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Iraqis seize 16 trucks filled with Iranian weapons
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
New AntiViral-Resistant AIDS: 3 Mos from Infection to AIDS? Yikes!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 17:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Double-plus ungood!
Posted by: Leigh || 02/11/2005 18:27 Comments || Top||

#2  For those who engage in high risk behavior.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/11/2005 18:35 Comments || Top||

#3  true, but it never stays contained in that group, Mrs. D....I've got a 20 yr old daughter, and 2 sons in High School...I worry for them
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 18:46 Comments || Top||


Date from Hell: Rescue!
It's every single person's nightmare: You're on a date, it's a disaster but there's no way out.
..and the window in the Men's room is just too small to crawl through...
With Valentine's Day looming, a mobile phone company in Australia has come to the rescue with a service offering an escape from the date from hell. All you have to do is discreetly dial three numbers and then hang up without saying a word. "Virgin Mobile will call them back a minute later with a perfect excuse to get them out of there. We'll even talk them through what to say," the company, a joint venture of the Virgin Group and Optus, said in a statement.
"Hello? What's that.....oh, yes, Mr. President.....yes sir, I agree....no other options....I can be at the field in twenty minutes.....I understand........no sir, thank you........give my best to Laura...goodbye sir."
A survey of 402 people by Virgin Mobile found that 53 percent arrange in advance to have a friend call them mid-date to check they are all right or if they need an excuse to get out. The results showed women were twice as likely as men to use the tactic.
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 1:32:38 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Queen of Venus with a Hungarian accent.

Earthman Eric Fleming, Rocket Captain, later to be Clint Eastwood's sidekick (Rawhide), and drown in the Amazon River while making a movie.

It all makes sense...
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 15:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Now I'm wondering if my last date really was a backup shuttle astronaut. Her having to leave did seem rather sudden. hmmm . . .
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/11/2005 16:54 Comments || Top||

#3  The idea of a Gabor in CinemaScope is worrysome.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/11/2005 17:13 Comments || Top||

#4  looks more like the Hildabeast....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 17:38 Comments || Top||


Sex in a can for women
beer for men
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 12:55:50 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  we used to joke in the navy on the mid-ride that if we were chicks, all we'd need was a keg, duct tape and a 220v "appliance" - raunchy buggers we were!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 02/11/2005 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  It sounds like you all didn't need a testosterone boost then.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/11/2005 14:13 Comments || Top||

#3  I can see the next excuse for all those cross-dressing Islamofacists who get stopped at Kuwaiti checkpoints...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/11/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Raising testosterone levels too high could cause beard growth, hair loss, greasy skin and acne, he added.

Yes, that can be a downer...



Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 15:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Hmm. Used to be a time that sexual desire came as a natural result of a man showing that he loves you, wants to stay with you and care for you, and desires you, and you desire him. Now we need chemicals, I guess?
Posted by: Jules 187 || 02/11/2005 16:12 Comments || Top||

#6  # 5 Jules- how right you are! Chemical's . pill's, adaptive equipment society has tried them all. Some say "cucumbers are better than men"

What is better than a "good" woman???

Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea || 02/11/2005 16:21 Comments || Top||

#7  What is better than a "good" woman???

A "naughty" one?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/11/2005 16:33 Comments || Top||


Arabia
UN Downplays Fears That Islamic Pilgrimage Fueled Saudi Polio Outbreak
The U.N. health agency downplayed fears of a major polio outbreak in Saudi Arabia fueled by Islamic pilgrims from African nations still in the grip of the disease. Saudi authorities have reported three cases of polio, including one this week in a boy from Nigeria, where a vaccine boycott by hardline Muslim clerics in the country's north spawned a resurgence of the disease across Africa, infecting children in formerly polio-free nations. "This isn't a major setback," said Bruce Aylward, who coordinates the World Health Organization's anti-polio initiative.
"I prefer to look at it as job security."
The WHO also said it was on track in its worldwide campaign to eradicate the crippling and sometimes fatal disease. Saudi authorities regularly run vaccination programs ahead of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which draws faithful Muslims from around the world. A handful of polio cases should not raise fears of a looming outbreak there, WHO officials said.
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 9:29:46 AM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yet another way the Islamofascists endanger us all.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/11/2005 13:03 Comments || Top||

#2  truly chickens coming home to roost, though, no?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 13:04 Comments || Top||

#3  "This isn't a major setback,"
It sure is to the people who got it -- and why weren't they vaccinated???
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Hmm, sounds a bit like living here in northern VA, where as soon as a deadly virus breaks out in China it's here within days, brought by immigrants.
Posted by: HV || 02/11/2005 15:09 Comments || Top||


Women Can't Be Left Far Behind
There was a mixed reaction among voters yesterday when Arab News asked them if they wanted to see women included in the next round of municipal elections as voters or candidates. Views varied between supporters of the move, and others who said women do not need to vote as their husbands, fathers, or brothers are doing the job on their behalf.

Yet another group rejected the idea on the ground that Saudi Arabia has its own cultural and social aspects. A few did not specify their reasons, and said there was no need for their involvement. Asked about the absence of women from the election scene, Dr. Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman Al-Thunayan, a Shoura Council member and professor of pedagogy, replied: "I was asked the same question by a woman journalist from the West and I said, 'First of all, there are six million women in Saudi Arabia. I, as a member of the Shoura Council, a husband and a father, represent a large number of women voters in the Kingdom. And as we know, democracy is about majority. And if we go and ask six million women what they want, they would answer that they do not want to vote. They either want their men to vote for them, or do not want to vote at all. Women in Saudi Arabia are comfortable being represented by men. "For instance, in Saudi Arabia, it is the law itself, not the habit, which requires men to serve women and accommodate all their needs, i.e., housing, food, clothing, education, etc. She is a lady and we are the servants. Men are servants of women. So why should we drag women into issues normally handled by men?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper || 02/11/2005 9:09:21 AM || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The amusing irony is that in any society, women vote much like the men in their family anyway, the exception being single women who live away from their families.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 9:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Anonymoose, it could be as well: "Men vote much like the women in their family anyway"
Posted by: Sobiesky || 02/11/2005 10:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I think that the changing of ways in the middle east is tied to the liberation of woman from the chattal role that they are in now. And I am not talking about abortion and lesbian rights. The so-called feminists have been pretty silent about women's situations in the ME.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/11/2005 11:12 Comments || Top||

#4  "that little slut showing off her wrists in the pic should be flayed"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Not this so-called feminist, AP. But you are correct that many of the lefty-stripe feminists are silent about women's rights when standing up for the rights would conflict with their liberal identification (systematic rape in Darfur, for example-"we can't fight for justice for those women, because that would put us on the same side as George Bush").
Posted by: Jules 187 || 02/11/2005 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  A Saudi man was interviewed last night at the polling place. He said he brought his young daughter along tp show that women needed to be able to vote as well as men.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/11/2005 12:25 Comments || Top||

#7  DB-And that's pretty remarkable--almost unbelievable for a man in that part of the world. I hope that these elections mark a turning point and that fellows like that man run for office.

Unfortunately, my hopes are likely to be dashed. Wahhabiism, to me, is the scurge of our times. Do we imagine that it will be going away in our lifetimes with mere elections?
Posted by: Jules 187 || 02/11/2005 12:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Some light relief: I'm going to go and cut a cake in half and ask my 8 yr old which is the bigger half. I bet she knows the answer.
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 02/11/2005 13:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Wow Moose. In my family, voting is a zero-sum game. The women and men always vote opposite. Mars/Venus and all. "But he has bad hair. If he'd just get a decent cut." "But woman, who cares about his hair, the times call for a fighter and he is one." "I don't care about that, you better get him to the salon."
Posted by: Zpaz || 02/11/2005 17:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Not to be sexist but unfortunately for the feminists women in many iff not all human societies see the world in terms of family and numbers of children - as a well-known, Left
Liberal, female senior journalist of the White House Corps was quoted as saying, "...Women view and possess honor by having children.", or words to that effect! The Left and PC says Americans must be afraid to say or argue such statements - the Left and LeftMedias can rail ags culture or cultural perceptions vv the role of women, but they need a lot more power than what they've got to fight God, Nature, and ags Women's natural gender-based inclinations itself.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/11/2005 21:50 Comments || Top||


Apathy reigns among Saudi voters
Apathy was reigning among Saudi men Wednesday in Riyadh on the eve of the first round of the kingdom's municipal vote, despite a visible election campaign that has seen posters pasted up all over the capital.Only around 148,000 men representing 37 percent of an estimated 400,000 eligible voters in the capital and its surroundings have registered to cast their ballots.Women, who make up more than 50 per cent of the population, have been banned from participating in the landmark polls. "I didn't register. I'm too busy ... and I don't regret not registering," said 35-year-old Abdulrahman Momenah, who claimed that his job as a computer consultant was time-consuming."I don't have time to see my relatives except on big occasions, like funerals ... You think I have time for elections?"
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who has the time? What with ducking 5 prayers a day, pretending to memorize the Qu'uran when others are watching, which is most of the time, beating our women, and indoctrinating our children with Jooo mythology, well, we're booked up for another 1400 yrs - at least.

Posted by: .com || 02/11/2005 4:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Pssssst...hey...wanna buy a...ring?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/11/2005 9:51 Comments || Top||

#3  I think that the elections were tailored to be boring. First and foremost, it allays fears in the government of election based chaos and democracy run wild. It gives other elements in the government assurance that this democracy thing is not particularly interesting to Saudis. Lastly, it helps women in their push for enfranchisement by saying, "Ah, who cares? Let them vote. It doesn't matter." In other words, it can be, and is, interpreted as meaning several different and even opposite things.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 12:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's see ... the security forces in the control of a Wahabist prince, Islamacist threats against voters next door .... do I want to show up and vote, when I don't know who will come out ahead in the royal power struggle?

