BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- The defense department says it is investigating reports of a Mexican military helicopter seen flying in Texas. Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez says several people reported seeing the aircraft on Sunday flying over an RV park near Zapata, some 100 miles northwest of McAllen on the border with Mexico.
Border Patrol spokesman Jason Darling says the Mexican military is conducting operations near Zapata along the Rio Grande.
U.S. Department of Defense spokeswoman Maj. Tanya Bradsher says the flyover is under review.
The press relations department duty officer at Mexico's Defense Department told The Associated Press Friday that she has no information on the reports.
A Mexican military helicopter was also spotted March 10 over Zapata County.
#1
Kind of makes you wonder if the Mexican Military thinks that since 20 million Mexicans are already stateside, that an armed incursion would be backed by those here already. Another reason to get serious about our borders.
#2
Yeah, wasn't there a Mythbusters episode where they went over the Giants Stadium grounds with ground-penetrating sonar & concluded that it didn't look like there were any voids or lumps that could be a hidden grave?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/02/2010 9:07 Comments ||
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#3
Run a corpse all the way from Michigan to New Jersey? That never made a lotta sense.
The USS Nicholas, a guided missile frigate, was tracking the pirates when they opened fire early Thursday in Indian Ocean waters, the U.S. military said. The Nicholas returned fire and disabled the skiff.
Navy personnel later boarded and detained three suspects. The Americans found two more bandits on a nearby mothership and later sank the skiff. It was not the first attack against a Navy ship, but it underscored the fact that most pirates aren't terribly sophisticated, said a piracy expert at the British think tank Chatham House.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/02/2010 07:09 ||
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#1
Some wit should offer a complement of chrome cutlasses to the officers of the USS Nicholas.
Climate models involve some of the most demanding computations of any simulations, and only a handful of institutes worldwide have the necessary supercomputers. The computers must run at full capacity for months to work their way through the jungle of data produced by coupled differential equations.
All of this is much too complicated for politicians, who aren't terribly interested in the details. They have little use for radiation budgets and ocean-atmosphere circulation models. Instead, they prefer simple targets.
For this reason a group of German scientists, yielding to political pressure, invented an easily digestible message in the mid-1990s: the two-degree target. To avoid even greater damage to human beings and nature, the scientists warned, the temperature on Earth could not be more than two degrees Celsius higher than it was before the beginning of industrialization.
It was a pretty audacious estimate. Nevertheless, the powers-that-be finally had a tangible number to work with. An amazing success story was about to begin.
'Clearly a Political Goal'
Rarely has a scientific idea had such a strong impact on world politics. Most countries have now recognized the two-degree target. If the two-degree limit were exceeded, German Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen announced ahead of the failed Copenhagen summit, "life on our planet, as we know it today, would no longer be possible."
But this is scientific nonsense. "Two degrees is not a magical limit -- it's clearly a political goal," says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). "The world will not come to an end right away in the event of stronger warming, nor are we definitely saved if warming is not as significant. The reality, of course, is much more complicated."
Schellnhuber ought to know. He is the father of the two-degree target.
"Yes, I plead guilty," he says, smiling. The idea didn't hurt his career. In fact, it made him Germany's most influential climatologist. Schellnhuber, a theoretical physicist, became Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief scientific adviser -- a position any researcher would envy.
Rule of Thumb
The story of the two-degree target began in the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Administration politicians had asked the council for climate protection guidelines, and the scientists under Schellnhuber's leadership came up with a strikingly simple idea. "We looked at the history of the climate since the rise of homo sapiens," Schellnhuber recalls. "This showed us that average global temperatures in the last 130,000 years were no more than two degrees higher than before the beginning of the industrial revolution. To be on the safe side, we came up with a rule of thumb stating that it would be better not to depart from this field of experience in human evolution. Otherwise we would be treading on terra incognita."
As tempting as it sounds, on closer inspection this approach proves to be nothing but a sleight of hand. That's because humans are children of an ice age. For many thousands of years, they struggled to survive in a climate that was as least four degrees colder than it is today, and at times even more than eight degrees colder.
Long article in der Spiegel on changing perceptions in the climate debate. Pretty even-handed. The above clip is just a small excerpt, RTWT.
#1
At root, the problem is 'spurious precision' in the measurements, in the targets, in the supposed effect of CO2 and other GHGs, in the climate models, etc, etc.
