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Tanks deployed in Beirut to prevent possible violence
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake Strikes Sumatra
(Bloomberg) -- A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck southwest of the Indonesian island of Sumatra today, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and no tsunami alert was issued. The earthquake occurred at 6:02 a.m. local time, 92 kilometers (58 miles) south southwest of Banda Aceh on Sumatra at a depth of 35 kilometers, the USGS said in an e-mailed alert. ``Our team reported from the ground there was no damage or casualties from the quake so far,'' Tri Deni of the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said by telephone from Banda Aceh.
Posted by: Fred || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
DR Congo threatens war on rebels
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/24/2007 00:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I blame King Leopold and the White Fathers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/24/2007 14:29 Comments || Top||


Zim to slash 3 more zeros from currency in black market crackdown
Zimbabwe prepared Friday to slash three more zeros from its currency for the second time in a year, as inflation soars in the crippled economy. Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono said after months of planning, the issue of new currency bills was "imminent," state television and radio reported.

The television showed a sample of a new 500 Zimbabwe dollar note. The highest existing bill for 200,000 Zimbabwe dollars becomes 200. "I know the zeros we removed last time came back quickly but this time we are doing it in such a way they will not return," Gono told a televised meeting of banking and business leaders. He did not elaborate.
Posted by: Fred || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They'll come back in no time.
Posted by: twobyfour || 11/24/2007 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Based upon recent reports in RB, the Zim Dollar has a 100% inflation rate every 49 days. Taking off 3 zeros will buy Zim Bob another 488 days, or 1yr 4mo before he has to lop another three zeros off. This is according to my calculations.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/24/2007 12:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Divide by necessity, or 1/10, the need will be in 48.8 days.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/24/2007 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Mugabe is the only "zero" they need to slash in order to get things turned around.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/24/2007 14:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Mugabe plus a few dozen of his cronies.
Posted by: James || 11/24/2007 15:57 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Rab looking for Khalid's aides
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members are searching for the associates of detained EARTH Foundation Chairman Khan Mohammad Khalid Hossain for more information about the hitherto untraced bank accounts of the organisation.

Khalid was taken on a fresh five-day remand on Thursday. Following Khalid's confession to pocketing Tk 25 crore by fraud, the Rab has so far been able to trace only three bank accounts containing Tk 5 lakh. Major Mohammad Ehsanul Haque of Rab-2 told The Daily Star yesterday that Khalid informed the law enforcers that he has five associates including his wife who know about the other bank accounts.

Different institutions and people are also informing the Rab about Khalid, he added but refused to disclose their names in the interest of investigation. Khalid was arrested at Panthapath in the capital on November 18 on charges of swindling around Tk 100 crore. A businessman meanwhile filed two fraud cases with Dhanmondi Police Station against Khalid on Wednesday and Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez: Only a 'Traitor' Will Vote No
He sounds as if he already knows the outcome.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez warned his supporters on Friday that anyone voting against his proposed constitutional changes would be a "traitor," rallying his political base before a referendum that would let him seek unlimited re-election in 2012 and beyond.

Brandishing a little red book listing his desired 69 revisions to Venezuela's charter, Chavez exhorted his backers to redouble their efforts toward a victorious "yes" vote in the Dec. 2 ballot. "He who says he supports Chavez but votes 'no' is a traitor, a true traitor," the president told an arena packed with red-clad supporters. "He's against me, against the revolution and against the people."

His speech followed the recent high-profile defection of his former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel, a longtime ally who called the president's proposed reforms a "coup." Others have also broken with the Chavista movement in recent months, including politicians of the small left-leaning party Podemos.

Chavez's opponents accuse him of concentrating power and seeking to be president-for-life like his close friend Fidel Castro of Cuba. Chavez insists he will only stay on as long as Venezuelans continue to vote for him. "If you don't approve (the referendum), maybe we'll have time for a parachute jump in five years," Chavez, a former paratrooper, told the crowd. "But if you wish—if you approve the referendum—I will stay as long as God wills! Until the last bone of my skeleton dries out!"

