NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Times Co. , McClatchy Co. and Tribune Co. on Thursday posted sharply lower quarterly earnings on high newsprint costs and depressed advertising sales.
The results from the three large publishers underscored the troubles faced by the industry, including circulation declines, high costs and competition for advertising money from the Internet and other new media.
For the first quarter, net income fell 14 percent at McClatchy, 28 percent at Tribune and 69 percent at New York Times Co., which had taken a big gain in the year-earlier period.
McClatchy Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, one of the most vocal defenders of the industry, disputed criticisms that newspaper publishing was obsolete.
"Some may see the current slow advertising environment as confirmation of predictions that newspapers and print media are dying," Pruitt said in a statement. "We think that's wrong." A good demonstration of how well he thinks.
All three publishers highlighted the strength of their own Internet businesses. The New York Times said revenue at its About.com site, which it acquired a year ago, rose 98 percent.
Still, new media is only a small part of the newspaper business. At the New York Times, the Internet accounted for only 7.5 percent of total revenue. Actually that is an astoundingly large number when you consider their revenue is $3.4 billion.
So for now, publishers must manage high costs for newsprint and an advertising market that over the first quarter was undercut by weak automobile and national ad placements.
New York Times Co., publisher of the Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune and its namesake newspaper, said net earnings fell to $35 million, or 24 cents a share, from $111 million, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier.
The latest results include a charge of $9.4 million for job cuts announced in September. In the year-earlier period, the company took a gain of $67.8 million for the sale of its headquarters and property in Florida.
#1
...was undercut by weak automobile and national ad placements.
Cause advertisers leave media which is loosing or bearly maintaining its readership. Now why could that be? These exec's are about as smart as Paleos in figuring out cause and effect.
#4
Contact Alaska Paul, I'll give him my Iban and other bank details, he'll send it to you so you can wire me money, at your discretion. I'm very holy, despite my pron habit, my grand uncle was a priest, rest his soul. I'm sure I can bless your food or something, doesn't sound very hard.
#5
All that said, the annual blessing of the Easter feast in our homes was a meaningful event when I was a kid. And the incense left a lovely light smell afterwards.
Turkey and Kuwait see eye to eye over the issue of the divided island of Cyprus, National Assembly Speaker Jassem Mohammad Al-Kharafi told the press after meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayep Erdogan. The Turkish premier called on Kuwait to support his country's administration of Northern Cyprus, in the face of UN resolutions calling for unifying the two parts.
...The blue-tailed white aircraft with blue trim and golden borders along the window line, registered in the U.S. as N900SA, reportedly departed from Caracas Simón Bolívar International Airport (Maiquetía), only to turn around after approximately 1 œ hours of flight. After landing and apparently refueling, it resumed its flight toward Mexico, specifically to Toluca, near Mexico City. Later that evening it made an alleged emergency landing at Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico. The crew claimed they were having hydraulic trouble with the landing gear and parked the plane well away from the terminal area, convincing ground crews to keep people away from the aircraft because of the hazards presented by leaking oil and the possibility one of the tires might explode. The obliging ground crews tried to keep authorities away from the aircraft to no avail, and the military police, using trained dogs, detected the presence of drugs onboard. They arrested the co-pilot, Miguel Vicente Vázquez Guerra, identified as Venezuelan by some reports and Colombian by others. However, the pilot, who had left the aircraft to do an errand concerning flight plans, managed to evade authorities, reportedly by climbing over the airport perimeter fence.
And now the answer to some long-standing mysteries:...There are conflicting reports as to who owns the DC-9. Mexican authorities have identified its owner variously as Aero Flight and Fly, supposedly U.S. companies. The trouble is Aero Flight was a German charter airline that went out of business in November 2005. In fact, there are at least half a dozen airlines with the word Flight in their name and almost 20 with the word Fly. The FAA website identifies the current owner of N900SA as being Royal Sons, Inc. of Clearwater, Florida. Elsewhere the owner is listed as HW Aviation of Dunedin, Florida. HW Aviation, reportedly went into bankruptcy in February 2004.
