Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "5th of May") is primarily a regional and not an obligatory federal holiday in Mexico. The holiday commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/05/2009 07:59 ||
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#1
Obama called it 'Happy Cuatro de Cinco!'
Which then reminded me of Hendrix's old song "If 6 was 9".
#6
great excuse to have a party, We NorteAmericanos could learn alot from our southern compatriots by having alot more Fiesta's and alot less winey PC freaks complaining about everything
#8
I guess I forgot to add that it's OK to have a drink once in a while. Well, every day if you like. I guess my real problem is I don't think too much of Corona beer. Pacifico either. Kinda flat and tasteless. Back in the 70's Dos Equis used to be pretty good but they changed the recipe somewhere along the line. I think these days Negro Modelo is the best. Margaritas are good if you have a good bartender.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has demanded an apology from his wife over her ŽuntimelyŽ remarks that may further threaten their rocky marriage. If they're getting a divorce what, other than homicide or herpes, would present more of a further threat to their rocky marriage? Who the hell writes this stuff?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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A prolonged lull in solar activity has astrophysicists glued to their telescopes waiting to see what the sun will do next--and how Earth's climate might respond.
The sun is the least active it's been in decades and the dimmest in a hundred years. The lull is causing some scientists to recall the Little Ice Age, an unusual cold spell in Europe and North America, which lasted from about 1300 to 1850.
The coldest period of the Little Ice Age, between 1645 and 1715, has been linked to a deep dip in solar storms known as the Maunder Minimum. During that time, access to Greenland was largely cut off by ice, and canals in Holland routinely froze solid. Glaciers in the Alps engulfed whole villages, and sea ice increased so much that no open water flowed around Iceland in the year 1695.
But researchers are on guard against their concerns about a new cold snap being misinterpreted. "[Global warming] skeptics tend to leap forward," said Mike Lockwood, a solar terrestrial physicist at the University of Southampton in the U.K.
He and other researchers are therefore engaged in what they call "preemptive denial" of a solar minimum leading to global cooling. Even if the current solar lull is the beginning of a prolonged quiet, the scientists say, the star's effects on climate will pale in contrast with the influence of human-made greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2).
"I think you have to bear in mind that the CO2 is a good 50 to 60 percent higher than normal, whereas the decline in solar output is a few hundredths of one percent down," Lockwood said. "I think that helps keep it in perspective."
#1
The timing on this should be interesting. The earth has been getting cooler for 10 years now. Meanwhile, Bammo and his minions are racing to regulate CO2. Assuming they manage to impoverish us all and that the earth continues cooling, they will naturally take credit. If anyone tries to scale back on CO2 controls after that, the media will scream dire warnings of the return of global warming.
On the other hand, every year the earth continues to cool it gets harder to pass CO2 regulation. If we can hold out until 2010, this monstrous hoax that is Global Warming may just die in its sleep.
#2
It doesn't matter what the US or EU does concerning CO2. Increases by China and India alone will swamp any reductions. Yet the earth is getting cooler.
Posted by: ed ||
05/05/2009 16:32 Comments ||
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PS. When I meet one of these global warming yahoos, I ask them what kind of car they drive (foreign), what clothes they wear, shoes, TVs, etc. Then I tell them to decrease CO2 production stop buying shit from overseas. Not only is the product made less energy efficiently, but the increase in the standard of living in the producing country is responsible for 80% of new CO2 production.
Posted by: ed ||
05/05/2009 16:36 Comments ||
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#4
I always agree with the morons. I tell them how concerned I am that the Polar Bears can longer hunt Penguins because the ice pack melted.
Many have told me they never realized it was that bad.
Then I tell them how sad that the Glaciers that used to cover the Sierra Nevada Mountains are gone and have left gaping holes like Yosemite Vally.
#5
the star's effects on climate will pale in contrast with the influence of human-made greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2).
So lets see, the big orange ball that heats our planet has less effect on its temperature than does a gas that is less than 1% of its total atmosphere. How stupid is this guy?
And yes, until China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and several other countries get a handle on their CO2 output, whatever we do is not going to matter.
#13
CO2 is only a minor greenhouse gas. Water vapor is much more of a greenhouse gas - there is a lot more of it.
