A live, adult giant squid has been caught on camera in the wild for the very first time. Japanese researchers took pictures of the elusive creature hunting 900m down, enveloping its prey by coiling its tentacles into a ball. The images show giant squid, known as Architeuthis, are more vigorous hunters than has been supposed. The images, captured in the Pacific Ocean, appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Very cool, pictures at the link
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 08:58 ||
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#1
Here's an alternate method via Joel at The Stupid Shall be Punished. "In 2003, New Zealand marine biologists laid a sex trap.
"They ground up some squid gonads, believing that the scent would drive male giant squids wild as the creatures migrated through New Zealand waters.
"The hope was that a camera would squirt out the pureed genitals and a passing squid, driven into a sexual frenzy, would then mate with the lens -- a project that, some may be relieved to hear, never came to fruition."
"We are developing and will deploy new strategic high-precision systems that have no rivals across the globe. These hypersonic systems will be capable of changing the course and height. They will be practically invulnerable, including to air defense systems," Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, speaking on live television and radio. This announcement came in answer to a spectator's question when Russia would start equipping its army rather than exporting weapons.
Putin also said that Russia would continue providing its army with mobile missile systems, state-of-the-art tanks, new and modernized air defense systems.
"We spend more money on re-equipping Armed Forces than we receive in profits from arms exports," the president said.
He said only a few years ago, Russia did not buy anything for the army.
"A great deal has been done in the past few years to restore the defense industryâs financial health," Putin said, adding this included debt settlements and jobs.
He also said that expansion to foreign markets was a way to support Russiaâs defense sector financially. "If our specialists make it to foreign markets and uphold our interests there, it will be a very good job," the president said.
Russia successfully test-launched a newly-developed intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday, the navy said, The Associated Press reported.
The Bulava, a solid fuel missile, blasted off from the nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy in the White Sea and hit its designated target in the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, chief naval spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said in a statement.
Russiaâs navy is to get two newly equipped nuclear submarines in 2006, armed with the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles, the navy commander said in April. The missiles have a range of 5,000 miles and are in the midst of a three-year testing program.
Each submarine will be equipped with 12 missiles, Interfax said.
In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin encouraged the Defense Ministry to keep up production of new strategic missile systems, a process slowed in the past by a shortage of funds.
#2
If it doesn't sink by itself, we could offer to help it go down.
Any near miss should do it nicely, no Nukes needed, Cruise with conventional HE should do the job nicely and cheaply.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/28/2005 13:51 Comments ||
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Good move, Vlad. Being an elder statesman can be a good thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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this is realy good news I was really wondering if Putin was going to go into the sunset or become the new Imperial Czar. I just hope it is true and of course I will have to wait and see if he follows thru or if it is just a ploy to play puppet master or for real.
#9
I'm gonna echo RC: he's not seeking a third term, he's gonna keep the one he has!
Putin figured out that you can make more money plundering Russian resources. Make energy deals with western Europe while you're prez, then step down and take over the very same energy company involved in the deal. It pays more than being president, and you won't be under all the scrutiny, especially if you install your own successor. Damn. Why didn't I think of that.
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/28/2005 15:18 Comments ||
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VIENNA - Russia is ready to join the United States in creating a bank of uranium fuel for countries which pledge not to make enriched uranium but wants strict regulations, the Russian atomic chief said on Tuesday. âWe support this American initiative,â Alexander Rumyantsev, who is head of the Russian federal nuclear agency, said in Vienna.
But he said it should be âincorporated in international agreementsâ since current US-Russian efforts to turn weapons-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU) into low-enriched uranium (LEU) were governed under a bilateral, US-Russian political agreement.
The fuel bank should be overseen by the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, Rumyantsev said. âThe IAEA is the organization that will have to develop the regulations and rules for such a mechanism,â he said.
'cause we all know how vigilant the IAEA is.
The United States is ready to convert HEU into LEU, which does not have a proliferation risk, and offer it to countries which give up the enrichment process, US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Monday in a statement read out on his behalf.
A senior US diplomat said the offer was made in order to âkick-startâ the creation of a multinational fuel bank so that countries could have access to nuclear fuel without having the capability to make it themselves. This so-called âbreak-outâ capability is a proliferation risk since HEU can be either fuel for reactors or bomb material. LEU, which is also reactor fuel, is not a direct bomb risk.
Both US President George W. Bush and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei have made proposals to create an international fuel service but details have never been made clear. The senior US diplomat said Bodman was trying to deliver the message âthat the United States strongly supports the peaceful use of nuclear energy.â
The diplomat said the exact amount of HEU the United States is ready to âblend downâ is 17.4 metric tons, which is enough for hundreds of atom bombs and would make enough low enriched uranium to power 10 nuclear reactors. The HEU is an amount âcurrently in the US inventory but declared in excess of national security needs.â The blended-down LEU will be âavailable about 2009.â
Smart idea, but if it's our HEU, we should control the blend down, and if it's Russia's, they should control it. Not that I don't trust the IAEA or anything, but ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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BISHKEK - Eighty people have been held in Kyrgyzstan over the killing of Bayaman Erkinbayev, a top lawmaker and key figure in the Central Asian stateâs popular revolution, the interior minister said on Tuesday. âA special operation by law enforcement forces has resulted in the detaining of 80 people in connection with this inquiry,â Kyrgyz Interior Minister Murat Sutalinov told a press conference.
He said Erkinbayev had written a letter before his death naming people he suspected of wanting to assassinate him.
Making a list, checking it BANG once ...
Erkinbayev, 38, was shot outside his home last week as he was getting out of his car. He died of his wounds in hospital.
A controversial figure and influential businessman in this ex-Soviet state, Erkinbayev helped finance and provide manpower for the popular revolution that toppled the regime of veteran president Askar Akayev in March. Shortly before he was killed, Erkinbayev had accused the countryâs secret services and the entourage of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of trying to wrest a large market in southern Kyrgyzstan from his control.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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...On Tuesday, government media reported that the Supreme People's Court would regain the authority it lost in 1983 to oversee capital cases. The change in the early 1980s was driven by a desire for speedy justice. According to the China Youth Daily, the nation's highest court is adding three criminal trial courts to handle death penalty review cases in a "truly neutral" fashion.
Legal scholars estimate that this change could reduce executions by 30%. The current system has seen provincial judges order up the death penalty at a fast and furious pace.
Comprehensive death penalty statistics remain a state secret, although local jurisdictions will announce executions when that serves a political purpose. Human rights groups, however, say China executes more people than the rest of the world's governments combined.
Amnesty International found evidence of 3,400 death sentences carried out in 2004 but says the real number may be closer to 10,000 a year. This compares with 59 in the U.S. in 2004. More than 70 countries use the death penalty, but most apply it only in the case of a few extremely violent crimes. China executes people for 68 offenses, many nonviolent, including smuggling, tax evasion, corruption, "endangering national security" and separatism, which includes advocating Tibetan or Taiwanese independence.
The state-run press has called for a "kill fewer, kill carefully" approach, perhaps as early as next year. More broadly, the Communist Party hopes a credible legal system will help channel public frustration through the courts rather than into public demonstrations...
In theory, cases not involving state secrets, minors or privacy are open to the public. In practice, judges generally close their courts to outside scrutiny.
As in many other countries, prosecutors and police bring cases before a judge. But critics say evidence-gathering, sentencing and legal procedures are often wobbly. There are no juries, police have enormous latitude, and forensics or other independent experts are rarely used. Whether a suspect lives or dies can depend on timing, location and the political winds. Neighboring provinces sometimes hand down dramatically different sentences for the same crime.
"If you put political stress on an already shaky system and just go for results, the risk of abrogation of justice and disproportionate sentencing is significantly higher," said Nicholas Becquelin, Hong Kong-based research director for Human Rights in China.
Chinese executioners tend to be particularly busy before major Communist Party meetings, the U.N.-declared anti-drug day, crime crackdowns and year-end holidays, with the state press touting executions as conducive to a "safe, joyful and happy new year."
The system is heavily stacked against defendants.
