Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/13/2010 15:24 ||
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It appears she's had "issues" for quite sometime. Dateline: Braintree, MA. Statement from the current police chief...
“The suspect in the Huntsville shooting, Amy Bishop had been involved in a shooting incident in Braintree, Massachusetts in December of 1986. I located the Day Log from December of 1986 and found that the incident had occurred on December 6th. After finding the report number I looked in our archived files for the report. I was unable to locate the report.
"Officer Ronald Solimini informed me that he wrote the report and said that I wouldn’t find it as it has been missing from the files for over 20 years. He said that former Police Chief Edward Flynn had looked for the report and that it was missing. He believes this was in 1988.”
"Officer Solimini recalled the incident as follows: He said he remembers that Ms. Bishop fired a round from a pump action shotgun into the wall of her bedroom. She had a fight with her brother and shot him, which caused his death. She fired a third round from the shotgun into the ceiling as she exited the home. She fled down the street with the shotgun in her hand. At one point she allegedly pointed the shotgun at a motor vehicle in an attempt to get the driver to stop. Officer Solimini found her behind a business on Washington Street. Officer Timothy Murphy was able to take control of the suspect at gunpoint and seized the shotgun. Ms. Bishop was subsequently handcuffed and transported to the police station under arrest.”
“Officer Solimini informed me that before the booking process was completed Ms. Bishop was released from custody without being charged.”
“I (Chief Frazier) spoke with the retired Deputy Chief who was then a Lieutenant and was responsible for booking Ms. Bishop. He said he had started the process when he received a phone call he believes was from then Police Chief John Polio or possibly from a captain on Chief Polio’s behalf. He was instructed to stop the booking process. At some point Ms. Bishop was turned over to her mother and they left the building via a rear exit.”
Braintree Police Lieutenant Karen MacAleese was a high school classmate and confirmed from photographs that the suspect is the same Amy Bishop who lived in Braintree.
“I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop. It was a difficult time for the department as there had been three (3) shooting incidents within a short timeframe. The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.”
“It is troubling that this incident has come to light. I can assure you that the members of the Braintree Police Department maintain the highest of integrity. Since it was discovered this morning that the report is missing, I have been in contact with Mayor Joseph Sullivan. Mayor Sullivan and I have spoken with District Attorney William Keating and we will be meeting with him next week to discuss this situation. The Mayor supports a full review of this matter and agrees that we want to know where the records are.”
Right now, it appears the family had friends in high places, made a phone call, and had the case broomed. Getting a close look right now as folks that might have squashed the case are the Braintree police chief at the time and the DA at the time, who would be...current congressman William Delahunt.
So stay tuned. This could get very interesting. At the very least, right now, this has "stink" written all over it.
A Port St. Lucie first-grade student was handcuffed and committed to a mental health facility because of her classroom behavior, and her parents are furious that the school took such extreme measures. I know we don't spank children anymore, but wouldn't a spanking have done the job better, quicker, and cheaper?
Mickey Shalansky explained Wednesday what he said happened to his 6-year-old daughter at Parkway Elementary. "She couldn't put her in two handcuffs because her wrists are that small, so she put them both in the same handcuff and left marks on my daughter's arms," Shalansky told WPBF 25 News' Bob Kaple. Sounds like the Mickey's one of those who doesn't believe in spanking...
But a St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office report paints a much different picture. Of a six-year-old desperado?
Deputies said his daughter, Haley, got upset and stormed out her classroom when her teacher asked her to do something. The report said it then escalated into a temper tantrum in the principal's office. Whoa! That's never happened before, has it? That's not the sort of thing you could train teachers and principals to deal with!
According to the incident report, a deputy said Haley was out of control. A six-year-old going out of control isn't a long trip.
It said she "kicked the wall, went over to the desk and threw the calculator, electric pencil sharpener, telephone, container of writing utensils and other objects across the desk." And they let her do that. Nobody even took her firmly by the arm and told her to stop it. Nobody picked her up and parked her butt in a chair and hollered "knock it off!" loud enough to get her attention...
Nobody hugged her firmly from behind, controlling her arms so she couldn't move, quietly and calmly saying, "Shhh, honey, shhh... I'll let go when you are quiet... Shhhh"
She was then handcuffed. A smack on the wrist would have resulted in a lawsuit. A bruise would have guaranteed a multimillion dollar settlement. A crack on the butt would have resulted in hard time with the Amiraults...
"I don't think it should have had to come to this -- you know, to put a little girl, 6 years old, 37 pounds in handcuffs and take her away in a police car," Shalansky said. If you take away all reasonable responses to childish temper tantrums then all that's left are the unreasonable responses...
Even worse is what happened the next day, Haley's parents said. Mom and Pop didn't come to the school to ask what was up with their darling getting hauled off in cuffs?
A deputy was called to the school again after Haley had another tantrum in the classroom and principal's office. The child doesn't learn very well, does she? Mom must have forgotten to say "be a good girl" when she dropped her off.
The child was probably terrified the handcuff/police thing would happen again, and nobody bothered to reassure her.
The sheriff's report said she was yelling, throwing things and hit the principal, who is eight months pregnant. No one was legally able to crack her butt to get her attention and holler "Siddown, y'little brat!" It's too bad there wasn't a grown-up in the room.
Anyone was legally able to smack the desk, making a startlingly loud sound, and shout, "Be quiet! Sit!" It is too bad there wasn't a single grown-up in the room.
This time, she wasn't handcuffed. She was committed to a mental facility. They put a six-year-old in the nut house. Likely she was transported by ambulance, strapped down on a gurney...
"I was terrified," mother Kathy Franklin said. "I left work crying, terrified.
Who cares if you are terrified, Mother? You need to think about your child's feelings at this moment.
Where is my baby? What are they doing with my baby?" Not spanking her, obviously. It's better for them if you give them a sedative and an IV and keep them strapped. Anybody can see that.
Haley's parents said their daughter has a temper problem, but has no history of mental illness. Bullies her Mom and Dad and all around her, but that's not mental illness. That's just doing what she's allowed to do.
Her mother said the school should have called her so she could pick up her daughter rather than have her committed. "Hello? Is this Haley's Mom?... Come and get your pride and joy or it's off to the nut house with her!"
"They have looked at her here," Franklin said of the New Horizons mental health facility. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with my child. I work in daycare. I know what a child that has problems -- you know, I know how to deal with them. I know what they act like." Does she projectile vomit before or after her head spins around 360 degrees?
