Monday 08-22-16

Which Items Will Disappear First During A Major National Emergency?

One day in the not too distant future, a major emergency will strike this nation, and that will set off a round of hoarding unlike anything we have ever seen before.  Just think about what happens when a big winter storm or a hurricane is about to hit one of our major cities – inevitably store shelves are stripped bare of bread, milk, snow shovels, etc.  Even though winter storms and hurricanes are just temporary hurdles to overcome, they still cause many people to go into panic mode.  So what is going to happen when we have a real crisis on our hands?
We can get some clues about which items will disappear first during a major national emergency by taking a look at where such a scenario is already playing out.  One recent survey found that over 80 percent of all basic foodstuffs are currently unavailable in Venezuela, and about half the country can no longer provide three meals a day for their families.  Thankfully, some stores still have a few things that they are able to offer, but other key items are completely gone.  The following comes from USA Today…

Oh, there are some things to buy. Besides salt, there are fresh vegetables and fruits, dairy products but no milk, some cereal, lots of snacks and a few canned goods.
The only meat is sausages; there are three kinds of cheese. The only problem: A kilogram of each costs more than a fourth of our monthly minimum wage of 15,050 bolivars.
But basic foodstuffs – the things most Venezuelans want to eat  such as corn meal, wheat flour, pasta, rice, milk, eggs, sugar, coffee, chicken, mayonnaise, margarine, cooking oil and beef – are conspicuous by their absence. And there is no toilet paper, no sanitary napkins, no disposable baby diapers, no shampoo, no toothpaste, no hand soap and no deodorant.

Do you have plenty of the items in bold above stored up?
If not, you may want to stock up while you still can.
Venezuela was once the wealthiest nation in all of South America, but now lines for food often begin as early as three in the morning.  Some people have become so desperate that they are actually hunting cats, dogs and pigeons for food, and there are even a few very sick people that have been killing and eating zoo animals.
Someday similar things will happen in the United States and Europe too.
When that day arrives, will you be prepared?
One of the things that got my attention from the article quote above was the lack of milk.  My wife is always telling me that we should store up more dried milk, and I believe that she is right.
Just imagine not having any milk and not being able to get any more.
What would you do?
Another thing that really stood out to me in the article was the fact that there is a severe shortage of personal hygiene items.  Most people don’t really think of those as “prepper goods”, but the truth is that life will become very uncomfortable without them very rapidly.
What would you do if there was no more toilet paper?
And if you have a little one, how are you going to manage without any diapers?
In general, it is wise to always have an extra supply of just about everything that you use on a daily basis stored away somewhere in your home.  The generation that went through the Great Depression of the 1930s understood this concept very well, but most of us that are younger have had it so good for so long that we don’t even really grasp what a real crisis looks like.
Another thing that we are seeing happen right now in Venezuela is the rise of a barter economy…

Many of my urban friends are now planting vegetables in their outdoor spaces – if they have any – or in pots. Another friend, who is a hairdresser, is charging clients food to do their hair. For a shampoo and dry, she charges a kilo of corn meal, saying that she doesn’t have time to stand in line like some of her clients.

As you prepare for what is ahead, you may want to consider stocking up on some items that would specifically be used for bartering in a crisis situation.
For example, you may not drink coffee, but there are millions upon millions of people that do.  In a crisis situation, there will be many that will be extremely desperate to get their hands on some coffee, and so any coffee that you store away now may become a very valuable asset.
We live in a world where one out of every eight people already goes to bed hungry each night, and where one out of every three children is underweight.  As global weather patterns become more extreme, as natural disasters continue to become more frequent and more intense, and as terror and war continue to spread, it is inevitable that the stress on the global food system is going to continue to grow.
Today you can waltz into Wal-Mart and buy giant cartloads of very inexpensive food, but it will not always be that way.
Unfortunately, more than half the country is currently living paycheck to paycheck, and most Americans do not have any emergency food stored up at all.
In addition to food and personal hygiene supplies, here are some other items that are likely to disappear very rapidly during a major national emergency…
-Flashlights
-Batteries
-Generators
-Propane
-Can Openers
-Water Filters
-Water Containers
-Anything Related To Self-Defense
-Axes
-Knives
-Sleeping Bags
-Tents
-First Aid Kits
-Matches
-Candles
-Firewood
-Shovels
-Bottled Water
-Warm Clothing
-Lanterns
-Portable Radios
So in addition to food and personal hygiene items, you may want to do an inventory of the items that I have listed above and see where you may have some holes in your preparation plans.
I understand that there will be some people that will read this article and think that all of us “preppers” are being just a tad ridiculous.
But when a major emergency strikes this nation and you haven’t done anything to prepare, you will dearly wish that you had bothered to take action while there was still time remaining to do so.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

