Bears killed and ate a monkey in a Dutch zoo in front of horrified visitors, witnesses and the zoo said Monday. In the incident Sunday at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park, several Sloth bears chased the Barbary macaque into an electric fence, where it was stunned.
It recovered and fled onto a wooden structure, where one bear pursued and mauled it to death.
The park confirmed the killing in a statement, saying: "In an area where Sloth bears, great apes and Barbary macaques have coexisted peacefully for a long time, the harmony was temporarily disturbed during opening hours on Sunday."
"Of course the habitats here in the safari park are arranged in such a way that one animal almost never kills another, but they are and remain wild animals," it said.
Witness Marco Berelds posted a detailed report on the incident, including photos, on a Dutch Web site. He said one Sloth bear tried unsuccessfully to shake the monkey loose after it took refuge on the structure, built of crossing horizontal and vertical poles.
Ignoring attempts by keepers to distract it, the bear climbed onto a horizontal pole, and, standing stretched on two legs, "used its sharp canines to pull the macaque, which was shrieking and resisting, from its perch."
The bear then brought the animal to a concrete den, where three bears ate it.
The zoo said it "usually wasn't possible" for keepers to intervene when an animal killed another.
The park plans now to move the Barbary macaques _ which are large monkeys but often inaccurately called "Barbary Apes" _ to another part of the park, it said.
Posted by: john ||
05/15/2006 21:29 ||
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The programming on dogradiothailand.com mainly consists of Thai pop music, but Anupan also plans to air programs in which the DJ will "talk to the dogs in Thai" to which the canine listener will be encouraged to respond.
A Thai entrepreneur who launched an Internet radio station for dogs this week said he hopes to reach out to the kingdom's pooches and cheer them up.
Anupan Boonchuen, director of a dog grooming school in Bangkok, said he launched Dog Radio Thailand on Wednesday because noticed that dogs seem happier when he plays music as he grooms them.
"I have close contact with dogs every day. Dogs get in a better mood if they listen to music," Anupan said Thursday.
Often while Anupan's students practice grooming for the first time, they do not know how to handle the dogs. So during class, he said he plays music because it "puts the dogs in a good mood and they're more willing to let the
groomers handle them."
The programming on dogradiothailand.com mainly consists of Thai pop music, but Anupan also plans to air programs in which the DJ will "talk to the dogs in Thai" to which the canine listener will be encouraged to respond.
"At 9 a.m., we may have a dog greeting show, in which we'll repeat 'sawasdee' ('hello') over and over ... If we say 'sawasdee,' in some houses, the dog may lift both paws in response. In some houses, the dog may lift only one paw. It depends on how the dog was trained," Anupan said.
Anupan said he had long dreamed of starting a radio station for dogs, but it always seemed too expensive. He was able to bring his project to fruition after hearing an international news story about a low-cost Internet radio station for dogs in the United States.
He hopes that the DJ will be able to communicate through the radio and that the dogs will respond.
"If we play a slow song, we may have the DJ howl ... because dogs howl, too, when they hear sad sounds," Anupan said.
#1
Does this improve the taste of our livestock? I have found that a happy dog is a tender dog, but I have no documentation of this.
What additives do you suggest, and stew or BBQ? And just how close do you have to get to the main course , they make so much noise when we capture their spirit that I sometimes get carried away in my chopping.
Also, have you tried the latest flip dish tabasco badoggie.
#2
Thai's are mainly buddhists and as such are supposed to be vegetarians but their cuisine is the most tasty in the world, trust me try it. You are thinking of Korea
Algeria, May 15 ( BNA ) Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez Frias will arrive here on Tuesday on an official several day visit to the country.
Chavez will hold talks with his Algerian counterpart on the bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of bolstering them further in various fields. The Venezuelan President's visit is the second to Algeria since the first one in 2001.
LONDON (Reuters) - Disease spread by global warming could kill an extra 185 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the century and turn millions more into refugees unless rich nations take action now, a report said on Monday.
Christian Aid said rich developed countries had to end their dependence on fossil fuels and set aside large sums of aid to help poorer nations ride out the worst impacts of global warming and switch to energy sources like wind, solar and waves. "Rich countries must take responsibility for having largely created this problem -- and cut CO2 emissions radically," the non-governmental organization said in a report "The Climate of Poverty: facts, fears and hopes." I think he should add imagination in there, too.
He's going to have to find a new schtick when global warming fails to occur.
"Climate change is taking place and will inevitably continue. Poor people will take the brunt, so we are calling on rich countries to help them adjust as the seas rise, the deserts expand, and floods and hurricanes become more frequent and intense."
Most scientists agree (no they don't. do a google search moron) that global warming is due to burning fossil fuels for transport and power, and new calculations suggest that having risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the 20th century, global temperatures could surge three degrees by 2100. Patrick Michaels, a University of Virginia climatologist, Cato Institute scholar, and long-time climate change skeptic,recorded temperature increases of +0.032 degrees Celsius per decade for January 1998 to February 2006. This is not significantly different from zero at all.
And even if the globe is warming, it might be a whole lot cheaper to accommodate that rather than try to fight it.
Christian Aid said it based its estimate of 185 million deaths due to disease on figures from the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
And who can you believe if you can't believe the U.N.?
Global warming should allow carriers like mosquitoes to expand their ranges. Moaquitos are already found in the Artic and have been since people started going there. How much further can their range be expanded? This writer doesn't take in to account mosquito control. We have virtually eliminated malaria here in the US because of mosquito control.
He also doesn't take into account that a warmer globe means a longer growing season for crops in the breadbaskets of the world, which means (as long as one controls for civil wars and mayhem) less hunger and more prosperity.
Melting ice caps and glaciers were not only eroding coast lines at a rapid rate but were also raising sea levels and reducing reliable sources of fresh water. Again, statements without documentation.
He's a true believer, he doesn't need documentation.
At the same time changing weather patterns were increasing the incidence of floods and droughts, with arid regions becoming drier and wet regions getting wetter. These changes would increase tensions as key resources like water and fertile land became more scarce, the religious charity said, noting the farmers in northern Kenya were fighting over a diminishing number of waterholes to feed their cattle. "The unfolding disaster in east Africa, where 11 million people have been put at risk of hunger by years of unprecedented drought, is a foretaste of what it to come," the report said.
Which was a man-made disaster. The drought is from Mother Nature, but it was idiot, venal governments that created the conditions that put 11 million people at risk.
We've had droughts in this country over the last five decades: when it happens, we adjust, we provide aid, we fix policies, we buy food elsewhere, we undertake projects to fix the drought, and so on. That's because we have a representative government that for all its plentiful warts has to demonstrate a certain level of competence on pain of being replaced. Kenya and Uganda barely have governments, and Somalia is a wasteland. The very large majority of drought disasters are created by man, not by Nature.
"In this sense, the environment is too important to be left to the environmentalists," Christian Aid said, declaring that it was switching its campaign goals to focus on the four great effects of global warming -- pestilence, floods, famine and war.
Hokay, you do that.
The Kyoto Protocol is the only global vehicle for cutting carbon emissions, but it expires in 2012, the world's worst polluter, the United States, rejects it and it does not commit the major developing nations to make any reductions. Ask the Canadians how well Kyoto is going. Also the EU.As talks get under way to try to find a successor to Kyoto and encourage the United States to sign up, Christian Aid said developed nations had to slash carbon dioxide emissions by two-thirds by 2050, and major developing nations India, Brazil and China also had to agree to set tough targets for themselves. This is one of the biggest piece of absolute bullshit I think I have ever read. This is nothing less than a scheme to transfer wealth by trying to make people in the developed world feel guilty. If we actually did what this group wants there would be a world-wide depression that would make the 1920's look like good times. Why oh why are the problems in the developing world always depicted as having been foisted on them by the Evil United States. This is pure speculaction on the part of the "Reporter" and not backed up by any type of science. Bugwit.
