Hi there, !
Today Sat 09/16/2006 Fri 09/15/2006 Thu 09/14/2006 Wed 09/13/2006 Tue 09/12/2006 Mon 09/11/2006 Sun 09/10/2006 Archives
Rantburg
533833 articles and 1862361 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 86 articles and 681 comments as of 12:16.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
Law, order restored to outskirts of US Embassy in Damascus
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
1 00:00 xbalanke [2] 
4 00:00 Matt [1] 
4 00:00 flyover [] 
9 00:00 Zenster [1] 
1 00:00 anonymous2u [1] 
13 00:00 Gir [1] 
15 00:00 mcsegeek1 [] 
7 00:00 bruce [1] 
0 [1] 
8 00:00 Ward Churchill [3] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
9 00:00 twobyfour [3]
4 00:00 SR-71 [7]
6 00:00 Rob Crawford [8]
2 00:00 Zenster [1]
0 [1]
64 00:00 Zenster [4]
4 00:00 eLarson [2]
26 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
20 00:00 Frank G [5]
36 00:00 BA [5]
1 00:00 Jort Chitle9044 [2]
5 00:00 Zenster [3]
0 [4]
5 00:00 Ulurong Cragum8967 [11]
20 00:00 Chating Elmang3305 [8]
5 00:00 Zenster []
2 00:00 flyover [4]
4 00:00 gorb [2]
7 00:00 bruce [10]
1 00:00 Zenster [1]
1 00:00 Zenster [1]
5 00:00 ed [6]
3 00:00 Azad [2]
1 00:00 Captain America []
4 00:00 Old Patriot [3]
Page 2: WoT Background
7 00:00 Grunter [2]
2 00:00 tu3031 [8]
15 00:00 Broadhead6 [4]
0 [1]
11 00:00 Unomomble Thins6414 []
11 00:00 Broadhead6 []
16 00:00 Stupidwhiteman [3]
23 00:00 Frank G [1]
13 00:00 CrazyFool [4]
6 00:00 Frank G [3]
3 00:00 Zenster [1]
8 00:00 BigEd [2]
11 00:00 BigEd [2]
6 00:00 DarthVader []
8 00:00 ed []
3 00:00 Angaper Sleans4691 [1]
2 00:00 SR-71 [2]
0 [7]
31 00:00 wxjames [5]
4 00:00 Duh! []
11 00:00 Intrinsicpilot [1]
8 00:00 SwissTex []
8 00:00 twobyfour [1]
16 00:00 Broadhead6 [9]
3 00:00 Zenster []
8 00:00 Zenster [4]
3 00:00 Old Patriot [2]
10 00:00 Zenster [5]
1 00:00 Captain America [1]
2 00:00 .com [9]
Page 3: Non-WoT
14 00:00 Pappy [3]
3 00:00 Zenster []
0 [2]
19 00:00 6 [1]
2 00:00 Mitch H. [1]
1 00:00 Whulet Grolurong9177 [1]
8 00:00 Snomotch Slaising6676 [1]
3 00:00 Eric Jablow [5]
22 00:00 BA [7]
6 00:00 tu3031 [2]
2 00:00 tu3031 [4]
26 00:00 Broadhead6 [4]
Page 4: Opinion
3 00:00 twobyfour [4]
0 [3]
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [2]
3 00:00 Xenophon [1]
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [3]
3 00:00 Zenster [4]
1 00:00 Bobby [1]
3 00:00 wxjames [1]
10 00:00 DoDo [8]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
MIT students place fire truck on dome to honor Sept. 11
Evidence to be optimistic about the coming generation in spite of the idiots teaching them.
Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology looked to a long-standing tradition to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks Monday. They put a fire truck on top of the school’s 150-foot high Great Dome, a central feature on the campus that has been a stage for student and alumni pranks -- known as "hacks" -- since at least the 1920s.

A student Web site referenced by the MIT Museum describes Monday’s tribute as a 25-foot-long fire truck with the phrase "memininum," Latin for "we remember," painted on the truck’s side.

School officials are not offering any comment. MIT spokeswoman Patricia Foley said she can only say the "hacks" are put up safely, and they are taken down safely. While students set up the pranks, the school picks up the responsibility of taking them down, although the perpetrators -- who are rarely identified -- often leave instructions about how the prank was done, and how to best dismantle it.

