Methane gas from 90 flatulent cows exploded in a German farm shed on Monday, damaging the roof and injuring one of the animals, police said.
High levels of the gas had built up in the structure in the central German town of Rasdorf, then "a static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames," the force said in a statement. One cow was treated for burns, a police spokesman added. Gosh, I hate it when that happens.
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01/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#6
I don't believe it. The concentration has to be just right for an explosion to occur, about 13%, if I remember my Mythbusters correctly, and the spark has to be just right.
[Libya Herald] A Dale Carnegie centre has opened in Tripoli and is now offering its first courses to the public, with plans to start training for corporate clients in the near future. CEO of Dale Carnegie in Libya, Khaled Elaghel, acquired the franchise for the training company in March 2013 and expects to soon have between four and six local trainers working at the centre. Dale Carnegie plans to offer a range of training, including in sales skills, presentation techniques and management. Dale Carnegie? Libya? Does not compute... Does not compute... Does not compute... [Bzzzt!]
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#3
Little over an inch and still coming down. Quite a turn out on the bird feeder. It may need replenishing before I turn in. Went over to Autrey's this afternoon, pretty slow going, 10-15 mph but folks were pretty careful. I'll bet it's nice up in Blue Ridge and the mountains.
[Ynet] The prime minister of crisis-torn Ukraine has submitted his resignation. In a statement Tuesday on the government website, Mykola Azarov offered his resignation in order to encourage what he called "social-political compromise."
Ukraine has been gripped by protests for two months and the crisis was aggravated in recent days after protesters and police clashed violently.
[An Nahar] Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was on Monday holding a new and previously unannounced meeting with the three main opposition leaders aimed at resolving the country's crisis, the presidency said.
Along with senior aides, Yanukovych was meeting UDAR (Punch) party leader and world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, Fatherland leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party leader Oleg Tyagnybok.
The meeting came after the country's main opposition parties said they were ready to continue talks with Yanukovych's government but warned that the patience of protesters in the streets could "snap" at any moment.
Opposition leaders said in a joint statement that they were ready to negotiate "despite an attempt by the authorities to abandon the negotiations and declare a state of emergency".
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... Jailed Ukrainian former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko urged the opposition not to accept the "humiliating" terms of Yanukovych's deal.
"I ask the opposition leaders to categorically not accept the humiliating conditions," said the 2004 Orange Revolution co-leader, whose plight has only been raised on occasion during the current protests. "I ask all Ukrainians to go forward, not to stop and not to weaken the force of their blow on the authorities," she said in a statement on her website.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine said the introduction of a state of emergency was not yet on the agenda after turbans seized the justice ministry in Kiev in an attack that raised concerns of a derailing of talks to ease the crisis.
The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday was due to meet to discuss concessions proposed by Yanukovych, in a highly anticipated extraordinary session that could be a make-or-break moment to resolve the standoff.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... will visit Britannia on Friday for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... on foreign policy and shared energy and defense projects, officials said.
The half-day Anglo-French summit will include a media conference, at which Hollande will likely face awkward questions about his love life from Britannia's notoriously prurient press.
The talks are taking place at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Brize Norton, west of London, reflecting their "strong defense element", a spokeswoman for Cameron's Downing Street office said.
The leaders will be accompanied by their foreign and defense ministers and are expected to mark the progress made since a landmark 2010 defense and security agreement struck by Cameron and Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd President of the French Republic. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... .
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Gay Paree police say 19 officers were maimed and some 250 people detained after a protest against President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... 's leadership degenerated into violence.
Police said Monday that none of the injuries is critical. The numbers of injured and detentions is high compared with other protests in recent weeks expressing discontent with Hollande, who is particularly unpopular for his handling of the economy.
Turkey's top panel for overseeing major defense procurement decisions will convene "sooner rather than later" to discuss the country's ambitious program for the design, development and production of an indigenous fighter jet, dubbed the TF-X, sources have said, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The Defense Industry Executive Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will discuss the fighter program at its first meeting, according to defense sources. Although there is not yet any scheduled meeting, officials say a gathering "looks likely in the first quarter of the year" - or, in other words, before the March 30 local elections.
For the TF-X, Turkey has been receiving "mentoring" from Sweden's Saab, maker of the JAS 39 Gripen. The Turkish program involves the design, development and production of a "national" fighter jet, and Saab has been under contract for "pre-conceptual design work." Last year, Turkey agreed to buy design tools from the company.
Turkey aims at a maiden flight for its own fighter aircraft in 2023, the centennial of the country's foundation. Officials are hoping that production will commence in 2021, and deliveries to the Air Force are planned for between 2025 and 2035. The aircraft is expected to remain in service until 2060.
