Before you next flush the toilet, consider this: Scientists in Singapore have developed a battery powered by urine. Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology created the credit card-size battery as a disposable power source for medical test kits. Scientists have been scrambling to create smaller, more efficient, and less expensive "biochips" to test for diseases such as diabetes. Until now, however, similarly small batteries to power the devices remained elusive. Previous efforts all petered out due to piss-poor performance.
Diagnostic test kits commonly analyze the chemical composition of a person's urine to detect a malady. Ki Bang Lee and his colleagues realized that the substance being testedurinecould also power the test. "In order to address this problem, we have designed a disposable battery on a chip, which is activated by biofluids such as urine," Lee wrote in an e-mail to National Geographic News. The research team describes the battery in the current issue of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. Flush with success they vowed not to piss away this opportunity.
Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, said the technology is a welcome innovation in a time of rising energy prices. No longer will artificially erected barriers cause technology to dribble along.
"All jokes [about] urine aside, what is needed are low-cost batteries. " he said. "The other neat thing about this is the fact that it's basically a biodegradable battery." Shake three times to activate.
#3
I think the frat boys have that scaling issue all figured out.
In my college days A plastic coated device like this wouldn't stand a chance against a 99% pure alcohol extraction system!! :)
Posted by: DanNY ||
11/23/2006 8:41 Comments ||
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#4
Pleaaaaaaaaaase, in any of those elementary electrity toy boxes" kids are given for Chritsmas you will find an experimlent when you can produce electricity by planting two rods of differnt metals in a lemon.
However, given that the electricty produced is proportional to the quantity of ions and this is related to the decomposition of the metals then the weaker the acid, the weaker the power delivered by the cell. Thus sulfuric acid or the mixtures used in commercial batteries > citric acid > lemon juice > urine. And the power delivered by lemons is already a tiny fraction of what is delivered by commercial batteries.
Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, said the technology is a welcome innovation in a time of rising energy prices.
Demonstrating that you vcan get a highly paid job despite even as an adult, being unable to solve the kind of math problems intentended for early kindergarteners.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/23/2006 19:31 Comments ||
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#13
Actually, if this works properly, the Institute will have a HUGE contract for these from front companies buying for US SOCOM : perfect batteries for Special Forces. You have to eliminate anyway, and this way you power equipment in the process.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Excellent!
I first read about this noble sport many years ago in James A. Michener's Caravans. I think we should bring it to the US, but with PETA-dupes substituted for the calf carcass. Caravans, btw, is a wonderful adventure story set in Afghanistan in 1946.
#7
Not to be confused with The Omak Stampede, where hordes of (usually) liquored up participants ride their steeds down a steep hillside, through the river and into the arena. There are usually 2 or 3 horses killed every year in this and yes PETA is all over them too. But since the majority of participants are of the Native American flavor, the just tell PETA to f-off.
If you have ever been to Omak WA, this is one of the big doin's in that place. Not a lot else to do there (IMHO). they do have a pretty good demo derby and lawn mower race in the Spring however.
And except for the horses, a great time is had by all.
NAIROBI - Eritrean authorities have arrested at least nine journalists working for state-owned media in the past two weeks, an international press freedom watchdog said on Wednesday, adding it feared for the safety and lives of those detained.
Eating their own, are they?
Quoting a local source, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the journalists were being held in a detention centre in the eastern town of Agip. The detained were either accused of being friends of, or in contact with, reporters abroad, RSF said. Terror reigns again among journalists in Eritrea, the Paris-based watchdog said, urging the international community to intervene.
Eritrean officials were not immediately available for comment, but Asmara frequently dismisses rights criticisms as part of an international smear campaign against it.
RSF said it had information that at least six Eritrean journalists had defected after fleeing the Horn of Africa country or requesting asylum abroad since October. The watchdog said Eritrea, with at least 22 detained journalists, was Africas biggest prison for the press. Last week, it said three journalists may have died at an Eritrean desert camp where dozens of political prisoners were living in squalid conditions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Egypt's imprisoned opposition leader, Ayman Nour, is experiencing a deteriorating health condition in a prison cell in Egypt, his wife has said. Nour is diabetic and his livelihood is dependant on insulin, Gameela Ismail, his wife has said. However, she says that her husband won't scoop as low as asking for forgiveness from Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak.
No, no, certainly not!
Nour came second in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections and was sentenced to a five year jail term on accusations of forging signatures to found Egypt's Ghad party.
For some unclear reason the people who signed weren't willing to walk into an Egyptian police station to swear to their signatures. It happens.
