Friday - May 25, 2012

On The Edge Of A Milestone African-American Achievement

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule approached the International Space Station for a historic docking Friday after sailing through a practice rendezvous the day before.

The unmanned SpaceX Dragon was on track most of the morning to deliver a half-ton of supplies and become the first commercial vessel to visit the space station. But as the capsule drew within 100 feet, flight controllers commanded it to retreat.

The capsule backed off to 230 feet as the SpaceX company worked to resolve a problem with the on-board tracking sensors. Stray reflections from the Japanese part of the space station were interfering with the Dragon’s laser-based sensors, officials said. SpaceX mission controllers quickly fixed the trouble and resumed the docking operation.

On Thursday, the capsule came within 1½ miles of the space station in a practice fly-by. It returned to the neighborhood early Friday so Kuipers and U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit could capture it with a robot arm. First, the capsule went through a series of stop-and-go demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control.

NASA ordered extra checks of the Dragon’s imagers as the capsule drew ever closer to the space station, putting the entire operation slightly behind schedule. Given that the Dragon is a brand new type of vehicle and this is a test flight, the space agency said it wanted to proceed cautiously.
...
This is the first time a private company has launched a vessel to the space station, an achievement previously reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies.
...
The California-based SpaceX — officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — is one of several companies vying for the chance to launch Americans from their homeland. That ability ended with NASA’s final shuttle flight last summer. To get to the space station, NASA astronauts must go through Russia, an expensive and embarrassing situation for the U.S. after a half-century of orbital self-sufficiency.

SpaceX’s billionaire maestro, Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal, said he can have astronauts riding his Dragon capsules to orbit in three or four years. His Falcon 9 rockets lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

FRIDAY MORNING - Final Approach, Dragon Grapple

Around 2:00 AM Pacific/5:00 AM Eastern NASA will decide if Dragon is GO to move into the approach ellipsoid 1.4 kilometers around the space station. If Dragon is GO, after approximately one hour Dragon will move to a location 250 meters directly below the station. Dragon will then perform a series of maneuvers to show systems are operating as expected. If NASA is satisfied with the results of these many tests, Dragon will be allowed to perform the final approach to the space station.

Sometime around 6:00 AM Pacific/9:00 AM Eastern, astronauts on the space station will grapple Dragon with the space station’s robotic arm and the spacecraft will attach to the station.

Bayou Rocketry Blog has been following the Falcon 9/Dragon story since the beginning, and has some of the story of uber-geek Elon Musk:

It was bad SA television that gave Elon Musk part of his mysterious edge. As a 10-year-old he read whole volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica after emptying the family bookshelves — anything to avoid another episode of ChiPs or Die Man van Intersek.

Avoiding sports and bullies just as keenly, he sat alone in his boy cave at home in Pretoria, reading Jules Verne and playing Space Invaders. Now, 29 years later, Musk is still playing video games alone into the late hours of the night.

These days it is in a basement man cave in a leased mansion in Bel Air, California, where Musk, who sold his online payment system PayPal for R11bn in 2002, is plotting the future of the human race.

Sixteen months ago, the SA expat accomplished something only ever achieved by the governments of the US, Russia and China. He sent a spacecraft into orbit and then recovered it.

This Monday, he plans to change space flight forever, becoming the first entrepreneur to dock his own orbiter, Dragon, with the International Space Station.

And it literally is his spacecraft. Beyond founding his private SpaceX company in 2002, Musk likes to remind people that he is also the self-taught “chief designer” of the Falcon launch rockets and their Dragon capsules.

CrunchBase provides more info about Musk:

Elon Musk (born June 28,1971) is an entrepreneur and a co-founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies. He is chairman/CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and chairman of SolarCity.

Musk was born and grew up in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian-born mother who has worked as a New York City dietitian and modeled for fun. His father inspired his love of technology and Musk bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program; by the age of 12 he sold his first commercial software, a space game called Blaster.

He immigrated to Canada in June 1989 at age 17. He left Canada in 1992 after getting a scholarship to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed on another year to finish a second bachelor’s degree in physics. Musk then considered three areas he wanted to get into that were “important problems,” as he said later. “One was the Internet, one was clean energy, and one was space.

In 1995, Musk moved to California to enroll in a graduate program in high energy physics at Stanford, in which he stayed exactly two days before dropping out to start Zip2, which provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999, Compaq’s AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options.

Genius, entrepreneur, billionaire, super geek, Silicon Valley legend, and maybe even the real Iron Man. Perhaps the greatest success story to come out of Africa in the 21st century, if not the 20th as well. A genuine African-American success story, one of almost literally stellar magnitude. You would think he’d be an inspiration to everyone, everywhere, and a real hero within the community.









Elon Musk and one of his privately owned rocket ships


Oh. OH. Um, never mind.

UPDATE: GOTCHA!

Earlier this morning, the SpaceX Dragon capsule was successfully captured by the International Space Station Expedition 31 crew, making SpaceX the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the ISS. The station’s robotic arm captured the Dragon at 9:56 a.m. ET after a journey that took three days, six hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds.

Dragon was later securely bolted to the Harmony module of the ISS at 12:02 p.m. ET.

Michael Suffredini, manager of the ISS program office, said he has talked many times about historic events and “this rates right at the top.”

“Having a contractor, relatively independent of NASA, design on its own a spacecraft that [they] tested and flew ... has been remarkable,” Suffredini said. “The spacecraft performed nearly flawlessly.”

Holly Ridings, NASA’s lead flight director for the SpaceX demo flight, added that it was a “really great day in space.”

