There have been a number of attacks on the root name servers over the years, and much written on the topic. (A few references are here, here and here.) Even if you don't know exactly what these servers do, you can't help but figure they're important when the US government says it is prepared to launch a military counterattack in response to cyber-attacks on them.
This posting is about an attack on one such root name server. Actually, "attack" isn't really an appropriate term. It was not really an attack or a hijack or even identity theft. For one thing, these terms imply the existence of both a victim and a villain. In this story, the villains are not obvious and there might not have been any victims. And as we will see, you can't really steal something you own. All we can say for certain is that many of you, if not most, probably used an unauthorized root name server over the past few months and were blissfully unaware of it. These bogus servers may have acted just like a normal root server, providing the correct answers to your queries without logging your requests. But since these servers are now shut down, we can no longer investigate what they were doing. And we can only guess at the motivations of those who set them up.
Now what?
As most readers of this blog will know, when you access any resource on the Internet by name (e.g., www.cnn.com), your computer must first convert this name into an IP address (e.g., 64.236.29.120), which it then uses to gain access to the resource you've requested. The process of converting names to IP addresses relies on a distributed hierarchy of servers, each responsible for only a subset of names, with the root name servers at the top of this heap. The root servers tell you how to reach the top-level domains, like .com, .gov, or .uk, and from there you can work your way down the hierarchy to find what you want. This is why the root name servers are so important. They are the starting point for navigating the Internet.
Your computer routinely requests the IP addresses for the names of the sites you wish to visit from its local name server. The local name server will faithfully and silently traverse the naming hierarchy to find IP addresses for you on demand. To get started, your local name server needs to know the IP addresses of the root name servers, and since this list almost never changes, it is typically buried in some static configuration file. There are 13 root server IP addresses. Each of these is known by a single letter (A through M). The problem is that the IP address of the L root name server (l.root-servers.net) actually did change recently. After which, unauthorized root name servers running from the old IP address for L started popping up around the globe, the very same address that every provider has squirreled away in that configuration file that is rarely, if ever, updated.
The technical details
So now let's get into the details of what we know about this incident. The L root name server is run by ICANN and until recently, this server had an address of 198.32.64.12. On 24 October 2007, ICANN announced it was changing to the address to 199.7.83.42, effective 1 November 2007. Did you catch that announcement on the evening news? Me neither.
The Register published a story on this change shortly thereafter, noting the problem of servers potentially going to the old address forever, which they assumed would not be there to answer the call. One of the stated reasons for the change was that ICANN did not officially control the old IP address. That distinction belongs to Bill Manning of ep.net, who registered the associated IP block back in 1997. The new IP space was registered directly to ICANN in 2006. Who knows why ICANN was using Bill Manning's space in the first place and what exactly motivated such a switch, but it's safe to say that the Internet was a very different place in 1997.
After the announced change, some interesting things started happening. The old address space (198.32.64.0/24) continued to be announced from ICANN (AS 20144), as they didn't shut down their old server until May 2nd of this year, as planned. But then, Community DNS (AS 42909) of England started announcing the old space, as well, on December 15th. Bill Manning's ep.net (AS 4555) did the same on March 18th, and, for good measure, so did Diyixian.com (AS 9584) of Hong Kong on April 1st. So if you inadvertently went looking for the old L root name server during this time, you might have ended up at any one of four very different places! And most of the planet would have done just that. That wouldn't matter too much, if these sites weren't themselves running a root name server, but until last week, they were indeed. The following graph shows, over the past six months, the percentage of Renesys peers selecting each of these four competing choices for old L root name servers.
Once we discovered this, we did a very cursory examination of one of the bogus servers and it appeared to be providing the same information as the correct L root server. We checked out the start of authority (SOA) record and some recently updated top-level domains as suggested by our friends at DynDNS. Everything checked out for our limited tests. So at least the bogus name servers might have been providing the correct responses while they were in service, which may be why no one noticed a problem.
Conclusions
But this sure does leave a lot of unanswered questions. Why on earth would anyone want to run a root name server, especially an unauthorized one from a deprecated IP address? The volume of incoming traffic these things get is staggering, and that traffic isn't free. Why did ICANN make this change in the first place? And what actions were taken to bring all this to an abrupt halt after going on for so long? It's not like Bill Manning did anything wrong by announcing address space that he owns. He could have even allowed the others to announce it as well. It's his space after all and he is free to do what he wants with it. And nothing prevents him or anyone else from running a name server from any IP address under their control. But of course, none of these people are stupid. There must have been some reason to mimic a legitimate root name server on an IP address that they knew would continue to be used for a long time. So, what mechanisms are in place today to stop this from happening again?
We already know the answer to this last question: none. Anyone anywhere can announce the address space occupied by any of the root name servers, past or present. If their upstream providers are not filtering announcements, and many of them are not, then some portion of the Internet will select these bad routes, thus directing their root name server queries to the wrong place. This would be similar to the recent YouTube hijack with one very important difference: no one might notice. So the operators of such bogus name servers could operate for a very long time, providing correct answers or incorrect ones as they saw fit. They could log your requests to determine your interests and censor the ones they didn't like. In general, they could engage in all sorts of mischief, ranging from very targeted ("let's get this one individual or organization") to very wide-ranging ("let's blow away .com today").
The short-term solution is for providers to both filter routing announcements and implement active monitoring on resources critical to their customers. We discussed these ideas in the wake of the YouTube hijack. In the longer term, the Internet really needs a verifiable way of providing name service, one that makes some guarantee that the answers we are getting are coming from the authorized servers. Cryptographic solutions to this problem have been proposed, just as they have been for BGP route distribution and filtering, but the sheer scale of the global upgrade problem makes it unlikely that we'll see them deployed in our lifetimes. For now, all we can suggest is to "watch that basket."
#3
This is, in fact, a really serious vulnerability. I know a bunch of information assurance folks who are pretty concerned about how this could be used by, say, the Chinese. Or malicious hackers. Or the Chinese when they decide to -- as they have boasted they have the ability to -- bring down our economy and our military command and control systems using this among other tricks.
And yes, I know about the SIPRNET. I don't assume it isn't compromised.
The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gathered together to greet the storm
Tomorrow belongs to me
The branch on the linden is leafy and green
The rivere gives its gold to the sea (Gold to the sea)
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me
Now America, Americs, show us the sign
Your children have waited to see
The morning will come
When the world is mine
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me
The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes
The blossom embraces the bee
But soon says the whisper, arise, arise
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me
#4
These people generally show up at these events in greater numbers than they actually vote. It's a feel good thing.
Posted by: Chins Prince of the Hemps1099 ||
05/19/2008 1:44 Comments ||
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#5
I was looking at some of the pictures over at Drudge before coming back here. They reminded me of the monster rallies in Nuremburg and Munich during the 1930's. Then I clicked on the video posted by OS. SCARY!
#9
For once I actually comprehend (and agree with) part of what Joseph said. Definitely check the article Drudge has linked for a few good laughs. Among them: no more SUVs, food rationing in the USA, no more heating or cooling our homes to comfortable temperatures, and a big tax increase on oil companies to bring gas prices down.
I suppose he must be the AntiChrist, I can think of no other explanation for his popularity.
Freeper "Wil H." has applied Google-Earth's ruler tool to the images from the Portland rally and has come up with a figure of less than 43,000 for the crowd.
This is based on a measurement of the rally area and an allowance of 4 square feet per person (quite crowded in a large area) and does not subtract for the large open areas around the dais or the other empty areas plainly visible in the images.
Obama's adoring fans in the media have consistently put the turnout at 60-75,000+, gushing that it was the "size of a city." Obama himself is claiming 80,000 in a new ad and Reuters is claiming 160,000!
No doubt they are inspired by the success of fellow goebbelists in inflating Iraqi civilian death figures from ca 60,000 to a mind-boggling 2 million (per turncoat radio jock Jay Diamond).
