Edited for brevity.
What humans were unable to do, Hurricane Dennis handled nicely. The former USS Spiegel Grove, serving as [an] artificial reef on the bottom in 130 feet of water off Key Largo, flipped upright as the core of the storm passed some 200 miles to the west. It's a position project organizers wanted since the retired 510-foot ship prematurely sank and rolled over May 17, 2002, leaving its upside-down bow protruding from the water. A salvage team managed to fully sink the vessel three weeks later on its right side instead of its keel.
The Spiegel Grove is the most popular artificial wreck in the Florida Keys, home [to] at least 166 different fish species. But its realignment will make it a better platform for sports divers. The Spiegel Grove reef is about six miles off Key Largo. The ship, designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, was retired by the Navy in 1989.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/14/2005 14:28 ||
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A former New York policeman is charging the police department with violating his right to free speech after firing him for operating a Web site where officers rant about their jobs. Civil, Well-Reasoned Discourse. With a side of bacon.
The content of the NYPD Rant Web site was cited by the department as justification for firing housing officer Edward Polstein, whose lawyer on Wednesday said he was fighting back with a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the New York State Division of Human Rights.
"The whole idea was to punish him for the Rant," said Eric Sanders, lawyer for 18-year police veteran Polstein, 43. "It's clear retaliation. There's no question about it." The police department declined to comment on the case or the site. Polstein agreed to an early retirement last October after the department raised objections to the site. But earlier this month, the department retroactively changed the termination to a firing, costing him a significant portion of his pension benefits, Sanders said.
The Rant link receives an average of 60,000 anonymous hits per day, with comments on topics ranging from a spat between Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg about low pay for police recruits to lack of instruction for dealing with suicide bombers in light of London's recent bombings. Some of the entries are openly critical of police department procedure and Kelly, referring to him as the cartoon character Popeye and decrying his tactics to muzzle any criticism of him or the department. Jeez, Popeye, grow a sense of humor.
Many entries are in questionable taste and others are lewd or racist, like a series of jokes that begin with, "you know you're in the ghetto when...," but Sanders contends that does not give the department the right to violate free speech. You know you're in the ghetto when the "Hot Now" sign at Krispy Kreme refers to the local hookers.
Polstein operated the site on his own time and at his own expense for noncommercial use, the lawyer said. The EEOC now has 180 days to get the parties to mediate or settle the claim, which was filed earlier this week but became known on Wednesday, before a suit can be filed in federal court. Sanders said he was confident he could make the case that Polstein's First Amendment rights were violated. "The city has been sued on that and lost on that before," he said. "This is not the first time this has been raised."
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/14/2005 12:40 ||
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A northern Canadian village that has been overrun by stray dogs has offered a C$50 ($41) bounty on each one in an effort to cure the problem. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.
But residents are now having to keep an extra close watch on the family pooch after some attempts to steal pets for the cash reward, a village official said on Wednesday. Anyone surprised by THIS development, raise your hand, eh?
Officials in Rae-Edzo, twin communities of about 2,300 people in the Northwest Territories, are trying stop a scourge of dog attacks on children and the elderly by giving residents cash incentives to bring the stays in alive, Cecile Desjardins, the town's acting senior administrator, said.
But it's had unintended consequences.
"We had one incident -- we have dog kennels just out of town here, and a kid went over there and untied three of the owner's dogs and dragged them over to the garage where we have the dog pound and tried to cash in," Desjardins said. "The owner went to feed his dogs and realized three of them were missing. They got them in time."
Another youth untied a dog from the front porch of a house and was about to take it to the pound when the owner ran out yelling and managed to retrieve the pet, she said.
Officials estimate there are more than 50 stray dogs in as many as seven packs. They have bitten dozens of residents, most of whom have required a rabies shots. Many residents are frightened to walk around town, Desjardins said.
The bounty was recently raised from C$30 for each stray brought in, after town workers found the canines were often too cagey to catch. "The funny thing is, those darn dogs, they know the company vehicles, and when they see them they run the other way. So that's why the community people have been hauling the dogs in as they see them," she said. Those darn dogs are too smart for us, eh? One even pissed on my leg and called me a hoser.
