Let the jokes run wild...
Britain is facing a sperm donor shortage after reversing confidentiality laws and limiting the number of women who can use sperm from one donor, fertility experts warned Wednesday.
Britain in 2005 changed the law protecting anonymous sperm donors and allowed children to learn the identity of donor fathers - one reason, fertility experts say, there are fewer donors now.
"The only countries that seem to have enough sperm are those that pay - like the U.S. and Spain - or the countries that retain anonymity," said Allan Pacey, a member of the British Fertility Society that warned of the shortage in the British Medical Journal.
"In the countries that have removed anonymity ... there seems to be a problem," he said.
In 1991, Britain logged 503 sperm donors, according to figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. In 2000, there were 325, and in 2006 - the year after the law was changed - the number dropped to 307.
Experts say 500 donors a year are needed to cope with the number of couples needing donor insemination in Britain.
Dutch authorities have also put out calls to encourage sperm donors after scrapping anonymity for donors in 2004.
"There is a shortage of sperm donors. This is because of the new laws that make the anonymous donation of sperm impossible," the University of Amsterdam's Fertility Clinic of the Academic Medical Center said on its Web site.
Usage limits could also affect availability.
In Britain, only 10 babies can result from one donor - a limit some have called arbitrary. The Dutch allow one donor to supply sperm to 25 women.
The United States does not cap sperm donations at all, according to Eleanor Nicoll, spokeswoman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. However, the group suggests that a single donor be limited to no more than 25 births in a population of 800,000 to avoid having siblings from the same sperm donor having children together.
In France, sperm donation is anonymous and the government covers donors' expenses but the country still faces a sperm shortage. France registered 248 sperm donors in 2006, according to the country's Agency of Biomedicine - a level an official there said was not enough to supply demand.
Unlike Britain, U.S. donors have the option of remaining anonymous, said Dr. Robert Visscher, former executive director of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
"I don't think we are having a problem with adequate numbers of donors at this time, primarily because we don't have that regulation," he said.
Mark Jackson, 40, decided to donate in 2005, even after Britain's government amended the donor law.
"To worry that someone might come and see you, that something might happen? That's a long way in the future," said Jackson. "I thought maybe I (could) do something to make a difference."
Olivia Montuschi, co-founder of the Donor Conception Network, said changing the confidentiality law was important for the donors' children but shouldn't prevent men from being willing to help.
"What is needed is someone who has the maturity to understand the importance of what they're doing for the future, and the impact that might have on anyone who's conceived," said Montuschi, whose children were conceived using donor sperm. "We are not talking about a fatherhood role."
Although sperm donations from other countries are allowed in Britain, clinics cannot pay donors and donations from abroad are not enough to cope with the shortage, said Pacey, who runs a fertility clinic in Sheffield, 100 miles from London.
"Once upon a time ... we had hundreds and hundreds of people phoning up every year," he said. "Now, 20 a year? Not in any great numbers." One would think that in Euro/Britain someone would have thought to put a 'donor booth' in every peepshow...then they'd have donors coming out their ears (ewww...sorry for that. lol)
BEIJING -- A thick brown cloud of soot, particles and chemicals stretching from the Persian Gulf to Asia threatens health and food supplies in the world, the U.N. reported Thursday, citing what it called the newest threat from global warming.
The regional haze, known as atmospheric brown clouds, contributes to the melting of Himalayan glaciers, reduces sunlight, and helps create extreme weather conditions that impact agricultural production, according to the report commissioned by the U.N. Environment Program.
These so-called "brown clouds," caused by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, play a significant role in exacerbating the effects of greenhouse gases in warming up the earth's atmosphere, the report said.
"Imagine for a moment a three-kilometer-thick (1.8-mile-thick) band of soot, particles, a cocktail of chemicals that stretches from the Arabic Peninsula to Asia," said Achim Steiner, U.N. undersecretary general and executive director of the UN program during a news conference on the findings.
"All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet because this is where the stories are linked in terms of greenhouse emissions and particle emissions and the impact that they're having on our global climate," he said.
The phenomenon complicates the climate change scenario globally because the brown clouds also help cool the earth's surface and "masks" the impact of global warming by an average of 40 percent, the study said.
Though it has been studied closely in Asia, the latest findings, conducted by an international collaboration of scientists, reveal that the brown cloud phenomenon is not unique to Asia, with pollution hotspots seen in North America, Europe, South Africa and South America.
The enormous cloud masses can move across continents within three to four days, said lead scientist, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego.
"The main message is that it's a global problem. Everyone is in someone else's backyard," said Ramanathan.
The report also noted that health problems associated with particulate pollution, which include cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, are linked to nearly 350,000 premature deaths in China and India every year, said Henning Rohde, a University of Stockholm scientist who worked on the study.
The usual caveats for Debka
DEBKAfile's military sources reveal that for five days, around 1,000 armed young Bedouin tribesmen have been holding Egyptian positions along the Sinai-Israeli border south of Rafah to siege.
The besiegers, mostly Tarabin, Azazme and Tihama tribesmen, have shut the troops in and reinforcements and supplies out. Egyptian General Mohammed Shaarawai and 50 soldiers were taken hostage until the insurrectionists' demands are met.
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources note that many Bedouin were hunted down and detained by Egyptian police after the string of al Qaeda terrorist attacks against tourists and Egyptians in Sinai between 2004 and 2006 and accused of complicity. Tourists were warned off the scenic peninsula in recent years, taking with them jobs and aggravating Bedouin poverty. Land ownership is a sore point for the semi-nomadic desert tribesmen. Some of their lands on the enchanting Sinai coasts have been impounded for hotel operators. The Bedouin are increasingly hostile to the Egyptian authorities and simmer on the brink of insurrection. I expect that, if push comes to shove, Egyptians will just exterminate Sinai Bedouin---it isn't as if they had to fear the response of "International Community".
