Reminds me of an old Polish joke...
A 911 dispatcher had to tell a woman how to unlock her car on Sunday.
A woman called Kissimmee police to say she was locked inside her car at the Walgreen's on John Young Parkway near Poinciana. "My car will not start. I'm locked inside my car," the unidentified woman said. "Nothing electrical works. And it's getting very hot in here, and I'm not feeling well." Muldoon, fetch the Jaws of Life...
The dispatcher asked the woman if she was able to manually pull the lock up on the door. The woman said she would try, and then, she said, "Yes, I got the door open." Should've told her to break a window...
A man raped his friends wife as revenge for a malicious prank pulled on him while drunk last year. His 40-year-old victim said that she was attacked on March 19th, as she was riding to the market to sell vegetables.
After the attack, the 30-year-old unidentified man hid in the forest for two days. Using the the victims mobile phone, he called to ask his family if the police had been looking for him.
Hearing that no police had visited the house, he returned home where he was promptly arrested. Pol Col Natthanon Prachum, Deputy Superintendent of the Police Region 4 Crime Investigation Center, said investigators monitored usage of the victims stolen mobile phone following the attack.
The suspect admitted that he had been planning revenge for months after the victims husband pulled a prank after he passed out during a drinking session. Having all grown up in the same village in Thailand, the man, the victim and her husband had all known each other since childhood.
In mid-2008, the victims husband and some other friends went to his house for a drinking session. When he passed out drunk, the victims husband took off his pants and used string to tie his penis to his big toe.
The victims husband then shook him to wake him up. When he tried to stand up, he suffered a great deal of pain when the string yanked his organ. But more than that he also felt humiliated in front of all his friends, and anger had been boiling away inside him ever since the incident, he added.
It was Brooks Brothers meets Old Navy Monday in Courtroom 1526 in Manhattan's Criminal Courts building.
Anthony Marshall, the poor-little-rich-boy son of Brooke Astor wore a gray suit, light blue shirt, tasseled loafers and his U.S. Marines tie for the first day of his trial on charges of looting his late mother's $200 million estate. His wife, Charlene, wore an understated outfit accented with Belgian slippers and a jacquard scarf and pearl earrings.
They were in stark contrast to the 100 prospective jurors paraded into Supreme Court Justice Kirke Bartley's courtroom wearing jeans and Kangol caps, hoodies and sneakers the size of bread loaves.
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Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It must have been difficult typing that entire long article with one hand.
#2
Mom ignored her son when he was a baby, and he returned the favor by neglecting her to live in filth in her last years. Sounds like this filthy rich family worked out just fine!
Obama Orders Chevrolet and Dodge Out Of NASCAR - Car News
With their racing budgets deemed unnecessary expenditures, GM and Chrysler are ordered to cease racing operations at the end of the season.
In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government. Companies around the globeHonda and Audi, to name twohave drawn down racing operations, and NASCAR itself has already felt the pinch in the form of reduced team spending. A complete withdrawal from Americas premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere... C&D now has disclaimers all over its website after posting this as a joke. Turns out that a LOT of NASCAR fans were totally freaking out. Lots of people are refusing to believe that it was a gag, and are blind with rage.
#2
They've apparently pulled the article. I'm not surprised. About the only comparison to this I've been able to imagine would be if Obama declared display or possession of Confederate battle flags a federal crime.
I just wonder what is going to happen to C&Ds magazine sales next month.
#5
I would rather these "jokes" not be publicized. It is difficult enough to keep up with Barry and his 'new idea a minute' gang as it is. No need giving them new crazy, whacko material.
In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published an article by George Plimpton that described an incredible rookie baseball player who was training at the Mets camp in St. Petersburg, Florida. The player was named Sidd Finch (Sidd being short for Siddhartha, the Indian mystic in Hermann Hesses book of the same name). He could reportedly pitch a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. The fastest previous recorded speed for a pitch was 103 mph.
Finch had never played baseball before. He had been raised in an English orphanage before he was adopted by the archaeologist Francis Whyte-Finch who was later killed in an airplane crash in the Dhaulaglri mountain region of Nepal. Finch briefly attended Harvard before he headed to Tibet where he learned the teachings of the great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa and mastered siddhi, namely the yogic mastery of mind-body. Through his Tibetan mind-body mastery, Finch had learned the art of the pitch....
George Plimpton actually left an obscure hint that the story was a hoax within the article itself (the non-obscure hint being that the story was absurd). The sub-heading of the article read: Hes a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidds deciding about yoga and his future in baseball. The first letter of each of these words, taken together, spells H-a-p-p-y A-p-r-i-l F-o-o-l-s D-a-y....
