SAN FRANCISCO -- Josh Wolf, a blogger and freelance journalist who has spent 7 1/2 months in federal prison for defying a grand jury subpoena related to his coverage of an anarchist protest, turned over video footage to prosecutors today and will be released shortly, lawyers said.
Under an agreement announced by Wolf's attorneys, he will not have to testify to the grand jury or identify any of the protesters shown in his video, which has been posted on his Web site.
The deal was announced this morning after a second day of mediation Monday before a federal magistrate. Wolf, 24, was held in contempt of court by a federal judge last August and has been imprisoned longer than any other journalist in U.S. history for withholding information. It's a record!
A Half Moon Bay man who shot an ostrich to death after the flightless bird pummeled him and his friend when they trespassed on a coastal ranch was ordered released Thursday after serving five months in jail for animal abuse. Jonathon Porter, 20 -- who prosecutors say killed for revenge after the bird humiliated him in front of women he was trying to impress -- was sentenced Thursday by Judge John Grandsaert, in effect, to time served. He was also placed on probation and ordered to attend animal-cruelty counseling. So Jonathan, how did you feel when the ostrich kicked your ass? You felt like a total fuckin loser, didn't you? Go ahead, you can tell me...
Porter pleaded no contest in February to felony animal abuse for killing the ostrich, named Gaylord, and for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was on probation for grand theft. Oh, good. I can see why they let him out. Just a crazy, mixed up kid...
Porter and his friend Timothy McKevitt, 19, also of Half Moon Bay, got in trouble after they took some women to an ostrich ranch near Half Moon Bay after a party last Halloween, authorities said. "Apparently the young ladies expressed an interest in seeing the ostriches," Porter's attorney, James McNair Thompson, said after Thursday's hearing in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City. "That all sounded like a good idea until the ostrich physically attacked (McKevitt and Porter), and apparently he got the better of them." Yeah, it's always fun until an ostrich decides to kick your ass...
With their long necks, adult male ostriches can grown up to 9 feet tall and weigh between 220 to 287 pounds, according to the San Diego Zoo. The birds typically have a 4-inch claw on each foot, and can produce a kick powerful enough to kill a lion, according to information on the zoo's Web site. ...or knock drunks on their asses.
Gaylord kicked McKevitt in the ribs and knocked him to the ground, according to a police report. Porter suffered scrapes and bruises when the ostrich kicked him. "And at that point, the crucial thing happened," Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. "Apparently the girls started laughing." Ah-ha! The motive!
Porter and McKevitt drove away with the women, then allegedly armed themselves with a rifle and shotgun. "We knew what had to be done," Porter told investigators, according to the police report. I am the Ostrich Angel of Death...
The two returned to the ostrich farm and opened fire on Gaylord, firing at least seven shots, according to the report. You dissed me in front of my woman! I'll show you, I'LL SHOW EVERYBODY!!
"This whole thing is about male pride," Wagstaffe said. "The ostrich knocked them both on their butts." Thompson said he would "hesitate to ascribe any sort of rational motive" to the killing. "It was a cross between being really startled by the ostrich and the alcohol," Thompson said. "It led to a really bad decision." C'mon, man! Chicks dig guys that shoot ostriches...
McKevitt has pleaded not guilty to felony animal abuse and other charges. He is scheduled to go to trial in July.
Porter "accepts the fact that he did a lot of time because he was on probation and he did a really stupid thing," Thompson said. "He accepts responsibility and regrets it." Yeah, yeah...can I go now?
MONSEY, N.Y. Police so far have found no solid evidence pointing to arson as the cause of a fire that destroyed the synagogue of a fiercely anti-Zionist group that is a source of tension in Monsey, a largely Jewish community north of New York City.
Authorities were quick to say the fire that scorched the Neturei Karta building was suspicious in the hours after the Sunday night blaze, but they backed off Monday afternoon as they got a closer look at the charred house. Peter Brower, chief of the Ramapo Police Department, said that although officials had not ruled anything out, nothing emerged from the initial investigation to indicate that arson was the cause. No sign of accelerates was found, he said.
