The young woman probably thought the 71-year-old veteran, whose friend was in a wheelchair, would make an easy target. She was wrong. Harry Kopenis chased and tackled the 22-year-old woman he says robbed him at an ATM in northeastern Pennsylvania. Then, with help from his friend in a wheelchair, he held her until police arrived.
"Maybe she thought I was easy prey. She didn't think I was going to get her. Well, senior citizens aren't easy prey," Kopenis said.
Police charged Erin Vanmatre, of Kingston, with robbery, harassment and other offenses. Vanmatre, who was on probation for conspiracy to commit theft, was locked up on $10,000 bail. It wasn't clear if she had an attorney.
Kopenis said he's not sure how he was able to catch Vanmatre, considering he suffered a stroke five years ago and is on various prescription medications. He pointed to the sky and said, "It was a source up there who gave me the energy."
He had gone to an ATM near his Kingston home Monday morning and withdrew $100 when Vanmatre allegedly knocked him down, took his money and fled. Kopenis' friend, Kevin Lamb, was nearby in his electric wheelchair. Both men took off after her. Kopenis got her to the ground and Lamb grabbed her leg.
"She wasn't going anyplace then," said Lamb, 56, who uses the wheelchair due to breathing problems.
Kopenis said he thought about not pressing charges, but she continued to resist and gave him a kick to the leg. The men weren't seriously injured.
But anyway good for them and good for society. I just hope that criminal is locked away until she no longer considers parasiting on other people to be acceptable.
Call it poetic justice: More than two dozen young people who broke into Robert Frost's former home for a beer party and trashed the place are being required to take classes in his poetry as part of their punishment.
Using "The Road Not Taken" and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways -- and the redemptive power of poetry.
"I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," said prosecutor John Quinn.
The vandalism occurred at the Homer Noble Farm in Ripton, where Frost spent more than 20 summers before his death in 1963. Now owned by Middlebury College, the unheated farmhouse on a dead-end road is used occasionally by the college and is open in the warmer months.
On December 28, a 17-year-old former Middlebury College employee decided to hold a party and gave a friend $100 to buy beer. Word spread. Up to 50 people descended on the farm, the revelry turning destructive after a chair broke and someone threw it into the fireplace.
When it was over, windows, antique furniture and china had been broken, fire extinguishers discharged, and carpeting soiled with vomit and urine. Empty beer cans and drug paraphernalia were left behind. The damage was put at $10,600.
Twenty-eight people -- all but two of them teenagers -- were charged, mostly with trespassing.
About 25 ultimately entered pleas -- or were accepted into a program that allows them to wipe their records clean -- provided they underwent the Frost instruction. Some will also have to pay for some of the damage, and most were ordered to perform community service in addition to the classroom sessions. The man who bought the beer is the only one who went to jail; he got three days behind bars.
Parini, 60, a Middlebury College professor who has stayed at the house before, was eager to oblige when Quinn asked him to teach the classes. He donated his time for the two sessions.
On Wednesday, 11 turned out for the first, with Parini giving line-by-line interpretations of "The Road Not Taken" and "Out, Out-," seizing on parts with particular relevance to draw parallels to their case.
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," he thundered, reciting the opening line of the first poem, which he called symbolic of the need to make choices in life.
"This is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, `Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?"' he said. "Everything in life is choices."
Even the setting had parallels, he said: "Believe me, if you're a teenager, you're always in the damned woods. Literally, you're in the woods -- probably too much you're in the woods. And metaphorically you're in the woods, in your life. Look at you here, in court diversion! If that isn't `in the woods,' what the hell is `in the woods'? You're in the woods!"
Dressed casually, one with his skateboard propped up against his desk, the young people listened to Parini and answered questions when he pressed. Then a court official asked them to describe how their arrests and the publicity affected them.
"I was worried about my family," said one boy, whose name was withheld because the so-called diversion program in which took part is confidential. "I'll be carrying on the family name and all that. And with this kind of thing tied to me, it doesn't look very good."
Another said: "After this, I'm thinking about staying out of trouble, because this is my last chance."
"My parents' business in town was affected," said a girl.
