Hi there, !
Today Mon 02/10/2014 Sun 02/09/2014 Sat 02/08/2014 Fri 02/07/2014 Thu 02/06/2014 Wed 02/05/2014 Tue 02/04/2014 Archives
Rantburg
533597 articles and 1861729 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 61 articles and 184 comments as of 17:22.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Syria Rebels Seize Most of Aleppo Jail as Bombing Toll Hits 257 Dead in 6 Days
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 19:20 Procopius2k [5] 
0 [] 
7 20:43 Zenobia Floger6220 [3] 
4 13:07 DoDo [] 
17 19:17 SteveS [2] 
8 19:27 tipper [2] 
5 11:11 Besoeker [] 
1 00:45 JosephMendiola [1] 
2 01:00 3dc [1] 
3 14:52 rjschwarz [] 
0 [1] 
16 19:45 newc [2] 
5 10:16 Besoeker [] 
0 [4] 
2 11:51 49 Pan [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 16:33 Besoeker []
0 [1]
0 [2]
0 [4]
3 21:24 Creating Brown2157 [11]
6 21:51 Creating Brown2157 [2]
0 []
0 [1]
1 10:11 Pappy [1]
0 []
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
3 22:50 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [4]
6 20:12 JosephMendiola [1]
1 22:06 Pappy [4]
0 []
8 22:36 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [5]
0 [1]
2 14:20 Pappy []
0 [4]
0 [4]
0 [13]
0 [7]
0 [4]
0 [4]
1 10:19 Pappy [13]
0 [4]
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
6 17:05 g(r)omgoru []
Page 4: Opinion
3 22:55 OldSpook [3]
0 [2]
0 [3]
0 [6]
0 [6]
9 18:10 Iblis [3]
10 23:48 rammer [4]
Page 6: Politix
1 11:48 Besoeker [2]
1 11:42 Besoeker [3]
8 22:39 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [2]
13 11:38 AlanC []
5 12:46 Frank G []
14 23:02 OldSpook [4]
2 12:39 Pappy [3]
2 07:40 Frank G []
5 10:36 Mullah Richard [1]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Allah arrested for theft of 300 year old Stradivarius fiddle.
[Jihad Watch] MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee coppers have announced the names of the people they believe stole a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin worth six million dollars. Coppers have also confirmed the recovery of the rare violin
over on East Smith Street.
36-year-old Universal Allah, 41-year-old Salah Jones and an unnamed female were arrested by Milwaukee cops on February 3rd. The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office plans to have charges filed and a criminal complaint issued by February 7th.

Police believe the trio robbed Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Frank Almond of the Stradivarius violin after a concert at Wisconsin Lutheran College on January 27th around 10:20 p.m. Police say Almond was approached by two of the suspects in a parking lot and tased.
This is a stick up. You got any dough? No, only this old fiddle worth 6 million dollars. Please don't shoot me again.
Almond dropped the violin, and the suspects stole the expensive violin. The victim reported to police the suspects were a man and a woman. Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn says his department contacted taser vendors, and were able to use information obtained to find one of the suspects.
Yea, he's a regular. Tried to pawn a trombone once. He also likes Blue Grass mountain music.
Police executed a five search warrants in search of the violin without finding anything. Universal Allah told investigators the violin was hidden in a house on E. Smith St. Police found the violin hidden inside a suitcase located in the house's attic. Allah told police the owner of the home had no idea the violin was in his house.
Take us to the fiddle and we'll go easy on yaz, now sing!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 07:01 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  String him up.


/pun intended.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/07/2014 14:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Go to your room. ;-)
Posted by: gorb || 02/07/2014 14:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Always figured Universal Allah was a Klepto

Posted by: Au Auric || 02/07/2014 15:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Touche a la droit; match to Al Auric
Posted by: Harcourt Forkbeard4859 || 02/07/2014 15:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Universal Allah, damn now that's a power name right there.

I've a mind to TradeMark Universal Allah Wrench and sell it on TeeVee in the early AM.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/07/2014 17:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Too bad they were just fiddlin' around.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/07/2014 18:52 Comments || Top||

#7  If you'll cut class for any Mary Jane's caress,
But lately tests show you've developed CRS,
Get more than you're used to from your blunts!
Wow your stoner chums with sick mnemonic stunts!
They'll fire your synapses and clean your points --
Smoke Allah's Universal Knowledge Joints!

p.s. I do not partake, nor endorse. Tried it long ago and was deemed cool by the lit brigade for years thereafter, but for some reason I never took to it. Probably wanted to avoid the middleman and get straight to the munchies.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/07/2014 20:43 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Bank of America mailer refers to recipient as 'slut'
There's junk mail, and then there's nasty mail: San Francisco writer Lisa McIntire says Bank of America sent her a credit card offer addressed to "Lisa Is a Slut McIntire," and she posted photos of it Thursday on Twitter.