Shalansky said to have his daughter committed is "just wrong." As is shrieking, hollering, kicking the walls, throwing things, and peeing yourself.
The report also said the school has contacted Haley's parents several times about setting up a meeting to discuss her behavior, but they have never shown up. "A meeting? Hmph. Nuttin' wrong wid my girl! Whudda we need a meeting fer?"
Franklin said she was supposed to meet with school officials Tuesday but had to cancel because she had car problems. Meanwhile, her parents have kept Haley and her sister home from school. Good idea. School's all the better for it.
Probably so are the children. It's hard to focus on learning when one might be hauled off to the loony bin at any moment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Franklin said she was supposed to meet with school officials Tuesday but had to cancel because she had car problems.
It would appear she has much more than... "car problems."
#6
They probably come from the same "parenting philosophy" that says the mere act of raising your voice to your child is abuse. Somehow you are supposed to "reason" with the child in the middle of their tantrums and get them to willingly go along with normal, civilized behavior.
I'm not kidding. My idiot sis in law tried that with my boy once when he was acting up and teasing his cousin. I guess she thought it was a "teachable moment" for this barbarian in child rearing or something because she jumped in before I had a chance to do anything. Naturally it didn't work. He wasn't paying attention to her at all, but she thought she got through to him how his behavior was "not optimum" (her words).
She later saw me temporarily take away his beloved stuffed duck and raise my voice to get him to stop making fun of his cousin when he did it again.....and for the rest of the day she looked at me like I had just tortured a kitten in her presence. It worked, and he didn't do it again during his cousin's visit, but apparently I'm not allowed around my niece alone because of my "brutal" way of dealing with behavior problems. (BTW, my boy's three. Didn't lay a hand on him.)
You think there are some brats in the teens/twenties right now? Just wait....it's gonna get worse. God help us all.
#7
I got spanked as a kid, quite a few times. And you know what - I deserved every damn one of them. Some kids don't need spanked, some do. Some kids just need a stern voice & some need a swat on the backside. In any case, all need a parent w/a spine.
#10
When I was teaching school I saw scenarios like this as almost a daily occurrence. And, usually, without fail the parents were the cause of the child's' actions/performance(s). The parents are too lazy/stupid/uncaring to discipline/raise their children and expect others (school/daycare/baby sitter) to do it ... until the parent feels they (school/daycare/baby sitter) cross the (unknown) line set by the parents. Until the parents grow up themselves and accept their responsibility the situation(s) will only get worse.
#11
an estimated 98 percent of children under the age of 10 are remorseless sociopaths with little regard for anything other than their own egocentric interests and pleasures.
What's the percentage for children democrats over the age of 20?
#13
My wife is a special ed. aide in Kindergarten. She works up close and personal with these situations daily, not just with the specials but with the normals too.
It is invariably parental driven. She has been accused of hitting a child because she restrained him from hitting another student with a truck. Who made the complaint? The student to the parents. Did the parents talk about it? No, they stormed the school lawyer in tow. Luckily the (most of the) school backs up the teachers on these cases. The one administrator that doesn't? The Special Needs Regional Coordinator, a bureaucrat with no real training or experience.
And many of whom act younger than some of their offspring. Am I alone in thinking it is odd to see seventy years olds tearing up keyboards to update their facebook?
#19
Dealing with the school dist is a painful event for both teachers and parents. The legal trap the teachers are in is a no win for them. Grab the kid and you get an assault charge. For god sake not little Jenny, her head spins because you teachers just dont understand her. Calling the police was the right call for a violent child in school nowadays. Sad but true, no longer can they yell at them, grab them, or paddle them.
I believe there is a lot more to this story. Parent meeting already set means they have had problems before. The school admin must have been tired of the lack of parent involvment.
I only wonder who made the call to send her to the psyc wards. Must have been the police, certainly not the school. Violent and out of control I believe they made the right call, concidering the legal fallout that will follow. Now they will have professional doctors saying its the parents fault.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/13/2010 21:51 Comments ||
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The jury of five men and seven women deliberated for three days, at times asking that testimony be read back or video be played to them. Thursday morning they requested to see a portion of surveillance video taken outside the club, but by the time the footage was delivered to the jury room, they canceled the request, announcing they had reached a verdict.
A sentencing hearing before Superior Court Judge Susan M. Speer has been scheduled for March 4, and the prosecutor is seeking a life sentence.
Theriault-Odom testified that "I felt offended - I felt she was trying to punk me. I had to stand up for myself. That's the way it is on the streets."
During the trial, witnesses said that Theriault-Odom, who had been rejected for a job at the Babes N'Beer Bar in Tarzana, had feuded with Busby and felt disrespected by her. Theriault-Odom testified that "I felt offended - I felt she was trying to punk me. I had to stand up for myself. That's the way it is on the streets." Oh, I think she'll do just fine in prison. Probably be running the place in a few weeks... I've seen this movie! It was at a drive-in ...
She also testified to being "very drunk" on the evening before the 1:45 a.m. attack, saying she had consumed two double shots of Russian vodka, half a fifth of Patron tequila and five shots of Hennessey cognac.
She denied, however, setting the dancer on fire.
Instead, she testified that while she scuffled with Busby outside the club, she was not the one who doused her with gasoline and set on fire.
But witnesses identified Theriault-Odom as the assailant, saying they saw her douse Busby with gasoline from a bottle, pull out a
"There isn't any doubt in my mind that my daughter didn't do this, knowing how she was raised," said Elizabeth Odom of Van Nuys. I think she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
lighter and try three times before setting her on fire.
Surveillance video was shown of Busby running into the bar on fire - "like a human torch," Musante said - as frantic club workers tried several times to put out the flames.
The defendant's mother was not in the courtroom Thursday, but said in an interview Wednesday that she did not believe her daughter committed the attack.
"There isn't any doubt in my mind that my daughter didn't do this, knowing how she was raised," said Elizabeth Odom of Van Nuys.
"I think she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. She's a sweet girl. Never in my mind would I think that she would be somebody who could do anything like this."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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"There isn't any doubt in my mind that my daughter didn't do this, knowing how she was raised," said Elizabeth Odom of Van Nuys. I think she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
How'd she know? Was she dancing at the club when this happened? And speaking of being in the wrong place . . . .
#3
she had consumed two double shots of Russian vodka, half a fifth of Patron tequila and five shots of Hennessey cognac.
