The 7-foot-tall metal cross that has stood in California's Mojave Desert for 75 years and withstood a hard-fought battle in the Supreme Court was ripped down and stolen Sunday night, according to state officials.
"This is an outrage, akin to desecrating people's graves," said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Institute, which represents the caretakers of the Mojave Desert War Memorial. "It's a disgraceful attack on the selfless sacrifice of our veterans. We will not rest until this memorial is re-installed."
The National Park Service says someone cut the metal bolts holding the metal-pipe cross to the top of Sunrise Rock and made off with it Sunday night or before dawn on Monday.
Veterans groups are outraged at the theft of the memorial symbol that was erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars to honor World War I dead.
"To think anyone can rationalize the desecration of a war memorial is sickening, and for them to believe they won't be apprehended is very naïve," said VFW National Commander Thomas J. Tradewell Sr. in a written statement.
The 75-year-old monument was the target of a legal challenge from the ACLU, which charged the cross is a religious symbol that shouldn't be allowed on public land. The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to order that it be torn down, as the land had already been sold to private owners.
#2
Put another one up, make it a federal monument, find who did it.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/11/2010 13:15 Comments ||
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#3
My relatives are crying out from the grave. I will contribute to whatever fund there is, to replace this symbol. Those in whose honor this was erected, gave their all for this country, those who destroy it have no idea of the cost. It will be replaced, 7 times 70 if necessary.
#4
It needs to be rebuilt, larger, stronger, and with some sensors hidden about it. Imagine the surprise of the vandals, waking up in northern Mexico, far from the border. With no ID. Or money. Or shoes.
#6
#4 It needs to be rebuilt, larger, stronger, and with some sensors hidden about it. Imagine the surprise of the vandals, waking up in northern Mexico, far from the border. With no ID. Or money. Or shoes.
I like it 'moose, but, maybe a perimeter 100KvA bolt-removal actuated underground zapper should be included with the replacement?
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. -- A Colorado man who claimed he was trying to defend himself from a mugger when he shot himself in the groin was convicted of illegal discharge of a firearm. "Owwwwowwwwwowwww!"
"Is that your pee-pee?"
"Owwww... Yeah. Don't step on it, okay?"
Investigators said there was no evidence to substantiate David Leroy Blurton's self-defense claim, and jurors convicted the 50-year-old on Wednesday. The shooting happened at the parking of a grocery store in Dillon, Colo., on May 2009. Prosecutors said Blurton had been drinking.
Jurors also convicted Blurton of "prohibited use of a weapon -- drunk with a gun" and reckless endangerment.
Prosecutors said they will request that Blurton be sentenced to probation.
Blurton maintained that someone hit him in the back of the head and he was trying to defend himself.
Posted by: ed ||
05/11/2010 0:42 Comments ||
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#2
I second that ED wonder if they charged that DEA agent quite a few years back for shooting himself in the foot while teaching a class about firearms.
Posted by: chris ||
05/11/2010 1:03 Comments ||
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#3
as long as he dont bring his guns to town no more
#4
For some reason, it reminds me of the story of a young man who decided to siphon gasoline from an RV, but chose the wrong tank.
The police arrived at the call of the RV owner, to find the thief curled up in the fetal position, covered with his own vomit. An illustration of the event just showed the RV owner and a cop laughing.
05/2010 PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > [India]DEOBAND FATWA: ITS IS ILLEGAL IN SHARIA FOR WOMEN TO WORK, SUPPORT THEIR FAMILY. IIUC, SHARIA RESTRICTIONS applies to PUBLIC, PRIVATE-SECTOR WORKPLACES WHERE WOMEN CAN, MAY, OR OTHERWISE ARE ALLOWED TO CONVERSE WID MEN IN NORMAL PERSONAL + PROFESSIONAL CONVERSATION.
ARTIC > DARUL ULOOM DEOBAND = is "self-appointed" Guardian for INDIAN MUSLIMS.
Also denoted in ARTIC > SHIA CLERIC MUFTI MAULANA KALBAT JAWWAD, whom says"WOMEN IN ISLAM ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GO OUT + EARN ALIVING, OR IN ALTERN MAY BE ALLOWED TO WORK BY THEIR MALE MUSLIM RELATIONS AS LONG AS STRICT SHARIA RESTRICTIONS ARE NOT COMPROMISED. OR NULLED.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Morocco this month despite calls from the country's main Islamic party for the gay star to be banned, organizers said Monday.
Artistic director Aziz Daki told AFP that cancelling the concert on the grounds of John's homosexuality would "undermine the respect of privacy" and "breach certain values that the international Mawazine festival is based on."
Morocco's main opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party had called Friday for the singer to be banned from the festival in Rabat, arguing his appearance would pose "a risk of encouraging homosexuality in Morocco."
"At the Mawazine festival we invite artists on the basis of the quality of their performance on stage and according to their artistic career", Daki said, adding that John is "one of the world's top pop singers and composers."
He has "many fans in Morocco", the artistic director added, and "his private life is none of our business."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
what about "Judy", his private alter ego? Without Burqa?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/11/2010 20:48 Comments ||
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#2
Wouldn't it be funny if he went on stage obviously drunk and began his concert with this song?:
[Maghrebia] Libyans are giving mixed reviews to a call by Saif al-Islam al-Kadhafi to draft a constitution, with some voicing support and others scepticism.
The younger Kadhafi, whose father has ruled Libya for over 40 years, is widely seen as one of Libya's most prominent advocates of openness. He made his call for a constitution on May 5th while speaking at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
"The constitution is vitally important to realise prosperity in Libya. Therefore, the country has to speed up its steps towards reforming its administrative system," he said.
"We have to seriously and extensively review our way of government," he added. "This is the first priority."
There has been no constitution in Libya since the proclamation of the "people's authority", which according to the elder Kadhafi's Green Book bans the setting up of parties or the election of law-makers or a president under the rationale that "the people" alone should govern themselves.
The younger Kadhafi told attendees at the AUC event, who included Libyan expatriates and high-ranking officials in Egypt: "[W]e have neither a constitution in Libya, nor any form of political culture, nor community participation. There has been a history of lack of trust in the central leadership, and no one can resist the military rule in Libya."
"We are in need of a competent government. Our problem in Libya is competence. We have started from scratch and we'll soon have local administrations and municipalities," he added.
