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"Second, this correlation holds true with no exceptions. Every country studied has shown this same strong correlation between leaded gasoline and violent crime rates.

So I take it South Africa wasn't included in the study?

That's a fair point. A quick google for violent crime rates in South Africa shows a (murder) trend that increases rapidly and peaks in the early 90s, then falls:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The difference is that leaded gas was still widely used there after the peak. I did find an article talking generally about violent crime in South Africa:

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews...

The political climate I think is the big thing. Negotiations regarding ending Apartheid started in 1990 and ended with the election in 1994. That violent crime increased up to those negotiations and then decreased to 1970s levels afterward doesn't seem to me to be a coincidence. I imagine that's overshadowing everything else, including whatever effects leaded gasolline are having on their (still very high!) violent crime rates.

"Zimbabwe sells wildlife to China secretly"
http://www.iol.co.za/news/afri...
I am out of words to describe this travesty. May China be judged, soon.

Autonomous missiles - those using their own radar emitters, and IR guided missiles - do indeed acquire their own targets. But they do not autonomously launch, even an anti-ship missile sent on an over-the-horizon attack was vectored toward a known target (or group of targets).

Of course this means that they may go astray and end up selecting the wrong target. This definitely happens on occasion, though usually the unintended "target" is another military platform in the area. It is alleged (but the truth of the matter is unclear) that Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 was shot down by a stray French missile, engaging Libyan aircraft, on 27 June 1980.

The only weapons that may autonomously launch/fire (after being activated by a human, to prevent friendly-fire kills) are terminal defense systems.

There is an incident in South Africa when an automated anti-aircraft gun killed 9 people, while firing in some sort of autonomous state, but a mechanical failure was responsible.

Some were over telegraph wires too. I like this story.

Atkins continued to call Cuba and finally came back the words, clear and distinct: "I don't understand you."

With those words, international voice communication began.

... and Verizon is still asking "can you hear me now."

... and this guy keeps answering the calls. I feel his pain.

Sorry, I don't believe it just because a couple of researchers, presumably with an agenda or a desire for further funding of their anthropological tintinnabulations, have written about it.

WTF is wrong with you? I live here, I've suffered under white rule and my entire family was a struggle family so I've got no agenda. The fact is that this is a belief that is shared by many of the locals here :-( Why don't you believe what newspapers, researchers and people on the ground are telling you - these folk are still stuck in the stone age in many respects. Grab any local newspaper you want and see for yourself the pathetic beliefs these people have:

Virgin cure belief

Another one of many

Here's official african government admitting to the baby-rape problem

How about bullet-proof vaseline and other stupidities?

Results of the official inquiry into the massacre

Strikers use body parts from security gaurd for their muti

Cutting up a 6 year old girl for body parts for their muti before they even killed her.

In fact, there are too many stories in the courts to even list. You no longer have the assertions of a couple of anthropologist's, you have the statement of a born-and-bred african who is living here, you have official reports of cases in courts and you also have independent newspapers all verifying the same facts.

Maintaining your skepticism in the face of all this will just make you look foolish. These thugs from the above stories aren't ignorant; they've all completed high-school (equivalent to a US HS diploma) and many of them even have tertiary education. It has become abundantly clear that the problem cannot be solved by relieving these idiots of their ignorance with education; the problem is not ignorance, it's stupidity.

Sorry, I don't believe it just because a couple of researchers, presumably with an agenda or a desire for further funding of their anthropological tintinnabulations, have written about it.

WTF is wrong with you? I live here, I've suffered under white rule and my entire family was a struggle family so I've got no agenda. The fact is that this is a belief that is shared by many of the locals here :-( Why don't you believe what newspapers, researchers and people on the ground are telling you - these folk are still stuck in the stone age in many respects. Grab any local newspaper you want and see for yourself the pathetic beliefs these people have:

Virgin cure belief

Another one of many

Here's official african government admitting to the baby-rape problem

How about bullet-proof vaseline and other stupidities?

Results of the official inquiry into the massacre

Strikers use body parts from security gaurd for their muti

Cutting up a 6 year old girl for body parts for their muti before they even killed her.

In fact, there are too many stories in the courts to even list. You no longer have the assertions of a couple of anthropologist's, you have the statement of a born-and-bred african who is living here, you have official reports of cases in courts and you also have independent newspapers all verifying the same facts.

