#11
Memphis is a strange town with regard to the "nice" parts. One can be in a nice neighborhood with $3-500,000 homes. Walk two streets over and be in a slum. It's like someone took a shotgun, fired at a map of the city and said, "this is where the nice neighborhoods will be." More accuratly the nice parts within the city proper are where wagons were circled and people refused to allow the blight to completely sweep through. I used to own a house across Poplar Ave. from this Kroger. It is a nice neighborhood as mentioned above. U of Memphis college students, young married couples starting out and older/retired professionals. Go across Poplar and you're in the hood. Some parts are safer than others but nowhere in Memphis is truly safe. The criminal element is highly mobile both on foot and vehicle born. Much ado about nothing. It's only a little workplace violence.
#12
Now the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, “Jump right in”
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
An’ like a fool I mixed them
An’ it strangled up my mind
An’ now people just get uglier
An’ I have no sense of time
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/09/2014 16:56 Comments ||
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#13
Sounds like NOLA LowSpark. Is it the river effect?
#15
I spent some time there working for a tech company quite a few years ago. Loved the place (or most of it). Try to get back there every couple years for a visit (although the Rendezvous isn't as good as I remember it used to be). Neely's Interstate is still there (and great) and the Peabody/Beale St. is still pretty cool. They have cleaned up the downtown quite a bit (takes a bit of the fun out of it, though).
I do notice a big middle-class shift across the border into Southaven, Nesbit and Horn Lake areas in MS.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/09/2014 21:49 Comments ||
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[FOX] The FBI and CDC are investigating an attack on a federal air marshal who was injected with a syringe full of an unknown substance inside the Lagos, Nigeria airport on Sunday, according to a Situational Awareness notice obtained by FoxNews.com.
A federal air marshal reported being attacked by a subject while on the public side of the Lagos Airport on Sunday, according to an alert from TSA's Transportation Security Operations Center distributed throughout the agency on Monday afternoon.
It appeared to be an isolated incident, the alert says.
"The [air marshal] reported that the subject stuck him with a syringe and it is believed he was injected with an unknown substance," the alert says.
The State Department responded to the airport to assist the air marshal and his team.
"After consultation with the consulate and physicians, the [federal air marshal] was given precautionary medication," according to the alert.
The air marshal and the rest of his team--along with the syringe used in the attack-- were immediately flown out of Nigeria and back to the U.S.
The syringe also was transported back to the U.S. for testing.
An FBI spokesman said Monday night, "out of an abundance of caution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted an on-scene screening of the victim when United Flight 143 landed in Houston early Monday morning. The victim did not exhibit any signs of illness during the flight and was transported to a hospital upon landing for further testing. None of the testing conducted has indicated a danger to other passengers."
The CDC and the FBI are involved and have opened investigations, the alert states.
"This investigation is still in the preliminary stage and early indications are limited to a criminal nexus." Post as "Crime." I'm sure that's what the gov't would recommend.
This will probably end up putting another knot in the Gerbil Wormists panties.
In the typical textbook picture, volcanoes, such as those that are forming the Hawaiian islands, erupt when magma gushes out as narrow jets from deep inside Earth. But that picture is wrong, according to a new study from researchers at Caltech and the University of Miami in Florida.
New seismology data are now confirming that such narrow jets don't actually exist, says Don Anderson, the Eleanor and John R. McMillian Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, at Caltech. In fact, he adds, basic physics doesn't support the presence of these jets, called mantle plumes, and the new results corroborate those fundamental ideas.
"Mantle plumes have never had a sound physical or logical basis," Anderson says. "They are akin to Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So Stories' about how giraffes got their long necks."
Anderson and James Natland, a professor emeritus of marine geology and geophysics at the University of Miami, describe their analysis online in the September 8 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to current mantle-plume theory, Anderson explains, heat from Earth's core somehow generates narrow jets of hot magma that gush through the mantle and to the surface. The jets act as pipes that transfer heat from the core, and how exactly they're created isn't clear, he says. But they have been assumed to exist, originating near where the Earth's core meets the mantle, almost 3,000 kilometers underground--nearly halfway to the planet's center. The jets are theorized to be no more than about 300 kilometers wide, and when they reach the surface, they produce hot spots.