The younger Kadhafi acknowledged that "civil society in Libya is very weak" and that "one of the most important challenges we are now facing in Libya is how to build a strong civil society that works for the service of the country".
Libyan businessman Khalid Buraei said that the call for a constitution "is a good step". "We hope that [the constitution] will find its way towards implementation in the hopes that it will put an end to the chaos that the country is experiencing," he said. "We trust in [Kadhafi's] intention."
Journalist and rights activist Khalid Mohammed Mehiri said, "This is not the first call, and won't be the last."
"The street no longer believes these empty words," he added. "How can he talk about a constitution while the country is on its way into an abyss?"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] With lethal weapons including choppers, machetes and axes, two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League clashed with each other in presence of police at Jagannath University yesterday that left at least 20 people injured.
Six female students and a female teacher of geography and environment department also received injuries while running helter-skelter during the clash, witnesses said.
Sources said the clash ensued between supporters of university unit BCL President Kamrul Hasan Ripon and General Secretary Gazi Abu Sayeed over establishing supremacy on the campus.
The two factions were locked in the hour-long clash when several hundred students were demonstrating on the campus demanding amendment of section 27(4) of Jagannath University Act, 2005. The section says the university has to be run with its own income after 2013.
Kamrul group first attacked on their rival group at the geography department around 11:15 am following slapping an activist of Kamrul group over joining the demonstration.
At one stage, supporters of Gazi group launched a counter attack on their rivals, triggering sporadic clashes on the campus.
Chases and counter chases between the two groups with sharp weapons, sticks, brickbats created panic among the thousands of students that also disrupted classes at different departments for several hours, campus sources said.
Police played the role of silent spectators for around half an hour during the clash and after that they tried to control the situation, witnesses said.
Katwali police picked up two students--Babul of mathematics and Mamun of statistics departments--in connection with the violence and released them in the afternoon.
The injured persons have been given treatment at different hospitals in the city.
Refuting the allegation of their inactivity during the clash, OC of the police station Mohammad Salahuddin said police brought the situation under control.
Proctor of the university Kazi Asaduzzaman told The Daily Star that a four-member probe committee with Dr Hasna Hena as its convener has been formed to identify people involved in the clash. He warned of action against those who will be found guilty.
Additional police have been deployed on the campus to avoid further clash.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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* ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > BANGLADESH WALKS ON A STRATEGIC TIGHTROPE [vee CHINA-VS-INDJUH-VS-PAK Regional Geopolx, most espec CHIN + INDIA]; + DHAKA SEEKS INTERNATIONAL SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR NON-NUCLEAR STATES.
A man who carried out a horrific acid attack on a 25-year-old over his intimate relationship with a married woman was facing a life sentence today.
Awais Akram was left severely disfigured after he was targeted in revenge for his liaison with businesswoman Sadia Khatoon, whom he met on Facebook.
When her husband and family found out, they got Ms Khatoon, 24, to lure the victim out of his flat, where concentrated sulphuric acid was poured over his head.
Posted by: ed ||
05/11/2010 00:15 ||
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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday he would step down this year, sacrificing himself to give his Labor Party a chance of forming a government with the smaller Liberal Democrats.
The Lib Dems are already being courted by the Conservatives, who did best in an election last week. But Brown said in a statement in front of his official residence at 10 Downing Street that the Lib Dems now wanted to talk to Labor too.
The center-right Conservatives, led by David Cameron, won most seats in parliament but fell short of a majority.
Labor, in power since 1997, came second and the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg, a distant third. It is the first time since 1974 that a British election has put no party in overall control.
Brown's announcement could make it easier for Labor to lure the Lib Dems away from the Conservatives, since Clegg had signaled strongly during the election campaign that he did not wish to keep the unpopular Brown, 59, in office.
"Mr Clegg has just informed me that while he intends to continue his dialogue that he has begun with the Conservatives, he now wishes also to take forward formal discussions with the Labor Party," Brown said, adding that he would facilitate that.
"I have no desire to stay in my position longer than is needed," Brown said.
"As leader of my party I must accept that that (the election result) is a judgment on me. I therefore intend to ask the Labor Party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
It's looking increasingly likely that instead of a Con-Lib pact, or a Tory minority government, we'll get a Coalition of the Losers, ie the self-styled 'progressives' led by a zombie husk Labour, with the Lib Dems riding pillion and calling the shots, and all the tiny regional and loopy midget parties cheering along behind in a conga line. With the dumbstruck Tories comprising almost the entire opposition, on their own.
If that sounds stupid, it's because it is. And if it happens, the best we could hope for would be another election, very quickly.
#2
"I have no desire to stay in my position longer than is needed," Brown said.
You should never have been in that position Mr Brown, you were never elected by the people
Fully agree with your assessment Bulldog . Its a mess and Browns decision to step down only compounds the problem .
As a think tank has suggested , Cameron fell short of an overall majority by about 16,000 votes , I think there should be a fair and transparent look in to why some overseas and postal voters didnt receive the chance to vote.
Also it is worth noting that Clegg said he would speak to the Tories first about a possible deal (which he has), saying that the party which won "the most seats and the most votes" would have the "moral right" to seek to form a government, either on its own or in coalition.
Posted by: Oscar ||
05/11/2010 3:28 Comments ||
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#3
So we're now in a situation in future elections in which either Labour wins enough seats to govern on its own, or it fails to - but governs anyway with the cooperation of the Lib-Dems and minor parties, which are all further left.
Paradoxically, that actually means the better Conservatives do, the further left the eventual government will be, because Labour will have to lean more heavily on Lib-Dem support.
Stupidly, what would be in the best interests of the Conservatives, Labour and the country would be a Conservative government supported by the rightmost wing of the Labour party. But they're so locked into their two-big-parties-in-mortal-opposition mindset that that would be impossible. And it might fracture the Labour party anyway.
So, left wing government forever (or until the inevitable collapse), then? At least the Conservatives may realise that their only hope is to abandon centrist squishiness and chasing after Labour votes, and instead loudly proclaim strong conservative principles and hope enough voters eventually listen and are converted. They have nothing left to lose. And while they can't win, they want to lose big enough to minimise the harmful influence of the Lib-Dems.
