Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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I'm sorry, but I can't find any sympathy for the idiots people who fall for these scams. What the hell are they thinking (beside greed)?
"Too stupid to live" really should be a valid diagnosis.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/02/2006 0:10 Comments ||
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When he found a willing victim, his anti-scam unfolded in much the same way as a typical 419 scam, promising payment only after a substantial investment had been laid down - in this case the receipt of a series of commissioned wooden carvings from a local artist.
With some creative photo editing, Shiver Metimbers was able to string along his quarry with claims that the two carvings sent had mysteriously been damaged enroute, the first through a mysterious shrinking process, and the second by a rogue African hamster.
At the end of the campaign, his booty included a wooden carving of UK characters from the Creature Comforts TV series, and a carving of a Commodore 64 computer keyboard
LOL!
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 0:18 Comments ||
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If you like those stories, you can always check out Shiver Metimber's site, or the Scamorama site. Some of the correspondences are pretty damn funny.
Of course, any appeals from me for financial help in getting the Tsar's vast family fortune are all legit. Please donate, and generously, to our special account in Lagos. Thanks!!
#7
...There was a story on Fox News' website yesterday that the Tennessee preacher's wife who blew him away with a shotgun a few months ago did so after being caught in a Nigerian e-mail scam. Makes you wonder what these things set off in otherwise normal people.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/02/2006 8:06 Comments ||
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I get a lot of those "Nigerian" scam mails, whenever I get a new one I forward the last 200 or so that i've received, one at a time, about 50 a day, usualy by the third day they've banned my E-Address so I can't send them any more.
I figure that since Internet access is expensive over there, (Had to stop E-Mailing a friend in State Dept because of the cost to them) and getting 50 plus E-Mails each day both clogs up their servers, wastes their time (They're all individual, no blocks) and must be expensive as hell.
So far onlt two scamsters have repeated, and the E-Mails have fallen off to one every couple of weeks, so it works.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2006 11:26 Comments ||
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Sonkajarvi, Finland - Could you carry your wife 250 meters on your back through an obstacle course? That's what one husband from Estonia did to win his wife's weight in beer, and even set a world record doing it.
Sandra Kullas and Margo Uusorg won the race Saturday with a winning time of 56.9 seconds. They were among 40 couples who competed in the annual race.
The course included pools and hurdles. The men could run or walk while carrying the women on their backs. The championship was being held for the 11th time and evokes the legend of robber Rosvo-Ronkainen who made prospective gang members carry heavy sacks while running through the forest before he would let them join his gang.
Kullas clung to Uusorg's back upside down with her legs around his neck. This is Uusorg's fifth world championship. The couple received laptop computers and 49 kg of beer.
#3
Manolo, yea, you're onto something. With obstacles, no way I could make 250m in 56.9s, in my 20's, with a female 49kg piggybacking on my back, upside down or otherwise. And I was running for school, 1000 and 3000 meters.
I would make in such conditions the first 100m in ~ 25s, the next 100m in ~ 30s and the remaining 50 m in ~ 20s give or take a couple of seconds. Without a female on the back, on a straight track--250m in ~ 33s.
Moral of the above is that sometimes female is a drag. ;-)
#2
actually, the mideast proves it's not the roots, but lack of branches, on the olde family tree that causes a lot of problems. Shouldn't look for a marriage partner at the family reunion
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 13:23 Comments ||
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Why, of course, this proves every european has an arab or an african ancestor, so he has no complaining to do about his long-lost relatives coming in by the hundred of thousands to visit him (permanently) each and every year.
See?
It could even be said, given that Europe is old and childless, that we're kinda old folks occupying a nice house that has become too big for us, and that it is only right that our younger relatives (remember, we're all part of the smae big extended family) comes in and live with us, while we wither away.
I remember reading such things in vulgarization history mags when I was a teen, like every present french person is a descendent of Clovis or Charlemagne, or related to a branch of french royalty. I even posted an article here about 80% IIRC of white present day britons directly descending from a single prehistoric community.
I mean, this is probably true in essence, but this is pure nonsense anyway, as uncle Gromgoryu wisely puts it. This whole kind of "races don't exist", "there's no identity", "we're all one big family", etc, etc, stuff really bugs me. I'm sorry, I have roots, I know who I am, I have an identity, and no supercomputer study is going to convince me otherwise, and I'm almost completely certain is would be even truer for 110% of people outside of the multiculti West. Remember, we're the only ones actively trying to erase ourselves out of existence and occuped with hating ourselves.
#6
The final words of this article are "the tight web of brotherhood we all share". Let's feel good everybody -- we're all brothers! Lay down your arms. Beat your swords into plowshares. Go give Kofi and Osama a good hug.