She may be one crazy-ass biotch, but she has good taste in booze. I do like how Mom sticks up for her - sweet girl, wrong place wrong time. Nothing like mother's love.
#5
If this ho had cut back on the high end hootch to something less than Kimmie-esque maybe she wouldn't need to shake her moneymaker or set the competition on fire.
Posted by: ed ||
02/13/2010 12:39 Comments ||
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Seven shots and half a fifth of tequila? How the hell was she standing up after all that? What is she, over three hundred pounds or something?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/13/2010 22:54 Comments ||
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Media sources in Huntsville, Alabama report that the faculty shooter who opened fire during a biology dept. meeting today was Dr. Amy Bishop, who had learned she would not receive tenure. Bishop allegedly shot and killed 3 fellow faculty members and wounded as many as 6 others, one critically.
Amy Bishop received her Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard and had previously been an instructor of medicine at the Ivy League university.
According to AL.com's “Breaking News' blog, Amy Bishop and her husband, Jim Anderson, were co-inventors of InQ, “a new cell growth incubator which promised to cut the costs, size and maintenance involved in the mechanics of cell generation'
An older version of Bishop's UAH Biology Dept. web page listed her interests in the way neurons utilize free radicals, in particular nitrous oxide, and how understanding the process could eventually help treat injuries to the central nervous system. In the past, Bishop had taught a number of courses at UAH in anatomy and physiology as well as an introduction to neuroscience.
Professors going nuts and opening fire are the most rare kind of campus shooter. It does happen, though. Most recently: George Zinkhan, a well-regarded marketing professor at the University of Georgia in Athens (UGA), lost his damned mind and opened fire on his estranged wife and two others, killing all 3. Zinkhan was later found dead in a patch of woods outside Athens. He'd meticulously planned his suicide, setting it up so that he virtually buried himself before pulling the trigger.
If Dr. Amy Bishop did go nuts and try to kill her colleagues today as alleged, it wouldn't be the first time a former Harvard professor has gone so dramatically, violently bananas, either.
UPDATE: From Ratemyprofessors.com: “This class was great. Bishop makes the class interesting by talking about her research and her friends research. That speaker she had for class was hard to understand but smart. She expects alot and you need to come to every class and study. She is hot but she tries to hide it.And she is a socalist but she only talks about it after class.”
Reader George Berryman writes: “I’m guessing the ’she’s a socialist’ part won’t get talked about much in the MSM. But if she had been a conservative it’d lead every evening news cast for two months.”
#8
Famous Harvard grad J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1925 gave a poisoned apple to his head tutor Patrick Blackett, while Oppie was in grad school in England. Somehow he was not expelled or criminally charged, just sent to a psychiatrist who diagnosed Oppie as having 'dementia praecox.' This was mentioned in the book Outliers and elsewhere. This stuff has happened before & regrettably will happen again.
#13
Shipman, from the picture in the referenced article, she looks white.
Can't tell if she is a democrat, although if she is a socialist, she probably votes that way, I would guess.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/13/2010 15:42 Comments ||
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Apparently, Bishop has been linked to the murder of her brother in 1986
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2010 17:03 Comments ||
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#16
Wow. Let me straighten out my tin foil hat.
The problem with the connections is that Delahunt has not been raising campaign funds much this term. Why not? Bishop probably hasn't been planning this shooting for months. Brown only won six weeks ago. He can't be upset with Barry, the closest we'll ever come to Oogo. Weird.
#1
a "complex" guy - pessimist on the VN war, and noted acquaintance of CBS newsmen and R.W. Apple of the NYT. He did some good things but one wonders how his background work helped undermine the war in political/cultural realm, which was how the war was lost
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2010 17:13 Comments ||
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#1
Especially this horse because he’s like the really smart, high-energy kid in the classroom. If he’s not challenged he gets into trouble. He gets bored and then starts acting up,” Jensen said.
Maybe some of our Congresscritters need to take up a hobby. Besides philandering.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/13/2010 12:50 Comments ||
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Does this say more about the intelligence of horses or of artistes?
Posted by: ed ||
02/13/2010 13:36 Comments ||
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#3
As Buggs' agent I think you'll find you'd like what Buggs blurts onto canvas better than a spitting Llama.
You may marvel how did he get into such a challenging profession? Being a handsome and a furry munster only takes you so far. And Buggs is not in the paint by number profession. He is a real avante garde wunderkind.
#1
Inadvertently a Kenyan cop explains all the evil in Africa. This holds for Zimbobwe and the lateste on SA and all the other failed and failing states. This has nothing to do with race. As the cop says “It’s culture, just culture,”
[Al Arabiya Latest] Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement failed to narrow their differences Friday after two days of informal talks on the disputed Western Sahara in suburban New York, a U.N. statement said.
Christopher Ross, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's personal envoy for the Western Sahara, said in a statement at the end of the talks that "neither party had accepted the proposal of the other as the sole basis of future negotiations."
He said the two sides however reiterated their commitment "to continue their negotiations as soon as possible" and added that, to that end, he planned to travel to the region for further consultations with the parties and other stakeholders.
Ross said the discussions "took place in an atmosphere of serious engagement, frankness and mutual respect."
The closed-door meeting at the IBM Learning Center in the hamlet of Armonk was modeled on a similar informal session held in Austria last August. It aimed to clear the way for a fifth round of formal talks between the parties.
Four previous rounds held in the New York suburb of Manhasset since June 2007 have failed to resolve the dispute over the phosphate-rich territory annexed by Morocco in 1975 after colonial power Spain withdrew.
Morocco's annexation of the territory sparked a war between its forces and Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 but the U.N.-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have since made no headway.
Rabat has pledged to grant Western Sahara widespread autonomy but rules out independence.
The Polisario Front, with the support of Algiers, wants a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options.
Mohammed Khadad, a senior Polisario official who attended the Armonk meeting, said the parties on Wednesday focused on human rights and confidence-building measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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I lived in Morocco fopr about six months in 1975 and was told that Morocco didn't annex half of the Spanish Sahara, they got a part of Morocco back.
Morocco had several Spanish enclaves: Tangiers and Sidi Ifni are now Moroccan, while Melilla and Cetua remain Spanish.
So another point of view is that the Moroccans only want a part of their pre-colonial country back. Algerian support was viewed as more anti-Moroccan than pro-Polisario.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/13/2010 13:07 Comments ||
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Telling, how decades of this have gone by and nary a word of it is mentioned in our national media. Evidently the cup of diversity and equality pours only one way.
