I've heard of Democrats doing bailouts before, but this . . . .
Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday.
Attached to a parachute, the animal screamed in fear as it circled over heads of holidaymakers sunbathing on a beach in the Cossack village of Golubitskaya in the Krasnodar region.
Probably did a bit more than scream, being a mere animal and all. As it circled over the heads of holidaymakers. Ick.
A regional police spokeswoman said the donkey ended up in the skies as a result of an impromptu advertising campaign by several Russian entrepreneurs to attract beachgoers to their private beach. Instead, they attracted the attention of regional police who learned of the flying donkey earlier this week and launched a probe....
Posted by: Mike ||
07/20/2010 16:21 ||
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#1
"and launched a probe"
I looked at that picture at the link. I could see the donkey but you can't make out the probe.
Sad memories of the aborted Cats-In-Space spring to mind. I still have PTSDOcituah), well hell, it was for our country, they were young, strong, and frankly, they needed a bath anyway.
Divers have discovered what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne, fishing a bottle of the centuries-old bubbly from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.
Dive instructor Christian Ekstrom says the champagne, believed to be from the 1780's, "tasted fantastic." Ekstrom said Saturday he's "98 percent sure" of the champagne's age, having conferred with experts. I'm not, if it was remotely drinkable. Champagne dies young. By the time it's ten years old it's undrinkable.
About 30 bottles are believed to remain in the wreckage. Swedish wine expert Carl-Jan Granqvist says each bottle could bring as much as euro50,000 if the corks are intact and the age and authenticity can be proven. Samples have been sent to champagne laboratories in France for testing.
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Posted by: Fred ||
07/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm not, if it was remotely drinkable. Champagne dies young. By the time it's ten years old it's undrinkable.
Does it matter if the bottle was stored upside down at the bottom of the Baltic? That way the cork stays wet, you see.
#2
How deep was the wreck? Temperature and light exposure impact the rate at which volatile flavour chemicals break down, which is a major factor in the change in drinkability; I assume pressure also has an impact. Serious oenophiles may conclude they ought to move their wine collections to deep ocean locations, once aged to perfection.
#3
I read about a similar discovery in 2000 while doing a project for an arhcaeology class. The divers brought up seveal hundred bottles of very old champaign (18th century I think) and got rich. They made it available at a tasting contest, and also sold it for thousands of $ per bottle. They had to attach heavy duty wire cages to the tops of the bottles to keep the corks from blowing out due to the pressure changes when they brought the bottles up.
An aggressive beaver in a Red Deer off-leash park is believed to be responsible for at least two serious attacks on dogs, including one that led to the death of a husky.
Several other reported beaver attacks at Red Deer's Three Mile Bend off-leash park have not been confirmed, city officials say. But an investigation has been launched to find the bucktoothed rodent believed responsible for the violent behaviour.... "I don't care how many men, or how long it takes--I want you to find the dam thing!"
The central Alberta city has rarely had to deal with problem beavers, despite a large population of the rodents in Red Deer, he said....
Posted by: Mike ||
07/20/2010 06:23 ||
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#1
There is no beaver problema that cannot be solved with a Ma Deuce
.
#3
A .50? That seems overkill, unless they've been cross-breeding their beavers with Kodiaks up there in Canada. A simple twelve-gauge ought to take care of it.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/20/2010 9:05 Comments ||
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#4
Call in the RCMP.......they always get thier.........whatever
#9
You people don't know what fear really is . . . . until you've been attacked by an aggressive beaver . . . . with a flat tail . . . . . and buck teeth.
#11
#9: You people don't know what fear really is . . . . until you've been attacked by an aggressive beaver . . . . with a flat tail . . . . . and buck teeth. Posted by: Canuckistan sniper|
I've got a Browning "Sweet 16" 16-gauge semi-automatic with a 32" full-choke barrel that will do the trick. I can put wadding and all into him at 20 feet. If things really get out of hand, I can haul out my gran-dad's 10-gauge double-barrel, but that's more overkill than JFM's Ma-Deuce.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/20/2010 16:19 Comments ||
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#12
OP: You never see the beaver that gets you. They use their beaver ninja skills to sneak up on you, and unless you can distract them with some delectable willow saplings, you're lodge bait. They'll use that tail like Master of the Flying Guillotine, except more beaver-tail-like instead of Flying Guillotine-like.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The mass exodus of conservatives in Germany takes its toll leaving Chancellor Angela Merkel lonelier than ever, as another key ally, the mayor of Hamburg, announces his resignation.
