Teachers and people working with children are being given guidance on how to identify signs of ritual abuse inflicted in the belief that a child is possessed by evil spirits. Drawing on research showing 38 known cases of child abuse linked to alleged spirit possession in England since January 2000, the government guidance aims to raise awareness of the practice and help those coming into contact with youngsters to recognise indicators of abuse.
The signs they are told to look out for, listed in draft advice published today, include marks such as bruises or burns on a child's body, a child becoming "noticeably confused, withdrawn, disorientated or isolated", and "deterioration in personal care" including weight loss, unkempt or dirty clothes, or even faeces smeared on the body.
Children may also report directly that they have been accused of being evil, or that they are having the "devil beaten out of them", according to the advice, which says teachers and others should follow child protection guidelines and pass their concerns to social services or the police.
The most common forms of abuse youngsters may suffer include physical assaults such as beating, burning, cutting, stabbing, semi-strangulation and having chilli peppers rubbed on to their eyes or genitals. Emotional forms of abuse, says the guidance, range from isolation from other family members to threats to abandon the child, who may also be subjected to sexual abuse and neglect extending to denial of food and warmth.
The Venezuelan government will take majority control of oil projects in the Orinoco River basin by May 1 and any foreign oil company that resists can leave, President Hugo Chavez said Thursday as he elaborated on his sweeping nationalization plans.
Chavez told a news conference that his government is "not posing any conflict" to oil companies British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA that are upgrading heavy oil in the Orinoco.
Chavez, who a day earlier was given power by congress to issue laws by decree in energy and other areas, said he was ready to sign a decree for the nationalization of the four Orinoco projects by May 1. He said that state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, would take a stake of "no less than 60 percent." "I'm sure that they're going to accept this because we are going to continue being partners. Now, if they aren't in agreement, they are totally free to leave," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2007 00:00 ||
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"We're not planning to disrupt your business, We want it intact. We only plan to steal it outright.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/02/2007 10:43 Comments ||
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backdoors to the oil ops software installed? Shut him down
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/02/2007 11:29 Comments ||
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Here's a pretty good illustration of why Venezuela is going to be a basket case economcally inside of 8 years.
President Vladimir Putin yesterday gave his most upbeat assessment yet of Russia's booming economy, but refused to say who will run the world's largest country when he steps down next year. Mr Putin hailed Russia's recent economic achievements and said that under his leadership, wages, living standards and pensions had all gone up. But he conceded that many people in Russia still lived "very, very modestly". His priority until he steps down in March 2008 would be to reduce social inequality, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2007 00:00 ||
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Putin's most favorite successor would be... Putin.
#5
WaPo says its either Medvedev (head of Gazprom) or Ivanov (defense minister) both of whom are now Dep PMs and both of whom get very favorable coverage on Russian TV.
Hat Tip: FrontPageMagazine.com
The Bush administration has suspended plans to develop space ventures with China, including joint exploration of the moon, in reaction to Beijing's Jan. 11 test of an anti-satellite weapon that left orbiting debris threatening U.S. and foreign satellites.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Jason Sharp said the weapon test undermined an agreement reached between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao during an April summit. "We believe China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the constructive relationship that our presidents have outlined, including on civil space cooperation," Mr. Sharp said.
He said there were "some initial discussions looking at where there were mutual interests where we could cooperate with the Chinese," but there are no plans for future discussions. The two presidents had hoped to work on joint moon exploration and space-debris avoidance.
Bush administration officials said the suspension is meant to signal U.S. displeasure with the anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) test, as well as Beijing's failure to provide an explanation for its space arms program. "Clearly it makes it more difficult to go down the path of cooperation when they're testing ASAT weapons," one official said.
#1
Cavemen with technology again. Somebody's got to give these guys a little advice before they screw everything up. Maybe my six year old son could help.
I wouldn't be surprised if there is a cascading effect with this debris and everything gets messed up. I suppose we'd have to wait years before it falls out of orbit.
#2
Depending on the trajectories of the various pieces of debris after impact, it could be upwards of centuries before all of the debris is sucked down the gravity well. And all that crap floating around is posing a clear and present danger to everyone else's launches, satellites, and space exploration shots. Until the US Air Force Space Command gets every little piece mapped out and the debris field defined, a very large launch window has been closed for everyone on Earth.
