This cat was found injured by a veterinarian and taken care of. It us recovered completely from its injuries.
Click on the pic for more information.
Month: June 2007
Women of the IDF
Let’s understand this. One of the things concerning people wanting to make aliyah to Israel is the mandatory military service.
Now, people will look forward to it.
Andrew Sullivan calls it Porn For Neocons, which is vaguely amusing.
BABES IN OY LAND SCUFFLE By ANDY SOLTIS
BABES IN OY LAND SCUFFLE
The New York post is trash, but I love their headlines.
By ANDY SOLTIS
June 19, 2007 — Israeli female legislators are baring their anger over what they call a “pornographic” tourism campaign – featuring a bikini-clad Israeli beauty queen.
The racy photo of 2004 Miss Israel winner Gal Gadot appears on formal invitations to an event hosted in New York tonight by the Israeli Consulate in conjunction with Maxim magazine.
The affair is to “celebrate” the magazine’s “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” article in the July issue.
But prominent Israeli women say using sex to market the Land of Milk and Honey is “an outrage.”
Former Consul-General Colette Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament, yesterday demanded an urgent meeting with the Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to get an explanation of what she called the “pornographic campaign,” the newspaper Yediot Achronoth reported.
The consulate in New York says the campaign is just seeking good demographics.
“We found that Israel’s image among men 18-38 is lacking,” David Saranga, consul for media and public affairs said.
“So we thought we’d approach them with an image they’d find appealing.”
That’s the wrong image, said Zahava Gal-On, a Knesset member and chairwoman of the Meretz Party.
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Missing Soldier’s Wife Faces Deportation
I am appalled.
Missing Soldier’s Wife Faces Deportation, As Military Searches For Kidnapped Soldier In Iraq, U.S. Threatens To Send Wife Back To Dominican Republic
(CBS/AP) While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government.Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo, whom he married in 2004.
Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said 23-year-old Hiraldo illegally entered the United States in 2001 to reunite with her husband, whom she had met in her native Dominican Republic and later married at his New York State Army base in 2004.
Her husband’s request for a green card and legal residence status for his wife alerted authorities to her status, Kolken said.
She now faces deportation, reports CBS station WBZ correspondent Beth Germano, and would be barred from applying for a green card for 10 years.
Her attorney is seeking a hardship waiver, which so far the government won’t grant.
“I can’t imagine a bigger injustice than that, to be deporting [the wife of] someone who is fighting and possibly dying for our country,” Kolken told WBZ.
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State Farm accused of Katrina racketeering
Ordinarily, I’m concerned about a misuse of the RICO statutes, but I think that “criminal enterprise” is a good description of insurance companies.
State Farm accused of Katrina racketeering
Federal lawsuit claims insurance company manipulated damage reports
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:39 p.m. ET June 20, 2007NEW ORLEANS – State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. engaged in a “pattern of racketeering” by manipulating engineering reports on Hurricane Katrina damage so the company could deny policyholder claims, lawyers for a group of Mississippi homeowners allege in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The federal suit against State Farm represents a new legal strategy for attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who has played a prominent role in challenging the insurance industry for its handling of Katrina claims.
Hundreds of homeowners in Mississippi and Louisiana have sued their insurers for denying their claims after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. The suits typically accuse insurers of bad faith and breach of contract for refusing to pay for damage from Katrina’s storm surge.
Wednesday’s lawsuit on behalf of Mississippi Gulf Coast homeowners is the first in which Scruggs and his legal team accused an insurer of violating the civil Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act, commonly known as RICO.
Scruggs, who helped negotiate a multibillion dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s, said he had filed similar civil RICO suits against tobacco companies. They are tougher cases to build, but can carry stiffer penalties, he added.
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I love Manual Transmissions.
But I’ve never thought of them as an anti theft device.
US car thieves floored by manual gearbox
By Lester Haines
Published Thursday 21st June 2007 10:06 GMTTwo US would-be car thieves failed dismally to make off with a Honda Accord after discovering it had a mysterious manual gearbox, RTÉ reports.
