WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, who incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped to head the Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take over in January, failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah, two of the key terrorist organizations the intelligence community has focused on since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite."

That is wrong. Al Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics.

Reyes could also not answer questions put by Stein about Hezbollah, a Shiite group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations that is based in Southern Lebanon.

Stein's column about Reyes' answers was published on CQ's Web site Friday evening.

In an interview with CNN, Stein said he was "amazed" by Reyes' lack of what he considers basic information about two of the major terrorists organizations.

"If you're the baseball commissioner and you don't know the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox, you don't know baseball," Stein said. "You're not going to have the respect of the people you work with."

While Stein said Reyes is "not a stupid guy," his lack of knowledge said it could hamper Reyes' ability to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community, Stein believes.

"If you don't have the basics, how do you effectively question the administration?" he asked. "You don't know who is on first."

Titled:   O'Connor details half-baked attempt to kill Supreme Court

O'Connor:

"Every member of the Supreme Court received a wonderful package of home-baked cookies, and I don't know why, (but) the staff decided to analyze them," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram quoted O'Connor as saying at the legal conference November 10 in the Dallas area. "Each one contained enough poison to kill the entire membership of the court."

In the same article:

Barbara Joan March, a 60-year-old Connecticut woman, was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison. She sent 14 threatening letters in April 2005 -- each with a baked good or piece of candy laced with rat poison -- to a variety of federal officials: the nine Supreme Court justices; FBI Director Robert Mueller; his deputy; the chief of naval operations; the Air Force chief of staff and the chief of staff of the Army.

Two basic pieces of advice are obvious here:

• Don't eat cookies sent to you by someone you don't know.
• Especially if they are accompanied by a threatening note.

Maybe someone should explain this to Ms. O'Connor.

The decision to charge Auckland gun shop worker Greg Carvell has come as a complete shock to his family.

The 33-year-old has been charged with possession of a firearm without lawful, proper, or sufficient purpose, following the shooting of man who entered the Penrose shop in possession of a machete.

The man received stomach injuries, and was later charged with assault with intent to rob.

Carvell will appear in the Auckland District Court on December 6, and his father Ray says this is news to the family.

He says his son has not formally been charged and they have had to hear the appearance date through the media.

Ray Carvell says this is extremely upsetting as his son was acting in self defence.

So a machete-wielding guy tries to rob a gun shop, presumably to obtain a gun with which to further other criminal acts, is stopped by the store owner using tools available to hand, without even killing him, and then he is arrested for not having a lawful, proper, or sufficient purpose?

What kind of backward, third-world country is this from?

New Zealand - a society based on British laws, part of the Commonwealth and relatively civilized.

It seems as if they still lack a spine...

Titled:   IAEA commissioner falls into water tank at Czech nuclear plant

A US commissioner from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) emerged unharmed after falling into a water tank at the Dukovany nuclear power plant on Friday.

The daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported Friday that commissioners training at the facility were moving around the plant in a group. One of them, however, left the group and fell into the tank. The water in the tank was not radioactive.

And these are the guys we are supposed to listen to on Iran, North Korea and other hot-spots...

Titled:   Animal activists free 15,000 farmed fish to their deaths

POLICE have warned fish farmers to increase their security after 15,000 halibut were released from their cages in an attack believed to have been carried out by animal rights activists.

Thousands of dead fish are being washed up along the west coast of Scotland after the raid at Kames Marine Fish Farm, near Oban. The perpetrators are thought to have attacked last week. Detectives believe that the attack could be linked to a spate of other farm attacks throughout the country. The letters ALF (Animal Liberation Front) were spray-painted near by.

The loss is estimated to have cost the fish farm at least £500,000 as boats, cranes and offices were also vandalised. The halibut died from starvation or getting caught in seaweed. They were also being eaten by herring gulls and otters.

The fish farmer, who did not wish to be identified, said: “They claim they liberated them into the sea but sadly, as we all know, farmed animals, whether they are fish or any animals, don’t survive unless they are looked after.

The fish farmer added: “We farm them in a sustainable way. The welfare of the fish is at the forefront of our minds. Isn’t it better to have farmed fish than to be pillaging the seas where stocks are declining dramatically?”

Fish farms in Scotland, Kent and the South West have been attacked in the past year.

Titled:   Annan tours devastated south Lebanon

And to think some people blamed the Jews...

