US television evangelist Pat Robertson, who caused ripples weeks ago calling for Hugo Chavez' assassination, said the natural disasters pointed to the end of the world and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. "These things are starting to hit with amazing regularity," Mr Robertson told CNN, remarking on the coincidence of a major earthquake that killed thousands in Asia on Saturday and recent killer hurricanes slamming the US.
I guess we'd better clean out the guest room...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 20:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What next, is he going to go on Coast to Coast? Or maybe get a column at Pravda?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/09/2005 20:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
the MSM only trots out Pat R when they want to slam all religious citizens by association. By implication, all journalists are Jayson Blair deep down inside
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2005 20:46 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Holy Smoke! I better run out to the airport and put extra tie-downs on my plane. Ima gonner need her to escape this trail of tears. Better tank up, too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/09/2005 21:46 Comments ||
Top||
#4
said the natural disasters pointed to the end of the world and the imminent return of Jesus Christ
I saw that particular segment on CNN and he didn't sound as wacked out as this blurb makes him out to be.
More interestingly, he was given a chance to clarify his "take out Chavez" comment, but did not. Instead, he seemed to re-iterate his original argument.
Oh admit it...he's only speaking what everyone else is thinking.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/09/2005 21:58 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Tonight's special guest Pat Robertson, next, on the Howard Beale Show.
#6
Whenever I get in an argument with a liberal (yeah, by now I should know better) over the Left's anti-Christian bias, it's usually less than a minute before they trot our Robertson, Falwell, or that anti-gay nutjob from Kansas. Yeah, these guys have a following, but hardly represent mainstream Christian thought in America.
Alas, this seems to be an urban legend...
Patrick Barkham
The Guardian
If they are not launching themselves at you in drug-fuelled desperation, their bloodshot eyes are searching for their next fix, pink paws scrabbling in the ground. Sometimes they seize upon a rock of crack hidden in front gardens, and scarper to feed their addiction.
Squirrels in south London could have become addicted to crack cocaine, say residents of Brixton, who suggest the rodents have dug up drugs buried by dealers or nibbled residues of crack on pipes and vials discarded by addicts.
According to internet legend, crack squirrels have terrorised residents in New York and Washington. But is the Brixton crack squirrel real or an urban myth? The Guardian began its search for the freebasing fiend near the local cinema. "They used to hang out in the little park in front of the Ritzy, twitching ... dancing to music only they could hear and generally creating a malevolent ambience," Londoner Rik Abel wrote in his blog. Ritzy regulars were less sure. "I've never seen one," said a staff member. "But there might be crack foxes around too."
On Brixton Hill, Bim is not surprised by the spectre of the Brixton crack squirrel. "I've only been released from prison today but I've heard about the squirrels. They are scoffing all the crack, more stoned than me. Have you ever seen cats with hash? Cats always go for hash."
There is no sign of a squirrel half-crazed on Class As along Coldharbour Lane or Rush Common - but, finally, a possible sighting. "I've just seen one jump down from an old sunflower by the Seventh Day Adventist church," said Reg Throssell. "I locked eyes with it and it stared back at me really confidently. It was scavenging and it looked scrawny."
But Brixton crack squirrels need not worry about the police yet. "I've no knowledge of that at all," said a Scotland Yard spokesman, firmly.
TONY BLAIR has decided to back new nuclear power stations, which would be built on the sites of existing plants and presented to the public and his party as a job-creating answer to climate change. A year-long government inquiry into Britain's future energy requirements is expected by the Prime Minister to conclude that more nuclear energy is the only plausible answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The nuclear industry is willing to proceed without any government money on three conditions: that it is supported with planning applications, is helped with nuclear waste disposal and offered protection against an energy price crash.
In the past fortnight, the Prime Minister has privately disclosed that he is firmly in favour of more nuclear reactors, and that he expects the coming inquiry to make a case that can be supported by an all-party consensus. He believes the mood among Labour MPs has been irreversibly shifted by their involvement in the global warming debate, and that a backlash from the Iraq war has stoked concern about UK dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Employment, Blair believes, will win over many on the Left - especially as 8,000 jobs are expected to be lost during the decommissioning of Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria, which employs 12,000.
The Prime Minister's position on nuclear power has been made clear by those who have spoken to him directly and believe he wants to send out a positive signal to the nuclear industry so that they start planning now.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/09/2005 11:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I really hate to say this but take a page from the French* and build to standard designs. Just go one better and go with the newer pebble bed reactor designs.
* How come we never hear the enviro asshats screaming about nuclear power in France?
#4
How come we never hear the enviro asshats screaming about nuclear power in France?
Because France is run by socialists and Marxists.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/09/2005 13:04 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Meanwhile in India...
The Union Cabinet today gave its in principle clearance of sites for setting up Nuclear Power Stations in future and pre-project activities at the following sites, including land acquisition in the case of Jaitapur site in Maharashtra :-
1. Kakrapar, Gujarat
( (2x700 MWe PHWRs) *
2. Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu
( 2 x 1000 MWe LWRs) **
3. Jaitapur, Maharashtra
( 2 x 1000 MWe LWRs)
4. Rawatbhata, Rajashtan
( 2 x 700 MWe PHWRs)
With the setting up of the aforesaid Nuclear power Plants, the total nuclear power capacity in the northern, western and southern regions would go up considerably.
