Scientists create 'sixth sense' brain implant to detect infrared lightA brain implant which could allow humans to detect invisible infrared light has beendeveloped by scientists in America.A brain implant which could allow humans to detect invisible infrared light has been developed by scientists inAmerica. Photo: ALAMYBy Nick Collins2:58PM GMT 17 Feb 2013Scientists have created a "sixth sense" by creating a brain implant through which infrared lightcan be detected.Although the light could not be seen lab rats were able to detect it via electrodes in the part ofthe brain responsible for their sense of touch.Similar devices have previously been used to make up for lost capabilities, for example givingparalysed patients the ability to move a cursor around the screen with their thoughts.But the new study, by researchers from Duke University in North Carolina, is the first case inwhich such devices have been used to give an animal a completely new sense.Dr Miguel Nicolelis said the advance, reported in the Nature Communications journal this week,was just a prelude to a major breakthrough on a "brain-to-brain interface" which will beannounced in another paper next month.Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science inBoston on Sunday, he described the mystery work as something "no one has dreamed could bedone".The second paper is being kept secret until it is published but Dr Nicolelis's comments raise theprospect of an implant which could allow one animal's brain to interact directly with another.In the first study, rats wore an infrared detector on their head which was connected to electrodesin the part of their brain which governs touch.Scientists create 'sixth sense' brain implant to detect infrared light - Telegraph Page 1 of 2

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9875931/Scientists-create-sixth-sense-br... 2/19/2013When one of three ultraviolet light sources in their cage was switched on, the rats initially beganrubbing their whiskers, indicating that they felt as if they were touching the invisible light.After a month of training, they learned to link the new sensation with the light sources and wereable to find which one was switched on with 100 per cent accuracy. A monkey has since beentaught to perform the same task.The study demonstrates that a part of the brain which is designed to process one sense caninterpret other types of sensory information, researchers said.It means that in theory, someone who is blind because of damage to their visual cortex couldregain their sight using an implant in another part of the brain.Dr Nicolelis said: "What we did here was to demonstrate that we could create a new sense inrats by allowing them to "touch" infrared light that mammals cannot detect."The nerves were responding to both touch and infrared light at the same time. This shows thatthe adult brain can acquire new capabilities that have never been experienced by the animalbefore."This suggests that, in the future, you could use prosthetic devices to restore sensory modalitiesthat have been lost, such as vision, using a different part of the brain."The study is part of an international effort to build a whole-body suit which allows paralysedpeople to walk again using their brain to control the device's movement.Infrared sensing could be built into the suit to inform the person inside about where their limbsare and to help them "feel" objects.Dr Nicolelis and his collaborators on the project hope to unveil the "exoskeleton" at the openingceremony of the football World Cup in Brazil in 2014.© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013

AL QUAEDA MANIFESTO LEFT BY MISTAKE

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) — In their hurry to flee last month, al-Qaida fighters left behind a crucial document: Tucked under a pile of papers and trash is a confidential letter, spelling out the terror network's strategy for conquering northern Mali and reflecting internal discord over how to rule the region.

The document is an unprecedented window into the terrorist operation, indicating that al-Qaida predicted the military intervention that would dislodge it in January and recognized its own vulnerability.

The letter also shows a sharp division within al-Qaida's Africa chapter over how quickly and how strictly to apply Islamic law, with its senior commander expressing dismay over the whipping of women and the destruction of Timbuktu's ancient monuments. It moreover leaves no doubt that despite a temporary withdrawal into the desert, al-Qaida plans to operate in the region over the long haul, and is willing to make short-term concessions on ideology to gain the allies it acknowledges it needs.

The more than nine-page document, found by The Associated Press in a building occupied by the Islamic extremists for almost a year, is signed by Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the nom de guerre of Abdelmalek Droukdel, the senior commander appointed by Osama bin Laden to run al-Qaida's branch in Africa. The clear-headed, point-by-point assessment resembles a memo from a CEO to his top managers and lays out for his jihadists in Mali what they have done wrong in months past, and what they need to do to correct their behavior in the future.

Droukdel, the emir of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, perhaps surprisingly argues that his fighters moved too fast and too brutally in applying the Islamic law known as Shariah to northern Mali. Comparing the relationship of al-Qaida to Mali as that of an adult to an infant, he urges them to be more gentle, like a parent:

"The current baby is in its first days, crawling on its knees, and has not yet stood on its two legs," he writes. "If we really want it to stand on its own two feet in this world full of enemies waiting to pounce, we must ease its burden, take it by the hand, help it and support it until its stands."

He scolds his fighters for being too forceful and warns that if they don't ease off, their entire project could be thrown into jeopardy: "Every mistake in this important stage of the life of the baby will be a heavy burden on his shoulders. The larger the mistake, the heavier the burden on his back, and we could end up suffocating him suddenly and causing his death."

The letter is divided into six chapters, three of which the AP recovered, along with loose pages, on the floor of the Ministry of Finance's Regional Audit Department. Residents say the building, one of several the Islamic extremists took over in this ancient city of sundried, mud-brick homes, was particularly well-guarded with two checkpoints, and a zigzag of barriers at the entrance.

