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This is brutal (Heh)

The website is in German but the context is easy to figure out.

A Cow-Orker goes out to lunch and leaves their system connected to the net? Download one of these spiffy screens and watch them blow their latte when they see what seems to be a broken LCD.

Love among the Landmines

An interesting story about minefields and the penguins who thrive in them.
From Planet Ark:

Penguins Find Peace in Falklands War Minefields
KIDNEY COVE, Falkland Islands - There's a mating ritual going on in the minefield.

Fortunately the would-be lovers are penguins, too light to detonate the deadly mines laid more than two decades ago during a war on the far-flung Falkland Islands.

Thousands of penguins and other feathered and amphibious friends choose to nest and rest in no-go zones. The British estimate that some 25,000 land mines, mostly sown by Argentine forces in the 1982 war with Britain, remain.

On a recent day, the squawking penguins were busily finding partners, preparing nests and waddling about the mating grounds.

Wildlife numbers in the mined areas appear to be on the rise and conservationists cannot hide their enthusiasm about this unorthodox form of protecting lands previously trampled by people or overgrazed by sheep.

It is the bright spot in a long-term land mine problem — one that is not likely to go away because de-mining is difficult, if not impossible, in the peaty soils and shifting sands of this South Atlantic archipelago.

And Argentina has done what about these mines? A very cool story indeed but not exactly the way I would go about creating a nature reserve…

Bear Kissing

Ohhh Kaaayyy… Actually, this would be kind of cool. I love critters.
From Canadian CTV:

Alberta's bear-kissing booth back in business
A controversial kissing booth is back in business, after the owners of an Alberta zoo decided offering guests a chance to pose for pictures — smooching a bear — wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Animal rights activists had lobbied to shut the attraction down, insisting that a bear kissing booth sends the wrong message about the dangers bears pose to people.

To those who run the Discovery Wildlife Park in Innisfail, Alberta though, they're doing it for the love of the animals.

For nearly 40 years, Ruth LaBarge has been training Kodiak and Black bears to appear on the silver screen. In all that time she's grown to love the animals, and isn't afraid to show it.

So, LaBarge is offering visitors to the modest Alberta zoo a chance to watch the trained bears share a smooch. And, for a small price, guests can get a kiss of their own from a brown bear named Ali Oop.

After a summer during which three people were killed and several others injured in bear attacks across the country, critics say the idea is not just silly — it's stupid and dangerous.

A campaign led by the Toronto-based animal rights group Zoocheck Canada prompted the park to put a stop to the ursine embraces.

But an influx of supportive letters from the public convinced the zookeepers to let the bears pucker up again.

“They just need to lash out, they're an animal activist group that doesn't really look after animals, they just need some publicity,” the zoo's co-owner Doug Bos told CTV News.

And besides, the zoo insists the kissing booth is just a small part of a larger twice-daily presentation about wild bear safety.

“I'm not sure if it's okay,” Ryan Kelley said when asked whether he'd let his children smack lips with a bear. “But I've read enough about it, and we've seen ads for it on the TV. If my kids want to kiss the bear, I'll let them kiss the bear.”

The “Activists” need to make a stand but their stand is not based on knowledge and education. These are bears that were raised with humans and could not survive in the wild. The very fact that their people let them interact with movie actors on various sets shows that these people feel that these critters are well socialized and not a threat.

These people do have forty years experience with bears…

A dissection of an image

Zombie lives near the San Francisco area and takes photographs of the various “Leftist” “Pacifist” demonstrations that seem to happen like clockwork in that town.

Here he shows the context behind one image that is getting a lot of press these days — this one:

He pulls the lens back a little bit to show the context:

An adult managing a group of kids — each one with the same pre-printed bandanna.

Now rotate around a little bit and take another look:

The adult's Tee-Shirt is bearing the flag of the Communist Nation of North Vietnam.

Nope — no bias here, just us America-Loving people who are lobbying for a different outcome. One more favorable to those who would tear us down.

Pitiful Quisling wanna-bees…

LiftPort Group

Interesting website — these people are trying to build a Space Elevator. A Space Elevator involves a rope with one end attached to the Earth and the other end attached to a large mass a bit outside of the Geosynchronous orbit (26,000 miles).

Linear electric motors lift an elevator cab from Earth to Orbit (the energy from the descending cabs would be recycled). The energy (and cost) to lift one pound to Orbit is a fraction of what it costs today with chemical rockets. Reliability is a lot better too.

Very cool stuff — this is the future of space travel…

A Joke

From an email list:

A woman walked into the kitchen to find
her husband stalking around with a fly swatter.

“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Hunting Flies” he responded.
“Oh. Killing any?” she asked.

“Yep, 3 males, 2 Females,” he replied.
Intrigued, she asked, “How can you tell?”

He responded, “3 were on a beer can,
2 were on the phone.”

Heh…

Barbra Streisand -- Climatologist

Barbra Streisand has a depth to her that I never knew about. Not only having a career as actress and singer, it seems that she is an expert in climatology.

The Drudge Report has a report on this previously unknown talent and delivers a much needed smackdown to her self-centered idiocy.

This summer's back to back superstorms are proof positive we have entered a new period of “global warming emergency,” artist/citizen Barbra Streisand warns.

Streisand is back on the scene to promote her reunion disc with Barry Gibb.

As hellstorm “Rita” churned in the Gulf, Streisand sat down for a promotional interview with ABCNEWS's Diane Sawyer.

“We are in a global warming emergency state, and that these storms are going to become more frequent, more intense,” Streisand urgently declares.

The Drudge Report then goes on to review a bit of history:

But Sawyer did not remind Streisand that a category 5 hurricane struck the Bahamas with 160 mph winds — when the singer was five years old, in 1947.

And when Streisand was 8 years old, a hurricane — named “Dog” — packing 185 mph churned-away in the Atlantic!

When she was 9, a storm named “Easy” ripped the seas with 160 mph sustained winds!

Streisand was 13 years old when “Janet” hit Mexico with 150 mph winds.

Streisand was celebrating her sweet sixteen as “Cleo” formed with 140 mph winds.

At 18, Streisand read news about “Donna” AND “Ethel” — both storms carried 140 mph winds and formed 9 days apart in 1960!

Streisand was 19 when it happened again — two Category 5 storms scared the world: “Carla” and “Hattie.” “Carla” maxed out at 175 mph winds the year Streisand made her television debut on “The Jack Paar Show” in 1961.