The bank tweeted her an apology and pledged to investigate, but the problem apparently originated with an academic society that was marketing jointly with the bank.

McIntire, 32, said in a phone interview that she learned about the mail in a text exchange with her mother, a screen grab of which she also posted on Twitter.

"Interesting piece of junk mail addressed to you. 'Lisa Is a slut McIntire,'" her mother texted.

"Uh, what?"

"No kidding. That is how it is addressed!"

The phrasing also appeared inside the mailer.

"Lisa Is a Slut McIntire, you've earned this special offer," the mailer said in bold letters, in a Visa credit card offer that the letter said was tied to McIntire's membership in the Golden Key International Honour Society.

A spokeswoman for Bank of America told The Times that she would look into the situation.

Earlier, the bank tweeted at McIntire: "We're incredibly sorry this happened and are researching now so we can take the appropriate action. We'll follow up with you ASAP."

McIntire, a former deputy communications director for one of California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's campaigns, laughed a little in describing the mailer, which was sent to her mother's home in Menlo Park. But she said she was "dying to know" how the phrasing got in the mail.

"What kind of got my adrenaline pumping is that I'm a feminist writer on the Internet, so getting a piece of mail that my mom is opening that says I'm a 'slut' made me think, 'Oh God, which troll of mine is doing this?'" McIntire said. "But I don't think that's what happened here. ... My working theory is that this is some data entry person [messing] around. I don't think it's aimed at me."
Posted by: Au Auric || 02/07/2014 15:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


ABBA Enter Swedish Music Hall of Fame
[An Nahar] Legendary Swedish pop band ABBA on Thursday were among the 12 first artists to join the Swedish Music Hall of Fame, which celebrates the country's rich pop tradition.

"I think it's a nice thing to do, to create a Swedish Music Hall of Fame," 67-year-old former ABBA member Benny Andersson told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"Through the years, there were so many very influential good songwriters and artists and I think it's a good thing to make a collection of all of them."

As expected, the most famous Swedish band of all times eclipsed all other artists on the list, such as Roxette or metal band Entombed.

"We would probably be the only band that you know about. Maybe Roxette...otherwise, it's sort of a Swedish thing," Andersson said, showing pride in keeping his celebrity status 32 years after the group broke up.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Explains why I've been listening to ABBA hits on Youtube lately - here I am mistakenly blaming the Sun = CMES/Solar flares.

Well, I'm certainly embarrassed.

lol.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/07/2014 0:45 Comments || Top||


Book Forum: "Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Ames and the Men He Betrayed."
For those in the DC area, this is a follow up on the defunct series "The Asset."

Book Forum: "Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed" by Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014, Army and Navy Club at Farragut Square, 901 17th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

Wine & Cheese - 6:30 p.m. | Speaker - 7 p.m. | $10 per person

Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille were the two CIA officers directly responsible for tracking down CIA officer Aldrich Ames, an American traitor who provided information to the Soviet Union that contributed to the deaths of at least ten Soviet intelligence officers who spied for the United States. Join us as we discuss the manhunt and the arrest of the CIA's most notorious traitor.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
U.N. Says 2013 Sixth Hottest Year, Confirms Long-Term Warming
[An Nahar] Last year tied for the sixth hottest on record, confirming that Earth's climate system is in the grip of warming that will affect generations to come, the U.N.'s weather agency said Wednesday.

"The global temperature for the year 2013 is consistent with the long-term warming trend," World Meteorological Organization (WMO) chief Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

Last year equalled 2007 as the sixth warmest year since reliable records began in 1850, with a global land and ocean surface temperature that was 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-1990 average, the WMO said.

Temperatures in both years were also 0.03 C (0.05 F) above the average from 2001-2010, which in turn was an extremely hot decade, with 2005 and 2010 topping the warming charts.

Those two years saw temperatures about 0.55 C (1 F) above the long term average.

Thirteen of the 14 warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st century, said the agency.

Jarraud acknowledged that "the rate of warming is not uniform" in every country.

Last year, for instance, was the hottest year on record in Australia, while the United States measured record highs in 2012.

But, Jarraud stressed, "the underlying trend is undeniable".

"Given the record amounts of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, global temperatures will continue to rise for generations to come," the WMO chief warned.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Temperatures in both years were also 0.03 C (0.05 F) above the average from 2001-2010,

0.03 degrees Celsius. That's 3/100 of a degree C for the decimally challenged. Dollars to donuts that is well within the (unmentioned) error bars on the 10 year global average temp measurement. I'm impressed anyone can make this claim without laughing.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/07/2014 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Again, IOW any so-called "Mini-Ice-Age", or I like to label as the "Great/Mighty Asia-Pacific Slushy", is likely a temporary or interim event between escalating or intensifying solar heating periods.

