HARARE â Zimbabweans are heading for a dismal new year, with food shortages and an economic crisis expected to worsen while prospects for political change appear dimmer than ever, analysts say, as bad Bob looks on smiling.
While President Robert Mugabeâs government is forecasting growth of 3,5% next year, economists and ordinary people are bracing for hardship. Somewhere between 3.5 and "bracing for hardship lies the truth."
âThe problems weâve had in the last seven years will definitely follow us into the new year as the economy continues shrinking,â economist John Robertson said.
âIf anything next year will be tougher for the majority of the people because presently the government has absolutely no clue or strategy to turn around the economy,â said Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
Zimbabweâs economy has been on a downturn for most of the last decade, plagued by runaway inflation, unemployment hovering above 70% and chronic food and fuel shortages.
Politically, a split in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition party, has weakened the party that posed the most credible challenge to Mugabeâs 25-year rule.
âProspects are gloomy politically especially with tensions in the opposition MDC party which have dealt a setback in a force that was capable of confronting the government,â political commentator Bill Saidi said.
The MDC is to hold its annual congress in February next year and judging from the squabbling currently dogging the party, the gathering could put the final nail in the opposition coffin.
In the coming months, United Nations food deliveries are expected to reach more than 3-million people in what was once the breadbasket of southern Africa.
The government blames the food deficit on drought (blaming the Almighty again) but analysts say the seizures since 2000 of white-owned commercial farmers for re-allocation to landless blacks has dealt a crippling blow to agriculture, as wealth and land redistribution always does.
âHarvests are going to be poor because most farmers got inputs late and that means more foreign currency will be used to import food we should be producing,â said Robertson. Among ordinary Zimbabweans, the mood is depressingly dark.
âWe are all literally living from hand to mouth, hardly affording to buy basic things like lunch at work,â said Harare township teacher Patrick Maonwa.
âI foresee a difficult year ahead because government does not seem to be a solution for the galloping inflation,â he said.
Petrol attendant George Musa, who for most of this year has been working three days a week due to an acute shortage of petrol, said âthere is really nothing to say, there is nothing positive to predict about Zimbabwe these daysâ.
âPolitically, where can change come from, there is no more opposition to talk about.â
Memory Chimutengo sells electronic parts in an increasingly difficult business environment.
âEarly this year, I used to give my clients quotations valid for 15 days, now those quotations are valid for less than 12 hours because prices are so volatile that they can change within hours,â said Chimutengo.
âThere is not even a flicker at the end of the tunnel.â There isn't even a tunnel.
Zimbabwe has become isolated from its former trading partners in the west following presidential elections in 2002, which foreign observers saideveryone on the planet knew were rigged. âEconomically, unless we rejoin the international community and make amends with the countries we isolated ourselves from, our problems will remain with us,â said Saidi.
I believe the definition of insanity is; continuing to do the same things you've done in the past, but expecting different results. Keep Bob and you'd doomed!
...and not just an artist, folks, a "performance' artist.
PARIS
A 76-year-old performance artist was arrested after attacking Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" _ a porcelain urinal _ with a hammer, police said. I'll translate: I have never worked a day in my 76 year life. Duchamp's 1917 piece _ an ordinary white, porcelain urinal that's been called one of the most influential works of modern art _ was slightly chipped in the attack at the Pompidou Center in Paris, the museum said Thursday. It was removed from the exhibit for repair. That first sentence tell me all I need to know about the modern art world.
The suspect, a Provence resident whose identity was not released, already vandalized the work in 1993 _ urinating into the piece when it was on display in Nimes, in southern France, police said. I might have cut him some slack on that one.
During questioning, the man claimed his hammer attack on Wednesday was a work of performance art that might have pleased Dada artists. The early 20th-century avant-garde movement was the focus of the exhibit that ends Monday, police said. They called it the Dada movement because I believe that's who paid their bills while they ran around calling toilets modern art masterpieces...
A 2004 poll of 500 arts figures ranked "Fountain" as the most influential work of modern art _ ahead of Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," Andy Warhol's screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and "Guernica," Picasso's depiction of war's devastation. Can I become an "arts figure"? Is there a test? A waiting list? Do you have to "know somebody"? "Fountain" is estimated at $3.6 million. That's all!
Yuan Cai and Jian Ji Xi claim they urinated over one of the new Tate Modern gallery's exhibits to "celebrate the spirit of modern art." Their target was Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, a ready-made urinal which itself shocked the art world when it was unveiled in 1917.
The men say they have video footage of their most recent "performance" which shows them standing either side of the Fountain, urinating for a minute in front of bemused onlookers.
"The aim of the exercise was to make people re-evaluate what constitutes art itself and how an act can be art," said Katie Hill, a spokeswoman for the men.
Needless to say (then why say it?), I nearly pissed myself laughing at how appropriate this bit of nonsense was at the time. Even better, these two bozos also bounced on one of the notorious bed exhibits by major loon, Tracey Emin.
Mr Cai, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, and Mr Xi, who studied art at Goldsmiths College, were arrested last year after they stripped down to their underpants and jumped up and down on Tracey Emin's work My Bed at the Tate Gallery in the name of artistic expression.
The pair, whose offering was entitled Two Naked Men Jump into Tracey's Bed, managed to express themselves for 15 minutes before they were apprehended by security guards and arrested.
This pretentious wankerette managed to sell the art world an unmade bed strewn with an empty vodka bottle, used condoms and dirty underwear. All this for a mere £35,000!
Yes folks, something we normally pay people to clean up was sold by this hoodwinking moron for almost $100,000.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Ms Emin's latest work features a urine-soaked sheet inspired by a childhood bedwetting episode.
One can only wonder how much she was paid to intentionally wet her bed. Most insane of all is Duchamp's pissoire being called "the most influential work of modern art". I feel like I should go puke in the d@mned thing in order to make my life complete.
#5
We must always keep in mind that "art" can't be explained - or such is held by "modern" art zoomers.
This is not an unbelievably beautiful painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. Nor this a self-portait...
And this can't be a masterpiece of Claude Monet...
Or this Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
No. It would trivialize them -- and expose the fuckwit pretenders of today. Toilets, used condoms, chains, and urine contitute the highest form of art, today. Just ask the "artists".
#6
Sheeat, my plumbers could hook the Pompadou (heh) Center up with a brand spankin' new urinal complete with an infrared automatic flush valve for well under $600.00
Evil SUV's in the news...
VOORHEES, N.J. - Curiosity didn't kill one cat on a wild ride on the New Jersey Turnpike. The kitten, now known, for obvious reasons, as Miracle, hitchhiked a ride on the underbelly of an SUV just before Christmas. Hitchiked? Yeah, right...
The gray and white feline traveled some 70 miles under the vehicle as it whizzed along the Turnpike on Dec. 23."I'm just amazed that the cat didn't fall off or get blown off," Karen Dixon-Aquino, director of the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees, told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill for Tuesday's newspapers. ...or that the SUV didn't kill it and eat it for dinner.
The association is caring for the furry hitchhiker and plans to put him up for adoption. Awwwwwwwwwwww...
The SUV's driver was traveling from Newark to Cherry Hill and didn't know she was giving the kitten a ride until another motorist saw the tabby through a wheel well and flagged the driver over near Interchange 4 in Mount Laurel. I'll bet you didn't know, you evil SUV driving, cat kidnapping witch.
