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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Muslim? fraternity uproar
Frat Accused In Alleged Goat Sex Hazing Incident
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Some Bowling Green, Ky., police officers found more than they bargained for after stopping by a Western Arabia Kentucky University fraternity party early Thursday.

The officers discovered a live goat stuffed into a storage room of the Alpha Gamma Rho house with no food or water, standing in its own urine and feces, according to WBKO-TV in Bowling Green.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/17/2006 13:44 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If it was Texas maybe they could claim it was for cabreza barbecue? In Kentucky it's gotta be pig for barbecue. Unless ... the fraternity doesn't like pork for some reason ... hmmm,
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/17/2006 13:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I am just glad it wasn't Florida.
Posted by: DragonFly || 02/17/2006 20:05 Comments || Top||


IMPORTANT SCIENCE NEWS....
In pharmacology, all drugs have two names, a trade name and generic name. For example, the trade name of Tylenol also has a generic name of Acetaminophen. Aleve is also called Naproxen. Amoxil is also called Amoxicillin and Advil is also called Ibuprofen.

The FDA has been looking for a generic name for Viagra. After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently announced that after considering Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin.

In a separate announcement Pfizer Corp. announced today that VIAGRA will soon
be available in liquid form, and will be marketed by Pepsi Cola as a power beverage suitable for use as a mixer. It will now be possible for a man to literally pour himself a stiff one. Obviously we can no longer call this a soft drink, and it gives new meaning to "cocktails", "highballs" or just a good old-fashioned "stiff drink."

Pepsi will market the new concoction as: "MOUNT & DO
He's here all week folks, and remember to hit the tip jar (as it were).
Posted by: raptor || 02/17/2006 08:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  it gives new meaning to "cocktails", "highballs"

A sorry day indeed, when giraffes can no longer walk into a bar and shout, "The highballs are on me!"

Pepsi will market the new concoction as: "MOUNT & DO

I fail to see where this will change things in the least for ventriloquists. After all, they'll mount anything.

At least this will lend new cachet to those previously considered as "hard drinkers." However, some things never change. Whatever form impotency cures take, those who have trouble swallowing will still end up with a stiff neck.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 15:15 Comments || Top||

#2  DOH!

Pepsi will market the new concoction as: "MOUNT & DO

I fail to see where this will change things in the least for ventriloquists taxidermists. After all, they'll mount anything.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 15:16 Comments || Top||

#3  A while back, a major pharma company was getting ready to roll out their new product. It was all very hush-hush until they debuted the promo advertisement, announcing the name for the drug to the managers assembled in a theater.

They showed the film, then one junior executive audibly said "Eek!", and put his hand up to tell them why the name for the new drug was not going to be acceptable.

They did not appreciate his explaining to them why the chosen name, which sounded so catchy and was easy to remember, absolutely, positively could not be used.

He had a point. The name of the new drug was "Xyklon".
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/17/2006 18:04 Comments || Top||

#4  The name of the new drug was "Xyklon".

Should prove a smash hit in Iran and thereabouts. Built in demand from what I can tell.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 20:58 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Hugo: "Washington Is Crazy!"
And trust me, Hugo knows crazy.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mocked Washington's foreign policy as "crazy" Thursday for labeling his government as one of the region's biggest dangers just days after making a diplomatic overture to mend frayed ties. "Are they crazy?" Chavez said, chuckling to reporters. "Could it be true what the people in the street are saying? That Chavez is driving them crazy?"
"...Or maybe these incredbly low prices are crazy!" Whoops, channeling the local used car dealers. Sorry, hugo - pray, continue...
Chavez was responding to comments made earlier Thursday in Washington by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the House Foreign Relations Committee: "The Western Hemisphere is our neighborhood. One of the biggest problems is Venezuela."
"The Chavez government is attempting to influence Venezuela's neighbors away from democratic processes," Rice said, adding that the country's close ties to Cuba were "particularly dangerous" for regional stability.

"See this aggression?" Chavez said. "They are the ones that attack us, everyday. They've tried for some years to isolate us, to block us.
"Pay NO attention to that crazy sh*t I spout on a regular basis!"
They've failed and they will fail because they are wrong," he said. "World opinion is with Venezuela."
..Until we bitchslap you the way we had to do Noriega...remember him?
Thursday's dispute reverses what had appeared to be slight detente in the two countries' strained relations. On Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon invited Venezuela's Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez to a meeting in Washington that was welcomed by both sides as a significant step toward greater communication despite political tensions.

"The government of (President) Bush does not have a foreign policy," Chavez said.
Actually yes we do...and unfortunately, YOU'RE one of the reasons for it.
"I don't think Mr. Bush is in charge in Washington.
"It's the Joooooos!!"
Other factors are in charge, and so as soon as someone shows a conciliatory sign toward Venezuela, the vultures come out and destroy any initiative to come together," he added. "That isn't a government, that's madness."
"...Or they send Cheney out to shoot you!!"