Posted by Drew458     on 05/25/2012 at 08:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Adventure • Africa • Space • Success Stories •  
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   Thursday - May 24, 2012

An Almost Pefect Picture

Flames erupt into the sky from a skiff floating adrift in the Indian Ocean, a powerful demonstration of the Royal Navy’s might as it fights the scourge of Somali piracy.

The boat was blown out of the water by a Merlin helicopter, flown from HMS Westminster, which strafed the vessel, setting fire to fuel tanks.

The pirate crew fled to another vessel before the attack, but were among 12 arrested without a fight by boarding teams from the frigate shortly after.

Like I said, almost pefect.

Don’t Mess With Texas

May 23 (Reuters) - The Maersk Texas, a multi-purpose dry cargo ship, was attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman but guards repelled the attack, Maersk Line Ltd, a unit of Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk , said on Wednesday.

The Maersk Texas, a U.S.-flagged 19,592 deadweight tonnes (dwt) vessel, 148 metres (486 feet) long, came under attacked by pirates in skiffs at noon on Wednesday while transiting the Gulf of Oman, northeast of Fujairah, Maersk Line Ltd said.

Despite warnings, the pirates continued to approach the vessel and then fired upon it, after which a security team returned fire in accordance with U.S. Coast Guard rules of engagement, Maersk Line Ltd said.

“All hands onboard are safe and unharmed, and the vessel is proceeding on its voyage,” Maersk Line Ltd said.

23.05.2012: 1300 UTC: Posn: 12:45N – 043:18E, Bab El Mandeb Straits, Red Sea.
Pirates in three skiffs approached a bulk carrier underway. Master raised alarm, informed UKMTO and alerted the armed security team onboard. Weapons sighted on the skiffs when they closed to 300 metres from the ship. The armed security team fired warning shots resulting in the pirates aborted the attempted attack and moved away.

23.05.2012: 0900 UTC: Posn: 25:29.6N – 057:16.8E Around 28nm WSW of Bandar-e-Jask, Iran, (Off Somalia).
D/O onboard a general cargo ship underway noticed a group of 10 skiffs at a distance of 2nm from the ship on the stbd side. The forward skiff broke off from the group and approached the ship at a speed of 20-25 knots. Master and security team informed. Alarm raised, fire hoses and SSAS activated. UKMTO and navies informed. The ship increased speed and commenced manoeuvring away from the skiffs. As the skiffs closed to 500meters the armed security team fired warning shots. The skiffs ignored the warning shots and continued to approach aggressively and weapons were sighted on the skiffs. As the skiffs closed to 300meters the security team once again fired at the skiffs and it was noticed that the skiffs returned fire towards the ship. Eleven additional skiffs were sighted on the port side advancing towards the ship. As the security team fired warning shots these skiffs stopped and moved away. The skiffs on the stbd side continued to chase the ship and then after around 12 minutes from the initial approach the skiffs moved away towards a large dhow in the vicinity. No damages and no injuries to crew.

18.05.2012: 2000 LT: Posn: 25:20.9N – 057:34.6E (Around 25nm South of Ra’s-e Jask, Iran), Off Somalia.
Three skiffs chased a crude tanker underway and approached close to the stern. Alarm sounded, authorities and nearby warship contacted. Later the skiffs aborted the boarding and moved away.

12.05.2012: 1140 UTC: Posn: 13:52N-042:52E, Red Sea.
About 12 pirates chased and closed in to 0.2nm from a LPG Tanker underway. Master enforced anti piracy measures and increased speed. The onboard security team displayed their weapons and the boats then moved away. All crew and vessel are safe.

You saw that second report? 21 skiffs acting as a wolf pack to attack a merchant vessel. I can’t see how this is “off Somalia” since it’s 6 feet from Persia. And I didn’t notice a word in there about the vaunted Iranian Navy rescuing anyone or fighting off the pirates. But you can see in these reports that ship security has progressed from the barbed wire and fire hoses of a couple years back to teams of armed mercenaries aboard, and they start shooting when the skiffs close to half a kilometer. Pity they don’t hit more often ... or perhaps that bit doesn’t get reported.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/24/2012 at 09:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
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He ain’t Austin Powers, M’kay?

link

another link

and another link



The truth will out, though it take 100 years. Well, it was out 4 years ago if you wanted to see it, and nearly 4 years later it’s even easier to see. If you take the blinders off that is, which is very hard for many people to do.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/24/2012 at 08:42 PM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •  
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Oh Nikki You’re So Fine

An Ode To My Hero



The Oatmeal pens a paean to Nikola Tesla, as only The Oatmeal can. And along the way gives little Thomas Alva E. several righteous smacks for the scuzzmeister that he was.  Liar, thief, animal torturer, perhaps even guilty of murder by indifferent negligence. New Jersey’s finest!

Read, enjoy, and realize that historical revisionism is nothing new. Don’t miss the fine green print that’s hard to see.

Why Nikola Tesla Was The Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived

Ever heard of RADAR?
AKA that awesome technology that lets us detect objects like cruise missiles and latte-sipping SUV-driving imbeciles who do 85 in a 45
An English Scientist by the the name of Robert A. Watson-Watt was credited with the invention of radar in 1935.
Can you guess who came up with the idea in 1917?
18 years before Watson-Watt
NIKOLA TESLA
He pitched it to the US Navy at the beginning of World War I when the world was getting its butthole forcibly imploded by German U-boats.

