#1
As has been pointed out, humans and chimpanzees share about 99.8% of their DNA. You can legally experiment on chimpanzees, but not humans. But what if you make a hybrid that starts with 99.8% chimpanzee DNA and adds a .1% human DNA? It may look like a person, and think and feel like a person, but *legally* be a patentable animal. It is *only* .1% human, anyway.
#3
Humans and sponges have 50% of their genes in common. So what? Well genes are not human or non-human (although a few are unique to humans). Banning these kinds of experiments becuase they cause some people moral/religous issues is no better than preventing immunizations and similar actions we decry all the time.
#4
The Chimp human DNA similarity is actually lower. The 99% figure was little more than a guess. The similarity is around 95% -- which sounds like a lot, until to realize that all living beings will have points of genetic similarity. Genes are only templates for very small parts -- like nuts and bolts. A car and a rocket have a great deal common at the level of parts, but they are quite different things. In addition, you can't just "add" DNA.
#6
As has been pointed out, humans and chimpanzees share about 99.8% of their DNA.
Actually, that is really not the case. Where did the "97%/98%/99%/99.8% similarity" come from then? It was inferred from a fairly crude technique called DNA hybridization where small parts (not necessarily genes, just random sequences of nucleotides) of human DNA are split into single strands and allowed to re-form double strands (duplex) with chimp DNA. This figure (actually 97% homology) comes from Sibley and Ahlquist's paper. However, there has been no replication and it also seems that the analysis contains a statistical error - averaging two figures without taking into account differences in the number of observations contributing to each figure.
You would have to compare sequenced DNA to get the actual figure of shared base. Chimpanzee DNA has not been fully sequenced yet, so any figure that is floating around is just a guess, nothing more or nothing less.
BTW, sequenced human DNA has quite a bit of variations. If you pool a large number of full sequences, about 96% are shared, the rest are variations. Of course, making a pool of full sequences would be prohibitively expensive, but you can pool partial sequences that would cover the full genome and statistically correlate variations within each partial sequence pool with the ideal full sequence of base pairs.
From that follows that figure given for similarity of human and chimpanzee DNA is incorrect.
Beside DNA itself, human cell differs in the count of chromozomes. We have one less pair than apes. It is not that it is really "missing", rather the #2 and #3 seem to be similar to #'s 2,3,4 of chimp chromosomes. For the lack of a better word, if you look at the #2 and 3 human chromosomes strictly from the microbiological POV, you would probably come to a conclusion that # 2 & 3 were "spliced", whatever the agent that caused it may have been.
And DNA is merely the cookie - RNA is the cutter... Lol! Mebbe maternal mitochondria or Golgi bodies, or Swamp Thing should come next, heh. Mmmm, Adrienne Barbeau... scroll down... yumm...
The Saudi Labor Ministry plans to secure jobs for 200,000 Saudi women within the next six months as part of a national drive to replace foreigners with locals. A ministry source said Tuesday that certain jobs allocated for women would be "Saudized," or taken over by Saudi nationals, including receptionists in female outlets, workers in female workshops and ateliers, diet centers, nurseries, secretarial jobs and estheticians. "The Saudization of these jobs will take place in phases after the candidates submit to training sessions financed and organized by the Fund for the Development of Human Resources," the source said. He said some 200,000 women are expected to benefit from that process. Saudi women, who have long been banned from employment under the strict rules of the Muslim conservative kingdom, can now apply for certain jobs allocated for them. Because, Allah knows, anything more challenging would give them the vapours, and the poor dears just can't be expected to do "man's work".
#1
Interesting development. Just musing about what jobs the Saudis would consider acceptable for their wymyns...
This will prolly hit Indians the hardest. It is an oddity of Saudi employment habits that Indian males, lesser numbers of Filipino and Pakiwaki males, end up in the "top" clerical and sales positions in "soft" businesses - such as retail stores and mall outlets. It's a freakish, particularly Saudi, form of soft racism - effectively, non-Arab Asian males are not viewed as men. At Aramco, the classification for non-Saudis is "AOA" - Arab and Other Asian. The OAs of that designation are automatically discriminated against - peaking out at clerical / bookkeeper jobs.
I guess this means that when Maha, Haifa, and Rima have their Indian / Paki / Flip drivers take them down to Fredericks of Mekkah for that special Eid teddy, the one with the cutouts, they won't have the thrill of dealing with Ravi Shankar. Bummer, babes.
#2
This has the feel of the Saudis gingerly backing into the thorny problem of male Arab ego vs. need for employment. I.e., first have women work - because they are after all inferior to begin with, so there is no dishonor in them working at the right sort of girly jobs. Then, maybe a generation from now, non-royal men might answer phones in their offices and who knows where it will go after that?
The Saudis have a massive demographic and unemployment problem of their own making.
The countdown to Saudi Arabia's first nationwide elections began with the launch of campaigning for February 10 municipal polls in and around the capital.
Local newspapers carried a wide range of appeals to voters in Riyadh and neighbouring regions, who will be electing half of the members of 38 municipal councils in the first round of the three-stage ballot.
A total of 1,818 candidates are running, 646 of whom are competing for the seven seats in the capital's council, the official SPA news agency reported.
These seven seats represent seven separate constituencies, of which the eastern constituency of Al-Nassim alone attracted 118 candidates for a single seat, SPA said.
"Your vote = Easy housing and clean environment", said one campaign advertisement spread over two pages in Al-Jazirah daily by one candidate standing in the capital.
Candidates are permitted to place advertisements in the print media and set up campaign centres in private function halls.