The question from our mighty The-OWG-Govts-Perts- Consensus-is-that-there-is-no-Consensus remains how hot will our changing Sun heat up the Earth + Planetary system over time, + how should the OWG-NWO that no American = Amerikan has yet voted for nor been asked to respond effec to same.

Ditto on whether "Peak Oil/Resources/Everything" is real or not, as OWG-NWO = akin to saying SPace Govt-Order, i.r. organizing the Earth, Nations + Resources, etc. for Space exploration + colonization + trade.

How long is "long"???

--------------

* ION DAILY MAIL.UK > REAL-LIFE "DEATH STAR": US RESEARCHERS DEVELOPING LASER 100,000 TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN ALL OF THE EARTH'S POWER STATIONS COMBINED.

Which may prove to be important given ... ...

* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > YOUTUBE VIDEO: UNVERSITY OF AUSTIN, TEXAS STUDENT CLAIMS NEWLY DETECTED HUGE INCOMING PLANET-SIZED SPACE OBJECT WILL ENTER OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/07/2014 1:06 Comments || Top||

#3  FREEREPUBLIC > [NYT] WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES SEVEN REGIONAL CLIMATE HUBS.

Guam-CNMI-WESTPAC should be one of them.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/07/2014 1:16 Comments || Top||

#4  What a crock. Steve S has it right. Given the enviroment of the target being measured and the equipment being used AND the bozos doing the measuring there is no way in hell that this level of precision is achievable.

They're trying to measure the width of a hair with a yardstick.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/07/2014 7:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Goebbels would be SO proud.....
Posted by: Harcourt Forkbeard4859 || 02/07/2014 15:18 Comments || Top||

#6  At 33 he was at his 8th tallest year ever.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/07/2014 17:12 Comments || Top||

#7  It's all about the angle of the dangle.
Posted by: tipper || 02/07/2014 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  It's all about the angle of the dangle.
Posted by: tipper || 02/07/2014 19:27 Comments || Top||


Mystery Giant Jellyfish Washes up in Australia
[An Nahar] Scientists were on Thursday working to classify a new species of giant jellyfish that washed up on an Australian beach, describing it as a "whopper" that took their breath away.

The 1.5-metre (4 foot 11 inch) specimen was found by a family in the southern state of Tasmania, who contacted a local marine biologist.

Lisa Gershwin, a scientist with the government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), said the type of jellyfish had been seen in the past, but never one so big and not one that became beached.

"We know about this specimen but it hasn't been classified yet, it hasn't been named," she told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that there had been a massive jellyfish bloom in Tasmanian waters over the past month.

She said the new species was related to the lion's mane jellyfish, the largest known species of the marine animal in the world.

"It is so big it took our breath away," added Gershwin, who has been working with jellyfish for 20 years.

"It's a whopper of an animal but it's not life-threatening, although it does sting."
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We know about this specimen but it hasn't been classified yet, it hasn't been named,"

Jellozilla ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 10:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Remnants of Oprah's liposuction?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/07/2014 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Obama
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2014 10:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I didn't know John Boehner was even IN Australia?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/07/2014 11:08 Comments || Top||

#5  I think we have a winner at table #4.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 11:11 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
CHP Officer Arrests Firefighter At Accident Scene
How do we explain the arrest of a firefighter by a police officer at the scene of an accident — after an argument over where a fire truck should park? The authorities are still discussing the incident, which took place Tuesday night on California's I-805, where a car had rolled over at the center road barrier.

As San Diego's CBS 8 TV reports, an argument broke out between a California Highway Patrol officer and a firefighter from Chula Vista, as they clashed over where the Chula Vista crew's fire engine should be stationed. Firefighters had placed their vehicle along the center road divider, close to where a car had flipped over, and behind an ambulance. Emergency personnel tended to the car's two occupants as the conflict went on around them.

