CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Discovery's crew used highly sensitive cameras attached to a 15-metre boom yesterday to carefully examine the space shuttle for any signs of damage from the previous day's launch. Nothing serious was reported, but it was much too early to draw any conclusions, officials said.
The only unusual thing found, at least for now, was a whitish splotch on the right wing that looked like a bird dropping. There was one on the wing nearly three weeks ago at the launch pad; flight director Tony Ceccacci said he saw it there from a distance of no more than three metres. Ceccacci said the imagery experts will study the splotch and make sure it's nothing more than a bird's shuttle signature.
Bringing in an outside consultant, the car wash dude from down the street
If that's what it is, it will burn off during the ride back from space, he said.
Shuttle managers said early video images of Tuesday's liftoff showing small pieces of foam breaking away, and one striking the spacecraft, were not troubling. Discovery was on target for a linkup with the International Space Station today and operating well, the flight director said.
Docking went well
Posted by: Steve ||
07/06/2006 14:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
First there were potions, then pumps, then pills. But finding help for problems with sexual arousal could soon be as easy as buying toothpaste - with the arrival of an impotence treatment in a tube. A gel expected to become the world's first over-the-counter medication for erectile dysfunction was announced to a clamour of excitement from pharmaceutical executives and claims of a new sexual revolution. The non-prescription treatment, which would be available from pharmacies and supermarkets, will bring anti-impotence treatments into the consumer mainstream as never before if it passes clinical trials.
Gonna try and penetrate the market, huh?
The gel, which is codenamed MED2002, is being developed by Futura Medical in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline and is designed to be applied directly to the penis. If successful, it will go into direct competition with lucrative drugs such as Viagra, Pfizer's famous little blue pill, in the multi-billion-dollar market for anti-impotence treatments.
The product is based on glyceryl trinitrate, or GTN, which dilates blood vessels and has been used for the treatment of angina for more than 40 years. Viagra was also originally developed as a heart drug but during clinical trials it was found to have interesting side effects. Since it was introduced in 1998, it has been prescribed to more than 23million men.
Viagra's success also generated a grey market of counterfeit products to satisfy the huge demand for impotence treatment from men unwilling to attend a GP's surgery. Such potentially embarrassing face-to-face consultations are avoided with non-prescription medicines, which backers of MED2002 see as key to gaining a significant market share.
About 1500 men are expected to be recruited into three clinical studies of MED2002, the first of which will begin before the end of this year. The goal is to have collected enough data on the safety and effectiveness of the gel for it to be filed for regulatory approval in 2008. As well as monitoring the use of MED2002 on male users, the trials will also study its effects on women, who will come into contact with the gel during sex.
The deal signed between Futura, a small British sexual health specialist, and GSK will offer the pharmaceutical giant two first-refusal rights on twoother products in early-stage development - a non-prescription treatment for female sexual dysfunction and a treatment for premature ejaculation. MED2002 could be in the shops within three years.
That's not a firm date, of course...
... wouldn't want to be premature about marketing this ...
still, if there's an opening that needs to be filled, it is a growth industry.
That does seem to be the thrust and the point of the article.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Gee, I wonder if there will be SPAM in my inbox for this?
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/06/2006 0:52 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If I took all the stuff I recieve SPAM about, I could reach out and smack NoKo Kimmy from here.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/06/2006 0:53 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Honey hurry up in there, i need sum rubbin lovin!
Subhead: Soddies consolidate power in Sudan and send "advisors" to run the money and indoctrinal operations...
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB), with headquarters in the Saudi city Jeddah, agreed on Wednesday to finance several projects in Sudan. A Sudanese press bulletin published by the Sudanese Finance Ministry said that the IDB agreed to finance Al-Nile Sugar project with an amount of USD 50 million, along with establishing an Islamic engineering college and providing equipment necessary to its workshops with an amount of USD 10 million. The bulletin added an envoy from the Bank is visiting Khartoum to pursue procedures for those projects and business deals.
#1
Hmmm...now exactly how would one illustrate the concept of an "Islamic Engineering College"? Anyone have a picture of a camel with a rocket exhaust tube sticking out of its butt?
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/06/2006 1:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Now, now, Ricky, how un-P.C. of you. We all know the jihadi-engineering schools (at least the accredited ones) are only for designing explosives and measuring the "shear strength" of human (mostly Jooooooish) tissue.
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 8:47 Comments ||
Top||
Congolese rebels have re-taken a town in the lawless east captured only a month ago in a U.N.-backed offensive, handing the world body and government a major military setback just weeks before historic elections. The rebel stronghold of Tchei had been captured in late May after days of heavy fighting by a joint force of 3,000 Congolese army soldiers and 1,000 U.N. troops with attack helicopters and armoured trucks. The fighting displaced thousands of civilians in the eastern Ituri district. But after U.N. soldiers withdrew from Tchei on June 26, a rebel offensive launched four days later wrested control of the town from Congolese army forces, the United Nations and the army said.
"There was heavy fighting between the militia and the army, and in the end the militia took control of Tchei," Major Hans-Jakob Reichen, spokesman for the U.N. force in eastern Congo, said on Tuesday. "It is a setback for us and the Congolese army," Reichen said, adding that a number of Congolese army soldiers were killed in the offensive and at least 18 were injured. United Nations troops subsequently clashed with the militia south of Tchei and its forces in Ituri's regional capital, Bunia, have been placed on high alert. Congo's army confirmed the militia now controlled Tchei after heavy fighting that killed eight government soldiers and wounded many. "After three days of fighting, we pulled back to avoid a bloodbath," a spokesman said. "The militia have received reinforcements, that is clear."
Reichen added: "Given how heavy the fighting was, the militia casualties must be high but we have no confirmed figures as they take away their bodies." The army spokesman said government forces would reorganise and try to retake control of the town, which would be the fourth attempt to wrest control from militia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm confused. Why would this be considered a setback for the UN. Wouldn't they consider this a success?
Zimbabwe's struggling economy is set for a "dramatic" recovery in the next two to three years on the back of expected growth in mining and commercial farming, central bank governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday. Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by more than a third during a recession which has lasted for eight years, with inflation running at a world record of nearly 1 200% and unemployment estimated at about 70%.
That's some recession. Wonder what a depression looks like in Bob-land?
