Don’t know the original source.
Month: June 2007
MiG-35 Details Given
My money is on India going with Russia, they already have a lot fo the support infrastructure there.
Also note that the Mig-35, Su-27 variants, Typhoon, Rafale, and Gripen are all offering AESA upgrades.
The USAF is billing as a great ace in the hole, and it seems not so tough to do.
Bangalore air show: MiG-35 makes debut at Aero India
RSK MiG chose Aero India to display the MiG-35 publicly for the first time. A land-based version of the Indian navy’s MiG-29KUB, the aircraft was first flown last month. The MiG-35 is being offered to meet the Indian air force’s requirement for 126 multirole fighters.
…
The MiG-35 is first Russian aircraft fitted with an active electronically scanned array radar. The Phazotron-NIIR Zhuk-MA was publicly revealed by removing the aircraft’s nosecone. The Zhuk-MA’s antenna consists of 160 modules, each with four receive-and-transmit modules. It is believed to offer a 160km (85nm) air target detection radius and 300km for surface ships. ….
The MiG-35 is powered by two RD-33MKBs that can be fitted with KliVT swivel-nozzles and a thrust vectoring control (TVC) system. …..
Good News: Immigration Bill Takes Body Blow
Quite frankly, I’m not concerned about amnesty.
I object to the slave labor guest worker program. It’s a deal breaker for me.
I also think that the wall is bull$%#@. 30% of illegals overstay visas, and the draw is employers.
Strong anti-employer measures is what is needed.
Additionally, this is a Bush loss, and makes him even more toxic, which might help in getting us out of Iraq.
Yes, I am suggesting that absent a need to pass any bill right now, it’s best to take Bush a notch.
We can do something with a Dem in the WH.
Senate immigration bill suffers crushing defeat
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush’s immigration bill suffered a crushing defeat Thursday in the Senate, when members voted against advancing the controversial legislation.A final tally for the vote has not yet been announced.
The bill would provides a path to citizenship for some of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and toughens border security.
If the bill fails, supporters and opponents of the controversial legislation claim there is no way to bring it back before this Congress ends.
Senators voting against cutting off debate and referring the bill for a final vote. The cloture vote required a three-fifths majority, or 60 votes.
…..
First completed Boeing 787 leaves assembly hall for paint shop-27/06/2007-Flightglobal.com
My money is that there will be some delays in deliveries of the aircraft, and then the bankers wringing their hands over Airbus, will whine about boeing.
PICTURES: First completed Boeing 787 leaves assembly hall for paint shop
Flightglobal.com has obtained pictures of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner headed for the paint shop earlier this week at Boeing’s assembly plant in Everett, Washington. The aircraft is scheduled to be formally rolled out on 8 July (7/8/7 using the US date convention) and fly for the first time in August or September. Entry into service with launch customer, All Nippon Airways, is slated for next May.
…
Toles on Cheney
Coulter’s words help Edwards raise cash
If I ever run for office, I’m going to need to call Ann Coulter a c*cks*ck*r.
Coulter’s words help Edwards raise cash
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press WriterThu Jun 28, 1:33 AM ET
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Wednesday encouraged his supporters to donate to his campaign in response to “hateful” comments from conservative author Ann Coulter.
Edwards made his first comments to The Associated Press in response to Coulter’s suggestion that she wished he would be “killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” His campaign cited her remarks in two e-mails and a telephone text message to supporters for donations, with the fundraising deadline on Saturday.
It’s not the first time Coulter has given the Edwards campaign a financial boost. In March, she called Edwards a “faggot” and the campaign used video of the comment to help raise $300,000 before the end of the first quarter.
In the e-mails, the campaign asked supporters to send donations to defy her remarks and help Edwards meet his goal of raising $9 million in the second quarter. The first e-mail from campaign adviser Joe Trippi showed a clip of Coulter on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where she made the comments on Monday.
..
Some Interesting News for Al Gore Watchers
I’m just putting this out, that’s all.
My guess is that there were either translation errors, or that Tien is reading too much in between the lines.
This is not something that would leak out in Taiwan first.
My sign that Al Gore is running will be if he is literally running, you know, doing the treadmill, getting slimmed down for the campaign, etc.
