Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
– unknown
After waking up one night in sheets teeming with tiny bugs, Josh Benton couldn’t sleep for months and kept a flashlight and can of Raid with him in bed.
“We were afraid to even tell people about it at first,” Benton said of the bedbugs in his home. “It feels like maybe some way your living is encouraging this, that you’re living in a bad neighborhood or have a dirty apartment.”
Absent from the U.S. for so long that some thought they were a myth, bedbugs are back. Entomologists and pest control professionals are reporting a dramatic increase in infestations throughout the country, and no one knows exactly why.
“It’s no secret that bedbugs are making a comeback,” said Dan Suiter, an associate professor of entomology at the University of Georgia.
the Iraqi PM is annoyed with the BushCo operation again: AP/AOL
Iraq’s prime minister sharply criticized a U.S.-Iraqi attack Monday on a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, breaking with his American partners on security tactics as the United States launches a major operation to secure the capital.
More than 30 people were killed or found dead Monday, including 10 paramilitary commandos slain when a suicide driver detonated a truck at the regional headquarters of the Shiite-led Interior Ministry police in a mostly Sunni city north of Baghdad….
…Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he was “very angered and pained” by the operation, warning that it could undermine his efforts toward national reconciliation.
“Reconciliation cannot go hand in hand with operations that violate the rights of citizens this way,” al-Maliki said in a statement on government television. “This operation used weapons that are unreasonable to detain someone – like using planes.”
He apologized to the Iraqi people for the operation and said “this won’t happen again.”
Note to Condi: it looks like this particular ‘fledgling democracy’ is in the breech position.
This is brilliant (no pun intended): Scientists at Oak Ridge National Labs have developed a “hybrid solar lighting technology” that uses a rooftop-mounted 48-inch diameter collector and secondary mirror to track the sun during the day. The collector focuses sunlight into 127 optical fibers connected to light fixtures equipped with diffusion rods visually similar to fluorescent light bulbs. The rods spread light in all directions. One collector powers eight to 12 fixtures, which can illuminate about 1,000 square feet. During times of little or no sunlight, a sensor controls the intensity of the artificial lamps to maintain a constant level of illumination.
The UN has an active program underway to encourage development of appropriate technology demonstration projects to curb global warming and generate useful fuels. Details here.
But can’t you feel the “safetyness?” Passports and other ID cards incorporating radio chips can be remotely spied on, jammed and even copied, computer experts revealed at a major conference. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology uses a chip about the size of a grain of rice to send short range radio signals to scanners. It has been touted as a highly secure, simple way of to authenticate people and track objects. However, at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, US, Lukas Grunwald, of German computer security company DN-Systems, showed that RFID passports can be cloned with relative ease. He found that passports designed according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard can be cloned. Such passports are already issued in the UK and other European countries and will be introduced in the US in October 2006. But Grunwald concedes that the content of an RFID passport cannot be altered without detection because it is signed cryptographically. “The whole passport design is totally brain damaged,” Grunwald told Wired.com. “From my point of view, all of these RFID passports are a huge waste of money. They’re not increasing security at all.”
President Bush’s embryonic stem cell policy appears to be driving U.S. companies to move promising research in this field overseas. Geron, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., said Monday it was collaborating with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to conduct preclinical studies of cell types that had been derived from human embryonic stem cells.
Another story from the “desperate measures for desperate times” department:
There is enough storage capacity under the sea for almost unlimited carbon emissions, a US team reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous plans to store carbon under the sea have drawn criticism because of concerns over leakage and safety. Supporters of the latest idea say that it overcomes these drawbacks and can be done with existing technology, pumping carbon dioxide gas down to a depth of 3,000m (1.86miles) and injecting it below the sea floor. The high pressure and the low temperatures would turn the gas into a liquid denser than the water around it, says a joint Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University team. Experiments suggest that ice-like compounds would be formed in which the water molecules act like cages, trapping the carbon dioxide molecules within securely enough to withstand even the most severe earthquakes. The storage capacity is enormous, they add. In the US alone, annual emissions of carbon dioxide could be contained in just 80 square kilometers (31 square miles) of seafloor.
The full NAS report isn’t yet available at their website, but presumably will be shortly. I’m withholding judgment over whether this can be done economically and safely until I read the whole report, but color me “leaning towards skeptical.”
United States, Landmine Producer: In Good Company?
As more and more countries refuse to produce landmine weapons, the United States is currently producing the first of such weapons in over 10 years.
Nicknamed “the spider,” this new weapon puts the United States on the same short list of nations that includes Iran, North Korea and Burma, a list of countries producing landmine weapons banned by an international treaty.
Scott Stedjan of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines says continuing to develop these weapons is irresponsible. “A weapon should be detonated by a conscious action of an individual,” says Stedjan. “If it’s not, children can walk into the minefield and be blown away. Innocent civilians can be blown up.” [snip]
A bi-partisan Senate bill has now been introduced to halt production of the controversial “spider” mine.
The Pentagon claims that these landmines can be detonated by remote control; if the remote control is “taken off” during battle, the mine will eventually self destruct. A safe landmine? Yeah, and Bush is a genious and I’m the queen of France.
(CNN) — Jody Williams emerged from her two-story wooden home in the hills of Vermont on the morning of October 10 1997 in a black tank top, jeans and bare feet. Only hours before, she had learned that she and her International Campaign to Ban Landmines would share the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to eradicate the deadly devices.
Princess Diana on an anti-
landmine campaign in Angola
Davenport Police Confiscate Little Flagsticks to Protect Cheney, They Say
Cathy Berta is a retired elementary schoolteacher. At 66, she’s also a member of Progressive Action for the Common Good of the Quad Cities.
