Aprende a hacer toallitas húmedas para tu bebé y mejora la economía de tu hogar

Por Josefa Del Real

¿Gastas muchas toallitas húmedas con tu bebé? Esta es una forma fácil y rápida de hacerlas, y te permitirá ahorrar unos cuantos pesos:

https://youtu.be/WDxu7jONDFY

A Six-Lane Freeway of $100 Bills Is Tormenting Credit Investors

The agony of the bond investor

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Think about all the ways the surging global debt market could implode, then argue yourself out of believing that any of those gloomy scenarios will come to pass.
Then do that mental exercise again. And again.
This is the agony of being a bond investor in 2015.
Serious dangers seem to be percolating after the world’s central banks printed the equivalent of $5.7 trillion to stimulate markets. That’s enough to pave a six-lane freeway circling the globe twice with $100 bills, according to UBS Group AG’s Mark Haefele.
Yet if you’ve tried to bet against the tidal wave of cash, you’ve likely gotten crushed. And it’s hard to see right now what could destabilize the efforts of some very determined central bankers.
“Over the past few years it could be said that the greatest challenge for investors was staying the course, and betting that central banks were determined to make ‘the fix’ work,” Haefele, UBS Wealth Management’s global chief investment officer, wrote in a May investment letter. “Again this year, the general idea that investors should follow the lead of central banks has worked.”

Obvious Risks

In 2015, staying the course has meant a 4.8 percent return for speculative-grade corporate bonds worldwide, after a 16.4 percent annualized return over the previous six years, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data. Emerging-markets debt sold in the U.S. has returned 4.1 percent this year, following a 10.3 percent annualized gain since 2008.
There are some obvious risks looming over the market. Take Greece and the never-ending saga of whether it’ll default on its debt and exit the euro zone’s shared currency. Think of the potential fallout in Europe’s already fragile economy and how that could infect markets of surrounding nations.
Yet bond buyers are ambivalent about whether this drama poses any risks outside Greece. While 50 percent of European credit investors surveyed by Bank of America Corp. think markets are overly complacent about the potential for contagion from a Greek default, the other half believes the risk is adequately priced in, analysts Barnaby Martin, Ioannis Angelakis and Souheir Asba wrote in a May 27 report.
Then there’s China. Stock-market values are swinging by the most since 2010 there as government officials seek to tamp down increasing leverage and other market excesses while still supporting the country’s growth.

Dragging Feet

In the U.S., Federal Reserve members are talking about raising interest rates this year for the first time since 2006, which could ostensibly send bond investors into a tizzy akin to the so-called taper tantrum of 2013.
Loomis Sayles & Co. Vice Chairman Daniel Fuss downplayed this scenario in an interview this week, saying he expects the Fed to hold off on making a move until 2016 even in the face of an improving economy.
“They’re going to drag their feet absolutely as long as possible,” he said.
So for bond buyers, while it seems like the gravy train of central-bank policies must eventually meet a painful end, it’s hard to see exactly how. Yes, a Greece or China could throw the markets into turmoil. But investors have grown accustomed to policy makers who are always ready to prop up the financial system when needed. That six-lane freeway of cash is an awful powerful thing.

Un poco de humor

Un Nino Japones se mudo a USA: Un niño japones llega a Estados Unidos y el papá lo inscribe en la escuela.
El primer día de clase, la maestra presenta a Zusuki, hijo de un empresario japonés, a los chicos de sexto grado.
Luego la maestra les dice a los alumnos:
-"Hoy empecemos repasando un poco de historia de América del norte y del sur... ¿Quién dijo: Denme la libertad o denme la muerte?
La clase se quedó callada, excepto Zusuki:
- "Lo dijo Patrick Henry, 1775"
-Muy Bien!
- ¿Quién dijo: el gobierno del pueblo para el pueblo, no debe desaparecer de la faz de la tierra?
- De nuevo, ninguna respuesta de la clase, salvo Zusuki:
- Abraham Lincoln, 1863.
La maestra, asombrada, les dice: - Chicos, debería darles vergüenza. Zusuki que es nuevo en nuestro país, sabe más de nuestra historia que ustedes.
La maestra alcanza a escuchar un susurro:
¡A la mierda con los malditos japoneses!.
¿Quién dijo eso?, preguntó la maestra.
Nuevamente Zusuki levanta su mano y dice:
-General Mc Arthur, 1942.
La clase queda muda y uno de los chicos alcanza a decir:
"Voy a vomitar".
La maestra trata de ver quién fue el irrespetuoso:
- Ya basta, ¿quién dijo eso?
Y Zusuki dice: -"George Bush padre, al Primer ministro japonés, 1991.
Uno de los alumnos, furioso, le grita al japonés desde el fondo:
-Chupame ésta!.
Zusuki, casi saltando en su silla, le dice a la maestra:
- Bill Clinton a Mónica Lewinsky.- 1997 .
El que era el número uno de la clase gritó:
-Estaba primero hasta que llego este japonés de mierda!
Y Zusuki Contesta: -Mario Vargas Llosa - Elecciones peruanas, 1990.
La clase entra en un estado de histeria. La maestra se desmaya, se genera el caos. Mientras los chicos se arremolinan alrededor de la desvanecida maestra, uno de ellos exclama:
¡Mierda, la cagamos! ¿y ahora cómo salimos de este desastre sin que se den cuenta que fuimos nosotros?
Y Zusuki responde:
"LEOPOLDO LOPEZ, Caracas Febrero del 2014"

Goldman: How 'Grand Theft Auto' Explains One of the Biggest Mysteries of the U.S. Economy

It's easy to measure improvements in semiconductors. With video games, not so much

U.S. productivity growth has been surprisingly sluggish in recent years, prompting economists to embark on a lengthy quest to explain the decline and its role in stubbornly low inflation and GDP growth.

Measured productivity growth has averaged 1.5 percent over the past decade —far below the long-term average of 2.25 percent. While some of that decline can be attributed to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash and ensuing recession, there's a longer-term trend at play here too.
A quick glance at the breakdown of U.S. productivity shows that most of the recent slump can be pinned to a drop in the contribution coming from information technology. John Fernald and Bing Wang at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, for instance, point out that U.S. productivity growth began falling several years before the onset of the financial crisis as the 1990s surge in technology investment came to an end around 2003.
In new research, Goldman economists led by Jan Hatzius, also pin the productivity slowdown on a declining IT contribution. But they then proceed to argue that this falling IT contribution may be an illusion.
As the economists put it, the measured collapse in in the contribution from information technology just feels weird. In the same time period that IT productivity has supposedly dropped, corporate profit margins have surged to an all-time high, inflation has been very low and stock valuations —including those of tech companies— have been surging. It doesn't seem like the overall economy has been hit by a "major IT-centered productivity slowdown," as they put it. So, how to explain the fall?
Hatzius and company venture that what's happened is a major shift in the nature of the IT contribution itself. In simple terms, we've probably been making lots of productivity gains in IT but we just haven't figured out a way to measure them yet.
Here's what they say:

One reason why the IT revolution of the 1990s showed up so clearly in the productivity numbers is that the statisticians devised ways of translating the increases in computer performance —faster processors, more memory, better graphics, and the like— into rapid quality-adjusted price declines. Exhibit 4 shows that the measured price of computer hardware has plunged by 91.5% since 1995, with most of the decline occurring in the first half of that period.7 Since real output is equal to nominal output divided by the price level, this meant a sharp increase in the measured contribution of computer hardware to real GDP growth.

But Exhibit 4 also illustrates that the statisticians have not found a way to capture the improvements in software and digital content in a similar manner, with measured software prices only edging down slightly over the past two decades. This is not surprising because the “performance” of software and digital content is inherently a more amorphous and subjective concept. How much better are the inventory management systems that retail companies contract out or develop for their own account compared with those of twenty years ago? How much better is Grand Theft Auto V than Grand Theft Auto IV? And how much more value do we now derive from our internet connection compared with a decade ago? It is very difficult for a statistician to know, and when we do not know our default assumption tends to be that there is little change. 

Digital content and software now make up more than half of the output and market value of the total technology sector, Hatzius says. In fact, they probably make up an even greater proportion because Apple —the world's biggest technology company by far— is categorized as 'hardware' despite selling a combination of hardware and software. Given the preponderance of software and digital content, IT prices have likely been overstated and productivity understated. Assuming that tech prices were really falling at the 20-year average pace of the computer hardware industry of about 5 percent a year, then that equates to a statistical understatement of the growth contribution from software and digital content of about 0.2 percentage points per year.
A software-induced statistical mirage probably means that GDP growth is understated too.
And that would have some major implications, according to Hatzius and co:

First, we would be skeptical of confident pronouncements that the standard of living is growing much more slowly than in the past. Second, given the uncertainty around GDP it is better to focus on other indicators—especially employment— to gauge the cumulative progress of the recovery and the remaining amount of slack. And third, if true inflation is even lower than measured inflation—and especially if this gap is bigger than it has been historically—the case for keeping monetary policy accommodative strengthens further.