While the top of the mantle is a sort of fluid sludge, the uppermost layer is rigid rock, broken up into plates that float on the magma-bearing layers. Magma from the mantle beneath the plates bursts through the plate to create volcanoes. As the plates drift across the hot spots, a chain of volcanoes forms--such as the island chains of Hawaii and Samoa.
"Much of solid-Earth science for the past 20 years--and large amounts of money--have been spent looking for elusive narrow mantle plumes that wind their way upward through the mantle," Anderson says.
To look for the hypothetical plumes, researchers analyze global seismic activity. Everything from big quakes to tiny tremors sends seismic waves echoing through Earth's interior. The type of material that the waves pass through influences the properties of those waves, such as their speeds. By measuring those waves using hundreds of seismic stations installed on the surface, near places such as Hawaii, Iceland, and Yellowstone National Park, researchers can deduce whether there are narrow mantle plumes or whether volcanoes are simply created from magma that's absorbed in the sponge-like shallower mantle.
No one has been able to detect the predicted narrow plumes, although the evidence has not been conclusive. The jets could have simply been too thin to be seen, Anderson says. Very broad features beneath the surface have been interpreted as plumes or super-plumes, but, still, they're far too wide to be considered narrow jets.
But now, thanks in part to more seismic stations spaced closer together and improved theory, analysis of the planet's seismology is good enough to confirm that there are no narrow mantle plumes, Anderson and Natland say. Instead, data reveal that there are large, slow, upward-moving chunks of mantle a thousand kilometers wide.
In the mantle-plume theory, Anderson explains, the heat that is transferred upward via jets is balanced by the slower downward motion of cooled, broad, uniform chunks of mantle. The behavior is similar to that of a lava lamp, in which blobs of wax are heated from below and then rise before cooling and falling. But a fundamental problem with this picture is that lava lamps require electricity, he says, and that is an outside energy source that an isolated planet like Earth does not have.
The new measurements suggest that what is really happening is just the opposite: Instead of narrow jets, there are broad upwellings, which are balanced by narrow channels of sinking material called slabs. What is driving this motion is not heat from the core, but cooling at Earth's surface. In fact, Anderson says, the behavior is the regular mantle convection first proposed more than a century ago by Lord Kelvin. When material in the planet's crust cools, it sinks, displacing material deeper in the mantle and forcing it upward.
"What's new is incredibly simple: upwellings in the mantle are thousands of kilometers across," Anderson says. The formation of volcanoes then follows from plate tectonics--the theory of how Earth's plates move and behave. Magma, which is less dense than the surrounding mantle, rises until it reaches the bottom of the plates or fissures that run through them. Stresses in the plates, cracks, and other tectonic forces can squeeze the magma out, like how water is squeezed out of a sponge. That magma then erupts out of the surface as volcanoes. The magma comes from within the upper 200 kilometers of the mantle and not thousands of kilometers deep, as the mantle-plume theory suggests.
"This is a simple demonstration that volcanoes are the result of normal broad-scale convection and plate tectonics," Anderson says. He calls this theory "top-down tectonics," based on Kelvin's initial principles of mantle convection. In this picture, the engine behind Earth's interior processes is not heat from the core but cooling at the planet's surface. This cooling and plate tectonics drives mantle convection, the cooling of the core, and Earth's magnetic field. Volcanoes and cracks in the plate are simply side effects.
The results also have an important consequence for rock compositions--notably the ratios of certain isotopes, Natland says. According to the mantle-plume idea, the measured compositions derive from the mixing of material from reservoirs separated by thousands of kilometers in the upper and lower mantle. But if there are no mantle plumes, then all of that mixing must have happened within the upwellings and nearby mantle in Earth's top 1,000 kilometers.
The paper is titled "Mantle updrafts and mechanisms of oceanic volcanism."
#2
This is (was, long ago) my academic field, and I am going to have to go read more deeply to understand it. First impressions: 1) never discount anything Lord Kelvin said. 2) gorb would be right... 3) It's probably not 'all' top-down cooling, though bottom-up heating is likely not 'all' right either - never seemed like enough fissionable elements there for radioactive heating, and gravitational sorting would seem to be getting old (though I haven't reviewed the models.)
#4
It isn't about stopping the plane. It is about figuring out who has been exposed and is infected.
Ebola takes on average 8-10 days for signs to start from infection and can take up to 20 days.