At present, fourteen nuclear power reactors are in operation and nine reactors are under construction at seven sites across the country. These sites are : Tarapur in Maharashtra, Rawatbhata in Rajasthan, Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Narora in Uttar pradesh, Kakrapar in Gujarat, Kaiga in Karnatka and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.
* PHWRs = Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors
** LWRs = Light Water Reactors
And an additional plant with 8 1000 MWe reactors...
"Finally, a solution to the bugging problem of the stateâs power shortage is in sight, with Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) having identified Joytapur in Sindhudurg district, near Rajapur, for its huge power plant. The plant will have a capacity of 6,000-8,000 megawatt (MW)."
Posted by: john ||
10/09/2005 13:48 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Are any of those locations in the area affected by this earthquake?
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez has blamed global capitalism for earthquakes hitting India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as for mudslides that have struck Central America and Mexico. On his weekly radio and television call-in program, "Hello, Mr. President," Mr Chavez said these catastrophes were nature's answer to the "world global capitalist model". "This model is destroying the world. The world is in danger. Never has there been such disasters, hurricanes, droughts, torrential rains. Incredible! The world is dangerously off balance," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 20:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Did he mention anything about the mudslides in Caracas in '99 during the start of his administration during this program?
MIAMI â As a hurricane spun in the Gulf of Mexico, about to strike Texas and Louisiana, a different sort of maritime drama was unfolding off Florida's southeastern coast â the desperate attempt of 10 Cuban men, riding a homemade boat shaped like a coffin, to reach U.S. shores.
As local TV stations beamed live images throughout South Florida, the men were stopped by the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security about a mile east of Haulover Beach, north of Miami Beach. Six were released in Cuba, and the rest were transferred to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay for interviews with U.S. immigration officials, Petty Officer Ryan Doss, a Coast Guard spokesman, said Tuesday.
The dramatic television pictures â at one point, the Cubans' boat was bumped, spilling four men into the water â highlighted a development that largely has been occurring much farther offshore, out of the public eye: The number of Cubans trying to reach the United States via the perilous journey across the Florida Straits has reached its highest level in more than a decade.
The Coast Guard says it intercepted 1,499 Cubans before they could reach U.S. shores last year. Already this year, it has halted 2,251 Cubans at sea. During the fiscal year that ended Friday, the Coast Guard intercepted 2,712 Cubans, or more than double the 1,225 stopped in fiscal year 2004. "Definitely the numbers are up. One would think there are also more getting through," said Luis Diaz, another Coast Guard spokesman.
One key factor in the increased interceptions, Diaz said, is that the Coast Guard and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, have become more vigilant in monitoring the stretch of water between the United States and Cuba.
In July, the Coast Guard announced that it was shifting two additional patrol boats to the Florida Keys and increasing both sea and aerial surveillance. Planes and helicopters from the federal Customs and Border Protection service were also ordered to help, and the Florida Highway Patrol was enlisted as well to check boats being towed south on Florida's roads to see if they belonged to potential smugglers.
Diaz said the increased efforts, which had to be temporarily modified so the Coast Guard could rescue victims of Hurricane Katrina, have paid off. "The reality is that we're stopping more," he said.
At-sea interdictions now total more than in any single year since 1994, when more than 37,000 Cubans, many using inner tubes or flimsy rafts, braved the hazards of an ocean voyage to reach the United States. Since then, U.S. immigration policy has been changed to distinguish between Cubans detained on the water â who usually get sent back â and those who manage to set foot in the United States. They usually are allowed to stay.
That helps explain why on Sept. 23, as Hurricane Rita neared Texas and Louisiana, the men in the homemade boat were so eager to reach southeastern Florida.
On Tuesday, the Coast Guard said one of its cutters repatriated 54 Cubans caught trying to enter the United States illegally. The week before, 107 would-be migrants who used rafts, rickety watercraft and speedboats in their abortive bids to reach the United States were sent back to Cuba, according to the Coast Guard.
Diaz said Cuban families in the United States might pay $8,000 to $15,000 to the operator of a fast vessel to bring a relative over from Cuba. Such voyages sometimes turn deadly. In August, a 28-foot boat believed to be operated by smugglers capsized north of Matanzas, Cuba. Three survivors were fished from the water by a passing freighter, and they reported that there had been 31 other Cubans aboard. No trace of anyone else was found.
In another suspected smuggling incident, the Coast Guard cutter Metompkin was dispatched Sept. 17 to waters 40 miles southwest of Key West after a Customs and Border Protection plane spotted a speedboat on fire. As the cutter approached, two people jumped into the water, Diaz said. Only one, burned on his arms and torso, could be rescued. "People here are paying thousands to get their loved ones killed. Even smugglers are getting killed," Diaz said.
But not just enforcement efforts have intensified; the numbers of people seeking to flee Fidel Castro's Cuba have also been rising. "More Cubans are leaving; more Cubans are being intercepted," said Damian Fernandez, a political scientist and director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
The reasons, he said, are the dreary realities of life on the Communist-ruled island, as well as the possible intent of the Castro regime to irk the Bush administration by opening the emigration tap. On a single Tuesday this fall, three separate groups of Cubans landed in the Florida Keys. One group of seven men, three women and a child motored ashore at a private resort on Little Torch Key, dirty and weary after a 33-hour voyage in a homemade diesel-powered boat.
