When Rob Bell was traded to the Texas Rangers in 2001, he requested the lowest uniform number available. "I was thinking 15, 18, 12, something like that," he says. But when Mr. Bell joined the team, he found jersey No. 6 hanging in his locker. It felt strange, he says, "right from the moment I had it on my back."
Strange, but not good. Mr. Bell is a pitcher, and big-league pitchers just don't wear the numbers one through nine. Thanks to some peculiar and powerful wrinkles in baseball history, single digits are associated with legendary hitters: No. 3 is Babe Ruth, No. 4 is Lou Gehrig, No. 5 is Joe DiMaggio, No. 6 is Stan Musial, No. 7 is Mickey Mantle, No. 9 is Ted Williams.
Most of baseball's one-digit pitchers played in the 1930s and '40s. Since 1960, research shows, two or more pitchers have worn single digits in the same season just three times. This year is one of them. After signing with the Boston Red Sox last winter, David Wells chose No. 3 in honor of his hero, Babe Ruth, who immortalized it playing for Boston's archrival, the New York Yankees. Josh Towers of the Toronto Blue Jays for the third straight year is wearing No. 7.
To players, club executives and hard-core fans, the sight of a one-digit pitcher is jarring. Steve Vucinich, the equipment and clubhouse manager for the Oakland Athletics, for instance, doesn't like the very idea of it. If a pitcher asked him for a single digit, he says, "I would probably try to talk him out of it." If the pitcher insisted, Mr. Vucinich says he would seek clearance from the team's general manager. Zack Minasian, the Rangers' equipment and clubhouse manager, says he's still embarrassed about giving Mr. Bell No. 6. "I just think I went brain dead that day," he says.
That "such a subtle, meaningless thing" can trigger a visceral response reflects the power of tradition in baseball, says Tom Shieber, a curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He compiled a history of uniforms for the Hall's Web site. Uniform numbers are "the one thing people associate with the players they watched as a kid," says Mark Stang, co-author of "Baseball by the Numbers," an encyclopedia of more than 50,000 jersey numbers from 1929 to 1992. "You don't always remember the guy's batting average." Players can get so attached to numbers they will buy them off teammates' backs; in 1989, Rickey Henderson of the Athletics bought Ron Hassey a new suit in exchange for No. 24.
The relationship between pitchers and their numbers is especially strong. Pitchers are the focus of every play and are seen in many a camera shot on television. Besides, with so many single-digit numbers retired by teams to honor past greats -- the Yankees, for instance, no longer use the numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 -- seeing one on a pitcher today stands out even more.
"It looks weird," says the pitcher Mr. Bell. He didn't like the attention No. 6 attracted from teammates, coaches and media. "You better pitch well with a single digit on your back, and I didn't," he says. The next spring, he traded it in for the welcome anonymity of No. 30. Now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Mr. Bell wears No. 41.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, big-league teams didn't number players. Club owners feared fans wouldn't buy scorecards to learn the starting lineups because they would be obvious from seeing the players' uniforms. The Cleveland Indians, in 1916 and 1917, and the St. Louis Cardinals, in 1923, briefly put numbers on jersey sleeves. But the experiments were denounced in the press as silly and needless. "The players were embarrassed all the time," Branch Rickey, a Cardinals executive at the time, wrote in a letter to a sports writer in 1962. "They really didn't want to show themselves on the field."
The tradition of double-digit pitchers dates to January 1929, when the Yankees announced they would put numbers on the backs of their jerseys. yet another first for the Bronx Bombers .... The team said the leadoff hitter would wear No. 1, the second batter No. 2 and so on. "This will probably work out so that Babe Ruth's big No. 3 will come to be as famous as the 77 once worn by Red Grange," the football star, United Press predicted.
In those days, the catcher usually hit eighth, so he wore No. 8. The pitcher batted ninth but was skipped numerically in favor of backup catchers. In 1929, Yankees pitchers wore Nos. 11 to 21. (The Indians, who copied the Yankees' idea, were the first team to wear numbers on their backs because New York's opening game was rained out.)
As other teams added numbers, the lineup-based numbering system gradually disappeared. But pitchers stayed in the double digits. Exceptions were predominantly rookies and short-timers. The most famous: future Hall of Famer Bob Feller, who wore No. 9 as a 17-year-old rookie with Cleveland in 1936 before graduating to double digits the following year. Only around 100 pitchers in big-league history have worn single digits. Today, the most popular numbers for pitchers are in the 30s, 40s and 50s, in that order.
One-digit pitchers never forget the experience. When he was acquired by the Athletics in August 1970, Dooley Womack was assigned No. 3, apparently because the team's equipment manager wasn't sure what position he played. Mr. Womack pitched the day he joined the team. In the locker room afterward, he says, outfielder Reggie Jackson barked, "Get him out of that single-digit number! That's for regulars!" Mr. Womack switched to No. 16.
Bill Monbouquette donned No. 8 when he was traded to the San Francisco Giants during the 1968 season. "I'm looking at this every day in my locker and saying, 'What the hell am I doing with No. 8?' " he says. Atlee Hammaker wore No. 7 with the Giants in 1985 after giving his No. 14 to a returning veteran, Vida Blue. He says he chose the single digit because "in God's eyes...seven is considered the perfect number." On the field, though, "it didn't do much for me," he says.
