A Bangladesh court on Sunday ordered the only sister of detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to surrender herself within the next seven days to face extortion charges.
Hasinas younger sister Sheikh Rehana - now living abroad - was recently implicated by the army-backed interim government in an extortion case in which Hasina is one of the principal accused. As per the order Rehana must surrender by Nov 18, otherwise the court might take other legal steps to bring her to book, a court registrar said.
Hasina has been detained at a house within the sprawling compound of Bangladeshs parliament in Dhaka since July 16, accused of extorting around $1 million for two businessmen during her tenure between 1996 to 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2007 00:00 ||
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Had no idea the numbers were this high
The Japanese Government is calling for a complete national rethink about attitudes to suicide in an effort to unravel centuries of social pressure and tradition. The practice, which claims more than 90 lives each day, should no longer be seen as the honourable way out but as an act of desperation and perhaps preventable misery.
The Government has published a counter-suicide White Paper, which sets out a nine-step plan to transform the way in which suicide is regarded and treated. Measures include training more counsellors and expanding Samaritans-style telephone helplines.
The White Paper exposes the traditional approach in Japan of ignoring the issue altogether and presses for the kind of basic research into causes that is standard in most developed nations. It says that Japanese should know more about the causes of suicide and be better equipped to spot the signs of an impending attempt. There should be help for those who have survived an attempt. The paper notes that Monday is by far the most likely day of the week on which a co-worker or loved one may try to end it all.
Government sources told The Times that the document could be seen as evidence that, after decades of inaction, Japan had finally grown embarrassed by its extraordinarily high suicide rate, which stands at ninth in the world but is far ahead of any other developed nation. Japan is hoping to reduce its current rate of about 32,000 suicides a year by 20 per cent within the next decade. Good luck with that
Suicide rates used to rise when unemployment was higher and fall during more prosperous spells. The Governments sudden alarm, though, arises from the apparent breaking of that cycle: Japans economy has recently experienced its longest run of expansion since the Second World War but the suicide rate has continued to rise during that time.
The White Paper comes as Japan is approaching its tenth successive year in which more than 30,000 people have taken their own lives. The statistic gives Japan a higher per-capita rate than nations blighted by civil war, desperate poverty or long periods of the year without sunlight.
#1
The practice, which claims more than 90 lives each day, should no longer be seen as the honourable way out but as an act of desperation and perhaps preventable misery.
Is there some sort of data to support the notion suicide imposes an economic cost on society as a whole? If not, what is the problem, exactly?
#3
A lot of Japanese commit suicide because of their goofy culture. A normal person would just start over, move to a new city, start a new life, etc. The Japanese don't see it like that. So yes, there is an economic cost, Mr. Scrooge.
#5
It something our culture needs desperately for CEOs rather than 12M dollar going away packages. See article labeled 'Prince to get bonus for losing billions' further down in the listings. Classify it as Quality Assurance.
#6
The Japanese rates pale in comparison to the rates for Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, and the Ukraine.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/
South Korean protesters opposed to a free trade deal with the United States fought pitched battles with riot police on Sunday, as thousands of demonstrators jammed the streets of downtown Seoul. Police, using truncheons and water cannon, detained scores of farmers and student activists, according to Reuters witnesses. Organisers estimated 50,000 people took part in the protest, while police put the number of demonstrators at 20,000. At one location, police beat male and female college students with batons, forcing protesters to the ground and then kicking several of them into submission before dragging them away, one Reuters witness said. South Korea and the United States struck a sweeping bilateral free trade deal in April that studies say could boost their $73 billion-a-year annual trade by about a further $20 billion.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
If you ever read P. J. O'Rourke's "Holidays in Hell", you'd know that this is kinda the Korean national pastime...
#1
Padua, 12 Nov. (AKI) - Muslims and non-Muslims have slammed the attempted 'descrecation' of a plot of land earmarked for a mosque in the northern city of Padua by members of the anti-immigrant Northern League party who paraded a pig on the site over the weekend. Does they rent them out?