But they are not allowed to campaign on radio or television or establish campaign headquarters in government buildings, embassies, or mosques, according to a list of do's and don'ts for the campaign, reported by Al-Jazirah.
The daily said that candidates were also banned from using pictures of public figures in their electoral publicity but other newspapers carried advertisements featuring pictures of King Fahd and other royals.
"I would like to congratulate our wise government ... for deciding to hold municipal elections," said one campaigner in an advertisement that took up a full page in Al-Riyadh daily, displaying his picture below those of ruling family members.
Government bodies or companies that are partly owned by the public sector are not allowed to offer financial or moral support to candidates, or act in a manner that might affect the outcome of the ballot, the list said.
The elections in the capital and neighbouring regions are the first of three rounds of local polls that will eventually see elected representatives take up half of the seats on 178 municipal councils across Saudi Arabia.
Voting in the Eastern Province and the southwest is set for March 3. Electors in the western regions of Mecca and Medina, and the north, will not be casting their ballots until April 21.
Women, who represent more than 50 percent of the population, were banned from participating in the election, despite neutral rules that say citizens over 21 years of age, except military personnel, have the right to vote.
Saudi leaders promised in October 2003 to organise elections within a year, but a campaign of violence by suspected Al-Qaeda militants had raised doubts as to whether the timetable would be maintained.
The FBI warned all federal agents Friday that a Mexican drug cartel has 250 armed men on the border near Matamoros and is planning to kidnap two federal agents in the United States and smuggle them into this nation, where they'll be murdered. The FBI office in San Antonio declined to discuss the source of the information, but issued a written bulletin warning of an "immediate threat to law enforcement personnel." The bulletin goes on to say the "extremely violent" drug-smuggling organization known as the Gulf Cartel already sent a contingent that are believed to have valid visas to enter the United States. "Due to the nature of this immediate threat, all law enforcement personnel are being cautioned to ensure appropriate measures are taken as well as to keep a high degree of vigilance," the bulletin states.
Rene Salinas, a spokesman for the FBI in San Antonio, said the information is "uncorroborated," but that federal agents and police are being told to use extra caution. "We are trying to see if it is legitimate," he said of the murder-kidnap plot. "It could be DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) or Border Patrol. It could be anybody," he said of potential victims. He stressed the FBI bulletin was "law enforcement sensitive" and not intended for the public.
US software giant Bill Gates has high praise for China, which he says has created a brand-new form of capitalism that benefits consumers more than anything has in the past. "It is a brand-new form of capitalism, and as a consumer its the best thing that ever happened," Gates told an informal meeting late Friday at the World Economic Forum in this ski resort.
He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead". Manufacturers have created "scale economies that are just phenomenal", in part owing to companies there and elsewhere on the planet designing good products, Gates said. Looking ahead, he added: "You know they haven't run out of labor yet, the portion that can come out of the agriculture sector" was still considerable.
"It's not like Korea, Korea got to a point where, boom, the wages went up a lot," he said, adding "that's good, you know, they got rich and now they have to add value at a different level.
"They're closer to the United States in that sense than they are to where China is right now."
Gates continued by heaping praise on the current generation of Chinese leaders. "They're smart," he said with emphasis.
But are they smart enough to fix Windows?
"They have this mericratic way of picking people for these government posts where you rotate into the university and really think about state allocation of resources and the welfare of the country and then you rotate back into some bureaucratic position."
That rotation continued, Gates explained, and leaders were constantly subjected to various kinds of ratings. "This generation of leaders is so smart, so capable, from the top down, particularly from the top down," he concluded.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005 12:34:36 AM ||
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#1
Bill, you're losing it. As the Diplomad says, there is no magic third way.
#6
HV: Bill, you're losing it. As the Diplomad says, there is no magic third way.
China's isn't the third way - it's practising raw capitalism - without democracy (just like Taiwan and South Korea until about a decade ago). Bill is just flattering his hosts about their originality - he's an astute student of Alfred Sloan, who built up General Motors to dwarf Ford - he knows what capitalism is all about.
China will eventually reach the same point as Taiwan and South Korea - where economic growth starts to slow, and the population begins to question the legitimacy of the government - which was based on maintaining high economic growth. But China has a while to go before that point is reached - as Bill said, the population is so poor that China's economy is likely to continue growing for several decades. Note that Taiwan and South Korea kept chugging along for four decades before growth slowed. China will likely keep growing for at least that long, if not longer, given how far behind it is, relative to the developed world. The catch-up phase is the easiest phase, and China has a lot of catching-up to do.
#8
Bill joins a long list of China panderers: Cisco, Dell, etc. Its called greed, money over principals and patriotism.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:22 Comments ||
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#9
Anonymoose: Now he can be referred to as "The Charles Lindbergh of China".
Charles Lindbergh was a patriot who did not see the point of the US getting involved in European wars. He volunteered for the service in the Pacific theater and pioneered a few innovations that helped improve the effectiveness of American aviators in the region. He also felt that the long term danger was from yellow-skinned Asiatics.
Bill Gates is a great businessman, but I can't see him achieving the kind of folk-hero status that Lindbergh had. Lindbergh was not only admired - he was loved.
#10
DN: Bill joins a long list of China panderers: Cisco, Dell, etc. Its called greed, money over principals and patriotism.
I'm not sure that calling China capitalist is pandering or unpatriotic*. He's merely stating a fact. China doesn't have Social Security, welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, workplace safety requirements, restrictive zoning codes that impede what individuals can do with their property, et al. In comparison to China, the US is the socialist state.
