Posted by: Mike ||
12/16/2009 9:17 Comments ||
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#2
I deeply wish that this story could be told on the media, or in schools, where people could have a sense of the sacrifices made so we as a nation could survive.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/16/2009 10:40 Comments ||
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#3
The United States is truly blessed with such men.
#4
Though on the surface it sounds calloused, the only personnel that should ever be put on this duty are those adjudged to be technical psychopaths by a psychiatrist. That is, a true psychopath cannot empathize with other people and have a very limited emotional range. The vast majority are not anti-social or criminal and live normal lives.
There is a standard psychological test for psychopaths, and such people are very valuable in situations of extreme emotional stress, as they remain clear headed, where empathic people would have nervous breakdowns and even become physically ill.
In such situations, a psychopath can render aid and protect others who have been incapacitated with grief, fear, sympathetic nausea, and other conditions. They do so without stress or trauma, which is essential if they have to do such work a lot.
Because both this LTC and the Sergeant Major were normal, empathetic people, the Marine Corps lost two valuable leaders, and likely many others like them, as psychological casualties. Had they been psychopaths, after this duty, they could have returned to other active duty without a problem.
#5
Not sure why your saying that Moose, but I totally disagree. We, all services, concider next of kin to be family, our family. When I die I want my brother, a soldier, to tell my family, not a psycopath. My mother will see the hurt in his eyes and understand his job is heart felt even though he probably never met me. Survivor assistance duty is the most miserable duty one can suffer. It is also one that changes an offier and NCO forever. Men that can work through as many as these two worked through deserve a drink from me every day.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/16/2009 19:06 Comments ||
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#6
very moving tribute. i give a heart felt 'thank you' to all who have served this great country.
there is no higher call than suffering much to ease the pain of another. God bless them.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/16/2009 23:07 Comments ||
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Oral Roberts, a pioneer in televangelism who founded a multimillion-dollar ministry and a university that bears his name, died Tuesday. He was 91. Roberts died of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross. The evangelist was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday. He had survived two heart attacks in the 1990s and a broken hip in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
He leaves a great and lasting legacy in the university that bears his name. He gave it his best. Nothing more should be asked of any man.
#2
Standing in front of the Pearly Gates, Oral Robers stares up at the 900 foot tall figure of Jesus. Jesus stares back. Silence for a few seconds, then:
Bobcat attacks are unusual to begin with in Arizona, but this one is one folks will be talking about for years. A Yavapai County man, attacked by a bobcat Monday afternoon, strangled the animal with his bare hands, according to officials from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. This is like fighting a fur covered chain saw
"I've never heard of anything like that happening," said Randy Babb, of the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
The man strangled the animal, then put his knee into its chest to subdue it, according to wildlife officials.
"Animals just don't go around attacking people, especially small animals -- (they) go to great lengths to avoid humans," said Babb. "When you see an attack like that, you know there's something else at work."
State officials learned Tuesday the bobcat tested positive for rabies. Make that a rabid fur covered chain saw So that was the 'something else' at work ...
"This was particularly unusual because the gentleman killed the animal with his bare hands, and that was very advantageous because the animal wasn't out potentially exposing other people to rabies. We were able to get the animal in for testing right away," said Babb.
Wildlife officials said the attack happened in the man's yard near Crown King Trail in Yavapai County, about 12 miles north of Lake Pleasant. The Arizona Department of Health Services is reporting 244 animals have tested positive for rabies as of Dec. 7. That is a record number of cases. In 2008, the state also reported a record number of cases -- with 176 animals testing positive for rabies.
State officials did not identify the victim due to privacy laws, but said anyone who has been exposed to the rabies virus needs to undergo rabies treatments. Officials said this is a good reminder to residents to be aware.
"If you have a wild animal that is allowing you to approach it closely, or it approaches you, it is a warning sign you should stay away from it. You should avoid it at all costs," said Babb.
#3
I sure hope they've improved the treatment for rabies in the past years - that old 17 shots in the abdomen thing was darn near as bad as the desease....
Posted by: chris ||
12/16/2009 12:10 Comments ||
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#5
Its not that bad, beats the alternative. Just had the full course of shots due to bat exposure fall '08. Basically it was a series of 3-5 shots in the deltoid muscle over approximately a month-long time frame. Wasn't any worse than a flu vaccine, just a little soreness at the injection site. Also, once done, the shots are good forever according to my doctor. The worse thing is the cost,which is upwards of 3 grand IRRC, if not administered by health dept or covered by individual's insurance.