The proposed revisions would do away with presidential term limits, extend terms from six to seven years, let Chavez appoint regional vice presidents and eliminate Central Bank authority, among other changes. Critics warn he would also have the power to shut down Venezuelan newspapers, television and radio stations by declaring a state of emergency, and the government could detain citizens without charges during such a period.
Posted by: Fred || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I will stay as long as God wills!
LOL out front with it now.
Posted by: Thomas Woof || 11/24/2007 10:15 Comments || Top||

#2  "But if you wish—if you approve the referendum—I will stay as long as God wills! Until the last bone of my skeleton dries out!"

We need to get Chavez to the skeleton stage sooner than later. His bones could then be propped against the wall with the 'El Presidente' label afixed as he wishes.
Posted by: WTF || 11/24/2007 10:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Put him next to Stalin.
Matched pair-O-stiffs.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/24/2007 13:08 Comments || Top||

#4  He wants to eliminate the central bank?

He's planning to become ZImbabwe.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/24/2007 13:45 Comments || Top||


Europe
Sweden: Man arrested for 1985 murder; Temptress still at large
A 57-year-old Swedish citizen of Iraqi origin has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the 1985 murder of a former Iraqi agent in Stockholm.

Agent Majid Hussein was lured by an Iraqi temptress to the Domus Hotel in Stockholm, where he was killed. Police have believed from the outset that the killing was ordered by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The man now in police custody is suspected of involvement in setting up the crime: "I contend that he brought together the so-called temptress and the soon-to-be victim," said prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand.

The man was remanded in custody in Stockholm on Friday. News agency TT reports that the man was arrested on Wednesday.

The man's arrest follows fresh appeals by Swedish security service Säpo for new evidence in the case: prosecutors' deadline to press charges runs out in two years.

Majid Hussein defected to Sweden after previously serving as an agent for the Iraqi dictator. His body was found in March 1985 in Grödinge, near Södertälje, south of Stockholm. The remains had been cut into 48 pieces and stuffed into two suitcases.

The man arrested this week came to Sweden in 1979. He is being held 'on probable cause', a legal term meaning the evidence against him is considered compelling. Despite this, Lindstrand was emphasizing on Friday that the investigation was at a sensitive stage, saying that the fact that the murder took place 23 years ago meant "the evidence is by no means simple."

A warrant for the arrest of the alleged temptress, who went by the false name Jamila al-Shafej, was put out in December 1985.

The woman claimed to be from Lebanon, but the address on her false Lebanese passport does not exist. She left Sweden on January 10th 1985 and flew to Casablanca via Copenhagen. It is not known what then happened to her. According to the false passport, she would be 55 today.

Prosecutors last month released a photograph of Jamila al-Shafej. Officials circulated the picture to Iraqi newspapers and around the Iraqi community in Sweden in the hope of securing new evidence.

Lindstrand says the appeal brought in new information about the woman "but we don't have an extradition warrant ready to go." He said the woman's location had still not been established.

Swedish-Kurdish author Kurdo Baksi has campaigned for action on the murder. He said on Friday that he was pleased by the progress.

"I am very pleased that the most barbaric murder on Swedish territory is on its way to being solved. Today is a great day," he said.

Baksi has formally accused Iraq's former information minister Mohammed Said al-Sharif - nicknamed Baghdad Bob and Comical Ali for his media performances in the 2003 Iraq war - of involvement in the murder. Sharif was Iraqi Ambassador in Stockholm at the time of the killing.
Posted by: mrp || 11/24/2007 09:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Collapse of Rail, Subway Strike Is a First Success for Sarkozy
President Sarkozy of France is on the verge of a breakthrough in his ambitious plan to wean his country off the restrictive working practices he believes stand in the way of national prosperity.

Yesterday, the strike of rail and subway workers that has crippled France for nine days was clearly crumbling, as workers began returning to work in large numbers and union branches conceded that support for the dispute is collapsing. "We think a dynamic of return to work has begun," Julie Vion, a spokeswoman for France's state-owned railroad network, SNCF, said.

Union leaders began to concede defeat yesterday. "We have to face reality. Since yesterday's negotiations, things have changed. The strike is no longer the solution. The strike strategy is no longer winning," a leader of the Sud union representing Paris underground railway workers, Philippe Touzet, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Ask the PATCO guys how it feels.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: || 11/24/2007 00:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Someone want to explain to me how students can go on strike, especially as they don't have jobs?