Droukdel's letter is one of only a few internal documents between commanders of al-Qaida's African wing that have been found, and possibly the first to be made public, according to University of Toulouse Islamic scholar Mathieu Guidere. It is numbered 33/234, a system

reserved for al-Qaida's internal communications, said Guidere, who helps oversee a database of documents generated by extremists, including Droukdel.

"This is a document between the Islamists that has never been put before the public eye," said Guidere, who authenticated the letter after being sent a two-page sample. "It confirms something very important, which is the divisions about the strategic conception of the organization. There was a debate on how to establish an Islamic state in North Mali and how to apply Shariah."

While the pages recovered are not dated, a reference to a conflict in June establishes that the message was sent at most eight months ago.

The tone and timing of the letter suggest that al-Qaida is learning from its mistakes in places like Somalia and Algeria, where attempts to unilaterally impose its version of Islam backfired. They also reflect the influence of the Arab Spring, which showed the power of people to break regimes, and turned on its head al-Qaida's long-held view that only violence could bring about wholesale change, Guidere said.

The letter suggests a change in the thinking, if not the rhetoric, of Droukdel, who is asking his men to behave with a restraint that he himself is not known for. Droukdel is believed to have overseen numerous suicide bombings, including one in 2007 where al-Qaida fighters bombed the United Nations building and a new government building in Algiers, killing 41 people. The same year, the U.S. designated him a global terrorist and banned Americans from doing business with him.

In a video disseminated on jihadist forums a few months ago, Droukdel dared the French to intervene in Mali and said his men will turn the region into a "graveyard" for foreign fighters, according to a transcript provided by Washington-based SITE Intelligence.

The fanaticism he exhibits in his public statements is in stark contrast to the advice he gives his men on the ground. In his private letter, he acknowledges that al-Qaida is vulnerable to a foreign intervention, and that international and regional pressure "exceeds our military and financial and structural capability for the time being."

"It is very probable, perhaps certain, that a military intervention will occur ... which in the end will either force us to retreat to our rear bases or will provoke the people against us," writes Droukdel. "Taking into account this important factor, we must not go too far or take risks in our decisions or imagine that this project is a stable Islamic state."

According to his own online biography, Droukdel was born 44 years ago into a religious family in the Algerian locality of Zayan. He says he enrolled into the technology department of a local university before turning to jihad, and his first job was making explosives for Algerian mujahedeen. In 2006, the group to which he belonged, known as the GSPC, became an arm of al-Qaida, after negotiations with Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's lieutenant.

As Droukdel rose through the ranks, he came into direct contact with bin Laden, Guidere said.

In the document found in Timbuktu, he cites a letter he received from bin Laden about the al-Hudaybiyah deal, a treaty signed circa 628 by the Prophet Muhammad and the Quraish tribe of Mecca, an agreement with non-Muslims that paved the way for Muslims to return to Mecca.

"The smart Muslim leader would do these kinds of concessions in order to achieve the word of God eventually and to support the religion," he says.

Perhaps the biggest concession Droukdel urges is for his fighters to slow down in implementing Shariah.

When the Islamic extremists took over northern Mali 10 months ago, they restored order in a time of chaos, much as the Taliban did in Afghanistan, and even created a hotline number for people to report crimes. But whatever goodwill they had built up evaporated when they started to destroy the city's historic monuments, whip women for not covering up and amputate the limbs of suspected thieves.

"One of the wrong policies that we think you carried out is the extreme speed with which you applied Shariah, not taking into consideration the gradual evolution that should be applied in an environment that is ignorant of religion," Droukdel writes. "Our previous experience proved that applying Shariah this way, without taking the environment into consideration, will lead to people rejecting the religion, and engender hatred toward the mujahedeen, and will consequently lead to the failure of our experiment."

Droukdel goes on to cite two specific applications of Shariah that he found problematic. He criticizes the destruction of Timbuktu's World Heritage-listed shrines, because, as he says, "on the internal front we are not strong." He also tells the fighters he disapproves of their religious punishment for adulterers — stoning to death — and their lashing of people, "and the fact that you prevented women from going out, and prevented children from playing, and searched the houses of the population."

"Your officials need to control themselves," he writes.

Droukdel's words reflect the division within one of al-Qaida's most ruthless affiliates, and may explain why Timbuktu, under the thumb of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, experienced a slightly less brutal version of Shariah than Gao, one of the three other major cities controlled by the extremists. There was only one amputation in Timbuktu over their 10-month rule, compared to a dozen or more in Gao, a city governed by an al-Qaida offshoot, MUJAO, which does not report to Droukdel.

Droukdel's warning of rejection from locals also turned out to be prescient, as Shariah ran its course in Timbuktu. The breaking point, residents say, was the day last June when the jihadists descended on the cemetery with pickaxes and shovels and smashed the tombs of their saints, decrying what they called the sin of idolatry.

Many in Timbuktu say that was the point of no return. "When they smashed our mausoleums, it hurt us deeply," said Alpha Sanechirfi, the director of the Malian Office of Tourism in Timbuktu. "For us, it was game over."

Droukdel's letter also urges his followers to make concessions to win over other groups in the area, and in one case criticizes their failure to do so. For several months, the Islamic extremists controlling northern Mali coexisted with the secular National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, the name given to Mali by Tuareg rebels who want their own state. The black flag of the extremists fluttered alongside the multi-colored one of the secular rebels, each occupying different areas of the towns.