This guy wants to be our President and control our government. Pay close
attention to the last comment!! Below are a few lines from Obama's books in
his own words:
From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the
age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating
myself to whites.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of
grievance and animosity against my mother's race.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary,
a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'
From Dreams of My Father: ; 'It remained necessary to prove which side you
were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name
names.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose
fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man,
son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the
attributes of Martin and Malcolm, Dubois and Mandela.'
From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political
winds shift in an ugly direction.'
#12
#6 Reminder: Obewan is half white. Yet he embraces a black identity. Is he a self loathing white?
Posted by McZoid 2008-05-19 02:22|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
Close, very close. Actually, he and Michelle are white loating blacks in love with themselves.
#17
It's because it's unfashionable to believe in any of the traditional religions, all this excess belief has to go somewhere, and they think Obama is a safe receptacle.
(HA!)
I think we'd have been better off creating a god (or is it an O God!) of hangovers, like in Terry Pratchett's _Hogfather_.
I say this not in criticism of organized religion or morality in general, but because I don't like trickery, and I don't like the way Sundays have become the official day for media to play preacher and promote morality -- especially the newly manufactured morality which appeals to the non-churchgoers with unacknowledged spiritual needs....
...In a way, I don't envy today's preachers, so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on them. It is easier to induce guilt over pleasurable things like recreational sex and drugs. Scolding people who have to do things like commute and communicate simply to make a living must be an uphill battle, as well as a thankless task.
#19
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, the lesson is that very bad ideas do not look like bad ideas. Often they're messages of hope and promise.
As the video shows, it starts off innocently enough, but more and more people join, putting their own projections on it, until you have a militaristic lockstep that foreshadows and echoes the jackboots to come.
Even though the Nazis were only supported by some 30 percent of the population at the beginning, eventually the general population joined in. It is rather convenient after the fact for people to say, "it wasn't me". Insidious collectivism and totalitarianism can start under seemingly inoffensive beginnings.
If that video and the mindless, self-delusional, even messianic support of a certain politician does not bring a cold shiver to your soul, then you are not paying attention.
#24
Go and compare Hillary's website to Obama's. Hillary is actually WORKING for the country, even if her some of her ideas are off. She's put a lot of thought and effort into her career. By comparison, Obama's website is all about OBAMA. Period. Yes, and he is a one-world government prototype. Much much better it be Hillary than Obamessiah . . .
#26
One-worlder through and through. Got it from his parents, although he is rather selective about crediting the one who actually stuck around and cared for him.
#27
Barack Hussein Obama, May 2008: "We cant drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times . . . and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK."
James Earl Carter, July 1979: "I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. . . . Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense I tell you it is an act of patriotism."
R.Simon:
We have been here before. Do we really want to go back there again?
Me:
Unlike Jimmuh, Obama is an elitist, and will not hesitate to call out the FBI and others to force compliance of the "bitter backward people" in "those middle states". After all, its only us "evil" people who would resist his benevolent leadershitp, his statism and the wonders of socialism and collectivist activity. Therefore *we* who see through the smokescreen become enemies of the state and unpatriotic.
I can almost hear the damned jackboots every time this fool speaks and the press in its Goebbels/Riefenstahl role covers for him.
The Prince of Wales has warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless urgent action is taken to save the rainforests.
In one of his most out-spoken interventions in the climate change debate, he said a £15 billion annual programme was required to halt deforestation or the world would have to live with the dire consequences.
"We will end up seeing more drought and starvation on a grand scale. Weather patterns will become even more terrifying and there will be less and less rainfall," he said.
"We are asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now and [the] urgency of them." The Prince said the rainforests, which provide the "air conditioning system for the entire planet", releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living.
He said that every year, 20 million hectares of forest equivalent to the area of England, Wales and Scotland were destroyed and called for a "gigantic partnership" of governments, businesses and consumers to slow it down.
"What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead," he said.
He estimated that the cost would be about £15 billion a year but said that this should be viewed as an insurance policy for the whole world. "That is roughly just under one per cent of all the insurance premiums paid in the world in any one year. It is an insurance premium to ensure the world has some rainfall and reasonable weather patterns. It is a good deal."
Last month, the Prince had a meeting at St James's Palace with four state governors from Brazil to discuss the best way to allocate the money. One option would be for an organisation such as the World Bank to administer the fund. The Prince made clear yesterday that if nothing was done there was a "severe danger of losing a major part of the battle against climate change".
In an interview on Radio 4's Today programme, the Prince disclosed that he had raised his concerns with the White House, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and President Sarkozy, of France. He said he had pressed Barclays, Shell, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's to join his campaign.
But he also said consumers had to play their part by choosing products that were environmentally sustainable and called for improvements in labelling.
He denied, however, that he was interfering in the political process. "All I am ever trying to do is to provide an enabling facility," he said.
He conceded that at times he had been forced to keep his counsel when he would have liked to have spoken out. "You learn as you go along. I am going to be 60 this year. I would be a blinding idiot if I had not learnt a bit by now."
The number of birds, animals, marine and freshwater creatures in the world has dropped by almost one third, according to the WWF conservation organisation. It found that between 1970 and 2005 land-based species fell by 25 per cent, marine species by 28 per cent and freshwater species by 29 per cent.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I would be a blinding idiot if I had not learnt a bit by now
Yes, you would, O Prince of Whales. Yes, you would.
I don't know about you guys, but somehow I feel vaguely cheated when the objects of our mockery besnark themselves like this.
#2
Prince Chuck likes to play fast and loose with everyone's money but his own. Put yer poke where yer mouth is, or shut yer gob.
There are other ways of protecting the forest besides throwing money at it. Geeze Louise, I am sick of this over capitalized welfare case.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/19/2008 1:32 Comments ||
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#3
TOPIX/RUMORMILLNEWS > TREMORS/AFTERSHOCKS PERSIST IN CHINA QUAKE ZONE; + WIRED > TWO-MILE HIGH URBAN TERMITE MOUND TO HOUSE MANKIND'S SWIRLING HUMANITY. ALso TREE/FLORA, etc. = NATURE-inspired designs. The JETSON'S SKY CITY(S) = SKY APT(S) BUILDINGS RISETH???
I like CLOUDS, didn't everybody??? One of these days GEORGE LUCAS and I need to have a long talk on FUTUREWORLD, + wid MICHAEL MOORE vv 9-11!?
#4
Once upon time much of Britain and Europe was forested. Perhaps the prince would do something about that, eg starting with the royal acres. If he applies to the American Forests Global ReLeaf program, they should be able to provide him with trees native to his area at about a dollar each, plus the Americans will organize getting them planted. They've already managed projects in Siberia and Versailles, amongst other places, and had planted over 25 million trees in the U.S. and around the world as of two years ago. Besides being climate altering for Britain, think of all the wildlife habitat that would be created, resulting in an increase in wildlife population.
But that would force him to admit that the issue can be addressed without everyone except him reverting to the lifestyle of medieval peasants.
#5
Being an American (now) I have little warrant to comment on the British succession, but since Charley himself does not hesitate to run his mouth about things that are not his affair, I will do so as well:
If it were my call, he could still be king if he does the following:
-Gives away his Arab costumes
-Gets Camilla's teeth fixed
-Makes her promise not to wear a weed in her hair again
-Dresses in sackcloth and ashes and conducts a pilgrimage; barefoot and carrying a cross; to the site of Winston Churchill's grave at Chartwell, there to lie prostrate for 40 days and 40 nights as atonement for his many acts of adultery, dhimmitude, and general moonbattery.
After that, we might talk about the crown, assuming his mum does not outlive him, which is actually fairly likely given the family history.
#6
In an interview on Radio 4's Today programme, the Prince disclosed that he had raised his concerns with the White House, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and President Sarkozy, of France. He said he had pressed Barclays, Shell, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's to join his campaign.
He is said to be in contact with the Federation of Planets and the Fremen of Dune as well.
#9
Chucky has enough dough to set up an endowment that would pay off that kind of money. If its a life and death scenario, why doesn't he front us the money and be the savior of the entire human race??????
