Prince Harry in Afghanistan

Statement on the Deployment of Prince Harry in Afghanistan:
"UK Chief of the General Staff and Professional Head of the Army General Sir Richard Dannatt has made a statement concerning media reporting of Prince Harry's deployment to Afghanistan. Prince Harry was deployed to Afghanistan as one of the UK's nearly 8,000 strong contingent.
After news of the prince's deployment broke on Thursday, February 28, 2008, on a US website, General Dannatt said:
"I am very disappointed that foreign websites have decided to run this story without consulting us. This is in stark contrast to the highly responsible attitude that the whole of the UK print and broadcast media, along with a small number of overseas, who have entered into an understanding with us over the coverage of Prince Harry on operations.

"After a lengthy period of discussion between the MOD and the editors of regional, national and international media, the editors took the commendable attitude to restrain their coverage. I would like to thank them for that and I do appreciate that once the story was in the public domain, they had no choice but to follow suit.

"What the last two months have shown is that it is perfectly possible for Prince Harry to be employed just the same as other Army officers of his rank and experience. His conduct on operations in Afghanistan has been exemplary. He has been fully involved in operations and has run the same risks as everyone else in his battle-group.

"In common with all of his generation in the Army today, he is a credit to the nation. In deciding to deploy him to Afghanistan, it was my judgement that with an understanding with the media not to broadcast his whereabouts, the risk in doing was manageable.

"Now that the story is in the public domain, the chief of defense staff and I will take advice from the operational commanders about whether his deployment can continue. I now appeal to the media to restrain from attempting to report Prince Harry’s every move and return to our understanding.""

Life is hard enough as a soldier - worse when the enemy wants to harm you & your family in particular.

The British government has a long history of working with their press when necessary - hopefully the foreign press will understand and accommodate this request, but I doubt they will.

Review: Ford Escape SUV

While the dealer is working on my truck, they loaned me a 2008 Ford Escape, Ford's smallest SUV. This one has the XLT trim package, 2WD (FWD), and a 3.0-liter V6 engine. I'm impressed as I can get my large frame into it easily and get everything adjusted to my needs. Unlike the 2006 Explorer I had on a previous visit, everything falls readily to hand, is easily identified and is easy to use, with the lone exception being that I have to unbuckle the seat-belt to reach the parking / emergency brake release. After adjusting the seat, I just got in and drove it, no learning curve required.

Note: Ford went off-track with the 2006 Explorer - the door handles were concealed in the armrests, the turn signal stalk was 45 degrees up from horizontal, and other controls were changed more for aesthetic than functional reasons. A friend in Fords sales agrees that it was a problem.

The Escape's V6 is quiet and has plenty of pep. The suspension and brakes seem very competent, more like a good car than an SUV. Being small with almost no markings, the adjustable mirror knob is difficult to interpret the first time, but after that, it is quite intuitive and convenient. The stereo sounds nice - I was able to select radio stations & adjust the sound with little difficulty, but anyone wanting to upgrade to an after-market unit would have to find adapter panels - Ford's radio appears to be integrated into the dash with some other controls.

There were some minor quibbles - the clock washes out in the noon sun, and the previously mentioned parking brake issue, but overall this seems like a very good vehicle. I believe this is also available with 4WD, and as a hybrid, so someone looking for one of those could add the Escape to their list of vehicles to examine.

Here are some other reviews I found:
Automobile Magazine
Edmunds
Samarins

Who is really doing your tax return?

I've used Turbo-Tax for many years - it costs less than H&R Block, and I only have myself to blame if anything is overlooked. An accounting instructor once told me that we "have an obligation to avoid (excess) taxes, and we're morally obligated not to evade taxes". It seems like some of the folks below may not have fully understood that message.

10-Things-Your-Tax-Preparer-Won't-Tell-You: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance:
"Roughly 135 million Americans file tax returns, and of those, two-thirds pay for help. While solo acts like CPAs and so-called enrolled agents have plenty of clients, almost 20% of taxpayers go through a big franchise like H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt or Liberty Tax Service to get their refund — last year an average $2,255 per return. Problem is, tax preparation and advice depend on the preparer, and in a system of franchises, that means thousands of seasonal employees and limited quality control.
. . .
The results can be dangerous. When staffers from the Government Accountability Office went undercover to get returns done by the big chains, they found 'nearly all of the returns prepared for us were incorrect to some degree,' according to the report. Worse yet, recently filed lawsuits allege that the owners of 125 Jackson Hewitt franchises cost the government $70 million in tax fraud and created an environment 'in which fraudulent tax-return preparation is encouraged and flourishes,' according to the Department of Justice. Jackson Hewitt says it stands behind its compliance procedures as well as its nationally standardized educational curriculum.
. . .
According to a study of IRS data, 56% of professionally prepared returns showed significant errors, compared with 47% of those done by the taxpayer. And audited taxpayers who used preparers owed an average of $363, while those who filed themselves owed $185.