And who could forget Hurricane “Camille” — which smashed into the United States with 190 mph, just as “Funny Girl” garners eight Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture and one for Barbra as Best Actress.

Clueless Ninny…

Awww Crap...

One of my favorite people on the Blogroll just lost his house and four cats to fire.

Dale at Mostly Cajun writes:

Still alive, but battered…
This is my post-storm post…

I have lived through this one. We sat out the storm proper in a rural home in Ragley, Louisiana. As each rain band passed us, the winds howled and trees swayed. At dawn the light revealed a few pine trees down in the large yard, but no damage to the house.

Nephew and I got out and removed our vehicles from the adjacent pasture where we’d parked them to keep them from damage by falling trees. We took his pickup truck and headed out to see if we could make our way to his house to survey damage. To get out of the rural area, we had to use the truck and a tow strap to drag fallen trees off the road. WE DID THIS. We didn’t wait for FEMA or any other government agency to come to our rescue. We helped our neighbors, because they had chainsaws removing other fallen trees. As we made our way out of the woods to the main road, that was the scene. Everywhere we turned, plain ol’ people were out clearing trees and debris off the roads so that things could start going back to normal.

Mostly Cajun goes to get some equipment and comes home to find:

When I got back, smoke was pouring out of my house. I called 9-1-1 to report the fire. After I finished reporting, I ran to the house to see if I could break in windows to let out my cats, but the smoke and the fierce heat coming off the building were so much that I couldn’t get within a few yards.

The local fire department responded very fast, but when they got there, the community water system was dry, killed by Hurrican Rita. They called for assistance from several nearby fire departments who transported water in, but the house was a total loss.

Did you ever think about what you lose? Four loyal pets…irreplaceable. Itty, Splot, Mollie, Callie, my four cats… Mom and Dad’s photo albums… photos of the past 80 years. My library…books I’d acquired over the past twenty-odd years. My gun collection… Personal papers… On and on and on… All gone. Devastation is an over-used word. I use it here…

Damnit! Keep him close to your hearts and prayers — he is good people.

News out of Northern Ireland

Awesome news from ABC News/AP:

IRA Fully Disarms, Aide to Inspector Says
Outlawed Irish Republican Army Fully Disarms, According to Aide to Monitor

International weapons inspectors have supervised the full disarmament of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, a long-sought goal of Northern Ireland's peace process, an aide to the process' monitor said Sunday.

The IRA permitted two independent witnesses, including a Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest close to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, to view the secret disarmament work conducted by officials from Canada, Finland and the United States, the aide to retired Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain said on condition of anonymity.

The office of de Chastelain, who in recent weeks has been in secret locations overseeing the weapons destruction, scheduled a Monday news conference in Belfast.

The aide told The Associated Press that the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning news conference would detail the scrapping of many tons of IRA weaponry this month at a confidential location in the Republic of Ireland. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Both witnesses the Rev. Harold Good, a former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and the Rev. Alex Reid, a Catholic priest also will state what they saw.

Statements from the British and Irish governments, Adams and the IRA's command were expected within the next 24 hours.

“I am confident that tomorrow will bring the final chapter on the issue of IRA arms,” said Martin McGuinness, the deputy leader of the IRA-linked Sinn Fein who plans to travel Tuesday to Washington to seek U.S. political support for the IRA's actions. “I believe that Ireland stands on the cusp of a truly historic advance, and I hope that people across the island will respond positively in the time ahead.”

The breakthrough should smash the biggest stumbling block in Northern Ireland's peace process since Britain opened negotiations with Sinn Fein in December 1994.

Very wonderful news. The story goes on with some of the history and previous treaties.

It will be interesting to see what England's response will be. I can also see that since the U.K. is getting a lot more tough on the immigrant Islamofascist terrorists recently, Sinn Fein has decided that it might not be a good time to be a terrorist.

Earthquake

There was a 7.9 Earthquake in Northern Peru. Four people known dead.

Here is the USGS web page for this: Earthquake Hazards Program

ABC News/AP has some coverage:

Powerful Earthquake Rocks Northern Peru
A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7 hit northern Peru late Sunday, causing power outages and cutting phone service throughout much of the region.

One radio report said four people were killed.

Peru's Geophysics Institute said the quake struck at 8:55 p.m. and was centered about 60 miles northeast of the jungle city Moyobamba, 420 miles north of the capital Lima.

“Several houses have fallen down and there are several people dead,” Carlos Mori, who lives near Moyobamba in the town of Lamas, told Radioprogramas. “All of the residents of Lamas are in the streets. Most of the people are helping.”

Busy day tomorrow

Driving down to Seattle tomorrow morning to drop Jen off. A friend of ours is retiring to Mexico and Jen is helping her drive down and get situated.

Tomorrow evening is my first Welding class — I have a wire and TIG welder but need to improve my skill set and correct some bad habits. (The welding ones anyway.)

Needless to say, posting will be a little bit light tomorrow.

Neato Machines

Aaron Cain builds Tattoo Machines and has posted an online gallery of some of the machines he has built, repaired, modified and collected. There is a mystique associated with Tattooing and it follows that there is a similar feeling towards the articles of the Tattoo trade. These are gorgeous works of art in a sort of H.R. Geiger way.

Here are a three:

Gorgeous work — forging, casting and carving the metal.

Medical Imagery through the ages

A wonderful collection of medical images dating from 1830 through 1850 can be found at the Yale University School of Medicine, Peter Parker Collection (no, not that Peter Parker)
From their website

Peter Parker, medical missionary and diplomat to China, was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1804. His parents were farmers and devout followers of the orthodox Congregational faith. Parker attended Yale College, graduating in 1831, and remained in New Haven to study theology and medicine, earning his M.D. from the Medical Institution of Yale College in 1834. In January of the same year he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in Philadelphia, one month before departing for Canton as the first Protestant medical missionary to China. One year after his arrival, with assistance from American and British benefactors, he opened the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton. Parker specialized in treating diseases of the eye, particularly cataracts, but also performed general surgical operations including the removal of tumors. He is probably best known for the introduction of anesthesia to China in the form of sulphuric ether.