"He is not going to ask for a pardon. He is reading the law books and trying to find ways to help his release in a dignified way, without begging and asking for mercy in a humiliating way," Ismail told Reuters. "This would abort the whole political reform movement. This would put off and frustrate all of the young opposition who still believe they should struggle and continue to say enough to President Mubarak," she added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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I've never asked for anything before, right? Well, sorry, I'm asking now.
We need nets. Not hoop nets, soccer nets or lacrosse nets. Not New Jersey Nets or dot-nets or clarinets. Mosquito nets.
See, nearly 3,000 kids die every day in Africa from malaria. And according to the World Health Organization, transmission of the disease would be reduced by 60% with the use of mosquito nets and prompt treatment for the infected.
Three thousand kids! That's a 9/11 every day!
Put it this way: Let's say your little Justin's Kickin' Kangaroos have a big youth soccer tournament on Saturday. There are 15 kids on the team, 10 teams in the tourney. And there are 20 of these tournaments going on all over town. Suddenly, every one of these kids gets chills and fever, then starts throwing up and then gets short of breath. And in seven to 10 days, they're all dead of malaria.
We gotta get these nets. They're coated with an insecticide and cost between $4 and $6. You need about $10, all told, to get them shipped and installed. Some nets can cover a family of four. And they last four years. If we can cut the spread of disease, 10 bucks means a kid might get to live. Make it $20 and more kids are saved.
So, here's the ask: If you have ever gotten a thrill by throwing, kicking, knocking, dunking, slamming, putting up, cutting down or jumping over a net, please go to a special site we've set up through the United Nations Foundation. The address is: UNFoundation.org/malaria. Then just look for the big SI's Nothing But Net logo (or call 202-887-9040) and donate $20. Bang. You might have just saved a kid's life.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/23/2006 11:26 ||
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#1
better to buy a gallon of DDT
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/23/2006 12:37 Comments ||
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#2
Amen. The UN "solution" is typical - treat the symptom, not the cause, by having people put money into a pot that they will manage. Yewbetcha.
#3
Rachel Carson's legacy. If they want money, go see the environmentalists who sentenced Africa to malaria and misery with the DDT. Hope Ms Carson is burning in Hell.
#4
Perhaps we might seek to open a dialogue with the mosquitos. If there was better cross-cultural understanding, surely we could all get along.
On second thought, the mosquitos are merely the messenger, and it would be wrong to hold them accountable for the actions of others. I therefore call for a summit and global conference with the duly appointed representatives of the Plasmodium community.
This is your captain speaking . . . I'm just raising the cash to get us home An airline pilot was cheered by passengers after he raided the takings of the bar and used his own money to pay the fees demanded by Senegal airport officials before they would allow the jet to fly home.
Captain John Lawrence was told to find two million francs (almost £2,000) by Dakar airport officials before the First Choice Airways jet was permitted to take off.
#3
I was on a plane making an emergency landing at Heathrow (the left flap didn't work properly on takeoff), on the way in to land a group of passengers were singing The Dambusters theme-tune.
#4
Since the 757 has an APU, wouldn't he have been able to start the engines and taxi out and take off? I have also seen 737's use their thrust reversers to back away from the gate, can a 57 do that as well?
hope he dumped the holding tanks as he rotated....
Long piece in the Guardian about the nuclear power plant in Kinshasa. Kinshasa? They had a nuclear power plant? Oh yes, and the story is every bit as farciful, tragic and outright stoopid as only Africa can be.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Somewhere in that area - Gambia, maybe - there was a natural nuclear reactor. The uranium deposit was so rich that a chain reaction took place naturally.
#3
Congo's Belgian rulers shut the Shinkolobwe uranium mine shortly before independence in 1960, flooding its shafts with water and capping them with concrete
JOHANNESBURG - A South African pathologist faces a disciplinary hearing Thursday for attributing AIDS as the cause of death on a medical certificate in the first ever case of its kind in the country. Leon Wagner from South Africas central Free State agricultural heartland will appear before the South African Health Professions Council in Bloemfontein over a death certificate he had signed after the demise of a young woman in April 2005.
Wagner told AFP that he examined the 30-year-old womans corpse and it was typical of a person suffering of AIDS. I have done such certificates thousands of times, he said, adding that everything was done according to the letter of the law.
This is South Africa, where the 'letter of the law' seems to be increasingly mis-spelled.
However, her family took umbrage and lodged a complaint with the national medical watchdog, which had summoned him, Wagner said, adding that it was not a legal issue but a moral issue about which the governement is sensitive.
Around 5.5 million of South Africas 47 million people are infected with HIV, the second highest rate in the world after India. There is still a degree of stigma attached to AIDS and the families of victims often try to fudge the cause of prolonged illness or death. South African statisticians have said that doctors were generally loathe to attribute AIDS as the cause of death, making it difficult for them to compile the number of AIDS-related mortalities.