"We believe in God not in superstition with the exception of our pagan moon goddess," said local imam Kahlhil Boussuni, quoted by La Repubblica on Monday. "And we intend to build our place of prayer and worship traditional koranic terrorism where only the faithful will be permitted to enter."
A growing backlash against Muslim and immigrants in Italy, fed in large part by fears of terrorism and other crimes is especially intense in Veneto
Have to admit the large numbers suprised me
Seventy-three percent (73%) of American voters say that when someone is pulled over for a traffic violation, police officers should routinely check to see if that person is in the country legally. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 18% disagree while 9% are not sure.
If someone pulled over for a traffic violation is found to be in the country illegally, 62% of voters say that person should be deported. Seventeen percent (17%) disagree while 21% are not sure. Thirty-four percent (34%) believe that such a policy might create a temptation for police officers to discriminate, but 58% disagree.
An earlier survey found that 77% of American adults do not think illegal immigrants should be allowed to receive a drivers license. Only 11% believe that undocumented immigrants should receive public benefits and services such are rental and housing assistance. These views are very similar to results found in state polls around the country including Virginia, Missouri, Texas, and Kentucky.
Younger voters are a bit less supportive of these enforcement policies than their elders, but 61% of voters under 30 believe that officers should check on the status of traffic violators. Fifty-six percent (58%) of those under 40 believe that illegal immigrants discovered in this manner should be deported.
#1
..and check for valid insurance, not one printed up at Papa Philipas' Print Shop and Xerox Emporium.
Do you think it's a great leap of logic to believe that if they aren't legal, the likelihood of obeying the other laws covering insurance are going to bother them? Hit Americans where they pay attention to - their pocketbooks, directly and in their face.
#2
I would be in favor of deporting ALL Illegals if it was a viable option. Facts are that ICE isn't large enough to perform the task. I may be getting soft but there should be some way to allow the PRODUCTIVE illegals to stay and throw out te trash so to speak.
#3
Removing the incentives would help. No more free medical care (except for life-saving). No more free educational benefits. No more sanctuary cities (cut *all* their federal funding). No more jobs (prosecute those who hire them - even day laborers). And no citizenship for newborns unless both parents are either legal residents or citizens.
#4
As the atmosphere becomes less welcoming and more rejectionist, illegals are going to leave. Today it was announced -- without comment -- on NPR that ICE is going to teach companies how to recognize if the people they want to hire are illegals. Granted, likely few illegals listen to NPR. But many business owners do, the same people being arrested now after their businesses are raided, their illegal employees taken away and deported.
#5
Cyber Sarge: You have hit on the true bottom line of the whole issue. America needs and should want good citizens of all types, even those who are not officially citizens, but act like it.
For example, I know of one family with three who are legal and three who aren't. All are hard working, and two of the three who are illegal have lived in the US since they were two years old. They have never even been to Mexico. And none even have relatives in Mexico. Ironically, only the legal members of the family speak Spanish fluently. The primary language of the illegal members is English.
But other individuals and families are nothing but criminals and parasites, who don't want to integrate and are a huge drain on our society.
So why NOT send the latter group back and invite the good ones to stay? It is possible to do so, because it can be easily determined who the bad ones are:
1) Serious criminal record.
2) Living on government handouts for years.
3) Are not fluent in English nor have work. Cannot find an employer/sponsor to host them.
Compare this with the good ones we need:
1) No serious criminal record (disregard unlawful border crossing which is a misdemeanor, or unlawful residence, which is a *civil* offense). Also, some grace for identity theft, if only used for employment, not for criminal fraud against a living person.
2) Are either employed or have their own business, and have received no or minimal government assistance and for only a limited time.
3) Have or are learning English, understand US law to a normal degree.
