H/T Ace of Spades
Congrats Canada
Team USA GM Brian Burke is proud to be an American, and he is going to make sure that the hockey team that represents the United States in the Olympics manifests that same pride.
Back in August, when he first called all the candidates to Chicago that would battle for the final 23 roster spots, he started harping on the issue of patriotism. One of the key facets of that program was involving the military.
In fact, members of the military -- mostly Navy SEALs and Army Rangers -- were brought to Chicago to share stories about their service to the country and what it means to them.
Navy SEAL Lieutenant Jason Redman was one of the speakers, relating how he was wounded eight times, including a bullet to the face, during a battle in Afghanistan. He was rescued by other members of his SEAL "team" and has returned to military duty. It is a story that has stuck with many of these players since that five-day orientation.
"The real heroes in America don't wear hockey uniforms, they wear police uniforms, they wear camo, they wear fire uniforms, and we want our players to understand that what we do is small potatoes compared to what those people do," Burke said Saturday.
So it should come as no surprise that there has been a military component to Team USA's preparations here in Vancouver.
Burke and USA Hockey joined forces with Operation Homefront and had a wounded soldier adopt each member of Team USA. The soldiers sent packages, including letters of encouragement to the players. Those packages were placed in the American dressing room at Canada Hockey Place earlier this week.
"We are very proud of the military in our country and it's part of what we do," Burke said.
The letters and personal effects have clearly served as an inspiration to the players.
Saturday, on the eve of a Group A title-deciding game against the host Canadians, young Anaheim forward Bobby Ryan talked eloquently about the impact the soldiers have had on his team by sharing their battlefield experiences.
"They talked about how much they come together with their brothers in battle and they alluded to the fact that we are a lot like them in that sense, but not at the grand scale," Ryan said. "It's very inspirational and we are glad those guys are behind us. It's very inspirational and puts things in perspective for you."
Ryan says he plans to contact his adoptive soldier after he leaves Vancouver and things settle down a bit, and thank him for both his service to the United States and the impact he has had on a young hockey team trying to forge its reputation in the white-hot cauldron of Olympic competition.
Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown also talked about the impact the alliance with the United States military has had on the team. As he talked, it quickly became clear that it was not merely lip service. Instead, there is a deep understanding of what it means to be an American and to represent the country -- be it in armed combat or in athletic competition.
"We realize that our soldiers always have to go over into foreign soil and get the job done and they always do," Brown said. "That is kind of our theme. We are on foreign soil and we have to get the job done."
In less than 24 hours, the Americans will get their first chance to do just that, playing a favored Canadian squad in what will be the most hostile atmosphere many of them have ever endured.
Simply, it will be a test of not only their physical abilities, but also their mental toughness.
And it is a safe bet that once things get dicey Sunday night at Canada Hockey Place -- and they will get dicey, as they always do against Team Canada -- more than one player on the American squad will likely hear the voices of the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers that have been a part of them for almost five months now or turn the focus to the personal effects that now sit in the lockers of the American players.
When that happens, Burke beliefs his boys will refocus on the task at hand and redouble their efforts. "If we can match the success that our (military) guys have, that would be tremendous," Brown said.
#1
Well, the Canadians were one shot better. Helluva an effort by our guys though. They left it all out there.
Tough month for Mr. Burke. He lost his son in a car crash Feb. 5th.
#6
Sherry
Just for fun we switched to East German TV then.
If silence could kill...
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/28/2010 21:37 Comments ||
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#7
Great show they both played great cheered loudly for US but thrilled North America did so well. Little disturbed it seemed like most of Vancouver rooted against US no matter who we played but I say go North America anyhow.
Miller for president.
Tsunamis generated by an earthquake in Chile have struck French Polynesia, but there are no reports of major damage or casualties.
Huge waves struck the Gambier archipelago at 6:30am (local time), the high commissioner's office in Papeete said, as the tsunami raced across the Pacific. The Marquesas Islands, north-east of Polynesia, were hit between 7.00-8.00am (local time) by a series of two-metre waves which damaged some boats but no-one was hurt. A four-metre wave also hit Hiva Oa in the Marquesas.
The port in Papeete was evacuated and thousands in Tahiti's hillside areas were transported from their homes to safer areas. However, many residents along the coast refused to leave, fearing lootings.
Between the waves the sea withdrew about 15 metres, causing rip currents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
Is it me or natural disasters are sweeping across the globe ??
Cyclone Oli in eastern Polynesia, Tsunami in Chile, Snow in New-England, Storm in western Europe, Rhode island-big Iceberg breaking in the South Pole, etc.
Isn't it time to take serious broad action against Climate change??!!
#6
I'm telling Guam locals that, via GLOBAL WARMING [Sun] + so-called "EARTH CHANGES", humanity will ever stronger EQ's. SCIENCE tells or teaches us that GREAT EPOCHS, ICE AGES, PLANET- + CONTINENTAL TECTONIC MOVEMENTS HAD OCCURRED IN EARTH'S PAST, BUT THERE IS MUCH SCIENS UNCERTAINTY + LACK OF UNIFIED CONSENSUS AS TO SOLAR BEHAVIOR + EFFECTS ON EARTH BEFORE, DURING, + AFTER THOSE PERIODS.
