Montreal police are examining an apparent human head found Sunday in a pond to determine if it belongs to a Chinese student allegedly slain and dismembered by a porn actor who fled to Germany, according to news reports.
"At first we thought it was a potato, but they don't have ears, right?"
Test results are expected in about a week to determine if the remains are the head of Jun Lin, 33, police told The Gazette. Alas, poor Jun Lin, 33...
"It's too early to confirm if this finding has anything to do with the homicide," said police Constable Anie Lemieux. "We're waiting on lab results to determine whether what we found are human remains."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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It's too early to confirm if this finding has anything to do with the homicide,"
Maybe he just lost his head. His possible head, I mean.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
07/03/2012 15:44 Comments ||
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IMHO The Andy Griffith Show (the Black and White years -- the show seemed to jump the shark when it went to color) was TV's finest show. It's episodes consisted of meaningful (if often silly) short stories about people I would like to have known in a place I would like to have lived. While it lasted, it was beautiful. Andy Griffith was responsible for that.
Lately, because of his misguided liberal Hollywood (Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!) support for Obama and his policies, it has been fashionable for some conservatives to pee on Andy Griffith's legacy and now his grave. How very thoughtful and noble.
#5
Ditto Javirong. If you never carried a cane pole or a .22 across the handlebars of your Schwinn Wasp Paperboy down gravel roads, with your dog running along beside....it's a bit difficult to relate. Days gone by, etc.
#6
If you never carried a cane pole or a .22 across the handlebars of your Schwinn Wasp Paperboy down gravel roads...
As a young lad, been there and done that. Problem is, you can't do that anymore without having a SWAT team called out to wrestle you to the ground. And that's if they don't just gun you down.
And Andy is one Liberal pinheads that helped destroy our culture. Also, while he may have made shows that depicted that time in America, ideologically, he was against. Like all Leftists, he was a hypocrite. He made his living pretending to be for something he inwardly despised.
And for that I piss on his legacy and his grave.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
07/03/2012 18:51 Comments ||
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On the eve of July Fourth, a strong majority of Americans70 percentstill firmly support the Declaration of Independence, according to a public opinion survey by Rasmussen Reports. Err, doesn't "supporting" something mean that you get off your butt and do something about it?
Here's how Rasmussen puts it:
The Declaration of Independence, ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, asserts that "governments derive their only just powers from the consent of the governed." A new Rasmussen Reports national survey finds that 70% of American Adults agree with that statement, up from 66% last year and up from 56% in 2008. Just 13% now disagree with this assertion, but 17% are undecided.
I'd sure like to know who makes up the bottom-feeding 30%.
(Of course, a related poll in late June found that just 22 percent of Americans believe their government has the consent of the governed.) So why the fuc& don't they do something about it other than throw their vote away at the same old politicians who have gotten us into this mess?
Climate change no longer ranks first on the list of what Americans see as the world's biggest environmental problem, according to a new Washington Post-Stanford University poll.
Just 18 percent of those polled name it as their top environmental concern. That compares with 33 percent who said so in 2007, amid publicity about a major U.N. climate report and Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary about global warming. Today, 29 percent identify water and air pollution as the world's most pressing environmental issue. But - we will now devote considerable space to explaining why the public is so dumb. I summarize; you decide.
Some who feel passionately about the issue say they have noticed that President Obama is no longer pushing a bill that would limit greenhouse gas emissions and allow emitters to trade pollution credits, a scam system known as "cap and trade." That proposal stalled in the Senate in 2010.
"I know that he has to pick his battles," said Margaret Foshee, 52, of Arlington County, who works in a ski shop after spending much of her career as a nurse. Describing herself as "a big Obama supporter," Foshee said she hopes the president will do more to address climate change if he wins a second term. "If you don't take a stand on this, we're all doomed. . . . We've got to do something even if no one else's doing it. America should be a leader on a project like this." I wonder who Margret thinks is the leader on clean air. India? China? Russia? Spain? Italy? Greece?
While concern about warming crosses party lines, the intensity is sharply different. More than half of Democrats say it will be "very serious" if no action is taken, compared with 23 percent of Republicans and more than a third of independents. I wonder how the intensity lines up with those who support more government and those who want less?
There are also partisan differences in how respondents see the roles of government and business. About three-quarters of Democrats say both government and business should do "a great deal" or "quite a bit" to address global warming. A quarter of Republicans say government should do that much, and 36 percent say so about business. Whether you think it's a big deal or not, you were asked what to do about it.