#2
I've been in the insurance business for 25 years, and the time it took to type the first sentence of this article in longer than the author spent investigating this.
It's nonsense on stilts, or perhaps just the canned article with "insurance" as the topic rather than "torture", "military", "Israel" or whatever else is the flavor of the week.
I was surprised there was no discussion of "capsizing".
#3
I dunno, Halliburton,this all sounds pretty plausible to me. Put it this way, the insurance companies would not be acting as 'good stewards' of the shareholders investments if they did NOT do at least most of these things, especially since after 2014 they will be functionally just a branch of government, or at most a regulated utility. The deck is stacked against them and they are going to be the 'fall guy' for the government, so they might as well do what they are going to be blamed for anyway.
#4
What will happen is what has already happened in Australia where we have a very similar system to Obamacare. Insurance companies become more inefficient because their costs and charges are government regulated, and the government can't allow them to go bust, while they market/differentiate themselves through gimmicks like subsidized 'therapuetic' massage.
The article and Obamacare are both the result of the Left not understanding how markets work. The more you regulate anything, the more the focus of the companies changes from providing the most goods and services for the least cost, to complying with regulations, irrespective of cost.
Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in March, and the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Temporary help services and health care continued to add jobs over the month.
Employment in federal government also rose, reflecting the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. Employment continued to decline in financial activities and in information.
Household Survey Data
In March, the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 15.0 million, and the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent.
[in the weeds (from the A-12 and A-15 reports of the BLS: the long term (over 27 weeks)unemployment rate rose and the underemployment rate also rose]
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/02/2010 11:27 ||
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[ADN Kronos] (AKI) - After a volatile 13-hour debate, the Serbian parliament voted early on Wednesday to issue an apology for the killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 in the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.
The landmark motion was approved by a narrow majority and it stated that Serbia should have done more to prevent the tragedy, but stopped short of calling the killings genocide.
"The parliament of Serbia strongly condemns the crime committed against the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica in July 1995," says the text.
The vote took place half an hour after midnight and the pro-European government, headed by president Boris Tadic, managed to get a narrow majority of 127 votes in favor of the resolution in the 250-seat parliament.
"We are taking a civilised step of a politically responsible people, based on political conviction, for the war crime that happened in Srebrenica," said Branko Ruzic of the Socialist Party.
Bosnian Serb forces killed about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys after taking over the enclave in Srebrenica, which had been under the protection of the United Nations.
Twenty-one deputies of former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) voted against the motion, while other opposition deputies walked out in protest before the vote.
Shortly before the vote took place, there was an anonymous call saying that a bomb had been placed in front of the parliament building, but it was a false alarm.
Serbia has for years questioned the nature of the Srebrenica massacre and the vote showed that the country was still deeply divided on the issue.
The motion offered "condolences and an apology to the families of the victims because not everything was done to prevent the tragedy".
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 2007 that Bosnian Serb forces had committed genocide in Srebrenica and blamed Serbia, whose former president Slobodan Milosevic supported Serb rebellion in Bosnia, for failing to prevent it.
Though the resolution did not use the word "genocide", it acknowledges the court ruling and condemns the crime.
Cedomir Jovanovic, leader of the most pro-Western leaning Liberal Democratic Party, insisted the word "genocide" be included in the resolution and walked out in protest because his amendment was rejected.
Nada Kolundzija, the head of parliamentary majority, said that the resolution would help reconciliation in the Balkans and "close a tragic chapter in Balkan history".
"Condemning the crime against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica, while paying respect to the innocent victims and offering condolences to their families, will lift the burden off future generations," Kolundzija said.
But nationalist opposition deputies used the televised debate to hurl insults at the governing majority, accusing it of treason.
"History will never forgive you for what you have done today against your own people," said opposition deputy Aleksandar Martinovic.
Most opposition deputies demanded that all crimes, including those against Serbs, should be condemned in one resolution.
Parliamentary speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic said the governing majority will start work on a new resolution this week, condemning crimes committed against Serbs in the wars that followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2010 00:16 ||
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Britain gave the green light Thursday for the creation of the world's biggest marine reserve around the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, provoking fury from Mauritius which claims the archipelago.