Connections, not legal expertise, often determine who becomes a judge, and corruption is a constant concern. In addition, appeals are rarely successful because they are heard by the same court that issued the original sentence.
On paper, suspects are innocent until proven guilty. In practice, legal scholars say, the government is generally assumed to be correct. Chinese law lacks manslaughter or first-, second- and third-degree gradations for murder, so the death penalty often is the only option.
Legal aid is virtually nonexistent. Even those able to afford lawyers aren't allowed to meet with them until after the police interrogation, which can last weeks or even months, with guards often listening in.
Lawyers also say defending their client too effectively subjects them to arrest, harassment and disbarment under Article 306, a statute barring evidence tampering that the state has employed against attorneys.
"Lawyers can be accused of doing their job," said Nicola Macbean, executive director of the Rights Practice, a London-based development group.
The system also places emphasis on confessions, with torture a constant threat, human rights groups say.
China announced recently that several hundred police officers had been reprimanded for "improper methods," a first admission of the scale of the problem. "The fact that people are executed every day under a system so recognizably flawed is unbelievable," said Ben Carrdus, a researcher with Amnesty International.
In a recent reform, China introduced a national law exam for judges and imposed a 12-hour limit on police interrogation, down from 36 hours. And in April, the top appeals court in the southwestern province of Sichuan issued what it billed as the first ruling in China barring confessions obtained through torture.
China's 1979 criminal statutes, which stipulated that executions be carried out with a bullet to the head, were amended in 1996 to include lethal injection. In the late 1990s, China pioneered the use of mobile lethal-injection vans. Reports suggest their use is particularly common during anti-drug campaigns in the southern province of Yunnan.
Reports persist of public executions, although much less frequently than in the past. Last year, students as young as 6 joined 2,500 spectators in a gymnasium in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in central China, to watch the execution of six men, according to a Chinese Internet report.
China spends $87 per execution, including transportation, cremation, bullets and death notices, according to a 2003 report on the government-run Xinhuanet website. The condemned have ranged in age from 18 to 87.
The treatment of people's bodies after their execution is also an issue. Human rights groups have long accused China of using organs without consent from the families of those executed.
In 2000, the mother of convicted murderer Yu Yonggang sued the government in Shanxi province, claiming the court and local medical authorities stole her son's organs after his execution. Another case in Gansu province that year resulted in the award of $250 to a family for a similar theft, according to the Lanzhou Morning Post.
Pro-reform Chinese legal scholars have appealed to the nation's pocketbook, arguing that many countries balk at extraditing corrupt officials given the possibility of a death sentence. The Commerce Ministry estimates that 4,000 corrupt officials have fled with $50 billion in stolen funds since the early 1980s.
State-controlled media have also started publicizing more embarrassing cases. In June, newspapers reported that a farmer in the central province of Hubei who, after 10 days of nonstop interrogation, confessed to killing his wife, had to be released when she showed up alive.
Beijing has made it clear that death penalty limits would only go so far. Corruption, bribery and national security violations would remain capital offenses, a senior official said...
Japan has rejected Russia President Vladimir Putinâs insistence on sovereignty over the Kuril Islands, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.
The territory, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, has been disputed between the two sides for the past 60 years.
In a nationwide phone-in on Tuesday, Putin ruled out any negotiations with Tokyo over the islands, which lie between Russiaâs Kamchatka peninsula and the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
"They are under the sovereignty of the Russian Federation," he said. "This is reinforced by international law. And on this issue we are not ready to discuss anything."
In response, Japanâs Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the islands belongs to Japan.
"From the objective standpoint, the four northern islands belong to Japan, and we will keep claiming our sovereignty over them," he said.
The Soviet army seized the islands after Japanâs capitulation in World War II.
The dispute over the territory has kept Moscow and Tokyo from signing a peace treaty formally ending hostilities during the 1939-45 conflict.
#2
I think the Yamato was destroyed battling the Comet Empire.
Russia needs cash, they should sell the islands to japan and allow the Japanese to save face in the process. The islands have little value now that Russia has no Pacific fleet.
#3
Japan has offered billions in development and social aid (pipelines, development, benefits for the Russian citizens) in exchange for the Kurils. Russian objections are:
We took the Kurils fair and square.
They protect the shipping lanes of Vladivostock.
Rich fishing grounds around the Kurils
Settlers have to move.
Posted by: ed ||
09/28/2005 17:24 Comments ||
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#4
"1939-1945 conflict" ?
Excuse me, you mean World War 2 ?
Posted by: john ||
09/28/2005 18:27 Comments ||
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#5
And the Russian war against the Japanese lasted 3 weeks?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/28/2005 18:32 Comments ||
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#6
More like 1 week, starting the 8th (after Hiroshima, anyway) if I remember.
A Swedish court of appeal has found two men not guilty of raping a 15 year old girl, arguing that despite the fact that she was on the run, had not had hardly eaten any food or had any sleep and had been drinking alcohol, she was not in a "helpless state".
The prosecutor, Anne-Marie Nyholm, had appealed against an earlier judgement by the Handen district court, which had freed the two men but found one man guilty of raping the girl in Jordbro, south of Stockholm.
The prosecutor maintained that the girl was in a helpless state when the men had sex with her, and that the men must have realised that.
Several days before the incident, the girl had absconded from a treatment centre without any money, and had had little food or sleep since then.
A friend had left her, with nowhere else to go she had gone to the three men's apartment. There she was offered alcohol.
But while the Svea Court of Appeal agreed on Monday that the girl had found herself in a very unpleasant and dangerous situation, it said that according to the rule of law she was not helpless.
[...]
In a surprise move, the conservative winner of last Sundayâs Polish elections, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has proposed physics and economics expert Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz as the new Polish prime minister â refraining from taking the tob job himself.
Mr Kaczynskiâs right-leaning Law and Justice party on Sunday won a convincing victory in the countryâs general elections, winning 26.7 percent of the votes, ahead of the centre-right Civic Platform which ended up gaining 24.1 percent.
During the campaign both parties had already said they would form a coalition. Together, they will now make up a majority with 288 of the 460 parliament seats.
Mr Kaczynski said yesterday (27 September) according to German press reports "I have considered what the shortest way is to quickly form a government".
Talks with the Civic Platform had led to the conclusion that Mr Marcinkiewicz was the right man for the job, he added.
The 46 year-old Mr Marcinkiewicz has been leading the Polish parliamentâs privatisation committee but was a physics teacher before his carreer in politics began.
Mr Marcinkiewicz said his intention is to form a "stable government for four years".
According to press reports, one reason for Mr Kaczynski's move is that his twin brother, current Warsaw mayor Lech Kaczynski, has good chances to be elected Polish president after the presidential elections to be held on 9 October.
Mr Kaczynski said Poles did not want two brothers filling up the presidency and the prime ministership.
But Robert Beange, an economist with Lehman Brothers in London, is quoted by Reuters as saying that Mr Marcinkiewicz was "just a holding candidate until the presidency is decided".
Civic Platform presidential candidate Donald Tusk had urged Law and Justice to appoint Mr Kaczynski as prime minister, instead of a "figurehead".
Mr Tusk leads Mr Kaczynskiâs brother in opinion polls.
Although Law and Justice and the Civic Platform are keen on forming a coalition together, difficulties look set to arise primarily in the area of economic policy. While Civic Platform has a pro-business reputation, Law and Justice is said to be less market-oriented and more socially conservative.
The European Parliament postponed a vote to ratify Turkey's customs union with the European Union on Wednesday, citing frustration over Ankara's continued refusal to recognize Cyprus. In another step certain to anger the Turkish government days ahead of scheduled EU membership talks, lawmakers called on Ankara to recognize the 1915-23 killings of Armenians as genocide.
And if that doesn't keep them out, they'll think of something else
The lawmakers issued a nonbinding resolution saying recognition of the killings as genocide should be a prerequisite for Turkey to join the EU. Ankara vehemently denies that genocide was carried out on Armenians as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, saying Armenians who rose in rebellion and sided with Russian invaders were killed along with Turks in intercommunal fighting. The EU Parliament voted 311-285, with 65 abstentions, to postpone the customs union ratification ballot.
