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Attempt to hijack Maretanian plane painfully foiled
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Toddlers filmed being made to fight by mother of the year
Helen Pidd - Al Gaurdian

A mother who forced her three-year-old daughter and two-year-old son to fight each other and laughed with three other women as the action was filmed pleaded guilty to child cruelty charges yesterday.
The film of the seven-minute fight at a house on a council estate in Plymouth, Devon, was found by social services checking on the children's welfare. The police said everyone who saw the footage was "shocked and stunned".

Plymouth magistrates court was shown a film of the fight. The boy is wearing a nappy. The children are encouraged to punch each other repeatedly by the women, who cannot be named for legal reasons. When the boy cries after being punched in the face, he is told by a woman not to be "a wimp or a faggot" and to hit his sister back. The women laugh as they urge the toddlers to keep fighting.

At one stage the boy tries to escape and climb into an armchair and the women shout at his sister to punch him again. When she hits him, the boy is urged to fight back but says: "No, I don't want to."

The children's mother admitted causing or procuring the children to be ill-treated in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury. The other three pleaded guilty to jointly inciting the ill treatment. The court was told that one of the women told police she thought it would be "character building".

All four were released on conditional bail and sentencing was adjourned until March 16 for reports. Claire Crocker, prosecuting, said: "All sentencing options are still open, the women could be given a community penalty or it could be sent to the crown court for sentence."

Detective Sergeant Andy Kings of the Devon and Cornwall police child protection team said: "Every professional that has seen this has been shocked and stunned. Locally this is something that is new to us, but we are aware that similar incidents have occurred elsewhere in the country and it is something people need to be aware of."

Plymouth social services said the children were not known to their department previously but were now safe.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/16/2007 12:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  perhaps the Moms should be forced to fight.

"Two women enter! One woman leave!"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 16:41 Comments || Top||

#2  The Guardian.
So...is this Bush's fault?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 16:55 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
A practical response to global warming
h/t Tim Blair

Exactly four weeks ago, Carlene Sullivan did what any self-respecting snow lover with mystic powers over the universe would do in times of crisis: She put on her bikini and asked the snow gods to deliver.

See photo at the link. She looks persuasive. She may have a future with the Defender-Scimitar & Times-Picayune.

Bam! Everything's been coming up white stuff since.

Take THAT, AlGore!
Posted by: Mike || 02/16/2007 13:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She can invoke my snowstorm any day.
Posted by: Jonathan || 02/16/2007 14:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Yoga on skis, Kewl.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/16/2007 16:07 Comments || Top||

#3  ski-pole dancing baybeeee
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 17:32 Comments || Top||

#4 
Bam! Everything's been coming up white stuff since.


Good thing the MSM has those editors.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/16/2007 19:23 Comments || Top||


Drunken Australian catches shark with his bare hands
A man who caught a four-foot shark with his bare hands off an Australian beach today said he only did it because he was drunk on vodka.

Bricklayer Phillip Kerkhof was fishing for squid with friends off a jetty at Louth Bay, a town on South Australia state's Eyre Peninsula, on Monday night when he spotted the bronze whaler shark swimming in the shallows, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

"I just snuck up behind him, and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him," Mr Kerkhof said. "He was just thrashing around in the water ... starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought 'well, it's amazing what vodka does'," Mr Kerkhof said.

As he wrestled the shark onto the jetty, the shark bit a hole in Kerkhof's jeans but all he suffered was a slight scratch.

Mr Kerkhof said he'd had two meals already from the shark and planned to use the rest in a weekend cookout for friends in the town, which lies about 870 miles west of Sydney.

"It's beautiful mate - restaurant quality," he said.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/16/2007 12:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'well, it's amazing what vodka does'

Isn't it though...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 13:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I love Australia but I don't understand them. They seem to diss Fosters at every opportunity, they disliked Paul Hogan and barely knew who Steve Irwin was.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/16/2007 16:42 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Vanuatu cargo cult marks 50 years
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/16/2007 13:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  from wikipedia

The classic period of cargo cult activity, however, was in the years during and after World War II. The vast amounts of war matériel that were airdropped into these islands during the Pacific campaign against the Empire of Japan necessarily meant drastic changes to the lifestyle of the islanders, many of whom had never seen Westerners or Japanese before. Manufactured clothing, medicine, canned food, tents, weapons and other useful goods arrived in vast quantities to equip soldiers — and also the islanders who were their guides and hosts. With the end of the war the airbases were abandoned, and "cargo" was no longer being dropped.

