MINSK. July 23 (Interfax) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who came on the official visit to Belarus on Sunday has called for the implementation of Vladimir Lenin's formula on the unacceptability to exploit people. Of course, the signing of another multi-billion military-technical agreement might have something to do with his visit. We should implement Lenin's formula on the unacceptability to exploit a person by another person, the Venezuelan president said. (YJCMTSU)
Moreover, he urged to resist the hegemony of capitalism.
"The hegemony of Chavezism is far more preferable. Ask anybody!"
One wanted to make a colony of the country, but we prevented this, Chavez said, adding that all Venezuela wants is not to be deceived or colonized... and maybe hold fraudulent elections by quashing dissent, jailing opponents and extending my time in office through votes widely considered illegitimate but really thats all Venezuela wants.
Belarus, just as Venezuela, is building a socially oriented state, the Venezuelan president said, adding that he is going to sign a unity pact with Belarus. Other legs of Chavez's tour will include simmilar beacons of civility such as Qatar, Iran and Vietnam.
#4
has called for the implementation of Vladimir Lenin's formula on the unacceptability to exploit people.
In no country but inSoviet Country was the worker so exploited, nowehre elose he got as small a share of the producty of his labor, nowhere else was he forced to work in as dangerous and unhealthy conditions than in Soviet Union. And no other country restblished slavery (disguised on a penitenciary system called Gulag) except Worker's Paradise. In no other place was he as thoroughly exploited than by Lenin and his successors.
::crackle crackle:: "Kim? Kim? I'm sorry, I must be in a bad cell." ::crackle crackle:: "And now we're going into a tunn..."
CHINA'S relationship with its former satellite North Korea is unravelling fast, underlined by reports yesterday that the People's Bank of China has frozen all North Korea's accounts. South Korean parliamentarian Park Jin said he had learned on a visit to Washington that through its action the Chinese central bank had responded to persistent North Korean counterfeiting of its currency, the yuan. A spokesman for the People's Bank of China yesterday declined to deny Mr Park's claim, saying, however, that the bank had not yet issued a statement confirming the claim.
Mr Park's account helps explain why China did not respond directly to the US's imposition of sanctions on Banco Delta Asia in Macau, a Chinese special administrative region. Washington, which froze $32million worth of accounts at the bank, accused North Korea of circulating counterfeit US dollars printed in North Korea, which has long used Macau as its principal international financial contact point. Indeed, Mr Park said China was working alongside the US to track and smash North Korea's counterfeiting operations.
It is 10 days since the UN Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1695 -- drafted chiefly by China -- responding to North Korea's launch of seven missiles by blocking the shipment of materials Pyongyang might use for the construction of missiles or nuclear weapons, demanding that it suspend its missile program and urging that it return without pre-conditions to the six-party talks -- with China, the US, South Korea, Russia and Japan.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder what the breaking point will be with China, before they finally get a major case of the ass and launch a punitive expedition on the Norks like they did to Vietnam (not that it worked.)
It would be a godsend to US intelligence, to see how the "new model Chinese army" would actually perform in real conditions.
#2
I am not sure the Chicoms will invade but it would be an intelligence godsend if they did. We have satellites over there, the Japanese do, and so do the Indians. Between the 3 of us, we should get some good signal intel, and lots of photos. Plus, the NorKors may be willing to share their "frustrations" with certain assets of the South Korean CIA. Hell, with the present leadership of South Korea, the NorKors might even try an appeal to Korean nationalism to beat back the Chicoms.
#5
The Chinese don't want to invade. That's wishful thinking.
Counterfeiting the Yuan was a pretty dumb move, though. The highest denomination, 100, is only worth about $12. The value of the aid given by China is much greater than a few tons of 100 RMB notes. And besides, counterfeiting the Yuan is the job of Chinese gangs.
#6
gromky: Counterfeiting the Yuan was a pretty dumb move, though. The highest denomination, 100, is only worth about $12. The value of the aid given by China is much greater than a few tons of 100 RMB notes. And besides, counterfeiting the Yuan is the job of Chinese gangs.
China is a lot closer to North Korea. North Koreans can enter China pretty much at will with either fake papers, or through the border (tens of thousands of North Korean refugees certainly have, many without even paying off North Korean border guards). The average North Korean is more likely to speak Chinese than he is to speak English. Plus, every Chinese province speaks its native language/dialect, so there is no native Mandarin accent. Meaning, of course, that a North Korean Mandarin accent would arouse no suspicion - i.e. North Koreans can pass for Chinese in China, based on both physical features and accent. All they have to say is that they're from some faraway province. Since all of China's provincial languages/dialects are mutually unintelligible anyway, no one could tell the North Koreans were foreign even if they were heard speaking Korean, since most people don't know what Korean sounds like. The Chinese national ID card is a real piece of crap that makes the fake documents you can get near Times Square in NYC look like veritable works of art. Bottom line, I think it would be way easier to launder counterfeit yuan than counterfeit dollars. China is mostly a cash economy, so large sums of cash don't arouse suspicion.