The reserve will protect an area which experts say compares with Australia's Great Barrier Reef for its marine life, including coral reefs, yellow fin tuna, turtles and coconut crabs. It will include a "no-take" marine reserve where commercial fishing is to be banned, the Foreign Office said.
"The MPA (Marine Protected Area) will cover some quarter of a million square miles (400,000 square kilometres) and its establishment will double the global coverage of the world's oceans under protection," said Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
"Its creation is a major step forward for protecting the oceans."
But Mauritius -- where Chagossians were sent after being taken off the islands to allow construction of a military base -- lashed out at the decision.
"Perfidious Albion is dishonest," Mauritian Foreign Minister Arvind Boolell told AFP. "I am very angry.
"As recently as last week, I asked the British government through its high commissioner in Mauritius John Murton to present the results of the British government's consultations to the bilateral committee on Chagos," he said. "The British government refused," he added.
The Chagos Islands were ceded to Britain in 1814 and the archipelago was evacuated four decades ago. Its main island, Diego Garcia, is now populated by an estimated 1,700 US military personnel, 1,500 civilian contractors and around 50 British personnel. The base played a key role in the 1991 military operation against Iraq.
Around 2,000 Chagossians were moved to Mauritius, which still claims the 55 islands.
Mauritius formed part of the same administrative area as the Chagos Islands when it was under British rule. Most of the refugees are still campaigning to go back, although the British government has paid compensation. Which, legally, is supposed to have settled the issue. Unless the 'refugees' gave the money back ...
Once the money's been spent, the memory doesn't long keep one warm.
Last month, Olivier Bancoult, of the Chagos Refugees Group, accused Britain of "trying to create a protected area to prevent Chagossians from returning to their native islands".
Miliband said in his statement that the creation of the reserve "will not change the UK's commitment to cede the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer needed for defence purposes".
He said the decision on the marine reserve was taken following consultation and pledged to work with "all interested stakeholders" in making it work.
The announcement was welcomed by environmental campaigners Greenpeace, who said it marked an "end to the unfair commercial exploitation of Chagossian seas".
"These coral seas are a biodiversity hotspot in the Indian Ocean and unquestionably worthy of protection from destructive activities like fishing," Greenpeace campaigner Willie Mackenzie said. "The creation of this marine reserve is a first step towards securing a better and sustainable future for the Chagos Islands.
"But this future must include securing justice for the Chagossian people and the closure and removal of the Diego Garcia military base."
#2
These idiots simply do NOT learn, one boat sunk, one man imprisoned and a total laughingstock, but they expect to be listened to as a serious player?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/02/2010 15:20 Comments ||
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#3
Uh, uh, Chagossians, or KARDASIANS [Star Trek:DS9]?
Border states are looking to take matters into their own hands, boosting law enforcement to patrol for illegal immigrants while their pleas for federal assistance go unmet in the wake of the killing of a prominent Arizona rancher. Local authorities suspect Robert Krentz, found dead on his cattle ranch Saturday night, was killed by an illegal immigrant who fled back across the border into Mexico.
Gov. Jan Brewer told Fox News on Wednesday that after repeatedly calling on the federal government to send in 250 National Guard troops, she hasn't ruled out making the call herself.
"I can, and I haven't ruled that out," she said. Brewer has also offered state law enforcement help to the county where the killing occurred, while the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections are helping to coordinate the search for the suspect, according to her office.
But Brewer stressed that Arizona cannot afford to sustain or maintain the additional National Guard presence. She said border security is a federal responsibility -- and she said the administration simply is not stepping up.
"We've been talking to the federal government in regards to our borders and it just seems that they don't want to participate in any shape, form or manner," she said. "They just don't even respond."
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also announced Tuesday that he's increasing law enforcement along his state's border with Mexico while the investigation is underway. His office said New Mexico state police and local sheriff's offices have stepped up patrols all along the border -- and that the U.S. Border Patrol has increased its presence as well.
But officials including Brewer, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and several U.S. representatives out of New Mexico have called for a much bigger federal presence on the border -- a combination of National Guard and Border Patrol -- in the aftermath of Krentz's murder.
"The federal government's responsibility is the border. It's a federal responsibility, not a state responsibility," McCain said. "So the federal government should be the ones that pick up the tab for sending the guard to the border."