4) Are willing to become a US citizen, if they do not have to leave the US to do it, are willing to pay a fee and a reasonable fine, submit to a public health check for dangerous communicable diseases, and to reaffirm all contracts they have joined once they are citizens.
ICE could over some years eject the ones we don't want, because they make themselves available to the authorities to do so. And in the process, the bad ones could be *barred* from re-entry, which is the only severe crime associated with illegal entry. If they return, they could get 20 years in federal prison. So they would be highly motivated to not come back.
#6
Offer a $1000 bounty (and a $10,000 mandatory fine for employers) for each illegal ratted out and the problem will be solved in 30 days.
Posted by: ed ||
11/12/2007 11:46 Comments ||
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#7
Ed your idea is the best. Been bouncing those ideas for a couple month. Set the population loose with money incentives. Hell I'd take a 6 month sabbatical myself if the bounty on the illegals and companies was high enough.
#8
moose - I like your idea, as long as it doesn't place illegal aliens in front of legal applicants who are (and have been) waiting - sometimes for years to come here legally.
Like the bounty idea - however this might set a dangerous precedent. How long before there's a bounty on other 'undesirable' elements such as 'gunowners' or so-called 'racist' (i.e. people who oppose multiculturism). Not to oppose it but just saying...
#10
Anonymoose: in the family you know, did the three who are legal enter the country and remain here legally, or is it just that they were born here? Because the latter makes them anchor babies -- not the same thing at all.
I've come to the conclusion if they didn't enter legally, they need to go to the back of the line, even if that means starting from back home. There are plenty of hard working, honest, honourable people who are doing things the legal way, a process that nowadays takes years, with the end point ever receding because of the illegals who must be dealt with. Much of the third world would happily move here if given a chance. Why should those who broke our laws of entry get a leg up?
#11
This issue has exposed something that is now made very clear. There are many US politicians who will kiss up to who ever keeps them in power, regardless to whether those that keep them in power are US citizens or Non US citizens.
#12
trailing wife: It's an important point that I mentioned before that crossing the border is just a minor misdemeanor, almost never prosecuted unless you are observed doing it. Living in the US is not a crime at all, it is a civil offense.
Many of the people here now had no choice to cross the border, they were brought here as young children and have lived here ever since. They have been through US schools, speak English, hold jobs here and have no more in common with Mexico than Zimbabwe or Bosnia.
They have no family they know in Mexico, no friends, and are completely American kids. Would you be comfortable if your kids were deported, age 4-18, to a foreign country, and left to fend for themselves, for say, 10 years before they could even visit home?
And that is the realistic situation for many. They have to wait years just to get a green card for permanent residency status, and have to live in another country, a *foreign* country, until they get it.
It is just as bad for adults as children. Many who live here would have to abandon their families, who may themselves be legal, without the ability to support themselves, to wait years in another country to get a green card.
Nobody in their right mind wants to do that. And they certainly don't want to take their American citizen family with them to Mexico, because they would be unwanted foreign aliens there, too, and would find it very hard to get residency there.
Nothing is easy. I have met Mexicans who have lived in the US for 20 years, who want to enlist in the US military, but cannot because they would have to wait years in Mexico to get a green card first. But if they did have a green card, because of a wartime exemption, after 1 day on active duty, they could apply for citizenship. But that is subject to change at any time.
The whole situation is wacky.
In the Phoenix area, Mexicans tend to integrate much faster than in LA. This is because there is no large Mexican community as such, they are dispersed throughout the metro area.
In a single family, you will often see illegal grandparents, who speak no English and are wholly Mexican, with adult children who both legal and illegal, but are halfway American and Mexican, speaking both Spanish and English. Then the grandchildren are both legal and illegal, but are fully American, have never been to Mexico except perhaps in infancy, speak only English, and like their parents have been through US school.
The parents and grandparents all work, both as laborers and entrepreneurs. Both the illegals and legals drive, because they have to.
