An angel of death has visited Earth! Aliens have pulled off an abduction! A mystery ailment has claimed a victim!
Weekly World News, the tabloid that for 28 years has chronicled sightings of Elvis, extraterrestrial activity and the exploits of Bat Boy, is no more. Its publisher said Tuesday it would put out its last issue next month, maintaining only a Web presence.
What does it mean for a black-and-white staple that has delivered news of such historical proportions as Bigfoot's capture of a lumberjack he kept as his love slave and the merman found in the South Pacific? Stay tuned. One thing's for sure: Americans' waits in supermarket checkouts will forever be changed.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/25/2007 09:41 ||
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#1
Maybe it could just change it's name to, I dunno, The New York Times?
#2
The WWN staffers may be out of their jobs, but they still have their pride and journalistic credibility, unlike the ink-stained wretches who work for the NYT.
Large-scale renewable energy projects will cause widespread environmental damage by industrialising vast swaths of countryside, a leading scientist claims today. The warning follows an analysis of the amount of land that renewable energy resources, including wind farms, biofuel crops and photovoltaic solar cells, require to produce substantial amounts of power.
Jesse Ausubel, a professor of environmental science and director of the Human Environment programme at Rockefeller University in New York, found that enormous stretches of countryside would have to be converted into intensive farmland or developed with buildings and access roads for renewable energy plants to make a significant contribution to global energy demands.
#2
Even with these projects, renewables are set to decline as a percentage of total energy.
The reason is that most renewable energy is hydro - solar, wind and biomass are tiny in comparison - and the capacity to increase hydro production in the developed world (excepting Canada) is effectively zero.
As energy demand increases, renewables will decline as a percentage of the total. So says the US DoE. Renewables are just tinkering at the margins.
#3
It's my understanding that if you dammed every possible river, brook, and trickle in the U.S. in such a fashion as to maximize its potential for hydropower - a move which would have devastating effects ecologically speaking - you could only get to about 14% of the nation's energy needs.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/25/2007 5:37 Comments ||
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#4
Well it sounds like we're just flat out screwed.
Have a cigarette and a cheeseburger with bio-engineered onions on it and slurp down a cold beer made with contaminated wheat. I'm sick and tired of obstructionist assholes trying to push and pull us every direction at once.
#5
This is probably why Gore and Edwards and all those other celebrity climate change experts have such big houses. They need the room for all those renewable energy projects.
Yeah! That's the ticket!
#6
-----What's the big deal with converting benign "countryside" to eeevil "farmland?" Humans have been doing this for thousands of generations.
----Energy demand can increase all it wants. Energy available operates under different rules.
#7
And, no mo euro, I had read somewhere (forget the citation) that even if we converted ALL of our available cropland to corn (a very water and fertilizer intensive crop in and of itself) for ethanol, it would only produce somewhere around 12% of our auto fuel needs.
Nuclear is the way to go for electricity needs. I'm not sure where the answer lies for fuels, but it's obviously NOT gonna be a "single magic bullet," but a mix of sources. And the elephant in the room is that only approximately 50% of the current crude oil we import goes to gasoline. The rest goes to all sorts of stuff (plastics, fertilizers, even fuel for the industries that "make" gasoline, etc.).
Posted by: BA ||
07/25/2007 10:02 Comments ||
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#8
Steve DenBeste once calculated that if you replaced all the gasoline powered cars in California with electric cars, and generated the electricity to power the batteries with solar mirrors (that heat water into steam and turn turbines), given the efficiencies involved, you'd need ... 2300 square kilometers worth of mirrors.
DenBeste then notes just how silly it is to think of doing that, and so notes the real reason behind all the renewable energy nonsense: the goal is to prove that it's impossible to make work, and therefore we all have to consume less. If we don't do so voluntarily (hey guys, who's for impovrishing himself -- All in favor take one step forward), then of course the elite thinkers will do it for us. That's the agenda.
