[Denver Post] MediaNews Group, owner of The Denver Post, will not renew its one-year contract with copyright enforcer Righthaven at the end of September, a company official said today. "Wouldja help me get this off the bottom of my shoe?"
"E-w-w-w-w! What is it?"
"Steve Gibson!"
John Paton, who was appointed as MediaNews chief executive Wednesday, sent a message on Twitter later in the day that MediaNews had terminated its relationship with Righthaven "some time ago." "Anybody got any stain remover?" "No, sorry. But my timer says it's more than thirty seconds, so that 'Some time ago,' should definitely stand up in court."
MediaNews vice president of field operations Sara Glines said Wednesday that the company had decided, before Paton arrived, to let the contract lapse at the end of the month, and that it had informed Righthaven. "We haven't made any money from it, and we've lost circulation because now people hate us. Other than that, everything is fine."
"It's a model that isn't working very well for us," she said. "It's something we felt was important to try because we are committed to protecting copyright, but it hasn't worked the way we expected." "We soaked the whole organization in Clorox but you can still smell it!"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2011 00:00 ||
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Years ago, I put on old clothes, raingear, and a canister mask and went down into the clarifier of a sewage treatment tank to change the plumbing of a unit that was plumbed wrong.
When I came up, I hosed down, but my clothes had absorbed the smell, so I washed them. Still had the smell. Tried everything but it was always there. Had to throw them away.
Never forgot that septic sludge smell. That is what the MediaNews Group has now --- a septic stink that will not go away, whatever they do. They are stuck with it. When you lay down in sludge, you smell like sh*t.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/09/2011 1:52 Comments ||
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#2
I know the feeling. One time I read through the comments at Daily Kos. I had to shower with bleach and a wire brush
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/09/2011 14:24 Comments ||
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#3
Oh, the imagery!!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/09/2011 15:49 Comments ||
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There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false. The probability that a research claim is true may depend on study power and bias, the number of other studies on the same question, and, importantly, the ratio of true to no relationships among the relationships probed in each scientific field. In this framework, a research finding is less likely to be true when the studies conducted in a field are smaller; when effect sizes are smaller; when there is a greater number and lesser preselection of tested relationships; where there is greater flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, and analytical modes; when there is greater financial and other interest and prejudice; and when more teams are involved in a scientific field in chase of statistical significance.
Simulations show that for most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias.
[Bangla Daily Star] A judicial probe committee has found that the six students, killed in a mob beating in Aminbazar in July this year, were innocent and not robbers, while police on duty at the spot were negligent in saving their lives, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The committee, formed by a High Court directive, submitted a 200-page sealed report to the Supreme Court registrar yesterday for placing it to the HC bench concerned, but the sources The Daily Star talked to have knowledge of the main finding.
Advocate Tajul Islam, whose writ petition sparked the investigation, said he was informed by knowledgeable sources that the probe also found involvement of a few coppers in the killing.
The six students were beaten to death by several hundred villagers at Keblar Char in Aminbazar near the capital on July 18 when they went there to enjoy the night of holy Shab-e Barat.
The slain students were Tipu Sultan of Tejgaon College; Towhidur Rahman Palash, Kamruzzaman Kanto and Ibrahim Khalil of Mirpur Bangla College; Shams Rahim Shamam of Maple Leaf International School; and Sitaf Jabi Munif of Bangladesh University of Business and Technology.
The sources said the probe report states that the villagers beat the students to death on suspicion that they were robbers, and police on duty there did not try to stop the villagers.
Tajul said the report also found that Al Amin, the only living victim of the beating, had pleaded with police to allow him to talk to his parents over the cellphone, but police did not allow him, instead they treated the already severely maimed young man roughly.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) of Dhaka AKM Enamul Haque and Metropolitan Magistrate Utpal Chowdhury submitted the report to SC Registrar AKM Shamsul Haque yesterday morning.
More details of the report could not be known instantly since the SC registrar and the magistrates did not disclose the contents of the sealed document to the media.
The sources, however, said the committee did not make any recommendation in the report.
CMM Enamul Haque on August 10 formed a one-member judicial committee with Utpal Chowdhury to investigate the tragic incident.
Earlier on August 3, in response to the writ petition filed by Tajul Islam on behalf of the National Forum for Protection of Human Rights (NFPHR), the HC asked the CMM to form a committee with a magistrate to investigate the incident.
