I have no idea...
SHELTON -- More than 150 canaries and saffron finches that police say were being primed for bird fighting in a Ripton Road home Sunday morning have been confiscated, and nearly 20 people charged in connection with the incident. Sounds like the Super Bowl of Canary Fighting...
Local and state police entered the single-family home at 176 Ripton Road about 9:30 a.m., where they said the occupants were preparing the birds to fight, police said. About $8,000 in cash was also seized during the raid, police said. Gimme a grand on Tweety!
Nineteen people were arrested and charged with cruelty to animals and illegal gambling, police said. More proof that some folks will bet on anything...
Eight of those arrested were from Danbury: Rogerio DeCarvalho, 35; Ricardo Almeida, 29; Getulio Serra, 62; Sebastian Andrade, 37; Gilson Goncalves, 31; Nonato Raimundo, 51; Agostinho Gondinho, 35, and Massilon DePaula, 32. Other Connecticut residents arrested were Elito Goulart, 47, of Bridgeport, and Jurames Goulart, 42, of Shelton. The others arrested were Geraldo Teixeira, 43, of Kearney, N.J.; Waldiney Almeida, 29, of Holbrook, Mass.; Auder Gontijo, 43, of Marlborough, Mass.; Lucas Dos Santos, 25, of Newark, N.J.; Odeco Dos Santos, 43, of Newark, N.J.; Welson Sales, 38, of Framingham, Mass.; Celco Soares, 33, of Marlborough, Mass.; Marcos Teles, 36, of Newark, N.J.;and Welson Morais, 26, of Framingham, Mass. Ahhhhhhhh...appears to be a "cultural" thing. Seeing Framingham, Mass in there numerous times, I'm thinking Brazilian. Or Portuguese; that area has a heavy concentration of immigrants.
Jurame Goulart was also charged with interfering with an officer. Sgt. Robert Kozlowsky said the additional charge was "based on the fact that Jurames ran and hid in a locked room from police." Ay, carumba! La Policia!
The stretch of Ripton Road between Dogwood Drive and Quaker Ridge Road was closed most of the day while the birds were taken away and the investigation continues. Muldoon, Canary Fight Squad. Wanna move it along, ma'am. You don't want to see this.
The birds were placed in large cages and transported by several animal control vans to another location, police said. Woolworth's? Oh, wait, they're long gone. These days think PetSmart ...
Canaries, which have a general reputation for being sweet songbirds, are known to fight with each other, particularly during the breeding season, according to experts on several Web sites. Males can be particularly aggressive, they indicate. I did not know that. But I guess somebody did.
Neighbors in the area expressed surprise about the bird-fighting raid and said they had no idea that the activity may have been taking place in the house. Canary fights? For real?
Shelton police received assistance from the State Police Major Crime Squad, the Central District Major Crime Squad, the state Department of Agriculture, and police in Bridgeport, Ansonia and Fairfield. Okay, boys. Give em the gas!
#3
Do any of us really care about little birds fighting for fun and profit?
Yeah. And I don't mind paying for them to do a five year stretch either. And it's got a lot less to do with tweety bird than the kind of sickos who get a rush from watching them slash each other to death with razor blades. Bull fighting, bear baiting, dog fighting, tweety fighting; it's all sick.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Kuwaiti investment broker, facing a lawsuit in New York for allegedly reaping illicit profits, has been found dead in an apparent suicide in his home in Kuwait.
The 30-year-old Chief Executive of Al-Raya Investment Company, Hazem Khalid al-Braikan, was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the side of the head in his two-storey villa in al-Rawdha on Sunday, a police standing outside his house said. They find the gun? Powder burns on his head?
Residue on his hand?
If he's right-handed, which side of his head has the entrance wound?
Al-Raya Investment, 10 percent of which is owned by Citigroup Inc, had been at the center of a financial scandal that erupted last week. Citigroup denied any wrongdoing in a statement published on Sunday by Kuwaiti newspapers. Nope. Ask Hazem. Ooooops...sorry.