Of course, tax preparers often see more-difficult returns, which could lead to more errors. But the bottom line? "For one W-2, mortgage interest and a couple of kids, TurboTax is just fine," says Kerry Kerstetter, an Arkansas CPA. If, on the other hand, you're attaching a schedule for self-employment income or capital losses, consider getting help. And even then, if a return is made complicated by a one-time event — say, the birth of a child or the acquisition of a rental property — you might need only one year's worth of advice. "If nothing changes, you should be able to copy it from year to year," says Ochsenschlager.
. . .
A savvy tax pro may be able to cut your tax bill or juice your refund. But don't expect to find one come Feb. 1. From that point through April, tax pros are generally too busy to talk to new clients. So if you don't already have a preparer lined up, by the time you actually have your W-2s in hand, "you're not going to get good service," says Frank Degan, an enrolled agent in Setauket, N.Y. "In the fall, though, tax preparers will give you their full attention." That means you should be talking to tax preparers in October and November. They'll have time to answer questions, look over your old returns and suggest changes.

Not only that, but talking to a tax pro in the fall means you still have time to plan. If you wait until you have all your W-2s, you've locked in all your income for the year. But in the fall a good preparer can help you figure out ways to manipulate your income by increasing your 401(k) contributions, deferring a bonus until the new year or taking taxable losses.
. . .
Some accounting firms have begun outsourcing return preparation, says Rich Brody, a University of New Mexico accounting professor. That means your data might be sent as far away as India — or as close as a local H&R Block, since the chain contracts with CPA firms to do returns. Either way, your accountant isn't obliged to tell you. "It's very scary," Brody says. "Your most sensitive information may have gone halfway around the world, and you have no idea." Indeed, sending Social Security numbers, names, addresses, birth dates and account numbers overseas electronically makes some people uneasy. For while the origins of identity theft are often hard to pinpoint, says Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, returns contain so much "in one bright, shiny package — that's a great gift to the identity thief."
. . .
The real money in tax prep has nothing to do with 1040 forms and W-2s. For the big-chain preparers, as well as your local accountant, the register really lights up only when they persuade you to take a loan, open a retirement account or buy insurance."

William F. Buckley Jr. - RIP

William F. Buckley Jr. dies at 82 - Yahoo! News:
"William F. Buckley Jr., the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House, died Wednesday. He was 82
. . .
"For people of my generation, Bill Buckley was pretty much the first intelligent, witty, well-educated conservative one saw on television," fellow conservative William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, said at the time the show ended. "He legitimized conservatism as an intellectual movement and therefore as a political movement."

Fifty years earlier, few could have imagined such a triumph. Conservatives had been marginalized by a generation of discredited stands — from opposing Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to the isolationism which preceded the U.S. entry into World War II. Liberals so dominated intellectual thought that the critic Lionel Trilling claimed there were "no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation."

Buckley founded the biweekly magazine National Review in 1955, declaring that he proposed to stand "athwart history, yelling `Stop' at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who urge it." Not only did he help revive conservative ideology, especially unbending anti-Communism and free market economics, his persona was a dynamic break from such dour right-wing predecessors as Sen. Robert Taft.
. . .
He wrote the first of his successful spy thrillers, "Saving the Queen," in 1976, introducing Ivy League hero Blackford Oakes. Oakes was permitted a dash of sex — with the Queen of England, no less — and Buckley permitted himself to take positions at odds with conservative orthodoxy. He advocated the decriminalization of marijuana, supported the treaty ceding control of the Panama Canal and came to oppose the Iraq war.

Buckley also took on the archconservative John Birch Society, a growing force in the 1950s and 1960s. "Buckley's articles cost the Birchers their respectability with conservatives," Richard Nixon once said. "I couldn't have accomplished that. Liberals couldn't have, either."

Although he boasted he would never debate a Communist "because there isn't much to say to someone who believes the moon is made of green cheese," Buckley got on well with political foes. His friends included such liberals as John Kenneth Galbraith and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who despised Buckley's "wrathful conservatism," but came to admire him for his "wit, his passion for the harpsichord, his human decency, even for his compulsion to epater the liberals."
. . .
The National Review could do little to prevent Goldwater's landslide defeat in 1964, but as conservatives gained influence so did Buckley and his magazine. The long rise would culminate in 1980 when Buckley's good friend, Ronald Reagan, was elected president. The outsiders were now in, a development Buckley accepted with a touch of rue.

"It's true. I had much more fun criticizing than praising," he told the Washington Post in 1985. "I criticize Reagan from time to time, but it's nothing like Carter or Johnson."

Buckley's memoir about Goldwater, "Flying High," was coming out this spring, and his son said he was working on a book about Reagan.

Buckley so loved a good argument — especially when he won — that he compiled a book of bickering in "Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription," published in 2007 and featuring correspondence with the famous (Nixon, Reagan) and the merely annoyed.

"Mr. Buckley," one non-fan wrote in 1967, "you are the mouthpiece of that evil rabble that depends on fraud, perjury, dirty tricks, anything at all that suits their purposes. I would trust a snake before I would trust you or anybody you support."

Responded Buckley: "What would you do if I supported the snake?"

What Global Warming?

Every couple of decades, the media latches onto a new disaster scenario to attract customers. The most recent one has been Global Warming - now it looks like it is time for another one.

Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age:
"Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January 'was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average.'

China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century.

Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.
There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses.
. . .
And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.

The ice is back.

Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.

OK, so one winter does not a climate make. It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we have had one of our most brutal winters in decades.

But if environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks early, then it is at least fair game to use this winter's weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are being a tad premature.
. . .
"We missed what was right in front of our eyes," says Prof. Russell. It's not ice melt but rather wind circulation that drives ocean currents northward from the tropics. Climate models until now have not properly accounted for the wind's effects on ocean circulation, so researchers have compensated by over-emphasizing the role of manmade warming on polar ice melt.