Unfortunately,
Thomas Edison was head of R&D for the Navy at the time and he managed to convince them that it had no practical application in war.
NICE JOB, EDISON! You bloated, misguided ass.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/24/2012 at 08:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Humor •  
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some ancient eye candy and stuff for art lovers so they won’t feel left out

Some really old fashioned eye candy before that term was used. We always hear about how times have changed.
And I’m sure happy that some things have.
So for your education and for a laff or two I give you eye candy 1920’s.  Not necessarily the very best. But one or two not bad for that time.
And these two are actually good. Not I know what you’re looking for, but for the studious art devotee, stay tuned. 

Whoa. Ain’t that awful but that was sexy back then.

And so was this. But hey. The music was fantastic during that time. Speaking of Jazz naturally.

Check out these two (of many) sites from the 20s. Interesting, awful, funny and maybe even sad in some ways. But you might enjoy seeing them.

http://e-vint.com/1920beauties.html

http://annakrentz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/titillating-twenties.html

And speaking of how times do change and thank goodness altho as Miss West said, Goodness has nothing to do with it

Posted by peiper     on 05/24/2012 at 01:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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national health service celebrates its transgender staff ….. why?

This is really tiresome.
How come and why isn’t there a special day to celebrate straight folks? Huh?
Where’s our parade? Where’s our flag?  Can we have a national straight week?
Why are the odd couples and transgender bending communities, of which there are not that many out of the entire population, why are they celebrated out of all proportion to their numbers?  I guess cos they are very well organized and have some serious bucks in the kitty.

OK, so anyway the times are tuff and money is tight, and the hospital trusts here are being squeezed claim some, even though the counter claim is that the hosp. trusts aren’t subject to the cuts.  But not long ago in our local, some wards were closed in an effort to save money.

It’s all about money and the govt. needing to make cuts where feasible and lets face it, there’s always a lot of duplication and jobs that are not critical, so the belts are being tightened. You would believe. Oh yeah?  Think so?
Well, apparently there is always money for some things and especially for special people.  Take a look.

NHS launches ‘diversity week’ with transgender art

The NHS has funded a “human rights week” with dozens of events including a photographic exhibition to celebrate transgender staff.

By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent

Hundreds of managers and front line workers are due to attend conferences and workshops on equality and diversity this week.
Patients’ groups criticised the spending at a time when services and jobs were under threat, as the NHS attempts to make £20 billion in efficiency savings.
The events include two all-day conferences involving at least 170 health care managers.

In addition, NHS Rotherham will host a week-long exhibition of “inspiring images” which promises to “celebrate the lives of transgender staff and patients”.
And NHS North West is promoting an “awareness raising timeline” to commemorate homosexual and transgender doctors and nurses.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the health service was being hit hard by the demand for efficiency savings and could not afford an expensive week of events.
Funding should only be authorised when it could be shown that it would improve care for patients, she said.

“Ensuring equality and diversity needs to be one of the fundamental elements of the way an NHS trust operates. It shouldn’t need a costly and distracting week of events and conferences to ensure that this message is communicated effectively.”
At least 170 NHS managers working in human resources and leading programmes in equality and diversity are due to attend full-day conferences in London and Manchester. The fee of £199 per place – more than £30,000 in total – is expected to be paid by the NHS trusts which employ them.

The events will feature speakers from the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the homosexual rights group Stonewall. Additional costs will be covered by sponsors including trade unions and training organisations.
The timeline created by NHS North West highlights “achievements of people from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, and particularly those who have contributed to health care”, from ancient Greece to the present day.

They include James Barry, a British Army surgeon who lived as a man but was found to be female upon death in 1865, and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a 19th-century German “sexologist” said to be the first to speak publicly in defence of homosexuality.
NHS Employers, the body organising the first “NHS Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week”, defended its decision to go ahead with the plans at a time of austerity, but was unable to say how much the week’s events will cost.

Dean Royles, director of the organisation, said: “I’m really proud that equality and diversity is something that employers take very seriously. NHS staff want to work in an environment that is fair, and diverse.
“And patients want to be treated without fear of discrimination because of their sexuality, gender, race or religion. NHS organisations recognise that there are large personal and cost implications for not getting this right.”

The organisation said individual NHS bodies across the country had taken their own decisions on how much to spend on their events.
The photography collection going on display in Rotherham this week has been touring NHS organisations since last June, after being funded by the Department of Health under the last Government.
The timeline, with an accompanying exhibition, was commissioned last year by NHS North West’s “equality and diversity team”.
Since the Coalition came to power in 2010 the NHS has been protected from budget cuts affecting most other Whitehall departments, and has been given rises just above inflation.

However, rising pressures from the costs of treating an ageing population mean services have been ordered to make £20 billion of “efficiency savings” by 2015 so extra funds can be released to the front line.

In November, Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said the leaders of the health service had a responsibility to taxpayers “to make sure that every pound of NHS money is spent as effectively as possible to deliver the best possible care”.
The Government has said clinical jobs should not be cut, but last week the Royal College of Nursing claimed more than 5,700 nurses posts had been lost since April 2010.
Ministers said they did not recognise the figures, and that the total number working for the NHS had fallen by 450.

Last year, an NHS hospital was at the centre of a gaffe when a job advertisement for a senior doctor carried the phrase “usual rubbish about equal opportunities”.

The advertisement, on a health service website, sought an anaesthetist to fill a one-year post at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University NHS Trust, Merseyside.

Following a complaint, the trust launched an investigation and the wording was replaced with “We are committed to promoting equality and diversity”.

source, telegraph

Posted by peiper     on 05/24/2012 at 12:46 PM   
Filed Under: • DIVERSITY BS • Health-Medicine •  
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if it were the other way around, it would be a race/hate crime

Now lets not say anything over the top with regard to this particular species as they fall into a protected category. Anything negative you say about these vermin (oops) can be taken as raaaaaaacist. You betcha. If a strong dislike of these miserable space wasters is racist, then I’m quite happy to be one. 

