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Italy: Police arrest two Moroccan terrs
Today's Headlines
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Africa North
Many Algerians opt to flee to Europe: survey
Up to half of Algeria's young men are tempted by the idea of becoming an illegal migrant to Europe to escape misery at home, a survey published on Wednesday showed.
Seems like they used to be part of Europe, through that Metropolitan France routine. But that wasn't good enough.
The independent daily Liberte said 28.7 percent of 1,364 respondents surveyed said they would "certainly" opt for migration if the opportunity presented itself, while 20.8 percent said they "probably" would. Those answering "no never" were 50.5 percent.

The respondents were males aged between 15 and 34 years questioned between November 3 and 14 in towns across the northern Mediterranean coastal region, the most heavily populated area of the north African country of 34 million.

The country most cited as the preferred destination was Spain -- 40.4 percent -- followed by Italy with 17.3 percent Britain, 11.6 percent and France on 10.5 percent.

The European Union estimates that about 120,000 people enter the region illegally across the Mediterranean every year. Thousands more have drowned trying to make the trip. Many are from sub-Saharan African countries who use Maghreb states as a jumping off point. But migration experts say Europe's economic downturn is deterring would be migrants as work dries up and as returning migrants warn friends at home that they might be better off staying in Africa.

Asked what they believed motivated Algerian illegal migrants, 81.9 percent of respondents replied that it was to "flee the country" and "make their future".

Oil- and gas-rich Algeria has launched a five-year plan worth $200 billion to put the economy back on track and restore hope after years of political violence, but social problems remain profound. Algerians say the economy offers too few jobs to the population, of which 70 percent is under 30. Unemployment is officially 11 percent but is estimated to be more than 70 percent among people under 30.

Queues of young people can be seen outside European consulates in Algiers for visas to travel in search of a better life. Many fail, forcing them to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing to Europe. Coastguards say that during 2006 they found 42 bodies along Algeria's coastline, most or all apparently illegal migrants.
Posted by: Fred || 12/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Social problems abound in Muslim populations? Say it ain't so!!!!Lack of sex always produces misery in young men--duh!
Posted by: Thealing Borgia 122 || 12/04/2008 10:56 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Zim: Riot police beat unarmed protesters, trade union leaders
(SomaliNet) During the latest in a series of demonstrations over crippling cash withdrawal limits that have rattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime, Zimbabwean riot police on Wednesday beat a group of unarmed protesters and detained a number of trade union leaders.

The Zimbabwean police used batons to beat back a group of around 50 protesters that attempted to march on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in central Harare to demand an end to cash restrictions. Over 20 people, including several senior officials of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the body that called the protest, were taken away in police trucks.

The demonstrators carried placards reading "No to cash limits" and "We are tired of sleeping at the banks."

The police action followed a warning by the government that "rogue soldiers" who rioted in central Harare on Monday and had to be subdued by police would be apprehended and "brought to justice."

In the regime's first reaction to an orgy of looting and attacks by soldiers on illegal street currency dealers, it indicated that the unrest was much more widespread in Harare than previously known. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeremayi was quoted in the state-controlled daily Herald as saying that similar incidents "perpetrated by by unruly elements of the defence forces" had occurred in and around the capital four days before Monday's violence.

Sekeremayi has also accused the ZCTU of colluding with the disgruntled officers, who ran amok on Monday, apparently in frustration at having to queue for hours at ATMs to withdraw their salaries.

The incident appears to have shocked the regime, which appeared confident of the loyalty of the army, despite the country's economic meltdown, characterised by world-record inflation, widespread hunger and a severe cholera outbreak.

Nine-figure inflation has made cash extremely short and led banks to impose unrealistically low maximum withdrawal limits. Zimbabweans are increasingly frustrated at having to queue for hours to withdraw less than price of a loaf of bread. The limit has just been increased to 100-million Zimbabwe dollars (about 50 US dollars) a week, from 500 000 Zimbabwe dollars (about 25 US cents).

Also Wednesday, the central bank announced the issue of new 100-million Zimbabwe dollar bank notes, only four months after it slashed 10 zeroes off the previous set of denominations.

