Record-high water levels at China's massive Three Gorges Dam have called into question Beijing's claims that the world's largest hydroelectric project could withstand a 10,000-year flood.
The water level reached 518 feet (158 meters) Saturday morning, just 55 feet (17 meters) from the reservoir's maximum capacity of 573 feet (175 meters), flood control headquarters in the central province of Hubei told The Associated Press.
Water could go higher with China's national weather center issuing a warning Saturday of more torrential rains for the region through 8 a.m. Sunday.
Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei urged officials to inspect and protect other dams and reservoirs in the region as well as flooding continues, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Probably not a good time to be hanging out downstream.
#1
I'm trying to remember, in one of the 3 Gorges letters there was discussing a few years back about bringing the water level up to 175 meters to maximize power output. There was some awful study that convinced them not to. Something about massive landslides on all the tributaries?
#3
SINK THE TIRPITZ, SINK THE TIRPITZ [Bismarck]....." + THE GORGE-BUSTERS.
d00d! Now you just know they'd be coming outta Anderson..... rolling in low, a sitting duck, big ugly fat fuckers, going up the gorge, wouldn't stand a chance in hell against the commies, well, not much of a chance, unless the pilot was good, real good,it would be hard, real hard, but sure, barrelling in at 40 feets, could he make it? Hell yes! BOOOOOOOOOOM!
#4
does this surprise anyone? everything the Chinese build except the Great Wall is shit.
Posted by: chris ||
07/24/2010 13:34 Comments ||
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#5
Memo from the Flyash Liberation Army: "toldja so"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2010 16:03 Comments ||
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#6
A dam controls flooding to the extent that you can decide to either flood upstream or flood downstream. If you live in a dictatorship (or a corrupt democracy) this becomes a purely political decision.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck the Philippines' Moro Gulf.
The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 6:08 a.m. local time on Saturday (2208 GMT Friday), was 106 kilometers (66 miles) off the coastal city of Cotabato, Mindanao, and 923 kilometers (573 miles) southeast of Manila.
The underwater quake struck at a depth of 595 km (361 miles).
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the temblor was an aftershock of an earlier earthquake. The initial quake that preceded the aftershock had a magnitude of 6.9, the USGS said.
The USGS initially announced that the aftershock had a magnitude of 7.5.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no tsunami was generated by the quake.
No damage reports have been issued so far.
The Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the archipelago prone to earthquakes and typhoons.
Around 20 earthquakes are registered daily in the Philippines, though most are too weak to be felt.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
SPACEWEATHER.com > says EARTH is supposed to get hit by AURORAS tonite.
I believe EARTH = GUAM-WESTPAC got hit by the Solar Wind POST-MIDNITE LAST NIGHT already, based on my observations of GUAM-WESTPAC skyborne phenomenae oer Hagatna/Agana Bay.
Looks like they are taking a big step in the righ direction. And it only took them sixty-some years to figure it out!
Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of Englands $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers. Looks like the way they work is to tax the crap out of everyone to pay for healthcare instead of just take the money out of their paychecks as would a private system. If the number of dollars is the same, then fine. If everyone pays the same percentage with no freeloaders, then fine. If the government remembers to simply distribute the money equitably and not keep any for themselves, then fine. If they don't mind the private providers coming up with and implementing innovative methods of delivering decent healthcare for less money, then fine. But some administrations are known for using these kinds of mechanisms to punish those that don't toe the line.
The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the governments goal to effect $30 billion in efficiency savings in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished. Losing these jobs can only be a good thing. These jobs are a burden. They can learn to be doctors or bloggers or something useful.
In a document, or white paper, outlining the plan, the government admitted that the changes would cause significant disruption and loss of jobs. But it said: The current architecture of the health system has developed piecemeal, involves duplication and is unwieldy. Liberating the N.H.S., and putting power in the hands of patients and clinicians, means we will be able to effect a radical simplification, and remove layers of management. Well if it's just duplication, then just remove the duplication. That would be easy enough. But they are not. My interpretation of what the hand is doing is that it is an admission that government has very little part to play in the details of delivering healthcare. Government should just set the stage and get out of the way.
I wonder if Obama's Healthcare Czar who loves the British system is paying attention . . . .
#1
Looks like the demise of the "cradle to the grave" social welfare system, the origins of which were generously funded by the US taxpayer via the Marshall Plan. The Germans took their cut and used it to rebuild their economy, the British decided to pour their cut into the nascent welfare state.