In late May, the two sides attempted to sign a deal, agreeing to create an independent Islamic state called Azawad. The agreement between the bon vivant Tuareg rebels and the Taliban-inspired extremists seemed doomed from the start. It fell apart days later. By June, the Islamic extremists had chased the secular rebels out of northern Mali's main cities.

"The decision to go to war against the Azawad Liberation Movement, after becoming close and almost completing a deal with them, which we thought would be positive, is a major mistake in our assessment," Droukdel admonishes. "This fighting will have a negative impact on our project. So we ask you to solve the issue and correct it by working toward a peace deal."

In an aside in brackets, Droukdel betrays the frustration of a manager who has not been informed of important decisions taken by his employees: "(We have not until now received any clarification from you, despite how perilous the operation was!!)"

Droukdel also discusses the nuts and bolts of how territory and control might be shared by al-Qaida and the local radical Islamic group known as Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith. For much of last year, Ansar Dine claimed to be the rulers of both Timbuktu and Kidal, although by the end, there was mounting evidence that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb was calling the shots.

The reason for this is now clear in his letter: Droukdel asks his men to lower their profile, and allow local groups to take center stage.

"We should also take into consideration not to monopolize the political and military stage. We should not be at the forefront," he says. "Better for you to be silent and pretend to be a 'domestic' movement that has its own causes and concerns. There is no reason for you to show that we have an expansionary, jihadi, al-Qaida or any other sort of project."

The emir acknowledges that his fighters live on the fringes of society, and urges them to make alliances, including fixing their broken relationship with the NMLA. He vows that if they do what he says, they will have succeeded, even if an eventual military intervention forces them out of Mali.

"The aim of building these bridges is to make it so that our mujahedeen are no longer isolated in society," he writes. "If we can achieve this positive thing in even a limited amount, then even if the project fails later, it will be just enough that we will have planted the first, good seed in this

fertile soil and put pesticides and fertilizer on it, so that the tree will grow more quickly. We look forward to seeing this tree as it will be eventually: Stable and magnificent."

What takes place in thunderstorms on Earth is most likely a smaller version of large scale phenomena.

“I have always believed that astrophysics should be the extrapolation of laboratory physics, that we must begin from the present Universe and work our way backward to progressively more remote and uncertain epochs.”

— Hannes Alfvén

Previous Picture of the Day articles discussed electric fields that build up in and around thunderstorms. Since Earth is electrically charged, it maintains an electric field at its surface of between 50 and 200 volts per meter. In other words, for every meter of altitude the voltage increases by that measure.

Electromagnetic fields beneath thunderstorms increase to 10,000 volts per meter because the storms and the Earth act like the plates of a capacitor, storing electrical energy from the surrounding environment. A “wind” of charged particles blows toward the developing storm, pulling neutral air molecules along with the current, creating powerful updrafts that can occasionally rise into the stratosphere. Once the storm reaches a critical threshold, the stored energy is released as a lightning bolt.

Thunderstorms act like “particle accelerators,” launching massive discharges upward to space, as well as downward to ground. The upward strokes are known as red sprites and blue jets but are not easy to detect, since they last just a few milliseconds and are at high altitude.

Red sprites are massive, diffuse flashes above active thunderstorms, coinciding with normal lightning strokes. They can be single events, or multiple, with filaments above and below, often extending to altitudes close to 100 kilometers. Some of the largest sprites contain dozens of individual smaller sprites, covering horizontal distances of 50 kilometers, with a volume of 10,000 cubic kilometers.

Blue jets are distinct from sprites, since they propagate upward in narrow cones that disappear at an altitude of about 50 kilometers. They are also more powerful because the electric discharges are confined within a smaller spatial volume. Geophysicists are beginning to realize that sprites and jets are part of every moderate to large storm system and are an essential component in Earth’s electric circuit.

Electric Universe theorists propose that what is observed on other planets, within galaxies, or in free space should be used as examples of what can occur on Earth, as opposed to using our planet to model the Universe. We are part of a cosmic “ecology” that maintains a coherent physical aspect, so that aspect ought to apply here.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), was launched from the Baikanor Cosmodrome on October 17, 2002. It is the first space-based observatory that can be used to simultaneously study objects in gamma ray, X-ray, and visible light. One of INTEGRAL’s major finds was the observation in 2008 of an extreme X-ray source from the center of a remote galaxy cluster.

X-ray emissions are far too intense to be generated from hot gas in the cluster, so “shockwaves must be rippling through the gas.” Astrophysicists suggested that the shockwaves had “turned the galaxy into a giant particle accelerator.”

The temperature of gases in the cluster core was measured at 100 million Kelvin. Researchers think that electrons accelerated by shockwaves traveling through the cluster gas generate the intense X-rays. The shockwaves are said to be created when two galaxy clusters “collide and merge.”

By referring to material with a temperature of 100 million Kelvin as “hot gas,” ESA scientists are highlighting their complete ignorance of plasma and its behavior. No atom can remain intact at such temperatures: electrons are stripped from the nuclei and powerful electric fields develop. The gaseous matter becomes plasma, capable of conducting electricity and forming double layers.

Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén maintained that double layers are a unique celestial object, and that intense X-ray and gamma ray sources could be due to double layers “shorting out” and exploding. Double layers can accelerate charged particles up to enormous energies in a variety of frequencies, forming “plasma beams.” If the double layer breaks the circuit, the double layer may explode, drawing electricity from the entire circuit and discharging more energy than was contained in the double layer.