In attempts to get cargo to fall by parachute or land in planes or ships again, islanders imitated the same practices they had seen the soldiers, sailors and airmen use. They carved headphones from wood, and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers. They waved the landing signals while standing on the runways. They lit signal fires and torches to light up runways and lighthouses. The cultists thought that the foreigners had some special connection to their own ancestors, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.

In a form of sympathetic magic, many built life-size mockups of airplanes out of straw, and created new military style landing strips, hoping to attract more airplanes. Ultimately, though these practices did not bring about the return of the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war, they did serve to eradicate the religious practices that had existed prior to the war.

Over the last seventy-five years most cargo cults have petered out. Yet, the John Frum cult is still active on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu. And from time to time, the term "cargo cult" is invoked as an English language idiom, to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance.

The term is perhaps best known because of a speech by physicist Richard Feynman at a Caltech commencement called cargo cult science, which became a chapter in the book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. In the speech, Feynman pointed out that cargo cultists create all the appearance of an airport right down to headsets with bamboo "antennas", yet the airplanes don't come. Feynman argued that some scientists often produce studies with all the trappings of real science, but which are nonetheless pseudoscience and unworthy of either respect or support.
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 13:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Other fine books by Professor Feynmann:

Q.E.D. (Quantum Electro-Dynamics)
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
Posted by: mojo || 02/16/2007 14:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Smithsonian Magazine had an interesting article about them last february. It appears they suffer from "Not John Frum Enough".

The John Frum movement is following the classic pattern of new religions,” says anthropologist Huffman. Schisms split clumps of faithful from the main body, as apostates proclaim a new vision leading to sacrilegious variants on the creed’s core beliefs.

Which explains Prophet Fred, whose village, Ipikil, is nestled on Sulphur Bay. Daniel says that Prophet Fred split with Chief Isaac in 1999 and led half of the believer villages into his new version of the John Frum cult. “He had a vision while working on a Korean fishing boat in the ocean,” Daniel says. “God’s light came down on him, and God told him to come home and preach a new way.” People believed that Fred could talk to God after he predicted, six years ago, that Lake Siwi would break its natural dam and flood into the ocean. “The people living around the lake [on the beach beneath the volcano] moved to other places,” says Daniel. “Six months later, it happened.”

Then, almost two years ago, Prophet Fred’s rivalry with Chief Isaac exploded. More than 400 young men from the competing camps clashed with axes, bows and arrows and slingshots, burning down a thatched church and several houses. Twenty-five men were seriously injured. “They wanted to kill us, and we wanted to kill them,” a Chief Isaac loyalist says.


http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/february/john.php
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 14:03 Comments || Top||

#4  That Smithsonian piece is a fascinating article...
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 14:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Dang!!!! I missed the celebration. It was February 15th. Need to put it on the calendar, with respect to the International date line, of course, so we should mark our calendars for February 14th or what? Imr soo confuzr...
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/16/2007 15:46 Comments || Top||

#6  No need to worry.. next year will bring much cargo
Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 16:09 Comments || Top||

#7  And from time to time, the term "cargo cult" is invoked as an English language idiom, to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance.

Which pretty much describes the Donks' understanding of capitalism and why they can't understand that when you reduce taxation allowing the market to retain more capital it generates business which in turn generates more tax revenue. For them there is no connection between the free market system and generating revenue. Their concept is pretty much on the philosophy of legendary bank robber Willy Sutton, "Go where the money is... and go there often."
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/16/2007 16:59 Comments || Top||

#8  "Who is John Frum?"
Posted by: Ayn Rand || 02/16/2007 17:42 Comments || Top||

#9  I watched "Clutch Cargo" as a kid, but never realized I was in a cult
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:15 Comments || Top||

#10  And from time to time, the term "cargo cult" is invoked as an English language idiom, to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance.

Their leaders often say things like "We need to be SEI Level 5 by the end of the year." Curious bunch.
Posted by: eLarson || 02/16/2007 18:20 Comments || Top||


Hundreds stranded on PA interstate system waiting for help
HAMBURG, Pa. - National Guardsmen in Humvees ferried food, fuel and baby supplies Thursday to hundreds of motorists stranded on a 50-mile stretch of highway for nearly a day by a monster storm. Drivers were frustrated they were let on the road at all. State police did not close all the entrance ramps to I-78 until around 5 p.m., more than 24 hours after vehicles starting getting caught.

