#5
SPOD's right. It also stops it being a public nuisance. There is a brothel 400 metres from my house and I am sure my wife and daughter are completely unaware it is one.
#8
After being shown the picture by Scotland Yard, the arrested terrorists were informed that there is space for them on the next mission if they don't give up the names of their comrades who conspired with them.
How do you pray to Mecca if you are on another planet, anyway?
Many countries are wasting millions of dollars planting trees because of myths that forests always help improve water flows and offset erosion, a British-led study said on Friday.
Many trees, especially fast-growing species like pines and eucalyptus favored by the paper industry, suck more water from the ground than other crops, it said. The water transpires from the leaves and so the trees dry out the land.
"Trees on the whole are not a good thing in dry areas if you want to manage water resources," said John Palmer, manager of the tropical Forestry Research Programme run by the British Department for International Development.
"When it comes to wet areas, trees may be beneficial or no worse than pasture and crops," he told Reuters of the study of plantings in India, Costa Rica, South Africa and Tanzania in a four-year project led by British and Dutch researchers.
Forests have many other benefits -- ranging from habitats for birds, insects or animals to human sources of building materials and firewood.
But the report said it was a myth that forests acted as sponges that soak up rain, releasing it throughout the year and ensuring more regular flows in rivers. Instead, trees' deep roots often aggravate water shortages in dry seasons.
It also said it was wrong to believe forests attracted more clouds and rainfall or that tree roots helped slow erosion more those of short plants. It said the myths had been anchored in cultural history since at least the 17th century.
"We don't want to be seen as against forests or trees," said Ian Calder, a lead researcher who is director of the Center for Land Use and Water Resources Research at England's University of Newcastle.
"But there is a need to be careful when you plant forests in the belief you are promoting water resources," he said. "We need policies based more on scientific evidence. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent, if not billions."
The report said Panama was seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the World Bank to back a project to plant trees on the apparently mistaken belief that it would attract more rainfall to help feed the Panama Canal.
Other countries from China to Mexico also had costly afforestation schemes at least partly based on misconceptions about water.ooops. is the funding stream going to cough dry up?? gosh, and not long after China bought the canal. pity, that ....
In the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the study said conversion of agricultural land to forests had damaged water supplies, cutting flows by 16-26 percent.
Availability of fresh water is a constant problem.
The World Commission on Water has estimated that demand for water will increase by about 50 percent in the next 30 years and that around four billion people, or about half of the world's population in 2025, will have problems with supplies.
The study said trees often showed the "clothes line" effect.
Just as wet clothes dry quicker if hung out rather than left lying on the ground, the enormous combined surface of trees' leaves combined with their deep roots meant they transpired more water into the air than other crops, it said.
Posted by: too true ||
07/29/2005 12:46 ||
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#1
Sounds like another case of junk eco science. Things sound logical so they must be true. Research? We don't need no steenkin' research!
#3
This is a situation of an obscene number of variables being ignored to justify blanket statements on either side of the argument. First of all, trees are adapted to a particular environment. If they cannot exist in that environment without damaging it, they won't naturally live there. Second thing, these boffins aren't talking about situations of ecological equilibrium. They want *more* fresh water out of the same ecosystem. It has to come at the expense of something, so what will that something be? Third, do you want more surface water or more ground water? The ways you go about getting them are very different. Fourth, the biggest producers of fresh water beyond what naturally occur are first through mining, agricultural, and industrial conservation and second through artificial production, like desalinization and induced rainfall (not cloud seeding, but enhancing coastal ocean evaporation to send moisture inland).
#8
You hate them? Not as much as I do. This new house has a 40 foot tall one in the front yard next to the driveway. It will be removed soon. They are filthy and do noting but drop leaves bark and branches. Eucalyptus trees suck.
#9
While I appreciate the fire hazards associated with eucalyptus trees, for pure suckage, nothing compares with a female ginko tree. In college, we called them "dogshit trees", because their "fruit", which invariably dropped on the sidewalk and got tracked into the buildings, smelled like dogshit.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/29/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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#10
what Moose said.... and no little tiny robots neede.
I have 18 80 yr old plus oaks.... I figure one's gonna get me.
#11
SPoD, You think they're bad now, wait till there's a fire.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/29/2005 15:58 Comments ||
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#12
I could have told them this for free. Not cutting the brush in our water catchment areas over 20 years has cut runoff into Perth's dams by almost half and as a consequence I have to endure deceipful advertisements blaming 'our drying climate', which is total crap.
#13
The TTRREEEESSSSS!!!!!!
Must have more TTRREEEESSSSS!!!!!!
I can feel my oxygen slipping away [cough] [cough]
Posted by: Almost Anonymous2520 ||
07/29/2005 16:15 Comments ||
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#14
"Many trees, especially fast-growing species like pines and eucalyptus favored by the paper industry, suck more water from the ground than other crops, it said. The water transpires from the leaves and so the trees dry out the land."
"Water transpires from the leaves" - no, into the atmosphere you say?
The point is that forest do offset erosion - root systems hold topsoil in place. While they use water, isn't water also a byproduct of their metabolism?
Granted you don't want to use leafy trees because of the support issue. Pine Trees should be fine though.
I am not a tree surgeon, but this is poor analysis for a high school student.
#15
Screw the trees. Chop them down and bring down the price of lumber for my woodworking hobby. 200 bf of mahogany. Is that too much to ask? ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/29/2005 23:02 Comments ||
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#16
Then why is it always wetter, and cooler, under the trees, and in the forested soil, than in clearcut areas or grasslands of the Pacific Northwest?
If not A, then not B, and since A's and B's are C's, then all C's suck. Hence, if we want water, we have to kill all the trees. Great stuff.
A pair of the oldest fossilised embryos ever discovered has shed new light on dinosaur evolution, scientists said today.
The embryos were found in eggs laid 190 million years ago by a primitive plant-eating dinosaur, Massospondylus carinatus.
Scientists found the clutch of six fossilised eggs in a South African national park in 1978, one of which had hatched.
Only now have they managed fully to expose the delicate embryo bones from two of the three-inch long eggs. The Canadian, US and South African researchers have published their findings in the journal Science, and revealed a wealth of new information on dinosaur development and evolution. Massospondylus lived during the early reign of the dinosaurs at the start of the Jurassic period and was common on the flood plains of what is now South Africa. Measuring more than five yards long, it was a vegetarian, with a long neck and tail, and a short head. The creature had short forelimbs and was capable of standing and walking on two legs.
The Massospondylus hatchling was born with a relatively short tail, horizontally held neck, long forelimbs and a huge head with no teeth.
Prof Robert Reisz, from the University of Toronto, who led the research, said: "These embryos, which were clearly ready to hatch, had overall awkward body proportions and no mechanism for feeding themselves, which suggest they required parental care.
"If this interpretation is correct, we have here the oldest known indication of parental care in the fossil record."
The well-preserved embryos pre-date any others by at least 100 million years. Most of the fossilised embryos discovered so far have been from the Cretaceous period, between 65 million and 146 million years ago.
