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U.S. drones kill 2 leaders in Pakistan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
1 15:33 Hupineger Glomomp52169 [7] 
1 13:42 Besoeker [3] 
11 22:45 Glenmore [10] 
4 21:23 Shipman [11] 
3 22:42 Lionel Thoth9784 [8] 
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5 19:19 Procopius2k [11] 
1 03:16 OldSpook [4] 
1 07:45 Bucky Lorenzo6144 [3] 
4 22:19 OldSpook [8] 
9 19:31 Procopius2k [9] 
20 21:27 Shipman [6] 
8 14:29 AzCat [3] 
2 09:44 Procopius2k [2] 
1 07:45 ed in texas [2] 
6 15:44 Frank G [6] 
7 23:06 JosephMendiola [8] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 4: Opinion
4 12:49 Skidmark [3]
3 12:10 g(r)omgoru [10]
4 04:12 g(r)omgoru [8]
7 20:52 ed in texas [9]
2 11:53 Rex Mundi [3]
Page 6: Politix
6 11:18 Glenmore [7]
12 15:23 rjschwarz [2]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Jodi Arias avoids noose, gets roof over head, free meals and meds for life.
(ABsee News) Jodi Arias has been sentenced to a natural life sentence with no possibility of parole.

Arias was found guilty in May 2013 of murdering her on-off boyfriend, Travis Alexander, five years earlier.

Because two previous juries were unable to decide whether or not she should receive the death penalty, the final sentencing decision was up to Judge Sherry Stephens at today's hearing. Stephens had to rule on whether Arias would serve her natural life in prison or have the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/13/2015 14:04 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is she gonna' have her choice of hankie?
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp52169 || 04/13/2015 15:33 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Major Obvious: F-35 Pilot Says A-10 Will Always Be Better At Air Support
The opening salvo:
F-35 pilot Major John Wilson said the obvious in an interview with Danish aviation reporters; the F-35 will never be as good as the A-10 at close air support. This 100 percent factual, non-news statement set off a string stupid news stories. Tomorrow's headline: a dump truck will never be as good of a sports car as a Ferrari.

And it has quite the laundry list of quotes and supporting evidence after that. You'll have to click the link to see because it's too complicated to copy here.
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2015 11:45 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes...

Like the A-10 will never be as great at killing fellow fighters as every fighter in our inventory.

One was build for one mission, the other for another mission.

Dunno why this is so hard for the pointy heads at the Pentagon to figure out.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/13/2015 12:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Dump trucks don't have that 'sexy' appeal of Ferrari.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2015 12:55 Comments || Top||

#3  But just try to dump a 'bucketload' of rocks and dirt into the back of a Ferrari!

the A-10 is a plane build around a Big Gun. The F-35 ???
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/13/2015 13:04 Comments || Top||

#4  the A-10 is a plane build around a Big Gun. The F-35 ???

The F-35 is a plane built around a Big Con.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/13/2015 14:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Mud movers that are hard targets, can loiter and give the pilot lots of eye time on the target, and the means to do fatal/severe damage repeatedly - those are the ideal close support. And right now, that's the A10 and nothing else. Fast movers can never replace this type of aircraft. The A10 came about because the F4 do-it-all didn't, and the A6/A7 couldn't do it as well as well as the Sandy with it's armor, range and huge ordnance load.

And they will end up reinventing the A10 sooner or later because the requirements of the mission dictate the aircraft, despite the fighter mafia's attempts to force the mission to fit their fast movers that cannot meet the requirements.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/13/2015 14:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Didn't there used to be that thing, what was it's name: arzi, arpi. No, arti. Yes artillery.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2015 14:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Problem with artillery is that it has to be based rather close to the target to deliver ordnance. That requires a base which in turn requires more security which all require a logistics tail to support. An A-10s loiter range can cover the area several firebases would take to cover.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2015 15:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Ya, but artillery is so much cheaper.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2015 16:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Its not either or...a good toolbox has differing tools to fit the problem, and sometimes they work great in harmony. The Army used to have a name for it....oh yeah, Combined Arms, I knew I read that somewhere.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 04/13/2015 18:06 Comments || Top||

#10  Moar New Jersey Class!
Posted by: Shipman || 04/13/2015 21:20 Comments || Top||

#11  I don't believe, Shipman, New Jersey class battleships can effectively support operations in Afghanistan. Not even if global warming melts every ice cube on earth.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/13/2015 22:45 Comments || Top||


Last of the Civil War veterans
Click the link to see the pics and read the article. I can't do it justice here. Below are a few sentences I snatched from between the images.

For 90 years after the last shot of the American Civil War was fired, the men who had fought for the Union and the Confederacy, respectively, continued to meet, and in doing so wielded considerable political power in the nation that had divided them.

For one, the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) brought together Union soldiers, referred to as "veterans of the late unpleasantness." Starting in 1866, only one year after the war's close, and ending with the death of 109-year-old Albert Woolson in 1956, the G.A.R. boasted 490,000 members at its peak in 1890.

