As if the Yellowstone Super Volcano earthquake in Montana news weren't exciting enough for you today, here's one to top that! The good ole boys over at NASA have their eyes on a possible Armegeddon Asteroid. Near Earth Objects and all this article at least gives the consolation of a specific timeline, so I'll give the Yellowstone Super Volcano a few points for its unpredictability and higher odds of actually happening.
Humans live in a vast solar system where 2,000 feet seems a razor-thin distance. Yet it's just wide enough to trigger concerns that an asteroid due to buzz Earth on April 13, 2029 may shift its orbit enough to return and strike the planet seven years later.
The concern: Within the object's range of possible fly-by distances lie a handful of gravitational "sweet spots," areas some 2,000 feet across that are also known as keyholes.
The physics may sound complex, but the potential ramifications are plain enough. If the asteroid passes through the most probable keyhole, its new orbit would send it slamming into Earth in 2036. It's unclear to some experts whether ground-based observatories alone will be able to provide enough accurate information in time to mount a mission to divert the asteroid, if that becomes necessary. So NASA researchers have begun considering whether the US needs to tag the asteroid, known as 99942 Apophis, with a radio beacon before 2013.
Timing is everything, astronomers say. If officials attempt to divert the asteroid before 2029, they need to nudge the space rock's position by roughly half a mile - something well within the range of existing technology. After 2029, they would need to shove the asteroid by a distance as least as large as Earth's diameter. That feat would tax humanity's current capabilities.
NASA's review of the issue was triggered by a letter from the B612 Foundation. The foundation's handful of specialists hope to demonstrate controlled asteroid-diversion techniques by 2015.
Last Wednesday, representatives from the foundation met with colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to review the issue. The foundation's letter marks the first time specialists in the asteroid-hazard field have called for a scouting mission to assess such a threat. "We understand the risk from this object, and while it's small, it's not zero," says David Morrison, the senior scientist at NASA's Astrobiology Institute at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
The call for a reconnaissance mission also illustrates how far the field of asteroid-hazard assessment has come. "Ten years ago, we would have been blissfully ignorant," says Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA's near-Earth object project at JPL. Today, at least five programs worldwide are hunting down near-Earth objects. NASA is well on its way toward achieving its goal of cataloging 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than 0.6 miles across by 2008. And it is devising ways to ensure that information about potential hazards reaches top decisionmakers throughout the government.
Based on available data, astronomers give Apophis - a 1,000-foot wide chunk of space debris - a 1-in-15,000 chance of a 2036 strike. Yet if the asteroid hits, they add, damage to infrastructure alone could exceed $400 billion. When the possibility of the asteroid passing through two other keyholes is taken into account, the combined chance of the asteroid hitting the planet shifts to 1 in 10,000, notes Clark Chapman, a senior scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "A frequent flier probably would not want to board an airliner if there's a 1-in-10,000 chance it's going to crash," he says.
The asteroid in question was discovered last June. Initially, it looked as though it might strike Earth in 2029. But additional observations eliminated that possibility. Instead the asteroid will come within 22,600 miles of Earth - just inside the altitude where major communications satellites orbit. The asteroid will be visible to the naked eye in the night skies over Europe and western Africa, where it will appear a bit dimmer than the North Star. But this estimated distance carries an uncertainty that spans several thousand miles either side of its expected path - a region of space that includes three gravitational keyholes.
JPL's analysis will look at several factors. One involves estimating whether additional ground observations will be sufficient to resolve the question of whether the asteroid will pass through one of the keyholes. The asteroid belongs to a class known as Atens, which orbit the sun in less than a year and pass through Earth's orbit. Because Atens spend so much of their time in the direction of the Sun, observations from Earth are difficult. After next year, the next opportunity to gather data on the asteroid from the ground will come in 2012-2013.
In addition, questions remain over how long a tagging mission - and if necessary a deflection mission - would take to plan and execute. If missions can be mounted in six years or less, NASA could postpone a decision to tag the asteroid until 2014. This would give astronomers time to incorporate their latest observations as they refine calculations of Apophis's orbit. But if a tagging mission took seven to eight years and a diversion mission took another 12 years, the case grows for launching the tagging mission sooner rather than later.
Dr. Yeomans, the head of the near-Earth-object program at JPL, says the next step is to examine whether additional ground-based observations are likely to solve the collision riddle in a timely fashion. "I can't stress this enough: The overwhelming most-likely scenario is that radar and optical data this year and next or in 2012 and 2013 will completely remove the impact probabilities," he says. "If this is the case, why are we worried now? If it's a 1-in-15,000 shot and we come up a loser," there's still time to mount a tagging and a deflection mission, he says. Ah, the sweet smell of Armegeddon. But at least our odds are good.
NB: Do not -- repeat, do not -- embed article links within the article. Put them in the source line where they belong. AoS.
#2
While they're at it, I wonder if they might make use of the opportunity to slam the asteroid into Mars? Granted, the orbits might make that impossible, but then again, it might be done. It would accomplish several things of great scientific value, both in studying the effects of asteroid impacts as such, and digging a fresh, very deep hole through many geologic layers on Mars for us to investigate.
#6
I'd like to know where it would hit on Earth (if it did). Sadly such a prediction could only be made at the last moment, but this thing isn't big enough to be a world killer and if it was going to hit, say, France, I'd tell them to call the UN and go to bed. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
07/26/2005 17:33 Comments ||
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Good question Moose. A major asteroid impact on Mars could have lots of scientific benefits, but may not be feasible with this asteroid. However, I like the idea. I think the deflection scenarios they cite in this article state that their potential planned slight nudge on the asteroid would be just that, only slight, and that any larger movement of an asteroid was impractical with current and estimated 2036 technological capabilities.
A large enough dust cloud could potentially accelerate an engineered warming of the Martian atmosphere as well though, in any case we could use the opportunity to run some interesting models on terraformation of the martian surface.
I'm with you, but rather than just crashing her down, depending on mineral content of the asteroid lets park that bad boy in Mars orbit and mine and process materials on or around Mars ofr commodity use in space and on earth. Maybe we could fling large chunks of the asteroid at the planet for such extraction or maybe do it in space, who knows what we'll actually be capable of by 2036?
Will certainly depend on private sector innovation though, seems folks in the states are losing their passion for funding NASA adequately, maybe a decentralization of talent and effort is what it will take to spur the industry though.
But whether or not this one crashes into Aunt Selma's house, its still a great excuse r opportunity to develop and test some technology that would no doubt benefit mankind in one way or another in the not so distant future.
I'm sure the world would blame us for "aiming it at them" if we attempted a deflection and it went awry and hit somewhere other than in the US. Maybe North Korea, Iran, China, actually this wouldn't be so bad if we could localize it we could try with some smaller pieces between now and then.