Gono aims to tackle the meltdown, which has been worsened by the withdrawal of international support over policy differences with Harare, particularly President Robert Mugabe's forcible redistribution of white-owned commercial farms among blacks.
Zimbabwe's biggest challenge was to rebuild confidence and mobilize investment around its natural resources, the governor said. "We are working quietly and fighting very hard on several fronts to rebuild (business) confidence, to boost both domestic and external investment in mining and commercial agriculture," he said. Gono declined to discuss what new investments were in the pipeline, but analysts say Zimbabwe appears to be banking on inflows from Asia under a 'Look East' policy which Mugabe has adopted after his isolation by Western donors.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The medical term is "last gasp".
Posted by: ed ||
07/06/2006 0:57 Comments ||
Top||
#2
...rebuild (business) confidence...
I'd be fairly confident that any successful business would get taxed (looted) out of existence in short order.
#3
None of the mining majors would invest in ZimBobland, way too risky. The Chinese might though. Maybe he'll bring in the Chinese to run the farms. Stranger things have happened.
#6
8 years, 1200% inflation and 70% unemployment? Man, that is some "recession." I'd hate to see what a depression looks like, too. Although, I don't doubt that Bob's working hard toward that goal. Maybe 1 year/10000% inflation/99.9999% unemployment (you know, Bob's gotta keep his "job")?
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 8:59 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The sociological equivalent of Cheyne-Stokes respiration.
#8
This is where the Chinese come in, shoot Bob and his cronies, and then repopulate Zimbabwe with Chinese peasants. That indeed would be dramatic and the Zimbabwean economy would recover.
Zimbabwe's only white woman MP was in a Harare hospital yesterday with machete wounds to her head and a broken arm and wrist after she was attacked by thugs from a rival opposition faction. Trudy Stevenson, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP for Harare North constituency, was battered with stones and iron bars on Sunday in the working-class township of Mabvuku by youths who accused her of turning against the party founder, Morgan Tsvangirai. "It really hurts to be harmed by people I used to work with," she told the Herald newspaper. "They intended to kill me". Four other opposition officials were injured in the incident. Feuding between the two MDC factions has intensified in recent months. "ZANU-PF never physically harmed me," said Ms Stevenson of Robert Mugabe's party.
#1
A very brave lady indeed. Makes you realise Zimbabwe is utterly and totally screwed.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
07/06/2006 4:53 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"ZANU-PF never physically harmed me," said Ms Stevenson of Robert Mugabe's party.
Wow, what compassionate reverse affirmative action in action Bob has. Guess they haven't harmed you physically (yet) because you weren't a landowner, Ms. Trudy?
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 8:45 Comments ||
Top||
#3
This reminds me of a paragraph from an article on Idi Amin that I was reading last night. Here it is:
"An obituary for Amin published in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' on 18 August 2003 eloquently summarises the predicament. "Amin's tragedy, like that of so many Africans, was to have admired a civilisation whose external trappings he strongly desired, but of whose internal workings he had no idea, while at the same time he was partly enclosed in the mental world of a primitive tribalist," the obituary concludes."
http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.html
#4
Paris frocks on the womenfolk do not make a beast human. That was Idi Amin's tragedy, and Robert Mugabe's as well. Africa's tragedy is that they don't kill such people in the cradle.
DUBAI - A Saudi youth was left in an extremely embarrassing situation when the girl he had proposed to rejected him because of the pornography on his mobile phone, the Saudi newspaper Arab News reported on Thursday.
It said the youth had come to the girls home and was flashing his cell phone around when the girl sent her younger brother to secretly pinch the instrument.
As she went through the phone, she was shocked to find pictures and video clips of naked sheep women indulging in all types of lewd behaviour, the paper said.
The girl rejected the youths proposal saying a mans cell phone represents the mind of the owner.
Pornography is not tolerated, and is a serious crime, in Saudi conservative society, where men and woman are segregated
Posted by: Steve ||
07/06/2006 10:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nekkid women are easier to explain than sheep.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2006 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Not in the Arab countries, Steve. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/06/2006 14:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Poor lad was unable to pull the wool over her eyes, eh?
Mexico's centre-left presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he will challenge the outcome of Sunday's presidential election.
He spoke as the almost complete results gave a razor-thin victory to his conservative rival, Felipe Calderon. Mr Lopez Obrador said he would appeal to the courts, and urged his supporters to rally in Mexico City's main square.
The results came after electoral officials worked around the clock to verify ballots from the 2 July poll.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/06/2006 10:13 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A leftist anti-poverty campaigner took a slim lead over his conservative rival in a dramatic recount of Mexico's presidential election vote on Wednesday and warned the country's stability was at stake. Partial returns showed Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador overtaking Felipe Calderon, who ended a just ahead in an initial count.
Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, led pro-U.S. lawyer Calderon by 2 percentage points in the recount of 80 percent of polling stations but it was still too early to declare a victor from Sunday's vote.
Lopez Obrador warned electoral authorities to be thorough in the recount, expected to last about a day. "The stability of the country is at stake," he said.
The Harvard-educated Calderon would be an ally of the United States in Latin America, where left-wing leaders critical of Washington have taken power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela in recent years.
And have failed to take power in Columbia, Costa Rica, and Peru.
Lopez Obrador, a former Indian welfare officer, has promised to renegotiate a North American trade pact to block cheap U.S. corn and beans entering Mexico as of 2008.
Luis Carlos Ugalde, the head of the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, refereeing the contest, warned the recount result would be a cliffhanger. "The margin of difference is undoubtedly going to be very tight at the end," he said. "Lopez Obrador may be ahead but that could increase or decrease," he said.
The initial preliminary results earlier this week gave Calderon, a former energy minister, a lead of 0.6 points but Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution complained of irregularities and possibly fraud. In the recount, Lopez Obrador's lead began to slip as late results came in from Calderon strongholds in the north and center of Mexico.
The stock index plunged 4 percent and the peso fell against the dollar because of the political tension.
Official results of the recount showed Lopez Obrador had 36.67 percent of the vote with figures in from 80 percent of polling stations. Calderon, from the ruling National Action Party, was second with 34.67 percent.