#13
You know, he's probably got tens of thousands of acres of open parkland mown daily by groundskeepers. He could always turn those back into royal forests.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/19/2008 10:54 Comments ||
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#15
Every time I read about him the inner American in me feels an urge to turn towards Philadelphia and recite: "God Bless George Washington! God Bless Thomas Jefferson! God Bless the Constitution! God Bless the Declaration of Independence! God Bless the Republic!".
#16
Someone's finally broken the long standing record of the "stupidest environmental prediction award". Actor Ted Danson has been clutching the award for the last 9 years. His 1988 prediction that "the ocean would be dead in 10 years" and that "human life would be dead shortly after that" didn't come to fruition by 1998. He has laid claim to the award ever since.
#18
Hey, Chuck, I gotta' deal for ya'. For each $5 you send me, I'll plant 2 trees somewhere here in the USA. That's right, $5=2 live trees planted! Over the course of a month those 2 trees will create more oxygen and recycle more CO2 than all the hot air you spew over the course of your entire life.
BTW, that bit about "The number of birds, animals, marine and freshwater creatures in the world has dropped by almost one third, according to the WWF conservation organisation. It found that between 1970 and 2005 land-based species fell by 25 per cent, marine species by 28 per cent and freshwater species by 29 per cent." is total horseshit. If the total number of land-based organisms had really fallen by 25% in the last 35 years, everyone on the plant would know it becasue, guess what, we're land-based organisms too!
What a load...(if anyone wants to send me $5 I really will plant 2 trees though - I need a carbon credit website).
#19
So he's going to pay those people not to farm? Sounds like the USDA.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/19/2008 14:59 Comments ||
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#20
How about if he gives 'em some condoms while he's at it?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/19/2008 15:05 Comments ||
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#21
He's way wrong. We only have 3 hours and 47 minutes. Never mind, break out your pith helmets or long-johns depending on your local weather.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
05/19/2008 19:20 Comments ||
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#22
DEAR PRINCE CHUCK,
I AM A FORMER CHIEF OF THE GLOBAL WARMING MINISTRY OF NIGERIA. I AM IN POSESSION OF 120 MILLION EUROS WORTH OF CARBON OFFSETS. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO HELP ME GET THIS PROPERTY OUT OF THE COUNTRY, I WILL SPILT THE PROCEEDS WITH YOU. IN ORDER TO FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF THE OFFSETS, I WILL NEED TO OBTAIN FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF ...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
And if the junta generals ignore him or don't immediately let the aid in to the people, he will write a STRONGLY worded report when he gets back.
In the meantime, he will probably eat at 5 star restaurants while in Burma.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/19/2008 16:25 Comments ||
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#2
Perhaps he to arrange how much of a 'cut' the Junta gets off the top (after the UN takes its own cut of course).
Zimbabwe's main opposition vowed on Sunday to 'bury' President Robert Mugabe at next month's second-round election, and called for the process of checking the poll results to be open to the media.
The Movement for Democratic Change launched its campaign ahead of the June 27 election in the absence of its leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who delayed his return from abroad after the party said it had discovered a plot to kill him.
MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe told about 10,000 supporters in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo that the opposition would win by an even bigger margin after official results from the March 29 first round vote showed Tsvangirai did not secure sufficient votes to avoid a run-off.
The MDC insists Tsvangirai won outright the first time.
"We decided to participate in the run-off to give the people of Zimbabwe a second chance to kick out the dictatorship. We have now declared a zero vote for Robert Mugabe," Khupe told supporters on Sunday.
"We need to give Mugabe a final blow. On June 27 we will be having a ZANU-PF funeral. We are going to make sure we bury them so that they will not resurrect again."
The MDC has alleged electoral fraud in the March election, and Khupe said verification of results in next month's vote should be open to the media and observers and recorded on camera "so that ZANU-PF will not cheat."
Earlier, police set up a security checkpoint on the main road leading to the stadium where the rally was held, stopping and searching vehicles for weapons. At a nearby police camp, four water canons were on standby.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
well, maybe face is lost..bitch slap to chi-coms after Bob gets his 5 second start down the 9mill range.
Hundreds of foreigners living in South Africa took refuge in police stations and churches as week-old violence against them spread further across poor townships, local media reported on Sunday.
Numbers of casualties since the attacks against Zimbabweans and other immigrants began a week ago varied, with some reports on Sunday putting the death toll at around 10.
Some South Africans, especially those living in poor areas of high unemployment, accuse Zimbabweans and other newcomers of fuelling the high crime rate and taking scarce jobs.
The attacks have renewed the authorities' fears that xenophobia is on the rise in a country which was once known as one of the most welcoming to immigrants and asylum seekers, especially from Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
South Africa anti-foreigner violence spreads, many whites continue to flee......the COUNTRY!
No word or comment yet from Nelson, Winnie, President Thabo Mbeki or senior representatives of the Soviet educated and Marxist trained gummit.
#2
It's nice to know that we led the charge in the South African Divestiture. What the hell were we thinking? That they could govern themselves? Boy did we miss the curve on that one.
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai canceled a trip home from South Africa this weekend, citing a rumored assassination plot against him.
The trip was timed for a celebration of his party's gaining a parliamentary majority in the March 29 elections and to gear up for the newly announced June 27 presidential runoff vote.
But a senior member of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party tells the Monitor that he had met with Mr. Tsvangirai over the weekend in Johannesburg, and that Tsvangirai had indicated that he had been invited back to Harare to begin power-sharing talks with Mr. Mugabe himself.
These would be the highest-level talks yet, and could pave the way for a political settlement that would avoid a runoff that most observers say will not be free and fair.
"[Tsvangirai] said he had been approached by the ZANU-PF and they were prepared to forgo a runoff in favor of establishing a government of national unity," says Dumiso Dabengwa, a former Zimbabwe chief of intelligence and current member of ZANU-PF's politburo, and one of the leading ZANU-PF officials to turn against Mugabe in support of independent candidate Simba Makoni.
"I said: 'Please don't hesitate. Take it up, and let's get on with the negotiation,' " says Mr. Dabengwa. But hearing minutes later on the news that Tsvangirai had canceled his trip in fear of his life, Dabengwa could only shake his head. "What we want is Mugabe out," he says, "but we have this impossible character [Tsvangirai], and we have to swallow this bitter pill to support this fellow. If he doesn't go back now, he will lose face."
Glimmers of hope
By most appearances, Zimbabwe's post-election crisis would seem no closer to resolution. Attacks against opposition activists by pro-Mugabe militias continue, and leaders of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) insist that they won the presidential vote outright. But behind the uncompromising positions, there are glimmers of hope that the two parties are quietly negotiating. "Now there is a real possibility of a government of national unity," says Eldred Masunungure, a political analyst at the University of Zimbabwe.
ZANU-PF insiders say that Mugabe's support continues to erode, and that aside from a small coterie of Mugabe's advisers and of course the roving bands of pro-Mugabe militias there are few voices in ZANU-PF who think that violence will do any more good. "I think they've always wanted a negotiated settlement, and the general tendency by the MDC and other democratic forces was to give an exit package for Mugabe which would give him immunity, but it would not give safeguards for anyone else," says Dumiso Matshazi, an opposition activist from Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo. "What [top Mugabe backers] feared is if Mugabe gives in without giving safeguards for them. The rest of the guys around Mugabe felt vulnerable; they held Mugabe at ransom. They say, 'We've done everything for you. So if there is no package for us, then there is no package.' "
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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George Bush yesterday told leaders of the oil-rich states of the Middle East that they must face up to a future without their precious hydrocarbons. In a stark warning, he said their supplies were running out and urged them to reform and diversify their economies. The outgoing United States president told the World Economic Forum, meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, that it was time to "prepare for the economic changes ahead".
Mr Bush's family name is inextricably linked to the oil industry, and this was his strongest statement yet on the future of global supplies.He told the conference: "The rising price of oil has brought great wealth to some in this region, but the supply of oil is limited, and nations like mine are aggressively developing alternatives to oil.
"Over time, as the world becomes less dependent on oil, nations in the Middle East will have to build more diverse and more dynamic economies."
