Police used a mechanical digger to smash through a wall around a suspect's house on Wednesday during raids to break up one of Britain's biggest drug trafficking networks. The JCB was used on a house in Hillingdon, north London, during the operation, one of the biggest in the Metropolitan Police's history.
About 520 officers arrested more than 20 people, seized 100kgs of cocaine and found several guns during the raids on about 30 addresses in and around the capital.
TV footage of the raids showed dozens of officers wearing riot gear and carrying shields running alongside the digger in the early morning fog before it punched through the wall. Officers using a circular saw to cut through a metal door grille were showered with sparks.
Detective Superintendent Steven Richardson, head of the Met's Specialist Intelligence Section, said it had "dealt a huge blow to the illegal drugs industry". "The suspects arrested are believed to be the top tier and key players involved in the moving and distribution of cocaine and cannabis throughout the UK," he said. "They are believed to have substantial connections in Europe, using these contacts to traffic drugs into the UK."
Scotland Yard said the gang was suspected of converting drug money into 500-euro notes to launder profits worth up to three million pounds each week. The gang was suspected of using a taxi office and bureaux de change shops to launder the money, Sky News reported.
Some of the suspected members had been living the lives of wealthy businessmen, Richardson added.
Before the operation, police had already seized more than £2.5 million in cash and several guns.
The raids took place from Marble Arch and Bayswater to Twickenham, West Molesey and St John's Wood. Houses were also searched in Kent and Essex.
#1
I had expected the digger to be Australian infantry, but no.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/14/2008 13:25 Comments ||
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#2
17+cops/perp? working under union rules? designated shield bearers, or what. seems a bit much to even me,
did they have (St. pancake) Rachel's picture on the grille of the digger?
A plastic surgeon in Mexico who replaced the fingerprints of a marijuana drug ring member with skin from the bottom of his feet was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 months in prison. Judge Yvette Kane called Dr Jose Covarrubias's crime "horrific".
Covarrubias, a US citizen who lived in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, and practiced in Mexico, pleaded guilty on November 1 to a federal charge of harbouring and concealing a fugitive.
The case was bizarre even to prosecutors, who did not believe the stories of drug ring operatives without fingerprints, until Marc George was arrested in September 2005 at the Nogales border crossing with Mexico, bandaged and limping badly from the painful procedure. Looks like it was wildly successful, too.
Covarrubias was indicted in May. Prosecutors say the drug ring moved cash and drugs from Tucson and elsewhere and distributed more than a tonne of it in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and other areas.
Covarrubias, 50, apologised to Kane for his conduct, and said he had learned his lesson. He has been jailed for 10 months and can be released in eight months. He then faces three years of probation.
#2
So what exactly was "horrific" about it? Other than the part about the drug guy not taking some time off to let his feet heal, so what?
Oh, "horrific", in denying the FBI the ability to get a conviction based on your fingerprints. Shame on him. I suppose the judge thinks that it is "horrific" that criminals don't turn themselves in as well.
MADRID - Spain has launched legal proceedings against the head of a US company it suspects seized a massive haul of treasure from a sunken wreck in its territorial waters, a Spanish newspaper reported Tuesday. The court in the southern town of Linea de la Concepcion which is investigating the case would not confirm the report in the ABC newspaper.
The paper said the judge in charge of the case has ordered the head of Odyssey Marine, Greg Stemm, to appear before him in late February to respond to accusations of destroying SpainÂ’s cultural heritage and of smuggling.
The dispute began in May when Odyssey announced that it had found half a million silver coins and hundreds of gold objects, somewhere in ‘international waters in the Atlantic Ocean’. It then flew its 17-tonne haul from the British territory of Gibraltar, off Spain’s southern tip, to its US headquarters in Florida.
The Spanish government filed claims with a court in Tampa, Florida, arguing that if the shipwreck was Spanish or located in Spanish waters or if a Spanish ship had ever sailed in the same ocean, any treasure would belong to Spain. Odyssey argued that the fact the coins have been identified as being Spanish does not mean they were found on a Spanish ship.
Spanish police seized and searched two Odyssey Explorer vessels as they left Gibraltar in July and October, acting on the orders of a Spanish judge looking into the origin of the sunken treasure.
A judge in Florida last month ordered Odyssey to tell Spain the exact location of the wreck. The information will remain confidential to protect the interests of the company, which fears other treasure seekers may poach its find.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
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#1
If they had used a nuke sub to hunt for treasure the Spanish would never have know they were within a million miles of them.
#2
A judge in Florida last month ordered Odyssey to tell Spain the exact location of the wreck. The information will remain confidential to protect the interests of the company, which fears other treasure seekers may poach its find.
Hell, just let that happen and watch the show as the Spanish either have to expend the resources to protect "their" property or by failure show that they forfeit said claims on it.
#1
I can hardly believe Robert Rines has wasted 40 years of his life searching for a 'pipe dream' in the belief of "Nessie"!! I guess he'll add this quest to the list of embarrassing searches such as by Ponce Deleon for the 'Fountain Of Youth' in Florida, and the Ark Of The Covenant by Hitler. What a f***** waste!
