WORK for the Dole recipients will no longer be paid for studying interpretive dance, carving wooden toys for charity or learning to act, under a revamp of the system.
Awww, hell! There goes my career...
The shake-up will steer unemployed people into courses and work that will provide them with the skills to help them get a job.
"You mean, like, work? Eeeewwww!"
Workplace Participation Minister Peter Dutton said yesterday he would crack down on Work for the Dole programs that failed to provide recipients with the appropriate skills. Since the program began in 1997, 352,000 people have participated in community-based projects, including landscaping, construction, building maintenance and administrative work. The "soft" programs will be scrapped under the nationwide review. "I want Work for the Dole to concentrate even more on providing skills to job seekers in areas where there is locally a high demand for jobs with those skills," he said.
Y'mean there ain't much demand for interpretive dancers?
"While most Work for the Dole projects reach this objective, the program can be even more targeted. I don't think 'interpretive dance' courses in Ingleburn ... are the best way to meet the skill demands Australia is currently experiencing."
Ummm... How many openings for dancing girls are there?
A ratings system also will be introduced to measure the performance of community providers, to determine how many participants are getting jobs at the end of their programs.
Hrmph! See you in court!
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2005 15:51 ||
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Bovey, Minn. A 41-year-old Minnesota woman is dead after being attacked by a buffalo. Itasca County Sheriff Pat Medure said Debra Elaine Lentz of rural Bovey died after the buffalo attacked her at an animal farm. Sheriffâs deputies had to shoot the buffalo to get to Lentz, but she died after being taken to Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Buffalo, why do they hate us?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2005 3:52:31 PM ||
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#4
Ran into a small herd of them while hiking on a fire road in Yellowstone. Surprised both me and buffs. When they startled, the ground was shaking and I got the heck off the road and into the trees.
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2005 17:01 Comments ||
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#5
buffalo attacked her at an animal farm
Buffalo: the Trotskites of the 2nd International Hoof.
Small cars driving through a safari park in Merseyside have been chased by confused lions who think they are prey. Staff at Knowsley Safari Park are monitoring smaller vehicles, including Smart cars and Mini Coopers, after the lions started paying special interest. David Ross, park manager, told the BBC News website that a group of lionesses chased after one Smart car after being confused by its compact appearance. He said staff were stationed near the enclosure to keep visitors safe.
Unusual features on cars can also spark interest by the 12 lions at the park, which are more used to seeing larger saloon cars. All vehicles are monitored by park staff on the way in. Mr Ross said: "The lions will take an interest in peculiarities on cars and we always keep a close eye on the cars coming in. "With Smart cars and sometimes Mini Coopers the lions definitely raise an eyebrow. It sparks their interest because of their size. "We had an incident of two ladies in a car being chased by lionesses. "It must have been quite frightening for them, but we always have staff in a vehicle by the lion enclosure to deal with any problems." And you wonder why people say redneck trucks SUVs are safer.
Scientists are proposing reintroducing large mammals such as elephants, lions, cheetahs and wild horses to North America to replace populations lost 13,000 years ago.
Wasn't there a reason the populations were "lost"? Like climate and environmental changes?
The scientists say that not only could large tracts of North America act as breeding sanctuaries for species of large wild animals under threat in Africa and Asia, but that such ecological history parks could be major tourist attractions. "Africa and parts of Asia are now the only places where megafauna are relatively intact, and the loss of many of these species within this century seems likely," the team, led by Josh Donlan from New York's Cornell University, said.
I think we should have kangaroos, too. Why should Australia have all the kangaroos?
"Given this risk of further extinction, re-wilding of North American sites carries global conservation implications," the team wrote in Wednesday's issue of the science journal Nature. It said large mammals were common across all continents until the Late Pleistocene wipeout that hit North America hardest and handed the world to smaller species. The largest mammals in the United States today are bison. The Pleistocene epoch lasted from about 1.65 million years ago to 10,000 years ago.
Hmmm... What do the folks in Nebraska think about having rhinoceri and giant sloths reintroduced? Or do their opinions count?
"Large carnivores and herbivores often play important roles in the maintenance of biodiversity, and thus many extinct mammals must have shaped the evolution of the species we know today," the scientists wrote. They said the pronghorn antelope's remarkable turn of speed must be due at least in part to the presence of the now extinct predatory American cheetah alongside it on North America's grasslands. Reintroducing the modern relatives of the Late Pleistocene losers to North America could spark fresh interest in conservation, contribute to biodiversity and begin to put right some of the wrongs caused by human activities.
On the other hand, it could also wreak havoc on the existing ecological balance. We're still trying to get rid of snake head fish and killer bees and Dutch elm blight, aren't we?
"Establishing Asian asses and Przewalski's horse in North America might help prevent the extinction of these endangered species and would restore equid species to their evolutionary homeland," the scientists wrote. They proposed a second phase that would include reintroducing African cheetahs, lions and Asian and African elephants to large private parks. "Free-roaming, managed cheetahs in the southwestern United States could save the fastest carnivore from extinction, restore what must have been strong interactions with pronghorn and facilitate ecotourism as an alternative for ranchers.
An alternative to what? Raising cattle? Living in the area?
"Managed elephant populations could similarly benefit ranchers through grassland maintenance and ecotourism," they wrote, adding that reintroducing lions would represent the pinnacle of the Pleistocene re-wilding of North America.
"Honey, have you seen little Timmy?"
"He went out to play, dear."
"Uh oh."
I can't wait to post the first rogue elephant story datelined The Mall of The Americas...
They admitted the plan would be stoopid controversial but said it was a far better option than simply accepting the terminal decline of some of the world's most impressive species due to human encroachment and global warming. I knew it "Global Warming" crops up in everything nowadays.
"Pleistocene re-wilding is an optimistic alternative," they wrote. "The obstacles are substantial and the risks are not trivial, but we can no longer accept a hands-off approach to wilderness preservation." Sounds like an incredibly bad idea to me. These large herbivores competeing wiht humans for food and the carnivores going after farm animals. Yup, an incredibly bad idea.
Next year we're re-introducing trilobites.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/18/2005 10:19 ||
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#1
It's a shame western Europe is deprived of fire ants and alligators in their yards. Can I have a grant to fix this?
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2005 10:55 Comments ||
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#2
Why is it that the people who most fervently believe in Darwinism are the least able to accept the outcomes?
#4
I like cats, so we'll take two of the cheetahs. The invisible fence should do the trick, as long as the power doesn't go out.
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
08/18/2005 10:59 Comments ||
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#5
I say we put all these beasts in Berkly with a large wall so no one can get out, let them play with the local population for a year or so and then interview the survivors (if any) and see if the survivors are all for widespread reintroduction.
#8
WTF? We don't even allow enough room for the native predators (wolves, cougars, bears, etc.) to thrive, so let's introduce some more! That's brilliant.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/18/2005 11:20 Comments ||
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#9
Wasn't there a reason the populations were "lost"? Like climate and environmental changes?
Mostly due to the invasion of humans, esp. once the Clovis style of arrowhead was in use.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/18/2005 11:21 Comments ||
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#10
except for climate change re: the mastodons and mammoths. never were 'elephants' here.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/18/2005 11:22 Comments ||
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#11
Why should Australia have all the kangaroos?
No blood for marsupials!
Posted by: Matt ||
08/18/2005 11:35 Comments ||
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#12
Mostly due to the invasion of humans, esp. once the Clovis style of arrowhead was in use.
but, but, but, I thought the Indians lived as One with nature in a glorious new-age Utopia?
#16
Actually, the name gives it away: Pleistocene re-wilding.
But we're not in the Pleistocene anymore, we're now in the Holocene. You can't unscramble an egg.
#18
I think the sight of Polar Bears roaming around Gainesville, Florida would be pretty cool. And, the image of gators up in Churhill, Canada would be a sight!
#20
Scientists are proposing reintroducing large mammals such as elephants, lions, cheetahs and wild horses to North America to replace populations lost 13,000 years ago.
As a sometime resident of Gerlach, Nevada I just have to comment on this at some length.
1) There are currently rather a large number of wild horses in North America. Anecdotally, several off them walked past the front of my ranch in March of this year. The question of what, if anything, to do about them is a constant source of political debate in Northern Nevada. They make look pretty but they certainly arenât indigenous animals and, as a basically superior species, they take up grazing land that is normally occupied by deer, pronghorn antelope, and bighorn sheep. Wild horses equal dead indigenous species. Currently the B.L.M. (Bureau of Land Management) conducts a costly annual roundup of mustangs to keep their numbers down.
2) Nevada currently has an out of control mountain lion population problem. This is due in no small part to the fact that Californiaâs animal control people routinely dump captured lions including man eaters over the boarder into its northern counties. My neighbor Tony DieBold, a professional hunter and former Nevada state trapper, estimates that there are over 130 adult lions in the Granite and Calico ranges alone. The rural northwest needs more big cats (cheetahs and lions) like a hole in the head.