Apparently the National Guard has already gone home. It's not clear whether all the motorists involve are out of danger. This was an exceptional screw-up even for the distinguished PA highway system. This weather system was predicted days ahead of time and very accurately.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/16/2007 12:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The governor of PA, Fat Eddie Rendell, is so busy grabbing with both hands that there is no longer such a thing as overtime at PennDOT. Being that snow has to be dealt with WHEN IT COMES, which might very well be outside of the 9am-5pm window, well, yeah, there is a bit of a problem. PA will not be my home state much longer. On top of Katrina, people should be waking up to the idea that government at all levels is abdicating its responsibility for the things it should do as it looks hungrily at taking over things it simply ain't supposed to do...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/16/2007 14:52 Comments || Top||

#2  amazingly, the San Diego freeway system continues to operate freely, albeit at a temporally-diminished level of service around 8AM and 5PM, despite the punishing 75 degree (hey, it's winter)beating of Sun and UV rays. It's hell, I tell ya
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 17:12 Comments || Top||

#3  AH-"Distinguished" highway system?

I have driven through 28 of the 50 states and hands down would rate Pennsylvania as having the worst highway maintenance system. On another winter like this one-with ice and snow, I was unfortunate enough to have to travel the highway heading southwest from New York past Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. A day after the storm, for miles and miles, the road was striped with refrozen ice that was daggered up in shapes like you find when driving the wrong way into a rental car return. On two other occasions I drove through Pennsylvania and found the state of the roads abysmal-as if regular plowing and salting hadn't occurred to anyone.

Yes, granted, it is tricky to keep roads in a rugged terrain like Pennsylvania clear, but the fact that hundreds have been stranded after this storm doesn't surprise me a bit.

To PA folks-no offense to your state-it's lovely. But the roads are neglected.
Posted by: Jules || 02/16/2007 18:27 Comments || Top||

#4  A day after the storm, for miles and miles, the road was striped with refrozen ice that was daggered up in shapes like you find when driving the wrong way into a rental car return

LOL Jules! Damn, I wish I could write like that...
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:41 Comments || Top||

#5  "This was an exceptional screw-up even for the distinguished PA highway system."

I gotta root around in my collection of State Quarters, and find the one for Pennsylvania: I'm pretty sure it says, "The 'Not My Job' State" on the back...
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/16/2007 20:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Frank-:)

You do, hon. I may have a colorful vocabulary, but I think you have me beat when it comes to pithy comments.
Posted by: Jules || 02/16/2007 20:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Jules, I was being facetious. I agree with you & I've driven extensively in 47 of the contiguous 48 states. Especially when road surface clearing is inadequate, the interstates should be closed in really bad weather, as states like CO & NM did several times this winter. I guess they have an interest in protecting the traveling public, unlike PA.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/16/2007 20:41 Comments || Top||

#8  OK, gotcha. Sorry 'bout that. :}
Posted by: Jules || 02/16/2007 21:05 Comments || Top||

#9  There have only been two time in my life that driving the highway has made me cry. The second was the morning after we landed in Germany, when Mr. Wife made me drive him to the office on the Autobahn, as we had only the one car, no access to public transportation or telephone, and without the car I wouldn't be able to get to the shops for food before they closed. The first was the first time we drove back to Buffalo, NY after we settled in Ohio; I'd only had my driver's license for a few months, and I'd just taken my turn at the wheel when we crossed from Ohio into Pennsylvania on the I-90. It was one of the warm-cycle Novembers, so no snow or anything, but construction closeed the highway down to one narrow, weaving lane the entire length of the state. I'd never had to thread the needle before (shoot, I'd never driven on a highway before!) and there was nowhere to stop. I don't recall seeing anyone actually working on the road either, but it could be that my memory is a bit narrowly focussed. It took ages for me to stop shaking after we crossed into NY and Mr. Wife took over. Oh, and that must have been 1981, so the PennDOT approach must not be specific to this administration.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/16/2007 21:05 Comments || Top||


Soothsayers: Year of the Pig signals conflicts before new world order
Rantburg is pleased to present your 2007 Planning Guide. A great deal of expert analysis was compiled and collated at no charge to you, the loyal Rantburg reader. This document should be displayed prominently in your home or office along with the Farmer's Almanac, the eleventh edition of My Big Blue Book of Nostradamus (Annotated), and the Daily Racing Form.
The world can expect a roller-coaster ride of conflict and unrest, natural disasters and a plunge in global stock markets once the Year of the Pig begins, Chinese soothsayers say. As the world farewells the Year of the Dog on Sunday, believers in Chinese superstitions have been busy consulting fortune tellers, feng shui geomancers and a wealth of new books for the year's fortunes. Chinese fortunes are based on a belief that events are dictated by the different balances in the elements that make up the earth -- gold, wood, water, fire and earth.