So you have people that might have been infected only a couple days before they leave, walk around the UK and interact and touch people for a week or two, then start getting symptoms, and then how long before they figure out it is Ebola and how many people including health workers are exposed, and how many other non-symptomatic people are now infected and walking around.
It can blow up very quickly in a dense population like London.
#10
think the moslems of saudi will have lower transmission rates, on account that their women wear sacks covering their face, and gloves and every bit is covered.
that could act like one of those space suits the health care workers use.
so the moslems might fare better than the rest of us due to their otherwise odious customs?
CALGARY -- Monday's snowfall was a shock to the system for Calgarians, who were basking in balmy weather just hours earlier.
The temperature plummeted from a summery high of 25 C Sunday to the freezing point Monday, and several centimetres of snow accumulated in many parts of the city and surrounding areas. This air mass will likely bring frost to northern US
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/09/2014 06:39 ||
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Posted by: lord garth ||
09/09/2014 11:07 Comments ||
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#6
Why the "War on Plants" by the left? Plants love CO2 and we like to exhale it. An interesting Senate Minority report was published on climate change in Sept. 2014. Report Here.
#7
Snow is a leading indicator for global warming. Or the next Ice Age. Or maybe it's just weather. In any case, I recommend around the clock media coverage and widespread panic.
Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially. The demands of the Ebola outbreak have completely outstripped the government's and partners' capacity to respond.
Some 152 health care workers have been infected and 79 have died. When the outbreak began, Liberia had only 1 doctor to treat nearly 100,000 people in a total population of 4.4 million people. Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly.
Liberia is experiencing a phenomenon never before seen in any previous Ebola outbreak. As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients, pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload.
The number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in Ebola-specific treatment centres.
In Monrovia, taxis filled with entire families, of whom some members are thought to be infected with the Ebola virus, crisscross the city, searching for a treatment bed. There are none.
According to a WHO staff member who has been in Liberia for the past several weeks, motorbike-taxis and regular taxis are a hot source of potential Ebola virus transmission, as these vehicles are not disinfected at all, much less before new passengers are taken on board.
When patients are turned away at Ebola treatment centres, they have no choice but to return to their communities and homes, where they inevitably infect others, perpetuating constantly higher flare-ups in the number of cases.
Many thousands of new cases are expected in Liberia over the coming 3 weeks.
Despite spotty data, I ran the numbers, assuming the doubling time and rate of increase stay constant, and interventions remain ineffective.
2014 (cases/deaths)
Aug 28: 3069/1550
Oct 2: 6138/3100
Nov 6: 12276/6200
Dec 11: 24552/12400
2015 (cases/deaths)
Jan 15: 49104/24800
Feb 19: 98208/49600
Mar 26: 196416/99200
Apr 30: 392832/198400
Jun 4: 785664/396800
Jul 9: 1571328/793600
Aug 13: 3142656/1587200
Sep 17: 6285312/3174400
Oct 22: 12570624/6348800
Nov 26: 25141248/12697600
Dec 31: 50282496/25395200
50 million infected, 25 million dead by the end of next year. About the same as the 1918 flu pandemic.
WHO/CDC says they'll have it under control in 6-9 months - around the time the quarter-million mark is reached next spring. Let's hope so, because if it keeps going:
2016 (deaths only)
Feb 2016: 50,790,400
Mar 2016: 101,580,800
Apr 2016: 203,161,600
May 2016: 406,323,200
Jun 2016: 812,646,400
Jul 2016: 1,625,292,800
Aug 2016: 3,250,585,600
Sep 2016: 6,501,171,200
May as well stop there, since 6.5 billion dead is almost the world's total population. No doubt they will all vote Democrat in November!
Really don't know how much more they can do to "help". It has gotten past the point of isolating and treatment. Containment and let it run its course may be the only way now.
#4
aaah random JD another one after mine own heart, running the numbers on ebola.
i have been doing that too.
i wonder very much to myself where to park my meagre funds to protect the store of value
gold? with the population halved it might go down a lot
shares? no
Property? less people means prices down
food? yes but difficult to buy. after the great plague of 1665 food prices went up a lot, inflation was massive. labour costs went up and people didn't tend to their crops
#5
i wonder very much to myself where to park my meagre funds to protect the store of value
Liquor, cigarettes, other tobacco products, toilet paper, toothpaste and other essentials that will vanish quickly and most likely production will cease. When buying liquor, buy cases of pints and half pints. Brewing supplies will also be profitable.