Travellers ‘forced homeless men to fight each other for entertainment’ and gave one a horse tattoo ‘to show they controlled him’

* Traveller family lured men with the promise of working for £40 a day

* They were forced to work 80-hour weeks for hardly any pay

* The men were beaten if they tried to escape

By ARTHUR MARTIN

Josie Connors (left) and her husband James John Connors are accused of holding a person in servitude

A traveller family used vulnerable men like ‘serfs from the Middle Ages’, forcing them to fight each other as entertainment, a court heard yesterday.

The family made the men perform ‘menial and degrading’ jobs for no money, telling them they would be tracked down and beaten if they tried to escape, a jury was told.

The workers were forced to fight as the travellers watched and placed bets, it was claimed.

One of the workers was allegedly ‘branded’ with a horse tattoo, said to be an emblem of the travelling community and a ‘permanent marker of their control over him’.

Brothers John and Jerry Connors, both 30, and their brother-in-law William Connors, 38, allegedly lured four homeless men into a life of misery after offering them food, lodging and £40 per day to work as labourers for their block paving business.

But when they arrived they were forced to work for 80 hours a week and ordered to live in squalid tents, it was said.

Despite the initial offer of money, they were hardly paid, the jury was told.

The workers were allegedly banned from communicating with ‘people from the outside world’ and had their driving licences, passports and wallets taken from them.

They were often beaten, Southampton Crown Court was told.

The three Connors relatives are each accused of four charges of slavery.  They each face four separate charges of getting men to perform forced or compulsory labour, which the jury will consider if they are acquitted of the slavery charges.

On the opening day of their trial, prosecutor Charles Thomas said: ‘These workers were required to live in appalling conditions and to work for them with equally appalling terms and conditions.

‘In addition to their work as labourers they were required to perform menial and at times degrading tasks.’

After police raided one of the Connors’ camps in Hamble, near Southampton, in June last year, they were told by one of the men there that he had been exploited for up to eight years.

The vulnerable men were said to have been recruited from soup kitchens or homeless shelters.

SOURCE AND MORE

Posted by peiper     on 05/24/2012 at 10:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Travelers/Gypsies/Squatters •  
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Iran’s navy says it has saved a US-flagged cargo ship from pirates.

Only just caught this bit of interesting news.
So what do we make of it?

Will Iran now become our new best friend?  Doubtful but I’m sure the help was appreciated.

Iran navy saves US cargo ship from pirates

Iran’s navy says it has saved a US-flagged cargo ship that was under attack from pirates in the Gulf.

An Iranian warship responded to a distress signal from the US-flagged Maersk Texas, a cargo ship of 500 feet and 14,000 tons, which was besieged by “several pirate boats,” the navy said in a statement reported by the official IRNA news agency.
The cargo vessel “was saved by the navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran” on Wednesday, IRNA added.
The pirates “fled the scene as soon as they spotted the presence” of the warship. Maersk Texas “thanked the Iranian navy and sailed towards its destination safely,” it added.
It was the first time the Iranian navy protected a US ship from pirates.
Maersk had sailed from the UAE port of Fujairah, south of the Strait Hormuz at the entrance of the Gulf, and was headed for the United States.

Iran’s navy keeps a presence in Gulf of Oman to protect cargo ships and transiting oil tankers and also defend the country against potential threats.
According to Iranian commanders, Iran’s navy have carried out hundreds of antipiracy operations, engaging in hundreds of armed clashes with pirates in the past three years.
The US navy patrolling the area have on a number of occasions rescued Iranian ships. The latest incident was in January when a US warship secured the release of 13 Iranian fishermen near the entrance to the Gulf who had been held captive by pirates for 45 days.
Source: AFP

source

Posted by peiper     on 05/24/2012 at 09:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Iran • Miscellaneous • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
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Every Day, The World Gets Better And Better

Part 1


The Flying Toilets of Nairobi

In the slums of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, visiting the bathroom usually means one of two things; a trip to the local pit latrine or the ‘flying toilet’.

The former entails letting nature take its course in a rickety outhouse perched atop a hole in the ground—a facility also used by hundreds of other people in the neighborhood.

The latter meanwhile consists of relieving oneself in a plastic bag before throwing the offending item away in the street.

A 2011 report by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found that these arrangements led to environmental contamination and the spread of diseases such as typhoid and tuberculosis.

But within this primitive sewage system recent MIT graduate, David Auerbach, has spied an opportunity he believes could one day be worth millions of dollars.

Alongside a group of fellow MIT alumni and local Kenyan partners, Auerbach has helped found Sanergy—a start-up that aims to make a business out of cleaning up Nairobi’s sanitary mess.

So the plan is to install several porta-potties around the city (tens of thousands of them I hope!) and then charge the locals a nickel to have a clean and warm place to take a poop. Franchises get sold for $500/yr, and the human waste gets turned into organic fertilizer that gets put on their crops. How can a plan like this lose? It has to be the ultimate grassroots recycling effort, and I’m not taking the piss [note to Americans: that’s an English phrase that means “pulling your leg” or making fun of something].

“Currently we have 25 facilities up and running… we’re collecting about three metric tons of waste per week which can all be converted into fertilizer,” says Auerbach.

“By the end of this year we want to have 250 franchises. We think by the end of the following year we can safely be at 1,000 toilets,” he adds.

Creating employment opportunities for local residents can also be a benefit of the project and important to its greater success.

By the end of 2013 Auerbach says Sanergy plans to collect enough waste to power a bio-generator that can sell electricity back into the Kenyan national grid.