Utpal Chowdhury said he recorded statements of 54 people including 11 police personnel, family members of the six slain students, and the sole living victim Al Amin during the investigation, and took one month to write the report.
"I feel the real picture of the incident have been rightly presented in the investigation report," he said.
He declined to disclose the findings and observations of the report, terming it a sub-judice matter.
SC Registrar Shamsul Haque last evening said he received the sealed report, and had yet to open it.
"We will place the report to the chief justice next week for his approval to place it before the High Court bench concerned," he said.
Tajul Islam, who is also the secretary general of NFPHR, said they did not get a copy of the report yet.
He also said the HC will hear the writ petition for further order on the issue after the court reopens in the second week of October on completion of its ongoing autumn vacation.
Two other committees were formed by the Police Headquarters and the Criminal Investigation Department in July to investigate the incident, but none of those could complete the task till date.
Family members of the victims said yesterday evening that they saw television reports claiming the probe report found the victims innocent. They said the probe finding is now their only consolation.
Abdul Kader, father of Kanto, and Al Amin's father Khabir Bapari said they feel relieved as their sons will now be cleared of the fake allegation of attempted robbery.
They demanded arrest and punishment of those who killed the innocent students, and who tried to mislead the case to save the killers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I consider this AAU. (Arabs Acting Usualy)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/09/2011 9:42 Comments ||
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#2
When all you have is a meme, then everyone looks like an Arab.
I see someone has deleted my short message to you from earlier this morning. I sincerely hope you were able to catch it before it went down. If not, have one of the other modulumi brief you on it. You do not to give professional assistance some serious consideration.
[Bangla Daily Star] Portraying Tarique Rahman as a symbol of "kleptocratic government and violent politics" in Bangladesh, the US embassy in Dhaka even recommended blocking his entry into the United States.
The embassy believed Tarique was "guilty of egregious political corruption that has had a serious adverse effect on US national interests", namely the stability of democratic institutions and US foreign assistance goals, a leaked US embassy cable says.
James F Moriarty, the then US ambassador, sent the confidential cable on November 3, 2008 to Washington and WikiLeaks published it on August 30 this year.
He cited several examples of Tarique's major corruption as he described his worries in the cable about the possible impact of giving him access into the US.
The decision in this regard, however, could not be known. Tarique has been staying in London since September 2008.
Tarique's corrupt practices have had deleterious effects on the US interests, Moriarty wrote, adding "His antics have weakened public confidence in government and eroded the stability of democratic institutions."
"Tarique's well-established reputation for flouting the rule of law directly threatens US financial assistance goals directed toward reforming legal codes, strengthening good governance and halting judicial abuses."
The bribery, embezzlement, and culture of corruption that the BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... 's elder son has helped create and maintain in Bangladesh has directly and irreparably undermined US businesses, resulting in many lost opportunities, Moriarty wrote.
"His theft of millions of dollars in public money has undermined political stability in this moderate, Mohammedan-majority nation and subverted US attempts to foster a stable democratic government, a key objective in this strategically important region," reads the cable.
Tarique's flagrant corruption has also seriously threatened specific US Mission goals, it said.
The US embassy in Dhaka has three key priorities for Bangladesh: democratisation, development, and denial of space to terrorists. "Tarique's audaciously corrupt activities jeopardize all three."
"His history of embezzlement, extortion, and interference in the judicial process undermines the rule of law and threatens to upend the US goal of a stable, democratic Bangladesh. The climate of corrupt business practices and bribe solicitation that Tarique fostered derailed US efforts to promote economic development by discouraging much needed foreign investment and complicating the international operations of US companies."
Tarique's "flagrant disregard" for the rule of law had provided potent ground for forces of Evil to gain a foothold in Bangladesh while also exacerbating poverty and weakening democratic institutions, the cable said.
"In short, much of what is wrong in Bangladesh can be blamed on Tarique and his cronies," Moriarty wrote.
The US ambassador recommended that Tarique could be subject to Presidential Proclamation 7750 that can block one's entry into the US for the aforementioned reasons.
The cable, however, said the embassy was not seeking to apply the proclamation for Tarique's wife Zubaida Rahman, their daughter Zaima Rahman or his mother Khaleda Zia.