This aircraft was built in 1966 for the now defunct TWA. It has had several owners since then and reportedly was used by Kenny Rogers, the Howard Dean 2004 presidential campaign, and the Seattle Seahawks team.
You've always wondered. Now you know. Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Ftagn!
There are also reports that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) used it in 2004. Photographs of this aircraft taken at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California in 2004 show it as having an official-looking seal by the main door which reads SKYWAY AIRCRAFT. PROTECTION OF AMERICAS SKIES with the image of a federal eagle in the center. Not quite identical to the seal of Homeland Security seal, which is also used by the TSA, but almost. There is an ominous ambiguity about the seal in that photograph. One wonders if aircraft N900SA still displays that seal as it sits on the tarmac at Ciudad del Carmen.
Finally, on a more serious note, there's this:
The mystery remains as to why the DC-9 returned to Maiquetía almost two hours into its planned flight. It may be that, after having successfully cleared exit customs, the then-empty plane flew to an alternate airfield where the cocaine was loaded, then returned to Maiquetía, making it look like it had returned for mechanical reasons, so as to deceive the authorities into waiving a second customs inspection. Another explanation might have to do with the timing of their arrival and the need to synchronize their rendezvous with the Mexican executive jet that awaited them at Ciudad del Carmen. Maybe it was simply bad weather ahead or genuine mechanical problems. Regardless of the details and methodology, the bottom line remains: Who are the principals and how much complicity was there on the part of Venezuelas officialdom?
JAPAN'S ruling coalition agreed today to revise education laws to promote patriotism in schools, a taboo since World War II. The proposal has triggered opposition among liberals including Japan's teachers' association, which say it is reminiscent of the nationalism seen in Japan before and during the war. "Everybody has patriotism. It's a natural feeling," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in support of the Bill.
Senior officials of Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner, New Komeito, reached the accord to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, an official said.
If approved by Parliament, where Mr Koizumi's coalition holds a strong majority, it would be the first revision since the law was enacted in 1947. Patriotism would be listed as an educational goal and defined as "an attitude which respects tradition and culture, loves the nation and homeland that have fostered them, and contributes to international peace and development".
The current education law, which was enacted under the US occupation, stipulates the need for compulsory schooling and equal opportunities, carefully avoiding any mention of patriotism.
Mr Koizumi, who steps down in September, has championed the shedding of post-war taboos. His coalition is seeking to revise the US-imposed 1947 constitution to declare that Japan has a military, although the country would remain officially pacifist.
#3
I'm still not crazy about the rising-sun flag. It always looks like it should be flying from the bridge of a Jap flattop, or waving from some bayonet.
#4
Patriotism is good. Nationalism is bad. I think Japan will do well with their new patriotism and democracy. They deserve to be a normal nation again.
#6
I agree with Vader. A strong Japan is unlikely to fight with the US (just as europans are not a military threat to us) because we have far more in common as trade partners these days. A strong Japan will also balance the region so that the US doesn't have to be involved if we don't want to. And a strong Japan is the one thing the Chinese fear and it might be enough to get them to clamp down on North Korea.
#7
A militarily modern Japan is one of the best things that could possibly happen from our point of view.
First of all, they have the fourth largest economy in the world, after the US, EU, and China. This means that they are able to afford a top-notch military.
Second of all, their military will not only be supplementary in a major way to the US military in a China conflict, having equipment much in common with ours, but also *complementary*, having all sorts of advanced system that we *don't* have.
And unlike US procurement, which has rigorous rules and limitations, the Japanese procurement will solely be based on the many facets of efficiency.
In other words, in effect they will be building a military of tomorrow, rather than today.
They will also discover the stimulation that comes to their economy with a military buildup.
#8
There was a story on the 'Burg here a few months back speculating that we might sell the Kitty Hawk to the Japanese. 'Course, as things are today, they'd probably rename her the Hello Kitty Hawk.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/13/2006 19:33 Comments ||
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#9
:-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2006 19:39 Comments ||
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#10
I think it is great Japan is doing this. You have know Japan a bit better than the common knowledge to understand one facet of this.
Japan has been in a long, long recession and decline economically. They've just turned the corner only recently, and this will help restore faith in the country. They have had a real crisis of late with the economic problems and faith in things.
