There's quite a tale of "funding" issues going on in the wealthy Roslyn (Long Island, NY) school district. Specifically, $11 million smackeroos intended for the district went instead to plane tickets, mortgages, student loans, jewelry, and acrylic nails:
Top Roslyn school officials and their friends and family siphoned off more than $11 million of district money in an elaborate scheme involving far more people and far more extravagant spending than had been suspected, a state report has found....
Cat Survives 10-Mile Trip on Top of Car
Torri Hutchinson's cat might just have one less life to live. Hutchison was driving along Interstate 15 one day recently when a motorist kept trying to get her attention and pointing to the roof of her car. I remember being followed by a wild-eyed old woman who was pointing and gesturing. Turns out I had left the hatch to the gas cap open. Gotta be careful.
She said she was wary of the man, but wondered if perhaps her ski rack might have come loose. She pulled over to the side, but kept her doors locked and the motor running. The man pulled up behind her. Hutchinson rolled down her window to hear the man frantically shouting, "Your cat! Your cat!" What do you think this is? A scene from, "Something About Mary", where Ben Stiller leaves the dog, in a body cast, on top of the car?
He reached for the roof of her car and handed the shocked Hutchinson her orange tabby. Courage. Strange cat in shock? Does he still have fingers?
She had driven about 10 miles with the cat on top of the car, and didn't even notice the feline when she stopped for gas. Hutchinson said Cuddle Bug, or C.B. for short, had climbed into the back of her car as she was getting ready to leave. She put him out, but he must have jumped on the roof while she wasn't looking, she said.
After the below picture was taken she should have taken the cat to : , and apologized the right way...
Posted by: BigEd ||
03/04/2005 11:15:00 AM ||
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Awwwwwwww, looks just like our old cat, Sam. God, I miss him.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 11:34 Comments ||
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Brave man. Scare a cat like that, there ain't no way I'm reaching to pick it up.
#4
I have an 18 pounder that looks just like that. Male tabbies, according to our vet, are the mellowest cats. Ours are. Kinda like Tommy Chong, only dopier.
Now, our torty would have killed a dozen or so before the SWAT teams got her.
#5
How could she not notice when she stopped for gas? Hey lady, I hear the CIA is hiring to fill Mike Scheuer's job. You've certainly got the right qualifications.
#6
We had a beautiful white Turkish Angora kitty who used to lurk in the tree and drop down on the vinyl top of our '77 Dodge Royal Monaco as it pulled out of the driveway...
#7
Maybe it was just feeling suicidal about having the name "Cuddle Bug."
Posted by: Jonathan ||
03/04/2005 12:48 Comments ||
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Male tabbies, according to our vet, are the mellowest cats.
Mellow with people, that was Sam. He was hell on wheels with any cat or dog that dared to even look at his yard. He ran 27 pounds at his top fighting weight, not one ounce of fear in his whole body. Dogs took one look and remembered they had something else to do.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 12:57 Comments ||
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#9
We had a 20 pounder orange tabby. Smart cat. Used to bring us rabbits and lay them out on the counter nice and neat. One night my sister forgot her keys and crawled through a window to get in the house. He jumped on her leg and bit her. He was protecting his family.
#10
I will second the mention of a vet saying male tabbys are mellow. My cat during the period Jr Hi-College was 21 lbs of lazy,KFC loving,snoring fuzzball. Jerrymander was one of a kind. The current cat, previously menntioned grey-white non-tabby Martin is very nice but not super mellow. Too many mice, and parts of mice, I have to clean up in the kitchen, living room & elsewhere...
#13
Yep, Sgt. it's a new/old blog tradition. That said I had a cat that used to hide in the car so he could ride to the mini-mart. Only made himself known when we were halfway there.
#14
We used to have a Lab/Mastiff cross that would make a run for the car whenever he heard keys jingling. Up-side; you always knew he was there. Down-side; dragging a 90+lb Lab/Mastiff out of the back of the station-wagon....
SMARTS? The field of plant neurobiology is finding signs of intelligence across the flora spectrum.
I often turn to my begonia for help in solving knotty problems...
As trowel-wielding scientists dig up a trove of new findings, even those skeptical of the evolving paradigm of "plant intelligence" acknowledge that, down to the simplest magnolia or fern, flora have the smarts of the forest. Some scientists say they carefully consider their environment, speculate on the future, conquer territory and enemies, and are often capable of forethought - revelations that could affect everyone from gardeners to philosophers.
No surprise. I'm convinced kudzu plans to take over the world, though crabgrass has similar plans that may lead to conflict...
Indeed, extraordinary new findings on how plants investigate and respond to their environments are part of a sprouting debate over the nature of intelligence itself. More...
Reminds me of one exchange with Dalailama... Someone asked, pointing out that he's a vegetarian, if plants do feel pain too when harvested and/or eaten. 'Of course they do', was his reply, 'but they don't scream that loud.'
Posted by: Sobiesky ||
03/04/2005 4:29:00 AM ||
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I'm convinced kudzu plans to take over the world, though crabgrass has similar plans that may lead to conflict...
Nah. They'll just divide the earth up into forests and open space.
Posted by: too true ||
03/04/2005 9:00 Comments ||
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I've been derecting hate thoughts at my wife's house plants for years---yet they keep flourishing.
#4
Research in 60s&70s showed plants trying to move away from approaching knife blades,and that when cut they emitted a detectable sound that was only made when plant was "hurt". I used to confuse the h*** out of pushy vegitarians who argued that vegitarianism was morally superior. Veggies who are so because they believe going meatless is healthier I have no problem w/(more meat for me!;)). But the morally superior lifestyle veggies used to annoy me no end. Somehow,since 9/11,they've fallen far down the list of the most annoying people yet to do us all a favor and drive off a cliff.
Posted by: Stephen ||
03/04/2005 13:50 Comments ||
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Stephen-I smiled when I read what you wrote. Whatever are vegetarians going to do when they find out that eating plants might have more in common with eating animals than they thought?
Several chimpanzees escaped from their cages at an animal sanctuary in California and chewed off a man's face off, according to doctors. A local television station said the chimps attacked a couple who were visiting another chimpanzee that used to be their pet. Dr. Maureen Martin, of Kern Medical Center, told the television station that the monkeys "chewed most of the man's face off" and said he would require extensive surgery in an attempt to re-attach his nose.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/04/2005 4:33:47 AM ||
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Oh, it's much better: A couple's plans for a birthday party for their former pet chimpanzee turned tragic when two other chimps at an animal sanctuary escaped from their cage and attacked. The man was critically injured with massive wounds to his face, body and limbs, and the attacking animals were shot dead. St. James and LaDonna Davis were at the Animal Haven Ranch in Caliente to celebrate the birthday of Moe, a 39-year-old chimpanzee who was taken from their suburban Los Angeles home in 1999 after biting off part of a woman's finger. Moe was not involved in Thursday's attack, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. The couple had brought Moe a cake and were standing outside his cage when Buddy and Ollie, two of four chimpanzees in the adjoining cage, attacked St. James Davis, Martarano said. Officials have not determined how the chimps got out of their enclosure, he said. LaDonna Davis, 64, suffered a bite wound to the hand while trying to help her 62-year-old husband, Martarano said. The son-in-law of the sanctuary's owner killed the attacking animals, Martarano said. St. James Davis had severe facial injuries and would require extensive surgery in an attempt to reattach his nose, Dr. Maureen Martin of Kern Medical Center told KGET-TV of Bakersfield. His testicles and a foot also were severed, Kern County Sheriff's Cmdr. Hal Chealander told The Bakersfield Californian. Two other chimps, females named Susie and Bones, also escaped from the cage they shared with Ollie and Buddy, prompting sheriff's deputies, animal control workers, and Fish and Game officials to launch a search.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 8:49 Comments ||
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Well another fine Kern County story. To bad the Chimps didn't make it all the way up the hill t0 Keene and go on a rampage at the communist UFW compound.