During his first trip to China, Parker made the acquaintance of the Western trained Chinese painter, Lam Qua. In the 1820s Lam Qua had studied under the patronage of George Chinnery, the first English painter to settle in China. Lam Qua's training and the level of mastery he developed enabled him to become one of the most revered Chinese painters utilizing the Western style of portraiture. As a result of his talent, he developed a sizable clientèle from the Western community within as well as outside of Asia. The most celebrated body of work by Lam Qua is the impressive collection of portraits, commissioned by Peter Parker in the 1830's, of patients at the Canton Hospital with large tumors or other major deformities. These startling and somewhat gruesome paintings of pathological subject matter are unsettling to the viewer. One of the most noticeable aspects of each portrait is the expressionless look on the subjects' face. The lack of emotion turns the viewer's eye from the subjects' face to their pathology, or illness. Each subject appears to express neither pain nor sadness and serves as a testament to the human spirit in the face of physical adversity. Images displayed here represent only a part of the collection of Lamqua's work held by the Medical Historical Library at Yale University. The portraits are of men, women, and children of a variety of ages and at various stages in the progression of their tumors.

The portraits themselves can be found here and here is one example:

Sweet Story

Wonderful people — from Netscape/CNN/AP comes this story from New Jersey:

Couple to Aid Evacuees With $258M Jackpot
A couple who were the sole winners of a $258 million Mega Millions jackpot say some of their winnings will go to help Hurricane Katrina victims.

Harold Lerner, 60, got a call from a friend telling him someone in Rutherford, where the couple live, had bought the winning ticket from the Sept. 16 drawing.

“Little did I know it was my wife who purchased the ticket. We ran downstairs. On the top of the newspaper were the five numbers, and I read off the numbers,” he said at a press conference Friday.

“She says, 'Honey, I think we're millionaires,'” he said. “We hugged, kissed and embraced. I'm thinking, `This can't be right, maybe we made a mistake.' We checked it 500 times.”

Sure enough, the winning numbers from the Sept. 16 drawing - 5, 16, 41, 46, 50 and the Gold Mega Ball number 1 - were all there.

The couple got paranoid, Helen said, and stashed the ticket in her underwear drawer. Then they went for a walk around town, where residents were still buzzing about the as-yet unknown lottery winner.

Since Helen, who bought the ticket, chose the cash option, they will get $156.1 million, lottery officials said. The federal tax bite will amount to about a quarter of that.

Along with helping Katrina evacuees, they said some of their winnings would go to Seton Hall University, where Helen graduated in 1976.

Nice — philanthropy is not dead…

The 100,000 person march in Washington D.C. today...

…turned out to have a little less than 100,000 attendents and many of them were on the side of President Bush and the developing Democracy in Iraq.

ABC News/AP reports:

Anti-War Protesters March in Washington
Thousands of Anti-War Demonstrators March in Washington, London; Rallies Planned in L.A., Rome

Opponents of the war in Iraq rallied by the thousands Saturday to demand the return of U.S. troops, staging a day of protest, song and remembrance of the dead in marches through Washington and other American and European cities.

The money quote is in the second paragraph:

“More than 2,000 people gathered”

Of course, Reuters drank the cool-aid and showed its bias wonderfully.
From Yahoo/Reuters:

Thousands protest Iraq war, globalization
More than 100,000 protesters flooded Washington on Saturday to stage dual demonstrations against the U.S.-led war in Iraq and economic globalization, before coming together to demand that President George W. Bush bring troops home.

And further into the Reuters “News” piece:

The crowds swelled throughout the day, and by late afternoon organizers of the anti-war demonstration said 300,000 people had assembled — exceeding an anticipated 100,000. Washington police declined to comment on the size of the rally.

Getty Images has photos of the crowds such as this one:

GlobalCop has some images of the people who were staging a counter-protest — each image is presented as a separate entry so look for September 24th and start scrolling down (lots of them). Here is one:

And narley.org has some random photos of the protesters. Here is one (with caption):

We found it! Here is the new message! “Run away from the enemy and build levees” - you know - the levees that the environmentalists prevented the construction of in the 1990's, when Bill was in the White House

Buh-Bye!

Fun in Nepal

Some people never learn. Followers of Communist Mao tse'Dung are still around — from the Islamic Republic News Agency:

Nepal Maoists abduct 60 students
Suspected Maoist rebels have abducted 60 students from a secondary school in Northwest Nepal, the police said on Thursday, reports `The Asian Age'.

The students were abducted on Wednesday from Saraswati Secondary school in Dolpa district, 475 kilometers northwest of Kathmandu, and forcibly marched to an undisclosed location for indoctrination, the police said.

“The Maoists selected 60 sturdy looking boys and girls of grades six to ten and abducted them,” the police said after a teacher at the school reached the district headquarters Dunai on Thursday.

The militants regularly abduct students for indoctrination sessions and normally release them several days later.

Separately, a district security officer who declined to be named, said the militants destroyed three government buildings with explosives in southwest Nepal on Tuesday after evacuating workers.

“The rebels had forced the staff to leave and set off the explosive devices destroying the offices,” the official said from the district of Doti, 425 kilometers, southwest of Kathmandu.

Nepal is a monarchy which is probably why these idiots have been able to gain traction. But hope is in the air:

…Nepal has said that it will hold “open and free” municipal elections in April 2006 and national parliamentary elections within two years.

“The King is determined to re-energize democratic institutions by restoring sustainable peace and making democracy meaningful cultured and refined,” Nepal's foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey said in the UN General Assembly.

Time will tell…

Looters in Texas

No reports of actual shootings but it is nice to see Citizens following the four steps of reliance.
From Houston writer John Little at Blogs of War:

Looters Strike in Advance of Rita - Armed Citizens Patrol Midtown
Well I just found out why the media was in my parking garage. Looters struck last night and trashed 12 cars. We usually have very tight security but the gates were left open by management due to fears of power outages. I need to go check my car now.

Update:
My car is fine but the mood in the area is tense. I ran across two neighbors carrying hunting rifles (or a rifle and a shotgun to be exact) who were actively searching for a guy they suspected of breaking into more cars. They agreed to let me photograph them from the neck down. Hopefully, HPD will send one or more officers to our neighborhood. I think there is risk of additional looting or worse.

• Personal Responsibility
• Municipal
• State
• Federal

More on Nukes -- people are starting to think

Nice thoughtful piece at The American Enterprise:

Global Warming Dilemma – Coal or Nuclear?
In the next few years, New Jersey and Vermont will do the entire country a favor by resolving the dilemma as to whether we can stop global warming without nuclear power.