In 1996, after the dome had been dressed up as a red-and-white beanie with a blue propeller, MIT police received a 15-page report describing how to remove it.
How Clintonian
In 2003, students put a replica of the Wright brothers’ plane on the dome to commemorate the 100th anniversary of flight.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/13/2006 07:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The official archive for MIT pranks is the Institute for Hacks, TomFoolery, and Pranks, also known as IHTFP. You can guess what that acronym also stands for.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 09/13/2006 17:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Good Heavens.

MIT Hackeress Cheesecake
Posted by: KBK || 09/13/2006 19:48 Comments || Top||

#3  hey! In engineering school that's prime stuff!
Posted by: Frank G || 09/13/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#4  You know the Scott Adams claim about female engineers, right? They are irrestibly attractive from age 14 through 24 hours after death...
Posted by: flyover || 09/13/2006 20:53 Comments || Top||


Thieves felled by moose
A moose lost its life while accidentally helping police officers in the line of duty.
Police in Salten in northern Norway could thank an unlucky moose for helping them stop three men they believe were behind a major burglary.

The owner of a cafe and fast food restaurant in Røkland called police after finding NOK 70,000 missing after a late night break-in. He arrived at the premises at 3:10 a.m. on Thursday, but the crooks were gone, newspaper Avisa Nordland reports.

About 20 minutes after police in Bodø received news of the break-in, an alert from the Medical Emergency Communication (AMK) Central reported three men needing assistance in a car that had collided with a moose. One of the men was injured and the car was no longer roadworthy.

An ambulance, wildlife authorities and local police hurried to the scene of the accident.

Police checked the names of the three men from southern Norway against their database and found that all had criminal records. At sunrise, a policeman and dog checked the area around the collision and found money and other objects from the burglary in Røkland.

The three men were placed under arrest, though the one in hospital after the collision remained in care. The moose died from its injuries.
Posted by: DanNY || 09/13/2006 05:22 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Officer Bullwinkle . . . lost in the line of duty . . . *sniff*
Posted by: Mike || 09/13/2006 7:00 Comments || Top||

#2  McGruff will deliver the eulogy... :-}
Posted by: .com || 09/13/2006 7:22 Comments || Top||

#3  A moose bit my sister once ...
Posted by: Elmelet Pheamble4067 || 09/13/2006 7:55 Comments || Top||

#4  ...Damn, Elmelet - you beat me to it.

Mind you, moose bites can be nasty...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/13/2006 8:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Ever seen photos of moose meets car? Serious stuff.....
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/13/2006 8:53 Comments || Top||

#6  No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse
with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given
her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and
star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo
Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst
Nordfink".


Full Text Of MPATHG Credits Here
Posted by: Mullah "Moose" Richard || 09/13/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Does anyone remember the Woody Allen stand-up routine about moose hunting, back when he was funny and not a creep?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 09/13/2006 17:23 Comments || Top||

#8  was the flying squirrel OK?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/13/2006 17:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Officer Bullwinkle . . . lost in the line of duty . . . *sniff*

And he was just two weeks away from retirement! [/Chief Wiggum]
Posted by: Zenster || 09/13/2006 22:24 Comments || Top||


Thieves fail to make off with ATM
THIEVES tore the bumper and tow bar from a car when they tried to pull an automatic teller machine from the wall at a shopping centre in Melbourne's south. Detectives said the thieves attached a chain to the machine and hooked it to a car at a shopping centre in Narelle Drive, Aspendale Gardens, about 3.40am today. As they drove off, the chain tore the bumper and tow bar from the car, a Victoria Police spokesman said. A second car and trailer the thieves planned to use to carry away the teller machine was left at the scene. Detectives were investigating.
Posted by: Fred || 09/13/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let me guess, they never saw Barbershop or they did and thought they could improve the technique?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 09/13/2006 1:30 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
When Evil Zionist Fish Attack
Posted by: bruce || 09/13/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Much like always carrying a blade that will cut you out of your seatbelt ...
Posted by: Zenster || 09/13/2006 2:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought keeping goliath groupers was illegal.

