The 50 best comic book covers of 2010

Chew #12 (Comic-Con exclusive cover), by Rob Guillory

Robot 6

The third annual rundown of the best covers of the year features 50 images — oh, okay, 51 — representing the work of some 46 different artists (plus inkers, colorists and designers) from nine publishers.

Returning artists like Chris Bachalo, Dave Johnson, Sean Phillips and Yuko Shimizu are joined on this year’s list by “new” names like Kody Chamberlain, Camilla D’Errico, Amy Reeder and Drew Weing. (You can peruse the previous years’ lists here and here.)

As in the past, I’ve tried to explain the appeal of each entry; some covers get just a sentence, while others receive entire paragraphs. That doesn’t reflect the quality of the image, but merely what I have to say about it.

Note:  While last year’s list included five manga covers, this year features none. I’m not sure whether that’s a byproduct of the contraction of the manga market, a sign of a shift in cover quality — among manga or Western comics — or a shortcoming on my part (if it’s the latter, I’ll own up to it; however, after several excursions in search of manga candidates, I found none that I felt qualified as among the 50 best.)

With that out of the way, I present, in alphabetical order, the 50 best covers of 2010:

Absolute All-Star Superman, by Frank Quitely

Frank Quitely already created one iconic cover for this acclaimed series — the image of Superman sitting on a cloud was parodied just last year — and now he’s done it again for the oversized hardcover collection. Some have asserted the halo effect overplays the Superman-as-Christ-figure card, but I think Quitely pulls it off masterfully.

Afrodisiac, by Jim Rugg

Everything about this tightly cropped image says “attitude,” perfect for the collected adventures of Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s blaxploitation-styled hero.

American Vampire #2, by Rafael Albuquerque

Rafael Albuquerque came up with a great design solution for the covers for the first arc of the Vertigo vampire series, which told two stories set in different eras: the Old West and 1920s Hollywood. Here both eras are represented by the outlaw Skinner Sweet and a blood-smeared door to a dressing room.

The Amazing Spider-Man #618, by Marcos Martin

One of the industry’s underrated talents, Marcos Martin somehow balances a Silver Age flair and a very modern sensibility in his work. For this image he takes a quintessential 1960s supervillain — Mysterio’s essentially a guy in a cape with a fishbowl on his head — and transforms him into a truly menacing figure.

The Amazing Spider-Man #633, by Chris Bachalo

I love all of Chris Bachalo’s covers for the four-part “Shed” arc, but this one, which essentially puts the reader inside the Lizard’s mouth, is the strongest. I always like it when artists can convey emotion with the eyes of Spider-Man’s costume; here the wall-crawler’s panic seems real as he struggles in the grip of the reptilian tail.

The Amazing Spider-Man #641, by Paolo Rivera

Let’s ignore the controversies surrounding the “One More Day” and “One Moment in Time” storylines and just focus on the beauty of Paolo Rivera’s painting, in which Mary Jane and Spider-Man hold on to each other even as they bleed into the background.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book 4 #4, by Alex Ross

There’s no denying the grandeur of this Alex Ross image, even as it evokes sad memories of the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Avengers Academy #7, by Ed McGuinness

The severe angle and tight crop combine to make it appear as if Giant-Man is growing before our eyes, becoming too large for the cover. Note the sidewalk cracking beneath his weight.

Baltimore: The Plague Ships #1, by Mike Mignola

Mike Mignola shares much of the credit with colorist Dave Stewart for this arresting image of the Captain Ahab-esque Lord Henry Baltimore, who finds Europe infested with vampires in the wake of a plague that ended World War I.

Batwoman #0, by J.H. Williams III

J.H. Williams III continues some of the Art Deco elements from his Detective Comics run, providing Kate Kane with her own graphic identity.

Batman Beyond #2, by Dustin Nguyen

The dramatic angle, the color palette and the title — “Death at Three Million Feet” — combine for a stunning image.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #31, by Jo Chen

Willow Rosenberg faces a Tibetan goddess of war who’s both fantastic and terrifying in this Jo Chen image.

Chew #12 (Comic-Con exclusive cover), by Rob Guillory

I have no idea where Rob Guillory drew his inspiration for this vibrant, five-color image of Poyo, the cockfighting champion, but I’m reminded of a Renaissance portrait. Only, y’know, in Technicolor. This may be my favorite cover of 2010.

Chew #16, by Rob Guillory

Two Chew covers, both featuring chickens? Who’d have guessed. This one is a stained and worn menu for Mother Clucker’s, the former fried-chicken chain whose hilarious and demented mascot is a bespectacled hen serving her own leg. The use of Brush Script for the restaurant’s logo is a nice touch.

Criminal: The Sinners #4, by Sean Phillips

Sean Phillips has established himself as a master at capturing the visual style of film noir, with its silhouetted figures, low-key light and dark alleyways. Here Tracy Lawless is bathed in shadow and the surreal red glow of the rain-soaked streets of Chinatown, the perfect noir setting.

Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story, by Nessim Higson

Designer Nessim Higson uses mixed media to depict a submerged New Orleans — literally, as a city map serves as the background — for a thriller set during the days following Hurricane Katrina.

Daytripper #2, by Gabriel Ba

Gabriel Bá’s cover for the second issue of Daytripper, his Vertigo collaboration with brother Fábio Moon, is beautifully surreal, blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy.

Demo 2 #5, by Becky Cloonan

There’s something beautiful and understated about the play of light and shadow across the girl’s face. Plus there are the minor details, like the bandage on her arm, and the shoes hanging from the power lines.

Detective Comics #864, by Cliff Chiang

Cliff Chiang transforms the Dark Knight into a monstrous creature of the night — note the obscured face and claw-like fingers — beneath a full moon that sports the Black Mask’s unsettling image.

DMZ #54, by J.P. Leon

There’s a solemn beauty in the repetition of the flag-draped coffins.

