#2
looks like both republicans and democrats are stiill ALL just a bunch of corrupt scumbag politicos afterall, polotics as we know them in the USA need changing!
Posted by: Albert Cravins6616 ||
07/31/2007 13:05 Comments ||
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#5
There have been ongoing investigations and raids by the FBI into a number of Alaska state legislators for a while. Several are under indictment and one, IIRC, is under trial. This is related to VECO influence peddling, related to the Alaska gas line legislation last year.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/31/2007 20:54 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON - The United States is beginning talks with Egypt on a 10-year arms deal worth 13 billion dollars, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Monday ahead of her trip to the Middle East with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
She said Washington was beginning discussions with the Government of Egypt on a new ten-year, 13 billion dollar military assistance agreement which will strengthen Egypts ability to address shared strategic goals.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Make the Egyptians do something to earn it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
There's an Hebrew expression "Our friends, the Americans".
Zimbabwe is to start circulating a new 200,000 Zimbabwe dollar note, in a bid to tackle the country's inflation, the highest in the world. The new note, issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from Wednesday, can buy 1kg (2.2lb) of sugar.
Food and fuel shortages have become common as the government relies more heavily on imports, pushing prices to new heights.
The official annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe is nearing 5,000%. In practice, this means the price of a loaf of bread costs 50 times more in cash than it did a year ago.
The new note is worth US$13 at the official exchange rate or $1 on the black market. Zimbabwe's government has created a commission to find a way to control soaring living costs. But correspondents say that as long as Zimbabwe has a shortage of staple foods, including maize, food shortages are likely to continue.
Critics have blamed President Robert Mugabe's policies, especially the seizure of white-owned farms, for ordinary Zimbabweans' hardship. For his part, President Mugabe has accused foreign governments of trying to interfere in Zimbabwe's affairs.
The new banknote comes after International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that by the end of 2007, prices will be 1,000 times higher than they were a year earlier, Reuters news agency reports.
"Price controls that are being enforced are likely to exacerbate shortages and ultimately fuel further inflation," said Bio Tchane, director of the IMF's Africa department, who described Zimbabwe's prospects as "bleak".
Bangladeshs former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was granted interim bail by the High Court on Monday, nearly two weeks after she was detained on extortion charges, her lawyers said.
The court gave the authorities two weeks to provide justification for the use of emergency laws to prosecute the Awami League leader, but she was unlikely to be freed immediately because of a second extortion charge filed against her on Sunday. The court ruled that Hasina should remain free on bail for the two weeks, by when the government will explain its grounds to prosecute her under emergency rules, lawyer Abdul Matin Khasru said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Jaguars, blue macaws and giant armadillos roam the fickle landscape of Brazil's Cerrado, a vast plateau where temperatures range from freezing to steaming hot and bushes and grasslands alternate with forests and the richest variety of flora of all the world's savannas.
That could soon come to an end. In the past four decades, more than half of the Cerrado has been transformed by the encroachment of cattle ranchers and soybean farmers. And now another demand is quickly eating into the landscape: sugarcane, the raw material for Brazilian ethanol.
"Deforestation in the Cerrado is actually happening at a higher rate than it has in the Amazon," said John Buchanan, senior director of business practices for Conservation International in Arlington. "If the actual deforestation rates continue, all the remaining vegetation in the Cerrado could be lost by the year 2030. That would be a huge loss of biodiversity."
The roots of this transformation lie in the worldwide demand for ethanol, recently boosted by a U.S. Senate bill that would mandate the use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, more than six times the capacity of the United States' 115 ethanol refineries. President Bush, who proposed a similar increase in his State of the Union address, visited Brazil and negotiated a deal in March to promote ethanol production in Latin America and the Caribbean.
U.S. companies and investors -- including George Soros and agribusiness giants Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill -- are staking out territory in Brazil, expecting even greater growth in biofuels.
"There was already a race for Brazilian ethanol, and President Bush's announcements gave more credibility to the process," said Roberto Rodrigues, former Brazilian agriculture minister, who formed the Interamerican Ethanol Commission with former Florida governor Jeb Bush in December.
The Brazilian government and big agribusiness companies say that the expansion of soybean and sugarcane fields doesn't necessarily mean devastation of the Cerrado, which hosts an estimated 160,000 species of animals and plants, many threatened with extinction. They say they plant on wastelands and pastures where cattle once grazed, improving the soil quality and productivity.
But environmental groups argue that as soy and sugarcane displace cattle and less lucrative crops, ranchers are moving farther into the unspoiled areas of the Cerrado.
Sugarcane is touted by environmentalists as a better option than corn for producing ethanol. Sugarcane ethanol costs half as much to produce, and the process is five times as efficient in its use of fossil fuels to make a fossil-fuel substitute.
Lured by the prospect of making ethanol from Brazilian sugarcane, many U.S. firms are trying to catch up with European and Asian investors. The company Soros is backing, Adecoagro, has become one of the main investors in Brazilian ethanol, planning to spend $1 billion to build three plants over the next five years. Goldman Sachs and Carlyle Group are also behind new ethanol investments in Brazil. Soros AND Carlyle Group? What do the Troothers have to say about that?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 07:17 ||
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HAVANA (Reuters) - After a lull following Fidel Castro's illness last year, Cubans once again are taking to homemade boats or powerful speedboats manned by smugglers on a trip to the United States that often includes a detour through Mexico. Since May, the U.S. Coast Guard has been intercepting more boat people in precarious craft crossing the Straits of Florida in the calm summer waters. The U.S. Border Patrol also has been processing rising numbers turning up at the U.S. frontier with Mexico.
I guess the free, wonderous medical care just isn't enough ...
Cubans coming across the 90-mile gap with Florida try to make it in anything that floats and has a motor -- from a hijacked fishing boat to an array of inner tubes tied together with a weed whacker for propeller.
For those with a relative in Miami able to pay the $8,000 fare, there are illegal "cigarette" boats that jet in and out of the Cuban coast in broad daylight to pick up emigres. These racing machines cost upward of $150,000 and are built for eight to 10 passengers but often speed away jam-packed with 30 to 40 people at their own peril. With several 275-horsepower outboard motors, they are twice as fast as communist Cuba's Russian-built patrol boats and give the U.S. Coast Guard a run for their money, too.