#7
Herb and spice plants. Meat and vegetables quickly get boring, but hot pepper, basil, thymes, etc. will make a big difference in quality of life, and if planted in pots can be brought in for the winter. For that matter, having a personal supply of fresh herbs and spices will improve your quality of life regardless, so you might start now. ;-)
Impressive, RandomJD. If you can also do physics or chemistry, I shall develop a case of terminal envy.
#10
One factor that no one has really considered is level of natural immunity. It might be zero. But my guess is this has happened several times before and natural immunity levels are significant.
With modern transport we may find that outbreaks are worse outside tropical Africa because of no natural immunity.
#11
It has happened several times before - out in the boondocks. The mortality rate of the most common strain of ebola (Zaire) is over 90%. It rarely got very far because it wiped out the whole village before most could get away. Ebola is a very efficient killer.
This strain has 98% sequence similarity to ebola Zaire, so the mortality rate is "only" about 55%. One of its routes of attack is on the immune system, similar to HIV and smallpox. They all cripple vital immune functions so the body can't defend itself.
So sure, "natural immunity" is probably out there - to the same extent it is against HIV and smallpox. That is to say, not enough to matter. Which is why no one is really considering it.
#12
Iff POTUS Obama = USA still expects to use LIBERIA as one its pointy diadems in its so-called anti-Milterr/Jihadi "Diamond" strategy in support of AFRICAN UNION, its gotta do something to help the country.
[Dhaka Tribune] Internationally funded African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... (AU) troops in Somalia have gang-raped women and girls as young as 12 and traded food aid for sex, Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... , the US-based rights group, has said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
What can one say that would accommodate PC? The answer is nothing.
[MAGHAREBIA] Moroccan authorities seized a record 226 kilos of cocaine and incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! six narcos in the Marrakesh area, MAP reported on Friday (September 5th).
The drugs, said to be worth more than 20 million euros, were found Thursday night hidden in cases of fish inside a refrigerated truck that had come from the south of the country. The cocaine was destined for sale abroad, AFP reported.
In other drug news at the week-end, Moroccan police on Saturday arrested two men at the Casablanca international airport. They were travelling from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Cotonou, Benin when police discovered 6,300 kg of highly concentrated cocaine in their suitcases. 6.3 tons of cocaine? In their suitcases?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
'The amount of drugs seized is expected to the Moroccan Police in walking-around money for the next eighteen months or so...'
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/09/2014 7:51 Comments ||
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#2
A record 226 kilos on Friday, and then 6300 kilos on Saturday. New record sure didn't stand for very long.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/09/2014 7:53 Comments ||
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#3
6.3 tons of cocaine? In their suitcases?
They told police they were the advance team for an Obama visit to the country.
#5
Shipped across the Atlantic, JC. Warehoused then driven to the Med for transport to Eur. That's only 500 pounds of powder. Somewhat less volume than 2 packed 55 gal drums..
[Dhaka Tribune] Law enforcers yesterday rescued three children, who were working as domestic help at a flat of Additional District Judge of Narayanganj Niazi Shahidul Alam Chowdhury, from the capital's Shantinagar area.
They were rescued by the police around 3pm while hanging from a sun-shed outside a third-floor flat of the multi-storey building.
They were taken to the Victim Support Centre (VSC) after receiving
treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The trio were identified as Fatema Akther, 13, Kulsum Begum, 12, and Mohammad Shamim, 11.
They tried to get rid of torture of the landlord, Parul Akhter, sub-inspector of the VSC, told the Dhaka Tribune quoting the three.
She said: "We have already contacted with the parents of these children. They all are from Mymensingh. Among them, Kulsum and Shamim are
cousins while Fatema is their relative."
Police were informed by locals that three children had been stranded on a sun-shed holding a sewerage pipe of Kulsum Tower of Shantinagar. Then a team of fire service unit rushed to
the spot and recovered the children from the place safely, said Ataur Rahman, duty officer of fire service control room.
The children sustained minor injuries while climbing down using the pipe from the sixth floor. They came out of the flat after breaking the kitchen's window since the door was locked from outside.
