The Afghan Ministry of Mines said on Monday that Afghan-Tajik Oil Zone Mapping has begun and will end by mid next month.
After completion of Mapping and determination of the level of oil, the bidding process will start, a front man for the Ministry of Mines, Jawad Omer, told TOLOnews.
Afghan-Tajik Oil Zone is one of the biggest oil sources in the country and preliminary surveys show that more than one and half million barrels of oil are available in this mine which costs nearly $100b.
A Canadian company has started the mapping process of the area and it will end by 1st March this year. The bidding process will also start by March 7th 2012.
The oil zone covers northern and northeastern parts of Afghanistan.
According to studies conducted by Major international companies, besides Afghan-Tajik Oil Zone, there are other oil zones such as Amu Darya oil zone, Kashka, Katawaz, Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... and Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... oil zones.
The exploration of Amu Darya oil zone was recently awarded to a Chinese company.
The Chinese CNPC company will invest $700m on the mine in the next five years.
The practical phase of the oil exploration will start this year.
#8
Sounded to me like people were more concerned that if it burned and the explosives from the torpedoes went off, there could have been a lot of fallout from the ICBMs. Aka, dirty bomb.
#13
There was a fire. Thing didn't blow up. Sounds positive to me.
Problem with the Russky PAO is getting the story straight, if not truthful. Hate to be a PAO in anybody's military, but especially not theirs.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/15/2012 22:46 Comments ||
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BEIJING: A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in western China and was beaten by security forces as they put out the flames, a rights group said, marking the latest in a series of dramatic protests against Chinas handling of its vast Tibetan areas.
Lobsang Gyatso, a 19-year-old monk from the Kirti monastery in Sichuan provinces Aba prefecture, set himself ablaze on Abas main street Monday afternoon, the London-based International Campaign for Tibet said. Security forces beat Gyatso while extinguishing the flames, then took him away, the group said in an online statement posted late Monday. It was not immediately clear whether he survived.
Two Tibetans who tried to help Gyatso were severely beaten by police, ICTs statement said.
Aba prefecture has been the scene of numerous protests over the past several years against the Chinese government. Most are led by monks who are fiercely loyal to Tibets exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled the Himalayan region in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule and is reviled by Beijing.
According to ICT, 20 Tibetan monks, nuns and laypeople have set themselves on fire in China over the past year, with at least 13 dying from their injuries. The self-immolations have occurred with increasing frequency in recent weeks, and most have taken place in Sichuans remote and mountainous Tibetan areas.
An official with the local Communist Partys propaganda department in Aba said he was unaware of the latest case. He referred media to Chinas official Xinhua News Agency or the Foreign Ministry for reports about self-immolations, saying that only they were authorized to release such news.
Activist groups say the self-immolations are a protest against Chinas policies and a call for the return of the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government has condemned the self-immolations and says an upsurge in violence in Tibetan areas, including some deadly clashes between Tibetan protesters and security forces, are being instigated by forces outside the country wanting to separate Tibet from China.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2012 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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From the Apee. It looks like the Pentagon is proposing cutting it's nuclear weapons inventory by 80%. Cost cutting or political theater? What if any, will there be any benefits for the U.S.?
Meanwhile, both China and Russia are bolstering their Nuclear capability. Especially China in this equation.
Written by Robert Burns so it's thoughtful. The issue is: how few nuclear weapons deter in an ideal world? And how many do you need in a world filled with cheaters, thugs and fools?
#2
Reminds me of LAST OF THE MOHICANS > COL. MUNRO as per SIEGE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY = "THE SITUATION IS HIS [Montcalm's] GUNS ARE BIGGER THAN MINE + HE HAS MORE OF THEM"!
#5
The US has a vital interest in preventing nuclear war anywhere in the northern hemisphere, for an odd reason: the jet stream.
For some reason, the northern hemisphere jet stream, in its circuit around the world, has a downdraft exhaust right over middle America. Right over our most prolific agricultural areas.
This was why we were adamant about passing the Atmospheric Test Ban treaty. Whenever the Russians popped an airburst over Novaya Zemlya, in a short period of time, strontium-90 would start showing up in cow milk in the Midwest.
And we soon discovered that even ground burst nukes sent fallout high enough to be picked up by the jet stream.
Were it not for this, the US would not have any personal stake if Israel decided to nuke every Muslim country in range.
#6
Moose, I grew up during the 50s and open air testing, to the east of the stuff by a day or two. Yeah, it dumped into the agricultural areas of America. We're all not mutants as Hollyweird would have you believe. Nukes were the 50s/60s Hollyweird's props just like MMGW or whatever is the political fear factor they're selling today.