CBS 8's cameras captured the incident, which ended with the firefighter being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser.
Members of the CHP and the Chula Vista fire department held a meeting Wednesday to discuss the conflict. A statement released by Fire Chief Dave Hanneman praises the fire department's members for not escalating the tension. The CHP hasn't released a statement about the incident.
We all know the police and the judiciary can do no wrong. It's always somebody's fault.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Firefighters are trained to extricate, triage, and use equipment stored on thier units in protected ways. including how to position their emergency vehicles at the scene in ways that the police officer has no idea how to use. It is the police officer's responsibility to direct traffic accordingly as a member of the emergency services. Not to act like a totally ignorant, tyrannical jackass endangering the crews, victims, and others like this screw ball did.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 02/07/2014 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  "Not to act like a totally ignorant, tyrannical jackass" is one of the basic themes in "Land of the Free"
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/07/2014 1:07 Comments || Top||

#3  "That CHP officer should be written up on charges by the Captain on site, and fired." Even if that happened, and it probably won't, he'll be reinstated if there is an arbitration clause in the union contract. The police can do no wrong.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/07/2014 1:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Any bets the CHP station gets slapped with lots of fines for fire code violations?
Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/07/2014 6:31 Comments || Top||

#5  The two chiefs have met to diffuse this. The CHP need to be publicly reprimanded or fired. Too much power has gone to his head. I can only imagine how he treats civilians....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/07/2014 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  the publicity (especially locally) has done a LOT to make this jerk's superiors and peers uncomfortable. Even if he's not disciplined (and I doubt he will be) his career just hit a ceiling. He'll always be "that jerk who embarrassed us"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2014 10:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank I think your right on this one. He is an embarrassment to the CHP. I can see the jokes by the fire departments across California at every crash scene. The teasing and chiding will be relentless.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/07/2014 11:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Can somebody please explain what was wrong with the way the fire truck was parked? I've seen several reports on this incident and it is still not clear (not the first time that San Diego journalists have been unclear).

Was there a particular section of the state vehicle code that was violated? And, if so, wouldn't it be more prudent for the CHP officer to quietly issue a citation so the dispute could be settled after the victims had been safely removed from the scene instead of distracting the paramedics and firemen while they're trying to deal with an emergency?

Because it seems to me, untrained as I am, that the truck was parked in such a way as to protect firemen, paramedics and accident victims from oncoming traffic.

As for the traffic, well, that's life in San Diego. When you build more houses than the local infrastructure can safely bear you shouldn't be surprised at freeway congestion, overcrowded schools, overcrowded hospital emergency rooms, water rationing, natural gas shortages, etc., etc.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/07/2014 12:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Police officers like that need to be made into civilians after public reprimands.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/07/2014 12:44 Comments || Top||

#10  EU6305 I have not seen an official diagram, but I will say out here our procedure is like how you described with layers of vehicular protection. Ideally the chip cruiser should be protecting the rescue rig and/or the lane of traffic which most exposes the rescue/treatment effort.

The incident commander should be the highest ranking fire/rescue responder, as they are supposed to secure the wreck - stability and fire - and begin efforts to extricate patients so then EMTs can begin their efforts. At the same time, deploy the engine in a manner which is as close as possible to the wreck while both not interfering with future EMT work and shielding the scene as best possible from unaware drivers. If this firefighter went to jail because the chip told him to open the lane of traffic or be arrested, then he is a GD hero. I saw a safety video of half of a vol department wiped out because an errant truck driver drove through their rescue effort.

The question, is it the official policy of the California Highway Patrol to prioritize traffic flow over the safety and well being of accident patients, medical staff, and extrication efforts, as well as the equipment used for such efforts including fire apparatus and tools? Cuz that stuff is a helluva lot more expensive than a cruiser and an asshole chp.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/07/2014 12:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Police officers like that need to be made into civilians after public reprimands.

As long as they don't put him where his natural tendency to be a little tin god can get in anybody's way, that sounds good to me.
Posted by: gorb || 02/07/2014 14:31 Comments || Top||

#12  Something is weird about this entire story. Did the CHP radically drop their standards to let this guy in? Has he been there long?

It doesn't matter if the truck blocked a couple of lanes, folks are gonna rubberneck and slow everything down and if this hassle cost a life the guy would be drawn and quartered. no common sense at all.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/07/2014 14:49 Comments || Top||

#13  I think it's in response to recent criticism of police/CHP closing entire freeways when a LEO shooting or accident occurs in San Diego. Over-reaction perhaps
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2014 16:21 Comments || Top||

#14  It's sorta like this:



Do not the glass on the street.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/07/2014 17:16 Comments || Top||

#15  And you know the Firemen did that to make a point. LOL, a slightly less efficient run over the trunk might have worked almost as well. Still heh, I'd have broken every piece of glass on that sucker just for practice.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/07/2014 17:17 Comments || Top||

#16  I can imagine the conversation:
chip: "Hail brethren servant of the public! May I cultivate your time at the moment. I do understand the young maiden's clavical is angled right, which is of course not right, but as an expert in my field, I emplore you to remaneuver your carriage as to allow for a greater opening upon this route of travel."

fire: "And a good evening to you as well, fine cousin. Let me begin by introducing myself of somebody who knows that good humor can quell a bad day. However, the timing of both you wit and request are quite off, as my comrades must mummify the young maiden to stave further grief. Nay."

