Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2012 00:00 ||
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From a comment there:
As it turns out, my brother-in-law was hired to design Disney World's anti-terrorism defenses.
Obviously, he won't give any details, but he very smugly said that the only one of these that had a chance of working was the "nuke the entire site from orbit" one...
Ha ha! That was my plan!
I loved this:
The Tomorrowland company's objective is to secure the square and and buildings, as well as any advanced technologies it may hold. Marines and soldiers are advised to not use the teleporters. They're a trap. They will only kill your unit and replace him with an evil alien.
I so want a video game of this. In every section of the park, the only technology that will work is that appropriate to that section. For Frontierland, Kentucky long rifles, arrows; Adventureland, hmm -- Martini-Henry, maybe? In Fantasyland magic will work. In Tomorrowland we get to use our imaginations. Set phasers to fun!
We can expect the defenders in the castle to be using medieval weapons and the dreaded bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
#2
By the way, one of my co-workers used to teach Disney's IT people. He says the place is riddled with tunnels. One of the first objectives should be to secure the entrances and seize the Segways.
#3
Tunnels occured to me. Traditionally the way to breached a castle was to tunnel and lay a mine to bring down the walls. But Disneyland already has pre-built tunnels, so just get into the tunnels and bring enough explosives.
Libya's Olympic Committee president was freed on Sunday a week after he was seized from his car by armed men in Tripoli, and is now home.
Nabil Elalem was with an associate last Sunday when two cars carrying gunmen in military-style clothing blocked the road. The men told him he had to go with them and sped away, leaving his associate behind.
Elalem, a former Libyan judo champion, took charge of the Olympic committee after its president Mohammed Gaddafi, one of the overthrown dictator's sons, fled to Algeria last August.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Madagascar's rival leaders, exiled president Marc Ravalomanana and transitional strongman Andry Rajoelina, will have an unprecedented meeting in the Seychelles Wednesday, a source close to its preparation said.
"The one-on-one starts on the 25th and we are hoping to get an agreement then," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "This might go into the morning of the 26th."
The two rivals last month agreed on a meeting to solve the festering political crisis that followed Rajoelina's power grab in 2009, but so far no date had been set.
The meeting will not be their first but it is different from previous talks in that the pair have never met in private since 2009.
Ravalomanana, who now lives in South Africa, was served with a summons Tuesday over a $23 million lawsuit filed by victims of the 2009 unrest that led to his ouster.
According to the legal papers delivered to his hotel in Pretoria, he is expected to appear at a South African court on August 1 for a hearing in the case.
He faces life in prison after being sentenced in absentia for the killing of demonstrators by his presidential guard during protests that led to his overthrow. Thirty-six people were killed and hundreds maimed.
Rajoelina then seized power in an army-backed coup in the face of regional condemnation, but has failed to steer the vast Indian Ocean island nation back to democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2012 00:00 ||
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IIRC from late 2011, Madagascar's Muslim community was calling for political-diplomatic intervention from world powers, + threatening to take the Govt. before the UN = UNICC for alleged repression of human + civil rights.
[Al Ahram] Several thousands anti-government demonstrators rallied in Togo's capital on Saturday to protest what they say is a crackdown on the opposition movement.
The small west African nation, ruled by one family for the past four decades, has since last month seen a series of protests launched by a coalition of opposition parties. Dozens of people have been cooled for a few years ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
On July 14, security forces raided the home of one of the movement's leaders, Jean Pierre Fabre, who heads the National Alliance for Change party (ANC). The officers fired teargas and injured some of the occupants.
Four of the officers involved in the raid have been formally reprimanded, the security ministry said on Wednesday.
Another opposition leader and former prime minister who has led some of the protests, Agbeyome Kodjo, was also briefly placed in long-term storage Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! last month.
Fabre's ANC called the protest Saturday, which ended without incident.
"The population needs to mobilise to defeat this regime, which does not respect the constitution and human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... ," Fabre told AFP.
Amid the protests, the former French colony has also seen a government reshuffle, following the sudden resignation of prime minister Gilbert Houngbo on July 11.
On Thursday, President Faure Gnassingbe named his commerce minister, Kwesi Ahoomey-Zunu, to lead the new government.
Gnassingbe took over the presidency in 2005 following the death of his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for 38 years with an iron fist.
Gnassingbe then defeated Fabre in Togo's 2010 presidential elections, although the opposition said the process was flawed.
Legislative polls are slated to be held in October but no date has been given yet, and opposition groups say more time is needed install measures to guarantee a clean vote.
On June 12 and 13, several thousand people gathered in the capital Lome to protest against changes to the electoral law which opposition members say were forced through by the ruling party.
Security forces broke up the June 13 rally with tear gas, and the opposition claimed 119 people were maimed over two days.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... on Saturday signed the bill ratifying Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization after 18 years of often acrimonious negotiations, the Kremlin press office said.