On Monday, the mayor of Germany's second largest city, Ole von Beust, announced his resignation while still having three years left of his term, AFP reported.
Here, more than 15 miles offshore, a dredging company is building an island about as wide as an interstate highway. Officially called Sand Berm E-4, it is part of this state's most ambitious plan to combat the oil and at the same time help stave off long-term coastal erosion. It is at the heart of a politically touchy spat between Louisiana and the federal government, and between Louisiana and some of its scientists, over how to fight the oil that has leaked from the Macondo well.
Louisiana officials say the most reliable way to stop the oil from reaching sensitive marshes is to put solid land - built from sandbags, sand piles or plain old rocks - in its way. But many scientists and environmentalists say they are not convinced that these efforts will do much good.
"They are going to cost a lot of money, and their ultimate value is very much in question," said Aaron Viles, of the nonprofit Gulf Restoration Network. In some places, he said, the state's land-building "may be doing more harm than good." If you can't do it perfectly, don't do it at all.
Louisiana, led by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), has reacted with furious work to keep oil out of those marshes - and with criticism of the Obama administration for holding its efforts up. State officials say they chose to build land barriers because they extend to the ocean floor, unlike the floating "containment boom." They can also stay put in a storm, unlike the barges used to block marsh inlets. The state says the land-building plan will still be necessary, even if the BP well remains capped.
The state has already filled in 14 inlets that connected the marshes with the Gulf of Mexico, using mounds of dirt and giant sandbags in metal frames. But this man-made island is part of a far more ambitious effort: The state has proposed building 128 miles of islands in arcs off the coast, based on existing plans to rebuild lost barrier islands to fight erosion.
In May, the federal government issued permits for the construction of 45 miles of islands. BP agreed to foot the bill of $360 million.
But state officials say that even this first 45 miles won't be done until around Halloween, which would give oil months to float past. Some scientists in Louisiana are also questioning whether berms such as this one will survive the gulf's pounding waves. It doesn't have to last forever, you want it to erode, eventually.
Now the state is pushing a plan that, although smaller in scope, is even more controversial. Jefferson Parish, with the state's support, wants to pile lines of rock partway across a pair of passes that connect marshes to the gulf. If oily water hits the rocks, officials think, it will be pushed away from the opening and toward a confined area where skimmers can suck it up.
The complaints about the rocks "are 'what-if,' or 'what-may-happen,' " said Bonano, of Jefferson Parish. "That's our frustration: that the opposition to the plan is based on what may happen. . . . As opposed to the oil that is happening."
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/20/2010 10:03 ||
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#1
If you can't do it perfectly, don't do it at all.
Looks like someone picked up on my remake of the Dr. Pepper jingle the other day! :-)
A black Agriculture Department employee resigned Monday after conservative media outlets aired a video of her telling an audience she had not given a white farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him save the family farm.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he had accepted the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the department's state director of rural development for Georgia.
"There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person," Vilsack said. "We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously." Ah, finally. Must have been a USDA employee. At a USDA event.
CNN has attempted to contact Sherrod, but was unable to reach her. Try calling the NAACP. Maybe she's got a new job there.
Conservative website publisher Andrew Breitbart originally posted the video, which was quickly picked up by Fox News. The video claims Sherrod's remarks were delivered March 27 to an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet, but it is not clear that is the case, nor is it clear where the event was held or how many people were in attendance. Whoa! NAACP? Buried in the middle of the article after half of the people have used up their attention span?
The poor quality video shows Sherrod telling her audience that the farmer she was working with "took a long time ... trying to show me he was superior to me." As a result, she said, she "didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough." Ah superiority. Yes. And I've heard that most folks think that GPS voices are condescending, too.
To prove she had done her job, she said, she took him to a white lawyer.
"I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him," she said. Nice. Very nice. I guess similar language would get a pass at a Tea Party event. If it ever happened. Which it won't. Ever.
Sherrod mentioned that the lawyer would help the farmer with a bankruptcy filing but did not say whether his farm was saved. You sure showed him who's superior, didn't you. Yuk yuk! Stupid cracker. "Mess with the best" and all.