So is it right that the sins of the grandparents be visited on their children and grandchildren? Or to break up families, booting some out and leaving others on welfare instead of leaving them all to gainful employment and prosperity?
That is why I proposed an easy test for citizenship I mentioned above. We get the good people, and not just Mexicans, but the cream of the crop from other nations as well, and we kick out the bad ones.
Make no mistake, it is not a freebie. They have to earn it, and they have to behave themselves.
#13
Anonymoose, my mother was boarded out from age 17 to almost 21, because she could not be hidden with her parents in Amsterdam -- that was Dutch Underground policy. The first family that took her in abused her, for which my grandparents paid a rather princely sum. Mama didn't complain, because other girls her age were being sent to concentration camps. I'm still not sure how it was discovered, but she was taken away. However, another family wasn't found for some weeks, so one of her old teachers took her in, even though there wasn't really anywhere to keep her -- for those weeks Mama crawled out of the window before sunrise and settled herself in the roof gutter, always with her head uphill of course, then crawled back in after dark. Her parents paid a slightly less princely sum for that, because the lady was risking her life to give Mama that much protection.
Life is not fair. In your example the Mexican grandparents made what seemed a logical choice that screwed things up for the generations that followed. Now they all have to deal with the results, and it stinks for them. They have to choose: abandon those who aren't here illegally, or send a responsible adult back with them. You're describing an approximately 50 million person situation, if I'm reading your example correctly. At that point it becomes a law/policy issue, not one of personal generosity. I'm sorry, but like the prostitutes you've cited elsewhere, they made what seemed the best choice, and must accept the real consequences.
#14
Grandparents huh? Useful tools of the much purer Spanish blood who rule and dominate Mexico, raping their land for profits and power, while the population like sheep buy the nationalist lies of identity at the expense of the future of their children. Of course, in all the unfortunate consequences, the authors of the problem pay no penalty not only for what they did to the grandparents, but what they continue to do the current wave of obereos of meztisos and indios they dump across the border. The only thing the Mexican ruling class care about is their position and power. All else is a scam to exploit their own and our people. Billions upon billions of the nationalized petroleum industry line the pockets of these people, they don't line the infrastructure of the nation. Until that fundamental problem is addressed, you're just spin in place with any other 'solution'.
#15
most peopel don't even know about the remittances sent back to Mexico- while getting free healthcare and schooling from us dumb gringos:
From 2000 to 2006, remittances grew to nearly $24 billion a year from $6.6 billion, rising more than 20 percent some years. In 2007, the increase so far has been less than 2 percent.
when Americans wake up to that - you'll see the numbers go even higher. You can't solve the issue of generational stay-or-deport if you don't stop the fresh flood now. Finish the fence, then we can talk
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2007 19:28 Comments ||
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#16
yep..."dumb gringos" and "peopel" in the same post. Clearly I was projecting....damn
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2007 19:31 Comments ||
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#17
trailing wife: As you pointed out, life was not fair during the Nazi occupation. But does that mean that we have to emulate those times? American prides itself in at least trying to be fair, and trying to be reasonable. And by following that path, we do come up with a lot of equitable and tolerable solutions.
Fairness would mean not going out of our way to abuse people who are behaving themselves. But reasonable accepts that there are limitations to whom we can accept into our nation. So why not choose those who behave as good citizens already, even though they are not citizens?
Of those 50 million people you suggested, how many are productively contributing to our society, not violating our laws, trying to assimilate and become Americans in any way they can? Not all, certainly, but a goodly number. Were that number to become legal citizens, even with the waving of a magic Congressional wand, what crisis would result? More than anything, we would notice that a lot more taxes were being paid.
However, there are those among them who are troublesome, criminal, offensive and anti-social. They do not wish to integrate, but to be parasites on, and an infection to our society. But we can identify them, apart from the good people. They identify themselves in most cases.