(APP): Advocating peace, justice and tolerance as the key Islamic values, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said religions should not be used as “instruments to cause misery”.“Human beings were created as equals and partners; either they live together in peace and harmony, or they will inevitably be consumed by the flames of misunderstanding, malice and hatred,” he said in a speech to U.N. General Assembly.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Advocating peace, justice and tolerance as the key Islamic values
Problem is, "islamic values" define "peace", "justice" and "tolerance" in a strictly muslim way, completely at odds with the meaning given in western civilization to those words.
#5
yes, King A-hole, how many crucifixes were confiscated last year?
Funnily enuff, saudis also conficate and DESTROY a great quantity of Korans each and every year, during Haji, from pilgrims who happen to have a "non-approved" version of it.
So, in fact, saudi arabia is the greatest SERIAL desacrator of Koran ever, without even mentioning the SYSTEMATICAL destruction of non-wahabi mosques both in saudy arabia and elsewhere (even in bosnia, for example), or archaelogical items or buildings (both pre-islamic, and islamic era ones, which could go against the "official history" of islam as proponed by the Learned Elders),...
Finally, former prime ministers and arch-rivals Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia yesterday agreed to sit together to solve the crises confronting the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
ION REGIONAL, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > COMMUNAL-FASCISM:AN MERGING THREAT TO [India's, Region's]INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. Communalism + Fascism = ASSAM HINDU-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE, NOT NATION-CENTRIC UNITY + NICENESS.
MOSCOW, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian General Staff has decided to buy unmanned planes from Israel over the next two to three years, a lawmaker in the lower house's defense committee said Thursday.
Mikhail Musatov quoted General Staff chief Nikolai Makarov as saying: "The General Staff has decided that while we don't have such drones, over the next two to three years, we will buy them from Israel."
Musatov said the unmanned reconnaissance planes at issue were those used by Georgia during August offensive on its breakaway republic of South Ossetia.
"These are unmanned reconnaissance planes, which had performed well in Georgia. They were used by Georgia at that time," he said.
Numerous flights by reconnaissance drones over South Ossetia were reported by Russian peacekeepers before Georgia launched its military offensive against the region on August 8.
Earlier reports said Georgia had acquired a total of 40 drones, worth around $2 million each, from Israel between 2006 and 2008.
#2
Well, now...seems they liked what they saw of the drones they stole from Georgia.
Whasamatta...too hi-tech to copy???
And, yes, I bet this sale will be blocked by the US.
The United States views Russian threats to place tactical missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad as provocative and misguided, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.
Russia made the move in response to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe, which Moscow sees as a threat to its security. Washington says the system is needed against missile strikes from what it terms rogue states, notably Iran.
Gates, speaking after a NATO meeting with Ukraine, said the Russian threats were "hardly the welcome a new American administration deserved," referring to the fact they were made immediately after Barack Obama won the presidential election. "Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided," Gates told a news conference in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
At the same time, Washington would continue to seek a constructive and positive relationship with Russia, he said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told French daily newspaper Le Figaro, in an interview published on Thursday, that Moscow could cancel its deployment of the Iskander missiles if Obama scrapped plans for the missile defense system. "I don't think that is a credible offer," Gates said, adding that Washington had put forward detailed proposals to Russia for partnering in missile defense.
"Quite frankly I am not clear what the missiles would be for in Kaliningrad. After all the only real emerging threat on Russia's periphery is Iran and I don't think the Iskander missile has the range to get there from Kaliningrad," he said. "So, this is an issue apparently between ourselves and the Russians. Why they would threaten to point missiles at European nations seems quite puzzling to me," he added.
#1
"Europe must decide whether it needs this pipeline or not," Mr. Putin told Matti Vanhanen, the Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, at a meeting in Moscow.
Russian pipelines seem to be getting more expensive by the day. In every sense of the word.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/13/2008 11:29 Comments ||
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#2
Have they got any viable alternatives to that pipeline?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
11/13/2008 13:20 Comments ||
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#3
ION REDDIT > RUSSIA IS WILLING TO "BUY ICELAND" FOR "GOOD MONEY"; + GREENLAND'S QUEST FOR SELF-DTERMINATION/GREENLAND BRACES FOR INDEPENDENCE AND WEALTH.
* DER SPIEGEL > ICELAND MAY REJECT 1.0BILYUHN EURO LOAN.
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, YA SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T SEND IN THE MARINES AND THE AIRBORNE - THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING OVER THE HILL!
A top investigator says a sailor set off the fire safety system on a Russian nuclear submarine last weekend that killed 20 people.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin says officials have opened a manslaughter investigation into the actions of the unnamed sailor, who he says confessed to the act. He gave no further details Thursday.
The announcement contradicts previous official statements that the fire-extinguishing system aboard the Nerpa had gone off on its own.
The Nerpa was undergoing tests Saturday in the Sea of Japan when its firefighting system activated. Freon gas asphyxiated 20 people on the sub and 21 were hospitalized.
#1
what's the point of a fire system that kills the ppl running the boat especially if it is still underwater? Are the Russian sub crews volunteer like the US?
