[AnNahar] B.B. King, with his ever-present guitar Lucille, rose from sharecropper poverty in deep Mississippi to become the face of the American blues worldwide and an inspiration for generations of rock guitarists everywhere.
"The King of the Blues," as he was universally known, led a life of non-stop touring, electrifying audiences in some 100 countries with his biting guitar licks and soulful songs of love and angst such as "The Thrill is Gone" and "How Blue Can You Get."
King died Thursday at age 89 in Las Vegas, which was the blues legend's primary residence amid years of incessant travel, his daughter said.
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Former President George W. Bush said he didn't have much of a choice about speaking at Southern Methodist University's commencement Saturday.
"I got a call from my landlord ⌠[SMU President] Gerald Turner," said Bush, who has his presidential library on the campus. "Rather than raising the rent or threatening to withhold our security deposit, I was relieved to hear President Turner ask me if I believed in free speech."
After Bush answered yes, Turner replied, "perfect, here's your chance to give one."
Bush was both lighthearted and serious. And a lot cheaper than Slick or Shrillery.
He was self-deprecating about his public speaking and painting skills, and he invoked his faith while prodding graduates to participate in civic life.
Saturday's graduation address was the first Bush has given since leaving office but his second at SMU. His first was in 1999 while governor of Texas.
Though Bush is a Yale graduate, his wife, Laura, who also attended Saturday's ceremony, is an SMU alumna and on the board of trustees.
After his speech, Bush shook hands and posed with students receiving their doctorate degrees. Do the Clintons charge for shaking hands? Or maybe you just need to contribute to the Foundation.
One student, who graduated with his law degree, said he found Bush's address "surprisingly entertaining."
"I don't usually agree with him politically, but on the whole, I liked it," he said. In spite of my expensive leftist education.
One student, who received a degree in finance Saturday, said the former president's speech was "awesome. I loved it," he said. "It was really cool; it was a great way to graduate. I couldn't imagine a better speaker."
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/17/2015 15:19 ||
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The daily downpours that filled North Texas lakes to the brim and beyond washed away the last pockets of drought across much of the Dallas area. "Exceptional drought" ‐ the most severe category ‐ has been wiped completely off the Texas map, according to the latest Drought Monitor.
The last time that happened was in July 2012. But then, 87 percent of the state was "abnormally dry" or worse. This year, more than 64 percent of Texas shows no signs of drought. This was two days ago, before we got 2" of rain last night.
The latest El NiĂąo diagnostic discussion from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center, released Thursday, states there is a 90 percent chance that an El NiĂąo pattern will continue through the summer, and a better than 80 percent likelihood it will last through the rest of the year.
"That could lead to wetter-than-normal conditions for Texas this summer, because El NiĂąo's greatest impact is typically on our rainfall," Mace said. "But the other side of that is summer tends to be our dry season, so if you're adding a little more rainfall during a drier season, the impacts aren't as evident.
"But it does lead to cooler-than-normal temperatures," always a welcome change from the usual torrid Texas heat, he said.
And then there's the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, one of a number of oscillations around the globe that garnered scant mention before the drought of 2011, Mace said.
The PDO is in place, he said, and that often means wetter-than-normal weather for Texas. On the other hand, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation "is still in a bad place for Texas" because it tends to decrease the likelihood of tropical systems developing in the Gulf of Mexico. And while El NiĂąo might mean more rain moving from west to east across Texas, it also shears the tops off budding tropical systems. This climate change stuff is complex!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/17/2015 15:39 ||
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Been trying to move a mobile home onto our land there since February - first it was too wet to grade the pad, got that done, and now too wet to pull it onto the pad. Local old-timers say they cannot remember as wet a spring. And no end in sight.
[NDTV] BUJUMBURA: Burundi took 18 people suspected of involvement in a failed coup against President Pierre Nkurunziza to the high court on Saturday, relatives of some of the accused said.
Earlier, about a hundred demonstrators erupted into the streets of Bujumbura to protest against Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third term, defying the president's call the previous day for an end to the weeks-long protests.
The east African nation was plunged into deep crisis after Nkurunziza announced he was running for another five-year term, with festivities between police and protesters stirring memories of an ethnically driven civil war that ended a decade ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Britannia's finance minister announced plans for a second 2015 government budget on Saturday to quickly implement his Conservative Party's campaign promises of spending cuts and savings following a surprise election win.
"On the eighth of July I am going to take the unusual step of having a second budget of the year," Chancellor George Osborne wrote in The Sun newspaper.
"I don't want to wait to turn the promises we made in the election into a reality ."
Osborne was re-appointed finance minister following an election last week in which 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 ... won a surprise majority and a second term as prime minister.
The chancellor has said he will strip out £12 billion (16 billion euros, $19 billion) a year from Britannia's welfare bill in a bid to balance the nation's books by 2020, but has not given full details on where the cuts will fall.
Osborne said it would be a "budget for working people" that would protect the National Health Service, make savings in government administration and improve British productivity.
"We'll crack down hard on tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning by the rich -- because everyone should pay their fair share," he wrote.
"We'll spend less on welfare and instead invest to create three million more apprenticeships, so that young people can learn a trade, get better jobs and earn more."
Osborne last delivered a budget on March 18. Plans for a budget are usually announced in a statement to parliament, which is not yet sitting following the election.
[MoscowTimes] Known as the Project 23000E, or Shtorm-class, super-carrier, the design by the Krylov State Research Center appears similar to one teased by Russian Defense Ministry television channel TV Zvezda earlier this year.
The unveiling, which is planned for the International Maritime Defense Show 2015 in early July according to IHS Jane's, will come as Russia pushes forward with a 20 trillion ruble ($400 billion) decade-long rearmament program through 2020 intended to revamp the country's armed forces and restore the Russian navy's ability to project power abroad.