#4
Ironically the best assessment/damnation of the Lib-Lab-Looney proposed Pact I've yet seen is here, being made dy a former Labour Big Beast. Well said, John Reid.
#5
The BBC are claiming the nightmare scenario (my opinion, not theirs) of a Lib/Lab coalition is now dead in the water. Labour aren't mad enough to go along with the mad Lib Dems, so the Tories will probably have that pleasure. Unless they can escape the harlots' grip and go it alone.
Good grief, this election's been a horror, and the bitter medicine of fiscal discipline is still in the cupboard.
#6
This is extremely interesting in the same way those CSI shows are interesting: like a horrid, morbid car crash. My sympathies to our British cousins.
PARIS -- President Obama had just flown into Hampton, Va., Sunday morning to deliver a commencement address. But before he donned his silky academic robes, he was on the phone with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, offering urgent advice -- and some not so subtle prodding -- that Europe needed to try something big.
Weeks of hesitant half-steps to address Greece's debt problems had only worsened market worries about the euro, and were threatening the still-fragile economic recoveries in the United States and Asia. Now, Mr. Obama told Mrs. Merkel that the Europeans needed an overwhelming financial rescue to end speculation that the euro -- and European unity -- could crumble
"He was trying to convey that he knew these were politically difficult steps that the leaders there had to take, that he had gone through them as well," said one senior administration official familiar with the conversation. "And that, from his experience, trying to get out ahead as much as possible was the right way to go."
That call was part of what a senior Treasury Department official called "one long conversation" with European leaders, who over an extraordinary weekend of late nights and early mornings overcame German resistance and agreed to a wholesale expansion of the bloc's political and financial mission. Bending the rules, they backed the stability of all 16 countries that use the euro with loan guarantees adding up to nearly $1 trillion.
In the process, the European Union, under crisis conditions, moved fitfully toward more centralization, toward a French vision of an economic government for the region. It is a role not totally unlike the one that the federal government in the United States played during the early stages of the financial crisis in 2008. Oh yes, the highly successful "French vision." Shame it is, Barry can't spend a bit more time exploring solutions for our own financial mess. More at the link.
#1
And in the process of nudging Merkel he managed to get her to lose her party's majority, thereby ensuring a more left wing German govt soon (possibly).
[Al Arabiya Latest] The veteran leader of Turkey's main secular opposition party resigned on Monday, saying he was the victim of a conspiracy following the release of a videotape on the Internet purporting to show him and a woman in a bedroom.
"This is not a sex tape, this is a conspiracy....Those who were behind this conspiracy did it for political aims," Deniz Baykal, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), told a news conference.
"I am resigning from the CHP chairmanship. But my resignation does not mean that I am giving in or running away from this conspiracy. On the contrary, it is a challenge," he added.
The short video, posted on the Internet late Thursday, showed intimate bedroom images, shot with a hidden camera, allegedly of the 71-year-old leader and a woman lawmaker from the CHP.
During the press conference, Baykal did not openly admit to or deny an affair.
The resignation of Deniz Baykal, a fierce critic of the ruling Islamist-leaning AK Party, comes as his secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) has pledged to block plans by the government to hold a referendum on constitutional reforms.
"This kind of illegal activity carried out on the leader of the main opposition party could not have been done without the knowledge of the government," Baykal said.
"If this has a price, and that price is the resignation from CHP leadership, I am ready to pay it. My resignation does not mean running away, or giving in," Baykal said. "On the contrary, it means that I'm fighting it."
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is preparing to call a national referendum on constitutional reforms to overhaul the judiciary and make the army answerable to civilian courts, changes he says are needed to meet European Union entry demands.
Secularist critics say the reforms are a furtive attempt by the AK Party to seize control of all levers of state and undermine Turkey's secularist constitution.
Baykal had said the CHP will appeal to the Constitutional Court to block any referendum, which Erdogan wants to hold in July after winning parliamentary approval last week.
"The target of this conspiracy is not just one person, but the struggle of the CHP...to uphold the republic, democracy and the rule of law," charged Baykal, a vocal critic of the government.
Baykal's resignation comes just two weeks before a party congress when he was expected to seek a fresh mandate as the CHP leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION WAFF > ARE SCUDS [Armenian] AIMING AT ANATOLIA [Turkey]?
[ADN Kronos] Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused of genocide and war crimes, told the United Nations Yugoslav war crimes tribunal on Monday that humanitarian convoys were used to smuggle weapons to Muslims during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
"Everything was smuggled through these convoys - weapons, military equipment, cameras, food," Karadzic said, cross-examining prosecution witness David Harland.
Karadzic said Bosnian Serb forces stopped only a few convoys, but accused Muslim officials of storing away humanitarian aid and selling it at black market.
Harland, who served with international peacekeepers (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia from 1993 to 1995, said Karadzic's accusations were "absolutely false.''
"The things you mention were never seen in the hands of Muslims soldiers," Harland said.
"There were criminal elements among Muslim authorities, but it was Serbs who cut and reduced humanitarian aid for the suffering population," Harland said. "We knew that food was partly being diverted to black market and to the Bosnian army, but you were robbing the convoys," Harland retorted.
Pressed by Karadzic, Harland conceded that 10,000 humanitarian flights landed at Sarajevo airport during the war and only few were stopped. "I think that at the beginning of the war one plane was shot down and that it was done by (Bosnian) Croats," said Harland, who is the sixth of 410 prosecution witnesses, said.
Harland acknowledged that some peacekeepers were involved in black marketing food and oil from humanitarian aid, mentioning in particular the Ukrainian contingent.
He conceded that weapons were being smuggled by Muslims to UN protected zones, which were supposed to be demilitarized. "Yes, there had been significant weapons shipments," he said. "UNPROFOR had banned flights over Bosnia, but it was easy for short distance helicopter flights to avoid it." Harland said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Justice Sair Ali of the Supreme Court on Monday distanced himself from hearing an appeal filed by Mukhtaran Mai of Muzaffargarh against the acquittal of her accused.
A three-member bench of the apex court was due to Mukhtaran's plea.
However, Justice Sair Ali dissociated himself from the bench by saying that he was part of the Lahore High Court's bench who acquitted the accused of this case.