#3
What about a story I heard of the Bush administration backing some exploratory plan to place large fields of reflective metallic objects in orbit to reduce global warming? Sounds like lunacy to me..
An appeasement tactic to placate the global warming zealots?
Just in case anyone thought the Euros could grow a spine over anything.
A new split is developing within the EU over sanctions on the Zimbabwean government, with both France and Portugal considering summit invitations to President Robert Mugabe that would weaken the diplomatic isolation of his regime that Britain is trying to maintain.
If you had to pick one, it would be the French.
European officials said there is an agreement in principle to continue five-year-old EU travel sanctions against senior Zimbabwean officials, and a formal decision is due to be announced on February 20. However, loopholes in those sanctions could allow France and Portugal to invite Mr Mugabe or his aides to summits in Europe, undermining British efforts to keep the Zimbabwean leader under pressure for human rights abuses.
A French official said yesterday he could not confirm whether President Jacques Chirac had invited Mr Mugabe to a France-Africa summit in Cannes on February 14. "The invitations are still being sent. The list will be published only later."
They know that Bob and Grace will drop their Chinese money all over the best stores in Cannes.
Portugal is also hoping to invite Mr Mugabe to Lisbon for an EU-Africa summit in November.
Both Lisbon and Paris are concerned that if he is excluded, other governments from the region, particularly South Africa, might boycott the meetings. Neither France nor Portugal has so far applied for exemptions to the sanctions regime to issue invitations on the grounds that the meetings they are planning will address human rights issues. But British officials and human rights groups have argued that Zimbabwean participation in such high-profile events would make sanctions all but meaningless.
Correct. And who cares if the South Africans boycott?
Any watering down of the sanctions regime would accentuate differences between the EU and the Commonwealth, which indefinitely suspended Zimbabwe's membership in 2003, prompting President Mugabe's complete withdrawal. Donald McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary-general, told the Guardian yesterday: "If the EU was to change its stance totally, you're virtually accepting the nature of the government in Zimbabwe, which I think would be sad."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2007 00:00 ||
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Surprised to see Portugal mixed up in this. Presumably it's because they actually have a pretty large (felt) stake in all things southern African. Otherwise, they've been a quiet voice of sanity and maturity in Europe (sort of in the mold of Denmark and the Netherlands).
TWENTY-THREE soldiers attached to the Presidential Guard Unit have
been arrested and detained after they sprayed President Robert Mugabe's State House official residency with bullets on Monday night ahead of his arrival from Ethiopia where he had gone to attend an African Union meeting.....
Maybe Bob will get a Pakistani passport, hitch a ride on the Chunnel Train from Frogistan and become one of those asylum seekers we seem to get so many of. Get to shake Chazza's hand again.
Then again, maybe he'll just stay in Zim and have a crackdown.
#3
Both Lisbon and Paris are concerned that if he is excluded, other governments from the region, particularly South Africa, might boycott the meetings
#4
"...diplomatic isolation of his regime that Britain is trying to maintain."
OK, I'll bite, which part of Britian: the gov't of the banking industry? And if the Brits were serious they would be leaning on their banks after the exposure last week about the huge loans given to Zim-Bob.
More dithering.
#6
But British officials and human rights groups have argued that Zimbabwean participation in such high-profile events would make sanctions all but meaningless.
Well, this has really got my poor head well fokked, them British officials and yuman rights groups, say what?
Barclays Bank, Old Mutual and Standard Chartered say OK. (Is it)? Old expression from the old days.
Kill the Mo-Fo and all his kin, whether they be here or there. Charge his tribe for the cost of the bullet(s).
The U.S. Navy's new top commander in Key West got up one morning this week to a front-door taste of life in South Florida: Calmly sitting in his yard near a hedge were 15 Cuban migrants, fresh off a crossing of the Florida Straits in a rickety homemade boat.
An off-duty officer, jogging in the predawn darkness, spotted the group around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and knocked on the front door belonging to Capt. James R. Brown of the Key West Naval Air Station.