3) There were 130 bear âencountersâ in Incline Village last year alone. Badgers have become a constant menace to house pets even in the center of Reno The timber wolves have come back; they should be infesting my area as soon as next year. Which, for me, is all to the good. My wife and I are armed up like an Afghan tribesmen and a little danger keeps the riffraff out. Iâm hoping that a few Burning Man people are eaten by bears or something. But all of my neighbors are real ranchers (I just own a place everyone calls a ranch), none of them are thrilled about the resurgence of Mutual of Omahaâs Wild Kingdom.
Now some mad scientist wants to add elephants? What kind of scientists are these? Besides the mad kind, I mean.
#21
I'm all for having these threatened species in large *enclosed* parks, with the aim of preventing extinction.
Introducing them to roam free, much as similar timber wolf etc programs have done, is of course ludicrous.
Of course, if they can resurrect sabre-tooth tigers and reintroduce them to the wild, I am on board with that. It'll probably help keep the mountain lion population down.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
08/18/2005 13:28 Comments ||
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#22
What kind of scientists are these?
Well-paid tenured ones.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/18/2005 13:32 Comments ||
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#23
big kats no prbblem long their intredoose hyenas to.
#24
Buffalo commons revisited. Here in western Kansas our insurance rates are already extreme due to the deer and the antelope playing. Last week a guy hit a wild pig and demolished his monster truck. We also have emu's and ostrich that have been dumped out from failed businesses. The cowboys love to rope them, and are thinking about adding it as an event in the local ranch rodeos. What's the matter with Kansas?
#25
A few years back someone got the bright idea to "re-introduce" Red Wolves to the Smokey Mountain National Park. They didn't last. Daniel Boone wrote that there were more buffalo here (east Tennesse) than he had seen cows in most pastures back east. We don't want buffalo roaming here now. This sounds like someone's fantasy. They wouldn't have to actually live where the animals would be "re-introduced" so, to them, it sounds like a great idea.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/18/2005 15:40 Comments ||
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I don't know about electricity (my place is off grid), but the mountain lions? I trust Tony's word on this one: a good number of them are from California, and a small number of those have tasted the flesh of SoCo joggers.
#31
Db, the State of Florida has re(?)-introduced American Bison into Paynes Prarie. Very strange to see, but they seem to do okay. Their only natural predator T. Turner Americanus is rarely seen south of Live Oak.
#40
I for one have no prob with scientists improving or reintroducing species as new human food sources. As a kid I used to wonder how America would look like if it had large herds of enviro-friendly, meat- or flavor-improved African Wildebeests, Camels, Illamas, etc. roaming around America's deserts or preserves and legally being hunted for dinner by members of the NRA - BWHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!?
#41
California already has a surfeit of big cats. The security cameras at our facility in the wilds of San Diego periodically show mountain lions roaming our parking lots at night. They come up out of the canyons. Remember the state fossil of California is Smilodon Fatalis (sabretooth tiger). Perhaps some enterprising biotech company can find a way to bring them back as well.
As for converting the Great Plains into game preserves, this is just a Democrat plan to depopulate some of those pesky red states.
A fish caught in an east German lake near the Polish border not only got off the hook but also lured a 46-year-old fisherman to his death, police in the eastern town of Eisenhuettenstadt said Tuesday.
A police spokeswoman said the fish pulled the fishing rod out of the manâs hands and dragged it about 100 meters (about 328 feet) away from shore at the Kleinen Pohlitzer lake near Eisenhuettenstadt. The man took off his clothes and swam after the runaway fish and pole.
A witness said the man reached the rod floating on the surface but then suddenly stopped moving. The 54-year-old witness swam out to help the fisherman and pulled him back to shore, where he was later pronounced dead, police said. âI know it sounds like an incredible story but it really happened,â an Eisenhuettenstadt police spokeswoman said. âIt was apparently just an ordinary fish.â
#1
Nice article - just make sure nothing happens to the Moon. Very, VERY, V-E-R-Y-Y-Y scary dreams/visions of lunar explosions and crack-up when I was a kid in the 60's, just as is no surprise here the Chicommies wanna send a man to the moon. Sorry, CIA-DIA, you are 30 + years late and still ticking.
#5
As long as it doesn't obscure my view of Uranus.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/18/2005 2:57 Comments ||
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#6
Nice article - just make sure nothing happens to the Moon. Very, VERY, V-E-R-Y-Y-Y scary dreams/visions of lunar explosions and crack-up when I was a kid in the 60's,
At 400 meters this thing would may a pretty decent sized crater but causing the Moon to break up. No way it is way too small and moving way too slow relative to the Moon. If in the worse case scenario it impacted the Earth we would be looking a Tungusta sized event. Not a nice thing to be under if it hit but not the end of the world either.
#8
The asteroid is relatively small, about the length of three football fields. If it hit it wouldn't create wide-scale damage to the Earth, but would cause major damage at the impact site, Scheeres said.
Too bad it's so far in the future - if we could direct it...
[Extremely large graphix edited out by Seafarious...please keep the pix down to 300 pixels wide, thnax...]
#9
Big Ed--Your pics are too big and are messing up the screen.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/18/2005 11:42 Comments ||
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The asteroid is relatively small, about the length of three football fields. If it hit it wouldn't create wide-scale damage to the Earth, but would cause major damage at the impact site, Scheeres said.
Too bad it's so far in the future - if we could direct it...
One of the most celebrated anglophile members of the French intelligentsia Tuesday appealed to Britain to consider downgrading its membership in the EU. Maurice Druon who was knighted for his services to Anglo-French relations, said the country's aversion to European integration was incompatible with full membership of the Union, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. Instead he suggested that Britain opt for a "privileged partner" scheme resembling what some EU governments have in mind for Turkey.
"What Britain and Europe want of the EU is quite different. You want an open market, whereas the rest of us want Europe to evolve as a strong power, not just economically but diplomatically and strategically, too", the octogenarian former cultural minister said.
Druon, who is known to be a long-time friend of Britain, listed the close transatlantic relationship, the reluctance to join the single currency, and the strong support for Turkish accession to the EU as stances that made Britain unsuited for full membership of the Brussels-based club.
"Shouldn't we draw the consequences and ask whether it wouldn't be to everyone's advantage, Britain's included, for them to leave the EU's political institutions and take the status of privileged partner?" the aging intellectual asked, adding that it should be up to London to make the first move towards loosening its political affiliation with the continent. He may be more correct than he knows. Britain has some deep-seated differences from continental Europe that are truly incompatible with the EU. One of the most important, their having a criminal and civil law system based on Common Law, rather than Napoleonic or Roman Law. This goes to the root of British and European philosophical assumptions about the law and government. As an example, imagine Chirac ruling over the British, with all of the powers given to him in the French constitution. The Brits would revolt within days.
#3
What the Frogs seem to want is the restoration of the Roman Empire with HQ in Brussels because it's closer to Paris. For the last 500 years the Spanish, French and Germans have striven to achieve this and global hegemony for themselves alone with each ultimately frustrated by the UK which actually came closest to achieving it with out actually trying. Now the Continentals want to declare an empire with no clear dominant power and a capital in a second class city.
That would definitely be a death nell for Nato. It would also place the recent admits in a peculiar position. Do they want to be the new border provinces of the empire or do they want to play on the team with the 500 year winning record? This doesn't seem hard to me. Perhaps the Brits should talk to the Poles, Turks and whom ever else is interested and see what they can stitch together. Part of NAFTA perhaps. Maybe they could call it The Other Europe.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/18/2005 10:09 Comments ||
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if britain is in an economic union with the EU, but not part of the political institutions, that means british industry will have to follow economic rules made without british input. If the EU wont accomodate britain on the institution, that may be what Britain will settle for, but its NOT an ideal situation. Blair presumably thinks that with the support of Italy, Poland, etc against the franco-german alliance he can do better in the union than out.
#5
too much of Polands trade is with the EU, esp Germany, for Poland to pull out. Until such time as the internet and trade in services, etc change global trade patterns more profoundly, geography will still be destiny, and NAFTA will no more be an option for Britain than the EU will be for Quebec, despite cultural discomfort.
#6
Remember that the whole thing is "shades of grey". For example, an economic union can exist independently of political or military union. The problem begins when the EU tries to assert political supremacy over Britain. For example, in Common Law, "that which is not expressly illegal is legal", which makes perfect sense to Americans, who also live in a Common Law country; but in Roman and Napoleonic law, "that which is not expressly legal is illegal." This is the reason that the EU constitution was huge, repulsive, and bureaucratic. It was literally an effort to define all legal activity. In Germany, the longstanding joke is that *everything*, even criminal activity, is licensed by the police. But it's no joke. Especially when you look at economics, the two systems are utterly at odds, and at a very deep level. Making a new business start-up in Britain or the US should be easy: all you need is money. But on the continent, you must first have bureaucratic approval.
These differences are completely ingrained in the people both in Britain and on the continent. And while a continental might be able to adapt to the idea of independance from government and bureaucracy, the British, as a people, would be lost.
The man on the street would not have a clue what the law said anymore. The policeman wouldn't know what laws to enforce. Business would grind down because without warning, some Brussels bureaucrat would order it to make uneconomic changes, based on some obscure dictat. Most of the people would try to ignore Brussels, and so eventually the country would be punished, again and again, for non-compliance.