Double layers dissipate when they accelerate particles and emit radiation, so they must be powered by external sources. Birkeland currents are theorized to transmit electric power over many light-years through space, perhaps over thousands of light-years, so they are most likely the power source for the extreme X-ray generator in Ophiuchus.

So-called “particle accelerators” in thunderstorms and galaxy clusters are most likely manifestations of Birkeland currents pouring electricity into double layers. Sprites and jets exhibit filamentary structure, as does terrestrial lightning. Streamers of plasma can be seen flowing through galaxy clusters. In time, it may become evident that the scaleable nature of the plasma Universe reveals itself through electrical events both large and small.

Japan's aggressive attempts to spur on its struggling economy were set to escape censure from the G20 nations today as bickering in Moscow kept alive fears of a "currency war".

Finance ministers at the G20 gathering are understood to have pulled back from explicit criticism of Japan, whose prime minister Shinzo Abe has embarked on a huge programme of monetary and fiscal stimulus to jump start the world's third largest economy out of its third recession in five years.

The currency market was thrown into turmoil this week after the G7 – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy – issued a joint statement warning against using domestic policy to target currencies.

But the show of unity was immediately shattered by off-the-record briefings against Japan, which needs a weaker yen to help fuel its export-driven economy.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi yesterday labelled the behind-the-scenes briefing as "inappropriate, fruitless and self-defeating".

IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Russia's deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak also denied the ex- istence of currency wars, labelling recent swings in the yen as "market reaction to exclusively internal decision making".

G20 officials are set to disregard key parts of the G7 currency statement while making no direct mention of new debt-cutting targets – something Germany is pressing for but which the United States is opposed to.

If adopted by G20 finance ministers today, the wording will confirm that Japan will escape any censure for expansionary policies which have driven the yen lower. The G20 is set to back away from the G7's commitment not to target exchange rates, as China would be unlikely to sign up.

BNY Mellon currency strategist Neil Mellor said: "We're going to end up with a communique so bland and watered down as to be virtually meaningless."

The quantitative easing pursued by central banks around the world – including the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve – has enraged emerging economies such as Brazil as the value of their foreign reserves dwindles, raising fears over "competitive devaluations".

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "What the G7 basically said this week is that it is fine to manipulate your currency as long as you don't talk about it. These 'currency wars' are more like phony wars. The bigger problem the G20 has is not currency wars, it is a lack of growth."

The yen has fallen by about 20 per cent since November but the strengthening euro is also concerning European politicians as the eurozone seeks to climb out of a malaise underlined by a worse-than-expected 0.6 per cent slide in GDP in the final quarter of last year.

French President François Hollande called last week for a medium-term target for the euro, but Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann came out against such a move today, expressing fears of "a politicisation of the exchange rate".

The meeting in Moscow of finance officials from the G20 nations also looked set to lay bare differences over the balance between growth and austerity policies. The draft communique reflected a row brewing between Europe and the United States over extending a promise to reduce budget deficits beyond 2016.

A pact struck in Toronto in 2010 will expire this year if leaders fail to agree to extend it at a G20 summit of leaders in St Petersburg in September.

CURRENCY WARS

The balance of power now rests with Japan, according to the bank, as Japan's policy-makers' more dovish

approach looks set to bring the world a step closer to a currency war.

The Bank of Japan doubled its inflation target to 2 percent in January and made an open-ended commitment to

continue buying assets from next year. This follows a leadership change, with new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

openly calling for aggressive monetary stimulus from the country's central bank.

(Read More: Land of the Falling Yen: Japan Cheers Sliding Currency)

This move, Morgan Stanley said, is a "game changer" as Japan tries to invigorate its stagnating economy .

"If a weaker yen is an important pillar of the strategy to make this export-oriented economy more competitive

again, it brings into the picture something that was missing from earlier interactions among central banks of

the advanced economies – competitive depreciation," it said in a research note.

"This, in turn, takes us one step closer to a currency war."

Manoj Pradhan, an economist at the bank details the 1930s war and highlights the lessons that we can learn

from the past.

The U.K. was the first to leave the gold standard on September 19, 1931 due to painfully high unemployment.

Sterling depreciated, setting off a volatile chain of events with the U.S., Norway, Sweden, France and

Germany all following suit.

Those countries that moved early benefited at the expense of others on the gold bloc, a "beggar-thy-neighbor"

outcome, according to Pradhan.

"Similarly, it is the domestic agenda that could drive competitive depreciation today," he said.

"Since global demand is likely to remain sluggish, a revival of Japan's export sector on the back of yen

weakness is likely to eat into the market share of other exporters – something that could well invite measures

to curb significant weakening of the yen."

(Read More: What Could Really Spark a Currency War)

In a detailed scenario of what could follow, Pradhan highlights that the European Central Bank and the

Federal Reserve would ease further, using quantitative easing to dampen euro strength and debt ceiling

fears.

Capital controls could be brought in by Latin American and other Asian economies, he said, which could be

transaction taxes or even some sort of verbal interaction.

