Iranian-backed Hizbullah and its opposition allies yesterday escalated their armed takeover of key areas of Lebanon held by the western-backed government, gaining control of the Druze heartlands of Mount Lebanon and clashing with pro-government Sunni fighters in the northern port city of Tripoli. The pro-government Druze leader, Waleed Jumblatt, who had controlled the mountain areas south-east of Beirut for generations, ordered his fighters to stand down after fierce clashes with Hizbullah militants in which both sides kidnapped and executed rival supporters. The area was turned over to the opposition Druze leader Talal Arsalan, who asked the army to deploy. Hizbullah and Amal fighters later largely withdrew from areas occupied in west Beirut after the army pledged that Hizbullah's secure telephone network would not be dismantled.
The pro-government Druze leader, Waleed Jumblatt, who had controlled the mountain areas south-east of Beirut for generations, ordered his fighters to stand down after fierce clashes with Hizbullah militants in which both sides kidnapped and executed rival supporters.
The area was turned over to the opposition Druze leader Talal Arsalan, who asked the army to deploy. Hizbullah and Amal fighters later largely withdrew from areas occupied in west Beirut after the army pledged that Hizbullah's secure telephone network would not be dismantled.
PHOENIX (AP) -- Fifty-three illegal immigrants found Sunday had been held against their will in a fortified home by suspected smugglers demanding more money, authorities said. The group of rescued immigrants included two 13-year-old girls, three women and a mentally disabled man. The rest were men, Department of Public Safety spokesman Harold Sanders said. Authorities began investigating Saturday after getting a tip that immigrants were being held captive. Sanders said the smugglers wanted an average of $2,500 for each person's release. The single-family home where they were kept had been fortified to prevent escape and weapons were seized at the location. The suspected smugglers also took away the immigrants' shoes so they couldn't run off. Sanders said five people, all residents of Mexico, were being jailed on charges of extortion, kidnapping, aggravated assault and human smuggling. Authorities on the scene said the immigrants had little food and water and it was unclear how long they had been held inside the house.
The group of rescued immigrants included two 13-year-old girls, three women and a mentally disabled man. The rest were men, Department of Public Safety spokesman Harold Sanders said.
Authorities began investigating Saturday after getting a tip that immigrants were being held captive. Sanders said the smugglers wanted an average of $2,500 for each person's release.
The single-family home where they were kept had been fortified to prevent escape and weapons were seized at the location. The suspected smugglers also took away the immigrants' shoes so they couldn't run off.
Sanders said five people, all residents of Mexico, were being jailed on charges of extortion, kidnapping, aggravated assault and human smuggling.
Authorities on the scene said the immigrants had little food and water and it was unclear how long they had been held inside the house.
Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens | Washington Post | 9.05.2008
It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother's Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood. On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest. "Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.
On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.
"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.
It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.
Course, we can wonder why the Democrats didn't do this when they were the minority, but then we could expect the media to be all over un-patriotic liberal socialist democrats messing up the town, and it isn't even their town.
But IOKIYAR and the tradmed havne't even got the awareness of how blatantly partizan they are. And the Dems are stupid enough to go on Fox and say "yes, Bill we are awful, except we who are rich, god bless us" keep to the Fen Causeway
BTW, I wondered why the original vote was 412-0, so I checked the rollcall. Ron Paul did not vote, so presumably was absent. While I disagree with almost all of his politics, I have a grudging admiration for someone who consistently votes against every meaningless proclamation like this.
