Mediacrity: Media with a Cause

Re: Chinese Professor

2010-10-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

The recent ad by Tea Party related group showing America "owned" by a Communist China in 2030 shows a great deal about the inner fantasy life and desires of people drawn to authoritarian movements like the tea party.

BBC News - Big name firms form alliance to drive cloud standards

2010-10-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Some of the world's biggest companies are using their market clout to demand that computer equipment makers change the way they make their machines.

The 70 firms, which includes BMW, Shell and Marriott Hotels, said systems that do not work together are holding back the spread of cloud computing.

The companies have formed the Open Data Alliance Centre to push for unified standards for technology.

The businesses involved account for more than $50bn (£32bn) in IT spending.

"The old way just won't work anymore," said Andrew Feig, an executive director at Swiss bank UBS.

"We want to pay for what we need, when we need it."

The principal goal of the body is to help businesses cope with an explosion in the number of people that will want to access services and applications online using a plethora of different devices from phones to TVs to tablet computers.

Researchers estimate that another one billion users will come online in the next five years.

BBC News - Big name firms form alliance to drive cloud standards

2010-10-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

This thing could destroy the world?

2010-08-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

Photo by Gail Orenstein

Leh, after the 2010 Flash Floods killed dozens of people in the small city of Leh.

This poppy is the product that could undermine the entire developed world.

Counting the cost of Leh flood

2010-08-19T22:56:00.000-07:00

This was the count 2 weeks ago, it probably has risen.

Breakdown of a Hospital

2010-08-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Photos by Gail Orenstein

The Leh Hospital was built at the bottom of the town. Maybe it made sense since all the major roads went down hill, maybe it would be easier to get people to it rather than building on higher ground. But when this years monster rain hit Leh the hospital was ruined.

The flash flood left almost half the hospital under mud. Fortunately the near by Army hospital was able to do emergency surgery, but the conditions for those waiting for care in Leh hospital were terrible.

Terrible floods devastate Northern India

2010-08-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Leh India

Lost in the news of massive floods in Pakistan and China, Leh in Northern India has experience some of the worst flooding in decades. The arid desert land rarely sees any rain fall. Homes are often made of mud bricks and straws and as this remote region grew with tourism and the presence of the Indian Army homes and businesses were built in places that traditionally would have been left empty.

Then this August several days of heavy rain hit Northern India. The rains were not has violent as those hitting parts of Pakistan or China but for an arid desert surrounded by mountains the impact was devastating. Gail Orenstein photographed over 170 dead bodies outside the Leh hospital. They had been brought in over two days from the local area. More were trapped in the remote villages where, with the roads washed away, there was very little hope.

No one will likely ever know how many families were washed away in to the rivers and are lost forever. After a week of rescue work Leh was still cut off by all but land. Tourists fled, taking with them one of Leh's main sources of hard currency to purchase food stocks which will certainly become more expensive as the long roads from Kashmir have been damaged.

Leh Flash Floods in India

2010-08-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

Gail Orenstein has been covering the devistation from the Flash Floods in Northern India. This is one of the first images of her work she has been able to get out of the area. More images will be coming soon.

The human impact of these photos has been terrible. Gail has been covering the work at the hospital and morgue. At the morgue she was asked to photograph the dead for the local police, since the Leh police force only had a film camera. To date Gail has processed 150 images of dead persons for the police.

GOP declares health care bill leads to socialism!! Americans, need to stop this health care bill in order to avoid becoming a socialist nation. "When

2010-03-24T03:55:00.000-07:00

It looks like a done deal in the works now, I wonder if a hospital Tylenol is still going to be 50 bucks?
Posted 2 days ago. ( permalink )

OBAMA MAKES HISTORY WITH HEALTH CARE REFORM!! YOU HEARD IT HEAR FIRST

2010-03-24T03:49:00.000-07:00

Photo-G. Orenstein.

2009-06-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

These are the thugs who want to represent the UK to the EU. Only one way to deal with them!!!! They all belong in jail.

BNP is just a bunch of violent thugs.

Obama says D-Day saved world from evil!!!!!

2009-06-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

Obama marks D-Day's solemn 65th anniversary!!!

OMAHA BEACH, France – Recalling the "unimaginable hell" of D-Day suffering, President Barack Obama paid tribute Saturday to the against-all-odds Allied landings that broke Nazi Germany's grip on France and turned the tide of history.
"The sheer improbability of this victory is part of what makes D-Day so memorable," Obama said.
He spoke under a sunny sky at the American Cemetery on cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach and other landings sites where American, British and Canadian soldiers established a beachhead 65 years ago under the withering fire of Nazi troops awaiting the Allies' cross-channel gamble.

Obama visited an American battlefield museum with his wife, Michelle; laid a wreath in honor of the fallen; greeted U.S. military members; and mingled with uniformed World War II veterans.
Normandy's cliffs, still pocked with gun emplacements and other remnants of the war, including the white headstones of thousands of buried American troops, provided sure footing for a new U.S. commander in chief. Obama noted that the site has been visited by many U.S. presidents and predicted that "Long after our time on this Earth has passed, one word will still bring forth the pride and awe of men and women who will never meet the heroes who sit before us: D-Day."
He said the lessons of that pivotal effort are eternal.
"Friends and veterans, what we cannot forget — what we must not forget — is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century," he said.
Speaking at a time when he is directing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — both of which have lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in World War II — Obama described in stark terms the harsh conditions the Allied invaders faced at Normandy. He noted that in many ways the seaborne invasion plan went awry, leaving the assaulting forces vulnerable to Nazi guns in their path.
"When the ships landed here at Omaha, an unimaginable hell rained down on the men inside," he said. "Many never made it out of the boats."