Mexico's electoral court has to rule on vote disputes by August 31 and declare a winner by September 6.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
At 0331 it's Obrador up by .07% with 97.37% of the vote counted. His lead is dropping steadily and has been for quite awhile. It's still going to be tight, but it looks like Calderon will win the initial count.
Calderón is ahead with 35.6 percent to Lopez Obrador's 35.59 percent. Calderón slipped ahead this morning at 4 a.m. in Mexico City, 5 a.m. eastern standard time, after 20 hours of trailing López Obrador.
Good. I hope My Diebold stock pays a good dividend this quarter. [wag]
#3
renegotiate a North American trade pact to block cheap U.S. corn and beans entering Mexico
Then of course the US would have to block cheap Mexican factory goods from entering the US, thereby collapsing the part of the Mexican economy that is dynamic. Sheesh, what an idiot.
#5
Those cheap beans and corn have driven a lot of Mexican farmers at the bottom of the ladder out of business. So guess where they go to look for a job. Personally, I'd make yet another extortion payment to American bean and corn farmers to keep the Mexicans on their side of the border.
#6
..."In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Calderon offered to include Lopez Obrador in his Cabinet an effort to build a coalition government and avoid weeks of political impasse. But he said he did not believe his rival would accept, adding that the two men had not spoken to each other since the election...."
A court convicted 38 people Wednesday in a vast party financing scandal centered on Paris City Hall from 1987 to 1993, when Jacques Chirac was mayor.
Although as France's president Chirac enjoys immunity and could not be questioned in the case, the verdicts come as the latest blow to the 73-year-old leader's reputation in what is likely to be his last year in office -- and possibly, in politics.
The court handed down suspended prison sentences of two months to two years and fines of up to $127,940. Among those convicted were the four former top officials of the Paris public housing agency.
The six-month trial followed a decade-long, politically charged inquiry into alleged kickbacks from building contractors. Although politicians were investigated, none was among the 49 people on trial, who were business leaders and housing officials.
Prosecutors said illicit funds were funneled to Chirac's conservative party, Rally for the Republic, which has since gotten a new name and leadership. Investigators said about 20 public works companies paid more than $7.29 million from 1991 to 1994 to Jean-Claude Mery, a party official who claimed to have collected bribes.
#1
The six-month trial followed a decade-long, politically charged inquiry into alleged kickbacks from building contractors.
Chicago, Paris, so what is new?
The only difference is in the real punishment when caught. For the French, it's all theater. For Americans with still a thread of Puritanism, we prefer a little time on the stake, burning. We still give lip service to the concept of 'public trust'.
Denmark's first female fighter pilot takes to the skies on her first solo flight today. The 27 year-old Line Bonde is the first Danish woman to man the cockpit of an F-16.
Bonde, from the northern Jutland town of Billund, will be whizzing through the skies at up to 2152 km per hour later today. She has been training in an F-16B, a combat-capable, two-seat training version of the F-16.
Bonde was the first female fighter pilot to join the Royal Danish Air Force. She graduated from the military flight school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, USA, on 23 September last year. Upon returning to Denmark's Skrydstrup Air Base in Jutland, Bonde joined the training squadron before moving up to the operational squadron.
The Netherlands and Norway were among the first European countries to allow women to pilot fighter planes some ten years ago.
Women had previously not been permitted to be fighter pilots, because there was a risk that if they were unaware that they were pregnant, they could harm the foetus during violent combat manoeuvres that expose the body to extreme G-forces.
#4
Here's to hopin' she gets to grease some jihadis, like the "Angel of Death" who piloted an AC-130 in Afghanistan and taunted the AQ/Talibanis she dropped her bombs on. Could you imagine those pr!cks' faces when they heard a female was about to drop a 500-pounder on their head, and there was nuttin' they could do about it? (Read "The Hunt for Bin Laden" by Robin Moore to get a load of that story.
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 9:06 Comments ||
Top||
The increase in the number of large western wildfires in recent years may be a result of global warming, researchers say.
An analysis of data going back to 1970 indicates the fires increased "suddenly and dramatically" in the 1980s and the wildfire season grew longer, according to scientists in Arizona and California. It's all Reagan's fault.
"The increase in large wildfires appears to be another part of a chain of reactions to climate warming," said Dan Cayan, a co-author of the paper and director of the climate research division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Chain reactions. You know. Like the BOMB.
He said that while part of the increase may be attributed to natural fluctuations, evidence also links it to the effects of human-induced climate warming. And you're all going to die.
Scientists have become increasingly concerned in recent years about the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. Average worldwide temperatures have risen this century as a result of what many believe is a greenhouse effect from that pollution. Don't forget the exhalations of evil excess people like Republicans
The researchers used the files of the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service to analyze 1,166 fires of more than about 1,000 acres. Their findings are published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science. About 1,000 acres. Sounds like precision to the fourth digit.
Beginning about 1987, there was a change from infrequent fires averaging about one week in duration to more frequent ones that often burned five weeks or more, they reported. The length of the wildfire season was extended by 78 days. Couldn't have anything to do with staffing, policy changes in when to intervene in natural fires, or arson levels.
The researchers said the changes appear to be linked to annual spring and summer temperatures, with many more wildfires burning in hotter years than in cooler years.
They also found a connection between early arrivals of the spring snowmelt in the mountainous regions and the incidence of large forest fires. An earlier snowmelt, they said, can lead to an earlier and longer dry season, which provides greater opportunities for large fires.
"I see this as one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States," said research team member Thomas Swetnam, director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona in Tucson. One of the first? He doesn't know how lost this will be on the webisite for Global Warming evidence. "We're showing warming and earlier springs tying in with large forest fire frequencies. Lots of people think climate change and the ecological responses are 50 to 100 years away. But it's not 50 to 100 years away _ it's happening now in forest ecosystems through fire." And you're all going to die soon.
The research was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Forest Service and the California Energy Commission. Your Tax Dollars At Work
#6
The increase in the number of global warming articles in recent years may be the result of Al Gore, researchers say.
An analysis of data going back to 1992 indicates that he wrote "Earth in the Balance: Healing the Global Environment".
"The increase in stupid articles appears to be another part of a chain of reactions to Al Gore unemployment," said Darrell, who says he's had quite enough of these idiot writings. "It is clear to me that if Al Gore and every journalist who has ever pedaled this trash were to move to Venus, there would be considerably less hot air and brain farting here on planet Earth," he added.
