Ralph Waldo Emerson was a key early American philospher, poet and writer, particularly known for his appreciation of individualism, self-reliance and intuition.
He wrote this poem, which was sung as a hymn at a July 4, 1837 ceremony to mark the completion of the Concord Monument, to immortalize the resistance of American Minutemen to British forces on April 19, 1775.
The poem's phrase "shot heard round the world" is now internationally famous for its description of the philosphical importance of the American revolution.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
#1
Unfortunately, Lexington and Concord are now probably two of the most PC towns in the country.
They'd probably want to "have a dialouge" with the redcoats and dime out all the gun owners. In the spirit of "coexistence", of course...
BRUSSELS – European officials carved up the sky Monday, creating three zones to more quickly break the flight deadlock caused by volcanic ash flowing from Iceland over Europe. Many more flights will be able to take off on Tuesday, the bloc said.
European countries can resume airline traffic in designated "caution zones" where the threat of ash is considered less dangerous, French officials said after a meeting of the bloc's 27 transport ministers. Under the accord, one area — defined by the European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol — will remain entirely off limits to flights. Another area will be open to all flights and a third area will be a caution zone in which some flights will be allowed.
Jean-Louis Borloo, the No. 2 French Cabinet official, said flights in the caution zone will be "very secure" with many tests to make sure jet engines are not damaged by ash. EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said after a videoconference with EU transport ministers and industry officials that "the decision increases air space available to air traffic. This is the final outcome."
The EU said as of Tuesday morning "we should see more planes starting to fly." But all are not happy...
Several airlines have run flights over the last few days, and none reported problems or damage, prompting some airline officials to question whether governments had overreacted to concerns that the microscopic particles of ash could shut down jet engines.
"It's embarrassing, and a European mess," said Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the International Air Transport Association. "It took five days to organize a conference call with the ministers of transport and we are losing $200 million per day (and) 750,000 passengers are stranded all over. Does it make sense?" IATA, the world's leading airline industry group, expressed its "dissatisfaction with how governments have managed it, with no risk assessment, no consultation, no coordination, and no leadership." Sounds like the EU to me...
#1
Just think of the economic stimulus that repairing all the engines might provide
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/19/2010 18:02 Comments ||
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Because this kind of volcanic eruption has never occured previously in the age of air travel, it will probably take planes falling out of the sky before we know the real risk.
A TOP Indian policeman has been suspended after reportedly travelling to Bahrain without permission. Kerala's Inspector General of Police Tomin J Thachankary, who heads the state department's Internet crime cell, allegedly visited four GCC countries without following strict protocol rules and notifying his superiors.
Mr Thachankary is identified as being close to the leadership of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) that leads the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and there were allegations that his visit to the Gulf coincided with an ongoing roadshow by the party leadership in the region. [The] Party's Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and his delegation are currently on a 30-day tour of the Gulf in a fundraising drive that began in Saudi Arabia early this month.
Sudheesh Kumar, who is the State Crime Records Bureau inspector-general, has been appointed in his place.
[Bangla Daily Star] The BDR Special Court-3 in Feni yesterday sentenced 57 out of 62 mutiny accused jawans of 19 Rifles Battalion to different terms in prison. The rest five were acquitted of the allegation.
It was the third judgment given in connection with the last year's BDR mutiny. The chairman of the court, BDR Director General Maj Gen Moinul Islam delivered the verdict.
In addition to jail terms, the court also fined each convict Tk 100. They will serve the sentences in civil jails.
The judgment has been delivered following the BDR law.
The court started its proceedings around 1:45pm. BDR DG Moinul Islam read out the orders of punishment to each of the convicts separately. He noted the accused were provided with all types of legal aid.
Before announcing the verdict the court chairman said all witnesses and evidence confirmed that BDR mutiny took place in 19 Rifles Battalion.
The chairman said this is a remarkable day in the history of 19 Rifles Battalion in Feni.
As per the legal process, an accused is to be given at least 27 days for their self-defence, but in this case they were given more time, he said. A BDR official was appointed to ensure legal assistance for the accused. At the beginning, two civil lawyers worked for the accused jawans.
Visitors and newsmen were present during the trial.
Four of the convicts -- Havildar Major Md Ruhul Amin, Sepoy Md Mizanur Rahman, Sepoy Md Bashir Ahmed, and Sepoy Md Mohiuddin -- got the highest seven years. Deleted a whole bunch of names of guys who got less then the big 7, though we ought to cross-check them with future encounters, shoot-outs and cross-fires ...
Many convicts burst into tears during the delivery of the verdict. Government's counsel Lt Col Gazi Md Salahuddin, also commanding officer of 19 Rifles Battalion, in a press briefing told journalists that he was satisfied with the verdict.