First Long-term Study Confirms World’s Most Popular Pesticide is Wiping Bees Off the Planet

The rise of industrial agriculture — led by companies like Monsanto that push monoculture, chemical-based farming and patented life forms — has brought a flood of pesticides that wreak havoc on natural ecosystems.
Insects and animals that eat insects fall victim to the millions of gallons of pesticides that are dumped on cropland, which run off into waterways, drift to nearby habitats and are picked up as residue by visiting pollinators.
In the 1980s, Bayer developed a potent new class of pesticide called neonicotinoids (neonics), which rapidly came to dominate industrial agriculture. In 2008, they represented 24 percent of the global market for insecticides, with Imidacloprid becoming the most widely used insecticide in the world.
Almost all U.S. corn and about one-third of U.S. soybean is treated with neonics. A “major advance” happened when agribusiness developed neonic-coated seeds, where every part of the growing plant becomes infused with the toxin, including pollen.
After government regulators, deep in the pockets of agribusiness, rushed to approve neonics for commercial sale, scientific studies began documenting the ecological impacts. Bird populations and other insectivores declined due to a lack of insect prey, as neonics became more widely used.
In 2006 we began seeing dramatic die-offs of honeybee populations, which play a vital role in pollinating food crops. Colony collapse disorder became a common occurrence, with bees showing classic signs of insecticide poisonings such as tremors, uncoordinated movement and convulsions.
Dead bees in and around hives showed the presence of neonics, and new research found that low-levels of neonics in bees made them susceptible to viral infections and mites, and reduced the reproductive ability of queen bees. Corn and dandelion pollen brought back to hives routinely tested positive for neonics.
Other insects are devastated by neonics, including the North American bumblebee which has seen a 90 percent decline. The threat to wild bees, honeybees and other pollinators is becoming ever more clear as new studies come out.

Now, the first long-term study of neonic impacts on wild bees has confirmed that the popular pesticide is linked to long-term bee decline.

Researchers in England looked at 18 years of data on 64 wild bee species and the use of neonics on the oilseed rape plant, which is widely treated with neonics, finding that about half of the total decline is due to the insecticide. All of the 34 species that forage on oilseed rape showed at least a 10 percent decline from neonics, with the most affected group experiencing a 30 percent decline from neonics.
The findings of the Centre for Ecologh and Hydrology team appear in the journal Nature.
“Historically, if you just have oilseed rape, many bees tend to benefit from that because it is this enormous foraging resource all over the countryside,” lead author Dr. Ben Woodcock told the BBC. “But this co-relation study suggests that once its treated with neonicotinoids up to 85 percent, then they are starting to be exposed and it’s starting to have these detrimental impacts on them.”
The research adds to several laboratory and short-term field studies which have found negative effects of neonics on honeybees and wild bees. Even the EPA has been forced to admit neonics kill bees.
“The negative effects that have been reported previously do scale up to long-term, large-scale multi-species impacts that are harmful,” said co-author Dr Nick Isaac. “Neonicotinoids are harmful, we can be very confident about that and our mean correlation is three times more negative for foragers than for non-foragers.”
While agribusiness will continue to deny that their favorite insecticide has anything to do with declining bee populations, well-informed consumers have already forced a change at retail stores. Large garden centers, including Lowes and Home Depot, have committed to eliminating neonic-treated garden plants which are often planted for the purpose of attracting pollinators.
However, the vast majority of neonic application is in the hands of companies such as Bayer and Monsanto that produce both seeds and chemicals to use on seeds and plants. Their friends at the FDA and other government agencies are complicit in unleashing neonics without bothering to truly consider how these toxins affect the environment.