In July, in a bold operation that Coast Guard officials admitted caught them by surprise, 19 Cubans were put ashore on posh Sanibel Island on Florida's southwestern coast, well north of the usual drop-off areas, including the Keys and Dry Tortugas, that are closer to Cuba. U.S. officials say an increasing number of Cubans have sailed for Mexico and Honduras, from which they then hope to journey overland to the United States.
"Of late, all the economic reforms have been stalled, if not backtracked," Fernandez said. "There's no electricity; the fans don't work; you can't cook." But along with the frequent power blackouts, he said the warm weather of summer and early autumn also brings calmer ocean conditions for anyone thinking of making the 90-mile crossing to the U.S.
Cuba and the United States have traded accusations of exploiting the migration issue for political ends. Before leaving his post as the top American diplomat in Havana, James C. Cason, chief of mission of the U.S. Interests Section, issued a statement denying "purported U.S. designs to precipitate a mass migration crisis" and accusing the Castro government of flouting a 10-year-old bilateral agreement on Cuban migration. "Cubans who don't have a choice to leave legally are risking their lives, in the greatest numbers we have seen since 1994, on dangerously inadequate watercraft," Cason said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/09/2005 11:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In July, in a bold operation that Coast Guard officials admitted caught them by surprise, 19 Cubans were put ashore on posh Sanibel Island on Florida's southwestern coast, well north of the usual drop-off areas, including the Keys and Dry Tortugas, that are closer to Cuba. U.S. officials say an increasing number of Cubans have sailed for Mexico and Honduras, from which they then hope to journey overland to the United States.
I guess we're at the point right now where it's easier to get in by pretending to be from Mexico and going the long way around than going straight to Florida. Which suggests that immigration enforcement has changed a lot over the last twenty years.
"Of late, all the economic reforms have been stalled, if not backtracked," Fernandez said. "There's no electricity; the fans don't work; you can't cook." But along with the frequent power blackouts, he said the warm weather of summer and early autumn also brings calmer ocean conditions for anyone thinking of making the 90-mile crossing to the U.S.
Huh. I wonder what's happening to all that aid Chavez is sending to Cuba. Maybe there's something to all those rumors that Venezuelan production isn't what it used to be.
After all that snark about Katrina, let's see how Europe deals with Hurricane Vinny.
Despite encountering cool ocean temperatures, Vince has strengthened to a hurricane as he moves off the coast of Africa. I am very surprised that Vince developed in this section of the Atlantic as ocean temperatures are only 23-25 degrees C. Typically surface temperatures of at least 26 degrees C are needed for tropical development. However, one quick look at Vince and it is clear that he is now a hurricane. You can notice Portugal in the upper-right corner and Africa in the lower-right. In other words, Vince is expected to make landfall in Europe (though probably not at hurricane strength). See also info at the National Hurricane Center.
Christian Democrat leader Angela Merkel is set to replace Gerhard Schröder as Germany's next chancellor, in a political deal that will see the departure of Mr Schröder from the national political stage, senior members of the ruling Social Democrats have told the Financial Times. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Ms Merkel's expected victory in the battle for the chancellorship is likely to be announced on Monday, following a meeting on Sunday evening in Berlin between Mr Schröder and Ms Merkel, according to the SPD politicians, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The two leaders met on Thursday evening for four hours to agree the framework of a SPD-CDU grand coalition, but refused on Friday to disclose details. The talks also include SPD leader Franz MÌntefering, and Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber.
Officials close to Mr Schröder said the chancellor would not become vice chancellor and foreign minister in the coalition, despite pressure from within the SPD for him do so. "The chancellor has done what was necessary, to ensure the SPD is on an equal footing with the CDU in the coalition," one official said.
The election yielded a hung parliament but left the CDU holding four more seats than the SPD. Ms Merkel promptly claimed the chancellorship but Mr Schröder, citing his party's unexpectedly strong performance, refused to stand aside. The announcement on Monday is set to alter the balance of power in Berlin immediately, even though Ms Merkel is not expected to be formally elected as chancellor until mid-November.
Government officials said that it was no longer certain that Mr Schröder would represent Germany at the informal European Union summit near London in late October, adding that it was possible that Ms Merkel would attend.
Senior CDU politicians told the Financial Times that the party was willing to make significant concessions to the SPD to win its support for Ms Merkel's chancellorship. "We have to find a way of avoiding the SPD losing face," one leading parliamentarian said. The SPD may be given an equal number of cabinet posts as the CDU and be offered first choice of ministries to control, the MP said. SPD officials said these could include the foreign, economics, and family ministries. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
In addition, the CDU is almost certain to give the SPD assurances - even ahead of lengthy coalition talks expected to start next week - that it will drop key elements of its more radical economic reform agenda, such as changes to job protection and collective bargaining rules. Thus guaranteeing that there will be no improvement and thus votes will go back to the SPD.
SPD politicians warned however there would still be resistance in the party to Ms Merkel becoming chancellor. They urged Mr MÃŒntefering to extract as many concessions as possible from the CDU in the weekend talks. The SPD's executive committee could even refuse to endorse the deal on Monday, according to one leading MP, although others said this was highly unlikely.