#8
Europe taking their marching order from Brussels? Why not.
Euro-islam.info: Belgium One of the consequences of this situation is that one-quarter of Brusselians under 20 years old are of 'Muslim origin'. Moreover in 2002 in the region of Brussels the most popular names given to babies were Mohammed and Sarah (Bousetta 2003:8).
In addition, over 50% of babies born in Brussels are muslim. 2025 will be an interesting year in the EU capitol.
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2005 13:18 Comments ||
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#9
Last sentence should be:
2025 will be an interesting year in the EU capitol, asteroid or no asteroid.
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2005 13:19 Comments ||
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Miskito Indian leaders on Thursday asked the independent Permanent Human Rights Commission to probe crimes against humanity they allege were committed against their people under Nicaragua's Sandinista government of the 1980s.
The leaders said at a news conference that they also would demand that government prosecutors take legal action against those who allegedly killed at least 150 of their people, burned houses, destroyed crops and slaughtered livestock.
The complaints stem from clashes between the Sandinistas - who were trying to create a new, leftist society throughout Nicaragua after overthrowing dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 - and the English-speaking Indian peoples of the Caribbean coast who were trying to establish greater autonomy from central control at the same time.
Disagreements escalated to armed clashes and forced relocation of thousands of Miskitos. Sandinista responses grew heavier as some Indians joined the U.S.-backed rebellion against the leftist government.
Former Sandinista Foreign Minister Tomas Borge said the complaint had been inspired by the U.S. government as a way to denigrate the Sandinista party ahead of the 2006 presidential election. "Otherwise, why now after more than 20 years?" he said when contacted by telephone.
The Miskito leaders denied political motivation and complained in a prepared statement that "no government to this point has decided to investigate these events and the local and international human rights groups have ignored us."
Borge said both sides had committed abuses and said he had punished Sandinista troops who committed them.
One of those who filed the complaint, Mario Flores, said five of his relatives had been killed by the army around Christmas 1982.
"Our demand is against the Nicaraguan army for the crime of genocide, so that justice is done and so that the relatives of the victims are compensated," the Miskito statement said.
#3
Tell the 0.5 of Mexico to talk to their leaders and get them to spend their oil wealth on the People or else. Remind them that oil is $60+ per barrel now. It's all about oiiiiilllllâ¢.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/18/2005 15:30 Comments ||
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#4
All we need to do is make it nearly impossible for illegals to get work in this country (and don't even start in on me because I don't know how to do that).
If they can't get work, they wont come here. That is their single biggest motivation. Pass the laws to keep them from getting jobs, or benifits, and make sure the word gets out that you will probably starve to death if you come here.
#6
I'm with CS. Time to start a non-threatening propaganda campaign on the air and through the medias, offering commonwealth status. They get the same status as Puerto Rico. We promise no taxes, free passage, stable currancy, referendums every ten years for independence, and a ruthless pursuit of drug lords and their vastly corrupt government and political parties. In return, Los Nortes will have the right to own property and business in their commonwealth. Eliminate the corruption and provide the environment for employment. Wonder how of the old Mexican ruling class will feel about that one? Now the Blue counties will have to import Chinese to be their grounds keepers, maids, and nannies, while their investment portfolios will be sponsoring boat loads to man their labor intensive businesses.
#7
Hey we are the United States of America and they are part of America. We celebrate Cinco De Mayo more than they do, we have all the Spanish channels, they are conservative, and they are mostly Catholic. Whats not to love and they can even keep Spanish as the main language. Now all we need is a bullet train down the west coast to Cabo.
#8
Sarge, if they're all that, then how did they wind up the basket case they are, and how do we absorb large numbers without duplicating the problems? Say everyone can come _but_ members of current Mexican political parties and their families?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/18/2005 20:48 Comments ||
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#9
Baja only
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2005 20:53 Comments ||
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#10
How'd they wind up as the basket case they are?
1. Feudalism imported from the conquistadores made for slow economic growth for 4 Centuries
2. corruption
3. illiteracy
4. corruption
5. peonage
6. coruption
7. corruption
Irrelevant but interesting historical trivia:
The grand 19th century architecture of Mexico City came courtesy of the unfortunate French pupper Emperor Maximilian; and the the Oompah beat of some Mariachi music came from Max and Carlota's court and from the German financiers who build the railroads. The latter had plenty of money to pay dance bands.
#12
HOMER SIMPSON - "DO AMERICAN DARE LIVE OUT THE JACKSONIAN DREAM" :Hispanics are generally vey spiritual, hard-working, conservative, and courageous, Republicans-Rightists but in a pseudo-Socialist kindaway. Govt = God = Family, which is why many get pissed off when pol or Govt. corruption occurs as its akin to being betrayed by God or your sweet old Grandma. Many Hispanics tend to frown on Lefty-style waffling - We need to nurture or use these strengths for positivism.
EFL: Vardan Kushnir, murdered in late July in Moscow, may have fallen victim to a 15-year-old girl and her three friends, a popular Moscow tabloid, Moskovsky Komsomolets, reported Monday. Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on July 27.
"He's dead, Dzhim!"
He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.
"I do not need a bigger bosom! [WHACK!]... My email has not won a lottery! [WHACK!]... I do not need a mortgage! [THUMP!]... I will not assist you in moving millions of dollars out of Nigeria [SLAM!]... Got that? [CRUNCH!]"
"Yeah! Tell him, Olga!"
On Sunday the Moscow criminal investigation directorate detained a group of young people on suspicion of murdering Kushnir with a view to rob him. The investigators believe that a 15-year-old girl and two boys, 18 and 17 years of age, along with a 27-year-old accomplice had broke into Kushnirâs apartment. One of the boys wielded a baseball bat which he used to beat the man to death.
If a jury convicts him there's no justice in this world...
The detainees insist Kushnir had invited them to his place himself where he made passes at the girl by the name of Vika.
"Heh heh! Want some candy, little girl?"
Her friends tried to stop him,
"Knock it off, Grampaw!"
then Kushnir grabbed a knife
"Look out! He's got a knife!"
and the young men hit the man with an empty bottle on the head in order to defend themselves.
[SHATTER!]
Incidentally, the detained young men claim the girl was not involved in the brawl and insist on her innocence.
"Yeah. It wudn't her."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/18/2005 09:55 ||
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#1
Who cares? A dead spammer is a good spammer, in my opinion.
Apparently the men don't have many either. EFL. It's August. Wait till you see what we get next week.
It's evening in Shigatse and the lights are coming on. In the Chinese district of the Tibetan mountain town, strings of twinkling lights flicker around rows of shopfronts where women perch waiting for customers and men stumble out from backroom corridors. It's good to know that the men stumbling out of backroom corridors aren't customers.
"There are a lot of prostitutes here. They're all from the countryside. Maybe they don't have parents to look after them or anything else to do," says Jirga, an 18-year-old vendor. Boredom. Yeah, that's why I got in the business. Gave me something to do instead of lying around the house all day. At least a diferent place to lie around.
Hundreds of miles away in a nunnery in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, a group of young Buddhist nuns sit stitching yards of maroon cloth into the robes that are the iconic uniform of the clergy. "The life here is very good. If I wasn't doing this, I'd probably be a farmer," said nun Ani La, 30, speaking over the din of a thunderstorm that rolled in from the mountains. The Lhasa nuns and the prostitutes of Shigatse may have little in common on the surface, but under the surface?
but both are part of the same demographic group -- young, rural, Tibetan women -- and analysts say their ranks are growing. As development draws herders and farmers to towns in search of wage labor, Tibet's women find themselves with few choices and little know-how for getting by in a market economy. "Often where there is a concentration of nuns there is concentration of sex workers. I never heard about that from the kids who went to St. Teresa's. Maybe they were keeping it a secret from us Protestants and Jews.
The same forces are drawing young women away from villages," said Charlene Makely, a Tibet specialist at Reed College in the U.S. state of Oregon. There's good money in being a nun? Who knew?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/18/2005 09:50 ||
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Money Mrs. D? I believe the operative word is "food."
Three pilots suffered injuries as a Mi-8 military helicopter crash landed on a military airfield near Khabarovsk in Russiaâs Far East on Thursday morning. Four hours later, four crew members of another Mi-8 were killed after the aircraft plunged to the ground near Nefteryugansk, Siberia. Three pilots suffered injuries as a Mi-8 military helicopter crash landed on a military airfield 40 kilometers from Khabarovsk in Russiaâs Far East on Thursday morning. Russian air force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax news agency that the reduction gear of the helicopterâs tail propeller broke down at an altitude of 1,200 meters. Crew commander Andrei Ivanenko ordered the eight parachutists aboard the helicopter to jump, and continued to keep the helicopter at a safe altitude, steering it away from buildings. The three crewmembers suffered injuries in the crash landing and were hospitalized.
Nice job, Andrei. Well done.
