A University of Alberta researcher was surrounded by wolves, had to cancel her research season and be evacuated from the high Arctic earlier this summer after a pilot with an ecotourism agency left cardboard boxes of bacon and sausage on the tundra near their camp.
The wolves ripped open the boxes of meat and gorged themselves.
Catherine La Farge, who studies the colonies of moss exposed by retreating glaciers, was not attacked during the incident on Ellesmere Island, but she and her field assistant spent three hours cleaning up food and debris strewn across the landscape. Then they were confined to their kitchen tent to guard the leftovers and garbage.
Even banging pots and pans didnÂ’t frighten the wolves off.
“They kept circling,” said La Farge. “It was just so unlike their previous behaviour.
“They were basically having diarrhea all over the place. I was just really shocked,” she added.
#2
Being menacingly surrounded by wolves that want bacon and have severe diarrhea, I don't think "shocked" is the first word that comes to mind. I'm not sure what word *does* come to mind, but it ain't "shocked".
Spokesmen for the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) have been ordered not to speak to the media without first consulting the organization's General Presidency at its headquarters in Riyadh.
The move, which sources say obliges spokesmen to refer enquiries from the media to the General Presidency and await a reply and warns against making direct statements to the press, comes a mere three months after the naming of 13 Hai'a spokesmen and assistants to represent Hai'a offices around the Kingdom.
It is not known whether the new procedure is a temporary or permanent measure, but Hai'a officials only last month completed a program in Taif to "improve spokesmen's skills".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Bystanders had to step in to break up an argument at a mosque in Taif between the muezzin, caller to prayer, and one worshipper, a dispute the flames of which were only fanned by the intervention of the resident imam. The verbal confrontation reportedly started when the worshipper complained of the lack of water provided to the congregation, whereupon the muezzin reportedly retorted in decidedly impolite terms. As tempers boiled over, the imam of the mosque turned up who, believing the discontent due to his arriving late for prayer "by two minutes", asked the congregation to seek another mosque in which to conduct their prayers, which only served to increase the volatility of the situation between the arguing factions. Numerous bystanders had to step in to call things down until everyone was ready to conduct prayers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds so peaceful. Islam seems to do that.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/05/2009 11:26 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The Scottish government envisions a referendum on the country's separation from the UK in the face of domestic and Whitehall opposition. Hoot, mon! 'Tis time to shuck the yoke of the sassenach!
What, again? They aren't as bad as the Quebecois, but still. On the other hand, after the Libya debacle, who can blame them?
On Wednesday, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond, who had earlier declared that the country would achieve independence by 2017, said he would present the parliament with a bill on a 2010 referendum on the matter, The Times reported. "This government was elected with a popular mandate to put the question of Scotland's future to the vote in a referendum. It is time for the people of Scotland to have their say," he said. "And if they doon't say what wee want 'em t' say, we'll ha' anoother referendumb!"
In 1997, the Scots voted for Edinburgh's powers to be independent of the United Kingdom, paving the way for the 1999 reformation of the Scottish parliament. The parliament had been dissolved in 1707 following the Acts of Union, which joined Scotland and England together. Salmond called the so-called devolution a 'glass ceiling', which hampered the country's progress. "Aye, wee no kenna proogress havin' anything to do wi' the hated Brits!"
It is, however, doubted that the move will survive the country's legislative minefield. Unionist parties are set to subject it to numerous challenges benefitting from their parliamentary majority over the SNP. Treasury chief Alistair Darling, meanwhile, called the Scottish prosperity conditioned on that of the UK and said Edinburgh had to see about the economy rather than addressing independence. Still thou are blest, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
If they separate from England, the drop off of English tourists could halve the production of haggis.
#5
The Scots get more money from England than they contribute to the UK, just like the Quebecers and Canada. Or Robert Byrd leading a new secession movement.
#9
Like Bonnie Prince Charlie and his group, things start out with a roar and end in retreat and disarray. Same will happen here.
I enjoyed Scotland when I was there, even have some distant relatives still there, but like many many, it was time to leave. Got through the Glasgow airport without incident, so that was a plus.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/05/2009 11:18 Comments ||
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#10
Like ETA and the others I don't get this.
They are all part of the Super Bureaucratic EU state.
That will not change with separation except both will have less clout within the EU.
#12
If there was a referendum In England on separation from Scotchland, it would pass by miles.
That and send the muslim jizya collectors home and Britain will be swimming in budget surpluses. At least until the politicians get wind of the surplus.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2009 15:29 Comments ||
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GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said Friday that scheduled elections in neighboring Honduras will not be valid if ousted President Manuel Zelaya is not reinstated before the Nov. 29 vote. "President Zelaya must be reinstated before the elections, because if he is not, the elections will not be legitimate," Colom said after meeting with Zelaya.
Other countries including the United States have also said they would not recognize the results of the presidential election under current conditions.
The government in charge since a June 28 judicial order coup that removed Zelaya has pledged to hold out against international isolation and pressure to reinstate the ousted leader and go through with the vote.
