#2
I'll have to view this skeptically, seeing how Weekly World News is no longer around to verify it. Maybe I'll head on over to Sorcha Faal's website...
#3
Well at least now we know where the fired "Weekly World News" employees landed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/03/2007 14:19 Comments ||
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#4
Believe me, when the humans moved into my planet the property values declined substantially, you can't blame the lunarians from setting up covenants for their subdivisions.
Posted by: Shusong Abdominal Lord of the Snowmen9157 ||
10/03/2007 15:54 Comments ||
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#5
Good Lord, where to begin...once again Pravda digs up "evidence" that has been gone over and over and over by a host of so-called experts for decades. This article is so full of fatuous holes and factual holes that it;s like frikkin' looking at a piece of Swiss cheese.
There are a shitload of weird things connected with the moon landings and with images of the moon. There are a shitload of things weird about the fact that we have better resolution images of Mars than we do of certain (hell, practically the whole thing) areas of our own moon. There are a shitload of weird things about the transmissions received from the moon and the pictures we do have on hand that appear to show that there was somebody else up there and they didn't much like us poking about much.
However, this article in Pravda is laughingly obvious in its attempt to ignore the facts of the research done by imaging experts over the last few decades and to imply that certain other events might have occurred in an effort to make the US look like it turned tail and ran.
To be honest, if we were confronted with evidence, either archaeological or present, of an advanced alien civilization mining our moon for whatever purposes and they told us to buzz off for a few decades, I think we're wiser for having done it, if it occurred at all (and there's absolutely no evidence that it did though there is evidence that we may have found archaeological ruins of some sort up there).
We were not then in a position to object to an advanced civilizations' orders for us to "Go away!". We may not be today - but I postulate that "once you know a thing is possible, it's much more likely you're going to be able to discover how to do it yourself."
#6
Sure, why not. Makes sense in a post-enlightened world, the aliens could be using Dan0-Nan0 technology. Enslaving thousands and thousands of tiny 3rd rate self-replicating TeeVee stars. Digg it Dan0!
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
10/03/2007 16:53 Comments ||
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An asteroid discovered three years ago could be a threat in 2029 when it crosses Earth's orbit, a Russian astronomer said Monday.
That does it! I'm leaving!
Boris Shustov, director of the Institute of Astronomy, said at a forum that the Apophis asteroid could have a bigger impact than an asteroid that hit Siberia in 1908, the Novosti news agency reported.
The Tunguska astral event affected 830 square miles and blasted 80 million trees. The force of the impact was about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II and measured 5.0 on the Richter scale.
Apophis' predicted track would take it within 17,000 miles of Earth in 2029, Shustov said. He said if the asteroid proves to be a threat, the Hollywood scenario of destroying it is likely to be more harmful than helpful. Instead, a micro-satellite could nudge it into a safer orbit. "To blast an asteroid, as some hot shots suggest, is quite an unpredictable step, and a more cautious approach is welcomed now," he said.
#2
Where would you like it to hit? Maybe we want a glancing blow off somewhere troublesome. We better get a supercomputer on this full time. 20 megatons of energy and it is all natural and organic. It may get stick though if competing forces do nudges and counter nudges.
[/tongue in cheek]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/03/2007 14:15 Comments ||
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#3
The Tunguska astral event affected 830 square miles and blasted 80 million trees.
Think of what that would do today to the carbon credit industry. It would be devastating. Devastating! Shit, Leo Dicaprio and Al Gore might even have to give up their private jets...
"A number of potential threats have been identified, such as 99942 Apophis (previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN4), which had been given an impact probability of ~3% for the year 2029. This probability has been revised to zero on the basis of new observations."
To: Halliburton Asteroidal Defense Project (HADP) & Halliburton Gravitational Weaponry Program (HGWP)
From: K. Rove
Guys,
As you know the purpose of your little black budget program within the defense budget has been in previous years to insure that the United States, and civilization in general, is not inadvertently destroyed by some big-assed rock dropping on us from the skies without our knowing something about it in advance. Now, it's come to my attention that the term "plausible deniability" could be applied to a big-assed rock dropping out of the skies and obliterating, for example, Iran (or even Tehran and Qum if we wanted to go smaller scale).
