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Two Israelis killed as terrorists infiltrate Nahal Oz
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Zoomies pissed that Cyber Command stole SAC's patch
Cyber Command’s new emblem can’t be anointed officially until the new command is stood up this October, but the one in the works replicates the former Strategic Air Command’s patch.

Only “minor modifications” have been made to the SAC emblem to create AFCYBER’s design and “bring it up to current Air Force emblem standards,” according to service documents.

“By assuming the lineage of the Strategic Air Command, cyber-warriors demonstrate the ability to project strength and achieve global effects with the inclusion of the cyberspace domain, with air and space,” according to lineage and heritage records.

But that striking similarity to Strategic Air Command’s patch has started a controversy. Former airmen who served under SAC have posted on multiple Internet blogs their displeasure at the almost identical designs.

“I respect the fact that our ‘cyber warriors’ are a critical asset in our force structure, but in my opinion they should wear a patch of their own design, not one lifted from a previous generation,” said retired Col. Ron Thurlow via e-mail.
Posted by: gromky || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION, USDOD-USAF > Alas, Boyz, the TWEETY BIRD/DRAGONFLY-Series Training jet is no more.

SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE - Always Sneek-Peeking around, perennial anti-TWEETY PIE/BIRD STALKER SYLVESTER THE CAT ORDERED BY CHENEY TO BE SHOT ON SIGHT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2008 0:55 Comments || Top||

#2  “By assuming the lineage of the Strategic Air Command, cyber-warriors demonstrate the ability to project strength and achieve global effects with the inclusion of the cyberspace domain, with air and space,” according to lineage and heritage records.

Is there a lack of imagination? At a minimum, they could of used switch sides. I would of had a keyboard and electrically charged cross bones.
Posted by: Crolusing tse Tung2745 || 04/09/2008 1:41 Comments || Top||

#3  At a minimum, they could of used switch sides.

Heraldry is more technical than that. A upper left to lower left display has a difference from a lower left to upper right display on the field. In English it is termed a Bar Sinister.

"It has been traditionally used as an indicator of an illegitimate birth in the family line."

Which may be applicable, or not. :)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2008 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Oops, that should have been ...A upper left to lower right...
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2008 8:35 Comments || Top||

#5  The guys who are upset don't really understand what is happening. The long range plans are for the "strategic" forces to move out of Air Combat Command where they have always been unappreciated and unloved by the fighter pilots who run it and into Cyber Command which will become the 21st century reincarnation of SAC. Lots of things are happening behind the scenes as this command stands up. Cyber Command could become very interesting.
Posted by: RWV || 04/09/2008 10:31 Comments || Top||

#6  So, the missile forces and B-52s are going to be under cyber command?
Posted by: gromky || 04/09/2008 10:33 Comments || Top||

#7  I can see why SAC personnel would get their nose out of joint about this. Heraldry is the representative of unit history. I can imagine some knock-down drag outs at AF clubs over this.

SAC existed from 1946 to 1992, and once word gets out to its alumni, many of whom are now in high positions of power, I suspect that this emblem will be hastily changed.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/09/2008 10:33 Comments || Top||

#8  I suggest a pocket protector and a pair of those god awful military issue black plastic eye glasses (tape optional).
Posted by: ed || 04/09/2008 10:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Interesting that the main change seems to be changing the sky from royal blue to baby blue. What's the message there?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 04/09/2008 10:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Proco,

It's not, properly, a Bar sinister. A Bar is horizontal, the diagonal is a Bend. Hence it should be a Bend Sinister. But correct was never a synonym for popular.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/09/2008 10:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Interesting that the main change seems to be changing the sky from royal blue to baby blue. What's the message there?

[Ok, someone has to do this]. I blame Global Warming. :)

GEEK ALERT

"In French blazon a bend sinister is called a barre. Sir Walter Scott is credited with giving literature the macaronic phrase bar sinister, which has become a metonymic term for bastardy. In English blazon a bar is a horizontal stripe, symmetric with respect to sinister and dexter. (Bar and barre are pronounced alike.)"

GEEK ALERT OVER :)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2008 10:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Out of my league here, but for some reason an image of the robot from Day the Earth Stood Still seems like it would be appropriate; maybe even have it flipping the bird.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/09/2008 11:46 Comments || Top||

#13  and of course there's Simon Bar Sinister
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2008 11:48 Comments || Top||

#14  ". . . .an image of the robot from Day the Earth Stood Still seems like it would be appropriate; maybe even have it flipping the bird."

swksvolFF, I like it!!
Posted by: GORT || 04/09/2008 12:03 Comments || Top||

#15  Ex-SAC troopie here: I don't like it.