Maybe start by sending down a new "holy rock" for the Imams to stash behind the big black curtain at Mecca. Hot one, coming down. Heads up!Asteroid, the size of a bus, coming down on the Majic Kingdom. Surely a sign from the prophet himself!
Could be even better than the rods from God, cause we don't have to haul these to space, they are there waiting to be picked up!
#11
While they're at it, I wonder if they might make use of the opportunity to slam the asteroid into Mars? Granted, the orbits might make that impossible, but then again, it might be done. It would accomplish several things of great scientific value, both in studying the effects of asteroid impacts as such, and digging a fresh, very deep hole through many geologic layers on Mars for us to investigate.
This would be a very difficult mission. It would reaquire the use of thousands of Hindeburgh...
Suddenly a large dawg interrupts the proceedings: Were you gonna ask if thousands of small Martian blimps were gonna be needed? That's mean. Humans should be nicer to each other. Besides helium would be to inefficent in a Martian atmospher. Hydrogen -1 is the key, which can only be made by little tiny.......
RICKY MARTIN has issued an apology, after he donned a traditional Arab kaffiyeh headscarf with the slogan "Jerusalem Is Ours" written in Arabic on it.
The LIVIN' LA VIDA LOCA singer was in Jordan yesterday (25JUL05), where he attended the silver jubilee of the Arab Children's Congress, which was set up 25 years ago by the country's QUEEN NOUR to promote creativity, peace, cross-cultural understanding and tolerance.
And at one point while posing for photographs with fans, he draped the kaffiyeh over his shoulders, without being able to understand the statement it carried.
Martin says in a statement, "I had no idea that the kaffiyeh scarf presented to me contained language referring to Jerusalem, and I apologise to anyone who might think I was endorsing its message.
"My role is entirely humanitarian, and I will continue to promote the elimination of stereotyping anyone - be they from Latin America, the Middle East, or anywhere across the globe."
Late yesterday, Martin travelled to Thailand where his organisation, the Ricky Martin Foundation, has built 225 homes to protect children orphaned by 26 December's (04) Indian Ocean tsunami.
from the Schadenfreude files
Labor organizers who fought to improve working conditions for the nation's hotel and textile workers have mounted another campaign, this time against their former employer.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Seattle, four former organizers for Unite Here, one of the largest labor unions in the country, say they and hundreds of others were expected to work more than 40 hours a week without overtime pay.
They're suing for back wages and seeking class-action status to include an estimated 500 current and former employees who worked for the New York-based labor union after 2002.
Andrew Gibert, who lives near Bellingham but worked all over the United States and Canada, is one of the plaintiffs. He said he worked up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, traveling, passing out leaflets at factories and knocking on doors in neighborhoods.
When he complained about the hours, he said, his supervisor gave him a verbal warning for a bad attitude. He said the stressful workload put him on disability for a year before he quit in April.
Unite Here spokeswoman Amanda Cooper said the union was unaware of the lawsuit, which was filed in May and amended yesterday. But she said the nature of organizing requires unusual work schedules.
"We're confident that the suit is baseless," she said, "and we're going to fight it. We are an organization that is committed to the rights of workers."
Federal law requires employers to pay employees time-and-a-half after 40 hours a week unless their job falls into one of several white-collar exemptions, including salaried executives and professionals.
"I don't think there's any legitimate argument that these people were professional," said Ed Budge, a Seattle attorney representing the union workers. "These were the ground troops."
Gibert's partner and fellow organizer, 26-year-old Jennifer Jason, said she worked more hours at the union than she did starting her own company in 2000, the now-shuttered virtualintern.com.
"If I didn't get the work done, I'd get written up," she said.
Jennifer Jason and Andrew Gibert organized under the names Jason N. Kuder and Anne Clare Gibert. Both changed their names after beginning gender reassignment.
A similar class-action suit was filed in April against United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 7, in Colorado. Organizers said they weren't paid overtime for work weeks that stretched to 70 hours.
Longtime organizer Cindy Richardson, who works 50-hour weeks for Unite Here's Seattle affiliate, called the suit "ridiculous."
"When you come into organizing, you know what you're walking into," she said. "This is not a job, it's my passion. It's not like I'm making sacrifices that I'm not willing to make."
Gibert, 46, said the union exploits this dedication, particularly among its younger employees, many of whom are fresh out of college with few family commitments.
"They create this atmosphere that's extremely intense, getting people to buy into the notion that we're part of this movement so you're supposed to sacrifice your home life, your pocketbook, your health, your body. And it works."
Unite Here represents more than 440,000 employees working in apparel, laundry, food service and other service and textile industries. It is one of six unions threatening to form a rival organization to the AFL-CIO, claiming, in part, that the labor federation is spending too much on political donations and not enough on organizing
Posted by: too true ||
07/26/2005 12:15 ||
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#1
More irony than you can tote in a SpembleBarrow
#3
Both changed their names after beginning gender reassignment.
Jennifer (formerly known as Jason) and Andrew (formerly known as Anne) obviously have issues of their own. Guess they took the name "Unite Here" a little too seriously.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/26/2005 14:39 Comments ||
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#4
This is like the time in the late 90s when ACORN was trying to get a proposition to raise the minimum wage in LA to something $9/hour. It turns out they weren't even paying the existing minimum wage to their employees. They argued (with a straight face) that if they paid that much, they couldn't afford to hire enough people to get the job done.
#6
He who's becoming a she meets he that's becoming a she. The sparks fly, they fall in love, they sue the corrupt union...
Is John Waters still alive, because this would be like the easiest money he ever made...
Cows, why do they hate us?ZAGREB (Reuters) - A Croatian farmer was killed when a cow he was about to milk fell and crushed him, local media reported Tuesday. The unfortunate 61-year-old farmer, from the village of Cadjavacki Lug in central Croatia, went into the stable where his family keeps nine cows, as he had every morning for the past 20 years, the Vecernji List newspaper reported. "I think he slipped, grabbed the milking machine and knocked it over. That must have frightened the cow, which slipped and fell on top of him," his distraught daughter-in-law, who was in the stable with him, told the daily. "It took me and the rest of the family almost three minutes to get the cow off him."
Turned him into a cow patty
She said the cow, named Lara, had been very meek and that even children could milk her without fear. The newspaper did not say what had become of the cow.
"they're born to eat, eat to die, die to be et at the hamburger fry" - Cows With Guns
Posted by: Steve ||
07/26/2005 10:17 ||
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Whew. For a moment there I had horrid visions of the dreaded "Rain of Herefords" coming to the US. I blame global warming. Or maybe the fact that BUSH LIED,FARMERS DIED!
hey boid .... youse got da vig? If not Rocco here's gonna share the pain, knowwadImean?
It's a mouse-eat-bird world out there ....
"Monster mice" are eating meter-high albatross chicks alive, threatening rare bird species on a remote south Atlantic island seen as the world's most important seabird colony.