"Right now, we have an undetermined origin to the fire," Brower said.
The New York Post reported that investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which investigates domestic terrorism, arrived at the site on Monday.
"I am 99 percent [certain] that this was a terrorist attack," Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a leader of Neturei Karta, told the Post immediately after the fire. "This was a hate crime." Coming from one of the Holocaust deniers I'm seeing some just a modicum of irony in the situation.
The group had claimed the fire was deliberately set because of the group's anti-Israeli views. Yisroel Dovid Weiss, "would be forbidden for us to have a State, even if it would be in a land that is desolate and uninhabited". Eh?
"Severed penis", AKA "a RB classic!"
Girl bites Hamburger
A German girl who could not get rid of a persistent admirer in a Hamburg disco unzipped his flies, pulled out his penis - and almost bit it in half.
Emergency services found the man clutching his blood-stained member in the middle of the dance floor.
Natascha Mueller, 23, told police: "I just wanted to dance and he kept coming alongside me and would not go away."
Her victim, Andreas Baum, 39, said: "She beckoned me over and told me 'I know what you need'. "Then she unzipped my trousers and I thought it was Xmas, and then she bit me. The pain was incredible. She almost bit it off."
The young woman, who was arrested, was six times over the legal limit for driving when breath tested.
#5
Good lord, Anonymoose. What is it going to do when it comes to its senses at 40? Serious expenses for capping the filed teeth, remedial plastic surgery for the tongue and eyebrows, but nothing is going to remove the signs of those elaborate tattoos.
#9
It prob'ly doesn't want to live to be 40 now, though as 40 approaches it'll look better, until it's in the rear view mirror, where it looks really good.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 15:14 Comments ||
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#10
"The young woman, who was arrested, was six times over the legal limit for driving when breath tested."
Are they sure it wasn't from gargling with booze (for sanitizing purposes only) after the deed?
Eeewwwwwww....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/03/2007 21:33 Comments ||
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#11
What? No brats?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/03/2007 22:23 Comments ||
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Yet another atrocity against fluffy bunnies
By David Crossland
The fate of 12 German giant rabbits delivered to North Korea is in doubt. The breeder who sent them suspects they have been eaten by top officials rather than used to set up a bunny farm. Berlin's North Korean embassy denies the allegation. One thing is sure: the country will have to find another seller.
A German rabbit breeder who sold 12 rabbits to North Korea to breed giant bunnies said he won't be exporting any more to the reclusive communist country because he suspects they have been eaten.
Karl Szmolinsky, 68, sent the spectacularly huge rabbits, which are as big as dogs, to North Korea late last year and had said in January he might deliver more to assist the country's program to alleviate food shortages through rabbit breeding.
He had been due to travel to North Korea after Easter to provide advice on setting up a breeding facility for the rabbits, which can produce around seven kilos of meat.
But his trip was cancelled at short notice. Szmolinsky said he got a call from a North Korean official last Thursday informing him that the trip was off because the government was unhappy with the way in which a local Berlin newspaper had reported about the deal.
No visit from the Easter bunny for you, little Kim.
A freelance editor from Alabama who was hired by CBS to help cover the Masters golf tournament this week was one of three people arrested Monday and charged in a bank robbery, authorities said.
A man wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and an Atlanta Braves sun visor entered a Wachovia bank branch on Gordon Highway shortly after 9 a.m. and handed a teller a note demanding money, said Sgt. Richard Roundtree of the Richmond County Sheriff's Department. A red dye pack mixed in the money exploded in the parking lot, he said.
After an anonymous tip, investigators arrested Michael Alan Crane, 31, at a nearby Holiday Inn and found clothing stained with red dye in his room, along with an undisclosed amount of money taken in the robbery, Roundtree said in a news release.
Two alleged accomplices from the area, Jawone Reginald Bennett, 31, and Shelby Lee Wills, 28, were arrested a short time later at a lounge, he said. All three were charged with robbery by intimidation and held in the Richmond County Jail. Roundtree said both Crane's hotel room and the rental car used in the robbery were registered to CBS.
