52-year-old Anthony Digati was arrested for trying to extort $200,000 from an insurance firm by threatening to spam them with six million emails unless they paid up. Digati said he would use a spam service and his amazing talents as a "huge social networker" to drag the company "through the muddiest waters imaginable" and presumably unfriend everyone. He added that the price would increase to $3 million if they failed to pay up by Monday, according to federal authorities. Six million spams? How could you tell that from a normal day in my email account?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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About 16 percent of Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes, making it one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday. It's a great time to be an old fart.
Black women had the highest rate of infection at 48 percent and women were nearly twice likely as men to be infected, according to an analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 21 percent of women were infected with genital herpes, compared to only 11.5 percent of men, while 39 percent of blacks were infected compared to about 12 percent for whites, the CDC said.
There is no cure for genital herpes, or herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), which can cause recurrent and painful genital sores and also increases the likelihood of acquiring and transmitting the AIDS virus. It is related to herpes simplex virus 1, or oral herpes, which causes cold sores.
Several drugs are available to treat herpes symptoms and outbreaks, including acyclovir, which is available generically or under the Zovirax brand name, and valacyclovir, known generically as Valtrex -- both made by GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK.L). Ganciclovir, sold as Zirgan, is made by privately-held Sirion Therapeutics, Inc.
The CDC estimates that more than 80 percent of people with genital herpes do not know they are infected.
"The message is herpes is quite common. The symptoms can be often very innocuous," Dr. John Douglas of the CDC said in a teleconference.
"Because herpes is so prevalent it becomes ... a really important reason to use condoms on a consistent and correct basis with all of your partners," Douglas said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian religious leader Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, has died of a heart attack during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tantawi, 81, was in Riyadh to attend the King Faisal awards ceremony, it said. Tantawi's moderate views has rankled hard-liners.
The news of his death was "an indescribable shock," his son Amr Tantawi told Egyptian television. "The family has decided that since God chose for him to die on Saudi land, he will be buried in al-Baqie" cemetery in Islam's second holy city of Medina, his son added.
Tantawi was apponted as the Grand Imam of al-Azhar since 1996. Al-Azhar, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Islamic learning in the Muslim world, has schools, universities and other educational institutions across Egypt.
Abdullah el-Naggar, advisor to the sheikh, told Egypt's Nile News television the death was a surprise, saying that before leaving to Saudi Arabia the sheikh had seemed in "excellent shape and health."
A member of Tantawi's office, Ashraf Hassan, told Reuters that Mohammed Wasel, Tantawi's deputy, was expected to temporarily take over leading the institution until the Egyptian president appointed a new head for the body.
Most recently, Tantawi infuriated conservatives late last year by barring women from wearing the full face veil known as the 'niqab' at al-Azhar University. That step was part of the intensifying struggle between the moderate Islam championed by the state and a populace that is turning to a stricter version of the faith.
Al-Azhar receives most of its funding from the state.
When he was appointed, Tantawi was viewed as having relatively liberal views on issues such as women's rights but had been criticized by some for toeing the government's line.
In office, he opposed female circumcision as not an Islamic practice.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz presented Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with one of the country's most prestigious prizes on Tuesday for his 'service to Islam'.
Erdogan earned the King Faisal International Prize for having "rendered outstanding service to Islam by defending the causes of the Islamic nation, particularly the Palestinian cause and the just rights of the Palestinian people," said Abdullah al-Uthaimin of the prize-awarding group.
"At the international level, he was a leading Muslim founder of the call for rapport between civilization and a passionate advocate of constructive dialogue, openness, and principles of international understanding and cooperation."
Seven academic researchers were also awarded King Faisal Prizes.
Algerian Abdurrahman Elhaj-Saleh and Lebanese Ramzi Baalbaki jointly earned the King Faisal Language and Literature prize for Arabic linguistic and grammatical research.