But the Allies prevailed, gathering strength for a breakout from Normandy in July that opened a path toward Paris and eventually took the Allies all the way to Germany and victory over the Nazis. Obama paid tribute to the Allies — the British, the Canadian, the French as well as the Russians, "who sustained some of the war's heaviest casualties on the Eastern front."
"At an hour of maximum danger, amid the bleakest of circumstances, men who thought themselves ordinary found it within themselves to do the extraordinary," Obama said. "They fought out of a simple sense of duty — a duty sustained by the same ideals for which their countrymen had fought and bled for over two centuries."
Earlier, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown each recalled the sacrifices of the Allies.

Obama noted that his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, arrived at Normandy six weeks after D-Day and marched across France in Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's army. Attending with Obama was his great uncle, Charles Payne, who was part of the first American division to reach and liberate a Nazi concentration camp that Obama and his great uncle visited in Germany on Friday.
Obama saluted the contributions of individual veterans of the Normandy landings, including one veteran, Jim Norene, who fought as a member of the 101st Airborne Division.
"Last night, after visiting this cemetery for one last time, he passed away in his sleep," the president said. "Jim was gravely ill when he left his home, and he knew that he might not return. But just as he did 65 years ago, he came anyway. May he now rest in peace with the boys he once bled with, and may his family always find solace in the heroism he showed here."
Before France, Obama visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Germany.

AFTER LABOUR: IS BRITIAN GOING TO THE NATIONALISTS AND BNP

2009-06-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Gail Orenstein

Since the economic collapse we can't help but notice that ads, TV, bills and now politics is going nationalistic in the UK. It seems that love of country only happens in the UK when things are going to the shit. Given an economic crisis caused by free market reforms and too much power in banks are we headed to a conservative regime, and what is a conservative regime without free markets? Fascism!!!!!!.

Media Matters Highlights Journalistic Integrity, Even At Fox News (VIDEO)

2009-05-22T01:37:00.000-07:00

Link from Media Matters Highlights Journalistic Integrity, Even At Fox News (VIDEO)

EYE SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE!!!!

2009-05-22T01:06:00.000-07:00

photo by gail orenstein

Man picks suicide spot on Google Earth !!!!

David Grant, a car parts worker, drove 200 miles to Dartmoor to kill himself - after printing off Google aerial pictures of his suicide location from the internet.

Last Updated: 7:40AM BST 20 May 2009
An inquest heard how Mr Grant also printed off notices against the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning as he gassed himself in his car.
The 40 year-old from London planned his death with great precision and left A4 size sheets on his car telling passing people not to open the doors.

The car parts worker had been suffering from work-related stress, the inquest in Torquay, Devon, heard.
Bachelor Mr Grant was found in his car at Bone Hill Rocks car park near Widecombe in the Moor in Devon in February.

Members of the public found his fume-filled car and tried to get him out, but he had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The inquest heard his signs read: "Danger. Do not enter at any cost. CO2 kills." Police found a notice detailing the names of next of kin.
PC Simon Knott said aerial pictures of the area had been printed off the Internet were found in the car.
Det Sgt Michael Brewer said: "He had arranged it with almost too much precision, Everything was very neatly done."
Coroner Ian Arrow recorded a suicide verdict and said: "He planned this with great expertise."
SOURCE; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5353737/Man-picks-suicide-spot-on-Google-Earth.html

TWITTER FIGHTING TO STAY FREE FOR USERS!!

2009-05-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Twitter, working to make money, won’t use ads

Exec says site to stay free, but may charge for tools for businesses
Twitter is working on various ways to make money from its fast-growing microblogging service, but advertising is an option that is not currently being considered.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said on Monday that the company is developing various add-on tools and services for the businesses and professional users of Twitter, which could create a revenue stream for the company. He said Twitter plans to introduce some of these tools by year end.
But Stone dismissed the notion of selling advertisements on the popular service at this time, even though ad revenue is the main way most Web start-ups manage to stay in business while keeping their service free for consumers.

“There are a few reasons why we’re not pursuing advertising — one is it’s just not quite as interesting to us,” Stone told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York via videolink from San Francisco.
Stone said serving up ads alongside Twitter messages could also annoy users. And he said Twitter doesn’t have, and isn’t seeking to hire, the staff to create an advertising-based business.
“There are no people at Twitter who know anything about advertising or work in advertising. So we don’t have anyone there to make or take those calls,” said the executive, whose real name is Christopher Isaac Stone. He acquired the Biz title based on a childhood mispronunciation of his name.
Twitter, a two-year-old, venture capital-backed company that lets people send 140-character messages, or Tweets, has enjoyed explosive growth in recent months. Visitors to Twitter jumped 83 percent in April from the previous month, to reach 17 million, according to comScore data.
Stone co-founded Twitter with Evan Williams, who is the chief executive, and Jack Dorsey. Venture capital backers include Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures.

