(no subject)
Jan. 11th, 2005 09:04 am
New Jeep: Two engines, 0-60 in 5 seconds, can make complete 360 turns inside it's own wheelbase.
Jan. 11th, 2005
New Jeep: Two engines, 0-60 in 5 seconds, can make complete 360 turns inside it's own wheelbase.
Forcing naked Iraqi prisoners to pile themselves in human pyramids was not torture, because American cheerleaders do it every year, a court was told today.
Apart from arguing that the methods were not illegal, Graner’s defence is that he was following orders from superiors. Mr Womack said: "He was doing his job. Following orders and being praised for it."
The chief prosecutor, Major Michael Holley, asked rhetorically,"Did the accused honestly believe that was a lawful order?"
The Bush Administration has said that the actions were those of a small group and were not part of a policy or condoned by senior officers.
But investigations have shown that many prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba also suffered abusive treatment after the Government considered ways to obtain information in the war against terrorism.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, the soldiers of the US Military are trying *the Nuremburg Defense*.
This is sad, but at least they're pointing out that yes, the orders to do this DID come from above, and the people who claim otherwise are lying... again.
Apart from arguing that the methods were not illegal, Graner’s defence is that he was following orders from superiors. Mr Womack said: "He was doing his job. Following orders and being praised for it."
The chief prosecutor, Major Michael Holley, asked rhetorically,"Did the accused honestly believe that was a lawful order?"
The Bush Administration has said that the actions were those of a small group and were not part of a policy or condoned by senior officers.
But investigations have shown that many prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba also suffered abusive treatment after the Government considered ways to obtain information in the war against terrorism.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, the soldiers of the US Military are trying *the Nuremburg Defense*.
This is sad, but at least they're pointing out that yes, the orders to do this DID come from above, and the people who claim otherwise are lying... again.
(no subject)
Jan. 11th, 2005 12:29 pmMichigan Cops get time in a simulator that is so real it shoots back.
Inside a trailer parked near the Collinsville Police Department, 100 police officers from across the region are experiencing simulated encounters with bad guys and others. The simulations are made with a computer-controlled video system that -- get this -- can even fire nylon balls back at the officers.
The system is so high-tech that the ending to each encounter changes based on how the officer responds.
The scene is played out on an 8-foot by 10-foot video screen. Officers use a real gun that has been modified. The system tracks the officers' shots and, if they're lethal, will put down the attacker.
The system's operator, Matthew Bobo, sits in a rear area of the trailer in front of computers, video monitors and a joystick. The joystick allows him to fire .68-caliber nylon balls at the officers.
Inside a trailer parked near the Collinsville Police Department, 100 police officers from across the region are experiencing simulated encounters with bad guys and others. The simulations are made with a computer-controlled video system that -- get this -- can even fire nylon balls back at the officers.
The system is so high-tech that the ending to each encounter changes based on how the officer responds.
The scene is played out on an 8-foot by 10-foot video screen. Officers use a real gun that has been modified. The system tracks the officers' shots and, if they're lethal, will put down the attacker.
The system's operator, Matthew Bobo, sits in a rear area of the trailer in front of computers, video monitors and a joystick. The joystick allows him to fire .68-caliber nylon balls at the officers.
(no subject)
Jan. 11th, 2005 12:44 pm
#1 song in Germany at the moment: "Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil", sung by 4-year-old Joy Gruttman.
Her family posted the song on a Web site as a joke, but a radio station in Cologne, Germany, got hold of it and made it a hit.
Gruttman is the youngest recording artist to make it to the German Top 10, let alone No. 1.
"Snappy" beat out songs by Kylie Minogue and Linkin Park. The song is even appearing as remixes in German dance clubs.
You can listen to it here
(no subject)
Jan. 11th, 2005 02:37 pmAfter the war, Oskar Gröning took up a hobby. He worked as a manager in a glass factory near Hamburg, but in his own time he became a keen stamp collector. It was at a meeting of his local philately club, in the late 1980s, that Gröning found himself chatting to a man about politics.