Not me, nope, I'm jus' a lil ole Bedwin, not botherin nobody.
Posted by: true nuff || 02/11/2005 17:00 Comments || Top||


Kuwait Launches Dialogue With NATO
Kuwait has launched a formal security dialogue with NATO. Kuwaiti officials said dialogue sessions have taken place both in the sheikdom as well as in Brussels. They said the dialogue has brought senior officials from both sides for discussions on threat assessments and plans for training and exercise. In November 2004, Kuwait and NATO concluded a two-day dialogue in Brussels on security issues. The Kuwaiti delegation was led by Kuwaiti security chief Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah. NATO plans to intensify its dialogue with Kuwait in 2005, officials said. They said NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer would lead a delegation to the sheikdom during a Gulf tour planned for the second quarter of 2005.
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
US slams Russia for Venezuela arms sales
The US State Department has criticized Russia over plans to sell light weapons to Venezuela, expressing concerns that the Russian armaments could end up in the hands of militants in neighboring Colombia. US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli on Thursday said Washington was "extremely troubled by Venezuelan arms purchases from Russia", and that the weapons could have a "destabilizing effect on the hemisphere". Ereli said the US had already raised the issue with Russia several times.

Russia reportedly plans to sell Venezuela 40 MiG jet fighters and more than 100'000 AK-47 assault rifles. Ereli said Washington was concerned about how Venezuela would secure the new armaments as well as the thousands of old rifles they would replace, adding that Venezuela should have consulted its neighbors about such a large arms purchase. Ereli mentioned two leftist Colombian groups - known by their Spanish initials FARC and ELN, which the US has designated as terrorist organizations - that he said could get easily obtain arms thanks to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's "tolerant attitude towards these groups".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 10:05:09 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wait wait wait, what are American arms firms doing selling weapons to the enemy down south???
Posted by: Edward Yee || 02/11/2005 16:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Likely before Chavez came to power?
Posted by: Pappy || 02/11/2005 17:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe they're ex-IAF Migs.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/11/2005 17:33 Comments || Top||

#4  slightly salty?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 18:00 Comments || Top||


Haitian Police Search Compound for Rebel
Police hunting a rebel leader stormed a compound used by Haiti's disbanded army Thursday, exchanging gunfire with defenders, officials said. A grade school girl was killed in the crossfire. Nearly 200 U.N. peacekeepers surrounded the compound as police firing assault rifles moved inside to arrest Remissainthe Ravix, a leader of the rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year, said Cmdr. Carlos Chagas Braga, a spokesman for the 7,500-member U.N. peacekeeping mission. He said that the U.N. troops did not fire any shots. Police accuse Ravix of killing four policemen Sunday, while the interim government has said he is wanted for directing attacks on several police stations in December. Ravix has denied the accusations. Police led two people away in handcuffs, but refused to say who they were. Braga said neither suspect was Ravix.
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Pastors in China Imprisoned, Forced to String Christmas Lights
Their fingers bleed. If they don't see through their day's quota — 5,000 bulbs, they are beaten. The next day they report to duty under guards' eyes. They thread the fine wire through plastic frames for Christmas lights to be strung for selling around the world. But their Christmas celebration is confined to being imprisoned. Their crime? Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. This past year, 600 pastors alone were put behind Chinese bars. Their families? Left to fend for themselves. So tomorrow more pastors jailed by Chinese atheists will string fine wire for Christmas light insertions into hard plastic containers. A workday: 16-20 hours. Then the items will be marketed global for believers to have Christmas lights for one more December...
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 8:11:50 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Japan-China tensions rise over tiny islands
In a sign of deepening popular and political animosity between China and Japan, Tokyo took formal possession this week of a tiny archipelago in the Pacific waters south of Japan. In the early morning of Feb. 9, Tokyo informed Beijing's embassy here that the Senkaku Islands would be administered by the Japanese coast guard. The unexpectedly bold action by Tokyo received little attention here. But it is seen as a "serious chess move," says one diplomat, in a region where power relations are being redefined, and where tensions over energy, borders, military buildups, and ethnic rivalries are palpable. In Asia, drawing clear lines around territories that may hold oil and gas, is rare; Japan's move takes place amid a dispute with China over what constitutes legitimate zones of energy exploration in open seas.

While economic ties between "China Inc." and "Japan Inc." are warming and integrating, political feelings between China and Japan are not. The current atmosphere is "cool if not cold," a senior Japanese official says, due to a perception that China fuels "anti-Japanese sentiments" among its people, and is making "aggressive claims ... all over the Pacific."

"There is a huge disconnect between the economic and political relations of China and Japan," says Gerald Curtis, of Columbia University, on sabbatical in Tokyo. "Japanese business enthusiasm for the China economic miracle continues. But at the political level, there is no talk of integration. Rather, there is a stiffening back of nationalism in both countries." Beijing's somewhat vague claims on the Senkakus date to the early 1980s. Chinese "activists" last year landed on one island and attacked a lighthouse, and a Chinese nuclear submarine was found in Senkaku waters that Japan claims. Chinese spokesman Kong Quan interrupted the new year holiday to describe Tokyo's formal claim as "illegal and unacceptable."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 5:07:35 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Fiji army withdraws PM's security
The Fijian military has withdrawn the security detail it had been providing for Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. The recall was needed to save money, a spokesman said. Recently the army was heavily fined for overspending. The prime minister's spokesman described the removal of Mr Qarase's bodyguards as "discourteous".
I think it's funny as hell.
Relations between the government and the army have been strained recently due to the release of several key supporters of a coup in 2000. The army played a central role in ending the coup - led by nationalist George Speight - and has openly expressed its anger at Mr Qarase's perceived support for the instigators. It was particularly angered by the release in November of disgraced vice president Ratu Jope Seniloli.
I was wondering when the Fiji military was going to start thinking they could do a better job of running the country
Mr Seniloli served just three months of a four-year jail term. A letter sent by the military to Mr Qarase's office, and published in Fiji's newspapers on Friday, said the prime minister's private security detail was being cancelled in order to save money. The finance ministry recently ordered army chief Frank Bainimarama to pay a $2m surcharge for overspending his 2004 budget.
Had to find that money somewhere, the security detail sounds like a excellent place to start
The prime minister's chief of staff, Jioji Kotobalavu, told the French news agency AFP that while Mr Qarase understood the army commander's frustrations, his attitude toward the prime minister had been "discourteous".
Wait till he becomes "un-helpful"
A senior police officer told the Fiji Times that the police were ready to provide the prime minister's security detail instead.
Fiji troops spend most of their time being rented out to the UN for peacekeeping missions around the world. I've read they've gotten so good at their job the government back in Fiji doesn't like them coming home. Something about crack troops sitting in a barracks polishing their weapons makes them nervous.
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 8:59:45 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
EU VP says Europe economy is worse
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 18:14 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "There are not enough Europeans working or working the hours that they should," he said, as compared to the United States. In fact, he added, if one were to look at the productivity level of the European Union it far exceeds the United States, but because there are fewer workers and fewer hours worked, the EU falls behind.

"We are lazy, to say it simply," said Roca.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/11/2005 18:42 Comments || Top||

#2  That, and the huge socialist machine that the EU has to support in each country....
Posted by: mmurray821 || 02/11/2005 18:50 Comments || Top||

#3  "...if one were to look at the productivity level of the European Union it far exceeds the United States..."

hmmmmmmm ... I'd like to see the numbers on that. Until I do, I gotta call "Bullshit".
Posted by: docob || 02/11/2005 19:22 Comments || Top||


EU slams UK emissions changes
Via Lucianne - You want to be a part of this, Tony, don't whine:
Britain's decision to water down its emissions trading plan to let industry pollute more is unacceptable, the European Commission has written to the government in a letter obtained by Reuters. The government altered its plan, which had already been approved by the European Union executive, in October after complaints from companies that it was too tough. Britain has threatened to take the commission to court if it refuses to accept the revisions, which raised the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that industry can emit by nearly 3 percent above the original plan.

The commission has said it has to approve Britain's proposed changes. The two sides have not yet come to an agreement. Britain's original plan was approved in July with instructions for technical alterations, which the commission said Britain had agreed to make. The country's subsequent changes were incompatible with that decision, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas wrote in the letter to environment secretary Margaret Beckett.
**SNIP**
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 6:00:44 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let the Kyoto Games begin! Popcorn, anyone?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/11/2005 18:24 Comments || Top||

#2  oh jeeebus - you're calling he-who-should-not-be-named-or-questioned/contradicted
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 18:29 Comments || Top||

#3  This goes along nicely with the story about how the ice age has been forestalled by human activity over the last 10,000 years (mainly domesticating cattle, which have been emitting huge amounts of methane). Gosh, d'you suppose Bush and those barbarian conservatives could have been right about Kyoto?

/sarcasm
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/11/2005 20:37 Comments || Top||


All your planes belong to us, the chocolate makers!!!!
Via LGF:
On Wednesday, Condoleezza Rice arrived in Brussels to visit NATO headquarters. She also had a meeting with the European Commission, with Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and minister of foreign affairs Karel De Gucht. Around 11:15 am, while Air Force Two (a modified Boeing 757) was taxiing on the tarmac and officials were preparing to welcome the Secretary of State, Secret Service personnel and Belgian protocol officials were quarrelling about how close reporters could approach the plane.