#2
Poor fishing or not, Rines time has been well spent I'd say.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Robert Rines holds a Bachelor in Sciences from M.I.T., received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University in 1946 and did his Ph.D. thesis at National Chiao Tung University in 1972. During World War II, Rines served as a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer and helped develop the Microwave Early Warning System. His inventions underlie high-resolution image-scanning radar that was used in the Gulf War, and ultrasound scanning used in the search for the wrecks of the Titanic and the Bismarck. The technology has also been used for ultrasound imaging in the body, and in a 1972 expedition to locate the Loch Ness Monster.
In March of 2004, Rines received the Boston Patent Law Association "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his contributions to the field of Intellectual Property. Rines also was inducted as member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994 and the U.S. Army Signal Corps Wall of Fame. He is also the founder of the Academy of Applied Science, a Massachusetts and New Hampshire based organization dedicated to the promotion of science, technology and inventions, particularly among high school students.
Rines founded the Franklin Pierce Law Center, a private law school located in Concord, New Hampshire. Robert Rines has been a lecturer at Harvard University and M.I.T. and served on Technical Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Rines is also an accomplished musician and composer. Rines musical career started early. His musical ability was demonstrated when Rines, age eleven, played a violin duet with Albert Einstein at summer camp in Maine. As a composer he has written music for both Broadway and off-Broadway shows. Rines composed music for Blast and Bravos, a play on the life of H.E. Menkin. Also composed scores for O'Casey's Drums Under the Windows, O'Neill's Long Voyage Home, Strindberg's Creditors and claims he shared an Emmy Award with playwright Paul Shyre in 1987 for the television and later Broadway play Hizzoner the Mayor.
China has added ghosts, monsters and other things that go bump in the night to its list of banned video and audio content in an intensified crackdown ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
Producers have around three weeks to look through their tapes for "horror" and report it to authorities, the General Administration of Press and Publications said in a statement posted on the government website.
Offending content included "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror", the administration said.
The new guidelines aim to "control and cleanse the negative effect these items have on society, and to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescents' psychological health".
The regulations suggest China, where graphic, pirated sex and horror movies are available on most street corners, is keen to step up its control of the cultural arena ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August, which are widely seen as a coming-out party for the rising political and economic power.
They come just weeks after Beijing clamped down on "vulgar" video and audio content, slapped restrictions on internet sites and handed down a two-year filmmaking ban to the team behind the steamy "Lost in Beijing".
A federal appeals court has overturned a statute outlawing s-x toy sales in Texas, one of the last states — all in the South — to retain such a ban. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by as many as two years in jail, violated the right to privacy guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
Companies that own Dreamer's and Le Rouge Boutique, which sell the devices in its Austin stores, and the retail distributor Adam & Eve sued in federal court in Austin in 2004 over the constitutionality of the law. They appealed after a federal judge dismissed the suit and said the Constitution did not protect their right to publicly promote such devices.
In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual s-x between same-s-x couples.
Continued on Page 49
Motorists have seen the highway signs that warn of falling rocks, and they've seen the ones that warn of moose crossing. Now Howard Peterson of the Alaska State Troopers wonders if they need a new sign:
Watch for falling moose.
A swing-shift trooper based in Girdwood, Peterson was cruising the Seward Highway the night of Feb. 2 a couple miles north of McHugh Creek when something big and black fell from the sky, landing about 20 feet from his car.
"Falling rock!" he thought, ready to steer clear if it bounced onto the highway. When the rock didn't roll or shatter, Peterson's brain came up with a crazy image:
"Falling moose?"
An adult moose, wandering rocky terrain more suitable to the Dall sheep that populate it, plunged to its death from the tall cliffs that hug a highway famous for its scenery and wildlife. The animal landed on the side of the road just a few yards in front of Peterson, who figures it fell 150 feet, maybe farther. He snapped a couple of photos and called one of the charities that salvage road kill to tell them there was a moose available at Mile 113.
Then he started wondering what happened. Did the moose jump? "How would you say it—moose-icide? He probably thought he was the only moose, with all those sheep around," Peterson said.
Sinnott has heard or moose dying in strange ways — breaking through ice and drowning, jumping off railroad bridges at the sound of a train, falling off small banks. Once he saw the remains of two bulls that died during a rutting battle when their antlers got hooked together by a single piece of barbed wire.
A fall off a cliff probably doesn't happen often, he said.
#1
Rocky: "Bullwinkle, be careful! You're right on the edge!"
Bullwinkle: "That's me allrighty, a moose livin' on the edge."
Rocky: "But you'll fall!"
Bullwinkle: "It won't be fall again until next September."
Rocky: "You can't repeal the law of gravity."
Bullwinkle: "But, Rock, I've never even been to law school."