Via Israelly Cool:
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - For Muslims, it's a high-tech call to prayer. A new cellular telephone generates five automated reminders a day at prayer time and points Muslims in the direction of Mecca. It also contains a copy of the Islamic holy book, the Quran, in both Arabic and English. Already available in the Middle East and Asia, Ilkone â Arabic for universe â recently went on sale in the Netherlands for its European debut. It will be followed by launches in France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and Bosnia in coming months, said Peter Suyk, the managing director of Lebara BV, the phone's European distributor.
Some Muslims were skeptical.
"I wouldn't buy one," said 15-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, sitting outside Rotterdam's largest mosque, the Mevlana.
I note the AP reporter either doesn't know or doesn't care that he's talking to a fifteen year-old punk lounging outside a mosque and pretending his name is the name of Theo Van Gogh's killer. If AP sent a lady reporter he would have spat on her and refused to even look at her. Punk ass kid. Dipshit "journalist". Bah.
"It might be useful for someone at home or traveling, but not at the mosque. Everyone here already knows what time prayers are."
Background piece on the current tensions in Melilla.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Spanish are beginning another round of confrontation with Morocco, and most in the past have ended in combat. In many ways, it's the Soccer War in Latin America. A needless conflict over a silly situation.
The massive Homeland Security appropriations bill Congress passed will bring aboard 790 new Border Patrol agents, including an unspecified number for Arizona. I'll specify. Probably 3.
It also will provide $35 million for construction of roads, lights and barriers on the Arizona-Mexico Border, and two replacement Border Patrol stations in the state - at Sonoita and Willcox - with facilities for processing and detaining illegal immigrants. The $31.9 billion budget package includes $9 billion for border security nationwide. Though I'm sure by "barrier" they mean painting "do not cross" along the border.
Earlier this year, another 210 new Border Patrol agents were funded in President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget, and a supplemental budget package in support of the Iraqi war effort provided for 500 more border patrol agents and additional resources, said Sal Zamora, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington. He said it was too soon to say where and how agents and other new resources will be deployed. "It would be safe to assume that the Southwest border is the focus Not the Lake Huron shoreline? and that Arizona and New Mexico" will receive some of the new agents," Zamora said.
The Homeland Security bill also will add 250 new U.S. Customs and immigration investigators and 460 other enforcement officers, along with some 1,800 beds in expanded detention facilities to improve capabilities for expedited removal to Guantanamo of non-Mexican illegal immigrants who have been apprehended.
A driverless Volkswagen won a $2 million race across the rugged Nevada desert Sunday, beating four other robot-guided vehicles that completed a Pentagon-sponsored contest aimed at making warfare safer for humans. The race displayed major technological leaps since last year's inaugural race, when none of the self-driving vehicles crossed the finish line.
Stanley the VW Touareg, designed by Stanford University, zipped through the 132-mile Mojave Desert course in six hours and 53 minutes Saturday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navigate rough and twisting desert and mountain trails. The Stanford team celebrated by popping champagne and pouring it over the mud-covered Stanley.
"This car, to me, is really a piece of history," Stanford computer scientist Sebastian Thrun said after receiving an oversized check for the $2 million prize, funded by taxpayers. He said he did not know how he would spend the money, but joked that he needed to buy cat food. Stanford spent $500,000 on the race, some of which was provided by sponsors.
In second place was a red Humvee from Carnegie Mellon University called Sandstorm, followed by a customized Hummer called H1ghlander. Coming in fourth was a Ford Escape Hybrid named Kat-5, designed by students in Metairie, La., who lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf Coast. The Humvee, which finished in seven hours and four minutes, traveled farther than any other vehicle last year despite completing only 7 1/2 miles of the course.
A fifth vehicle, a 16-ton truck named TerraMax, was the last to finish the course Sunday, though not within the contest's 10-hour deadline. Its operators paused it Saturday night so it wouldn't have to race in darkness.
It's unclear how the Pentagon plans to harness the technology used in the race for military applications. But Thrun said he wanted to design automated systems to make next-generation cars safer for everyone, not just the military. "If it was only for the military, I wouldn't be here today," Thrun said. Volkswagen plans to use Stanley in promotions, and the vehicle will then be retired to a museum in Germany, Thrun said.
Called the Grand Challenge, the race began Saturday with a field of 23 autonomous vehicles. Eighteen failed to complete the course because of mechanical failures or sensor problems. Even so, most covered more distance than Sandstorm did last year. Race organizers and team members say improved technology and a familiarity with the race allowed multiple robots to sprint across the finish line.
Even before Saturday's competition, teams practiced their vehicles in various parts of the Southwest desert, including on last year's course. Teams also went back to the drawing board to improve their vehicles' artificial intelligence and sensing systems, which navigate the rough landscape without crashing. The vehicles were tricked out with the latest sensors, lasers, cameras and radar that feed data to onboard computers, which helped them distinguish dangerous boulders from tumbleweeds and decide whether chasms were too deep to cross.
The robotic vehicles had to navigate a course designed to mimic driving conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The course consisted of winding dirt trails and dry lake beds filled with overhanging brush. Parts of the route forced the robots to zip through three tunnels designed to knock out their GPS signals.