So far this fiscal year, 2,819 Cubans have made it ashore in Florida, compared with 3,076 in all of last year, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Zachary Mann. The number of Cubans intercepted in the Florida Straits are still below -- but likely to exceed -- last year's 2,810, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
To avoid interception by the U.S. Coast Guard and forced repatriation to Cuba, most boat people are now leaving through the Gulf of Mexico on speedboats that ferry them 140 miles to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Some also go south to the Cayman Islands, and on to Central America. From there, they make their way north on well-trodden migrant routes to the U.S.-Mexico border. Once they are there, the Cubans are home and dry.
Unlike illegal migrants from other countries, Cubans can present themselves at land entry points and are automatically paroled into the United States as political refugees. U.S. officials say 89 percent of the Cubans emigrating illegally from Cuba to the United States are entering by land border rather than coming ashore from a boat.
We could trade them for Michael Moore ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
We really need to do something to allow the Cubans to regain control there. Inside two years they could be back into heavy cane production again. Could become an ethanol factory. Big bucks for them. Some rum production on the side. A few fields of tobaccy for the cigars and everything could boom again. Maybe even rejuvenate Havanna as a competitor to Vegas.
#3
So for all the anti-American scumbags out there:
When I see ramshackle, leaky, overloaded boats full of ragged looking, undernourished people setting out from San Diego harbor in a last ditch effort to make it out to the sea lanes in hope of being picked up by a North Korean warship I'll start to believe all your bullshit. Until then, I'll continue to live in the real world.
#4
"After a lull following Fidel Castro's illness last year, Cubans once again are taking to homemade boats..." Somehow this just doesn't add up; if they really wanted to flee Casro's grip, they should have left while he was down and the whole counrty was focused on him. Unless they were all hoping and praying he was going to kick off and Raul get tossed so they could have their country back. Seems a bit bass-ackwards to me.
Fun place, Putin's Russia ...
A German diplomat was beaten up and severely injured in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg when he became involved in dispute with local residents, Interfax reported Monday.
The agency said that Max Mueller, a vice-consul in the city located 1,500 kilometres east of Moscow, was taken to hospital with a broken nose. The report said Mueller had visited a motorcycle show and was returning to his hotel late Sunday evening when he became involved in an argument with locals.
The report did not indicate what the argument was about or how the German diplomat became involved.
Nothing like a little nationalism to go with socialism.
#1
The Varyag, a Soviet-made carrier, which was bought incomplete from Ukraine for $20 million in 1998 by a Macao tourist agency, and then disappeared.
Chicom or Islam. The future looks nuke, I've got to wear shades.
#3
This is why I am a big advocate of selling the USS Kennedy to India. The Chinese are trying to build carriers to Russian standards to oppose the US, and it would drive them bonkers if the Indians did a leap frog over them, with a local aircraft carrier better than theirs.
The idea would be to get the Chinese more focused on having a technology race with the Indians than the US, which would cost them a LOT more money and divide their attention.
And the zinger is that even if the Chinese killed their budget trying to equal the Indian Kennedy, it would still be far below US state of the art.
#7
Really torque the Chinese by "selling" the USS Kitty Hawk to Japan, along with a full complement of carrier-based aircraft. It would be "defensive", as it's about the only thing that will give them the capability to defend Okinawa in any future conflict.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2007 21:11 Comments ||
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#8
This is news, but no surprise. It's not like anyone really believed that they bought Varyag for use as a floating theme park.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2007 21:49 Comments ||
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#9
"Far below US state of the art" > "Tis a reason for anti-US/West "WAR IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE BUT DESIRED" ala China [c. 2014] andor Russia [c.2018]. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA > "D ***, we're outnumbered a thousand-to-one [or more], Zack, thats not fair".
#10
Old Patriot: That is a brilliant idea! The Chinese would poop themselves, then give off a scream we could hear in San Diego. Instead of hoping to become the #2 naval power, they would have to kill themselves to become #4! Haw.
China's third-generation main battle tank is among the most advanced in the world, Yang Haifeng, an armored regiment commander in the Beijing Military Area Command, has claimed.
The China-made tank represents a significant improvement over older generations in terms of its ammunition, fire control, defense, telecommunication and rapid-attack capabilities, said Yang, speaking at an event at which his regiment showed the tank to a group of Chinese reporters for the first time, ahead of the 80th founding anniversary of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). But he did not disclose the tank type or how many such tanks are currently in service.
His regiment is the only one in the PLA where all platoons are armed with the tank, which was unveiled at the National Day parade in Beijing in 1999 and entered service in 2001. "The tank, equipped with thermal imaging and night vision systems, has a strong target-tracking capability, which ensures a 90-percent first hit probability at a long range even when the tank is moving," said Yang.
The combat ability of the tank is greatly enhanced by an electro-optical countermeasures suite, which includes a device using high-power laser to attack the enemy weapon's optics and damage the eyesight of the enemy gunner, said Yang. Big talk from people who have never fought a major tank battle.
#3
No worry, Zenmeister, they're experts at copying and rip-offs. They'll soon have it down. They're moving ahead fast. Just like they've taken over entire US industrial production, they'll soon master not only the most advanced weapons, but inside ten years have their own 787 copy. Mebbe call it the 878 and sell it for half the price.
#4
That laser device on the tank would also be against the Geneva Conventions but as we all know the Chinese don't exactly follow silly little things like rules.
#5
Also, the most advanced tank that the ChiComs produced for many years was a T-62 knockoff with a 105mm main gun and Israeli electronics. The first few hundred 105mm guns were also supplied by the Israelis. It has not been that long since those knockoffs were the high-tech sword of the PLA, and I am supposed to believe that the ChiComs now have a Leopard II/Merkava 4/Challenger/M1A1 Abrams clone?
And what is with the 90% first hit probability? Western 3rd gen tanks have a 95-98% fhp while moving at speed, and in combat conditions. Plus, those tanks have actually been in COMBAT - not just PLA set-piece battles. This is typical Communist propaganda about their weapon superiority, the same kind of crap that used to flow out of the Soviet Union when it was still around.
Anyone remember the kill ratio between T-72s and M1A1s during Desert Storm? It was like 500-0, with NO confirmed M1A1 kills from T-72s. And this was against an army that had actually fought tank battles in the past 20 years. And remember, Saddam had bought all the upgrade kits he could for the T-72s so they were the newest versions of that tank; the T-90 is simply a T-72 with the latest armor, gun, sights, and fire suppression system. I have a very hard time believing that the ChiComs have made a Great Leap Forward past the T-72/T-90 series, and onto a true 3rd gen tank.