Posted by: Mike ||
04/01/2009 10:43 ||
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Researchers in Germany have used a modern medical procedure to uncover a secret within one of ancient Egypt's most treasured artworks - the bust of Nefertiti has two faces. A team led by Dr. Alexander Huppertz, director of the Imaging Science Institute at Berlin's Charite hospital and medical school, discovered a detailed stone carving that differs from the external stucco face when they performed a computed tomography, or CT, scan on the bust.
The findings, published Tuesday in the monthly journal Radiology, are the first to show that the stone core of the statue is a highly detailed sculpture of the queen, Huppertz said.
"Until we did this scan, how deep the stucco was and whether a second face was underneath it was unknown," he said. "The hypothesis was that the stone underneath was just a support."
The differences between the faces, though slight - creases at the corners of the mouth, a bump on the nose of the stone version - suggest to Huppertz that someone expressly ordered the adjustments between stone and stucco when royal sculptors immortalized the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten 3,300 years ago.
"Changes were made, but some of them are positive, others are negative," Huppertz said.
John H. Taylor, a curator for Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum in London, said the scan raises interesting questions about why the features were adjusted - but that answers will probably remain elusive. "One could deduce that the final version was considered in some way more acceptable than the 'hidden' one, though caution is needed in attempting to explain the significance of these changes," Taylor wrote in an e-mail.
The bust underwent a similar CT scan in 1992. But the more primitive scanner used then only generated cross sections of the statue every 5 millimeters - not enough detail, Huppertz said, to reveal the subtlety of the carving hidden just 1-2 millimeters under the stucco.
Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt discovered the bust in 1912 and added it to Berlin's Egyptian collection on Museum Island, a cluster of five neoclassical art halls that make up one of the city's most familiar landmarks. Currently on display at the Altes Museum, the bust will move next door when the Neues Museum reopens in October after a lengthy restoration by British architect David Chipperfield.
In 2007, Wildung denied a request from Egypt's antiquities chief to borrow the bust for an exhibition, saying it was too fragile to transport. Huppertz said the results of his scan added credence to that claim.
Taylor, the British Museum curator, said the better understanding of the bust's structure will also help preserve it. "The findings are particularly significant for the information they shed on the constructional process and the subsurface condition of the bust, which will be of value in ensuring its long-term survival in good condition" Taylor said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Sorry! But anytime I see someone's name that is similar or at odds with what they're going to do, I have to chortle a bit. In this case, Chipperfield is working on a priceles stone figure.
Presently known for playing Detective Mac Taylor on the hit TV series, CSI NY, the talented Gary Sinise has done it all--acting, directing, making music and producing everything from plays to films. Now, Sinise plays the role of executive producer for the recently released documentary feature, Brothers At War. Since Sinise has been nominated for an Oscar (Forrest Gump), a couple of Emmys and a Tony (for directing Sam Shepard's Buried Child), he's a good man to have on board.
Though he only got involved pretty much after the principal shooting and editing was done, Sinise signed on to give the film's creator, director and producer Jake Rademacher, a boost in getting the public to come see his family film. Rademacher not only makes his directorial debut creating this intimate portrait of an American family during this turbulent time of war, he's also one its subjects since he's one of the three brothers involved in this story of a family.
Sinise is already known for offering support to the troops through his past tours to Iraq with his Lt. Dan Band. His musical side project is named for his most famous role, Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump. Sinise has been doing USO tours in Iraq and fundraising events ever since 2003, playing bass at 30-some dates a year. In 2004, he co-founded the Operation Iraqi Children's Foundation which provides kids with school supplies and other resources.
Through this film, Rademacher sets out to understand his two brothers' military experience, their motivation to be in Iraq, and the sacrifices of those who are serving there. For the gravel-voiced Sinise--who has his rap on the film down to a set of well-worn, thought-out bits of banter--this film clearly provides a positive counterweight to the plethora of features critical of the war. After Sinise made a disparaging remark in an early interview about director Brian DePalma's Redacted, a cinema verite polemical feature about several soldiers in the Iraq War, he offers answers that now avoid controversy.
Jake got embedded with four combat units in Iraq and this deep access to US and Iraqi combat units alloweds him to get behind the camouflage curtain. With humor as well, we see what happens with secret reconnaissance troops on the Syrian border, the sniper "hide sites" in the Sunni Triangle, and what it's like running with the Iraqi Army as well.
As Rademacher follows his siblings, we see them at home where this life-threatening work and the separations it creates ripple through everyone involved from the parents, wives, and children. Jake sees how alike and different his life is from his brothers, and this doc offers a rare look at the bonds between soldiers on the frontlines and the people left behind.
