[AnNahar] American teens are smoking less, drinking less and fighting less. But they're texting behind the wheel and spending a lot of time on video games and computers, according to the government's latest study of worrisome behavior.
Sure. When you don't have a job because your age bracket has something like 25% unemployment, you do things that are fun and cheap.
Generally speaking, the news is good. Most forms of drug use, weapons use and risky sex have been going down since the government started doing the survey every two years in 1991. Teens are wearing bicycle helmets and seat belts more, too.
"Overall, young people have more healthy behaviors than they did 20 years ago," said Dr. Stephanie Zaza, who oversees the risky-behavior study at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The results come from a study of 13,000 U.S. students last spring. Participation was voluntary and required parental permission, but responses were anonymous.
#3
I asked my neighbor why his teenage sons never help him clear his driveway after it snows. He said he hasnÂ’t yet figured how to attach USB ports to shovels.
#6
to further TW's comment re: teen unemployment: i am visiting 2 brothers both in the Michigan auto industry; one runs a parts store and cannot get anybody to work/ even apply; the other is an auto shop teacher and has multiple standing offers from shops, but none of his students want to move. even if it isonly 25-30 miles. all content to draw welfare
#7
Mine work, but in their free time they are buried into the computers. I wonder if our frustration with the kids on computers is anything like my grandparents railing about the evils of TV? For what its worth, my kids are much more well rounded than I and my friends ever were. Ya, they get in trouble but they have no tolerance for drugs or booze with their friends.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/16/2014 22:31 Comments ||
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[Telegraph] One of Africa's last 'great tuskers', elephants with ivory weighing over 100lbs, has been poisoned to death by poachers in Kenya after years of adapting his behaviour to hide himself from humans.
The bull, named Satao and likely born in the late 1960s, succumbed to wounds from poison darts in a remote corner of Tsavo National Park where he had migrated to find fresh water after recent storms. His carcass yesterday lay with its face and great tusks hacked off, four legs splayed where he fell with his last breath, left only for the vultures and the scavengers.
Conservationists told how he moved from bush to bush always keeping his ivory hidden amongst the foliage.
"I'm convinced he did that to hide his tusks from humans, he had an awareness that they were a danger to him," said Mark Deeble, a British documentary filmmaker who has spent long periods of time filming Satao.
A soaring demand for ivory in a number of Asian nations has seen poaching reach levels that were last seen in the 1980s before the ivory trade was banned.
The junkyard of metempsychosis
Parting out, runs a race with necrosis.
A great bull passed today;
What was tossed Barry's way?
Just the ears; no nuts, tusks, or proboscis.
[AnNahar] Sudan's former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi was released from custody on Sunday, one month after state security agents detained him in a case that sparked concern from Western governments.
An Agence La Belle France Presse news hound saw a smiling Mahdi, chief of the opposition Umma party, greeting about 200 noisy supporters at his headquarters in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman.
Minutes earlier State Minister of Information Yassir Youssef told Agence La Belle France Presse that Mahdi "has been released."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[BBC] Ukraine says Russia has cut off all gas supplies to Kiev, in a major escalation of a dispute between the two nations.
"Gas supplies to Ukraine have been reduced to zero," Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said.
Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom said Ukraine had to pay upfront for its gas supplies, after Kiev failed to settle its huge debt.
Gazprom had asked Kiev to pay $1.95bn (1.15bn) of the $4.5bn it said it was owed by 06:00 GMT.
The company said it would continue to supply gas to Europe, although Gazprom chief Alexei Miller warned there now were "significant" risks for gas transit to the EU via Ukraine.
Ukraine has enough reserves to last until December, according to state gas company Naftogaz.
Russia-Ukraine ties remain tense since Moscow annexed Crimea in February.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2014 12:53 ||
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#1
Don't owe money to the Mafia
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2014 18:36 Comments ||
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#2
This action has been threatened for some time, possibly months. Are we ready to help take up the slack? Frank nails it. Doing business with the mob has it's downside.
[AnNahar] Urgent EU-brokered gas talks between Russia and Ukraine resumed in Kiev on Sunday ahead of a looming threat by Moscow to cut off its neighbor's supplies in a move that could impact Europe, an EU source told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency cited its own source as saying that the first meeting involved EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Alexei Miller, the head of Russia's state gas firm Gazprom.
The first canister-based trial of the 5,000 km-plus, nuclear weapons-capable Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile, Agni-V, "in final induction configuration" is to be conducted after the monsoon season from Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast.
You get the sense that the Indians really are serious about an indigenous, high quality deterrent...
As a prelude to the actual firing, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) technologists successfully carried out the final 'Missile Ejection Test' from a canister in simulated conditions on Saturday, according to Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and DRDO Chief, Avinash Chander.
The test validated all the parameters that would have to be met during the actual launch. The final test was completed, he said, and added that the launch from the canister would now be carried out from Wheeler Island after monsoon.