#6
This is typical Communist propaganda about their weapon superiority, the same kind of crap that used to flow out of the Soviet Union when it was still around.
I wish like hell we had some retired tankers who would like nothing more than to face down one of these Chinese POSs in a direct one-on-one duel, with lives on the line. Challenge the Chinese to put up or shut up on international television and broadcast the match live so the world could see American hardware shred this glorified bulldozer with a popgun on it.
Shieldwolf, you seem knowledgable about the T series Soviet tanks. Didn't their gun barrels require replacement after less than 100 rounds being fired. I recall the number being much lower. What are the odds that China has advanced both high strength metallurgy and machining of large piece artillery gun components? I wouldn't bet a plug nickel on it.
The earlier T-72's had a barrel life of 200 EFCs. (This is from memory, reaching back to the days when I worried about things like that, but barrel life values of 200 to 300 are typical for 105mm and 125mm rifled barrels).
An EFC (Equivalent Full Charge) of 200 means you can fire 200 rounds that have an EFC of 1. A SABOT or APFSDS round typically had an EFC value of 1. From memory, HEAT rounds were about 1.7, HESH and splintex were about 0.6)
Training rounds typically have a low EFC (0.1 or 0.2) so you can fire a thousand or more before the barrel needs to be replaced.
I have no idea what the life of a smooth bore tank gun might be.
#12
I note that lasers are line-of-sight, while projectiles are ballistic, no blinding the enemy gunners here, just stand off a bit and vaporize them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2007 21:12 Comments ||
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#13
Yes, the Soviet/ChiCom tank series have never been noted for long lived barrels; the Communists were more interested in pumping a lot of the tanks out, rather than have said tanks last very long. The old Communist swarm attack style dictated that approach - Stalin's famous "Quantity is a quality all of its own".
Also, it would be interesting to see just how effective one of the new Chinese "super tanks" armor is against the standard US depleted uranium sabot shot. All the Soviet/Russian tanks hit with those rounds tend to be catastrophic kills - total fuel and ammo cook-offs, with 15 ton turrets blown straight up and off of the impacted tanks and total loss of crew besides. And Bradleys were killing T-72/T-90 using their 25mm chainguns with DU rounds during Iraqi Freedom. Communist armor has never recovered its high water mark of the T-34 during WWII : that model of tank was the best WWII that there was.
A 22-year-old Pakistani student in Australia has tested positive for polio, a World Health Organisation official says. The case is the first in Australia since 1986, officials say. Zaheer Ahmed from Punjab apparently contacted the virus on a recent visit to Pakistan, officials say.
Pakistan is one of only five countries in the world where the polio virus still exists. Eleven new cases have been reported so far this year. In northern Pakistan, hardline clerics are conducting a campaign against polio vaccination, saying it is a US conspiracy to render people incapable of producing children.
Mr Ahmad, a student living in Melbourne, came to Pakistan in March and visited its northern tourist resorts of Swat and Kalam, Dr Sarfraz Khan Afridi, a surveillance officer of the WHO told the BBC. He returned to Melbourne on 30 June, and soon afterwards developed problems in his legs which were diagnosed as polio, he said. He said the student had been quarantined.
Dr Khalife Mahmud Bille, the WHO's country chief in Pakistan, told the BBC that the Australian government had expressed concern over the detection of a polio case on its soil and had sent information about it to the Pakistani authorities.
According to Dr Bille, a sample of the virus received from Australia was tested for genetic sequencing and was found to closely resemble a polio case detected in Pakistan's Khyber tribal agency in October 2006. The WHO surveillance staff found that during his visit to northern Pakistan, Zaheer Ahmed stayed at a hotel owned by a resident of Khyber Agency.
Northern Pakistan has been the scene of a campaign by hardline clerics who have been telling people that the polio vaccine is designed to render their children sexually impotent. They say it is a conspiracy of the Western powers to restrict the Muslim birth rate.
The WHO's polio vaccination teams have repeatedly failed to achieve vaccination targets in large parts of northern Pakistan over the past year. The region accounts for more than half the polio cases reported in the country each year.
Posted by: John Frum ||
07/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Just quarantine the whole friggin' place, install some TV cameras on UAVs and, viola! Pay-per-View PakiWakiLand!
#4
Per CDC and WHO, as of end of CY 2006 there were only 4 countries in which polio is endemic and pretty much uncontrolled by vaccination: Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Nigeria. Niger and Egypt were taken off the list last year due to successful vaccination and eradication (they still have the occasional case but have vaccinated enough people to make transmission unlikely).
Posted by: sofia ||
07/31/2007 12:26 Comments ||
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The European Union on Monday demanded that the United States offer equal treatment in the granting of visas to citizens of all 27 of the bloc's member countries. The call was an effort to resolve an issue that has cast a shadow over trans-Atlantic relations and angered new member states whose citizens face restrictions under the current U.S. visa-waiver program.
The bloc's justice commissioner, Franco Frattini, said in Budapest that he had spoken to U.S. officials to seek assurances that the waiver be applied to all EU citizens.
The waiver program now allows citizens from most West European countries to enter the United States without visas. It excludes several of the newer EU member states. The two-tier system has prompted an outcry in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which are closely allied with the United States and have sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. They have called on the EU to retaliate by imposing restrictions on U.S. diplomats entering Europe.
Frattini said that Washington was working on a bill that would equalize the visa requirements for all EU states. The legislation, contained in an omnibus homeland security bill, was approved by Congress on Friday and is now awaiting President George W. Bush's signature.
EU officials are concerned that a new U.S. electronic visa proposal could create new obstacles to last-minute travelers because additional rules under consideration would require new security checks to be carried out. European travelers would be asked to give passport and other details to the U.S. authorities electronically - personally or through a travel agent - which could force Europeans to give two day's notice before flying to the United States, a time frame that could hamper business travel.
Under the proposal, a "green light" transmitted electronically would confirm that visa-free travel was allowed, while a yellow light would require the traveler to be interviewed at a U.S. consulate. That has created concerns in Europe that processing the information could delay travelers. Citizens of Britain, for instance, which has faced terrorist attacks, could be subjected to greater scrutiny.
It's a balancing act, on accounta citizens of Britain have performed terrorist attacks too.
U.S. officials said that the new travel bill had been passed, but that the regulations for its implementation still had to be drafted by the security authorities. "The Europeans have expressed their concerns and we are aware of them," said one official who requested anonymity.
In response to the Bush administration's proposals to introduce electronic visas for all European travelers, the EU is considering responding by introducing a similar system for American travelers coming to Europe. Just as soon as they figure out which countries get what cut of the new jobs required ....