On this, the court put off the hearing till May 24.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations' public health arm, is moving full speed ahead with a controversial plan to impose global consumer taxes on such things as Internet activity and everyday financial transactions like paying bills online while its spending soars and its own financial house is in disarray.
The aim of its taxing plans is to raise "tens of billions" of dollars for WHO that would be used to radically reorganize the research, development, production and distribution of medicines around the world, with greater emphasis on drugs for communicable diseases in poor countries.
The irony is that the WHO push to take a huge bite out of global consumers comes as the organization is having a management crisis of its own, juggling finances, failing to use its current resources efficiently, or keep its costs under control and it doesn't expect to show positive results in managing those challenges until a year from now, at the earliest.
Fox News initially reported last January on the "suite of proposals" for "new and innovative sources of funding," prepared by a 25-member panel of medical experts, academics and health care bureaucrats, when it was presented of a meeting of WHO's 34-member Executive Board in Geneva.
Now the proposals are headed for the four-day annual meeting of the 193-member World Health Assembly, WHO's chief legislative organ, which begins in Geneva on May 17.
The Health Assembly, a medical version of the United Nations General Assembly, will be invited to "take note" of the experts' report. It will then head back with that passive endorsement to another Executive Board meeting, which begins May 22, for further action. It is the Executive Board that will "give effect" to the Assembly's decisions.
What it all means is that a major lobbying effort could soon be underway to convince rich governments in particular to begin taxing citizens or industries to finance a drastic restructuring of medical research and development on behalf of poorer ones.
The scheme would leave WHO in the middle, helping to manage a "global health research and innovation coordination and funding mechanism," as the experts' report calls it.
In effect, the plan amounts to a pharmaceutical version of the U.N.-sponsored climate-change deal that failed to win global approval at Copenhagen last December. If implemented as the experts suggest, it could easily involve the same kind of wealth transfers as the failed Copenhagen summit, which will send $30 billion a year to poor nations, starting this year.
The WHO strategy involves a wide variety of actions to transfer "pharmaceutical-related technology," and its production, along with intellectual property rights, to developing countries, according to a condensed "global strategy and plan of action" also being presented to the World Health Assembly.
Regional "networks for innovation" would be cultivated across the developing world, and some regions, such as Africa, would be encouraged to develop technology to exploit "traditional medicines."
According to the condensed plan of action being presented to the Assembly, a number of those initiatives are already well under way.
#1
This is bad ...real bad.
And of course 0bama will totally go for it.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
05/11/2010 1:03 Comments ||
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#2
BILYUHNS AND SILYUHNS AND FILYUHNS AND....Before CARL SAGAN, there was 1960's-1970's GUAM.
* ION NEWS KERALA > [Bammer Admin] US TO AMEND/REVISE "MIRANDA" RIGHTS FOR EFFECTIVE INTERROGATION [Terror suspects].
Besides JOE LIEBERMAN repor introducing Congressional Legislation to take away the US CITIZENSHIP OF THOSE ENGAGED IN TERROR AGZ US, as repor SUPPORTED NU NANCY PELOSI.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > LeT MADE THREE ATTEMPTS TO KILL/ASSASSINATE KASAB [26/11 Mumbai attack], to include collusion wid INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN Cadres + activ SLEEPER CELLS to carry out anti-KASAB KILL-OP???
#4
So destroying the economy and retarding communications so a bunch of unproductive bureaucrats can extort their way to a life of luxury is a bad thing?
#5
Now that carbon trading is rapidly 'going up in smoke', the UN is looking for new global taxes to line the pockets and stuff the bank accounts of the third world kleptocrats who run it.
#6
Hehe, nice one Bright Pebbles , my sentiments exactly
Posted by: Oscar ||
05/11/2010 5:04 Comments ||
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#7
BTW, WHO doesn't actually do anything, except 'co-ordinate', which is UNspeak for extracting bribes and commisions while generally impeding the useful work of others.
Public sector elites haven't gotten it yet. If the producers are making less, we can't give more.
Try all your tricks and schemes if you will. You only delay the inevitable.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/11/2010 5:50 Comments ||
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#9
Regional "networks for innovation" would be cultivated across the developing world, and some regions, such as Africa, would be encouraged to develop technology to exploit "traditional medicines."
Will a tax placed on the "Tokoloshe" sent by our Sangomas (traditional healers) be levied on us as well, or will this come in a later version?
#15
I guess we can look forward to another summit where our leadership bashes the US and assumes ultimate responsibility for all global health issues while begging other, smarter, world leaders to follow suit. China and India didn't go for emission controls; let's see if they go for this.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/11/2010 13:35 Comments ||
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#18
They can call all they want. Each national government would have to vote to tax themselves for that purpose, and even before Greece got interesting that was not likely.
#4
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > CIA DRONES CAN NOW HIT WIDER RANGE OF TARGETS IN PAKISTAN
[expanded list of LR STRIKE/ASSASSINAT-BY-HELLFIRE]. NOT being a Militant Patrol-Team-Group Leader, etc. is no excuse to miss your righteous Appt. wid DEATH = the APACHE, COBRA, SPECTRE, A-10 or the UAVS.
BP blames the blowout preventer, to halt the blowout once it started. A different account comes from Halliburton, a contractor in the drilling. This account is corroborated to some extent by Transocean, as well as by two workers on the drilling rig, The Wall Street Journal has determined.
This account describes a failure to place a cement plug within the well. The plug is designed to prevent gas from escaping up the pipe to the surface. Well just hold off on that until after the well-completion party!
Before such a plug is placed, the job of keeping underground gas from coming up the pipe is done by heavy drilling fluid inside the well, commonly known as "mud." The plug is normally put in before the mud is removed, but according to the account of Halliburton, Transocean and the two workers, in this case, that wasn't donedrilling mud was removed before a final cement plug was placed in the well.
It is not clear why such a decision would have been made. Rig owner Transocean says that BP, as owner of the well that was just being completed, made key decisions on how to proceed. BP declined to comment on this account of the drilling procedures.
Tim Probert, Halliburton's president of global business lines, plans to testify Tuesday that his company had finished an earlier step, cementing the casing, filling in the area between the pipe and the walls of the well; pressure tests showed the casing had been properly constructed, he will testify.