Dixon-Aquino said the cat probably climbed into the guts of the SUV in Newark and was asleep when the journey began. Somehow, the cat avoided being mangled by fan blades and other moving parts as he clung to the car for the ride. The kitty, estimated to be about 8 or 9 months old, was not unscathed, though."He was pretty freaked out," Dixon-Aquino said. "His paws were burnt, one claw was missing and his fur was singed." Bastard SUVs! Are not even kittys sacred to them!
#1
This also explains the 70-mile trail of dead baby ducks.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/06/2006 16:05 Comments ||
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#2
W00t! tu - excellent inline comments, LOL.
I used to have a tail-less cat named Mannix. He did have a tail for awhile, but he liked to sleep on warm engine blocks, it seems. Since it's January, it's prolly the same thing that got Miracle into this jam. Mannix, who had a different name I can't recall now, prior to "the event", came in, yowling, dragging his tail on the ground one morning and this "free" kitty who came to live with us became a $150 cat within minutes at the Vet. And rechristened (is it okay to use that word these days?) Mannix. He crashed into things when he became frisky for a long time after that, lacking the counter-balance the Vet had removed.
Since it was 30+ years ago, it was your typical semi-evil sedan, I'd wager. And I'm pretty sure no baby ducks were harmed in the making of this story, though we did live across the street from a park with a pond full of 'em. I am sorely tempted to post a butt-load of cat pix lynx, heh.
#3
I used to live in central Michigan, and I remember always checking the car for foreign furry critters. You knew they were around cause you could see their pawprints all over the cars....
Posted by: Mark E. ||
01/06/2006 16:48 Comments ||
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#4
one cat on a wild ride on the New Jersey Turnpike
Don't quite understand the excitement. Could not have reached a very high speed, they had to stop every 20 meters for a bloody toll booth!
#7
When I was working as a shunter in Sydney a white kitten came into the railyard on the bogie axle of one of the trains. Who knows how long she was riding around under that train. I took her home, she was fine, although deaf (being a white cat) Then one day she went to sleep in the next door neighbour's driveway...
#8
It's a common urban legend that white cats are deaf, but it isn't uniformly true; I've had one that could hear.
Posted by: Phil ||
01/06/2006 18:29 Comments ||
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#9
"...had to stop every 20 meters for a bloody toll booth!"
No, the Jersey Turnpike only has tolls when you get on and off. You're thinking of the Garden State Parkway. PARKWAY????
Edited for brevity.
A reminder that a heat gun and paint remover that produces temperatures of 1,000 degrees isn't a good hair dryer is the nation's wackiest warning label, an anti-lawsuit group says.
The label reads: "Do not use this tool as a hair dryer" and was identified by Tom Brunelle of the southwestern Michigan community of Holland. Brunelle will receive $500 as a reward for tracking down the seemingly obvious warning.
The Wacky Warning Label Contest, in its ninth year, is conducted by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch as part of an effort to show the effects of lawsuits - and concern about lawsuits - on warnings.
A $250 second prize award goes to Jam Sardar of Grand Rapids for a label on a kitchen knife that warns: "Never try to catch a falling knife." A $100 third prize goes to Alice Morgan of La Junta, Colo. She found a warning on a cocktail napkin with a map of the waterways around Hilton Head Island, S.C., printed on it that read: "Not to be used for navigation." An honorable mention went to Kirk Dunham of Seabrook, Texas. He found a warning on a bottle of dried bobcat urine used to keep pests away from garden plants that said: "Not for human consumption."
Posted by: Dar ||
01/06/2006 15:41 ||
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#1
My all-time favorite was the warning label on the interior of a multi-tube PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) reactor. Talk about truth-in-advertising ...
A team led by Didier Raoult of France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) examined the remains of Napoleon's soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, 800 kilometres (500 miles) west of Moscow. Samples of earth, cloth and teeth recovered from the site suggest that more than 30 percent of these troops were killed by bacterial fever transmitted by lice. The parasites caused relapsing fever, through the bacterium Borrelia recurrentis; trench fever, a condition well known in the Western Front of World War I, caused by the germ Bartonella quintana; and typhus, caused by the Rickettsia prowazeki bacterium.
The evidence comes from remains of the fleas that were found in the common grave and in the soldiers' uniforms, and from the presence of Bartonella quintana in some of the fleas themselves. In addition, seven teeth, among 35 that were examined, were found to have Bartonella quintana in the dental pulp while Rickettsia prowazeki was found in three other teeth. The unusual research is found in the January issue of Journal of Infectious Diseases. The mass grave, discovered in 2001, contains the remains of hundreds of fleeing Napoleonic soldiers.
#1
I maintain General Winter deserves more credit than Lieutenant Louse. The bacteria the lice transmitted may have administered the final blow, but it was the cold and hunger that made them vulnerable to it--much like AIDS weakens a patient's immune system, but it's a simple cold or infection that is the actual cause of death.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/06/2006 2:39 Comments ||
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#2
Lice were endemic until the advent of easily washable cotton clothes. A development that is still linquistically recorded in Australia where cotton goods are called 'Manchester'.
#3
An important factor in those preindustrial times was the mere cost and thus scarcity of clothes: in contemporary terms you would have shirts and trousers (the ordinary variety not luxury ones) costing 500 $. Compound this with the fact that peoiple had far fewer excess money (ie after deducing for food) than nowadays and it is easy to deduce that people had very few clothes so they couldn't change interior clothes every day. You wouldn't want to stay downwind of them.
In addition the soldiers of Grande Armee had no adequate clothes for the Russian winter (not sure but I think many still had their summer uniforms) so they wore their regular clothes and their change clothes one over the other. And when one of them died his comrades would disvest him and share his clothes... and his lice.
So yes in the end it was the cold who brought down the Grande Armee.
#5
There is a story that one contributory cause was that the Grand Armee had tin buttons on their great coats. Tin becomes non-metallic and brittle at something like -20, so they couldn't close their coats.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/06/2006 9:13 Comments ||
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#7
Some idiot has found funny to make a pun about fleeing Napoleonic soldiers.
Lets just remind that at Auerstadt where Davout not Napoleon was in commanded they crushed a Prussian army three times their own. And that the Prussian soldiers were better for setting fire to military hospitals (with the wounded inside), stealing from allied wounded soldiers (like experienced by the British at Waterloo) and of course raping than at fighting: Auesrtadt was not an isolated incident where a heavily outnumbered French Army crushed them and in the aftermath of Iena a fortified force of 6,000 Prussians surrendered to a few dozens French cavalrymen. And that Prussians were the best of the German soldiers.
So please avoid making fun of Napoleonic armies. It would be like disparaging the USMC due to Lee Harvey Oswald or the Okinawa rapers.
#9
Much like the French posters on our board, I too am getting tired of the âFrench are cowardsâ meme. This isnât because Iâm French. Itâs because itâs not accurate. Consider the following quote taken from the 1943 G.I. Roundtable pamphlet (EM 40) entitled Will the French Republic Live Again?
âThe war of 1914â18 was a terrible blow for France. Over 1,300,000 Frenchmen were killed and another 4,000,000 wounded, many of them so that they could never again lead normal lives. It was a per capita loss much greater than any other nation suffered. This enormous destruction of young manhood was doubly tragic for the future of France because it came on top of a birth rate already hardly sufficient to make up for deaths.