Twitter is searching for ways to make money from its popularity. Stone said the San Francisco-based company now has more than 40 employees and plans to double its staff by the end of the year.
The company turned down a $500 million acquisition offer from privately-held social media firm Facebook last year, sources told Reuters earlier. According to media reports, Internet search giant Google Inc has also held talks with Twitter about a potential deal.

During Google’s quarterly earnings results conference call last month, CEO Eric Schmidt said Google would be happy to pursue an advertising partnership with companies like Twitter.
Stone said on Monday that Twitter would remain free for consumers and businesses, and that the company’s main focus at the moment is developing new features for commercial users, such as “lightweight analytics” and a directory of commercial accounts that would verify that businesses on Twitter are legitimate.
He also said the company has had talks with cell phone carriers to make sure that Twitter works on their text messaging networks, and said it was possible Twitter could strike revenue-sharing agreements with some of the carriers.

Twitter closed a round of financing earlier this year pegged at $35 million by media reports, and Stone said the company was not under any pressure by its investors to earn a profit in the near future. He also dismissed the notion of an initial public offering soon, saying the company was only two years old.
Stone would not disclose the rate at which Twitter is burning through its funds, but said its model allows it to continue operating in its current fashion for the next couple of years.
He acknowledged that Twitter’s rapid growth cannot last forever.

“We were joking in the office that if this growth rate continues week over week, we’ll run out of people on planet Earth to sign up to Twitter by the end of the year,” Stone said.

SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30813003/

OBAMA VS ISRAEL!!!!!

2009-05-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

Obama hosts Netanyahu as Mideast strains ties!!
WILL OBAMA SAY NO TO NETANYAHU? WILL POLICY ON ISRAEL CHANGE
WITH THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?

US President Barack Obama will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their first meeting on Monday as discord over Mideast peace and Iran's nuclear bid clouds ties between the close allies.
The meeting marks Obama's most testing diplomatic challenge yet after he vowed to vigorously engage in attaining an elusive regional peace as part of a comprehensive strategy to peacefully resolve the Iranian nuclear standoff.
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Israel's hawkish premier, who wants a "fresh" approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was set to unveil in the White House meeting his own long-awaited policy for regional peace focused on countering Iran.
Yet Obama's hopes appear at odds with Netanyahu, who earned world criticism over his persistent refusal to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state, a bedrock principle of peace efforts in the Middle East for nearly two decades.
And while Obama wishes to make headway on the Palestinian track, Netanyahu's national security advisor Uzi Arad told reporters that the Iranian issue was set to top the leaders' talks in the Oval Office.
"There might be some differences in approach, but we are confident that the sense of pragmatism and the desire for progress will drive the discussions," Arad said.
Obama himself admitted in March that Netanyahu's right-leaning coalition did not make peacemaking any "easier".

Netanyahu is expected to further irk his hosts and the Palestinians by telling Obama that Israel will keep building in existing settlements in the occupied West Bank, a key obstacle in the stuttering peace process.
But both US and Israeli officials sought to play down any speculation of an open clash between the two leaders at the key summit.
Despite the friction, Netanyahu hopes to convince Obama of the viability of his new plan which will effectively replace the latest Israeli-Palestinian peace talks launched at the Annapolis naval academy near Washington in 2007.
Netanyahu this month called for a Middle East peace process based on a three-pronged approach including talks, security cooperation and development of the Palestinian economy.
He advocates bolstering the West Bank economy before negotiating a full peace deal, arguing the Palestinians are not ready for independence and that any Israeli concessions will only strengthen radical groups such as Hamas.
Netanyahu has also said he wishes to renew negotiations with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the coming weeks.
"If we bring forward a new plan, the Americans will not reject it if they feel it can help their policy," a senior Israeli official said.

But the Palestinians dismissed Netanyahu's proposal as ambiguous and insist that any peace talks should resume from the point reached during negotiations with his predecessor Ehud Olmert.
Washington is also said to be preparing a new peace plan, building on a Saudi-backed Arab initiative, perhaps for unveiling in Obama's address to the Muslim world in Egypt on June 4.
Obama is also under pressure from human rights groups, with Human Rights Watch demanding Sunday the his administration endorse a comprehensive UN investigation into alleged violations of international law during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip in December and January.
The 59-year-old Israeli premier, who held the same office for a turbulent term at the height of the Oslo peace process between 1996 and 1999, assigns top priority to halting the "existential threat" of Iran's nuclear ambitions and sees little chance of progress in peace with Palestinians.
But the new tone of the Obama administration has raised fears in Israel that Washington may sacrifice the interests of its staunchest ally in its attempt to mend ties with the Muslim world strained under former president George W. Bush.

Obama's break from Bush's tough approach to Iran by engaging in talks to defuse the nuclear standoff has also raised concern in Israel, which together with the United States accused Iran of seeking to develop an atomic bomb, a claim denied by Tehran.
Israel says that any negotiations must be limited in time and accompanied by economic and diplomatic sanctions of the international community.
Meanwhile, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi called Netanyahu a "racist" and warned that "US officials should think of the American people" and not "make them partners" in Israel'

SOURCE: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.ccff6688f11fd21bfd48aa7c11f9b0fb.3c1&show_article=1

HOW MUCH TRAFFIC ARE YOU MISSING!! Google apology for slow service

2009-05-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

GOOGLE FINALLY ADMITS THAT THIS IS AN ONGOING PROBLEM!!!!