But Zenster's point is a good one - when fishing for anything, keep a blade with which you can cut yourself free from any unexpected hangups.
Posted by: no mo uro || 09/13/2006 6:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Sea Bass; why do they hate us? (other than the fact that we kill and eat them).
Posted by: mhw || 09/13/2006 8:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Mmmm. Sea Bass.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/13/2006 9:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Musta been some Einstein of fishes. The wrapping of the line around wrist may have been a coincidence, everything else after that seem like a deliberate action.
Posted by: twobyfour || 09/13/2006 12:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Perhaps he was uninformed that the non-PC name for this fish is Jew Fish. It used disproportionate force when attacked.
Seriously, my boss lost a friend of Tobago, in his youth. The guy speared a sea turtle and had the line tied to his wrist. When the turtle dived in several hundred feet of water, he started to pinwheel and couldn't cut the the line. Never was seen again.
Posted by: bruce || 09/13/2006 17:33 Comments || Top||

#7  meant off Tobago, preview is my friend
Posted by: bruce || 09/13/2006 17:35 Comments || Top||


Europe
Montenegro's Ruling Coalition Wins Vote
PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) - The governing pro-Western coalition led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic won last weekend's parliamentary elections, Montenegro's election authorities said Tuesday.

The ruling two-party coalition secured 41 out of 81 seats Sunday in the tiny republic's parliament, the State Election Commission said. The majority, though slim, means Djukanovic - who earlier this year led the Balkan state to independence from Serbia - can remain in power. Two opposition pro-Serbian blocs together won 23 seats, while a fourth party, the center-right Movement for Change, got 11 seats, according to the official count. The remaining six parliamentary seats went to several smaller parties, the commission said.

The vote was key to Montenegro's hopes of joining the European Union and NATO, as the new parliament will be charged with drafting and passing a new national constitution.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/13/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Kinky Friedman and Katrina Refugees
AUSTIN — A Houston-area lawmaker said Tuesday that she is "vehemently insulted" by independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman's derogatory comments about Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Friedman last week attributed a spike in Houston's crime rate to the "crackheads and thugs" who evacuated New Orleans.
He's not the one equating 'crackheads and thugs' with any racial group - it seems to me Ms. Thompson is the racist.
Her mind did just seem to leap to a single race, didn't it?
"He has demonstrated a total lack of human sensitivity," said state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston. "The people of Katrina have lost everything and are suffering not only from the loss of loved ones, but the trauma of the event itself. What has precipitated from this tragedy is behavior that results from a disastrous event."

Friedman campaign spokeswoman Laura Stromberg said Friedman is "one of the most compassionate people I've ever met."

"The fact of the matter is Houston has seen a tremendous surge in crime ... we're talking about homicide jumping 20 percent and many of those are being linked to Katrina evacuees," Stromberg said. "Was he politically incorrect? Sure. But Kinky's not afraid of the truth. He will be honest at the risk of losing some popularity."

Houston police have reported that 59 of the 262 Houston murders between Jan. 1 and Aug. 26 involved Katrina evacuees, either as victims or suspects.
I don't get it - I thought Texans would stomp our thugs, but instead they're just sending them back to us.
"Kinky Friedman has called himself a 'compassionate redneck,' " said Thompson, chairwoman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. "He would do well henceforth to highlight his compassion while de-emphasizing his redneck tendencies."
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/13/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Senfronia"

LOL. Sounds like her parents were demented botanists... Gosh, I wonder where she got her knee-jerk racist attitude. She would do well to focus on a mirror... Unless she looks like Cynthia, of course.
Posted by: flyover || 09/13/2006 2:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston.

Send Frank on in hea!...."it's a GIRL!"

The "D" preceeding Houston, about as necessary as preceeding the word bird with the "winged."
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/13/2006 2:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny, I thought that Houston's current chief of police said that Katrina refugees were a big part of the crime spike. But then again, he's black....so it's not like Senfronia and the TX Legislative Black Caucus are going to confront him in the same way....
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 09/13/2006 5:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Kinky can hold his own against the real bigots.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/13/2006 5:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Excellent point, SB! Bam!

I think you're right, SPoD - he has the huge advantage of not really caring whether anyone approves of him or not, lol. I wouldn't vote for him over Perry, but...
Posted by: .com || 09/13/2006 6:09 Comments || Top||

#6  He will be honest at the risk of losing some popularity."