Leslie Anne Wade, vice president of communications for CBS Sports, confirmed Crane's employment. "He was hired as a freelance technician for this event," Wade told The Augusta Chronicle.
YJCMTSU
Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all.
In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. "it was a mellow cut"
"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME. "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." so he says...has he looked in a mirror lately?
Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84. Richards, one of rock's legendary wild men, told the magazine that his survival was the result of luck, and advised young musicians against trying to emulate him. "your Mom or sister, maybe, but not your Pops, k?"
"I did it because that was the way I did it. Now people think it's a way of life," he was quoted as saying. does that make any sense?
"I've no pretensions about immortality," he added. "I'm the same as everyone ... just kind of lucky.
"I was No. 1 on the `who's likely to die' list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list," Richards said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2007 16:33 ||
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One of the funniest bits I heard from a radio DJ who does excellent voice impressions was his version of a telephone conversation between Keith and Ozzy. I would have ROTFL, but I was driving at the time.
France's TGV train smashed the world rail speed record Tuesday, providing an important image boost for French industry in an increasingly competitive world market. An experimental version of the fast train, equipped with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels, hit 574.8 kilometres per hour (357.2 miles per hour) on a specially prepared stretch of track east of Paris. Wow. Amazing engineering. But I wonder what its top forward speed is.
The record smashed the 515.3 kph set by a TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse or high-speed train) in 1990, but narrowly missed the overall world train speed record of 581 kph (360.8 mph) reached in 2003 by a Japanese magnetic levitation, or Maglev, train.
Manufacturer Alstom arranged the exploit in order to test its latest engineering designs in extreme conditions, and also to display the TGV's technological prowess to potential international clients.
President Jacques Chirac sent his congratulations on "this new proof of the excellence of the French rail industry." "Economically efficient and respectful of the environment, the TGV is a major asset in efforts to ensure sustainable development in transport," Chirac said.
European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said that "thanks to French engineers, Europe is the champion of the world."
Tallest dwarf in the circus.
Facing stiff competition from German and Japanese rivals, Alstom is angling for future bids from Argentina, China and Italy -- as well as from the US state of California which this week sent a delegation to France to study the fast train programme.
France's electrically-powered fast trains have been operating since 1981, daily reaching speeds of 320 kph over some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) of track. The latest line -- to open in July -- reduces travel time from Paris to the eastern city of Strasbourg from four hours to two hours and 20 minutes. It was on a section of the Paris-Strasbourg line, prepared with extra ballast and boosted overhead electric cables, that Tuesday's speed record was broken. The special train -- dubbed V150 -- was at one point travelling at more than 150 metres per second. The train reached similar speeds in trials in recent months, but this was the first test to be officially monitored.
"What is important for us today is to prove that the TGV technology which was invented in France 30 years ago is a technology for the future," said Guillaume Pepy, director-general of the state rail company SNCF, which is TGV's main customer. Outside France only South Korea has so far bought TGV trains.
Japan's Shinkansen "bullet train" and the Inter-City Express (ICE) of the German company Siemens are the other major players in a global fast train market that has been boosted recently by environmental concerns about the impact of air transport. Bombardier of Canada and Talgo of Spain are also manufacturers.
The Shinkansen and the ICE currently average about 300kph (186 mph) but a new version of the Japanese train, the Fastech 360Z, is expected to operate at 360kph (223.5 mph) when it enters service. Alstom is preparing a new generation of TGVs -- also capable of 360 kph -- to come on line from 2012.
#1
Unfortunately, all that technology is for naught when the French transit workers strike (about every other day, IIRC).
We have zee fastest trains in the world, but you cannot ride in them you silly foreign tourists!
#4
"An experimental version of the fast train, equipped with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels, hit 574.8 kilometres per hour..." and then its propeller fell off.
New low-fat option for McDonald's
Bug-Mac and an order of flies
/Johnny Carson
BLOOMINGTON -- Doug Whitman has a hankering for cicada. He thinks the weird-looking insects -- with bulging red eyes, distinctive buzz and a nutty flavor -- are tasty.