#9
Puns are acceptable in english! but not in spanish? monkey manolo boy?
or did mummy and daddy not talk about such things as conception, or are we well meaning but have learning difficulties or language problems? or perhaps too many digits?
#11
Minime , Your perseverance & difficulty with the english language is gratifying and even inspiring considering your condition, but not really relevent in this case. If you wish to speak to me about the genetics, molecular biology or bioinformatics relevent to this article I'm listening. Otherwise your pitiful whimperings are irrelevant, tedious, and getting repetitive and laughable.
#12
badgerbanger. Wow! You must have spent time with a dictionary cobbling together that missive. Such a display of razor-like wit I can't recall ever seeing.
Nearly 2,000 militia fighters have laid down their weapons in Congo's lawless Ituri district in the last two weeks, a month before historic polls. Disarmament centres reopened two weeks ago after being closed for a year, giving militia groups a second chance to give up their guns a month before the Democratic Republic of Congo is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.
Much of the country remains violent and Ituri - a remote northeastern district where fighting has killed 60,000 since 1999 and militia fighters are still holding five UN Nepali peacekeepers hostage - is no exception. Colonel Francois-Xavier Duku, the head of Congo's national disarmament commission for Ituri, said: "More than 1,800 people have disarmed - the figure is getting near 2,000." Last year over 15,000 militiamen signed up to UN-sponsored disarmament programmes before the centres closed when the deadline expired.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a modern-day Moses to Haiti's poor masses, a former Catholic priest who rose to the presidency by promising to wash away the country's bloody and corrupt past. But since his ouster as president in 2004, U.S. authorities have been investigating detailed accounts alleging that Aristide and several top aides sought and took millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers in Haiti, The Miami Herald has learned.
So far, a federal grand jury probe in Miami has led to 22 convictions of mostly Haitian drug traffickers, ex-police officers and a high-ranking politician close to Aristide. Although the exiled former president is a main target of the ongoing investigation, he has not been charged. The allegations against the ex-president come from numerous sources, but the evidence has not risen to a level to press a case against Aristide, say U.S. law enforcement officials, who have been hampered by a lack of financial records.
Still, The Miami Herald has learned from interviews with about 20 law enforcement officials, defense lawyers and others involved in the case that Aristide has been accused of being at the center of his country's narco-trafficking and money-laundering activities from 2001 to 2004. Authorities have gathered evidence, including testimony by cooperating defendants convicted in the case, alleging that:
Soon after he took office in early 2001, Aristide held a meeting at his Port-au-Prince home with his presidential security chief, two government security advisors, the national police chief and a district commander to organize a scheme to shake down Colombian and Haitian drug smugglers for kickbacks for both his personal and political activities.
Drug traffickers bribed Aristide to turn a blind eye to shipments of Colombian cocaine through Haiti, directly paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash during regular visits to his home.
Convicted drug kingpin Beaudouin ''Jacques'' Ketant personally delivered $500,000 a month in a suitcase to Aristide's home, he told authorities. He said the suitcase had a combination lock set to 7-7-7 at Aristide's request because that was his favorite number.
Traffickers gave Aristide $200,000 to buy a helicopter in 2002, but the president pocketed the money and instead used government funds to rent a helicopter from Miami-based Biscayne Helicopters. Those same traffickers also bought a $75,000 ambulance in Miami that was shipped to Haiti for the president's private charitable Aristide Foundation.
Traffickers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on carnival festivities in February 2002 that were arranged by the Aristide government. They also paid for some of Aristide's July birthday celebrations, his Lavalas Family Party and his foundation.
At Aristide's direction, some of the traffickers' bribes helped buy weapons smuggled into Haiti to equip national police officers as well as pro-Aristide street gangs that harassed his opponents during his second term as president, between 2001 and 2004, according to former Haitian law enforcement officials and drug traffickers who are cooperating with U.S. investigators.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 11:22 ||
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In March 2003 dozens of leaders of Cuba's Varela Project and other human rights defenders were detained, subjected to summary trials, condemned to many years in prison, and confined in the most inhumane and cruel conditions. They were treated like -- and held in cells with -- dangerous common criminals. In this way the regime attempted to suppress the rebirth of the Cuban Spring initiated by thousands of Cubans who overcame a debilitating culture of fear by including their names, addresses and identification numbers in the text of the Varela Project, a document later presented to the National Assembly asking for a referendum on its human rights principles. Despite inhuman treatment and illegal detention, the regime could not stop the rebirth of the Cuban Spring: Many Cubans continue to support the Varela Project even amid repression that includes death threats and physical assault. . . .
The writer is a leader of the human rights movement in Cuba. And therefore, by definition, a brave man.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/02/2006 10:11 ||
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Human Rights Watch: "Don't bother me son. We are butt busy ensuring no infidel hands touch korans".
