Blog Heap of Links for the day 16 May 2011

Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads on the Paraguaná Peninsula, and engineers from a construction firm — Khatam al-Anbia — owned by the Revolutionary Guards visited Paraguaná in February. Amir al-Hadschisadeh, the head of the Guard's Air Force, participated in the visit, according to the report. Die Welt cited information from "Western security insiders." The rocket bases are to include measures to prevent air attacks on Venezuela as well as commando and control stations.

Monday's policy outlines the moves the United States must make in partnership with allies to promote compatible, secure, reliable and unfettered information exchange. "This is a strategy that goes beyond any singular partner or agency," John Brennan, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, said during a formal unveiling of the framework at the White House. Academics have long warned that poor interagency collaboration and misaligned domestic and foreign cyberspace policies are hurting U.S. efforts to, among other things, cut off financial support for terrorist groups. Nabbing the groups backing, for example, suicide bombers requires balancing national security and individual online privacy. Government officials typically must trace credit card transactions, online payments, emails and other communications to understand the target's day-to-day activities.

"Do you know you can't openly carry here in Philadelphia?" Dougherty asked, according to the YouTube clip. "Yes, you can, if you have a license to carry firearms," Fiorino said. "It's Directive 137. It's your own internal directive." Fiorino was right. It was perfectly legal to carry the gun. But that didn't matter to the cop: Fiorino offered to show Dougherty his driver's and firearms licenses. The cop told him to get on his knees. "Excuse me?" Fiorino said. "Get down on your knees. Just obey what I'm saying," Dougherty said. "Sir," Fiorino replied, "I'm more than happy to stand here -" "If you make a move, I'm going to f------ shoot you," Dougherty snapped. "I'm telling you right now, you make a move, and you're going down!" "Is this necessary?" Fiorino said.

Bartlesville man was arrested Sunday after police uncovered a small baggie of marijuana during a traffic stop. … After Elias was placed in handcuffs, one of the officers left Elias to go speak with the driver. According to this officer's account, he heard the other officer saying to Elias, "What are you doing? You need to wait." Looking over to see what was going on, the officer saw Elias "drop his pants and boxers to his ankles and start urinating on the ground...." [Hmmm. Bet more than pot was involved in that one.]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted for the first time on May 15 that most of the fuel in one of its nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had melted only about 16 hours after the March 11 earthquake struck a wide swath of northeastern Japan and triggered a devastating tsunami.

Two leading makers of lighting products are showcasing LED bulbs that are bright enough to replace energy-guzzling 100-watt light bulbs set to disappear from stores in January. ... The new bulbs will also be expensive — about $50 each — so the development may not prevent consumers from hoarding traditional bulbs.

"The new paradigm is $10,000. Anything under $10,000 is considered an inexpensive car." Low supply and high demand, a flat economy and a rush to trade in larger vehicles that consume a lot of gas for smaller ones are all reasons for the shortage of used cars, several local dealers said. ... The nation's Cash for Clunkers program took almost 1 million vehicles off the road. People who got $3,500 for the cars they turned in would probably get $5,000 to $7,000 for the same trade today ... The Cash for Clunkers program was an example of government shortsightedness, which contributed to the lack of used cars on the market today, Lookingbill said. The 800,000 vehicles that were junked through the clunkers program would have been sold three to five times for a total of 3 million sales, Lookingbill said. The number of available older cars on the market used to peak at about 20 million, but the number is nowhere near that today ...