Implicit in the experience of seeing the film is a strong sympathy with the military and in turn, with the missions in Iraq and, by association, Afghanistan. So it's no wonder that Sinise, who is not known for liberal sympathies, chose to lend his clear support to this film during a recent roundtable.
#1
If there's anyone shaping up to be the 'next' Bob Hope, it's Gary I think. He certainly doesn't stint in his support of our troops and he gathers alot of like minded people around him.
Course, I'm just on the sidelines, but perhaps some of our vets may have a clearer view of it.
At least 20 migrants died and hundreds more are missing and feared dead after their overcrowded boat capsized in stormy seas off the coast of Libya, an international migration official and Libyan police said Tuesday.
The capsized boat was carrying up to 257 people and a second vessel with about 350 migrants aboard was rescued, Laurence Hart, an official of The International Organization for Migration, told The Associated Press. At least 20 bodies were recovered and more than 20 people were rescued from the overturned boat, Hart and a Libyan police official said.
"The first boat was rescued and is back to Tripoli. All of them are alive and safe," Hart said. "The second boat, I believe 240 people are missing. Rescue was quick for the first boat because they were near an oil platform that notified the Libyan coastal guards who quickly rescued the migrants," he added.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Arab League leaders have rejected the 'French occupation' of the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, according to a final statement from their annual summit which was made public on Tuesday.
Comoros President Ahmed Abdullah Sambi had urged fellow Arab League leaders at Monday's summit in Doha to reject the vote by residents of Mayotte to become an integral part of France.
The Arab leaders announced their "rejection of the French occupation and demand that France continue dialogue with the Comoros government to reach a settlement that guarantees the return of the island of Mayotte under the sovereignty of Comoros," said the summit's final resolution.
Mayotte voted on Sunday to become an integral part of France, in a referendum which would put an end to local traditions like polygamy and curb the powers of Islamic courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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That didn't take long...
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2009 15:20 Comments ||
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Mayotte voted on Sunday to become an integral part of France, in a referendum which would put an end to local traditions like polygamy and curb the powers of Islamic courts.
Ahhhhhhhh...now I get it.
Sooooo...what's the Arab League gonna do about it?
#3
More than 95 per cent of voters said "yes" to becoming the 101st department of France, instead of its present status of an "overseas community", the Interior Ministry announced.
I guess they can tell the Arab League what to do with their resolution...
Zimbabwe's prisons have long been notorious for being dirty, disease-ridden places of despair, where opponents of President Robert Mugabe languish for months, usually on murky charges of plotting against him.
But just how bad conditions have become within prison walls, while the economy collapses without, is only beginning to come to light.
A documentary to be screened on SABC television on Tuesday evening shows emaciated prisoners teetering at death's door for lack of food and medication. The documentary, which is based on secret footage obtained by officials and prisoners, also tells of how relatives coming to collect their loved ones' remains are forced to rummage through mounds of dead bodies.
The Zimbabwean Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (Zacro) estimates that at least 20 prisoners die each day in the country's 55 prisons. According to Edison Chiota, Zacro national director, most die of HIV/Aids or associated diseases such as tuberculosis, which thrive in unhygienic conditions.
The incidence of pellagra, a skin disease caused by malnutrition that can cause serious psychological problems and even death, has also soared. Cholera, on the other hand, a diarrhoeal disease that has killed more than 4 000 Zimbabweans since last autumn, had been been brought under control in prisons "to a certain extent", he said.
In the SABC documentary, entitled Hell Hole, 28-year-old Brighton Mudadi's life is shown to to be hanging by a thread. Mudadi, who is serving an 18-month sentence for robbery in the southern Beitbridge prison, has tuberculosis and is severely malnourished. His rib cage protrudes through his matchstick frame as a fellow prisoner helps him wash himself and the soiled pants he is wearing.
Accounts from three prisons revealed most prisoners receive only one fist-sized portion of maize porridge a day, with no meat and little to no vegetables.
Many rely on family for food supplements. But in a country where more than half the population -- about seven million -- can no longer feed itself, some families have nothing to spare. "The truth is there is not any food in the prisons at the moment and there is no medication to cope with the diseases," said Zacro's Chiota.
Ex-prisoners talk of excrement seeping out of blocked toilets and of uncollected bodies piling up in back rooms because families can no longer afford to bury their dead.
Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa admitted in Parliament that the hardship afflicting the country was "hitting hardest inside prisons" and appealed for assistance. While many prisoners have complained of overcrowding, Zacro backed up Chinamasa's contention that the prison population had fallen to about 14 000, below the capacity of 17 000, following an amnesty last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Can we expect the same kind of conditions in our hospitals after we get socialized health care from the One and his minnions?? Just askin', ya' know.
