#3
The Israeli stopped buying US treasuries some months ago, too. They're well into their recovery now, and so don't need to buy down the shekel. Perhaps that's why President Obama is so annoyed with them.
An Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft has just reached the center...reporting that the central pressure has risen to 945 mb...and that the 700 mb flight-level winds are significantly lower than those measured yesterday. The initial intensity is lowered to 125 kt...and this could be generous
The initial motion is wobbling between 325 and 330 degrees at about 10 kt. Jimena is forecast to continue in a general north-northwesterly direction during the next couple of days CaboStLucas is pretty much out of danger except for large waves but someplace on the w Baja coast is likely to get a direct hit; also, the rain shield may make it into s Ariz in 5 days or so
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/01/2009 11:23 ||
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HAVANA, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Talks aimed at resuming direct postal service between the United States and Cuba, which has been suspended for decades, are set to be held in mid-September in another sign of thawing U.S.-Cuba relations, Western diplomats said.
Officials from the U.S. State Department and U.S. Postal Service were expected to attend the discussions in Havana, the diplomats, who asked not to be named, said. No further details were immediately available and there was no immediate confirmation from the Cuban government.
The talks are part of U.S. President Barack Obama's declared intention to "recast" relations with Communist-ruled Cuba, which for 47 years has been the target of a U.S. trade embargo.
In April, Obama lifted restrictions on travel and remittances sent to Cuba by Cuban Americans with relatives on the island and he has restarted talks on immigration that were suspended by the Bush administration in 2004. Cuba agreed in late May to resume the immigration discussions and also to a U.S. request for talks on the postal service.
At present, mail between the two countries must go through a third country.
Direct postal service was suspended as a result of the animosity between the United States and Cuba that began soon after the Cuban revolution toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Diplomatic relations were broken off in 1961 and a year later the U.S. launched a trade embargo that is still in place.
The United States has approached Cuba before about resuming direct postal services but Cuba has insisted in the past that, among other things, this must be accompanied by a resumption of regular scheduled commercial flights between the two nations just 90 miles (145 km) apart. Currently, only charter flights are permitted under U.S. regulations.
Cuba is also said to be concerned about the possible delivery by post of items it views as potentially harmful, including chemicals, firearms, ammunition, and technology such as satellite phones.
Especially satellite phones. And news. And magazines. And advertising. And books. And Bibles ...
According to John Kavulich, senior policy advisor at the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York, resumption of direct mail would likely draw interest from UPS and FedEx. "Pressure might increase for UPS and FedEx to have the right to compete with the U.S. Postal Service," he said. The two companies "might not want to service Cuba, but they would certainly insist on the right to compete."
He also said that with direct postal service, Cuba's government agencies would be expected to respond more promptly to U.S. requests and queries than in the past. "With normalization comes accountability -- a relationship that centrally-planned commercial, economic and political systems are not designed to accept readily," Kavulich told Reuters.
While Obama has moved to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, he has said the U.S. trade embargo will only be eliminated if Cuba make progress on political prisoners and human rights. Cuba has said it is willing to discuss everything with Washington but has ruled out unilateral political concessions or any shift to capitalism.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Look for Cuba to pass Nigeria as scam capitol of the planet.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/01/2009 13:33 Comments ||
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That or they'll take your shade-tree job and leave you to bitch another 3 hours a day on the inter-webs.
As someone who has been heavily involved in education throughout the US for years, retired from education now, there is nothing that can be good about this. There are no hints or suggestions about the content of his speech. Just this "Teachers' to do list".
President ObamaÂ’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009
PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President ObamaÂ’s Address to Students Across America
Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education
September 8, 2009
Before the Speech:
• Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama and motivate students by asking the following questions:
Who is the President of the United States?
What do you think it takes to be President?
To whom do you think the President is going to be speaking?
Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
What do you think he will say to you?
• Teachers can ask students to imagine being the President delivering a speech to all of the students in the United States. What would you tell students? What can students do to help in our schools? Teachers can chart ideas about what they would say.
• Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?
During the Speech:
• As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a Cluster Web, or students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children can draw pictures and write as appropriate.
As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following:
What is the President trying to tell me?
What is the President asking me to do?
What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?
There's more at the link. Parents -- think of what you need to tell your children -- I don't think this will be a civic lessons on "How Government Works" -- but than again, it might be! Obama style government
#4
Youth cultural awareness sessions. Sign up now:
Ingoma (isizingili) - a dance performed by boys and girls without drums and accompanied by a chant. The girls wear woollen skirts and are usually bare-chested. They also wear rattles made of seedpods around the ankles to accent the high kicks.
Ingoma (isishameni) - a harmonising performance with boys and girls together but dancing separately. The boys clap while the girls dance and vice-versa.
[Dawn] The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has sentenced two traffic police officers to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a three-year-old girl, Sana, in Karachi.
Apart from the death penalty, the convicts, Bashir Ahmed and Noor Mohammad, would also have to undergo 10 years rigorous imprisonment and pay Rs,100,000 each to the family of the victim. In case of failure to pay compensation, the convicts would have to undergo three more years of rigourous imprisonment before facing the noose.