Relations between Chavez and the Bush administration hit new lows in recent days after Washington expelled a high-ranking Venezuelan diplomat in response to Caracas booting out a U.S. embassy official for alleged spying. Chavez, a fierce Washington critic, accuses the U.S. government of repeatedly trying to discredit his government and orchestrate his ouster. American officials deny those charges but accuse him of authoritarian tendencies and threatening democracies in the region.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/17/2006 12:26 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  chavez is not only an idiot but a hypocrite too, him and saddam were best buds...
Posted by: bgrebel || 02/17/2006 19:12 Comments || Top||

#2  hola Allende Chavez!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2006 20:20 Comments || Top||


Haiti names Preval president
HAITI declared Rene Preval, a one-time ally of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's next president today after reaching a deal on vote fraud claims that averted a feared outbreak of violence. Mr Preval, a former president opposed by the same wealthy elite who helped drive Aristide from power two years ago but passionately supported by the Caribbean country's poor, claimed "massive fraud" in the February 7 election had deprived him of a first-round victory in one of the world's poorest countries.

"We have won. Now we are going to fight for parliament," Mr Preval told the Haitian Press Agency. After that, he secluded himself in his sister's hilltop house outside Port-au-Prince and aides said he was unlikely to make any further comment.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gosh, I guess it is all about intimidation, rigging, and fraud counting the votes. Whoda thunk it? Stalin would be so proud.
Posted by: .com || 02/17/2006 7:54 Comments || Top||


Europe
Lassie Clemenceau come home!

French President Jacques Chirac yesterday ordered the asbestos-lined garbage barge warship Clemenceau back home from the Indian Ocean, ending a months-long debacle that has embarrassed the government. The outcome marks a major victory for environmentalists, who argued that sending the ship to India for breaking posed a serious environmental and health hazard.

Mr. Chirac announced the move minutes after France's highest court, the State Council, ordered the ship's transfer stopped in response to legal action by Greenpeace and three anti-asbestos groups. The warship debacle threatened to overshadow Mr. Chirac's state visit to India that begins Sunday. Most seagoing ships end their service at shipyards in India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, where activists say they are cut up by unprotected workers, taking a grim toll on human health and the environment. The company that was set to dismantle the Clemenceau in Gujarat state in western India said the French decision was a "big blow" and could cost thousands of jobs for the Indian ship-breaking industry.

Paris also had been under mounting pressure at home to bring back the warship, with the Socialist opposition denouncing the affair as a "fiasco" and part of the press accusing the government of incompetence. The former pride of the French navy and still the most effective carrier was blocked for 10 days from crossing the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean and the Red seas, when Egyptian officials expressed pollution fears. The hull, which was being towed under French navy escort, then was ordered to stay out of Indian territorial waters until the Indian Supreme Court decided whether to allow it into the country. That court has not ruled in the case.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Jackal || 02/17/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thats a funny-looking BISMARCK, NELSON, IOWA-CLASS, or RICHELIEU, etc. iff there ever was one.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/17/2006 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Given the size of the carrier, it almost sounds like they're saying it was built out of asbestos...
Posted by: Phil || 02/17/2006 0:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I read yesterday that the Oriskany had been cleaned up enough to be allowed to be scuttled off Fla to build a dive-sight/reef...

tell me again about the hyper-efficient europeans
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2006 0:28 Comments || Top||

#4  "asbestos-lined"? OK scuttle it in the deepest place they can tow it to.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 02/17/2006 1:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Sinking the Oriskany right off Pensacola. Hurricanes held it up for awhile.
Posted by: 6 || 02/17/2006 8:24 Comments || Top||

#6  They did asbestoes they could. Couldn't remove all of it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/17/2006 10:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Go to your room, DB.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/17/2006 11:31 Comments || Top||

#8  look for an unfortunate incident during the tow that cause it to sink....
better yet, paint one of the offensive MO-toons on it and let the seethers take shots at the MO-toon; enough and the MO-toon goes away.
Posted by: USN, ret. || 02/17/2006 17:10 Comments || Top||


French wine industry plunging into state of crisis
This story makes me a little melancholy for some reason...
... try a nice, light Australian zinfandel ...
Thousands of French winegrowers took to the streets in towns across southern France on Wednesday to raise the alarm over the crisis gripping their sector and demand more help from the state. In Nimes, around 3,000 people marched behind a banner reading, in the local Occitan language: "Faren tot peta, gardaren li vigno" — "We will blow everything up but keep the vineyards". Trailing the procession were a group of farmers and hunters, with donkeys, goats and sheep in tow. According to the head of the local winegrowers' association, nine out of 10 vineyards in the area around Nimes are struggling to make ends meet. Large protests were also held in Avignon and the Mediterranean towns of Beziers and Narbonne, where protestors marched to demand a state moratorium on tax and social security payments to compensate for their plummeting revenues. In Narbonne, 5,000 people — winegrowers, but also farm union leaders, lawmakers and local clergymen — marched under banners reading: "Break with the EU, to defend wine and winegrowers!"