But when Profs. Toggweiler and Russell rejigged their model to include the 40-year cycle of winds away from the equator (then back towards it again), the role of ocean currents bringing warm southern waters to the north was obvious in the current Arctic warming.
. . .
Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.

The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850. Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased.

It's way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it's way too early for the hysteria of the global warmers, too."

Does anyone remember the Sun - that big ball of fire that burns at a variable rate? Perhaps that has an impact on our planet?
Computer models are amazing things, but we must remember that they're Estimates of future events based on Incomplete Data and operate based on Unproven Rules. They are great for research, but not so great for establishing governmental policies.

Serb protesters burn U.S. embassy

At least we learned something from Jimmie Carter's adventures in Iran and pulled the diplomats out in time.

Does anyone remember Bill Clinton promising our troops would be home from the Balkans by Christmas? Something needed to be done and Europe was hesitant to take action, so of course, we sent troops, aid, & money. It doesn't seem to have been a good investment, but I believe our military used this theater to test some high-tech weapons in hostile conditions.

This may go on for generations - ask the British how long they've spent trying to resolve the Irish problem. I know one Englishwoman who suggested years ago that they "surround it with barbed wire, blockade it with warships, and check in on it periodically when the smoke & noise has stopped." This may be how Europe wants to treat the Balkans, but Britain's efforts in Ireland may be a better example .

U.S. outrage as Serb protesters burn embassy - Yahoo! News:
"BELGRADE (Reuters) - Scores of protesters smashed their way into the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday in anger at Kosovo's independence, ransacking rooms and setting fires before riot police dispersed the crowd.

Washington reacted with anger.
'I'm outraged by the mob attack,' said its ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, who added he would ask the U.N. Security Council to condemn it unanimously in the latest diplomatic shockwave from Kosovo's secession on Sunday.
The violence -- which spilled over to other embassies and included widespread vandalizing of shops and banks -- marred a mass state-backed rally by up to 200,000 Serbs refusing to accept the loss of their religious heartland Kosovo.
'As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia,' Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told the crowd from a stage in front of the old Yugoslav parliament building in Belgrade.
. . .
Police, nowhere to be seen when the U.S. embassy was attacked, moved in half an hour later, firing teargas and beating and detaining rioters to disperse the crowd. Local media said 60 people were injured, a quarter of them police.

The building had been closed and boarded up after rioters stoned it on Sunday when Kosovo declared independence after nine years under U.N. administration.

Police in armored vans secured the streets and tried to cordon off the whole embassy district, just a few hundred meters (yards) from the official rally. People tried to flee clouds of painful teargas.

Serbian President Boris Tadic urged rioters to stop.
. . .
Some 200 riot police arrived later, driving the crowd away. Some protesters sat on the ground, bleeding. Fire engines arrived to put out the flames, local media reported.

Meanwhile, the main rally proceeded as planned with a march to the city's biggest Orthodox cathedral for a prayer service.

State television switched between scenes of the rioting and the serenity of choral singing at the church service.

Small groups of looters, many drunk, broke into street kiosks and shops, taking cigarettes, chocolate and shoes.

News agencies said foreign banks and McDonalds fast-food stores were also attacked and eight city buses damaged.

In the crowds at the main rally were many hardline nationalist Radicals, from Serbia's biggest party, who shouted anti-Albanian slogans.
. . .
In contrast to the violence by up to 5,000 mainly young rioters, the lack of passion in the main rally crowd appeared to support comments by Western analysts and some ordinary people here that most Serbs were bitter at but resigned to the loss of Kosovo and tired of years of conflict with neighboring states.
. . .
In other protests, several hundred Serb army veterans at a border post between Kosovo and Serbia stoned Kosovo riot police who, backed by Czech troops in riot gear, stood their ground until the protesters dispersed. No one was hurt.

NATO peacekeepers said they were determined to stop a repeat of Tuesday's destruction of two other border posts by Serbs.

In Banja Luka in the Bosnian Serb Republic, several people were injured when protesters holding aloft portraits of Russian President Putin clashed with police at the U.S. consulate."

State Mental Health data in FBI database

The rights of everyone else to know you're dangerous trump your rights to privacy. While the potential for abuse exists, this is a good thing.

States bolster FBI gun database - USATODAY.com:
"More states are turning over records to a federal database of mentally ill people barred from owning guns, nearly tripling the number in the system since the massacre at Virginia Tech last spring, the FBI says.

The tragedy spurred states to revisit their policies regarding the database. The FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which federally licensed gun dealers must consult before selling a gun, has about 402,000 records from 32 states of people declared mentally ill by a court, FBI records show. On April 1, 2007, two weeks before the Virginia Tech shooting, the database had 165,778 records from 22 states. The federal government cannot force states to transmit their records.

Illinois is one of the states that began sending mental-health records to the federal database after the Virginia Tech shooting. Steven Kazmierczak, the gunman who last week killed five students at Northern Illinois University before turning the gun on himself, was not in the database and purchased his guns legally, says Stephen Fischer, a spokesman for the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

States send records only after a court has committed individuals for involuntary psychiatric treatment or found them to be dangerous to themselves or others. Kazmierczak, 27, had been seeing a psychiatrist in the months before the rampage, his girlfriend, Jessica Baty, told CNN.
. . .
Hamil says he expects that a new law President Bush signed in January will prod even more states into sending records. It gives states grants to pay for collecting the information and transmitting it to the federal database. States that don't participate could lose federal money for law enforcement. "It's going to be a real incentive for the states," he says. "

The paranoid among us will say that now "they" can take our guns just by declaring anyone who wants a gun to be mentally ill - however, this qualification has always been a part of the paperwork filed when buying a gun from a dealer. This should make it easier to catch some people in a lie. It won't make the system perfect, but it may make it a little better.