#3
Dr. Maureen Martin, of Kern Medical Center, told the television station that the monkeys "chewed most of the manâs face off" and said he would require extensive surgery in an attempt to re-attach his nose.
I wonder if that's what really happened to Michael Jackson, back before the surgeries.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
03/04/2005 9:07 Comments ||
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What prompted them to attack the guy? I smell a BIG lawsuit coming.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/04/2005 10:09 Comments ||
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#5
It's like back in elementary school. If you bring cake for one, you better bring cake for all.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2005 10:13 Comments ||
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This is how it started in Planet of the Apes. Be afraid.
Chimpanzees display a similar sense of fairness to humans ... like humans, chimps react to unfairness in various ways depending on their social situation."
As his gross favouritism cost Mr Davis his face, a foot and a pair of testicles, I'm guessing he'd brought Moe one damn fine cake.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/04/2005 11:23 Comments ||
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Enter "monkey invasion" into Google, or even here at Rantburg, and you will see a long-term increase in simian terrorist activity around the world. Yes, I know that chimps are not monkeys, but the great apes have long been suspected of masterminding the anti-human conspiracy.
Many of those in the know are aware of this trend, but government officials are peculiarly reluctant to act, leaving preparations for open war to private groups. This probably explains the selection of experienced ape-fighter Charlton Heston to head the National Rifle Association a few years ago. Mr. Heston is out of the loop now but he has undoubtedly left many behind-the-scenes preparations in place.
#12
IIRC, all the male chimps that you see in movies are pre-adolescent or gelded. The older males are very violent and are reportedly strong enough to rip a human arm from its body.
So much for the myth that humans are the "killer ape" and somehow different from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 13:34 Comments ||
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Wow. Getting your face AND your nuts chewed off, not to mention the foot. That is one bad day. And wtf is with the name St. James? I think this guy pissed someone off upstairs.
#15
Hmmm... I don't know. I always liked that Reagan fellow. Stared in a movie with him once. We used to just sit around on the set, drinking coffee and smoking cigars and talking about people we both knew. He was always a gentleman. I knew he's go far.
There is mounting evidence that monkeys and their relatives were plotting to overthrow human civilization, almost certainly in collusion with the great apes. That's right, you think they are cute hairy little bare-**s creatures, but don't let the sly beasts fool you!
At some point in the year 2004, the Moon will align with (something or other) and that will cause a great awakening in the conciousness of every ape, monkey, and baboon... spider monkeys and lemurs, too. Then the little monsters are going to rip and sack their way through the unsuspecting nations of the Earth.
Many leading humans have been aware of this simian conspiracy for some time. Why do you think experienced ape-fighter Charlton Heston was named to lead the NRA a few years ago? Heston is out of it now, but others have taken his place in preparing our resistance.
Stock up on guns, ammo, and bananas!
The conspiracy seems concentrated in the Indian subcontinent. An attempt to gain control of Indian nuclear weapons at an early stage?
Can we be sure that all of our posters are loyal humans? Couldn't one or more of them be the proverbial monkey pecking at a keyboard, sent here to spy out the scientifically concious resistance?
I promise all faithful Rantburgers that I will continue to raise the alarm about this gorilla warfare conspiracy, despite protests from simian-citizens groups.
"I hate them all from Chimpan/A to Chimpan/Z"< The Simpsons (hat-tip: Zenster)
Marriages usually begin with full of hope for families, but many Moroccan women who have married Saudi men find themselves divorced or abandoned and without financial resources to care for their children as their Saudi fathers shun their responsibilities.
According to Al-Watan newspaper, there are many successful marriages between Saudi men and Moroccan women; however, when such unions turn bad, they can turn very bad. One Moroccan woman got help from the husband's family to get a divorce after he moved her into a tent and started using her as an ashtray. She married him when she was 21, resided with him in Saudi Arabia and became a citizen. When her husband built a farm in Hail, they moved there — to a tent. She was constantly sick and always recovering from the daily beatings she received. "He burned my body with cigarettes. His family separated me from him after I threatened to commit suicide," she said. Her son never saw his father except in photos. She traveled to Riyadh many times and demanded that he see his son, but he had no interest in him. The son used to request his mom not to say in front of his friends that his father didn't care about him.
The government has taken the initiative to care for these children and included them in special schools to qualify them educationally and emotionally. Crown Prince Abdullah has granted the youngsters a monthly stipend of SR2,000 to help them with living expenses.
Another Moroccan woman said she got married to a violent Saudi man who turned out to have alcohol and drug problems. She lived with him in Saudi Arabia for one year and discovered that he was careless, using drugs and constantly drinking alcohol. He used to beat her up, and she was forced to leave for Morocco. Her daughter got sick in Morocco suffering from epilepsy. She complained to the Saudi Embassy in Morocco and every time she goes there, they collect money for her to help her daughter. "I told them that I don't have any money," she said. "My mother is dead; my father is retired, and I do not have enough money to treat my daughter. My husband divorced me and sent me my passport. I complained to the Saudi Embassy; they now give me SR2,000 a month. My husband is threatening me to take my daughter when she is seven years old, but I just keep telling him that he would have to kill me first before he takes her from me."
Another Moroccan woman was married to a Saudi man for 12 years. She was 24 when she got married to him. She had two children with her Saudi husband in addition to one child from a previous marriage. She lived with him for five years in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the time she was with him in Morocco. The couple had compatibility problems, and she divorced him. "I filed a lawsuit against my husband to pay for child expenses," she said. "He tried to avoid appearing in court, but in the end the court ruled that he should pay for child support."
Posted by: tipper ||
03/04/2005 10:16:31 AM ||
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The US government on Wednesday urged the United Arab Emirates to investigate one of its diplomats who fled the United States in connection with a sex crime. The United States had requested that the diplomat, Salem Al-Mazrooei, be stripped of immunity so he could face prosecution stemming from a case in the US state of Virginia but it later learned Al-Mazrooei had left American soil. Virginia authorities have accused Al-Mazrooei of trying to lure a 13-year-old girl on the Internet into having sex. Virginia investigators were posing as the girl as part of a regular effort to catch people soliciting sex with juveniles on the web, according to a local newspaper.
A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named, said the US government was limited in what it could do in such cases involving diplomats. "We did go to the United Arab Emirates and ask them to waive diplomatic immunity for a diplomat in their embassy that was involved in this incident," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. "We were informed at the time of presenting that request that the diplomat in question and his family members had departed the country." Ereli said the US government was entering his name into a file that would not allow him to return to the United States and called on UAE officials to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute Al-Mazrooei under their own laws.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Oh yeah. I'm sure the UAE will get right on that.
#7
Please note in here that it said he had "departed the country", *not* that he had been "allowed to depart the country." This implies that Homeland Security was not notified or that they just let him waltz through the airport and get on a plane, unaware that he was wanted for a criminal inquiry. Diplomatic immunity or no, this is not good.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Tuwaijri, member of the Shoura Council, said he considered the municipal council election a religious rather than a political victory. He based his evaluation on the pronouncement of religious scholars who approved the municipal election after they had previously described it as "something strange to society."
"People making their own decisions? How strange!"
Dr. Al-Tuwaijri made his comments to Al-Jazeera channel about Saudi elections after the second stage of municipal elections in the Eastern Province, Najran, Asir, Jizan and Al-Baha. He said the elections are taking place in many parts of the Kingdom that contain different sects; some were isolated from the political life in the past. "Elections have given them a chance to chose their own candidates and participate in a democratic process," he said.
If you had religious freedom, it wouldn't matter what sects the voters belonged to.
The elections will conclude in April with elections in the Western and Northern Regions. The elections, Dr. Al-Tuwaijri said, are a small but very important element in changing political ideas in the Kingdom. He said the coming years will witness the enlargement of both democratic and election thought. Some critics focus on the exclusion of women from the electoral process. Announcements from officials — the latest one from Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal in London — said that women would participate in the next round of elections in four years from now. Dr. Al-Tuwaijri added that things will happen slowly in order to protect the social structure in the Kingdom.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Ol' Red Eyes has been musing on his favourite subject again.