A man shot in both legs in a paramilitary-style attack in Londonderry was awaiting sentencing for raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl.
Keith Burnside, 37, was shot in his Rosemount Gardens home by two masked men in front of his girlfriend and two children at about 2315 BST on Monday. Burnside was convicted in March of raping a girl in his car at Sandbank Cottages in 2000.
He is being treated in hospital for his injuries.
SDLP Councillor Mark H. Durkan said he had spoken to Keith Burnside's girlfriend who witnessed the attack. "She's in an awful state of shock, it was an extremely traumatic experience for everyone involved," he said.
Wonder how it compares to a 15 year old being raped ...
"There were two young children in the house, a 12-week-old baby and a six-year-old who saw everything."
Councillor Durkan said he did not discuss the motive for the shooting. "This attack must be condemned regardless of what it was in connection with," he added. "We cannot have this law of the jungle where people are taking the law into their own hands."
Burnside was due to be sentenced for the rape shortly.
During the trial the court heard that his victim blocked the attack out of her mind for seven years before reporting it, after the accused smirked at her outside a nightclub.
A defence application was due to be heard in Londonderry Crown Court on Tuesday but was adjourned when the court was told of the attack.
Community worker Tommy McCourt said such incidents made people fearful of a return to violence. "It takes you back to the bad old days," he said. "We believed that those days had passed and nobody wants to see this kind of thing happening again."
SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey also condemned the attack. "The people who carried out this shooting have no support from the local community and no place in a civilised society," he said.
The police said that those responsible were of slim build and wore tracksuits, baseball caps, and scarves over their faces. The first man was 5ft 10ins and the second 6ft 2ins. They want anyone who was in the area at the time and may have seen the men to contact them.
#1
Vigilante-style justice by paramilitaries have been an issue, depending on how you see it, forever in NI IIUC (oh, and "London"derry? This writer is going to get kneecapped as well).
I remember reading a translated article in an once-very good mag which brought foreign press views to the french public, about how northern-irish hospitals were dealing with paramilitaries punishing "anti-social" behaviors. What stuck into my mind is that lotsa kneecappings actually didn't involve guns, and were made with power drills, cinderblocks, hammers,... and often involved elbows as well (which is kinda counter-intuitive for "knee"cappings), and that with guns there was an hierarchy, shots from the front (for "good" offenders, with precautions taken to reduce risks of amputation) were less crippling that the shots made from behind the knee...
#6
The city is Derry, the land County Londonderry and the sky above Derriere.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2009 8:45 Comments ||
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Vigilantes Kneecap Child Rapist - Authorities See Vigilantes As Greater Threat
Of course. It's simple. The miscreant is a threat to the public. The vigilantes strike at the very heart of authorities - their legitimacy to power and its power/perks. The act of the vigilantes says they believe those in government are unable or unwilling to provide justice. That was one of the points of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the state was unable to end the vendettas by providing justice. Same with the opening scene in the Godfather with the mortician pleading to the Don asking for justice. The authorities will never be 'outraged' by criminal acts. They will be 'outraged' by vigilantes. Its all about power.
#8
"During the trial the court heard that his victim blocked the attack out of her mind for seven years before reporting it, after the accused smirked at her outside a nightclub."
How the hell was he convicted? Based solely on seven year old memories of the assailed?
#11
SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey also condemned the attack. "The people who carried out this shooting have no support from the local community and no place in a civilised society," he said.
I'm betting he doesn't speak for the community and "civilised society" doesn't condone child raping.
#13
'Six pack", huh? I've always thought the worst that could be done, was cut off the big toes and thumbs. Can't walk and helpless by themselves. Guess I'm just naive that way.
#15
I could think of a couple 'to the pain' ideas that would make a 6-pack seem like a good time at the golf course, 'specially if it were my daughter.
USA Today President and Publisher Craig Moon announced his sudden retirement Tuesday, leaving the country's largest newspaper with its top two jobs unfilled during perhaps the most difficult stretch in its 27-year history. He also said the newspaper has lost about 100,000 subscribers just from the slowdown in travel.
Mr. Moon said in an interview that the slowdown has resulted in a reduction of more than 7% in the number of copies of USA Today distributed through partnerships with hotel chains such as Marriott, which account for more than half of its circulation.
The 59-year-old executive, who spent 23 years at parent company Gannett Co. and the last six as publisher of USA Today, has overseen a publication that has come under increasing economic pressure. Gannett expects ad revenue to fall by as much as 35% in the first quarter, Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore said at an investor conference in March. Gannett executives also had said at the conference they were bracing for a significant circulation hit.