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 7:51 Comments ||
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This fire-extinguishing system is designed to be used only when the compartments are unmanned and sealed off from the rest of the ship.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/13/2008 12:30 Comments ||
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Russian philosophy has always been: 1) control from the top; 2) trust the lower levels as little as possible; 3) automate (which backs up the top two assertions); 4) don't teach the lower ratings any more than you have to. Plus initial reports were that there were several riders along for the sea trials, also, that the dead were 2 sailors and 18 riders. The riders would have had no clue what to do in case of an emergency.
#8
Most modern systems have a switch one can hold to prevent the fire suppression gas from being released until everyone is out of the area. Either Russian systems don't have such a safety feature or it was disabled/overridden.
#9
It appears that anything that could wrong aboard a submarine before and during a cruise DID > ABOUT THE ONLY THING MISSING IS THE NERPA LAUNCHING AND BEING KILLED BY ITS OWN TORPEDO/MISSLE!
Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has gone on a hunger strike to protest his jailing, his lawyer said Thursday, while legal woes mounted for family members also implicated in the corruption scandal.
Lawyer Cheng Wen-lung said Chen has refused food since entering his cell to protest "the death of the law and to mourn the decline of democracy" under the "authoritarian regime" of the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT).
In a stunning fall from grace, Chen, who just six months ago held the island's top office, was detained Wednesday on suspicion of graft. He reportedly occupies a single-person cell in a Taipei detention center, its open toilet visible from the door's viewing slot.
"I have urged (Chen) to eat and keep up his strength for his case, but (he) has...gone on a hunger strike," Cheng told reporters outside the jail. He said Chen has been allowed legal counsel but no other visitors.
In Taiwan, criminal suspects can be detained without formal charges on the grounds they pose risks of flight or collusion.
The former president claims the KMT-led government of current President Ma Ying-jeou is engaging in political persecution.
Graft cases surrounding Chen have weakened the opposition Democratic Progressive Party that he once led before it lost in landslide defeats to the KMT in the general and presidential elections held early this year. Chen, 57, stepped down as president May 20 after serving the maximum two terms. Ma and prosecutors deny allegations that Chen's incarceration is politically motivated.
The Supreme Prosecutors Office has been investigating Chen since he left office, allegedly for misusing a secret diplomacy fund while in office and laundering political contributions dating back to 1994. Chen admitted his wife Wu Shu-chen wired abroad some $20 million in campaign contributions, but he has denied breaking any laws or pocketing the money.
Nine people, including a former intelligence chief, vice premier and presidential aide under Chen, have also been detained in connection with his cases.
Prosecutors on Thursday served summonses to Chen's wife and their son Chih-chung, ordering them to report for questioning in the same cases. The former first lady already faces trial, currently on hold for health reasons, for dipping into the same diplomacy fund Chen allegedly misused while he was in office.
Wu has been wheelchair-bound since 1985, when she was run over by a truck in a politically motivated attack while Chen was campaigning for a county-level office.
Chen Chih-chung and his wife Huang, who was also issued a summons Thursday, are under investigation for allegedly helping launder Chen Shui-bian's campaign contributions by moving them to and from a slew of overseas bank accounts.
Adding to the former first family's woes was a decision Thursday by the Taiwan High Court to uphold a seven-year jail term and fine for Chen Shui-bian's son-in-law Chao Chien-min. Local media quoted him as saying he would further appeal to the Supreme Court.
Chao is accused of using his connections to Chen when he was in office to conduct insider trading.
A record number of would-be immigrants arrived in Italy this year, according to the daily Corriere della Sera. Over 40,000 people have requested refugee status so far this year, compared to 14,000 over the same period in 2007.
A total 24,241 illegal immigrants reached Italy between January and 16 September this year, and 3,176 in the following month, the paper said, quoting recent data from Italy's Interior Ministry. The illegal immigrants include 4,417 Nigerians, 4,320 Somalis, 2,918 Eritreans and 2,514 Tunisians.
The southern Italian region of Sicily received the highest number of illegal immigrants arriving by boat, followed by Sardinia and the southern region of Calabria.
The number of women arriving on the southernmost island of Lampedusa from January to November was 3,128 - over three times the 973 who arrived over the same period last year. Similarly, 2,002 children landed on the island between January and November, compared with 977 last year. Of these, eight percent were unaccompanied.
Over one-third of unaccompanied minors arriving on Lampedusa disappear, according to police in Agrigento, Sicily, where the children are sent to live in communities. Hundreds of these children have vanished since June, the Save the Children charity told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Despite dramatic reports of boatloads of illegal immigrants adrift at sea or coming ashore, 63 percent of illegals in Italy have arrived by land or plane, according to the Interior Ministry. Between January and September, 49,297 people were recorded as illegal immigrants. The total included 25,056 'overstayers' who remained in the country beyond the maximum three month period stipulated by their visas.
According to the Interior Ministry, however, the total number of foreigners living illegally in Italy is seven times greater - over 650,000.
The Italian Government estimates it will grant 170,000 permits of stay this year to foreigners currently living in the country illegally, mostly to domestic workers, out of 380,000 requested.
NATO, meeting on Russia's doorstep, held talks with Ukraine Friday to assess its progress toward membership of the alliance, but prospects for a promised entry action plan were dim.
Russia deeply opposes Ukraine's efforts to join NATO, while opinion polls show only about a third of Ukrainians support it. Ukraine's domestic political turmoil has made NATO hesitant, though the alliance has said Ukraine, and Georgia, will one day be members.
"A country's right to freely choose its security alignments is another important principle in this regard and a test for a Europe we all seek to build," said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, referring to Russia's objections.
The talks were being held in the capital of Estonia, another former Soviet state, which entered NATO in 2004, breaking away from its powerful neighbor to the east.