"The good news is that the public understands that the global warming problem is serious, and they overwhelmingly support serious solutions. The sad news is that, with reduced mainstream-media coverage and with big polluters and their allies in the media and in Congress falsely screaming hoax, the issue is not as high a priority," said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. "But record-breaking temperatures, intense droughts and wildfires, and other climate-related disasters will hopefully be a wake-up call." That's right, James - the big polluters and their allies in the media. [giggle]
While many Republican lawmakers and candidates -- including the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney -- question the connection between human activity and climate change, a majority of Americans say such a link exists. Thirty percent say climate change is caused by humans, and 47 percent say both human and natural factors contribute to it. Just 22 percent think climate change stems from natural causes alone. A fine, compact lesson in spin - negative Republican connection and "a majority" think a link exists. That same yes-no-maybe data also supports a conclusion that "A majority don't even think humans are the primary factor in climate change." Or even more fair - only 30% think humans cause climate change.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/03/2012 06:16 ||
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Maybe as the usual suspects keep pointing to 'record highs', they believe their control on the narrative will blind us to this winter's record cold - Exhibit A
'Britain's Atlantis' found at bottom of North sea - a huge undersea world swallowed by the sea in 6500BC
Divers have found traces of ancient land swallowed by waves 8500 years ago
Doggerland once stretched from Scotland to Denmark
Rivers seen underwater by seismic scans
Britain was not an island - and area under North Sea was roamed by mammoths and other giant animals
Described as the 'real heartland' of Europe
Had population of tens of thousands - but devastated by sea level rises
There's no reason to believe this would change if humans deindustrialized completely. Neither do we have any reason to believe that anthropogenic change would be more or less harmful that non-anthropogenic change.
Stabilizing the current climate would actually be a worthwhile objective, since a new ice age is a realistic and catastrophic prospect likely to occur in the not too distant future. Eco nuttery however doesn't even claim to offer any solutions.
Even if we accept their diagnosis their proposed therapy makes no sense.
Posted by: Otto Squank7820 ||
07/03/2012 16:31 Comments ||
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#10
It has been in the low 40s for a week in Atka. Now it is up to 50F. Even Anchorage is 54F. No heat wave yet.......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/03/2012 17:13 Comments ||
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Are wildfires in the Western United States getting bigger and more severe? There's a fair bit of evidence that yes, they have been. And, ecologists and fire experts say, that's not a fluke. Thanks to both climate change and shifting forestry practices, humans may bear some responsibility here.
A research ecologist and the world's greatest expert on global man-made climate change at the U.S. Geological Survey in Los Alamos, New Mexico, explains that the trends appear to have been driven, at least in part, by a confluence of three factors:
1) Global warming. Huge wildfires are, of course, more likely during droughts, when the forests are dried out and filled with kindling. And many parts of the West are facing "severe" or "extreme" droughts right now. But, Allen notes, data from tree-ring studies suggest that there have often been large droughts in the West. "What's different today," he says, "is that it's also getting warmer, which can amplify the fire severity in the West."
Historically, Allen says, the snowy mountains have acted as giant "fire towers" that release water slowly throughout the spring and summer. But when there's less snow to go around, soils and forests get parched more quickly, which exacerbates droughts and can make large wildfires more likely. This year, snowpack in the Colorado Rockies peaked on March 6, a full month earlier than the historical average date. (Note, however, that there are still plenty of other, non-climate-change reasons why the current Colorado fires are so vicious, such as a high-pressure system that has prevented clouds from forming.) Plenty or other reasons, he says. Still, climate change is listed first among three "drivers", the other two of which are not at all theoretical.
2) Sprawl has pushed more people into forest areas, increasing the odds of fires. Many forest fires are caused by lightning. But others are caused by human activities. And as more and more people push deep into forested regions, that increases the risk of accidents. "More smokers, more ignition from motorized vehicles... even more arson," says Allen. He offers up one salient example: The record-setting Las Conchas fire in New Mexico last year, which consumed 40,000 acres, began when an aspen tree toppled onto a power line that was serving just six homes in a remote area.
3) Changing forestry practices have made wildfires more destructive. A look at tree-ring data shows that the Southwest has seen massive fires going back for centuries. But, in the past, many of these fires were low-intensity "surface" fires that mostly cleared out underbrush and prevented forests from building up too thickly.
That all changed around the 1900s, when the area's population grew and forest managers began suppressing these natural fires. Southwestern forests became much more dense with trees and brush. And that means when fires do break out, there's more fuel to burn and the fires are often far more destructive. The scale of these "megafires," which can spread all the way up to the tree canopy, appears to be unprecedented in the historical record. So two unquestionable causes rooted in man, and one highly questionable theory are put on the same level. The Sunday version of this article noted forest-thinning is limited by the Spotted Owl and offered the choice of the Spotted Owl or wildfires. No wonder that got culled out!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/03/2012 05:56 ||
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Different article, more like the one I read Sunday: Logging is forbidden in some western areas to protect the endangered Mexican spotted owl. But the Forest Service must make a call wildfires or the owls, Allison said.