Thirteen dogs were euthanized in June. NHL officials could not be reached for comment.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/14/2005 12:53 ||
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#1
Note that no one thought of the idea of simply shooting the feral dogs. No, they have to be brought in alive, even though none will be adopted and will all be euthanized anyway.
#1
"Emily, why does she hate small caribbean islands?" Hurricane Emily pounded Grenada Thursday, tearing the roofs off hospitals and other buildings, destroying crops and causing widespread flooding. The storm, which strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane as it moved across the Windward Islands, packed sustained winds of nearly 100 mph and headed west at about 18 mph. At 11 a.m. EDT, it was about 560 miles southeast of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and was predicted to strengthen over the next 24 hours.
Emily struck hard in Grenada, especially in the two northern parishes, St. Patrick's and St. Andrew's, and the outlying islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, authorities said. The damage comes as the island nation is still recovering from last year's devastating Hurricane Ivan.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/14/2005 12:48 Comments ||
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#2
Em--you are out of control!
*sigh* It's so early in the season. All we're going to see for the next three months now are reporters "bravely" facing the elements to report on the latest hurricane coming ashore--as if this hurricane with its high winds and downpours were really any different than the last 3,783 freakin' hurricanes!
Posted by: Dar ||
07/14/2005 14:54 Comments ||
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#3
Man, what did they do to piss you off this time, Seafurious?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/14/2005 15:35 Comments ||
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#5
I remember Emily has a cyan blue RantFem pioneer, but otherwise quiet, if a little too quick on the snappy, if you catch my drift. I hope she doesn't die in Brownsville. Then again I hope nothing else dies in Brownville.
The Ecuadorian government is investigating a large shipment of military goods to the Ecuadorian military that was not declared in customs documents. The Quito Hoy newspaper reported last week that four containers were discovered in Guayaquil during a ceremony. The shipment included 12,000 uniforms, two helicopters, nine dump trucks and other military equipment.
Ecuadorian Defense Minister Solon Espinosa said the goods arrived June 30 but that he was unaware of the final destination. The goods are being held in a warehouse until the investigation is completed.
China has been courting South American governments and has supplied military goods to Cuba in the past.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
A country with nationalized oil wealth... bordering Colombia and Peru... a history of upheaval... anything I'm missing from the 'PRC-interest' checklist?
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/14/2005 2:14 Comments ||
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#3
Someone in Supply lost the paperwork or shipping sent it to the wrong country. Check and see if the uniforms are the kind your country uses and get back to us.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/14/2005 8:33 Comments ||
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#4
ChiCom Express, when it has to be there tomorrow. Est. 2004 [Still working out the bugs].
Oh, so sorry, this was meant for Venezula. You latins all look the same to us.
Posted by: The Man in Red ||
07/14/2005 9:19 Comments ||
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#5
The shipment included 12,000 uniforms, two helicopters, nine dump trucks and other military equipment.
Sounds like the fixings for one fine game of paintball. Dump trucks? You fill them with ice and use 'em as mobile beer coolers.
China and Russia here Friday issued a joint statement on a new world order in the 21st century, setting forth their common stand on major international issues, such as UN reforms, globalization, North-South cooperation, and world economy and trade. Their views on UN reform are a hoot.
The statement was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao after their talks. "Splitters! Sign here..."
During their talks, the two leaders discussed ways to further enhance the strategic and cooperative partnership between China and Russia, and exchanged views on major regional and international issues. Thus making all their neighbors extremely nervous.
The joint statement said the two countries are determined to strengthen their strategic coordination in international affairs and promote peace, stability and prosperity of the world. KUMBYA!
Source: Xinhua
#1
I love how russia always tries to ride the coattails of china and pretend that they are still a world power. The russians are about as powerfull and influencial as Swaziland. China, on the other hand may well be our new competitor. I can easily see a new cold war with china, but china makes the classic communist mistake. Moving backward instead of forward on social, economic and political issues. It was this that destroyed russian (and a host of other) communism and it will destroy china. The chinese will do it for us.
#2
But don't miss the whole point of this exercise found at the very end of the article....
"Different historic backgrounds, cultures, social and political systems, values and modes of development should not be used as pretext for interference in other countries' internal affairs, says the document. "
A sudden and mysterious drop in China's oil consumption helped to push down the International Energy Agency's estimate on Wednesday of global demand for this year.