Hat-tip Opinion Journal

Titled:   The Fertility Gap

Simply put, liberals have a big baby problem: They're not having enough of them, they haven't for a long time, and their pool of potential new voters is suffering as a result. According to the 2004 General Social Survey, if you picked 100 unrelated politically liberal adults at random, you would find that they had, between them, 147 children. If you picked 100 conservatives, you would find 208 kids. That's a "fertility gap" of 41%. Given that about 80% of people with an identifiable party preference grow up to vote the same way as their parents, this gap translates into lots more little Republicans than little Democrats to vote in future elections.

I'm not sure it's fertility either - I would think that Dems and Repubs are about equal in ability to get pregnant and have children - abortion and choice to remain childless seem to be a liberal trait.

Of course the Dems have an opinion on that:

As one liberal columnist in a major paper graphically put it, "Maybe the scales are tipping to the neoconservative, homogenous right in our culture simply because they tend not to give much of a damn for the ramifications of wanton breeding and environmental destruction and pious sanctimony, whereas those on the left actually seem to give a whit for the health of the planet and the dire effects of overpopulation."

Maybe the conservatives just put a greater value in the sanctity of life, the value of families and realise that bringing up intelligent, happy kids is the only hope for the future of mankind?

Reasons aside, this will have a huge effect on future voting patterns:

A state that was split 50-50 between left and right in 2004 will tilt right by 2012, 54% to 46%. By 2020, it will be certifiably right-wing, 59% to 41%. A state that is currently 55-45 in favor of liberals (like California) will be 54-46 in favor of conservatives by 2020--and all for no other reason than babies.

Kising babies may be a little easier for one party in the future...

James Taranto of Opinion Journal even has a name for this - The Roe Effect - a good read from 2004 that looks at this effect in depth.

Titled:   Brits break speed record

A BRITISH team has broken the land speed record for diesel-powered engines.

The JCB Dieselmax team averaged a speed of 328.767 mph, officials confirmed.

The team jetted out to Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to undertake their feat yesterday afternoon. 

The car, driven by Wing Commander Andy Green, was powered by a version of the same engine used in JCB diggers.

The team beat the previous record of 235mph which has stood for more than 30 years.

In 1997, Green became the fastest man in the world when he drove ThrustSSC through the sound barrier to a speed of 763.035mph.

It's good to hear someone still has some character over there...

A traffic stop in Detroit has led to serious suspicion, police said.

Detroit police officers pulled over a vehicle near Atkinson and Second streets on a traffic stop. When officers questioned the driver, the man said he was from West Africa.

In the trunk of the vehicle, police found license plates from different states, identifications cards and Arabic literature, Local 4 reported.

 

The man was taken in to custody on a traffic violation. Police will not comment on the items found in the vehicle, but did say they are working with federal authorities.

 

Titled:   LPG conversion costs jump as motorists scramble for rebate

The Australian government decided to subsidize LPG conversions for motorists. Hours later, the costs of converting to LPG mysteriously rose almost as much as the subsidy:

The cost of converting a car to LPG soared by hundreds of dollars in just a few hours yesterday as WA motorists rushed to take advantage of windfall government subsidies.

Gas conversion specialists across WA were flooded with inquiries from motorists who were keen to book their cars in and claim the $3000 in State and Federal government payments.

The increased demand drove prices up about $200 to $2800 at most businesses, with the RAC claiming some installers were quoting a staggering $4850.

A survey by The West Australian showed many installers appeared to have simply taken their phones off the hook, while others let them ring out. One installer’s answering machine message told callers he had stopped answering the phone because he could not get any work done.

The RAC was forced to bring in extra staff after a 600 per cent surge in calls to the motoring group’s advice line — which included claims that installers had refused to deal with new inquiries until January.

“We would certainly be watching out for any profiteering that might occur,” RAC manager vehicle policy Mike Upton said. “We wouldn’t want that to happen, there’s no reason for it.

Another example of unintended consequences proving just how bad the idea was in the first place.

Hat-tip to Samizdata

An Irish technology firm issued a challenge to the world's scientific community on Friday to give its verdict on technology it says smashes one of the basic laws of physics by producing "free energy."

Dublin-based Steorn said it had placed an advertisement in The Economist magazine seeking 12 top physicists to examine the technology -- based on the interaction of magnetic fields -- and publish their results.

...

"We put in a small amount of mechanical energy and we get a large amount out ... but until this thing is validated by science we won't be doing anything commercial with it," he said.

Titled:    Anti-Tailgating Strategy Backfires On Interstate 5

An anti-tailgating strategy on Interstate 5 backfired in the form of unexpected traffic jams, state transportation officials have discovered.