Mr. Towers, the Toronto pitcher, got No. 7 when he was called up from the minor leagues in May 2003. The Blue Jays were on the road in Yankee Stadium. The team's equipment manager, Jeff Ross, had two extra jerseys: No. 48, in a size 50, and No. 7, in size 46.
The larger uniform was too big for Mr. Towers. So he put on No. 7. After the game, Mr. Ross asked him, "What number do you want?" The pitcher says he thought to himself, "We're in New York, Mickey Mantle, yeah, I'm keeping it." He rebuffed an offer from Mr. Ross the next spring to switch to double digits.
At 188 pounds, Mr. Towers could pass for a typical single-digit player like a shortstop. The same can't be said of Boston's 250-pound Mr. Wells. "It looks like Babe Ruth's pitching for us," Red Sox executive Charles Steinberg says. Ruth did pitch for the Red Sox, from 1914 to 1919, but the team didn't wear numbered uniforms then.
Mr. Wells, who is currently on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained foot, played for the Yankees in 1997-98 and 2002-03. After first joining the team, he told reporters he wanted to wear No. 3, which the team retired in 1948, and asked to wear 03 before settling for 33. He pitched an inning in 1997 in a Yankees cap once worn by Ruth that he had purchased for $35,000.
Hero worship aside, the small number is lost on the back of Mr. Wells's Ruthian size 54 shirt. "I assumed if anything he'd go for three digits to fill out that jersey," says Theo Epstein, Boston's general manager. "There's a lot of white space there.
Posted by: rkb ||
05/14/2005 7:39:54 AM ||
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I'd want to be the first ~ in the major leagues.
#1
No indication Sumatran volcanos are going to erupt but Volcano Fernandina erupts in Galapagos Islands. Global vulcanism continue to increase. I have no idea what it means but then nobody else does either.
Mexico has reacted furiously to a bill signed into law by the US this week that would fund a border wall and prevent illegal Mexican migrants from obtaining US driving licences. President Vicente Fox said he would lodge a diplomatic complaint, and was considering complaints to multilateral bodies if Mexico could not unable to resolve the problem bilaterally. In the US, leaders of the Mexican community threatened to strike to send a message to US employers that they could not survive without cheap Mexican labour. Santiago Creel, Mexico's interior secretary, said the "Real ID" law was "negative, inconvenient, and obstructionist".
"Building walls doesn't help anyone build a good neighbourhood," he said. "Taking away the possibility of obtaining driving licences for people who are working in legal jobs, who pay their taxes there, who send remittances home here, seems to us to be an extreme measure, particularly given the new understanding that we thought we had after the re-election of President Bush."
#3
Then stay off our damn lawn before we shoot your ass for trespassing.
Landmines work well too.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/14/2005 10:54 Comments ||
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The Mexican response, especially Fox's bullshit about lodging diplo complaints (WTF?), strikes me as exceptionally stupid and counterproductive.
Since I would love to see this issue brought to the fore and US Law be applied and enforced, all I can say is "THANKS, FOX! You're a fucking idiot!" and I, for one, appreciate it! Lol! Wotta moron, heh.
More! Louder! Appeal to your Tranzi pals! Lol! Love this shit.
#5
the more they squeal, the more fuel on the fire. Keep the spotlight on the roaches
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 11:54 Comments ||
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Let me guess, Mexico is going to be so furious about it that it's going to limit the number of illegals crossing the border so as to hobble to American economy. Yeah, that's the ticket.
#7
Well, I'm sure they work very hard to limit the number of Hondurans crossing the border...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/14/2005 11:57 Comments ||
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#8
Why, yes, Phil, they do quite quickly kick their fellow latinos out. As their own Constitution says -
"Article 33. Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualifications set forth in Article 30. They are entitled to the guarantees granted by Chapter I, Title I, of the present Constitution; but the Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action"
Well, it's not as if Mexico hasn't taken steps to limit investment in their country by people from the US. Most Americans wouldn't be nearly so aggravated by immigration from Mexico if we weren't being made the scapegoat for two hundred-odd years of bad management by people like Vincente Fox, Santiago Creel, and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/14/2005 13:30 Comments ||
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For some odd reason that background color came out dark red. It was supposed to be brown, as in what these guys are full of...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/14/2005 13:32 Comments ||
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#11
We can go without cheap labor longer than you can go without a paycheck, pal...
#12
the money illegals send home to Latin America (90% Mexico) amounts to over $30 Billion in funds lost to the US economy. Annually. That ranks 2nd in Mexico's sources of income, after tourism. Closing the border to illegals is the answer, and if Mexico doesn't like it, we can shut off tourism til teh gov't falls, and our CIA minions install an acceptable substitute. Makes closing the borders sound downright reasonable, right Vicente?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 15:56 Comments ||
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Is it just me or does it seem like every single contry that was once part of th Spanish Empire in the New World is an economic basket case with one industry economies with the possible exception of Chile. At least Ecuador had the godd sense to give up their own currency and adopt the dollar. Don't be suprised if some others in Central and South America do something similiar except it will be the Euro just so they get the satisfaction of telling Uncle Sugar to go F**k Himself
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 16:36 Comments ||
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Latin American countries in general seem to alternate between feudalists pretending to be capitalists and feudalists pretending to be communists. Their new strategy is that it'll only work if they can convert the US to feudalism too.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/14/2005 18:39 Comments ||
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There is a connection between these moves and the cuddle-up with the Arabs. The problem for us is the Dems trying to kill CAFTA which would give these countries a solid tie to our economy.