Elephantmen #29, by Camilla D'Errico

I won’t deny that the adorable baby hippo is a big selling point here, but I particularly like the pink hue cast by the umbrella over part of the crowd. And don’t overlook the incorporation of the Image “I” into the comic’s title.

Feeding Ground #2, by Michael Lapinski

For this horror series set on the Mexico-Arizona border, Michael Lapinski takes the familiar religious symbol of a flaming heart to another, more visceral level by using the actual organ rather than the stylized icon.

iZombie #5, by Michael Allred

Michael Allred makes terrific use of space, burying a terrified Gwen beneath two-thirds of the cover image. The pink lining provides a nice balance to the massive field of black, too.

King City #9, by Brandon Graham

Although I doubt many readers followed Brandon Graham’s instructions to cut up the cover, I love the playfulness and ingenuity behind the King City game pieces. That the entire image looks like a package you’d find in the toy aisle at the corner market — complete with price sticker — makes it that much better.

Locke & Key: Keys to the Kingdom #1, by Gabriel Rodriguez

The fourth Locke & Key series debuts with a bloody yet strangely beautiful cover that hints at some of the savagery to be found inside. It’s a little disturbing that I’m drawn by the way the blood pools in the animal track.

The Marvelous Land of Oz #3, by Skottie Young

Skottie Young turns to Soviet propaganda imagery for this issue, in which General Jinjur and her army of amazonian milkmaids storm the gates of Emerald City in an effort to end the reign of the Scarecrow.

The Mice Templar: Destiny #6, by Michael Avon Oeming

In a bit of a departure for the series, Michael Avon Oeming uses just two colors — grays and red — for this ghostly watercolor image of the cryptic Bats of Meave.

Morning Glories #4, by Rodin Esquejo

With a handful of covers for Morning Glories — I’m thinking of the second, fourth and fifth issues — Rodin Esquejo hit upon an approach that near-perfectly conveys the sense of paranoia that runs through the series. Here, as with those other two issues, he transforms the cover into an enclosed, claustrophobic space, an effect aided by the limited lighting and heavy shadows. I also appreciate the subtle morning glory pattern on the walls.

The New Avengers: Luke Cage #2, by Eric Canete

Eric Canete’s illustration is just rippling with tension and energy — I mean, it’s Luke Cage fighting three tigers! Plus, the colors are lovely.

Northlanders #35, by Massimo Carnevale

Massimo Carnevale and Brian Wood are an incredible pairing, delivering gorgeously painted and smartly designed covers for issue after issue of the celebrated Viking drama. Their collaboration has produced distinctive looks, and logo treatments, for each arc. Such is the case with the cover for Northlanders #35, the first issue of the two-part “Girl in the Ice” story, with its subdued, even washed-out colors — in stark contrast to the intense hues of the previous “Metal” arc — and the haunting image of the woman beneath the ice.

Parker: The Outfit, by Darwyn Cooke

Darwyn Cooke’s stylish cover for his adaptation of the third novel in Donald Westlake’s Parker series conveys both a sense of menace and, appropriately enough, ’60s-era flair.

Popgun, Vol. 4, by Ben Templesmith

Ben Templesmith works so often in bloody horror, with titles like 30 Days of Night and Welcome to Hoxford, and gritty crime, with Fell and Choker, that it’s easy to overlook his occasional foray into the … well, sensual. Sure, it’s outlandishly sensual — it’s a robot with a glowing heart in its breast! — but still. The best part of the image, though, is the dragon tattoo that snakes up her leg and arm before winding its way off her body.

Punisher MAX #6, by Dave Johnson

Dave Johnson demonstrated why he’s a perennial favorite with the covers for the six-issue “Bullseye” arc, which sported a unifying graphic element — the bullseye, naturally — that never felt repetitious. The cover for the first part of the storyline, which imaginatively positions a minuscule, and seemingly unsuspecting, Frank Castle between the target and Bullseye’s oversized blade, is easily my favorite.

Scalped #38, by Jock

Jock pays homage to Philip Castle’s poster for the 1987 war film Full Metal Jacket for this one-off issue centering on a Vietnam War veteran turned heroin smuggler.

Secret Six #21, by Daniel Luvisi

For such a dark story, that’s an awfully adorable Catman “Voodoo doll.” Plus, just look at that little tree frog!

Sense & Sensibility #4, by Skottie Young

Skottie Young has had a dynamite couple of years with covers for the Marvel Adventures line, several Oz books and now this one, for the fourth issue of Marvel’s adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. The entire image is gorgeous — the composition, the color — but I could stare endlessly at the wheat field.

Set to Sea, by Drew Weing

The limited palette and gold highlights on the waves help to lend the cover to Drew Weing’s debut graphic novel a gorgeous dream-like quality.

The Spirit #1, by Ladronn

José Ladrönn channels the spirit (pardon the pun) of Will Eisner without resorting to mimicry. Additionally, the water and drainpipe are beautifully rendered.

Strange Tales II #1, by Rafael Grampa

Rafael Grampa’s superheroes are as savage and full of fury as the brutal truckers of his celebrated Mesmo Delivery. And how incredible is it that Wolverine wears shorts and elbow pads while Thor sports Spandex shorts and high-top sneakers?

Superboy #1, by Rafael Albuquerque

Rafael Albuquerque captures a mischievous (even devilish) and confident side of Conner Kent in this unusual, and unusually colored, cover for the first issue of Superboy’s new series.

Supergirl #55, by Amy Reeder and Richard Friend

I love the depiction of Bizzarogirl as the fractured-mirror image of Supergirl. (Or is it the other way around?) It’s wonderfully conceived and executed.

Sweet Tooth #12, by Jeff Lemire

I confess that I haven’t been following Jeff Lemire’s Vertigo series, so I have no idea how the paint-by-number effect relates to this issue. But it’s a pretty ingenious idea that evokes a sense of nostalgia — paint-by-number kits were wildly popular for several decades — while opening up the image to a range of interpretations.