* It would be unpatriotic for Gates to sell military technology to China without the US government's permission. Other than that, I don't see how patriotism comes into it.
#11
Zhang, can it really be called capitalist when the corporations doing all the 'capitalist' exploitation are all owned by the government, the party, the military, or well-connected party officials?
Just because they exploit their workers and don't have decent social benefits doesn't make them capitalist; by those standards, the old Soviet Union was capitalist too.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/30/2005 10:46 Comments ||
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#12
PF: Zhang, can it really be called capitalist when the corporations doing all the 'capitalist' exploitation are all owned by the government, the party, the military, or well-connected party officials? Just because they exploit their workers and don't have decent social benefits doesn't make them capitalist; by those standards, the old Soviet Union was capitalist too.
First, capitalism refers to the profit motive. Socialist states are operated not to turn a profit, but to allocate resources equitably and rationally based on the decisions of enlightened bureaucrats. Capitalist states allow the economic actors themselves to make these decisions - companies and individuals succeed or fail based on their own efforts. China's loss-making state-owned enterprises don't "exploit" their workers - they lose money because they pamper them.
Second, it is false to say that the corporations making money are government-owned. The government-owned companies are the equivalent of the welfare state. These are generally loss-making enterprises, with schools, medical benefits, et al, all attached to the companies.
Third, the word "exploit" is a socialist term. In a free market of capital and labor, workers are free to choose the jobs they wish to take up. The regulations and social safety nets prevalent in developed countries are socialist measures taken in response to popular pressure, unrealistic projections of how much they will cost and lies about the government (actually, taxpayers) footing the bill - they have nothing to do with capitalism.
#13
Charles Lindbergh was a patriot who did not see the point of the US getting involved in European wars. He volunteered for the service in the Pacific theater and pioneered a few innovations that helped improve the effectiveness of American aviators in the region. He also felt that the long term danger was from yellow-skinned Asiatics.
He was right there with Lt. Commander Lyndon Johnson.
#14
Bill is not losing it -- he never really had it. If IBM had been a little smarter and had not sold him DOS, you wouldn't even know his name. That and no one challenged Windows in time to prevent near-monopoly. The Chinese will eat his lunch.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 12:13 Comments ||
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#15
Two yardsticks for truly free markets: property rights and the rule of law. China is enormously deficient on both counts. Doesn't mean it isn't a hugely energetic nation. But it isn't free and it isn't rich. Absolutely inane remarks by Gates.
#17
Tom: IBM licensed MS-DOS from Microsoft. That's what put Microsoft on the map. Gates leveraged DOS into a monopoly OS franchise that continues to this day and has been extended to Microsoft Office. Take out profits from Windows and from Office and Microsoft is a breakeven company at best.
The Microsoft DOS deal with IBM was in part a fluke. IBM really wanted to do business with Digital Research and license CP/M the leading micro-computer OS of the day for its new PC. But Gary Kildall the founder of D.R. was a hard case and didn't want to work with IBM. So IBM looked elsewhere. They talked to Microsoft, which was known for it's Basic language tools, but didn't have an OS. Gates sniffed an opportunity, purchased a shitty little clone of CP/M from Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products called SCP DOS and licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS. That might have been the single greatest feat of arbitrage in human history.
Gates did a lot of tub thumping during the anti-trust trial about preserving Microsoft's "freedom to innovate". The only real innovations to come out of Microsoft have been in the area of coercive and monopolistic business practices.
#18
Charles Lindbergh was a patriot who did not see the point of the US getting involved in European wars.
And here was me thinking Charles Lindbergh was a racist, anti-Semitic, Nazi sympathizer who argued that the Germans were not only unbeatable, but defenders of "our White ramparts".
"We can have peace and security only so long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood, only so long as we guard ourselves against attack by foreign armies and dilution by foreign races."
Not a very likeable or representative American patriot, if you ask me.
He did increase the range of the Corsair, though, and was an inspirational combat pilot, which was nice.
Not quite. It refers to private ownership of companies, in return for investing capital in them. Usually that ownership is in the form of stocks in a corporation, but not always.
It is, of course, the case that those who invest want profits so as to pay out a return on that investment.
#20
Take out profits from Windows and from Office and Microsoft is a breakeven company at best.
? Breakeven?
You mean if you stold 90 percent of it's intellectual property it would still break even?
#24
Reminds me of the people who came back from Nazi Germany raving about Hitler's autobahns.
Spot on, Bulldog!
China has absolutely nothing to do with capitalism. It is and remains an exceedingly dangerous kleptocracy. How ironic that Gates should praise a country within whose borders he has yet to turn a single dollar's profit (especially when balanced against government sanctioned piracy of his products), despite having opened doors there many years ago. Gates is nothing but an extremely fortunate and conniving moron. I can scrape out more vision from underneath my little toenail.
#25
It just goes to show that one can be enormously successful in one area and a doofus in another. There are many successful engineers who are creationists or Scientologists. Einstein was a Marxist.
#26
You are correct, Classical Liberal. Memory failed me. Gates did not buy his DOS from IBM, he just managed to retain the rights to the CP/M clone he bought elsewhere to pass off to them. And that was unusual because normally IBM would have owned all the rights to something produced for them by a contractor. But I'll stand by my statement that the Chinese will eat his lunch.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 14:34 Comments ||
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#27
ZF: Bill Gates is simply following a long and growing list of US firms that are helping the Chinese government accelerate their power grab and restrict freedoms from their people.
By now it is well known about how Cisco helped the Chinese government construct firewalls to block the free flow of information from dissenting voices within and outside China.