Thus, I am directing the HADP and the HGWP to immediately form a cooperatively-funded crash program committee to investigate the opportunities presented by big-assed rocks coming near this planet in regards to defense initiatives against enemies of the United States of America.
As always, knowledge of my direction of these projects is classified Above Top Secret, Level Nine, Majestic Twelve, and all recipients of this notice are informed that disclosure of this memo in a public forum is punishable by the death penalty administered by the Halliburton Men In Black Project (MIBP).
Sincerely,
K. Rove
Member, Council of the Twelve, The Nine Unknown
#8
And you can bet that the big-assed rock heading this way is NOT 7307 Takei (damn, now we even have have diversity in ass-teroid naming. does anybody else see the irony in naming an ass-teroid after a gay?)
#9
BAR Incoming!!!!! Take cover and look away!
[BAR = Big A$$ed Rock]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/03/2007 18:28 Comments ||
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#10
USN, Ret.: Even the Key Grip on the Star Trek shows is going to have something named after him eventually. 90% of the nerds associated with flight or space claim it as their inspiration.
#11
I'm more concerned about the rock hitting the MOON, MOON BLWIN'UP AND CRACKING UP, and the MOON SECTIONS/BITS STRIKING EARTH, circa 2030, ala RICCOCHETING EIGHT BALL in 1980's THE COLOR OF MONEY, andor THE TIME MACHINE remake. * D *** NG YOU, FRANCIS [Tom cruise], YOU JUST HAD TO SHOW OFF YOUR POOL SKILLS TO THE BABES, DIDN'T YOU BOY - NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE! You and SPOCK [Poor Mining Security - STAR TREK: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY], I swear! All the boys had to do was relax and watch WHITE MADONNA and BLACK MADONNA finish their light-saber duel, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....!
#12
COASTTOCOASTAM > Guest Pert had human subjects hypnotized to travel to the 21st Century and see their lives in the future = future time, but instead found that many subjects seemed to be "floating" as "in-between lives" as iff dead or non-existent. Pert > believes that at some time in 21st Century, a massive or giant cataclysm of unknown sort afflicted the entire earth, all but wiping out biotic life and most of humanity. Human civilization and environ does not appear to recover until couple 00's of yarns later. FUTURE HUMANS > live in enclosed, encapsulated cities mostly devoid of outside natural life. *YA SEE WHAT DEM D *** NGED ROSWELLIAN TIME TOURISTS FROM THE FUTURE DID WID THEIR MCDONALD'S "SOLYENT GRREN" SUPER-MACS WASTES, MORIARITY!
#13
TOPIX SCIENCE/REDDIT/OTHER > SCIENTISTS PUZZLED BY NEW SOLAR READINGS, + NEW EARTH BEING FORMED? Looks like the 12th Immam = Jesus Christ will one again have to be shot down by the future OWG, THIS TIME FOR NOT HAVING A PROPER "EARTH II" INTER-PLANETARY PASS???
Conservationists were in tears last week as over 10,000 wildebeest drowned in a freak accident thats over 1% of the total species population and over three times the life-loss of 911.
3333 wildebeests died on 9-11? Who knew? Which tower were they in?
There was no unusual flooding at the time and no extraneous circumstances to the deaths, so what went wrong?
Arabs hijacked planes and dove them into the herd?
Every year, over a million wildebeest undertake an epic voyage of over 2,000 miles. From their calving grounds: the Serengeti Plain of Tanzania to the lush Kenyan vegetation to the north of the continent, the animals are followed by herds of zebras and Thomsons gazelles. This year however, something went disastrously wrong. The wildebeest were attempting to ford Kenyas Mara River at an incredibly dangerous point. They did not realize how steep the banks were until it was far too late The first few animals failed to cross, while others continued to stampede behind.
"It's a stampede, Tex!"
"Cut the herd, Slim!"
Terilyn Lemaire, a conservation worker with the Mara Conservancy witnessed the accident. She describes how once the wildebeest, jumped into the water, they were unable to climb up either embankment onto land and, as a result, got swept up by the current and drowned. The final result ?
Thousands of lifeless bodies washed up on the muddy banks of Kenyas Mara River. Some floated downriver, others found obstacles. Underneath a bridge, a pungent island of carcasses piled up. For the scavengers of this world - the crocodiles, storks, and vultures, their next meal was an easy one. However, the next few weeks will be hazardous the health of the water, the lifeblood of the Serengeti landscape will no doubt be affected.