…
ENVIRONMENT
Al Gore visit postponed
Former US vice president Al Gore will not be able to make it to Taiwan this September to address the issue of global warming, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said yesterday. Tien, who invited Gore to visit Taiwan to promote awareness on global warming, told reporters yesterday that she received an e-mail from the Harry Walker Agency, which has the exclusive right to arrange Gore’s speeches, saying that Gore had canceled all his scheduled events in the next six months. The visit to Taiwan had been postponed to next year, she added. Tien said the reason for the cancelation was that Gore was considering a presidential bid.
For the Record, I’ve Never Been THIS Drunk
Damn, that’s the 2nd drunkest that I’ve ever heard of.
Man mistakes straw bale for stricken woman, gives it CPR
By Daniel Brownstein
A Hilton Head Island man confused bales of pine straw with a dead woman, and tried to resuscitate them early Tuesday morning, according to a sheriff’s report.
The 39-year-old called deputies to the parking lot of Hilton Head Cabanas, 32 South Forest Beach Drive, at 1:49 a.m., saying he had just tried to perform CPR on a dead woman, according to the sheriff’s report.
They arrived to find him talking to a large bale of pine straw.
When asked where the woman was, he pointed to the straw, the report stated.
…..
Billo Is Now Calling 16 Year Olds Names
Classy, ClaSSY guy, Bill O’Reilly is
Olbermann, who completely 0X/||$(owns) this guy, tipped me off on this.
So today, Billo is our Wanker of the day.
You’ve GOT to Be Kidding Me!!!!
6 Months late on this breaking story, but at least he’s not singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
Shatner Sells Kidney Stone
Star Trek star William Shatner sold a kidney stone to an online casino for $25,000 to benefit charity, the Reuters news service reported.Shatner, who played Capt. James T. Kirk, sold the stone to GoldenPalace.com, and proceeds of the sale will go to Habitat for Humanity.
Shatner told Reuters that it wasn’t easy parting with a kidney stone, even if it had already left his body. He also said he would never sell unless he had visitation rights. “When I was contacted about selling my kidney stone to GoldenPalace.com for an original price of $15,000, I turned it down, knowing that my tunics from Star Trek have commanded more than $100,000,” Shatner said, adding that he countered by offering to sell the ring-sized stone for $25,000.
….
Your Ears Will Bleed, and So Will Your Eyes
Possibility of rectal bleeding too.
I’d rather hear Nimoy do the Ballad of Frodo, Or Shatner do “Rocketman”.
It’s the Goatse of music videos.
Where Housing is Right Now
I’ve post dated this a bit, because I think that it is a wonderful picture, and really shows where this all comes from.
The source of this picture is the Irvine Housing Blog’s Article, Houses Should Not Be a Commodity, which I found care of Peter Viles’s LA Land Blog.
It is accompanied by well written descriptions of the stages, which are analogous to the stages of grief.
About the only thing I differ with this at all is that I believe that the overshoot on the downside will be much worse. It may not be recorded in house sales though, as the market is likely to become largely illiquid, so you will simply be stuck with your home and mortgage debt.
In the Irvine blog, the basic point is that when housing simply becomes a traded commodity, it does far more harm than good. It creates wild swings in prices driven by speculators, that alternately price people out of, or wipe out, people attempting to obtain a stable necessity.
Speculation in the housing market gets you here: 
Image from the Irvine blog.
He has a somehwat more informative picture too:
This scary picture is an artifact as housing as volatile speculatively traded commodity. People use sophisticated instruments to buy into a speculative bubble, because of the desire to purchase a rapidly appreciating comodity, and for fear of permanently being priced out if they do not purchase immediately.
Karl Auerbach on ICANN
I agree with Mr. Auerbach. ICANN is not much good for anything but collecting fees.
About the only good thing to come out of it this far was that it showed up Esther Dyson for being a poseur.
Read the Interview.
ICANN is the USSR of the internet – Karl Auerbach speaks out
HP Ships Hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD Drives
I’m still betting (for bragging rights only) on HD-DVD, and it’s interesting that a Blue-ray early adopter, HP, is now hedging its bets.
This runs the opposite indication as Blockbuster’s decision to go Blue-ray.
FWIW, my advice is to sit tight until one or the other conclusively wins in the next 18-24 months.
HP coughs up surprise update to desktop PC range
By Kelly Fiveash
Published Tuesday 26th June 2007 11:46 GMTHP has quietly snuck through an update to its home desktop PC range with the computer giant now officially shipping its media centre systems with hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD drives.
The firm has added the drives to both its Intel (m8010y) and AMD (m8100e) processor-powered Pavilion media centre models.