The two states have joined Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and Delaware in a remarkably innovative pact to cut carbon dioxide emissions—the prime suspect in what now appears to be serious evidence of climate change.

The Northeastern Pact will set a cap of 150 million tons of carbon dioxide per year until 2015 and then allow states to start trading emissions permits to lower the figure. Since first introduced in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, this “cap-and-trade” model has already proved stunningly successful in lowering sulfur dioxide emissions. In only fifteen years, sulfur dioxide emissions have been reduced 50 percent at a cost of about 1/10th of what the Environmental Protection Agency originally predicted. Now the Northeastern states are taking the lead by applying the same strategy to carbon dioxide.

But New Jersey and Vermont have a problem: Environmentalists are jockeying to close down the two nuclear plants that serve as prime sources of energy for the two states. The 635-megawatt Oyster Creek Nuclear Station in Monmouth County provides 9 percent of New Jersey’s electricity. It comes up for re-licensing in 2009. Vermont Yankee, near Brattleboro, generates 535 MW, one-third the state’s energy and 70 percent of what the state doesn’t have to import. Without these two nuclear stations, coal or natural gas will have to be substituted and carbon emissions will rise considerably.

As usual, environmentalists are assuring everyone it can be done with “renewables” – wind, solar, and other “alternative” energies.

But there is no myth more damaging in diverting the nation’s attention from its energy problems. The universe has been pretty well explored by now—there aren’t any “alternative energies” sitting around waiting to be discovered. We know all about solar radiation, about the winds that are driven by its heat (in conjunction with the earth’s rotation), about rivers and streams and how they can be harnessed to produce electricity. We also know about the chemical energy that is stored in the electrons at the periphery of the atom and can be tapped by “burning” organic compounds. And we know about the much more powerful energies that lie at the nucleus of the atom.

Game Set Match. The author explores Hydro, Wind and Solar, finds them coming up short and closes with this:

So the choice is the same as it was in 1979: coal or nuclear. And ever since Three Mile Island, we have chosen coal. We now burn three times as much coal as we did in 1980, and the trend is still moving upward. This is almost certainly one of the prime causes of global warming.

The time is coming when the nation is going to have to give nuclear power a second look.

And considering that it will take about ten to fifteen years to get the plant from design stage to commissioning, we really need to start now…

Nukes in Canada

French company Total SA (used to be Total Fina ELF when they were participating in the United Nations Oil for Food scandal — they “reinvented” their brand) is considering the use of Nuclear Reactors to help extract Canadian Oil-Sand fields.

The Wall Street Journal has the story:

Total May Use Atomic Power At Oil-Sand Project
French oil giant Total SA, amid rising oil and natural-gas prices, is considering building a nuclear power plant to extract ultraheavy oil from the vast oil-sand fields of western Canada.

This comes as oil prices — driven even higher by Hurricane Katrina and now the threat of Hurricane Rita — are removing lingering doubts about the long-term profitability of extracting the molasseslike form of oil from sand, despite the fact that the output is much more expensive to produce and to upgrade than is conventional crude.

At the same time, prices of natural gas — which oil-sands producers have relied on to produce the steam and electricity needed to push the viscous oil out of the ground — have risen 45% in the past year. That is prompting Total, which holds permits on large fields in Alberta that contain oil sands, to consider building its own nuclear plant and using the energy produced to get the job done.

Despite the attraction of abundant electricity, industrial companies have been reluctant to install nuclear devices, however small, on their premises because of safety and cost concerns. Small nuclear reactors have been used for purposes other than generating commercial electricity, but mainly to power ships — submarines, icebreakers and aircraft carriers, for example.

A notable exception was the Soviet Union, which built four small nuclear reactors at Bilibino, inside the Arctic Circle, in the mid-1970s to operate a gold mine. The plant still is in operation.

I have talked about this before but I'll go over the two points that the Enviros use against Nuclear power.

Safety: Nobody died from Three Mile Island. Chernobyl was a disaster with 4,000 eventual deaths but the design was a bad one (cheap) and the idiot who ran the test that triggered the meltdown was operating way beyond the operating parameters for the reactor.

Waste: The majority of the waste that needs to be stored is left over from the World War Two developments at Hanford and Oak Ridge. The waste from Power Plants is minimal.

The designs that have failed are ones that date from the 1950's. Nuclear Engineering has come a long long way since then; not only with new insights on reactor physics but with better control systems.
France and Japan derive the majority of their electricity from Nuclear.
Lots of accidents over there right?
Right?
.
.
.
.
(crickets)

Back to the article:

Even now, despite wanting to cut production costs, few oil-sands producers have been willing to talk openly about the nuclear possibility for fear of protests from environmentalists. Nuclear power doesn't bring back good memories in Alberta, where in the 1950s U.S. and Canadian scientists looked into the possibility — later abandoned — of detonating an atomic bomb to bring oil to the surface.

Total would speak about its plan only in general terms. “It's not foolish to look into the nuclear option,” Yves-Louis Darricarrère, Total's director for natural gas and power, said in a recent interview. “We have a team looking into it.”

Memo to the Albertans: That was the 1950's We have moved on.
A hair-brained scheme from the 1950's has zero bearing on what the engineers are looking at doing today.

And more:

Total's interest is the latest sign that nuclear energy is making a global comeback. Finland commissioned a new reactor in 2003, the first such order in Western Europe in 13 years. France has chosen a site in Normandy where a reactor will be built. The U.S. hasn't commissioned a new nuclear plant for three decades, but the industry is talking seriously about a revival, encouraged by the Bush administration and the rising cost of fossil fuel.

Cool! And the political climate in Alberta:

The government of Alberta said that although there are no nuclear power plants in the province, there is no moratorium on nuclear energy. “We don't favor one form of energy over another,” said Alberta Energy Ministry spokeswoman Donna McColl. “We let the market decide.”

Awesome!

Al Qaeda's Plan

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was interviewed by Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein and the results are in a book (available only in Arabic for now).
Strategy Page has an article that delivers the gist of the message:

Al Qaeda Has a Plan and Here It Is
Al Qaeda has a plan, and it’s been published in a book (Al-Zarqawi: al Qaeda's Second Generation) by Jordanian journalist, Fouad Hussein. Several al Qaeda leaders were interviewed for the book, including al Qaeda’s man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The book is only available in Arabic, but it does lay out a very straightforward strategy for world conquest. Actually, it sounds a lot like what the nazis and communists had in mind last century. The only difference is that, while the nazis killed you for who you were, and the communists killed you for what you believed,al Qaeda kills you for religious differences. No matter which zealot gets you, you're still dead.