After BDR rebellion at Pilkhana, Dhaka on February 25 last year the mutiny spread to 19 Rifles Battalion in Daganbhuiyan upazila in Feni on February 26. The mutineers rang the alarm bell, looted the armoury and put up blockade on Feni-Noakhali highway.
The accused persons were taken to the special court set up at 19 Rifles Battalion headquarters at Jailaskar from Feni jail under strict Rab and police guard yesterday morning. After delivery of the verdict they were sent back to Feni jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Top listed criminal Nurul Amin Maksud's bullet-ridden body was found yesterday morning in a field near Talutia bypass road in Gazipur.
Banana field? Secret lair? Or was the RAB just behind that night?
If the body was actually riddled with more than one bullet behind each ear, it must've been the local police, not the Rab.
He was a close aide to former Awami League lawmaker Shamim Osman in Narayanganj, sources said.
Officer-in-Charge of Joydevpur Police Station Abdur Rashid said, on information, police reached the spot and took the body to Gazipur Sadar Hosptial around 11:00am for autopsy. He, however, could not ascertain the reason behind the killing.
No idea whatsoever ...
Maksud was accused in 12 systems 17 cases including several murder cases with Fatullah, Siddhirganj and Narayanganj police stations.
His wife Ummay Salma, brother Ruhul Amin Badsha and other relatives took the body to his Khanpur residence in Narayanganj town after the post mortem, the OC added.
Maksud's family members said a team of law enforcers in plain clothes in a microbus stopped a taxi near Golf Club on Airport Road on Saturday at 10:00pm. Maksud and his friend Masud were in the taxi.
"Say, Maksud, why don't youse and your friend come wit us?"
Since then, they were missing, and an unknown using Maksud's cellphone informed them of his death, the family members added.
So the RAB whacks him and then uses his minutes to notify his dear loved ones.
Locals said Maksud, locally known as Barisailla or Dredger Maksud, had been enjoying the shelter of Shamim Osman and his brother, and was involved in realising tolls, tender manipulations, land grabbing and garment jhut (reject fabrics of garment industry) grabbing in Narayanganj.
A thoughgoing badman, he was. Just as well that he kept all those flying bullets from escaping to harm innocents.
Maksud became more powerful after Shamim's brother Nasim was elected from Narayanganj in 1986. Maksud and Shamim were accused in the sensational case of murder of Kamal and Kalam on July 24, 1988.
Locals said Maksud used to realise tolls from vehicles at Shimrai intersection on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. He with Shamim's help also used to manipulate tenders of Narayanganj Zila Parishad, LGED, Roads and Highway and Dredging departments between 1996 and 2001.
Both fled to India in 2001 and then moved to the Middle East. They returned to the country when the grand alliance government came to power, locals said.
They realize now that was a mistake.
Maksud from the Middle East used to demand extortion money over telephone from the traders in Narayanganj, they added.
Maksud and his gang were active in Khanpur, Talla, Haziganj, Siddirganj and Phathantali.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I nominate Dredger Maksud to the name generator.
The White House and Goldman Sachs, long seen as virtual brothers in arms on financial policy, are now gearing up for what one senior Goldman executive, speaking to political blogger Taegan Goddard, called "all out war."
The conflict revolves around the SEC's fraud prosecution of the investment bank, announced last Friday. But that was just an opening salvo.
That battle has been rapidly folded into the larger war on Capitol Hill over legislation to reform the financial industry. This Thursday, the president is scheduled to deliver a major address on Wall Street reform at New York's Cooper Union. And the political arm of the Obama White House is clearly looking to leverage the new round of anti-Goldman sentiment triggered by news of the fraud investigation to its own political advantage. Top Contributors to Barack Obama | OpenSecrets
Goldman Sachs - $994,795
Posted by: ed ||
04/19/2010 20:46 ||
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#1
The govt will make a big deal about this. However, nobody will go to jail. There will be a fine, but small potatoes compared to the damage done and the profits made. No investigation will be launched against Congress for setting up the means to do this sh*t. Smoke and mirrors for the chumps, who are us, the citizens and taxpayers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/19/2010 20:57 Comments ||
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#2
It's a bit like that simpsons halloween episode... the one with Kang and Kodos for President... no matter who wins, humans lose!
#3
In other words, the SEC is a dreadful failure in fulfilling its core mission of protecting individual investors, as the Stanford and Madoff cases show. But the SEC is very good at nailing politically correct targets like Goldman years after the fact on charges that have little or nothing to do with the investing public. On the Goldman case, by the way, the news broke yesterday that the SEC commissioners split 3-2 on whether to bring the lawsuit—a rare partisan split on such a prominent case and further evidence of its thin legal basis.