This one is all climate change:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/colorados-table-was-set-for-monster-fire/2012/07/01/gJQAVa6cGW_story_1.html
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/03/2012 6:13 Comments ||
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I'm willing to bet that the wildfires kill more spotted owls than logging does.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/03/2012 8:04 Comments ||
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the area's population grew and forest managers began suppressing these natural fires.
Says all you need to know.
#4
To reduce energy consumption/carbon footprint I recommend banning air conditioning in the District of Columbia and the adjacent state counties. We all have to make sacrifices, there's the start. Heh.
#5
Weren't the experts surprised when they stopped trimming back the underbrush in Yosemite and allowing fires to burn naturally and then discovered that natural fires (although healthy for the forest in the long run) can be scary big and devastating to everything nearby.
Same is true out west, except there are less granite faces to contain the mess.
#7
Sick of these governments playing with peoples lives like this. They disgust me. Refuse to control burn and when homes burn down and people get killed, some stupid A-hole says it is because of some fake climate scare.
#8
I thought most were started by careless folk or firebugs... The recent Colorado Springs file notes the careless State University Mental Heath Emp who screwed up bad with his camping stove or the monster fire in AZ started by idiots having a party with rounds designed to start fires...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
07/03/2012 9:26 Comments ||
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#9
Its called fuel load. Perhaps more small fires would have culled the pine beatles.
#10
Fires may have been started by stupid human tricks, but they become these monster fires because of accumulation of underbrush and forest floor debris during abnormally long interludes between fires. The best documented example is the Yellowstone fires several decades ago. This gets made worse by heat and drought - which seem to come in cycles. It is claimed that the current phase is outside the normal variance but I'm not certain that's correct, nor, if it is, how far it is outside the norm.
#11
I fought fires back in the 90s. Even then the forest service admitted that their own fire prevention habits were too good and was detrimental to the forest. Instead of several small, low burning fires like in the past they had a few large firestorms that were fueled by the deadfall that wasn't cleared out by the smaller fires.
With the expanding wilderness/urban interface (yes, real term used for housing in the forest) it makes for real tough fights.
Global warming is still bullshit. The cause of the drought was the jet stream staying north and no snow or cold air dropped on the region. It simply is that time in the cycle and it happened 8 years ago and there were large fires then too. If "experts" took the time to look they would see drought happened like clockwork every 8-10 years.
#13
I don't know the norm - just that there is a lot of variation. One way of estimating drought is by study of tree rings - they've managed to tie together ring patterns from living trees back though old-ancient logs to get local estimates of climatic stress frequency and duration. I don't know if there are enough old trees/logs available to study from enough locations around the country and the world to reconstruct 'global' climate history.
#14
You only need to drive west on I-70 from Denver to see the miles and miles of brown pine trees killed by the pine beetles. None of that tinder was allowed to be cleared out, so it is prime fuel for a massive fire. No doubt that human intrusion into the forest has had an impact, but I would argue that ridiculous forestry rules are the prime culprit.
Nearly continuous earthquakes about 20km under El Hierro Island in the Canaries. This is about 6 months after the end of a moderate offshore eruption but this time is different. Over the past few days most of the island has deformed upwards 9 to 10 centimeters, much more deformation at a much faster rate than before and during the previous eruption. Residents are reporting nearly constant shaking, booms, and rumbling. The largest quakes so far have been in the M4 range. Government officials are keeping a nervous eye on the situation.
#1
okay... looked it up... El Hierro is the "Prime meridian'
Posted by: Water Modem ||
07/03/2012 8:16 Comments ||
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Not good if this particular hot spot erupts in a major way. Could result in large chunks (yeah, that's a geological term, too) of the island falling into the Atlantic.
Tsunamis with major areas of the New World's eastern seaboard under water, etc.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/03/2012 9:06 Comments ||
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Would that tsunami take out Washington, DC too?
#4
That slide-generated tsunami would have a wave-length measured in kilometers and a peak of several meters. Yes, it would inundate most of the east coast.
#6
Didja Know Thare Is An Gigantic Tear Drop Shaped Rock Extends On Two Natural Plyons And Spalshdown In Sea Causes 20,000 ft. Tidal Wave Nukes Out New York & Hawaii , DOH !
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Libya has freed four envoys of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... who were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Book 'im, Mahmoud! after visiting the son of slain leader Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... last month, a brigade commander and an official said.
"The four members (of the ICC team) were released," Ajmi al-Atiri, commander of a brigade holding Seif al-Islam Qadaffy told journalists in Zintan, a hilltop town southwest of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... The four, including Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor, have been held in Zintan since June 7 after travelling there to help prepare Seif al-Islam's defence.
Taylor was accused of carrying a pen camera and attempting to give Seif al-Islam a coded letter from his former right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail, who is wanted by the Libyan authorities.
