View Full Version : You Can't Make This Stuff Up
Hard to believe this site needs yet another thread, but I came across the following, figured it would take the edge off the sometimes serious tone we get into around here, couldn't figure out where to put it, so I started this thread thinking others could just add anything similar - amusing, incredulous, revealing, impossible to be true, whatever...
What follows is dead serious. You can't make this stuff up...
Saudi divorces wife for watching male TV host:
Date: 9/29/2007 4:25:00 PM
A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.
The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.
Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.
Google Earth Forces the Navy to Do Some Remodeling
By sonia zjawinski September 28, 2007
The Naval Base Coronado near San Diego has gone unnoticed since it's groundbreaking in 1967. Then Google Earth had to come in and ruin everything. The satellite mapping site revealed to the public that, from the air, the structure was shaped like a swastika (oops!). Turns out that the Navy knew about this all along, but since the airspace over the Navy yard is restricted they thought no one would ever notice. Well, the Anti-Defamation League did.
Now the Navy is spending $600,000 to tweak the roof via landscaping and structural adjustments. May I suggest a green roof?
Here's the weblink if you want to see the Google Earth picture :)
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/09/google-earth-fo.html
Spartacus
10-01-07, 12:10 AM
I can't tell if you are saying making the roof NOT look like a swastika is a good thing or a bad thing? (who's being singled out, the Navy for doing this or the League for being hugely sensitive?)
http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/hindu_history/omkar.html
The next religious symbol which is also revered by Hindu and ranks second only to OM is the Swastika.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period. It has long been widely-used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
Google Earth Forces the Navy to Do Some Remodeling
By sonia zjawinski September 28, 2007
The Naval Base Coronado near San Diego has gone unnoticed since it's groundbreaking in 1967. Then Google Earth had to come in and ruin everything. The satellite mapping site revealed to the public that, from the air, the structure was shaped like a swastika (oops!). Turns out that the Navy knew about this all along, but since the airspace over the Navy yard is restricted they thought no one would ever notice. Well, the Anti-Defamation League did.
Now the Navy is spending $600,000 to tweak the roof via landscaping and structural adjustments. May I suggest a green roof?
Here's the weblink if you want to see the Google Earth picture :)
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/09/google-earth-fo.html
I can't tell if you are saying making the roof NOT look like a swastika is a good thing or a bad thing? (who's being singled out, the Navy for doing this or the League for being hugely sensitive?)
http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/hindu_history/omkar.html
The next religious symbol which is also revered by Hindu and ranks second only to OM is the Swastika.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period. It has long been widely-used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
I'm not saying anything. This item just caught my eye as one of the absurdities of daily life on the planet today, that's all.
There will be all sorts of opinions I am sure, including the advisability of spending $600k of the taxpayers dollars. :)
When I started this thread I never expected such rich pickings.
Read the last line of the JPM item, and then think about what these dudes are actually telling clients to do. Yep, you just can't make this stuff up! :)
If anyone is not certain about the advisability of this strategy, I am sure any of the credit rating agencies would be happy to provide you with trusted advice...for a small fee.
CLOs-squared offer way for investors to monetise illiquidity premium, says JP Morgan research
News Digest, 27 September 2007
In a new research report entitled "Leveraging CLO illiquidity premia", JP Morgan (http://www.jpmorgan.com/)says that the combination of historically wide CLO liability spreads and near-zero default rates makes this an optimal time for buy-and-hold investors to consider investing in CLOs-squared. It says this is a way to efficiently monetise the current illiquidity created in the "spread rout of 2007".
The report concludes that CLOs-squared offer reasonably low risk relative to the underlying CLOs. Junior tranches in particular offer higher spreads than triple B and double B tranches of regular CLOs with similar or lower risk.
The researchers point out that CLOs-squared are conceptually similar to ABS CDOs, but that they are better suited for leverage. Corporate loans are simpler than subprime mortgages and hence more predictable, argues the report.
Here we go again. This is an example of what I was referring to when I mentioned on another thread a few weeks back that the GCC countries, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were continuously becoming more conservative Islamic societies. I have noticed quite a change just in the few years I have lived in the Gulf. This may seem far away for many of you, and of no real consequence, but I think these are indicators of a recent acceleration in a long standing trend (goes back to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the first Gulf War) with potential ramifications that go well beyond global oil supply...
Saudi bank segregation not yet confirmed
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript>updateDate = "Tuesday, 03 July 2007 02:09"</SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript>document.getElementById('crumbs-dir').innerHTML = 'PUBLIC SECTOR / NEWS /'</SCRIPT>by <!-- Author Start -->Lynne Roberts<!-- Author End --> on Tuesday, 03 July 2007
Reports by news agencies that stricter measures will be enforced to segregate men and women at Saudi banks’ headquarters have yet to be officially confirmed, according to Arab News.
According to the newspaper no written circular has been issued, although women bankers claim to have heard about new rules, and in some cases have reported to work to find themselves relocated to women-only suites.
Male and female employees have always been separated at individual branches, but have worked together at headquarters until now.
A recent Reuters report claims officials from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) and the Labour Ministry met with bank managers earlier this month to inform them of the new system, and giving them until the end of the summer holidays to comply.
Banks are expected to provide separate floors, elevators, entrances and cafeterias for men and women.
A SAMA official denied any new rules or directives, but admitted that banks are expected to segregate. “There have been many complaints and written requests from different government agencies to strictly enforce the segregation because some banks continue to have mixed administrations at their headquarters” he told Arab News.
This just has to be an indicator of something...but I'm not sure exactly what. Obviously he's not paying for it with profits from Citi stock.
Should come in handy to escape to Geneva when the revolution comes...
Airbus: Saudi prince snags private superjumbo
Manufacturer says ‘flying palace’ to cost north of list price — $320 million
The Associated Press
updated 4:28 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2007
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - In the annals of excess, it could be a new high: a more than $300 million dollar, super-sized luxury airplane, bought and outfitted solely for the private comfort of a Saudi Arabian billionaire.
Once done, the Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, will be a "flying palace" for Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the manufacturer announced Monday.
Airbus SAS would not give a specific price tag for the VIP double-decker jet, with its football field-length wings, saying only that it would cost more than the aircraft's list price of $320 million.
That doesn't even include the money the prince will spend to custom fit the nearly 6,000-square foot plane to include whatever he wants. The options include private bedrooms, a movie theater or even a gym with a jacuzzi. He'll also need a flight crew of about 15 to operate the luxury liner.
"Prince Alwaleed is the first, and so far the only customer of this aircraft," said David Velupillai, the spokesman of the Airbus, which announced the luxury order at the Dubai International Airshow.
It's all just spending cash for bin Talal — Citigroup Inc.'s biggest individual shareholder and the world's 13th richest person with assets around $20 billion.
As a member of the Saudi royal family, he benefits from the country's vast oil wealth. But much of bin Talal's huge fortune comes from his investment firm, the $25-billion Kingdom Holding Co., which has stakes in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Fairmont Raffles Hotels International Inc., Time Warner Inc., Apple Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Walt Disney Co. to name a few major corporations.
The prince, who is in his early 50s, appears to have a taste for super-sized jumbo jets. He already is the only private owner of a Boeing 747-400, Airbus said.
"It's like buying a new car or a new TV," Velupillai told The Associated Press. "One wants something bigger and better."
Airbus would not release many details about bin Talal's VIP A380, which dwarfs the 747 —formerly the world's most spacious plane. Staff who answered the phone at bin Talal's office on Monday in Saudi Arabia said he was unavailable to comment.
The commercial A380, which made its maiden voyage with Singapore Airlines last month, is as tall as a seven-story building with each wing big enough to hold 70 cars. It is capable of carrying 853 passengers in an all-economy class configuration.
Take out the seats, and the plane can be transformed into a flying mansion.
Germany's Lufthansa Technik, which declined to comment Monday on bin Talal's purchase, has created a general rendering of what a VIP A380 jumbo could include: spacious bedrooms on the plane's upper deck, separated by a reception area and a bar next to central stairway. The master bedroom could include an office, private dinning room, a gym featuring a steam bath and exercise machines.
The lower decks could feature a lounge-type quarters equipped with a conference area and dining room. A third level, normally used for cargo, could be transformed into another passenger space or cinema.
This type of custom design does not come cheap. Experts say it could rack the price up by another $50 million to $150 million.
Purchases of private airliners has mushroomed in recent years, but most orders are in the category of a Learjet or Gulfstream — small and cheap at $2 million to $5 million in comparison to the A380, said David Bain, editor of a British-based online wealth analysis service, wealth-bulletin.com.
"It seems the Saudis really like these huge planes, and they have the money to do it," said Bain, who believes about a dozen other individuals own commercial jets. "Very few people buy commercial planes. It's a bit over the top."
But he and Airbus expect that number to grow. The airline company said it expects at least six other A380 VIP jets to be sold to clients in the Middle East, and Central and South Asia.
"The amount of billionaires has sky rocketed in recent years, and the really rich ones are looking to buy a commercial airline rather than a Learjet," Bain said.
If a custom Airbus, like the surviving Citi Prince just ordered, seems a tad ostentatious (yes Virginia, there is such a thing as TOO MUCH money) then maybe this might be an alternative that is less likely to prompt the relatives from coming around asking for a loan (the gates outta keep em out if they get any stupid ideas).
Don't miss the Bespoke Interiors section (:eek:) and the part about the Greg Norman Signature Range Rover Sport in the garage :cool:
http://www.fireside.ae/jge_home.asp?nav=5
...but before you send your deposit cheque, remember that the summer temperatures regularly exceed 50 deg C (120+ F.) and the humidity is normally in the 90's %. We have long summers. Very long summers. Fireside? Ya right.
Enjoy the golf.
Oh, did I mention we have very long, hot summers?
metalman
11-18-07, 06:35 AM
If a custom Airbus, like the surviving Citi Prince just ordered, seems a tad ostentatious (yes Virginia, there is such a thing as TOO MUCH money) then maybe this might be an alternative that is less likely to prompt the relatives from coming around asking for a loan (the gates outta keep em out if they get any stupid ideas).
Don't miss the Bespoke Interiors section (:eek:) and the part about the Greg Norman Signature Range Rover Sport in the garage :cool:
http://www.fireside.ae/jge_home.asp?nav=5
...but before you send your deposit cheque, remember that the summer temperatures regularly exceed 50 deg C (120+ F.) and the humidity is normally in the 90's %. We have long summers. Very long summers. Fireside? Ya right.
Enjoy the golf.
Oh, did I mention we have very long, hot summers?
veeeery niiiiice. so where do they get the water?
veeeery niiiiice. so where do they get the water?
August 14, 2007
<NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Water Levels in 3 Great Lakes Dip Far Below Normal </NYT_HEADLINE>
<NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0">By FELICITY BARRINGER (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/felicity_barringer/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>Water levels in the three upper Great Lakes are wavering far below normal, and experts expect Lake Superior, the northernmost lake, to reach a record low in the next two months, according to data from the international bodies that monitor the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater reservoir.
Although the cause of the falling levels is in dispute, the effects in Lakes Michigan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/michigan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) and Huron are visible everywhere. Ship channels are overdue for dredging. Wetlands in some areas like Georgian Bay, east of Lake Huron in Ontario (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/oman/index.html?inline=nyt-geo), have dried up, leaving fish and birds without accustomed places to reproduce.
Beaches around Saginaw Bay in Michigan have reverted to marshes as shorefront reverts to wetlands. One-third of the Michigan boat ramps are unusable...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/us/14lakes.html
What do you think they haul back in those "empty" tankers after they unload the oil? If you don't believe me, just ask Tet.
Notice there was no Great Lakes water level problem until AFTER the real estate boom started in Dubai...:D
Andreuccio
11-19-07, 04:01 PM
veeeery niiiiice. so where do they get the water?
I don't know. It looks nice, but I'd be constantly worried about having a golf ball fly through my living room window. Who needs that kind of stress?
Spartacus
11-20-07, 01:28 PM
<big><big>keyboard and monitor alert </big></big>
August 14, 2007
<NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Water Levels in 3 Great Lakes Dip Far Below Normal </NYT_HEADLINE>
<NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0">By FELICITY BARRINGER (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/felicity_barringer/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>Water levels in the three upper Great Lakes are wavering far below normal, and experts expect Lake Superior, the northernmost lake, to reach a record low in the next two months, according to data from the international bodies that monitor the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater reservoir.