The US tech firms are simply play to the tune of the Chinese communist government with their eyes on the huge consumer market that China affords.
To equate this with capitalism is truly simple-minded and short-sighted.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 14:35 Comments ||
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#28
There are many successful engineers who are creationists or Scientologists.
Just reading that makes my skin crawl.
Excellent points, Duke. How those operating within a free economy can so actively sponsor their most dire foes is nothing short of astounding. Unless we break the Chinese mandarins' rice bowl d@mn soon, they will fill it with our collective lunch.
#29
From Time's reporter in Davos: "Huang gave a long overview of China's economic policies without confronting, until challenged by questions, the issues of intellectual property rights and China's exchange rate policy. Yet it is precisely such matters on which foreign investors want to hear clear, unequivocal policies from Beijing. As for the seminal question of whether China's economy can continue to steam ahead without the transparency and accountability that come with democracy and the rule of law, Huang was almost entirely silent..."
#32
Gates did not buy his DOS from IBM, he just managed to retain the rights to the CP/M clone he bought elsewhere to pass off to them
And that was because of family connections. The CEO of IBM at the time served on several charity boards with Gates' mother. When briefed on several approaches to providing an OS for their new PC, he responded "Oh, give the contract to Mary's boy."
#34
"For IBM, Microsoft was a low risk, plus IBM's president John Opel, and Bill Gates' mother both served on the board of the United Way."
http://ieee.cincinnati.fuse.net/reiman/01_1999.html
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 20:42 Comments ||
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JOHN Howard has lashed out at "old Europe", describing criticism of the US as "unfair and irrational", as global tensions grow over the Iraq war and free trade. During a vigorous panel debate on US global relations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, several European officials attacked President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, but Mr Howard stood up to defend his ally. Earlier in the summit, Mr Howard attacked the European Union over the reintroduction of wheat export subsidies, which he said harmed underdeveloped nations and were contrary to free trade. "Some of the criticism (of the US) by some of the Europeans is unfair and irrational," the Prime Minister said in the panel debate, organised by Britain's BBC TV. Nice to have a friend and a true ally.
"I mean, the negative mindset of the last five minutes (of this debate) is ridiculous — of course America has made mistakes," he said. Later Mr Howard told The Australian he found the European "irrational level of anti-Americanism" perplexing. "It is a sign of parochialism and it is disturbingly intense." He said the BBC debate "was based on an anti-American mindset which was established right at the beginning by the moderators from the BBC". Mr Howard said anti-Americanism had already affected world co-operation. "But it is very important to remember it is confined to sectors of Europe — not all Europeans . . . There remains in Britain some of the old jealousies that have always been there. I found the French and German attitude has lingered longer than I thought it might, and longer than is in anyone's interests."
Attacking Europe over its reintroduction of wheat export subsidies, Mr Howard urged the US not to follow suit. "Nothing would help underdeveloped countries more than the removal of trade subsidies and trade barriers. "If the nations of Europe and North America ... really wanted to help many of the developing countries, then they could do more to help in changing their trade polices than they could through official development assistance."
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 1:09:32 PM ||
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#1
With Howard as PM, the Ozzies punch so far above their weight class that it's absurd, an example being their recent first-on-the-scene performance in the tsunami relief effort. ("The UN? Oh, I expect they'll get here eventually. Have some food.") It's hard to remember sometimes that in terms of population Australia is smaller than Iraq by several millions.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 15:29 Comments ||
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#2
Australia: 19 million people.
France: 59 million people.
Difference as "Allies": Priceless.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 15:38 Comments ||
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#4
One salient difference France v. Howard & OZ is that France has proven repeatedly that they are whores who can be bought.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 18:21 Comments ||
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#5
Tom,
A more pointed comparison is:
Australia-19 million people,Canada-31 million people.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/30/2005 18:45 Comments ||
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#6
Stephen:
I hope that your comparison doesn't go too far. 60 years ago, Canada had the 3rd largest navy, a real Army (as in multiple combat-capable infantry and armor divisions), and an air force with the latest equipment.
I sure hope Canada 2005 <> Australia 2065.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 20:45 Comments ||
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#9
They had several carriers (CVEs, but that's more than anyone beside US and UK had), 2 or 3 cruisers, a dozen or two destroyers, and a whole pile of escort ships, from frigates and sloops down to corvettes and sub-chasers. Of course, it's kind of artificial in that I chose 1945, when Japan, Italy, and Germany were stripped of their navies, and the USSR and France had lost theirs combat or overrun by the Germans. In 1944, they were probably 4th. And of course, by 1950, they were 7th or so. Still...
Back then, they realized that they were at war and were willing to make sacrifices to win it. Now, they don't and aren't. I don't expect Canada to be able to match our effort, but would 1/10 be too much to ask?
ABOARD JEANNE D'ARC -- The naval ship's pantry is stocked with wines, baguettes and pate, and its casual dress code is shorts and sandals. There's even an artist -- a painter to keep an illustrated record of the trip. With a panache all its own, France's military is delivering aid to tsunami-battered Indonesia -- and showing how a small force can make a difference. A month after killer waves struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the French finally are part of an international relief operation that includes forces from more than a dozen nations, including Japan, Russia and Switzerland.
The 1,000 or so French sailors and soldiers arrived in Aceh province on the island's northern tip two weeks ago. Their 11 helicopters and two C-160 cargo planes are airlifting rice and tents to isolated villages devastated by the Dec. 26 earthquake-generated waves, which killed at least 145,000 people in Asia and Africa. Foreign Legionnaires are clearing debris left by the waves, rebuilding schools in Maleuboh and occasionally extinguishing fires that flare. French doctors are treating the sick and vaccinating as many as 10,000 Acehnese children against measles. Many of those children had never been immunized against disease. "The children are smiling again. This is a good sign," said Maj. Francois Masse, a veteran pilot of French relief work in Bosnia, Kosovo and Chad.