#5
Anyone with skills and ability is getting out. A common way is to join a multi-national then get transferred overseas. Often this leaves 2nd and 3rd rate people in charge. In response, multi-nationals then run their SA operations using their migrated SA staff from overseas. This has just happened with my wifes company, which of course shall remain nameless.
[Bangla Daily Star] An Awami Swechchasebak League activist was beaten to death by a mob after he stabbed a man to death for refusing to pay extortion money at Omorpur Haat of Nandigram upazila here yesterday.
The deceased were identified as Habibur Rahman Jewel, 28, president of Awami Swechchasebak League Nandigram unit and supervisor of Omorpur Haat Yusuf Ali, 50.
Yusuf's son Shamsul Alam was also injured in the incident as he tried to resist the extortionists.
A group of extortionists including Hasan Mahmud, Abdul Wahed and Nur Islam led by their leader Jewel demanded money from Yusuf around 3:00pm at Omorpur Haat. They tried to snatch the receipt book from Yusuf's possession, as he refused to pay the amount, witnesses said.
At one stage of brawl, Jewel knifed Yusuf and grievously injured his son Shamsul.
Yusuf died on way to Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College and Hospital while Shamsul was undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Hearing the news, local people and businessmen rushed to the spot and beat Jewel up severely.
Jewel succumbed to his injuries after he was admitted to the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College and Hospital, sources said.
Monirul Islam, officer-in-charge of Nandigram Police Station, confirmed the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Perhaps the Awami Swechchasebak League should try a more civilized form of extortion, the $1000 chicken plate fund raiser.
Posted by: ed ||
02/13/2010 11:29 Comments ||
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#2
Why do you sound surprised? Not to say that you shouldn't BE surprised. But let's be honest; this is what we have all come to expect. Sad - yes. But true.
#4
What is the purpose of such treaties in a post-cold war world?
Posted by: john frum ||
02/13/2010 12:04 Comments ||
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#5
to get a photo op while bargaining away any military/tech advantages for a pack of lies?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2010 13:02 Comments ||
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#6
Worse, Obama and his Commissars have linked defensive anti-missile systems as the equivalent of city destroying ICBMs.
Posted by: ed ||
02/13/2010 13:07 Comments ||
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#7
John, the previous disarmament treaty had expired. This time around the Russians demanded new negotiations and O caved because it fits his agenda and those of his appointees. The ASD for Nuclear, Bio and Chem and the head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency both come from the Nunn Lugar crowd on Capitol Hill. They believe that if we just show we're not threatening the other sides will happy set aside their own capabilities - and they point to the previous treaties with Russia as proof, IIUC.
World leaders applauded the unofficial winner of Ukraine's presidential elections, Viktor Yanukovych, in an apparent attempt to force Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to concede defeat.
Presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy along with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and EU President Herman Van Rompay forwarded congratulatory notes to Yanukovych on Friday.
In a statement released on Friday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the UK "has long supported Ukraine's EU aspirations and we will continue to do so. A broader EU is a stronger EU.''
Preliminary reports indicated that Tymoshenko, who was one of the leading figures in the Ukraine's pro-democracy revolution of 2004, lost the election by a 3.5 percent margin.
Even though international observers have regarded the presidential elections as accurate and just, Tymoshenko's allies began questioning counts at various polling stations in court on Friday.
''Ukraine needs a president who was elected fairly,'' said Tymoshenko's campaign chief, Alexander Turchinov.
Turchinov has demanded a recount at 1,200 polling stations in Ukraine.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The euro has hit a nine-month low against the dollar after the European Union failed to ease worries of a debt default in Greece.
Euro fell roughly one percent on Friday to one-dollar-35 cents, euro's weakest record since May 2009.
Analysts say the common currency for 16 European countries is getting weaker because of concerns about the fragile finances of several nations in the euro-zone.
European leaders on Thursday offered support for Greece, but a lack of detail on the subject has kept investors worried.
EU leaders said Greece has to take further measures to tackle its huge debts such as cutting its budget deficit by four percent this year.
"Greece is a living example of why you should never give up control of your own currency," said Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the British Taxpayers' Alliance.
"The British economy and public finances are in a bad enough state as it is, without dishing out yet more of our money to solve the EU's self-inflicted problems."
Meanwhile, the economies in other European nations, including Germany, have remained static throughout the last quarter of 2009.
"Today's data shows that the recovery in the euro area is a long way off from being self-sustained," said Jorg Radeke, an economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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"The continent of Europe is so wide, mein herr."
#2
I've read comments for the past year from others beyond our borders questioning why the dollar hasn't completely tanked it. It's the old story about being chased by a bear. You don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than someone else in the party.
The Obama administration on Friday invited 12 Democratic members of Congress and nine Republicans to a Feb. 25 conference on healthcare and said it would post its proposal for a legislative overhaul online before the event.
President Barack Obama has asked Republicans to bring their best healthcare ideas to the conference on revamping the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system. The issue, critical to his domestic agenda, has floundered since Democrats lost their crucial 60th Senate vote last month, in the face of united Republican opposition and public skepticism.
The meeting will be broadcast live, answering criticism that the Democratic president did not engage Republicans and instead negotiated backroom deals in an effort to get legislation passed.
The invitation letter said the White House will post the text of its proposed health overhaul package online before the meeting, and invited Republican leaders to post their own bill online as well. Already been done. Or is he really that out of touch with reality?
His people don't read *that* kind of website.
"Now is the time to act on behalf of the millions of Americans and small businesses who are counting on meaningful health insurance reform," said the formal invitation, from Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, and Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services.
Republican leaders have said they will attend, but expressed skepticism about whether Obama will work with them. We already pretty much know what the Dems' bill is about. According to the Dems, though, they have no clue what the GOP bill is about. Shouldn't the Dems be more interested in what the GOP has to say? But then again, they think I'm too stoopid to vote.
"The existence of any kind of backroom health care deal among the White House and Democratic Leaders would certainly make a mockery of the President's stated desire to have a 'bipartisan' and 'transparent' dialogue on this issue," House Republican leaders wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday. It certainly would. Good thing they aren't so stoopid as to try someting that stoopid.
OUT WITH THE OLD?
Republicans have called for healthcare bills crafted by the House of Representatives and Senate, after six months of tough compromises by Obama's fellow Democrats, to be thrown out.
