Clipmarks | faberglas's clips

More Veterans Die From Suicide Than Combat

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:03:38 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: why hasn't this story been picked up worldwide?

They are the casualties of wars you don’t often hear about - soldiers who die of self-inflicted wounds.

little information exists about how widespread suicides are among these who have served in the military. There have been some studies, but no one has ever counted the numbers nationwide.

"If you're just looking at the overall number of veterans themselves who've committed suicide, we have not been able to get the numbers,”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data

Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information

In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year

veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets

“If these numbers don't wake up this country, nothing will,”

Tags: politics

DCI Launches Preemptive Strike Against Inspector General

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:45:20 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: watch for release of Inspector Generals report

Clip Source: www.iht.com

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, General Michael Hayden, has ordered a highly unusual internal inquiry into

the conduct of the agency's watchdog office, which is led by Inspector General John L. Helgerson. Current and former government officials said that the review has caused anxiety and anger in Helgerson's office

Frederick Hitz, who served as CIA inspector general from 1990 to 1998

said any move by the agency's director to examine the work of the inspector general would "not be proper."

A CIA spokesman strongly defended the inquiry on Thursday, saying that

"His only goal is to help this office, like any office at the agency, do its vital work even better,"

In his role as the agency's inspector general since 2002, Helgerson has investigated some of the CIA's most controversial programs begun since the Sept. 11 attacks, including its secret program to detain and interrogate high value terrorist suspects.

Tags: politics

UN investigating Blackwater for war crimes

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:31:48 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: maybe world opinion can finally make a difference

Clip Source: news.independent.co.uk

The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets by its security guards in Baghdad.

The killings last month put the spotlight on the private security firms whose employees are immune from prosecution, unlike professional soldiers who are subject to courts martial

Ivana Vuco, the most senior UN human rights officer in Iraq, spoke yesterday about the shootings by private security guards,

"For us, it's a human rights issue," she said. "We will monitor the allegations of killings by security contractors and look into whether or not crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed."

Iraqi authorities have accused Blackwater of the "deliberate murder" of Iraqi civilians in the shooting in a crowded city square, and are demanding millions of dollars in compensation

the latest UN human rights report

described the human rights situation in Iraq as "very grim".

Tags: politics

Sam Harris challenges "Atheists"

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:35:06 GMT

clipped by: faberglas

Clip Source: richarddawkins.net

I don't know if our universe is, as JBS Haldane said, "not only stranger than we suppose, but stranger than we can suppose." But I am sure that it is stranger than we, as "atheists," tend to represent while advocating atheism. As "atheists" we give others, and even ourselves, the sense that we are well on our way toward purging the universe of mystery. As advocates of reason, we know that mystery is going to be with us for a very long time. Indeed, there are good reasons to believe that mystery is ineradicable from our circumstance

It does not rob our lives of meaning. And it is not a barrier to human happiness.

We are faced, however, with the challenge of communicating this view

that love and curiosity are sufficient, and that we need not console or frighten ourselves or our children with Iron Age fairy tales. I don't think there is a more important intellectual struggle

a world in which people cease to praise one another for pretending to know things they do not know

Tags: religion

Nerbaska Senator Takes God to Court

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:43:19 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: if this can happen maybe impeachment is possible

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The defendant in a state senator's lawsuit is accused of causing untold death and horror and threatening to cause more still. He can be sued in Douglas County, the legislator claims, because He's everywhere.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God last week.

Chambers says in his lawsuit that God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

The Omaha senator, who skips morning prayers during the legislative session and often criticizes Christians, also says God has caused "fearsome floods ... horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes."

He's seeking a permanent injunction against the Almighty.