Although media attention has focused on the U.S. contribution, particularly by the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its battle group, aid officials say the French and other forces are playing an equally important role. "(The French) increase our capacity to move loads into some areas where roads have yet to be reconstructed. Trucks cannot reach these areas," said Daniel Augstburger, head of the U.N.'s relief work on Sumatra's western coast. That responsibility likely will increase once the Americans leave with their three dozen helicopters.
The French, who also are conducting relief operations in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, object to comparisons with the Americans. "The feeling we had in France was that, as usual, the Americans were rushing in force to Indonesia and boasting about it," said flotilla spokeswoman Cmdr. Anne Cullerre. "For some people, it seemed outrageous. "How can you really boast of doing something from this tragedy? People were saying, 'They are doing it again. They are showing off.'"
Critics of the U.S. military's work in Indonesia say Washington has seized on the disaster as a pretext for advancing its strategic interests in the archipelago and improving ties with the Indonesian military. Those ties effectively were cut in 1999 after Indonesian troops and their proxy militias killed 1,500 East Timorese after the half-island territory voted for independence in a U.N.-sponsored independence referendum. During her recent Senate confirmation hearings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the tsunami provided a "wonderful opportunity" for the United States to reap "great dividends" in the region. The dispatch of the USS Abraham Lincoln's strike force has been viewed in some quarters as an effort not only to help survivors, but also to burnish America's image among Islamic communities worldwide by delivering aid to the largest Muslim country in the world.
The French maintain they do not have strategic interests in the region. The contrast with U.S. forces does not end there. The U.S. military bans alcohol aboard naval vessels and sailors generally wear casual clothes only in their quarters. But French sailors aboard the Jeanne D'Arc pick from wine, beer and other alcoholic drinks, and their ready-made meals come with pate. On deck, they sunbathe in the muggy heat in shorts and sandals. However, what really sets the French apart is the paunchy, bearded civilian riding a sloop to the shore. He is artist Michel Bellion, appointed to paint the French military in action in his trademark bold strokes and bright colors. "I'm here to show the drama," said Bellion, pulling out a sketch book as he accompanied a team of doctors vaccinating children. "For me, it's hell. That is what I want to show. I'm not looking to make it beautiful. I'm trying to show the emotion."
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 7:34:57 PM ||
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#2
Okay, so it took them how long to get there? And with tourist-like clothes, artists (!), and wine, just who's showing off here? And, of course, there's a chance to bash the US. We've just been there helping since the beginning, but we don't expect any thanks, no sir . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
01/30/2005 19:49 Comments ||
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#4
"Foreign Legionnaires are clearing debris left by the waves"
So typically French -- to have someone else do it.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 21:17 Comments ||
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#5
No brag; just the facts. And just how many more people would have died if all nations providing aid had waited 5 weeks to begin like the French did? Pathetic. Shut up and get to work.
#7
yeah BH, I thought this was scrappleface as well.
For instance:
"I'm here to show the drama," said Bellion, pulling out a sketch book as he accompanied a team of doctors vaccinating children. "For me, it's hell. That is what I want to show. I'm not looking to make it beautiful. I'm trying to show the emotion."
We've got combat correspondents and they've got an artiste.......bwhahaha.....fags.
#8
"The feeling we had in France was that, as usual, the Americans were rushing in force to Indonesia and boasting about it,"
-boasting about it? Maybe, maybe not. Rushing in force to save lives - definitely. You fuckers can sit around w/your thumbs up your ass, don't worry though, the yanks will handle business as usual & in a timely fashion.
"For some people, it seemed outrageous. "How can you really boast of doing something from this tragedy? People were saying, 'They are doing it again. They are showing off.'"
-as usual the french military couldn't pull off one candy-assed meals on wheels op without showing their massive inferiority complex.
#10
Just read the U.N. Recent press report of all which they have done - singlehandily. The Diplomat (the entry for Thursday Jan 27, 2005) shows that the U.N. is talking credit for just about everything everyone else as done and has ignored all the fine work the Australia and the United States had done soon after the disaster.
From the Diplomad:
So, "20 foreign militaries lent" their assets, eh? Lent? To whom? Not to the UN, that's for sure. For at least three of the past four weeks, the UN had nothing to do with the operations of the "20 foreign militaries." The UN certainly was not directing the Aussies, who were the first ones in; they blazed the path for the rest and thousands of people owe them their lives. They weren't running the assets of the Kiwis or the Singaporeans, either, and they sure weren't running ours. Up until just a few days ago, those "20" foreign militaries were Aussies, Singaporeans, Kiwis (who've gotten little credit for the fine work they've done), and Yanks with a modest but appreciated assist as of about 10-12 days ago of the Spanish and the Pakistani militaries. The coordinating was being done by the Australians, the USA and the Indonesian military. Up until just about four or five days ago, except for the disaster tourists such as Annan and Bellamy, the UN WAS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN -- except quite overwhelmingly in Jakarta's luxury hotels, a few UNocrats in Medan, and a tiny handful at the airport in Aceh writing up press releases claiming all the credit for the UN and bad-mouthing the hard-working Aussies and Americans.
