TERRORISM: FBI Training Elite Deep-diving Counterterrorism unit

photo courtesy fbi.gov

Underwater terrorismFBI training elite deep-diving counterterrorism unit

Published 18 October 2011

To bolster its counterterrorism capabilities, the FBI has created an elite group of special agents trained to track terrorism underwater.
Next year the ten-member Technical Dive Team will begin searching for evidence left behind by international terrorists in waters contaminated by chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear waste.
Pointing to the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India where terrorists entered the city by boat, supervisory special agent James Tullbane, a Technical Dive Team member, said, “There have been enough scenarios recently,” to justify the creation of the special unit.  Full article

WATER TO EMERGING ECONOMIES: Towing Icebergs to Provide Fresh Water for Parched Regions

Published 10 August 2011

A third of the world's population -- more than two billion people -- lives without access to clean drinking water, and studies show that the situation will only get worse; a French innovator has an idea: towing icebergs from the Greenland and Antarctica to regions most in need of fresh water; a computer simulation shows this solution to be viable and affordable

An idea that first surfaced in the 1970's may be right for today // Source: icetrim.org

A third of the world’s population — more than two billion people — lives without access to clean drinking water, and recent droughts in Africa have left twelve million people without water. To aid them, French eco-entrepreneurGeorges Mougin plans to harvest icebergs across the world to solve the water shortage.

For the last forty years – Mougin, 86, first came up with his iceberg scheme in the early 1970s – he  has tried to figure out a way to tow freshwater icebergs across the Arctic. Experts have argued it would be too expensive and difficult to carry out his plan, but now it appears this his dream is about to come true.  Read more

EXPLOSIVE DETECTION > Sensors printed on wetsuits detect explosives, other hazards

Published 12 July 2011

UC San Diego researcher has successfully printed thick-film electrochemical sensors directly on flexible wetsuit material, paving the way for nano devices to detect underwater explosives or ocean contamination; UCSD has a full U.S. patent pending on the technology, and has begun talks on licensing the system to a Fortune 500 company

Flexible sensors printed on neoprene wetsuit sleeve // Source: calit2.net

Breakthroughs in nanoengineering often involve building new materials or tiny circuits. A professor at the University of California, San Diego, however, is proving that he can make materials and circuits so flexible that they can be pulled, pushed, and contorted — even under water — and still keep functioning properly.

Joseph Wang has successfully printed thick-film electrochemical sensors directly on flexible wetsuit material, paving the way for nano devices to detect underwater explosives or ocean contamination.

“We have a long-term interest in on-body electrochemical monitoring for medical and security applications,” said Wang, a professor in the Department of NanoEngineering in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “In the past three years we’ve been working on flexible, printable sensors, and the capabilities of our group made it possible to extend these systems for use underwater.”

Wang notes that some members of his team — including electrical-engineering graduate student Joshua Windmiller — are surfers. Given the group’s continued funding from the U.S. Navy, and its location in La Jolla, it was a logical leap to see if it would be possible to print sensors on neoprene, the synthetic-rubber fabric typically used in wetsuits for divers and surfers    Read more

STATE OF THE OCEAN > 'Shocking' Report Warns Of Mass Extinction From Current Rate Of Marine Distress

Huffington Post

by Travis Donovan

If the current actions contributing to a multifaceted degradation of the world's oceans aren't curbed, a mass extinction unlike anything human history has ever seen is coming, an expert panel of scientists warns in an alarming new report.

The preliminary report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) is the result of the first-ever interdisciplinary international workshop examining the combined impact of all of the stressors currently affecting the oceans, including pollution, warming, acidification, overfishing and hypoxia.

“The findings are shocking," Dr. Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific director, said in a statement released by the group. "This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that."  For more

U.S. Sends Humanitarian Envoy to North Korea

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The United States on Tuesday dispatched an official envoy to North Korea in a rare trip aimed at assessing food scarcity in the impoverished state against the backdrop of a building push to resume the paralyzed aid-for-denuclearization talks, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 23).

photo courtesy:  dailyworldtrends.com

Special envoy for North Korean human rights Robert King and a small delegation of U.S. officials arrived "to consult humanitarian issues" between Washington and Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.

The last formal trip by a U.S. official to the Stalinist state took place in December 2009.

"Since North Korea sees U.S. decisions on humanitarian aid through a political lens, the food aid assessment might be treated in Pyongyang as a political signal that the Obama administration might finally be open to a broader political dialogue with North Korea," North Korea specialist Scott Snyder stated on the Council of Foreign Relations website.

King's visit occurs while North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is in China -- his third such trip in little more than a year. Experts and envoys believe Kim will use the trip to seek more financial and food assistance from its longtime ally. In exchange for providing badly needed aid, analysts anticipate Beijing will pressure Pyongyang to agree to South Korea's proposal for bilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear activities.

Washington shut off food aid to Pyongyang in 2008 and is waiting for the OK from Seoul to open up the pipeline, according to Reuters.