Sen. Santorum, call your publicist ... we have another piece of evidence for the importance of heterosexual marriage .... heh
Posted by: too true ||
07/29/2005 11:11 ||
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Posted by: Steve ||
07/29/2005 14:23 Comments ||
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#4
Steve, that's a low blow. Did not know that EK was doing scientific research that night in Chapaquidick. Which came first, the Massosponylus or the Ted?
Posted by: john ||
07/29/2005 15:12 Comments ||
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#5
Naw the Ethelphillia Gargantua would have a massive coat hanger fossil instead of embryos.
WaPo. I think registration required, so posted in full.
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
The Associated Press
Friday, July 29, 2005; 8:25 AM
VIENNA, Austria -- Vienna's prestigious Leopold Museum is usually a pretty buttoned-down place, but on Friday, some of the nudes in its marble galleries were for real.
Scores of naked or scantily clad people wandered the museum, lured by an offer of free entry to "The Naked Truth," a new exhibition of early 1900s erotic art, if they showed up wearing just a swimsuit _ or nothing at all.
With a midsummer heat wave sweeping much of Europe, pushing temperatures into the mid-90s Fahrenheit in Vienna, the normally staid museum decided that making the most of its cool, climate-controlled space would be just the ticket to spur interest in the show.
"We find a naked body every bit as beautiful as a clothed one," said Elisabeth Leopold, who founded the museum with her husband, Rudolf. "If they came only out of lust, we have to accept that. We stand for the truth."
Peter Weinhaeupl, the Leopold's commercial director, said the goal was twofold _ help people beat the heat while creating a mini-scandal reminiscent of the way the artworks by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka and others shocked the public when they first were unveiled a century ago.
"We wanted to give people a chance to cool off, and bring nakedness into the open," he said. "It's a bit of an experiment. Egon Schiele was a young and wild person in his day. He'd want to be here."
Most of those who showed up in little or no attire Friday opted for swimsuits, but a few hardy souls dared to bare more. Among them was Bettina Huth of Stuttgart, Germany, who roamed the exhibition wearing only sandals and a black bikini bottom.
Although she used a program at one point to shield herself from a phalanx of TV cameras, Huth, 52, said she didn't understand what all the fuss was about.
"I go into the steam bath every week, so I'm used to being naked," she said. "I think there's a double morality, especially in America. We lived in California for two years, and I found it strange that my children had to cover themselves up at the beach when they were only 3 or 4 years old. That's ridiculous."
For years, the Austrian capital has been known for a small but lively nudist colony on the Donauinsel, an island in the middle of the Danube River where people disrobe, often startling the unsuspecting joggers, cyclists and rollerbladers who happen upon them.
Overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Austria has always been somewhat more conservative than many other European countries. The Viennese were scandalized when native art nouveau masters like Klimt _ best known for his sensuous "The Kiss" and the subject of an upcoming film starring John Malkovich _ began producing works that some critics panned as "indecency," "artistic self-pollution" and borderline pornography.
The 180 works on display at the Leopold through Aug. 22 include Klimt's "Nude Veritas," an 1899 painting of a naked young woman with wildflowers in her hair, and Schiele's "Two Female Friends," a 1915 rendition of two nude women entangled in each other's arms.
Max Hollein, director of Frankfurt's Schirn Kunsthalle art museum, likened the public uproar at the time to "the visible outcry at the live transmission from last year's Super Bowl when, for a few seconds, CBS broadcast shots of the singer Janet Jackson's exposed nipple."
Mario Vorhemes, a 20-year-old Vienna resident who strode into the Leopold on Friday wearing nothing but a green and black Speedo, was nonchalant.
"What's the big deal?" he asked. "We're born naked into this world. Why can't we walk around in it without clothes from time to time?" Why? Two words: Madeline Albright.
Elina Ranta, a fully clothed tourist from Finland who checked out the art _ and the audience _ left amused.
"I thought, 'This is strange. How is this possible in a museum?'" Ranta said. "We've been in many galleries and I've never seen people walking around like this."
"In English, my name means 'beach,'" she added. "That's pretty funny under these circumstances, isn't it?"
#1
best known for his sensuous "The Kiss" and the subject of an upcoming film starring John Malkovich _ began producing works that some critics panned as "indecency," "artistic self-pollution" and borderline pornography.
Scare quotes in title are mine, I thought a reuters article without scare quotes was somehow lacking.
LONDON (Reuters) - A British couple who headed out to sea in a dinghy for an amorous liaison sparked a major rescue operation when their cries of passion were mistaken for someone in trouble, British police said Tuesday.
A passer-by raised the alarm after hearing strange noises coming from the waters near a beach in Torbay on the southwest coast of England Saturday morning, prompting the coastguard to send lifeboats and police to the scene.
"It was found that there was a partially-clothed couple in a small rubber dingy that were brought ashore and asked to put their clothes back on," a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police told Reuters.
"Our log actually mentions that 'they were having fun in their boat!', but doesn't say anything other than that."
Barney, a five-year-old parrot with a dirty mouth, has been removed from public display at the Warwickshire Animal Sanctuary in Nuneaton, England, after hurling four-letter words at a mayor, a minister and two policemen. The July 27 Guardian reported that the bird can now be seen only by request, "in case he rounds on potential donors or gives a dreadful example to visiting children."
That would have made for an awk!-ward situation.
The paper said Barney was trained by his former owner, a retired truck driver "who had a dislike of authority."
So have you heard about this bird? Now everybody knows about the birdie's bad words. Pa pa pa oo ma ma mao . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
07/29/2005 06:24 ||
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Lol! Offended a mayor and a minister, huh? The coppers prolly just pretended to be offended - in self-defense... and laughed their arses off at the pub later. Love it.
#2
A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird
Bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a don't you know about the bird?
Well, everybody's talking about the bird!
A-well-a bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird...
The judge also noted the "extraordinary turnout of his community supporting him," and said statements in support of Al-Turki "would indicate that the factors of his character and so forth weigh in his favor."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/29/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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extraordinary turnout of his community supporting him
Wasn't the Indonesian maid part of that same muslim community?
Oh, right, my bad: #1 she's a woman; #2 she's poor; #3 she's not arabic; and #4 her islam is the wrong flavor.
No, it's not Michael Moore - it doesn't suck that much...
Astronomers have found a large object in the Solar System's outer reaches. It is being hailed as "a great discovery". Details of the object are still sketchy. It never comes closer to the Sun than Neptune and spends most of its time much further out than Pluto. It is one of the largest objects ever found in the outer Solar System and is almost certainly made of ice and rock.
It is at least 1,500km (930 miles) across and may be larger than Pluto, which is 2,274km (1,400 miles) across. The uncertainty in estimates of its size is due to errors in its reflectivity. It might be a large, dim object, or a smaller, brighter object. Whatever it is, astronomers consider it a major discovery. Or it could be something else, or not.
In 2004 scientists discovered Sedna, a remote world that is 1,700 km across. ...more at link...
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/29/2005 7:11 Comments ||
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[MOONBAT CLASS="STRAITJACKET" POLITIX="LEFT"]You don't understand. It was made by Halliburton's overlords on Titan to broadcast mind-control waves to keep us under Bushitler's control! [/MOONBAT]
For entertaiment purposes only; please, no wagering.