That said, the USAF probably doesn't care what I like. They never did before, anyway.
Posted by: Chief Running Gag || 04/09/2008 12:21 Comments || Top||

#16  They need a motto, too. All Your Base Are Belong To Us.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/09/2008 12:41 Comments || Top||

#17  New Logo:



ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/09/2008 13:22 Comments || Top||

#18  Or maybe just: PWND
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/09/2008 13:24 Comments || Top||

#19  I suggest a pocket protector and a pair of those god awful military issue black plastic eye glasses (tape optional).

It ain't the 60s anymore. Nerds have made an effort to modernize themselves. They don't need pocket protectors for pens and pencils because they do all their writing on keyboards or various types of mobile "devices". They don't need slide rules because they can do those calculations on their cell phone and most of them get paid enough to buy good glasses.

Dunno exactly what the Cyber Command will be doing but with Chicom hackers, Russian spammers and other assorted bad guyz constantly banging away at our computers it seems only natural that one or more branches of the military would be looking at counter measures. Maybe they can find a way to put some goat pr0n on al Qaeda's web servers.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/09/2008 13:32 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Deadlock Deepens in Kenya Power-Sharing Deal
Following a meeting of lawmakers from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, party Secretary-General Anyang Nyong'o read a statement announcing that talks on establishing a coalition cabinet have been suspended until the president's Party of National Unity commits to sharing power equally in the government. "It is now crystal clear to the country that PNU is extremely reluctant to honor the accord in the first place," said Nyong'o. "In fact by his utterances and deeds since the signing of the accord, President Mwai Kibaki has demonstrated his contempt for and reluctance to forming a grand coalition government as the constitution demands and the people of Kenya expect him to do."

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is set to take up the newly created position of prime minister, Monday accused the president's party of backtracking on commitments regarding the composition of the Cabinet and the extent of power-sharing in government positions below the ministerial level.

The statement also called for the Cabinet ministers who had been appointed before the agreement was signed to step down, and for a reduction in the size of the cabinet from the 40 ministers that had earlier been agreed. The large Cabinet size has been widely criticized in Kenya as a waste of resources.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now there's somewhere that Obama can go and demonstrate his great unifying skills. Just think of all the Hope & Change he could bring about!

And it's actually his Vaterland, no?
Posted by: AlanC || 04/09/2008 14:58 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe's opposition warns of bloodshed
Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday of unleashing a campaign of violence since the March 29 elections and called on African states to intervene to prevent widespread bloodshed. The Movement for Democratic Change, which claims to have won the presidential and parliamentary polls, said Mugabe was trying to provoke a backlash as a pretext for declaring a state of emergency that could help him prolong his 28 years in power. "I say to my brothers and sisters across the continent -- don't wait for dead bodies in the streets of Harare. There is a constitutional and legal crisis in Zimbabwe," MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti told a news conference.
It's all over but the shootin', you might say.
He said the ruling ZANU-PF had launched a violent campaign against opposition supporters following a stalemate over the election results and was trying to rig the polls so Mugabe could contest a runoff against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Election officials have yet to release the results of the presidential poll.

Tsvangirai says he won the vote outright and has demanded that Mugabe, whose critics accuse him of reducing a once prosperous nation to misery, step aside immediately to allow for the reconstruction of the economically devastated country.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


SAfrica's Zuma critical of Zimbabwe election delay
South African ruling party leader Jacob Zuma criticized on Tuesday the decision to delay the release of results from the presidential election in neighboring Zimbabwe. "I don't think it augurs very well," Zuma said in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation, according to the South African Press Association. He added that it was wrong to keep Zimbabweans and the world in suspense.

The African National Congress leader's remarks came one day after he met Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party in Zimbabwe. Their meeting took place in Johannesburg.
This article starring:
Jacob Zuma
Morgan Tsvangirai
Movement for Democratic Change
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With SA overrun with refugees from ZimBob, I can see where Zuma would be 'interested' in the election results.

For all his many flaws, he's a bit more proactive and vocal than Mbeki was.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/09/2008 12:25 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Protests over food prices paralyze Haitian capital
Haitians erected fiery barricades and tried to storm the National Palace on Tuesday as protests against rising food prices, which have killed five people, paralyzed the impoverished nation's capital.