Feng shui expert Raymond Lo said that according to ancient Chinese belief, the Year of the Pig is symbolised by two elements -- "Fire sitting on water is a symbol of conflict and skirmish, and this may bring a relatively less peaceful year with more international conflicts and struggles," he said. Lo said the last time such an arrangement appeared was in 2002, the year that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks. "It is anticipated that there will be more international conflicts and disharmony, which will even lead to regional warfare, uprising and unrest, or the overthrow of governments in certain countries," he said. The elemental arrangement for 2007, with fire standing on top, could represent openness, optimism and warmth, but it can also bring fire disasters and huge explosions, Lo said.

The Chinese calendar moves in 60-year cycles, meaning the world will experience in the new year events similar to those that took place in 1947. In that turbulent year, the Cold War began in earnest when then US president Truman declared his anti-communist doctrine and the Soviet Union rejected a US plan for atomic weapons control, sparking the nuclear arms race.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "But this child would be a prodigy, very intelligent and talented. This person would have the quality to become China's leader or a prime minister," he added.

Maybe, but could he get 18 holes-in-one in one lazy afternoon?
Posted by: gorb || 02/16/2007 6:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Didn't the Chinese Dhimmi up and ban the year of the pig? Something about offending the Mooslimbs.
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/16/2007 11:39 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Rage as son jailed (Oz)
Check link to see Momma Jihad in action
CONVICTED terrorist Saleh Jamal accepted the jury's verdict that he shot and injured a man almost 10 years ago very calmly. Unlike his mother. After weeping in the back of the District Court yesterday, Amina Jamal left court only to vent her frustrations at The Daily Telegraph.

Her notorious son was only extradited back to Australia last year. He had been thrown in a Beirut jail after being convicted of terrorism offences. He had fled to Lebanon on a false passport while on bail during a trial on another matter, only to be arrested there.

Last year, Australian authorities brought him back to face the music, which ended in a guilty verdict yesterday. He and long-time co-accused and friend, triple-killer Michael Kanaan, had denied shooting a man with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm in a Greenacre park in 1998. The victim was shot in the foot, thigh, buttocks and shoulder.

A jury yesterday found both men guilty. The pair appeared unphased by the verdict and Jamal smiled sympathetically at his mother before being led away. Dressed in Islamic attire, tears ran down Mrs Jamal's face as the jury foreman read out the guilty verdict.

Thanking her son's lawyers outside court, Mrs Jamal left the building where The Daily Telegraph attempted to capture her emotion. With her family under intense scrutiny from authorities, it was all too much for Mrs Jamal. Clearly distressed at the attention, she retaliated by throwing her handbag at photographer John Grainger, which struck him on the head and face causing him to bleed.

Jamal and Kanaan will be sentenced next month.
This article starring:
Saleh Jamal
Posted by: tipper || 02/16/2007 11:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll bet what mom was really pissed that they had to cancel the cookout they had planned to celebrate his acquittal. Looks like she doesn't like to miss many...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 11:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Hysterical outburst, as expected from the breeding cattle of the Master Religion.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/16/2007 12:53 Comments || Top||

#3  What a slut. You can see her nose, her mouth and her cheeks. Where is her full facial veil? For that matter, where is her husband/guardian? She should not be out in public alone. Every faithful Muslim knows that.
/sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler || 02/16/2007 14:15 Comments || Top||

#4  pictures number 6 & 7 , lmao !
Posted by: Chinesh Hupert1797 || 02/16/2007 22:22 Comments || Top||


Antipodean shark fishing !
Posted by: MacNails || 02/16/2007 06:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ooops please move to relevant section ..

One slap on the wrist for me !
Posted by: MacNails || 02/16/2007 6:45 Comments || Top||

#2  *slap*

Had the shark been just a wee bit more deft, we could have had a nice Today's Idiot story...

Posted by: Dave D. || 02/16/2007 6:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Cheers ! :)
Posted by: MacNails || 02/16/2007 6:51 Comments || Top||

#4  "Hey, watch this! Here, hold my beer."
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/16/2007 7:12 Comments || Top||

#5  “When I sobered up I thought about it and I said you know 'I'm a bit of an idiot doing it'... it's amazing what vodka does...”