German Reinhold Ganz and Canadians Jean-Pierre Pelletier and Johanne Martel Pelletier shared the King Faisal Prize for Medicine for work on osteoarthritis.
U.S.-based mathematicians Enrico Bombieri and Terence Chi-Shen Tao split the King Faisal Science prize for their work in theoretical mathematics.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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A SCOTTISH whisky firm has unveiled bottles of what it claims is the oldest single malt whisky in the world, having spent the best part of a century inside an oak barrel.
Gordon and MacPhail's Mortlach 70-Year-Old Speyside was sampled at a launch party in Edinburgh Castle, where it was escorted through the doors by pipers and a military escort.
"It matured for 70 years in the cask and that is what makes it the oldest whisky in the world," a spokeswoman said.
The whisky was filled into its cask on October 15, 1938 by the grandfather of the company's managing directors David and Michael Urquhart.
There will only be 54 full-size bottles priced at STG10,000 ($16,300), with another 162 smaller bottles on sale for STG2000 ($3200).
The limited edition malt was matured in a former sherry hogshead cask made from Spanish oak. It has been bottled in a "tear shaped, hand-blown" crystal decanter with a silver stopper.
Whisky taster Charles MacLean described the single malt as "a delicate, fresh, vital, fruity whisky, with unusual attributes of waxiness and smokiness".
"It's the oldest cask of whisky that, in my knowledge, has ever been bottled," he said. "The spirit and the wood have inter-reacted beautifully over this long period of time."
A 7.2 magnitude Chile earthquake rattled the swearing-in ceremony of President Sebastian Piñera, the country's first conservative president in more than 50 years.
Moscow has once again hit out at Washington's plans for stationing a missile system in Eastern Europe.
Russia cannot allow US plans to deploy elements of its missile system in Europe to threaten the effectiveness of its nuclear deterrent, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Lavrov also assured the US that there is no threat from Iranian missiles. How would he know?
Washington says the system aims to counter possible missile attacks from Iran. However, Lavrov stressed that Tehran is unlikely to develop such missiles in the future.
The US has already begun negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria to host the system on their soil.
Lavrov has made it clear that such a system will not be accepted, as it is a threat to the effectiveness of Russia's nuclear deterrence.
Military experts say the planned missile system could be capable of hitting Russia's ballistic missiles in the next ten years.
The deployment of US interceptor missiles in the Black Sea region has caused high tension between Moscow and Washington over the past years.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
Lavrov is a shrewd customer, but not one of Vlads cronies. Hes a mouthpeice but string are pulled elsewhere.
I suggest that in 10 years(well now actually) nuclear deterrent is a thing of the past, dem ruskies need to wise up and get with the programme , but I guess imperialism dies hard in Vlads gang of miscreants (I wonder what victor zolotov is up to nowadays!) An 'orrible chap if ever there was one.
Posted by: Oscar ||
03/11/2010 5:55 Comments ||
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#3
So... lets complain about all the Russian crap!
#4
Got nutin to do with the Ruskies thinking it endangers their "nuclear deterence" we invited them to join with us in putting up this system when first proposed..
WASHINGTON The government ran up the largest monthly deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on track to top last year's record for the full year.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the February deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of last year. The deficit through the first five months of this budget year totals $651.6 billion, 10.5 percent higher than a year ago.
The Obama administration is projecting that the deficit for the 2010 budget year will hit an all-time high of $1.56 trillion, surpassing last year's $1.4 trillion total. The administration is forecasting that the deficit will remain above $1 trillion in 2011, giving the country thrree straight years of $1 trillion-plus deficits.
The government's monthly budget report showed the record $220.9 billion deficit for February reflected outlays of $328.4 billion and revenues of $107.5 billion. The February receipts marked the first time that revenues are up compared with the same month a year ago since April 2008. Revenues had fallen for 21 straight months as the recession cut into both individual and corporate income tax payments.