More details: Axe falls on NHS services
NHS bosses have drawn up secret plans for sweeping cuts to services, with restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured.
The city's bus company Metroline said on Friday it was investigating claims by two Muslim women that they were not allowed to get on a bus in the city because one of them was wearing a niqab. The company confirmed that an incident involving two 22-year-old students from Slough, Berkshire took place on a No 7 bus at Russell Square on Tuesday.
The firm said the women had made a complaint to Transport for London (TfL) and that Metroline was following it up, but stressed it was still merely an allegation at this stage. Interviewed by the BBC, Yasmin, who was wearing a hijab, and Atoofa, dressed in a niqab, said they were stopped from boarding because of their appearance. "He (the bus driver) said, 'I am not going to take you on the bus because you two are a threat," Yasmin said. A Metroline spokesman told Reuters, " We take this very seriously and will make a thorough investigation into the allegations as a matter of urgency." "However, Metroline can unequivocally state that such views would not be representative of the company in any way and that we are committed to respecting equality and diversity for all," the spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Just label the buses, I'll ride the Niqab-free bus merely to avoid getting blown-up by the either a male or female jihadist hiding a bomb under the garment.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
07/24/2010 9:26 Comments ||
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#2
forget labelling the buses , tell her ass too walk
Posted by: chris ||
07/24/2010 22:12 Comments ||
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#1
CNG is the fuel for our future. wind could never do the job.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/24/2010 1:43 Comments ||
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#2
About time someone did that. Facts are difficult things. Things like variability versus baseload, demand burst capability, transmission loss due to remote locations...
#4
Mr. Pickens, when did you stop hitting your wife American taxpayers and energy users?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/24/2010 9:27 Comments ||
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#5
Wind can work as a subset of other energy plans in specific areas but could never work at the scale Pickens suggested. There is no one size-fits-all solution except perhaps nuclear so we better get used to trying lots of things wherever they work or bulding a lot of nuclear plants.
#7
Kind of hard not to accept this at some level; just as wind energy is getting wound up, more and more groups are fighting the siting of the turbines for many reasons. and at least out here in WA, the gov agreed to downsize a permit to about half of what had been previously agreed to. sites that have the potential for a more or less steady output are increasingly beeing taken off the table; can't say as i blame the man.
#8
Natgas as a widely used "bridge fuel" ain't gonna happen, folks...even Jim Cramer from CNBC has largely given up on it, believing that our natgas resources will mostly be exported. The communists and radical greenies (apologize for the redundancy) setting Ogabe's energy policies see it as yet another eeeevil fossil fuel, the development and use of which must be stopped. And I have to wonder if Saudi money's calling this tune as well...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/24/2010 12:56 Comments ||
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#9
The biggest issue for renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, is energy storage. It is hard to store energy in a density as high as petroleum fuel.
Our so called leaders do not understand the basics of energy generation, transmission, storage, and distribution, so how can they make decisions.
The warnings were there for all to see in 73 and 74 after the oil embargo. Some industries and people saw the message. The leaders were too stupid or complacent to act. Also look at our presidents since them. One way or another, they were tied to Saudi and other states. Even now, how can we make the necessary changes to our energy policy when we still play footsie with the likes of upstanding people like the Saudis, Libyans, et al?
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, Alaska ||
07/24/2010 14:37 Comments ||
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#10
"Our so called leaders do not understand the basics of energy generation, transmission, storage, and distribution, so how can they make decisions."
fixed
Posted by: abu do you love ||
07/24/2010 20:33 Comments ||
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#11
Ya got a group whose mission is to locate and build a wind farm. They gotta look at all these variables - average wind, location, land value. They find a place, send out the geologist and survayers to confirm the conditions are acceptable. They then enter into negotiations with the land owners. They have to check with the EPA to make sure the 2-butted beatle does not live there. They have to check with the Native American group to make sure no sites are disturbed and have on site during excavation in case a site is found.
Site is a go. Then...
These things are big, and have to be shipped in 4 pieces at least. So that is 4 trucks, drivers, driving from wherever the start point is into BFE because, like Kennedy said, I don't want that in my backyard! When they get there, it has to be unloaded by a skilled crew. The foundation, 200-300 yards of concrete worth, is poured into the hole another crew dug out. The windmill is assembled and ready to go, but is not wired. Repeat construction x times until all available land is used.
Now ya gotta get them all onto the grid from BFE to. Electrical towers, wire, crews, blah blah blah run out from the nearest best node.