http://www.blacklistednews.com/First_Long-term_Study_Confirms_World%E2%80%99s_Most_Popular_Pesticide_is_Wiping_Bees_Off_the_Planet/53552/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Monday 04-13-15

Study strengthens link between neonicotinoids and collapse of honey bee colonies

Boston, MA — Two widely used neonicotinoids—a class of insecticide—appear to significantly harm honey bee colonies over the winter, particularly during colder winters, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study replicated a 2012 finding from the same research group that found a link between low doses of imidacloprid and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which bees abandon their hives over the winter and eventually die. The new study also found that low doses of a second neonicotinoid, clothianidin, had the same negative effect.
Further, although other studies have suggested that CCD-related mortality in honey bee colonies may come from bees’ reduced resistance to mites or parasites as a result of exposure to pesticides, the new study found that bees in the hives exhibiting CCD had almost identical levels of pathogen infestation as a group of control hives, most of which survived the winter. This finding suggests that the neonicotinoids are causing some other kind of biological mechanism in bees that in turn leads to CCD.
The study appears online May 9, 2014 in the Bulletin of Insectology.
“We demonstrated again in this study that neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering CCD in honey bee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter,” said lead author Chensheng (Alex) Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at HSPH.
Since 2006, there have been significant losses of honey bees from CCD. Pinpointing the cause is crucial to mitigating this problem since bees are prime pollinators of roughly one-third of all crops worldwide. Experts have considered a number of possible causes, including pathogen infestation, beekeeping practices, and pesticide exposure. Recent findings, including a 2012 study by Lu and colleagues, suggest that CCD is related specifically to neonicotinoids, which may impair bees’ neurological functions. Imidacloprid and clothianidin both belong to this group.
Lu and his co-authors from the Worcester County Beekeepers Association studied the health of 18 bee colonies in three locations in central Massachusetts from October 2012 through April 2013. At each location, the researchers separated six colonies into three groups—one treated with imidacloprid, one with clothianidin, and one untreated.
There was a steady decline in the size of all the bee colonies through the beginning of winter—typical among hives during the colder months in New England. Beginning in January 2013, bee populations in the control colonies began to increase as expected, but populations in the neonicotinoid-treated hives continued to decline. By April 2013, 6 out of 12 of the neonicotinoid-treated colonies were lost, with abandoned hives that are typical of CCD. Only one of the control colonies was lost—thousands of dead bees were found inside the hive—with what appeared to be symptoms of a common intestinal parasite called Nosema ceranae.
While the 12 pesticide-treated hives in the current study experienced a 50% CCD mortality rate, the authors noted that, in their 2012 study, bees in pesticide-treated hives had a much higher CCD mortality rate—94%. That earlier bee die-off occurred during the particularly cold and prolonged winter of 2010-2011 in central Massachusetts, leading the authors to speculate that colder temperatures, in combination with neonicotinoids, may play a role in the severity of CCD.
“Although we have demonstrated the validity of the association between neonicotinoids and CCD in this study, future research could help elucidate the biological mechanism that is responsible for linking sub-lethal neonicotinoid exposures to CCD,” said Lu. “Hopefully we can reverse the continuing trend of honey bee loss.”
Funding for the study came from Wells Fargo Foundation and the Breck Fund at the Harvard University Center for the Environment.
“Sub-lethal exposure to neonicotinoids impaired honey bees winterization before proceeding to colony collapse disorder,” Chensheng Lu, Kenneth M. Warchol, Richard A. Callahan, Bulletin of Insectology, online Friday, May 9, 2014
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/study-strengthens-link-between-neonicotinoids-and-collapse-of-honey-bee-colonies/

Bird flu found at 4 more Minnesota turkey farms, 1st in ND; brings Midwest toll to almost 1.1M

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A deadly bird flu strain was confirmed Friday at one North Dakota turkey farm and at four more in Minnesota, raising the number of farms affected across the Midwest to 20 and the toll to almost 1.1 million birds since the outbreak was first confirmed in early March.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the new cases in Minnesota of the highly contagious H5N2 strain are in Cottonwood, Lyon, Watonwan and Stearns counties. The four new farms housed a combined 189,000 turkeys.