Let's have a look at some screenshots from Belgian TV station VTM:

--SNIP--
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 3:56:38 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ok, contest time:

Original Secret Service guy quote:
"If you push me again, you're gonna go."

So -let's play "I've got a better threat!"

If you push me again...

A) I'm gonna rip off your arm and beat you to death with it.
Posted by: mojo || 02/11/2005 16:45 Comments || Top||

#2  "Last year I went to Iraq. Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows, rainbow skies, and rivers made of CHOCOLATE where the children laughed and played with gumdrop flies..."

-SEAN PENN in the movie TEAM AMERICA

All your planes belong to us, the chocolate makers!!!!

Sean Penn retreated to Belgium...
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 16:53 Comments || Top||

#3  LGF has the vid - it's up until Tuesday from the TV station.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 22:13 Comments || Top||


How Yalta changed the face of Europe
Posted by: tipper || 02/11/2005 09:27 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And no mention that the Soviet spy, Alger Hiss, was in attendance with Roosevelt and actively pipelining to Stalin.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 9:41 Comments || Top||


Great White North
NHL: "We're done" - Canada placed on suicide watch
The NHL and the Players Association broke off talks yesterday as the clock ticked down to a weekend deadline for saving what little is left of the season. ``I can tell you unequivocally and without a doubt that we are done,'' NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told The Associated Press last night. ``Without a change in position by the union, the season will be canceled,'' Daly said.

"There will be no further contact with the union before the season is canceled unless they reach out to us. That isn't likely to happen. We're not going to pick up the phone this weekend,'' union senior director Ted Saskin said after the four-hour meeting. ``We're done.'' The lockout has wiped out 824 of the 1,230 regular-season games through yesterday, as well as this weekend's scheduled All-Star Game. If the season is canceled, there is no telling when there will be NHL hockey again.
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 10:33:46 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This could be more devestating to Cananda than the Tsunami was to South Asia
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 02/11/2005 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  They'll always have curling.
Posted by: ed || 02/11/2005 11:08 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll have to watch real boxing to get my fight fix...
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 11:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Curious...
I work in Irvine, sort of close to the "Pond" where the Ducks used to be what was called an NHL team. Last year the Ducks were aribrushed all over the public transportation (Buses).

This year, it is LaCrosse players who are on the buses, although they are starting to be replaced by Angels Baseball...
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 11:24 Comments || Top||

#5  It's all okay. I'm a fan of the game itself, not of the players or teams, and minor league games are just as fun to watch.

For the NHL players' sake, I hope they haven't been tossing their money around recklessly...
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/11/2005 11:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Who cares? Hockey's not a sport, it's more of an organized riot...
Posted by: mojo || 02/11/2005 12:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Bomb: You're right. Minor league hockey and minor league baseball are just as much fun--and you can actually aford to go. Go Barons! Go Aeros!
Posted by: Mike || 02/11/2005 12:46 Comments || Top||

#8  If you want action and hard hitting, go see a professional lacrosse game. It is really like hockey on foot. I always hoped that the baseball strikes would go on so long that lacrosse would replace that oh-so-dull sport.
Posted by: Remoteman || 02/11/2005 12:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Bummer, my beloved Rangers were on track to suck again this year.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 02/11/2005 13:08 Comments || Top||

#10  http://www.sandiegogulls.com/ if you need a hockey fix.
Posted by: RWV || 02/11/2005 13:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Too far. Fresno is a little closer. For me, at least.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/11/2005 13:55 Comments || Top||

#12  RWV - SD boy? Santee here
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#13  Condors baby got my jersey in the closet. The Gulls are the suck :p
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/11/2005 14:48 Comments || Top||

#14  The Gulls are back? Cool.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/11/2005 15:12 Comments || Top||

#15 

LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA ICE DOGS.

AFFILIATE OF THE MONTREAL CANADIENS?

Go figure
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 16:56 Comments || Top||

#16  Soon as I figure out what icing is I'll care. Meanwhile pitchers and catchers report in 10 days.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/11/2005 18:02 Comments || Top||

#17  speaking of pitchers and catchers - check out the story I posted on the new AIDS on Pg 2
*rimshot*
nasty stuff
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 18:18 Comments || Top||

#18  Shipman, icing is the really sweet stuf that people put on the outside of cakes.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/11/2005 18:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Democrats Whine, Stamp Their Feet Demand Bush Halt Attacks on Reid
Senate Democrats demanded Thursday that President Bush order a halt to personal attacks on the party's leader, Sen. Harry Reid, and expressed regret that they had failed to mount a stronger defense for his defeated predecessor. ``This is a new Democratic Party,'' Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a news conference called to release a letter telling Bush to muzzle his ``political operatives.''
Schumer, D-Partisan Hate, went on to say...
``It says to the president, `You will not intimidate us','' said Schumer, who likened the attacks on Reid to political knee-cappings.
no nazi analogys? Geez, you guys are slipping
Po' widdle democwats. Who knew they were so sensitive?
The letter itself was written in milder terms. ``We urge you to keep your word about being a uniter and publicly halt these counterproductive attacks so that we are able to work together in a bipartisan manner and debate issues on the merits,'' it says. Bush and the White House have denied responsibility for the attacks. But Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate after Reid, ridiculed that assertion, as Reid did earlier in the week. ``This is the Abu Ghraib defense, that a few renegade soldiers are responsible for their own behavior and the commanders are not accountable,'' said Durbin.
All Abu-Grahib, all the time....
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 11:05:30 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reid, who did not attend the news conference, said twice this week that Bush could not credibly claim he wasn’t behind attacks circulated by a party apparatus under his control.

Sounds like paranoia to me.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/11/2005 12:02 Comments || Top||

#2  More like Freudian projection.
Posted by: Ebbavith Gleack2775 || 02/11/2005 12:05 Comments || Top||

#3  "Stop calling me names, you filthy, homophobic, racist, idiotic, Hitlerite puppet of the Zionist entity! There is no room in American political discourse for the sort of exaggeration, name-calling, and ad hominem insults you hypocritical, imperialist, mouth-breathing Rethugluican Christers engage in every minute of every day -- and if you didn't have an extra chromosome, you might be smart enough to know that!"
Posted by: Mike || 02/11/2005 13:06 Comments || Top||

#4  ``This is the Abu Ghraib defense, that a few renegade soldiers are responsible for their own behavior and the commanders are not accountable,’’ said Durbin.

You think some Democrats stay up all night thinking about Abu Ghraib?

I wonder if they imagine themselves as the top or the bottom, as it were.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/11/2005 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5 
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 14:45 Comments || Top||

#6  --All Abu-Grahib, all the time....---

Maybe they want to be led around by a leash naked.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 15:30 Comments || Top||

#7  W should issue a statement using the word "disappointed."
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 15:30 Comments || Top||

#8  And "concerned."
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 15:30 Comments || Top||

#9  ROFLMAO Mike! and stealing it....
Posted by: Shipman || 02/11/2005 18:10 Comments || Top||

#10  damn busted pic link....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 18:23 Comments || Top||

#11  the dem's are in such a complete and total meltdown that it's like watching a nervous breakdown.
hahaha at first,
then that momentary horror as you realize they really are pathetic
then you feel bad for witnessing their embarrassment and you feel compelled to turn your eyes to spare them the shame...but you can't.
Posted by: 2b || 02/11/2005 18:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Mike, that's a keeper.
Posted by: jules 2 || 02/11/2005 19:22 Comments || Top||

#13  ...Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate...

That says everything that needs to be said about how pathetic the Democratic Party has become. I wouldn't let Dummy Dick park my car!
Posted by: Darth VAda || 02/11/2005 22:42 Comments || Top||


White House Spokesman: What Is A Reporter?
Drudge Report
White House spokesman Scott McClellan On Thursday challenged liberal media activists, who are currently feigning outrage over events surrounding "Jeff Gannon," to examine the definition of reporter in the new century. "In this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide or try to pick and choose who is a journalist. It gets into the issue of advocacy journalism," McClellan said. "Where do you draw the line? There are a number of people who cross that line in the briefing room. There are a number of people in that room that express their points of view, and there are people in that room that represent traditional media, they represent talk radio, they're columnists, and they represent online news organizations."

Developing...Heh, heh
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 9:18:49 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Put under the heading of "defining deviancy down". It should be noted that at the annual conference to get drunk and blather about "journalistic ethics", the "journalists" annually vote that there is no such thing, and that their relativistic lack of ethics is actually a legitimate form of ethics itself.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  "Gannon"'s fault in the eyes of teh other Journos was his conservative bent. If they had any ethics they would've smothered Helen Thomas in her bed
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Anybody else concerned that "Gannon" could get a White House pass under an assumed name?
Posted by: VAMark || 02/11/2005 12:16 Comments || Top||

#4  he used his real name in getting the pass daily
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 12:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Yep. He gave his real name to the Secret Service and wrote under a pseudonym. Apparently a whole lot of anonymous lefty bloggers have a problem with that.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/11/2005 13:01 Comments || Top||

#6  like Hesiod?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 13:03 Comments || Top||

#7  That's one example.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/11/2005 14:49 Comments || Top||

#8  But not Atrios.
Posted by: Inigo Montoya || 02/11/2005 14:52 Comments || Top||

#9  Thank goodness people are finally considering "what is a journalist".
Posted by: gromky || 02/11/2005 23:12 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Kofi Annan insists UN role vital for world affairs
Insert your favorite Clinton/Congo/Oil-for-Shopping Sprees joke here:
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps he should start "insisting" on other things, like:
Ending the escalating Korean War.
Ending the Mad Mullahs' death spiral.
Getting Syrians out of neighboring countries.
Getting U.N. disaster relief to take days, not weeks to begin.
Getting the U.N. out of the Climate business.
Getting Kojo a legitimate job.
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Goo-fi is only calling it "vital" because that's the justification for sucking money out of Uncle Sam's (and others') pockets.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/11/2005 0:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Vital for what? A global laughing-stock? :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/11/2005 0:55 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: .com || 02/11/2005 6:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Forget it, Kofi; the UN's already been written off as a total waste of time. When we can sweet-talk it (or bludgeon it) into doing something useful for us, we will; otherwise, we're going to be ignoring it from now on. Might as well get used to it: you're now irrelevant.

