...As the bombs fell, Marwa decided to take her sister Adra and run from the house. When you ask her why, where she was running to, she shakes her head thoughtfully as though shaking off the memory of the noise, and confusion and terror.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21703819
She and Adra were just running to get away from the noise, chased by the sound of the explosions. She remembers running and running. And then there was one final explosion.
Adra, who was only eight years old, was dead.
And Marwa would never run anywhere ever again...
MOSCOW, Mar. 17, 2013 (Reuters) — A change in the United States plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe will not prompt Russia to drop its opposition to the system, a senior lawmaker allied to President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.The missile defense shield is to protect against Iran and North Korea.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday the Pentagon would add 14 new anti-missile interceptors in Alaska, among others, after North Korea had threatened a preemptive nuclear strike against the United States.
To free up funds for that, U.S. officials said they were forgoing development of a new interceptor that would have been deployed in central eastern Europe and has been a focus of Russia's concern that the shield would weaken its nuclear deterrent.
But Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign committee in the Russian parliament's lower house, the State Duma, said the change would not dispel Moscow's concerns about the missile shield the United States and NATO are developing in Europe.
The main purpose of the Semantic Web is driving the evolution of the current Web by enabling users to find, share, and combine information more easily. Humans are capable of using the Web to carry out tasks such as finding the Estonian translation for "twelve months", reserving a library book, and searching for the lowest price for a DVD. However, machines cannot accomplish all of these tasks without human direction, because web pages are designed to be read by people, not machines. The semantic web is a vision of information that can be readily interpreted by machines, so machines can perform more of the tedious work involved in finding, combining, and acting upon information on the web.For "semantics" read "meaning".
The Semantic Web, as originally envisioned, is a system that enables machines to "understand" and respond to complex human requests based on their meaning. Such an "understanding" requires that the relevant information sources be semantically structured.
Tim Berners-Lee originally expressed the vision of the Semantic Web as follows:[12]
We have had "intelligent agents" forever - agents who did our vision quests for us: groups and clever minds who have stepped in between us and the mysteries and truths.I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A "Semantic Web", which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The "intelligent agents" people have touted for ages will finally materialize.
President Barack Obama told House Democrats this week that it’s better to make changes to entitlement programs when a Democrat is in office rather than risk doing so under a Republican chief executive, according to two lawmakers who attended...
...the centerpiece of Ryan’s budget plan is a proposal to revamp Medicare by giving people now younger than 55 fixed sums with which to buy either private insurance or to use in Medicare. Either way, their benefits would be capped under his plan, which would be a significant shift in how the currently open-ended program operates
House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said Obama is “going to hold hostage” needed changes to entitlements by insisting on tax increases as part of an agreement.
“It’s not going to get us very far,” Boehner told reporters after House Republicans’ March 13 meeting with Obama.
Urasawa, the rave-inspiring Beverly Hills sushi restaurant where the average check is $1,111, is being fined many times that amount over labor violations.----
California Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su wrote in a citation that the eatery will face a $65,785 fine. Three workers are owed $38,585 in unpaid wages after being told to work in excess of 10 hours a day without overtime pay, according to the citation...
February 13, 2013 – In an interview with WND’s “Radio America” program, National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent states, “Defiance is the heart and soul of the American experiment in self-government. We had to defy the king. We had to defy the emperor. We had to defy the tyrants, and sometimes we had to meet them at Concord Bridge and blow their brains out. I like defiance.”http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline
Israeli protesters hold portraits of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Jewish-American spy Jonathan Pollard during a protest in front of the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv on July 17, 2012 to call for the release of the spy. (JACK GUEZ / AFP / Getty Images)
In advance of President Obama’s scheduled March 20 visit, Israeli society at every level is waging an unprecedented, all-out public effort to press for the release of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. The past month has seen figures as diverse as President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, far-right Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin and former Hamas hostage Gilad Shalit calling on Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served and set him free. So has the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the massive international Jewish charity. More than 150,000 Israelis have signed an online petition calling for his release. The Knesset held a special debate in his honor on March 6.