'He said, 'Hey, skipper, I need your help,' " Brown said Thursday. "I grabbed my phone and shouted to my wife, Lorie, that we had extra guests in our front yard. . . . What a sight to behold. Fifteen people were sitting calmly, sipping the little water they had left."
Four of the migrants had gone for help and eventually returned to the group, sitting under a streetlight so they could be found, Brown said.
Under the United States government's "wet-foot/dry-foot" policy, the Cubans -- 12 men, five women and two children -- are almost certain to be allowed to stay because they reached U.S. soil.
Brown lives on military property at Truman Annex, near the big tourist buoy that marks the southernmost spot in the continental United States, only 90 miles from Cuba.
Brown said he cannot discuss the security measures in place around the Navy's property, although he did say there are markers along the shore that say: "Do Not Enter. Military property."
"But the Cubans land apparently just about anywhere," he said, adding that migrants have previously come ashore on military property in Key West. "Statistically, it's going to happen."
The site of the Cubans' landing this week also is only about a mile from the Coast Guard base in Key West and even closer to a Virginia-based Coast Guard cutter that was docked at Truman Annex to unload $57 million of cocaine seized from a Honduras fishing vessel...
#2
Interesting... First, a Cuban sneaks into our country we make him a citizen. He gets a job, pays taxes and integrates into our society. A mexican sneakes in and we deny him citizenship so he stays illegal, does not pay taxes, and is a burdon on our society.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/02/2007 20:03 Comments ||
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The Cuban is fleeing an oppressive communist regime, not simply a corrupt country, Pan. Major difference. Also, the Cubans tend to be skilled and want to be Americans. A large percentage of the illegals from Mexico simply want a job that pays much better than back home, and go back to Mexico after making their money.
CDC issues sensible guidelines, NYT notes that poor, minorities, women, gays most affected. No plan is perfect, but this one is a good start.
ATLANTA, Feb. 1 Cities should close schools for up to three months in the event of a severe flu outbreak, ball games and movies should be canceled and working hours staggered so subways and buses are less crowded, the federal government advised today in issuing new pandemic flu guidelines to states and cities.
Health officials acknowledged that such measures would hugely disrupt public life, but they argued that these measure would buy the time needed to produce vaccines and would save lives because flu viruses attack in waves lasting about two months.
We have to be prepared for a Category 5 pandemic, said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of global migration and quarantine for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in releasing the guidelines. Its not easy. The only thing thats harder is facing the consequences. That will be intolerable.
In an innovation, the new guidelines are modeled on the five levels of hurricanes, but ranked by lethality instead of wind speed. Category 1, which assumes 90,000 Americans would die, is equivalent to a bad year for seasonal flu, Glen Nowak, a C.D.C. spokesman, said. (About 36,000 Americans die of flu in an average year.) Category 5, which assumes 1.8 million dead, is the equivalent of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. (That flu killed about 2 percent of those infected; the H5N1 flu now circulating in Asia has killed more than 50 percent but is not easily transmitted.)
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
It's good the researchers are studying historical data to get an idea of what measures would help the most. The response to their proposals is riddled with politics, as usual, they got a swipe in at the war in Iraq. "We'd be facing the same problem" -- schools are still the place where the largest numbers of children gather, keeping group sizes down will help a great deal. "many employed people cannot afford to stay at home" -- but they can afford to die, this objection is brainless.
The part about buying the "time need to produce vaccines" didn't mention the minimum four-month lead time necessary to produce a vaccine matched to the culprit virus, by which time the pandemic will have done much of its damage.
Keeping sick people at home is a good idea, unfortunately people in early and infectious stages of influenza usually have no symptoms at all. By the time they feel sick, they have probably contributed to the infection of dozens of others in the usual course of everyday life. Keeping as many people as possible, sick or not, home for 7-10 days, all at the same time, in an area just at the start of an epidemic, would definitely break the cycle of transmission. The timing is critical. The cost of such a holiday is immense. Some workers in key areas, public safety, public utilities, transportation, health care, food delivery, etc. are absolutely essential and can't be spared. Having households lay in a 7-10 day supply of essential commodities well ahead of a possible epidemic would help a great deal, but nothing has been done about this aspect of preparation.
