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Today: 63 articles and 205 comments as of 7:15.
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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Yemen jails 12 Qaeda members
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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Britain
Student fee 'savings' will fund windmills in Africa
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2010 04:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apprentice windmill engineers and operators needed. Housing and free university educational options offered. Serious inquiries only. Write:

Governor
Government House Cape Colony
Camps Bay, SA


Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2010 5:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Pancho, saddle my horse and hand me my lance
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 12/12/2010 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  FTA: The Central England Temperature record, the oldest in the world, showed the fortnight covering the end of November and start of December as the coldest ever since the daily record began in 1772.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/12/2010 8:44 Comments || Top||

#4  "Lord Stern"? Is that "Darth Lord Stern", or just "Darth Stern"?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/12/2010 9:23 Comments || Top||

#5  None of this, however, remotely concerned the warmists, who were in fuller cry than ever. In the Mexican resort of Cancun (where, for six days running, local temperatures also fell to their lowest, for the date, since records began 100 years ago)

Translation
Don't bother me with facts, my mind is made up.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2010 11:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Despite the article headlne, I cannot find any direct reference to Windmills, wind geneators or towers.
And nothing about water pumping windmills.
(The best windmill use in rural African vilages)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/12/2010 11:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Redneck Jim , well spotted.
Here is correct link.
Posted by: tipper || 12/12/2010 11:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Actually, small scale wind power could be of great benefit in rural Africa, both for pumping and for power generation. I use three power generating windmills at my ranch and, when the wind is up, they charge up my battery bank nicely.

However, when I say "small scale," I mean "small scale." Give an isolated village a unit capable of producing 30 Amps in 30 mph wind, a 60 amp bank of solar panels, regulators, an inverter, and a decent well-cell battery bank, and they can have lights, satellite TV, the Internet, shortwave, and all sorts of other things.

However, I'm quite dubious of both the morality and actual feasibility of a "smart grid" or "green grid." We should be using these technologies to decentralize, not create dependency. And they are still Hippie Power: they work when they work, and don't when they don't.

And, in Africa, you have to be careful which type of village you give them to. There is a minimal of social cohesion and prosperity necessary. If the choice is between starving to death and selling your windmill, you sell your windmill. If you don't give a damn what happens to your village, you sell your windmill. Etc etc... Zimbabwe.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/12/2010 15:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Actually, small scale wind power could be of great benefit in rural Africa, both for pumping and for power generation.

Absolutely true though what, precisely, African villages would power with the windmills is another question. Many, if not most, would benefit much more from a water well and in a world of limited resources that should be a priority.
Posted by: AzCat || 12/12/2010 15:59 Comments || Top||

#10  Are they mad? Britain is going broke, and they generate funds to be spent on new projects that have no local benefit? If they keep this up, they'll be fighting the next election against the EDL!
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/12/2010 18:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Absolutely true though what, precisely, African villages would power with the windmills is another question

Internet access. Shortwave radios. Lights. Communications of various sorts. How about a tiny electric pickup truck for use around the village? Doesn't have to be more complex than a golf cart. The list is endless - though you're right that clean is water is more important.

Frankly, with 30 amps of power comes the ability to step up into the modern world, educate yourself, and better the lot of your children.

Think of it this way: you have chickens. Your pretty good with chickens, but there are things you don't know. Last week your chickens started eating their own eggs. This is a bad thing, because your daughter's diet is partially egg based, and she is quite healthy. So you go onto the Web for advice. You learn that your chicken coop is too small. You learn that they need to roost higher. You learn that they need more muscle shell in their diet. You fix these problems, and your child goes on eating well & being healthy.
Posted by: Secret Master || 12/12/2010 22:05 Comments || Top||

#12  Nice thought but Internet access requires computers and software and servers and, in remote locations, radio links and someone who can maintain and operate it all. I'd think that those sorts of skill sets aren't going to be widely available in locales where they haven't discovered how to dig water wells yet. And everything else you've mentioned costs money which those folks don't have, both initially to implement then the constant ongoing costs of maintaining everything.

I love the idea but I'm skeptical about skipping right over all of those centuries of development and diving right into the modern era when even the most basic necessitites are still lacking in so much of the third world.
Posted by: AzCat || 12/12/2010 23:43 Comments || Top||


Lockerbie Bomber Release: The scandal of the decade?
Posted by: Omaing White7048 || 12/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A "scandal" to the dullard perhaps. In other news, diamonds found at Kimberley.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/12/2010 5:04 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuela's armed forces in the middle of coups and voting
The poor darlings. It must be such a mental strain.
[El Universal] The event of the opposition getting enough votes to beat President Hugo Chavez in an election has been a scenario surveyed by the government for some years. Will we arrive at 2012 without mishaps on the way? In such a scenario, would the current president hand over office to a dissenting successor in a standard democratic transition?