Lemaire added that I would imagine that such a significant decrease in population would have an effect .but what that effect would be and to what extent, I cannot say.
#4
When I consider the abundance of wildebeest and zibras, I wonder why the Africans never domestigated them. But then, they never invented the wheel either. Whatever.
#9
Ten thousand carcasses polluting the Mara River - women, children, and wildebeests hardest hit.
Posted by: NYT ||
10/03/2007 18:20 Comments ||
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#10
Zebras have a really nasty tendency to bite that no one has been able to breed out of them. If you've ever been bitten by a horse, then you know just how much of a deal-breaker this is.
#12
AlanC: African elephants are mean, aggressive and dangerous. Asian elephants are far more docile. Ironically, Asian elephants that were raised in the wild are far easier to tame than those bred in captivity.
However, during mating season, all elephants are dangerous as all get out. Artificial insemination was often lethal to elephant handlers, until they finally invented a torpedo-sized electrical device to insert into the tail pipe of male elephants, to stimulate their prostate.
#13
Thanks, moose. Between that image and the Whoopi Goldberg/Nan Pelosi image, I'ma not gonna sleep tonight.
Oh well, just one more reason to love Rantburg U., though, LOL! I absolutely do "learn summin' new every day" here.
Posted by: BA ||
10/03/2007 20:11 Comments ||
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#14
Heh. We could probably work a gay wildebeest/ass-teriod joke in here, but I'm still creeped out by the whoopi-pelosi thing.
Wildebeests have been wildebeesting for the last few millennia and this cannot be the first time a herd-load of them have drowned crossing a river. You will notice that there are still oodles of them around.
#15
Um, yeah. Conservationists were in tears? Over a herd of stupid Wildebeest? It's happened before. There was a mass drowning of more than 5000 animals as I recall some 10 or 12 years ago. Each time, they come back stronger.
Besides, Crocs and Vultures gotta eat, don't they?
#16
One hell of a regional-local barbecue - too bad Dubya + Moud, Kucinich + 2008 Dems are not on good terms right now. Hollywood will always have CHarleston Heston and Muslim-Chritian party scene as per El-CID. *OTOH, 10,000 wildebeesties yet many Africans go hungry - whats the purpose of having Genetic/Bio-Engineers that can't feed the hungry???
Sure, politicians always appreciate a warm welcome when they appear on daytime TV talk shows. But the welcome House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got today on ABC's chick TV show "The View" was more than warm - it was downright steamy.
Even before Pelosi walked on stage to take her seat at the round table, the show's moderator, Whoopi Goldberg, and its co-hosts - with former news anchor Barbara Walters leading the pack - started flirting with the speaker's husband, Paul, who was seated in the front row.
"You wanna take a look at Nancy Pelosi's handsome husband?" Walters asked the audience. Yes, came the answer in the form of whooping and hollering.
Poor guy was actually blushing. Then the show's hosts asked him how long he and Madame Speaker have been married.
"Forty-four years," Mr. Pelosi managed between pained glances in the direction of a blanket, a paper bag, anything to hide under.
Whoopi got the pleasure of introducing Speaker Pelosi, who she noted is the first woman speaker of the House who, somewhere along the way, managed to raise five children.
But Walters was still stuck on Mr. Pelosi, unfortunately for Mr. Pelosi. And this is where a little blushing turned to a Code Red alert, four-alarm fire.
Trying to shout over Whoopi and her other gabbing co-hosts and excited audience members, Barbara turned to Guest Pelosi and said she has heard Whoopi say before that she'd "do Paul Newman."
"And I think she'd like to do your husband as well," Walters deadpanned in that quintessential accent that made her the subject of late-night lampooning over the decades.
Of course, Whoopi being Whoopi, she couldn't let that one go, which is where the speaker begins blushing.
Yes, Whoopi implicitly acknowledged, she'd like to do Mr. Pelosi - but she might take his wife while she's at it. "I would do her as well. But we should wait on that because you're still in office, I don't want to cause a problem."
Oh dear, would this were not live TV.
As you might expect, Speaker Pelosi remained silent underneath her signature permanent smile. And her press office later remained predictably mum on the specter of Whoopi-on-Speaker action.