At this point it is common practice to pour wet cement concrete or grout down into the pipe. The wet cement, which is heavier than the drilling mud, sinks down through the drilling mud and then hardens into a plug thousands of feet down in the well. The mud then is removed and displaced by seawater; the hardened cement plug holds back any underground gas. "Mud" is at least twice as heavy as seawater and concrete nearly three times as dense. But you have to have a big column of it to hold back the pressure from below.
In this case, a decision was made, shortly before the explosion, to perform the remaining tasks in reverse order, according to the expected Senate testimony of Mr. Probert, the Halliburton executive. I'm waiting for the Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division report.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/11/2010 13:38 ||
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#2
"The evil reach of Halliburton is in the Gulf. When something goes awfully, terribly wrong wouldnt you know that Little Dick cheney's greasy fingers are all over it."
A comment from an aquaintance.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/11/2010 13:59 Comments ||
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#3
Sooner or later we're going to have to start a numbering scheme for all the "what went wrong" theories going around.
#4
This as not a rare order of events, and only becomes a failure after other things fail. It is a bit of a 'short cut', but last I knew, a legal and generally accepted one. Count on that changing (horse, barn door etc.)
Minor correction to the writer: the cement is not 'poured' into the pipe: it is pumped through the drill pipe and out the end of it at the depth the base of cement is intended, where typically a 'bridge plug' (a piece of hardware) was set shortly before. The cement is then 'spotted' over perhaps a 500' long stretch of the well, then flushed out of the drill pipe, allowed to harden, and finally the heavy mud still in the hole above the new cement plug is replaced with a lighter weight fluid. Two reasons: 1) cement is TOO dense and it could exert too much pressure on the bottom of the well and cause it to split, with the cement leaking out into the rock, and leaving areas uncemented up the column, 2) it is intended to be a temporary plug, to be drilled out later when the well would be completed for production.
#2
I find it interesting that our exotic 'fighting equipment' is also so useful, maybe essential, at delivering humanitarian aid in places like Haiti and tsunami-damaged areas.
#3
If this vehicle was manned by SEIU Union crews, built in Chicago and/or delivered Welfare Checks the project would be approved by Congress with a voice vote.
#4
One huge problem is the cost of $20M each. That's 4-5X the cost of a Bradley or Abrams. The service wants to buy about 573 EFVs to carry Marines and another 67 to be used as communications-and-control vehicles. Program procurement costs will be about $9.5 billion, Moore said. The total program costs, he acknowledged, could be as high as $13 billion. He hopes to shave the unit costs by millions of dollars per copy.
And no matter how fast or capable, any man-portable guided weapon will sink it when it is the most defenseless, same as the AAV-7. Technology may have superseded the armored amphibious assault.
Posted by: ed ||
05/11/2010 14:58 Comments ||
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#5
One huge problem is the cost of $20M each. That's 4-5X the cost of a Bradley or Abrams.
Hmm. Good point. I wonder if they have experimented with sending 4-5X as many Bradleys or Abrams off the ship to see how many will make it to shore. ;-)
And no matter how fast or capable, any man-portable guided weapon will sink it when it is the most defenseless, same as the AAV-7. Technology may have superseded the armored amphibious assault.
Gotta start somewhere. Their job isn't to be invulnerable, it's to help establish a beachhead against a bunch of folks who don't know when or where they're going to be invaded. These things travel about 50knots/hour over water. They can take off from the ship land anywhere within about 100 miles before the bad guys can even mobilize. And even if they could, could they actually get there before the EFV? Nope. You don't position the ship so this is a problem. And you can do it at night too, if I know the Marines!
IOW: The bad guys don't stand much of a chance unless they have a well-developed military, which is not the kind of war we will be fighting with these.
#6
The reason the cost/vehicle keeps going up is the production orders keep shrinking. The R&D costs get spread over a smaller and smaller number of vehicles. If we were producing them like Bradleys or Abrams, they would cost 1/10 of what they do now.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/11/2010 19:34 Comments ||
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#7
I disagree gorb. Any ship that comes within 100 miles of a 2nd or 3rd world coast will be targeted by antiship missiles fired on radar bearings. No commander is going to risk loosing a bunch of 1000-3000 man ships. Even then 100 miles is much too far for an amphib assault, the EFV will run out of fuel way before then. More like 25 miles at which time the task force will be under visual observation/targeting.
And even if they could, could they actually get there before the EFV? Nope.
Men in civilian cars and ice cream trucks (for the dead civvie propaganda) can move a heck of a lot faster, assuming there isn't already a welcoming party waiting for the Marines behind the beach.
Given the EFV speed is 25 knots, that means an EFV will be in range of a short range AT missile like the Javelin for over 3 minutes. That's probably enough for one 2 man crew to target 6-8 EFVs. They would be in range of a longer range missile, like Kornet for 7 minutes. Way too vulnerable and to lose 20 men at a pop.
How many EFVs could an MEU deploy? 15-20? Enough for a platoon of antitank troops to hit them all several times before they ever make it to shore.
Posted by: ed ||
05/11/2010 20:47 Comments ||
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#8
Gents, they were not developed to throw into the teeth of an Operation Neptune style assault. The beauty about OMFTS - operational maneuver from the Sea and Over the Horizon technology is that you can pick the peice of real estate on the coastline of your choosing. Any country w/a coastline can do very little to mass entire military in order to defend every part of that coastline. Seapower 21 - which is the navy/USMC 21st century capstone concept makes the ability to seabase off shore a very real possibility. By marrying up ESG- expeditionary strike groups w/ARG - amphibious ready group you have a lot of maneuver and a whole lot of punch. EFVs are prolly the victim of the acquisitions snafu process and development but are a good concept - I will remind you Siskorsky prolly heard much of the same thing when he came up w/his crazy invention.
#10
Any country w/a coastline can do very little to mass entire military in order to defend every part of that coastline. The Euros used to have that problem protecting themselves from Vikings.
#11
That is assuming that someone will be there waiting for them to land, without pre-assault units already on the beach, and no air or fire support.
That is true. But if you have that much control of the beach, you can also drive up LCVPs and LSTs. The problem with the mobile antitank crews is they can hide anywhere - buildings, trees, debris, and unlike armored vehicles, easy to hide from sensors.
Posted by: ed ||
05/11/2010 21:01 Comments ||
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#12
When was our last amphibious landing? When will we do another? What is the fully loaded cost of amphibious delivery?