Sweets #2, by Kody Chamberlain

Kody Chamberlain’s logo for this crime miniseries is among my recent favorites — too many books rely on standard, if slightly tweaked, fonts — but here it takes a backseat to coloring and composition. The blood-soaked hand in the foreground leads the eye to the approaching detectives and draws the reader into the story. It makes me want to pick up the comic, to find out what happens — exactly what a cover should do.

S.W.O.R.D. #3, by John Cassaday

John Cassaday produced covers in 2010 for such titles as DC’s Superman, Marvel’s Shadowland and Dynamite Entertainment’s Green Hornet, but this one for the late, lamented S.W.O.R.D. stands out the most. The image of Lockheed, Marvel’s purple-skinned alien dragon and Kitty Pryde’s frequent companion, menacingly brandishing a pair of guns is as unexpected as it is delightfully absurd.

Syndrome, by Michael Dahan

Michael Dahan crafts a suitably disturbing image for this dark graphic novel about a rogue neuropathologist who isolates the root of evil in the recesses of the human brain.

Toy Story #5, by Nate Watson

Nate Watson cleverly references classic Western cinematography, simulating the pan of the camera from Woody’s face to the glistening badge and then back again.

Unknown Soldier #22, by Dave Johnson

The majority of Dave Johnson’s covers for the Unknown Soldier were bloody and violent, but Issue 22 stands out for its beauty — even with the skulls in the center of the flowers.

The Unwritten #13, by Yuko Shimizu

Yuko Shimizu’s covers for the acclaimed Vertigo series are among the most consistent, and consistently good, being published today. For this issue, involving the launch of the new Tommy Taylor book in London, Shimizu toys with scale to create an appropriately unreal cityscape with an enormous Tom Taylor at its center.

Viking: The Long Cold Fire (hardcover), by Nic Klein and Tom Muller

Viking: The Long Cold Fire (softcover), by Nic Klein and Tom Muller

I “cheated” two years ago by including two issues in one entry, and now I’m doing it again with the stunning hardcover and softcover collections for Viking: The Long Cold Fire. It’s to their credit that artist Nic Klein and design Tom Muller opted for an extremely modern look for what’s essentially a ninth-century crime story. It’s an unconventional approach that grabs even those readers with an aversion to period drama.

We Will Bury You #2, by Nate Powell

For a miniseries about a zombie outbreak in the late 1920s, Nate Powell creates a dynamic cover that captures both the horror elements of the situation and the energy of the Golden Age of Radio.

Death of the Internet predicted, film at your local cineplex

By Iljitsch van Beijnum | Ars Technica

A scary story about the demise of the Internet has been making the rounds through the social networking echo chamber lately. It's a paper by five researchers from the University of Minnesota and one from Kansas State University (actually only a poster was published). The title is ominous: Losing Control of the Internet: Using the Data Plane to Attack the Control Plane. Like any good thriller, it has an iconic villain but plot holes large enough to drive a Cisco Carrier Routing System through—if the CRS had wheels. But despite that, it may very well be based on a true story.

The backstory is the epic war between bellheads and netheads. The bellheads have been running telephone networks for 125 years, and are well-aware that you must always keep your data and control planes separate. The data plane is the network that we users get to send our packets over. The control plane makes sure the data plane works, by running routing protocols and doing management. Of course, these functions also need to exchange data.

Bellhead standard operating procedure is to exchange this control plane data to its own connections that are completely separate from regular (data) network links. The netheads, on the other hand, firmly believe in "fate sharing," where the control messages and the data packets flow over the same connections, so if one works, the other does too, and vice versa.

There's just one little problem with that: if the data plane gets overloaded to the point that packets start to get "dropped," control plane packets, which share the same connections, also get lost. Earlier work shows that it's possible to disrupt the BGP routing protocol that ISPs depend on to make traffic find its way across the Internet, just by sending regular traffic. Granted, it takes a lot of regular traffic, but not quite so much that the traffic levels immediately look suspicious. The authors of this this original paper write: "Fortunately, major peering links with significant available bandwidth are difficult to attack due to required resources." Famous last words.

But our intrepid security researchers from Minnesota and Kansas follow up this little indie release with a bigger and badder sequel that's aimed squarely at the blockbuster summer audience. They start by adding a botnet that analyzes the Internet's structure, and then relentlessly aim an amplified attack at the most vulnerable parts of the Internet's core infrastructure.

I have to give them credit for not skimping on the bandwidth—you wouldn't believe how much research still looks at 11Mbps 802.11b. "[W]e use OC-768 size links, the largest link size currently in the SONET standard." For those who failed (or avoided) optical networking 101, an OC is worth almost 52Mb per second. So an OC-768 connection weighs in at 40Gb per second. The bots that make up the botnet are assumed to have 1Mbps upload capacity.

The researchers have the botnets perform traceroutes and then use a couple of simple equations to find the links in the core of the Internet that are used between the largest number of source-destination combinations. They then send traffic from one bot to another in such a way that it passes through the target link. Because the destination of the packets is a valid and willing recipient, and each bot only sends a megabit or so, this doesn't look suspicious at first—or even second—glance. But when some 40,000 bots all do this at the same time, it overloads the link in question, which then begins to drop packets. Including BGP packets.

And BGP normally wants to make sure that its fellow routers are still there, so it expects to see a packet every 90 to 180 seconds. Without such "keepalive" packets, BGP terminates its connection and throws away all the routing information from the now-disconnected neighbor. It then has to go through a list of up to 350,000 different "prefixes" (address ranges) in its routing tables and find alternate paths for the affected ones, updating its other BGP neighbors where appropriate. These in turn have to adjust their routing decisions and update their neighbors. This can go on for a while.

The authors claim that with a botnet of 250,000 bots they can pretty much stop the Internet dead in its tracks by building up more than an hour of backlogged route calculations for routers in the core of the network. I think they're right that it's possible to disrupt BGP sessions on a relatively large scale in this way, and that would be bad.