* MY BELIEF > YEAR "2012" = QUAKE HEARD/FELT AROUND THE WORLD {Universal-Global Quake].
* FREEREPUBLIC this AM > CHILEAN SEASIDE RESORT TOWN OF PELLEHUE HAS BEEN WASHED AWAY: MUNICIPALITY HAD ABOUT 1000 RESIDENTS [possible Tote popul of 6,414?].
Small-to-minutae tsunami waves = non-dangerous/threatening wave heights repor reached as far as JAPAN + RUSSIA includ GUAM.
Reminds me of POST-KAMALEN SPACE ROCK EVENT AGANA + WEST SIDE OF GUAM [Central-South]. Again, KAMALEN per se is NOT a big rock, neither is COMET APOPHIS.
GUAM/EARTH-VISIBLE MOON EXPLOSIONS [2030] > THE MOON IS A BIG ROCK.
big Big BIG B-I-G BBBBBIIIIIIIIGGGGG ROCK.
WARD BOND to CAVALRY LT in "THE SEARCHERS" > "Big, Big, D *** NG IT, B-I-C, BIG"!
#8
RUSSIA is repor ordering the evacuation of outlying islands > SHADE OF FSM + HAWAIIAN ISLANDS via POST-KAMALEN GUAM, WESTPAC.
IRONY? PROPHETIC INVERSE? Many Guamanians oer the decades since the 1970's have told me of their own personal dreams-visions wjere massive tidal wave are "seen" washing or slamming oer Guam from EASTPAC direction. "KAMALEN" AFAIB IS WESTPAC. IMO PROLLY THE SAME EVENT WHICH WIPED OUT HAWAII IN FUTURE TIME [asteroid breakup sendng sub-rocks unto Earth]???
IMO GEOPOL read, USDOD PACIFIC = PACIFIC HQ COMMANDS ALL BUT WIPED OUT, USA hard-pressed to project effective MilPower beyond WEST COAST + CONUS.
OWG Mighty USSA = Weak USRoAmerika Global SSR = Biblical JOB versus both GOD-N-DEVIL. WILL AMERICA = AMERIKA "KEEP THE FAITH" IN GOD COME WHAT MAY, NO MATTER THE TESTS, TRIBULATIONS OF THE DEVIL? SPACE ROCKS = ARE NOT THE SUN.
WHILE the Top End and Central Australia have been battered by torrential rains, a Territory town has had fish falling from the sky.
The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine.
Christine Balmer, who took these photos of the fish on the ground and in a bucket, had to pinch herself when she was told ``hundreds and hundreds" of small white fish had fallen from the sky.
"It rained fish in Lajamanu on Thursday and Friday night," she said, "They fell from the sky everywhere. Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere. These fish were alive when they hit the ground."
Mrs Balmer, the aged care co-ordinator at the Lajamanu Aged Care Centre, said her family interstate thought she had lost the plot when she told them about the event. "I haven't lost my marbles," she said, reassuring herself. "Thank god it didn't rain crocodiles."
Lajamanu sits on the edge of the Tanami Desert, hundreds of kilometres from Lake Argyle and Lake Elliott and even further from the coast. But it's not the first time the remote community has been bombarded by fins from above. In 2004, locals reported fish falling from the sky, and in 1974, a similar incident captured international headlines.
The small white fish are believed to be spangled perch, which are very common through much of northern Australia.
Weather bureau senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said the geological conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region. He said it would have been an ideal weather situation to allow the phenomena to occur - but no tornados have been reported to the authority.
"It's a very unusual event," he said. "With an updraft, (fish and water picked up) could get up high - up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet. Or possibly from a tornado over a large water body - but we haven't had any reports," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] One of the most powerful earthquakes in decades battered Chile on Saturday, killing at least 147 people, knocking down buildings and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.
Buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and debris blocked streets across large swathes of central Chile.
A 15-storey building collapsed in Concepcion, the closest major city to the epicenter, and overturned cars lay scattered below a fallen overpass in the capital Santiago. Telephone and power lines went down, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage and loss of life.
Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera said at least 147 people had died in the 8.8-magnitude quake, which struck at 3:34 a.m. (06: 34 GMT), sending many people rushing from their beds and onto the streets in fear.
"It came in waves and lasted so long. Three minutes is an eternity. We kept worrying that it was getting stronger, like a terrifying Hollywood movie," said housewife Dolores Cuevas.
Tsunami warnings were posted around the Pacific, including the U.S. state of Hawaii, Japan and Russia.
One emergency official said Chile's death toll was unlikely to increase dramatically, but it was one of the 10 biggest quakes recorded since 1900 and dealt a blow to the economic infrastructure in the world's No. 1 copper producer and one of Latin America's most developed and stable countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
total known dead in the 7-800's now
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/28/2010 14:05 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who says he is prepared to run in elections against President Hosni Mubarak, told AFP on Saturday that political change is the only way to avoid unrest in Egypt.
"Change is coming for sure," ElBaradei said in a telephone interview. "Change by peaceful means is the only way to avoid any clashes," he said. The question, and remember, death is not an option: if El-Baradei runs Egypt like he ran the IAEA, would that be an improvement? Discuss.