¿Por qué EE. UU. destapó el escándalo de la FIFA?

La investigación de la Fiscalía estadounidense contra la FIFA puede atizar el enfrentamiento de Occidente con Rusia y afectar las relaciones con los árabes.

• 

La investigación del FBI no habría sido posible sin el visto bueno de Barack Obama y fue interpretado por el presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin , como una agresión. Foto: AP

Las versiones sobre la existencia de prácticas corruptas en la FIFA no son nuevas. Lo que resulta inédito ahora es que haya explotado un escándalo de naturaleza judicial, y que su núcleo provenga de una potencia –Estados Unidos- que no tiene una profunda tradición futbolística. ¿Por qué su fiscal, Loretta E. Lynch, se metió en un asunto que tiene ramificaciones en todos los continentes? ¿Cuáles son las atribuciones legales que le permitieron hacerlo?

En la rueda de prensa del miércoles, Lynch explicó las razones: algunos de los delitos que se investigan –lavado de dinero, pago de sobornos, transacciones financieras ilegales– se cometieron o se planearon en Estados Unidos, y utilizaron su sistema financiero. La investigación y las capturas, además, se llevaron a cabo con el respaldo de convenios de cooperación judicial y de lucha contra la corrupción entre su país, Suiza y otros Estados. Desde los años setenta, Washington defiende su derecho a combatir la corrupción en todo el mundo, no solo por la naturaleza de este delito, sino porque casi siempre tiene una dimensión transnacional.

Lo cierto es que pocas veces se había visto aparecer juntos en una rueda de prensa trasmitida por todo el mundo a la fiscal general, Loretta E. Lynch, al director del FBI, James B. Comey, y al jefe de investigaciones del Servicio Interno de Impuestos (IRS), Richard Weber. Lo hicieron conscientes de los efectos que tendría la investigación que llevaban preparando por más de tres años contra altos dirigentes de la FIFA y que, esa mañana, había llevado a capturar a siete de ellos en Suiza. La revelación sacudió no solo al mundo del fútbol, sino también a la política internacional. Pues podría afectar nada menos que los intereses de Rusia y la relación de la Casa Blanca con algunos aliados en Oriente Medio.

Que la plana mayor de la Justicia estadounidense saliera ante las cámaras a acusar a altos mandos de una de las entidades más poderosas del mundo de haberse robado más de 150 millones de dólares en casi un cuarto de siglo y a hablar de la posibilidad de que los mundiales de Rusia (2018) y Qatar (2022) pudieron ser comprados es una decisión audaz, que solo pudo haberse tomado con el visto bueno del presidente Barack Obama. Este sabe que cualquier movimiento de las instituciones con la bandera gringa en otros lugares del globo puede ser interpretado como un acto imperialista: como una reedición de los abusos a los que algunos de sus predecesores sometieron a varias regiones del mundo en el pasado.

Las reacciones no se hicieron esperar. Y el primero en pronunciarse fue el propio presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, quien un día después de la rueda de prensa en Nueva York tomó el micrófono. Dijo que las acusaciones no afectarán “de ninguna manera” sus planes de celebrar el Mundial en Rusia en 2018. Añadió luego que “no tengo duda de que esto es un complot para evitar que Blatter sea reelegido”. Y, luego, para dejar claro que quería entender el asunto como una agresión de Estados Unidos en el tablero global, sostuvo: “Estados Unidos definitivamente no tiene nada que venir a buscar acá. Este es un ejemplo de cómo busca ampliar su jurisdicción a otros países”. Esta última frase encaja perfectamente en la retórica que el ruso lleva varios años usando para atacar a Obama. Y tiene que ver con un asunto geopolítico que lo tiene a él aislado y aún no encuentra solución: la invasión de Ucrania.

Otros, por lo contrario, parecen haberse sentido aliviados con la decisión de los estadounidenses. El primero fue el primer ministro británico, David Cameron, quien a través de su ministro de Cultura mandó a decir que considera a la FIFA “una de las organizaciones más corruptas” sobre la Tierra y que por ello esta “necesita un cambio en su liderazgo”. Por tal razón, su gobierno, que llevaba años acusando a la FIFA de haber vendido el Mundial de 2018 a Rusia por millonarios sobornos, no votó por Blatter. Y así se sacó el clavo de no haber sido elegido como sede de esa Copa Mundial.

Jugando con los árabes

Un capítulo de tinte político aún pendiente del escándalo tiene que ver con Qatar, sede de la Copa del Mundo de 2022. Su elección para organizar el certamen, hecha en 2010, ha sido el foco de una controversia global por varios motivos. Uno de ellos tiene que ver con que Qatar no posee una tradición futbolística y no cuenta con las condiciones climáticas para celebrar un mundial en pleno verano. Pero el otro motivo es más grave. Desde el mismo día en que los 209 miembros de la FIFA le dieron la sede a ese poderoso Estado árabe, abundan las denuncias de que la decisión habría sido distinta si no fuera por al pago de millonarios sobornos.

Las acusaciones pronto pusieron contra las cuerdas a Blatter y los árabes, y la FIFA decidió realizar una investigación interna. Para ello contrató en julio de 2012 a Michael García, un prestigioso exfiscal estadounidense que trabajó durante 18 meses, entrevistó a 75 testigos y cuyas pesquisas le costaron al organismo 9 millones de dólares. Pero Blatter desconcertó a la opinión al publicar en noviembre de 2014 una versión amañada de los resultados del trabajo de García. Al enterarse de la decisión, este renunció públicamente y consideró “erróneo” el tratamiento que le habían dado.

El caso Qatar había quedado así hasta el pasado miércoles. Pero ese día la Fiscalía General de Suiza anunció que había abierto una investigación penal por la adjudicación de ese Mundial. A esa noticia se añadió el anuncio de que Estados Unidos también revisaría lo sucedido ahí. Aunque en la acusación la Justicia de ese país no menciona a los cataríes, puede esperarse que lleguen en un futuro próximo a conclusiones que exijan llamar a rendir cuentas a posibles involucrados en sobornos.

Sin embargo, esta decisión podría generarle problemas al propio presidente Obama. Junto a Arabia Saudita y Emiratos Árabes Unidos, Qatar es uno de los pocos socios fieles que le quedan en Oriente Medio. Agredirlo públicamente con una andanada judicial como la que tuvo lugar en Nueva York y Suiza la semana pasada implica poner en riesgo su amistad con los jeques árabes. Y esto podría ser fatal en tiempos en que esa región del mundo arde por cuenta de la inestabilidad democrática en países como Egipto y Libia, por la guerra civil en Siria y el avance sangriento de los yihadistas de Estado Islámico que ya tiene, entre otros, a Irak al borde del colapso.

¿Qué hacer si te atragantas y estás sólo? Descubre cómo salvar tu vida con este método

por Alberto Díaz Pinto
el 07/04/2015 en Salud

Si te estás atragantando pasa directamente al minuto 1 del vídeo
Todos, o casi todos, nos hemos atragantado en alguna ocasión. Afortunadamente, aunque se trate de una situación muy molesta, suele pasarse con cierta rapidez. Sin embargo, el problema viene cuando una persona se está atragantando por un bloqueo de las vías respiratorias. El atragantamiento se produce cuando una persona no puede hablar, toser o respirar. Esta obstrucción de las vías respiratorias puede producir una pérdida de consciencia y, en los peores casos, la muerte.
Si estamos en un sitio público o acompañados cuando nos pase, rezad porque alguien se acerque a vosotros rápidamente para practicaros lo que se conoce como la maniobra de Heimlich. Esta consiste en levantar el diafragma de la persona atragantada, obligando al aire a salir de los pulmones en forma de tos artificial, que expulsará el objeto o alimento obstruido en las vías respiratorias.
Si por el contrario esto nos sucede cuando estemos solos, lo más importante de todo es guardar la calma. Si apretamos nuestro abdomen contra el filo del respaldo de una silla, o una barandilla, podremos conseguir el mismo efecto. Además, existe otra sencilla técnica, de mano del canal de Youtube WeirdWorldTv, que deberíais ver por vosotros mismos. Os aseguro que podría salvar vuestra vida.
Fuente: WeirdWorldTv, urmc.rochester

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/4OtSh22y4cs

Galería: Así Llegó “el Colombia” a Maiquetía para cantar en primera persona el crimen de Serra

Tal como fue anunciado por el presidente de la Asamblea Nacional, Diosdado Cabello, Leiver Padilla Mendoza alias “El Colombia” presunto asesino del diputado Robert Serra y su compañera María Herrera llegó al país este sábado bajo una fuerte custodia policial.