MUCH fuss in Britain lately about Prince Harry's choice of costume at a fancy dress party: the uniform of the Afrika Korps, the Nazis' desert troops, complete with swastika. EU officials are now demanding a continent-wide ban on the display of the Nazi symbol. This is Brussels' answer for any complicated question: if something is bothersome, or might demand some nuanced thinking, outlaw it.
Actually, let's not. The practical effect of banning "symbols of tyranny" such as the swastika, and the communist hammer and sickle, can be seen here in Hungary. They become glamorous icons of rebellion whose display brings instant and copious media coverage... That said, it does seem incredible that nobody told His Royal Stupidness that: a) swastikas are neither cool nor funny; and b) there would be people with cameras at the party, and it was 110% guaranteed that he would end up on the front page of the newspapers...
The number of people looking for work in Germany could rise above the politically critical five million mark this year, Economy and Labor Minister Wolfgang Clement said in an interview published on Sunday. "At the beginning of the year the unemployment figures rise, unfortunately, on account of the winter temperatures, most of the time by around 350,000," he told the Sunday edition of Bild newspaper. "That means we are looking at around 4.8 million unemployed," Clement said. To that can be added "the more than 200,000 jobless who were receiving social welfare until now without actually being enrolled at an employment office," he said. Under the government's new social and economic reforms, aimed at cutting unemployment below the four million mark where it has hovered for years, these people have figured among the ranks of the jobless since January 1. When asked whether the highly symbolic five-million barrier would be exceeded, Clement told the paper: "Now is the moment of truth on the German labour market, the time of obscure figures has passed." Official unemployment figures for the month of January are due to be published in coming days. Analysts warn that the jobless total could rise to five million this winter, not least as a result of statistical changes that came into effect at the beginning of this month.
The French are readying for a fight to keep their 35-hour week, with a survey published Sunday showing nearly four out of five employees opposed plans by President Jacques Chirac's conservative government to make them work more.
The parliament will start debate Tuesday on a bill put forward by the ruling UMP party to water down the law covering the short work week, which came into force in 2000 under the previous Socialist administration.
But the measures envisaged, including making it easier to impose overtime and allowing small companies to maintain longer hours, are viewed by much of the public as a back-door attempt to bury the popular 35-hour week law.
Next Saturday, hundreds of thousands of public and private sector workers are to take to the streets to protest the government's proposed changes.
They are backed by four of the five biggest French unions, which say the reform would result in workers putting in longer hours without extra pay.
A poll by the Ifop institute published in Sunday's Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that 77 percent of employees want to keep working an average of only seven hours a day.
Eighteen percent were willing to increase their hours for more money, the survey said. Five percent of the 489 workers questioned did not respond.
Critics of the 35-hour work week, including French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and his government, say it has failed to achieve the objective of creating jobs by forcing short-staffed employers to hire more workers.
They point at the chronic unemployment rate of 9.9 percent as proof and say that France's economy - the fourth biggest in the world after the United States, Japan and Germany - would be more competitive if workers were able to work up to a maximum 48 hours per week.
Bosses say they are unwilling to hire new employees because rigid labour laws make it difficult to fire staff when circumstances change.
But supporters say the reduction from the 39-hour week that was the previous norm has made a happier workforce - the French, for each hour worked, are more productive than Americans who work an average of 40 hours, and Britons who work 37 hours - and allowed families to spend more time together.
It is, perhaps, in part thanks to the more free time that France, population 62 million, also boasts the second-highest fertility rate in the European Union, after Ireland.
Chirac and Raffarin have given no sign of backing down, however, and have already braved a recent series of strikes protesting their liberalisation programme and budget restrictions.
#1
It is, perhaps, in part thanks to the more free time that France, population 62 million, also boasts the second-highest fertility rate in the European Union, after Ireland.
Ok...but the big difference between the two is that popular baby names in Ireland are "John" and "Mary", while in France they are "Mohammed" and "Fatima".
The story at the included link is a story that appeared in the local newspaper. It is a human interest story about a woman who survived the Nazi camps. The story is about the world 60 years ago. However, it is a story about facism gone rampant. Whether the threats are from the Nazis or Islamofacists today, the end result is not much different.
Interesting reading...
Posted by: John Q. Citizen ||
01/30/2005 2:11:11 PM ||
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Via Lucianne:
Ahh, they can handle it now, they're big boys as they keep telling US.
ABOUT 130 Russian spies are active in Germany, almost as many as during the Cold War, according to the German news magazine Focus. German political parties, companies, the armed forces and scientific research establishments were targetted by post-communist Russian espionage, said the report, quoting German authorities. The article, released in advance of Monday's edition, quoted an official of the German Federal Criminal Investigation Agency (BKA) as saying the targets were spied on "in an extremely aggressive way". It also quoted an unnamed senior official of Germany's domestic counter-intelligence service as saying Russian intelligence had been strongly reinforced, so that almost as many operatives were now undercover on German territory as there were Soviet KGB agents during the Cold War. Focus reported a Russian military intelligence officer had been caught trying to recruit a German soldier in order to get at confidential military documents . nope, no new tech for you.
The officer had been expelled following a German protest note to the Russian embassy in Berlin, it said. The magazine also reported Russian agents had been observed in Hamburg trying to recruit informers in the police force. The German federal attorney's department in Karlsruhe is currently examining statements by Russian former agents who have changed sides. Investigators do not rule out that the ex-agents are being co-operative in the hope of obtaining residence permits in Germany. Russian-German relations are generally perceived as cordialTalks between German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin last month were deemed to have strengthened friendly links..
"How are you today, Gerhard?"
"Fine, thanks for asking, Vlad. And you?"