The Solidarity labour union said in a statement that the hearing can be a watershed for South Africa. If he is exonerated and it is found that doctors may in future indicate AIDS as the real cause of death on certificates, it would have tremendous consequences for the statistical documentation of this pandemic, Solidarity spokesman Dirk Hermann said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Russia's secret service yesterday issued its strongest denial yet that it was to blame for the poisoning of the former KGB agent who is seriously ill in a London hospital. The denial from the Russian foreign intelligence service, the SVR, came as Alexander Litvinenko's condition deteriorated, according to a friend. Sergei Ivanov, an SVR spokesman, told the Interfax news agency that the dissident was not important enough for it to mount a risky assassination attempt: "Litvinenko is not the kind for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations. It is not in our interests." Mr Litvinenko became ill on November 1 following meetings with contacts, the first with two Russian men at the Millennium hotel in Mayfair and the second with Italian academic Mario Scaramella at the Itsu sushi bar in Piccadilly. Mr Litvinenko claims he met a former KGB agent, Andrei Lugovoi, at the hotel along with another Russian. Mr Lugovoi said yesterday that he would not comment until he had met British embassy officials in Moscow.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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A typhoon in North Korea killed thousands more people than the country has officially admitted, an analysis by a British scientist suggests. Satellite images of the region around the town of Yangdok, which was hit by Typhoon Bilis in July, reveal widespread devastation caused by floods and landslides. Dozens of apartment blocks were destroyed or seriously damaged, bridges swept away and roads and railways wrecked.
David Petley, a natural disasters expert at Durham University's international landslide centre, said the pictures showed that the official death toll of 549, with a further 295 missing, was "absolutely not credible". He said: "It is clear that Typhoon Bilis resulted in a disaster on an epic scale in North Korea. Based on experience from other disaster sites and because the flood happened in the middle of the night, when many people in the mainly residential buildings were asleep, it is likely the death toll would have been very high, probably well over 10,000."
You mean the NKors lied? I feel faint, I'd best go lie down ...
More than 300mm (12ins) of rain reportedly fell on Yangdok during the typhoon, more than a quarter of its annual average. Professor Petley said the resulting mudslides and severe flooding appeared to have ruined swaths of agricultural land, which would threaten food supplies in the region over the coming months. "Fields have been destroyed and infrastructure to support farming, like roads and buildings, are gone," he said.
Prof Petley asked Qinetiq, a UK company, to take satellite images after groups in South Korea reported mass casualties. Citing sources in the North Korean government, the South Korean group Good Friends claimed 57,000 people died as a result of the typhoon. He said: "Across the whole of the image there is clear evidence of devastating floods and landslides. Although it covers just a small part of the affected area, it does permit some analysis of the scale of the disaster."
Bridges and buildings on the flood plain have been destroyed and others severely damaged, he said. "Damage to buildings is very hard to establish from satellite images, but it is likely to have been extensive. It is certainly possible that people were buried or drowned in the lower storeys of buildings that were not destroyed, as was seen in the devastating Sarno floods in Italy."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This is a damn outrage. Where in the hell was FEMA?
Airbus may end up grounded if superjumbo fails to take off The superlatives abound. It is wider than a football pitch and almost as long, four times the height of a double-decker bus, and weighs 560 tonnes.
The A380 superjumbo is, in other words, large. Obscenely so, some might say, since the list price is an equally extravagant £166 million ($471.5 million) - enough to build a hospital or three.
#1
A year ago, Airbus could do no wrong. It had outsold its American rival for the fifth successive year, and was looking forward to putting more clear blue sky between itself and Boeing.
Twelve months on and Airbus is in a mess.
European socialism snatches yet another resounding defeat from the elusive jaws of victory. The raucous laughter emanating from SeaTac is nothing short of deafening.
#2
The superlatives abound. It is wider than a football pitch and almost as long, four times the height of a double-decker bus
Assembled with allen wrenches and 1498 widths of hex sockets the 380 is a marvel of modern science. Metric, English and Rule of Thumb are all brought together in this magnificent monument to heavier than air flight. The tea cart alone weighs 58 Stone and is powered by a light weight 2 cycle supercharged diesel engine capable of moving the set along at 10 knots down the 2 rod wide aisles and producing 500 gallons of boiling water an hour. The future? Hardly, it'll be here in 2 years!
Further, the EU is probably going to heavy subsidies again (it does now, but at a rate that keeps the US govt. from giving Boeing tons of aid). Unlike the past, this will be more for locals, as closing factories and killing jobs in the EU is very non-non!