Yeah, right. I got Denmark and the points
Canada and Denmark have taken their diplomatic tussle over a lump of Arctic rocks to the Internet with competing Google ads claiming sovereignty over Hans Island. Some Canadians have called for a boycott of Danish pastries.
"To heck with Danish pastries! Bring on the poutine!"
The diplomatic debate began Monday when Denmark said it would send a letter of protest over a visit to the 1/2-square-mile Hans Island last week by Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham.
And after the letter of protest, the intifada.
Graham stated Canada has always owned the uninhabited chunk of land, 680 miles south of the North Pole. Denmark responded: "Neener Neener." "Hans Island is our island." Toronto resident Rick Broadhead googled the matter and found an ad that touted Hans Island as Danish. "Does Hans sound Canadian? Danish name, Danish island." Internet users clicking on the ad were directed to the Danish Foreign Ministry's Web site.
Case closed, eh?
So Broadhead paid for his own Google ad and created a Web site to promote Ottawa's sovereignty. His Google ad leads users to a fluttering Maple Leaf flag and plays the national anthem. Broadhead's Web site outlines Canada's argument that Hans Island belonged to the British and became Canada's in 1867. The Danes say it is closer to Greenland than Canada and is therefore Danish soil.
Case closed, ja.
In 1984, Tom Hoeyem, who was Denmark's minister for Greenland affairs, caused a stir when he raised a Danish flag on the island, buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flag pole and left a note saying: "Welcome to the Danish island."
If either of those ads appears here, well, Fred gets a piece of the action...
#4
There is oil and gas under it. That is why the "dispute" exists. Look for more of these coming to a nation near you. Take a look at the artic map. Canada does own most of it. So don't get your Toque in a knot, eh.
#5
Um, you guys may laugh, but this is what I dug up:
I was interested in this Canadian claim to an island that I regarded as part of Greenland and so I struck up a conversation with the man. He was surprised that I even knew where Hans Island was. I was just as surprised at what he had to tell, for his interest in Hans Island resulted from the fact that he was a scientist with Dome Petroleum and had just spent the summer on the island doing ice research for the oil company.
Dome Petroleum, as it turned out, had been doing scientific research on this tiny island for some years as part of its research on oil development in the Beaufort Sea, 1700 kilometres away. What was the connection? It was that oil companies build artificial islands in the sea on which to position their drilling rigs. These artificial islands must be strong enough to withstand the force of being hit by large floes of multi-year ice coming down from the Arctic Ocean. Hans Island provided a perfect location in which to experiment on such forces. Source
So yes, in a way, it just may be about oiiiil.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/29/2005 0:56 Comments ||
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#6
Everywhere is south of the North pole.
Shhhh. Not so loud. The newsies might actually learn somethin'.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/29/2005 1:03 Comments ||
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#21
Those Cnandians better watch out. The "Mare of Steel" has been in storage for 900 years now. It's gotten kinda rusty since the Vikings got it in the spoils of victory...
Jul 28 - Last Thursday, United States Customs and Border Patrol Agents halted members of a New York City-based humanitarian group near the Mexican border and confiscated a number of computers and computer accessories destined for Cuba.
The Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Cuba Caravan was well into its 14th annual trek to deliver humanitarian aid to Cubans suffering under a US economic embargo when officers with the Border Patrol stopped them near Hidalgo, Texas, searched the vehicles and seized 43 boxes of computer equipment, according to a statement released by the organization.
Agents allowed the majority of the eleven-vehicle caravan â carrying millions of dollars worth of goods -- to cross into Mexico, reported Reverend Lucius Walker, executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, the parent group behind the Pastors for Peace Project, in an interview with Democracy Now!.
Lucius noted that 400 computers were seized from the Caravan in 1996. Participants held a 94-day fast and secured their release, he said.
The group is issuing a broad call for public support to force federal authorities to return the electronics and allow them to finish their quest to deliver the items to Cuban children with special needs.
In a press statement, Pastors for Peace said seven members of the caravan remained in Hidalgo to drum up support for the release of the equipment. The statement called on people to contact government officials and Congress members to express their disappointment at the Border Patrolâs actions.
The limit of computers that may be approved for export can't exceed 24.8 MTOPS (millions of theoretical operations per second). That's equivalent to a 486 microprocessor.
Evidence is mounting that United Nations peacekeepers shot and killed unarmed civilians, including children, during a recent raid in Haiti. The UN said it was ready to investigate the alleged "use of unnecessary force". Independent witnesses say up to 23 people were killed during the raid and that many were shot in the head. Video footage seen by The Independent shows the bodies of many killed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and contains testimony from witnesses claiming the victims were killed by "blue helmets" Â common parlance for UN peacekeepers.
In a statement, the UN Mission in Haiti (Minustah) said: "[UN forces] did not target civilians in the operation ... but the nature of such missions in densely populated urban areas is such that there is always a risk of civilian casualties. Minustah deeply regrets any injuries or loss of life during its operation."
Funny, the Kos Kiddies never buy that argument when the US Marines are conducting an operation.
Yesterday, the most senior UN peacekeeping official appealed to the Security Council for specialised troops for Haiti  admitting the forces available were not trained for much of anything such raids.
Yes, the old 'sucking head wound'. Maybe next time the trouble-makers will think twice about messing with the blue helmets.
The raid took place against a backdrop of violence in Haiti ahead of autumn elections. Authorities say much of the violence is perpetrated by criminal gangs with links to the former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
But since the ousting of the democratically elected Mr Aristide last year, human rights groups have detailed repression of his supporters by the US-backed interim government and the HNP. A report by the human rights programme at Harvard Law School said there were also "credible allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by Minustah".
Minustah said its dawn raid, involving more than 400 troops, targeted the gang leader known as "Dread Wilme", who is accused of murder and kidnapping. He and four alleged associates were killed.
An operation worthy of the RAB, if only they'd done it at 4 am.
But other independent witnesses support Pina's evidence that civilians were also killed. David Welsh, of the US Labour/Human Rights Delegation to Haiti, was at a conference in Port-au-Prince that weekend. Delegation members interviewed witnesses and filmed the bodies of victims. He described the shooting as a "massacre": "Based on witnesses' testimony and the number of bodies we were able to confirm, we believe that at least 23 people were killed," he said.
Among the dead were four-year-old Stanley Romelus, who was shot in the head; his mother, Sonia, and his one-year-old brother, Nelson. The boy's father said they were killed in their house after UN forces threw smoke grenades. His testimony is to be included in a documentary Pina is producing based on the footage.
Killing childen is bad, and that suggests that the planners of this operation didn't do their jobs properly.
Minustah claims it received "unconfirmed information" that criminal gangs were seen killing civilians after its operation. It said: "Subsequently, these elements attributed these atrocious acts to Minustah."