Matthew Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told FoxNews.com in a written statement that the department "will respond directly to the members of Congress" who are making the requests.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, formerly the governor of Arizona, "shares these members' concern about the safety of U.S. border communities and is committed to working with our state, local, tribal, and Mexican law enforcement partners to combat threats from violent cartels on both sides of the border," he said.
Napolitano, since taking over Homeland Security, has increased the number of intelligence analysts, special agents and canine teams along the border. But critics say Border Patrol teams are ineffective and that hundreds of miles of fencing are either missing or not high or sturdy enough to keep out illegal immigrants.
The Krentz killing has served as a rallying cry for those who have long called on the federal government to overhaul its approach to the southwestern border. The Krentz family had personally been airing its concerns about illegal immigrants to federal authorities for years.
Though Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just returned from leading a delegation to Mexico City to discuss the offensive against the drug trade and related border violence, the State Department had no comment on the Krentz killing.
The White House could not be reached for comment.
A few days before the murder, Texas Gov. Rick Perry deployed helicopters to the border to patrol and wrote to Napolitano calling for the federal government to do more to stem border violence.
In a letter to Napolitano, Perry asked for the department to use a new drone for surveillance along the Texas-Mexico border -- he complained that the handful of drones currently in operation are split between North Dakota and Arizona. Now watch our beloved president and congress refuse to fund the National Guard for this mission.
#1
Krenzt....was killed by an illegal immigrant who fled back across the border into Mexico.
One man, in and out. I've found no reporting on the weapon used. Probably a targeted hit, the first of more to come. No coincidence Mr. Krentz was a wealthy, large tract land owner. The African National Congress (ANC) uses the same Plaas Moorde (farm murder) technique against farmers and land owners in Zim and South Africa. Like the Obama administration, Robert Mugabe of Zim and Jacob Zuma of South Africa ignore it as well. After all, they are only white farmers.
#4
"So the feds don't have enough money for border security, but they do have enough money for univeral health care."
Speaking of which, the Federal Government refuses to do their job as outlined and secure that border while at the same time making "healthcare" top priority. Does that mean they plan to cover every person that crosses that border too? Can we afford "healthcare" for the whole world?
#5
nice to see McAmnesty braying and outraged over this. He and Lindsey Grahamnesty have done their best to keep the illegals coming with hopes of legalization. A**
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2010 11:00 Comments ||
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#6
But critics say Border Patrol teams are ineffective'
#7
"We've been talking to the federal government in regards to our borders and it just seems that they don't want to participate in any shape, form or manner," she said. "They just don't even respond."
They don't want to pi$$-off the undocumented Demonrat voters? You can damn sure bet that if a few Americans along the border killed a few illegals while defending themselves there would be Federal hell to pay. There would be criminal and civil lawsuits. Hey Joe, "it's a big fvcking deal."
#8
The White House could not be reached for comment. of course not
Everyone is having to tighten their belts, how about using the money used for illegals benefits in healthcare and other welfare programs and transfer it to use for the National Guard.
And stop this stupid PC crap of punishing our guys for enforcing the laws!
Posted by: Jan ||
04/02/2010 12:42 Comments ||
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#9
McStainCain, the blood is on your hands you disingenuous pandering piece of crap. You've spent the Hero capital you earned.
#13
Local authorities suspect Robert Krentz, found dead on his cattle ranch Saturday night, was killed by an illegal immigrant who fled back across the border into Mexico.
Krentz was 'prominent' because he was one of the first to leave water supplies for illegals.
The irony was that he was killed by a 'coyote' or someone in the cartels, who obviously didn't recognize his humanitarian achievements.
#15
ION CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > GANG LEADER [USA = POTUS Bammer] FACING DESERTIONS [NATO, Allied] FROM THE LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTRE | COALITION OF THE RENTED? PENTAGON PAYS OUT MILYUHNS TO MIL EQUIP SMALLER NATIONS FOR AFGHAN WAR, espec FORMER COLD WAR WARPACT STATES + SOVIET SSRS.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Indian government enforces a historic law to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years. The law, which came into effect on Thursday, makes free education a fundamental right for millions of underprivileged children.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a televised address to the nation, expressed his government's commitment to ensuring education for all children.
"The Fundamental Right to Education, as incorporated in our Constitution under Article 21 (A), has also become operative from today. This demonstrates our national commitment to the education of our children and to the future of India," the Indian prime minister said.