"We want an answer from the government by tomorrow morning," said the head of the area's winegrowers' union, Philippe Vergnes, accusing authorities of treating winegrowers with "contempt".
No, that would be us Americans ...
More than 100 winegrowers from the southwestern Bordeaux region, faced with their worst crisis in 30 years, presented the regional governor's office with a list of their demands earlier Wednesday. France's wine industry faces serious problems caused by overproduction, falling demand at home and intense competition in export markets from 'New World' producers such as Australia, Chile and California. Many protestors also vented their anger at large retail chains — accused of driving down prices — and public health campaigns which they say have turned French consumers off wine.
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/17/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why are they worried? Its not like they are going to be allowed to produce wine anyway, after Sharia is imposed. If anything, by having their wine industry collapse now, there will be less trauma more important things to worry about when all the other...features...of islamic law kick in.
Posted by: N guard || 02/17/2006 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  their government and urban elites pushed policies which led to a backlash among consumers, harshened by a wine glut on the market. Get over it. When I see Paris's gutters run with red wine and strikes/uprisings among farmers demanding Chirac's head, I'll smirk and shed a slight tear
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2006 0:24 Comments || Top||

#3  part of the problem is that they rejected modern, scientific management of grape cultivation and wine production which has produced higher quality wines at lower costs.

they wanted to adhere to traditional practices. quaint, but less efficient.

this is the fallout of those decisions.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/17/2006 7:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Um, I think you left out the little bit about their political leaders being duplicitous back-stabbing pricks and assholes, pissing off the deepest pockets on the entire planet and causing sales to fall precipitously, there, PD. But your point is taken, heh. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 02/17/2006 7:48 Comments || Top||

#5  PlanetDan

When you aim for the high-end customers then being expensive actually increases your sales: your customers don't want a beverage that your average can afford and in addition your outrageous prices mean nothing to them: Bill Gates can afford to drink only wines at 1,000$ per bottle: his annual consumption will be only a few seconds of his revenue.

Being very expensive has ever been one of teh secrets of the French producers of Bordeaux and Champagne.
Posted by: JFM || 02/17/2006 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  from the geography i dont know that these are high end guys. We forget that France produces oceans of "vin ordinaire" thats consumed domestically. Drops in domestic consumption could be really hard on these people.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/17/2006 10:05 Comments || Top||

#7  LH, I think you're right. I posted about a year ago about another demonstration in the same region, and A5089 or JFM said these are the table wine producers. And I still feel sad, because a nice glass of good French wine is one of Western civilization's finest achievements and I'd hate for that to go away.
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/17/2006 10:12 Comments || Top||

#8  ...with donkeys, goats and sheep in tow.

Look, an Arab harem! Whooo hoo!
Posted by: Raj || 02/17/2006 10:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Look, it's happening in Kentucky, too...
Posted by: Raj || 02/17/2006 10:24 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey Seafarious, try Golan Heights wines.
Posted by: gromgoru || 02/17/2006 10:54 Comments || Top||

#11 
Crap, I was gonna type some witty and unique comment, but N guard stole thought in the 1st post. You gotta comment early on Rantburg!!

Posted by: macofromoc || 02/17/2006 10:56 Comments || Top||

#12  I actually prefer Spanish and Australian wine to French.
I just see this as more proof that the EU economic and socialist model is f00ked.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 02/17/2006 11:17 Comments || Top||

#13  Um, I think you left out the little bit about their political leaders being duplicitous back-stabbing pricks and assholes, pissing off the deepest pockets on the entire planet and causing sales to fall precipitously

Sorta sums it up. To quote Monty Python:

Never kill a customer!

We'll leave out how the Australians are now producing some of the most innovative (cabernet - shiraz blends) and entertaining (white shiraz) wines on the planet. Good to see one of our best allies eating France's lunch.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 12:13 Comments || Top||

#14  "This story makes me a little melancholy for some reason..."

Yeah, me too, until I read the article while enjoying a nice American IPA home brew:)

Mmmm home brew...
Posted by: Hyper || 02/17/2006 15:24 Comments || Top||

#15  "Break with the EU, to defend wine and winegrowers!"

Boy, that EU thing looks like it's working out real well, don't it? When is that "economic powerhouse" thingy supposed to show up?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/17/2006 15:33 Comments || Top||

#16  Danish flag sales are up, tu.
Posted by: Darrell || 02/17/2006 18:35 Comments || Top||

#17  You gotta comment early on Rantburg!!
The tyranny of time zones.