When the session ended, the vandals were offered snacks -- apple cider, muffins, sliced fruit -- but none partook. They went straight for the door, several declining comment as they walked out of the building. The next session is Tuesday.
"It's a lesson learned, that's for sure," said one of them, 22-year-old Ryan Kenyon, whose grandmother worked as hairdresser in the 1960s and knew Frost. "It did bring some insight. People do many things that they don't realize the consequences of. It shined a light, at least to me."
It was far in the sameness of the wood;
I was running with joy on the Demon's trail,
Though I knew what I hunted was no true god.
It was just as the light was beginning to fail
That I suddenly heard--all I needed to hear:
It has lasted me many and many a year.
The sound was behind me instead of before,
A sleepy sound, but mocking half,
As of one who utterly couldn't care.
The Demon arose from his wallow to laugh,
Brushing the dirt from his eye as he went;
And well I knew what the Demon meant.
I shall not forget how his laugh rang out.
I felt as a fool to have been so caught,
And checked my steps to make pretence
It was something among the leaves I sought
(Though doubtful whether he stayed to see).
Thereafter I sat me against a tree.
A computer spell-checker run amok christened several Pennsylvania high school students with new — and in some cases unflattering — last names.
Middletown Area High School's yearbook listed Max Zupanovic as "Max Supernova," Kathy Carbaugh as "Kathy Airbag" and Alessandra Ippolito as "Alexandria Impolite," just to name a few. "It was kind of funny, but kind of rude at the same time," Ippolito commented rudely said.
Some parents and students wrote letters of complaint to Governor Ed Rendell Mandrel and Senator Arlen Specter Spectre; others hoped that a prominent journalist such as Keith Olbermann Doberman, Rush Limbaugh Limburger, or Katie Couric Cubic would bring public attention to their plight.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/03/2008 16:27 ||
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#1
You may have seen this before: Ode to My Spell Checker (author unknown)
Eye have a spelling checker, it came with my pea sea
It plainly marks four my revue miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a word and weight for it to say
Weather eye yam wrong oar write, it shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid it nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it I'm shore your pleased to no
Its letter perfect awl the way, my checker told me sew.
#2
Better yet check out Taylor Mali
"The the total impotence of proofreading."
Best line - "The red penis your friend"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FjhOBiSk8Gg
Posted by: Shavith Darling of the Heathen Rus1164 ||
06/03/2008 21:10 Comments ||
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#3
Hehe, well lessirree, IIRC FREEREPUBLIC [1990's Net] Poster > HOW THE USA KEEPS HAVING AN UPWARDLY STRONG ECONOMY + WINNING ITS WARS WITH ITS POOR EDUCATION SYSTEM IS BEYOND COMPREHENSION.
versus:
FARK.com Poster 2008 > STD RATES IN AMERICA ARE HIGHER THAN EVER BEFORE - USA, USA, USA!
It might be a while before they appear on the shelf at Tesco.
But scientists claim adding insects to our diet would be good for us and the environment.
Crunching into crickets or snacking on grilled caterpillar is apparently a means to a nutrient-rich diet that also helps reduce pests and puts less strain on the planet than eating conventional meat.
Some insects in their dried form are said to have twice the protein of raw meat and fish, while others are rich in unsaturated fat and contain important vitamins and minerals.
Experts believe they could one day be marketed as a healthy alternative to fatty snacks. Yeah, kids. You can have that chocolate bar right after you're done with your grubs.
In most of Europe, bug-eating is largely restricted to the belated realisation that there has been an unwelcome addition to the salad.
It is common elsewhere, however, with some 1,700 species of bug eaten in 113 countries.
In Taiwan, stir-fried crickets or sauteed caterpillars are delicacies. A plate of maguey worms - larvae of a giant butterfly - sells for £12.50 in smart Mexican restaurants.
Sago grubs wrapped in banana leaves go down well in Papua New Guinea, as does dragonfly in Bali. Or crow on the Dem side of Congress.
In many parts of south-east Asia market stalls sell insects by the pound and deep-fried snacks are served up as street food.