FRESH water? man, that's comedy RHODIUM there.
metalman
11-20-07, 01:37 PM
<big><big>keyboard and monitor alert </big></big>
FRESH water? man, that's comedy RHODIUM there.
great lakes water? fresh as grandma's underwear.
This sounds almost as good as a Wall Street hedge fund
BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of people in north-eastern China have protested on the streets and surrounded government offices demanding help recovering money from a get-rich-quick scheme to raise ants to make an aphrodisiac tonic.
Hundreds of anti-riot troops and police in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, were deployed to stop protesters reaching the provincial government and Communist Party headquarters, residents said on Wednesday.
The irate investors from across Liaoning, a rustbelt province striving to attract investment, have demonstrated in Shenyang since Monday and sporadic clashes with police have broken out, they said.
Several thousand protesters gathered near the provincial government offices on Wednesday, a resident told Reuters by telephone.
The investors -- many of them laid-off workers or farmers -- put their savings into Shenyang's Yilishen Group for a scheme in which they raised ants to provide ingredients for a health tonic promising an aphrodisiac boost.
For every 10,000 yuan (655 pounds) they paid the company as "deposit", investors were promised a dividend of 3,250 yuan.
The tonic was promoted on television by Zhao Benshan, the country's best-known comic who specialises in playing innocent bumpkins with a north-eastern twang.
But since October, the group has twice delayed payment of dividends, fuelling investor fears that it was on the brink of bankruptcy or that the government might have frozen its funds.
"We strongly demand the government offer a way out for Yilishen!" read a banner held by protesters as they marched along a Shenyang street. A photo of the banner was posted on Internet and blog sites.
China has seen rising protests from farmers and disgruntled workers as inequality and corruption stoke popular resentment
The unusual origin of this latest uproar was a reminder that even as China's economy booms, there are pitfalls that can spark discontent from citizens eager for a share of wealth.
Chinese media have said the scheme collected more than 10 billion yuan from hundreds of thousands of Liaoning residents.
USELESS RUSE?
Some local reports have said the ants were a useless ruse for an illegal scam, but the group has survived several probes in the past eight years and investors had previously received their dividends on time, protesters said.
As they looked for reassurance, panicked investors have turned their ire on the government.
"If Yilishen goes bankrupt, the government will be the chief culprit," said a message that appeared briefly on domestic Chinese Web sites before it was removed. "The government will be drinking our blood."
A Shenyang resident told Reuters that about 1,000 people had collected in front of the company's head office on Wednesday. Repeated calls to the office by Reuters went unanswered.
Investors said the group's good relations with the government and its commercials on state television had convinced them Yilishen was legitimate.
"It has been out there for eight years and the government has given the company and the manager so many honours. We thought there mustn't be any problem," investor Li Dechun told Reuters.
He said he had poured more than 200,000 yuan into the scheme.
A spokesman for the Liaoning provincial government said officials had been talking to the protesters, and the company's failure to pay dividends was not due to any government action.
"Most of the investors are from the lower class of society. Some have threatened to take more radical actions, such as blocking trains at the railway station," a local resident surnamed Cong told Reuters.
Online discussions about the protests and the ant scheme were quickly removed from Web sites, as were recent news reports about Yilishen. The Group's Web site was also shut, announcing "service unavailable".
(Reporting by Beijing office, editing by Nick Macfie and Roger Crabb)
I don't understand what all the fuss is about. How else are you going to set a good example for all those I-wanna-join-the-FIRE-economy MBA students in your business schools? Let's face it, all those real world case studies from P&G and GE get pretty boring after a while, and don't really properly teach you how to wreck the global financial system and get wildly rich before your 35th birthday.
Loan-Sharking Accusation Hits Harvard, Yale, Princeton Funds
By Brian Kladko
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard, Yale and Princeton universities' endowments are being accused of backing a loan with 42 percent interest, twice the legal limit, according to a lawsuit filed by a developer who borrowed the money.
The three Ivy League schools, along with three other universities and two foundations, are named in a civil complaint in state court in Boston alleging they violated a law aimed in part at loan sharks, who make loans with excessive interest rates backed by threats of violence. Fred Fahey, a Dracut, Massachusetts, developer who filed the suit, planned to build a golf course community with money borrowed from Realty Financial Partners, a firm in which the schools invested.
The lawsuit is a window into the rarely disclosed money management tactics endowments use. Nonprofit funds last year allocated 39 percent of their assets to alternative investments -- including real estate, private equity, commodities and hedge funds -- up from 23 percent in 2000, according to the Commonfund Institute, in Wilton, Connecticut. Yale's endowment gained 28 percent in the 12 months ended June 30, Princeton's 25 percent and Harvard's 23 percent.
In a case of charging 42 percent interest, ``you have to ask if there's an inconsistency between the public purpose'' of universities ``and this type of financial transaction,'' said Peter Kinder, the president of KLD Research & Analytics Inc. in Boston, which advises nonprofit endowments and pension funds. ``It's a hell of a burden to put on someone.''...
...Besides the Ivy league schools, the suit names the University of Notre Dame, near South Bend, Indiana; Oberlin College in Ohio; Spelman College in Atlanta; the Carnegie Corp. of New York; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago, all also represented by Rich.
The defendants argue in court papers that the usury law's requirements don't apply to them because they had no involvement in managing the Meadow Creek investment, and that state law shields limited partners from such claims. The law was aimed at organized crime and loan-sharking, the three Ivy League schools said in a filing, not at limited partners of a lender...
Link to full article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=abMLmv6MbyeQ&refer=exclusive
Here's a headline you won't see every day!!
The link is at the bottom if you think I made this up...
Gov't blames itself for rising inflation
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript>updateDate = "Thursday, 06 December 2007 16:14"</SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript>document.getElementById('crumbs-dir').innerHTML = 'POLITICS & ECONOMICS / NEWS /'</SCRIPT>by <!-- Author Start -->Dylan Bowman and Reuters (dylan.bowman@itp.com?subject=ArabianBusiness.com: Gov't blames itself for rising inflation)<!-- Author End --> on Thursday, 06 December 2007
Higher government spending and more bank lending are driving domestic inflation, rather than more expensive imports through a weaker dollar peg, Bahrain's central bank governor has said.
"There is not sufficient proof that the fall of the value of the dollar contributed to the rise of consumer prices in the kingdom and inflationary pressure in the Gulf," said Rasheed Al-Maraj, quoted Arabic daily Al Ayyam on Thursday.
"Most of the pressure was from local issues tied to an increase in government spending, together with an increase in market liquidity and hence an increase in loans," the newspaper said, paraphrasing the governor's comments
Al-Maraj's comments contrast with the common perception that inflation in the Gulf is being driven by the rising cost of imports caused by the tumbling dollar to which all the GCC states, except Kuwait, have their currencies pegged.
Kuwait took the decision in May to depeg its dinar from the dollar, pointing to the rising cost of imports as one of the main factors fuelling inflation.
Bahraini inflation is expected to be 2.9% this year according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but other Gulf states are experiencing much higher rises in the cost of living, which is putting increasing pressure on central banks to either revalue their currencies against the dollar or drop their pegs altogether.
Annual inflation in Saudi Arabia accelerated in September to 4.8%, the highest level in at least a decade, inflation accelerated to almost 14% in Qatar at the end of the third quarter, while inflation stood at 7% in Oman and 6.2% in Kuwait in September. In the UAE inflation hit 9.3% last year.
Al-Maraj said Bahrain had no plans to change its monetary policy.
We do not see any reasons at the moment to change our currency policy in regards to the US dollar, and we do not see any negativity from the dollar... despite its change in value in past years," Al-Maraj is quoted as saying.
Al-Maraj's comments echo those of other Gulf central bank governors, who have all backed the falling dollar and claimed there is no planned shift in policy.
However, their remarks have done little stop speculators driving GCC currencies up to record highs on bets that revaluations or removal of dollar pegs are imminent.
Analysts have said on numerous occasions that it is not a matter of if, but rather when Gulf states change their monetary policies
http://static.arabianbusiness.com/505766-govt-blames-itself-for-rising-inflation?ln=en
This one got me laughing.
Oils Well in the UAEDid you ever wonder, as gas prices soar, what our friends in the Middle East are doing with all that oil revenue? Well, while we struggle to pay at the pump, our carefree friends in the United Arab Emirates are bidding on license plates at auction.It seems the lower the number the greater the prestige. And what would someone pay for that prestige? How about a combined total of $56 million for 300 plates at an auction in Abu Dhabi last year. The current world record for the most expensive license plate is $6.8 million for plate #5. The price is 10 times more expensive than the Rolls it was put on. The owner, Talal Khouri, is now gunning for plate #1 which will be auctioned later this month. He claims to be willing to pay $15-20 million. My pleasure to pay more at the pump for your indulgence Talal baby. That would be like a year's salary for new Mets pitcher Johan Santana. http://www.4driversonly.com/50226711/oils_well_in_the_uae.phpThe Arabs love numbers, not unlike the Chinese I believe. The brother of one of my [former] shareholders is the head of the Traffic Directorate here. When I bought my first vehicle after moving to the Gulf, said shareholder arranged to get me a license plate with "good" numbers. It's a sequence, with every second number a zero (which is a dot in Arabic, and makes for a very unique looking plate). The cops think I have "wasta" (loosely translated means "connections" or "influence") and never bother to stop me at checkstops, etc. I constantly get approached by strangers offering to buy my plate. Not as good as Plate #1 though...:)
Andreuccio
02-04-08, 08:54 AM
This one got me laughing.
Oils Well in the UAE
Did you ever wonder, as gas prices soar, what our friends in the Middle East are doing with all that oil revenue? Well, while we struggle to pay at the pump, our carefree friends in the United Arab Emirates are bidding on license plates at auction.
It seems the lower the number the greater the prestige. And what would someone pay for that prestige? How about a combined total of $56 million for 300 plates at an auction in Abu Dhabi last year. The current world record for the most expensive license plate is $6.8 million for plate #5. The price is 10 times more expensive than the Rolls it was put on. The owner, Talal Khouri, is now gunning for plate #1 which will be auctioned later this month. He claims to be willing to pay $15-20 million.
My pleasure to pay more at the pump for your indulgence Talal baby. That would be like a year's salary for new Mets pitcher Johan Santana. http://www.4driversonly.com/50226711/oils_well_in_the_uae.php
You wrote in another post about the difference between having enough money vs. having too much money. I'm thinking this falls into the second category. :rolleyes:
The cops think I have "wasta" (loosely translated means "connections" or "influence") and never bother to stop me at checkstops, etc. I constantly get approached by strangers offering to buy my plate. Not as good as Plate #1 though...:)
Pretty cool. Not worth 6.8 million. :D
Just out of curiousity, how much do they offer for your plate?
Jim Nickerson
02-04-08, 10:39 AM
This one got me laughing.
Oils Well in the UAE
Did you ever wonder, as gas prices soar, what our friends in the Middle East are doing with all that oil revenue? Well, while we struggle to pay at the pump, our carefree friends in the United Arab Emirates are bidding on license plates at auction.
It seems the lower the number the greater the prestige. And what would someone pay for that prestige? How about a combined total of $56 million for 300 plates at an auction in Abu Dhabi last year. The current world record for the most expensive license plate is $6.8 million for plate #5. The price is 10 times more expensive than the Rolls it was put on. The owner, Talal Khouri, is now gunning for plate #1 which will be auctioned later this month. He claims to be willing to pay $15-20 million.
My pleasure to pay more at the pump for your indulgence Talal baby. That would be like a year's salary for new Mets pitcher Johan Santana. http://www.4driversonly.com/50226711/oils_well_in_the_uae.php
The Arabs love numbers, not unlike the Chinese I believe. The brother of one of my [former] shareholders is the head of the Traffic Directorate here. When I bought my first vehicle after moving to the Gulf, said shareholder arranged to get me a license plate with "good" numbers. It's a sequence, with every second number a zero (which is a dot in Arabic, and makes for a very unique looking plate). The cops think I have "wasta" (loosely translated means "connections" or "influence") and never bother to stop me at checkstops, etc. I constantly get approached by strangers offering to buy my plate. Not as good as Plate #1 though...:)
Greg. Are you now in THE kingdom or at Disneyworld?