Indeed! He also drove home from the jetty with his catch. Gotta love the Aussies.
Posted by: Omolurt Elmeaper6990 || 02/16/2007 8:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Jamaicans kill stray dogs and use them as bait for shark fishing at night. I saw it first hand.
Posted by: Sneaze || 02/16/2007 9:34 Comments || Top||

#7  stray kittens work well too, you really have to wrap them tightly to the hook or they'll fall off when you cast into the surf.
Posted by: Whish Clotle5413 || 02/16/2007 10:08 Comments || Top||

#8  So the guy was planning on eating the 4 foot fish. Grilled shark is mighty tasty!
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/16/2007 11:37 Comments || Top||

#9  So the guy was planning on eating the 4 foot fish. Grilled shark is mighty tasty!

nope I believe he's planning on proposing to the bronze whaler-ette Icerigger, Kerkhof always wanted a quiet wife.
Posted by: RD || 02/16/2007 12:59 Comments || Top||

#10  So when he says front of the car, does he mean up on the hood or in the passenger seat?
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 02/16/2007 15:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
$2,200 car is already being tested
NEW DELHI: The common man’s aspiration of graduating from a two-wheeler to a four-wheeler seems to be turning into a reality with Tata Motors on Thursday saying that it was about to deliver on its promise to produce the car which will cost Rs 1 lakh.

The car is being tested, announced group chairman Ratan Tata in what can quell the lingering suspicion that the project was too ambitious to come true.

“Tata Motors has developed a car which we hope to launch in 2008. It is undergoing tooling at present... It is undergoing trials,’’ Ratan Tata said. In New Delhi to attend the Indo-Italian CEO Forums Meet, he was unambiguous that the car would cost, as promised, less than Rs 1 lakh — $2,200 or Rs 88,000 to be specific.

Tata Motors had announced a few years ago that it intends to launch a car which would be priced at Rs 1 lakh. Though the claim was initially greeted with scepticism, the group worked on the project even though it kept the details of the car under wraps.
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 07:18 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tata Steel, India's largest steel maker in the private sector, created history Jan 31 by winning the battle for acquisition of Corus outbidding Brazil's CSN in a tough and protracted contest. The deal that made Tata Steel world's fifth largest steel entity was finalised at 6.2 billion pounds (almost $12 billion).
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 7:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I've never even seen an estimate on what the bare minimum price of a new automobile could be in the US, after calculating in all the mandatory crap.

It would be very light, so the minimum safety need would be a very caged interior, as uncrushable as possible. Strictly for city driving, natch.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/16/2007 11:11 Comments || Top||

#3  I think a $2,200 car in the US would be very similar to a WW2 jeep in many ways. Perhaps less off-road ready as it would only really be expected for city driving.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/16/2007 11:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Think Plastic and Glue
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 12:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Ummm, won't this contribute to global warming?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/16/2007 12:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Not as much as these coal burning monsters...

THE Government plans to invite expressions of interest (EoI) from global and domestic firms by the end of this month to build five `ultra-mega' thermal power projects, with a total installed capacity of 20,000 mega watts (MW).
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 12:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, the VW Type 181 "Thing" was supposed to be a very cheap car, and also very customizable. Trouble was that it had a really hard and uncomfortable ride, and did not easily take the mandatory US equipment.

Maybe what is needed is a cheap car for fat people, designed for comfort and ease of use, with bench seats instead of those damn buckets.

Make the roof one big solar panel that would warm the interior some in winter and cool it some in summer. Not full a/c or heating, just some, to make the car more comfortable before its engine a/c or heat kicked on.

A small city car that could comfortably carry two 250-300lb people would be a big favorite. If it did that, the rest of the car could be VW bug cheap.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/16/2007 12:56 Comments || Top||

#8  A small city car that could comfortably carry two 250-300lb people would be a big favorite. If it did that, the rest of the car could be VW bug cheap.

For only a few dollars more, it could come equipped with "Anti Driverside Window Close" sensors that would close and disable the driver side window when the vehicle is within 50 feet of a fast food drive through.
Posted by: Capsu 78 || 02/16/2007 13:08 Comments || Top||

#9  The cheapest Chinese car is about $5K. Given Indian red tape, corruption, manufacturing expertise (or the lack thereof), et al, I can't see Tata coming up with a $2.2K car that consumers will buy. OK, maybe Indian consumers, since the Indian market is so closed*.

* The Chinese market is protected, but you can buy imported cars - their prices are simply inflated by a 30+% tariff. I'm not sure you can get a car import license at all in India. This is why the US exported $55B worth of goods to China in 2006, but only $10B worth of goods to India.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/16/2007 15:02 Comments || Top||

#10  GM, Ford, Toyota, Suzuki, Honda, Renault, BMW, Volkswagen all have plants in India. Besides catering to the local market, they export cars from India.
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 15:10 Comments || Top||

#11  They've also started to export car parts (even to China). The Indian company Bharat Forge is now the second largest forging company in the world and makes car parts for many companies.