A hugely influential body, the G.A.R. was instrumental in electing a number of U.S. presidents in the late 1800s, from the 18th (Ulysses S. Grant) to the 25th (William McKinley). Orators for the G.A.R. were caricatured as "waving the bloody shirt."

With one single exception, the G.A.R. was a male body. That exception was Sarah Emma Edmonds, who was admitted to the G.A.R. in 1897. Sarah had fought in the 2nd Michigan Infantry disguised as a man named "Franklin Thompson," from 1861 to 1863. She died in 1898.

For the South, the United Confederate Veterans (U.C.V.) was inaugurated in 1889. Local Confederate veteran associations proliferated after the war. At the movement's peak, more than 1,500 such groups were amalgamated in the U.C.V. The U.C.V.'s stated purpose was to promote "social, literary, historical and benevolent" aims.

During the 1890s, around 30,000 veterans and 50,000 further guests were present at the annual U.C.V. reunion. But in 1950, at the final reunion, a lone U.C.V. member was present: 98-year-old James Moore of Alabama.

About 617,000 Americans were killed during the Civil War. The number is equal to the entire number of Americans who had died in all wars up to that point, including both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2015 11:29 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...The last ACW widow died 11 years ago this month, and at least one ACW survivors' pension is still being paid to the child of an ACW veteran.

History is only yesterday...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/13/2015 12:32 Comments || Top||

#2  History is only yesterday...

For the Left, that's literally true. For them anything beyond yesterday never existed to learn from, though they'll sell quilt to people with any act they deem 'evil', like success.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2015 12:53 Comments || Top||

#3  "Sarah Emma Edmonds, who was admitted to the G.A.R. in 1897. Sarah had fought in the 2nd Michigan Infantry disguised as a man named "Franklin Thompson," from 1861 to 1863. She died in 1898"

When the ladies in Hollywood complain there are no good roles for women... Just take the truth, add in some jokes from a Busom Buddies episode (reversed of course). It practically writes itself.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/13/2015 15:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Babes no, history isnt dead, it's not ever history,

/paraphraser guy from county with long name
Posted by: Shipman || 04/13/2015 21:23 Comments || Top||


Air independent propulsion subs at less than half the cost eliminate need for nuclear submarines
Nuclear submarines had certain advantages over diesel submarines. Nuclear submarines had greater submerged endurance of 90-100 days versus 3 days for conventional submarines. This was limited by the amount of food that could be carried. Nuclear submarines also had higher speed.

Air independent propulsion (AIP) submarines use fuel cells, stirling engines, batteries or liquid oxygen storage for closed cycle diesel engines or close cycle steam.

AIP submarines are quieter

While nuclear submarines have measures to reduce sound and magnetic signatures, nature of nuclear propulsion (steam turbine) makes them far more noisy than AIP submarine of same size. They also tend to be larger on a whole, making them even more detectable through either acoustic, infrared or magnetic sensors. Further weakness of nuclear submarine is that it has to cool down nuclear reactor, with hot water being dumped into ocean, leaving long trail behind the submarine; as such, it is even more detectable by IR sensors than just size difference suggests.

Nuclear submarines have cruise speeds of 20 -- 25 knots, compared to 10 -- 15 knots for AIP subs. Combining slower cruise speed with bursts of high speed can allow AIP subs to cover relatively large area. They can deny access to enemy nuclear submarines. HDM and MESMA systems used in AIP subs (submarines using them typically cost 250 million USD) are far quieter than nuclear plant.

Using traditional diesel engines, a fuel cell, large lithium-ion battery pack, and liquid oxygen to replace the air normally used in combustion engines, the SMX-Ocean sub concept could stay off-shore in deepwater operations for 90 days at a time. The AIP system also allows the sub to remain submerged for up to 21 days at a time, and gives it a range of about 18,000 miles at an average speed of about 10 knots.

Submarine snorkeling for oxygen can be detected with new radar

Batteries continue to improve

The Lithium ion batteries for the Soryu and SMX-ocean are getting higher energy densities and lower costs because of the success of electric cars like the Telsa Model S. These will further increase the advantages of the AIP submarines.

AIP submarines cost $100 million to 900 million. The AIP models with the greatest market success are the Japanese Soryu ($600 million), Russian Kilo ($350 million), Swedish Gotland ($365 million), Spanish Scorpene ($500-800 million). They can be submerged for about 14-21 days.

The Gotland and the other AIP are very capable submarines.

The nuclear submarines are $1.3 billion to 3 billion. The equivalent AIP submarines are half to four times cheaper.

Nuclear submarines may see a revival in cost effectiveness in 15-20 years when a new generation of molten salt reactors become available. However, for now there is little reason economically or militarily for nuclear submarines.

Nuclear submarines have 20 megawatts of power compared to 3 megawatts for diesel submarines. There is no need for high power for any new laser or other weapon systems.