"She enjoyed being on the show," Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly told us via email. "It was a fun chance to talk to (primarily) women around the country about what Democrats are doing in Congress."
And he said Pelosi enjoyed her little thrust and parry with the show's token conservative host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who challenged the speaker's opposition to the troop surge in Iraq.
As for what Pelosi thinks of Whoopi's wild crush on her and her hubby, Daly said in an email, "Didn't get to ask her about Whoopi comments..."
#8
somehow there is a common thread that ties all this 'doing' together, Whoopi, Baa-Baa- Waa-Waa, sanfrannan, mr. sanfrannan, and the money quote:"..Democrats doing Congress..."
#9
The bar has been lowered into the mud. Pelosi must cry herself to sleep. All that glory sought, and all that time spent seeking, wasted by the reality of a fallen culture.
#11
I guess I will skip dinner tonight. The image of Whoopie Goldberg and the Pelosis having a ménage à trois is just too much--or as Goldberg said on national TV, she would "Do both of them." Sometimes one just can't get ugly out of their head. I never watch the View. I am reminded why by this article. Just when you think TV can't sink lower, it does.
A giant spider took up residence on the banks of the River Thames on Wednesday, but Arachnophobes can relax -- it doesn't bite or even move. The nine metre (30 feet) high and wide creature is made of bronze, stainless steel and marble and is the creation of renowned artist Louise Bourgeois.
Created in 1999 and named Maman in tribute to the artist's mother, its appearance outside the Tate Modern art gallery is the first time it has been on display outdoors in Britain.
"The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver," the 95-year-old Bourgeois said in a statement. "Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother," she added.
The nation is preparing for its biggest terrorism exercise ever next week when three fictional "dirty bombs" go off and cripple transportation arteries in Phoenix, Portland, Ore., and Guam, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
Yet even as this drill begins, details from the previous national exercise held in 2005 have yet to be publicly released information that's supposed to help officials prepare for the next real attack.
House lawmakers were expected to demand answers Wednesday, including why the "after-action" report from 2005 hasn't been made public. Congress has required the exercise since 2000, but has done little in the way of oversight beyond attending the actual events.
Next week will be the fourth Top Officials exercise dubbed TOPOFF. The program costs about $25 million a year and involves the federal government's highest officials, such as top people from the Defense and Homeland Security departments.
"The challenge with TOPOFF is not the exercise itself. It's to move as quickly as possible to remedy what perceives to be the problems that are uncovered," former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in an interview with AP this week.
Ridge, who launched his own security consulting company on Monday, said he's a big fan of the TOPOFF exercises. But he said "it's not acceptable" that the review from the 2005 exercise is still not released publicly.
The House Homeland Security emergency communications, preparedness and response subcommittee was holding a hearing Wednesday on the terrorism exercise program.
This year's TOPOFF will build on lessons learned from previous exercises, according to the Homeland Security Department, which runs the program. The agency said the Oct. 15-19 exercise would be "the largest and most comprehensive" to date.
According to an internal department briefing of next week's exercise obtained by AP, a dirty bomb will go off at a Cabras power plant in Guam; another dirty bomb will explode on the Steel Bridge in Portland, impacting major transportation systems, and a third dirty bomb will explode at the intersection of busy routes 101 and 202 near Phoenix.
Local hospitals and law enforcement agencies will be involved in the "attacks" by the dirty bombs, which are conventional explosives that include some radioactive material that would cause contamination over a limited area but not create actual nuclear explosions.
"Lessons learned from the exercise will provide valuable insights to guide future planning for securing the nation against terrorist attacks, disasters and other emergencies," according to the department's Web site.
The after action report from TOPOFF 3, which deals with issues that came up in the 2005 exercise, is supposed to identify areas for improvement. That report is still going through internal reviews.
According to a brief summary of the 2005 exercise marked For Official Use Only, but obtained by AP problems arose when officials realized the federal government's law for providing assistance does not cover biological incidents.
The exercise involved a mustard gas attack from an improvised explosive device in Connecticut and the release of the pneumonic plague in New Jersey. This caused certain federal disaster programs to be unavailable to some residents suffering from the attack, according to the summary.
A 2005 Homeland Security inspector general report suggested the department start tracking the lessons learned from these exercises.