At UN headquarters yesterday, Jean-Marie Guehenno, undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, asked for specialist troops for Haiti. "I have to acknowledge the forces we have do not have the kind of very specialised capacity ... that makes absolutely sure that there will be zero civilian casualties in a densely populated environment." I look forward to the left demanding the immediate withdrawl of the UN from Haiti, and the turnover of all suspected killers and their leaders to the ICC for trial.
#2
Brasil and China's contributions manpower wise prety much sould have predicted this. These troops will not screw around. Dealing with this stuff is handled as it would be at home.
#3
But since the ousting of the democratically elected Mr Aristide last year, human rights groups have detailed repression of his supporters by the US-backed interim government and the HNP.
What's left out is that the HRGs and the rest of their ilk, for various reasons (being pro-Aristide for one), have systematically managed to hamstring efforts to bring order to Haiti. Hence we end up with this mess.
#4
Ah yes, the hypocracy of the left and the UN. Not a peep of condimation will be heard, only excuses and limp reasoning. But if the US had done this, Molly bar the door on the Rage-of-the-Left!
This is the problem with letting totalitarian governments in with the UN, they use totalitarian methods to get the job done. And Kerry and the other libs want the UN to take control.
Over. Their. Dead. Bodies.
#5
The UN should get out now. Jean-Marie Guehenno and Kofi Annan are war criminals and should face charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC. And Syke should be charged as a co-conspirator for supporting this rogue organization that stole food and medicine funds marked for Iraqi children and is now killing innocent Haitian women and children.
I hope John Bolton is appointed tonight. He's urgently needed in New York.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/29/2005 10:52 Comments ||
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The UN should get out now
What? They'e made for each other. Matter of fact I can see moving the HQ to Port a Pimps could help everyone.
Dangerous Bird Flu Strain Found in Russia
By JIM HEINTZ
The Associated Press
Friday, July 29, 2005; 11:58 AM
MOSCOW -- Investigators have determined that a strain of bird flu virus infecting fowl in Russia is the type that can infect humans, the Agriculture Ministry said Friday.
The virus caused the deaths of hundreds of birds in a section of Siberia this month, but no human infections have been reported.
In a brief statement, the ministry identified the virus as avian flu type A H5N1.
"That raises the need for undertaking quarantine measures of the widest scope," the statement said. Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for elaboration.
Strains of bird flu have been hitting flocks throughout Asia and some fatal human cases have been reported there.
Since 2003, bird flu has killed at least 57 people in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia, which reported its first three human deaths this month.
The outbreak in Russia's Novosibirsk region apparently started about two weeks ago when large numbers of chicken, geese, ducks and turkeys began dying. Officials say that all dead or infected birds were incinerated. But it is unclear whether that would effectively stop the virus from spreading.
Earlier this week, Russia's chief government epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, said the virus' appearance in Russia could be due to migrating birds that rest on the Siberian region's lakes.
A recent report released by the journal Science said the finding of the H5N1 infection in migrant birds at Qinghai Lake in western China "indicates that this virus has the potential to be a global threat."
The reports echo concerns voiced by the World Health Organization, which urged China to step up its testing of wild geese and gulls. A WHO official estimated that the flu had killed more than 5,000 wild birds in western China.
The outbreak was first detected about two months ago in bar-headed geese at China's remote saltwater lake, which is a key breeding location for migratory birds that overwinter in southeast Asia, Tibet and India. The virus has hit that species the hardest, but also affects brown-headed gulls and great black-headed gulls.
Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, in Geneva, said, "We would hope that these samples would be sent to a WHO international reference lab outside the country. This is standard for verification."
"To confirm that it is H5N1, it is important that these tests are done outside the country," he said.
#3
This what you be concerned about - China deploys 50,000 to fight pig illness. The Chinese are blaming a bacteria, but its almost certainly viral. What we don't know is the extent of H2H transmission.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The Poles really have the burning breast about democracy, and having lived under tyranny for so many years, they take it kind of personally. They are also approaching a long deserved par with Germany as far as industrial might, and will eventually supplant France as the "second country of Europe" (after Germany). Belarus really stands no chance against a hostile Poland, and violently or not will have to liberalize. Their only other option would be to rebuild the iron curtain and spend every penny on buying arms.
Frank McKenna is an ambassador with a mission: to sell Canada to its southern neighbor. Though he just came to Washington in March, McKenna is already well-known for his plainspoken lobbying efforts to correct what he sees as American myths about Canada.
Despite his high-powered background, McKenna is serious, but not stuffy. He blithely responded in French when asked about living in a bilingual society. In an interview at the Canadian embassy, with striking views of the Capitol area, McKenna discussed a number of timely issues with The Examiner, including border security, importing prescription drugs and Canada's important role in supplying energy. If you don't see it below, it was edited for length!
Q: What are the historical differences between Canadians and Americans?
A: America's history is unique to America. It was born out of revolution, experienced civil war and has a constitution that has a balance of powers that's dramatically different from ours.
Canada was more a process of evolution, where the effort was made to try to allow the disparate elements to live with their own cultures intact, which is why we evolved as a French-English country. ... In our social values, Canada is probably somewhere between Europe and the United States of America.
Q: How would you describe the relationship between Canada and the United States?
A: It's a very unique relationship because we're geographically very equal countries. We share an undefended border that is the largest of its kind in the world. We look alike and talk alike. ... The unique element, which makes the relationship so asymmetric: The American population is 10 times that of Canada. And the American economy is, of course, much larger.
Q: So the reality is you're much more reliant on the United States for trade?
A: We have a much larger concentration of our economy going into the United States. But remember that we represent the biggest purchaser per capita of your products of anybody in the world. We're the biggest market for 39 of your states. So the bottom line is the United States is hugely reliant on us as well.
And particularly for energy. People in the United States don't realize just how dependent America is on foreign countries for energy. But of all those countries, Canada is the largest and most secure supplier of energy.
Q: Can you provide more specifics?
A: We are a bigger supplier of oil than Saudi Arabia. Natural gas, uranium, electricity - we're your biggest energy provider, by a long shot.
Q: You gave a speech mentioning Canadians who express moral superiority or gratuitous criticism of the United States. Is that sometimes a problem?
A: ... Canadians are very respectful, very affectionate toward the United States. ... But from time to time, if the United States is bogged down in an issue, international dispute or has trouble with its finances, as at present, Canadians will start waxing, in my view, a bit smug about how Canada runs compared to the United States, or about how we mind our business and aren't involved in places around the world. I need to remind Canadians, "Listen, the United States of America's taken on a big responsibility in the world in the absence of a lot of other people taking it on."
Q: Do Americans sometimes have a stereotypical view of Canada as the Mounties, Canadian beer, and you say "eh" a lot?
A: The issue is not the stereotype so much, or even the view Americans have of Canadians, because we generally find it's very positive. It's the lack of knowledge that Americans have of Canada. We tend to know an awful lot about you. [But] one poll I saw indicated 30 percent of Americans thought Canada was really another state of the United States.
We have a strong, technology-driven economy. ... I guess we'd like Americans to know that we're more than just kind of a cold, cuddly northern neighbor.
- On how intertwined the U.S.-Canada border is: There's a golf course in New Brunswick where you tee off in Canada, hit the ball in the United States.