Once considered the bedrock of monetary stability, the U.S. dollar is losing fans among Latin American officials eager to promote their own domestic currencies. Yet recent government attempts to limit the role of the dollar contrast with the behavior of consumers who remain partial to the dollar as a dependable medium of exchange and store of value. Before governments can expect consumers to voluntarily switch allegiances, they will have to build credibility in their own currencies.
It wasn't long ago that governments saw the U.S. Federal Reserve as a legitimate and effective substitute for homegrown monetary institutions. Beginning in the late 1980s and well into the 1990s several countries set the value of their currencies at a fixed rate against the dollar.
The plan helped bring inflation under control, but a lack of accompanying structural economic policy adjustments consistent with stable money brought about the collapse of most fixed exchange rate regimes. Those countries that adopted the dollar as legal tender -- Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama -- have so far avoided devastating monetary crises.
Argentina abandoned its currency peg known as "convertibility" in 2002, a painful episode that marked the end of the latest chapter in fixed exchange schemes. By then, several other countries had already adopted explicit inflation targeting as an alternative way to try to keep prices in check. Now that nine nations in the region rely on inflation targeting and the value of most currencies fluctuates in the foreign exchange market, these governments are becoming more wary of the dollar, particularly dollar borrowing on bank balance sheets.
For consumers and companies however, the dollar remains popular. Because of the trust it inspires among both borrowers and lenders, rates for commercial loans in dollars where they are available are more attractive than those on local currency lending.
The continued reliance on dollar borrowing worries officials who fret about the danger of instability if local currencies were to suddenly lose value versus the dollar. In Peru, where the dollar is widely circulated in parallel to the Peruvian sol, the government has engaged in a vocal campaign to reduce the amount of dollars in circulation.
The results have been mildly effective: During the first quarter of this year, Peru's central bank reported the amount of dollars in the banking system had dropped to 54% in 2004 from as high as 70% in 2000. The transition in the credit sector has been slower, where according to the central bank almost three quarters of all loans issued in 2004 were denominated in dollars.
In a recent release titled "The Importance Of The De-dollarization of the Banking Credit Sector," Peru's central bank states that having 74% of all bank loans denominated in dollars creates a potential currency imbalance for consumers as well as companies, since most receive income denominated in soles rather than in dollars.
"The mismatch implies a currency exchange risk: if the exchange rate weakens, foreign currency liabilities rise while income doesn't. In this manner, the dollarization of the bank credit sector makes the economy vulnerable," argues the central bank. For anyone following the painful and ongoing debt cleanup of billions of dollars borrowed by Argentina's consumers and companies when the local currency was valued at parity with the dollar, the warning seems merited.
Besides Peru, other Latin American countries have conducted campaigns over the years to reduce the dollar dependency of its citizens and raise the profile of local currencies.
Mexico developed a futures market in pesos following its devaluation and financial crisis in the mid 1990s. Chile avoided the dollarization of its financial sector with the introduction of local currency deposits indexed to inflation, a measure that failed in other countries. Colombia and Uruguay have successfully issued international bonds denominated in domestic currencies.
The development of new financial instruments and markets has had an impact in some sectors, as the figures from Peru suggest. Changing the ingrained habits of individual consumers and local companies that are still partial to the U.S. currency will be a slow process. The use of the dollar isn't limited to consumer and business loans. Newspapers in several Latin American countries run classified advertisements where prices for big ticket items, from houses to cars, are still quoted in dollars.
Short of forcing individuals to convert their holdings into local currencies, a policy that failed in the 1980s, governments will have to convince citizens that local currencies can be trusted.
Julio De Brun, who served as Uruguay's central bank president until April, says that more than the dollarization of a country's credit sector or its public debt, the original sin in this case lies in the erratic behavior of policymakers in the past.
"Dollarization was first a response by economic agents to the lack of confidence in government policies and later a monetary option in countries that were already heavily dollarized and where the dollar had substituted for local currencies as a unit of value," Mr. De Brun said.
Regardless of changes in monetary policy fashions, officials can't ignore the fact that adoption of strong ties to the dollar in the mid-to-late 1990s was the only credible option, he said.
In Mr. De Brun's view, at the root of the wish to hold dollars lies a spontaneous desire among citizens to protect their wealth from the sometimes deceitful behavior of governments. For that reason, he feels it will take consistent efforts to improve credibility before officials begin to notice significant changes in the composition of currency holdings of their citizens,
Mr. De Brun thinks that domestic businesses and consumers in economies where the dollar is still dominant will probably maintain current habits until local currency capital markets offer competitive options to the dollar.