"Mmmmm! Bugs!"
"I resent that, Doc!"
I think he has the nutty part right. These things swarm in West Texas during their intermittent appearances, making the air hideous with their buzzing racket and littering every open space with their shells.
"They are good to eat. You can eat them raw or dry them in the oven with garlic," said Whitman, a professor of biology at Illinois State University. They're "packed full of vitamins," he said. Now, assuming we did want to eat these ugly things, what use is a food source that only appears every 17 years? Will USDA buy them and keep them in deep-froze for cicada-lean years?
Whitman will get a chance to snack by late May or early June, when a 17-year cycle will bring the cicadas back to Illinois. The emergence will be heaviest in northern Illinois. But cicadas are expected to appear in parts of McLean, Livingston, Logan, DeWitt, Ford and Iroquois counties and all of Woodford and Tazewell counties. Their numbers will vary, but we might see 133,000 to 1œ million per acre, said James Appleby, an entomologist with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. My daughter used to catch them so she could frighten the neighbor's children with them. She thought it was very funny when they squealed and ran away. Another neighbor child, however, was not afraid of them. He liked to bite their heads off. I think he is on death row now.
Like Whitman, he marvels at the insects. He's also tasted cicada. "I ate one on a dare," Appleby said. Some buds and I were goofing around off-duty in 'Nam and we went into a local eatery. The old papa-san who ran the place invited us to taste his freshly made stew. It smelled good enough but we recoiled when he told us that it was monkey. He said, "Oh no! Is VC monkey!" It's pretty good as long as a hand doesn't come up in your spoon.
My Lao landlady welcomed me to my new house with a nice bowl of beetle soup. Too crunchy, and too much chili for my taste.
Varieties of cicada can be spotted most any summer. Appleby referred to them as "dog day" cicadas, so named because they typically appear in July or August. Cicada are known for their song, which can be deafening. Appleby said the noise sounds somewhat like "pharaoh." The "singing," done by males to attract females, is created by a kind of membrane drum in the male's midsection. The singing and mating occur after spending years underground, where the insects live by sucking sap from the roots of trees and shrubs. Once above ground, cicadas split their skin, leaving behind a brown shell that stick to trees and other hard surfaces. In their few weeks above ground, the cicadas mate, lay eggs and die. Like hippies?
Except that they don't eat.
Female cicadas can lay more than 600 eggs, inserting them into tree and shrub stems. The eggs will usually hatch in mid-summer after six to 10 weeks, said U of I Extension horticulture Educator Ron Wolford. The new cicadas dig underground to find roots for feeding. It may all sound very mysterious, but Appleby calls the life cycle a marvel of nature and said the cicadas "are absolutely no danger to people." But the egg-laying can stunt the growth of small trees. "If you're planning a new orchard, you might want to wait until fall to plant," Appleby said.
Don Meyer, McLean County extension director, remembers the last time 17-year cicadas appeared in Central Illinois. He may collect a few this time around. "It's a part of history," he said.
Hungry? Not anymore.
This simple recipe calls for cicadas, anise, salt, rice wine, mashed garlic, celery and turnip greens. Turnip greens! That's disgusting!
Boil the cicadas and anise in salted rice wine for five minutes; remove the cicadas. Saute garlic; add water and rice wine to make a paste. Deep-fry the cicadas, then skewer them with bamboo picks. Pretend they are Turks and you are Vlad the Impaler.
Arrange them on a plate with the turnip greens, celery and garlic paste so the cicadas appear to climb out of a mud pie onto green foliage. Yummy! Actually, this might be fun at a summer party but I will stick to the barbecue.
#2
My daughter used to catch them so she could frighten the neighbor's children with them. She thought it was very funny when they squealed and ran away.
A couple of outbreaks ago in Cincinnati, someone used one to rob a convenience store.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/03/2007 7:35 Comments ||
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#3
A couple of generations of eating the loudest ones and then peace and quiet.
