The price of gold has increased 50 percent in the past two years and tripled over the past five, as global investors look to hedge against a falling dollar. Gold hit historic highs this month. That surge has spurred a new Amazon gold rush, with illegal miners pouring into the region and setting up camp along riverbanks, highways and footpaths reaching deep into the rain forest of the Peruvian Amazon. Falling dollar and economic development would overwhelm any agreement to save the rain forests to stave off global warming, although I did not see AGW raised in the article. I didn't read all of it, however...
That's ok. It's been discovered that tree cover at the higher latitudes is what really matters in such things, not down near the equator.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/19/2009 07:07 ||
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#1
Never fear, Nobel Laureate Obama to the rescue. Will offer Brazil $100 billion Obamabucks/year to do nothing.
Posted by: ed ||
12/19/2009 7:20 Comments ||
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose above $73 a barrel on Friday, after an incursion by Iranian troops into an Iraqi oilfield sparked tensions between two major crude exporters. Frigid weather in the U.S. Northeast, the biggest heating oil market in the world, also supported prices.
U.S. crude for January delivery -- which expires on Monday -- settled up 71 cents a barrel to $73.36. Barrels for February delivery, which were more heavily traded, rose a modest 34 cents a barrel. London Brent crude rose by 38 cents to $73.75 a barrel.
The strength in the front-month NYMEX contract was attributed to traders covering short positions as the end of the trading month nears and ahead of a holiday period week when trading is usually thin.
Crude's gains were slightly tempered by the firming U.S. dollar, which rose to a fresh 3-1/2-month high against the euro, as some investors remained wary of risky commodities and sought out safe havens.
Front-month U.S. crude rose as high as $74.69 earlier Friday on reports that Iranian soldiers crossed into Iraq with tanks and laid claim to a disputed oilfield there. The specter of rising tensions between two major crude exporters in a period of thin trade led to some buying.
Amid colder weather, U.S. natural gas inventories fell for just the second time this winter season, down 207 billion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/19/2009 00:00 ||
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I wouldn't mind Persian Gulf crude being 500$/barrel.
#2
Yah, it would really help the idjits make more money from their oil, which they could use to both work on their bombs and to continue the PR campaign that "drilling in the West is Dumbth."
When Muslim worshipers showed up at the Bilal Mosque early Sunday morning, they found two pig's ears and a poster of the French flag stapled to the door; a pig's snout dangled from the doorknob. "White power" and "Sieg heil" were spray-painted on one side, they recalled, and "France for the French" on the other.
The desecration of the main mosque in Castres, a tranquil provincial town 50 miles east of Toulouse, was an ugly exception in generally easygoing relations between the native French population and a pocket of about 10,000 Muslims, mostly Algerian immigrants and their children, who in recent years have made Castres their home, according to Muslim as well as native French residents. Mayor Pascal Bugis was quick to condemn the outrage, visiting the scene to express dismay, and police vowed a swift arrest of those responsible. But for Abdelmalek Bouregba, head of the Castres Islamic Association, which administers the mosque, the vandalism was a troubling sign of the times. Signals are flashing everywhere that France is increasingly uneasy with its more than 5 million Muslims, he said, and the atmosphere has soured particularly since President Nicolas Sarkozy's government last month began what it calls "a great debate on national identity."
In parallel with the government-organized debate, he noted, a parliamentary committee is holding hearings to determine whether legislation is necessary to forbid Muslim women from wearing full veils in public. Its chairman, André Gerin, said at a session Wednesday that such veils are "barbaric." Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux, a confidant of Sarkozy's, urged a ban in public buildings, such as town halls and hospitals, saying that "there is no place in France for burqas." Some legislators from Sarkozy's coalition, the Union for a Patriotic Movement, have proposed a law to forbid foreign flags during immigrant weddings in city halls. And a small-town mayor from the Sarkozy coalition, André Valentin, warned during a government-sponsored national identity debate last week that "we are going to be gobbled up" unless something is done to halt the influx of immigrants, who he said "are paid to do nothing."
A recent poll taken for the Nouvel Observateur magazine showed that 55 percent of those queried think the debate is at best unnecessary. Another 42 percent expressed fear that it has gone off in the wrong direction, focusing on problems caused by Muslims and immigrants rather than on what it means to be French. The president, however, has portrayed his decision to launch the debate as a noble undertaking, a necessary expression of French people's feelings, and has shown no sign of backing down. After Swiss voters decided in a referendum Nov. 29 to ban construction of minarets, he issued a statement saying such unease was understandable, calling on Europe's Muslims to avoid ostentatious displays of their beliefs lest they jolt the continent's Christian traditions.