Google apologised for what it called a "traffic jam" that resulted in slow service or even interruption on the internet search giant's main page.

Gmail and Google's news site were also reported as "sluggish" or unavailable to millions of users for about an hour.
This is not the first time the company has faced such problems.
"An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our traffic through Asia," said Urs Hoelzle, a spokesman for the company.
"As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions," he said. "We've been working hard to make our services ultrafast and 'always on', so it's especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens.
"We're very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we'll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won't happen again," said Mr Hoelzle, Google's senior vice president of operations.
Sympathy
The outage has called into question the reliability of web-based services.
Google's "efforts to have some of their services, in particular their apps, and to a less extent Gmail, treated as serious business services that one can use instead of locally installed and maintained apps could be seriously undermined by a major outage like that," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research.

Early reports claimed a denial of service attack was to blame
"This is bad news for Google's efforts to build up Apps, and to a less extent, Gmail, as critical business tools. If the mighty Google can stumble, then who can be trusted?" Mr Gottheil told Computerworld.com
Other industry watchers say the interruption might cause businesses to reconsider using these services.
"Maybe companies that are thinking about a cloud strategy - such as Google Apps - need to look into backup clouds" said Sam Diaz, a senior editor at technology news site ZDNet.
On the microblogging service Twitter the service failure became a major topic of discussion.
"Funny how something we lived without for the longest time is suddenly something we can't live without," tweeted simonnet.
While k_sasha tweeted "Sympathies to the Google servers. Happens to everyone. But this is why the world needs more than one search engine."

Napolebsis posted "The Google outage endorses my recent decision to move some services back to offline apps."
This is not the first time that Google has had technical problems.
In February 2009, Google's Gmail service experienced a breakdown leaving millions of people worldwide without access to the free web-based e-mail service for a few hours.
In January, the internet company was hit by technical problems resulting in users being unable to access search results.

New search engines aspire to supplement Google

2009-05-17T02:05:00.000-07:00

We may be coming upon a new era for the Internet search.
Google dominates the search world, but some sites are trying to expand the possibilities.

And, despite what you may think, Google is not the only player.
New search engines that are popping up across the Web strive to make searches faster, smarter, more personal and more visually interesting.

Some sites, like Twine and hakia, will try to personalize searches, separating out results you would find interesting, based on your Web use. Others, like Searchme, offer iTunes-like interfaces that let users shuffle through photos and images instead of the standard list of hyperlinks. Kosmix bundles information by type -- from Twitter, from Facebook, from blogs, from the government -- to make it easier to consume.

Wolfram Alpha, set to launch Monday, is more of an enormous calculator than a search: It crunches data to come up with query answers that may not exist online until you search for them. And sites like Twitter are trying to capitalize on the warp-speed pace of online news today by offering real-time searches of online chatter -- something Google's computers have yet to replicate.
Google, of course, remains the search king. Recent efforts to revolutionize Web searching have failed to unseat the dominant California company, which captures nearly 64 percent of U.S. online searches, according to comScore. Tech start-ups like Cuil, which billed itself as more powerful than Google, and Wikia, which relied on a community to rank search results rather than a math formula, have largely faded away after some initial buzz. Timeline: the history of searching for data »
"The general trend has been relatively clear and consistent for the past five years: Google is growing its market share at the expense of every other engine," said Graham Mudd, vice president for search and social media at comScore, a company that tracks industry trends.
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The new class of search engines and data calculators enters the fray with those failures in mind, though. Instead of trying to be Google killers, these sites have more humble aspirations: to be alternatives to the industry giants.
Real-time searches offer the most promise, Mudd said.
If you search Google news, the results will be recent, but not live. That's where Twitter's search comes in. It searches the site's micro-blog posts by the second, allowing users to see what's buzzing on the Web at any instant.
Facebook and FriendFeed also are experimenting with real-time searches, according to news reports. But each of these searches operates only within its own social network. Scoopler is another real-time site that's trying to aggregate info from all of these sites.
And all of these are seeing more competition, as two new sites -- TweetMeme and OneRiot -- launched new or updated real-time searches on Tuesday.
Nova Spivack, a technology developer who writes about search engines, said sites that forecast trendy topics will become more prominent. Knowing what will be trendy tomorrow is becoming valuable to more people, he said. Search trend predictions will be valuable to people interested in news in much the same way as stock forecasts are valuable to financial industry workers.

"The topography of the Web is shifting much faster. Instead of happening kind of glacially, you're on the beach right where the water is coming in and it's constantly changing the way the sand is laid out," he said.
Other search sites are just trying to get smarter, with some acting as giant data crunchers.
The much-talked about Wolfram Alpha, or Alpha for short, harnesses massive computing power to answer users' questions, even if they're never been answered on the Web before. Watch a Wired editor discuss the site »
"It's not a new Google. It's not supposed to be. It's a new thing. It's very complementary, in a way, to what search engines do," said Theodore Gray, co-founder of Wolfram Research, which created Alpha.
People need to get away from the idea that every 3-inch-long search bar online acts just like Google and Yahoo!, he said.
If you ask Google a question, the search engine's computers scan the Web for matching search terms and come up with answers that make the most sense statistically. Alpha, by contrast, pulls information from existing data sets that have been approved by the site's math-minded staff. The site then computes an answer to your question.
An example will help this make sense.
Say you wanted to find out nutritional information for your favorite recipe. On Google, you would have to search each ingredient individually and then add the calories and fat grams together yourself. With Alpha, you can type in the full recipe and the site produces a completed graphic that looks like it came right off the side of a cereal box. Read about a CNN test of 'Alpha'
Some search sites are trying to get better at understanding what their users want.
Twine, a social site created by Spivack, soon will start incorporating information about its users into a search function, he said. Some of the information comes through a user's search history. The site also will ask users to rank search results by their relevance to your interests.