Perth, Australia
Posted by: phil_b || 02/17/2006 23:06 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Richard Dreyfus Sez - 'Impeach Bush!'
Halfway to the nuthouse, he is...
(CNSNews.com) - Richard Dreyfuss, the actor who starred in movies ranging from "Jaws" to "Mr. Holland's Opus," told an audience in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that "there are causes worth fighting for," and one of those is the impeachment of President George W. Bush. "There are causes worth fighting for even if you know that you will lose," Dreyfuss said during a speech at the National Press Club. "Unless you are willing to accept torture as part of a normal American political lexicon, unless you are willing to accept that leaving the Geneva Convention is fine and dandy, if you accept the expansion of wiretapping as business as usual, the only way to express this now is to embrace the difficult and perhaps embarrassing process of impeachment."

Noting that the process was established by the country's "founders, who we revere to check executive abuse with congressional balance," Dreyfuss said impeachment "is a statement that we refuse to endorse bad behavior."

"If we refuse to debate the appropriateness of the process of impeachment, we endorse that behavior, and we approve the enlargement of executive power," regardless of whoever may occupy the White House in the future, he said. "And don't kid yourselves: No one ever gives up power, ever," Dreyfuss added. "Now, it is not your job as the press to impeach George Bush," the actor stated. However, people in the media should "maintain the integrity of that debate" by not dismissing the topic out of hand as partisan or unpatriotic.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Raj || 02/17/2006 10:25 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When the hot Civil War starts, asshats like this will be looking around wondering how it all happened? Nothing like stoking up the embers to get the old fire started. When it settles they'll be wringing their hands crying about the consequences, never ever once looking in the mirror.
Posted by: Elmetch Hupolump7325 || 02/17/2006 10:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Another acting career destroyed by Bush Derangement Syndrome. BDS is a devastating disease, leaving its victims helpless in the grip of a white-hot hatred burning like the fire of a thousand suns. BDS causes high blood pressure, mental illness, and in extreme cases, the heartbreak of psoriasis. Yet there is hope. New research shows it can be treated, and perhaps even someday cured. If you or a loved one has BDS, don't suffer in silence--seek help! Visit the website of the BDS Assistance Society at http://www.rantburg.com, or attend a meeting of your local chapter of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

The preceeding has been a public service of the Ad Council, the BDS Assistance Society, and your Rantburg Chamber of Commerce.
Posted by: Mike || 02/17/2006 10:52 Comments || Top||

#3  "middle-of-the-roado" not good for possums or actors, same result, run over by reality.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/17/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm all for a return to the rules of civility. But it seems to me that the rules of civility went out the window in the '70s with Waregate and it has only gotten worse sense then. Unfortunately on both sides of the poitical fence. Also debate and dissent are one of the strengths of our nation. But when one engages in dissent and debate one should also offer reasoned choices that represent their view point. Not just shrilly screaming their view point. Just my $.02
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 02/17/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Dreyfus, dreyfus .... oh ya. That crappy actor with the French name. Isn't he dead yet? Oh wait, that is just his career.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 02/17/2006 11:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Um, I'm thinking "No", Dickie.
Posted by: .com || 02/17/2006 11:04 Comments || Top||

#7  To restore true American values, the actor called for children to be taught "the tools of debate and dissent," as well as a return to the principle of civility, which he called "the oxygen that democracies require else they become poisoned and die, as this democracy will."

So, here we have yet another (former) Hollywood star calling out against the evil Republican’s repression of descent... on CNN! Does the word “ironic” mean anything to you Richard? Furthermore, he calls for “a return to the principle of civility.” Dreyfuss, you moron, have you actually listened to the American Left at any time in the last six years? Your own side (and yes, you’re a liberal) has absolutely no interest in “civility.” Furthermore, fool, go back and read the text of your own interview. You practically demand massive censorship of the media:

"Television did this. Television created the sound bite and then shrunk it," the actor said. "Television replaced words with images so that people make extraordinary decisions based not on prose or any attempt at analysis," but on pictures instead.

I assure you Richard that I am more than capable of making “extraordinary decisions” based completely on analysis of the written word. Or television, for that matter. The medium is not as important as the message. Most Americans are capable of making informed decisions. Has it occurred to you that the uniformed, sound-bite-and-television driven society you are describing is, well, liberal California? But it gets even better:

"Watch me lose my sense of humor if people accuse me of treason," Dreyfuss said before mocking two of the Fox News Channel's most popular hosts. "'That's not very O'Reilly of you, Mister Smarty-Pants,' or 'What would Sean Hannity have to say about that, Mister Too-Complex-for-Your-Own-Good?'"