Ken Livingstone has reignited his dispute with Britain's Jewish leaders by launching a provocative attack on the "war criminal" Ariel Sharon. In a riposte to criticism from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the London mayor accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and said its prime minister should be imprisoned. He also accused Israel of demonising Muslims.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
03/04/2005 4:31:03 AM ||
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When will some Englishman put a Cricket Bat against this pricks head? He claims he isn't anti semitic then you read all the pure vile hate he has spoken against the state of Israel. He and the rest of the left whom love him are Jew haters. They would be Jew killers if given the chance. They all are guilty of antisemitism if they allow this man to speak his vile wicked language in their name. Blair is as guilty as he is. Blair could stop him in an instant. The antisemitic can't be trusted. Blair can't be trusted. The UK can't be trusted if it allows men like Livingstone to govern. Tolerating Livingstone is tolerating a terrorist suppoting jew hater.
I am no fan of Sharon but I know a Jew hater when I see or hear one.
#5
Tony may make missteps on the mideast, but he doesnt go around saying vile things like Red Ken does. For now theyre stuck with each other - the loonie left knows Labour needs Tony (or his like) to win, while Tony and Gordon Brown cant do anything about Red Ken in London.
#7
Didnt he win in London as in independent originally. They can toss him out to please us, and alienate the Left Wing of labour even more than it is, but they cant push him out of office.
#8
so how about a "quick and dirty" guide to the London political scene - how does Red Ken stay popular - my vague impression is that New Labour support on the ground is more of a North of England thing - non-Tories in London, other than Jews, lean more to the loonie variety of Labourite - is that right? Or is it the muslim vote?
#9
Not removing him from the Labor party at a minimum is totally unacceptable. I don't give a damn about the UK's help in the WOT at this point. He can be removed from office by this board that is supposedly investigating him or whatever it's called. If he had said this about allenists he would be out already. If I was a "Jew" and in the UK I would be tossing Molotov cocktails in the street. This bastard doesn't deserve any slack at all. All he needs to do now to complete this farce is wip out his "Protocols of Zion" and tell us the Jews run everything and start talking about blood libel.
Even as Vladimir Putin was being ticked off by President George W. Bush in Bratislava last week for his authoritarian tendencies, cracks were spreading in the Russian president's previous aura of invincibility at home. Mikhail Kasyanov, Mr Putin's former prime minister, chose the same day - the anniversary of his sacking by the Russian president last year - to launch an attack on his former boss's policies. Russia, he said, was "on the wrong track". Its fragmented democratic opposition had to unite. Moscow newspapers, still allowed to engage in some political debate unlike Russia's state-controlled TV channels, have run analyses this week comparing Mr Kasyanov with Viktor Yushchenko, the reformist, pro- western winner of Ukraine's presidential election in December and victor over Viktor Yanukovich, the Kremlin-backed candidate.
Asked if he would run for Russian president in 2008, Mr Kasyanov said: "Everything's possible." Yet his press appearance last week, ostensibly to launch a new consultancy, followed weeks of rumours in Moscow that he would run. It has left Mr Putin (or his chosen candidate, since he cannot stand for a third term without changing the constitution) facing a credible challenger from within Russia's political elite for the first time. "What's important," said Mr Kasyanov, "is not who is elected in 2008, but that whoever is should lead Russia along the path of democratic values."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/04/2005 12:03:01 AM ||
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BEIJING (AP) - China will increase spending on its military by 12.6 percent this year to $29.9 billion, a government spokesman said Friday, adding to a series of recent annual double-digit rises. The announcement comes as Beijing expands its military to back up its frequent threats to attack self-ruled Taiwan, which the communist mainland claims as part of its territory.
Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for China's parliament, disclosed the budget figure at a news conference on the eve of the opening of the legislature's annual session. Jiang didn't give any details of how the military intended to spend the money. China's total military spending is believed to be as much as several times the announced figure.
China has announced double-digit increases in military spending nearly every year for more than a decade as it modernizes the 2.5-million-member People's Liberation Army, the world's biggest fighting force. Beijing has spent billions of dollars on acquiring Russian-made fighter jets, submarines and other high-tech weapons.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2005 12:02:23 AM ||
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All these nice new toys and no where to use them. Really, you think they can ship them all across the Taiwan Strait? Do you think the US has any stomach to engage in combat on mainland China? So, where do you send all this stuff, especially since the logistics tail is going to be really short? Hmmmm...someplace to obtain resouces for a growing economy, a giant consumer of vital resources. Maybe....Siberia? Good Morning Mr. Putin. Mmmmaaahhhhwwwwwwaaaahhhhhh
BEIJING - China said Friday that legislation aimed at preventing Taiwan from formally declaring independence is not a law on the use of force nor a "war mobilization order." "This law is certainly not a so-called "law to start hostilities with Taiwan' or a "war mobilization order'," said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People's Congress which is expected to pass the law next week. "It is a law aimed at promoting the development of cross strait relations and promote peaceful reunification of Taiwan."
Which is why they throw their weight around.
I think the statement is true enough: China won't fight just yet. They want to get some of the Euro military goodies in house, build some more missiles and ships, and -- perhaps most important -- wait for GWB to exit office.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2005 12:03:55 AM ||
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China still has not explained something important to me. The war that seperated the PRC from the ROC was a Civl War. More precisely a war between the communists and the KMT.
Well, the KMT is not in power in Taiwan - so who is the PRC at war with and why?
Have they stopped to realize that they are not at war with the Taiwan Independence party? Never have been?
And the KMT? Why most of its people now live in the US or overseas chinese citys and chinatowns... or - in China while managing factories within southern China. So
I am waiting with beended eye.
Geneva - A prominent French businessman and banker who was murdered earlier this week in his flat in the Swiss city of Geneva was wearing a skin-tight latex suit when he was killed, Swiss newspapers reported on Friday. Fifty year-old Edouard Stern, the son-in-law of Michel David-Weill, chairman of French investment bank Lazard, and head of an investment firm, was found dead in his bedroom with two bullet wounds to the head and one to the body, the Tribune de Geneve and Le Temps reported.
Pro at work.
Stern's body was found in his city flat on Tuesday afternoon. So far, authorities have only confirmed that he was killed with a firearm.
"Genius, Holmes, how do you do it?"
Le Temps said Stern, who was separated from his wife, was known to have a "lively" nightlife and the newspapers reported that the investigation was looking into his private life as well as his business affairs.
Well, it's nice to see he was practicing safe sex, wearing a full length condum.
Investigating magistrate Michel Graber, who is leading the probe, told Swiss television that Stern had probably opened the door to his killer or killers, since there was no sign of forced entry.
"Knock, knock, room service!"
Stern had acquired a reputation as a ruthless businessman, and had been involved in several failed takeovers of major French industrial groups in recent years, as well his own â¬600m investment business. His business interests also extended across the Atlantic and to eastern Europe or Russia as well as Israel.
May be Russian mob hit
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 11:18:25 AM ||
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A prominent French businessman and banker who was murdered earlier this week in his flat in the Swiss city of Geneva was wearing a skin-tight latex suit when he was killed...
#3
Huh... I thought the title was along the same lines as "Nightstand For Sale by lady With wooden legs" or "To apply for the missionary position please see the church secretary." Guess not.
#2
So, when are we having ours then? I believe we're the last to go? (Been for a lunchtime drink BD? ;) )
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/04/2005 9:58 Comments ||
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#3
Is that a good link?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 10:10 Comments ||
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#4
Aye it's not a bad one - just don't tell Aris.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/04/2005 10:22 Comments ||
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#5
No lunchtime drink, Howard :(.