The White House has said it does not intend to do so, and the invitation seemed to confirm that. "In the last year, there has been an extraordinary effort to craft effective legislation," it read, referring to hundreds of hours of activity in both the House and Senate on the two bills. Effective for what? And why?
"The Blair House meeting is the obligatory next step in this process," the letter said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said his party would continue to offer "the types of ideas and step-by-step approach" to cut costs and increase coverage without cutting benefits for older Americas or raising taxes.
He said the Republicans would consult with the White House about the meeting format and topics, but made clear they were ready for a fight. And they'll be more ready come November if things continue along the track they have been on this last year.
"Nearly one year ago, the President moderated a health care summit that kicked off a national debate that has led us to where we are today: a partisan bill devoid of support from the American people and a diminished faith in this government's capacity to listen," he said in a statement.
"Let us not make the same mistake twice." What's this us?
With about 46 million people lacking health insurance, polls show a high level of frustration as Americans watch the abortive reform process at a time of economic crisis and high unemployment that has eroded support for Obama. Obama's Democrats are under pressure to produce results before elections in November in which the entire House and more than a third of seats in the Senate will be up for grabs.
The administration's letter invited Democrats Pelosi and Reid, McConnell and House Republican Leader John Boehner, and asked each to designate four other members of Congress to participate.
The invitation list also includes Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Finance Committee; Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; House Ways and Means Committee; House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the House Education and Labor Committee, all of which oversaw the health legislation in both chambers.
The White House said Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Sebelius, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the Office of Health Reform, would also attend.
Obama will make clueless but uplifting opening remarks, followed by remarks from a Republican leader and a yes man Democratic leader chosen by leaders of their parties, and then the president will open discussion on insurance reform, cost containment, expanding coverage and the effect of health reform legislation on deficit reduction geared towards what he thinks he can sneak by ignorant voters.
#1
Republicans have called for healthcare bills crafted by the House of Representatives and Senate, after six months of tough compromises by Obama's fellow Democrats, to be thrown out.
Al-Rooters' bias is evident. Those eeeevil Rethuglicans just don't wanna accept the bills the Donks can't themselves agree on. This kabuki for the cameras. The Reps need one effective knowledgeable spokesman to stand up to Bambi and point out that the GOP proposals have been available all last year but were spit on by Pelosi, Reid and Obama.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2010 8:13 Comments ||
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#2
would post its proposal for a legislative overhaul online before the event.
at least this will give the Democrats a chance to finally read what they were voting on last year
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2010 8:58 Comments ||
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#3
--they can post it before the meeting, but the first thing they should do to open the meeting is to 'shred' it.
#4
I hope all the prok that was stuffed into it is available to view as well.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/13/2010 11:36 Comments ||
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#5
I liked Karl Rove's method for the meeting:
Take in paper copies of both bills -- place them on the table up front (that's over 6000 pieces of paper)-- then lay a Republican plan beside them (there are several that have been presented, notably Paul Ryan's) Roadmap for American
Then, appoint only ONE member to do all the talking. That way, no one is vying for time with each other. And let that person be the most knowledgeable person on the health care issue. Like Paul Ryan.... he has a plan.
Me --- notice how in the last meeting Obama had with the Pubs, he wouldn't go up against Paul Ryan then! He knew Ryan knows the Budget and health care.
(I'm not politicking for Ryan for anything, just think this it is an overall good idea. If not Ryan, then another person.)
#6
I agree. I've got serious reservations about Ryan's plan, but I think he would be a great challenger whom the President could not measure up to and whom the MSM could not diminish remaining reasonable and non-combative throughout.
One big advantage is that it would further diminish OB1. Last weekend he had to share the stage as an equal with a failed vice presidential candidate. Next with a Rep? And coming up short again? Priceless.
Reid playing politics with real issues. Throw the bums out. We need people who care about our country, not about their political kingdoms.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid led colleagues and the White House to believe he supported a bipartisan jobs bill -- only to scuttle the plan as soon as it was released Thursday over concerns it could be used to batter Democratic incumbents, according to Senate sources. Better to do something wrong than to actually be wrong, I guess.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) worked for weeks with Reid's blessing and frequent involvement to craft an $85 billion jobs bill, a measure that seemed destined to break the partisan logjam that has ground the Senate to a halt.
But as Baucus, Grassley and President Barack Obama were preparing to celebrate a rare moment of bipartisan Kumbaya on Thursday, Reid stunned a meeting of Senate Democrats by announcing he was scrapping Baucus-Grassley, replacing it with a much cheaper, more narrowly crafted, $15 billion version.
"Grassley and three to four Republicans would have voted for it, but all the other Republicans would have beaten the living s--t out of us [during the 2010 midterms], claiming the bill was too bloated," said a Democrat who supported Reid's decision, explaining the leader's logic. Don't you mean s#!t there?
Few felt as good about the decision: Republicans say the about-face will only add to an already poisonous partisan atmosphere, liberal Democrats think the bill is too small to do much good and the powerful negotiators of the bipartisan package were left embarrassed, demoralized and befuddled.
Aides to Baucus and Grassley said their bosses didn't know of Reid's decision when they unveiled their bill early Thursday -- and expected it to have the leader's support.
"Sen. Reid's announcement sends a message that he wants to go partisan and blame Republicans," Grassley spokesperson Jill Kozeny said in a statement.
Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who supported the bipartisan effort, said her boss was "deeply disappointed that the majority leader has abandoned a genuine bipartisan compromise only hours after it was unveiled in favor of business-as-usual, partisan gamesmanship."
The White House also appeared to be caught off guard.
Moments before Reid announced his decision, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs released a statement, saying, "The draft bill released today by Sens. Baucus and Grassley includes several of the president's top priorities for job creation. [T]he president is hopeful that the draft language presented today will lead to a bipartisan Senate bill."
An unapologetic Reid told reporters Thursday that he'd made his decision before walking into the Democrats' Thursday lunch at the Capitol -- a lunch that began just as the White House sent out Gibbs's message.
"I made the decision before I came to the caucus," Reid said. "I just wanted to make sure that [members of the caucus] were supportive of what I was doing, and they are very supportive."
Reid spokesman Jim Manley later said that Reid had decided Thursday morning to push his package and had entered the lunch meeting with the intention of offering those gathered a choice between Baucus-Grassley and his own stripped-down bill.
"In the end, this is the direction the caucus decided to go," said Manley, who emphasized that many of the elements stripped from the bipartisan measure will be appended to later bills.