Condi Rice's Paris speech on Tuesday drew a lot of criticism for its blandness and seeming lack of substance.

But there was a message in that speech: although Dr. Rice mentioned the European Union and NATO many times and discussed their roles in the WoT at some length, nowhere in that 3000+ word address was there so much as a single mention of the United Nations. Zip. Nada.

In the question-and-answer session following her address, one questioner asked about the UN and whether we would be continuing to work through it. Her answer, in about 200 sugar-coated words, was essentially "There's nothing special about the UN and we will work through whatever forum gets results," and pointedly mentioned the tsunami relief effort by the US, Japan, India and Australia to illustrate what she meant.

I could be wrong, of course; but I think there was a very strong message in that speech.
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/11/2005 6:55 Comments || Top||

#6  How in the world did that bloated, corrupt, anti-American bureaucracy populated by the worse sort of whores and scumbags imaginable become legitimate in so many eyes?
Irrelevant yes, but dangerous none the less.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 02/11/2005 8:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Geesh JerseyMike, do you have to insult whores and scumpags like that? Even they have standards!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/11/2005 9:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Don't even think about putting up the diagram of the sphUNcter.

Don't even think about it.
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 15:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Fred---Oh, the imagery! Please stop. I am eating lunch and reading RB. I know it't not advisable.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/11/2005 15:48 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
The Ayatollah's Book of Etiquette
From "A Clarification of Questions," by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, published in 1985 by the Westview Press. Khomeini's treatise sets out his position on 3,000 questions of everyday life. Translated by J. Borujerdi.
64. Evacuation is unlawful in four places. First, in dead-end alleys. Second, on the property of a person who has not given his permission. Third, in a place assigned to a specific group of people, such as some schools. Fourth, over the graves of the faithful, if it would be considered disrespectful.

107. The whole body of an infidel, even the hair, the nails, and its wetness, is unclean.

112. Industrial alcohol used for painting doors, tables, chairs, etc., is clean if one does not know it was made of something inebriating.

120. The sweat of a camel that eats unclean substances is unclean.

125. When a clean object touches an unclean object and one or both are wet enough to convey that wetness to the other, then the clean object becomes unclean. But if the wetness is not enough to reach the other, the clean object does not become unclean.

145. If a host, while eating, realizes that the food is unclean, he must inform his guests. But if one of the guests realizes this, it is not necessary to inform the others, unless his relations with the others are such that as a result of remaining silent he himself becomes unclean.

462. Divorcing a menstruating woman is void.

464. If a woman begins menstruating while praying, her prayer is void.

2,054. These are the major abominable dealings. First, selling real estate. Second, butchery. Third, selling shrouds. Fourth, dealing with base people. Fifth, dealing between the morning azan and the onset of sunshine. Sixth, choosing to buy and sell wheat, barley, and the like as one's occupation. Seventh, entering into a deal involving the purchase of a commodity that another person is about to buy.

2,622. Eating locusts caught with the hand or by some other means is lawful after they are dead. It is not necessary that the person who caught them be a Moslem or that he mentioned the name of God when he caught them. But if a dead locust is held by an infidel and it is not known whether it was caught alive, it is not lawful to eat it, even if the person who caught it says that he caught it alive.

2,629. It is not unlawful to swallow the food that exits from between the teeth as a result of flossing if one's nature has no aversion to it.

2,631. It is loathsome to eat the meat of a horse, a mule, or a donkey if someone has had coitus with the animal.

2,637. Several things are loathsome (abominable) when eating. First, eating while satiated. Second, excessive eating (it has been said that the God of the World dislikes a full stomach more than anything else). Third, looking at other people's faces while they are eating. Fourth, eating hot food. Fifth, blowing at what one is eating or drinking. Sixth, waiting for something else after the bread has been put on the tablecloth. Seventh, cutting bread with a knife. Eighth, putting bread under a container of food. Ninth, cleaning the meat stuck to a bone so that nothing remains on it. Tenth, peeling fruit.

2,858. The prizes that banks give to encourage borrowers, and those that institutions give to encourage buyers and customers, are lawful. The thing that sellers put inside their merchandise to attract customers and increase buyers, such as gold coins in boxes of shortening, are lawful and of no concern.

2,874. It is not unlawful to introduce a man's semen into the uterus of his wife with devices such as suction cups.

2,882. When the preservation of a Moslem's life rests on grafting an organ from a dead Moslem, severing that organ and grafting it are acceptable
Posted by: growler || 02/11/2005 11:31:55 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And a few more pearls of wisdom from our favorite rotting ayatollah: Khomeini's Quotes from Dr. Homa Darabi Foundation
Posted by: ed || 02/11/2005 12:02 Comments || Top||

#2  2,631. It is loathsome to eat the meat of a horse, a mule, or a donkey if someone has had coitus with the animal.

Yeah, I always wondered about that.
No wonder the French loved this guy.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/11/2005 12:16 Comments || Top||

#3  #2,631 left out the second half of Khomeini's brain nugget: Pass it off on an unsuspecting boob in the next town. Khomeini must have been a bazaar merchant in another life.

From the Dr. Homa link:
"The meat of horses, mules, or donkeys is not recommended. It is strictly forbidden if the animal was sodomized while alive by a man. In that case, the animal must be taken outside the city and sold."
Posted by: ed || 02/11/2005 12:28 Comments || Top||

#4  #2637: I take it he's not a big fan of bananas?
Posted by: James || 02/11/2005 13:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Ed: so I assume that means if the animal was sodomized after death by a man, then it's o.k. to eat? No wonder these people are so fanatical...every single topic of their lives are decisions made by others. No way to live in my book.
Posted by: BA || 02/11/2005 13:48 Comments || Top||

#6  James - or BBQ beef ribs, either.
But still, the question remains....if your cousin has had sex with an infidel goat, can you roast it up for your next party in the dead-end alley?
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 02/11/2005 13:52 Comments || Top||

#7  Words to live by: "Never look in the eye of an evacuating, menstruating, infidel woman real estate broker in a dead-end alley if she is eating dead locusts of unknown origin."
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 14:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Islam is a dead-end alley, no wonder it preyed on his mind so much
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 14:10 Comments || Top||

#9  "Evacuation is unlawful...over the graves of the faithful, if it would be considered disrespectful."

But if you do it in a respectful manner (lifting the right leg, not the left), it's OK.
Posted by: jackal || 02/11/2005 14:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Here are more...

3237.1.a Taking a deep breath while facing a compass point of 64 degrees (close to east-northeast) will result in a lightning zap from allah himself because allah considers 64 degrees his private direction.

621.3.c Flatulance while walking through a date palm grove is unclean because the trees will absorbe your "deposit" and ruin the flavor of the fruit.

1215.3.x Any woman who had a snowman painted on her big toenail during a pedicure is taboo. This is an infidel woman who grew up in a cold climate and hasn't been near snow in several years. Desire is unclean.

6969.b Certain positions during copulation with goats or sheep are forbidden. It might get you kicked in the head. This is a personal warning.

so - Was the old sourpuss part English or not????
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 17:09 Comments || Top||

#11  it has been said that the God of the World dislikes a full stomach more than anything else

a there your have it mercifull allan wants you hungry
Posted by: half || 02/11/2005 18:54 Comments || Top||

#12  sounds like a starting point for Juche
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 19:13 Comments || Top||

#13  #2622 reminds me of a skit in The Meaning of Life, when Human Sexuality Professor John Cleese is trying to explain to his students what to do about lunch and the hanging of the coats. Thanks for this post-a very long day at work, relieved immensely by this lunacy!
Posted by: jules 2 || 02/11/2005 19:17 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Pact on Iran gas pipeline by June
India is hopeful that an agreement with Iran on the proposed gas pipeline will be signed by June this year.
"I am going to Tehran in June and hope this would act as a catalyst in furthering an agreement on import of natural gas through pipeline passing through Pakistan", Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told newspersons after a meeting with Iranian Ambassador Siyavash Zaragar Yaghoubi here.
Mr Aiyar said that Iran will sign two different sets of agreements—one each with Pakistan and India. The agreement with India will envisage delivery of natural gas at India's borders, "the second would be between Iran and Pakistan on how the gas is to be transported to the Indian border".
Meanwhile, Mr Aiyar also launched futures trading in crude oil initiated by the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX).
The Minister said that the importance in the external aspect of pursuing energy security has opened a plethora of opportunities. "As there is no fully matured Asian oil market at present, we need futures market to achieve that", he said.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 8:05:42 PM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/12/stories/2005021207021100.htm . Iran's Ambassador to India, Siavash Zargar Yaghoubi, feels that the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline could be extended to China as well. Though discussions on the gas pipeline are beginning in earnest only now, Mr. Yaghoubi feels that the pipeline can enter Chinese territory through India. "This is an idea," he said about extending the pipeline to China.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 20:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Pakistan -- now that's where I'd want my pipeline to run through. Especially if I were Hindu or Buddhist or athiest. Yeah, that Islamic fundamentalist pipe maintenance is almost perfect for that mullah gas.
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 20:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Shoot, the Bugtis don't care what the religion is of the pipeline's owners, they just want a bigger cut, or they'll blow it up again... and again... and ...
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/11/2005 23:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
McDonalds Caves To Special Interest Group
Statement by Center for Science in the Public Interest
Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson today released the following statement:
"The excellent legal settlement reached between McDonald's and BanTransFats.com and in the class action on the same matter is a perfect example of how litigation can motivate food companies to change their practices for the better. The programs that the American Heart Association will be able to sponsor should accelerate the food industry's movement from partially hydrogenated oils to more healthful natural oils.