Once identified, they not only should be deported without delay, but barred from reentry under threat of a severe penalty if they try to return.
And by purging them, we not only eliminate the problems commonly associated with illegal aliens, but we also protect those good future citizens from villains who prey on them most of all.
This is also not to say that we should forever open the flood gates to all who would enter the US illegally. The laws are being stiffened to make life here as an illegal far more difficult in the future. But for those laws to punish should-be-citizens is an ungainly as if they were to punish citizens, like you or I.
Between fairness and reasonableness are many ways to be considerate, yet not be taken advantage of.
#18
Whatever happened to the alien registration I used to see advertised on TV when I was a kid in the 60's. Aliens had to register at the post office. Annually, I think. Failure to do so was a crime.
Finish the fence, put alien registration back in place, automatically deport any alien that is not registered, and start sorting through the registered ones. If you're registered, have a clean criminal record, and are self-supporting or supported by legal family, start on a citizenship process. If you're not, back over the fence you go.
And lets end this nonsense about being a citizen if you're born here. You should only be a citizen by birth if your mother is a citizen at the time of your birth.
#19
I certainly don't want to go back to Nazi practices, Anonymoose, but life has never been fair. You ignored my previous point: because ICE is busy dealing with some 50 million illegals, they are practically ignoring those trying to come and stay here legally. A decade ago it took my Canadian friends, transferred here by a Fortune 500 corporation, five years of paperwork to become permanent residents. Rantburgers with non-American spouses have reported heading toward a decade with no progress over $10,000 in costs, and repeatedly lost paperwork which has to be restarted, putting their spouses back at the foot of the line. These are people who are obeying the rules, and being punished for it. Do you mean to suggest Rantburger spouses are less deserving than kids whose parents snuck them over the border? Or will make worse citizens?
In a state of infinite resources -- in this case an infinite number of ICE bureaucrats -- all could be accommodated. But we don't have infinite resources. Whom do you choose?
#20
Oh, and if my child were deported, I'd go with her. Because you asked. No I don't know how we'd manage. I don't know how we manage now -- that's Mr. Wife's job in our house.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has held the Left responsible for an atmosphere of "uncertainty" over the nuclear deal and feared that as a fallout, the bureaucracy might show reluctance to function effectively.
During the luncheon meeting with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan on Saturday, Singh, in fact, regretted that the turmoil over the 123 agreement had affected normal functioning within the government with senior officials being in a dilemma about decision making.
What the PM hinted at was the typical bureaucratic syndrome of wavering in the midst of political instability. Uncertain of the fate of the incumbent regime, the babus waver in carrying out orders involving delicate decision making.
According to sources, Karat, however, protested pointing out that the Left had never threatened to topple the government over the nuclear issue. "The assurance came from none other than Jyoti Basu," he reportedly said.
Karat sought to absolve the Left of any attempt at paralysing the government and creating a situation in which the officialdom would be unwilling to function. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee were also present. The Left leaders rejected yet another suggestion from the PM that negotiations begin with IAEA. Karat held that the government should wait for the outcome of the nuclear debate in Parliament before taking the next step regarding the deal with the US. However, the two sides could not come to an agreement about the timing of the debate in the winter session beginning on November 15. The government proposed that the discussion begin on November 27 keeping in view the PMs heavy engagements abroad.
For their part, the Left leaders favoured an early debate if not exactly on the opening day.
Karat and Bardhan, it is learnt, also complained to the PM about West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhis public statements over the Nandigram violence.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/12/2007 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI India this month will test the endo-atmospheric capability of its indigenous Prithvi Air Defence (PAD-1) anti-ballistic missile system, part of a two-step effort to develop a missile defense network by about 2015. Designed and developed by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the system is being developed with Israeli help, sources in the DRDO said.
An exo-atmospheric test was conducted in November, when the system killed an incoming missile above the Earths atmosphere. The endo-atmospheric test will attempt to hit an incoming missile within the Earths atmosphere, at a range of about 25 kilometers.