Nobody is accusing you of treason, Richard. This is real life: we aren’t in one of your movies. You aren’t a hero. Nor are you your own ancestor . Your shameless attempt to get O’Reilly and Hannity to mention you on their shows is doomed to failure. Nobody really cares about you. Nobody cares what Hollywood idiots have to say anymore.
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/17/2006 11:12 Comments || Top||

#8  SM,

The other thing is his complete lack of historical awareness. Democracies tend to be notoriously uncivil. Consider some of the 19th century presidential elections where opponents were routinely accused of fathering illegitimate children and having a weakness for booze ("He won many a hard fought bottle.").

Like any party that is bereft of ideas and is in a slump, there are two alternatives: self-examination or wild accusations. For our friends the Dems, their rage is directed in three different directions: their opponents, the voters, and the communication process itself. So, for them, Republicans are unspeakably evil, voters ridiculously stupid, and the media impossibly corrupt. How else to explain losing all those elections? Deranged indeed.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 02/17/2006 12:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Are they just soooo cute? They sit there and call for the impeachment of a President, give no reason (or high crimes), and still call themselves "Mainstream". Of course they (LLL) have to go this route because the public would never elect them to office so a coup or something like that is the only chance they have to gain power. This next election is going to be so much fun.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/17/2006 12:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Ironically this article is exactly the thrust of Dreyfuss’s speech. His assertion is that modern journalism has replaced reasoned discussion with sound-bytes and selective quotes designed to breed contempt for dissenting opinions. Intelligent debate has given way to shouting matches intended to foster knee-jerk reactions. See it doesn’t really matter what side of the issue is correct, as long as there is conflict. The facts are merely a conduit to create a narrative. Look no further then the Dick Cheney hunting accident story and how it has morphed into another Reality Show saga. Dreyfuss did NOT call for impeachment of Bush. But that’s the thrust of this “Another Hollywierd Liberal spouts off” story. In reality he used that not-so-subtle topic to call attention to the aloof nature of the press. It’s not that they’re not too timid to take on controversial issues; just the opposite. They’re just too lazy to present a quality product that sells to their masses of “Entwistle arraignment” viewers. You’ve read all of his left leaning pot-shots here. Perhaps you should listen to his entire speech…or not.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/17/2006 13:01 Comments || Top||

#11  Interesting -- when is Hollywood going to decide whether it is a political party, or in the business of distributing entertain?
Posted by: Sherry || 02/17/2006 13:15 Comments || Top||

#12  Sherry - When the Dems formally dump the donk and take the Three Stooges as their logo.
Posted by: Glinemp Ebbomonter1494 || 02/17/2006 14:10 Comments || Top||

#13  This is just sad.

He made some movies I just love. Now I can never watch them again - they would be ruined by his presence.

I guess I should thank Hollyweird, though, for making it so that I don't have to spend much time watching their movies or TV dreck shows - it's freed up lots of time for me to do more important, useful things.


Like watching oil paint dry.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/17/2006 14:32 Comments || Top||

#14  His IMDB biography starts out with this...

American leading man who has played his fair share of irritating pests and brash, ambitious hustlers...

It ends in 1995. Kinda when his career did.
Too bad, Richard. Loved you in "Jaws"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/17/2006 14:34 Comments || Top||

#15  Never, not on my watch.
Posted by: Larry || 02/17/2006 14:36 Comments || Top||

#16  Of course he ignores the explosion in debate and dissent brought about by the internet, because most of it dissent from the kind of views he holds.

In fact, I see this as a call to go back to the good old days of left dominated media monopolies telling people what is 'news' and what they should think about the 'news'.

Those days have gone for ever and even if you laid every washed up actor in the world end-to-end you still can't change that.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/17/2006 19:46 Comments || Top||

#17  I thought after Brokeback we figured out that all those washed up actors do indeed lay end to end.
Posted by: Glavick Angaiger2627 || 02/17/2006 22:20 Comments || Top||

#18  ..as well as a return to the principle of civility, which he called "the oxygen that democracies require else they become poisoned and die, as this democracy will."

No thanks to his comrades-in-arms on the extreme Left.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/17/2006 23:56 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India sees over eight percent economic growth
As I recall, the French are around 1.7% and the Germans 1.3%. Funny how that works.
NEW DELHI - India’s president Thursday announced a series of reform initiatives to spur Asia’s third largest economy and said growth of over eight percent signalled ”better times to come.” “Our economy is on the move,” President Abdul Kalam said, announcing the reform priorities of the ruling Congress-led coalition before the presentation of the budget at the end of the month.

Earlier this month, the government forecast 8.1 percent growth for the financial year to March due to better harvests and surging manufacturing and financial services. This would compare with 7.5 percent expansion the previous year. “This (year’s performance) is probably a precursor of better times to come,” Kalam said, inaugurating parliament’s key parliamentary session.

“The econony is doing so well it has its own momentum,” said R. Balakrishnan, director of Mumbai-based investment advisory firm Parellex Consulting Services. Among major economies India’s growth is surpassed only by China, which accelerated by 9.9 percent in 2005.