chip: "Nay, you say? Sir, you must bow to my knowledge of travel and the wishes of tired souls ready for rest. I stand before you as an agent of the State of California, approved by Duke Brown, Lord of Moonbeam, the authority of fine courts and judges, and great rider of the highway. I ask you again, with the great weight and burdon of said authority, to reposition your carriage as requested, under penalty of detainment!"

fire: "Then you must give that these worn toilers returning to their chambers are certainly witnessing their first true excitement, the natural struggle between life and death, at the end of their labor. My carriage is no carriage, it is a rampart by which my comrades and fellow healers shelter from the cannonballs of mechinazation. It is I who shelter these souls from our God-enemies Mercury and Saturn. I can no more remove their armor than Jean Parisot de Valette could surrender Fort St. Elmo, and history will prove that both will have been taken by force!"

chip: "Yes! Yes! Thou nomex has been thrown! I find your stubboness insulting to the grand viziers of these routes of trade and to me. An insult upon a Patrolmen of the Highways in the land of California..is an insult upon the pride and lore of California itself! Stay yourself, and I shall not draw my weapons. The Lord Moonbeam is merciful and shall hear your case and weigh your innocence by his agents de court. Presently, advance yourself upon yon bench of locks with the grace and pride of your position."
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/07/2014 19:09 Comments || Top||

#17  Thou nomex has been thrown!

I'm rolling! A masterpiece.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/07/2014 19:17 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Sony Cuts 5,000 Jobs, Exits PC Business and Tips $1 bn Loss
[An Nahar] Sony on Thursday warned it would book a $1.08 billion annual loss and cut 5,000 jobs while exiting the stagnant PC market this year as the once-mighty electronics giant struggles to reinvent itself in the digital age.

The shock news comes a week after Moody's downgraded the firm's credit rating to junk, saying the maker of Bravia televisions and the PlayStation games console had more work to do in repairing its battered balance sheet.

It also comes as Japan's embattled electronics sector faces serious challenges from foreign rivals such as U.S. giant Apple and South Korea's Samsung.

Sony said Thursday the job cuts would save about $1.0 billion a year starting from early 2015 as it announced the sale of its Vaio-brand PC division to a Japanese investment fund.

It did not disclose financial details of the deal with Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), but local media this week reported that the sale was worth between 40 billion yen ($400 million) and 50 billion yen.

Citing "drastic changes" in the global personal computer market, Sony said it had decided to concentrate on "its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets and to transfer its PC business to a new company established by JIP that will enable (its) continuation".

It would "cease planning, design and development of PC products", Sony added.

The job losses -- about 1,500 in Japan and 3,500 overseas -- were tied to its ailing television and PC businesses, it said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Game consoles are a different story. Playstation 4 selling like gangbusters
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/07/2014 1:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Their competition didn't do themselves much help last year when they pushed 'always have to be connected' on the new consoles and Sony opted for an open system. You'd think that MicoBorg dealing with Apple's proprietary market strategy would have figured that wasn't going to give them a dominate market share. MS quickly retreated from the position, but did a lot of damage to their market credibility.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/07/2014 9:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Never undrestood what was going on with Sony. When it came to home electronics there stuff was the best and stylish, yet the stuff in the home coputer market was mostly ugly.

Apple proved people will pay for a little style. Sony knew that, but never really tried.

That and they failed to take their mini-discs and capture the zip market, never understood what was holding them back.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/07/2014 14:52 Comments || Top||


Economy
January Jobs Down, along with Unemployment - Huh?
[Rooters] U.S. employers hired far fewer workers than expected in January and job gains for the prior month were barely revised up, suggesting a loss of momentum in the economy, even as the unemployment rate hit a new five-year low of 6.6 percent.
I suppose that's because more folks are giving up? Or going on the gubbamint dole.
With construction recording the largest increase in jobs in almost seven years, cold weather probably was not a major factor in January.

But there was a silver lining in the employment report. The jobless rate dropped a tenth of a percentage point to 6.6 percent last month, the lowest since October 2008. The household survey from which the jobless rate is derived found strong gains in employment. In addition, more people came into the labor force, an encouraging sign for the labor market.
I'm confused. Maybe that was the Rooters plan.
The participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, increased to 63 percent from 62.8 percent in December, when it fell back to the more than 35-year low hit in October.
So we're not much better than the 35-year low? Are YOU confused, too?
The unemployment rate is now flirting with the 6.5 percent level that Fed officials have said would trigger discussions over when to raise benchmark interest rates from near zero. But policymakers have made it clear that rates will not rise any time soon even if the unemployment threshold is breached.
There's an election coming up, you know!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/07/2014 15:08 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually, this is a good thing. It frees up people from low paying, dead end jobs and allows them to become layabouts gain government health insurance supplements and coverage, go fish'n, catch a ball game, etc.