Libya accused the team of "breaching national security."
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdelaziz said the release was the result of an agreement between his country and the ICC, which committed to continue investigations and keep Libya in the loop of its findings.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Former Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh plans to launch new political party within days He was the Salafists' candidate. He could also call it the 'Sour Grapes Party.'
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Recently-inaugurated President Mohamed Morsi on Monday issued a decision to increase military pension rates by 15 per cent -- rather than 10 per cent, as was called for by Egypt's Cabinet on Sunday -- according to Morsi spokesman Yasser Ali. Where are they going to get the funding for this? Egypt is already living on "loans" from the Saudis rather than the more usual taxes and private sector economy.
On Sunday, Morsi also raised bonuses on public-sector salaries by 15 per cent and monthly social-insurance pension rates from LE200 to LE300.
Ali said that Morsi, following discussions with interim Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, had decided to raise military pensions by 15 per cent as well, so that military pensioners might enjoy equal payouts with state employees. "Whoa! Really nice tattoos! This is my bosom. Wanna trade?"
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Just as a 4th century new Roman Emperor would do.
...security violations could but probably not have resulted in Gration losing his government security clearance, or a simple reminder over koffee from the Regional Security Officer (RSO), preventing him from holding a position in the State Department. "You cannot be a U.S. ambassador without a security clearance," or a president without a ....oh nevermind, the former official said. Don't miss "westthea wrote" in comments.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-we President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... flew to Singapore for a routine medical check-up, state radio announced on Monday.
The trip has revived speculation about the 88-year-old leader's failing health after a previous trip to the Asian country sparked rumours he had died.
President Mugabe has denied claims that he suffers from advanced prostate cancer.
The state owned Zim-bob-we Broadcasting Corporation, which rarely reports on the president's private foreign trips, said he would return home at the weekend.
A privately owned newspaper, The Daily News had reported that President Mugabe was travelling for treatment in Singapore and had arranged a special cabinet meeting before his departure.
Last year, the President confirmed that he had cataract surgery in Singapore. He travelled to Singapore more than eight times in 2011.
The Zim-bob-wean President last month also dismissed critics who claimed he was now too frail to run for another term in office, saying his rivals were the ones battling ill health.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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President Mugabe has denied claims that he suffers from advanced prostate cancer.
"Cataract surgery".... a logical explanation to the prostrate rumours, when one considers the location of Mugabe's head.
Mexican voters awarded Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and their allies in the Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano (PVEM) not only with the presidency but also claiming five of six statehouses up for election, according to data supplied by Mexican official and news accounts.
Enrique Pena Nieto ended the mystery as to who would become the next occupant of Los Pinos Monday by winning 18,449,877 votes or 38.08 percent of the total, while his closest rival Partido Revolucion Democratica/Partido Trabajo (PRD)(PT) candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador came in second with 15,351,692 votes or 31.08 percent of the total.
Throughout the three month campaign Lopez Obrador and Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota claimed their internal polling placed their respective candidacies within a few percentage points of Pena Nieto even as Pena Nieto racked up, week in and week out, a double digit lead over his rivals.
At very few moments in the campaign did private polling organizations change the numbers with regard to Pena Nieto's huge advantage in voters preferences. At least two private polls conducted by Mexican newspapers had Lopez Obrador within as few as four points of Pena Nieto, but down the stretch, it was Pena Nieto who became the candidate to beat.
Six state governors were up for election in Jalisco, Guanajuato, Morelos, Tabasco, Chiapas and Yucatan. Of those six, PAN only managed to retain Guanajuato. PAN previously held Jalisco, Guanajuato and Morelos states before the election. PRD had held Chiapas, but lost it to PRI.
In Jalisco state, PAN managed to capture only five seats in the local chamber of deputies to 15 PRI and PRI coalitions, and held on to 22 municipal seats while PRI won or retained 86 municipal seats. PRD managed to win or retain just 13 municipal seats. Those losses hark back to 2011 when PRI similarly crushed both PAN and PRD in Mexico and Coahuila states.
Most telling for the future of Mexican national politics has been the leftward shift in the composition of the national Chamber of Deputies. The current make up of the assembly was PRI/PVEM with 262 seats, PAN with 142, and PRD/PT/Movimiento Cuidadano (MC) with 99 seats.
Now the composition has shifted leftward still with PRI/PVEM retaining 232 seats, PRD/PT/MC with 140 and PAN with 118 seats. While the shift is clearly leftward, Mexican voters appear to like the idea of Mexico's left and right combining to pass reforms and keeping a newly invigorated PRI in check. Despite the gain in seats and the popularity of Pena Nieto, PRI has failed to gain a majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
In the Mexican senate, the shift is far less to the left but leftward nevertheless. PAN lost nine seats going from 50 to 41 seats, while PRI/PVEM gained from 41 to 57 seats, with PRD/PT/MC losing, going from 41 to 33 seats.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Iran Press TV] Turkish politicians have clashed with each other over a parliamentary motion to abolish special courts, according to Turkish media.