And a 2006 White House report on Hurricane Katrina criticized the department for not having a system to address and fix the problems discovered in the TOPOFF exercises.
"The most recent Top Officials (TOPOFF) exercise in April 2005 revealed the federal government's lack of progress in addressing a number of preparedness deficiencies, many of which had been identified in previous exercises," according to the White House.
Previously, a more detailed version of lessons-learned from TOPOFF 2, held in 2003 was not released to states for security reasons. Since the Phoenix poof is near to where I live, I'll let you all know if I see anything interesting.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
10/03/2007 17:27 Comments ||
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#2
Since CHINA wants Guam, Micronesia, WESTPAC-PACIFIC, and minima 1/2 of CONUS-NORAM as future Chinese territory, i.e. "living space", isn't the USA as a future defeated or destroyed, subjugated or suborned nation engaging in illegal current acts upon [future]Chinese soil(s)!? AND ESPEC SINCE THE US NINTH ALREADY DECLARED AMERICA PER SE TO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND ILLEGAL!
Police cordoned off three streets and firefighters smashed down a door after reports of a chemical attack on a busy shopping street in London's Soho. But instead of a terrorist attack or a toxic leak, all police found was a Thai cook preparing chilli sauce.
Emergency workers wearing protective breathing masks were called to D'Arblay Street on Monday evening after members of the public detected an acrid cloud of smoke. A Hazardous Area Response Team was dispatched and specialist crews broke down the door of the Thai Cottage restaurant.
Chalemchai Tangjariyapoon, the chef at Thai Cottage, was preparing nam prik pao, a specialist dipping sauce made with deliberately burnt dry-fried chillies, when the emergency workers burst in. Nam prik pao consists of the burnt chillies, garlic flakes, dried shrimp, palm sugar, shrimp paste, tamarind and vegetable oil. It is often added to soups, stir-fries and noodle dishes.
Restaurant staff, who are used to the pungent aroma, were baffled when firefighters broke down their door Monday evening. "I can understand why people who weren't Thai would not know what it was," the chef told The Times. "But it doesn't smell like chemicals. I'm a bit confused."
A waitress at Thai Cottage, which has been on D'Arblay Street for 17 years, said she and other staff members were led out of the restaurant by firefighters and had to wait in the street for three hours. They emerged shortly afterwards with a 9lb pot of chillies.
Which they took back to the coppe shoppe for lunch.
#6
You will be getting a package in the mail by Saturday, Zenster. Be careful.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/03/2007 14:03 Comments ||
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#7
Got my Haz Mat kit at the ready, Deac. Is a 3M BE-10 going to be enough or do you recommend going with a full moon suit?
Lemme know when to send you a goodie basket filled with all sorts of pan-Asian spices and mixes. I may also be able to get you some manzana chile seeds if you're not already growing them.
PS: My chilehead friend, William, over at the falafel shack thanks you in advance. He's gonna flip out big time!
#8
The 3M BE-10 should be adequate. My pleasure. I would like the seeds.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/03/2007 14:54 Comments ||
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#9
At Fermilab, when the Chinese grad students made hot oil in their house on the campus, they opened the windows and doors, set the stuff to cook, and went outside. I'm not sure how they finished the process.
A giant statue of the ancient Egyptian god of the dead floated down the Thames on Monday, turning heads as it crossed under London's Tower Bridge.
The 25-foot fiberglass representation of the jackal-headed god was taken down the river on the back of a cargo ship to Trafalgar Square, where it will stand for three days before moving to various locations around the capital.
Anubis' arrival is part of an effort to promote an exhibition of the treasures taken from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamun. The show, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," opens Nov. 15 at London's O2, previously known as the Millennium Dome...
#6
When the traveling exhibition, "Splendors of Ancient Egypt" came to Phoenix, one of their exhibits about made me split a gut.
It was a wooden coffin from the Greek period, around the year 0, and its outside was painted with thick, horizontal red and white stripes. The lid, over the face of the mummy, was painted with a dark blue field, with white dots that looked light the stars in the sky.
When you opened the lid, suddenly it clicked: the coffin looked like the American flag!
As I remarked to my friend at the time, "I guess the time machine worked halfway, at least."