Maintaining your skepticism in the face of all this will just make you look foolish. These thugs from the above stories aren't ignorant; they've all completed high-school (equivalent to a US HS diploma) and many of them even have tertiary education. It has become abundantly clear that the problem cannot be solved by relieving these idiots of their ignorance with education; the problem is not ignorance, it's stupidity.

Sorry, I don't believe it just because a couple of researchers, presumably with an agenda or a desire for further funding of their anthropological tintinnabulations, have written about it.

WTF is wrong with you? I live here, I've suffered under white rule and my entire family was a struggle family so I've got no agenda. The fact is that this is a belief that is shared by many of the locals here :-( Why don't you believe what newspapers, researchers and people on the ground are telling you - these folk are still stuck in the stone age in many respects. Grab any local newspaper you want and see for yourself the pathetic beliefs these people have:

Virgin cure belief

Another one of many

Here's official african government admitting to the baby-rape problem

How about bullet-proof vaseline and other stupidities?

Results of the official inquiry into the massacre

Strikers use body parts from security gaurd for their muti

Cutting up a 6 year old girl for body parts for their muti before they even killed her.

In fact, there are too many stories in the courts to even list. You no longer have the assertions of a couple of anthropologist's, you have the statement of a born-and-bred african who is living here, you have official reports of cases in courts and you also have independent newspapers all verifying the same facts.

Maintaining your skepticism in the face of all this will just make you look foolish. These thugs from the above stories aren't ignorant; they've all completed high-school (equivalent to a US HS diploma) and many of them even have tertiary education. It has become abundantly clear that the problem cannot be solved by relieving these idiots of their ignorance with education; the problem is not ignorance, it's stupidity.

A skilled guitarist like him could easily play a Bach fugue that is as wonderful and beautiful as his music and this is because Bach was literate. Few realize that the folk music melodies of Bach's time are in his music, so are the folk tunes of Beethoven's time and many other great literate musicians including Mozart. We are losing our core musical literacy and are relying upon purely audio recording to send our music down to posterity. This is much the same as having actors that cannot read play on the stage or in movies. True musical literacy is dying, read Paul Hindemith book Elementary Training for Musicians and then weep.

I will ask you to listen to this young artist at work, she can play with others and no doubt will because she can read, this does not at all mean that she cannot improvise or create great music in time given the encouragement to be creative, her interpretation certainly is not at all stayed and canned, some might call her playing ordinary but if you truly listen you will hear greatness waiting to blossom. Even early on she showed the signs of creativity beyond the ordinary in my estimation.

So No INSTRUMENTALISTS are no going away any time soon the problem is the audience is not up to the challenge of actually listening with open ears and intelligence because of a general musical illiteracy which is becoming a plague especially in North America. There is nothing more pathetic than music being used for little more than the purposes of advertisements and what is essentially hyped up stage a/v entertainments are. Funny but in the time of Wagner some would go to the Opera because it was so loud that their social conversations would not be a problem! Same as having cell phones flashing and text messages pinging during today's modern stage concerts. I guess that is why I would rather listen to Steve Wonder or Ray Charles at least you know where they is comin' from when you hear them play and sing. Far more meaningful and inspiring than today's theatrical light show kiddypop concerts that the producers peddle even to a illiterate musical audience of music consumers! ONE BIT OF ABSOLUTELY SPLENDID NEWS FOR ANYONE WHO READS THIS POST! thrusting beavers is callin' it quits. There is hope for the music industry after all!

regard from the idiot that started this war PS I do not and will not ever own an Apple or Sony product again in my life they are banned from my household PERIOD!

Not the AC that posted, but:
More cancer cases confirmed

If you've even been shocked by static electricity, you've probably been shocked by far more voltage. A quarter inch spark in air is around 20k volts

Static electricity is fun, I've had some pretty big shocks from the static build-up, like e.g. once I was planning to go to bed, I switched the lights off and I don't remember what it was that I touched but the whole room lit up when the spark went off. My hand was totally numb for a while! There was also this one guy who built up over 40,000 volts of static electricity and was near the point of spontaneous self-combustion.

Not that any of this has anything to do with the story, I just felt like sharing!

Yes, they were smart because they were making money. They also did the same thing to Greece, and not just in a kind-of-similar-analogy way. It was the exact same plan that continued Greece's destruction and dragged the entire EU into the mess. They are helping to make Greece's boots go faster.