Eric Besson, Sarkozy's minister of immigration, integration and national identity, has been managing the debate and has also been assigned to sum up its conclusions in a major speech in two months. That, critics pointed out, will be just before March's regional elections, in which Sarkozy's coalition hopes to sweep up votes that normally would go to the ultra-right National Front, the country's main anti-immigration political movement.
Posted by: Crusoter Dark Lord of the Algonquins7749 ||
12/19/2009 11:49 Comments ||
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#2
I like Peter Sellers' Clouzot, hilarious, even in the bad later PP, but didn't really "get" it until I was able to watch movies in english; very funny performance; one similar, though not as funny was Kevin Kline's french accent in "French kiss" (with a non-sensical song from the Negresses Vertes in the OST, cool), so-so movie, but weird to watch in original version, because his (non-descript) french accent really is flawless, or almost.
As for the french debate silliness, it was basically a stunt from the steamless, marooned sarko team to try and re-prop up his "conservative" image (outside of the MSM kabuki pretense that sarko is "conservative", if not "rightwing") that had the unintended consequence of letting some of the repressed stuff bubble uop to the surface. Of course, on the official side, the gist of it was the obligatory Diversity credo - summarized by sarko with a "France has changed, you've got to accept it and adapt" capsule, or by a minister's infamous "there are no français de souche (= rooted french, blood & soil people", meaning that as is the party line, immigrants are "as french as anybody else, if not more, because they chose to come to France". Sure, why not?
[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid growing political turmoil, Pakistan's anti-corruption court in the southern city of Karachi has summoned 52 suspects, including high-ranking officials, a report says.
Prosecutors say, among the top officials are Interior Minister Rehman Malik and presidential secretary Salman Farooqi. The Supreme Court on Thursday had also banned Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar and other top officials from leaving the country.
The summons were issued only two days after Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled as illegal an amnesty that protected thousands of Pakistanis from graft charges.
The amnesty, known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), was issued by former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf on Oct. 5, 2007. It granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money-laundering, murder and terrorism between January 1, 1986 and October 12, 1999.
The court has called on the suspects to appear before a judge on January 8. This could also reopen some 8,000 cases against current and former Pakistani officials, including President Asif Ali Zardari.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Anyone else here think the charge was "bogarting more than your share of baksheesh" instead of "accepting bribes"?
#2
"NCIS Uses Christmas Episode To Portray Christian Killing Of Muslim Soldier"
I saw that episode, and I didn't take it that way at all.
It was a (teenage) brother who killed his older brother because he thought the older brother was embarrassing the family by his conversion. It wasn't for religious reasons so much as for personal - and stupid teenage - reasons.
And in any event, he didn't kill a soldier. NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Army is soldiers; Navy is Marines (and swabbies).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/19/2009 15:28 Comments ||
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#3
This episode only confirms what I have felt about this series all along. Never watched the macho-feminista piece of crap for more the a minute or two without gagging and mashing the clicker. I'll not give it that much time in the future.
#4
Merriam Webster
Main Entry: 1sol·dier
Pronunciation: ˈsôl-jər
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English soudeour, from Anglo-French soudeer, soudeour mercenary, from soudee shilling's worth, wage, from sou, soud shilling, from Late Latin solidus solidus
Date: 14th century
1 a : one engaged in military service and especially in the army b : an enlisted man or woman c : a skilled warrior
2 : a militant leader, follower, or worker
3 a : one of a caste of wingless sterile termites usually differing from workers in larger size and head and long jaws b : one of a type of worker ants distinguished by exceptionally large head and jaws
4ˈsô-jər, ˈsôl- : one who shirks work
sol·dier·ly -lç adjective or adverb
sol·dier·ship -ˌship noun
Though, ofcourse, the most accurate language identifies the servicemember by branch, e.g: Soldier, Airmen, Sailor, Marine, and so forth.
Very few womyn could pull this and look good. My eldest niece could and did. My lovely bride could but hasn't.
Unfortunately for Ms. Prentice, she ain't one of them.
Way to take one for the team.
An Edina woman in Copenhagen for the U.N. climate conference as part of a youth group joined 30 others in shaving their heads outside the conference center on Friday, the last scheduled day of the gathering.
#2
Was she protest global warming during the blizzard or before?