Missile tests are planned at Indias missile testing range at Balasore in the eastern state of Orissa, but no details are available, the sources said.
The endo-atmospheric interceptor will engage targets at 25 kilometers, a DRDO scientist said, compared with the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, which has a range of about 15 kilometers.
The planned test will use the same radars and other guidance systems as were used in the 2006 test, including the Israeli Green Pine Radar. It is long-range, active phased-array radar developed jointly, the DRDO scientist said. The Israeli radar has been modified by India, DRDO scientists said, but is not being called the Green Pine radar.
The PAD-1 system can kill a missile at a range of more than 50 kilometers, the DRDO scientists claimed. The guidance system has not been specified, but sources said it is an overseas technology. In the first stage of PAD-1, the missile is powered by liquid fuel with two propellants. The second stage has a solid propellant. Two more exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric tests are planned before the missile system is ready for induction into the Indian Defence Forces, DRDO scientists said.
PAD-2, which has yet to begin, will involve the use of hypersonic missiles to destroy attacking ballistic missiles at a range of more than 100 kilometers.
Both systems are being developed by DRDO laboratories and government-owned defense companies at a cost of more than $1 billion. DRDO scientists said they expect the PAD system to make India part of the elite club of countries that have anti-ballistic missile capabilities. It is estimated that PAD-1 and PAD-2 will not be ready for induction earlier than 2015, DRDO sources said.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/12/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Fifty Nobel laureates sent a message to President Clinton urging him not to support funding SDI as the system would offer little protection:
NEW DELHI: With Pakistan rapidly moving towards enlarging its missile arsenal with Chinas help, India is slowly but steadily stepping up production of Prithvi surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, as well as BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.
Sources said facilities were now in place to produce around 20 Prithvi missiles every year, while the annual production rate of BrahMos missiles is geared towards touching 50 in the near future. In 2006-2007, for instance, Hyderabad-based defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Limited for the first time managed to produce 15 full-fledged Prithvi missiles and four training missiles, apart from 18 warheads, said sources. While different Prithvi variants have strike ranges varying from 150-km to 350-km, the BrahMos missile developed with Russia can hit targets over 290-km away.
"Similar plans to step up production of the strategic missiles (700-km Agni-I and 2,000-km-plus Agni-II ballistic missiles) are in the pipeline," said a source.
While Army has had its 150-km Prithvi-I missiles for some years now, IAF and Navy operationalised their longer-range variants of the same missile recently. Navy, for instance, is weaponising its Sukanya-class large patrol crafts with Prithvis Dhanush variant, which has a strike range of 250-km to 350-km. IAF, in turn, has started moving its Prithvi-II missile squadrons from Hyderabad to some airbases closer to the western front.
As for the air-breathing BrahMos missiles, which fly at a speed of 2.8 Mach, Navy was the first service to equip its frontline warships like Rajput-class destroyers with their vertical launch systems. The Army, which already has missile groups to handle Prithvi, Agni-I and Agni-II, is now also operationalising BrahMos land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs) as its "precision strike weapon."
Work on BrahMos air-launched version for Sukhoi-30MKI multi-role fighters, however, had been hit by delays. Consequently, this missile will be integrated with the naval IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft as the first step.
Incidentally, Pakistan tested a new air-launched 350-km range cruise missile, Hatf-8 or Thunder, a couple of months ago. Moreover, its Babur cruise missile, said to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads to 500 km, is already on course for large-scale induction. Indian defence scientists, too, are working on a wide array of missile programmes, which interestingly also include submarine-launched versions of both Prithvi (K-15) and BrahMos missiles.
The Agni-III missile, with a 3,500-km strike range meant for China, will be ready by 2010 after a few more tests. Then an advanced 5,000-km range Agni missile, with a third mini-stage being added to the two-stage Agni-III, is also on the anvil.