Tesla sued Fisker in 2008, for a car design: http://green.autoblog.com/2008/04/15/breaking-tesla-sues-fisker-over-electric-car-design/

Tesla sued TopGear in 2011, for a car review: http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/tesla-losing-top-gear-court-challenge-1.1162112 "Tesla losing Top Gear court challenge"

See the spectacular Jeremy Clarkson review the Tesla in 2008 and compare it with its car design origin (Lotus Elise) http://www.spike.com/video-clips/c3neux/top-gear-reviews-the-tesla-roadster

Tesla sues who next?

Technology in South Africa is being developed at a rapid pace as their bid for SKA is gaining ground. With the completion of the first 7 antennas on the KAT-7 project, the first use of composite materials for dish reflectors. With Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya and Ghana partnering with South Africa in the bid, Africa seems to have overcome all the major obstacles associated with the project. Nokia is willing to supply the 15 petabyte per second infrastructure and EMSS Antennas have already built the first seven cryogenic low noise amplifiers. 64 dishes for the MeerKAT project has just been approved and after completion it will be one of the largest, most sensitive radio telescopes in the world."
Link to Original Source

The hands-free issue is moot:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2008/10/17/cellphone-handsfree.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012393/Distracting-hands-free-devices-dangerous-mobile.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/57097-hands-free-calls-could-be-just-as-dangerous-on-the-roads
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/jun/30/mobilephones.uknews
http://socialtimes.com/distracted-driving-dangerous-but-no-evidence-hands-free-laws-help_b69790
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/hands-free-cell-phone-usage-equally-dangerous-while-driving/
http://news.yahoo.com/hands-free-cell-phone-usage-equally-dangerous-while-170124007.html
http://www.infoniac.com/offbeat-news/hands-free-phones-more-dangerous-for-drivers-than-alcoholic-drinks.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012393/Distracting-hands-free-devices-dangerous-mobile.html
http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/hands-free-phoning-just-as-dangerous-1.1096622

Seems it was published everywhere except mainstream US media, which strongly indicates that it's true but contrary to corporate interests. I guess more accidents translates to more car sales. Ideally cars should be as safe as possible for the driver and passengers, but difficult to drive (i.e. small windows, confusing/distracting features, controls, and meters), and most importantly more likely to be written off from even minor collisions. Sounds about right. Too bad about the bad wrecks that kill people, but hey, business is business.

Or the Huffingtong Post?

It is pretty established fact that Muammar Qaddafi sponsored the Lockerbie bombing

He also order a terrorist attack on a disco in Berlin

The Bush administration tried desperately to prove a connection between international terrorism and Saddam but could not.

What is you contention that Saddam was worse than Qaddafi based on?

Some inspiration for you:

http://www.iol.co.za/news/back-page/jet-sex-dj-in-bid-to-save-career-1.731209

Why hire Vinnie when the locals are so much better at it ?.

The notion that "anybody can make it in the US if they work hard" is a fairy tale.

Seriously. Be born rich. That's the way to go.

The notion that the notion is a fairytale is a fairytale. People love to blindly spread memes like this because they enjoy feeling sorry for themselves, but it simply isn't true:

Rags To Riches Billionaires: "Almost two-thirds of the world's 946 billionaires made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination"

That doesn't mean everyone can end up a billionaire, but it's simply false that this notion that 'anyone can make it' is a fairytale; it's borne out on practically a daily basis. If you open your eyes and look, you'll find true-life rags-to-riches story under every second stone you turn --- especially in the USA, but also these days frequently in places like China. But yeah, not everyone is born hard-working, I guess, so keep sitting and feeling sorry for yourself and you'll definitely ensure that nothing ever changes for you.

Rags to Riches CEOs

7 greatest celebrity rags to riches stories

Rags to Riches

Entrepreneur takes women from rags to riches

Rags to Riches billionaires

Asian American Rags to Riches Sagas

Case Study: From Rags to Riches (Brenda French)

Cordia Harrington: From Rags to Riches Success Story

Local cosmetics magnate reveals rags-to-riches life story

China: A rags-to-riches story to dream about (Yan Huiyan)

China’s paper magnate is a rags-to-riches story, literally

Rags to riches: Bill MacAloney: from orphan to successful business owner to CBA

From rags to riches: Filipino weavers trade up

Etc. etc. blah blah ... I could go on pasting these stories in here all day. Nothing worse than listening to whiny losers feeling sorry for themselves that they weren't born rich.