The 59-year-old Mr. Moon, who spent 23 years at Gannett, at an event last spring in Los Angeles.
The 1.3 million daily copies distributed at hotels in the six months ending Sept. 28 accounted for more than half of USA Today's average weekday circulation of 2.3 million, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. ABC releases figures for the six months ending in March at the end of April.
Mr. Moon said he decided to leave USA Today to explore investment opportunities in the media industry, where "values are way down." He said he did not view his departure as an escape from a sinking industry, adding in USA Today "you still have the workings of a successful business."
Mr. Moon's departure expands the void at the top of the paper following the recent resignation of editor Kenneth Paulson, whose replacement has not been named. John Hillkirk is serving as Mr. Paulson's interim replacement.
Gannett said it hasn't decided on a successor for Mr. Moon.
The move was largely unexpected within Gannett. USA Today founder Al Neuharth, who still writes a weekly column for the paper, said he found out in a call Tuesday morning from Mr. Moon and Gannett Chief Executive Craig Dubow. "It would be unfair to say I expected that news," Mr. Neuharth said. "But things happen. People retire."
Mr. Moon isn't walking away empty-handed. Gannett in its 2008 proxy statement valued Mr. Moon's pension at $3.3 million as of Dec. 31, 2007.
Via Instapundit
Unfortunately, this is not an April Fools Joke
The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.
New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and other assets from U.S. banks. The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nations gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008. Details at link
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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The 'toxic' asset programs are pure rip-off. They've been wanting to create a SIV to absorb them, no one is buying in.
It looks like AIG is going to be the sacred cow that buys the toxic assets and gets slaughtered in the end. They have no hope of paying back what they've borrowed, might as well make their failure useful.
#5
Whenever I hear someone talk about how its all over and how well the feds did the keep it from getting worse I think about the Greensburg KS Big Well.
Sure, you made a great hole down to the water table, but now how ya gonna get out?
#7
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: THE "DOLLAR GLUT" IS WHAT THE US USES TO FINANCE ITS GLOBAL MILITARY BUILDUP [Author read, OWG-NWO = US Imperialism].
CMF POSTER > USA HAS NOTHING LEFT TO SPEND, + CHINA IS NO WILLING TO KEEP BUYING US T-BILLS.
IOW, NO $$$ = NO HONEY for the Amerikan Global USDOD???
House prices in the 20 largest US cities have fallen by a record 19 per cent in January from a year ago, according to a private survey. A separate index of home prices in the 10 largest metropolitan areas also posted a record decline, of 19.4 per cent since January 2008, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller survey said on Tuesday.
"There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data. Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path," David Blitzer, head of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, said.
The three worst-hit cities were the former flourishing towns of Phoenix, Arizona, where prices fell by 35 per cent; Las Vegas (down 32.5 per cent) and San Francisco (down 32.4 per cent). Dallas, Denver and Cleveland showed the smallest declines of around five per cent in January compared to the same period last year, the survey said.
House prices in the 20-city index have plummeted 29 per cent from their peak in summer 2006, while the 10-city index has fallen by 30 per cent.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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HMMMMMMM, thought so, but CNN + CNBC still repor sales going for pre-Recession = US$500K-or-Higher prices.
#3
Actually what I've personally found as good rule of thumb to find out if property is overpriced in your area is look at rental income versus property pricing on triplexes and duplexes in your area. For example if a triplex in your area costs 1 million to buy and takes about 30 years to pay off from just the rent (in the best case analysis) you're WAAAAY overpriced for the property there.
#4
'Record fall' usually comes after 'record inflation' when it comes to real estate. Anyone who thought that their house's value had tripled or quadrupled permanently has no knowledge or history.
At some point, with real estate as well as everything else, we'll get to an organic base price and organic increases/decreases based upon location and a healthy (not overblown or blown apart) economy. I'm guessing that it won't be for another year or two at minimum nationally.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/01/2009 6:35 Comments ||
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Does it really take anyone at the bank or lending institution much effort to find out what the median income is for an application locale, then do the math of 10/20% down and 30-40% of the income for housing to figure out what is a 'sustainable' housing price. Even calculating growth by raising the bar to 10/20% above that median, a honest analyst still couldn't justify the loans that banks et al were writing. All parties ignored proven principles.
#6
Women, children, and the poor hardest.... Wait a sec? Who's the victim here, I gotta know so I know who to cry for. Wow, being such sensitive liberal is really hard sometimes.
G20 leaders meeting in London this week will seek to agree global rules on remuneration in the banking sector, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.