Having menaced the owner with a gun outside a pizza restaurant in Georgia, and relieved him of his wallet and car keys, the pair of teen master criminals prepared to make good their escape. However, according to an employee of the pizza outlet, “they could not start it because it had stick shift”.
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“Bloodbath” In Housing
The crash is here, it’s just not yet being reported on by the papers, because realtors buy too many ads.
Rate Rise Pushes Housing, Economy to `Blood Bath’
By Kathleen M. HowleyJune 20 (Bloomberg) — The worst is yet to come for the U.S. housing market.
The jump in 30-year mortgage rates by more than a half a percentage point to 6.74 percent in the past five weeks is putting a crimp on borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. The national median home price is poised for its first annual decline since the Great Depression, and the supply of unsold homes is at a record 4.2 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“It’s a blood bath,” said Mark Kiesel, executive vice president of Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., the manager of $668 billion in bond funds. “We’re talking about a two- to three-year downturn that will take a whole host of characters with it, from job creation to consumer confidence. Eventually it will take the stock market and corporate profit.”
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The increase in mortgage rates meant an 8% decrease in buying power in about a month.
Mortgage Woes `Tip of Iceberg,’ Bank of America Says
By Sebastian Boyd
June 22 (Bloomberg) — Losses in the U.S. mortgage market may be the “tip of the iceberg,” Bank of America Corp. analysts said today in a note for clients.
Higher interest rates have yet to affect many home owners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said. Interest payments on about $900 billion of the riskiest subprime home-loans are due to increase this year and next, the analysts wrote.
Bear Stearns Cos., the second-biggest underwriter of mortgage bonds, plans to assume $3.2 billion of loans to stop creditors from taking over assets of one of its hedge funds, people with knowledge of the proposal said. Concern about the collapse of the funds, which made bad bets on mortgage-backed securities, sent bonds and stocks of finance companies lower.
“The demise of two Bear Stearns managed leveraged mortgage funds could be the tipping point of a broader fallout from subprime mortgage credit deterioration,” wrote Bank of America analysts led by Robert Lacoursiere in New York.
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This is where the housing crash infects the rest of the financial markets.
News Flash, Harvard Graduates a Complete Moron
Let us just say that the writers at the Register are more deliciously snarkalicious than I ever could be.
Phyllis Schlafley, you raised a moron.
Need hard facts? Try Conservapedia
By Lester Haines
Published Wednesday 20th June 2007 10:50 GMTThe Wikipedians among you should take note that your days of punting liberal bias may be numbered. Enter stage right Conservapedia, a “conservative encyclopedia you can trust”, which has been enjoying a certain amount of attention stateside for its unashamedly and decidedly non-liberal content.
Conservapedia (Motto: “The truth shall set you free”) is the brainchild of Andy Schlafly, who was moved to act when “teaching a history class to home-schooled teens” and confronted with the term “BCE”, or “before the common era”, in one student’s assignment. “Where did that come from?” he asked, only to receive the chilling reply: “Wikipedia.”
At this moment, according to the LA Times, Schlafly “knew he had to act”. While Wikipedia was “written and edited by self-appointed experts worldwide” and “riddled with liberal bias”, it was also drier than a nun’s chuff in the Jesus Christ Our Lord department.
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Brits, meanwhile, will doubtless enjoy the entry on our very own Iron Lady, described as “a strong supporter of the the United States”, who was “a good friend of President Ronald Reagan”, and who united with him “in actions against the Communists”. Whether the latter is a reference to Nicaragua’s Sandinista government or the National Union of Mineworkers is not noted.
You have to love the snark on Maggie.
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The Stegosaurus, for example, was “a dinosaur with plates on its back and spines on its tail”. The entry continues: “Some creationists believe the spines on its tail were to stop other dinosaurs from treading on it before the Fall.”Hmmm. Here’s more:
Young Earth Creationists believe, based primarily on Biblical sources, that dinosaurs were created on day 6 of the creation week, approximately 6,000 years ago, along with other land animals, and therefore co-existed with humans. As such, they reject the Theory of Evolution and the beliefs of evolutionary scientists about the age of the earth.
