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Syrian rebels launch offensive on pro Syrian troops in Latakia
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Diners' quick response helped cops find restaurant attacker
Moved to Non WoT

Quick observations by employees and patrons witnessing an apparently random machete attack on diners at a restaurant helped authorities track down the fleeing suspect, who was fatally shot in a confrontation with officers a few miles away, police said.

Witnesses at the Mediterranean restaurant in northeast Columbus gave a great description of the white getaway car and even took video that provided partial information on the license plate, Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said.

An officer working special duty nearby at the large Easton Town Center shopping complex spotted the vehicle, and officers confronted the man, who got out of the car holding a machete in one hand and a knife in the other, Weiner said. Police tried unsuccessfully to use a stun gun on him, then shot him when he lunged at them, he said. No officers were hurt.

It's unclear what motivated the Thursday evening attack at Nazareth Restaurant and Deli. Weiner said the restaurant attack appeared to be random.

"There was no rhyme or reason as to who he was going after," he said.
A Mediterranean restaurant and deli named Nazereth. Gee. I wonder if it was kosher.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2016 11:55 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's Ohio's take on concealed carry?

This son of Islam should have been taken down by a patron.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/12/2016 12:24 Comments || Top||

#2  An item which may or may not be of importance:

The owner of the restaurant is from Israel - the attacker asked the staff where the owner was from prior to the attack.

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

I've been to this restaurant - good food - good people.


Let's file this in the "Inadvertently Funny" file - The local paper's website this morning said the police were still trying to "piece together' what happened.

No kidding.
Posted by: GORT || 02/12/2016 12:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Alan - Ohio is very cool with CC as long as you have the proper license - painless to gain one also.
Posted by: GORT || 02/12/2016 12:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Pretty sad when you go to stick up a resturant, yell 'Stick'em up!' and everyone raises up their cell phone to record the robbery...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/12/2016 12:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Ohio is in dire need of common sense machete control laws.
Posted by: regular joe || 02/12/2016 13:11 Comments || Top||

#6  0bama to issue executive order requiring background checks on machete purchasers.~
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 13:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Nah. Machetes aren't a threat to an armed government.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2016 13:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Super helpful when the cops are called on a machete attack and when they pull a car over the guy gets out with a machete in hand.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/12/2016 15:08 Comments || Top||

#9  The owner was a Christian Israeli originally from Nazareth, Israel. The Somali attacker's name, Mohammed. The investigators need time to come up with a politically correct statement regarding this hideous act by a preferred class of immigrants.
Posted by: Unelet Protector of the Sith2424 || 02/12/2016 17:19 Comments || Top||

#10  Obviously he was denied a job at the place for being named Mohammed. Racist restaurant owner brought it on himself.

/s
Posted by: Charles || 02/12/2016 18:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Rich Weiner

Hah Hah
Posted by: Classer || 02/12/2016 18:37 Comments || Top||

#12  According to The Times of Israel:

Four people were injured in the brutal attack Thursday evening at Nazareth Restaurant and Deli, a Mediterranean restaurant in Columbus. The victims were taken to an area hospital and were expected to recover.

The owner of the restaurant, Hany Baransi, is an Israeli Arab originally from Haifa, according to his daughter Rachel Joy Baransi.

Police said the man walked into the restaurant, which was crowded with patrons for a weekly musical performance, had a conversation with an employee and then left. He returned about a half hour later. That’s when police said he approached a man and a woman who were sitting just inside the door at a booth and started the attack.

Police said employees and patrons tried to get the man to stop.

“Some of the patrons there started throwing chairs at him just trying to get him out of there,” Weiner said.

The man eventually fled the scene in a white car and led police on a short chase. Officers forced the man off the road a few miles away and when he got out of his car police said they tried unsuccessfully to use a stun gun on him.


A daughter named Rachel does suggest the father is Christian rather than Muslim, as does naming the restaurant Nazareth.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/12/2016 18:46 Comments || Top||

#13  "Islam remains peaceful, not bloody,
Because, when we Muslims get naughty,
Mohammed, so ready
With gun or machete,
Was never a Muslim jihadi."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/12/2016 18:50 Comments || Top||

#14  I used to live there, Granville, loved Ohio, was a great place to raise my kids. Sometimes wish I were still there. Zero problems with CC when I was there.

Loved it.

Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/12/2016 22:11 Comments || Top||


PU Afri-Studies Prof arrested, handcuffed to table, claims you know what
[NY Times] A black Princeton professor is protesting her arrest during a traffic stop last week, saying she was mistreated because of her race by two white police officers who searched her and handcuffed her to a table.

The police chief in Princeton, N.J., however, said the officers had followed department policy in arresting the professor, Imani Perry.

The arrest of Dr. Perry, a professor of African-American studies, and the divergent views of how it was handled have reignited a debate on social media over police tactics and racial profiling.

The arrest came after officers stopped Dr. Perry around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday for driving 67 miles per hour in a 45 m.p.h. zone, Capt. Nicholas K. Sutter, the department chief, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

While Dr. Perry said in a message posted online that she was arrested over “a single parking ticket,” Captain Sutter said that the officers who stopped her — a man and a woman — learned during a routine check that her driving privileges had been suspended and a warrant had been issued for her arrest over two unpaid parking violations from 2013.
Starbucks can wait, Perry's search for new lesson plan material ends as planned...'and there I was, forced to sit in the very back of the squad car.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/12/2016 05:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Cops investigating second anti-white attack in Brooklyn this week: 'This is for Malcolm X, cracka'
[NYDAILYNEWS] Police are investigating a second anti-white bias incident in Brooklyn where the attacker called his victim “cracka,” the Daily News has learned.

A 51-year-old white man told cops he was on Nostrand Ave. near Glenwood Road in East Flatbush when a black man ran up and knocked him to the ground about 5:40 p.m. Monday.

“This is for Malcolm X, cracka,” the brute said before storming off.

The victim was not seriously injured but did suffer some “soft tissue damage,” he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/12/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thug doesn't know his history. Malcolm X was killed by Nation of Islam, not 'crackas.'
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/12/2016 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Only whites can be racist. Everyone else gets a free pass.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/12/2016 1:11 Comments || Top||


Paterson teen allegedly involved in 'knockout game' video surrenders, pleads not guilty
[YAHOO] A teenager accused of throwing a vicious punch on a Paterson street corner as part of a "Knockout Game" attack made his first court appearance Wednesday, one day after turning himself in to police.
Ummm... Rosa Parks Boulevard? "Obsessive Defiance Disorder?"
Posted by: Fred || 02/12/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Man suddenly remembers who he is, solves his own cold case
[NYPOST] A Canadian man solved his own cold case -- by suddenly remembering his identity 30 years after he disappeared.
Ooh! Ooh! I seen dis TV show!
Edgar Latulip was 21 years old when he vanished from a group home in Kitchener, Ontario, in September 1986.
Dat's French for Edgar The Tulip...
The last time his mom, Sylvia Wilson, saw her son, he was in a hospital after a failed suicide attempt, and cops figured Wilson, who has the cognitive abilities of a child, traveled to Niagara Falls to kill himself.
Mizz Wilson or Monsieur The Tulip?
His mom suspected foul play,
"Dat's right. Somebody done him in!"
thinking for decades that he may have been abused because of his mental illness, or accidentally killed and his body hidden, she told The Guelph Mercury.
Accidentally killed and his body accidentally hidden?
On Wednesday, Waterloo regional police announced that Latulip was alive and well, living 80 miles away from where he disappeared. His cold case got a big break in January after Latulip told a social worker in St. Catharines that he remembered who he was. A DNA test performed last week confirmed that it was in fact him.
"Holmes! How do you do it?"
Police concluded that Latulip had some kind of head injury that caused him to forget who he was.
Dat's what happened to dat guy on Da Young and Da Restless, too!
"It's the only case, that I know of, where we've been able to find someone who has been missing for this period of time," Detective Duane Gingerich told CTV News.

Officials are now working on arranging a reunion between Latulip and his family. "They're obviously very happy about it and they're making plans to get together with Edgar and speak with him further," Gingerich said.
"Mother!"
"Monsieur The Tulip!"