Of course we can't make 'renewable' energy work as a complete replacement for carbon-based energy. Won't ever happen. Just wait til Al Gore gets to drop the other shoe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2007 10:20 Comments ||
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#9
2300 square kilometers worth of mirrors
Are a square 48 km on a side---they don't have a 48x48 empty place in California?
#12
Nuclear power plants that crack water for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles continues to remain one of the only viable paths off of foreign oil dependency. America's urban infrastructure has been designed around personal transportation and little is going to change about that anytime soon.
#13
Fusion is the answer. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before the technology is ready for industrial use.
Not really, apparently the answer has been known for some time. Steps are now being taken to pursue a workable Fusion technology. See linky!
Posted by: Natural Law ||
07/25/2007 13:10 Comments ||
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#14
The only thing needed to find a way off imported fuel is sustained high prices for gasoline. If we really want to see the market respond, both with conservation and new sources of transportable energy, we would put a fee on oil that would assure that the cost of an imported barrel of oil would not fall below $55.
#15
This is all nonsense. You could put solar panels on the rooves of the houses in southern California and power the bulk of the southwest. There is no reason to put all the power infrastructure in a single location (single target) when rooves are very much underused these days.
If you force the power companies to allow reverse power meters and gave tax subsidies you might see industrious citizens taking the problem into their own hands. There are already solar power roof tiles that look nearly identical to regular roofing tiles so there is no reason such a solution has to be ugly.
I would suggest the government might get involved in putting solar panels on the rooves of schools and prisons and other government buildings to (a) take them off the grid and save future bills (b) allow them to actually earn some money (c) help bootstrap the industry in a non-controlling way.
I would also suggest to any entrepenuers out there that if someone came up with a computer power/strip APC backpu that had a solar power input and some way to hook it up on the roof or the inside of a window or something, to take a computer and peripherals off of the grid when the sun is shining and draw from the grid when the sun was not (and power usage lowers anyway), you might find a large market in the growing work at home crowd. And you'd have the advantage that your computer would stay on during a rolling blackout as long as the sun was still shining.
#16
For that matter someone should find a way to put a solar panel into one of those cover up your car window to keep your car from overheating things. If you had an electric car or hybrid there is no reason the sun couldn't juice your car a bit when you park it in the sun.
And I know solar panels aren't super effecient, and perhaps they are clunky in size, but when startups start seriously looking at the problem I believe they will drop.
#17
The new coal-to-gas technology makes use of our large coal deposits. East Dubuque, Il recently converted a fertilizer plant to the first in the nation; technology originally developed in China.
#18
This is all nonsense. You could put solar panels on the rooves of the houses in southern California and power the bulk of the southwest. There is no reason to put all the power infrastructure in a single location (single target) when rooves are very much underused these days.
If you force the power companies to allow reverse power meters and gave tax subsidies you might see industrious citizens taking the problem into their own hands. There are already solar power roof tiles that look nearly identical to regular roofing tiles so there is no reason such a solution has to be ugly.
rjschwarz makes a good point. Solar cell efficiency continues to improve although primary cost of installation still runs quite high. Several different Silicon Valley companies are currently pursuingnot just the roof tile approachbut the use of tuned-size nanoparticles to create paints so that all southern exposure walls and surfaces could become solar cells.
None of this addresses the simple issue of over-dependence upon personal transportation. Sadly, America's modern urban and suburban layouts were put in place without emphasis on mass transit. While that is changing, far too much sprawl has happened for transit systems to contain it.
Very interesting link, Natural Law. Hydrogen embrittlement has long been a serious problem for nearly all modern fusion reactor designs. Imagine taking a chunk of stainless steel and crushing it in your hands like a dessicated sponge. Eliminating neutron bombardment of the interior hardware would go a long way towards making the equipment servicable. Very interesting.