The crashed helicopter belonged to the 11th Air and Air Defense Army, the armyâs spokesman Sergei Roshcha told Interfax. A commission led by acting Army Commander Alexander Kalyaka is working at the scene of the crash. Russian air force commander Vladimir Mikhailov has suspended Mi-8 flights until the cause of the crash is established. Four hours later, another helicopter â Mi-8 of the Argo airline company â carrying 4 people crashed near Nefteyugansk, killing everyone on board. The helicopter was performing an inspection flight over a pipeline. The probe into the incident was launched, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/18/2005 09:52 ||
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#1
MI-8 is a rugged, dependable helo. There is this little thing that it needs called maintaince that the Russians have not been doing. No matter how rugged a machine, it needs some love some time.
#2
I can tell you what the cause of the crash is, they are hunks of shit that never get maintained the way they should. Russia can't afford to maintain anything, but that mental case Putin still thinks Russia is a military superpower. They and China make a hell of a team if you ask me, they deserve each other.
The conservative challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder kicked off her campaign for next month's elections calling for more jobs and economic growth, even as polls showed the chancellor's party gaining in popularity. Yet Schroeder's Social Democrats â whose popularity was up two points to 28 percent â remain well behind Angela Merkel's conservatives, who polled 42 percent, according to the survey by the TNS Emnid research for the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
Crowds shouting "Angie! Angie!" welcomed Merkel in Essen, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia where her Christian Democrats and their sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union ousted the Social Democrats in state balloting three months ago. The defeat caused Schroeder to call for new elections. "Now the point is to get out of this misery, we need growth, economical growth is the way we need to grow as we are last in Europe. And that is not right," Merkel told the crowd. "That is not adequate for Germany - Germany can do more."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2005 09:20 ||
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#1
She's proposing Paul Kirchhoff, a radical tax reformer, as finance minister.
He says your average income tax declaration should fit on a beer stub.
#6
Actually the 'flat tax' momentum is increasing across Europe. It's been kicked off by countries like Estonia and Poland with Russia looking into it as well. There's also groups like the Adam Smith Institute looking into it in the UK (although we'll have to get rid of the Socialist swine running the place first) and of course, Steve Forbes' proposal as well.
It's a very powerful and liberating idea that could seriously envigorate ailing economies.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/18/2005 19:27 Comments ||
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#7
All I can say is good luck Frau Merkel.
On taxes the problem isn't the form it's the bite. The combination of both local, state and federal taxes should not be over 10%. Many flat taxers I have read are saying 20% just for the feds. How about this cut government regulation and programs radically and get rid of the employees. National defense, interstate and foreign relations should be all the Federal government is involved in. My state can pick up the small amount of slack and they can also do it on way less.
A 4,200-year-old hoard of gold, comparable to the fabulous treasures of Troy, has been found in Bulgaria to the delight of archaeologists desperate to beat looters to tombs in the former communist country. The miniature pieces were unearthed in an ancient tomb in Dabene, 75 miles east of the capital, Sofia. The objects, including around 15,000 ornate golden rings, may have been made by a race predating the ancient Thracians.
Dibs.
Bulgarian archaeologists said the find matched the magnificent trove of jewels, bracelets, golden diadems, rings, and cups unearthed at Troy in 1873 by the retired German merchant Heinrich Schliemann.
But despite the excitement of the new treasure, archaeologists are uncertain as to which civilisation produced the hoard. Prof Nikolov said it was most likely that it was the work of "proto-Thracians" living in what is now Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Macedonia and Turkey.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2005 01:00 ||
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#5
So thats where it is! I was doing a cross country spree across Bulgaria this summer and lost my money.... Of course I only used small intricate golden figurines and such... a little heavy but always an ice breaker with the locals when I needed some supllies and a place to spend the night. Please return it at once... thank you.
Posted by: Proto Thracian Jr. ||
08/18/2005 12:55 Comments ||
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Germans are investing in private funds to secure their pensions more than ever, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported Wednesday.
Private retirement packages in 2005 rose significantly higher compared to a year ago, Germany's Social Affairs Minister Ulla Schmidt said Tuesday in Berlin. "Everyone in Germany knows: State pensions won't suffice anymore. One needs private arrangements," she said.
Roughly 4.5 million Germans have so far invested in the Riester-pension, a state-endorsed independent retirement fund named after a former federal minister. "2005 is the year of the Rieste-pension," Schmidt said.
Germany's federal pension system has come under great pressure in recent years, as less money entered the federal pension fund because of dwindling employment numbers. Employers and employees both pay contributions to the fund. The Riester-pension was designed to support lower-wage earners and families with their private retirement arrangements. Since 2002, insurance companies have brokered seven million new pension funds, the newspaper said. Ironically, these private pensions were created for the same original reason that social security was created in the US, to garnish the wages of lower-wage earners to support lower-wage earners' retirements. Had congress left it as such, it would have been a fine retirement plan for just these people. But they couldn't resist trying to make it universal--which killed it.
#1
Are these like IRA's or deferred compensation plans that we have here in the US? (As in may or may not be tax deductible, money grows tax free, age limit to when you can withdraw the $?) Or is it organized differently?
I work for a pension fund and even though we tell participants from the start that they need to have additional savings, most of them ignore us. (Or they try to pull the money out to pay power bills, moving expenses, or even rent.)
#2
That's one thing I can't stand the site off. A country that is full of "closet capitalists."
Yes, I know that Ger. is a not for long capitalist nation so, save your rant TGA.
DB,
I love IRA but the problem is that the IRA has too many restrictions to qualify. You have to be at a certain income level and you can't dump as much as you want, into the IRA money bag. Congress needs to get rid of the restrictions on IRA.
Oh my, who to root for?
In a surprising role reversal, Hollywood is about to deliver bad news to the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times and, to a lesser extent, other big-city dailies around the country. Every major movie studio is rethinking its reliably humongous display ad buys in those papers because those newsosaur readers are, to quote one mogul, âolder and elitistâ compared to younger, low-brow filmgoers â so it makes no sense to waste the dough.
Wait, it gets worse: Iâve learned that at least two Hollywood movie studios have decided to drastically cut their newspaper display ads as soon as possible.
This news couldnât occur at a worse time for the LAT and NYT, which both receive the lionâs share of those very showy $100,000-plus full-page after full-page movie display ads. At Spring Street, editor Dean Baquet just moved into the power office on Monday, and publisher Jeff Johnson only took over his hot seat on June 1. In Times Square, culture editor Sam Sifton has barely put his stamp on the section since assuming the post in May. Now comes a body blow to their beefed-up cultural coverage.
In response to the recent turf war initiated by his former employer and current national competitor, the NYT, Baquet, a proponent of moving Hollywood coverage onto Page One, has made it his professional mantra to âownâ the beat. The NYT over the past year has underwritten a huge increase in editorial employees and space in its culture sections. But without those big movie ads to foot the bill, both newspapers may not be able to justify the increased pages and bigger overhead theyâre devoting to arts and entertainment coverage.
I have long maintained, and frequently written, that the nearly simultaneous decision by both the LAT and NYT to increase the space devoted to, and upgrade the quality of reporting on, culture is the direct result of these newspapersâ attempts to woo even more Hollywood advertising than the large amount they already receive. For some time now, movie ads are no longer the one bright spot in an otherwise dim display-ad picture for even these newspapers. According to Wall Streetâs Goldman Sachs, newspaper ad revenues are growing at a dismal pace. Goldman Sachs pegged the weakness to decreased spending in entertainment, which makes up 14 percent of national revenues for the newspaper industry.
The foremost financial analyst of the newspaper business, John Morton of Morton Research, tells me that not only are newspaper display ads âflat to down a littleâ this year compared to last, but newsosaurs still havenât recovered from close to $1 billion in ad losses resulting from consolidation in the retail industry. Likewise, the reason for the decline in entertainment display-ad expenditures no doubt lies in the continuing wave of Hollywood studio consolidation. But unlike retail stores, which traditionally place their display ads in the first section of the paper, movie display ads go reliably and exclusively where movie articles appear: in the arts and culture pages. Therefore, papers argue that this is a win-win situation for themselves as well as readers.
All well and good for the papers, and even readers, but what exactly is Hollywood getting for its ad bucks there? Little, from the looks of it. The numbers donât add up.
According to the Motion Picture Associationâs 2004 U.S. movie attendance survey, overall, 12-to 39-year-olds accounted for 57 percent of total moviegoers, 40- to 59-year-olds only 31 percent, and 60-plus-year-olds only 12 percent.
Look at the demographics for newspaper readers and itâs almost exactly the reverse. The Scarborough Research Top 50 Market Report found that 35- to 54-year-olds are the biggest readers of daily newspapers, followed by those 55 and older. A much smaller portion of readers came from 25- to 34-year-olds, followed by the barely there 18- to 24-year-olds. And despite the newspaper industryâs efforts to reach a younger audience, the Readership Institute notes that the biggest decline in daily newspaper readers was in the 18-to-34 group.
