The dirty secret of “Cloud Computing” – massive energy use and waste
Most data centers, by design, consume vast amounts of energy in an incongruously wasteful manner, interviews and documents show.
Worldwide, the digital warehouses use about 30 billion watts of electricity, roughly equivalent to the output of 30 nuclear power plants
“This is an industry dirty secret, and no one wants to be the first to say mea culpa,”
“We’re what’s causing the problem.”
THE CLOUD FACTORIES. NYT, By JAMES GLANZ September 22, 2012 Power, Pollution and the Internet “…… Today, the information generated by nearly one billion people requires outsize versions of these facilities, called data centers, with rows and rows of servers spread over hundreds of thousands of square feet, and all with industrial cooling systems.
They are a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of data centers that now exist to support the overall explosion of digital information. Stupendous amounts of data are set in motion each day as, with an innocuous click or tap, people download movies on iTunes, check credit card balances through Visa’s Web site, send Yahoo e-mail with files attached, buy products on Amazon, post on Twitter or read newspapers online.
A yearlong examination by The New York Times has revealed that this foundation of the information industry is sharply at odds with its image of sleek efficiency and environmental friendliness Continue reading
‘Whistleblowers fight fear to expose world’s dark secrets’ -“Whistleblowers UK”
“1000 deaths at the hands of the police but not one conviction”
Published on Nov 27, 2012
RT talks to the Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, Gavin MacFadyen, about the difficulties whistleblowers face when trying to promote transparency.
We specialise in dealing with whistleblowers who want to discreetly disclose information to the media.
Whistleblower.co.uk allows people to confidentially sell stories to the press while retaining their anonymity.
Our links with the legal profession means that we can help bring you the best possible solutions with a joint media and legal strategy.
We deal with people in the work place, politicians, citizen journalists and members of the public who want to blow the whistle to expose injustice or wrong-doing.
US Military Says Killing Afghan Children Is Fair Game
In October, the US launched an airstrike in Afghanistan that killed three children – ages 8, 10, and 12 -while they were gathering firewood (or by some accounts, dung to burn as fuel). NATO issued its usual dismissive statement, admitting it may have “accidentally killed three innocent Afghan civilians.”
But now, according to theMilitary Times, the US military includes children on their list of who they’re allowed to murder with impunity.
…a Marine official here raised questions about whether the children were “innocent.” Before calling for the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System mission in mid-October, Marines observed the children digging a hole in a dirt road in Nawa district, the official said, and the Taliban may have recruited the children to carry out the mission.
So digging holes in Afghanistan is now grounds for getting bombed? The children’s relatives and local tribal elders had confirmed at the time that they were not Taliban recruits and were not planting any roadside bombs.
That’s apparently not enough for the US military to simply admit that killing innocent children is wrong. Instead, they invent Orwellian rationales for why these poor children were worthy enemy combatants.
“It kind of opens our aperture,” said Army Lt. Col. Marion “Ced” Carrington, whose unit, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police. “In addition to looking for military-age males, it’s looking for children with potential hostile intent.”
There you have it. The US military is now looking for “military-age males” and “children” to kill in Afghanistan.
http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/12/04/us-military-says-killing-afghan-children-is-fair-game/
Press TV: US Builds Israeli Nuke Bunkers and Bio-War Labs
- Monday, December 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Gordon Duff
“The Army Corps of Engineers has a long history of unaccountable behavior bordering on “rogue.” They are, within all aspects of American military and government, long “above the law,” seizing land anywhere they choose.”
—
The project is one of several, moving Israel underground, safe from prying eyes of what is now clearly deep suspicion by “old friends” and genuine outrage by most of the world. We saw this clearly in the aftermath of the Gaza attacks and Israel and America’s staggering defeat at the UN.
Massive construction projects have been discovered that involve nuclear storage facilities, bioweapons labs and silos for nuclear missiles, some supplied by India, with range sufficient to reach key population centers in the United States.
The story was initially broken by Walter Pincus for the Washington Post. Pincus describes in detail the projects paid for by the American taxpayer and contracted out by the Army Corps of Engineers, the organization responsible for construction of the concentration camp known as “Gaza.”
The design is based on NORAD headquarters at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, built to withstand direct hits of up to 30-megaton thermonuclear warheads. The cost, listed as 100 million dollars for each of what is minimally three such “Fuhrer Bunkers,” will, in actuality, be closer to 20 billion dollars each.
From the Washington Post:
“U.S. overseeing mysterious construction project in Israel
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.
“…the facility is to have… a laboratory, shock-resistant doors, protection from nonionizing radiation and very tight security.