#8
gromky: The Chinese don't want to invade. That's wishful thinking.
I'll have to agree with that. They're very bottom line-oriented. Wars cost money. It's not like there's anything in North Korea they want that they're not currently getting, anyway. Plus, the South Korean reaction is something China has to think about. If China invades, and South Korea jumps in to defend the territorial integrity of the Korean motherland, then things could get expensive and bloody very, very fast. The South Koreans are cosying up to the Chinese because they see no risk in it - they have a free get-out-of-jail card from Uncle Sam. If China invades, my feeling is that South Korea will jump in to push the Chinese back. Left- and right-wing South Koreans are positively rabid about territorial issues. Don't expect them to stand back and watch China take North Korea.
Given the risks and the complete absence of any benefit, there's no reason for China to invade. If China wants Kim Jong-Il gone, it would be better off engineering a change of leadership, much like the Soviets did in the Warsaw Pact countries whenever they thought things were moving in the wrong direction.
#9
I doubt China is inclined to put teeth into anything it does given NorK's "deterrent". It may, however, apologetically nibble at the edges to further destabilize Kimmy's peculiar brand of "government". That combined with other countries hitting him with harder sanctions can't help much.
#12
They could take Kimmie out any time they want - and won't hesitate, when it serves.
And if the NKor threat disappeared tomarrow the Americans would be out of there at warp speed. Chinese financial assistance [which is doable] with some American bucks kicked in, should allow the SKors to gracefully absorb the North without a nightmare scenario. So the real question is - why do the Chinese want the Americans [even at reduced levels] to remain on the penisula?
#13
WC6430, the Chinese obsession with regaining their lost territories. They have done a pretty good job so far - Tibet, Xijiang, HK, etc. N Korea was a part of China in the past (as was the Russian Far East).
#14
This yuan thing makes me wonder whether NKor is merging with the Chinese criminal undereconomy. I mean, it's essentially a legal free-fire zone, at a time when the mainland is trying, fitfully, to regularize its legal situation. Is North Korea getting colonized by Chinese criminal gangs, or is it moving to become the largest criminal enterprise in East Asia?
I can't imagine it coming to blows, but there might be some situation involving more rigorous Chinese policing of the border, and a cutting-off of oil deliveries. The stealing-trains thing is starting to come into focus, don't you think?
As for the Chinese trying to replace the NKor leadership with someone more malleable, since when has North Korea *ever* been that responsive to the wishes of their patrons? The Soviets found the Kims pretty intractable back in the day, and I've never seen any sign of the Chinese having any better luck. How would they get the leverage to shift leadership *short* of an armed invasion and occupation of Pyongyang?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/25/2006 9:07 Comments ||
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#15
Maybe the Chinks can 'buy' their trains back with a few bales of newly found yuans... Better yet, hire the Kimmie Krooks to print the money for China and cut their treasury overhead expenses.
#16
How would they get the leverage to shift leadership *short* of an armed invasion and occupation of Pyongyang?"
I don't know if you're kidding or not. Without China supplying them energy, food, industrial goods, etc. they would fold in months. He might go out with a whimper, he might go out with a bang, but Kimmie has a pack of people, those guys with more medals than Georgy Zhukov for example, who would be happy to take over - so go out he would.
#18
As far as food goes, they'll just play the starvin' orphans card to cover their military & elites, which is all they care about. The rest is a matter of hunkering down & smuggling, if my guess about the "greatest criminal gang in East Asia" thing is on the mark.
Remember last year, when the Chinese turned off the oil taps? Did the Chinese get much of anything from it? If they did, it wasn't obvious.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/25/2006 10:19 Comments ||
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#19
Oddly enough one of the trump cards that Dear Leader has is that if the Chinese oust him, it will be interpreted throughout the world as a US victory.
China does not want to giv the US such a victory and so China ends up screwing itself.
#20
Counterfeit Yuan is a big problem in China. When a was there a couple of years ago I remember my friend checking all the bills he would receive as change. Apparently most everybody checks regularly. I never did ask where the phoney money came from. I figured since China pirates everything else that it would be a home grown problem. But now that I think about it, if you were caught producing phoney money in China you would never be seen or heard from again. It would make sense that it comes from NKor.
#21
Just as likely the Chinese [correctly] assume that taking out the NKors will result in Japanese shifting into high gear to rearm. However, it won't stop the Chinese from 'inviting' [along with economic incentives] the Skors to occupy the area with any Chinese and remaining American troops departing by a verifiable schedule.