A key gap in these proposals is a refusal to consider restricting air travel, which is far and away the most rapid means of moving influenza epidemics around the world. I imagine very few air travelers are engaged in activities critical to public safety and the world economy, the vast bulk are engaged in recreational or optional business travel. No great damage (besides that to airline revenues) would be done if these travelers stayed home for three months, but modern individuals prefer to think their wants and cravings are more important than the public safety. The discussion also implies a black and white approach to closing state borders -- as opposed to restricting traffic to the necessary deliveries of food & supplies and restricting travel for personal pleasure which would seem to account for the greatest proportion of interstate highway traffic. Unfortunately keeping people out of certain areas also means restricting others from leaving certain areas.
#2
The most effective measures are inexpensive, easy to implement, and produce the greatest results.
One I strongly suggest be recommended to local government of any size is to set up automated phone banks. A dozen such machines could blanket a town with recorded messages to get critical information out quickly, and to get critical feedback from the public ASAP. Literally calling every single residence in a town, it would maximize the efficiency of emergency services far better than "911". This would do much to reduce public fear.
But towns and cities need for someone to suggest it to them. Most of them probably already have or can cheaply get such equipment, and it could be set up and operational in a few days.
Another cheap, easy and highly effective idea is for towns and cities to buy great amounts of hand sanitizer and ear loop masks. If every business in a city was issued one or more quart-sized bottles of sanitizer to keep at their front door for free public use, and complimentary ear loop masks, it would provide a massive "fire break" against the spread of the disease. Not just from direct human to human spread, but also by reducing contamination to objects.
The ongoing University of Michigan study is right on. That is, giving students in a dorm a large bottle of hand sanitizer for their room, and issuing them small bottles to carry around with them, and giving them masks to wear. This is EXACTLY what should be done nationwide for people who live or work in close quarters, like students.
Relatively speaking these are incredibly inexpensive ways to reduce a killer epidemic to just a rare few outbreak of people who are "unlucky".
The most effective federal response will be in monitoring interstate commerce. Also relatively inexpensive as these things go, it is very common sense:
1) Put agents in airports, bus terminals, etc., just to look for people who are obviously sick, and get them quickly quarantined. Setting up "plastic sheet" quarantine stations at these places, to hold people who might be ill until they either need transport to medical facilities or have passed the incubation period without symptoms.
2) Set up health stations at the major transport corporations. Truck drivers, flight and railroad crews should be so familiar with the flu that they recognize and react to it immediately. The same with any place such people congregate, like truck stops.
It is absolutely vital that everybody learn the critical information about the disease, which would include:
1) The incubation period. How long you have the disease before you start to show symptoms.
2) The symptoms themselves.
3) The infectious cycle. After a person is infected, how long they can infect others.
4) What to decontaminate and how to decontaminate. Contamination avoidance.
#3
In re: closing schools. Many schools have websites nowadays, and many teachers have web pages. Much schoolwork can be done on-line, at least for the more prosperous districts. And the kids will be just as happy for the most part IM-ing each other while doing other things on-line... at least for a while. And if there really are a lot of people getting sick, they'll be content with that.
#4
trailing wife: I've long been an advocate of creating an entire multimedia curriculum online for this and other reasons.
In many ways it is far better than a real classroom because it can be edited to just the best parts, and it doesn't waste as much time as a real class.
The students computer can download classroom videos days ahead of time, then they watch the video at the same time as the rest of the class, with their live teacher in the background to answer questions, query students, and otherwise monitor the online class.
It's wild seeing how seriously the US govt is taking this threat. We've had briefings and reports on what our protocols will be in the event of an outbreak. They're touting about a 40% "workforce diminishing" at any one time. Of that, they expect rougly half of the cases to be fatal.
I realize usually we plan on worst case scenarios, but this is really out there.
We've taken to maintaining our hurricane season supplies year-round now.
#7
Bright Pebbles in Blairistan: If you are in closed quarters, you want an air cleaner with UV light to sterilize pathogens. However, the vast majority of infections will come from surface contamination, especially the hands, taking the contamination to the mouth, nose and eyes.