Jane Galt had a long article a couple years back about how, simply, carbon emissions equals energy equals standard of living. A two-thirds cut in emissions? That's a two-thirds cut in a standard of living, more or less, and that would take us back to life in the 1930s. My parents remind me that life then wasn't much fun. Perhaps Christian Aid wouldn't mind, since it would give them plenty more poor people to help, but I'm certainly not willing to do that. And if one reply to that is 'well by 2050 we'll have figured out how to cut emissions without cutting standard of living', my response is great, try writing that as a sci-fi novel, you'll have more luck.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/15/2006 09:14 ||
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#1
File under "complete and unadulterated bullshit".
#2
"And even if the globe is warming it might be a whole lot cheaper to accommodate that than try to fight it."
Hallelujiah!
Eureka!
SOMEBODY GETS IT
I am not Robinson Crusoe after all.
The climate has always changed always will. Yes, we might have caused it to change too quick this time but we only have one option: deal with it.
Even if you cut carbon emissions 100% tomorrow the Earth will STILL heat up.
And the green movement has committed suicide with the Kyoto madness, conning everyone into thinking global warming means you therefore HAVE to shut down the use of fossil fuels.
and the nuclear industry jumped right on the coat-tails and said 'we're the clean green cheap alternative' even though they aren't.
It costs billions to implement stupidity like Kyoto (whenever it's reported on they never say how MUCH effect implementing will have on global warming rate - have you noticed? try to find it quantified I challenge you.)
But those billions could be spent on irrigation systems, wells, new dams, breakwaters, cyclone shelters, water pipelines.
But the watermelon movement (i refuse to call them greens they are communists pretending to care about the environment) would prefer the Western world to throw that money at bureaucrats to have soirees at 5-star hotel junkets instead in the name of preventing all carbon emissions.
Oh year and reduce the first world to third world living standards while allowing indonesia, india and china all the carbon pollution they can pump out.
By the way: anybody yet worked out how much MOUNT MERAPI the exploding volcano is spewing out greenhouse gases?
I bet a lot as volcanic activity is responsible for most greenhouse gases in the atmosphere anyway. But don't worry, no watermelon will bother putting out a press release about that. they only care if there's a big business or western government to blame.
#3
If it wasn't for global warming 20,000 years ago, most of what we know today as Europe and North America would still be under an ice sheet. There would be no wealth to redistribute in the first place. Let alone an internet, or English, or ...
#6
arid regions becoming drier and wet regions getting wetter.
Ooooh, sounds like lots of fun irrigation projects on offer. Talk to the Israelis, guys, they were the ones who so effectively drained the malaria swamps that Rome had turned the Galilee region into. Or, we could just move all of Africa to Greenland and Siberia as soon as it gets warm enough. ;-)
#12
It's always amazed me that the world worries about carbon dioxide, which accounts for between 5 and 6 percent of greenhouse gasses, but says nothing about water vapor, which constitutes 94 to 95%. We worry about the smaller amount, but not the larger. The big reason is that we have no clue how water vapor affects climate. Does that mean that carbon dioxide is more important than water vapor in determining climate change? Of course not, but who's going to worry about water vapor...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/15/2006 19:07 Comments ||
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#13
Don't worry starvation cause by there own government, aids and war will get them first.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/15/2006 19:55 Comments ||
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#14
Disease spread by global warming could kill an extra 185 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the century and turn millions more into refugees unless rich nations take action now, a report said on Monday.
The article fails in the first paragraph.
By the year 2100, virtually every human alive today will have died. That is over 6.5 Billion deaths due to every cause possible, including old age. Trying to identify the cause of 185 million out of the total and attribute cause to climate change is meaningless.
Death is a zero sum game, and over a 100 year window, there are no survivors.
Posted by: john ||
05/15/2006 21:40 Comments ||
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#15
The real reason for global warming is that heat rises. Since the earth is flat, the cold air falls off the edges and the warm air continues to accumulate above us.
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair has told ministers that he plans to leave office next summer, according to news reports on Sunday. Blairs Downing Street office refused to comment on the reports. Blair has said he plans to serve a full third term, but this week reassured lawmakers from his governing Labour Party that he would step aside in time for his successor to settle into office before the next general election, expected in 2009.
The Independent on Sunday newspaper said it had questioned a Cabinet minister about whether he had been told by Blair that he would go next summer. Im not going to tell you exactly what Tony said but I wouldnt disagree with that, it quoted the unidentified minister as saying.
That's a pretty mealy-mouthed way of confirming it.
The newspaper quoted another unidentified minister as saying that almost half the Cabinet has now been given private assurances about a departure date by Blair. Blair is refusing to confirm the arrangement in public because he fears the main opposition Conservative Party will start a countdown, the newspaper said.
The Sunday Times said Treasury chief Gordon Brown, Blairs likely successor, had turned down Blairs offer to hand over power to him in the fall of 2007. Quoting unidentified Downing Street sources, the newspaper said Blair had more than once offered Brown a zone of time for his departure in the second half of next year. Brown refused because Blair is still refusing to give him a specific date, believing it would play into the hands of political opponents, the newspaper quoted the sources as saying.
The Mail on Sunday said senior government sources had told it that Blair told Brown in February that he would resign in July 2007. A Downing Street spokeswoman said Blair had nothing to add to his previous public statements.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/15/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Remember, you read it first here in the Khaleej Times.
#1
I am really dissapointed at the type of empire the US is. What type of empire would allow a tin-pot wannabe dictator like Chavez to go around saying things like that?
#5
anonymous5089,
You are given Chavez too much credit. The man is an ass and he is referring to the US, and the US alone, as an empire that should be destroyed. He never said that he wanted the destruction of the other wealthy nations that comprise the type of empire that Toni Negri describes.
#8
According to Wikipedia, "It was published by Harvard University Press in 2000." Has Harvard become a vanity press? A shame, really -- once they were a fine university.
#10
This is a really bad move on the part of the US. Chavez knows that the "invasion" for oil is loosing steam, so he is changing tactic. By associating himself with islamic terrorist, ke new for sure that the US would react, and it did!
" US sanctions Venezuela over terrorism: official 56 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela on Monday, banning all arms sales to a major oil supplier for what it believes is a lack of help in Washington's war on terrorism, a State Department official said.
The move plummets the two nations' ties to their worst level in decades and comes after years of antagonism between leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Washington on issues ranging from trade to oil prices.
The United States is concerned about Chavez's friendly relationship with Cuba and Iran, two countries it says sponsor terrorism, and his failure to stop Colombian leftist guerrillas using Venezuelan territory, the U.S. official said.
Venezuela has warned for months the United States would move against it over terrorism but says it cooperates with Colombia against guerrillas and denies its ties with countries that are U.S. foes mean that it helps militants."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/ 20060515/ts_nm/venezuela_usa_dc_3;_ylt= AnDgvAFvQzhvla9WK8KQKZOWwvIE; _ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2006 15:00 Comments ||
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#12
Senor Scherzo - The Perfect Guest
From the linked article:
The Venezuelan leader then further angered Downing Street by declaring that the Falkland Islands rightly belonged to Argentina. 'Tony Blair, you have no moral right to tell anyone to respect international laws, as you have no respect for them, aligning yourself with Mr Danger [Bush] and trampling on the people of Iraq,' he added. 'Do you think we still live in the times of the British empire?'