Ours in pencilled in for '2006', isn't it? Would be nice if Tony told us when we can expect a general election as well. When's that likely? Eight weeks and counting?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 10:41 Comments ||
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Got it now. You guys should be writing letters to le Monde telling them how the frogs should vote for this because with New Europe and the Americans you will now be able to force Anglo-Saxon mores down the throats of the Latins.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 10:45 Comments ||
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#8
Mrs D - you'll have to copy the link location and paste that onto the address bar of a new browser window. I put the title where the link should have gone, and vice versa, when I posted.
It just says the French are holding their EU referendum at the end of May.
#9
I donno why the link doesn't work, but you can get there by going to
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/world/europe
and then adding the - /4317819.stm - to the address.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 10:46 Comments ||
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#10
Should be fixed now.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 10:47 Comments ||
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It will be interesting to see just how behind this the frogs really are. I would be suprised if it didn't pass, curious to see by what margin though.
Four officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were shot dead Thursday while investigating an illegal marijuana farm, the worst case of police killings in Canada in 120 years.
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the four officers were at a Quonset hut on a farm near the village of Rochfort Bridge in northwestern Alberta when they were shot by a suspect, who was also found in the shed. A government source told The Canadian Press news agency that the suspect later killed himself after shooting the officers.
"It's my sad duty to inform you that four members of the RCMP were killed today in the line of duty — four brave, young members," said Bill Sweeney, commanding officer of the RCMP in the western province of Alberta.
"The loss of four police officers is unprecedented in recent history," Sweeney said. "I'm told you have to go back to about 1885 in the RCMP history during the Northwest Rebellion to have a loss of this magnitude."
Sweeney said he couldn't give details on the shootings until all the facts were gathered.
Prime Minister Paul Martin called it an act of "brutality" and offered his condolences to the families of the slain officers.
Sgt. Rick Oncescu of the Calgary RCMP said two SWAT teams were called into the area and Mounties from surrounding jurisdictions also responded when the four officers didn't respond to radio calls.
Maj. Scott Lundy, a spokesman for Edmonton Garrison, said the military received a request just after 12:30 p.m. from the RCMP for assistance. He said two armored personnel carriers, an ambulance and about 20 military personnel were dispatched from the military base.
Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said she would consider tougher penalties for growers in a proposed marijuana decriminalization bill. Parliament is preparing to debate a resolution that asserts that legalizing pot would weaken the activities of drug dealers and organized crime.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/04/2005 9:37:28 AM ||
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#2
That gazillion dollar gun registry in Canada sure made a difference.
You would think the killer had to have had a fully automatic Uzi,AK,M-16,AR-15 or some such to get 4 RCMP. Unless the RCMP went in completely relaxed and panicked. There has to be more to story. I'd hate to be the next grower arrested by RCMP who gives any lip,or even twitches while being arrested.
Posted by: Stephen ||
03/04/2005 13:41 Comments ||
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#10
Shipman-With you on that one-a nice shot of Bushmills would suit me just about fine right now.
That region-gateway to Appalachia, all along the Ohio River, was my dad's birthplace. In its furthest eastern range, in PA, when the US was still young, the Irish settlers in the area raised a ruccus on exhorbitant whiskey tariffs. Mrs. D is a much better history buff and probably has much more complete historical info. As far as the people of that area, though, they don't take kindly to trespassers.
#12
Sounds like the killer had a bit of a track record. It's surprising the Mounties didn't go in with more gear to deal with him. They were equipped with soft body armor and hand guns. That doesn't sound right when you have come to repo the property of a man who has been brewing, growing and distilling contraband since childhood.
Link goes to Michelle Malkin (hat tip!) where she has a link to the actual PDF document. Exerpts:
Please excuse the formatting it was cut-and-pasted from an Acrobat file.
The following items were clear violations of Washington state law:
On nine occasions, King County elections officials discovered unsecured ballots and added them to the total count.
37 provisional ballots (ballots that by law must be checked to see if the registration is valid) were counted without first being verified. 17 In King County, at least 348 provisional ballots were fed directly into the vote-counting machine. In Pierce County,
77 provisional ballots were counted at the polling places without verification in
violation of state law. In Stevens County, approximately 12 provisional ballots were
cast by individuals who were not eligible to vote (nine because they had never
registered to vote and three because their registrations had been cancelled).18
On estimated 3,500 duplicate absentee ballots were mailed to voters. After the error
was discovered, King County advised the voters to vote on one ballot and discard the
other.19
At least 1,108 convicted felons, whose voting rights had not been restored, voted.
At least 45 dead people voted.
At least 15 people voted twice
At least 30 federal write-in ballots with a straight party line vote were not counted in the governor's race in King County.
Eghty-nine voters voted in King County whose registration date on the King County voter files was after the deadline for registering to vote. However, their voter registration deadline was changed to a date before the deadline sometime between
December 29, 2004, and January 11, 2005. King County explained this as a human error. A 100 percent check of the actual voter registration should be made. This can only be done during "discovery" in a lawsuit.
A "no" ballot was counted as a vote for Gregoire.
A "Christine Rossi" ballot was counted as a vote for Gregoire.
55,177 ballots were "enhanced," and 4,962 were duplicated in King County.24
Virtually no procedures were used to verify whether a person who voted was actually eligible to vote.
When the Secretary of State certified the election on December 30, at least 8,419 more votes were counted in five counties than the number of voters who had cast votes. The law says there must be a legal voter for every vote counted. In King County alone,5,845 more ballots were cast than voters in 1,318 precincts. In 1,011 precincts, 3,751
more voters were tallied than ballots. This brings the total discrepancies to 9,596 in
2,329 precincts.25 These reconciliation errors raise serious questions as to how the
county canvassing boards could certify the election as a "full, true, and correct
representation of the votes cast in the county."
The Secretary of State issued administrative rules (WACs) on residency which
allowed homeless individuals to claim the King County Elections Office as their
residence in violation of state law and the Constitution.
In some counties, the names and addresses of voters who cast provisional ballots were
released to political parties. Political workers sought out these provisional voters and asked them for signatures to validate already-cast ballots, but only if the voter had chosen that political party's candidate. This violates federal and state law as well as the State Constitution. Yet the Secretary of State said nothing, even though, in 2002, he wrote a letter to The Olympian stating that election officials could not contact voters on questionable ballots. "No such mechanism exists to do so in state law, and
were it to exist, it would be in violation of the constitutional rights of Washington state's voters."
King County elections officials failed to maintain security of both valid ballots and unused ballots. Up to 14 King County employees had access to the vault where the unused ballots were stored. In at least one precinct, tallies during the recount process were significantly different than the actual count in the precinct on election night.
Gregoire votes had gone up and Rossi votes had gone down. Absentee ballots had been mixed with precinct ballots, and the audit trail was lost.
Untested election software (not tested to federal standards) was used in the November 2004 election in Chelan, King, Kitsap, Klickitat, Pierce, Snohomish and Yakima counties.
Thousands of military ballots were not received back in time to be counted because they were not mailed out on a timely basis.
.... Note: King County is a very Democratic County and contains the Peoples Republic of Seattle....
The December ruling of the Washington State Supreme Court allowing King County to recanvass hundreds of ballots was made after every other county in the state had already
certified their results. This meant that special rule applied only to King County. Using inconsistent rules like this in various counties violates the equal protection provision of the
U.S. Constitution.
The equal protection clause ensures that all citizens are treated equally under the law and are
guaranteed the right to privacy regarding how they have voted. The same voting privacy
protection afforded to citizens under the Washington State Constitution was violated by state
election authorities. Article VI, Section 7 of the State Constitution was repeatedly violated by
state and local election officials by permitting individuals to vote who did not meet the requirements of the state registration laws. The court approved King County to recanvass 573 disputed ballots; they recanvassed 735! Meanwhile, the Washington State Republican Party presented 275 voter statements to election
officials in 19 counties, and all of the counties refused to reopen their certification process.
#2
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly , Bubba appointee. Sounds like she was on the wrong side of memogate last fall. Using her lifetime powers to try to exact a revenge. This smells to high heaven.
She probably hasn't read the first amendment since high school history class, if then...