An almost ridiculously inexpensive, easy and safe air cleaning system that also sterilizes surfaces is simplicity itself: a water vaporizer with a pint of ethyl alcohol (like 'Everclear'), added to it. The alcohol will be carried in the water droplets everywhere.
Alternatively, if you add Citrical, which is metallic calcium ions in a gel, to vaporizer water, it is remarkably antiseptic--but may damage your motor, though I'm not sure of it.
#8
While most of this sounds good and sensible, I would think that the transportation centers ( rail, bus, planes) should not be left open, but rather restricted; transportation of supplies only, and essential personnel, and any leisure or business travel shut down. to do otherwise is, IMHO, just asking to exacerbate the spread.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The United States delivered eight attack helicopters to Pakistan on Friday, bolstering the key US allys ability to combat Taleban and Al Qaeda militants suspected of attacking neighboring Afghanistan from Pakistans border areas.
Useful to deliver supplies to the Taliban, to evacuate their wounded, to ...
The Pakistani army took possession of the Cobra AH1-F helicopters in a ceremony at Qasim air base, near the capital, Islamabad, the US Embassy said. It said they were part of a US$50 million deal for a total of 20 refurbished helicopters.
Straight out of the boneyard in Arizona ...
The refurbished helicopters, which are specially equipped for night time operations, are important weapons in our common fight, US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said at the hand over ceremony, according to an embassy statement. Pakistan already has 19 Cobras.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2007 21:38 ||
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NEW DELHI: The race for an Indian Air Force (IAF) order for 126 combat jets just got hotter, with US aerospace major Boeing offering to jointly produce the frontline F-18 Super Hornet in India if it wins the contract.
"In the F-18, we have arguably the most advanced fighter in the world. If we win the contract, we offer the opportunity of entering into a joint production arrangement with an Indian defence contractor," Said Chris Chadwik, Boeing Vice President and General Manager, Global Strike Systems. "Clearly, there is very strong competition but we believe we are positioned very strongly," he added.
Should the deal come through, India will be the first country outside the US where the F-18 is produced. It will also be the first time Indian companies will be able to participate in the production of a US fighter. India's premier Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) currently produces the Sukhoi Su-30 and MiG-series of Russian jets, as also the British Jaguar.
According to Brian Nelson, who heads the international communications wing of Boeing Integrated Defence Systems (IDS) that manufactures the F-18, an IAF order would mean the first eight aircraft would be shipped off-the-shelf and the remaining jointly produced in India. Toward this end, Boeing would be aggressively positioning the F-18 at the upcoming Aero India 2007 international air show at Bangalore Feb 7-11, with one aircraft performing aerial manoeuvres and another on static display.
Posted by: john ||
02/02/2007 15:16 ||
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#1
And last month, Russia made known its intention to bid for the IAF order with its MiG-23, essentially a Mig-29 with a slightly different profile but with a more powerful engine.
#6
Can't land on the current Indian Carrier (the ex-HMS Hermes), the one they've bought from Russia (the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov) or the one they're building right now in an Indian shipyard (the ADS project).
The Viraat flies Harriers and the Vikramaditya and the home built carrier will use Mig-29Ks and Naval version of the LCA.
Posted by: john ||
02/02/2007 18:27 Comments ||
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#7
But the F-18 comes with advanced sensors and some cool air to ground weaponry that the IAF seems to like.
Not to mention that it is one aircraft that the Chinese have no knowledge of. The Chinese have SU-30 MKKs of their own, and got one F-16 from Pakistan to reverse engineer.
Posted by: john ||
02/02/2007 18:31 Comments ||
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I think we should sell the retired F-14 fleet to India : only Iran has any others in use. Update the avionics, flight controls, and radar, and sell them the whole fleet and spares. Since the F-14 is/was a naval fighter, if the Indians even do get a proper carrier, it would serve them well. Also, the Tomcat had a good CAS capability towards the end of its service life in the USN : enhance that a bit. Of course, the Indians would need an updated Phoenix missile and AAMRAMs to really bring out the air superiority fighter aspect of the Tomcat.
Plus, since it is a now-boneyarded aircraft, the Indians could build spares and updates for it in India with no major issues.