“The waste of 100,000 people generates about 1 gigawatt of power. So right now when we have 1,200 users every day we’re not at a point where we can produce sufficient amounts of electricity,” says Auerbach.

“This is something we’ll be looking to do later this year or next year,” he adds. “But we’re not quite there yet.”

So I deduce that one $500 franchise gets you one outhouse, and all the shit you can schlep, which right now averages 48 users a day per Johnny ... which is probably about 10 gallons worth. 265lb worth per week. Which earns the owner/operator/door guardian/night soil carter $2.88. Assuming nobody vandalizes the loo, that’s a net profit of $551.20 per year once the franchise fee is deducted (and further assumes the “collection facility” cost the franchise owner nothing, and that it’s supplies - toilet paper, fresh water, sanitizer, cleaning solution and tools - also cost nothing), which works out to $1.51 per day if the business is open 365 days a year. Which is far below even the “$2 a day” number that the UN and all the World Aid folks always talk about as the lowest living wage in even the worst corners of the world. In other words, it’s a shit job right now. That fertilizer/compost/bio-generator end of the scheme had better pay off pretty well, and soon. Otherwise the monkeys will go back to flinging pooh the locals will have no choice but to revert to using plastic bags and giving them the toss.

One wonders if there is a better way to solve this problem, or to avoid it entirely ...

LA Bans Plastic Bags

There ya go! Problem? Solution!

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation Wednesday to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a major victory to clean-water advocates who sought to reduce the amount of trash clogging landfills, the region’s waterways and the ocean.

Egged on by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and an array of environmental groups, the City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 12 months at an estimated 7,500 stores. Councilman Bernard Parks cast the lone no vote. 

“Let’s get the message to Sacramento that it’s time to go statewide,” said Councilman Ed Reyes, who has focused on efforts to revitalize the Los Angeles River.

Council members quietly backed away from a more controversial plan to also ban use of paper grocery bags, which was first proposed by appointees of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Wednesday’s vote kicks off a four-month environmental review of the bag ban, followed by passage of an ordinance putting it into effect. Larger stores would then have six months to phase out plastic bags and smaller markets a 12-month phase-out period. For paper bags, retailers would be required to charge 10 cents per bag starting one year after the plastic bag is enacted.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who pushed for the ban, said city officials would conduct a study in two years to determine whether the prohibition should be expanded to include paper. “My hope is that so few paper bags will be used as a result of this measure that the formal ban … on paper bags may not even be necessary,” he said.

The plan drew strong praise from environmental activists, who had long argued that L.A. needed to follow in the footsteps of San Jose, San Francisco and Long Beach and dozens of other municipalities.

PS - the power generation idea is nice, but it will only ever be a minor adjunct to the power grid at best. If a typical Kenyan home uses only 1/2 the power of a typical American home(14.4K Wh), that theoretical gigawatt could power about 138,000 homes, which implies that the typical daily waste of two humans can be converted to fully supply the electricity to power an American home. If that is the case, why isn’t there a power generator over every sewage treatment plant in the country? I think these guys are dreaming. Unless they actually meant 1 gW per year, in which case we’re talking about power for a mere 190 American homes ... which is the top 1/5 of the top 1% of those 100,000 “users” ... which implies that the urban poor in Kenya would be squeezed even for their bodily wastes to support the rich elites ... who would literally be at the top of the heap. Occupy Outhouses Now!! Stop The Madness!!!

Posted by Drew458     on 05/24/2012 at 08:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Africa • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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   Wednesday - May 23, 2012

Transgendered? Not likely.

Yesterday Mona Charen wrote an article titled Is Your 5-Year-Old Transgendered?

First, let me state that I think this whole sexual identity thing is way out of control. We already have GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered). Now it’s being applied to 5-year-olds?

A 5-year-old child with large dark eyes, full lips and a button nose stares out from the front page of the Washington Post Sunday edition. “Transgender at Five” declares the provocative headline. The child’s hair is being cut in a close boy’s cut by her father.

We learn from the article that “Tyler,” who was born “Kathryn,” began insisting that she was a boy at the age of 2. “‘I am a boy’ became a constant theme in struggles over clothing, bathing, swimming, eating, playing, breathing.”

This I do NOT believe. I do not have any memories of when I was 2-years-old. How many of you BMEWS members do? My earliest memories start at about 3.5 years. Even those are fragmentary. I certainly wasn’t worried about my sexual identity. I was worried about the new kid in town: my baby sister. I wasn’t getting the attention I was accustomed to. Ended up with my first chore: Mom showed me how to hold my sister and bottle feed her. (Sad, but true, we were all bottle babies.) My second chore came shortly after I turned four: how to change a diaper. This was back before Pampers/disposable diapers. Cloth diapers that I then had to take to the toilet and dip up and down until most of the crap (literally) was off, then into the diaper hamper. A skill set that was even more useful (to Mom) later that year when my second sister magically appeared.

The child’s parents, at first uneasy and later accepting of their girl’s desire to be a boy, agreed to raise her as a boy. Starting at age 4, she began to wear boys’ clothes, was permitted to choose a boy’s name for herself, and has been introduced to family, friends, teachers, and congregants at church as a boy.

Now that’s not parenting. That’s child abuse. What’s gonna happen when she hits puberty and starts…developing? Not just physically, but starts noticing boys are different, and she’s interested in the difference? That sounds like a major social and emotional crisis in the making. I remember my sisters going through a ‘tomboy’ phase, but they outgrew it about the time they joined the Camp Fire Girls. Our parents didn’t cater to such nonsense.