Economists have long argued that Russia needed to join the WTO as it was the only major economy outside the body -- following China's membership in 2001 -- and the government hopes accession will stimulate growth.
The measure making Russia the 156th WTO member will become law within 30 days, after the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved it on 10 July and the upper house, the Federation Council, on Wednesday.
But the membership has also been controversial, with some medium-sized firms expressing concern they will be put out of business by being unable to compete against imports made cheaper by a reduction in customs tariffs.
The reduction of the tariffs was a key condition for Russia entering the WTO and they will fall from a current average level of 9.5 per cent to 7.4 per cent in 2013, 6.9 per cent in 2014 and 6.0 per cent in 2015.
According to the World Bank, WTO entry will bring a boost worth 3.3 percent of Russian GDP -- or $49 billion -- in the first three years after joining. Over 10 years, the gain will be worth 11 percent of GDP, it says.
But Senator Sergei Lisovsky warned this week that Russia was wholly unprepared to compete without trade protection against other world economies which were more used to competition and were considerably less corrupt.
Russia's journey to joining the WTO started back in 1993 but was marked by frequent rows with Western partners, objections by its foes and not least a sometimes lukewarm attitude on the part of the Russian leadership.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2012 00:00 ||
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He doing what he set out to do. He must build his economy. His people demand it. He will not let his country go down like Spain and many others. I believe like Norway a mix of capitalism and socialism. He knows his people don't want war but a better life is their priority.
[An Nahar] German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle ruled out any renegotiation of Greece's budget austerity program in an interview published Saturday.
"I see desires emerging in Greece to renegotiate and substantially question the country's obligations to carry out reforms. I have to say simply, that will not do. It is a Rubicon that we are not going to cross," Westerwelle told the daily Bild.
He called on Athens to clearly demonstrate that it wanted to remain in the Eurozone. "Greece must not just say that it wants to stay in the Eurozone, but must also implement a clear policy of reforms and keep its commitments," he added.
On Wednesday Greece's Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras admitted the crisis-hit country still had "some way to go" to finalize 11.5 billion euros ($14 billion) in spending cuts demanded by its EU-IMF creditors in return for fresh loans.
Auditors from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank -- the so-called troika of Greek creditors -- are expected in Athens next week for another in-depth inspection of the new government's economic program.
The troika's report will determine whether Greece will receive fresh loans of 31.5 billion euros by September due under its debt rescue program.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Distressed by the news of lynching of a poor woman in Punjab, the Supreme Court summoned on Friday a complete record of the crime and warned the provincial police chief of strict action if culprits were not incarcerated Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain had taken notice of the stoning to death of the woman at Chak 15 in Kacha Koh, about 12km from Khanewal.
Maryam Bibi, 25, mother of five, was cutting grass on the fields of local landlord Raja Mehbub who reportedly forced her to submit to his sexual advances. When she refused, the landlord levelled allegations against the woman and took the matter to a local Panchayat (council of elders) which ordered that the woman be stoned to death. The order was carried out in her home in the wee hours of July 18. Her husband Sarfraz was kidnapped, but later recovered.
The Supreme Court asked the inspector general of Punjab to appear before it on Monday and warned that he would be suspended if he failed to arrest the culprits.
The court also censured the Punjab government and said if Khadim-e-Aala (chief minister) was not aware of this heinous crime what he was aware of. "Police knew about the incident but did nothing," the court regretted.
The bench rejected a report submitted by police and said it had been prepared with mala fide intentions because it did not mention the role of the Panchayat.
Advocate General of Punjab Ashtar Ausaf explained before the court that the dispute had erupted when the woman had gone to someone else's place to cut grass and that the Panchayat had been called to resolve the matter and not to punish the woman.
The chief minister also took strict notice of the incident and gave police 48 hours to arrest the culprits, he said, adding that cases had been registered against nine people for the murder of the woman and three of them were incarcerated Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
"How is it possible that the husband is recovered the moment the Supreme Court takes up a suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... on the incident," the court said and asked what the IG had been doing for the past three days. "What authority he (IG) has now to continue with the service. He should have taken strict action on his own."
Had the state machinery come into action in time there would have been no need of taking suo motu, the court said and asked how society would progress if the law was not applied equally to all.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2012 00:00 ||
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A disabled veteran and his service dog were abused by United Airlines staff, he claims. Jim Stanek, a three-tour Iraq veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, said employees of the airline kicked his dog, and asked him if he was retarded.
In a YouTube video the Paws and Stripes founder describes his difficulties which began on July 16 at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC.
Posted by: Lone Ranger ||
07/22/2012 02:34 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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.
Madagascar's rival leaders, exiled president Marc Ravalomanana and transitional strongman Andry Rajoelina, will have an unprecedented meeting in the Seychelles Wednesday, a source close to its preparation said.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle ruled out any renegotiation of Greece's budget austerity program in an interview published Saturday.