#7
Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a "bone seeker." Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.
While eco-hysterics have tried to create a public panic about Sr-90 from nuke plants, the reality is that 99% of the Sr-90 still around is from Cold War testing. With a half-life of 28.5 years, that means a heck of a lot of Sr-90 was created and put into the atmosphere back then.
And would be again, were there to be a medium sized nuclear war.
A big problem with Sr-90 is detecting it, because it solely emits beta particles. But it is similar to the equally bad radioactive cesium in half life and medical effects, but cesium gives off gamma radiation, much easier to detect in the body. The two are often created together.
This means it is hard to tell if one child has a less than harmful amount, and another child will be very vulnerable to leukemia.
#8
The aerial application of agricultural chemicals and resulting diseases and chronic conditions in California alone likely make the radiation poisoning in the states associated with a few nukes in Iran via Israeli attacks a statistical joke in terms of effect.
I grew up in agribusiness and we messed with some serious shit.
I'm not all about casting radium and whatnot into the atmosphere, however the risk/reward calculation on our lives and health is made everyday by our corporate and govt masters and most could give a shit less, while everyone seems a concerned citizen against nuclear weapons.
In any case all of these are horrific choices for any parent of the countless children with leukemia/kidney disease/etc. etc. who either get nuked or are just exposed everyday by the shit we use to grow our food.
I hope Israel is not forced to use nukes, but our nuclear future looks very real from where I am sitting right now.
#9
Perhaps if our politics against R&D of new nuclear weapons were not so strong we would have pure fusion weapons by now with low radiation emission and our mass destruction would be efficient and localized enough to be used when ultimately necessary.
I dont know what neutrons do to you though, and with pure fusion you're just trading radiation for neutron exposure right?
#11
There's several things there. To start with, after the rush towards gigantic nuclear weapons ended with the Tsar Bomba, from that point, the emphasis was on making both smaller weapons, and tailoring yield.
One such is the neutron bomb, aka enhanced radiation weapon (ERW). Its purpose is to convert as much of the blast energy as possible into making high speed neutrons. Only its remnants, deposited directly beneath the airburst in a small area, are still highly radioactive, along with previously non-radioactive metal on the ground hit with so many neutrons that it has itself become somewhat radioactive.
A nuclear 155mm howitzer round blast area will only be radioactive for a few days before it returns to background levels.
#14
Neutron radiation is ionizing radiation, i. e., it destroys tissue by ionizing atoms in the tissue. It won't make tissue disappear but will kill quickly if one is close but more slowly the further away one is.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/15/2012 17:44 Comments ||
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#15
how many do you need in a world filled with cheaters, thugs and fools? Fewer than in a world with wealthy, deluded, suicidal religious fanatics.
#3
Original link worked for me. Maybe a mod fixed it.
The kid will be one to keep track of. It sounds like his parents have managed to gently guide him in a positive direction. May his potential benefit all mankind.
#4
It sounds like his parents have managed to gently guide him in a positive direction.
It sounds like his parents failed to teach him the meaning of the word "no".
I predict that his career will come to a halt when he has to justify his projects to people who will say no. Then he'll probably wind up failed and embittered, working on some loony theory. See The Genius from Another Dimension.
I hate these stories. When I was very young I was like this kid. My parents laughed and told me to Shut Up and Sit Down. I cannot imagine the cataclysm that would have resulted if I had announced at Thanksgiving that I'd be taking blood samples. It would've involved a sample of blood being drawn from my backside, that's for damned sure.
#7
Grunter your post made my day. Where I lived for a time were several bright young people. Science fairs and home projects were the norm. It could have been viewed as obsessive compulsive disorter. We were young so no one bothered us.
The key ingredient was we had parents that worked in technical or were instructors. The sky was the limit. They left us alone doing what was thought to be normal. I am not saying I was bright but others of us were. We each made a contribution. These were some of the best of times. To us the Moon was just the first step. We have gone to sleep. I think of where we could be, even today.
Remember those of you who have these gifts, you have impact upon those around you.
#8
There's just something deliciously ironic about this:
We land in Reno and make our way toward the baggage claim. I hope that box held up, Taylor says, as we approach the carousel. And if it didnt, I hope they give us back the radioactive goodies scattered all over the airplane. Soon the box appears, adorned with a bright strip of tape and a note inside explaining that the package has been opened and inspected by the TSA. They had no idea, Taylor says, smiling, what they were looking at.
The thought of TSA agents dutifully opening the packgage, inspecting the radioactive remnants of a thermonuclear weapon, then inserting a note and passing it along it almost too good to be real. It'll be years before I stop laughing about this every time I'm in an airport.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