“Parents who ignore or deny these problems,” warns the Post, “can make life miserable for their kids, who can become depressed or suicidal, psychiatrists say.” How many psychiatrists? The very most that can be said is that the practice of treating children for what is sometimes called “gender identity disorder” is highly controversial in the psychiatric world. Some psychiatrists want to change the name to “gender incongruence” to remove the word “disorder.” Others, such as Dr. Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, think the whole idea of treating children for this condition is unwise. “We shouldn’t be mucking around with nature,” he told Fox News. “We can’t assume what the outcome will be.”

I can assume the outcome. There are three, and only three, choices. You are either male down to each and every cell of your body (possessing XY chromosomes), or you are female in each and every cell of your body (possessing two XX chromosomes). In rare cases, you might be a hermaphrodite, possessing the physical sexual characteristics of both male and female (from my limited research, this means hermaphrodites have something like XXY or XXYYY chromosomes. In other words, an extra Y chromosome.) This is the only case of ‘transgenderism’ I personally would recognize. A true hermaphrodite.

Apparently, hormone blockers are being prescribed more and more for children with “GID.” The hormones postpone puberty indefinitely and, the Post explains, “give the kids more time to decide who they are and whether switching genders is the answer to their problems.” McHugh calls giving hormone blockers to children “child abuse.” Some young people are having “gender reassignment” surgery as young as age 16.

Hormone blockers? First, who’s paying for this ‘elective’ treatment? Second, if you stop, what happens? Well, ‘Michelle’ is going to revert to his XY chromosomes and become Michael. Now Michael had a ‘whackadicktomy’ while he was ‘Michelle’. Can he now get an ‘addadicktomy?’ Do you really want to put your children through that? Even if Michael manages to afford surgeries and hormone treatments to stay ‘Michelle’ for the rest of its life, do you think ‘Michelle’ will ever conceive a child? NO! No uterus, no Fallopian tubes, no eggs. I guess ‘Michelle’ will have one-up on real women: no monthly menstruation, no PMS.

Perhaps some tiny percentage of children truly is born feeling trapped in the body of a person of the wrong sex. But it is undeniable that the vast majority of children go through stages. I recall wishing to be a boy myself when I was about 5 or 6. I didn’t like frilly dresses and asked my playmates to call me “Timmy.” Perhaps mine was a normal tomboy phase and maybe that’s distinguishable from what Tyler is experiencing. But how can we be sure? The Post quotes Dr. Edgardo Menvielle, of Washington’s Children Hospital, who has been treating “transgender kids” for a decade. About 80 percent, he says, switch back to the gender they were born into by the time they reach adulthood.

See, it’s just a phase. But the worst part is: parents who do this are letting the patients run the asylum:

The problem with the Post’s recommended approach—which amounts to “let’s accept a child’s version of reality to avoid causing depression or worse” (emphasis added)—is that the decision of parents to indulge a child’s whim on gender identity is itself irreversible. The effects of hormone blockers, the Post reassures readers, are fully reversible. Maybe. How much research can there have been on such a new practice? Would parents who hesitate to let their kids eat preservatives or nonorganic eggs consent to block the complex hormones that begin to flood kids’ bodies at puberty? In any case, the decision to dress a girl in boys’ clothing, cut her hair, and call her a boy—even if reversed later—must, absolutely must, scramble a child’s psyche. Imagine the confrontation between a teenaged girl who has changed her mind and the parents who raised her as a boy. “Did you not think I was pretty enough to be a girl? Wasn’t I feminine enough?” Or perhaps even more damaging, a teenaged boy demanding to know whether his father thought him lacking in masculinity as a child. It’s a psychological minefield.

We have the technology to make—or at least appear to make—women into men and vice versa. If adults choose to do this to themselves (and can afford it), that’s their business. But a child? One wonders: What other major life decisions should 4-year-olds be judged competent to make?

If 4-year-olds are that competent, maybe we should allow them to vote, have sex, sign contracts, work outside the home, (when I was four I ‘worked’. I had chores, usually helping fold the laundry and put it away, or dry the dishes. Didn’t have to put most of the dishes away because I couldn’t reach that high. Oh, most importantly, keep my toys picked up and my room clean.)

Posted by Christopher     on 05/23/2012 at 03:33 PM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • DIVERSITY BS • Outrageous • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

You have never had a full sexual relationship says judge. get outta jail free.

Oh what a fraken sweety is the judge.  Stupid F***!

I can’t believe I’m seeing and reading this.  Have you folks noticed lately that everybody who commits some sort of crime suddenly isn’t really just a sick shit. No.
They have what I refer to as Asparagus syndrome.  OK that isn’t the proper name but it should be. Excuses, excuses. Jeez one get tired of this crap no kidding.
And the public sure is and why not. They’re the ones at risk.  I don’t want to wish harm on a guy’s family who are innocent of any wrong doing. But I sure wish one or two of these bed wetting, bleeding heart sympathetic judges would have their asses kicked up around their ears so they’d get a taste of what they only hear about in their courts.

This is beyond simple loony tunes and btw I must thank Drew for the graphic. 

So what has the idiot judge done to earn the honor of being center of the loony logo?
Read this.

‘You have never had a full sexual relationship. It must be very frustrating’: Judge’s pity for predatory sex attacker as he SPARES him jail for stalking underage schoolgirls

* Andrew Jackson, 48, twice stalked schoolgirls aged 13 and 14 and sexually assaulted a disabled woman in Bridlington, East Yorkshire

* Judge says he should go to prison but spares him as it would be ‘cruel’

* Jackson given sexual offences prevention order and community order

By JAMIE MCGINNES

A predatory sex attacker has escaped jail because a judge decided locking him up would be ‘utterly cruel’.