#7
Worse. Live near an abandoned cement mine shaft 1/4 mile away. Bat central according to health dept. Woke up from a nap and a bat was in the room with me, still do not know how it got in but it was creeping on the floor in an odd manner, and I had a red mark on me. Boxed it up in a shoe box and called health dept. The health department phoned it in to local hospital to send over the shots and I had to go to ER for the full course.
On November 21, Senior Airman Tre Porfirio was struck in the gut by three high velocity bullets while serving in Afghanistan. Porfirio, from St. Mary's, Georgia, was seriously injured; his entire digestive system was in danger of shutting down. During two operations in combat hospitals, surgeons removed his gallbladder along with portions of his large and small intestines, part of his stomach and a large section of his pancreas.
Porfirio was flown back to the United States immediately after emergency surgery, and taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, outside of Washington, D.C.
Col. Craig Shriver, chief of general surgery at Walter Reed, knew he had to remove the airman's remaining pancreas, which was found to be damaged beyond repair. "The optimal procedure at this point was to remove his entire remaining pancreas to prevent further leakage of the pancreatic enzymes and control the bleeding, which could be fatal," said Shriver. "We knew that the procedure would lead to the most severe and life-threatening form of diabetes, which tends to be very brittle and difficult to control in this type of situation.
In an effort to save Porfirio from severe diabetes, Shriver turned to other surgeons for suggestions. Dr. Rahul Jindal, a transplant surgeon also at Walter Reed, had training and experience in islet cell transplantation, which is considered the best hope for curing diabetes. In islet cell transplantation, the insulin-producing islets are taken from a donor pancreas, treated and then put in the patient's liver where they begin to produce insulin for the body, even if there is no pancreas. In this case, the islet cells would come from Porfirio's own pancreas.
"Isolation and purification of pancreatic islets is a very intricate procedure, which requires a specialized laboratory, and there are only a few such facilities in the United States," said Jindal.
But Jindal knew of the perfect facility for the job; he turned for help to the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The director of the institute, Dr. Camillio Ricordi, developed the method for isolating the islet cells from the pancreas and was considered a pioneer in the field. Ricordi immediately agreed to help, noting that he would do "anything to help a wounded warrior."
Doctors at Walter Reed then proceeded to remove the remaining portion of Porfirios pancreas, packed it in ice and sent it to Miami.
On Thanksgiving Day, just five days after Porfirio's initial injury, the cell processing team at the Diabetes Research Institute spent six hours performing the islet cell isolation and purification procedure. "More than 220,000 purified islets were then suspended in a specialized cold solution and flown back to Walter Reed, said Ricordi.
That afternoon, on that very same Thanksgiving Day, the islet cells were injected into Porfirios liver with Ricordi and his team coordinating the procedure with surgeons at Walter Reed via an Internet connection, a sort of high-tech telemedicine event.
In the three weeks since being wounded in Afghanistan, Porfirio has undergone 11 surgeries and, according to doctors, is "doing well." In a press conference held Tuesday at Walter Reed Medical Center, surgeons noted that there was evidence of the airmans islet cells functioning in his liver less than one week after surgery; 15 days after the procedure, the transplanted islet cells were functioning in the normal range. His physicians say as time goes on, the islet cells in the liver will get stronger; when that happens, Porfirio's insulin requirement is expected to decrease. And although he'll still have a form of diabetes, the complication won't be as dangerous and he'll have a better quality of life.
Doctors from both the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and surgeons at Walter Reed believe this transplantation is the first of its kind in a wounded soldier. They hope the success of the procedure will allow for more cases of islet cell transplantation in military personnel, as more of our fighting men and women return from war with injuries like those of Senior Airman Porfirio.
#1
The study only assumes that water vapor, as it is a much more potent greenhouse gas, is a positive feedback. What it neglects to take into account is clouds ... which reflect radiation back into space and generally cause cooling. When you have more water vapor in the air, you have more clouds. They don't take clouds into consideration, only the water vapor.
#3
All the computer models and dire predictions regarding CO2 also assumed positive feedback.. With all the tricks they've been using you could show warming (or cooling) based on table salt, Internet porn or anything else.
#4
Water vapor is also a massive heat pump upwards - evaporation at ground level then condensation high in the atmosphere. Where heat can more easily escape to space.
#5
Another important issue is that people don't understand how greenhouses gasses work. They assume that if the average temperature is 4 degrees higher, for example, that daytime temperatures would be higher. Untrue. Greenhouse gasses increase the average by increasing the low temperature. They actually act to decrease the daytime high.