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 7:44:50 AM ||
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#1
Regardless of the philosophical basis for de-dollarization campaigns (what a bastardization of a word that is!), anything the L.A. countries do to stabilize their own currencies benefits us all. To be pedantic (not you, Captain P.), measures taken to stabilize currencies also benefit economies; and more stable economies south of our border hopefully will mean fewer economic migrants (also known as illegal aliens) heading north in search of a way to feed their hungry children
#4
Apparently, they've never heard of the "Iron Rule of Currency", that "Bad Money Pushes Out Good". In this case, their worthless currencies will become what everybody wants to spend, while dollars remain what everybody wants to *save*. This means their currency will inflate and inflate, compared to the dollar, and the only way to buy anything of great value will be with dollars.
#5
It also goes the other way. IIRC Ecuador switched to using the US Dollar as its currency to end the cycle of government inflation and devalutation that undermined their economy.
Good idea, especially when you're stirring up anti-US sentiment over financial hardships as we crack down on the illegal immigrant traffic.
Assuming we do ... a different peeve.
Mexico's Congress is moving to limit the use of public resources by Marta Sahagún de Fox, after a federal audit revealed the first lady has a publicly funded personal staff of 38.
Mrs Fox, who has repeatedly affirmed her intention to seek elected office, is also facing questions over government contracts extended to her sons, who are under congressional investigation for alleged misuse of influence.
Mrs Fox has denied accusations by legislators and other critics that she is promoting her political ambitions through the use of federal resources available to her as first lady.
In a report this week, the federal superior auditor did not make public the total cost of Mrs Fox's staff, some of whom sometimes accompany her on international trips. But Proceso, a Mexican magazine, reported that the First Lady's top 11 employees alone cost the federal payroll $782,000 a year, with the top five earning salaries of $91,000.
"The auditor determined that the First Lady is not a public official and therefore not authorised to make official appearances," noted Marcela Guerra, a member of the congressional oversight committee of the auditors and a federal deputy for the Institutional Revolutionary Party. "Since she is not covered by the law of public servants, we agreed to examine the legal framework defining her use of public resources."
Congress ordered the audit in February 2004, after the Financial Times published an investigation into Mrs Fox's Vamos Mexico Foundation, which made liberal use of presidential staff helicopters and other resources, and still spent more on overheads than it passed on to the poor.
On Thursday, a spokesman for Vicente Fox, who came to office in 2000 promising honest, efficient and transparent government, said the president would support legislation to define the role of the First Lady.
Mr Aguilar also said the president's office would not intervene in the case of Mrs Fox's children from her first marriage, who are under congressional investigation for alleged influence-trafficking. "It is up to them to defend themselves, as they have announced they will do," he said.
This week, the newspaper Reforma published a photograph of the Lear jet allegedly owned by her oldest son, Manuel Bribiesca Sahagún, who runs a contracting business. Reforma said a close associate and presumed business partner of the Bribiescas had obtained 2.5bn pesos ($230m) in construction contracts under the Fox administration.
The new attention to Mrs Fox's children comes after a book by Olga Wornat, an Argentine journalist, containing the licence plate of the Lear jet and other details of the sons' sudden wealth.
Mrs Fox called the allegations false and announced she was suing Ms Wornat.
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 7:24:30 AM ||
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#1
"Congress ordered the audit in February 2004, after the Financial Times published an investigation into Mrs Fox's Vamos Mexico Foundation, which made liberal use of presidential staff helicopters and other resources, and still spent more on overheads than it passed on to the poor."
Indeed, a Fox is guarding the henhouse down south.
#3
Memo to .com & Mike K. - That is serious high maintenance. We should count ourselves lucky - imagine having to pay alimony to this wretch? I feel lucky with my few K haircut.
Why's a divorce so expensive? Because it's worth every penny.
#4
Lol, Raj! Don't get me started, heh. It's sooo much cheaper to rent, not to mention you can change your mind on a whim, like they do, and choose different options each time.
#5
jeebus! And Fox is independently wealthy. Sra Marcos Fox needs new shoes, what's she gonna do now?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 11:58 Comments ||
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Notice the deep parallel between absolutely corrupt government - Mexico, Palestine, Haiti, and the cesspool of economic indicators each country/region lives with? You'd think the overeducated apologist for these leeches could understand that till the existing political system is burned to the ground there will be no real reform?
Taiwan's ruling party won an election Saturday for a special assembly charged with amending the constitution, in a boost for President Chen Shui-bian's policy of resisting unification with mainland China. With 99 percent of the ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said the Democratic Progressive Party had won 42.5 percent of the vote, against 38.9 percent for the opposition Nationalist Party. The result appeared to be vindication at home for Chen's independence-leaning policies, after recent visits to the mainland by two opposition leaders put him on the defensive and transformed Saturday's National Assembly election into a test of strength for his ruling party.
China gave a lavish welcome to the two opposition leaders - Lien Chan of the Nationalist Party and James Soong of the People First Party - who favor eventual reunification with the mainland and have criticized Chen's efforts to strengthen Taiwan's status as a self-governing entity. In the election, voters chose a party list of delegates to consider a package of constitutional reforms - reducing the legislature from its present 225 members to 113, extending lawmakers' terms from three to four years, amending the electoral system to reduce the number of lawmakers per constituency, and enshrining public referenda as the only means for approving future constitutional changes. Chen's supporters had urged followers to vote in large numbers, saying that a vote against the DPP was a vote for eventual unification with China.