Cuban President Fidel Castro Resigns!

We've had an embargo on Cuba almost my entire life. Perhaps in the next few years this will change. It might be beneficial for both countries.

Newsmax.com - Fidel Castro Resigns As Cuban President:
"HAVANA -- An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.

The end of Castro's rule - the longest in the world for a head of government - frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.
. . .
There had been widespread speculation about whether Castro would continue as president when the new National Assembly meets Sunday to pick the country's top leadership. Castro has been Cuba's unchallenged leader since 1959 - monarchs excepted, he was the world's longest ruling head of state.
. . .
As first vice president of Cuba's Council of State, Raul Castro was his brother's constitutionally designated successor and appears to be a shoo-in for the presidential post when the council meets Sunday. More uncertain is who will be chosen as Raul's new successor, although 56-year-old council Vice President Carlos Lage, who is Cuba's de facto prime minister, is a strong possibility.

Bush, traveling in Rwanda, pledged to "help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty."

"The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy," he said. "Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections - and I mean free, and I mean fair - not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy."

The United States built a detailed plan in 2005 for American assistance to ensure a democratic transition on the island of 11.2 million people after Castro's death. But Cuban officials have insisted that the island's socialist political and economic systems will outlive Castro.
. . .
Castro's supporters admired his ability to provide a high level of health care and education for citizens while remaining fully independent of the United States. His detractors called him a dictator whose totalitarian government systematically denied individual freedoms and civil liberties such as speech, movement and assembly.

The United States was the first country to recognize Castro's government, but the countries soon clashed as Castro seized American property and invited Soviet aid.
. . .
The collapse of the Soviet Union sent Cuba into economic crisis, but the economy recovered in the late 1990s with a tourism boom."

Private space venture to buy fifty Atlas Vs

If man is meant to work & live in space, eventually private enterprise must take over from governments. This is beginning to happen -

Space-bubble Bigelow looking to buy fifty Atlas Vs | The Register:
"The main questions people ask about Vegas property billionaire Robert Bigelow and his huge-inflatable-satellite-habitat plans are: can the man really be serious? Sure, fire a couple of test space-balloons into orbit on (relatively) cheap Russian rockets, he's done that. But will he really put up full-size inhabitable models? And will he ever really get people up there?

The answers appear to be in. Yes, Bigelow is serious; yes, he really does reckon to put working balloon space stations into service; and yes he will get the people up there by simply spending an immense amount of money, buying ordinary rockets from the people who supply NASA and the Pentagon.
. . .
It is now understood that Bigelow has firm plans to buy a total of 50 Atlas V rockets from Lockheed over the next seven years.

"The capsule has to be determined at this time. Lockheed has a concept for a capsule. Our application is specifically for experienced astronauts and we will have our own training regime," according to a statement by Bigelow.

The Atlas V is not yet "man-rated", or certified to carry humans as opposed to cargo or machinery. A substantial amount of work would be necessary to validate the rocket for this purpose. However, NASA has previously assessed that such a certification could be achieved.

That said, Bigelow's initial launches will not require people on board, so the man-rating of the Atlas V doesn't have to be done at once."

Leadville Colorado - contaminated water threat

Vail Colorado-Todays information & news from Vail Daily - News:
"LEADVILLE, Colorado — The pool of contaminated water trapped by the collapse in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel is an immediate threat to the lives and well-being of Lake County citizens, according to the Lake County Commissioners.
. . .
A blockage in the tunnel caused over a billion gallons of water of toxic acid and metal-laden water to form a pool at the headwaters of the Arkansas River, according to Commissioner Hickman. He explained that the water is now nearly 200 feet high and continues to apply pressure against the cave-in.
. . .
The Lake County Commissioners may be voicing the loudest concerns, but they aren’t the only ones working on a solution. The EPA has been worried about the collapse in the tunnel for years, and it has even gone so far as to draw up plans for a potential solution. On Nov. 8, Robert E. Robert, Regional Administrator for the EPA requested, by letter, that the Bureau of Reclamation immediately address the potential risks presented by the situation at the tunnel.

Leadville’s congressional representatives have recently become involved, as well. On February 4, 2008, Senator Ken Salazar wrote to the Bureau of Reclamation, expressing his concern that the Bureau of Reclamation wasn’t fully cooperating with the EPA or the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment."

Lets see - its mining country up there - how about somebody drills a hole and relieves the pressure? Then you would know where the contaminated water was going - you could even direct it where you wanted it to go.

Some fear contaminated Colorado water could flow to Kansas | KSN.com - News, Weather, Sports - NBC - Wichita - Great Bend - Garden City - McCook - Kansas | Local News:
"WICHITA, Kansas February 15, 2008 -- Kansas officials have a close eye on a problem in Colorado that could contaminate the Arkansas River.
Multimedia

There's a possibility that a billion gallons of water trapped in a Rocky Mountain mine shaft could explode. That would contaminate the Arkansas River and possibly flow downstream to Kansas.