The elder son of Khaleda Zia, who led the government in 1991-1996 and later 2001-2006, became an all influential party leader during BNP's second term in office.
During the period, he established an alternative centre of power at Hawa Bhaban, the then political office of the chairperson. It was open secret that Tarique and his cronies used to interfere in the government activities and control all major business deals.
He, however, became powerless after his arrest during the tenure of immediate past army-backed caretaker government.
Terming him "the notorious and widely feared" son of former premier Khaleda Zia, the US ambassador mentioned that Tarique, nabbed in an anti-corruption crackdown in March 2007, was released on bail on September 3 the next year. He flew to the UK on September 11 for medical treatment.
As a condition for his release, Tarique had to quit the post of BNP's senior joint secretary general, after enjoying the position for about five years.
But still abroad, he was made all-powerful senior vice chairman in December 2009 with a clear mandate to lead BNP in absence of his mother.
The cable termed Tarique "notorious for flagrantly and frequently demanding bribes in connection with government procurement actions and appointments to political office".
Saying that Tarique's release occurred despite multiple pending cases against him on charges of corruption, extortion, bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion, Moriarty wrote: "With deep political ties that reach the highest court in the land, Tarique managed to manipulate the judicial process and overcome a concerted effort by the Caretaker Government to block his bail."
"We believe Tarique has several passports, including a new one in which the UK issued him a visa in September. Another passport contains a five year multiple-entry B1/B2 visa (issued May 11, 2005). We suspect that passport is being held by the government."
Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) levelled serious charges against Tarique, the cable said, adding he reportedly had accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit wealth. There are multiple extortion cases pending against him, founded on the testimony of numerous prominent business owners who he victimised and exploited, the cable said.
"In one case, Tarique allegedly threatened Al Amin Construction owner Amin Ahmed with closure of the company unless he received a payment of 150,000 USD. Other local business leaders, including Mohammad Aftab Uddin Khan of Reza Construction Ltd, Mir Zahir Hossian of Mir Akhter Hossain Ltd, and Harun Ferdousi have each filed accusations detailing a systematic pattern of extortion on a multi-million dollar scale."
The ACC had also filed charges of concealing ill-gotten wealth, and the National Board of Revenue had brought tax evasion charges against Tarique, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2011 00:00 ||
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The political crisis for a Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) national leader deepened as charges and barbs were traded between factions both outside and in the PRI.
Humberto Moreria, who virtually walked in last spring as leader of the PRI, is facing increased pressure from inside his own party, some of whom are questioning whether the ex-governor of Coahuila can carry Mexico's largest political party to the presidency in 2012.
According to an online article with El Informador Moreira met with top PRI senators over the weekend in Morelia, Michoacan. Although the article provided no quotes it was clear that the leader was being asked by members of his own party to step down until the crisis is sufficiently contained.
Moreira reportedly deflected criticisms at the meeting by stating emphatically the meeting was the last time he would talk about it. He also said disingenuously, "Let's talk about the debt in deaths.", which was a reference to Mexican president Felipe Calderon's war on the drug cartels now in its fourth year.
Moreira is said to have increased the debt load of the state by about ten orders of magnitude from MP $233 million (USD $25,934,832.80) to MP $32 billion (USD $256,939,520.00) during his three year term.
Worse, Moreira is facing an investigation on possible fraud charges related to the contracting of new debt. The possibility of fraud charges stem from a charge publicly issued by Minister of Finance Ernesto Cordero who said a week ago his office detected potential fraud when Moreira contracted the new debt. The fraud charges come from Moreira's failure to post accurate financial information on the state of Coahuila's finances. Mexican federal law requires all states to post all aspects of a state's finances on a public format, such as a website.
Monday, according to the Mexican news website terra.com.mx the Partido Accion National (PAN) bloc in the Coahuila Chamber of Deputies attempted to persuade the national Chamber of Deputies into conducting an investigation into the matter.
Currently Moreira's party controls the national Chamber of Deputies, as well as the Coahuila legislature.
A total of 14 Coahuila commercial banks met Monday in Mexico City to hammer out a short and long term financing agreement. The negotiations with Ruben Moreira, Humberto's brother who was elected as governor of Coahuila last July, will likely include sharp cuts in government services. Since Coahuila's debt has been downgraded several levels recently, it is certain the state will pay a higher coupon the the current as well a the restructured debt.