As one of India’s emerging multinationals, the company has manufacturing operations across nine locations and six countries – 2 in India, 3 in Germany and one each in Sweden, Scotland UK, USA & China.

Our customers include the top five Passenger Car & top five Commercial Vehicle Manufacturers in the world. The list includes virtually every automotive OEM and Tier I companies.

Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 15:22 Comments || Top||

#12  manufacturing expertise (or the lack thereof)

Shop floor of a Bharat Forge plant


Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 15:27 Comments || Top||

#13  J: GM, Ford, Toyota, Suzuki, Honda, Renault, BMW, Volkswagen all have plants in India. Besides catering to the local market, they export cars from India.

From a November 2005 article about BMW setting up a plant in India:

Currently, two intermediary dealers with three outlets represent the BMW Group in the Indian market.

In 2004 financial year, the company delivered 122 BMW brand vehicles through this network. In the first half of 2005, deliveries totalled 100 automobiles.

Owing to the high growth potential, the BMW Group is hopeful of multiplying its annual sales volume with its entry into the Indian market.


For 2005, BMW was able to export perhaps 200 cars to India. During the same period, BMW sold 24,000 cars in China. That's 120 times the Indian sales volume. I saw with my own eyes that in a single Chinese coastal city - and not even the richest one - there were 30 or 40 locally-owned BMW imports (not the Chinese joint venture-made* ones from Shanghai, which have Chinese lettering on the trunk lid). It's not like in 2005, there were just 200 Indians who wanted and could afford BMW's. It's got to be Indian trade restrictions that don't even bother with tariffs - they just let a trickle through. This is the same India that complains about foreign tariffs.

* The BMW's assembled in China are standard Beemers on the inside and the outside. But some wealthy folks there will buy identically-configured imports (complete with a tariff-inflated price tag) because the lack of Chinese lettering on the trunk lid screams "import" and conveys a little more prestige. Some are convinced that the locally-assembled product couldn't possibly be as good as a Beemer touched by Teutonic hands.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/16/2007 15:49 Comments || Top||

#14  I think the Indian tariffs start at 24%
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 16:01 Comments || Top||

#15  New vehicle sales a year:

China: 7 million
India: 1 million

Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 16:06 Comments || Top||

#16  J: The Indian company Bharat Forge is now the second largest forging company in the world

That's not tough when you're one of the handful of companies licensed to operate in India. Crony capitalism does have the effect of concentrating wealth and power in a few hands. China has a handful of crony capitalists billionaires. India has more billionaires - and not coincidentally - far fewer large industrial companies, thanks to a state policy of crony capitalism backed by an ostensibly socialist government.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/16/2007 16:12 Comments || Top||

#17  Nobody said the $2,000 car would be comfortable. Heaters would be optional, radio would be optional, heck, doors would be optional. The bench seats would also be a good idea to save a bit of cash.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/16/2007 16:39 Comments || Top||

#18  That's not tough when you're one of the handful of companies licensed to operate in India.

The "license raj" was dismantled in 1991.

Which is why you are seeing the growth of Indian entrepreneurial activity.
The playing field was leveled for Indian businesses. Foreign companies, in several sectors, still have to face %caps in FDI allowed.

The last holdout is the SSI (small scale industry) sector, This is a Gandhian scheme where cottage industry has certain types of good reserved for it. Only they may manufacture these goods.

The list is shrinking every year but still exists
Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 16:59 Comments || Top||

#19  I think I ran over one of these in my 4X4 F150. There was something like a beer can stuck in the lugs of my tread
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 17:31 Comments || Top||

#20  Tata Motors.

So, will they call the first model the Bodacious?
Posted by: Hennie Youngman || 02/16/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||

#21  you should see the high beams
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:33 Comments || Top||

#22  Actually, the $2000 car could be made but it would be extremely basic - think of a golf cart with a slightly bigger engine and a hauling space on the back, with bench seats for two in the front. With a stamped steel unibody, only one set of doors, no power anything, manual trannie, and maybe a heating duct and fan to pull heat from the engine. Or the Indians could just buy the rights to the first model Volkswagen and produce it - should be capable of being built in quantity for under $2000.
The US Army had a light hauler for airborne troops in the 1960s and 70s called the Mule that could function as the basis for this as well; you would only need to put a front enclosed cab on it, and it would function as the poor man's pickup.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 02/16/2007 18:56 Comments || Top||

#23  that's fine, I wouldn't call it a "car"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:59 Comments || Top||

#24  Tatas' Rs 1-lakh car to be gearless

Undeterred by scepticism from industry rivals, including Suzuki Motor Corporation that such a car may not be feasible for Rs 1 lakh, Tata exuded confidence that the launch would be the only answer from him.