Conservation groups say the avian massacre is occurring on Gough Island in the South Atlantic, a British territory about 1,600 kms (1,000 miles) southwest of Cape Town and home to more than 10 million birds.
"Gough Island hosts an astonishing community of seabirds and this catastrophe could make many extinct within decades," said Dr Geoff Hilton, a senior research biologist with Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
"We think there are about 700,000 mice, which have somehow learned to eat chicks alive," he said in a statement.
The island is home to 99 percent of the world's Tristan albatross and Atlantic petrel populations -- the birds most often attacked. Just 2,000 Tristan albatross pairs remain.
"The albatross chicks weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb) and ... the mice weigh just 35 grams; it is like a tabby cat attacking a hippopotamus," Hilton said.
The house mice -- believed to have made their way to Gough decades ago on sealing and whaling ships -- have evolved to about three times their normal size.
This is a common phenomenon on island habitats -- for reasons much debated among scientists -- where small animal species often grow larger while big species such as elephants display "dwarfism" and become smaller.
In the case of the mice of Gough Island, their remarkable growth seems to have been given a boost by a vast reservoir of fresh meat and protein.
AGONISING DEATH
The rapacious rodents gnaw into the bodies of the defenseless and flightless chicks, leaving a gaping wound that leads to an agonising death. Scientists say once one mouse attacks the blood seems to draw others to the feast.
While predation by oversized mice is unusual, birds on small islands are especially vulnerable to extinction from human activities such as the introduction of alien species.
This is because many birds that have evolved on isolated islands with no predators have become what biologists term "ecologically naive" -- meaning they do not recognize danger from other animals.
Flightless species -- or chicks that cannot yet fly -- are especially at risk. The predatory nature of the mice was confirmed by researchers from the RSPB and the University of Cape Town.
The ground-nesting Gough bunting, a small finch found nowhere else in the world, is also at risk.
Gough Island is the most southerly of the Tristan da Cunha group. There are 22 bird species nesting on the island of which 20 are seabirds.
#5
The house mice -- believed to have made their way to Gough decades ago on sealing and whaling ships -- have evolved to about three times their normal size.
Hum, 35 years is a tad too old for me to fantasize about that particular incident. From correspondents in Cologne
GERMAN police let a naked shopper go home after she told them she was getting groceries in the nude because she lost a spin the bottle contest. "We're a tolerant city that is open to the world," said police spokesman Burkard Jahn. "She could have been arrested for disturbing the peace, but we decided to let her go home with a verbal warning to dress appropriately next time.
"Those were really nice honkers..."
The 35-year-old Cologne woman entered the 24-hour shop at 4am wearing nothing but an unbuttoned denim jacket, Mr Jahn said.
#2
"Hum, 35 years is a tad too old for me to fantasize about that particular incident."
I can no longer even remember what it was like to be that young. 35, in my frame of reference, is "post-pubescent."
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2005 9:56 Comments ||
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#3
I've got boots older than that.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/26/2005 10:29 Comments ||
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#4
ima seen purdee hot 35 yeer oles an sum purdy nastee lookin tweny sumthins. unlessn they anchent an decrepid sum wimmins looken good even to they fiftees. yoo aint seen em exersise cumershels that fiftee sumthin in?
#5
Not that I have a problem with this, but next time the lefties ask why 'they' hate us they might consider this, and the nakes protests in light of the Taliban's own dress codes for women.
Mad Halfbright. That'd be my nominee for the first shot, Doc. A New Face: A Bold Surgeon, an Untried Surgery
In an emergency room at a Finnish hospital, a man sprawled unconscious on an operating table as surgeons labored to reattach the hand he had lost hours earlier while chopping wood. Medical miracles take many forms, but few are as vivid and immediate as this: As the tiny blood vessels were sutured back together, the patient's hand flushed from porcelain to pink. The delicate tendons of the palm revived, and the skin's granite glaze began to soften. The man's fortunes had taken a remarkable turn. So, too, had those of Dr. Maria Siemionow, a surgical resident assisting in the operation. "That you could restore to people a part of themselves that had been lost, and actually see it become vital again, was miraculous to me," said Dr. Siemionow, a native of Poland who trained in Finland and the United States. "I have never forgotten that day."
Thirty years later, microsurgery is a commonplace marvel, and as director of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Siemionow, 55, is a leading practitioner. But the career that began in a Helsinki hospital has brought her, and her profession, to an extraordinary moment. A team led by Dr. Siemionow is planning to undertake what may be the most shocking medical procedure to occur in decades: a face transplant.After years of heated scientific debate over ethics and technical feasibility, the Cleveland Clinic last fall became the first institution to approve this novel surgery. Already Dr. Siemionow's group is searching for its first patient.
An amateur photographer - portraits of faces, mostly - with a talkative, almost merry demeanor, Dr. Siemionow is not the sort one expects to find center stage in a medical danse macabre. But this is no ordinary procedure, and she is no ordinary scientist. "This is the single most important area of reconstructive research, and she is carrying the torch," said Dr. L. Scott Levin, chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Duke University Medical Center. "She is incredibly humble but internationally respected, and she has a powerful moral compass. She really wants to help these patients," Dr. Levin said.
Plastic surgeons usually "resurface" the damaged face with skin from the victim's back, buttocks or thighs. Patients may need as many as 50 operations to regain even limited function, and the results are mixed at best. Normal facial expression, the raised eyebrows and lopsided grins so essential to social interaction, is impossible. Often the structurally complex eyelids and mouth cannot even be made to open or close properly. Even after dozens of operations, many disfigured patients must feed themselves through tubes. And the aesthetic outcome, often likened to a mask or a living quilt, can be so unsettling that some rarely leave their homes. Chronic depression is not uncommon.
"When you mention a face transplant, people think you are talking about vanity, that someone healthy is going to be walking around with someone else's face," Dr. Siemionow said. "But within the surgical community, we perceive it as a step forward for these traumatized patients." The procedure has been a theoretical possibility at least since 1999, when surgeons at the University of Louisville performed the nation's first hand transplant. That operation has been duplicated some two dozen times now, and the experience has given surgeons like Dr. Siemionow the courage - hubris, critics say - to think the unthinkable.
"Have you ever seen someone with severe facial disfiguration? Sometimes I have to force myself to look in a patient's eyes," said Dr. John Barker, director of plastic surgery research at the University of Louisville. "We are social animals, and the face is important to who we are as human beings." (With scientists at the Utrecht University, Dr. Barker and colleagues at the University of Louisville also are seeking approval for an experimental face transplant to be performed in the Netherlands. Proposals by surgeons in Britain and France have been denied.)
The medical challenges to face transplantation are formidable. As Dr. Siemionow envisions it, the series of operations will require rotating teams of specialists who may be deployed in more than one operating theater. The face to be transplanted will be removed, or "degloved," from a cadaver; it will most likely include the epidermis, along with the underlying fat, nerves and blood vessels, but no musculature.