The motion was proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It provides scrapping of special courts used in the trials of alleged coup plots and widely criticized by European institutions and human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... groups.
Local newspapers on Monday published photos of AK Party politicians with the main Kurdish party BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) in a brawl in parliament over the proposed measure, which the opposition has slammed as merely "cosmetic."
Hundreds of people including journalists, generals, and academics are currently tossed in the clink Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! and are awaiting trial on terrorism and coup attempt charges. The special courts were created by the government in 2005 to replace state security courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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Even a broken cuckoo clock is right once in a while.
A North Carolina lawmaker says she feels "rotten" after accidentally voting to override the veto of a bill to legalize fracking--the controversial technique of extracting natural gas--in the state.
Rep. Becky Carney, a Democrat from Mecklenburg, said she accidentally voted late Monday to override the governor's veto after asking fellow Democrats to uphold it. The House voted 72-47 against the veto--with Carney's vote clinching the number of votes needed for the override.
"It is late," Carney told WRAL-TV. "Here we are rushing to make these kind of decisions this time of night." The vote was called shortly before 11:30 p.m. ET.
"I feel rotten, and I feel tired," she continued. "And I feel that mistakes are made constantly when people are tired. But I take responsibility for my vote." Maybe libs should get some sleep once in a while instead of spending 24 hours a day figuring out how to screw over the other side. "Please don't kill me vote for my opponent!"
After realizing her error, Carney could be heard on the House floor saying, ""Oh, my God--it won't let me change my vote."
Under state law, lawmakers can change their vote if they make a mistake--unless their vote changes the outcome.
"There's a green button and a red button," House Speaker Thom Tillis told the News & Observer. "They should know which one to push."
Carney hit the green one. Then:
She panicked. She hit a different button to turn on her microphone and called to the House speaker on the dais. He didn't recognize her. So she rushed to the front, 20 steps from her seat in the eighth row down the red-carpeted middle aisle.
Carney asked the clerk to check her vote. Green. Override.
She then asked Tillis if she could change her vote. Tillis said House rules prevented it.
In May, Vermont became the first state to ban fracking, which critics say contaminates drinking water.
"Human beings survived for thousands and thousands of years without oil and without natural gas," Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said after signing the bill into law. "We have never known humanity or life on this plant to survive without clean water."
In the future, he said, "drinking water will be more valuable than oil or natural gas." Everything's more valuable than oil and natural gas. The reason it's so expensive is because liberals make it hard.
#1
"Human beings survived for thousands and thousands of years without oil and without natural gas,"
Human beings also survived without power, AC, supermarkets, medicine, premade shelter, etc. I vote you go without all those things on a island somewhere and leave the rest of us advanced folk alone.
#7
If North Carolina is not willing to share in the risk of producing the product, why should they be allowed to share in the benefits or use of the product?
Here's the teaser:
After being caught for the third time in as many months coordinating with the Obama campaign to attack Mitt Romney, the Washington Post finally -- in the most cowardly and slippery manner imaginable -- came clean today regarding the provably false charge that the presumptive GOP nominee outsourced American jobs during his tenure at Bain Capital ....
[Pak Daily Times] Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday cautioned about a deadlock if the government attempted to induct its blue-eyed person as the chief election commissioner (CEC).
The appointment of CEC is the latest bone of contention between the ruling Pakistain People's Party (PPP) and the opposition Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N), which have engaged in confrontation on various issues for quite some time.
Nisar categorically rejected the perception that his party is creating hurdles in the appointment of CEC, saying the PML-N has a clear stance on this issue.
About his panel of persons for the new CEC, the opposition leader said that his party had suggested the panel by taking on board all the opposition parties inside and outside parliament. "We have consulted Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... , Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, PPP-Sherpao and others to give the names for the CEC to the parliamentary committee," Nisar added. "If any change is made in the panel of persons, it will also be done in consultation with the other opposition parties," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman 'Nigel' Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. on Monday failed to produce his British nationality renouncement certificate before the Supreme Court.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the case pertaining to politicians holding dual nationality. During the hearing, the court told Anwar Mansoor, the counsel for Malik, to refrain from making arguments on assumptions and provide proof of his client's renouncement of British citizenship. The chief justice said that court does not recognise assumptions.
The counsel said Malik had applied for renunciation of British nationality on April 24, 2008, and had paid fee for it from the account of his wife Saeeda Rehman, but the name had wrongly been written Saeed Rehman. Justice Khilji Arif Hussain asked Mansoor, "Even if we suppose that fee was paid, what happened after that?" The counsel argued if his client had British citizenship why would he travel on Pak passport, and noted that several visas had been stamped on his Pak passport.