Insects are arthropods, much like crab, shrimps and lobster which are all accepted by the European palate. In North Africa locusts are sometimes called sky prawns.
But Patrick Durst, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that if consumers were to be tempted to broaden their culinary horizons the trick might be to make the bugs look more palatable.
'You need to get the food into a form where someone doesn't have to look the bug in the eye when they eat it,' he said.
Earlier this year the Food and Agriculture Organisation held a conference to discuss how entomophagy - eating insects as food - could contribute to sustainable development.
Bug-farming preserves forests - which are needed to attract insects - and is encouraged in some countries. Like NorK? All they need to do now is to find a pair of bugs so they can mate them.
As for pesticides, some experts have pointed out the irony of using chemicals to get rid of bugs that are more nutritious than the crops they prey on.
In Thailand when pesticides failed to control locusts, the government urged locals to eat them and distributed recipes. And 17 years later they showed up again anyway.
Chef Paul Cook, who supplies exotic and unusual food through his Bristol-based business Osgrow, has sold a range of insects including locusts.
He said: 'You have to get past your feeling when you look at a whole locust or cricket. They are very clean and nutritious. Kosher, too!
'But I don't think we are going to see Jamie Oliver encouraging us to have sky prawns on the school menu.'
#3
Crawfish aren't that different from insects and they're pretty good. Maybe we can genetically engineer some big cockroaches with some muscle you can carve a tasty t-bone out of.
#4
I ate honey ants and witchetty grubs whenever I could get them in central Australia, both are delicious. Come to think of it, those NYC cockroaches look like they might have a crunchy texture...
#6
PETA should be all over this. After all, insects are animals too. And if we start eating insects big time, we will eat MILLIONS of them. Imagine the suffering!
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/03/2008 22:09 Comments ||
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#7
Ya know, just becuz GEORGE JETSON lives in future OWG Megacities = "Cities-in-the-Sky" influenced /based in designs by TERMITE MOUNDS and TREES/FLORA, ETC. DOESN'T MEAN GEORGE HAS TO EAT SAME - more importantly, I don't think JANE JETSON is gonna go for eating Bugs and Leaves!?
#8
we get this same crap from the media when Cicadas come up. Some idiot is frying them and says they taste like walnuts. Just add a little salt.
F*ck em. They can eat bugs and they can start under my place. I'll lock em in the crawlspace and they can come out when they realize why Papillon was a prison movie
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/03/2008 22:37 Comments ||
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#9
If only someone would produce a recipe for zebra mussels and fire ants ...
Click the link for the link to some graphics that won't show up here.
Humans can see into the future, says a cognitive scientist. It's nothing like the alleged predictive powers of Nostradamus, but we do get a glimpse of events one-tenth of a second before they occur.
And the mechanism behind that can also explain why we are tricked by optical illusions.
Researcher Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York says it starts with a neural lag that most everyone experiences while awake. When light hits your retina, about one-tenth of a second goes by before the brain translates the signal into a visual perception of the world.
Scientists already knew about the lag, yet they have debated over exactly how we compensate, with one school of thought proposing our motor system somehow modifies our movements to offset the delay.
Changizi now says it's our visual system that has evolved to compensate for neural delays, generating images of what will occur one-tenth of a second into the future. That foresight keeps our view of the world in the present. It gives you enough heads up to catch a fly ball (instead of getting socked in the face) and maneuver smoothly through a crowd. His research on this topic is detailed in the May/June issue of the journal Cognitive Science,
Explaining illusions
That same seer ability can explain a range of optical illusions, Changizi found.
"Illusions occur when our brains attempt to perceive the future, and those perceptions don't match reality," Changizi said.
Here's how the foresight theory could explain the most common visual illusions - geometric illusions that involve shapes: Something called the Hering illusion, for instance, looks like bike spokes around a central point, with vertical lines on either side of this central, so-called vanishing point. The illusion tricks us into thinking we are moving forward, and thus, switches on our future-seeing abilities. Since we aren't actually moving and the figure is static, we misperceive the straight lines as curved ones.