Wilson told CTV she hadn't spoken with her son yet, but was overwhelmed to know he was alive.
Posted by: Fred || 02/12/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sacrebleu!
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  No, no, this is Quebec, Sven, it would be "Sacrément!" or possibly just "Sac!" Quebecois love their blasphemies.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 02/12/2016 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  14th century French dialect, got it. My brother was president of his high school French club. Was totally bummed when he went to Montreal and couldn't understand a thing. He was taught 20th century Parisian French.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 11:21 Comments || Top||

#4  I was taught English in the 50's. I can't understand what is being said TODAY !!!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/12/2016 11:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Emoji

My kids translate for me.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 12:04 Comments || Top||

#6  And they text English when they want money.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 12:08 Comments || Top||

#7  14th century French dialect, got it. Was totally bummed when he went to Montreal and couldn't understand a thing. He was taught 20th century Parisian French.

Seventeenth century French, I'd think, given when Britain took Canada from France. As for your brother not understanding a word, Sven, my darling Quebecoise mother-in-law came to America and was failed by her high school French teacher.

"I don't know what you are speaking," he said, "but it is not French."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/12/2016 18:52 Comments || Top||

#8  In wintertime chez tabernackers,
No matter how cold the Quebeckers,
Their ears remain toasty
With "Calisse!" and "Hostie!"
Spat out by the frenchified crackers.

Bleh.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/12/2016 19:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Tw, I might have exaggerated the century. Nice quip. :-)
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 22:46 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
68 federal warrants issued for Bundy Ranch protesters
By Chris Covert
Rantbrug.com

A total of 68 arrests warrants are said to have been issued for the arrest of unidentified individuals who participated in a 2014 Bundy Ranch and another 2015 Oregon armed protest, according to data.

A news account published in Freedom Outpost quoted an Oathkeepers media director, Jason Van Tatenhove saying that a source within the United States Department of Homeland Security said that 68 arrest warrants have been issued for individuals who were part of the Bundy Ranch and the Sugar Pine Mine armed protests.

According to the report, Tatenhove is investigating whether there is a federal warrant for his own arrest, since he attended the Bundy Ranch protest along with hundreds of others.

The news follows the arrest of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy in Portland directly after his plane landed Wednesday night. It is said that Bundy was encouraged by Nevada state assemblywoman Michele Fiore to go to Portland. Two of Bundy's sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are in the Multnomah, Oregon County jail on conspiracy charges from their participation in an armed protest on Malhuer Wildlife Refuge which ended Thursday.

Ammon and Ryan Bundy both were arrested two weeks ago following a violent confrontation between Oregon state and federal police agents along a stretch of highway about 80 miles north of Malhuer Wildlife Refuge. Arizona rancher Lavoy Finicum was shot several times after he exited his vehicle, resulting in his death.

Finicum was armed but did not draw on police.

The Bundy Ranch protest was the first time in the history of armed confrontations between the federal government and armed protesters that the government was forced to back down. Hundreds of individuals flocked to the site to protest federal agents and armed civilian contractors, some of whom had threatened protesters with sniper fire.

A photo released during that time showing a protester lying prone on a bridge aiming his AK-47 rifle enraged government supporters, who demanded violent actions and arrests of the armed protesters.

Even media celebrities such as Montel Williams wanted government agents to kill armed protesters because they were armed.

20 More Arrest Warrants

One of the participants of the Bundy Ranch protest, Lewis Arthur posted on his Facebook page Thursday night that the federal government was preparing as many as 88 warrants, including 18 for the patriots border patrol group, Camp Lonestar.

The Camp Lonestar group conducted armed patrols of the southern border back in 2013. It is unknown if the group is still operating patrols.

Lewis Arthus in his post said that he took command of the situation in Bundy Ranch after an Oathkeepers command group left. The Oathkeepers left after they claimed the government was preparing a drone strike on Bundy Ranch.

Oathkeepers' departure enraged some militia leaders, some of whom, including Ryan Payne, accused them of being cowards. Payne was one of eight individuals who were arrested in Oregon two weeks ago.

According to Arthur, shortly after the Oathkeepers left, many militia groups left as well.

Arthur runs a homeless veterans rescue project in Arizona called Veterans on Patrol.

Chris Covert writes for rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 02/12/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting story but I would certainly avoid signing on to the "Wake Up America" email list found in the article.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/12/2016 8:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Finnicum was armed but did not draw on police.