But people who were in the room painted a somewhat different picture, saying Reid's proposal was met with a mixture of confusion and outrage from senators upset about having their pet projects redacted -- even after Reid promised to include their proposals in subsequent jobs bills. Aww, did the poor little piggies cry wee wee wee all the way back to their taxpayer-funded offices?
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she'd like more provisions increasing lending to small business and fewer tax cuts. And Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin argued passionately that, if lawmakers plan to extend corporate tax breaks, they should also extend employment insurance.
"[Reid's] trying to keep it simple," Harkin said emerging from the meeting, "but what I think ought to be in the package is unemployment insurance for one year."
And Baucus seemed puzzled by the change in course, particularly Reid's decision to drop a package of tax extenders from the bill -- a piece with strong bipartisan backing.
"Every senator has a different idea," said Baucus, emerging from the meeting. "There's been no decisions made."
But aides said that Reid was tired of constant lobbying from Democrats who wanted a bigger package and a long list of specific provisions included in the bill. Reid complained that the various requests had "watered down" the Democrats' job-creation message and wanted to present voters with a more streamlined bill.
Staffers added that the Nevada Democrat, fighting an uphill reelection battle, was frustrated that Republicans leaders, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), weren't fully committed to the bill.
In what appeared to be an attempt to isolate the majority leader, McConnell pushed to offer the Baucus-Grassley plan on the floor Thursday night, saying it would allow the Senate to work on unemployment insurance -- something left out of Reid's plan.
Aides involved in the negotiations say that Republicans in leadership and on Baucus's Finance Committee emerged from a meeting Tuesday saying they were close to agreement on the Baucus-Grassley bill -and that McConnell just needed to brief his caucus before signing on, a process slowed by a week of crippling snow storms.
"They came out and said we are in a good place we are just making sure we are talking to people," said a Republican aide. "All sides wouldn't have worked this long and this hard on this unless they were committed to making this happen."
#3
“Staffers added that the Nevada Democrat… was frustrated that Republican leaders…weren't fully committed to the bill.”
The article fails to mention that his plan is to introduce a series of smaller bills with Reid controlling ALL the amendments. Another bogus stimulus bill you ask? Certainly not! ItÂ’s aÂ…ahÂ…umÂ…itÂ’s systematic Jobs packageÂ…yeah, datÂ’s da ticket.
Carbon dioxide is "essentially harmless" to human beings and good for plants. So now will you stop worrying about global warming?
Utah's House of Representatives apparently has at least. Officially the most Republican state in America, its political masters have adopted a resolution condemning "climate alarmists", and disputing any scientific basis for global warming.
The measure, which passed by 56-17, has no legal force, though it was predictably claimed by climate change sceptics as a great victory in the wake of the controversy caused by a mistake over Himalayan glaciers in the UN's landmark report on global warming.
But it does offer a view of state politicians' concerns in Utah which is a major oil and coal producing state.
The original version of the bill dismissed climate science as a "well organised and ongoing effort to manipulate and incorporate "tricks" related to global temperature data in order to produce a global warming outcome". It accused those seeking action on climate change of riding a "gravy train" and their efforts would "ultimately lock billions of human beings into long-term poverty".
In the heat of the debate, the representative Mike Noel said environmentalists were part of a vast conspiracy to destroy the American way of life and control world population through forced sterilisation and abortion.
By the time the final version of the bill came to a vote, cooler heats apparently prevailed. The bill dropped the word "conspiracy", and described climate science as "questionable" rather than "flawed".
However, it insisted -- against all evidence -- that the hockey stick graph of changing temperatures was discredited. It also called on the federal government's Environmental Protection Agency to order an immediate halt in its moves to regulate greenhouse gas emissions "until a full and independent investigation of climate data and global warming science can be substantiated".
As Noel explained: "Sometimes ... we need to have the courage to do nothing." The only thing we need to fear is fear itself? What a concept.
#1
nice Al-Grauniad sneering: "political masters", "against all evidence". The lying fuckwits at East Anglia and their "green" "watermelon" supporters in the media are having a hard time with the exposure of their fraud. Careers need to be ruined over this
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2010 7:22 Comments ||
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#2
However, it insisted -- against all evidence -- that the hockey stick graph of changing temperatures was discredited.
If you actually look at the evidence, it is damning - for the people trying to commit the biggest scientific fraud since the Piltdown Man. It is a pity that journalists ran with the scary end of the world story and have not shown the least bit of scientific curiosity. But then they are journalists, aren't they?
#3
I've been pointing out that these AGW con artists are in it for the money and political power, so just proving them wrong accomplishes nothing--they already know it is all lies--so will continue to push for it despite all evidence to the contrary.
What will stop them is to remove them from their positions of authority, as the mildest rebuke, and to criminally sanction them for fraud, on the extreme.
Those that are at least halfway honest give it away when they say, that "Even if AGW is wrong, we should still shift all this money and power, because it's the 'right' thing to do."
Their religious beliefs are such that once they have emotionally invested in some stupid idea, they will follow it off a cliff, and try to drag as many of us with them as they can. "But it's for the environment!" is just as pathetic an emotional manipulation as "But it's for the children!"
They are firm believers in "emotionalism", that it is even *more* important that "everyone cares", than if anything tangible is accomplished at all. It is a bizarre and twisted psyche that demands emotional taxation--that everyone else must feel as they feel, on command.
This is why for them, stoicism, skepticism and cynicism of their ideas are almost criminal, and must be roundly cursed.
"You are not of the body! Landru! Help us, Landru!"
#4
Their religious beliefs are such that once they have emotionally invested in some stupid idea, they will follow it off a cliff, and try to drag as many of us with them as they can.
It's the same mindset as the Left's after the Florida vote. As they've amply demonstrated, there can be no negotiations or rational dealing with them. Their minds are closed to reason.
If there's one thing that stinks even more than Climategate, it's the attempts we're seeing everywhere from the IPCC and Penn State University to the BBC to pretend that nothing seriously bad has happened, that "the science" is still "settled", and that it's perfectly OK for the authorities go on throwing loads more of our money at a problem that doesn't exist.
The latest example of this noisome phenomenon is Sir Muir Russell's official whitewash -- sorry "independent inquiry" into the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) scandal.
The inquiry has not even begun and already it has told its first blatant lie -- seen here on its official website.
Do any of the Review team members have a predetermined view on climate change and climate science?