Padilla Leiva permanecía detenido en Colombia desde noviembre pasado, y fue extraditado en horas de la mañana de este sábado arribando al Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía, donde fue recibido por el Ministro de Interiores, Justicia y Paz, M/G Gustavo González López.

“Ha concluido la extradición de Leiver Padilla Mendoza, alias ‘El Colombia’, quien buscó refugio en otro país para evadir la acción de la justicia después de haber cometido un hecho punible. Agradecemos altamente al gobierno de la hermana República de Colombia, a sus autoridades e instituciones por la cooperación y colaboración en la detención de Leiver Padilla, alias ‘El Colombia’ ”, dijo.

“Con el ingreso al país de Leiver Padilla, el Gobierno de Nicolás Maduro le está demostrando al pueblo venezolano y a la comunidad internacional que la lucha contra la delincuencia es objetivo fundamental de la agenda diaria”, afirmó.

El ministro González López fue acompañado por el fiscal del Ministerio Público décimo del estado Vargas, Ramón Diamont, el fiscal auxiliar William Rojas, y el médico forense Jesús Hernández.

Destaco que el señor Padilla Mendoza está sindicado de un delito de alta significación y sensibilidad nacional “como es la muerte del diputado Robert Serra y María Herrera".

El pasado 6 de mayo el presidente de Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos aprobó la extradición de Padilla, luego de que el Ministerio Público venezolano formalizara el requerimiento solicitándolo como el autor material e intelectual de los asesinatos de Serra y Herrera ocurridos la noche del 01 del octubre del 2014 en la Parroquia La Pastora, Caracas.

Previamente la Corte Suprema de Justicia de Colombia aprobó el 30 de abril pasado la extradición de Leiver Padilla, el cual había sido capturado en la ciudad de Cartagena por la policía colombiana y permanecía detenido a la espera de una orden de extradición que lo traería a Venezuela para enfrentar a la justicia.

(LaIguana.TV) 

Famiglia, demografia e sviluppo: il miracolo ungherese

- di Antonio Brandi –
Le politiche pro vita, pro famiglia e per l’incremento demografico non riscuotono certo il consenso politicamente corretto dei grandi media e delle Istituzioni internazionali.
Frequentemente, per esempio, leggiamo sulla stampa attacchi contro Viktor Orban, il capo di Stato Ungherese, spesso presentato come un dittatore.
Vediamo ora cosa ci dicono i fatti, dai quali si potranno dedurre le ragioni della propaganda internazionale contro l’Ungheria ed il suo Presidente.
Il parlamento Ungherese ha inserito nella Costituzione la protezione della Vita dal concepimento.
Il Governo fa uscire il paese dalla crisi, manda a casa il Fondo Monetario Internazionale e rende la Banca Centrale indipendente dalle pressioni finanziarie internazionali.
Più bambini sono nati nel 2014 che negli ultimi cinque anni. Il tasso di fecondità totale è 1,41, il valore più alto dal 1997, anche se ancora non è abbastanza alto. Il numero dei matrimoni è aumentato costantemente dal 2010, del 9% nel solo 2014. Ricordiamo che tra il 2002 e il 2010 il numero dei matrimoni in Ungheria era sceso del 23%. Il numero dei divorzi è diminuito del 15% tra il 2010 e il 2013. Il numero di aborti è in continuo declino, ed è diminuito del 20% dal 2010. Grazie ai sussidi alle famiglie 236 miliardi di HUF (fiorini ungheresi) sono rimasti alle famiglie nel 2014. Le pensioni sono aumentate del 19% dal 2011 al 2014.

Dietro a queste cifre vi sono i numerosi vantaggi fiscali per le famiglie: diminuzione delle tasse sul reddito per famiglie con più di due figli, l’indennità di maternità, l’indennità per gli acquirenti della prima casa, l’aumento del 25% nei posti in asili nido e le misure sulla tutela del lavoro.
Numerosi anche i miglioramenti generali dell’economia: 210.000 posti di lavoro in più nel 2014. La disoccupazione al 7.1% (contro il 13.1% in Italia). Il PIL è aumentato del 3.5% l’anno scorso (quasi il doppio della media europea). I salari sono anche in continuo aumento: 4% nel 2014. Con l’eliminazione dei prestiti in valuta estera, sono stati convertiti prestiti per un valore di 3.600 miliardi di HUF, e sono state quindi protette le case di mezzo milione di famiglie. L’ anno scorso il turismo è aumentato del 13% e gli investimenti esteri del 14%.
Questo vero e proprio miracolo è il diretto risultato di una politica di indipendenza monetaria e di supporto alle famiglie che sono il nerbo di ogni nazione.
Riflettiamoci!
Fonte: Notizie pro Vita

Due F16 israeliani, tinti con i colori dell’Arabia Saudita, abbattuti bruciano a terra nello Yemen…

- di Gordon Duff, Jeff Smith,  Ian Greenhalgh e Nahed al Husaini –
Questa settimana due F16 sono stati abbattuti nello Yemen. Quando è stato esaminato il relitto, è risultato non essere del tipo in dotazione nelle nazioni arabe, ne nell’Arabia Saudita, ne in nessun altra. L’unico “acquirente” nella regione di quel tipo di aereo è Israele.

Con due aerei israeliani abbattuti questa settimana, con stemmi sauditi dipinti di fresco, è la sicura conferma di un attacco termonucleare tattico su una base aerea yemenita, un attacco con bomba al neutrone (NRR senza residuo di radiazione), la guerra allo Yemen è ora chiaramente una guerra israeliana.

Forze di difesa aerea yemenita hanno abbattuto un jet da combattimento con stemma saudita nella provincia nord-occidentale di Sana’a nello Yemen mentre conduceva un attacco aereo. Questa è il secondo F16 abbattuto questa settimana.  La forza della difesa aerea yemenita è stato chiaramente sottovalutata, e il jet saudita il caccia F-16 è stato abbattuto, e successivamente, si è schiantato nella zona Bayt Khayran del distretto di Bani Harith nel nord di Sana’a.

L’11 maggio, la televisione yemenita Al-Masirah ha riferito che i combattentiAnsarullah hanno abbattuto un  jet da combattimento, con insegne marocchine, mentre violava lo spazio aereo del paese nella Valle del Noshour nella provincia settentrionale di Sa’ada. L’aereo abbattuto oggi aveva riferito l’emittente  ha condotto una serie di attacchi aerei contro Al-Dailami la base aerea dello Yemen. Jet sauditi hanno condotto attacchi militari contro lo Yemen dal 26 marzo.
Secondo i media yemeniti, la Domenica caccia sauditi hanno preso di mira una fabbrica nella provincia yemenita occidentale di Al-Hudaydah, uccidendo tre civili e ferendone altri 19. Gli aerei da combattimento sauditi hanno anche preso di mira delle aree residenziali, una base aerea militare e un quartier generale della polizia della provincia con vari attacchi separati.

Ora veniamo alla parte interessante – l’analisi del relitto mostra che questi aerei  sono di origine sconosciuta. In apparenza la verniciatura era saudita, ma, sappiamo che non possono essere aerei sauditi, in realtà sono aerei israeliani con piloti dell’aeronautica israeliana che parlano arabo, membri di una speciale unità ‘Kamikaze’ che vola con F16 appositamente modificati, per portare’ vettori nucleari’ con il compito di operazioni apocalittiche contro l’Iran, la Russia o l’Europa occidentale.

Uno di questi aerei è stato molto probabilmente il responsabile che ha sganciato la bomba al neutrone sullo Yemen un paio di giorni fa. I media yemeniti hanno ripreso i due “razzi” portati dal jet da combattimento rimasti inesplosi che sono stati trovati tra i rottami; questi sono molto probabilmente missili Sidewinder usati per la difesa da altri aerei. Non sappiamo quali altri ordigni il velivolo stesse trasportando.
Non sono stati trovati i piloti di questi due velivoli abbattuti; senza dubbio con le estese  ricerche  in corso –  se riuscissero a  catturare un pilota israeliano vivo- sarebbe davvero un bel colpo per gli yemeniti.
L’aereo è stato abbattuto da un sistema di BUK aggiornato fornito dalla Russia – Lo Yemen è ben attrezzato con armi russe moderne compresi i MiG-29 e sistemi di difesa aerea avanzati, un fatto che è stato chiaramente trascurato dai sauditi e dai loro alleati israeliani; hanno gravemente sottovalutato le capacità del loro nemico e, come abbiamo visto prima, in particolare nel sud del Libano contro Hezbollah – Israele non fa così bene quando le vittime sono preparate e in grado di combattere; forse hanno pensato di bombardare i civili indifesi di Gaza?