"Our relationship has reached a breadth and depth like never before in our history," Mr Schroeder said during the talks in northern Germany. So, what do you think of W?)
The two leaders spoke in German, a language Mr Putin learned as a KGB agent based in Dresden in former East Germany during the Cold War.
Posted by: Anonymous2u ||
01/30/2005 12:04:13 AM ||
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Shhhh! I gotta tuna sandwich in my trench coat right now.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 10:25 Comments ||
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How do you recruit?
Russian money versus German?
Russian social welfare system versus German?
Russian honey trap versus Russian mail order brides?
Its not like any German political parties are not left of Puty's, so where's the political motivation?
Recruiting has got to be tough when you no longer have much to offer.
#4
There is a saying that the only way you can bargain with a German is with your bayonet at his throat, and the only way you can bargain with a Russian is with your boot on his back.
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year. Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners — who must pay tax and employee health insurance — were granted access to official databases of jobseekers. The waitress ... received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile" and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job — including in the sex industry — or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990. The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars!. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
[Hamburg lawyer Merchthild] Garweg believes that pressure on job centres to meet employment targets will soon result in them using their powers to cut the benefits of women who refuse jobs providing sexual services. "They are already prepared to push women into jobs related to sexual services, but which don't count as prostitution," she said. "Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they don't want to do."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
01/30/2005 8:14:30 AM ||
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#1
This has got to be a joke. Not even a Euro bureaucracy can be that insane.
#2
The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars!
Going out for a drink with the guys in Germany must be a lot of fun.
job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
On the other hand getting it on with a hooker could be painful. Those Germans are really into pain.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 8:37 Comments ||
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Here we see illustrated the socially-enlightened compassion of the European Way.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/30/2005 8:39 Comments ||
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Great! So the employment centers will become a new pimp. "Go fuck someones, or you can go fuck yourself!
#7
"Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they donât want to do."
Ah, the joys of socialism: where "On your knees, bitch!" becomes state policy.
Feh.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/30/2005 10:16 Comments ||
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Hope Prof. Reynolds takes note of this when he argues that it shouldn't be criminalized. The theory of libertarianism and the reality of the messy world collide. Of course we'll hear that ", but in a truely libertarian environment..." Act and Consequence in the real world.
#9
Out of work guys might think this is a great idea, but they better remember there are gay brothels in Germany too.
Posted by: Ernst Rolm ||
01/30/2005 11:17 Comments ||
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Most of the article is speculation and nonsense. Since prostitution is legal (under certain circumstances), the job center could technically offer that "job", but only with the consent of the unemployed. German law stipulates that nobody can be forced or coerced into providing sexual services (which not only includes prostitution, but table dance, stripping and the like). So the job agency cannot threaten benefit cuts because this would violate the law.
A cleaning job in a legal brothel or serving drinks without sexual services would be acceptable though.
There might be a grey zone concerning the dress code maybe.
#12
I can see the unemployment clerk:
"We have good news and bad news. The good news is that you will be able to stay in welfare. The bad news is that the brothel refused to hire you because you were too ugly."
The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to provide hundreds of thousands of pages of documents sought by a government working group under a 1998 law that requires full disclosure of classified records related to Nazi war criminals, say Congressional officials from both parties. Under the law, the C.I.A. has already provided more than 1.2 million pages of documents, the vast majority of them from the archives of its World War II predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services. Many documents have been declassified, and some made public last year showed a closer relationship between the United States government and Nazi war criminals than had previously been understood, including the C.I.A.'s recruitment of war criminal suspects or Nazi collaborators.
You needed to have your wits about you at this year's meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and not just because the Alpine resort's sidewalks had been rendered glass-like by a dump of snow just before the proceedings began. (The skiing, since you ask, was fabulous.) Blink too quickly, and you'd miss the founders of Google at a reception for the Australian Prime Minister; or Al Gore, Shimon Peres and the head of Iran's central bank scurrying to separate meetings in a crowded hotel lobby while Bill Gates conducted interviews in a room just above them. And then there were the celebs: Angelina Jolie and Sharon Stone; Peter Gabriel and Bono; Lionel Richie (if he still counts as one) and Richard Gere, whose white hair gave him the air of a distinguished professor parachuted in to elucidate the theory of comparative advantage.
Yet if this year's Davos was more star-struck than ever, it also returned to its European roots. Busy with their jobs in the second Bush Administration, key U.S. policymakers like Vice President Dick Cheney (last year's headliner) stayed home. Though a gaggle of senators graced the proceedings, the senior Administration figure present was Robert Zoellick, the new deputy to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. By contrast, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schröder gave major speeches...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/30/2005 11:36:25 AM ||
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And for his next punishment, Robert Zoellick will be sent to attend a CosPlayCOM in Peoria, featuring furries from the "Darkstalker" series and the dancing Ewok marching boogie band.
MASSIVE new aircraft carriers ordered by Tony Blair to strengthen Britain's global role will set sail with outdated technology.
The Treasury is insisting that the two 60,000-ton craft cost no more than £3.5bn if they are to be built at all.
Civil servants at the Treasury have rejected Ministry of Defence arguments that the two carriers, due in service in 2012, should be equipped with the most advanced technology. They argue that the bill for meeting the Royal Navy's specifications would soar to about £5bn.
Sources close to the Whitehall argument said: 'The Treasury is insisting that the carriers be affordable. These ships are being built to last 50 years. It makes much more sense to build in the latest technology over time as it is proved to work rather than spend a fortune now when funds are limited.
'For example, we have perfectly good radar at the moment on our other ships. Why spend so much more on a radar that sees over the horizon when the technology is not completely proven?'
