A Franco-Spanish narcotics operation has netted a shipment of three tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated EUR 200 million euros, French police said Friday. The haul was found on a British-flagged luxury yacht boarded August 26 by the Spanish coastguard off the Canary Islands.
It was one of the biggest drug seizures ever made with the involvement of French police, officers said. They added that 11 people were arrested, including the three people on board the yacht. Five of the suspects were French, they said, without giving the nationalities of the others. "It is a gigantic network between Latin America and Europe that has been broken," said gendarme
Colonel Hubert Bonneau, the French officer who led the operation with his Spanish counterparts. He explained that the yacht, the "Spes Nostra", had left Spain two months ago and had returned to Europe after stops in Venezuela and in the Caribbean. The cocaine was hidden in small packets in the 27-metre long vessel, which is registered in the English Channel island of Guernsey.
Spain is the main port of entry for Latin American cocaine. Last year, seizures of the drug reached a record 46.6 tonnes.
The Spanish police said in late June this year they had seized 3.5 tonnes of cocaine on a British-flagged fishing vessel raided off the southern port town of Cadiz. That operation resulted in the arrests of three Spaniards and two Colombians.
GERMANY is plotting to wipe Britain off the map in their revived bid to create an EU superstate.
They want the 25 member states to scrap their national boundaries so England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland cease to exist.
They would be split up and merged with other countries to form new trans-national EU regions.
Kent and East Sussex would join northern France as part of a new land called TransManche. Most of England and Scotland would be lumped with parts of Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium and Holland as the North Sea region. Western England would be in the Atlantic region with chunks of France. Wales and Ireland would become Ireland-Wales, while north-west Scotland would be in the Northern Periphery.
The masterplan will be put into action when Germany takes over the EU presidency in January and tries to revive the rejected EU constitution. German minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said: There is the great hope underlying the goal of a United Europe that we can overcome old borders.
#1
Promoting regionalism has long been a tool of the EU to further dissolve the national entities formerly known as "Nation-Sates", with Germany pushing the most for it (JFM will tell you this much better than me); ironically, this leads us back to the 1920's socialists, and subsequently to the "european map" dreamed by... you guessed it, nazi Germany!
The "Europe of regions" as opposed to the "Europe of Nations".
Thus, national sovereignty and identities are dissolved top-down with that, and down-top with reckless immigration (re the Canary situation described elsewhere, one has to keep in mind the official immigration policy of the EU is that it will need a massive wave of "fresh blood" to make up for its aging population and dwindling social model, hence the mass immigration and the programmed entry of turkey into the EU; immigration policies are now decided at Brussels, not in national parliament, which don't have much power left at all anyway, and keeping the flow away is NOT an option).
#7
maybe in the next rewrite they can include Mexico - I hear Lopez Obrador is looking for a new one
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 14:08 Comments ||
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"a constitution"....I should've inserted...
D'oh!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 14:13 Comments ||
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#9
This, with the mass immigration and conversion to Eurabia will pretty much realize Hitler's dream wouldn't it?
Hitler's will is available on the net (at least in french, so I figure english is a certainty); somewhere in it, old adolf wish that in the future (for him), the third world, which has been corrupted by the decadence of the West, would purge itself, rise up and finish what he couldn't do, IE destroy western civilization.
So, in that regard, you're absolutely right. If the driving force behind the twin nazi and communist ideologies of the 20th century was the european death-drive and death-wish, then what's happening is nothing but a new avatar of it; it's just that instead of self-destructing, Europe is outsourcing the deed to its archennemy islam, the carrion of dead civilizations and empires.
#10
Somehow the EUnics missed the part about the collapse of the Soviet Empire into, god forbid, little nation states! That is the natural order of things for that part of the world.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's leftist presidential candidate, who is contesting his rival's election victory, told followers Sunday the country needs a "radical transformation" and he plans to draft a new constitution.
No need to pass along any advice, he knows everything that Mexico needs.
Lopez Obrador, who claims fraud and dirty tricks robbed him of the presidency, has said he will never recognize a victory by Calderon and will declare himself the alternative president.
So much for respecting the constitution, the elections and the process.