Of course, since most of the water vapor comes from the sea, man has very little influence over it. Thus Al Gore et al can't make money from it.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/05/2009 22:41 Comments ||
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#14
Any idiot that blabs about CO2 being the cause of global warming and doesn't know about wavelength saturation needs to be shot. Their stupidity is a danger to others.
Saudi Arabia's top cleric called on Saudi girls to remain chaste in the face of liberal forces who want to Westernise young people's lifestyles, on Monday. "Don't be showin' nobody your pee-pee!"
Saudi Arabia is a strict Islamic state of 25 million people where religious hardliners and reformers are locked in a bitter dispute over the future of the country. "Liberal forces want girls to be unveiled, moving about and traveling on their own, getting involved in relationships with whoever they want, calling whoever they want to and start up friendships with whoever they want," Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh said in a statement published by state news agency SPA. "That is obviously unacceptable. Holy men shouldn't have to compete. We got more important things on our minds."
He said the education system needed teachers who had conservative morals at the heart of their agenda. "Those who teach in universities must adopt the desirable quality of the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice," he said. The Mufti warned of the use of mobile phones and messaging to break the moral code maintained by the powerful religious establishment.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
like saying will make it so,,,
Hah!
Posted by: Satan ||
05/05/2009 0:33 Comments ||
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...because heaven knows that Saudi girls are world famous for the allure of their hairy arms and legendary tent-draped beauty! Their seductive charms require prodigious protection, and the temptations of vice pursue them wherever they may travel. Who could covet a nubile Asian or saucy Romanian woman when the lure of a virginal Saudi lass beckons????
[Bangla Daily Star] Per capita income in Bangladesh shot up to $690 this fiscal year (FY) from the previous yearŽs $608 demonstrating the countryŽs overall income significantly increased though GDP growth fell.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Well, the first thing you know ol' Jed's a millionaire...
[Bangla Daily Star] The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a US Congressional panel, dropped Bangladesh from its Watch List of countries deemed to violate minoritiesŽ right to religious freedom.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Six robbers were arrested with seven firearms and 22 rounds of bullet from Dohazari under Chandanish upazila in Chittagong yesterday.
The arrestees were identified as Khalek, 19, Minnat Ali, 24, Nazrul, 28, Alamgir, 22, Shahabuddin, 22, and Shahadat, 30.
Acting on a tip off, a squad from Chandanish Police Station raided a Chittagong-bound passengers' bus from Cox's Bazar at Dohazari at around 5:00am and arrested them.
Police also recovered three light guns (LGs), four locally-made rifles, 22 rounds of bullets and two lethal weapons from their possession.
Nur Mohammad, officer-in-charge of Chandanish Police Station, said the robbers were fleeing by bus after committing robbery at Bar Ghona under Satkania upazila.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Darn. I thought the story was going to be about six robbers who tried to rob a gun store, and the owners and patrons drew their seven guns and held them until the police arrived.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/05/2009 18:23 Comments ||
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No, the other Georgia...
TBILISI, Georgia Georgia said it had ended a brief mutiny Tuesday at a military base near the capital and thwarted a plan to disrupt NATO exercises.
The Interior Ministry first announced that the mutiny was part of a Russia-supported plot to overthrow the government, and that the suspected organizers had been arrested the night before. But the ministry later backed off and said the plotters were intent mainly on disrupting NATO military exercises set to begin Wednesday in Georgia.
The several hundred soldiers at the base handed over their weapons and surrendered after speaking to President Mikhail Saakashvili, who suggested that force could be used against them if they refused to give themselves up to police, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
Saakashvili said in a televised address that the mutiny was an isolated case and the situation in the country was fully under control. "The plan was to have military riots at different places all over Georgia," Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. "To make sure that at the minimum the NATO training will not happen and at the maximum there is a full-scale military riot in the country."
Russia's NATO envoy Dmitri Rogozin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the allegations of Russian involvement were "crazy." Crazy talk, I tells ya! Crazy talk!!
Russia's Foreign Ministry said the Georgian government was engaged in its "latest anti-Russian prank." The ministry statement said, "Russia in principal does not interfere in the internal affairs of Georgia." Except when they, I dunno, invade it?
