Eideard

Guatemalan soldiers carry 1 of 3 coffins – part of a group of 72 migrants killed in Mexico
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Back in 2007, when the government here announced its plan for “the world’s first zero-carbon city” on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, many Westerners dismissed it as a gimmick — a faddish follow-up to neighboring Dubai’s half-mile-high tower in the desert and archipelago of man-made islands in the shape of palm trees.

Designed by Foster & Partners, a firm known for feats of technological wizardry, the city, called Masdar, would be a perfect square, nearly a mile on each side, raised on a 23-foot-high base to capture desert breezes. Beneath its labyrinth of pedestrian streets, a fleet of driverless electric cars would navigate silently through dimly lit tunnels. The project conjured both a walled medieval fortress and an upgraded version of the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland.

Well, those early assessments turned out to be wrong. By this past week, as people began moving into the first section of the project to be completed — a 3 ½-acre zone surrounding a sustainability-oriented research institute — it was clear that Masdar is something more daring and more noxious.

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Christian respect for freedom of speech
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Atheists in Oklahoma City have erected a billboard seeking fellow non-believers, and Satanists have scheduled a conference in a city-owned building, drawing criticism from ministers in a state where more than eight out of 10 people say they are Christians…

Nick Singer, the coordinator of a local atheists’ group called “Coalition of Reason,” recently received $5,250 from its national counterpart to erect the billboard along Interstate 44 near the Oklahoma State Fair, which opens Wednesday. Its message reads, “Don’t believe in God? Join the club…”

Legislators pray in their chambers, led by a “minister of the day,” usually Christian. The Oklahoma City Thunder is one of the few NBA teams to begin each contest after a non-denominational prayer delivered by a minister on the public address system…

Yes. I think we all can agree that Oklahoma is a bastion of bible belt True Believers. Superstition overrules just about everything but the sunrise.

The Satanists, calling themselves the Church of the IV Majesties, have reserved a room at the Oklahoma City Civic Center for a “blasphemy ritual,” said James Hale, a founding member.

“I guess you could say we’re poking a dog with a stick. That’s the point of Satanism — to question all things,” Hale said.

Singer, from the atheists’ group, said his group has no connection to the Satanists.

“As far as Satan goes, we don’t believe in him either,” he said.

If you ask who might present a danger to the public order, whose hatred and fear might surpass any understanding of constitutional freedoms, the answer is clear.

“It’s not the people who don’t believe in God that worry me,” said Robin Meyers, senior minister at Mayflower Congregational Church…”It’s some of the people who do.

“Fundamentalism is the enemy worldwide, no matter what the strain.”

Oklahoma already bears national witness to the death and destruction that reactionary True Believers can bring to the innocent. The question of dissent – even on the side of reason and science – means little to those who think they are the sword-carriers for a wrathful god.

Where’s the bloody coal lorry?

The Queen requested a poverty grant to help heat her palaces, but was refused because government ministers feared it would cause a public relations backlash…

In an effort to cut the royal household’s soaring electricity and gas bills, a senior aide wrote to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2004 to ask if the Queen would be eligible for a handout from a £60m energy-saving fund.

The cost of utilities doubled in 2004 and the aide said the £1m bill for the royal palaces was “untenable”. He also complained that the £15m government grant to maintain the Queen’s palaces was inadequate…

In an email sent to the palace, it was explained that the handouts were aimed at schools, hospitals, councils and housing associations for heating programmes that benefited low-income families.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman declined to comment on the disclosures.

Why am I never surprised over the unmitigated gall of the very wealthy – especially those with inherited wealth.

And I guess being a Queen sort of makes you the ultimate trustfunder, eh?

The shipment of laptop computers that arrived in Iraq’s main seaport in February was a small but important part of the American military’s mission here to win hearts and minds. What happened afterward is a tale of good intentions mugged by Iraq’s reality.

The computers — 8,080 in all, worth $1.8 million — were bought for schoolchildren in Babil, modern-day Babylon, a gift of the American taxpayers. Only they became mired for months in customs at the port, Umm Qasr, stalled by bureaucracy or venality, or some combination of the two. And then they were gone.

Corruption is so rampant here — and American reconstruction efforts so replete with their own mismanagement — that the fate of the computers could have ended as an anecdote in a familiar, if disturbing trend. Iraq, after all, ranks above only Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Somalia on Transparency International’s annual corruption index.

But the American military commander in southern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, was clearly furious. Even if the culprits are not exactly known, the victims are: Iraqi children and American taxpayers. He issued a rare and stinging public rebuke of a government that the United States hopes to treat as an equal, strategic partner — flawed, perhaps, but getting better.

In a statement, he demanded an investigation into the actions of “a senior Umm Qasr official,” who, even now, has not been identified…

Then, in August, Iraqis auctioned off 4,200 of the computers — for $45,700. The whereabouts of the rest are unknown…

In early September, the auctioned computers were recovered, according to Iraqi officials, who nevertheless declined to discuss how or where. They had been sold to a businessman in Basra, Hussein Nuri al-Hassan. He could not be found last week at the address he gave when buying the computers..

None of the officials, most of whom would speak only on the condition of anonymity, could explain what happened to the rest of the computers…

RTFA. There’s lots of detail before the disappearance – and after. You should be able to imagine most of it.