The country's Federal Electoral Tribunal has until Wednesday to declare a president-elect or annul the vote. With the tribunal likely to declare Calderon president-elect, Lopez Obrador has escalated his protest. He has called supporters to a mass meeting in Mexico City's central plaza to plot strategy on Sept. 16 - the same day and place Mexico's army stages an annual Independence Day parade.
Suggesting that he might try to turn the army to his side that day.
The former Mexico City mayor, who portrays himself as Jesus in his Second Coming the savior of the poor, also plans to hold a "democratic convention" that day in which he will declare his rebellion parallel government.
That's called a 'coup' in most places. He's just begging to be smacked down.
Reiterating his claim that the nation is run by a small elite, Lopez Obrador said Sunday he plans to summon convention delegates from across the country who would decide on calling an assembly to draft a new constitution. Mexico's current constitution dates to 1917 and was the result of the country's bloody revolution that broke out in 1910. "We don't want cosmetic changes," Lopez Obrador told thousands gathered in Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo, where he has been sleeping in a tent for five weeks to protest the election results.
Not to pour cold water on this, Your Highhandedness, but shouldn't a constitution be drafted by representatives from all the people and then put to a vote at some point?
Lopez Obrador exhorted his followers to "sustain the resistance" while keeping it peaceful. "We have a historic responsibility to rescue the republic," Lopez Obrador said. "We don't want the republic to be dominated by private interests."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This clown appears to have a severe case of the ass - maybe he can borrow Al Bore's wahhhhhh-bulance.
He needs to remember what Central and South America's second favorite sport is - and it can go both ways.
He keeps this shit up, he may find it becomes a terminal case of the ass.
Just sayin', 's all....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/04/2006 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
I have to agree. Obrador is playing with fire. His principal support is in Mexico City, and a fair number of the people who voted for him aren't going to go along with this nonsense. I think if Calderon plays it calm and patient, and lets Fox be the heavy, they can fix this pretty soon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2006 0:17 Comments ||
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#3
All this BS is due to Gore showning the enemies of democracy the way to ruin democracy by his putrid example.
#4
I've spent enough time in Mexico to know that you can get yourself iced for a lot less than this. Playing with a lot smaller actors than these guys.
Oh, and Mexico needs a hell of a lot more than a new constitution.
As long as the culture allows people to say things like this and be believed by a good chunk of the populace, the region will never get out of the mud.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday his ally, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was recovering quickly after intestinal surgery that forced him to turn power over to his brother a month ago. "Fidel is recovering well. The rapidity of his recovery surprised me," said Chavez, who capped off a foreign tour of four countries on Thursday by making his third visit to the communist-led island in three weeks. "He's sits up, writes, has a telephone and gives orders, instructions," added Chavez, speaking during his weekly television and radio program "Hello President."
"It's almost like he's really alive, except for the smell!"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"Remember, whenever you need an order, to just pull this ring thingy on the back of his neck..."
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgia's defense minister said a helicopter in which he was riding came under fire Sunday as it flew over the separatist province of South Ossetia, but it landed safely and nobody was hurt. Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili spoke hours after South Ossetian officials said their forces shot down a Georgian government helicopter that invaded the breakaway region's airspace. Georgian military officials swiftly denied it was shot down.
Georgia's Interior Ministry also said Sunday that in a similar incident last week, a surface-to-air missile was fired at a helicopter escorting a U.S. Senate delegation led by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The aircraft was not damaged and U.S. authorities had been notified, the ministry said. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said she had no information about the incident.
Speaking to reporters in Gori, a town near South Ossetia, Okruashvili said the Mi-8 helicopter came under large-caliber machine-gun fire from a forested area during a flight to a base in western Georgia. He said the craft was hit and the pilots struggled to control it and keep it flying for 15 minutes, but were able to land safely with no casualties. He showed reporters a helicopter with several bullet holes in its body.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
So where was Cynthia McKinney? Oh, THAT Georgia, nevermind ...
A record number of African migrants, almost 1,200 in 36 hours, reached the shores of the Spanish Canary Islands at the weekend, crammed into eight rickety boats that set sail from Mauritania, officials said. Police have intercepted about 20,000 migrants this year. Rescue workers say 550 have drowned en route. In all, 674 arrived on Saturday and 522 yesterday. "This is a humanitarian catastrophe of the first degree," Paulino Rivero, a Canary Island official, told the newspaper El País.