After all that, 1/3 of your units are out because of maintenence or have become giant lightning rods. Gotta order the parts, they come in from whereever, and it has to get 100 feet straight up to be serviced. But thats if your lucky. Unlucky, you are shut down because a wind event ruined all your blades, stupid birds keep flying into your structure, or the warbling grass grouse has decided the newfound shade makes a good nesting area and is also endangered! Yippie!
Any guesses when one would find a Return on Investment, in either the financial or energy-spent since? I mean seriously, how much Diesel and motor oil, tires are used up trucking the windmill, and concrete, and crews, digging equipment to even a site close to civilization...and if the parts come from overseas well then count their transport energy to get it on the freighter. Monetary, forget about it, the winners are the locals who will make money off these ventures until the windmills are pulled and hauled away.
Don't get me wrong, I like power generation like this much more than light sweet, but even if we can get some somewhat functional wind farms going it will be a long time before it pays off. Its not simcity where a button is clicked and poof one pops up. Power grid, no problem click click click. But the people who are selling this, that is their sales pitch.
LOS ANGELES -- A top Chinese central bank official suggested switching away from the U.S. dollar as a benchmark for the yuan's foreign-exchange rate, switching instead to a basket of currencies, according to remarks published Thursday. Good luck using the Euro in that basket. Perhaps you could add the ruble, the dinar (all of them) and whatever the hell Zimbabwe is using today.
In comments posted to the People's Bank of China Web site, the central bank's Deputy Gov. Hu Xiaolian said using a basket of currencies from the nation's top trading partners would allow the Chinese yuan to better stay where it is reflect trading fundamentals.
"Compared with pegging to a single currency, the exchange-rate regime with reference to a basket of currencies will help adjust exports and imports, current account, and balance of payment in a more effective manner," she said.
China's central bank currently sets a "central parity rate" against the U.S. dollar each day, with that day's trading range confined to 0.5% above or below that level.
But Hu said focusing on the dollar-yuan rate ignored China's bigger trade picture.
"A floating exchange rate has impact on total imports and exports of an economy," she said. "Therefore, the floating cannot be aimed to adjust [only the] bilateral trade balance, and it is not advisable to just look at the [dollar-yuan] exchange rate." So they're worried about the dollar and can't afford to let the yuan slip down lest it imperil their domestic economy. Great, guys, there's always the Euro ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2010 00:00 ||
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Don't worry; the EPA will pick up the slack.
Reid, Sen. Kerry and White House energy chief Carol Browner just finished speaking [yesterday] at the Capitol. They all repeatedly insisted that they weren't giving up on a comprehensive climate bill. Quite the opposite, they said. But through all the protesting-too-much, it sure sounded like they were surrendering, for now. They said that they just don't have the votes. They didn't give much hope that anyone could be swayed. And, tellingly, Reid somberly thanked everyone for their effort.
It looks more and more like President Obama won't be able to make the oceans stop rising this year. He and Senate Democrats have kicked climate legislation down the road since the beginning of 2009. And now Democratic aides are telling The Hill that Reid won't bring a climate bill to the floor next week as planned. Instead, he'll introduce legislation with provisions relating to the oil spill and a few other, non-controversial energy proposals, pass that before August and then, perhaps, take up a more ambitious bill in the fall - just before midterm elections, when little is likely to pass. The lame ducks can pass it for sure.
But the underlying problem that has dogged this debate over the last year and a half is that some key Republican and Democratic senators are scared of voting for the most efficient policy available - placing a price on carbon - even if the policy were designed so that most Americans and, for that matter, the Treasury, wouldn't lose a dime in the process. Republicans who should know better have found it politically useful to attack - Democratically hypocritically - this market-based solution, a scheme their own party embraced in the early 1990s. Democrats haven't stood up well to the attacks, especially after they watered the policy down with giveaways to favored constituencies. Given the low priority they attached to climate legislation, the president and other Democratic leaders encouraged others to treat it as expendable this year.
If the Senate continues to do nothing, as seems ever more likely, they won't like the result. Without a real climate bill, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will begin to regulate carbon emissions using its existing authorities under the Clean Air Act beginning next January. That's fine for some environmentalists - the government will begin to battle greenhouse emissions seriously. But between the regulatory uncertainty, the bureaucratic hassle and the legal wrangling it will encourage, the EPA approach will almost certainly hurt a lot more. Kill the economy slowly before the EPA crashes it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/24/2010 13:01 ||
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Jul 22nd 2010 By: Laura Hudson
They've faced down humans time and time again, but Fred Phelps and his minions from the Westboro Baptist Church were not ready for the cosplay action that awaited them today at Comic-Con. After all, who can win against a counter protest that includes robots, magical anime girls, Trekkies, Jedi and...kittens?