The restructured deal will likely also include an increase in taxes.
Negotiations also include the possibility that the banks who hold most of Coahuila's bonds will form a central vehicle for the acceptance and distribution of payments.
In a related development, Gustavo Madero, president of PAN and PRI's fiercest rival, Tuesday accused Moreira of hijacking the national legislative agenda to increase federal aid to state with debt problems.
Madero said were the actions of Moreira during his term as Coahuila governor were applied nationwide, Mexico would be like Greece with its debt problems.
Madero also renewed his charge that the amount of money needed to service all of Coahuila's debt is equal to the income Coahuila gets from all of it investments.
[An Nahar] The prospect of throwing Greece out of the Eurozone moved cener-stage Thursday, after the Dutch called for the "ultimate sanction" and Germany warned a second bailout deal may need re-negotiation.
Under a proposed new regime that would place economies in deep trouble under the wardenship of Eurozone partners, Netherlands finance minister Jan Kees de Jager threatened expulsion as an "ultimate sanction".
"If a country doesn't want to fulfill its obligations, well, there's no other option than that it leaves (the Eurozone," de Jager told a presser in The Hague, stressing that this would only be "the last resort".
German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble meanwhile also pushed for a tougher approach, telling his parliament he will fight for "the necessary treaty changes so that we can act sooner and more effectively when things go wrong."
And ratcheting up the pressure on Athens, Schaeuble said it was "very premature" to talk about a second bailout package for Greece before it had implemented the reforms required to receive its first full disbursement.
"At the end of the day, it is up to Greece itself to decide whether it is ready to take the necessary measures to reduce its deficit and its too-high debt," added Schaeuble.
The Greek government is currently scrambling to come up with new financial planning to prevent a debt burden of more than 350 billion Euros spinning "out of control," as a national body recently admitted.
On Thursday Greece announced that its economy shrank 7.3 percent in the second quarter on a 12-month comparison, a greater fall than expected.
The Greek government warned the economy could shrink by about 5.0 percent this year instead of the previously estimated 3.5 percent, underlining the problems for the economy.
International auditors from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and the International Monetary Fund cut short an inspection visit to Athens last week, aimed at establishing if conditions had been met that would allow the release of the next eight-billion-euro tranche of loans under last year's initial bailout.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2011 00:00 ||
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On Thursday Greece announced that its economy shrank 7.3 percent in the second quarter on a 12-month comparison, a greater fall than expected.
Man, that 'unexpectedly' thing sure gets around.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/09/2011 5:51 Comments ||
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So is it better or worse for the rest of us if the Euros push the Greeks out of the EU?
And just to be polite, would it be harder or easier that way on the individual Greek working man?
Please keep it simple, for us engineers!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/09/2011 7:15 Comments ||
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#3
"At the end of the day, it is up to Greece itself to decide whether it is ready to take the necessary measures to reduce its deficit and its too-high debt," added Schaeuble.
That tells me the Germans will keep them in. Because at the end of the day, it is up to Germany itself to decide whether it is ready to cut off the bailouts. Because, as the US is proving, a debtor will borrow as long as a creditor will lend in the hope they'll write it off.
#4
The irony is that if it were pushed out, the biggest beneficiary would be Greece.
Imagine if Queen Elizabeth finally had enough of Prince Charles antics, stripped him of his title, and kicked him out on the street and told him to fend for himself. In say, Japan. Assuming the Japanese were repulsed by him.
He would have a rotten month, but then he would learn to dress himself, prepare his own meals, maybe make some scratch giving English lessons. After a year or two he would make some friends, and for the first time in his miserable life learn what it means to be a free man. Or he would steal a knife and cut his own throat.
Since Greece doesn't really have a knife option, unless they put some Pol Pot in charge, they would have no choice but to get their sierra together.
In brief, this begins with the axiom: "Those who work not shall not eat". The Drachma would be worthless until it had a reason to be worth something, so those who had a lot of Euros would still get by.
A lot of people would work solely for room and board. But in the short term, that is enough.
Recovery would not be based on other countries, but it would be faster the more isolated Greece was from them. Getting aid would be like giving a recovering junkie more smack.
#5
Greece can't be pushed out legally. And it won't be.