"Right now, one of the problems with search is that it's really one-size-fits-all. It's not very personalized," Spivack said. "The fact is when I'm searching for certain kinds of things, the way that the results should be ranked might quite be different than if someone with a very different background or interests was searching for those same things."
So if you're someone who is into heavy science, a search about evolution might yield more academic papers. If you're a person whose Web interests lean more toward pop culture, an evolution search might turn up photos and more basic information.
Helping computers understand the information that's online is the next step in making searches more personal, Spivack said.
It's unclear which companies, if any, will be able to accomplish this, but Google appears to be working on that problem as well as others.
At an event on Tuesday, Google announced a new "show options" feature as part of its search. Users can use the function to see new ways search results are linked, such as through timelines or a "Wonder Wheel," which displays visual relationships between search terms.

And in a staff letter published last week on Google's blog, company co-founder Sergey Brin wrote about making searches more intelligent.
"Perfect search requires human-level artificial intelligence, which many of us believe is still quite distant," he wrote. "However, I think it will soon be possible to have a search engine that 'understands' more of the queries and documents than we do today.
"Others claim to have accomplished this, and Google's systems have more smarts behind the curtains than may be apparent from the outside, but the field as a whole is still shy of where I would have

Waterboarding was used to try and force confession of Iraq/Al Qaeda connections

2009-05-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

KSM Questioned About al Qaeda-Iraq Ties During Waterboarding

This story from the Huffington Post confirms that the Bush administrations was using torture to get statements they wanted from terrorists. Normal methods got all the useful information possible. And lets face the facts, Al Qaeda was not going to continue planning an operation of moving a sell after one of its members was captured. They are not as dumb as Bush and most of the GOP voters.

Waterboarding is an perfect torture for brainwashing methods, when one tries to change the fundamental world view of the person from political reasons. Since it does not kill the individual it can be applied over and over and over again. But during it the individuals ability to speak is radically diminished. The victim of waterboarding can not scream out some secret or mumble some important detail under their breath. If they want to confess to make it stop they would probably have to wait a significant time to be able to speak after the method is applied.

Anyone who thinks about this can clearly see how this method is suppose to work. The victim of waterboarding, held down and having water poured over their mouth, is not meant to be the speaker, he is meant to be the listener. It is like torture in Orwell's 1984, nothing the victim says can change it, in this case the victim can not even speak, nor is he intended to speak. He is intended to listen, to hear what those people holding him want him to confess to for political purposes.

The act of waterboarding is inflicted again and again until perhaps the victim breaks and starts to believe what he is being told. In this case the Bush administration want Al Qaeda to say they were connected to Iraq. For the Al Qaeda members this would have been the ultimate rejection of everything they believed in. Saddam was the most vile evil in the eyes of Islamic Fundamentalists and for and Al Qaeda member to say they work with Iraq would be like getting a US Soldier in the Korean War to say that American was a Fascist Imperialist State and the People all needed Korean style Communism.

In both cases the solution of power was the same: waterboarding. A method that did not allow the victim to speak, but forced a radical kind of listening, a kind of brain washing to try and force confessions that confirmed to political ideology.

Again this is how low America went under Bush. It is time for the people of America to consider a truth commission like South Africa had. The sin of Bush as President must be dealt with. Today Obama's popularity is saving US esteem around the world, but if the evils of Bush are not fully expunged world confidence in American ideas will continue to vanish.

The Image Anarchist, Gail Orenstein book

2009-05-07T03:13:00.000-07:00

GAIL ORENSTEIN HAS PUBLISHED A BOOK

Rush Limbaugh continues to rule GOP

2009-05-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Rush Limbaugh shown again to be in full control of the GOP.

GOP Rep. Mike Pence On Evolution

2009-05-05T23:19:00.001-07:00

Chris Matthews 'Destroys' GOP Rep. Mike Pence On Evolution/Science Question

GOP on science.

Brighton Riots, actually they were pretty hard to find

2009-05-05T11:21:00.001-07:00

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Mutiny in Georgia over NATO

2009-05-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Photo by Gail Orenstein in Camden Town London

TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia said it had ended a brief mutiny at a military base near the capital on Tuesday that broke out after the arrest of a former special forces commander accused of planning to disrupt NATO exercises.

President Mikhail Saakashvili said in a televised address that the mutiny was an isolated case and the situation in the country was fully under control.

"I personally led negotiations with the mutineers and suggested they turn in their weapons and give themselves up to police" and had suggested force could be used if they declined, he said.

People the UK just does not want

2009-05-05T07:53:00.001-07:00

Who is on UK 'least wanted' list?

Sixteen people banned from entering the UK since October last year for fostering extremism or hatred have been named by the Home Office for the first time.