Un esperto di aviazione VT Jeff Smith di Los Alamos National Labs ci ha fornito un’analisi della situazione.
Jeff Smith Report
______________________
Analisi della Foto del tiro sul F-16 nello Yemen mostrano che i modelli sono i primi modelli; A / B F-16 nella versione di configurazione da attacco al suolo (che ha quello che viene chiamato coda corta) con le insegne reali dell’Air Force saudite, appena dipinte sul telaio dell’aereo. Tutta gli aerei della cosiddetta coalizione araba sono di blocco C / D non A / B.

Quindi questo è probabilmente uno dei 50 modelli in surplus statunitense F-16 A dato a Israele durante l’amministrazione Clinton o si tratta di un apparecchio divenuto recentemente surplus ex-NATO che sia dall’Italia o dal Portogallo. L’unica alternativa è che siano stati forniti direttamente dagli Stati Uniti di nascosto. Abbiamo bisogno del numero di serie o del numero della coda per confermare dove sono stati la prodotti i pezzi.

 

Mi sono dimenticato che trasportava un serbatoio da 300 galloni per distanza da lungo raggio, con serbatoi imbullonati vuoto a perdere non conformi da sganciare, senza capacità di rifornimento in aria e apparecchiature ECM. Ecco perché è stato abbattuto. Troppo lento e senza contromisure. E’ stato usato un vecchio radar APG-66 per inquadrarlo. Riyadh o gli Emirati Arabi Uniti si trovano a soli 600 miglia dallo Yemen. Tuttavia Israele dallo Yemen dista 1200 miglia. Un F-16 con 3 serbatoi sganciabili, 4 bombe da 1000 libbre e 2 missili sidewinder per autodifesa è possibile arrivi da Israele. La stessa configurazione di distanza e missione necessaria per colpire l’Iran.

F16 Saudita abbattuto in Yemen era jet israeliano verniciato

Da Press TV:
L’eEsercito yemenita ha abbattuto un aereo militare saudita a nord est della città settentrionale di Sa’ada, il regime di Al Saud continua i suoi attacchi aerei contro il confinate meridionale. Secondo la televisione yemenita al-Masirah, l’aereo saudita è stato abbattuto nel distretto Kataf del Provincia.
All’inizio della giornata, un altro jet F-16 saudita da combattimento è stato abbattutonella zona Bayt Khayran del distretto di Bani Harith, nel nord della provincia nord-occidentale di Sana’a. Il caccia ha condotto una serie di attacchi aerei contro al-Dailami  la base aerea dello Yemen.
Jet sauditi hanno condotto vari attacchi contro lo Yemen dal 26 marzo al 11 maggio, combattenti Ansarullah hanno abbattuto un jet da combattimento marocchino che violava lo spazio aereo del paese nella Valle del Noshour nella provincia settentrionale di Sa’ada.

per leggere altro vai su Veteranstoday

Tradotto da Sadefensa
Fonte: sadefenza

Defensor de derechos humanos muerto de 25 balazos en Medellín

Juan David Quintana Duque, vilmente asesinado a pocos días del asesinato del profesor Luis Fernando Wolff.

Como Juan David Quintana Duque fue identificado un joven que fue asesinado por múltiples impactos de bala en la mañana de este miércoles en la carrera 43 AA con calle 119, una calle del barrio Popular II y en límites con Santo Domingo en la comuna 1 de Medellín.
El ataque a tiros ocurrió minutos antes de las 9:00 de la mañana. A esa hora, según las versiones recogidas por las autoridades, se escucharon más de 20 disparos en la zona. El objetivo del ataque era Quintana Duque, que se desplazaba en una motocicleta Yamaha de bajo cilindraje y quien se desplomó sin vida desde el vehículo.
Los atacantes, al parecer dos, habrían utilizado una subametralladora para cometer el asesinato y huyeron rápidamente de la escena del crimen.
Miembros de la Sijín de la Policía realizaron el levantamiento del cadáver, sin que ningún allegado de la víctima se acercara. Pero en transcurso del día se estableció que se trataba de un reconocido activista de derechos humanos de la comuna 6, del Núcleo del Pensamiento, y trabajador de la red de Bibliotecas de Medellín.
“Hoy nuevamente nos alberga tristeza y dolor que un gran líder sea vilmente asesinado, silenciando una voz en defensa de la dignidad humana”, dice una parte de un comunicado que circuló por las redes sociales, firmado por varias organizaciones de derechos humanos de la ciudad, en el que rechazan la muerte del joven, en el que además exigen “de las autoridades justicia y garantías para desarrollar nuestra labor”.
“Era un hombre serio, responsable y luchador social. Comprometido con los proyectos de presupuesto participativo”, afirmó Luis Fernando Quijano, director de la Corporación para la Paz y el Desarrollo Social (Corpades).
Las autoridades iniciaron las investigaciones para dar con el paradero de los responsables de este crimen.
Con información de El Colombiano

Arabia Saudí y EEUU preparan ataque en Meca para acusar a Ansarolá

• 

  Los musulmanes peregrinan Kaaba en La Meca, Arabia Saudí.

Washington y Riad planean ataques a los lugares santos de La Meca, oeste de Arabia Saudí, para después achacar la responsabilidad de estas agresiones al movimiento popular yemení Ansarolá.

La medida que intenta dañar la imagen de Ansarolá ha sido revelada este viernes en la página Web libanesa Al-Khabar Press, citando a los servicios de inteligencia rusos.
Según la fuente, a través de esta iniciativa, EE.UU. y el régimen de Al Saud buscan provocar a las naciones musulmanes para que envían sus fuerzas militares a Yemen para apoyar la agresión militar saudí al país árabe.
Entre tanto, algunos expertos militares no descartan que Riad lleve a cabo este plan, en reacción a la negativa de países islámicos y árabes a participar en una intervención terrestre en Yemen.

Hombres yemeníes inspeccionan un vehículo dañado tras un ataque aéreo saudí en la capitalina Saná.

El pasado 26 de marzo, Arabia Saudí comenzó una ofensiva aérea contra Yemen con la luz verde de EE.UU., en un intento por restaurar en el poder al expresidente fugitivo Abdu Rabu Mansur Hadi, un fiel aliado de Riad.
Riad anunció un alto el fuego de cinco días que entró en vigor a partir del pasado 12 de mayo, sin embargo, durante el periodo de la tregua, aceptada por el Ejército yemení y Ansarolá, el Ejército saudí siguió sus ataques contra Yemen. Hasta el momento, unos 4000 civiles han perdido la vida y unos 6900 han resultado heridos en los incesantes bombardeos.
zss/ncl/rba

Jefes de policías de Miranda irán presos si hay hechos de violencia este sábado

El presidente Nicolás Maduro informó que se ha designado a un Fiscal / Audio reveló plan violento de López y Ceballos para este fin de semana

Pretenden generar hechos de violencia. (Foto: Archivo).

Caracas, 29 de mayo de 2015.- El presidente de la República, Nicolás Maduro Moros, advirtió a los jefes policiales del estado Miranda y el municipio Chacao ante posibles hechos de violencia, luego de ser develado un audio donde se evidencia que López y Ceballos pretenden generar violencia callejera.
Informó que el Ministro del Poder Popular para las Relaciones, Interiores, Justicia y Paz, Gustavo González López, conversó con los directores policiales de la Alcaldía de Chacao y el estado Miranda para controlar alguna situación irregular esas localidades.
“Ha sido designado un Fiscal especial y si mañana hay un solo hecho de violencia la fiscalía actuará. Se lo he dicho como jefe de Estado: tendrán que ir presos los jefes de policía de Miranda y Chacao si hay un solo hecho de violencia mañana”, indicó durante un visita a la Torre Confinanzas en Caracas.
Resaltó que el Gobierno Nacional trabaja en la construcción de una nueva sociedad con “vida, amor, barrio nuevo, barrio tricolor y liderazgo de estabilidad”. /JM

VTV

U.S. Oil Drilling Retreat Drags on for 25th Straight Week

Oil explorers idled rigs in U.S. fields for the 25th straight week, drawing out an unprecedented retreat in drilling that has curbed the country’s shale oil boom and helped crude prices rally.
Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. declined by 13 to 646, the lowest since August 2010, field services company Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Most of the losses were outside of major basins, with drilling subsiding in states including California and Louisiana.
U.S. energy producers sidelined more than half of the rigs drilling for oil after crude prices collapsed in the second half of last year. The retreat brought production growth from the nation’s biggest shale formations to a halt, suspending a boom that turned the country into the world’s biggest fuel exporter.

“The major basins aren’t bleeding as much as they were, so we’re near the bottom,” James Williams, president of energy consultant WTRG Economics, said by phone from London, Arkansas, on Friday. “We should see a moderate upward move in rigs sometime next month.”
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil for July delivery jumped $2.62 Friday to end the week at $60.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 43 percent from the 52-week low of $42.03 reached March 18.