This will help not only ensure the econmic turn stays, but ensure the next generation does not suffer the faith the current one does.
That said, we still have to work on our relationship with the Japanese and make sure we don't mess things up with them.
INDONESIA is demanding the return of a four-year-old girl among 42 Papuan asylum-seekers given refuge in Australia, alleging she was taken illegally by her father without her mother's consent.
Toddler Anike Wanggai and her fisherman father, Yunus, were among 43 Papuan separatists who landed on Cape York in January, claiming a campaign of genocide by Indonesian security forces in their homeland.
But Anike's mother, Siti Pandera Wanggai, who is estranged from her husband, said the first she learned of her daughter's dangerous sea journey from Papua was when she saw Anike on TV.
"I could only scream her name - 'Anike, this is Mama'," she said in Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura.
Anike's grandmother, Persila Wanggai, said the little girl had been living with her father in Jayapura for two years while the couple planned their divorce.
Siti was living separately in the Papuan town of Manokwari.
Claims the child was taken illegally may increase tensions between Australia and Indonesia, which are already at their lowest since the East Timor crisis of 1999 after Canberra gave temporary visas to all but one of the Papuans.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Indonesia wanted Anike returned and was helping her mother in a legal fight to win back custody.
Siti said she fainted when she saw TV footage of her daughter arriving in Melbourne with her jubilant father.
"I want Anike back. I'm not sure Yunus can take good care of her," she said.
Im an Australian and i am DAMN PROUD of it & am also damn proud of what we have built this country up to be. Yes, we may have been a bunch of convicts, but look at our Country - we are proud and strong, and we should never give in to your demands. I vote Howard, but lately i am beginning to change my mind.
Is there a reason that you are changing your mind about Howard? I follow Tim Blair's site and, other than his hoplophobia, he seems pretty durn good. Does your response have to do with the new anti-immigration from the sea?
Thanks.
Alan
PS Was down there 20 years ago, do you still "Tip a Tooey's or Two, Mate"?
The European Commission has opened the process necessary to fine Spain for not fulfilling two of the commitments it acquired when it signed the Kyoto protocol. Spain promised to inform Brussels before January 15 about the amount of greenhouse gases it emitted in 2004, and about the amount of emissions it will be permitted between 2008 and 2012; it has not done so. The environmental ministry chalked up the delay to "exceptional difficulties" in gathering the data.
Spain, Luxembourg, Italy, and Germany have not turned over their emissions data for 2004 to the EC. The EU had promised to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by 8% between 1990 and 2004, with different requirements for each of its member countries. Spain had permission to increase its carbon dioxide emissions by 15%. However, as of 2003, Spain's emissions had increased by almost 41% compared with 1990.
In a report filed with the United Nations, the Spanish environmental ministry predicted that in 2010, Spain's carbon dioxide emissions would have increased by 49% over 1990. The Kyoto protocol is supposedly to go into effect between 2008 and 2012, and Spain will be unable to meet its commitments. Doing so would cost at least 20 billion, at least 600,000 jobs, and two percentage points of inflation, not counting the companies that would move to countries where environmental restrictions are less costly. A 49% increase in CO2 in emissions. Nice to see Kyoto is working.
#1
Meanwhile, the US which is not a signitory, has decreased emissions. Kyoto is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme to transfer wealth to the EU.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/13/2006 9:01 Comments ||
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#2
US carbon burning has increased 16.7% by 2002. For comparision, Canadian CO2 production increased by 23.6% in that same time. Only when the effect of reforestation (short/med term carbon sink) in the US is taken into account has net US CO2 production decreased.
Europeans rely on an absolute dishonest bastardization to claim their CO2 emmision have increased only slightly. After the Warsaw Pact fall, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union's CO2 emissions fell by about 45%. But in 1990, that energy fall had not yet taken place. That is the reserve the Eurocrats have been using to make their numbers look good. Very generous of the Western Europeans to take the Easterners and Soviets under their wing. But since 2000, Eastern Europe and the FSU economies have been growing. As those economies continue to recover, the total Euro CO2 numbers will shoot up very quickly.