Mr Bush also used his speech to call for more investment in people and "extending the reach of freedom", as well as urging other nations to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and to isolate Syria. He particularly mentioned women's rights, saying they were key to building powerful economies. He cited Egypt as a model for the development of professional women, girls going to school in Afghanistan and women joining political parties in Iraq and Kuwait.
In an apparent criticism aimed at Saudi Arabia, he told the forum: "This is a matter of morality and of basic math. No nation that cuts off half its population from opportunities will be as productive or prosperous as it could be. Women are a formidable force, as I have seen in my own family and my own administration. As the nations of the Middle East open up their laws and their societies to women, they are learning the same thing."
The president's speech was made only days after he urged Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to ease prices at the pumps, as millions around the globe face increasing costs of filling up and even more grapple with rising food bills.
The future of Scotland's own North Sea oil supply is an issue for both politicians and consumers, who were given a taste of limited fuel shortages during the Grangemouth refinery dispute. The US has turned dramatically towards biofuels, with Congress raising the federal requirement for using the oil alternative from 6.5 billion gallons last year to nine billion gallons this year. As a consequence, about a quarter of the American corn crop was used for biofuels last year, driving up the price of corn and, hence, also the price of food for millions of families.
Predictions of when the world's oil supplies will fall below global demand range from as early as the next decade, to as late as 2050. Mr Bush has been criticised throughout his term in office for not encouraging more energy alternatives in the US, and for allowing controversial drilling explorations for new fossil-fuel supplies in often environment-ally sensitive areas, such as Alaska.
Analysts warned last night that few in the Middle East, which has two-thirds of the world's oil reserves, are likely to heed Mr Bush. Many have already started diversifying their economies and do not like being preached to by someone so unpopular in the region.
Gerald Butt, editor of the authoritative Middle East Economic Survey, said: "The Gulf states have been trying to diversify their economies away from oil for years, so they'll say, 'This is like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs'.
"Arab states don't like being told what to do by outsiders, and especially by America, whose standing in the region is very low. Bush's comments will be dismissed as unwarranted interference."
Although he praised parts of the Arab world, commentators said Mr Bush had angered many with a speech at the Israel parliament last Thursday, in which he offered unflinching support for the Jewish state but mentioned the Palestinian dream of statehood only once.
Walid Khadduri, a Beirut-based consultant, pointed out that the Gulf states had already been investing windfall profits from high oil prices in major infrastructure projects, including education and housing, and in diversifying their industrial bases. He said: "Bush's credibility is zero anyway. I really don't know anyone who follows what he says, especially after what has happened in Iraq and then his Knesset speech the other day."
The knock-on effect of rising fuel costs has led to increasing food prices and subsequent riots around the globe, as high prices hit some of the world's poorest. There is now a desperate attempt to find oil from alternative sources to keep the supply flowing.
Potential sources in Canada would cost almost three times as much to produce as conventional crude oil because they have to be extracted from tar sands. Although the supply, in Alberta, is estimated to be second in size only to Saudi Arabian reserves, the production costs are unlikely to offer much relief for consumers.
While the Bush presidency has tried to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, it has yet to decrease fuel use, say critics. While the UK produces about 0.3 per cent of the world's supply of oil and uses about 2 per cent, the US produces 2.5 per cent but uses 24 per cent.
BOTH George H Bush and George W Bush will be remembered almost as much for their connections to oil as to the presidency. And exactly how does this idea relate to either of the Bush presidencies in any practical manner?
Bush Snr owes his fortune to Texas crude, while his son also took posts in the industry before following in his father's footsteps into politics.
Commentators have projected their own narrow thinking accused Bush jnr's drive to war in Iraq as merely a quest for oil, with potentially billions of dollars in profit to be made from opening up the country's oil reserves if Iraq was ever stable.
George Bush Snr, who was president from 1989 to 1993, became a millionaire off the oil industry by the age of 40 in Texas. He started the Bush-Overby Oil Development company in 1951 and co-founded the Zapata Petroleum Corporation two years later. He served as the firm's president from 1954 to 1964. He then entered politics.
After gaining an MBA from Harvard University, Bush Jnr worked in the family oil businesses. He became a senior partner and chief executive officer of Arbusto Energy, Spectrum 7 and Harken Energy. Arbusto Energy obtained financing early on from James Bath, a close Bush family friend and in 1979 the sole US business representative of Salem bin Laden, head of the wealthy Saudi family and brother of Osama bin Laden.
#2
RUSSIA says the earth naturally produces non-biotic boil, and that it will never run out. HOW THEN, TO GET TH EARTH'S CORE TO SURRENDER AND "PUMP UP THE VOLUME" WIDOUT DESTROYING OUR OWN CORE-PLANET???
From MYANMAR to the Earth's Core, the FUTURE "1000-FLAG/NATION" NAVY = OWG GLOBAL TASK FORCE AWAITS???
#5
Let them run out of oil. We need to worry about the U.S. and our allies. We need to develop energy independence such as Brazil did back in the 1970s. The Saudis, in my view, are our enemies.
A Bangladesh court on Sunday charged former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed with taking bribes, as part of a corruption crackdown by the emergency government, a state prosecutor said.
The judge who indicted the 60-year-old ex-premier said there was enough evidence for the prosecution to go ahead, said state lawyer Shamim Ahsan.
She is charged with taking 30 million (taka) (437,000 dollars) in bribes from a power company in exchange for awarding it a state contract. She is also charged with abusing her power to deny the contract to the rightful bidder, said Ahsan. Sheikh Hasina, who has already been indicted in another graft case, faces up to ten years in jail if found guilty of the charges, he said. She would also be automatically barred from contesting the next polls scheduled for December. The former premier, who is leader of the Awami League party, was in court when the judge passed the order.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico Drug cartels are sending a brutal message to police and soldiers in cities across Mexico: Join us or die.
The threat appears in recruiting banners hung across roadsides and in publicly posted death lists. Cops get warnings over their two-way radios. At least four high-ranking police officials were gunned down this month, including Mexico's acting federal police chief.
Mexico has battled for years to clean up its security forces and win them the public's respect. But Mexicans generally assume police and even soldiers are corrupt until proven otherwise, and the honest ones lack resources, training and the assurance that their colleagues are watching their backs. Here, the taboo on cop-killing familiar to Americans seems hardly to apply.
Police who take on the cartels feel isolated and vulnerable when they become targets, as did 22 commanders in the border city of Ciudad Juarez when drug traffickers named them on a handwritten death list left at a monument to fallen police this year. It was addressed to "those who still don't believe" in the power of the cartels.
Of the 22, seven have been killed and three wounded in assassination attempts. Of the others, all but one have quit, and city officials said he didn't want to be interviewed.
"These are attacks directed at the top commanders of the city police, and it is not just happening in Ciudad Juarez," Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said at the funeral of the latest victim, police director Juan Antonio Roman Garcia. "It is happening in Nuevo Laredo, in Tijuana, in this entire region," he said. "They are attacking top commanders to destabilize the police force."
The killings are in response to a crackdown launched by President Felipe Calderon, who has sent thousands of soldiers and federal police across the nation to confront the cartels. Drug lords have hit back by sending killers to attack police with hand grenades and assault rifles.
Police are increasingly giving up. Last week, U.S. officials revealed that three Mexican police commanders have crossed into the United States to request asylum, saying they are unprotected and fear for their lives.
"It's almost like a military fight," said Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "I don't think that generally the American public has any sense of the level of violence that occurs on the border."
On May 8, Edgar Millan Gomez, who had taken over as acting federal police chief, just 10 weeks previously, was shot by a lone gunman outside his Mexico City apartment. Police blamed the Sinaloa cartel and said a police officer was among the suspects arrested.
The U.S. Embassy in the capital flew its flag at half-staff. "Mexico has lost another hero," Ambassador Tony Garza said in a statement. "Mexico has lost too many heroes in the fight against criminals and drug cartels."
Mexican government institutions didn't lower their flags, but held elaborate funerals.