U.S. Production

The U.S. pumped 9.57 million barrels a day in the seven days ended May 22, the most in weekly Energy Information Administration data going back to 1983. Output jumped 3.3 percent, the biggest single-week increase since October 2013.
Texas’s Eagle Ford formation, one of the most productive U.S. shale plays, gained an oil rig this week. The Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the country’s biggest oil field, and the Williston Basin, home of North Dakota’s prolific Bakken shale, each lost one.
“Most service companies we speak with feel that ‘the bottom is in’ for U.S. drilling,” Raymond James Ltd. energy analysts including Andrew Bradford said in an e-mailed research note Thursday. “Our estimates had forecast a bottoming in mid-June followed by a painstakingly slow recovery until mid- to late fall, at which point the recovery pace picks up modestly.”
California’s producers idled three oil rigs, dragging the state’s total count to 10, the lowest since at least 1991 when Baker Hughes began releasing state-by-state data. Louisiana also lost three.

OPEC Target

U.S. oil drilling is subsiding as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 percent of the world’s oil, resists calls to curb its own output. OPEC will maintain its production target when ministers meet in Vienna on June 5, according to Libya, which joined Kuwait this week in predicting no change in policy.
“While the recent data suggests a bullish environment due to strong gasoline demand and decreasing crude oil inventories, potentially increasing domestic production and the OPEC meeting on Friday June 5th will certainly weigh on the wider energy complex,” strategists from Toronto-Dominion Bank including Michael Loewen wrote in a research note Thursday. “At current prices and growing tight oil production, there is little incentive for the group to cut quota.”

Pilotos de EEUU: no estamos autorizados a bombardear a Daesh

• 

  Aviones de combate de la llamada coalición anti-EIIL

Varios pilotos de la llamada coalición anti-EIIL, liderada por EE.UU., han admitido que las regulaciones militares les impiden a ellos atacar a esta banda extremista en Irak e Siria.

"Hubo momentos en que tuve grupos de integrantes del EIIL (Daesh, en árabe) en la mira, pero no pude obtener la autorización para atacarlos", ha expresado este jueves un piloto estadounidense de caza F-18, en declaraciones a la cadena de noticias Fox News.

Hubo momentos en que tuve grupos de integrantes del EIIL (Daesh, en árabe) en la mira, pero no pude obtener la autorización para atacarlos", ha expresado este jueves un piloto estadounidense.

También ha culpado a la burocracia que no le permite tomar decisiones rápidas al respecto, añadiendo que "quizá por mi imposibilidad de atacar a los grupos terroristas, estas bandas armadas vuelvan a perpetrar atrocidades contra los civiles y eso es frustrante".

Por su parte, un exgeneral de la Fuerza Aérea de Estados Unidos que dirigió campañas aéreas en Irak y Afganistán ha asegurado que el proceso para atacar las posiciones del EIIL es lento y se pierden valiosos minutos, lo que provoca la huida de estos terroristas de la zona.
"Estamos hablando de horas en algunos casos; en ese momento, el objetivo táctico escapa de la zona y el avión se queda sin combustible. Son procedimientos excesivos que ponen a nuestro adversario en ventaja", ha afirmado el teniente general retirado David Deptula, exdirector del Centro de Operaciones Aéreas Combinadas en Afganistán en 2001.

Un ataque aéreo de la llamada coalición anti-EIIL en Siria

También ha puesto en tela de juicio la seriedad de EE.UU. en su lucha contra el EIIL. "Hemos estado aplicando el poder aéreo como una ducha de lluvia o llovizna; para que sea eficaz, debe aplicarse como una tormenta".
Los analistas políticos cuestionan los verdaderos objetivos de la nueva intervención militar de EE.UU. en Oriente Medio, so pretexto de luchar contra Daesh, un grupo extremista que, según varios documentos, fue creado en un principio con el apoyo de Washington y sus aliados occidentales y regionales.
En este contexto, un nuevo documento desclasificado de la Inteligencia de Defensa de EE.UU. muestra que Washington sabía que armar a los denominados “opositores moderados” sirios, quienes luchan contra el Gobierno legítimo del presidente Bashar al-Asad, podría resultar en la creación de un grupo extremista en la región como el del EIIL.
El pasado mes de junio, el diario estadounidense Los Ángeles Times reveló que, desde 2012, Jordania ha ofrecido varios centros a la Agencia de Inteligencia de EE.UU. (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés) para entrenar en secreto a los grupos armados con el fin de derrocar al Gobierno sirio.
A esto se suman los bombardeos de la denominada coalición anti-EIIL, liderada por EE.UU., que han dejado hasta ahora decenas de civiles muertos en Siria, según el Observatorio Sirio para los Derechos Humanos (OSDH).
mkh/ybm/kaa

Libia. Il Parlamento di Tripoli cambia la Costituzione, la sharia unica fonte di legge

Il Congresso nazionale generale (Gnc), parlamento di Tripoli, ha approvato un emendamento che rafforza il ruolo della legge islamica (sharia), facendone l’unica fonte di diritto, nella Costituzione libica del 2011. Costituzione che peraltro un’assemblea costituente creata dalla rivale Tobruk (riconosciuta internazionalmente) sta riscrivendo ex novo. La modifica ha rilievo, in quanto connota la spiccata islamicità della fazione di Tripoli, che punta a conformare aspetti economici e privati alla legge islamica.
Come riferisce il sito Libya Akhbar, l’emendamento all’articolo 1 della Dichiarazione costituzionale, varata nell’agosto di quattro anni fa dopo la caduta del regime di Muammar Gheddafi, è stato approvato domenica e sostituisce la definizione di Stato «democratico» con quella di «musulmano». Ma soprattutto stabilisce che la sharia non è solo «principale fonte» di legislazione, come sancito nella versione del 2011, ma ormai «fonte di tutta la legislazione». Sempre con riferimento alla sharia, viene anche aggiunto che «ogni legislazione, azione o atto emesso contrariamente alle sue disposizioni sono nulle».

Una fonte di Tripoli ha spiegato all’ANSA che la modifica costituzionale punta a innescare modifiche pratiche, ad esempio in favore della finanza islamica nel sistema bancario (divieto di ottenere interessi sui prestiti) e assicurativo, ma anche della poligamia. Anche se ormai superata, dato che si attende una quarta versione, la terza bozza di accordo nel negoziato fra Tripoli e Tobruk con mediazione Onu, all’articolo 33, prevede sostegno finanziario e logistico all’Assemblea per la stesura della costituzione già al lavoro da tempo.

Fonte: Sponda Sud

Quello che Saviano non scrive: la narcoguerra contro il Venezuela promossa dagli Stati Uniti

In Italia chi filtra le notizie crede alle telenovele made in Miami (Cia) sul politico, militare e narcotrafficante Diosdado Carreño Arias.

Nil Nikandrov su Strategic Culture Foundation torna sulla questione del narcotraffico al confine tra Venezuela e Colombia e sulle responsabilità dirette americane con l’obiettivo di destabilizzare il territorio venezuelano. E lo fa con un’analisi approfondita che in Italia non avrà diffusione nell’opinione pubblica perché chi filtra le notizie alla massa, come Roberto Saviano su Espresso e Repubblica per non fare nomi, si limita a riportare le peggiori calunnie dalla stampa made in Usa o spagnola che lavora da anni come braccio armato dei loro governi per un rovesciamento forzoso del governo democraticamente eletto di Caracas. Nella sua analisi Nikandrov sottolinea quello che vi abbiamo scritto da tempo e che è emerso in uno stessorapporto della Drug Enforcement Agency e vale a dire di come la CIA e la DEA hanno intensificato gli sforzi per dipingere il Venezuela come paradiso dei narcotrafficanti. E nell’analisi emerge come i cartelli della droga e media cooperano con i servizi speciali nella propaganda. Quasi ogni giorno le reti TV (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX e CNN), così come giornali (The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times) diffondono informazioni sulla corruzione nella leadership politica e militare del Venezuela. La propaganda viene accompagnata da notizie martellanti sulle accuse degli Stati Uniti contro Diosdado Cabello, il Presidente dell’Assemblea Nazionale del Venezuela. Le stesse che Saviano, subito dopo l’annuncio del presidente Maduro di una visita a Roma per ritirare un importante riconoscimento dalla Fao per il lavoro fatto nel sradicare la fame nel paese, utilizza come fonti nei suoi articoli.
L’obiettivo è chiaro: denigrare il governo di Nicolas Maduro e avere il pretesto per misure repressive contro il Venezuela. Siamo arrivati al punto che, prosegue Nikandrov, il canale televisivo ispanofono di Miami Telemundo manda in onda una serie dal titolo El Señor de los Cielos (Il signore dei cieli) dove uno dei personaggi è il generale Diosdado Carreño Arias, interpretato dall’attore venezuelano Franklin Virgüez residente a Miami. Strano che si chiama Diosdado e il cognome si associ a perfettamente a Cabello? Non è strano, perché Carreño Arias è un politico e ufficiale delle forze armate venezuelane. Nella serie viene indicato come barone della droga pronto a commettere qualsiasi reato per denaro. Vestendo la divisa da generale con un sigaro cubano in bocca fa un’arringa sulla sua vita, tra narcotraffico e prospettive illimitate di carriera politica. La Central Intelligence Agency è dietro tutto questo.