"Evolution has seen to it that geometric drawings like this elicit in us premonitions of the near future," Changizi said. "The converging lines toward a vanishing point (the spokes) are cues that trick our brains into thinking we are moving forward - as we would in the real world, where the door frame (a pair of vertical lines) seems to bow out as we move through it - and we try to perceive what that world will look like in the next instant."
Grand unified theory
In real life, when you are moving forward, it's not just the shape of objects that changes, he explained. Other variables, such as the angular size (how much of your visual field the object takes up), speed and contrast between the object and background, will also change.
For instance, if two objects are about the same distance in front of you, and you move toward one of the objects, that object will speed up more in the next moment, appear larger, have lower contrast (because something that is moving faster gets more blurred), and literally get nearer to you compared with the other object.
Changizi realized the same future-seeing process could explain several other types of illusions. In what he refers to as a "grand unified theory," Changizi organized 50 kinds of illusions into a matrix of 28 categories. The results can successfully predict how certain variables, such as proximity to the central point or size, will be perceived.
Changizi says that finding a theory that works for so many different classes of illusions is "a theorist's dream."
Most other ideas put forth to explain illusions have explained one or just a few types, he said.
The theory is "a big new player in the debate about the origins of illusions," Changizi told LiveScience. "All I'm hoping for is that it becomes a giant gorilla on the block that can take some punches."
After all Intelligence is just a measure of the accuracy of your future predictions. So it's nice to see an evolutionary path from visual prediction to higher functioning.
Another reference to that oil in Montana
Here's some very good news about oil that the manipulators on Wall Street don't want you to know: there could be as much as 40 billion barrels of crude lying untouched in eastern Montana. That's billion with a "b" - as in a ball-breaking amount for those speculators who are purposely pushing oil higher for their own selfish reasons.
Who says? Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer does, adding that his state - with fewer than 1 million residents - would be thrilled to bail the US out of its current energy predicament.
While on a visit to Wyoming and Montana, I popped in on Schweitzer, the Democratic governor, who was more than happy to answer my questions about the rumors of huge oil deposits in the so-called Bakken area of his state.
Right now, the US Geological Service estimates that there are 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken region, which also reaches into North Dakota.
"They are always conservative," said Schweitzer, who greeted me in his office dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a string tie. "There will be more. It'll probably be more like 40 billion."
It's so much, in fact, that a discovery like that - or even hints of such a find - could ruin speculators' chances of getting the price of oil much higher than it already is. In fact, just the knowledge of such big oil deposits - together with a drop off in fuel use because of the recession and the inevitable development of alternative energy sources - might cause gasoline prices to fall substantially in the future.
As it is today, Americans are being cheated on the price of oil. I've been writing about this for the past couple of years and now even a do-nothing Congress is getting concerned, although its ire is misplaced.
Wall Street speculators, aided by cheap money from the Federal Reserve and an ill-informed press, have kidnapped oil in much the same way that the Hunt brothers cornered the silver market in the 1970s. The only difference is that the Hunt escapades didn't come close to ruining the country's economy. Congress is blaming the oil companies, which certainly are benefiting from the surge in oil prices. President Bush did his part by groveling to the Saudis for more oil - and was offered a token increase, but was essentially turned down.
But maybe if we start digging in Montana, we just might get our national dignity back - and even save our economy.
"We've been drilling out there for 70 years," said Schweitzer of the Bakken area. "People there like new oil production. In fact, the city of Sydney [the county seat] wants to build a refinery. Where else in America do you have a community that says, 'we want to build a refinery in our backyard?' "
Schweitzer, an agronomist with an advanced degree in soil science, has a picture on his office wall of his grandfather operating a one-man refinery.
If you let him - and I did - Schweitzer will explain how oil deposits come to be formed over millions of years. He also explains how the Bakken contains so-called oil shale, which means that the crude needs to be flushed out of tight rock formations. With improved technology today and higher prices, this recovery method is now very feasible.
"And the nice thing," Schweitzer said, "is it's one drill hole per section." For you city slickers, a "section" is a huge 640 acres.
By comparison, Saudi Arabia has the largest known oil reserves at 260 billion barrels.