The US is looking to add unmanned submarines for about $40 million each. Capable unmanned submarines seem to be 5-10 years away. The unmanned systems could track other submarines or operate as part of pack working with a primary manned mothership submarine.
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2015 11:25 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One other difference. AIP seem to be just fine for any regional area. But fail at the ability to patrol the world. That's the key and important difference. Besides, won't be long before each of subs is more like it's own little task force, probably will be the center of a network of drone subs patrolling silent around it, able to kill any manned sub before it's a danger to the primary.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/13/2015 19:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Srsly, an AIP sub can't do CAS worth a dawg. Moar New Jerseys and fighting blimps.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/13/2015 21:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Scorpène is French not Spanish
Posted by: Lionel Thoth9784 || 04/13/2015 22:42 Comments || Top||


Gwyneth Paltrow to live on $29 food stamp budget for one week to raise hunger awareness
[NYDAILYNEWS] Gwyneth Paltrow
...Hollywood interchangeable blonde and Eva Braun taste-alike, who's convinced herself that it would be wonderful if Obama were given all the power that he needs. She was married to a guitar player in a rock band, but now she's becoming long in the tooth so he's moved on to somebody else...
is slashing her food budget to nickels and dimes, but it's all for a good cause.

The Oscar winner announced this week that she has accepted the #FoodBankNYCChallenge to live on food stamps for one week -- a grocery budget that adds up to $29, or just $1.38 per meal.

Paltrow accepted the challenge from her celebrity chef pal Mario Batali, who also invited music stars Sting and Deborah Harry to participate.

The Food Bank of New York is sponsoring the challenge to bring awareness to the fact that "Congress cut food stamps twice since 2013," leading to an increase in visits to soup kitchens and food pantries.

"New Yorkers can't afford any cuts to food stamps," reads a message on the organization's website.
Before there were food stamps (which is apparently nothing more than an ATM card now) there was the "Surplus Food Program." Every month or maybe it was every couple weeks the Department of Agriculture handed out flour, powdered eggs, powdered milk, a Spam variant or pork and gravy, pinto or kidney beans, and an enormous block of cheese. There may have been a few other items, but none of the stuff required refrigeration and there were enough calories, protein, and fats to sustain a moderately large family. As a diet is was pretty uninteresting after month two, but you wouldn't starve to death on it, and occasionally you'd run into somebody willing to trade a couple quarts of beer for half a block of cheese. But you had to grow your own fruits and veggies, or trade the cheese to someone else for them and forego the beer. Probably Gwyneth would get by better (and probably put on a few pounds) with the Surplus Food than with the food stamp debit card.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She won't find it goes far, maybe she'll find it to her benefit to "Help" it along a bit, maybe by adding food from the pantry.

I live on government payments, (Handicapped)it's a stretch.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/13/2015 1:24 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: || 04/13/2015 2:21 Comments || Top||

#3  A modern equivalent of making a bare-footed, hair shirt-wearing pilgrimage?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2015 2:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe Rob Lowe will share some of that tuna sandwich from the Direct TV ad.
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/13/2015 7:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, and her knapsack is filled with Zero bars, bet you she'll gain 10 pounds in a month.

Posted by: Bucky Lorenzo6144 || 04/13/2015 7:58 Comments || Top||

#6  I can do that - but only by avoiding processed foods. Lots of homemade soups & stews. Oatmeal, grits, rice & dry beans or peas. Whatever meat is cheapest, 'stretched' into small servings. It takes effort cooking, and can get boring, but is do-able.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/13/2015 8:20 Comments || Top||

#7  I was reading yesterday that her $29 figure was way off. That a family of 4 gets about $120 and a single male gets about $35.

Additionally the S in SNAP stands for Supplemental and is supposed to be in addition to other programs and earnings.

Typical liberal Bull.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/13/2015 8:27 Comments || Top||

#8  When I have been behind shoppers using EBT cards I have often noticed they are not very smart shoppers, or else they don't need to be particularly thrifty. Lots of very pricy 'convenience' foods - which may seem like necessities for single mothers working two jobs - but also lots of junk foods, which I have a hard time understanding.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/13/2015 8:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Sure, but could she survive on $29 worth of hair care products or make up?
Posted by: Iblis || 04/13/2015 10:29 Comments || Top||

#10  Sometimes I think we need to go back to commodities (that is giving them food instead of an IEB card as Fred mentioned.) if only to discourage fraud and using it to buy 'junk food'. Might be worth the cost of distribution. maybe provide MRE's - this is supposed to be temporary minimal assistance right?

Of course that would be a disincentive to being on government assistance (and thus RACIST!) so it would never be done.

As I recall the powdered eggs weren't half bad, there was a lot of cheese and *lots* of beans.