I don’t think things were especially different before we started on this neocon, nation-building adventure in the Middle East. Not in my experience, anyway. But, watching our government trying week after week to put a shiny coat of wax on a rusty 1957 Plymouth – and call it a Chrysler Imperial – is a farce.

I was planning on whipping up some smartass remarks about this dude – since he comes from just down the freeway in Albuqerque. Went and found this video from Clancy’s from an early round in the world competition.

I’m impressed.

A technician for an American telephone company has won the top prize of 1 million Russian dumplings in the Karaoke World Championships.

Edward Pimentel won the unusual prize early Sunday in Moscow after getting the most votes from audience members.

A panel of judges chose two Finns as the male and female champions — Sam Moudden and Maria Saarima-Ylitalo. They were awarded karaoke machines.

Amateur singers from 16 countries took part in the three-day competition.

Pimentel, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, favors the R-and-B genre. For his song in the final round, he chose Usher’s “DJ’s got Us Fallin’ In Love.”

Steve Terrell asked me the question I couldn’t answer – “Is he from the Pimentel family of musicians and luthiers?”

Not the perp – but, just as dumb

A Cheyenne man who doused himself with white latex paint in hopes of avoiding a police Taser was hit with the stun gun anyway.

The Taser chase happened…when Cheyenne police went to Brian Mattert’s house on a domestic violence call. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that when police arrived, Mattert thought they’d use a Taser on him, so he hastily covered himself in paint and told officers that if they shot him with the stun gun, he’d die.

Officers told him the paint wouldn’t affect the Taser’s capability.

Mattert scuffled with officers and was hit with a Taser twice before officers handcuffed him.

He faces several criminal charges. Police say the officers’ uniforms had to be cleaned.

Har!

What? Did he think he would explode?

A new study has determined that teenagers who have abortions are no more likely to become depressed or have low self-esteem than their peers whose pregnancies do not end in abortion.

The study conducted by researchers from Oregon State University and University of California, San Francisco, is the first to use both depression and low self-esteem as outcomes with a nationally representative sample of adolescents.

The researchers found that young women in the study who had an abortion were no more likely to become depressed or have low self-esteem within the first year of pregnancy – or five years later – than their peers who were pregnant, but did not have an abortion…

Jocelyn Warren said previous research has shown that adolescent girls who get pregnant report more depression and lower self-esteem compared to those who don’t. “What we didn’t know was whether psychological outcomes are worse for girls who choose abortion. This study says, ‘No.’”

“In the interest of women’s health, it’s critical that we conduct the most rigorous studies possible and use evidence-based information to inform public policy,” Marie Harvey, co-author, said. “This is our goal in public health research but it may be even more important in areas such as abortion that are highly politicized.”

As a proper science-based study, the authors make the point that decisions about medical procedures should be evidence-based. Almost an impossible standard to reach given the farce that passes for lawmaking in the United States.

Nutballs trot out their pet ideology, favorite superstition, and ask the whole nation to adhere to whatever spooky crap they believe should be so. Scientific study, measured programmatic analysis over time, has minimal influence on hacks inclined to base political and social decisions upon myth – and possible votes.

A western Michigan man accused of fathering 23 children with 14 women and has been sent to prison for at least two years for failing to pay tens of thousands of dollars in child support.

“Animals procreate. Human beings are supposed to nurture their children,” Kent County Circuit Judge Dennis Leiber said Thursday.

Howard Veal, 44, of Muskegon owes more than $533,000 in child support, according to the state attorney general’s office…

There are 14 child-support cases pending against him in Kent and Muskegon counties, The Grand Rapids Press reported…

Guidelines called for no more than six months in jail, but Veal was sentenced to two years to four years in prison. His release will be determined by the Michigan parole board…

Sherri Black, the mother of two of Veal’s children, said she was pleased with the sentence but would prefer to get money. She has received only $87.75 over seven years.

“Now my taxes will go to support him in prison,” Black said.

There should be some more creative method of sentencing this thoughtless idiot. Perhaps involving snipping and stitches.

One of his kids, a 19-year-old, was in court and testified, “I just want to grow up to NOT be like him.”

“OK. We’ll get back to the important stuff, next week”
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The Justice Department has reached an agreement with six major Silicon Valley companies to settle allegations that they colluded to stifle competition for employees by restricting the way they could poach workers from each other.

The settlement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Friday, names Google, Apple, Intel, Adobe Systems, Intuit and Walt Disney Corp.’s Pixar Animation Studios.

The Justice Department had been investigating whether the companies pledged not to use “cold calls” to recruit each other’s employees, as part of partnership agreements. The government was concerned that such promises amounted to a form of collusion to avoid bidding wars for employees with specialized skills, and in turn hold down payroll expenses.

Which they probably didn’t.

These agreements, the Justice Department said, “eliminated a significant form of competition to attract highly skilled employees,” depriving employees of access to better job opportunities…

Amy Lambert, Google’s associate general counsel for employment, said in a blog post Friday that the company does not believe its “no cold call” policies hindered hiring or affected wages, and noted that Google hired hundreds of employees from partner companies named by the Justice Department even while these policies were in place.

Google nonetheless abandoned the policy in late 2009 once the Justice Department began its investigation, she said.

Everyone else said pretty much the same thing – or nothing.