In its review of the next year (starting March 21, 2005) budget bill, the Majlis on Wednesday decided to reduce the tariffs on the car imports to 100%.
Urk.
The decision made in the open session of the Parliament was said to be aimed at paving the grounds for foreign car imports to facilitate the enhancement of the qualities of the domestic cars, optimize their fuel consumption rate, improve the public transportation system as well as reduce the public transportation costs, Mehr news Agency (MNA) reported. As decided by the legislatures, the vehicles should be brand new and comply with the latest world and national standards, the report also noted. According to the Majlis ratifications, imposition of a maximum of 100% tariff on the passenger cars and 20% at most for the buses, minibuses and trucks is mandatory. The importers of the vehicles should also provide the required after-sales services.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
03/04/2005 1:27:57 AM ||
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#1
They have domestic cars??? Something like East German Trabant, I'd guess. It was called in Czechoslovakia "Revenge for Sudettenland".
#5
No, no, no.... Don't you see? "facilitate the enhancement of the qualities of the domestic cars, optimize their fuel consumption rate" means they want to introduce competition to their domestic market!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/04/2005 8:15 Comments ||
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#6
Not bad looking cars at all.Too bad their political leadership are all murderous jerks, that country could really be something.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2005 10:58 Comments ||
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#7
I'm surprised and impressed. There may be hope.
UNITED NATIONS: After nine Bangladeshi soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in Congo were surrounded and killed by rebels last week, their Indian and Pakistani colleagues in the UN decided to come up with a "robust" response.
"Let's go kill us some "rebels".
What followed was a classic operation in which an Indian helicopter supported Pakistani ground troops and ended up killing at least 50 militiamen in Congo's troubled Ituri region. The operation has been praised and staunchly defended by UN officials. Margaret Carey, an officer in the Africa division of the UN peacekeeping department, said the Indians and Pakistanis acted in self-defence and were protecting civilians. And, in what must now rank as a rare example of South Asian cooperation, the soldiers from the two countries also protected each other after their colleagues from Bangladesh had been killed a few days earlier. It began when Pakistani soldiers received information that Loga village in the volatile Ituri province was being used as a weapons centre. The peacekeepers decided to conduct a "cordon and search" mission.
Formerly known as "Search and Destroy".
This proved harder than planned. The area is a hotbed of militant activity and within no time the Pakistanis found themselves under fire from some hills overlooking the area.
That was the whole idea, I'm thinking. They were the bait.....
They asked for air support.
Which was on standby, guns hot.....
This came in the form of an Indian attack helicopter, which zeroed in on militia positions and protected the Pakistani peacekeepers.
......and closed the trap.
Some 50 militiamen died in the battle that followed. There have not been any reports of civilian casualties so far.
Well, yes, there were. Supposedly the "rebels" were using "villagers" as human shields. I guess the UN has decided they were not innocent villagers.
Carey said the peacekeepers did not engage in war and their basic mission was to bring about peace. She also rejected suggestions that the operation was conducted by the Indians and Pakistanis to avenge the killing of the nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers.
"Why, no. I mean, just because Bangladesh is our neighbor and might as well be family. Who do you think we are, Americans?"
"When you are confronted with people who are fighting you, you have to exercise self-defence and take them out, basically," British UN ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said.
Damm, a UN statement I agree with.
Currently, the United Nations has 15,000 peacekeepers from 100 countries in Congo where it is trying to disarm the militia, which belongs to Nationalist and Integration Front, an ethnic Lendu political party. Carey said that after the lesson learnt from Srebrenica in Bosnia and Rwanda, the nature of peacekeeping operations had changed. The operation in Loga was an example of "robust peacekeeping", she said.
Ever think about trying it in the Sudan? Hello?
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2005 4:07:23 PM ||
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#1
Somebody ought to write a book on the very odd Indian/Irish/Swedish UN alliance in the 1960's Congo and Katanga. It was very successful, the last, most successful UN-only operation.
Interestingly, the local commanders designed their operations deliberately to be under the Security Council radar, and their operation timelines to present a fait accompli.
Also an example of the importance of having the right people on the spot.
#3
-- And, in what must now rank as a rare example of South Asian cooperation, the soldiers from the two countries also protected each other after their colleagues from Bangladesh had been killed a few days earlier.---
Either we hang together or we shall all surely hang separately.
WASHINGTON -- The Navy plans to send the retired carrier America to the bottom of the Atlantic in explosive tests this spring, an end that is difficult to swallow for some who served on board the ship, which was based in Norfolk during its 31-year career. The Navy says the effort, which will cost $22 million, will provide valuable data for the next generation of aircraft carriers, which are now in development. No warship this size or larger has ever been sunk, so there is a dearth of hard information on how well a supercarrier can survive battle damage, said Pat Dolan, a spokeswoman for Naval Sea Systems Command.
Better she go down at sea providing data that will keep future sailors alive than be cut up for scrap metal.
The Navy's plan raises mixed emotions in Ed Pelletier, who served on the America as a helicopter crewman when the ship cruised the Mediterranean shortly after its commissioning in Norfolk in 1965. He said he was "unhappy that a ship with that name is going to meet that fate, but happy she'll be going down still serving the country." Pelletier, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is a trustee of an association of veterans who served on the America. Issues surrounding a vessel bearing the name of its country are often more sensitive than for other ships. In 1939, Adolf Hitler, fearful of a loss of morale among his people should Germany's namesake ship be sunk, ordered the pocket battleship Deutschland renamed for a long-dead Prussian commander.
Since its decommissioning in 1996, the America has been moored with dozens of other inactive warships at a Navy yard in Philadelphia. The Navy's plan is to tow it to sea on April 11 - possibly stopping at Norfolk - before heading to the deep ocean, 300 miles off the Atlantic coast, for the tests, Dolan said.
There, in experiments that will last from four to six weeks, the Navy will batter the America with explosives, both underwater and above the surface, watching from afar and through monitoring devices placed on the vessel.
These explosions would presumably simulate attacks by torpedoes, cruise missiles and perhaps a small boat suicide attack like the one that damaged the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen in 2000. At the end, explosive scuttling charges placed to flood the ship will be detonated, and the America will begin its descent to the sea floor, more than 6,000 feet below. The Navy has already removed some materials from the ship that could cause environmental damage after it sinks, Dolan said.
Certain aspects of the tests are classified, and neither America's former crew nor the news media will be allowed to view them in person, Dolan said. The Navy does not want to give away too much information on how a carrier could be sunk, she said. Why the America? No other retired supercarriers were available on the East Coast when the test was planned, Dolan said. The others - the Forrestal and the Saratoga - were designated as potential museums, she said.
In a letter to Pelletier's group, Adm. John Nathman, the Navy's second-in-command, called America's destruction "one vital and final contribution to our national defense." "Ex-America's legacy will serve as a footprint in the design of future aircraft carriers," he wrote. Although no larger warship has ever been sunk, bigger civilian vessels have gone down. The largest ship in the world, the supertanker Seawise Giant, was sunk by Iraqi warplanes in the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Fully loaded, it displaced more than half a million tons. It was later refloated and renamed.
The America, which is more than 1,000 feet long and displaces about 80,000 tons, exceeds the size of the Japanese World War II battleships Yamato and Musashi, and the carrier Shinano, which all displaced close to 70,000 tons. The Yamato and Musashi fell to American warplanes, the Shinano to a U.S. submarine.
The America was the third carrier of the non-nuclear Kitty Hawk class, and the first to be retired, a victim of post-Cold War budget cuts. It launched warplanes during the Vietnam War, the 1986 conflict with Libya, the first Gulf War, and over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mid-1990s. According to an official Navy Web site, the ship was built by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corp. starting in 1961, commissioned in Norfolk in 1965, and decommissioned in Norfolk in 1996. Pelletier and other veterans who served on the America said their farewells in a Feb. 25 ceremony at the ship in Philadelphia. Some artifacts have been removed for museums and veterans' groups; in addition, Pelletier's association will place a time capsule on board.
