In college, I lived next door to an agonizingly pretty cocktail waitress. Late at night, after she'd come home from work, her boyfriend -- he drove a Porsche, naturally -- would arrive for his nightly booty call. The walls were thin. Soon, like clockwork, her voice would pierce the drywall like a steam locomotive's whistle: "hehehehehe" followed by "yesyesyes!" and then an explosion of high-pitched "ohmigodohmigodohmigod!"
While I was envious at the time, now it seems that all her ecstatic vocals might have been just the female equivalent of "Your butt looks great in those jeans, Babe. Honest." A study released last month in the Archives of Sexual Behavior shows that those seemingly uncontrollable "ohmigods" during apparent orgasm are often play-acting meant to "manipulate" men.
The scientists, Gayle Brewer of the University of Central Lancashire and Colin Hendrie of the University of Leeds, asked 71 women between the ages of 18 and 48 a series of questions. They broke down the vocalizations into categories that included "silence," "moan/groan," "scream/shriek/squeal," "words" (such as "Yes!" or the partner's name, and "instructional commands" like "more." Other questions asked why the women made the vocalizations and at what point they themselves had an orgasm, if they had an orgasm at all, and, if not, why they were doing all that shouting.
Continued on Page 49
#1
There is an alternative called "the caveman method", that many couples report is far more satisfactory to them both.
It begins on a weekend with both partners at home, after some length of time of abstention. The woman wears a short skirt, but is otherwise "commando". Then the couple go about their regular routines of housework and chores.
When the mood grips the man, with no foreplay he approaches her and commences with a "quicky", short and sweet, wherever she is, then he leaves, and they both go back to doing what they were doing.
Keeping it brief, recovery time is much faster, and far less energy is used for foreplay, afterplay, snuggling, other s*xual activities, etc.
Quality is replaced with quantity. The male likes the greater frequency, especially with Vi*gra, and the female keeps a light buzz on much of the day.
The reason it is called "the caveman method" is that it is alleged to make both partners feel erotically primitive, in a good way, communicating more and more through grunts and squeaks. Quite the turn on.
Bullfeathers. If you are breaking into any house and a cop stops you to figure out what is going on, it is incumbent on the potential thief to cooperate. I cannot imagine things going any other way. And it had nothing to do with racism. I wonder how this clown got the title "Professor", because he certainly doesn't act like one, and he still refuses to admit he was being a butt. I feel sorry for the cop who has to just sit there and take this crap.
A white Cambridge police sergeant and a black Harvard professor both made mistakes in a confrontation last year that led to an arrest and a national debate on racial profiling, a report released Wednesday said.
The report details the infamous July 16, 2009 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates by Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley. President Barack Obama jumped into the debate over the arrest leading to the well-publicized "Beer Summit" at the White House, where the officer and the academic met with the president.
Crowley arrested Gates when the officer responded to a call of a possible home break-in at the Cambridge residence, which turned out to be Gates' home.
Gates was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly yelling at the officer and protesting his actions. But Gates claimed he never raised his voice and accused Crowley of racial profiling. Charges against the professor were later dropped.
The report, conducted by the Cambridge Review Committee, said the situation quickly spiraled out of control.
"Seconds after Crowley and Gates encountered each other, the situation deteriorated rapidly, according to both men. Within six minutes, Crowley had arrested Gates for disorderly conduct and placed him in handcuffs at his own home," the report said.
Mistakes by both men contributed to the outcome, the committee found.
"Sergeant Crowley and Professor Gates each missed opportunities to 'ratchet down' the situation and end it peacefully," the report said. "The Committee believes that the incident was sparked by misunderstanding and failed communications between the two men."
The committee, was the idea of Cambridge's police commissioner and was made up of experts in law enforcement and race.
But even after the national debate over the arrest, both men told the committee they would have done much differently.
Crowley said he felt he had no choice but to arrest Gates, the report said.
Gates said in retrospect he would not have done much differently except he would not have left his house and followed Crowley after the officer was trying to leave the scene.
"Sergeant Crowley and Professor Gates missed opportunities to lower the temperature of their encounter and communicate clearly with each other, and the results were unfortunate for everyone concerned. They share responsibility for the outcome," the report concluded.
Military checkpoints line the long and winding road from the airport in Cali, Colombia, to the coastal city of Buenaventura.
These are expected sights in the long-running conflict we know as the "war on drugs."
Plan Colombia, legislation passed during the Clinton administration, provided billions in military aid to Colombia to help halt the cultivation and transport of cocaine. It has had only mixed success.