#7
Nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with overburdensome environtmental regulations preventing proper land mananagement that would normally prevent fires becoming large wild fires. Analsysts? pfeh...more like analists if you ask me.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/06/2006 14:56 Comments ||
Top||
#8
What Rex Mundi said. Or, more briefly, blame it on Smokey the Bear. Lots of little wildfires results in fewer big fires because the fuel is gone. Even a little Midwestern housewife knows that much! Idiots.
Nice data set for studying trends that cover many centuries (hockey stick or not). That's like doing a national opinion poll with a few dozen respondants.
#11
Someone else may have made this comment, but I don't care. The reason there are more forest fires, that burn hotter and last longer, is that the forests of today are vastly overcrowded with fuel that cannot be removed because "environmentalists" have virtually shut down thinning, general harvest, or other fuel-removing techniques. I've seen it in Colorado. Even after the Hayman fire that damaged or destroyed 115,000 acres of national and private forests, the enviroweenies wouldn't permit the Forest Service to authorize scavaging that would have removed about half of the useful, partly-burned wood. There are dozens of lawsuits pending that will take until far after the timber is reclaimable to be solved. THIS is what is destroying our forests. We need to shoot some of the people that insist that only THEIR vision of America be allowed. They are far more responsible for an uptick in forest fires than "global warming".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/06/2006 22:26 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Very true old patriot. The enviromentalists and the far too successful fire suppression of the 60s-80s lead to this. Too much fuel on the ground and no way to get rid of it.
Global warming my ass. More like Global stupidity and mucking with the natural processes that nature has to deal with this kind of shit.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We put up with George's Kennedy liberalism, pandering to the illegals and business, but we like having a bull dog around who'll track down and kill the SOBs for 9/11 and their families and friends too. Giuliani will be the same. Social engineering can be cleaned up later [re: welfare reform], but you lose the fight and there'll be nothing to clean up. Rudy will continue to go after the same SOBs. Its sorta like the British Labor government putting up with Winston in WWII. You need a guy like that at the helm even though a lot of his personal politics don't mesh with yours.
#2
The left makes another fiction movie.
My question to the left; Why do you wage a war against the war on terror ? What is your reason for such a position ?
#3
Interesting how many people benefited in very obvious ways by Guilliani's policies yet the liberals cannot get beyond the one incident of a bad cop torturing a Haitian. They truly expect perfection at every level or else its all bad.
What is George Kennedy liberalism? I was never aware of his politics. He was great in the Dirty Dozen.
It is piss poor writing, that's what it is. I believe what he is trying to say is that George Bush engages in Kennedy style liberalism. Or something like that.
The U.S. Army's tradition-laden 1st Infantry Division, the oldest in continuous service, packed up its flag Thursday at its headquarters in Germany before a return to the United States after a 10-year stay.
The division's banner was rolled up and slid into a cloth case during a ceremony at Leighton Barracks in Wuerzburg, in the southern state of Bavaria.
Much of the equipment attached to the 15,000-member division -- nicknamed the Big Red One -- has already been shipped to its new base at Fort Riley, Kan., where the colors will be unfurled Aug. 1.
"While somewhat bittersweet, this ceremony marks the latest chapter in the history of the Big Red One," said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the Army's V Corps. "We want to honor each and every soldier and family member that has served in the Big Red One over the past 10 years."
The division's troops spent a year in Iraq, based in Tikrit, from February 2004 to February 2005.
Most of the division's soldiers have already been assigned to other stations around the world, while those who remain are to move to Kansas or elsewhere within the next two weeks.
Both the 1st Infantry and the 1st Armored Division, based in Wiesbaden, are leaving Germany as part of a repositioning of U.S. forces that foresees the use of smaller, simpler bases in Eastern Europe instead of the large bases in Germany with schools and family housing for soldiers who stayed several years.
Under the new concept, soldiers will rotate in for shorter stays from the United States without their families.
Formed in 1917, the 1st Infantry took part in heavy fighting in World War I. It participated in the D-Day landings in Normandy during World War II, served in Vietnam from 1965-1970, and played a major role in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.
The 1st Infantry also carried out peacekeeping duties in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo in the 1990s.
"Serving in Europe has ... afforded our leaders the opportunity to visit battlefields and walk the ground where our forefathers fought during World War I and World War II," division commander Maj. Gen. Kenneth W. Hunzeker said.
Many of the division's Germany-based soldiers are not going to Kansas, but being assigned to other units as part of the normal change in assignments every few years.
One of them, Sgt. Larry Gormley of Livermore, Calif., said it would be difficult to remove the division's characteristic shoulder patch, marked with a red No. 1.
"I was here when the division came in 1996, and it has been a change of era. I've been in Bosnia, Turkey and I spent a year in Iraq," said Gormley, 37. "It's an important division in the Army, so it's going to be rough to take this patch off."
#5
One of them, Sgt. Larry Gormley of Livermore, Calif., said it would be difficult to remove the division's characteristic shoulder patch, marked with a red No. 1.
"I was here when the division came in 1996, and it has been a change of era. I've been in Bosnia, Turkey and I spent a year in Iraq," said Gormley, 37. "It's an important division in the Army, so it's going to be rough to take this patch off."
Hello Sarge. You know if you served in 'Iraq' with the unit, you can continue to wear the patch on your right shoulder. Left shoulder patch is your current assignment, but the right can be any unit you served with in a combat environment. Your choice of which ever unit you served with, but only one.
On a related and chuckle note, Army units attached to the Marine Division in Gulf War I, could wear the old Marine Division patch which Marines themselves no longer wear. One of those strange but true things.
Royal Dutch Shell, the world's top marketer of biofuels, considers using food crops to make biofuels "morally inappropriate" as long as there are people in the world who are starving, an executive said on Thursday.
Eric G Holthusen, Fuels Technology Manager Asia/Pacific, said the company's research unit, Shell Global Solutions, has developed alternative fuels from renewable resources that use wood chips and plant waste rather than food crops that are typically used to make the fuels.
Holthusen said his company's participation in marketing biofuels extracted from food was driven by economics or legislation.