The Navy has several other carriers awaiting their fates. Environmental regulations make breaking warships up for scrap metal largely unprofitable, though some still are dismantled. One smaller World War II carrier, the Oriskany, is scheduled to be sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., late this year.
#3
They should hold a contest to rename the America before sinking her. The USS Bin Laden? The USS Chirac? The USS John Kerry? The USS Michael Moore? I'm sure my fellow RBers can think of others.
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/04/2005 16:25 Comments ||
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#4
How about room for one test before scuttling the ship? The Navy could leave one Phalanx CIWS system on board and install a Sea Ram system for effectiveness tests on various anti-ship missile systems (third parties can provide non-US made missiles). Naturally, the ship would not be sunk before removing the machinery being tested.
Something near a real-world test should be performed on these systems; during the only opportunity that came about so far (USS Stark), the Stark's Phalanx CIWS supposedly wasn't working correctly.
#5
Perhaps Eason Jordan and Peter Arnett could give us first hand coverage of what it is like to be tied ot the mast of a carrier going down. Have them relate the Yamaguchi experience.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 16:51 Comments ||
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#6
Tobor, too bad USS Jimmy Carter is already taken...
#7
First, urg, it would have to be the USS Monica, for obvious reasons. Seriously, as a surgeon buries his mistakes, I suspect that the Navy is planning to sink some of theirs. I would not be surprised if, by Navy accounting, entire warehouses of spare parts and equipment go down with the ship.
This is the reverse of what happened a number of times in 2004.
The payroll survey showed an increase of 262k in employment. The household survey showed a decrease of 97k in employment.
Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 262,000 in February to 132.8 million, seasonally adjusted, following smaller gains in the prior 3 months. Construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries added
jobs.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
In February, both the number of unemployed persons, 8.0 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.4 percent, returned to their December levels after dipping in January.
Posted by: mhw ||
03/04/2005 10:30:21 AM ||
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And the MSM instantly switches from listing the payroll number to the unemployment rate.
Compared to many aeronautical curiosities that have taken wing at NASAs Dryden Flight Research Center at Californias Edwards Air Force Base over the years, the latest military test stunts did not appear very remarkable. Last April, a low-slung aircraft, about the size of a sport utility vehicle but with batlike wings similar to those of the B-2 stealth bomber, took off, flew at 10,500 meters and then dropped a 110-kilogram inert precision bomb while zipping along at 700 kilometers per hour. Four months later, a pair of the aircraft took off and flew together. These were modest stunts, to be sure, except for this fact: the jets have no pilots. They are the future of warfare, the first working models of networked autonomous attack jets, and the U.S. Department of Defense would like to start building them by 2010.
Eventually such planes will be military mainstays. Of this, most observers are sure; it is simply a lot less expensiveand saferto send machines into battle than to send people, who require food, sleep, training, and pay. Humans can only tolerate so much G-force and are prone to error; unmanned aircraft have the potential to be more dependable. Already, lone unmanned planeswith humans at the remote controlsare widely used for surveillance. But the next crop of planes will fly in coordinated groups, with more autonomy. Theyll tackle jobs such as attacking enemy air defenses, identifying new targets, and releasing precision bombs. The long-range vision is that the president will wake up some day and decide he doesnt like the cut of someones jib and send thither infinite numbers of myrmidonsrobotic warriorsand that we could wage a war in which we wouldnt put at risk our precious skins is how John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a leading defense policy website, puts it.
. . . .
In recent years, unmanned planes have proven themselves in war. For example, the Predator, a medium-altitude surveillance plane made by General Atomics, debuted in Bosnia and then served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Global Hawk, made by Northrop Grumman, has been flying high-altitude reconnaissance missions for years. Meanwhile, Northrop has built and flown another unmanned prototype, called Pegasus, and shown that it could land on an aircraft carrier. But the Pentagons massive push for robotic attack planes began in earnest in 2003. Thats when the Pentagon set up the NorthropBoeing competition and established a seven-year timetable to develop versions suitable for the air force and navy.
Boeings version is called X-45; a scaled-down prototype is what dropped the inert bomb last year, and a full-size model is under construction. Northrops version is called X-47; it builds on the Pegasus, and the next generation model is still under development. The X-45 is geared more to high-speed air force attacks, and the X-47 to naval reconnaissance and carrier landings. In both cases, the largest prototypes* are supposed to take their first test flights within two years. (Amid the current budgetary uncertainty, DARPA declined to make its researchers available for comment. Comments from DARPA officials in this story come from agency transcripts of presentations the officials made last year.)
Its not yet clear how many of which version the Pentagon might eventually want to buy. In that important way, this effort differs from the intense, winner-take-all competition to build the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, widely seen as the last manned fighter jet. Boeing lost the F-35 competition to Lockheed Martin in 2001. It caused [Boeing] to skip a whole generation of fighter aircraft, after being the foremost fighter aircraft supplier, says Paul Nisbet, an aerospace industry watcher at JSA Research in Newport, RI.
Boeings initial pair of scaled-down X-45s have already proved themselves in several initial demonstrations. In 2003, BoeÂing passed one milestone, showing how the planes ground controllers could coordinate flight plans with conventional air-traffic controllers and modify the X-45s flight plan as needed. Then, in 2004, Boeings X-45s demonstrated a few more tricksdeploying inert bombs and, critically, demonstrating that its ground controllers could hand off the wireless yoke to another station nearly 1,400 kilometers away while the plane was in the air. Finally, Boeing showed that a single ground controller could control two X-45s.
And Boeing has anotherperhaps more importantace in the hole. The Pentagon already considers Boeing its lead systems integrator for a development project called Future Combat Systems. This megaÂproject is supposed to yield 18 kinds of sensor-riddled combat vehicles and the adÂvanced communications technologies to link soldiers with vehicles, planes, robots, and each other.
This program is also likely to get scaled back as part of a new round of Pentagon cuts; the new emphasis will be on adding technology to existing vehicles. Still, both of these programs are talking about putting robots on the battlefield, says Pike. Boeing has looked at it and basically said, Its the future. They are the lead company for robots on the ground battlefield, and theyve staked out a pretty tall position for aerial robots. But Boeing and Northrop recognize that the current program isnt about who can build the best plane. Before, we were looking at building the best platform, says William Body, a Boeing manager for business development at the companys R&D outpost, Phantom Works, based in Saint Louis, MO. Now we are looking at creating the system-of-systems. Well have unmanned planes, well have core technologies. But the endgame here is a network-centric endgame.
Scary! I imagine 100+ killer robots swooping over the battlefield, providing air support and intel! Nice to have but I hope it never gets in the wrong hands. I think Humans would still dominate in Jungle,Mountain,and urban warefare, atleast longer.
Posted by: (=Cobra=) ||
03/04/2005 3:10:37 AM ||
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#1
Infidel answer to Moslem self-guided dumb bombs.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/04/2005 10:12 Comments ||
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#3
saw a preview for some dumb movie coming out this summer(?) where a robotic jet goes AWOL and starts attacking US targets (CVN's, Wash DC monuments, etc.) and human pilots have to go try and bring it down. I guess they never thought about quitting refueling/rearming it....duh....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/04/2005 10:18 Comments ||
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#4
Saw that preview, Frank. As a friend said, "Johnny #5! NOOOO!!!"
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/04/2005 10:23 Comments ||
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#5
The way I see it, this fighter is vulnerable to jamming.
#6
It's not a fighter, more of a stealth attack jet. The mission criteria is pre-programmed and does not need to be controlled from afar. The only problem is that if it is spotted, it doesn't have the sensors or intelligence to evade. Think of it as a reusable cruise missile.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2005 10:29 Comments ||
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#7
How's the Skynet program coming along?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2005 10:49 Comments ||
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#8
Whicher was the one that the SR-71 used to fly to the edge of Red China and cut loose... the black bat looking thing?
#10
robotic jet goes AWOL and starts attacking US targets (CVN's, Wash DC monuments, etc.