#1
Doesn't matter. Congress will forbid extracting it. Turns out that Montana is the home of the spotted owl snail darter, a very rare combination. Or it might be, but anyway we have to prevent even the possibility of upsetting them.
Besides, if we extract the oil, it will add to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and cause all kinds of other bad effects. So forget it.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/03/2008 12:01 Comments ||
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Shell's John Hofmeister
"According to the Department of the Interior, 62 percent of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92 percent of all federal lands. We have an outer continental shelf moratorium on the Atlantic Ocean, an outer continental shelf moratorium on the Pacific Ocean, an outer continental shelf moratorium on the eastern Gulf of Mexico, congressional bans on on-shore oil and gas activities in specific areas of the Rockies and Alaska, and even a congressional ban on doing an analysis of the resource potential for oil and gas in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico."
"The Argonne National Laboratory did a report in 2004 that identified 40 specific federal policy areas that halt, limit, delay or restrict natural gas projects. I urge you to review it. It is a long list. If I may, I offer it today if you would like to include it in the record.
When many of these policies were implemented, oil was selling in the single digits, not the triple digits we see now. The cumulative effect of these policies has been to discourage U.S. investment and send U.S. companies outside the United States to produce new supplies. As a result, U.S. production has declined so much that nearly 60 percent of daily consumption comes from foreign sources."
The problem of access can be solved in this country by the same government that has prohibited it. Congress could have chosen to lift some or all of the current restrictions on exportation and production of oil and gas. Congress could provide national policy to reverse the persistent decline of domestically secure natural resource development."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/03/2008 12:59 Comments ||
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#4
Where's Jock Ewing when you need him?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/03/2008 18:35 Comments ||
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#5
The interesting thing about the Bakken is that oil is being produced from different kinds of geological formations than in the past. There might be as much as 10 times the oil produced to date in these kinds of difficult geological formations.
Assuming prices remain high, the technology will advance and the oil will be produced. Enough oil for 100s of years.
A 10-year-old girl was raped by two men in a mosque in Gowalmandi on Monday, her neighbours and police officials told Daily Times. The police said the girl, Iqra, had identified the rapists as Ayaz, son of Ghulam Rasool, the mosqueÂ’s imam (prayer leader), and an unidentified accomplice. The police said they had arrested the imam.
The victim’s mother, Saira Khan, said she had sent her daughter to the bazaar to buy grocery. “When Iqra did not return home, I sent her father, Tariq Mehmood, to trace her,” she added. She said that her husband had failed to trace their daughter. After half an hour, she said, Iqra returned home with her clothes stained with blood. Saira said her daughter fell unconscious after arriving home.
The parents took their daughter to Mayo Hospital, where she told them that two unidentified men had taken her to a mosque where they raped her on its second floor.
The Mayo Hospital doctors referred Iqra to the Lady Aitchison Hospital. The Lady Aitchison doctors treated her and sent her back to the ChildrenÂ’s Ward of Mayo Hospital.
Gowalmandi Police officials said the girl had told them that the accused had the keys to the rooms of the mosque’s second floor. “The girl’s statement helped us establish the involvement of the mosque’s imam in the incident, since he was the custodian of the keys,” the police added.
The capital city police officer (CCPO) and senior superintendent of police (SSP) also reached the Lady Aitchison Hospital.
Sources in the hospital said female patients at the hospital had chanted slogans against the police. One of the patients also humiliated a senior police officer, while quoting a-week-old incident in Gowalmandi in which a nine-year-old girl was raped by her maternal uncle and his friend, the sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope we get to see an actual conclusion to this story instead of it just disappearing into the night. I wonder if it will be too much even for the locals to bear.
#4
She will be deemed a liar and a harlot who lost her virginity to a christian or jew and her family will probably kill her to save her honor. Feminists in the West will remain silent and Muslims will pretend to believe the story and the next young girl will be unaware of her danger.
The U.S. has restored Fulbright scholarships to seven Gaza-based students, saying it erred last week when it rescinded the awards because of travel restrictions that Israel imposes on the Palestinian territory.
In e-mails to the students on Sunday, the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said the United States was working with Israeli authorities to let them leave the Hamas-ruled zone to study at American universities.