OhhKayy. But here's a little tip. If you're on record that you're armed and willing to die for your cause you my want to take some extra precautions. For instance, if you encounter a road block encourage your wheelman stop the vehicle. Now, and this is the important part, don't exit said vehicle unless asked to do so. In fact, it's reccommended that you roll down all the windows, stop the engine, and all occupants press their hands so tightly to the roof that you dent the top of your cab. Just sayin.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/12/2016 13:49 Comments || Top||

#3  OhhKayy. But here's a little tip. If you're on record that you're armed and willing to die for your cause you my want to take some extra precautions. For instance, if you encounter a road block encourage your wheelman stop the vehicle. Now, and this is the important part, don't exit said vehicle unless asked to do so. In fact, it's reccommended that you roll down all the windows, stop the engine, and all occupants press their hands so tightly to the roof that you dent the top of your cab. Just sayin.

And if you don't, you deserve to be shot to death, right?
Posted by: badanov || 02/12/2016 16:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, all this assumes they haven't already peppered your vehicle full of holes already.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2016 16:45 Comments || Top||

#5  You know, I've heard nothing of cliven Bundy being arrested until this article. And that an assemblywoman help set him up? That seems...fishy.
Posted by: Charles || 02/12/2016 18:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Criminal complaint against Clive Bundy.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/12/2016 19:16 Comments || Top||

#7  LaVoy was not armed. The video released by the FBI... with no sound mind you, shows what looks to many, LaVoy reacting to pain on his left side. He was most likely shot by a rubber bullet, or tased on his left side, which made him move his hands to the area. LaVoy did not own a 9mm... the one reportedly found on his person after he was assassinated was reported as stolen... LaVoy was an honest and lawful man who would not have been carrying a stolen weapon... or anyone else's weapon. Without sound, and with the extremely poor quality of the video, we have no idea if LE may have asked him to 'hold his jacket open on the left side.'.... They were set up, ambushed and LaVoy was murdered.... The Constitution is a foreign document to most in law enforcement and much will be learned from LaVoy's murder.
Posted by: Gerthudion the Really Smart5027 || 02/12/2016 19:26 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuela leader gets emergency powers, rivals vow ouster
Venezuela's opposition on Friday vowed to speed up efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro after he defied lawmakers by securing emergency powers to intervene in the crisis-hit oil state's economy.

The maneuvers intensified a political standoff that has raised fears of unrest and deepening economic suffering in the oil-rich, violence-plagued South American state.

The Supreme Court on Thursday overruled opposition from lawmakers by approving Maduro's decree to place the country in a 60-day state of economic emergency.
After which everything will be fine.
The opposition reacted with outrage, accusing Maduro of expanding economic policies that they say are ruining the country.

"In the next few days we will have to present a concrete proposal for the departure of that national disgrace that is the government," the opposition leader of the National Assembly legislature, Henry Ramos, told a news conference Friday.

The decree gives Maduro's administration special temporary powers to take over private companies' resources and impose currency controls among other measures.

"The Supreme Court of Justice has spoken, its word is holy and must be respected by all parts of society and all institutions," Maduro said on television.
Even if you paid them to say what you want?
Ramos and other leaders in the opposition MUD coalition had already promised to devise a way within six months to oust Maduro, possibly through a new constitution or a referendum, before his current mandate expires in 2019.

"Nobody doubts now that that six-month timeframe is too long," Ramos said Friday.

"It is not we who impose the timing, it is the needs of the country."

It was not clear however how the opposition might overcome resistance from the court, which critics say is packed with Maduro's supporters.

"We will find a method -- have no doubt," Ramos said.

Another senior opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, said he expected the court would overrule a constitutional amendment against Maduro and that a referendum would be better.

"The moment has come," Capriles said Friday. "This government does not want to change anything and every day the situation gets worse."

He acknowledged obstacles to a referendum too, however, alleging that the electoral authorities in charge of such a vote are under Maduro's influence.

- Economic 'catastrophe' -

Venezuela has the world's largest known oil reserves but has suffered as crude prices have fallen sharply, slashing the revenues that the government had used to fund social welfare programs.

Citizens are suffering shortages of basics such as toilet paper and cooking oil. Inflation is higher than 140 percent, according to the government's latest estimate.
Next on the list: Food.
Lawmakers on Thursday urged Maduro to launch an international appeal for "humanitarian aid" to help stave off the threat of famine posed by the shortages.

Announcing the decree in mid-January, Maduro admitted Venezuela was in a "catastrophic" economic state, but said his emergency plan would allow the government to shore up its health, housing, education and food services.

Analysts say the political standoff threatens to worsen the hardship that drove voters to hand the opposition a landslide election victory in December.