#14
The problem with these things isn't in the hour or two that they drive up to the beach. For that they will be great. Between air power, cruise missiles and shore bombardment, they'll make it ashore and woe betide anyone standing around on the beach when they get there. I pity the fool.
The problem is six weeks later when those things are driving up the main road to the Capitol and get blown up. If we are willing to only use these things to take the beaches, and then put everyone but the driver and gunner into something else to drive around the countryside they would be ok.
Kind of expensive though. These will cost the same as an aircraft carrier and all of the planes on board. Would you give up a carrier we use every day to have these things in a warehouse just in case?
#16
ed: I just checked wikipedia, seems like you're more on the mark than I was. It does change the balance, doesn't it?
Mobility
The EFV's 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) range for amphibious landing may no longer prove sufficient, given the increasing ranges of shore launched anti-ship missiles.
Variants
Personnel variant
The EFVP1 with a 3-man crew will conduct the signature mission of the United States Marine Corps, expeditionary maneuver warfare from seabases by initiating amphibious operations from 2025 miles over-the-horizon and transporting 17 combat-equipped Marines to inland objectives.
Maybe I was recalling the specs for the personnel variant. Horizon is usually about 20 miles away I'm guessing, way more if you are on top of a building or something. Seems though that 50km/hour is a way better speed than 50knots/hr, and range would be way less than what I was thinking. Maybe I got the units wrong.
But I still think it's a very reasonable option against most 2nd/3rd world countries when combined with satellite technology and other military power.
I wouldn't be too surprised if they could be fitted with some kind of anti-missile system. Reactive and slat armor might work fine.
Would the cloud of water they throw up confuse anti-ship missiles? Although that doesn't sound like a lot of fun to depend on heavily for whoever is in the EFV.
And there are always going to be situations where the enemy doesn't have what it takes to counter these things effectively. If they do, just take the EFV option off the table or hold it over their head while other forces do the job against an enemy that is diminished because it needs to expend resources on this enormous threat.
We did that against Saddam. He had a bunch of his army poised to counter what he thought would be our main offensive from the sea. There was no amphibious landing, but the ability to make an amphibious landing an actual threat cost him dearly.
1952: British radar engineer Geoffrey Dummer introduces the concept of the integrated circuit at a tech conference in the United States. The world is about to change.
At the heart of every electronic device today -- from computers to aircraft navigation systems -- is a little circuit that has changed computing and ushered in the digital era, much as the steam engine helped usher in the Industrial Revolution.
The integrated circuit brings together components with different functions and puts them in a compact miniature board. The credit for the first working example eventually went to Texas Instruments engineer Jack Kilby. But Kilby was building on work done before him.
Dummer, who worked for his country's defense ministry, first published the idea of an integrated circuit at the 1952 Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C.
"With the advent of the transistor and the work in semiconductors generally, it seems now possible to envisage electronic equipment in a solid block with no connecting wires," he told the audience at the conference, according to the Electronic Product News. "The block may consist of layers of insulating, conducting, rectifying and amplifying materials, the electronic functions being connected directly by cutting out areas of the various layers."
Dummer tried unsuccessfully for the next few years to build such a circuit, until the British Government turned off the funding for his project.
By then, work on the idea of the IC had moved to the United States. The challenge with creating a practical IC was that all the components in the circuit had to have no faults. Also, there couldn't be too many wires in the interconnects for a complex circuit, or else the circuit would be slow.
Kilby found a solution in the summer of 1958. His idea was to make all the components and the chip out of the same block of semiconductor material, and layer the metal needed to connect them on top of it.
The first integrated circuit was fairly crude -- it had only a transistor and other components on a slice of germanium. But it did show the potential of the IC, which continues today to get smaller and more complex.
Just a few months later, Robert Noyce, one of the co-founders of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, solved some of the problems related to the interconnects, sharing the credit with Kilby for the practical IC.
Kilby patented the invention and won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in the creation of the IC.
Dummer died in February 2002 at the age of 93.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Iff GEORGE JETSON ever hopes to see his "FLYING CAR" one day, the future OWG-NWO still needs to dev a FREE-MARKET ECON REASON(S) FOR DEV SAME.
Read, MOON + MARS + BEYOND for USSA = USRoAmerika.
D *** NG IT, ITS NOT BUTTER, ITS JETSON-IAN!
* ION FREEREPUBLIC > KILLER DRONES BUILDER GENERAL ATOMICS BUILDS KILLER ELECTRO-MAGNETIC RAIL CANNON [aka EM GUN thingy].
[Al Arabiya Latest] The thousands of women parading along Lebanon's sunny beaches this summer in skimpy bikinis or strolling the city's pavements in miniskirts or shorts will all technically be breaking the law.
More than 60 years after the Mediterranean country gained independence from France, its penal code is still bogged down with archaic laws, some of which date back to the Ottoman Empire.
"Some laws have not been amended for decades," Judge John Azzi, an advocate for women's rights, said.
"It is as though nothing has changed" since Ottoman and French rule over Lebanon, when the country's laws were passed, Azzi added.
One 1941 law, for example, still prohibits women from donning a two-piece and hitting the beach.
Their punishment? A fine of 250 Lebanese-Syrian pounds -- a currency that no longer exists.
While such laws may prompt laughter among some people, others say they could also be viewed as appropriate among conservative societies in the Middle East and elsewhere.
"If you ask the opinion of more conservative people, these laws are not at all shocking," said MP Ghassan Mokhayber, who sits on parliament's administration and justice committee.
However, some laws are outdated by any standards.
Lebanon has not yet introduced into its legal system words such as "Alzheimer's", "Parkinson's", or even "coma."
Strange terms in the 21st century!
Instead, judges use the words "insane" or "fool" for the person in question -- as did their predecessors in the days of Ottoman rule over Lebanon from 1513 to 1918.
"How can these terms still be used today in the 21st century? It's incompatible with the evolution of science," Azzi said.
"An archaic law is like expired medicine: after the expiration date it becomes harmful. The law becomes unjust."
A rapist, for example, is let off the hook if he marries his victim, and the perpetrators of "crimes of honor" may benefit from "extenuating circumstances."
Mokhayber said legislators have shown no interest in changing the outdated laws and that they are largely to blame for maintaining the status quo.