ElBaradei announced he was ready to run for president next year before arriving home last week to a rapturous welcome from hundreds of supporters following a 12-year stint at the helm of the International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna.
"I am working to mobilize the popular masses who are pro-change in order to convert the system in Egypt into a democratic system that ensures social justice," ElBaradei said. "The first step in this journey is to amend the constitution to guarantee free and fair elections and then have a new constitution for the country."
The constitution as it stands bars ElBaradei from running for president in elections scheduled for next year, by which time Mubarak, 81, would have completed 30 years in power. Under Egyptian law, a candidate is required to have been a leading member of a party for at least one year and for the party to have existed for at least five years.
As an independent, he would need the backing of at least 250 elected officials from parliament's upper and lower houses and from municipal councils -- all bodies dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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More than 100 people were injured Saturday in a clash between the students and teachers of several kaomi madrasas and supporters of Ahle Sunnah Al Jamaat over observing Eid-e-Miladunnabi in Sarail upazila of Brahmanbaria.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the additional district magistrate imposed section 144 in and around the district Eidgah Maidan of Brahmanbaria as another group of kaomi madrasa students and teachers and Ahle Sunnah Al Jamaat organised meetings at the same venue in observance of the Eid-e-Miladunnabi.
Starting at 6:00am Saturday, the section 144 will remain in force till 12:00am Sunday.
Additional police forces were deployed in the district headquarters to avert any untoward incident, reports our Brahmanbaria correspondent.
The clash erupted at Uchaliapara in Sarail at about 10:00am as kaomi madrasa students broke down a podium made by Ahle Sunna supporters at Gorurbazar in the upazila in observance of the holy Eid-e-Miladunnabi, marking the birth and death anniversary of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).
At one stage, both the groups put separate barricades on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, but Brahmanbaria highway police disperse them.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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BOGOTA (Reuters) - The race for Colombia's presidency began Saturday, with former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos the favorite after the South American nation's popular incumbent was blocked from running for a third term.
The Constitutional Court's decision to bar a referendum on re-election heralds an end to President Alvaro Uribe's eight-year rule, during which the U.S. ally beat back left-wing guerrillas, stabilized the economy and drew investors.
With Colombian politics fixated for more than a year on the re-election issue, and polls showing Uribe would have won easily if allowed to run, Friday's ruling represented a starting gun for other presidential aspirants.
"The happiest man in Colombia today is Juan Manuel Santos," said one of his rivals in the May 30 presidential election, Gustavo Petro, of the leftist Democratic Pole party.
Uribe's former defense minister -- who also held the finance portfolio in a previous government -- is closely associated with the U.S.-backed security policies that have made Uribe the nation's most popular president, and helped Colombia escape its past image for violence and chaos.
Before the presidential vote, a March 14 parliamentary election will test the political waters, and a certain amount of realigning among Uribe's ruling coalition is expected.
Uribe backs Santos, who heads the president's Social National Unity Party. But Uribe's alliance partner, the Conservative Party, could put up its own candidate.
Sergio Fajardo, an independent candidate and former mayor from Colombia's second city Medellin, is hovering behind Santos in the polls. And would-be Conservative Party candidate Noemi Sanin could be a challenger if the Uribe alliance splits.
Santos met Uribe in the city of Cali Saturday to plan their political strategy for the election. "We are going to win," Santos predicted. "I will find the way for this great coalition to have a single candidate."
Analysts expect no candidate will win more than 50 percent of the votes in May, meaning there would be a run-off in June.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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When first elected in 2002, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe vowed he would bring the country's Marxist rebels to their knees and draw investors back to a country dismissed as a failing state mired in violence.
After nearly eight years in office, the bespectacled lawyer learned on Friday that efforts to allow him to serve a third term had failed and he must step aside.
Colombia's Constitutional Court struck down an attempt by Uribe's allies to amend the law and let the president remain in office for four more years. The ruling dashed hopes that the the man many Colombians credit for pulling the country back from the brink could serve again.
While foreign investment is flooding into mining and oil and the rebels are at their weakest in decades, the five-decade-long conflict lingers.
Though he looked more like a school teacher than a tough, hands-on leader, Uribe's no-nonsense style in the middle of conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, made him the most popular Colombian president in memory.
His approval rating has never fallen below 60 percent even as scandals hit his government.
"You solve one problem and up come a thousand more and that's why the government can never sleep," Uribe told a crowd gathered on red chairs at a recent town hall meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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Q: Why do you think the S.E.C. failed to wake up to Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme until he turned himself in?
A: They weren't even asleep at the switch; they were comatose. They didn't respond to heat and light, much less evidence of wrongdoing.
Q: Are you saying the S.E.C. under Schapiro is about to catch fraud on Wall Street?
A: She has the wrong staff. They're a bunch of idiots there.
Q: What do you mean?
A: The five commissioners of the S.E.C. are securities lawyers. Securities lawyers never understand finance. They don't have the math background. If you can't do math and if you can't take apart the investment products of the 21st century backward and forward and put them together in your sleep, you'll never find the frauds on Wall Street.
A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro. Representatives of George Soros's investment business were among an all-star line up of Wall Street investors at an 'ideas dinner' at a private townhouse in Manhattan, according to reports.