Dalla traduzione di Alessandro Lattanzio su sitoaurora:

I tentativi intrapresi da Central Intelligence Agency e Drug Enforcement Agency per rovesciare Diosdado sono facilmente spiegabili. Lui è un partner affidabile del Presidente Maduro; entrambi erano amici stretti del Presidente Chavez. Gli Stati Uniti utilizzano l’inganno per dimostrare che il traffico di droga dal Venezuela minaccia la sicurezza degli Stati Uniti e l’emisfero occidentale. Gli esperti sanno che i cartelli della droga utilizzano aree scarsamente popolate del Venezuela per trasportare stupefacenti. Un piccolo aereo è precipitato al largo delle coste, a nord della Colombia, il 22 maggio e 1,2 tonnellate di cocaina sono state recuperate insieme al corpo del pilota con passaporto messicano. La guardia costiera colombiana ha scoperto droga contrabbandata in confezioni da un chilo tra i rottami del velivolo Hawker 800. “L’aereo, un Hawker 800, decollato dal Venezuela e diretto in America centrale, è stato rilevato nelle prime ore di oggi, quando è entrato illegalmente nello spazio aereo colombiano“, affermava una dichiarazione dell’aeronautica colombiana. Il ministro della Difesa venezuelano Vladimir Padrino ha detto che l’aereo proveniva dall’America Centrale e non dal suo Paese. Secondo lui, l’aereo era atterrato in una zona remota del Venezuela per un paio d’ore, e l’aeronautica del suo Paese l’aveva abbattuto quando era decollato. Il ministro osservava che la Reuter era stata faziosa nel riferire la notizia.

Dal 2013, le autorità venezuelane dicono di aver abbattuto o neutralizzato 90 aeromobili con più di 180 tonnellate di cocaina e altre droghe. Hanno anche distrutto 50 piste di volo illegali utilizzate dagli aerei che trasportano sostanze stupefacenti. La Dea e i capi dei cartelli internazionali della droga ne sono ben consapevoli. Non importa, testano l’efficacia della “difesa integrata” del Venezuela. Questa volta gli intrusi hanno cercato di ingannare l’aeronautica del Venezuela. L’aereo era atterrato in una pista di atterraggio clandestina nello Stato occidentale di Apure poco dopo mezzanotte. Quando l’aereo decollò un paio d’ore più tardi, i jet venezuelani ordinarono al pilota di atterrare, ma rifiutandosi fu abbattuto. L’aereo colpito volò fino in Columbia. Gli spacciatori colombiani e venezuelani causano grossi problemi, in una specie di wrestling Nanay. Gli interessi di spacciatori di droga e servizi speciali s’intrecciano.

La cocaina prodotta in grandi quantità in Colombia viene trasportata in Venezuela su piccoli aerei difficili da rilevare. Secondo i servizi speciali venezuelani, c’è un mercato degli aerei leggeri illegale in America Latina e Caraibi. Gli aerei rubati volano negli Stati Uniti per essere ridipinti e rimatricolati. Alcuni di essi sono usati da Central Intelligence Agency e Drug Enforcement Agency. Ad aprile il messicano La Jornada pubblicava un articolo intitolato “Scandalo DEA: droga, prostitute e “grotesque”, il doppiopesismo statunitense”. L’articolo dice che le agenzie governative degli Stati Uniti come ATF (Ufficio per Alcol, Tabacco, Armi da fuoco ed esplosivi (ATF) e Drug Enforcement Agency non mostrano alcun rimorso nel violare leggi nazionali, contrabbandare armi ai gruppi criminali coinvolti nel narcotraffico e riciclaggio di denaro, e neanche a partecipare alle feste dei narcotrafficanti, come chiarito da varie indagini condotte nel Paese confinante. In tali circostanze, è grottesco che politici e media statunitensi siano inquieti per la presunta inaffidabilità degli organi di sicurezza in Messico e Colombia, e usino tali preoccupazioni come pretesto per le operazioni delle loro truppe all’estero. La direttrice della Drug Enforcement Administration, Michele Leonhart, si dimise dopo lo scandalo sulle feste con prostitute di agenti della DEA in Colombia, e dopo che i deputati del Paese confinante la sfiduciarono per la sua azione sulla questione.

Ulteriori informazioni sulle attività DEA diventano di dominio pubblico. La vendita di armi degli organismi statunitensi ai narcotrafficanti in America Latina e Centrale sono un fatto comprovato. Nel 2014 più di 20mila armi made in USA furono sequestrate ai narcotrafficanti. Sono stati scoperti molti casi di riciclaggio di denaro da parte di agenti della Drug Enforcement Agency. Fondi segreti finanziano attività in “Paesi ostili” come Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Argentina e naturalmente Brasile. I leader di questi Stati sono stati abbastanza saggi da prendere le distanze dalle imprese di Bush Jr. e Obama. Di conseguenza, gli Stati Uniti ricorrono ai trucchi sporchi utilizzati nelle campagne diffamatorie come, ad esempio, accusare di corruzione, arricchimento illegale e persecuzione giornalisti e leader dell’opposizione. La pubblicazione del libro di Emili J. Blasco, corrispondente del quotidiano ABC a Washington, dal titolo Bumeran Chávez: Los Fraudes que Llevaron al Colapso de Venezuela (Boomerang Chavez: le frodi che portano al crollo del Venezuela) rientra nel piano della CIA “La leadership del Venezuela e il traffico di droga“. I servizi speciali ricorrono ai servizi offerti da Blasco per diffondere informazioni per infangare chi è caduto in disgrazia presso gli Stati Uniti. Il libro descrive una conversazione tra Blasco e Leamsy Salazar, militare venezuelano con stretti legami con il servizio di sicurezza di Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro e Diosdado Cabello. Lasciato il Venezuela, Salazar si recò in Spagna da cui fu portato negli Stati Uniti come testimone speciale. Dovrebbe essere il testimone principale nel processo contro i narcotrafficanti venezuelani. Ciò che Salazar ha detto a Blasco è una menzogna diffusa da Central Intelligence Agency e Drug Enforcement Agency. In particolare, l’ex-agente di sicurezza ha detto che nel 2006 e 2007 il Comandante Chavez discusse personalmente di armi e munizioni in cambio di droga con i leader delle FARC, per aumentare la potenza della guerriglia nel combattere le forze governative. Ora è chiaro che Salazar non è attendibile, qualunque cosa dica. Secondo i dati dei servizi speciali venezuelani, Leamsy Salazar ebbe contatti con la CIA quando era guardia presidenziale. Il giornalista Juan Martorano non esclude che Salazar sia coinvolto nel complotto per assassinare Chavez. 

…………………………..

Di tutto questo in Italia non saprete mai, anche perché chi avrebbe la possibilità di filtrarvi la verità come Roberto Saviano su Repubblica ed Espresso preferisce credere alle telenovele made in Miami (Cia) sul politico, militare e narcotrafficante Diosdado Carreño Arias.

Fonte: L’Antidiplomatico

Continúan en declive inventarios de petróleo en EEUU

Los inventarios estadounidenses de petróleo descendieron en la semana anterior en 2,8 millones de barriles, la cuarta ocasión consecutiva en que decrecen, informó hoy el Departamento de Energía.
Los especialistas atribuyeron el declive de las existencias de crudo al procesamiento récord en las refinerías y una merma en las importaciones.
No obstante, el nivel de las existencias del combustible quedó en 479,4 millones de barriles, el más elevado para esta época del año en al menos ocho décadas, precisó la fuente además.
Las importaciones de petróleo en el último mes se situaron en 6,8 millones de unidades, un 3,4 por ciento por debajo de igual período del año precedente.
El Departamento de Energía indicó que las tasas de refinación subieron en 237 mil barriles, a 16,45 millones, su nivel más alto el en lo que va del año, y también creció la utilización de la capacidad de las refinerías.
En cuanto a la gasolina, sus reservas bajaron en 3,3 millones de barriles, a 220,6 millones de unidades.
Sin embargo, las de gasóleo de calefacción escalaron en 1,1 millones de barriles, para un avance de 0,9 por ciento, hasta los 128,8 millones de unidades..
Las cifras dadas a conocer este jueves no incluyen las de las Reserva Estratégica de Petróleo del Gobierno de Estados Unidos, las cuales se incrementaron ligeramente en la etapa.
PL

Researchers prove magnetism can control heat, sound

A team led by Ohio State's Wolfgang Windl, Ph.D., used OSC's Oakley Cluster to calculate acoustic phonon movement within an indium-antimonide semiconductor under a magnetic field. Their findings show that phonon amplitude-dependent magnetic …more

Phonons—the elemental particles that transmit both heat and sound—have magnetic properties, according to a landmark study supported by Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) services and recently published by a researcher group from The Ohio State University.