In Ciudad Juarez, police have been given assault rifles -- they used to just carry pistols -- but also are instructed not to patrol streets alone. More than 100 of the city's 1,700-member force have resigned or retired since January.
Soldiers are also in the cartels' sights. The Zetas, an infamous group of soldiers who became drug hit men, strung banners above highways with slogans such as "The Zetas want you -- we offer good salaries to soldiers," and taunts about low army pay.
The conflict has become a battle for loyalty on several levels.
"Juarez Needs You! Join up and become part of the city police," say enormous city billboards. The jobs offer salaries about three times higher than those offered by the foreign-owned "maquiladora" factories that are the city's biggest industrial employer.
But police and soldiers keep deserting to the cartels, giving traffickers inside knowledge about tactics and surveillance.
And because of their history of corruption and abuse, police and soldiers run into suspicion as they patrol the border slums where traffickers throw children's parties, hand out cell phones and employ taxi drivers and youths as lookouts.
A Mexican army captain leading about a dozen soldiers raiding a Ciudad Juarez slum gazed over a maze of alleys, shacks and, in the distance, El Paso, Texas, gleaming in the sun. He said the drug lords' spies are everywhere, tipping off their bosses to approaching troops.
Many residents complain of heavy-handed army tactics.
"These guys don't care about anything," Lalo Lucero, 44, a former migrant worker in New Mexico, said as he watched soldiers detain a neighborhood youth. "They came into my house without a warrant, searched through everything and told me to sit on a couch and not say anything."
The army's public relations office did not reply to requests for comment. But authorities have tried to improve the troops' image by blanketing Ciudad Juarez with pictures of a soldier manning a machine gun and the slogan "We Are Here to Help You."
#1
Sounds like the cartels are getting worried. In the past, they have only issued statements like that when they started getting their clocks cleaned. Hopefully, the Mexican military and government are putting a good hurt on 'em.
#2
It reaches a point where drastic measures are warranted. The US cannot afford to let Mexico belly up. These drug cartels are approaching the threat potential to the US of the ME terrorist organizations.
I can foresee a day where we might send more than money to support the military and police.
#4
10 years ago I worked with a rising Mexican attorney doing work with maquilladoras. One day he took me on a car tour of CJ. We saw three motorcycle cops beneath an underpass. He muttered, "What a bunch of crooks. You know one big difference between the US and Mexico? In the US when a cop comes up to your car he has a frown because he's caught you doing something wrong and he's going to give you a ticket. In Mexico when the cop comes to your car, he's smiling because he knows you're going to give him money." He was a good guy.
#6
The fence is the best thing we could do for the honest Mexican cops...that and a seriously beefed up Border Patrol. The bad guys get their money from criminals in the US so it seems only fair the US should take some positive steps. Kinda makes me wonder why they never do.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/19/2008 15:25 Comments ||
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#7
The army's public relations office did not reply to requests for comment. But authorities have tried to improve the troops' image by blanketing Ciudad Juarez with pictures of a soldier manning a machine gun and the slogan "We Are Here to Help You."
It sounds like the American Armed Forces ethic (and troops) is as admired around the world as our civil rights... and it's fascinating that the one person quoted objecting to Mexican Army behaviour is a former [presumably illegal] migrant.
#8
The situation is degenerating beyond a police problem. I challenge anyone to read Mexican history and not start seeing the major danger signs of revolution in this.
Again, most of the problem goes to the fact that the rich in Mexico will go to great lengths to keep the poor, poor. Mexico could have taken a development path parallel to the US after World War II, but chose not to.
And if they have a civil war, it is going to be as nasty and murderous as it used to be.
#10
I can see where these cartels will have to be addressed much like was done with Columbian Pablo Escobar. He was tracked and killed. Mexico has to want to get rid of her drug problems. Their military are tied up with the cartels. This is going to continue to spill over into the U.S. I don't see any of the current crop of candidates as being serious about addressing our border problems. McCain claims to have had an epiphany after his come to Jesus encounter with the American voters last year.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez must explain documents found on Colombian rebel computers that Washington and Bogota charge show deep ties between the leftist leader and the guerrillas, a top U.S. official said.
Interpol last week said its forensic tests showed the authenticity of the files but the international police agency could not vouch for the veracity of the contents of the computers found at a FARC rebel camp inside Ecuador in March.
Chavez and Ecuador's Rafael Correa, who Colombia says the files show also maintained rebel ties, dismiss accusations as lies and part of a U.S.-backed campaign to discredit them based on unsubstantiated documents.
"President Chavez has a lot of explaining to do," White House drug czar John Walters told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo in a Spanish-language interview published on Sunday.
"They were fluid contacts from both sides. This is a group that wants to violently overthrow a democratic government. This is very serious and requires more than just a simple denial."
Accusations based on the files from three laptops, hard drives and computer data keys are fuelling diplomatic tensions in the Andean region, where Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe is Washington's closest ally and Chavez its fiercest critic.
Colombian forces found the computers when they swept across the Ecuadorean frontier to kill a top FARC commander. The operation sparked a regional crisis with Ecuador and ally Venezuela sending troops to their borders with Colombia.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Newton's theory of gravity also needs further explanation.
Posted by: Grenter Protector of the Geats4975 ||
05/19/2008 15:46 Comments ||
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#3
How come when you're one of the worlds biggest pieces of sh*t, a simple "wasn't me" will suffice.
Anybody else, including leaders of free countries, can't shake loose the conspiracy theories to save their life.
(Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Saturday he would step down if there is proof that he had ties with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group in Colombia. "If I had the most minimal relation with the FARC as candidate or as president I will resign as president," Correa said in his weekly radio address. "We have never received illegal (campaign) contributions."
The president said he handed over proof of his innocence to the Organization of American States amid accusations that he had received money contributions from FARC rebels during his presidential campaign in 2006. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was leading a smear campaign against him, Correa added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
BIGNEWSNETWORK > HAARETZ > ISRAELI LAWMAKER: ABBAS [Fatah Leader] WILL QUIT IFF TALKS FAIL???
BY: Charles J. Hanley and Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press
05/19/2008
DAEJEON, SOUTH KOREA Grave by mass grave, South Korea is unearthing the skeletons and buried truths of a cold-blooded slaughter from early in the Korean War, when this nation's U.S.-backed regime killed untold thousands of leftists and hapless peasants in a summer of terror in 1950.
With U.S. military officers sometimes present, and as North Korean invaders pushed down the peninsula, the southern army and police emptied South Korean prisons, lined up detainees and shot them in the head, dumping the bodies into hastily dug trenches. Others were thrown into abandoned mines or into the sea. Women and children were among those killed. Many victims never faced charges or trial.
The mass executions intended to keep possible southern leftists from reinforcing the northerners were carried out over mere weeks and were largely hidden for a half-century. They were "the most tragic and brutal chapter of the Korean War," said historian Kim Dong-choon, a member of a government commission investigating the killings.
'Very conservative' figures
Hundreds of sets of remains have been uncovered so far, but researchers say they are only a tiny fraction of the deaths. The commission estimates at least 100,000 people were executed, in a South Korean population of 20 million.
That estimate is based on projections from local surveys and is "very conservative," said Kim. The true toll may be twice that or more, he said.
In addition, thousands of South Koreans who allegedly collaborated with the communist occupation were slain by southern forces later in 1950, and the invaders staged their own executions of rightists.
Through the postwar decades of South Korean right-wing dictatorships, victims' fearful families kept silent about that blood-soaked summer. American military reports of the slaughter were stamped "secret." Communist accounts were dismissed as lies.
Declassified documents
Only since the 1990s, and South Korea's democratization, has the truth begun to seep out.
In 2002, a typhoon's fury uncovered one mass grave. Another was found by a television news team that broke into a sealed mine. Further corroboration comes from a trickle of declassified U.S. military documents, including photographs of a mass killing outside this central South Korean city.
Now Kim's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has added government authority to the work of scattered researchers, family members and journalists trying to peel away the long-running cover-up. The commissioners have the help of a handful of remorseful men.
"Even now, I feel guilty that I pulled the trigger," said Lee Joon-young, 83, one of the executioners in a secluded valley near Daejeon in early July 1950.