An official in Saakashvili's office said the intent of the mutineers seemed to be limited to disrupting the upcoming NATO exercises. There was no evidence, he said, that they planned a coup attempt. Neither is there any evidence of Russian involvement. He spoke on condition he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Russia, which fought a brief war with Georgia last year, has sharply criticized the exercises, which it said would encourage Saakashvili to rebuild its devastated army. The Georgian president has been the target of more than three weeks of street protests by opposition demonstrators demanding he resign. His government has accused Russians of supporting the opposition.
The official in Saakashvili's office said the mutiny was inspired by a small group of disgruntled officers who were involved in a similar action at the same base in 2001. So why are they still around?
Opposition leaders said the reports of the planned coup were made up; some called it a "virtual coup" and a "staged play." "It's nothing but a tall tale, and we've heard so many of them already," said Georgy Khaindrava, a former Saakashvili ally. "Saakashvili could not make up anything smarter."
Utiashvili, the Interior Ministry spokesman, had said the suspected coup plot was organized by a former special forces commander, Georgy Gvaladze. Gvaladze and another former military commander have been arrested, and other suspects were still being sought, he said. He also had said the ministry has a video of Gvaladze talking to his supporters about the planned coup, and that he is shown saying that 5,000 Russian troops will come to support the coup, and that it was planned for Thursday.
A ministry statement released later said Gvaladze was accused of organizing the military mutiny.
Defense Minister David Sikharulidze said earlier that he had been blocked from entering the military base in Mukhrovani, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Tbilisi, the capital. The base's tank battalion of about 500 army personnel had announced that they would refuse to follow orders, he said. Among the mutineers were civilians who had no relation to the battalion, he said.
The soldiers from Mukhrovani were bused to another base, where they were to be questioned.
The NATO exercises, which continue through June 1, were originally planned to include about 1,300 personnel from 19 NATO and partner nations.
But some former Soviet republics have recently decided not to take part. Among the countries to back out was Armenia, which is dependent on Russia for its economic survival. Four other former Soviet republics Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Moldova and Serbia also had decided to pull out, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported Tuesday.
#3
WORLD MIL FORUM > China's XINHUA Article > ARTIC claims that, ala Georgian Offcials, the uprising is an "ARMED INTIFADA" aimed at overthrowing the Govt. + obstructing NATO-GEORGIAN milpol collusion = NATO membership???
Europe is suffering "a deep and widespread recession," the EU said today, estimating that unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro currency will rise to a postwar record of 11.5 percent by the end of next year.
The EU's executive said both the 27-nation EU and the 16 countries that use the euro currency will shrink by 4 percent this year, more than double its January estimates, when it forecast a 1.8 percent contraction for the EU and a 1.9 percent decline for the euro-zone area.
Germany, which is highly dependent on exports and is Europe's biggest economy, will be hit hard by the "near collapse" in global trade, the European Commission said, contracting by an estimated 5.4 percent as global demand dries up for its high-value goods such as cars and machinery. In January, the EU thought Germany would only shrink 2.3 percent this year.
The EU's top economy official, Joaquin Almunia, blamed the EU downgrade on an "exceptionally bad" first three months of this year as industrial output slumped at a record pace, exports stalled and business and consumer confidence hit new lows. EU growth figures for the first quarter are due on May 15.
Almunia told reporters that recent surveys for euro-zone and German confidence "appear to confirm that the economy is no longer in free fall." He said the EU now expected the economy to start bottoming out in the middle of this year as "the fiscal stimulus measures, the bank rescue plans and the monetary easing are expected to start bearing fruit in the next quarters."
He said a new stimulus package could not be ruled out and could be discussed by EU leaders at a June summit.
Quarterly growth is unlikely to emerge until 2010, Almunia said, but even then both the EU and the euro-zone will likely shrink 0.1 percent over the whole year provided stability emerges in the banking sector and world trade turns around.
Plunging exports and industrial output are causing the economy to shrink -- and will see some 8.5 million jobs shed from the EU in 2009 and 2010, more than wiping out the number of new jobs created in the last two years. In the 16 nations that use the euro, unemployment will hit a postwar record of 11.5 percent next year.
Euro-zone exports are "forecast to suffer one of the worst setbacks on record" with a 13-percent slump this year, partly because the strong euro makes euro goods more expensive for U.S. and British customers.
