[An Nahar] Twelve people at the mandatory vehicle inspection "mecanique" center in Hadath were maimed in an armed clash on Wednesday, reported Voice of Leb radio.
The clash erupted when one of the citizens, who had entered his car for inspection, found out that his vehicle had failed the test, it said
Upon learning the news, he took his gun and started shooting randomly at the center, lightly wounding individuals at the scene.
VDL said that the injuries, mainly knocks and bruises, were incurred in the shoving that took place in light of the panic of the shooting.
MTV identified Ali al-Moqdad as the shooter.
Security forces immediately rushed to the scene to contain the situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Uh, uh, WHOA, LEBANON HAS AMISH TOO - WHO KNEW?
Toilet Bike Neo converts the poop - which can come straight from the driver sitting on a toilet-style seat - into a biogas that propels the vehicle. It's a part of the company's TOTO Green Challenge, whose goal is to cut CO2 emissions in bathrooms in half by 2007. That's what the article said - four years ago. Proof-reading at its finest.
A sleeker faster than the speed of time carbon footprint isn't the bike's only virtue. It can play music, and harness residual light imagery to write messages in the air as it passes by, according to a TreeHugger.com report. The toilet also talks, which is an existing function on TOTO products I'm thinking about using the 'facility' on the road, which would be convenient, but wonder where the toilet paper dispenser is located. And how do I ...clean up. Maybe there's a warm-water bidet function? Can used toilet paper be converted into fuel? Or am I goning to have to shovel the fuel into the bike? And where is the elephant poop-catching pic?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/07/2011 06:21 ||
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#1
Wonder how much 'fuel' it will need for the trip.
What's the measure of consumption per distance traveled?
Explorer (work) can't even do the formatting correctly. It stuffs all the format stuff at the beginning of the article, then shuts it off.
Work. I guess I better get to it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/07/2011 7:52 Comments ||
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#3
Interesting idea. I wouldn't want to follow one. Those using grease from restaurants smell like french fries. Oops!, have we kissed and made up with the French?. In Vietnam they use a load of coal and can travel 200 miles. Low speed however.
Mexico's national body that regulates elections will vote Friday on a proposed schedule for the 2012 national elections, according to Mexican news accounts.
The Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) will cast the vote without two of its board members.
The 2012 elections will select the president and federal deputies.
The proposed national election schedule is as follows:
November 18th is the deadline for coalition agreements among political parties to be submitted.
December 19th is the last day political parties may define how their candidate selection process will go.
December 18th, 2011 thru February 15th, 2012 is the designated campaign time period for primary elections campaigns.
February 16th, 2012 thru February 22nd is the time period for the primaries, if any.
March 1st, 2012 thru March 7th: IFE will deal with internal problems within each political party as they rise.
March 15th, 2012 thru March 29th is the registration period for all candidates.
March 30th,2012 thru June 27th is the active campaign season.
July 1st is election day.
Mexican elections at all levels are tightly controlled and regulated events, with rules governing how money is spent as well as how much, and what candidates may and may not say. Rules even apply outside the defined time limits as set forth.
Currently, the three main Mexican political parties have winnowed down their fields to a few candidates.
The Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) has three top contenders.
The telegenic Enriqie Pena Nieto, former governor of Mexico state, is considered the favored candidate to become Mexico's next president.
Manlio Fabio Beltrones Rivera is a former governor of Sonora and currently a senator.
Beatriz Parades Rangel, former leader of the PRI who stepped down last spring in favor of Humberto Moreira. She holds the stunning achievement of holding or flipping 14 of 16 statehouses in 2012 during her tenure as leader.
The Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) also has three top contenders.
Josefina Vasquez Mota is an economist and a Nuevo Leon federal deputy. She has held several posts within the Calderon government and is known as something of a utility player, who Calderon can call on to fix political matters. Vasquez is currently the frontrunner, judging by public polls.
Santiago Creel Miranda is a senator from Chihuahua state who formerly held the post of Minister of the Interior (SEGOB) under president Vicente Fox. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005. Creel Miranda is from one of Mexico's wealthiest familes. He is also related to Gustavo Madero Muñoz, who is president of PAN and who is also a senator from Chihuahua state.
Manuel Espino Barrientos is a deputy from Sonora state who has held several government posts at the local and state level. News reports say he had been expelled from PAN and may not run under the PAN banner. However, Manuel Espino Barrientos claimed to have support of most of the registered members of PAN to run as a Panista.
The Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) is Mexico's mainstream leftist party, organized to encompass Mexico's large communist and socialist constituency. Many of its top leaders were members of communist organizations who suffered at the hands of successive PRI presidents during the Dirty War (1968-1982). Currently PRD has two top contenders.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is founder and titular leader of the PRD. Lopez Obrador, nationally known by his initials AMLO, ran an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against current president Felipe Calderon in 2006, losing by less than one percent of the vote. AMLO is popular both inside and outside of the PRD. His views tend to attract many of PRI's natural constituents.
Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubon is AMLO's nearest rival. He is even more popular within PRD than AMLO, but a virtual unknown nationally. He is currently head of government of the Distrito Federal.
Dozens of U.S. Army paratroopers have been hurt during a massive airborne drop in Germany.
Sixteen of the 47 injured men are still in hospital, two of them in intensive care after the jump involving 1,000 soldiers went terribly wrong. They suffered head, spine and pelvic injuries.
The exercise pitted soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade in a mock-battle scenario with Slovakian soldiers and American troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team over the Hohenfels training area in Bavaria, southern Germany.
The American army said the drop was part of a scheme to switch the military focus back to fighting conventional forces as operations in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.
It is unclear what precisley happened to cause the numerous injuries.
Officers at the clinic where the soldiers were treated said some of the injuries appeared related to parachutes drifting into nearby trees.
Most of the injuries occurred during the first wave of the morning drop, which involved about 650 soldiers.
Officers at the clinic where the soldiers were treated said some of the injuries appeared related to parachutes drifting into nearby trees.
Polish troops also took part in the exercise but none of them were hurt.
The victims suffered a variety of broken bones and spinal injuries and every one of them required hospital treatment.
They were ferried to a local hospital in a fleet of ambulances.
A German civilian who witnessed the drop told Radio Bavaria: 'Ive never seen so many parachutes in the sky. It was incredible sight, but I had no inkling that anything was wrong. I didnt see any chutes tangled or men appearing to drop too fast.'
But the military said that they would not be staging an inquiry into what happened because the injury rate was acceptable.
Civilian spokeswoman for the Joint multinational Training Command, which is under U.S. Army command, Denver Makle, said as the numbers injured 'was within expected margins' an investigation was not necessary.
Speaking to The Local, a German website, she added: 'Airborne operations are always dangerous. There is very little margin for error.'
She explained an injury rate of up to 3 per cent is normal in this type of exercise.
The units involved will continue their training, which is one part of an exercise involving thousands of soldiers from 10 countries.
#1
The American army said the drop was part of a scheme to switch the military focus back to fighting conventional forces as operations in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.
It is unclear what precisley happened to cause the numerous injuries.
I suspect it has to do with the previously neglected conventional training.
#3
She explained an injury rate of up to 3 per cent is normal in this type of exercise
OK, so 1000-47=953, 953/1000= 95.3%. 100%-95.3%= 4.7%, which, last time i looked was greater than 3%. So i think that should call for an investigation. Starting with Denver's math skills.
#5
Sounds like a chalk got blown into the trees or a boulder field.
It happens. Gusts come up and play hell with the drop. 47 isn't too bad, actually.
In airborne school, we had an entire stick get blown into the trees and sent several guys to the hospital with broken legs and hips. Unexpected wind gust.
#6
Training injuries and deaths have gone down in the last 10 years as this type of training was put aside to train for Iraq and Afghanistan. One of my greatest worries while in the Artillery was being squashed by a Tracked or wheeled vehicle while sleeping near the TOC. This was in the days well before night vision goggles.
#7
This sort of incident happens - and will continue to happen - unless and until the military gets so risk adverse that they eliminate all risky training.
Paratroopers get extra "hazardous duty pay" every month, and each trooper is at least a double volunteer - once for the Army, and once for the Airborne.
A good friend of mine died in a similar event in 1982: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922840,00.html
My own "worst jump" was in February 17979, while serving with the 2/235th Inf (Abn) - jumping onto Arrowhead Drop Zone at Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas. We jumped one company from three CH-47 Chinook helicopters. It was about 20 degrees F on the ground, and we should have been jumping while wearing gloves. But - this meant that ripcord grips on the reserve parachutes had to be "reversed" so that there was enough space for a gloved hand to get a grip on the handle. Some genius had failed to order the reserve parachutes to come in "winterized" configuration - so we were ordered to jump without gloves.
And - we did. When you exit the aircraft that is going at about 100 miles an hour into cold air - and even though it was tailgate jump - it takes only about 30 seconds for you hands to chill to the point of almost losing feeling. And - it becomes almost impossible to exert force while "pinching" with your thumb and index finger.
But - jumping with the T-10 or MC1-1 chutes we had then - the only way to EASILY collapse your chute once you were on the ground was to "pop" a capewell - which is a spring-loaded protective cover that holds the parachute shroud lies from one side of the chute together, and fastens them to the parachute harness.
To "pop" a capewell, you have to pinch together two spring loaded clips.
By the time we reached the ground, no one could exert the necessary pinching force. So - about 90 paratroopers started being dragged across the drop zone by their still inflated chutes - driven by a wind of maybe 10-12 mph. This was over frozen ground with large rocks sticking out of it - it was formerly a glacier field of the Ozark mountains.
I got dragged maybe 100 yards, and then manage to pop one capewell by using both hands - pushing together using my knuckles.