âFrance, likewise, suffered more destruction of property than any other country in the last war. A broad area in the east and north was left in shambles. French industry was disorganized, its markets disrupted, and the nations to which France had made loans before 1914, particularly Russia, were bankrupt. To top it off, the crushing national debt incurred to fight the war and reconstruct the country forced devaluation of the currency so that by 1938 the owners of insurance policies, bonds, bank accounts, and mortgages had seen much of their wealth wiped out.
âAll this meant that France was bled white in both human and material resources. Many Frenchmen lost confidence in themselves and their institutions. Influential elements in the population lacked the will to carry on the struggle for national existence, and even high officers of the army openly stated after 1920 that France could never survive another war like the last one.
âIt was hardly surprising, therefore, that a kind of logical pacifism spread throughout the country. It received official encouragement from the public schools and the ministry of education, and found popular support in all corners of the nation. A feeling of revulsion from war and a surging desire for lasting peace were common to all Europe and all the world after 1918, but nowhere were they stronger than in France. The fact that nearly every French family counted one or even more of its members among the dead or wounded was, of course, a powerful argument against further war. But more than that, the people recognized that France simply could not afford the costly sacrifices of another such struggle.â
Ok, our grandfathers knew that there were legitimate reasons why French culture and politics trended toward pacifism. World War Two obviously exacerbated these existing trends, which have continued into modern times. Various choleric quotes from Patton aside, the Greatest Generation didnât seem to hold it against them, so why should I? Iâm sure as hell not a better man than Grandad was. Neither are you.
Now, this doesnât excuse stuff like the train story from yesterday. That was definitely an example of group cowardice, though I refuse to paint a culture of millions with a brush dipped into the pot of a few hundred people. Incidents like these DO point to a very real need for the French people to look to their past, reexamine their present, and cast aside the shackles of political correctness that now bind them from cradle to grave. There are things worth fighting for, suffering for, and - if need be - dying for.
#10
I agree that the French-bashing is getting pretty old. I am no fan of the current French government by any means, but right-thinking French peoples like JFM need our support, not our contempt!
SM--I'm getting a kick out of those WWII pamphlets too. The one about re-educating the Germans after the war has a great summary of German history and unification that I found to be a great resource. I'll have to look at the French one.
Side note--I remembered seeing a great graphical representation showing the progress of Napoleon's Russian campaign and the whittling away of his army in Edward Tufte's book "Visual Explanations". I wasn't able to find a nice, simple JPG of it, but I did find the chart on page 9 of this PDF file. This is a great example of "a picture is worth 1,000 words".
Posted by: Dar ||
01/06/2006 12:59 Comments ||
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#13
Just read the French and the Chinese pamphlets--I really like the synopsis of not only national history but also contemporary history in these.
I knew Japan and China had been at war well before Pearl Harbor, but I did not know about the phases and escalations of fighting or the porous nature of the front before reading it on the site.
The most surprising item though was that the "Rape of Nanking", while horiffic, occupied the Japanese troops long enough for the Chinese army to retreat, reconsolidate, and avert a major defeat. It's as if the city unwittingly sacrificed itself for the good of the country.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/06/2006 16:20 Comments ||
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#14
I was and am reeally upset about that comment. Those guys of the Grande Armee had spent twenty years kicking asses around all of Europe and they were cowards? Napoleon and not only him but Pichegru, Lannes, Morau, Davout had managed to win dozens of battles while leading bunch of cowards? Holy ghost I knew they were good but not that good!
And now ladies and gentlemen I will tell you why the French crumbled in 1940. Because the ELITE (that same elite who has produced a Chirac) failed them. It was not the French foot citizen who decided not to crush Germany when it occupied Rhenania. It was not the French soldier who decided that the tank would have a limited role. It was not the French soldier who decided that the Ardennes were unpassable and thus let the area in front of them ungarrisoned. It was not the French soldier who, once the German tanks had passed through the Ardennes gap, not to counterattack the weakly defended interval between the German tanks and infantry a thing who would have saved the French army and, probably trapped the German tanks in a pocket with the sea at their backs. Instead the French troop was exhausted in a series of marchs with orders from above stopping it whenever they met any resistance whatever light and ordered to break contact and try elsewhere. Precious days were lost, days with very little rest and sleep for the troop and days allowing the Germans to consolidate. It was also not the French soldier who decided to have only a meager reserve who was consumed in days (Generalship 101: Ever keep a reserve, when you engage it pull troops from another part of the front)
But stupidity in the leading circles also extended to war preparation: from the decision to select Gamelin as General in chief (more for its lack of religion than for merits), expending huge sums of money in the Navy (one of the strongest in French history but useless against land-locked Germany) instead of in tanks and planes, the fact that most French fighter planes had no radios and thus were easy prey for the group radio-coordinating Germans. And the uniforms! Nearly as pathetic as the infamous red trousers of early WWI. I have a burning memory of two photos in the same book. One is of two German soldiers at Sedan railway station: one of them is bending sideways to pick something on the soil, they have rolled sleeves and their uniform gives a definite impression of freedom of movement. A few pages a apart a French soldier is surrendering. No jokes, the poor guy looks exhausted and unhappy. His uniform is very cumbersome and defitely hinders him. A death trap if you have to assault a machine gun or if you are being sniped. It is looks like he has a winter uniform (but the summer uniform was about as restrictive for movement and quite hot). For God's sake! who could be idiot enough to design such silly uniforms in the era of the machine gun! who had sent him to battle in winter uniform in May, in this exceptionally hot and sunny May who was May 1940!!! And this guy had sweated himself to exhaustion for hundreds of miles while the French high command had displaced the pawn of his unit for all of North France.
So, make good use of the ammo I give you about the stupidity of the French elites (those same people who speak of stupid Americans) and please avoid jokes about the 1940 French foot soldier who didn't deserve them. And while accsuing the 1940 soldier of cowardice can be dismissed as ignorance it And it borders racism to accuse of cowardice all the French soldiers, including those who fell at Verdun, the Napoleonic soldiers or the people of the island of Sein (after hearing de< Gaulle's call to arms all males between 18 and 60 piled in fisher ships and sailed to England to continue the war)
#15
SM quote: The war of 1914â18 was a terrible blow for France. Over 1,300,000 Frenchmen were killed and another 4,000,000 wounded, many of them so that they could never again lead normal lives. It was a per capita loss much greater than any other nation suffered. This enormous destruction of young manhood was doubly tragic for the future of France because it came on top of a birth rate already hardly sufficient to make up for deaths.
I think the damage to French power goes beyond the raw numbers. France lost her best and brightest in that war. There is a certain truth to the statement by some veterans that most of a war's heros never come back. The cream of French youth was wiped out, and perhaps lesser men were left to fill the void.
Having said that, however, WWI does not seem to have affected the Germans, who lost 1.8m military dead. By the 1930's, Germany had recovered sufficiently to simultaneously take on most of the powers it had fought in WWI more or less on its own. Why did France lose heart where Germany did not? Note that during the Civil War, the US lost an equivalent percentage of its population as France's WWII dead, but the US did not lose heart and become neutered in international affairs.
My feeling is that the problem with Europe as a whole is the relentless expansion of the welfare state, which leaves little funding available for defense matters. If the West's traditional enemies ever get their act together by adopting hands-off economic policies, we are going to see, around the world, a resurgence of geopolitical threats that we won't have the financial means to counter. China is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg. Note that while India is a democracy, it deals with territorial issues the old-fashioned way, by sending troops. China waited 100 years for the British lease on Hong Kong to expire. Indian troops invaded Goa. Note also that Indian troops invaded east Pakistan and helped it secede from Pakistan during a period of contention.