Similarly, work is also in progress to develop submarine-launched cruise and ballistic missiles under the Sagarika project to complete Indias nuclear triad the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from the air, land and sea.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/12/2007 00:00 ||
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Females joining hunt may explain Neanderthals' end
The Neanderthal extinction some 30,000 years ago remains one of the great riddles of evolution, with rival theories blaming everything from genocide committed by "real" humans to prehistoric climate change.
But a recent study introduces another explanation: Stone Age feminism. Among Neanderthals, hunting big beasts was women's work as well as men's, so it's a safe bet that female hunters got stomped, gored, and worse with appalling frequency. And a high casualty rate among fertile women - the vital "reproductive core" of a tiny population - could well have meant demographic disaster for a species already struggling to survive among monster bears, yellow-fanged hyenas, and cunning Homo sapien newcomers.
The University of Arizona's Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner, use archeological evidence to argue that Neanderthal females - unlike Homo sapien women of the Upper Paleolithic period - joined men in hunts at a time when stabbing giant beasts with a sharpish stone affixed to a stick represented the cutting edge of technology.
That's courageous, but probably bad practice for a population that never numbered much more than 10,000 individuals. The loss of a few males to a flailing hoof or slashing antler is no big deal, in the long run. But losing females of child-bearing age could bring doom to a hard-pressed species.
"All elements of [Neanderthal] society appear to have been involved in the main subsistence pursuit" of hunting large animals, Kuhn said. "There's not much evidence of classic female roles. Putting the reproductive core of the population - pregnant women, mothers of infants, children themselves - at such danger could have put Neanderthals as a whole at serious demographic disadvantage," he said.
Not only would women suffer casualties, Kuhn said, their full participation in the hunt would mean they were not harvesting wild grains and other foods that could sustain their roving bands when game was scarce.
What finished off the Neanderthals is still bitterly disputed by paleoanthropologists and others in the field.
On one side are those who think Neanderthals were "culturally" overwhelmed by modern humans who just happened to possess better tools and weapons - throwing spears, for example, not jabbing spears - or adopted customs more appropriate for the Ice Age. From early days, human women appear to have sewed hide clothing, tended fires, and gathered vegetables rather than risking their lives on the hunt.
On the other side are those who believe modern humans were inherently superior, possessing "cognitive advantages" - read: more smarts - that made their ascent and Neanderthal decline inevitable. Cavefolk simply couldn't compete effectively with the more clever new kids on the block.
"Neanderthals were smart, sophisticated. They mastered fire. They made tools. But modern humans had selectively advantageous [genetic] traits that gave them an edge," said Richard G. Klein, a Stanford University paleoanthropologist. "Even tiny advantages in cognition, communication skills, and memory would have had huge downstream effects over time."
There are other plausible explanations for the Neanderthal extinction. Warming at the end of the Ice Age surely wasn't easy for robust people built for the cold. Or an epidemic could have so depopulated Neanderthal bands that the survivors couldn't replenish the species. A more sinister idea is that early humans wiped them out in a prehistoric genocide.
"On the other hand, humans and Neanderthals coexisted for thousands of years, so I think talk about genocide says more about how modern humans think," said Paabo. "What finally happened could be really boring. Maybe Neanderthals ran out of reindeer to hunt. So they dwindled and died. Species can disappear without us killing them."
#1
It was not impossible that given the stae of their technology and a shortage of game they had no choice: it was either women helped in the hunting (and extinction in the long run) or face extinction by hunger in the short run.