Not included in the article:
Mr. Chavez paused dramatically at the end of his address, while pressing his hands against his chest. Then he startled the audience by quickly extending his arms and announcing in a loud voice: "I'm fuuuuuuuulllllll!"
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Gangsters stepped up their war against authorities in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, torching buses and shooting at banks, security officials said on Monday.
Quagmire!
Sao Paulo city, Brazil's business capital, was gripped by fear as the death toll from three nights of attacks climbed to more than 70 in the worst crime violence in recent memory. Prisoners were also rioting in about 50 penitentiaries and detention centers and were holding hundreds of people hostage, mostly guards, officials said. The bloodshed was unleashed on Friday night by a powerful criminal gang in retaliation for the transfer of imprisoned gang members to a remote penitentiary. The gangsters, whose weaponry includes machine guns and grenades, have launched more than 150 attacks across the state since then. Police posts have been the main target, with more than 30 policemen killed.
Civil war!
The federal government has offered to send in troops but so far the state government has declined. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has yet to comment publicly on the situation but was due to meet ministers on Monday to discuss it.
"We are not going to give into organized crime," state governor Claudio Limbo told reporters. "I have faith in the Sao Paulo police."
Over Sunday and early Monday, gangsters set fire to at least 43 buses in the city, the world's third largest with 20 million people. Several transport companies ceased operations on Monday morning, leaving commuters stranded. At least 10 bank branches, including the major Banco do Brasil and Brads, were hit by gunfire, officials said. Streets in the city were noticeably quiet on Sunday as gangsters struck in rich and poor areas alike.
"noticeably quiet"? You mean except for the gunfire and burning buses?
Police searched vehicles at checkpoints as people went back to work on Monday.
Police say the violence was launched by the notorious First Command of the Capital, or PC in Portuguese, one of the most powerful of Brazil's organized crime operations, after authorities transferred several hundred prisoners to a new penitentiary 620 km (410 miles) from the capital. The gangs have a organized structure in the prisons and jailed leaders often control outside operations.
Sao Paulo has long been plagued by violent crime. It is also the command and control center for drug trafficking in Latin America's largest country, which is a transit point for cocaine destined for Africa and Europe as well as Brazil's domestic market.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/15/2006 10:23 ||
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When I was in Campinas (about an hour outside of Sao Paulo), a co-worker of mine was carjacked at gunpoint and my girlfriend never stopped for red lights after dark. That was almost 10 years ago.
At least 30 people have been killed and dozens wounded after a series of attacks on police in Brazil, officials said. The attacks on police stations, patrols and barracks, took place in several cities across Sao Paulo state over a 12-hour period on Friday evening, local time.
Sounds more like Mogadishu than Sao Paolo...
It is thought that the incidents were related to the transfer of organised crime leaders from a criminal group known as the First Command Capital (PCC) to a higher security prison. The attacks, which began at 2300 GMT and ended early on Saturday, left 23 police officers and two civilians dead, the State Security Office said.
Did they spring Mister Big? Or did he make it to his new calaboose?
At least five members of the PCC, too, died in the attacks, authorities said, while about 15 were arrested. Local television news footage showed scenes of police cars riddled with bullets and stations with puddles of blood on the pavement outside. Police said they would not be intimidated by the violence. "The police will not retreat from these attacks," Saulo de Abreu, the secretary of security for Sao Paulo state, told a local news station. "They have struck at the spinal cord... of our security."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2006 00:00 ||
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#5
Weren't the Brazilians advising 'trigger-happy' Scotland Yard over the Menezes death?? - Maybe they'd like some advice in return - How about go f*ck yourselves. Now, pass me the popcorn..
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/15/2006 7:37 Comments ||
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#6
In 2002, there were 5,719 homicides in São Paulo. 52 dead is less than the tally on a slow weekend.
Posted by: ed ||
05/15/2006 7:51 Comments ||
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#7
"#6 In 2002, there were 5,719 homicides in São Paulo. 52 dead is less than the tally on a slow weekend."
Actually, that figure is low. I dated a Brazilian girl once and her cousin was a Sao Paulo cop. He told me that each year SP has about 10 000 people murdered. SP is about the same size as NYC, which has a little over 500 murders a year. And as bad as SP is, Rio is far worse and has way more murders and is only half the size. Even Paulistas are too scared to go to Rio...
#8
Isn't the maximum possible sentence in Brazil a term of 30 years imprisonment?
They now have imprisoned gang leaders openly challenging the authority of the state.
The Brazilian state has renounced its monopoly on killing and the gangs have filled the void.
But such open challenge to state authority may be beyond court remedies and the death penalty.
When you declare war against the state, the state must make war on you.
Let the President Lula issue a full pardon to the police and army for what they have to do. Unleash them on the gangs in the slums. Show no mercy. Slaughter them all.
Make the jailed gang leaders simply disappear.
Posted by: john ||
05/15/2006 17:05 Comments ||
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#9
Fly low over the Amazon Basin and drop these criminals randomly wherever they choose. The cannibals will rejoice, and the number of criminals will decline rapidly.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/15/2006 19:16 Comments ||
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#10
I just saw a clip on TV from Sao Paulo.
These gangsters have shut down the largest city in South America. The authority of the state has been shattered. Thugs rule.
Posted by: john ||
05/15/2006 19:27 Comments ||
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Rene Preval has been sworn in as Haiti's president, its first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted more than two years ago. Preval, a 63-year-old trained in agriculture, took the red, yellow and blue presidential sash from the speaker of the National Assembly in a 25-minute ceremony on Sunday, more than two months after he was declared the winner of Haiti's chaotic February 7 presidential election.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
File under "Things that are not long for this World".
Could it be that Russia actually wants a new confrontation with the United States? In this op-ed article in Russia's Kommersant newspaper, former Putin advisor Andrey Illarionov writes that just as in 1946, the initiator of the present tension with the West is Moscow, and that sharp Russian criticism of a speech by Vice President Dick Cheney betrays the Kremlin's plan to create a new atmosphere in Russia: an atmosphere of 'fear and mobilization.'
By Andrey Illarionov*
#1
The failed Russian state has more to 'fear' from a very successful China than they ever had to 'fear' from America. There is no common land border with the US.
#2
Distraction. Simple distraction. This was a favorite ploy of the Soviets and Putin is just holding up a long-standing tradition. If I can keep the people distracted with demagoguery, I won't get blamed for my country's problems of poor production, delapidated infrastructure, poor housing conditions, unemployment, rampant crime, alcoholism, mafia, etc.....
MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is interested in building a nuclear power plants in Turkey, the state-run company that builds the facilities overseas said Monday.
Atomstroieksport said the decision had been made at a Moscow meeting of a Russian-Turkish working group on energy held on May 11-12.
Turkey announced in April that it would start building three nuclear power plants on its Black Sea coast in 2007 in a bid to diversify its energy sources. It had announced auctions for the construction of an NPP several times in the past but the last project was abandoned in 2000 due to lack of financing.
The Turkish authorities stepped up work on the NPP program after a sharp fall in imports of natural gas from neighboring Iran was registered in January.
Atomstroiexport is Russia's leading company implementing intergovernmental agreements on building nuclear facilities overseas. It is the world's only company building five power units for nuclear power plants in China, India and Iran.