It's a picturesque mountain landscape near Leadville, Colorado. But under the mountain is what some are calling a looming disaster, with the potential to end up in Kansas.

Pictures of a small pipe, spilling brown murky water into pure white mountain snow only shows a trickle of the problem.

More than a billion gallons of contaminated water are trapped and building up in mine shafts and drainage tunnels. Some fear melting snow this spring could create too much pressure and cause the shafts to explode. If that happens, the town of Leadville, near the mouth of the Arkansas River, would flood. It would also send the billion gallons of contaminated water gushing downstream.

County officials there say an uncontrolled blowout could kill more than 100 Leadville residents and contaminate the Arkansas River from Leadville to the Mississippi River.

But officials with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment say they've been monitoring the situation and have been in contact with the EPA.

"At this time we are not projecting any substantial impact. The reason is there are a couple of reservoirs on the Colorado side we believe will absorb the impact from any release," said Mike Heideman a KDHE spokesperson.

Wichita officials agree saying even if contaminated water made it to Kansas we'd never see it in Wichita. First, because the river dries up in Central Kansas and second, because the metal contaminants are heavy and couldn't travel this far.

Regardless, Colorado officials say the Federal Government, who owns the problematic mine shaft, could divert the problem.

"The Federal government is failing to do their job," said Colorado State Senator Tom Wiens."

Well that's nice - most everyone in Colorado will have contaminated water, but as long as Wichita is fine, that won't be a problem.

Plan in place to pump out flooded Leadville tunnel : Local News : The Rocky Mountain News:
"Colorado health officials estimate that it will cost $5 million to launch an emergency water-pumping program next week to avert a potential catastrophic blowout at an old mine tunnel here.

Such an event could send a toxic brew laced with heavy metals into the Arkansas River and harm hundreds of people in this historic mountain community.

Jim Martin, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, told townspeople Friday the state will do everything it can to jump-start a response plan that includes pumping water out of the tunnel to relieve pressure and to treat the water before it is channeled into the river.

'There is no need to panic,' Martin said. 'There is a lot of planning going on here. Most of Leadville faces no risk at all. But the depth of the water pools is worrying,' he said. 'It is incumbent upon us to act quickly.'

Gov. Bill Ritter on Friday asked President Bush for help."

As usual, run to the federal nanny for help - the hearty pioneers who dug those mines would think this is pathetic. If Colorado can't find $5 million (or even $50 million) in a reserve fund, then they need to recall the governor and the legislature.

9NEWS - Article - 'Short-term' solutions in the works for impending disaster:
"LEADVILLE - A second emergency meeting is scheduled for Friday morning to discuss what to do about billions of gallons of water trapped behind a collapsed drainage tunnel inside a mountain in Lake County.

Local, state and federal emergency managers first met Thursday morning after 9Wants to Know exposed the threat posed by the trapped water on 9NEWS at 10 p.m. on Wednesday night."

Hmmm - a little self promotion obviously, but how come the news media has to embarrass state officials into getting something done?

Shootings at Northern Illinois University

One of our neighbors, whom we've know since grade school attends NIU. Fortunatley, he wasn't involved in or near the shooting.

Gunman opens fire at N. Illinois U. hall - Yahoo! News:
"A man dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns from a stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, injuring as many as 18 people, four critically, before he killed himself, the school's president said.

Witnesses in the geology class said 'someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun,' according to school President John Peters.

Peters said he couldn't confirm any fatalities other than the gunman.
University Police Chief Donald Grady said the gunman was not a student at the school. 'It appears he may have been a student somewhere else,' he said, adding that police had no apparent motive.

The university had issued a statement on its Web site about an hour after the 3 p.m. shooting that 'the immediate danger has passed. The gunman is no longer a threat.'

Kishwaukee Community Hospital spokeswoman Theresa Komitas told WLS-TV in Chicago it received 17 victims all with wounds from the shooting or flying debris, including three with serious injuries. One victim was airlifted to another hospital."

I hope those who undertand how people think are working hard to determine the root causes of this type of killing. This seems far more common than when I was in school a few decades ago. It will be sad if our grandchildren need to wear body-armor to feel safe at school.

US to shoot down satellite

Goodness - you don't think this has anything to do with the Chinese destroying one of their satellites last year do you?
This will be an interesting exercise, but how come we never did this (or never announced it) with one of the dozens of satellites that has fallen from space over the last few decades?

US: Broken satellite will be shot down - Yahoo! News:
"President Bush decided to make a first-of-its-kind attempt to use a missile to bring down a broken U.S. spy satellite because of the potential danger to people from its rocket fuel, officials said Thursday.
. . .
Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same briefing that the 'window of opportunity' for such a shootdown, presumably to be launched from a Navy ship, will open in the next three or four days and last for seven or eight days.
. . .
'This is the first time we've used a tactical missile to engage a spacecraft,' Cartwright said.

He said a Navy missile known as Standard Missile 3 would be fired in an attempt to intercept the satellite just prior to it re-entering Earth's atmosphere. It would be "next to impossible" to hit the satellite after that because of atmospheric disturbances, Cartwright said.

A second goal, he said, is to directly hit the fuel tank in order to minimize the amount of fuel that returns to Earth."

So we've never done it before, but we think we can hit this one in a specific spot (the fuel tank) - 'nuff said.