If I would have gone "on strike" when I was in college, I and all my striking friends would have missed classes and probably failed.
Posted by: gromky || 11/24/2007 3:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Students join the mob and add numbers to the opposition - that's all. Plus they are seen as idealistic and intellectual so to the common person in a common socialistic culture they are all knowing. The trouble is that strikes and student demonstrations and anarchy are getting pretty passe in the world as they prefer "Girls Gone Wild" rather than the World Gone Crazy.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 11/24/2007 12:29 Comments || Top||


French prosecutors throw out Rumsfeld torture case
PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutors' office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday. The plaintiffs, who included the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the left-progressive-communist U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said Rumsfeld had authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses.

The FIDH said it had received a letter from the prosecutors' office ruling that Rumsfeld benefited from a "customary" immunity from prosecution granted to heads of state and government and foreign ministers, even after they left office. It said in a statement it was "astonished at such a mistaken argument" and said customary immunity from prosecution did not exist under international law.
Pro'ly not, you're just being blown off. How's it feel?
The suit was filed in October during a visit to France by Rumsfeld.
Posted by: || 11/24/2007 00:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad


EU agrees funding for Galileo system
Posted by: lotp || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They'll take it out of the Airbus profits.
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/24/2007 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  An EU diplomat said Germany, the biggest net contributor to the 27-nation bloc's coffers, voted against the agreement but was outvoted.

this is gonna be fun... 27 nations [shakes head]

The presidency spokesman confirmed the decision was not unanimous but declined to comment on who had voted against it.

The deal came after the European Commission proposed redividing the tenders for Galileo in a bid to meet German demands that no one aerospace firm should dominate the project.

The EU executive warned it would have to drop the prestige industrial project if there was no agreement among member states on public funding by the end of this year.

Supporters say it is a vital technological platform for Europe, but critics say it could be a costly white elephant because the U.S. system already has a dominant market position and Russia and China are working on their own systems.

i hope they go thru with it and fight like hell!
[:) ima bad boy]
Posted by: Red Dawg || 11/24/2007 4:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Seafarious----LOL!

EU Executive = Triumvirate^3. Good luck at getting anything done. Charging fees for global positioning services that everyone gets for free from the US constellation and the Russian GLONASS. Now that is a real business plan!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/24/2007 12:17 Comments || Top||

#4  In December 2004, India reached an agreement with Russia to jointly develop the Russian Glonass global navigation satellite system. Under the agreement, India will become the sole partner of Russia on Glonass development, replenishment, and future use, and the Glonass satellites can be launched from India or Russia using either Indian or Russian launch vehicles and can be available for use by civilian and military users in both India and Russia
Posted by: john frum || 11/24/2007 14:42 Comments || Top||

#5  It's really simple, AP. They will require everyone to use devices that will only work with the Galileo System.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/24/2007 16:19 Comments || Top||


NeoNazis carve swastika in girl's skin
A suspected neo-Nazi has been quizzed over allegations he carved a swastika in the skin of a teenage girl who came to the defence of an immigrant, police said Friday.

The 17-year-old victim told police her attacker was among a group of four shaven-headed young men molesting a 6-year-old girl from Eastern Europe in the east German town of Mittweida. The teenager said that when she tried to help the girl three members of the group held her back while the fourth carved a swastika on her hip.

Police traced the assailant to the nearby town of Burgstaedt, but a magistrate declined to issue an arrest warrant for lack of evidence, a police spokesman said. A search of the suspect's home turned up symbols of the neo-Nazi group Sturm 34, which was banned in April this year by the state of Saxony, where Mittweida is located.

The town has witnessed a spate of racially motivated attacks this year. Sturm 34's leader is currently on trial for assault.
Posted by: lotp || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Such heroic specimens of the master race, molest a 6 year old and then assault the slightly older girl who comes to her rescue. Reminds me of these time-honored lyrics sung to the tune of the Colonel Bogey March (familiar from "Bridge on the River Kwai")

Hitler has only got one ball,
Göring has two but very small,
Himmler is somewhat sim'lar,
But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.