I first read this as attacking CNN rather than CVN and thought "so what's the problem?"
As much as I enjoy berserk robot scenarios, SteveS' First Law of Robotics states that all machines must have an off switch. Puts an end to these Terminator-like episodes.
#12
Badanov,I'm w/you. The Us has a tremendous lead in the field,and it is a new technology. Soon,someone is going to build a way to stop them(Russia,French,whoever.) The weakness that will be exploited is their need to constantly communicate w/remote pilots. Big Ed spoke of them as being reusable cruise missiles-true for preplanned missions. But if they were tasked to ground support,someone is going to have to communicate where friendlies are and where hostiles are,and they are going to want confirmation that the RPV has the proper understanding of who's where.
After the Patriots mistakenly fired upon and often locked up coalition a/c in recent war,I don't know too many people who are going to allow SEAD missions to be carried out by RPVs that can fire whenever the RPV detects a threat,w/out having a remote human approving target-again need for com.(The first time an RPV returning from mission gets lit up by friendly radar,decides it is threatened and fires off a Harm is going to put a human back in loop.) No matter how fast the message is sent,there will be delay while human "reads",makes decision and responds,providing 2 datum points,enough to launch a SAM w/electronic emission sensors for getting into area,and possib infrared for final tracking of target.There will be jamming from multiple ground installations w/multiple transmitters. And let's not imagine someone inventing an EMP rocket.(If you have a low tech country-say Iran-and you knew that a wave of US cruise missiles and RPVs was heading your way-from observers in fishing boats,electronic monitoring,CNN-wouldn't it make sense to detonate an EMP in your border regions and hopefully fry the brains of US strike.)
For the near future and in low-threat enviroments,RPVs are fine. But I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. Too often airpower enthusiasts promise far more than can be delivered.(Anyone remember the pre-WW2 mantra,the bomber will always get thru? The self-defending heavy bomber? Bomber Harris stating that if he had enough Lancasters,the Germans would surrender and the only thing the Army would have to do was accept that surrender? The Army Air Corps telling everyone that there would be no need for invasion of Europe,because strategic bombing would knock Germany out of the war? How first jets,then missiles were going to make dogfights obsolete? How nuclear bombs were going to end wars betwen nations? The computer studies that showed 1 F-15 could shoot down some 700+ Migs,leading one General to say we'd only need 3,1 in Europe,1 in Pacific and one to train on?
RPVs will become increasingly expensive-esp.since mostly software driven-and the performance benefits from not having to carry humans may be found wanting in the flexability humans crews bring,esp.the many times thru aerial warfare a pilot saw something that looked "funny",attacked and discovered some unknown major target.
Until such time there are optical sensors and processors that can match the incredible ability of the human eye/brain combo in seeing and proceessing info,PRVs will depend on seeing by emitting and thus be vulnerable.
(BTW,that was not a shot at F-15s,it was at theory being used to ignore reality. I fully realize actual F-15 combat performance in air-to air is better,@80+kills for NO losses. And the one intense day or so of combat resulted in 40-0. Altho,smaller,cheaper F-16 had 44-0 score during that same intense day :)
Posted by: Stephen ||
03/04/2005 14:48 Comments ||
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#13
More and more in robotics, I try to remind myself to "think outside the box". So far, when you think robotic aircraft, people typically think of only three kinds: reconnaisance, bomber, and fighter. But there are a lot more aircraft missions than this. Ideas A rescue helicopter that can carry people, but doesn't need a pilot, only a transponder signal. A cargo fixed wing or helicopter that can transport huge amounts of material 24/7, for air drop (a robotic guided parachute just came out) or ground landing. Unmanned robotic balloons that give high altitude surveillance over a wide area. Radar jamming drones and inexpensive decoy aircraft that are just an engine, fuel tank and shell. And what about very small aircraft? One idea is called a "crateful of bees". Carpenter bee-sized robots that fly in a "swarm" to attack enemy in a cave, in defenses or out in the open. A pencil-eraser sized piece of C-5 plastique is about as strong as a half stick of dynamite. A few hundred of such "bees" could take out as many enemy as a B-52 strike. DARPA is working on such things.
#14
And the total world market for computers is 50 machines (original estimate by IBM I think). While software (and to a lesser extent electronics) is incredibly expensive to develop, its free to replicate. So any software driven system scales really easily. You have to think in terms of a lot of them. Tie this is with long duration flight and you launch a 100 autonomous vehicles, the first one flies to its target, gets shot down, fried, whatever, then the next one flies to target, and the next, until target is destroyed. Remaining vehicles then repeat on next target on list.
Warfare is no longer about mass and overwhelming force. Its about selectively destroying things over time until your opponent gives up.
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett has landed at a Kansas airstrip, successfully completing his non-stop, around-the-world solo flight. Fossett landed his single-engine Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer jet in Salina, Kansas at before 3 p.m. ET, after approximately 67 hours in the air. About 15 minutes later, Fossett emerged from the plane's cramped cockpit, to the cheers of a crowd assembled on the tarmac. "Well, that was something I've wanted to do for a long time -- a major ambition -- and I've had the good fortune to get the right people associated with it," he said after embracing project sponsor, Virgin Atlantic founder and fellow adventurer Sir Richard Branson.
The success of Fossett's 37,000-kilometre journey was put in doubt less than 24 hours earlier, when the discovery of a fuel-system problem raised the prospect of a premature landing in Hawaii. Fuel sensors on the plane differed from readings that indicated how quickly fuel was burning, Project Manager Paul Moore said, forcing the crew to assume that close to 1,200 kilograms of the plane's original 8,200 kilograms of fuel had somehow "disappeared" early in the flight. To increase his chances of reaching the final destination, Fossett flew the final leg of his journey as conservatively as possible. "The aircraft is flying very slowly right now through the air," Fossett ground crew member Jon Karkow told reporters before the landing on Thursday. "We want it to arrive with the most conservative amount of fuel possible, there is no point in rushing things," he said. It's still not clear whether the problem was with the actual fuel reserve or the sensors that track it, but mission control determined that, thanks to a strong tail wind, there was enough fuel to last the flight...
Posted by: Cb ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Yes.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/04/2005 0:10 Comments ||
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#2
I find Fosset blowing a few million a marginally less interesting subject than Charles and Camillas wedding.
#5
The world is full of hard problems. It doesn't follow they are worth solving. Having said that I can see value in very long duration flights - UAVs that can stay in the air for days and fly anywhere in the world.
#10
Has he blown over/under $100 million on his various around the world ego trips?
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2005 11:35 Comments ||
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#11
Has he blown over/under $100 million on his various around the world ego trips?
Maybe we should form a Committee and all vote on how he spends his money.
Personally, *I* think it is cool, but I happen to like engineering and adventures. Besides, engineering problems tend to follow Sun Tzu's dictum that opportunies multiply as they are seized.
#12
In that case, sign me up for the booze and hooker committee. Pushing engineering boundaries is a nonsequitor. Hot air ballons and round the world flights have already been done and his venture offers no practical value to society. There is no prize in being the second (or hundreth) in such ventures.
If he really wanted to push boundaries, such as being first man to finance and build a practical orbital spacecraft, then I will support him. But don't expect me to be cheering today at the runway when the Ego Has Landed.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2005 12:47 Comments ||
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#13
the Ego has landed. Have to remember that one.
#14
ed--I don't understand. $100 million spent is $100 million spent. It wasn't like he set the money on fire--it went for supplies and materials and paid people's salaries. It went back into the economy. That he had fun doing it is just icing on the cake!
I don't see it as any different than a bunch of people spending $100 million collectively on houses, cars, clothing, etc. It went back into the system and will recirculate.
Posted by: Dar ||
03/04/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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#15
Too self indulgent for me to care. But no celebrity news for me either. To each his own.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/04/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
I can see why this was career-limiting for the captain and a fair number of the rest of the officers. It is a small miracle that the ship was not lost with all hands.