A total of 22 people have been excluded in that time, although the identities of six of them have been withheld by the government in the "public interest". The named individuals are:

ABDULLAH QADRI AL AHDAL

Preacher. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence.

YUNIS AL ASTAL

Preacher and Hamas MP. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and to provoke others to terrorist acts.

STEPHEN DONALD BLACK

Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who set up racist website Stormfront. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by promoting serious criminal activity and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.

WADGY ABD EL HAMIED MOHAMED GHONEIM

A prolific speaker and writer. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glory terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and to provoke others to commit terrorist acts.

ERIC GLIEBE

Neo-Nazi. Has made web-radio broadcasts in which he vilifies certain ethnic groups and encourages the download and distribution of provocative racist leaflets and posters.

Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by justifying terrorist violence, provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred.

MIKE GUZOVSKY

Jewish militant. Leader of a violent group and actively involved with military training camps.

Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and to provoke others to terrorist acts.

SAFWAT HIJAZI

Television preacher. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by glorifying terrorist violence.

NASR JAVED

Kashmiri militant group leader. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs.

ABDUL ALI MUSA

Muslim activist, previously known as Clarence Reams. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by fomenting and glorifying terrorist violence in furtherance of his particular beliefs and seeking to provoke others to terrorist acts.

FRED WALDRON PHELPS SNR & SHIRLEY PHELPS-ROPER

American pastor and leading spokesman of Westboro Baptist Church. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.

The 79-year-old and his daughter are barred for their anti-gay comments. Both have picketed the funerals of Aids victims and have claimed the deaths of American soldiers are a punishment for US tolerance of homosexuality.

SAMIR AL QUNTAR

Hezbollah militant. Spent three decades in prison for killing four soldiers and a four-year-old girl.

Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and to provoke others to terrorist acts.

ARTUR RYNO & RAVEL SKACHEVSKY

Leaders of a violent Russian skinhead gang that beat migrants and posted films of their attacks on the internet, and committed 20 racially motivated murders.

Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by fomenting serious criminal activity and seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts.

Both are currently in prison.

AMIR SIDDIQUE

Preacher. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by fomenting terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs.

MICHAEL ALAN WEINER (ALSO KNOWN AS MICHAEL SAVAGE)

Controversial daily radio talk-show host. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.

His views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism have caused great offence in the US.

BBC NEWS | UK | Who is on UK 'least wanted' list?

Glenn Beck clown

2009-05-04T09:37:00.001-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The big nothing

2009-05-03T18:13:00.001-07:00

What if they had a flu pandemic and nobody came?

Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild

2009-04-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

Reading about this pandemic indicates to us that N1H1 is, outside of Mexico, a wimp virus.

SWINE!!The H1N1 strain of swine flu is usually associated with pigs. When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can

2009-04-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

pHOTO-g. oRENSTEIN

CHECK OUT MY TWITTER twitter.com/Nice_JewishGirl

Protocols of Zion book for sale in Istanbul

2009-04-26T03:29:00.001-07:00

A copy of the Protocols of Zion for sale in Istanbul

Facebook | My Photos - Wall Photos

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Flu Pandemic

2009-04-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

Since people seem afraid to say it we will say it here. Mexico and the USA have PERFECT conditions for the next flu pandemic, which PROBABLY has started. Conditions include economic crisis, poor US and Mexico health services, social unrest in Mexico due to drug war and the nature of the new strain.

There seems to be a working assumption that the economic crisis constitutes such a terrible and rare event that "lightening never strikes twice". But ion reality the conditions of a major economic collapse make the flu pandemic more likely. The US also keeps major forces in Iraq and NATO has major forces in Afghanistan. Once the disease reaches either one of these places it will likely spread widely.

Rober1236 Jua the Cyber Trekker of Second Life

Notting Hill Photosynth

2009-04-24T14:32:00.001-07:00

A Synth capturing motion in space

Susan Boyle on BBC Scotland

2009-04-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

Susan Boyle on BBC Scotland

Jay Leno tries to jump on the Susan Boyle bandwagon

2009-04-22T09:59:00.001-07:00

Susan Boyle

Notice that only Comedy Central speaks for America's greater soul

2009-04-22T01:25:00.003-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

We Don't Torture

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

Slumdogs? Dogs don't behave like this

2009-04-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

The movie Slumdog Millionaire only really illustrates how complex and destructive the western relations of guilt and exploitation are when they interface the vast poverty and chaos of India. The "act her way out" line is the saddest. Her presence in Slumdog could have been enacted by a million other little girls and Bollywood demands dancing skills you can't get in the slums of Bombay. Being in the movie will only make the horror of her life even more disturbing to her. Millions of people in the west went to see this movie and engaged in child slavery and destruction.

Photosynth of Gail Photos in Istanbul

2009-04-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Photosynth of Gail Orenstein's photos in Istanbul. If you don't have photosynth installed you should to see this. Sorry to Linux users this is a Microsoft Live technology.

After being told you won't have to do time for your crimes, you say they are not crimes a-hole

2009-04-21T01:57:00.000-07:00

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NHVNRhh1D98/RjrcLpCBcWI/AAAAAAAAAVA/Iua-FpR6bcI/s400/DSC_0027.JPG

Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney has urged the CIA to release memos which he says show harsh interrogation techniques such as water-boarding work.