"If we have the choice today, then we will not use this route," Malaysia-based Holthusen said at a seminar in Singapore.
"We think morally it is inappropriate because what we are doing here is using food and turning it into fuel. If you look at Africa, there are still countries that have a lack of food, people are starving, and because we are more wealthy we use food and turn it into fuel. This is not what we would like to see. But sometimes economics force you to do it."
The world's top commercially produced biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel.
Ethanol, mostly used in the United States and Brazil, is produced from sugar cane and beets and can also be derived from grains such as corn and wheat. Biodiesel, used in Europe, is extracted from the continent's predominant oil crop, rapeseed, and can also be produced from palm and coconut.
Holthusen said Shell has been working on biofuels that can be extracted from plant waste and wood chips, but he did not say when the alternative biofuel might be commercially available.
"We are not resting. We are doing what everybody needs to do. We have worked over time on an alternative to get away from food, and this is what we call the second generation of biofuels," he said.
He said Shell, in partnership with Canadian biotech firm Iogen Corp., has developed "cellulose ethanol", which is made from the wood chips and non-food portion of renewable feedstocks such as cereal straws and corn stover, and can be blended with gasoline. Ethanol is typically extracted from sugarcane or grain.
#3
Shell has very low reserves. They need to switch to "alternative fuels" because it's the only fuel they're going to get. Cellulose ethanol is the only alternative that makes economic sense at this time. You can bet they're motivated to make it work.
#4
If making biofuels out of food crops means increasing the food crops the unfed masses would benefit.
If you want to talk morally inappropriate he should talk to his fellow Europeans who have scared and intimidated the third world from using bioengineered foodcrops that could be saving lives right now because they fear losing market share in the third world.
#5
"If you look at Africa, there are still countries that have a lack of food, people are starving"
Perhaps if Africa put a little more effort into loving one another and sustainable agriculture and a little less effort into totalitarianism, tribal war, armaments, blood diamonds, HIV sex, and Islam, then they wouldn't need corn from America.
#6
On the one hand I think Shell is chicken**** for trying to come up with a "but everyone's starving" angle, especially since the main places people are starving are because of societal breakdown rather than crop choice.
OTOH, I also have noticed that the main country where biofuels have worked, Brazil, has used a variant of sugarcane optimized to that task. Yah, it's C-S that Shell has to find a "moral" but factually weak argument to support the same strategy on a corporate level, but if you think replacing Shell and oil is going to be that easy, invest your own money and make a killing.
If everyone who cussed out "those fatcats in the oilfield" went and put their money where their mouth is, and invested significant amounts in either the domestic oilfield or domestic alternatives to oil, we might actually get somewhere with either industry.
But I've gotten tired of reading the snarking from people who would probably last about half an hour if they tried to replace me in my job, especially because I _remember_, and survived, barely, shakeouts in this industry where half the domestic industry went out of business and became unemployed.
Posted by: Phil ||
07/06/2006 13:26 Comments ||
Top||
#7
There is an underlying assumption that any additional food produced will magically get where it needs to go. The problem isn't (yet!) with the amount of food the world can produce, it's with getting it where it needs to go. There are corrupt governments who are doing things that make this impossible. If their people were fed, there would be less donations rolling in to line their pockets, their people wouldn't be under control because they are worried about their next meal more than their freedom, they are distrustful that it has been spiked with hormones that will sterilize their population, ignorance, etc.. You can't fight that with any amount of additional food. Get food to the people who will take it if they need it, and turn the rest into fuel. Let the politicians work hard to figure out a way to bring down the corrupt governments and feed their people when you can. I still don't think it would make much of a dent in the amount of fuel we will be making, especially if these people start growing their own food as they should be able to.
Posted by: grb ||
07/06/2006 13:41 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Makes more sense to use waste, or to grow crops (like sawgrass) that are both more efficient energy converters, and grow on land that cant be used for food crops.
#10
haahahhaaaaa!! An oil company that cares about the starving little people. hoo, hoo! Wheweee. That's a good one!
Nice to see them running scared though. Must mean that this is a real threat to them. Got come up with a line more believable than that, though. That'll never work.
They have about 550 megawatts of wind power capacity either built or under construction in the US (most in the last three or four years), and larger projects (a roughly 1Gw project in England somewhere near London, apparently) are underway elsewhere.
Posted by: Phil ||
07/06/2006 15:13 Comments ||
Top||
#12
"t may make sense, but it's not yet clear that it makes cents."
"Cellulose ethanol is the only alternative that makes economic sense at this time. "
Am I the only one whos confused.
From what I understand, to the extent ethanol DOES make sense, using corn as a source does NOT work without subsidies. In fact the most economical source may be tropical crops like palm oil.
#15
Seafarious: Yep, I think you got 'em with that one. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to give that to Bill O'Reilly and have him rake them over the coals for a while with their own contradictory actions?
Posted by: grb ||
07/06/2006 16:49 Comments ||
Top||
#16
From what I understand, to the extent ethanol DOES make sense, using corn as a source does NOT work without subsidies. In fact the most economical source may be tropical crops like palm oil.
From a WSJ" piece about IOGEN, the Shell biomass ethanol company in Canada:
In the U.S., ethanol for fuel is typically made from corn. But growing corn gobbles up a lot of power in the form of everything from fertilizer to pesticides. The economics of cellulosic ethanol, made essentially from waste, could be different.
Different meaning lower cost. But it has yet to be demonstrated that this is the case in production volumes. But there is no question that corn grown for ethanol is a losing proposition, financially and in energy. But it does make midwestern Republican farmers richer. Now if Shell can make it clear to all the BHL that Ethanol from corn means starving children in the third world, well, that would sure stick it to ADM and the subsidies might get repealed. Now Shell has the ethanol market all to itself with virtuous Iogen. The invisibole hand at work again.
#18
Two other companies to keep an eye on are Genencor and Novozymes. They provide the enzymes that convert cellulose=>starch=>glucose. Yeast then digests glucose into ethanol.
Corn kernels are a poor solution. In addition to taking high quality food, an acre of corn makes about 400 gallons of ethanol plus 30 gallons of oil. The waste mash becomes animal feed. Currently an acre of switchgrass (5 dry tons/acre/year)makes about 250 gallons of ethanol plus feed, though with better breeds, yields may go up to 600 gallons. It is also less labor and energy intensive to produce.