In a recent issue of the journal Nature Materials, the researchers describe how a magnetic field, roughly the size of a medical MRI, reduced the amount of heat flowing through a semiconductor by 12 percent. Simulations performed at OSC then identified the reason for it—the magnetic field induces a diamagnetic response in vibrating atoms known as phonons, which changes how they transport heat.
"This adds a new dimension to our understanding of acoustic waves," said Joseph Heremans, Ph.D., Ohio Eminent Scholar in Nanotechnology and a professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State whose group performed the experiments. "We've shown that we can steer heat magnetically. With a strong enough magnetic field, we should be able to steer sound waves, too."
People might be surprised enough to learn that heat and sound have anything to do with each other, much less that either can be controlled by magnets, Heremans acknowledged. But both are expressions of the same form of energy, quantum mechanically speaking. So any force that controls one should control the other.
The nature of the effect of the magnetic field initially was not understood and subsequently was investigated through computer simulations performed on OSC's Oakley Cluster by Oscar Restrepo, Ph.D., a research associate, Nikolas Antolin, a doctoral student, and Wolfgang Windl, Ph.D., a professor, all of Ohio State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. After painstakingly examining all possible magnetic responses that a non-magnetic material can have to an external field, they found that the effect is due to a diamagnetic response, which exists in all materials. This suggests then that the general effect should be present in any solid.

A team led by Ohio State's Wolfgang Windl, Ph.D., used OSC's Oakley Cluster to calculate acoustic phonon movement within an indium-antimonide semiconductor under a magnetic field. The calculations explained experimental data and showed for …more

The implication: in materials such as glass, stone, plastic—materials which are not conventionally magnetic—heat can be controlled magnetically, if you have a powerful enough magnet. This development may have future impacts on new energy production processes.
But, there won't be any practical applications of this discovery any time soon: seven-tesla magnets like the one used in the study don't exist outside of hospitals and laboratories, and a semiconductor made of indium antimonide had to be chilled to -450 degrees Fahrenheit (-268 degrees Celsius)—very close to absolute zero—to make the atoms in the material slow down enough for the phonons' movements to be detectible.

To simulate the experiment, Windl and his computation team employed a quantum mechanical modeling strategy known as density functional theory (DFT). The DFT strategy was used to determine how the electron distribution changed when atoms vibrated with or without magnetic field. The motion of the electrons around their atoms changed in the field, creating diamagnetic moments when phonons were present. These moments then reacted to the field and slowed the heat transport, similar to an eddy current brake in a train.
The simulations were conducted on the Oakley Cluster, an HP/Intel Xeon system with more than 8,300 processor cores to provide researchers with a peak performance of 154 Teraflops—tech-speak for 154 trillion calculations per second. Since atoms can vibrate in many different ways, a large number of simulations were necessary, consuming approximately 1.5 million CPU hours even on a machine as powerful as Oakley. OSC engineers also helped the research team use OSC's high-throughput, parallel file system to handle the immense datasets generated by the DFT model.
"OSC offered us phenomenal support; they supported our compilation and parallel threading issues, helped us troubleshoot hardware issues when they arose due to code demands, and moved us to the Lustre high-performance file system after we jammed their regular file system," said Antolin, who is the expert for high-demand computations in Windl's group.
"Dr. Windl and his team are important OSC clients, and we're always pleased to support their research projects with our hardware, software and staff support services," said David Hudak, Ph.D., OSC's director of supercomputer services. "With the addition of the Ruby Cluster this past fall and another, much more powerful system upcoming this fall, OSC will continue to offer even larger, faster and more powerful services to support this type of discovery and innovation."
Next, the group plans to test whether they can deflect sound waves sideways with magnetic fields.

Explore further: Landmark study proves that magnets can control heat and sound

More information: Phonon-induced diamagnetic force and its effect on the lattice thermal conductivity, Nature Materials 14, 601–606 (2015) DOI: 10.1038/nmat4247

Journal reference: Nature Materials
Provided by Ohio Supercomputer Center

Three Hidden Forces Pushing Oil Back Up

by Dr. Kent Moors | published May 19th, 2015

The overall trajectory for oil prices remains upward, despite taking a breather today. I still see prices reaching $65-68 for West Texas Intermediate (WTI, the benchmark traded on the NYMEX) and $73-78 for Dated Brent (the other major benchmark set daily in London).
But this is hardly going to be a straight, linear rise. Rather, it’s going to occur in what I call a “ratcheting” pattern: occasionally jerking downward along the way.
One of the primary concerns causing some of the sudden drops in oil prices is the impact of excess production.
The traditional belief has been that downward prices discourage forward commitments of capital expenditures, thereby reducing supply and more closely associating prices with demand.
Operating companies have been slashing the financing of new wells, and the number of rigs in the field are now down to levels not seen since the credit crunch. So we should have seen a corresponding drop in production.
That’s not what happened.
Just take a look at this chart…

Production Has Risen, but Not for Long

The rig count dove, but production continued to move up. The explanation for this phenomenon lies in the ending production from the newest wells drilled. The rise in oil volume has come from those wells brought on line over the past year and a half. Advancing technology and the number of wells per pad have brought in far more oil than expected.
Now, as we have previously noted, this production will begin to taper off mid-summer. Primary extraction levels from these shale/tight oil wells occur in the first 18 months on average, with a marked decline then taking place.
However, another factor is in play here. There was a counterintuitive move to maintain production during the period of low oil prices because companies were seeing the rise in prices comping and wanted to stockpile crude in advance of the price improvement.
That trend is now drawing to a close. And that makes the current quoted price (and the move up) more representative of what is actually happening. Supply is once again moving more in tandem with demand.

Strip Prices Are in a Classic Contango

There are three pictures to view in this regard.
The first involves the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude strip and contango.
Futures contracts on oil are entered throughout the day for delivery from one month to several years out. At any given time, the NYMEX crude strip provides us with a very nice snapshot of what the futures curve looks like.
Below are the one-year strip prices at close last Friday. The red line is the pricing for each one-month contract increment, while the black line is the trend. Notice this is a classic contango – that is, each month’s price is higher than the month(s) preceding.
Looking as this, companies assume the price is rising moving forward. Remember, each of these monthly prices represents the average of contracts. The actual market price, therefore, is expected to be higher.
NYMEX ONE-YEAR OUT CRUDE STRIP FOR CLOSE ON 5/15/2015
JUNE 2015-MAY 2016 Taken by itself, this might seem to add motivation for stockpiling more production, thereby accentuating the surplus and actually depressing the short-term price. But stockpiling makes sense only if there is a significant discrepancy between current and future prices. The strip prices, on the other hand, are moving in the other direction. They are constricting.

The End of New Surplus

That is today’s second point. The five- and 20-day moving averages of the 12-month strip rather dramatically illustrate an initial opportunity to improve return, followed by a converging of the indicators.
Bottom line: The current pricing environment is providing a declining return from stockpiling in anticipation of a major correction. Third, as expected from this, we see in this final chart that crude storage rates are now closely tracking the 12-month WTI price.

All of this leads to one basic conclusion. The talking heads on TV may still predict rising production. But absent a major correction in the market, there are declining profit-margin reasons to stockpile crude. There is still plenty of supply out there. We are unlikely to see massive new excess surplus coming on line to depress prices.

The Next Iraqi Threat to the Oil Industry… It’s Not What You’re Expecting

by Dr. Kent Moors | published May 26th, 2015

If you still doubt that geopolitical heat can raise the price of oil, I strongly advise you to carefully watch the events that are about to play out.
At the top of my own list is Iraq. Geopolitical matters there continue to worsen. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has just called out the Iraqi military – during a high-profile TV interview no less – claiming that it lacks the will to fight. ISIS is solidifying positions within marching distance of Baghdad. And the main Iranian general is condemning the U.S. for “not doing a damn thing” to halt the ISIS advance.
These three developments will have an impact on global crude oil stability and are thereby certain to affect oil prices.
But a fourth situation is about to unfold… with the potential to have a more direct effect on oil.
Here’s my take on what’s going on in Iraq… and what it means for energy prices…
First, let’s go over the three known developments.