It may be mentioned that case had been transferred from a trial sessions court to the ATC at the express recommendation and request of the advisor to the chief minister, Sharmila Farooqi.
Analysts say that the move was made because of the fact that sessions court usually take a lot of time to resolve such cases. Criminal law expert Salahuddin Gandapur elaborates: 'The ATC usually deals with kidnapping for ransom cases. But any case which is of interest of the public at large and is related to terrorism can come under the preview of the court.
'Now since the crime was committed against a minor and that too by public office holders, the case was shifted to the ATC.' When asked whether the case would have been shifted to the ATC if the accused were not police officers, Gandapur said: 'Even then it could have been shifted to the ATC because of the heinous nature of the crime.'
Gandapur added that according to a recent amendment made in the CRPC related to rape offences, if a rape victim was a minor, the punishment for the accused could be a death sentence.
Meanwhile, Zia Awan, a renowned human rights' lawyer says: 'The death sentence awarded to the policemen is unique in this case because the judgment came in less than two months. This is quite rare.'
The brutal murder of a three-year-old in July led to a public outcry, compelling both the media and government to take notice, which Awan felt influenced the decision of the court by a large extent. 'We sometimes do not realize the power of the media,' Awan said, who is also a member of the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA).
However, he added, that verdict in itself was not unique as several people have been sentenced, when the rape was followed by murder. 'It is unfortunate, but the truth is if a rape victim survives, justice may not be delivered to her as quickly as in the case of murder. When the victim survives, there are often too many versions of the story and evidence is hard to obtain as a result of which the case drags for years.'
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said it is inappropriate to target allegations against the Presidential House.
He said this while reacting on a statement given by Secretary Information Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal, in which he alleged, "Presidential House is also involved in the on-going campaign to mar the image of Nawz Sharif."
Farhatullah Babar said PML (N) should itself answer the allegations made against it.
He said "Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) do not want to clash with any group. PPP is making efforts for congruence in the country, and following same principle it has formed the coalition government also in those provinces where it was not necessary."
Regarding the 48-hour ultimatum given on part of the PML (N), the presidential spokesman said they may go all out to do the same.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A top Egyptian scholar stirred controversy this week after he issued a fatwa restricting the places that Muslims can listen to the Quran, which had been vehemently rejected by the government in Cairo.
Sheikh Gamal Qutb, former head of the Fatwa Committee at the world's top Sunni institution al-Azhar, stated in an interview with a local paper that people should not listen to recitations of Islam's holy book while at work, on public transport or in stores.
"Listening to Quran in public and crowded places implies lack of respect," he said. "People who do that deal with Quran with carelessness"
Qutb argued that people who listen to the Quran while doing something else are not concentrating enough and may be distracted.
The fatwa, or religious edict, stirred much controversy among al-Azhar scholars and Egypt's Dar al-Iftaa, the government institution in charge of issuing fatwas, rebutted the fatwa.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2009 00:00 ||
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With a fatwa here, and a fatwa there,
Here a fatwa, there a fatwa, everywhere a fat-wa,
This old Imam pushed his shiat,
Ee-i-ee-i-oh.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Popular Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled is at the center of a controversy over an episode on his popular Quran program that discussed the story of Moses and allegedly linked it to current events and aroused sympathy for Jews.
In the program Min Qasas al-Quran (Stories of the Quran), which has aired on several satellite channels since Ramadan began, Khaled discussed how the Pharaohs slayed male Jews during the time of Moses. The famous preacher prepared the story earlier this year and posted it on his website in May with questions that he asked visitors to respond to.
"Think about these questions," he wrote on the website. "You will not find their answers in any book. They just need brains and imagination."
Think for themselves instead of being told what they should think? Shocking!
Among the questions posted were those asking: Why did the Pharaoh order male Jews to be killed? What do you think was Moses' political goal? Was it saving the Israelites or talking the Pharaoh into believing in God? Why didn't Moses call upon Egyptians to join his faith?
Why would Moses have called upon Egyptians to join his faith? I'm confused.
The responses were remarkable because the majority linked the story of Moses to the current political situation in Egypt and viewed it as an incentive to rebel against repressive leaders.
Interestingly, they don't seem to have linked it to an Egyptian law passed after 1948, that made it illegal for Egyptian Jewish males to be in the country after their eighteenth birthday, or to when the Egyptian Jewish community, dating back to several centuries before Christ, ceased to exist. Just as the Pharaoh had intended in that long-ago time.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2009 00:00 ||
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"Why would Moses have called upon Egyptians to join his faith? I'm confused"
because about the biggest difference between Judaism and Islam, which are both austere monotheism with a commmitment to a religious law that weaves together the religious and the secular, is that Islam believes in proselytizing the world, and Judaism believes in living apart as a holy nation. Muslims beleive Moses was an early muslim prophet - presumably this preacher is saying that, on the surface Moses (as a muslim) should have been more focused on the conversion of Egypt than on the escape of the Jews.