Some demonstrators in the city carried empty plates to show the government they had nothing to eat. U.N. peacekeepers fired rubber bullets and tear gas to control the angry mob after the protesters used large steel garbage containers as battering rams to try to smash the gates of the palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
China turns patriotic wrath on Olympics demonstrators
China on Tuesday denounced protesters who upstaged Olympic Games torch relays in London and Paris and asked the United States to ensure the next leg in San Francisco avoids similar mayhem. International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials also criticized the protests and a spokeswoman said the torch relay was expected to continue as scheduled.

Officials in Paris were forced to hustle the Olympic torch onto a bus on Monday when protesters against Chinese policy on Tibet tried to seize it. In London the day before, activists waving Tibetan flags and shouting "Shame on China" also turned the event into a torrid obstacle course. China quickly condemned the disruptions as "vile" and, in a departure from past reticence, state-run television and newspapers showed the protests and upset spectators.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, even though these were radicals trying to douse the torch, it may give other citizens of these countries the idea that they may be mistreated if they venture to China. Maybe they'll just unpack their bags and forget the whole thing.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 || 04/09/2008 9:49 Comments || Top||

#2  China wanted the Olympics in order to showcase modern China. I'd say they are getting that wish. In spades.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/09/2008 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Just like the muzzies. They don't understand that free speech thingy.

Hey, Mr. Hu, I won't be watching.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/09/2008 13:37 Comments || Top||

#4  FREE TIBET!

Posted by: DMFD || 04/09/2008 22:51 Comments || Top||


Europe
Czech military forbids Commie anti-radar march at army installation
Posted by: mrp || 04/09/2008 11:51 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION TOPIX > VARIOUS - RUSSIA DEMANDS OFFICERS/PRESENCE ON MISSLE BASES IN EAST EUROPE, to ensure that MisFacs won't be used [in error/mistake] agz Russia.

*KOMMERSANT > US SENATOR CALLS FOR STAR WARS, i.e. for USA to begin planning and dev for MISSLE-ARMED SPACE SATELLITES as GMD "next step"; + RUSSIA STUDIES THE MILITARY RISKS. In addition, seems US Perts are NOT verily impressed wid Russia's army.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2008 18:58 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Illinois Dem party subverts the US Constitution and Electoral College
Having passed the Illinois House in a 65 to 50 vote last week, the Illinois Senate is likely to send to the Governor a measure overturning the Electoral College system to elect U.S. presidents. The House vote on HB 858 was along partisan lines, except for one Republican -- State Rep. Paul Froehlich (R-Schaumburg) who sided with the Democrats in changing the electoral system.

Electoral votes are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. That means a candidate getting 51 percent of the popular vote in a state would get 100 percent of the electoral votes.

A candidate who narrowly wins some key states while losing big in other states can wind up carrying the Electoral College, even though most voters backed someone else. That's what happened in 2000, when George Bush won the presidency over Democrat Al Gore.

But there's a nationwide effort to change that by having every state award electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The new system would kick in once states representing a majority of electoral votes have approved the plan.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/09/2008 01:11 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Screw the Ill state. They're having a wet dream; eventually they'll wake up and realize the rest of the country thinks they're crazy. I'm not surprised at their moonbattery, however; both BO and Her Thighness come from there. What a horrible thing to have to admit to, if you're from Illville!
Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 04/09/2008 4:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Hello Rome.
Posted by: newc || 04/09/2008 6:21 Comments || Top||

#3  So, if Barack Obama carries his home state, but John McCain wins the national popular vote, the IL electors will go for McCain. You sure that's what you want?
Posted by: Mike || 04/09/2008 6:27 Comments || Top||

#4  the IL electors will go for McCain.

Nah, it is like the Florida-Michigan delegate debacle - they just make the rules up as it suits them. Whatever it takes to win.
Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 || 04/09/2008 6:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't necessarily think it is a smart move, but it is not unconstitutional. The States have the individual right to choose their electors any way they see fit. If Illinois wants to ask the Pope (or even bin Laden) who he wants for President, and assign its electors that way, I think they can.
Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713 || 04/09/2008 8:11 Comments || Top||

#6  This was signed by Gov Blago. The agreement kicks in once it's been approved by enough states to generate 270 votes, or a majority in the Electoral College.
Blagojevich's support for the idea isn't a surprise. As a congressman in 2000, he co-sponsored a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College.