Officials from the state Transportation Department and Washington State Patrol planned to meet Monday to reassess the $35,000 Two Dots To Safety pilot program on a two-mile stretch of the freeway north of this Thurston County town. Similar programs are in use in Maryland, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

Road crews painted dots 80 feet apart and posted signs telling drivers to stay at least two dots - 160 feet - from the vehicle ahead, based on the traffic safety principle of being at least two seconds behind another vehicle when going 60 mph.

Long backups developed Saturday, the day after the program began, when drivers slowed down because of heavy traffic and continued to maintain the two-dot separation, although that much distance was not necessary at slower speeds, said Lisa Mordock, a Transportation Department spokeswoman.

Road crews covered the signs later Saturday pending reconsideration of the program, including the wording on the signs, Mordock said.

The government tells us how to drive better and the law of unintended consequences takes effect.

But couldn't you just tell this was going to happen?

People tailgate because they are in a hurry and the roads lack sufficient capacity. Anything that slows them down or reduces the road capacity is only going to make things worse.

Besides, it's hard to count dots when you're eating your burger and talking on the phone...

Hat-tip to Wizbang

Titled:   Hybrids might make you feel good, but why?

The well-respected auto research firm, CNW Marketing in Brandon, Ore., recently found after a two-year study collecting data on the ''energy necessary to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose'' of the cars, that the hybrids don't stack up well.

CNW found that hybrids use more total energy in their lifetime than their gasoline-powered cousins. Even a Hummer, the ultimate bane of the environmentalist world -- uses less total energy over its lifetime than any hybrid (including the halo special, the Prius), Car and Driver magazine said.

Maybe that is one of the reasons for the recent poor showing of hybrid sales:

Despite all the hype and the recent spike in gas prices, sales of hybrids have dropped every month this year compared to the same month last year. So much that manufacturers like Ford are backing away from earlier politically motivated commitments to produce so many of them...

Oh, the pressure to look like you're doing good!

It reminds me of the time that everything had to be printed on recycled paper to "Save the Trees". Recycled paper takes more energy, produces more pollution during the re-pulping and bleaching stages of production, consumes more water and even results in less trees being planted.

And don't even get me started on polystyrene cups, which turn out to have a lower environmental impact than any other type of beverage container, yet are frequently vilified as man's worst enemy.

When you want to "make a difference", whether for the children or otherwise, please do your homework first so you actually make positive impact rather than help destroy what you were planning to save in the first place.

Titled:   Terrorist links may not lead to spot on no-fly list: sources

Being a member of a terrorist organization won't necessarily land someone on Canada's no-fly list, The Canadian Press has learned.

Proposed criteria would limit inclusion on the roster to those who pose "an immediate threat to aviation security," say internal briefing notes prepared by Transport Canada.

Draft regulations, disclosed by a source familiar with details of the plan, confirm the no-fly list will be tightly focused and reviewed every 30 days to keep it up to date.

"You cannot be put on the list on the sole basis that you're a member of a 'terrorist group'," said the source. "In addition, you have to be a demonstrable threat to aviation safety." 

It seems that the best way to reduce your chances of being involved in terrorism while travelling is to avoid Canadian airlines, airports and connecting links.

Paid-up and known members of Hezbollah can still board in Toronto as long as they haven't made threats or acted against the airlines:

The source said that under the proposed regulations, people involved in a terrorist group - either now or in the past - could be added to the list only if there were reason to suspect they may "compromise civil aviation, the security of any aircraft or aerodrome, or the safety of the public, passengers or crew."

And those on the list were almost warned in advance too, a gift for a terrorist to know he is under surveillance, except that resources are limited:

Under Ottawa's plan, people will not be notified in advance that they are on the Canadian no-fly list. The source said informing individuals was considered impractical because it would be difficult to locate some people, and it would severely limit the willingness of police and intelligence agencies to provide names for the list.

Aparently some known members of terrorist organizations are "difficult to locate" and the police would be unwilling to assist!

Still, it is CANADA we are talking about. At least the American public understands the threat we face... doesn't it?

Titled:   Feeding homeless outlawed

The Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that bans providing food or meals to the indigent for free or a nominal fee in parks.
...
The city's new ordinance, which officials could begin enforcing as early as Friday, defines an indigent as a "person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance" from the government under state law.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has been a vocal advocate of cracking down on the homeless in city parks, dismissed questions about how marshals, who patrol city parks, will identify the homeless in order to enforce the ordinance, the violation of which would be a misdemeanor.

"Certain truths are self-evident," Goodman said. "You know who's homeless."