Germany will see exports shrink by a worse 16 percent, forcing companies to reduce investment in new equipment by a fifth and cut 1.5 million jobs this year and next year. An export pick-up next year is Germany's main hope for growth, the EU said, as household demand and business spending will remain weak next year.
The EU forecast that Britain and Italy will shrink by between 4 percent to 4.5 percent this year, while France, cushioned by heavy government spending that supports growth, will post a smaller 3-percent drop. Spain will also likely shrink by 3 percent.
Only one of the EU's 27 states -- Cyprus -- may see economic growth this year, while countries cooling from a housing bubble experience the biggest tumble in growth rates -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are all expected to post double-digit declines.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Just remember - it is this EU that is the template for the Dems in terms of their plans for America.
A vote for the Dems is a vote for this, everywhere, always, forever.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/05/2009 6:13 Comments ||
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The EU remains their template. Remember, the global recession is all Bush's fault.
#3
Just remember that the EU's unemployment levels stunk well before the current economic difficulties, mainly because of the same socialist policies and institutions that the Donks want so much for here.
#4
Just raise taxes!!! OMG!!! You act like this ekanamix stuff is hard or something.
pfffttt!!! (poses with arms crossed and look of condescending superiority)
Just do it!!!!
The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England's most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks.
After down-to-the-wire negotiations did not produce millions of dollars in union concessions, the Times Co. said that it will file today a required 60-day notice of the planned shutdown under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law.
The move could amount to a negotiating ploy to extract further concessions from the Globe's unions, since the notice does not require the Times Co. to close the paper after 60 days. The deadline, however, would put the unions under fierce pressure to produce additional savings, and the Boston Newspaper Guild promptly called the step a "bullying" tactic by the company.
Some industry observers have expressed skepticism that Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. would want his legacy to include the shuttering of the Globe, which his company bought in 1993.
But the Times Co. itself is under strong financial pressure. It recently mortgaged its new Manhattan headquarters, borrowed $250 million from a Mexican billionaire at 14 percent interest, laid off 100 newsroom staffers and cut salaries by 5 percent.
Globe management said in a toughly worded statement: "Filing the WARN notice is a difficult step that we would like to avoid. But, unfortunately, given the state of the negotiations, it is one we must be prepared to take."
The paper's circulation dropped 14 percent in the most recent six-month period. The Globe is expected to lose $85 million this year, the company says.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
yawn. Who cares? No one really. Their "reporters" will all find work in the Obama administration and their 6 or 7 remaining readers will discover much more interesting and intelligent reporting and discussion available on the web.
#4
So then what? The unions cave and everybody up here decides to start reading the Globe again? Not gonna happen. They're just postponing the inevitable.
I'd prefer Boston remain a two newspaper town, but if one has to go down, I'd take a certain pleasure that it's this elitist, hypocritical rag that thought it was never gonna happen to them.
#6
Oh Glenmore, priceless, let the union try to run it by their own rules, It won't last a month.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2009 14:03 Comments ||
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#7
You think the union would make it that long, huh, Jim? Optimist.
My question is, why are they notifying the Feds of anything? Hoping for a last minute reprieve bailout?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/05/2009 19:07 Comments ||
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why are they notifying the Feds of anything?
I vaguely recall the passage of an act or law that required companies of certain sizes to make such notification since during the last big down turn numerous businesses left employees and local government out of the picture till the day the 'closed' sign appeared. That created situations in which the management knew they were closing shop yet had people working for them without intending the pay them which is tantamount to theft of services if not involuntary servitude. It also put local government agencies in the fire brigade mode to ramp up services for those who then found themselves unemployed, bills due, and unemployment insurance weeks from kicking in.
Wide green expanses of farmland outside a picturesque northern French village hide memories of a World War I battle in which thousands of British and Australian troops were killed or wounded on a single night.
The Australian military still considers it among the worst in its history.
On July 19, 1916, two divisions of Allied infantry were ordered to attack a strongly fortified German position known as the Sugar Loaf. The defenders knew the British and the Australians were coming; the terrain favored the Germans. As the British and the newly arrived Australians charged into battle, the Germans opened fire.