In the cases of Stanford and Madoff, thousands of small investors lost their life savings. In the case of Goldman, some masters of the financial universe lost money on what they knew was a calculated gamble. Which did more societal harm?
The Royal Navy is being drafted in to rescue Britons stranded abroad by flight chaos caused by a volcano dust cloud from Iceland. See? I told you we needed another aircraft carrier! They're just the thing for such rescues!
Speaking after a meeting of the emergency planning committee Cobra, Gordon Brown said HMS Ark Royal, HMS Albion, and HMS Ocean will all be mobilised.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2010 05:53 ||
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BERLIN – Germany's aviation authority says it has granted Lufthansa permission to fly 50 planes back to Germany with about 15,000 passengers aboard.
Spokeswoman Cornelia Cramer said Monday that other airlines such as Air Berlin also have sought similar permission.
#4
I got you booked on a train from London to Paris for US$304 one way. So what is the big deal? Anyone over there thinking these days? Jeeze Louise.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/19/2010 21:08 Comments ||
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#5
Dunkirk II. This time it's personal tourism.
Posted by: ed ||
04/19/2010 21:11 Comments ||
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The volcanic ash cloud crippling European air travel is making its way across the Atlantic and could reach the east coast of Canada as soon as 12:00 GMT Monday, forecasters at Britain's meteorological authority said.
A projection of the cloud's movement showed the volcanic ash reaching the island of Newfoundland in the early morning and lingering there at least until 18:00 GMT.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2010 06:00 ||
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#1
Next year I'll be sure to book my holidays wisely . I have a number of friends stranded round the world at the moment. Most are very happy for the extended holiday . As one so eloquently put it ... "Mojitos all round , we could be stuck next to the beach for a year or more!"
Posted by: Oscar ||
04/19/2010 6:55 Comments ||
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#3
That's odd. You would think that the vast majority of the cloud would head East, towards Russia, rather than West.
The distance is only 1600 miles or so, which probably explains some of it.
I'm wondering about how much ash will get into the Polar Jet Stream, because like with Strontium-90 from atmospheric nuclear tests, the Jet Stream tends to dump a lot of its particulates over middle America.
#4
Our Estonian airspace is still closed to landing or taking off, but you can fly over.
Many European governments, after test flights, are starting to decide that they overreacted, and the ash is dispersed enough not to be a huge threat.
Posted by: Oscar ||
04/19/2010 8:30 Comments ||
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tu3031: You have to admit that it would be a heck of a kung-fu movie. Hopefully played straight, not as a comedy, but with an all-black cast.
Follow the standard Shaw Brothers formula. The hero's well to do family run a kung-fu school, and a competing school hires ninjas to kill everyone in it, but they miss the hero.
His kung-fu is not strong enough, so he has to travel to the back woods to find a legendary master whose style can defeat the ninjas. Then after he is trained, he goes back to fight the ninjas and the other school.
Not done as a comedy, but as a kung-fu movie homage, it could have the same surrealism as Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django, which was a blast.
A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.
"Ooh, baby! I felt the earth move!"
"Brazen hussy!"
Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric's unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate. "Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair.
"What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?" Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon Friday. "There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes."
Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future.
Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.
In 2003, a powerful earthquake hit the southern city of Bam, killing 31,000 people -- about a quarter of that city's population -- and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.
"A divine authority told me to tell the people to make a general repentance. Why? Because calamities threaten us," said Sedighi, Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader.
Referring to the violence that followed last June's disputed presidential election, he said, "The political earthquake that occurred was a reaction to some of the actions (that took place). And now, if a natural earthquake hits Tehran, no one will be able to confront such a calamity but God's power, only God's power. ... So let's not disappoint God."
The Iranian government and its security forces have been locked in a bloody battle with a large opposition movement that accuses Ahmadinejad of winning last year's vote by fraud.
Ahmadinejad made his quake prediction two weeks ago but said he could not give an exact date. He acknowledged that he could not order all of Tehran's 12 million people to evacuate. "But provisions have to be made. ... At least 5 million should leave Tehran so it is less crowded," the president said.
Minister of Welfare and Social Security Sadeq Mahsooli said prayers and pleas for forgiveness were the best "formulas to repel earthquakes."
"We cannot invent a system that prevents earthquakes, but God has created this system and that is to avoid sins, to pray, to seek forgiveness, pay alms and self-sacrifice," Mahsooli said.
#3
did joy behar happen too explain how global warming would cause the earths plates too shift? I would like too know how they came too that conclusion since it seems on about the same level as the iranian clerics.