The scholarships were reinstated after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed outrage about the initial decision, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday.
McCormack said the initial decision was partly the result of a "faulty decision-making process" by the State Department.
"The secretary saw it when it got to her level. She said, 'Fix it,'" McCormack said. "We hope that it has been fixed and that we are working with the Israelis to get these exit permits so that these individuals, again, can have a visa interview." Watch how the students learned about the scholarship loss »
U.S. officials had said the scholarships were rescinded because Israel had denied them exit visas. But McCormack said Monday that U.S. authorities did not take up the matter with Israel until after the matter became public.
Israel, which has been criticized for banning hundreds of students from leaving Gaza to study abroad, said it considers each application individually. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev indicated Sunday that his country would be willing to grant the students visas.
"This can happen," Regev said. "No one has to pressure Israel on this issue. We have an interest. A real interest."
Citing security concerns, Israel imposed an embargo on the movement of people and goods from Gaza after Islamic militant group Hamas took over the territory last year. Palestinians can leave Gaza only with Israeli permission.
Hamas has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist, and Israel, the United States and the European Union have designated it a terrorist organization.
McCormack said the seven Gaza Fulbright students must be interviewed by Israeli authorities before they can get visas to the United States.
"Should they have a successful visa interview -- and by law I can't prejudge an outcome of a visa interview -- then they would be able to come to the United States and pursue their program," he said.
If the seven are allowed to leave, it would be the first time Israel has let students do so from Gaza since January, according to Palestinian advocacy group Gisha.
One of the Gaza Fulbright scholars, Hadeel Abukwaik, 23, said she "laughed like crazy" from sheer joy when she received Sunday's e-mail.
"I was really hoping for this, but I didn't want to want it too much," the software engineering student said by phone Monday. "I didn't want to be disappointed again.
"This is really good news."
Fulbright scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and leadership potential under the U.S. government-funded Fulbright program, which was started in 1946. The scholarships allow U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to study and teach abroad to promote the "mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries of the world."
More than 279,000 participants have been chosen for Fulbright scholarships.
Abukwaik said the e-mail she received Sunday gave no indication about when the students might be able to travel.
She is waiting to hear back from several universities, including ones in California and Florida. She said academic programs start in August and she hopes to have a visa to leave Gaza by then.
#6
Barb, don't beat around the bush, just open up and let us know what you REALLY think!
(It's probably close to what I'm thinking about State--and Gaza.)
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
06/03/2008 18:59 Comments ||
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The scholarships were reinstated after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed outrage about the initial decision, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday.
Four Algerian Christians received suspended jail terms and fines on Tuesday for seeking to convert Muslims in the latest in a series of cases to have provoked accusations in the West of religious repression.
Christian groups overseas and Algerian secular liberals point to recent state-ordered closures of some churches and prosecutions for proselytism as evidence that the overwhelmingly Muslim country of 33 million is persecuting minority Christians.
The government denies harassing Christians, believed to number about 10,000. The state-appointed Higher Islamic Council, which regulates religious practice, says Protestant evangelicals are secretly trying to divide Algerians to colonize the country.
A court in the western town of Tiaret handed a six month suspended prison term to Rachid Seghir, a 36-year-old computer technician, and fined him 200,000 dinars ($3,150) for breaking a provision in a 2006 law that forbids non-Muslims from seeking to convert Muslims.
Jillali Saidi, Abdelhak Rabih and Chaabane Baikel received two months suspended prison sentences and were fined 100,000 dinars each. The four said they intended to appeal. Two other accused, Mohamed Khan and Abdelkader Hori, were acquitted.
Under a provision in the 2006 law that limits religious worship to specific buildings approved by the state, more than a dozen churches have been closed in the past six months. Several mosques have also been closed under the same provision.
Larbi Drissi, a lawyer representing the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said: "We are satisfied with the verdicts because at the end of the day what we want is that people, irrespective of their religion, practice religion under the framework of the law."
Defense lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun said: "The verdict confirms an attitude of lack of respect for freedom of conscience. All the group should have been acquitted."
Speaking to journalists outside the court before the hearing, Seghir said: "We are Christians and we are not ashamed to say it."