#9
What should we do with the Kitty Hawk when it is retired in '08? Hmmm. We could spend $750 million plus to decommission and dispose of it, or we could find a suitable buyer for it. Hmmm. What to do.
NEW DELHI: In one of the largest maritime exercises in recent times, India's western and eastern naval fleets have amassed their warships, submarines, aircraft and helicopters on the western seaboard to conduct intensive combat manoeuvres in the entire Arabian Sea.
Given the sheer size of this "theatre readiness operational exercise" or "Tropex" and its proximity to the Pakistani waters, New Delhi has given "advance notice" to Islamabad under a long-standing bilateral agreement.
The agreement, inked in April 1991, is a safeguard to prevent "any crisis situation" from developing due to "misreading" of the each other's "intentions" during the conduct of large wargames.
Sources said Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta and Army Chief General J J Singh will be witnessing the "work up" of the two fleets on Friday, which will be followed by the "tactical phase" of the exercise later this month.
"Over 50 frontline warships, including aircraft carrier 'INS Viraat', Delhi-class destroyers, Talwar-class stealth frigates and Kilo-class submarines, will be part of Tropex,"said a source.
"Tropex will also include elements from the Army, IAF and Coast Guard. From the IAF, for instance, maritime strike Jaguar fighters will take part in the manoeuvres,"he added.
Apart from its sheer scale, the exercise is significant since one of its objectives will be to practice the operational concept of "maritime manoeuvre from the sea".
The concept is basically designed to ensure that in the short, swift and intense conflicts of the future, the Navy is able to favourably influence the outcome of the land-air battle.
Posted by: john ||
02/02/2007 15:02 ||
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the operational concept of "maritime manoeuvre from the sea".
Next, they will practice maritime manoeuvre from land?
#3
I would say that this is more aimed at Bangladesh/China than Pakistan. The Chinese now have naval bases in both Pakistan and Bangladesh, and have been making noises about the Chinese need to control the sea lanes for Chinese oil imports. The Chinese have also been backing the Maoists in Nepal, as well as the communist insurgency in the Indian border provinces.
Looks like the Indians are out to remind all parties that they can do damage close in or far out from their shores, and to remind the Banglas of the results of the 1971 war with Pakistan : decimation of all Paki forces in Bangladesh. Also this helps serve notice on the Chinese that the Indians have not forgotten the lost territory for the Sino-Indian War of 1962.
#4
Also, a couple of days ago, a poster asserted that in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, the Indians were Soviet equipped and trained, and defeated the Western equipped and trained Pakistanis. I did not disagree at that point because I was uncertain of the arms that each side was using.
However, after doing research, I found out that the assertion was false : the newest fighters on both sides were MiGs - J-6 {Mig-19} for Pakistan, and MiG-21 for India. Also, the Indians had THREE times as many aircraft {including the newest ones}, and both sides utilized older Western air craft as their main air fleets. Also, the Indians did NOT fight as Soviet air forces do, instead they utilized their British fighter training and tactics.
#5
It is quite a common misperception that Indian forces were Soviet trained because they operated Soviet equipment.
In fact, despite having access to the Warsaw pact export version of many Soviet weapons (unlike the further downgraded third world versions), India never held joint exercises with Soviet troops. They were never allowed on its soil.
Having fought in WW2, the British trained Indian officers were quite dismissive of Soviet tactics, believing their own doctrines to be superior.
Visiting Russian arms executives have said that India was one of the few countries that used Soviet weapons well, holding up a battered reputation after the Arabs did so badly with them.
Posted by: john ||
02/02/2007 18:44 Comments ||
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India also maintained a policy of diversifying weapon purchases. While the majority of its systems were Soviet, it bought significant quantities of French and British hardware.
So India has Jaguar fighter-bombers, Harrier jets, Mirage fighters as well as the Migs. The Navy bought British kit (like the carrier Hermes) and Italian and French sub-systems for their ships.
