u.s. planning strikes against iran

The U.S. is drawing plans for airstrikes against Iranian targets as a "last resort" to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices.

They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling.

Iran nuclear facilities that could become targets

Saghand - mining: Uranium ore discovered 1985. Mining began later that year with 120,000 tonnes of ore yielding some 50-60 tonnes of uranium annually.

Ardkan - milling: Ore is purified to uranium ore concentrate, also known as yellowcake.

Gehine: Mine and milling facility which will produce 24 tonnes of yellowcake annually.

Isfahan - conversion: Yellowcake is cleansed of impurities and converted to uranium hexafloride gas, cooled,and condensed to a solid known as hex.

Natanz - enrichment: Pictures published in the Sunday Telegraph reveal new buildings at site which can be used to produce weapons grade uranium.

Teheran: Enrichment facility at Kalaye dismantled. Research reactor and radioactive waste storage facilities still operating.

Bushehr: Russian light water reactor is due to start up this year. Can produce reactor-grade plutonium.

Arak: Heavy water research reactor - better suited for weapons-grade plutonium production.

Anarak: Waste storage site.

The review of the Pentagon's contingency plans follows the stream of recent discoveries of Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent rhetoric of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since he was elected last year. Iran is still thought to be anywhere between three and 10 years away from physically producing a nuclear weapon.

iran

the price of brainpower

Classical economic theory has assumed that if one invests in factories, tools and improved transportation, economic growth is sure to follow. If you subscribe to that theory, labor productivity gains wil be realized from mechanization and new production processes. The assumption that a company was bound to prosper from a high rate of return from capital investments. That assumption did not however explain economic worth.

The 2004 net value of financial assets (book value) fro 7,241 listed U.S. corporations totaled $9.2 trillion while investors were willing to pay $22.7 trillion for these companies. That puts the value of knowledge at $13.5 trillion (the difference between market and book value).

To define knowledge capital as a financial metric is to measure knowledge that requires metrics that are repeatable and quantitatively definable. Analysis of assets is the key for essential capabilities in any organization that wishes to compete in the 21st century. The $13.5 trillion stated earlier is a simplification. The sum of knowledge values includes a number of firms that had negative results and high-value management tends to concentrated in a few firms.

Consider the following:

• The top 100 firms by book value, out of the total corporate population of 7,241 firms (1.4%), had $6.5 trillion of knowledge value, or 71% of the total for the U.S. economy.
• There were 662 firms whose knowledge was negative. They were worth less on the market than their financial valuations. They were worth $300 billion more than if they were sold off at book value.

Bigger firms still have the most knowledge in the "new economy" and is the U.S. economy approaching its full capacity for generating wealth?

Costs of Planning
Market Value (market capitalization, year-end) A
Financial Value (shareholder equity) B
Knowledge Value (A-B) C
Importance of Knowledge (C/B) D
Number of Employees E
Knowledge Value/Employee (C/E) F


business

analysis

Chicago Mercantile Exchange and energy futures

The fast-growing electronic exchange platform of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange will challenge New York and London in the lucrative energy markets. The CME will likely offer energy contracts but no timetable was given nor any other specifics from Craig Donahue chief executive of the CME.

The Chicago exchange saw sharp growth in Globex volume last year. It accounted for 70 percent of total trading volume, up from 57 percent in the prior year, CME said yesterday. The low cost of its electronic platform would allow CME to create a new energy contract relatively quickly and at very low cost.

Business

CME(R) Globex(R) Average Daily Volume Of 3.3 Million Contracts Up 30 Percent - Electronic CME Eurodollar Options Volume Quadrupled Compared With January 2005 - CME Agricultural Commodities Record Monthly Volume Up 50 Percent.

customers prefer knowledge bases

47 percent of customers cited searchable knowledge bases as the most efficient form of self-service.

1. Software updates 56.6%
2. Knowledge bases 47.2%
   
3. Documentation 13.4%
4. Product and service info 13.1%
5. Ability to give feedback 12.2%
6. Submit incidents 6.3%

Results based on a survey featured in the ServiceXRG report Self Service Excellence

Call Center Industry Stats

CRMzine

technorati tag: Business

an extra measure of security

You can load up on software and software to safeguard systems but don't forget the training. Top to bottom training for IT folks will enable an organization to know the risks. The delegation process to security specialists will likely slow down when the IT department takes security a higher level.

The United States has tried to provide a framework, but the British have been more systematic. The U.K. Department of Trade and Industry recently published a best-practices standard.

Coursework that has case studies is most helpful when deciding what classes to send people to. The cost is generally around $500 per person plus don't forget to add in the employee time. Always consider the potential for attacks that could result in downtime that then could result in the loss of revenue.

IT

New Weapon Could End Collateral Damage

The military plans to test the Advanced Tactical Laser, a laser weapon mounted on a C-130H air transport that could destroy any weapon system without collateral damage. The project has been headed by Boeing Missile Defense Systems in a project with the U.S. Air Force. Boeing has already taken delivery of the aircraft and plans to modify the platform for the ATL program. The high-energy laser would be completed in Albuquerque, N.M. Officials said the first ground tests of the laser would take place in the summer of 2006.

technology

detector could yield evidences of string theory

Researchers at Northeastern University and the University of California, Irvine say that scientists might soon have evidence for extra dimensions and other exotic predictions of string theory. Early results from a neutrino detector at the South Pole, called AMANDA, show that ghostlike particles from space could serve as probes to a world beyond our familiar three dimensions, the research team says.

In recent decades, new theories have developed – such as string theory, extra dimensions and supersymmetry – to bridge the gap between the two most successful theories of the 20th century, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics describes three of the fundamental forces of nature: electromagnetism, strong forces (binding atomic nuclei) and weak forces (seen in radioactivity). It is, however, incompatible with Einstein's general relativity, the leading description of the fourth force, gravity. Scientists hope to find one unified theory to provide a quantum description of all four forces.

Science

derivatives management increase

The derivatives market is heating up and IT spending on derivatives management will experience a steady increase according to a report by Aite Group. Industry spending on derivatives management technology will exceed $7 billion by 2009, up from $6.3 billion in 2005.

Returns from equities and fixed-income markets aren't gaining momentum and an increasing number of firms are turning to the derivatives instruments to rev up portfolios. The increase in the hedge fund activity has increased the demand for alternative instruments such as the offerings of the derivatives market.

Processing derivative transactions remains mostly a manual process prone to human error, which can result in financial losses. BAck-office automation is needed most and should account for the bulk of the increased spending.

Business

IT