Bootnote
We at El Reg are looking forward to the final, Ragnarök (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k)-style confrontation between Conservapedia, RationalWiki and Wikipedia. The outcome of this titanic battle will be decided by either natural selection or according to God’s will, depending on which one of them is really telling the truth.
This Isn’t Rupublican Criminality, Just Thuggery and Stupidity
Foll the links from the Fla Politics blog. It appears that the Lt. Gov (himself, not an aide) went to the FPC Wiki on him, and whitewashed the entry.
It would appear that the moron had no idea what an “audit trail” was.
A Quick Post on Republithug Criminality.
Guiliani adviser is a priest suspended for allegations of child abuse.
This is in addition to his SC campaign chair dealing cocaine.
Catholic Church to Abandon Italy
Seriously. Sane driving in Italy is about as likely as a corruption free Washington, DC, or a profanity free New York city.
The only way the Catholic Church can follow these rules is to leave Rome.
Forgive me, Father, for I have tailgated
For L.A. drivers already in gridlock hell, Vatican’s new road commandments strike little fear.
By Bob Pool and Tami Abdollah, Times Staff Writers
June 21, 2007n a city that worships the automobile, it may take divine intervention to get motorists to live by the Vatican’s new Ten Commandments for drivers.
That was the view of motorists as they contemplated “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road” — and whether it was faster Wednesday morning taking the 5 or the 101 between the San Fernando Valley and downtown.
The new road rules call for “courtesy, uprightness and prudence” and condemns the use of cars as “an expression of power and domination” or for sinful purposes.
But while some drivers acknowledged they pray that they’ll find a parking space, they wondered if Vatican guidelines are really the solution to stopping that black Hummer from tailgating on the Santa Monica Freeway.
This week, the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers issued commandments, along with a suggestion that drivers perform the sign of the cross before switching on the ignition. It also recommended reciting the Catholic rosary, whose “rhythm and gentle repetition does not distract the driver’s attention,” as the council put it.
Roadways “shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm,” states the second commandment.
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Swedish man gets benefits for Black Sabbath addiction
Ummmm….I gots to get me to Sweden
Swedish man gets benefits for Black Sabbath addiction
By Jan Libbenga
Published Wednesday 20th June 2007 12:52 GMTA Swedish man is to receive sickness benefits for his addiction to heavy metal music.
The lifestyle of 42-year-old dishwasher Roger Tullgren from Hässleholm in southern Sweden has been classified as a disability by the Swedish Employment Service, which has agreed to pay part of Tullgren’s salary, and his new boss has given him special dispensation to play loud music at work.
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Gripen to get AESA
I’ve always thought that the Gripen has the possibility of being the Mirage III of its generation, as it is the smallest, cheapest, and cheapest to operate of the 4th generation aircraft.
Gripen to get AESA in mid-life upgrade
Keeping pace with the technology trend, Saab’s JAS39 Gripen is to be fitted with a multi-channel active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, likely to be introduced under a planned mid-life upgrade (MLU) that could come along as early as 2010.Development of the AESA radar for Gripen started out under the Saab Ericsson NORA (Not Only a RAdar) programme, and has been underway for several years, including test flying aboard a specially-retained Saab JA-37 Viggen testbed. One of the main benefits of the NORA concept was the provision of improved long-range tracking as a result of the combination of longer detection range and electronically-steered beam control. The AESA radar programme is directly linked to MIDAS (Multifunction Integrated Defensive Avionics System), which will also add electronic attack and advanced datalinking capabilities.
Aerion refines supersonic business jet
I find it rather odd that they are using a 43 year old engine on a supersonic jet. The JT8D first flew in in64.
PICTURE: Aerion refines supersonic business jet design
Aerion has enlarged the cabin of its supersonic business jet as it continues to fine tune the design in a bid to reassure potential manufacturing partners that the aircraft will achieve its weight and performance targets.Meanwhile the forward fuselage has been reshaped to increase cabin height and width and improve the cockpit and windshield design.