Greg. Are you now in THE kingdom or at Disneyworld?
Jim: I am back in the sandbox (Arabian Gulf) for a little while, but some days it's damn difficult to tell the difference between here and a giant amusement park. A few more examples of the complete insanity going on around these parts to illustrate (sorry couldn't figure out how to get the pictures attached):
"...The Palm Islands in Dubai used a new Dutch dredging technology to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.
The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world. Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.
Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.
The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Yaipei 101. Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. [Actually Dubai has for many years advertised the existing Burj Al Arab as the world's only 7-star hotel - that's the sail shaped hotel with the projecting helideck that is pictured so often in stories about Dubai].
The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai. Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.
Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size. Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects. Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.
The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores.It will be completed in 2008.
Some other crazy stuff.. The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world. The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume. There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.
And we think that US real estate was THE mother-of-all-Bubbles. It's not Petrodollars that are primarily fueling this, but Indian, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Kazakh and other Mafia money.
I don't know what will pop this monster, or when, but when it goes the splatter zone is going to cover a lot of territory...:p
won't dubailand be awfully hot a lot of the year? or are they going to air condition the 107square mile facility?
won't dubailand be awfully hot a lot of the year? or are they going to air condition the 107square mile facility?
Darned if I know jk. Probably a series of enclosed sites with air conditioning, with many of them connected at grade level so people can get around without going outside, or maybe a tram system or something. Anything outside, except a water park, is useless from June to September because of the heat and humidity.
I try to keep a detached perspective on this stuff and don't pay a lot of attention, as it seems so completely over-the-top artificial in every respect. A few people I know who live in Dubai seem to be getting caught up in it all, and I get the impression they are starting to think we should all live this way...
Darned if I know jk. Probably a series of enclosed sites with air conditioning, with many of them connected at grade level so people can get around without going outside, or maybe a tram system or something. Anything outside, except a water park, is useless from June to September because of the heat and humidity.
I try to keep a detached perspective on this stuff and don't pay a lot of attention, as it seems so completely over-the-top artificial in every respect. A few people I know who live in Dubai seem to be getting caught up in it all, and I get the impression they are starting to think we should all live this way...
Sounds like they have wholeheartedly embraced American culture and ideology.:D
Sounds like they have wholeheartedly embraced American culture and ideology.:D
Hmmmmm. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to unleash, on the unsuspecting global village, the internet, satellite rebroadcasts of Sex and the City, Walt Disney, Coke, and all those Happy Meals after all... :rolleyes:
rabot10
02-06-08, 05:24 PM
Hard to believe this site needs yet another thread, but I came across the following, figured it would take the edge off the sometimes serious tone we get into around here, couldn't figure out where to put it, so I started this thread thinking others could just add anything similar - amusing, incredulous, revealing, impossible to be true, whatever...
What follows is dead serious. You can't make this stuff up...
Saudi divorces wife for watching male TV host:
Date: 9/29/2007 4:25:00 PM
A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.
The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.
Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.
And your point is?
Andreuccio
02-07-08, 12:17 AM
Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.
And your point is?
Maybe the Saudis are on to something.
rabot10
02-07-08, 04:45 PM
Hard to believe this site needs yet another thread, but I came across the following, figured it would take the edge off the sometimes serious tone we get into around here, couldn't figure out where to put it, so I started this thread thinking others could just add anything similar - amusing, incredulous, revealing, impossible to be true, whatever...
What follows is dead serious. You can't make this stuff up...
Saudi divorces wife for watching male TV host:
Date: 9/29/2007 4:25:00 PM
A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday.
The man, whom the paper did not identify, ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man, which is forbidden under the strict Islamic law enforced in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the paper said.
Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.
And Your Point is?
Hmmmmm. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to unleash, on the unsuspecting global village, the internet, satellite rebroadcasts of Sex and the City, Walt Disney, Coke, and all those Happy Meals after all... :rolleyes:
More American "culture"...:)
Woman sues Victoria's Secret claiming thong injury
Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:18pm EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - A woman who says she was hurt by her thong panties when a metal clip flew off and hit her in the eye has sued Victoria's Secret, saying in a TV interview on Thursday that the injury caused her "excruciating pain."
Macrida Patterson, a 52-year-old Los Angeles traffic officer, told NBC's "Today" show that she suffered cuts to her cornea from the small piece of metal that had been used to secure a rhinestone heart onto the blue thong.
"I was putting on my underwear from Victoria's Secret and the metal popped in my eye. It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That's what happened," Patterson said on "Today."
Patterson's lawyer Jason Buccat, who also appeared on "Today," said the metal staple caused "severe damage" to her cornea that required a topical steroid.
The product liability lawsuit, which was filed on June 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court and first reported on the Smoking Gun Web site, seeks unspecified damages.
A spokeswoman for Victoria's Secret, which is operated by Limited Brands Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN1938991320080620
Andreuccio
06-20-08, 11:37 AM
More American "culture"...:)
Woman sues Victoria's Secret claiming thong injury
Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:18pm EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - A woman who says she was hurt by her thong panties when a metal clip flew off and hit her in the eye has sued Victoria's Secret, saying in a TV interview on Thursday that the injury caused her "excruciating pain."
Macrida Patterson, a 52-year-old Los Angeles traffic officer, told NBC's "Today" show that she suffered cuts to her cornea from the small piece of metal that had been used to secure a rhinestone heart onto the blue thong.
"I was putting on my underwear from Victoria's Secret and the metal popped in my eye. It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That's what happened," Patterson said on "Today."
Patterson's lawyer Jason Buccat, who also appeared on "Today," said the metal staple caused "severe damage" to her cornea that required a topical steroid.
The product liability lawsuit, which was filed on June 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court and first reported on the Smoking Gun Web site, seeks unspecified damages.
A spokeswoman for Victoria's Secret, which is operated by Limited Brands Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN1938991320080620
I once scratched my cornea. I got some piece of dust or grit under my contact lense. I can testify that it was excruciatingly painful. I ended up in the emergency room. For all I know, they might have applied a topical steroid too. A day later, it was all better. Turns out the cornea is one of the fastest healing parts of the body.
I wonder if I could sue somebody, maybe the contact lens manufacturer or the grit spewer. This might be worth a few million.
I watched the video of Patterson and her lawyer on the Today Show. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25258522/) My guess is Victoria's Secret was negligent. The lesson to take away here is we need more disclaimers in our society. Victoria's Secret should have included a disclaimer not to wear thong underwear that's too small, at the risk of severe cornea injury.
I watched the video of Patterson and her lawyer on the Today Show. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25258522/) My guess is Victoria's Secret was negligent. The lesson to take away here is we need more disclaimers in our society. Victoria's Secret should have included a disclaimer not to wear thong underwear that's too small, at the risk of severe cornea injury.
People should stop blaming the world for their problems and take responsibilty for their own actions. How many disclaimers do we need? Do you have to have McDonalds tell you that their coffee is hot so you don't burn yourself? Accidents happen. If you run around with scissors and trip and poke your eye out, is it the scissor maker's fault?
Also, this lady didn't have a globe rupture, it sounds like she had a corneal abrasion or possibly minor traumatic iritis. Both are usually self limited problems. For her to sue is silly.
Andreuccio
06-21-08, 11:26 PM
People should stop blaming the world for their problems and take responsibilty for their own actions. How many disclaimers do we need? Do you have to have McDonalds tell you that their coffee is hot so you don't burn yourself? Accidents happen. If you run around with scissors and trip and poke your eye out, is it the scissor maker's fault?
Also, this lady didn't have a globe rupture, it sounds like she had a corneal abrasion or possibly minor traumatic iritis. Both are usually self limited problems. For her to sue is silly.
Um, not sure if it was clear or not, but I was joking. Of course we don't need more disclaimers. When I said we need more I actually meant we need less. (A literary device where you say one thing to strongly mean it's opposite. I use it often, but I can't remember what it's called.)
And I meant to imply that the lady is a tad overweight, from what one can see on the video, and perhaps that played a role in the panties underperforming.
Maybe I should have included some smiley faces. I thought suggesting I would sue the grit spewer for millions for one day of discomfort would be a giveaway that I thought the whole idea was farcical.
Jim Nickerson
06-21-08, 11:51 PM
Um, not sure if it was clear or not, but I was joking. Of course we don't need more disclaimers. When I said we need more I actually meant we need less. (A literary device where you say one thing to strongly mean it's opposite. I use it often, but I can't remember what it's called.)
And I meant to imply that the lady is a tad overweight, from what one can see on the video, and perhaps that played a role in the panties underperforming.
Maybe I should have included some smiley faces. I thought suggesting I would sue the grit spewer for millions for one day of discomfort would be a giveaway that I thought the whole idea was farcical.
My opinion about this whole clusterfuck is the lawyer and woman should be caned for their frivolity, whoever would get turned on by a 52 y/o fat woman in any underwear sold by Victoria's Secret probably should be institutionalized, and Victoria's Secret should be sanctioned by the FTC for even selling presumably sexy underthings to fat older women.
Andreuccio
06-22-08, 01:46 AM
My opinion about this whole clusterfuck is the lawyer and woman should be caned for their frivolity, whoever would get turned on by a 52 y/o fat woman in any underwear sold by Victoria's Secret probably should be institutionalized, and Victoria's Secret should be sanctioned by the FTC for even selling presumably sexy underthings to fat older women.
Yeah, I didn't want to get into the age thing, and I only wanted to hint at the fat thing, but you're a lot more outspoken than I am, Jim. No arguments from me on anything you said.
Um, not sure if it was clear or not, but I was joking. Of course we don't need more disclaimers. When I said we need more I actually meant we need less. (A literary device where you say one thing to strongly mean it's opposite. I use it often, but I can't remember what it's called.)
And I meant to imply that the lady is a tad overweight, from what one can see on the video, and perhaps that played a role in the panties underperforming.
Maybe I should have included some smiley faces. I thought suggesting I would sue the grit spewer for millions for one day of discomfort would be a giveaway that I thought the whole idea was farcical.
Whoops, misread you there! Sorry 'bout that.
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D...for clarity.
Andreuccio
07-02-08, 12:42 PM
Whoops, misread you there! Sorry 'bout that.
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D...for clarity.
No worries. :)
I suppose I'll have to start including my own disclaimer in my posts:
"The stupid thing you are about to read by Andreuccio is meant only in jest. It means the opposite of what is written. Please don't flame me unless you actually agree with what I appear to be saying." :D:D
Must be all those wind turbines...:rolleyes:
And the world's happiest country is..
Tue Jul 1, 2008 5:21pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday.
Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.
Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.
It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed.
"I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.
And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy.
"Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis.
"Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous."
Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.
"Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the United States looks pretty good," Inglehart said. "The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom."
The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions:
"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"
Writing in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, Ingelhart's team said they have surveyed 350,000 people.
"Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives," Inglehart said.
Article... (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0145488820080701?sp=true)
Never underestimate the American entrepreneur.
Brothel offers customers gas rebate
Wed Jul 9, 2008 4:27pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Nevada brothel is trying to stimulate business by offering free gasoline.
Clients of the Shady Lady Ranch will get a $50 gas voucher if they fork out $300 -- worth about one hour's worth of services -- at the brothel in Beatty, Nevada, 130 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Owner James Davis said he already has had to order another $1,000 set of gas vouchers because the first $1,000 were spent in one week.
"It's rocking along. We're doing quite well. June and July historically are not big months," said Davis, who is co-owner of the brothel along with his wife Bobbi, in a telephone interview.
The $50 rebate would roughly cover the cost of a round trip drive from Las Vegas to the ranch.
Davis said business at the ranch, which has been operating for 16 years, generally slows in the early summer. He said the brothel regularly offers specials to lure clients and his wife came up with the gas vouchers for this month.
U.S. gasoline prices hit a record $4.08 a gallon last week, up 38 percent from a year ago.
Brothels, illegal in most U.S. states, are legal in parts of Nevada.
And for those that were anticipating an increase in male life expectancy in Russia, this won't help the stats one bit...
Woman kills husband with folding couch
Wed Jul 9, 2008 12:17pm EDT
By Denis Pinchuk
ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - A Russian woman in St Petersburg killed her drunk husband with a folding couch, Russian media reported on Wednesday.