He argued that if someone acquired nationality of another country after becoming a parliamentarian then he/she would not lose their membership, but if the member held dual nationality before becoming a parliamentarian, then he stands disqualified.
The chief justice absorbed this was not a good argument and asked Mansoor to provide the attested relevant documents in accordance with the British law. Justice Khilji, meanwhile, asked the interior adviser's counsel to desist from presenting assumptions and submit proof before the court if his client had renounced British citizenship.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2012 00:00 ||
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Iraq's oil revenues dropped by 17.6 percent from May to June due to plummeting prices in the international market and the diversion of some production to meet domestic needs, the government said Monday.
The decline in revenues challenges oil-reliant Iraq, since the violence-plagued country needs hundreds of billions of dollars for reconstruction after the withdrawal of the last US troops late last year. Oil revenues make up about 95 percent of the fragile democratic government's budget.
#2
While the country certainly needs the exchange, meeting its domestic needs without having to import refined products (as Iran has to do) would be a good thing. Also a good thing if the folks in Iraq learn that the oil teat is dangerous, and that they should diversify not only their economy, but their culture.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2012 15:01 Comments ||
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Recent tests conducted on Yasser Arafat's personal belongings at the time of his unexpected death in 2004 suggest his body contained abnormal levels of radioactive polonium, the same poisonous substance that killed Russian spy-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko, Al-Jazeera TV reports.
Al-Jazeera says its nine-month investigation found that Arafat was in good health until he fell suddenly ill Oct. 12, 2004, at his compound in Ramallah on the West Bank. He was flown to a French miitary hospital in Paris, where he died of AIDS several days later.
No autopsy was performed on the longtime Palestinian leader, who died at the age of 74. How convenient.
Al-Jazeera says the tests on his clothes, including his toothbrush and kaffiyeh, were conducted by the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland. Surely his clothes were held by a neutral party.
"I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids," Francois Bochud, the director of the institute, tells Al-Jazeera.
Additional tests, conducted over a three-month period from March until June, concluded that most of that polonium found in samples of body fluids -- sweat and urine -- on Arafat's clothes, was "unsupported," meaning that it did not come from natural sources.
Al-Jazeera says there is little scientific consensus on the symptoms of polonium poisoning, mostly because it is so rare. Let's test it out on the next thousand or so terrorists that Israel catches.
Litvinenko suffered severe diarrhea, weight loss and vomiting, as did Arafat, in the days and weeks before he fell ill.
A British inquiry into the Litvinenko's death found that he was poisoned with polonium slipped into his tea at a sushi restaurant, Al-Jazeera notes. Israel to be blamed in 10 ... 9 ... 8 ...
Some 200 jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! throughout West Bank during raids conducted in response to high-profile vigilante shootings. Jenin governor: Rules have changed
Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has launched his broadest weapons crackdown in years, for the first time confronting his own loyalists, including rogue security officers and gunnies linked to his Fatah movement.
The arrest raids conducted in recent weeks are a response to high-profile vigilante shootings that threatened to undermine law-and-order successes, seen as key to Paleostinian statehood claims.
Some 200 people were jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! and dozens of guns seized in recent weeks, many in the northern West Bank district of Jenin, Paleostinian police said Monday.
Just under half the detainees were released after surrendering their weapons, while others remain in jug on suspicion of weapons dealing, extortion and shooting attacks, said police front man Adnan Damiri.
Until the crackdown, Abbas had largely avoided taking on gunnies with ties to Fatah, apparently fearing a political backlash and unrest in the ranks. The recent shootings, including a May attack on the house of the Jenin district governor, who later died of a heart attack, seem to have left him no choice.
Among those tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... were several gangs involved in illegal weapons trading and extortion, as well as those who attacked the house of the Jenin governor. The Paleostinian officials have linked the deadly heart attack to the shooting, seen as the main trigger for the security crackdown.
At the same time, Paleostinian human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... groups have criticized Abbas for curtailing basic freedoms in the West Bank under the guise of security.
Over the weekend, his security forces violently dispersed two protests against Abbas' security coordination with Israel and a planned meeting with Israeli Vice Premier Shaul Mofaz. The meeting was later postponed.
To the international community, the Jenin area, a former terrorist stronghold, had become a symbol of Abbas' ability to assert control successfully. The recent violence has threatened to spoil that perception.
The situation "reached a level where it was hurting the faction (Fatah) and the reputation of the security forces, and the president decided to intervene," said Azmi Shuaibi, an independent Paleostinian politician.