The guy's a complete ass-hat. Another bill moving through the Ill. legislature would allow recall of elected officials. Much of it's support is due to this jerk.
Posted by: Spot || 04/09/2008 8:11 Comments || Top||

#7  So, they're voting themselves out of existence. Why have states? The Donks in particular want everything dictated from Washington anyways, so why not do away with 50 redundant intermediary administrative units? The reason you want an Electoral College is to maintain the integrity of the State against a totally defacto centralized government. When you remove the standing of the state and treat it as nothing more than a popular vote district, it loses it's rational justification to be an entity that the original framers of the Constitution intended as in the United STATES of America.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2008 8:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Menhadden: No, I don't think they could give their electoral votes to the Vatican. It would run counter to Article 4, section 4 - guarantee of a republican form of government. Autocratic selection of electors by an external theocratic authority definitely violates my conception of "republican form of government", and I'd like to think that this is a common-sense interpretation of Article 4, section 4. You couldn't give the choice of electors to the British Royal Family, either.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 04/09/2008 10:09 Comments || Top||

#9  More interesting is that they are going down this road in the midst of a primary campaign in which this sort of proportional representation nonsense is tearing their beloved party of slaveholder Jefferson and indian exterminator Jackson to pieces because it prevents a decisive conclusion. They are unable to learn from history when it is only 5 minutes old! Instead they prefer indecisive debate. Must be dominated by lawyers who value process over result.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 04/09/2008 10:44 Comments || Top||

#10  Of course Denms want this. They want to abolish the Republic, and substitute mob rule (Aka pure democracy), since they (via the MSM) can keep the mob ignorant, mal-informed, and agitated, instead of knowledgeable, well informed and rational.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/09/2008 13:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Maryland did the same thing last year. the majick number is 22 or 23 states, IIRC.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/09/2008 13:23 Comments || Top||

#12  Hell that's not even a majority, last I looked we had 50 states, 25 would be half not 23.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/09/2008 14:14 Comments || Top||

#13  Ah, what did them Founding Father's know? Just a buncha rich old hetero gun owning white guys. Probably not a member of the GLBT community among them, not even in the closet. Might as well have a buncha unenlightened friggin cavemen tell us what to do...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/09/2008 14:23 Comments || Top||

#14  IIRC, the electoral college process is in the Constitution. Changing it would require amending the Constitution. That takes a 2/3 vote, not a majority. I think someone's about to get their a$$ handed to them in a top hat.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/09/2008 21:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Obama mocks the Youube Gods


Oh, ye mortals, trifle not with the YouTube Gods!
Posted by: Mike || 04/09/2008 07:52 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They still don't get the new media and want it to go away and be diminished more than anything.

Makes them look as stupid and as corrupt as they really are.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/09/2008 9:11 Comments || Top||


Rockefeller Apologizes to McCain
U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) was forced to apologize Tuesday to Republican Presidential candidate John McCain for comments he made about McCain’s military service. “I have profound respect and appreciate his dedication to our country, and I regret my very poor choice of words,” Rockefeller said in a prepared statement.

Rockefeller, who supports Barack Obama for President and has campaigned for him, said in an interview with the Charleston Gazette editorial board this week that McCain was not grounded in issues affecting people because, in part, he was a fighter pilot. “He flies at 35,000 feet and drops laser-guided bombs, missiles,” Rockefeller said. “He was long gone before they hit. What happened down there, he doesn’t know.” Rockefeller added that he knew the comments were “unkind” because McCain was fighting for the country, but he added, “You sort of have to care what goes on in people’s lives.”

The McCain campaign responded through Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, USMC (retired) who served in Vietnam and spent 20 months in a Hanoi prison with McCain. “We know what flying through hell is like and the senator doesn’t,” Swindle told Metronews. “He probably never heard a shot fired in anger unless it was in the backwoods of West Virginia hunting or something like that.” “He (Rockefeller) doesn’t know a damn thing about the military,” Swindle added.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jay Rockefeller - poor little grandchild of the wealthy. A sense of entitlement as healthy as his inheritance but no personal worth to back it up.
Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 || 04/09/2008 6:25 Comments || Top||

#2  A man whose fortune is based mostly on... hydrocarbons.
Posted by: Sonny Elmeamp2499 || 04/09/2008 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Jay is obviously the shallow end of the Rockefeller gene pool, and if Barbara Boxer weren't there, prolly the dumbest Senator. That's saying a lot (see: Biden, Joe)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2008 9:09 Comments || Top||

#4  “He flies at 35,000 feet and drops laser-guided bombs, missiles,” Rockefeller said. “He was long gone before they hit. What happened down there, he doesn’t know.”