The number of migrants landing on the Canary Islands, off the west African coast, has risen steadily this summer. Close to 6,000 arrived in August, compared with 4,751 for the whole of 2005. Television news footage of Red Cross workers covering dehydrated young men with blankets, or carrying away corpses, is broadcast nearly every evening. As refugee camps overflow and tourists help bedraggled migrants on to the beach, Madrid is pushing the EU to help cut off this new sea route to Europe.
The EU will be as successful at this as it is with everything else it does.
Spain has pushed immigration to the top of the agenda at the EU summit next month. Ministers from France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia have also been invited to a crisis meeting this month, said a spokeswoman for the Spanish prime minister's office, where the coordination of sea patrols, rescue operations and repatriation will be discussed. "We are the southern frontier of Europe," she said. "Anyone who enters our country enters the EU. Their final destination may be France or Belgium."
So right now the Repubs have more safe and leaning seats than the Dhimmis. The Repubs need to get 5 toss-up seats in addition to their safe and leaners; the Dhimmis need 12 toss-up seats in addition to their safe and leaners.
While the Repubs, through their own fault, have put themselves into a position where they could lose the House, the NYT numbers don't match up to the their story.
But then that's the NYT style, isn't it?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2006 13:46 ||
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#1
But then that's the NYT style, isn't it?
Absolutely - why let facts get in the way of a good headline? They've become expert at running editorials that run counter to stories they ran days before or even in the same issue and editorials that completely contradict their opinions when Slick Willy was Prez - not to mention the headlines that contradict the very articles they head.
#2
I never did understand the mime about a Dhimicrat sweep. I think a lot of this is simply wishful thinking on their part, because most election are not national. Do they really believe that Idaho, Montana, and most of the south is trending to the left? It kind of goes against the election trends of the last 20 years.
#3
Seems to me it's a tactic to get the Republicans to stay home in November. Tell them enough that the race is already lost and they say, Why waste time?"
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/04/2006 15:02 Comments ||
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#4
"House Majority leader Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Reid" outta get em out to vote
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 15:23 Comments ||
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#5
Nothing like getting the hopes of the LLL up again only to have the result not match the oratory of their house papers and manufactured polls. Another round of 'rigged' complaints because they keep buying into the con game. It's just going to push someone to light the fuse sooner.
#6
If the Dems would STFU between now and November they might stand a chance of winning. Foaming at the mouth lunacy may be appealing to the Democrat's core constituency, but not to mainstream American voters.
#7
The only thing that worries me is that with this kind of buildup, some of the nutroots are likely to really lose it and try something violent after the election. They'd lose any kind of a firefight BADLY, but it wouldn't be good for the country.
It almost seems as though their leaders in the "elites" are trying to set them up for such an effort.
Hope I'm wrong.
And I do plan to do every thing I can to see that the Dims lose badly.
Posted by: Ralph ||
09/04/2006 20:34 Comments ||
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#8
Ralph, I don't think anyone's controlling or guiding the idiots, they're simply trying to surf a wave of crazy-stupid assholes, and not get munched. In surfing parlance - locked in the green room
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 20:46 Comments ||
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FRIENDS of Hillary Clinton have been whispering the unthinkable. Despite her status as the runaway frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, some of her closest advisers say she might opt out of the White House race and seek to lead her party in the Senate. The former first lady longs to return to the White House with husband Bill as consort. Only last week she told television viewers America would be led by a woman one day. Stay tuned, she said.
First, however, she has to win the election. Some Democratic party elders the American equivalent of the Tories men in grey suits say Clinton may back out of the race of her own volition. I would not be surprised if she were to decide that the best contribution she can make to her country is to forget about being president and become a consensus-maker in the Senate, said a leading Democratic party insider. She believes there is no trust between the two political sides and that we cant function as a democracy without it.
As senator for New York, Clinton has forged alliances across party lines with leading Republicans such as Senator John McCain and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives. In the eyes of the electorate, however, she is a potentially divisive figure.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I finally figured out what that bust is: it's David Bowie with tits.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/04/2006 0:15 Comments ||
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#2
Eeewwwwwww.