Posted by: ed ||
04/03/2007 8:48 Comments ||
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#4
They're "packed full of vitamins," he said.
They're also likely to be packed full of viruses, bacteria, lice or other vermin. Insects are a priciple vector for diseases of all sorts.
#6
The cicada outbreaks of Cincinnati and the surrounding counties come out in different years, so there is always a source of the insects somewhere for aficionados. And whenever the cicadas emerge, some wit at the newspaper thinks it clever to seek out an expert for cicada recipes. Sort of the news version of a whoopee cushion.
#9
Perhaps, Shipman dear. Your French is so much better than mine. Cicadas aren't kosher, gorb. The only insect that's kosher is the locust that periodically strips Israel and the surrounding area bare. ;-)
#10
speaking of pests: who knows of the Asian Carp problem in the Mississippi and tributaries? Because the creatures grow to 60 pounds and leap out of the water when startled, the numerous injuries suffered by boat travellers has made sport like water-skiing, mortally dangerous. In addition, they starve out native fish populations. There are a estimated 30 million carp in the river system, and they are headed for the Great Lakes.
In most offices, when a chair is in the wrong position then immediate action is taken. Somebody moves it. But not at the Health and Safety Executive. There, employees have been banned from shifting furniture on the remote chance that they might do themselves a mischief. They are told to book a porter to complete the task - and allow two days for it to happen.
The new rule could prove particularly problematic for staff planning a last-minute meeting. If a porter cannot be summoned urgently staff would be left with the awkward choice of disobeying a direct order from the management or asking some of their guests to stand. To hammer home the point, signs which read: Do not lift tables or chairs without giving 48 hours notice to HSE management, have been plastered across the walls in several meeting rooms.
The ruling was discovered by Labour peer Lord Berkeley. He noticed the signs when he attended a meeting at the London headquarters of the HSE, whose responsibilities include workers at nuclear plants, oil rigs and huge factories. Incensed by what he considered to be "health and safety gone mad", Lord Berkeley raised the matter in the House of Lords, demanding in a parliamentary question to know why the HSE had put up the notices. "I saw them and thought, 'It just cant be true'," he said. "Its ridiculous to mollycoddle people like that. Its taking health-and-safety precautions to a ridiculous level. They ought to be concentrating on the important things. The HSE is an office like any other so if it is not required in other offices, why there? Its the epitome of a nanny state."
Lord Berkeley also criticised the HSE for sending home staff from a meeting he was attending after it had snowed. "We were told we had to go home because there was an inch of snow on the ground outside," he said. "The buses and trains were still running. Its just preposterous."
In a written answer to Lord Berkeley, Lord McKenzie, a work and pensions minister, said: "Where furniture needs to be moved regularly, it is mounted on lockable wheels so that any staff can move it easily. For other cumbersome furniture, arrangements have been made with porters to move it safely. Signs have therefore been posted in some meeting rooms advising of this arrangement."
The signs have been put up in almost all of the 31 HSE offices across the country, where 3,600 staff are employed. A spokesman said: "HSEs approach to moving furniture in its offices is based on its own assessment of the risks from manual handling - one of the main causes of work-related absence among its staff."
An insider at the executive described life there as "a nanny state gone absolutely bonkers".
"Why we cant move a chair or lift a table out of the way when we want beggars belief," he said. "Are we seriously supposed to wait two days before we can rearrange a room so we can all see each other in a meeting?" Unsurprisingly, the HSE has one of the best records for accidents in the country, with 107 injuries per 100,000 workers over the last year compared with 150 per 100,000 in education, 360 in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing, 640 in construction and 1,390 in transport, storage and communications.
The furniture-moving ban follows a long line of edicts made under the banner of health and safety. Last week, it emerged that a school banned knotted ties because it said they were a safety risk. Pupils at Bramhall High in Stockport were told to wear clipons instead or be sent home. During the festive period staff at Tower Hamlets Council in East London were banned from putting up Christmas lights and decorations in their offices in case they hurt themselves.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/03/2007 18:43 Comments ||
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#3
Back in the day when I worked a temp assignment out at Tosco/Avon Refinery as a way of making a dollar, one of the areas I worked was the Economic Planning Division. There was a standing rule that we could not hang a picture or move a piece of furniture ourselves - that was a job for a union member. The rule was so strict that we were forbidden to pick up a hammer or a screwdriver as that might take time or a job away from a union member.