#22
Sure, there's a lot of counterfeit money in China. You check every 100 and 50 Yuan note that you take. Shopkeepers certainly do!
The latest counterfeit note that I saw actually had an ultraviolet reflective part. It wasn't clear like the real notes, but it would have passed a cursory inspection.
#23
mhw: Oddly enough one of the trump cards that Dear Leader has is that if the Chinese oust him, it will be interpreted throughout the world as a US victory.
China does not want to giv the US such a victory and so China ends up screwing itself.
Kind of amusing actually.
I'm afraid you've lost me here. Invading North Korea will be a costly proposition in men (very significant in an era of compulsory one-child families and no welfare state, and high casualties potentially a regime-ending threat) and money. It will make East Asian countries (most of which think of North Korea as a problem primarily for the US) a lot more suspicious of China. North Korea might nuke Beijing in response to an invasion. South Korea might intervene, making a Chinese defeat likely. China can't use nukes against South Korea, because of Uncle Sam's nuclear umbrella. These are just some of the possible risks and costs to China of an invasion.
The benefit is that North Korea stops printing Chinese currency. I fail to see how this is a good trade-off for China, whatever the benefits to the US.
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House contender in 2008, said on Monday the Bush administration had hurt working Americans and Democrats must offer new ideas to strengthen the middle class. Higher taxes, more government regulation you might ask?
"Americans are earning less while the costs of a middle-class life have soared," Clinton told the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, a group that aided her husband Bill Clinton's rise to the presidency in 1992 but has clashed in recent years with the party's more liberal wing. "A lot of Americans can't work any harder, borrow any more or save any less," she said in unveiling the group's "American Dream Initiative," a package of proposals to make college and home ownership more affordable, help small businesses, improve retirement savings and expand health insurance coverage. And a Pony.
Clinton said President George W. Bush and Republicans had "made a mess out of the country's finances." Rewriting her husband's famous 1992 campaign slogan, "It's the economy, stupid," she declared: "It's the American dream, stupid."
The yearlong initiative headed by Clinton was designed to give the party new ideas for midterm elections in November and for the White House race in 2008. Clinton said she hoped the agenda would "unite Democrats and help elect Democrats" in November, when the party must pick up 15 seats in the House of Representatives and six seats in the Senate to regain control of Congress.
"This plan will make the basics of life in the middle class -- health care, education and retirement -- affordable for those who take responsibility," Clinton said. "These ideas will make sure every American will get a fair wage, access to college and home ownership and a path out of poverty and into the middle class," she said. Sooo, they're gonna pay for my college, guarantee me a cushy job, and provide me with a nice house with a white picket fence?
Two other possible 2008 presidential contenders, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, also addressed the conference of 375 elected Democratic officials from 42 states. "Everybody in the country understands what this administration has done wrong," Vilsack said. "It is important now for this country to understand what we need to do that's right."
Bayh said Democrats needed to reach out to the middle class if they wanted to reclaim control of Congress. I don't think raising taxes is gonna do it, Evan ole boy.
Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz rejected the Democratic claims about the economy. "Only liberal Democrats like Hillary Clinton could attack an economy that has produced 5.4 million jobs in the last three years, grew 5.6 percent in the first quarter, increased payroll employment in 47 states and is the envy of the industrialized world," he said.
While much of the agenda covers familiar Democratic territory, it adds some new flourishes. An "American Dream Grant" would award money to states based on attendance and graduation from state colleges, while American Dream Accounts would enhance retirement savings and federally funded $500 "baby bonds" would be issued to each child born in America. As I said, a Socialist Paradise.
It also includes a commission to evaluate corporate subsidies and new rules to rein in federal spending. And a Pony. Don't forget the Pony!
The agenda is one of several packages of Democratic ideas floated by party groups and leaders who have yet to rally around a single party-wide agenda similar to the successful Republican "Contract with America" in 1994.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/25/2006 12:46 ||
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#1
Since when is the American Dream a Socialist dream?
#3
She's talking about the Government financing everyone's American Dream. That's socialism. Where does the Government get all the money to finance this? Higher taxes. Redistribution of wealth through Government Agencies is what she's advocating here. American Dream Accounts would enhance retirement savings and federally funded $500 "baby bonds" would be issued to each child born in America. The only place to get this much money is higher taxes on the European model. This is a sure-fire way to wreck the economy and stifle production.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/25/2006 15:53 Comments ||
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#4
I was listening to Rush today and I agree with him that this must be the fourth or fifth Annual Democratic Leadership Conference I have heard about this year. If they keep holding them maybe, just maybe they can all agree on a campaign theme. I think that they keep having these Annual Democratic Leadership Conference is because the themes that have come out were laughable to the general public so they decided to have another and then another. Why dont they stick to their original themes of the last six years:
-Bush stole the elections
-Bush lied about WMDs
-Bushexposed Valerie Plame
-Bush has No exit Stategery (Dems dont have one either)
-Bush is Hitler
-Bush hates Black People
-Bush is a whore for big business
I mean these have gotten them through the last six years, double-down and roll the dice again.