Once they get all free time to think and plan things out, they'll be starting their own successful businesses, hiring more former layabouts people like them and things will be rolling again. Boom times are just around the corner, just you wait and see.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 16:21 Comments || Top||

#2  remember the jobs number is from the employer survey and the unemployment number is from the household survey

they frequently don't mesh out well
Posted by: lord garth || 02/07/2014 16:55 Comments || Top||

#3  The only number needed to be tracked that reflects the real employment is social security payments into the system. While adjustment can be made for those outside the system (ie state pension systems for state employees et al), the corollary between the SS numbers and overall number that are eligible for employment would provide a far more accurate statement of employed/unemployed rather than the cooked numbers that come from the DoL.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/07/2014 19:20 Comments || Top||


Natural gas shortage hits California power supply
[Washington Post] Californians were urged to voluntarily cut their electricity use Thursday in a rare mid-winter conservation alert, after frigid weather across the U.S. and Canada caused a shortage of natural gas for Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, power plants.

"While the natural gas shortage is only impacting Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, power plants, statewide electricity and gas conservation will help free up both electricity and gas supplies for Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,ns," the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Independent System Operator, which runs the state's power grid, said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Keep allowing the unregulated influx of undocumented Democrats and indeed the resources will run dry sooner or later all across the country. Along with of course the radical lefts illogical hatred of the energy sector.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 02/07/2014 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Power and fuel shortages. How delightfully Third World.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/07/2014 0:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Meanwhile, back in North Dakota, how much natural gas is simply being flared due to lack of pipelines? Consider how this question is avoided.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/07/2014 1:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Plenty in Texas. But Texas has its own separate power grid, no other state does. So sorry, not gonna loan ya any power or batt gas. You made your enviro bed, you lie in it.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/07/2014 1:48 Comments || Top||

#5 
Terribly sorry - appears some static has interfered with this posting. Must be that small-mind cold front coming down from Canada.
Posted by: Jerkface Killa || 02/07/2014 6:10 Comments || Top||

#6  It's back.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/07/2014 6:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Someone is back:
A) Finally posted the required $625.00 for bail
B) Mom let him back in the basement
C) Finally got off the obamacare website after 2 months (still does not know if he has insurance)
D) electricity is back on

I am going to go with B
Posted by: Airandee || 02/07/2014 6:59 Comments || Top||

#8  What's unneighborly is having a self inflicted energy shortage which you then throw hundreds of millions of dollars at with no-bid buys and then turn around and sue the sellers in court for overcharging, when you set the price with the no-bid.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/07/2014 9:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Airandee

How about:

E) Finally cleared the air and moved around the empty cheetoes bags enough from legalized Marijuana celebrations to find the keyboard. (In his mommy's basement).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/07/2014 10:05 Comments || Top||

#10  California decided that the way to go here in the southern part of the state was to build 'surge plants' powered by natural gas. 'Surge' is in quotes because they seem to be more on line than off.

Finite supply due to limited infrastructure, dependence on outside sources for both gas and electricity, most homes heated by natural gas, and planned phase-out of existing power plants...

At least California has no control over the Hoover dam; they'd have blown it up.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/07/2014 10:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Oh gee how sad.

You made this bed, you guys can lie in it. Or die in it for all I care.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/07/2014 11:50 Comments || Top||

#12  SoCal is a sink for water, electricity, natural gas. If you want a civilization there you must be more sustainable and not pulling everything away from distant areas through strong arming and political clout.

Texas is smart. Good for them for setting up their own grid.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/07/2014 12:43 Comments || Top||

#13  Now, now, DV! We're not all looney liberals. But the nice thing about living in southern California is you are NOT gonna freeze. For one thing, the temperature hardly ever gets into the the forties, much less the freezing thirties. You put on a sweater and a watch cap and you'll be alright. And believe it or not, I have a fireplace and I know how to use it. I might even fire up the chimenea on the back patio and roast some marshmallows, er, that is, after I go surfing.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/07/2014 12:55 Comments || Top||

#14  Haven't turned the heat on yet this year.