According to Fouad Hussein, al Qaeda has a seven phase plan for world conquest. It goes like this.

Phase 1, the “wakeup call.” Spectacular terrorist attacks on the West (like September 11, 2001) get the infidels (non-Moslems) to make war on Islamic nations. This arouses Moslems, and causes them to flock to al Qaedas banner. This phase is considered complete.

Phase 2, the “eye opening.” This is the phase we are in, where al Qaeda does battle with the infidels, and shows over a billion Moslems how it’s done. This phase is supposed to be completed by next year.

Phase 3, “the rising.” Millions of aroused (in a terrorist sense) Moslems go to war against Islam’s enemies for the rest of the decade. Especially heavy attacks are made against Israel. It is believed that major damage in Israel will force the world to acknowledge al Qaeda as a major power, and negotiate with it.

Phase 4, “the downfall.” By 2013, al Qaeda will control the Persian Gulf, and all its oil, as well as most of the Middle East. This will enable al Qaeda to cripple the American economy, and American military power.

Phase 5, “the Caliphate.” By 2016, the Caliphate (one government for all Moslem nations) will be established. At this point, nearly all Western cultural influences will be eliminated from Islamic nations. The Caliphate will organize a mighty army for the next phase.

Yeah yeah — the Caliphate. They came close to having it once and have never gotten over loosing it. That was some 900 years ago and was their crowing achievement. What have they done since except create a repressive medieval culture based on shame and hate.

The author has a few more points to make and then closes with this paragraph:

Nothing really new in all this. Al Qaeda has been talking openly about this (the global Islamic state) for years. These Islamic terrorists are true believers. God is on their side, and they believe all obstacles will be swept aside by the power of the Lord. Will al Qaeda’s plan work? Ask the nazis and communists.

Light posting today

I was out doing some photography for one website I am developing.

More after dinner…

Amtrak blog

While spending today reading the entire Internet (yes, I actually do that!) I ran into this website: Replacing Amtrak which proposes the privatization of America's Rail industry.

From the website:

Amtrak is a colossal failure. I was one of the people who worked to create Amtrak in 1970-71. The railroad today bears little resemblance to what was promised. Amtrak has ripped through $29 billion in federal subsidies (and several billion more from the states) and remains on the verge of bankruptcy. Today, Anthony Haswell, who is sometimes acknowledged at the “father of Amtrak,” agrees with my critical views regarding Amtrak and praises the book “End of the Line.”

I found out about Joseph Vranich's Blog through this article at Tech Central Station which outlines just how much we are pumping into Amtrak and how poorly it is being managed.

Katrina Costs Justify Cutting Amtrak
Following our nation's worst-ever natural disaster, Washington will probably send $200 billion in aid to rebuild New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities. Doing so will cause the federal deficit to skyrocket. President Bush suggested last week that some Hurricane Katrina costs may be financed with cuts in other programs. Amtrak is an excellent place to start.

Consider that the railroad perpetuates the Orlando — Los Angeles “Sunset Limited,” a train listed in a Department of Transportation report as costing taxpayers $466 in subsidies per passenger. Most of Amtrak's network is expendable considering that more than 50 percent of its traffic is carried on only 10 percent of the system. Evidence that Amtrak is utterly dysfunctional can be found in 30 reports issued since 1997 by the Government Accountability Office, the Amtrak Reform Council and others.

A misguided Congressional response to the avalanche of negative findings is to throw more money at Amtrak, and yet Senate appropriators are willing to grant Amtrak $1.45 billion — an all-time record — while Senate Democrats claimed that anything less than $1.8 billion would be “the final nail in the coffin” for the railroad. Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) ignore Amtrak's failures and want to authorize nearly $11.4 billion for the railroad over the next six years.

Before Katrina, Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was right to say, “Handing over more than a billion dollars with no reforms attached only gives Amtrak a blank check to continue misspending taxpayer money.” After Katrina, sending fat grants to Amtrak's headquarters reaches a new level of absurdity.

Amtrak's biggest money losers, the long-distance trains, should be closed. Of the 25 million passengers who rode Amtrak last year, less than 15 percent used the cross-country trains. Many more Americans rely on our airline system. The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport alone serves more than three times the number of passengers than does the entire nationwide Amtrak system of 512 stations.

We could phase Amtrak out of existence while preserving the busiest routes through a competitive bidding system that reduces subsidies as more efficient private companies take over. Already in the United States, companies under contracting arrangements carry 40 million rail commuters annually — many more than Amtrak carries — and they do so with a high degree of reliability.

The trains in Europe that are run by private companies are the ones gaining the most customers, a result of companies providing higher quality and lower prices to stay ahead of market contenders. Such competition inspires them to be more innovative and imaginative.

Amtrak will never turn itself around if it keeps raking in taxpayer's dollars. If Congress won't cut Amtrak and other wasteful programs now, then President Bush must put his thus-far-unused veto pen to use.

Trains helped to build America and to make it great.
The land-grants issued to the railroads created some fine cities.

The Horse and Buggy also helped to build America and to make it great.
Their time came and went and their passing is held reverently and examples are kept by private hobbyists and Museums but they are gone from the common landscape.

Trains need to get off the public teat. If they cannot compete in a free market, they should have the grace to die quietly and let the private corporations run things.

$11.4 Billion Dollars over the next six years?

You are looking at Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) who are pushing this version of Crack to Addicts.

New Orleans is flooding again

Rainwater and storm surge and the power is still on but it is grim.
Yahoo/AP has the story:

Rita Inflicts Fresh Floods on New Orleans
Hurricane Rita's wind-driven storm surge topped one of New Orleans' battered levees and poked holes in another Friday, sending water gushing into already-devastated neighborhoods just days after they had been pumped dry.

An initial surge of water cascaded over a patched levee protecting the impoverished Ninth Ward, flooding the abandoned neighborhood with at least 6 feet of water.

“Our worst fears came true,” said Maj. Barry Guidry, a National Guardsman on duty at the broken levee.