But now the plot holes. All of this work is done through simulations, but how these are performed is not explained. I'm especially interested in the model of BGP update propagation these researchers used. It seems they think every update is propagated everywhere, and updates are queued in unlimited quantities. I'm very sure the former is not true: although routers sometimes propagate updates that don't contain new information, they usually suppress those. And I'm confident that the latter isn't, either, if only because routers do all their processing in RAM, which isn't infinite.

Also, it takes 40,000 bots to saturate one 40Gbps link. Even assuming a good deal of background traffic, that still means no more than a dozen or so links can be targeted at the same time. And once the attack starts being successful, what happens to the botnet? Remember that this attack requires a high degree of coordination. An attack like this would seem to have significant self-limiting properties.

Still, it would be good if we could remove the vulnerabilities that make such attacks theoretically possible in the first place. The best solution is to give control messages such as BGP updates a higher priority than normal traffic. To some degree, current routers can already do this, but it would be good if they did so out of the box under all circumstances.

A pragmatic solution that the authors suggest is to disable BGP's keepalive mechanism. That way, the BGP session stays up no matter what. Of course there is a reason this mechanism exists: you really don't want to send your packets into a dead link or toward a dead router. But in many cases (certainly not always) it's possible to see when a link goes down without keepalives. In these cases, it would be possible to disable keepalives or at least make the time before a session is disconnected for lack of them a good deal longer. If only 10 percent of all ISPs disable keepalives, the attack no longer works. And we'd have a happy ending, in good Hollywood tradition.

Shockwave-Generating Wave Discs Could Replace Internal Combustion Engines

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 03.16.2011

Michigan researchers have built a prototype of a new auto motor that does away with pistons, crankshafts and valves, replacing the old internal combustion engine with a disc-shaped shock wave generator. It could slash the weight of hybrid cars and reduce auto emissions by 90 percent.

The generator is about the size of a saucepot, and would replace the 1,000-pound power train in most cars — no transmission, cooling system, emissions regulation or fluids needed. Norbert Müller and colleagues at Michigan State University showed off the new motor prototype at a meeting with the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency.

It consists of a rotor carved with wave-like channels. Fuel and air enter through central inlets, and the rotor spins to block their exit through a separate outlet. The sudden build-up of pressure generates a shock wave, compressing the mixture. Then it’s ignited, and as the rotor keeps spinning, the outlet opens again to let the hot gases escape. New Scientist explains in further detail.

The novel generator would use about 60 percent of fuel for propulsion, according to MSU. This is a dramatic improvement over typical car engines, which use only 15 percent of fuel for forward movement. The system could also make cars 20 percent lighter, improving fuel economy even more.

MSU received a $2.5 million ARPA-E grant to develop the technology. Müller said he hopes to have an even larger 25-kilowatt prototype by the end of this year.

‘Anonymous’ puts central banks on notice, demands Bernanke resign

By Stephen C. Webster, Thursday, March 17th, 2011

Decentralized protest group "Anonymous" has encountered many foes in the past: Sarah Palin, PayPal, the Church of Scientology, MasterCard, the Westboro Baptists and even the governments of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, to name a few.

But now, one of the group's members has issued a call for perhaps their most audacious campaign yet: civil disobedience against the private central banking system that underpins all the world's industrial economies.

In a little-noticed video published Sunday, one "Anonymous" calls for the dawning of "Operation Empire State Rebellion": a "relentless campaign of peaceful resistance" against organizations that participate in they termed the "control" of large populations through pieces of paper and bits of data.

They also called for US Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's resignation.

It reamains to be seen whether this operation will succeed in drawing the support of other members of "Anonymous." It was also unclear what exactly they had planned, or even if they could prove to be more than mere annoyance to the world's banking cartels.

But then again, ostensibly the same group did take down MasterCard for a day.

However, as with most "Anonymous" operations, it was impossible to say whether this proposal came from a known member of the group, someone on its fringes or a source outside of "Anonymous" entirely.

The Department of Defense said recently it was opening an investigation into "Anonymous" after someone allegedly threatened to release the personal information of soldiers guarding Pvt. Bradley Manning, an American accused of leaking secret data to WikiLeaks.

Pentagon officials also said that "Anonymous" sought to interfere with communications at the Quantico, Virginia military base where Manning was being held.

The video below was published to YouTube on March 13, 2011.

Mega-Banks and the Next Financial Crisis

Hedge-fund manager Paul Singer recognized the risks of subprime mortgages and bet against them. Now he warns that monetary policy could cripple American banks again.
MARCH 19, 2011

By JAMES FREEMAN

At the height of the housing bubble, hedge-fund manager Paul Singer was shorting subprime mortgages. By the spring of 2007, he was warning regulators on both sides of the Atlantic that the world was facing a major financial crisis.

They ignored him. Now the founder of Elliott Management says the biggest banks are headed for another credit meltdown. Among the likely triggers for the next crisis, Mr. Singer sees one leading candidate: Monetary policy "is extremely risky," he says, "the risk being massive inflation."

In some areas gas prices have reached $4 per gallon, and now Americans must brace themselves for higher grocery bills. This week the Labor Department reported that February wholesale food prices posted their sharpest increase since 1974. News like that has driven Mr. Singer to the history books: He treats visitors to his 5th Avenue office to a copy of a 1931 treatise on German currency debasement, Constantino Bresciani-Turroni's "The Economics of Inflation."

Mr. Singer—who launched Elliott in 1977 and has delivered a 14.3% compound annual return (compared to the S&P 500's 10.9%)—is not comparing today's Federal Reserve to the Reichsbank of the early 1920s. Rather, he's once again warning financial regulators. This time the message is: Don't take for granted investor faith in a major currency.