On this matter, Matthew, a frequently-quoted source, says:

And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

Las Vegas - City of Sin, where feeding the homeless is now illegal...

Titled: "What's Hebrew for "mess with the bull, you'll get the horns?"

Envy is a curious thing. Some people simply can't stand to see others get attention, even horribly fatal attention, while they are being snubbed.

That is the only possible explanation I can conceive for Hezbollah's deciding to emulate Hamas recently. Hamas invaded Israel, killed several soldiers, and kidnapped one. In response, Israel is incrementally destroying every shred of Hamas, ignoring offers of trading that single Israeli soldier for a thousand or so Palestinian prisoners (indicating that Hamas agrees with me -- one Israeli is worth about a thousand Palestinians) and instead hitting them harder and harder -- blowing up buildings, capturing or killing leaders, and in general raining chaos on the region that has inflicted so much carnage and death on Israel over the years.

Quite frankly, I don't see just what Hamas is gaining out of this, but somehow Hezbollah must see some sort of upside, because now they've emulated Hamas. They have done their own invasion of Israel and in a "anything dumb you can do, I can do dumber" move, have kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. And, predictably, Israel's is much the same -- no negotiations, just more and more military action.

Read the whole thing at Wizbang

Titled:   Man Dies Days After Gun Went Off In Pants

Another reason the left should fear the gun-owning classes is the accelerated forces of Darwin inherent in gun ownership. Many feel called to own, train and use firearms, but there is always a minority who really need a little more help in understanding that power can be both good and bad, depending on the wielder.

On the good side are the relatively bright, solid, law-abiding, careful gun owners, who keep their guns under control, whether holstered, locked up - at least out of the reach of children. They practise good safety - assuming all guns are loaded, pointed in a safe direction, keeping your finger off that trigger and making sure they are well-maintained and functioning.

On the other side are the less bright, who tend to treat their firearms as toys, as an accessory - the types that look down the barrel after a misfire, tend to keep guns of dubious origin and regularly remove themselves from the gene pool.

A good example is Chavis Thompson, who decided it was good form to keep a loaded pistol tucked in the front of his pants. This wouldn't usually be a problem in itself, until it is combined with a few other factors. Namely sitting down while trying to tuck in into your waistband, combined with keeping your finger on the trigger.

This fatal combination was enough not only to result in a unexpected surprise for Chavis, the remove of certain bodily parts in an explosive manner, but also the severing of a major artery which eventually killed him.

The former Hubbard High School student and the eldest of four kids “was trying to holster the gun,” with his finger on the trigger, while sitting in his grandmother’s Honda, when “the gun went off,” said his cousin Ashlie Thompson.

Tucking a loaded gun into your waistband is not holstering. And not a clever thing to do while holding the trigger either. And the gun didn't "go off" all by itself. He shot himself in the undercarriage.

The overall result of this is a net increase in the proportion of bright, careful gun owners and one less Honda-borrowing, ganster-wanabee, pants-tucking young man. If this trend continues, the NRA may well end up merging with MENSA.

If you learn one thing from this sad example, make sure it is to not point any firearm, loaded or not, at any part of your body you feel an attachment to. After all, we all want to be on the brighter side, huh?

Titled:   Lack of tornados unusual for season

We are half way through the year and still no reports of tornados for Central Nebraska or North Central Kansas. That is according to the National Weather Service. This is the first time since 1950 that all 30 counties served by the National Weather Service office in Hastings has not had a confirmed tornado during the first 6 months of the year.

Those 30 counties stretch from Ord down to Plainville, Kansas as far west as Gothenburg and as far east as York.

From January to July, Central Nebraska and North Central Kansas usually report up to 30 tornadoes.

Titled:   Peace activist hit rocker in spat over girl, say UK police

A while back I wrote of a ungrateful, yet lucky guy who was rescued by accident from losing his head in Iraq. Ironically, Phil Sands owes his life to those he was trying to hinder.

Another human shield bus passenger who went to Iraq, Christiaan Briggs, is now on trial for putting a rock star into a coma.

Police say the incident occurred on June 22 when Briggs allegedly punched 19-year-old Billy Leeson, causing the rising rock star to hit his head on the ground.

Leeson, the lead singer with rock band Les Incompetents - who have supported Pete Doherty's group Babyshambles - was "still very ill", said Scotland Yard spokesman James Nadin.

His condition was described as "critical but stable".

Mr Nadin said an argument broke out between the pair after Briggs allegedly "made advances" towards Leeson's girlfriend.

... Briggs was a London-based list candidate for the Green Party in the 2002 election.