Moshiur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Ramna police, told the Dhaka Tribune: "The children informed us that Kulsum came to work in that house first about three years back. Fatema came around one year ago while Shamim joined a couple of months back.
They claimed that even though they used to work hard, the landlord used to torture them even for a minor mistake. They were even barred from contacting their families at home which prompted them to escape.
They had been planning to escape the flat for sometime, but could not be successful as their employer always go out locking the flat's gate.
The gate was locked yesterday too. Then with the help of iron rod and hacksaw blade they cut the window grill and used the pipe to climb down. Later they were stuck on the sun-shed of the third floor.
Asked about taking action against the landlord, the Ramna OC said they had already contacted with the wife of additional judge, Shamima Shahid. "They told us that they were also confused why the children tried to go out of building this way."
The couple stayed in the flat with their only child.
Moshiur added that they were verifying the claims made by the children. The police are also waiting for the family members of the children.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Rascals!
I hope they're not too hard on them.
The children I mean.
I'm sure it will result in lashes for the three little urchins.
Both sides of the war in southeastern Ukraina appear to be violating the ceasefire around Donetsk and Mariupol, according to Russian and English language military news reports.
According to a news account which appeared in the pro Russian Voice of Sevastopol, Ukrainian artillery units have been firing on targets in the city of Donetsk and outside of the port city of Mariupol.
Reports are that artillery strikes were recorded in Makeevka, Spartak and at the Donetsk airport, in the northern sector of the city. Donetsk Defense Minister Vladimir Kononov announced that if Ukrainian artillery did not stop, he would order counterbattery fire.
According to Donetsk officials, a Ukrainian diversionary unit has been operating inside of the city, about three kilometers from Avdotyino district.
In Mariupol, Ukrainian artillery fire has been recorded coming out of the city and hitting outlying settlements, including the village of Shirokino and in the Vostochny district.
Meanwhile, pro Ukrainian news reports say pro Russian militia are trying to regroup and resupply to continue their offensives, stalled since the start of the ceasefire five days ago.
According to Ukrainian military blogger Roman Burko, pro Russian militia have been shelling towns north of Donetsk, specifically Dzerzhinsk, with the artillery fire coming from Zhdanovka. Ten days ago a Ukrainian armored group took Zhdanovka by storm, but was forced out by militia artillery fire. Mostly in the north, according to Burko things are quiet.
Ukrainians expect some militia activity will resume once the truce ends, widely expected to end after the October elections.
Following a tactical defeat in Mariupol, pro Russian militias, characterized as Russian are concentrating in Novoazovsk for resting and resupply. Militia diversionary groups are said to be inside Mariupol conducting ground strikes in the city. Some of those attacks are to the west from where supplies can be shipped in to Ukrainian forces in the city.
The Burko report admitted that Ukrainian forces recently took Telmanove, a town north of Mariupol which had previously been in pro Russian militia hands.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
[ARABNEWS] Austrian officials say former top US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad is being investigated by US authorities for suspected money laundering through his wife's bank account.
State prosecutor Thomas Vecsey on Monday confirmed a report by the Austrian weekly Profil but declined to give details.
The magazine says the suspicions center on the alleged transfer of 1.15 million euros (about $1.5 million) in May 2013 to an account in Vienna owned by Cheryl Benard. It says the money came from Mideast business activities, adding documents on the case were found in a garbage container used by the state prosecutor's office in Vienna.
Khalilzad was ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN under President George W. Bush.
Benard's lawyer, Holger Bielesz, says that US authorities have yet to express "reasonable grounds for suspicions."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Khalīlzād is a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). There was a story about foreign money finding its way into think tanks, one mentioned was CSIS.
Khalilzad was preceded by John Bolton and succeeded by Susan Rice in the fed position of ambassador.
[DAWN] Heavy monsoon rains and flooding in Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan have claimed at least 205 lives.
Ahmed Kamal, an official from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), told Dawn that 131 people have died as a result of heavy rains in Punjab; 11 have died in Gilgit Baltistan whereas the death toll in Azad Kashmir has risen to 63.
According to the NDMA official, a huge amount of flood water has accumulated in the Qadirabad headworks on River Chenab whereas the Trimmu Barrage is receiving 177,000 cusecs water on River Chenab.