Pollard’s case has been a cause celebre in Israel and the organized Jewish world since his arrest in 1985. A civilian analyst with U.S. Naval Intelligence, he had volunteered his information services to Israel in June 1984, believing, as he later claimed, that America was withholding data vital to Israel’s security. Arrested 17 months later, he pleaded guilty in return for leniency, but received a life sentence for reasons that remain murky and hotly contested. Some activist American Jews began calling in the early 1990s for his sentence to be reduced, claiming life imprisonment for spying for an ally was unprecedented and unjustified. Israel, after initially calling it a “rogue operation,” admitted in 1998 that Pollard had worked for a little-known intelligence agency and asked for his release. Every president since then has been asked and refused.
Pollard’s advocates are a sometimes-uneasy coalition of far-rightists who view him as a Jewish martyr, if not a hero, and moderates who see his severe sentence as unfair. Opponents of his release say that while only a handful of American spies have received life sentences, few have ever compromised so vast a trove of highly sensitive information. The two sides also argue back and forth over whether he was motivated by ideals or money....
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Sunday defended the actions of his country's security forces following a public uproar over the mysterious death of a man who apparently hanged himself while being held secretly in a maximum-security prison.
Israel has said little about the case. But Australian media have said the man, identified as Ben Zygier, was an Australian immigrant to Israel who served in the Mossad spy agency at the time of his death in December 2010. Zygier reportedly was imprisoned for unspecified security offenses.
In his first comments on the affair, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he "completely trusts" Israel's security forces and legal system. He said that freedom of expression is important, but Israel faces extraordinary threats and therefore must keep silent on some details of national security affairs like this one.
"We are not like all other countries," Netanyahu told his Cabinet. "We are more threatened, more challenged, and therefore we have to ensure the proper activity of our security forces."
"Allow the security forces to work quietly so we can continue to live securely and safely," he added.
The affair, suppressed by Israeli authorities until Australia's national broadcaster broke the story last week, has shined a rare spotlight on the murky dealings of the Mossad and brought scrutiny on Israel's system of military censorship and gag orders.
Yahoo News 03/15/2013Critics have accused the Israeli government of trying to cover up the affair and are demanding a full investigation, fueling a debate about balancing national security and freedom of information in a country that prides itself as a vibrant democracy. Israeli officials have said that while the matter was kept from the public, the prisoner was given legal representation and maintained contact with his family...
NEW YORK, Mar. 14, 2013 (Reuters) — The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said.http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre92d0pg-us-iraq-war-anniversary/
"Action needed to be taken," said Steven Bucci, the military assistant to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the run-up to the war and today a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think-tank.
Bucci, who was unconnected to the Watson study, agreed with its observation that the forecasts for the cost and duration of the war proved to be a tiny fraction of the real costs.Everyone with a brain knew that a war based on lies was an affront to God. It was obvious that a great retribution would overtake us; 2008 was just the beginning. We are digging the holes deeper in Syria. We have learned nothing. Our arrogance is complete.
"If we had had the foresight to see how long it would last and even if it would have cost half the lives, we would not have gone in," Bucci said. "Just the time alone would have been enough to stop us. Everyone thought it would be short.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker... is soon to run head on, or rear on, into the buzz saw that is the angry Ojibwe woman in full out defense mode.and the damage which is foreseen by the bill's proponents:
He and his fellow Republicans have finally pushed a mining bill through the legislature that will allow the creation of a huge open pit iron ore mine just south of the Bad River Ojibwe reservation on the shores of Lake Superior. A similar bill was narrowly defeated in 2011, igniting some of the most vocal environmental protests that the state has seen in years. (See my stories for the Yonder and Indian Country Today Media Network for more background.) The Republican dominated assembly and senate, however, redrafted the bill that handily passed both houses this week. Gov. Walker is expected to sign the legislation this week and probably anticipates smooth sailing for the much-touted jobs bill.
Republicans maintain that by diminishing current mining laws, the new bill will help create jobs in the economically depressed northern part of the state. Tribal members and concerned citizens, however, argue that the proposed open pit iron mine will pose serious environmental hazards to the water, wildlife and quality of life in this pristine woodland. Indeed, the language in the new law presumes damage to wetlands and includes a mitigation plan that Democrats argue is not viable.
Gov. Scott Walker's comments Thursday to The Business Journal in Milwaukee are typical: “We are going to go forward with a permitting process that still protects our natural resources. It’s incredibly important to tourism, it’s important to agriculture and timber in (northern Wisconsin). We’re not going to do something that jeopardizes that.”