"The needs of every disadvantaged section of our society, particularly girls, lower-caste, tribal persons and minorities must be of particular focus as we implement this Act," he stressed.
Under the Right to Education Act, passed last year, there will be at least one trained teacher per 30 students.
Singh promised that financial constraints will not have any effect on the scheme, which is estimated to cost 1.7 trillion rupees (USD 38 billion) over five years.
Eight million children between the ages of 6 and 14 are still out of school, despite India spending 3 percent of its annual budget on school education and building elementary schools in most villages. India's literacy rate stands a little over 64 percent of its 1.2-billion-strong population.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2010 00:16 ||
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#1
Wonder if Pakistan has done anything similar with respect to education.......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/02/2010 14:38 Comments ||
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#2
In 1947, the life expectancy in India was 32.
Literacy was 14%.
India had to build seven times the schools and train seven more teachers than Pakistan in order to just advance at the same rate.
India literacy
male: 73.4%
female: 47.8%
Pakistan literacy
male: 63%
female: 36%
Today the four richest Indians can buy all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still have $60 billion to spare.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/02/2010 15:45 Comments ||
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A New Zealand anti-whaling activist who boarded a Japanese harpoon ship has been charged with five offences, including trespass and causing injury.
Pete Bethune, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, boarded the Shonan Maru 2 in February, and tried to make a citizen's arrest of its captain.
The incident happened as Sea Shepherd activists attempted to disrupt Japan's annual whale hunt in Antarctic waters.
If found guilty, Mr Bethune could face up to 15 years in prison.
Mr Bethune had been in command of Sea Shepherd's hi-tech speedboat, the Ady Gil, when it was sliced in two in a collision with the Shonan Maru 2 in January. All six crew members escaped unharmed.
On 15 February, Mr Bethune boarded the Shonan Maru, saying he wanted to arrest its captain, Hiroyuki Komiya, and present him with a bill for the damage.
He was detained on the ship and taken to Japan, where he was formally arrested for trespass earlier this month.
A spokeswoman at Tokyo's District Court said he had been charged with "trespassing, causing injuries, obstructing commercial activities, vandalism and carrying a weapon", reported to have been a knife.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Japan would "strictly deal with such cases under the law", the AFP news agency reported.
The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo said it could be several months before Mr Bethune's case is heard in court but that he will be hoping the trial will bring Japan's whaling industry under further scrutiny.
The crew of the Shonan Maru said the activists had tried to tangle a rope in their propeller and had thrown butyric acid at the ship, giving a "chemical burn" to one sailor.
But Sea Shepherd has denied any of its activists caused injury and said the substance thrown was harmless, if unpleasant, rancid butter.
The Ady Gil incident was one of several clashes between Japan's whaling fleet and Sea Shepherd activists in the Southern Ocean during the hunt season.
The group has described Mr Bethune as a "political prisoner" and says the charges against him are bogus.
"Shame on Japan for blowing Captain Bethune's case out of proportion, and shame on Japanese maritime authorities for failing to investigate the serious criminal actions of the Shonan Maru 2," it said, in a statement.
It also accused New Zealand of being "surprisingly quiet" on the arrest.
The charges come a day after New Zealand's representative on the International Whaling Commission said countries should be allowed to kill a limited number of whales.
Sir Geoffrey Palmer said attempts to reach a global deal on whaling would fail unless nations could compromise.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/02/2010 08:33 ||
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#3
Poor Pete. He probably thought he'd do his little attention whore song and dance, the media would jump to his side, and the Japanese would roll over with profuse apologies and he'd be the new Big Green Hero.
Well, Pete, every cause needs martyrs. And it looks like you're it...
#4
If rancid butter was thrown, they can charge biowarfare charges against them as well.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/02/2010 10:17 Comments ||
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#5
If they did throw rancid butter on the ship, they did throw butyric acid on it. That's what makes it rancid. The smell of it could trigger puking, too. It's not nearly as cute & harmless as they are trying to make it seem.
Next time, just toss his happy ass overboard without a lifejacket.
Bethune was filmed launching glass bottles of Butyric acid at the Japanese ships.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/02/2010 12:26 Comments ||
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#7
Heh...
Show Your Support for Captain Pete Bethune, Send an E-mail!
Here's the only one they got...