Ernst & Young, the accountancy firm, has withdrawn a controversial report on China's non-performing loans, saying its estimate of bad debts for the country's big four state banks "cannot be supported and is factually erroneous..." Remainder at link, behind registration. I guess that settles that.
Yup, I mean, the Chinese would never allow banks there to have quadzillions in non-performing loans, nope, nope ...
Posted by: Phil ||
05/15/2006 09:23 ||
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As long as China has a $200 billion yearly surplus from the USA alone, their banking system will have enough liquidity to absorb $1 trillion in bad loans.
Posted by: ed ||
05/15/2006 10:24 Comments ||
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#3
The discussion about non performing loans is somewhat difficult since we are approaching it from an entirely different perspective. We must recall that the Chinese economy is still centrally planned. The single largest industrial employer is the PLA. The banking system is dominated by four state-owned banks.
The NPL's are backed in most cases by inflated real estate values. The other Asian economies that got into a similar problem were able to get out by allowing foreign investors to buy the NPL's at pennies on the dollar. China is not doing so. It's solution has been to create several governmentally owned entities and tranfer massive quantities to NPL to them. The banks obtain a pretty balance sheet and the NPL's get shoved under the carpet.
First quarter growth for China was in excess of 10%. Banks loaned over half their prospective lending for the YEAR in the first quarter. Chinese banking policies are inflationary as hell. The only way they are avoiding collapse is by moving the debt from pocket to pocket. Eventually they will run out of pockets.
Adam Smith doesn't give a rat's ass who sits on the Peacock Throne. If the Chinese want to trade with the world, they have to bow, sooner or later, to market forces.
No economy can sustain an NPL rate of well over 50% and a growth rate of well over 10%.
That goes especially for the Chinese. They are a net importer of commodities. In order to keep going in a world where they have driven commodity prices to record heights, they have to sell more. In the last two month, our trade deficits have shrunk, a clear warning sign that China may be in trouble.
The Chinese Ponzi scheme is in big trouble. I have posited one of three things will create the coming Chinese collapse. Reduction in the supply of commodities. Reduction in the trade surplus with the United States. Internal population dislocation. Two of those three are at least temporarily happening.
#5
I wonder who at Ernst & Young was paid how much to back pedal on this story. Worst of all, the facts of this matter are so well known that E&Y's recanting means less than zero. As always, sunlight is the best disinfectant and it is only a matter of time until a window is opened upon China's already tottering economic house-of-cards. It is nothing short of stunning to see a gigantic nation with eyes shut tight and fingers in its ears proclaiming that all is well as the very earth cracks open beneath them.
#8
Ok, kids, how's this for an analogy: The Chicom banking system is like Yosemite Sam rowing a boat down the river. Suddenly the river goes down a waterfall. Sam's ok as long as he does not look over the side, and he keeps rowing. But he does know what is happening, and his belief in floating is shaken......so it is only a matter of time.....before gravity catches up.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/15/2006 22:35 Comments ||
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#2
Bwahahahahahahaha. Gotta love it. A Chinese professor scamming the biggest pirating government in the world by pirating American chips. How the Politburo can summon any outrage is beyond me.
#3
They spent $14m on this chip. I may be completely off, but I think it takes more than $14m to design a chip, let alone manufacture samples of it. In China, $14m would cover the salaries of 700 college grads for 1 year, at $20,000 a year. I think the money they threw into it wasn't sufficient to get a working prototype out. If $14m were all it took to design and manufacture a current CPU chip, HP would still be manufacturing its own Itanium chips, as opposed to buying them from Intel. And SGI Graphics wouldn't have gone Chapter 11 recently.
Manufacturing CPU chips is a seriously capital-intensive business. If a mere university could do it - Caltech and MIT would each have prototypes out. The Red Flag Linux project is a much better idea - like every other Linux out there, it's pretty much a fringe OS for geeks, but it will be good practical training for college students.
#5
Zenster: A Chinese professor scamming the biggest pirating government in the world by pirating American chips.
They did not pirate American chips. Pirating American chips would have been an impressive non-trivial technical achievement. They bought American chips and scrubbed the names off them.
Point made, but the "rebranding" involved is another favorite strategy of those who specialize in knock-offs and the like.
Manufacturing CPU chips is a seriously capital-intensive business.
Actually the chip set in question was not CPU microprocessor, but instead for a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) application.
Jiaotong University in Shanghai said late on Friday it had fired Chen Jin, dean of the Microelectronics School, for faking research behind a series of chips for digital signals processing.
DSP has an extremely wide range of applications from oscilloscopes, consumer audio and electric guitar effects all the way to object discrimination for radar and other military uses.
I still maintain that it is hilarious to see China so indignant over what is essentially a state-approved practice. Only, this time around, it was their coffers being drained instead of ours. Hypocritical @ssholes.
#7
I also meant to add that designing DSP circuitry is considerably less complex than the firepower needed for a high-speed CPU. DSPs rely upon a substantial signal delay line that can be used to parade signal information past an array of arithmetic processors and comparators looking for things like zero-crossing events, peaks, ringing, anomalistic or spurious signatures, signal floor, noise background and the like. More sophisticated DSPs are able to perform FFT (Fast Fourier Transforms) plus other differential and integral calculations needed for signature analysis, like that required in heat-seekers, HARM and other source guided ordnance.
#8
So in other words, China's oligarchy thought they were about to make a major leap in weapons production, and now they aren't. I'm surprised the good professor has only been fired from his job. This is the kind of thing for which the family is usually billed for the bullet afterwards.
Here ya go, Joe Mendiola, you can be our local correspondent on this one.
SHENYANG, China (AP) - A top U.S. admiral said Monday he has issued a rare invitation to Chinese commanders to observe a U.S. military exercise next month on Guam in an effort to strengthen ties. Adm. William Fallon, wrapping up a weeklong visit to China, said he hoped such visits would become part of regular exchanges between the two forces, which have had little interaction since they broke off following the 2001 collision of a U.S. Navy plane and a Chinese fighter jet.
He said officers from other Asian militaries also were invited to attend the exercise on the sea near Guam. He said his Chinese hosts have not said whether they would attend.
Fallon, a commander of U.S. Pacific forces, said he told Chinese commanders that building a ``track record of confidence,'' would help persuade the U.S. Congress to lift restrictions on U.S.-Chinese military interaction.
He said Chinese acceptance of invitations to mix with U.S. and other militaries in the region and exchanges of lower-level officers would help build such confidence. ``I believe we need to start moving down this road, and the sooner we do it, the better off we will be,'' Fallon told reporters in this northeastern Chinese city, the last stop on his trip.
And it provides the Chinese with a better understanding of just how we can hammer them. If we ever had to. Just saying.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/15/2006 01:28 ||
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#1
I think that is the main reason they were invited Steve. "See what we can do to your assault ships and fighters? Now leave Taiwan alone!"
AUSTRALIA'S peak Muslim body has been accused of covering up a sex scandal after a senior worker allegedly downloaded pornography and sexually harassed two women at the organisation's head office.
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, which is a key adviser to the Federal Government and upholds Muslim standards in the community, was forced to issue a directive to staff that pornography - strictly forbidden in the Koran - should not be accessed at work.
But the worker at the centre of the claims - believed to include lewd language, touching female staff and the downloading of porn images at work in front of women - is still employed by the organisation.
And AFIC executives agreed, at a special meeting to discuss the claims by two women, that the matter be buried.
"It was unanimously resolved that this matter be expunged from the normal minutes of the exco (executive committee) meeting and the details retained in the confidential files of AFIC," the minutes to the July 31, 2004, meeting say. Two internal investigators were asked to examine the claims, but the accusations went no further.