Sekeremayi said that over the five days up to Monday, "a number of properties were damaged, innocent people injured, money and property stolen," by off-duty soldiers, the minister said, calling the acts "unacceptable, deplorable, reprehensible and criminal."

But the "vast majority" of defence forces were disciplined and loyal, he assured, vowing to put in place measures to ensure such incidents did not occur again. "Those who may try to incite some members of the uniformed forces to indulge in illegal activities will equally be found culpable," he warned.
Posted by: Fred || 12/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surely at last the beginning of the end of Mugabe?

The people are suffering so long he´s there nothing will get better!
Posted by: Ebbelet Bluetooth8766 || 12/04/2008 17:42 Comments || Top||


U.N. Addresses Congo Conflict by Helping Hutus Return to Rwanda
The couple had spent three hard years in a militia camp deep in the forests around this eastern Congolese village when they finally decided to escape.

Droselle Uwonkunda's husband, a militiaman, left first, and a few weeks ago she followed him -- hiking for four days through the rainy forest with their 7-year-old daughter, Grace, crossing rivers and sliding down muddy paths. When Grace was tired, Uwonkunda encouraged her with visions of where they were headed.

"I told her we are going to Rwanda, our beautiful country, with nice houses and good roads," she said, sitting in a grass-roofed gazebo in this village, where she is waiting to be repatriated. "I told her we are leaving the forest, and we are going home."

In some ways, the conflict in eastern Congo comes down to that elusive wish, one shared by hundreds of thousands of mostly Hutu refugees who fled here after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The Uwonkundas' ability to escape the ranks of a potent Hutu militia, formed in these borderlands by several dozen commanders who participated in the genocide, and return to their country is an essential step toward ending the fighting that has overwhelmed eastern Congo in recent weeks.

About 6,000 of the Hutu refugees make up the heavily armed militia group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which claims that its sole aim these days is the Rwandans' "dignified" return to their homes. That return is complicated, however, by the fear among Hutus here that comes with returning to a country now run by Tutsis, who took control of Rwanda in 1994 after Hutu militias and soldiers slaughtered an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Posted by: Fred || 12/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Russian warship to cross Panama Canal
MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian warship will sail through the Panama Canal this week for the first time since World War II, the navy announced Wednesday, pushing ahead with a symbolic projection of Moscow's power in a traditional U.S. zone of influence. The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko will arrive Friday at a former U.S. naval base in Panama's Pacific port of Balboa for a six-day visit after carrying out joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy in the Caribbean Sea, navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said in a telephone interview.

The Panama Canal has long been a symbol of U.S. clout in Latin America, and Dygalo said no Soviet or Russian military ship has sailed through it since World War II. The wartime alliance between the U.S. and the Soviet Union swiftly gave way to the mistrust, military buildups and proxy conflicts of the Cold War.

"Are they accompanied by tugboats this time?"
In a throwback to those times, the Russian navy statement announcing the plans referred to the base the Admiral Chabanenko will visit as Rodman naval base--its name when it was a U.S. base many years ago. Rodman was the hub for all U.S. naval activities in South America and supported fleet units transiting the 50-mile (80-kilometer) canal. But control of the facility shifted to Panama a decade ago, and it is now called the Balboa naval base.

Monday's joint maneuvers with Venezuela, which brought the Admiral Chabanenko and the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great across the Atlantic along with two support ships, were widely seen as a show of Kremlin anger over the U.S. use of warships to deliver aid to Georgia after its August war with Russia. Russian warships tailed U.S. ships in the Black Sea, where Russia borders Georgia, on that mission.

The Russian squadron's voyage to Venezuela was Russia's first such deployment to the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War era, aimed to showcase the Kremlin's global reach and reassert its claim to great-power status. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a staunch U.S. foe. The voyage coincided with a trip to Latin America late last month by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited four nations in what he acknowledged was an effort to raise Moscow's profile in a region he said it has long neglected.

U.S. officials have mocked the Russian show of force, saying that the Russian navy is a shadow of Moscow's Soviet-era fleet and suggesting that the U.S. retains far more influence in the region than Russia. "Are they accompanied by tugboats this time?" U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack joked to reporters in Washington last week ahead of the Russian ships' arrival off Venezuela.