Something like this:

http://vne-resource.iol.co.za/30/picdb/1/7/105701

With some minor detail changes, like the badge. Cos it's practical, affordable, easy to maintain, people can actually use it every day, put the shopping in the boot, the kids in the back seat, sit in a reasonably comfortable position, see what's going on in front and behind. etc.

It will not look anything like this:

http://www.geekologie.com/2007/12/07/future-car-1.jpg

I mean... WTF?
 

And progressive fines, instead of fixed, based on income. That levels it out fast. Here is one reference from a DUI in Norway: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=29&art_id=nw20090512162514776C217806&set_id=1

The UK has just revoked South Africa's short term 'no visa' entry rights because of the sheer number of dodgy passports being issued by the DHA.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&set_id=1&art_id=nw20090224132638974C233056

The problem is not forgery. It's corrupt officials. I fail to see how making the passports 'high tech' is going to stop a bent official from issuing one with phoney details anyway.

This is just (expensive) security theatre.

Many fewer people die or even experience an irritation from vaccinations than would die or be horribly deformed from the things prevented by the vaccinations. You probably still drive a car, don't you? Don't you know kids could die in one of those?

It amazes me how otherwise rational people can be so fucking stupid.

Sounds like super awesome fun.
Wonder why no-one has thought of that before?

You can of course make a movie about a bank robbery, but it better not be a real bank.

No kidding.

Of course, if you want to make a movie about making a movie about a bank robbery where in the movie the making of the movie about a robbery is in fact a cover for robbing the bank... well, that's been done.

Or was it that the cast in the movie in the movie had been secretly replaced with real bank robbers? (I.e. the actors in the movie playing real bank robbers in the movie in the movie instead of actors playing as actors playing as bank robbers.) It gets confusing.

I believe if I could just think of the name of that trope, I'd be able to track down the movie via Wikipedia.

Then who exactly voted for Muhammad Abbas? Who voted for the Hamas in Gaza? I'm sure those were the Jews. Yes, those sneaky, evil Jews...

Sure, technically they can vote - for a "government" that has little to no power, except what it can strong-arm for itself via the use of militias. In terms of the actual government that controls their country, no vote whatsoever. (Actually, one thing that really scares some of the the Israelis is that one day, the Palestinians will stop asking for independence and start asking for a vote; this is unlikely to happen.)

If the Palestinians didn't use their right to travel to transport weapons, munitions and explosives, I can promise you the checkpoints would gradually disappear. Unfortunately each time a checkpoint is removed, yet another suicide belt or other weapon is discovered, proving the need for these checkpoints.

I wouldn't bet on it. In any case, the way the Israeli government uses checkpoint closures isn't helping matters.

There are probably tens, maybe hundreds, of instances in history where a war created refugees which were never allowed home. Why should this conflict be special? You started the war, you lost the war, fucking deal with the consequences and stop whining.

I suggest you check your history. The war - the original one, at least - was started by the Zionist movement. They used mass immigration to try and turn Palestine into a Jewish state, followed by by terrorist tactics to kick out the British mandate. Then the war started. There's fairly widespread suspicion that the Zionist/Israeli side of the civil war deliberately tried to force out the Arabs in an attempt at ethnic cleansing; IIRC, it's even reasonably well-founded. This is why the refugees are so insistent on wanting to return home.

They have their own government, which is supposed to treat them as equals. When the Palestinian government decides it wants to coexist peacefully with Israel, Palestinians will be able to visit Israel or work in it. I'm not sure what else exactly you want. Do you want Palestinians to be able to vote for two Parliaments or what?

In practice, their government doesn't control Palestine (except for the minor things) - the Israeli government does. They have effective control over housing policy, policing, partially over power and water, a veto (via assasination or arrest) over the choice of politicians, etc.

Sorry, all true. Arab citizens of Israel get all the perks of being an Israeli citizen - the right to vote, free world-class health services, generous welfare, etc - all without obligations such as having to serve in the Army. Arabs in Israel are arguably better off than anywhere else in the world, with the possible exception of countries rich in oil, yet they never cease to complain about their condition.

