Beijing’s desire for a Saudi-fed strategic oil reserve in China underlines the Asian nation’s drive to secure crude supplies amid rocketing energy prices, analysts here said. However, they added that any deal between the two nations was unlikely to put pressure on global crude inventories. Chinese President Hu Jintao discussed a proposal to set up an oil stockpile in China during a weekend visit to Saudi Arabia, a Chinese official said Sunday. China plans to fill the first of its strategic oil reserve facilities by the year end, a senior planning official said in March, adding that three other reserves would be ready in 2007-2008. China had planned to begin accumulating oil reserves, which are to be used in the event of an emergency, last year. However with oil prices soaring to record high points — New York crude matched its record high of 75.35 dollars per barrel on Monday — China has been forced to delay its plan by almost two years. China knows it cannot delay for ever with its energy demand accelerating owing to the country’s economic boom. Consumption of oil in China is forecast to jump 6.0 percent this year […]
To create the superwarrior of the future, some military researchers aren’t focusing on muscles or hearts, but on tongues. By sending signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish. Florida Institute researchers want to give soldiers 360-degree unobstructed vision at night and allow navy SEALs to sense sonar under water. The ‘Brain Port,’ was pioneered 30 years ago by Dr Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Dr Bach-y-Rita began sending images from a camera through electrodes taped to people’s backs and later discovered the tongue was a better transmitter. A strip of red plastic connects the Brain Port to the tongue, where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibres to the brain. Instead of using compasses and sonar devices, the divers could process the information through their tongues, said Dr Anil Raj, the project’s lead scientist. In testing, blind people found doorways, noticed people walking in front of them and caught balls. A version of the device, expected to be available soon, has restored balance to those whose systems in the inner ear […]
NEW ORLEANS — All day, every day and into the night, crews for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pour concrete into walls, pack dirt into hills and ram steel into the earth. They are scrambling to undo the damage Hurricane Katrina inflicted on the region’s levee system. Their task is urgent: Hurricane season begins June 1. But even when the holes are plugged – a $2 billion endeavor – the entire 350-mile protection system remains flawed, the corps now admits. Flood walls are too weak in some places; earthen levees are too short in others. Locals say the only thing that will save the low-lying region from more flooding this summer is not getting hit with a strong storm. ‘I think we can limp along through this hurricane season,’ says Julie Quinn, a state representative whose district includes the 17th Street Canal, which flooded the Lakeview neighborhood. Then she laughs. ‘With some divine intervention, we’ll be OK. I just can’t imagine we’re going to see another Katrina.’ Corps officials are confident that by June, they will repair the breaches and other damage incurred along almost half the levee system. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander […]
BRUSSELS — A silent march in Brussels to protest against urban violence and honour a youth killed for his digital music player attracted 80 000 demonstrators on Sunday, police said. The demonstrators, many of whom came with their families, made their way in a tight procession along the Boulevard du Jardin Botanique to the city’s Palais de Justice. They didn’t carry banners or any sign of political affiliation, at the request of the family of the victim, whose murder has deeply shocked Belgium. Many of the demonstrators placed flowers in front of Brussels’ central station, where 17-year-old Joe Van Holsbeek was killed on April 12 by two youths after his MP3 player. The silence was broken only by the murmur of the crowd and applause that broke out when the victim’s family was spotted at the heart of the procession. The brutal murder unleashed a wave of emotion unlike any the country has seen since the case of paedophile killer Marc Dutroux broke 10 years ago. Holsbeek’s killers are still at large and police have circulated photo-fits in the hope of tracking them down. Memories are still vivid in Belgium’s political class of […]
NEW ORLEANS — The most intriguing news out of this city’s mayoral primary election is the story of what didn’t happen: White voters failed to dominate at the polls Saturday as thousands of black voters returned home. Nearly eight months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the majority of New Orleans’ black neighborhoods, black voters kept incumbent Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s candidacy alive, casting an estimated 90 percent of votes in his favor. Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu drew the second-highest percentage of black voters, with more than 20 percent of his total support coming from displaced black residents. ‘So the African-Americans’ candidates are progressing to the runoff,’ said political analyst Greg Rigamer of GCR & Associates. The percentage of white voters casting ballots Saturday was larger than in previous elections � about 48 percent of the total instead of the usual 38 percent, he said � but that did not represent the takeover of New Orleans politics that some had predicted. Election officials were surprised by the overall turnout, and poll workers noted that large numbers of people traveled from temporary homes in neighboring states to cast ballots in person. About 36 percent of registered voters made […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