Mars settlements may get oil from Titan

This could be a huge benefit to permanent populations living in space or on other planets. Being able to get plastics, chemicals, medicines and other resources without going down Earth's gravity-well may be the critical difference that makes some settlements viable.

Titan Has More Oil Than Earth - Yahoo! News:
"Saturn's smoggy moon Titan has hundreds of times more natural gas and other liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, scientists said today.

The hydrocarbons rain from the sky on the miserable moon, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. This much was known. But now the stuff has been quantified using observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

'Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material — it's a giant factory of organic chemicals,' said Ralph Lorenz, a Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. 'This vast carbon inventory is an important window into the geology and climate history of Titan.'"

AZ guest worker program proposed

For quite some time I've written to my congress-critters suggesting that they decouple border security from a guest worker program. I want a truly secure border, but once that is done we also need a guest worker program that ensures we know who is coming into the country, where they are going, who they work for, and verifies that they don't overstay their visa. This bill tries to address these concerns at a state level rather than waiting for a federal solution. If it works, other border states could do the same thing. I believe a key component is that companies doing the hiring should bear the costs of the program.

Legal immigrants & guest workers can ask the police (& hospital, & school) for assistance without fear of deportation. They can contribute to our society while providing for their own family, and our governments can decide what level of support (health, education, etc.) based on a realistic picture of how many people are being served.

Bill would establish state guest worker program | EastValleyTribune.com:
"Unwilling to wait for a federal fix, some southern Arizona lawmakers want the state to run its own temporary foreign worker program.

The proposal crafted by Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, would let companies suffering a 'labor shortage' seek permission from the state Industrial Commission to bring in their own workers from Mexico. It even would have the state provide identification cards to foreigners given permission to work here.

'The federal government has not met the responsibility to come up with comprehensive immigration reform,' she said.

Arzberger said the economy is hurting, and many firms have found themselves without the workers they need.

SB1482 has drawn a number of co-sponsors, including many legislators representing the border area. And even Senate President Tim Bee, R-Tucson, who did not sign on as a sponsor, said he supports the concept of a legal guest worker program.

But if Arzberger gets her measure signed into law here, she needs one more thing: congressional approval.

Arzberger said she already has asked Democrats representing the state in Washington - where they hold the majority in both the House and Senate - to back her plan. But the two members of the delegation whose districts cover the border said they want some questions answered before they're willing to push her proposal.
. . .
Friend noted the legislation covers not just farm workers, but also industries where many workers are represented by unions, including restaurant employees, construction workers and those involved in landscaping.

"My concern is that certainly Arizona residents get first shot at the jobs," Friend said. "I've got concerns of how much of an effort an employer has to make to fill the jobs here, whether they're really reaching out and trying to fill the jobs here from all available sources," she said.

But Arzberger doubts that any of the labor shortage in Arizona is due to employers not wanting to pay higher wages."

Since WW-II, our society has placed an emphasis on acquiring a college education & professional jobs. It may be that we don't have enough young people willing to do some of this work, and that guest workers really are required.

Shuttle Atlantis launches European space lab

The old shuttle keeps on truckin -

Shuttle Atlantis launches with European space lab - Yahoo! News UK:
"CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from its Florida home port on Thursday on a mission to deliver Europe's first permanent space laboratory to the International Space Station.
Clouds and rain near the Kennedy Space Center that had threatened to delay the launch held off long enough for the shuttle to roar off its seaside launch pad at 7:45 p.m. British time. The spacecraft settled into Earth's orbit eight minutes later.
The launch finally put Europe's $1.9 billion (979 million pound) Columbus laboratory into orbit after postponements dating back to 2002 -- first because of Russian delays in launching the space station's service module and then by the destruction of shuttle Columbia in 2003, which grounded the U.S. shuttle fleet.
Atlantis' mission was twice delayed in December by technical problems with an emergency engine cutoff system.
Twenty-three feet long and nearly 15 feet in diameter, the cylindrical Columbus lab has room for three crew members to work on experiments. It was launched with a biolab for cell and tissue studies and an experiment to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

The European Space Agency is counting on Columbus' successful deployment and the March 8 launch of a cargo ship to proceed with future space programs, including participation in NASA's plan to return humans to the surface of the moon.

Atlantis also carried two European astronauts -- French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts, 50, who will oversee the setup and activation of Columbus, and Hans Schlegel, 56, a physicist with the European Space Agency from Aachen, Germany."

Islamic Law is incompatible with our values

The Saudis are supposed to be our friends and allies in the war against Islamic extremism. Based on this article, they clearly have no intention of adopting values compatible with global diversity. Were something similar to happen between Los Angeles and New York (to a person of ANY religion), the officers involved would be fired and perhaps jailed.

Religious police in Saudi Arabia arrest mother for sitting with a man - Times Online:
"A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh.

Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's “Mutaween” police."

But was she "water-boarded"? Inquiring minds need to know.

This is simply absurd - Starbucks should close all it's franchises over there in protest - but they won't.

Republican candidate is John McCain

Disappointing for many conservatives, but probably a realistic decision . . .

McCain seals GOP nod as Romney suspends - Yahoo! News:
"John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. 'I must now stand aside, for our party and our country,' Romney told conservatives.

'If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,' Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Romney's decision leaves McCain as the top man standing in the GOP race, with Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul far behind in the delegate hunt. It was a remarkable turnaround for McCain, who some seven months ago was barely viable, out of cash and losing staff."