Through the first five months of the budget year, government revenues totaled $800.5 billion, down 7 percent from a year ago, while outlays totaled $1.45 trillion, up a slight 0.1 percent from a year ago. The deficit of $651.6 billion through February is up by 10.5 percent from the $589.8 billion deficit run up during the first five months of the 2009 budget year. The government's budget year begins on Oct. 1.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.
For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.
#2
.....an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence proving suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD
Round up the usual suspect 'evil-doers' the CIA, US Army, US Gov't, long dead Scientists from Fort Detrick...dig them up please, "W" etc. Also, generous reparations to the victims of Pont-Saint-Esprit. The only "Terrible Mistake" would be in purchasing of Albarelli's book.
Why would have they taken the risk to do it in France where there were no lack of doctors noticing that these not were the symptoms of common hallucinogenic molds (see below) and of laboratories to analyze the bread, plus a strong Communist party who would have been boosted by any hint of American foul play. Why not instead some South American or African hellhole farther from the Cold war frontline?
Now, seriously it has been known for centuries that wet cereals can develop hallucinogenic molds.
#9
In another news a French journalist discovered that American bread has been spiked with LSD by French Secret Services making people do absurd things like voting for Obama.
#10
making people do absurd things like voting for Obama
Damn, that was some strong acid! Wore off fairly quickly though, except for Congress (where they're always trippin').
#11
Wow, Man like I reckon like, man, wow, the government can be all caring, and like wow, efficient. They could like own all our bodies so we never do anything bad. Wow, good trip.
#12
The book on the subject was interesting. I think it was titled "Fire from Heaven" or something like that.
Original premise was a wet summer and fall caused a mould to form on the wheat and...voila.
There were symptoms other than merely strange behavior, physical symptoms not commonly associated with LSD.
Speculation that some medieval mass nuttiness, earlier thought to be mass hysteria resulting from an absolutely horrible and unpredictable life, might have been the same thing.
Temps got colder and the seasons wetter when the Medieval Warm Period was ending.
Could have happened.
But you never know about the CIA and their time machines.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/11/2010 11:42 Comments ||
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#13
JFM, where can I get these "wet cereals".
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/11/2010 12:49 Comments ||
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#14
And all "victims" where seen flying
away on their Bush supplied broom...
#15
Other alkaloids of Ergot have been used for aiding in child Birth. In particular the dilation thingy...
So an Ergot contamination compared to an LSD one - esp. the pure Sandoz stuff the CIA used - would have a lot of side effects.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
03/11/2010 11:48 Comments ||
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#2
I don't get it, I mean how would the dems be cheezed out by excluding illegals from the health care, its not like they are able to vote or...ermmm...
#5
tu, that is a RACIST thing to say. Everybody knows that it's OK for them but NOT for us. So just hush up and let me enjoy my popcorn.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/11/2010 13:22 Comments ||
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#6
The Senate language would prohibit illegal immigrants buying healthcare coverage from the proposed health exchanges. The House-passed bill isnt as restrictive, but it does like the Senate bill bar illegal immigrants from receiving federal subsidies to buy health insurance.
Hispanic Democrats say they havent moved from their stance that they will not vote for a healthcare bill containing the Senates prohibitions.
Why are they talking about this? Illegal immigrants don't need health care because they won't be here. Right? And if they aren't here, then they won't mind if they get their a$$es kicked out when discovered and leave all their stuff behind. Including their nonexistant kids in school here.
#7
It will be a recorded vote, not a voice vote, per Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution:
... Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal. ...
It takes just 88 Republicans to demand a recorded vote. I trust that will happen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2010 14:13 Comments ||
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#8
tu3031, I tried to watch them weigh in on c-span the other night, I couldn't understand what they were saying, they just kept going around saying, "Si, Si, Si".
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Twenty-nine brigadiers, including Zahid Latif Mirza -- currently posted at Tampa-based US Central Command -- and President's Military Secretary Brig Mian M Hilal Hussain, were promoted to the rank of 2-star generals in the Pakistan Army on Wednesday.