If this happens, look for funding to Boeing and of course a repeat of 10 years ago when there was major fighting between US and EU regarding funding of major OEMs by govts.
#7
Unlike in the past, refers to the last time EU subsidies were tossed around to Airbus like candy, it was for The Grand Notion of the EU.
This time it is not so much about the EU, but more so about the individual state interests in the EU. Germany doesn't want to cut, France doesn't want to cut.
Last time was, Our wonderful EU needs a wonderful bird. This time, My Germany needs Jobs, My France needs Jobs, etc.
However, the result is the same, govt. subsidies and sparking off the same to Boeing.
#9
The problem with the 380 was not the wiring, it was with the engineering and with the management. The development of this airframe was completely mismanaged and the EADS management inditments show this out. Now they will suck off every taxpayer in EU to pay their debt and bring them back.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/23/2006 12:05 Comments ||
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#10
I'll say it again, whatever else Boeing is, it is the only company in the world that knows how to reliably and profitably build big airplanes. It is the sole survivor in the competitive US marketplace, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed having left the business). That ruthless competition led to excellence whereas the Airbus European collaboration model has produced a political bureaucracy administering an international WPA program. There is nothing that Airbus can do to pull out of this death spiral and I, for one, never really feel safe flying on an Airbus product and avoid them whenever possible.
#11
Imagine a couple cruise ships worth of passengers embarking/debarking around airport primetime at existing airports. Could you imagine the line in front of the TSA maze. Imagine an airline that requires a hub route system to support movement of passengers to and from these behemoths, just as some formerly profitable airlines discover little non-hub dependent Southwest eating their shorts. Anyone remember when Polaroid finally go around to instant video just as another technology, VHS, hit the market? Too late with old technology. On the other hand it seems to be a better than usual welfare program for engineers. Anymore expensive than keeping five or more National Laboratories funded and busy in America?
#12
Stop with all the handwringing! Just this past week, Airbus announced they had the 380's weight problem solved; so what if it is still 2 years ( and growing) late?
And they also announced they were going to build the A350 WB out of carbon fiber panels riveted to metallic frame members, unlike the entirely composite barrel sections Boeing is using for the 787. So what if that will drive up parts count and force the use of titanium rivets? Aluminum and steel corrodes very quickly in the presence of carbon without any sort of insulating material / sealant. So we know that the highly trained and subsidized Airbus work force and those of the airlines that choose to force these albatrosses on their workforce will never use the wrong fastener, and cause the landing gear, for instance to leave the airplane prematurely.
Biggest laugh though is from the Airbus marketing guy, who was extolling the benefits of the carbon panels: he said that whenever a panel was dented, it could be easily replaced, unlike the Boeing barrels. I have never seen a carbon panel 'dent' when hit by something. Shatter, yes, but more imprtantly, subsurface delaminations of the various plies develop as a result of the impact. This delam grows until it fails catastrophically. I don't think i want to fly in any Airbus airplane with that mentality.
#13
Assembled with allen wrenches and 1498 widths of hex sockets the 380 is a marvel of modern science. Metric, English and Rule of Thumb are all brought together in this magnificent monument to heavier than air flight. The tea cart alone weighs 58 Stone and is powered by a light weight 2 cycle supercharged diesel engine capable of moving the set along at 10 knots down the 2 rod wide aisles and producing 500 gallons of boiling water an hour. The future? Hardly, it'll be here in 2 years!
#14
So what if that will drive up parts count and force the use of titanium rivets? Aluminum and steel corrodes very quickly in the presence of carbon without any sort of insulating material / sealant.
#15
The really good foodfight will start when it's announced that the "logical" way to cut costs will be to build the A380 in one place-France,where the assembly is scheduled to be done. Germany will get the future A350. This has already been floated and the Germans weren't happy,to say the least. But if a massive subsidy is required otherwise,well...
Posted by: Stephen ||
11/23/2006 16:45 Comments ||
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#16
RWW, I was on an airbuss that lost its wing pilon cone on landing, it stayed on hanging by the grounding strap. My faith in EU building aircraft is limited to say the least.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/23/2006 17:17 Comments ||
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#17
Woops. RWV - sorry bout that
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/23/2006 17:18 Comments ||
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#18
Relevant Statistics:
Length: 882 ft 9 in long
Width: 92 ft 6 in wide
Weight: 46,328 tons
Propulsion: Two 16,000 HP engines
Two bronze triple blade props
Oh, sorry, I thought we were discussing the RMS Titanic.
#22
Zenster: Basic galvanic action / reaction; if you consult a table that lists various metals in molecular activity; the closer together they are, the more compatible they are.
