Unless someone has found a way to put a nuclear warhead on these rounds, the media and this unfortunate citizen are overreacting.
A STARTLED nebbish has told how he found a bullet lying in a York city-centre puddle.
Tim Stark Staring-Madd
said he was unloading items into the MOR Music emporium where he works in Fossgate yesterday morning when he spotted what he supposed to be a live .22 bullet gleaming in a puddle.
He said he immediately called the cops, who came and took it away. No doubt in an armoured paddywagon.
"I have no idea what it was doing there," he said. Probably an unusually wimpy IED.
A North Yorkshire bobby droid said the bullet had been put into safe storage, and the local gumshoes had confirmed it was not thought to be connected with any incident currently under investigation.
He asked anyone with any information about the bullet and how it came to be in Fossgate to phone the force on xxx xxx xxxx. The number is at the link, in case you want to phone the N. Yorkshire bobbies and tell them what pussies and nitwits their citizens and media are that you've found another .22 round or some other Invention of the Devil.
Official police photo of the offending weapon system itself:
#4
ASBO. However, if a criminal had shot someone with it, the bullet would be immediately discharged from police custody, and the victim would be fined or imprisoned for "Interfering with the momentum of a projectile."
And possibly fined for "creating a public nuisance", by bleeding on the sidewalk, instead of the "human fluids only" recycling bin.
#7
Am I the only one thinking of Sylvester Stallone's move "Demolition Man" where everyone in the future turns into a bunch of wussies (except for Sandra Bullock, of course!) and even the police would almost faint at the sight of something like this?
Until just now, I thought the idea was high fantasy.
#9
The tenor of most comments seems to be "what a bunch of maroons" those Brits are.
Ahem. Same thing here in the Soviet of Hawai'i. State law is such that if you accidently leave a cartridge in your pocket after a day at the range, you are guilty of a felony.
Jacques Chirac will tomorrow become the first former President in French history to go on trial as a common criminal.
The retired 78-year-old faces up to 10 years in prison, a £100,000 fine and a five year voting ban if found guilty of corruption charges.
The main allegation is that Chirac created scores of fictitious jobs during his period as Paris mayor in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This allegedly enabled him to channel thousands of pounds worth of bogus salaries into his RPR (Gathering for the Republic) party, the forerunner of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP, which runs France today.
Chirac admits that the financing scam happened, but denies knowing anything about it at the time. He enjoyed immunity from prosecution during his period as President, between 1995 and 2007, but prosecutors charged him last year following a protracted investigation.
He will be tried in the Première Chambre Civile of the Palais de Justice, where a revolutionary tribunal condemned Queen Marie-Antoinette to death by guillotine during the French Revolution of 1789. Well, I doubt that will happen, but we can always hope...
Lawyers for US pop icon Lady Gaga have threatened legal proceedings against the makers of breast milk ice cream named "Baby Gaga", according to papers seen by AFP on Saturday.
The New York singer's lawyers have given the manufacturers until 1600 GMT Wednesday to change the name "if you wish to avoid proceedings for trade mark infringement and passing off", according to a letter addressed to London restaurant The Icecreamists Limited.
The cafe in the trendy Covent Garden district must also "cease and desist from in any other way associating with Lady Gaga any ice cream you are offering," said the letter from law firm Mishcon de Reya.
The letter accuses The Icecreamists of "taking unfair advantage of, and riding on the coattails of" Lady Gaga's trademarks in a manner that is "deliberately provocative and, to many people, nausea-inducing".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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Babies had the rights to saying 'gaga' long before Lady Gag-Gag came along.
#10
....Is it just me, or am I the only one here who'd never heard one of her songs?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/06/2011 13:40 Comments ||
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#11
If you look behind all the carnival tricks and technology support, shes an average looking young woman with a normal shape and really a fairly mediocre voice. This is truly a PT Barnum spectacular merged with desperate pleas for attention. How utterly shallow a performer she is should be apparent to anyone with actual taste.
#16
Actually, her most elaborate music video, called "Bad Romance", is worth a look, at least once, because it goes for a fairly high budget, very campy science-fiction look, with frequent scene changes for the attention deficit crowd. And a little bit of booty at the end.
All sorts of CGI gimmicks and f/x in it as well. And only after it had been out a year did the light dawn that it, in effect, is marching band music.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A Ugandan opposition leader has challenged the re-election of President Yoweri Museveni in a Supreme Court petition, but the appeal may be deemed invalid, a judiciary front man said on Friday.