Opponents of providing further food to Pyongyang argue the regime has previously used the assistance to feed its large army and not its citizenry. Seoul says the North has the same food supplies as in 2010. South Korean officials are also suspicious that Pyongyang wants to build up its food supplies prior to a third nuclear test that would presumably result in further restrictions on foreign assistance (Jeremy Laurence, Reuters/Yahoo!News, May 24) Full article
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Announcements > CDC's ATSDR Health Survey of Pre-1986 Personnel at Camp Lejeune

May 20, 2011 / 60(19);629

During June--December 2011, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will conduct a health survey of persons who resided or worked at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before 1986 and might have been exposed to contaminated drinking water. The purpose of the survey is to learn more about participants' health. Health surveys also will be mailed to a comparison group of former active duty marines, sailors, and civilian employees, sampled from those who lived or worked at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California.

Eligible participants who were formerly at Camp Lejeune include 1) former active duty marines and sailors who were stationed at Camp Lejeune any time during June 1975--December 1985, 2) civilian employees who worked at Camp Lejeune any time during December 1972--December 1985, 3) families who took part in the 1999--2002 ATSDR telephone survey of childhood cancers and birth defects, and 4) persons who registered with the Camp Lejeune notification registry.

Participants will receive a paper copy of the health survey and instructions for completing and mailing. A web-based version of the survey also will be available for those who prefer to answer online. Health-care providers are asked to share information regarding the Camp Lejeune survey with their patients who lived or worked at the base before to 1986 and to encourage those receiving a health survey for either Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton to fill it out and return it or complete it online. Additional information is available at here.

Swimming Safety > CDC promotes Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Week --- May 23--29, 2011

image courtesy of
camarillo.macaronikid.com 

May 23-29, 2011, marks the seventh annual Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Week. This observance highlights simple steps swimmers and pool operators can take to reduce health and safety risks at pools, water parks, and other recreational water venues.

Recreational water illness can result from ingesting, inhaling aerosols of, or having contact with contaminated water in swimming pools, hot tubs, water parks, water play areas, interactive fountains, lakes, rivers, or oceans. These illnesses also can be caused by chemicals in the water or chemicals that evaporate from the water.

This year's observance focuses on preventing swimmer's ear (acute otitis externa), a common and painful infection of the outer ear canal that results in 2.4 million health-care visits and nearly half a billion dollars in health-care costs every year (1). Simple steps, such as keeping ears as dry as possible, can help prevent this illness. More information on preventing swimmer's ear is available at http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/rwi/illnesses/swimmers-ear-prevention-guidelines.html.

Injuries and drowning also can occur in and around the water. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death among children aged ≤14 years (2). Additional information on drowning prevention is available at http://www.cdc.gov/safechild/drowning/index.html.

Historic, desperate measures to control Mississippi River

Opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway // Source: nola.com

The historic levels of water swelling the Mississippi River required the Army Corps of Engineers to take historic measures to prevent catastrophic flooding of Baton Rough and News Orleans: first, the Morganza control structure, located 186 miles upriver of New Orleans and completed in 1954 as part of the Army Corps of Engineers' broad flood-protection upgrades in the wake of the Great Flood of 1927, was opened for only the second time to allow water to flow out of the river and into the Atchafalaya basin, a designated flood relief area; the Corps says that Saturday marked the first time in history that all three floodways built by corps after 1927 flood -- the Morganza Floodway, the Bonnet Carre Spillway, and the Birds Point floodway in Missouri -- have been in operation at the same time; about 25,000 people and 11,000 structures are in harm's way, as up to 25 feet of flooding is expected in a 3,000 square-mile area of Louisiana  For full article  (2 minute read)

Disasters > Swollen Mississippi River to be closed for traffic as of Monday

Swollen Mississippi River to be closed for traffic as of Monday

Landsat comparison images of Mississippi flooding:
Source: esri.com

Swollen by weeks of heavy rain and snowmelt, the Mississippi River has been breaking high-water records that have stood since the 1920s and 1930s; it is projected to crest at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 19 May and break the mark set there during the historic Great Flood of 1927; the crest is expected to reach New Orleans on 23 May; officials with the Port of New Orleans said the Coast Guard may close the river to ships as early as Monday, halting traffic on one of the world's busiest commercial waterways; barges headed south from the U.S. heartland to the Port of South Louisiana at Reserve, upriver from New Orleans, would be unable to reach grain elevators; massive ships that carry U.S. corn, soybeans, and other crops out of the country would be unable to move  Read more

Technology > Portable technology provides drinking water, power to villages, military

...this technology promises to enable a global-scale potable water and power technology, especially for off-grid and remote locations.”

MIT portable desalination unit // Source: buildaroo.com

Researchers have developed an aluminum alloy that could be used in a new type of mobile technology to convert non-potable water into drinking water while also extracting hydrogen to generate electricity; such a technology might be used to provide power and drinking water to villages and also for military operations -for more

Video > Japan Earthquake 2011 Liquefaction Damage

Good article on liquefaction type earthquakes.  There are a few silver linings in the clouds above Japan...the Video is 9:27 and is visually powerful.