"Partially hydrogenated oil causes tens of thousands of premature deaths each year and is an ingredient whose days are numbered. The Food and Drug Administration should act on CSPI's petitions and virtually ban partially hydrogenated oil and, in the interim, at least require restaurants to disclose when they use it.

"When McDonald's announced that it was reformulating its frying oil to contain less trans fat, the company told the public that its fried foods would be healthier. By retracting its promise as quietly as it did, McDonald's purposefully deceived its customers.

"While this settlement will help undo some of the damage, McDonalds should keep its promise and change its frying oil, as it already has in Denmark and Australia. All restaurants of any kind should immediately switch to healthier oils for the sake of their customers' health."
You would think that a multi-billion dollar company would have better lawyers.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 8:15:18 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  --"Partially hydrogenated oil causes tens of thousands of premature deaths each year --

Is this a bug or a feature?

The government wins.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 21:34 Comments || Top||

#2  When McDonald’s announced that it was reformulating its frying oil to contain less trans fat, the company told the public that its fried foods would be healthier.

Well, it looks like McDonald's is going to get even less of my business. So far, things I've tried that have been "improved" by lowering the fat level ended up tasting like crap.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/11/2005 22:03 Comments || Top||

#3  CSPI is half a dozen radical vegetarians with fax machines. That they get a single second of news coverage is due to the laziness and ignorance of the MSM.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/11/2005 22:28 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Hindu Radicals vs. Hallmark
The Shiv Sena Friday threatened to disrupt Valentine's Day celebrations in Maharashtra. Party spokespersons in different parts of the state said activists would devise different ways to halt Valentine's Day celebrations. "Our culture also has ideals of love. But we do not want to commercialise it by allowing such a day to be observed. A few vested interests were forcing Western ideas through the observance of such days," party spokesperson Sagar Shinde said in Pune. In Mumbai, the party spokesperson at Sena Bhavan said a formal agitation programme would be announced in a day or two. In Pune, shopkeepers are selling Valentine's Day cards under the guise of Vasant Utsav or a Hindu celebration of love...
Shiv Sena does this every Valentine's Day. They're anuses all year long, though.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 7:22:27 PM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Tech
Death Ray Development Gets Serious
Northrop-Grumman, leading manufacturer of combat lasers, believes these weapons are only a few years away from battlefield use. To that end, the company has set up a new divisions to develop and build the battle lasers. This optimism was caused by two successful tests last year. In one, a solid state laser shot down a mortar round. In another, a much more powerful chemical laser, firing from a customized B-747, hit a missile type target...
Nearly half a century of engineering work has produced thousands of improvements, and a few breakthroughs, in making the lasers more powerful, accurate and lethal. More efficient energy storage has made it possible to use lighter, shorter range ground based lasers effective against smaller targets like mortar shells and short-range rockets. Northrops move is an indication that the company feels confident enough to gamble its own money, instead of what they get for government research contracts, to produce useful laser weapons. The high energy airborne laser would not only be useful against ballistic missiles. Enemy aircraft and space satellites would also be at risk.
I wonder if they could make one that could be used for anti-aircraft, anti-a2a-missile, and anti-s2s-missile purposes? Say a system that could take down dozens, or even hundreds of rockets or missiles fired in a barrage
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 6:33:06 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Exactly. Imagine a few of these 747's patrolling the Taiwan straits.
Posted by: buwaya || 02/11/2005 18:39 Comments || Top||

#2  It certainly would put Lil'Kimmie's missile launches at risk.
Posted by: Remoteman || 02/11/2005 18:41 Comments || Top||

#3  The core of Dubya's proposed GMD is atmospheric and space-based LASER-BASED DEFENSE, with follow-on missle defenses and other types as secondary. The Commies know this, which is why America has 9-11 and the Clintons and the anti-American agendists, why Russia is engaging in worldwide weapons and nuke proliferation in violation of treaties, and while China is buying up Russki and Western submarines, airborne transports, tacair, and miltechs, and reorg her provinces into multiple smaller entities for enhanced political/militarized control, includ but not limited to MARTIAL LAW AS FOR WARTIME! China and Russia are QUIETLY MOBILIZING and preparing for NUKE WAR ags America iff the Clintons fail! This is why Hillary MUST RUN FOR POTUS, and why the Left have their 2020 maxima timeline for the US to be under Socialism, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!? I know the Army's and USDOD's weapons because I developed andor helped develop them as one of "Reagan's/Bush 1's Boyz". as only a MADONNA FAN CAN - BWAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA...@!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/11/2005 22:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
India to get 12 anti-submarine warfare aircraft
India is mulling the possibilities of procuring eight to 12 units of Orion P3-C, the maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft manufactured by the US company Lockheed Martin. A team of representatives from the company, the US Navy and the US government, will be in Delhi next week for "price and availability" talks, said a news report carried by a leading Indian daily. Jim Kingsley, Business Development Director of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics was quoted as acknowledging that aircraft to be supplied to the Indian Navy would be from US armed forces surplus, but would be "re-winged". The mission systems will be upgraded and along with airframe modernisation the craft would have a service life of 20 to 30 years. "All negotiations on price and other aspects will be taken up next week," he added. An aircraft with configuration similar to what the Indian Navy has asked for is now currently at Aero India Expo, said the report.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics has signed a 'Technical Assistance Agreement' with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for maintenance and improvement on the airframes of the Orion P3 range of aircraft, the report added. "Export controlled data on P-3 airframe component design, manufacturing, and overhauling will be shared under this TAA, approved by the US Department of State," Mr Dennys Plessas, regional vice-president of the company said. The agreement does not cover any of the sensor and communications systems of the aircraft. The aircraft is equipped with sonar buoys which will be dropped into the ocean to pick up the movement of submarines. After detection, the aircraft can engage the submarine with a torpedo, the report observed, adding that the plane has 10 hard points to carry air-to-surface missiles and torpedos.

It is also equipped with a radar, an ESM (electronic support measures) pod and other systems for signals and communications intelligence. "Even cell phone calls can be picked up by the ESM pod, so air show visitors should be careful about what they say on their cell phones", a Lockheed Martin official said.
Lockheed Martin is also offering the C-130 J Super Hercules transport aircraft to the Indian Air Force, the report added.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 4:46:48 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whoa! The Paks should go ahead and sell off their fleet and them Chinnee steam kettles don't look so fierce now either. A P-3 takes the entire pot in the Indian Ocean
Posted by: Shipman || 02/11/2005 17:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Interesting given the report of a couple of days ago that the ChiComs sunk an Indian nuke sub.
Posted by: Tibor || 02/11/2005 17:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Economy
Airbus Jumbo Won't Be the Elephant in Boeing's Living Room
EFL: It's one thing to build a really, really big airplane. It's quite another to find a place for it to land.
snicker, I love it when a plan comes together
U.S. airports from Seattle to Atlanta say accommodating Airbus SAS's new superjumbo A380 in anything other than an emergency would require major construction. Runways would need widening and terminals would need upgrades to load and unload the double-decker plane easily. Even with those improvements, airports might need to curtail other airport traffic to let the big jet lumber through the airfield. And some officials worry the weight of the A380 would collapse tunnels and buckle overpasses. What's more, some airport officials say they just aren't seeing the demand for the A380 that would warrant such cost and inconvenience. "Let's do a cost/benefit analysis: Are you really going to spend millions of dollars (when) you might have two of them a day fly in?" said aviation analyst Mike Boyd.

Stretching about three-quarters of the length of a football field, the A380 isn't much longer than Boeing Co.'s latest version of the 747, the largest commercial airplane in the skies until the A380 enters service next year. But the A380's 261-foot wingspan is 50 feet wider than the 747, broader than many runways and taxiways were built to accommodate. The airplane also weighs in at a maximum of 1.2 million pounds, 30 percent more than the biggest 747. The Federal Aviation Administration says just four U.S. airports - John F. Kennedy in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami - are formally working with regulators on plans to accept the new plane for passengers. Another two - Anchorage and Memphis - are working with the FAA to take the cargo version. Airbus says it also has talked with many other U.S. airports and anticipates several more will be able to land the plane on a regular basis by 2011. Worldwide, the company also says plenty of airports will see the A380 in the next five years, but it's unclear how many of those airports will be ready by 2006.

Outside the United States, those that are making preparations include London's Heathrow - which is spending more than $800 million on renovations - Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Changi Airport in Singapore and Australia's Sydney Airport. Dan Cohen-Nir, an Airbus North America program manager, said the company is initially targeting the world's busiest airports, major hubs that are most likely to need a plane designed to carry around 555 passengers on long international routes. Still, Boyd and other analysts say the scant interest among U.S. airports could be trouble for Toulouse, France-based Airbus, which has 139 firm orders for the A380 so far.
Of course, they still have to build one and prove it can fly.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 3:25:52 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  McCarron's phasing out by 2026.