A flood alert posted on the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) website stated that due to the second flood peak in River Chenab, the peak at Trimmu is likely to persist for another 24-48 hours with a maximum flow of 8,00,000 cusecs.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
On first scan, I got 250 Dead as it Rains Hammers
[DAWN] HYDERABAD: Armed assailants barged into a farmer's home in Mithan Jamali village in Tando Allahyar, 38 kilometres from here, on Sunday and bumped off the farmer, his wife and three children and maimed two others reportedly over a tribal dispute.
Tando Allahyar SSP Javed Baloch said the assailants who escaped after killing Qasim Brohi, 45, his wife Zarina, 41, his three children, Eman, 10, Imran, 6, and Nawaz, 4, and inuring Haseena, 12, and Sajjad, 5, appeared to be Qasim's own clansmen who were infuriated over his refusal to obey them.
He said that a 10-year-old son of Qasim, Ayaz Brohi, escaped unhurt as he hid in another room during the attack.
The bodies and the injured were taken to the Tando Allahyar hospital from where Haseena and Sajjad were referred to the Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad.
The police official said the incident appeared to be linked to an old enmity over an 18-year-old Chandio girl who was allegedly kidnapped by some Brohi people.
The dispute over the girl was settled in a jirga held a couple of months ago in which elders of the Brohi, Chandio and Marri clans decided the girl be handed over to Qasim Brohi who would then return her to her parents, he said.
But Qasim's clansmen did not accept the decision and asked him to return the girl to them as they (Brohis) wanted to kill her in the name of honour, he said.
To save the girl from his clansmen, he said, Qasim produced her in a court of law which ordered him to hand over the girl to her parents. Qasim duly complied with the court's order, which further infuriated his clansmen and they decided to teach him a lesson by killing him and four of his family members, said the SSP.
He said while quoting Sher Khan, brother of Qasim, that Qasim had received a phone call a day before his murder by some of his clansmen who had threatened him to get ready to face consequences for his actions.
Besides his clansmen, Qasim was facing threats to his life from the family of his wife as well who had eloped with him from Osta Mohammad, Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , 16 years ago, he said.
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09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] KARACHI: On the occasion of International Literacy Day on Monday, many politicians including Senior Minister of Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro would be attending several ceremonies as their predecessors have been doing over the years. They shake hands, get their pictures taken and make moving speeches on how they mean to change the state of education here. Still, it seems that the politicians here are too busy with their egos to attend to literacy.
This year on the eve of the day, the senior minister issued a statement about it being our responsibility, according to Article 25-A, to provide education free for all. "Sindh education department is considering to give the incentive package of 20 marks for those SSC, HSC and BA passed students who will voluntarily prepare to impart education to the uneducated children of Sindh so that some 500,000 uneducated children are able to get education which will be helpful in reducing the illiteracy in the province," he said.
"It has been decided to establish 1,500 consolidation campus schools in Sindh to improve education. In this regard identification of 700 consolidation campus schools have been made in the different districts of Sindh in the first phase. The head teachers for such consolidation school campuses will be recruited for three years on contract basis through the National Testing Service [NTS].
"Education is key to the nation's development and teachers have an important role to build the future of the nation, therefore they should come forward to play their part in increasing the standard of education in Sindh. The teachers should perform their duties with honesty and sincerity otherwise I will start a target operation in education against them," he added.
Mr Khuhro, since taking over as the education minister, has made it clear on various occasions that no compromise will be made on merit, transparency and the quality of education and all teachers will be appointed through the NTS. Besides, he has also often said that all non- functional schools will be opened for which he is willing to visit each village of Sindh. The senior minister has also claimed that 1,800 out of 5,000 non-functional schools in Sindh have already been made functional and the remaining will start functioning soon. Of course all the previous governments are blamed for shortcomings in education till now. But in Sindh the PPP government cannot get away with that excuse as the previous government was also theirs.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] City health authorities have prepared plans to ensure that the water supplied to mosques is safe from carrying germs of Naegleria fowleri as it could be terribly hazardous with the fact that rinsing nose is a part of ablutions and these germs attack through nasal cavity, it emerged on Sunday.
"We have asked all the town health officers (THOs) to visit the mosques in their areas, check chlorine level in their water reservoirs and ensure that it is free from algae, which is a carrier of Naegleria," said a bigwig in the Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) while speaking to Dawn.