#1
They need our tourism way more than we need theirs. Until Europe addresses the threat of Islamic terrorism in a far more substantial manner, they can blow it out their metric diameter tailpipes.
#3
The visa thing for Poland, Hungary and then Czechoslovakia was to keep their people from staying on illegally to work. I had an au pair who got caught up in that, when we wanted to bring her with us skiing in Colorado (so we ended up going to Switzerland instead). At this point, with all the Polish plumbers and such in England, and their own economies growing nicely the last time I looked, it might be time to readdress this.
#9
I like your thinkin' RC (#4), and even more so, Spot (#7).
And, this has been discussed before, but how much water does this "business trip" argument really hold? How many folks really go on a last-minute trip overseas (within 2 days) w/o tons of preplanning. Or, on the flip side, if a deal is really that last minute and/or important, can't it wait 2 days?
Posted by: BA ||
07/31/2007 14:20 Comments ||
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#11
They're on a shopping spree thanks to the weak dollar. When EU and UK have to stop laundering AQ then we'll talk.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/31/2007 16:26 Comments ||
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#12
We once moved continents in 19 days... and Mr. Wife's company once tried on Monday to get him to start a new assignment in Beijing on Friday with family to follow as soon as I could organize it, but I don't remember any emergency business trips. That doesn't mean there weren't any since he was first given international responsibilities in 1985, but still. Anything that urgent can generally be handled by phone, fax and email.
Of course, Mr. Wife isn't a senior executive, or going to the farthest-off-the-beaten-track locations (none of which are in the U.S. as far as I know). I'm not a business person myself, but I can't come up with an emergency situation that couldn't be handled with phone, fax, email, and a local contact. No statistics, though, lotp. Sorry.
U.S. International Travel Receipts and Payments (Millions of Dollars)
[USA versus Europe]
Year 1999 Inbound travel receipts = $25,971,000
Year 1999 Outbound travel receipts = $21,066,000
The 1999 numbers are within less than 20% of each other. Due to a huge decline in value of the dollar against the Euro (from 1.20 down to 0.90), the 1999 numbers can only have taken a major hit. While Europeans may account for more tourists in America, we have significantly more productive industrial sectors that reduce our dependence upon tourist dollars from abroad. Europe is heavily dependent upon its tourist economy and the significant reduction in American tourism is ripping them a new one.
But no one has yet managed to lure back the high-rollers of the tourism industry - the Americans. Some have stayed away due to war and terrorism concerns; others have adopted an "America first" patriotic approach to vacationing; still others are deterred by the weak dollar, which makes foreign holidays more expensive.
In Britain - the most popular destination for American tourists to Europe - figures for the first half of 2003 show an 11 percent decline in US visitors. In Italy, it's more than 20 percent, while in France, it's even worse: an estimated 26 percent drop this year.
"Until Sept. 11, about 45 percent of our clients were Americans," laments Mauricio Mistarz, head receptionist at a small three-star hotel on the Left Bank in Paris. "Now, on a good day, Americans fill 20 percent of our rooms."
American visitors tend to stay longer and spend more than any other tourists. In France last year, the Americans spent more than British and Irish visitors combined, despite being outnumbered 5 to 1. In Britain, the average American spends $1,000 a trip, far outstripping European visitors. All of this means that US reluctance to travel costs European tourism dear.
[emphasis added]
I'd say Europe is taking it in the shorts. Which is pretty much what they deserve after riding on America's NATO coat-tails for long only to run away bow out of fighting global terrorism. I'll refrain from going into how they have abetted our worst enemies despite American protests.
I'd guess that 2007 US travel to Europe is WAY up; EVERYbody I know (present company excepted) has been to Italy this year and reports it was wall-to-wall Yanks.
And US tourism from overseas is definitely down from a few articles I've read. The visa nonsense is a very good explanation. Hassling regular folks gets us exactly NOWHERE in the greater War on Terror.
And never forget the jihadis' goal is to strangle Freedom: Freedom of thought, Freedom of movement, Freedom of choice.
#15
But again, this isn't about French or German or Italian travellers. It's about those from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, who are being treated as if the Warsaw Pact still holds. Any fussing by the West Europeans is over the airlines passing on personal information to the American authorities.
You'd think a three year-old article wouldn't pop up at the top of a Google search. I still maintain that Europe is far more dependent upon international tourism than America is.
#18
Wouldn't all this get sorted out real quickly with a bit of, you know, profiling?
Me? I'd have phrases from the Koran woven into carpets at airports (teeny-tiny so's infidels don't see 'em), but that's just me - and I don't count 'cos I don't have an interest group to shriek for me...
I miss the nonchalant approach to air-travel I used to have :(
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/31/2007 20:41 Comments ||
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For the United States, the primary issue in the Middle East has been and remains effective control of its energy resources, according to Noam Chomsky.
That's why oil's at $77 a barrel. The man's a friggin' genius!
He writes in his new book Interventions that control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance. Iranian influence in what the US calls the Shia crescent challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the worlds major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washingtons worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the worlds oil and independent of the United States.
Chomsky believes that such a bloc, if it emerges, might even join the Asian Energy Security Grid and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), based in China. Iran, which already had observer status, is to be admitted as a member of the SCO. He writes, To Washington, Tehrans principal offense has been its defiance, going back to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and the hostage crisis at the US embassy. Under Bush, there has been a rejection of Iranian diplomatic efforts in favour of increasing threats of direct attack on Iran. However, despite the sabre-rattling, the US is unlikely to attack Iran because of strong world opposition and 75 percent Americans in favour diplomacy over military threats against Iran. The US military and intelligence community is also opposed to an attack.
Chomsky points out that Iran cannot defend itself against US attack, but it can respond by inciting even more havoc in Iraq. He quotes British military historian Corelli Barnett who has said, An attack on Iran would effectively launch World War III.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds good to me. Lets really do it.
Take the money away from the Orcs and see how long they can murder little girls and women....
#2
first we need to confiscate Chomsky's wealth to start the redistribution of wealth, right? No word on Chomsky's ownership of other-than-hybrid vehicles....heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2007 0:16 Comments ||
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#3
He quotes British military historian Corelli Barnett who has said, An attack on Iran would effectively launch World War III.
Pure twaddle. Sunnis would outwardly express indignant outrage at an American attack upon Iran but give us a standing ovation when behind closed doors. While that still doesn't make them our friends, it's pretty safe to say they wouldn't so much as twitch a pinky while the festivities were underway.