One way newspapers attract younger eyeballs is by writing about mass entertainment, since itâs the province of the young. Yet ousted NYT editor Howell Raines was savaged by media critics when he gave a story on Britney Spears Page One placement. Todayâs paper, under his replacement Bill Keller, reads increasingly like TomKat 24/7. Thatâs also why newsosaurs are giving the US/People/Star fans more pop-culture news, either in spinoff freebies like the Chicago Tribuneâs Red Eye, or within the regular paper like the Los Angeles Timesâ extensive revision of its features sections, changing both format and content to infuse a newer âtude (which we all know is just a rip-off of The New York Timesâ first-on-the-block features redo).
All advertisers dearly love the 18-to-34 demographic, and the Hollywood movie studios are no exception. In their eyes, the newsosaurs arenât measuring up. Sources at the two Hollywood studios who are axing their movie display ads in newspapers gave me that information on the condition they not be identified. But, studiowide, itâs on everyoneâs to-do list. âWeâre rethinking our newspaper ads and I mean, literally, on every movie. Everybody is,â one movie mogul tells me. âThe only people who read newspapers are older and elitist. Movies like Sky High donât need ads in The New York Times. But the studios did it because newspapers were seen as a necessary evil.
âBut I donât think itâs as important anymore.â
Now the box office bust, combined with bloated promotion and advertising budgets to market every film, are forcing Hollywood to change the way they look at these expenditures. âItâs not only the cost of the space, itâs also the cost of the color,â a top studio movie marketing exec complained. âItâs always another whole weekend full of newspaper ads. The average amount is a Thursday ad, a big color ad on Friday, more on Saturday and Sunday, and ads for sneak previews.â Then there are the declining circulations. âYouâd think it would get cheaper because it doesnât reach as many people as it used to.â Indeed, the Audit Bureau of Circulations keeps finding that something like half of the nationâs 38 largest papers report circulation declines. Thatâs why the Oracle from Omaha, Warren Buffett, has been quoted as saying recently that âthe economics of newspapers in the United States are very close to certain to deteriorate over the next 10 to 20 years.â And this is coming from a self-described newspaper addict and savvy media investor.
There are still those quaint reasons why Hollywood studios keep advertising movies in newsosaurs: predictably, theater info, and, inexplicably, talent relations.
Only moguls who donât know how to turn on a computer (and many donât, believe me) would insist that those ads displaying movie running times and locations contain information that filmgoers canât access on the Internet. In fact, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a study last month finding that nine out of 10 American young people, ages 12 through 17, have online access, while 66 percent of U.S. adults now use the Internet.
Itâs also just as ridiculous for Hollywood studios to continue to kowtow to actors, directors and producers by spending vast amounts on newsosaur display ads that make no strategic or financial sense. âItâs about talent relations. The only reason you do it is because the talent expects it,â one mogul admits to me with unusual candor. âThese people like to see their ad in the paper. Itâs ego feed.â Another studio executive suggests that top talent would take a role or bring a project to a rival if demands like this werenât met, even though this is hard to swallow at a time when many of the industryâs best filmmakers in front and behind the camera are jobless.
If only the moguls were as concerned about offending the sensibilities of their shareholders. How about if they both drop dead?
As for the 'talent' - hoist by their own petard methinks! - the 'talent' *kof* wants an advert in a dead tree periodical that isn't even appealing to the audience that pays the bills! At least the moguls aren't that stupid.
Will they get a clue? *crickets*
The 12-39 demographic has *no* money relative to the 40-64 age group, whose kids have flown the coop and whose mortgage has been paid off. Yet Hollywood insists on the 'yoof' aspect of their movies.
And if the sage of Omaha says that the US newspaper industry is in for some hard times, then you've got to worry if you're long on the NYT or LA Times.
Chickens? your roost awaits...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/18/2005 4:35 Comments ||
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Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/18/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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#7
It sounds like the dreaded cycle of contraction.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/18/2005 9:21 Comments ||
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#8
TC2669 - is that an "accounting-knowledgable" way of saying their accounting departments cheat like crazy? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/18/2005 9:22 Comments ||
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#9
Fred would be only too happy to host movie ads for pennies on the hundreds of thousands of dollars currently spent on dead tree. But I won't be going to many of them unless/until 'Hollywood' gets over its BDS.
#10
Sounds like they've finally figured out that, as a general rule, the 18-24's don't have all that much cash to spend. There are exceptions, of course.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/18/2005 10:52 Comments ||
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#12
18-24 yo males are spending their money on XBox, Playstation, etc. Why sit for two hours mindlessly watching a movie when you can sit for many more hours mindlessly twiddling your thumbs interactively? [and yes you will go blind doing that :) ].
#13
"These people like to see their ad in the paper."
I heard of mid-life crisis but this takes the cake. The article didn't mention that they like to look in the mirror with their ad in one hand and jerk off with the other hand.
H'okay, if you say so... One could, if one was so inclined, describe this as a hit piece on Fox... but that would imply that tiny little Fox has MSM outlets like the Old Grey Lady worried. Pshaw!
THE share of Americans who believe that news organizations are "politically biased in their reporting" increased to 60 percent in 2005, up from 45 percent in 1985, according to polls by the Pew Research Center.
Many people also believe that biased reporting influences who wins or loses elections. A new study by Stefano DellaVigna of the University of California, Berkeley, and Ethan Kaplan of the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University, however, casts doubt on this view. Specifically, the economists ask whether the advent of the Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch's cable television network, affected voter behavior. They found that Fox had no detectable effect on which party people voted for, or whether they voted at all.
An appealing feature of their study is that it does not matter if Fox News represents the political center and the rest of the media the liberal wing, or Fox represents the extreme right and the rest of the media the middle. Fox's political orientation is clearly to the right of the rest of the media. Research has found, for example, that Fox News is much more likely than other news shows to cite conservative think tanks and less likely to cite liberal ones.
Fox surely injected a new partisan perspective into political coverage on television. Did it matter?
The Fox News Channel started operating on Oct. 7, 1996, in a small number of cable markets. Professors DellaVigna and Kaplan painstakingly collected information on which towns offered Fox as part of their basic or extended cable service as of November 2000, and then linked this information to voting records for the towns. Their sample consists of 8,630 towns and cities from 24 states. (Because many states do not report vote tallies at the town level, they could not be included in the sample.)
Local cable companies adopted Fox in a somewhat idiosyncratic way. In November 2000, a third of the towns served by AT&T Broadband offered Fox while only 6 percent of those served by Adelphia Communications offered it. Fox spread more quickly in areas that leaned more to Republican candidates, but the imbalance was only slight. Furthermore, looking within Congressional districts, the likelihood that a town's cable provider offered Fox in 2000 was unrelated to the share of people who voted for Bob Dole, the Republican candidate for president in 1996, or the residents' educational attainment, racial makeup or unemployment rate.
Because Fox News started just before the presidential election in 1996 and was hardly available at the time of that election, a major question is whether the introduction of Fox in a community raised the likelihood that residents voted for George W. Bush over Al Gore in the 2000 election, as compared with the share who voted for Bob Dole over Bill Clinton in the (pre-Fox) 1996 election.
Disregarding third-party candidates, Professors DellaVigna and Kaplan found that towns that offered Fox by 2000 increased their vote share for the Republican presidential candidate by 6 percentage points (to 54 percent, from 48 percent) from 1996 to 2000, while those that did not offer Fox increased theirs by an even larger 7 percentage points (to 54 percent, from 47 percent).
When they made statistical adjustments to hold constant differences in demographic characteristics and unemployment, and looked at differences in voting behavior between towns that introduced and did not introduce Fox within the same Congressional district, the availability of Fox had a small and statistically insignificant effect on the increase in the share of votes for the Republican candidate. Thus, the introduction of Fox news did not appear to have increased the percentage of people voting for the Republican presidential candidate. A similar finding emerged for Congressional and senatorial elections.Voter turnout also did not noticeably change within towns that offered Fox by 2000 compared with those that did not.
By the summer of 2000, 17 percent of Americans said they regularly watched the Fox Cable Channel, and another 28 percent said they watched it sometimes. These numbers approached the viewership of the Cable News Network at the time.
Certainly many Democratic sympathizers feared that Fox gave Republican candidates an advantage. Al Franken, for example, called Fox "a veritable all-news Death Star" in Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
Why was Fox inconsequential to voter behavior?
One possibility is that people search for television shows with a political orientation that matches their own. In this scenario, Fox would have been preaching to the converted. This, however, was not the case: Fox's viewers were about equally likely to identify themselves as Democrats as Republicans, according to a poll by the Pew in 2000.
Professors DellaVigna and Kaplan offer two more promising explanations. First, watching Fox could have confirmed both Democratic and Republican viewers' inclinations, an effect known as confirmatory bias in psychology. (Borrowing from Simon and Garfunkel, confirmatory bias is a tendency to hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest.) When Yankee and Red Sox fans watch replays of the same disputed umpire's ruling, for example, they both come away more convinced that their team was in the right. One might expect Fox viewers to have increased their likelihood of voting, however, if Fox energized both sides' bases.
The professors' preferred explanation is that the public manages to "filter" biased media reports. Fox's format, for example, might alert the audience to take the views expressed with more than the usual grain of salt. Audiences may also filter biases from other networks' shows.
The tendency for people to regard television news and political commentary as entertainment probably makes filtering easier. Fox's influence might also have been diluted because there were already many other ways to get political information.