What a piece of shit we had as President there for 8 years while Bush was working out.

Obama makes anti-americanism uncool?

2009-04-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

Responding to the somewhat overwrought critique that Obama did not properly stand up to hostile Latin American leaders during a trip to the region this past week, David Axelrod accused critics of missing the point.

"I think some people misinterpreted what happened this past weekend," said the president's close adviser. "I think the real message of what happened this past weekend with the Cuban regime's response to the president's decision on remittances, or the overtures from president Chavez. I think what has happened is that anti-Americanism isn't cool anymore."

The remarks were delivered during a conference hosted by the Religious Action Center, a Reform Judaism organization that seeks to influence society and politics. And they came as part of a broader attempt to frame the election of Obama as a fundamental resetting of "our relationships in the world."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/20/axelrod-obama-has-made-an_n_189144.html

420?

2009-04-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

The flyer came complete with a 420 back story: "420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California in the late '70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb - Let's Go 420, dude!"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/20/what-420-means-the-true-s_n_188320.html

YOU THINK YOUR HAVIN A BAD DAY!! THIS ROMANY CHILD HAS BEEN BEGGING ALL DAY!!

2009-04-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Taken Here

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Hamas was elected-the palestinians are now paying the price for it-but is this fair?A GROUND ASSAULT NEXT? Israel pounds Gaza for second day. Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip from the air on Sunday and prepared for a possible land invasion. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2009-04-14T14:34:00.001-07:00

Hamas was elected-the palestinians are now paying the price for it-but is this fair?A GROUND ASSAULT NEXT? Israel pounds Gaza for second day. Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip from the air on Sunday and prepared for a possible land invasion. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

pHOTO-g. ORENSTEIN. Israeli Merkava tanks rolling into Lebanon/2006 July war.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip from the air on Sunday and prepared for a possible invasion after killing at least 298 Palestinians in two days of attacks.

Israel said the campaign that began on Saturday was a response to almost daily rocket and mortar fire that intensified after Hamas, the Islamist group in charge of the enclave that Israel quit in 2005, ended a six-month ceasefire a week ago.

Israel stepped up air strikes after dark on Sunday, destroying a laboratory building at the Islamic University in Gaza, a significant cultural symbol, Hamas said. Israel has accused Hamas of using the facilities to develop explosives.

During the first two days of the assault, militants fired about 150 rockets and mortars at Israel, the army said, less than had been expected. Two rockets struck near the port of Ashdod, 30 km (18 miles) from Gaza, causing no casualties.

The attacks enraged Arabs across the Middle East, where protesters burned Israeli and U.S. flags to press for a stronger response from their leaders to Israel's attack on Gaza.

Israeli tanks deployed on the edge of the Gaza Strip, poised to enter the densely populated enclave of 1.5 million Palestinians. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reservists, a government official said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told top commanders at a briefing on Sunday that the Israeli offensive was open-ended. Military spokesman Avi Benayahu said it could "take many days."

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert, said the campaign would continue until the population in southern Israel "will no longer live in terror and in fear of constant rocket barrages."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who hopes to become prime minister after a February 10 election, appeared to rule out a large-scale invasion to recapture the territory.

"Our goal is not to reoccupy Gaza Strip," she said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program. Asked on Fox News if Israel was out to topple Gaza's Hamas rulers, Livni replied: "Not now."

The U.N. Security Council called on all sides to cease fire. But an Israeli official said Israel was feeling little international pressure to halt its operations.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum urged Palestinian groups to use "all available means, including martyrdom operations" -- a reference to suicide bombings in Israel.

Keeping pressure on Hamas after bombing runs that turned Saturday into one of the bloodiest days for Palestinians in 60 years of conflict, Israeli aircraft flattened the group's main security compound in Gaza, killing at least four security men.

Israel expanded its air campaign to the southern Gaza Strip, bombing some 40 smuggling tunnels running under the border with Egypt, a network that is a lifeline to the outside world.

Dozens of Gazans crossed into Egypt through holes opened in the border wall by bulldozers and explosives. An Egyptian border guard and a Palestinian youth died in a clash as Egyptian police tried to stop the influx, medics and Egyptian security said.

Egypt later warned Gaza residents to steer clear of the border area as Israel planned to bomb more tunnels there, a Palestinian security source said. Israel says militants use border tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza.

"SHOCK AND AWE"

Palestinian health officials said the deaths raised to 298 the number of Palestinians killed since Saturday, when Israel launched what one Israeli newspaper columnist described as "shock and awe" air strikes against Hamas facilities.

Hamas said 180 of its members were killed and the rest included civilians, among them 16 women and some children.

The international Red Cross said that hospitals in the Gaza Strip were overwhelmed and unable to cope with the casualties.

One Israeli was killed on Saturday by a rocket fired from Gaza. Gazan rockets have caused few Israeli casualties but have damaged property and sparked panic in many border towns.

Benayahu, the army spokesman, said Hamas had not yet responded as strongly as expected, possibly because it was "trying to recover from the blows," but that "it is too soon to eulogize" it.

Livni said Israel was trying to "target only terrorists and Hamas headquarters." "But, unfortunately, in a war ... sometimes also civilians pay the price."

Violence spread to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers opened fire at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters. Palestinian medical officials said two Palestinians were killed.