Dygalo would not say where the Peter the Great, which led the Russian squadron, would be located while the destroyer visits the Panama base.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION NAVAL seems SOUTH KOREA is prepping for a possible NAVAL CLASH wid NORTH KOREA over disputed sea border lines - the SOKORS think NOKORS may deliber invoke either a confrontation/clash wid SOKOR Navy vessels, or more likely to fire upon andor impound SOKOR fishing boats-trawlers.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/04/2008 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Nuke-armed cruisers not invited.
Posted by: mojo || 12/04/2008 1:07 Comments || Top||

#3  FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX > SOUTH KOREAN TROOPS PREPARE FOR ATTACK OVER BORDER TENSIONS.

And with MISSLE-ARMED RUSS WARSHIPS already in Venezuela + Panama Canal [read, RNS PETER THE GREAT].

ALso, KOMMERSANT > US PREPARES FOR NEW CAUCASUS WAR!? In 11/25th Memo invol GEORGIA, Dubya reportedly orders US-flagged/registered commercial vessels to be insured agz all regional military risks thru MARCH 2009???; + RIAN > OBAMA'S POSSIBLE WARS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/04/2008 2:15 Comments || Top||

#4  But the Russians had to get permission from the Chinese canal operators.
Posted by: ed || 12/04/2008 9:05 Comments || Top||

#5  isn't this another gift from Jimmah?
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 12/04/2008 14:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Drudge had this labelled as a "Battleship" earlier, and I see the tugboat comment in the article.

I guess the only thing left, in addition to Jimmah's gift, is a picture of donkeys with tow-ropes.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 12/04/2008 14:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh Halliburton Co HAL:NYSE $13.59

ARGH!! ACK! Started the day at 15:10
Started the week at $16.70

Beginning of Sept was $40.17

Posted by: 3dc || 12/04/2008 15:12 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Unknown Kim Jong Il son emerges
TOKYO, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A previously unknown third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has emerged as a contender for power in Pyongyang, an analyst says. The son, whose name isn't known, occupies a powerful position in the North Korean army and could have the backing of the military if there is a power struggle in Pyongyang following the death of the 66-year-old Kim Jong Il, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University and an expert on North Korean affairs, told the newspaper that the third son, believed to be his 30s, joins Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, and the youngest, 28-year-old Kim Jong Chol, as possible successors to "the Dear Leader."
Wouldn't be surprised if a few more offspring popped up in the near future.
Shigemura told the Telegraph his sources indicate Kim Jong Il has suffered one and possibly two debilitating strokes and has only months to live. North Korea has downplayed previous reports of Kim's supposed ill health.

Kim Jong Chol is believed to have his father's blessing to succeed him. But Pyongyang's unofficial spokesman, U.S.-North Korea Peace Executive Director Kim Myong Chol, told the newspaper there is no power struggle going on, adding that when the time comes, the most appropriate person will be chosen by the Communist Party.
This article starring:
Kim Jong Nam
Posted by: Steve White || 12/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd sure like to see the DNA test results on this one.
Posted by: gorb || 12/04/2008 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Not mini Me, but Lil' Kim.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/04/2008 6:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Unknown? The one with the red hair and freckles?
Posted by: ed || 12/04/2008 8:35 Comments || Top||

#4  As fond of Kim Jong Il is of imported big blonde showgirls, I'd be surprised if there weren't one or more blue-eyed Kim byblows somewhere in Kimchee Junche Wonderland.