Alan B. Krueger (www.krueger.princeton.edu) is the Bendheim professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. There, now wasn't that fair & balanced and informative? Heh. Note that all of the research is on pre-BDS data. But don't bother the NYT with such observations. This is the selected "truth" from the crow's nest of the good ship Lollypop flagship American Newspaper and that's the way it was is.
#1
I thought the report was interesting and surprising. I would have expected Fox to influence voting patterns towards the right. Not least because many people are no longer getting their news from the Leftist media and its biased viewpoint.
#2
Research has found, for example, that Fox News is much more likely than other news shows to cite conservative think tanks and less likely to cite liberal ones.
Wow. From what I recall of the study, that's not what it found at all. Instead, the other networks almost exclusively cited liberal groups -- Fox wasn't "less likely" to cite them, just more likely to cite the opposition.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/18/2005 7:28 Comments ||
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#3
Fair? Balanced?It doesn't Matter.
Ok, then, why have the First Admendment?
Most western based democracies don't seem to have that one written down as a fundamental part of their rules of government, nor interpreted as such by those who sit for life in robes and remain unaccountable to the people.
#4
They'll just take this as liscense to be as biased as they want.
If, however, bias does not affect voting patterns (not convinced of that), then maybe its because people are too far gone down the path of not trusting what they are hearing anyway (and thus are not influenced by it).
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/18/2005 9:03 Comments ||
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#5
that's why the NYT, LAT, et al are losing readers by the droves, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2005 10:26 Comments ||
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#6
Actually, this shows a coupel of fairly reasonable conclusions that thhe NYT resists:
1) Fox uses more conservative commentatrya nd sources - but its that's a very low bar they set, given that the liberal viewpoint is the basis for 90% of the MSM and NYT especially. So if Fox is anywhere near 50-50 in sources (Fair and balanced), then it is much more likely to use conservative sources than the NYT. Thats like saying sugar is much more likely to be sweet than a lemon.
2) No effect on the votes? Demographics include a broad spectrum? Then they appeal to a broad range of people, and induce no bias in thier viewers. NO suppositions about psychology needed. Just report the fact - the outcome.
No, NYT, you're wrong and so are your lefty "researchers".
Foxnews simply is "Fair and Balanced" - which leaves you and the MSM unfair and unbalanced (which is why they refused to state the obvious best conclusion of the research).
#7
Campaign contributions from FOX news employees showed the majority of their money went to the Democratic party. It was just that the percentage was not as astoundingly high as other "unbiased" news organizations (90+ percent).
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2005 11:00 Comments ||
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#8
"They found that Fox had no detectable effect on which party people voted for, or whether they voted at all."
MSM has a false impression that "fair & balanced" means that people will immediately goes to the Right. The truth is that all the American people is asking for is an unbiased report, so the people can make up their own mind.
The American people are sick of being regarded as retarded people by the MSM, which is one of the reasons that people across the world think Americans are utterly stupid.
We have the best scientists, researchers, engineers, and doctors in the world. Yet, MSM feels that spoon feeding is in order, which insults the intelligence of everyone.
In a selfish kind of way, I like this study. I want the MSM to stay exactly the way they are. Now that there are alternatives, I want to watch the slow rotting death of the MSM. Even Hollywood doesn't want to have anything to do with them and that's food for the gods.
The Canadian Medical Association threw its support behind a parallel, private health-care system Wednesday.
In what was a historic vote for the influential organization, delegates decided by a two-to-one margin that patients should be able to go outside the public health-care plan and use private insurance if they can't get necessary medical care quickly enough.
It's a major change for the association, which until now has been unequivocal in its support for a strong public system. The last time the CMA voted on such a motion was in 1996 when it reaffirmed its support.
But times have changed, said those who supported the motion during the public-private debate, which was supposed to end Tuesday but was carried over to Wednesday - something that has never been done before at a CMA convention.
Supporters of the motion said too-long waiting lists are an urgent problem, the system is faltering and it needs help from the private sector.
"Governments have had 40 years to get the monopoly system right and the casualties are piling up - one of them has been my wife," said Dr. John Slater of Comox, B.C.
"I have stopped believing in Santa Claus and I have stopped believing the government will ever fix the monopoly system."
President-elect Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai disputed that the medical association is endorsing private health care, as critics have charged.
The primary concern of physicians of Canada is that patients have timely access to quality care based on need, not ability to pay, said Collins-Nakai, a pediatric cardiologist in Edmonton.
Every resolution passed reflected the frustration of physicians not being able to provide that timely access to care that they so want for their patients, she said.
"Delegates have said clearly that they believe the best solution is to provide that type of access is through a public health-care system," she added.
Doctors have also adopted a list of "benchmark wait times," she noted. The list puts limited on how long patients should have to wait for key medical services such as cardiac care, cancer treatment or MRIs.
Nakai-Collins noted the motion on private health insurance that passed Wednesday merely reflects a recent Supreme Court decision, which upheld the right of Quebecers to turn to private health insurance if the public system fails them.
But she added: "Our feeling is that if the public system fails to provide timely care, then patients need to have alternatives.
"And one of those alternatives may be the private sector," she said, stressing the word 'may.'
Delegates have asked the CMA to prepare a discussion paper over the next six months outlining the range of options for patients if they don't get timely care in the public system, she noted.
Representing Canada's future physicians, Dr. Ben Hoyt of the Canadian Association of Interns and Residents urged delegates not to support private health insurance as an option, saying it will lead to a two-tier system.
"This motion clearly supports the development of a private health insurance system, a system in which the haves will be able to buy their way to the front of the line while the have-nots suffer in inappropriately long queues," Hoyt said.
It also flies in the face of the basic principle the CMA adopted the day before - that access should be based on need, not ability to pay, he said.
Endorsing private insurance lets governments off the hook, others argued. Many Canadians cannot afford private insurance or to pay for their treatment up front, or wouldn't qualify for coverage, they said.
Harvey Voogd of the Alberta group Friends of Medicare said the doctors group has now clearly "embraced" private health care.
"To say otherwise, I think, is a fallacy. It's like saying, 'I support marriage, but I'm not against adultery.' "
Delegates also dealt with another important issue Wednesday. They passed a large batch of motions addressing the major shortage of physicians in Canada - the main reason for long patient waiting lists.
Outgoing association president Dr. Albert Schumacher told reporters the government and medical licensing bodies must act quickly to get more doctors and nurses working.
It could take a government investment of another $1 billion to deal with the crisis, he said.
Drastically increasing the number of spots for residents, and spots for the thousands of immigrants with foreign medical degrees who need to get a year or two of training in a Canadian university, would go a long way in alleviating the problem, he said.
#1
They have a medical association with three voting members? Three members for 30 million people? No wonder the system is fucked up there, put some people on it for christ's sake.
The Mexican staging area for illegal aliens that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson demanded this week be bulldozed is among hundreds of similar sites along the border sponsored and maintained by the Mexican government.
Many of the sites are marked with blue flags and pennants to signal that water is available. Others, such as the Las Chepas site that Mr. Richardson denounced, are a collection of old, mostly abandoned buildings or ranch houses where illegals gather for water and other supplies -- sometimes bartering with smugglers, or "coyotes," for passage north.
Las Chepas, law-enforcement authorities said, also is a center for drug smugglers looking to move marijuana and cocaine into the United States.
Rafael Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, yesterday said his government "has a duty and obligation by law to protect Mexican citizens at home and abroad." He said record high temperatures in the desert areas south of New Mexico and Arizona this year had resulted in the death of many illegal aliens. "We try to spread the word on the dangerous conditions these people will face in the desert, along with reports of historically high temperatures," he said. "What we are doing is part of an effort to prevent those deaths."
Many of the Mexican aid stations are maintained by Grupo Beta, a Mexican governmentfunded humanitarian organization founded in the early 1990s. Driving through the desert regions south of the border in brightly painted orange trucks, Grupo Beta's job is to protect migrants along the border, not arrest them. In April, Grupo Beta worked with the Mexican military and the Sonora State Preventive Police to move would-be illegal aliens out of the desert areas just south of the U.S. border to locations east and west of Naco, Ariz., to avoid the Minuteman Project volunteers holding a vigil on the border.
A branch of Mexico's National Migration Institute, Grupo Beta also helped pass out fliers warning migrants that the Minuteman volunteers, whom they described as "armed vigilantes," were waiting across the border to hurt them.
In addition to the aid stations, the Mexican government has distributed more than a million copies of a 32-page handbook advising migrants how to cross into the United States. The book, known as "Guia del Migrante Mexicano," or "Guide for the Mexican Migrant," contains tips on avoiding apprehension by U.S. authorities.
Aid stations for illegal aliens also exist in the United States, many of them established and supplied by various humanitarian organizations such as Humane Borders, a Tucson faith-based group that targets illegal aliens who the organization said might otherwise die in the desert.