P.S. if this pic is after the $6k make over she should get a refund.
#8
You can not spend 6 years being antagonists that undermine any effort to move forward and then do a "Jack in the box" Pop goes the weasel and plan to attract voters.
Apollo plan would be nice, but that was someone elses idea.
I rather you just get me a pony. The Mule ain't working out so well. Know what I mean?
Jihad is not being deleted from the new curriculum because it is an integral part of Islamic teachings and Muslim beliefs, said Education Minister Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi on Monday. Jihad has many dimensions which also includes self-negation (Jihad bin nafas). We will teach students the full concept of Jihad, Qazi said during a briefing on the draft of the new curricula for classes 1 to XII. He said that Sura Al Anfal and other suras over which certain western countries had reservations with regard to their Jihad teachings, were still part of the Islamiat curriculum.
He said the new curricula will be implemented in junior classes from the start of the academic year in 2007 and will be introduced in all classes up to grade XII by 2009. The draft curricula has been sent to the provinces for recommendations and will be finalised after their proposals are considered, he added.
Qazi said the revised Islamiyat curriculum has been divided into five topics: Al Quran Al Kareem (Quranic teachings), Imaniyat aur Ibadaat (Haqooq Allah) (Rights of God), Seerat e Tayyaba (Life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Akhlaq aw Adaab (etiquette) (Haqooqul Ibad) and prominent personalities of Islam. He said that Nazara Quran would start in grade-III, leading up to completion of the Holy Quran by the end of grade-VIII. The students will also memorise 19 small suras by the end of class-VIII. The suras include Sura Ikhlas, Sura Nasar, Sura Fathihah and Sura Falaq. He added that students would also memorise with simple translation 27 Quranic supplications recited during prayers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Nice 'shop job, LOL.
Remember when Perv was promising to register and cleanse the madrassahs of this? LOL.
#2
Remember when Perv was promising to register and cleanse the madrassahs of this?
Ashraf wasn't referring to the madrassa curriculum. That remains unchanged.
This jihad stuff is taught in the regular government schools. You don't get a high school diploma and can't go to university if you don't pass "Pakistan studies" and "Islamic studies".
Posted by: john ||
07/25/2006 14:08 Comments ||
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#3
A ten year old in the regular pak education system is supposed to be able to make a speech on jihad and 'shahadat ' (in effect glorifying the suicide attackers).
Posted by: john ||
07/25/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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#4
Nearly everybody in Islamabad reads the Defender-Scimitar & TP.
Women, minorities most affected, and we're blamed of course.
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Negotiations among six key governments over a new global trade agreement collapsed, with the European Union, Brazil, India and Japan blaming U.S. unwillingness to cut farm subsidies.
The impasse led Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, to suspend the five-year-old talks aimed at dismantling market barriers and stimulating global economic growth. The WTO had aimed to seal an accord this year. ``The U.S. was unwilling to accept or even acknowledge the flexibility of others shown in the room,'' EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told a news conference in Geneva after two days of talks. ``This action has led to the round being suspended.''
My fault, I dunnit ...
The WTO is trying to cobble together an accord that would provide at least $96 billion in global tariff reductions, lower subsidies and savings on freight costs. When negotiations began in 2001, the goal was an agreement estimated by the World Bank to be worth $800 billion -- about the size of South Korea's economy. The deal scuttled today would have been worth about as much as Romania's economy.
Pretty soon we'll be looking for a deal the size of Zimbabwe's economy; failing that one the size of North Korea.
``This is a major setback,'' Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told journalists. ``We are as near to a disaster as we can imagine.'' Months may pass before negotiators resume their discussions, he said.
The U.S. didn't sweeten its offer to scale back spending on its farmers because trade partners were more concerned with protecting sensitive commodities such as beef with exemptions from tariff cuts, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said. She laughed off brushed off the other governments' assertions that the U.S. is to blame for the breakdown in talks. ``It's very clear that the United States is in very, very good company,'' Schwab said by telephone to reporters in Washington. ``The countries that have tended to be finger- pointing at this point are the ones that are reluctant to act in terms of market access.''
Lamy has demanded more flexibility from larger governments, calling concessions by the EU, the U.S., India and Brazil vital to the talks. He says the U.S. must impose tougher limits on aid to farmers, the EU has to cut its protective tariffs on commodity imports and India and Brazil should slash customs duties on industrial goods.