The delay will have no effect on the starting date on negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU, scheduled for Oct. 3. The assembly already postponed a vote earlier this month when its foreign affairs committee said the customs union would not work because Turkey still would not allow Cyprus to use its ports or airports. In July, Turkey signed an agreement to widen its customs union with the EU to include Cyprus and nine other new EU members. But the government also said its signature did not amount to recognition of the Cypriot government. EU governments last week warned that failure to recognize Cyprus could paralyze Turkey's EU entry talks.
The customs union agreement with all 25 EU member states is a key condition for Turkey's bid to join the bloc. 'The Turkish government has accepted the customs union protocol but at the same time has refused to recognize Cyprus. It's logically and politically unacceptable,' European People's Party chairman Hans-Gert Poettering said before asking the assembly to postpone the vote.
Cyprus has been divided since a 1974 abortive coup by supporters of union with Greece prompted an invasion by Turkish troops. Turkey still occupies the north of the island in support of a breakaway Turkish-Cypriot government. Ankara does not recognize the Greek-Cypriot government in the south.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 09:40 ||
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But before you join, you must cut down the tallest tree in Europe ... with a herring!
#6
Ah, that's just Ronnie Earle down in Travis County. He's one of the most partisan Democrats in the country. His 1994 indictment against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was quickly dismissed and his charges in the 1980s against former Attorney General Jim Mattox-another political foe of Earle-fell apart at trial. He's just trying to smear Tom. I believe Ronnie is also a good friend of Bill Burkett.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 15:19 Comments ||
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#7
Tom Delay has been indicted by a very partisan Travis County DA (Ronnie Earle) who has been been on a witch hunt ever since Texas was re-districted to favor the Republican Party. He has drawn his grand jury from the Austin area; again, a Democratic stronghold.
I think the quote from DeLay's spokesman hits it squarely on the head "This indictment is nothing more than prosecutorial retribution by a partisan Democrat."
Note that the article repeatedly identifies the Travis County Grand Jury as the source of this indictment. Ever hear of a Grand Jury that went a'huntin' all by itsownself? Think about that for a second...
The article does not identify, until about 3/4 of the way into the piece - look for 'Partisan Vendettas', the man who runs the Travis County Grand Jury as his personal private legal gang: DA Ronnie Earle. Obviously County DA's run Grand Juries - everything they do, see, hear is at the direction of the DA. Why wait so long to identify who is actually looking for the indictment? Justice is blind, they say. Not by a long shot - especially in Travis County.
Texans all know and love / hate Earle. He has a very special career: hitman. He has one purpose in life: take down people he doesn't like or with whose politics he disagrees. He's been at it for decades.
I feel rather sorry for the residents of Travis County - though since the DA is an elected official it's self-inflicted - Earle's only interested in BIG fish - statewide fish, Republican fish - the local villains of Travis County aren't worthy of his attention.
So we have a hit piece, hiding the game afoot, about a hit man DA with a political agenda operating under legal cover. Typical Texas politics.
If you re-read the story, with this in mind, and look at how it is constructed, all but convicting DeLay (not a favorite of mine, BTW) in the first 5 paragraphs, it reads quite differently and raises questions not only about the partisan hitman Earle, but about the Bloomberg editors - MSM all the way.
#10
From American Spectator 9/23/2004: If nothing else, you have to give Travis County Democrats credit for thinking big, like real Texans. Apparently undaunted that the assault on President Bush's National Guard service blew up in their faces, they are now trying to bring down House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. All roads in the CBS memo scandal traverse Travis County. Dan Rather was the special guest at a 2001 fundraiser for the Travis County Democratic Party, and his daughter is active in the organization. Former National Guardsman Bill Burkett, the unstable Bush-baiter, who now claims he was the source of the forged documents, is represented (and many believe directed) by David Van Os, the former Travis County Democratic Party chairman. Now Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat with a history of bringing politically motivated indictments, has indicted three DeLay aides who ran a political action committee called Texans for a Republican Majority PAC. Perhaps recognizing that indicting DeLay himself 41 days before an election would be just too transparent, Earle instead indicted the three underlings for allegedly directing corporate contributions to Texas legislative candidates in 2002.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 15:47 Comments ||
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#11
Is a federal gand jury inditement of Ronnie Earle forth coming? 2 can play this game. If his cases like this have blown up on him in the past it's evidence of misconduct and trying to deny people of their civil rights by abusing the grand jury process. Keep him so busy with depositions and discovery in federal court he will not be able to wind his watch.
I really could care less as I don't have a dog in this fighjt but I think the Dem's need to be dipped in their own shit.
#12
They are really having a feeding frenzy over at Arianna Huffinpuff's place. Tom Delay is as good as in jail and Bill Frist is guilty of insider trading. all of this without any trial or investigation being complete. But they still think Sandy Burgler was railroaded.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/28/2005 16:31 Comments ||
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#13
I wrote to K-Lo at the Corner that the date of the check shown in the indictment just happened to coincide with the very last day that a charge could be filed under that law (look at the page after the check's shown for the date this indictment was filed). That, and it looks like they're only talking about a single check. On those two alone the indictment stinks halfway to high heaven.
Employing a political war chest on a par with those of major parties, the California Teachers Assn. is used to being in the thick of campaigns. But on a muggy Monday morning at the end of July, when most of their peers were on vacation, hundreds of teachers gathered at UCLA were reminded that they were now targets as much as participants.
"There are people in this state who are trying to portray us as something that has nothing to do with children, nothing to do with students and everything to do with greed," the union's president, Barbara Kerr, told organizers and negotiators attending an annual summer training institute. "And they are wrong..."
Spending vast sums is nothing new for the union, which says the state's immense power in dictating how schools are run and funded makes a strong presence in Sacramento essential. From 2000 to 2004, the association laid out more than $70 million for politics and lobbying, campaign finance records show â an average of $42 a year for most union members.
In the Legislature and at the polls, the union has pressed for more education spending and smaller classes, and kept private-school vouchers at bay. It has fought to limit the spread of charter schools and restrict testing requirements for teachers and students. It has also advocated an agenda that goes far beyond school halls to encompass California's healthcare system and taxes...
#4
Vote yes on Props 74, 75, 76, and 77 to break the union/democrat stranglehold on California schools, government, and taxpayers' wallets. The commercials that the unions have been running for the last few months make Schwarzenegger look like a cross between a con man and Adolf Eichmann.
#5
What's really bad is that the union collected a fee hike (illegally) to pay for the anti-props campaign. I want them to take the next step and declare participation in the union dues as voluntary. If they did that their money would dry up in a second. For those that don't understand: California State employees have union dues deducted from their pay whether they join or not. Yes it is taxation without representation.
#6
The CTA is run out of LA and the Bay area. No other input is tolerated. All decisions are decided on before the membership is polled. Paying dues is not voluntary. Much of the money the union spends has nothing to do with the people who belong to it or with students and teachers. It's a wholly owned organ of the Democrtatic party and is a slush fund for them.
Most Teachers do not support the Union but are forced to pay dues by State Law if the school is a Union shop. Very few teachers can tolerate having to deal with anything other than the local Union due to radical politics. It's strange but I only know 3 CTA members who are not Republicans. My next door neighbor comes home and listens to a replay of Hanaty and conservative talk radio. My wife and daughter are also forced to belong and are both Republicans. Getting your dues back that go towards political efforts is almopst imposible. They use other moneys for that anyway even if it's illegal.
#7
I want to thank the Teachers Assn. and the State Employees union - I no longer have to read all propositions. All I do is check which side these two unions are on and vote the opposite...THANKS to both....
#11
I direct your attention to the official listing of "New Business Items" adopted by the NEA during its annual meeting in July 2005. These are the poicies and positions formally adopted by the union membership. While this is not specific to the California Teachers' Union, I don't imagine their policies vary that much.
Item 2: Educating Wal-Mart consumers as to the lack of union labor
Item 3: Patronage of financial services providers that don't advocate Social Security reform
Item 4: Add the words "other" and "multi-ethnic" in addition to "unknown" in the category of ethnicity on all forms.
Item 5: Commemorate the 40th anniversary of the historic merger of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Teachers Association (ATA), which occurred in 1966.