"The problem Venezuela has is that it lacks a mediator to settle the conflict of power, which complicates the situation even further," said Asdrubal Oliveros, head of analysis firm Ecoanalitica.

Experts have warned of the risk of a repeat of violent street clashes that left 43 people dead in 2014.

In a worsening recession, Venezuela has been seized by a political deadlock since the opposition took majority control of the assembly at the start of January.

Maduro has chipped away at that majority through challenges in the Supreme Court.

Ramos on Friday accused the government of "doing all it can to provoke a coup" but insisted the opposition would only oust him by constitutional means.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2016 16:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  well, that's it, then. Whiners and complainers will be shot, and Sad Panda will grieve til new bamboo shoots are brought in: "Progress"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/12/2016 21:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Start impeaching supreme court justices.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 23:01 Comments || Top||


Riot at prison in northern Mexico leaves 49 inmates dead
[SACBEE] A brawl between rival narco gangs at an overcrowded penitentiary in northern Mexico turned into a riot Thursday, leaving 49 inmates dead and 12 injured in the country's deadliest prison melee in years.
Just a little relief from our continuous stream of bad news...
No escapes were reported in the clash at the Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, said Nuevo Leo state Gov. Jaime Rodriguez. The riot took place on the eve of Pope Francis' arrival in Mexico, a visit that is scheduled to include a trip next week to another prison in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Rodriguez said in the morning that 52 had died, but he lowered that by three in the late afternoon. The reason for the changed corpse count was not clear.

At a news conference the governor read a list of 40 names of confirmed victims, saying five of the remaining bodies had been charred by fire and four were yet to be positively identified. One of the injured was in grave condition.

The fighting began around midnight with prisoners setting fire to a storage area, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky. Rescue workers were seen carrying injured inmates -- some with burns -- from the facility.

Rodriguez said the clash was between two factions led by a member of the infamous Zetas narco mob, Juan Pedro Zaldivar Farias, also known as "Z-27," and Jorge Ivan Hernandez Cantu, who has been identified by Mexican media as a Gulf cartel figure.
Posted by: Fred || 02/12/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1 
According to a 2014 report by the National Human Rights Commission, Topo Chico was designed to house 3,635 prisoners but actually held about 4,585 that year. Inmates there used violence as a way of exerting control in the prison, it added.

So about 1 in 100 prisoners died.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/12/2016 1:48 Comments || Top||

#2  The trouble is that there are no more Australias to house the feral beasts of humanity.

Antarctica might work but the heating bills would be outrageous.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/12/2016 7:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Bringing a new meaning to 'put him on ice'
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 02/12/2016 10:36 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia wants to nuke an asteroid as it passes by the Earth.
What could go wrong?
Russian scientists have developed a project of upgrading intercontinental ballistic missiles to destroy near-Earth meteorites 20-50 meters in size, leading researcher of the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau Sabit Saitgarayev told TASS on Thursday.

The scientists would like to test the improved missiles' capabilities against the asteroid Apophis expected to come dangerously close to the Earth in 2036, the scientist said.

Posted by: 3dc || 02/12/2016 01:14 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...At least somebody's been watching the movies.

Mike

Snark of the day.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/12/2016 5:27 Comments || Top||

#2  What I suspect is reporter not understanding what the goal really is. Small enough rock, yeah could prolly shatter it to tiny bits that burn up. Bigger rocks, the idea is more the nuke(s) pushes the rock to a new course, hopefully away from Earth. In some ways, it's a good idea for the world to real practical knowledge of doing this so that the first time we try it, isn't when the planet is on the line.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/12/2016 7:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Theory and movie thought experiments are not science without real performance analytics. They should enroll Nkors.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/12/2016 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Let us say that the Russians succeed in changing the Asteroid's path. The new path could guarantee a collision.

There is no air in space (duh) therefore no pressure wave. Heat is what you got. Is the plan to partially melt it? How will that help?
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Someone draft an RFP and ring up DARPA, DoE, or HLS immediately. There's got to be modeling and simulations grant money available somewhere. Come on people !
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/12/2016 11:23 Comments || Top||

#6  There still will be an energy shockwave Sven. Depending on where the nuke goes off, the type of asteroid (loose rock vs rocky metal), how fast it is going, etc. will determine what happens.