Posted by: ed ||
07/02/2006 11:30 Comments ||
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BEIJING - China opened the worlds highest railway on Saturday, celebrating the link to Tibet as a symbol of national strength and ethnic harmony while critics decried it as a threat to Tibetan culture and the environment.
A stiffly proud President Hu Jintao waved farewell as the first train left Golmud, the outpost in the far-western province of Qinghai where the new 1,142-km (710-mile) track to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, begins. The building of the Qinghai-Tibet railway is of major significance for accelerating the economic and social development of Tibet and Qinghai, improving the lives of people of every ethnicity, and strengthening unity between ethnic groups, Hu told a meeting broadcast on Chinese television.
The first train from Beijing leaves on Saturday evening amid a crescendo of publicity and reaches Lhasa 48 hours later, after a 4,000-km (2,500-mile) journey touching altitudes of over 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) above sea level on the Tibetan plateau.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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India should hire some Bugtis to blow it up
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 0:05 Comments ||
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The building of the Qinghai-Tibet railway is of major significance for accelerating the economic and social development of Tibet and Qinghai, improving the lives of people of every ethnicity, and strengthening unity between ethnic groups,
Liar, it's to subjugate Tibet and keep it under your thumb by rapidly transporting troops as desired.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2006 11:35 Comments ||
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#1: India should hire some Bugtis to blow it up
Preferably over some deep inaccessable ravine eg "Cassandra Crossing".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2006 11:39 Comments ||
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Passengers boarding planes in France are now paying a new tax on their tickets to help the world's poor, after the measure came into effect on the weekend.
The tax, championed by President Jacques Chirac and backed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, adds a surcharge of between one and 40 euros (1.25 and 50 dollars) depending on the destination and class of seat. Money raised is to go to an international fund to buy treatments for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
A number of countries -- Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua and Norway -- have all signed on to the initiative, and France hopes others will follow suit. The United States, Canada and Germany, though, oppose the levy, and several airlines have complained that it will simply add to the cost of air travel at a time of high fuel prices.
The money from the tax on flights from France is expected to generate 200 million euros a year for an International Drug Purchase Facility, also known as Unitaid. The fund will be used to bulk-buy medicines for countries -- mainly in Africa -- that cannot afford them.
Under the measure, passengers flying out of French airports will pay one euro in economy class, and 10 euros in business, if their destination is in the EU. For flights outside Europe, the surcharges are between four and 40 euros, depending on the class. Passengers who make a stopover in France of less than 12 hours, or who stay longer because of delays, are exempt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2006 16:55 ||
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oh yeah, like the money will ever get past the pockets of bureaucrats and their pet projects and make to actual poor people.
The money from the tax ... is expected to generate 200 million euros a year for an International Drug Purchase Facility, also known as Unitaid
No, the money is expected to go into the pockets of the thieves who run the UN. At least by those of us with half a brain, and by the thieves who run the UN.
Just like all their other "help the poor and suffering" programs.
bulk-buy medicines for countries -- mainly in Africa -- that cannot afford them
And WHY can't they "afford" them? Would that be because the kleptocrats and thieves who run these countries, with the UN's acquiescense and help, keep those countries poor while they wallow in riches themselves? See above.
Pfui. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/02/2006 18:06 Comments ||
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What's Jaques' cut?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/02/2006 18:19 Comments ||
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And europe continues to wonder why it is getting its ass kicked economically.
#6
Impose the same tax amount for France originating flights to the US. Use the money for a good purpose, like subsidizing Australian wine for our winos. I won't weep when US-France flights drop off.
Posted by: ed ||
07/02/2006 23:27 Comments ||
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The European Union said on Thursday that Turkey's membership negotiations could be halted unless it moves on Cyprus and makes progress on reforms, but the EU hopes to avoid a crisis later this year.
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was quoted by the Finnish news agency STT as saying, in response to a question, that the EU could suspend talks completely. "There is that possibility. I hope that we don't have to resort to that, but we have no reason not to use it if there are grounds for that," Rehn said.
Finland, which takes over the 25-nation bloc's rotating presidency from July 1, also said that refusal to fulfil an obligation to open Turkish ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus could jeopardize the talks. "This is not a threat. I just want to note the fact that it will cause a serious issue ... in the negotiations and may even endanger the continuation of the negotiations," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told a news conference in Brussels.
Continued on Page 49
A former police officer who commanded troops defending the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica was handed a lenient two-year sentence Friday for failing to prevent murder and torture of Serb captives. The U.N. war crimes tribunal, which imposed the sentence, ordered Naser Oric's immediate release since he has been in jail for more than three years. Oric, 39, was acquitted of direct involvement in the murder of prisoners in the early years of the 1992-95 Bosnia war. But the court found he had closed his eyes to their mistreatment and failed to punish their killers.