After growing 11 percent in 2003 and 15.4 percent last year, China's overall oil use declined 1 percent in the second quarter from the comparable quarter a year earlier, the agency said.
The drop is the latest in a series of unclear and often conflicting indications about whether the Chinese economy is still growing strongly. Top officials of the agency said in interviews they believed that the decline was temporary and that they expected Chinese demand to rebound in the second half of the year, but added that world oil prices could take a heavy blow if Chinese use did not increase... I would suggest that the Chinese military has filled its new strategic petroleum reserves to nominal levels at "whatever" price, but now is willing to wait until prices drop to "top off".
#1
Steven Green over at Vodkapundit thinks it may be a sign the Chinese economy is tanking: But what happens if China's economy tanks? Well, they'd probably do what most dictatorships do: Send in the tanks.
Usually, one of two groups gets attacked:
1) Some unpopular locals
2) Some unpopular neighbor country
And in that order, too. Hitler went after Germany's Jews long before he struck out at Poland. The Soviets dealt with their kulaks before establishing hegemony over Eastern Europe. When things are bad at home, you persecute some minority to keep The People happy. When that fails, you wage some foreign war to keep them distracted.
Now, here's a telling bit of trivia â China has been attacking their unpopular local people for months now. Attacks on Japanese merchants and businesses began in earnest back in April.
If - if - China's economy really is stalling, today's oil figures reflect things as they were starting back in April. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but that's one hell of a coincidence.
And when Beijing runs out of Japanese to run out of town? If history is any guide, then Taiwan will be the next target.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/14/2005 11:11 Comments ||
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#2
I had the same thought.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/14/2005 11:11 Comments ||
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#3
Chinese automobile owners make less money and are much more price sensitive to the doubling of oil prices than in the advanced countries. They are driving less and using public transportation/bikes/feet.
Posted by: ed ||
07/14/2005 11:31 Comments ||
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#4
Nothing stalls a manufacturing economy like high energy prices. As China is export driven and the Fed is containing inflation with interest rate hikes, the effects of the increases will have to be absorbed domesticly until China can raise prices to the US. But if they try to do domestic crackdowns to suppress the reaction, foreign purchasers start to fear supply interruptions and may look to another large country as an alternative/back up supplier. India, anyone?
A tight time for Chinese leadership is approaching.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/14/2005 11:34 Comments ||
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#5
What leads to my suspicions is that first of all, all imports of oil are controlled by the government, not purely economic forces. Second, that *after* they slammed the brakes on the commercial increase in oil consumption, their *national* oil consumption still jumped. So, if oil isn't going to commercial or consumption, where is it going? That last bit is that a strategic petroleum reserve has a very fixed nominal level--once it is achieved, further consumption suddenly drops like a rock. Which seems to be the case here.
#7
Green seems to be echoing what I have been writing here and on my blog for a couple of years.
Moose's suggestion about the topping off of the reserve is possible. I would also point out that energy price in China were heavily subsidized by the government, and the prices were not permitted to rise until recently.
One thing that you can be certain about is that in this centralized economy, the change has little to do with consumption and far more to do with government policy.
#8
Internal enemies... I would think China would get medieval on the Turkeman people of Xinjiang province long before they went for Taiwan. The Turkeman are muslims and many trained in Afghanistan so any crackdown can be done under cover of the War on Terror without disrupting trade and crashing their economy; risking war with the US; and the destruction of the big dam. Logistically it'd also be a lot easier and provide training beyond the prying eyes of western observers (being in the middle of nowhere and still within China and all).
I believe the Chinese neighbors butting up against Xinjiang have oil. By the way. I would think a pipeline would be cheaper for China than trying to build a navy to protect shipping lines. Another reason to secure Xinjiang.
#9
Interesting point, RJS! Could this be a beginning of the end. I've questioned (not asserted) that myself here several times. They've also had a couple of Naval accidents out at sea, potentially showing a lack of O&M of their subs/fleet. If they're not putting money into the military, where is it going?