Posted by: Hupumble the Rasher9568 || 11/24/2007 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Most of these pukes are would be wife beaters too. We have our Stormfont here that consists of the same low life retards.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/24/2007 0:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Small consolation that Eichmann would have stuffed scum like this into the ovens ahead of the Jews.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/24/2007 2:05 Comments || Top||

#4  well this does fit in that they have the same agenda as the muzzies
Posted by: sinse || 11/24/2007 13:02 Comments || Top||


China to order up to 150 Airbus jets during Sarkozy visit
A quick response to recent threats by the EU over the trade gap with China?
Posted by: lotp || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm sure this has been in the works - I mean, what are they going to do, buy Boeing?
Posted by: gromky || 11/24/2007 4:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Since when have the Chinese been worried about safety? And heck, they have all those dollars sitting around devaluing anyway, might as well dump the lot on Euros [who if they're smart will hold on to them for when sanity hits the financial markets again and their paper sinks again - like when Iran threatens its oil neighbors with nukes].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/24/2007 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  They're going to be used to transport sightseers to the Three Gorges Dam.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/24/2007 14:40 Comments || Top||

#4  China has a long history of rejecting higher quality American hardware in favor of buying any trash that isn't made in the USA. It will be a pleasure to watch other Asian airlines that buy Boeing's Dreamliner eat China's lunch as fuel costs erode passenger mile profitability.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/24/2007 21:36 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Calif. Dems ignores activist bid to censure Feinstein
I just love it when they eat their own.
SACRAMENTO—A move to censure Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in part for voting to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, fizzled late Saturday at a state Democratic Party executive board meeting in Anaheim.

State party Chairman Art Torres said the motion, sponsored by left-leaning activists, was excessive and would divide the party at a crucial time just before the 2008 race for the White House. "It is not deserving of a censure," he said. "Send your letters to her, send your petitions to her. Let her know how you feel about these issues. But to censure, which to me means condemnation, we're feeding right into the Republicans' hands."
Can we censure her for her using the DoD to deliver insider deals to her family?
Feinstein was one of six Democrats in the Senate to vote for Mukasey's confirmation last week, despite his refusal to say whether waterboarding, an interrogation practice designed to make subjects feel as though they are drowning, amounted to torture.

Activists also are angry at Feinstein for casting a pivotal vote in the confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick to a federal appeals court in New Orleans. His critics say he was insensitive toward black people and gays as a state appeals court judge in Mississippi. Feinstein defended the Southwick vote last month in a speech on the Senate floor, saying that while she agreed he had made mistakes in some cases, they did not "define his views."

With the censure, activists were seeking to put the party on record as being disappointed in Feinstein "for ignoring Democratic principles and falling so far below the standard of what we expect of our elected officials."
Now there's an insult: below what even these cretins expect?
Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign, one of the groups that sponsored the resolution, said he was satisfied that they'd made their point. "We will be watching to make sure she votes in ways that make sense. And if not, we'll be back," he said.
I sure hope so. Pass the popcorn!
Posted by: || 11/24/2007 00:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Feinstein certainly didn't get my vote, but she always looks better when she says: "Hey, at least I'm not Barbara Boxer"....

damning with faint praise
Posted by: Frank G || 11/24/2007 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  DiFi only cares about DiFi. Don't be fooled by her recent votes. Se is reacting to a Conservative swing in California (yes I said Conservative). The Dem party in California is falling fast because of scandals, lies, and poor political choices. The elected leadership is attempting to ammend election laws to circumvent term limits, illegal immigrants, and tax laws. Not a good choice.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 11/24/2007 13:03 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
NUCLEAR EXAGGERATION: Is Atomic Radiation as Dangerous as We Thought?
Posted by: john frum || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great article. While it does indeed confirm the Soviet Union's nuclear environmental rape, it also casts a lot of doubt on the hysteria surrounding exposure to radiological materials.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/24/2007 3:04 Comments || Top||

#2  To see THAT headline - in Speigel, no less! - is just a reminder of how much the world has changed. Wow...just, wow.
Posted by: gromky || 11/24/2007 3:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Here's another choice quote from the article.

In their view, the plant management committed "atomic genocide" against the ethnic Tatars living in the area.

But as the analyses show, even this accusation is exaggerated.


Double WOW!! An accusation of (1) ethnic (2) genocide usually gets a mag like Spiegel roaring for the white males responsible to be put into reeducation camps. But this time, they immediately refute it? And quote studies by other white males as the reason?