A lawsuit was filed in New York on Thursday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Al-Raya and three other Persian Gulf financial institutions for alleged 'hoax bids for US companies'.
The SEC says that Braikan and the three companies had engaged in 'an illicit scheme through which they reaped millions of dollars in profits from trading around hoax offers to acquire US companies'.
Braikan and the companies allegedly "traded around false news of a purported tender offer by a Middle East investment group to acquire Harman International Industries at USD 49.40 per share."
"A phony press release publicizing the hoax offer was faxed to media outlets on Sunday, July 19, and subsequently reported on the Internet on Monday, July 20, before the stock market opened," the SEC said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah, the kind of article that only a Brit newspaper would publish.
But I bet Tipper posted this so that we could snark.
Nope, not me, I know better :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2009 15:35 Comments ||
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#2
I figured it was something about Beer Goggles
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2009 16:32 Comments ||
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#3
from the article,
"...The researchers have found beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts and that a higher proportion of those children are female..."
The finding that beautiful women have a higher proportion of daughters than sons smells like BS.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/27/2009 16:46 Comments ||
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#4
while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors
I feel better already. Now, where'd I put that mastodon bone. Oh yeah, over there on the sofa.
#10
bahh! That's why God gave us blowdryers and space heaters
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2009 22:24 Comments ||
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#11
All those wonderful anti-aging lotions now available in the drugstore's cosmetics aisle; relatively inexpensive and easily available plastic surgery; botox (not a look I appreciate properly, but some do); new and improved cosmetics, hair dyes, hair conditioners that curl or straighten or control frizziness, also available in the drugstore's cosmetics aisle... I worked briefly doing research in this area, and still have some contact with the field -- there's an awful lot of science behind "new and improved" in the beauty care sector, especially for the grocery/drug store beauty aisle products.
More women are more able to look attractive in the currently fashionable mode than ever before. That doesn't actually mean the women are more beautiful than heretofore.
#12
Wrong conclusion. Our idea of what's beautiful what's changing. Essentially the bar is lowering. Compare any of the old movie 'dames' with most of their modern counterparts.
Sure, Cameron Diaz isn't ugly and certainly way hotter than Ben Stein, but head-to-head against Hepburn or Liz Taylor...
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/27/2009 23:07 Comments ||
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In a disturbing new projection, health officials say up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures. More Government control, anyone?
The estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are roughly twice the number of those who catch flu in a normal season and add greater weight to hurried efforts to get a new vaccine ready for the fall flu season.
Swine flu has already hit the United States harder than any other nation of hpochondriacs, but it has struck something of a glancing blow that's more surprising than devastating. The virus has killed about 300 Americans and experts believe it has sickened more than 1 million, comparable to a seasonal flu with the weird ability to keep spreading in the summer.
Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories, and the new estimates dramatize the need to have vaccines and other measures in place. Fortunately, I do not have children at home anymore, but I do work with those who do. But I dared copy a part of an Asso. Pres report. Living dangerously. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Can't even be re-written? Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle, they gonna check all the words?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2009 06:23 ||
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#1
Alessandro Vespignani of the Univ. of Indiana has an epidemic model that was dead on in predicting the spread of the first, milder form of H1N1 this Spring and Summer. That model and two others based on somewhat different data all project that 40% is not an exageration. What is worse is that it's quite possible that the Fall version of H1N1 will be more severe in its effects.
Children, pregnant women and teens / early 20s are most at risk, unlike normal Fall influenzas, and that was also the case with the killer influenza pandemic early in the 20th century.
Vespignani's model, which is based on very detailed information about demographics, how people commute and travel and on characteristics of the virus itself - shows that our mobility combined with the incubation period of this flu means that vaccinating susceptible populations is the only way to reduce the number of potential deaths. Things like limiting airline travel and encouraging face masks and hand sanitizer are useful but are not enough to stop a pandemic with this virus.
#2
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Can't even be re-written? Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle, they gonna check all the words?
Stop whining like a little beeotch and sucking off AP's hard work, and go here. It is precisely the same resource you can use to write your own story.