The most expensive and sophisticated part of the carriers will be the computer systems, which, in effect, allow the carriers to become the nerve centre controlling battlefields thousands of miles from Britain.
In the short term, the Navy might now be forced to accept less sophisticated carriers capable of handling 150 of the new Joint Strike Fighters.
At one stage in the battle for resources between the Treasury and the MoD, there were suggestions that the MoD might have to choose between scrapping either the orders for the carriers or for 232 Eurofighters. This is no longer an option.
The carriers are being built by a consortium of BAE Systems, Thales, Babcock and the VT Group. Oh bloody marvelous. Well, it makes sense to put Eurofighters on useless aircraft carriers. Maybe they could be on permanent duty on lake Windermere, not wanting to provoke other countries with displays of military might.
#1
The Eurofighter is NOT an aircraft that can fly from a carrier,it is strictly land-based like the F-15,F-16. I imagine the Treasury was trying to pit the RAF request for new fighters against the RN request for carriers,in the hopes that both would get axed. Unfortunately for Treasury,the Eurofighter is too politicaly connected to get killed,and the carriers are protected by drawing France into the deal. However,there is a strong chance that the RN carriers will eventually go to sea w/French Rafale fighters.(If JSF price continues to climb,don't be supprised to see France offer Rafales as alternative,and to seal deal,France offers to pay part of price of RN carriers.)
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/30/2005 19:36 Comments ||
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From The New York Times
The execution of Michael Bruce Ross, the convicted serial killer who was scheduled to be the first person put to death in Connecticut in 45 years, was delayed hours after a conference call in which a federal judge criticized his lawyer's handling of the case. The lawyer, T. R. Paulding, announced early yesterday - little more than an hour before Mr. Ross had been scheduled to die - that "a question has been raised about a conflict of interest" that touched on his continued representation of Mr. Ross. ....
The Connecticut's attorney general suggested that Mr. Paulding's conflict could mean that Mr. Ross no longer had a lawyer and that without a lawyer, he could not be put to death.
"He must be represented by counsel," the attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, said in an interview. "We've said to all courts, we respect his right to counsel." ....
Another lawyer involved in the case, Antonio Ponvert III, who represents Mr. Ross's father, said Mr. Paulding had spent hours talking to Mr. Ross at the prison on Friday afternoon and evening "about the need to have someone take an objective look at Mr. Ross's mental state, but he was unsuccessful." Mr. Paulding then told corrections officials that he had "serious conflict of interest issues" and that he could no longer be an advocate on Mr. Ross's behalf for the execution, Mr. Ponvert said.
Mr. Ross, 45, has repeatedly expressed his willingness to die. He admitted to killing eight girls and young women in the early 1980's and raping most of his victims before he murdered them. He was first convicted in 1987 and sentenced to death for four of the killings. ....
The delay in the execution and Mr. Paulding's statement at the prison came hours after he took part in a conference call with Judge Robert N. Chatigny, the chief federal judge in Connecticut. Lawyers representing Mr. Ross's father, Dan Ross, and public defenders who had represented Mr. Ross in the past listened in. The judge told Mr. Paulding, who has been working with Mr. Ross in an effort to forgo all appeals, that "you are way out on a limb." The judge also threatened to have Mr. Paulding's law license revoked if it turned out that his advice to Mr. Ross had been incomplete or inappropriate. ... In the telephone call, Judge Chatigny said he was also concerned that a move from one prison to another had affected Mr. Ross.
Mr. Paulding had insisted that Mr. Ross was sincere in his wish to die and mentally competent to make the decision to stop the appeals. Opponents of the execution have said that Mr. Ross is simply masking a desire to commit suicide. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 3:01:06 PM ||
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Travesty of justice. ...Ross, 45, has repeatedly expressed his willingness to die. He admitted to killing eight girls and young women in the early 1980âs and raping most of his victims before he murdered them
An opposition parliamentarian in Egypt has been detained by the police on suspicion of forging documents to form a new political party. Ayman Nour, founder of the al-Ghad, or Tomorrow Party, was taken into custody on Saturday after the Egyptian parliament stripped him of his parliamentary immunity. Lawmakers approved a request by the Justice Minister for Nour's parliamentary immunity to be lifted so he could be detained. Nour denies the forgery accusations. His arrest came two days before the ruling National Democratic Party will meet with Egyptian opposition parties to discuss political reform. State security investigators have accused Nour of forging all but 14 of the more than 2000 signatures he was required to present to the committee responsible for licensing political parties. Investigators searched his home and office for additional documents. Nour has described his party, one of just three to be given permission to operate in the past 25 years, as a liberal democratic party that represents youth. He has made numerous suggestions for Egyptian economic and political reform, including constitutional amendments to allow for the president to be elected and the removal of the reference of socialism as the country's guiding principle.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
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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.
The FBI warned all federal agents Friday that a Mexican drug cartel has 250 armed men on the border near Matamoros and is planning to kidnap two federal agents in the United States and smuggle them into this nation, where they'll be murdered. The FBI office in San Antonio declined to discuss the source of the information, but issued a written bulletin warning of an "immediate threat to law enforcement personnel." The bulletin goes on to say the "extremely violent" drug-smuggling organization known as the Gulf Cartel already sent a contingent that are believed to have valid visas to enter the United States. "Due to the nature of this immediate threat, all law enforcement personnel are being cautioned to ensure appropriate measures are taken as well as to keep a high degree of vigilance," the bulletin states.
An opposition parliamentarian in Egypt has been detained by the police on suspicion of forging documents to form a new political party. 