MrsMiaGaribaldi says:
Apr 2nd, 2010 at 10:19
Whilst I am against the killing of any animal not only whales, I wont be sending any support email for Behune who borded the ship for publicity and publicity only. Do any of you realise that Bethune did NOT own the Ady Gil ? the boat was leased by the Sea Shepherd for $10,000. The owner of the boat was Ady Gil. He bought it and the SS leased it. I have first hand knowledge of this and it will be exposed when the time is right. Bethune and his head honcho devised this laterst act of madness to board the Japanese ship in rough seas in the dark and eary hours, , it was planned for weeks and contrived. The whole fiasco is for more more more publicity. He knew what he was doing and he asked to be arrested. An AP person was going tofilm this and was on board the jet ski. . unfortunatelty for him and AP /Whale Wars ther rough icy ocean prevented him from filming. The plan then was to =film the arrest by helicoptor. What an anti climax. He sat on the deck until daybreak, walked inside there you have it folks. For anyone who doesnt know what n-Butyric acid does , this report from the university of Iowa. You people are blinded by the hype the SS uses to gather those who cant diferentiate between truth and fiction,Its called manipulation and many buy this load of rubbish. Bethune was not the owner of the silly little boat which should not have been in Antarctic conditions, it was leased for $10,000 by captain blood and eveything this mob do is for publicity and YOUR money. There will be more on this as once again the SS honcho is lying. I hope Bethune is convicted for his act of piracy and charged accordingly. This time the publicity stunt might backfire. I hope you will publish this instead of the usual propaganda. Thank you.
ACC# 03680
Potential Health Effects
Eye: Causes eye burns.
Skin: Harmful if absorbed through the skin. Causes skin burns.
Ingestion: May cause severe and permanent damage to the digestive tract. Causes gastrointestinal tract burns. May be harmful if swallowed.
Inhalation: May cause severe irritation of the upper respiratory tract with pain, burns, and inflammation.
Causes chemical burns to the respiratory tract.
Claims that this stinky butter doesnt hurt or harm is a fallacy. Bethune desrves all that is coming to him.
#8
When Bethune was detained by the Japanese captain, he claimed he threw the knife used to cut the netting into the sea.
When the ship docked in Japan and he was arrested by the Coast Guard, they found the knife, hidden in his boot.
The length of the knife is a problem (violation of Japan's old "sword law") as is the concealment.
Prior to the collision, Bethune's boat was filmed, trailing a prop fouler, attempting to snag the Japanese ship's propeller. He also used a laser, aiming at the bridge, to dazzle the crew.
He was also filmed firing glass bottles of acid from a compressed air launcher.
They need to charge him with interfering with the safe navigation of a ship at sea.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/02/2010 12:38 Comments ||
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#9
"They need to charge him with interfering with the safe navigation of a ship at sea."
They need to charge him with piracy.
"Sea Shepherd . . . said the substance thrown was harmless, if unpleasant, rancid butter."
That lie is easy to dispute - see if any of them are willing to have the substance Bethune was carrying thrown on their skin. In public.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/02/2010 12:53 Comments ||
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#10
Japanese 'throw book' at anti-whaling Bethune The Japanese have charged New Zealander Pete Bethune with a total of five offences including possessing a weapon and assault.
Bethune's wife says he plans to fight the assault charge.
Sea Shepherd are calling the charges bogus, but he could face a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
Pete Bethune wasn't surprised by the trespass charge. He could hardly deny boarding the Shonan Maru 2, the vessel which then carried him to a Tokyo jail.
But his wife Sharyn says today's four new charges have made him nervous.
He said he never thought he would get in this trouble, says Mrs Bethune. He thought they would just slap him on the hand and send him back. But they've decided this time to make an example of him.
Mr Bethune has been charged with:
* Trespass
* Possession of a weapon
* Damage to property
* Obstructing the passage of a vessel
* Injury to persons
Mr Bethune strongly denies injuring anyone in the incident.
Sea Shepherd say the Japanese have decided to "throw the book at him" and call the charges bogus.
The majority of them are ludicrous and trumped up and we feel that it's shameful that the Japanese are going about it this way, says NZ Sea Shepherd director Bill Watson.
Mr Bethune could face a 15 year prison sentence or a $6000 fine, and the Japanese have a very high conviction rate - 98 or 99.8 (percent) depending on who you hear it from, says Mrs Bethune.