I'm sure this particular offspring is just the declaration of a faction. He's a banner raised to see what direction the wind is blowing.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/04/2008 9:31 Comments || Top||

#5  That's right, Mitch. As a matter of fact, I am the son of Kim Jong Il and I'll be edging all my brothers, half brothers and other assorted bastard siblings out of the way directly.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/04/2008 14:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Is Lil' Kim off life-support yet?
Posted by: Jusoque Dark Lord of the Jutes3360 || 12/04/2008 16:19 Comments || Top||

#7  #3- Sparkle Farkle!
Posted by: Frank G || 12/04/2008 16:32 Comments || Top||

#8  WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph = GOOGLE Chinglish translation] > KOREAN SCHOLARS strongly believe that POST-KIM JONG-IL NORTH KOREA will destabilize and devol into chaos and national strifes. AS CHINA PERENNIALLY FAVORS A PRO-CHINA REGIME IN PYONGYANG AND IS HENCE CLOSELY INVOLVED IN NOKOR AFFAIRS OF GOVERNANCE-STATE, SCHOLARS > CHINA WILL CERTAINLY MIL INTERVENE WID PLA FORCES TO OCCUPY NOKOR, BE IT UNILATERALLY OR IN INTERNAT COALITION, AND TO ASSURE PRO_CHINESE CONTROL OF NOKOR NUCLEAR PROGRAMS + WEAPONS. China is perceievd as most likely to de facto mobilize in order to fully support any and all forms or scenarios, including alternative options, of post-KIM INTERVENTION IN NORTH KOREA.

* SAME > 4-1/2 ASIAN COUNTRIES ARE NOW SUBJECT TO CHINESE MILITARY-POLITICAL OVERSIGHT AND PROTECTION. PAKISTAN, NORTH KOREA, MYANMAR, KAZAKHISTAN [espec PAKIS], wid IRAN AS "1/2" or "IN PART". CHINESE-SPECIFIC, PLA-ENFORCED/PROTECTED, MILPOL "SPHERE OF INFLUENCE" = Vassal/Satellite States???

* PAKISTAN - is now "CHINA IN SOUTH ASIA AND MIDDLE EAST", +
* MYANMAR [BURMA] - CHINA will secretly deploy large numbers of PLA troops near border areas to secure MYANMAR Corridor access to INDIAN OCEAN, +
* KAZAKHISTAN - besides competition wid RUSSIA for local OIL-GAS DEALS, ETC, China should send troops into KAZAKH + REGION IFF USA BASES TROOPS IN TURKMENISTAN FORMER RUSS SSR, +
* IRAN - work-in-progress vee RUSSIAN, IRANIAN TRANS-NATION MILECON COOPER + PARTNERSHIP.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/04/2008 23:44 Comments || Top||


US, China headed for possible currency clash
BEIJING (AP) - The deepening world economic crisis and a possible spat over currency levels hung in the air as the United States and China sat down Thursday to discuss the future of their economic relations. U.S. officials say Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will press Beijing to let its yuan rise against the dollar to ease trade tensions at the two-day Strategic Economic Dialogue. American companies contend that China keeps the yuan undervalued, giving its exporters an unfair advantage and adding to its swollen trade surplus.

But with China's exporters suffering, the yuan plunged Monday in government-controlled trading—a possible message to Washington to go easy on the issue. "The signal China sent on Monday is: We also have our own political problems and issues in a slowing economic environment," Frank F.X. Gong, chief Asia economist for JPMorgan Securities Ltd., said in a report to clients.

State media said Thursday a rapid rise of the Chinese currency would harm the global economy further as it would hurt Chinese exports and increase unemployment. "China's foreign exchange policy should be aimed at helping domestic economic growth, for which the yuan should not rise too fast against the U.S. dollar now when the global financial market is in turmoil," said a report Thursday in the China Daily, an English-language newspaper aimed at foreign readers.

The twice-a-year dialogue, launched in 2006, is meant as a relationship-building exercise rather than a forum for negotiation. But Treasury Undersecretary David McCormick told reporters this week that officials at the dialogue would urge China to continue allowing the yuan to rise—a key issue for American lawmakers who are pressing for punitive action if Beijing fails to take faster action on trade complaints.

Both economies are struggling—the United States with a recession and China with a sharp slowdown in growth—and how well they keep one of the world's biggest trading relationships stable and productive could be of global importance. "The need to coordinate and collaborate gets even more urgent as the current recession bites deeper," the China Daily said in an editorial Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is a tough one.
A rise in the yuan would make things quite expensive in China and things are already rocky there.

If China sells of it's US bonds, the Yuan would plummet as that is the only thing holding their currency up.

The Chinese want assurance that their US investments will be safe.