A spokesman for Soros Fund Management said the legendary investor did not attend the dinner on February 8, but did not deny that his firm was represented. At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar. Just repeating what he's been doing since 1944 ...
The single currency has been under enormous pressure because of Greece's debt crisis, plus financial worries in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland. But, it has also struggled because hedge funds have been placing huge bets on the currency's decline, which could make the speculators hundreds of millions of pounds.
The euro traded at $1.51 in December, but has since fallen to $1.34. Details of the secretive dinner emerged days after Mr Soros, chairman of Soros
Fund Management, warned in a newspaper article that the euro could 'fall apart' even if the European Union can agree a deal to shore up support for stricken Greece.
Mr Soros, who made more than $1billion by currency speculation when the pound was ejected from the Exchange Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday in 1992, believes the structure of the euro is 'patently flawed'.
He said: 'Makeshift assistance should be enough for Greece, but that leaves Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. Together they constitute too large a portion of euroland to be helped in this way.'
He believes that unless the European Commission is given sweeping powers over taxation and spending, the single currency will always be vulnerable to financial turbulence in individual states. Ein state, ein volk ...
'If member countries cannot take the next steps forward, the euro may fall apart,' he added.
Last night, Greek prime minister George Papandreou hit back at the 'speculators' who he blames for preying on the country's troubles. Following a visit by EU economic inspectors and experts from the International Monetary Fund, he told the country's parliament that the worst fears about Greece's economy had been confirmed.
Outlining the precarious nature of Greece's finances, Mr Papandreou said: 'There is only one dilemma: Will we let the country go bankrupt or will we react? Will we let the speculators strangle us, or will we take our fate in our own hands?'
The Greek leader also called for more help from the EU with its debt crisis. Until now, the EU has offered political support but no bailout.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
In his continuing effort to re-make the entire world into Argentina.
#4
In the Red corner: Soros. What a terrific guy. What a paragon of philanthropy. What a fine specimen of humanity.
In the Red corner (sic): Papandreou. What defiance! What bravery! What a defender of his people and his country.
In the middle: The people of Europe. Duped by their politicians into buying the fools' paradise of state control, trans-nationalist anti-democracy and welfare dependence, and preyed upon by those who exploit the situation for their own gain whilst ludicrously purporting to be motivated by 'social justice', all the time working to silence the democratic rights of the masses. The plebs are in for more pain, but they really have only themselves to blame.
#5
One of the more interesting rules of the SEC is that it can change, even make, the rules in the middle of the game. So it can effectively announce that what someone is doing is illegal, retroactively, and that they can be punished for it.
While this goes against common law since the Magna Carta, the SEC does it anyway, under the guise of protecting the market.
So that being said, with the next Republican administration, the SEC should be instructed to 'stop' George Soros, as his activities nationally and internationally, have long since left the range of business, and entered politics with the intent to interfere with foreign policy.
[Asharq al-Aswat] A retired Turkish general charged over a plot to unseat the government said "the struggle has now started", after high-profile arrests risked aggravating tension between the ruling AK Party and the armed forces.
Two former generals became the most senior figures late on Friday to be charged over an alleged 2003 plot, state-run news agency Anatolian reported, their arrests closing a week of high political drama that has stunned Turkey and shaken markets.
Hours earlier, police had conducted a second wave of detentions of military officers, widening an unprecedented investigation that has seen some 33 officers arrested and prompted an emergency summit among Turkey's leaders.
President Abdullah Gul, a former member of the AK Party which has its roots in political Islam, pledged "Turkey will overcome all of its problems." But, in an interview published in the Hurriyet newspaper on Saturday, he also warned those who act outside the law within Turkish institutions would be purged.
Retired general Cetin Dogan was the former head of Turkey's First Army and as such had occupied a position often seen as a step towards becoming head of the Turkish Armed Forces. "When Dogan learned he was to be charged he said 'the struggle has now started'," his lawyer Celal Ulgen said on Saturday, according to Anatolian.
Ulgen added there was no concrete evidence and prosecutors went to great lengths to have him charged.
The other high-ranking official to be charged was Lieutenant-General Engin Alan, a former special forces commander who led a successful operation to capture the country's most wanted man, Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, and bring him back to Turkey in 1999.
Turkish newspapers on Saturday printed pictures of an elderly-looking Dogan, dressed in a dark coat and cravat and walking with a slight stoop, as police took him for questioning.
Turkish markets, weakened by five days of tension since a first wave of detentions on Monday, had begun to recover on Friday on hopes that the likelihood of a confrontation between the government, in power since 2002, and the secularist military was receding with the release of three other retired generals. But reports police had detained 17 more serving military officers and one retired officer in a second wave of detentions sparked renewed selling, and fresh concern over a standoff.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has warned the military they are not above the law and accused the media of fanning alarm among investors.
Erdogan's party, which denies accusations it has a secret Islamist agenda, is banking on an economic recovery to win over voters ahead of an election due early next year.
The military has overthrown four governments in Turkey in the past 50 years and with some of its officers still in detention, and more than 30 charged, markets remain nervous.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Its the people that want the Ottoman Empire to return (AK) versus the Army and the Kemalists, who do not want a return to feudalism and the backwardness that the AK party and their Islamist & Sharia fudamentalists will bring.