“The 1998 Wye River Memorandum between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has led to about $500 million in U.S. construction of military facilities for the Israelis, most of them initially in an undeveloped part of the Negev Desert.
“…three bases were built to support 20,000 troops, and eventually the Israeli air force moved into the same area, creating Nevatim air base. A new runway, 2.5 miles long, was built there by the Corps along with about 100 new buildings and 10 miles of roads.
“…the Corps has built underground hangers for Israeli fighter-bombers, facilities for handling nuclear weapons (though Israel does not admit having such weapons), command centers, trainingbases, intelligence facilities and simulators, according to Corps publications.
“…according to the Corps notice, “The employment of Palestinians is also forbidden.”
Army Corps of Engineers, Racist, Political and Religious Crusaders
Israel Used Depleted Uranium Munitions During Gaza Offensive
Dec 6, 2012
I’m beginning to read reports from Gaza that indicate that the IDF may’ve used depleted uranium munitions during its recent assault. A local journalist writes in Electronic Intifada about the grotesque forms of some of the victims’ wounds. He (incorrectly, I believe) associates them with chemical weapons like white phosphorus:
Among those receiving treatment in Nasser hospital in Khan Younis is a man who was hit by an Israeli drone that struck a farm owned by his family in southern Gaza. A friend of his was killed in the attack. “I was hit directly in my abdomen and two legs,” said the man, who is in his thirties and asked not to be named.
Baker al-Derdy, the head nurse in Nasser hospital, said that when this man was first admitted, there was “a strange smell, almost chemical” from him. Al-Derdy pointed to other indications that Israel may have used chemical weapons during its offensive.
“Some of the symptoms we have seen are abnormal,” al-Derdy added. “The type of burns that appear on the bodies suggest that the weapons employed were not conventional. The burns go deep into the skin and the skin itself turns blue. And I can tell you that the burns hit even the third layer of the skin.”
…Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza…acknowledged that some of the burns witnessed were deeper than those associated with conventional weapons.
“We in Gaza and health bodies in the West Bank do not have laboratories where we could properly examine what types of weapons have been used in Israeli attacks,” al-Qedra said. “But according to what we have seen so far, it appears that Israel used some explosive weapons or ammunition that caused burns and deep wounds. In most cases of those killed, we have seen that bodies were either torn apart or completely burnt out. Also, many of those injured have had their lower or upper limbs amputated.”
Making clear that I’m neither a doctor nor a weapons specialist, the general description of these savage wounds reminds me much more of the DIME munition developed by the U.S. and used by the IDF in Gaza in 2006. I posted several times about this horrific weapon. The Gaza Interior Ministry, in the midst of the fighting, released a statement claiming it had recorded high rates of radioactivity at bombing sites, claiming that unconventional weapons were used against a civilian population:
Major Hazem Abu Murad, assistant director of explosives engineering and member of the Committee to document war crimes, revealed that the occupation used radioactive materials in the explosives with which it had bombed the Gaza Strip.
Abu Murad told the Interior Ministry that the weapons with which Israel targeted Gaza contain heavy elements, including the Uranium, tungsten, aluminum and nickel”, and pointed out that these materials raise the temperature in the center of the explosion to 7 thousand degrees Celsius, and boost the destructive ability of the shell.
He also pointed to the types of weapons used by the occupation during the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip, noting that among those weapons there are three types of ammunition which have been used for the first time.
UAE authorities arrest teen blogger -Press TV
Mohammed Salem al-Zumer was arrested by state security officers in the emirate of Sharjah on Wednesday and taken to an unknown destination, according to the London-based Emirates Center for Human Rights (ECHR).
Al-Zumer had reportedly posted comments on the Internet supporting jailed activists.
Last month, the Persian Gulf littoral state tightened its law on Internet use, making it an offence to deride or damage the state or its institutions and organize protests.
According to the ECHR report, Zumer was driving a car when he was stopped by security personnel, and was escorted to his home, where plainclothes officers searched for more than an hour.
The UAE has launched a crackdown on activists campaigning for free speech and political freedom in the past year and more than 60 activists have been arrested since then.
US used some new generation of nuclear weapons in Fallujah: Expert -Press TV
8 December 2012
This comes as the United States carries out its 27th subcritical nuclear test, known as Pollux, in the state of Nevada on Wednesday to ensure that Washington “can support a safe, secure and effective stockpile” of nuclear weapons.
Press TV has conducted an interview with James H. Fetzer, Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, from Madison, to further discuss the issue. Fetzer is joined by Kaveh Afrasiabi, an author and political scientist from Boston, and Kenneth Katzman, an advisor to US Congress from Washington. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Do you agree with some of the points made by our guest Kenneth Katzman?