Narrator: "Will Bullwinkle follow Fearless Leader Nancy Pelosi's approval rating off the cliff? Find out in our next exciting episode, 'Moose From Above,' or, 'All the Moose That's Slipped From Cliff.'"
Posted by: Mike ||
02/14/2008 11:03 Comments ||
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#3
ThatÂ’s an elk in the picture, ya knowÂ…Â… Of course, a falling elk would have done the same thing. I have seen lots of goats on the cliffs above that section of highway. The moose was definitely out of his element. It is steep above the road cuts. It's all blasted rock.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2008 18:41 Comments ||
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The k!nky college professor who was almost strangled during an SandM session at a Midtown club told The Post yesterday he's deeply ashamed and is finally through with the double life he's lived since he was kid.
"I don't want this to spoil my marriage," said Robert Benjamin, 67, still disoriented from the three days he spent in a coma but sitting upright in a chair in his room at St. Vincent's Hospital. "I don't want my wife to leave me, but I have to tell her the truth," he said. "I'm going to share everything with her. I think my family will forgive me,"
You think so, huh ...
Benjamin said he's desperately trying to break his addiction. "It's like when you crave a turkey," he said. "You eat it and you eat it and you eat it, but you still want it. But now I've had enough. I don't want turkey anymore. I'm full."
I honestly confess that I would never have compared this to eating turkey, but what do I know?
His life was saved last Friday by a dominatri(x) at the Nutcracker Suite on East 33rd Street, who was assigned to check on him after her colleague left him with a dog collar around his neck and a leather mask over his face, suspended a few inches off the floor.
She realized his foot was turning blue because one of his high heels had slipped off. I hate it when that happens.
"I don't want to go to the clubs anymore," Benjamin said. "I'm trying to learn to control myself and my emotions. I've seen doctors to help me," he said, adding that he's been unable to control his desires "from very early on in my life."
Benjamin managed to keep his shameful secret from his wife, his two kids, who are now adults, and the students he taught at Montreal's Vanier College until his recent retirement. He never indulged his "dirty habit" in Montreal, where he fooled relatives, neighbors and colleagues into thinking he was a respectable family man who enjoyed outdoor activities.
He was a quiet man ...
Benjamin would make regular trips to New York where he'd stay at a "Y" and spend his time indoors. Seems he liked "Y"s.
He'd tell his family he was cross-country skiing upstate, then visiting the city "to take photographs" and eat pizza at his favorite Italian restaurants in Brooklyn. "My biggest fear has always been that someone would find out. That's why I come to New York and never do this in Montreal," he said.
And San Francisco was too far for a weekend ...
Hours later, Benjamin's wife, Lynn, arrived at the hospital from Canada, but declined to comment.
Benjamin, who came out of a coma Monday and is still recovering from his ordeal, struggled to remember numbers and dates, but guessed he's been married for "30 years or more."
'Guessing' that you've been married for 30 years or more isn't going to help with keeping your wife as you tell her your story. If I were you I'd make sure you remember the exact date you were married. And what your wife wore that day ...
Not to mention the aniversary of the day you first met, where you met, what you were wearing, what she was wearing.......humm. Maybe that's why he tried to hang himself.
He does not remember putting on the handcuffs, nipple clamps, dog collar, high-heel shoes or hood, vowing "I'm going to seek professional help to get over this dirty habit. Good thing that collar wasn't around your nards.
"The doctors told me I was passed out, but now I'm awake. They saved me, they gave me the confidence that I will be OK."
Benjamin attributes his recovery to his excellent physical health. "I'm in really good shape," he said. "I bike, I ski, I take care of myself."
We can see that.
He vowed never again to risk his life during his retirement, saying he's relaxing, enjoying his time and "doing all the things I never had the chance to do. "Now that I've almost died, I can't see myself going back to SandM," he said. "If you gave me $100,000 to spend there, I wouldn't. I'm not crazy." Nooo. Wouldn't think it.
Taki Noriko, the dominatri(x) who trussed up Benjamin and left him alone - as he'd requested - was relieved to hear of his recovery. Isn't that against the rules?
"Thank you," she said, with a long sigh. "Thank you very much for telling me."
#4
Young man, there's no need to feel down,
I said young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.
Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything for you men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...
The Hillsborough County, Florida, sheriff on Wednesday offered a personal apology to a disabled man who was dumped onto the floor from his wheelchair while in deputies' custody. "I am personally embarrassed and shocked by the horrific treatment Mr. Sterner received," Sheriff David Gee says in a statement on the department's Web site.
A video now making the rounds on television networks and various Web sites shows a deputy tipping Brian Sterner, 32, out of a wheelchair January at the county's booking center in Tampa on January 29. "I cannot and will not even try to offer an explanation for what is seen on the video, other than to say, that once it was brought to my attention, I immediately initiated an internal investigation," Gee said. All involved deputies: Please pay attention to the above lesson courtesy of Sheriff Gee.
Sterner had been picked up by sheriff's deputies on a warrant for a charge of fleeing and attempting to elude police in an incident in October of last year, his attorney said.