The administration of George W. Bush believes it is ``entitled to compensation dollar for dollar, for the farm subsidies they lose, from developing countries in the form of new market access,'' Mandelson said. The U.S. was the sole government among the six not to improve its offer, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said. ``It's very clear that the EU made a movement, and everybody put something on the table except for one country, who said we can't see anything on the table,'' he told reporters.
The EU has offered to trim its farm tariffs by an average of 50 percent, near the 51 percent cut demanded by a group of developing countries led by Brazil and India. The 25-nation bloc also says it wants to shield 8 percent of tariff lines from the highest duty cuts. For its part, the U.S. says the highest tariffs on farm goods should fall by 70 percent and only 1 percent of products be protected from duty cuts. Still, the U.S. has declined to lower the more than $22 billion limit in annual payments that it set last year in the talks. The U.S. now spends as much as $19 billion a year on farm support.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Let me get this straight - we put all of our farmers out of business, chuck self-sufficiency and become dependent on foreign food, and the foreign countries don't even give anything back? Wow, what a deal.
#3
The EU has been so effective in enforcing budget limits and Kyoto limits upon its own members *cough*. Kyoto part II. Let's force the Americans to do our bidding, but we'll not enforce the limits upon ourselves. Right.
#4
The US gives aid to its farmers, but the other countries have import tariffs or protect market segments altogether. I agree that US farm support should be cut (most goes to "corporate" farms, not small family farms), but other countries must open their markets.
#7
Well, it's obvous that we have had a "frank" discussion of the issues. It is not the time for hand-wringing and despair and woe over the impasse. We are talking and not shooting, so we can build on that. I would recommend that we talk some more. We can work this out. We have all the geologic time that we need. So let's get crackin'!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/25/2006 19:01 Comments ||
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#9
I'm all for free trade a such as long as we maintain price stability for the peanut farmers. If that means subsidies I'm for it, if it means import limits, I'm for it, if it means a nuclear strike on some damn foreign cheap ass farmer, then I'm for it. That's what government is for, that and highways.
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon won the first informal poll on who should succeed Kofi Annan as the next United Nations secretary general, diplomats said. Ambassadors representing the UN Security Council's 15 member governments marked ballots in today's ``straw poll,'' indicating they encouraged or discouraged one of the four declared candidates, or had no opinion. The results of the closed-door vote weren't announced.
Ban, 62, narrowly won the poll over UN Undersecretary General Shashi Tharoor, 50, of India, according to two Security Council ambassadors who spoke on condition of anonymity. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, 47, and Jayantha Dhanapala, 67, Sri Lanka's former ambassador to the U.S. finished far back in the voting, the diplomats said.
``As the various candidates consider what the votes were, there may be decisions for additional candidates to enter the race or for one or more candidates to drop out,'' U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters. He refused to say whether the U.S. clearly favored one candidate.
The Security Council will hold a formal vote within the next three months to select the nominee whose name will go before the General Assembly, including all 192 UN members. The winner will take office on Jan. 1, the day after Annan's second five-year term expires. All the candidates are Asians because of a traditional geographic rotation for the post. The last Asian to lead the UN was Myanmar's U Thant, who completed two terms in 1971.
Ban has served as South Korea's ambassador to Austria and worked in his government's missions to the U.S., UN and India. He joined the diplomatic corps in 1970. He received a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1985.
Ban said at an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York earlier this year that the world body was ``overstretched and fatigued'' and that the next secretary general needs greater flexibility to respond to the need for improvements in UN management.
Straw polls have been held frequently throughout UN history, most recently in 1996 when Annan was elected to his first term. The poll showed that one permanent member of the Security Council, later identified as the U.S., would have vetoed then Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I humbly nominate an appropriate replacement for Kofi:
#3
Is this where Bill Clinton rides in on his white horse - or does he save it for the next round?
The UN would be better off with a bag-boy from the local grocer. He'd at least have some notion of reality and the capacity to learn. These goons are all career parasites and thieves who haven't done a day's work in decades.
I hope this equates to picking a new Captain for the Titanic after hitting the 'berg.
#4
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon won the first informal poll on who should succeed Kofi Annan as the next United Nations secretary general, diplomats said.
Statements published by the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO) concerning bird flu outbreaks have not been candid, say critics who accuse the organization of being less than truthful to the public for fear of causing panic.
Although cluster outbreaks have occurred in Asia, Turkey, and Iraq this year, WHO refused to admit that they could be caused by human-to-human transmission, even though it was aware such transmissions were possible years earlier.
Following an Indonesian outbreak that was difficult to conceal, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng finally admitted that there were "about a half dozen" instances of human-to-human transmission.