Fetzer: I think he’s reflecting that the situation is laden with political hypocrisy and historical irony. Iran’s nuclear program was initiated by the United States under the “Atoms for Peace” program in the 1950s.
After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini abandoned and denied that Iran would pursue nuclear weapons, a position which is its policy up to this date.
In 2007, 16 US intelligence agencies concluded that Iran had no nuclear weapons program, a position which incidentally it reaffirmed in 2011 as was reflected in a Los Angeles Timesarticle published in February of this year.
While Bibi Netanyahu plays the Chicken Little of the Middle East, Iran in fact is not pursuing nuclear weapons, and there’s really no question about it; therefore, the suggestion that that’s the real issue is completely misleading.
We know that the real underlying issues have to do with Iran potentially competing with the American nuclear energy industry by providing it with nuclear fuel rods for peaceful purposes at lower cost, and more importantly that Iran has abandoned the petrodollar.
Nations that abandon the petrodollar incur severe consequences from the United States and that of course includes Iraq, Libya and now Iran.
I find it embarrassing that anyone would suggest the United States is concerned about a nuclear program that its own intelligence agency has concluded does not exist.
Press TV: Our guest, [Mr. Kenneth Katzman], says the US is a member of the UN, then why isn’t it abiding by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Treaty, the CTBT? Why is it then a non-signatory, for example, to the [Convention on] Cluster Munitions not to mention the ICC? Doesn’t that make it convenient for the US in some respects?
It looks like the end for new nuclear industry in France
“In a way, the last 24 hours have killed French nuclear finally because the cost makes it totally impossible to export and now you have one of the few partners actively withdrawing; it looks really bad,”
Last 24 hours have ‘killed’ French nuclear – analyst http://enformable.com/2012/12/last-24-hours-have-killed-french-nuclear-analyst/ 6 Dec 12, French power utility EDF received a fresh blow on Tuesday after Italy’s biggest utility Enel announced it has pulled out from a project to build a next-generation nuclear reactor in northern France, and five other power plants to be built in France using EPR technology, following last year’s referendum in Italy to prevent nuclear energy from returning into the nation. Continue reading
Despite the hype, the nuclear industry is nervous about its future
Nuclear industry faces up to reality of ‘interesting times’ The 
Engineer, 7 December 2012 | ByStuart Nathan ”………Part of the problem is that the nuclear landscape is so complicated, especially in the UK, with its history as a nuclear
pioneer and the legagcy of experiment that has left behind. John Clarke of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, again reflecting the mood of realism, put it in a way which pretty much everyone would understand. ‘It’s like telling children to put their toys away before getting out new ones. Clearing up the mess is a key enabler to new build.’
…… .it’s relatively easy to put toys away. Nuclear is different. ‘At Sellafield, we’re dealing with structures which were put up in the 1940s in great haste to support military programmes, where the only concern was “is it safe for today”,’ he said. ‘They were neverdesigned to have waste taken out of them, and the waste is poorly categorised — we often don’t really know what it is.’
The situation isn’t much better even at industrial-scale power stations, said Peter Walkden, commercial director of Magnox. ‘It was never going to be easy to decommission a 50 year old plant that was never designed to be decommissioned, under a regime that was designed for operation,’ he said. Decommissioning a Magnox plant takes the best part of a century — three years to defuel, then ten years of preparation for care and maintenance while radioactivity subsides (the stage that current decommissioning projects are in), followed by 85 years of care and maintenance, then about ten years to clear the site.
A bit more than just putting the toys away, and something that can’t be done before building new plants’. ….”
USA bullying Japan into keeping nuclear power
On 22 September the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported that the US Government had demanded that no cabinet decision endorsing the strategy be made. Other newspapers reported that the US Government was pressuring Japan to abandon its nuclear phase out aspirations.
More recently a series of statements by former senior US officials and advisors suggests a concerted campaign could be underway to intimidate the Japanese Government
whatever the outcome [of Japan’s election], Japan is undergoing a historic shift in its energy policy. The Japanese people need international support in this process, but they don’t need to be bullied.
Why America Wants A Nuclear Japan, New Matilda, 7 Dec 12 In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, most Japanese voters want the country’s nuclear power plants to be permanently closed down – but the US has other ideas, writes Philip White
On 14 September this year, one and a half years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, the Japanese Government released an unprecedented document.
The “Innovative Energy and Environment Strategy”, the culmination of a year-long policy review process, set the previously unthinkable target of zero nuclear energy by the end of the 2030s. In resolving to phase out nuclear energy, the Japanese Government did what it had never done before in the energy policy field: it allowed itself to be influenced
by the will of the people.