Item 8: Health problems from exposure to fragrance chemicals
Item 9: Indoor air quality studies
Item 11: The NEA shall expand our nationwide plan to elect pro public education candidates to Congress in 2006 by sponsoring political training for members in targeted areas leading up to the election.
Item 13: That NEA continue to oppose attempts by billionaire Eli Broad and any other entities to remove elected school boards from cities in California and in any other state or territory.
Item 30: Refers to the "so-called" No Child Left Behind Program
Item 32: Study the feasibility of initiating a boycott of Gallo wine.
Boycott of Gallo Wine???
Go get 'em, Arnie. These 'educators' are not serious about education.
#12
All those commercials that have been running day and night that attack Arnold have succeeded; I will be sure to vote against anything the CTA supports.
WASHINGTON - Peace mom Cindy Sheehan didn't change her opposition to the war in Iraq after meeting Tuesday with one of its supporters, Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam veteran whom she called "a warmonger." Sheehan thanked McCain for meeting with her, but she came away disappointed.
"He tried to tell us what George Bush would have said," Sheehan, who protested at the president's Texas home over the summer, told reporters. "I don't believe he believes what he was telling me."
That's OK, Cindy. We don't believe what you tell us either
McCain, R-Ariz., also seemed disappointed in the meeting, which he said had been misrepresented as including some of his constituents. Only one person in her small delegation has ties to the state, and that person no longer lives there.
Gee, I wonder how that happened?
The two exchanged views about the war, and McCain described the conversation as "a rehash" of opinions already well-known. He said he might not have met with Sheehan had he known none of his constituents was in the group. Although McCain has criticized the handling of the Iraq war, he has supported President Bush's call to stop terrorism abroad before it reaches the United States. Sheehan, whose son, Casey, died in Iraq last year, has energized the anti-war movement with her call for troops to be brought home.
"He is a warmonger, and I'm not," Sheehan said after meeting with McCain. "I believe this war is not keeping America safer." "She's entitled to her opinion," McCain said. "We just have fundamental disagreements."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 11:02 ||
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#1
Sheehan is 'deranged lunatic,' McCain says after meeting
#2
There is no way on God's Earth I would "click to enlarge" on the picture of her in that article. I wonder if McCain was really surprised he was lied to about some of his constituants being in the group. I'm certainly not.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/28/2005 11:39 Comments ||
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#4
au contraire, BaR, lots of folks want to hear what she thinks or says. Train wrecks are addictive.
Posted by: john ||
09/28/2005 11:50 Comments ||
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#5
#4 au contraire, BaR, lots of folks want to hear what she thinks or says. Train wrecks are addictive.
Posted by: john 2005-09-28 11:50
John: I'm with you buddy. Sheehan's the gift that just keeps giving. US out of New Orleans; her dismissive remarks about Hurricane Rita being "a little wind and rain."
Read how KOS KOOKS lose their freaking minds after Cindy's little? gaffe:
rita (3.33 / 3)
i am watching cnn and it is 100 percent rita...even though it is a little wind and a little rain...it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today...and in the world!!!!
by CindySheehan on Sat Sep 24th, 2005 at 06:29:15 PDT
[ Parent ]
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about your meeting with John McCain. When was it this afternoon?
SHEEHAN: It was at 4:00 this afternoon, just right before I came over here.
MATTHEWS: How long was it?
SHEEHAN: It was about 20 minutes.
MATTHEWS: Alone with him?
SHEEHAN: I was with, yes, him and his staff. And my sister and a constituent went with us.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 11:55 Comments ||
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#7
This is becoming kind of a ritual for the 2008 candidates, isn't it? Being insulted or condemned by âMotherâ Sheehan I mean. When it was Hillary I thought that it was some kind of set up (still do). Now McCain has deliberately set himself up too.
Whatâs next? Does she condemn Al Gore and Bill Frist?
#10
I want my president to have some skill in judgement. McCain just flushed the toilet. Consider it a 'Brown' moment, when adequate meets overwhelming and the shortcomings are displayed. Bye, bye John.
#14
I don't know about that, Hupolump, I think McCain pretty much dismissed her as a dingbat: more politely than I would have, but then, he's a politican. I think McCain is drawing lines here, and that helps him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2005 13:13 Comments ||
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#15
Why would anyone lower themself to meet with that deranged lunatic? That's not showing very good judgement, John. What good could have possibly come from it? Did you believe for a moment that she might have looked you in the eye and said "Gee, I guess I was wrong"???
#16
Simple, the more "Leaders" meet with her, the more it dilutes her importance as regards "Hillary", thin the soup enough and it's of no nourishment.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/28/2005 14:17 Comments ||
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#17
LOL McCain deserves it! When you lay down with dogs you may wake up with fleas.
On the heels of N.O. police chief Eddie Compass' resignation, allegations are emerging. Fox News' Tony Snow has said that of the 1700 police working for New Orleans, maybe only 1000 really exist.
Ghost cops
Rogers asked someone in the know, who agreed with Snow's statements.
"It's pretty much always been known, but never openly acknowledged, that NOPD's actual numbers were far below the "official" figure of 1500 - 1700," said the source. "To get that number over 1500, and thus qualify for federal funding, Compass and his predecessors counted reservists and certain retirees as active duty officers. The REAL number is, and has been for some time, a lot closer to 1000."
Some time ago, the Feds were considering taking over the NOPD. Allegedly, that's when the "cooking of the books" on numbers of cops started in earnest, because one of the feds' complaints was the low number of officers, Rogers is told. Some suspect that this should be the death knell for the" residency rule," which requires NOPD officers to live in New Orleans.
Developing...
That might explain why 249 officers were "missing in action" after the storm, they were never really there. I'll bet they got paid on time, though.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 10:46 ||
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#1
The standard practice in third world armies is to have payrolls far larger than the real number of troops and officers cashing the pay of the ghost soldiers.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/28/2005 11:23 Comments ||
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#3
My theory is that with NO out of business, the standard shakedowns/graft opportunities aren't available for the PD. Time to move to greener pastures...
Not satisfied with being the Peter Lawford of the 21st Century...
For Ben Affleck, the closest role he's had to senator so far was his part as CIA agent Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's spy thriller "The Sum of all Fears." I saw that. It sucked.
But the Washington Post reports some want Affleck to say goodbye to the Hollywood Hills and hello to Capital Hill as the Democratic senator from Virginia. Post columnist Amy Argetsinger says Virginia Democrats are desperately seeking a big name to take on rising Republican star Sen. George Allen next year. STREI...SAND! STREI...SAND!! STREI..SAND!!!
"They need someone who is smart and photogenic and has a lot of his own money to subsidize a campaign. It just so happens that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have been looking for real estate in Charlottesville," Argetsinger tells CBS affiliate WUSA. And his career currently seems to center on being a lousy poker player on Celebrity Texas Hold'em Tournaments, so he's got plenty of time on his hands to devote to campaigning.
University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato tells the Post the Affleck speculation is "spread pretty widely, at least in the political underground." Democratic Gov. Mark Warner, who at one point had been mentioned as a potential Senate candidate but is now seen as a possible 2008 presidential contender, says he welcomes the Afflecks as new residents, but won't say much more. "If he moves to Virginia and wants to get involved politically, he has a major name but that's not somebody I think there's an active recruitment going on with," says Warner. Hidden message from the governor: He's a wannabe stiff.
Affleck has never held public office but was prominent at last year's Democratic National Convention. Which worked out real well as I remember.
And he certainly wouldn't be the first actor to turn to politics. President Reagan and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have both made that same career move. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...right.
Affleck's spokesman Ken Sunshine says there's no truth to the rumors, but says Affleck "would be a superb candidate for public office in the future. Right now, he's very busy directing his first feature movie for Disney, 'Gone, Baby, Gone.'" ...which I'm sure that'll be another huuuuuuge hit for him.
#3
Remember, you don't have to be faster than the bear, only faster than someone else in your group. Although he may be a so so actor among his peers, among the Dem pols, he'll be far ahead in his ability to portray grandstanding, demagoguery, and hypocrisy with a straight face. "I'm not a real statesman but I will play one in Washington." Can't say he'd do any worse than the crowd there now.