Continued on Page 49
#1
this is too the comments inserted. When you are arrested the cops can pretty mmuch charge you an=yway they look at it so turning a failure too yield is not too far from eluding in alot of their eyes just has too be ebat in court.Also if you have seen the vid then you will see that it was balck woman deputy that threw him out of the chair. If the roles where reversed there would already be hate crime charges against this man so why not on her. I hope he gets paid real good for this shit because it was about as disgusting as it gets for me besides the article about gunmen storming schools
#2
Gee said he offered his personal apology to Sterner for "the treatment he received." "I want to assure him, and the public at large, that this incident is not indicative of the behavior of the over 3,500 men and women of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office who perform their duties with pride and professionalism on a daily basis," he said.
We feel the same way about our troops, but that didn't concern the operators and managers of the "Paper of Record" of running dozens and dozens of articles on Abu Ghrab and sticking everyone they didn't personally like with some sort of sneer or smear.
#4
Trying to connect the dots: quadraplegic and 'fleeing / attempting to elude..."
Did he run his wheel chair through the Monster Garage or what? last time i saw high speed travel associated with one of those was the old 'Ironsides' show.
#5
USA Today reported: People from across the USA have been harassing the deputy sheriff who was filmed dumping a quadriplegic prisoner out of his wheelchair at the Hillsborough County, Fla., jail. "It's not even just in Florida," Beverly Crecy, the roommate of Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones, tells the St. Petersburg Times. "These calls are from out of state," she adds. "People calling her [a racial slur] and 'fat' and all kinds of stuff. Seven o'clock in the morning and all through the night."
Marshall-Jones has been suspended without pay since the tape surfaced. Three other jail employees are on paid leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Sheriff David Gee issued a statement yesterday in which he apologizes to Brian Sterner for the deputy's actions.
This isn't the first time Marshall-Jones has been sanctioned for misbehavior WTSP-TV, a fellow Gannett property, says her "personnel file shows she has been suspended twice before without pay, a total of seven days for willful neglect of duty and insubordination. She was verbally reprimanded and counseled for failure to perform duties and poor attitude. She has repeatedly been warned about sick time abuse and was told in an early evaluation to be more forceful."
If they don't eat us first:
Shortly after New Years, NewsBusters informed readers about a new horror movie wherein nature attacks oil workers in Alaska to prevent global warming.
To further scare people into sacrificing their financial well-being in order to stave off the liberal bogeyman, HuffPoster Kerry Trueman on Tuesday suggested that food shortages will be so rampant if we don't stop climate change that we'll all end up eating bugs.
I kid you not.
For those looking for a cut to the chase, this was the money shot (emphasis added throughout, h/t NBer lunaticcringeradio):
If the thought of eating bugs and roadkill freaks you out, consider this: competition for the world's dwindling resources is heating up right along with the planet, and global warming is worsening food shortages all over the world. In this land o' plenty o' processed foods, most Americans can't imagine an era when we'd be forced to subsist on weeds, bugs, and -- till we run out of gas -- roadkill.
I can see it now: Huff up to your favorite fast-food window in your solar-assisted pedal-car and place your order, "I'll have a Bug-Mac and an order of Flies, super-size those please."
And you thought I was pulling your leg, didn't you? Fortunately, Kerry had some great culinary ideas for us:
Is it time to start chowing down on some of those crawly critters we instinctively prefer to stomp on? The Feral Forager, a self-published 'zine excerpted in Sandor Katz's The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, rebrands pill bugs as "land shrimp"; grasshoppers are "surprisingly tasty and filling" and taste "something like popcorn"; crickets, "incredibly high in calcium and potassium." Roasted grubs make a fat-filled protein snack that, again, tastes "a lot like popcorn." Earthworms make "a very nutritious flour," and ant eggs are edible, too; raw ant eggs reportedly taste "like couscous", but the author of the article confesses that "the only time I tried this it tasted like a hundred ants biting my tongue..."
Balderdash, that was just another LSD flashback.
Honestly, if this won't scare you into turning off your lights and selling your SUV, nothing will!
Posted by: homer simpson ||
02/14/2008 12:04 Comments ||
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#2
Ya always gotta read the bio...
Co-founder of EatingLiberally.org, a netroots website & organization that advocates sustainable agriculture, progressive politics and a less-consumption driven way of life. Foodie, blogger & edible landscaping enthusiast in NYC's West Village and the Hudson River Valley. Would like to be the missing link between Martha and Jon Stewart.
Ah, she advocates a "less-consumption driven way of life". Must be why she has a place in the West Village and the Hudson River Valley. Spread the "less-consumption" around...
If I had to eat bugs to survive, I could probably do it. Whereas this broad would probably kill herself...
#3
The corollary to six billion humans switching to insectivorism would be utter devastation of the populations of birds and bats, and the end to most pollination of flowers and fruiting trees.
Earthworms are vastly more valuable as producers of rich topsoil than they are ground into flour.
