The piece of paper that proved Hitler was fooled

It was an audacious double-cross that fooled the Nazis and shortened World War II. Now a newly-released document reveals the crucial role played by Britain’s code-breaking experts in the 1944 invasion of France.

All the ingredients of a gripping spy thriller are there – intrigue, espionage, lies and black propaganda.

An elaborate British wartime plot succeeded in convincing Hitler that the Allies were about to stage the bulk of the D-Day landings in Pas de Calais rather than on the Normandy coast – a diversion that proved crucial in guaranteeing the invasion’s success.

Now fresh documentary evidence has come to light showing how Britain’s army of code-breakers received advance word that the Nazis had been fooled – meaning Allied troops had the go-ahead to attack.

An intercepted memo picked up by British agents and decoded by experts at Bletchley Park – the decryption centre depicted in the film Enigma – revealed that German intelligence had fallen for the ruse.

It was an insight that saved countless Allied lives and arguably hastened the end of the war. But the huge role played by Bletchley Park remains under-celebrated.

Now archivists at the site of the code-breaking centre hope that a new project to digitise and put online millions of documents, using equipment donated by electronics company Hewlett-Packard, will uncover further glimpses into an extraordinary past. …

via BBC News – The piece of paper that proved Hitler was fooled.

Final US manufacturer ceases production of lethal injection drug; executions delayed

At the beginning of 2011, more than two thirds of the world had abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, and only 58 countries actively retained it. – link

The sole United States manufacturer of a key component of lethal injections announced Friday that it will cease production of the drug, contributing to shortages and delaying executions.

Sodium thiopental, the first of a three drug cocktail used in 34 states to render the prisoner to be executed unconscious, was manufactured in Italy until Italian authorities stated that they would only license the manufacture if it was used for medical purposes and not, crucially, for executions.

In a statement, the company, Hospira, said that they have never condoned the use of their drug, marketed as ‘Pentothal’, in executions, and that they could not “prevent the drug from being diverted to departments of corrections for use in capital punishment procedures”.

The move means that the United States is without a viable supplier for sodium thiopental. Although many European countries manufacture the drug, which is primarily used in Europe as an anæsthetic, no manufacturer has been found that is willing to supply it for use in conjunction with the death penalty, the abolition of which has been lobbied by the EU since 2008.

The shortage means that executions in California and Oklahoma have been delayed, with Texas’ last remaining stocks of the drug due to expire in March, weeks before two scheduled executions. These delays are likely to be prolonged as the legal process of drawing up new drugs to be used for injections is lengthy. Pentobarbital, an alternative which used at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, is used for lethal injections in Oregon, and has started to be used by Oklahoma.

Hospira’s decision caused mixed reactions throughout the medical community, with the American Society of Anesthesiologists stating Monday that sodium thiopental is an “important and medically necessary anesthetic agent” that is a “first-line anesthetic in many cases”, citing geriatric and cardiovascular conditions, among others. It said that, although they disagree with the death penalty, “we also do not condone using the issue as the basis to place undue burdens on the distribution of this critical drug to the United States. It is an unfortunate irony that many more lives will be lost or put in jeopardy as a result of not having the drug available for its legitimate medical use.”

via Final US manufacturer ceases production of lethal injection drug; executions delayed – Wikinews, the free news source.

The use of sodium thiopental has been the cause of current Supreme Court challenges to the lethal injection protocol, after a study in the medical journal The Lancet, where autopsy studies on executed inmates revealed that there was not a high enough concentration of thiopental in their blood to have caused unconsciousness.

via Wikipedia

More lives may be lost, but in a natural way… in a way that is not state sanctioned murder.

” … most death certificates for executed inmates check the cause of death as homicide since none of the other causes (natural, accidental, etc.) fit.” – yahooanswer

 

Toyota recalls 1.7m cars after new concerns

Car manufacuturer Toyota are to recall almost 1.7 million cars in two simultaneous recalls, that include the Toyota Avensis and Lexus IS 250, after concerns over fuel systems, which, if combined, amount to the biggest Toyota recall for six years.