By morning, about 2,300 British and Australian soldiers were dead. About 5,000 others were wounded.
There were so many dead that many were never found or identified, never given a proper burial. Fromelles has no neat rows of crosses amid the poppies like those immortalized in Canadian Maj. John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Field," about a battle that took place the prior year and 21 miles north of Fromelles.
There has long been speculation that the Germans recovered hundreds of bodies and put them into mass graves, not forgotten, but anonymous.
Until now.
Last year, preliminary digs commissioned by the Australian government located five mass graves near the site of the battle.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission estimates there are between 225 and 400 bodies in the pits.
"It's the largest military find since the end of the Second World War," said the agency's spokesman, Peter Francis. "I have been on the commission almost 11 years and it's like nothing I have ever experienced. I have never known anything to have this sort of numbers of possible remains."
On Tuesday, the commission will begin a 15-month project to disinter the bodies, attempt to identify them, and rebury them in individual graves in a new cemetery on the site.
The resulting graveyard will be the first new one consecrated by the commission for almost 50 years, Francis told CNN by phone.
The recovery phase is expected to last until September, Francis explained. Simultaneously, work will begin on the new cemetery, to be known as Pheasant Wood, after the site. That's due to be finished by December.
The British and Australian governments have asked people who think their relatives may have died at the site to get in touch, Francis said. It was not immediately clear how many had done so, if any.
Experts will try to take DNA samples, the commission said on its Web site, but it is not clear if they will be sufficient to identify bodies "which have lain undisturbed for more than 90 years."
A pilot study "will establish if sufficient DNA survives in adequate condition for successful extraction and to allow DNA comparisons to be made."
Regardless of the DNA results, the commission said, "A careful cross-referencing of casualty records means that we have a pool of possible identities for the men buried in the pits."
The remains will be reburied in individual graves early next year, according to commission plans, and the cemetery will be dedicated on July 19, 2010 -- the 94th anniversary of the battle.
The work of exhuming the bodies will be carried out by Oxford Archaeology, "a multinational team of field archaeologists, heritage management, environmental and finds specialists and survey and computing personnel," according to the commission, which assigned the contract.
The bodies of more than 165,000 Commonwealth soldiers killed on the Western Front during the First World War are still missing, the commission says.
The commission is a non-profit organization founded in 1917 that commemorates the dead of both world wars from the British Commonwealth.
#1
I'm confused. Why are they doing this a century later? Will we next dig up Civil War battlefields in the U.S., perhaps those who died in the charge of the Light Brigade? Would not a tomb for the unknown soldiers suffice?
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a wedding party in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
The attack on Monday was one of the worst involving civilians in European Union candidate Turkey's recent history. Interior Minister Besir Atalay said initial evidence did not point to terrorism, suggesting he was ruling out involvement of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Television broadcasters said there had been a blood feud in the village in recent years.
The acting governor of the province of Mardin, Ahmet Ferhat Ozen, told Reuters by telephone the assailants, stormed a building in Bilge village near Sultankoy, some 20 km (12 miles) from Mardin, and opened fire on wedding guests.
"There were a few people, they broke into the house and started spraying the place with bullets, hitting both men and women, their faces were covered with masks," a 20-year-old female eyewitness, who declined to be named, told Reuters. She said there were some 200 people at the wedding party.
The assailants escaped from the isolated region of Turkey on the border with Syria before soldiers surrounded the village and cut off road access. Pursuit of the attackers was being hindered by a sandstorm, authorities said.
Local media said the families of both the bride and the groom included members of the Village Guard, a heavily armed state-backed militia set up to combat Kurdish separatist guerrillas and provide intelligence in southeast Turkey. The fate of the bride and the groom was unknown.
State-run news agency Anatolian reported the daughter of the village chief, called a muhtar, was being married when the attack occurred.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be part of the National Council for a New America, an attempt by leaders in Congress and potential 2012 presidential candidates to rebrand the struggling party.
"I am pleased to announce that Governor Palin has joined the National Council for a New America's panel of experts," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) today. "When NCNA was announced last week, we spoke about a dynamic organization that worked to constantly bring in new people and innovative ideas."
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who shared the national ticket with Palin, had hinted at Palin's involvement during a conference call last Thursday announcing the National Council's formation. But, her office had been largely silent in the intervening days and Cantor's office made clear only that she had been invited to join not that she had accepted.