Other troopers got dragged 350 yards, until they got pulled into the treeline that formed one edge of the drop zone. There was debris all over the drop zone - because we had jumped "combat equipment" - which meant rucksacks full of food, water ammunition, and personal gear - which we lowered on bungee cords below us, while descending - so that this weight would hit the ground first, and reduce our impact momentum. But - while being dragged on the ground, your rucksack dragged behind you, and many of the outer pockets eventually got ripped open - so that the path that you dragged along the ground was traced by all the stuff that "leaked" from your rucksack.
It was a long morning. I was a platoon leader - I think I jumped 26 men plus myself - I think only about 18 of us limped off the dropzone and were able to continue with the mission.
But - no one was killed - and I think there were only about ten broken bones in the company - plus a handful of concussions.
It was just another day in paradise for all of us. Somebody probably got in trouble for the logistics error. At troop level, everyone just grumbled and drove on. Not that big a deal - that's why we got extra jump pay.
#8
Looking through an old issue of the Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine (Sep 2007, p. 78) there is an art re: chute upgrades (T-11)to support a weight of 400# vs 250 for the (T-10). According to this, 10,000 of the T-11's were to be in place by 2010.
Whatever the cause, pray for speedy and full recoveries for our troops.
The Fitch agency downgraded its sovereign credit rating for Italy and Spain today and said its long-term outlook for both countries was negative, citing high debt and poor prospects for growth.
Separately, Fitch also said it was keeping Portugal's debt rating on watch for a possible downgrade, with a decision due by the end of the year. Portugal was the third and latest eurozone country to receive an international bailout package after Greece and Ireland.
The reports are a blow to Europe's hopes of containing the debt crisis that has already seen three countries bailed out. Italy and Spain have the eurozone's third- and fourth-largest economies and are widely considered too expensive to rescue.
...after steward thought she said 'It's a go' on her phone.
A Mohammedan woman is suing Southwest Airlines after she was thrown off a plane after the flight attendant thought she heard her say 'it's a go' on her cellphone.
Irum Abbasi, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Pakistain a decade ago, was seated on the plane ready to depart from San Diego for San Jose when she told her friend on the phone: 'I have to go.'
Crew members became suspicious of her behaviour, mistaking her words for 'it's a go' and alerted the TSA.
Ms Abbasi, who was wearing a hijab, was then escorted from the flight by a TSA official.
Irum Abbasi, a graduate student in experimental psychology, believes she was discriminated against because she was wearing an Islamic headscarf.
Civil liberties attorney James McElroy and representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations ... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ... , who filed the lawsuit on Ms Abbasi's behalf, have scheduled a news conference for today in San Diego to discuss the case.
At the time, Mrs Abbasi said of the incident: 'I was in tears. I was just crying. I have lived in the United States for 10 years. I am a U.S. citizen.'
She said that TSA agents patted down her headscarf but soon realised their mistake and did not even inspect her handbag or cellphone. But they refused to let her back on the plane because the crew was 'uncomfortable' with her presence, she was told.
Afterwards, she said the verbal apology 'doesn't make me feel better. This time they said we weren't comfortable with the head scarf. Next time, they won't be comfortable with my accent or they won't be comfortable with my South Asian heritage.'
#1
Southwest Airlines has a fairly decent recent record of kicking off anyone being a jackhole. Fact is, at the end of the day that plane belongs to the captain and crew.
#2
Experimental psychology means they're testing theories either on rats or on psych students, swksvolFF. If she's a grad student she gets both to carry a clipboard and ask the prewritten questions and be on the receiving end.
#8
Help..what the crap is experimental psychology?
Just the kind of thing Irum Abbasi was doing on that Southwest Airlines plane.
Seriously, the infamous Milgram experiments were experimental psychology, measuring how people behaved in realities they thought were real. His book "Obedience to Authority" should be required of every high school graduate, but scarcely anyone is aware of his work. IIRC, the only experimental subject who behaved using common sense had previously survived a Nazi concentration camp.
#9
Yes, I would have a difficult time believing that, with SW Airlines' service area, that this would be the first time a crew member came across a south asian in hajib, so I think that she was doing something which made enough of the crew nervous enough to do something about it.
#10
Tell her to sue her co-religionists. I hate it that the KKK has made people wary of Southerners. I have even been accused of being a member and denying it as ALL white people from Alabama are members. It's unfortunate that this happens but is understandable.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/07/2011 18:49 Comments ||
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[Dawn] One person was killed and another injured in a shootout on the premises of local courts in Chota Lahore tehsil here on Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses said that the incident occurred when the police brought alleged criminals to the courts for hearing of their cases. They said that a man later identified as Hazrat Nabi entered the court premises and opened fire on a prisoner, Javed Khan, resident of Gari Kapura, Mardan. They said that Javed beat feet but another prisoner Mohammad Irfan suffered bullet wounds. The police retaliated and bumped off Hazrat Nabi on the spot.
The eyewitnesses said that the firing created panic among the lawyers and other people, who were seen running for cover. The officials and lawyers said that it was surprising to note that the attackers brought a pistol to the courts area despite police checking at the entrance of the premises.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2011 00:00 ||
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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.