"Parliament is just not that dynamic," he said. "There must always be some sort of pressure, generally political, to get things moving."
Legal experts are especially critical of laws on personal status in Lebanon, which are still micro-managed by the courts of the country's 18 religious communities and which in some cases draw on the 1917 Ottoman family laws.
"Another completely absurd law is one which recognizes civil marriage while prohibiting the actual ceremony on Lebanese soil," Azzi said.
"It's both tragic and comic when a judge can divorce such couples 'in the name of the Lebanese people' but 'under the law of Sweden, France, Cyprus'," he added.
Gradual changes
A 1925 law still forbids women who marry foreigners from passing citizenship on to their children or spouses.
Another can land women in prison for two years for adultery -- even without being "caught in the act", a prerequisite for adulterous men to be indicted.
Perhaps more troubling is the way the law is sometimes applied.
"A judge once punished a group of people who did not have identity cards on them while they walked along the beach," said lawyer Paul Morcos, who heads the private consultancy firm Justicia.
But the authorities have gradually begun to make changes, with women being recently allowed to open bank accounts on behalf of their children.
Another improvement in personal status records is the decision to remove the word "bastard" from the identity cards of children born out of wedlock.
And last year, in an unprecedented move in sectarian Lebanon, the interior ministry allowed Lebanese to have their religion removed from their civil records.
As for shorts and bikinis, these are unlikely to disappear any time soon, archaic laws or not.
"You have women who are half naked in nightclubs and on the street and we're talking about shorts here," said Roula Nehme, 31, a manager at a Beirut restaurant.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
No bikini's, no miniskirts, just bombs.
Sometimes ya just gotta wanta let'em at it.
Posted by: No I am the other Beldar ||
05/11/2010 15:25 Comments ||
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#8
See also PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > [India]DEOBAND
FATWA: IT IS ILLEGAL IN SHARIA FOR WOMEN TO WORK, SUPPORT THEIR FAMILY.
* OTOH DAILY TIMES.PK > {Australia = OzLand] STUDY: EARTH MAY BE TOO HOT FOR HUMANS BY 2300.
Earthicans = Terrans may experience a DEBILITATING-EVOL-TOWARDS-CATACLYSMIC rise of 7-12^Celsius in World temperatures thanks to POTUS DUBYA = MMGW.
Read, IIUC ARTIC > ISLAM WILL RULE THE WORLD IN RIGHTEOUS CAMEL-KAZE INDIGNATION BECUZ POTUS DUBYA TURNED THE WORLD INTO A hut hot Hot HOT
H-O-T HHHHOOOOTTTTTTT, D *** NG IT, DESERT = GLOBAL SAHARA COME OWG-NWO STARFLEET YEAR 2300 OR THEREAFTER.
Iran has given Shell and Repsol two weeks to make their final decision on investing in key gas projects in southern Iran.
"Iran's Oil Ministry has given an ultimatum to Shell, and Repsol and they have to decide on phases 13 and 14 of South Pars in two weeks," Mehr News Agency quoted the head of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) as saying on Monday.
Royal-Dutch Shell and Spain's Repsol have been locked in negotiations with Iran since 2002 to develop the two gas phases in southern Iran.
Reza Kasayizadeh warned that these two companies will be replaced with local firms, should they fail to meet the deadline for making their final decision.
"By giving the gas projects to local firms we will certainly avoid being behind schedule for development of the South Pars field," Kasyizadeh noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[10 views]
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#1
See also FREEREPUBLIC > IRAN'S NAVY ALREADY A THREAT TO OIL TANKERS, MOSCOW ANALYST CONCLUDES.
Excerpt (aka "Effect"): The landmark settlement has prompted the Correction Department to dump scores of illegal immigrants on the streets, since federal officials often fail to pick them up within the required two-day window.
Excerpt: In simpler words: It's OK to fight back when a criminal attacks, enters your home, or tries to steal your property. Just do your best not to kill the guy, and don't forget your actions could land you in court, which has the final say on what's "justified." Any "Sanctuary Cities" in SoDak...?
#1
"Pulling a gun on a criminal generally is not a good idea. Law enforcement officials would never condone it..."
Maybe there. But in AZ, the police are as likely to give you an award for your "cost saving idea" of air conditioning some offender, so the public doesn't have to pay for his upkeep.
#2
"Pulling a gun on a criminal generally is not a good idea. Law enforcement officials would never condone it..."
Then they're idiots.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/11/2010 19:19 Comments ||
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#3
Just do your best not to kill the guy, and don't forget your actions could land you in court, which has the final say on what's "justified."
Shooting someone or taking a life is a "grave" responsibility (no pun intended). I don't think that anyone who carries a firearm, is in the military, or who is a police officer doesn't take this as the most serious of responsibilities. No one wants to shoot another person. There are times it is indeed justified. I can think of several situations that had the victim had a firearm, a terrible crime might have been prevented. Tragedy for them, their families and friends might have been avoided. The MSM seldom gets this right.
#5
"Pulling a gun on a criminal generally is not a good idea. Law enforcement officials would never condone it..."
Not here in Texas.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
05/11/2010 20:53 Comments ||
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#6
That's why we, for now, still have a right to jury trial. When the 'professionals' are unable or unwilling to provide security in one's person, one's family, or one's property, the community can ensure that its the criminal and not the citizen who pays the price.
#8
If you kill the intruder, that is one less witness to testify against you.
Also, as someone else said somewhere, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/11/2010 22:11 Comments ||
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#9
If you have to shoot, then you should be shooting to kill.
I would shoot to stop, not kill. Of course, the best way to stop the person is to hit whatever presents the best target, which is generally the center of mass. And of course, you can't stop shooting unless you're absolutely positively sure they are no longer a threat. Or you run out of ammo.
So, unfortunately, shooting to stop may well get the criminal killed, but that risk falls more on the criminal than the person doing the stopping.
Education observers worry that the vast numbers of students coming to college unprepared will pose a major roadblock to President Barack Obama's goal for the United States to once again lead the world in meaningless college degrees. Nationwide, about a third of first-year students in 2007-08 had taken at least one remedial course, according to the U.S. Department of Education. At public two-year colleges, that number rises to about 42 percent.