While at Harvard Law School, Mr. Singer turned down a research job with his intellectual hero, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to pursue a career in finance. Today, he's still looking for heroes among the stewards of the major currencies. Central bankers, particularly at the Fed but also in Europe, "seem to be acting as if they have unlimited flexibility to ease monetary policy," he says.
He specifically targets the Fed's "unprecedented" policy of sustaining near-zero interest rates and its exercise in money-printing, "Quantitative Easing 2," that has it buying medium- and longer-term securities from the Treasury. "In effect they're treating confidence in fiat money—in paper money—as inexhaustible, that it's a tool that's able to be used not just in the throes of crisis," but also as "a virtually complete substitute for sound fiscal, regulatory and taxing policy."

Fed officials, he adds, "really seem to think that inflation is something they can deal with very easily and very quickly. I don't believe they're right." He notes that, in the late 1970s, inflation was only in the high single digits yet curing it required interest rates of 20% and a collapse of the bond market.

Mr. Singer further warns that investors shouldn't misinterpret apparently bullish signals from a rising market. "Of course printing money is going to support asset prices," but "it's very dangerous" and is not a substitute for trade, tax and regulatory reforms that make America an attractive place for job creation.

"What would a loss of confidence in the dollar actually look like? Gold going absolutely nuts," adds Mr. Singer, who is also a major donor to conservative intellectual causes and think tanks such as the Manhattan Institute. He observes that prices for many commodities are already near all-time highs, even with "kind of a soft recovery" in the U.S. and Europe, and robust growth in Asia. "Imagine if hoarding, speculation, investment positions in [hard assets] accumulate to cause commodities and gold to go rocketing up. Wages, prices will follow," he says.

As destructive as raging inflation would be, why would it hurt the big financial institutions? It could wreak havoc on the ability of big banks' corporate customers to make good on their obligations, Mr. Singer believes—and financial reform did little to reduce risks.

"Dodd-Frank has made the system more brittle and has shaped the next crisis in a very negative way," he warns. "The opacity of financial institution financial statements has not been addressed or changed at all. . . . We have a very large analytical research effort here and we have not found anybody that can parse" the sensitivity of big banks to changes in interest rates, asset prices and the like. "You can't do it."

Even after the crisis, credit ratings "obviously provide no real clue," he says. "Rumor and feeling is all you have. You don't know the financial condition of [Citigroup], JPMorgan, Bank of America, any of them." Mr. Singer believes the big banks still carry too much leverage, and he doesn't trust regulators to monitor them effectively.

The largest financial institutions, he says, are "a random collection of survivors. Almost none of the survivors exist because of their perspicacity, risk controls and sound management—even the ones that are vaunted along those lines. . . . How and why do they exist? Mostly an accident, meaning who got bailed out first and who was saved next and how did people feel and what did people say the weekend Merrill was under pressure [in September 2008]."

Mr. Singer says he does as little business with big banks as possible. "Aside from a large position in Lehman as part of our bankruptcy investing, we have no significant positions in global banks."

"We institutionally have tried to—way before the crisis of '08—tried to insulate ourselves in every way we can from the counterparty problem," i.e. getting involved in a trade with a partner that might not be able to make good on its obligations down the line. But the nature of his business, he says, means that he can't sever all connections. "We've removed as many assets from the Street as we possibly can, and we think we're pretty well insulated. . . . If we could completely avoid being subject to the financial condition of any large financial institution, we would do so."

Most investors don't share this view, of course, and big banks are still able to borrow at lower rates than their smaller competitors. The reason, says Mr. Singer, is that right now the system "is underwritten by the United States government and the governments of Europe. And the system is perceived as underwritten or guaranteed." But, he warns, "at some point that guarantee, in some way that I can't really visualize today, will go away."

Will it really? The authors of Dodd-Frank claim that the law prevents the government from bailing out any particular firm, but the Fed can still provide emergency loans to a failing giant as long as it offers similar financing to other firms.

"It's a very important part of this equation that a few survivors exist in this peculiar relationship with government, having to kowtow to government, make relationships with regulators," says Mr. Singer. "Are they puppets of the government? Are they cronies of the government? Will their lending be affected by the perceived whims or beliefs of the particular government regulators existing at a particular time? Yes."

If the government deems a firm not "systemically important," Mr. Singer forecasts, it could spell its doom. "Small and medium-sized financial institutions may be disadvantaged, may be sacrificed in the next crisis to protect these behemoths," he says.

It gets even worse, Mr. Singer says, if the government ever deems a financial giant "in danger of default"—a judgment that can be made without the consent of the firm or its investors. The business is then taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, with its Orderly Liquidation Authority.

Once in charge of the firm, the government can discriminate among similarly situated creditors and transfer assets out of the business at will. Because of this, says Mr. Singer, creditors and trading counterparties might flee even faster than they would from a firm headed toward bankruptcy, where at least there is established law instead of regulator discretion.

Mr. Singer's fund specializes in distressed debt and bankruptcy situations, so perhaps he has reason to oppose changes to a system he knows so well. But he's also well-qualified to examine the government's reforms.

"You don't know how you will be treated," he says of financial institutions under the new FDIC regime. "If there are companies that are also counterparties alongside you but they've been designated systemically important, that's a clue. It's like a game of treasure hunt. It's a clue that you're going to get disadvantaged compared to them."

So maybe FDIC chairman Sheila Bair and the authors of Dodd-Frank were right about one thing: Perhaps their new process for resolving failing giants really will discourage some people from lending to the biggest banks—but only at the worst possible moment.

The problem, in Mr. Singer's view, will be the jarring shift from one day being an investor in a member of the "systemically important" club, to the next day being a creditor whose claim is determined by bureaucratic whim. This may be welcome news to government pension funds that will want to be bailed out, but certainly not for private investors.

The speed at which a firm will collapse as word gets around that it might be headed to FDIC resolution could be "amazing," says Mr. Singer. And that "speed will drive the size of the losses."

This "atmosphere of unpredictability" is harmful to America's place in the financial world, he says, and "it doesn't make the system any safer. . . . This is nuts to be identifying systemically important institutions." He views it as a poor "substitute for creating soundness and reasonable levels of leverage throughout the system."