The three judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia acquitted him of all charges related to the wanton destruction of Serb villages. The trial was closely watched in the Balkans. Muslims, who hail Oric as a war hero for his three-year defense of the enclave against Serb forces, had anticipated exoneration. Serbs had hoped a conviction would counterbalance earlier judgments that found Bosnian Serbs guilty of genocide at Srebrenica. More than 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered there in one week in July 1995, Europe's worst civilian massacre since the Holocaust.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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former police officer who commanded troops defending the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica was handed a lenient two-year sentence Friday for failing to prevent murder and torture of Serb captives.
#2
If you were in Srebrinica in 95 and were responsible for the wellbeing of serb captives you were not there you were a myth dreamed up by postwar moral relativists, a fucking unicorn. Genocide is fun and excusable if you are a serb.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 11:22 ||
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nice catch Fred! Thinking back, June was a fine month
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 11:39 Comments ||
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"Another month or two like June, and the Dems may actually lose seats in the November elections. Which may not be a bad thing: a crushing loss might be what the worlds oldest political party needs to free itself from the clutches of the moonbats."
At this point it will take a lot more than a crushing loss in November-- unlikely to happen anyway-- to shake the Party loose from the Loony Left.
Not only have the inmates taken over the asylum, but most Staff have abandoned their stations and joined them in smearing feces all over the Day Room walls and urinating out the windows on the riot squads gathered below. Only poor Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, and a half-handful of others remain barricaded in what's left of the Nurse's Station, trembling in terror at the murderous fury of the mob.
I'm not holding out much hope for them anymore. And frankly, I have little sympathy for them, either, not after they gave Michael Moore a seat of "honor" right next to Jimmy Carter at the '04 Democratic Convention.
They made that bed; they can damn well sleep in it.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/02/2006 11:42 Comments ||
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I can't be 100% sure about this, but I think this is the first time Dave D has said anything nice about Hiliary :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2006 12:07 Comments ||
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I think it was a Nurse Ratchet reference
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 12:11 Comments ||
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Wow, that's a devastating summary! No wonder they getting crazier by the day.
Sen. Joe Biden makes no bones about his presidential ambitions. "No, I'm running," Biden said yesterday in an interview with the Monitor's editorial board. "I should be more coy about it, but . . . I'm not very good at being coy."
Biden, a senator from Delaware and foreign policy specialist, is back on the primary circuit after a nearly 20-year absence. His message: Iraq is a winnable war, Bush's tax cuts should be rolled back to fund more national security measures, and the notion that the United States is fundamentally divided into political Reds and Blues is "malarkey." Government's first job, Biden said, is to ensure safety. He said that the recent debate pitting Omaha against New York City on which city deserves federal homeland security grants was completely off-base. "Wrong debate. They all need it," Biden said. "The debate is: Why are we only spending $710 million? I'll tell you why - because of the tax cuts."
"Wrong debate" is the wrong approach. I had a date with a blond once, back when I was young and single. Cute babe, very promising. I went to the wrong place to pick her up. Since she felt she'd been stood up we never did go out. We never developed a relationship, never came to care deeply about each other, never married, had children, built a home and grew old together. Joe won't be president for the same reason, among others.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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"I should be more smart coy about it, but . . . I'm not very good at being smart coy."
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 0:19 Comments ||
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Hair plugs will be one thing: entertaining
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/02/2006 1:04 Comments ||
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Bozo, gas bag, loves to hear himself speak. Trying to think of anything else other than the fact he is a loser.
A Boeing team is currently in the country to work on a special configuration for the Indian navy requirements to be developed over time in the P8I that the US manufacturer has put on offer.
They would also be available to answer any queries the Indian Navy may have on the matter, according to Boeing director (business development) Timothy S Norgart.
Talking to FE, Norgart said,Currently,technical evaluations are going on and the Boeing team is here to respond to any queries the Indian Navy may have. This will be a commercial sale and we dont forsee any problems.
Boeing programme manager for P-8A international programmes Rick Buck said, Boeing Defence has all licences in place to satisfy the request for proposal for the variant of P-8A multi-mission maritime aircraft. The clause in the Indian procurement policy for the transfer of technology will not be a problem for us and the company officials are already in consultations with several Indian industries.
We have proposed a unique system that will enhance the capability of the Indian navy in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, Buck said.
The increased range, speed, radius of action and advanced combat power inherent in our 21st century solution will enable the Indian Navy to fully patrol and influence events in its entire operational region, he added.
Norgart said, The commonality inherent in our solution will greatly enhance the interoperability and supportability objectives publicly supported by both the US and Indian navies.
Posted by: john ||
07/02/2006 16:06 ||
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The P-8A, a militarized version of the Boeing 737-800, brings together a highly reliable airframe with a state-of-the-art open architecture mission system. This combination, coupled with next-generation sensors will dramatically improve anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Current plans call for the U.S. Navy to procure 108 P-8As to replace the fleet of P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. Additionally, several potential international customers have indicated their interest in this new aircraft.