"In the particularly interesting cases of Korea and Taiwan, our economist Sharon Lam believes that verbal

intervention (already under way to some extent), intervention in the foreign exchange markets and capital

controls represent the most likely policy reactions," he said, adding that the emerging markets of Colombia,

Mexico, Peru and Chile have even u-turned towards a more dovish stance.

(Read More: Why Currency Wars Might Be Coming)

"While a currency war is not our base case, the new-found commitment of Japan's policy-makers does raise the

risk of retaliatory action to keep the yen weak," he said.

"The experience of the 1930s suggests to us that such large currency crises are likely triggered by domestic

issues, and that they do create distinct winners and losers. EM (emerging market) policy-makers are already

gearing up to make sure they remain on the winning side, but the balance of power for now rests with Japan."

Soros Said to Make $1 Billion Since November on Yen BetBy Katherine Burton - Feb 14, 2013 9:20 AM ET

George Soros made almost $1 billion since November from bets that the yen would tumble, according to a person close to the billionaire’s $24 billion family office.

The Japanese wager helped the firm return about 10 percent last year and 5 percent so far this year, said the person, who asked not to be named because the firm is private. The yen has weakened 17 percent versus the dollar since about the start of the fourth quarter, the worst performance over a similar period since 1985.

Enlarge image

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

George Soros, founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, at the World Economic Forum

(WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 25, 2013.

George Soros, founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 25, 2013. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

24:19

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros talks about the European sovereign-debt crisis, inflation risk and his Open Society Foundations. He speaks with Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (Source: Bloomberg)

17:38

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros talks about Europe's sovereign-debt crisis, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's policy measures and the potential impact of austerity on the region's economies. He speaks with Bloomberg Television's Erik Schatzker on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (Source: Bloomberg)

The yen slumped and Japanese stocks rallied as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pressed the Bank of Japan to introduce additional stimulus measures. BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and two deputies will step down next month,

allowing Abe to pick leaders to implement his plan for expanded monetary easing.

Scott Bessent, chief investment officer at New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC, also has 10 percent of the firm’s internally managed portfolio betting on rising shares in Japan, said the person. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index has jumped about 28 percent since the end of September.

Bessent worked for Soros in 1992 when Soros and his chief strategist Stan Druckenmiller made a $10 billion bet that the Bank of England would be forced to devalue the pound. That wager netted $1 billion. At the time Soros’s Quantum fund was $3.3 billion.

Bessent left the firm in 2000, and returned to be CIO in 2011.

WHY SILVER IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT THAN GOLD

The primary factors mandating a silver accident are excessive naked short selling and leasing.

Silver has the largest short position that’s ever existed in anything. This is the key component to

the coming silver accident. The total naked short position in silver measures into the billions of

ounces and towers over real world supplies. This combined short position includes the COMEX,

all other exchanges, forward selling and leasing, the cumulative issuance of unbacked silver

bank certificates, unallocated storage programs and pool accounts. No other commodity has

such a huge naked short position.

It is, basically, this bloated short position that’s at the heart of the coming silver accident. It is

this same excessive short position that guarantees a financial windfall for your family. A naked

short sale is the sale of something you don’t own. While common in financial markets, more

than 99% of the world’s population will never sell short anything in their lifetimes. That’s

because it’s an unusual and unnatural financial transaction.

Unbridled short selling can artificially depress the price. That is why we have restrictions on

short selling that date back to the great stock market crash of 1929. In commodities, there must

be a short for every long on every futures contract. Regulations are supposed to preclude

excessive long and short speculation via speculative position limits, but these regulations have

been abandoned in COMEX silver, despite the efforts of many of us to correct that.

There is one other aspect about short selling that is important to grasp. Whereas the word

“sale”means closure or finality in all the billions of daily world business and financial

transactions, a short sale is always an open or incomplete transaction. A normal sale marks the

end of a transaction. A short sale makes the beginning of a transaction. A short sale must be

completed at some point, in some way. There is no exception to this rule. Either the short sale is

repurchased and closed out, or that which has been sold short is actually delivered and the

open short sale is closed.

Precisely because all short sales must be closed out guarantees a silver accident. When I say

that silver has the largest short position in history, I am also saying that silver has the largest

number of incomplete transactions in history. Forget, for the moment, the manipulative and

depressing effect this monumental short position has had on the price.

All short sales must be closed out in someway. With silver, could it be by delivering silver?

Against the billions of ounces of silver sold short, how much do we have to deliver to close out

these incomplete transactions? In the COMEX warehouses there’s 100 million ounces. That

represents most of the known silver bullion in the world, but it’s mostly owned by investors other

than the short sellers. Maybe there are a billion ounces of silver in the world, in coins, small bars

and silverware, but that’s not eligible for delivery against the silver short position of billions of

ounces. Not only is all the world silver in existence woefully insufficient to cover the monstrous

short position, but most of this insufficient quantity isn’t even owned by the short sellers.

That’s why I’ve made such a big deal about the uniqueness of a silver short position that’s larger

than existing world inventories. It eliminates one of the only two legitimate ways in which a short

sale can be closed out. That’s why we’ve never seen any other commodity with a short position

greater than what actually exists. How can you have a short position in anything greater than

what actually exists?