#19
The U.S. has always been a personal transportation culture, going back to the horse and buggy days. For most of the country houses are simply too far apart to make mass transport financially viable, excepting city cores and the Boston-DC corridor. No doubt if we lose access to gasoline to power our vehicles before batteries become good enough, we'll go back to horses, at least in the outer suburbs. ;-)
#22
Chemical fertilizer producers claim their products allow twice the yield of organic. That means half the land. I don't know the truth, but I do know that knee jerk opposition to claims by business is the route to nowhere.
#23
Danielle,
That project is just in it's initial stages. I was working there last week and the preliminary stuff like relocating of septic systems, etc. are just starting. The fertilizer plant has been there for decades, a new owner (Rentech) is doing the conversion.
Basically it will use the good ole' high sulfur Illinois coal, put it through a Fischer-Trospch gasification producing an ultra clean diesel, firing the boilers to continue the fertilizer operation and sell excess electricity instead of consuming it.
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had their death sentences for contaminating Libyan children with HIV overturned left Tripoli for Bulgaria today, France's presidential palace said. A delegation from Paris including Cécilia Sarkozy, the wife of the French president, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU commissioner for foreign affairs, arrived in Libya at the weekend to negotiate their return home. France had been seeking the return of the six - in jail for the past eight years - as a final goodwill gesture from Libya after it commuted their death sentences in favour of life in prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2007 00:00 ||
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South Africas ambassador to the United Nations has become the latest high-profile victim of crime in the country, barely an hour after arriving home from New York to attend a family function.
Dumisani Kumalo, a senior member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and staunch defender of government policies, was robbed at gunpoint in the driveway of his sons home shortly after getting off a flight from New York last Saturday night. Three thieves took his wallet, cell phone and luggage, while others present, including Mr Kumalos son Mandla, were also robbed. A male guest at the party held for Mr Kumalos grandson was shot and wounded in the abdomen.
Tourists and businessmen have frequently been attacked and robbed after being followed from Johannesburgs main Oliver Tambo airport, which is also notorious for losing baggage. Accusations that gangs operate there with near impunity and the connivance of senior security officials have been angrily denied. Opposition politicians immediately seized on the latest incident as evidence the country is losing the fight against crime and that policing at the airport and other spots where new arrivals are vulnerable is inadequate.
Marthinus van Schalkwyk told a tourist industry conference that statistics showed about one third of target consumers in its eight core markets, more than 22 million people, cited crime as a reason for deciding not to come to South Africa.
#1
Marthinus van Schalkwyk told a tourist industry conference that statistics showed about one third of target consumers in its eight core markets, more than 22 million people, cited crime as a reason for deciding not to come to South Africa.
Dankie makker, nou tell the nice people bout the 22 million South African citizens who are trying to ESCAPE!
The police in Bangladesh filed formal charges of extortion against detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday, officials said.
Hasinas younger sister, Sheikh Rahana, now abroad, and her cousin, former minister Sheikh Selim, have also been charged in the same case of extorting some 30 million Taka ($435,000) from a businessman. Today we have formally submitted the charges to the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate, said an investigating police officer. Hasina, leader of the Awami League, was arrested at her home on July 16 and sent to a house converted into a prison inside Dhakas sprawling parliament compound. Former health minister Sheikh Selim was arrested in late April.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Growing anti-social behaviour has turned Britains cities and towns into no-go areas after dark, the chairman of an influential parliamentary committee said on Tuesday. Dealing with louts and tearways costs £3.4 billion a year, but the Home Office has still not discovered the most effective way to tackle the problem, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said. No civilised country should have to put up with what can seem like an occupying army loose in the streets, said PAC Chairman Edward Leigh. After dark, our cities and towns are fast becoming no-go areas, with behaviour there ranging from drunken skylarking and intimidation, to out and out criminal activity.