"Just yesterday, one of the candidates filed some papers," the front man, Elias Kisawuzi, told journalists, identifying the plaintiff as Norbert Mao.
By law, candidates in the February 18 elections had 10 days to challenge the results, which gave Museveni a 68 per cent win. Democratic Party candidate Mao filed his petition late.
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03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] The government of Ivory Coast's internationally recognized leader said the country's deepening political crisis has "crossed over to a new level of horror and barbarism" after soldiers backing his rival fatally shot six female demonstrators.
Thousands of women were protesting sitting president Laurent Gbagbo ... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints... 's refusal to cede power when tanks showed up and soldiers opened fire.
"Indeed, we anticipated everything short of imagining that one could shoot live rounds at unarmed women, all the more with tanks," said Patrick Achi, the front man for the government of Alassane Ouattara, whom the UN said defeated Gbagbo in the Nov. 28 election.
The UN says that nearly 400 people have been killed in the three-month-long dispute, though Ouattara's camp said on Friday that total was too conservative and should be closer to 1,000.
Thursday's deaths were especially shocking, however, because many assumed soldiers would never open fire on women.
"The killing is going on unabated," said Ouattara's Justice and Human Rights Minister Jeannot Kouadio Ahoussou in Geneva.
More than 200,000 people have decamped Abobo, the local UN peacekeeping mission reported, after a week when Gbagbo's security forces entered the neighborhood and began shelling it with mortars.
The shocking escalation indicates the army is willing to use war-grade weapons on its citizens. Ouattara's camp has also stepped up its resistance, led by rebels from the north and soldiers defecting from Gbagbo's army.
Thursday's attack prompted an immediate rebuke from the US , which like most governments has urged Gbagbo to step down and has recognized his rival as the country's legitimate president.
"The moral bankruptcy of Laurent Gbagbo is evident as his security forces killed women protesters," said US State Department front man P.J. Crowley in a Twitter message.
In New York, the UN Security Council said it is "deeply concerned" about the escalation of violence in Ivory Coast and that it could lead to a resurgence of civil war there.
The European Union's top diplomat Catherine Ashton called for Gbagbo to cease all violence and cede power to Ouattara.
Fighting also has broken out in the west, where several battles have taken place between rebels allied to Ouattara and regular army soldiers loyal to Gbagbo. The UN refugee body announced on Friday that it would be suspending its activities in the west due to the security concerns.
"We will continue our work in Abidjan and elsewhere," said UNHCR protection officer Monique Sokhan.
Hopes linger for a negotiated solution, even after a high-level African Union panel of five presidents extended its timeline for mediation by a month.
After a meeting in Mauritania on Friday, the panel announced that it would return again to Abidjan, Ivory Coast's biggest city, to meet both leaders.
Previous attempts to mediate have fallen flat after Gbagbo rejected offers of amnesty, exile and teaching positions in the US.
UN certified election results show that Gbagbo lost last November's election by almost nine percent. He refused to recognize those results, instead accusing the UN of meddling in state affairs and ordering the UN to leave the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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"The moral bankruptcy of Laurent Gbagbo is evident as his security forces killed women protesters," said US State Department front man P.J. Crowley in a Twitter message.
But the killing of 'male' protestors is entirely "moral" and acceptable. More moral outrage from the State Department, yawn.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] US Senator John I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry ... the Senate's current foreign policy expert, filling the empty wingtips of Joe Biden... says he is "deeply concerned" by efforts to remove Muhammad Yunus from the Grameen Bank he founded and urged the Bangladesh government and Nobel laureate to reach a compromise.
The 70-year-old economist was abruptly sacked as managing director of Dhaka-based Grameen Bank by Bangladesh's central bank on Wednesday in what his supporters say was the culmination of a year-long vendetta against him.
Kerry, who heads the powerful US Senate foreign relations committee, said he hoped the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the 2006 Nobel peace prize winner could reach a "compromise" on the issue.
"I am deeply concerned by efforts to remove Muhammad Yunus as managing director of the Grameen Bank," he said in a statement late Friday.
"The international community will watch this situation closely, and I hope that both sides can reach a compromise that maintains Grameen Bank's autonomy and effectiveness."
Yunus defied the Bangladesh central bank order and returned to work on Thursday at Grameen's headquarters before later lodging a case in the High Court contesting the legality of his dismissal.