Greenhouse Hypocrisy
Here are some IEA estimates of the increases: France, 6.9 percent; Italy, 8.3 percent; Greece, 28.2 percent; Ireland, 40.3 percent; the Netherlands, 13.2 percent; Portugal, 59 percent; Spain, 46.9 percent. It's true that Germany (down 13.3 percent) and Britain (a 5.5 percent decline) have made big reductions. But their cuts had nothing to do with Kyoto. After reunification in 1990, Germany closed many inefficient coal-fired plants in eastern Germany; that was a huge one-time saving. In Britain, the government had earlier decided to shift electric utilities from coal (high CO2 emissions) to plentiful natural gas (lower CO2 emissions).
Japan's, up 18.9 percent.
Posted by: ed ||
04/13/2006 9:53 Comments ||
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#3
All of which, while slightly interesting, is moot, Ed. We're not driving the system.
#6
he would've if he could get a Senator to vote for it, and you KNOW Al was sporting wood on the way to Kyoto
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2006 11:57 Comments ||
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#7
Spain, Portugal, and Ireland have all been booming in an asymptomatic fashion for members of the EU. Of *course* they're going to show higher emissions. Especially Spain, which has been seeing a massive construction boom/bubble for nearly a decade now. Edward over at Fist Full of Euros has been all over the Spain boom - he seems to think it's a bubble, but it's damnably long-lived bubble at this point.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/13/2006 12:28 Comments ||
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#8
Andalusia is growing and will continue to grow.
#9
The only way to truly meet the Kyoto goals would have been a massive nuclear power program combined with electric cars. That's not the sort of thing a single European country can do now that they are all economically interlocked.
Kyoto was designed to (a) Take down the US economy or (b) convince the US/Japan to switch off of gas so the Europeans could ride the tech and mass market coat-tails.
I'd like to think (b) but I know the answer is (a).
#11
I shouldn't comment before coffee. what I ment was the rate at which the US emits CO2 has fallen. It is increasing but not as much as was predicted. It's all smoke and mirrors anyway. There is no way to verify how much CO2 and other greenhouse gasses are emitted.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/13/2006 13:56 Comments ||
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#13
*snicker* One of the good things ol Billy Boy did was not sign on.
IIRC, Billy Boy did sign on. He knew it was consequence-free because Congress would never ratify it. Dubya 'un-signed' us from it and caught Hell from every moonbat on the planet.
#14
Well, congress is the party that can ratify a treaty or not. President can sign, but congress must ratify.
Clinton backed Kyoto, Bush did not ... but that is moot, as congress never ratified the treaty for Clinton / Bush to sign into law.
Of course the propoganda out there ignores simple fact that it is congress that really matters in a treaty situation. Instead it is spouted that somehow Bush rejected the treaty, single handedly vetoed it or whatever - clearly showing no understanding of our government - yet making a good bash.
#15
The Senate not only didn't ratify Kyoto, they passed a "Sense of the Senate" (90-something to 0) that if Clintoon brought them the treaty, they wouldn't ratify it. As in, "Don't embarrass yourself by bothering."
Even the moonbats recognized that so-called "treaty" would severely damage the U.S. economy.
I remember reading a couple of years ago that Bush and some Euros (G-8, maybe?) were meeting in Canada and some European minister was absolutely incensed that our Senate has to approve treaties - that a mere Senator from Iowa or Kansas or some other god-forsaken (by Euro standards) state could actually prevent our government from signing a treaty.
The implication being who did these elected Senators think they were, anyway? They obviously should bow to their European betters who train their entire lives to run governments!
Every day I wake up I'm grateful my ancestors got on those boats.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/13/2006 19:24 Comments ||
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#16
The Senate vote was Sen. Res.(olution) 98 passed in July 1996. It passed 95 to 0. After that, Clinton only paid lip service to Kyoto. Clinton never signed the Gore-negotiated treaty and he never submitted it for Senate ratification. To this day, the only official US signature touching Kyoto is Gore's.
The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a former Yale University chaplain known for his peace activism during the Vietnam War and his continuing work for social justice, died Wednesday at his home in rural Strafford. He was 81.
God finally struck him dead, huh?