HP’s decision to adopt the Blu-ray format, which is already backed by Sony as well as many of the Hollywood studios, alongside high definition DVD could satisfy consumers who are stuck with having to make a choice between the two competing formats.
…
Now THIS is Customer Service
It would appear that I’m not the only one sick to death of iPhone mania. I just want my phone to complete calls.
Tired of iPhone and/or Apple news on Engadget?
Ok, we’ll level with you. It’s our job to cover the gadgets and consumer electronics space the best we possibly can — and that often includes covering gadgets that one crowd or another isn’t particularly interested in. (See: iPod fans when we blew the door off the Zune launch; or Microsoft fans when we took over WWDC this year.)
So here’s the straight dope: it’s not like we’re going to ignore the iPhone or anything, so for those of you told us you wanted to opt out of our iPhone or Apple coverage, we hear ya! We whipped up some slightly modified Engadget RSS feeds with Yahoo Pipes; we wouldn’t suggest using these forever, but until we get our blog platform up to speed on exclusionary news it’s a good enough temporary solution.
Opt out of Apple / iPhone news
Engadget classic without any iPhone news – RSS feed, Pipes page
Engadget classic without any Apple news – RSS feed, Pipes pageEngadget Mobile without any iPhone news – RSS feed, Pipes page
Engadget Mobile without any Apple news – RSS feed, Pipes page
….
More Bad Housing News
Note that existing home sales lag 1-2 months behind new home sales, because the latter is recorded when the offer is accepted, and the former when the property closes.
Also note that new home sales do not include cancellations, which are not a part of the stats generally.
New home sales fall more than expected in May.
May reading shows ongoing slump at start of key selling season; prices fall; April sales revised lower.
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
June 26 2007: 11:10 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — New home sales posted a surprising drop at the start of the crucial spring selling season in May – the latest sign that the battered housing market could have a ways to go before hitting bottom.
The pace of new home sales fell 1.6 percent to an annual rate of 915,000 last month, the Census Bureau reported, from April’s 930,000 pace, which itself was revised lower. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a rate of 925,000.
While sales picked up from the early part of the year, they tumbled 15.8 percent from May 2006 – marking the 18th straight month of year-over-year declines.
Columnist proud member of Slimed by O’Reilly Club: HeraldTimesOnline.com
I had a similar experience once. I was the subject of a front page editorial of the Black student paper at U. Mass, Nummo News.
I did not realize this until I got numerous high-5s at the student senate meeting that day.
Columnist proud member of Slimed by O’Reilly Club
By Mike Leonard H-T columnist
June 26, 2007
PHILADELPHIA — I didn’t win the prestigious Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award last weekend at the 31st annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.That honor went to Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune.
I didn’t win the next-most revered prize, the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award, which recognizes a columnist whose good works extend beyond the printed page.
That went to Mike Harden of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.
I didn’t win anything, actually. No prizes in the “general interest,” “humor” or “items” categories. Not even the enigmatic “Jeff Kramer Mystic Memorial Tie,” which is presented to the columnist who comes up with the most over-the-top example of intentionally bad writing in a competition staged during the conference.
But I can brag that no one at the annual columnists’ conference received more pats on the back, hearty handshakes and “Way to go!” congratulations.
I got slimed by Fox News program host Bill O’Reilly. It was a little like having a skunk tell you that you smell bad. Many of my colleagues expressed envy.
Each year, columnists who attend the conference submit one column for inclusion in a booklet distributed to attendees. Knowing that the bombastic host of “The O’Reilly Factor” would be a speaker at the conference, I mischievously offered up a May column I’d written concerning the Fox News host. Basically, the column was about the blowback from O’Reilly and Fox after Indiana University researchers analyzed more than 100 episodes of “The O’Reilly Factor” and concluded that the program host is a propagandist whose techniques are “heavier” and “less nuanced” than the notorious 1930s radio commentator Father Charles Coughlin.
Frankly, I didn’t expect O’Reilly to read the columnists’ booklet. But I was thrilled to see that he’d ripped my handiwork out of the bound volume and carried it up to the lectern with him. Roughly 13 minutes into his address and after repeated admonitions that people hate us, O’Reilly asked if Mike Leonard of the Hoosier Times was in the audience. (Stories printed off our Web site indicate they are copyrighted by the Hoosier Times, the parent company of the Bloomington, Bedford and Martinsville papers).
“Sorry, Mike, but you’re a dishonest guy in this column,” O’Reilly charged.
“Right back at you, Bill,” I shouted.