#16
Why did France lose heart where Germany did not?
There are several factors which played into it. The Germans had a very military and authoritarian culture whose basic temperament recoiled at democracy and embraced war as a socially positive force. WWI had been fought mainly on French soil. The whole country was devastated.... just in time for the Great Depression. The Germans were enthusiastically reproducing while the French fell into a kind of cultural depression and basically stopped breeding.
France was a historical world power that had fallen down. Germany was a recent world power was rising up.
#17
I would also like to point out that under both Napoleon and Louis the Sun King France was THE world superpower, with England coming up second best for a while. At the time we Americans were somewhat less important than, say, the Swedish. So, while friends may poke fun at friends, friends to not deliberately insult friends. Does anyone doubt that JFM is one of us? No?
Then letâs not insult the manâs country. Instead, letâs help him take it back!
#18
If the French want to prove that they are not cowards, they can start today. French riots? Middle East? Ivory Coast? Kosovo? Iran? Iraq? I'm willing to be convinced.
#19
The main reason for France's decline during the XIXth century was... the potato. In previous centuries France had been the demographic super-power in Europe because it was the only one whose climate and soil allowed to grow huge quantities of wheat (other cereals like barley have severe nutritional deficienci) eand feed a numerous population. Then the potato was introduced and suddenly Germany's capacity for producing food and feeding people was increased ten fold (most of it was unsuitable for wheat but not for potato). Furthermore steam ships allowed to import wheat and meat from Argentina or America so being able to feed its people from own agriculture (like FRance did) lost of its importance.
Add to this the ossification of the French Army where the Napoleonic model in which soldiers easily became officers and at times generals was repaced by an aristocrtic one where officers acted like seigneurs toward serfs ie soldiers and NCOs while the officer corps closed itself from NCOs and soldiers. In the time where the evolution tactics required more and more decsisons being taken at NCO and even soldier level the French Army was taking away responsabilities, status and carreer opportunities from them.
#20
f the French want to prove that they are not cowards, they can start today. French riots? Middle East? Ivory Coast? Kosovo? Iran? Iraq? I'm willing to be convinced.
I think they have become cowards, even in more mundane matters like the gang who attacked a train. But I don't like their forefathers being put in the same bag.
#21
Just a note to JFM and A5089 -- when I posted this article I thought the *louse* aspect was more interesting than the *France* aspect. I certainly didn't post it for another opportunity to offend France's honor. I'm grateful to both of you for your contributions and look forward to your words and ideas. Thanks.
#22
No more about the bloody French whores, and I'm not talking about the ranker (common soldier), but the UN diplo-politico fagets! We're in the mess we are in today partly due to French and Russian... let me use the word intransegence, (complicity would probably be more appropriate) following the first Gulf War. I've watched them delay and back away from the blindingly obvious during Iraqi on-site inspections too many times. Their timidity, stalling, and gamesmanship with the inspection regime was maddening. The underlying motiviations have only recently surfaced. Trust the bastards at your own bloody peril.
#23
WWI does not seem to have affected the Germans, who lost 1.8m military dead.
They were very much affected by post-war economics, however. Images of suitcases filled with money to buy a loaf of bread, come to mind. I don't recall such a thing happening in France.
Why did France lose heart where Germany did not?
That's easy. It's because the Germans lost the war. There's nothing like war reparations, the perception of an unfair treaty (Versailles), and post-war depression to bring about nationalistic fervour. Throw in someone like Hitler...and off Germany went.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/06/2006 18:58 Comments ||
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#24
There is a story that one contributory cause was that the Grand Armee had tin buttons on their great coats. Tin becomes non-metallic and brittle at something like -20, so they couldn't close their coats.
I have heard this as well. Here is an excerpt regarding this:
Dar, thank you for posting a link to Charles Joseph Minard's histogram of Napoleon's march. It surely must rate with Harold Beck's London Tube diagram as among the finest stylized representations of condensed information in history.
#25
In 1940, it's not that the French were cowards, but that they had poor tactics and were incompetent operationally and were beaten in a fight. They fought as well as they could, but that wasn't enough. Prioux's corps fought the Germans to a bloody standstill in Belgium, but the poor performance of the "B" class divisions (manned by reservists without modern AA and AT weapons) against three panzer corps made their position hopeless.
Remember how the Russians were whipped in the summer of 1941 and how many surrendered. Does anyone call them cowardly? What if France had been able to retreat to Portugal and organize a defense there?
I think the strength of the Communists (slavishly following Stalin) undermined the will to resist, too.
#26
The efforts of JFM and A5089 notwithstanding, France, the nation state, is not now an ally of the United States and may well be actively working to undermine its policies. It is unlikely that it will get an even break in any discussion amongst Americans. This may not be fair to each French individual, but life is not fair.
#27
NS: The efforts of JFM and A5089 notwithstanding, France, the nation state, is not now an ally of the United States and may well be actively working to undermine its policies. It is unlikely that it will get an even break in any discussion amongst Americans. This may not be fair to each French individual, but life is not fair.
I think it is possible to get too carried away about the French. France isn't China. It's not Russia, which is actively proliferating to Iran. It isn't even India, which spent much of the Cold War taking positions contrary to American interests, including supporting Japanese war criminals against the US in the aftermath of WWII, supporting the Chinese against the US during the Korean War and supporting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. France fought on our side during the Korean War, did its part in fighting communism in Southeast Asia via the First Indochinese War (the Second Indochinese War is what we call the Vietnam War) and was with us during Desert Storm.
France also almost took Nasser out - via the Suez Canal invasion - in 1956, but Eisenhower screwed them by intervening (financially) on Nasser's side. By the way, we have Eisenhower to thank for setting a precedent for the nationalization (i.e. theft) of the foreign assets of Western companies by Third World countries.
"A difference of opinion between the authorities and the press is not necessarily a problem, but we are alarmed by the police chief's threatening attitude in this case, especially as 2005 was a grim year for press freedom in the Democratic Republic of Congo," the organisation said.
"After the murders of two journalists and an attempt to take the life of a third journalist, Radio Okapi's Jean Ngandu in Lumbumbashi, we insist on the need for all Congolese public officials to show moderation," Reporters Without Borders added.
Threats to arrest and kill and eat De Chartes Menga were made in Gen. Mongedjo's office in the presence of an information officer from the Fondation Hirondelle on 30 December 2005. The threats were prompted by a report about tension within the provincial police command in Kisangani. Other threats have reportedly been made against the journalist since then, and he fears for his safety, and so would I whahhahahaaa.
I certain RWOB's letter had a huge and sustaining impact.
Eight years of war in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have left nearly four million people dead, making it the deadliest humanitarian crisis today, according to a study published in the British medical weekly The Lancet. The estimate is extrapolated from a nationwide survey among 19,500 households. The national mortality rate was found to be 2.1 deaths per 1,000 per month, 40 per cent higher than other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, investigators said. The war's death toll was estimated at 3.9 million people, from the outbreak of the conflict in 1998 to mid-2004, when the survey was carried out. Casualties were significantly higher in DRC's violence-torn, resource-rich eastern provinces.