As to it being "all about the oil": So what if it is? The wealth America creates and shares by way of its petroleum consumption does one helluva a lot more for this world than all the contributions of every OPEC nation combined. For all their billions of petrodollars, the Arab producers export nothing but human misery along side of their oil. It would be a well-deserved lesson in proper assetment management if the USA confiscated all Middle East oil reserves and oversaw their extraction and distribution.
#5
For the United States, the primary issue in the Middle East has been and remains effective control of its energy resources, according to Noam Chomsky.
For Saddam Hussein it was about controlling the oil, that's why he ran over Kuwait before heading for Saudi Arabia. For the House of Saud it's about controlling the oil producers, that's why they founded OPEC. If the U.S. had wanted to control their oil supply oil they would've conquered a certain 35 mile wide strip of Arabian coastline, key bits of Mexico, and Canada -- so one might be persuaded it's about something else. Of course, I'm just a little, Midwestern, suburban housewife instead of a famous MIT professor of linguistics whose pet theories in his chosen field are starting to shrivel under inquiry, so perhaps I could be wrong.
#6
Hey genius, if that was the end game, then US troops would be replacing UK troops who are pulling out of Basra.
Chomsky's wife makes sure that he gets top dollar for every appearance, and he gets paid in advance. He is published by 3 different companies, and if you check prices of comparable books, you can see that he imposes a premium on his conspiracy tracts. Once I saw him get upset during an interview, when the fact that "Nightline" doesn't use his ravings. Boo hoo!
#15
I wish it was about oil and the US controlling it. It would be a hell of a lot cheaper and less violent in the long run with the Arab's blood/oil money running out.
#18
"As to it being "all about the oil": So what if it is? The wealth America creates and shares by way of its petroleum consumption does one helluva a lot more for this world than all the contributions of every OPEC nation combined." Yes, and it is entirely OK that we should consume ALL the earth rescources in ONE GENERATION or TWO.I'll bet you travel in an RV because it replaced your Semi truck upon your retirement.
Posted by: Albert Cravins6616 ||
07/31/2007 12:58 Comments ||
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#19
Yes, and it is entirely OK that we should consume ALL the earth rescources in ONE GENERATION or TWO.I'll bet you travel in an RV because it replaced your Semi truck upon your retirement.
#20
I, myself, plan to use it all up by next Tuesday, Albert Cravins6616.
Then whadda ya gonna do?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 14:22 Comments ||
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#21
Yes, and it is entirely OK that we should consume ALL the earth rescources in ONE GENERATION or TWO.I'll bet you travel in an RV because it replaced your Semi truck upon your retirement.
Wait, I thought old Albert (Gore III) was still in court today? Who knew he knew about Rantburg?
Posted by: BA ||
07/31/2007 14:28 Comments ||
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#22
Okay, he is 79 years old.
He has been a pain in the human race's butt for a good portion of that. Hasn't he over stood his welcome? Maybe its time for him to choose his next incarnation in a world that fits his perceptions?
#27
Oh, see but effective control is a linguistic device. Waytago, Noam!
We have it now! Had it then! Always had it! Always will. Prove Noam's wrong. Can't do it. It's effective control. Diabolical!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 17:18 Comments ||
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#28
There are three centers of creativity in the world today: North America (Canada and the US), Western Europe (mostly Britain, Denmark, and Sweden), and the Far East (primarily Japan and South Korea). Those three "arenas" consume a huge percentage of the world's resources. Those arenas also provide a significant majority of ALL new medical innovations, ALL of the advances in energy efficiency, the vast majority of all resources conservation and re-use, and a significant majority of other innovations. Chumpsky has been an open Communist sympathiser for decades. The figures are available to prove that socialism/communism is the most environmentally damaging, wasteful, and useless form of government, labor, and productivity. Chumpsky knows that, he just ignores it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2007 22:07 Comments ||
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#29
Chimpsky is a dick.
He is out of his area of expertise and his opinions on international politics and social policy should be given no more credence than you would give those of a master carpenter on constructing a jet engine.
And whats funny - Chimpsky's linguistics work is being shredded as well, which leaves him basically as a washed up academe who is pretty much Paris Hilton without the sex: famous for bring famous.
The man is a one note ideologue who has never let reality get in the way of his delusions of grandeur, his self importance, and his psychoses.
(CBS) Like most American cities, Columbia, South Carolina, has its share of problems, but nothing prepared the Sheriff Leon Lott for what his department discovered last August. Just cooincidence it turns up now. Didn't need it then?
Four U.S. Marines who proudly snapped pictures of each other were recruiting local kids, some as young as 13, into the Crips street gang. The leader was a lance corporal.
"We have enough problems with local kids and what they are doing," Lott, the Richland County Sheriff, said. "But to have the Marines someone who is trained to come up here and recruit and give them the training they've had in the military, it scares me to death cause it tells me we're at war with these gangs."
It's a concern also raised by the FBI. In a recent report the agency warned: "Military training could ultimately result in more sophisticated and deadly gangs ... as well deadly assaults on law enforcement officers."
CBS News has learned that military police have briefed local authorities in major cities, including New York, about the rising danger that gang members in the military could share their skills with gangs on the streets. That could include combat, logistics, and even emergency medical skills.
Army investigators tell CBS News that there is absolutely no evidence that soldiers are using their combat training in gang activity, nor proof that gangs are sending members into the military to learn such skills. They insist the threat is low. But that's just not good newspaper-selling journalism!
"We're not seeing this in this particular time we're just not," said Colonel Gene Smith of the U.S. Army's Office of the Provost Marshal. "It's just a theory."
But there was an incident in which a disturbed Marine used his training to kill two policemen. In January, 2005, the Marine, who police say was associated with the Norteno street gang, shot to death two policeman outside a convenience store in Ceres, California. Yeah! Whaddabout Lee Harvey Oswald? And John Murtha?
Surveillance video shows him using a technique marines call "cutting the pie" instead of cowering, he boldly attacks.
"Gangs are gaining strength across the United States," said Hunter Glass, a retired police detective who tracks gangs. "The numbers are increasing like crazy around the U.S. and adding this extra fuel is just not going to help matters."
The House of Representatives has passed legislation prohibiting service members from associating with street gangs. A Senate could vote could come next month. But there are also calls to raise enlistment standards, which have slipped to such an extent that one in 10 new army recruits has a criminal record.