During the actual launch, the first stage of Agni-V would be ignited at a height of 25-30 metres after its ejection from the canister, DRDO sources said. The solid propellant-based gas generator at the bottom of the canister would provide a force equivalent to 300-370 tonnes to push Agni-V to a height of 30 metres when the first of the three stages gets ignited.
Ensuring mid-air ignition of the first stage would eliminate the need to use jet deflectors when the flames erupt as the missile takes off. Also, canister launch would provide operational flexibility to the user to fire the missile from anywhere and makes the transportation of the weapon system much easier and safer. "It is better to carry the missile in a canister than in an open vehicle," say the sources.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/16/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Is there a plan to put that canister in to a future boomer?
#2
There will be a test SLBM launch from the Arihant submarine n a few months.
The 3000 km range SLBM has already been tested from a submersible pontoon.
The canister means the Indians are abandoning their recessed deterrent strategy. Currently the civilian Atomic Energy agency manufactures and stockpiles the warheads. They are only released to the military and mated in emergencies. These canisters will require the warhead to be mated to missile prior to insertion into the canister. The Indians will be relying on PALs to secure these ready to fire weapons in the custody of the military's strategic forces command, which has been practice firing missiles quite regularly.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/16/2014 20:09 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Culture succeeds where politics has failed: Books written by Israelis are translated into Arabic, sold and read in Iran, Pakistain and Leb, while publishers from hostile countries develop warm relations.
An Israeli, a Persian, a Pak and a Lebanese meet at a fair. This may sound like the start of the joke, but it's completely real and it has been happening for several years now at international book fairs around the world.
These meetings have a clear and quite surprising outcome: Books written by Israelis are sold and read in Iran, Leb and Pakistain.
Continued on Page 49
Millions of years of fist fights have altered the human face to leave men's jaws more robust than women's, a study has found. Evidence suggests it evolved to minimise damage from bruising altercations after our ancient ancestors learned how to throw a punch.
Researchers studied the bone structure of australopiths, ape-like bipeds living four to five million years ago that pre-dated the modern human primate family Homo. They found that australopith faces and jaws were strongest in just those areas most likely to receive a blow from a fist. It is a legacy that continues to this day, helping to explain why men's faces are more robust than women's, say the scientists.
The study, published in the journal Biological Reviews, builds on previous work indicating that violence played a greater role in human evolution than many experts would like to admit.
In recent years, biologist Dr Carrier has investigated the short legs of great apes, the bipedal posture of humans, and the hand proportions of ''hominins'', or early human species. He argues that these traits evolved, to a large extent, around the need to fight.
Co-author Dr Michael Morgan, a University of Utah physician, said: ''I think our science is sound and fills some long-standing gaps in the existing theories of why the musculoskeletal structures of our faces developed the way they did.
''Our research is about peace. We seek to explore, understand, and confront humankind's violent and aggressive tendencies. Peace begins with ourselves and is ultimately achieved through disciplined self-analysis and an understanding of where we've come from as a species. Through our research, we hope to look ourselves in the mirror and begin the difficult work of changing ourselves for the better.''
#4
Apparently the face evolved faster than the fist. Hurts like a son of a gun to smack somebody in the chin.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
06/16/2014 13:54 Comments ||
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#5
Apparently the face evolved faster than the fist.
An interesting thought! Evolution is frequently an arms race, like the war between plants and animals that has been going on for a mazillion years. (like a caterpillar eating toxic plants, then using the toxin for its own defense)
One might expect that if fist/face interactions were important, we would have developed giant Popeye forearms rather than the little tyrannosaurus arms I seem to posses.
[AnNahar] Sri Lankan police extended a curfew across two popular coastal resorts Sunday as Moslems and hardline Buddhists clashed sparking street rioting that renewed religious tensions in the country.
Police said they fired teargas and widened the curfew to Beruwala, a predominantly Moslem area, after initial violence broke out in the neighboring town of Alutgama, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital Colombo.
Both areas are popular beach resorts frequented by international tourists, but there were no reports of any foreigners caught up in the violence.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is currently visiting Bolivia, said in a statement that he will not allow "anyone to take the law into their own hand."
"An investigation will be held for (the) law to take its course of action to bring to book those responsible for incidents in Alutgama," the President said on Twitter. "I urge all parties concerned to act with restraint."
Residents said Moslems were leaving their homes and seeking shelter in community centers after several houses came under attack.
"Several Moslem-owned shops have been burnt and (their) homes attacked," a resident in Beruwala told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.
The two groups attacked each other with stones -- the latest in a series of religious festivities to hit the island.
A police front man said trouble began when a group led by Buddhist monks tried to march in an area where there is a concentration of Moslems, who are a minority in the mainly Buddhist country.