Unbeknownst to the dastardly fanatics of the Westboro Baptist Church, the good folks of San Diego's Comic-Con were prepared for their arrival with their own special brand of superhuman counter protesting chanting "WHAT DO WE WANT" "GAY SEX" "WHEN DO WE WANT IT" "NOW!" while brandishing ironic (and some sincere) signs. Simply stated: The eclectic assembly of nerdom's finest stood and delivered.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/24/2010 15:43 ||
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#1
we were watching some of this from my bridge project next door. There were only a few of these Westboro assholes. They look pathetic when you see how few there are. Still, these should all be beaten with axe handles
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2010 16:21 Comments ||
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#2
They must have decided against coming too GA for a planned protest.I had my axe handle all shined up. Npt too mention they must have heard the Hells ngels are now vying for territory in this part of the south.
Posted by: chris ||
07/24/2010 16:27 Comments ||
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#1
three comments:
1) Glad the pilot escaped and will live to fly another day
2) GB you are dating yourself with the Grandpa Pettibone reference (fon non NAVAIR types, G.P. was the name by the Navy's Safety Center in its Safety magazines, back in the day.)
3) the CPSC was right, it is NOT safe to play with Lawn Darts.
Army Engineers at the Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.-based Joint Service Small Arms Program office have been working for the last six years on a radical approach to ammunition and weapons that has the potential to cut the weight Soldiers carry by nearly 50 percent.
Researchers are using so-called "cased telescoped" ammunition that does away with the propellant-holding brass shell and replaces it with a lightweight plastic case. So far the program, dubbed Lightweight Small Arms Technologies, has built three M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon-like machine guns and fired more than 10,000 of the lighter rounds with the same rate of fire and accuracy of a standard SAW.
Engineers have also built a prototype M-4 that fires the lighter rounds. The experimental M-4 weighs about the same as a standard M-4 but has a 40-round magazine that's slimmer than the current one and straight instead of curved. And since half the weight of a legacy bullet is due to the brass case, a Soldier's load of more than 200 rounds in combat will drop substantially, Phillips said.
With millions of dollars in Army research investment, the JSSAP office says it will be ready to put weapons in warfighters' hands by next year. Phillips said eight new SAWs will be built by AAI Corporation. She also said that the office plans to run an exercise with an infantry squad equipped with the new lightweight machine gun and 100,000 rounds of cased telescoped ammo.
It's unclear what unit will get the experimental weapons for the test, which is slated for the summer of 2011, but the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command are playing a key role in LSAT development, Phillips said.
"We're just trying to get a comparison of the squad as it is today with the M-249" and the experimental weapon, Phillips said. "Our plan is just to replace the M-249 in the squad with the [new] weapon and see where that gets you with improvements in your time to complete the mission and your ability to complete the mission."
The standard SAW gunner's load comes in at around 40 pounds, Army officials say, which includes the weapon itself and 600 rounds of ammo. The experimental machine gun with cased telescoped ammo load comes in at 24 pounds.
First: How did they strengthen & seal the chamber under high pressures with plastic casings, did they tighten clearances, etc?) -- and will it work under field (dirt, fouling high heat) conditions?
Second: Much of the 16 pounds "saved" will probably be used for more ammo. You can seldom have "too much" in the field.
#4
Yep, you can never have too much ammo; you can have too much weight to carry.
I'm hoping this is the Steve Holland ammo, but it doesn't sound like it with the straight magazine, and sounds like it needed a new chamber.
Biggest problems so far have been seal to bullet at neck and design of case head; primer pocket and extraction.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/24/2010 5:01 Comments ||
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#5
They could be the mostly deadly, weightless, invisible Death Ray bullets imaginable, but if you are not allowed to SHOOT them, what good are they?
Besoeker's Small Arms Program Office six year minute, no-cost R&D study: The fellows who are giving us fits appear to be sticking with the standard, cheap, and plentiful 7.62x39. How about we produce as much 7.62x51 and 5.56 NATO as our ammunition plants are capable of, and permit our warriors to pump it into the enemy in unprecedented, deadly volumes until we achieve success?