AFIC's senior legal adviser, Haset Sali, denied yesterday that there was a cover-up.
"It was a matter that I dealt with in confidence and all the parties concerned asked that the matter be treated as such," he said. "It was satisfactorily resolved from the point of view of all parties. No one expressed any disappointment."
However, former AFIC president Ameer Ali, who heads the Prime Minister's Muslim advisory group, said the women were worried the scandal could hurt them.
"They were afraid it would affect their family life," he said.
The man at the centre of the claims, who worked for the council and its schools, allegedly downloaded pornographic material at AFIC's head office at Zetland in Sydney, and exposed two female colleagues to it.
He is alleged to have made suggestive remarks to the staff members, one of whom was a newly married woman who has since left the organisation.
The other woman, a traditionally dressed Muslim, still works for the Islamic body.
Ikebal Patel, who was AFIC treasurer at the time of the allegations, threatened to make them public unless the executive committee organised a special meeting to thrash out the issues.
"I was very forthright in saying if you don't discuss this in a meeting, then I'm going to bring this out in public," he said.
The minutes obtained by The Australian reveal that AFIC chief executive Amjad Mehboob issued a directive to his staff following the allegations, prohibiting the downloading and circulation of pornography.
"It was decided in the meeting that the CEO, on behalf of the president, was to issue a directive to all staff of AFIC and its subsidiaries that access, downloading or transmittal of any pornographic material whilst on AFIC-controlled property would be regarded as a serious breach of discipline and could result in instant dismissal from employment," the document says.
Mr Patel said he produced and circulated a code of conduct to AFIC's executive board about computer usage, but the code was never implemented. "Nobody gave any respect or wished to implement it," he said.
Islamic Friendship Association of Australia president Keysar Trad said pornography was condemned in the Koran because it endorsed the exploitation of women.
There is a new name on Democrats lips. Or rather, an old one. He is the one man who could stop Hillary Clinton.
If. If he runs. If the stars are right. But he could.
He is, of course, Al Gore.
He is already polling. No one hates her more. Just kidding, of course. But no love lost. Remember, he couldve won in 2000 if hed let Clinton help, and it was almost clear at the time. But he wouldnt.
Consider the alternatives. Mark Warner, who was the flavor of the month until the New York Times gave him its worst kiss, is trying to challenge Hillary from the center-right. But the skew in Democratic nomination politics is from the left, not the right.
Who goes out to vote in a Democratic caucus or primary? The same kinds of people who go out to vote in Republican caucuses and primaries. Activists.
Democratic activists tend to be left wing, Republicans right-wing. Centrists who run for president as Democrats get no votes; think Lieberman, Bruce Babbitt, Lloyd Bentsen, for example. They often, however, get great press.
John Kerry is going nowhere. His money people are heading for the Hills, or Hillary. John Edwards has one note, and voted the same way as Hillary on the war. Warner is wed to the middle. Were it not for Gore, if Gore goes away, Hillary looks to cruise.
But Gore could change that.
So what if he went to Saudi Arabia and criticized America? Thats for Rush and Bill to worry about next fall.
Swift Boats. Gore deprives Hillary of administration bragging rights. Hes got the same ones, without the baggage. And then hes got the right position on the war, and the superstar record on the environment to boot.
Add to that some liberal Hollywood money, and he gives her a run for hers.
The problem is: then what? No one fits Hugh Hewitts stereotype of the losing angry Democrat better than Al Gore. The place to win elections in this country is not the left but the middle. You want to lose for sure, run to Hillarys left.
Beware Confident Democrats
Watch out fellow Democrats. Youre starting to sound like winners. This is when we get in trouble. Dont count the Republicans out. Its a long way to November.
Remember what the Republicans have going for them.
ONE: The White House. I know, the presidents poll numbers are low. But he still controls the power of the presidency. That means that any Congressman who is in trouble can deliver goodies at the last minute to his district from any department or agency in the government.
Ill never forget Anne Wexlers famous comment from the painful days of the Carter-Kennedy battle: "Is this an election or an auction?"
All politics is local? You may not want to be seen with the president, but everybody wants to be seen delivering the pork chops, excuse me, the goodies. And goodies there will be, between now and Election Day, for every Republican who is in trouble.
TWO: Money. I know, Democrats are raising it too. But corporate America has every interest in seeing Republicans maintain their control of Congress. Who is for a higher minimum wage? Who is against it? Do you have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out?
Do you know that it was Democrats who insisted on preserving PACs in the first campaign finance bill because they thought labor would be able to trump corporate America? Fools R us. Within a year, corporate PACs outnumbered labor PACs by 10-1. And that was just the beginning.
How hard will the business community fight? Read my lips. Hard.
THREE: Organization. They have lists. We dont. They have infrastructure. We dont. In this game, theyre at home plate, having already rounded the bases, were almost at first base. They know what issues individual voters care about, how to appeal to them, what makes swing voters swing, who they are and how to get them out at the last minute.
You know how Amazon sends you those emails saying that if you liked one book, youll probably like two more. Republicans can do the same thing. Democrats cant.
Harold Ickes, Hillarys consigliere, has formed an organization outside the party, to try to catch up; the fact that it is outside the party tells you more than you want to know about what the party is doing, see below.
FOUR: Coordination and Focus. According to published reports, it wasnt pretty at last weeks meeting between Congressional Campaign Chiefs Rahm Emmanuel and Chuck Schumer and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. Why would it be? They dont share the same vision.
Dean is embarked on a 50-state party building program which, if nothing else, ensures him the support of the party pooh-bahs in the 50 states who love him. Problem is, if youre trying to win Congress back, or win the next presidential election, for that matter, you need to focus on states where you can win, which doesnt include all 50; you need to focus, and you need to be coordinated, which the Democrats arent.
So for all intents and purposes, the DNC is out of the game of trying to win elections any time in the near term, but Howard Dean is safe in his job.
FIVE: The Advantages of Triangulation? Im not sure I buy this one, but I actually know one Republican (a friend of a friend) who is working for a Democratic Congress as the surest way to stop Hillary in 08. He figures that if the Democrats win Congress, the voters will be determined to provide balance in 08 by electing a Republican President. Now thats what I call a Dick Morris stretch...
California Dreaming...
Not to say I told you so, but with no real differences on issues between them, Democrats Phil Angelides and Steve Westley have resorted to tearing each other apart in the last of their debates that no one is paying attention to, while in Sacramento, the Comeback Kid, Arnold, keeps coming back.
Hes doing everything right. He not only got his bond deal, but both Phil Angelides and Steve Westly endorsed it. Now hes taken extra tax dollars and given them back to the schools. This is one of those primaries that makes the candidates look smaller and smaller, while the incumbent looks bigger and bigger.
If the country goes south for Republicans in November, California could be the only bright spot. It almost put a democrat I know in the hospital when I proposed that Al Gore hated Hillary so much, that if she defeated him at the democrat convention, he would run as a Green Party candidate. This would not only destroy Hillary, but would give such a boost to the Greens that they would become a viable, permanent third party, fracturing the democrats for at least a decade, and maybe longer.
#1
Remember, he couldve won in 2000 if hed let Clinton help, and it was almost clear at the time.
I recall that situation a little differently - the Clintons and Gore battled over this, and the Clintons ultimately withdrew any support they would have given Gore (basically, 'to hell with him'). Still, I don't see Hillary sweating a Gore run all that much.