Dealing with anti-social behaviour is a priority issue for the Labour government. Leigh said it had introduced a barrage of new powers for the police and local authorities. But the PAC said the Home Office had no idea which of these measures were the most effective. National Audit Office research last December examined 893 cases involving three powers - ASBOs (anti-social behaviour orders), acceptable behaviour contracts and warning letters.
The study found that in 65 percent of cases individuals desisted from nuisance behaviour after one intervention. However, more than half of those given ASBOs broke the terms of their orders while one individual, with 271 criminal convictions, contravened his ASBO on 25 occasions.
I don't suppose you've given any consideration to hitting them, have you?... I thought not.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#7
Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,
My parents treat me rough.
With all their marijuana,
They won't give me a puff.
They didn't wanna have me,
But somehow I was had.
Leapin' lizards! That's why I'm so bad!
Officer Krupke, you're really a square;
This boy don't need a judge, he needs an analyst's care!
It's just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
He's psychologic'ly disturbed!
#8
The UK has always had laws to control this kind of behavior. "Are there no workhouses? Are there no jails." UK powers that be refuse to jail the louts who deserve it. Anarcho-tyranny is a system of government where criminals are not punished but non-criminals are, of for no other reason than it's easier to go after people who arent criminals. In the US, the crime rate fell as the incarcerated percentage of the population rose. Of course, that statistic is merely a coincidence.
#9
So, I gather from this that the UK has become a micro-version of the UN. Nuttin' but grand swarees and sternly-worded letters™
Posted by: BA ||
07/25/2007 10:09 Comments ||
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#10
For a while "move to the country and get armed" is a good defensive posture, but eventually you wind up with places like zimbob where the lawlessness is everywhere and yes, defending yourself from it is the only crime...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/25/2007 10:45 Comments ||
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#11
Shooting anyone not in their homes after 10pm would be a good deterrent.
#13
three powers - ASBOs (anti-social behaviour orders), acceptable behaviour contracts and warning letters.
I assume these orders are similiar to restraining orders in the U.S. Restraining orders don't seem to be very effective.
There are cities in the U.S. that are dangerous--the ethnic profile of the thug might be different but a thug is a thug when you are getting mugged.
Personally, I seldom leave home without a firearm. I've only had to use it one time to prevent a crime. I did not have to fire the firearm at the time just pull it out and be ready.
#14
Firstly, may I say how good to be back, and "Hello" to old friends, you know who you are.
Now to address what Mr Leigh has high-lighted.
Sorry to disappoint, but the problem he moots is, (unless one is is in a distinct No-Go Area),
deprived ethnic British, who see an influx of non-integrating gangsters claiming benefits we can only dream about. Unfortunately, these ASBO people do not discriminate, (very PC of them, I'm sure), and will club anyone who gets a taxi before them.
It is a problem. With millions living in such a confined space as the UK, the odds are you will have them living next door to you, but not if your name's Edward Leigh or Gordon Brown .
#3
Actually, though, in its basic form, that is one advantage Cuba has over the US: it creates doctors in quantity, if not in as high a quality.
US medical schools are notorious for limiting the number of qualified students they admit and graduate, intentionally, to keep the number of physicians artificially low.
Since they have a monopoly of domestically produced doctors, this undermines the free market, forcing the US to import less qualified doctors from overseas. And yes, it is self-defeating in the long run.
It is a painful irony that law schools permit as many students admissions and graduations as they can--thus giving us a surfeit of lawyers, with a profoundly negative effect on society. When it should be law schools that restrict numbers, and medical schools that allow as many competent students as possible through.
Now were the US to encourage medical schools to admit and graduate at much higher numbers, several things would happen. First of all, the overall price of medical care would decline, even if top physicians would still command premium prices.
Second, private practices would greatly increase in number, especially in the more rural parts of the US, in competition with managed care in the big cities.
And a new type of cash-only-based private practices have discovered that they can offer discounts as much as 50%, simply by not accepting Medicare and insurance payments, which radically decreases their expenses.