When she heard that Vice President Cheney was coming to Davenport, Iowa, on July 17, she decided to heed the group’s protest call. [snip]
Berta was carrying a sign that said: “No, You Can’t Have My Rights, I’m Still Using Them.”
And she was also holding a little American flag on a stick.
But the police wouldn’t let her, or anyone else, carry the flags.
“I’m going to have to take your stick,” one officer told her, she says.
She describes him as “very courteous, and very embarrassed.” [snip]
Davenport Police Chief Michael Bladel defends his officers. “They thought the Vice President might stop, and because these were fairly long wooden sticks with points on them, they thought they might be a threat to the Vice President,” he says. “This could be considered a weapon.”
Teensie little flagsticks actually could be considered weapons… if you’re an evil blood sucking vampire.
This is like going down the rabbit hole…landmines are ok but fucken ‘patriotic’ flags are a no/no to the cowardly(I had better things to do than serve in Nam)Cheney. So now only the ‘right’ people are allowed flags..jesus.
A giant panda in China has given birth to the heaviest cub born in captivity after the longest period in labor…
…Two twin panda sisters, also aged six, gave birth to two pairs of twin male cubs — with much less drama — on Sunday and Monday respectively in the Chengdu Giant Panda Reproduction and Research Center near Wolong, Xinhua said.
It brought the number of panda cubs born in captivity in China so far this year to six, it said.
Bedbugs are making a comeback: LiveScience.com
I hope it’s not a bad omen for my trip today to Atlanta that I saw this story in this morning’s paper – with the dateline Atlanta.
You know Mrs. K.P. will be putting me in quarantine upon my return home on Friday, LOL!
Good luck sleeping while you’re in Atlanta after reading that story…
Maybe I’ll sleep in the tub. 😉
the Iraqi PM is annoyed with the BushCo operation again: AP/AOL
Note to Condi: it looks like this particular ‘fledgling democracy’ is in the breech position.
This is brilliant (no pun intended): Scientists at Oak Ridge National Labs have developed a “hybrid solar lighting technology” that uses a rooftop-mounted 48-inch diameter collector and secondary mirror to track the sun during the day. The collector focuses sunlight into 127 optical fibers connected to light fixtures equipped with diffusion rods visually similar to fluorescent light bulbs. The rods spread light in all directions. One collector powers eight to 12 fixtures, which can illuminate about 1,000 square feet. During times of little or no sunlight, a sensor controls the intensity of the artificial lamps to maintain a constant level of illumination.
The UN has an active program underway to encourage development of appropriate technology demonstration projects to curb global warming and generate useful fuels. Details here.
President Bush’s embryonic stem cell policy appears to be driving U.S. companies to move promising research in this field overseas. Geron, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., said Monday it was collaborating with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to conduct preclinical studies of cell types that had been derived from human embryonic stem cells.
Computer scientists have developed electronic artwork that changes to match the mood of the person who is looking at it. Using images collected through a web cam, special software recognizes eight key facial features that characterize the emotional state of the person viewing the artwork.
Korean scientists say they have created a new type of zeolite catalyst dozens of times more effective than exists today to convert inexpensive intermediate crude oil into gasoline.
Link
As more and more countries refuse to produce landmine weapons, the United States is currently producing the first of such weapons in over 10 years.
Nicknamed “the spider,” this new weapon puts the United States on the same short list of nations that includes Iran, North Korea and Burma, a list of countries producing landmine weapons banned by an international treaty.
Scott Stedjan of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines says continuing to develop these weapons is irresponsible. “A weapon should be detonated by a conscious action of an individual,” says Stedjan. “If it’s not, children can walk into the minefield and be blown away. Innocent civilians can be blown up.”
[snip]
A bi-partisan Senate bill has now been introduced to halt production of the controversial “spider” mine.
The Pentagon claims that these landmines can be detonated by remote control; if the remote control is “taken off” during battle, the mine will eventually self destruct. A safe landmine? Yeah, and Bush is a genious and I’m the queen of France.
.
Israel of course – see Lebanon warfare and 7 point program.
«« click on pic to enlargeAug. 2 - Israeli soldiers unload land mines out of their cases as they prepare to cross the border into Lebanon. (AP)(CNN) — Jody Williams emerged from her two-story wooden home in the hills of Vermont on the morning of October 10 1997 in a black tank top, jeans and bare feet. Only hours before, she had learned that she and her International Campaign to Ban Landmines would share the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to eradicate the deadly devices.
Princess Diana on an anti-landmine campaign in Angola
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Link
Cathy Berta is a retired elementary schoolteacher. At 66, she’s also a member of Progressive Action for the Common Good of the Quad Cities.
When she heard that Vice President Cheney was coming to Davenport, Iowa, on July 17, she decided to heed the group’s protest call.
[snip]
Berta was carrying a sign that said: “No, You Can’t Have My Rights, I’m Still Using Them.”
And she was also holding a little American flag on a stick.
But the police wouldn’t let her, or anyone else, carry the flags.
“I’m going to have to take your stick,” one officer told her, she says.
She describes him as “very courteous, and very embarrassed.”
[snip]
Davenport Police Chief Michael Bladel defends his officers. “They thought the Vice President might stop, and because these were fairly long wooden sticks with points on them, they thought they might be a threat to the Vice President,” he says. “This could be considered a weapon.”
Teensie little flagsticks actually could be considered weapons… if you’re an evil blood sucking vampire.
I guess the little flag toothpicks for the cocktail weiners will no longer be allowed at lobbyist’s soiree’s, eh.
This is like going down the rabbit hole…landmines are ok but fucken ‘patriotic’ flags are a no/no to the cowardly(I had better things to do than serve in Nam)Cheney. So now only the ‘right’ people are allowed flags..jesus.
CNN
No photos yet, though…sniff.