I'm not voluntarily turning off the hot tub.
Posted by: DoDo || 02/07/2014 13:14 Comments || Top||

#15  Now that they've banned coal and gotten expedited environmental approval on using up natural gas in power plants instead of using it to displace gasoline (which would upset Saudi Arabia), the grid is stretched much more thin than previously.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/07/2014 16:11 Comments || Top||

#16  Rolling blackouts - enron 2. Screw them and their politics.
Posted by: newc || 02/07/2014 19:45 Comments || Top||


Europe
Ukraine crisis: US apology over Victoria Nuland call gaffe.
[BBC]One must always assume foreign intelligence monitoring. Her statements were either careless, or... intentional. I'm not concerned about a Euro F-bomb, I'm more concerned about her role in the Benghazi talking points.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 06:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Russian fingerprints all over this one.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/07/2014 10:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Victoria Nuland was a smarmy unlikeable spokeshole - then she got promoted
Posted by: Frank G || 02/07/2014 11:11 Comments || Top||

#3  "Smarmy, unlikeable".... not mandatory for regime promotion, but without a proper waiver, generally required.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 11:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Russian fingerprints all over this one.

Maybe an NSA/State Department spat.
Posted by: DoDo || 02/07/2014 13:07 Comments || Top||


Ukraine leader to Sochi as Kremlin warns action against "coup"
[REUTERS] Ukraine's embattled president flew to Russia on Thursday as a senior Kremlin aide urged him to stamp out a standoff on the streets, calling it an attempted coup financed and armed by the United States.

Caught in a rip-tide of competing enticements and threats from Russia and the West, President Viktor Yanukovich flew to Sochi where he was expected to meet Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
before the Russian leader opens the Winter Olympics on Friday evening.

The bitter tug-of-war going on between east and west broke out into dirty tricks on the Internet, with what appeared to be online leaks of bugged recordings of top U.S. and EU diplomats discussing efforts to help Yanukovich's opponents into power.

And the Kremlin aide, a key Putin adviser on Ukraine, added to the Cold War ambience of Russia's first Olympics since 1980 by warning that Moscow could intervene to defend Ukraine's illusory sovereignty under the terms of the 1994 pact with the United States under which Kiev gave up nuclear weapons inherited from the Soviet Union.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
No Dithering: Tea Party Rolls Out Community Organizing, 'Conservative Style'
Never mind the IRS slow walk -- these people are getting serious.
Tea party organizers are intent on repeating the 2010 midterm elections, when heartland candidates swept through a number of important races, proof that grassroots folks were alive, kicking and politically engaged. Evidence of such this year: here comes the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund SuperPAC, launched Monday to focus on key Senate races in the 2014 midterms, plus the care and training of those voters who could make the difference.

"Unlike other Super PACs that drop in negative ads from their perches in Washington to trash opponents, we will empower the people to have the most impact in targeted districts and states," says Jenny Beth Martin, president of the new outreach, and a co-founder of the parent group, which represents some 3,000 local tea party groups.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rove is fighting them tooth and nail, because the make him and the establishment big gov Repubs irrelevant.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/07/2014 1:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Rove needs to remember that when you fail to represent the people that elected you and you believe you and your decisions are more important than the constituents, the democratic process will deal with you. So long Rove, you made millions on our backs, pushed your agenda's to further help your friends, and while you were once a noble man, you have become the corrupt government icon you railed against in your youth.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/07/2014 11:51 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
SpaceX's Next Cargo Mission to Space Station is Mar 16
[An Nahar] The next cargo supply mission to the International Space Station by the U.S. company SpaceX has been set for March 16, NASA said Wednesday.

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4:41 am (0941 GMT) on its third trip ferrying supplies and equipment to the orbiting lab, the U.S. space agency said in a tweet.

Owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, SpaceX became the first commercial entity to reach the space station with its Dragon fat merchantman in 2012.

The company has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for a series of future supply missions.

The Dragon, a reusable, gumdrop-shaped capsule, became the first commercial spacecraft to reach the ISS in 2012.

Since then, Orbital Sciences has also successfully reached the space lab with its own beer-keg shaped Cygnus spacecraft, which delivers similar loads of cargo but then burns up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.

Orbital has a contract with NASA worth $1.9 billion for eight cargo resupply missions to the global space lab.

The pair of private companies have restored the United States' ability to reach the ISS after the retirement of the 30-year space shuttle program in 2011.

Both capsules can carry thousands of pounds of gear, including hardware, equipment and science experiments.
Posted by: Fred || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should have been in Jan but NASA keeps pushing it out. NASA also paying for special mods to capsule.
This is delaying SpaceX's commercial flights as they only have one operational pad at the Cape and it has the NASA rocket. They had 3 other flights to launch by the end of April so one hopes they don't lose those contracts. (the end dates on the contracts are expiring but one hopes for SpaceX that they were extended.)

The mods that NASA has requested are extensive enough that it's really a version 1.1 Dragon. Main published modifications are several large freezers.

Scuttlebutt is that the Dragon is volume limited and not mass limited.