Somehow I doubt poor Gwyneth will starve - she probably has plenty of hanger-on's and groupies willing to share a meal or three.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/13/2015 10:39 Comments || Top||

#11  You are missing the intent here. The whole idea is to run out on day 1 and proclaim that the allowance needs to be raised. It's like, "can't live on minimum wage, so it needs to be raised."
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/13/2015 11:41 Comments || Top||

#12  What I meant to get to is it's a hunger strike for stupidity.
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/13/2015 11:43 Comments || Top||

#13  Funny, I don't see a whole lot of skinny people.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/13/2015 13:22 Comments || Top||

#14  Career faultering? Turn your anorexia into priceless political posturing at no cost to you.
Posted by: regular joe || 04/13/2015 13:36 Comments || Top||

#15  she'll survive on vinegar and water
Posted by: Frank G || 04/13/2015 13:52 Comments || Top||

#16  heck, like most lefties, she generates her own vinager....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/13/2015 15:29 Comments || Top||

#17  If her agent buys her lunch it doesn't count towards the food budget.

If she was serious she would buy rice and chicken with the money and cook up a weeks worth in one batch. The remaining money can be used for ruffage and such.

But of course if you google you'll find she miffed the math and $29 should be more like $130 but perhaps Chef pal Mario Batali was the one who goofed.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/13/2015 15:36 Comments || Top||

#18  Who?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/13/2015 16:31 Comments || Top||

#19  Zamzam water will sustain you forever if you have a passport and a prayer rug.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/13/2015 17:37 Comments || Top||

#20  LOL AP.

Srsly, potatoes and cabbage
Posted by: Shipman || 04/13/2015 21:27 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Train runs 26kms back sans driver
[PRIMENEWS.BD] Rajbari : Evoking both horror and surprise among the passengers on board, an inter-district train ran back up to a 26 kilometre stretch on the Rajbari-Kushtia route, as its driver got down at Rajbari railway station for a shot while, oblivious of its engine running.

Rajbari railway station master Kamruzzaman said the incident happened right after the moment the driver got down at the station from the Faridpur-bound train for taking tea with its engine running at 8.05am.

Without anyone holding the steering, the train continued running on its own and moved back around 26 kilometers crossing four stations-Sujanagar, Belgachhi, Kalukhali and Pangsha-- in between up to Babupara bridge.

Thrilled and feared, the passengers on all the six compartments of the train remained shrilling finding themselves in the long journey back, unable to know the exact reason.

At last the train came to a halt in Babupara bridge area at about 8.55am, when TT Anwar Hossain pulled off the chain.

However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
none was injured in the incident, following which the train driver, Mohammad Ali, and guard Suvash Chandra Sorma were suspended.

The authorities have formed a five-member probe committee to investigate the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mohammad Ali, the Wrongway Feldman of the rails.

Posted by: Bucky Lorenzo6144 || 04/13/2015 7:45 Comments || Top||


Anti-vaxxer mother recants after her seven children contract whooping cough
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] A Canadian mother-of-seven has been forced to rethink her anti-vaccination stance -- after all her children fell sick with whooping cough.
That's the sort of thing that happens when you take your health care advice from Playboy centerfolds.
North America has seen a growing number of families opt out of immunisation programmes, frequently because they are concerned about side-effects, despite warnings that deadly childhood diseases such as measles are on the rise.

Tara Hills and her husband decided to stop vaccinating their children six years ago after losing faith in the health care system, according to a blog post in which she described the family's experience.

"I'm writing this from quarantine, the irony of which isn't lost on me," she said.

Although her first three children were immunised - on what she described as an "alternative schedule" - the youngest four received no vaccinations at all.

"I just got scared. I got spooked. I thought, 'There's a lot of smoke, there must be fire.' We stopped vaccinating," she told CBC News.

Then last month the coughing began. It sounded like a bad cold at first.

"But a week after the symptoms started the kids weren't improving, in fact they were getting worse," wrote Mrs Hills. "And the cough. No one had a runny nose or sneezing but they all had the same unproductive cough."

A trip to the doctor's surgery was followed by hospital tests, which confirmed whooping cough.

The highly infectious disease takes its name from the characteristic whoop noise that young children make following a cough as they struggle to catch their breath.

Young infants are at particular risk of severe complications and even death.

Vaccinations have massively reduced the number fatalities, which once ran at 10,000 a year in the US, according to KidsHealth.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  why has she got 7 children?

nobody should have more than 3 maximum. totally irresponsible. needs birth control
Posted by: anon1 || 04/13/2015 3:57 Comments || Top||

#2  nobody should have more than 3 maximum. totally irresponsible. needs birth control

Given how many aren't having any at all these days, it's nice she's providing members of the next generation to pay taxes to support us in our old age. I suggested to the trailing daughters and the fosterlings that they have four apiece precisely for that reeason. Trailing daughter just got hired for her first professional job; in July she will be appalled at how much of her earnt income will be taken out of each paycheck for the social security/government pension and retirement medical benefits that she will never see, and for her children's generation it will be worse.