Leaks beneath another levee that was repaired with rock and gravel after Hurricane Katrina flooded homes with at least a half-foot of water. Meanwhile, wind-whipped waves pushed water from Lake Pontchartrain over a seawall and rain runoff with no outlet pooled in city streets.

Evacuees from the misery-stricken city learned of the new flooding with despair.

“It's like looking at a murder,” Quentrell Jefferson of the Ninth Ward said as he watched the news at a church in Lafayette, 125 miles west of New Orleans. “The first time is bad. After that, you numb up.”

Just Damn! And the forecast is for another couple years of strong seasons before the cycle starts to mellow out again. We are entering this cycle and it will get worse for a year or two. We have had these cycles before — the historical record is quite good…

Blogging Rita

A number of bloggers are writing about Rita.

Lawrence Simon is coordinating their efforts at his site: “isfullofcrap.com” There is a list of bloggers plus other weather and news links being posted at the top of his page.

He writes about a conversation with a Moonbat:

Moonbats in Hurricane conditions
Wandering around, feeling the light wind and drizzle, a neighbor walks by.

“Well, it's this a bummer? I say.
“Yeah, it's a cat 3, gonna be a cat 2 when it hits way away.”
“I guess this was all just a practical joke?”
“Yup.”
“Something to sell a buttload of gas.”
“Yeah, well, Bush wanted all that money.”

Even under Hurricane Warnings, moonbats thrive. They must be stomped…

“Look, the man loves to be on his ranch. You think he'd give that up 11 months a year just to take shit from the media and all the people in the country? He's not brilliant, but he's not THAT stupid.”

And I went back inside.

Laurence absolutely nails something that has been rattling around my brainpan for the last couple weeks after Katrina.

Crawford is not a “vacation”, it is The Other Whitehouse.

Bush has held State Meetings with Spanish President Aznar, Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Uribe of Colombia, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Mexican President President Vicente Fox, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, all at his ranch at Crawford.

I got this information from here and this is just the first hundred links of the 703 that this search returns to me.

Bush has also conducted meeting there, both F2F and Teleconferencing. He has met with Lance Armstrong, Powell, Rice and all of the other movers and shakers in his administration.

He is working for us when he is down there. He would rather run the government surrounded by the ranch than by a bunch of blue-state ninnies. With today's Internet and Satellite connectivity, he can do just as much at Crawford as he can at the Whitehouse.

I would imagine that the dignitaries visiting him would much rather stay at a comfortable and secure facility that had a definite Western sensibility than at a comfortable and secure facility that was culturally sterile (Washington D.C.)

I mean when was the last time that Pooty-Poot danced to Cotton Eye Joe.

South Africa follows Zimbabwe down the rabbit hole

This is idiocy! I thought the government of South Africa was too smart to do something as stupid as this. From BBC News:

S African white farm to be seized
South Africa says it will for the first time force a white farmer to sell his land under a redistribution plan.

The decision was announced by the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, set up to return to black people land lost under apartheid.

An official said talks to agree on a price for the farm had failed and the farmer has vowed to challenge the move.

South Africa's government says it wants to hand over about a third of white-owned farm land by 2014.

The commission on Thursday said an expropriation notice would be served on Hannes Visser, the owner of a cattle and crop farm in North West province.

The government offered to buy the 500-hectare (1,250-acre) farm for $275,000 but Mr Visser said it was worth almost twice as much.

And the comparison to Zimbabwe is not to be sneezed at.

But Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says the pace of reform should be speeded up - as in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where most white-owned land has been seized by the state.

“There needs to be a bit of oomph. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us,” she said.

Skills of Zimbabwe? My aching ass!!! Zimbabwe went from being the breadbasket of Africa to having to import its own food. All this because the “blacks” who got the farms knew nothing about farming and did not want to do the work to learn. The farms are unproductive.

South Africa is a perfect example of what Zimbabwe was like before Mugabe took over and instituted his “reforms”. Now it's happening in S.A.. Cripes!

Pot of What?

Shamelessly swiped from Denny at Grouchy Old Cripple:

Yet another childhood fantasy destroyed.

Click for full-size Image

Heh…

Leaving Houston

I wrote about the Houston traffic cams before here.
Visited them today and it is downright eerie — very few cars on the road.

Here is I-45 North - one of the primary evac routes out of the city:

Ghost town…

Turnabout is fair play (Heh)

A little accident in Gaza today — ABC/AP has the story:

Blast at Hamas Rally Kills 10, Injures 85
Truck With Militants, Homemade Rockets Blows Up at Hamas Rally; 10 People Dead, 85 Others Hurt

A truck filled with masked militants and homemade weapons exploded at a Hamas rally Friday, killing at least 10 Palestinians and wounding 85 including children bringing a grisly and terrifying end to one of the last gatherings by armed groups celebrating Israel's Gaza pullout.

The blast sent a huge cloud of white smoke over the mass festivities, a sea of green Hamas flags and thousands of people gathered at Jebaliya, a Palestinian refugee camp that was the scene of harsh fighting between militants and Israeli soldiers during the past five years of violence.

After initial confusion, people began running away from the rally and gunmen fired in the air. People wailed in grief as others tried to tend to the mangled and dismembered bodies of the dead and wounded.

Mishandled explosives apparently caused the blast, which came a day before an agreement by militants not to publicly parade weapons is to take effect.

Witnesses said many children were among the casualties.

Hamas said six militants were killed, including Jihad Shaleal, head of the group's military wing in Jebaliya. Hamas blamed Israel, but the Israeli military denied any connection. Palestinian security officials said the blast was an accident.

To injure children is a tragedy. For everyone else, you sow what you reap.
And of course, they learned from their lesson:

But Palestinian officials said the explosion was set off by the mishandling of explosives. The Interior Ministry issued a statement calling on Hamas “to shoulder its responsibility for these … explosions instead of making accusations against others.”

An accidental explosion would be only the latest in a string of deadly mishaps for militant groups in Gaza.

A Hamas weapons warehouse exploded this month in Gaza City, killing six people. Hamas claimed it was an Israeli attack, but Palestinian security forces found the blast was an accident caused by the militants.

During an Islamic Jihad rally at the abandoned Jewish settlement of Netzarim last week, a gunman died after accidentally shooting himself in the head.

Even after the blast Friday, seven or eight gunmen stood in the back of another truck riding through Gaza, using their feet to stop a half-dozen rockets from bouncing around in the bed.