"You will find on Thursday at the G20 that for the first time ever, the world economies will agree international rules for the remuneration of bankers," he said two days before the crunch summit.
"In other words, every country will sign up to a set of rules that we and others will apply to the banking system," he added, after giving a speech calling for a sense of morality to be restored to the global financial system.
"The difficulties in the past have led to us agreeing that there will be global rules in this area for the future," he added.
Brown will play host to United States President Barack Obama and his counterparts from the Group of 20 leading developed and developing countries at Thursday's summit.
The British leader emphasised the need for regulation to have a moral dimension during a pre-summit speech at London's historic Saint Paul's Cathedral, alongside Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Rules for bankers' pay was part of this, he said. "Just as we are eliminating tax havens, we are trying to eliminate these bad practices by insisting that there are global rules and not simply rules that apply to one country and can be undermined in the next," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Does Zim Bobs Way also sign?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/01/2009 10:45 Comments ||
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I thought the G20 were 20 nations. I didn't know they controlled the world. Imagine that, the whole world.
#3
So bankers will go into another line of work where they can earn all the money they want, and the dregs will be left to run the banks further into the ground.
Your gummints at work....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/01/2009 21:54 Comments ||
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MALAYSIA'S top investment bank, CIMB, on Monday urged its staff to go on unpaid leave for up to six months in a move to cut costs because of the global economic downturn.
CIMB Group chief executive Nazir Razak said the offer to its 36,000 staff was aimed at avoiding layoffs and would involve employees across nine countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, the national news agency Bernama reported.
'We don't have a target, but there will be cost savings,' Mr Nazir said. 'It's a positive move and a win-win situation.' He added that in the current economic situation, 'it is fully understood that there is spare capacity'.
Any employee in the group is eligible for the initiative - called the Staff Rejuvenation Programme - and the option would be granted after evaluation by senior management, said Mr Nazir.
CIMB officials confirmed his comments and said the unpaid-leave programme will start next month. The move, however, will not affect the group's operations as leave is subject to approval and the company can recall the staff when necessary, officials said.
CIMB, the country's second-largest bank, is the first major Malaysian company to ask staff to consider taking unpaid leave.
The surprise move comes just after a labour group said on Sunday that more than 26,000 people have lost their jobs in the country so far this year.
CIMB's move reflects increasing difficulties for Malaysian corporations as the country faces the prospect of its first recession in a decade.
The government said earlier this month it expects the economy will grow 1 per cent in the best-case scenario this year and shrink 1 per cent in the worst-case scenario.
It had previously forecast growth of 3.5 per cent.
Economists have warned that the RM67 billion (S$28 billion) of stimulus measures announced by the government recently may be insufficient to avoid a recession.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Close the bank, "Save" Billions, (Idiots)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/01/2009 10:51 Comments ||
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The following represent some of the studys key findings:
* Only 1 in 10 of the jobs actually created through green investment is permanent.
* Since 2000, Spain has spent 571,138 ($753,778) to create each green job, including subsidies of more than 1 million ($1,319,783) per wind industry job.
* Those programs resulted in the destruction of nearly 113,000 jobs elsewhere in the economy.
Following clearance by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, first consignment of 60 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate, imported from France, has arrived at the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) here for being converted into fuel for power reactors.
This uranium ore would be processed and used to pruduce power in safeguarded pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs).
Disclosing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, R N Jayaraj, chief executive, NFC , said that consequent to Indo-US nuclear deal, the 123 agreement and clearance by NSG to enable full civil nuclear cooperation, India and France had entered into bilateral cooperation for supplying reactors and fuel.
As a first step, Department of Atomic Energy entered into a contract with French Nuclear supplier AREVA NC for the supply of 300 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate and 60 tonnes were released under the first consignment which was received by the NFC.
Jayaraj said the fuel would be processed in the designated fuel plants at the NFC by converting uranium ore concentrated into nuclear grade uranium dioxide powder and then compacted in the form of cylindrical pellets.
These pellets will then stacked and encapsulated in thin walled tubes of zirconium alloy which will be sealed by resistance welding using end plugs, a technology which has been innovated in India.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2009 16:41 ||
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CHENNAI: An Indian version of the space shuttle will be test-flown from the spaceport at Sriharikota in a years time. The Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), as it is called, will be a combination rocket-aircraft: the aircraft with a winged body, which is the RLV, will sit vertically on the rocket.
The engineering model of the aircraft is ready at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram. The first stage of the Satellite Launch Vehicle-3, flown in the early 1980s, will form the booster rocket. Weighing nine tonnes, it is called S-9.