Mr. Singer's views on systemic risk are particularly interesting given his prescience about subprime mortgages (to say nothing of his ability to build a firm from zero to $17 billion in assets). In a famous 2006 presentation at a conference hosted by Grant's Interest Rate Observer, he explained in painstaking detail the flaws in subprime-mortgage securitizations, and in the high grades awarded to them by government-anointed credit-rating agencies. In the spring of 2007, he warned the G-7 finance ministers about the grave threat to the banking system, but his words "fell on deaf ears," he says.

Not that Mr. Singer's analytical skills are perfect: In the aftermath of the crisis, he fingered derivatives as a key factor, and he maintains that they will also play a role in the next crisis, even though it's now clear that in 2008 banks were felled by more conventional housing bets, not derivatives. Also, since Elliott largely doesn't play in the derivatives market, Mr. Singer bears few of the costs if that market is regulated more heavily.

Still, Mr. Singer's testimony against Dodd-Frank and Fed monetary policy is compelling.
One reason his firm has survived for 34 years, he says, is that "we try to be very respectful of the unpredictability of markets. We try to at all times at least assume that the world is not being properly run." A safe assumption.

Coast Guard investigating possible new Gulf spill

By David Ferguson - Sunday, March 20th, 2011

The Wall Street Journal and several other sources are reporting that the Coast Guard is investigating a 100-mile sheen of a substance that may be oil floating on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Reports began to come in on Saturday morning of a rainbow slick that began off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana and extended far out to sea.

Crews have been have been sent to the area to assess the situation, which is unfolding about twenty miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon, the well that exploded last April and set in motion a disastrous chain of events whose full impact has yet to be measured. A report from Business Insider released after 10:00pm EDT on Saturday indicated that the well involved might be the Matterhorn Seastar, but other sources state that it is too early to connect the spill to any specific drilling site.

This could be the first spill event to make use of money from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which was established in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident. The fund collects oil company profits to be dispersed for cleanup costs in the event of another oil spill disaster.

3 Ways To Protect Yourself From Radiation NATURALLY

Published on 03-20-2011
By Mary Hickcox, R.N. - Activist Post

Radiation is something that we all come into contact with on a daily basis. It generally comes in two forms: terrestrial and cosmic.

Terrestrial radiation elements are found all over; in soil, water, air, and even in the food that we eat, particularly if it is grown in the ground. The largest contributor to radiation in the natural world, though, is radon which is a decaying product of Uranium, released from rocks and soil. This gets into our air, as well as our water supply, and we are usually completely unaware of its presence. Cosmic rays of radiation are another source that we get everyday. Most of it is blocked by our atmosphere, but not completely.

Then of course there are the ways in which humans are creating more radiation.

Smokers inhale a form of radiation; the rocks, cement, and bricks we use in building often times contain uranium ores; and increase in air travel has contributed to our exposure of cosmic rays. The medical field also contributes via dental X-rays, CT scans, MRI, radio isotope injection to diagnose cancer and radiation therapy to treat cancer. While these are generally necessary, the TSA has introduced dangerous backscatter devices to airport security, which is set to be rolled out in neighborhood security vans, on buses, trains and in malls as well. This additional radiation exposure has no place in our daily lives. Meanwhile, our modern conveniences such as microwaves, radio towers, cell phones, wireless routers and the vast spectrum of electromagnetic pollution contribute to the bombardment.

The escalating crisis in Japan has led many of us to start thinking about serious radiation exposure from the worst threat of all -- nuclear fallout, which has resulted in a lot of impulse buying of the most common treatment, Potassium Iodide, to the point that it is disappearing all together. But fear not, there are many other natural ways to protect ourselves from radiation poisoning that we should be taking on a regular basis to combat all forms of daily radiation.

Herbs

There are several easy-to-obtain herbs that can be used for your protection. One of the best herbal protectors against radiation is Rosemary which contains Carnosic and Rosmarinic acids. According to Natural News, two different studies were done in Spain showing the positive effects of using Rosemary. It fights radiation damage to cells and rids the body of DNA damaging free radicals. It is readily available at any grocery or health food store, or can be grown in a windowsill herb garden, while being a wonderful addition to many meals. Herbs such as Cilantro help to remove heavy metals from the body, while others such as Dandelion help to rid the body of free radicals and protect the liver.

Key Foods

Obviously a healthy diet is a great start for having a body capable of removing some of the toxins related to radiation, as well as to strengthen the immune system. Some foods, though, are more helpful in the event of excess radiation. Any food containing caffeic acid, such as apples, citrus fruits, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage offer support. In a study done in India, caffeic acid was injected into cells and then those cells were subjected to varying degrees of radiation, while the control group was not. In all of the cells injected with the acid, there was no damage to the cells at all. The control group showed various degrees of genetic damage. Another food source of great protection is seaweed (kelp, spirulina, brown algae), due to its natural iodine content and ability to slow the accumulation of nuerotoxic metals. Buckwheat, tumeric, ginko, and any potassium-rich foods are also great ways to protect yourself.

Vitamins and supplements

Simple vitamins receive very little attention for their anti-radiation benefits. The British Journal of Radiology reports that Vitamin C, E, and beta carotene are all effective tools for protection against radiation. Vitamin C can protect against radiation as well as repair damage done to cells from previous exposure. Calcium, magnesium, and bee pollen are also key supplements that should be added to a healthy, balanced diet.

Don’t let anyone fool you. Radiation exposure on any level is not OK. Radiation disrupts our cellular growth, can make our cells grow abnormally, or even die off completely. Some of the cells will be mutated and reproduce; this is the process leading us to cancer. Obviously the more exposure we receive the worse the situation is as the cells do not have time to replace the ones killed off by the radiation, but any level is bad. Do yourself a favor: regardless of what happens in Japan, or at any of the other countless nuclear facilities, start taking action now with the products listed above, and prevent exposure in any way that you can.