WHO maintains that these clusters occurred due to group contact with a common infected animal source; however, no other agency has been allowed to examine the evidence to determine if WHO's conclusion is correct.
WHO stated that "even if human-to-human transmission did occur, it was in a very limited way," and immediately reassured the scientific community that it did not extend beyond the immediate community. Scientific evidence has shown that the H5N1 strain, which is deadly to humans, can be passed from person to person.
After genetic data leaked from a conference, Researcher Dr. Henry L. Niman was able to determine that although WHO did not give incorrect avian flu data, it withheld important truths. Extensive viral mutations had occurred to a greater extent than WHO implied.
Certain nations will not allow WHO to have access to or publish their genetic data, in order to have an advantage in developing vaccines that may soon have worldwide demand.
#1
"finally admitted that there were "about a half dozen instances of human-to-human transmission",
When it gets to 6 odd million, 6 odd thousand even give us a call otherwise shove your scaremongering gawd more people were killed by falling cows last year(possibly).
#2
"Certain nations will not allow WHO to have access to or publish their genetic data, in order to have an advantage in developing vaccines that may soon have worldwide demand."
Nooooooo, really? WHO (LOL!) would be so crass and self-serving?
#3
pihkalbadger: Influenza is the nuclear weapon among diseases, as far its impact on the modern world. Nothing else comes anywhere close to what a killer flu can and will do.
"Can", because flu experts at WHO predicted 300 Million fatalities in the first six months before being ordered by non-medical WHO bureaucrats to downgrade that number to 3 Million.
"Will", because serious flus and killer flues are periodic. They will come as surely as hurricanes.
I have interviewed survivors of the Spanish flu, and their descriptions were horrifying. There is very little even the US can do to reduce what will be the eventual death toll.
Our only effective technique is avoidance, because at full capacity, only 1/10th of our population can possibly be vaccinated in six months after we have the actual virus.
Scientific evaluation of the existing H5N1 strain show that it is far deadlier than H1N1, the Spanish flu. H1N1 killed 16-28% of its victims, H5N1 is maintaining a 50-60% kill rate. Survivors have severely scarred lungs, and no "mild" cases have been detected.
In addition to horrific human losses from the disease itself, there is expected to be an extended period of starvation due to the massive kills of birds and farm animals around the world.
The economic cost is impossible to predict, and could cause the collapse of many economies around the world.
That's right, folks, you did hear it right. Geochemical farts influence global warming.
I think it was the geochili...
Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, according to a team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara). The findings are reported in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles.
Unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and scientists from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes in the ocean floor of the Santa Barbara channel -- called Shane Seep -- near an area known as the Coal Oil Point seep field. The blowout sounded like a freight train, according to the divers. Stand back, lads! Thar she blows! Nip them cigs and stogies....NOW!
Atmospheric methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the most abundant organic compound in the atmosphere, according to the study's authors, all from UC Santa Barbara. Actually, independent sources have researched and confirmed Congressional CO2 and BS are the greatest threats to the planet, next to Jihadis.
"Other people have reported this type of methane blowout, but no one has ever checked the numbers until now," said Ira Leifer, lead author and an associate researcher with UCSB's Marine Science Institute. "Ours is the first set of numbers associated with a seep blowout." Leifer was in a research boat on the surface at the time of the blowouts.
Aside from underwater measurements, a nearby meteorological station measured the methane "cloud" that emerged as being approximately 5,000 cubic feet, or equal to the volume of the entire first floor of a two-bedroom house. The research team also had a small plane in place, flown by the California Department of Conservation, shooting video of the event from the air. Sounds like the full meal deal.
Leifer explained that when this type of blowout event occurs, virtually all the gas from the seeps escapes into the atmosphere, unlike the emission of small bubbles from the ocean floor, which partially, or mostly, dissolve in the ocean water. Transporting this methane to the atmosphere affects climate, according to the researchers. The methane blowout that the UCSB team witnessed reached the sea surface 60 feet above in just seven seconds. This was clear because the divers injected green food dye into the rising bubble plume. Whoa! Cool!
Co-author Bruce Luyendyk, professor of marine geophysics and geological sciences, explained that, to understand the significance of this event (which occurred in 2002), the UCSB research team turned to a numerical, bubble-propagation model. With the model, they estimated methane loss to the ocean during the upward travel of the bubble plume.
The results showed that for this shallow seep, loss would have been approximately one percent. Virtually all the methane, 99 percent of it, was transported to the atmosphere from this shallow seep during the blowout. Next, the scientists used the model to estimate methane loss for a similar size blowout at much greater depth, 250 meters. Again, the model results showed that almost all the methane would be transported up to the atmosphere.