NAIROBI, May 9 (IPS) - The need to give agriculture top billing on governmental "to do" lists has been highlighted at a telephone briefing to discuss the current food crisis as it affects Africa. Three top-level scientists from agricultural research institutes addressed journalists Thursday on what has caused food prices to rocket. The press conference also dealt with strategies that African countries might adopt for increasing future yields, mitigating the effects of the crisis, and coping in the event that staples such as rice and maize continue to rise in price. "In the short run we need soil fertility," said Dennis Garrity, director general of the World Agroforestry Centre, headquartered in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "Farmers in Africa desperately need nutrients in all forms to replenish their depleted soils. The continent is the lowest user of nutrients, as farmers use less than 10 percent of the fertilizer required per crop." With fertilizer prices having increased sharply on the back of rising oil costs, governments might have to intervene to improve soil quality: "Fertilizer prices have tripled or even quadrupled...Governments must consider expanding fertilizer subsidies immediately. In addition, farmers must access markets. This will encourage them to increase their production," Garrity said. The continent's farmers also need training in how to restore soil nutrients in inexpensive ways, such as planting fields with legumes.
The UN is demanding an investigation into how the Israeli military killed one of its Palestinian school teachers by blasting open the front door of her Gaza home with explosives in the presence of three of her children. Wafer Shaker al Daghma, 34, a teacher at a local UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) elementary school, was killed last Wednesday as she stood preparing to open the wooden door of her home to the troops. According to UNRWA and relatives who found her body, the military used an explosive device on the door which blew most of her head from her body. They then confined the traumatised children - aged from two to 13 - for five hours while the body lay outside the door of the room where they were held. Although the soldiers finally left the house - in darkness because of a blackout - at around 9pm, Mrs al Daghma's 13-year-old daughter Samira was too terrified to go outside for help for another two hours because of the continued presence of Israeli armoured vehicles outside her home.
The UN is demanding an investigation into how the Israeli military killed one of its Palestinian school teachers by blasting open the front door of her Gaza home with explosives in the presence of three of her children.
Wafer Shaker al Daghma, 34, a teacher at a local UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) elementary school, was killed last Wednesday as she stood preparing to open the wooden door of her home to the troops. According to UNRWA and relatives who found her body, the military used an explosive device on the door which blew most of her head from her body. They then confined the traumatised children - aged from two to 13 - for five hours while the body lay outside the door of the room where they were held.
Although the soldiers finally left the house - in darkness because of a blackout - at around 9pm, Mrs al Daghma's 13-year-old daughter Samira was too terrified to go outside for help for another two hours because of the continued presence of Israeli armoured vehicles outside her home.
Perhaps it would be nicer if we didn't do this but with the end of the "Cold War" there seems ot be not just an increase in small wars of gratuitous violence, but an increasing glorification of suc violence in the Western press. My Dad's generation hated the killing of WWII and were civilised to the other side because they came from an era that recognised the humanity of the "other".
now, the propagandists first job is to de-humanise the "other" to make it easier to obliterate them (use of the Hillary term deliberate). War is just a video game with a reality chip. Gee that looks like fun. keep to the Fen Causeway
Obviously, if this mother would allow her children to witness such violence, then she deserves anything that happens to her...and the kids too. They should have been smart enough to have been born Jewish.
Besides that, To Smote through the door is clearly covered in the Battle of Jericho Principles of -1499. Figure 7 shows how, unless you hide the Israelite's spies, any type of Smote is allowed. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
Neither side will ever agree on the narrative of the conflict, and the prospects for peace in the Middle East are slimAs Israel celebrates the 60th anniversary of its establishment, an inescapable counter-reality lingers over the occasion that is inextricably twinned with it. It is the nakba or catastrophe, the 60th anniversary of the destruction of Arab Palestine in 1948. Despite a public discourse that often claimed the opposite, the Zionist movement set out to build a Jewish state in Palestine with a Jewish majority. This could only come about at the expense of the local inhabitants, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian Arabs - both Muslim and Christian. From this perspective, neither the Zionists' intentions nor the reactions of the Palestinians are at issue: Israel could not have been built as a Jewish state except on the ruins of Arab Palestine. In 1948, about 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly driven out of their homeland, creating what still stands today as the world's largest and most longstanding refugee problem. The nakba created an entirely new politico-demographic reality. From a longstanding majority on their own soil, the Palestinians became a small, vulnerable minority and a tattered, broken nation living in exile or under foreign rule. Nothing can convince the Palestinians that what happened to them 60 years ago was right and proper. They cannot be expected to hail the events that led to their own destruction and dispossession. They cannot be expected to extend their benediction to the establishment of Israel, or internalise its legitimacy. There can be no conceivable circumstances in which the Palestinians can concede their history in favour of the Zionist narrative, for to do so would be to deny their own. But the conflict is not just over narratives. It is also about fundamental s
Neither side will ever agree on the narrative of the conflict, and the prospects for peace in the Middle East are slim
As Israel celebrates the 60th anniversary of its establishment, an inescapable counter-reality lingers over the occasion that is inextricably twinned with it. It is the nakba or catastrophe, the 60th anniversary of the destruction of Arab Palestine in 1948.