Japan’s transport ministry stated that it was possible for slight cracks to appear in fuel pipes in Avensis models, which may widen if the cars continue to be used. In the United Kingdom, Toyota GB are offering free repairs, which are expected to take around four and a half hours each. The Lexus IS 250 is involved a separate recall, with around 280 thousand models outside of Japan being recalled over a faulty fuel pressure sensor, which can possibly come loose, causing a fuel leak.

The Managing Director of Toyota GB stated “We are committed to putting the customer first and have a total focus on the quality of all our products. We will liaise with our customers to carry out the repair procedures as efficiently as possible, with minimal disruption”.

Toyota have recalled over 16 million cars globally since late 2009.

via Toyota recalls 1.7m cars after new concerns – Wikinews, the free news source.

Japan’s unemployment rate is high, over 5% currently. With unemployment soaring, the economy tanking and jobs being cut, the people who still have jobs are way overworked and thus, more mistakes will happen.

 

One of Toyota Motor Corp.’s most remarkable achievements is that it has not laid off any of its permanent workers in more than half a century.

But the Japanese automaker may be about to relinquish that proud tradition. Japan’s biggest business newspaper, the Nikkei, reported Friday that Toyota was considering cutting 1,000 jobs in Britain and the United States.

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Other Japanese papers have suggested even bigger job cuts may be announced as Toyota moves to reduce its output and costs in response to plunging demand for vehicles worldwide.

Toyota already has slashed thousands of temporary workers at plants and offices in Japan, the United States and other regions.

From The Detroit News January 24. 2009: http://detnews.com

Perhaps Toyota should not have “slashed thousands of temporary workers” at plants in 2009.   A few of those slashed people might have solved the problems Toyota is having. Over here, it is even worse.

The jobs crisis isn’t going anywhere, according to the latest forecast from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which puts the national unemployment rate above 9 percent through 2011 and 8 percent through 2012.

Unemployment will fall to a more “natural rate” only in 2016, when CBO estimates it will reach 5.3 percent — a projection roughly in line with private-sector figures.

via HuffingtonPost

 

Homeland Security to replace color-coded terror alerts

The color-coded terror alert system that has greeted travelers at airports since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings is being phased out, the government will announce today.

Long a joke on late-night talk shows, the color codes are being replaced by a system designed to give law enforcement and potential targets critical information without unnecessarily alarming or confusing the public, according to a Department of Homeland Security briefing paper on the change and lawmakers.

The five-step color codes, ranging from green to red, will be phased out in the next 90 days. Among the changes: Passengers will no longer hear the public-service recordings at airports announcing the alert level. The aviation threat has been on orange, or “high” alert, since 2006.

“The old color-coded system taught Americans to be scared, not prepared,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson , D-Miss., the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. “Each and every time the threat level was raised, very rarely did the public know the reason, how to proceed, or for how long to be on alert.”

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the chairman of the committee, also praises the move.

“Though the system served a valuable purpose in the terrible days and months following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, it was clearly time for the current color-coded system to be replaced with a more targeted system,” he said.

… The government will not abandon alerts completely. According to the Homeland Security briefing paper, the agency may decide to issue specific warnings to local law enforcement agencies, airlines or businesses if it fears there is heightened risk of an attack. Or it could issue broader alerts through public announcements, it says.  …

via Homeland Security to replace color-coded terror alerts – USATODAY.com.

Genghis Khan killed so many people that forests grew and carbon levels dropped

Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history – after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest.

The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims a new study.

The deaths of 40million people meant that large areas of cultivated land grew thick once again with trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

And, although his methods may be difficult for environmentalists to accept, ecologists believe it may be the first ever case of successful manmade global cooling.

‘It’s a common misconception that the human impact on climate began with the large-scale burning of coal and oil in the industrial era,’ said Julia Pongratz, who headed the research by the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology.

‘Actually, humans started to influence the environment thousands of years ago by changing the vegetation cover of the Earth’s landscapes when we cleared forests for agriculture,’ she told Mongabay.com.