Buenaventura, a strategic port city and maritime gateway to Central and North America, is a haven for the newest clandestine agent in the illegal drug trade: the "narco-sub." As this decades-old conflict has ebbed and flowed, one thing has remained constant: the sheer ingenuity of narco-traffickers to invent and exploit new methods and routes for smuggling.
We were granted access to the Malaga naval base about an hour outside of Buenaventura, which has been at the forefront of interdicting these vessels. The Colombian navy said some cartels are allocating increasing resources to the development of new smuggling technology.
Several decades ago, Samsonite suitcases and underwear refashioned with hidden pockets enabled upstart smugglers to carry drugs across borders. Today, narco-subs are at the cutting edge of smuggling technology.
The Colombian navy has collected a small group of narco-subs and boats at Malaga. They resemble speedboats with their roofs removed, more than any images you might conjure from "The Hunt for Red October," and most of them aren't engineered to be fully submersible.
But despite being built off the grid, having a ramshackle appearance, and occasionally malfunctioning at sea, narco-subs are increasingly used by traffickers to carry millions of dollars of illicit cargo, while evading some of the world's most technologically advanced military equipment.
It is unknown how many narco-subs have been deployed. The ones caught so far by the Colombian navy each sports a slightly different shape and set of features -- at least from the outside. But in the dark and musty interior of two semisubmersibles, their shared purpose is clear: to carry illicit cargo, a small crew of men, and enough gasoline for a journey that could last several weeks. What the vessels do not include, said officials, is a bathroom.
Miguel Angel Montoya helped spearhead the construction of semisubmersibles for drug smuggling prior to leaving the trade.
"At the beginning, in the times of Pablo Escobar, it was common for planes to leave Colombia and land on clandestine strips in the U.S. or Mexico. Later, that was difficult. ... Innovations in drug trafficking come when the situation hits a crisis state," said Montoya.
One of his last designs was the "torpedo," an unmanned submersible towed behind another boat on the surface and outfitted with a radio-controlled recovery system in the event the navy captured it. Having temporarily discarded the evidence, the crew could later recover its cargo and continue its journey.
The "torpedo" represents the height of narco-sub innovation as it was known five years ago. Who knows what might be crawling under the ocean's surface today.
BUJUMBURA - Burundi's president Pierre Nkurunziza has been re-elected with 91.62 percent of the vote, following polls on Monday in which he was the only candidate, the electoral commission said Wednesday.
For whom did the other 8.38% vote?
Ask them when they're released from hospital ...
"At national level the candidate is elected by 91.62 percent. These figures will be sent to the constitutional court that will proclaim the final results," electoral commission head Pierre Claver Ndayicariye said.
Nkurunziza remained as sole candidate after opposition figures pulled out of the race to protest what they said was massive fraud by the ruling party in the May 24 local elections.
At least 12 people have been killed and more than 60 injured in a series of grenade attacks and violent incidents since the local elections.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Venezuela's legislature has voted to nationalize 11 oil rigs owned by the US firm Helmerich & Payne.
The rigs, located in Monagas, Anzoategui and Zulia states, will be taken over by state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the official news agency AVN said.
PDVSA had asked the legislature controlled by supporters of leftist President Hugo Chavez to take over the rigs after the US firm declined to negotiate a new service contract, unlike 32 other foreign firms.
The oil giant is South America's top oil producer.
Since 2007 Caracas has nationalized companies in industries from oil to utilities, to telecoms, cement, steel and banking.
#1
I object to the title of this post. The US does not own the drilling rigs in question. A more appropriate title might be "Venezuela govt to nationalize 11 oil rigs owned by US-based firms".
#5
If they follow through and do this, we should nationalize Citgo. Including it's refineries in Texas and Louisiana. tit for tat
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
07/01/2010 19:16 Comments ||
Top||
#6
we should nationalize Citgo.
That would be self destructive. Right now Chavez has to send at least half of Venezuela's oil exports to the US just to keep Citgo's oil refineries fed. Stop that and those refineries and service stations (less so) become worthless.
Nationalize Citgo assets and all those exports become available for diversion elsewhere (read China). Chavez has been slowly doing that anyway as China builds Panamax tankers and oil refineries to handle Venezuelan tar.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2010 19:34 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/01/2010 22:28 Comments ||
Top||
#8
And why exactly is there a picture of the USS Ronald Reagan nestled in with this story? I fail to see the connection. Is the Reagan supposed to be on its way to un-nationalize these oil rigs?
A bronze statue was unveiled in Seoul on June 22, honoring a young American hero who fell in the battlefield in September 1950. A doctorate candidate of honor at Harvard University, William Hamilton Shaw did not hesitate to answer the call to defend Korea and protect freedom and peace.