Senior Fatah officials did not criticize the crackdown publicly, though local leaders in the Jenin district argued that disarming Fatah loyalists will leave them vulnerable in case of renewed festivities with the movement's main political rival, the Islamic Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terror organization. Five years ago, Hamas and Fatah fought a brief civil war in the Gazoo Strip, ending with a Hamas takeover of Gazoo that left Abbas with only the West Bank.
Even Fatah politician Shami al-Shami, who was shot and maimed in an ambush outside his home in the Jenin refugee camp over the weekend, opposes a large-scale weapons roundup, saying only troublemakers should be targeted.
"If the Paleostinian Authority takes my weapon from me, and tomorrow the Authority cannot protect me, Hamas people will come and attack me," said al-Shami, his maimed right leg propped up on a pillow as he received well-wishers in his brother's living room.
There were no suspects in the attack on al-Shami, a former Paleostinian security official, said the new district governor, Talal Dweikat.
The Jenin district is the largest contiguous area under Paleostinian self-rule. Israel retains overall control of the West Bank, an area it captured in 1967, along with the Gazoo Strip and east Jerusalem. Paleostinians have limited autonomy in 38% of the West Bank.
Since the 2007 Hamas takeover of Gazoo, Abbas has gradually asserted control in the self-rule areas, clamping down on Hamas while trying to co-opt Fatah-linked gunnies who had fought Israeli troops during a Paleostinian uprising a decade ago.
Some of the armed Fatah loyalists were given security jobs, while others were persuaded to disband their squads.
The performance of Abbas' security forces, key to buttressing Paleostinian claims for independence, has won Israeli praise in recent years. At the same time, Paleostinian officials complain that Israeli restrictions on the movement of the Paleostinian security forces and frequent Israeli army incursions into self-rule areas hamper their efforts.
In Jenin, the equilibrium seemed to hold for a while, but several shootings attracted new attention to the once troubled district.
In April 2011, a masked gunman shot and killed well-known Israeli actor Juliano Mer Khamis, son of a Jewish mother and a Paleostinian father, who had founded a community theater in the Jenin camp to provide a means of peaceful protest against Israeli occupation. In a brazen daytime attack, the killer stopped the actor's car near the theater, fired several shots and escaped.
A "no weapons allowed" sign still marks the entrance to the Freedom Theater, but the admonition clearly never applied to the rest of the Jenin camp, the epicenter of what Damiri said was the most extensive weapons crackdown since 2007.
Among the high-profile detainees is Zakarya Zubeidi, the most famous gunman in the Jenin camp. Zubeidi was tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... after the attack on the governor, though security officials would not say if he was a suspect.
Dweikat, the new governor, said rules have changed in his district.
"Those who enter the circle of chaos" will not be able to hide behind their rank or political affiliation, he said.
Scientists have long been experimenting with the 3D printing of cells and blood vessels, building up tissue structure layer by layer with artificial cells.
But the synthetically engineered cells often die before the tissue is formed.
The technology, in which a 3D printer uses sugar as its building material, could one day be used for transplants.
The study appears in the journal Nature Materials.
Dr Jordan Miller from the lab of the lead scientist, Dr Christopher Chen, at the University of Pennsylvania, told BBC News: "The big challenge in understanding how to grow large artificial tissue is how to keep all the cells alive in these engineered tissues, because when you put a lot of cells together, they end up taking nutrients and oxygen from neighbouring cells and end up suffocating and dying."
The body's cardiovascular system - blood vessels - solves this issue with natural cells and tissues.
So a group of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to build a synthetic vascular system that would serve the same purpose - by creating a place where the future artificial blood vessels would be located.
Dr Miller's colleague Prof Sangeeta Bhatia, from MIT, said that the technique was similar to creating the shape of a vase in wax, surrounding it with molten metal and then melting the wax away.
Sugar use
But instead of wax, the team used sugar.
"So far, it's been difficult to make organs big enough so that they could provide useful function - and if you implant any tissue thicker than about a millimetre, we can't provide it enough nutrients without also engineering blood vessels into the tissue," said Prof Bhatia.
"We created a network of places that we wish vessels to grow into, so they would become piping into the tissue, and we printed those in 3D out of sugar.
"Sugar is a very nice material that can be dissolved away in the presence of living tissue, it's very friendly to biological tissue.
"We then surrounded the network with the cells that we would like to be fed by the blood vessels when the tissue is implanted - and once we have this structure of pipes-to-be and tissue, we dissolve away the sugar using water."
Although the researches did not do any implantation, they said they had wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to build the thicker tissue that could be fed by this network of pipes - and this way, to create a full organ in future.
"We showed that you can use a 3D printer to print an arbitrary network of vessels for any tissue shape or any network of blood vessels, and then surround them with cells that you would like to create the organ out of," said Prof Bhatia.
"We tried to make a liver, so we surrounded them with liver cells, but one could do it with any other tissue."