Coffin had been suffering from congestive heart failure and had been under the care of a hospice, said his daughter, Amy Coffin. "He was out in the sun. Everybody was talking and then he was gone," Amy Coffin said. "Physically he was pretty debilitated but spiritually he was not."
William Sloane Coffin was immortalized in the "Doonesbury" comic strip when its creator, fellow Yale graduate Garry Trudeau, blended his character with that of a Trudeau roommate, who became a priest, dubbing the fictitious character "Rev. Sloan." Coffin gained prominence in the 1960s as an outspoken advocate for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He joined a group of civil rights activists known as the freedom riders and was arrested several times at demonstrations against segregation. He became a leader of the group Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam, which engaged in civil disobedience including offering sanctuary in churches and synagogues to draft resisters. "Bill's voice was part of a chorus of conscience for a nation dealing with issues of poverty, war, disarmament, racism and bigotry," the Rev. Frederick J. Streets, Yale's current chaplain, said Wednesday. "He distinguished himself by rising above and emerging out of his own background of privilege to speak on behalf of the poor."
In awarding Coffin an honorary doctorate in 2002, Yale praised its former chaplain, saying, "You changed the shape of college chaplaincy and inspired a generation of young people to challenge injustice." He continued his activism after leaving Yale in 1976 and moving on to become minister of the Riverside Church in New York City. There he broadened his agenda to working on issues of peace, nuclear disarmament, poverty, homelessness and protecting the environment. But he was criticized by some in the congregation as too attentive to his social agenda, at the expense of pastoral work and management of the church.
He retired from Riverside in 1987 to Vermont, but continued traveling the country lecturing on issues. He traveled to North Vietnam during the war with that country and to Iran during the hostage crisis there, bringing harsh criticism from some quarters. To those who questioned his patriotism, Coffin often replied that the true patriot is one who maintains "a lover's quarrel" with his country.
In 1967, Coffin and other prominent activists including Dr. Benjamin Spock took more than 1,000 draft cards gathered from young men at rallies in Boston and other cities and presented them to officials at the Department of Justice in Washington. Coffin, Spock and three other protest leaders were arrested and convicted for advising men on avoiding the draft; the convictions were overturned on appeal in 1970.
Born to a wealthy New York family in 1924, Coffin served in World War II, then resumed study at Yale as a political science student in the late 1940s, but developed an interest in theology and philosophy and enrolled in the Union Theological Seminary. The outbreak of the Korean War rekindled his interest in fighting communism, and he served three years in the CIA. He then enrolled in Yale's Divinity School, was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1956 and served as a minister for the United Church of Christ. He spent a year each as chaplain at Phillips Andover Academy and Williams College. At Williams, he became controversial through his activism against fraternities that discriminated against blacks and Jews. He was appointed chaplain at Yale in 1958, where he served 18 years.
Coffin's longtime friend, historian and activist Howard Zinn, said he'll miss Coffin's humor. He recalled a speech in which Coffin spoke to a group of students about what to do after graduation. "He said, 'Remember this: Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat," Zinn said.
Sometimes our my darkest dreams come true. Hopefully he learns a deeper message from God, but I doubt it
PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) - U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy was hit in the face with a hammer when an entrepreneur, demonstrating shock absorption, accidentally sent the hammer's head flying at Kennedy's mouth. I blame Kyoto and Bush
Kennedy received six stitches in his bottom lip after the incident Wednesday during an economic development meeting, his spokeswoman Robin Costello said.
The entrepreneur, Matt Kriesel of Wisconsin, produces a shock-absorbing gel used sports-shoe inserts, tennis rackets and horse saddles. He was hitting some gel with a hammer to demonstrate how it reduces vibration when the hammer's head flew off. "My jaws vibrating now, dammit"
"The congressman is a third class act, he didn't make a fuss," said Michael McMahon, the executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation who attended the meeting.
Kennedy was bleeding, so his staff took him to Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, where he got the stitches, Costello said. Then his Uncle drove him home....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2006 17:57 ||
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#1
Was the hammer a Snap-on? Or some cheap Chinese import?
A MASSACHUSETTS observatory unveiled a powerful new telescope today designed to capture possible light signals transmitted to Earth by extraterrestrials.