Until, of course, he got shot down.
McCain should accept his apology then ask him if he ever hears from Meagan Marshack...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/09/2008 11:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Close: John flew an A-4 Skyhawk, an attack aircraft, not a fighter ( although it did have guns) and the bombs were gravity ( dumb) bombs.
But at least Jay stood up and apologized, rather than some mumbled misremembering thingie.....(take a clue Hillary)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 04/09/2008 14:27 Comments || Top||

#6  He said what he said. If he didn't at least tacitly believe it he never would have made the statement. I would even guess that since Jay Rock is so dense he was probably reading from a script. His felow traveler (babs boxer) never EVER talks without her handy dandy bendover.org script in hand. Apology NOT aqccepted.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 04/09/2008 14:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Rockefeller was trying to nail McCain and didn't know what he was talking about. McCain should consider it the apology of a fool--worth scat.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/09/2008 16:48 Comments || Top||

#8  McCain is going to pull it out, thanks largely to liberal asshelmets like Rocky the Lesser.

Election day will be the biggest setback for liberals since the Rosenbergs were executed.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/09/2008 22:54 Comments || Top||


Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows—for the third time in four days--Barack Obama with a double digit lead in the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. Obama now attracts 51% of the vote while Hillary Clinton earns 40%. That’s the lowest total ever recorded for Clinton since the contest became a two-person race.

Obama’s support has now been at or above 50% for four straight days. Prior to this stretch, he had reached the 50% level just once in more than a year of daily tracking polls.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Pakistan: Former minister 'beaten by crowd of lawyers'
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Former federal minister of parliamentary affairs Sher Afghan was on Tuesday badly beaten by hundreds of lawyers angered by his support for president Pervez Musharraf's removal of top judges last year. As soon as the lawyers learned of Afghan's presence at Lahore High Court , they laid siege to the chamber of a lawyer who Afghan had come to visit.

According to Channel 5, a local TV channel, Afghan was trapped in the lawyer’s chamber for five hours, while the crowd of lawyers waiting outside hurled abuse and tried to break down the chamber's door. They said they were angered by what they called Afghan's anti-democratic role in the previous government of president Pervez Musharraf.

An ambulance was sent to the scene to collect Afghan but the crowd of lawyers snatched the keys from the driver and forced him to flee.
Afghan, who is around 70 years old, contacted Channel 5 TV and informed it he has a heart condition. An ambulance was sent to the scene to collect Afghan but the crowd of lawyers snatched the keys from the driver and forced him to flee. When Afghan was taken outside to receive medical aid, he was reportedly set upon by the crowd of lawyers.

The leader of the lawyers’ movement, Aitazaz Ehsan, came to the scene and asked the lawyers to leave Afghan alone, but they apparently refused. "We condemn the whole incident. It is sabotage against civil society," one of the leader of the lawyer's movement Munir A Malik told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Are these 'pak lawyers' like winnie m's 'futbol team'?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/09/2008 11:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Never heard of "self defense" sue the bastards, (Yep I realise that a 9mm would be better,) but "We must maintain the fiction of having a legal system that works."
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/09/2008 14:55 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Nuclear War Would Solve Global Warming Crisis (The Science is Settled; Time to Act)
Posted by: phil_b || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "100 Hirsohisma-type bombs" > Soo-o-o-o I take it we're NOT talking about the HADRON COLLIDER = LDC???

"There will be an ozone hole everywhere outside of the Tropics" > wow, so Guam-CNMI-Oceania get US MARINES RELOC + ANTI-WAR, PRO-HEALTH REFUGEES-ESCAPISTS???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2008 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  There is a logical problem with the "ozone hole".

It is a "marginal" problem.

That is, when you look at the ozone layer in the atmosphere, it is both lateral to the Earth and has depth, so think of it as a thick layer. But even at its thickest, ozone only exists at a density of a few parts per million.

The problem exists at the poles, where there are "holes" in the ozone layer, that increase or decrease with the seasons. But those "holes" becoming wider than normal are the focus of the concern.