In its present phase, the TF-X exists in three distinct conceptual forms. The foremost favored by the Air Force is a single-engine airframe with blended wing-to-fuselage lines, a forward set single-seat cockpit and conventional main- and tail-wing appendages.
More like an F16 then a Gripen...
The second concept largely borrows the same design, though it features a larger fuselage to harbor the two turbofan engines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] LAHORE: Two alleged criminals were killed in a shootout with the Crimes Investigation Agency police in Shadbagh area on Sunday.
Police claimed the suspects first opened fire on police who retaliated.
One of the dear departed -- Shoaib alias Shoaibi of Sharaqpur -- was a proclaimed offender and carried Rs1 million head money, police claimed.
CIA City DSP Khalid Abu Bakr said Sub-Inspector Maratab Ali got information that Shoaib would go to Juggian Bhambha village and use the specific road.
He said the SI and his subordinates set up a picket on the same road leading to the village and signalled a cycle of violence to stop after some time. Two people riding the cycle of violence opened fire on coppers who retaliated.
The suspects left the cycle of violence and continued firing on police by taking shelter of a house. Later, police found the suspects dead on ground.
The DSP said the dear departed were identified as Shoaib and his accomplice Gulfam of Ferozwala. Police seized their weapons and the cycle of violence from scene of the crime and shifted the bodies for autopsies.
Khalid said Shoaib and Gulfam were wanted by Lahore police in 20 cases of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping for ransom, extortion and murder with robbery. He said they had faced jail in trivial cases in the past, but were never tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in heinous cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Android smartphone platform has extended its lead over Apple's iPhone in key markets including the United States, Europe and China, a survey showed Monday.
Windows Phone, meanwhile, has made inroads to secure a strong third place showing in some markets, and is ahead of Apple in Italia, according to the survey of fourth quarter sales released by Kantar Worldpanel.
The survey showed Android, the free operating system from Google ...contributed $814,540 to the 2008 Obama campaign... , remained on top in Europe and most other major markets outside Japan.
Android ended 2013 as the top platform across the five major markets in Europe with 68.6 percent share, while Apple held second place with 18.5 percent.
Windows Phone showed strong year-on-year growth, and in Italia captured 17.1 percent of the market, ahead of Apple's 12.8 percent, but behind Android's 66.2 percent, the survey showed.
In the United States, the survey showed Android share rising more than four percentage points over the past year to 50.6 percent, while Apple's share declined to 43.9 percent.
In Japan, Apple held 68.7 percent of smartphone sales, according to Kantar's survey.
In China, Android's share increased to 78.6 percent while Apple's declined to 19 percent.
"Android finished 2013 strongly, showing year-on-year share growth across 12 major global markets including Europe, USA, Latin America, China and Japan," said Kantar's Dominic Sunnebo.
"Windows Phone has now held double-digit share across Europe for three consecutive months. Unfortunately for Nokia the European smartphone market is only growing at three percent year-on-year so success in this market has not been enough to turn around its fortunes -- reflected in its recent disappointing results."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[Egypt Independent] Thailand's Election Commission urged a delay in next week's planned national vote, warning on Monday of more bloodshed after violent festivities at the weekend.
That would drag out a festering crisis that risks splitting the country. The military, which has often stepped in to take control in the past, is resolutely staying out of the fray this time, despite appeals from anti-government protesters.
"As election officials, it is our job to make sure elections are successful, but we also need to make sure the country is peaceful enough to hold the election," Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, an Election Commission member, told Rooters.
"We don't want it to be bloody."
The commission will meet embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Tuesday to discuss the vote date.
With protests aimed at toppling Yingluck now in their third month, there has been repeated speculation that the armed forces might try a repeat of the 18 actual and attempted coups they have mounted in 80 years of on-off democracy in Southeast Asia's second biggest economy.
But in comments to news hounds, armed forces supreme commander, Thanasak Patimapakorn, refused to be drawn on whether elections should be postponed.
"The Election Commission and the government will meet to discuss this tomorrow. Soldiers will not be able to say much more than this," he said.
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... the military in recent weeks has also refused to rule out intervention.
The Election Commission says the months of protests render the country too unstable to go to the polls on February 2.
That argument was bolstered by the shooting on Sunday in Bangkok of a protest leader, taking to 10 the corpse count since the protests started in November.
The protests, centered on the capital, have broad support among Bangkok's middle class and the traditional elite.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2014 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.
I recommend a '7 Habits' seminar....OH WAIT ! 
[An Nahar] French President 
[DAWN] LAHORE: Two alleged criminals were killed in a shootout with the Crimes Investigation Agency police in Shadbagh area on Sunday.
[An Nahar] The Android smartphone platform has extended its lead over Apple's iPhone in key markets including the United States, Europe and China, a survey showed Monday.