For others, the problem points to the need to develop alternative forms of job training for people who aren't academically inclined and are unlikely to finish college. Like Vocational Education? Whatever happened to that?
"We're indoctrinating telling kids you'll be a third-class citizen if you don't go to college," said Marty Nemko, an education policy consultant and author. "And colleges are taking kids who in previous generations would not have gone to college." Nemko favors an apprenticeship program similar to those offered in Finland, Japan and Germany. Who wants to be like Finland, anyway? I wan go by calige an git me a gude edumacation.
The price of providing remedial training is costly. The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates the nation loses $3.7 billion a year because students are not learning basic needed skills, including $1.4 billion to provide remedial education for students who have recently completed high school. "From taxpayers' standpoint, remediation is paying for the same indoctrination education twice," said Wise. But it's job security for the teacher's unions.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/11/2010 08:30 ||
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#1
The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates the nation loses $3.7 billion a year because students are not learning basic needed skills,..
Like old fashion basic 8th grade skill level reading, writing, and arithmetic.
#2
In California the problem can be squarely place on misplaced priorities and poor management. First off they have to spend a LOT of scarce resources on ESL classes for Illegal Immigrants. Second, they see advanced or specialized classes as a luxury. Third the ratio of administrator to students is way out of balance. And finally PARENTS fail to make their priorities known to the school district. Do your kids a favor, attend a school board meeting.
#3
IMO, the problem stems from the liberal evolution of the concept of adolescence. A century ago laws regarding the adolescent dramatically changed as way to end the exploitation of children such as child labor, child soldiers, and child prostitution. Now the period between childhood and adult is more defined by rights and less about preparing for personal responsibility. Keep in mind, its now little Billys right to play baseball and have fun and its Societys responsibility to provide that nurturing environment. Also remember, ObamaCare just expanded the definition of adolescence up to the age of 26. Its more then a little frightening to think that the next generations are not being encouraged to be future leaders but groomed to be part of the expanding dependent class.
#4
Student performance would skyrocket if just two things were prohibited from classrooms: "Whole Language" English instruction, by Noam Chomsky, and "Everyday Math", from ivory tower academics in Chicago.
Whole Language has a proven track record of over 40 years of abysmal failure, especially in minority students, and Everyday Math is causing parent revolts, because they have to pay tutors to catch their children up for "every day" it is taught to them in class.
#5
The dependent class has always been there. The Latin world was divided among patrones and clientes, the Middle Ages among gentry and serfs. Every time the common man fights his way out of having to tug his forelock to his betters the "betters" put on a false moustache and start telling him why he should defer to them.
I have come to the conclusion that it's time to abolish Ivy League schools, the National Council of Churches, and the cities of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2010 10:38 Comments ||
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#6
I think getting rid of the teacher's unions and start paying based on M-E-R-I-T would improve scores too.
Some companies I believe have a policy of 10% annual turnover. Meaning that up to the lower 10% in ratings are laid off annually.
#7
incindiary talk is cheap, by the time its all "talked about" we'll be serfs of the Chinese wondering where it all went wrong.......................just sayin
#8
"Whole Language" English instruction, by Noam Chomsky,..."
I remember when my daughter was little and they were trying that approach at her school. I would ask her to read for me and, when she'd come to a word she didn't recognize, I'd tell her to sound it out. You know, with phonics. She didn't know what I was talking about. So I asked Mrs. Uluque about it and she said they weren't teaching phonics anymore. So my kid couldn't read. Then when my boy went to kindergarten he had a teacher who taught phonics on the sly. Bless her soul.
You want to bring a country down? Whole language is a good way to start.
#10
I have come to the conclusion that it's time to abolish Ivy League schools, the National Council of Churches, and the cities of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
That sounds as ridiculous as States who propose to ban Arizona. Keep thinking.
Posted by: El Angelino ||
05/11/2010 12:29 Comments ||
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#11
Part of the idea behind "Whole Language" is to get the words out on paper and edit them later. The idea: if a kid is worrying about how to spell a word, he loses his train of thought. Good handwriting and correct spelling are supposed to be reserved for the final draft. Trouble is, they don't teach spelling and penmanship in order to write the final copy properly.
83% of English words follow a discernable and learnable grammatical rule. 17% have to be learned by sight, as we'd learn Chinese. Many school systems try to teach all vocabulary as sight words.
If your kid is not getting good reading and spelling instruction at school, go online to School Specialty Intervention (formerly Educator's Publishing Service) and get the series "How to Teach Spelling" by Rudginski and Haskell. http://intervention.schoolspecialty.com/products/?subject=71S
Also, google "English From the Roots Up" and "Rummy Roots" card game. These teach Latin and Greek word roots.
#13
"Trouble is, they don't teach spelling and penmanship in order to write the final copy properly." Not all changes have been for the worse. I was always an excellent speller. I gave up on my penmanship in 1958 and taught myself touch typing then. That skill has been immeasurably helpful to me ever since. Cursive writing is an art form, not a medium of communication.
#15
mom, thanks for the ideas! Will have to try them out later with the anklebiters.
I was hoping that they would get some basic phonics from Sesame Street (my mom told me that program taught me how to read), but a lot of it now is that annoying Elmo and "how to get along" BS. (Thank Heaven for Between the Lions!)
#17
what does a degree matter if there is no job too go too when you have it.
Posted by: chris ||
05/11/2010 15:26 Comments ||
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#18
If you learn to love learning then even the most mindless job is tolerable. Your daydreams have so much more potential. And you can learn something from any job. The ability and desire to learn, combined with a good attitude, will make you happier and wealthier in the long run. Oh, and learn to shoot accurately.
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.
[Bangla Daily Star] With lethal weapons including choppers, machetes and axes, two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League clashed with each other in presence of police at Jagannath University yesterday that left at least 20 people injured. 
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday he would step down this year, sacrificing himself to give his Labor Party a chance of forming a government with the smaller Liberal Democrats.
BP blames the blowout preventer, to halt the blowout once it started. A different account comes from Halliburton, a contractor in the drilling. This account is corroborated to some extent by Transocean, as well as by two workers on the drilling rig, The Wall Street Journal has determined.
Education observers worry that the vast numbers of students coming to college unprepared will pose a major roadblock to President Barack Obama's goal for the United States to once again lead the world in 