Observers say Zelaya's time is running out, with just over four months remaining in his term. But Zelaya said Friday there is no time limit on his fight and repeated previous vows to return home. "The time period for fighting a principle, for democracy and justice, is undefined and is part of a historic process," he said.
The United States cut all non-humanitarian aid to Honduras on Thursday to express its disagreement with the coup and ratchet up pressure on the interim government to allow Zelaya to return. The cutoff of $31 million in non-humanitarian assistance makes permanent a temporary suspension of U.S. aid imposed after the coup.
The decision drew praise from Zelaya and his ally President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Of course it did.
Chavez told Venezuelan state television by phone from Iran on Friday that "it's about time" Washington took action against the coup. He added that he hopes Washington will make good on its statement that it would not recognize the election under current conditions.
Zelaya said as long as the interim government refuses to yield, "all electoral activity is illegitimate."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/05/2009 10:12 ||
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Sorry, dude. Presidency is 99% occupancy. A president is just a man, even if he is a sniveling leftist, wannabe tyrant.
#2
I agree. The sooner Zelaya returns to face the charges against him the better. That is, except for Zelaya.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/05/2009 11:35 Comments ||
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#3
The only threat he and his allies have left is that of refusing to recognize the new government that will be elected in November. It will be interesting to see if they can pull that off. I'm guessing that a fair number of countries will decide, in January, that Mel is irrelevant, since had he stayed in power he'd now be out of power.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/05/2009 13:15 Comments ||
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#4
sure seems like a lot of teh same characters that decry US Imperialism, outside intervention by neighboring countries, et al, are eager to tell Honduras how to run their country. F*ck em all
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/05/2009 13:21 Comments ||
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The cutoff of $31 million in non-humanitarian assistance makes permanent a temporary suspension of U.S. aid imposed after the coup. The decision drew praise from Zelaya and his ally President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Obama is Chavez's skinny bitch and that's the way he likes it.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2009 15:31 Comments ||
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TEGUCIGALPA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Honduran de facto government announced Friday that it decided to suspend the agreements with Brazil on visas exemption for holders of Brazilian passports.
The Honduran interim government said it made the decision according to principles of strict reciprocity. Brazil announced Thursday the suspension of its visa waiver agreement with Honduras, valid since 2004, because it does not recognize the de facto government established after President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a military coup on June 28.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of State ordered the visas of the de facto government officials to be revised. The U.S. government on Thursday canceled non-humanitarian aid for Honduras, and said it would not recognize the general elections to be held in the Central American country on Nov. 28, since they are organized by a legal interim coup government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/05/2009 10:11 ||
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Still broadcasting that it was a military coup, when in fact the military was tasked to carry out a Supreme Court order. In accordence with Honduran law! Imagine that.
(O'Bambi and associates still invoking the Law of Goebbels)
(RIA Novosti) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is set to make another attempt to return to his homeland "in the next few days," Latin American media reported on Friday. "I can guarantee that my return to Honduras is inevitable... I do not abandon the idea of returning to my home country and I will not terminate my [presidential] mandate. I'm set to return to Honduras in the next few days," he told Venezuela's Telesur TV channel.
The Honduran military arrested Zelaya on June 28, the day polls were due to open for a nonbinding referendum on extending the non-renewable, four-year presidential term of office, and flew him to Costa Rica. The de facto Honduran leadership has not been recognized by the international community.
Zelaya has so far made two attempts to return. On July 5 he tried to fly into the country, but was stopped after police and troops blocked the runway. On July 25 he briefly crossed into his country and then retreated to Nicaragua, as the military blocked the road 25 meters from the border.
Zelaya is currently in Washington where he met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday.
The U.S. has suspended an economic aid program to help Honduras fight poverty over the interim government's refusal to accept a 12-point plan devised by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. Under the plan, Zelaya would return to his post, while interim leader Roberto Micheletti would return to his pre-coup post of parliamentary speaker.
The plan, known as the San Jose Accord, also offers a full amnesty for those who ousted the president, and suggests holding presidential elections in the country one month earlier than scheduled.
Micheletti refused to accept the proposal and announced that presidential elections would be held in Honduras as scheduled, even if the international community refused to recognize them.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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it would be appropriate if he's buried there. Under a urinal
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/05/2009 0:08 Comments ||
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#2
let him come home, then arrest his ass and put him on trial.
then after he is found guilty, hang the SOB
Posted by: abu do you love ||
09/05/2009 0:17 Comments ||
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Newly elected Japanese legislators from Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) have promised to press for the removal of US military units from the southern island of Okinawa.
All five Okinawa politicians said they were opposed to a deal between the US and Japan regarding the Futenma air base in their region. The legislators promised to press for the transfer of American air bases outside of Okinawa or overseas.
No problem. Guam here we come. You deal with the Chinese on your own. They haven't forgotten the 1930s ...