Posted by: Scott R ||
12/19/2009 5:12 Comments ||
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#3
Maybe it was a last ditch effort to get rid of lice once and for all? (I mean, look at her picture. I've seen that look before. You think she would be happy about her little protest, but she looks like she is just waiting for this bad haircut to grow out so her normal stylist can fix it.)
#4
I hope she plans on knitting a shirt from all that hair. I hear it's damn cold at the Warming Conference.
Posted by: ed ||
12/19/2009 7:13 Comments ||
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#5
A Georgetown grad, Germanophile, media expert, Sociocultural Anthropologist and now skinhead. Promising (but a bit frightening) future that.
Valida Prentices Summary
Marketing & communications project manager with knowledge of the wind industry. Experienced in desktop publishing, logo design, and writing & editing for external communications. Particularly adept in new media marketing: website design, utilizing social networking & media-sharing sites, and blogging for business.
Valida Prentices Specialties:
Writing, editing, layout design, HTML/CSS, web design, Drupal CMS
Valida Prentices Experience
Agents of Change Youth Delegate
SustainUS (Non-Profit; Environmental Services industry)
July 2009 Present (6 months)
Member of the Agents of Change youth delegation to the UNFCCC COP-15 in Copenhagen. Main role pre-COP is to work out policy positions and media strategies with policy working group and communications working group, respectively. Main role at COP is to liaison between policy, communications, and grassroots actions working groups and to work on media production.
Valida Prentices Education
Freie Universität Berlin
MA , Environmental Management , 2009 2011 (expected)
The George Washington University
BA , International Affairs , 2004 2007
Graduated with Special Honors, Summa cum Laude
Thesis: "The C40 and Sub-State-Level International Cooperation on Climate Change Mitigation" Minors in German Language & Literature and Sociocultural Anthropology
Received Citation of Outstanding Academic Achievement
Activities and Societies: Phi Beta Kappa, Green GW, Delta Phi Alpha, German Club, Phi Eta Sigma
Based on her resume, Varmint, I'm pretty sure it's "womyn", since "women" has that evil, phallocentric and oppressive word "men" in it. Surely you've gotten the memo? ;)
#9
Womyn is a dreadful feminist invention modifying the word for their sex so that it does not appear to derive from the word for the other sex, Varmint Glunter7711. Badanov is using it sarcastically, I'm sure.
#19
Mike, she can't be more than 30, 35 years old. She doesn't even have her Masters Degree in a useless subject yet. Give her a chance ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/19/2009 13:44 Comments ||
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#20
Sadly that's now a Presidential level resume.
Posted by: ed ||
12/19/2009 14:11 Comments ||
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#21
"One may shear their hair so it is shorn but one does not "shorn" their hair."
If there's any pedantry to be delivered here, that's my job, Varmint. I'm the official Rantburg Pedant.
So give it a rest.
Also, please remember that not everyone who posts here speaks English as a first language - or gives a rat's patootie.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/19/2009 15:07 Comments ||
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#22
I shaved my head for global warming as well. Too much hair makes me sweat under the nomex when hauling off snapped branches and putting out electric line fires. Shaved too, so my mask will fit for the odd chimney incident.
#25
I shave my head as well, albeit not for Global Warming.
It's a lifestyle choice.
Going out for the evening and wanna look great? Five minutes in the shower, and I'm groomed and ready.
Buy a blow dryer or strop that bowling ball in two seconds?
Tough decision, huh?
One may shear their hair so it is shorn but one does not "shorn" their hair. Oh, an it's women, not womyn.
Thanks for the tip. It did look strange when I pressed the submit button, but then again I knew I could rely on you to point out what was not to me an obvious flaw in my grammer.
#26
The local barber left town. Rather than drive for 40 minutes looking for a haircut, I went down to the barn and used the horse clippers, on myself. Beard, head, upperlip. Wife thinks I'm nuts.
Barber moved back into town this fall, so I'm spending the ten buck again. Clippers were giving quite the razor burn.
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.
The price of gold has increased 50 percent in the past two years and tripled over the past five, as global investors look to hedge against a falling dollar. Gold hit historic highs this month. That surge has spurred a new Amazon gold rush, with illegal miners pouring into the region and setting up camp along riverbanks, highways and footpaths reaching deep into the rain forest of the Peruvian Amazon. 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose above $73 a barrel on Friday, after an incursion by Iranian troops into an Iraqi oilfield sparked tensions between two major crude exporters. Frigid weather in the U.S. Northeast, the biggest heating oil market in the world, also supported prices.