The aft fuselage has been stretched and the tail shrunk to improve take-off performance and reduce weight and cruise drag.
Electrical and pneumatic system architectures have been studied in conjunction with United Technologies, while fuel system layout and sizing has been performed by Argo-Tech under contract to Aerion.
Engine reliability, operability and noise have been studied with Pratt & Whitney, manufacturer of the aircraft’s JT8D-219 turbofans, and Aerion says the inlet and nozzle designs are ready for a series of subscale noise and performance validation tests.
Aerion has still to decide how to validate the design tools developed to predict the extent of supersonic natural laminar flow achieved in flight, and critical to meeting the performance targets.
The company conducted supersonic rocket-sled tests last year, but encountered problems (Flight International, 17-23 October 2006).
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God Bless the Internet
Today, I’ve spent over an hour with my wife on the phone. My parents are in DC, so my wife and kids had lunch with them.
They had a lot of fun.
But……
It was her first time driving in Washington, DC alone EVER.
So, on the way in, and on the way out, she was calling me on her cell, and I was Map Questing (actually, Yahoo, since they have an address book) furiously. She’s on her way home.
I’m getting kosher Chinese takeout, David Chu’s…Yum!!!!
Merrill takes over $800 million Bear hedge fund assets – Jun. 20, 2007
I’ve post dated this a bit, because this is Very important, so it will be on the top of the list until about 5pm today.
The hedge funds are typically Highly leveraged, which means that this could start a house of cards type collapse.
Merrill takes over $800 million Bear hedge fund assets
A plan to restructure Bear Stearns’ funds heavily invested in securities backed by subprime mortgages gets thrown into doubt.
June 20 2007: 7:31 PM EDTLONDON (CNNMoney.com) — Merrill Lynch has seized about $800 million of assets from troubled hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns, throwing in doubt the chances that the funds will survive.
By late Wednesday, Merrill Lynch had sold enough of the assets, which were used as collateral for loans made to the two funds, to cover its exposure to the ailing funds, the news agency Reuters reported.
The assets were were mainly bonds backed by other securities. More asset sales are expected Thursday.
Merrill Lynch (Charts, Fortune 500) declined to comment. Bear Stearns (Charts, Fortune 500) was not immediately available for comment.
The two funds suffered double-digit losses through April after making bad bets on securities backed by subprime loans, according to Reuters. The subprime market, which gives home loans to borrowers with weak credit, has been roiled by rising defaults.
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I’m wondering if this might not take down Bear Stearns the same way that Barings Bank was taken down.
Papillon for the 21st Century
This story is ummmm….Electrifying?
Lag caught with phone charger up jacksie
By Lester Haines
Published Wednesday 20th June 2007 11:07 GMTA lag at Swaleside Prison on the Isle of Sheppey was caught with an entire phone charger up his jacksie after officers noticed his “discomfort” during a search of his cell, The Sun reports.
The appropriately-named Tony Pile, 22, serving a life stretch for “beating a man to death in a race hate attack in 2005”, was collared during a sweep aimed at cracking down on drug and phone smuggling into the Kent chokey.
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Yes, I know…cheap joke.
Marketplace: Some assembly still required at Boeing
And here we see the difference between Boeing and Airbus.
Airbus made its problems public as soon a they showed up.
Some assembly still required at Boeing
Boeing got a $9 billion order today, mostly for its new 787 Dreamliner aircraft. But the company’s having some problems as it prepares to deliver the jet. Jeremy Hobson reports.Kai Ryssdal: The Paris Air Show’s in full swing this week. It’s an every-other-year aviation spectacular that functions as one big sales pitch for airplane makers.
And the pitch has been very good for Boeing. Today, the company got a nine billion dollar order from the world’s largest aircraft leasing company. Mostly the new 787 Dreamliners.
But Jeremy Hobson reports Boeing’s having a couple of teeny tiny problems as it prepares to deliver the jet.
Jeremy Hobson: You can’t make an airplane without fasteners — you know, the nuts and bolts that hold, say, the wings to the body of the plane.