Thanks a lot, Dave - now I have to go scrub my mind's eye with Brillo.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/04/2006 0:18 Comments ||
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#13
Every discussion about Hillary falls straight into the gutter. This proves that she is not respected and even hated.
Such a person cannot become president. Never have, never will.
About the bust, her neck isn't that long. Her breast aren't that big, and she isn't that pretty.
#16
if you like David Bowie with tits, I guess....lol
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 14:34 Comments ||
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#17
"Every discussion about Hillary falls straight into the gutter. This proves that she is not respected and even hated. Such a person cannot become president."
It may also be that she's realizing that even if she were to become President, a) she'd accomplish very little of her "progressive" agenda due to Republican opposition in Congress, b) she'd have to deal with an ongoing war-- something no Democrat really wants-- and c) her Presidency would almost certainly end up being the most miserable four years of her entire life.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/04/2006 15:03 Comments ||
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#18
her Presidency would almost certainly end up being the most miserable four years of her entire life
#21
at least Craig Livingston would be employed again.
Whadya think? Head of IRS investigations? NSA Wiretap division head? FBI head?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2006 18:16 Comments ||
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#22
I always thought that even running for Senate was a mistake for old Hillary. She's not a politician, really. She could have had much more influence and money and even power as a Feminist Jesse Jackson type than she has as the Junior Senator from NY in the misogynist Democratic Party.
Maybe she's smartening up - Senator for life seems to be a nice gig. And no responsiblities.
LAHORE: Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed on Sunday in Jallo Village, Batapur in a gunfight between rival groups.
Police said that Safdar Jutts group had had developed differences with Mushtaq Butts over a property dispute in 1986. In the following years, both groups had clashed several times and four people had been killed. Police said that on Sunday, both groups faced off in the Jallo village main bazaar, and after a heated exchange, members of Jutts group opened fire on the rival gang. Mushtaq Butts son Shehzada Butt, nephew Ata and a 12-year-old bystander Zuhaib Jehangir were shot and killed. The assailants then immediately fled the scene.
Following the attack, members of the Butt group proceeded to the houses of their rivals, which became the scene of a gunfight between the two gangs.
A Batapur police team then reached the scene and managed to restore order in the area. They then arrested Safdar Jutt, Shahid Javed, Irfan Akhtar, Imtiaz, Aziz and Shamriaz of the Jutt group and also recovered a large quantity of weapons and bullets. The bodies were moved to the city mortuary for autopsy and although police have begun investigating the incident, a first information report was not filed till the filing of this report
Posted by: john ||
09/04/2006 06:25 ||
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PATNA, INDIA: An armed gang of criminals looted and assaulted passengers of a train in Bihar's Bhagalpur district Sunday night.
According to police officials, over a dozen armed men looted cash and valuables worth Rs.10 lakhs from nearly 100 passengers of the Upper India Express between Sultanganj and Maheshi station. Several passengers were injured when they resisted the robbers.
The train was travelling from Mughalsarai to Sealdah in Kolkata.
"Most of the victims of the train robbery were migrant labourers returning to Bihar from Gujarat and other states with their hard earned money," said a police official.
Train robberies in Bihar are not uncommon. Last week, armed miscreants looted the passengers of two local trains.
A few months ago, an armed gang shot a retired police officer and looted cash and valuables from passengers of a train near Patna junction.
Posted by: john ||
09/04/2006 06:18 ||
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#2
Visualizing productive nanosystems and molecular manufacturing
"It's it amazing"
Productive Nanosystems, from molecules to superproducts
"Now how much would you be willing to pay for Nano?"
mind, the only waste products are air and water!
"But wait, there's more!"
Posted by: Art Schiff ||
09/04/2006 13:42 Comments ||
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#3
Contrast the potential from these nanosystems (medical, computing, space, military) with the 7th century world that the Islamofascists would give us.
These technologies are coming at us like an express train, and things are going to change dramatically. It's imperative the good guys get there first.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/04/2006 16:52 Comments ||
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Molecular manufacturing (MM) means the ability to build devices, machines, and eventually whole products with every atom in its specified place. Today the theories for using mechanical chemistry to directly fabricate nanoscale structures are well-developed and awaiting progress in enabling technologies.