The conservative media outlets tied the video to the NAACP's recent resolution calling on the Tea Party movement to repudiate racist elements within it that have displayed such items as images of President Barack Obama with a bone through his nose and the White House with a lawn full of watermelons. The controversy has led one Tea Party group to oust another because of a blog posting by the second group's leader.
Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams posted on his blog a faux letter from NAACP president Benjamin Jealous to President Abraham Lincoln in which Williams ridicules the organization's use of "colored" in its historic name and uses multiple other stereotypes to bolster his point.
The National Tea Party Foundation removed Williams' organization from its roles as a result.
#1
"I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him," she said.
Certainly answers the 'preferred client' question now doesn't it? Anyone have additional question about the hiring practices within Ms. Sherrod's department, or the atmospherics and 'best practices' of her staff with regard to race? Would an investigation of the entire department be in order? Client bankruptcies, suicides?
#2
Let me see....what over agriculture, nutrition, or food based entitlement programs is the USDA responsible for? Could a 'preferred clients' situation exist in any of these programs? Could waste, fraud, and abuse be a factor?
#4
The poor quality video
I watched it. It wasn't that poor quality, her words (and attitude) were perfectly clear. That whole "his own kind" bit was dripping with racist condescension.
Posted by: Martin L. King ||
07/20/2010 17:05 Comments ||
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the event she was talking about (with the white farmer) was in 1986 and it seems that subsequent to that event she did help the farmer
so her speech at the NAACP was about falsely bragging that she was racist
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/20/2010 18:14 Comments ||
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#10
I haven't heard all of the tape so I'm gonna wait. I did read on Hot Air that the wife of the man she helped said she saved their farm and they are still very good friends. It just might be that she felt that way in 1986 but realized, after helping them, that she was wrong in her attitude. As I said, I'll wait for all the facts.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/20/2010 18:48 Comments ||
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#11
There's BS flying from all directions. It could be a long wait for the facts.
#12
Hearing her full speech, it sounds like she was saying she was a racist way back then, but that she came to the conclusion the issue wasn't about black and white, but about economics and the need to help one's fellow man.
If that's the true story then she's due an apology and reinstatement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/20/2010 21:53 Comments ||
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I hope that's the case. If so, I wonder if someone at Fox was baiting or if someone baited Fox. Hmm . . . .
We all probably knew the sentiment of the American left for just not getting the entire Tea Party movement concept, but this statement ought to cement that notion.
On the July 18 broadcast of "The McLaughlin Group," host John McLaughlin asked his panelists what the long-term implications of national debt could be for the United States.
"Is America in danger of the current debt crisis becoming a sovereign debt crisis as Mort [Zuckerman] mentioned, like the one that is now hitting Greece, yes or no?" McLaughlin asked.
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Posted by: Fred ||
07/20/2010 00:00 ||
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"Our results also appeared to confirm the conjecture of Abel et al. that foreign nominal assets were a closer substitue for domestic money than were real assets in Germany during this period, although the degree of substitutability between money and real assets was rising more rapidly."
#5
We can just print the money!? Why wasn't I informed of this sooner!? Let's get started on that right away! Thanks MSNBC, the country would be lost without you! When you guys finally go under we'll use some of that money we're printing to nationalize your company. -- sez PrezBO.
#6
The McLaughlin Group is still on the air? Eleanor Clift is still alive?
Well, hell, I shouldn't be surprised. NPR still wheels Dan Schorr out of cryogenic suspension every Saturday to play "the 2000 year old man" for the wine-and-cheese crowd. Whenever I drive down to Pittsburgh, I listen with astonishment as his Boswell, Scott Simon, conjures from the old relic the creakiest set of truisms possible on whatever news the mainstream media is pretending to be important that week. He's like a senile, liberal version of those gag weather-forecasting rocks that summer camps set up out by the parking lot.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/20/2010 9:18 Comments ||
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Eleanor Clift is still alive?
Lefty ferret lifespans increase with the bitterness level, apparently
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/20/2010 10:12 Comments ||
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#8
Sez the financially failing waiting room joke, unintentially stating that the democrat Congress is out of control.
#10
HAD to inject the word Bush into her rebuttal, even though it had no connotation to what she was talking about. Anyone else notice that? It's like they are trying to use Neuro Linguistic Programming at this point to keep Bush in the conversation. Bush's Tax Cuts are non-sequitur to the topic, but she uses it as her arguement?!