You will never see temperatures in a very humid area as high as they are in Death Valley. That is because most of the sun's energy is in the infrared. Increasing greenhouse gasses also acts to block solar heat radiation, they absorb some, and only re-radiate a portion of that back toward Earth.
An night is where GHG's have their greatest impact. They absorb heat radiated from the surface and night and re-radiate a portion back to the surface. The real impact of GHGs is to increase the nighttime low temperature while also moderating daytime high temperature. It reduces the diurnal (day/night) swing in temperature. That isn't likely to hurt anyone.
Japan needs several more months to decide on the relocation of a major U.S. military base on the southern island of Okinawa, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Tuesday, a delay likely to frustrate Washington. Ay-Pee story. Rest at link.
#2
And probably do a stellar job of it I might add. Of course the cost savings would go directly to Barry's midnight basketball programs. Seems there's always a downside.
#2 And probably do a stellar job of it I might add. Of course the cost savings would go directly to Barry's midnight basketball programs. Seems there's always a downside.
Posted by: Besoeker 2009-12-16 11:42
The House on Wednesday passed legislation giving the federal government the ability to borrow a whopping $290 billion to finance its operations for just six additional weeks. Carry that for a whole year and that comes out to another $2,500 billion. It complements 2009's 2,900 billion increase in Federal government debt. That's nearly $10,000 for each man, woman and child. Illegal aliens excepted.
The 218-214 vote sends the must-pass bill to the Senate, which is expected to approve it as its last act before adjourning for the year. The alternative would be a market-rattling, first-ever default on U.S. obligations.
The measure is needed as a result of the out-of-control budget deficit, which registered $1.4 trillion for the budget year that ended in September. Plus another $1.5 trillion off book debt. Can you say bailouts?
The current debt ceiling is $12.1 trillion and is set to be reached by Dec. 31.
Democrats had hoped to pass a far larger increase of almost $2 trillion to avoid another vote before next year's midterm elections -- and to wrap the increase into the popular defense appropriations bill to give some political cover.
But that plan fell apart amid opposition from about a dozen Senate Democratic moderates, who say they will refuse to vote for a debt limit increase unless it is accompanied by legislation to establish a new bipartisan task force to come up with a plan to curb the deficit. That idea is opposed by Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2009 17:07 ||
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#1
2010 elections are but 10 1/2 months away, hold on to your seats Dems, you are in for a bumpy ride.
Posted by: Jack Unising7046 ||
12/16/2009 17:43 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like "Stupid California Budget Tricks: This Time, It's Federal".
Computer technicians have recovered about 22 million Bush administration e-mails that the Bush White House had said were missing, two watchdog groups that sued over the documents announced Monday.
The e-mails date from 2003 to 2005, and had been "mislabeled and effectively lost," according to the National Security Archive, a research group based at George Washington University. But Melanie Sloan, executive director of the liberal-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it could be years before most of the e-mails are made public.
"The e-mails themselves are not what we're getting," Sloan said.
Documents related to the handling of e-mail under the Bush administration and subsequent information regarding how White House e-mails are currently archived will be released under a settlement with the Obama administration, which inherited a lawsuit the groups filed in 2007. But the National Archives must sort out which documents are covered by the Freedom of Information Act and which ones fall under the Presidential Records Act, which means they could be withheld for five to 10 years after the Bush administration left office in January, Sloan said.
"The National Archives will sort this out," she said.
The e-mail controversy dates back to the Bush administration's 2006 firing of the top federal prosecutors in nine cities. After congressional committees demanded the administration produce documents related to the firings, the White House said millions of e-mails might have been lost from its servers. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive sued over the issue in 2007, arguing the Bush administration violated federal laws that require presidential records to be preserved.
Court records have shown that the Bush administration knew about the e-mail problems as far back as 2005 and did nothing to fix them, Sloan said.
"They never made an effort to restore them," she said.
But Scott Stanzel, a former deputy press secretary in the Bush White House, said the group "has consistently tried to create a spooky conspiracy out of standard IT issues." Now they'll just have to think of something else. How about Obama's original birth certificate or something?
"We always indicated that there is an e-mail archiving system and a disaster recovery system," Stanzel said. "We also indicated that e-mails not properly archived could be found on disaster recovery tapes. There is a big, big difference between something not being properly archived and it being 'lost' or 'missing,' as CREW would say."