The backlash was immediate. Business groups banded together to condemn the strategy, governors of prefectures hosting nuclear facilities expressed concern about the future of these facilities and, perhaps equally significant, the governments of France, the UK and the United States communicated their displeasure. In the face of this onslaught the government went weak at the knees and failed to give the strategy formal cabinet endorsement…… Continue reading
Powerful presentations at USA conference on nuclear waste
200 participants mark the tragic observance of “A Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High” in Chicago, Dec. 1-3 http://www.beyondnuclear.org/radioactive-waste-whatsnew/2012/12/6/200-participants-mark-the-tragic-observance-of-a-mountain-of.htmlThe event sponsored by Beyond Nuclear, Friends of the Earth, and Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS), and co-sponsored by UChicago Climate Action Network and International House at the University of Chicago, attracted 200 participants, from across the U.S., as well as Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, and a number of Native American First Nations. Continue reading
Hanford radioactive cleanup money leads to growth of Tri Cities area
The New Economy: Extreme radioactive contamination responsible for US’s fastest growing metro area http://enenews.com/new-economy-extreme-radioactive-contamination-responsible-uss-fastest-growing-metro-area December 6th, 2012
Title: Tri-Cities combine for nation’s fastest-growing metro area, boosted by federal money to mop up Hanford
Source: The Oregonian
Author: Richard Cockle
Date: December 05, 2012
Tri-Cities combine for nation’s fastest-growing metro area, boosted by federal money to mop up Hanford Continue reading
New charges against anti nuclear nun – carry 20 years’ gaol
Watch: US gov’t charges nun, anti-nuclear activists with sabotage (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/watch-us-govt-charges-anti-nuclear-activists-with-sabotage-video December 6th, 2012
Title: Nuke Protesters Jailed http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/anti-nuclear-protestors-vandalism-u.s./50c0a94d02a76018a1000004
Source: Huffington Post
Date: December 6, 2012
h/t Anonymous tip
Three anti-nuclear activists, including a nun, are charged under the Federal Sabotage Act for vandalizing the walls of a uranium facility with blood and peace messages.
[…] As part of an updated indictment announced on Wednesday, Greg Boertje-Obed, Michael Walli and Sister Megan Rice could spend 20 years in prison for the felony crime of injuring national-defense premises under the Sabotage Act. Continue reading
Canadian govt abandoning environmental protection
When yet another omnibus budget bill passed through Parliament this week, it ushered in a new era in Canadian history. The “Navigable Waters Protection Act” no longer protects “Water”. The “Fisheries Act” no longer protects “Fish”. The “Environmental Assessment Act” no longer requires “Environmental Assessments” be done before important decisions are made. If you are looking to federal environmental law and policy to protect Canada’s environment, you’re a dinosaur. A throwback. A relic of the 20th Century.
“No need to worry,” the federal government says, “the provinces will protect you now.”
Everything’s changed, Northumberland View ca Dec 06, 2012 – Krystyn Tully, Waterkeeper.ca Weekly“……. It’s no secret that the Government of Canada’s been undergoing some kind of post-environmentalism re-envisioning exercise. You’ve seen the stories about massive layoffs in federal environmental departments, heard about scientists being “muzzled”, listened to members of parliament debating sweeping changes to federal laws.
The exercise is over. The “new normal” is here.
For the last thirty years, Canada was a rule-of-law kind of country. Our environmental laws spelled out what you can’t do (pollute or block a river, for example). They spelled out how decisions had to be made (major projects were reviewed by independent panels, with input from qualified experts, for example). Those who wanted to develop or dump on the water had to prove to a decision-maker that their actions would not harm other people’s abilities to safely swim, drink, or fish those same waters. With a few notable exceptions, the federal rules were generally the same across Canada.
This is no longer true. Continue reading
Let’s bust the nuclear spin about Thorium
THORIUM REACTORS? http://fairewinds.org/demystifying, 8 Dec 12 by Peggy Conte
The latest nuclear power industry proposals focus on smaller reactors and the possibility of thorium fueled reactors. As the nuclear industry explores other fission products, Fairewinds Energy Education has been peppered with hundreds of questions regarding the feasibility and safety of thorium reactors that the nuclear industry is touting as a newer safer form of nuclear power.
The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) is being sold as a “market based environmental solution” and advertised by the nuclear industry as cheaper than coal. Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) use a molten salt mixture as the primary coolant, and sometimes the molten salt is even mixed directly with thorium in the reactor fuel.
Since Fairewinds has received so many questions regarding Thorium Reactors, let’s look at the facts about Thorium: Continue reading
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