Speaking at the start of the talks in which NATO was to assess Ukraine's security and defense reforms, the NATO chief also took a fresh swipe at Russia for recognizing breakaway Georgian regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He said the recognition of the regions after a short war with Georgia in August violated basic principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Despite such words, Ukraine's hopes for a promised Membership Action Plan -- the path to NATO membership -- at a summit of the alliance in December looked dim.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has pushed his allies to offer Ukraine and Georgia a MAP this year but this now seems unlikely.
"I doubt very much that either in Estonia or at the ministerial (in December) or even at the NATO summit next year Ukraine is going to get an invitation to a MAP, unless of course something dramatic is going to happen," said Janusz Bugajski, of Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He cited Ukraine's political instability as a major reason for the country not getting the action plan.
This was shown again Wednesday when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dropped plans for an early parliamentary election, which he had wanted to resolve political deadlock after the break-up of a coalition led by him and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his former ally and now arch rival.
Within NATO, nations such as Germany and France are concerned about the alliance's relationship with Russia and not want to see it soured by overtures to Georgia and Ukraine.
Ukraine's parliament voted Wednesday to dismiss a close associate of President Viktor Yushchenko as its speaker -- raising speculation that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko might fall next.
In the latest twist in an ongoing power struggle in the eastern European nation hard-hit by the global financial crisis, 233 members of parliament voted for the sacking of Arseny Yatseniuk -- seven more than the minimum required. They included not only members of the pro-Russian Party of Regions and the Communist party, but also 10 members of Yuschenko's own party who reportedly suspected that Yatseniuk did not support the idea of early elections.
Yushchenko, who favours early elections, suggested Tuesday that the vote -- already re-scheduled for December 14 -- might now take place in the New Year, or three years earlier than required. He had dissolved parliament on October 8 in a bitter power struggle with Tymoshenko, who along with her supporters in parliament had long refused to prepare for the early elections.
Delaying elections until next year could help Yushchenko chip away at Tymoshenko's popularity by pinning the impact of the global economic crisis in Ukraine on her, political analysts say.
Tymoshenko's faction in parliament sought to block Yatseniuk's ouster. Some of its deputies went so far as to try to foil the chamber's electronic voting system and to brawl with members of the Party of the Regions.
Supporters of the prime minister fear that the speaker's downfall could be followed by that of Tymoshenko and her government. "The prime minister's team suspects that the removal of the president of parliament is but a first stem," the influentual online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda wrote Wednesday. "The next would be a motion of censure against the government."
"If the president of parliament can be sacked, then early elections and the removal of Tymoshenko will follow," added the Segodnya newspaper, which is close to the Party of Regions.
Elections were last held on September 30 last year, five months after Yushchenko dissolved the parliament, giving a narrow majority to the pro-Western coalition grouping supporters of the president and the prime minister. That alliance, however, broke up in September this year after Tymoshenko's faction voted with the Party of Regions to curb the powers of the president.
Ukraine has been among the nations hardest hit by global financial turmoil as a plunge in the price of steel, its main export, exacerbates a credit crunch and a sharp fall in stock prices. The hryvnia currency has lost 20 percent of its value in recent weeks, sparking panic in a population already suffering from massive layoffs.
The economic downturn has become increasingly politicised, with the president blaming the government for the problems of Ukraine, an erstwhile Soviet republic of 46 million. Needing urgent help, parliament on October 31 approved legislation clearing the way for a 16.5 billion dollar (12.8 billion euro) International Monetary Fund crisis loan after long political wrangling.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Better watch what Treas Sec Paulson does. He will probably put them on the bailout list, or the govt will buy NYT stock and merrily glissade down the slippery slope. I know that Ima bein snarky, but todays snark becomes tomorrow's policy at the national level.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 13:29 Comments ||
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#4
The N.Y. Times is a bad newspaper. Bad newspapers should fail. A good newspaper prints, well, news (not fiction), and does not try to defeat the USA whenever it can. Good bye.
#5
As an interesting sidenote, all the national press press in France simply wouldn't even survive without gvt subsidies (except for the rightwing publications, which are graciously left apart from any kind of aid) and/or disguized subsidies (like the national railway company, a bastion of commie unionization, buying bunchloads of advertiseemnt in the communist newspaper). Top ut it bluntly, the french press simply is not viable through readership, but grants keep it afloat, and even that barely (the leftist "libération" has been supported by the Rotschilds, lol), because, well, no one read them. And mags are only a bit better.
Note that in the case of the french press, there's a particularism, past the sheer mediocrity of it, it's that there's a printing & distribution monopoly that was "accorded" to a communist union, back in the immediate post-WWII of the gaullo-communist provisional gvt (commies got a monopoly on book & dailies printing/distribution, docking, and parisian sewers, all kind of useful stuff...), which basically make national press a very iffy business, if you're in to actually make money out of it.
#6
Actually the Franch tax payer pays about hamf the newspaper cost (and that without counting govenrmnent advertisings): German newspapers despite their much marger circulation cost twice more (I am referring of course to the price you pay in Germany not the price in France).
#8
Breaking: Obama agrees to a bailout of the New York Times
Only hours after Mediapost reported that The New York Times had a negative net worth, President-Elect Barack Obama announced a $5 billion bailout rescue package for the media concern. In a hastily arranged press conference at the newly constructed Office of the President-Elect, Obama noted the importance of the Times' ability to influence public opinion.
"It's not overstating things to say that I owe my presidency to the New York Times," he stated in his perfectly pitched, baritone voice. His hand smoothed a crease in his tailor-made Canali suit, which was precisely matched with a cream Ike Behar shirt and baby blue tie. "The Times' prowess at non-investigation and their matchless creativity related to John and Cindy McCain stories were, no doubt, critical to the process."