Critics of Japanese Storage System See Worse-Than-Chernobyl Scenario Ahead (2 articles)

(Just glad to see that worst case scenarios never leave the table and are always a possibility...--jef)

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Saturday, March 19, 2011 by Philadelphia Inquirer
by Faye Flam

With attention focused on tons of radioactive spent fuel that may have ignited, some experts say the Japanese will be lucky if the stricken Fukushima plant creates a disaster only the size of Chernobyl in 1986.

Shattered ... a gaping hole in the wall of Fukushima’s No.4 reactor reveals a green crane that is normally used to move spent fuel rods into a storage pond, just out of shot, which has boiled dry. (Photo: AP) These spent fuel rods are now being blamed for the radioactive releases over Japan. While the reactor cores are encased in bulky containment vessels, spent fuel is separated from the environment only by the water in the pools, said former nuclear engineer David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Mass.

That those spent fuel rods were even kept at the Japanese plant is controversial. Some used rods remain hot enough to ignite their metal coatings and release dangerous plumes of radioactive gases and dust.

Critics such as Lochbaum argue this storage system, which is widely used in the United States, poses an unnecessary hazard. Indeed, most of the 62,500 metric tons of spent fuel in the United States is stored in similar pools on site at power plants, including Limerick in Montgomery County, Peach Bottom in York County, Oyster Creek plant in Ocean County, and the Salem and Hope Creek plants in Salem County.

Some experts argue the system is not inherently flawed.

Local nuclear plants are designed to withstand earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and other potential disasters, said Krishna "Kris" Singh, an engineer and chief executive officer of Marlton-based Holtec who designed the nuclear-waste storage systems used in most local plants.

Singh said people in the East should not panic, considering how astronomically unlikely it is that a tsunami or magnitude-9 earthquake would ever hit the Mid-Atlantic region.

His firm has been asked to reevaluate storage pools at the Diablo Canyon plant in California, where such a large quake remains possible. He said that plant's overall design was more earthquake-proof than was Fukushima.

Putting rods in swimming-pool-size concrete tanks was intended only to serve as temporary storage, Lochbaum said. Before the mid-1970s, much of the country's nuclear waste was sent for reprocessing, a type of recycling that has fallen out of favor because it produces weapons-grade plutonium.

Lochbaum said his opposition to the overuse of on-site "wet" storage led him to leave the industry and join the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group focused on nuclear safety and other environmental concerns.

Many pools at U.S. plants routinely store as much as 10 times as much waste as pools at Fukushima.

Singh and other experts said it was too early to tell why the water levels in the spent pools at Fukushima appear to have dropped enough to expose some of the fuel. The thick concrete that contains the water might have been damaged in the earthquake or water may have sloshed out.

The pools are put on the top floor of the reactor buildings - a placement that is considered an engineering choice, according to a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Several of the spent pools at Fukushima were reportedly losing water, but the one at Reactor 4 is causing the most concern because it carries the most fuel and the hottest spent fuel - 135 tons of rods, many of them removed just in December.

Although the fuel in these pools is considered spent, it's still so radioactive that without cooling, it will spontaneously heat up to between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees, enough to ignite the metal cladding that surrounds the fuel pellets. That burning releases explosive quantities of hydrogen gas, which can further damage the fuel and the storage pool.

As the rods heat up, Lochbaum said, gases laced with radioactive substances expand inside the rods. If the metal is breached, these gases are lofted into the atmosphere. If the temperature gets hot enough, fuel pellets will begin to crumble and release dust-size particles containing various radioactive by-products.

According to a briefing by the Physicians for Social Responsibility, those releases can contain strontium-90, which tends to concentrate in bones and cause bone cancer. Some of the fuel at Fukushima contains plutonium, which can cause lung cancer.

Also of grave concern is cesium-137, which has a long half-life and can persist in the environment for more than a century. Cesium-137 released in the Chernobyl disaster rendered huge swaths of the Ukraine uninhabitable.

The United States has never come to any agreement on how to deal with nuclear waste, which can remain radioactive for millions of years.

Singh said he still believed storage in pools can be done safely, especially as technology advances. "Clearly the earthquake was of much greater severity than the plant was designed for," he said.

Singh said his company was creating a new system that would shield the spent fuel. "We're designing it so you'll be able to walk into the building even if you had a horrible scenario like this one," he said.

He has designed aluminum racks that allow U.S. nuclear plants to store many more spent fuel rods in the same pools. Singh's company also supplies a system of dry storage, in which waste is sealed in casks. Lochbaum and others at the Union of Concerned Scientists consider this a much safer alternative in the face of earthquakes, terrorist attacks, or other threats still unknown.

Singh's nuclear-power innovations have led to more than 17 patents. His company's storage systems are used at 80 of the country's 104 nuclear plants. A technological optimist, Singh has recently donated $20 million to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, for a new building devoted to nanotechnology.

Until the 1970s, spent fuel rods were partially recycled, the various components were separated out, leaving behind weapons-grade plutonium and uranium. But once the United States had enough plutonium to destroy the world 100 times over, the government prohibited reprocessing.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, favors a combination of reprocessing, dry storage, and transfer to an ultimate resting place at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. For years, public opposition prevented any waste from being stored there, and in 2009 the Obama administration ruled against using the site. But the utilities and industry group continue to push for it.

Whatever happens to the nuclear-energy industry in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the 60,000-some metric tons of nuclear waste will remain with us.

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Saturday, March 19, 2011 by The Guardian/UK
Radioactive Material Found in Tokyo Water
Agency Reports

The Japanese government has reported that trace amounts of radioactive iodine have been detected in tap water in Tokyo and five other areas, amid concerns about leaks from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station.

The ministry says the amounts did not exceed government safety limits, but the announcement has added to safety fears among the Japanese people. Earlier in the day, Japan banned the sale of food products from near Fukushima after finding elevated radiation levels in spinach and milk from the area's farms.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said: "Though radioactive iodine has a short half-life of about eight days and decays naturally within a matter of weeks, there is a short-term risk to human health if radioactive iodine in food is absorbed into the human body."