If somebody was to float a large balloon with just a few tons of frozen ozone (melting point of -192C, which is warmer than that of nitrogen, which melts at -210C (so you would pack your frozen ozone in frozen nitrogen)), even that small amount could significantly "fill in" the "edge" of the ozone hole.

With perhaps eight or ten floatings of the ozone spewing balloon, the ozone hole could actually be filled in more than normal. That is three tons of ozone would proportionally fill three million tons of ozone hole edge air.

In the atmosphere as a whole, that is just a tiny amount. But it is a significant portion of just the edge of the ozone hole.

If the balloon just went up and down in the ozone layer, spewing ozone (and nitrogen) as it melted, the rotation of the Earth would spread the ozone throughout the "edge of the hole", and disperse it to a typical density of between 1 and 3ppm.

From space, it would appear that the ozone hole would contract, and less radiation would penetrate to the higher latitudes.

So this is actually such a small, or marginal situation that people *could* impact.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/09/2008 0:29 Comments || Top||

#3  100 nukes?
Does this mean it's okay to launch the proposed Project Orion Spaceship halted by the Test Ban?

Whoo!
Posted by: 3dc || 04/09/2008 1:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Did someone say 100 nukes?!

My goodness, I hardly know where to begin!
Posted by: gorb || 04/09/2008 3:28 Comments || Top||

#5  The human health consequences would certainly be large increases in skin cancer and cataracts. The impacts could be greater on ecosystems.

Ah yes, cataracts. What we all fear should 100 nukes go off. LOL!
Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 || 04/09/2008 6:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Iran, Mecca, North Korea, Syria ... um, ... we still have warheads left.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/09/2008 7:16 Comments || Top||

#7  Darth, like any good pest control program, you need to reapply regularly to eliminate possible return of the infestation.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2008 8:52 Comments || Top||

#8  Ummm, "Bait" the mideast with Korans soaked in contact poison, whoever picks one up is safe, but if they turn the pages and read it, Death.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/09/2008 15:08 Comments || Top||

#9  REDDIT > CELSIAS.com > GLOBAL WARMING IS OVER [NOT]! Despite periodic fluxes Global Temps still anticipated to gener detrimentally INCREASE???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2008 18:51 Comments || Top||

#10  Someone mentioned Orion? Have I got a deal for you.

Nuclear Space, the pro-nuclear space movement.

Check out Rhys Taylor's amazing graphic of an Orion launch.

(Actually, we at Nuclear Space concentrate on more benign applications of nuclear power. We just keep the Orion stuff around to enrage visting eco-wackies.)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/09/2008 22:09 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
3D Printer that can Replicate Itself
A self-replicating 3D printer that spawns new, improved versions of itself is in development at the University of Bath in the UK.

The "self replicating rapid prototyper" or RepRap could vastly reduce the cost of 3D printers, paving the way for a future where broken objects and spare parts are simply "re-printed" at home. New and unique objects could also be created.
Posted by: Beavis || 04/09/2008 15:47 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I for one welcome our new machine overlords.
(Look, someone had to!)
Posted by: Mike || 04/09/2008 19:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Argh! Inkjet Skynet!
Posted by: Muggsy Ebberesh1867 || 04/09/2008 19:13 Comments || Top||

#3  So I'll be able to print out a Glock when I need it? And all the ammo I want?

Cool.
Posted by: Skunky Glins5285 || 04/09/2008 21:40 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Volker: Fed at the very edge' of its legal authority
``The Federal Reserve has judged it necessary to take actions that extend to the very edge of its lawful and implied powers, transcending in the process certain long-embedded central banking principles and practices,'' Volcker said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last month agreed to lend against Bear Stearns securities, paving the way for JPMorgan Chase & Co. to buy its Wall Street rival. Bernanke, who worked with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to broker the bailout, last week defended the move as necessary to prevent ``severe'' damage to financial markets.

Volcker, the Fed chairman from 1979 to 1987, had implicit criticism for U.S. regulators and market participants who allowed ``excesses of subprime mortgages'' to spread into ``the mother of all crises.'' The Fed's Bear Stearns loan was unusual, he said.

``What appears to be in substance a direct transfer of mortgage and mortgage-backed securities of questionable pedigree from an investment bank to the Federal Reserve seems to test the time-honored central bank mantra in time of crisis: lend freely at high rates against good collateral; test it to the point of no return,'' he said.
Posted by: badanov || 04/09/2008 07:59 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Fed Auctions Another $50 Billion to Cash-Strapped Banks
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve, still working to combat the effects of a severe credit squeeze, said Tuesday it had auctioned another $50 billion to cash-strapped banks. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund warned that further actions are needed globally to prevent more wrenching problems.