"Most deaths were from easily preventable and treatable illnesses rather than violence," according to the study, lead-authored by Richard Brennan of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in New York. "The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis. To save lives, improvements in security and increased humanitarian assistance are urgently needed."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"Most deaths were from easily preventable and treatable illnesses rather than violence,"
Yes of course, decades of tribal violence, bloodshed, and killing had absolutely nothing to do with the prevention of illnesses or starvation. An observation only someone from the IRC and or New York would venture.
#2
"Most deaths were from easily preventable and treatable illnesses rather than violence,"
This was true for all wars prior to WWI, at least for the Americans. It may be true for other nations in WWII, e. g. Soviet Union, Japan, China and Germany. Note the lice discussion regarding Napoleon's defeat in Russia.
This is just another sign that Africa is slipping back to the pre-modern world, or at least that we are growing more aware that it is not part of the modern world, if it ever was. No wonder the mohammedans find it such a fertile field. Now that the missionary-imperialist impulse has left the West, it will be interesting to see if and how the Africans manage to rejoin the world.
#3
It amazes me how the populations of these hideous places continue to size despite the appalling death rates and interminable wars. Polpulation control is needed in sub-Africa but soehow this doesn't seem right.
#4
#3 It amazes me how the populations of these hideous places continue to size despite the appalling death rates and interminable wars. Polpulation control is needed in sub-Africa but soehow this doesn't seem right.
Posted by: Rightwing 2006-01-06 15:46
A self-correcting phenomenon Rightwing. Their life spans continute to approach that of the tsetse fly.
#5
#3 It amazes me how the populations of these hideous places continue to size despite the appalling death rates and interminable wars. Polpulation control is needed in sub-Africa but soehow this doesn't seem right.
Posted by: Rightwing 2006-01-06 15:46
A self-correcting phenomenon Rightwing. Their life spans continute to approach that of the tsetse fly.
A plane load of Muslims from northern Nigeria trying to reach this year's Hajj has been turned back in Saudi Arabian air space and sent home.
The 492 pilgrims from Kaduna had missed an extension to Wednesday's deadline secured by Nigeria's president. No ticki-no laundry.
Thousands of other Nigerian pilgrims have been stranded as a shortage of aircraft is blamed for the chaos.
Kano's state governor told angry pilgrims to go home and accept "the will of Allah". The bloody Pat Robertsonian effect once again.
Many airlines have wisely refused to take part in this year's pilgrimage to Jeddah, saying the fees offered by the Nigerian organising authorities did not cover their costs.
On Wednesday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered national carrier Virgin Nigeria ( <--- wat ? ) to divert its flights to help the pilgrims after securing the 36-hour extension, which expired on Friday morning.
Promise
Saudi authorities have said they would fine airlines $50,000 for every plane carrying Hajj pilgrims that arrived after the deadline.
Might be a technique we could use to assist with on-time arrivals.
The BBC's Ado Saleh Kankiya at Kano airport says thousands of Muslims from northern Katsina, Bauchi and Jigawa are still hoping that their state authorities - which organise travel on the Hajj - will pay these fines. Recommend you call the Federal Emergency Motel Agency (FEMA), they usually pay for EVERYTHING!
But following the return of the plane to Kaduna, people at airports across the country have been told by officials to go home and make the pilgrimage next year instead.
In a long address to angry pilgrims from Kano, Governor Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau asked them to accept the disappointment, our correspondent says.
He promised them that they would be among the first to go to the Hajj next year and said that next year better plans would be put in place.
Every year about 2m Muslims convergemarch on Mecca - the holiest place in Islam - for the Hajj.
Every adult Muslim is supposed to undertake the Hajj at least once in their life if they can afford it and are physically able.
#8
Yea PD the "pc" crap is ignored here. If I feel the need to commet I will. I will say what I think and mean what I say. Just because the people who supported the NAZIs didn't know what was up doesn't make them any more innocent in my eyes. I'll accept my share fo the blame and punishment if I am evil or supporting evil, strupid or supporting stupidity.
I hold people who follow Islam, Christianty, Paganism or who are like me to the same standards. I am free to ridicule or comment on their acts, beliefs and practices.
This is an part of anual event and caused buy human stupidity. Those responsible are lible to ridicule and scorn. But that is to be expected of people who worship a rock.
Bangladesh has been ranked 141st among 161 countries in the 2006 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, a US-based research group.
There are 20 countries worse than Bangla?
The country, which scored 3.88 points, was also placed in the third of the four categories -- free, mostly free, mostly unfree and repressed -- in terms of economic freedom. Hong Kong, which scored 1.28 points, was ranked first in the index, followed by Singapore with 1.56 points and Ireland with 1.58 points. They are among the 19 countries dubbed as free and placed in the first category.
Bangladesh's ranking was the worst among five of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). Sri Lanka was in a better position and shared the 92nd position with Romania with a score of 3.19, followed by Pakistan with 110th position and 3.33 points, India with 121st position and 3.49 points, and Nepal with 125th position and 3.53 points. Bhutan and the Maldives were not included in the list. All the Saarc member nations were placed in the third category, as they were dubbed 'mostly unfree' economically.
Bangladesh, which managed to reduce its overall score by 0.07 point this year, obtained better score in the monetary policy than in the other areas. A lower score signifies better position.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Now they won't get to go to meetings of the big 140.
#3
Haiti, Bolivia, most of subsaharan Africa comes to mind....along with a bunch of the Middle East, like Iran and Syria....but I still would have thought that Bangladesh would have been lower than 141st. Miracles do happen.
Britain has had Europe's biggest increase in deaths from liver cirrhosis, a key indicator of alcohol consumption, a study published in The Lancet says. The research compared data for cirrhosis mortality among 12 western European countries for the period 1955-2001. Investigators noted a huge increase in Scotland, where the death rate for this disease doubled among men during the 1990s, and among British women generally, where it rose by almost half during the same period. In contrast, cirrhosis deaths in most other countries declined, especially in southern Europe.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Saddam made aflatoxin a prominent component of Iraq's special weapons arsenal, so maybe it's that.
#2
Apropos of not much at all, there was a TV show a couple of years back that put groups of tourists from different nations (UK, USA, Japan, Germany and a couple of others) through the same series of contrived situations to see how they reacted. I found it truly fascinating. The Brits of course drank their way through everything.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has confessed to being treated for alcoholism and has called a leadership election. In a personal statement, he said: "Over the past 18 months, I have been coming to terms with and seeking to cope with a drink problem. Let me be clear, I consider myself to be capable and in good health."
He made it clear he wanted to continue leading the party but said it was time to back him or sack him. Mr Kennedy, 46, added that he had not drunk alcohol for two months and believed "this issue is resolved". The MP said he had chosen not to acknowledge his drink problem publicly before because "I wanted to overcome it privately. So, in a sense, this announcement today comes as something of a personal relief."
The embattled MP has been fending off critics for months, prompting doubts about his effectiveness in the top job. He rejected repeated calls for a vote of confidence in his leadership saying it would be a distraction. Sky's Political Editor Adam Boulton said: "Kennedy has hit the panic button. Whatever the outcome of this election, the people who will be celebrating tonight are the Conservatives."
Yao Wenyuan, the last surviving member of the infamous "Gang of Four" that led China through 10 tortuous years of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, has died. Yao died on December 23 of diabetes, the official Xinhua news agency announced Friday. He was 74.