But the main author of the controversial mining bill that's moving quickly through the Republican-led state Legislature admitted otherwise on Thursday.
And, with numerous groups already vowing to challenge the bill in court, Sen. Tom Tiffany also acknowledged that changes were made to the legislation to put the state on stronger legal ground to withstand such a challenge.
“The bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body,” said Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst. “If the law is challenged and ends up in court, the judge needs to know it was the Legislature’s intent to allow adverse (environmental) impacts. That way, a judge can’t find fault if the environment is impacted.”People differ on how they value things, but I admire Sen. Tiffany for his honesty.
Tiffany made the admission after being asked Thursday in an interview with the Cap Times how Republicans could continue to claim the mining bill doesn't risk environmental harm when:
- It specifically changes the wording of existing state permitting law from “significant adverse affects (to wetlands) are presumed to be unnecessary” to “significant adverse affects are presumed to be necessary.”
- Bill Williams, present of Gogebic Taconite, which is proposing a massive iron ore mine in Ashland and Iron counties, said in a recent Wisconsin State Journal article that as much as 30 to 40 percent of the 3,300 acres it is leasing could be covered by waste piles if it builds a $1.2 billion open-pit iron ore mine.
“We are simply being honest,” Tiffany says. “There will be some impacts but they will be limited. Changing the word 'unnecessary' to 'necessary' lets the judge know it was the Legislature’s intent that there will be some adverse impacts.”
- The land above the rich vein of iron ore contains hundreds of acres of wetlands, numerous pristine trout streams and several small tributaries that feed into the Bad River. The Bad River wends its way to Lake Superior through the Bad River Indian Reservation, which includes culturally and economically significant rice beds.
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Poor snow conditions have forced organizers to postpone the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in northeastern Minnesota.and some background from 2011 (when the race was run):
The race had been scheduled to start Jan. 27. It's now postponed until March 10.
Race coordinator Pat Olson tells the Duluth News Tribune that the trail is "terrible."
Olson says organizers are hoping for snow by March 10. If it doesn't snow, the race could face only its third cancellation ever. A lack of snow caused the Beargrease board of directors to cancel last year's races. It also was canceled in 2007.
When one of the longest and most-respected dogsled races in the lower 48 was run January 30 through February 2, it included a tribute to the Ojibwe man for whom it is named. The 390-mile John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon honors the mail-carrier who braved appalling weather and questionable trails to deliver mail at the turn of the 20th century, traveling by dog team or by boat the 90 miles between Two Harbors and Grand Marais along the sometimes treacherous shoreline of Lake Superior.
The business newspaper said its analysis of 60 big American companies had found that they had collectively parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year. That shielded more than 40 percent of their annual profits from US taxes, the report said. [...]
The practice is a result of US tax rules that allow companies to not pay taxes on profits earned by overseas subsidiaries if the money is not brought back to the United States, the report pointed out.
Yet the most important question isn't how we balance the budget. It's why. A budget is a means to an end, and the end isn't a neat and tidy spreadsheet. It's the well-being of all Americans. By giving families stability and protecting them from tax hikes, our budget will promote a healthier economy and help create jobs. Most important, our budget will reignite the American Dream, the idea that anyone can make it in this country.
Sequestration will push 63 rural hospitals from profitable to unprofitable operating margins while the overall average rural hospital operating margin is already -5.68 (unfortunately, that’s a minus). It is estimated that due to sequestration more than 12,000 rural health jobs will be lost nationwide.--
A friend recommended me to this site. Thanks for the information. My web page - Decal Sticker Removal on Mr. Nice Guy--
Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for killing 48 Syrian soldiers and state employees in Iraq last week, saying their presence proved collusion between the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Unidentified gunmen last week attacked a convoy of Syrians who had fled across the border into Iraq from a Syrian rebel advance, and were being escorted back home through the western province of Anbar, Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.
I think this is our future: we saved the Banks with the bail-out and the $8 trillion further infusions, let those underwater drown, and generally hoarded up bad karma in every way imaginable. We are indeed at risk of losing a generation, maybe two: maybe the elderly and the young will find refuge together in parks and encampments like impoverished Swiss Families Robinson.