A blast close to the back quarter of the asteroid will generate a nice push away from the nuke. A very close blast towards the front will cause the shockwaves to work against the velocity of the mass and will cause it to break up. How bad the breakup is again depends on what the asteroid is made up of.

It actually isn't a bad idea to test this on an object that poses no threat. It is much like testing our anti-missile system out first instead of the first time we fire it the system is going after a NORK nuke heading for detonation over the continental US.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/12/2016 12:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Nuke the moon while you are at it.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/12/2016 12:35 Comments || Top||

#8  The Spartan missile (ABM)was designed to destroy the incoming RV with a blast of X-rays. There is a fireball when exo but I remember that the destructive radius was much less then when in the atmosphere. I recall that Orion needed a filler surrounding the nuclear bomb to provide plasma to push the rocket when in space.

I never studied the blast patterns when exo in detail though. Hmmm.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 12:44 Comments || Top||

#9  All I got to say is...

That Would Be Sooo Cool!
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/12/2016 15:30 Comments || Top||


Russia's Big Worry Is Not What the Pentagon Thinks but What Shale Frackers Will Do to Oil Prices
We can see what specifically must worry Putin in a new must-read interview with Hamm (courtesy of Christopher Helman at Forbes). Hamm, referencing the fact that American shale producers have in the past half-dozen years nearly doubled America's oil output, says: "We can double it again." If Hamm is correct, then the shale fields alone-never mind the rest of America's onshore and offshore production-would be producing more oil than Russia, and the world markets would again be in oversupply.

For Russia, almost three-fourths of all export revenues and over half its national budget comes from selling oil & gas. The problem is that, according to the World Bank, Russia needs oil at $100 per barrel to balance its domestic budget and fund its military and foreign ambitions. It's expensive to buy modern weapons, including the missiles Russia has deployed across the NATO frontier. And it's expensive to meddle in foreign nations whether by deploying troops in the Ukraine and Syria, or funneling "gray" money to bad actors from Africa to South America.

Following Secretary Ashton's rhetorical call to arms, we now have the New York Times editorial board agreeing with the SecDef that "deterring Russia is essential." Perhaps the Times in calling for alternatives to "big wars" and "costly weapons" in dealing with our adversaries, might come to appreciate that America's new petroleum power presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There are thousands of Frackers and they all respond in different ways to market forces.

Bakken and Eagle Ford production in Jan 2016 were below production in Jan 2015.

On the other hand the Permian basin produced more in Jan 2016 than in Jan 2015.
Posted by: lord garth || 02/12/2016 8:08 Comments || Top||

#2  It really is a second-time-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Ronaldus Magnus did for the Soviets with some smuggled software and some discreet diplomacy with South Africa.
Posted by: Grunter || 02/12/2016 9:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Texas researchers under fire for Planned Parenthood study
Two state health researchers in Texas are under fire for co-authoring a study suggesting what Republican leaders have long disputed: cuts to Planned Parenthood are restricting access to women's health care.
If one defines "women's health care" strictly as access to abortion, the study is almost certainly correct. That was the whole point of the cuts to PP. PP doesn't much of anything other than abortion and implantable birth control, so there's no other "health care" to cut...
Texas Health Commissioner Chris Traylor has not said whether the researchers, one a high-level director with more than 20 years in state government, will be disciplined. But a spokesman made it clear that the agency agrees with outraged Republicans over the researchers' contributions to a study that the GOP sees as flawed and biased.

The study was published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most prominent medical journals in the nation.
You'll have to work hard to show that a flawed study made it through the NEJM (full disclosure: I know the editor personally). It's top-rate, and while it isn't perfect its in-house statisticians and reviewers are darned good.
It found that fewer women in Texas have obtained long-acting birth control, such as intrauterine devices, after the GOP-controlled Legislature booted the nation's largest abortion provider from a state women's health program in 2013. Births paid for under Medicaid also increased among some women.

Powerful Republican state Sen. Jane Nelson dismissed the findings as invalid, in part because the research was funded by the nonprofit Susan T. Buffet Foundation, which is a major supporter of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups.
Key paragraph in the Methods:

The institutional review board at the University of Texas at Austin determined that the study was exempt from human-subjects review; therefore, no informed consent was required. The authors designed the study, and the funder had no role in the analysis or interpretation of the data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. All the authors vouch for the integrity and completeness of the data and analyses.