...and all they have to put up with is widespread racism and discrimination (particularly in housing, lots of which is Jewish-only) together with no political influence. Oh, and some particularly nasty government tactics to stop them setting up home in Jerusalem or even force them out of their existing homes there in order to make it as Jewish as possible.

Exploding buses, pizza parlors and discotheques filled with children are "horrors". Blowing up a Passover Seder meal in a hotel is a "horror". Checkpoints, closures and targeted killings of armed terrorist leaders are not my idea of a cup of tea, but they are not "horrors".

Admittedly, the Israeli side mostly gave up on terrorist tactics once they won and got an army, but that's not saying much. The checkpoint closures leave people without essential supplies or income and strand people on the wrong side. The targeted killings aren't and tend to kill random passers-by even when they do

Here are a few ACTUAL statistics, so you can stop repeating your ignorant and prejudiced viewpoints:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20050429103530387C962494

More than a fifth of South Africa children are having sex by age 14. Over a third by age 15, and nearly 50% by age 16.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2221933,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1304584,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_1899863,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2227893,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2228181,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2102140,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2173180,00.html

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2078582,00.html

Keep in mind the population size when looking at absolute numbers (population is a small fraction of the US).

This was on the heels of a similar story last week, in which the British armed forces were being blamed for giant badgers terrorizing the Iraqi city of Basra. Perhaps we're seeing a new chapter unfold in the war on terror. . .how long will it be before the first squadron of Al Qaeda-trained owls is deployed to combat this latest allied initiative?

Or if you're underage and from the UK travelling to Ghana, you could get your laptop bag searched frantically for coke.

Actually, looking at other mainstream press coverage suggests that it was indeed a test set of the XO computers that are part of the OLPC project. I think the Gizmodo text is mistaken.

Take a look at the most recent Reuters story, which is datelined in Nigerian capital Abuja. By inference, the "U.S. aid organization" being referred to in the lede is the OLPC nonprofit mentioned later. (Terribly ambiguous writing!)

For a little more proof, take a look at this earlier coverage of the initial laptop donation to the Abuja school. This coverage says that the "News Agency of Nigeria" (which Reuters said reported Friday about porn on the laptops) reported on June 29 that a donation of 300 laptops had been received from the OLPC program. The reason it was a story then is that the school which received the donated laptops did not have power.

An interesting question: why the negative spin? Why report that the school which got the laptops had no power; and why report that the laptops are being used to look at porn? Is there coverage of positive educational uses of the devices that the other media isn't picking up?

The multi-billion dollar "Big Pharmaceutical corporations" are evil, lying and care for nothing but profit, whereas the multi-billion dollar "alternative medicines" industry is love, truth and fluffy bunnies?

How about Matthias Rath? He has convinced many in the South African government that AIDS is not caused by HIV, AIDS should be treated by vitamin supplements (which he just happens to sell) and antiretroviral medicines are a worse than useless, and advocating their use is genocide.

AIDS is killing 900 people per day in South Africa. A sizable fraction of those deaths can be laid directly at the door of "alternative medicine" in general, and the South African government and Rath in particular.

Big Pharma need someone to stand over them with a big stick to try to keep them honest. So do alternative medicine peddlers. The difference is that, occasionally, the big stick gets used on Big Pharma, but the snake-oil salesmen opperate with impunity in Alternative Medicine, playing Russian Roulette with other people's lives for their own profit.

Don't ban the 'remedies' - but do ban the lies and unsupported wishful-thinking published about them.

Bush admits to secret CIA prisons

We gotta find a way to stop all those cows farting.

Ask and ye shall receive.

Well, there has been a wine glut in Australia over the last few years. For the sake of our livers we have to find more uses for it all. :)

The batery contains toxic materials. Most likley large amounts of lead. The acid would likly fix itself if it didn't kill anything in the process. And then there are sulfates in the battery too.

I'm not aware that these dangers are present in a modern day PC or electronic device. If there are dangers like this,I could see a core charge for it. If there isn't, I see this as just one more encroachment the government is masquerading on order to lay a tax on us. We have spoken pretty loud about not wanting more taxes and they need to cover them up to ensure they are not screwing the pooch come election time.