The Fed auction marked the ninth in a series that so far have pumped $310 billion in short-term loans into the nation's banking system. The Fed has been holding its auctions to supply direct loans to commercial banks every two weeks starting in December. The auctions are only one of a number of emergency procedures the central bank has employed to battle the credit crisis.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues hope that the increased resources being supplied in the Fed auctions will encourage banks to keep lending to consumers and businesses and alleviate the economic drag from a severe credit squeeze that began last August.

In a related move, the European Central Bank, which serves the 15 nations that use the euro as their common currency, announced Tuesday that it had auctioned $15 billion in short-term credit to European banks. It was the sixth auction conducted in tandem with the Fed as the two central banks continue to coordinate their efforts to battle the credit crisis.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Including and espec WAMU {Drudge] - Why, Virginai, am I NOT surprised???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2008 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  The real problem is a bank capital squeeze caused by bad loans.

A bank is required to have a capital to loans ratio of around 6% - i.e. they need 6 cents of their own money or every dollar they lend. Most banks have capital ratios around 8% to 10%.

When a loan goes bad, the money to repay the lenders comes out the banks capital (or reserves which is capital set aside for this purpose).

In simple terms, for every 1% of loans that can't be recovered, the banks capital is reduced by 1%.

A bank that starts at 8% capital, only has to have 2% of its loans go bad for it to reach the 6% capital threshold. At which point it is deemed to have insufficient capital for its loans, and must either reduce its loans or raise more capital (sell shares).

As banks reduce lending, the value of assets falls and more loans go bad.

The thinking behind flooding the banks with cheap money is to make them keep lending and hence stop asset prices falling. And hence give banks time to solve the problem.

I'm sceptical but we shall see.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/09/2008 2:13 Comments || Top||

#3  The Japs have tried this approach for the last 15+ years after the collapse of their property bubble. It hasn't worked all that well for them. I don't think it's going to work all that well for us either, although the alternatives look worse.
Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 04/09/2008 4:33 Comments || Top||

#4  The problem with banks severely restricting their loans is that many businesses depend on loans to stay in business. No loans, and these businesses will stop operating or go out of existence, even if they are in good operating condition otherwise. This happened repeatedly in the US during the Panics of the 19th century, and was something the Fed was created to prevent.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/09/2008 7:35 Comments || Top||

#5  When a loan goes bad, the money to repay the lenders comes out the banks capital (or reserves which is capital set aside for this purpose).

Sort of. Wonder why credit card rates remain high decades after the double digit inflation that took off during the Carter years? Particularly since the Fed rate the banks themselves borrow at has been around 5 per cent for nearly a decade. That because the banks have thought nothing of issuing cards to bad or no credit borrowers because they the banks don't take the hit. They simply have everyone else carry the loses. The banks don't pay, the average person pays for the banks improper handling of credit through the high interest rates.

Back before the Carter inflation hit, most states had usury laws with limits on how much interest banks could charge. The rate of inflation quickly out paced those ceiling. So the bank held a proverbial gun at the head of state governments to the effect that unless the ceilings were altered, there would be no lending. The state legislative bodies [many of which were populated by people with local ties to the influential bankers of their districts] simply eliminated the ceilings rather than make the rates adjustable tied to the Fed rate. So what happened when during the Reagan era inflation was brought down to 5 percent or less. Interest rates stayed sky high. So how were the banks operating before the inflation without those sky high rates? For one thing credit cards were hard to get, but they were in business. On the other hand, we weren't expected to bail them out by dumping a half a trillion dollars on the market to cheapen every dollar held by every American.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2008 8:26 Comments || Top||

#6  "Auction" me a couple of Billion, I've got $500 or so to put up for Collateral.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/09/2008 15:02 Comments || Top||

#7  So I guess the secret for me is to figure out how I can also irresponsibly get billions of dollars in debt so the Feds can bail me out?
Honey! grab the plastic! We're goin shopping!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/09/2008 16:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
CBS Said to Consider Use of CNN in Reporting
CBS, the home of the most celebrated news division in broadcasting, has been in discussions with Time Warner about a deal to outsource some of its news-gathering operations to CNN, two executives briefed on the matter said Monday.