Somehow, I don't think his popularity will be hurt at all.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/13/2006 7:31 Comments || Top||

#7  So does she object because she thinks he's wrong or because she thinks it's impolite to point it out? That "reality based" thing can be tricky.
Posted by: Elmelet Pheamble4067 || 09/13/2006 8:00 Comments || Top||

#8  We've also seen an upswing in criminal activity here in San Antonio, and yep, you guessed it, a disproportionate amount of it comes from Katrina evacuees.

I'd never vote for Kinky in a million years, but I agree with him on this one. Send every last crackhead and thug from New Orleans back where they came from.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/13/2006 9:13 Comments || Top||

#9  That's funny, Friedman was a lot more sensitive when he headed the Texas Jewboys.
Posted by: Perfesser || 09/13/2006 9:23 Comments || Top||

#10  Here is the cow, er, Hon. Representative herself!



Posted by: Texas Redneck || 09/13/2006 10:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Looks like Barbara Jordan. Obviously doesn't think or act like her. By the way, anyone recall Barbara's advice on illegal immigration from way back when ?
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 09/13/2006 12:33 Comments || Top||

#12  Ditto here in Austin, although we about to cut off their alowances.
Posted by: texhooey || 09/13/2006 12:51 Comments || Top||

#13  Run they out of Rudy's also please.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/13/2006 12:57 Comments || Top||

#14  Houston also reported a 40% increase in felony arrests.
Posted by: ed || 09/13/2006 12:59 Comments || Top||

#15  "Run them out of Rudy's also please"

Wussah matter Besoeker? They eatin' up all the Brisket and Ribs, or are they tryin to pay with a FEMA card?
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/13/2006 14:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
America’s Army game to add ‘Real Heroes’
WEST POINT, N.Y. (Army News Service, Sept. 12, 2006) –“America’s Army” online video game will launch its newest version, “America’s Army: Special Forces (Overmatch),” Thursday.

The new addition features “America’s Army: Real Heroes,” a program that honors Soldiers who’ve shown heroism in the war on terror. So far, “Real Heroes” are modeled after eight Soldiers who’ve received an award for valor for actions in operations Enduring or Iraqi Freedom. In addition to being virtual in-game characters, the heroes are being modeled for action figures that will be sold in retail stores.
This will be good! New GI Joes and Janes
Chris Chambers, deputy director of the Army Game project, said the new characters were created to inspire Americans and highlight the values, teamwork and courage that are the fabric of today’s Army.

“There are thousands of enlisted Soldiers who have been awarded medals for bravery and valor in combat, but their stories are largely unknown to the American public,” said Chambers.

In the past century, most Americans were well aware of, and looked up to, Soldiers like Sergeants Audie Murphy and Alvin York, he added. “There is a great need for the public to learn the stories behind our current generation of Soldiers.”

America’s Army shows more than 7.5 million registered users what it’s like to be a Soldier. Players assume virtual roles as special forces, infantry or medical Soldiers, explore individual and collective training, and eventually participate in simulated war on terror missions.

In the game’s latest version, players will be able to meet and interact with the Real Heroes, and hear their stories told through a video and in the real Soldier’s own words on the America’s Army Web site, www.americasarmy.com.

The first four Soldiers to become Real Heroes are Sgt. 1st Class Gerald Wolford, Maj. Jason Amerine, Sgt. Tommy Rieman and Sgt. Matthew W. Zedwick. Action figures and in-game characters will launch later this year for Master Sgt. Scott Neil, Sgt. Leigh Hester, Spc. Jason Mike and Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein.

Wolford was most recently a reconnaissance platoon sergeant assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., and is currently attending Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga.

A Silver Star recipient, Wolford was chosen for the program for his actions during the fight for key river crossings across the Euphrates River during offensive operations to defeat the Iraqi army in the early stages of OIF. He repeatedly placed himself and his vehicle in direct contact with the enemy while protecting the advance of friendly dismounted infantry. Even after he and two members of his section sustained shrapnel wounds from RPG fire, Wolford continued to expose himself to hostile fire in order to evacuate casualties, reposition his men and redistribute weapons and equipment.

Wolford said he’s honored and humbled to be a part of the America’s Army Real Heroes Program.