#8
Ive seen this ammo at the AAI booth a couple of years ago at AUSA. It is pretty impressive. I believe it deals with the isues of heat and sealing very effectively.
Michael Williams told a US government investigation that the alarm which could have detected a build-up in natural gas and closed parts of the rig was disarmed so it would not wake people up at night.
The BP rig exploded in April, killing 11 people and triggering a leak that released tens of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Makes you wonder about the design and/or maintenance of the alarm system. False alerts are worse than no alerts as no one trusts the system and it gets ignored.
#4
The rig _belonged_ to Transocean. But it was being built by Reading and Bates/Falcon and in the process of being outfitted when Transocean bought the company. They didn't build it themselves.
#5
Who cares what company owned it. What is important is the name of the human beings that were running it.
It is unsafe to operate a complex system with the alarms shut down. Turn of the alarms on a fuel refinery, or a power plant, or a 747, and expect something bad to happen shortly. The reason that the design engineers spend money building alarm systems is to avoid foreseeable unsafe conditions.
I say again, foreseeable unsafe conditions.
That offshore platform was being operated in manner that was deliberately unsafe by someone in authority on that platform. Eleven people died and then other bad things happened.
#6
Ok first it was the pipe slid through blowout preventer thing, then it was the hydraulic leak thing, then it was the yellow pod blue pod thing. That was all debunked so now its the alarm thing. Poor Mike can't seem to make a lawsuit stick. This one won't either . According to testimony during the congressional oil spill hearings the alarms were not turned off. They were acknowledged from the main control on the drill floor. Big difference.
#7
Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon, and one of the last workers to leave the doomed rig claimed that the blowout preventer was then damaged when a crewman accidentally moved a joystick, applying hundreds of thousands of pounds of force. Pieces of rubber were found in the drilling fluid, which he said implied damage to a crucial seal. But a supervisor declared the find to be "not a big deal", Mr Williams alleged.
Mike Williams was a new hire in the oil industry and several hoaxes were played on him. One of the hoaxes is older than wooden derricks and has been played on new hires like electricians for decades. When a string of casing is cemented two rubber plugs are inserted inside the casing to separate the cement from the drilling fluid. One in front and one behind. After the cement is set up these two plugs will be near the bottom of the casing and need to be drilled up. Drill bits are designed to drill solid rock, not rubber, so even though these plugs are only a few feet long it may take several hours to drill them. During this time chunks of rubber will be circulated back to the surface.
The hoax goes like this:
The blowout preventers are always tested before the casing is ran in the hole, so a member of the drill crew catches an inexperienced person and tells him that the drill pipe accidentally slid down hole while the annular rams were closed and now they have chunks of rubber from the rams coming up the hole. The crew member will give him samples of the rubber and tell him take them to the drill floor and show the driller. Of course all of the drilling personnel will know its just a joke. Annular seals are extremely hard rubber and usually black or blue. Cement plugs are soft and usually red. What is really ridiculous about the whole story is that one of the main purposes of the annular preventer is to slide the pipe through it while it is closed. To say the annular was damaged by sliding pipe through it, is like saying the cars brakes were damaged because they were applied while the car was in motion. Usually someone explains this to the person who shows up with a bunch of rubber in hand, and everyone has a good laugh.
However, sometimes.
The BOP control panel is always located near the drillers station. It will have an array of handles, buttons, controls, gauges, and indicator lights. The drill crew always checks this panel at the beginning of their shift to make sure everything is in the correct position and functioning correctly. They become very familiar with it. Each one of the functions normally has three lights. Green, orange, and red. If someone were to unscrew a couple of these lights and put them back in the wrong place an experienced crew member would know it immediately. But an inexperienced electrician would think that either the BOP system or the electronic controls were malfunctioning. He may spend hours checking the system and then just when he thinks he is getting close to finding the problem the system miraculously starts working correctly. So if no one ever tells him that he has been played for a fool, he thinks the problem never gets fixed. How unfortunate in this case.
The AAIDC reports and the oil company's daily reports are legal documents filed each day with the various government agencies as required by law. They are a legal record of all drilling activity and will stand up in any court of law. Both reports indicate that the blowout preventers were tested only a few hours before the explosion and the entire system passed all tests as required by federal law.
There are both written descriptions of the tests as well as circular charts and digital graphs filed with the MMS that back up the validity of the tests.
[Al Arabiya Latest] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that Iran plans to send a man into space by 2019 as a blow to Western powers pressing Tehran over its nuclear program, state news agency IRNA reported.