#4
My survival instructor in Army training was big on bugs or anything else that swam, ran, slithered, or flew. The concern might be a girl thing cause iirc boys didn't think a second time of taking a double yellow dog dare to eat anything in the above categories. Most of us survived.
#5
BFD, many cultures on earth, and I don't mean just bushmen, but affluent south koreans, for example, routinely eat bugs, not out of desperation and hunger, but as part of culinary traditions. This may seem an huge leap for that writer, but it's just because it fits both into her provincialism and her end-of-capitalism worldview/hope.
#7
He overlooks all the food stored in the bodies of anti-gun proponents. They should be easy to shoot, dress and grill seeing as how they will be defenseless.
#9
Insects are arthropods. They might not be as big as lobster or crab, but grasshoppers, ants, grubs, and other insects have already been eaten by humans throughout our evolutionary history.
Think of 'em as small lobsters, or think of lobsters as big bugs. Either way, they're full of fats, oils, proteins, and lots of other good stuff that will keep you alive. Eating them live or uncooked would probably not be a good idea, primarily due to parasites, but there's darned few arthropodal bacteria or virii that can transfer to humans via the gastric processes.
I do tend to agree, however, that the pollinators and decomposers ought to be left alone to do the job they were designed for (though earthworms are routinely farmed for all kinds of reasons and could be farmed for food).
#15
I recall reading a food writer describing eating a dish at a restaurant in Thailand that had 2 kinds of live ants on it. It was hilarious. Wish I had kept the link.
You can buy at least a dozen different kinds of cooked insects in Thailand. I was once in Bangkok with a mmainland Chinese friend of mine. She tried everyone of the insects on sale on the street and then insisted we go a restaurant that specialized in insect dishes where she ate a large dish of deep fried bugs while I looked on.
She then told me Westerners were wierd because they would decide they didn't like some foods without ever trying them. How could you tell if you liked them or not without trying them first? I couldn't argue with her logic, but I still didn't eat the bugs.
#20
Actually global warming will extend the growing season in areas that are only marginally productive - wheat growing in Canada, for example. Plants thrive in warmth. (And extra carbon dioxide.)
#21
And now you know, Virginia, yet another reason why news like this show PAULA ABDUL WAS WRONG TO KICK A COCOCUT/TROPIC PLANT ON MTV BACK IN THE PRE 9-11, PRE OWG-NWO 1980's.
#22
Stupid bitsdh - more greenhouses and warmer temps generally means MORE arable land.
Global Cooling, on the other hand, which appears to be a very real possibility due to solar activity, will reduce the arable land, especailly in N Hemishpere
retired teacher who now spends his time campaigning for improved literacy has revealed that he taught classes for 17 years even though he could not read or write.
Despite his illiteracy, John Corcoran worked as a teacher then as a property developer until the age of 48, when he decided to seek help. He used oral and visual stimuli with his pupils, rather than words, and insists he was a very successful teacher.
"There wasn't the written word in there. I always had two or three teacher's assistants in each class to do board work or read the bulletin," he said in a television interview.
He began to hide his inability to read and write from the age of about 10, relying on classmates to help him cheat in lessons. "I can remember when I was eight years old saying my prayers at night saying, 'Please, God, tomorrow when it's my turn to read please let me read.' You just pretend that you are invisible and when the teacher says, 'Johnnie, read,' you just wait the teacher out because you know the teacher has to go away at some point," he told 10 News in San Diego.
He continued undetected through high school and the University of Texas at El Paso, where he gained an athletics scholarship and was then automatically offered a teaching job. That is when he created an elaborate oral teaching method to avoid detection in the high school classes he taught - including English grammar.
"As a teacher it really made me sick to think that I was a teacher who couldn't read. It is embarrassing for me, and it's embarrassing for this nation."
He is now the president of the John Corcoran Foundation, which is dedicated to eradicating adult illiteracy.
#5
Can't read and can't write. His view of the world is whatever the Tee Wee tells him. And his inablity was supported by his "assistants" who did the reading and knew.
Illiterate and good for high school, even better for college. Never read a book in his life or a newpaper. He can know only what he is told. Praise the lord! He be happening.
#6
Interesting that over the years he never sort of picked up the desire to actually learn to read. When he wrote a book about it they should have just tarred and feathered him.
#9
Can't read and can't write. His view of the world is whatever the Tee Wee tells him. And his inablity was supported by his "assistants" who did the reading and knew.
Don't think it's so straightforward. He could, I presume, form his own conclusions. Consider the intelligence necessary to create a system that allowed him to function as a teacher and to avoid detection. That requires a high degree of creativity and a finely granulated discernment. And of course, he has, no doubt, an excellent memory, trained throughout the years.
Literacy is more than the ability to read and write, it is also the ability to structure/apply the information, to put it to a good use. He apparently made good on that part. And then also on the read/write part.
"BRUNSWICK, GA -- Rhonikki Williams, 24, and Epluribus Deshawn Bennett, 22, were arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and cruelty to children in the first degree."