"We were able in the 80's and into the 90's to say, 'you have to be special to serve your country because this is difficult work'," said Lawrence Korb, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense. "But now we are saying, 'we are so desperate for people, we are going to take anybody as long as you can walk through the door'."
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 16:15 ||
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#1
An old vet told me that after WWII there was a rash of hysterical editorials about the return of war veterans, "Trained to be rapists and killers."
He said that maybe they were half right, in that with the G.I. bill and enormous numbers of veterans going to college, the tradition of restricted female dorms and a prohibition of marriage went right out the window, and pretty soon there were babies everywhere.
Well, it wasn't exactly "rape". And they hadn't followed the military training either, which explained the babies.
#2
"We were able in the 80's and into the 90's to say, 'you have to be special to serve your country because this is difficult work'," said Lawrence Korb, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense. "But now we are saying, 'we are so desperate for people, we are going to take anybody as long as you can walk through the door'."
"...but we support the troops!", he hastily added.
#3
Who was President during the 90s, again? Because according to that quote, the problem started in the 90s, not after the 90s. Korb should learn to speak proper English if he wants to get a sound bite to take hold : "into the 90's" means that the system broke IN the 90's; otherwise, the term would be "throughout the 90's".
#4
Also related reports of MS-13, the gang org thought to be heavily involved wid efforts to smuggle illegal immigrants tto Nuke-WMD devices for Terrorists, etc., entrenching themselves in the USA-Canada and going global bigwig.
Between early May and late June House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Caliphornia) identified six candidates she considers to be the top Democratic challengers to GOP incumbents. She did so by giving them cash for their campaigns.
Pelosi's largesse toward Democratic candidates is nothing out of the ordinary. Through her leadership political action committee (PAC to the Future), Pelosi gave out $282,500 to House candidates in the first six months of 2007, according to the latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. About $260,000 of that went to Democratic incumbents in potentially difficult re-election battles, with the lion's share going to the 42 lawmakers elected in 2006. Think of all the hungry people that could've been fed, or all the health insurance provided, or children's school supplies purchased!
But on June 27 Pelosi also dished out a handful of $2,500 checks to five candidates hoping to unseat Republican incumbents, signifying these as the challengers she's most concerned about at this early stage of the campaign.
Almost two months earlier Pelosi cut her first check to a challenger, in the amount of $5,000 from PAC to the Future to Charlie Brown, who almost knocked off incumbent John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) last fall. Pelosi's gift to Brown's campaign came two weeks after the FBI raided Dolittle's home in connection with a corruption investigation.
Two of the other top six challengers are also facing rematches from near misses in 2006: Dan Maffei, the former Capitol Hill staffer who nearly knocked 18-year veteran Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), and Larry Kissell, who lost to Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) by less than 400 votes.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 06:56 ||
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#1
Think of all the hungry people that could've been fed, or all the health insurance provided, or children's school supplies purchased!
The first application to build a new U.S. nuclear power plant in three decades has been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, bumping a proposed third unit at a Calvert County site to the front of a list of reactors being considered by the nuclear power industry.
Constellation Energy Group of Baltimore has filed a partial application with the NRC, asking the commission to review environmental plans for a 1,600-megawatt reactor at the Calvert Cliffs site in Lusby, Md., that could cost $4 billion.
The filing marked another small step toward a resurgence of the nuclear power industry, bolstered by generous federal tax incentives and growing concern about the greenhouse gases emitted by coal-fired plants, which supply half the country's electricity. There has not been an application to build a nuclear power plant in the United States since before the partial meltdown at one of the Three Mile Island units in Pennsylvania in 1979.
And with cheap nuclear electricy, we can afford to make hydrogen for our soon-to-be pollution-free automobiles! Then we can tell the oil crazies to pound sand!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 06:49 ||
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#1
pollution free? man those things emit water vapor... and that's a greenhouse gas, too.
#2
Are you still breathing, Eric? Emitting water vapor, are ya?
I exhale into a mask that sequesters the CO2 and collects and condenses the water vapor for shipment to thirsty poor people in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 8:16 Comments ||
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#3
Good news! It's a small step towards energy independence. We need to develop our nuclear industry. Would like to see a distributed system of more and smaller failsafe reactors. "Then we can tell the oil crazies to pound sand." Amen to that.
#6
Thank W's administration for quietly making the approval automatic for sites already approved for nuclear plants and for rolling the construction and operating licenses into a single pre-construction process. Much tougher for the moonbats to litigate these things into extinction now.
#7
Yeah, AzCat, I know of several GA Power (actually, Southern Nuclear Co.) plants that are just adding additional reactors than building new plants on new land. Pretty good to hear.
And, on the failsafe issue...we should discuss w/ the Japanese. They just went through a massive earthquake and "emitted" some "radioactive" water (all the systems shut down like they were supposed to). Pretty good considering it was a 6.something out of a 7 (on their earthquake scale).
Posted by: BA ||
07/31/2007 14:42 Comments ||
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#8
Heck BA, I'm sure dad wouldn't mind a shiny new nuke out on the back 40. If anyone's looking to site one they should probably give him a call. ;)
Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure at his summer home in Maine on Monday, causing a fall that resulted in minor scrapes, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. He will remain in a hospital in Maine overnight. "It's my understanding he's fully recovered, said Christopher Burke, a spokesman for Penobscot Bay Medical Center, where Roberts was taken.
Roberts, 52, was taken by ambulance to the medical center, where he underwent a "thorough neurological evaluation, which revealed no cause for concern," Arberg said in a statement. Roberts had a similar episode in 1993, she said.
Doctors called Monday's incident "a benign idiopathic seizure," Arberg said. The White House described the January 1993 episode as an "isolated, idiosyncratic seizure." A benign seizure means that doctors performed an MRI and other tests to conclude there was no tumor, stroke or other explanation. In addition, doctors would have quickly ruled out simple explanations such as dehydration or low blood sugar.
By definition, someone who has had more than one seizure without any other cause is determined to have epilepsy, said Dr. Marc Schlosberg, a neurologist at Washington Hospital Center, who is not involved in the Roberts' case.
Whether Roberts will need anti-seizure medications to prevent another is something he and his doctor will have to decide. But after two seizures, the likelihood of another at some point is greater than 60 percent. "When it's going to occur, obviously nobody knows," Schlosberg said.
#1
The money quote:
:On July 3, 2005, Sgt. Johnson went to a park not far from his base in Germany to be initiated into the 'Gangster Disciples,' a notorious Chicago-based street gang. He was beaten by eight other soldiers in a "jump-in" - an initiation rite common to many gangs.