They're building a new one, cargo only at this time.

As to ORD, do I really want that thing flying over my home?

Peotone could handle cargo.

I can understand coastal airports, but internal???

Atlanta sez will cost the $20 mill to upgrade and they might not do it.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 16:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Didne Boeing at one time have plans for a super-jumbo? It was shelved...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/11/2005 16:19 Comments || Top||

#3  555 passengers? How long does it take to load and unload that many people? Bit of an issue in an emergency, eh? Maybe the top flips up for easy access.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/11/2005 16:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Another two - Anchorage and Memphis - are working with the FAA to take the cargo version.

Yeah, they can just park on the ramp off Runway 6R at Anchorage. There will be no room for the other freighters, but that will be OK.

It sounds to me that Airbus pulled this GRAND IDEA out of their collective asses so they could claim to make the biggest airplane. What they forgot or rather felt not necessary to do was to work closely with the world's airports on how to make it work. The other thing is that a plane with 800 people on it is a HUGE liability if it goes down. Heathrow airport is putting out almost a billion dollars for improvements for this elephant because the Brits are part of Airbus.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/11/2005 16:22 Comments || Top||

#5  SteveS touched on it. Not just one, but several of these puppies [each operated by different airlines] will overload the ability of an airport to receive, park, process, screen, load/unload the number of passengers and their luggage. Unless, the airlines are going to pay themselves for the infrastructure upgrades, this is a no go from the start.
Posted by: Ebbavith Gleack2775 || 02/11/2005 16:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Just another airplane. It's the cutting edge of 1980's technology.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/11/2005 18:09 Comments || Top||

#7  And Los Angeles International Airport plans to spend $53 million on airport-wide improvements, including $2.25 million to make sure underground structures don't buckle under the A380's weight.

They better. I'd hate to be driving down Sepulveda Blvd. if an A380 rolling over it fell through.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/11/2005 23:02 Comments || Top||

#8  These all sound like problems that the 747 had when it was new.

The A380 will only be used on long-distance flights between major international hubs, anyway.
Posted by: gromky || 02/11/2005 23:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
Guidelines for Commercial Space Travel
Aspiring space tourists got some proposed guidelines on Thursday from the U.S. government, including advice to get a physical exam before traveling and to accept the risks involved by signing a form. The draft Federal Aviation Administration guidelines also suggest operators of reusable space ships should inform their passengers of the vehicle's safety record and provide safety training before the launch, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said. "We're not going to lose sight of safety," Mineta said in a speech at his department's Commercial Space Transportation Conference. "These guidelines for space tourism respect that this is uncharted territory," allowing operators "to determine the best way to meet the standards." There is another set of draft guidelines for space flight crews, Mineta said. Pilots of reusable launch vehicles would need to hold an FAA pilot certificate, meet medical standards and be trained to operate their vehicle so it will not harm the public, with emphasis on responding to abort scenarios, emergency operations and procedures that direct the vehicle away from the public in the event of a problem during flight, he said.
In other words the vehicle, crew and passengers are expendable, if things go to hell, put her in the ocean or a open field. Same rules military pilots live by.
Mineta said he recognized the early stage of the commercial space flight industry and encouraged feedback on the guidelines. The White House unveiled a new policy on commercial space flight in January, seeking to offset the decline in demand for commercial launches by capitalizing on interest in public space travel, among other ventures. The policy was announced three months after the privately funded SpaceShipOne completed two sub-orbital flights into space with a person aboard, setting a new altitude record and winning a $10 million prize designed to spur commercial space travel. Entrepreneur Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, has announced plans to make space travel as ordinary as a Caribbean cruise.
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 1:47:27 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
My mom told me about the DC3 - Fly over the Rocky Mountains (Denver-San Francisco) - Everybody had an Oxygen Mask...
Three stops between Denver & Atlanta, GA
Nashville, St Louis, Kansas City.

How many stopovers betten here and the Moon...
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 15:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Oops betten - between
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 15:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Stewardess was also likely a registered nurse BE.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/11/2005 18:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
New Genetics Study Undermines Gay Gene Theory
Posted by: tipper || 02/11/2005 10:13 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Boy, howdy! How intolerant and un-diverse to suggest that actual SCIENCE doesn't back that theory. Wonder how much we spent on that study?
Posted by: BA || 02/11/2005 13:42 Comments || Top||

#2  A rare treat -- an article that blames something on the environment instead of on the U.S.
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 13:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Grove City College (PA) is clearly not strong on scientific theory. A 'gay gene' is impossible unless you invoke some kind of beneficial recessive expression explanation (Like the way sickle cell anaemia protects against malaria)
Posted by: phil_b || 02/11/2005 17:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Sexual orientation--what sex you think you are--is determined about halfway through the gestation period. In male mammals, the testes secrete a small amount of testosterone which travels to their brain, "telling" it that it is a "male" brain. Female fetuses do not secrete this chemical, so their brain remains "female". When this chemical is blocked in male fetuses, the male mammal grows up thinking it is female. And when testosterone is introduced into only half of its brain, it exhibits both male and female behaviors.
However, what sex you think you are and what sex you are attracted to are not the same thing. But if you think you are of one sex, you generally will be attracted to a member of the opposite sex, even if you are of the same sex. So, as it were, homosexuality can be induced in the majority of fetuses.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 17:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Grove City College (PA) is clearly not strong on scientific theory. A 'gay gene' is impossible unless you invoke some kind of beneficial recessive expression explanation (Like the way sickle cell anaemia protects against malaria)

Sociobioligical explanation. John is a carrier. His brother James is gay. John has children. Gay James, has no children, and instead helps to feed and protect Johns children, thus making it more likely that the gene will survive. Presumably in some environments this will be a better strategy than each brother for his own kids.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 02/11/2005 17:22 Comments || Top||

#6  LH, in evolutionary terms a pure gay gene is 100% lethal (you don't have children). Therefore the gene is eliminated from the gene pool in one generation. I initially thought an altruism explanation might work (James is gay. John has children. Gay James, has no children, and instead helps to feed and protect Johns children similar to dog packs where only the alpha male and female breed) but on reflection I concluded it is no longer a gay gene, its a gay tendency gene, i.e. your environment determines whether you become gay or not and you are just genetic suseptible. BTW, I find this a persuasive explanation for why gays exist, although not the only one.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/11/2005 18:34 Comments || Top||

#7  FYI, its UIC that did the study, not the university at the link.

And the outcome was that there might be sites in the DNA that are suspected, but NONE of them, alone or in a combination was a valid predictor of homosexuality.

So, homosexuality *is* a choice, if you can overcome the environment you grow in.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/11/2005 19:33 Comments || Top||

#8  FYI, its UIC that did the study, not the university at the link.

And the outcome was that there might be sites in the DNA that are suspected, but NONE of them, alone or in a combination was a valid predictor of homosexuality.

So, homosexuality *is* a choice, if you can overcome the environment you grow in.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/11/2005 19:33 Comments || Top||

#9  FYI, its UIC that did the study, not the university at the link.

And the outcome was that there might be sites in the DNA that are suspected, but NONE of them, alone or in a combination was a valid predictor of homosexuality.

So, homosexuality *is* a choice, if you can overcome the environment you grow in.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/11/2005 19:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
Death Ray Development Gets Serious
Northrop-Grumman, leading manufacturer of combat lasers, believes these weapons are only a few years away from battlefield use. To that end, the company has set up a new divisions to develop and build the battle lasers. This optimism was caused by two successful tests last year. In one, a solid state laser shot down a mortar round. In another, a much more powerful chemical laser, firing from a customized B-747, hit a missile type target.

Nearly half a century of engineering work has produced thousands of improvements, and a few breakthroughs, in making the lasers more powerful, accurate and lethal. More efficient energy storage has made it possible to use lighter, shorter range ground based lasers effective against smaller targets like mortar shells and short-range rockets. Northrops move is an indication that the company feels confident enough to gamble its own money, instead of what they get for government research contracts, to produce useful laser weapons. The high energy airborne laser would not only be useful against ballistic missiles. Enemy aircraft and space satellites would also be at risk.
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 10:01:17 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dale Brown foretold this.Patrick Mclahnahan must be proud.
Posted by: raptor || 02/11/2005 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Cool! We are finally reaching the level of aerial battles described in Mahabharata and Vedic literature--the vehicles using "bolts of light". Either these old Hindus were extremely imaginative, or ... btw, the term "brighter than thousand" suns was first used in Mahabharata, describing the effect of Gupta's missile (or maybe it was another dude). The soldiers had to wash off the "poisonous dust" afterwards. Oh, the golden old times!
Posted by: Sobiesky || 02/11/2005 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Sung to "Farmer in the Dell"

We'll vaporize a Mullah
We'll vaporize a Mullah
In Tehran his house is dust
We'll vaporize a Mullah
Posted by: Ogeretla_2005 || 02/11/2005 11:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Sung to "Bah bah Black Sheep":
Mul-lahs, Mul-lahs, are you all big fools?
The Great Satan is pissed and he's got pre-emptive tools:
Lasers for you mullahs,
Tomahawks for your domes,
And a huge flock of H-bombs to blast your new nukes' homes.
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 11:46 Comments || Top||

#5  There ia actually a girl that works where I do that has hair the color of the one in the poster... Actually its a little more purpleish...
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 17:21 Comments || Top||

#6  "The Infernal Synthetic Fiber"??
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 17:39 Comments || Top||

#7  She may be a natural purplehead.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 02/11/2005 17:41 Comments || Top||

#8  roses are red
vilets are purple
mr mullah
134 re-entry vehicles are on their way to change you lifestyle and broil you moustache

oppsie.... missed a beat
Posted by: half || 02/11/2005 18:16 Comments || Top||

#9  "Nearly half a century of engineering work has produced thousands of improvements, and a few breakthroughs, in making the lasers more powerful, accurate and lethal."