Andrew Jackson, 48, twice stalked schoolgirls aged 13 and 14 and made sexual approaches in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, before finding a disabled woman to attack.

But Judge Jeremy Richardson QC allowed Jackson to walk free from Hull Crown Court, saying it would border on cruelty to jail him because he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome.

He told Jackson: ‘I wish to make it plain you deserve to be sent to prison.

‘But sending someone like you to prison would be utterly cruel.

‘You are very much to be pitied.

‘You have never had a full sexual relationship. It must be very frustrating.’

He added: ‘I have a public duty, but it would be quiet wrong to impose a cruel punishment.

‘Quite frankly you could not cope in prison. I have no doubt your life would be a misery.’

Jackson had already been spoken to twice by police for stalking children around Bridlington in playgrounds and wooded areas on a moped.

He showed one girl aged 13 a picture of his privates.

The police said he sexually questioned two 14-year-old girls before asking: ‘Are you legal?’

And the court heard Jackson sexually assaulted a disabled woman he met while walking around Bridlington on April 18 last year.

He shoved his hands into the underwear of the 21-year-old on a park bench and refused to let go.

The woman’s friend heard her screams for help and had to drag Jackson off her.

Judge Richardson said he aggravated matters by initially insisting on a trial falsely claiming the woman had prostituted herself to him for £20.

Barrister Martin Sharpe said police in Bridlington were so concerned about Jackson’s potential threat they wanted a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for him to stay out of children’s playgrounds.

Defence barrister Patrick Palmer said Jackson had an IQ of 75, lived at home with his parents, did not work and had suffered all his life from an undiagnosed condition.

Mr Palmer said he had a facial habit of winking which was open to misinterpretation by young girls.

He said Jackson’s Asperger’s could not be cured, but could be managed from day to day

Jackson, of Trentham Close, Bridlington, had pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault by touching, knowing that the woman did not consent.

He was made the subject of a two-year community order with a supervision requirement in an effort to alter his behavior in the long term.

Judge Richardson also imposed a 10-year sexual offences prevention order and placed Jackson on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

The judge told Jackson: ‘Young girls have to be protected in your area.

‘You have to learn to control yourself. I regard sexual offences as a very serious crime. Usually the men involve deserve to be sent to prison. It would not be right here. It would be bordering on cruelty.

‘However if you harass any more girls you will end up in jail.’

Oh good. He gets another chance to put his hands down some woman’s pants and if she’s disabled at the time, so much the better. Maybe she’ll only be 12 or 13 too. Whoopee.  If he’s that out of balance mentally then delete the schmuck cos he’s a waste of space and user of valuable air. And so’s the judge. We can only hope the next girl or woman he gives unwanted attention to, is carrying a nice sharp blade.

source and photos

Posted by peiper     on 05/23/2012 at 12:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • UK •  
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Do a good deed? That’s a ticketing!

I honestly don’t believe the stupidity, of both the police officer AND the law cited. Here’s the story:

Last Monday, May 14th John Davis was exiting I-90 at the West 117th ramp when he saw a man in a wheelchair. The man was pale, thin and holding a sign that had a religious sentiment and also a request for help.

Maybe I should add the possible stupidity of Mr. Davis for falling for what I already suspect was a scam. If the guy really was disabled enough to be in a wheelchair (how did he get to the exit ramp?) there’s an almost infinite number of Federal, state, and local programs to help him. Add in friends, family, private charities and this guy shouldn’t be panhandling anyway. But I digress. Let’s continue:

John reached into his wallet and grabbed a couple of bucks to give to the man. As he approached the light at the exit, he rolled the money up vertically and stretched his arm out of his window. He says, the man touched the cash and one of the dollars fell to the ground.
The man then bent over and picked it up.
Moments later as John travelled North on West 117th he says a Cleveland police officer pulled him over.
“He proceeds to tell me he’s pulling me over for littering,” said John.

Obviously Cleveland police have solved all other crimes. Since when is money trash? Doesn’t it have to be trash to be considered litter. In any case, the ‘litter’ was immediately picked up! Am I going to be ticketed for littering every time I drop something and immediately pick it up? That’s the stupidity of the police officer. Now let’s get to the law cited:

The ticket cited Section No: 613.06 of Cleveland’s Municipal Codes, which is littering from a motor vehicle.
His offense was listed as, “Throw paper out window,” and in parenthesis, “money to panhandler.”
John said he was confused because money is paper but it’s not trash.

I made that point earlier. Plus the money wasn’t ‘thrown’. It was handed to someone. But now it gets even better:

Cleveland police can’t comment on the ticket at this time but according to a spokesperson there is another code that may have been violated.
There is a code which states that it is illegal to panhandle or give money to panhandlers near a highway or street including a berm, shoulder, treelawn or sidewalk.

Have you ever encountered a panhandler anywhere else? Ticket the panhandlers then. But last time I checked, If I own something, including the money in my wallet, I can give it to who I wish to.

Section No: 471.06 states in part that “No person shall stand on a highway for the purpose of soliciting…contributions…”
It also reads that “No driver” is to “transfer currency….to any person standing on a street or highway.”
But John says that’s not what he was ticketed for. He was cited for littering from a motor vehicle, and the officer advised him to “take it up with the courts.”

The person in question was not ‘standing’ on a street or highway. He was sitting in a wheelchair. A technicality? Yes, but if you’re stupid enough to write a law, you better cover every possible variation. Anyway, Mr. Davis is going to fight it.