The lawmakers emphasized that thousands of US Marines and their families should be moved to the US Pacific island territory of Guam.
"Just over the horizon", as the Dhimmicrats say ...
Washington has said it has no intention to renegotiate the Futenma replacement facility plan or Guam relocation. "The United States has no intention to renegotiate the Futenma replacement facility plan or Guam relocation with the government of Japan," State department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
Please, Bambi will cave in an hour ...
DPJ made history on Sunday with an overwhelming victory in the election. DPJ won 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house, ending half a century of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rule.
Japan's new Premier-designate Yukio Hatoyama has also insisted that his DJP party will question the role of thousands of US troops deployed throughout Japan under a post World War II security pact.
The new Japanese new prime minister is said to be a strong critic of what he calls Tokyo's 'subservient position to Washington'.
Hatoyama had regularly criticized the pro-US ruling party for joining in refueling operations in the Indian Ocean in support of the US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Hatoyama has also vowed to pursue new politics that would take Tokyo away from the 'excesses of US-style capitalism'.
"As a result of the failure of the Iraq war and the financial crisis, the era of US-led globalism is coming to an end," Hatoyama wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times last week.
Again, no problem, I'm sure your neighbors won't be upset if you revive the Imperial Japanese Navy. You know, to protect your sea lanes ...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Obama and his Marxist cronies plan to reduce the US military by 40% and from 11 to 8 carriers. Removing US Forces Japan will go a long way to covering the shortfall.
It will be easy as pie to get the Americans to leave (just ask) and near impossible to return.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2009 0:29 Comments ||
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#2
Oh, and a 50% tariff. Wouldn't want to sully them globalization or US-style capitalism.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2009 0:33 Comments ||
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#3
If the US leaves, it would have to take that floating X-band radar with it. Imagine the joy the next time the Norks would fire a missile towards Japan.
#4
It's their own grave if they do. Without them China can play all sorts of alliance-splitting games. And China is nobody's friend - if you're a Chinese ally, then you're bowing down and acknowledging the superior master.
#9
Has been for a long time. Their demographics have totally tanked, young women are refusing to get married until/unless the restrictive social roles for women loosen, they are facing heavy competition in technology industries and they lack natural resources to sustain their own economy.
The left wing party does not IIUC have its base in the older voters but in the young who grew up during the stagnant 90s. The kind who don't blink at a first lady who alleges a UFO ride to a green and lovely Venus.
(Bloomberg) -- The pace of U.S. job losses slowed in August while the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high, signaling the recovery from recession will be slow to develop.
Employers cut payrolls by 216,000, fewer than forecast, after a 276,000 drop in July, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 9.7 percent; the so- called underemployment rate -- which includes part-time workers who'd prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- reached a record 16.8 percent.
Today's figures stoke concern that the recovery forecast to take hold in the second half of the year won't prompt a turnaround in the job market until 2010. With the ranks of long- term unemployed nearing 5 million, workers are at risk of losing skills, making it even tougher for them to eventually find work.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
less jobs to lose = less job losses. Thanks Sheriff Joe!
Drudge has had links to Canada's recovery (27K jobs), recoveries in Germany and other Euro lands actually creating new jobs. Here? We get stumblef*ck Biden telling us it could've been a bazillion lost, and how lucky we are it was only 216 K (and it's always higher after they reevalute in a couple weeks)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/05/2009 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
Due to population growth, jobs must increase 100,000/month or unemployent rises.
Posted by: ed ||
09/05/2009 0:41 Comments ||
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#3
...unless you unload illegals.
As for Euro, their recovery is fueled by the American bailouts that sent billions back to Europe to cover losses for which there was no legal obligation to cover. On the other hand, it is nice that someone could take such money and apply it far more effectively than the Patronage and Pork Act of 2009 did here.
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.
Bystanders had to step in to break up an argument at a mosque in Taif between the muezzin, caller to prayer, and one worshipper, a dispute the flames of which were only fanned by the intervention of the resident imam. The verbal confrontation reportedly started when the worshipper complained of the lack of water provided to the congregation, whereupon the muezzin reportedly retorted in decidedly impolite terms. As tempers boiled over, the imam of the mosque turned up who, believing the discontent due to his arriving late for prayer "by two minutes", asked the congregation to seek another mosque in which to conduct their prayers, which only served to increase the volatility of the situation between the arguing factions. Numerous bystanders had to step in to call things down until everyone was ready to conduct prayers.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Scottish government envisions a referendum on the country's separation from the UK in the face of domestic and Whitehall opposition. 
(RIA Novosti) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is set to make another attempt to return to his homeland "in the next few days," Latin American media reported on Friday. "I can guarantee that my return to Honduras is inevitable... I do not abandon the idea of returning to my home country and I will not terminate my [presidential] mandate. I'm set to return to Honduras in the next few days," he told Venezuela's Telesur TV channel.
Newly elected Japanese legislators from Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) have promised to press for the removal of US military units from the southern island of Okinawa. 
