A New Zealand man who claimed he was raped by a wombat and that the experience left him speaking with an Australian accent has been found guilty of wasting police time.
Arthur Cradock, 48, from the South Island town of Motueka, called police last month to tell them he was being raped by the marsupial at his home and needed urgent assistance. Cradock, an orchard worker, later called back to reassure the police operator that he was all right.
"Ill retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because hes pulled out. Apart from speaking Australian now, Im pretty all right you know. I didnt hurt my bum at all." . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
03/28/2008 06:54 ||
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#1
One of my old girlfriends used to call me a wombat, you know, they eat roots and leaves.
A US federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the death sentence passed against human rights campaigner Mumia Abu-Jamal, while upholding his conviction for the murder of a police officer.
In a split decision, the three-member Philadelphia appeals court ruled that Abu-Jamal, a former radio journalist and member of the Black Panthers, should face a new sentencing hearing or have his sentence commuted to life in jail.
Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook, was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer the year before. While in jail, he became a leading campaigner against the death penalty.
#1
Convicted cop killer Human Rights Campaigner abu Jamal spared Death Penalty.
Fixed it for you.
The court (once again) confirmed that he is in fact a cop killer. Unfortunately, he has managed to evade the death penalty.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/28/2008 0:12 Comments ||
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#2
Oh my god! AFP wrote that without a trace of shame. Just think, if Himmler hadn't swallowed poison then AFP could now laud him as a Human Rights Campaigner, since he would without a doubt oppose his own execution.
Then again AFP not, since Himmler gored more a few French oxen.
Posted by: ed ||
03/28/2008 0:22 Comments ||
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#3
No doubt this will be settled by the Supremes.
Posted by: ed ||
03/28/2008 0:23 Comments ||
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#4
He was convicted of killing a cop. As far as I know, he hasn't been convicted of being a human rights activist. Let the Fry Mumia movement begin!
America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost Americas Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPECs short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.
In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana.
With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951.
The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.
It was not until 2007, when EOG Resources of Texas started a frenzy when they drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to yield 700,000 barrels of oil that real excitement and money started to flow in North Dakota.
Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells in what is expected to be one of the greatest booms in Oil discovery since Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938.
The US imported about 14 million barrels of Oil per day in 2007 , which means US consumers sent about $340 Billion Dollars over seas building palaces in Dubai and propping up unfriendly regimes around the World, if 200 billion barrels of oil at $90 a barrel are recovered in the high plains the added wealth to the US economy would be $18 Trillion Dollars which would go a long way in stabilizing the US trade deficit and could cut the cost of oil in half in the long run.
#2
That is great news but we need refined oil product. Where are the refineries to process this oil? This is a problem with several facets that need to be addressed.
#5
SPOD - Easy technical answers to your question - 1 - it's the midwest - prairies and pipelines wherever you want. 2 - The EPA and friends are another matter, as Capsu points out.
#8
Bakken's just one more oil shale. Been producing it for decades - just have to find (or make) fracture zones so the oil will come out fast enough to pay off the drill costs.
Green River and other oil shales out in Utah & Colorado are generally similar. Several big research projects going on to try to find ways to make money producing it. Past efforts have been 'strip mining' it - which requires shallow deposits and makes a huge environmental mess. And it's not a lot more 'efficient' than corn ethanol in energy production vs. consumption to produce it. One breakthrough would be if we can work up a way to 'refine' the oil to some degree in the ground. Partial in situ combustion would heat the oil (and make it flow more easily) and maybe fracture the rock (giving the oil paths to flow through). Or maybe engineer a bacteria to reduce viscosity.
Whatever develops, it will take a long time and a huge amount of capital.
#9
NET > IIRC, a US Company = USA? has claimed first rights/drilling rights to most or nearly all of another alleged MASSIVE OIL FIELD IN THE ARCTIC?, reportedly beating out both the RUSSIANS + EUROS, etc for legal rights???
ALso ION, CANADA = CANADIAN CITIES ARE INTERESTED IN ESTABLISHING A GREAT LAKES REGION ECONOMIC ZONE = FREE TRADE ZONE WID US COUNTERPARTS???
#13
The Texas Railroad Commission essentially priced a barrel of oil to cost no more than a fifth of whiskey.
West Texas Sweet Light Crude used to be the benchmark. I have no clue what it is now.
The Soddies still have a bit of an advantage, it only costs them about six bits to produce a barrel of oil since they have no exploration or development costs and their wells don't have to be pumped.
I'd love to see the price of oil crash, it would definitely put a twist in the knickers of those smarty pants in the ME and maybe, just maybe cut down on the revenue stream to the nutjob fanatics.
#14
Phil_B, the Bakken Formation is a shale where it produced from fractures in a folded zone in the Antelope Field back when I was involved c. 1981.
10 billion barrels was the estimate of the amount of oil the Bakken could have generated as a source rock; presumably some fraction was already expelled to be produced from other reservoirs (or lost to the environment) and some fraction will be immovably retained within the shale, and some fraction may be recoverable from the shale, likely through horizontal wells through fractured zones or through retorting. I am not aware of how the 10 billion barrels in place has become 200 barrels recoverable.