Surgeons also will remove the patient's own damaged facial tissue, then reattach the clamped blood vessels and nerves to the transplanted face. The procedures will take 15 hours, perhaps longer.
The months following may be even more harrowing. Patients receiving transplanted organs must take a lifelong regimen of drugs to suppress their own immune systems and prevent rejection. The drugs are expensive, often $1,000 per month, and the regimen does not always work. But even when it does, long-term immunosuppression increases the risk of developing life-threatening infections and cancer. For every transplant patient, then, doctors must weigh the necessity for a new organ against the possibility of rejection and a shortened life.
Foreign skin provokes a powerful immune response from the body, more so than transplanted livers or kidneys. So despite reams of research, the risks to Dr. Siemionow's first patients are a cipher, the surgery a step into the void. While many researchers hail her proposal as a brave leap forward, critics describe it as an alarming case of scientific overreach. Many medical ethicists believe there are still too many unanswered questions, especially for a procedure that is not lifesaving, only life enhancing. What are the patient's prospects if the new face is rejected? What are the psychological ramifications for the recipient's family, and the donor's, if the recipient actually comes to resemble the donor?
That is unlikely, but not impossible: though the skulls will never match, there may be some resemblance if the donor's underlying facial musculature also is transplanted. "This idea needs more evaluation. What we do know either can't be quantified or the risks clearly outweigh the benefits," said Karen Maschke, the associate for ethics and science policy at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in Garrison, N.Y. "Look, a lot of science is boosterism.
"People always think they're going to be cured by new treatments and life will be normal again, but that's usually not the case." Dr. Siemionow disputes the notion that facially disfigured patients should not be allowed to decide the risks, asking, "How can people who are normal decide for burn victims 'This is not right for you'?"
In a series of innovative experiments in laboratory rats, her team has managed to induce long-term tolerance to hind-leg transplants with a drug regimen lasting only seven days. If similar results can be achieved in humans (many previous efforts along these lines have failed), the advance will alter the calculus behind transplantations, making them feasible for a much greater number of patients, including those with facial disfigurements. But that day may never come, and for now, the real battle may not even be scientific. Already, Hollywood, that redoubt of medical humanists, has sunk its teeth into the notion that faces someday may be exchanged.
From the moment Dr. Siemionow first proposed this surgery, she has been hearing about "Face/Off," the 1997 movie starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage as an F.B.I. agent and a criminal mastermind whose mugs are surgically swapped. One night, before the first review of her proposal by colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic, she rented the movie to gauge the public's potential reaction to the operation. "It was O.K., if you like Travolta," she shrugged. "But it was just science fiction." Okay, let the fun begin, heh.
#1
...The Cleveland Clinic is one of those places where miracles literally occur - if something like this can be pulled off, it'll happen there.
It also has the only 4-star restaraunt in Cleveland, but that's another story.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/26/2005 7:13 Comments ||
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#2
Everyone is eager for a face like Dennis Kucinich.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/26/2005 8:08 Comments ||
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#3
Aw, geez - does this mean I need to modify my organ transplant card?
I don't mind a stranger having my heart, eyes, etc., but I don't want anyone else to have my face. It should die with me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/26/2005 9:05 Comments ||
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You'll have homicidal-terrorists of the usual backgrounds, i.e., North African, Middle Eastern, Southwest and Southeast Asian Muslim males between the ages of 15 to 50, looking like Ricky Martin!
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A federal immigration judge on Monday denied bond for a 77-year-old Cuban militant accused of orchestrating the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner. Luis Posada Carriles, 77, has been held in an El Paso detention center since March on charges he sneaked illegally into the United States through Mexico. He is seeking asylum in the U.S.
Posada's arrest strained relations between the United States and several Latin American and Caribbean countries. Those governments want the Bush administration to deport Posada to Venezuela to stand trial on the airplane-bombing charges.
Among the factors Judge William A. Abbott said he would consider in Posada's case was whether he had ever provided material support for acts of terror. Abbott asked lawyers to provide briefs on whether the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion could be considered an act of terrorism. Recently declassified CIA documents show that the CIA trained Posada to use weapons and explosives to participate in the failed invasion of Cuba.
Abbott said the sponsor of the terror didn't matter, even if it were the U.S. government. He did not elaborate, except to ask for the briefs.
Another liberal asshat judge.
Venezuelan officials have said Posada was in Caracas when he allegedly planned the attack, which killed 73 people when the plane crashed off the coast of Barbados. Posada has denied any involvement.
The guy needs to be tried for terrorism and multiple murder. He then needs his neck stretched if he's guilty. But he won't get a fair trial in Venezuela, that's for sure.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I was under the impression that he's been tried multiple times in Venezuela already.
#2
Even if he was chased from under the cabana, it's curious that this cockaroach would scurry into the light. Perhaps he saw how good buddy Orlando Bosch was able to leave enough droppings behind to avoid the exterminator. He best be sure. Otherwise Otto Reich might press the wrong button on his speed dial.
China should be admitted as a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to Donald Johnston, the outgoing secretary-general of the organisation.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Johnston said membership other leading economies should be reserved for China and other big emerging economies if the world is to have an effective body âshaping the global economyâ.
âChina is the biggest steel producer in the world and has a major impact on international commodity markets.â
Responding to concern at the lack of an effective forum to address global financial imbalances, he said the OECD was the natural candidate, given its permanent staff and expertise in macro and microeconomic issues.
Moves to admit more countries have been blocked by members of the organisation, known for its bureaucracy, where decisions have to be reached by consensus.
âWe have been stymied for years in our efforts to try and expand our contacts, our engagement and certainly the membership . . . I donât see how one of the agents shaping the global economy can do that without engaging the major players.â
Describing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as being âin crisisâ raises the hackles of Donald Johnston, its outgoing secretary-general.
Mr Johnston dismissed concerns about human rights and the lack of democracy in China as a reason to for block it. âWe are an economic organisation which has to deal with economic issues,â he said.
âWe had dictatorships in the OECD in Portugal and Spain and had to deal with the colonels in Greece You cannot exclude a country that could become the biggest economy in the world.â
The willingness of China to play an ever greater part in the global economy is highlighted by its invitation to the OECD to undertake a survey of its economy and to subject its policies to public peer review and scrutiny.
The OECDâs first China survey will be released in mid-September.
In the past, participation in OECD country studies has served as a first step to membership of the Paris-based body. But even if China does not join, the forthcoming economic survey is a positive indicator of Chinaâs progress integrating with the global economy.
John Llewellyn, chief economist at Lehman Brothers and a former senior official at the OECD, said: âHaving peer scrutiny means that there is less likelihood of making mistakes, but it also means that if something does go wrong, the other [countries] are more willing to help you.â
#2
China does not "Co-operate" , on any of the treaties we have with them now. Why the fuck would we want to let them in on the admin. side of things? Why don't they just ask us to bend over and grab our ankles.