#9
The way to go, in Philly, at least, was with a group like school or scouts, that got early admission (8:30) to the museum and exhibit before they opened for general admission (10:00). After GA it was a mob scene.
The parliamentary group for integration, led by the Islamic-oriented Party of Justice, has requested for Kosovos minister of education, Agim Veliu, to appear before parliament.
According to a press release issued by the Party of Justice on Tuesday afternoon, this comes in the wake of support given by the minister to the municipal department of education in a central Kosovo town to dismiss three Albanian Muslim girls from a local school because they were wearing headscarves. Kosovos legislation on education forbids any kind of religious display in public schools.
Hilmi Jashari, Kosovo's acting ombudsperson, told Balkan Insight that the decision to exclude the girls reflected a misinterpretation of the law. The ministry has no legal basis to support such an action, Jashari said, adding that the decision violated Kosovos law on freedom of religion, which bans discrimination "on the basis of religious convictions, of belonging or not belonging to a religious denomination or of the observance of religious ceremonies and rituals."
And so it begins.
Most of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians are nominally Muslim, though predominantly secular. The argument over secular and religious claims in public life reflects similar arguments now taking place in Western Europe.
#3
If allowed to go their own way, New Englanders "probably would allow abortion and have gun control," Hill said,"
I remember hearing that once upon a time New England wanted to secede because the Federal Government did not want to go to war. "...while Southerners "would probably crack down on illegal immigration harder than it is being now."
From where I'm at, the local Monarch Butterflies fly north and west at this time of year...
#6
"Vermont, one of the nation's most liberal states, has become a hotbed for liberal secessionists, a fringe movement that gained new traction because of the Iraq war, rising oil prices...."
Well hell, I say let Vermont secede and they can price their own oil however they want.
Vermont is the east coast answer to Berkley a redoubt of burnt out hippies trying to live their communal dreams.
#9
The problem with Vermont is that there's too many dorks up there with so much time and money on their hands that they can have little lefty wet dreams like this...
#10
Maybe Biden can introduce a bill in Congress, about splitting up the United States. I mean, we are almost becoming as "regional" as Iraq, only without the bombings. So, does he want us to split into say, the South, East Coast, West Coast, and all the good ones in between?
He seems so knowledgeable about the solution for Iraq, wonder if this also would be his answer to this "divided nation" we seem to be experiencing?
Wandering minds need to know. We need to "Question." Sorry Fred, couldn't resist that.
"Best of the Web" headlined this one "Breaking News From 1861."
Posted by: Mike ||
10/03/2007 17:34 Comments ||
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#12
sure, go ahead and let Vermont seceed, then the UN will have an oil-for-syrup scandal to cover up. besides, that will tidy up the flag into nice neat even rows of stars.
#13
Look at it this way, we let Vermont leave the Union along with any other blue state that wants to. Give them about 1 year for all the normal people to move back into the United States. Once that's done, declare war on the states that left, crush them and deport everyone there to Mexico. It's a Win Win situation for humanity. We get rid of them, and they get to live in lefty paradise.
#15
Believe me, those East Coast lefties do NOT want the Southern Good Ole Boys coming North to stomp on a secessionist movement - it would play out as a Bizzaro World version of Sherman's March to the Sea.
The largest percentage of the US military by region is from what used to be the heart of the Confederacy and to have all those Dixie boys given license to stomp the hell out of maple syrup Yankees would be a Sons of the Confederacy wet dream.
#16
Actually, if the lefties tried to secede, there would be an immediate second secession by the rural and ex-urban parts of the blue states. The lefties would have only the urban enclaves of the bluest states.
Also, don't assume NYC will go blue. Too many people still remember the smell of burning bodies after the Towers collapsed.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
10/03/2007 18:57 Comments ||
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#17
The lefties would have only the urban enclaves of the bluest states.
Only part of the urban enclaves, Frozen Al. It's not only in NYC that people remember, if only what caused those bodies to burn.
#18
cool, the sooner Vermont amscrays the better.....once they secede it would only take a squad of my best hardchargers during a weekend leave w/a couple baseball bats and a case of schlitz to kick the shit out of every leftard in the state and institute myself as emperor........from there we will take eastern canada w/the same aforementioned forces over the next weekend.....I figure by turkey day to have accepted spain's surrender by mere threat of tasteless insults.......