"Losing the Times would be like losing a father or, in my case, a preacher. Therefore, I'm happy to announce that the Federal Government will be writing Bill Keller a check for $5 billion dollars to keep the Times afloat for at least another four years."
The press conference was briefly marred by Maureen Dowd fainting and Paul Krugman experiencing "a thrill going up my leg."
#10
Well the owners of the papers and other media outlets would be happy to be subsidized by the govt. Follow the money. And BTW, lest we forget . . . these BUSINESSES are owned by private people--and not too many of them. Like sports team owners. We look at the (media) players, but it's all about the owners.
#11
Make note that the article makes no comment about content being part of the problem, just advertising and readership. They blame the symptoms, not the disease.
#16
As reassuring as it would be to think the NYT or other papers are dying because of the horrid problems with most (not all) of their content, it ain't so. Monster.com/other internet sites killed help wanted; Craigslist and EBay and etc killed classified; advertising has been siphoned off by diverse factors incl. more & better targeting of TV/radio, decline in auto dealers ads and also the consolidation of department stores, and a move by big-box stores to market only weekly through those shiny inserts, on which the papers make very little. Yes, circulation is way down, but even without that the revenue picture would have been grim.
No doubt many are disgusted at many things like the outrageous bias, and astonishing arrogance and irresponsibility such as with the revelations of GWOT surveillance activities. But this huge substantive problem afflicts almost all major "news" media; it crested (could it get even worse??) with this election cycle; and the electorate REWARDED this behavior by voting for the empty suit and his imbecilic side-kick.
#17
I don't know exactly what's going on with the NYT, but my local fishwrap is doing pretty good. It's a Freedom Group newspaper, and for the most part is fairly "fair and balanced" - although they do print a LOT of AP, McClatchly Group, and Rooters articles. It's been the home of Chuck Asay, one of the most conservative (and readable) political cartoonists of the last 50 years, for two decades, at least. I'm not sure if they have a union printing plant or not, but probably - the Printers' Union Retirement Home is located just two miles east of the newspaper.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2008 19:19 Comments ||
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#18
I don't care why the NYT dies, Verlaine - I only care that it DOES die.
SOON.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/13/2008 19:28 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon released on Wednesday $50 million in an effort to keep Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 fighter production line humming until President-elect Barack Obama can decide the fate of the top-of-the-line U.S. warplane.
"These funds provide a bridge to a January decision by the next administration," John Young, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, said in clearing the Air Force to buy parts that must be ordered well in advance for four more F-22s.
Congress provided $140 million in the fiscal 2009 defense budget for "long lead" parts for up to 20 F-22s to keep the line open pending a decision by Obama, who will be sworn in as president on January 20. In releasing only about a third of the congressionally approved funding for advance procurement of such things as titanium bulkheads, Young left it to the next administration to use the rest of the $140 million as it saw fit. "Industry has indicated that four aircraft of Advance Procurement now, and additional Advance Procurement in January, will bridge the F-22 line with little or no additional cost to the taxpayer if additional F-22s are purchased," he said through Chris Isleib, his spokesman.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
A-hundred-and-forty-two-million-phucking-dollars is a lot of bread.
I'm kind of with Gates on this one. Let's add them to the fleet in small numbers.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/13/2008 0:52 Comments ||
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A 140 million dolllars is not even peanuts it is crumbles of peanuts compared to 700 fricking billions. Today, the USAF, USMC and USN are mostly flying outdated planes. Remember hen American pilots on P40s Wildacts and Buuflaos had their clocks cleaned by the Zeros and Messerchmitts?
#4
I'm with JFM, they are bitching about how much it is costing too maintain opur troops in iraq an afghanistan but then they are bailing out private companies too the tune of 100's of billions and they are still lining up for more. What's another $140,000,000 especially for something you will actually get use of
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 7:54 Comments ||
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What's the actual unit production cost - excluding all the sunk R&D costs and all the bribes & kickbacks? What do the parts and labor go for, even at inflated government contract prices?
One of the extremely Dirty Little Secrets of the defense industry (and DoD, for that matter) is that NO ONE - not the auditors, not DoD, not LockMart - really know what the damned airplane costs. Don't forget, this project has been underway since the mid-1980s - its been stretched out, delayed, and rescheduled so many times that it's impossible to know exactly how much a given aircraft costs.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/13/2008 10:52 Comments ||
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#7
A bigger secret: they really _don't_ want to know what the incremental cost of one more airplane is.
--------------
Although I do think Gates has a point; I suspect that if all is said and done, $ 240 million dollars worth of F-35's are more effective fighters than $ 240 million worth of F-22's.
It can carry 4 A-A missiles each as is, can probably carry 6 internally without major modifications, has a panoramic IRST system built in (that doesn't cause drag the way the systems on a F-16 does), has relatively lower fuel consumption and greater fuel fraction (meaning it can stay on station longer or at a longer distance)....
And it has a large, flat, aerodynamically clean fuselage that will contribute much more to maneuverability than the fuselages on older aircraft.
#8
JFM: so where are these sixth-generation stealth Zeros and Messerschmitts which are going to clean our clocks?
Personally, I expect the aerial battlespace to be dominated by UAV swarms run out of boxcar motherships before anybody other than the US gets second-generation stealth warcraft in the air, let alone air-supremacy stealth fighters.