A better method may be to grow single cell algae in huge aquariums. Algae grow much faster and trap more sunlight, and when co-located with powerplants, use the flue gasses to accelerate growth (and recycle the CO2, NO2). There is also no planting and harvesting, just pumping, filtering and drying, as well as saving processing steps. When grown in the desert SW, it does not take away from arable land. Algae with produce biodiesel, ethanol and feed. One ton of algae will yield 3 barrels of biodiesel + ethanol + feed or power plant fuel. But startup costs are higher for the aquariums, pumps, and driers (for dry feed or if burning the leftovers for power). Algae and Power Plants (PDF)
With all that said. it's still cheaper to produce synfuels from coal, shale or tar sands.
Posted by: ed ||
07/06/2006 18:39 Comments ||
Top||
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 06 A court in southern Iran has sentenced a man to ten times execution, the official news agency reported.
You're gonna kill him ten times? Seems a bit excessive.
Ali Mohammad-Afsaneh, from the town of Jahrom, was handed the sentence after he was convicted of multiple murders, IRNA reported on Tuesday. Mohammad-Afsaneh was also sentenced to 148 lashes, 10 years of jail time, and an 8,000,000 Rial ($800) fine.
Like I said, excessive.
Jahrom is situated in the southern Iranian province of Fars.
That's the hotbed of smuggling, I believe
Posted by: Steve ||
07/06/2006 15:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Mohammad-Afsaneh was also sentenced to 148 lashes, 10 years of jail time, and an 8,000,000 Rial ($800) fine.
Is that before or after the 10 executions are carried out?
#3
Well, he could pay blood money once and get off. This boosts the price by ten...also makes it sure that at least one of the families will refuse to be bought off at any price.
ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's highest court ruled Thursday that gay marriage is not allowed under state law, rejecting arguments by same-sex couples who said the law violates their constitutional rights. Finally, a court that upholds the law instead of rewriting it! Now, I hope the SCOTUS has similar sense.
The Court of Appeals, in a 4-2 decision, said New York's marriage law is constitutional and clearly limits marriage to between a man and a woman.
Any change in the law would have to come from the state Legislature, Judge Robert Smith said.
"We do not predict what people will think generations from now, but we believe the present generation should have a chance to decide the issue through its elected representatives," Smith wrote. See pic below.
Gov. George Pataki's health department and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office had argued New York law prohibits issuing licenses to same-sex couples. The state had prevailed in lower appeals courts.
"It's a sad day for New York families," said plaintiff Kathy Burke of Schenectady, who is raising an 11-year-old son with her partner, Tonja Alvis. "My family deserves the same protections as my next door neighbors." And how, pray tell, is maintaining a believable definition of marriage removing legal protection?
The judges declined to follow the lead of high court judges in neighboring Massachusetts, who ruled that same-sex couples in that state have the same right to wed as straight couples. And promptly lost lips
The four cases decided Thursday were filed two years ago when the Massachusetts decision helped usher in a series of gay marriage controversies from Boston to San Francisco.
With little hope of getting a gay marriage bill signed into law in Albany, advocates from the ACLU, Lambda Legal and other advocacy groups marshaled forces for a court fight. Forty-four couples acted as plaintiffs in the suits, including the brother of comedian Rosie O'Donnell and his longtime partner.
Plaintiff Regina Cicchetti said she was "devastated" by the ruling. But the Port Jervis resident said she and her partner of 36 years, Susan Zimmer, would fight on, probably by lobbying the Legislature for a change in the law. If marriage is redefined, people come to see it as meaningless. The resulting decline in marriage true or imitation has been seen in the Netherlands.
"We haven't given up," she said. "We're in this for the long haul. If we can't get it done for us, we'll get it done for the people behind us."
In a dissent, Chief Judge Judith Kaye said the court failed to uphold its responsibility to correct inequalities when it decided to simply leave the issue to lawmakers.
Kaye noted that a number of bills allowing same-sex marriage have been introduced in the Legislature over the past several years, but none has ever made it out of committee.
"It is uniquely the function of the Judicial Branch to safeguard individual liberties guaranteed by the New York State Constitution, and to order redress for their violation," she wrote. "The court's duty to protect constitutional rights is an imperative of the separation of powers, not its enemy. I am confident that future generations will look back on today's decision as an unfortunate misstep." Au contraire. Odds are, posterity will recognize legalizing same-sex "marriage" for the misstep it is.
Judge Albert Rosenblatt, whose daughter has advocated for same-sex couples in California, did not take part in the decision. At least he recognized a conflict of interest.
Since the Massachusetts ruling, about a dozen states have approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, and 19 now outlaw it. There is now a push in Massachusetts for a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The gay rights movement's idea, though, is "if you cannot convince them, bully them."
A federal lawsuit filed over California's refusal to grant a marriage license to a gay couple reached the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May. The court, however, sidestepped the question of whether it was unconstitutional to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry, leaving the issue to state courts to decide. "But it was unpardonable to give the uneducated masses a chance to decide. Some of them are so bigoted that they consider truth more important than tolerance and diversity."
I'M CONFUSED: "Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called the rationale used in a decision by the New York appeals court reaffirming a ban on gay marriage 'bigoted and outdated.'"
How do we square that with this? "Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean has contradicted his party's platform and infuriated gay rights advocates by saying the party's platform states 'marriage is between a man and a woman.'"
Am I missing something? I realize, of course, that a "bigoted" rationale could conceivably produce an un-bigoted result -- marriage between a man and a woman -- but that's more nuance than I usually expect from Dean. Something like that certainly calls for more explanation.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/06/2006 17:04 Comments ||
Top||
Despite claims to the contrary, a planned Midwest "inland port" with a Mexican customs office will not be restricted to railroad traffic, according to internal documents obtained by WorldNetDaily.
As WND has reported, Kansas City SmartPort plans to utilize deep-sea Mexican ports such as Lazaro Cardenas to unload containers from China and the Far East as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement super-highway plan.
The plan would include the hotly contested allowance of Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, WND has reported, but Tasha Hammes of the Kansas City Area Development Council has insisted the port will be restricted to railroad traffic.