#3
It's ironic that this would probably not have happened to a WWII boat. Active sonar would have spotted the mountain in time. (It also broadcasts your position to the world, but nothing's perfect.)
I think the captain got a raw deal, but I don't know enough to make an issue over it.
#4
Jackal, you have been watching too many Hollywood movies. Active sonar on a submarine defeats the very purpose of being under water: nobody knows where you are.... Even during WWII the subs primarily listened. The only pinging is straight downwards for the fathometer.
The ironic thing is that you are right for the wrong reasons. A WWII sub wouldn't have bounced off the seamount because A) they didn't go that deep, and B) they couldn't do 20+ knots underwater for more than minutes at a time, much less days....
I am a Plank Owner on an LA-Class boat (the USS Omaha) and it is a *large* miracle to me they got back to Guam. They lost half their bouyancy forward (all three Port side ballast tanks appear to be open at the top)..........
Posted by: Rick T ||
03/04/2005 16:21 Comments ||
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#5
WWII Fleet boats couldn't do 20 knots underwater at all. They were good for about 8 knots when running on batteries, about 21 knots when running on engines.
And I don't believe that they were even equipped with active sonar. They had radar, using a small antenna on top of the periscope, but sonar was pretty useless for them because it can't be used to track ships on the surface.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste ||
03/04/2005 18:30 Comments ||
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#6
Well, I'll bow to the experienced as to doctrine, but all Fleet subs definitely did have active sonar, whether or not is was used that often. If nothing else, there were standard recognition codes that could be used to say "Hey stupid! I'm one of yours. Stop depth-charging me!" It didn't work with the Seawolf, unfortunately.
I know that some of our subs killed a lot of Jap subs, but they may have been on the surface when it happened. I don't have the actual logs or anything, just books like Morrison and Blair.
A Pakistani court yesterday overturned the convictions of five men sentenced to death in 2002 for raping a woman on the orders of a tribal council for her brother's alleged affair, officials said. The death penalty of the sixth convict in the attack on Mukhtaran Mai, who went on to become a rights campaigner, was commuted to life imprisonment by a two-member bench of the high court in Multan. "Justice has been done," defense lawyer Mohammad Salim said.
"For them, anyway. She certainly doesn't count."
Mai, in her early 30s, was raped for more than an hour in the village of Meerwala in Punjab province in June 2002, as punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a powerful rival clan. The case shocked the country and sparked international outrage. Later the same year an anti-terrorist court in Punjab province sentenced six men to death by hanging and acquitted another eight defendants. Defense lawyers said Multan high court yesterday had acquitted convicts Ghulam Farid, Fayyaz Hussain, Faiz Baksh, Ramzan Bhojar and Allah Ditta Mastoi, while Abdul Khaliq was given life imprisonment. "The verdict of the anti-terrorism court in August 2002 was largely influenced by media hype and government pressure," Salim said.
"She's still alive. What's the big deal?"
Four of those originally sentenced to death were found guilty of participating in the rape itself. The other two were members of the tribal jury. After the rape, Mai embarked on a mission to improve girls' education in Pakistan, where 72 percent of women are illiterate, using her compensation money to set up her district's first ever school for girls. However, late last year she said that she could never forgive her attackers. "I want all of them to die," she said. Mai broke down on hearing the verdict yesterday. "I will appeal. I will go anywhere, wherever is necessary... to get my right," she told reporters. Human rights lawyer, Hina Jilani, said there should have been a retrial. "It was much more desirable to ensure that justice is done to the victim and the impunity that prevails in the country with regard to how gang rape cases are dealt with," she said.
The panchayat in Meerwala, southern Punjab, had found Ms Mai's younger brother, Shakoor, guilty of raping a girl from the village's powerful Mastoi clan. It was later revealed in a conventional court that the 12-year-old had in fact been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the same men who later made up the jury. It was alleged that Ms Mai was then taken away to be raped in revenge for her brother's supposed crime. None of the 150 men present responded to her pleas for mercy, she said.
Ms Mai became famous after the rape for human rights work and pursuing the case through the courts, although she said she faced threats from her alleged attackers' supporters. She built two schools in her village with the $9,400 compensation money she was awarded. "Education will play a very, very important role in changing the minds of men. Without these schools, my life would be nothing," she told the BBC news website last year. "Even if I don't succeed in my struggle," she says, "I'll keep trying until my death."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2005 9:23:46 PM ||
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#1
This is unbelieveable. I just had this very same debate with a LLL on another site. "Rape ain't no big thing, your still alive." I asked him where the term "fate worse than death came from?" He came back with "well at least you are still alive, if your spirit is crushed by this you deserve to die anyway." He needs to be taken out and shot with these bastards. The people of earth have some honor killings they are obliged to do, on these wastes of human skin. Remove all the women and female children from this village and raze it with ever male in it.
#2
The panchayat in Meerwala, southern Punjab, had found Ms Maiâs younger brother, Shakoor, guilty of raping a girl from the villageâs powerful Mastoi clan. It was later revealed in a conventional court that the 12-year-old had in fact been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the same men who later made up the jury. It was alleged that Ms Mai was then taken away to be raped in revenge for her brotherâs supposed crime.
Charming people.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/04/2005 14:19 Comments ||
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#3
I'm glad India has nukes
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/04/2005 14:52 Comments ||
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#4
Reason # 6,253,197,056 I am happy to be living in the US. Thank God for American men.
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.
, and apologized the right way...
SMARTS? The field of plant neurobiology is finding signs of intelligence across the flora spectrum.
Several chimpanzees escaped from their cages at an animal sanctuary in California and chewed off a man's face off, according to doctors. A local television station said the chimps attacked a couple who were visiting another chimpanzee that used to be their pet. Dr. Maureen Martin, of Kern Medical Center, told the television station that the monkeys "chewed most of the man's face off" and said he would require extensive surgery in an attempt to re-attach his nose.
Marriages usually begin with full of hope for families, but many Moroccan women who have married Saudi men find themselves divorced or abandoned and without financial resources to care for their children as their Saudi fathers shun their responsibilities. 
The US government on Wednesday urged the United Arab Emirates to investigate one of its diplomats who fled the United States in connection with a sex crime. The United States had requested that the diplomat, Salem Al-Mazrooei, be stripped of immunity so he could face prosecution stemming from a case in the US state of Virginia but it later learned Al-Mazrooei had left American soil. Virginia authorities have accused Al-Mazrooei of trying to lure a 13-year-old girl on the Internet into having sex. Virginia investigators were posing as the girl as part of a regular effort to catch people soliciting sex with juveniles on the web, according to a local newspaper.
Dr. 
Even as Vladimir Putin was being ticked off by President George W. Bush in Bratislava last week for his authoritarian tendencies, cracks were spreading in the Russian president's previous aura of invincibility at home. Mikhail Kasyanov, Mr Putin's former prime minister, chose the same day - the anniversary of his sacking by the Russian president last year - to launch an attack on his former boss's policies. Russia, he said, was "on the wrong track". Its fragmented democratic opposition had to unite. Moscow newspapers, still allowed to engage in some political debate unlike Russia's state-controlled TV channels, have run analyses this week comparing Mr Kasyanov with Viktor Yushchenko, the reformist, pro- western winner of Ukraine's presidential election in December and victor over Viktor Yanukovich, the Kremlin-backed candidate.
BEIJING - China said Friday that legislation aimed at preventing Taiwan from formally declaring independence is not a law on the use of force nor a "war mobilization order." "This law is certainly not a so-called "law to start hostilities with Taiwan' or a "war mobilization order'," said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People's Congress which is expected to pass the law next week. "It is a law aimed at promoting the development of cross strait relations and promote peaceful reunification of Taiwan."
Fifty year-old Edouard Stern, the son-in-law of Michel David-Weill, chairman of French investment bank Lazard, and head of an investment firm, was found dead in his bedroom with two bullet wounds to the head and one to the body, the Tribune de Geneve and Le Temps reported. 