The new version 1.1 Falcon 9 rockets are really a new rocket with much more lifting power. One fact that slipped in post Thaicom flight discussions is that the second stage still had 12.5 Metric Tons of fuel on it after launching the satellite into a super synchronous orbit. With the faring and sat weighing in at 5-6 mt this suggests the rocket can lift much more than it's advertised payload. Some speculate if the 12.5 had been burned down I could have lifted 19mt. This suggest that it might well be medium heavy weight advertising itself as a middle-weight rocket. It makes for great corporate Kremlinology.

SpaceX has bought rights to several other pads on the Cape, has a functional one at Vandenburg for more polar orbits and is getting ready to build a private launch facility in Brownsville TX where the Rio Grande enters the Gulf. current speculation regarding the Boca Chica (Brownsville) site

Latest informative article on the CRS-3 NASA-ISI Launch




Posted by: 3dc || 02/07/2014 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Current US Launcher Manifest out to 2029
Posted by: 3dc || 02/07/2014 1:00 Comments || Top||


Government
FBI Agents Revolt Against Holder
FEBRUARY 6, 2014 BY PAUL MIRENGOFF
FBI AGENTS REVOLT AGAINST ERIC HOLDER

First it was the Justice Department’s career prosecutors; now it’s FBI agents. The federal employees responsible for fighting crime are simply unable to digest the anti-law enforcement slop being served up by their boss, Attorney General Holder.

The FBI’s beef is with the selection of Debo Adegbile as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. The FBI Agents Association’s opposition is based on the way in which Adegbile defended, and led the cheers for, cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The problem isn’t that Adegbile defended Abu-Jamal. The problem, as Bill Otis explains, is that Adegbile led a street campaign to denounce the policeman Abu-Jamal killed, Officer Daniel Faulkner, and the police in general, as an occupying fascist army.

Accordingly the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) has communicated its opposition to Adegbile’s nomination to Vice President Biden, Attorney General Holder, and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately, that Committee today approved the nomination 10-8 in a straight party line vote.

The FBIAA’s views are destined to fall on deaf ears both among Senate Democrats and at the Attorney General’s office. That’s probably because deep down the Democratic left’s view of the police isn’t much different from the contemptible portrayal offered by the man Holder has tapped to be Assistant Attorney General.
Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 || 02/07/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of all we know about this group -- this is sickening.
Posted by: Sherry || 02/07/2014 1:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Took them long enough. Holder is a criminal.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/07/2014 1:45 Comments || Top||

#3  If the "revolt" leads to his arrest and imprisonment, I'm good with it. If it's nothing more than gov't employee bit**ing and moaning, please move along.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 7:41 Comments || Top||

#4  "Attorney General, the Agents are revolting". "You're tellin' me, they stink on ice."
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/07/2014 10:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Holder to POTUS:

No worries, "our people" within the agency are continuing to monitor and report. I will alert the IRS, ATF, EPA, FEMA, NAACP, and California Highway Patrol when we have specific names, families, etc.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/07/2014 10:16 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
36[untagged]
6Arab Spring
5Govt of Pakistan
3Govt of Syria
2Hamas
1Govt of Iran
1al-Qaeda
1al-Nusra
1Hezbollah
1Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
1Palestinian Authority
1Seleka
1Boko Haram
1Taliban

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2014-02-07
  Syria Rebels Seize Most of Aleppo Jail as Bombing Toll Hits 257 Dead in 6 Days
Thu 2014-02-06
  Baghdad Bombs, One near Foreign Ministry, Kill 33
Wed 2014-02-05
  Suicide blast near Imambargah kills nine, injures 50 in Peshawar
Tue 2014-02-04
  Kenya Charges 129 as Shebab Members after Mosque Raid
Mon 2014-02-03
  Al Qaeda fighters in Syria kill rival rebel leader
Sun 2014-02-02
  46 Civilians Killed in Aleppo Barrel Bomb Raids
Sat 2014-02-01
  15 Yemen soldiers killed in suspected Al Qaeda attack
Fri 2014-01-31
  Nangarhar MP Targeted by Suicide Bomber
Thu 2014-01-30
  Barrel Bombs Kill 13 in Syria's Aleppo
Wed 2014-01-29
  'Foreign Intelligence' Behind Attacks: Faizi
Tue 2014-01-28
  Tunisia approves new constitution, appoints government
Mon 2014-01-27
  Somali militant commander killed by missile in suspected drone attack
Sun 2014-01-26
  Arc Light Iraqi planes, artillery strike rebel-held Falluja
Sat 2014-01-25
  Drone Strike Kills Three Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Fri 2014-01-24
  Accidental car boom in Peshawar kills six


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.
3.144.124.232
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (11)    WoT Background (19)    Opinion (7)    (0)    Politix (9)