#5
I still remember how they screwed us on the 4th ID during OIF I.
They screwed us on the 4th ID because somebody in the US State Department decided to 'leak' a story that a certain amount of aid was going to be given to Turkey as a quid pro qo for letting the 4th ID through. Turkey was po'ed enough to cancel the agreement.
It wasn't a quid pro qo (as later info showed), but the damage was done. Precisely as someone in State intended.
YCMTSHIYT:
Rowdy curling crowds; spontaneous street parties; public drunkeness. You don't have to look far for evidence that the crowds at Winter Games in Vancouver know how to have a good time.
And, as if anymore proof is needed that a wild Olympic atmosphere permeates B.C.'s largest city, now there's an apparent condom shortage.
That's right. As you read this, an emergency shipment of condoms is desperately making its way across Canada to the West Coast city.
Health officials in Vancouver have already provided 100,000 free condoms to the roughly 7,000 ahtletes and officials at the Games. That's about 14 condoms per person. But as of Wednesday, those supplies started running dangerously low.
So naturally, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS research decided to step and make sure there were no hitches in Olympic action.
"When we heard about the condom shortage in Vancouver, we felt it important to respond immediately," said Kerry Whiteside, CANFAR's Executive Director. The organization assembled three large boxes of about 8,500 condoms, much to the relief of libidos at the Olympic Village. They're expected to arrive on Thursday.
Buoyed by its armament majors securing multi-billion contracts, US has asked India to raise its cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence sector to 49 per cent from existing 26 per cent.
Making a pitch for this, the Obama Administration also wants India to undertake more sweeping reforms to attract new investments, saying this will propel New Delhi to a higher growth rate.
"Reforms to date have made Indian companies leaders in areas such as IT, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and now increasingly, in manufacturing as well as in clean energy. We hope India will seize the opportunity to undertake new reforms that will both attract new investment and propel higher growth," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake has said.
He was more particular on opening up of the defence sector, saying, "we are urging the Indian government to raise the cap on foreign equity in Indian defence firms from 26 per cent to 49 per cent to provide more opportunities for US companies interested in defence sales in India."
His comments at the Washington International Business Council meeting come as US defence majors Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other firms have bagged almost all the major Indian armed forces contracts worth more than $10 billion.
These includes sale of Hercules C-130 J transport aircraft and Boeing P-8A maritime reconnaissance aircraft. US companies are in strong contention for sale of next generation fighter aircraft to the Indian airforce.
Noting that the US recently had some important sales to India, Blake said there are significant new sales on the horizon, up to $18 billion worth of contracts, for which American companies are competing.
Calling India as a rising global power, soon to be the world's most populous country, with a trillion dollar-plus economy, Blake said it is a model of a tolerant pluralistic society in the region. "And it is a country increasingly comfortable with working with the United States," Blake said.
In July last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited India and launched a Strategic Dialogue which called for increased collaboration in a number of areas that fall under five pillars: strategic cooperation; energy and climate change; education and development; economics, trade and agriculture; and science, technology, health and innovation.
In November, President Barack Obama hosted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the first state visit of his Presidency, calling India an "indispensable" nation.
President Obama has also pledged to visit India in 2010, further underscoring the importance of India to the United States, he said. The State Department official said the strength of India's economy makes it the powerhouse of South and Central Asian regional growth.
"The Indian economy has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world since 2003, averaging 8 to 9 per cent growth in recent years... India's economy grew about 5.6 per cent in 2009, and is expected to grow 7.7 per cent this year. If India can sustain its economic reforms, it has the potential to sustain close to double digit growth rates for many years to come," Blake said.
One sign of India's prospering internal market is its growing middle class which now numbers about 300 million and is expected to double over the next 20 years to reach 600 million. To put that into perspective, that's roughly the size of the total population of the European Union right now, he noted.
As part of the US-India Strategic Dialogue, the US government is working with India to expand business opportunities, he said, adding the economics, trade, and agriculture pillar of the Dialogue is particularly important for business.
"Our trade has doubled just in the last five years. US exports to India were more than $28 billion in 2008. We expect that growth to continue into the foreseeable future as India's middle class continues to grow and as India's economy continues to open up. US investment also has grown very quickly, and now totals more than $16 billion," he said.
"The strategic cooperation pillar also is expected to offer numerous business opportunities. Last year, our two governments agreed on an end-use monitoring arrangement that will help the process of technology transfer between our two countries, and I think there's scope for further progress in that area," Blake said.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/28/2010 11:58 ||
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IIRC NEWS KERALA > [Pakistan]JuD SAEED ADVOCATES WAR AGZ INDIA IFF INDIA REFUSES TO RETURN TO TALKS.
This winter has been the hottest the world has ever seen.
If that seems like a hard claim to take seriously as states across the U.S. recover from record-breaking snowfalls over the past few months (we're still shoveling show here at the D.C. office!), you're not alone -- but, say some scientists, you might be suffering from perception bias. The Daily Express over in London observes that Britons, too, are stunned by the claim at an online climate change briefing:
The remarkable claim, based on global satellite data, follows Arctic temperatures that brought snow, ice and travel chaos to millions in the UK.