After it takes off like a rocket, the booster will release the unmanned aircraft, which will go into space. At the end of the mission, the aircraft will land in the sea.
K. Radhakrishnan, Director, VSSC, said in an interview: The next year we expect the prototype of the RLV-TD to be ready for flight-testing. This will be a milestone for ISRO. The RLV will open a new dimension in the launch vehicle technology and transportation system of ISRO.
According to Dr. Radhakrishnan, ground testing of the booster rocket was done at Sriharikota in December 2008.
S. Ramakrishnan, Director (Projects), VSSC, explained how the rocket-aircraft would look: The aircraft will stand over the rocket, nose-tip up, and its tail will be interfaced with the rocket. In other words, the entire RLV will stand vertically on top of the booster. The engineering model of the prototype RLV was ready at the VSSC. It will undergo various structural and load tests, Mr. Ramakrishnan said.
The booster rocket will take the RLV to a specific altitude, release the RLV and fall into the sea. On re-entry into the earths atmosphere, the RLV will land in the sea, to be recovered.
Re-entry, descent and recovery are the three issues which we are trying to understand, Mr. Ramakrishnan said. But in the first trial-flight in 2010, the RLV will not be recovered from sea because it will not be cost-effective to do so. But we will get the data on the re-entry, deceleration and return from the telemetry.
There were several issues that the ISRO was trying to understand in the mission, Dr. Radhakrishnan said. These included the aerodynamics of the RLV, compared to the rocket, and the controllability of the vehicle. The control system must be fast-acting. That is the basic challenge. The digital auto-pilot is important for the ascent phase and the descent phase.
The third important challenge was the heat generated when the RLV re-entered the atmosphere. Dr. Radhakrishnan said: You need to have hot structures [which can withstand the re-entry heat] Today, we have a handle on the materials.
The ISRO had a long way to go before it could build an operational RLV, he said. This is the first TD towards that.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2009 15:03 ||
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#1
An engineering model of the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2009 15:05 Comments ||
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#2
Poster from Aero-India 2009 showing the various RLV experiments - landing, return flight and scramjet
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2009 15:06 Comments ||
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#3
Why the decision to have it land at sea? I understand the saved weight etc. of not having a wheeled suspension, but does it not open the possibility of damage to the scramjet and stress from bobbing in the waves (nevermind the difficulties of the controlled landing onto the ocean)?
#6
ION INDIA WAFF > DYING JOBS FORCE MIGRANT LABOERERS TO LEAVE BANGALORE [India].
OTOH, also on WAFF > ROLE REVERSAL: SOME AMERICANS HEAD FOR NEW JOBS IN INDIA; + [Calcutta News]THAI ECONOMY STILL SUFFERING DUE TO [pervasive]POLITICAL INSTABILITY.
The Obama administration has decided to seek a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Tuesday, reversing a decision by the Bush administration to shun the U.N.'s premier rights body to protest the repressive states among its membership.
The United States announced it would stand as a candidate in elections May 15 to decide three seats on the 47-member council, joining Belgium and Norway on a slate of Western candidates. New Zealand, which had planned to run as well, offered to step aside to allow the United States to run unchallenged.
Clinton and Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the decision was part of a broader push for "a new era of engagement" in U.S. foreign policy. "Human rights are an essential element of American global foreign policy," Clinton said in a statement. "With others, we will engage in the work of improving the U.N. human rights system to advance the vision of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights."
The decision was criticized by U.S. conservatives, who regard the council as fatally flawed. "This is like getting on board the Titanic after it's hit the iceberg," said John R. Bolton, ambassador to the United Nations in 2005 and 2006 under President George W. Bush. "It legitimizes something that doesn't deserve legitimacy." Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the "decision surrenders the strongest leverage we have to force changes in the council."
But U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and human rights advocates welcomed Clinton's announcement, saying U.S. membership would help blunt the influence of some of the council's most repressive members.
The Obama administration and rights advocates concede that the council has failed to emerge as a powerful champion of human rights and has devoted excessive attention to alleged abuses by Israel and too little to abuses in places such as Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Sudan's Darfur region.
The Human Rights Council was established in March 2006 to replace the Human Rights Commission, whose credibility had suffered because of the membership of noted rights abusers, including Zimbabwe and Sudan. The Bush administration refused to join the new council but initially agreed to fund it and be an observer. It later withdrew.
#1
the influence of some of the council's most repressive members.
What kind of Human Rights Council has "repressive members" at all? Oh yeah, the UN kind.
#3
But U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and human rights advocates welcomed Clinton's announcement, saying U.S. membership would help blunt the influence of some of the council's most repressive members.