Palin's involvement in the group will help rebut the idea that the National Council is an organ of the establishment wing of the party set up to keep the Palins and Gov. Mark Sanford's (S.C.) -- both of whom are more hardline conservatives -- from taking over control of the party.
How much or how little she does for the organization will be telling. In recent weeks Palin has cut many of her ties to Washington (or had them cut for her) and insisted that she is focused on Alaska.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Palin couldn't save mccain because mccain couldn't even save himself. Palin was so unfairly went after in the media it was sickening. Do I agree w/all her views, no. I do think she's better then both Barry & Mccain put together. Hell, Biden is more competent then Barry and that's scary (no rhyme intended). I listen to Obama's take on the U.S. Const from his days as an Ill state sen and cringe. If he's some sort of constitutional scholar then I'm a professor emeritus of law.
#13
Gorb, one look into MY eyes and you would turn to stone
So Mr. Criger is really snakey-locked Medusa, reborn? We are honoured to be visited by such an ancient being, who clearly has learnt nothing in the intervening millenia... Ladies and gentlemen, ready your polished shields and make-up mirrors: by her reflection shall she slay herself, yet again!
Senator McCain ran for president out of a sense of duty, not desire, as did Senator Bob Dole. He really is happiest in the collegial atmosphere of the Senate, where he is one vote of one hundred. He really does not have the drive necessary for the executive branch, nor was he willing to receive the unjustified hatred showered down on President Bush from both the left and the right.
My apologies to whores and dogs who feel slighted or maligned by any association with creatures members of the media. :)
Oh, and did I forget to mention while Trunks looked the other way for too long while Sen. McCarthy used what was known as the Verona Project, which did identify real communists in the governments of the West, to self aggrandize and advance his career, their contemporary Donk counterparts across the aisle had no problem with racists and segregationist in their ranks who did everything they could to obstruct basic civil rights of black Americans.
#15
"their contemporary Donk counterparts across the aisle had no problem with racists and segregationist in their ranks who did everything they could to obstruct basic civil rights of black Americans"
You mean just like now, P2k?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/05/2009 19:14 Comments ||
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#16
Criger is a punk and a coward. Nuff said
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2009 20:51 Comments ||
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#17
Procopius2k - one of those Donks, once a Grand Dragon of the KKK is still physically with us in the Senate although his intellect may have departed.
The fine state of West Virginia has some explaining to do to the rest of the nation about that.
Whaddaya know - there's still no such thing as a free lunch....
WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of "green" lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories.
Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment.
Doctors, regulators, lawyers and courts in China - which supplies two thirds of the compact fluorescent bulbs sold in Britain - are increasingly alert to the potential impacts on public health of an industry that promotes itself as a friend of the earth but depends on highly toxic mercury.
Making the bulbs requires workers to handle mercury in either solid or liquid form because a small amount of the metal is put into each bulb to start the chemical reaction that creates light. Rest at the link. Anyone think the "elites" in charge will care about Chinese workers? (Anyone think the "elites" in charge care about British workers? Naaahh, me neither.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/05/2009 09:37 ||
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#1
Ah, the Law of Unintended Consequences. Much of the US is in a "no release of mercury, not no way, not no how" mode. Hard to see how these bulbs fit in.
#3
This loss of incandescent light bulbs begins in the US with the outlawing of 100W bulbs in 2012 and all incandescent bulbs by 2014. Already, efforts are being made to get rid of lamps with traditional sockets, so stock up on decades worth of sockets, bulbs and higher current switches.
I will add that mercury destroys aluminum, by cutting through its protective layer of aluminum oxide and not allowing it to reform. When unprotected, aluminum metal is highly unstable, and very rapidly rusts. This is why mercury is usually strictly prohibited aboard aircraft unless under strict control.
Even worse, when a mercury bulb is broken, it creates a hazmat situation, which technically requires an emergency response, even in a private home.
Once again, we have the jackasses on Capital Hill and president W. Bush to thank for this b.s.