Posted by: chris ||
04/19/2010 13:20 Comments ||
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Back in the mid-'80s, the standard for female beauty in Egypt, according to Mr. Wife's cab driver, was a simple 100 kg (220 lb.). The one in the picture is blond, too. I'd say she ranks about as high on that particular scale of female beauty as a woman who is not a she-camel can.
Thailand's military vowed on Sunday to "punish" anti-government protesters if they march on Bangkok's central business district, raising fears of further violence after bloody clashes killed 24 people a week ago.
Supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday they may take their protest to the financial district, two blocks away from their main downtown protest base, on Tuesday, in defiance of an emergency decree. "We won't let them go anywhere further," army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said. Sansern stopped short of using the word "crackdown" but said protesters occupying the plush shopping and hotel district for a 16th day would be dealt with.
"Let's say that we are left with no choice but to enforce the law," Sansern told TNN television. "Those who do wrong will get their punishment. Taking back the area along with other measures are all included in enforcing the law. All this must be done." Sansern said uniformed and armed security forces would be sent to secure high-rises around the demonstration area to prevent the "third hand", whom the government has blamed for the killings, from launching attacks. The red shirts said they would counter with their own people.
"Whatever will be will be. If we have to clash, we will ... We need to enforce the law decisively. We can't just think that 'we don't want casualties', otherwise the country can't move forward," Sansern said. "Casualties would only happen after security forces have tried their best to avoid them, while those people are trying to take away our weapons and lives."
Yellow shirts: Adding to concerns about further unrest, leaders of the anti-Thaksin "yellow shirt" movement - representing royalists, the business elite, aristocrats and urban middle class - gave the government a week to end the crisis, after which they would also hold a mass rally. The yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) staged a crippling eight-day blockade of Bangkok's airports in December 2008, which left more than 230,000 tourists stranded, disrupted trade and led to credit ratings downgrades for Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
"We give the government seven days to return peace to the country or we, every member of the PAD, will perform our duty under the constitution" to protect the throne, PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang told a news conference. Adding to the mix, about 3,000 "multi-colour" protesters, seeking a return to normalcy, gathered at a war memorial. "We are the peace-loving people who have been severely affected by the red-shirts," said Tul Sittisomwong, a yellow shirt and the leader of the multi-colour network. "...We are congregating here peacefully to tell the red shirts please stop using the violence, please stop hurting the people on the streets."
A heated confrontation between troops and demonstrators, who are demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and step down, led to bloody clashes on April 10, the first outbreak of violence in the six-week protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Thailand's military vowed on Sunday to "punish" anti-government protesters if they march on Bangkok's central business district,...
but will deal with Islamic radicals, murdering and bombing their southern territory, in a kinder gentler fashion. These guys getting talking points from the Beltway?
#2
I think they've been using real bullets down south for quite some time now. And if the protesters are getting at M79, hand guns, bombs, then why not the military?
#3
I you can troll the archives of the Burg here to see the long trail of the Islamic campaign in the south. It took a while by reckoning before the authorities in Bangkok decided to 'get tough' and even then its been more of responding rather than going after the miscreants. How many deaths occured before the government altered its policy recently? How many have died in Bangkok and implements an energetic response?
As for the red shirts, how many were really 'red shirts'? At least here we have enough vid equipment on hand to identify infiltrators and agent provocateurs into a people's movement with a government doing its best to paint those protesting, the power grab of government, as terrorists. We're all waiting here for the government's Reichstag excuse to grab even more power.
It appears no different there than here in that the Islamists can rack up a long and large head count and the state doesn't view it as a threat to its power so it responded with far less 'anger' than towards the locals who they do see as a immediate threat to their power.
Sabah's main airport, the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), had to halt operations for two hours after a World War II-era bomb was discovered on a building site. Workers undertaking terminal upgrading had stumbled on the bomb between the taxiway and the runway and bomb disposal experts removed and detonated it in an open space outside the airport.
An airport spokesman said 20 local and international incoming and out-going flights were delayed as police bomb squad removed the WWII relic. The KKIA is the country's second busiest airport.
Unexploded WW II bombs have been detected at regular intervals in Sabah mainly during construction work in the city as well as in Sandakan and the interior of the state. The bombs, were part of the Allied bombings in the tail end of the war to liberate the then North Borneo (now Sabah) from the Japanese.
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] Top listed criminal Nurul Amin Maksud's bullet-ridden body was found yesterday morning in a field near Talutia bypass road in Gazipur.
The Royal Navy is being drafted in to rescue Britons stranded abroad by flight chaos caused by a volcano dust cloud from Iceland. 
A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.