At the height of the big freeze, the entire country was blanketed in snow. But Australian weather expert Professor Neville Nicholls, of Monash University in Melbourne, said yesterday: "January, according to satellite data, was the hottest January we've ever seen.
"Last November was the hottest November we've ever seen. November-January as a whole is the hottest November-January the world has seen." Veteran climatologist Professor Nicholls was speaking at an online climate change briefing, added: "It's not warming the same everywhere but it is really quite challenging to find places that haven't warmed in the past 50 years."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Wasnt there an old saying "If you're going to lie, make it a whopper".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/28/2010 0:17 Comments ||
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#3
Simple logic: The temperature inside a real greenhouse is warm and moderate--it does not have hot and cold, only warm. The moisture moderates temperature change.
Conversely, where there is little moisture, like in an arid desert, it is hot during the day, and cold at night. Little or no greenhouse effect.
The big "blanket" in our atmosphere, the thermosphere, is where most greenhouse activity happens. In the last few years, it has lost about 1/3rd of its depth, for unknown reasons, likely the solar minimum.
This means we have just the *opposite* of a greenhouse effect. This means *both* hotter summers and colder winters, and shorter Springs and Falls. Less warm moderation as is found in a greenhouse.
#6
HISTORY CHANNEL's "LIFE AFTER PEOPLE" > very good show but IMO can and should be broadly interpreted as FUTURE OWG-NWO + SCIEN PERTS are NOT sure nor in joint consensus as per PHASES, MAGNITUDE OF SOLAR CHANGES-EVOLUTIONS, HENCE DITTO FOR EFFECTS OR CONSEQUENCES FOR HUMANITY + EARTH [past, current, + future].
"SIRIUS EVENT" II, or other in past + future.
* "KNOWLEDGE IS POWER" > the more Probes NASA-JPL sends to study the Sun, the better + more accurate will be our planning + response.
* NASA-JPL + PERTS > is likely aware of this as PERT PLANS ARE IN THE WORKS TO BEGIN STUDYING VARIOUS [biotic?]"LIFE DEEP UNDERNEATH THE EARTH".
Read, NASA-JPL, PERTS,etal. WANNA STUDY THE SUN'S STRENGTH AS PER UNDERGROUND = "CRUSTAL/TECTONIC" SOLAR RAY PENETRATION FROM SPACE. US-International Studies of the EARTH'S CORE have already pre-existed for decades.
(CNN) -- Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.
Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.
The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to 11 points --
As I recall, the test as normally done has an error range of +10 points, so that would just about be within test error...
and the data should not be used to stereotype or make assumptions about people, experts say. But they show how certain patterns of identifying with particular ideologies develop, and how some people's behaviors come to be.
The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans' evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.
"The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward," said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey,
Leadership professor? Is that a new field?
who was not involved in the study. "It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people -- people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower -- are likely to be the ones to do that."
Sadly, higher intelligence too often enables one to arrive at the wrong conclusion more quickly, rather than guaranteeing one arrives at the correct one.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
If you're credulous enough to believe this cr@p, you must be a Liberal.
#5
Read the article if you wish to be confronted with shocking academic blindness. Amongst other howlers, it claims that religion does not help people survive, it helps them to 'be paranoid.'
As has been discussed here, liberalism (and atheism to a lesser extent) is shallow social signaling for the 'smarty-pants' set. The study didn't ask about predilections to authoritarianism or tyranny, which is a big moral problem in those circles, IMO.
#8
Satoshi Kanazawa, PhD (born November 16, 1962) is an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics. His research uses evolutionary psychology to analyze social sciences such as sociology, economics, and anthropology.[1] In 2003, in an article in the Journal of Research in Personality, he showed that scientists generally made their biggest discovery before their mid-30s, and compared this productivity curve to that of criminals.[2]
Loon. Commenting on the War on Terror, Kanazawa claimed that "there is one resource that our enemies have in abundance but we donÂ’t: hate. Hatred of enemies has always been a proximate emotional motive for war throughout human evolutionary history." He then offers the following thought experiment: "Imagine that, on September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers came down, the President of the United States was not George W. Bush, but Ann Coulter. What would have happened then? On September 12, President Coulter would have ordered the US military forces to drop 35 nuclear bombs throughout the Middle East, killing all of our actual and potential enemy combatants, and their wives and children. On September 13, the war would have been over and won, without a single American life lost. Yes, we need a woman in the White House, but not the one whoÂ’s running (Hillary Clinton, ed.)".[
Lunatic.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/28/2010 11:24 Comments ||
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#9
This should come as no suprise. When you survey NYC, Berkley, Hollywood, and Miami, you will find most of the smart conservative God fearing Americans have left. Leaving the Hispanic immagrants, who are mostly conservative left for the survey. This is just more bullshit from people who think they are better that the rest.
This great nation was not built on Athiest homosexual liberial ideals. This great nation was built on God fearing Conservative principles.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/28/2010 11:30 Comments ||
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#10
This great nation was not built on Athiest homosexual liberial ideals.