He claimed that the town health officers of all respective towns had got lists of mosques in their areas and were visiting there to check water reservoirs and added that they were also meeting the prayer leaders and mosque managing committees to inform them about dangers associated with Naegleria germs and mosquito-borne dengue.
Similarly, the officials said, the KMC food inspectors and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board officials had been asked to take regular water samples from the mosque tanks to ensure that the water being supplied there was duly chlorinated.
"The people who take care of matters of mosques have been requested to change water frequently, as this is the most effective way to ensure it is free of algae," said another official.
Recently, samples collected by the KMC, the KWSB and officials in the Sindh government showed that more than 40 per cent areas of Karachi were being supplied with water with insufficient chlorine or no chlorination at all.
So far 10 people have died after being attacked by the 'brain-eating amoeba' in Sindh with nine of them belonging to Karachi and the remaining one was from Hyderabad.
Another patient with suspected Naegleria symptoms has been admitted to a hospital in Nawabshah.
The officials in the provincial health department said that as Naegleria germs attacked human brain through nasal cavity the people had been advised to clean their nose gently.
"People usually clean their noses quite rigorously in ablution, which could give a chance to the germs to attack the brain if water is not properly chlorinated or it is covered with algae, they could avoid it by performing the ritual gently," said an official.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Napalm. The only solution. Kills roaches, too.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/09/2014 7:55 Comments ||
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[ARABNEWS] Rescue workers in boats and helicopters worked to save thousands of people trapped in homes and on rooftops Monday after floods and landslides killed more than 320 people in the Himalayan region of Kashmire and eastern Pakistain.
Six days of torrential rains have soaked both sides of the divided territory of Kashmire, which India and Pakistain each claim.
A senior Indian army official said the Kashmire valley is facing critical danger.
"Our focus remains to rescue people who are stranded in their houses, and provide them some basic necessities," said Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda.
Although the rain has stopped, thousands of people were in peril in both countries.
In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmire, which suffered its worst flooding in five decades, the force of the water snapped electric pylons and disrupted mobile telephone and landline networks, leaving many in the dark with no means of communication.
And in northern and eastern Pakistain, including the Pakistain-controlled part of Kashmire, soldiers were helping civilian authorities with rescue operations.
More than 120 people have died in India, authorities said. Pakistain's National Disaster Management Authority front man Ahmad Kamal said the corpse count there had reached 205 people -- 131 people in the Punjab district and 74 in the Kashmire and Gilgit areas.
Pak authorities were preparing for worsening conditions as water levels in the Chenab and Indus rivers were rising, Kamal said.
Farmer Abid Hussain, who was among those rescued by helicopter to Pindi Bhattian town, said he could not save anything from the raging waters that swept through his home.
"We were at home when suddenly someone shouted: 'Water has come'," Hussain told news hounds in Pindi Bhattian, 265 kilometers (165 miles) southeast of Islamabad.
"We could not take anything but rushed toward the mosque for safety. Soon we had to climb to the rooftop as water submerged the ground floor. We had been on the roof for two days until the helicopter rescued us and brought us here," Hussain said.
"Everything has been washed away or destroyed in this flood," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2014 00:00 ||
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Hat tip---Daniel Pipes Middle East Forum
Foreign governments and state-controlled or state-financed entities have paid tens of millions of dollars to dozens of American think tanks in recent years, according to a New York Times investigation. While the think tanks argue that the relationships do not compromise the integrity of their research, foreign officials say the contributions are pivotal in furthering their policy priorities, as many groups produce papers and host forums or briefings that are typically consistent with foreign government interests. Here are examples of the contributors to nine major think tanks in recent years. SEPT. 7, 2014 Quite a graphic showing the links from foreign governments to the think tanks. Link to text of articleHERE.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/09/2014 16:37 ||
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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.
8 Sept 2014 Situation Assessment:
[Dhaka Tribune] Internationally funded 
[DAWN] Heavy monsoon rains and flooding in Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan have claimed at least 205 lives.
[DAWN] HYDERABAD: Armed assailants barged into a farmer's home in Mithan Jamali village in Tando Allahyar, 38 kilometres from here, on Sunday and 
[DAWN] City health authorities have prepared plans to ensure that the water supplied to mosques is safe from carrying germs of Naegleria fowleri as it could be terribly hazardous with the fact that rinsing nose is a part of ablutions and these germs attack through nasal cavity, it emerged on Sunday.