Hammes has argued the railroad link is "nothing new, other than the fact that Kansas City Southern acquired the Mexican railroad serving this port and that major work has been done on the port of Lazaro Cardenas so that it has higher capacity and can handle larger containers."
But internal e-mails make it clear that officials, hoping to stay below the radar of public opinion, plan to expand from rail to trucks after the Mexican customs facility is operational.
The Mexican customs facility project was championed by David W. Eaton, president of Monterrey Business Consultants in Monterrey, Mexico, and the former executive director of North American International Trade Corridor Partnership, a non-profit group with the aim of internationalizing U.S. highways to facilitate trade with Mexico and Canada.
In a Jan. 7 e-mail, Eaton writes:
They are still going back and forth on the rail and truck focus. However, according to Manuel [Manuel Ruiz, a Mexican customs official], the first stage will most likely be "rail only" with trucking added later.
Kenneth Hoffman of the law firm Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin, outside council to KC SmartPort, was copied on Eaton's e-mail. A few minutes later, Hoffman answered, supporting the phase-in strategy:
My feeling is that we need to get this done in such a way that [the Mexican customs facility] is successful when it opens. If it starts small that is fine as long as there is productive work that we can point to as evidence that the effort was worthwhile. We can expand to trucks after getting the process up and running.
The e-mails are consistent with a position paper Eaton authored for the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, entitled "Roads, Trains, and Ports: Integrating North American Transport."
In the paper, Eaton argued railroad transport should be developed as the first mode to bring containers from China through Mexican ports into the U.S., because "one unit train can carry the equivalent of approximately 250 trucks."
Moreover, Eaton had argued that use of Mexican trucks was impaired by the poor condition of Mexico's roadways and the wear and tear on Mexican trucks resulting from overuse. Eaton had concluded "North America would be well served by linking its rail infrastructure and systems," which has been advanced by Kansas City Southern's acquisition of Mexican railroads.
An examination of the internal e-mails from Kansas City SmartPort over the last two years shows the development of the city's international "inland port" concept including the Mexican customs facility involved an ambitious multi-year process with the aim of tying into the emerging corridor-oriented NAFTA Super-Highway network.
Development of the KCSmartPort vision included active involvement of the North Americas SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, a non-profit group "dedicated to developing the worlds first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America."
Chris Gutierrez, president of KCSmartPort, frequently copied NASCO President George Blackwood on details of the negotiations with Mexican and U.S. officials regarding the Mexican customs office.
An April 26 e-mail from Gutierrez included Blackwood among the list of recipients. In his message, Gutierrez reported he worked directly with the office of Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and with Mexican government officials to apply political pressure to influence the State Department and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, to move faster in approving the Mexican customs facility application:
CBP told me that the State Department is reviewing the C-175 [form needed to approve Mexican customs facility]. Bond's office has calls into the State Dept; letter to Gil Diaz [Mexican Secretary of Finance] went out last week asking him to encourage CBP and State Dept to move it along. Here is the draft letter to Minister [Luis Ernesto] Derbez [Mexican Foreign Ministry Secretary]. I was still tweaking it but here it is for your review.
In 1998, before becoming NASCO president, Blackwood established the North American International Trade Corridor Partnership while he served as mayor pro tem of Kansas City. The NAITCP has been absorbed into NASCO.
A NAIPC summit meeting in 2004 was attended by Mexican officials, including Secretary of Finance Gil Diaz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Geronimo Guiterrez, Deputy Counsel of Mexico Noemi Hernandez, Counsel of Mexico in Kansas City Everardo Suarez. Also in attendance was Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Kay Barnes and the president and CEO of Kansas City Southern railroad, Mike Haverty.
Photographed on the first page of the summit executive summary is Robert Pastor, an American University professor who has written "Toward a North American Community," a book promoting the development of a North American union as a regional government and the adoption of the amero as a common monetary currency to replace the dollar and the peso.
Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force entitled "Building a North American Community" that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action within the executive branches of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to transform the current trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America into a North American union regional government.
#2
Like hell the Mexican trucks will meet regulations. They'll have a sticker that says that they do, I'm sure. Then, when they start going off the road and killing people, the Mexican government will go nuts and say it's discrimination.
Any Mexican trucks that get to KC will be the safest ones their company has because the inspections here, while not perfect are occasionally severe (yes sometimes the inspections are pro forma). The crappy Mexican trucks will be used to haul stuff around Mexico.
#5
Any highway patrol types here? In Pennsylvania, on the interstate I frequent (I-81) I see the State Police saftey pickup truck with pulled over rigs every day. They seem to be inspecting vehicles, not discussing moving violations.
U.S. private sector employers created an estimated 368,000 jobs in June, compared with 122,000 jobs in the previous month, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday. The monthly ADP National Employment Report is based on payroll data and measures the change in total private sector nonfarm employment each month. The report is released each month, two days before the government's own job survey of a net gain in nonfarm jobs in the U.S. private and public sectors.
"These findings indicate a strong acceleration of employment in June," said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, said in a statement. Macroeconomic Advisers developed the ADP report together with ADP Employer Services. He separately told Reuters that private sector jobs growth in June was "broad-based," averaging around 218,000 over the last six months. "I'm pretty confident that jobs growth on Friday would be healthy and I wouldn't be surprised if it shows an acceleration." Prakken, however said the U.S. economy's current jobs growth is not sustainable and, if it persisted, could increase inflationary pressures. He also estimated that the average public sector monthly jobs growth was 12,000 over the past 12 months.
According to the latest Reuters poll of economists, the U.S. Labor Department on Friday is expected to show that 155,000 nonfarm jobs were created last month, up from 75,000 in May.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yea but (choose one):
1. This doesn't help the baby ducks
2. The whinos in SanFran will still run short of Ripple
3. The sky is still falling
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/06/2006 0:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Funny, I didn't hear this trumpeted in the MSM.
Posted by: grb ||
07/06/2006 2:56 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Me neither, grb. And when they do "tell the story," it's often in the negative light of "Well, we did create 368,000 new jobs, but that fell short of the predicted 400,000 new job target/or they are only in the low-paying service industry type positions, blah, blah, blah."