On the other hand, there's always the possibility that this woman's children will end up blind, deaf, insane, sterile, mentally retarded, and/or dead from the diseases they'll get for lack of vaccinations, in which case having seven won't have been enough to beat the odds.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/13/2015 4:55 Comments || Top||

#3  #1, you are a math challenged fool.

You have it exactly backwards. Every woman who is fertile enough to do so should have at least three children. Attrition due to childhood disease and trauma, disease, and the occasional infertile woman demand that this be the case.

Above and beyond tw's bit about elder care, there is also the concern that your nation will not be able to have workers for an agricultural or industrial workforce, or a military sufficiently large enough to defend your nation. A billion seventh century sociopaths need a deterrent after all.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/13/2015 5:33 Comments || Top||

#4  #5 For all the leftists who claim that anti-science is a predominantly center/right thing, I give you exhibit A as to why it is not.

Get a map of the U.S. Stick a pin into it every place there is a Whole Foods. Within a 30 mile radius of all the pins you'll find 99% of your antivaxx population. Their voting habits are decidedly left of center.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/13/2015 5:43 Comments || Top||

#5  "Recants" may not be the right word. Doubt she thought they couldn't get sick. More likely she weighed the risk of disease against the perceived risk of the vaccine itself. Took her chances and came up snake eyes.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/13/2015 10:35 Comments || Top||

#6  There was an interesting point made in the Australian papers yesterday, that anti-vaxxer parents are still immunising their kids against one disease- tetanus. Tetanus is not caused by human-to-human transmission, it is soil borne. So if you want immunity against tetanus, it's up to you to get the shots. For the rest, a parasitic free ride on herd immunity is feasible, or was until there were enough free riders to break down herd immunity for the population as a whole.
Posted by: Grunter || 04/13/2015 10:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Still within my parents living memory is where they had a sick room in most houses. It was only used when people got sick and were quarantined. Those fell out of popularity/necessity as vaccinations drove away those diseases that required them.

With all these idiots not vaccinating, we might be seeing those rooms again.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/13/2015 11:38 Comments || Top||

#8  If you don't trust doctors enough to vacinated why would you trust them when it comes to surgery and other things?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/13/2015 15:31 Comments || Top||

#9  The estimates for botched medical care leading to death in hospitals runs around 200,000+ annually. Meanwhile gun homicides run about 11,000+. So which is more dangerous to the average person?

That's the sort of thing that happens when you take your health care advice from Playboy centerfolds.

..or who to vote for President.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2015 19:31 Comments || Top||


Healthy Eating May Be The New Eating Disorder
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK]
  • Orthorexia nervosa is the term coined for the 'health food eating disorder'
  • Sufferers may be 'plunged into gloom' by eating a piece of bread
  • They may become anxious about when their next superfood hit is coming
  • Exaggerated focus on food can be seen in raw, clean and paleo dieters

These are anxious times, and those succeptible latch onto whatever will soothe it.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Think of it as Evolution in action.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2015 1:05 Comments || Top||

#2  One of my geology profs used to explode if you mentioned 'organic' food around him. Course if you wanted an hour long lecture on how horrible organic food is for the environment in terms of wasted fresh water, crop loss and soil depletion, it was a good distraction.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/13/2015 2:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Two thoughts: if you tried to get to your 2000+ kcal a day without consuming any 'empty calories', with every bite being 'nutrient-rich', you'd likely overdose on half a dozen vitamins and minerals; and no matter what you eat, even if you've somehow found the perfect healthy diet, guess what, your body still burns it all using that viciously toxic gas oxygen.
Posted by: Bugs Poodle8604 || 04/13/2015 6:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Is healthy eating the new eating disorder. No.
Is obsessing about healthy eating the new disorder. Yes.
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/13/2015 7:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Personally, I think potato chips should be their own food group.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 12:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, then you need to make Pringles a sub group.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/13/2015 13:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Beer olives........

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/13/2015 13:33 Comments || Top||

#8 
Personally, I think potato chips should be their own food group.


Personally I just try to be sure that I consume a few servings of each of the four basic food groups ever day. Those being, of course, sugar, fat, alcohol and caffeine.
Posted by: AzCat || 04/13/2015 14:29 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
China Inversting BIllions in Kenya
After four years of negotiations with landowners, construction of the first phase of the $3.1-billion berths project in Kenya's coastal town of Lamu is back on track. The new berths will be part of a $24.5-billion, seven-component Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopian Transport (Lapsset) corridor project, the largest ever in eastern Africa.
Investing money in Kenya? Who would that be?
The Lapsset includes a total of 880 kilometers of two-lane highways linking Lamu, Juba and Addis Ababa; a 2,240-km-long oil pipeline from the Lamu port to Juba, with a connection to Addis Ababa and resort cities at Lokichoggio, Turkana and Isiolo (all in Kenya); a 120,000-barrel-per-day-capacity oil refinery at Lamu; a 1,719-km standard-gauge railway line, connecting Lamu and Juba; and a 500- to 700-MW hydroelectric powerplant along the corridor and the envisaged Lamu metropolis.
Seriously? Lamu metropolis?
The Kenya Ports Authority last August signed a contract with China Communications Construction Co. for the construction of the three berths at a cost of $484 million. The company's international arm, China Roads and Bridge Corp., currently is constructing the $3.6-billion, 609-km standard-gauge railway project connecting Kenya's port city of Mombasa to the capital of Nairobi with 90% financing from China Exim Bank.
Where is China getting all this cash? U.S. payments for interest on the National Debt? Really?
Posted by: Bobby || 04/13/2015 13:13 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should be interesting to watch. And if it's all the same to you, that's exactly what I'll do.