#11
Thats funny, cuz 9/10 liberal athiest homosexuals I came across were more concerned about finding ironic t-shirts and trendy coffee bars, then say...the implications of publishing foux studies which justify the intellectual difficiencies of those opposed to the self centered hubristic implications of naming dissenters incapable of rational thought.
.
..wait a second this sounds familiar.
#12
Nice quote there, Bobby. It seems that Dr Satoshi is a feminist in the mode of Keith Olbermann. I'm sure he gets a lot of chix with that attitude...
#14
The flaw (if you like) in this study is self identified liberal/conservative.
I'd say I was 'liberal', even though by most peoples standards I'm (very) right wing on economic issues and things like the WoT. I'm liberal on personal freedom issues.
I'd also like to see the IQ distribution. Averages can be very misleading. For example the average person has one testicle and one breast.
The study looked at a large sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which began with adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The participants were interviewed as 18- to 28-year-olds from 2001 to 2002. The study also looked at the General Social Survey, another cross-national data collection source.
Anyone not a liberal at 20 is without a heart and anyone not a conservative at 40 is without a brain. Oh, and the 20 year olds think they're immortal.
The US government's policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama's top official at the Department of Commerce.
Instead, an "Internet Policy 3.0" approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet governance.
The outcomes of such discussions will be "flexible" but may result in recommendations for legislation or regulation, Strickling said in a speech at the Media Institute in Washington this week. Let's just guess that it means more government control for the sake of 'fairness' and the 'little people' ...
The new approach is a far cry from a US government that consciously decided not to intrude into the internet's functioning and growth and in so doing allowed an academic network to turn into a global communications phenomenon.
Strickling referred to these roots arguing that it was "the right policy for the United States in the early stages of the Internet, and the right message to send to the rest of the world." But, he continued, "that was then and this is now. As we at NTIA approach a wide range of Internet policy issues, we take the view that we are now in the third generation of Internet policy making."
Outlining three decades of internet evolution - from transition to commercialization, from the garage to Main Street, and now, starting in 2010, the "Policy 3.0" approach - Strickling argued that with the internet is now a social network as well a business network. "We must take rules more seriously."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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i am sure this admin would never abuse this or misuse it's power to bully outlets that refuse to tow the line on their agenda.... not
Posted by: abu do you love ||
02/28/2010 0:15 Comments ||
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This makes perfect sense. They have ruined the rest of the economy. They have sunk their fingers into every other aspect of our lives, it makes sense they would want to screw up the Internet, too.
#3
I guess the internet has routed around this kind of damage before. It's no surprise that Obama's crew is behind this (complete with tin ear) and not those evil fascists who worked for Booosh.
#4
The bottom line is that the Internet has created unparalleled freedom of expression and ideas around the world, and so it is bitterly opposed by every villain, brute, tyrant, and control freak, who will not rest until it is so disabled as to be useless.
Since their very zeitgeist is wrapped up in what they are, like Inspector Javert, they can either destroy the Internet or commit suicide. They choose the former.
#5
Well, look at all the other countries who have laid the light touch of government on the Internet - China, Iran, Libya, that country that used to be Burma, and -- do they have computers in North Korea?.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/28/2010 11:12 Comments ||
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Because there in not one single aspect of individual liberty, especially free speech, that this bunch of social*st bastar*s don't want to control, especially the part about dissent.
Barry now understands that talk radio and the internet, not broadcast media, is the last bastion of freedom and the powerful forces opposing his BS. Since Fox is limited to cable and a relatively small section of the populace who were going for Barry anyway, it has an effect but they have been somewhat able to contain it. And with Fox getting successful they are going more cautious, giving voice to Dem spokesjerks like Juan Williams and that fat jerk Hannity keeps bringing on.
So regulate the internet, go for censorship guised as fairnes doctrine part 2, and opposition diminishes.
#7
Fox getting successful they are going more cautious, giving voice to Dem spokesjerks like Juan Williams and that fat jerk Hannity keeps bringing on. NoMoreBS
Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Professor, Author, Speaker, Public Intellectual.... is my alltime personal fav.
#8
Bob Beckel is likely the "fat jerk" referred to. He's great as he doesn't change a single GOP or Conservative mind, and is so obnoxious he likely turns off even the Donks and Independents who watch. I saw the one where his brother, actor and much more conservative, went at it. Graham kicked his ass
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/28/2010 16:56 Comments ||
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PhD. Marc LaMont Hill, Prof of Adv. Urban Studies, is very cute and has a great smile!!
Apparently not a jihadi attack but linked to the ongoing political struggle there.
A bomb has exploded in front of the Bangkok Bank's headquarters, but no one was injured or killed, media reports have said.
Police said a grenade exploded outside the building of Thailand's biggest bank, shattering the windows and doors but causing no casualties. A second unexploded grenade was found at another Bangkok Bank branch in the capital and removed by police, authorities said.
Saturday's explosion follows a Supreme Court decision on Friday to confiscate $1.4bn of frozen bank assets belonging to Thaksin Shinawatra, the country's former prime minister, and his family on charges of abuse of power during his dual premiership between 2001 and 2006.