Of course, for the Demo-lefties, this type of long-term development success is no reason to put resources into missile defence. Idiots.
Posted by: Hyper || 02/11/2005 18:57 Comments || Top||

#10  LOL - Half; had a tempo for me
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 19:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Sobiesky -

You know, I have heard that "they" live amongst us in disguise, though the story says something is a bit out of place...

Hair color?

But, I see no UFOs parked in the lot out back...

Actually if she weren't a kind of cute looking-20 something I wouldn't speculate. Maybe she has the UFO hidden behind the dumpster. {Snicker}
Posted by: BigEd || 02/11/2005 19:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
It's the Singer...Not the Song (sick)
Posted by: tipper || 02/11/2005 09:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  yawn. More juvenile rantings from the "nobody notices me unless I say something outrageous crowd". It's funny that they attribute words to GW that he never actually said but other than that ...yawn.
Posted by: 2b || 02/11/2005 9:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Time for little levity with it's the singer(s) not the song....
Don't forget to turn on your speakers.
Posted by: GK || 02/11/2005 12:26 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Economy
Class Action Dismissed
Posted by: tipper || 02/11/2005 08:52 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A good first step.
Posted by: RWV || 02/11/2005 14:03 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
Hewlett Packard ousts boss amid doubts about direction
CARLY 'There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.' FIORINA, gets the big A.

l'll end by telling a story.

There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.

It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins.

One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization's commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between.

And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration.

Its writers created thousands of stories. Stories of courage, romance and magic. Its poets wrote of love, when others before them were too steeped in fear to think of such things.

When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others.

While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent.

Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. Sufi poet-philosophers like Rumi challenged our notions of self and truth. Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership.

And perhaps we can learn a lesson from his example: It was leadership based on meritocracy, not inheritance. It was leadership that harnessed the full capabilities of a very diverse populationâ€"that included Christianity, Islamic, and Jewish traditions.

This kind of enlightened leadership —leadership that nurtured culture, sustainability, diversity and courage —led to 800 years of invention and prosperity.
Posted by: tipper [http://armedstruggle.blogspot.com/] || 02/11/2005 1:52:47 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She arranged a takeover of Compaq, and the rest is bona fide history. Bye, Bye, fem-schmuck.
Posted by: IToldYouSo || 02/11/2005 3:27 Comments || Top||

#2  At least she had a vision. Too bad she had it 10 years too late in an industry where 10 weeks is an eternity.

Better luck next time Carly ... NOT!
Posted by: AzCat || 02/11/2005 4:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, as an über-parasitic culture, it applied the acquire-coopt-extinguish mode of affairs. The achievements of the 11th-12th century happened not because of Islam and the culture that it brought, but despite of it. After that, the fundie outlook took a hold and the Islamic civilization was on its way to stagnation and decline. Ottomans breathed some life into it at about 1600 by their affinity to sufi branch ideas, but in mere century, the parasitic nature sucked the ideas out and the courtians engaged in bitter disputes whether the stuffed turban or fez was an appropriate headdress (had something to do with moon-god be able to see into one's soul) that resulted in almost a civil war.

I would recommend that this Fiorina schlemiel go live in Magic Kingdom, to experience on her own the legacy of the civilization she so admires.
Posted by: Sobiesky || 02/11/2005 4:31 Comments || Top||

#4  I've had quite a lot of dealings with HP. They never got beyond being 'box shifters'. Dell killed them on price and IBM killed them on services. Carly talked a model between the two but never made it a reality.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/11/2005 4:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I knew at least 10 people working for HP (Rancho Bernardo, San Diego area) who lost their jobs when The Horned Bitch of Hell (other colorful epithets were around, such as The C**tess of Compaq) came to take over. She will not be missed and it sucks that she and her ilk get golden parachutes - when the people who actually make companies successful merely get the shaft via a pink slip.
Posted by: .com || 02/11/2005 4:54 Comments || Top||

#6  That"Golden Parachute"deal is nothing but corruption.No other word describes a situation where an employee can"screw the pooch",ruin a company and walk away filthy rich.
Posted by: raptor || 02/11/2005 7:44 Comments || Top||

#7  I read one report that when she came to speak at one of the HP plants, they had to sneak her in the back enterence and hid all the china coffee cups, replacing them with "safer" paper ones to protect her. When I heard that I knew the company was doomed.
Posted by: Steve || 02/11/2005 8:31 Comments || Top||

#8  $21 million? I'd be happy to screw up royally for a mere $5 million.

Her strategy was flawed from the start. She wanted to emulate IBM (services leading the way, software and hardware providing support) by buying a PC company (!!!???). To underscore her failure of vision, it's noteworthy that IBM got rid of PC manufacturing while keeping the PC service, sales and financing arms.

Bottom line: she's no strategist, and she was too arrogant to listen to others.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/11/2005 8:36 Comments || Top||

#9  "Complexity theory tells us that imbalance and asymmetry resolves itself in time..."
In thermodynamics we call it "entropy" and it means that things degrade unless you put in some energy at the appropriate points to maintain order. The Judeo/Christian world had religous and political reformation at the appropriate points. Islam and Fiorina just degraded.
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 8:54 Comments || Top||

#10  I work for one of HP's main competitors, and we have all been highly amused by this whole situation (in the manner of watching the other team's QB self destruct their lead away in the second half, that is). My wife does contract work another of HPs rivals, and she is seeing the same thing over there as well.

Absorbing Compaq was a terrible idea, it was seemed obvious to lowly types like me when HP did it. There must be some salary level that if you exceed it, then you start to get blind to bad ideas. :-/
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 02/11/2005 9:11 Comments || Top||

#11  The "Peter Principle" in action, LotR...
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 02/11/2005 9:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Ummmm "Petra Principle" in this case
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 10:06 Comments || Top||

#13  Sgt Mom, Frank G - LOL
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 02/11/2005 11:10 Comments || Top||

#14  I worked for one of HP's suppliers. Carleton (her full name) was like so many people hanging around tech. She saw it as a path to power, but never had any real love for the technology. I'll bet dollars to donuts that she never understood Intel's strategy on the motherboard, let alone Intel's greatest weakness (mixed signal engineering). She probably couldn't tell you why serial communications channels were replacing parallel ones and why the PC companies were failing to get any traction in SOHO networking and broadband. Instead, she waxed mystical about khalifa (medieval history was her undergrad major) and meritocracy when she had just destroyed one of the most meritocratic corporate cultures ever known. Every successful executive enjoys power to some extent, but to Carleton, power was all that mattered.
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/11/2005 13:24 Comments || Top||

#15  Again, it's putting in energy at the appropriate points to maintain order that counts. In a technology company, you can't do that if you know medieval history better than the technology. I have no doubt that 11A5S could have done a better job than Fiorina.
Posted by: Tom || 02/11/2005 13:50 Comments || Top||

#16  The dotcom era's offically over. Good riddance.

to Carleton, power was all that mattered

Don't forget being a rockstar and politician-in-the-making. I feel for the HP engineers who were forced to whoop it up at her periodic Carlypaloozas.

One of them noted the utter humiliation of HP distributing iPods: "On our logo it says HP invent. Not HP distribute"
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) || 02/11/2005 14:38 Comments || Top||

#17  Thanks, Tom. That means a lot to me, going into a job interview as I am in about an hour.

Yeah, Lex, the dotcom era is officially over. It was weird being part of it. One always knew it was a bit of a scam but I'm glad I was there anyway.
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/11/2005 15:37 Comments || Top||

#18  Good luck, 11A5S -- I've no doubt you'll impress the heck out of them!
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/11/2005 15:56 Comments || Top||

#19  Wasn't it one of the founders of HP who came out vociferously against the merger???

One other thing, what's the fembot movement to do??? She skrewed the pooch.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/11/2005 17:37 Comments || Top||

#20  thank you trailing wife!
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/11/2005 22:16 Comments || Top||


Experimental mini nuclear plant in the pipeline (Alaska)
A SMALL Alaskan town with a population of 700 could become the site for an experimental mini nuclear power plant. If approved, it would be the first reactor in the US since 1974. Last Wednesday the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with local community leaders from Galena, an Athabaskan village 900 kilometres north-west of Anchorage on the Yukon river, to discuss licensing procedures. Also present were representatives of Toshiba, which will build the plant if it is licensed, and which seems to have initiated the project.

One benefit for Toshiba would be to test its new type of reactor. The device, known as a "battery" because it has no moving parts, will generate about 10 megawatts of power, roughly 1 per cent of a typical nuclear plant's capacity. The design has never been built, and anti-nuclear campaigners suspect that it is no coincidence that the company has chosen a remote, sparsely inhabited region, where it is more likely to get a licence. But locals seem to welcome the plan. They have to pay three times the US average for their diesel-generated electricity.
This sounds really promising. Let's hope the enviro-loonies don't tie this up in the courts. I doubt many will get to Galena to protest in person.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/11/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The envirocommies already have a team of lawyers waiting to fight this I am sure.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/11/2005 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  This has been in the works for quite some time. Galena is on the Yukon River, about 10 miles upstream from the confluence of the Yukon and Koyukuk rivers. In the winter it can be a cold place, sitting out in the flats and all. I have in-laws in Galena. Will try to get some more info on the deal.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/11/2005 0:23 Comments || Top||

#3  AP: "I have in-laws in Galena. Will try to get some more info on the deal."