The only remaining legitimate way a silver short position can be closed out is if it were bought

back by the short sellers. From whom are these short sellers going to buy hundreds of millions

and billions of silver ounces from? Or more correctly, at what price? Since actual delivery is out

of the question, the only way the short sellers can buy back their bloated silver short position is

to get every owner of real silver and every owner of paper silver to sell out. The price that would

be necessary to accomplish that feat would qualify in any reasonable definition as an accident.

While there is no way to determine when the silver shorts will spook and rush to cover, time is

not on the shorts’ side. They must try, at some point, to buy back and cover the silver they can’t

possibly deliver. It is not important to know in advance what the actual trigger for the silver

accident will be. All you need know is that with the critical and long-term physical deficit in silver,

the short selling charade must end. Since we can’t determine when, don’t focus on the timing,

focus on the inevitability of a delivery crunch.

From 2000 to 2004, the silver price averaged between four and five dollars. Since then, the

silver price has been six, seven or eight dollars. Does this increase mean that the price has

finally responded to the law of supply and demand, and therefore eliminated the chance of a

silver accident?

Normally, a price increase of 50% or 100% in a commodity should be sufficient to balance any

consumption deficit. That’s a big move in any commodity. But not for silver. That’s because the

consumption deficit in silver is unlike any other commodity deficit. Silver has been in a structural

deficit stretching back for more than a half-century. You don’t undo the damage of 60 years with

a 50% or 100% gain.

There is zero evidence that production or consumption has been impacted by the price, or that

the silver deficit has been cured. There has been no worldwide rush to find new silver mines in

response to higher prices. Silver may have increased in price, but there has been zero effect on

near-term production increases or substitutions in demand. No one has switched to gold or

platinum jewelry because silver is up in price. The law of supply and demand hasn’t been

affected one bit as a result of the recent price increases. The first prerequisite for the coming

silver accident is very much intact. However, it takes more than a bullish supply and demand

equation to cause a violent price event. Bullish fundamentals point to higher prices but not

necessarily a price accident. In the silver short position, we have the needed reason, in spades,

for an accident.

As a result of the 60-year structural deficit, we have exhausted just about all the world’s

previously existing silver inventory. That includes just about all world governments’ silver

inventory. When the unavoidable silver accident occurs, there will be no one to douse the price

fire. This can’t be said about any other commodity.

This fact distinguishes between a gold and a silver accident. In gold, in a financial meltdown or

currency crash (popular reasons given for a gold price accident), world governments own

enough gold to extinguish a price explosion. In silver, they don’t own enough silver to put out a

fire.

Solar Superstorm

A solar "superstorm" could knock out Earth's communications satellites, cause dangerous power surges in the national grid and disrupt crucial navigation aids and aircraft avionics, a major report has found.

It is inevitable that an extreme solar storm – caused by the Sun ejecting billions of tonnes of highly-energetic matter travelling at a million miles an hour – will hit the Earth at some time in the near future, but it is impossible to predict more than about 30 minutes before it actually happens, a team of engineers has warned.

Solar superstorms are estimated to occur once every 100 or 200 years, with the last one hitting the Earth in 1859

Although none has occurred in the space age, we are far more vulnerable now than a century ago because of the ubiquity of modern electronics, they said.

"The general consensus is that a solar superstorm is inevitable, a matter not of 'if' but 'when?'," says a report into extreme space weather by a group of experts at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.

In the past half century, there have been a number of "near misses" when an explosive "coronal mass ejection" of energetic matter from the Sun has been flung into space, narrowly bypassing the Earth.

In 1989 a relatively minor solar storm knocked out several key electrical transformers in the Canadian national grid, causing major power blackouts.

Similar solar storms significantly increased atmospheric radiation levels in 1956, 1972, 1989 and 2003, the experts found.

Professor Paul Cannon, who chaired the academy's working group on solar storms, said that the Government should set up a space weather board to oversee measures aimed at minimising the impact of solar storms.

"A solar superstorm will be a challenge but not cataclysmic. The two challenges for government are the wide spectrum of technologies affected today and the emergence of unexpected vulnerabilities as technology evolves," he said.

"Our message is, 'Don't panic, but do prepare'. A solar superstorm will happen one day and we need to be ready for it.

"Many steps have already been taken to minimise the impact of solar storms on current technology… We anticipate that the UK can further minimise the impact," he added.

Minor solar storms hit the Earth on a regular basis, but these are far less powerful than the 1859 event named after the British astronomer Richard Carrington, which was the last true solar superstorm.

A similar event today would put severe strain the electricity grid, where transformers are particular vulnerable to power surges, as well as degrading the performance of satellites, GPS navigation, aviation and possibly the mobile phone network, particularly the new 4G network, which relies on GPS satellites for timing information.

"Satellites are certainly in the front line of a superstorm. They are part of our infrastructure and we have concerns about their survival in a solar superstorm," said Keith Ryden, a space engineer at Surrey University.

Robot helicopters help out in war zones“This is something I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency.” Said Obama. The problem is that I’m the president of the United States. “I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.”

A robotic helicopter has been quietly busy resupplying Marines on the battlefield and in remote locations in Afghanistan.

Truck re-supply convoys and their military escorts are frequently the target of improvised explosive devises and insurgent attacks; by replacing the traditional truck convoy, the unmanned K-MAX has already reduced the risk to U.S. forces by thousands of hours.