St Petersburg's Channel Five said the man's wife, upset with her husband for being drunk and refusing to get up, kicked a handle after an argument, activating a mechanism that folds the couch up against a wall.
The couch, which doubles as a bed, folds up automatically in order to save space. The man fell between the mattress and the back of the couch, Channel Five quoted emergency workers as saying.
The woman then walked out of the room and returned three hours later to check on what she thought was an unusually quiet sleeping husband.
Police refused to comment.
The St Petersburg Emergency Services Ministry said a private rescue service removed the man's body.
Video on the television channel's website showed emergency workers sawing away the side panels of a couch to remove a man in his underwear lying headfirst between the cushions.
Emergency workers said the man died instantly.
Emergency workers said the man died instantly.
At leas' he didn't sofa and died ottoman.
http://jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-fix-microsoft-more-ads-more.html
How to Fix Microsoft: More Ads! More Meetings!
Negative perceptions of Vista are one of the most pressing problems facing Mr. Ballmer. Although money rolls in as the software ships on new computers, many corporate users have been slow to adopt Vista.
—The Wall Street Journal
Anybody catch the faulty premise contained in that paragraph?
If you said to yourself, “Well, duh! It's the part where they say ‘Negative perceptions of Vista are one of the most pressing problems facing Mr. Ballmer’” you’d be right.
Perceptions are not the “pressing problem” with Vista. The pressing problem with Vista is that users hate it. And they’re fleeing in droves.
Has anybody at Microsoft—at least in that executive suite—watched a ‘Mac vs. PC’ ad? No?
Didn’t think so.
Just imagine that a single airplane maker had a monopoly manufacturing all the world’s airplanes for twenty years or so. And then they built a new plane that was hard to fly and crashed a lot. Fliers would find an alternative in a hurry.
That's what Microsoft users are doing.
Microsoft’s solution to fixing Vista? More ads! We are not making that up:
Mr. Ballmer has approved a new marketing campaign for Vista that is expected to kick in this year. Meanwhile, he is determined to avoid the delays that plagued that product in the development of Windows 7, which is expected in early 2010.
And how is Microsoft planning to make sure Windows 7 is something people might actually want to use?
More meetings! We are not making that up, either:
One safeguard: he entrusted the project to Steven Sinofsky, a senior vice president with a long history of managing big software projects. Executives said Windows 7's schedule is being managed more tightly, including frequent meetings with Mr. Ballmer and other top executives to monitor progress.
Think Dilbert, Wally and Alice sitting around a table, listening. While the pointy-haired boss talks.
Windows 7 can’t miss.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
:)
metalman
07-09-08, 08:49 PM
http://jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-fix-microsoft-more-ads-more.html
:)
microsoft = global software monopoly. soviet software. horrid. imagine word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. advancing as fast as web software?
it's coming.
web software ain't all it either:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/08/docs_and_spreadsheets_goes_down/
Google's Docs and Spreadsheets disappeared today for close to an hour, proving that the world's largest search engine is a long way from perfecting the art of online business applications.
Many businesses paid good money to look at this screen, which appeared - at least to people in Silicon Valley - from about 9am to 10am:
http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/07/08/google_docs_goes_down.jpg When clouds die
As a Google Apps Premiere customer, the San Francisco-based open source outfit MuleSource pays Google for the use of Docs and Spreadsheets, and it describes the experience as a game of chance. "As businesses look to move their systems and applications into cloud-based services, we expect them to work minimally as well as if we ran them ourselves," Mule Source CEO Dave Rosenberg tells us. "With Google Apps, we are at the point of taking bets to see if the services will actually be up."
Google's error message kept telling Rosenberg to "Try again in 30 seconds." Say what you will about Microsoft Office, it's never that cruel.
M* at least doesn't have this problem.
Just imagine when the newest Chinese nuclear sub runs over the trans-Pacific fiber op line, or the neighbor backhoes the utility line when putting in his DIY swimming pool.
But then again, I much preferred Quattro Pro :mad:
I don't know how appropriate is post .... but well we should respect other cultures, it's on Yahoo News and most important you just can't make this stuff up :)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080710/wl_asia_afp/indonesiahealthsexoffbeat_080710121211&printer=1
Long life of Indonesia's penis growing grandma ends: reports
Thu Jul 10, 8:12 AM ET
An elderly Indonesian woman famed nationwide for supernatural skills in lengthening penises has died, reports said Thursday.
Reclusive Mak Erot, famed for penis extension treatment incorporating traditional herbs and Islamic prayer, died last week in Caringin village on the western coast of Java island, the Kompas daily's website reported.
Mak Erot -- who reports aged anywhere from 101 to over 130 -- prompted legions of imitations of her famous clinics, many using her famously craggy and birthmarked face to lure in anxious men.
While her legacy has been closely guarded by male descendents intent on maintaining the purity of the treatment, Mak Erot has become a pop-culture icon in everything from advertisements to teenage romantic comedy films.
Reports of he death prompted a flurry of bemused online comments from Internet users in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
User "Jengkol" wrote on news website Detikcom: "Oh no, I didn't have the chance to go to Mak Erot and now she's dead. I'll just have to buy a vacuum. Maybe that could be the solution to my problem."
metalman
07-10-08, 09:38 PM
I don't know how appropriate is post .... but well we should respect other cultures, it's on Yahoo News and most important you just can't make this stuff up :)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080710/wl_asia_afp/indonesiahealthsexoffbeat_080710121211&printer=1
"famed nationwide for supernatural skills in lengthening penises"
which superstition is more dangerous? that or...
"U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Thursday told Congress that regulators should gain greater powers in oversight of financial market."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/11/content_8525923.htm
Andreuccio
07-11-08, 11:46 AM
A literary device where you say one thing to strongly mean it's opposite. I use it often, but I can't remember what it's called.
I looked it up. It's called, simply enough, "Verbal Irony".
Verbal irony: Where the meaning of a specific expression is, or is intended to be, the exact opposite of what the words literally mean. (Sarcasm is a tone of voice that often accompanies verbal irony, but they are not the same thing.)
(From: http://mrbraiman.home.att.net/lit.htm)
http://wonkette.com/401018/anti-gay-alabama-attorney-general-caught-being-gay
Anti-Gay Alabama A.G. Caught Being Gay
http://wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/troy-king.jpgThis may come as a shock, but a prominent anti-homosexual Republican attorney general has apparently been caught having homosexual sex intercourse (http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6069) with his homosexual gay male assistant. Bonus: The dude’s wife caught him, (http://fishbowlamerica.com/?p=698) in their bed. This is the rumor (http://www.dailydixie.com/2008/07/09/the-rumorsphere-on-troy-king/) that the AG’s office has officially denied, so now of course everybody is spilling the sordid details.
AG in question is Troy King, who, of course, is only interested in outlawing homosexuality (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=137x4019) and sex toys. (http://bp0.blogger.com/_M-Nl0Fvwnzw/RzydcplcQNI/AAAAAAAAA3A/ZjOr6OLKKqA/s1600-h/11-15Toys4Troy.jpg) His gay lover is either a college “buddy,” or a very young youngster and “Homecoming King” from Troy University. What are the odds of a dude named Troy King getting caught in bed with a Homecoming King from Troy University? This seems like a wacky sitcom plot, on a gay porn channel. (Is this what that Will & Grace was about?)
I guess, one may say that Troy King is promoting wide stance anti-gay policies ...:D
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Production_Disruption_in_Nigeria_Causes_Oil_Price_ Fall/d5ff8156.aspx
The price of crude oil took an unscheduled fall to its lowest in more than a month, yesterday in New York, after a disruption to production in Nigeria. The price of a barrel fell $5.31, or 4 percent, to close at $129.29, the lowest on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMX) since June 5. It traded at $130.77 at 2:54 p.m. Singapore time.
:)
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Production_Disruption_in_Nigeria_Causes_Oil_Price_ Fall/d5ff8156.aspx
:)
"...The price of crude oil took an unscheduled fall to its lowest in more than a month, yesterday in New York..."
An unscheduled fall? I know the iTulip community has access to a wide range of resources, so it would be truly helpful if someone who has access to the timetable for scheduled crude oil price declines would post it for the benefit of the rest of us.
Many thanks in advance...;)
"...The price of crude oil took an unscheduled fall to its lowest in more than a month, yesterday in New York..."
An unscheduled fall? I know the iTulip community has access to a wide range of resources, so it would be truly helpful if someone who has access to the timetable for scheduled crude oil price declines would post it for the benefit of the rest of us.
Many thanks in advance...;)
GRG55, I believe you missed an important detail:
"...The price of crude oil took an unscheduled fall ...
... after a disruption to production in Nigeria." :)
But I completely agree with you. Can someone, please, be so kind to provide that timetable for scheduled crude oil price declines and post it here for the benefit of the rest of us? ;)
GRG55, I believe you missed an important detail:
"...The price of crude oil took an unscheduled fall ...
... after a disruption to production in Nigeria." :)
But I completely agree with you. Can someone, please, be so kind to provide that timetable for scheduled crude oil price declines and post it here for the benefit of the rest of us? ;)
I didn't miss anything. I think you take the blatherings of financial journalists about the daily movements of crude oil far too seriously...:)
Now about those scheduled price declines...anybody out there able to help $#* and the rest of us out??? :rolleyes:
metalman
07-22-08, 08:44 PM
I didn't miss anything. I think you take the blatherings of financial journalists about the daily movements of crude oil far too seriously...:)
Now about those scheduled price declines...anybody out there able to help $#* and the rest of us out??? :rolleyes:
it was me. didn't fill the hummer today, sorry. had the flu. oh, and iran called to say they're cool with shutting down the centrifuges if we send them a refinery.
He ventured forth to bring light to the world (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece)
http://www.smileyhut.com/laughing/rofl.gif
And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.
The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.
And there were other wonderful signs.
In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.
Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.
And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25423465/
Court: Exorcism is protected by law
Texas justices throw out jury award after teenager alleged church ordeal
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Texas Supreme Court on Friday threw out a jury award over injuries a 17-year-old girl suffered in an exorcism conducted by members of her old church, ruling that the case unconstitutionally entangled the court in religious matters.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices found that a lower court erred when it said the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God's First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion did not prevent the church from being held liable for mental distress triggered by a "hyper-spiritualistic environment."
Laura Schubert testified in 2002 that she was cut and bruised and later experienced hallucinations after the church members' actions in 1996, when she was 17. Schubert said she was pinned to the floor for hours and received carpet burns during the exorcism, the Austin American-Statesman reported. She also said the incident led her to mutilate herself and attempt suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric help
metalman
07-29-08, 09:11 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25423465/
"hyper-spiritualistic environment" short of common sense describes the usa over the past few years, eh?
"hyper-spiritualistic environment" short of common sense describes the usa over the past few years, eh?
I don't know....maybe it describes better the no-oil-bubble faith on this site ;) because the situation in usa over the past few years, probably, it's a little bit more complex:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/washington/29justice.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
Report Faults Aides in Hiring at Justice Dept.
According to the report, officials at the White House first developed a method of searching the Internet to glean the political leanings of a candidate and introduced it at a White House seminar called The Thorough Process of Investigation. Justice Department officials then began using the technique to search for key phrases or words in an applicant’s background, like “abortion,” “homosexual,” “Florida recount,” or “guns.”And according to the official report (http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0807/final.pdf) the Nexis search string used by the White House liaison for selecting DOJ candidates was:
[first name of a candidate] and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!"or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount" ??!!!:D they missed "wide stance" and "troy university"
That is not just a "hyper-spiritualistic environment"... it's more than that :)
The Straits of Tonkin....:rolleyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slgBrbNXrbs
<object width="425" height="344">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/slgBrbNXrbs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adFCwlTI2fjw&refer=home
Ambac, Using an Accounting Change, Posts Net Income
Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Ambac Financial Group Inc. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=ABK%3AUS), the bond insurer that lost 92 percent of its stock market value in the past year, posted second-quarter net income after using an accounting change to record a $5.2 billion gain related to its debt securities.
[...]
Ambac, MBIA Inc. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=MBI%3AUS) and three other bond insurers have posted record losses and were stripped of their AAA status after expanding from guarantees on municipal bonds to securities tied to mortgages (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DLQTDLQT%3AIND) that are now going delinquent at the highest rate since 1985. ``We won't know for sometime whether Ambac is going to be one of the long-term survivors,'' said Rob Haines (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Rob+Haines&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), an analyst with CreditSights Inc. in New York.