Posted by: john ||
07/02/2006 16:16 Comments ||
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India's navy has put into service the BrahMos Russian-Indian supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, the Indian prime minister said Wednesday. Manmohan Singh said during a visit to BrahMos Aerospace, an Indian company that manufactures the missile, that other arms of the country's military would soon deploy the world-class cruise missile.
The missile has been developed as a joint venture between India's Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia's Mashinostroyenia scientific center. BrahMos is designed to destroy surface targets flying at an altitude as low as 10 meters (30 feet) and at a speed of Mach 2.8, with a maximum range of 290 km (about 180 miles).
Sea-based version of the missile will be initially deployed on Project 11356 Talvar-class (Kryvack) frigates built in Russia for the Indian navy. Land-based version of the missile, which was successfully tested on May 31, will enter service in two years.
The Hindu national newspaper said on June 3 that Indian Air Force Su-30MKI multi-role air superiority fighters would also be equipped with BrahMos missiles by the end of next year.
Posted by: john ||
07/02/2006 11:37 ||
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Posted by: john ||
07/02/2006 12:32 Comments ||
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is this just the SS-nx-26 Yakhont thingy they joint developed?
as in supersonic bad if it gets in your way but spoofable and avoidable even if fast?
The Indian contribution was the targeting computer, guidance system and software.
The Indian DRDO made the thing much smarter.
The seeker relies on airborne radar platforms like Ka-31 helicopter. The target coordinates are inserted in missile memory immediately before launch and during the cruise phase the missile steers itself via Inertial platform with autopilot. At pre determined distance from target Brahmos switches on its active radar seeker to detect target. In case os of sea skimming profile missile starts radar search and achieve lock-on upon "popping up" from under the radar range which is about 25 km's.
In the lo/hi/lo profile it performs a first short radar search at a range of 50 km to verify target position and then reverts to inertial navigation in radar silence for the descent phase to sea skimming attack run before switching the radar on again at closer range.
There is no provision of in-flight data updates via data link from launch or airborne platform. Its estimated that Brahmos can perform both active or passive homing modes. passive modes like anti-radiation or home-on-jam.
Supersonic speed in cruise phase will ensure ships will not be able to move much farther away from the estimated position. As a result the missile will be able to start active radar search closer to target on a narrower sector of 40-45 degree. Hence the targets ESM detection and countermeasure will have just 3.3 seconds to react.
The seeker uses a hybrid form of pulse compression, in which bursts of short pulses are phase-coded so that they can be compressed; the bursts can also be Furier-transformed to discriminate chaff clouds. This particular pulse compression technique was adopted to hold down peak power, so making ESM detection difficult. The missile can also scan a number of targets in the area to identify the one it is supposed to hit. This capability is normally obtained through screen matching criteria, but Brahmos employs special algorithm that classifies targets based on their radar cross section as contained in the pre launch data.
On shore attack mode the seeker can detect large structures or DRDO has developed navigation and flight control computers to guide missile to precision impact against fixed targets (capability already tested).
Posted by: john ||
07/02/2006 19:20 Comments ||
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#4
Thanks john.
Your ref is indians defence ministry so i'll have fun qualifing it open source.
Inmates at a jail in Sindh took 12 officials hostage on Saturday to protest the death of a fellow prisoner. Some 450 prisoners of the 800 at Khairpur Prison also gathered on the roof of the jail building and chanted slogans against the jail authorities. The prisoners had demanded the registration of a first information report (FIR) against jail officials for torturing an inmate to death two days ago, officials said. They said that the inmates were holding jail officials in a cell and had refused to set them free unless they were assured of the redressal of their grievances.
The inmates accused jail officials of frequently demanding money from them and not taking them to court on time. He said that a team of officials headed by the jail superintendent was negotiating with the inmates, and hoped that the dialogue would lead to a solution to the crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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The head of the United Nations administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), Danish diplomat, Soren Jessen Petersen on Friday ended his mandate in the breakaway province pledging he would return when Kosovo's "dream became reality." Petersen, who has spent the past two years running the province, made it clear that he was referring to the independence of Kosovo- sought by most of the province's ethnic Albanian majority but opposed by Belgrade and the tiny Serbian minority.
That doesn't really sound even-handed.
Ethnic Albanian leaders in the province praised Jessen Petersen's achievements, while Serbs accused him of lobbying for the ethnic Albanian cause.
... rather than being an honest broker...