Posted by: BA ||
07/14/2005 15:30 Comments ||
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#10
Before pursuing this further, is there any evidence that China has and has filled a strategic reserve? I know we have one, and it's certainly reasonable for other countries to have one, but does China have one?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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#11
Damn this is crazy? Are you freepers implying that with an increase in price consumption dropped? That's olde think? It's a trick! The wiley Chinee have been forcing every household to keep 12 quarts of light sweet on their back stoop! We can't win. It's the end...... Okay suckers....
#13
Even desperate to distract internal dissention, would China really risk a war right now? It would be *easy* for the US to cut off China's oil at the source, and a tanking economy will go up in flames.
The US wouldn't even have to lift a finger to actually stop ships, just threaten to unleash all our subs on a world-wide sink--anything-bound-for-china spree, and shipping companies on their own would cancel all service to China. Their state run fleet is small enough that they could be sunk or captured relatively quickly.
Not having a world-wide blue water navy means that when war starts, you have no ocean trade. See Germany, World War I, World War II, for examples.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/14/2005 16:29 Comments ||
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China will attack Taiwan at a time of its choosing. It will not care the cost. As we've discussed before, here, China is willing to pay just about any price to have Taiwan.
The Chinese believe the United States will not be able to prevent this. Why? Because it's preordained is the primary reason. Secondly, they believe they will be able to force a capitulation before we can react. Just a few short months ago we saw the KMT leadership in Peking, not returning to power but as supplicants. That, more than the investments on the mainland, suggest the Taiwanese readiness to roll over and play dead for the right "Hong Kong style" offer.
Folks, there are a couple of things the Chinese leaders have to do, HAVE to do, to survive the next decade in power. Obtain resources and defend the homeland. Even then, it will probably not be possible. Taiwan represents both of these needs, and reunites the last major part of China to Peking's control. Remember, the world revolves around Peking. All who come there are supplicants to the Peacock Throne.
#15
But will the Chinese people support a war over Taiwan? Lately there's been a lot of movement from the farms to the cities. Why? Because with a hot economy, come hot jobs. If a war puts these jobs at risk, suddenly you will have a lot of angry and unemployed people, and perhaps a tipping point. This is something the Chinese communists must take into account. Is it worth the risk? These are not the '50s and '60s.
Posted by: R ||
07/14/2005 18:38 Comments ||
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China's energy consumption doesn't conform to expected trends. The 15% increase in oil consumption last year was part of an overall increase in energy consumption of 15% while the economy grew by 9%. In a normal economy energy consumption grows by less than economic growth (about .6). Whilst there are number of explanation for this, none can explain the sheer scale of the phenomena. So forget about a strategic oil reserve. The same phenomena applies to coal. Its probably as simple as the Chinese economy has slowed sharply. The recent surge in Chinese steel exports supports this view.
#2
OK, while Ishihara seems to be a class-A nativist asshole, his reasons for trashing French as a language are honestly amusing. But no Japanese speaker has basis to make fun of another language for eccentric and inefficient counting methods, given the multiple contradictory numbering schemes present in that language.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/14/2005 14:36 Comments ||
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#3
I was taken by the resort to litigation and the claims that economic livelyhood is "hindered." Would seem they learned a little bit of the less admirable parts of French culture as well as the language. As to Ishihara, I think he's scum and deserving of many bad things. That has a little bit to do with my grandfather dying at Saipan.
Democrat leaders and editorialists accusing Karl Rove of treason for referring to CIA agent Valerie Plame in an off-the-record interview are ignorant of the law, according to the Washington attorney who spearheaded the legislation at the center of the controversy.
Plame's circumstances don't meet several of the criteria spelled out in a 1982 statute designed not only to protect the identity of intelligence agents but to maintain the media's ability to hold government accountable, Victoria Toensing told WorldNetDaily.
Toensing â who drafted the legislation in her role as chief counsel for the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence â says the Beltway frenzy surrounding Plame's alleged "outing" as a covert agent is a story arising out of the capital's "silly season."
"The hurricane season started early and so did the August silly stories," Toensing said. "What is it that qualifies as a story here?"
Democrat leaders are accusing Rove of exposing Plame's identity as an act of retribution against her husband Joe Wilson, who returned from a CIA assignment to Niger with a report disputing the administration's suspicion that Iraq wanted to acquire uranium from the African nation.
Toensing, now a private attorney in Washington, says Plame most likely was not a covert agent when Rove referred to her in a 2003 interview with Time magazine's Matt Cooper.