Im not sure, but he may be saying that its less important to convert Mubarak (to democracy? to Islam?) than it is to escape from Mubaraks rule.
You could see how that would be controversial. That, incidentally, he reminds folks that the (preMedina, and indeed, pre Christ) Jews are good guys in Islam, would seem to contoversial only to the most bigoted Egyptians. But there seems to be no shortage of such bigots in Egypt.
Fred - of course, from the religious POV, Egypt is the LAST place Jews should live - Jeremiah, IIRC, specifically warned against fleeing there after the babylonian conquest - partly thats due to the story of Exodus - dont go back to the land you were specifically delivered from - it was also political - Egypt had been aligned with Assyria - to flee to Egypt was to make common cause with the faction in Judea that most feared the Babylonians, but had been okay with the Assyrians - the Assyrians and their attempt to make themselves, not God, the center of Judean loyalty, were particularly hateful to the prophets. Whereas the Babylonian conquest was a divine punishment, to be borne.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
09/01/2009 15:06 Comments ||
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fwiw
there are many, many references to Moses (Musa) in the Koran
the first bunch are in chapt 2 (dealing with the giving of the 10 commandments and other experiences in the desert)
chapter 28 of the koran deals with (among other things) Moses in Egypt; much of it is from the bible but also there is a lot taken from post biblical midrash
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/01/2009 15:17 Comments ||
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A series of violent fridge explosions is believed to have been caused by leaks of 'environmentally-friendly' coolant. I think I've found the problem, guys -
...the use of isobutane and propane hydrocarbon gases as refrigerants. Uh-huh.
#2
Isobutane and propane hydrocarbon. Jessus H. Christ on a crutch people.
And, how the hell can you call it green with a straight face when the refrigerant has the word hydrocarbon in it while telling us hydrocarbons are going to kill us all.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/01/2009 14:37 Comments ||
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Of course it's eco-friendly, you sillies! After all, if it's better that you don't plug the thing in, thereby not using any power at all, it is undeniably green.
#7
Bright, the hole was found in 1956, determined to be of natural origin within a couple of years and then later co-opted by eco-terrorists to fulfill their agenda. And yes, 1956 was before widespread use of CFC's.
Australia's leading criminologist thinks online scams have escalated to such a point that first-time users of computers should have to earn a licence to surf the web.
Russel Smith, principal criminologist at the Australian Institute of Criminology said the concept of a "computer drivers licence" should be taken seriously as an option for combating internet-related crime.
"There's been some discussion in Europe about the use of what's called a computer drivers licence - where you have a standard set of skills people should learn before they start using computers," Dr Smith told iTnews.
"At the moment we have drivers licences for cars, and cars are very dangerous machines. Computers are also quite dangerous in the way that they can make people vulnerable to fraud.
"In the future we might want to think about whether it's necessary there be some sort of compulsory education of people before they start using computers," he said.
The Australian Computer Society launched computer driver's licences in 1999. It aimed to give users a basic level of competency before they started using PCs. But the growth in cybercrime has led to IT security experts such as Eugene Kaspersky to call for more formalised recognition of a user's identity so they can travel the net safely.
Last week Dr Smith sat in front of a Federal Government Inquiry into cyber crime and advised Australia's senior politicians on initiatives in train to fight cybercrime.
He said that education was secondary to better technology solutions.
"I think at the starting point of it you need manufacturers of both hardware and software to devise technology that makes it difficult or impossible for people to be defrauded," Dr Smith said.
"And the main development in that area, I suppose, is the use of biometrics where you have fingerprint scanners or some biometric linked in with the authentication processes on computers".
Dr Smith said that the use of chip and pin credit cards had been a "very effective development" in Europe.
"I think when that happens in Australia we will be much better off," he said.
The banks are "being kind"
Dr Smith also said that Australia's banks were "being kind" when they bore the costs of cyber crime.
"There's a code of conduct for electronic transactions and under that code if people suffer a loss through an electronic transaction and there's no evidence that they've been implicated in anyway, then the banks undertake to compensate that individual," he said. "Some people probably are partially responsible to what happens to them if they've done something very silly or negligent.
"What that really means is that the banks are suffering a loss and eventually that money will be put on the cost of running the banking system. Consumers probably end up paying at the end of the day."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Since 99% comes from other countries, Your idea is simply unworkable Bullshit
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/01/2009 13:37 Comments ||
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Yes, indeedy. And a license before you can read a newspaper or watch infomercials. After all, someone might be trying to scam you.
The way 99.99% of people use a "computer", it's just an internet viewer. The problem is with the faulty viewer, not the user.
Bank internet security is laughable. Their software is primitive. They will cash e-checks just printed out on an ink-jet with a bogus signature. You can't specify, "no echecks". All valid checks could be crypto-signed by the bank, but that's too expensive...maybe a penny a check.
#3
Perhaps if certain companies in Redmond produced an operating system that didn't require a dozen or more security patches a month, we wouldn't have these problems.
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.
[Geo News] Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said it is inappropriate to target allegations against the Presidential House. 