With "peace activists" like these, who needs terrorists?

From his blog:

The change I wish to see is not simply that of countless Iraqi lives spared, but that of possibly inspiring just a small group of people I know; my family, friends, and community (Napier, New Zealand), illustrating to them an unbelievably important and simple lesson I learnt recently: Wanna be happy? Just centre your life around making others happy.

Still got a lot of progress to go, it seems.

Organizing the hijacking of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took significant sums of money. The cost of these plots suggests that putting Osama bin Laden and other international terrorists out of business will require more than diplomatic coalitions and military action. Washington and its allies must also disable the financial networks used by terrorists. The Bush administration is preparing new laws to help track terrorists through their money-laundering activity and is readying an executive order freezing the assets of known terrorists. Much more is needed, including stricter regulations, the recruitment of specialized investigators and greater cooperation with foreign banking authorities.

There must also must be closer coordination among America´s law enforcement, national security and financial regulatory agencies. Osama bin Laden originally rose to prominence because his inherited fortune allowed him to bankroll Arab volunteers fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Since then, he has acquired funds from a panoply of Islamic charities and illegal and legal businesses, including export-import and commodity trading firms, and is estimated to have as much as $300 million at his disposal.Some of these businesses move funds through major commercial banks that lack the procedures to monitor such transactions properly. Locally, terrorists can utilize tiny unregulated storefront financial centers, including what are known as hawala banks, which people in South Asian immigrant communities in the United States and other Western countries use to transfer money abroad. Though some smaller financial transactions are likely to slip through undetected even after new rules are in place, much of the financing needed for major attacks could dry up.

Washington should revive international efforts begun during the Clinton administration to pressure countries with dangerously loose banking regulations to adopt and enforce stricter rules. These need to be accompanied by strong sanctions against doing business with financial institutions based in these nations. The Bush administration initially opposed such measures. But after the events of Sept. 11, it appears ready to embrace them. The Treasury Department also needs new domestic legal weapons to crack down on money laundering by terrorists. The new laws should mandate the identification of all account owners, prohibit transactions with "shell banks" that have no physical premises and require closer monitoring of accounts coming from countries with lax banking laws. Prosecutors, meanwhile, should be able to freeze more easily the assets of suspected terrorists.

The Senate Banking Committee plans to hold hearings this week on a bill providing for such measures. It should be approved and signed into law by President Bush. New regulations requiring money service businesses like the hawala banks to register and imposing criminal penalties on those that do not are scheduled to come into force late next year. The effective date should be moved up to this fall, and rules should be strictly enforced the moment they take effect. If America is going to wage a new kind of war against terrorism, it must act on all fronts, including the financial one.

The New York Times, September 24, 2001

Hat-tip to Free Republic

Titled:   Early human bird flu death uncovered in China

A man died of H5N1 flu in Beijing in November 2003 - two full years before China admitted any human cases of H5N1. The death of the 24-year-old from bird flu came months before China even admitted H5N1 was circulating in its poultry.

Reminds me of a similar approach to the SARS outbreaks:

"THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT has not covered up. There is no need," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said last Tuesday in regard to the country's outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). "We have nothing to hide," assured Jianchao. But shortly afterwards, CNN's satellite feed to a Beijing block of expatriate apartments was cut off during a report on the disease.

What China claimed it was not covering up is a much higher incidence of SARS--a virus causing high fever, shortness of breath, and an estimated 4 percent death rate--than it had previously admitted. Two days after Jianchao's statement, Chinese authorities made a rapid about-face, revising numbers upward and admitting cases in provinces where they had previously denied any incidence of the disease. They also increased their cooperation with the World Health Organization, to which China belongs. As a result, a WHO team has finally been allowed access to Guangdong, where the disease apparently started.

Chinese President Hu Jintao travelled to the United States in April, largely to build trust:

"China believes mutual trust is lacking and that is at the root of tensions between the two countries, be it trade, military spending or human rights," said Tsinghua University analyst He Maochun.

I wonder why that mutual trust is lacking?

Titled:   UK TIMES SMEARS OUR MARINES (UPDATED WITH RESPONSE)

Michelle Malkin is doing a good job keeping on top of the latest press outrage.

Posted on June 1st in the UK Times:

Posted in the same paper, April 2005:

Yup, same picture - different story.

Using pictures of a terrorist execution to smear the Marines.

Shameless.

Titled:   For Heart Health, Liquor Is Quicker for Women and Slower for Men

An alcoholic drink a day can significantly reduce the risk for heart disease in men, a new study finds, but women get almost the same benefit with only one drink a week.

