Disaster

Argentina has announced that one of its warships sank a Chinese-flagged boat that was fishing illegally in Argentinian national waters. They said that four people on the boat were rescued and arrested as sailors shot holes into the boat’s hull, causing it to sink. China has meanwhile expressed its serious concern to Argentina and the government has called for an investigation. Al Jazeera reports: The navy statement said on Tuesday that the boat was intercepted a day earlier off the coast of Puerto Madryn, about 1,460km south of Buenos Aires.

The Baltic Dry Index has risen for the last few weeks, buoyed by hopes (a la Iron Ore) of a National People's Congress stimulus surge from China. While the scale of the 'bounce' is negligible in real terms compared to the total collapse, it has caused such momentum-muppets as Jim Cramer to proclaim China 'fixed' and investible. So we have one quick question - if everything is awesome, why did the China Containerized Freight Index just crash to new record lows?

It appears BDIY gets over-excited relative to CCFI...

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The "unsinkable" global financial system is rushing headlong toward its encounter with the iceberg.

Why did the Titanic sink, despite being considered unsinkable? The conventional answer is the design of its watertight compartments was flawed: the watertight bulkheads were limited in height to a few feet above the waterline.

At least 3,100 tons of unregistered radioactive waste is being stored in temporary depots across Japan The toxic waste lacks proper registration because local officials are reluctant to report it. RT reports: Tons of contaminated soil as well as other radioactive garbage are being stored at temporary depots across the country, Japanese NHK TV-Channel reports. The level of radiation at the storage sites is higher than 8,000 Becquerels per kilogram, while the norm is 10 Becquerels per kilogram.

Five years after the Fukushima disaster, things are getting worse.

As we reported last week, "the fuel rods melted through their containment vessels in the reactors, and no one knows exactly where they are now. Tepco has been developing robots, which can swim under water and negotiate obstacles in damaged tunnels and piping to search for the melted fuel rods.  But as soon as they get close to the reactors, the radiation destroys their wiring and renders them useless, causing long delays, Masuda said."