Tags: politics, religion

Mixed Views of 911 Commemorations

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:14:38 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: some media are fair and balanced

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

US presidential politics and the health of ground zero workers have loomed over the commemorations

Many of those rescuers are now ill with respiratory problems and cancers that they blame on exposure to the fallen towers' toxic dust

For the first time, the name of a victim who survived the day of the attacks but had died five months later of lung disease was added to the official roll

groups representing the families of victims had opposed giving Rudy Giuliani

a speaking role at the commemoration

Giuliani has maintained that his appearance was not intended to be political

Last year, George Bush visited New York to lay a wreath at the site, but this year attended a private service and observed a moment of silence in Washington

Tags: politics

UC Berkeley Goes to Court to Remove Protesters From Trees

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:03:45 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: they must be affecting the alumni football fun

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

UC Berkeley will ask a judge Tuesday for a court-order to remove about a half-dozen tree-sitting protesters from Memorial Stadium's oak grove, an attorney for the tree-sitters said Monday.

The protesters have been residing in seven tree houses in the grove since December, protesting the University's plan to remove bout two-thirds of the grove to build a state-of-the-art athletic training center for football and 13 other varsity sports.

The California Oak Foundation, city of Berkeley and a neighborhood group have sued to stop the project on public safety grounds because the stadium straddles the Hayward Fault. The cases will be heard in Alameda County Superior Court on Sept. 19.

If an injunction is granted, the Alameda County Sheriff's department would have the authority to arrest the tree-sitters for being in contempt of court

A UC spokesman could not be reached for comment. The tree-sitters have been violating campus rules against trespassing and lodging

Tags: politics

Political Science Professor Forced Out of DePaul University

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:49:55 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: he dared to question Alan Dershowitz and the holocaust industry

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

In the home of Norman Finkelstein's youth, talk about a watchful God was not welcome.

His parents had been grabbed by the Nazis in Poland during the Holocaust and survived concentration camps, but all their relatives died

In 2000, Finkelstein, a vocal critic of Israel, published "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering."

in which he claimed Jews in Israel and the United States have used the Holocaust to, among other things, extort money from Germany

Finkelstein took on famed Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. After the publication of Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel," Finkelstein got busy on "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History," an attack both on Dershowitz's book and an argument that Israel uses the outcry over perceived anti-Semitism as a weapon to stifle criticism

On Wednesday, Finkelstein resigned from his job as a political science professor at DePaul University, months after he was denied tenure

Tags: politics

Nuclear Power Companies Set to Cash in Before 2008 Election

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:29:15 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: I'm sure Fred Thompson will make GE's (NBC) investment in him pay dividends

Clip Source: www.siliconvalley.com

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's newly created Office of New Reactors

are weeks away from an anticipated flood of license applications for new reactors not seen since the 1970s

The first could come as early as Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year

The independent regulatory agency expects to receive new fast-tracked combined construction and operating license applications for as many as 29 reactors at 20 sites, most in the South, over the next three years

The office is nearly as large as the NRC unit overseeing the country's existing 104 commercial reactor fleet.

Growing electricity demand, energy supply security concerns and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are driving a nuclear revival in this country

Using standardized design and modular construction "allows General Electric to (be able) to claim that they can construct from first concrete to reactor critical - an entire power plant - in approximately 36 months,"

Some large components already are being ordered

Tags: politics

British Reject New Nuclear Plants at Public Meetings

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:07:06 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: after environmentalists pull out, more than 90% remaining at meetings very concerned about creating nuclear waste

Clip Source: news.independent.co.uk

One of the four companies hoping to build new nuclear power plants in Britain unveiled its proposals for public scrutiny today as

the Government is in the middle of a wider consultation on whether to build such power stations to help meet Britain's future energy needs.

The process appeared to be in disarray recently when

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, pulled out, labelling it a "PR stitch-up"

More than 1,000 people took part in nine public meetings across the UK over the weekend

89 per cent were either concerned or very concerned about safety and security issues associated with nuclear energy, and 92 per cent were very concerned or quite concerned about creating new nuclear waste

consultation was ordered earlier this year after a High Court ruling deemed the previous process "seriously flawed" and "manifestly inadequate and unfair"

The Government has expressed a view that new nuclear power stations should be built, but if

rejected during consultation then the plans will be scrapped

Tags: politics

MacDonalds Employee Arested For Serving Hamburger

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:16:46 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: there really are food police!

Clip Source: www.azcentral.com

A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer's burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick.

Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail.

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off."

Police Officer Wendell Adams got a burger made with the oversalted meat, and he returned a short time later and told the manager it made him sick.

Bull admitted spilling salt on the meat, and Adams took her outside and questioned her, she said.

She said she didn't know a police officer got one of the salty burgers because she couldn't see the drive-through window from her work area.

Police said samples of the burger were sent to the state crime lab for tests.

Bull was charged because she served the burger "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."

Tags: politics

Marine Kills Two Republicans Operatives Then Self in Florida

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:05:20 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: another proud southern military man honors his family with fulfilling his duty. question is to whom?

Clip Source: www.orlandosentinel.com

Former U.S. Marine Jason Drake of St. Cloud allows Albanian children to touch his head inside a NATO run refugee camp in Stenkovac near Skopje, Macedonia in 1999. Drake shot and killed two political consultants before killing himself last week. (Eric Draper, Associated Press / April 7, 1999)

sheriff's Cmdr. Joe Picanzo said.

"What prompted him to go in and commit that crime remains undetermined and may never be known,"

"We have had so many different and conflicting statements from people."

Gonzalez, 39, was the president of Strategum Group and a former head of the Republican Party in Georgia. He managed U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney's 2002 campaign and the 2003 Orlando mayoral campaign of advertising executive Pete Barr

Abrami, 36, an attorney who previously worked with Orlando political consultant Doug Guetzloe, had a room in Gonzalez's house

will be buried

in the family plot where the soldiers in our family have been buried since the Revolutionary War," said his aunt,

Tags: politics

Steampunk Dialup PC

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:50:50 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: automatically switches to phone for incoming VOIP

Clip Source: www.envador.com

External Pics
Front-Right	Front-Left	Rear-Right	Rear-Right Close

Optical drive ejected

Custom RJ-45 phone jack
for handset. Close Up

Phone jack on Right Side

Internal Pics
DialupPC opened up. The fan-less heatsink is placed to work with the single 80mm fan seen inside the top cover.	Close-up from the rear of DialupPC. The plastic sheet attached to the PSU helps keep direct airflow from the front opening of the cover to the rear.	Inside of the PC cover. Magnetically-shielded speakers, the amp unit, and the wiring used for the phone jack. Dynamat was used to keep the case vibrations low. The aluminum foil material on the Dynamat also helps dissipate any rising heat from the system.	Front view of DialupPC with optical drive ejected.

Close-up of the original inspection seal. I first thought this was gum on the side of the case and tried to scratch it off. I stopped as soon as I realized I was about to destroy part of this box's history.

Tags: design, steampunk

Is It A Car or A Motorcycle?

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:42:47 GMT

clipped by: faberglas

Clip Source: thekneeslider.com

it’s a 2008 B.R.P. Can-Am Spyder Grand Sport Roadster and it will be introduced to dealers this Friday in San Diego.

Power comes from a 106-horsepower Rotax V-twin.

There will be two transmission choices: with a five-speed manual, the price is $14,999; with a five-speed sequential gearbox that deletes the clutch lever from the handlebars, the price is $16,499. The prices include electric power steering, a reverse gear and antilock brakes.

I think this could do very well. Their target market is 35 to 40 year old males although I think a much wider range of riders will find this appealing. If market response is good, expect other companies to jump into the 3 wheeler segment. My hat’s off to Can Am for being the first to get their 3 wheeler on the road.

Tags: design, motorcycle

Steampunk Three Wheeled Motorcycle to be Sold

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:38:05 GMT

clipped by: faberglas
clipper's remarks: wild

Clip Source: thekneeslider.com

The Bobster trike by Zeel Design is an interesting custom, one reason being the builders are former engineers from Bombardier who design their customs completely on the computer before cutting or machining any metal.

The Bobster is a copper plated trike with a 1200 Sportster engine and 5 speed transmission. The front wheel is another of those 26 inchers with a tire from Vee Rubber

I’m not suggesting this trike is any kind of cool road machine, actually I just included this because it was the only other custom I know of so far using the 26 inch front tire

Tags: design, steampunk