#10
Thhanks, .com, there went my appetite for dinner.( Sgt. Mom's patented weight reduction plan strikes again--- another nausea-enducing picture viewed just before a meal.)
Illegal immigrants are increasing despite tighter border security and now outnumber foreigners moving to the United States legally.
The Pew Hispanic Center reported Tuesday that immigration in general has been picking up, tracking the reviving American economy and improving jobs picture. "The U.S. economy was obviously a very important factor in determining these flows," said Roberto Suro, director of the center and a co-author of its study.
Immigration â both legal and illegal â topped 1.5 million people in 1999 and 2000, according to the report. The number of people entering the United States then plummeted to 1.1 million people by 2003, the same level as in 1992. Immigration bounced back to 1.2 million in 2004, but the report cautioned that it is difficult to say whether the recent upswing is part of a new trend. "The extremely high (immigration) flows at the end of the past decade were not the norm, nor part of a long-term trend, but rather the peak of a momentary increase that lasted for only a few years," said the report, which was written by Suro and demographer Jeffrey Passel.
The report documents immigration levels from 1992 to 2004, generating estimates from a variety of Census data.The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Border security gained national attention last month after the governors of two states, Arizona and New Mexico, declared states of emergency on their borders with Mexico. The governors cited security shortcomings by the federal government. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at the time that he had already ordered a review of border security strategy.
"The Pew report is yet another indicator that the immigration system is broken," said a statement by John Cornyn, chairman of the Senate's Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship Subcommittee. "Immigration reform must be comprehensive and address both enforcement and improved avenues for legal immigration." The Texas Republican has co-authored a bill that would create a temporary worker visa, as well as a mandatory system for employers to check on the immigration status of prospective employees.
The Pew report said immigration levels closely mirror economic conditions in the United States â as the economy improves, immigration increases â suggesting that the lure of jobs is a strong factor in attracting people to this country. The U.S. economy appears to be a stronger factor than economic conditions in the countries sending immigrants here, the report said.
Among the report's findings:
_Since 2001, the number of legal permanent residents entering the United States has declined from 578,000 to 455,000, while the number of illegal immigrants has increased from 549,000 to 562,000. Legal, temporary residents account for the remainder of people entering the country. "We've seen a fairly steady growth in the number of undocumented immigrants living here, and this data shows very sizable numbers coming in," Passel said. "We're clearly not stopping them at the border."
Declines in legal immigration "appear to reflect processing backlogs, security delays and other developments that followed the Sept. 11 attacks," the report said.
_Mexico accounted for about a third of all U.S. immigrants, a percentage that was steady from 1992 to 2004. Other Latin American countries accounted for about 20 percent of all immigrants, Asia accounted for a little more than a quarter, and Europe and Canda combined to account for about 14 percent.
_More immigrants are shunning states with large immigrant communities, such as New York and California, and moving to states with smaller foreign-born populations, such as North Carolina and Iowa.
Posted by: ed ||
09/28/2005 08:23 ||
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The ILLEGAL ALIENS (not 'undocumented immigrants') are coming in anticipation of Amnesty being granted by Bush and Co.
In the meantime LEGAL imigrants (you know... the law abiding ones who made this country great....) are patently waiting their turn while Bush PISSES ALL OVER THEM (again) by granting what amounts to amnesty to ILLEGAL aliens (you know... the lawbreakers who's mere presence here is in violation of federal law...).
#2
"...but the report cautioned that it is difficult to say whether the recent upswing is part of a new trend."
What constitutes an authentic trend?
Perhaps:
Immigration and Nationality Act [INA]- 1965
Congress eliminated the "national origins" quota system and established a âFamily Reunificationâ policy. "Our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually; under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same."
Chief Senate Sponsor: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
Since 1970, more than 30 million legal and illegal immigrants have settled in the U.S., representing more than one-third of all people ever to come to America's shores.
Immigration Reform and Control Act [IRCA]- 1986
Congress increased appropriations for enforcement and amnesty provisions. âCongress will pass or kill any immigration bill for one of these four reasons; emotion, fear, compassion or racism "
Chief Senate Sponsor: U.S. Senator Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming
Approximately 2.7 million illegal aliens were granted legal status. The immigration service estimated that, during just the 1990s, 1.5 million illegal aliens received green cards, outside of the IRCA amnesty.
Bush Guest Worker Proposal- 2004
Allow illegal aliens currently living in the United States to apply for a work permit for up to three years. âI propose a new temporary worker program that will match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs.â
GW Bush, President
A 13.1 percent increase in apprehensions of illegal aliens was reported in the first month after the Presidents announcement. Figures show increases in apprehensions continue to rise.
Now illegal immigration outnumbers legal immigrantion.
Is the US willing to wait to see if these figures represent an authentic trend?
#3
Problem is that the Dems view the illegals as future Democratic voters (or in some states CURRENT Democratic voters). And the GOP is too busy with their fingers in their ears yelling "LA LA LA LA LA WHAT PROBLEM??".
Racially polarizing Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan claimed on Friday that he had a private meeting with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, where Nagin gave him the information that Farrakhan later used to claim New Orleans' levees had been deliberately blown up.
Speaking to a gathering of his supporters in Memphis while promoting his upcoming Millions More March, Farrakhan said he met with Nagin in Dallas, Texas where the New Orleans mayor has relocated his family.
"We did a whirlwind tour where we hired a chartered jet, we flew to Dallas, Texas - members of the Millions More Movement - where we met with Mayor Nagin," Farrakhan claimed, in videotape of his Memphis speech posted to his Millions More Movement web site Tuesday.
It was during that meeting, Farrakhan said, where he obtained evidence that he would later use to claim New Orleans' levees were blown up.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/28/2005 07:41 ||
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admin: plz move to P3 -- gracias
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/28/2005 7:43 Comments ||
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#2
Racially polarizing
I assume that's the PC term for "racist freak".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/28/2005 7:58 Comments ||
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#4
One version of this is that Nagin had told Louis that a crater had been reported or seen under the spot where the levee had failed. Farrakhan added the blown up part himself.
A crater could have been caused by water seeping under the concrete levee barrier, scouring away the soil until the concrete wall collapsed into it. You see this with dam failure a lot.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/28/2005 8:27 Comments ||
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#5
Hey STEVE,
I didn't mean investigate if there was explosives used, that is indeed ludicrous.Just meant screwy louie/nagin conspiacy.
#8
Steve -- my theory is that the current could have scoured away the soil in a way the looks like a crater.
Or, the simplest theory is that Farrakhan's a racist freak and is making stuff up in order to provoke another race riot. God knows I've seen that happen before.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/28/2005 8:48 Comments ||
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#9
Mayor Noggin and Farrakhcon may be right. Wasn't there pictures of "W" swimming around the levees while on his summer vacation?
And, where was he during the unexplained four months of National Guard duty.
I understand Cheney is an excellent swimmer and knows people from Halliburton too....
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/28/2005 9:22 Comments ||
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#10
Looks as if I swerved right into the truth with my question in yesterday's Farrakhan thread. "Ya think maybe Farrakhan is gettin' all this inside info from Hizzoner Nagin?"
#11
Demo mayors like to keep the semi and fully fuzzy muzzy vote close so they indulge Louie and lesser more mainstream Louie Jr.'s. They send lackies to attend the hate rallies and lend credibility and political legitimacy to these hate breeders. They will not say a bad thing about this type of scum even if cornered at a press conference and confronted with the level of hatred entailed in the activities of these "clergymen." I'd be amazed if Nagin would have the guts to politically cap Louie in the media. He, like alot of his peers, is Louie's Uncle Tom.
#12
Put it to Nagin, publicly, and if he backs down from accusing Louie of lying, rip him a new one. No $ for lying hacks
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2005 11:03 Comments ||
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#13
Nagin was telling the truth about the bomb. What he didn't say was the bomb was set by local officials so they could then tap into $250 Billion worth of fix up funds.
#14
Farrakhan: Katrina Gives March Momentum
CHICAGO - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said the suffering of Hurricane Katrina victims has brought black Americans together.