Because medical science and pharmacology continue to develop at a fast clip, with a resulting overload in information, Internet physician networks are developing to help insure that the best care and pharmacology are being used by doctors who do not have the time to keep up with the latest advancements.
For example, when a doctor sees a patient and notes their symptoms, they can enter those symptoms into the database and get a "second opinion" diagnosis and recommended course of treatment.
And these would also help maintain quality control among a much larger number of physicians.
#4
Overseas doctors are not inferior to American doctord, anonymouse, are you medically trained, I dont think so...
In fact, Its been my experience that doctors from places like pakistan, iran,and egypt are amoung the tops in their fields anywhere on the planet. Keep your moronic meanderings inside that microscopic little brain of yours next time.
Posted by: bk ||
07/25/2007 12:09 Comments ||
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#10
As I recall, Dr. Steve (one of our mods) recently said quite positive things about the skills of Pakistani-trained doctors he's worked with. Perhaps he'll join in on this thread at some point.
#11
lotp, I am sure he does. The thing is, Zawahiri nothwithstanding, those trained before the Islamic revival in late 80's seem to be honest-to-god skilled medical professionals. But from that point on, they seem to be more Islamist professionals than medical professionals.
#12
Don't foreign-trained doctors have to pass the same Medical Board exams as U.S.-trained? Certainly Indian doctors seem to be quite well received in my part of the world. Cyber Sarge, lots of Americans go down to Mexico to get treatments that aren't FDA approved, or because it's cheaper.
Separately, was it Zawahiri who was the pediatrician?
#13
What I notice about many, if not most, of the foreign doctors whom I meet is how slight an accent they retain. I take this to be the result of a long and intense education. I wish the American nurses could speak as well.
#15
OK Nimble Spemble, I gotta defend our lovely USA home bred Nurses.
I've been laid up for months in Hospital here in the US of A, and the Registered and Specialized Nurses that have lifted my body and spirit with their healing touch and sweet dulcet voices could not be duplicated anywhere in the World!
They aren't ordinary Nimble Spemble, they are extraordinary and come from the one and only Divine Angel factory ima sure.
You couldn't find better looking or more professional competition to our native nurses at Hospitals and or here at my home.
And that's not counting the lovely ones I dated in the past...even!@
#17
Get well soon, RD dear. Nurses are wonderful everywhere, as I learnt to my joy while recovering from giving birth to trailing daughter #2 in Germany. And let's not stint praise for those gentlemen who choose that field, adding broad shoulders and strong backs to gentle hands and voices.
#19
Yes tw, I was referring to my fairer sexed Nurses [wimmins],
;-)
but I also had some first rate male nurses at UCSF.
One in Particular was a ex-Army Ranger Gulf War vet. Intensive care, I had 2 weeks the first stint in IC.
Another one named Mike saved my bacon a couple of times I flipped out and went on extreme escape and evade maneuvers due to very high doses of prednisone!
#20
I am glad, RD -- bipedal locomotion no less! Yes, I've been more than a bit sharpish under the effects of prednisone, myself. It's a pity the drug is so effective, given the side effects.
Vladimir Putin tonight rekindled tensions with Britain over Alexander Litvinenko, describing demands for the extradition of chief suspect Andrei Lugovoy as "colonial thinking".
Despite what was widely regarded as a gentle response to Britain's decision to expel four Russian diplomats last week the Russian President resorted to strong rhetoric during a televised meeting with pro-Kremlin youth organisations. Responding to claims by the British Ambassador to Moscow that Russia's Constitution does not prevent such extraditions, Putin said the UK's "brains" need to be changed. "They are making proposals to change our Constitution which are insulting for our nation and our people," he said.
Anybody here think Putin will step down when his term is up?
*
*
*
Nah, me neither.
