of Scotland recorded a £1.1 billion ($1.7 billion) impairment on its sovereign debt holdings on its way to a £2 billion ($3.1 billion), larger than anticipated. Germany’s Commerzbank, which wrote the value of its Greek sovereign bonds down to 26 cents on the dollar in 2011, took a €700 million ($930.5 million) impairment charge in the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg, while French bank Credit Agricole took a €220 million ($292.5) hit that resulted in a fourth-quarter loss. Dexia and Allianz also took charges tied to Greek debt Thursday.

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While the writedowns are hardly welcome, they are relatively small given the size of these banks. With that said, they also offer a reminder of how much pain might be in store if Italy or Spain reaches a Greece-level crisis and sizable haircuts are taken on the bonds of those countries, which account for a larger piece of most lender portfolios. 

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Conditions have eased somewhat though, as yields on both Italian and Spanish debt have cooled thus far in 2012 to the 5% range, rather than the 7%-plus that has frequently marked the beginning of the end for other sovereigns.

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Unlike more opportunistic recent buyers of Greek debt, large Europeank banks have been writing down their Greek debt holdings for several quarters, if not longer, and would appear to have incentive to participating in the debt swap. 

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Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s long-term refinancing operations, the next of which will dole out fresh three-year loans at low rates Feb. 29, has taken the risk of a liquidity freeze off the table for European banks in the near-term and, many believe, removed the Lehman Brothers scenario for the time being.

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Fitch Ratings warned Wednesday that it expects the swap to result in a technical default, raising the tricky question of whether credit default swaps, essentially insurance contracts on bonds, will be triggered. (See “Why ‘Voluntary’ Haircuts On Greek Bonds Will Haunt Europe.”)

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Meanwhile, the second rescue of Greece comes with the eurozone and EU on the precipice of recession. The European Commission’s updated growth forecast said the stall in the back half of 2011 is likely to persist for the first half of 2012 before economic expansion resumes.

“Against the backdrop of a waning growth momentum and continued low confidence, real GDP is expected to remain unchanged in the EU (0.0%) and to shrink by 0.3% in the euro area in 2012,” the commission said. Interestingly enough Ireland, which was bailed out in 2010, is the only one of the PIIGS — Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain — expected to grow in 2012.