#2
good point JFM. It sounds more likely to be the product of someone with the agenda that women really would be better off barefoot, berry picking and bearing babies. In the days before the Internet, a story like this, repeated often enough, could get some urband legend type traction. Now, with the interaction of the internet, the writer just looks like what he is - a dribbling fool.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
11/12/2007 20:50 Comments ||
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#6
Bush lied; Neanderthals died
(you see he got into a Haliburton time machine, then using money from Saudi bribes he... convinced the Neanderthals to invade Mesopotamia which was really far away and they died on the way...; yeah that's the ticket-- heh that would make a great movie -- a sure win at Cannes)
Posted by: michael moore ||
11/12/2007 21:26 Comments ||
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#7
Well, at least they had a job equality, it oughtta count for something.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - U.S. computer hardware maker Seagate Technology said some external disc drives sold in Taiwan had been infected with a virus which reportedly sent users' information to China, but it had since fixed the problem.
The English-language Taipei Times, quoting the Investigation Bureau, reported around 1,800 hard discs, used to store large amounts of information often as a backup device, had been sold with a Trojan horse virus.
Investigation Bureau officials said their investigation suggested infection may have occurred when the devices were in the hands of Chinese sub-contractors during the manufacturing process, according to the newspaper.
Seagate said it had stopped shipments from the factory until the facilities had been cleaned.
"All products leaving the factory are now cleared of the virus," said the company in an emailed statement.
Seagate did not immediately offer any further information regarding the nature of the virus or how it was put onto its portable hard drives.
Officials from the Investigation Bureau had no immediate comment.
China and Taiwan regularly trade accusations of spying and last month Germany accused China of being behind Internet espionage attacks on its companies and government. China said it opposed such accusations.
#3
infection may have occurred when the devices were in the hands of Chinese sub-contractors
Well there you go. Some idiot connects his virus-laden Chinese Windows XP installation to the production servers. I rather doubt that this was espionage.
Malaysias opposition and human rights groups on Sunday condemned authorities for attempting to suppress the biggest political rally in a decade with tear gas, water cannons and arrests.
Someone sure knows how to 'suppress' a rally ...
Organisers also said that at least seven people were beaten and kicked by police and that some needed hospital treatment including one man whose leg was broken.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had vowed to shut down Saturdays rally, held to campaign for electoral reforms as the nation heads for polls expected to be held early next year.
Police locked down the centre of Kuala Lumpur, throwing up roadblocks, searching vehicles and shutting demonstrators out of Independence Square where they had planned to gather. Despite the tactics and the use of tear gas and water cannons at one of the rallying points, 30,000 protesters marched to the royal palace where they were briefly addressed by dissident former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
Malaysians have spoken loud and clear, said parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, part of an alliance of political parties and civil society groups which mounted the rally.
Lim ridiculed the police chief for claiming that only 4,000 people attended the rally and criticised the government for what he said was an order to the media not to cover the event. No newspaper dared to publish photographs of the mammoth peaceful gathering, which was a tribute to Malaysians for their love of peace and commitment to democracy, he said.
Sundays newspapers instead ran photos of the traffic jams that the roadblocks generated.
Abdullah honour pledge: Abdullah should honour his pledge when he became prime minister four years ago to listen to the truth from the people, however unpleasant, and to introduce institutional reforms for justice and democracy, Lim said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2007 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
South Korean protesters opposed to a free trade deal with the United States fought pitched battles with riot police on Sunday, as thousands of demonstrators jammed the streets of downtown Seoul. Police, using truncheons and water cannon, detained scores of farmers and student activists, according to Reuters witnesses. Organisers estimated 50,000 people took part in the protest, while police put the number of demonstrators at 20,000. At one location, police beat male and female college students with batons, forcing protesters to the ground and then kicking several of them into submission before dragging them away, one Reuters witness said. South Korea and the United States struck a sweeping bilateral free trade deal in April that studies say could boost their $73 billion-a-year annual trade by about a further $20 billion.
NEW DELHI India this month will test the endo-atmospheric capability of its indigenous Prithvi Air Defence (PAD-1) anti-ballistic missile system, part of a two-step effort to develop a missile defense network by about 2015. Designed and developed by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the system is being developed with Israeli help, sources in the DRDO said.