On a chilly night this winter, a pristine town in some of Britains most untouched countryside voted to allow a former Christian church to become a mosque. The narrow vote by the municipal authorities marked the end of a bitter struggle by the tiny Muslim population to establish a place of worship, one that will put a mosque in an imposing stone Methodist church that had been used as a factory since its congregation dwindled away 40 years ago. In Clitheroe, the tussle involved a passionate young professional of Pakistani descent coming up against the raw nerves of tradition-bound local residents, says a report by Spiegel Online and the New York Times on Monday.
Weve been trying to get a place of worship for 30 years, said Sheraz Arshad, 31, the Muslim leader here.
With a population of 14,500, a Norman castle and an Anglican church established in 1122, Clitheroe is tucked away in Lancashire County in the north.
Arshad, a project manager at British Aerospace, is the British-born son of Mohammad Arshad, who came to Clitheroe from Rawalpindi in 1965 to work at the cement works on the towns outskirts.
When his father died in 2000, leaving his efforts to establish a mosque for the approximately 300 Muslims unfulfilled, Arshad took up the challenge.
I thought, why should I be treated any less well? Arshad said. One quarter of my salary goes in tax, too. I was driven to do the mosque. In all, Arshad and his father made eight applications for a mosque, and even proposed buying a modest terrace house on the edge of town to be used for worship. He tried to buy land from the council but was rebuffed.
Often there was booing at council meetings, and, he said, cries of Go home, Paki!
The authorities official reasoning for the rejections was generally that a mosque would attract outsiders a veiled reference to Muslims to Clitheroe.
Arshad decided to get organised and demonstrate that he was a moderate Muslim who could take part in all the towns affairs. He formed an interfaith scout group Beaver Scouts that honoured many religious occasions, including the Taoist and Jewish new years. He established the Medina Islamic Education Centre as an interfaith group for adults, and persuaded the local council to allow the group to lead a key committee. He organised a series of lectures on global conflict that attracted important academics.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Once upon a time in the West, large churches stood on the high ground over small towns. Now large mosque structures have either been built or are in the plans everywhere. Meanwhile, building of churches is generally prohibited in the Muslim junk states.
#1
What I don't get is how you dissipate the heat. Maybe they'll surprise us and do something that Western scientists haven't managed all these years. My feeling is that this is another of those "if wishes were horses" type announcements.
#2
However, unlike the rechargeable lithium ion batteries used by those rovers, the Chinese model will eventually run on a nuclear power source to ensure a constant energy supply, the report said.
#5
If you need to dissipate heat, it can be done with radiators, not the car type, but an apparatus that actually uses radiation transport. Varies as the 4th power of the temperature difference.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/03/2007 11:03 Comments ||
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#6
The thing about heat is that on the moon, unlike the space station, heat will be drawn out into the ground fairly rapidly if you don't insulate the tires (say steel mesh instead of rubber as our lunar rover used).
#7
Didn't the Soviet robotic rovers use metal tyres?
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/03/2007 14:28 Comments ||
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#8
I'm not sure any Soviet stuff survived landing. I know everything they sent to Mars cratered and what they sent to Venus couldn't survive long enough to touch the surface. I dont' know about the moon.
Our own lunar buggie used in the later Apollo missions had metal tires.
ABOARD TRAIN V150, France - A French train with a 25,000-horsepower engine and special wheels broke the world speed record Tuesday for conventional rail trains, reaching 357.2 mph as it zipped through the countryside to the applause of spectators.
Roaring like a jet plane, with sparks flying overhead and kicking up a long trail of dust, the black-and-chrome V150 with three double-decker cars surpassed the record of 320.2 mph set in 1990 by another French train. It fell short, however, of beating the ultimate record set by Japan's magnetically levitated train, which hit 361 mph in 2003.