EFL:
MACQUARIE University denies it has sacked a law professor for expressing racist views, saying the controversial academic had been invited to bring forward his retirement. Canadian-born Associate Professor Andrew Fraser, who taught at the university for 29 years, has also been blamed for a race-hate campaign at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales. Macquarie University in Sydney cautioned Professor Fraser last week over a letter in a suburban newspaper, claiming Australia was becoming a Third World colony by allowing non-white immigration. Professor Fraser claims African migration increases crime, believes HSC results point to a rising ruling class of Asians, and wants Australia to withdraw from refugee conventions to avoid becoming "a colony of the Third World".
#2
There's a definite increase in anti-multiculturalism at the moment - the Daily Telegraph, The Age and the BBC! have all published pieces that are critical of multi-culturalism.
Good news as far as I'm concerned.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/26/2005 15:20 Comments ||
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EFL: A NEO-NAZI group has not only admitted waging a race-hate campaign against African refugees in Toowoomba, but warned that it will be intensified in the Queensland city and elsewhere in Australia. White Pride Coalition spokesman Terry Davis said his members had plastered Toowoomba and the nearby town of Crows Nest with posters and distributed brochures describing white women as the "world's most endangered species". "Our Queensland branch has been rather active, I'm pleased to say," Mr Davis said. "When you get crime in these areas, you know it's going to be the blacks. "Something has to be done about it."
One Sudanese family has been forced to leave its home after being harassed, and refugees have been pelted with rotten eggs and potatoes.
Mr Davis said his members were not responsible for physical attacks, but he could understand why others felt motivated to use violence.
"People feel frustrated and they're taking out their frustration in various forms," he said. "We'll be seeing a lot more of this. It's frustrating when your television is stolen or your daughter is raped."
Toowoomba Mayor Di Thorley said there was no evidence that the refugees were a crime risk, and most residents were appalled at the behaviour of the White Pride Coalition. "These people from Sudan are amazingly brave," Ms Thorley said. "They have put up with so much hardship. "I can't understand this attitude towards them. They are welcome in our city." The Catholic Church has lodged a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission about the White Pride Coalition's activities in Toowoomba.
FAIR report from 2000, recently noted by RedState.org
On April 17, the New York Times published the results of its investigation into the May 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The article, which reveals many new details about the bombing, should be viewed by media activists as a welcome development in the effort to shed journalistic light on the incident.
The Times' new article appears to be the product of a serious investigative effort; reporter Steven Lee Myers spent over a month in Europe conducting interviews with NATO and other officials. The piece recounts what Myers' sources characterize as a series of mistakes that ultimately led to the embassy strike. The investigation, Myers writes, "produced no evidence that the bombing of the embassy had been a deliberate act."
At the same time, Myers acknowledges that the story his U.S. sources tell is an unlikely one, characterizing their chronology as a "bizarre chain of missteps" leading to what they call a mistaken attack. Myers ends his report on a note of skepticism, citing a Republican member of Congress who had been briefed by Pentagon and CIA officials: "In the end, he said he was confident in their assurances it had not been a deliberate strike. He paused, then added, 'unless some people are lying to me.'"
In an interview with FAIR, Times foreign editor Andrew Rosenthal said it was understandable that the Chinese would think the bombing was deliberate, since the CIA's explanation is, in his words, "bizarre."
According to the Times' account, although the CIA has its own targeting unit, it was instead the agency's Counter-Proliferation Division (CPD), "a small office whose focus [is] the spread of missiles and nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons," that proposed the embassy target. The CPD has no experience or expertise in targeting or in the Balkans. It nominated the target on its own initiative, apparently without being solicited by NATO or the Pentagon.
The CPD is where Plame worked at the time.
Although the Times does not mention it, the CPD is a covert operations unit, located within the CIA's Directorate of Operations rather than its Directorate of Intelligence. In a 1997 report to Congress, CIA counter-proliferation analysts singled out China as "the most significant supplier of weapons of mass destruction-related goods and technology to foreign countries." Counter-proliferation officials have been embroiled for years in a fight with the Clinton administration over its policy of "engagement" with China.
The Times' sources say that the CPD's intended target, located near the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, was the Yugoslav Federal Directorate of Supply and Procurement (FDSP). The targeting was done by a CPD analyst using an unclassified 1997 map of Belgrade provided by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). The map, which was not intended to be used for aerial targeting, did not identify street address numbers.
So CIA analysts with no experience in establishing and identifying targets decided to nominate a target. O-o-o-o-kay ...
The Times' sources claim that the analyst misidentified the embassy as the FDSP when he attempted to pinpoint the FDSP's address on the map by extrapolating from addresses on parallel streets. "To target based on that is incomprehensible," an official told the Times.
And no Mapquest back then ...
While the Times' sources say the aerial photographs of the site provided by a NIMA official-- which showed the Chinese embassy-- raised no questions at the CIA, a senior intelligence official told the Times that "it should have been apparent to any imagery expert that the building shown did not look remotely like a warehouse or any Serbian government building."
Bet the CPD didn't have one of those, either ...
On his own initiative, the analyst then downloaded a targeting form from a secure Pentagon computer, filled it out and sent it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff "appearing to be a more advanced proposal than it was," according to Myers. The Joint Chiefs never conducted a thorough review of the target; "the reasons are not clear," Myers writes. All of the Joint Chiefs refused interviews with Myers, who is the Times' Pentagon correspondent.
I'll bet they did; someone in the Pentagon got their butt chewed royally for this, I'm sure ...
Eight days before the embassy was struck, another CIA analyst tried to prevent the bombing from taking place. He had no authority to review targets-- "or even to know what they were"-- but he called the NIMA official, telling him he had "heard informally" that the FDSP's actual location was 1,000 yards south of the targeted embassy building. The NIMA official tried unsuccessfully to arrange a meeting between the two officers.
A few days later, NIMA provided the skeptical CIA officer with six additional images of the building, which confirmed to him that the building was not the FDSP. At that point, The CIA officer raised his concerns with military officials in Naples. According to those officers, he "did not make his questions...sound grave enough to remove the target from the list."
In the end, despite its supposed value as a target, the FDSP was never bombed.
More at the link ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
In the big picture, we should have been bombing Kandahar at the time. To me, the Sbrenica killings are one big yawner.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/26/2005 1:46 Comments ||
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#2
WTF? This was a targeted strike. NATO had knocked out all the Serbian transmitters in Belgrade, thus cutting off the high command from its troops in the field. The Chinese helpfully volunteered the use of their transmitter on embassy grounds (an act which voided their non-belligerent status) and dared Uncle Sam to do something about it. Uncle Sam did something, and took out the transmitter. Stratfor had the story back after it happened, back when they were still free, and it had the advantage of making a hell of a lot of sense.