Boeing needs special new ones for its Dreamliner, since the plane is not made out of aluminum like most aircraft. But the primary supplier, Alcoa, isn’t making the fasteners quick enough.
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Boeing: Boeing Completes First Flight of A160T Hummingbird Unmanned Helicopter
Obviously, this is a Boeing press release, and should be viewed as such, but it bears watching, particularly their variable speed rotor technology.
Boeing: Boeing Completes First Flight of A160T Hummingbird Unmanned Helicopter
LE BOURGET, France, June 18, 2007 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] successfully completed the first flight of the A160T Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft June 15 from an airfield near Victorville, Calif.
The A160T, a turbine-powered version of the innovative piston-powered A160 helicopter, features unmatched range, endurance, payload and altitude for an unmanned rotorcraft.
“Today’s Hover-In-Ground Effect flight is our first step in providing the warfighter the key element of our approach to providing persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage that only an unmanned helicopter of this type can provide,” said Jim Martin, Boeing Advanced Systems A160 program manager, after the flight.
During the 12-minute hover flight to verify vehicle and subsystem operation, the A160T met all test objectives and collected extensive flight control, propulsion and subsystem operation data.
The test marked the 37th flight overall for the A160 program and the first in a series of flights that will demonstrate endurance levels greater than 18 hours. The aircraft used during the tests is the first of 10 A160Ts Boeing Advanced Systems is building for the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency and the U.S. Special Operations Command.
The Hummingbird features a unique optimum speed rotor technology that significantly improves overall performance efficiency by adjusting the rotor system’s revolutions per minute at different altitudes, gross weights and cruise speeds. The autonomous unmanned aircraft, measuring 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diameter, eventually will fly more than 140 knots with a ceiling of 25,000 to 30,000 ft. (high hover capability up to 15,000 ft.) for up to 20 hours. Operational A160Ts will be capable of persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; target acquisition; direct action; communication relay and precision re-supply missions.
Duncan Hunter Tied to Duke Cunningham Aircraft Project
We know that Cunningham would not try to move his own mother’s bill through congress unless there was graft in it for him.
So, What did Duncan Hunter get from DuPont Aerospace?
Cunningham helped Hunter push for locally made jet
Congress reviewing funding for plane Pentagon rejected
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERJune 16, 2007
Four months after Randy “Duke” Cunningham entered Congress in 1991, he joined with Rep. Duncan Hunter to urge the Pentagon to buy an aircraft that became the focus of a congressional investigation this week.
The DP-2 Vectored Thrust Aircraft, developed by duPont Aerospace in La Jolla, received $63 million in congressional funding despite repeated Pentagon studies that criticized the vehicle as being unsafe and unworkable.
After 20 years of testing, the aircraft has never flown and has never received a positive review from the military, prompting an investigation by the House Science and Technology Committee.
Funding for the aircraft was spearheaded by Hunter, R-Alpine, and former Rep. Christopher Cox, who now leads the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In 1990, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, issued a scathing report on the DP-2. DARPA found that the jet had poor stability and serious safety issues. Among other things, the jet’s engines created dust storms that could erode visibility; its long-range fueling system was “unadvisable”; and its stealth capabilities – which Hunter cited as a major reason for supporting the project – made it only “marginally more survivable” than other aircraft.
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DARPA scramjet nudges Mach 10 | The Register
It should be noted that DARPA is late to this game. Most of the heaby lifting was done by the DSTO before the US DoD got involved.
The US has a number of FAR MOER EXPENSIVE projects in this area that have not gotten to this point.
By Lester Haines
Published Monday 18th June 2007 09:26 GMTAustralia’s Woomera Test Facility last Friday hosted the successful launch and firing of a scramjet engine which reached speeds of “up to Mach 10”, the country’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) has announced.
The HyCAUSE vehicle – a joint project between DSTO, the US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Australian Hypersonics Initiative (AHI)- took off atop a TALOS rocket and reached a heady 530km before firing its way to around 11,000km/h (6,800mph), according to Oz’s parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Defence, Peter Lindsay.
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