Brig Agha Masood Akram, former assistant military secretary to then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Tariq Majid's Military Secretary Brig Muhammad Imran Zafar, were prominent amongst the promoted military officers to the rank of majors general.
Similarly, Pakistan's Defence Attache to China Brig Naveed Ahmed and Deputy Inspector General Frontier Corps Brig Nadir Zeb also got promotions as 2-star generals. A meeting of the Army Selection Board for promotion of brigadiers to the rank of majors general was held at the General Headquarters (GHQ).
Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani presided over the board meeting. In all, 29 officers have been recommended for promotion to the rank of major general by the selection board.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Is it just me, or does the Pak army seem awfully top heavy?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) must close at the end of 2011 for up to a year to address design issues, according to an LHC director. Dr Steve Myers told BBC News the faults will delay the machine reaching its full potential for two years.
The atom smasher will reach world record collision energies later this month at 7 trillion electron volts. design was for 14 Tev
But joints between the machine's magnets must be strengthened before higher-energy collisions can commence.
The Geneva-based machine only recently restarted after being out of action for 14 months following an accident in September 2008. plus setbacks caused by LHC created temporal anomalies, krenim time machine, going the wrong way around the sun etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
When engineering assumptions run up against reality things like this occurs. Happens with new tech like this (and some old tech pushed to it's limits).
At least they are getting a chance to fix things before they break.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2010 11:39 Comments ||
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#12
Huh... this reminds me of an article I read around the time when the LHC was supposed to go online last Fall and there were several delays and setbacks.
#14
The story is old. The question was whether to fix things now and try to start out at full energy, or take data at a lower energy (and lower luminosity) first. As the story says, they decided to try to run for a couple of years first.
At the moment the beams division is busy trying to tweak the beam this way and that (microns matter and the ring is big enough that tides are significant), and the experimenters are busy shaking down their detectors and trying to make sure they understand how things work with real beam in the machine. My small contribution yesterday was to answer the unexpected question "Is the floor slowly sagging under the experiment's weight?"
Are you in Geneva now, ThingFromSnowyMountain?
Posted by: James ||
03/11/2010 16:21 Comments ||
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#15
Are you in Geneva now, ThingFromSnowyMountain?
Prob'ly his French cousin, James, thoughtfully munching on a baguette. ;-)
#2
An internal navigation system, such as those used on nuclear submarines, should do the trick. They would have to be made smaller. Hmmm, use a Wii. :-)
Posted by: Mike ||
03/11/2010 7:31 Comments ||
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#3
Artificial lightning strikes the ground and illuminates the target in question while a receiver array watchs the reflections. Sounds quite feasible. Kinda of like a really large ground penetrating radar.
#4
"Mahmoud! Did you hear that? Sounds like thunder!"
"Don't be an old woman, Achmed. Now help me get this ammo through the tunnel."
"I'm telling you, Mahmoud, I'm smelling something. It's like sulfur. You think the evil Juice are up to something?"
"Relax, how could they know we're here?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/11/2010 9:35 Comments ||
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#5
I have never seen an above ground tunnel.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/11/2010 11:41 Comments ||
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#6
You obviously don't live in heavy snow country, Deacon.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/11/2010 15:22 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Myanmar's military rulers have barred pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running in upcoming elections and may force her own political party to expel her under a new election law unveiled yesterday.
The Political Parties Registration Law, published in official newspapers, prohibits anyone convicted by a court of law from joining a political party, making them ineligible to become a candidate.
It also instructs parties to expel members who are "not in conformity with the qualification to be members of a party," a clause that could force Suu Kyi's expulsion. Parties that don't register automatically cease to exist, the law says.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, was convicted last August of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence. She was sentenced to a new term of house arrest that is to end this November.
The sentence was seen as a way to keep Suu Kyi locked up during the election campaign. Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed her latest appeal for freedom.