K-MAX's airdrops provide a safe, low-cost supply delivery method to get important medical equipment and food to troops. On Dec. 17, 2011, K-MAX became the first unmanned helicopter to fly a resupply mission, delivering approximately 3,500 pounds of cargo to Afghanistan.

With American towns and states scrambling to ban them, a new base planned for Africa, and debate over how President Obama can use them to eliminate terrorists, some wonder whether drones should be operated at all.

K-MAX is one reason to rethink such sweeping generalizations.

Since its debut in the war zones, the two autonomous K-MAX helicopters in use have flown more than 600 missions over 700 flight hours, and delivered more than 2 million pounds of cargo.

The unmanned helicopter is the result of a partnership between Kaman Corp. and Lockheed Martin, combining Kaman's high-altitude, rugged, heavy-lift K-1200 airframe with Lockheed Martin's mission management and control systems.

While it supports a pilot, K-MAX can fly by itself day or night and at higher altitudes with a larger payload than any other rotary wing unmanned craft, according to Lockheed Martin.

With its four-hook carousel, K-MAX can supply multiple locations in one flight and handle as much as 4,500 pounds of cargo per mission.

The sleek looking unmanned helicopter features a design emphasizing simplicity, dropping a tail rotor to alleviate stress to the frame. The 52-foot long helicopter travels at a top speed of about 115 miles per hour, with a 48-foot wingspan.

KMAX has a number of other firsts, including the largest payload airdropped via sling load from a helicopter (4,400 pounds!) and the highest altitude flown, at 10,000 feet.

In May of last year, the aircraft performed a historic "hot hook-up," enabling personnel to attach cargo to the unmanned aircraft while in hover mode.

The hot hook-up continues to be regularly used to give K-MAX cargo to carry on the return flight, further increasing its efficiency.

Slated to remain in theater through March 2013, K-MAX's deployment has been extended twice so far, with an option to extend deployment until September.

K-MAX's performance has impressed more than the US forces as several NATO allies also have expressed interest in the unmanned helicopter.

What's next for K-MAX?Lockheed Martin has been charged to develop a "supervised autonomy" ability, which may let the aircraft land in wind, weather and brown-out conditions – even surpassing the capability of human pilots.

The company has dubbed this initiative OPTIMUS, as in Open-Architecture Planning and Trajectory Intelligence for Managing Unmanned Systems -- not a reference to Transformer Optimus Prime.

OPTIMUS will give KMAX the ability to control itself while a human maintains supervisory control. This approach also has potential for giving other unmanned aircraft this capability and not just K-MAX.

In the civilian space, K-MAX also has a range of applications from helicopter logging and power line construction to ski-lift installations and even remote construction sites.

KMAX has enormous potential for emergency response missions too, ranging from firefighting and disaster relief to search and rescue.

23rd Symposium on Spacde PolicyRESPONDING TO THE THREAT OF POTENTIALLY-HAZARDOUS NEAREARTH OBJECTS

The record of history, as written in the many impact craters on Earth and the moon, demonstrate that it is just a matter of time before astronomers discover a near Earth object (NEO) headed toward a collision with Earth. As the 1908 Tunguska event, which leveled trees across an area of Siberia some 30 km in diameter demonstrated, even relatively small objects (30-50 m diameter) are capable of inflicting enormous damage. When such an event is imminent, how should we respond? Who should respond?

What can the world do to prepare for this eventuality? The uncertainties connected with predicting the impact point and amount of possible damage lead to the conclusion that any response would have to be an international one. The recent , Report of the Panel onAsteroid Threat Mitigation1 by the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) makes the explicitrecommendation that three functional groups be set up to respond to such an eventuality: An Information Analysis and Warning Network (IAWN) to issue a warning and characterization of the possible impact on Earth by an asteroid; A Mission Planning and Operations Group (MPOG) of agencies from space faring States that can carry out an asteroid deflection mission; and an Intergovernmental Mission Authorization and Oversight Group (MAOG) to authorize action if a potentially hazardous NEO is discovered. Although the evidence of prior asteroid strikeson the Moon and Earth have been studied for many years, only in the past two decades or sohave astronomers made a concerted effort to catalogue the total population of Near EarthAsteroids (NEAs). At the present astronomers have discovered and catalogued some 7212

NEAs. Of these, some 819 are equal to or larger than one km.2 Of all of the known asteroids,1145 are considered Potentially Hazardous NEAs (PH-NEAs). “Specifically, all asteroidswith an Earth Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of 0.05 AU or less and anabsolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs. In other words, asteroids thatcan't get any closer to the Earth (i.e. MOID) than 0.05 AU (roughly 7,480,000 km or4,650,000 mi) or are smaller than about 150 m (500 ft) in diameter (i.e. H = 22.0 with assumedalbedo of 13%) are not considered PHAs.

Proposals for establishing an Information, Analysis, and Warning network should incorporate the lessons learned from other institutions conducting similar functions in the field of disaster management and response. Many of these lessons learned were captured in the report of the United Kingdom Hazards Working Group, which included experiences gained by the World Health Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the Center for Disease Control, the Tsunami Warning System, and other risk management institutions.

Broad experience in communications, analysis, and hazard warning already exists, andestablishment of the IAWN should benefit from the experience and expertise of these relatedinstitutions.