#4
This another scare tactic of the media to confuse people into inaction. Burning coal also releases mercury, and worse, into the atmosphere instead of stored in the bulb where they can safely disposed of. CFLs are also 4X more efficient than incandescents. In the US, the amount of coal not burned vs. incandescents actually decreases environmental mercury, even if all the CFLs were broken open.
Posted by: ed ||
05/05/2009 15:34 Comments ||
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#5
Then again, there is 7 mg of mercury in a CFB. If you use incandescent bulbs instead, the coal burned over their lifetimes (figure 3 bulbs) is about 12 mg.
So I'll take the CFBs, thanks. Our whole house is lit with them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2009 15:39 Comments ||
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#6
For me, the issue was the pathetic lifespan of the incandescent bulbs. We decided to replace each as it died with a CFB, there are 12 in the apartment and it took less than a year.
#7
After we decided to change over, and my wife said she would buy some CFB's next time she went shopping, the next light bulb died. So I took a CFB in it's box,and opened it up to have a look. The brand is " ob", very generic.I see a whole bunch of tightly packed, white tubes. They have changed the configuration, I thinks. Took it over to the bed and shook it out of the box. Out falls- 40 tampons.
#8
Out here, with the power surges, incondescents last longer than CFBs.
And how much pollution goes into shipping those bad boys over to the us, transporting them out the middle of the country. And wouldn't be great if a country had a virtual monopoly on light bulbs and then decided to not sell them. If they are so great how come we don't build them here where pollution is better supervised, or is yellow expendable for green? Personally I don't see the payoff, but then again I'm not selling 'em.
#10
I know, how bout we make every vehicle which travels on a government road electric, then stand around and wonder why the grain trucks don't make it to market and the pumps on fire trucks ain't like they used to be. Let's think ahead a couple moves at least; that is fancy golf carts and CFBs might be good for your neighborhood but they won't be worth a shit out here.
Defence technology specialist Metal Storm has announced it has successfully completed design verification testing for its Multi-shot Accessory Underbarrel Launcher (MAUL). The testing culminated in a series of shoulder firings at Metal Storm's test facilities in Chantilly, Virginia, USA on Friday, 24 April 2009.
The MAUL is an ultra-light shotgun attachment that fits under the barrel of an individual combat weapon including the M-4 and M-16 rifles.
Metal Storm Incorporated (MSI) General Manager, Peter D. Faulkner said the company had completed the test series in advance of its original scheduled completion date. The weapon was integrated onto an M4 rifle and shoulder fired using 12 gauge Blunt Impact rounds which are one of several rounds to be offered by Metal Storm for the MAUL.
Mr. Faulkner said, "We are pleased to have achieved all of our design objectives for the MAUL, especially the weight, which at 1.8 lbs is ten percent less than our original expectations." A weapon of this size and weight would not have been possible without Metal Storm's unique Electronic Ballistics Technology.
Mr Faulkner said MSI will be making a formal product introduction at the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Joint Service and Small Arms Symposium and Exhibition in Las Vegas next month. Public live firings of the MAUL will be conducted in conjunction with the symposium to demonstrate the effectiveness of the MAUL.
Metal Storm CEO, Dr Lee Finniear, said the MAUL joins the company's 3GL grenade launcher product which was certified earlier this year for safe shoulder-firing.
"The MAUL is capable of firing munitions across the lethality spectrum and is attracting considerable interest within the international military and law enforcement communities. We are looking forward to the NDIA public demonstration where the public and defence industry representatives will see the considerable progress made with the weapon on its path toward commercialization," he said.
#5
Nobody does the PR release like Metal Storm. I think they put out about one a week. Of course none of them talk about the fact that the military has never, ever considered buying their technology in any kind of quantity. Their system requires custom (new) ammunition and that logistics train does not turn too quickly. Maybe they'll get there in 20 years or so.
#10
I wouldn't be so quick jettisoning a reusable weapon. it does say it can be clipped under a battle rifle's barrel and is 12 gage to boot, that's about the most common shotgun ammo around.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/05/2009 21:49 Comments ||
Top||
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.
A prolonged lull in solar activity has astrophysicists glued to their telescopes waiting to see what the sun will do next--and how Earth's climate might respond. 
The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England's most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks. 
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be part of the National Council for a New America, an attempt by leaders in Congress and potential 2012 presidential candidates to rebrand the struggling party.