#7
LUCIANNE > Kim may have up to SEVEN ailments or affective conditions. *IONews, CHIN MIL FORUM > US PAcific Cdr > USA can defeat China's PLAN + more than capable of defending TAIWAN despite any changes in technologies and forces alignments. ALSO, RICHARD FISHER > China's new DF-21/-25's deployment to Central Asia is inclusive of China's intent on using NUKE-CAPABLE LAND-BASED IRBMS/MISSLES AS CARRIER-KILLERS. *Remember, Russia-China's ANTI-US WAR/BATTLE ZONE STRATEGY > SEIZE-AND-HOLD as locally tactically supported by RAPID-REACTION NUCLEAR-WMD REINFORCEMENT + IMMEDIATE GLOBAL NUCLEAR ESCALATION [ideally, not beyond LIMITED NUCLEAR CONFLICT], aka "The way to win a nuclear or mutually-destructive war is NOT to fight one". Ater 2014 [China] and 2018 [Russia], WAR IS AGZ USA-WEST IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE BUT DESIRED - until then, name of the game agz USA is asymetric warfare/"soft war", the UNO, and PCorrect destabilizations.
RIGA/TALLINN - The three Baltic states are planning collective purchases of armored personnel carriers, helicopters and radar systems in the future, Latvian Defense Minister Atis Slakteris said July 24.
At present there is a political commitment and objective to purchase APCs, radar and possibly also helicopters collectively. Some of these projects are at an advanced stage, but some of them are not, the minister told Baltic News Service. "It is cheaper to buy collectively. I will not go into detail, as it is classified information and companies are competing for the right to supply. As a NATO member we have to be able to monitor our air space," the minister said.
An agreement was recently reached which will enable Latvian pilots to be trained flying the Estonian Air Forces L-39 jets.
Slakteris described the overall defense cooperation among Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as good, though so far the Baltic states have only purchased ammunition collectively, Slakteris admitted.
The Baltic states have several joint military projects, including the BALTNET airspace monitoring system, BALTRON minesweeper squadron, BALTCCIS command and control information system and BALTDEFCOL defense college.
Slakteris also estimated that the purchase of four light class helicopters for the Latvian Air Force by 2010 would cost at least 6.5 million lats (EUR 9.2 mln). The helicopters would mainly be used to perform rescue functions and train new pilots. The purchase of light helicopters would be more effective and economical than the continued use of older heavy helicopters, the minister said. At present Latvian Air Force have four Mi-17 class helicopters and one Mi-2 class helicopter, all dating from the Soviet era.
However, even as Slakteris was talking up the benefits of pooled defense spending, things were looking more problematic north of the border in Estonia.
The Defense Ministry and the State Audit Office have found that defense forces are failing to keep proper track of the supplies in their depots because of high labor turnover and lack of unified software, the daily Eesti Paevaleht reported. After examining the ministry's report for 2006, the State Audit Office pointed out that the defense forces' logistics center was unable to assess the size of stocks. The state, lifespan and usability of the existing supplies are evaluated superficially, the auditing report said.
Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo promised in his answer to the State Audit Office to introduce new software by the end of this year but admitted that the new program is not yet perfect. The trouble lies in the requirement of keeping databases of armaments and depots secret, he reportedly told the Audit Office.
#2
It would be to the Baltics' advantage to model their militaries after the Swiss, and make lots of other mutual defense deals with Finland and Sweden.
An increasing number of guns are being smuggled into Sweden, police say, with many of them coming from the western Balkans.
Western Balkans, you say? Hmmmm .. Serbia? No, no, few Serbs in Swede-land. Croatia? No, no, that isn't it. Montenegro? No, can't be, that's too nice a place to leave. Albania? Bosnia? Why golly gee, could that be it?
Swedish police confiscated 1,243 guns last year, compared to 971 four years earlier. Most of the guns taken were pistols, revolvers or rifles, according to Sveriges Radio.