There is no way they can maintain a lower yuan without things spirialing out of control.

Rock and hard place.
Posted by: newc || 12/04/2008 12:39 Comments || Top||

#2  newc, I would have thought the opposite, but not being an economist, maybe I've got it a*se about.

A rise in the yuan would make things quite expensive in China and things are already rocky there.

A free floating yuan would skyrocket against the dollar pushing down the value of the dollar, making imports more expensive in the US and less expensive in China,
This is an area that Keynes spent his whole life trying to solve, summarized by his dictum "Paradox of Thrift"

If China sells of it's US bonds, the Yuan would plummet as that is the only thing holding their currency up.

They are not likely to, as they need a strong US dollar to buy the outputs of their factories. This paradoxically, makes things more expensive in China.

The Chinese want assurance that their US investments will be safe.

This is an interesting situation as along with the oil ticks and Germany they are holding up the dollar. They have an unacknowledged seat at the table in treasury, therefore influencing the US economy and political landscape. Were the US to go down the protectionist path, they would exercise the nuclear option i.e withdrawing all their support for the dollar, which would lead to massive inflation in the US. Think the Wiemar Republic scenario.

There is no way they can maintain a lower yuan without things spirialing out of control.
Posted by: tipper || 12/04/2008 14:59 Comments || Top||

#3  This crisis is not possible, it is inevitable. The only question is when and at what cost. It will be pretty funny if the commies are thrown out due to their desire to hoard dollars.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/04/2008 15:31 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Muslim world sees UN dominated by US: poll
A poll of seven majority Muslim nations found people conflicted about the United Nations, on the one hand perceiving it as dominated by the United States and unhelpful in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while on the other supporting a more active U.N. with broader powers.
I guess that's fair. We see the UN as being dominated by bloody-handed dictatorships, kleptocracies, and various flavors of Nazis.
The WorldPublicOpinion.org poll released Wednesday surveyed the Arab Muslim countries of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories along with Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan and Muslims in Nigeria.

Respondents in every country besides Azerbaijan felt that the "U.S. basically controls the U.N. and can almost always make the U.N. do what the U.S. wants" as opposed to the view that the U.S. can use its veto to stop the U.N. but cannot control it.

The international body got its lowest ratings in its work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which highly correlated with perceptions of U.S. control, and the conflict in Darfur.

"I think there are determinants of public opinion in the region regarding the U.N. and the most important factor is the respect, or perceived respect, of U.N. resolutions vis a vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and invasions of Iraq since 1990," said Dr. Fares Braizat of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, which conducted the Jordanian portion of the survey.

At the same time Muslim publics overwhelmingly support a more dynamic, involved United Nations (64 percent on average), distinguishing between a U.N. they feel in principle should be a powerful actor and the existing body they perceive as being controlled by the U.S.

"While many people in Muslim countries express disappointment with the U.N., this actually masks their underlying desire for a U.N. that is robust and powerful," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Posted by: Fred || 12/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  While many people in Muslim countries express disappointment with the U.N., this actually masks their underlying desire for a U.N. that is robust and powerful.

I would conclude it masks their desire for its abolition considering they think the US controls it.
Posted by: NCMike || 12/04/2008 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Testing the waters by poll? As distateful as NATO troops are in the West Bank, UN troops would be worse. Dominated by Pakis, Hamas would literally be a ticking time bomb in the middle of Israel.
Posted by: Thealing Borgia 122 || 12/04/2008 11:08 Comments || Top||

#3  well i guess no one really likes the UN. time too shut her down
Posted by: rabid whitetail || 12/04/2008 12:58 Comments || Top||

#4  rabid whitetail is right. Like us, they think it does little if anything to serve their individual interests, not to mention the interests of the global community as a whole. If anything, it fosters anti-US sentiment from non-Americans and anti-UN sentiment from the more well-informed and practical Americans. Which renders it obsolete at best and an enormous waste of money at worst.

Time to exercise some mercy here and pull the plug on this failed experiment.
Posted by: eltoroverde || 12/04/2008 13:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Can we agree that its a miserable failure and shut it down?