#8
Weird? Children's rights have to be exercised through a litigation guardian, so the court presumed that the guardian's (parent) interests were the same as the child's. In the civilized world, we wait until the child is of legal age, unless child support is at issue.
PHOENIX — Changes in climate and strong demand for Colorado River water could drain Lake Mead by 2021, triggering severe water shortages across the Southwest, scientists said Tuesday in an unusually bleak water-supply outlook.
'Unusually bleak' outlook? Must be Dhimmicrats ...
Researchers working at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography said the West's largest storage reservoir faces increasing threats from a combination of factors, including human-induced climate change, growing populations and natural forces like drought and evaporation. Notice "human-induced climate change" has replace "Global Warming". Hard to stick with Global Warming" when so many record lows and snowfalls are occurring. The Colorado watershed has been wetter than it has been historically for decades, it's now returning to normal.
A dried-up Lake Mead would be a disaster for Arizona and Nevada. The lake, formed by the Hoover Dam in 1935, is located on the border between the two states. If water levels were to drop below 1,000 feet in elevation, Nevada would lose access to all its river allocation. Arizona would lose much of the water that flows through the Central Arizona Project canal. Hydroelectric power production at the Hoover Dam also would cease before the lake level reached bottom, researchers said.
There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead will run dry by 2021 and a 10 percent chance it will run out of usable water by 2014, if the region's current drought deepens and water use climbs, researchers said.
If, and if ...
"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said marine physicist Tim Barnett, who co-authored a paper examining the fate of Lake Mead. "Make no mistake — this water problem is not a scientific abstraction but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest."
Lakes Mead and Powell help manage water resources for more than 25 million people in the seven states, including Arizona, that rely on the Colorado River for water and power. The two huge reservoirs have been studied in recent years using numerous hydrology models, but none forecast a dry Lake Mead within 15 years.
"We did a lot of studies, and none of them ever made Lake Mead go dry, period, end of story. We looked 100 years out, and Lake Mead never went dry," said Larry Dozier, deputy general manager of the Central Arizona Project. Dozier had not seen the Scripps study but worked closely on other models that have produced different results. "We did what we called our worst case, and it just didn't happen," he said.
Currently, Lake Mead is half-full, as is Lake Powell further upstream in Arizona. Both lakes help manage water resources for more than 25 million people in seven states.
#3
Invasive mussels? I thought it was because of invasive Californians.
Posted by: ed ||
02/14/2008 6:05 Comments ||
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#4
the West's largest storage reservoir faces increasing threats from a combination of factors, including human-induced climate change, growing populations and natural forces like drought and evaporation.
I wonder if their population base was predicated upon continuing growth of the pre-subprime collapse?
BTW, we wrapped up a nearly 10 year dry period over here in New Mexico last year. Moved from extreme drought to normal in a two month wet period and have stayed pretty much in line since. No one points out positive 'climate change' do they?
#5
There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead will run dry by 2021 and a 10 percent chance it will run out of usable water by 2014
Which means there is also a 50 percent chance Lake Mead will not run dry by 2021 and a 90 percent chance it will not run out of usable water by 2014...
#7
"We did a lot of studies, and none of them ever made Lake Mead go dry, period, end of story. We looked 100 years out, and Lake Mead never went dry," said Larry Dozier, deputy general manager of the Central Arizona Project. Dozier had not seen the Scripps study but worked closely on other models that have produced different results. "We did what we called our worst case, and it just didn't happen," he said.
Buried near the bottom because most people don't read an article all the way through.
#8
It's the same in the Great Lakes; one time waterfront lots, now require a long watch to the shore. However, it is BS to suggest that this phenomenon has anything to do with carbon dioxide or other emissions from human sources. Nor is the lower lake levels the product of evaporation. I believe that 100% of real climate change - and lower precipitation levels around the Great Lakes is a given - is caused by post Ice Age warming. However, after every warming, we get a new Ice Age.
Within warming periods there has been mini-Ice Ages. In the early 17th century, the Thames River in London was frozen over for ten years in a row. We will probably run into that type of phenomenon in the near future. But change will be so gradual that adaption will be easy.
Alarmism deceives. Too bad that there is a decline in respect for science.
#9
MAY and IF seems to occupy about 92% of the Chicken Little crowd's vocabulary.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
02/14/2008 18:11 Comments ||
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#10
disappointing in the level of science being shown at Scripp's Institute. They have a couple grant whores who are taking the great reputation down IMHO
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2008 18:57 Comments ||
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#11
From a drought graph I saw last week, the SW is going through the beginning of an extended drought. Sorta like the Anastazi went through when they had to leave Chaco Canyon. So you possibly have that factor, as well as most of the water is taken. It's simple:
1. Lower inputs
2. Higher outputs
3. Residence volume in the middle
1-2 = 3, which is becoming a smaller 3.
Alimentary, my dear Watson.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2008 21:22 Comments ||
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The conviction of a teenage girl who used a mobile phone to film a man being kicked and punched to death in a so-called "happy slapping" attack is thought to be the first of its kind in England and Wales, prosecutors said today.