The federal code says the agent must have operated outside the United States within the previous five years. But Plame gave up her role as a covert agent nine years before the Rove interview, according to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
Kristof said the CIA brought Plame back to Washington in 1994 because the agency suspected her undercover security had been compromised by turncoat spy Aldrich Ames.
Moreover, asserts Toensing, for the law to be violated, Rove would have had to intentionally reveal Plame's identity with the knowledge that he was disclosing a covert agent.
Toensing believes Rove's waiver allowing reporters testifying before the grand jury to reveal him as a source â signed more than 18 months ago â shows the Bush strategist did not believe he was violating the law.
Rove, according to Cooper's notes, apparently was trying to warn the reporter not to give credence to Wilson's investigation, because he had no expertise in nuclear weapons and was sent to Africa on the recommendation of his wife. Wilson had claimed he was sent by Vice President Cheney.
Another element necessary for applying the law is that the government had to be taking affirmative measures to conceal the agent's identity.
Toensing says that on the contrary, the CIA gave Plame a desk job in which she publicly went to and from work, allowed her spouse to do a mission in Africa without signing a confidentiality agreement and didn't object to his writing an op-ed piece in the New York Times about his trip.
Columnist Robert Novak, who first published Plame's name, also apparently didn't think it was a big deal, Toensing said, or he would have put it in the first paragraph.
Novak's aim was to expose the incompetence of the CIA, she argued.
"These are the kinds of stories we wanted to still be put out there when we passed the law," she said. "We only wanted to stop the methodical exposing of CIA personnel for the purpose of assassination."
KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will continue to be a favourite destination for tourists from Saudi Arabia, especially among families and honeymoon couples. This is the opinion of well-known travel writer Mirza Al-Khuwailidi whose article was published in a leading Saudi Arabian newspaper, Asharqalawsat, Wednesday. Mirza based his view on recent terrorist incidents in several countries including England which was once popular with the Arabs.
"Malaysia looks set to benefit from the influx of tourists from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries during the hot season this year, especially after the bombings in London, which was their favourite destination earlier," Mirza wrote from Dammam city in Saudi Arabia. He estimated that more than 3 million Saudi Arabians would go on vacation overseas this year. They normally spent about RM30,000 each while on vacation, he added.
An executive of Saudi tour agency Al-Muajjal supported Mirza's opinion, saying he had received many bookings from newly-weds who wished to spend their honeymoon in Malaysia.
Mirza said Malaysia had taken the right steps by providing signboards in Arabic at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and large limousines for Arab families to travel in.
WASHINGTON - A major source of chemical contamination in the Arctic turns out to be bird droppings. Wind currents and human activities long have been blamed for fouling the pristine Arctic. But a study by a group of Canadian researchers found that the chemical pollution in areas frequented by seabirds can be many times higher than in nearby regions.
Polluted poop. You heard it here first!
Researchers led by Jules Blais of the University of Ottawa studied several ponds below the cliffs at Cape Vera on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic.
Scientists report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the ponds, which receive falling guano from a colony of northern fulmars that nest on the cliffs, have highly elevated amounts of chemicals.
"If long-range transport was the only thing bringing these chemicals north, we would expect to see a very even distribution," Blais said in a telephone interview.
Canadian Government funds this to get a desired result then rags on us 'cause the birdy has polluted poop...
But the chemicals are concentrated in some places, he said, "and we have found a reason ... they can follow biological connections."
Blais calls it the boomerang effect.
I call it looking for a way to blame someone for something.
"These contaminants had been washed into the ocean, where we generally assumed they were no longer affecting terrestrial ecosystems. Our study shows that sea birds, which feed in the ocean but then come back to land, are returning not only with food for their young but with contaminants as well. The contaminants accumulate in their bodies and are released on land," Blais said.
Was he breathing heavily when he said this?
The guano that falls into the ponds includes bits of fish, carrion, squid and other marine creatures eaten by the fulmars.
Research team member John Smol of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, said "the effect is to elevate concentrations of pollutants such as mercury and DDT to as much as 60 times that of areas not influenced by seabird populations."
Todd O'Hara of the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks said the report adds new detail to "the role of biotransport in bringing contaminants to the Arctic with clear local impacts.