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/13/2015 13:42 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Argentina president says West seeking to destabilize Latin America
[Iran Press TV] Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has slammed the West's "soft" campaign to destabilize Latin American countries.

During her address at the 35-nation Summit of the Americas in Panama City on Saturday, she said the attempts always originate in some NGOs that "we never know who finance them."

She warned that the destructive attempts "aim at the destabilization of governments in the region, of the governments that have done the most for equality, for education and social inclusion."

Pointing to the "major accomplishments" of the Latin American governments in the areas of human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
, social inclusion, health, and education, Kirchner said the West lends support to "governments with neoliberal policies that shattered people."

She also denounced the Western attempts to combat "governments that can show their credentials of having been the ones that have included their countrymen the most."
Elsewhere in her remarks, the Argentine president criticized the UK for considering her nation a "threat" and thus justifying an increase in its military presence in the Malvinas Islands, known as the Falklands to the British.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now there's a difficult to achieve goal.
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/13/2015 7:29 Comments || Top||

#2  They are destabilizing themselves on their own, thank you very much.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/13/2015 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  the Argentine president criticized the UK for considering her nation a "threat" and thus justifying an increase in its military presence in the Malvinas Islands, known as the Falklands to the British.

the fact you pretend sovereignty and stir up the rubes with tales of retaking them is enough, you spackle-mascara'd whore
Posted by: Frank G || 04/13/2015 13:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Me thinks the report came back saying destracting the people by invading the Falklands would end up with a humiliating loss so plan B is to just blame the West in general.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/13/2015 15:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Sorry, our kleptocracy is too busy destabilizing its own country to be bother with your own efforts at home to do the same.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2015 19:19 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Rooshuns to deploy 100 SAM launchers to Kamchatka


The Russian Navy deployed 40 S-400 SAM launchers to naval bases in the Kamchatka region, according to Russian language news reports.

According a news account posted on regnum,ru, the launchers arrived by sea, and are to eventually replace the older S-300 SAM launchers.

A total of 100 S-400 launchers are expected to arrive to the region over the next month.

Among the naval bases expected to be the site of the new mobile launcher, includes the nuclear submarine base at Vilyuchinsk.

Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
Posted by: badanov || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
'Ukrainian artillery shell strikes Donetsk hospital'
[Iran Press TV] A Ukrainian artillery shell has reportedly struck a hospital in east Ukraine's Donetsk region in violation of a recent truce, according to the defense authorities of the region.

"The Ukrainian shell hit directly the surgery department of Hospital No. 21 located in 12a Kremlyovskaya Avenue," read a Sunday statement by the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) as cited in a report by Russian Tass news agency.

The statement said the Ukrainian army forces were engaged in shelling the positions of pro-Russia forces in Donetsk and were attempting to breach the pro-Russians' defenses.

It added that, overnight on Sunday, two infantry companies of the Ukrainian military also launched an attack on the settlement of Zhabunki on the outskirts of Donetsk.

The DPR defense ministry noted, however, that its forces thwarted the attack after they engaged the Ukrainian troops in direct combat action in the area.

It further expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
s that provocative measures by Ukrainian troops at the lines of engagement were escalating tensions between the two sides and may disrupt the grinding of the peace processor in the war-ravaged eastern Ukraine.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Croatia seeks to replace MiG-21s

WARSAW — The Croatian government has unveiled plans to acquire new fighter jets with the aim of replacing its Soviet-designed Mikoyan MiG-21s.

The planned purchase was announced following a meeting between Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic.

The two leading contenders for the designed deal are Lockheed Martin's F-16 and Saab's JAS-39 Gripen, with Zagreb planning to buy aircraft that are either new or currently used by other NATO member states, local newspaper Jutarnji first reported. Alternatives considered included France's Mirage, Israeli Kfir and a version of South Korea's T-50.

The Croatian government is reportedly aiming to replace its Soviet-designed fighter jets with Western-made aircraft as part of the country's ongoing efforts to modernize its Air Force's fleet and eliminate weapons and military equipment used by Russia and its allies.
Posted by: badanov || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Czech Republic went with a lease deal on the Gripen, that was attractive enough that Slovakia went with the same arraignment last week. Saab has announced that they're going to put a training and service facility in southern Poland for convenience, so Croatia may decide to join the party.
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/13/2015 7:45 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey recalls envoy to Vatican over Pope's 'genocide' remarks
[Iran Press TV] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
has recalled its ambassador to the Vatican for consultation amid a worsening diplomatic row over Pope Francis' comments describing the 1915 killing of Armenians "the first genocide of the 20th century."