#7
The Kos Kiddies hate Hillary with the blazing white-hot fury of a thousand suns, and they think Gore won in 2000, and they (along with their 800-pound pet gorilla George Soros) control a lot of the money . . . and they're just the sort of wild-eyed romantics to embark on a monumentally stupid and futile feel-good gesture of self-destruction like backing Gore.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/15/2006 16:30 Comments ||
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#8
We dont. In this game, theyre at home plate, having already rounded the bases, were almost at first base.
#9
and they're just the sort of wild-eyed romantics to embark on a monumentally stupid and futile feel-good gesture of self-destruction like backing Gore.
Good God, I hope so!!! I'm praying for a candidate who can smack down the Hildebeast in '08 (anyone other than McCain, for example.
#10
Harold Ickes, Hillarys consigliere, has formed an organization outside the party, to try to catch up; the fact that it is outside the party tells you more than you want to know about what the party is doing
Her fundraising has been outside the party too. I'll venture that HRH might consider a run for the Presidency on a third-party ticket, to scare the Democrats if nothing else.
Three House members sat down with HUMAN EVENTS this afternoon to discuss their vision for a newly formed Congressional Constitution Caucus.
The goal of the caucus is to "ensure that the Federal government is operating under the intent of the Tenth Amendment of our Bill of Rights," according to the official mission statement.
The Tenth Amendment says: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
And so, Rep. Scott Garrett (R.-N.J.), the caucus' founder, along with Reps. Virginia Foxx (R.-N.C.) and Rob Bishop (R.-Utah) are heading up a team of House members dedicated to downsizing the amount of power usurped from the states by the federal government.
After serving for a dozen years as a congressman at the state level Garrett said he realized how much the federal government was telling the states what they could and couldn't do. He said his primary reason for coming to Washington was to form a caucus to change that.
Less than a month into its founding, the caucus has attracted nearly 30 members. Garrett has attempted to reach across party lines, but has yet to receive applications from Democrats. Still, he said he would like to see a bipartisan group come together.
While Garrett spends time getting press coverage and promoting communication across the board, Foxx is focused on connecting with groups advocating similar interests outside congressional circles. And Bishop has been tasked with reaching out to other members and building awareness by speaking out on the House floor.
Bishop said with a grin that his main strategy will be to "whine a lot" because "it seems to be very effective up here."
On a more serious note, the congressman said he plans to first, explain to other members the premise behind the tenth amendment, emphasizing that while the federal government may have good intentions, much of its power should be turned back over to the states. In other words, the federal government should "simply do less." Second, Bishop said the caucus will help bills that promote its mission to move forward by coordinating floor discussions back to back.
"We'll keep harping on the issue until [people] start to notice," he said.
Garrett said that while they realize successs won't happen overnight the caucus has come up with some realistic immediate and long-term strategies for accomplishing its mission.
Bills currently backed by the caucus include:
1. An education bill (H.R. 3449) sponsored by Rep. John Culberson (R.-Tex.) that would give states back control of their schools
2. Sunsetting bills (such as H.R. 1227) offered by Rep. Kevin Brady (R.-Tex.) and others that would allow for an evaluation and termination of government programs that are no longer useful.
3. And a bill that would limit the duration of Federal consent decrees to which state and local governments are a party (H.R. 1229) sponsored by Rep. Roy Blunt (R.-Mo.)
Foxx said she doesn't think people can be educated enough about the limited powers given the federal government by the constitution. It's main focus was not supposed to be programs such as welfare and medicaid.
"The number one role of the federal government is defense of the nation," she said. "We've lost sight of that." Instead of attacking the problem in a piecemeal fashion, one of their primary goals should be to get an appropriation for a study of exactly *where* the federal government has overstepped its authority. Rating the transgressions from 10 to 1, most serious to least serious, would change far more minds in the long run.
#4
"Instead of attacking the problem in a piecemeal fashion, one of their primary goals should be to get an appropriation for a study of exactly *where* the federal government has overstepped its authority. Rating the transgressions from 10 to 1, most serious to least serious, would change far more minds in the long run."
Agreed, but where to begin? We'd pretty much have to scrap the entire Federal Code. Hey, not a bad idea.....
#6
It's no different from the Solomon Amendment that was just up before the Supreme Court.
It's very simple. Don't take monies from the federal government and you don't have to dance to the piper.
The expansion of federal power parallels the expansion of the federal treasury. Theres a reason for that. The only real solution is to cut back on the power/money that the federal government has. No one wants to really do that because they benefit directly or indirectly from the situation. And do you really think that the pols would actually cut out large programs leaving only the truly necessary pre-30s functions of the federal government in tack? Show me in the same Constitution which these fellows cite where is Social Security, Medicare, and the Department of Education? Theyre now part of the compact between the people and its government and are not going away. And since they are not going away, neither is the vast sums of money that the national government has to pull the strings of the states.
#7
That is one thing I have always wondered - what every happened to the 9th and 10th amendments?
They seem to be very important for liberty, yet the Supreme Courts of the past 100 years have trampled on them.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
These amendments speak VERY strongly to the primacy of the People as the soruce and owner of ALL rights, and the limits on the federal government to affect them. The whole of the drug laws, rulings like Roe V Wade, etc - and a lot of the interstate commerce powers expansion fo fed government - seem to be gross violations of those amendments.
#8
#6&7 - Great points. I wonder if an individual, a political entity, or any group of citizens could file a greivance w/the govt stating that the very things you mentioned - drug laws, roe v. wade, etc., violates my/their 9th & 10th amendment rights?
#9
2. Sunsetting bills (such as H.R. 1227) offered by Rep. Kevin Brady (R.-Tex.) and others that would allow for an evaluation and termination of government programs that are no longer useful.
AKA: the Lead Balloon Bill.
But at least someone's starting to say these things.
#10
Its almost like we need a third set of the legislative branch: one whose sole existence is to review ever law after 5 years and then dispose of it one of ways:
1) Leave as is, review again in 5 years.
2) Send it back to the house/senate with recommendations for non-binding changes - set to expire 4 years later with no further review if a new version is nto passed.
3) send it back to the house/senate with binding changes, and if not passed the law is sunset within 2 years.
4) Set a time limit in the law after which is will expire and be expunged (House and senate can renew to prevent it) - typiclaly 2 years to 3 years to shut the program law's programs down.
5) strike the law down, making it unenforcable immediately, this being overridable by a veto margin in either the house or senate, and a simple majority in the other chamber.
All the above would be done with simple Majority + 1 voting, and every state would have 3 reps, term limited and elected at large, proportially from each state (i.e. the 3 biggest vote getters win - this gives "third party" like Libertarians and Greens a voice - but ONLY as a brake).
Sometimes the ship of state needs to have the barnacles scraped off of it.
SHEIKHUPURA: A couple was stabbed to death in Jhalar Saven Wagah village on Sunday. According to reports, Ali Hussain's daughter, Yasmin, allegedly had an affair with Habib. On the day of the incident, Hussain caught his daughter with her lover and stabbed them to death. Mananwala police have registered a double murder case against Hussain and arrested him. Further investigation was underway.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2006 00:00 ||
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I could come here only for the wicked graphics...
ATMOSPHERIC levels of carbon dioxide and some other greenhouse gases grew at record rates last year, a CSIRO scientist said today.
But some of the worst ozone-depleting gases in the atmosphere had showed a drop in the past eight years, Paul Fraser, from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, said.
The results of the testing at the Cape Grim meteorological station in Tasmania will feature at a climate meeting in Sydney tomorrow.