Without the use of the accounting rule that allowed Ambac to book the gain, ``the numbers look weak,'' Haines said.
[...]
Ambac, once the second-largest bond insurer, reported a $1.7 billion net loss (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=ABK%3AUS) in the first quarter after a $3.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2007. A rise in the risk premiums on Ambac's own debt in the second quarter lowered the value of bond guarantees, which was allowed to be reflected as a gain under new accounting rules, resulting in the quarterly profit.
:)
You know it's peak oil when ....
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ia9DOlb4Nn_yscFg_a9Zb1-GxF6Q
Diddy forced to give up private jet
Hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs will now fly on commercial airlines instead of private jets because of soaring fuel prices.
Combs complained about the "too high" price of fuel and pleaded for free oil from his "Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters" in a YouTube video.
He said he is now flying on commercial airlines instead of private jets, which Combs said had previously cost him 200,000 US dollars and up for a roundtrip between New York and Los Angeles.
You know it's peak oil when ....
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ia9DOlb4Nn_yscFg_a9Zb1-GxF6Q
Maybe Prince Alwaleed can give him a lift...
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19853#poststop
200k for a plane flight. Wow. The rich get richer don't they.
Jim: I am back in the sandbox (Arabian Gulf) for a little while, but some days it's damn difficult to tell the difference between here and a giant amusement park. A few more examples of the complete insanity going on around these parts to illustrate (sorry couldn't figure out how to get the pictures attached):
"...The Palm Islands in Dubai used a new Dutch dredging technology to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.
The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world. Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.
Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.
The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Yaipei 101. Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. [Actually Dubai has for many years advertised the existing Burj Al Arab as the world's only 7-star hotel - that's the sail shaped hotel with the projecting helideck that is pictured so often in stories about Dubai].
The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai. Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.
Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size. Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects. Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.
The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores.It will be completed in 2008.
Some other crazy stuff.. The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world. The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume. There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.
And we think that US real estate was THE mother-of-all-Bubbles. It's not Petrodollars that are primarily fueling this, but Indian, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Kazakh and other Mafia money.
I don't know what will pop this monster, or when, but when it goes the splatter zone is going to cover a lot of territory...:p
Just in case you were under the impression that a trip to [or living in] Dubai is all fun and games [and with reference to this post (http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?p=45543#post45543)elsewhere]...
September 3, 2008
From The Times
Dubai 'sex on beach' woman Michelle Palmer: statement was in Arabic
Michelle Palmer, the British woman accused of having sex on a Dubai beach, has spoken out for the first time, pleading for help to prove her innocence so that she can return home...
...Ms Palmer’s case captured headlines around the world this summer as a prime example of how Western values can clash with this conservative Gulf emirate’s laws. Public opinion in Dubai is against the couple, with both expatriates and Emiratis arguing that they should have respected local laws.
The case has highlighted the strong contrasts in the booming United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai. The city has a much more freewheeling attitude than elsewhere in the Gulf, but it remains a conservative Arab nation.
Yup. I prefer the Far East. It's much more liberal...
http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/08/premenstral-tension.jpg
http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/08/erection-party.jpg
http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/08/santa-please-stop.jpg
http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ho-entrance.jpg
http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gentlemen.jpg
By the way, do you know that Bank of Japan has recently found an innovative way to get a better value from its GSE holdings? Look here:
http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2008/08/myfannie.jpg
Jim: I am back in the sandbox (Arabian Gulf) for a little while, but some days it's damn difficult to tell the difference between here and a giant amusement park. A few more examples of the complete insanity going on around these parts to illustrate (sorry couldn't figure out how to get the pictures attached):
"...The Palm Islands in Dubai used a new Dutch dredging technology to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.
The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world. Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.
Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.
The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Yaipei 101. Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. [Actually Dubai has for many years advertised the existing Burj Al Arab as the world's only 7-star hotel - that's the sail shaped hotel with the projecting helideck that is pictured so often in stories about Dubai].
The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai. Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.
Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size. Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects. Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.
The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores.It will be completed in 2008.
Some other crazy stuff.. The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world. The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume. There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.
And we think that US real estate was THE mother-of-all-Bubbles. It's not Petrodollars that are primarily fueling this, but Indian, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Kazakh and other Mafia money.
I don't know what will pop this monster, or when, but when it goes the splatter zone is going to cover a lot of territory...:p
And it just keeps on getting more idiotic...
Dubai reaches for sky with plan for tallest tower - one kilometre high (http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/oct/06/architecture.middleeast)
Confident Gulf state's glitzy building will incorporate traditional Islamic styles
<LI class=byline>Ian Black (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ianblack) in Dubai <LI class=publication>The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian), <LI class=date>Monday October 6 2008
Dubai, emirate of extravagance and superlatives, laid claim to an extraordinary new record yesterday with a multibillion dollar plan to build the world's tallest tower in the face of deepening global financial gloom.
The tower, at the centre of the Nakheel port and harbour complex, is to be "over one kilometre" high and have more than 200 floors, beating its nearest rival, the existing Burj Dubai tower, still under construction and due to rise to a mere 818 metres.
The latest first for this tiny Gulf state, the glitziest of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates, will incorporate traditional Islamic styles for its extensive gardens, waterfront and bridges.
"It sends another message to the world that Dubai has a vision like no other place on Earth," said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World, the parent company of developer Nakheel.
"At more than a kilometre high this is an unbelievably groundbreaking design," boasted Chris O'Donnell, Nakheel's Australian CEO. "We are pushing the boundaries of sustainable design."...[There's an understatement...:rolleyes: ]
...The tower will be so tall that it will have five different micro-climates.
The temperature in the atmosphere at the top of the building could be as much as 10 degrees cooler than at the bottom. High-speed lifts will allow people to see the sunset twice - from the bottom and again from the top of the building.
Pressed on the issue of height, O'Donnell said: "We are building a tower that's going to be over one kilometre. This is a complete iconic development. It may be the tallest. Someone may build something taller."
Developers in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will doubtless take note...
More [if you can stomach it...:p]
Darned if I know jk. Probably a series of enclosed sites with air conditioning, with many of them connected at grade level so people can get around without going outside, or maybe a tram system or something. Anything outside, except a water park, is useless from June to September because of the heat and humidity.
I try to keep a detached perspective on this stuff and don't pay a lot of attention, as it seems so completely over-the-top artificial in every respect. A few people I know who live in Dubai seem to be getting caught up in it all, and I get the impression they are starting to think we should all live this way...
The early signs of a bust in Dubai have been there for some time [a ridiculously extravagant and clearly uneconomic national airline & no functioning secondary market for all those apartments...just two examples]. After many years of debate and denial, the whole unsustainable state-controlled edifice finally starts to come crashing down. The wonder is why it took so long. For those still on the rides living in the midst of this giant amusement park [and I know a few], watching this end might be as traumatic as a 6-year old watching Mickey get killed off in a Disney cartoon.
Dubai May Need Help From Abu Dhabi to Repay Debts (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=av8CVL1H3T3U&refer=home)
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai may depend on support from neighboring Abu Dhabi and the federal government of the United Arab Emirates to help pay for a surge in borrowing, Moody's Investors Service Inc. said.
Government-controlled companies owe at least $47 billion in total, more than Dubai's gross domestic product, according to Moody's data based on economic statistics from 2006.
``We believe that leverage raised primarily through state- owned corporations will continue to grow faster than GDP for at least the next five years, during which time the Emirate's susceptibility toward execution, financing and geopolitical risks will be at its most pronounced,'' Philip Lotter (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Philip+Lotter&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), Dubai- based senior vice president at Moody's, said in a report today.
Dubai has borrowed to fund real estate projects including Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower, and to buy stakes in Deutsche Bank AG, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and Standard Chartered Plc, as it seeks to reduce dependence on its dwindling oil reserves...
...``These companies that are based in Dubai have become larger than Dubai itself,'' said Giyas Gokkent, chief economist at National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E.'s second-largest commercial bank by assets. ``If anything were to go wrong with any of these companies, Dubai does not have the wherewithal to deal with it.''...
...Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Sheikh+Mohammed+bin+Rashid&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) al-Maktoum has borrowed to replace Dubai's dwindling revenue from oil, investing to boost earnings from tourism and finance. State-owned carrier Emirates has increased its fleet to the largest in the Middle East, in a bid to double tourists per year to 15 million by 2015. Dubai Holding LLC, which groups assets belonging to Sheikh Mohammed, owns hotel chain Jumeirah Group...
...Dubai's benchmark stock index is down 44 percent as concerns over real-estate valuations and banks' access to capital weighed on investors.
``In most countries there are identifiable delineations between the public and private sectors,'' Cooper (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=+Cooper&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) said in the report. ``In Dubai, however, the state corporatist model plus the fact that the ruler and his closest relatives form the core of the government make it difficult to draw such distinctions.''
Google economic wisdom:
Go to Google and type into the search bar these three words:
russia banks rouble
Click Search.
Try to understand the suggestion made by Google :)
"Water vapor is the big player in the atmosphere as far as climate is concerned."
Apparently we are doomed...:p
Water vapor confirmed as major player in climate change (http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/water-vapor-confirmed-major-player-climate-change-17805.html)
[I]Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change.
Andrew Dessler and colleagues from Texas A&M University in College Station confirmed that the heat-amplifying effect of water vapor is potent enough to double the climate warming caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
With new observations, the scientists confirmed experimentally what existing climate models had anticipated theoretically. The research team used novel data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite to measure precisely the humidity throughout the lowest 10 miles of the atmosphere. That information was combined with global observations of shifts in temperature, allowing researchers to build a comprehensive picture of the interplay between water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other atmosphere-warming gases. The NASA-funded research was published recently in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters.
"Everyone agrees that if you add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, then warming will result," Dessler said. "So the real question is, how much warming?"
The answer can be found by estimating the magnitude of water vapor feedback. Increasing water vapor leads to warmer temperatures, which causes more water vapor to be absorbed into the air. Warming and water absorption increase in a spiraling cycle.
Water vapor feedback can also amplify the warming effect of other greenhouse gases, such that the warming brought about by increased carbon dioxide allows more water vapor to enter the atmosphere.
"The difference in an atmosphere with a strong water vapor feedback and one with a weak feedback is enormous," Dessler said.
Climate models have estimated the strength of water vapor feedback, but until now the record of water vapor data was not sophisticated enough to provide a comprehensive view of at how water vapor responds to changes in Earth's surface temperature. That's because instruments on the ground and previous space-based could not measure water vapor at all altitudes in Earth's troposphere -- the layer of the atmosphere that extends from Earth's surface to about 10 miles in altitude.
AIRS is the first instrument to distinguish differences in the amount of water vapor at all altitudes within the troposphere. Using data from AIRS, the team observed how atmospheric water vapor reacted to shifts in surface temperatures between 2003 and 2008. By determining how humidity changed with surface temperature, the team could compute the average global strength of the water vapor feedback.
"This new data set shows that as surface temperature increases, so does atmospheric humidity," Dessler said. "Dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere makes the atmosphere more humid. And since water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the warming from carbon dioxide."
Specifically, the team found that if Earth warms 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the associated increase in water vapor will trap an extra 2 Watts of energy per square meter (about 11 square feet).
"That number may not sound like much, but add up all of that energy over the entire Earth surface and you find that water vapor is trapping a lot of energy," Dessler said. "We now think the water vapor feedback is extraordinarily strong, capable of doubling the warming due to carbon dioxide alone."
Because the new precise observations agree with existing assessments of water vapor's impact, researchers are more confident than ever in model predictions that Earth's leading greenhouse gas will contribute to a temperature rise of a few degrees by the end of the century.
"This study confirms that what was predicted by the models is really happening in the atmosphere," said Eric Fetzer, an atmospheric scientist who works with AIRS data at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Water vapor is the big player in the atmosphere as far as climate is concerned."
http://www.nasa.gov (http://www.nasa.gov/)
"Water vapor is the big player in the atmosphere as far as climate is concerned."
Apparently we are doomed...:p
Water vapor confirmed as major player in climate change (http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/water-vapor-confirmed-major-player-climate-change-17805.html)
[I]Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change.