I'm starting to wonder if the fighter airfleet isn't going to be the equivalent of the WWI-era cavalry corps - something to control space you already own, or to be held in reserve until the battle's already over. And meanwhile, the horses keep eating their heads off & the coronets sit around playing canasta while the other branches do the bleeding.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 12:19 Comments ||
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#9
either way the jet drops bombs in space we do own and should keep owning. the WW1 era horses just dropped shit
Posted by: chris ||
11/13/2008 12:32 Comments ||
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#10
Air superiority fighters being used for ground attack runs? You're sure you want to get behind that?
Because you could always put horses into stables somewhere & issue the troopers tin pots and Enfields & send them into the trenches; it just wasn't considered a proper use of the investment represented by a cavalry regiment's worth of equipment & training.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 16:01 Comments ||
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#11
Doesn't matter. Zero, Pelosi and Reid are gonna gut defense spending. We'll be lucky if they don't institute pay cuts to the soldiers.
#12
Thing From Snowy Mountain said "I suspect that if all is said and done, $ 240 million dollars worth of F-35's are more effective fighters than $ 240 million worth of F-22's."
I have to disagree strongly with your abominableness and so does the air force.
While I'm no expert myself, I talked to an F22 test pilot about 5 years ago about the F22 vs the F35. (The test pilot is a friend of a friend.) I asked him specifically if it wouldn't be a good idea to buy more F35s instead of F22s. While he gave away no secrets, he was unequivocal that the F22 would be significantly superior to the F35 in air-to-air. The F22 is faster, far more agile, longer-ranged, has a better LPI radar for air-to-air, carries twice as many missiles and has superb situational awareness due to it's complex data linkages. The test pilot loved the F22. Best thing since sliced bread.
The advantages of the F35 all lay in economy of production and much wider surface strike capabilities.
If the game is air-to-air, the F22 wins hands down.
Posted by: Some guy ||
11/13/2008 23:16 Comments ||
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Pakistan will join the countries which have approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan in the face a global financial crisis.
Shaukat Tareen, a finance adviser to the Pakistani prime minister, informed the Senate on Tuesday that Islamabad would approach IMF in two weeks. Tareen added that the country would have to 'swallow the bitter pill'.
Pakistan has been exploring other sources in order to avoid IMF conditions, but the efforts were met with failure.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had earlier said Pakistan could avoid IMF assistance if it could receive billions of dollars in aid from its allies. Islamabad is seeking USD 10b to USD 15b to retrieve its ailing economy and avoid defaulting on international debts. This is while the country is facing balance of payment crisis with plunging foreign exchange reserves and high inflation.
An aid package from the IMF is likely to require deep spending cuts and tax increases that could take its toll form low-income people in Pakistan and escalate public discontent.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
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#1
"We'll think it over carefully. Ah, yes, we've considered it and decided it would be in our best interests to let your shithole degrade back to the eighth century domain you desire. And, don't call us, we'll call you if we change our minds. Maybe you should speak again with your masters in the Magic Kingdom."
Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The event is part of a personal initiative by Saudi King Abdullah to promote an interfaith dialogue among the world's major religions. The Saudi leader agreed for the first time to dine in the same room with the Israeli president at a private, pre-conference banquet Tuesday hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But Ban hinted that the two leaders -- whose governments do not have diplomatic relations -- were not seated at the same table.
"Normally, in the past, they have not been sitting in the same place like this. That is very important and encouraging," Ban said. "I wholeheartedly support the convening of the interfaith meeting that will be held here at headquarters tomorrow. The values it aims to promote are common to all the world's religions and can help us fight extremism, prejudice and hatred."
The Saudi initiative emerged in the summer during a meeting of religious leaders in Mecca. The Saudi leader subsequently drew a range of religious groups -- including Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Taoists and others -- together in Madrid in July, where they signed a declaration calling for greater cooperation among religions.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to attend the conference to hear the Saudi King's opening address. Bush is scheduled to deliver an address Thursday. The White House said last month that it welcomed the Saudi initiative and supports "the right to practice one's religion" and other principles of religious freedom enshrined in the U.N. charter.
But Saudi Arabia's sponsorship of the event drew criticism from human rights advocates, who said that a country that oppresses its religious minorities lacks the moral authority to lead such a gathering.
"Saudi Arabia is not qualified to be a leader in this dialogue at the United Nations," said Ali Al-Ahmed, a Saudi national who serves as director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs. "It is the world headquarters of religious oppression and xenophobia."
Most leaders from Europe -- with the exception of Britain and Finland -- Latin America, Africa and Asia stayed away, sending lower-ranking representatives. Some U.N. delegates said they were put off by the prospect of holding a religious event in the world's premier diplomatic venue, the U.N. General Assembly chamber. They also expressed concern about having their top leaders participate in an event on religious tolerance sponsored by a government that has such a poor record on the issue.
"We all know what happens in Saudi Arabia," one U.N. ambassador said.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said a U.N. discussion on religious discrimination should spotlight places "where religious intolerance runs deepest, and that includes Saudi Arabia."
General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto, a Roman Catholic priest from Nicaragua Hum, do I smell liberation theology, AKA commies R us???
who is co-chairman of the conference, sought to play down the event's religious significance. "We're not here to talk about religion. . . . We're here to talk about tapping our innermost values and putting them at the service" of the world's neediest people.
"Humanity is in moral bankruptcy, and we are in need of being bailed out," d'Escoto said. Asked whether Saudi Arabia had the moral standing to preside over the event, d'Escoto said: "I never conceived the United Nations as an organization of saints. We are in the world a community of sinners . . . and we should accept warmly any brother who wants to join forces to resolve" the most pressing problems.
#5
This is like the fox preaching tolerance and love to the hens in the chicken coop. Tastes like chicken.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 13:31 Comments ||
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#6
Well, look on the bright side. There is less need for an extensive "fact finding mission", since the leading offender is chairing the pathetic joke conference.