For men, the more they drank, the lower the risk. One drink a week lowered the risk by about 7 percent, two to four drinks by 22 percent and five or six drinks a week by 29 percent. Those who drank every day had a 41 percent lower risk of heart disease than those who did not drink at all. Even among men who had up to 35 drinks per week, the protection persisted.

With women, the trend was different. One drink a week lowered the risk by 36 percent, but daily drinking lowered it by 35 percent. In other words, for women, alcohol consumption had a significant protective effect, but the frequency of drinking had none.

Dr. Morten Gronbaek of the Danish National Institute of Public Health, the study's senior author, said he would not hesitate to recommend a drink a day to certain patients. "If I were talking to a patient, about 50 with a high coronary risk profile, who I knew wasn't at risk for alcohol abuse, and who didn't drink at all, I wouldn't hesitate to tell him that a glass of wine a day might be a good idea," he said. "But people who are light drinkers should certainly not be advised to drink more."

There is a caveat though:

"You shouldn't avoid exercise," he said, "and then try to compensate by drinking."

Apparently drinking is not exercise for more than your right arm...

Cheers!

Titled:     Seven Indonesian Bird Flu Cases Linked to Patients

All seven people infected with bird flu in a cluster of Indonesian cases can be linked to other patients, according to disease trackers investigating possible human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus. A team of international experts has been unable to find animals that might have infected the people, the World Health Organization said in a statement today.

In one case, a 10-year- old boy who caught the virus from his aunt may have passed it to his father, the first time officials have seen evidence of a three-person chain of infection, an agency spokeswoman said. Six of the seven people have died.

Titled:    Eurovision - Good Lordi!!

A while back I mentioned one of the strangest and most original entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi, from Finland.

They WON.

Titled:   Car Powered By Water A Reality

Along Florida's Gulf Coast, water is everywhere. From the bay to the beach to the town of Clearwater, that is where we found Denny Klein. A man driven by water, literally.

Klein has invented the world's first water powered car. It runs on what he calls "Aquygen." Aquygen is water or H₂O, broken down and turned into HHO gas, something scientists once thought impossible.

"Any PhD or library, they say you can't mix hydrogen and oxygen. And still to this day we get a lot of people who don't believe us because that's what they were taught," Klein said.

But people are quickly learning Klein and his car are for real.

Klein says his design will retrofit any piston engine.

An economic development team from the county and local government TV got a demonstration while we were there.

Klein says he initially developed Aquygen to create a safer, less polluting blowtorch. Klein realized Aquygen would clean up car emissions as well. The only thing that would come out of the tailpipe was water.

Soon, his vision became a reality.

Like most alternative fuel cars, the prototype is actually a hybrid. It runs on a gas and Aquygen mixture. Whenever you're ready, you flip the switch and the Aquygen kicks in.

The result is up to a 50 percent jump in gas mileage. Klein's Ford Escort prototype gets 384 miles on a tank of gas. 576 miles with a little Aquygen mixed in.

Hmmm.. All those years of Chemistry, covalent bonding, memorizing s, p & d orbitals, molecular behaviour under stimulation and I never once heard of HHO.

OK - I can see using waste energy, from the cooling system or exhaust system being used to do useful work (such as in a turbo) which could possibly take water and do something to it that would make combustion more efficient. Water injection used to be used to increase cylinder pressure in WW2 fighters - it's almost uncompressible. And even in modern cars, EGR valves introduce lower temp exhaust gases straight into the combustion system to keep down temperatures to improve emissions.

So I can believe that maybe the introduction of "free" steam may give an added efficiency of the engine.

But Aquygen? HHO?

Maybe I'm one of the scientists / chemists that still thinks this is impossible.

Chance of success in engine efficiency improvement ~ 25%

Chance of Aquygen being real <1%

Titled:   Iranian Law: Non Muslims Must Wear Colored Badges

Wizbang brings us news of an Iranian law that requires non-muslims to wear colored badges. It's obviously not enough to deny the Holocaust - they're starting to re-enact it:

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.

Of course, all such rumors should be treated with a cynical eye at least until they have been corroborated.

The more amazing fact is that there are still 25,000 Jews in Iran, though again this may not be all it seems:

Jews who apply for a passport to travel abroad must do so in a special bureau and are immediately put under surveillance. The government does not generally allow all members of a family to travel abroad at the same time to prevent Jewish emigration. Again, the Jews live under the status of dhimmi, with the restrictions im posed on religious minorities. Jewish leaders fear government reprisals if they draw attention to official mistreatment of their community.