McCain Emerges as Front-Runner

John McCain has more delegates than all the other Republicans put together. Those of us who want a more conservative Republican candidate will probably have to make do (again!) with a candidate that appeals to moderates, independents, and to some democrats.

On the Democratic side, it looks like Clinton Inc. has their work cut out for them ...

McCain Emerges as Front-Runner While Democrats Spin Super Tuesday Wins - You Decide 08!:
"Fresh off impressive coast-to-coast primary wins, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain layed claim Wednesday to front-runner status, while Barack Obama declared delegate superiority over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton

Still, even though Hillary Clinton only took eight states to Obama’s 13, she remains in the lead of the delegate race, and she added heavy-hitting Democratic states to her list of victories — including California, New York and Massachusetts — leaving the nomination to be decided another day.

Arizona Sen. McCain put more distance between himself and his closest rival Mitt Romney taking coast-to-coast wins, and Romney lost more ground to Mike Huckabee, whose campaign’s fundraising pales in comparison to the other two GOP candidates, but whose Christian conservative credentials gave him badly needed wins in southern states."

Your Privacy depends on your actions

Text Messaging Privacy : Gina Hughes : Yahoo! Tech:
". . . We're reminded time and time again to refrain from sending personal emails using the office computer. . . but what about the rest of us? Should we have to worry about old texts resurfacing even when using our private lines?

According to a report by the Associated Press, Beatty's text messaging service was provided by SkyTel who has contracts exclusively with corporations and government agencies, and not surprisingly, stores all communication for legal reasons. It's not exactly clear how many years these text messages are archived for, but the Detroit Free Press says the messages obtained cover two months in 2002 and 2003.

. . . The truth is, regardless of what a carrier says, this isn't the first time text messaging has been used to exposed cheaters, stalkers, murderers, or thieves, nor will it be the last. Text messaging has become a huge part of our lives, and it will be the first place law enforcement officers will turn to for clues. I've heard so many people expressing concern over text message privacy, and the reality is there is none. Your privacy is up to you, so you have to be careful with the information you put out there.

. . . We may not have any control over our texts once we hit the send button, but you can take a few precautions to keep yourself out of trouble later.

Here are a few tips:

* Don't ever text personal information such as your PIN number, password, or banking information to anyone. Remember, once you send that information to another person, it gets stored in their cell phone and you don't want that.
* Put a password on your phone to keep others from accessing your text logs or email. This will also prevent thieves from stealing information stored in your phone.
* iPhone owners may want to change their SMS preview settings to make incoming text messaging more private. Apple iPhone Review has instructions on how to do this.
* Those concerned about privacy, can send anonymous text messages with services like AnonTxt.com.
* Don't forget to erase all your personal data before selling, recycling or donating your old phone. Many people are still under the impression that taking out your SIM card will do the trick, but that's not true. You'll need a series of codes to permanently delete stored information in one step, instead of manually. For this, you'll need to find out if your phone has a "master reset" feature, which wipes out all the stored data at once. Since every phone has a different set of "master reset" instructions, you'll need to either look them up online or on your phone's manual. Recellular has a database of these codes with step-by-step instructions. You'll need your phone's make and model to get started, so if you don't know it, check the back of the phone or the box.
* And last but not least, remember that no matter how secure you think your carrier's SMS servers are, the ultimate security of private text messages depends on the recipient. Just ask Mayor Kilpatrik."

First Bread, Then Circuses

This seems worse than the Americans who can't identify the names or pictures of our leaders when questioned on the street by Jay Leno, but perhaps it is a symptom of the same trends.

Quarter of Brits think Churchill was myth: poll - Yahoo! News:
"Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed; 33 percent thought the same of W. E. Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles."

Coming Improvements in Real-Time Traffic data

With both Microsoft & IBM interested in providing content solutions, and dozens of firms competing to present this information to you, traffic information is about to get more timely and more useful.

East Coast's I-95 Gets Real-Time Traffic Reports - TechnoRide:
"The East Coast by summer will have real-time traffic reports, available free, using a sophisticated network of in-vehicle transponders that should in theory - remember, we're talking evolving technology here - be far more accurate than traffic choppers and embedded roadway sensors. It's a joint venture between Inrix Corp., a Microsoft spinoff, and the I-95 Corridor Coalition. Inrix already sells the data that's sent to embedded and portable navigation devices, typically via the Clear Channel radio network. Now it's being provided to the government for redistribution online, via road signs (those useful things that say 'Slow - Congestion Ahead'), and 511 phone services.
. . .
The I-95 Corridor Coalition covers the traffic agencies of 16 states and the initial coverage will be on 2,500 miles of major roads including Interstate 95. Inrix will rely heavily on probe data, meaning two-way transponders in vehicles that also have GPS location sensors. Inrix will also roll up other reports from embedded roadway sensors, traffic cameras, and traditional police / highway department reports, though Inrix believes sensors are costly to install and maintain (especially in frost and pothole regions), so they're going away. Others (not Inrix currently) like cellphone location-sensing for traffic flow information."

Another approach is to turn a lot of cars into nodes in a very large mesh-network. Each car can negotiate with nearby cars for space on the road ("hey I need to get over - make a hole"), and the aggregate of their shared information is the current state of traffic, which can be used to project short-term trends. Consumer products don't care what data collection methods are used because they report information being sold by by the aggregators. For a long time, data will probably come from a variety of sources.