Petersen said he was confident that the international community would decide on Kosovo's final status before the end of this year, despite six rounds of technical talks between the Serbian government and ethnic Albanians having so far yielded no results. UN-brokered talks between the two sides have resumed in Vienna. "We can't keep Kosovo in the present situation, the talks have started and everything must end by determining the status," said Petersen. "I think that it's essentially important for the status to be determined this year and it should be acceptable to the majority, taking into account the wishes of the minority," Petersen said. "I will return when your dream becomes reality," he told ethnic Albanian deputies in a farewell address at the Kosovo parliament on Thursday.
Petersen also visited representatives of the Kosovo minority Serbs, but unlike his predecessors, didn't pay a farewell visit to Serbian leaders in Belgrade, president Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. At a final press conference in Pristina, Petersen said he did not expect to see an exodus of the remaining 100,000 Serbs from Kosovo if the province became independent. "I've talked to many of them and they have said they want to live here, where they were born," he said.
I'm not real impressed and I don't feel a lot of sympathy for the Serbs under normal circumstances. If you're going to function as a neutral party, you can't overtly tilt one way or the other regardless of where your sympathies lie.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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An asteroid speeding across the Northern sky will make its closet approach to Earth in more than 80 years Monday night -- and even then it will be farther away than the moon. Scientists say the rocky object, known as 2004XP14, poses no threat to the planet; it can't be seen by the naked eye. And because it is flying at a speed of nearly 11 miles a second -- nearly 4,000 mph -- it should prove an elusive target for even the best of amateur astronomers, even those armed with high-powered telescopes.
John Giorgini, an astronomer and analyst with NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the asteroid should be rising above the eastern portion of the northern horizon of the Bay Area at about 11 p.m. Monday. It will remain in the sky all night, he said, as it passes through the constellations Cassiopeia, Cepheus and Draco before the dawning sun washes out the dark night sky.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
...And because it is flying at a speed of nearly 11 miles a second -- nearly 4,000 mph
#4
"Calling all cars. BOLO for a ginormous white-hot rock first blotting out the sun, then plunging into the earth's crust to a depth of several miles. That is al...[ACK!]"
#5
Omygod, we're all gonna die!!! Oh, well, at least, this way, I can gorge on food like I do, without having to culpabilize anymore, since we're all goners... see you at the fridge!
#11
Thavising Ebbiper9480 - LOL. Another ghost hunter. I'm not .com, unfortunately. Have you asked yourself why on earth .com would go into hiding? From who? From what? I've read many of his comments and he has no reason at all to hide. I'd welcome him back. Keep beating the bushes if it makes you feel better, though. You prolly need to compile a list of .comisms - as I have - methinks, LOL. It will help you look more authoritative. :-)
#13
I wish, LOL. Hey, I'll pretend I'm .com if you'll cover me and take the heat when-if .com comes back from the jungle or desert or hell or heaven or Area 51. Wherever it is he's gone to. You'll have to ignore my much thinner comments too, since I can't flesh them out with anecdotes and stories. This is surreal. Because of liking a couple of movies? LOL.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 12:04 Comments ||
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#15
I don't remember a Lucky, but I remember a commetn I think where .com lamented his absence too. I hope he comes back too, he must have struck a chord.
I take it back. No name-jacking should be allowed and I don't want to be publicly eviscerated, LOL.
#16
While I have no firm information, I suspect .com is having his clock cleaned, his oil changed and his transmission lubed by a Las Vegas show-nymph. All evidence of such welcomed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2006 12:32 Comments ||
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#17
Lol, lol and now LOL. Heh. Methinks - yet - you are .com. Or am I suffering from a little CogDis?
#18
I've pulled Mall Taxi Service duty today, grumble grumble. Thavising Ebbiper9480, I don't know what else I can say except that whatever you believe is far beyond my control. If it makes you happy then it makes me happy too! LOL! Lol! lol!
#21
No show-nymphs or show-anything-else glamor in my life, dammit! Just kidding. It's 24 by 7 "domestic bliss" and that's not a complaint but a fact. It's not yet illegal to be a regular old happy family, is it? :)
Indonesian police charged Kartika Oktavina Gunawan, the centerfold model from April's first edition of Playboy Indonesia, with alleged indecency Thursday. "She has been named a suspect and charged with violating the Criminal Code on indecency, with a maximum punishment of two years in prison," Kartika's lawyer Sinarta Bangun told reporters at Jakarta Police Headquarters. Under Indonesian law, being named a suspect means charges have been filed. Kartika's was shown in midriff-baring outfits as well as a see-through lace dress in her centerfold. But in keeping with Playboy Indonesia's policy, there was no nudity.