- On living in Canada's English-French bilingual society: I live in a community that's French. I go to church in French. And I like it. I feel comfortable in that milieu.
- On the absence of NHL hockey: I miss that every day. I played hockey all my life, and I'm kind of a fanatic about hockey, and I've missed that the last year. All Canadians do. It's a national craving that we have to get hockey back. I love baseball, too. I lost the [Montreal] Expos, which was a favorite team of mine, and now I've got them back here in Washington.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/29/2005 09:50 ||
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#1
Frank McKenna is an ambassador with a mission: to sell Canada to its southern neighbor.
We'll take it. How soon can you have your people out?
#4
"We tend to know an awful lot about you. [But] one poll I saw indicated 30 percent of Americans thought Canada was really another state of the United States. We have a strong, technology-driven economy. ... I guess we'd like Americans to know that we're more than just kind of a cold, cuddly northern neighbor."
Oh, I'd say he's off to a wonderful start by all accounts! Good job Mr. McKenna you thoughful silver-tongued charmer you! My esteem for Canadians and Canada has never been as ... well, nevermind.
#5
We tend to know an awful lot about you. [But] one poll I saw indicated 30 percent of Americans thought Canada was really another state of the United States.
Err...maybe because the UAW got their Canadian brothers covered by getting Congress to include autos and parts made in Canada as domestic US production. Didn't want to be included in the foreign production, now did we? Might cost jobs and money.
A look at what the left is facing...
Truly funny, and the opportunities for conservatives are staggering.
EFL
Just look at the reaction to Sen. Clintonâs speech from one of the most accomplished strategists of the VLWC, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos website.
âThe poor, poor DLC forced to âreturn fire?ââ Moulitsas wrote this week. âPlease. The DLC has always been at the forefront of intra-party mud-slinging. Theyâre just finally being called on it, and suddenly itâs time for peace?â
No way, said Moulitsas. In addition to opposing centrist Democrats on a wide range of issues, Moulitsas and his Daily Kossacks are incensed that one prominent DLC type, Marshall Wittmann, had the temerity to suggest that the Daily Kos home base â Berkeley, Calif. â is a bit, uh, way out there on the left.
It seems Wittmann, writing in his own blog, disparaged those living in âthe daily kosy (misspelling intended) confines of Berserkely.â The Berserkelyites, Wittmann suggested, are obsessed with ideological battles and puritan purges, while âhere in Columbus constructive committed crusaders for progressivism are discussing ways to win back the hearts of the heartland.â
In the world of the VLWC, themâs fightinâ words. And Moulitsas is in a fightinâ mood.
Sen. Clinton âplans on working with the DLC to come up with some common party message yadda yadda yadda,â Moulitsas sniffed.
Well, she can forget about that, Moulitsas continued. The DLC has âsmearedâ not only progressives but an entire city â that would be Berkeley â and shouldnât expect cooperation from anyone.
âNotice how he slams everyone in Berkeley?â Moulitsas said of Wittmann. âNo good vital-center-seeking Democrats there! Theyâre all âberzerk,â ha ha! I bet he called up his old friends at the Christian Coalition and his current friends at PNAC [the neoconservative Project for a New American Century] to share that gem. Cease-fire, DLC style!â
âItâs truly disappointing that this is the crap Hillary has signed on to,â Moulitsas concluded. âMore of the failed corporatist bullshit that has cost our party so dearly in the last decade and a half.â
By the âlast decade and a half,â Moulitsas apparently meant the period in which the DLC helped jettison the Democratic Partyâs soft-on-crime, soft-on-defense, soft-on-everything image, allowing Bill Clinton to win the White House.
#1
The DailyKos brings a whole new meaning to the term 'dull and tedious'. Its only significance is that it is the best the American Left has to offer.
#2
Kos may be many things: nasty, intellectually dishonest, etc. but dull he is not- at least not to everyone. The number of his readers greatly exceeds the readers of this site, unfortunately.
#5
I'd offer them my services as friendly fire claims adjuster but prior engagements are calling and I don't have much experience working with the petty tragedy claims of nasty political clowns.
#6
Looks like the Dems are in a pickle. They need to answer one simple question, "Do we keep losing elections because we come across to the voters as hateful and deranged, or do we keep losing elections because we aren't acting hateful and deranged enough?"
They need to get the answer right, or they're probably headed for history's septic tank; and so far, they appear not to have a clue.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/29/2005 9:24 Comments ||
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#7
I think their message isn't getting out. (/snicker)
#15
Of course, all these will go into the Memory Hole in the Fall of 2008, which will show a united Democratic party behind the Moderate, even a little Conservative, Hillary Clinton.
#17
)2 Kos may be many things: nasty, intellectually dishonest, etc. but dull he is not- at least not to everyone. The number of his readers greatly exceeds the readers of this site, unfortunately. (
Thass cuz us conservative don need no readin'
Posted by: Almost Anonymous2520 ||
07/29/2005 16:19 Comments ||
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#18
Please to stop f*ckin' with my mind, good sir.
Let me pour some gasoline on that fire: people from San Francisco think that the Berkeley croud is out to lunch.
From The Huffington Post, by Adrianna Huffington
Not everyone in the Times building is on the same page when it comes to Judy Miller. The official story the paper is sticking to is that Miller is a heroic martyr, sacrificing her freedom in the name of journalistic integrity.
But a very different scenario is being floated in the halls. Here it is: It's July 6, 2003, and Joe Wilson's now famous op-ed piece appears in the Times, raising the idea that the Bush administration has "manipulate[d]" and "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." Miller, who has been pushing this manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times for months, goes ballistic. Someone is using the pages of her own paper to call into question the justification for the war -- and, indirectly, much of her reporting. The idea that intelligence was being fixed goes to the heart of Miller's credibility. So she calls her friends in the intelligence community and asks, Who is this guy? She finds out he's married to a CIA agent. She then passes on the info about Mrs. Wilson to Scooter Libby (Newsday has identified a meeting Miller had on July 8 in Washington with an "unnamed government official"). Maybe Miller tells Rove too -- or Libby does. The White House hatchet men turn around and tell Novak and Cooper. The story gets out.
This is why Miller doesn't want to reveal her "source" at the White House -- because she was the source. Sure, she first got the info from someone else, and the odds are she wasn't the only one who clued in Libby and/or Rove (the State Dept. memo likely played a role too)⊠but, in this scenario, Miller certainly wasn't an innocent writer caught up in the whirl of history. She had a starring role in it. This also explains why Miller never wrote a story about Plame, because her goal wasn't to write a story, but to get out the story that cast doubts on Wilson's motives. Which Novak did.
This version of events has divided the Times into two camps: those who want to learn everything about this story, and those who want to learn everything as long as it doesn't downgrade the heroic status of their "colleague" Judy Miller. ....