The telescope is the first to be developed solely to search the skies for light pulses from aliens and will be able to cover 100,000 times the amount of sky covered by current equipment, its developers said. "The opening of this telescope represents one of those rare moments in a field of scientific endeavour when a great leap forward is enabled," said Bruce Betts, project director at The Planetary Society, a group in Pasadena, California, that advocates space exploration and funded the telescope's development.
"Sending laser signals across the cosmos would be a very logical way for ET to reach out, but until now, we have been ill-equipped to receive any such signal," he said.
Researchers said alien civilisations may be as likely to use light signals to communicate as radio transmissions. Visible light can form tight beams and could potentially convey information more efficiently, Mr Betts said.
The telescope was built at Harvard University's Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics' Oak Ridge Observatory, where the non-profit Planetary Society has searched the depth of space for alien life using a radio telescope. The new telescope, located at the observatory at Harvard, Massachusetts, a town northwest of Boston, will vastly enhance the scope of the search for artificial light pulses, Mr Betts said. The telescope can process the equivalent of all books in print every second. As it scans the sky it uses a type of camera that can detect a billionth-of-a-second flash of light. "We are going from looking at a few stars a night to an all-sky survey where over a year we will search the entire northern hemisphere," Mr Betts said.
The telescope cost about $US400,000 ($548,659.21) to build, much cheaper than a typical research-quality telescope. Mr Betts said that was partly because the telescope does not need to be as sensitive, and "they've done it on a shoestring budget by being clever".
#1
when will this madness end - no ET is gonna be thick enough to broadcast themselves to the universe - only we humans are that daft. I've watched to many movies about this sorta thing to know its a bad bad idea.
Posted by: Brotherhood of Extraterrestrial Light Signal Hunters of America: Local 1 ||
04/13/2006 10:53 Comments ||
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#3
Sending laser signals across the cosmos would be a very logical way for ET to reach out...
Actually, it is the stupidest freaken way ET can reach out. It takes Thousands to Billions of years for light to travel from stars to galaxies. If ET is advanced, the radio traffic would be a lot easier to pickup and find them .... thousands plus years later. If ET is more advanced than we are, they use a communications method that we have no hope of finding or decoding because we simply don't know how.
#5
As much as I would like to see somebody stumble across a real ET signal the whole idea that aliens are beaming us messages is ludicrous. If I Love Lucy didn't turn 'em off C-SPAN certainly will. Not to mention NPR
#6
They could easily be messaging one another or have a general purpose communications or navigation beacon.
Which would be of some interest to find.
Light and radio waves travel at about the same speed.
#4
I think they ought to change olympic sabre fencing so that the armor contains small stun guns. If a plate is hit, you get a shock to that body part, numbing the heck out of it. A killing hit and you would be laid out.
But the best part would be to also run a high-voltage current through the blades themselves, to make two blades give off big showers of sparks when they hit each other.
#5
Funny, already found that a while back while browsing for knives to buy; real expensive IIRC, theses are tailor-made for professional users, like the Red man suits, mostly as counter-knives tactics I'd say.
For filipinos knife-fighters and others, rubber, wood and chalk are quite enough IMHO.
As for olympics fencers, get them to use live blades, and they'll get real attentive on not to be hit.
Plus, the red will do a nice contrast with the white of their suit. Aesthetics are important. Beats UFC every time.
Mount Toba's eruption is marked by a 6 year period during which the largest amount of volcanic sulphur was deposited in the past 110,000 years. This dramatic event was followed by 1000 years of the lowest ice core oxygen isotope ratios of the last glacial period. In other words, for 1000 years immediately following the eruption, the earth witnessed temperatures colder than during the Last Glacial Maximum at 18-21,000 years ago.
Ice core evidence implicates Mount Toba as the cause of coldest millennium of the late Pleistocene. It shows that this eruption injected more sulphur that remained in the atmosphere fo a longer time [six years] than any other volcanic eruption in the last 110,000 years. This may have caused nearly complete deforestation of southeast Asia, and at the same time to have lowered sea surface temperatures by 3 to 3.5 degrees centigrade for several years.