Damn, I love the blogosphere! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/11/2005 0:54 Comments || Top||

#4  This seems like bad news from a nuclear/radioactive materials theft standpoint. Better large plants with a security force.

Alaskan village offered prototype "nuclear battery" by Toshiba
The village of Galena, Alaska, is considering switching from its 28 cents/kWh diesel generator electricity to a Toshiba 4S micronuclear power plant. On paper, the Toshiba proposal to build a prototype plant could lower the cost of energy by more than 75 percent with little capital cost to the city. The 4S is a sodium-cooled fast spectrum reactor -- a low-pressure, self-cooling reactor. Toshiba representatives say the system is nothing like the infamous sodium-cooled nuclear power plants of the past. Rather, they characterize it as a "nuclear battery" -- self-contained and automated without any moving parts. At the heart of the 4S system is a log-sized uranium core, which would generate power for 30 years before needing to be disposed of and replaced. The company hopes to have a 4S system operational by the end of the decade.
Posted by: ed || 02/11/2005 1:55 Comments || Top||

#5  This seems like bad news from a nuclear/radioactive materials theft standpoint. The kind of places that would be interested in this would be places like remote mine sites, which commonly store large amounts explosives. The risk of theft would be no worse. Besides the real risks of a dirty bomb made from a lump of uranium would be almost exclusively to the bomb makers. We really have get past this irrational fear of 'radiation'.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/11/2005 3:49 Comments || Top||

#6  I agree that uranium's fears are worse than the reality. I am more worried about capturing a core that has been in operation for some years, taking to a waiting plane or copter, and detonating it over a nearby city center. There are a lot of really bad waste isotopes building up in the core.

It takes 100 of these babies just to equal the power output of 1 1,000MW PWR reactor. If this design becomes popular, there will be thousands of them, and security will be a nightmare.
Posted by: ed || 02/11/2005 6:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Toshiba. Didn't they used to sell machine tools for quieter submarine propeller's to the Soviets? Now they're selling mini nuke plants. Who knew they had so much nuclear technology?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/11/2005 7:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Back in the late '50s and early '60's there were experiments done in Oak Ridge to design and build a reactor powered airplane. How scary is that? I don't know how big this "battery" is, probably bigger than a bread box, so I would guess taking the whole unit would be unworkable and just taking the core would be extremely dangerous to anyone trying to do so. Of course, not doing really stupid things doesn't seem to matter much to the Islamofascists.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/11/2005 8:00 Comments || Top||

#9  This seems like bad news from a nuclear/radioactive materials theft standpoint.

I'm pretty sure this type of reactor is completely sealed. Getting at the core would be difficult, noisy, and probably fatal to those involved. AFAIK, they're not designed to be refueled.

It takes 100 of these babies just to equal the power output of 1 1,000MW PWR reactor. If this design becomes popular, there will be thousands of them, and security will be a nightmare.

Kinda like those tens of thousands of containers of highly flammable liquid we have stashed all around the country? Or the tens of thousands of places you can get the ingredients for ANFO?

Or what about all the radioactive waste generated by hospitals? Worried about that? Why not?

I'm with Phil -- the relative danger here is small.

Heck, here's a page full of information on small nuclear reactors:

http://www.nuclear.com/n-plants/index-Small_modulr_reactr.html

Granted this appears to be from pro-nuclear power people, but some of the things here are... interesting. For example, under "Proliferation resistance advantages of SMRs" we learn that the whole reactor is transported as a unit, so that neither the fuel nor the wastes EVER need to be removed. Under the bit about autonomous operation, there's this: "The reactor could be monitored via satellite and be equipped with various sensors that would go off if someone tried to tamper with it."
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/11/2005 8:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Probably the best news is that it doesn't need to be maintained for 30 years. The biggest problem with nuke plants was the disposal and storage of spent fuel. Since Sept 11, there are added security issues, too. I'd like to see how they intend to secure the unit.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/11/2005 8:40 Comments || Top||

#11  The US got quite a shock a dozen years ago when the Japanese and South Africans unveiled very small nuclear reactors. Clean, efficient, and compact. Just the thing for micro energy generation, supplementing an existing grid, emergency use, military use, and even space use.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/11/2005 9:37 Comments || Top||

#12  >I am more worried about capturing a core that has been in operation for some years, taking to a waiting plane or copter, and detonating it over a nearby city center. There are a lot of really bad waste isotopes building up in the core. <

Any core that has operated for several years would kill anyone who tried to transport it without some highgrade containment. The threat is so overblown that I sometimes think that if some yo-yo with a pellet gun took a shot at a nuclear plant, most of the press would go insane with irrational panic.

Davemac
Posted by: Ebbavitle Glereling2593 || 02/11/2005 10:43 Comments || Top||

#13  I am specifically thinking of suicide terrorists from a certain religion. It should be enough if they can survive a few hours after containment breech. The photo of the core/cooling vessel looked quite small if it was anywhere near scale, and the core itself was said to be the size of a log. Unless it is embedded in 10 feet of reinforced concrete, it looks like it can be quickly breeched. Alarms aren't going to do it and local security can be overcomein remote areas.
Posted by: ed || 02/11/2005 11:16 Comments || Top||

#14  The right side add sez: Nuclear Plant. Nuclear Plant for sale. aff[ordable] Check out the deals now! www.eBay.com

I'll go check, I wanna one today!
Posted by: Sobiesky || 02/11/2005 11:26 Comments || Top||

#15  I want my Mr. Fusion!
Posted by: mojo || 02/11/2005 12:12 Comments || Top||

#16  Unless it is embedded in 10 feet of reinforced concrete, it looks like it can be quickly breeched.

It is. As well as quite a bit of lead, which ironically acts as the coolant in some of the designs. The Toshiba design appears to use liquid sodium instead, but the idea's the same.

So, let's see: You ignore the alarms and start working your way through the reinforced concrete. Once you've cut your way through that, you're confronted with a bath of molten sodium.

Assuming you survive the burning-hot, explosive sodium, then you have access to the log-sized chunk of fuel. Congratulations!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/11/2005 12:55 Comments || Top||

#17  LOL
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 12:56 Comments || Top||

#18  Sounds good. One little itty bitty question-it's leagues away from any earthquake fault lines, right? Alaska does have those pop up now and then-biggies, too.
Posted by: Jules 187 || 02/11/2005 13:00 Comments || Top||

#19  probably solid-state on a "raft"-type (post-tensioned)concrete foundation - should ride any quakes out....undoubtedly a trip-system to shut down til no damage assessment is done, though
Posted by: Frank G || 02/11/2005 13:03 Comments || Top||

#20  I get so tired of the chicken little response to any type of nuclear power. Even from people who should know better.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/11/2005 15:29 Comments || Top||

#21  It's still worthwhile to talk about the risks. One reason is to make sure they're covered. Another reason is so that the rest of us are armed with that information.
Posted by: Dishman || 02/11/2005 21:59 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Benazir, Sharif Bury the Hatchet
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  nice words that really mean...we want our power back!!!

Maybe in the process of trying to regain power, they will actually stumble into some true democratic reform. The evil Bush plan just may be working
Posted by: 2b || 02/11/2005 6:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I think they've probably decided to work together to dump Perv, then fight it out among themselves when he's gone. That's what Anna Comnena says she'd do...
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 9:30 Comments || Top||

#3  In other words they'll bury it in each others neck eventually?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/11/2005 9:54 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Militias Clash in Eastern DR of Congo, Killing 52 Civilians, UN Mission Says
More than 50 people were killed and thousands displaced in the latest clashes between Lendu and Hema groups in the eastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission there. A Lendu militia called the Nationalist Front for Integration (FNI), including 30 children, attacked people from the Hema ethnic group and 10,000 people from Ché and other villages were seeking protection, Mamadou Bah, a spokesman for the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC), said at the weekly briefing for journalists. The MONUC multidisciplinary investigating team learned that armed civilians were in the militia, as were about 30 children aged 12 to 15, he said yesterday.
Posted by: Fred || 02/11/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Hill people! Mama, git mah machete!"
Posted by: mojo || 02/11/2005 0:39 Comments || Top||

#2  10,000 people from Ché and other villages were seeking protection

protection from whom? The UN? Please. All they do is stand back and watch the slaughter and then offer bread slices to the orphans in exchange for sex.
Posted by: 2b || 02/11/2005 12:39 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2005-02-11
  Iraqis seize 16 trucks filled with Iranian weapons
Thu 2005-02-10
  North Korea acknowledges it has nuclear weapons
Wed 2005-02-09
  Suicide Bomber Kills 21 in Crowd in Iraq
Tue 2005-02-08
  Israel, Palestinians call truce
Mon 2005-02-07
  Fatah calls for ceasefire
Sun 2005-02-06
  Algeria takes out GSPC bombmaking unit
Sat 2005-02-05
  Kuwait hunts key suspects after surge of violence
Fri 2005-02-04
  Iraqi citizens ice 5 terrs
Thu 2005-02-03
  Maskhadov orders ceasefire
Wed 2005-02-02
  4 al-Qaeda members killed in Kuwait
Tue 2005-02-01
  Zarqawi sez he'll keep fighting
Mon 2005-01-31
  Kuwaiti Islamists form first political party
Sun 2005-01-30
  Iraq Votes
Sat 2005-01-29
  Fazl Khalil resigns
Fri 2005-01-28
  Ted Kennedy Calls for U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq


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