Monday's settlement allows for 94 days of e-mail traffic, scattered between January 2003 to April 2005, to be restored from backup tapes. Of those 94 days, 40 were picked by statistical sample; another 21 days were suggested by the White House; and the groups that filed suit picked 33 that seemed "historically significant," from the months before the invasion of Iraq to the period when the firings of U.S. attorneys were being planned.
Also requested were several days surrounding the announcement that a criminal investigation was under way into the disclosure of then-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. That investigation led to the conviction of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents investigating the leak.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington represented Wilson and her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in a lawsuit over her exposure, which they argued was in retaliation for his accusation that the Bush administration over-hyped the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. A federal judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds in 2007, but Sloan said the missing e-mails raise the "strong possibility" that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald never received all the documents he requested during the leak investigation.
Hidden above the front section of the 787 are two bunks for pilots, who are required to rotate out of the cockpit after a typical 8 to 12 hour stint driving the plane. Another set of six bunks, known as the "romper room," are for flight attendants.
Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SASs A400M military transport, which performed its maiden flight today in Seville (see photo right), isnt viable without a significant contribution from government customers, the planemakers chief executive said.
Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said his companys first military plane and thousands of jobs connected with depend on the governments willingness to step up funding. The A400M, which is being assembled in Seville, Spain, is already suffering 2.3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in cost overruns. We certainly hope that with thousands and thousands of employees all over Europe that we can continue this program, but we need to do that on a financially sound basis, Enders said in an interview today with Bloomberg Television.
Airbus and government representatives sought to use the maiden flight as a way to overcome a deadlock on negotiations that has put in doubt the future of the 20 billion-euro project. Construction of the A400M is sapping engineers and money from Airbus, while the governments who ordered the plane have few alternatives they can tap for military or humanitarian missions.
Airbus parent European Aeronautics, Defence & Space Co. has requested about 5 billion euros in additional funding toward the plane, German Deputy Defense Minister Christian Schmidt said earlier this week.
I am not confirming numbers, Enders said. What I can say is in order to continue the program we need a significant contribution from government customers.
Representatives of Germany, France, the U.K. and the four other countries that first placed orders for 180 of the transporters watched the plane take off about 10 a.m. local time and then moved to a site near the airplane hangar to continue negotiations on pricing. The plane landed just after 2 p.m.
The governments that ordered the A400M harmonized their demands at a meeting in Seville today, German Deputy Defense Minister Ruediger Wolf said in an interview. They have until the end of January to study EADSs response to a letter detailing the clients demands. Germanys plan to order 60 of the transport planes is unchanged, he said.
French Defense Minister Herve Morin, also on site in Seville to see the plane, reiterated that France is eager to find a solution that will enable the A400M to go forward. Were looking for a solution that will allow us to soak someone else share the costs and move forward, he said.
The original 2003 contract was no longer valid after April when Airbus missed a deadline for the first test flight. Since then governments have been negotiating with Airbus toward an amended contract. Airbus says it needs governments to shoulder more of the costs, while the countries that ordered the A400M are at odds over how much more theyre willing to contribute.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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EVERETT, Wash. - Boeing's new 787 jetliner finally got airborne Tuesday, the long-delayed inaugural flight of the world's first commercial plane mostly built from lightweight composite materials. The sleek jet lifted off from Everett's Paine Field on a flight over Washington state, beginning an extensive testing program needed to obtain Federal Aviation Administration certification.
"It's very historical. I can't think of a thing about it that I'm not impressed with," said Joe Bierce, a flight instructor for Delta Connection in Jacksonville, Florida, who was among the 25,000 people who gathered to watch the takeoff.
The two-member crew performed a variety of basic system checks, including testing the landing gear and the flaps, before landing at Seattle's Boeing Field about three hours later. Deteriorating weather brought the plane back to earth about an hour earlier than planned.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
...Compare the Dreamliner to the A400M. Boeing ran into problems with it, bit the bullet, and did what had to be done. Airbus, on the other hand runs screaming for Nanny(State). That's why in a few years you'll see Dreamliners all over the world, and the A400M will be gathering rust at the far end of some airport.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/16/2009 9:30 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.
Computer technicians have recovered about 22 million Bush administration e-mails that the Bush White House had said were missing, two watchdog groups that sued over the documents announced Monday.
Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SASs A400M military transport, which performed its maiden flight today in Seville (see photo right), isnt viable without a significant contribution from government customers, the planemakers chief executive said.