Exciting findings
Prof Martin Birchall, a surgeon scientist at University College London, said the research answered "a lot of fundamental problems in tissue engineering."
"The idea of 3D printing has been around for several years, and certainly it is possible to print virtually anything," he said.
"You can use biomaterials, cells or a combination these, and this group of scientists has correctly identified that the sticking point in all this is going to be vascularity - blood vessels - making sure that you've got sufficient nutrients going in and waste coming out of something that otherwise is going to be a solid block of stuff.
"And if you're going to build something like a kidney, you're going to need that.
"I'm fascinated by their proposals, they're quite a way from clinic yet, the next step is going to be testing it on animals, but it is certainly very exciting."
[Pak Daily Times] Police in Myanmar have placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! 30 people in connection with the vigilante killing of 10 Moslems that helped spark days of sectarian violence in Rakhine state last month in which at least 80 people were killed and tens of thousands were displaced.
The 30 suspects were in detention and "action is being taken against them according to the laws", the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Monday, referring to the incident on June 3, when the Moslems were hauled off a bus, beaten and killed.
The riots and killings underline the big challenges facing Myanmar's first civilian government since the end of five decades of authoritarian military rule. The 15-month-old administration says it wants to forge peace and unity among the many ethnic groups and religions in Myanmar. Northwestern Rakhine state in particular is fraught with longstanding communal tension. The lynching of the Moslems was apparently retribution for the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman six days earlier, an attack they had no connection with.
Three Moslem youths were found guilty of murdering the woman. One did away with himself and the other two were sentenced to death on June 18. The two incidents and the subsequent riots in Rakhine have drawn attention to the bad blood between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Moslems.
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YJCMTSUIYT - Woman who married a warehouse to try to save a neighborhood wants to marry another one (after her 1st one -er- passed on). Only in Seattle (and perhaps San Fran - but that goes without saying).
Dressed in a wedding gown and holding her spouse, 10th and Union widow Babylonia Aivaz stormed the Seattle City Council meeting Monday afternoon with one purpose: to save the Yesler Terrace neighborhood through marriage.
"This is the only thing I have left from the last building I married," she said as she held up a brick from the now-demolished warehouse that sat at the corner of 10th and Union. "I cannot let it happen again."
Held back by security guards, Aivaz eventually left the meeting only to be greeted by police outside.
"I just feel that justice has to happen now and I couldn't wait," she told police.
When asked if she had armed herself with a brick, she explained that the brick was her wife.
"Oh no, that's my spouse," she said. "! I got married to a building earlier this year."
Aivaz says her mission is to save the diverse and economically-challenged Yesler Terrace neighborhood and its 1,200 residents from the Seattle Housing Authority's planned redevelopment.
She says she became passionate about the neighborhood while working as a summer camp counselor with Seattle Parks and Recreation at Yesler Community Center.
"I just formed the deepest spiritual bond with the children there and I grew to know and love all the families, farms and gardens and the views," she said. "I think the best thing is to rehabilitate it, renovate it and expand the low-income housing." I don't think I would want her around my children. But Seattle is kind of wierd like that.
"I consider myself a modern day Lorax," she said, citing the Dr. Seuss book that speaks strongly against greed, and the capitalist system. "So if anyone wants understand what is happening, they just need to reread "The Lorax." Funny - I think of her as a modern day loon.
Aivaz was charged with criminal trespassing for entering the restricted area of City Hall. She says that won't deter her wedding, which she has set for August 5. Who's going the be the 'best man' - that super-expensive portapotty Seattle bought a few years ago.
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.
Just 18 percent of those polled name it as their top environmental concern. That compares with 33 percent who said so in 2007, amid publicity about a major U.N. climate report and Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary about global warming. Today, 29 percent identify water and air pollution as the world's most pressing environmental issue.
Nearly continuous earthquakes about 20km under El Hierro Island in the Canaries. This is about 6 months after the end of a moderate offshore eruption but this time is different. Over the past few days most of the island has deformed upwards 9 to 10 centimeters, much more deformation at a much faster rate than before and during the previous eruption. Residents are reporting nearly constant shaking, booms, and rumbling. The largest quakes so far have been in the M4 range. Government officials are keeping a nervous eye on the situation.
Libya has freed four envoys of the 
International Criminal Court
[Al Ahram] Former Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh plans to launch new political party within days
Zim-bob-we President 
[Iran Press TV] Turkish 
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday cautioned about a deadlock if the government attempted to induct its blue-eyed person as the chief election commissioner (CEC).
[Pak Daily Times] Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior 
Recent tests conducted on Yasser Arafat's personal belongings at the time of his unexpected death in 2004 suggest his body contained abnormal levels of radioactive polonium, the same poisonous substance that killed Russian spy-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko, Al-Jazeera TV reports.