Palestinian forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah shot and wounded three people in a protest in support of Hamas. Arab citizens of Israel also held protests.

In Damascus, a senior official said Syria has suspended indirect peace talks with Israel in response to the attacks.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas who fought a 2006 war with Israel, said he asked fighters to be on standby for a possible Israeli attack.

Parents in Gaza kept their children home from school as the roar of Israeli aircraft and thunder of explosions echoed. Schools in Israel's south, due to reopen on Tuesday after the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, were ordered to stay shut.

Abbas, speaking in Cairo, accused Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in 2007, of triggering Israel's raids by not extending the ceasefire that Egypt brokered in June.

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration, in its final weeks in office, put the onus on Hamas to prevent more violence.

(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Dan Williams, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Douglas Hamilton and Adam Entous in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by )

Source; www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSLS69391620081228?sp=true

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i don not belive what im reading here have you not lurned any thing from history you sound like a nazzi your self
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

tikanyis says:

The IDF Merkava ("chariot" in Hebrew; an apt name) Main Battle Tank was studied by the US Army in the mid-late 1970s when it was casting around for a new main battle tank to replace the M-60. The Merkava's escape hatches, main gun targeting acquisition system, and armor (including reactive armor that explodes enemy shells outward from the tank) all led to a US model resembling these "chariot" features in the Abrams Main Battle Tank, or M-1 in about 1980-81. It's true that Hamas was duly elected; however, the incompetence of the PLO and systemic "good ole' boy" corruption led the West Bank population to vote in Hamas rather then Hamas' dysfunctional "ideology"...just food for thought....
Posted 5 days ago. ( permalink )

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BUSH IS BACK!!!! Bush left Washington on Jan. 20 with two-thirds of Americans disapproving of his job performance — one of the worst ratings ever for an outgoing U.S. president. Now writing a book. " I have no regrets & feel confident about my decisions" on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2009-04-14T12:27:00.001-07:00

DALLAS - The new couple at 10141 Daria Place accepted an invitation to a neighborhood dinner party last month. The guest list totaled eight. The main dish was chicken potpie. George and Laura Bush left their cul-de-sac in the back of a dark sedan, exited through a Secret Service checkpoint and rode down streets bordered by lawn signs adorned with gigantic W's to welcome them home.

It had been a bad week for the country. President Obama spoke on television about the burdens he had inherited in office: anti-American sentiment, two wars, a recession. But it had been a good week at 10141 Daria Place. The Bushes shared stories over dinner about their return to Texas after eight years in Washington. They had improved their sprinkler system and hung custom-made green drapes. Neighbors had brought over homemade cookies and a potted houseplant.

Not until late in the dinner party did the former president speak in any depth about his two terms in the White House. He told one of his favorite stories, about a trip to Bucharest, Romania, in 2002. More than 200,000 people had come to hear him speak in a town square, he said. The sky turned dark. A cold rain fell. The Romanian president introduced him and — look at that! A huge rainbow emerged on the horizon, and the Romanians burst into applause.

Source continued: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30158849/

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I agree with Clyde.
Posted 3 days ago. ( permalink )

excellence III says:

Gorgeous Woman, Breathing taking
Posted 2 days ago. ( permalink )

NickFun says:

The simple statement I have no regrets & feel confident about my decisions" makes me cringe. He murdered millions of people. He destroyed our economy. He make the US loose face in the eyes of the world. Could you imagine what he would have done if he DID have regrets?
Posted 2 days ago. ( permalink )

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Would you trust this person to run your company?

2009-04-13T05:18:00.000-07:00

Cara Ellison, like so many people is looking for work. Cara asks we and any one else pass her details on. Okay well what is Cara looking for, that is what work has she done:

Okay well to start Cara was very active in the recent financial sector which, for a time saw so much growth:

"- Measuring and limiting Company’s exposure to adverse movements in market rates - stock prices, commodity prices, interest rates and foreign exchange rates.

"- Setting, monitoring, reporting and enforcing risk limits.

"- Directly responsible for monitoring and reporting risk metrics on a daily basis to Managing Director.

"- Interacting constantly with the front office traders to ensure that the market risks arising from day-to-day trading positions were fully understood and managed appropriately within the limit framework.

"-Liaising with back office and support staff to ensure that the trading systems adequately represented the risk profile of the trading books, and that risk numbers were reported in an accurate and timely manner.

"- Assessing the appropriateness of mathematical derivative pricing models within the context of real-world market conditions."

Well if recent experience with the financial sector does not turn you on, how about looking at Cara's personal and political background:

"Cara Ellison knows what’s what. She suffers no fools - at all. She loves a good re-direct. She’s Conservative, a bit of an Objectivist, and a total Capitalist. For good measure, she will say it again: there was no fraud or conspiracy at Enron."

So not only do you get someone who was involved in years of risk configuration in finance but you get a Conservative Republican follower of Ayn Rand who sees no Fraud having taken place at Enron.

Good luck with that.

Bachmann says that it was being asked anti-American so many times that she...just watch.

2009-04-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Bachmann is the new McCarthy

2009-04-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

It is amazing that this woman is in the US Congress

GOP Today

2009-04-12T15:49:00.001-07:00

2009-04-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

An image from Second Life, appropriate for this season given Second Life's sex obsession.