Of course, the division over Miller is nothing new⊠it predates her transformation into media martyr by many months. For an early look at this riff, check out Howard Kurtz' May 2003 reporting on the way Miller ferociously fought to keep Ahmad Chalabi, her top source on WMD, to herself and the anger it caused at the paper. And also the paper's extraordinary mea culpa from May 2004, in which its editors admitted that the Times' reporting on Iraq "was not as rigorous as it should have been" -- yet steadfastly refused to even mention the less-than-rigorous reporter whose byline appeared on 4 of the 6 stories the editors singled out as being particularly egregious. "It looks," the Times' public admission concluded, "as if we, along with the administration, were taken in." ....
Amazingly, however, even as her reporting has been debunked -- and her sources discredited -- Miller has steadfastly refused to apologize for her role in misleading the public in the lead up to the war. Indeed, in an interview with the author of Bush's Brain, James Moore, she, in the words of Moore, "remained righteously indignant, unwilling to accept that she had goofed in the grandest of fashions", telling him: "I was proved fucking right." ....
But one thing is inescapable: Miller -- intentionally or unintentionally -- worked hand in glove in helping the White House propaganda machine (for a prime example, check out this Newsweek story on how the aluminum tubes tall tale went from a government source to Miller to page one of the New York Times to Cheney and Rice going on the Sunday shows to confirm the story to Bush pushing that same story at the UN). ....
The more I'm reading about Judy Miller and her actions leading up to and during the early days of the war, and then through the unfolding Plame-Rove-Libby-Gonzalez-Card scandal, the more Iâm struck by the special access and relationships she enjoyed with many of the key players in the Iraq debacle (which, at the end of the day, is really what Plamegate is all about).
For starters, of course, we have her still unfolding involvement in the Plame leak. Earlier this month, Howard Kurtz reported that Miller and Libby spoke a few days before Novak outed Plame -- and Iâm hearing that the Libby/Miller conversation occurred over breakfast in Washington. Did Valerie Plame come up -- and, if so, who brought her up? There is no question that Miller was angry at Joe Wilson⊠and continues to be. A social acquaintance of Miller told me that, once, when she spoke of Wilson, it was with âa passionate and heated disgust that went beyond the political and included an irrelevant bit of deeply personal innuendo about him, her mouth twisting in hatred.â ....
Millerâs special relationships go much further than Scooter Libby, Richard Perle and the rest of the neocon establishment. Take her involvement as an embedded reporter during the war with the Pentagonâs Mobile Exploitation Team (MET) Alpha -- the unit charged with hunting down Saddamâs WMD. .... Was this the reward for her pro-administration prewar reporting? .... Millerâs assignment was so sensitive that Don Rumsfeld himself signed off on it. Once embedded, Miller acted as much more than a reporter. Kurtz quotes one military officer as saying that the MET Alpha unit became a âJudith Miller team.â Another officer said that Miller âcame in with a plan. She was leading them⊠She ended up almost hijacking the mission.â A third officer, a senior staffer of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, of which MET Alpha was a part, put it this way: âItâs impossible to exaggerate the impact she had on the mission of this unit, and not for the better.â .....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/29/2005 06:23 ||
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Mike and Arianna -- a match made in heaven.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/29/2005 7:16 Comments ||
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#2
This is classic. This whole thing makes my eyes glaze over, but I've followed it enough to wonder if, as Miller is about to be exposed (ie: Time Magazine) for being the orginal source - and the left, once again looking like fools led to the Kos Kool-aid, we have them now turning on Miller and implying she's a Rumsfeld stooge.
Millerâs special relationships go much further than Scooter Libby, Richard Perle and the rest of the neocon establishment. Take her involvement as an embedded reporter during the war with the Pentagonâs Mobile Exploitation Team (MET) Alpha -- the unit charged with hunting down Saddamâs WMD. .... Was this the reward for her pro-administration prewar reporting? .... Millerâs assignment was so sensitive that Don Rumsfeld himself signed off on it
Is Karl Rove really this brilliant - willing even to offer himself up as bait to reel them in once again?
Oh, gosh. It must suck not to be able to think for yourself and have to have the DNC tell you how to look like an idiot.
#3
How can their be hope for a caliphate when Mossad and the Neocons (read zionist cabal) are so clever?? First bin Laden is a stooge, meant to turn the world against Islam. Then the London bombings clearly had their fingerprints on it. We all might as well surrender to them now.
#4
All the Media outlets are claiming that Judith Miller is in jail for refusing to reveal her sourde. What she is really there for is for refusing to answer certain questions that the Special Prosecutor was asking. He already knows her source. Instapundit had a very good article a few days ago laying all this out. Finally, the Times notes the Judy Miller situation in passing, telling us this:
With Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times, in jail for refusing to divulge her source for the same information about Ms. Wilson, and the grand jury set to expire in October, the outcome of the investigation remains unclear.
"Refusing to divulge her source"? It is possible that, in a very broad sense, this is true (and conspiracy buffs love it!). However, based on the record established in the court hearings, the Special Counsel has subpoenaed Ms. Miller to discuss her conversation with a specific, named individual who, we have been told, has waived confidentiality (but not to Ms. Miller's satisfaction).
She is not "refusing to divulge her source" - Fitzgerald has identified this source. She is refusing to discuss her conversation with a particular person, known to the prosecutor, who may or may not have been her source for information about Ms. Wilson. That strikes me as a subtle but important distinction.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/29/2005 9:21 Comments ||
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#5
Yawn. As I said before, let her rot in jail until she's ready to talk to the Grand Jury.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/29/2005 11:01 Comments ||
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#6
Hi, Judy! We're thinking of you here at the Times. Thought I'd say hello from the limo. The Hamptons traffic is brutal as usual, even this early. Looks like fine weather for the weekend though.
Martha's been giving me good tips on her dealings with the prison experience so I thought I'd share with you. She says to avoid the larger women, especially the ones sporting tatoos. Says they signify some tribal prison ranking. Curry favor with anyone refered to as a "Boss Dyke" I believe she called them. This person can supposedly be helpful in making the incarceration experience more palatable. She offered so many fascinating bon mots on the incarceration experience, but unfortunately my secretary was not available to chronicle them. Another time, perhaps?
Well, ta-ta. Don't let the bed bugs bite. And if they do, Martha said that lighter fluid worked wonders in combating them. I'll say hello for you at the club. Kiss-kiss.
As Democrats have been unwilling to end their filibuster in favor of an up or down vote for President Bush's UN Ambassador Nominee John Bolton, there is renewed talk that Bolton will receive a recess appointment. Democrat Senators have demanded additional documents, in regards to Bolton. Republicans have been unwilling to provide the ongoing requests for these documents, essentially stating that "the more they receive the more they will continue to want."
Bolton is said to be amenable to the recess nomination, which would take him through the end of 2006 and administration spokeswoman Erin Healy said: "The president continues to believe that John Bolton should receive an up or down vote and he encourages the Senate to move forward on his nomination." The US Constitution allows the President of the United States to fill empty positions during Senate recesses. The next Senate recess begins July 30. Cue the giant puppets, pink tanks, Bush effigies, microscopic dicks, and sagging tits...
#2
I tend to agree Elarson, mainly because I can't understand why he lets the Donks get away with blocking a vote. If they don't want to vote for him ok but at least have a vote. He has allowed the Donks to guide this nomination down a stupid fishing trip for bad information. When they had to rely on a party wonk to testify against him they really are reaching for branches. I would demand that they publically state their case and vote. His allowing the Donks to run the Senate and that aint right.