Posted by: john ||
02/02/2007 18:50 Comments ||
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You just know the MIG 21 boyz are twiddling their thumbs like HOMER SIMPSON - iff they don't crash during the MILEX, they'll crash afterwards.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, underwent an angioplasty for a clogged artery at a private hospital on Thursday. Rehman had a heart attack the other day and was admitted to a private hospital, Online reported. Hospital sources said that the opposition leader was later shifted to a private room and will be discharged from the hospital today (Friday). Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani and leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal visited the hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/02/2007 00:00 ||
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Should've just let him gut it out with a bum ticker. God's will and all that.
Didn't see Mo getting no angioplasty back in the day...
Patient Zero in the 2007 avian flu pandemic died at 9:25 this morning.
It caused little fuss in the war room of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it was announced.
In part, the death was expected there had been hints of what was coming in this first avian flu drill to involve the whole agency. Patient Zero was a fictional 22-year-old Georgetown University student who had just returned from visiting his family in Indonesia. The object of the drill was to determine how the CDC would respond in a real epidemic.
So for the agency, the patient's death was beside the point; what was important was the diagnosis of avian flu. The question for Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, the agency's director, and her staff was whether it marked the beginning of a full-blown pandemic.
How many of the student's 10 roommates had he infected? How about the 40 others on the Georgetown swim team? One of them appeared to be dying in New York after a swim meet at Columbia University. And the woman in Chicago who had died after being on his plane from Jakarta were they all linked?
This was the CDC's first "full functional" avian flu exercise, meaning that virtually everyone at its headquarters here was involved in some way, including about 100 people packing the operations center, where banks of computers and phones faced a wall full of television screens. There has never been a case of avian flu reported in the United States, and it has not mutated into a pandemic strain. But it killed more people last year in Asia than it did in 2005 and in 2004, and public health experts consider it a major threat.
Four reporters, from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press and The Canadian Press, were allowed to watch the exercise (and even to comment on how well CDC public affairs officers played reporters during a mock news conference).
"This is new for us," said Gerberding. "A lot of people feel it's really high-risk to let the press look inside the sausage factory while the sausage is being made."
Instead, she said, she decided to stand the scrutiny even if mistakes were seen, partly to prod states and localities to conduct similar drills, and partly because news coverage of such a crisis "can make or break your credibility, and give the feeling that no one's in charge." Reporters, she explained, need to understand how hard it is to make medical decisions based on a thin trickle of facts.
Like an episode of the television program "24," the drill was supposed to be taking place in real time. So the reporters, freed at 6 p.m. to write up what they had seen, had no idea how it would all play out. Did millions die? Did I? The answer will not be known for months, since the scenario is supposed to play on indefinitely, with new drills meshing with it.
By day's end, though, things were getting rapidly worse: Hospitals in Indonesia were overwhelmed. Another country that officials would not name, because they had been given the information in a top-secret briefing, seemed to have an outbreak, too. In Hawaii, a severely ill passenger had been taken off a flight from Singapore. There were only nine probable cases, but three of the victims were already dead. (The 1918 flu killed about 2 percent of its victims.)
The day's last debate was over whether to divert all planes headed for the United States with sick passengers from Indonesia to one of 20 airports where they could be screened by medical teams. The disruption would be vast, and possibly premature, and would cause panic. One sick passenger could be a coincidence or a second "infection seed" like the Georgetown student.
The team decided to wait for laboratory tests on the patient and see what the Federal Aviation Agency had to say.
There were light moments. Top CDC officials could use some remedial geography they seemed a little unclear about what borough Columbia University is in (hint: it's the long thin one) and where Borneo is.
And there were movie-within-the-movie moments, like when Gerberding asked if the CDC had a local State Department liaison, got a noncommittal answer and then insisted: "No, I mean in the real world. Do we?"
Or when the reporters explained that real reporters would have been more confused (and ruder) than the CDC staff members who played reporters in the mock news conference.
At that news conference, Gerberding, who can be clear and incisive in questioning her own top staff, seemed less sure of herself and wary of eye contact as soon as her midlevel staff began playing the press.
Gerberding said she intended to display less alarm than she felt. She drew a distinction between a public health emergency, which she had declared, and a pandemic, which she had not. Some actions she had taken in the afternoon, like releasing the national Tamiflu stockpile to the states, were not really questioned at the mock news conference.
And though Gerberding was nominally in charge, the man pulling the strings was in a little room upstairs known as the Simulation Cell.