If Greece leaves the Euro (which would have to happen by surprise on a weekend), Portugal would collapse immediately, probably also Italy, Spain and ireland because nobody with an IQ above room temperature would keep his money in a bvanl of said countries.
Thgat's why Greece will be kept in and "saved" until kingdom comes or Germany leaves.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/09/2011 18:07 Comments ||
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#6
bank of course
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/09/2011 18:08 Comments ||
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#7
Pre-Euro the clubmed countries used to run chronic deficits and essentially inflated their debt away through a constantly depreciating currency.
The Euro stopped this.
If Greece gets kicked out they will redenominate their Euro debts in Drachma and go back to a constantly depreciating currency.
The issue is what will this do the banks holding the debt and will it force Spain and Portugal out.
#2
It's a pity that we cannot as easily deny mentally ill Americans re-entry. Cindy Sheehan would be living in Venezuela and Danny Glover, Oliver Stone and Michael Moore in Cuba.
#3
We don't need any mentally ill Canadians; we have plenty of mentally ill of our own. Heck, there were over 500 on tv last night there in Washington.
#7
You see ???? This is why my wife says I'm not allowed into the US.
I say it's because I don't have a valid passport. But what would I know compared to HERSELF?
Pakistain on Thursday asked the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... to issue an international appeal for humanitarian assistance for up to five million people affected by the recent monsoon rains, an official said.
No. Take it out of the funding you get from abroad for weapons.
"President Asif Zardari talked to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon by telephone today and requested him to issue an international appeal for assistance to the flood-affected people," presidential front man Farhatullah Babar told AFP.
Sorry. Budgets are tight all over.
"Our foreign office is sending a formal letter to the United Nations in this regard," Babar said.
I'm afraid everyone already gave at the office.
He said Zardari visited his native Nawabshah and other flood-affected towns to review the relief work before speaking from Bloody Karachi with the UN chief.
Did you ask your friend, China, or your very dear friend, Saudi Arabia?
Monsoon rains in Pakistain have killed 138 people in a month and affected up to five million more, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
Southern Sindh, a flood-prone province where authorities said more heavy rains were expected in the coming days, was the hardest-hit area, with crops and many houses destroyed.
Last year, the worst floods in Pakistain's history affected 21 million people and killed an estimated 1,750, with the south again taking the brunt of mother nature. The meteorological office has forecast more rain this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Is it that time again? Jeez, it just seems to sneak up on ya every year...
[Dawn] The government has decided to take action against the parents refusing polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... immunisation of their children in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar district, District Coordination Officer Siraj Ahmed Khan told this correspondent on Wednesday. In civilized countries parents want their children protected from this horrible disease...
He said that the government was taking the rising number of polio cases seriously and it had been decided to initiate action against people who would resist administering oral polio vaccine (OPV) to their children.
"We will use all our options, including getting the services of religious scholars to prevail upon the people, but if that did not work, we will take action against the refusing parents under the law," Mr Khan said and added that parents should vaccinate their children to safeguard them against the crippling ailment.
The DCO also said that people instigating others against the OPV would be locked away under the MPO (Maintenance of Public Order). He said that an Afghan family -- wherein the fourth case in Peshawar district had been registered -- would face deportation as a case would be
registered against them for illegal stay in the country under the 14 Foreigners Act.
He said that the Afghan families were spreading the poliovirus in Peshawar and elsewhere in the province that warranted action. The local families refusing vaccination of their children would also be booked under the 16 and 3 MPO, he said.
Health officials associated with the polio eradication efforts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... told this correspondent that tackling refusals had become a big problem and the government was under tremendous pressure from the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... and other donor agencies to cope with the situation.
They said that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had recorded seven of the total 80 polio cases in the country this year so far, of which five had not received any OPV due to refusal by their parents.
They said that three of the four polio-affected children in Peshawar district didn't receive any OPV while one each positive child reported from Bannu and Torghar districts also remained unvaccinated.
The officials said that roughly 17,000 children in the province remained without immunization in every campaign due to unwillingness by their parents. They said that Peshawar had over 4,000 children who had not been immunised in the past one year due to refusals.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2011 00:00 ||
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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.
Khaleda Zia
The prospect of throwing Greece out of the Eurozone moved cener-stage Thursday, after the Dutch called for the "ultimate sanction" and Germany warned a second bailout deal may need re-negotiation.
The government has decided to take action against the parents refusing 