Only the five robots that completed the course managed to maneuver a steep 1.3-mile mountain pass known as "Beer Bottle Pass" five miles from the finish line. The mountain ridge â similar to mountain canyons found in Afghanistan â was only 10 feet wide and had a 200-feet drop-off. The turning point occurred Saturday when Stanley overtook the top-seeded H1ghlander at the 102-mile mark.
The race is part of the military's effort to fulfill a congressional mandate to cut casualties by having a third of the military's ground vehicles unmanned in 20 years. A small fleet of autonomous ground vehicles currently operate in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the machines must be remotely controlled by a soldier who usually rides in the same convoy.
Posted by: ed ||
10/09/2005 18:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
In a case seen boosting the credibility and profile of blogs as sources of news and opinion, the Delaware Supreme Court this week found that four bloggers accused of defamation had the right to remain anonymous.
The court ruled that a lower court was wrong in ordering an Internet service provider to disclose the identity of anonymous bloggers who used a local newspaper's public blogging area to criticize a local elected official. The court said that the official, Patrick Cahill, should have been required to provide more evidence that he had suffered damage from defamation before ordering the bloggers' identities be revealed.
The ruling is getting attention because it may represent the first time a state's high court weighed in on blogger's rights to privacy and because the decision is seeing raising the level of blogs to more legitimate status. In the past, courts have been unwilling to protect the identities of message board posters and others who had been accused of misconduct.
Of the four bloggers targeted by Cahill, one decided to appeal an initial ruling. He is referred to in court documents only as John Doe No. 1 and by his blog name, "Proud Citizen."
His attorney, David Finger, said the decision represented protection for all anonymous bloggers "from lawsuits which have little or no merit and are filed solely to intimidate the speaker or suppress the speech."
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
From TFA: âA cheaper, localized version of Windows will be good because it will convince people in the low end of the market to go from Linux to Windows,â said Hans Dee, president of Microsoft reseller Mannasoft Technology Corporation.
He was later heard to say: "At least, that's the plan."
A 4-year-old boy has tested positive for bird flu in Indonesia, a case which if confirmed would be the sixth in the world's fourth-most populous country, the health ministry said on Sunday. The boy from Lampung province on Sumatra was found to be infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health I Nyoman Kandun told Reuters. "Later we will confirm the result in Hong Kong. If the test result there is also positive, he will be added to the list (of confirmed cases)," Kandun said. The boy was in hospital at Lampung. "He's well, only having a cough," Kandun said. Four Indonesians are already known to have died since July from the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe. Six other patients remain in a government-designated hospital in Jakarta suspected of having avian flu.
"I mean, hell, it just ain't the same. Hardly anything blows up. No riots, except maybe at a football game or somethin'. I really miss Peshawar! My wife does, too. Sometimes she gets all sentimental. So I throw acid in her face."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Simple solution: If you miss that hometown feeling so much, go the f&*k back where you came from and stay there.
I detest the "go back where you came from mentality." If I embraced it, my own mother would have to be deported. At the same time, all these whiners who want it both ways have to realize its one of two options; Live in a place where hands and heads get chopped off, or live someplace where your religion may not be of paramount concern to all involved. Pick one but not both, and then STFU!
#3
Yesterday, "Moving Up," Doug Wilson's TLC show, featured a wonderful Vietnamese fellow with a remarkably talented eye for incorporating aspects of his homeland into the decor, including a mural of a Vietnamese beach complete with palm trees and straw-hatted beach comber in the bathroom, which particularly pleased his mother. I am sure many Rantburgers will be able to suggest similar solutions for the homesick... .
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
10/09/2005 10:20 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The way this was capitalized, I was at first afraid of some horrible, surreal beauty pageant event entitled "Miss Ramadan".
#6
Are you kidding, lotp? Christmas, in Germany anyway, starts with Christmas markets in November. Religious they may not be, but the smells of spices and mulled wine and pine trees are inescapable.
#8
I saw the wink, lotp. But not everyone's been there -- it's more omnipresent than Stateside. When we came back, I felt how much smaller Christmas is on this side of the pond.
#9
Are you serious? In what way(s) is it bigger on the other side?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/09/2005 17:18 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Here Christmas is mostly in the shops and on television, Mrs. D. (It's a Wonderful Life and Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, etc). Public displays generally include something for Hanukkah and lots of winter-themed stuff, including streetlight decorations. In Germany (and I can't speak about the rest of Europe, but I don't see why it would be that different), the Christmas markets go up in the city centers in November, and are open daily and well past dark. Each little town and village has its own Christmas market as well, although generally just one of the weekends, and the whole town turns out. Every park, church and town center has a Nativity Scene. Gift giving officially starts on St. Nicholas Day, December 6th, when the children put out hay for St. Nick's horse and get chocolates in return, although the children also have Advents Calendars, many of which give a small chocolate or gift as well as a little picture for each date of December leading up to the 25th. The pre-school children learn Christmas carols and make Christmas presents for their parents at school, and are read the story of the Nativity. I don't know about the grammar schools -- we left before the children were old enough. Images of the Christ Child and Father Christmas are everywhere. And there isn't any question about celebrating winter, or the holidays of other religions that occur around the same time -- this is a celebration of one of the two main Christian holidays. Odd, in a way, considering how irreligious Germans are the rest of the year.