Algeria is almost totally Muslim. Most of its Christian colonial settler population fled shortly after independence from France in 1962.
Secular liberals suspect that tightening curbs on Christian activity is a headline-grabbing tactic to pander to widespread Islamist sentiment ahead of presidential elections in 2009.
In a case stirred further concern in the West, the prosecutor at the Tiaret court last month demanded a three-year jail term for an Algerian woman, Habib Kouider, on a charge of "practicing a non-Muslim religion without authorization."
Critics argue she was breaking no law simply by practicing her religion and pointed out that the constitution guarantees individual religious freedom. Her cases continues.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 09:11 ||
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The tiny Dodecannese island of Tilos played host to Greece's first ever gay wedding Tuesday despite protests by a Supreme Court prosecutor that such civil ceremonies were deemed illegal.
Tilos Mayor Tasos Aliferis performed the early morning civil ceremony between two men before hundreds of witnesses that included members of the country's gay and lesbian community, journalists and Tilos residents. He said another wedding between two women would also take place on Tilos, which falls under the judicial jurisdiction of nearby Rhodes, in the near future.
Last week, Supreme Court prosecutor Giorgos Sanides sought to stop the marriage from taking place and issued a directive stating that marriage between same-sex couples will be 'automatically annulled and considered illegal'.
After the ceremony Tuesday, a prosecutor on the nearby island of Rhodes ordered an investigation into whether grounds existed for charging Aliferis with the offence of overstepping his authority.
A lesbian organization in Greece said it had discovered a loophole in a 26-year-old civil marriage law that would allow gays to marry legally. The group, OLKE, said a 1982 law legalizing weddings and civil ceremonies refers only to participating 'people', without specifying gender.
The justice ministry recently introduced civil partnership legislation granting legal rights to unmarried couples to stay together, but gays are not included in the law.
Theofanou Papzisi, a law professor at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, said that the 'civil marriage law does not specify gender, thus no one can be breaking the law if such marriage ceremonies are performed.'
Gays are protected under Greek anti-discrimination laws, but gay groups complain they still face widespread discrimination, both in public and at work.
Greece's powerful Orthodox Church is staunchly opposed to granting gays legal rights and accepting common law marriages. The church's new leader, Archbishop Ieronymos, has not raised any objections to the proposed reforms.
Could have classified this as WOT
The Chevy Volt took a major step toward the showroom with formal approval by the GM board of funding for production of the extended-range electric vehicle. This approval, which includes funding for production development and tooling, indicates that GM leadership believes that the technology for the Volt, including its lithium-ion batteries, will be ready for volume production on schedule.
"The Chevy Volt is a go," said Wagoner. "We believe this is the biggest step yet in our industry's move away from our historic, virtually complete reliance on petroleum to power vehicles."
In the same release
On the other side of the mix equation, market-related declines in truck sales mean that, over time, GM will cease production at four truck plants. Oshawa Truck Assembly in Canada, which builds the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, will likely cease production in 2009, while Moraine, Ohio, which builds the Chevy TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7x, will end production at the end of the 2010 model run, or sooner, if demand dictates. Janesville, Wisconsin, will cease production of medium-duty trucks by the end of 2009, and of the Tahoe, Suburban and Yukon in 2010, or sooner, if market demand dictates. Chevrolet Kodiak medium-duty truck production will also end in Toluca, Mexico, by the end of this year.
"We intend to show a production version of the Chevy Volt publicly in the very near future, and we remain focused on our target of getting the Volt into Chevrolet showrooms by the end of 2010," Wagoner said.
Preliminary plans are to produce the Volt at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, subject to successful discussions with state and local governments.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 08:46 ||
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#3
GM (I think) had a wonderful design for a hydrogen car. They built a skate-board type thing with an electric engine at each wheel and the drive-train and everything in the skate-board. The idea was that other car companies could build chassis and control mechinisms (Fly by wire, any control will do) and GM would be in the business of creating and selling the skateboards as a OEM.