The Navy lieutenant fought courageously, being proud to be among the U.N. troops led by Commander-in-Chief Douglas MacArthur in the blitz Incheon landing against the North Korean Army. His dream of becoming a philosopher was cut short at the precious age of 28.
Still, his noble spirit remains alive in the hearts of Koreans, who remember his sacrifice for a cause greater than his life, for the ideals most cherished by all humanity.
Continued on Page 49
Etail monster Amazon has bought Woot.com - the community and wacky one-a-day gadget website.
In the words of its own blog: "Woot to be acquired by Amazon, then left to amuse ourselves." The company will operate as an independent subsidiary of Amazon and remain in its Texas HQ.
The company, which hopes in its FAQs to hit profitability sometime around 2043, began life as a market testing offshoot of an electronics distie. It typically sells one gadget a day - today's is a discounted Amazon Kindle, spookily enough. Yesterday Woot was selling iPod Nanos.
The company, which hopes in its FAQs to hit profitability sometime around 2043, began life as a market testing offshoot of an electronics distie. It typically sells one gadget a day - today's is a discounted Amazon Kindle, spookily enough. Yesterday Woot was selling iPod Nanos.
Financial terms were not disclosed, though chief exec Matt Rutledge did say there would be six muffins in the break room courtesy of the nice folks at Amazon. Techcrunch put the figure at $110m.
In an email to staff Rutledge said he planned to continue to run Woot as he always had done - with a wall of ideas and a dartboard.
He said: "From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are simply adding one person to the organizational hierarchy, except that one person will just happen to be a billion-dollar company that could buy and sell each and every one of you like you were office furniture."
Rutledge reassured staff that there was little chance of company culture leaping forward and becoming cutting-edge. He said the company's business model was so vague that "there's no way Amazon can possibly change what it is we're truly doing: preparing the way for the rise of the Lava Men in 2012".
There's more on Woot's blog including a message from some singing simians.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2010 10:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Them boys at WOOT don't seem to be wrapped very tight.
Interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said he will stop sharing state funds beginning today with Sheriff Joe Arpaio to enforce Arizona's employer-sanctions law. The funds should be used to go after employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, Romley said, rather than what Arpaio has largely used them for: worksite raids on the illegal workers.
Romley's office controls the state funding. Arpaio's office expected $700,000 this fiscal year.
Arpaio's raids have "created fear in the business community," Romley said, and "no one can question it has not been effective."
So if it's been effective, what's the problem?
The state has allocated nearly $6.8 million for employer-sanctions enforcement since the law took effect Jan. 1, 2008. Two Maricopa County businesses have faced sanctions; one of the cases came from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation.
None of the other 14 county attorneys in Arizona who received state employer-sanction funds in fiscal 2008 and 2009 shared money with law-enforcement agencies.
Ah. Now I understand.
Lawmakers stopped giving those counties money this past fiscal year after The Arizona Republic reported at least $1.44 million was sitting idle in nine counties because there were so few complaints about employers violating the law.
Romley, who was appointed to his post in April and is now seeking election this November, said his office will keep all $1.2 million in state money for fiscal 2011, which begins today. He said he will use the money to pay for attorneys, legal assistants and detectives to investigate employer-sanctions cases, and to work with and educate the business community. Arpaio said his raids have been successful in cracking down on illegal immigration.
He said 36 investigations have resulted in 415 arrests, with 277 people facing identity-theft charges. Arpaio said he is disappointed that he no longer will get state money but said the raids will continue. "It doesn't matter. We are still going to do our job," Arpaio said. "There will be no change."
The Sheriff's Office during the past three budget years received nearly $1.5 million of the roughly $3.6 million in state funds dedicated to Maricopa County. Then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who resigned in early April to run for attorney general, had shared the money with Arpaio and tasked his office to conduct employer-sanction investigations.
Romley's move is "akin to crippling enforcement" of the law, said House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who helped keep employer-sanction funds for Maricopa County.
Then rewrite the law to underline how the funds are to be allocated. Y'all are supposed to write laws that make very clear legislative intent to those tasked to execute it.
The Legislature in 2007 passed what has been called the toughest employer-sanctions law in the country. It punishes business operators who knowingly hire illegal immigrants by suspending or revoking their business licenses. The law also requires Arizona employers to use E-Verify, a federal electronic system, to verify if an employee is authorized to work.
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week said that it will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the law. A decision is expected next year. Numerous business groups, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, have opposed the law, saying it puts an unfair burden on businesses.