More at Day By Day

Titled:   Judicial Watch to Obtain September 11 Pentagon Video at 1 p.m. Today

In a few minutes, Judicial Watch is expected to receive video of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that Department of Defense will release a videotape to Judicial Watch at 1:00 p.m. this afternoon that allegedly shows American Airlines Flight 77 striking the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.  The Department of Defense is releasing the videotape in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act request and related lawsuit.

Judicial Watch originally filed a Freedom of Information Act request on December 15, 2004, seeking all records pertaining to September 11, 2001 camera recordings of the Pentagon attack from the Sheraton National Hotel, the Nexcomm/Citgo gas station, Pentagon security cameras and the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Notice the word "allegedly" in there.

"Finally, we hope that this video will put to rest the conspiracy theories involving American Airlines Flight 77."

Judicial Watch is expected to post the video on their site.

I expect to see a plane.

Update: While we wait for the Judicial Watch website to recover from the onslaught, here is a good account of the event.

Titled:   Walk a Quarter-Mile or Die

If you can walk a quarter-mile, odds are you have at least six years of life left in you, scientists announced today.

And the faster you can do it, the longer you might live.

While walking is no guarantee of health or longevity, a new study found that the ability of elderly people to do the quarter-mile was an "important determinant" in whether they'd be alive six years later and how much illness and disability they would endure.

"The ability to complete this walk was a powerful predictor of health outcomes," said study leader Anne Newman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "In fact, we found that the people who could not complete the walk were at an extremely high risk of later disability and death."

Newman and colleagues recruited nearly 2,700 white and African-American men and women aged 70 to 79 to complete in non-running races. All the participants were screened and determined to be in relatively good health, and they had all said they had previously walked that far with no problem.

However, only 86 percent of them finished.

The scientists then monitored the health and mortality of all participants for the next six years.

"There was a big gap in health outcomes between people who could complete the longer walk and people who could not, with the latter being at an extremely high risk of becoming disabled or dying," Newman said. "What was really surprising is that these people were not aware of how limited they actually were."

Finishing times were found to be crucial, too. Those who completed the walk but were among the slowest 25 percent faced three times greater risk of death than the speedier folks.

This probably has a good correlation to the recent study showing the fact that the Brits are generally more healthy than Americans. Walking to and from shops and around town provides much more exercise than the equivalent US experience. I think I can still do the quarter-mile, but it sure is easier to drive.

Titled:   General: Zarqawi 'Bloopers' Tape Found

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, doesn't exactly look like a terrorist mastermind in a new videotape released by the U.S. military today.

In blooper-type footage from a Zarqawi video released last week, the al Qaeda in Iraq leader is seen fumbling with a machine gun.

It's quite a show. Firing at nothing in particular, then rotating around to point the barrel directly at a colleague. Then getting it stuck in single round mode, jamming and staring in confusion as someone has to un-jam it for him. Then others grabbing at the hot barrel and burning themselves. All in New Balance sneakers - infidel footware.

Certainly not the experienced combatant he portrays himself to be. 

I'm also not sure that New Balance can build much of an ad campaign around the footage.

Titled:   Policy on Iran nukes seems to be off-target

Mark Steyn compares Iran's behaviour to a domestic airline passenger:

You know what's great fun to do if you're on, say, a flight from Chicago to New York and you're getting a little bored? Why not play being President Ahmadinejad? Stand up and yell in a loud voice, "I've got a bomb!" Next thing you know the air marshal will be telling people, "It's OK, folks. Nothing to worry about. He hasn't got a bomb." And then the second marshal would say, "And even if he did have a bomb it's highly unlikely he'd ever use it." And then you threaten to kill the two Jews in row 12 and the stewardess says, "Relax, everyone. That's just a harmless rhetorical flourish." And then a group of passengers in rows 4 to 7 point out, "Yes, but it's entirely reasonable of him to have a bomb given the threatening behavior of the marshals and the cabin crew."

...

All the doom-mongers want to know why we went into Iraq "without a plan." Well, one reason is surely that, for a year before the invasion, the energy of the U.S. government was primarily devoted to the pointless tap-dance through the United Nations, culminating in the absurd situation of Western foreign ministers chasing each other through Africa to bend the ear of the president of Guinea, who happened to be on the Security Council that week but whose witch doctor had advised against supporting Washington. Allowing the Guinean tail to wag the French rectum of the British hindquarters of the American dog was a huge waste of resources. To go through it all again in order to prevent whichever global colossus chances to be on the Security Council this time (Haiti? The South Sandwich Islands?) from siding with the Russo-Chinese obstructionists would show that the United States had learned nothing.