"Katrina is our reason," he said, urging the hundreds of attendees to transform any anger into "constructive energy to channel the movement." The movement is his Millions More Movement, formerly the Million Man March, which will commemorate its 10th anniversary with an Oct. 15 rally on the National Mall in Washington.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm? Where were you on that Sunday Katrina hit, Louie?
#15
Used to be bizarre conspiracy theories were consigned to a couple of key issues...JFK's murder for example. Nowadays, EVERY single happening in the world spwans its own conspiracy. "Bush knocked down the twin towers"..."the army blew up the levees"..."Iraq is about Halliburton"..."Katrina occurred because we didn't sign Kyoto"..."the moon landings were a fraud"...etc, etc
Tellingly, all these absurdities emanate from the left.
Posted by: Cornelius ||
09/28/2005 12:54 Comments ||
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#16
You're oh so close Cornelius. But all those conspiracies were about one thing. The rocks, the MOON ROCKS. WE GOTTA TAKE 'EM BACK NOW!
#18
Cripes--like RC says, those "craters" had to have been scour from water lapping over the levee or pouring over the breach and widening it. Any kid with an aquarium would recognize that from pouring in water and watching it dig holes in the gravel, but that's way beyond Farrakhan's or Nagin's IQ level.
Posted by: Dar ||
09/28/2005 15:30 Comments ||
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An animal rights terrorist activist who torched a Seattle McDonald's restaurant in the name of "our furry brothers" pleaded guilty to a federal charge of arson Monday. He's no brother of this furry. I asked Cami, the furriest of them all, and she denies kinship, too.
Christopher McIntosh, 23, of Maple Shade, N.J., admitted climbing onto the roof of the McDonald's across the street from the Space Needle on Jan. 20, 2003, and setting it ablaze. The Seattle Fire Department quickly extinguished the fire, which caused about $5,000 in damage.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Friedman told the court that after setting the fire, McIntosh called the Seattle arson tip line and left a message claiming the fire bombing was committed by "ELF-ALF." The Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front are closely allied, underground terrorist groups that use violent means to protest what they see as sprawling development, environmental degradation and animal exploitation. Friedman quoted from McIntosh's message in which he said "there was an E-L-F-A-L-F hit at McDonald's across from the Space Needle. ... There will be more. ... There will be more. As long as Mother Earth is pillaged, raped, destroyed. As long as McDonald's keeps hurting our furry brothers, there will be more."
Federal agents arrested McIntosh in Philadelphia in March. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force linked him to the arson after finding a fingerprint and DNA on a can of spray paint and sunglasses found at the fire. Before pleading guilty, McIntosh raised his right hand to be sworn under oath and revealed the letters "H-A-T-E" tattooed onto four fingers.
In the gallery, three animal rights terrorists activists looked on, including Josh Harper, a defendant in a federal case that seeks to dismantle a terrorist group trying to stop a company that tests drugs and products on animals. Also observing the proceedings were several members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Under terms of the plea agreement, McIntosh will be sentenced in December to eight to 10 years in a federal prison. He's going to spend a couple years with a furry brother. Or at least a big hairy brother.
#1
Both Nicaragua and Peru are seeking to succeed Brazil in a seat earmarked for Latin America, and diplomats from both countries are predicting victory.
Shouldn't the nations on the SC actually have some security of their own?
The coming pandemic appears to have got a step closer. How many more steps remain is unclear. Not many IMO.
JAKARTA (AFP) - At least 57 people were being treated for suspected bird flu in Indonesia, where the disease has already claimed six lives, officials said.
OF the total, 20 patients were under observation at Jakarta's Sulianti Saroso hospital for infectious diseases, a doctor there, Ilham Patu, said.
The latest suspected case, a 23-year-old man from the capital, was admitted late Tuesday.
Blood and muccus samples from the patients were being tested locally with any positive results indicating bird flu being sent to World Health Organization laboratories in Hong Kong for confirmation.
Since Monday the hospital has released five people who were suspected of contracting bird flu but tested negative.
Health ministry spokesman Sumardi said Wednesday that a shipment of some 20,000 doses of Tamiflu, anti-viral medication that can stop flue if given quickly when symptoms develop, will arrive in the country on Friday.
"This medicine will be sold commercially at pharmacies," he said. So far, it has only been available in hospitals.
Six Indonesians have died of bird flu, bringing to 65 the number of people in Southeast Asia known to have died from the H5N1 strain of the virus since 2003. Vietnam has recorded 43 deaths, Thailand 12 and Cambodia four.
The WHO fears H5N1 will mutate, acquiring genes from the human influenza virus that would make it highly infectious and lethal to millions in a global pandemic.
But it has also urged calm, saying investigations in Indonesia had produced no evidence that H5N1 was spreading easily from person to person.
#2
From a distant purely neutral perspective, the pandemic(s) to come may render many of today's burning issues irrelevant, trivial. Sigh. If only I could engineer a dozen (or so) highly selective boutique strains - saving the timid and squeamish from their overactive and misdirected consciences.
#5
Read a novel awhile back in wich a Japenese pharmcuetical co.engineried a retro virus that targeted Koreans.Pretty scary scenario,what are the possabilities Dr.Steve?
The distinctive growl of a light plane may soon be accompanied by an eerie hum, thanks to Australian research that shows the effectiveness of aircraft wings is dramatically increased when sound is applied to them.
Qantas engineer Ian Salmon tested wing sections covered with a piezoelectric material that vibrates when a current is applied to it. When the tone of the sound was at its most effective pitch, Salmon's wing panel achieved 22 percent more lift than it would have without the piezoelectric hum...
Vibrating wings could be used to make planes safer, reduce wing size and provide another element of control for pilots, Salmon said. But don't expect the wings on commercial jets to start humming away any time soon. The technique only works well on smaller planes such as light aircraft and military-style unmanned aerial vehicles like the Predator.
Larger aircraft are equipped with advanced sensors and sophisticated trailing-edge flaps, which are used to change the shape of the wing during takeoff and landing. Vibrations could improve these conventional controls, but likely not replace them completely. For example, the greater a wing's angle to the horizontal, the slower the plane can fly and thus the safer it can land. Vibrations could also eventually help engineers design planes more efficiently.
Professor Russell Cummings of the U.S. Air Force Academy Department of Aeronautics said he is unfamiliar with Salmon's research, but believes the theory is sound (no pun intended). "If it works, it could mean use of smaller wings and engines," he said.
It's all about changing the air flow from an unstable laminar flow to a turbulent flow that increases lift, Cummings said. The vibrations change the way the air behaves when it starts to break away from the wing's surface, sucking it closer.
Salmon works for Qantas, but his research was a part of an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. His supervisor, associate professor Noor-E-Alam Ahmed, had previously experimented with "external excitation": bombarding a wing section with large speakers.
"The noise level was such that people were complaining in different parts of the lab," Ahmed said.
He passed the idea of internal acoustic excitation to Salmon. With promising results now behind them, Ahmed is seeking to extend the research, spinning off the work into both postgraduate and undergraduate research.
Ahmed doesn't have any immediate plans to test the technology in flight. Instead, he'll use the university's leased planes to test a new stall-onset sensor. Predicting the onset of stall would give a pilot more time to react, greatly reducing the chances of a stall-related accident.
"We may be able to increase lift at any angle of incidence," he said.
#6
Great--now they'll expect all of us in coach to hum for the entire flight.
Posted by: Dar ||
09/28/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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#7
It's just busting up the laminar flow. Nothing new.
By the way, at the very least the reporter got it all wrong (and possibly Mr. Engineer too) by talking about "lift". There is no such thing as "lift" or negative pressure on the top of the wing "sucking" the wing upward.
Airplanes (and helicopters) fly by pushing air DOWN. Remember Newton and his Actions and Reactions?
When Erwin Rommel's Panzer tanks ran out of diesel fuel in North Africa in World War II, the German general poured cooking oil into their gas tanks to keep the vehicles fighting.
The U.S. military thinks Germany's "Desert Fox" might have been onto something. At bases throughout the United States, soldiers are filling their gas tanks with biodiesel -- diesel fuel made from soybean or other vegetable oil.