"Isn't it terrible," said the man, "that the government says it's illegal to say anything against the killing of millions of Jews in Auschwitz?" He went on to explain to Gröning how it was "inconceivable" for so many bodies to have been burned.
Gröning said nothing to contradict these statements. But the attempt to deny the reality of Auschwitz, the site of the largest mass murder in history, upset him and made him angry. He obtained one of the Holocaust deniers' pamphlets that his fellow stamp collector had recommended, wrote an ironic commentary on it, and posted it to the man from the philately club.
Suddenly, he started to get phone calls from strangers who disputed his view. It turned out that his denunciation of the Holocaust deniers' case had been printed in a neo-Nazi magazine. The calls and letters he received "were all from people who tried to prove that Auschwitz was a huge mistake, a big hallucination, because it hadn't happened".
But Gröning knew very well it had happened - for he was posted to Auschwitz in September 1942, as a 22-year-old member of the SS.
"I would like you to believe me," he says. "I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematorium. I saw the open fires. I was on the ramp when the selections took place. I would like you to believe that these atrocities happened, because I was there."
"Isn't it terrible," said the man, "that the government says it's illegal to say anything against the killing of millions of Jews in Auschwitz?" He went on to explain to Gröning how it was "inconceivable" for so many bodies to have been burned.
Gröning said nothing to contradict these statements. But the attempt to deny the reality of Auschwitz, the site of the largest mass murder in history, upset him and made him angry. He obtained one of the Holocaust deniers' pamphlets that his fellow stamp collector had recommended, wrote an ironic commentary on it, and posted it to the man from the philately club.
Suddenly, he started to get phone calls from strangers who disputed his view. It turned out that his denunciation of the Holocaust deniers' case had been printed in a neo-Nazi magazine. The calls and letters he received "were all from people who tried to prove that Auschwitz was a huge mistake, a big hallucination, because it hadn't happened".
But Gröning knew very well it had happened - for he was posted to Auschwitz in September 1942, as a 22-year-old member of the SS.
"I would like you to believe me," he says. "I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematorium. I saw the open fires. I was on the ramp when the selections took place. I would like you to believe that these atrocities happened, because I was there."
The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2003-2004
#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy
#2: Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Holds Corporations Accountable
#3: Bush Administration Censors Science
#4: High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians
#5: The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources
#6: The Sale of Electoral Politics
#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments
#8: Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy
#9: Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11
#10: New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits
#11: The Media Can Legally Lie
#12: The Destabilization of Haiti
#13: Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before the California Recall
#14: New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies
#15: U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses
#16: Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens
#17: U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in Quest for Business Privatization
#18: Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies
#19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming the World's Supermarket
#20: Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN
#21: Forcing a World Market for GMOs
#22: Censoring Iraq
#23: Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little Comfort for the Poor of South America
#24: Reinstating the Draft
#25: Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World
Click the link for links to details.
#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy
#2: Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Holds Corporations Accountable
#3: Bush Administration Censors Science
#4: High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians
#5: The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources
#6: The Sale of Electoral Politics
#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments
#8: Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy
#9: Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11
#10: New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits
#11: The Media Can Legally Lie
#12: The Destabilization of Haiti
#13: Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before the California Recall
#14: New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies
#15: U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses
#16: Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens
#17: U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in Quest for Business Privatization
#18: Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies
#19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming the World's Supermarket
#20: Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN
#21: Forcing a World Market for GMOs
#22: Censoring Iraq
#23: Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little Comfort for the Poor of South America
#24: Reinstating the Draft
#25: Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World
Click the link for links to details.
Siphon the beast first!
Jan. 11th, 2005 11:42 pmWarren Ellis' phone post, reading a short story from his new book.
Instructions on how to play that kind of file.
There's a copy in MP3 format here, but the sound isn't as good. It's a different reading of the same story, because he didn't realise that the phone post went to his *old* journal.
This is a wonderful, happy story, which you will *not* want to listen to at work unless you have headphones.
Instructions on how to play that kind of file.
There's a copy in MP3 format here, but the sound isn't as good. It's a different reading of the same story, because he didn't realise that the phone post went to his *old* journal.
This is a wonderful, happy story, which you will *not* want to listen to at work unless you have headphones.