AP is misleading about what you can do. You can rewrite it it, but since they use a number of anonymous and unnamed sources, your copy will likely be strikingly similar to theirs.
Far better to go to the source, rewrite the news release and then go to a known source to quote them, just like AP did to write the story.
#3
"Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories" I can't take these people serious anymore. A few short months ago you would have thought the dead were stacked like cordwood in the streets. 300 Americans died of this flu virus? I think the figure for regular run-of-the-mill virus kills is about 20k EACH YEAR. So excuse me if I don't get worked up over this virus.
#4
The death rate in the U.K. was 26 total, when 100,000 a week were getting infected.
A less than 0.01% chance of infection. Maybe your government like the UKs has a shit lot of Tamiflu that goes off over the newt few months and wants to turn the negative press over dumping the expired drug into an "action story"...
#5
Before we all start acting like this is no big deal, may I remind you all that the 1918 epidemic didn't start out like an Ebola outbreak, either. Very few people died in the first wave back then. That one also happened in the spring and was relatively mild.
The second wave in the autumn was a whole 'nother story, and was severe enough to drop the expected life span for the general population by ten whole years. Just like that outbreak, this one hasn't really gone away like normal flus do.
This may turn out to be nothing, true. But since the Tsarevich is about the same age as my aunt was during that outbreak (she died at two from the flu...my father was the "replacement baby"), I'm not inclined to ignore this whole thing just yet.
#6
Its already pandemic. Meaning there is no place to hide.
Look for these things (its what epidemiologists do)
Disease:
Prevalence: how many total cases there have been in the given population. This is an indicator of the total spread, and will likely be used as the "scare" number by the press. Its not nearly as important as the other terms below.
Incidence: This is the one you worry about, not prevalence - its how many NEW cases of infection happen in a given time period on a per-person basis, usually stated as a percentage. This can be basically used as the current risk of infection.
Morbidity - this is a measure of either hwo severe the disease is once you become infected, or else is the number/percentage of infected people in the populace. Be careful as to which context people use. The press is generally stupid and will mix terms carelessly. Used as a scale on how serious the infection gets broken down into populations, its useful, If its simply a repeat of prevalence, then its jsu a big scary number for non-scientists to worry over because "morbid" sound so much worse than "prevalent".
Mortality - the number or percentage of a given group that has died in a particular time range. This is useful in determining how quickly it kills, and who is getting hit worst. This is the other one to look after.
All 4 of the above are important to observe - as well as what population they are based on (males, under 20, babies, the whole populace, everyone in Florida, etc).
Don't let the press fool you - look for incidence rates, mortality rates, and clinical morbidity; be sure to see what group/area they are basing it on.
Doc Steve probably knows more than I do, my knowledge is just the stuff I learned in the bio warfare courses a long time ago.
#7
I suspect the UK had a low death rate primarily because they are used to Flu and Flu like outbreaks in the cold wet weather over there. Not just natural immunities but common sense sanitation things. The sort of thing that was missing in Mexico when it hit because they are not a nation that naturally runs across the flu each winter.
I'm curious about the teens and early 20s most at risk. How is that possible? I would understand if they were at risk of catching mild versions. Is that what you meant lotp?
#8
Younger are at higher risk because it is like the 1918 flu. It goes to the lungs quickly, and the younger more active immune system over-revs and floods the lungs with waste products (the older immune systems, it is theorized, do not react as severely and this work fast enough to get the virus but slow enough to where the waste products cna be disposed of). This is after the virus has already multiplied by a lot in younger people due to their less "experienced" immune system not grabbing it earl as well.
That's all just theory I read up on when I was checking the 1918 flu, don't take it for gospel.
#9
Thus far the GOVT + MSM-Net has been very good at telling Amers how "Swine Flu" is similar to NORMAL FLU > HOWZABOUT TELLING US THEIR SIGNIFICANT, POTENS DANGEROUS/MORTAL DIFFERENCES AS COMPARED TO NORMAL/REGU FLU. Ive see nuthin' yet on the News to show how Swine Flu is the same or worser than the worldwide 1918 INFLUENZA = so-called "SPANISH FLU" EPIDEMIC.