Thaksin expressed disappointment with the verdict and vowed to fight back against the court order. "I haven't received justice and I will not give up," he said in a statement, pledging to continue a non-violent struggle for democracy and justice. "I will seek justice in every way and every opportunity possible."
The nine judges in Thailand's supreme court said on Friday that Thaksin, who was forced from power by a coup in 2006, had used his position as premier to the benefit of his Shin Corp telecoms company. The court said that Thaksin had concealed shares in Shin Corp and geared several government telecom policies to favour the company.
Thailand froze $2.3bn of Thaksin's assets after he was forced from power and convicted of graft in absentia. It was not immediately clear if the remaining assets, which the court found had been accumulated by Thaksin before he became prime minister, would be returned to him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2010 00:00 ||
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In the lobby of the University of Texas at San Antonio's humanities building, a hand-drawn poster announces, "Free porn: Just trade in your holy books (Bible, Koran, Vedas) for porn."
A student group at the university called The Atheist Agenda is reviving its Bibles-for-porn program, called "Smut for Smut," for three days beginning March 1, according to a report from San Antonio's KENS-TV.
"The idea is that religious texts are so appalling," said Atheist Agenda group member Brian Talker in a 2006 interview with UTSA student publication The Independent. "They are so full of genocide, misogyny and ludicrous ideas that far overshadow any banal common-sense platitudes like loving thy neighbor, that you are better off having porn, which isn't nearly as smutty."
A current member of the group told KENS the program is also meant as a slap against religious leaders and the "hypocrisy" of their condemnations of pornography.
"They've been going and rallying against pornography for the longest time," the unidentified student said, "and the disgusting, depraved acts that are within the Bible, Koran and Vedas completely outnumber any [faults] of any pornographic image."
Find out how corruption is "packaged, perfumed and marketed" to us as good and wholesome. The culture-war classic "The Marketing of Evil" is now available as a 4-disc AUDIOBOOK read by the author, David Kupelian!
Other students, however, have expressed outrage.
"As a Christian myself, I just take offense to it," one student told the TV station.
"Did they really do that?" asked another. "It kinda made me want to cry, it really did."
University officials have stated that the controversy over the poster and program boils down to protected freedom of speech.
UTSA spokesman David Gabler told KENS, "We are a marketplace of free ideas here at UTSA, and our students have all [the] constitutional rights afforded to all individuals in the United States."
The Atheist Agenda, founded by students in 2005, launched its first Smut for Smut program in December of that year.
The then-president of The Atheist Agenda, Thomas Jackson, told MSNBC he thought the swap program presented a fair trade:
"Well, first of all, you know, pornography gets a lot of negative press, and it's smut. A lot of it really is," Jackson said. "And we wanted to make the comparison between that and the smut that is religious scripture, or a lot of it, you know. The stuff that says a woman is worth half a man, the things that say, you know, you should beat children.
"These things aren't acceptable in our society," he continued, "and if pornography is not acceptable, then these things surely aren't. At the very least, what we're doing is trading something that's very, very bad for something that's only moderately bad."
In its first Smut for Smut campaign, the San Antonio Express News reports, the atheist group avoided legal problems by placing the explicit magazines in envelopes and storing them in a box under a table. Students also checked IDs to ensure recipients were 18 or older and gave instructions not to view the material in the commons area.
Also in 2005, a rival Christian group established their own booth across the plaza from The Atheist Agenda and offered materials denouncing negative effects of pornography use.
This year, opposing signs have been posted in the same campus lobby, immediately next to the "free porn" poster, and KESN reports websites rallying against the program have already drawn thousands of members. Ya know...if they actually mentioned the Koran as well, I wouldn't have any criticism at all of their efforts, free speech and all...
#3
I think trading Bibles for pron is a great idea! Those with too many Bibles really nead some pron, and those with too much pron could really use a Bible.
The United States is guaranteed 37 medals and Canada will finish with at least 13 gold medals. Both are the best of these games and part of the greatest hauls ever at a Winter Olympics.
The Americans will leave with the most medals by any country at any Winter Games. They also will win the medal count for only the second time, the other being at Lake Placid in 1932.
(More details at Source)
AP-(02-28-2010)
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
02/28/2010 09:28 ||
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This is bad statistics. Given the sports they've added in the last few Olympics, you'd need to double the medal count for this to be meaningful. Snow-cross? Parallel giant slalom? Curling? Come to think of it, let's keep the curling. Just fire the people in charge of the US Curling Federation.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/28/2010 14:09 Comments ||
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Eric - Somehow I don't think the Russians would agree with you.
#3
Enjoy watching curling, kinda a giant game of (table) shuffleboard. Olympic sport...well...
On the other side of the coin, a liberal friend doesn't think the biathelon is an olympic sport, "They need guns in order to get people to watch?" Cannot explain that the sport used to be called Going to the Grocery Store.
It's like the stories you see every so often about how the movie X became the highest-grossing film of all time. But how much did X make adjusted for inflation? Compare with Gone With the Wind.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/28/2010 22:50 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who says he is prepared to run in elections against President Hosni Mubarak, told AFP on Saturday that political change is the only way to avoid unrest in Egypt.
This winter has been the hottest the world has ever seen.
CNN) -- Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.
The US government's policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama's top official at the Department of Commerce.