In North Dakota, State Veterinarian Susan Keller said the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Iowa confirmed the H5N2 strain of avian influenza in a flock of 40,000 turkeys in Dickey County. It's that state's first confirmed case of the flu strain.

Officials in both states said those turkeys not killed by the virus will be euthanized to prevent the disease from spreading.

Once those birds have been destroyed, the 20 farms in Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas will have lost nearly 1.1 million turkeys. Canadian officials confirmed Wednesday that a turkey farm in southern Ontario with 44,800 birds was hit, too. The USDA has sent more than 40 experts to Minnesota to assist in the response.

Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson said his state has about 450 farms that raise around 46 million turkeys annually. The losses so far work out to about 1.9 percent of the state's yearly production.
"For these companies, and obviously for the farmers and their families that have been impacted by the H5N2 virus, there are some really difficult times ahead," he said.
Officials stress the risk to public health is low and that there's no danger to the food supply. No human cases have been detected in the U.S., said Dr. Joni Scheftel, state public health veterinarian with the Minnesota Department of Health.
The largest farm hit was a 310,000-bird farm in Meeker County owned by Jennie-O Turkey Store, the country's No. 2 turkey processor, where the virus was confirmed Wednesday. Three of the new cases were also connected with Jennie-O, a division of Hormel Foods Corp. The company said the Watonwan County farm is company-owned, while the Cottonwood and Lyon County operations were contract growers. Altogether, seven Jennie-O owned and contact farms have lost 626,000 turkeys because of the outbreak. But the company says its losses are a small percentage of its overall production.
In North Dakota, Keller said quarantine efforts were underway Friday.
Scientists suspect migratory waterfowl such as ducks are the reservoir of the virus. They can spread it through their droppings. But Michelle Carstensen, wildlife health program supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said tests still haven't found any wild birds with the disease or any H5N2 in their droppings in Minnesota so far. Test results are expected next week on samples collected near affected farms in three counties, she said.
Officials are trying to determine how the virus has managed to evade the strict biosecurity that's standard practice at commercial turkey farms. The virus can be carried into barns by workers or by rodents and wild birds that sneak inside.

But Dr. Beth Thompson, assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, said investigators haven't determined how the virus entered any of the infected barns. She said the industry's biosecurity practices are "top notch." And Fredrickson disputed the suggestion that those measures aren't working.

Thompson said they hope the threat recedes as the weather warms and the spring migration ends. Flu viruses prefer cold, wet conditions, she said, so they're hopeful that hot, dry days will kill it off. She said that would prevent it from being tracked into barns, if that's what's happening.

Carstensen said they still don't know if this virus will be a long-term problem. It was first detected in North America in December on the West Coast, and scientists don't know much yet about how it behaves, she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-confirmed-1-nd-012351522.html

Got an email form a friend, figured I would pass it on to you all.

The Role of Charcoal in Caring For an Infected Wound under PAW Field Conditions.

 

   After you have irrigated a dirty wound to clean it of visual debris and covering it with a bandage to prevent further infection and before you apply anti-infective and surface blood circulation stimulating herbs, you need to clean out the minute debris, bacteria and toxins.  This is done using charcoal (preferably, but not necessarily, activated charcoal).

 

   The highly porous carbon acts as a micro-sponge when in contact with the wound surface. The finely powered charcoal is wetted with sterile, clean (preferably distilled) water and applied directly to surface of the wound and bandaged. The charcoal is applied for several hours then gently rinsed off and fresh charcoal reapplied. The charcoal is actually absorbing the infective bacteria and the appearance of the wound will change as this is repeated. The wound will appear progressively less inflamed and a duller red as the infection is reduced. This may take days depending on the severity of the infection. The cleaned wound is now ready for treatment with anti-inflammatory and anti-infective herbs. If activated charcoal is unavailable, home made charcoal can be used but will likely take longer to achieve the desired result.

 

   Home charring the wood for charcoal is similar to producing that used in black powder. Choose light, low ash woods like willow, alder or hazel wood, if available, but any hard wood will do. Exclude resinous woods like pine if possible.