Mr Bethune has admitted some of the lesser charges and will be sentenced next month. His wife says the best outcome would be for him to be deported.
It doesn't sound pleasant, says Mrs Bethune of Petes current living conditions.
He has two showers a week, followed by a hot bath, that's his highlight. He has cabbage soup and rice three times a week.
Australian Green Party Senator Bob Brown says it's horrendous a New Zealand anti-whaling activist is facing the prospect of a lengthy jail term in Japan.
He says it's time Canberra and Wellington took up that matter with the Japanese government to prosecute the Shonan Maru's captain and crew.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/02/2010 16:35 Comments ||
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#11
He has cabbage soup and rice three times a week
hope he's in a poorly ventilated cell
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2010 19:25 Comments ||
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#12
What? No charges for scratching the paint on the Shonan Maru's bow?
Posted by: ed ||
04/02/2010 19:49 Comments ||
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#13
Mr Bethune strongly denies injuring anyone in the incident.
#1
Sure, because it glorifies Microsoft. The Altair was a toy. The first real PC, and the first commercial PC, was the IBM 5100., shipped in 1975. It ran both APL and Basic, and it was an amazing engineering job. I spent many hours hunched over one in the '70s, computing the reflectivity of dielectric coatings on semiconductor photosensors.
Image removed due to size.
The printer and the dual 10" floppy drive on the left aren't needed. We used the 1/4 inch tape drive - the woman is holding a cartridge.
While the 5110 was good - it was the Altair, SOL-20, IMSAI (and the S-100 bus), and others (including the TrashTRS-80) that made micros popular with hobbyist (and small business) for both software and hardware leading to the later-day Apple II, IBM-PC, etc...
#5
After my TRS-80 was my Zenith/Heathkit dual processor Z100 with Intel 8085 and 8086 CPUs so it could run CPM and CPM-86 as well as MSDOS and the first version of Microsoft Windows, which was really bad and slow. And I added an 8 inch disk that could hold all of 256K of data I think.
Oh, the memories.
#6
The TRS-80, Apple, and Commodore came out in '77, two years after the 5100 and the Altair.
The IBM PC was strongly influenced by the 5100, but Don Estridge convinced IBM management to open the system. I still have the IBM PC technical manual with a full schematic and BIOS listing. We are just now getting back to that degree of openness - see qi-hardware.com. The TRS-80 and the Commodore were closed and died off, while Apple and IBM went on to establish an industry. The S-100 bus was good, but too large physically, and was eventually overtaken by the more compact IBM PC.
At the time, I was running an Apple II with a Z-80 card running MSDOS. Yep, good times....
#7
Ahh... at the time I was a pimple-faced teen, couldn't afford a fancy micro... so I used to play around on an Interdata-70 mini up at the university. Keying in the boot sequence from the front panel switches... booting from a card reader... Textronix 4014 storage tube terminal... thermal printer...
#8
Thats right, don't give any nosy chubby early 1970's elementary kid from Guam any credit, or hoagies or jello, for pointing out the vital product or technical, etc. defects in their little schemas.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Malaysia has dropped a caning sentence imposed on a woman for drinking beer, a case that has raised concerns of intolerance in the mainly Muslim country, her father said Thursday.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 33, was sentenced last year to six lashes and a fine by a religious court in the moderate Muslim-majority country in a case that grabbed headlines around the world.
Kartika's father Shukarno Mutalib said however that the ruler of the central state of Pahang, where Kartika was caught drinking, had now decided to commute the sentence, according to a letter received by the family this week.
"I have also been asked to present my daughter before the religious authorities on Friday for her to undergo a 'three week' punishment, but we do not know yet whether it will be community service or detention," he said.
Islamic affairs officials could not be immediately contacted.
In February, three Muslim women were caned for the first time under Islamic laws for having sex out of wedlock.
Malaysia practices a dual-track legal system, with Islamic criminal and family law applicable to Muslims. Non-Muslims, who make up about 45 percent of Malaysia's 28 million residents, are subject to civil law.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2010 00:16 ||
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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
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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
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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.
Climate models involve some of the most demanding computations of any simulations, and only a handful of institutes worldwide have the necessary supercomputers. The computers must run at full capacity for months to work their way through the jungle of data produced by coupled differential equations.