“I’m hoping that through this program people can read of the experiences of myself and others and find the motivation to succeed and work harder at what they do, whether in the Army or civilian life,” he said.

Wolford also hopes the program inspires others to join the Army after seeing that “heroes” are really just ordinary people who face extraordinary situations and react in a way most people would hope to if faced with something similar.

“It’s important for people to realize Soldiers are doing the right thing and living by the values that we have had instilled in us,” he said. “Most Soldiers do exceptional acts everyday and are so seldom recognized.”

Wolford has worked closely with game developers to record his own in-game lines and ensure his character correctly conveys his story. Like other Soldiers in the program, Wolford wants to make sure the spotlight is not on him, but rather on his team.

“With or without the recognition of the Silver Star, or anything that comes with that, when I led my men in Iraq that day on the Euphrates, I had four of my men who had received bronze stars for valor, and that validated everything that I had been taught,” he said.

Real Heroes is the 22nd addition to the America’s Army game. Players will have access to such new weapons systems as the Javelin Missile and the Crew Remote Operated Weapon Station, as well as increasing mobility, action and firepower.

The game is available for download at www.americasarmy.com.
Posted by: Sherry || 09/13/2006 10:59 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No one is more deserving than SSG David Bellavia.
Posted by: ed || 09/13/2006 13:32 Comments || Top||

#2  I want a whole line of great soldier and Medal of Honor winner action figures; Audie Murphy, Sgt. York, Carlos Hathcock....
Posted by: Mark E. || 09/13/2006 15:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, a NG Soldier, and 23 year old store manager in civilian live. Silver Star, for Valor.

Still makes me grin, how "matter of fact" she was about the whole counter ambush she led.

Scares the shiite outta the mullahs, seing a woman out-think, out-run, and outgun the Jihadis.

Congrats to SGT Hester.

What about SFC Paul Smith (CMoH)?

Posted by: Oldspook || 09/13/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#4  I'd pay money for an Oldspook action figure, myself.
Posted by: Matt || 09/13/2006 18:06 Comments || Top||


Three Animal-Rights Activists Sentenced
Lest we forget we have a few home-grown terrorists.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Three animal rights activists convicted of using their Web site to incite threats and harassment against a company that tests products on animals received prison sentences Tuesday ranging from four to six years. They were also ordered to pay a total of $1 million in restitution to the company and people they terrorized. All three said they would appeal.

Three other members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are awaiting sentencing within the next two weeks.

Along with the organization itself, the six activists were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that tests drugs and household products on animals.
The SHAC nuts have been especially active in Britain where they've worked out to put Huntingdon out of business, and have damn near succeeded.
The government charged that the group waged a five-year campaign against the company, posting the names, addresses and phone numbers of Huntingdon employees and those who do business with the company, and personal information such as where they go to church and where their children attend school.

Many of those people saw their homes vandalized and received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone calls.

The group, based in Philadelphia, maintains its actions were protected under the First Amendment. Defense attorneys tried to portray their clients as well-meaning animal-lovers who committed a "crime of compassion."
Creating a climiate of fear isn't protected speech and isn't compassionate.
"None of it's fair," defendant Jacob Conroy, the Web site manager, whined said after the hearing.

The defendants, all in their late 20s or early 30s, were not accused of directly making threats or carrying out vandalism. The three sentenced were the president of SHAC, Kevin Kjonaas of Minnesota; campaign coordinator Lauren Gazzola of Connecticut; and Conroy, of California. Kjonaas was sentenced to six years in prison, Gazzola to four years and four months, and Conroy to four years.
Enjoy your stay in stir!
Posted by: Steve White || 09/13/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Couldn't happen to a nice bunch
Posted by: DanNY || 09/13/2006 5:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Caring more about other species than your own equals mental illness. The pic of the guys in stripes is less appropriate than one which showed the interior of a mental institution would be.
Posted by: no mo uro || 09/13/2006 6:07 Comments || Top||

#3  They could use them for tests.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 09/13/2006 6:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I hear they're starting trials at Northwick Park again ;)
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/13/2006 8:19 Comments || Top||

#5  "Animal rights" is just one more diabolic scheme for promoting government control over human lives by destroying our right to private property. It is the logical tactic of those who hate the individual creative ability and want it replaced by the anti-human jackboots of collectivism.