Vice President Annette Lu of the DPP congratulated the party for its victory, and took a backhanded swipe at China for what she said were its failed efforts to influence the results. "I would like to thank the Chinese Communist Party, because each time there is pressure from China, the people show that democracy is what people embrace here in Taiwan," she said. "One billion three hundred million Chinese friends on the mainland and (Chinese) President Hu Jintao, you have heard the voice of Taiwan's people. Taiwan belongs to its 23 million people," she said. Both the DPP and the Nationalists support the changes the special assembly is tasked with doing.
China's nightly news made no mention of the elections but showed a series of interviews with people on the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan praising the recent meeting between Hu and Soong. "It showed how much we value improving ties between the two sides," said Xue Jianlong, a university student from China's central Henan province. "Our youth and the Taiwanese youth share one heart. We are all sons of the yellow emperor and hope for peace and unification." Chan, the Nationalist leader, said the election result didn't accurately reflect public opinion because so few voters cast ballots. Turnout was just 23.3 percent, compared with a norm of about 60 percent for national polls, as participants in the north had to contend with torrential downpours and a measure of election fatigue stemming from legislative and presidential balloting last year.
"The voting results were not conclusive because of the low turnout. If you have 50, 60, 70 or 80 percent that's different," said Chan. "If it hadn't been raining so hard in the north, our result would have been better," Nationalist spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen said, alluding to the strong Nationalist support in Taipei and its environs. The People's First Party garnered only 6.1 percent of the vote, coming in fourth behind the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a pro-independence party, whose spiritual godfather is former President Lee Teng-hui. The TSU won 7 percent of the vote. Outside the region, China and Taiwan have used dollar diplomacy for decades to win over small nations, including in the Caribbean, where Taiwan's foreign minister on Sunday began a visit to St. Kitts and St. Vincent. In recent years, China's growing economic clout has persuaded several Caribbean countries to sever decades-old ties with Taiwan. The most recent was Grenada, which established ties with Beijing in January despite Taiwan's offer of $40 million to help the island rebuild its cricket stadium after Hurricane Ivan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 19:58 ||
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You're in trouble, Jacques, when even Schroeder won't help out on the eve of elections. OTOH maybe he's got a bigger present for you and this is just a sop. After all, you're such good buddies you can even sit in for one another in Brussels business.
Or, maybe the wolves are turning on one another?
Germany has rejected a deal in Brussels which would have allowed French President Jacques Chirac to slash value-added tax on restaurant meals, denying him a political boost ahead of this month's French referendum on the European constitution.
Gerhard Schröder, theGerman chancellor, promised Mr Chirac at a Franco-German summit in February 2004 that he would back the plan to help French restaurateurs and diners, but the deal came unstuck in backroom negotiations in Brussels on Thursday.
Mr Chirac's plan to cut VAT on restaurant meals from 19.6 per cent to 5.5 per cent, at a cost of â¬3bn ($3.8bn, £2bn), was a key part of his 2002 election campaign, and he hoped to gain approval from European Union partners before the May 29 referendum.
But the political appeal to French stomachs is now on hold, and is not scheduled to be discussed by finance ministers until June 7; even then there appears little prospect of a breakthrough.
French hopes of a "present from Brussels" were dashed at a meeting of tax experts, at which Germany was one of eight countries opposing a package of measures allowing countries to apply reduced rates of value-added tax to certain products and services.
Hans Eichel, the German finance minister, is opposed in principle to extending the number of services exempt from the EU's minimum VAT rate of 15 per cent, because Berlin's finances are already stretched.
Although Germany said at the meeting it would reluctantly accept making restaurant meals an exception, it would not support any of the other countries' proposals for VAT softening an eclectic package drawn up by the EU's Luxembourg presidency reflecting national preoccupations.
They include a Greek plan for lower taxes on motorcycle helmets, a Belgium proposal to help garden service providers, a Lithuanian suggestion that false limbs be exempt, and British attempts to have a zero rate of VAT for repairs to churches.
Many finance ministries do not want to open what they regard as a "Pandora's Box", and the entire package including the special regime for restaurants was shot down on Thursday by Germany, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.
A German spokesman said: "We would support the French on restaurants, butif you go through the Luxembourg proposal you end up with a 40-strong wish-list."
A French spokesman accepted that little progress could now be made until June 7.
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 7:11:33 AM ||
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They include a Greek plan for lower taxes on motorcycle helmets
LOL for many reasons.
Seriously tho, they would make the tax back in lower hospital costs.
#2
They include a Greek plan for lower taxes on motorcycle helmets, a Belgium proposal to help garden service providers, a Lithuanian suggestion that false limbs be exempt, and British attempts to have a zero rate of VAT for repairs to churches.
If you highlighted this in yellow, you would think it a snarky comment from the poster or editor. The EUniks have definitely convened a mad hatter's tea party.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/14/2005 12:03 Comments ||
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Note that no one proposed actually reducing the rate below 15% across the board. It's all about political pull and back-scratching. It's Atlas Shrugged before our very eyes.
#5
I'd like to laugh at the Byzantine European tax code, except I've had disputes with New York State and Uncle Sam for three of the last five years, and I've got to say that our tax code isn't all that sensible either.