"We saved the banks but are running the risk of losing a generation," said Martin Schulz, a German socialist who has led the European Parliament, the EU's only directly elected institution, since January last year.
"One of the biggest threats to the European Union is that people entirely lose their confidence in the capacity of the EU to solve their problems. And if the younger generation is losing trust, then in my eyes the European Union is in real danger," he told Reuters in an interview.
"Sea Launch AG was formed in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, managed by US aerospace giant Boeing. The project aimed to use a floating launch site to place rockets on the equator, the best possible location for launch, which gives the rocket additional speed on lift-off thanks to centripetal force caused by Earth's rotation."http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Faulty_Ukrainian_Parts_Blamed_for_Zenit_Launch_Failure_999.html
The Western media outrage on the execution in China of Naw Kham focused on the circus surrounding the televising - or non-televising - of the event, which followed the conviction of the Burmese pirate and several of his associates for the massacre of 13 Chinese crew members of two ships on the Mekong River in October 2011. But maybe they are focusing on the wrong problems.Doesn't China have drones?
By its own - and Western - standards, China's capture, trial, and execution of Naw Kham appears a model of legality. According to China's Global Times, the PRC was tempted to assassinate him via a drone strike in his foreign hideout, but declined.
Neither was he shot in the head by special forces and his corpsesecretly dumped in the ocean, as was done with Osama bin Laden. Nor was he torched in his hideout with incendiary grenades, as the San Bernadino Sheriff's Department did to alleged murderer and cop killer Christopher Dorner just a few weeks ago.
Instead, Naw Kham was captured, tried in a Chinese court, and executed by lethal injection, together with three accomplices. The PRC's propaganda lords understandably decided to celebrate this demonstration of Chinese political and legal efficacy with a 21st century wall-to-wall coverage live media festival on the occasion of the execution...
"Tell us what was the appearance of the moon?" "I went up, replied he," to Ma'ale Adumim, and I saw it crouching between two rocks. Its head was like a calf, its ears like a goat, its horns like a stag, and its tail was lying across its thigh. I gazed upon it and shuddered, and fell backwards...The Babylonian Talmud
...Elegant in conception, at least to us, it failed to account for a few simple things, like a lack of regular electricity, or logistics systems to bring the chickens to and from the plant, or working capital, or… um… grocery stores. As a result, the gleaming $2.2 million plant processed no chickens. To use a few of the catchwords of that moment, it transformed nothing, empowered no one, stabilized and economically uplifted not a single Iraqi. It just sat there empty, dark, and unused in the middle of the desert. Like the chickens, we were plucked.
In keeping with the madness of the times, however, the simple fact that the plant failed to meet any of its real-world goals did not mean the project wasn’t a success. In fact, the factory was a hit with the U.S. media. After all, for every propaganda-driven visit to the plant, my group stocked the place with hastily purchased chickens, geared up the machinery, and put on a dog-and-pony, er, chicken-and-rooster, show...and
...The harm was this: we wanted to leave Iraq (and Afghanistan) stable to advance American goals. We did so by spending our time and money on obviously pointless things, while most Iraqis lacked access to clean water, regular electricity, and medical or hospital care. Another State Department official in Iraq wrote in his weekly summary to me, “At our project ribbon-cuttings we are typically greeted now with a cursory ‘thank you,’ followed by a long list of crushing needs for essential services such as water and power.” How could we help stabilize Iraq when we acted like buffoons? As one Iraqi told me, “It is like I am standing naked in a room with a big hat on my head. Everyone comes in and helps put flowers and ribbons on my hat, but no one seems to notice that I am naked.”This is the manner by which we ensure that there is no winning position, and ensures that Stability is not achieved; i.e., by spending much money on things which are good display, but are fated to fail. Thus, we use the display to propagandize and essentially "use up all the bandwidth" available for information to be filled with the "celebrity" projects, which will fail to furnish clothes for the naked man with a hat on.
...Famously known as "God's Rottweiler" before his election in 2005, Benedict fought against the spread of materialist values in society and strongly opposed any relaxation of the church's traditional strictures against contraception, homosexual acts or women priests.
His eight years in office were overshadowed by scandals ranging from the sexual abuse of children by priests to the arrest of his own butler for stealing confidential papal documents in the so-called "Vatileaks" affair....
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