Has someone kidnapped the editorial staff of Spiegel and replaced them with cyborgs or aliens or something? Or maybe they've been implanted with Halliburton Brain Controllers[tm].
Posted by: gromky || 11/24/2007 3:45 Comments || Top||

#4  I notice the absence of real serious studies of my generation who lived down wind for nearly two decades of open air nuclear testing conducted in the 50s and early 60s. I've never seen any national study that attributes various ills and infirmities, like so many other bogus governmental/university studies [like red dye no. 3, etc]. Its not like we don't have the computing power to remodel the weather patterns and population densities for the period.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/24/2007 8:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't forget all the nadrs irradiated by the foot machine at Buster Brown.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/24/2007 8:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Let's define terms. Radiation is like the light from a flashlight, on or off. Radioactive particles are physical objects that give off radiation at various rates.

There are several kinds of radiation with different effects. And a whole bunch of different kinds of radioactive particles, each behaving very differently from the others and giving off different kinds and combinations of radiation. Particles also vary tremendously on how long they remain radioactive.

On top of that, people's bodies react very differently to the same time of radiation or radioactive particles. One person can become sick from a dental X-ray, another may get a whopping big exposure of radiation with little or no effect. It matters how much you get, over what time period, where in the body you get it, and what kinds you get.

On top of that, in nature, contamination with radioactive particles is often based on the chemical properties and weight of the particles. Just because something is radioactive doesn't mean it is chemically poisonous or not. And different species of plants and animals have totally different responses to all of the above.

Put it all together and you end up with a range that on one side is "nuclear is harmless", and on the other, "nuclear is deadly". With all sorts of gray area in between.

Most of the variables matter at all times if you are trying to figure out how dangerous a situation is. The best results you can obtain are under very controlled laboratory experiments, and even they can only allow you to predict in generalities.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/24/2007 9:40 Comments || Top||

#7  The sun is a runaway nuclear reaction, you're exposed to nuclear radiation every day (Sunlight)
OK, everyone panic now.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/24/2007 13:06 Comments || Top||

#8  My father was actually one of the researchers, poking around in the atomic-testing area in Nevada/Utah in the early fifties. (Operation Plumb-bob was what it said on a framed certificate that he had for years)He was a research biologist, and apparently one of his duties was to trap animals, and investigate them and their burrows for residual radiation, deformations and abnormalities.

He insists that they never found all that much. Over the years, people have found that very hard to believe, but apparently Dad may have been onto something, after all.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 11/24/2007 13:21 Comments || Top||

#9  He was a research biologist, and apparently one of his duties was to trap animals, and investigate them and their burrows for residual radiation, deformations and abnormalities.

SGT Mom: This bit would have no connection at all to your being a life-long animal rights advocate and militant vegetarian?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/24/2007 14:12 Comments || Top||

#10  There seems to be lively animal life in the contaminated area near Chernobyl. Just a guess: I'd suspect the critters are slower-growing than usual, with extra energy going into spare protein copies. Should be easy to test using a few mice from the zone.
Posted by: James || 11/24/2007 16:13 Comments || Top||

#11  Tres amusing, Besoker!
I admit to being a sucker for our dumb chums, though - but Dad was always bringing something home from the lab. Like a rosy boa constrictor, some pocket mice and a kangaroo rat as a pet for my little brother. Err... not all at once, or to be co-located, either. That would be a little too much circle-of-life, nature red in tooth and claw sort of thing.

And don't get me started on my stint in retail, where I worked in the fur salon of an upscale department store. Really.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 11/24/2007 16:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Chernobyl had only five very different kinds of nuclear problems. If you know what their rules are, it makes sense.

The first was that the reactor itself was like a giant bonfire. That is why it had to be entombed in concrete, to do something like dampen the "light" given off by the reactor. Once that was done, if you were more than a given distance from it, you were okay. The tomb is unstable, however, and will need to be rebuilt.

The second problem was that a lot of the nuclear material melted its way out the bottom of the reactor into its basement, "like a great big, glowing gopher", as some wit said at the time. This was a problem because the water table was high in the area, and the reactor was next to a giant lake. They actually sent a robot underground to look at the "Chernobylite", as they called it. It is still a big unknown.

The third problem was and might still include the throwing of heavy radioactive particles in the air. But these are so heavy that they don't travel very far from the reactor before landing. Whether they land on water or air, then tend to sink over time, the water and soil buffering the radiation they continue to emit.