In comparison, Christmas here is much more a family celebration. Even in the public schools my children go to, where some of the teachers still don't in their hearts understand that not everyone is Christian like them. So at one Winter choral concert, trailing daughter #1 sang a song wishing Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends, who don't celebrate Christmas like us, and as many songs about winter as the lovely old Christmas carol... but there was acknowledgement and acceptance of varied beliefs and non-beliefs. The school children made presents with peppermint sticks and snowflakes, not crosses. And the parents with other beliefs came in and made presentations to the elementary classes about their particular holidays. (For six years running I did classroom presentations at the request of the tds' various teachers for Hanukkah about the Syrio-Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes vs. the Maccabees -- the first war for freedom of belief, then taught the kids how to play dreydle. My Jain girlfriend talked about Divali, which is celebrated in India. A Muslim parent would come in to talk about Ramadan.) The school libraries even contain teaching kits for the various holidays, for those teachers missing a certain religion amongst that class's student body. The high school choir teacher is excited to find a Renaissance Hanukkah song, arranged for 4-part chorus plus soloists, a welcome change from his usual reperatoire.
Pakistanâs worst-ever earthquake devastated the country on Saturday and killed over 3,000 people, leaving thousands others injured and homeless. Measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake was centred in the Hindu Kush ranges. The first earthquake hit at 8:51am in the morning, and more than 10 aftershocks were felt until late in the evening. Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the federal interior minister, confirmed that over 1,000 people had died. However, unofficial estimates put the number of dead at over 3,000.
Sherpao said that Muzaffarabad, Balakot, Bagh, several cities of NWFP, Lahore, Gurjat, Mandi Bahaudin, Rawalpindi and other parts of the country were hit by the catastrophic jolts of the earthquake. In Islamabad, one of the blocks of the Margalla Towers - a posh building of luxury apartments â collapsed from the earthquake. Around 250 people, including foreign nationals, were buried alive under the debris of the huge structure. With the number of dead rising rapidly with every update, sources say that the final death toll of the catastrophe could exceed 10,000.
Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the site of the collapsed tower, in sector F-10, and urged the nation to unite in the current national calamity. The president expressed satisfaction at the relief work. The prime minister pledged that the government would provide complete support to the affected families. Sherpao directed the National Crises Management Cell to set up crisis centres in the provincial capitals. A central cell was established in the Interior Ministry.
An estimated 30,000 people were killed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by a massive earthquake, the region's Minister for Works and Communication Tariq Farooq said on Sunday. "Our rough estimates say more than 30,000 people have died in the earthquake in Kashmir," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Does anyone know how bad the destruction is in Afghanistan?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/09/2005 0:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Haven't seen much. Afgha.com has a report that there were two kids killed in Jalalabad, but nothing else. I'd guess most of the worst is in Pak Kashmir.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 0:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It must have been at the eastern edge of the the Hindu Kush, then.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/09/2005 0:12 Comments ||
Top||
#5
As a licensed Civil Engineer in CA and a holder of BSCE and extended studies regarding structural engineering ( 14 units short of MSCE) I think it's a sign Allan doesn't like Muslims. Gotta be....using the Koran and Mooslim MSM as my source of all reputable and widely-held knowledge, then, this time, the Muzzies are fucked. Allan's pissed...something about Thailand and Bali....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2005 0:19 Comments ||
Top||
#6
or it could be a Earth-crust shift like a bazillion before...just more fun to let the natives know it goes both ways :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2005 0:21 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I'd give it a couple days before some turban hollers that it's God's punishment because they're not holy enough.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 0:24 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Yeah, so more jihad for everyone.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/09/2005 0:27 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Is it wrong to presume that many of Pakistan's splendid madrassahs may not have been built exactly to code? Were they all full because the quake hit at prayer-time? One can only hope.
#20
hey maybe Osama bin hit in the head wid a rock! Insh'allah
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/09/2005 12:21 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Pakistan Observer 9/25/05:The Holy Qurâan reveals destruction and extermination of nations through such natural disasters that had ignored Almighty Allahâs commandments. Itâs time for the Pakistani American people to bow before God and seek His forgiveness and protection from the divine retribution.
#23
how about a little respect for the 30,000 dead? Jeesh. 30,000. Think about that for a moment. I usually have a pretty good and often dark sense of humor, but if 30,000 is true, I'm not finding much humor here.
#24
Meanwhile, Allen is very, very cross with the LeT
So is the Indian Army (they killed 8 infiltrators on the LOC this morning)
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Scores of activists from an Islamist charity linked to a banned Pakistani militant organisation died in the devastating earthquake that struck Pakistan's border with India at the weekend.
The militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was outlawed by Pakistan in January 2002, a month after its fighters were accused of taking part in an attack on India's parliament in New Delhi -- an act that brought South Asia's nuclear rivals to the brink of war.
A spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawa, a group drawn from the ranks of Lashkar, said the charity's mosques, hospitals, schools and Islamic seminaries were obliterated in Saturday's earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people.
"Many of our members have been killed. They are in scores while several others are still trapped under the rubble," the spokesman said on Sunday.
The spokesman, who did not want to be identified, said the Taiba hospital run by Jamat-ud-Dawa in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani
Kashmir, and several of its mosques and offices were destroyed.