"Iran was due to send man into space by 2024 but in response to threats and Security Council resolutions against Iran, the plan was pushed forward by five years and the project will be launched in 2019," Ahmadinejad said.
Iran, which is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its continued uranium enrichment work, has been pursuing an ambitious space program, firing rockets into space and building satellites.
In February Iran launched a home-built satellite carrying a rat, turtles and worms, in the face of Western concerns about Tehran using its nuclear and space industries to develop atomic and ballistic weapons.
Telecommunication Minister Reza Taghipour said this month that Iran plans to launch a new satellite, Rasad 1, in the last week of August.
The minister had previously said that during the current Iranian year to March 2011, new satellites capable of transmitting data and images would be launched.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Big deal. Getting a man into space is indeed a challenge. Getting him home safely is much more of a challenge.
Russia has a huge amount of territory where an astronaut could land. The US has a word wide fleet that can pick up an astronaut who lands in the ocean.
Iran has neither of those. Getting the astronaut to land in Iran means hitting a fairly small target from space.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/24/2010 0:34 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmmmmmmm...don't see anything in there about him coming back. Insh'allah...
#1
It would poetic justice to not sell the people bringing these suits ANY form of fossil fuel or fossil fuel generated energy this winter. Let the pompous f**kers freeze.
#2
On March 24, 1989 an ocean going tanker hit a reef off the coast of Alaska. What exactly an ocean going vessel had to do with land drilling rigs, thousands of miles away, and hundreds of miles from the nearest large body of water, I could never quite understand. But the economic impact of the drilling moratorium, that drove most of the major oil company's out of Alaska and other oil producing states, has been hurting every single U.S. citizen for more than twenty years.
It is not just the loss of jobs and the higher prices that everyone pays for thousands of products. But the negative impact that trillions of dollars flowing out of our economy has had on the standard of living of each and every U.S. citizen.
We have been taught since we were children to hate "big oil". But by forcing the oil companies to drill in foreign countries, we will only hurt ourselves.
A Southern California school board has turned down a call for changes to social studies material on Islam that had been criticized as too positive. The Fountain Valley board decided a request to print up a supplement to the seventh-grade textbook was a decision that would have to come from the California Curriculum Commission and was not something the district should do unilaterally.
This is how the Central Secretariat maintains control over the system; changes may only come from the top.
The Orange County Register said Friday the decision disappointed about 100 people who attended Thursday night's meeting to show sometimes-vocal support for the supplement proposal, which had been made by Fountain Valley resident Steve Jackson.
Jackson said the textbook offers a "totally positive view of Islam" that he felt was inaccurate. He has proposed using materials supplied by the think-tank Textbook Alert, which include interpretations of Islam's relationships with Christianity and Judaism as well as the concept of "jihad," the Register said.
Surprised the Register didn't label him as a 'racist' ...
After the meeting, Superintendent Marc Ecker expressed frustration with the proceedings and told the Register Jackson's efforts were backed by people who live outside the district and engineered by ACT for America, an activist organization that speaks out on the threat posed by radical Islam.
#1
After the meeting, Superintendent Marc Ecker expressed frustration with the proceedings and told the Register Jackson's efforts were backed by people who live outside the district and engineered by ACT for America, an activist organization that speaks out on the threat posed by radical Islam
However, if the outside group was the NEA and they were pushing the standard hate/blame America line, it's OK with him. Right? /rhet question
Fox News was reporting that a Daytona, Florida veteran contacted local news about Manatee Bay Apartments told him to take down an American flag in his window.
I found and called the number for that Complex and asked the young lady who answered who was the individual doing so. She replied, you are talking to her. She said, "Can I please explain? I am not a foreigner, I love the flag, but is is a torn paper flag in the window that looks bad. I bought him a nice flag, but he has left the complex and non of the news media will return my calls...."
Its not what it appears folks.
The young lady was very sweet and hopes this washes out for the veteran...
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.
The city's bus company Metroline said on Friday it was investigating claims by two Muslim women that they were not allowed to get on a bus in the city because one of them was wearing a niqab. The company confirmed that an incident involving two 22-year-old students from Slough, Berkshire took place on a No 7 bus at Russell Square on Tuesday.
LOS ANGELES -- A top Chinese central bank official suggested switching away from the U.S. dollar as a benchmark for the yuan's foreign-exchange rate, switching instead to a basket of currencies, according to remarks published Thursday.