Computers and other electronic equipment may not only have lead and or mercury in them but they also have other toxins and deathly things. One such deathly thing found in electronic equipment, especially cellphones, is coltan. Conflicts, fightings, and war is being fought in the Congo for the money mining for coltan raises. Substitute "coltan" for "diamonds" in the new movie out about blood diamonds and you'll be close to reality.

Manufacturers won't pay, the consumer will. Any costs will get passed on in higher prices.

And when the manufacturers' sale drop because of higher prices they will find a way to lower their costs. As it now consumers as well as nonconsumers pay. When someone drinks water contaminated by the lead that was leaked from the crt someone else tossed in the trash where it was hauled off to the dump, it's that person who has to pay. The person who tossed it doesn't pay directly, unless of course s/he's the one who tossed it. However the cost will be passed on, if the person has insurance their insurance costs along with everyone else's will raise. If they don't have insurance governmment is sattled with the cost or the person doesn't get treatment. Then there's the cost of the raw material, there isn't a limitless supply of material so as more stuff ends up in dumps mining will get more expensive until the resource is exhausted. And if the resource is coltan this it's those in the Congowho pay with thier lifes. Any way it goes people will pay more.

Oh dear, another Slashdotter who doesn't know his literature. A true Slashdotter, believing everything he (or she???) reads at slashdot, would immediately know that in a recent slashdot article (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/ 01/2049239) an article was mentioned (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id= 116&art_id=qw1170340561317B216) in which this quote was made:
"It is a machine mechanism that is going to take molecular machines a step forward to the realisation of the future world of nanotechnology. Things that seem like a Harry Potter film now are going to be a reality."
So, obviously the tagging of thís story as "SciFi" is indeed wrong, as it should by "SciFu" (Science Future) ;-0
(Yes, this is a joke, pun intended!)

I do not mind a little security theater but I would like to get the feeling that there is someone out there who is doing some actual security.

That's the problem with security theather, once it looks like you're doing something about the problem, you don't need to try anymore. If enough of the sheeple (even elected leaders and "experts" can fall under this category) think that what is in place is good enough then it becomes near impossible to get true flaws fixed. It becomes compounded when the theater starts making arrests, no matter how asinine, because then the 'actors' point to those arrests to say "See? It works!"

Why do I keep seeing the word terrorist?
Because that's the magic password. People aren't scared stupid (literally it seems) by criminals, but call a criminal a terrorist, even when it doesn't apply, and people will trust anything you say so long as you protect them from the boogeyman terrorist. In the case of this article I would warrant that the security researchers are using the word terrorist because it's something the government can understand. Kind of a fight fire with fire approach. If they say that terrorists can break the passports and gain acess to the info then the government has a much harder time ignoring the issue because of the bad PR.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=% 20125&art_id=vn20061024024551407C530989

"Almost a fifth of South African men have raped a woman at least once in their lives, the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) has disclosed in releasing its annual report.

The MRC's Gender and Health Research Unit interviewed 1 370 men between the ages of 15 and 26 about sexual violence towards women.

About eight percent of respondents reported having been sexually violent towards their intimate partner, while 16.3 percent reported raping a non-partner or participating in some form of gang-rape.

Also noted was an overlap of 44 percent of men raping non-partners and intimate partners. The mean age at which respondents first raped a woman was 17."

I just can't understand why white people wouldn't want to live around blacks, can you?

"In a scientific breakthrough that has stunned the world, a team of South African scientists has developed a revolutionary new, highly efficient solar power technology that will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun."

like the recent ridiculous coke and pepsi ban.

You're kidding - coke & pepsi were found (by a private lab) to have contained a pesticide called malathion.

Is it really communism to want pesticides out of foods?

This time I am talking about your post. Aljazeera is not nearly as fundamentalist as e.g. Fox News, but even if it were, it would not automatically mean that a "science article" published there is nonsense.
Like every other news source, they get most of these articles from agencies that sell them.