Police say that tens of thousands of illegal weapons are now in circulation in Sweden, although coming to a precise figure is hard. Many of the guns are of Russian design, such as Marakovs or Tokarevs. These brands continued to be produced in the former Yugoslavia both before and during the war there, according to Thord Modin, head of the Swedish Police's intelligence section.
"Smuggling of guns from unstable areas, particularly the Balkans, is not something that we can see becoming less common in the near future. There are lots of guns, gun production is still going on and there are lots of people in Sweden who have contact with the Balkans," Modin told Sveriges Radio .
A timely look back, considering Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's idiocies. The second paragraph of the article is a pure delight. Hattip Instapundit.
Precis:
Contrary to myth of Jewish passivity, many Jews did fight back during the Holocaust. They shut down the extermination camp at Sobibor, rose up in the Warsaw Ghetto, and fought in the woods and swamps all over Eastern Europe. Indeed, Jews resisted at a higher rate than did any other population under Nazi rule. The experience of the Holocaust shows why Jews, and all people of good will, should support the right of potential genocide victims to possess defensive arms, and refutes the notion that violence is necessarily immoral.
David B. Kopel is Research Director of the Independence Institute, in Golden, Colorado, and a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. This is a draft of an article that will be published in volume 19 of the Journal on Firearms & Public Policy, in 2007.
I'd no idea there was scholarship done on the history of firearms and public policy. My world view has again been broadened.
#2
There is a group in the U.S. called "Jews for the Preservation of Firearms" that takes the 2nd Amendment seriously in that it is a deterrent to a dictatorial government such as Herr Adolph Schicklgruber's.
#3
Leon Uris' "Mila 18" also provides some insights into this. I can only hope that the Jewish people have once and for all time learned the importance of pre-empting those who are dedicated to genocide. We in the West evidently still have a ways to go towards comprehending the importance of this critical topic.
#4
I'd also like to add that "Night and Fog" should be made mandatory viewing in all American high schools. Once you see bulldozers scraping heaps of matchstick bodies into mass graves the ability to tolerate genocide takes a dramatic downturn.
Note: Story is a few days old. Still worth pondering,though.
Norway scrambled two of its fighter jets this week after Russian bombers got a little too close to the Norwegian coast for comfort. It wasn't clear whether the Russian flights were related to diplomatic tension between Russia and Great Britain, which also sent out jets of its own.
Norwegian military sources confirmed that two Norwegian F-16 fighter jets were dispatched after two Russian Tupolev 95 "Bear" bombers approached Norwegian air space. The Russian bombers first flew south along the coast of northern Norway on Tuesday, off Finnmark County. They made two more lengthy sorties late Thursday night, prompting Norwegian jets to fly out to meet them once again.
"We followed them for a while to the coast of Nord-Trøndelag, where they turned around," said military spokesman John Inge Øglænd of the Tuesday incident. Last night's flights went farther south into the North Sea, to the region between Stavanger and Aberdeen, the heart of the British and Norwegian oil industry.
The planes never entered Norwegian territory and military officials downplayed the incident, calling the dispatch of Norwegian jets "routine." Øglænd claimed the long flights are a natural part of Russian training. "The Russian pilots know that we'll come," Øglænd told Aftenposten.no on Friday. "Sometimes we get so close that the pilots can wave at each other." He acknowledged, though, that it has been many years since Russian bombers had been so close to British airspace and that the flights went further south than usual.
Helge Blakkisrud, a Russian expert from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), also played down theories the Russians are stoking tensions which have been running high with the British since Russia refused to extradite a key suspect in the poisoning of a Russian dissident living in London. The two countries have since resorted to expelling diplomats.
"It can be a signal that the Russians are rebuilding military might, but I don't think that's linked to the latest crisis," Blakkisrud told Aftenposten.no. "As far as I've understood, this was part of a large training mission thats politically approved far in advance." The British defense ministry confirmed that two of its Tornado jets were also dispatched because Russian bombers were in the area.