Here is a simple charcoal making method:

Place an old pressure cooker (or similar closed vessel will a small vent hole) on the embers of a good fire. When the smoke ceases, the charcoal has reached a temperature of about 662°F. The charcoal that you want should be heated more than 842 °F in order to lose more of its flammability and open up more micro-pores. If you do not have a high temperature metal thermometer, just continue to cook it after the smoke ceases for as long as practical.

 

   Charcoal works on wounds by absorbing non-polar molecules into a micro-sponge like surface. When charcoal comes into direct contact with infected tissue, it bonds with and absorbs dead tissue, bacteria, and toxins cleaning the surface of the wound. This makes the medicinal herbs (or antibiotic ointment, if you have it) much more effective.

 

Reference:

“The Herbal Medic” volume 1 by Sam Coffman

Friday 10-08-10

Teen gets 12-month sentence for minor offense - and thug gets probation for raping her15-year-old Ashley had no inkling of what was to come on the day in 2005 when she was in Manhattan Family Court on a minor charge.

"You want to believe everybody's good, everybody wants to help you," she told me last week.

A hulking juvenile counselor named Tony Simmons led her in handcuffs from the girls holding area to the elevator.

She expected Tyson, as Simmons was called, to bring her up to the courtroom where she was scheduled to be sentenced for filing a false police report.

Instead, the elevator descended to the basement. The 42-year-old counselor pulled down her pants and raped her with calm, practiced precision that made him all the more terrifying.

"He knew exactly what he was doing," Ashley said. "Everything."

When he was done, Simmons pulled her pants back up and the elevator ascended to the courtroom. He raised an extended index finger to his lips in a mute command for her to say nothing.

"I was very scared," Ashley said. "I was terrified. He was a very large man."

Just moments after being violated, Ashley was seated next to her mother and before the judge. She was too shocked and terrified to report the attack.

"I knew I was just raped. I knew it wasn't supposed to happen," she recalled. "I didn't think anybody would believe me."

She kept silent as she was found to be a juvenile delinquent and sentenced to 12 months. She says her only crime was initially reporting to police she did not know who had jumped and cut her on the way to school.

Simmons continued to prey on teenagers in his custody until 2008, when a 15-year-old girl came forward to say he had sodomized her behind a locker in the girls holding area, which he stocked with condoms and cookies. Investigators believe the assaults go back a decade to the rape of a 13-year-old in the holding area.

"Just the tip of the iceberg," Assistant District Attorney Amir Vonsover said in 2008, when Simmons was indicted for three sex assaults.

On Sept. 27, Simmons appeared in court and pleaded guilty to raping Ashley and sexually assaulting two other teens.

He received probation.

"I got 12 months for a falsified police report and he got probation for raping me and the others," Ashley said on Friday. "It's just ridiculous."

Ashley says she was not told about the probation deal when she called Vonsover last week to check on the case. She had prepped to testify in the upcoming trial, but she was now told that Simmons had pleaded guilty.

"[Vonsover] said, 'You should be so happy,'" Ashley recalled. "I'm thinking, 'Great. He's definitely going to jail.'"

When she went online later, Ashley saw a news report that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance had blasted Judge Cassandra Mullen as "outrageously lenient" for giving Simmons probation.

In defense of the judge, the Office of Court Administration noted that the transcript of the plea shows that Vonsover offered no objection. He was insisting he had objected during an off-the-record sidebar. Court sources say Vonsover offered Simmons his cell phone to call relatives before taking the plea.

Ashley and her family feel the judge still bears some responsibility no matter what the prosecutor did or did not say. Ashley's mother-in-law asked, "I'm a nurse. If a doctor gives a wrong prescription, do I give it or do I question it?"

Ashley recalled what the investigators told her in 2008, after they contacted her and she finally recounted the rape.

"They said, 'Great! We have a definite case. He is going down, 100%.'"

She also remembered how she felt when she had to identify Simmons in a lineup.

"I lost my breath, to be honest," she said. "I stood there for about four or five minutes. I couldn't speak. I actually felt like my heart was going to stop in my chest."