China is maintaining close contact with Pakistan and other friendly countries in a bid to develop consensus on the United Nations (UN) reforms, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan told reporters on Friday. He said that China was in regular consultation with the government of Pakistan on important issues of global interest. "We are also in contact with other developing countries to reach consensus on UN reforms, including the Security Council," the spokesman added. Pakistan and China have an almost identical stance on UN reforms, and want the world body to be more democratic and representative.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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I thought about headlining this 'Infighting at the UN increases risk of flu pandemic' but on reflection its more the usual UN sloth, incompetance, buck passing and corruption. Flying around the world issuing press releases beats the hell out doing any real work.
Tracking genetic changes in bird-flu viruses is vital for early warning of a human pandemic. But Nature has discovered that it is nearly eight months since the World Health Organization (WHO) last saw data on isolates from infected poultry in Asia. And from the dozens of patients who caught the deadly H5N1 strain this year, the WHO has managed to obtain just six samples.
Affected countries are failing, or refusing, to share their human samples with the WHO's influenza programme in Geneva. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) set up a network of labs to collect animal samples last year, but it has not received any for months, and Michael Perdue, head of Animal Influenza Liaison at the WHO flu programme, complains that the FAO "hasn't been sharing" what it does have.
Such lack of cooperation is a key concern as anxiety about a possible pandemic increases. Human cases are beginning to appear in clusters, which suggests that people are transmitting the virus, older people are falling ill, and milder cases are being reported. Taken together, these trends suggest that the virus is becoming less virulent and more infectious — two characteristics typical of pandemic flu strains.
With so few samples to work on, it is impossible to judge how worried to be, says Klaus Stöhr, coordinator of the WHO's flu programme. "It's as if you hear a noise in your car engine, but you keep driving, not knowing whether it's serious."
Of the six human samples that the WHO has received from Vietnam, several contain a mutated version of H5N1. But that is not enough to indicate a broader change in the strain, says Perdue. It is also impossible for the agency to link this mutation of the virus to possible changes in how pathogenic and transmissible it is in humans. That would require molecular information on hundreds of viruses, and full clinical data on the cases from which they come. Such studies "aren't happening", says Stöhr.
Early signals that the virus is mutating might be picked up from viruses circulating in poultry. The FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) should be collecting samples, but a recent FAO check reveals that the agency has not been receiving any. The WHO's flu programme was last given access to a sample in October 2004, so it has no idea how the virus is changing in birds. Hey whats 8 months when you are dealing with a potential pandemic killing millions? No need to rush.
Some countries don't have the resources to collect, conserve and securely transport samples, says Joseph Domenech, head of the Animal Health Service at FAO headquarters in Rome (see Nature 433, 102−104; 2005). "But things that should be happening are not," he adds. "Samples sometimes sit in labs," lacking authorization for export.
Countries are wary of sharing viruses with outside laboratories because they fear losing control over information, says one flu expert. "Authorities in Vietnam are very sensitive as to what they tell the people," he explains. "They don't want outside groups making pronouncements and these getting into the press without being vetted by the ministries of health and agriculture."
Scientists in countries with avian flu often want to work on virus samples first, he adds. They want to get credit for their work, he explains, and to use the data to develop their own vaccines.
One FAO consultant, who also asked not to be named, confirms there is a "time lag" in sharing what samples there are with the WHO. But he argues that the FAO and OIE are in a difficult position. "Some countries have provided samples but stipulated that the information can't be shared with the wider community," he says. Using secrecy to control a viral disease. Now there's a novel concept.
Domenech argues instead that the FAO has no recent samples to share. There has been "complacency" at national levels, he admits, adding that the FAO has now instructed its regional networks to redouble their efforts to acquire isolates. And the FAO and OIE are drafting a standard 'material transfer' agreement to clarify the conditions of use of flu samples, and the intellectual-property rights of the countries that provide them.
Meanwhile, the WHO has begun soliciting poultry samples directly from affected countries. Stöhr, Perdue and other WHO officials flew to Manila in the Philippines last week to meet government health representatives from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The talks included presentations on the mutated human strains.
The meeting heard that Vietnam has recently agreed to ship a large number of poultry samples direct to the WHO flu centre at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC website gives no indication such a centre exists. And Perdue is hopeful that other countries will follow: "The presentations drove home the importance and urgency of sharing data."
#1
WHO was once, at least I think it was, a shining example of what a world org could accomplish - if everyone acted realtively sane and left their dipshit political agendas at home.
This is some serious shit - and the games are afoot. Scratch WHO. Is there anything left that works that hasn't become politicized?
#4
Wasn't WHO who turned down cholora vaccinations during one of those refugee bouts outs in central Africa because there weren't enough shots for everyone, so no one would get them?
#7
Frank, No need to go SE Asia. There is a flu strain killing dogs in the USA. It appears to have jumped from horses to dogs. Flu is good at jumping species.
The U.N. health agency remains optimistic that Indonesia's first polio outbreak in a decade can be contained, but warned Monday that hundreds of people could be capable of spreading the disease without ever developing symptoms.
Four toddlers have been confirmed as suffering from the crippling disease in two West Java villages. But based on past data, only about one in 200 people infected ever gets sick. That means that with four cases, as many as 800 people could unknowingly carry the virus and spread it to others in Indonesia, said Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health' Organization's polio eradication initiative in Geneva. "Without anyone taking notice, it transmits silently for a while," he said. "It can spread very rapidly without people knowing."