#15
ION, FREEREPUBLIC > RUSSIA TODAY - Russ Billionaire Roman Abramovich] intends to build [Germa firm]a massive UNDERWATER CHUNNEL between Russia and Alaska, potens to be the WORLD'S WIDEST + LONGEST???
RECALL > TOPIX/RIAN > RUSSIA + JAPAN TO FORM NUCLEAR ALLIANCE. ABRAMOVICH Chunnel idea is prob linked to 1990's idea for NORTH/NORTHEAST ASIA SPECIAL/FREE TRADE ECON ZONE [Russ, China, WCanada + propos ARCTIC Trade OverLand Routes].
MOST RECENT > PROPOSED IDEAS FOR NORTH ATLANTIC + NORTH PACIFIC SURFACE + UNDERWATER TUBE-CHUNNEL SYSTEMS BTWN USA + JAPAN-CHINA, N. EUROPE.
*INTERFAX > MAYORS WANT A SEA FLOOR RAIL/TUNNEL SYSTEM BETWEEN TALININ AND HELSINKI.
#17
Oil companies sued each other when "Directional Drilling" was invented, claiming that their own oil pockets were being rustled. Use of horizontal drilling means that there will be a huge Oil Rush, and the State will create conditions where their tax revenues will expand.
An imam masjid (prayer leader) was gunned down by an unidentified man in Shahdara on Thursday morning.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Khawaja Zahid Abbas said that Syed Muhammad Akram Shah (50) was giving Azan (a call for prayers) early on Thursday morning when an unidentified man entered the mosque and shot him dead. People called the police after hearing the gunshot. The police have registered a case on the complaint of the deceaseds son, Moeen Akram.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
One small step for mankind.
Posted by: ed ||
03/28/2008 1:39 Comments ||
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I really want to give up - the Three Stooges would do a better job running our critical infrastructure then the government and multi-national morons currently in charge. Check your blood pressure before reading the article at this link. One hint... they should at least be able to put on as much as they unload...
#1
Article starts off saying US exports are up YOY 16.6%. There are really not that many businesses that can increase their output by that degree and not fall short. Can the US increase its oil imports 16.6%? Can a doctor see 16.6% more patients a year? Each trucker deliver 16.6% more ton-miles per year? So on & so forth. Supply may rise to meet demand, but sometimes new facilities must be developed. Exports can go down as fast as they go up, so investors may be leery about sinking their cash into increasing the # of shipping containers. All the money in the world can't today supply more shipping containers & more space on ships if they don't exist today.
This seems mostly related to the depreciation of the dollar and subsequent rise in exports.
#3
Agreed, Ang. The price differential between east-west shipping has favored North America for years. Jeez, they're even building housing out of Chinese containers that aren't worth shipping back. A standard container is several thousand dollars cheaper going east. A Chinese tycoon is making millions shipping, literally, GARBAGE back to China.
I doubt that there's a shortage of containers. Maybe some issues regarding distribution, but that's about it. Cans and shipping is as cheap as it has ever been. If your products can't compete with "recyclable goods and agricultural products" (read: garbage and bulk cargo), you shouldn't be in business.
#4
Back in the 80s I helped write the software that automated the port at LA/Long Beach for Matson, the largest Pacific shipper. The ship yard is well organized as are Matson's terminals and shipping companies.
However:
Cargo shippping isn't like airlines or trains, who own the seats they fill and who can therefore use operations research techniques to optimize loading vs. costs vs. price charged. Some but not all of the containers are owned by the shipping lines. Many are owned by the originating suppliers of the products being shipped and some are owned by the trucking and rail lines that feed into the port.
To call this a mis management of critical infrastructure by the government and multi-national corps is .... to not understand the industry. The industry coordinates to the degree that seems useful. When market conditions change rapidly it takes a little while for prices and mechanisms to catch up.
Of course, there is an alternative. You could just ask Washington to nationalize all ports, cargo vessels, rail lines and trucking firms and combine them into one agency run by unionized workers. Call it Transportation Supply Agency ... TSA - has a ring to it, no?
#5
In the largest sense, this is not a new problem. Any transportation system has to deal with the problem of what to do with empty boxes that are in the wrong place. I have a 50-year old book at home on railroad operations, part of my rail-geek collection. There's a whhole chapter on how to handle empties.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/28/2008 9:05 Comments ||
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#6
So you're saying 'Container Futures' are the next big bubble to speculate on?
#8
Not until the Democrat party control the White House, Congress and the Judiciary bman. The MSN will not be happy until we are consider a totally socialized country and act just like Europeans.
#10
FARK.com > so BRITNEY SPEARS has been graphically proven to also had wiped out the US container industry, in addition to home mortages - PARIS + LINDSAY + KIM K. DEMANDING A RE-GRAPH???
D *** NG IT, ITS BEEN "GRAPHED" SO IT MUST BE TRUE!
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.