The retired prison guard said he knew that many of those shot and buried en masse were ordinary convicts or illiterate peasants wrongly ensnared in roundups of supposed communist sympathizers.
The 17 investigators of the commission's subcommittee on "mass civilian sacrifice," led by Kim, have been dealing with petitions from more than 7,000 South Koreans, involving some 1,200 alleged incidents not just mass planned executions, but also 215 cases in which the U.S. military is accused of the indiscriminate killing of South Korean civilians in 1950-51, usually in air attacks.
The commission last year excavated sites at four of an estimated 150 mass graves around the country, recovering the remains of more than 400 people. It has officially confirmed two large-scale executions at a warehouse in the South Korean county of Cheongwon and at Ulsan on the southeast coast.
In January, then-President Roh Moo-hyun apologized for the more than 870 deaths at Ulsan.
smells like b.s.
Posted by: Snash Oppressor of the Mohammatans aka Broadhead6 ||
05/19/2008 18:42 ||
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#1
The 100,000 number would probably qualify them to write for The Lancet.
#2
Huh. Both sides, ROK and NKPA killed large numbers of prisoners they captured. The NKPA started as soon as their troops reached Seoul and the 'people's committees' started ruthlessly weeding out the merchant middle class. The NKPA had no problem killing Americans captured either [just another in the long list of those who don't play the 'rules' imposed upon the US]. The Chinese had no problem killing ROK prisoners either.
● Pollution in China is the fault of foreigners. We foreigners have come here to manufacture our cheap garbage at the lowest price possible and consequently, the environment is polluted as a result. If we foreigners didnt come here to make so much money, there would be no environmental problems in China.
● If there are quality problems with Chinese made products, it's our fault. If we didnt come here to buy low-prices trash they not have made it, so stop complaining.
● Foreigners are only here in China for the fantastic money making opportunities that are everywhere here. Money is the driving force here, not the culture, the adventure or anything else. (This one seems to hurt the most since I have spent the last few years in a culturally rewarding but fiscally less rewarding industry specifically because I like Chinese culture. Actually most of the foreigners I know here have made very little money in China and the few that have paid dearly for it).
● Yes, Chinas new labor law is a pain but a good thing since as it will help to prevent the foreign business here from continuing to exploit Chinese workers (still not sure how this will prevent this sort of thing from happening: slave labor in the Shanxi brick kilns)
● If you have a complaint or problem with something, it's probably because you just dont like the way we do things here (and are just looking to exploit us anyways). Now there is some merit to this, but this one has shown up in some surprising situations like during quality control inspections on furniture. If it's the wrong size, it's the wrong size. What does that have to do with being a foreigner?
● China is rising. If you have an issue with this, live with it or get out. It's probably because you are unhappy with the fact that even though the West is working furiously to contain China, it's just not working. We like our government as they have made us more prosperous.
Did we just revert back to the 1960ies? Have we returned to days when Americans were branded capitalist running dogs? Whats scary about all this is the all encompassing depth and coverage of these viewpoints amongst different age generations, cultural and social backgrounds, education levels and professions. People I have known for years who are normally very non-confrontational now pepper their conversations with these viewpoints when discussing seemingly unrelated and benign topics. I have also noticed that the younger the person, the stronger the anti-western sentiment. And the wording is almost identical in some cases.
After eleven years here and running, it makes you realize that though much has changed on the surface, not much has changed underneath. In fact, in this regard it seems like we moved backwards. And one thing is for certain: Whether you agree or disagree with the Chinese viewpoint is irrelevant because its their viewpoint. This is clear from the articles linked below - particularly the ones where comments have been enabled. They dont really care of you agree with them. They believe this viewpoint and will defend it passionately. Emphasized this last point because you're all going to see this again and again when dealing with China. Your opinion is simply irrelevant and you should shut up.
#1
And its terrible that all those foreigners have the oil you so desperately need and will continue to need to keep your economy afloat.
By the way, liked all the pic's in National Geographic this month, seems you're assimilating Western Culture[tm] nicely. (Actions speak louder than words). You've learned to be just as ungrateful as the French Intellectual Class[tm].
#2
French intellectuals are a good comparison. Criticize others endlessly, but of course themselves are spotless. If you make a point, it only makes sens to you because you're an unwashed philistine and you can't possibly be expected to discourse at the high level that we operate at.
#4
This may have either benign or malevolent ends. To start with, if you ask the typical American about China, or foreigners in general, would you be surprised to hear similar disparaging remarks?
On one level, in both countries, it is a sign that they are strong nations, and don't particularly like foreigners bashing their country, whether or not they have a point. Think of it as pride.
What matters is how that attitude evolves. If France does something that annoys the US, we stop buying their stuff, at a low level, to send them a message. We don't go to war with them.
But if the Chinese become aggrieved, say with India, what will they do? If they systematically wind their people up into wanting to do something violent to punish India, that is the downside.
#5
And how that makes them different from any other "People"?
Not much. However, look at Americans. They'll adopt children of any color, race, creed, or nationality, not hung up on 'blood', a discriminator internal even within societies. Interesting difference.
#6
All the barriers they're throwing up will, in a couple of years or so, bring the export component of the Chinese economy to a screeching halt, as exporters (Chinese and foreign) shift their operations abroad. China is moving towards economic autarky even as India is liberalizing its economy. This is India's chance to catch up.
#7
Money is the driving force here, not the culture, the adventure or anything else.
This is actually pretty amusing, since China has no traditional culture left. Apart from food and the traditional Chinese superiority complex, everything you see outside of a museum and archaelogical digs in China is of Western design or invention, including the hairstyle and the clothing. No one wears the elegant Qing (Manchurian), Ming (last Chinese dynasty) or even the clunky Sun Yat Sen (i.e. Mao jackets) costumes (which is what they are, in the context of today's China) any more. China doesn't have a culture - it has museum pieces.
This guy is our favorite gerbil worming hysteric downunder and Tim Blair's endless well of comic inspiration. Oh! and he is also one of Obamas inspirations on climate change along with the Goracle.
SCIENTIST Tim Flannery has proposed a radical solution to climate change which may change the colour of the sky.
But he says it may be necessary, as the "last barrier to climate collapse."
Professor Flannery says climate change is happening so quickly that mankind may need to pump sulphur into the atmosphere to survive.
Australia's best-known expert on global warming has updated his climate forecast for the world - and it's much worse than he thought just three years ago.
He has called for a radical suite of emergency measures to be put in place.
The gas sulphur could be inserted into the earth's stratosphere to keep out the sun's rays and slow global warming, a process called global dimming.
"It would change the colour of the sky," Prof Flannery told AAP.
"It's the last resort that we have, it's the last barrier to a climate collapse.
"We need to be ready to start doing it in perhaps five years time if we fail to achieve what we're trying to achieve."
Prof Flannery, the 2007 Australian of the Year, said the sulphur could be dispersed above the earth's surface by adding it to jet fuel.
He conceded there were risks to global dimming via sulphur.
"The consequences of doing that are unknown."
'Cutting emissions not enough'
Professor Flannery, who spoke at a business and sustainability conference in Parliament House today, said new science showed the world was much more susceptible to greenhouse gas emissions that had been thought eight years ago.
Regardless of what happened to emissions in the future, there was already far too much greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, he said.
Cutting emissions was not enough. Mankind now had to take greenhouse gases out of the air.
"The current burden of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is in fact more than sufficient to cause catastrophic climate change," Prof Flannery said.
"Everything's going in the wrong direction at the moment, timelines are getting shorter, the amount of pollution in the atmosphere is growing.
"It's extremely urgent."
'Use eBay to plant forests'
As well as the global dimming plan, Prof Flannery said carbon should be taken out of the air and converted into charcoal, then ploughed into farmers' fields.
Wealthy people should pay poor farmers in tropical zones to plant forests - possibly through a direct purchase scheme like the eBay website.
And all conventional coal-fired power stations - which did not have "clean coal" technology - should be closed by 2030.