The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted at a hearing yesterday recording part of the violent attack that killed Gavin Waterhouse, 29.
Leeds crown court heard how Waterhouse was attacked by Mark Masters, 19, and a 17-year-old youth, who also cannot be named, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in September last year.
The victim managed to return to his flat after the assault but died from internal injuries.
Both men admitted manslaughter at a previous hearing. The girl yesterday pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter.
According to the crown prosecution service (CPS), the girl was handed a mobile phone by one of the attackers and told to "video this".
She then approached Waterhouse and asked him for money before recording the attack upon him that followed.
Prosecution witnesses said they saw and heard the attackers boasting about what they had just done, saying it was not the first time they had attacked the victim.
They also shared the video footage of the incident with friends after the attack.
Judith Naylor, of CPS West Yorkshire, said: "As far as I am aware, this is the first time a suspect in England and Wales has been successfully prosecuted for aiding and abetting murder or manslaughter, for the filming of an, inaptly called, 'happy slapping' incident.
"We have seen and heard of many instances in recent months and years, where youths have been encouraged by their peers to attack innocent people, without words ever having been used.
"The message is this: if you stand by and watch your friends committing brutal crimes and video-record their acts for your, or for others', amusement your actions will not be ignored by the law enforcement agencies and prosecution may follow."
Yesterday, Judge James Stewart heard how the defendant claimed she did not know Masters before he passed her the phone and asked her to use it.
She even had to ask him how to use the camera before filming about 15 minutes of the violence.
The girl will be sentenced at a date to be fixed along with Masters, of Parkwood Rise, Keighley, and the other youth.
#5
Bush's Death Pimp...LOL! I could resemble that moniker....did you guys see the cute blonde wearing the USMC sweatshirt w/the "you keep your burkha and I'll keep my clitoris" sign? - awesome. Man I dig conservative patriotic babes.....plus they shave their pits unlike some on the other side.
The Senate Ethics Committee issued a "letter of admonition" to Sen. Larry Craig on Wednesday in connection with his arrest in a Minneapolis airport sex sting last year. In the letter, the committee accused the Idaho Republican of improper conduct in the June arrest. His actions reflected "discreditably" on the chamber, the letter said. And at a time when we thought the only way from where they were was up. Who knew.
The committee also criticized Craig for using more than $200,000 in campaign funds to pay legal fees related to his case and for flashing his Senate business card at the officer who arrested him. The letter said that move could be seen as an improper attempt to receive "special and favorable treatment."
Craig, 62, was arrested in an airport g1oryho1e men's room in June after an undercover officer in an adjoining stall accused him of soliciting sex. Craig quietly pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge two months after his arrest without consulting a lawyer.
Craig released a statement Wednesday: "While I am disappointed and strongly disagree with the conclusions reached by the Senate Ethics Committee, from the outset I have encouraged the Committee to act in a timely fashion and they have done so. I will continue to serve the people of Idaho." IOW: Whew! I still have all my appendages. Better shut up and cut my losses!
An Ethics Committee staff member told CNN that the committee stopped short of full adjudication hearings, which could have been either public or private. The staffer said that the committee also stopped short of recommending any further action to the full Senate, such as censure. The strongly worded admonition is not required to be read into the record on the Senate floor. But it cannot be appealed and should be taken seriously, the staffer said.
As seriously as any pronouncement from the Arab League, European Union or special rapper from the U.N., in fact ...
New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli received a similar admonishment in 2002 after an Ethics Committee probe into whether he had improperly accepted gifts from a campaign contributor. Torricelli gave up his re-election bid soon afterward.
The Ethics Committee criticized his appeal, saying his claims that he was coerced into pleading guilty and that he did not know what he was doing "do not appear credible." Hey, he's only a lawmaker after all!
It called his effort to withdraw the guilty plea "an attempt to evade the legal consequences of an action freely undertaken by you."
"The conduct to which you pled guilty, together with your related and subsequent conduct as set forth above, constitutes improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the Senate," the letter states.
Craig also announced plans to resign after the arrest became public, but then reversed himself and decided to remain in office while he pursues his appeal. He is not seeking re-election in November. The committee found Craig has spent $213,000 from campaign funds on legal and "public relations" fees on his case without its approval, and warned that any further use of campaign funds without that blessing would be considered "conduct demonstrating your continuing disregard of ethics requirements."
#3
At least this was in private and he is offering money, compared to the vast majority of congress which openly screws America and takes money. What say you Senate Majority Leader? Any particular pork rinds going to a locale close to a particular House Majority Leader's base, hmm? Or or or how about trying to pass an amnesty bill again it has been over 4 weeks since the last attempt and Congress' approval rating just has to be better; I mean it couldn't get worse could it?
Everything else must be taken care of to make such a public deal about dingle tickling, and we know all the sex lives of the other Senators are just ducky and normal, right Massachusettes?