Well a US university had to join in. Gotta legitimize a way to blame "W" for something...
"Certainly, I believe biotransport is an underestimated process and for subsistence users it clearly indicates the need for local assessments of food sources and not to generalize about Arctic contamination," said O'Hara, who was not part of Blais team.
Chemicals such as PCB and DDT are no longer being released into the environment in North America, Blais noted, but were designed to last a long time and are doing so. In addition, he said, other chemicals still in use are toxic and also can last in the environment.
We still gotta blame someone...
Perhaps the lessons learned from PCBs should be applied to other hazardous chemicals too, Blais said.
The area of the study is one of the most desolate on Earth, Blais said, and the local food chain is dependent on the guano from the seabirds.
Dependent on poop. That is a smelly situation...
Their droppings encourage the growth of mosses and plankton in the ponds, which feed lots of insects, which in turn support small birds called snow buntings, he said.
If the seabirds were to disappear the whole ecosystem would disappear, he said.
And Chicken Little said, ....
"If you fly overhead you can see green mosses growing under the cliffs," Blais said. "What is particularly striking is that these contaminants are getting concentrated at oases of biological productivity in the north."
Did Prof Blais talk to the birds himself? Fly over? I thought planes caused noise pollution to sensitive birdy's ears...
The research was funded by Science and Engineering Research Canada, the EJLB Foundation, the Polar Continental Shelf Project and the Northern Scientific Training Program.
...and your various eco-nutz association lobbying groups, in co-ordination with moveon.org, no doubt!
#1
Research team member John Smol of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, said "the effect is to elevate concentrations of pollutants such as mercury and DDT to as much as 60 times that of areas not influenced by seabird populations."
Absolute measurements, please. Raising 1 picogram to 60 picograms wouldn't impress me, yet it's still "60 times higher".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/14/2005 20:05 Comments ||
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The insertion of human stem cells into monkey brains runs a "real risk" of altering the animals' abilities in ways that might make them morally more like us, scientists said today.
A panel of 22 experts -- including primatologists, stem cell researchers, lawyers and philosophers -- debated the possible consequences of the technique for more than a year.
While the group agrees it is "unlikely that grafting human stem cells into the brains of non-human primates would alter the animals' abilities in morally relevant ways," the members "also felt strongly that the risk of doing so is real and too ethically important to ignore."
In the case of Alzheimer's research, for example, grafting human stem cells into a monkey brain would be designed to reinstate lost memory function, but "we cannot be certain that this will be the only functional result," the report concludes.
There was "considerable controversy" within the group, which disagreed on whether such experiements, some already underway, should proceed.
#1
Dr Moreau would have had it so much easier today. Research ethics have been replaced with "trial hoping for error" that results in something grotesque. In that monkey testing is legal, but human testing is not, yet they share 99.9% of their DNA; is it legal to own a creature that is 99.95% human and .05% monkey? 99.99%? Remember that the commonly believed "distinguishing characteristic" of "human intelligence" does not exist as an objective criteria. Right now, we know that a monkey may develop a vocabulary of over 1000 words, posess a significant long-term memory, show aptitude at learning and using tools, and can even speak in sign language. Is that any less human than an austistic child?
Posted by: Abu Clay ||
07/14/2005 16:13 Comments ||
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#4
'moose:
Is that any less human than an austistic child?
Well, my son goes to pre-school with one. She wanders about the preschool playground singing to herself. My son calmly says to me, "Oh. That's Isabel...."
She has no attention span... Some of the monkeys do... That's what makes this spooky, though your analogy is well taken...
#6
Anonymoose, you are desribing an ape (a primate), albeit some monkeys do have some of the traits.
Baboons have been used in ancient Egypt as temple slaves, because they gave themselves well to training for menial tasks that still required some intelligence, though.
Of course, it's not only monkeys/apes that have some abilities formerly attributable to humans only. Google "Alex parrot" to get some idea about how the boundary between human abilities and non-human ones (beside primates) is pretty fuzzy to say the least.
150 mi. south of New Orleans.
Something like this was never supposed to happen, but it has. Thunder Horse, the largest and most advanced semi-submersible platform in the world, was built to extract oil and natural gas from more than 6,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.