The alternative is that one day soon Sheriff Joe will come through and takes away your best, most experienced employees. Operating without employees is a greater burden, I should think.
The Sheriff's Office has used employer-sanction funds to pay the salaries and overtime of six deputies and a sergeant. The money also has funded cellphones, gasoline and seven new leased vehicles for them to use on the job and to drive back and forth to work.
To drive back and forth to work? The rest of us use our personal vehicles for that as a matter of course.
Chief Deputy David Hendershott said the Sheriff's Office had planned to have $700,000 from employer-sanction funds in its 2011 budget. Without the money, he said, the Sheriff's Office will have to absorb the cost in its general fund. The total budget for this fiscal year is $260.3 million, Hendershott said.
"Romley is trying to do everything he can to destroy the enforcement of illegal immigration," Hendershott said. "He's trying to do everything he can to decapitate any efforts we make."
Romley, who as county attorney from 1989 to 2004 often feuded with Arpaio, said his education program will reach out to businesses and provide them with the tools, such as how to use E-Verify, to ensure that they are hiring legal workers. By centralizing enforcement in his office, Romley said his staff can work with all police agencies in Maricopa County and not rely entirely on the Sheriff's Office.
Lawmakers came up with an alternative plan to pay for Wall Street reform, attempting to save the sweeping measure from falling short of the votes necessary to pass in the Senate.
After key moderate Republicans who had supported earlier versions of reforms threatened opposition, Democrats scrapped an effort to tax big banks and hedge funds to the tune of $19 billion.
Instead, they would come up with $11 billion by ending the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) immediately upon final passage of the bill.
Continued on Page 49
#1
"I'm confident that given the package that has been put together, that senators, hopefully on both sides of the aisle, recognize it's time we put in place rules that prevent taxpayer bailouts
#2
Yeah, but what to do with the $1.75 trillion of toxic assets the politicians relieved of the banks of and foisted onto the taxpayers?
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2010 9:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
what to do with the $1.75 trillion of toxic assets
I'd suggest writing them off as a loss and moving on, but it's universally acknowledged I don't understand the subtleties of financial matters. After all, someone is bound to remark that we could sell them off at current value, whatever that is, thus reducing the total amount of the write-off. And then someone else will mention that the cost of calculating current value in a falling market, given the pay scale of highly skilled financial analysts. On the third hand, quite a number of them are still at liberty following the fall of the market in 2008... This is why I stay out of such discussions.
#4
There is too much money to be made to just write it off, and writing off debt like governments do devalues the worth of the currency and trust. Those who can are going to make as much money as possible without devaluing the money they make, which is what this is all about; giant money laundering scheme.
The big banks are in on it, they have the capital and, uhemmn, influence to weather their own storm to strangle the small banks and devalue the regional market medium banks to force a buy-out.
Both big banks and government win. What the big banks do not seem to recognize, or do all so clearly, is that right now there is a jockey for power between government and private sector.
When Donald Heathfield appears in a Boston court today asking to be released on bail, a complicated past life will come back to haunt him. So will the short, tragic life of a Canadian boy whose identity he allegedly stole.
The fake Mr Heathfield, according to the FBI, came the closest of all the alleged Russian spies arrested on Sunday to acquiring real intelligence for his paymasters. He made contacts in "US power circles", sent cables to Moscow about senior CIA staff changes in the run-up to the 2008 election, and discussed nuclear "bunker-busters" with a US government official.
The real Donald Heathfield was born in Ontario on February 4, 1963. He died six weeks later in his cot. Yesterday his elder brother, now 51, expressed outrage at the theft of his sibling's name, identity and birth certificate, which the FBI found in a Massachusetts safe deposit box nine years ago.
"At first we thought it was a joke," David Heathfield told The Times from his home in Canada. "It's not a joke any more. I didn't even know there were spies after the Cold War. I thought it was a dead thing, but it's quite real now. How does this man get off using someone else's name? What he has done to our family is despicable."
"I kept thinking how nice this is; finally, there's someone who's really friendly,'' Doris Stanley, 65, said yesterday from her front porch. But then Stanley, a French teacher, said she noticed some inconsistencies.
"I noticed she [Mrs. Heathfield] had an accent, and I said -- because I'm nosy -- 'What's this accent you have?' '' Stanley recalled. "And she said, 'I'm from Montreal.' ''
The two women began speaking French. "I was thinking, 'That's strange,' because I actually understood this person, and I usually don't understand people from Montreal,'' she recalled.