Tainted milk was found 30km (20 miles) from the plant and contaminated spinach was collected up to 100km (65 miles) to the south.

Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano told reporters in Tokyo that the radiation levels exceeded the limits allowed by the government, but the products "pose no immediate health risk" and testing was being done on other foods..

"It's not like if you ate it right away you would be harmed," Edano said. "It would not be good to continue to eat it for some time."

Edano said the amount of radiation detected in the milk was the equivalent to one CT scan – the series of X-rays used for medical tests – if consumed continually for a year.

Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 220km south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself.

The food scare is the latest consequence of the cascade of disasters unleashed by the earthquake on 11 March.

Emergency teams scrambled on Saturday to restore power to the Fukushima plant so it could cool dangerously overheated fuel.

Firefighters pumped tons of water directly from the ocean into the cooling pool for used fuel rods at the plant's unit 3. The rods are at risk of burning up and sending a broad release of radioactive material into the environment.

Just outside the bustling disaster response centre in the city of Fukushima, 60km north-west of the plant, government nuclear specialist Kazuya Konno was able to take only a three-minute break for his first meeting with his wife Junko and their children since the earthquake.

"It's very nervewracking. We really don't know what is going to become of our city," Junko told Associated Press. "Like most other people, we have been staying indoors unless we have to go out."
She brought her husband a small backpack with a change of clothes and snacks. The girls, aged four and six and wearing pink surgical masks decorated with Mickey Mouse, gave their father hugs.

In his latest ministerial update from Tokyo, Edano said: "The situation at the nuclear complex still remains unpredictable. But at least we are preventing things from deteriorating."

A fire truck with a high-pressure cannon parked outside the plant's unit 3 began shooting a continuous arc of water nonstop into the pool for seven hours. Because of high radiation levels, firefighters will only go to the truck every three hours when it needs to be refueled. They expect to pump about 1,400 tons of water, nearly the capacity of the pool.

Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said backup power systems at the plant had been improperly protected, leaving them vulnerable to the tsunami that ravaged the north-eastern coast of Japale.

The failure enabled uranium fuel to overheat and was a "main cause" of the crisis, Nishiyama said. "I cannot say whether it was a human error, but we should examine the case closely."
A spokesman for Tokyo Electric, which owns and runs the complex, said it was protected against tsunamis of up to five metres (16ft) but a six-metre wave of water struck Fukushima on 11 March.

Plant operators said they would reconnect four of the plant's six reactor units to a power grid on Saturday. Workers have to methodically work through badly damaged and deeply complex electrical systems to make the final linkups without setting off a spark and potentially an explosion.

"Most of the motors and switchboards were submerged by the tsunami and they cannot be used," Nishiyama said.

Even once the power is reconnected, it is not clear if the cooling systems will still work.

The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.

Meanwhile, some Britons in the country have begun their journey back to the UK to escape from radiation fears, power shortages, business closures and a lack of food in shops.

Buses and planes ferried people to safety on Friday, with 24 British nationals leaving tsunami-flattened Sendai on two coaches heading for Tokyo.

The Foreign Office block-booked seats for Britons wanting to fly home on commercial flights, the first of which was a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong, and said two other flights to Hong Kong would be made available on Saturday.

Those directly affected by last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami can fly free of charge, but people wishing to leave Japan who have not been directly affected will pay about £600 per seat.

US Begins Invasion, Launches 112 Tomahawk Missiles into Libya

(Obviously this is not news to anyone, but for myself, I am documenting on my blog this, the 3rd war in which the US is involved. Protecting innocent civilians is one thing when done honestly, but this is just another invasion of an oil rich middle eastern country. Sorry, but it doesn't seem like we are the good guys, and history will not view the US as anything but an aggressive provincial entity that profits from invading smaller weaker nations. Obama campaigned against war--that he would end the wars and bring our soldiers home. Instead, he has increased the intensity of the 2 ongoing wars and started another. If he were anything like the image he portrayed during the campaign, he would return that bogus Nobel Peace prize. He deserves that like he deserves another term...--jef)

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Saturday, March 19, 2011 by Associated Press
by Robert Burns

The U.S. military attacked Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses Saturday with strikes along the Libyan coast that were launched by Navy vessels in the Mediterranean.

A senior military official said the assault would unfold in stages and target air defense installations around Tripoli, the capital, and a coastal area south of Benghazi. That’s the rebel stronghold under attack by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.

Complete details were not immediately available, though the Pentagon said 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from U.S. and British warships off the Libyan coast.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive military operations.

Hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended an international conference in Paris that endorsed military action against Gadhafi, the U.S. kicked off its attacks on Libyan air defense missile and radar sites along the Mediterranean coast to protect no-fly zone pilots from the threat of getting shot down.

President Barack Obama authorized limited military action against Libya Saturday, saying Moammar Gadhafi’s continued assault on his own people left the U.S. and its international partners with no other choice. The Pentagon said it fired 110 cruise missiles at 20 targets.

Obama said military action was not his first choice.

“This is not an outcome US or any of our partners sought,” Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. “We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy.”

A senior military official said the U.S. launched air defenses Saturday with strikes along the Libyan coast that were launched by Navy vessels in the Mediterranean. The official said the assault would unfold in stages and target air defense installations around Tripoli, the capital, and a coastal area south of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold.

Obama declared once again that the United States would not send ground forces to Libya, though he said he is “deeply aware” of the risks of taking any military action.

At a news conference in Paris, Clinton said Gadhafi had left the world no choice but to intervene urgently and forcefully to protect further loss of civilian life.

“We have every reason to fear that left unchecked Gadhafi would commit unspeakable atrocities,” she told reporters.

Among the U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean were two guided-missile destroyers, the USS Barry and USS Stout, as well as two amphibious warships, the USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce, and a command-and-control ship, the USS Mount Whitney. The submarine USS Providence was also in the Mediterranean.

Iraq Vets Against the War