Capturing carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations and storing it underground - called carbon capture and storage (CCS) - was a good idea, Professor Flannery said.
He urged Australia to dramatically fast-track CCS research and give the technology to the Chinese, who are building the equivalent of one new coal-fired power station a week.
Prof Flannery said while the Rudd Government was doing more to tackle climate change than its predecessor, it was still "nowhere near enough."
He called on the Government to remove the means test on the $8000 rebate for domestic solar panels introduced in last week's budget.
"It's probably the bureaucrats getting in the way, we all know that sort of policy is not going to work," he said.
#1
As well as the global dimming plan, Prof Flannery said carbon should be taken out of the air and converted into charcoal, then ploughed into farmers' fields.
Isn't charcoal merely half-burnt firewood? Or does Professor Flannery perhaps mean to refer to coal, which is a remnant of the ancient fern forests, dug out of the ground?
Wealthy people should pay poor farmers in tropical zones to plant forests - possibly through a direct purchase scheme like the eBay website.
Why don't wealthy people start by planting more trees where they live, work, and run power plants, thus in one stroke cooling heat sources and absorbing the carbon dioxide produced there? Another idea might be to finance the planting of replacement forests in China, currently the world's biggest polluter, and a country rapidly being denuded of its few remaining vascular autotrophs.
#3
Why don't the climate weanies plant trees anyway ?
I don't see any tree planting efforts from the weird global warming fools, just sit in the corner and bitch, bitch, bitch.
#4
I do not even want to go into the environmental disasters that would happen with this plan.
That is the problem with these idiots, they just see the short term issue and try to plan for that, ignoring the long term situation and screwing stuff up even further.
#5
Charcoal does not rot. It is stable in soil for thousands of years. It also helps to increase soil productivity by holding water and returning minerals.
Sulphur (dioxide). Yuch and PU! Why not Manganese heptoxide for that deep rich, red sky. I think Ima applying for a grant.
Posted by: ed ||
05/19/2008 8:03 Comments ||
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#6
Prof Flannery, the 2007 Australian of the Year,
What do you get for that, a baby kangaroo? A case of Foster's?
#9
There are places along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon where the water dissolves the CO2 in the rocks and it is released into the atmosphere. It looks like soda water with all the bubbles. How do we stop that? Bugwits!.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/19/2008 10:29 Comments ||
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For years we've spent umpteen billions of dollars scrubbing the SO2 from power plant emissions and have even gone so far as to mandate low sulphur diesel fuels that may harm engines and now this jackass wants to add sulphur to jet fuels to disperse SO2 in the atmosphere intentionally?
For those of you playing along at home SO2 was one of the main culprits in the acid rain scare of the 1970s and we've spent probably trillions of dollars trying to eliminate it from all emissions. My recollection is that the process goes something like this:
So unless this rocket scientist has found a way to remove oxygen and water vapor from the atmosphere what he's really telling us is that acid rain will cure global warming.
Back up the popcorn truck, lefties sure are entertaining when they're hysterical.
#14
A couple of good large volcanic eruptions would probably put more sulfur dioxide (and CO2) into the atmosphere than if all of the airplanes in the world ran on sulfur.
And I don't remember the sky changing colo(u)r when Mt. Pinatubo blew up, although we did have some pretty sunsets for a while.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/19/2008 11:49 Comments ||
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#15
AzCat, this one's for you:
Mary had a little drink
But she will drink no more,
For what she thought was H20
Was H2SO4.
:-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/19/2008 12:07 Comments ||
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#16
Here are 32,000 reasons why Flannery is a liar (click on audio,Tim Flannery, hero of the environment)
#17
That's a wonderful turn of verse Barbara! Somehow this one seems quite apropos as well:
There once was an old man of Esser,
Whose knowledge grew lesser and lesser,
It at last grew so small
He knew nothing at all,
And now he's a college professor.
It has, IIRC, been proposed many times. As I recall it, several proposals have simply recommended that Jumbo Jets be allowed to use fuel with higher sulfur content.
If the numbers worked out as they had it, the solution would be a negative cost. Thus, even if global warming wasn't happening, it would be in the public interest.
A 23-year-old Hamburg man suspected of stabbing his sister to death in an honour killing last week had already been prosecuted for assaulting her and others, prosecutors confirmed on Monday. Gott im Himmel! Inshallah ...
The man was sentenced in March on an assault charge to one year and five months without possibility of probation, the Hamburg prosecutor's office told German press agency DDP on Monday, confirming media reports.
The man had requested his March sentence be deferred, prosecutors said. He was notified in writing on Wednesday - a day before the stabbing - that the request had been rejected.
Police were also investigating earlier claims that he assaulted two of his sisters, including the girl stabbed last week.
Police arrested the man on Friday after the stabbing death of his 16-year-old sister early Friday morning in Hamburg's Sankt Georg district. Neighbours and a passing group of youths heard the girl screaming near the Berliner Tor metro stop and called police at 11:21 pm on Thursday. The girl died about an hour later at the scene of the stabbing.
The girl's oldest brother - like her a German citizen of Afghan origin - admitted to police he had killed her because she had turned away from her family, DDP reported. The family immigrated to Germany from Afghanistan 13 years ago, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported in its online edition.
The brother was charged in February with assaulting the 16-year-old girl and another of his sisters, DDP reported. Senior prosecutor Rüdiger Bagger denied reports that the man had already been sentenced in that case, saying that it was still pending.
The girl's cousin, Mujda O., told Der Spiegel's television unit that the 23-year-old had been getting into fights every two weeks.
"If you were to call this an honour killing, you would be correct. Very correct," the girl, who was not identified with her last name, told Der Spiegel.
A series of six honour killings in Berlin - including the shooting at a bus stop of 23-year-old Turkish woman Hatun Sürücü - shook Germany in 2005. Sürücü's youngest brother, Ayhan Sürücü, later confessed to killing her because he did not approve of her Western lifestyle.
(Xinhua) -- Five suspected hackers who were accused of attacking government websites in the United States, Asia and Latin America have been arrested, Spanish police said Saturday.
They were arrested this week in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia.
Among the arrested are two 16-year-old youths who belong to "one of the most active groups of hackers on the Internet," which have disabled 21,000 web pages in two years, the police said in a statement.
The members of the group have never met, but they have allegedly organized and coordinated attacks over the Internet, working in particular with hackers in Latin America, according to the police.
"They would substitute the contents of the web pages attacked with protest messages and included the same anarchist symbols," the statement said.
The police did not specify which government sites were targeted, but some media reports said the sites of the NASA and the Venezuelan national telephone company were among the targets.
If convinced, the suspects will face jail terms of one to three years.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Timothy J. McNulty, "Public Editor" of the Chicago Tribune
The political horse race analogy went too far.
The lead editorial "No photo finish for Clinton" in Thursday's Tribune played off Hillary Clinton's loss in the North Carolina primary and tied it to the fate of Eight Belles, the horse that was put down after breaking her front ankles in the Kentucky Derby.
This was the beginning paragraph:
"The only filly in the crowded field crossed the finish line second, but the fans who'd bet on her still had one last gasp of hope. Perhaps some fortuitous technicality would disqualify the first-place finisher. But things got worse instead of better. We're talking about Eight Belles, who was euthanized Saturday after almost winning the Kentucky Derby. But we're thinking about Hillary Clinton."
Notwithstanding the playful, even clever, writing of the editorial, it was wrong, I believe, to use language that conflates the presidential race and the sad need to euthanize a female horse, ending with this sentence: "There's no reason to wait until August to put Clinton, and the rest of us, out of our misery."
It made me queasy. The imagery would never have been used if the linkage between the two events was not gender. You cannot imagine using a similar analogy about race in the case of Barack Obama or about age when referring to John McCain. . . .
#2
Never mind wussies. The editorial was beyond the pale, and to place it as the lead editorial! The editor should have been fired immediately for stupidity beyond the norm for his field of endeavor.