Search for an Appropriate Institutional ModelB.2.1. In establishing the formal IAWN network, there should be a critical examination of existing institutions to formulate a model based on previous success. The NEO Action Team 14 could discuss applicable models for the IAWN structure during its intercessional work.Workshop attendees were unanimous in recommending against proposing any large bureaucracy or creating a United Nations entity to carry out IAWN functions.IAWN Implementation B.3.1. The AT14 should immediately create a steering group to propose and manage the longterm development of the IAWN. Such a group would then be in an ideal position to integrate the IAWN with the functions to be carried out by the Mission Authorization Working group and the Mission Planning and Operations group.

B.3.2. The steering group should not wait until all issues are resolved, but should take a phasedapproach to implementation, first describing the current flow of NEO information and analysisthrough existing network elements, then build added capability. When adding additionalcapability, the implementers should do nothing to encumber the current NEO informationchannels, or delay the flow of NEO discovery, orbit analysis, and impact prediction products.

B.3.3. Therefore, the IAWN members should first include current institutions like JPL’s NEOProgram and Sentry system, the University of Pisa’s NEODyS system, and the Minor PlanetCenter. COPUOS and AT14 can then recommend and solicit.

The Dillar DollarThe US dollar is expected to take a value nosedive in 2013 if China refuses to continue financing Washington’s spiraling debt, an economic analyst tells Press TV.

Touching upon the recent tax law and spending cuts in the United States, Max Keiser noted in a Thursday interview with Press TV that when America takes on more debt than it is able to repay by collecting taxes, the difference is paid for and financed by China.

China’s support for the US debts has turned America into the worst G20 economy in terms of the gap between its spending and revenues, he pointed out.

Keiser noted that in 2013 “…the US dollar will collapse because China won’t finance it anymore and that is the risk that we are talking about, the risk that [the US President Barack] Obama does not tell his population and that is unconscionable; that is a lack of leadership.”

That being said, the formula is complex. The dollar is no longer tied to gold or to silver. It is tied to the dollar. Does that make sense? No it doesn’t. The value of the dollar is forced one way or the other based upon the China’s ability and appetite for buying up of American debt. Anyone who never makes a payment, but rather finances the payments that they should be making every month exhibits the behavior of someone who has no intention of every making a payment, or in returning what was borrowed. There may be a strategy to borrow from our economic enemies and then not pay them back in a massive game of fraud. I am sorry to say that this activity has nearly always resulted in war. Are we afraid? Well, yes and no. We don’t want another war, but on the other hand, the Chinese haven’t fought anyone in more than 60 years. Besides that, when you think of the cost of feeding an army of 20 million troops as well as 500 million hungry people all over China, and the fact that your apparent enemy owes you $1.2 trillion, and there is no possibility this will happen.

This means that there are safe havens for your value in rare metals. Their value never changes, one way or the other. It isn’t as easy to spend, but it does retain the value during turbulent times. There are other things that affect the stability of the debt, the ability to earn revenue, and the effectiveness of global leadership. All

it takes is one minor event in the straits of Hormuz, and the price of whole milk is going through the roof. Get it?

The dollar can collapse more easily now than at any time since the Civil War, when Lincoln issued new national script without praying to the national banks. If it collapses, the economy may recovery very rapidly, when new leadership come forward.

Trust me when I say that a new leader will materialize overnight when the economy collapses. These players have been dumping their holdings while selling everyone else on the market, so that it will continue to climb out of sight with millions of unwitting still playing the game and gambling the press release empire called the DOW. When the market slips over the cliff, there will be billionaires to scoop up the properties and treasures at pennies on the dollar.

He Who Owns the Gold…When Vladimir Putin says the U.S. is endangering the global economy by abusing its dollar monopoly, he’s not just talking. He’s betting on it. Not only has Putin made Russia the world’s largest oil producer, he’s also made it the biggest gold buyer. His central bank has added 570 metric tons of the metal in the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China, according to IMF datacompiled by Bloomberg. The added gold is also almost triple the weight of the Statue of Liberty.

Enlarge image

Alexsey Druginyn/AFP/Getty ImagesRussia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, center, holds a gold bar while visiting the Central Depository of the Bank of Russia.Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, center, holds a gold bar while visiting the Central Depository of the Bank of Russia. Photographer: Alexsey Druginyn/AFP/Getty Images “The more gold a country has, the more sovereignty it will have if there’s a cataclysm with the dollar, the euro, the pound or any other reserve currency,” Evgeny Fedorov, a lawmaker for Putin’s United Russia party in the lower house of parliament, said in a telephone interview in Moscow. Gold, coveted by Russian rulers including Tsar Nicholas IIand the Bolshevik leader whose forces assassinated him, Vladimir Lenin, has soared almost 400 percent in the period of Putin’s purchases. Central banks around the world have printed money to escape the global financial crisis, sapping investor appetite for dollars and euros and setting off a scramble for safety. In 1998, the year Russia defaulted on $40 billion of domestic debt, it took as many as 28 barrels of crude to buy an ounce of gold, Bloomberg data show. That ratio tumbled to 11.5 by the time Putin first came to power a year later

and in 2005, after it touched 6.5 -- less than half what it is now -- the president told the central bank to buy. During a tour that November of the Magadan region in the Far East, where Polyus Gold International Ltd. and Polymetal International Plc have operations, Putin told Bank Rossii not to“shy away” from the metal. “After all, they’re called gold and currency reserves for a reason,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.