Then we can create our 'League of Democracies' and they can create their 'League of Dictators, kleptocracies and Socialists'. We'll host ours in NYC and they can host theirs in Wazoo or Sudan.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/04/2008 14:20 Comments || Top||

#6  I thought Z.O.G. ruled the U.N.? :))
Posted by: borgboy || 12/04/2008 15:13 Comments || Top||

#7  ION WAFF > AMERICA STILL FUNDS AND SUPPORTS FANATICAL TERRORISTS. Pro-US, Anti-Govt/Tehran IRANIAN TERROR GROUP "JUNDALLAH" is believed to had executed all 13 surviving hostages from a group of 16 kidnapped Iranian police officers???; + MONGOLIAN MUJAHIDEEN JOINS CHERCHEN STRUGGLE [Video - SHEIKH SAYEED of BURIATIA]. Despite severe trials, losses and Russia's best, most vilent anti-insurgent efforts, THE CHECHNYA JIHAD/ISLAMIST STRUGGLE HAS SPREAD TO MOST OF CAUCASIA. Among other, Sayeed argues that true Muslims = Believers HAVE NO EXCUSE TO NOT ENGAGE IN ARMED JIHAD IN THE DEFENSE AND PROPAGATION OF ISLAM = THE FAITH, BE IT IN CHECHNYA OR ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WORLD. THE ISLAMIC VICTORY IS CERTAIN.

* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > TALIBAN: WE WILL TAKE OVER PAKISTAN.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/04/2008 23:21 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
How to Melt a Tank in Three Seconds Or Less - Battlestar Hercules
Coming soon to a battlefield near you? Here’s what they are planning on from Popular Science:



1. Find Your Target
When the C-130 flies within targeting range (up to five miles away), the gunner aims using a rotating video camera mounted beneath the fuselage. The computer locks onto the object to continually track it. A second crew member precisely adjusts the laser beam’s strength—higher power to disable vehicles, lower power to knock out, say, a small power generator. The gunner hits “fire,” and the computer takes over from there.

2. Heat Up the Laser
In a fraction of a second, chlorine gas mixes with hydrogen peroxide. The resulting chemical reaction creates highly energetic oxygen molecules. Pressurized nitrogen pushes the oxygen through a fine mist of iodine, transferring the oxygen’s energy to iodine molecules, which shed it in the form of intense light.

3. Amplify the Beam
The optical resonator bounces this light between mirrors, forcing more iodine molecules to cough up their photons, further increasing the laser beam’s intensity. From there, the light travels through a sealed pipe above the weapon’s crew station and into a chamber called the optical bench. There, sensors determine the beam’s quality, while mechanically controlled mirrors compensate for movement of the airplane, vibration and atmospheric conditions. Precise airflow regulates the chamber’s temperature and humidity, which helps keep the beam strong.

4. Stand Clear
A kind of reverse telescope called the beam expander inside a retractable, swiveling pod called the turret widens the beam to 20 inches and aims it. The laser’s computer determines the distance to the target and adjusts the beam so it condenses into a focused point at just the right spot. Tracking computers help make microscopic adjustments to compensate for both the airplane’s and the target’s movement. A burst of a few seconds’ duration will burn a several-inch-wide hole in whatever it hits.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/04/2008 17:52 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That sounds like a lot more fun than when I was a kid and used a magnifying glass to set a piece of paper on fire.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/04/2008 18:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Now all we need is a house with a big kettle of popcorn.
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 12/04/2008 18:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Nice one, Cheaderhead. :)
Posted by: eLarson || 12/04/2008 19:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Yikes! I am getting an erection right NOW! ;-)
Posted by: A_Rovian_Desciple || 12/04/2008 19:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Direct energy weapons.