Right now, it appears as though the platform is struggling just to stay afloat. At this point, no one knows why. Last Friday, Thunder Horse was one of many platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that was evacuated as a precaution in advance of Hurricane Dennis.
But when the weather cleared, Thunder Horse was the only platform in trouble. In fact, according to the Coast Guard, other smaller rigs in the area sustained little or no damage. So, as a result, the Coast Guard is not prepared to say the rig's list of some 20 to 30 degrees was brought on by the storm.
Officials with BP are obviously concerned about the safety of their multi-billion dollar investment and are working as quickly as possible to determine what went wrong and what must be done to correct it. But at this point, BP says priority number one is making sure this cutting-edge platform won't sink, even if that means delaying the scheduled start of drilling.
Developed at a cost $5 billion, the Thunder Horse is a joint venture involving BP, which owns 75% of the platform and Exxon Mobil that owns the other 25%. The semi-submersible weighs more than 50,000 tons and is designed to drill in waters up to 6,000 feet deep. The Thunder Horse and its 185-man crew is combination drilling, processing and exporting facility with a deck large enough to accommodate three football fields.
In February of this year, officials with the Bush administration who were on hand for the platforms dedication, called the Thunder Horse the largest and most technologically advanced semi-submersible in the world.Interior Secretary Gale Norton proudly stated the platform exemplifies the evolution in energy production technology that will provide a means of increasing domestic energy production in difficult to reach places in a safe and environmentally sensitive way.
Thunder Horse was scheduled to begin operating later this year,but at this point, officials are just trying to keep it from sinking. Impressive pictures at the link. The thing is huge.
Hundreds of Kenyan security personnel in armored cars and helicopters pursued bandits on Thursday in a lawless northern region where at least 75 people have died in a cycle of grisly revenge killings this week.
Police said 26 children were among those shot and hacked to death in one massive attack and several reprisal strikes in the Marsabit district just south of the Ethiopian border.
"The security operation will continue until peace is restored," Kenyan police said in a statement. "We appeal to the affected people to remain calm and discard the temptation to avenge the attack as the security forces pursue the attackers."
The latest flare-up in a remote region known for violent clashes and with little representation from central government began when some 400 cattle-rustlers killed about 50 ethnic Gabra villagers in Dida Galgalu early on Tuesday.
Members of the Gabra clan responded by attacking a truck full of rival Borana, whom they accused of the initial massacre.
A further two Boranas were killed Thursday morning in another reprisal by the Gabras, police said.
Local police officer Robert Kirui told Reuters his men were also checking unconfirmed reports three Borana women were killed in Marsabit Forest on Wednesday night fetching firewood.
And there were also unconfirmed reports five Kenyans from a local non-governmental organization, Farm Africa, were missing and presumed killed.
Amid all the confused versions from the area, police said the definite, confirmed death toll was 75 -- 56 Gabras including 22 children; nine Boranas including four children; and 10 bandits responsible for Tuesday's large-scale attack.
Scores more have been injured in the clashes.
Police and army units were using trucks and three helicopters to pursue the Borana raiders believed linked to Ethiopia's Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebel movement.
GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF NEGLECT
Violence in Kenya's arid east and north is frequent as clans fight for scant resources, and livestock raids over the borders with Ethiopia and Somalia are frequent.
"When you have the environment degraded, it is always so that we are going to fight over the few resources that are left," Kenya's 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner and deputy environment minister Wangari Maathai told Reuters.
She said the remote northeastern region's environmental needs had been long neglected: "If they had resources they would not be killing each other over grazing ground and water."
People in the area said the situation was tense, with terrified inhabitants flooding the roads away from the affected region, and transport to Marsabit virtually stopped.
"It will take long before calm returns," Hilary Halkano, of the Marsabit Catholic Diocese, told Reuters by phone.
The Kenyan Red Cross (KRC) was sending emergency supplies and a medical team to attend the wounded.
Local media united in outrage at what the Daily Nation called "Kenya's killing fields."
Another daily, The Standard, berated the government for historically neglecting the region and not bothering to send any high-level officials after Tuesday's massacre.
The attackers "seem to have hived off one part of the country in which they continue to perpetrate anarchy as the government sits on its hands and treats insecurity in this border district with condemnable levity."
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.