The best way to ensure isolation is to lay up a full layer of fiberglass on the side(s) that the other metals contact. But in the drive to cut weight, I expect the full ply to be replaced with little patches; that increase the opportunity for workers to miss-lay or completely omit them, and then the electrolysis starts when a bit of moisture gets into the joint.
That is one of the reasons for the manufacture of carbon structures with all detail parts co-cured so it becomes one complete part.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats won the most seats in today's elections as voters endorsed policies that have brought the fastest economic growth in six years, exit polls indicated. The Christian Democratic Alliance took 43 of the 150 seats in parliament, ahead of the main opposition Labor Party, led by Wouter Bos, which took 35 seats, according to a poll for NOS television. A second poll for RTL television showed the CDA ahead by 38 seats to 34. ``In the first years of his cabinet, Balkenende made all the painful reforms,'' said Charles Kalshoven, a senior economist at ABN Amro Holding NV in Amsterdam. ``The economy is doing a lot better this year. Consumer confidence is really very strong and if consumer confidence is up, so are the ruling parties in the polls.''
Balkenende, 50, who's been in power for four years, and his party had led in the opinion polls since September, when his government forecast the first budget surplus since 2000. The government has pledged to cut taxes, while the jobless rate is dropping and consumer confidence is hovering at a five-year high. ``We have strengthened the economy,'' Balkenende said yesterday during a televised debate with the leaders of the biggest parties. ``It has been a really hard fight for us, but we've come out better.''
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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China obtained secret stealth technology used on B-2 bomber engines from a Hawaii-based spy ring in a compromise U.S. officials say will allow Beijing to copy or counter a key weapon in the Pentagon's new strategy against China.
Details of the classified defense technology related to the B-2's engine exhaust system and its ability to avoid detection by infrared sensors were sold to Chinese officials by former defense contractor Noshir S. Gowadia, an Indian-born citizen charged with spying in a federal indictment released by prosecutors in Hawaii. Additionally, Mr. Gowadia provided extensive technical assistance to Chinese weapons designers in developing a cruise missile with an engine exhaust system that is hard to detect by radar, according to court papers made public recently.
He also helped the Chinese modify a cruise missile so that it can intercept U.S. air-to-air missiles, and helped Chinese weapons designers improve testing and measurement facilities, the court papers state.
Most of the indictment, handed up Nov. 8, outlines how the engineer helped China develop a radar-evading stealth exhaust nozzle for a cruise missile engine. Additionally, the court papers indicated that Mr. Gowadia sent e-mails to Israel, Germany, and Switzerland in 2002 and 2004 that contained data labeled "secret" and "top secret" that was related to U.S. stealth technology intended for use in the TH-98 Eurocopter and for foreign commercial aircraft.
#1
The death penalty must be used here. The US treads on very thin ice by continuing to issue security clearances to foreigners from countries who are direct enemies or very doubtful in their support. This guy was from India, not really an enemy, but not a loyal US supporter, who couldn't resist the mountains of cash. Why are any Chinese technical people allowed access to our most sensitive programs ? Don't give me horseshit about their being loyal citizens. Some certainly are. A few are not. Just a single one can destroy secrets achieved by decades of effort and billions from our treasury. A good trade-off. I think not.
#2
The problem isn't foreigners. To work on the B-2 during the development phase, at least on the parts where you had access to design data, you had to be a US citizen with TS SI/SAO clearances. Northrop had people sitting around reading newspapers for 6-12 months waiting for the EBIs to complete so they could start work. Not everyone did; some were politely told their employment was terminated. At one point this traitor withstood intensive scrutiny and was vetted as a trustworthy American citizen.
The problem is that people with access to SI/SAO information are not monitored as closely as they should be. First clue something is wrong: living on an estate in Maui. This is not the normal thing for people who have spent their lives working in defense industry and should have aroused suspicion. Second clue: trips to China. Sorry, but the rule used to be that when you got certain clearances, your foreign travel (even to Canada and Mexico) was controlled and there were some places (i.e. CHINA) that were absolutely forbidden. Unless this policy has been foolishly changed, this SOB should have been grabbed after the FIRST trip to China, not the sixth.
Security basically collapsed under Clinton and Bush has been too busy to restore it. Traitors like this guy are with us always and it is up to the people sworn to keep the secrets to ferret them out and kill them.
A rant for another day is the story of the stupid TRW mail room flunky who sold the Russians billions of dollars worth of satellite technology for $10,000 and wound up with a book deal & movie (Falcon and the Snowman) instead of being drawn and quartered.
#3
RVW: We just had our annual security refresher training and the 'out of country' rule is still in play. But we were told that you only had to report it, post-trip, rather than ask permission. Still, the first trip should have set off bells.