NOT even per the on-going ANTHRAX, WEST NILE, .....@ SCARE(S).
* D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, ZOOOMG WE NEED OWG-NWO + SUPER-GOVTISM/SOCIALISM BECUZ PEOPLE WHO DON'T WASH THEIR HANDS "MAY" OR "CAN" OR "COULD" OR "MIGHT" GET SICK.
Personally I'm more concerned about PUBLIC-PRIVATE SECTOR NEGLIGENCE = FAILURE in not routinely cleaning andor putting HAND SOAP + TOWELS, ETC, IN PUBLIC RESTROOMS.
[Maghrebia] After conducting an investigation into how the constituency of Menara handled its recent communal elections, Morocco's interior ministry dismissed Mounir Chraibi as the wali (chief) for the Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz region.
The ministry on Tuesday (July 21st) explained that its central committee "found great dysfunctions" in the wilaya's administrative services and thus decided to "relieve Mounir Chraibi of his duties".
The issue began when a complaint of voting irregularities filed by a candidate from the Democratic Forces Front (FFD) led the Administrative Court to invalidate the results of the June 12th communal elections in the Menara district, thereby cancelling Fatima Zahra Mansouri's elections as Marrakech mayor. On July 15th, Marrakech Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) officials observed a 48-hour strike to protest the decision.
According to Mansouri, Mounir Chraibi asked her to delegate strategic responsibilities -- including housing - to city officials. The wali also reportedly asked that Mansouri allow him to take over some of the most important duties in the "ochre city".
"I couldn't agree to that," she told reporters. "I think he was too insistent, especially with regard to the delegation of powers," she said.
PAM claimed to have evidence that city affairs had been mismanaged. The party blamed the wali for the decision to hold a rerun of the elections.
That PAM allegations and Mansouri's remarks prompted the interior ministry to relieve the wali of his duties came as a surprise to both politicians and the public.
After the year-old party swept the communal elections last month, several members of established parties voiced scepticism as to whether the political upstart would actually be able to exert any power.
Now, in the wake of the wali's removal, it appears to Justice and Development Party deputy chief Lahcen Daoudi that "there are some lucky people who get their way".
"You get the impression that the PAM lays down the law -- or at least that's the message that is conveyed by this very swift decision," he said.
Popular Movement MP Fatima Moustaghfir agreed that the action "taken in record time" last week by the interior ministry "reflects the clout that the PAM now has in the political arena".
Moreover, she explained, the step came at a time when many other complaints lodged against walis and governors were getting nowhere. "I myself have filed complaints against certain walis and governors. Education and diplomas are not enough for these high-up civil servants in the interior ministry. They need to study politics," she said.
Moutaghfir pointed out, however, that PAM "got its way" thanks to its protests and the evidence supporting its claims.
Regarding the speed with which the ministry acted, she told Magharebia that this is precisely how all such affairs should be handled. "The interior ministry should keep a closer eye on walis," she concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday said his party wants to change the country's political nature by bringing an end to corruption, extortion, murder and anarchy in the name of politics.
"We do not want to go back to confrontational politics. We want to change the country and its political culture and for this we need support from all political parties," Ashraf, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, told reporters at his ministry office.
He said the government would consider extending the time for submitting political parties' ratified constitutions to the Election Commission if the EC comes up with a formal proposal in this regard. "We want to see all political parties registered," he said.
Ashraf, who was elected the AL general secretary at the party's national council on Friday, said the AL had to hold its council hurriedly to ratify the amendments to the party constitution to comply with the laws for registration.
The AL spokesperson appreciated the archrival BNP for accepting AL's invitation to join its national council.
In reply to a question, Ashraf said the way Sheikh Hasina and he were elected party president and general secretary uncontested cannot be called completely democratic.
Efforts will be made in the future so that there are more candidates and party leaders are elected through direct votes of party councillors, he said.