The Civil Air Patrol's Board of Governors (BoG) voted last night to remove CAP Maj. Gen. Antonio Pineda, Jr., from his position as the CAP's national commander. Pineda has been under temporary suspension as a result of investigations by the CAP's inspector general into numerous complaints of wrongdoing by Pineda, including cheating on Air Command and Staff College tests, an issue first reported nationally by News of the Force in December, 2006.
By a vote of 10-1, with only Pineda dissenting, the BoG voted to strip Pineda of his office, his rank, and his membership in the Civil Air Patrol. "This action was taken after careful review of the facts and circumstances and after numerous discussions of the report of the investigation against Gen. Pineda," Maj. Gen. Richard Bowling, the chairman of the BoG, said.
The CAP is now being commanded by interim national commander CAP Brig. Gen. Amy Courter. She will hold the position until the August 2008 board meeting, where members will vote to select a new commander. Courter is eligible to run for the position. "The members of the Civil Air Patrol are patriotic and highly dedicated volunteers of this great nation who routinely place duty before self to serve their communities," Courter said. "Their contributions during the search for aviation legend Steve Fossett, during Hurricane Katrina, Sept. 11 and thousands of other noteworthy missions throughout our 66 years of service have made a profound difference in the lives of thousands of Americans of all ages. I am honored to serve as interim national commander of Civil Air Patrol." The CAP is the volunteer, civilian Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.
Earlier today, it was pointed out to me that Kos's average visit length was all of 2 seconds, suggesting either a coordinated attempt to bomb the site with fake traffic or an extremely low level of engagement on the part of his readers. This seemed as remarkable, given the breathless huffing and puffing about his community platform being a game changer in terms of traffic and audience reach.
So I started to do some digging around his SiteMeter stats and those of other big bloggers.
My source was right. The SiteMeter numbers are indeed fishy. But the reason is far from nefarious: a design flaw in how SiteMeter counts visits that systemically overcounts unique visitors on extremely high traffic blogs like Daily Kos by a lot.
First of all, I looked at the Detail view showing the last 100 visitors. Overwhelmingly it showed visitors hitting the site only once, with a visit time of zero (you need to hit a second page for it to register any time spent). Contrasted with my traffic, with an average visit length of three minutes, this seemed highly improbable.
Then it hit me: SiteMeter only accounts for the last 100 visitors individually. On a site like Daily Kos, the 100th most recent visitor could have been 15 seconds ago. If you are the 101st most recent visitor and you click on a new page, you are counted as a new unique visitor in SiteMeter's all important count. On a normal site, this wouldn't matter, since it's highly unlikely you'll stick around long enough to have 100 others show up after you. On a site with hundreds of thousands of page views a day, it's extremely likely you will.
Other corroborating evidence of this includes the Daily Durations chart and the Page View / Visitor chart by hour. During slow traffic periods (early mornings and weekends) the ratio of page views to uniques returns to more normal levels (up to about 5 to 3). Also there is an odd spike in daily durations up to 3 seconds from 2 that only happens on weekends and is very consistent -- a spike that you don't see on medium traffic blogs. What you see there is a telltale sign of the longer time horizon required for double counting (and triple and so on).
Currently, Kos's average daily "visit" count stands at about 454,000 and his daily page views at 538,000, a low 1.18 ratio. This number has fed the huge mythology surrounding Kos that he has "half a million" readers a day (I used the number 600,000 as recently as 48 hours ago), while top conservatives are stuck in the muck at about 100,000 to 150,000. These are the numbers used to populate N.Z. Bear's frequently referenced traffic ranking.
We now know that the only thing we can trust about the SiteMeter numbers are the page views. And from that we can arrive at a more realistic number of daily unique visitors for Daily Kos and other leading blogs.
How so? The best guide we probably have are other netroots blogs like MyDD (stats) and OpenLeft (stats) built on open community platforms. They have low enough traffic that SiteMeter's inflationary effect is minimal at best. Using Scoop (what Kos uses) and SoapBlox respectively, both have a ratio of about 1.9 page views for every visit (itself a less stringent measure than "unique visitor"). On Red State, where there is likely a little bit of this effect, it's about 1.8 to 1. On a Wordpress-style blog without diaries, the ratio averages 1.5 page views per visit.