Assuming all this theory worksand no one has established a problem with it yetexponential general-purpose molecular manufacturing appears to be inevitable. It might be become a reality by 2010, likely will by 2015, and almost certainly will by 2020. When it arrives, it will come quickly. MM can be built into a self-contained, personal factory (PN) that makes cheap products efficiently at molecular scale. The time from the first fabricator to a flood of powerful and complex products may be less than a year.
Lots of things can be built this way. And among other effects, it will GREATLY reduce our need for oil as we shift from manufacturing in central locations and trucking things to manufacturing on site.
Lots of people will be out of work in 2 decades, but they won't go without.
#6
Personally, I don't like the idea of a 'universal assembler' - capable of building copies of anything (including itself). There's too much potential for exponential runaway and the dreaded 'grey goo' (although there's not enough energy in the crust to keep the little critters going to 'eat the planet', they could make a mess of the biosphere). I much prefer the PF idea, but I do think that the notion of having the PF (or by implication, an assembler) requiring some 'exotic elements' to operate and therefore have some kind of in-built cutoff is a bit far-fetched. Which is why I say again, the good guys need to get there first..
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/04/2006 17:28 Comments ||
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#7
First off: This video is mandatory viewing for anyone who considers themselves to be technically literate or conversant. It is an absolutely superb rendition of what to expect in another 50 years or less. It amounts to nothing less than "Point of Use Manufacturing" for many of today's household small wares and personal goods. In its reverse form (to be discussed later), it represents the ultimate in product recycling.
Nanotechnoloy constitutes a direct avenue whereby any destruction and environmental havoc wrought by humanitys scientific and industrial revolution may be repaired. It is the ultimate redemption of these two giants of human progress. This development involves assembling common artifacts on an atom-by-atom basis. The efficient execution of such a time-consuming task entirely depends upon microscopic entities commonly referred to as nano-assemblers. One design calls for a molecular sized robot capable of grasping individual atoms of elementally pure material and affixing them to other atoms of the same or different kind.
The practical inversion of this concept is the nano-disassembler robot, capable of disassociating any material, again atom-by-atom, into its constituent chemical elements. Such a minuscule device simultaneously represents an environmental boon of the highest order and an almost identically potent threat. This is what Tonys post refers to:
There's too much potential for exponential runaway and the dreaded 'gray goo' (although there's not enough energy in the crust to keep the little critters going to 'eat the planet', they could make a mess of the biosphere).
Tony, either you've read the book "Assemblers of Infinity" by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason or you've been paying close attention to my posts about this topic at Rantburg (or, quite possibly, neither). Either way, this really kicks up a notch my personal respect for you. However dreadful it may seem, the "grey goo" problem need not be that strong of an issue.
SIDEBAR: The "grey goo" scenario involves a worst-case implication of nano-disassembler robots. It centers upon the most efficient and cost-effective way to mass-produce (or reproduce) these tiny deconstruction vehicles. Ideally, such nano-robots should be able to self-replicate, much like common biological viruses or bacteria. This allows them to manufacture a, literally, endless supply of these useful little mechanisms. A current analogy is the classic engine lathe. This is a machine tool capable of producing much of the existing mechanical technology familiar to us. The engine lathes most significant distinction is its ability to shape all of the parts necessary to build another engine lathe. This entitles it to classification as (given human operation), a self-replicating entity.
This idea also applies to self-replicating nano-disassembly robots. The hitch in this concept involves what might happen should such atomic-level disassembler devices suddenly run rampant. Scientific projections estimate it is possible for self-replicating nano-disassembly robots to convert the entire earths surface to a several meter deep layer of atomically disassociated gray goo, in just a few weeks. The solution to this daunting problem is as simple as it is obvious.
We already have created a biological version of this type of destructive device. It is Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli, the bacteria responsible for everything from the tourist trots to surgical sepsis. The laboratory strains are genetically engineered to survive only in an oxygen-free environment (among other features). So it must be with any nano-disassemblers that we create. They must be entirely dependent upon an artificial environment that nature cannot provide.
Any nano-disassembly robot must be engineered to perish in an earth-normal environment, much like the famous laboratory E. coli specimens. This is what will prevent the gray goo scenario. As to those who would produce an environmentally stable nano-disassembler, thats why weve invented H-bombs.