Over geologic time scales, global climate has cycled between warmer, interglacial periods and cooler, glacial periods. Many aspects of the forces underlying these dramatic changes remain unknown. Looking at past changes is highly relevant to understanding future climate changes, particularly given the large increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere due to historically recent human activities such as burning fossil fuels.
One hypothesis, called the "Clathrate Gun" hypothesis, developed by James Kennett, professor of geological sciences at UC Santa Barbara, proposes that past shifts from glacial to interglacial periods were caused by a massive decomposition of the marine methane hydrate deposits.
Methane hydrate is a form of water ice that contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure, called a clathrate hydrate. According to Kennett's hypothesis, climatic destabilization would cause a sharp increase in atmospheric methane -- thereby initiating a feedback cycle of abrupt atmospheric warming. This process may threaten the current climate, according to the researchers. Warmer ocean temperatures from current global climate change is likely to release methane currently trapped in vast hydrate deposits on the continental shelves. However, consumption of methane by microbes in the deep sea prevents methane gas released from hydrates from reaching the ocean surface and affecting the atmosphere.
Bubbles provide a highly efficient mechanism for transporting methane and have been observed rising from many different hydrate deposits around the world. If these bubbles escape singly, most or all of their methane would dissolve into the deep-sea and never reach the atmosphere. If instead, they escape in a dense bubble plume, or in catastrophic blowout plumes, such as the one studied by UC Santa Barbara researchers, then much of the methane could reach the atmosphere. Blowout seepage could explain how methane from hydrates could reach the atmosphere, abruptly triggering global warming.
Thus, these first-ever quantitative measurements of a seep blowout and the results from the numerical model demonstrate a mechanism by which methane released from hydrates can reach the atmosphere. Studies of seabed seep features suggest such events are common in the area of the Coal Oil Point seep field and very likely occur elsewhere.
The authors explain that these results show that an important piece of the global climate puzzle may be explained by understanding bubble-plume processes during blowout events. The next important step is to measure the frequency and magnitude of these events. The UCSB seep group is working toward this goal through the development of a long-term, seep observatory in active seep areas.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/25/2006 16:22 ||
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#1
OK. But it's still Bush's fault.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/25/2006 16:53 Comments ||
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#2
a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor.
#8
In past, some of these blowouts have left the sea floor as pockmarked as the surface of the moon, with gigantic craters created by catastrophic failure of a methane ice layer under the sea floor. I think one big blowout was off the coast of Sweden.
Since some of these ice beds are enormous, this could be bad.
One suggestion is to robotically mine the methane ice for fuel, using some of its energy to convert the CO2 waste product into dry ice.
The dry ice is then pumped back down to replace the missing ice. It is not only a lot colder than methane ice, making it safe, but CO2 gas also doesn't burn in case of a spark.
Eventually the CO2 sublimates, being replaced by water ice, which eventually melts when almost all of the methane ice is long gone.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA moved space shuttle Atlantis from its hangar on Monday to the massive Kennedy Space Center assembly building where it will be attached to a fuel tank and twin booster rockets in preparation for launch next month. Liftoff of Atlantis and six astronauts is targeted for August 27 or 28. The flight marks NASA's return to assembly of the International Space Station following the 2003 Columbia accident.
Atlantis will be hauling a second set of massive solar arrays which are needed to boost the station's power output for partner laboratory modules. Europe's Columbus module is scheduled to arrive next year, followed by Japan's Kibo complex.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2006 00:00 ||
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East Timorese police who had illegally kept weapons in their homes for protection during weeks of unrest surrendered dozens of firearms to Australian peacekeepers yesterday, the head of the force said. The policemen, who stashed the weapons out of fear of attacks by renegade soldiers in May, handed in more than 50 firearms, including M-16s, AK-33s and pistols, Brigadier Mick Slater told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Glad they finally turned in all of those nasty AK-33's.
Security forces tightened their watch with the expected arrival of top government officials and guests from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who are attending the National Science and Technology Week celebration in Central Mindanao. Police and intelligence officers were deployed to strategic places where Secretary Estrella F. Alabastro of the Department of Science and Technology, together with the DOST executive directors, are scheduled to visit for the weeklong mobile science Centrum caravan.
A caravan, you say? Hmmm.
Alabastros group is scheduled to arrive today following the arrival of Dr. Mohamed Noor Yaseen Fatani of the KSA King Abdulaziz University on Sunday. Dr. Zenaida P. Hadji Raof-Laidan, the DOST regional director, said the opening ceremony will be held at the Phela Grande Hotel here Tuesday.
The Science & Technology director of the Philippines has been to haj. Hmmm.
The visiting officials are scheduled to proceed to the Sultan Kudarat Polytechnic State in Koronadal City the following day before their return to Davao City and Manila.
