Collapse of American Influence Recalls Dis-Integration of Soviet Union, Fall of France
By CONRAD BLACK
| September 7, 2013
Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and prior to that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States.
The Soviet Union crumbled jurisdictionally: In 1990-1991, one country became the 16 formerly constituent republics of that country, and except perhaps for Belarus, none of them show much disposition to return to the Russian fold into which they had been gathered, almost always by brute force, over the previous 300 years.
The Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, but the casualties continue as birth defects plague the country.
There are claims that thousands of children continue to be born with horrific facial deformities due to the 20 million gallons of Agent Orange chemical sprayed by the United States.
The Vietnamese call the disfigured youngsters ‘the children of Agent Orange'.
Da Nang in central Vietnam is thought to have the highest level of congenital deformity in the world.
Inside Out's Mark Jordan joins a team of top London plastic surgeons on their unpaid mission to help these children through the charity Facing the World.
Inside Out is broadcast on Monday, 9 September at 19:30 BST on BBC One London and nationwide on the iPlayer for seven days thereafter.
Motor inventors (Cesar Soos and Roberto Frascari) describe how simple the motor is, using principles of resonance, and demonstrate that it is 3x more efficient than comparable-size, conventional motors, and that how has much more torque. The U.S. Patent was finally awarded back in July, 2013.
IBM is a respected technology company and it appears that hardly anything can bad can be said about them. There comes a time when every company must admit they have a fault in their product and IBM must step up to the plate this time. The news comes to us from Secunia, a Web site that monitors technology security, in the warning, “Security Advisory SA54460-IBM Content Analytics With Enterprise Search Multiple Vulnerabilities.”The warning is labeled as moderately critical and should worry organizations that use the software to manage their data. The bug messes with cross site scripting, manipulates data, exposes sensitive information, and a DoS.
Here is the official description:
“IBM has acknowledged a weakness and multiple vulnerabilities in IBM Content Analytics with Enterprise Search, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose certain sensitive information, conduct cross-site scripting attacks, manipulate certain data, and cause a DoS (Denial of Service).”
Ouch! IBM must not be happy about this, but at least they discovered the problem and Content Analytics users can expect a patch at some point. Hate to bring up Microsoft at this venture, but whenever a big company has a problem I can’t help but think about how Microsoft never has a product launch without some issues. IBM is reliable and hopefully they will not go down the same path as Windows 8.
The headline says it all, and I have been unable to get this statistic out of my mind since I read it this morning. We have beggared ourselves as a nation through an endless series of wars whose only beneficiaries are the war profiteers
Russia: Russia will send another large landing ship, the Nikolai Filchenkov, toward Syria's coast, a Russian navy source said Sept. 6, Reuters reported, citing Interfax. The ship will take special cargo on board in Novorossiysk before heading to Syria. No details about the cargo were provided.
Comment: This is the sixth large landing ship that Russia has deployed to the Syrian coast. That makes nine ships mentioned by name since 4 September and moving to Syria. Russia does not want a naval engagement with the US, but might not be averse to a non-shooting confrontation.
Russia is evacuating by air Russian passport holders who wish to leave. An aircraft arrived at Latakia for that purpose on 8 September.
Comment: In August Russia sent two flights to evacuate 116 Russians and citizens from ex-Soviet states. The large landing ships would be essential for a large scale evacuation, which Russia denies it has ordered.
Lebanon: The US ordered the evacuation of non-emergency official personnel and families from Beirut and offered to evacuate Americans from Adana, Turkey on Friday. It advised against travel to Lebanon and southeastern Turkey and for residents to be alert for violence in light of tensions in the region..
Comment: This evacuation aims to put the most vulnerable Americans beyond the reach of Hizballah which vows retaliation for any US attack against Syria. It also supposedly is a safety precaution before the anniversary of 9/11. Senior American officials have argued in public that Syria, Iran and Hizballah will not retaliate. On the other hand, spokesmen from each entity have vowed they will.
The inclusion of Adana in the order provides a little insight into the US war plan. Americans in Adana will be a risk from US operations. apparently. That implies that more than cruise missile launches will be involved.
Reassurances are fine as political science theory, but the vows of retaliation are real threats because they are backed up by capability. More evacuations and many more precautions will be necessary.