Extrapolating from Kos' page view number, a more accurate "visitor" number for Kos would be in the neighborhood of 283,000. If Kos is a stickier site than MyDD or OpenLeft (a fair assumption), that number is probably lower. That works out to an artificial inflation in the accepted Daily Kos traffic number of about 60%.
By the way, this is not some theoretical exercise. This is the number SiteMeter would show if they didn't have this quirk in counting traffic to high-velocity sites. Sites with as more traffic than Kos show a similar skew. That includes gadget and lifestyle blogs like Gizmodo with 2 million page views and a 1 second visit length and Lifehacker at 3 seconds.
To be fair, some conservative blogs probably fall in this boat, though the skew is probably no more than 20-30% in the most extreme case simply because we don't fall in quite the same traffic league as Kos. Most author-led blogs average about 1.5 page views per visit, and that would peg Michelle Malkin's actual visit number at about 130,000 (down from 140K). In effect, that means Kos is twice the size of Michelle. That's not something you'd necessarily want to hang your hat on, but it is dramatically different than the 4 or 5 to 1 number that is in reporters' minds (and was in mine until tonight). So we still have a hill to climb, but it doesn't look quite as big as it did 24 hours ago.
Why does this matter? Because if someone uncovered a 60% ratings inflation in Rush Limbaugh's or Bill O'Reilly's numbers, we'd never hear the end of it.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/03/2007 08:20 ||
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If Jon Taleb, a Muslim woman from Joshua Tree, Calif., hadn't found a discarded ark a cabinet designed to hold a Torah scroll in a Yucca Valley antique story, it probably would not be sitting in the Chabad Jewish Community Center of Riverside today. But sometimes it all comes down to Divine Providence. And in this case not only did the ark's refurbishing get set in motion by a Muslim, but a Mormon family joined several Jews in the effort to return the item to its former glory.
As Taleb tells it, she knew immediately what the ark was when she saw it in the antique store, where it had been sitting for 30 years. She recognized the Hebrew lettering engraved on the wood cabinet from Jewish events she had attended in the past. But at $100, she didn't want to buy it.
She shared the news, however, with her Jewish friend, Margie Akin of Riverside, Calif., when she arrived to play their regular Mahjong game. As fortune would have it, Akin had stopped to play the lottery during her hour-long drive to Joshua Tree, winning exactly $100. She decided to purchase the ark. But after hauling the piece from the store on the back of a pickup truck, the pair wondered what exactly to do with their new ark.
A short time later, Akin met Rabbi Shmuel Fuss, co-director of the Riverside Chabad-Lubavitch institution, at the home of friend Gail Grech, while Fuss was affixing a mezuzah to the doorway. Grech, a congregant of Fuss', knew immediately what to do with Akin's discovery. "There was nothing before for the Torah," Gretch said of her synagogue. "The Torah did not have a real home." The problem, though, was that after years of neglect, the ark was unusable.
That's where the Mormon family came in. Chet Trupp, a member of the Chabad Jewish Community Center, related to Tzippy Fuss, the center's co-director and wife of its rabbi, that he knew a Mormon boy who was looking to do a community service project as part of his involvement with the Boy Scouts. "We said let's match the kid up with the rabbi and then, lo and behold, at the same time the ark came up," reported Trupp.
Andrew Malone, 16, had by that time already finished his project, but his family didn't pass up on the opportunity to do another good deed. His father, Mark Malone, a part-time carpenter, offered their time to refurbish the ark in advance of Rosh Hashanah so that it could be used at High Holiday services. Not content with the relatively simple task of getting the ark back on its feet, so to speak, father and son also constructed a base to support it.
Looking back at the course of events, Grech was in awe. "There were so many small steps," she said. "If each one hadn't happened," the synagogue wouldn't have a proper home for its Torah.
Fuss said that it was a real treat to celebrate the Jewish New Year with a new ark. "It was amazing to bring to life the community that used the ark in the past," said the rabbi, who opened the Chabad center in 2004. "We were able to connect the past with the future. It's history coming back to life."
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.
Police cordoned off three streets and firefighters smashed down a door after reports of a chemical attack on a busy shopping street in London's Soho. But instead of a terrorist attack or a toxic leak, all police found was a Thai cook preparing chilli sauce.