Clinton Quiet About Own Radical Ties
Faulting of Obama Called Hypocritical
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By James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 19, 2008; Page A04
When Hillary Rodham Clinton questioned rival Barack Obama's ties to 1960s radicals, her comments baffled two retired Bay Area lawyers who knew Clinton in the summer of 1971 when she worked as an intern at a left-wing law firm in Oakland, Calif., that defended communists and Black Panthers...
----------- After they've been giving her a pass for all these years. Perhaps, the WaPo is no longer afraid of the Clinton machine. .
#1
alan dershowitz defended violent left wingers. Theres a difference between thinking someone has the right to counsel, and being best buddies with them. Is there more to this?
#2
HRC's work in the 60s and 70s are, I think, lower in concern than waht most people assume were her efforts to get pardons for the Puerto Rico terrorists. However, the correspondence regarding the pardon issue is not discoverable until a declassification occurs.
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) vice president Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo resigned from his party after being appointed as the adviser to prime minister and being granted federal minister status, Aaj television reported on Sunday. The channel reported that Wattoo called on PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain in Lahore and submitted his resignation in person. It quoted Wattoo as saying that he believed in tolerance and humility in politics, adding that he and Shujaat had discussed the political situation, as well as the prevailing crises currently facing the country. The channel said that the PML-Q president had accepted Wattoos resignation and appointed former NA speaker Ameer Hussain as the new vice president of the party.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in office only 16 months, faces a staff in revolt. The personally affable and easygoing U.N. chief was stunned by a vote of no confidence taken by the U.N. Staff Union on late last week.
The union, representing more than 5,000 employees at the New York City headquarters, sent a letter on Friday to Ban explaining their action, a copy of which was obtained by NewsMax. In it, Staff Union President Stephen Kisambira complains about Ban's "lack of access" to the union leadership: "We have sought to meet with you, since you assumed office, to discuss directly with you simmering issues of concern to staff. You have accorded us a couple of perfunctory meetings. You have not responded to a single letter or resolution we have sent you. The indifference and lack of appropriate response in the past pressed the staff to express a vote of no confidence in senior administration officials, including the secretary-general."
Kisambira laments that the relationship with the office of the secretary-general, already combative with Kofi Annan, has actually gotten worse since Ban assumed office on Jan. 1, 2007. Among the items the union says Ban and his staff have chosen to ignore are costs of living adjustments, a U.N. "stimulus" package for USA-based staff similar to President Bush's tax refund (U.N. employees pay a staff assessment but no U.S. taxes) and the allocation of temporary office space while U.N. headquarters undergoes a 5-year renovation. The issue of staff safety overseas was also an issue of concern.
The trend, according to the Staff Union, has resulted in alleged incompetence by senior management from the previous Annan administration being allowed to continue. As an example, they point to the recent appointment of Angela Kane (Germany) to the post of Under Secretary-General for Management despite repeated charges of mismanagement in past U.N. posts and numerous subsequent investigations that have criticized her performance. Senior U.N. officials have privately expressed their "doubts" over the Ban appointment.
Another example of mismanagement cited by the Union is the vulnerability of the U.N.'s computer system. In its letter to Ban it is charged that the computer system is "vulnerable to unauthorized use and access, abuse and breach of confidentiality especially with regard to communication by e-mail."
Unfortunately for Ban, many inside the U.N.'s diplomatic corps express similar "concerns" regarding the secretary-general's "performance." "It is incredible. He (Ban) has been in office a year and a half and he still does not understand how the United Nations works," confessed a veteran U.N. diplomat.
U.S. diplomats have remained silent on the latest turn of events. It is noteworthy that none of the U.N.'s permanent five members (U.S., U.K., Russia, China and France), the de-facto governing broad of the world body, have come to the defense of the secretary-general.
#7
I demand reciepts from the UNFIL force in Lebanon. I want them signed and I demand all expenses be paid by UN general fund. I demand they explain to the world what just happened with hezbullah. I demand repayment for a failed action and no reporting.
It is time to get what we need from this useless beau.
From a May 16 article in Haaretz
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When Dr. Isaac Berzin talks about algae, he forgets everything else. He starts talking a mile a minute, and sometimes he talks about true love. "When I look at them through the microscope, I see them doing belly dances, and they have this small mustache that they wave. They are really cute," he says with a passion that he makes no effort to hide...
Time magazine this month included Berzin in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2008. He is in the company of George Bush, Hillary Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (as a couple)...
In the 1970s and 1980s, in the wake of the fuel crises that were spawned by political crises, the national laboratory for alternative energy in the United States decided to try to produce fuel from algae...After 20 years of research and tens of millions of dollars.. I discovered that they had worked for 20 years and produced zero gallons of fuel. Twenty years and how many scientific articles? Hundreds. I realized that the project was an academic platform for them, that no one there was really determined to make fuel from algae."...
"As soon as one energy farm proves itself economically - and that will happen within a year and a half [somebody posted something on this a few weeks ago, it is a project in AZ or NM - it might have been me] we will be able to establish similar farms all over the world....
#5
I see algae farming as a situation of using optimums to produce a product.
You want to achieve maximum algae growth, harvesting and processing. Production needs to be year around.
You need the best water temperature and circulation, mix of gases, light bandwidth exposure--natural or artificial, and continual harvesting and processing of algae oil with sodium hydroxide and alcohol to produce biodiesel, with the remainder made into animal fodder.
That being said, you want to do it at the lowest cost.
Perhaps the best model is the use of "self-cleaning glass" pipes, lined with nanoparticles that prevent adhesion. The pipes have rudders in them that make the water turn in a spiral pattern as it flows.
This serves the dual function of evenly distributing the light through the water and keeping the CO2 and NOx gases dissolved to feed the algae. At intervals, the algae water reaches areas with slow current, where much of the algae is filtered out and sent for processing.
After the last filtration, the water is purified for re-use, likely also with nanotechnology filters, and the water is cooled or heated as need be.
#6
Perhaps, but nan0-fusion will require much less bio-mass and leak almost zero CO2 into the atmosphere. The modularity of nan0-fusion will make it possible to build power plants into areas as small as a large condo.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
05/19/2008 19:45 Comments ||
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#3
Its obviously all the fault of a failed Bush Administration! He engineered the Cyclone just as he engineered Katrina! Him and Cheeney and Haliburton caused he Cyclone! Air doesn't move on its own! It was Pushed! By Bush!
Microsoft Corp said on Sunday it has reached out to Yahoo Inc about an alternative deal that would not involve a full acquisition, in a move that could save the web pioneer from fighting a proxy battle with financier Carl Icahn.
Microsoft said it was not proposing to make a new bid to buy all of Yahoo "but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative" depending on discussions with Yahoo, shareholders of Yahoo or Microsoft, or other third parties.
Icahn launched a campaign on Thursday to replace Yahoo's board with directors who would reopen talks with Microsoft, saying Yahoo had acted irrationally in refusing the giant software company's $47.5 billion bid.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I have a better idea:
Nationalize these moonbat conglomerates, turn their management over to a committee of pro-American bloggers, and deport their current management to Gitmo.
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.
The Prince of Wales has warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless urgent action is taken to save the rainforests. 
A Bangladesh court on Sunday charged former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed with taking bribes, as part of a corruption crackdown by the emergency government, a state prosecutor said.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico Drug cartels are sending a brutal message to police and soldiers in cities across Mexico: Join us or die.
Notwithstanding the playful, even clever, writing of the editorial, it was wrong, I believe, to use language that conflates the presidential race and the sad need to euthanize a female horse, ending with this sentence: "There's no reason to wait until August to put Clinton, and the rest of us, out of our misery."
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) vice president Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo resigned from his party after being appointed as the adviser to prime minister and being granted federal minister status, Aaj television reported on Sunday. The channel reported that Wattoo called on PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain in Lahore and submitted his resignation in person. It quoted Wattoo as saying that he believed in tolerance and humility in politics, adding that he and Shujaat had discussed the political situation, as well as the prevailing crises currently facing the country. The channel said that the PML-Q president had accepted Wattoos resignation and appointed former NA speaker Ameer Hussain as the new vice president of the party.