The Marines are among those leading the charge. At Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego, for example, the semis that haul the Marines' 70-ton M-1 tanks have been running B20, a mix of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel, for more than two years. So have the buses and trucks that carry the troops and their gear, forklifts, generators -- even a diesel locomotive in the base's switchyard.
So far, the military is not running biodiesel in tanks or other equipment that could get sent into battle zones. But at bases in the United States, use of the environmentally friendly fuel is growing rapidly. In 2003, the Marine Corps used 844,000 gallons of B20 biodiesel, says retired Navy Cmdr. Leo Grassilli, a military biodiesel expert. This year, Camp Pendleton and other nearby bases alone expect to use more than a million gallons. "We've been told we're the No. 1 user of biodiesel in the U.S.," says Gary Funk, the fleet manager for Marine Corps vehicles there.
The other military services are also turning to biodiesel. The naval station at Everett, Washington, has been running the fuel since 2001. So has Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Biodiesel can be found on at least 40 more Air Force bases, according to the National Biodiesel Board.
All told, the military will use more than 6 million gallons of biodiesel this year, according to the Defense Energy Support Center, the government agency that supplies the military with fuel. That's still a drop in the bucket compared to the military's overall fuel needs, however. The Navy and Marine Corps burn through nearly 2 billion gallons of diesel a year, says Grassilli.
Biodiesel use in the military is just beginning to take off. Earlier this year, the Department of the Navy ordered all Navy and Marine installations in the United States to begin using biodiesel when possible. Large naval bases such as the one at Norfolk, Virginia, are installing additional fuel tanks specifically for biodiesel. The Navy is even experimenting with brewing its own biodiesel from the used vegetable oil that comes out of its mess halls.
One advantage of biodiesel, say military officials, is that it delivers the same performance as petroleum diesel, but is far less damaging to the environment. "There's no loss of power, and we get the same mileage," says Donald Schregardus, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for environmental programs, "and the vehicles are cleaner. You don't get the soot that you get out of regular diesel."
#2
Originaly, the first diesel engines were powered by vegtable oil. Conceptualy it is sound, BUT (There's always a but involved) the veggie oil production does not scale well. In the final result, your production costs work out at something like $20-$30 a gallon, if I recall correctly.
Posted by: N guard ||
09/28/2005 14:31 Comments ||
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#3
I'd be interested in seeing how its combustion properties stack up against regular diesel as well. It sounds like you're getting 25% more fuel, but if you need to burn more the number is a lot lower.
Posted by: Dar ||
09/28/2005 15:24 Comments ||
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#4
N gaurd:
E85 is a much better way to go (15% gasoline, 85% pure alcohol) on the production front. It's not useful for the military IMAO as they only use diesel.
#5
Walmart doesn't charge $20 for Wesson oil, and I understand that's what we're talking about here. And if the oil was used for cooking, it's effectively free, though it smells like you'r driving behind a MacDonalds.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/28/2005 16:23 Comments ||
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#6
At $2.50-3.00/gallon (tax included), it looks like biodiesel is competitive. Problem is that supply is limited. DOE: Biodiesel Performance, Costs, and Use
Table 3. Projected Production Costs for diesel Fuel by feedstock, 2004-2013
(2002 Dollars per Gallon)
Printer Friendly Version
Marketing Soybean Yellow
Year ........ Oil ........ Grease Petroleum
2005/06 .. 2.49 ..... 1.39 ... 0.78 (someone was optimistic about petrol)
This table takes out agricultural subsidies, so the pump price would be lower (see link). But since petrol is now higher, the production and transport costs of grease and soybeans also go up.
The CCC payments effectively reduce the variable cost of additional soybean oil and yellow grease biodiesel to $1.10 and 53 cents per gallon, respectively, in fiscal year 2004. Additional units produced in fiscal year 2004, however, become base units in fiscal year 2005 and are eligible only for much smaller, and declining, base production payments. The variable cost of soybean oil and yellow grease biodiesel added in fiscal year 2004 jumps to $2.32 and $1.27 per gallon, respectively, in fiscal year 2005.
The transportation bill passed by the Senate on February 12, 2004, includes excise tax credits for biodiesel blending. The legislation allows diesel blenders to claim a credit against the applicable Federal motor fuels excise tax if a batch of diesel fuel contains biodiesel. If the blender uses biodiesel made from virgin oil, such as soybean oil, the credit is $1 (nominal dollars) per gallon of biodiesel. If the blender uses biodiesel made from nonvirgin oil, such as yellow grease, the credit is 50 cents per gallon of biodiesel. The proposed legislation also includes business income tax credits at the same rates for the blending of biodiesel from virgin or nonvirgin oil. The proposed Federal tax credits would expire after 2006.
Posted by: ed ||
09/28/2005 16:41 Comments ||
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#7
First sentence should start:
At $2.50-3.50/gallon
The $2.50 price is where used oil/grease is competitive while the $3.50 is for virgin soybean oil. Still I am philosophically opposed to burning food in engines (Clean your plate Johnny. There are starving kids in North Korea). I think a better payoff comes from building a large number of standardized nuclear plants and electric vehicles for the majority of drivers.
Posted by: ed ||
09/28/2005 16:50 Comments ||
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#8
Biodiesel can use used cooking oil as well. Just filter out the chunky garbage and toss it into your tank. The US could use our fast food diet to race into energy independence if we started taking that fry cooking greese and used it in our vehicles.
#9
Actually, rj, it's pretty complicated. I saw a guy on TV making his own biodiesel out of used cooking oil. He had to filter it, dose it with lye, and jump through few a few other hoops before it was usable in a vehicle.
His multi thousand dollar do-it-yourself refining rig would not have fit in my garage, and the hours he spent getting "free" fuel were substantial.
#10
Biodiesel can use used cooking oil as well. Just filter out the chunky garbage and toss it into your tank.
Wouldn't it make more economical sense to reuse it in the fryers?
YES MARTHA, my family saved bacon grease.
Posted by: NOLA Geek ||
09/28/2005 18:48 Comments ||
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#11
Wouldn't it make more economical sense to reuse it in the fryers?
After a couple of uses, no matter how carefully filtered, cooking oil/grease start to oxidize, ie it becomes rancid. So there is a limited ability to reuse the stuff for cooking, and burning for fuel then becomes the final stage. Assuming it can be done cost-effectively ... and you'll notice that I'm saying nothing about that! ;-)
#12
Actually there is a biodiesel van driving around collecting used fry grease from restaurants and using it more or less straight. If someone was doing more than cooking it and filtering it they were probably trying to mix it with diesel (for cold temp) or preparing it for a higher performance engine than most people would consider practical for diesel.
In an apparent major breakthrough, scientists in Korea report using umbilical cord blood stem cells to restore feeling and mobility to a spinal-cord injury patient. The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cythotherapy, centered on a woman had been a paraplegic 19 years due to an accident.
After an infusion of umbilical cord blood stem cells, stunning results were recorded:
"The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after transplantation. On day 25 after transplantation her feet responded to stimulation."
Umbilical cord cells are considered "adult stem cells," in contrast to embryonic stem cells, which have raised ethical concerns because a human embryo must be destroyed in order to harvest them.
The report said motor activity was noticed on day 7, and she was able to maintain an upright position on day 13. Fifteen days after surgery, she began to elevate both lower legs about one centimeter.
The study's abstract says not only did the patient regain feeling, but 41 days after stem cell transplantation, testing "also showed regeneration of the spinal cord at the injured cite" and below it.
The scientists conclude the transplantation "could be a good treatment method" for paraplegic patients.
Bioethics specialist Wesley J. Smith, writing in Lifesite.com, expressed enthusiasm about the apparent breakthrough, but also urged caution.
"We have to be cautious," said Smith, a senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. "One patient does not a treatment make."
The authors of the study note, writes Smith, that the lamenectomy the patient received might have offered some benefit.
"But still, this is a wonderful story that offers tremendous hope for paralyzed patients," he said.
The fact that the patient has a very old injury, Smith added, makes the results even more dramatic.