"Animal rights" activists use the tools of rationality which are uniquely available to the human species in order to deny the distinct nature of their own rational faculties. They raise up animals in an attempt to lower humankind.

They may speak for themselves only, not for me. I know what I am. I know what animals are. And I will name what "animal rights" activists truly are: the Human Defamation League. And making us as oblivious to cruelty as are all other animals, if not the actual agenda of the Human Defamation League, is nonetheless the unintended consequence of their campaign.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/13/2006 9:30 Comments || Top||

#6  I hope their Salad Tossing skills are up to date.
Posted by: Texas Redneck || 09/13/2006 10:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Worshipping nature is one of the oldest religions practiced by man. These people are just the same as the muzzies trying to force their religion upon us. And just like the muzzies they have sympathizers in our education system which push their messages without addressing their consequences. Only white western civilization is portrayed as the devil and only the warts, none of the good stuff in the curriculum. Notice that none of them choose freely to live in an environment without all the benefits of western civilization. However, they're now going to get close to that state.
Posted by: Jort Chitle9044 || 09/13/2006 11:56 Comments || Top||

#8  But… but… it was only SHAC's exercising their freedom of extortion expression!
Posted by: Ward Churchill || 09/13/2006 23:31 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
First Global Connection Between Earth And Space Weather Found
Posted by: 3dc || 09/13/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ???

I thought at least some of the global electromagnetic effects of tropical late-afternoon thunderstorms had been known for fifty years or more, although they didn't know about this particular mechanism.
Posted by: Phil || 09/13/2006 2:13 Comments || Top||

#2  All than remains is how to blame it on Bush.
Posted by: flyover || 09/13/2006 2:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Weather on Earth has a surprising connection to space weather occurring high in the electrically-charged upper atmosphere, known as the ionosphere, according to new results from NASA satellites.

Which wouldn't be an ionosphere if it were for something else in space - the Sun. Wow, what a concept. The sun generating electro-magnetic particles, heat, plasma, etc. You think that maybe it could effect the Earth. You know like in warming?
Posted by: Jort Chitle9044 || 09/13/2006 7:39 Comments || Top||

#4  It's all Bush's fault.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/13/2006 7:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Scientists learn Earth orbits Sun. Experts astonished. Warming occurs daily. Bush Implicated.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/13/2006 9:10 Comments || Top||

#6  The global nature of these plasma bands, when I first discovered them in the E-Layer, which I was studying to verify my previous discovery of it, was the basis for my later invention of the internet. It has since saddened me that the intense thunderstorm activity over South America, Africa and Southeast Asia has modified my previous vision of a connected world, connected by E-Layers and .....

nodding off
Posted by: AlGore || 09/13/2006 9:23 Comments || Top||

#7  This is happening because Bush didn't sign Kyoto! Global warming change is gonna kill us all!!!
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/13/2006 9:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Second Global Connection Between Earth And Space Weather Found as scientists leave office to find round Yellow thing on the high blue ceiling with white bits.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 09/13/2006 10:05 Comments || Top||

#9  nothing to see here...go about your business
Posted by: Halliburton Space Command || 09/13/2006 11:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Screw you Halliburton, competition's good for everybody...
Posted by: Soviet-Yakusa Woodpecker Grid Inc. || 09/13/2006 12:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Researchers discovered that tides of air generated by intense thunderstorm activity over South America, Africa and Southeast Asia were altering the structure of the ionosphere.

They have a bit of a causality issue there. The structures of ionosphere, themselves affected by the solar electromagnetic output, alter the intense (or not so intense) thunderstorm activity generating tides of air.

Sure, there is a feedback loop, one can think of earth as a self-repairing capacitor, but the main causal linkage goes from sun to ionosphere to thunderstorms to air tides.
Posted by: twobyfour || 09/13/2006 12:39 Comments || Top||

#12  Global warming on Mars was another link between Earth and Space weather. Perhaps the Sun goes through phases and global warming on Earth is linked to the Sun and not to fantasy rhetoric hoping to criple the US economy.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/13/2006 13:35 Comments || Top||

#13  So what does this have to do with the WOT?