John does plan to challenge the ticket in court, mainly because it carries a hefty fine. It could cost him $500 once you add the fine plus court costs.
John says he has always had a deep admiration for Cleveland police, and he isn’t trying to start trouble, but that’s a lot of money for helping out someone less fortunate.

No word on if the panhandler was ticketed also. Probably not, since he wasn’t ‘standing’. I’d certainly bring that up in court.

Maybe Cleveland should adopt how Dayton handles panhandlers. They are legal if they’re licensed. Their licenses must be prominently displayed, usually hung on a cord around their neck. In other words, the City gets their cut.

Posted by Christopher     on 05/23/2012 at 01:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Government • Insanity • Justice - LACK OF • Outrageous • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - May 22, 2012

E2: Wehnert-Leiss, Sassnitz 1962

First, I posted the solution to Problem #237. I’ve a feeling that Drew won’t like it because it ends with the magic words and wins.

I’ll be going back and forth between Combination Challenge and Your Move!. This is exercise #2 from Your Move! by Yakov Neishtadt. It’s White to move. The only hint I’ll give is that Black resigned on the third move. Your Move! is usually more difficult than Combination Challenge. Your Move doesn’t give nice little themes to look for.

White to move

UPDATE: 2/25/12

Here’s how the game actually went:

1. Re1! Rd8

If 1 … Rc8 then 2. Qb7, and after 1 … Rf8 Black gets mated: 2. Rxf8+ and 3. Qb8+

2. Qb5! …

This is conclusive since on 2 … c6 there follows 3. Qb7! (3 … Ra7 4. Qxd7 Rxd7 5. Re8+)

The game ended:

2 … Rxg2+
3. Kh1 and Black resigned.

Posted by Christopher     on 05/22/2012 at 08:21 PM   
Filed Under: • CHESS •  
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sovereignty? are you mad? hahahaha sovereignty?  oh stop it, the joke’s too funny

Back after hours of tech support with MSFT in India. What a headache. Literally.
btw ... has anyone else had any problems with today’s (in UK) or yesterdays (USA) MSFT patch Tuesday updates?  Kind of nightmarish for awhile.

One of the least funny things I can think of, are those folks with no borders in mind, who think the USA should be part of this world order too.
Now that would be the very last straw.

Some weeks past I brought this subject up. Has to do with the uman rights court in England’s new capital. Strasbourg. Or is it Brussels?  Sicko joke but darn near the truth.

Just to jog the memory of some, an axe murderer who is now out and a free man, cos that how the system works, has campaigned for prisoners to have the right to vote.  I think at the time I may have said something like it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

The verdict from the court.
Court to Britain.  Screw your sovereignty.

European Human Rights judges ride roughshod over our laws (again) to tell Britain it has six months to give prisoners the right to vote

MP’s brand Strasbourg ruling an ‘infringement of Parliament’s rights’
Euro court states ban on prisoners voting violates human rights
Ministers given six month deadline to amend rules or be forced to hand criminals thousands of pounds in compensation

By JACK DOYLE

Tens of thousands of prisoners must be given the right to vote, European human rights judges have ruled.

In a judgment which will provoke fury in Parliament, the Strasbourg court said that the current ban on inmates voting in England and Wales breached human rights laws.

The ruling by the court’s highest body, the Grand Chamber, came despite an overwhelming vote last year by MPs who insisted the ban was right and should remain in place.

It sets the stage for a major showdown between Parliament and the human rights court in coming months.

Tory MP David Davis, who led the campaign against prisoner votes in Parliament, said the ruling was an ‘infringement’ of Parliament’s rights.

Ministers were given a six month deadline to amend the rules and decide which prisoners should have access to the ballot – or else face paying thousands of pounds in compensation to criminals.

It will undoubtedly lead to further calls for Britain to withdraw from the court, which has caused outrage with a string of controversial rulings on deporting foreign criminals and terror suspects.

Today the court upheld its ruling in the case of John Hirst, a convicted axe-killer who first demanded voting rights for inmates more than seven years ago, when it first ruled against the blanket ban.

Since then Labour and then the Coalition resisted implementing the ruling, knowing it would outrage the public, who are overwhelmingly in favour of the ban remaining in force.

But in today’s ruling the court makes clear its insistence that the ban breaches Article 3 of the Convention, the right to free elections, and demands that ministers change the rules.

If they do not, it will start awarding compensation to around 2,500 prisoners who have already lodged claims with the court.

However, any attempt to introduce a law will enrage MPs, who will see the ruling as a further power-grab by the unelected judges of the controversial court.

Tory MP David Davis, who led the campaign against prisoner votes in Parliament, said the ruling was an ‘infringement’ of Parliament’s right to decide on issues which are ‘fundamental to the British way of life’.

He said: ‘In its ruling today in the Scoppola v Italy case, the ECHR has ruled that the UK must give prisoners the right to vote.

‘This regrettable decision is an infringement of the UK Parliaments right to decide on matters which are fundamental to the British way of life, and which are not appropriate to judicial intervention.

‘This will inevitably lead to a clash between the express wishes of the UK Parliament and the assertions of the European Court and will not help the court achieve its important functions in stopping breaches of fundamental rights throughout Europe.’

The public will be demanding that the Prime Minister now stands up for British interests and refuses to give convicted prisoners the right to vote.’

‘As well as continuing to demand that convicted prisoners get the right to vote, Europe’s out of touch judges have blocked the Home Secretary from deporting Abu Qatada and allowed dangerous foreign criminals to remain in the UK.

‘It is about time real changes are made to prevent out of touch European judges meddling in our laws again.’

unedited version here

Posted by peiper     on 05/22/2012 at 01:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • EUro-peons • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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