#2
Petroleum is a mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular sizes, along with some impurities. Methane is the primary part of the "natural gas" which heats homes & propels internal combustion vehicles. Methane & ethane would do quite well as a substitute or a substrate for longer chain hydrocarbons. If you have enough energy substrates, you can do almost anything.
Getting the material from Titan to earth economically is another matter entirely, but it might be worth trying.
#5
The relevance of this, is that oil and gas could well be primarily from abiotic sources and there is a lot more to be found by deep drilling.
I grew up with a coal fire in the house. I only realized a couple of days ago that in the many thousands of pieces of coal I saw, all with flat fracture surfaces, I never saw a single fossil.
#10
Coal was formed during the Carboniferous Period, well before dinosaurs. Think vast peat and fern swamps and shallow seas. Arthropods were the major land animals and they don't readily leave fossils.
Posted by: ed ||
02/14/2008 6:20 Comments ||
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#11
[moonbat]
Oh, great! Now Bush and the oil companies are gonna look for an excuse to invade Titan!
[/moonbat]
Posted by: Mike ||
02/14/2008 6:35 Comments ||
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#12
The oil on Titan is produced in part by meteor impacts, whose forces are the provernial Philosophers Stone. As a space rock impacts a surface, the temperature and pressure transform elements, hydrocarbons or other minerology result. The first effect is a cavitating shock waves, which create the vacume, and crumble the strata in the direction of its progression, the other thermo dynamics follow this wave, and transform elements struck, to new states.
Oil on our planet is always found within hundreds or up to thousands of miles in any direction of an impact.Often the impact zones are not identifiable because of subsequent erosion over time. the real time images of shoemaker levy hitting jupiter show the creation of the black hydrocarbons moving out from the impact zone and disappearing about 10 months later, as the liquid hydrocarbons seed downward into cavities beneath the surface. That is the story of Oil....and dont you forget it..
#22
Have ye no compassion for the Loch Titan Monster?
I think Cloverfield was a prophetic movie, with the Loch Titan monster coming to Earth to get back at the oil executives who ruined its home. It's a very scary thought. Run, run for your lives! It's coming, and there's no escape!
#23
Even if it were, my guess is transportation costs would be too high to make it efficient.
Actually it wouldn't be too high, as far as space goes. You don't need ships going back and forth all the time. Once you've got a base on titan you can just lob bags of fuel into the right orbit and recover them on our end. There are no pirates or sea-monsters or even weather to really interfere. If something does go wrong the bag of methane makes a very exciting lightshow against Earth's atmosphere or the moon or an asteroid in between.
#24
Improvement in transport means occurs daily. Cars are made that use only the pistons needed to meet current speeds. Then there are the hybrid vehicles, that shift between electrical and fossil fuel resources. However, we haven't had a real Leap in decades. There are hints that particle research could yield means to harnass gravity power. If, somehow, the force of gravity could be shifted horizontally, under some mechanism, then no-fuel transportation is a possibility. Controlled gravity: what a concept!I want a Tech Leap, now!
#27
#5 & #9. In the 30's and 40's, we burned anthracite coal in our stoves. My job was to break up the large chunks delivered by the coal company and put them in coal scuttles and set them on the back porch. Quite often when I broke open a piece of coal I exposed a fern fossil. I believe the coal came from Pennsylvania.
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.
Police used a mechanical digger to smash through a wall around a suspect's house on Wednesday during raids to break up one of Britain's biggest drug trafficking networks. The JCB was used on a house in Hillingdon, north London, during the operation, one of the biggest in the Metropolitan Police's history.
MADRID - Spain has launched legal proceedings against the head of a US company it suspects seized a massive haul of treasure from a sunken wreck in its territorial waters, a Spanish newspaper reported Tuesday. The court in the southern town of Linea de la Concepcion which is investigating the case would not confirm the report in the ABC newspaper.
Motorists have seen the highway signs that warn of falling rocks, and they've seen the ones that warn of moose crossing. Now Howard Peterson of the Alaska State Troopers wonders if they need a new sign:
The k!nky college professor who was almost strangled during an SandM session at a Midtown club told The Post yesterday he's deeply ashamed and is finally through with the double life he's lived since he was kid. 
retired teacher who now spends his time campaigning for improved literacy has revealed that he taught classes for 17 years even though he could not read or write. 
PHOENIX — Changes in climate and strong demand for Colorado River water could drain Lake Mead by 2021, triggering severe water shortages across the Southwest, scientists said Tuesday in an unusually bleak water-supply outlook.
The conviction of a teenage girl who used a mobile phone to film a man being kicked and punched to death in a so-called "happy slapping" attack is thought to be the first of its kind in England and Wales, prosecutors said today. 
The Senate Ethics Committee issued a "letter of admonition" to Sen. Larry Craig on Wednesday in connection with his arrest in a Minneapolis airport sex sting last year. In the letter, the committee accused the Idaho Republican of improper conduct in the June arrest. His actions reflected "discreditably" on the chamber, the letter said. 