The 700million tons of carbon absorbed as a result of the Mongol empire is about the same produced in a year from the global use of petrol. …

The Carnegie study measured the carbon impact of a number of historical events that involved a large number of deaths.

Time periods also looked at included the Black Death in Europe, the fall of China’s Ming Dynasty and the conquest of the Americas.

All of these events share a widespread return of forests after a period of massive depopulation.

But the bloody Mongol invasion, which lasted a century and a half and led to an empire that spanned 22 per cent of the Earth’s surface, immediately stood out for its longevity.

And this is how Genghis Khan, who repeatedly wiped out entire settlements, was able to scrub more carbon from the atmosphere than any other despot. …

via Genghis Khan killed so many people that forests grew and carbon levels dropped | Mail Online.

No, Italian scientists have not discovered cold fusion

… physicists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of Italy’s University of Bologna have unveiled their supposed massive breakthrough. They don’t just claim to have figured out how to make a cold fusion reactor, the actually say that they have built one and already tested it, with lots of new reactors ready to ship within the next few months.

Before you get out your checkbook, let’s examine what’s going on here. The scientists claim that a reactor has been running a factory for the last two years, but nobody knows what they’re talking about and the physicists did not elaborate on where or what this factory is.

They also don’t have any theoretical foundation for their work. They say the reactor takes in nickel and hydrogen, and then it produces copper and tons of energy, all at room temperature. But they admit they don’t know how any of that is going on, and there’s a ton of theoretical work that says reactions don’t work in the way the pair have described. It’s not impossible for an empirical discovery to precede the theoretical understanding, but in this case it’s an excellent reason to be very skeptical, if not outright dismissive.

The scientific community definitely wants nothing to do with their work, as Rossi and Focardi have had to create their own journal, the Journal of Nuclear Physics, just to get their scientific paper published. The European Patent Office has also pretty much rejected it out of hand, as a preliminary report explains:

“As the invention seems, at least at first, to offend against the generally accepted laws of physics and established theories, the disclosure should be detailed enough to prove to a skilled person conversant with mainstream science and technology that the invention is indeed feasible. … In the present case, the invention does not provide experimental evidence (nor any firm theoretical basis) which would enable the skilled person to assess the viability of the invention. The description is essentially based on general statement and speculations which are not apt to provide a clear and exhaustive technical teaching.” …

via No, Italian scientists have not discovered cold fusion.

Strange Exits: Man dies after fall into tortilla mixing machine

Police say a Brooklyn factory worker has died after falling into a machine used for mixing tortillas.

Police were called to the scene at around 2:30 a.m. When they arrived, they discovered the 22-year-old victim had fallen inside the waist-high machine at Tortilleria Chinantla in Williamsburg.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name was withheld until his family could be notified. Police say no criminality is suspected.

According to the company’s website, it was founded in 1992 and makes tortillas for restaurants as well as for sale in local markets.

via Man dies after fall into tortilla mixing machine in Brooklyn | 7online.com.

650lbs grand piano mysteriously appears on Florida sandbar

A 650lbs grand piano has mysteriously appeared on a sandbar in Miami’s Biscayne Bay – and no one appears to be coming Bach for it.

The piano was placed at the highest point along the sandbar, about 200 yards from shore, so that it doesn’t disappear underwater during high tide.

who put it there – and, almost more importantly, why – remains unknown.

It could have come from one of the condominiums that line the shore of the bay – or it could have come from further afield.

The one thing authorities do know is that unless the instrument turns from a minor into a major problem, they won’t be moving it.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino told the Miami Herald that the agency is not responsible for moving such items.

And, he adds, unless it becomes a navigational hazard, the U.S. Coast Guard won’t get involved.

For now, the piano has become a fancy roost for seagulls.

via Were they trying to tuna fish? 650lbs grand piano mysteriously appears on Florida sandbar | Mail Online.