Consumers with privacy concerns can still benefit from the data collected, even if they're not willing to provide data (no transponder, cell turned off, etc.).

Garmin Nuvifone due 3rd Qtr 2008

Well this makes my Christmas shopping easy :-) - A Garmin phone with their Nuvi GPS built in

Garmin unveils Nuvifone | Crave : The gadget blog:
"Garmin makes GPS devices. Garmin makes navigation software and accessories for cell phones and smartphones. Garmin makes cell phones...wait, what? Yep, you read right. Today, the GPS manufacturer took the wraps off its first smartphone at a press event in New York: the Garmin Nuvifhone. It's a GSM/HSDPA mobile that runs on Garmin's own operating system and focuses on, no surprise, navigation. The device will come preloaded with maps of North America (or Eastern or Western Europe for all our international readers) and points of interest. In addition, it offers turn-by-turn voice directions, Google Local Search integration, and Garmin's 'Where I am?' safety feature, which displays your coordinates, closest address and intersection, and nearby emergency services.

The Garmin Nuvifone also features a 3.5-inch touch screen, a Web browser, and e-mail capabilities. It's multimedia-friendly with MP3/ACC/MPEG4 support and a built-in camera/camcorder."

Polarization - how to market politcal lies

This article explains a bit about why the hate America crowd and sufferers of Bush Derangement Syndrome are able to spread their nonsensical messages.

American Thinker: Time for Republicans to Get a Grip:

"The left has effectively polarized President Bush, even to the extent that his own Party believes much of the propaganda. Peggy Noonan wrote just last week that 'George W. Bush has destroyed the Republican Party.'

Polarization, the tactic espoused by Saul Alinksy, guru to both Obama and Rodham Clinton, is paying big dividends for Soros and his vast left wing coterie of financiers. George Bush, whose college grades at Yale were better than Al Gore's at Harvard, is stupid; the Iraq War is a dismal failure to be ended, despite the victory being won by our troops; the economy, still growing, albeit at a slower pace than before, is in a recession. People in mass numbers believe these lies.

For one thing, the propaganda blitzkrieg has most likely persuaded many ardent conservative politicians to spare themselves and their families the same treatment, thereby keeping them out of the race altogether.

For another, this polarization has resulted in moving the electoral middle slightly left. This, in turn, allows the Democrats to run two of the most far-left, socialist candidates in history and make it seem as though they are America-loving moderates.

. . .

Moving the middle to the left is forcing the Republicans to run centrist candidates, all of whom have veered off Reagan's path on one or more big issues. That's the big-picture reality, and no amount of protest to the contrary is going to change the picture by this time next week.

But does any of this spell death for the Republican Party?

Only if we let it."

Use on-line tools like Wikipedia with care, not paranoia

Wikipedia & Google are 2 of my favorite on-line tools. I always do a sanity check on the results (just as I do with calculators), but I don't expect bad results. Google may have imperial ambitions, but they won't get there by delivering a poor product.

per John C. Dvorak -
Why Wikipedia Just Gets Better - Columns by PC Magazine:
"A lot of critics think the whole wiki idea is stupid. I am not one of them. As I said, I admit to some skepticism at first, but my own use of Wikipedia for background research has changed that. Recently, I was on a podcast with a reporter who taught a journalism school class. He put forth two odd edicts: 'Never use Wikipedia,' and 'Never use Google as a spell-checker.' I do both. I cannot understand why you would not use Google as a spell-checker, since the misspelled word usually shows up in the hit list with variations you can then check on Webster's. And Wikipedia can bring a writer up to speed on any topic more quickly than any other research method.

What the reporter might have been suggesting is the risk of using Wikipedia as a source from which to quote or excerpt detailed information. Wikipedia does contain many niggling errors, and you need to confirm all details with other sources—not, one would hope, with a site that uses Wikipedia for its database.

Wikipedia keeps getting higher and higher scores for accuracy. The English version, for example, is often compared with commercial encyclopedias—and is often more accurate."

Surprise! - Romney Wins Maine

There has been so much in the media about the "Super Tuesday" events tomorrow, that I didn't even hear about Maine's caucus. Romney has won other events (like Wyoming) that didn't appear on the media radar, but add to his delegate count.
Conservatives (Both Republican & Libertarian) in AZ who are familiar with McCain's record aren't his biggest fans - Romney might do very well in AZ, but being a "winner take all state", coming in second doesn't count, which probably explains the lack of advertising for Romney here.

Romney Wins Maine Caucuses -- GOPUSA:
"Mitt Romney coasted to a win in presidential preference voting by Maine Republicans on Saturday, claiming his third victory in a caucus state and fourth overall.

The former Massachusetts governor had 52 percent of the vote with 68 percent of the towns holding caucuses reporting. John McCain trailed with 21 percent, Ron Paul was third with 19 percent, and Mike Huckabee had 6 percent. Undecided votes accounted for 2 percent.

The nonbinding votes, the first step toward electing 18 Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention, took place in public schools, Grange halls, fire stations and town halls across the state.

The Associated Press uses presidential preferences expressed in those caucuses to project the number of national convention delegates each candidate will have when they are chosen at Maine's state convention, calculating that Romney will wind up with all 18 delegates when all is said and done.

Campaigning in Minnesota, Romney noted that his victory in Maine came despite McCain's endorsement by the state's two U.S. senators."