Andrew Dessler and colleagues from Texas A&M University in College Station confirmed that the heat-amplifying effect of water vapor is potent enough to double the climate warming caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
With new observations, the scientists confirmed experimentally what existing climate models had anticipated theoretically. The research team used novel data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite to measure precisely the humidity throughout the lowest 10 miles of the atmosphere. That information was combined with global observations of shifts in temperature, allowing researchers to build a comprehensive picture of the interplay between water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other atmosphere-warming gases. The NASA-funded research was published recently in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters.
"Everyone agrees that if you add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, then warming will result," Dessler said. "So the real question is, how much warming?"
The answer can be found by estimating the magnitude of water vapor feedback. Increasing water vapor leads to warmer temperatures, which causes more water vapor to be absorbed into the air. Warming and water absorption increase in a spiraling cycle.
Water vapor feedback can also amplify the warming effect of other greenhouse gases, such that the warming brought about by increased carbon dioxide allows more water vapor to enter the atmosphere.
"The difference in an atmosphere with a strong water vapor feedback and one with a weak feedback is enormous," Dessler said.
Climate models have estimated the strength of water vapor feedback, but until now the record of water vapor data was not sophisticated enough to provide a comprehensive view of at how water vapor responds to changes in Earth's surface temperature. That's because instruments on the ground and previous space-based could not measure water vapor at all altitudes in Earth's troposphere -- the layer of the atmosphere that extends from Earth's surface to about 10 miles in altitude.
AIRS is the first instrument to distinguish differences in the amount of water vapor at all altitudes within the troposphere. Using data from AIRS, the team observed how atmospheric water vapor reacted to shifts in surface temperatures between 2003 and 2008. By determining how humidity changed with surface temperature, the team could compute the average global strength of the water vapor feedback.
"This new data set shows that as surface temperature increases, so does atmospheric humidity," Dessler said. "Dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere makes the atmosphere more humid. And since water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the warming from carbon dioxide."
Specifically, the team found that if Earth warms 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the associated increase in water vapor will trap an extra 2 Watts of energy per square meter (about 11 square feet).
"That number may not sound like much, but add up all of that energy over the entire Earth surface and you find that water vapor is trapping a lot of energy," Dessler said. "We now think the water vapor feedback is extraordinarily strong, capable of doubling the warming due to carbon dioxide alone."
Because the new precise observations agree with existing assessments of water vapor's impact, researchers are more confident than ever in model predictions that Earth's leading greenhouse gas will contribute to a temperature rise of a few degrees by the end of the century.
"This study confirms that what was predicted by the models is really happening in the atmosphere," said Eric Fetzer, an atmospheric scientist who works with AIRS data at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Water vapor is the big player in the atmosphere as far as climate is concerned."
http://www.nasa.gov (http://www.nasa.gov/)
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We definitely need a steam room tax.
Sahara Pallin offering an interesting background on the Federal Reserve System efforts to rescue taxpayers from the financial crisis. Watch it carefully ... it's almost hypnotic
<object width="425" height="344">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/z-kjM1asH-8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=29 http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=29 http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=29
Sahara Pallin offering an interesting background on the Federal Reserve System efforts to rescue taxpayers from the financial crisis. Watch it carefully ... it's almost hypnotic
http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=29 http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=29 http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=29
Priceless...
Here we go again. This is an example of what I was referring to when I mentioned on another thread a few weeks back that the GCC countries, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were continuously becoming more conservative Islamic societies. I have noticed quite a change just in the few years I have lived in the Gulf. This may seem far away for many of you, and of no real consequence, but I think these are indicators of a recent acceleration in a long standing trend (goes back to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the first Gulf War) with potential ramifications that go well beyond global oil supply...
Saudi bank segregation not yet confirmed
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript>updateDate = "Tuesday, 03 July 2007 02:09"</SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript>document.getElementById('crumbs-dir').innerHTML = 'PUBLIC SECTOR / NEWS /'</SCRIPT>by <!-- Author Start -->Lynne Roberts<!-- Author End --> on Tuesday, 03 July 2007
Reports by news agencies that stricter measures will be enforced to segregate men and women at Saudi banks’ headquarters have yet to be officially confirmed, according to Arab News.
According to the newspaper no written circular has been issued, although women bankers claim to have heard about new rules, and in some cases have reported to work to find themselves relocated to women-only suites.
Male and female employees have always been separated at individual branches, but have worked together at headquarters until now.
A recent Reuters report claims officials from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) and the Labour Ministry met with bank managers earlier this month to inform them of the new system, and giving them until the end of the summer holidays to comply.
Banks are expected to provide separate floors, elevators, entrances and cafeterias for men and women.
A SAMA official denied any new rules or directives, but admitted that banks are expected to segregate. “There have been many complaints and written requests from different government agencies to strictly enforce the segregation because some banks continue to have mixed administrations at their headquarters” he told Arab News.
Not just the GCC apparently...
Malaysian Fatwa Council Bans Yoga for Muslims, Star Reports (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=axHJr7Xg3iOA)
(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=axHJr7Xg3iOA)
By Soraya Permatasari
Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council today issued a religious edict banning Muslims from practicing yoga, saying it involves physical movements such as chanting that are prohibited in the religion, the Star reported (http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/22/nation/20081122111842&sec=nation) today.
The decision was made after Zakaria Stapa, a lecturer at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, advised Muslims against taking yoga classes on concern they may deviate from the teachings of Islam, the report said.
More than 60 percent of Malaysia’s 27 million people practice Islam. The council is the religious body in Malaysia that issues fatwas for Muslims in the country. Their decisions are not legally binding.
Weather rocket kills man and blows up his body at cremation (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3793982/Weather-rocket-kills-man-and-blows-up-his-body-at-cremation.html)
A Chinese man originally thought to have been struck by lightning was in fact killed by a small weather rocket whose existence was only discovered when his body exploded during his cremation.
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 10:38PM GMT 16 Dec 2008
The body of Wang Diange, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, was found in the wreckage of a house where he had been overseeing the wake of a previous family funeral, after mourners felt a loud explosion which took off half the roof.
As it was raining and thundery, they decided that the house, and Mr Wang in particular, had been struck by lightning. The police came to the same conclusion.
Further inquiries were made a few days later after Mr Wang's own funeral. As his body was being put into the cremation chamber, it blew up spectacularly, bursting the doors off the oven.
When the fire had been put out, the only clue as to what had happened was a small twisted piece of metal, which seemed to be the glowing remnants of a screw.
At first, local metallurgists were unable to determine what it was, though they noted it bore a military serial number. After a lengthy investigation, however, it was suggested it might be part of a shell casing.
Inquiries revealed that the rainfall on the day of the original disaster was triggered by the local weather bureau, which had been firing shells into the atmosphere to break up hail in order to protect the local tobacco crop.
Inside the shells were silver iodide, a chemical that helps to break up hail into rain.
Their own investigators concluded that one shell must have failed to explode, hit the house, and lodged in Mr Wang's body. There it passed unnoticed because of his extensive injuries, according to local newspaper reports.
As a result, and three years after Mr Wang died, his family have now received 80,000 yuan (£8,000) in compensation from the weather bureau.
Apparently growing food is bad for the planet...:eek:
How Green Is My Orange? (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/business/22pepsi.html?_r=1&ref=business)
BRADENTON, Fla. — How much does your morning glass of orange juice contribute to global warming (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier)?
PepsiCo (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/pepsico_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org), which owns the Tropicana brand, decided to try to answer that question. It figured that as public concern grows about the fate of the planet, companies will find themselves under pressure to perform such calculations. Orange juice seemed like a good case study.
PepsiCo hired experts to do the math, measuring the emissions from such energy-intensive tasks as running a factory and transporting heavy juice cartons. But it turned out that the biggest single source of emissions was simply growing oranges. Citrus groves use a lot of nitrogen fertilizer, which requires natural gas to make and can turn into a potent greenhouse gas when it is spread on fields.
PepsiCo finally came up with a number: the equivalent of 3.75 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted to the atmosphere for each half-gallon carton of orange juice...
</NYT_HEADLINE>
There were a few years ago rumors about a big ABBA fan in Kremlin... well ... :D
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7875372.stm
Putin denies dancing to Abba hits
<!-- S BO --> <!-- S IIMA --> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="226"> <tbody><tr><td> http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45452000/jpg/_45452885_putin_afp226b.jpg Vladimir Putin and seven other guests were at the gig, Bjorn Again says
</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- E IIMA --> <!-- S SF --> An Abba tribute band says it has performed a private concert for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Bjorn Again says it was paid £20,000 to play the gig 200 miles (320km) north of Moscow on 22 January.
Bjorn Again's manager Rod Stephen and other band members said Mr Putin danced to Abba hits and shouted "Bravo!"
The PM's spokesman denied the claim. Mr Putin - a former KGB spy who has a black belt in judo - is known in Russia and the West for his macho image. <!-- E SF -->
'Paid by Kremlin'
Bjorn Again says that in January it was flown from London to Moscow and then driven north to a place on the shores of Lake Valdai.
<!-- S IIMA -->
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="226"> <tbody><tr><td> http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45452000/jpg/_45452886_bjornagain226.jpg Bjorn Again was founded in 1988
</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- E IIMA --> The four member-group says Mr Putin and about seven other guests, including a woman, were present at the concert, but they sat on a sofa veiled by a curtain.
"It was the smallest audience we have ever performed to but Mr Putin was really enjoying it, shouting 'Bravo' and clapping with the others," Aileen McLaughlin, who performs as Abba's blonde Agnetha Faltskog, was quoted as saying by the Times newspaper.
"He [Putin] was dancing along in his seat to Super Trouper and raised his hands in the air during Mamma Mia when we asked the audience to," she said.
Bjorn Again says it performed 15 Abba songs during the private gig, claiming that it was paid by the Kremlin.
Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that the prime minister attended any such concert.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who succeeded Mr Putin last May, is a well-known fan of British band Deep Purple.
Last year, Mr Medvedev attended a concert by the British rockers to mark the 15th anniversary of the founding of Gazprom.<!-- E BO -->
Mamma Mia !!!:D
metalman
02-06-09, 04:57 PM
There were a few years ago rumors about a big ABBA fan in Kremlin... well ... :D
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7875372.stm
Mamma Mia !!!:D
why do dictators have such lousy taste in music?
There were a few years ago rumors about a big ABBA fan in Kremlin... well ... :D
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7875372.stm
Mamma Mia !!!:D
Wonder if the woman, second from the left in photo, is also a black belt? ;)
...just ripe for these times! :)
This is just begging for some funding to sponsor a DVD collection targeting retired baby boomers who just lost most of their recently created "wealth" and pensions, and need to find new income sources.
A packaged set of how-to DVDs, including some colourful computer graphics, flogged to the rising tide of worried insomniacs through late-night infomercials [nicely filling the void left by the demise of get-rich-on-Florida-real-estate]. She could be the greatest thing since Clara Pelter...:D
Flying thief caught again at age 83 (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE51C6AX20090216)
Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:43am EST
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A notorious 83-year-old Hungarian thief with a criminal record dating back six decades, was caught by police Thursday at the scene of a break-in.
Kosztor Sandorne, dubbed "Flying Gizi" by Hungarian media, was arrested after she entered a house in Komarom, a town in the northwest.
Sandorne, who earned her nickname because she liked to flee her crime scenes by taking commercial flights, said she was in the house because she was trying to save money...
..."Flying Gizi" has been convicted more than 20 times and first came to the attention of the police in the 1950s.
Her preferred method of travel is now rail rather than air, since train travel is free for pensioners in Hungary...
Got the link for this great financial blog from another forum. I was thinking to post this in education and resources:
http://smaniyar.blogspot.com (http://smaniyar.blogspot.com/)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
First Presidential Debate and Bailout (http://smaniyar.blogspot.com/2008/09/first-presidential-debate-and-bailout.html)
Looks like McCain is chickening out from facing American public, Obama and debate moderator. Otherwise why would be pull his typical maverick style trick to postpone the debate where he has chance to explain his plan on how he as president would get us out of this mess - he does not have a plan and everyone knows that his party and Wall Street got us into this mess. So on the premise of economic crisis, he is cancelling his participation in debate.