Skywatchers Spot Secret U.S. Spy Satellite in Orbit | U.S. Delta 4-Heavy Rocket Launch, Amateur Astronomy

The clandestine cargo carried into polar orbit Thursday aboard the first California-launched Delta 4-Heavy rocket was a crucial replacement satellite for the nation’s surveillance and security network, amateur sky-watchers say.

The sophisticated imaging bird follows a long line of Keyhole-type spacecraft that provide ultra-high resolution imagery for the U.S. intelligence community, according to hobbyists who track orbiting satellites with remarkable precision.

Ever since the Delta 4-Heavy rocket fired away from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the amateur observers have been hunting for the new satellite to figure out its identity. The conventional wisdom before the launch said the payload would fly into the Keyhole satellite constellation, and observations from the past few days proved the guess correct. …

Needing to fill the void from the cancelled FIA program, the NRO ordered the construction of Keyhole satellites be restarted to build two additional satellites that would protect the nation’s surveillance capabilities.

The mission patch for Thursday’s NROL-49 launch actually included the Latin inscription: “melior diabolus quem scies.” Loosely translated: “the devil you know.” Better the devil you know (Keyhole) than the devil you don’t know (FIA). …

The triple-barreled Delta 4-Heavy dramatically rose into the clear sky with fire and smoke at 1:10 p.m. PST, then headed southward over the open Pacific for an ascent that Molczan said was timed perfectly to achieve the intended Keyhole orbit. …

via Skywatchers Spot Secret U.S. Spy Satellite in Orbit | U.S. Delta 4-Heavy Rocket Launch, Amateur Astronomy | Space.com.

The code named Kennan “Keyhole-class” (KH) reconnaissance satellites have been orbiting the Earth for more than 30 years. They are typically used to take overhead photos for military missions. The big question for a lot of people is: “What can they see?”

A KH-12 is a $1 billion satellite that resembles the Hubble Space Telescope, except it is looking at our planet. For security reasons, there are no published orbit schedules for the imagery spacecraft. They are supplemented by the 15-ton Lacrosse-class radar-imaging satellites.

You can think of a KH satellite as a gigantic orbiting digital camera with an incredibly huge lens on it. Optical image reconnaissance satellites use a charge coupled device (CCD) to gather images that make up a digital photograph for transmission back to Earth from an altitude of about 200 miles. Since the satellites are in orbit, they cannot hover over a given area or provide real-time video of a single location.

The satellites are often placed into various secret orbits by NASA space shuttles or Titan 4 rockets and managed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), headquartered in Chantilly, Va. Digital images from the satellites are analyzed, manipulated and combined by powerful computers at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

The black and white images are used by the military and civilian communities. Many of the details about this class of satellites remain classified, but it is known that there are several of these overhead at any given time. They have an imaging resolution of 5-6 inches, which means they can see something 5 inches or larger on the ground. These satellites probably can’t read your house number, but they can tell whether there is a bike parked in your driveway. …

via Howstuffworks

HST Lockheed Integration.jpgImage: Hubble Space Telescope integration at Lockheed. The KH-11 KENNAN satellite is  “believed to resemble the Hubble Space Telescope in size and shape, as the satellites were shipped in similar containers.”

 

Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets

Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard, made the claim that we are alone in the universe after an analysis of the 500 planets discovered so far showed all were hostile to life.

Dr Smith said the extreme conditions found so far on planets discovered outside out Solar System are likely to be the norm, and that the hospitable conditions on Earth could be unique.

“We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own. They are very hostile to life as we know it,” he said.

He pointed to stars such as HD10180, which sparked great excitement when it was found to be orbited by a planet of similar size and appearance to Earth.

But the similarities turned out to be superficial. The planet lies less than two million miles from its sun, meaning it is roasting hot, stripped of its atmosphere and blasted by radiation. …

“Extrasolar systems are far more diverse than we expected, and that means very few are likely to support life.

“Any hope of contact has to be limited to a relatively tiny bubble of space around the Earth, stretching perhaps 1,250 light years out from our planet, where aliens might be able to pick up our signals or send us their own. …

via Alien life deemed impossible by analysis of 500 planets – Telegraph.