The French TGV, or "train a grande vitesse," as the country's bullet train is called, had two engines on either side of the three double-decker cars for the record run, some 125 miles east of the capital on a new track linking Paris with Strasbourg.
Aboard the V150, the sensation was comparable to that of an airplane at takeoff.
The demonstration was meant to showcase technology that France is trying to sell to the multibillion-dollar overseas markets such as China. Hours before the run, Transport Minister Dominique Perben received a California delegation, including state assembly speaker Fabian Nunez. The state is studying prospects for a high-speed line from Sacramento to San Diego, via San Francisco and Los Angeles. I'd like to see one in Bangladesh. See if ten thousand people could hold onto the sides of it or keep their spots on the roof...
People lined bridges and clapped and cheered when as the V150 roared by."We saw the countryside go by a little faster than we did during the tests," said engineer Eric Pieczac."Everything went very well," he added."There are about 10,000 engineers who would want to be in my place.It makes me very happy, a mixed feeling of pride and honor to be able to reach this speed."
Technicians on the train had "French excellence" emblazoned on the backs of their T-shirts. ...and then they went on strike.
Philippe Mellier, president of Alstom Transports, the builder, had said before the test that the train would try to break the record held by the Japanese maglev train.
Normally, French TGVs travel at a cruising speed of about 186.4 mph. The V150 was equipped with larger wheels than the usual TGV to cover more ground with each rotation and a stronger, 25,000-horsepower engine, said Alain Cuccaroni, in charge of the technical aspects of testing. Adjustments also were made to the new track, which opens June 10, notably the banking on turns. Rails were also treated so the wheels could make perfect contact, Cuccaroni said. The electrical tension in the overhead cable was increased from 25,000 volts to 31,000.
It was the first time that double-decker cars were used at such a high speed, according to officials of Alstom, which makes TGVs and crawled back a year ago from the edge of bankruptcy. The double-decker cars were transformed into a laboratory for the event so that technicians from the state-run rail company SNCF and Alstom could gather data during the run.
The goal was more than "simply breaking a record," Cuccaroni said, adding that data from the test should help improve the security and comfort of passengers.
Pierre-Louis Rochet, former head of SNCF's international division, predicted commercial trains would never run at more than 220 mph "because after that the costs will increase too much." The record gilds France's image in the expanding market for high-speed technology as countries turn to bullet trains. France competes with neighboring Germany and with Japan for contracts.
China, the biggest potential market, was to start building a high-speed line this year between Beijing and Shanghai to cut travel time from nine hours to five.
China's state media reported last year that the government plans to build more than 7,500 miles of high-speed railways in coming years at a cost of $250 billion to $310 billion.
President Jacques Chirac called the record "a magnificent demonstration of France's formidable capacities in research and innovation." Sure, Jake. Maybe you can take the wings offa the A380 and turn it into a train?
A P-51 Mustang, center top, flies in formation with an F-15, left, an F 22-A Raptor, right and an A-10 Warthog during the 42nd Naval Base Ventura County Air Show at Point Mugu, Sunday, April 1, 2007, near Ventura, Calif. The aircraft is not supersonic.
An Air Force F-22-A Raptor flies through the air as condensation clouds form around the aircraft during the 42nd Naval Base Ventura County Air Show at Point Mugu, Sunday, April 1, 2007, near Ventura, Calif. The aircraft is not flying supersonic.
#2
Jeez, Anonymoose, there you go again letting the cat out of the bag!
Great Pic!
Posted by: DanNY ||
04/03/2007 12:07 Comments ||
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#3
The F-15 has a perfect unbeaten record in air-to-air combat. I saw something on the History Channel where an F-22 pilot was quoted as saying that flying a '22 against '15s is "like clubbing baby seals." The F-22 must be one baaaad airplane!