Edited. Read the whole thing for a good laugh.... I think.
"The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is 'okay' to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is," Dean said, not mentioning that until he nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court this week, Bush had not appointed anyone to the high court. Dean is lying through his teeth hoping his listeners don't know anything about the case.
The court's liberal coalition of Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer combined with Justice Anthony Kennedy to form the majority opinion, allowing the city of New London, Conn., to use eminent domain to seize private properties for commercial development. Read the entire wretched thing if you dare.
Former US president Bill Clinton has been offered 40 goats and 20 cows for his daughter by a love-struck African government official. Mr Clinton was offered the deal on a recent trip to Kenya.
He was offered the animals as a traditional African way of getting a father to give away his daughter's hand in marriage. The dowry is a very generous one by the country's own standards. Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor wrote to Mr Clinton through Kenya's Foreign Minister. He said: "Had I succeeded in wooing Chelsea, I would have had a grand wedding.
"I would have invited South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to preside at the ceremony."
The councillor gave the names of the former Kenyan president Daniel Arap-Moi and two of his college mates as character references. Mr Chepkurgor also said he was also impressed by Mr Clinton's wife, Hillary, for standing by Mr Clinton during the Monica Lewinksy scandal. He said Mrs Clinton acted like a "like an African woman". Bill suggested Hildabeast for 39.95 goats.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/26/2005 08:44 ||
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#1
When my daughter (the blond Marine) was in Kuwait in support of OIF in 2002, one of the local contractors offered her 40 camels for her hand in marriage. She thought he was joking, and bargained him up to 70 camels, and then realized (with horror and embarrassment) that he was entirely serious. One of her NCOs stepped in at that point, and took over dealing with that particular contractor afterwards, in order to save face.
70 camels was a fair and generous offer, though.
#11
After a weekend trip home to Arkansas, Bill Clinton stepped from the helicopter and onto the White House lawn. He was carrying two Arkansas-bred hawgs, one under each arm. At the bottom of the steps, a young Marine snapped to attention, saluted sharply and said, 'Fine looking pigs, sir!' Clinton turned and glared at the boy. 'Son, don't you know I'm from Arkansas? These ain't pigs. They're hawgs.' The Marine shot back, 'Marine begs the COMMANDER IN CHIEF'S pardon, sir! Fine-looking hawgs, sir!' Clinton smiled with pride and the young man relaxed. The President went on, 'Thank you, son. You see this one here?' He lifted up the pig under his right arm. 'I got this one for Chelsea.' Then he nodded to the hawg on his left. 'And this one here, I got for Hillary.' At that the Marine snapped back to attention and said, 'Outstanding trade, sir!'
#14
The Cheney's, the Bush's and the Clinton's were all having breakfast one morning, when Dick leaned over to Lynne and said, "Sugar, will you please pass the sugar?" Bill thought, "Hmmm...". Then W. leaned over to Laura and said, "Honey, will you please pass the honey?". Now Bill, not wanting to be shown up by these two show-offs, leaned over to Hillary and said, "Hillary, please pass the bacon, you fucking pig."
In 1975 in Morocco a 140lb blonde Midwestern girl was worth 100 camels to a desert herder. At that time a camel was worth between 750 to 1000 dollars so that is: $100,000 per girl in 1975 dollars!
Other hair colors and weights had their lower prices but blonde and 140lbs were prefered.
NOW HOW DO I KNOW THIS?
A modern dance professor I knew was trying to recruit some ladies to "model" at some "classy" resorts some of his Marseille "mafia" friends owned.
I woofed on him to the girls he was trying to recruit (2 days before departure with no time to "hire" new models..).
When all the young ladies in a room are 140lbs and you loudly mention to a friend what somebody that weight is worth in Morocco - in passing - then walk out... even the stupid think...
The Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of influential party moderates, named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today to direct a new initiative to define a party agenda for the 2006 and 2008 elections.
The appointment solidified the identification of Clinton, once considered a champion of the party's left, with the centrist movement that helped propel her husband to the White House in 1992. It also continued her effort, which has accelerated in recent months, to present herself as a moderate on issues such as national security, immigration and abortion.
In her new role, the New York Democrat immediately called for a truce between the DLC and liberal elements of the party, which have engaged in a ferocious war of words over the Democrats' direction since President Bush won reelection in November.
"Now, I know the DLC has taken some shots from some within our party and that it has returned fire too," she told a gathering of the group here. "Well, I think it's high time for a cease-fire, time for all Democrats to work together based on the fundamental values we all share."
Clinton assumed her role as head of the DLC's "American Dream Initiative" at a meeting that drew three other centrist Democrats widely considered possible 2008 contenders and highlighted the maneuvering already underway for the next presidential race.
Besides Clinton, roughly 500 elected officials and DLC supporters who convened at a downtown hotel also heard from Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), the DLC's outgoing chairman; Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who replaced Bayh this month; and outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
The session amounted to one of the first multi-candidate "cattle calls" for the potential 2008 contenders.
"I thought I was at a New Hampshire J-J dinner," joked Warner, in a reference to the Jefferson-Jackson party dinners that are frequent platforms for presidential contenders.
Each potential candidate delivered a campaign-style speech that blended criticism of the Bush administration with calls for Democrats to pursue centrist policies on such issues as national defense, energy and the federal budget.
Clinton's speech was built around an elaborate metaphor of what the country might look like on issues from healthcare to homeland security to a similar gathering that assembled in Ohio in 15 years.
Vilsack focused on restoring a greater sense of community and "shared sacrifice," Bayh emphasized the need to persuade Americans that Democrats could effectively safeguard national security, and Warner stressed the economic competition with rising nations such as China and India.
"The race is on for the future," Warner declared.
Those in the audience generally liked what they heard.
"We are going to be able to field an A-team in 2008," said Louis Magazzu, a local official in Cumberland County, N.J., after listening to the speeches.
Despite the calls for unity from Clinton, Bayh and other speakers, the day underscored continuing divisions among Democrats about how to rebuild at a time when Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
While many liberal activists insist the party's highest priority must be to block Bush's initiatives, DLC officials universally argued that Democrats would not recover until they fill in their own agenda.
"I think the nation fully understands what we are against," Vilsack said in an interview. "I think it is incumbent now to show what we are for."
The proceedings also highlighted a fissure among centrist "New Democrats." While the DLC recently endorsed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, Clinton voted against it in the Senate. Almost all House "New Democrats" are expected to oppose it when the lower chamber votes on the agreement this week. Several of the speakers sounded more skeptical notes toward free trade than were common among moderate Democrats in the 1990s.
The meeting comes at a time when the DLC is struggling to maintain the influence in the party it wielded when Bill Clinton held the White House.
Leading party centrists formed the DLC after Ronald Reagan's landslide reelection victory in 1984 over Walter F. Mondale, who was allied with the most liberal Democratic interest groups.