"The Project 23000E multipurpose aircraft carrier is designed to conduct operations in remote and oceanic areas, engage land-based and sea-borne enemy targets, ensure the operational stability of naval forces, protect landing troops, and provide the anti-aircraft defense," Krylov State Research Center deputy director Valery Polyakov told IHS Jane's, a specialized defense industry publication.
The new super-carrier would likely be part of a future armament program, as Russia's shipbuilding industry is currently unable to take on such a project, and the navy's near term strategy is to build up its fleets of smaller vessels.
*'Developed' a new carrier: When it's out there on the water doing USN-style flight ops every day, they've developed it. Until then it's just a model on a desk.
*Ski-jump bow means they STILL can't build catapults which means reduced fuel and ammo on takeoff.
*Oil burner, which means you're tied to a fleet train...which is something the Russians never have gotten down.
Honestly, I'm not worried.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/17/2015 7:03 Comments ||
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The new super-carrier would likely be part of a future armament program, as Russia's shipbuilding industry is currently unable to take on such a project
Kursk was already taken
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2015 8:55 Comments ||
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Because they've had sooo much success with ones they've built up to this point. (They sold one to the Chinese to use as an amusement park. And design guide.)
Maybe they can ask the French for design and construction help. (Backstory: after DeGaulle took twice as long and cost twice as much as it was supposed to, the French towed it to Newport News and had the people who build American carriers finish it. Because it became important that it, you know, work.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/17/2015 13:20 Comments ||
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Both Russia's Space + Military programs have been having a prolonged or protractive spate of bad luck, wid various assets falling out of the sky, sinking, andor catching on fire while in dockside, etc.
Unfortunately, I suspect the most important + reliable vessel in Russia's Navy or afloat/ocean task force will still be the FLEET SALVAGE TUG(S) + RELATED.
BAD TIME FOR PUTIN + RUSSIA TO HAVE THESE INCIDENTS GIVEN ...
* FREEREPUBLIC this AM > [AFP, Yahoo News] RUSSIA FLEXES CENTRAL ASIA MILITARY MIGHT AMID AFGHAN FEARS.
* IIRC WAFF > WORLD ABOUT TO END - RUSSIA IN NEGOTIATIONS TO BUY CHINESE PLAN TYPE 054 WARSHIPS.
Youse know thingys are very serious or bad in Russia when historically racist andor historically Euro-centric/philic Russia has to buy from China - THAT SOUND YOU'RE HEARING ARE CENTURIES OF MUSCOVY, TSARIST, SOVIET, + NOW RUSSIAN ELITES CRUSHING OR POUNDING THEIR CLOSED FISTS ON TABLES LIKE POTUS RICHARD NIXON.
[DAWN] KARACHI: Two more deaths caused by Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as the 'brain-eating' amoeba, have been reported from a private hospital in Clifton during the past 15 days, bringing the total number of deaths caused by Naegleria to three this year, said provincial health authorities and hospital sources on Friday.
The lack of coordination between the provincial health department and the hospital administration was evident when the former expressed unawareness about any such cases in the city.
"We have inquired about such cases from all the major private hospitals but no one has confirmed them," said a bigwig in the health department.
"A private hospital has confirmed the death of one person, a man named Farooq, while the other death of a woman is suspected to be due to the brain-eating amoeba but it has not been confirmed by the hospital," said Zafar Ejaz, director health of the provincial health department.
Sources in Dr Ziauddin Hospital in Clifton said the hospital admitted two individuals within the past two weeks and both died of Naegleria fowleri.
The latest death, they said, was of a 37-year-old man, resident of Defence Housing Authority, who was admitted in the hospital earlier this week. He died on Thursday.
The sources said a 40-year-old woman, resident of Clifton Block 5, was also admitted to Dr Ziauddin Hospital two weeks ago and she, too, died a couple of days later due to Naegleria.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2015 00:00 ||
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I thought this was rampant throughout the middle east.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/17/2015 11:20 Comments ||
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A brain eating organism is loose in Pakistan. I don't like it's chances.
On April 27, 2015 the Navy announced it had relieved USS Lake Erie Capt. John Banigan of his command pending investigation into a "poor command climate" aboard the ship.
Banigan first took control of guided missile cruiser Lake Erie in 2011 after a long career aboard other vessels. He served two years, just long enough to arouse the suspicions of Navy investigators back home in San Diego.
When the investigators began to look into Banigan, they discovered the goat. The creature in question is Master Chief Charlie, a pygmy goat. Press surrounding the beast has called Charlie the Lake Erie's "unofficial mascot."
...
The trouble started when Banigan decided to bring the goat along when the Lake Erie made a trip from Hawaii to San Diego.
California has a lot of laws surrounding the transport of animals. According to state law, a vet must examine incoming goats, then tag the creature and issue its owner a permit. Banigan didn't do this.
His pet negligence may have cost him his command. It has, at the very least, deprived Lake Erie of its goat.
#2
California has a lot of laws surrounding the transport of animals. According to state law, a vet must examine incoming goats, then tag the creature and issue its owner a permit.
The US has a lot of laws covering the crossing of its national borders for health and safety reasons too. The CinC has chosen to ignore those as well. Why hasn't he been relieved? /rhet question
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 President George W. Bush said he didn't have much of a choice about speaking at Southern Methodist University's commencement Saturday.
The daily downpours that filled North Texas lakes to the brim and beyond washed away the last pockets of drought across much of the Dallas area. "Exceptional drought" ‐ the most severe category ‐ has been wiped completely off the Texas map, according to the latest Drought Monitor.
David Cameron