Humane Borders, established in 2001, has 70 water stations along the U.S. side of the border, each with two 50-gallon tanks next to a 30-foot-mast with a blue flag. Many are on well-traveled migrant routes. Others have been placed, with permission, on property owned by Pima County, Ariz.; the National Park Service; the Bureau of Land Management; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Another U.S. group, known as No More Deaths, set up an aid camp last month near Arivaca, Ariz., helping stranded border-crossers with food, water and medical assistance. The Ark of the Covenant camp will remain in operation through September. The group has received much of its support from Presbyterian churches in Arizona and elsewhere. Last year, 500 volunteers -- including doctors and nurses -- took part in a similar camp. A second camp has been established on the Mexican side of the border, across from Douglas, Ariz., also sponsored by No More Deaths and a Mexican group that operates drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation centers.
More than 110 illegal aliens have died in Arizona's desert this year.
Mr. Richardson, in declaring a state of emergency in four New Mexico counties because of rising immigration, border violence and drug smuggling, called on the Mexican government to bulldoze Las Chepas, across the border from Columbus, N.M.
The state of Chihuahua responded by calling for increased dialogue to improve security in the region, saying it would "offer all the support we can to continue our good relationship with our northern neighbor." The Mexican Foreign Relations Secretariat said Mr. Richardson's declaration did not "jibe with the spirit of cooperation and understanding" and called for a meeting to promote "appropriate actions."
#1
As long as the Mexican ruling class can dump their unemployed poor on the US to lessen the possibility of social unrest or revolt at home requiring real reform and loss of political power, nothing is going to change. The Mexician Constitution prohibits foreign ownership of land and property thus cutting off foreign investments [meanwhile England, Netherlands, Japan et al continue to invest in the American economy]. With that loud sucking noise of massive corruption taking the life out of the domestic economy, Mexician politics is not going to change the way it does business.
#2
The Mexican staging area for illegal aliens that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson demanded this week be bulldozed is among hundreds of similar sites along the border sponsored and maintained by the Mexican government.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2005 10:44 Comments ||
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#5
"Las Chepas, law-enforcement authorities said, also is a center for drug smugglers looking to move marijuana and cocaine into the United States."
"The group has received much of its support from Presbyterian churches in Arizona and elsewhere."
Huh..what?....The Pastor told us MS-13 was a latin Youth Christian Group.
#6
Richardson's had a spinal cord implant or what (maybe just a triple lacing of Harrington rods from C1 down to S1)? Better now than never. It's all fun and games until somebody exploits the situation to bring boomers to the US across the southern border. There would be hell to pay unless they try to bring some order to it. Since most every other problem arising out of the porous border policy has been largely ignored for years it seems somebody has done some polls and surveys recently and got worried about what they indicate about Joe citizen's anger being shared by a whole lot of other citizens. I hope this is the beginning of a profound change in attitude and policy rather than a preemptive CYA PR effort.
#7
Bill's doing a Hillary. He's running for president. He just recently sent a executive directive to his state offices not to cooperate with the INS in identifying illegals. Then of course, as one of the poorest states in the union [thank god for Louisiana and Mississippi], the impact of non-productive behaviors of illegals has a bigger bite when it comes to government services. Sorry, even though you've lived here all your life and are an American by birth, we've already burned the monies this year for services handling the undocumented out of Mexico. That sells well.
EFL
Among the great scams of our time, there's a near-poetic inevitability to the convergence of the twain. When I first wrote about Oil for Food on these pages, almost three years ago, the analogy that came instantly to mind was Enron. Lo! Much scandal and many questions later, investigators for Rep. Henry Hyde's International Relations Committee have unearthed documents showing that shortly before Enron imploded in late 2001, the company, among its other deals, was shelling out millions, some of it into Swiss bank accounts, to buy Iraqi crude exported by Saddam under Oil for Food.
Not that Enron did business directly with Saddam's regime in violation of U.N. sanctions, or even did anything clearly illegal. Rather, the tale of its guest appearance in Oil for Food illustrates why in some ways the U.N. scandal dwarfs even Enron. Under cover of Oil for Food, Saddam's system of bribes, payoffs and kickbacks, ultimately totaling billions, ran through chains of often obscure middlemen in places such as Cyprus and Switzerland. Enron shows up on one of the outer spokes of Oil for Food's global web, dealing with a trans-Atlantic crew of companies and characters engaged not only in fraud, but allegedly linked to arms traffic, payoffs to the Kremlin and kickbacks to Saddam's regime. Along the way, this gang did its bit to comply via Oil for Food shipments with Saddam's policy of enforcing the Arab League boycott against Israel.
One of the most telling documents the Hyde committee investigators have come across is a fax addressed to Enron Reserve Acquisition Corp., dated March 27, 2001, and accompanied by U.N. approval papers needed to clear through U.S. customs two shipments of Iraqi oil, worth millions. Named on this fax are three companies that have in recent times become infamous on the Oil for Food investigations circuit: Russia-based Rosnefteimpex; Italy-based Italtech; and Bahamas-based Bayoil Supply and Trading Ltd., owned by a U.S. citizen, David Chalmers, who was also the sole shareholder of a Texas-based company, Bayoil (USA). The arrangement outlined in the fax shows that despite a mandate to minimize middlemen, U.N. Oil for Food officials had approved the sale of oil by Saddam's regime to Rosnefteimpex and Italtech. These companies in turn had sold their oil allocations to Bayoil, which was busy in this instance completing one of several onward sales to Enron.
The trio of Rosnefteimpex, Italtech, and Bayoil were a conduit for the sale in 2001 of Iraqi oil into the U.S. And about the time Mr. Chalmers was peddling some of this oil to Enron, he was also--according to the federal indictment--paying kickbacks, via a "foreign company," to Saddam's regime. These kickbacks allegedly went to an Oil for Food contractor, Al Wasel & Babel, based in Dubai, which was designated last year by the U.S. Treasury as a front company for Saddam's regime. Al Wasel & Babel, along with handling hundreds of millions worth of Oil for Food relief sales in which the regime basically did business with itself, also tried to procure a surface-to-air missile system--which could have been used to target U.S. and British planes patrolling the no-fly zones over Iraq.
Layered into this scene is collaboration by Bayoil with Saddam in treating democratic Israel as a pariah state. Mr. Hyde's investigators have discovered a letter, signed by Mr. Giangrandi on Sept. 9, 1999--and duly notarized--which appears to be a document solicited by Saddam's regime as part of the deal for lucrative rights to buy underpriced oil via the U.N. program. "For and on behalf of Bayoil," wrote Mr. Giangrandi. "We herewith confirm never to have sold directly or indirectly to Israel and further confirm that this policy will remain permanently in force during the entire validity of our contract." A fax out of Houston from one of Mr. Chalmers's associates now under indictment, a Bulgarian, Ludmil Dionissiev, stipulates in reference to a 1998 shipment of Iraqi oil that the vessel used "had never traded in Israel."
Ms. Rosett is a journalist-in-residence with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. And a for-real journalist, not someone who simply repeats press releases. We need more like her.
Seven months after Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS, exhorted his colleagues to re-engineer the network's evening newscast, the drafting process has reached an apparent milestone: the news division has begun to record and edit prototypes of how that broadcast could soon look. One version opens with a five-to-seven-minute presentation of the news of the day by John Roberts, the network's chief White House correspondent, complete with "two-ways" between Mr. Roberts and several reporters. After a commercial break, the pace of the broadcast slows, and two or three "60 Minutes"-style segments are presented, albeit not at "60 Minutes" length, the last of them light and more humorous. After another break, Mr. Roberts, who is neither seen nor heard introducing those segments, returns to wrap up the broadcast with a good-night.
The elements of that particular version - one of several, and more of an experiment than a polished pilot - were described earlier this week by three CBS News employees, including two who had been present during a taping late last month in a studio at CBS's broadcast center on West 57th Street in Manhattan. All said the process was far too sensitive for them to be identified by name. Some elements were reported on Tuesday by USA Today. In an interview, Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News, confirmed the taping. But he cautioned that on that day, producers and executives had recorded a variety of material that could be edited in various ways as a means of experimenting with multiple formats. He also said that the participation of Mr. Roberts - once widely believed within CBS to be the probable successor to Dan Rather - should not be interpreted as a sign that Mr. Roberts (or anyone else involved) will be part of the next "CBS Evening News" iteration.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2005 09:21 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2005 11:36 Comments ||
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#3
Besides following the Russian Pravda model of journalism, they can take up the Russian model of having the news reader strip while reciting the approved DNC script. I nominate they hire Sharon Tay. :)
#7
"One version opens with a five-to-seven-minute presentation of the news of the day by John Roberts, the network's chief White House correspondent, complete with "two-ways" between Mr. Roberts and several reporters. After a commercial break, the pace of the broadcast slows, and two or three "60 Minutes"-style segments are presented, albeit not at "60 Minutes" length, the last of them light and more humorous."
Came up with that idea on your own did you? Or did you steal it from Brit Hume.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon has blasted government over its claim the crime rate is stabilising. He repeated his party's assertion that the murder rate is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq. In a speech delivered in Upington in the Northern Cape on Wednesday, he further accused government of failing to make crime a priority issue. "The murder rate in South Africa, at about 43 murders per 100 000 people, is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq. So despite the government's claims that crime is 'stabilising', South Africans are still living in what amounts to a state of civil war between criminals and law-abiding residents. Clearly this situation must improve if we are to secure the future of our country. Crime is one of the most important concerns among foreign investors, as well as one of the major factors driving emigration from South Africa," Leon said.