#1
Wehell, ANNA CHAPMAN > iff RUSSIA allegedly has circa 50 Male-Female "Spy Couples" engaged in espionage, etc. agz the US, RADICAL ISLAM HAS DITTO ..... COUPLES?
Given the MSM-Net's well-repor past + still-ongoing collusion between dedicat Commies-Socs + Islamists.
#4
Why bother with illegals when the Neo-Soviets have the son of a KGB agent in the White House?
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2010 0:47 Comments ||
Top||
#5
They over look that this may well not be the Russian government, but a Russian mafia operation. The problem is that both entities overlap in style, personnel, cooperation and goals that the ability to separate discretely who is doing what for why becomes a challenge.
#1
The Lahore High Court June 28 restored access to seven Internet sites (Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Amazon, MSN, Hotmail and Bing), Khuram Mehran, spokesman for the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), said.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has sent 36 degrees of parliamentarians to foreign universities for verification. Earlier, 36 lawmakers out of a total of 1,170 MNAs, senators and MPAs, had submitted degrees obtained from foreign universities. On the other hand, 21 lawmakers possess degrees from religious schools, which are equivalent to graduate level education. Official sources told Daily Times that out of the total 1,095 degrees that had been received by the HEC so far from lawmakers, 161 were either illegible, irrelevant or were certificates of education below the graduation level. On June 28, the HEC had sent the copies of 934 degrees to domestic universities for verification. The process is expected to take 15 days to complete.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Bah... I'm with Chief Minister Raisini... fake degree, real degree, no difference in Pakistan.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/01/2010 7:05 Comments ||
Top||
ARBIL, Iraq - Iraq hopes to open two new border crossings with Turkey to boost bilateral trade to $20 billion a year, despite renewed fighting between Turkish forces and Turkish Kurd rebels along the frontier, officials said. There is only one border crossing point now.
Iraq is looking to open two new border crossings with Turkey and to set up an industrial and commercial area inside Iraqi land on the border with Turkey, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Barham Salih, said on Tuesday during a visit by the Turkish trade minister.
Salih said the free trade zone will be set up in Iraqs northern city of Zakho, 440 km (275 miles) north of Baghdad, but approval from the Iraqi central government was still needed.
Bilateral trade could reach $7 billion by the end of 2010, up from $6 billion last year, Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan said during the visit to Arbil, in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > "BUFFER ZONE" NEEDED TO DEFEAT TERROR: TURKEY OPPOSITION CHIEF [CHP Party Head].
KURDISTAN RISING?, espec on the IRAQ SIDE of the Turkey-Iraq border???
[Straits Times] BENIGNO Aquino was on Wednesday sworn in as president of the Philippines amid joyous celebrations and desperate hopes he will usher in a new era of clean government for the corruption-wrecked nation.
Police said up to 500,000 people, many of them wearing the Aquino family's signature yellow, turned up for the festival-style inauguration ceremony at a seaside park in Manila. The crowd roared and waved yellow flags as the 50-year-old bachelor Aquino, wearing a traditional Filipino 'barong' shirt, took his oath in front of a Supreme Court judge.
'I think he can reduce corruption and improve governance,' high school teacher Terlito Malaya, 52, said as he waited for Mr Aquino to be sworn in. 'Poverty is also a very big problem and needs a permanent solution... but no-one should think right now that he will fail.'
Mr Aquino rode to the country's biggest election victory on May 10 on a pledge to fight woeful graft and poverty that he said thrived during the nearly 10-year reign of outgoing president Gloria Arroyo.
Another crucial factor was his status as the son of Philippine democracy heroes Benigno and Corazon Aquino, who remain revered for their efforts to overthrow dictator Ferdinand Marcos. His mother, Corazon, earned a reputation as an incorruptible leader during her six-year term as president following the 'people power' revolution that toppled Marcos in 1986.
Her death from cancer last year reignited national support for the family, which in turn lifted her son from political lightweight after 11 years as a low-profile member of parliament to presidential frontrunner. East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk were among the foreign dignitaries to attend the inauguration.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has sent 36 degrees of parliamentarians to foreign universities for verification. Earlier, 36 lawmakers out of a total of 1,170 MNAs, senators and MPAs, had submitted degrees obtained from foreign universities. On the other hand, 21 lawmakers possess degrees from religious schools, which are equivalent to graduate level education. Official sources told Daily Times that out of the total 1,095 degrees that had been received by the HEC so far from lawmakers, 161 were either illegible, irrelevant or were certificates of education below the graduation level. On June 28, the HEC had sent the copies of 934 degrees to domestic universities for verification. The process is expected to take 15 days to complete.