However, economists say India needs double-digit growth to lift more than a quarter of its over one billion people out of deep poverty. Creaky infrastructure, notorious red tape and grave power shortages are key blocks to achievement of that goal and are ones the government has vowed to tackle.

Kalam pledged a series of measures, including “world class infrastructure”, a new civil aviation policy, steps to lure foreign investment and a common agriculture market to boost growth. Other steps included plans for a 10-year manufacturing initiative to drive growth as well as high-speed freight corridors in the east and west.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/17/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There will be no >10 percent economic growth unless India reforms its absurd socialist laws.

example: labor laws that prevent a company with more than 100 workers laying them off. A company is unable to deal with a surge in orders because when they fall off, it is stuck with employees on the payroll. So China gets all the textile jobs.

SSR laws (small scale reservation) that restrict certain kinds of goods being made to small enterprises.
Ever wonder why you don't see toys made in India? Well, it is this absurd Gandhian inspired law that says certain goods must be made by cottage industry only. No economies of scale and no mass manufacturing. So China gets all the contracts.

Creaky infrastructure is being generous.
Indian airports look (and smell) like seedy bus stations. The unions will rather see the airports fail than allow private investment.
Power is a joke. Industries are forced to generate their own power because the grid collapses due to demand. The state electricty boards are forced to give free power to farmers (farmers in India, no matter how rich, pay no tax BTW). The farmers then hook electric pumps and pump the groundwater without regard (since power is free) depleting the acquifer levels. The SEBs don't get compensated for all the free power and they are unable to deal with say, slum dwellers who steal power, so the SEBs are insolvent and can't pay for the added generation capacity needed.

There is a perverse, anti-urban politics in India that sees the revenue generated by cities being used to subsidise rural areas. The cities are given almost nothing back so they can't invest in the infrastruture. The cities thus decay.
Add to that, rent restriction laws that give no incetive on property ownsers to maintain their structures, and absurd laws that give tenancy rights to squatters (India is pro-poor you see) and you have the squalid mess that is an Indian city.
Posted by: john || 02/17/2006 5:44 Comments || Top||

#2  And the Congress Party governemtn in power (the same crowd that amended the Indian consitution in the 1970s to declare India a "socialist state" has done little reform.
There is much talk but once the communists protest, nothing is done on labor reforms or infrastructure.

What they have done is pass REGA (the rural employment guarantee scheme) a massive funding of make-work schmes for rural folk that will permit the theft of billions of dollars every year as 'ghost' employees collect salaries for 'jobs' that nobody needs done.

They have also forced the owners of private education schools to accept a quota of so called backward caste folk. Now they are not paying the fees for these students, they are just ordering the administrators to reserve a quota of places for them. The private schools are supposed to absorb the cost of the 20 pervent quota.

They want to extend the job quota for dalits and backward castes (more than 50 percent in governemnt jobs) to the private sector. They also want to expand the quota level to include muslims.

And they are making attempts to do the same in the army, asking about muslim levels in the army.
Posted by: john || 02/17/2006 5:55 Comments || Top||

#3  You've captured the true essense of socialism / social engineering / Nanny State run amok there beautifully, john. *sniff* Brings a tear to mine eye...

Okay, I'm over it. They're auto-fucked.
Posted by: .com || 02/17/2006 7:51 Comments || Top||

#4  nonetheless they are growing rapidly. The difference between them and the Euros is that they have low wages, and can attract all kinds of low wage industry, manufacturing and services. (like China - except these guys speak English - OTOH these guys dont use force to crush unions, like China) Google "economic convergence". The Euros are wealthy countries and are in more direct competition with the US. Totally different situation.

Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/17/2006 10:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Liberalhawk,

You're right. Unlike the Euros the Indians have woken up to the "you train 'em, we drain 'em" effects of socialism on their educated elites, and they've done enough in that area starting from the early 90's to stop losing their minds to us, hence the carping in the lamestream recently about fewer educated immigrants.
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 02/17/2006 10:31 Comments || Top||


Iraq
LEDs for white light now at 57 lumens per watt
Full disclosure - I own stock in the company that makes this stuff

Thursday February 16, 9:00 am ET


DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE - News), a leader in LED solid-state lighting components, today announced general availability of the industry's highest efficacy white power LEDs at 350 mA. Cree's white XLamp® 7090 power LED package achieves a typical efficacy of 47 lumens per watt at a drive current of 350 mA, and 57 lumens [per watt] of typical light output.

Florescents are about 40-70 lumens per watt but they are ugly and it is hard to do decorator stuff. Also, LEDs could potentially reach 120 lumens/watt. The newest product will probably be installed in new homes in California (where regs mandate energy efficiency). LEDs are already used in autos and on computers and phones. If the 120 figure is reached, it will justify massive replacement of ordinary bulbs and save oodles and oodles of kw capacity.
Posted by: mhw || 02/17/2006 14:57 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Price per watt? I doubt most homeowners will be able to afford to replace regular bulbs with LEDs one for one, at least for awhile.
Posted by: Jonathan || 02/17/2006 15:11 Comments || Top||

#2  CREE sells to distributors who then price them as they see fit.