Kartika, who was questioned for two hours, admitted she was worried by the latest development in the case. "...Thank God, my family always gives me their full support," she added. The model and sometime soap actress said she did not regret her decision to pose for the men's magazine because it was a legal publication. "I give all my work contracts to my manager. If it's halal (permitted by religion), then why not take it?" she said.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said Playboy chief editor Erwin Arnada also was named a suspect in the same case after being questioned at police headquarters. He could not be reached for comment. Both Kartika and Erwin were not detained.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
A nation once composed of normal people becomes islamic and goes bonkers.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last September warned that a billion people were overweight and obese, and the toll could rise to 1.5 billion by 2015, driven by low- and middle-income countries.
Writing on Tuesday in the International Journal of Obesity, a team of US public-health experts caution against focussing obsessively on the "Big Two" -- a slower lifestyle and modern food marketing. "This has created a hegemony whereby the importance of the Big Two is accepted as established and other putative factors are not seriously explored," they say. "The result may be well-intentioned but ill-founded proposals for reducing obesity rates."
They contend the evidence against junk food, supersize-me portions and high-calorie corn syrup is "equivocal and largely circumstantial" and offer some intriguing ideas of their own for other drivers of the obesity tsunami. Hereupon follows a list of the possiblities for which there seems to be supporting evidence (all of which don't have anything to do with whether or not you, dear reader, are a lazy pig):
-- Industrial chemicals called endocrine disruptors that disturb metabolism, encouraging the formation of fat.
-- Giving up smoking: people who give up cigarettes very often gain weight.
-- Air conditioning, which establishes a comfortable temperature zone. In temperatures above this zone, people eat less. The rise in number of air-conditioned homes in the United States virtually mirrors the increase in the US obesity rate.
-- Fat people marry other fat people. These individuals may be genetically vulnerable to obesity, a trait that could handed on to their children.
-- Sleep depriviation. University of Chicago researcher Esra Tasali notes that waistlines in modern societies started to expand when people started to sleep less. Today, the "sleep deficit" is about two hours per night compared with 40 years ago. To test this hypothesis, Tasali recruited a group of healthy young adults and divided them into three groups. One group had eight hours' sleep; another had their sleep regime extended to 12 hours; and the third was limited to only four hours. The sleep-deprived group swiftly developed cravings for high-calorie sweets, and their metabolisms were akin to those of diabetics.
-- Viral infection. At least 10 different pathogens are known to cause obesity in animals, causing dramatic changes to the metabolic system so that more energy gets converted into fat.
Nikhil Dhurandhar of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University believes that something similar may happen among humans exposed to cousins of the common cold. He tested the stored blood of 500 Americans and found that 30 percent of obese people had antibodies for Ad-36, an adenovirus which causes coughing, sneezing and cold-like symptoms. Only 11 percent of people of normal body weight had this telltale of Ad-36 infection.
#2
Yeah, it's not my fault! Not my fault at all! Not my fault, not my fault, not my fault! Stop culpabilizing me! And I'm not fat, I'm big-boned, dammit!
#5
Just for the record, WHO's 2005 database says the top five countries for obesity are [drumroll, please]: Cook Islands; Nauru; Niue;
Micronesia, Federated States of; and Tonga. Yeah, it has to be either those industrial chemicals or George Bush.
#7
my samoan friends are by far the largest I have...
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 16:26 Comments ||
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#8
Let's add Nannyism - which scares mothers into holding their children as hostages in their own home. Better a thousand Peds run free than to execute one and free the children.
Let's add Darwinism - since modern living means a lot of kids who would never had made it to reproductive age [childhood diseasess, child labor, etc] are now in their third generation of making more humans.
Note that the WHO doesn't acknowledge that famine and its associated plagues [while still present in Africa] were common prior to the 20th Century and modern food preservation techologies. The world in general was often one or two harvests away from repeatative disaster [real, not Hollywood]. People didn't live long enough to face the complications of 'overweight'. So instead of celebrating success, we all have to listen to more 'experts'.
New Orleans native Andreneka Gilmore was delivered a one-two punch that would devastate any teenager.
First, her New Orleans neighborhood and school were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina last August. Then, after fleeing to Houston, she failed her classes because her special-education needs were ignored, said her mother, Tiki Hicks.
Hicks said administrators in a Houston-area school district didn't grasp the severity of the learning challenges as well as emotional problems that stemmed from the consequences of the storm.
Continued on Page 49
#1
virtually every one of their "ills" can be traced to the lack of a husband and father in the home. I see a lot of victimhood advocates among the scheduled speakers.... Also. apparently 81% of the children waiting for mentors are girls, and only 19% are boys? What's that about? Boys are discouraged from seeking mentoring, or it's "uncool", like studying hard and staying off the streets.
Cure thyself - Cosby could tell them more in a 5 minute speech than Glover, Crazy Al, Jesse, and the rest of the racial hucksters can in a weeklong symposium
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2006 11:25 Comments ||
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#2
Oh, and drive a stake into the heart of the NEA!