Ten people in Makassar South Sulawesi were admitted to hospital on Thursday after suffering bird flu symptoms, a day after seven people were hospitalised for the same symptoms.
All the 17 patients are being treated at Wahidin Sudirohusodo Regional General Hospital came from the same area of Jl Pate' ne in Sudiang District Biringkaya Subregency, where several chickens were found dead. Husbandry Directorate at the Regional Office of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries announced that the virus was found on the chickens.
Head of the Emergency Room at the hospital, Dr Wasis Udaya said blood samples had been taken from the patients and the patients had been x-rayed to determined the cause of their illness, fourteen among the patients are children the with youngest was three months old.
Other medical staff at the hospital reported only 14 among the 17 patients so far were treated in an isolation room as the room capacity could not contain all the patients.
The hospital had sent the blood samples to Hasanuddin University and the Health Ministry. Results were expected to come out in two days.
Iran has said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries should take action to stabilise oil prices. Expectations of weaker energy demand has pushed prices to fall below $60 a barrel for the first time since March 2007.
Gholamhossein Nozari, Iran's oil minister, said that the stability of prices "needed a far reaching decision and further measures," after prices fell from a peak of $147 in July. "We are going to review oil market conditions and if there is a need, there might be an emergency meeting," he said on Tuesday.
Iran depends heavily on oil sales, earning 80 per cent of its revenue from oil exports, and the Islamic Republic set its annual budget on the assumption that oil would trade at $90 a barrel.
After cutting oil production by 1.5m bpd in October, an Opec source said on Tuesday the group may cut oil supplies by a further one million barrels per day (bpd) when it meets in Algeria in December.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has already cut about 200,000 bpd from an output of around 4.04m bpd in line with Opec's October agreement, an Iranian oil official said on Friday.
Elahe Mohtasham, an Iranian analyst at the Foreign Policy Centre in London, told Al Jazeera: "In 2000, Iran established an oil stabilisation fund for rainy days like today where oil prices have dropped. The oil reserve fund's purpose was to keep a surplus, and was obtained in times when oil prices were high, back in July for example.
"But apart from mismanagement ... there is an ideological economic policy behind some of the advisers of President Ahmadinejad. If there were better policies in place, we wouldn't be in such a mess today."
And it's going to get worse, since oil could easily go to $40 a barrel. That means Iran would be earning less than half it planned to earn. Going to be hard for the Mad Mullahs to keep the population in line if they don't have cash to spread around to the Revolutionary Guards.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
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#1
Going to be hard for the Mad Mullahs to keep the population in line if they don't have cash to spread around to the Revolutionary Guards
They just going to switch to African model---as long as the Army is paid, the rest can starve.
#3
So where do the MMs keep their billions? in Switzerland?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2008 10:09 Comments ||
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#4
So, does Saudi have the margin to put the screws to the Iranians on the downward slide? There were a lot fewer Saudis, and a lot more Saudi margin, back in the 80s during the last time this particular scenario played out.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/13/2008 12:11 Comments ||
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#5
They sure bet the farm on $100 a bbl. oil after only a 2 year rally.
Don't know what to tell them. They can cut production, but they will probably need to do that anyway as they are going to run out of storage soon.
#6
It would be nice to see a comprehensive policy from the BO admin that included heavily expanded use of NG, the building of nukes and alternatives to just drive a spike in the price of oil. But I am dreaming.
#7
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has already cut about 200,000 bpd from an output of around 4.04m bpd in line with Opec's October agreement, an Iranian oil official said on Friday.
Idiots, that's a sure course to financial ruin, you don't make enough per barrel, so cut the number of barrels.
I say again Idiots.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2008 20:34 Comments ||
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#8
They won't go broke. There will just be less money for the mullahs to steal. Iran's terrestrial oil lifting cost is $2-3/barrel. Double that for offshore oil. Add another $2 for transport/processing onto tankers.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2008 22:22 Comments ||
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#9
Oil lifting and transport costs may be low, but when you have MMs on the dole, and a big nuke program going, there ain't much left for the unwashed and ignorant masses
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
11/13/2008 22:42 Comments ||
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SINGAPORE (AP) Oil prices slid to near $55 a barrel Thursday in Asia as more bad economic news from the U.S. heightened fears of a severe global downturn that will pulverise demand for crude. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 81 cents to $55.35 a barrel, after falling as low as $55.03, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore.
"There are fears of reduced demand through 2009," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst at consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "Market sentiment is extremely bearish. It seems like there's nothing that can stop the bears."
The crude futures contract overnight fell $3.50 to settle at $56.16, the lowest closing price since January 2007, after the U.S. Energy Department slashed its 2009 oil consumption forecast. The department said Wednesday it expects U.S. consumption of petroleum to next year drop more severely than any time since 1980. The department's Energy Information Administration said 2009 petroleum consumption is projected to sink by 250,000 barrels per day, or 1.3 percent, more than twice that projected in its previous outlook.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40 percent of world supplies, has signaled it may cut production before its next meeting in December on top of a 1.5 million barrel reduction in output quotas last month. "I think OPEC considers $50 a must-defend price," Shum said. "There are bullish elements that the market has been ignoring."
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 1.39 cents to $1.82 a gallon, while gasoline prices dropped 0.3 cents to $1.24 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery slid 8.6 cents to $6.32 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, December Brent crude fell 41 cents to $51.96 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
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#1
Enjoy it while it lasts. I'm betting it won't stay that low for long, especially when the Chinese start ramping up the projects their own "stimulus package" is paying for...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
11/13/2008 1:10 Comments ||
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#2
Home prices in my area are already starting to recover. A friend's home who had dropped over 200K in value according to zillow went up 25K over the past three weeks.