Posted by: Mike ||
04/03/2007 12:38 Comments ||
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The opening of the first Volkonsky, on the Garden Ring near Patriarch's Ponds, caused a bit of stir among fans of fine baked goods. Its breads and buns drew crowds from far and wide, and the line at the counter quickly grew, leading to a lengthy wait for impatient loaf lovers. Needless to say, getting a seat in the tiny attached cafe was nearly impossible. The opening of a second Volkonsky on the Arbat has only hooked more fans.
The recently opened third Volkonsky differs significantly from the others, however. While the first two are primarily bakery stores and their attached cafes seem almost an afterthought, at the new Maroseika branch, the cafe takes pride of place. The general design is quaint and rather girly, obviously intended for those in touch with their feminine side. This is the perfect place for sipping tea while nibbling at dainty cakes.
The tea selection is extensive, starting from 130 rubles for a 330-milliliter pot. The coffee range is also no slouch, kicking off at 170 rubles for an espresso. The remainder of the rather brief menu offers pretty much what you would expect from a bakery's cafe, with the exception of the rather ambitious-sounding fillet of beef with vegetables (320 rubles) and the baked sea bass with wok-fried vegetables and orange sauce (360 rubles). There are sandwiches, such as ham and cheese croque-monsier (110 rubles), hot panini with chicken, mozzarella, grilled sweet pepper and pesto (170 rubles) and baguette with lettuce, tomato and brie (150 rubles). There are six varieties of quiche (all 160 rubles) and four sorts of pasta with mix-and-match sauces (210-230 rubles), including the vegetarian lasagna (230 rubles). Of course, there are also the temptingly displayed baked goods, fresh from the oven, which are probably your best bet.
Being a real lady's kind of place, there's no beer or vodka on the menu. The only alcohol is three varieties of cider -- pear, apple (both 170 rubles for 150 milliliters) and apple aged six months (290 rubles) -- although these are not always available.
The deli is worth a look. Besides the pates and jams, there are some hard-to-find treats such as Canadian maple syrup. Somewhat different from the old days of bread, if you could get it, and potatoes, if you could get them.
holy week festival good but not really holy,
it's, you know, like totally about the antiglobe
my new movie opens in my basement next week
this time its real i am an Artist
have you bought your ticket yet?
#2
HHHHHHMMMM, HHHHHMMMM, so "Anti-globalization" > does NOT equal suppor for International Proletarianism = Internat Proletarian Revolutions, + "Globalism" + "Utopianism"etc.; OR IN ANTITHESIS DOES EQUAL AS LONG AS THE USA-WEST IS NOT AROUND??? ET TU, TEX-MEX???
#3
Is there some kind of prize this week for most preposterous statement by one of Hollyweird's global celebrities?
An Oscar for brazen hypocrisy, perhaps?
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 Half Moon Bay man who shot an ostrich to death after the flightless bird pummeled him and his friend when they trespassed on a coastal ranch was ordered released Thursday after serving five months in jail for animal abuse. Jonathon Porter, 20 -- who prosecutors say killed for revenge after the bird humiliated him in front of women he was trying to impress -- was sentenced Thursday by Judge John Grandsaert, in effect, to time served. He was also placed on probation and ordered to attend animal-cruelty counseling.
MONSEY, N.Y. Police so far have found no solid evidence pointing to arson as the cause of a fire that destroyed the synagogue of a fiercely anti-Zionist group that is a source of tension in Monsey, a largely Jewish community north of New York City.
A freelance editor from Alabama who was hired by CBS to help cover the Masters golf tournament this week was one of three people arrested Monday and charged in a bank robbery, authorities said.
France's TGV train smashed the world rail speed record Tuesday, providing an important image boost for French industry in an increasingly competitive world market. An experimental version of the fast train, equipped with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels, hit 574.8 kilometres per hour (357.2 miles per hour) on a specially prepared stretch of track east of Paris. 
The new rule could prove particularly problematic for staff planning a last-minute meeting. If a porter cannot be summoned urgently staff would be left with the awkward choice of disobeying a direct order from the management or asking some of their guests to stand. To hammer home the point, signs which read: Do not lift tables or chairs without giving 48 hours notice to HSE management, have been plastered across the walls in several meeting rooms.