More than 4,000 children in and around two villages where the polio cases emerged have been vaccinated since the first case was reported April 21, Rosenbauer said. Indonesia plans to inoculate 5.2 million children under age 5 by July.
Unless the mullahs go nuts, but what's the chance of that?
Indonesia had not seen a polio case since 1995, and health experts say the latest outbreak is genetically linked to the virus circulating in Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The disease was likely imported to those countries from Nigeria, where polio vaccinations were suspended for several months in 2003 after radical Islamic preachers warned parents not to vaccinate their children against polio because they believed it was part of a U.S. plot against Muslims.
It's unclear how the disease reached Indonesia, but experts say it likely came from a migrant worker, a religious pilgrim or a traveler returning from one of the three countries with a similar virus. "Obviously, we're all worried," said Arun Thapa, WHO's regional adviser for polio in Southeast Asia, who investigated the Indonesian outbreak. "We haven't yet been able to detect other evidence of the virus circulating in other districts. Thank God it's a localized outbreak so far."
"We must remember that there is a lot of travel from Indonesia to the Middle East and gulf countries," he said. "There are guest workers from Indonesia who work in Malaysia and other countries. It is surely a concern for us."
But Rosenbauer said WHO is optimistic the outbreak can be contained quickly. He said some 80 percent of children across Indonesia have been vaccinated and the rapid response to the latest cases will likely prevent the disease from spreading.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Until relatively recently, WHO has been using attenuated (live) polio vaccine in Africa and I believe they still are (it's cheaper and easier to administer). A practice discontinued in the West 40 years ago after it was found to cause polio in some children. Here is a link that documents what happened in Uganda in the late 1990s. Something similar happened in Oman. Here is a report from 2000 that documents several vaccine derived polio outbreaks. The issue in Nigeria was that the vaccines may have been contaminated with a (female) hormone. The reality is that WHO's polio eradication capaign has been marked by general incompetance and coverups, which fed into muslim ignorance and superstition.
#2
phil_b wrote "The reality is that WHO's polio eradication capaign has been marked by general incompetance and coverups, which fed into muslim ignorance and superstition."
SCIENTISTS will today unveil results from the first large-scale human trial into a vaccine for nicotine which could see people immunised against addictions to smoking within the next five years...
The three trial drugs, which are taken as a course of between four and six injections, work by stimulating the production of antibodies in the blood. These antibodies stop nicotine from entering the brain and producing the addictive sensation craved by smokers... Manipulating the immune system to attack a chemical for which the human body has receptors everywhere. Gee, what could possibly go wrong?
#2
From memory, nicotine blocks an enzyme that breaks down a neurotransmitter resulting in more neural activity (in the sympathetic nervous system). AFAIAW a normal immune system would have no reaction to nicotine. I agree with the Moose, manipulating the immune system in this way strikes me as highly risky given that immune disorders seem linked to all kinds of modern conditions that were rare or unheard of a couple of generations ago.
A second FT article notes Castillo has withdrawn. Wonderful - we now have the EUros in charge of world trade policy. Here are some or the issues under negotiation.
The new boss will take over in late summer after the end-July deadline for assessing progress in the current Doha round of trade liberalisation talks.
By then it should be clear whether a breakthrough on agriculture at last week's meeting of trade ministers in Paris has led to sustained progress. That achievement has left a sense of relief rather than elation among delegations to the WTO, with a feeling that tough negotiations remain ahead.
In one way, it was absurd that ministers should have had to meet to sort out what seemed like a minor technical matter converting flat-rate agricultural tariffs such as dollars per tonne into percentages. But in an interview this week, Celso Amorim, the Brazilian trade minister, defended the move. "I agree it is frustrating that ministers should have to focus on minor technical issues," Mr Amorim said. "But there is nothing purely technical in life. What it shows is that there has to be more ministerial involvement than perhaps we thought."
Other officials involved in the WTO process added that the contentious nature of the tariff conversion negotiations proved that real concessions were under discussion.
Last year's framework agreement called for steeper cuts in farm tariffs to be made by those countries that had higher levels of protection to begin with. This will require members such as the European Union, which raised objections to the proposed tariff conversion formula, to make significant changes.
Mr Amorim said he was pleasantly surprised that the EU last week made concessions that implied bigger cuts than they had expected to make. Last week's breakthrough, though, merely sets the stage for the substance of the talks. At the heart of a successful conclusion in Doha is likely to be a deal between rich countries and big emerging markets.
Essentially, the EU, US and Japan would lower agricultural tariffs and cut farm subsidies in return for more access to the goods and services markets of developing countries such as India, China and Brazil.
However, an initial proposal released last month by Argentina, India and Brazil envisaged a formula that would mean only moderate cuts in goods tariffs for developing countries that currently had high levels of protection.
Mr Amorim said this week that he was prepared to negotiate on the formula but wanted to see more progress in agriculture first.
"We don't think it is a low offer," Mr Amorim said. "In previous rounds, every [cut] we did was on industrial tariffs. We have an average industrial tariff of 13 per cent, while some countries have agricultural tariffs of 2600 per cent."