I can't comment on when he plans to retire, but as a "Class I" Senator, his term expires in 2007. So... that would mean that he is up for reelection in 2006.
Maybe someone should target him for some competition.
AR
Posted by: Analog Roam ||
07/29/2005 14:51 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate sparred Thursday over legislation to shield the firearms industry from some lawsuits, rejecting an argument that gun makers and others are liable if they irresponsibly allowed a criminal to obtain a weapon and use it to kill or wound. ``We should not protect those folks from their own reckless conduct, their own negligence,'' said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.
The gun-ban nuts keep trying to find a wedge to sue, and this would have been a dandy.
Levin's amendment to allow some suits by victims of gun crimes failed 62-37. The bill's supporters said the proposal would undermine the purpose of their legislation: keeping the gun industry out of financial peril from damage suits. ``What this is all about is trying to drive gun manufacturers out of business,'' said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
'cause if only the government had guns the whole country would be peaceful.
Levin's amendment was one of the few that Republican leaders were letting the Senate vote on. When the Senate considered the same bill a year ago, Democrats succeeded in attaching an amendment that would have extended an expiring assault weapons ban. At the National Rifle Association's request, the bill never had a final vote.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., revived it this week by delaying until the fall final action on a defense bill the Senate was debating. He then used parliamentary maneuvers to block Democrats from getting votes on amendments objectionable to the NRA. ``We're being blocked by the power interests on the other side,'' shouted Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. ``That's the lockhold that the NRA has.''
Democrats did succeed in adding an amendment to require child safety locks to be purchased with every handgun, except those bought by government officials and police officers. Any violation could be punished by the suspension of the dealer's license, a $10,000 fine or both.
Dumb. Anyone who's responsible stores a handgun safely to begin with, and anyone who's irresponsible won't use safety locks, either.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I have no kids. None of my guns have "saftey locks." Those loicks make my guns useless. Put a lock on Kenedy's stearing wheel (and booze) since his car has kill more people than my guns.
Since when does being the government or it's employee grant you more rights than me? Is the government now the King? I must have the King's permission to defend myself or to purchase goods?
Screw this "government." You are losing your rights people and are doing nothing about it.
#2
Even if it stays in, most gun dealers would probably just give you one with eash weapon. And jack the price a little, no doubt, but it wouldn't show.
The GFW mantra that manufacturers are responsible for misuse of their products by criminals is simply laughable. What about knife makers?
"Reductio ad absurdum" is redundant with these mooks.
Posted by: too true ||
07/29/2005 9:47 Comments ||
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#8
At least they rejected this crap. Forcing child locks, sounds good but is freaken dumb. Kinda like the enviromentaly friendly foam on the shuttle.
Remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and we are well over halfway there.
Yeah, it's Scrappleface, heh. Bush Energy Bill: Defeat the Arabs, Take Their Oil
(2005-07-26) -- The Bush administration today unveiled revisions to the energy bill, currently moving through Congress, designed to decrease U.S. dependency on foreign petroleum.
Under the terms of the amended legislation, the United States would "defeat the Arabs and take their oil."
Without such an amendment, the current energy bill would only slow the increase in U.S. dependency, which is projected to exceed 68 percent of domestic consumption by the year 2025.
Americans now get about 58 percent of their fossil fuels from other nations, almost all of which is burned in Sport Utility Vehicles during trips to children's soccer practices.
Although the White House plan would not change the global oil distribution infrastructure, it would colonize Saudi Arabia as a U.S. territory, moving Saudi oil into the "domestic production" column.
"I don't know why we didn't think of this before," said an unnamed White House spokesman. "After we invaded Iraq and got all of its oil we should have just turned the troops south and headed for Riyadh."
Democrats in Congress immediately spoke out against the amendment, saying that annexing Saudi Arabia would make the U.S. responsible for the environmental devastation that oil drilling causes to the habitats of sand-based creatures.
"The horrors of ANWR pale in comparison," said one unnamed Senate Democrat, referring to Bush administration plans to eliminate the caribou herd by drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. "In Saudi Arabia, we're talking about terrorizing desert snails, geckos and jerboa. Their blood would be on our hands." Scott Ott, heh.
Scott Ott's comedy pieces have a weird way of coming true when least expected.
Interesting times, indeed.
Posted by: N guard ||
07/29/2005 13:54 Comments ||
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#6
Every day the news gets more like ScrappleFace and ScrappleFace gets more like the news. By 2006 ScrappleFace will be total fact and the NYT will be total fiction. Of course the NYT is making the most progress in that direction so far.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/29/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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EFL. Ummmmmmmmm...Don, I think you're...ummmmmmmmm...missing the point here...
Donald Trump, the flamboyant real estate developer who has put his stamp on everything from a Central Park skating rink to some of the priciest high-rises in Manhattan, now is offering to leave his mark on no less than the United Nations. Trump, host of The Apprentice, a reality TV show, says he is willing to oversee the renovation of the U.N.'s worn headquarters, saving the international body billions of dollars and allowing it to focus its resources on fighting famine and AIDS instead.
And he'll do it for free. Just feed my giant ego. That's all I ask.
"I'm offering to bring it in way under budget ... and much quicker," Trump said. "I don't want any fees. I'd like to do it for humanity." For Duty and Humanity!
The landmark U.N. buildings on the East Side of Manhattan stand on land donated to the world body by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. The complex officially is considered international territory and not part of the USA. The buildings, which opened in 1951, badly need repairs and updated security, said Christopher Burnham, the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for management. They are filled with asbestos and lack adequate smoke detectors and sprinklers. Hope the FDNY remembers that if there's a fire there. "Nope. Sorry. International territory. You need to call the UNFD."
The U.N. has estimated that renovation of the compound, which includes the 39-story Secretariat tower and the General Assembly building, will cost $1.2 billion. The United States has offered the U.N. a 30-year loan for that amount. What's that flushing sound I hear?
Trump said that U.N. officials' lack of expertise could make the price tag balloon to $3 billion. He said it should cost no more than $700 million. UN lack of expertise? Hasn't stopped them from trying to govern the world.
Last week, Burnham told a congressional subcommittee scrutinizing the renovation's cost that U.N. staff would move out by June 2007 so work could begin. The renovation would be completed by 2010 or 2011. Kojo Industries says 2015. Or 2020. Maybe. Depends on the weather.
Trump told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee he could start work right away, allow the staffers to stay put and finish the renovation in two years.
"The renovation should be done quickly, effectively, and in my opinion, by the end of 2007," Trump said. Great. We'll announce the study group, to form the steering group, to devise the makeup of the Commission, which will form the subcommitees to research your proposal. See you in 2008.
He added that moving staffers out while the work is being done is "asinine," and that when it comes to renovation, U.N. officials essentially don't know what they're doing. Well call me shocked...
Burnham said the U.N. has hired a project manager and is consulting with the Government Accountability Office and firms that specialize in renovation and construction. Kojo Industries. How may I direct your call?