The Minutemen border-watch group is coming to New York to demand that the federal government tighten security at our borders and to promote an eye-opening new book co-authored by Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist. President George Bush once referred to Minutemen volunteers as "vigilantes," but the book promises to give the group "a chance to respond, and to change the nature of the illegal immigration debate in the process, according to a release from the group.
"Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders" is written by Gilchrist and "Unfit for Command" co-author Jerome Corsi. The book hits stores nationwide on July 25, and the following day at noon the authors will appear at New York City's ground zero, a site chosen as a symbolic reminder of the connection between border security and national security.
A number of the terrorist hijackers on 9/11 were in this country illegally, and Gilchrist a Marine Corps veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart notes: "We might have avoided that tragedy had the federal government been willing to enforce the immigration laws already on the books.
"But five years and thousands of lives later, Washington still refuses to do its job. That's why I organized the Minuteman Project, and that's also why I felt compelled to write this book."
The assertions in "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders" include:
The real number of illegal aliens in the U.S. is not 12 million, as the federal government claims, but closer to 30 million.
The IRS known for hounding citizens who make mistakes on their returns has paid out $10 billion in refunds and credits to illegal aliens who used fraudulent Social Security numbers, and it has no intention of going after those who've made fraudulent claims.
Over 3,000 illegal aliens suspected of murdering Americans have fled to Mexico, where they often live openly and without fear of arrest.
"Illegal immigration is out of control, and Americans are paying for it with their pocketbooks and - far too often - with their lives," Corsi declared. "Our government is not being honest with us about the extent of the problem. This book will put a stop to that deception."
#1
Where'd he get that 30 million number? Absent something more substantial than an unsourced comment in a NewsMax article, I tend to get the impression that this is a play from the "Notice me, notice me, damn you!" guide to drawing attention to oneself.
(Immigration is not the hot button for me that it is for some people here in the 'Burg. If it's an issue for you, you should be concerned by this. Nothing will discredit a movement faster than someone "authoritative" going around pulling provocative, yet unsustantiated, assertions out of thin air. Remember Dan Rather and Mary Mapes?)
Posted by: Mike ||
07/25/2006 15:12 Comments ||
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Well, the source is Jim Gilchrist. Don't blame Newsmax - they just reported what he said. The numbers may be unsubstantiated, but Newsmax makes no claim to their validity. As far as credibility goes however, I'd trust Newsmax and their ilk over the NYT and WaPo any day of the week.
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.
MINSK. July 23 (Interfax) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who came on the official visit to Belarus on Sunday has called for the implementation of Vladimir Lenin's formula on the unacceptability to exploit people. 
We should implement Lenin's formula on the unacceptability to exploit a person by another person, the Venezuelan president said. 
CHINA'S relationship with its former satellite North Korea is unravelling fast, underlined by reports yesterday that the People's Bank of China has frozen all North Korea's accounts. South Korean parliamentarian Park Jin said he had learned on a visit to Washington that through its action the Chinese central bank had responded to persistent North Korean counterfeiting of its currency, the yuan. A spokesman for the People's Bank of China yesterday declined to deny Mr Park's claim, saying, however, that the bank had not yet issued a statement confirming the claim. 
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House contender in 2008, said on Monday the Bush administration had hurt working Americans and Democrats must offer new ideas to strengthen the middle class. 
Jihad is not being deleted from the new curriculum because it is an integral part of Islamic teachings and Muslim beliefs, said Education Minister Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi on Monday. Jihad has many dimensions which also includes self-negation (Jihad bin nafas). We will teach students the full concept of Jihad, Qazi said during a briefing on the draft of the new curricula for classes 1 to XII. He said that Sura Al Anfal and other suras over which certain western countries had reservations with regard to their Jihad teachings, were still part of the Islamiat curriculum.
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Negotiations among six key governments over a new global trade agreement collapsed, with the European Union, Brazil, India and Japan blaming U.S. unwillingness to cut farm subsidies.
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- South Korean Foreign Minister 
Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, according to a team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara). The findings are reported in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles.
Security forces tightened their watch with the expected arrival of top government officials and guests from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who are attending the National Science and Technology Week celebration in Central Mindanao. Police and intelligence officers were deployed to strategic places where Secretary Estrella F. Alabastro of the Department of Science and Technology, together with the DOST executive directors, are scheduled to visit for the weeklong mobile science Centrum caravan. 
The Minutemen border-watch group is coming to New York to demand that the federal government tighten security at our borders and to promote an eye-opening new book co-authored by Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist. President George Bush once referred to Minutemen volunteers as "vigilantes," but the book promises to give the group "a chance to respond, and to change the nature of the illegal immigration debate in the process, according to a release from the group.