1) Carter Slams the Iraqi Military

Earlier this month, Ramadi, a Sunni majority city in Iraq’s Anbar Province about 75 miles west of Baghdad, fell to ISIS forces. The town is in a strategic location on the banks of the Euphrates River. It stands on an important trade route connecting to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as being located on the main road from Amman, the capital of Jordan, to Baghdad.
On Sunday, Defense Secretary Carter conducted an interview with CNN’s State of the Union. “What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,” he said. “They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they failed to fight, they withdrew from the sight, and that says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight [ISIS] and defend themselves.”
And although the U.S. has sped up the delivery of arms to the Iraqi forces, Carter said that the Iraqi military itself needs to ramp up its efforts to defeat ISIS. He also announced that he would not currently consider recommendations from military strategists for relocating U.S. forward air controllers to help better identify targets for coalition airstrikes.
“If there comes a time when we need to change the kinds of support we’re giving to the Iraqi forces, we’ll make that recommendation,” he said. “But what happened in Ramadi was a failure of the Iraqi forces to fight.”

2) ISIS Encroaches on Baghdad

The embarrassing retreat of the numerically superior Iraqi security forces when confronted with an ISIS advance into Ramadi disheartened the American personnel who had trained and declared them fit for combat. (I have worked with the senior command here on various assignments over the last several years.)
ISIS continues to flank the capital city from the north, east, and west. But they will not be able to take and hold Baghdad. Neither the West nor Iran will allow that. And that should provide sufficient support for the Shiite-dominated government.
On the other hand, ISIS’s strategy is to continue putting pressure on the city while it entrenches itself in the area that remains its real objective – the border region connecting Syria and Iraq. This is the “caliphate” of their self-proclaimed “Islamic State.”

3) The U.S. Hasn’t Done a “Damn Thing”

Yesterday, General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds forces in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, leveled a charge of gross inaction against the U.S. following the fall of Ramadi. His apparent comment (it was actually relayed by others in the Guard) was that the U.S. had not done a “damn thing” to stop the advance on Ramadi.
“Does it mean anything else than being an accomplice in the plot?” Soleimani reportedly asked, later saying the U.S. showed “no will” in fighting ISIS. He said Iran and its allies are the only forces that can deal with the threat.
“Today, there is nobody in confrontation with [ISIS] except the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as nations who are next to Iran or supported by Iran,” he said, according to sources in the Revolutionary Guard.
Most military analysts I know – both in the Persian Gulf region and in Washington – admit Soleimani is the most capable battlefield tactician in the entire Persian Gulf basin. Whether we like it or not, the West has to admit that Shiite militias under Soleimani’s leadership are key to keeping ISIS at bay.
Iran now holds considerable leverage over Iraq. Both nations have Shiite majority populations, Iraq has a Shiite-dominant government, and Soleimani commands Shiite military detachments from his headquarters in Baghdad.
Each of these problems is serious enough to weigh on immediate prospects for crude oil prices.
But there’s another event approaching that will affect oil prices even more directly.

4) The Next Iraqi Threat Is Coming

Kurdistan, the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq, is again threatening to export oil and natural gas without the approval of Baghdad.
I have advised the Ministry of Natural Resources in the provincial capital of Irbil and was involved in putting together the oil law and model production sharing agreements the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has offered to outside companies.
These were met with stiff opposition from the central government who claimed only Baghdad can approve exports. An uneasy accommodation has been struck between the two, but it has been fraying of late.
Under the accord, Baghdad is to pay the KRG for exports of Kurdish oil while meeting payments to operating companies in Kurdistan. But the fees have not been forthcoming, owing to Iraq’s acute budget problems and the internal political strife that these days dictates what officials in Baghdad can accomplish.
All of this sets the stage for a major change in Iraqi oil export capabilities. This will have a global knock-on effect for crude prices.

Why You Need to Watch Kurdistan

The KRG legislation and regulations are more profitable for operators than those offered by the central authorities. Baghdad attempted to pressure Western majors by demanding they stop activities in Kurdistan or risk losing contracts elsewhere in Iraq.
Bur despite the huge fields in the south, international leading companies like Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) opted to take the better terms offered by the KRG.
The stage is now set for the Kurds to act. It may begin over oil proceeds but quickly morph into a full-blown drive for independence. Kurdistan has been biding its time. But the clock on separation is ticking.
The Kurdish population of Kurdistan, eastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran remains the largest indigenous population on Earth without its own country. And Irbil’s fierce militia (the peshmerga) has been defending Kurdish territory from ISIS largely on its own.
The divorce from Baghdad will not be amicable. It will intensify instability and play into the hands of ISIS, the Iranians, and those bent on expanding the unrest regionally.
I’m keeping an eye on all of this and will let you know of any important developments.

The Saudi Statement That Shocked the Energy World… and Why It’s Not Entirely True

by Dr. Kent Moors | published May 28th, 2015

Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Minerals, just shocked the energy industry.
No stranger to being at the center of a tempest, Al-Naimi has seen his fair share of controversy.
After all, his strong-arm move to get OPEC to hold the line on production last Thanksgiving laid down the gauntlet to American shale producers, ushering in a collapse in crude prices. And then the manipulation of export prices to Asia – the main object of which was the removal of Russian competition in the Asian market – and the decision to increase Saudi production both had one overarching objective:
Maintaining market share in the face of rising non-OPEC production.
But speaking last week at the Business and Climate Conference in Paris, Al-Naimi made what is probably his most shocking proclamation to date.
Here’s my take on Al-Naimi’s surprise announcement… and how it could signal profits for us…

Will Saudi Arabia Give up Fossil Fuels?

At the conference, Al-Naimi stunned the audience by proclaiming that fossil fuels would be unnecessary in Saudi Arabia before the middle of this century. Instead, he argued that the country would be moving into solar and wind power.
He even commented somewhat tongue-in-cheek that the world would be importing Saudi electricity rather than oil.
Al-Naimi provided no details. However, it is already known that the kingdom has embarked on the largest solar project ever conceived, for which more than $16 billion has already been earmarked. Contracts have also been provided for solar facilities to power desalination plants and wind power to be added to the national power grid before the end of the decade.
And other Gulf OPEC members, especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, have their own massive solar projects underway.
Last December, I even visited the solar farm outside Dubai that is intended to power a portion of the city.
The amount of annual sunshine experienced in this part of the world certainly provides support for solar power. But the reliance on petroleum will be difficult to break, despite comments from a minister.

Saudi Arabia Will Turn to Renewables… to Free Up More Oil

For one thing, analysts question the ability of Saudi Arabia to move away from its revenue mainstay. Exports of crude oil provide the brunt of budgets. And then there is the push to expand petrochemical plants to allow the export of value-added oil products, especially to a thirsty Asia.
Also, there are no plans anywhere to replace traditional internal combustion engines with those able to run on electricity.
Experts both within the region and from the outside doubt that the Saudis will be able to combine their domestic economy’s weaning itself from oil with the takeover of energy exports by electricity.
Thus far, everybody I know has recognized the increasing interest in renewable energies inside Saudi Arabia. Many do see Riyadh ramping up alternative sources domestically. There is even the acceptance that environmental concerns coming from Saudi officials as a justification to pursue solar and wind are genuine.      
But the prevailing view sees a domestic switch in energy sources to allow additional crude production for export, either as raw material or as finished oil products. In short, there is the belief that Saudi Arabia will increasingly rely on solar and wind locally… but to free up more oil for export, not to move away from it.

OPEC Has Understood Energy Shifts for Deacades

Admittedly, Al-Naimi’s statement that the world by midcentury would rely on Saudi electricity exports rather than oil took everybody by surprise.
The widespread interpretation considers the minister’s statement evocative and not a serious telegraphing of a genuine change in policy focus. After all, the comment was supported by no analysis or substantive comment. 
On the other hand, OPEC in general and the Saudis in particular are quite aware of the major changes underway in both the sourcing and usage of energy worldwide. 
An OPEC internal planning document released a decade ago, before the advent of U.S. shale and tight oil, adopted the approach that no member of the cartel would be selling a drop of oil to the U.S. by 2050 (or even before).
The rationale at the time had already assumed all of North America would be relying on a combination of heavy oil from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and alternatives like solar and wind.
And that was even before such alternatives had taken a significant percentage of the market, had a developed infrastructure beyond given localities, and had approached anything close to grid parity (the matching of generating costs from natural gas-fueled power plants or even those using coal).
In short, OPEC planning documents expected that the rise in crude oil prices to well beyond $120 a barrel on a consistent basis would oblige the U.S. to seek alternative energy approaches. That became an even greater assumption once crude spiked above $140 in the summer of 2008.

Profit Opportunities Are on the Way

The current suggestion by the manager of Saudi’s oil policy may just be an attempt to spice up an otherwise dull international meeting. Nonetheless, it does provide another wrinkle in the changing global energy competition.
One thing is certain: Whether or not the Saudis somehow move away from oil, renewable energy is making major gains in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere.
That is opening up new profitmaking opportunities for energy investors.