"I hope so. Just like people ate their words on Indica, they would realise that there is something (Rs 1-lakh car) that can be done," Tata told PTI on whether the launch would be an answer to the sceptics.

Along with Indica, the new Rs 1-lakh car, whose prototypes are presently doing test run without a body, would be the growth focus for Tata Motors in the medium term in the automobile sector, in which the group could invest up to Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) in the next few years.

Tata said the proposed Rs 1-lakh car would be a vehicle that "will seat four to five people and have a rear engine. It will not be a scooter, three-wheeler or an auto-rickshaw made into a car."

"It will also not be a stripped down car. It will be an inexpensive car," he said, but added that it would obviously not have the finish or the high speed or the power of a larger car.

Tata said the new vehicle would be a 'compact car' and would be a reality in less than three years.

On the technology used for the new vehicle, he said: "We have gone to Delphi for the engine management system as in India there is no electronic engine management system available."

Tata said the car would have the 'continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology, which means without gear changing.' For the CVT also, he said: "We have gone somewhere else, because we have no experience."

Commenting on the styling front, he said the company had taken help from the Italian design house, IDEA, which worked with Tata Motors on Indica.
Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 19:28 Comments || Top||

#25  Tata Motor's competitors do not - at least publicly - believe it is practical. Business Standard said that 'with taxes accounting for almost half a car's ex-factory cost, Tata will have to produce a car within Rs 70,000 for it to be priced at Rs 1 lakh in the market. At present, they say, it is not possible to make a car for less than Rs 1.5 lakh and costs will only increase over the next five years.' Maruti Udyog's Jagdish said that he did not believe it is possible for Maruti to bring out a car model that costs less than Rs. 1.5 lakh. In the next few years, the possibility of having to meet Euro III or IV emission norms would make it even costlier, according to him.
Hyundai said that it did not believe it is possible for such a car to meet safety standards.
Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 19:33 Comments || Top||

#26  think of a golf cart with a slightly bigger engine and a hauling space on the back, with bench seats for two in the front. With a stamped steel unibody, only one set of doors, no power anything, manual trannie, and maybe a heating duct and fan to pull heat from the engine.

Hey.. that was done in Pakistan.. their first attempt at making a car.. the Habib Sitara

Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 19:35 Comments || Top||

#27  The "people's car" will use a combination of steel and composite plastic for its body, put together with industrial adhesive along with nuts and bolts. But what's the business changer? Tata will attempt to do away with the traditional model of manufacturing solely in a factory and distributing exclusively through established dealers. The plan is to make the basic components of the car in Tata plants -- and then to send the car off the company's assembly line much like a bicycle, in a knocked-down kit form. These will be shipped across the country to Tata-trained franchisees. Some of them will be Tata Motors car dealers. But other franchisees may be any of India's thousands of roadside garages.

The mechanics will keep the kits in their garages and assemble them on demand for customers -- then service them as needed. "It will give an opportunity to young, capable people to create an enterprise," says Tata. But the move will also save an estimated 20% of an auto's production, experts say. "Tata's plan makes the car a commodity," says Kumar Bhattacharyya, director of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick in Britain.
Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 19:50 Comments || Top||

#28  that's cool - it's a "cart" in the US. Functional and satisfying, but not a "car". Words matter
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 19:59 Comments || Top||

#29  Hubby wants to know if the hubcaps are pasties.

Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/16/2007 21:32 Comments || Top||

#30  I like the rumble seat.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/16/2007 21:45 Comments || Top||

#31  I go your bench seating right here.
Posted by: ed || 02/16/2007 22:04 Comments || Top||

#32  JF: Hey.. that was done in Pakistan.. their first attempt at making a car.. the Habib Sitara

Looks like a Vespa on steroids. Not a bad idea at all. Crashworthiness is quite another matter, though.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/16/2007 22:20 Comments || Top||

#33  On second thoughts, it looks more like a dune buggy.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/16/2007 22:22 Comments || Top||


Man loses trial by dunking, pays Rs 50,000
MULTAN: A tribal council in a remote Pakistani village ordered a man to walk neck-deep through freezing water for 10 minutes to prove his son was innocent of stealing, officials said on Thursday. But the man named Khuda Baksh only lasted two minutes and was fined Rs 50,000 by the tribal elders at Tumman Khosa village in central Punjab, a local official said on condition of anonymity.