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 8:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Oh, and BTW, I read an article a few months ago, how this won't be nearly as important in the coming 5-10 years, as the baby boomers retire. The Federal Gov't ALONE has something like 50% of its work-force eligible for retirement in the next 5 years. That's a LOT of existing jobs that'll ALSO open up for new employees, as well as these other jobs being created.
If you project out just "created" jobs, that is roughly 4 MILLION new jobs (assuming it continues at the 368,000/month rate), not to mention the "additional" jobs that will be just backfilling baby boomer positions, as they retire. Anyone know how many kids graduate from High School & College combined per year? If so, it'd be easy to compare the two numbers to see if the unemployment rate SHOULD continue to decrease.
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 8:54 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Whoops, that's "4 MILLION new jobs per year..."
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 8:55 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Population growth is less than 1%, so we won't be able to keep up with that kind of demand. Seems inflationary to me. Any ideas how that vacuum in the work force will affect production and the economy when combined with the inflationary pressures? What about China in a few years with their one kid per couple policy?
Posted by: grb ||
07/06/2006 13:18 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Population growth at 1% is roughly 3 million/year. Add in illegal immigration (rough estimates of 500,000 - 1 million/year) and even then, you're just breaking even w/ new/created jobs. No one to "backfill" all the boomer retirees, eh? Guess that's another reason to outsource, as much as I don't like it.
Not too familiar w/ China, but I've already heard about the male/female ratios being skewed by their 1 child policy (mostly males, as females are aborted). Could lead to future social issues, as there won't be enough womenfolk to match up with all the boys.
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 13:37 Comments ||
Top||
#8
If we have inflation, it will because the Fed (Greenspan) expanded the money supply to much in the past. The current tightening should be sufficient to reign things in without crashing the economy. But Friedman demonstrated long ago that inflation is a result of excessive expansion of the money supply, not cost pressure.
#9
Nimble: That is an explanation that makes good sense! Gets rid of all the little stuff and makes you look at the core reason. The little stuff will sort itself out.
Posted by: grb ||
07/06/2006 16:38 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Worst since Hoover
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/06/2006 18:48 Comments ||
Top||
#14
lotp, they're necessary to preserve the country, but do you really mean to say the military produces wealth or contributes to the economy? It's apples and oranges.
#15
lotp - our military produces security. That has great worth.
The Departments of Education or Health & Human Services, on the other hand.... (And there's NOTHING in the Constitution that authorizes them, to boot.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/06/2006 22:02 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Lots of things not considered here. We're going to be in a constantly increasing technical enviroment where in the near future one worker can produce more than three, five, or even 20 did last year. That's going to eliminate a lot of lower-skilled employment. We're going to continue to develop technically skilled requirements. We're going to need a greater number of highly-educated people. It takes time to bring the average person up to that level of competence. We're actually going to see a levelling off of "new" jobs, in terms of numbers employed, but see a constantly changing employment environment where even sales clerks have to have at least a minimum of skills far higher than those needed today.
BTW, the US military has already been through this process, and will continue to be a pioneer in this area. Today's soldier is heads and shoulders above the officers of World War II in education, training, and competence.
Finally, skewing the entire 'government statistics' environment is the number of people learning they can make a halfway decent living without having to work for ANYBODY. Computers have set millions free to work from home as independent contractors, skilled professionals, and general office types without being "employed". The government hasn't learned how to count such people yet, and won't for another decade, at least.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/06/2006 22:12 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Good point, OP. Anyways, to sum it up, this is not doom and gloom at all. Global Warming Climate change on the other hand...we're all gonna die (/sarcasm off/)
Posted by: BA ||
07/06/2006 23:10 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.
First there were potions, then pumps, then pills. But finding help for problems with sexual arousal could soon be as easy as buying toothpaste - with the arrival of an impotence treatment in a tube. A gel expected to become the world's first over-the-counter medication for erectile dysfunction was announced to a clamour of excitement from pharmaceutical executives and claims of a new sexual revolution. The non-prescription treatment, which would be available from pharmacies and supermarkets, will bring anti-impotence treatments into the consumer mainstream as never before if it passes clinical trials. 
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB), with headquarters in the Saudi city Jeddah, agreed on Wednesday to finance several projects in Sudan. A Sudanese press bulletin published by the Sudanese Finance Ministry said that the IDB agreed to finance Al-Nile Sugar project with an amount of USD 50 million, along with establishing an Islamic engineering college and providing equipment necessary to its workshops with an amount of USD 10 million. The bulletin added an envoy from the Bank is visiting Khartoum to pursue procedures for those projects and business deals.
Congolese rebels have re-taken a town in the lawless east captured only a month ago in a U.N.-backed offensive, handing the world body and government a major military setback just weeks before historic elections. The rebel stronghold of Tchei had been captured in late May after days of heavy fighting by a joint force of 3,000 Congolese army soldiers and 1,000 U.N. troops with attack helicopters and armoured trucks. The fighting displaced thousands of civilians in the eastern 
Zimbabwe's struggling economy is set for a "dramatic" recovery in the next two to three years on the back of expected growth in mining and commercial farming, central bank governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday. Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by more than a third during a recession which has lasted for eight years, with inflation running at a world record of nearly 1 200% and unemployment estimated at about 70%. 
Zimbabwe's only white woman MP was in a Harare hospital yesterday with machete wounds to her head and a broken arm and wrist after she was attacked by thugs from a rival opposition faction. Trudy Stevenson, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP for Harare North constituency, was battered with stones and iron bars on Sunday in the working-class township of Mabvuku by youths who accused her of turning against the party founder, Morgan Tsvangirai. "It really hurts to be harmed by people I used to work with," she told the Herald newspaper. "They intended to kill me". Four other opposition officials were injured in the incident. Feuding between the two MDC factions has intensified in recent months. "ZANU-PF never physically harmed me," said Ms Stevenson of Robert Mugabe's party.
DUBAI - A Saudi youth was left in an extremely embarrassing situation when the girl he had proposed to rejected him because of the pornography on his mobile phone, the Saudi newspaper Arab News reported on Thursday.
A court convicted 38 people Wednesday in a vast party financing scandal centered on Paris City Hall from 1987 to 1993, when Jacques Chirac was mayor.
ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's highest court ruled Thursday that gay marriage is not allowed under state law, rejecting arguments by same-sex couples who said the law violates their constitutional rights.