#4
It still could have been prevented before it started by not hiring anybody to deal with TS info who isn't at least a second generation American-born. American are so naive it's pathetic when it comes to understanding the loyalties of non-westerners. Although these non-westerners may talk a good talk, they will not walk the same for a long time, unless we learn to walk their walk before then. This guy's behavior is not criminal to him. It is cultural and a bit on the naughty side, but the rest is much ado about very little as far as he is concerned, except for the fact that he may be put in jail for a long time.
Another thing: Don't pi$$ off your workers. Bad things happen to disgruntled workers. Pay them well enough, give them decent severance packages, and help them find their next decent job in a civilized fashion and all will be well. Otherwise, it's not worth the "cost savings" to just dump them on their a$$ outside the building.
#7
According to the indictment, Mr. Gowadia, who lives on an estate on the island of Maui, conspired with two men, Tommy Wong and Henri Nyo
There's something so wong about all of this.
Gowadia's ability to still communicate sensitive information should ensure that he is permanently incarcerated in solitary confinement. No chance of leaking any secrets that way.
Too bad they don't just cap his traitorous ass and be done with it. America needs to come down hard on those who would sell us out to our enemies.
#8
See also DEFENSETALK.com/CHINESE MILITARY FORUM article > BEIJING'S STRATEGY OF SEA DENIAL + CHINA'S MIL BUILDUP AIMED AT US CARRIERS. In short, PLAN recognizes CV's as both the USN's source of strength = weakness, and will use attack subs to hound US Carriers 24-7-365 as wid the Cold War Soviet Navy, besides to block vital choke/transit routes. Not mentioned but the USN should prob expect PLAN "Boomer" subs, besides PLAN SSN/SSK's, iff and when they reach the battlespace area. ASSASSIN'S MACE + LOCAL/WAR ZONE STRATEGERY > suppor by policy of IMMEDIATE NUCLEAR ESCALATION.
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in Parliament he would recognize the country's francophone Quebec province as a "nation" within Canada. In an unprecedented move to woo Quebec separatists, he said he would present a motion later in the day asking the House of Commons to "recognize that Quebecers constitute a nation within a united Canada."
Quebec has held and lost two referendums on separation from the rest of Canada, in 1980 and 1995. Federalists won the second vote by a narrow margin.
Harper's surprise move, he said, was aimed at blocking "an unusual request" by the separatist Bloc Quebecois to define Quebecois as a nation. Quebecers typically understand the term to mean "a people," while Anglophone Canadians consider it akin to nationhood, with all the international responsibilities and benefits that come with it. Politicians have tried to avoid debating this sensitive issue over the past decade, fearing it would lead to a constitutional crisis, or a loss of support in the next election in Quebec province, which holds 25 percent of parliamentary seats.
"For (the Bloc), 'nation' means separation," Harper said. "Quebecers have always played a historic role in advancing Canada with solidarity, courage, and vision, and to build a confident Quebec, an independent Quebec that's proud and has solidarity within a strong and united Canada, an independent and free Canada," he said. "Do Quebecers form a nation within a united Canada? The answer is yes. Do Quebecers form an independent nation from Canada? The answer is no, and it will always be no." This is out future if you combine unlimited immigration with Multiculturalism.
#2
That's the same terminology Canada uses with the Indians, who are called "first nations."
Posted by: Mike ||
11/23/2006 11:31 Comments ||
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#3
May not be such a bad idea after all. Quebec is the LLL capitol 2nd only to Califonia in North America. From what I haver heard pretty much everywhere in Canada short Quebec are rather conservative much like the Mid West US. Quebec breaking off would very likley secure a Conservative Canada that would be a ally not a enemy/subversive/friend.
#7
Politicians have tried to avoid debating this sensitive issue over the past decade, fearing it would lead to a constitutional crisis
If politicians don't debate it, who the phalk is supposed to ? Coward assholes.
Women have the right to dress as they please, but the rights of the individual have to be balanced with the rights of society. Taking up the current controversy over the veil, Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, writes in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail that the veil is not required by Islam, nor should it be viewed as a conflict between Muslims on one side and the Islamophobic West on the other. The debate, he argues, is being waged primarily within Muslim society and is part of the battle for the heart and soul of Muslim communities from Tunisia to Turkey, Indonesia to India, and right here in Canada. He cites Yusuf al-Qaradawi who said last week, It is not obligatory for Muslim women to wear the niqab. The majority of Muslim scholars and I do not support the niqab in which women cover their faces.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Pure unmitigated horseradish. So long as these sanctimonious rectal cavities allow raving sphincters like Taj al-Hilali to go uncriticized for calling women in Western attire so much "uncovered meat", the veil is a de facto standard. While Muslim men go largely unpunished for raping women, whether or not to wear the veil is not an option.