O’Reilly went on to deride the IU study, using the same rhetorical tools the study exposed: name-calling, distortion and inferences that lead his viewers to unfair and imbalanced conclusions.
He claimed, for example, that Fox has a “brain room” where researchers meticulously analyze information for and about Fox News. He said they studied the IU research and reported the following:
“The first few times they submitted the study, Mike, it was rejected. Rejected!” O’Reilly said. “The methodology was faulty, all right?”
…
Google: This is Enlightened Self Interest
Not a return to their policy of “don’t be evil”.
They will still keep your data for as they possibly can. Thankfully, the European Union is putting some limits on this.
Google seeks U.S. government support in fighting Internet censorship abroad
Associated Press
Article Launched: 06/22/2007 11:27:09 AM PDTWASHINGTON – Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide.
The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers, similar to other hurdles to global commerce, such as tariffs.
Google sees the dramatic increase in government Net censorship, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, as a potential threat to its advertising-driven business model, and wants government officials to consider the issue in economic, rather than just political, terms.
“It’s fair to say that censorship is the No. 1 barrier to trade that we face,” said Andrew McLaughlin, Google’s director of public policy and government affairs. A Google spokesman said Monday that McLaughlin has met with officials from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office several times this year to discuss the issue.
…
Is Opera Software In Trouble?
Generally, this sort of shakeup does not occur in a vacuum.
Disclosure: I do NOT use their software.
Norway’s Opera Software reshuffles board after power struggle
Associated Press
Article Launched: 06/22/2007 01:02:56 PM PDTOSLO, Norway – Key shareholders in Opera Software ASA have reshuffled the board of directors after a reported power struggle between board members and the company’s chief executive and founder, Jon S. von Tetzchner.
Five of the seven board members, including chairman Nils A. Foldal, were fired at a shareholder’s meeting Thursday, company spokesman Tor Odland said Friday.
They were replaced by three new board members, and the total number of board members was reduced to five.
Norwegian business daily Dagens Naeringsliv reported that the move came after the ousted board members failed to remove Tetzchner as head of the company, which makes Web browsers for personal computers, mobile phones and personal digital assistants.
The paper reported that the board was growing impatient with Tetzchner because of the company’s poor performance – the share price has dropped more than 50 percent in the past year.
The chief executive declined to comment on the power struggle but told Dagens Naeringsliv he had no plans to step down.
“I feel that I have an important job for the company, shareholders and the board,” Tetzchner was quoted as saying.
…
Criminals in Journalism
This guy moved to a competitor, and stole proprietary data. He thought he could get away with it because of who his father is (see last paragraph).
I’ve always thought that the large corporate media chains were pond scum, and now it is confirmed.
Ridder says he shared Pioneer Press data
Publisher denies breaking noncompete pact
BY JENNIFER BJORHUS
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 06/25/2007 09:46:57 PM CDTStar Tribune Publisher Par Ridder acknowledged taking confidential financial information from his former employer, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, to his new job at the Minneapolis paper; separately, he insisted his noncompete agreement with the Pioneer Press had been waived, making him free to go.
Ridder’s videotaped testimony, played Monday in Ramsey County District Court, started a three-day hearing for a temporary injunction against Ridder’s employment at the Star Tribune. The Pioneer Press has sued the Star Tribune over Ridder’s departure in March and is seeking to hold Ridder and two other former Pioneer Press employees to their noncompete agreements, barring them from working at the rival paper for one year.
In addition to determining whether the noncompete agreements are valid, Ramsey County District Court Judge David Higgs must decide whether the spreadsheets Ridder allegedly purloined constitute trade secrets. The judge also must decide whether the Pioneer Press will be irreparably harmed by the Star Tribune’s having them.
In a brief filed last week, the Star Tribune argued that the noncompete contracts aren’t binding. It also argued that the electronic data Ridder and the other employees took may have been sensitive but weren’t all that important. The Star Tribune said it didn’t use the data and it didn’t hurt the Pioneer Press.
…
Ridder said it was “inappropriate” for him to have taken Pioneer Press personnel paperwork – the disputed noncompete agreements – from the Pioneer Press building. He also said he told his new bosses at the Star Tribune “that I would do this differently,” referring to loading up his laptop with confidential Pioneer Press financial information and then distributing it via e-mail to top executives at the Star Tribune.
…
Ridder testified that after speaking with Cartalucca about how to handle the paperwork, he called his father for advice. Ridder’s father is Tony Ridder, former CEO of the dismantled Knight Ridder newspaper chain.
…