Smith said he has known about the study for some time, "but because I didn't want to be guilty of the same hyping that is so often engaged in by some therapeutic cloning proponents, I waited until it was published in a peer reviewed journal."
Like most breakthroughs using adult stem cells, this one has been completely ignored by the U.S. mainstream media, Smith pointed out. "Can you imagine the headlines if the cells used had been embryonic?" he asked.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/28/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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#2
A Wterloo, Iowa girl in a traffic accident had her own adult nasal stem cells injected and is walking after six months of therapy. The procedure was covered locally but no one else seems to have picked up on it. It is only done at a hospital in Portugal, where she traveled. I previously had never even heard of nasal stem cells.
Who's he think he is, Mickey Mantle?
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A top US organ transplant hospital said it had suspended its liver program amid claims doctors helped a Saudi jump the queue and take an organ intended for a higher priority patient. St. Vincent's Medical Center in Los Angeles said its liver transplantation program had been put on "temporary inactive status" and that its two directors had been sacked in connection with a September 2003 operation in which doctors apparently falsified documents to cover up the improper action. Sounds like an episode of "Nip/Tuck".
"This event appears to involve an individual who received a liver that was designated for transplantation to another patient," the hospital's chief executive, Gus Valdespino, said in a statement."Any breach of integrity regarding established transplantation procedures in unacceptable. We are conducting a thorough investigation of this case to find out why and how this happened and to make sure it never happens again." The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the patient was a Saudi man who jumped from 52nd place on the transplantation waiting list to first place ahead of the surgery that was paid for by the Saudi Embassy in Washington."The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia paid the 339,000 dollar cost for the transplant and hospital stay, which is 25 to 30 percent higher than what the hospital would typically be paid for the procedure by insurance companies and government programs," the paper quoted Valdespino as saying. Inshallah, I will have my new liver. That and 300 grand from the embassy.
Neither Valdespino nor the hospital were immediately available Tuesday to confirm that the patient who jumped the queue was a Saudi or that the Saudi embassy stumped up for the surgery. My bet? Ummmmmmmmmmmm...yes. Like they'd set up an infidel with this deal?
The irregularity was discovered only this month when officials responded to routine questions from auditors at the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit group that administers the US transplant system, Valdespino said. Damn Jooooooo auditors, I'll bet.
#1
Cash payment above and beyond the usual reimbursement rates combined with the possibility of mutliple bonus perks and payments for good work can warp and pervert the weak quite easily.
#5
According to NPR yesterday, the Saudi patient went back home subsequent to the surgery; the misbehaviour was discovered during a regular internal hospital audit, and they reported themselves to the Transplant Network; nobody has any idea what happened to the patient who was supposed to get that organ; and all the patients on the hospital's waiting list have to start over now that the hospital is no longer doing transplants -- there is no mechanism for slipping them into another hospital's queue.
Recieved donor liver UCSF 2 years ago. Wasn't on any list except, immediate death list. [which sometimes a qualifies a patient after exhaustive review by transwplant team & program; blood type, tissue type etc.]. Wouldn't be here at the keyboard without it. Prayers, good insurance and luck.
Most transplant patients [living donor or cadaver donor] I see, recover amazingly fast, eating and walking within a few days after transplant.
The expierence is remarkable, drawn by an ultimate need, you met and bond with all sorts of folks from all walks of life.
kidney side note, while getting dialysis one day [I no longer need it, free at last], I met transplant kidney patient [immigrant from India who worked at the service] who bought a kidney and instalation of that kidney, in India, for 10,000 US. + ticket.
A cornucopia of moral and ethical issues..abounding. ;)
#7
Emily: we did. We had a wing in the hospital renovated a couple decades back for visiting ME princelings and their darlings. We've had a couple Kuwaitis (including the one we discussed at a, um, Rantburg editorial meeting, yeah, that's it), but no more. They're way too much trouble even though the money is sweet. Your staff ends up really demoralized because of the behavior of the entourage. The wing now houses a clinical research group, and we no longer go after these patients.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2005 17:59 Comments ||
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#8
That was an *editorial* meeting???? ;-)
Kudos to the decision makers at your hospital. It's hard to turn away the ready cash. Even harder to respect yourself in the morning.
RAWALPINDI: Unknown men murdered two women on Tuesday in Farooq Nagar in the jurisdiction of the RA Bazar police station. According to the police, the two women, wife and mother of Sheikh Nazair Ummar, an accountant in Sihala Police College, were killed when Nazir and his children were out of the home. ASP Rawalpindi Cantt, Rizwan Athar said that the brother of Sheikh Nazair Ummar may be behind the killing as he was excommunicated by his mother. Police said that the motif behind the murder may not be property but a family dispute. The police are investigating the incident. staff report
We always hear murder, killings, but why does the Pakistani newspapers or journalists never follow up with what the police finally investigated. I feel ashamed of the Pakistani journalists and newspaper media that they only quote who is killed, and then period to the whole issue. Any pressure or further checks with the police what they investigates, how long it took to find the murder case, and what happened to the deceased families. This is journalism. Find the facts behind the murder, why the society is like this, what the police did, and what end up with the murderers.
Poster US8075, you did not give a source for your article, but I left it in for your comments. Or are they the comments of the reporter?
#1
Ulaper Spuper8075, would you be a darling and share your theory of proper journalism with any American reporters you might find? Ours could stand to be pointed in the proper direction, too. Thanks ever so!
#3
Ulaper Spuper8075, would you be a darling and share your theory of proper journalism with any American reporters you might find? Ours could stand to be pointed in the proper direction, too. Thanks ever so!
dittos TW..we don't can't even read digest their lifeless slant slop anymore.
BEIJING - China and India on Tuesday ended two days of talks aimed at settling their border disputes, but there was no immediate sign of progress as the two sides agreed to meet again in New Delhi. Indiaâs special representative, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo led the sixth round of bilateral talks on the boundary issues.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the two sides agreed to hold a seventh round of talks in New Delhi on a date to be decided later, but he did not say whether the two sides made any progress in Beijing. âThe atmosphere for resolving the border issue has improved,â Qin told reporters. âThe two sides have the sincerity to seek a solution to this issue.â
But one state media report quoted an unidentified analyst as saying the border talks were in their âtoughest phaseâ.
The governmentâs official Xinhua news agency quoted Jia Qinglin, a leading member of the politburo of Chinaâs Communist Party, as telling Narayanan that China hoped the border disputes would be âsettled in fair and reasonable way at an early dateâ.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Six rounds of talks and no progress.
Not surprising when the Chinese strategy is
"what's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable"
China wants to keep all the Indian territory it captured in the 1965 war and have India cede further territory.
The ceded territory is of course strategically significant and would allow easy capture of more Indian territory if, say in 30 years, Chinese archaeologists discover that a guy from the Ming dynasty had a crap somewhere in India. That place, naturally, is historically Chinese, and should be returned to the motherland.
Posted by: john ||
09/28/2005 6:41 Comments ||
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#2
Silliness. Orson Scott Card addressed war between India and China in one of the Ender's Shadow books (Shadow of the Hegemon, perhaps?). Both civilizations historically dealt with invasions by culturally absorbing the invaders. China might well kill a lot of people and break lots of stuff, but India won't stay conquered long term.
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.
A live, adult giant squid has been caught on camera in the wild for the very first time. Japanese researchers took pictures of the elusive creature hunting 900m down, enveloping its prey by coiling its tentacles into a ball. The images show giant squid, known as Architeuthis, are more vigorous hunters than has been supposed. The images, captured in the Pacific Ocean, appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 
The European Parliament postponed a vote to ratify Turkey's customs union with the European Union on Wednesday, citing frustration over Ankara's continued refusal to recognize Cyprus. In another step certain to anger the Turkish government days ahead of scheduled EU membership talks, lawmakers called on Ankara to recognize the 1915-23 killings of Armenians as genocide. 
BEIJING - China and India on Tuesday ended two days of talks aimed at settling their border disputes, but there was no immediate sign of progress as the two sides agreed to meet again in New Delhi. Indiaâs special representative, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo led the sixth round of bilateral talks on the boundary issues.