MALAYSIA'S incoming premier Najib Razak on Tuesday hailed the ethnic Chinese community's contribution to the nation, in a bid to mend ties with minorities who deserted the coalition in 2008 elections. The comments from Najib, who is expected to be sworn into power later this week, came after an angry debate over the role of minorities in the multiracial country's independence struggle.
'I would like to thank the Chinese community for their many contributions to our nation's development,' Najib told editors of a local Chinese paper, according to a statement from his office. 'The Malaysian Chinese community has, is now, and will forever play a vital role in the fabric of our nation,' he added.
Najib last week became president of the ruling United Malay National Organisation (Umno) which represents majority Muslim Malays who make up 60 percent of the population and dominate the government.
Umno leads a coalition of race-based parties that also represent the ethnic Chinese and Indian communities, but they were hammered in elections a year ago as minorities shifted towards the opposition. The opposition benefited from a rising sense of 'Islamisation' of Malaysia, and fears that minorities' rights are being eroded.
Najib pledged to 'develop a government that respects the voices of all Malaysians' and said the government 'recognises and respects the contributions of all people in building Malaysia.'
His comments came after a senior leader said at last week's Umno assembly that independence and later developments were forged by 'Umno and our Malay rulers and no one else.'
The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a key member of the coalition, urged a stop to 'rewriting the facts of history or denying the efforts of other races in helping to fight for the country's independence.'
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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The man who ran the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison in Cambodia accepted responsibility Tuesday for torturing and executing thousands of inmates and expressed "heartfelt sorrow" for his crimes. Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, told the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal that he wanted to apologize for his actions under the Khmer Rouge, whose radical policies while in power from 1975 to 1979 left an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians dead.
"I am responsible for the crimes committed at S-21, especially the torture and execution of the people there," Duch told the tribunal. "I would like to express my deep regretfulness and my heartfelt sorrow for all the crimes committed by the CPK from 1975 to 1979," he said, referring to the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the official name for the Khmer Rouge.
Duch, now 66, commanded the group's main S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been brutalized before being sent to their deaths. He is charged with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as torture and homicide, and could face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Cambodia has no death penalty.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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I would like to submit these 1.7 million pieces of evidence that there is not a death penalty if subject is Khmer. Perhaps his punishment could be to work a rice field 12 hours a day with only a tin of rice to eat, 2 short breaks.
Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky speaks to the Post's George McLeod about the 'farcical' shortcomings of Cambodia's war crimes court.
Top Khmer Rouge leaders are now in detentionat the war crimes tribunal. Is a UN-backed trial the best way forward, or should it be left to the Cambodian people?
I think it should be left to the Cambodian people. I can't imagine a UN international trial. But then, it shouldn't be limited to the Cambodians. After all, an international trial that doesn't take into account Henry Kissinger or the other authors of the American bombing and the support of the KR after they were kicked out of the country . That's just a farce - especially with what we now know about the bombing of Cambodia since the release of the Kissinger-Nixon tapes and the release of declassified documents during the Clinton years. There has been a very different picture of the scale and intensity of the bombing and its genocidal scale. For an international trial to omit this would be scandalous. Radical, leftest Russian Amish, why do they hate America? More at the link if you can stomach it.
#1
Ummm... and wasn't he one of the intellectual who insisted that there weren't any atrocities going on in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, that there was nothing to see here, move on?
Matter of fact, the only Americans that I can remember supporting the KR... were intellectual leftist suck-ups like... Noam Chomsky!
#4
It is America's fault for listening to communists like Chomsky to withdraw support for the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Lao when the guerrila war was won but the Communist conventional threat and goals remained. It's also America's fault for listening to radical leftists like Chomsky lie, deny and cover up for the Khmer Rouge when there were credible witnesses to the genocide begging to be heard.
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2009 10:30 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Presently known for playing Detective Mac Taylor on the hit TV series, CSI NY, the talented Gary Sinise has done it all--acting, directing, making music and producing everything from plays to films. Now, Sinise plays the role of executive producer for the recently released documentary feature, Brothers At War. Since Sinise has been nominated for an Oscar (Forrest Gump), a couple of Emmys and a Tony (for directing Sam Shepard's Buried Child), he's a good man to have on board. 
USA Today President and Publisher Craig Moon announced his sudden retirement Tuesday, leaving the country's largest newspaper with its top two jobs unfilled during perhaps the most difficult stretch in its 27-year history. He also said the newspaper has lost about 100,000 subscribers just from the slowdown in travel.
The Obama administration has decided to seek a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Tuesday, reversing a decision by the Bush administration to shun the U.N.'s premier rights body to protest the repressive states among its membership. 