Let me know when a world-class gold plated turd like Qaradawi puts out a death fatwah on al-Hilali. Only then will I even remotely begin to believe that Islam is making any progress towards reformation. Until then, Qaradawi and al-Hilali are merely circle-jerking the West.
#2
"The majority of Muslim scholars and I do not support the niqab in which women cover their faces.
Notice he only mentioned the veil - not even Saudi Arabia or Iran require the veil, although many tribes/groups within them do require them. Hair covering, though, is another story. That is absolutely required in Iran and the Magic Kingdom and is universally accepted as an Islamic requirement.
#3
The translation of the q'uu'r'an I read phrased it, in the key passage as I understand it (repeated in various forms all over the thing), as "women must hide their beauty". That has been interpreted in every way imaginable. Why they must hide their beauty is never actually addressed. I guess it's just a short-dicked guy's way of hanging onto his squeeze.
CAIRO: Prominent Muslim scholars from around the world, including conservative religious leaders from Egypt and Africa, met on Wednesday to speak out against female genital mutilation at a rare high-level conference on the age-old practice. The meeting was organised by a German human rights group and held under the patronage of Dar Al-Iftaa, Egypts main religious-edicts organisation. It was held at the conference centre of Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni Islamic institution in the world. Al Azhars grand sheik, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, attended as well as Egypts Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, whose fatwas are considered binding religious edicts.
An estimated 50 percent of schoolgirls in Egypt are thought to undergo the procedure, according to government statistics.
It is rare for such religious figures in Egypt to attend such a conference on an issue that remains sensitive and controversial here. An estimated 50 percent of schoolgirls in Egypt are thought to undergo the procedure, according to government statistics. At the conference, Tantawi said circumcision, another name for the practice, was not mentioned in the holy Quran or in Sunna, which are sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In Islam, circumcision is for men only, he told the conference. From a religious point of view, I dont find anything that says circumcision is a must (for women).
Female genital mutilation usually involves removal of the clitoris. Those who practice it believe it lowers a girls sexual desires and thus helps maintain her honour.
Female genital mutilation usually involves removal of the clitoris. Those who practice it believe it lowers a girls sexual desires and thus helps maintain her honour. With age-old cultural roots, it is practiced today in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt and other parts of the Arab world such as Yemen and Oman. Laws against the practice exist in many of the regions where it is practiced, but poor enforcement and publicity can hinder the laws, some human rights groups and women activists say.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Al Azhars grand sheik, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, attended as well as Egypts Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, whose fatwas are considered binding religious edicts.
Please let me know if any death fatwas are issued over this hideous practice. When clerics who condone this abomination are being offed so regularly that you can set your watch by it, then I'll believe they really mean it. Until then, this is all lip service (so to speak).
#2
Hope you are wrong BPinB. I figure since the vast majority of US housing stocks are held long term it will temper the short-term collapse drop in prices.
#3
The danger is to the banks that have lent too much to sub prime lenders on teaser rates. Lot's of leverage all around that could threaten the capital adequacy of lots of banks at just the wrong time.
Posted by: Dark Rocks in Pelosistan ||
11/23/2006 8:59 Comments ||
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#4
Yep, anyone remember the Savings and Loan bail out in the 80s?
It was one of the big mistakes that Ronnie made. They were largely state chartered outfits that were not FDICd. However, in the end the federal government ended up taking them over and then liquidating them at extreme discount to the usual bank suspects. The banks got the assets and the US Treasury got the debt. IIRC about a half a trillion dollars of debt, at 80s valuation. The banks held on to the property and, as always, when the economy rebound, they made a mint off of it. We, the people, were left holding the bag for generations.
Next time around it would be nice to have a Plan in place. I would prefer a charter for the Federal Bank of the United States to absorb all the banks that go under, rather than give another massive gift to the same people whove set up this over extended, over priced housing speculation situation. It has the potential to become the largest and therefore most influential bank in the country. Then use the assets of the bank to put pressure on the banking markets through services much like the Federal Reserve pressures the market through currency distribution. Want to charge 18% interest when prime is 6%, think again pencil pusher.
#5
P2k, the federal prosecutors sent more than a few dirty S&L execs to Club Fed. They certainly did here in Chicago.