"The curfew was declared to bring the situation under control," a police officer in the area told news hounds. "The curfew was extended to a neighboring area to prevent an escalation of festivities."
There were no reports of arrests.
Many activists from both sides as well as bystanders were maimed during the evening festivities, according to witnesses who also reported seeing several vehicles smashed.
The latest unrest came weeks after Moslempoliticians asked President Rajapakse to protect their minority community from "Buddhist bad boy elements" blamed for a recent spate of hate attacks.
Moslems make up about 10 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million population.
Nationalist Buddhist groups have in turn accused religious minorities of wielding undue political and economic influence on the island.
Videos posted on YouTube have shown mobs led by Buddhist monks throwing stones and smashing a Christian prayer center in southern Sri Lanka in January this year and attacking mosques while police looked on.
Senior Buddhist monks have also been caught on video threatening violence against their moderate colleagues who advocate tolerance.
Rajapakse, who is a Buddhist, warned monks in January last year not to incite religious violence.
Normal life goes on in the midst of a spreading war...
[AnNahar] A major blaze erupted Sunday in the fields and groves of Akkar's Mashha and flames threatened a gas firm in the town, state-run National News Agency reported.
"Civil Defense crews assisted by three firefighting vehicles and two bulldozers from the town struggled to contain the flames amid fears that the fire could spread to the Shaaban gas firm," NNA said.
But later on Sunday, the Directorate General of Civil Defense issued a statement saying its crews had managed to contain the blaze and insulate the gas firm.
It said the operation took place "in collaboration with the Mashha Municipality, which provided a bulldozer that helped create a makeshift road in the vicinity of the firm."
"Cooling operations are underway to prevent the renewal of the fire, which has been fully contained," the Civil Defense added.
LAREDO, Texas (AP) -- A dispute between the Army and the National Guard is jeopardizing the security role the Guard has played along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2006, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The problems arise as the National Guard becomes more proficient at pinpointing illegal crossings along the border and as agents struggle with an influx of immigrants -- especially unaccompanied minors -- fleeing poverty and gang violence in Central America.
The National Guard began operating along the border in 2006 when then-President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 troops to the area. Since then, the troops' mission has evolved, and today about 300 Guard soldiers work along the border. Ground patrols have largely been replaced by nighttime helicopter missions, according to the Austin American-Statesman (http://bit.ly/1q0XfL9 ).
"Make this a more long-term program, a more planned, budgeted program," Maj. Gen. William "Len" Smith of the Texas National Guard said.
The current dispute comes from the Army facing budget cuts that could strip it of a fleet of Kiowa helicopters. The Army wants to replace the Kiowas with about 100 Lakota helicopters. Those aircraft could come from the National Guard, leaving that unit with little air capacity of its own.
If the National Guard loses 100 of its helicopters, Smith told the newspaper "we'd have to commit almost all the rest of our (14) Lakotas to that mission, or stop it, neither one being preferable." The Regimes war on the Lone Star State.
#1
Correction, border Lakotas. Has been very cost effective, but could be replaced by drones with operations in state guard facilities which would save even more millions.
#5
Hard to believe the cost of transport of Army birds to be abandoned in AFG and IRQ is greater than the value of a working border management solution.
#6
The Army wants to replace the Kiowas with about 100 Lakota helicopters. Those aircraft could come from the National Guard, leaving that unit with little air capacity of its own.
And the Lakota's go where, and conduct what more vital mission? Sorry, not buying that one. You've got 56 other states to rob AV capability from. Pick one.
Anyone note the combat patch on the pilot's ACU's ?
#9
...especially unaccompanied minors -- fleeing poverty and gang violence in Central America.
This has been going on for generation, why now the sudden massive influx, other than something is promoting it?
BTW - Wasn't the Clinton Doctrine established with Haiti to occupy and oust governments that promote this dumping (or was that just because Florida was a swing state in an upcoming election)?
#11
So just why is it DOD is pulling ALL armed aircraft from the guard? To fill the Aviation Brigades they are closing down?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/16/2014 10:35 Comments ||
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#12
Bleeding off border enforcement tools is a stop-gap measure Pan. Full implementation would be Federalizing the Guard.... as in Martial Law and FEMA management.
d) The Lakota is touted by Airbus as being "30-50% cheaper to operate" than the MH60; one would suspect that it's also somewhat less expensive to operate than a Kiowa. Which would fall into the 'traditional' mindset of reducing the NG/AG to a secondary (second-rate) support role.
#16
This is the difference between a state militia and the National Guard. The government owns all the equipment and arms in the National Guard and the Guard can be nationalized.UN
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/16/2014 15:36 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.
The first canister-based trial of the 5,000 km-plus, nuclear weapons-capable Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile, Agni-V, "in final induction configuration" is to be conducted after the monsoon season from Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast.
Behold the Gollum future. 