Their parish, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, is solid and strong. It has 3,000 members, a historic stone building in good repair and a well-loved minister. But to the Episcopalians at St. Luke's Parish in Darien, Conn., who gathered with their pastor to grapple with the past week's news about their denomination, it was as if their solid stone church had been struck by an earthquake. To them and to many Episcopalians around the country, the long-vulnerable fault line running under the Episcopal Church had cracked wide open in one week. Six traditionalist dioceses and some individual parishes announced plans to break from the Episcopal Church because they could not live with a church that permits an openly gay bishop and ceremonies for same-sex unions.
In other words, they're Christians, rather than... ummm... something else. Maybe Bacchants.
In an opposing jolt, the Diocese of Newark named an openly gay priest as a candidate for its bishop, defying a plea for restraint just passed by a vote of the bishops and delegates at the Episcopal Church's triennial convention.
Which was... what? Last week?
And the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, weighed in with a plan of seismic implications to ask all 38 regional churches in the Communion to agree to a covenant that could limit each church's autonomy. Those that do not agree could be given second-tier status in the Communion. "So in other words," Martha Cook, a university professor and member of the vestry at St. Luke's, asked her pastor at the gathering, "the conservatives could literally take over our rightful spot in the Communion, and the majority of the American church would be on the outs?" The pastor, the Rev. David R. Anderson, answered that while it was far from settled, "the scenario the traditionalists were seeking could actually come to pass." "The vast majority of the Episcopal Church would be considered the 'off brand".
That'd be the majority in one country, not in the world. And the conservatives feel like the liberals have bumped them to date.
#3
this article is as poorly written as the last. One really shouldn't have to work at understanding what's going on.
But then, maybe that's the point, to hide the fact that >"the conservatives could literally take over our rightful spot in the Communion, and the majority of the American church would be on the outs?"
But then, this article is so poorly written, I'm not really sure if that means what I think it does.
I hope the Episcopals and the Presby's do split. I'd like to go back to them.
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.
Nearly 2,000 militia fighters have laid down their weapons in Congo's lawless Ituri district in the last two weeks, a month before historic polls. Disarmament centres reopened two weeks ago after being closed for a year, giving militia groups a second chance to give up their guns a month before the Democratic Republic of Congo is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.
BEIJING - China opened the worlds highest railway on Saturday, celebrating the link to Tibet as a symbol of national strength and ethnic harmony while critics decried it as a threat to Tibetan culture and the environment.
The European Union said on Thursday that Turkey's membership negotiations could be halted unless it moves on Cyprus and makes progress on reforms, but the EU hopes to avoid a crisis later this year.
Sen. 
Inmates at a jail in Sindh took 12 officials hostage on Saturday to protest the death of a fellow prisoner. Some 450 prisoners of the 800 at Khairpur Prison also gathered on the roof of the jail building and chanted slogans against the jail authorities. The prisoners had demanded the registration of a first information report (FIR) against jail officials for torturing an inmate to death two days ago, officials said. They said that the inmates were holding jail officials in a cell and had refused to set them free unless they were assured of the redressal of their grievances.
The head of the United Nations administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), Danish diplomat, 
An asteroid speeding across the Northern sky will make its closet approach to Earth in more than 80 years Monday night -- and even then it will be farther away than the moon. Scientists say the rocky object, known as 2004XP14, poses no threat to the planet; it can't be seen by the naked eye. And because it is flying at a speed of nearly 11 miles a second -- nearly 4,000 mph -- it should prove an elusive target for even the best of amateur astronomers, even those armed with high-powered telescopes. 
Indonesian police charged Kartika Oktavina Gunawan, the centerfold model from April's first edition of Playboy Indonesia, with alleged indecency Thursday. "She has been named a suspect and charged with violating the Criminal Code on indecency, with a maximum punishment of two years in prison," Kartika's lawyer Sinarta Bangun told reporters at Jakarta Police Headquarters. Under Indonesian law, being named a suspect means charges have been filed. Kartika's was shown in midriff-baring outfits as well as a see-through lace dress in her centerfold. But in keeping with Playboy Indonesia's policy, there was no nudity. 
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last September warned that a billion people were overweight and obese, and the toll could rise to 1.5 billion by 2015, driven by low- and middle-income countries.
Their parish, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, is solid and strong. It has 3,000 members, a historic stone building in good repair and a well-loved minister. But to the Episcopalians at St. Luke's Parish in Darien, Conn., who gathered with their pastor to grapple with the past week's news about their denomination, it was as if their solid stone church had been struck by an earthquake. To them and to many Episcopalians around the country, the long-vulnerable fault line running under the Episcopal Church had cracked wide open in one week. Six traditionalist dioceses and some individual parishes announced plans to break from the Episcopal Church because they could not live with a church that permits an openly gay bishop and ceremonies for same-sex unions.