Read the rest here

Titled: To Da Moon Baby 2

In a post in January I mentioned the potential for a meteoric rise in gold and silver prices.

On the 16th January, the prices of gold was a strong $560 an ounce and silver was $9.

Today, three and a half months later, gold is passing $675, silver $14.30, gains of 21% and 59% respectively.

Annualized, this is 72% and 203%.

Especially promising is Silver which has almost doubled over the last six months.

Considering in many places, there is no tax on purchases of physical gold and silver, and maintainance / storage costs are zero, this is an investment choice worthy of further inspection.

Precious metals of this class are traditionally hedges against inflation and are almost certain never to become worthless, unlike almost any other form of investment.

Think carefully.

Usual disclaimers apply: This is not intended as investment advice - please do your own due diligence

Titled:   A Fair Trade

Wizbang comes up with a novel concept to solve the immigration problem, both legal and illegal:

One of the more popular arguments against a crackdown on illegal aliens has been the "do you know how hard it would be to deport 12 million people?" My standard reply has been "then we better start soon."

Yesterday, I heard an interesting idea on a talk show. A caller suggested that we couple deporting illegal aliens with increased legal immigration. This was not a new idea, but his iteration of it was: a simple one-for-one exchange: for every illegal sent back, one legal is allowed in.

I think this is a good idea, but it could stand improving. Instead of a simple one-for-one exchange, I propose that for every illegal alien deported to their home country, one applicant currently going through the legal process is chosen at random for expedited processing. We, at once, punish the law-breakers and reward those obeying the laws.

(I have no idea how this will also get twisted into some form of racism/bigotry/xenophobia, but I have absolute faith in the illegal-alien advocates to find a way to do so.)

This could also have the benefit of fully splitting off the legal immigrants from the pro-illegal side, as suddenly they have an incentive to turn in illegals. If sending Sven down the street back to Norway means that Cousin Lars will have a chance to jump to the head of the legal line, then that just might do the trick the next time Sven annoys Lars' cousin.

I am loath to use such a cliche' as "thinking outside the box," but this notion is a perfect example of that. It's making the statement I believe we need to make -- we welcome and value immigrants, but ONLY if they obey the rules and respect the law from the outset. It punishes lawbreakers and rewards those following the rules. It's incredibly simple, self-explanatory, and could work wonders for the problem.

Naturally, I expect it to go exactly nowhere.

As a legal immigrant, and now a naturalized, fully-integrated and assimilated US citizen, I applaud this line of thought. Big problems have to be solved one step at a time. And anything that expedites the immigration of those willing to do things in a legal manner is a blessing. The endless forms, embassy interviews, afidavits of financial support, medicals, money and months and months of waiting sort the chaff from the wheat. And most Brits don't qualify to come here unless they get a job first, which is hard if you don't live here and can't legally come here on a visit to look for work. Brits don't even get a chance to play in the green card lottery. Yet they generally have a good education, reasonable health and speak English already.

I know of several families in the UK that are desperate to move to the US and can't. Families that work hard and want to become a part of society. Reform is long overdue.

Titled:   Kwame Wallace

The ever-topical Opinion Journal brings us an interesting article on Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick echoing the words of southern segregationists:

In November voters in the Wolverine State will decide whether to approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot measure banning racial preferences by government agencies, including public educational institutions. Similar measures have won approval in California and Washington, both more liberal-leaning states than Michigan, so one would expect the MCRI would have a pretty good chance of passing.

Not surprisingly, the civil rights establishment opposes the Civil Rights Initiative, as the Associated Press reports:

In blunt and passionate tones, officials at a major NAACP fundraiser that drew 10,000 people blasted a ballot initiative that aims to restrict affirmative action programs in Michigan.

"On behalf of the city of Detroit, I say, 'Bring it on,' " Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said at the 51st annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner on Sunday. "If you want a fight, there is one waiting for you right here." . . .

"There will be affirmative action here today," Kilpatrick said. "There will be affirmative action here tomorrow and there will be affirmative action in our state forever."

This puts Kilpatrick at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court, which, although it approved some of the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), also stated that "25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary." That deadline is now only 22 years, one month and three weeks away.

More curious is Kilpatrick's choice of slogans. "Bring it on"? That's how losers talk. The mayor may as well inquire as to the location of the outrage or opine about the riskiness of the scheme.

Even worse is that "affirmative action forever" line, an echo of--of a