[end of sidebar]
Now, imagine a tabletop machine, as shown in the video that can manufacture most everything you use in your home today. For the nonce, well exclude edible foodstuffs or massive constructs like automobiles. But this, in no way, limits the potential for such technology. These machines would eliminate the need for many of the polluting factories in your or anyone elses neighborhood.
Now, lets go back to the gray goo scenario. Imagine a massive Olympic swimming pool-sized tank filled with these nano-disassembler robots. This enclosure would have air-locks, just like a spacecraft or submarine, and its atmosphere would be nitrogen or argon rich so that it could pool a huge mass of these environmentally dependent nano-disassembly robots (that would DIE if they escaped into the real-world). Dump into this huge air-locked tank whatever you like. Old couches, computer monitors, crushed cars, human waste, typewriters or Formica counter tops, it matters not.
From the emitter end would emerge all of the purified elemental chemicals needed to construct whatever by nano-assembly units. This represents one of the most significant advances in materials sciences in all of history.
I maintain that if Bill Gates had any brains, he would begin the purchase of every major landfill on earth. They represent the most concentrated accumulations of refined elements on this planet. All that is needed is to send them through nano-disassembly in order to harvest an incredible amount of previously expended energy that was required to isolate such huge quantities of purified materials in the first place.
Again, imagine your home being able to produce most of the non-food items you use from a box the size of an orange crate. Now imagine that orange crate-sized machine running off of almost 90% of the items you currently throw out as trash. Finally, imagine this using less power than the batteries you discard in a year. Consider that this would eliminate much of your personal contribution to our planets pollution.
Would you be willing to make sure that anyone who attempted to pervert such technology over to a gray goo application met with swift and irreversible death? Would you be content knowing that such technology meant that our planet would no longer be raped of any more resources? Would you be content knowing that this earth could sustain all of humanity without any further impact?
[Long ago I bought a small book about wilderness exploration and the task of managing pack mules. It finished with one simple query; Who is smarter, you or the mule?. I end this post with its final request.]
The three-day countdown for the shuttle Atlantis began yesterday as NASA continues its long-delayed efforts to launch the spacecraft. After three years of waiting in the aftermath of the shuttle Columbia disaster, and then another delay last week because of storms and a lightning strike, Atlantis is being prepared to take off at 12:29 p.m. on Wednesday. It will carry a payload essential to the stalled construction of the international space station -- a massive set of trusses and solar panels that will provide energy to power the space laboratories that will follow.
NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said that the crew is working around the clock to get the vehicle ready -- a process that usually takes eight days once the vehicle arrives at the launchpad, but this time will be done in six. "There no wiggle room here at all," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Europe's first moon probe signed off its mission on schedule by crashing into the lunar surface on Sunday, completing a project scientists hope will tell them more about the moon's origin. A small flash illuminated the lunar surface as the European Space Agency's (ESA) unmanned SMART-1 spacecraft crashed into the near side of the moon in the 'Lake of Excellence' region at about 7,200 km per hour (4,500 miles per hour).
The spacecraft, a cube measuring around a meter on each side, tested new space technology during its 3-year mission, and has spent the last 16 months observing the moon and gathering information on its composition.
"The measurements by SMART-1 call into question the theories concerning the moon's violent origin and evolution," SMART-1 project scientist Bernard Foing said on ESA's website.
AHA! The moon is a European, peaceful and serene, not one of those idiot neocon American Nazi Imperialists!! This proves we're right and the AmeriKKKans are wrong. neener neener!!!!! Whoo hoo - this calls for an all out celebration. Break out the organic, Brussels-approved grape juice, Heinz.
The moon may have formed from the impact of a Mars-sized asteroid with the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, ESA said.
"SMART-1 has mapped large and small impact craters, studied the volcanic and tectonic processes that shaped the moon, unveiled the mysterious poles, and investigated sites for future exploration," Foing said.
The spacecraft, which weighed 366 kg (807 lb), carried a miniaturized imaging camera, an X-ray telescope and an infrared spectrometer to seek out minerals.
SMART-1 also tested new deep-space communication techniques for spacecraft and techniques to achieve autonomous spacecraft navigation. Scientists will now begin analyzing the mass of data acquired by the spacecraft.