He was Pete Taylor, a 69-year-old retired general who spent 34 years running war games for the Pentagon and now does it for MPRI, a consulting group with many former military officers on staff.
His team tossed new facts into the scenario every hour or so, forcing the CDC to react. On that team was a doctor who played a World Health Organization official in a conference call (he wished the United States "all the best with your outbreak"). If the scenario had called for it, Taylor could have provided a mock President Bush.
"The secret in training," Taylor explained, "is to keep the carrot in front of their nose. Just far enough so they keep reaching for it, but not so far out that they get demoralized."
The exercise was scheduled to end on the morning of Feb. 1, and then Taylor's team would write an "after-action report" while the CDC did its own analysis of what went right and wrong.
Future exercises may draw in officials from city or state health departments.
Asked whether the human race survives, Taylor gave only a hint: the exercise never really ends.
#1
Asked whether the human race survives, Taylor gave only a hint: the exercise never really ends.
Wrong question. Of course homo sapians survives. The question is whether our industrialized economy does... and Western Civilization. Although personally I believe that both will, as they did following the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. And, that it's the Muslim world and Africa that will be left prostrate; what odds Saudi Arabia has its own Patient Zero during the haj, given that Indonesia has a sizable Muslim population?
#2
"Of course homo sapians survivesf course homo sapians survives"
Of course. Eventually pop densities decrease, the survivors are selected for immunity, etc and the disease burns itself out. Would create social disruption, but markets are resilient - skills in short supply will be rationed where theyre needed, mainly by price.
Black death only killed off a third, and that was actually over a sequence of epidemics, in much worse healt and economic conditions.
BTW, though, theres so much international travel now of all kinds, not sure the Haj would be THAT big a factor.
#3
Actually, strident Muslims are at a severe disadvantage because they have to cluster together four or five times a day to pray. It's been noted through history that there is a marked decline in religion after epidemics, for similar reasons.
#4
Dont most muslims pray on their own most of the time, not at a gathering (without a minyan,if I may so put it)
We Jews only have to pray with a minyan on Shabbos, and when reciting kaddish (the prayer for the dead, that you say for a year after a close relation dies) (and of course the command to save lives is so important, Im sure during an epidemic even that requirement is dropped) Dont know the answer for muslims.
#6
But the radicals do prefer to pray in self-reinforcing groups, liberalhawk, preferably with a prayer leader they've forced on a less radical congregation -- to help lead them into the right path. It's not a matter of need, because Muslims can pray wherever they might be at the moment, else that caravan thingy never would have worked back in the day. ;-)
#7
when they go to mosques on Friday, they pray together, and yeah, they do have internal disagreements about who should lead, and Im sure intramosque politics gets very vicious. Ive seen intrashul politics get vicious, though there its usually on issues like "should we get a rabbi who recognizes patrilineal descent" not "should we get an Imam who sermonizes about suicide bombing" :)
But what I meant was that the 5X a day every day of the week prayers seem to me to be doable anywhere, without a quorom (much like observant jews 3X a day) AFAICT muslims in general will be in pretty much the same situation as churchgoing Christians, and shul going Jews.
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.
Teachers and people working with children are being given guidance on how to identify signs of ritual abuse inflicted in the belief that a child is possessed by evil spirits. Drawing on research showing 38 known cases of child abuse linked to alleged spirit possession in England since January 2000, the government guidance aims to raise awareness of the practice and help those coming into contact with youngsters to recognise indicators of abuse.
The Venezuelan government will take majority control of oil projects in the Orinoco River basin by May 1 and any foreign oil company that resists can leave, President Hugo Chavez said Thursday as he elaborated on his sweeping nationalization plans. 
NEW DELHI: The race for an Indian Air Force (IAF) order for 126 combat jets just got hotter, with US aerospace major Boeing offering to jointly produce the frontline F-18 Super Hornet in India if it wins the contract.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, underwent an angioplasty for a clogged artery at a private hospital on Thursday. Rehman had a heart attack the other day and was admitted to a private hospital, Online reported. Hospital sources said that the opposition leader was later shifted to a private room and will be discharged from the hospital today (Friday). Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani and leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal visited the hospital.