No. Members of the research team come from a variety of scientific backgrounds. They were selected on the basis they have no prejudicial interest in climate change and climate science and for the contribution they can make to the issues the Review is looking at.
By what bizarre logic, then, did Sir Muir think it a good idea to appoint to his panel the editor of Nature, Dr Philip Campbell? Dr Campbell is hardly neutral: his magazine has for years been arguing aggressively in favour of the AGW, and which published this editorial in the wake of Climategate:
The e-mail archives stolen last month from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK, have been greeted by the climate-change-denialist fringe as a propaganda windfall (see page 551). To these denialists, the scientists' scathing remarks about certain controversial palaeoclimate reconstructions qualify as the proverbial 'smoking gun': proof that mainstream climate researchers have systematically conspired to suppress evidence contradicting their doctrine that humans are warming the globe.
This paranoid interpretation would be laughable were it not for the fact that obstructionist politicians in the US Senate will probably use it next year as an excuse to stiffen their opposition to the country's much needed climate bill. Nothing in the e-mails undermines the scientific case that global warming is real -- or that human activities are almost certainly the cause. That case is supported by multiple, robust lines of evidence, including several that are completely independent of the climate reconstructions debated in the e-mails.
Dr Campbell has since resigned his post -- and rightly so, as the Global Warming Policy Foundation makes clear. But are we to feel any more confident about the alleged neutrality of another of Sir Muir's appointments, Professor Geoffrey Boulton?
Bishop Hill certainly doesn't think so. He notes that Professor Boulton....
spent 18 years at the school of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia
works in an office almost next door to a member of the Hockey Team
says the argument over climate change is over
tours the country lecturing on the dangers of climate change
believes the Himalayan glaciers will be gone by 2050
signed up to a statement supporting the consensus in the wake of Climategate, which spoke of scientists adhering to the highest standards of integrity
could fairly be described as a global warming doommonger
is quite happy to discuss "denial" in the context of the climate debate.
You wonder, if Sir Muir really is that determined to keep his inquiry totally unbiased, independent, above-board and scrupulously neutral why he just doesn't go the whole hog and appoint Al Gore, James Hansen and Rajendra Pachauri. I doubt the conclusions they'd reach would be any different.
China makes good on its promise to crack down on online pr0n.
The comments in the linked story are... interesting
China shut down 16,000 more web sites which are found to contain lewd or pr0nographic content as of Wednesday during the latest crackdown.
Statistics from the International Communication Office of the CPC Central Committee show that, since the crackdown was launched in last December, more than 850,000 pictures and 1.3 million messages with lewd or pr0nographic content were deleted.
Also, more than 30 online novels and 15 mobile phone games were halted.
An official with the office said the campaign made significant breakthroughs in striking the profit chains for pr0n web sites as the lewd content on the Internet in the country were obviously reduced and the tendency of spreading such information through cell phones was kept under control.
According to the official, 24 network operators were named and shamed for providing services for such web sites.
Since the country issued measures on rewarding tip-offs on pr0n web sites in last December, a total of 476 whistlers had been rewarded 395,000 yuan ($57,800).
Earlier this month, the country issued a judicial interpretation which further clarified that production, replication, publication, sale and spread of obscene electronic information (video) involving minors aged under 14 via Internet or mobile WAP sites will be recognized as a crime.
China has more than 338 million Internet users, and more than 60 percent are younger than 30, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.
On December 8, the country launched a new round of crackdown on spread of pr0nographic contents through Internet or mobile WAP sites to "purify the social environment." The campaign is expected to run through May.
#2
Given that Chinese policies have led to there being 26.5 million more Chinese men ages 15-64 than women ages 15-64, one must conclude: the Chinese need pr0n. Stats taken from the CIA World Factbook.
As the song goes, "The Internet is for Pr0n."
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/13/2010 7:04 Comments ||
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#3
With that many surplus men of fighting age the Chinese might find war a beneficial activity, and pr0n in conflict with it.
#4
The Chinese may as well try war. They will never catch up in the boobage race.
Posted by: ed ||
02/13/2010 11:31 Comments ||
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#5
Where there's a will, there's a way. Just going to make Chinese hackers focus on cracking the Great [Internet] Wall to get to the stuff outside. And if you can get outside, you can get inside. Then it'll be a real race between the authorities and the hackers in plugging and hacking.
#3
I wonder if, in the back of the design engineer's mind, there was a subconscious effort to design a "flying sub", as was used in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea?
Though, even as a kid, the use of those glowing nuclear reactor dampening rods freaked me out. Nuclear + glowing did not equal "good".
1) the 'kinetic weapon' Skidmark notes, from carrier deck to target a thousand miles away, guided by someone on the carrier (or in a lawnchair in Vegas). Just hit the target.
2) a more typical UAV for reconnaissance and perhaps task force defense.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2010 11:13 Comments ||
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#6
Steve - it is suppose to be fully capable as a fighter to protect the carrier.
[Asharq al-Aswat] The man described as the father of the internet, Vinton Cerf, has said that Arabic language content on the internet is far below the level of requirement, and confirmed his desire to provide better internet services to Arab language speakers in the region.
Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist Vinton Cerf told Asharq Al-Awsat that "we at Google strive to improve connection with Arabic language users in the region, and we are working to achieve this via two methods; firstly through clearing the way for Arab users to pose questions and initiate searches in Arabic, and secondly by providing an Arabic language version of all date and information. We rely upon automated translation software rather than the human element with regards to translation."
However Google are also facing a number of problems with regards to providing these translations, and Cerf said "we are encountering a problem in the process of automated translations as this relies on statistical methodology, and this is via the collection and analysis of a large number of documents that contain translation data in order to obtain a more accurate translation in the end."
However Cerf also revealed that a number of problems had been resolved with regards to this issue "enabling us to translate into the Arabic language, overcoming a number of stages that we were not able to achieve with regards to other languages, such as Korean for example."
He added that "during my forthcoming visit to the [Middle East] region I will work to strengthen the capabilities of automated translation by looking for good and strong resources for Google Taareeb."
Vinton Cerf was in Dubai to attend the "Google Arabia 2.0" forum which took place on Wednesday 10 February. Cerf addressed the audience that was comprised of Middle Eastern and North African [MENA] decision makers on the future of the internet and the areas of innovation in the emerging markets.