The new arms race.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/04/2008 19:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Attn Mrs. DMFD: would make a great Christmas present - hint, hint.
Posted by: DMFD || 12/04/2008 20:05 Comments || Top||

#7  The real question how pin point this system is? Can it make a taliwacker DANCE? AS in dance you varmints, dance!
Posted by: bruce || 12/04/2008 20:27 Comments || Top||

#8  next explanation for Jihadi Spontaneous Combustion
Posted by: Frank G || 12/04/2008 21:11 Comments || Top||

#9  Can it vaporize a meteorite? I'd like to see that tested. I have a specific testing location in mind...
Posted by: Spike Uniter || 12/04/2008 23:30 Comments || Top||


Star Wars on the move!
Posted by: 3dc || 12/04/2008 10:55 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hopefully Bambi doesn't kill this program and the other anti-ballistic programs. They work.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/04/2008 11:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, I am counting on the Dems canceling this program, but I hope that Boeing continues work on it on its own. Then, when missiles start flying, charge a double butt load of money for the USAF to *rent* it.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/04/2008 18:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Civil rights complaint targets Wall Street rating firms
Posted by: tipper || 12/04/2008 08:58 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Amazing. That's like a homeless guy suing somebody who gave them spare change, which they used to buy alcohol and drugs and get into trouble.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/04/2008 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  The only answer is a very unpalatable one indeed. Go back to the way we used to buy houses. House price of 3 years salary if you are smart, 4 years if you are a retard. Minimum credit score of 780 with 20% down, no if's and's or but's, and if you don't have it you can hit the road. Anything other than that will put us right back into the same mess.
It's not a glamorous solution, but its what we need to do.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 12/04/2008 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Umm, didn't Barak Obama sue one of the big banks to force them to give these loans to minorities?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/04/2008 11:54 Comments || Top||

#4  In what is apparently the first legal action of its kind, an association of community-based organizations ..ers

Dog, hand, action, feeding piece..... Bite feeding hand, get some of the action.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/04/2008 12:59 Comments || Top||

#5  The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.

As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"

Posted by: tu3031 || 12/04/2008 13:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Go back to the way we used to buy houses. If we do that, no houses over $20,000 will be sold for the next decade or two.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/04/2008 17:35 Comments || Top||

#7  AH9418,

Would that be such a bad thing? At least the people who did buy houses would be able to pay for them, as opposed to asking me to do it for them.

From what I can see so far, the average American who ISN'T in over his head should be mad as Hell about the bailouts. First, his currency is going to be debased even further than it already has been. Second, his taxes are going to rise to help people who deliberately took extremely ill-advised and obviously unsustainable financial risks. In short, the people who were prudent and cautious will end up paying for the extravagantly cavalier gamblers.

As one of the cautious and prudent, I'm EXTREMELY unhappy with this situation.
Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 || 12/04/2008 18:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Are these guys Muslims?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/04/2008 18:44 Comments || Top||

#9  "the average American who ISN'T in over his head should be mad as Hell about the bailouts"

I sure as hell am, JM. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/04/2008 19:19 Comments || Top||

#10  MAD AS HELL ? YES! I've lost it in my 401K (oh well, a chance you take). But!!! I'll also be paying Paulsontaxes for everybody elses mortgage mistakes until I'm 129 years old!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/04/2008 19:31 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2008-12-04
  Italy: Police arrest two Moroccan terrs
Wed 2008-12-03
  Abu Qatada back in jug
Tue 2008-12-02
  Zardari sez not to do anything rash
Mon 2008-12-01
  Pak Army Brass Turban: Baitullah Mehsud, Fazlullah are Patriots!
Sun 2008-11-30
  Last gunny killed in Mumbai, ending siege
Sat 2008-11-29
  Sadrists claim security pact 'illegal'
Fri 2008-11-28
  1 terrorist holed up in Taj
Thu 2008-11-27
  Indo security forces engage ''Deccan Mujaheddin''
Wed 2008-11-26
  80 killed, 900 injured, 100 taken hostage in attacks on Hotels in Mumbai
Tue 2008-11-25
  Somali pirates jack Yemeni ship
Mon 2008-11-24
  Holy Land Foundation members found guilty of supporting terrorism
Sun 2008-11-23
  Iraqi forces bang AQI Mister Big in Diyala
Sat 2008-11-22
  Rashid Rauf dronezapped in Pakistain: officials
Fri 2008-11-21
  US strikes inside Pakistain 'intolerable', says Gilani
Thu 2008-11-20
  U.S. Dronezap Kills 6 Terrs in Pakistain


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