Replying to a question, he said the fully-fledged AL Central Working Committee would be formed within the next couple of days.
He said the party activities would be geared up further following the council. "The party and the government will be run separately. The party will monitor the government's activities while the government will implement the party manifesto," said Ashraf.
The LRGD minister said in principle a consensus of all political parties is a must on crucial national issues like the trial of war criminals. "One party will seek trial of the war criminals and another will try to protect them--this cannot go on in the country," he said.
Ashraf, son of the first president of the country Syed Nazrul Islam, said if the killings of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the four national leaders are not solved permanently, division within the country cannot be resolved permanently.
He observed that corruption has taken the worst form as many do not work for their clients even after taking bribes. He strongly criticised the culture of defaulting loans and owning black money.
Admitting that it was the government that gave the chance to whiten undisclosed money, he questioned the moral standing of those who took the opportunity.
Responding to a question, Ashraf claimed that all sectors including the judiciary and administration became controversial after the 1/11 changeover. "We were responsible for this: 1/11 is the result of our overall failures. We have invited the peril ourselves," he said.
Several lawmakers and party leaders yesterday greeted Ashraf with bouquets at the ministry on his being elected the AL general secretary.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Faked me out, Fred!
I thought this was about the American League cleaning up its act.
(Baseball, for those of you not from this continent).
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2009 6:31 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday rejected the bail petitions of three detained Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) personnel in connection with a case filed against them on charges of snatching Tk 10.86 lakh from a man after threatening to kill him.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday sent former member of National Board of Revenue (NBR) ATM Sarwar Hossain to jail in connection with a graft case in which he was sentenced to 13 years" imprisonment in absentia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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On arrival in Kathmandu, Joanne Lumley was greeted by a crowd armed with garlands of flowers and colourful scarves. Lumley's father was a Gurkha regiment officer. She recently fronted a campaign for UK settlement rights for Gurkhas. In May, the UK government said all retired Gurkha soldiers - originally from Nepal - with at least four years service in the British Army, could stay in the UK. Before Lumley's plane landed, a group of Gurkha wives handed out placards bearing the slogans "daughter of Nepal", "goddess" and "thank you".
Congress will consider steps to curb speculation in the credit default swaps market and could ban naked swaps, according to a U.S. House of Representatives Committee document obtained by Reuters.
The bill would give regulators authority to set position limits on credit default swaps (CDS) dealers. It would also shift oversight of ICE Trust Clearinghouse from the Federal Reserve to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the document said.
Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin officially steps down as Alaska's governor, a year-and-a-half before the end of her term in office.
Palin arrived at Pioneer Park in downtown Fairbanks, where thousands gathered for a picnic and her resignation speech on Sunday. Alaska's Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell assumed office at the picnic ceremony.
In a dazzling move, Palin announced on July 3 that she was stepping down as governor. The announcement raised speculation of her possible bid for presidency in 2012. Surrounded by ethics probes, mounting legal bills and a dwindling popularity, Palin is expected to shed light on her political future in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on August 8. Speculations about the former vice-presidential candidate suggest that she plans to write a book, campaign for political candidates, establish a right-of-center coalition and even host a television talk show.
However, Meghan Stapleton, a Spokeswoman for Palin has denied that the former governor has made plans for her future. "I cannot express enough there is no plan after July 26. There is absolutely no plan," she was quoted by The Associated Press as saying "[On Monday] we'll sit down and say, 'OK, here are your options. How do you now want to effect that positive change for Alaska from outside the role as governor?'." Stapleton said.
Palin arrived on the political scene in Alaska in 2006, a self-described 'hockey mom' and small-town mayor who ousted the incumbent governor to become the youngest person and first woman to hold the post. Two years later, Senator McCain drafted her as his running mate. During the fall campaign, she was by far the most polarizing figure on the trail, drawing huge, devoted Republican crowds, but deeply negative reactions from Democrats and many independents.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So I could start a snowball fight with her without getting into trouble, right?