Posted by: john ||
10/09/2005 15:12 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2005 15:35 Comments ||
Top||
#27
2b, i agree, as much as they gloat at our natural disaters, celebrate 911 etc, as if allen is dishing out punishment...There are women and children buried under rubble..Lets all have some respect...Think about it for a second.
#28
A spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawa, a group drawn from the ranks of Lashkar, said the charity's mosques, hospitals, schools and Islamic seminaries were obliterated in Saturday's earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people.
Boy howdy, that forcefully extracted one or two lachrymose molecules from my tear ducts. Now where did I put my femto-violin?
While this disaster is nothing I would wish upon myriad innocents, Pakistan has been the prime nexus of so much proliferation and regional instability that it is high time this nation's people gain an understanding of how internal corruption has crippled building code enforcement, emergency preparedness and a host of other critical civil services that could have gone a long way towards ameliorating the current death toll.
I make no fun of the many innocent women and children that have died in this disaster. I do find it nearly impossible to mourn the demise of so many able-bodied men who very cheerfully commited themselves to the cause of genocide and atrocities.
I saw the jihadi outfits working very actively. The defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba (presently called Jamat ud Dawa) was the most active of them all. Dawa workers did not have good equipment but they were trying to using a heavy hammer to rescue the people stranded inside. Dawa's number two Makki was of the view that the earthquake was a punishment from Allah to his sinful people. "We have drifted away from the teachings of Islam and abandoned jihad. The people of Islamabad are corrupt to the bones. They are proud of their real estate property. God has taught them a lesson. We should open our eyes and seek Allah's forgiveness and come to the right path i.e. the path of jihad." He said.
According to the eyewitnesses, when the tower collapsed, the passersby started picking up the belongings of the people instead of helping them.
Posted by: john ||
10/09/2005 20:05 Comments ||
Top||
#32
Well, given what we've seen about Katrina and Rita, I expect to find that the casualty estimates right now are higher than they will eventually turn out to be, and that the people that died are going to turn out to not be the corrupt politicians who helped set up the situation in Pakistan in the first place.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/09/2005 20:14 Comments ||
Top||
#33
Would it be a good thing or a bad thing to send FEMA to help?
Posted by: Grans Theting3646 ||
10/09/2005 20:17 Comments ||
Top||
#34
We have drifted away from the teachings of Islam and abandoned jihad
toldja so...not that a blind man couldn't see this reaction coming a mile away
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/09/2005 20:26 Comments ||
Top||
#35
Ditto, Rafael. A true BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious).
#36
The Indian subcontinent is moving at 40 mm/year. From my work in 1970 to 1972 on the San Andreas fault in California, we measured steady regional shifts of 30 mm/year. On Roberta Drive in Woodside (down below SF), we took repeated measurements across the old fault line. Locked up tight. There was a 3' dia redwood stump left over from 1906 quake. The west half of the stump was 12' further north than their right side. That is a lot of strain released! The movement in the Indian theater of seismic operations is 1/3 more than that of California.
The thing that impressed me about pictures of building rubble and damage is the almost total lack of reinforcing rods in stone masonry and concrete. The apartment concrete floors had rebar, but they were pancaked on each other due to the failure of the columns. Typical third world SOP.
Insh'Allah my behind! Ignorance, corruption, and lack of leadership on the part of governments.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/09/2005 21:58 Comments ||
Top||
#37
Of course we mourn the death of innocents, as anyone with a heart must. BUT, they died because the buildings fell on them as a result of the earthquake. Those who knowingly built substandard buildings (and I suspect that if we'd sent Frank G. over to check before the quake, we'd have found not one building up to standard) are the ones who murdered them.
#39
they weren't - AP has clue #1 - pancakes instead of boxes....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2005 22:13 Comments ||
Top||
#40
It seems they never learn (regarding quality control and corruption in the construction industry). Granted the article is about India, but Pakistan can't be that much different.
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/09/2005 22:17 Comments ||
Top||
NWFP: The death toll from the earthquake has risen to over 1,600 in NWFP, said Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani. At least 550 people were killed and 1,700 injured in the Mansehra district of NWFP, a senior police officer said.
Muzaffarabad: Around 1,600 people died in Kashmir from the earthquake, said Kashmir President Sardar Mohammad Anwar. âThis is my conservative guess, and the death toll could be much higher,â Anwar told a private television channel.
Shangla: More than 70 people have been killed in the tremors which jolted Shangla and nearby localities early on Saturday morning.
Murree: At least 24 people have been killed, several injured and scores of houses have collapsed after high-intensity jolts hit Murree and surrounding areas in the early hours of Saturday.
Multan: At least three people, including a school-girl, died and more than 36 were injured when a number buildings, mud-houses and school buildings collapsed in the suburbs of Taunsa Sharif, Bhakkar and Leiah.
Northern Areas: Three people were reportedly killed and three others injured in the Northern Areas.
Lahore: A teenager was killed and five others sustained minor injuries following the collapse of a roof of a plaza at the New Alamgir Market in the Shah Alam area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
FOX reported the only damage in Islamabad was a ten story building housing UN diplomats. A reporter called in from the region and mentioned Egyptian, Chinese, Russian, and Japanese nationals reportedly killed as well as from Kosovo. Interesting bunch, huh? I hope the British team sent to help includes MI5 to search this rubble.