"The legacy left by the huge wealth of SMART-1 data, to be analyzed in the months and years to come, is a precious contribution to lunar science at a time when exploration to the moon is once again getting the world's interest," said Foing.
Wealth !!! WEALTH, I tell you. Take THAT you annoying Yankees who landed on that rock decades ago. Try to catch up with us NOW!!!
NASA is planning a manned mission to the moon for 2020 at the latest.
Staging area for proofing technology and stockpiling materials before heading for Mars.
#1
The amusing thing about this mission was the ion drive. Early on, it proved to be working, which resulted in a big stimulus to making better ion drive.
So before it had gotten anywhere near the Moon, they had already invented one or two generations more advanced and efficient engines.
The next ion-drive launch will probably be for a probe that is a lot larger and going a lot further.
Right now there is a ton of research going into creating a J.S. Bell(*) communications device, which can communicate instantly over vast distances. If that is a success, then we will be throwing big, ion-drive probes outside of the solar system on all sorts of missions.
(*) When the matched spin of one of a matched pair of particles is changed, the spin of the other one changes, no matter where it is located. Thus a probe outside our solar system could send equivalent to faster-than-light transmissions by changing the spin of its single particles, and their matched twins back on Earth would also change. Instructions could also be sent back to the probe this way, and there would be no need for massive antennas and huge bursts of energy to do so.
#2
No, Anonymoose. That's not how quantum mechanics works. You can't use that effect to communicate anything faster than light. When you measure partcle A's spin for the first time, particle B will have the opposite spin when you measure it, but you can't force particle A to spin up and therefore force particle B to spin down. QM isn't that spooky.
You can use this for quantum cryptography. You designate before hand a subset of the photons you send as the key for a later message. You measure your photons' spins, and you get the key. If no one intercepts the photons on their way to your correspondant, then they get the inverse of your key, and you're set. If anyone intercepts either the key or the actual message, then it randomizes the message, and no one gets any useful information.
You only use a small proportion of the photons you send for the key so an interceptor can't figure out the key from your transmission even if he intercepts it.
QM entanglement does not imply faster-than-light information transfer.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/04/2006 12:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
There was an article in Scientific Unamerican about how entanglement did not violate Einstein's postulate regarding the speed of light.
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 Franco-Spanish narcotics operation has netted a shipment of three tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated EUR 200 million euros, French police said Friday. The haul was found on a British-flagged luxury yacht boarded August 26 by the Spanish coastguard off the Canary Islands.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday his ally, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was recovering quickly after intestinal surgery that forced him to turn power over to his brother a month ago. "Fidel is recovering well. The rapidity of his recovery surprised me," said Chavez, who capped off a foreign tour of four countries on Thursday by making his third visit to the communist-led island in three weeks. "He's sits up, writes, has a telephone and gives orders, instructions," added Chavez, speaking during his weekly television and radio program "Hello President."
A record number of African migrants, almost 1,200 in 36 hours, reached the shores of the Spanish Canary Islands at the weekend, crammed into eight rickety boats that set sail from Mauritania, officials said. Police have intercepted about 20,000 migrants this year. Rescue workers say 550 have drowned en route. In all, 674 arrived on Saturday and 522 yesterday. "This is a humanitarian catastrophe of the first degree," Paulino Rivero, a Canary Island official, told the newspaper El País.
Hit the link and it's doom, gloom and Fairbanks for the Repubs. But if you look at the House races on their 
FRIENDS of Hillary Clinton have been whispering the unthinkable. Despite her status as the runaway frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, some of her closest advisers say she might opt out of the White House race and seek to lead her party in the Senate. The former first lady longs to return to the White House with husband Bill as consort. Only last week she told television viewers America would be led by a woman one day. Stay tuned, she said.
LAHORE: Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed on Sunday in Jallo Village, Batapur in a gunfight between rival groups.
Europe's first moon probe signed off its mission on schedule by crashing into the lunar surface on Sunday, completing a project scientists hope will tell them more about the moon's origin. A small flash illuminated the lunar surface as the European Space Agency's (ESA) unmanned SMART-1 spacecraft crashed into the near side of the moon in the 'Lake of Excellence' region at about 7,200 km per hour (4,500 miles per hour).