Johnson died that night from his injuries."
Can we give this guy a Darwin award?
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/31/2007 13:10 Comments ||
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#2
Parris Island? I seriously fuckin doubt that...
#3
Sure we NCOs tolerate and sometimes run gangs in the military. It helps keep the troops in a fighting mood. We also have a direct line to the tooth fairy.
#6
Shavon Striggles, a Marine corporal, poses in gang colors inside the barracks on Parris Island.
I doubt the veracity of this story. Anyone that is a shooter sure as hell wouldn't shoot like this dumb shit. For one thing, it is not accurate; you give up your sights and secondly, you are liable to get popped in the eye with a spent cartridge.
#7
Special Forces Shift Strategy
New Special Ops Commanders Believe Killing Terrorists May Not Be Enough
LOL, I might have almost believe this (gang) story, if'n I hadn't seen this headline and byline on the side (also CBS news). "Fake, but accurate" still seems to reign supreme, even after Dan left, LOL! That one above is almost worthy of the Onion!
Posted by: BA ||
07/31/2007 14:51 Comments ||
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#8
Special Forces Shift Strategy
New Special Ops Commanders Believe Killing Terrorists May Not Be Enough
LOL, I might have almost believed this (gang) story, if'n I hadn't seen this headline and byline on the side (also CBS news). "Fake, but accurate" still seems to reign supreme, even after Dan left, LOL! That one above is almost worthy of the Onion!
Posted by: BA ||
07/31/2007 14:52 Comments ||
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#9
Appreciate you giving your name, Corporal Striggles.
We'll be in touch.
We have the "Shock Troops" story, and then the one in The Nation that's a retelling of John Kerry's "winter soldier" testimony circa 1971, and now this--all of which seem to be propagating the meme that our soldiers and Marines are psychopathic, kill-crazed lowlife losers--just as one of our major political parties is counseling retreat. If I were the suspicious, cynical sort, I'd start to wonder if someone wasn't trying to undermine popular support for the military as a way of undermining support for the mission.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/31/2007 15:47 Comments ||
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#11
Oh, yeah... I've been wondering about that for about a week now. An interesting coinky-dink, no?
#12
Darn you mike now I have to don my tinfoil hat to keep them from reading my mind and sending commands from space. OTOH Only drug-crazed gang members would enlist/re-enlist with Bush and his gang of thieves in office.
See it fits the agenda. ;-)
Next week wel will hear about Female soldiers selling their bodies in Iraq to make a "little extra" money for when they go home. All of which will be a attributed to an unnamed source at an unknown location.
Because only whores would serve under Bush.
#13
Don't miss the related story, about how gangs are getting military training CBS.
A former Secretaty of something-or-other sez the military is so desperate, they'll take anybody!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 16:14 Comments ||
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#14
FYI, "Cpl." Striggles is listed in the system, but it appears he is no longer on active duty and has been reduced to private. MOS 6046, Aircraft Maintenance Administration Specialist.
My wife actually brought this story to my attention and was seriously concerned about it. I told her it was a bunch of BS, and asked her who she would believe, a guy with over 14 years in, or Katie Couric?
The media and anti-war crowd want to still portray us as "victims" and the war so terrible that it is destroying innocent, defenseless minds. They did the same thing during Viet Nam. They were all "baby" killers, ignorant, gullible, "killers", and dupes of the government. Now we are gang members....
#15
During the Vietnam War there were some pretty serious racial disputes in both the Army and Navy, however, as simple fact remains that criminals don't make good soldiers, and soldiers, once they live the military, no longer have the organization they would need to be effective organized criminals.
On top of everything else, their military skills are often more valuable as such, than most criminal enterprises they could join. For example, if a soldier or Marine leaves the service right now, they can turn around, fly back to Baghdad, and make a fortune as security personnel or mercenaries.
The ones too dumb to figure this out are also not going to be the best criminals.
#16
I could have sworn that Uncle Sam's Misguided Children thought they were the baddest gang on the planet. I think it was in one of their tv ads.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/31/2007 17:30 Comments ||
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#17
Not to mention the reference DNA and fingerprints taken for all new recruits. Just the thing gang bangers want on file.
The press are IDIOTS
Posted by: Andy Cholump7818 ||
07/31/2007 19:04 Comments ||
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#18
I've seen minor gang involvement around Marine bases....we even had a shooting with a couple of new joins that claimed they were gang bangers - actually a pair of clowns w/delusions of grandeur who should've never got across the parade deck at PI. However, gang stuff is usually confined to the shit bags we throw out (for drugs or whatever) that don't want to go home and can't grow up so they stick around the area (Jacksonville, NC in my experience), live in a trailer and act like the hip-hop retards they see on cribs. Our recruiters usually do a good job of screening out gang bangers & other degenerates......not to mention the fact that anyone w/a felony conviction gets red flagged off the get go. The MSM is stupid (I know, a built in redundant statement).
Some 20 lawmakers and ministers of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) demanded answers from the prime minister and party president on Monday about the meeting between President General Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi.
At a parliamentary party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain at Prime Ministers House, PML members including Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Riaz Fatyana, Abdul Razzaq Thaheem and Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain voiced concern about the contacts between the president and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairwoman, sources in the PML told Daily Times.
The president did not meet directly with the PML parliamentarians, instead asking the prime minister and PML president to handle the ire of the MNAs. The sources said that the PML parliamentarians complained that they were kept in the dark about important national issues such as the Musharraf-Benazir meeting, and the decision to file a misconduct reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry back in March while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the PMLs junior member in the ruling coalition, was consulted on all issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2007 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani government has reactivated some of the bank accounts of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as a confidence-building measure for her possible deal with embattled President Pervez Musharraf, media reports said on Monday.
Once bitter foes, the two leaders reportedly held secret talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday to discuss an accord that could ensure the survival of Musharraf in the most serious challenges he faces since he took over in a military coupe in 1999. Both sides have so far not confirmed the meeting, but local media has consistently cited sources saying it really took place.
Around half of Bhuttos bank accounts frozen under Musharraf government in connection with investigations into her alleged corruption as premier were reactivated days before the talks, Geo news channel said. Rest half of Bhuttos bank accounts have been kept frozen just to ensure that she does not backtrack on the deal, Geo reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2007 00:00 ||
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The rise of mollusks across the globe was a harbinger of doom roughly 250 million years ago, ushering in the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history, research now reveals.