"Institutions like the Grameen Bank make a significant contribution to Bangladesh's development and democracy and Professor Yunus's life-long work to reduce poverty and empower women through microloans has deservedly received worldwide attention and respect," Kerry said.
Bangladesh's high court will rule on Yunus's dismissal on Sunday.
Yunus -- who appears to have no political ambitions -- has launched a legal battle against the central bank's efforts to remove him from his position as Grameen Bank managing director over a technicality dating back to 2000.
Yunus said Thursday he wanted a "graceful solution" allowing him to step down.
Supporters say Yunus's troubles stem from 2007 when he floated the idea of forming a political party, earning the wrath of the powerful Hasina who has publicly disparaged his work.
Grameen Bank, which is 25 percent state owned, has more than eight million customers, providing collateral-free loans in 82,000 villages across Bangladesh.
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HSBC has told its biggest shareholders that it is preparing to quit London in a shock move that the bank has revealed to key investors is now "more likely than not".
The loss of HSBC's headquarters in London, although threatened for months because of the increase in financial regulations, would be a severe blow to the Coalition
Britain's biggest bank, which has been headquartered in the capital for 19 years, warned key investors that last week's disappointing full-year results have made arguments for shifting HSBC's domicile to Hong Kong "overwhelming".
The shareholders have been surprised by the swift gear-change in HSBC's review of its domicile but some have already told the bank that they would support the move.
The loss of HSBC's headquarters in London, although threatened for months because of the increase in financial regulations, would be a severe blow to the Coalition which, despite some of its 'banker bashing' rhetoric, is relying on a private-sector-led recovery.
Last week £6bn was wiped from the value of HSBC's shares as the bank admitted it had suffered surging costs which had fundamentally undermined its targeted return on equity.
Shares in the bank plunged 4.7pc to 678p after it revealed pre-tax profits of $19.1bn (£11.7bn) $1bn less than analysts had expected.
The bank said operating expenses had soared to $37.7bn a rise of 9.6pc from the previous year.
the Government's banking levy, recently increased by the Chancellor, means that the bank will ultimately pay out as much to cover the tax as it gains in profit from its UK businesses.
Iain Mackay, finance director of HSBC, blamed the bonus tax in Britain and France and the large swathes of new bank regulations for the higher costs. Senior figures at the bank have also pointed out that the Government's banking levy, recently increased by the Chancellor, means that the bank will ultimately pay out as much to cover the tax as it gains in profit from its UK businesses.
Last week the bank said that the return on equity target of 15pc to 19pc was no longer viable. Mr Mackay said higher capital requirements demanded by UK regulators and the lower prospective returns had led to the target being abandoned.
Britain's capital requirements for the UK's leading banks are now the toughest in the world and, with the introduction of the Basel III regulations, the bar is expected to go even higher.
The military will deploy E-737 airborne early warning and control aircraft in July that have a 400 km surveillance range. The aircraft are capable of simultaneously monitoring 1,000 aircraft, track 300 targets and search the skies for low-flying North Korean AN-2 infiltration airplanes.
Boeing unveiled the new planes, dubbed "Peace Eye," and said the first plane will be delivered to South Korea in June, a month earlier than planned.
Seoul will spend W2 trillion (US$1=W1,128) until the end of 2012 to procure four E-737s. The first one will be built in the U.S. and the rest will be fitted with radars and undergo final modification in South Korea.
South Korea will be the third country in the world to operate the E-737 after Australia and Turkey. The E-737 is fitted with Northrop Grumman's Multi-mode Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar and an identification friend or foe (IFF) system. It performed flawlessly in several test flights under rainy, snowy and windy conditions. Boeing said that the planes fly at an altitude of between 9 km to 12 km and can detect all low-flying aircraft that infiltrate using mountainous terrain.
Unlike the disc-shaped radar of existing airborne warning and control systems, which rotate once every 12 seconds to transmit and receive radar signals, the MESA radar can freely transmit and receive radar signals in any direction and distance. Under normal conditions, the maximum surveillance range is around 370 km, but focused transmissions of radar signals in one direction could expand the maximum range up to 500 km, making the E-737 capable of monitoring all of North Korea when flying close to the Demilitarized Zone.
The E-737's radar is also capable of monitoring enemy vessels and other maritime targets. Surveillance data can be transmitted to command headquarters and other weapons systems, including F-15K fighter jets. The E-737 is also capable of firing aluminum chaff and flares to evade heat-seeking missile attacks and is fitted with six missile advance warning systems on top of and under the fuselage.