If Tambora caused the " The year without a summer" in 1816, Mount Toba could have been responsible for six years of relentless volcanic winter, thus causing a massive deforestation, a disastrous famine for all living creatures, and a near extinction of Humankind.
#4
In other words, for 1000 years immediately following the eruption, the earth witnessed temperatures colder than during the Last Glacial Maximum at 18-21,000 years ago.
Time to dump all those Prii. Priuss? Prii? Which is it?
#6
#4: In other words, for 1000 years immediately following the eruption, the earth witnessed temperatures colder than during the Last Glacial Maximum at 18-21,000 years ago.
This is great, at last a means to stop all the "Global Warming" idiots in their tracks.
I dream of the day when to say "Global Warming" equals the closest telephone pole and an immediate necktie party as you have just uttered damning proof positive that you're too stupid to be allowed to breed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/13/2006 22:00 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON: A celebratory procession taken out on Sunday in Coney Island, New York, ...
...now the 19,962nd holiest place in all Islam ...
... to mark the Prophet's birthday (ptui pbuh), carried a 20-foot high model that the leaders of the procession claimed was a replica of his mausoleum. This most unusual practice, unknown so far in any Muslim country or expatriate communities in the West, has triggered a controversy.
"Innovation" is, of course, against Muslim rules.
The proponents of the practice claim that if the Shias can display "tazias" to mourn the martyrdom of Hussain and his companions, why can't the Sunnis do the same to celebrate the birthday of the true messanger.
As far as I'm concerned, they can do most anything they want, as long as it doesn't involve weaponry, explosives, and the usual incitement to violence...
While most clerics are silent, a couple have described the practice as "bida'at", or something undesirable and impermissible.
Sounds like the participants must have been having fun or something. It was Coney Island, after all, though it's too early in the year for the beach...
There were 60 to 70 families taking part in the Coney Island procession, including women and children. There are about 100 mosques in the greater New York area, most of which continue to skirmish with one another over intricate theological controversies or "masai'l". Comrade Shahid, of the Pakistan-US Freedom Forum, told Daily Times that it was unfortunate religious leaders and clerics, instead of bringing the community together to deal with the problems it has faced since 9/11, are dragging it into divisive and unnecessary theological debates and religious strife.
I disagree. I have no particular reason, though one will probably come to me. I just reserve the right to disagree reflexively with anyone named "Comrade Shaheed."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
One of the annoying things about the jihadis is that they have an arabic word for every possible variation of religiously proscribed behavior. They are the religious equivalents of the eskimos who have 186 different words for snow. Too bad these yahoos don't have any words for "work", "responsibility", "civility", "decency", "gratitude", etc.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2006 11:35 Comments ||
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#7
Comrade Shahid, of the Pakistan-US Freedom Forum, told Daily Times that it was unfortunate religious leaders and clerics, instead of bringing the community together to deal with the problems it has faced since 9/11, are dragging it into divisive and unnecessary theological debates and religious strife.
Does this mean they're going to start blowing each other up soon?
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.
...There are conflicting reports as to who owns the DC-9. Mexican authorities have identified its owner variously as Aero Flight and Fly, supposedly U.S. companies. The trouble is Aero Flight was a German charter airline that went out of business in November 2005. In fact, there are at least half a dozen airlines with the word Flight in their name and almost 20 with the word Fly. The FAA website identifies the current owner of N900SA as being Royal Sons, Inc. of Clearwater, Florida. Elsewhere the owner is listed as HW Aviation of Dunedin, Florida. HW Aviation, reportedly went into bankruptcy in February 2004.
JAPAN'S ruling coalition agreed today to revise education laws to promote patriotism in schools, a taboo since World War II. The proposal has triggered opposition among liberals including Japan's teachers' association, which say it is reminiscent of the nationalism seen in Japan before and during the war. "Everybody has patriotism. It's a natural feeling," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in support of the Bill.
A MASSACHUSETTS observatory unveiled a powerful new telescope today designed to capture possible light signals transmitted to Earth by extraterrestrials.
WASHINGTON: A celebratory procession taken out on Sunday in Coney Island, New York, ...
