The man considered the greatest mountaineer of his generation, who had been told 10 years ago that he would never walk again, was found dead in the Himalayastoday after breaking his leg and becoming stranded on his latest extraordinary adventure.Slovenian Tomasz Humar, 40, contacted his base camp on Monday to say he had broken his leg while climbing solo in Nepal. Satellite phone contact was made with him the following day, but a source at the camp reported Humar had sounded very weak and said: "This is my last." It was the final contact he made.
The man considered the greatest mountaineer of his generation, who had been told 10 years ago that he would never walk again, was found dead in the Himalayastoday after breaking his leg and becoming stranded on his latest extraordinary adventure.
Slovenian Tomasz Humar, 40, contacted his base camp on Monday to say he had broken his leg while climbing solo in Nepal. Satellite phone contact was made with him the following day, but a source at the camp reported Humar had sounded very weak and said: "This is my last." It was the final contact he made.
Diplomatic relations between Ireland and France have crumbled ahead of the two nation's World Cup qualifying playoff, according to alleged letters between the two nations allegedly leaked to an alleged Irish soccer blog. Irish Soccer Insider tells the world there's now a "full-blown diplomatic row brewing" after the French Consulate General asked the Irish Department of Diplomatic Affairs to provide French president Nicolas Sarkozy with a "VIP box" for Saturday's all-important match at Croke Park in Dublin.
Diplomatic relations between Ireland and France have crumbled ahead of the two nation's World Cup qualifying playoff, according to alleged letters between the two nations allegedly leaked to an alleged Irish soccer blog.
Irish Soccer Insider tells the world there's now a "full-blown diplomatic row brewing" after the French Consulate General asked the Irish Department of Diplomatic Affairs to provide French president Nicolas Sarkozy with a "VIP box" for Saturday's all-important match at Croke Park in Dublin.
"Going Rogue," the title of Sarah Palin's erratic new memoir, comes from a phrase used by a disgruntled McCain aide to describe her going off-message during the campaign: among other things, for breaking with the campaign over its media strategy, its decision to pull out of Michigan and for speaking out about reports that the Republican Party had spent more than $150,000 on fancy designer duds for her and her family. In fact, the most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the press, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign that plucked her out of Alaska, anointed her the G.O.P.'s vice presidential nominee and made her one of the most talked about women on the planet -- someone who could command a reported $5 million for writing this book.
Terrorism is rare, far rarer than many people think. It's rare because very few people want to commit acts of terrorism, and executing a terrorist plot is much harder than television makes it appear. The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. However, our elected leaders don't think this way: they are far more likely to implement security theater against movie-plot threats. A movie-plot threat is an overly specific attack scenario. Whether it's terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists contaminating the milk supply, or terrorists attacking the Olympics, specific stories affect our emotions more intensely than mere data does. Stories are what we fear. It's not just hypothetical stories: terrorists flying planes into buildings, terrorists with bombs in their shoes or in their water bottles, and terrorists with guns and bombs waging a co-ordinated attack against a city are even scarier movie-plot threats because they actually happened.
Terrorism is rare, far rarer than many people think. It's rare because very few people want to commit acts of terrorism, and executing a terrorist plot is much harder than television makes it appear. The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. However, our elected leaders don't think this way: they are far more likely to implement security theater against movie-plot threats.
A movie-plot threat is an overly specific attack scenario. Whether it's terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists contaminating the milk supply, or terrorists attacking the Olympics, specific stories affect our emotions more intensely than mere data does. Stories are what we fear. It's not just hypothetical stories: terrorists flying planes into buildings, terrorists with bombs in their shoes or in their water bottles, and terrorists with guns and bombs waging a co-ordinated attack against a city are even scarier movie-plot threats because they actually happened.
1936 - Wolf Biermann, a German writer and a former East German dissident, was born.
Biermann is 73 already? Time flies by... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Infants, Zhu Zhu asset inflation, save Q4 retail and jobs numbers worldwide | Bloomberg | 15 Nov 2009
"This is a Christmas where a lot of people didn't want to take big risks," Hornsby, 56, founder and chief executive officer of closely held Cepia LLC, said in a telephone interview. "You're gambling because you're selling to kids. That's a pretty fickle group." The bet is paying off. U.S. and U.K. retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Toys "R" Us Inc. and Tesco Plc, can't keep them in stock. Target is limiting them to four per customer. Some parents are resorting to Amazon.com, where the critters sell for at least twice the $8-to-$10 price.... Cepia has 16 U.S. employees, most in its St. Louis office, and 30 in Guangdong province, China. It started with one Chinese factory that in August made 600,000 hamsters for U.S., U.K. and Australia markets, Hornsby said. Today, four factories churn out 220,000 a day, with plans to release about 50 new characters next year. For now, Mr. Squiggles, Patches, Chunk, Pipsqueak and Num Nums, plus a bevy of accessories, will generate $350 million to $400 million in a 12-month cycle, Hornsby said. The hamsters move around and respond to touch with various noises. Christy Sershon, a 39-year-old mother in Duluth, Minnesota, heard about them from her 3-year-old daughter, who asked for one after seeing it advertised on television. "Once the commercials started, all the little kids couldn't stop thinking about them," said Sershon, who also has 5-year-old and 8-month-old sons.
The bet is paying off. U.S. and U.K. retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Toys "R" Us Inc. and Tesco Plc, can't keep them in stock. Target is limiting them to four per customer. Some parents are resorting to Amazon.com, where the critters sell for at least twice the $8-to-$10 price....
Cepia has 16 U.S. employees, most in its St. Louis office, and 30 in Guangdong province, China. It started with one Chinese factory that in August made 600,000 hamsters for U.S., U.K. and Australia markets, Hornsby said. Today, four factories churn out 220,000 a day, with plans to release about 50 new characters next year.
For now, Mr. Squiggles, Patches, Chunk, Pipsqueak and Num Nums, plus a bevy of accessories, will generate $350 million to $400 million in a 12-month cycle, Hornsby said. The hamsters move around and respond to touch with various noises.
Christy Sershon, a 39-year-old mother in Duluth, Minnesota, heard about them from her 3-year-old daughter, who asked for one after seeing it advertised on television. "Once the commercials started, all the little kids couldn't stop thinking about them," said Sershon, who also has 5-year-old and 8-month-old sons.
srsly. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
::
I know a family, two adults and two children younger than twelve. About four years ago the parents purchased a male guinea pig, ostensibly for the benefits caring for it might imbue their eldest child, then aged eight years. I was astonished to learn that that pig was the first pet either parent had acquired at any point in their lives. No dog, cat, canary, guppy, turtle, ant colony: the family lavished affection on the pig. The pig became the guardian of the gate to their household. But he was not enough; a year later, the parents adopted a female companion for, ostensibly, the first pig.
That chapter ended sadly, with ventures in small animal veterinary experimental surgery. And as far as I know, the kibosh on substitutes and replacements.
Such is life. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