If I was GM I'd be shifting that design from hydrogen to powerful batteries and see what it looked and performed like. A year or so ago Toshiba had some kind of battery that could recharge very quickly, like 80% capacity in a couple of minutes. That tech probably needs some improving and testing but GM should be ready to use it when the time comes.
#6
OS, we won't need a lot of trucks when the economy collapses due to the carbon cap and tax scheme working its way through congress right now.
And to the environmentalists, that will be a good thing. You will only need to deliver arugula and other necessities to the elites. The masses can find their food locally. Or starve, it doesn't really matter.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/03/2008 13:11 Comments ||
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#8
Saab was dead as soon as GM bought it, so no loss.
this correction will be good in the short term, but trucks don't last forever, so look for new truck plants in 5 -10 years.
maybe this will kill the status symbol SUV and bring back the station wagon (dirty words to an auto exec). i want my Country Squire back
#11
...Two cheers for GM. Check over at www.thetruthaboutcars, an absolutely wonderful look at the auto industry. Their take - usually backed up by GM's own words - is that the Volt is just shy of vaporware.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/03/2008 18:21 Comments ||
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#12
For most domestic applications one does not need a full-time truck. An efficient solution would be a small vehicle with enough frame and drive train strength to pull a modest trailer (in 4th gear) and a true overdrive 5th gear for excellent mileage the other 99% of the time. I'd buy it.
#16
Ford used to own Think and plowed about $100 million into it. They sold it 5 years ago.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 22:37 Comments ||
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#17
We won't need SUVS or STATION WAGONS once humanity starts living in our future OWG TERMITE MOUND- or ROCKET/MISSLE-SHAPED ENCLOSED CITIES, or ANTI-SOLAR DOMED CITIES - SKATEBOARD is about right, + prob CAROUSEL [Logan's Run]!?
"LOGAN's RUN" > NO NEED TO TRUST ANYONE OVER AGE 30 BECUZ EVERYONE OVER AGE 30 WILL BE LAWFULLY EXECUTED TO PROTECT THE ENVIRON AND RESOURCES. The Good News is we'll all get to die YOUNG, DUM, AND WEARING SOLYENT ARMANI???
Burning coal or burning oil, it's the same thermodynamics, isn't it? To be sure, with an EV you have to figure line losses, but that's less than 10%. And there's the efficiency of a large power plant vs. a small internal combustion engine.
The numbers I've seen say electricity is much cheaper per mile than gasoline. Cost of the vehicle is a different subject. But how many small block Chevy V-8s have they made in the last 50 years going down the learning curve?
#19
The least thermally efficient generators of electricity is nuclear or coal at 30%. The average US electric transmission loss is 7%. An electric car w/ LiIon batteries is 75% efficient from wall socket, charge, discharge, motor and wheels. That's 22% total efficiency, higher if the power plant is more efficient (e.g. 60% efficiency of a NatGas co-generation plant).
The well to wheels efficiency (crude oil to power at wheels) of gasoline cars averages 24%. Diesel 36%.
Efficiency wise, electric and gas cars are very comparable. The catch is much of the US goal sells for less than $20/ton and has the equivalent energy of 4 barrels of oil. In addition, the money, jobs and tech stays in the US
Another way to look at it is that the Volt will get 4 miles/kWH or 3 cents/mile when electricity is 12 cents/kWH. A similar passenger car will get 25 miles/gallon at $3.75/gal or 15cents/mile.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 23:13 Comments ||
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#20
US goal = US coal
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 23:16 Comments ||
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#21
PS. I think the wells to wheels efficiency graph is from Europe. The US has greater emissions and safety regulations that eat about 30% gas milage. If I remember correctly, the average US gas powered well to wheels efficiency is 17%.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 23:24 Comments ||
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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.
A computer spell-checker run amok christened several Pennsylvania high school students with new — and in some cases unflattering — last names.
The U.S. has restored Fulbright scholarships to seven Gaza-based students, saying it erred last week when it rescinded the awards because of travel restrictions that Israel imposes on the Palestinian territory.
The tiny Dodecannese island of Tilos played host to Greece's first ever gay wedding Tuesday despite protests by a Supreme Court prosecutor that such civil ceremonies were deemed illegal.