Despite a public discourse that often claimed the opposite, the Zionist movement set out to build a Jewish state in Palestine with a Jewish majority. This could only come about at the expense of the local inhabitants, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian Arabs - both Muslim and Christian. From this perspective, neither the Zionists' intentions nor the reactions of the Palestinians are at issue: Israel could not have been built as a Jewish state except on the ruins of Arab Palestine.
In 1948, about 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly driven out of their homeland, creating what still stands today as the world's largest and most longstanding refugee problem. The nakba created an entirely new politico-demographic reality. From a longstanding majority on their own soil, the Palestinians became a small, vulnerable minority and a tattered, broken nation living in exile or under foreign rule.
Nothing can convince the Palestinians that what happened to them 60 years ago was right and proper. They cannot be expected to hail the events that led to their own destruction and dispossession. They cannot be expected to extend their benediction to the establishment of Israel, or internalise its legitimacy. There can be no conceivable circumstances in which the Palestinians can concede their history in favour of the Zionist narrative, for to do so would be to deny their own.
But the conflict is not just over narratives. It is also about fundamental s
Mbeki 'ignored judges' on Zim's 2002 poll : Mail & Guardian Online
Tsvangirai, is expected to return to Harare on Monday to contest a run-off election amid mounting criticism of his decision to flee the beleaguered country while thousands of his supporters were being attacked and some killed.Tsvangirai has chosen to contend the second round of elections after previously saying he would not run again because he won the first vote outright.Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans would feel betrayed if he did not run and allowed Mugabe to become president again by default."I shall return to Zimbabwe to begin a victory tour. Some might say this term 'victory' is cold and callous, given the hardships endured by the people. But the people are victorious and they are being punished for their victory," he said in Johannesburg, where he has spent much of the past six weeks. "We must free ourselves from those who would steal victory from fellow brothers and sisters by using guns, sticks and screwdrivers,"Tsvangirai made a number of demands that are unlikely to be met, including that the ballot be held within the next fortnight. The government has said it could take months.
The violence continues unabated - graphic and appalling pictures for those who follow the links:
This is Zimbabwe
This is little Samson (3 years). He was beaten on Golden Star farm, Shamva. His parents are ex farm workers who remained living on the farm after their white employer was evicted. His parents were beaten on 21st April by militia who were saying "Whites left you on this farm, you are MDC, you want whites to come back and look after you". Their houses and everything they owned was burned. The mother is at the hospital with Samson; her husband and other two children are still somewhere in Shamva. She does not know where.
On Tuesday night Mr and Mrs Rogers (pictured) were viciously attacked in an incident between Chegutu and Kadoma. Their farmhouse was looted and trashed in the attack. We have been told that their injuries are serious: Mrs Rogers was beaten and has suffered a cracked jaw and broken ribs. Mr Rogers has broken ribs and a broken nose - and his ear was bitten. He was shot at seven times and apparently said he felt one bullet going through his hair. We received information today that last night, in the Chegutu area (south of Harare), farmers in the area were all called into the police station in Chegutu and were "re-educated" in a lecture on `how to vote'.
On Tuesday night Mr and Mrs Rogers (pictured) were viciously attacked in an incident between Chegutu and Kadoma. Their farmhouse was looted and trashed in the attack.