#4
"the most polarizing figure on the trail, drawing huge, devoted Republican crowds, but deeply negative reactions from Democrats and many independents who had been egregiously misinformed and misled by a lying partisan press"
Pakistan today termed the launch of an indigenously-built nuclear-powered submarine by India as a "destabilising step" and warned that it could trigger a nuclear arms race in the region.
"The government of Pakistan is fully aware of this issue and is prepared to counter it at all levels. Pakistan's defence is fully prepared to face this challenge," Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar told reporters in response to a question about India's launch of 'INS Arihant'.
"We don't want any wars but we know how to defend ourselves," he said adding, Pakistan is capable of defending itself against all such challenges.
A Pakistan Navy spokesman told reporters that India's launch of a nuclear submarine was "a destabilising step which would jeopardise the security paradigm of the entire Indian Ocean region".
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2009 15:43 ||
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OK.
'INS Arihant' sounds like a good name.
Posted by: Kelly ||
07/27/2009 18:25 Comments ||
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#2
OTOH WMF > seems CHINA is unhappy about India's repor plans to SELL ARMS TO NEPAL + RECUIT LOCALS FOR LOC + BORDER SECURITY.
* ION WAFF > US ESCALATES ITS WAR PLANS IN LATIN AMERICA. USDOD plans to send Milfors, Advisors, etc. to FIVE BASES IN COLUMBIA.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2009 19:51 Comments ||
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#4
And so it begins....BHARAT RAKSHAK > PAKISTAN ACQUIRES NUCLEAR-SUB CAPABILITY, versus INDIA COULD BUILD TWO MORE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES, + INDIA'S NEW NUCLEAR SUB WON'T PROTECT INDIA'S SECURITY [Nice to have = GATEWAY for IndNav, but not enough at this time as CHINA has MORE N-SUBS WID LR BALLISTIC MISSLES.
D *** NG IT, ala LEE MAJORS + "THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN" TV Series = PAKI claims it "has the Technology"!
* SAME > seems INDIA desires to ultimat build FIVE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, TWO OF WHICH WILL BE NUKULAAR???
[Geo News] Punjab Revenue Minister Haji Muhammad Ishaque has been booked on charges of snatching government weapons and releasing accused persons from police custody.
The case lodged by SHO City Gojra Police Station accuses 33 persons of snatching weapons from police and releasing accused persons from police custody using force.
The SHO has stated in the FIR that two persons namely Khalid alias Khala and Babar had been arrested on charges of firing and exhibition of weapons. The FIR said Provincial Minister Haji Muhammad Ishaque, then reached there and used abusive language with police and tried to release the arrested persons.
It further said that the Minister then tried to snatch weapons from a Police Inspector and the Minister's gunman also pointed gun at the SHO and threatened to kill him.
The Provincial Minister then got the arrested men released at gunpoint and police has so far failed to arrest anyone.
The news highlighting the incident telecast on Geo News last night caught the attention of Punjab Chief Minister who directed the IG Police to investigate into the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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The latest class of submarines can travel at more than 25 knots submerged. But what if the Navy had a much smaller submarine that could travel four times as fast?
"The real reason we buy nuclear submarines instead of non-nuclear ones is that we're not protecting the Gulf of Mexico," said retired Navy Capt. James Patton Jr., president of Submarine Tactics and Technology in North Stonington. "We go halfway around the world, real quick. We get there and we stay there. Anything that would allow you to get a platform somewhere a long ways away pretty quickly would have great military value."
That is why the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which commissions research for the Defense Department, has given Electric Boat millions of dollars to design a vehicle that could potentially transport high-value cargo or small groups of people at 100 knots (about 115 miles an hour) in a program known as "Underwater Express."
The technology, if developed, could revolutionize ocean transportation if it could be adapted to cargo and passenger ships.
The vehicle would travel inside a large gas bubble created in the water, a process known as supercavitation. The bubble reduces drag, since the drag is much lower in air than in water, allowing the vehicle to travel at high speeds. Supercavitation is not new. The technology has been applied to weapons, but never to transport vehicles, according to DARPA.