Dozens of people watched on Wednesday as the man was sent into a pond and told to walk 80 feet with his hands and feet tied and only his head above water, residents said. Baksh took the bizarre trial by ordeal on behalf of his son Tariq Khan to clear him of a charge that he had stolen money from a fellow villager. “We are aware of the incident and I have ordered an investigation,” local police chief Rai Naeemullah Bhatti said, adding that the authorities were trying to discourage such practices.

Tribal councils in deeply conservative rural Pakistan often make their own judgments in the absence of normal courts and policing. People in a central Pakistani town last month tied a woman and her lover to a tree and stoned them to death for allegedly dishonouring her family.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Caveman graphic?
Posted by: gorb || 02/16/2007 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Monty Python - "It's a fair cop."
Posted by: Shavimble Jase5240 || 02/16/2007 1:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Antarctic Temperatures Disagree With Climate Model Predictions
A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models. This comes soon after the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that strongly supports the conclusion that the Earth's climate as a whole is warming, largely due to human activity.

It also follows a similar finding from last summer by the same research group that showed no increase in precipitation over Antarctica in the last 50 years. Most models predict that both precipitation and temperature will increase over Antarctica with a warming of the planet.

David Bromwich, professor of professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography, and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, reported on this work at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at San Francisco.

"It's hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now," he said. "Part of the reason is that there is a lot of variability there. It's very hard in these polar latitudes to demonstrate a global warming signal. This is in marked contrast to the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula that is one of the most rapidly warming parts of the Earth."

Bromwich says that the problem rises from several complications. The continent is vast, as large as the United States and Mexico combined. Only a small amount of detailed data is available - there are perhaps only 100 weather stations on that continent compared to the thousands spread across the U.S. and Europe . And the records that we have only date back a half-century.

"The best we can say right now is that the climate models are somewhat inconsistent with the evidence that we have for the last 50 years from continental Antarctica .

"We're looking for a small signal that represents the impact of human activity and it is hard to find it at the moment," he said.

Last year, Bromwich's research group reported in the journal Science that Antarctic snowfall hadn't increased in the last 50 years. "What we see now is that the temperature regime is broadly similar to what we saw before with snowfall. In the last decade or so, both have gone down," he said.

In addition to the new temperature records and earlier precipitation records, Bromwich's team also looked at the behavior of the circumpolar westerlies, the broad system of winds that surround the Antarctic continent.

"The westerlies have intensified over the last four decades of so, increasing in strength by as much as perhaps 10 to 20 percent," he said. "This is a huge amount of ocean north of Antarctica and we're only now understanding just how important the winds are for things like mixing in the Southern Ocean." The ocean mixing both dissipates heat and absorbs carbon dioxide, one of the key greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Some researchers are suggesting that the strengthening of the westerlies may be playing a role in the collapse of ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula.

"The peninsula is the most northern point of Antarctica and it sticks out into the westerlies," Bromwich says. "If there is an increase in the westerly winds, it will have a warming impact on that part of the continent, thus helping to break up the ice shelves, he said.

"Farther south, the impact would be modest, or even non-existent."

Bromwich said that the increase in the ozone hole above the central Antarctic continent may also be affecting temperatures on the mainland. "If you have less ozone, there's less absorption of the ultraviolet light and the stratosphere doesn't warm as much."

That would mean that winter-like conditions would remain later in the spring than normal, lowering temperatures.

"In some sense, we might have competing effects going on in Antarctica where there is low-level CO2 warming but that may be swamped by the effects of ozone depletion," he said. "The year 2006 was the all-time maximum for ozone depletion over the Antarctic."

Bromwich said the disagreement between climate model predictions and the snowfall and temperature records doesn't necessarily mean that the models are wrong.

"It isn't surprising that these models are not doing as well in these remote parts of the world. These are global models and shouldn't be expected to be equally exact for all locations," he said.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/16/2007 21:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well Antartica is a fascist.
Posted by: Danking70 || 02/16/2007 23:51 Comments || Top||



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Fri 2007-02-16
  Attempt to hijack Maretanian plane painfully foiled
Thu 2007-02-15
  Al-Masri said wounded, aide killed
Wed 2007-02-14
  Bombs kill nine on buses in Lebanon
Tue 2007-02-13
  Tater bugs out
Mon 2007-02-12
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Sun 2007-02-11
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Sat 2007-02-10
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Fri 2007-02-09
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Thu 2007-02-08
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Wed 2007-02-07
  Fatah, Hamas talks kick off in Mecca
Tue 2007-02-06
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Mon 2007-02-05
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