Improving the space weather forcasts that satellite operators receive allows them to position the satellite such that the solar radiation doesn't effect them as much. GPS will be more accurate and satellite communication will be more reliable with the inclusion of this information to the models. It will improve the chances that that gps guided bomb hits its target and that the communication between the approving authority and the deployment vehicle crew is reliable.
Of course the approving authority needs the balls to call it but that isn't a problem with the current administration.

Most atmospheric science isn't about global warming/cooling or climate change and 99% of the scientists I know don't blame Bush for it (still a couple of moonbats around here).
Posted by: Gir || 09/13/2006 14:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Teacher still keeps vow not to shave until Osama bin Laden is captured
EPHRATA -- He has a special way of remembering 9/11.

It's a daily reminder and has been since shortly after the fateful day when terrorists commandeered commercial airliners full of people and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Five years ago, when that was happening, Gary Weddle, then a substitute teacher in Wenatchee, got so caught up in the news that he neglected to shave. A week or so later, he vowed not to shave until the chief of the terrorists, Osama bin Laden, was captured or proven dead.

Weddle did it as a personal reminder of the tragedy, but it became a reminder to everyone he knows.

He did it figuring it would be only a month or two before bin Laden was caught.

Now it's been five years, but to Weddle, 46, a vow is a vow. He still has the beard and despite frequent suggestions that he at least trim it, he's never done so. It's beginning to gray now and it's still about a foot long, which it was the first year. A few hairs of it stretch out to 15 inches, he says.

"I still get emotional over the families who lost loved ones. I just don't feel there's any closure on this until they get that guy. I don't have to know anyone personally who lost family in 9/11 to understand the devastation that he's responsible for," Weddle says.

He's a science teacher at Ephrata Middle School, as he was when The Wenatchee World first wrote about his beard in September of 2002. At the start of each school year, Weddle tells his students why he has the beard. He tells them the war on terror is a serious thing.

"How someone who could profess such a love for God could resort to such evil is astounding," he says.

"As harsh as it is for the U.S. to take the losses, I'm glad someone is standing up to terrorists and thugs like (Saddam) Hussein," he says.


Students and other teachers accept the beard, but Weddle, who lives in East Wenatchee, still gets interesting reactions outside of school."Small children stare. They're very curious. I'll wave to them and they will usually smile," he says. "But when I'm alone in a grocery store aisle, people will turn and go the other way. When I'm with someone, that doesn't happen."

His wife, Donita, still hates the beard. Their twin daughters and third daughter, students at Eastmont High School, are OK with it and "mostly their boyfriends think it's cool," Weddle says.

He doesn't seek publicity. He's only received local newspaper coverage and an interview with a Seattle-area radio station.
Jeez, there's a shock...
A Wenatchee World photo of him showed up once in a Russian newspaper article about American patriotism, he says.

So is he really going to stick with it? "No doubt," he replies. "Even if I get buried with it."
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/13/2006 16:13 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  [Insert ZZ-Top joke here]
Posted by: xbalanke || 09/13/2006 17:17 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
86[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2006-09-13
  Law, order restored to outskirts of US Embassy in Damascus
Tue 2006-09-12
  Bush rallies nation to ‘struggle for civilization’
Mon 2006-09-11
  Five Years: Never Forgive, Never Forget, Never "Understand"
Sun 2006-09-10
  NATO troops kill 60 Taliban in Afghanistan
Sat 2006-09-09
  5 more suspects held in Danish terror probe
Fri 2006-09-08
  Blasts near Indian mosque kill 20
Thu 2006-09-07
  Iraq hangs 27 on terrorism charges
Wed 2006-09-06
  7 held in Denmark after anti-terror sting
Tue 2006-09-05
  Peace deal signed in Wazoo
Mon 2006-09-04
  British police search 17 terror suspects' homes
Sun 2006-09-03
  Ayman sez "Convert or die!"
Sat 2006-09-02
  "Star Wars" zaps target in Pac test
Fri 2006-09-01
  IAEA submits Iran report
Thu 2006-08-31
  Ex-generals to Halutz: Go home!
Wed 2006-08-30
  Brits Charge 3 More in Jetliner Terror Plot


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.
3.134.90.44
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (25)    WoT Background (30)    Non-WoT (12)    Opinion (9)    (0)