So if you prefer to read that nonsense from a different source, go here:
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.2 0060819.LETTERS19-12/TPStory/Comment
    http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id= 143&art_id=vn20060817031855765C442092
    http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html ?id=3d68da16-b7b1-4334-bf4d-aa9ebdd0f303&k=89468
and probably hundreds more all over the internet.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_A%20Step%2 0Beyond&set_id=1&click_id=&art_id=iol1154336210588 S513

Last time I was in New Zealand, a year ago, every glacier I visited was a long, long, long hike past signs that said "this is where the glacier's end was in 1780"

The original claim was that all the glaciers "are now in retreat." Most New Zealand glaciers are not in retreat - they are now advancing - but that doesn't mean they are at an all-time maximum extent. Many are simply recovering previously lost ground. For instance, the Franz Josef in New Zealand's Southern Alps is growing at about three metres a day, but it's still below where it was in 1900.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=qw110602 2963550R131

http://www.niwascience.co.nz/pubs/mr/archive/2005- 08-30-1

quotes: "Over the last three years, the glaciers have gained in mass, halting the declines seen between 1998 and 2002. This past year was the seventh largest gain since we started aerial surveys in 1977"
...
"The recent gains do not compensate for the large overall losses seen over the past century."

Here's another article about this:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_ id=31&art_id=qw1151011442625B251

Here are all the 71 articles google news finds on this topic:
http://news.google.com/?ncl=http://www.iol.co.za/i ndex.php%3Fset_id%3D1%26click_id%3D31%26art_id%3Dq w1151011442625B251&hl=en

According to the first article (Independant Online), 1 girl in London and 3 people in Asia have had this happen to them. If 4 people out of the hundreds of millions of cell phone users worldwide is a big enough group to cause you concern, then I think you're on crack.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Well, since you bring up the subject of dupes:

Then from:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=1 3&art_id=vn20060611102509470C487626

This has been a long-time fact in many countries, and many people don't give much thought to it:

"Even if you give a cellphone away you will have to obtain and keep the information about the recipient. The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Act (Rica) will regulate the lawful interception of certain communication and will oblige sellers of cellphones and SIM cards to keep records of their clients. Internet service providers will also be required to store personal information before entering into a service contract."

But, how many telecoms/phone providers are there in the US which DON'T yet demand a photo ID. With the preponderance of information and databases, is it more a formality to ensure bills get paid, or a way of larger-scheme cross-checking to track down some specific people?

"The act states that before any person sells, or in any manner provides telecommunication services, they must obtain the recipient's full name, identity number, residential and business or postal address as well as a certified photocopy of his or her identity document. Proper records of the information must be kept as well as the number of the cellphone concerned."

It was impossible for comets to glow by themselves, let alone in ultraviolet, but they do.

It was impossible for a 25cm remnant to remain from the object forming a 43km wide impact crater on Earth, but it did.

It was impossible for a flat channel 3000km long to form, but Valles Marineris exists on Mars, 10km deep and 90km wide and more. Carved by what? Hardly water, since roughly half of the carving was done uphill.

These are a few of the many impossible things which exist apparently for our collective puzzlement. Many.

But the thing is, like you say, US citizens are free to protest Gitmo. They're even free to toss out those politicians responsible for trampling americas reputation in the mud. Yet they do not. To me that's a mystery.

As for throwing out the politicians responsible, that's not something so easily done. The President, and by extension, everyone in his administration, has a four-year term. Senators have six year terms. Representatives have two year terms. Incumbents are generally very well protected, via gerrymandering and other means. The only way to remove the President during his term is impeachment, and for that you need a Congress that doesn't suck up to him.

I think it's definitely worth mentioning that in both the 2000 and 2004 elections, the President won only by extremely narrow margins. In 2000, the President lost the popular vote (i.e., more people voted for his opponent) and in 2004, he won the popular vote by one of the smallest margins of an incumbent President in history. It's not like the administration has some awesome mandate from the American people, or anything.

I'd wait until 2006 to say that Americans refuse to toss out who they can.

...2 days ago.

Quote:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_ id=115&art_id=iol114776777396S315

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May 16 2006 at 12:04PM

Sao Paulo - At least five mobile phones have exploded over the last two months in Brazil, causing anxiety among phone users and making news headlines.

The incidents, representing only a fraction of the 89 million phones in circulation in Brazil, all involved Motorola phones.

The company said it was investigating and Brazil's telecommunication agency is pursuing the case as well.

In the most recent incident on April 30, the 34-year-old victim in Formosa, Goias state, had surgery for burns on her thighs and arms.

She was driving with the phone in her lap when it exploded.

Other accidents since the beginning of April were reported in Rio de Janeiro and three cities in Sao Paulo state.

Motorola said the probable cause of the explosion was that the owners used non-original or low-quality batteries.

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Hasn't happened in a while? I think it has.

~kainino