Be as angry as you want, that's a standard paragraph in these types of studies. You see the same thing with Pharma-sponsored studies. I have no reason to think that the authors are mis-communicating on this point. The good Sen. Nelson should read this paragraph.
She also questions why two state health employees were among the study's five co-authors.
Because they met the criteria for authorship as published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Two of the authors are at "the Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin", and two are at "the Texas Health and Human Services Commission". Faculty do research. The Commission? They facilitate dissemination of information.
"It's one thing for an agency to provide data upon request. It's quite another to be listed as a 'co-author' on a deeply flawed and highly political report," said Nelson, an architect of Texas' current women's health program. "I've communicated strong concerns to the agency. This should not have happened, and we need to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Sen. Nelson is the one being political. What the good Senator simply should have done is 1) smile 2) say "precisely" and 3) move on.
Texas Health and Human Services spokesman Bryan Black said the agency "completely agrees" with Nelson and that the agency didn't know of the study until it was published.
Nor should they have...
He did not comment on whether action will be taken against the researchers -- Rick Allgeyer, the director of research and an influential decision-maker in the sprawling 55,000-employee agency, and Imelda Flores-Vazquez, who joined the agency in 2014 and is a program specialist, according to a LinkedIn page.

She and Allgeyer have not returned phone messages and emails seeking comment. The study used data from the Health and Human Services agency, where the researchers work, though the extent of their role in the study is unclear.
Gee, everyone had plenty to say just a week ago. What happened?
Political pressure can be mis-used by both sides. You're seeing the Pub side right now.
Peter Schenkkan, an Austin attorney and one of the study's authors, said he is disappointed that anyone would deem the contributions inappropriate.

"The first step of a public official should be to face the facts. Not to punish those who bring the facts to them," said Schenkkan, who was lead counsel for Planned Parenthood in court over its exclusion from the state health program.
Let's see the raw data!
First, read the study. The Texas decision did what it was supposed to do -- defund PP. The consequence was one that most anyone with a brain could have predicted: some contraception rates would go down, and birthrates in selected populations would increase. Not exactly a shocker.
Planned Parenthood officials said the study showed the impact of "politically motivated" decisions.

"The truth hurts. Unfortunately for Texas officials, disliking a study doesn't make it not true," said Yvonne Gutierrez, executive director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes.

Flores-Vazquez and Allgeyer had their names on the top of the study, along with Schenkkan and two University of Texas researchers who are analyzing the impact of women's health laws passed by the Texas Legislature in recent years. School researchers say the Buffet Foundation plays no role in their work.
They didn't influence this manuscript, as stated in the Methods. That's not to say that the Foundation members and the researchers aren't chums...
Joseph Potter, one of the university researchers and the senior author of the Planned Parenthood study, said in an email that he was not in a position to comment on reaction to the study.

Texas barred Planned Parenthood from state planning services the same year that then-Gov. Rick Perry signed tough abortion restrictions that shuttered clinics across the state. Those restrictions will go before the U.S. Supreme Court next month in a major abortion rights case that will likely impact similar measures adopted in other GOP-controlled states.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2016 10:25 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Science
Gravitational Waves Detected 100 Years After Einsteins Prediction
Posted by: Grunter || 02/12/2016 08:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jeepers, I read most of the article fairly carefully, but missed how this discovery further proves the settled science.

Why, the settled science of man-made global warmi climate change, of course!

Actually, it might be a fairly decent lesson for the climate "scientists" - it took 100 years to confirm another portion of Einstein's theory. And it's still a theory.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/12/2016 13:46 Comments || Top||

#2  But then Al Gore and all those Hollywierd actors, and all those UN bureaucrats are oh-so-much smarter than Einstein! (at least in their own deluded minds...)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/12/2016 13:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, Al invented gravitational waves after all.
Posted by: gorb || 02/12/2016 14:43 Comments || Top||

#4  This explains why my coffee pot stopped working.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/12/2016 15:45 Comments || Top||

#5  http://xkcd.com/1642/
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 20:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Those signals looked astonishingly good.
Posted by: james || 02/12/2016 21:20 Comments || Top||

#7  LIGO is a proof of concept. The merger of two black holes is about the only thing that it is sensitive enough to see. Future instruments will be able to see past 1st light back to the big bang itself.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 02/12/2016 22:43 Comments || Top||



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