The new election law was immediately criticised by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and by the United States and Britain.
League Deputy Chairman Tin Oo called the law unfair, politically motivated and designed to restrict activities of the party, which has already been battered by arrests and harassment.
"The fact that (party) registration will be allowed only after expulsion of a convicted member is too much. This is politically motivated" toward Suu Kyi, he told reporters.
The junta enacted five election-related laws Monday, two of which have now been made public. Three more are to be unveiled in coming days.
Myanmar election laws that bar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from standing in polls this year are "disappointing and regrettable", US envoy Kurt Campbell said Wednesday.
"I think it would be fair to say what we have seen so far is disappointing and regrettable," Campbell told a press conference during a visit to Malaysia, part of a tour of Southeast Asia.
Campbell said Suu Kyi should be released from house arrest so she can "play an active role in the political life of the country going forward."
"We've seen the first of five (laws). I think it would be fair to say that what we've seen so far is disappointing and regrettable," Campbell said during a visit to Malaysia.
The registration law says existing political parties have 60 days from Monday to register with an Election Committee whose members are to be appointed by the junta. The government currently recognizes 10 parties.
The law also bars members of religious orders and civil servants from joining political parties.
The date of the elections has not been announced, and Suu Kyi's party has not said whether it will contest the balloting.
The government announced in 2008 that elections will take place sometime in 2010. The last elections in 1990 were won overwhelmingly by Suu Kyi's party, but the military refused to hand over power.
Her party says the new constitution of 2008 is unfair and gives the military controlling say in government.
Suu Kyi's lawyer and a senior party member, Nyan Win, said the new law also bars people who have lodged an appeal against a conviction, which he said "clearly refers" to Suu Kyi.
"It is very unfair that a party member serving a prison term for his or her political convictions has to be expelled from the party. This clause amounts to interfering in party internal affairs," said Aung Thein, a lawyer who has defended activists in the country. He said the provision would exclude many pro-democracy individuals who have been imprisoned for their beliefs.
Human rights groups say the junta has jailed about 2,100 political prisoners.
It was widely assumed that Suu Kyi would be shut out since a provision in the constitution bars anyone with foreign ties from taking part in elections. Suu Kyi's now-deceased husband was British, her two sons have British citizenship, and she has been described by the junta as enjoying special links with Britain.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
A BoA spokesman said it had erroneously believed Ms Iannelli was defaulting on her mortgage and the house was vacant.
If the piece reads true [this being the MSM remember], a local DA seeking publicity has been handed an event that would allow for criminal indictments from a grand jury on various charges since the contractor acted as an agent of the bank. Running on protecting the little guy/gal from the paws of rapacious bank apparatchiks is a winner at this time.
#7
In her civil suit seeking $50,000 in damages, Ms Iannelli said the BoA contractor had invaded her home north of Pittsburgh while she was away, stopped utility services, cut water pipes and electrical wiring, damaged flooring and finishings, poured antifreeze into sinks and toilets and stolen her parrot, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The way banks are throwing away their money by mismanaging foreclosures you'd think they would be ecstatic about the opportunity to get out from under this for only %50,000.
She said that when she rang BoA to protest, its representatives first denied knowing where the parrot was, and later told her she could go to the offices of the contractor, about 80 miles away, to retrieve the bird herself.
Sounds like they gave her the bird. What more could she want?
Bank officials also allegedly told her they were "tired" of hearing from her, hung up, and advised her to seek help from the police.
I suppose bank officials wonder why people don't answer their phones when they are called for the umpteenth time to find out if they can magically pay their mortgage all of a sudden.
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.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian religious leader Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, has died of a heart attack during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday. 
A 7.2 magnitude Chile earthquake rattled the swearing-in ceremony of President Sebastian Piñera, the country's first conservative president in more than 50 years.
WASHINGTON The government ran up the largest monthly deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on track to top last year's record for the full year.