Obama should go ahead with his appearance in the debate and take this opportunity to explain his policies including how to get USA out of this mess created by current administration and Wall Street. I hope Obama go on attack mode and really gain momentum and seal the victory in next couple of weeks
FRE, FNM continue to climb and make another 30% gains (third in a row). Would this continue - don't know. Now only these stocks are trading at about 20% of what they were trading before Government took over 80% of stake. So technically they have reached their pre-Gov-takeover levels. However if we assume that their intrinsic value is about $20-25, then they can still go up by about 100% in next 12 months.
If bailout package does not get approved by Sunday, we will have another Black Monday with Dow plunging below 10000. If bailout package gets approved over weekend, we will see Dow above 11500. Since we don't know how congress would act, I would recommend keeping some cash at hand and given opportunity, taking positions at following banks at prices listed:
Citibank (less than 15)
Wachovia (less than 11)
Goldman (less than 100)
Morgan Stanley (less than 20)
Bank of America (less than 25)
And if you want to go little more aggressive, go for AIG when it falls below $2.50
Good luck and good night !
/Shyam
There is other great material there. I've bookmarked it ... http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=29
Sheikh advises ethanol bio fuel use prohibited by Islam (http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/02/19/66803.html)
<!-- title Saudi scholar warns alcohol in bio fuel is a sin-->
Saudi scholar warns alcohol in bio fuel is a sin
DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
<MAINBODY xmlns="">
A prominent Saudi scholar warned youths studying abroad of using ethanol or other fuel that contains alcohol in their cars since they could be committing a sin, local press reported Thursday.
Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, member of the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, based his statement on a saying by the prophet that prohibited all kinds of dealings with alcohol including buying, selling, carrying, serving, drinking, and manufacturing, the Saudi newspaper Shams reported Thursday.
Saudi and Muslim youth studying abroad would violate the prohibition if they used bio fuel, he said, since it “is basically made up of alcohol.”
Majimi stressed that his statement should not be considered an official fatwa, but is rather a personal opinion. He noted that this is an important issue that needs to be studied by the relevant religious bodies...
Palm trees yield new biofuel (http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/07/11/36456.html)
<!-- title Omani cars start running on date fuel-->
Omani cars start running on date fuel
DUBAI (AFP)
An Omani entrepreneur is promoting a biofuel for cars using extracts from date palms to cut the use of petrol in the oil-rich Gulf region, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
More than 30 cars in Oman are already powered by the palm-based biofuel developed by Mohammed al-Harethi, who is planning to market the new fuel in the United Arab Emirates later, UAE daily Emirates Today said.
The vehicles are running 85 percent on the new fuel and 15 percent on petrol without the need to convert the engine, Harithi was quoted as saying...
</MAINBODY>
Sheikh advises ethanol bio fuel use prohibited by Islam (http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/02/19/66803.html)
<!-- title Saudi scholar warns alcohol in bio fuel is a sin-->
Saudi scholar warns alcohol in bio fuel is a sin
DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
<mainbody xmlns="">
A prominent Saudi scholar warned youths studying abroad of using ethanol or other fuel that contains alcohol in their cars since they could be committing a sin, local press reported Thursday.
Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, member of the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, based his statement on a saying by the prophet that prohibited all kinds of dealings with alcohol including buying, selling, carrying, serving, drinking, and manufacturing, the Saudi newspaper Shams reported Thursday.
Saudi and Muslim youth studying abroad would violate the prohibition if they used bio fuel, he said, since it “is basically made up of alcohol.”
Majimi stressed that his statement should not be considered an official fatwa, but is rather a personal opinion. He noted that this is an important issue that needs to be studied by the relevant religious bodies...
Palm trees yield new biofuel (http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/07/11/36456.html)
<!-- title Omani cars start running on date fuel-->
Omani cars start running on date fuel
DUBAI (AFP)
An Omani entrepreneur is promoting a biofuel for cars using extracts from date palms to cut the use of petrol in the oil-rich Gulf region, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
More than 30 cars in Oman are already powered by the palm-based biofuel developed by Mohammed al-Harethi, who is planning to market the new fuel in the United Arab Emirates later, UAE daily Emirates Today said.
The vehicles are running 85 percent on the new fuel and 15 percent on petrol without the need to convert the engine, Harithi was quoted as saying...
</mainbody>
doesn't this also mean that it's a sin for a muslim to use anti-freeze in his car, since that's [technically] an alcohol as well? sounds like even more study needed by the relevant religious bodies.
Muslim cleric sparks outrage with alcohol permit (http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/04/12/48219.html)
Says nothing wrong with consuming "tiny amounts"
DOHA (AFP)
<MAINBODY xmlns="">Prominent Qatar-based Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has sparked controversy by issuing a religious law allowing Muslims to consume tiny amounts of alcohol, which is banned in Islam.
"The latest fatwa caused confusion among people... We could have done without it," the editor of the Qatari daily Ash-Sharq, Abdullatif al-Mahmoud, wrote on Thursday.
In his fatwa published on Tuesday in the Qatar's Al-Arab newspaper, the Egyptian-born Qaradawi said that consuming drinks containing small quantities of alcohol that is "constituted naturally through fermentation" did not violate Islamic teachings...
<TABLE border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
...The fatwa came in response to a question about "an energy drink available on the market" in Qatar, a conservative Muslim state, he said.
A former dean of the sharia (Islamic law) school at Qatar University, Abdul Hamid al-Ansari, told AFP he agreed with the content of Qaradawi's fatwa.
But Ansari said he objected to the number of fatwas being issued in Muslim societies, saying they are "hampering their progress."
Iranian sentenced to die for drinking alcohol (http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/02/05/45210.html)
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Capital punishment applies for fourth offence
TEHRAN (Reuters)
<MAINBODY xmlns="">An Iranian court has sentenced a 22-year-old man to death for violating the Islamic Republic's ban on drinking alcohol several times, a news agency said on Tuesday...
<!-- title Iranian sentenced to die for drinking alcohol-->
Omani cars start running on date fuel
I wonder what the actual oil usage of employing such a fuel is? Between the desalinization, fertilizer, planting, harvest, distillation?
Rube Goldberg with fuel!
A racist Jewish nazi mullah, preaching the Gospel with his tinfoil hat on..... http://www.itulip.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7&pictureid=30
"God deals with balance, idiot!" "You have black women marrying African men!"
(Warning! This clip contains offensive language, hate, a retarded mix of racism and bigotry and its idiocy is beyond the wildest imagination).
You just can't make this stuff up!
<object width="425" height="344">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pTuaVLuTOCY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
I just wonder what these guy smoked, after drinking mushroom wine and hearing Mein Kampf (the audio-book edition)
The Global War on Terror , Japanese version:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gr4QBZfjtqs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gr4QBZfjtqs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Thanks for that one, made my day.
There are a few Swedish singers through the years who made it big in Japan but are unkown in the west, the Japanese taste is, well, somewhat special.
But what is link to a site for a Finnish airsoft gun group doing there towards the end of the clip? ( www.rokenrolperkele.com (http://www.rokenrolperkele.com) ) Not that I really need to know the answer to that . . . .
Swedish palm trees exported to Dubai
It seems this florist in south Sweden has established contacts in south Europe where he goes regularly to collect fallen partially dried palm leaves.
He takes them back to Sweden, treats them with a softening agent and chlorophyll, and when they are ready after a period in a dark room he creates artificial palm trees from these left over leaves, which he sells to for example hotells in Dubai, where a real palm tree cannot survive the air conditioning.
He has a palm tree in Putin's office in Moscow, business is expanding, and he has an order for 150 palm trees for a Danish resort for 12M SEK.
Svenska palmer exporteras till öknen (article in Swedish)
http://dn.se/ekonomi/svenska-palmer-exporteras-till-oknen-1.828268
There have been occasional posts from iTulip members expressing frustration, or even indignation, at the way they've been [mis?]-treated by our omnipotent site administrator FRED.
Well here's just the thing to deal with that situation...:D
Dead FRED Pen Holder (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/supplies/a777/)
Stab FRED all you want, he won't mind
[Seriously folks, we don't make this stuff up :p ]
We already know that your desk probably looks like a disaster area, but why not turn it into a crime scene instead? Fred is indeed dead but that doesn't mean he's useless. Not only does repeatedly stabbing your pen into Fred reduce your stress level, but it helps you to keep that pesky pen from getting lost under the edge of your computer keyboard. Need someone to take your aggression out on? Well, Dead FRED is the man!
Alleviate all that pent up aggression by violently and repeatedly stabbing FRED through the heart... and is if by magic there it is, just where you left it, your pen right at your fingertips - and your stress and frustration, gone!
<!-- Bulleted portion of the description, if needed -->
http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/dead_fred.jpg (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/supplies/a777/)
Ha ha ha! That was a good one. Although I need one called Fed, not Fred.
Is that the green doll?
Or the doll with an eyepatch?
http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/images/Potpourri%20Page/bank-peglegpirate.JPG
This one almost deserved a thread of its own...:D
And no, I didn't make this stuff up. Really I didn't...
April 14th, 2009
Goldman steps up to save America (http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-dealzone/2009/04/14/goldman-steps-up-to-save-america/)
Not much rides on Goldman Sachs (http://search.us.reuters.com/rsearch/rcomSearch.do?blob=gs&WTmodLoc=ussrch-top-quote)‘ success at shedding TARP (http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssInvestmentServices/idUSN1441489720090414)– just the future of Wall Street, the recovery of the U.S. and global economies, and saving whatever shreds remain of the American Dream. Though it may take some financial finagling to extricate itself from the government’s grip, Goldman’s storied stable of financial savants is as capable as any of casting off the yoke of socialism.
For Wall Street, Goldman fights for the right to pay people whatever the market will bear, enshrining the guiding principal of the marketplace that it is not how much money one earns, but how much more than the other guy. For the economy, everyone knows we need a healthy banking sector to run our particularly high-octane form of capitalism. As for the American Dream, what this country needs most in this time of financial peril is a hero, someone who can stand up to the regulatory Frankenstein shambling from the wreckage of such spectacularly failed government efforts as AIG and Lehman Brothers.
The only question really for Goldman shareholders is how big a bonus Lloyd Blankfein should get if he manages to achieve these lofty goals.
The Middle East is rich pickings for stories like this. Not to mention that Saudi has to be the only place on earth that considers the "middle class" [apparently defined as someone with $50 grand to spend on an old sewing machine] to be below the poverty line...:D
Sewing machine frenzy in red mercury hoax (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE53D48H20090414)
Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:49am EDT
RIYADH (Reuters) - [I]Saudi police are investigating the origins of a hoax that had hundreds of people believing that old sewing machines may bring fortune because they contained an elusive, and probably mythical, substance known as red mercury.
Saudi newspapers on Tuesday published pictures of Saudis proudly posing next to old sewing machines awaiting prospective buyers at traditional markets.
The English-language Saudi Gazette newspaper said some buyers were willing to pay up to 200,000 riyals ($50,000) for an old Singer sewing machine proven to contain red mercury.
Mobile phones are supposedly employed as instruments to prove the existence of the phony substance. Popular belief in the Middle East has it that it can help uncover hidden gold treasures, though there are other theories which say it can be used to create a nuclear bomb.
"If the line cuts off when the telephone is placed close to the needle ... that proves the existence of the substance," Saudi Gazette said.
Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper said "poverty provided a fertile ground for the red mercury rumor to spread in Saudi society, especially the middle class."
"We have to find out who started this hoax. We cannot be 100 percent sure of getting in the short-term to the person or persons who started this," an interior ministry spokesman told Reuters.
"People hope to make profit. This is no different to cases of citizens who put their money in untrustworthy schemes," he added.
Thousands of Saudi citizens have lost their life savings to financial scams consisting mainly of operations to raise money for real estate projects.
This one almost deserved a thread of its own...:D
And no, I didn't make this stuff up. Really I didn't...
April 14th, 2009
Goldman steps up to save America (http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-dealzone/2009/04/14/goldman-steps-up-to-save-america/)
Not much rides on Goldman Sachs (http://search.us.reuters.com/rsearch/rcomSearch.do?blob=gs&WTmodLoc=ussrch-top-quote)‘ success at shedding TARP (http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssInvestmentServices/idUSN1441489720090414)– just the future of Wall Street, the recovery of the U.S. and global economies, and saving whatever shreds remain of the American Dream. Though it may take some financial finagling to extricate itself from the government’s grip, Goldman’s storied stable of financial savants is as capable as any of casting off the yoke of socialism.