No reason was given for the delay in announcing Yao's death, but the Cultural Revolution remains a sensitive political issue in China and this year marks the 40th anniversary of its start and the 30th anniversary of its end. A former propaganda official and writer, Yao's political star rose after he joined up with Jiang Qing, the third wife of Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, and two fellow Shanghai politicians, Zhang Chunqiao and Wang Hongwen.
The four unleashed chaos nationwide during their 10-year reign. Chinese society was turned upside down as armies of youthful and ideologically-charged "Red Guards" ransacked homes and offices of millions looking for "capitalist roaders" and "bourgeois running dogs." All four were arrested in 1976 following the death of Mao and were sentenced to long jail terms with Jiang and Zhang sentenced to life in prison.
Yao finished his 20-year sentence in 1996 and lived out the rest of his life queitly in Beijing. Jiang, who never repented her actions, reportedly committed suicide in prison in 1991, while Wang died in 1992 and Zhang died in April last year.
Good riddance to the lot of them...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2006 11:00 ||
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China indicated on Thursday it could begin to diversify its rapidly growing foreign exchange reserves away from the US dollar and government bonds â a potential shift with significant implications for global financial and commodity markets.
Economists estimate that more that 70 per cent of the reserves are invested in US dollar assets, which has helped to sustain the recent large US deficits. If China were to stop acquiring such a large proportion of dollars with its reserves â currently accumulating at about $15bn (â¬12.4bn) a month â it could put heavy downward pressure on the greenback.
In a brief statement on its website, the government's foreign exchange regulator said one of its targets for 2006 was to âimprove the operation and management of foreign exchange reserves and to actively explore more effective ways to utilise reserve assetsâ.
It went on: â[The objective is] to improve the currency structure and asset structure of our foreign exchange reserves, and to continue to expand the investment area of reserves.
âWe want to ensure that the use of foreign exchange reserves supports a national strategy, an open economy and the macro-economic adjustment."
The announcement came from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe). It gave no more details about whether this meant a big shift in the investment strategy for Chinese reserves, which according to local press reports reached nearly $800bn at the end of last year and are expected by economists to near $1,000bn this year.
The regulator also said it would end quotas on the amount of foreign currency Chinese companies can acquire to invest in overseas assets, a decision that removes a bureaucratic hurdle facing companies that plan to make international acquisitions.
The statement comes at a time of growing debate in China on how the reserves are invested. Some economists have called on Beijing to use the funds to finance infrastructure investment and clean up state-owned companies, or to invest in higher-yielding assets rather than financing US borrowing.
However, according to Stephen Green, economist for Standard Chartered in Shanghai, although the language was âvagueâ, Thursday's statement was the first time Safe has publicly indicated a shift away from dollar assets. âIt is a subtle but clear signal that they are interested in moving away from the US dollar into other currencies, and are interested in setting up some kind of strategic commodity fund, maybe just for oil, but maybe for other commodities,â he said.
The Group of Seven leading industrialised economies has repeatedly called for an adjustment in global trade imbalances, including a rise in the renminbi. The US has expressed frustration that China has not allowed its currency to rise significantly after last Julyâs 2 per cent revaluation. That saw China move from a dollar peg to managing its currency against a basket of currencies, potentially allowing the renminbi to rise against the dollar.
John Snow, US Treasury secretary, speaking earlier on Thursday, repeated his call for China to allow the renminbi to rise against the dollar. âThe trade deficit is influenced by lots of things, differential growth rates, differential savings rates and investment rates and so on. But clearly, getting the [Chinese currency] more appropriately valued will be helpful to the global adjustment process,â he said.
However, some economists believe it would be a mistake for China to shift its reserves into domestic investment or other asset classes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/06/2006 00:01 ||
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So...which currency are they looking to move *to*? It's nice to want to move *away* from the dollar, but what options do they have? The Soddies tried to move to the euro, but changed their minds shortly thereafter.
#2
Does anyone in the MSM understand math? China has a growth rate of 9.1% per year according to the CIA World Factbook. Even if they start buying Euro-debt, they will still have lot's of excess dollars lying around to buy US Treasury Debt with. It's not like they'll just switch over 100% to Euros tomorrow.
And why would they want to put heavy downward pressure on the dollar? So that we will buy fewer of their products and slow their growth -- growth that they desperately need to keep the proles from revolting?
The second to last paragraph says it all. We threatened them, so they are threatening us. This is a non-issue.
#4
seafarious: So...which currency are they looking to move *to*? It's nice to want to move *away* from the dollar, but what options do they have? The Soddies tried to move to the euro, but changed their minds shortly thereafter.
I detect a note of concern here. But there's nothing to worry about, even if they do move away from the dollar. If this actually happened, that would be advantageous for the US, since a weaker American currency would mean more competitive exports. A weak currency would win a lot of large deals for things like aircraft and earth-moving equipment. And higher interest rates would curb the huge speculative bubble in real estate that is continuing to inflate.
#5
Zhang's right. There is nothing to worry about here. If there is a problem, it's not the exchange rate of the USD or the AUD for that matter, it's the excess liquity in trusted markets like US and Australian real estate. Markets always correct their excesses.
#6
This is old news, repackaged. When they revalued the yuan in July they stated that they would be moving towards investing in other currencies. What they're doing is changing the mix in their purchases, and not by a whole lot.
The only move I can see that would make sense for the folks in the Middle Kingdom would be investment in the Taiwanese currency. This would give them a lever in their on-going push for reunification. The ruble, mmmmmm??
The dollar is only in danger if another currency is stronger in value. When oil or copper or wheat is priced in euros or rubles internationally, then you worry. Until then, much laughter at the doom sayers.
#7
Oh, and that 9% growth... ROTFL. The Chinese are continuing their debt shell game. The latest is that they're moving unproductive loans from banks to "trusts" which will issue bonds to cover the purchases. The Chinese continue to make it nearly impossible for foreign banks to purchase debt at the normal fire sale pricing, which is how the Japanese ended their miseries.
For now, the Chinese continue their Ponzi scheme, and if the "trusts" crash, oh, well...
#8
Lest anyone get too worried about China throwing its financial muscle about, look at the following from samizdata by an Australian banker: http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/008435.html
During the 80's everyone was convinced that Japan was going to rule the world, just before they slipped into a long term depression.
...In 2002, Chinese officials admitted that 25% of the loans written by the state owned banks were non-performing. Standard and Poors and a number of others said it was closer to 50%, and possibly more.... most or all of the bad loans have been transferred to special "asset management" companies set up by the government. I suspect that the banks have been able to revise their non-performing loans (NPL) ratio down so quickly by performing a debt-to-equity swap with these holding companies. The article linked to immediately above believes the asset management companies have taken a chunk of the banks' loans and issued them with 10 year bonds in return....At the end of the day, someone has to pay the tab - at some stage depositors are going to want their money. The equity in these holding companies is effectively (if not nominally for the time being) worthless - after all, their assets consist of a bunch of loans that will never be repaid.....I believe that the Chinese banking sector's dire straits constitute the gravest threat to global stability in the coming years. ... Frankly, I believe the banking sector is too far gone to reform without collapse. In international terms, the crisis in the Chinese banks and SOEs is an elephant that stands in the middle of the room, but everyone is either perceiving it as a mouse or trying to pass it off as a mouse....the Chinese state is very brittle and unlikely to withstand economic collapse. The massively stimulating US$50 billion or thereabouts annual injection of foreign direct investment is holding the Chinese state together for the time being. ...And the collapse could come sooner than we think. In 2007, as per the
agreement China entered into upon joining the WTO, it must open up its retail banking sector to foreign banks. This is a potential tripwire. Even if only a small number of Chinese are concerned about the health of their local banks (and thus their savings), when Citibank opens up next door the run on Chinese banks could easily spin out of control. ...