Emphasis mine — the Israeli's don't have to kill the terrorists, they are doing a fine job of it themselves. Talk about pig ignorant!

Those who protest the war

An interesting look at the money behind the current crop of war protesters.
The Washington Times has the story:

War protesters linked to radical left-wing groups
The groups gathering in Washington this weekend to protest President Bush and the war in Iraq have ties to radical left-wing groups and communist organizations and have enjoyed the support of the left's biggest financial supporter, George Soros.

United for Peace and Justice (UPJ) and International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) are the two main organizers of the weekend of events — the first major public protest allowed to surround the White House in more than 10 years — and expect 100,000 people from dozens of smaller left-wing and liberal organizations.

A highlight of Saturday, the first day of protests, is an appearance and speech by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq.

“That will be a marvelous moment,” said Bill Dobbs, spokesman for UPJ. “I'm sure a lot of people want to hear her.”

The leaders of ANSWER, founded three days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, are connected to the Workers World Party, a Marxist group that has expressed support for such dictators as North Korea's Kim Jong-il, Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic and Iraq's Saddam Hussein. The latter two have been ousted from power and jailed.

Other groups associated with ANSWER are the Free Palestine Alliance, U.S.-Mexico Solidarity Foundation and the Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada.

The article goes on to explore where the money is coming from:

John J. Tierney, a scholar at the Institute of World Politics and author of “The Politics of Peace: What's Behind the Anti-War Movement?” said the core of the protesters are “ideologically very hard-core left” and that their agenda goes far beyond merely protesting the Iraq war.

“They're not anti-war. They are anti-West, anti-capitalism and anti-American political culture,” Mr. Tierney said. “You see the speeches, the flags, the posters, the speakers and the pamphlets cover a whole host of revolutionary causes, literally everywhere.”

The question of who is funding the protests remains clouded. Billionaire George Soros has funded various left-wing groups that will have a presence at the protest through his Open Society Institute, as has the Tides Foundation, created by Theresa Heinz Kerry, heir to the Heinz food fortune and wife of Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat. Money from both of these groups is filtered down to other groups and then filtered down to yet others, Mr. Tierney said.

The people who show up for the march may have their hearts in the right places but they are perfect examples of Josef Stalin's “Useful Idiots”.

Hurricane Rita

Has weakened to a CAT3 but is still deadly.
Expected landfall is around 7:00AM tomorrow.

Up to date info can be found at the National Hurricane Center

I'm glad the only thing we have to worry about are earthquakes and active volcanoes…

Light posting tonight

Working on two web pages tonight.

One is for a Seattle naturalist who has been taking some wonderful bear and wildlife photographs.

The other is for a local group trying to stop a huge (and grossly inappropriate for this area) housing development from being sited near where we live. Over 750 Homes, figure about 1200 people trying to drive to work each day down 25 miles of two-lane country road. (There are precious few local jobs available and these have already been filled by the existing local population. The nearest reliable source of work is Bellingham, 27 miles due west.)

Spew will resume tomorrow…

Driving in Houston

With Rita bearing down on them, people are evacuating coastal Texas.

Found this website that shows the traffic cams in and around Huston.

A sample image:

Yikes!

Shocked... Shocked I tell you!

A wonderful example of over-the-top “yellow journalism” found in Khaleej Times Online:

Saudis shocked at discovery of wine factories
Recent reports in the local media giving details of raids on illegal wine factories across the Kingdom have shocked Saudi society where alcohol is banned.

A number of government departments took part in the crackdown, including the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, with others providing general assistance.

Saudi society continues to refuse to admit alcohol use is rife in the country, with the authorities arguing that those who engage in the illegal activity aim to spread evil without realising that large amounts of alcoholic drinks are due to local demands, according to a report in the Arabic daily Asharq Al Awsat on Saturday.

On Tuesday, a residential place in the Al Rabwa neighbourhood, east of the capital, was broken-into and a complete alcohol-producing factory was uncovered along with SR15,000 worth of goods ready to be distributed across the Kingdom.

The house had been rented by a Saudi national in charge of the marketing side with a number of workers, mostly from Africa, overseeing the production.

The report said that further searches of the property provided details of how large quantities of wine were being produced, using heavy machinery to process the grapes, rat carcasses to accelerate the fermentation process as well as sewage water and several banned chemicals.

It said that similar equipment was discovered at raided properties elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, none of which followed basic rules of hygiene as they sought to maximise profits with no regards to health and safety.

A two-litre bottle of beer can cost as much as SR 250 with some producers offering discounts for large orders. On an average, the number of barrels used to ferment grapes in each of the twenty illegal factories discovered by the police was 50, holding 500 litres, the price of which was SR 3.75 million, usually sold within a two months period. A single factory could therefore generate SR 22.5 million every year.

Wine bottles, smuggled into the Kingdom and sold on the black market, cost SR700 and are sometimes laden with chemicals to increase alcohol content and volume.

Distribution occurs mainly on Wednesdays and Thursdays, when agents deliver their shipments to consumers, in areas designed to evade supervision, usually through trusted intermediaries. Wine merchants conduct their affairs with extreme caution fearing a trap by the moral police.

An official involved in the latest raid told Asharq Al-Awsat that wine factories were, for the most part, uncovered with the help of individuals previously involved in the trade, who regretted participating in illegal activities and cooperated with the authorities. The Riyadh Health Centre, responsible for promoting awareness of the dangers of locally- produced wine, said drinking could cause kidney failure and damage the liver due to harmful chemicals.

Ongoing investigations with individuals arrested for their involvement in producing or selling alcoholic beverages, revealed that most of them were non- Saudis who had learned the necessary skills before travelling to the Kingdom and then teaching locals.

Most of those arrested said economic gain was the main motive behind their actions since they could obtain large sums of money in a limited period.

I know a little bit about making wine as I have been homebrewing for over twenty years and my wife and I are starting up a commercial booze business. A few comments…

To get a handle on what dollar amount we are talking about, One Saudi Ryal equals 0.266 US Dollars. Think of them as equal to a quarter, four SR's equals about a buck ($1.06 to be exact).

The report said that further searches of the property provided details of how large quantities of wine were being produced, using heavy machinery to process the grapes, rat carcasses to accelerate the fermentation process as well as sewage water and several banned chemicals.

The equipment used to process grapes is not heavy — a crusher destemmer and bladder press are small enough to be operated by one person and equipment of this size is fine for a small commercial winery.