While pondering Simmons' probation for the courthouse rape the day she got 12 months, Ashley notes that she actually served nearly three years.

She is not of the streets and that made her the target of kids who were. And, as the shock of the rape turned to anger, she often talked back to counselors.

"You say something, they throw you on the floor; 60 days, 90 days, 120 days added to your sentence," she said.

She was already an orphan and she had lost her adoptive parents as well by the time she was released. She nevertheless kept on track, getting a perfect score on her GED exam and enrolling in a professional program at a prestigious university.

"It's awesome! It's beautiful!" said Ashley, now 20.

True love helped her overcome trust issues that began with that walk to the elevator five years ago. She is married and has a son she named after Vonsover before she could even imagine Simmons getting probation.

She does not want her full name in the paper, lest Simmons try to track her down. She is not worried about her photo.

"I'm only scared of one man, and he already knows what I look like," she said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/03/2010-10-03_raped_by_judge_and_justice_system.html#ixzz11b8mCMoX


New icon allows 'opting out' of online tracking
WASHINGTON -- In an effort to allow people to stop advertisers from tracking them online, advertisers have created the "Advertising Option" icon, a new regulating device, also called the "forward i."
Members of the newly formed Digital Advertising Alliance will be required to include the little blue triangle icon in the upper-right-hand corner of online ads. When users click the icon, they will be shown information on the origin of the ad and whom it targets.

Users also will be linked to pages explaining how to block that advertiser, its attendant third-party data and network partners.

Unauthorized data-pirating has gotten so bad, MSNBC.com has hired outside help to police their own uninvited "data trolls," paidContent.org reports.

"We're operating in an industry where everybody is concerned about privacy and data piracy dimensions," says Krux Digital executive Tom Chavez.

"That data is our industry's 'blood diamonds' and nobody wants to be caught buying, selling, moving or trading it."

But protecting the industry from privacy pirates is not the only reason advertisers are moving so quickly. Consumers have long complained about privacy violations.

Within the next few weeks, the Federal Trade Commission is expected to recommend consumer protection regulations. Chairman Jon Leibowitz and staffers have floated the idea of a "Do-Not-Track" registry, similar to the mechanism that blocks telemarketers, ECommerce-Guide.com reports.

Critics of the advertising industry are skeptical that the forward i icon will allay the FTC's concerns.

"For the first time in really more than a decade, the FTC wants to get to the bottom of this problem," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

"I think there's a recognition at the FTC that self-regulation hasn't worked and can't work," Chester tells InternetNews.com.

http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=2071524&nid=25

Virus, fungus new suspects in bee disease
WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers have a pair of new suspects in the mysterious collapse of honey bee colonies across the country.

The widespread damage to the bees has caused concern because the insects are needed to pollinate scores of crops.

Researchers say samples collected from hives affected by the syndrome indicated the presence of a virus as well as a fungus. The two pathogens were not found in bee colonies not affected by the syndrome, called colony collapse disorder, the researchers reported in Wednesday's edition of the journal PLoS ONE.

"We truly don't know if these two pathogens cause CCD or whether the colonies with CCD are more likely to succumb to these two pathogens," Jerry J. Bromenshenk of the University of Montana said in a statement.

Previous studies have looked at the possibility of multiple viruses found in the bee colonies as well as the potential harm from pesticides, but researchers have yet to pin down an exact cause.

The new study said the suspect virus is insect iridescent virus, which is similar to a virus first reported in India 20 years ago, as well as a virus found in moths.

They said it affects the abdomens of bees, and the tissues may take on a bluish-green or purplish hue. The fungus is called Nosema ceranae, and this can sicken bees if they ingest the spores.

Robert Cramer, a pathologist at Montana State University in Bozeman said, "There seems to be a correlation between the presence of these two pathogens together. We envision the bee gets an infection from one or the other, and this causes the bees to become stressed, which then allows the second infection to come in and more effectively cause disease."

The analysis of the bees was done at the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.