#3
Ah, ok, oil didn't fall because of any "economic concerns". The dollar rose again today. When the dollar rises in value, things traded in dollars fall. Oil went up today if you are paying for it in Euros.
#4
And don't forget that the banks are all lining up to get their cut of the bailout pie since they're not lending money [particularly to their paper fronts they used to speculate on oil just a month or so ago]. If you can't borrow money to speculate, you can't keep the price up either. Market call by natural forces [which should have been done by regulators months ago to avoid a lot of this crap].
#5
Yeah, the financial companies were buying huge amounts of oil as a hedge. Now that some of them are being liquidated (Lehman, etc) that oil is being sold in the market.
But it is temporary, oil "belongs" about $60-$65 at current supply/demand.
#7
Oil's fluctuation has clearly been due to more than supply and demand. I don't know what the "real" price of oil is...maybe it is $65 a barrel. If it had stayed at that price, I wonder if we would be writing a $50 bil check to the car companies now. Maybe it would have delayed things a year. Regardless, this is great for folks at the margin and great for the country as a whole.
#9
I can't say I'm terribly surprised by this and I'm sure the same goes for most people who've been paying attention. I'm no "economist" in the Paul Krugman sense of the word (and for that, I'm very thankful), but the exorbitantly high prices from this past summer were simply not sustainable in the long term.
The price of oil, much like the price of real estate for most of the last 7 years, rose quickly on the basis of speculation, by and large. There were few, if any, good rationales behind $150 per barrell oil. At it's height, it was priced at least 30% to 40% higher than the supply and demand would normally dictate. As with any speculative bubble, the speculators blew the bubble up too big until it finally popped. The credit crisis and the following economic downturn have served to exacerbate and accelerate the process and could well extend it out longer than normal.
What goes up must come down. Although how long it will stay down is anyone's guess.
#10
Operations. Drilling in North American oil and gas fields continues at full speed. During October, operations on American sites involved rig counts ranging from 1,964 to 2,018, 11-13% ahead of the comparable periods in 2007. In Canada the rig counts varied from 431 to 470 and topped the year-ago levels by 30-37%.
In a direct challenge to President-elect Barack Obama, America's Roman Catholic bishops vowed on Tuesday to accept no compromise for the sake of national unity until there is legal protection for the unborn.
About 300 bishops, gathered in Baltimore for their national meeting, adopted a formal blessing for a child in the womb and advised Chicago's Cardinal Francis George, president of the conference, as he began drafting a statement from the bishops to the incoming Obama administration. That document will call on the administration and Catholics who supported Obama to work to outlaw abortion.
"This is not a matter of political compromise or a matter of finding some way of common ground," said Bishop Daniel Conlon of Steubenville, Ohio. "It's a matter of absolutes."
Continued on Page 49
#2
Good luck Bishops. Here is an example of a true maverick among your competition:
Conservative Jewish actor, writer, economist, and lawyer Benjamin Stein (of "Win Ben Stein's Money" on the Comedy Channel), strongly anti-abortion, said recently:
...I had to feel some respect for those who -- like John Brown -- will go to any lengths to stop abortion. Murder, never. But picketing, demonstrating -- I am not part of their group but I respect them. [The American Spectator, July 1998, p. 56]
#4
...Interesting to compare the attitude of these bishops to the ones 37 years ago, who claimed that because I was working with nuclear weapons in SAC, I was committing a mortal sin - and furthermore, that I should ignore any orders to defend my country with such weapons. Glad to see they found at least a couple of vertebrae.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/13/2008 7:58 Comments ||
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#5
" she said the Faithful Citizenship document made it clear that while the rights of an unborn child are a priority voters should consider a whole range of issues regarding the preservation and quality of life."
COMPLETELY incorrect.
Cardinal Francis George "too many Americans have no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed [by abortion], and we live therefore, in a country drenched in blood. This can't be something you start playing off pragmatically against other issues."
Archbishop Chaput: The truth is that for some Catholics, the abortion issue has never been a comfortable cause. It's embarrassing. It's not the kind of social justice they like to talk about. It interferes with their natural political alliances. And because the homicides involved in abortion are ''little murders'' - the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives - it's easy to look the other way.
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.
BEIJING -- A thick brown cloud of soot, particles and chemicals stretching from the Persian Gulf to Asia threatens health and food supplies in the world, the U.N. reported Thursday, citing what it called the newest threat from global warming.
The United States views Russian threats to place tactical missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad as provocative and misguided, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.
Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has gone on a hunger strike to protest his jailing, his lawyer said Thursday, while legal woes mounted for family members also implicated in the corruption scandal. 
A record number of would-be immigrants arrived in Italy this year, according to the daily Corriere della Sera. Over 40,000 people have requested refugee status so far this year, compared to 14,000 over the same period in 2007.
NATO, meeting on Russia's doorstep, held talks with Ukraine Friday to assess its progress toward membership of the alliance, but prospects for a promised entry action plan were dim.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon released on Wednesday $50 million in an effort to keep Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 fighter production line humming until President-elect Barack Obama can decide the fate of the top-of-the-line U.S. warplane.
Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. 
SINGAPORE (AP) Oil prices slid to near $55 a barrel Thursday in Asia as more bad economic news from the U.S. heightened fears of a severe global downturn that will pulverise demand for crude. Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 81 cents to $55.35 a barrel, after falling as low as $55.03, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore.