#2
FOX reported the only damage in Islamabad was a ten story building housing UN diplomats.
This raises a whole bunch of other questions... how many other buildings are there of that size and height in Islamabad? How recent is their construction?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/09/2005 11:53 Comments ||
Top||
#3
For the curious, I checked to see what Google had on their maps site re: Islamabad, but this was the only imagery they had. You can zoom in on the image, but it starts looking blurry. Someone like OP might be able to glean something useful from this, but I can't.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/09/2005 12:05 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I wonder if the madrassah students will have to interrupt their studies for a while to remove rubble...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/09/2005 12:06 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Phil, I get nothing but a blank page from your link.
I've checked all the "usual suspects", and there is no "after" imagery available yet. Most of the area is under heavy clouds and really crappy weather. It's going to be awhile before we can actually SEE the damage.
I have great sympathy for the women and children killed, but not for the men. There's a major difference between the God Jehovah and the moon god "Allan". God gave us brains to learn that when one crustal plate is ramming into another, earthquakes are going to happen, they're going to be severe, and you have to build to accommodate that fact. Worshipers of "Allan" say, "It's God's will if my home collapses", and totally ignore common sense or engineering. Being "stuck on stupid" is deadly, as the world once again learned yesterday.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/09/2005 18:06 Comments ||
Top||
#7
HERE is the 10-degree square where Saturday's earthquake, and today's aftershocks, are plotted out. The area is still being shaken quite heavily.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/09/2005 18:14 Comments ||
Top||
#8
HERE is the 10-degree square where Saturday's earthquake, and today's aftershocks, are plotted out. The area is still being shaken quite heavily.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/09/2005 18:15 Comments ||
Top||
#9
HERE is the 10-degree square where Saturday's earthquake, and today's aftershocks, are plotted out. The area is still being shaken quite heavily.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/09/2005 18:15 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I have great sympathy for the women and children killed, but not for the men.
Likewise, Old Patriot. In a patriarchal society that is rigidly controlled by men, it is they who must now bear responsibility for their massive misapplication of resources. The construction of so many fanatical madrassahs amidst a complete and total lack of responsible civil engineering, building inspection protocol or even remotely adequate emergency preparedness, stands as a searing indictment of their willful malfeasance. All their corrupt government officials and venomous imams may as well have strangled each earthquake victim with their bare hands.
#11
I'm sure their Saudi patrons will switch the madrassah/jihad funding to infrastructure rebuilding funds....right? I mean, the Paks aren't just useful fodder, are they?
right....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2005 20:04 Comments ||
Top||
Nigeria returned $4.5 million seized from scammers to an 86-year-old Chinese woman last month, the West African country's financial crimes agency said Saturday. A Nigerian fraud ring swindled Juliana Ching, of Hong Kong, through false promises that she and her daughter would benefit from a contract supposedly offered by the state-owned Nigerian oil company, said Osita Nwajah, spokesman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The scammers told Ching they needed to use her account to temporarily deposit $25 million, promising her 25 percent of the sum. Instead, between 1995 and 2000, they withdrew $4.5 million of Ching's own money.
Nigeria has earned global notoriety as a base for criminals arranging "advance fee" scams. Among the most common are e-mails proposing to share portions of dead African dictators' ill-gotten estates in exchange for an advance payment to help move the money overseas. The scammers keep the fees while victims receive nothing.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sorry, zero sympathy for the "little old lady."
She had 4.5 million in the bank, but went along with such a transparent scam that "promised" more. Why? GREED.
I've got to quit reading this stuff - it's getting expensive sending out my sympathy meter to have the needle unwrapped from around the peg.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/09/2005 22:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
go digital - saves repair on those analog meters
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/09/2005 22:56 Comments ||
Top||
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.
US television evangelist Pat Robertson, who caused ripples weeks ago calling for Hugo Chavez' assassination, said the natural disasters pointed to the end of the world and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. "These things are starting to hit with amazing regularity," Mr Robertson told CNN, remarking on the coincidence of a major earthquake that killed thousands in Asia on Saturday and recent killer hurricanes slamming the US. 
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez has blamed global capitalism for earthquakes hitting India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as for mudslides that have struck Central America and Mexico. On his weekly radio and television call-in program, "Hello, Mr. President," Mr Chavez said these catastrophes were nature's answer to the "world global capitalist model". "This model is destroying the world. The world is in danger. Never has there been such disasters, hurricanes, droughts, torrential rains. Incredible! The world is dangerously off balance," he said.
OZAMIZ, Philippines â Linux, the operating system favored by many computer geeks over proprietary ones because it's free, is gaining ground among Internet cafés and business establishments in this southern Philippine city amid a crackdown against pirated computer software. The crackdown came in the wake of reports that software giant Microsoft is launching a low-priced Filipino version of Windows XP called Windows XP Starter Edition. It costs about $30 (1,680 pesos) as opposed to the Windows XP Home Edition that sells for $80 (4,480 pesos).
Pakistanâs worst-ever earthquake devastated the country on Saturday and killed over 3,000 people, leaving thousands others injured and homeless. Measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake was centred in the Hindu Kush ranges. The first earthquake hit at 8:51am in the morning, and more than 10 aftershocks were felt until late in the evening. 