"What we're trying to do is come up with the sweet spot where science meets practicality," said Franz Edson, EB's director of submarine payload integration and strategic weapon systems. "The problem with the technology, the science, was you couldn't go very far, you didn't have any endurance and you couldn't maneuver very well, so it was really kind of limited practicality.
"What these guys here have come up with is a way to dramatically increase the endurance and maneuverability of a body in supercavitating flight, so now you can really start to do things with it."
Blowing out air to create the bubble that envelops the vehicle is wasteful, and a vehicle can only carry so much compressed air, so Jack Chapman, an engineer at EB, came up with a way to "mitigate that issue," Edson said.
Exactly how is the gas-bubble creation process managed efficiently? Well, that's a secret. "It's revolutionary, but we can't tell you what it is," said Jennifer Panosky, program manager of advanced programs and future payloads at EB.
"It's not something we want other people to be aware of," Edson said. "We've proven it works. We've set records for the longest supercavitating flight in a water tunnel. This has the potential to change ocean transportation.
"Ships would be much more fuel-efficient, or could use the same amount of fuel and instead of taking two weeks to get across the Pacific, they could get across in a matter of days. It's pretty slick."
DARPA has given EB about $26 million so far for the project, with another $12 million expected by the end, said Panosky.
EB initially pitted its design against one from Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems in Maryland. EB was chosen to build a quarter-scale unmanned vehicle, based on the concept of a full-scale size of 8 feet in diameter and 100 feet in length, for a demonstration in spring 2010 in the waters off Rhode Island.
The demonstration will include a 10-minute run at speeds of up to 100 knots with maneuvers, including depth control, to show the controllability of the vehicle, according to a DARPA statement. At that point, the program will conclude and the technology will be available to the Navy for use in future systems as desired, according to DARPA.
#1
Tomorrow, from AP: "Anti-American 'experts' consulted by AP say that these subs will be noisy, easily detected and destroyed by enemies. Thus, the entire program should be cancelled and the money given to ACORN."
#2
IMO ditto for calls for NASA-JPL, etc. to head/focus on going to MARS, notsomuch the MOON. Along wid proto-DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION-COLONIZATION, its about dev the dedicated, REUSABLE HIGH-VELOCITY STARSHIPS TO GO BEYOND SAME.
#3
providing the unlimited supply of hot air for the cavitation is a sooper secret device referred to only as "The Bidenator"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2009 18:34 Comments ||
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#4
I suppose you use the supercav for long transits, quieting down when in enemy waters.
Besides, it should be possible to fake supercav, and send out a half dozen cheap drones to distract the enemy.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/27/2009 22:54 Comments ||
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#5
How about just reclaiming the air used to create the bubble? Like a giant "air weenie" to water as the water weenie is to air.
What we're trying to do is come up with the sweet spot where science meets practicality
Given the weenie principle described above, we could call this point the "G-spot".
[Followed quickly by large underwater sonic boom as gorb gets the he11 outta dodge before he gets sent to his room.]
There are some things in this world that will never be forgotten, this weeks 40th anniversary of the moon landing for one. But Moores Law and our ever-increasing quest for simpler, smaller, faster and better widgets and thingamabobs will always ensure that some of the technology we grew up with will not be passed down the line to the next generation of geeks. That is, of course, unless we tell them all about the good old days of modems and typewriters, slide rules and encyclopedias
Audio-Visual Entertainment
1. Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something.
2. Super-8 movies and cine film of all kinds.
3. Playing music on an audio tape using a personal stereo....
Click through for the other 97, and feel the cold relentless grip of geezerdom upon you.
Hey! You kids! get off my lawn!
Posted by: Mike ||
07/27/2009 15:35 ||
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#1
...Going through an phone operator for connection outside toll area.
#5
Dang I feel old. I remember the ice man delivering a huge block to the "ice box" and giving us kids a chunk of ice we could suck on while sitting on the back porch on summer afternoons. We played outdoors all day in the summer, no reason to come inside (i.e. no TV, too hot inside without A/C) until it got dark. The basic video game then was catching lightning bugs in a Mason jar.