Russian authorities have claimed their bombers were simply out on training missions this week. "Our planes were flying planned flights over neutral waters," Russian Air Force Commander Alexander Zelin told the Interfax news agency.
Sure, it is old and has turbo-prop engines, but it is also a proven airframe with an insanely long range. We have been flying B-52s since the '50s, you know.
In addition to a bomber role, Bears are used for recon and maritime patrol.
Somebody had to pick up the torch when Harold Stassen passed away.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Somewhere, I might still have a "Students for Stassen for Peace" button from when I got stuck with him for a jr high election project in social studies. (68)
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually, Thompson is running for president, but his staff doesn't know it yet, thus the shake up.
His grand entrance has taken a downturn on one of it's sequels.
Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister and chairwoman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has confirmed that she is holding talks with the government on sending the army back to barracks and ending the militarys role in politics.
I doubt that'll ever happen in Pak. The army's not very good -- as we've pointed out here a time or two before, it's never managed to win a war -- and one of the reasons it's not, besides its fixation on jihad, is that it's become a career path for well-born Punjabis. They're estimated at 65% of the officers' corps and 70% for enlisted, from a 56 percent population base. Pashtuns, by the way, make up an estimated 15-22 percent of officers, 20-25 percent for the rank and file, leaving approximately squat for the Balochs and the Sindhis. Once you're in, you're taken care of for life unless you screw with the powers that be. The military can't walk away from that.
Talking to Geo news in London, Bhutto said that she would not accept General Pervez Musharrafs uniform in any case and denied that there were differences between the opposition parties on the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Our strategy is different, but our objective is the same, she said.
In an earlier interview with Canadian Daily The Globe and Mail, Bhutto said that the PPP was in contact with Gen Musharraf to ensure that the upcoming elections were free and fair. She reconfirmed to Geo news that her contacts with the government were for holding of transparent elections in Pakistan. He (Musharraf) and I speak from different vantage points, Bhutto said. He needs the extremist issue to legitimise his rule. I dont. I need the peoples support.
Bhutto said that President Musharrafs position had weakened after he filed the presidential reference against Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9, and the Lal Masjid operation and Justice Chaudhrys reinstatement by the Supreme Court had further damaged his standing at home and abroad.
Meanwhile, talking to British legislators, Bhutto said that she had signed the Charter of Democracy with Nawaz Sharif to bring an end to the armys interference in politics. The PPP chairwoman urged the British parliamentarians to help the Pakistani nation restore democracy in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Yeah, like the ISI is going to get out of politics. Maybe Bhutto is interested in a bridge I have for sale...
The United Nations is investigating allegations of widespread sexual abuse by hundreds of Moroccan peacekeepers serving in Ivory Coast and has summoned Rabat's diplomats to respond, U.N. officials said on Friday. U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the investigation involved Moroccan soldiers having sex with a large number of underage girls.
The UN said a unit of its entire battalion of 800 troops in Bouake, a northern rebel stronghold, had been confined to base. "An internal investigation by the United Nations Mission in Cote D'Ivoire has revealed serious allegations of widespread sexual exploitation and abuse by a U.N. military contingent serving in Bouake," a U.N. statement said.
Claims of sexual abuse have been made against UN troops on various missions, prompting ex-UN chief Kofi Annan to declare a "zero tolerance" policy. "There have been crimes such as rape, pedophilia and human trafficking," he said in December 2006, shortly before leaving office. He said sexual exploitation and abuse were "utterly immoral" and at odds with the UN mission, and would be punished.
Sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeeping personnel hit the headlines in 2004 after a UN report detailed widespread abuse in the DR Congo involving UN troops. More than 300 members of UN peacekeeping missions around the world have been investigated for sexual exploitation and abuse since 2004, including some stationed in Congo, Cambodia and Haiti.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Isn't that sort of thing punishable by death under sharia law?
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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister and chairwoman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has confirmed that she is holding talks with the government on sending the army back to barracks and ending the militarys role in politics.