We are still a few years away from the great price/efficiency breakthrough
Posted by: mhw || 02/17/2006 15:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not sure there's oodles in lighting. The big electric hogs are your refridgerators, freezers, ovens and air conditioners.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 02/17/2006 15:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Fred would be justified by adding an energy section because it is a legitimate theater in the GWOT.
Posted by: Penguin || 02/17/2006 15:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Just the other day I was talking with Mike Holt, CEO of Lumiled - maker of the world's brightest commercially produced LEDs. His company's target is to make the first solid state automobile headlight.

I can actually remember when HP (which Lumiled spun off of) came out with the first discreet package red LED. At their original list price of $5.00 each, your average automotive CHMSL (Center High Mount Stop Light - pronounced "chimsel"), would cost a mere $1,000. Gotta love the steep decline in COG that all semiconductor devices experience.

III-IVs compounds (used for LEDs) have proven the most intractable of the various semiconductor types. Only with the advent of successful Czochralski (CZ) counter-rotating boule and seed crystal pullers has there been the sort of large diameter substrates required for bulk device production.

III-IV based microprocessors (with almost limitless top-end speeds) were supposed to be the end-all and be-all for computing until they discovered just how finnickey and contamination sensitive these odd materials are (not to mention power hungry). As an example, gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a compound made of the elements gallium and arsenic. The eutectic characteristics of gallium are quite strange, in that when a piece of room temperature gallium is placed in your hand, it will begin to melt. Yet, by adding just a small proportion of arsenic to it, suddenly its melt point rockets to over 1,000°C! One can easily imagine the complications of keeping impurities out of the crystallization process when even minute traces dramatically alter the critical parameters of lattice formation. For another example, whereas nonconductive silicon is doped into conductivity with elements like boron, phosphorus, antimony and arsenic, gallium arsenide is actually doped with silicon.

As to the white LEDs, these devices, like all LEDs, actually emit only one frequency of light. The trick to getting spectral emission is by making the LED emit ultra violet light and then coating the interior of the emitter's package lens cavity with phosphors (just like your television screen) that finally emit light in a variety frequencies. Quite an elegant solution, but one that sucks down power efficiency in the seconday emission process. This is why Cree's high-efficiency LEDs are such news.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 16:18 Comments || Top||

#6  We've replaced a number of incandescent lights in our home with fluorescent ones. The incandescent lights lasted about three months. The flourescent bulbs use 1/5 the energy and last up to three years. Technology will be the key to reducing our total energy requirements. It's just going to take time. I'm waiting for someone to invent an electric motor that runs off the Earth's magnetic field.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 02/17/2006 16:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Nikola Tesla powered a lot of stuff off the Earth's magnetic field about 80-100 years ago.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/17/2006 16:45 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm waiting for someone to invent an electric motor that runs off the Earth's magnetic field.

Paging Nikola Tesla!
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 16:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Zenster put me in touch with Mike Holt, I have a very profitable market he's not touching.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/17/2006 18:10 Comments || Top||

#10  There are lots of energy "tricks" that will be used in the future.

For example, though solar cells won't be powerful enough to run your a/c, they might be used to lower the temperature of your crawlspace by 50 degrees, from very hot (140 degrees) to just warm (90 degrees), which in turn would make your a/c much cheaper to run.

Another "trick" is a simple passive water tank that acts as a pre-heater for your water heater. Used only in summer, the tank sits on your roof exposed to the sun. City water pressure is enough to fill the tank. By heating the water another 20 degrees, before it goes to your water heater, gives you hot water much faster and cheaper. In winter, you just drain the tank and bypass it.

The use of ethanol fuel cells will also be a big plus. At the peak of the year when temperatures are at extremes and energy prices are highest, you disconnect your power from the grid and use your own fuel cell to run your home power. Or you use your fuel cell for just your most consumptive energy uses, like a/c or heaters.

Though something like LEDs for light may be very conservative of power, like phosphorescent, their light may not be terribly pleasant. So why not mix and match? Use LEDs or phosphorescent for extended use, lights that burn all night, for example. Incandescents and LEDs for typical daily use and special lights like plant lights for plants, or sunlight-bandwidth or Ott lights for the winter months.

The bottom lines are expense, ease of use, efficiency, durability, and location. Different strokes for different folks.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/17/2006 18:34 Comments || Top||

#11  lighting represents 10% of the US total energy use... so yeah that's oodles in my book. The other question on these LEDs is how long they last? Also the big problem with florescents as far as I'm concerned is you can't put them on dimmers... that's a non-starter for my home... LEDs you can.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/17/2006 18:49 Comments || Top||

#12  Another "trick" is a simple passive water tank that acts as a pre-heater for your water heater. Used only in summer, the tank sits on your roof exposed to the sun.