"Congratulations," Trump said at the end of his testimony. "You've got yourself a mess on your hands, and it's only going to get worse." Trump's cutting words weren't aimed only at U.N. officials. He also weighed in on New York landlords - "there is no worse human being on Earth" - and contractors - "we have major slime in New York and much of it is in the form of contractors, and every one I guarantee you will find their way to the United Nations." Like flies to a big pile of shit...
#1
He also weighed in on New York landlords - "there is no worse human being on Earth" - and contractors - "we have major slime in New York and much of it is in the form of contractors, and every one I guarantee you will find their way to the United Nations."
#6
My company could do it even cheaper. My bid price is 25,000 for complete renovation.
That's for expenses only, plus gas, lunch and tolls.
Posted by: jackoff johnny ||
07/29/2005 18:21 Comments ||
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#7
But... if the Donald does it Koffi and Kojo wouldn't be able to skim off the top 30% (minimum) from the funding --- for 'expenses, confrences in exotic locations, whores, etc... you understand....).
OLIVER STONE believes the critical mauling his epic ALEXANDER received last year (04) was the inevitable result of America's youth misunderstanding ancient history.
Stone, who recently re-edited the film for its DVD release, puts Alexander's poor reception down to previous movies that glamorise history.
He says, "Because of BRAVEHEART, I think kids see ancient times as, 'Hey man, that's violence!' They don't see it as separate cultures that in some cases had stronger values than ours.
"The Greek culture in its entirety is what I was going for, or the Persian culture. It's not just a hero's tale. Alexander was a flawed hero, a complex character.
"My reputation has been battered to death so many times, I'm surprised I'm still alive." Homoeroticism and stupifying boredom are essential in any understanding of history.
#1
Stone, I know ancient history forward and backwards, and I still think you really fucked up the Alexander movie. Think dialog moron, it isn't just about violence (although that is cool). Your movies suck so bad, they bring the word suck to a whole new level of suck. We are talking alternet diamention suckage here.
Do us all a favor, stop wasting our oxygen and stop making movies.
#8
You people just wait, there's a big, big movie on the way, Big Easy, Little Easy, Easter In Korea with the F11 F12 flight crews, PG&E, GM, and exploding bullets of love.
Posted by: Jack Rubenstein ||
07/29/2005 15:50 Comments ||
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#9
Are Stone's eyes brown?
'Cuz he's full of shit.
(If they're not brown, it just means he's a quart short.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/29/2005 16:08 Comments ||
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#10
Oliver Stone is living proof that paranoid schizophrenia is not necessarily an impediment to making millions of dollars.
#11
I wouldn't pay a nickel to watch ANYTHING that feeble minded sack-o-shit made. I vote with my dollars. I refuse to willingly give my money to those anti-American hollywood fucks.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
07/29/2005 16:39 Comments ||
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#12
Quentin Tarantino has more talent in his pointy little head than you don your entire body, Ollie.
...And I HATE Tarantino's politics. Love his work, though.
#13
I watched Heaven and Earth the other day and the story sucked. It contained the same sort of lies which Kerry has been spouting for years - Gi's throwing villagers out of helocopters, tortures, rapes, dead prositutes thrown out with the garbage, etc.... All GI's were psycho, special ops murdering people, etc....
And of course afterwards Vietnam became a 'workers paradise'...
No mention of all the Vietmanese who were killed by the North afterwards in their 're-education centers'.... or all the vietmanese boat people.
#6
Does Cheney have to win a primary or is just announcing enough?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2005 12:04 Comments ||
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#7
Run, Dick, run!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/29/2005 12:24 Comments ||
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#8
See Helen croak.
Croak, Helen, croak!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/29/2005 12:25 Comments ||
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#9
"Which would cause the most shrinkage?"
A question posed after much drinkage
"Standing in an icy ocean
or considering the notion
Of being buried in Helen Thomas' wrinklage?"
- Juan Gato
That and more Helen Thomas poetry at:
http://asmallvictory.net/archives/002996.html
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/29/2005 13:12 Comments ||
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#10
Oh goody! I can lend her my 1859 Springfield musket and get to see if it works.
Should work well with their zombie dogs.
SWEDISH researchers have created new functioning brain cells from stem cells drawn from the brains of living adults, sparking hope that effective treatments for devastating illnesses like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's could be at hand, media reported overnight.
Neurosurgeons withdrew the stem cells from the brains of adults during routine surgery for hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, a researcher at the Stockholm Karolinska Institute told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.
As long as an agent was present to induce cell division, the extracted stem cells created new and working brain cells.
"So far we have managed to produce several millions of new cells from the original stem cells. About 25 percent of them are (active) neurons," Ulf Westerlund, who presented his doctoral thesis on the subject last week, told the paper.
When the researchers added glutamate, a salt that functions as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, the new cells communicated in a network, according to Westerlund.
"This means we had working synapse connections that are needed for nerve cells to work," he said.
Stem cells are nascent cells which can develop into replacement cells for damaged organs or body parts.
Researchers have long attempted to find ways of replacing dead brain cells with healthy ones in order to reverse the tragic effects of such diseases as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, in which the brain slowly dies.
In cooperation with the University of California at Los Angeles, Westerlund and other Swedish researchers have inserted the extracted human stem cells into the spinal marrow of rats, revealing that also there the cells continued to divide and create new cell neurons.
The injection of stem cells into the rats also appeared to lead to quicker recovery for allodynia, or pain that results from a non-injurious stimulus to the skin, according to Westerlund.
"The mere potential of these cells has had a significant impact of how we today evaluate the regenerative capacity of the central nervous system and, importantly, on the possible means for science to provide insights in neural repair," he wrote in his thesis.
#2
They could sell bottles of brain cells in bars and liquor stores. It would be like bringing in a new set of recruits after particularly nasty battle...
Ugandans voted in a referendum yesterday to decide whether their country should return to multi-party politics after 19 years of what has been in effect one-party rule.
President Yoweri Museveni banned political party activity after he seized power in 1986, arguing that it was responsible for the years of violence that blighted the east African nation during the presidencies of Idi Amin and Milton Obote. Under his "no-party" system all Ugandans are notionally members of his National Resistance Movement and during elections candidates are supposed to be elected on merit, not party affiliation.
Despite the political restrictions, Mr Museveni became a favourite of international donors, receiving praise for bringing relative stability to Uganda and being a leading figure in the fight against HIV/Aids.
But he has faced pressure to speed up democratic reforms as the country prepares for elections in 2006. Some restrictions have been lifted, but the constitution has to be amended before opposition parties can compete in elections.
This month Mr Museveni declared he would support a return to multi-party politics, saying it would counter allegations that his rule was oppressive and enable opponents within his "movement" to leave. But critics claim multi-party politics could have been reintroduced without the $12m (â¬9m, £7m) referendum, arguing it is being used to divert attention from efforts to remove presidential term limits and enable Mr Museveni to stand for a third term. Although he has not publicly declared his intention to run in 2006, his supporters have been campaigning for the move.
Obviously he's much too important to the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/29/2005 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.