Government had moved many different issues to the top of its agenda, including forming some committees, a loan to Zimbabwe, forming some committees, land reform, and forming some committees the renaming of cities, but crime was not among them.
"It would appear the government does not actually consider crime a priority, even except for the ministry to which it is assigned."
Leon suggested President Thabo Mbeki had lived with VIP protection and armoured cars for so long, "he has forgotten what most people have to deal with" when it came to crime. The DA leader said the country's justice system was in disarray. "According to the South African Law Commission, only 6% of violent crimes reported to police result in a conviction, and 75% do not even make it to court. Last week, (Safety and Security Minister) Charles Nqakula admitted that 668 police dockets had gone missing and 48 had been stolen in the last two years. Moreover, half of crimes are not reported at all, according to the Institute of Security Studies." Leon described SA's overcrowded prisons as "universities of crime", and said they were not rehabilitating criminals.
An alarming recent trend was the rise in crime involving youths. "(A total of) 44% of the children under 14 who were taken to Durban mortuaries in 2004 had been shot dead, for example." Young people were also, increasingly, the perpetrators of crime. "The number of children convicted of violent crime jumped by 5% from 2003 to 2004, according to the National Institution for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro). One of the reasons for the rise in youth crime is that South Africa is failing to produce employment opportunities for young people," he said. South Africa needed to muster the political will to make the fight against crime a non-negotiable priority, Leon said.
Ditch the klepto-thugocrat mentality, and you've got a good start.
War of the Worms! Computer worms that have brought down systems around the world in recent days are starting to attack each other, Finnish software security firm F-Secure said on Wednesday. "We seem to have a botwar on our hands," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. "There appear to be three different virus-writing gangs turning out new worms at an alarming rate, as if they were competing to build the biggest network of infected machines."
Hypponen said in a statement that varieties of three worms -- "Zotob," "Bozori" and "IRCbot" -- were still exploiting a gap in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 operating system on computers that had not had the flaw repaired and were not shielded by firewalls. "The latest variants of Bozori even remove competing viruses like Zotob from the infected machines," Hypponen said in a statement on the company's Web site. (http://www.f-secure.com) The worms were blamed for major system trouble at some media outlets and companies in the United States on Tuesday, causing personal computers to restart repeatedly and potentially making them vulnerable to attack. Microsoft and the top computer security companies, Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc., said damage to systems on Tuesday had been limited and was unlikely to cause widespread havoc like that which resulted from other malicious software such as "SQL Slammer" and "MyDoom."
#5
When thieves fall out, good men benefit. As long as they don't run Windows 2000. (Linux, Firefox, and Thunderbird -- your tools for a worm-free PC!)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
08/18/2005 12:39 Comments ||
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#6
"Computer virus writers at war"
Any chance they'll actually kill each other?
(not their viruses, them)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/18/2005 17:23 Comments ||
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#8
"chief research officer at F-Secure"
How secure? Well, that's pretty secure.
Jonathan,
That's not true. Linux, OpenBSD, and Apache gets attacked all the time. But, it doesn't make to MSM because 94% of the world's pc's run Windows. Firefox/Mozilla uses Java and IE uses Active X. Java and Active X attacks are very prevelant and these browser's are definitely vulnerable. If you go to the geek sites, there are thousands of hits.
(HIDS)Host based intrusion detection system is your only defense. HIDS prevents any windows kernel manipulation or buffer overflows.
#1
"The left blogosphere has moved the Democrats off to the left, and the right blogosphere has undermined the credibility of the Republicans' adversaries in Old Media. Both changes help Bush and the Republicans."
CAPE CANAVERAL, Aug. 17 -- Some of the same "disturbing" traits that contributed to the Columbia disaster were still present in the months leading up to the shuttle Discovery's liftoff, seven members of a larger oversight panel said Wednesday in a scathing critique. "We expected that NASA leadership would set high standards for post-Columbia work," the panel members wrote. "We were, overall, disappointed."
The minority report said poor leadership made the shuttle's return to space on July 26 more complicated, expensive and prolonged than it needed to be. So much emphasis was placed on meeting unrealistic launch dates that some safety improvements were skipped, the group said. "Another disturbing trait that we observed was that personalities were allowed to dominate over strict process," the seven added.
"NASA needs to learn the lessons of its past . . . lessons provided at the cost of the lives of seventeen astronauts," they added, referring to the seven killed aboard Columbia and 10 others who died in the Challenger and Apollo 1 accidents.
The seven critics are part of the 26-member task force that monitored NASA's progress in meeting the recommendations of the Columbia accident investigators. The entire task force concluded in late June -- a month before Discovery's liftoff -- that the space agency had not satisfied three of the 15 return-to-flight recommendations, but it did not call on NASA to postpone the launch. Those three failed recommendations were perhaps the most critical: an inability to prevent dangerous pieces of foam and ice from breaking off the fuel tank during launch; an inability to fix any damage to the shuttle in orbit; and a failure to make the shuttle less vulnerable to debris strikes.
The seven task force members said NASA should have done detailed engineering reviews of the investigators' recommendations before committing to launch dates. That way, they said, the agency would have better understood the foam loss and seriously considered other approaches, such as a redesigned fuel tank or hardening the shuttle's skin.
They're not going to do a total redesign on major components with the shuttle already marked for retirement. This is all finger-pointing and wishful thinking.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2005 01:21 ||
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#1
How about going back to teh CFC foam that didn't fall off and strike the Craft at launch. Oh that's right it's not PC. That may have got rid of DG but his syncophants are still running the show.
#2
How about going back to teh CFC foam that didn't fall off and strike the Craft at launch.
That's what I'd like to know. I suspect that they have no plans to, and will waste more money trying to find a suitable replacement when one already exists.
There's one thing that bothers me though: did the panel even consider suggesting using what worked well before?
The seven task force members said NASA should have done detailed engineering reviews of the investigators' recommendations before committing to launch dates. That way, they said, the agency would have better understood the foam loss and seriously considered other approaches, such as a redesigned fuel tank or hardening the shuttle's skin.
#3
Why not go back to the real source of most of the shuttle's problems. The enlightened leaders in Congress in the '70s that shoved the cost restraints down NASA's throat that led ulimately to the losses of Challenger and Columbia.
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.
WORK for the Dole recipients will no longer be paid for studying interpretive dance, carving wooden toys for charity or learning to act, under a revamp of the system.
Bovey, Minn. A 41-year-old Minnesota woman is dead after being attacked by a buffalo. Itasca County Sheriff Pat Medure said Debra Elaine Lentz of rural Bovey died after the buffalo attacked her at an animal farm. Sheriffâs deputies had to shoot the buffalo to get to Lentz, but she died after being taken to Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital in Grand Rapids. 
Small cars driving through a safari park in Merseyside have been chased by confused lions who think they are prey. Staff at Knowsley Safari Park are monitoring smaller vehicles, including Smart cars and Mini Coopers, after the lions started paying special interest. David Ross, park manager, told the BBC News website that a group of lionesses chased after one Smart car after being confused by its compact appearance. He said staff were stationed near the enclosure to keep visitors safe.
Scientists are proposing reintroducing large mammals such as elephants, lions, cheetahs and wild horses to North America to replace populations lost 13,000 years ago. 
A fish caught in an east German lake near the Polish border not only got off the hook but also lured a 46-year-old fisherman to his death, police in the eastern town of Eisenhuettenstadt said Tuesday.
One of the most celebrated anglophile members of the French intelligentsia Tuesday appealed to Britain to consider downgrading its membership in the EU. Maurice Druon who was knighted for his services to Anglo-French relations, said the country's aversion to European integration was incompatible with full membership of the Union, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. Instead he suggested that Britain opt for a "privileged partner" scheme resembling what some EU governments have in mind for Turkey.
The conservative challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder kicked off her campaign for next month's elections calling for more jobs and economic growth, even as polls showed the chancellor's party gaining in popularity. Yet Schroeder's Social Democrats â whose popularity was up two points to 28 percent â remain well behind Angela Merkel's conservatives, who polled 42 percent, according to the survey by the TNS Emnid research for the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
One version opens with a five-to-seven-minute presentation of the news of the day by John Roberts, the network's chief White House correspondent, complete with "two-ways" between Mr. Roberts and several reporters. After a commercial break, the pace of the broadcast slows, and two or three "60 Minutes"-style segments are presented, albeit not at "60 Minutes" length, the last of them light and more humorous. After another break, Mr. Roberts, who is neither seen nor heard introducing those segments, returns to wrap up the broadcast with a good-night.
Computer worms that have brought down systems around the world in recent days are starting to attack each other, Finnish software security firm F-Secure said on Wednesday. "We seem to have a botwar on our hands," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. "There appear to be three different virus-writing gangs turning out new worms at an alarming rate, as if they were competing to build the biggest network of infected machines."