We have been told that their injuries are serious: Mrs Rogers was beaten and has suffered a cracked jaw and broken ribs. Mr Rogers has broken ribs and a broken nose - and his ear was bitten. He was shot at seven times and apparently said he felt one bullet going through his hair.
We received information today that last night, in the Chegutu area (south of Harare), farmers in the area were all called into the police station in Chegutu and were "re-educated" in a lecture on `how to vote'.
"The Oil Bubble: Set to Burst?" That was the headline of an October 2004 article in National Review, which argued that oil prices, then $50 a barrel, would soon collapse. Ten months later, oil was selling for $70 a barrel. "It's a huge bubble," declared Steve Forbes, the publisher, who warned that the coming crash in oil prices would make the popping of the technology bubble "look like a picnic." All through oil's five-year price surge, which has taken it from $25 a barrel to last week's close above $125, there have been many voices declaring that it's all a bubble, unsupported by the fundamentals of supply and demand. So here are two questions: Are speculators mainly, or even largely, responsible for high oil prices? And if they aren't, why have so many commentators insisted, year after year, that there's an oil bubble? Now, speculators do sometimes push commodity prices far above the level justified by fundamentals. But when that happens, there are telltale signs that just aren't there in today's oil market.
Ten months later, oil was selling for $70 a barrel. "It's a huge bubble," declared Steve Forbes, the publisher, who warned that the coming crash in oil prices would make the popping of the technology bubble "look like a picnic."
All through oil's five-year price surge, which has taken it from $25 a barrel to last week's close above $125, there have been many voices declaring that it's all a bubble, unsupported by the fundamentals of supply and demand.
So here are two questions: Are speculators mainly, or even largely, responsible for high oil prices? And if they aren't, why have so many commentators insisted, year after year, that there's an oil bubble?
Now, speculators do sometimes push commodity prices far above the level justified by fundamentals. But when that happens, there are telltale signs that just aren't there in today's oil market.
Saying that high-priced oil isn't a bubble doesn't mean that oil prices will never decline. I wouldn't be shocked if a pullback in demand, driven by delayed effects of high prices, sends the price of crude back below $100 for a while. But it does mean that speculators aren't at the heart of the story. Why, then, do we keep hearing assertions that they are? ... But there's also a political component. Traditionally, denunciations of speculators come from the left of the political spectrum. In the case of oil prices, however, the most vociferous proponents of the view that it's all the speculators' fault have been conservatives -- people whom you wouldn't normally expect to see warning about the nefarious activities of investment banks and hedge funds. The explanation of this seeming paradox is that wishful thinking has trumped pro-market ideology.
Why, then, do we keep hearing assertions that they are?
...
But there's also a political component.
Traditionally, denunciations of speculators come from the left of the political spectrum. In the case of oil prices, however, the most vociferous proponents of the view that it's all the speculators' fault have been conservatives -- people whom you wouldn't normally expect to see warning about the nefarious activities of investment banks and hedge funds.
The explanation of this seeming paradox is that wishful thinking has trumped pro-market ideology.
It's only when conservatives start saying things that they start to matter.
An earthquake measuring 7.5 has hit south-west China, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake struck 57 miles (92km) north-west of Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, at 1428 (0628 GMT), the survey said on its website. Tremors were felt as far afield as Beijing, the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi in Vietnam. Workers were evacuated from swaying buildings in several cities, but it was not clear if there were any casualties. Workers in the Chinese capital, Beijing - about 930 miles from Chengdu - said buildings shook for about two minutes. In the city's financial district, people poured out of buildings, but there were no visible signs of damage. China's tallest building, the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, was also evacuated after the earthquake, Reuters news agency said.
An earthquake measuring 7.5 has hit south-west China, according to the US Geological Survey.
The quake struck 57 miles (92km) north-west of Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, at 1428 (0628 GMT), the survey said on its website.
Tremors were felt as far afield as Beijing, the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi in Vietnam.