"Our ambassador to the Vatican Mr0 Mehmet Pacaci is being recalled back to Turkey for consultations," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

It added that the pope's remarks were "incompatible with the legal and historical facts."

The ministry said the pope has a "selective overview" of World War I and ignores "the atrocities suffered by the Turkish and Moslem peoples who bit the dust" to the benefits of Christians and above all Armenians.

The pontiff's comments were a "serious deviation" from the message of peace and reconciliation he brought during his landmark visit to Turkey in November last year, the ministry added, emphasizing that the Turkish people would not recognize the pope's remarks which it described as "null and void."
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Too bad you racist bastard Turks. You cannot hide the truth these days. The Turks genocide of the Armenians was the first genocide in the 20th. Systemic rape torture and mass killings, along with deportations that became death marches as they denied even women and children water and food during the forced march to and through the desert areas in Syria.

Eat it Erdogan. Francis called you out.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/13/2015 3:16 Comments || Top||


Istanbul's Hagia Sophia Sees First Qoran Reading in 85 Years
Possibly meaningless, but probably another step in Erdogan's re-Islamicisation of Turkey.
[AnNahar] A Moslem holy man has for the first time in 85 years recited the Qoran in the Hagia Sophia, the world famous landmark of Istanbul which is now a museum after serving as a church and a mosque, reports said Saturday.

The Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum accessible to all by the secular founders of modern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
in the 1930s and secular Turks are wary of any moves to re-Islamise the building.

A passage from the Qoran, the holy scripture of Islam, was recited late Friday at a ceremony in the Hagia Sophia to mark the opening of a new exhibition "Love of the Prophet."

It was read by Ali Tel, imam at the Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Mosque in Ankara, the official Anatolia news agency said.

The ceremony was attended by top Turkish officials including the head of the country's religious affairs agency Diyanet, Mehmet Gormez.

Anatolia said it was the first recitation of the holy Qoran in the Hagia Sophia for 85 years.

The exhibition inside the Hagia Sophia is a show of calligraphic work in devotion to the Moslem Prophet Mohammed and runs until May 8.

The magnificent edifice was constructed in the sixth century as a church in the Christian Byzantine Empire and was the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the former name of Istanbul.

When Ottoman forces under Mehmet II conquered the city in 1453 he ordered the immediate conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Islamic minarets were built around its Byzantine dome.

It served as a mosque until after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire when in the mid-1930s the authorities of the new Turkish state under secular leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk ordered it to become a museum for all.

But under the rule of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
which came to power in 2002, there have been noises about reconverting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc caused a furore in November 2013 when he indicated that he hoped to change the status of the Hagia Sophia, saying it looked "sad" but hopefully would be "smiling again soon".

Greece reacted furiously at the time, saying such statements "are offending the religious feeling of millions of Christians."
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  i am so sad for Turkey's secular Muslims who are trying and trying to fight those Islamist evil doers.

But they are being beaten down and we are not helping them!!
Posted by: anon1 || 04/13/2015 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Just remember how the Religion of Peace got there.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2015 9:44 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Secret US memo for Congress seen by Mail On Sunday says Britain's 'special relationship' with America is over
- Memo damningly states UK may no longer be 'centrally relevantMr. Obam' to the US
- Congressional Research Service, which gives confidential analysis, warns of turmoil if there is a hung parliament following general election
- Organisations such as the G20 group of major economies has led to a decline in the 'influence and centrality of the relationship'
Mr. Obama does have a point. For example, the Cuban government is so much more stable. /sarc

HT: Weasel Zippers

Mr. Obama has limited time in which his opinion on such matters will impact American actions and attitudes. After which, the importance of Britain's relationship with America will depend on British actions and attitudes.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We already knew that right after Barry was first elected. Nothing new.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 04/13/2015 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Now they've special relationship with Iran?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2015 3:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Grom, Iran who he is (indirectly) working for, by way of ValJar and Soros, may she and he forever rot in hell.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/13/2015 3:20 Comments || Top||

#4  by way of ValJar and Soros

Soros is a horrible human being. However, I'm just a tad uncomfortable with the importance right-wing Americans attribute to him.

IMO, Soros is not the cause of the collapse of Western Civilization---merely one of the scavengers feeding on the corpse.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2015 4:51 Comments || Top||

#5  IMO, Soros is not the cause of the collapse of Western Civilization---merely one of the scavengers feeding on the corpse.

Sort of. He's doing everything he can to make sure we die ASAP. Then what?
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2015 12:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Special relationship can be repaired when a new President comes into office. The only thing to note is if the British recognize their error in being so fond of Obama back in 2008.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/13/2015 15:39 Comments || Top||

#7  And a righteous, Homer Simpsonian "yeah riggghhtt" is heard over Guam-WESTPAC.