The rich countries, though, are showing few signs of hurrying to dismantle agricultural protection. Earlier this week European farm ministers cast doubt on whether reforms to the EU's controversial sugar regime would, as originally envisaged, be in place by the full WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December.
The WTO will have a new head by the summer. But his first task may well be to find a way of catching up for the slow progress in the first half of the year.
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 7:09:11 AM ||
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Pascal Lamy has a history of raping the US. This is not good.
#2
The rich countries, though, are showing few signs of hurrying to dismantle agricultural protection.
The EEEEEVIL rich haves are not letting the haves not play. Maybe it is because it still is a heck of a lot cheaper and more efficiant to have one farmer in a modern tractor farm what it takes 100 peasents to do in other countries.
Besides, I like that one farmer better, his wife makes a mean apple pie.
#3
If we even try to depend on those 100 farmers we will all starve. That is something that the people against ag tariffs don't even understand. That is why so much of the "3rd" world is undernourished. It has nothing to do with tariffs. They simply can't grow enough food most of the time to feed all those who need to be fed.
The protectionist EU incharge of the WTO? Get ready for a world wide depression fueled by protectionist clap trap and taxation passed off as tariffs.
A man was killed in an aerial firing incident in the Shadbagh area. Police said that Riasat (42) was hit by a bullet when his friend Shahid started aerial firing at another friend Imran's wedding. He was taken to Mayo Hospital where he expired. The body was sent for an autopsy.
"Another one, Dr. Quincy!"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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I guess it's the entrance wound on top of the head - along with a lack of 12' tall arabs - that allow them to make these easy calls
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 16:12 Comments ||
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I just came back from a wedding where we blew bubbles instead of aerial firing. I feel so damned civilized.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/14/2005 16:46 Comments ||
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did "bubbles" like that?
sorry....old joke
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 17:05 Comments ||
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A man killed a spiritual leader (Pir) on Friday in the Mughalpura area. Police said that pir Amir Nawaz, a resident of Bogiwal, practiced black magic on Ajant Road. Police said that Muhammad Nawaz gave money to the pir for performing black magic on his rivals. Pir Amir failed to perform black magic and when Nawaz asked for his money back, he refused. At this, Nawaz stabbed him after a scuffle and fled. The neighbours took him to Shalimar Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. The body was sent for an autopsy.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Amateurs! Pir apparently did not know that he will receive back whatever hex he sent thrice as strong. The proper way to do it is to deploy a ponzi scheme on the entities involved. Rinse and recycle. And remember. Plan ahead. If you want to live to the end of your natural course, plan ahead for the length of it.
The US has announced that it is to re-impose quotas on three categories of Chinese textile imports, arguing that thousands of jobs are at risk. The moves follows a massive surge in clothing imports into the US since worldwide quotas were abolished at the beginning of this year.
The clothing ranges which will now be limited are cotton trousers, cotton shirts and underwear.
Last month the US and the EU began investigating Chinese import levels. They said the goods were damaging their own textile industries. Under the rules of the World Trade Organisation, countries have the right to act if it is determined that serious market disruption has taken place. The US Commerce Secretary, Carlos Guitierrez, said a government investigation had established that this was indeed the case.
The EU has already urged China to curb its textile exports. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Thursday that China should clamp down or face legal action.
The US decision was taken by the inter-agency Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA). It means that total shipments in the three categories will only be able to increase by 7.5% above shipments in the past 12 months. "Today's action by CITA demonstrates this administration's commitment to levelling the playing field for US industry by enforcing our trade agreements," Mr Gutierrez said in a statement.
Which had already surged; this just concedes market share.
The action came partly in response to complaints from US textile manufacturers about the increase in imports since global quotas ended on 1 January. The quotas could remain until the end of the year unless the US and China reach a "satisfactory" agreement, CITA said.
US retailers have opposed the quotas, on the grounds that they will raise prices for consumers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Why don't we just buy the damn factories, mothball 'em and retrain the workers. I like cheap textiles. I know, I know, first it's cotton then it's the strategic mohair industry.
A US Navy ship rescued 27 people after their vessel caught fire in the Northern Persian Gulf on Wednesday night, forcing them to jump onto a life raft. USS Mustin, a destroyer currently on maritime security operations in the area, responded to distress signals from the Panamanian-flagged Motor Vessel Olympias. It was not immediately clear where the vessel originated and where it was heading when an engine-room fire engulfed it around 11 pm local time on Wednesday.
Apart from the Indians, a Sri Lankan and a Nepalese national were safely evacuated. All of them are in good health, the US Naval Forces Central Command said. "When crew members from the destroyer arrived on scene, they found the motor vessel's superstructure burning and 27 people from Olympias jumping into a life raft," it said in a release. Sailors transferred all of them to Mustin's rigid-hull inflatable boats, and then onto another US Navy ship, USS Carl Vinson.
The crew of Olympias notified Vinson of the fire via bridge-to-bridge radio. Vinson, which is providing air support for ground forces in Iraq, alerted Mustin for the rescue operation. The cause of the fire was still to be determined.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Prolly shoulda hung around and inhaled the smoke, swabbis, lol! My first guess is that Motor Vessel Olympias was prolly hauling hash.
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.