This clammy conclusion suggests the disaster was long in coming, as opposed to the result of a more catastrophic extraterrestrial cause such as an asteroid impact, scientists added.
The largest die-off in Earth's history was not the cataclysm that ended the Age of the Dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Instead, it was the so-called end-Permian mass extinction, which eliminated as much as 95 percent of the planet's species before even the earliest dinosaurs strode the planet.
One supposed consequence of this mass extinction was the dominance of oysters, snails and other mollusks all over the world. Now scientists studying mollusks fossils find they started rising to prominence some 8 million years before the end-Permian.
"Our results aren't really consistent with a more catastrophic extraterrestrial cause, such as an asteroid impact although they don't directly contradict the impact theory either," said researcher Matthew Clapham at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada.
Instead, these findings support theories suggesting the end-Permian was triggered by ocean changes long in the making, "the climax of a prolonged environmental crisis," Clapham said.
The whole Permian period, stretching from about 300 million to 250 million years ago, saw gradual warming. This would have slowed down circulation in the ocean, eventually leading to very low levels of oxygen in the water. Massive volcanism near the end of the Permian might have wreaked even further havoc on the environment.
"Mollusks are better adapted to such stressful and changing environments, and so could have thrived," Clapham told LiveScience. "The abundance of mollusks we see are symptoms of the conditions that ultimately caused the extinction."
The research involved gleaning more than 33,000 Permian fossils from blocks of limestone that researchers gathered from China, Greece, Thailand, Nevada and Texas over the course of four years. These blocks were then dunked in vats of hydrochloric acid. Although the acid dissolved the limestone, over millions of years the building blocks of the fossil shells were replaced one by one with silica. This silica resisted the acid and helped the fossils survive.
"Most of the fossils were less than one centimeter in size, typically four to eight millimeters [roughly the size of an ant], so it was very delicate work to find them among all of the other detritus in the sample," Clapham recalled.
He and his colleague David Bottjer at UCLA detailed their findings online July 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
#2
Okay-y-y. so to save planet Earth and all humanity, the oysters have to be properly and righteously wiped out. Alrighty then, Global Oyster(s) Barbecue it is.
#5
And so now we have a world that is dominated by the nematode. Nematodes are the dominant life species on the planet if you go by numbers of them. If someone were to look at the fossil record, though, they will never see them because nematodes probably won't leave any fossils, just as any soft bodied animals without bones from that period didn't either.
The whole Permian period, stretching from about 300 million to 250 million years ago, saw gradual warming. This would have slowed down circulation in the ocean, eventually leading to very low levels of oxygen in the water. Massive volcanism near the end of the Permian might have wreaked even further havoc on the environment.
So my neighbors' SUVs caused warming in the environment 258 million years ago?
A fish-like thing appeared among the annelids one day.
It hadn't any parapods nor setae to display.
It hadn't any eyes nor jaws, nor ventral nervous cord,
But it had a lot of gill slits and it had a notochord.
Chorus:
It's a long way from Amphioxus. It's a long way to us.
It's a long way from Amphioxus to the meanest human cuss.
Well, it's goodbye to fins and gill slits, and it's welcome lungs and hair!
It's a long, long way from Amphioxus, but we all came from there.
It wasn't much to look at and it scarce knew how to swim,
And Nereis was very sure it hadn't come from him.
The mollusks wouldn't own it and the arthropods got sore,
So the poor thing had to burrow in the sand along the shore.
He burrowed in the sand before a crab could nip his tail,
And he said "Gill slits and myotomes are all to no avail.
I've grown some metapleural folds and sport an oral hood,
But all these fine new characters don't do me any good.
(chorus)
It sulked awhile down in the sand without a bit of pep,
Then he stiffened up his notochord and said, "I'll beat 'em yet!
I've got more possibilities within my slender frame
Than all these proud invertebrates that treat me with such shame.
My notochord shall turn into a chain of vertebrae
And as fins my metapleural folds will agitate the sea.
My tiny dorsal nervous cord will be a mighty brain
And the vertebrates shall dominate the animal domain.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/31/2007 8:05 Comments ||
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#10
Nah, the song for this is Murray Head - One night in Bangkok
"One night in bangkok and the world's your oyster ..."
#15
The largest die-off in Earth's history was not the cataclysm that ended the Age of the Dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Instead, it was the so-called end-Permian mass extinction, which eliminated as much as 95 percent of the planet's species before even the earliest dinosaurs strode the planet.
Man, if only I'd have gotten in on the Halliburton stock back then! I could probably drive a Toyota Prius over 100 mph, get busted for pot and a DUI and still get a slap on the wrist today, eh?
Posted by: BA ||
07/31/2007 14:37 Comments ||
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#16
I assume this was another in the 'consequences of global warming' series.
So how come the Chesapeake Bay oysters are not thriving now? Are they not better adapted to such stressful and changing environments, and so could have thrived?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2007 17:24 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.
Bangladeshs former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was granted interim bail by the High Court on Monday, nearly two weeks after she was detained on extortion charges, her lawyers said. 
HAVANA (Reuters) - After a lull following Fidel Castro's illness last year, Cubans once again are taking to homemade boats or powerful speedboats manned by smugglers on a trip to the United States that often includes a detour through Mexico. Since May, the U.S. Coast Guard has been intercepting more boat people in precarious craft crossing the Straits of Florida in the calm summer waters. The U.S. Border Patrol also has been processing rising numbers turning up at the U.S. frontier with Mexico.
A 22-year-old Pakistani student in Australia has tested positive for polio, a World Health Organisation official says. The case is the first in Australia since 1986, officials say. Zaheer Ahmed from Punjab apparently contacted the virus on a recent visit to Pakistan, officials say.
The European Union on Monday demanded that the United States offer equal treatment in the granting of visas to citizens of all 27 of the bloc's member countries. The call was an effort to resolve an issue that has cast a shadow over trans-Atlantic relations and angered new member states whose citizens face restrictions under the current U.S. visa-waiver program.
For the United States, the primary issue in the Middle East has been and remains effective control of its energy resources, according to Noam Chomsky.
Between early May and late June House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Caliphornia) identified six candidates she considers to be the top Democratic challengers to GOP incumbents. She did so by giving them cash for their campaigns.
The first application to build a new U.S. nuclear power plant in three decades has been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, bumping a proposed third unit at a Calvert County site to the front of a list of reactors being considered by the nuclear power industry.