Urging Democrats to seize the political center, the DLC helped formulate key "New Democrat" ideas for Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, such as welfare reform and national service. Clinton chaired the group from 1990 through 1991 and brought many figures involved with it into his two administrations.
Since Clinton left office, though, a broad array of liberal activists, many of them clustered around left-leaning websites like the Daily Kos, have accused the DLC of weakening the party by advocating positions, such as support for free trade or the Iraq war, that they say have blurred distinctions with the GOP.
David Sirota, a Democratic consultant who posts indefatigably on his own liberal web log, responded to the news of the "American Dream Initiative" Clinton is leading by warning that Democrats would be doomed to "permanent minority status" if they followed the DLC direction.
"The fact is, the Democratic Party has to make a choice: is it going to continue to follow the DLC, be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corporate America, and lose elections for the infinite future," he wrote in an e-mail. "Or is it going to go back to its roots of really representing the middle class and standing up for ordinary people's economic rights?"
Clinton said that she would reach out not only to centrists but "progressive people from all perspectives" to prepare her blueprint, which is due in one year.
But the fierce remarks from Sirota â and only somewhat more muted criticism of liberal groups like MoveOn.org â show the challenge of devising a program that attracts broad support across the party.
Indeed, Al From, the DLC founder, said in an interview that the plan was not intended to "be a lowest common denominator agenda" assembled by compromising among all elements of the party.
All this suggests that strains could develop between Clinton's desire to write a plan popular with as wide an array of Democrats as possible and the DLC's hope of crafting a sharply focused centrist road map â even if that means continued conflict with liberals that Clinton may be reluctant to antagonize.
#1
Has Hildabeast changed her hair-do? Gotta have a new look for this job. I kinda liked the long bangs with granny glasses look. Or perhaps the baronness-in-waiting look with high leather boots, aka, Baroness von Hildebeast of the DLC.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/26/2005 8:21 Comments ||
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#2
Let the Democrats fight out their differences now, without the pressure of a presidential election. If at least one branch understands that it is political suicide to continue the antiwar, anti-America program of their radical wing, the party, and the nation's political discourse, will be the better for it. Even if the stances taken are calculatedly hypocritical, the politicians will find it difficult to back very far away from them later. Kerry, after all, did not get very far with his, "I voted for the war before I voted against it."
#3
Notice how the Dems are a lot like the moslems?
They think they're special and better than the infidels proles, the rules aren't made for them, their way is the only way and anyone who doesn't agree with them is evil, and they're very experienced at taqiyah.
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/26/2005 9:16 Comments ||
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#4
Dr Tongue's 3-D House of Losers and Sad Sacks
One hand on your wallet at all times is my advice, boys.
#6
Besides Clinton, roughly 500 elected officials and DLC supporters who convened at a downtown hotel also heard from Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), the DLC's outgoing chairman; Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who replaced Bayh this month; and outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
#7
Seems to me she is making a very serious attempt to remake herself in a conservative image. The problem is, it's just an image. She would never give up her Liberal Left ideology. She took a very close look at the Kerry campaign and will not make the same mistakes. I don't know if she's doing this on her own or if she has some very good advisors but whoever it is is doing a good job of selling a pig in a poke.She's a blue core in a red jumpsuit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/26/2005 15:02 Comments ||
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#8
"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." -- Hillary Clinton
"From each according to his ability; to each according to his need." ___ Karl Marx
AUSTRALIA has joined the US, China, India and South Korea in a secret regional pact on greenhouse emissions to replace the controversial Kyoto climate protocol.
The alliance, which is yet to be announced, will bring together nations that together account for more than 40 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
To be known as the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate, the grouping will aim to use the latest technologies to limit emissions and to make sure the technologies are available in the areas and industries that need them most.
The US and Australia have refused to sign the Kyoto protocol -- an international agreement setting greenhouse gas emission targets for developed countries by 2012. China and India are not limited by it because they are considered developing economies.
The US initiative has been discussed between the five nations for five months and is viewed as a practical attempt to rein in greenhouse emissions without harming development or economic growth in the region.
John Howard discussed the greenhouse strategy with US President George W.Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a series of meetings at the White House during Mr Howard's trip to Washington last week.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held meetings with Mr Bush on the same topic on the same day.
The US has been driving the negotiations but Australia has been part of the deal, given its vital interests in coal and gas exports to China and South Korea, as well as negotiations with China on uranium sales for nuclear energy.
While Mr Howard and Mr Bush concede there is a threat from climate change, they have refused to sign the Kyoto protocol and are instead looking at a "post-Kyoto" strategy.
The Howard Government, which believes Kyoto will harm Australia's economy and hurt coal exports, yesterday released a report on greenhouse gas emissions.
The report warned climate change was inevitable and Australia should expect higher temperatures, more droughts, severe cyclones and storm surges in the next 30-50 years.
In Australia, the CSIRO predicts temperatures could rise between 1C and 6C by 2070. Average global temperatures have already risen 0.6C in the past 100 years as a result of accumulated greenhouse gases.
The report identifies Cairns, the Murray Darling Basin and south west West Australia as the three regions most vulnerable to the expected consequences of climate change.
Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell conceded Australia would have to do more to reduce greenhouse gases but said the Kyoto protocol was not the answer.
"You need a comprehensive agreement that involves all of the major emitters. At the moment we don't have that," he said. "By moving more and more towards renewable (energy), such as solar and wind, and a whole range of technologies that we can develop here in Australia and ultimately export to places like China and India -- building partnerships with these countries is going to be the solution."
In April, The Australian revealed Australia's role in brokering the new-generation greenhouse reduction plan. Discussions at that stage focused on moving away from binding greenhouse gas reduction targets to voluntary emission reductions for industry.
Mr Bush and Mr Howard are convinced modern technology, which can improve efficiency and reduce waste in industry and power generation, is the key to reducing greenhouse emissions.
Posted by: too true ||
07/26/2005 12:08 ||
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Any agreement on permitted radiation levels after South Korea is turned into an island?
LONDON - Foreign Ministers representing a group of nations seeking seats on the United Nations Security Council tried to hammer out a proposal on Monday to expand the powerful body. Foreign Ministers from Germany, India, Brazil, Japan and several African countries met in London to try and come up with a plan they hope to jointly present to the United Nations in New York for ratification before September.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji, whose country heads the 53-nation African Union, has described the one-day meeting as âvery, very crucial.â
Why, the fate of the whole UN might depend on it ...
The so-called Group of Four countries - Brazil, Germany, India and Japan - disagree with African nations over how many members should be added to the Council and whether to press for new permanent members with veto powers. The Group of Four countries do not want the new members to have veto powers, while the African countries think they should. African nations are willing to compromise if the existing permanent members give their veto powers.