Rat Carcasses — gimme a break. There are some very early recipes which call for adding a piece of meat at the beginning of fermentation. This was to provide amino acids and specific enzymes for the yeast to use. This technique was dropped when the yeasts were studied and a system of nutrients were developed to ensure a vigorous fermentation.

Sewage Water — belongs in the sewer. There are waste streams from wine making (mostly cleaners and sanitizers mixed with water) but these are not incorporated into the product. The author of this “news item” is trying to make people think that the sewage was a component of the wine.

As for Banned Chemicals — how about telling us what chemicals the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” and the “Moral Police” have banned. These people probably had sodium or potassium metabisulfate, some jugs of chlorox (sanitation) and a few kilos of yeast nutrient.

Back to the news article:

A two-litre bottle of beer can cost as much as SR 250 with some producers offering discounts for large orders. On an average, the number of barrels used to ferment grapes in each of the twenty illegal factories discovered by the police was 50, holding 500 litres, the price of which was SR 3.75 million, usually sold within a two months period. A single factory could therefore generate SR 22.5 million every year.

What is it they were making — wine or beer? And for $62.50 for two liters, that had better be some really fine beer!

But then they are back to “barrels used to ferment grapes”
500 litres is about 133 Gallons. A smallish hot tub is about 400 gallons so you can get a handle on the size of 500 liters. They had 50 of these barrels? In a house? If it was 50 ten litre barrels, that might make more sense but each barrel would only be just under three gallons — not very efficient.

And finally:

Wine bottles, smuggled into the Kingdom and sold on the black market, cost SR700 and are sometimes laden with chemicals to increase alcohol content and volume.

They are buying wine bottles and ordering them specifically contaminated with “chemicals to increase alcohol content”. The only thing that can do this is either sugar or more alcohol. Adding sugar when it is bottled is not a good way to go unless you are looking for champagne as the yeast starts fermenting again and the evolved CO2 gas has no where to go. It serves to carbonate the wine (or beer) and can be dangerous if the pressure of the CO2 buildup exceeds the breaking strength of the bottle.

Like I said, perfect example of yellow journalism — all hype and hysteria and zero actual facts. Glad to see that our own Mainstream Media doesn't have a monopoly on this technique.

Europe doing what it does best

Iran is flaunting its 'supposed' nuclear capabilities.
From Yahoo/AFP:

Iran warns aggressors of 'fire and destruction'
Under pressure over its nuclear programme, Iran flaunted its ballistic missiles and warned any nation considering attacking the Islamic republic would face a “destructive and fiery” response.

On show at an annual military parade on Thursday were thousands of troops and a range of hardware including six of Iran's Shahab-3 ballistic missiles — which sported banners saying “Death to America”, “We will crush America under our feet” and ” Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth”.

An Iranian Shahab 3 missile passes by during a military parade to commemorate the start of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war in Tehran September 22, 2005. To cries of 'God is Great', Iran showed off its military might on Thursday and warned potential aggressors that the Islamic state would vigorously repel any attack.

Meanwhile, on the European front — from Yahoo/AP:

Europeans Drop Harsher Stance on Iran
The European Union on Thursday offered to delay its drive to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council for its suspect atomic activities if Russia and China will agree to a new resolution that criticizes Tehran for violating nuclear commitments.

If an agreement is not reached, however, the EU, backed by the United States, planned to force a vote on the tougher resolution.

The new U.S.-backed European offer was contained in a text threatening Tehran only with referral to the Security Council at a later date. The previous EU draft resolution — which also remained on the table — urged the 35 nations on the International Atomic Energy Agency board of directors to report Iran to the U.N.'s highest decision-making body during the board's current session.

Oooooo - scary. We are criticizing you — feel the harsh rays of criticism emanating from our diplomatic minds… Zing zing zing…

And whats more, if you continue to develop nukes, we will think about reporting you to the U.N. Security Council.

Hat tip to Charles at LGF.

A new common cold remedy?

Interesting news from the South African IOL website:

New nasal spray hailed as cure for the cold
A nasal spray that can stop the sniffles before they start is being hailed as the biggest breakthrough in cold remedies in years.

The spray forms a thin layer of gel at the back of the nose, where it traps the cold virus, disarms it and helps the body to flush it out.

Trials show that using the spray - called Vicks First Defence - within 36 hours of the virus entering the body can stop a cold in its tracks.

This is the period when symptoms like a tickly throat and sneezing indicate a virus has got into the nasal passages and is preparing to spread.

The treatment is the first to attack the virus that does the damage, rather than just soothe symptoms. It's the nearest scientists have come to developing an effective cold vaccine.

“This is one of the most exciting advances in the cough and cold industry,” says Professor Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University.

Cold and flu expert Professor John Oxford, from the Queen Mary School of Medicine in London, says: “I expect Vicks First Defence to have a considerable impact in the treatment of the common cold.

“Not only will it empower sufferers to combat their cold far more effectively than before, it may help prevent the virus from spreading to others.”

The cold is the most common illness. By the age of 70, most of us will have suffered an average of 200 colds and spent three years coughing and sneezing.

There are at least 100 known cold viruses, usually transferred by touch or through the air from coughs and sneezes.

It is claimed the spray, developed by Procter & Gamble, is the first product clinically proven to target the virus.

The spray can even be used as protection where germs spread easily, such as on buses or trains, or in offices.

Vicks First Defence goes on sale in pharmacies around the UK next month.

Very cool! It is already being sold in Germany, Austria and Italy.

A tale of two cities

Jason Smith at Generation Why nails the problems with New Orleans with two photographs:

The Wheels on the Bus Go 'Round and 'Round…
Compare and contrast.

Houston evacuation

courtesy: Mayor Bill White

New Orleans evacuation

courtesy: Mayor Ray Nagin

Sums it up pretty well…

Climate Change courses available online

University of California, San Diego has a nice set of online courses available online. The material is free to view. There are two dealing with Climate Change and one each for Astronomy and “Life in the Universe”. These are available at the Calspace website.

Good stuff — the people who put this together are not buying into the “we are all gonna die” hysteria that a lot of “experts” are spewing these days. Yes, the earth is entering a warming trend but as the online course says (talking about the initial settlement of Greenland by Eirik the Red who had murdered two men in a quarrel and was banished from Iceland:

Known as “E