Over the last decade, CNN has held intermittent talks with both ABC News and CBS News about various joint ventures. But during the last several months, talks with CBS have been revived and lately intensified, according to the executives who asked for anonymity because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.

Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds.

Another possibility, these people said, would be for CBS to keep its correspondents in certain regions but pair them with CNN crews.

But, these people cautioned, no deal was imminent. Sandy Genelius, a spokeswoman for CBS News, said, “We are extremely pleased with and proud of our news-gathering operation. No outside arrangements are being negotiated.” A CNN spokeswoman said, “we don’t comment on speculative business matters.”

For CNN, a deal with a broadcast network would mean a new revenue stream without having to add much in costs. For CBS, an arrangement with a cable channel would allow it to cut costs while maintaining the CBS News brand, although in a much trimmed-down fashion. CBS is mired in last place amid the continuing struggles of Ms. Couric, who was given a $15 million a year contract, to attract new viewers.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  D *** NG IT, WE = THE NET MADE KATIE COURIC CRY
[ergo Baby Jesus?]???

In time, vv MICRO/NANO-TECHS I'm anticipating CBS + ABC + NBC, etc. TO MERGE INTO A BBC-STYLE NATIONAL-GLOBAL BROADCASTING CORPS. Print/Paper-intensive mediums will devol into HARDCOPY RECORDS-ARCHIVES INDUSTRIES. IMO they'll have to in order to effec compete wid INDEPENDENT NET-BLOG NEWS + HOME-PERSONAL HAND MEDIAS.

Blurps, Blips, and Blops.

* HOLLYWOOD > Many Celebs are reportedly already sponsoring, producing, andor starring in NET-FOCUSED/CENTRIC PERSONAL FILMS, VIDS, + MOVIES.

* NET > mostly MALE Tweens + MALE Adults > Surveys says wanna see BABES, BOOBS, BEER, STUFF + GAMES, CORRECT??? USDOD DESIRES TO RECRUIT MORE GEEKS AND TECHNONERDS-GAMERS, CORRECT???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/09/2008 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds.

Basically making Ms. Couric the equivalent of a blogger. A blogger with a $15 million annual salary.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/09/2008 1:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Why not? They have been outsourcing their reporting to the BBC and Al Jazeera for years already.
Posted by: Gliling Lumplump3518 || 04/09/2008 5:03 Comments || Top||

#4  reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds

In other words, revenues are tanking and they going to fire the majority of their staff. But Katie and the other personalities have solid contracts so they might as well allow them to news-read for their half hour until their contracts run out.
Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 || 04/09/2008 6:20 Comments || Top||

#5  The zombies at CBS have no imagination. If you're going to outsource, go with Univision. I betcha for a shot at the traditional American market both Jorge and the ladies could articulate decent English for a half hour. First, we get some babes with gams to match some of the Defender-Scimitar/Times-Picayune's best. Second, we'll finally get coverage of an entire continent south of us rather than the the ash heap of history once known as Europe.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2008 8:10 Comments || Top||

#6  So they will replace complete crap with absolute bullshit.

Sounds like a winning formula.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/09/2008 10:20 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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1Lashkar-e-Islami
1al-Qaeda in Britain

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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2008-04-09
  Two Israelis killed as terrorists infiltrate Nahal Oz
Tue 2008-04-08
  French Military Police Mobilized After Somalia Hijacking
Mon 2008-04-07
  Sadr City assault strains cease-fire
Sun 2008-04-06
  US troops move into Sadr City
Sat 2008-04-05
  Jalaluddin Haqqani not dead, releases video, still 71
Fri 2008-04-04
  Maliki Vows Crackdown in Baghdad
Thu 2008-04-03
  Iraq commander leads convoy into Basra
Wed 2008-04-02
  45 Qaeda suspects held in Turkey
Tue 2008-04-01
  US charges Foopie with Africa bombings
Mon 2008-03-31
  Iraqi govt lifts curfew across Baghdad
Sun 2008-03-30
  Sadr orders fighters off Iraq streets
Sat 2008-03-29
  Maliki extends ultimatum for gunmen to drop the hardware in Basra
Fri 2008-03-28
  Iraqi forces say kill 120 militants in Basra operation
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  Twenty killed, 239 wounded in Sadr City clashes in 24 hrs
Wed 2008-03-26
  Maliki overseeing Basra operation


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