Dr Fraser said carbon dioxide grew by two parts per million (0.54 per cent) in 2005, the fourth year in a row of above-average growth.
"To have four years in a row of above-average carbon dioxide growth is unprecedented," Dr Fraser said. How long has that Kyoto thing been running? Four years you say. What a coincidence.
"In addition, the trend over recent years suggests the growth rate is accelerating."
He said the 30-year record of air collected at the Cape Grim observation station showed growth rates of just over one part per million in the early 1980s but, in recent years, carbon dioxide had increased at almost twice this rate. On a related note, I found out yesterday that 66% of all 'carbon credits' come from China which is responsible for more of the increase in CO2 emissions than any other country. So in the wonderful world of Kyoto you can both increase CO2 emissions more than anyone else and sell more carbon credits than anyone else so others can emit more CO2. And they wonder why CO2 emissions are increasing.
#1
Yeah, more c02, that explains why I'm out of breath after walking up a stair, that's what I suspected all along! Damn thoses people who said it was because I'm fat and out of shape!
#4
The US is also the largest carbon sink in the world. Our largest irrigated crop is responsible for that. Our lawns. Yep, only in the US, something we have for vanity can also help the environment! Take that EUrowiennies!!
#5
DV, can you post a reference for that please? I would be very happy to show this to a number of people, but I prefer to have the citations available to reference.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/15/2006 9:50 Comments ||
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#6
Mike, not lawns, but reforestation of excess farm and ranchland. The green revolution means less farmland is required to feed people (and denser crops mean more stored carbon per acre). In addition tree farming allows for denser forests. But forest carbon sinks only last for as long as reforestation increases.
Forest Carbon Sequestration Recent estimates show that U.S. forests, grasslands, and agricultural lands form a sizable carbon sink. Even a forest that undergoes regular harvesting can act as a carbon sink as long as yearly growth exceeds the amount of carbon removed during harvest. The U.S. carbon sink absorbs 1.1 to 2.6 million metric tons of CO2 each year, which is equivalent to 20 to 46 percent of total U.S. global warming emissions.
Sadly, this sink appears to be shrinking. Carbon sequestration by forests and other lands decreased by approximately 20 percent from 1990 to 2001, a decline stemming primarily from unsustainable timber management (especially on privately owned forests) and the clearing of forests for development.
If the U.S. carbon sink were managed more effectively, it could easily be maintained and even expanded over the next 50 to 100 years before reaching a plateau.
Posted by: ed ||
05/15/2006 10:05 Comments ||
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#8
Hows that sand taste boys, time to open up them peepers.
Posted by: bk ||
05/15/2006 12:06 Comments ||
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#9
CO2 is plant food.
Many people who keep planted aquariums bubble CO2 into their tanks to fertilize them.
Mike, not lawns, but reforestation of excess farm and ranchland.
As anecdotal evidence, compare photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s to the same location today. For example, a photo of Cincinnati's skyline from the late 1800s shows a bare hillside to the city's east (known as Mt. Adams); a modern photo shows a hillside shrouded in trees. The homes are still there -- if anything, there are more homes and businesses on Mt. Adams now -- but the trees are more valued for their shade and appearance than for their fuel value.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/15/2006 12:15 Comments ||
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#10
It's my understanding that trees maximize their CO2 intake during the first decade of growth, so regular harvesting of old-growth forests is critical to preventing global warming. ;-) Also, that there are now more trees in the US, mostly due to reforestation of abandoned farmland, than at any time since the beginning of the twentieth century. And certainly there are more deer and robins than when the Europeans arrived.
I did think that uncontrolled wildfires in Indonesia/Malaysia were a major cause of global air pollution overall (burning coal fields, perhaps?) but I could be wrong.
#11
TW, a couple of years ago the biggest CO2 source on the planet was a coal mine in China that had been burning for 50 years. I now understand its been put out.
The peat fires that were a huge problem in Indonesia (Sumatra and Borneo) in the late 90s are now far smaller. I believe the dry spell over several years that facilitated them has now ended.
There is no doubt that these CO2 increases result from increased fossil fuels. However, as Junkscience.com points out increasing levels of CO2 have a progressively decreasing effect on warming through the greenhouse effect due to basic physics, and for the same reason doubling the amount of insulation in your roofspace won't double the amount of heat retained.
#12
Thanks, phil_b. Glad to hear the fires are no longer such an issue. Thank goodness for the recent volcanic eruptions, such as they are, else we'd have to start stocking up again against the coming ice age.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar built by Raytheon Company performed flawlessly in a flight test conducted by the Missile Defense Agency at the White Sands Missile Range today. The test successfully demonstrated the first fully-integrated radar, launcher, fire control and missile operations and engagement functions against a simulated target.
The THAAD radar, developed by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), accomplished all test objectives, including communicating with the in-flight THAAD missile. Track and discrimination reports were successfully transmitted between the THAAD radar and fire control.
Performance of the fire control software, jointly developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, was also completely successful. Lockheed Martin is the THAAD prime contractor and system integrator.
"Once again we've proven our capabilities and demonstrated that the THAAD radar and fire control are mission-ready," said Pete Franklin, vice president of the Raytheon IDS Missile Defense Business Area. "We're committed to providing the warfighter with 'no doubt' mission assurance, ensuring that these components work the first time and every time."
Raytheon's THAAD radar is a phased array, capable of search, threat detection, classification, discrimination and precision tracking at extremely long ranges.
THAAD is a key element of the Missile Defense Agency's Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), providing deployable ground-based missile defense components that deepen, extend and complement the BMDS to any combatant commander to defeat ballistic missiles of short to intermediate range.
THAAD's combination of high-altitude, long-range capability and hit-to-kill lethality enables it to effectively negate the effects of weapons of mass destruction over a wide area.
#2
Get those things out to the theater, now. Plus, how can they handle a salvo, not just a single incoming; and what is their turn around time before the next missile detect? These are critical things.
What is the total number of missiles a typical THAAD can handle with its basic load?
#3
THAAD
The THAAD battery will typically operate nine launch vehicles each carrying eight missiles, with two mobile tactical operations centers (TOCs) and a ground-based radar (GBR).
Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) of the THAAD missile system, up to 40 missiles a year, is currently planned to occur around 2007.
Posted by: ed ||
05/15/2006 14:34 Comments ||
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#3
Interesting. On FoxNews, running in the background most of the time, I heard something on this and turned to see a video clip of lava running down the side of a volcano. Since the sound was off (listening to tunes at the time), I can't exactly verify, but the graphic under the clip identified it as Merapi...
#4
What appears to have happened is part of the lava dome, which has been building for weeks, collapsed. Not a full blown eruption where a large amount of material is ejected. Experts say such an eruption is imminent.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2006 17:02 Comments ||
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#12
Last time we had a big-ass volcanic eruption, it cooled of the planet for half a decade or so ( Mt Pinatubo, IIRC) due to particulate emissions. I hope no baby ducks or global warmings are hurt by this coming eco-disaster.
#13
I've got a couple of dead trees that I could cut up for firewood, and if I put a teakettle on the fire, the CO2 and water vapour should about fix the problem...