The military will operate the aircraft in three shifts lasting eight hours each. The Peace Eye can fly up to 20 hours after each aerial fueling.
The complete 5-year plan summary at the link, but these are the interesting points as I saw them.
Unleash domestic consumption Like America, domestic demand creates a self-perpetuating market for new goods. It was great for us back when we made all our own stuff and buying goods created American jobs.
Develop service trade. Services currently contribute to less than 40% of GDP. The goal is to raise this number to 70% or higher. America is a service-based economy.
Currently, for every 1% increase in GDP, Chinas energy use increases by 1% or more. If this rate continues, China will need to increase its energy consumption by 2.5 times to achieve its 2020 economic goal. To put this into perspective, this would mean increasing the current consumption of coal from the current 3.6 billion tons per year to an astronomical 7.9 billion tons a year. No one in China thinks this can be done. One major way to reduce the amount of energy required for the Chinese economy is to implement energy saving practices throughout the economy. A second way to reduce is to shift from hydrocarbon based energy to alternative energy sources. The new plan advocates an all out program in this area. The Chinese have the government support to really hurt us in the solar/wind/nuclear area. Most solar and wind is already made in China, and they're innovating.
Chinese wage are abnormally low. Most planners are pushing for tripling of the average wage for factory workers during this 5 year plan. Goodbye export trade. Foreign companies will pack up and move somewhere else. Of course, China will make it tough for them to do so, so they'll have to sell their factories cheap to domestic companies.
Encourage cultural production in order to increase Chinas soft power. China will seek to make its case for the world to avoid misunderstanding Chinas goals and its role within the world economy. Good luck with this one. China doesn't understand the rest of the world and IMO will continue its ham-handed approach. The fact that they're racial supremacists who genuinely believe that they are the best race in the world doesn't help.
China must work to tackle 'great resentment' among its people over growing income disparity, corruption and rising prices, the country's prime minister, Wen Jiabao has said, vowing his government would work harder to meet public demands.
In a "state of the nation" speech opening the annual 10-day session of the nation's rubber-stamp parliament, Mr Wen admitted that despite China's great economic growth, his government had "not yet fundamentally solved a number of issues that the masses feel strongly about."
These included high food and housing prices, "significant problems concerning food safety and rampant corruption", and people being illegally kicked off their land to make way for unrestrained property development.
China's leaders have watched nervously as the Middle East has been swept by democratic revolutions and has cracked down hard on any attempt to foment a "jasmine-style" revolution in the country.
Its fears are reflected in a massive internal security budget of almost £60 billion, which exceeds the £57 billion that China announced that it will spend on its armed forces this year.
In yet another confirmation of Indias Ballistic Missile Defence capability, it fired an interceptor missile on Sunday which intercepted an incoming enemy ballistic missile at an altitude of 16 km and pulverised it in a direct kill. While the hostile missile took off at 9.32 a.m. from a launch complex at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Orissa, the interceptor rose at 9.37 a.m. from the Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast and smashed into the target. The interceptor had a specially designed directional warhead, which looked at the target and caused the maximum damage. The attacker ended up in a shower of fragments over the Bay of Bengal, confirming a very good kill. Both the missiles were made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Posted by: john frum ||
03/06/2011 09:13 ||
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A Chaplain to the Queen who specialises in advising the clergy on marital problems has left his wife amid rumours of an affair with a woman in the congregation.
Canon Andrew Clitherow, who has four children, has left his wife Rebekah.
He announced the split on Sunday to his congregation at St Cuthbert's, in Lytham St Annes, Lancs.
This is not the first time Canon Clitherow has left a wife. In the mid-1990s he was married to Elizabeth, with whom he had two children, when he met Rebekah. She was a pupil at Rossall School, where the young vicar spent time with the choir in his role as school chaplain. His wife-to-be was a teenage alto.
By 1996, Elizabeth was living alone in nearby Fleetwood. Rev Clitherow had two children with Rebekah and they finally married in 2002.
One member of Canon Clitherow's congregation said: "It is an absolute shock."
No, it is an absolute disgrace, not only his behavior but the failure of the church to defrock him long ago.
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.
Jacques Chirac will tomorrow become the first former President in French history to go on trial as a common criminal.
Lawyers for US pop icon Lady Gaga have threatened legal proceedings against the makers of breast milk ice cream named "Baby Gaga", according to papers seen by AFP on Saturday.
Laurent Gbagbo
John 