Among China's many structural problems, the house of cards that is her banking system is probably the worst. Japan's financial slide started shortly after her banking system was shown to be corrupt and its loan portfolios wishful thinking. The Chinese are playing with fire if they do anything to jeopardize the inflow of US dollars. Cheap labor is available in other places like India. They need the US much more than the US needs China.
NATO surveillance jets will likely guard German airspace during the 2006 football World Cup, an Alliance spokesman said Thursday. The AWACS planes carry early warning systems to provide airborne surveillance and command and control functions to the armed services. Robert Firman, a spokesman at Germany's NATO AWACS base in Geilenkirchen, said it was "very likely" that jets from the base would be deployed over Germany during the World Cup, which runs June 9 to July 9. The AWACS flights have been called for by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. There are fears of terrorist attacks on the World Cup and the newspaper Die Welt this week said the games were seen as a "a premium terrorist target." All well and good. HOWEVER:
Meanwhile a standoff developed between environmental activists and the Dutch authorities Thursday over the planned felling of trees along the German border to improve safety for NATO AWACS aircraft using the nearby Geilenkirchen airfield. Dozens of activists of the organization Groenfront! (Green Front) climbed trees to build huts and hang protest banners, ignoring an order to vacate the woodland near the town of Schinveld in the southeastern province of Limburg. Although the order to vacate went into effect early Thursday, police and military helicopters monitoring the activists did not intervene as locals brought in refreshments. The Dutch Environment Ministry has ordered taller trees over a 20-hectare area to be felled and a 6-hectare area to be cleared entirely to facilitate the take-off and landing of AWACS aircraft at the Geilenkirchen airbase across the border in Germany. Indications from across the German border were that the trees would be felled by the end of next week.
#1
Somebody inform me about the German AWACs plane. Last I heard only the U.S. and UK had an AWACS. So if AWACS is providing security for the World Cup who is flying? Could it be those evil and imperialistic Americans once again flaunting their military might or is it the fun loving British Empire trying to re-conquer old friends and subjugate them? Hey if we take over Austria we ought to make Arnold President-for-life.
Democrats have been salivating over the scandal and subsequent guilty plea of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. They hope that their Republican counterparts will be bogged down with corruption (or at least guilt by association) while Democrats claim the moral high ground. Not so fast, however. According to a document released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, 40 of the 45 Democrats in the Senate have taken money from Abramoff, his associates and clients. Even Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has received nearly $70,000 from the dubious sources. It would appear that the "culture of corruption" derided by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has a little more "bipartisan support" than many Democrats would like.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/06/2006 12:35 ||
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#1
Abramoff's Democratic contributions
In the "One Word" section under "Hypocricy"
CORRECTION:
Invisible as in MSM will do its best to bury this story and render it invisible.
#2
FWIW - None of Abramoff's personal campaign contributions were to Dems. He's a GOP operative from back in his college days with Norquist and Reed and has never wavered. Some of his clients have contibuted to Dems, but it's not clear any of that was as the result of advice or direction from Abramoff.
In addition, the charges against Abramoff have nothing to do with campaign contributions. AFAIK, they were all above board and clean. It was the below the table action that's gotten him in trouble, and all or very nearly all of that was with those on the GOP side.
Plenty of corruption to go around, although since '94 there have been few Dems worth bribing due to limited influence. But Abramoff only worked one side of the aisle, and seems to have taken it to new level.
Nine people, including four civilians, have been wounded in a string of attacks launched by Nepal's anti-monarchy Maoist rebels. The attacks come just days after the rebels ended a four-month truce.
Two police officers and a civilian have been hurt in a shooting in the town of Mahendranagar, the largest in the district of Kanchenpur, a rebel stronghold 650 kilometres west of the capital, Kathmandu. "Eight police officers were on their way to replace their colleagues when the Maoists fired on them," a police officer said. One officer was hit in the stomach and the other in the chest. A 62-year-old passer-by was also wounded.
Hours later, the Maoists set off a bomb in the tourist town of Pokhara, wounding three soldiers. One civilian was also hurt in the blast.
In the third attack, two men walked into a government office in Biratnagar and left a bomb after telling employees to flee. "Minutes later, the bomb went off [injuring] two people," local journalist Bickram Niraula said.
The Army says soldiers have also defused a bomb containing 15 kilograms of explosives in a government office in Dhangadhi in west Nepal. It says the Maoists "are trying to terrorise people" by placing bombs in public places.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2006 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A classified budget document approved by the Pentagon Dec. 23 calls for the termination by 2011 of one of the most heavily relied-upon reconnaissance planes in the Iraq war.
The storied U-2 spy plane would commence retirement in 2007 under the strictures of Program Budget Decision, or PBD, 720, according to Pentagon, defense industry and congressional officials familiar with the document.
All spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision is classified.
PBD 720 would retire three U-2s in 2007, six in 2008, seven in both 2009 and 2010 and the final 10 in 2011.
The document, one of a host of similar decisions approved in an annual ritual by senior defense officials as the finishing touches are being put to the department's budget request, does not explain the rationale for terminating the program, which has been unsuccessfully targeted for retirement multiple times in the last 10 years.
The decision emanated from the Quadrennial Defense Review deliberations, officials told United Press International. The review will be published early this year.
According to an undated Air Force briefing chart, the U-2 flew 19 percent of the air reconnaissance missions during the 2003 Iraq invasion but provided more than 60 percent of the signals intelligence and 88 percent of battlefield imagery.
The U-2, built by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, would likely be supplanted by the Northrop Grumman's high-altitude Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle; and champions of the venerable spy plane believe the U-2 termination is meant to hasten the transition away from manned toward unmanned reconnaissance. As long as the U-2 is performing these missions and is available, there is less impetus to develop unmanned platforms and space systems, the high-tech systems heavily favored by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon.
Five years ago, then-Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters suggested the termination of the U-2 program in 2011 to free up funding to boost production of the nascent Global Hawk. But this and other attempts to retire the U-2 have been rebuffed by Congress.
"There has been a push for a long time and one has to wonder what the push is, and one is that it is a rationale for all to drive the Global Hawk on," said a Capitol Hill official who spoke to UPI on condition of anonymity.
The U-2 was first developed in the 1950s, and put into production again in the 1980s. Between 1995 and 1999 the entire fleet received new engines.
These upgrades, along with a new glass cockpit and new sensors, give it useful service life until 2050, according to a Congressional Research Service report from 2000.
The unmanned Global Hawk can fly twice as far as the U-2 and remain on station for three times as long. However, the U-2 can carry twice the payload as the Global Hawk and its superior electrical power from new engine increases some of the capabilities of its onboard sensors. The next generation of the Global Hawk is slated to boost its payload weight and an electrical generator to roughly match the U-2, according to information provided by Northrop Grumman.
The two aircraft have for the last five years been operating as complementary as bugs have been worked out of the relatively new Global Hawk, which suffered two major crashes in Afghanistan in December 2001 and July 2002.
Northrop announced this week the Global Hawk had exceeded 5,000 combat flight hours and flown 233 missions, 157 by a single aircraft. Six Global Hawks have been deployed in the Iraq and Afghan wars. The Air Force currently plans to purchase 51 more of the $50 million craft.