#14
""No - because we can print money and Greece can't," Clift declared."
Jeez - these clowns are so stupid, how do they even find their way to the bathroom in the morning?
Oh, yeah - that's right - they can't. That's why they're so full of sh*t.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/20/2010 19:40 Comments ||
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#15
I'm glad you put up a 100 trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe. I saw an article on their inflation. That 100 trillion dollar bill will buy 3 eggs. They only had to print money for 3 years to destroy their currency. I'll bet you Obama can destroy the US dollar faster. It will sure be easy to pay of my mortgage.
Posted by: Dave ||
07/20/2010 20:55 Comments ||
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A U.S. defense company wants to take drone wars to a new level with a laser weapon capable of shooting down unmanned aircraft.
Raytheon today touted its new weapon, which brought down four drones over the Pacific Ocean during tests conducted with the U.S. Navy this spring.
"One of the Navy's problems is that the bad guys have [unmanned aircraft] now -- they can give away ships' positions," explained Mike Booen, a Raytheon official, according to USA Today. "So we wanted to do a more real-world test of the laser over water."
The test involved tracking the drones with sensors used as part of a Raytheon-built ship defense system, and then destroying the aircraft using a high-powered fiber laser.
"The Raytheon-Navy team demonstrated the systems' capability to detect, track, engage and defeat dynamic targets at tactically significant ranges in a maritime environment," Taylor W. Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems, said in a statement.
The idea of laser weapons has been around for decades, but so far few ideas have progressed beyond testing. Scientists have long struggled with creating a device that can produce enough power to be useful but packaged in a system that is compact enough to be deployed.
Fiber lasers, like the type Raytheon is using, have been gaining traction in recent years as a possible weapon candidate because of their efficiency, which makes them less complex and more compact than other types of lasers.
Raytheon's announcement coincided with the start of the Farnborough Air Show, the aerospace industry gathering taking place this week in the U.K. There's no word from Raytheon, however, on how soon such a weapon would actually be ready for use.
#2
Now that it's public, this will be immediately marginalized and stripped of any federal subsidy. We can't have our military developing or deploying the weapons of the future. Not in evil, imperialist, selfish warhawk America--sez PrezBO
Seriously though, this is awesome. Now that we have the lasers all we need are the giant robots...
#4
IIRC, IMO I believe it twas CHINA? > repor desired to dev a "SMART/BRILLIANT" USV STRIKE DRONE capanle of being fired from a SUBMARINE, etc., MANEUVER = "FLY" UNDERWATER, PERHAPS EVEN TO "SKIP" BETWEEN SURFACE ANDOR BELOW SURFACE, + then emerge to FLY THRU + EFFEC MANEUVER THRU THE AIR = "ABOVE-GROUND" TO ITS TARGET ON LAND.
U.S. researchers say the outlawed drug Ecstasy can help victims of post-traumatic stress recover. The testing by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in California was limited both in size and duration, but the results were significant enough for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recently order a much larger study involving U.S. war veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The initial test determined Ecstasy (formally called MDMA) had a dramatic effect on previously untreatable PTSD patients, some who had suffered from the disorder for up to 19 years.
Dr Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in Santa Cruz, Cal., said his researchers administered medical MDMA to a test group of 12 patients, while a control group of eight patients did not receive the drug. Patients in both groups went through two eight-hour psychotherapy sessions three to five weeks apart.
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#1
One of the terrible side-effects is that users often develop a habit of liking trance, house, drum and base and other various forms of techno/repetitive beat music that have been banned by the Geneva Convention.
Posted by: DJ Curtis C ||
07/20/2010 9:36 Comments ||
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#4
Whilst it is probably good short term, the long term issues if the seratonin crash and receptor damage will be immense ... PTSD or severe depression, tough choice
We are now beginning to see the rave scene casualties from the late 80's early 90's suffer a multitude of mental dysfunctions
Posted by: Herman ||
07/20/2010 21:18 Comments ||
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#5
We are now beginning to see the rave scene casualties from the late 80's early 90's suffer a multitude of mental dysfunctions
I had no idea, Herman, thank you. What kind of dysfunctions are you seeing?
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 U.S. defense company wants to take drone wars to a new level with a laser weapon capable of shooting down unmanned aircraft.