The Group of Four countries have introduced a resolution to expand the Security Council to 25 members, adding six permanent members without veto power and four non-permanent members. The African Union has proposed expanding the Council to 26, adding six permanent members with veto power, and five non-permanent members.
Any resolution would require approval from two-thirds of the 191 UN member states. Adeniji has said he is âreasonably optimisticâ about coming up with a plan that would win enough votes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
"pound out proposal"
Pounding sand would be more productive. The UN Wank-o-matic has been cranked up to Maximum Moronic Irrelevance...
"...Charlie stole the handle and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down..."
Until it's tossed out on its collective ass, that is.
#4
Who cares? Pack them in. If the Kleptocracies load up the UNSC, the relavant members will just leave or ignore them. They're doomed! Doomed, I tell ya. Into irrelevance. BFD.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/26/2005 17:28 Comments ||
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Discovery and seven astronauts blasted into orbit Tuesday on America's first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster, ending a painful, 2 1/2-year shutdown devoted to making the shuttle less risky and NASA more safety-conscious.
Video showed what appeared to be a large piece of debris flying off the external fuel tank two minutes into the flight. The object did not seem to hit the orbiter. Footage also showed what might have been at least two light-colored objects flying off Discovery as the shuttle cleared the launch pad.
Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale raised the possibility that the light-colored objects were harmless pieces of paper that protect Discovery's thrusters before launch. But he insisted it was too soon to say what the cameras may have picked up, and he gave assurances the multitude of images will be examined frame by frame in the coming hours and days.
"No telling what might be there or what's not there â we hope nothing," he said.
#1
Discovery and seven astronauts blasted into orbit Tuesday on America's first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster, ending a painful, 2 1/2-year shutdown devoted to making the shuttle less risky and NASA more safety-conscious.
Later on in the piece, it says:
If the sensors had acted up before liftoff, the space agency had been prepared to bend its safety rules to get the shuttle flying.
#3
No amount of money could get me on that ancient wreck. Built and maintained by the lowest bidder. Supported and modified by hell's own bureaucrats....
NO WAY!
Now something simple and sensible like SpaceShip one.... yes.
#5
Kalle-
My understanding is that if for some reason Discovery couldnt make it back, she will remain docked to the ISS, and the Russians will boost up two Soyuz to bring everybody back. Unfortunately, that would be the end of the shuttle program and most likely the ISS as well. The reason Columbia couldn't do that - even if they had known - was that as the oldest shuttle, she was heavier than her sisters by quite some distance and was physically unable to reach the ISS. Endeavour, Atlantis and Discovery are much lighter and can reach ISS without any problems.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/26/2005 20:22 Comments ||
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#6
Did it seem to anyone else that there might be an unstated Dire Emergency⢠on the ISS driving the necessity of launching now? Sheesh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/26/2005 20:27 Comments ||
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#7
The ISS is an Unstated Dire Emergencyâ¢. The ISS and NASA have lost their way and do not have a clear vision of what their mission is.
We should be testing out the prototypes of the replacement of the Shuttle now. But due to lack of vision at the top of government, we are playing with tired technology. One does not pull major concepts and equipment out of one's a$$. This is a continuing process, and the US is has fallen behind in all this. Hell, look at our public infrastructure: roads, bridges, public buildings. We have spent Billions and Billions⢠on feel-good stuff and have neglected the basic, boring, non-glamourous stuff for decades. Comes down to lack of leadership and vision.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/26/2005 21:29 Comments ||
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In this war there are no losers!:
St. Louis - Beer wholesalers surveyed by Citigroup Smith Barney believe their industry is on the verge of a price war that could last seven months or longer. Analyst Bonnie Herzog said: "The major brewers continue to discount and roll back prices.
"We believe a price war is looming and 82% of the wholesalers we surveyed agreed and on average believe a price war could last at least seven months." Read the article even the Canadians are joining the battle!
The casualties of this war will no doubt be many, with many Rantburgers among those who will long feel the hangover er um aftermath of its upcoming sudsiness.
#4
This is nothing to joke about. We have no hope of victory only a long, long, extructiatingly endless drawn out fight in the streets war. I stand ready.
#5
As I read the rants of support for this war, I have tears welling in my eyes. We must be resoulute, we must never surrender, and we must accept the task before us with gusto (and maybe pretzels). To bottles and let loose the hops of war! P.S. In a related story Ted Kennedy has resigned from the Senate and enlisted in the Army to participate in this war.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/26/2005 19:51 Comments ||
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#8
If we make it a world war, then we could reach across the Pond and form an alliance with General Guinness and his Dublin Boozileers. Quotes:
"Found on every bottlefront...."
"He's the one who turned the Firth of Forth
Into the Firth of Froth"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/26/2005 19:58 Comments ||
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#9
when 6 packs of domestic are close to $5.50 , it's time for a price war, like what the wine makers/grape growers are going into. Demand for beer has dropped recently, I know, because I drink less. Jack Daniels is on my taxes as a dependent, tho'
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/26/2005 20:00 Comments ||
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#10
Well that price war won't extend to what I drink. I drink import because I like that kind of beer better. Maybe if the big US brands made beer worth calling beer things would be different.
UMM QASR, Iraq - Several hundred Iraqis on Monday tore down a metal barrier recently put up by Kuwaiti authorities just over the border inside Iraqi territory, an AFP reporter at the scene said. The demonstrators met in the town of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq before heading to the border to dismantle the barrier some 50 to 100 yards (metres) north of a ditch marking the border. Kuwaiti border guards trained their weapons on the demonstrators, but there were no clashes.
Someone remind me, it's just sand and rocks at the border, right?
On top of oil. Don't forget that part.
That's what slant drilling is for ...
A government official in Kuwait City later told AFP that the metal barrier in Umm Qasr was being installed inside Kuwaiti territory as part of a barrier being built along the 200-km (125-mile) border between the two countries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
...This sort of thing tells me that for all the progress that's been made, there's still some folks on both sides that can't quite understand that it's OVER.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/26/2005 7:27 Comments ||
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#2
I dunno, Mike. That's not restricted to the ME, as yesterday's story about the coming Canada-Denmark war shows.
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.
From correspondents in Cologne 
LONDON - Foreign Ministers representing a group of nations seeking seats on the United Nations Security Council tried to hammer out a proposal on Monday to expand the powerful body. Foreign Ministers from Germany, India, Brazil, Japan and several African countries met in London to try and come up with a plan they hope to jointly present to the United Nations in New York for ratification before September.
UMM QASR, Iraq - Several hundred Iraqis on Monday tore down a metal barrier recently put up by Kuwaiti authorities just over the border inside Iraqi territory, an AFP reporter at the scene said. The demonstrators met in the town of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq before heading to the border to dismantle the barrier some 50 to 100 yards (metres) north of a ditch marking the border. Kuwaiti border guards trained their weapons on the demonstrators, but there were no clashes.