Iff true, there would be no need for God, Nostradamus, my Ancestors + Pre-cestors, etc. to forecast the rise of a future US-born, US-raised Queen of England + Brit/UK Commonwealth.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/13/2015 23:06 Comments || Top||


Government
Uncle Sam's 'science'
[NYPOST] First it was high cholesterol, which the nation's top nutrition panel recently declared is no longer a "nutrient of concern" -- reversing 40 years of official warnings.

Now, reports The Washington Post, the scientific consensus on whether Americans eat too much salt is shifting.

"There is no longer any valid basis for the current salt guidelines" that recommend no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, warns one researcher on a landmark study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"So why," she asks, "are we still scaring people about salt?"

OK, the debate's far from settled. Both sides agree that too much salt in the diet is dangerous. But they have very different ideas about just how much is too much.

Salt guidelines have been in effect for more than three decades, but the advisable target number has shifted over the years.

And even the author of the landmark 1973 study that served as the basis for the dietary guidelines says her paper was meant to spur more research, not serve as final word on the subject.

All of which should remind us that even the most overwhelming scientific consensus -- whether on healthy diets or, yes, even climate change -- is still a work in progress.

Sometimes the findings hold up. But often they won't. That's science.

Federal officials, in particular, need to stop pushing the idea that tentative findings are hard fact. For decades, the feds pushed the Food Pyramid diet -- only to eventually realize they'd gotten it almost exactly wrong.

All too often, you just have to take what the scientists say with a large, er, grain of salt.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So the "Death Panels" have been with us all along, who knew ?

Posted by: Bucky Lorenzo6144 || 04/13/2015 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  They still haven't reevaulated the carb heavy food pyramid that the government introducted about the time Americans started getting fat.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/13/2015 15:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I think anti-biotics prescribed without probiotics afterwards have done much more harm than than understood at present.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/13/2015 18:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Look up C. difficile infections if you want to see what happens when you clear out the gut with antibiotics.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/13/2015 22:19 Comments || Top||


Marie Harf Spends Workday In Pissing Match With Family Friend On Facebook
"With nothing better to do, State Department Spokeswoman Marie Harf sat at her desk on a workday afternoon and got into a pissing match with a family friend on Facebook -- because that's totally appropriate.

The Daily Caller is reporting that after attorney William M. Todd posted a link to an article that tore apart Harf and her childish response to criticism, Harf -- friends with Todd in real life and on Facebook, went on the attack.

The back and forth started at 1 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. Harf's responses are essay-like in their length and go on and on. Good thing nothing was going on in the State Department:"
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 04/13/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thankfully we are not third world enough to where criticism of the regime gets you put in prison, but if the regime could do it, they would.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 04/13/2015 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Too much time on her hands obviously.

what does she do besides trot out "harfisms?" and other nonsense (is saying harfism and nonsense in the same sentence redundant?)
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/13/2015 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Jeff Foxworthy needs to create a new game show called "Are you smarter than a State Department Spokeswoman?"

Posted by: frozen al || 04/13/2015 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone have any questions as to why Ms. Harf is no longer a Klingon intelligence analyst ?

I didn't think so.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/13/2015 13:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Jeff Foxworthy needs to create a new game show called "Are you smarter than a State Department Spokeswoman?"

Finally! A game show where everybody wins!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/13/2015 15:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Anyone have any questions as to why Ms. Harf is no longer a Klingon intelligence analyst ?

she got "thrown" by "big thoughts and big words"?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/13/2015 15:44 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2015-04-13
  U.S. drones kill 2 leaders in Pakistan
Sun 2015-04-12
  Paks free Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, terrorist behind Mumbai attacks
Sat 2015-04-11
  Fierce fighting in south Benghazi as LNA 'masses forces' outside city
Fri 2015-04-10
  Saudi warplanes pound military airport in southern Yemen
Thu 2015-04-09
  Red Cross Says Situation 'Catastrophic' in Yemen's Aden
Wed 2015-04-08
  Teams Exhume Tikrit Mass Graves Suspected to Hold Bodies of 1,700 Iraqi Soldiers
Tue 2015-04-07
  27 Houthis reportedly killed in S. Yemen ambush
Mon 2015-04-06
  Shaboobs attack two checkpoints in Bossaso, wound mayor
Sun 2015-04-05
  Civilians flee as militants seize most of Yarmouk camp
Sat 2015-04-04
  Qaeda advances on Syria army base near Idlib: monitor
Fri 2015-04-03
  Yemen Rebels Push Deep into Hadi's Former Refuge Aden
Thu 2015-04-02
  Shabaab militants claim responsibility for Garissa University attack
Wed 2015-04-01
  Libya's Tripoli govt sacks Hassi
Tue 2015-03-31
  A deputy, a relative, an ideologue: key Houthi leaders reportedly killed
Mon 2015-03-30
  One Dead, Two Injured in Shooting at Gate of NSA HQ


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