The housing market is going to be fine. Dubya is going to approve an immigration and amnesty bill, and 100 million new Americans have to live in something.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2006 10:16 Comments ||
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#6
The housing market was fine in the '80s too. It was just the banks that needed the bail out. The S & L crisis was a lot more complex than just a few crooks just as the oil crisis is a lot more complex than Enron. But these problems always get bigger than they should and take longer to fix because of the interference by the government to protect the crooks who are paying off their representatives with money to buy advertising for campaign ads for idiots.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
11/23/2006 16:45 Comments ||
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#8
"Federal bank of the USA" - C2C.am > various authors-analysts on KENNEDY ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY > for one, JFK was killed by the Mafia becuz he wanted the Fed Govt. NOT the Federal Reserve Banks [private banks], to handle the manufacture + distribution of US Notes. + go back to standars of REAL MONEY/REAL-VALUE CURRENCY, NOT SURREAL OR NOMINAL CURRENCY. Other - JFK was killed by the Mafia becuz he was planning a December 1663 "PALACE COUP" using Castro's own insiders + including direct US military assistance which could had sparked a US-Soviet World War. Mafia was angry becuz, besides the JFK-RFK mob persecutions, they were excluded from getting back into post-Castro Cuba by the Kennedys, a Mafia family.
Parents have forced a school trip to a mosque to be abandoned because they objected to their children learning about Islam. Atwood Primary in Croydon was forced to call off a Year 5 class visit to a mosque after nearly a third of parents refused to give consent. Headteacher Alex Clark said the religious education tour of Croydon Mosque was no longer "financially viable" after nine out of the 30 pupils were withdrawn, with several Christian parents saying they did not want their 10-year-old child to be exposed to a "religion that was not their own".
Croydon Mosque believes the reaction was due to the mosque featuring on BBC Newsnight after a senior Home Office official was exposed as an activist for the radical Hizb-ut-Tahrir group. Tanveer Sajjad, for the Croydon Mosque, said: "There is no question of children being exposed to radical preaching."
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.
NAIROBI - Eritrean authorities have arrested at least nine journalists working for state-owned media in the past two weeks, an international press freedom watchdog said on Wednesday, adding it feared for the safety and lives of those detained.
(SomaliNet) Egypt's imprisoned opposition leader, 
An airline pilot was cheered by passengers after he raided the takings of the bar and used his own money to pay the fees demanded by Senegal airport officials before they would allow the jet to fly home.
JOHANNESBURG - A South African pathologist faces a disciplinary hearing Thursday for attributing AIDS as the cause of death on a medical certificate in the first ever case of its kind in the country. Leon Wagner from South Africas central Free State agricultural heartland will appear before the South African Health Professions Council in Bloemfontein over a death certificate he had signed after the demise of a young woman in April 2005.
Russia's secret service yesterday issued its strongest denial yet that it was to blame for the poisoning of the former KGB agent who is seriously ill in a London hospital. The denial from the Russian foreign intelligence service, the SVR, came as Alexander Litvinenko's condition deteriorated, according to a friend. Sergei Ivanov, an SVR spokesman, told the Interfax news agency that the dissident was not important enough for it to mount a risky assassination attempt: "Litvinenko is not the kind for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations. It is not in our interests." Mr Litvinenko became ill on November 1 following meetings with contacts, the first with two Russian men at the Millennium hotel in Mayfair and the second with Italian academic Mario Scaramella at the Itsu sushi bar in Piccadilly. Mr Litvinenko claims he met a former KGB agent, Andrei Lugovoi, at the hotel along with another Russian. Mr Lugovoi said yesterday that he would not comment until he had met British embassy officials in Moscow.
A typhoon in North Korea killed thousands more people than the country has officially admitted, an analysis by a British scientist suggests. Satellite images of the region around the town of Yangdok, which was hit by Typhoon Bilis in July, reveal widespread devastation caused by floods and landslides. Dozens of apartment blocks were destroyed or seriously damaged, bridges swept away and roads and railways wrecked.
The superlatives abound. It is wider than a football pitch and almost as long, four times the height of a double-decker bus, and weighs 560 tonnes.
Women have the right to dress as they please, but the rights of the individual have to be balanced with the rights of society. Taking up the current controversy over the veil, Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, writes in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail that the veil is not required by Islam, nor should it be viewed as a conflict between Muslims on one side and the Islamophobic West on the other. The debate, he argues, is being waged primarily within Muslim society and is part of the battle for the heart and soul of Muslim communities from Tunisia to Turkey, Indonesia to India, and right here in Canada. He cites 
CAIRO: Prominent Muslim scholars from around the world, including conservative religious leaders from Egypt and Africa, met on Wednesday to speak out against female genital mutilation at a rare high-level conference on the age-old practice. The meeting was organised by a German human rights group and held under the patronage of Dar Al-Iftaa, Egypts main religious-edicts organisation. It was held at the conference centre of Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni Islamic institution in the world. Al Azhars grand sheik, 