#7
"Exchange Area" prefixes for phone numbers (FIreside 5-****), party lines and a few miles to the west of where I grew up, 'crank' phones (2 long rings-2 short rings, 3 short-1 long, etc)
And only having ONE phone in the house.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/27/2009 20:16 Comments ||
Top||
#8
And the crazy old sisters down the street who always listened in on the party line.....
A Tehran court has found Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian guilty of fraud after he registered someone else's invention in his own name.
The verdict came after plaintiff Farzad Salimi filed a complaint against former municipality officials Mehrabian and Mousa Mazloum over the dishonest registration of an invention dubbed "Safe Room for Earthquakes" in their names.
According to documents provided by the plaintiff, the project proposal was put forward to Tehran municipality in 2003.
However, the project did not receive much attention from the then municipality officials in Tehran and Salimi was referred to other research institutes by the authorities.
The then municipality officials, Mehrabian and Mazloum, later registered the project -- obtained from Salimi -- in their own names and proceeded further by publishing a book on the subject, titled the Safe Room.
Following the complaint, the general court of Tehran convicted the two officials of fraud and ordered the disputed invention to be registered in Farzad Salimi's name.
A safe room or a panic room is a fortified room within a residence. The room aims to provide a safe hiding place for the inhabitants in the event of a threat, such as an earthquake, a tornado or a break-in.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Tensions between journalists and military officials are nothing new. But a bitter series of clashes between a top Navy spokesman and a Miami Herald military reporter reached a new, eye-opening level this week. In a letter to the paper's editor, Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon accused Carol Rosenberg of "multiple incidents of abusive and degrading comments of an explicitly sexual nature." Gordon, who deals primarily with the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, said in the letter that this was a "formal sexual harassment complaint" and asked the Herald for a "thorough investigation."
"Her behavior has been so atrocious over the years," Gordon said in an interview. "I've been abused worse than the detainees have been abused."
Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal said Friday that "obviously we're trying to sort this out. We're not going to talk about a personnel matter like this until we figure out what it's all about." Rosenberg, who declined to comment Friday, is described by other journalists as a seasoned reporter who pushes hard for access and answers.
The extraordinary complaint shines a light on the sometimes bruising battles between journalists, who sometimes must scratch and claw for information, and government officials, who attempt just as tenaciously to control information provided to news organizations. This cultural clash can be especially stark on military matters.
Gordon, 41, detailed a number of "vile and repulsive comments" he attributed to Rosenberg, stretching back to last summer. In the July 22 letter, Gordon alleges that:
-- While watching Sept. 11, 2001, co-defendant Mustafa al-Hawsawi seated on a pillow in court last year, Rosenberg told Gordon: "Have you ever had a red hot poker shoved up your [butt]? Have you ever had a broomstick shoved up your [butt]? . . . How would you know how it feels if it never happened to you? Admit it, you liked it."
-- When Gordon emerged from a shower facility in shorts and a towel last year, Rosenberg said to him and more than a dozen journalists and soldiers nearby: "Seeing him topless in tent city was the most repulsive sight I've ever seen in my life. I wanted to vomit."
-- After dealing with a Gordon intern whom she described as "your little chick with the hot pants," Rosenberg told Gordon, earlier this month, in the presence of others: "I know you're hot for your interns and bring them down as your 'companions,' but seriously, if I'm going to do their work anyway, what purpose do they serve? (Carol knows my intern last year was a male, therefore another inference that I was gay.)"
In addition, the letter alleged, Rosenberg "routinely labeled my colleagues in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Justice Department, as well as her peers in the press, as 'bitches,' 'stupid,' 'lazy,' 'incompetent,' 'Nazis,' 'Saddam Hussein-like,' etc." Gordon works for Defense Secretary Robert Gates and said he consulted department lawyers in drafting the letter.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin officially steps down as Alaska's governor, a year-and-a-half before the end of her term in office. 