The fourth problem were the two light isotopes thrown into the air in quantity. Iodine, which had a half life of about 2 weeks and is readily uptaken by the thyroid gland. It is all gone now. Mostly children were given iodine supplements, because once full, the gland uptakes no more and it is eliminated from the body as excess.

More dangerous is the cesium, which is readily uptaken both by plants and by bone marrow. It has a half life of 30 years. So in 10 years, half of it will be gone. It is mitigated by burying plants contaminated with it, and by dissipation.

The fifth problem is our lack of knowledge of how these problems will behave in the future. We just don't know how susceptible other life forms and people are to much of this in a real world setting, compared to in a laboratory. For that, we have to wait and see.

Importantly, Chernobyl should be compared with the much more serious Russian nuclear disaster at Mayak in 1957. A conventional explosion of nuclear waste containing lots of different isotopes turned a large lush, green area like Indiana, into a desert wasteland. And it remains a desert wasteland to this day.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/24/2007 17:05 Comments || Top||

#13  This is the German OK for our use of atomic weapons on Iran and the Middle East.

Posted by: danking70 || 11/24/2007 18:13 Comments || Top||

#14  This is the German OK for our use of atomic weapons on Iran and the Middle East.

Posted by: danking70 || 11/24/2007 18:19 Comments || Top||

#15  Actually, the Russians have had FIVE MAJOR nuclear accidents. Chernobyl was only the last of the series. The reactor that exploded at Tomsk killed a bunch of Russian scientists, spread contamination over a pretty wide area, but did no long-term contamination like Chernobyl. The site is greatly overgrown with vegetation. The accident at Chelyabinsk didn't breach the containment building, but did leak radioactive water into the ground.

I was in England when the fallout from Chernobyl supposedly blanketed about 2/3 of the country. From what I gathered, most of the radiation was from alpha and beta particles. Most of the gamma radiation was from heavier particles that didn't reach past Scandinavia. The Brits spent a great deal of time and effort checking sheep and cattle for signs of strontium-90 contamination and cesium absorbtion, but I don't remember if they found much of anything.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/24/2007 20:40 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Aceh invites tourists to see Sharia law in action
Posted by: Fred || 11/24/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  For those who wish to see gays and women hanged, burned with acid, stoned, shot, gang raped and covered in sacks. Get yer tickets now.
Posted by: Woozle Grereck5422 || 11/24/2007 5:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I donated to a Thai charity set up at a local bank, after the tsunami. I gave nothing to the Indos because I knew the mullahs would get it.
Posted by: McZoid || 11/24/2007 8:22 Comments || Top||

#3  No doubt it'll be a 'guided tour' where only the 'peace loving' side of sharia is sown. Must be a very short tour.

Any hangings, gang-rapes, stonings and the like will be done in the back country - away from prying infidel eyes.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/24/2007 10:34 Comments || Top||

#4  We have already seen shari'a law in action. It is called the 9-11 atrocity.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/24/2007 12:07 Comments || Top||



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Sat 2007-11-24
  Tanks deployed in Beirut to prevent possible violence
Fri 2007-11-23
  Lahoud stepping down at midnight
Thu 2007-11-22
  Iraqi Security Forces detain 81 suspected extremists
Wed 2007-11-21
  Berri postpones Lebanon presidential vote for fourth time
Tue 2007-11-20
  Israel to free 441 Palestinian prisoners
Mon 2007-11-19
  Israel agrees to return 20,000 Palestinian refugees
Sun 2007-11-18
  Negroponte meets with Perv
Sat 2007-11-17
  40 militants killed as gunships pound Swat and Shangla
Fri 2007-11-16
  Philippines reaches deal with MILF
Thu 2007-11-15
  Morticia Hopes to Form Nat'l Unity Gov't
Wed 2007-11-14
  TNSM spreads outside Swat
Tue 2007-11-13
  Blasts rips through Philippines Congress building
Mon 2007-11-12
  Seven dead at festivities honoring Yasser
Sun 2007-11-11
  Thousands flee Mogadishu, over 80 killed
Sat 2007-11-10
  Sheikh al-Ubaidi, four others from Salvation Council in Diyala killed by suicide boomer

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