Myanmars military junta said on Sunday it wondered whether the US exemption of the Karen refugees from immigration laws presaged an invasion of the southeast Asian country. Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan said the last time Washington allowed an exemption from laws aimed at keeping terrorists and their supporters out was before the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba after the communist victory there. The US government then provided these Cuban exiles with shelter and food and then military training and weapons, he told a news conference. After that, in 1961, the US had these Cuban exiles invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs, he said. The recent exemption made by the US in their immigration law reminds us of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
The exemption by the United States, which has imposed sanctions on Myanmar because of the juntas detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, was for Karen in refugee camps on the Thai border. But Kyaw Hsan they were really relatives of rebels who have been fighting Yangon for decades. Bearing this in mind, we now need to ask the US what makes them amend that law and what they want out of this? Karen rebels say the people in the camps have been forced to flee junta forces who routinely kill rape or force people into slave labour.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Someone has delusions of grandeur.
Posted by: ed ||
05/15/2006 1:05 Comments ||
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#3
You know the Army - they taught soldiers German and Russian, etal. to fight and win the Cold War and thats why they were sent to Burma. The Burmese as a class do have mostly pro-China sympathies but are fiercely independent and anti-Communist - for me, this is their way of getting back at the USA for the USA's neglect of them during the Cold War. Personally, I don't blame them or can't get very angry at them. BURMA vv its locale has been used and abused by all of the Cold War superpowers or major powers against each other, plus every other larger non-Burmese/Third World Nation-State in South Asia. Iff I were Dubya, I'd say give them more econ aid + send advisors [Pol. + Mil + Business] and investments their way. Its time America-West gave Burma something back.
#5
Joe, sorry. The current government is among the most oppressive in the world, rivaling North Korea. They are also allowing the Chinese to build at least one naval base on their territory.
The Indians are greatly interested in this situation. They have suffered repeated border incursions from Myanmar.
#8
Not that we wouldn't like to string you up General, but you're f*cking crazy. There's approximately zero percent chance that you're even on the Bush, Rumsfeld or Rice radar.
#9
you just know he smokes cigarettes through a cig holder, eh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2006 15:31 Comments ||
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#10
It's the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/15/2006 19:25 Comments ||
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#11
I'd always thought Burma was in the Un witness protection program under a false name. If they keep popping off people will notice and recognize them.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.
In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, is proud of that domestic mission.
He said the work the agency did after hurricanes Rita and Katrina was the best he'd seen an intelligence agency do in his 42 years in the spy business.
"This was kind of a direct payback to the taxpayers for the investment made in this agency over the years, even though in its original design it was intended for foreign intelligence purposes," Clapper said in a Thursday interview with The Associated Press.
Rest at link. To me, this is just more fodder for the Hayden confirmation; the title is hugely misleading when compared to the actual content of the article.
#3
Good old NGA! I have lots of friends and associates that work there. It's not quite as secret as NSA, but does good work. Unfortunately, the ass-hats at Langley don't listen very well to what's learned by this group.
Commercial "spy satellites" have reduced the "glamor" of satellite imagery, but it's still one of the most reliable methods of gathering intelligence from "denied" areas, including Africa. If Hugo wants to know, yes we DO know what color pajamas he wears at night...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/15/2006 19:28 Comments ||
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#4
Former NIMA - NGA now.
Spying on Americans? What friggen asshat came up with thaat headline?
IMINT is important to firefighters, flood control, emerceny regional planners, etc. Thats why they get tasking over the US for stuff like that.
When wil the idiots in the media stop with the LIES and ignorant overdramatization of everything out there?
Recently, feminists at Bucknell University sponsored an event that looked more like a Duke Lacrosse party than a celebration of feminist diversity. On March 8, Bucknell's so-called Feminist Majority - along with groups like the Womens and Gender Studies Department, the Center for the Study of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity, and the Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Awareness - paid $1,920 for a strip show at Bucknell.
Billed as a "celebration of whore culture" the show was euphemistically titled the "Sex Workers Art Show." It featured a group of hookers, phone sex operators, smut writers, porn stars, and one woman who appeared via her 24-hour porn website.
One of the acts included a woman stripping on a trapeze. Another featured a woman coming out wearing nothing but duct tape on her nipples and panties while running through the audience to Mission Impossible music and looking for clothes. While another woman was doing a strip tease, a large man was rapping about "ho ass ni**ers" - like Kirby Puckett and Harriet Tubman and, just for added shock value, lubing himself.
What made the event even worse in the eyes of some campus conservatives was last years response to the Conservatives Clubs hosting of Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers. Her trip to campus to talk about "equity feminism" was poorly received by some of Bucknells feminist leaders.
When the Womens and Gender Studies Department (who funded the sex workers) was asked if they would like to cosponsor the Sommers lecture, first they said they lacked funding...
#1
"While another woman was doing a strip tease, a large man was rapping about "ho ass ni**ers" - like Kirby Puckett and Harriet Tubman and, just for added shock value, lubing himself."
Wow. Feminism's come a long way, hasn't it?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/15/2006 11:21 Comments ||
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#2
Womens and Gender Studies Department
Center for the Study of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity
Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Awareness
Doesn't get any wankier than this - and I don't doubt there are many more which aren't "feminist" programs. All alums should take a look at what's changed since their days and reconsider those donations. They're probably funding many such bastions of worthless PCism. To clean it up and force some common sense, hit them where it will hurt most, funding.
#4
Bucknell feminists a bunch of skanky tarts? Yawn...
Sleaze has a long and honored history at Bucknell: back in the 60's it was townie girls pulling trains in the Mattress Room at Sigma Alpha Mu (CBS President Les Moonves's old fraternity); today it's the Womens and Gender Studies Department hosting a gala celebrating Whore Culture.
#7
Shouldn't it be "prostitute culture?" I always thought whores just gave it away, or maybe that was sluts? Been a while since I was in college. Best seven years of my life........
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
LONDON (Reuters) - Disease spread by global warming could kill an extra 185 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the century and turn millions more into refugees unless rich nations take action now, a report said on Monday. 
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair has told ministers that he plans to leave office next summer, according to news reports on Sunday. Blairs Downing Street office refused to comment on the reports. Blair has said he plans to serve a full third term, but this week reassured lawmakers from his governing Labour Party that he would step aside in time for his successor to settle into office before the next general election, expected in 2009.
At least 30 people have been killed and dozens wounded after a series of attacks on police in Brazil, officials said. The attacks on police stations, patrols and barracks, took place in several cities across Sao Paulo state over a 12-hour period on Friday evening, local time.
Rene Preval has been sworn in as Haiti's president, its first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted more than two years ago. Preval, a 63-year-old trained in agriculture, took the red, yellow and blue presidential sash from the speaker of the National Assembly in a 25-minute ceremony on Sunday, more than two months after he was declared the winner of Haiti's chaotic February 7 presidential election.
Ernst & Young, the accountancy firm, has withdrawn a controversial report on China's non-performing loans, saying its estimate of bad debts for the country's big four state banks "cannot be supported and
is factually erroneous..."
SHEIKHUPURA: A couple was stabbed to death in Jhalar Saven Wagah village on Sunday. According to reports, Ali Hussain's daughter, Yasmin, allegedly had an affair with Habib. On the day of the incident, Hussain caught his daughter with her lover and stabbed them to death. Mananwala police have registered a double murder case against Hussain and arrested him. Further investigation was underway.
Myanmars military junta said on Sunday it wondered whether the US exemption of the Karen refugees from immigration laws presaged an invasion of the southeast Asian country. Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan said the last time Washington allowed an exemption from laws aimed at keeping terrorists and their supporters out was before the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba after the communist victory there. The US government then provided these Cuban exiles with shelter and food and then military training and weapons, he told a news conference. After that, in 1961, the US had these Cuban exiles invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs, he said. The recent exemption made by the US in their immigration law reminds us of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. 