Passive solar hot water is widely used here in Oz. In Perth you get sufficient hot water for about 8 months of the year from solar alone.

I had the idea of using a water filled layer in your roof space as combined insulation and a heat sink. One of the problems here is we have a large diurnal temperature range, and for a lot of the year, even though it is warm to hot during the day, it's cool at night. The heat sink would even out the temperatures in the house over the day/night.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/17/2006 18:52 Comments || Top||

#13  The other question on these LEDs is how long they last?

Nominal lifetime for an LED device is a mere 100,000 hours. White LEDs are somewheat lower at a paltry 30,000 - 50,000 hours. The LEDs used in undersea fiber optic cable relay boosters must meet an average lifetime of 30 years.

For some real fun, check out this future application for ultra-high-power LEDs in laser driven fusion reactors:

http://www.llnl.gov/str/Payne.html

Figure #3 shows a bank of high-power micro-collimated laser diodes. Wowsa!

CAUTION: Do not stare into laser with remaining eye!

3dc, take a number! My reason for meeting Mike Holt was rather specific. I've got a presentation worked up regarding an untapped billion dollar market for LEDs. My home computer is out of commission for a while. When it is back up, I'll find a way to send you a note and we'll see what we can do to get you hooked up ... all for just 1%, kid.
Posted by: Shaviting Slomp2149 || 02/17/2006 19:32 Comments || Top||

#14  What the?!? The above was Zenster, of course.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 19:34 Comments || Top||

#15  For a truly inspiring story of invention and subsequently dogged persistence, read the tale of Shuji Nakamura and his creation of the vital blue laser diode.

http://www.sciencewatch.com/jan-feb2000/sw_jan-feb2000_page3.htm

Determined to avoid the short lifetime of zinc selenide based devices, he pioneered innovative techniques of MOCVD (Metal Oxide Chemical Vapor Deposition) reactor processing to utilize the less apt (at the time) gallium nitride compound. His secret was a dual gas flow regimen, one parallel stream of reactive gas to enhance deposition and another perpendicular jet to compensate for the substrate's thermal loss.

Nakamura perfected the processing of this critical component, without which the CD-DVD format would not exist. He spared no personal expense and, in the face of withering criticism, brought this useful device to market.

His work was then appropriated by the Nichia company, where he began his efforts, and after a protracted court battle Nakamura won one of the largest inventor vs. corporation lawsuits in Japanese history. Some ¥20,000,000,000 or ~$170 million USD was awarded. His article is well worth reading.
Posted by: Zenster || 02/17/2006 20:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Oxygenated-fuel mandate is lifted
States no longer will have to add corn-based ethanol or MTBE to gasoline to fight pollution — a requirement that costs as much as 8 cents a gallon — under rules announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The new rules eliminate a mandate from the 1990 Clean Air Act that gasoline used in metropolitan areas with the worst smog contain 2 percent oxygen by weight. The law did not say which oxygenate must be used, but most refiners use either ethanol or methyl tertiary butyl ether, known as MTBE. California, New York and Connecticut unsuccessfully had asked the EPA for a waiver of the requirement because the states had banned MTBE after finding it polluted the groundwater. The states were forced to use ethanol, which they contend worsened pollution problems.
That's an intelligent move. I'm sure somebody will take the EPA to court to have the requirement reinstated.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A classic case of a legislated solution to a problem (of vehicle air pollution) being an abject failure and private enterprise coming up with a real solution - improved engine and exhaust technology.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/17/2006 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh, political engineering vs real engineering?
Posted by: .com || 02/17/2006 7:55 Comments || Top||

#3 
I'm sure somebody will take the EPA to court to have the requirement reinstated.

Or some other mandate will be imposed.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/17/2006 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  "I'm sure somebody will take the EPA to court to have the requirement reinstated.

Or some other mandate will be imposed."


Or both.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/17/2006 14:34 Comments || Top||



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Fri 2006-02-17
  Pak cleric rushdies cartoonist
Thu 2006-02-16
  Outbreaks along Tumen River between Nork guards and armed N Korean groups
Wed 2006-02-15
  Yemen offers reward for Al Qaeda jailbreakers
Tue 2006-02-14
  Cartoon protesters go berserk in Peshawar
Mon 2006-02-13
  Gore Bashes US In Saudi Arabia
Sun 2006-02-12
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Sat 2006-02-11
  Danish ambassador quits Syria
Fri 2006-02-10
  Nasrallah: Bush and Rice should 'shut up'
Thu 2006-02-09
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Wed 2006-02-08
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Mon 2006-02-06
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