___

Online:

PLoS ONE: http://www.plosone.org/home.action

http://wtop.com/?sid=2071988&nid=220

Dollar tumbles to fresh 15-year low against yen
TOKYO (AFP) – The dollar tumbled to a fresh 15-year low at 82.22 against the yen in Tokyo trading hours on Thursday on persistent fears over the US economic outlook.

The dollar fell from 82.87 in earlier trade to well below the level at which Japan last month carried out its first currency market intervention since 2004 to weaken the yen and protect an export-led recovery.

It later strengthened back to the mid 82-yen level.

The markets increasingly expect the US Federal Reserve to pump more money into the system to boost the flagging economy, even if doing so weakens the dollar and risks fanning inflation.

"The basic trend is dollar selling on the expected credit easing... The market is now sensitive to any negative news on the US economy," said Yasuyuki Takeuchi, dealer at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking.

The Australian dollar on Thursday surged to an all time high of around 99.00 US cents, traders said, outstripping the record of 98.49 since it was allowed to float in December 1983.

The euro was trading close the key 1.40 dollar level, at around 1.3983.

"A lot of the trading community thinks this has further to go," Daragh Maher, a senior currencies analyst at Credit Agricole in London told Dow Jones Newswires.

The greenback has been pressured after a report from payrolls firm ADP showed an unexpected drop in private sector jobs in September, highlighting fears about the lagging economic recovery.

The data added to worries that a closely watched government survey on non-farm payrolls for September due Friday may also indicate weakness.

The markets increasingly expect the US Federal Reserve to pump more money into the system to boost the flagging economy, even if doing so weakens the dollar and risks fanning inflation.

Tokyo has also repeatedly warned it is ready to step into the markets again, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan threatening further "decisive" steps if necessary on Thursday.

The yen's continued strength follows moves by the Bank of Japan on Tuesday to adopt a near zero-rate policy and new pump-priming measures in a bid to spur growth, beat deflation and address the impact of the surging yen on the economy.

The strong yen has hurt Japan's exporters, making their goods more expensive and eroding overseas profits when repatriated. Exports expanded at their slowest pace this year in August, with falling demand adding to their woes.

A strong domestic currency also makes imports cheaper, helping prolong a damaging deflationary cycle where consumers hold off on purchases in the hope of further price drops, clouding future corporate investment

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101007/bs_afp/forexasiajapanus_20101007100939

Solar surprises raise questions for climate models
Scientists found that a decline in the Sun's activity did not lead as expected to a cooling of the Earth, a surprise finding that could have repercussions for computer models on climate change.
The Sun's activity is known to wax and wane over 11-year cycles, which means that in theory the amount of radiation reaching Earth declines during the "waning" phase.

The new study was carried out between 2004 and 2007 during a solar waning phase.

The amount of energy in the ultraviolet part of the energy spectrum fell, the researchers found.

But, contrary to expectation, radiation in the visible part of the energy spectrum increased, rather than declined, which caused a warming effect.

The investigation, based mainly on satellite data, is important because of a debate over how far global warming is attributable to Man or to natural causes.

Climatologists say that warming is overwhelmingly due to man-made greenhouse gases -- invisible carbon emissions from coal, gas and coal that linger in the atmosphere and trap solar heat.

But a vocal lobby of sceptics say that this is flawed or alarmist, and point out that Earth has known periods of cooling and warming that are due to variations in the Sun's output.

"These results are challenging what we thought we knew about the Sun's effect on our climate," said lead author Joanna Haigh, a professor at Imperial College London where she is also a member of the Grantham Institute for Climate change.

"However, they only show us a snapshot of the Sun's activity and its behaviour over the three years of our study could be an anomaly."

Insisting on caution, Haigh said that if the Sun turned out to have a warming effect during the "waning" part of the cycle, it might also turn out to have a cooling effect during the "waxing" part of the cycle.

In that case, greenhouse gases would be more to blame than thought for the perceptible rise in global temperatures over the past century.

"We cannot jump to any conclusions based on what we have found during this comparatively short period," Haigh said. "We need to carry out further studies to explore the Sun's activity, and the patterns that we have uncovered, on longer timescales."

The study is published in Nature, the weekly British science journal.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.6f90940f6d9bb44d73f1c586d3a44fbb.8c1&show_article=1