Workers were evacuated from swaying buildings in several cities, but it was not clear if there were any casualties.
Workers in the Chinese capital, Beijing - about 930 miles from Chengdu - said buildings shook for about two minutes.
In the city's financial district, people poured out of buildings, but there were no visible signs of damage.
China's tallest building, the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, was also evacuated after the earthquake, Reuters news agency said.
An earthquake measuring 7.5 rocked China's Sichuan province on Monday, less than 100 kilometres from the provincial capital of Chengdu, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage from the tremor, which the USGS earlier put at 7.8. The tremor, centred 92 kilometres northwest of Chengdu, was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai and the Thai capital Bangkok, where office buildings swayed with the impact.
An earthquake measuring 7.5 rocked China's Sichuan province on Monday, less than 100 kilometres from the provincial capital of Chengdu, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage from the tremor, which the USGS earlier put at 7.8.
The tremor, centred 92 kilometres northwest of Chengdu, was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai and the Thai capital Bangkok, where office buildings swayed with the impact.
Google news search gives quite a list of recent earthquakes: Tokyo (with aftershocks), Taiwan, Iran, Kazachstan, Mississippi, Missouri, Guam, Alaska, California, Nevada, Mexico... all in the last 2-3 weeks, some in series. Besides, we have the volcano in Chile, tornadoes in US, and of course, Myanmar. Is mother nature awakening and learning how to kick us?
There was an idea floated a few years ago that big earthquakes could trigger other earthquakes at the other side of a tectonic plate, with a 1-1.5 year delay as slow speed vibrations resonated through the affected tectonic plates to the other end. Not being a seismologist, I've no idea where that idea presently stands.
What if the Earth system is more complex than a reptile brain? Couldn't it be then comparably functional as well?
First I would start to talk about functionality arising in the Form of a simple "reaction" to special circumstances. On the most primitive level, you have direct physical causation satisfying this Form. Then you have rigid "self-enforcing" chains of physical events forming that "automatically react" following the From; those chains that better enforce their own existence (say, because their interesting effects fit better into diverse longer such chains) would tend to persist and occur more frequently. Gradually, the Form becomes identifiable as "perception/reaction" cycle. Brain neurons are of the same Form! Event patterns would network themselves, with ever more meaningful functionality, etc.
At the moment, I would not explain teleonomy particularly better than the Wikipedia link above and its references.
No. Because the structures are completely different. And there's been no evidence to date at all that the Earth is anything other than a physical system, which has been frozen, attacked by space by debris, left to cook on a high heat and is currently in a semi-stable transition state.
An intentional Earth would look everso slightly different, I think.
Suggesting that the Earth is having earthquakes because we've been bad says a lot more about how narrative logic works than it does about the Earth.
It is simply a matter of scale. Earth's processes do not respond to surface changes linked to global warming because these changes are irrelevant to the scales whereupon earth's processes operate. Surface changes are way, way behind the comma of the physical laws and the material properties that govern tectonic processes involved in generating earthquakes/volcanic activity; they do not matter, period. And hence earth processes do not physically or chemically respond to them, let alone reorganise as result to them.
It's the earth's more sensitive host on the surface, the biosphere, that does respond. Because humans, in our eye-blink of time, are not used to a sudden increase in rates of earth activity, it doesn't make us special, nor does it allow us to assign anthropomorphological features to the earth.
What if the tectonic system (which is probably more ancient than biological life, and is just as unique to Earth for what we know), being more slow and clumsy by orders of magnitude, is set on a critical level within own parameters, and hereby teleonomically ready to receive a signal from the atmosphere or whatever, a signal to let an overhauling hell loose? It would be just another instance of consequential reaction to a special condition...
Earthquakes are one of the most interesting phenomena whose every aspect displays fractal statistics and whose dynamics is possibly chaotic... ... While multifractality of the earthquake process is confirmed in every way...
While multifractality of the earthquake process is confirmed in every way...
One fracture is just a fracture; a single fault is derived from a network of micro/meso fractures.