For Wall Street, Goldman fights for the right to pay people whatever the market will bear, enshrining the guiding principal of the marketplace that it is not how much money one earns, but how much more than the other guy. For the economy, everyone knows we need a healthy banking sector to run our particularly high-octane form of capitalism. As for the American Dream, what this country needs most in this time of financial peril is a hero, someone who can stand up to the regulatory Frankenstein shambling from the wreckage of such spectacularly failed government efforts as AIG and Lehman Brothers.
The only question really for Goldman shareholders is how big a bonus Lloyd Blankfein should get if he manages to achieve these lofty goals.
Christopher Kaufman; DealZone (http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-dealzone/) Editor
I wonder if Chris is a shareholder, or just an idiot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_mercury
What goes around, comes around...:eek:
For finance pros, Asia expat life losing perks (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56M6P220090723)
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:22pm EDT
HONG KONG (Reuters) - For most financial market professionals in this city and other hubs across Asia, the days of extravagant expatriate life have ended...
...The standard HK$200,000 per month ($25,641) housing allowance for top bankers is gone or going in most cases.
Paid-for chauffeurs to tote executives and their families around the steep hills of Hong Kong are scarcer, as are free memberships to exclusive country, golf or dinner clubs that may otherwise cost more than HK$2.1 million to join.
Free private school education for the kids, roughly $10,000 per child at international schools, is getting scaled back too.
And in another sign of lean times, corporate ships for pleasure cruises around Hong Kong's myriad beaches and outlying islands are getting auctioned off, with UBS AG among the financial institutions to recently set plans to part with its junk boat reserved for employees and clients...
...Anecdotal evidence gathered in the last six months shows a herd of bankers moving from palatial flats to more modest abodes, or relocating to less exclusive and cheaper districts...
This is really epic:
http://kotaku.com/5348223/bank-deficit-freezes-eve-accounts (http://kotaku.com/5348223/bank-deficit-freezes-eve-accounts)
Bank Deficit Freezes EVE Accounts (http://kotaku.com/5348223/bank-deficit-freezes-eve-accounts)
By <cite>Owen Good (http://kotaku.com/people/owengood/posts/)</cite>, 8:40 PM (http://kotaku.com/5348223/bank-deficit-freezes-eve-accounts) on Fri Aug 28 2009,
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2009/08/500x_evepic-thumb.jpg (http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/08/evepic-thumb.jpg)From the MMO-as-IRL file, EVE Online (http://kotaku.com/tag/eve-online/)'s biggest bank has frozen accounts for anyone who invested any kredits with it, after it was discovered that the bank is 380bn kredits in the hole, without the funds to cover player withdrawals.
EBank, the institution in question, was also hit by a naked fraud scheme earlier this year, in which an embezzler stole 200bn kredits (http://kotaku.com/5307381/bank-heist-causes-bank-run-in-eve-onlne) and resold it all for real world cash. The episode caused an actual run on the virtual bank. Now its new chairman has admitted the bank's rampant mismanagement without following rules, safeguards and controls, has led to a 380 billion ISK shortfall.
The bank's board of directors report that it faces a deficit of about 1.2 trillion ISK, which increases about 12 billion ISK a month. According to the bank chief, "withdrawals will be allowed once the bank achieves a maintainable equity status of 90% (1.8t currently); they will be stopped again should that fall below 80%."
And from Artechnica:
Virtual bank in EVE freezes accounts due to deficit
Surprise! It turns out that massive embezzlement and defaulted loans are just as bad for virtual banks in computer games as they are for banks in the real world.
Early this summer, it came to light (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/07/virtual-theft-in-eve-online-creates-run-on-bank.ars) that a veteran EVE player (known only as "Ricdic") had embezzled —and then sold in the real world— over 200 billion ISK from Ebank, causing a run on the virtual financial institution. However, this was just the beginning of the problems for the player-owned bank. Recently installed Ebank Chairman Ray McCormack admitted that the bank had been mismanaged (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1161131), and rules, safeguards, and controls were not enforced. As a result, it's been revealed that Ebank is 380 billion ISK poorer thanks to a number of defaulted loans. Because of the aforementioned mismanagement, it apparently took the bank's new officers a while to figure out just how far in the red their institution is.
At the moment, customer accounts will remain frozen until the bank manages to stabilize. According to McCormack, "withdrawals will be allowed once the bank achieves a maintainable equity status of 90% (1.8t currently); they will be stopped again should that fall below 80%."
The main problem with Ebank's account freezing is that it could do some serious harm to the game's economy, mainly because players won't be able to withdraw their funds in order to pay for in-game goods and services. Exactly how long a recovery will take is currently anyone's guess, though, as it turns out that the board of directors revealed that the bank is currently facing a deficit of roughly 1.2 trillion ISK, with the amount increasing by approximately 12 billion ISK a month.
This is beyond funny !!!!
I hope everybody realizes what will happen if we make contact with an extraterrestrial civilization and Goldman Sachs is still around ....
Canadian trucker fined for smoking on the job (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59855D20091009)
Fri Oct 9, 2009 4:46pm EDT
TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian truck driver has been fined for smoking in his vehicle because it is considered his workplace, a police spokeswoman said on Friday.
A police officer saw the 48-year-old trucker driving on a highway in southwestern Ontario with a cigarette in his mouth on Wednesday, and gave him a C$305 ($290) ticket.
The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2006, prohibits smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public area, and that extends to work vehicles, said Constable Shawna Coulter of the Ontario Provincial Police in Essex County.
"We enforce the legislation and this truck driver was in violation of that," she said.
Marge Simpson makes cover of Playboy (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5984FN20091009)
Fri Oct 9, 2009 6:53pm EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "D'oh!" doesn't even start to cover it.
Marge Simpson -- the blue beehived matriarch of America's most loved dysfunctional family - is Playboy magazine's November cover, the magazine said on Friday...
..."It had never been done, and we thought it would be kind of hip, cool and unusual," Flanders told the newspaper. He said the magazine hoped to attract readers in their 20s compared to the average Playboy reader's age of 35...
metalman
10-09-09, 10:06 PM
Canadian trucker fined for smoking on the job (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59855D20091009)
Fri Oct 9, 2009 4:46pm EDT
TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian truck driver has been fined for smoking in his vehicle because it is considered his workplace, a police spokeswoman said on Friday.
A police officer saw the 48-year-old trucker driving on a highway in southwestern Ontario with a cigarette in his mouth on Wednesday, and gave him a C$305 ($290) ticket.
The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2006, prohibits smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public area, and that extends to work vehicles, said Constable Shawna Coulter of the Ontario Provincial Police in Essex County.
"We enforce the legislation and this truck driver was in violation of that," she said.
at least your cops are law abiding...
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at least your cops are law abiding...
...as long as they aren't sneaking a smoke in the cruiser they are...
Hard to believe this site needs yet another thread, but I came across the following, figured it would take the edge off the sometimes serious tone we get into around here, couldn't figure out where to put it, so I started this thread thinking others could just add anything similar - amusing, incredulous, revealing, impossible to be true, whatever...
What follows is dead serious. You can't make this stuff up...
Saudi divorces wife for watching male TV host:
Date: 9/29/2007 4:25:00 PM
A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral, the Al Shams newspaper reported on Saturday...
Okay, time for a return visit to the country that prompted this thread in the first place.
The two faces [?] of Saudi Arabia, where apparently women give men "hearts burn" :):
In Saudi Arabia, a Campus Built as a 'Beacon of Tolerance' (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100804325.html)
High-Tech University Draws the Ire of Hard-Line Clerics for Freedoms It Provides to Women
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 9, 2009
THUWAL, Saudi Arabia -- On this gleaming high-tech campus edged by the Red Sea, May Qurashi crossed a barrier the other day. She played a game on PlayStation with some male fellow students. Her best friend, Sarah al-Aqeel, is also reaching for the forbidden. She's getting her driver's license.
Under Saudi Arabia's strict constraints, Saudi women like Qurashi and Aqeel may neither mingle with men nor drive. But at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, which opened last month on this sprawling site 50 miles north of Jiddah, men and women take classes together. Women are not required to wear traditional black head-to-toe abayas or veil their faces -- and they can get behind a steering wheel...
...Saudi officials describe the multibillion-dollar postgraduate institution as the spear in the kingdom's efforts to transform itself into a global scientific center rivaling those in the United States, Europe and Asia.
But the kingdom's powerful religious establishment is increasingly voicing criticism of the university. On Web sites, clerics have blasted the school's coeducational policy as a violation of sharia, or Islamic law. Last week, a member of the influential Supreme Committee of Islamic Scholars, a government-sanctioned body, called for a probe into the curriculum and its compatibility with sharia law, local newspapers reported.
"Mixing is a great sin and a great evil," Saad bin Nasser al-Shithri was quoted as saying in the al-Watan newspaper. "When men mix with women, their hearts burn, and they will be diverted from their main goal," which he said is "education."...
And to think, Bill Clinton only faced impeachment for behaving similarly...:rolleyes:
...Lawyers say Abdul-Jawad could have been given the death penalty...
Man faces prison, flogging over TV sex revelations (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5964OQ20091007)
Wed Oct 7, 2009 1:10pm EDT
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - A Saudi court has sentenced a man to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes for boasting about his sexual exploits on television, in a case that has divided public opinion in the conservative Islamic kingdom...
...Three of Abdul-Jawad's friends who appeared on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) were sentenced to two years in jail and 300 lashes each.
LBC is a popular channel in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most conservative societies, and many Saudis tune into its Western-style entertainment programs and talk shows.
Abdul-Jawad, 32, spoke from his bedroom on an episode of "In Bold Red." He was shown driving his red convertible to a shopping mall where he said he used his mobile phone to pick up girls.
A court official said that, on top of the lashings and jail sentence, Abdul-Jawad's phone and car would be confiscated and he would be banned from traveling after completing his term...
..."Now he has been fired from his job and after his jail term it won't be possible for him to get a job in government or the private sector because he was charged with a case of moral indecency"...
Not sure what to do with that big bonus, from the luscious profits made on the all that free money from the taxpayers?
No problem. Stash it all in the bank and take advantage of more free money to make it look like you are spending it and supporting the moribund global economy...:D
Zero Percent Financing Available on 2009 and 2010 Lamborghini Murciélagos (http://rumors.automobilemag.com/6579305/news/zero-percent-financing-available-on-2009-and-2010-lamborghini-murci-lagos/index.html)
‘Tis the season to buy a Murciélago with zero-percent financing. Lamborghini of America introduced a new Lamborghini Retail Finance Plan that allows customers to buy a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640-4 at zero percent for 60 months.
With the new financing deal, Lamborghini hopes to allow more automotive enthusiasts to get behind the wheel of one of the rarest and fastest cars on the plant. Purchasing a car that has a base price of more than $350,000 normally requires some serious wealth. Now, all it requires is a solid credit score...
For those that have mastered how the walk like an Egyptian, the next challenge is to learn to party like a Libyan...:p
Italian women disappointed by Gaddafi "party" (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5AF2KS20091116)
Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:40am EST
ROME (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Rome for a U.N. food summit, spent several hours in the company of 200 Italian women recruited by an agency and tried to convert them to Islam, Italian media reported Monday.
"Seeking 500 attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old, at least 1.70 meters (5 foot, 7 inches) tall, well-dressed but not in mini-skirts or low cut dresses," read the ad by the Hostessweb agency and quoted in Italy's Corriere dell Sera newspaper in its story.
Some 200 women showed up at a Rome villa, having been told they would receive 60 euros ($90) and "some Libyan gifts." Among them was an undercover reporter for Italian news agency ANSA, who took photos and described the evening's proceedings.
Most had expected to attend a party, according to ANSA, but instead were invited to wait in a large hall until the arrival of Gaddafi, who gave them a lesson on Libya and the role of women in Islam.
After around two hours the lesson, including questions and answers through an interpreter, concluded with an exhortation by Gaddafi to "convert to Islam" and with each woman given a copy of the Koran and a book of sayings by Gaddafi.
"It was anything but the VIP party we were expecting, they didn't even give us a glass of water," one woman told ANSA...
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