The difference between the aircraft goes beyond the sensors they carry and how long they can fly. A piloted aircraft can be redirected in flight to new targets; the Global Hawk is pre-programmed. Moreover, there are places where the FAA, international aviation regulations or host countries prohibit unmanned aircraft for safety reasons.
"We don't have the benefit of the QDR insights," said the congressional official. "But this is like saying, which one is better a Ford 500 or a Mercedes roadster? The Ford doesn't have a top that can come down. On the other hand you can't put a family of five in a roadster."
There may be a third option in what appears to be an either/or trade-off between manned and unmanned systems: making the U-2 an "optionally piloted vehicle" or OPV with the installation of a new command and control system.
The House of Representatives directed the Pentagon to support the development of the "OWL" OPV in 1998 for counter-drug and border enforcement missions. Sources suggested this might be a way to straddle the gap between the sensor capabilities of the U-2 and the loiter time of the Global Hawk.
The U-2 is a single engine, single-seat aircraft built for flight -- it is almost entirely wings. Flying above 70,000 feet to avoid detection and attack, pilots have to wear spacesuits to protect themselves from low pressure and oxygen starvation.
They affectionately call it the "Dragon Lady" because of its difficult handling at altitude, and the elaborate and dangerous process of landing it.
A chase car is dispatched to the runway to tell the pilot how far he is from the ground; the plane has to be deliberately stalled to get it to touch down.
Taking off is also dangerous: the wings are held aloft by rolling "pogo sticks" that sometimes fail to detach when the aircraft takes flight. U-2 pilots have to dip the wings to drop them, and if they over turn, they can crash. For the dangers and rigors of flight and the skill required for it, American U-2 pilots -- fewer than 75 -- are an elite and tight fraternity.
The small fleet of U-2s has a long and storied history in the Cold War as well as an active place in the war in Iraq.
For most of its history, the U-2 has been regarded as a "strategic" platform, providing information to the president and CIA rather than battlefield commanders.
The 1991 Persian Gulf war changed that: the U-2 provided 50 percent of all imagery and 90 percent of ground-targeting imagery. The war was a watershed for the U-2, when it proved it could provide near-immediate tactically useful imagery. It was the largest U-2 operation ever, with nine aircraft and 30 pilots flying as many as five sorties a day, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The plane also played a large role in the Kosovo conflict, providing 80 percent of battlefield imagery.
The aircraft is best known from the May 1960 shoot-down of Gary Francis Powers, a CIA pilot, over the Soviet Union. Powers' mission was one of several meant to determine for President Dwight D. Eisenhower whether the Soviet Union was building more nuclear bombers than was previously known. From U-2 imagery gathered before Powers' capture and public trial, the United States determined the Soviets had merely erected a façade and there was no bomber or missile gap.
EVERY year, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented at its annual conference. Last year's winner in the nuclear and future flight category went to a paper calling for experimental tests of an astonishing new type of engine. According to the paper, this hyperdrive motor would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could leave Earth at lunchtime and get to the moon in time for dinner. There's just one catch: the idea relies on an obscure and largely unrecognised kind of physics. Can they possibly be serious?
The AIAA is certainly not embarrassed. What's more, the US military has begun to cast its eyes over the hyperdrive concept, and a space propulsion researcher at the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories has said he would be interested in putting the idea to the test. And despite the bafflement of most physicists at the theory that supposedly underpins it, Pavlos Mikellides, an aerospace engineer at the Arizona State University in Tempe who reviewed the winning paper, stands by the committee's choice. "Even though such features have been explored before, this particular approach is quite unique," he says.
The theory this is based on predicts the mass of the fundamental particles to 6 decimal places... our current theories can't even get to within a factor of 10 of the measured values of the fundamental particles. In other words this theory is hundreds of thousands of times more accurate based on experimental results. Read the rest at the link... more here http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006
#3
"and most of those contacted by New Scientist said they couldn't make sense of Dröscher and Häuser's description of the theory behind their proposed experiment.
Following Heim theory is hard work even without Dröscher's extension, says Markus Pössel, a theoretical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. Several years ago, while an undergraduate at the University of Hamburg, he took a careful look at Heim theory. He says he finds it "largely incomprehensible", and difficult to tie in with today's physics. "What is needed is a step-by-step introduction, beginning at modern physical concepts," he says."
Not a good sign. Pity. A spindizzy would be nice to have.
Posted by: James ||
01/06/2006 15:46 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Mojo,
I was around during that cold fusion period and hanging out with my physicist neighbor and his friends.
Once you got through their talk dispariging "chemists" (think how the English talk about the Irish) they all agreed that a) they made fun of Einstein too and b)the implications sure were neat if it WAS real
c) unfortunately the odds on it being real were considered to be, shall we say, rather slim.
#6
When trying to guesstimate if vapor-science is serious, look at how much they promise. i.e., if the new carburetor promises 10 more mpg, it is much more likely than if it promises 100 more mpg.
Next it pays to look at materiel. That is, ramjets would be spectacular if they didn't both consume fuel at a terrible rate and tear most engines to pieces.
Third, it is much less likely that "all brand-new" technology will work compared to an improvement to existing technology. In this case, a "hyperdrive" engine compared to say, making a better ion drive engine (which has also happened in the last week).
#7
I think comparing this to improving existing technology is not really relevant... I mean they're talking about going faster than 1000 * the speed of light.
The thing that I think is really cool about it is that they're not talking about stuff we can't even begin to comprehend how to test... this is all very testable in a short time frame to see if it's worth further investigation.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia called on Myanmar on Friday to make good on promises to introduce democracy, and said the military-ruled country may soon invite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for a rare visit to Rangoon by a regional leader. âMyanmar is disturbing the balanceâ of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters in Jakarta. âAnd because of that we are asking it to show concrete steps toward democracy,â
My neck is hurting from the whiplash ...
He said Myanmar had âindicatedâ it would soon invite Yudhoyono or a high-level Indonesian envoy to visit the country to discuss its moves toward democracy. Wirajuda said Indonesiaâs experience of moving from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one since the downfall of Gen. Suharto in 1998 could be useful in helping persuade Myanmar to introduce reforms.
Indonesia is a democracy? Who knew?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/06/2006 22:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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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.
Eight years of war in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have left nearly four million people dead, making it the deadliest humanitarian crisis today, according to a study published in the British medical weekly The Lancet. The estimate is extrapolated from a nationwide survey among 19,500 households. The national mortality rate was found to be 2.1 deaths per 1,000 per month, 40 per cent higher than other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, investigators said. The war's death toll was estimated at 3.9 million people, from the outbreak of the conflict in 1998 to mid-2004, when the survey was carried out. Casualties were significantly higher in DRC's violence-torn, resource-rich eastern provinces.
Bangladesh has been ranked 141st among 161 countries in the 2006 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, a US-based research group. 
Liberal Democrat leader 
Yao Wenyuan, the last surviving member of the infamous "Gang of Four" that led China through 10 tortuous years of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, has died. Yao died on December 23 of diabetes, the official Xinhua news agency announced Friday. He was 74.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia called on Myanmar on Friday to make good on promises to introduce democracy, and said the military-ruled country may soon invite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for a rare visit to Rangoon by a regional leader. âMyanmar is disturbing the balanceâ of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters in Jakarta. âAnd because of that we are asking it to show concrete steps toward democracy,â