The Google Arabia 2.0 forum, which is aimed at executives and government officials, focused on defining future prospects and challenges facing the region and methods of stimulating innovation and development on Arab language internet content. As for the services provided by Google to the MENA region, Cerf said "the company attaches great importance to the services that it provides to users in the region and Arab users in particular. My personal concern for this issue is one of the reasons for my forthcoming visit to Dubai, and I will try to focus on the aspects of development and improvement that we can add to the services and information that we provide to the region."
Google provides the "Google Taareeb" service which can be used to write emails in Arabic if an internet user does not possess an Arabic language keyboard, and for example should one wish to write an email in Arabic or post a comment on an Arabic language forum, one can simply phonetically transliterate the Arabic text in the English language.
It appears that the Arabic language is virtually absent from the international search engine, and Cerf said that "It is a widely known fact that the MENA region currently produces less than 1 percent of content online in Arabic." Cerf said that he considered this to be "both a challenge and an opportunity for the region to take a leap of faith and embrace the benefits of the Internet."
Cerf also described the internet as being "an amazing tool that encourages the free flow of information, the sharing of ideas, the ability to advance businesses across geographical borders and ultimately empower more individuals in their everyday lives."
It seems that the Google search engine has become aware of the importance of the Arab region and the potential opportunities that are present there, according to Cerf, who said "as you know, in general the people in the Middle East rely heavily on mobile phones in obtaining information, which highlights the importance of accessing information via handheld devices on the move, as the phone in some cases becomes the means to connect you to the information that you require. Therefore we must develop this service in line with the region that it is used in, and this is what we are seeking to do."
In Cerf's opinion, developing the previously mentioned services for regional internet users "is important for a number of reasons, the first reason is in order to ensure that these services are viable and practical in the MENA region, and which will result in the further development of the company's operations in the region." Cerf added that "providing useful local information helps us to find new clients who may wish to display their ads through the various services that we offer in the region."
Google's efforts are not limited to providing appropriate services to users in the region, with respect to Google Taareeb and others, and in fact Google goes much further than this. For instance Google provides a special Arabic language interface for its search engine for users in the Arab world, providing different results then the English language version.
Vinton Cerf is known across the world, and he, along with his colleague Robert E. Khan helped to create the Internet Protocol Suite or TCP/IP. Khan and Cerf were awarded the highest civilian award in the US, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in recognition for their work which made it possible for data to be transmitted across the internet. This placed Khan and Cerf at the forefront of the digital revolution that transformed the face of global commerce, communication, and entertainment.
Founded in 1988 by Stanford University PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google is now one of the largest internet companies in the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Cerf also described the internet as being "an amazing tool that encourages the free flow of information, the sharing of ideas, the ability to advance businesses across geographical borders and ultimately empower more individuals in their everyday lives."
No wonder it's not popular among Arabs. Those are *our* values.
#15
Saudi Arabia didn't make the list? I'm shocked. Still, they're a small-population country, which limits total number of minutes that could be devoted to such activities, no matter how devoted the participants.
[Straits Times] MUSLIM leaders in Indonesia on Friday told the faithful not to celebrate Valentine's Day because it is sinful and leads to 'free sex'. They're right, of course. I've seen this with my own eyes. The Pajamagram arrives, she puts it on, she takes it off, and Allen's averting his eyes.
'We forbid Muslims to celebrate Valentine's Day,' said Mr Abdullah Cholil, an East Java leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the mainly-Muslim country's biggest Islamic organisation. "No Pajamagrams, damn you!"
'The day is often celebrated by young, unmarried people. They celebrate Valentine's Day by holding hands or having free sex, which they are not supposed to be doing,' he said. That hand-holding is guaranteed to ruin virtue.
Mr Lalilurrahman, the East Java branch chief of the country's highest Islamic body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, said the celebration of romance and love was a Western tradition and therefore should not interest Muslims. 'Valentine's Day originated from Western culture. It's not in accordance with Islamic and Eastern culture,' he said. "We Muslims have no tradition of romance or love, both of which are rooted in respect of a man for a woman and vice versa. We work toward a sterile, loveless world in which women are breeding stock and men are cannon fodder. It is the Islamic way."
Shopping centres in Indonesia's major cities are decked out with Valentine's Day gift offerings as well as displays marking Chinese New Year. Most Indonesians are moderate Muslims and few pay much attention to the moral edicts of local Islamic leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] MYANMAR'S military ruler said on Friday that long-awaited elections planned for sometime this year will take place 'soon' but shed no light on exactly when. If it's gonna be "soon" maybe I should hold my breath...
Myanmar's military government announced in early 2008 that the country's first elections in two decades would take place in 2010. But the junta still needs to pass necessary election laws to pave the way for the vote and then set a date. Or maybe I won't hold my breath...
The opposition party of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi overwhelmingly won the last elections in 1990, but the results were never honoured by the military, which has ruled the country since 1962. 'A free and fair election will take place soon,' Senior General Than Shwe said in his annual message marking Union Day, a national holiday, on Friday. "If we don't like the results we'll ignore them."
He went on to explain what an election is. 'That means national people will have the rights to elect representatives, and stand for election,' the 77-year-old Than Shwe said in remarks published in state-controlled media. 'So, members of parliament, who the voters think will be capable of generating a prosperous future for the nation, will be elected by ballot.' "If they elect us they'll be very happy, I'm sure. If they don't, they'll still get us, so likely they'll still be happy."
Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, has not yet decided whether to take part in the elections. If you don't run you're sure not to get elected.
The party says the new constitution of 2008 is unfair and will perpetuate military rule - a claim backed by international rights groups. The constitution guarantees that 25 per cent of parliamentary seats will go to the military. It also has a clause that would effectively bar Ms Suu Kyi from holding office.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Port St. Lucie first-grade student was handcuffed and committed to a mental health facility because of her classroom behavior, and her parents are furious that the school took such extreme measures.
The Obama administration on Friday invited 12 Democratic members of Congress and nine Republicans to a Feb. 25 conference on healthcare and said it would post its proposal for a legislative overhaul online before the event.
Carbon dioxide is "essentially harmless" to human beings and good for plants. So now will you stop worrying about global warming?
[Straits Times] MUSLIM leaders in Indonesia on Friday told the faithful not to celebrate Valentine's Day because it is sinful and leads to 'free sex'.
[Straits Times] MYANMAR'S military ruler said on Friday that long-awaited elections planned for sometime this year will take place 'soon' but shed no light on exactly when.