That is the wish of many Venezuelans, and opposition leaders regard it as a viable aim after the results of the parliament election on September 26. However,
The infamous However...
two recent occurrences cloud the horizon. On the one hand, President Chavez warned that in the event of a victory by the opposition, the country would enter a scenario of violence. On the other hand, his Strategic Operations Commander suggested that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces would disregard a government led by the opposition.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 12/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  be a damned shame if someone funneled arms to Hugo's enemies. Kinda tit-for-tat
Posted by: Frank G || 12/12/2010 14:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Obama's reckless Gitmo policy deserves no Congressional help
By Andrew McCarthy

Team Obama's circus of incompetence: The show must go on.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Crowley first grossly misstated the pertinent facts, intimating that the recidivists had been ordered released by the courts.
Not us, man, we're just willing dupes!

In fact, most of the hundreds of former detainees were released pursuant to diplomatic agreements, the lion’s share of them during the Bush years, when the Gitmo population was more than four times its present level.
And who complained about that? Our 'allies'? Islamic enemies? Or the State Department?

Furthermore, federal judges have no authority to order detainees released. It is true that, in several cases, the judges have ruled that the military designation of a detainee as an enemy combatant was based on insufficient evidence.
In one man's opinion. Or maybe three. How many of them went to Gitmo to see what they were dealing with? How many were spat upon by the animals they were worried about?

Once a judge strikes the designation, it is for the executive branch to decide whether to appeal, detain on alternative grounds, or try to find a country willing to accept custody.
And this is where the follies begin.

It is the Obama administration that has effectively given the courts the power to unloose jihadists. According to Crowley, vacating the combatant designation is the same as directing release. This, the Obama administration holds, is what “the rule of law” dictates. I am hopeful the Trunk House will not continue to fund such follies, let alone actually close Gitmo.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/12/2010 9:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, if they're holding a quarter less now, Congress can authorize Gitmo to lend-lease out some of that capacity. "I don't say... 'Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it' …I don't want $15 — I want my garden hose back after the fire is over."
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/12/2010 11:46 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN human-rights chief stands with Liu Xiaobo's jailers
Wow. When even the Boston Globe sees through the bullshit...
UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has made a mockery of her office by skipping today’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for laureate Liu Xiaobo. Pillay’s office first said she couldn’t be in Oslo because of a previous commitment, and insisted more recently that she wasn’t actually invited. But she surely could have attended if she chose. Pillay, a South African, played an honorable role in the struggle against apartheid. But if she can’t withstand pressure from China to snub the Nobel ceremony, how can her UN Human Rights Commission be expected to defend other dissidents who are jailed and tortured by UN member governments?
Ummmmmmmm...they can't? And the Globe is shocked! Shocked!
The moral failure isn’t Pillay’s alone. Nineteen governments declined invitations to the Oslo ceremony. Some may have feared China’s wrath. Others share Beijing’s desire to repress its own citizens with no outside meddling. But a UN Human Rights Commission has no purpose if not to stand with Liu, who was imprisoned for his role in a manifesto for democratic reform.
They throw some great banquets though...
Pillay tried to compensate by calling this week for the release of all political prisoners jailed for promoting democracy. Liu is just one of thousands of prisoners of conscience in China. But Pillay’s presence in Oslo would have been the clearest possible gesture of solidarity.
Jeez, and I'll bet there's some decent restaurants in Oslo too...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
America yawns at Baltimore bomb plot
By Michelle Malkin
Posted by: ryuge || 12/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, and when a plot actually succeeds, they will chide the FBI and ask "Where were you?". Answer, "we were busy dealing with those we knew to be plotting and aspiring to commit terror.
Posted by: Jack Salami || 12/12/2010 10:35 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
42[untagged]
4Govt of Pakistan
3al-Qaeda in Arabia
3Taliban
2TTP
2Commies
2Govt of Sudan
1Hamas
1Islamic Jihad
1al-Shabaab
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda in Europe

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Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2010-12-12
  Yemen jails 12 Qaeda members
Sat 2010-12-11
  Car Explodes in Stockholm, Gas Cannisters & Second Blast Involved
Fri 2010-12-10
  India's ambassador gets pat-down at US airport
Thu 2010-12-09
  Pakistan suicide attack kills 17: police
Wed 2010-12-08
  Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims suicide kaboom on Balochistan chief minister
Tue 2010-12-07
  50 dead, 120 maimed in Mohmand double kaboom
Mon 2010-12-06
  Pirates hijack Bangladeshi ship in the Arabian sea
Sun 2010-12-05
  150 killed in Nigeria's oil delta
Sat 2010-12-04
  Officers killed in deadly Nairobi attacks
Fri 2010-12-03
  Nigeria charges 65 in oil region kidnappings
Thu 2010-12-02
  Senior Afghan Officials Release Top Taliban Fighters for Bucks
Wed 2010-12-01
  Iraq arrests 50 suspected militants
Tue 2010-11-30
  Chihuahua: 18 Dead in Mass Grave near Puerto Palomas
Mon 2010-11-29
  Persian nuclear scientsts targets of car kabooms
Sun 2010-11-28
  Emad Hatem Abdullah of Little Rock Arrested On Explosives Charges


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