36 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Islamabad: “An alliance of Pakistani Islamist organisations said they would hold rallies to protest Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks that called on the country to scrap an anti-blasphemy law which allows for the death penalty for insulting Islam.
    “‘The Pope’s statement is part of a conspiracy to pit the world’s religions against each other,’ said Sahibzada Fazal Karim, a member of Pakistan’s parliament and the leader of Sunni Ittehad, an alliance of eight Sunni Muslim groups, according to Dawn newspaper.
    “Speaking on Monday during an address to diplomats accredited to the Holy See, Benedict called on governments to do more to protect Christians who have recently been the victims of violence in Egypt, Nigeria and Iraq.
    “He also called for the abolition of the blasphemy law in Pakistan. Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was assassinated last week, supported a Christian woman awaiting execution under the blasphemy law.”
    (…)
    “Karim called the Pope’s comments a ‘violation of the UN’s charter of peace….’

  2. What’s amazing is that they were laying undersea cables just after the half way mark of the 19th century. Quite an amazing technological feet for that era.

  4. That is remarkable, Paul, when you think about it. If I’m not mistaken, it was a joint project between the Nigerians and the Iroquois.
    RT: Apparently, being opportunistic doesn’t always get you the results you’re hoping for:
    “Americans have closely followed news stories about the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six others in Arizona on Saturday, and most don’t feel politics was the cause of it.
    “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 28% of Adults say the shooting in Arizona was the result of political anger in the country. Fifty-eight percent (58%) say instead that it was a random act of violence by an unstable person. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.”
    “Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republicans and 56% of adults not affiliated with either of the major political parties view the shooting as a random act of violence. Even Democrats by a 48% to 37% margin agree, although leading members of their party have attributed the shootings to a climate of anger they say has been generated by opponents of President Obama.”

  5. Apparently Al Gore is coming to give a speech in Kitchener. It could be worth following. Hopefully there will be a huge snow storm that day.
    Maybe he’ll have a debate about global warming. Just kidding. He’d never do that.

  8. Not surprising numbers, EBD. To repeat what I said in a previous post, too many Americans understand the nature of mental impairment – mental illness, dementia, long-term drug and alcohol abuse, Alzheimers, PTSD, brain trauma, etc. – to buy into the Democrats/MSM storyline. The only believers in the Palin-Tucson conspiracy theory are those that are genuinely too young or too sheltered to have come into contact with the mentally impaired – and – those equally delusional (h/t Dr.K) or shameless crap weasels (h/t a recent Ricochet podcast).

  9. The Iggynaught has apparently pronounced that the Arizona murders show the need for greater gun control. How original. Whether extreme leftists should continue their lynching and slamming of Palin to wedge the Rhinos away from giving her financial support was apparently either unasked or not answered.

  11. Taseer was killed by a man who was sworn to protect him, the same happened to Sadat and Indira Ghandi. What kind of people are these? There are people living down the road in Surrey, who would do the same thing. Today’s brutality is unbelievable. A friend lent me a DVD called Inglorious Bastards to watch. I couldn’t; maybe it is my age but this stuff really bothers me. Did anyone see the RCMP officer kick the fellow in the face while he was down on all fours? What is going wrong with society?

  14. re: undersea cables
    The definitive history of cables, past, present, and future, was written by Neal Stephenson (author of such cyber-punk novels as Snow Crash) for Wired magazine. It’s long, but it’s brilliant, and I recommend it for any and everyone.
    Fibre Loop Around the Globe

  15. EDB: Fiber Optic cable is not soldered. Each strand is either fused by melting the glass in a very precision instrument splicer or today it may be a mechanical splice using a type of glue. The splices would possibly be made at easch Repeater.
    What I find astounding is this cable goes over mountain and valley and there is no attempt to carve a trench? Or is there?

  16. I was just kidding about the underwater soldering, Gunney. In the video they show how the entire span of cable – all in one long strand – is carried on the ship. Impressive stuff.

  18. Goreacle shook his bootys.
    AGW Progress Report:
    This is a record-ing, record-ing, record-ing, ,,,,,
    …-
    “Feet of Snow Buries New England, Shatters Records”
    “Residents across New England will spend today clearing out of the feet of snow left behind from Wednesday’s record-breaking snowstorm.
    Between 1 to 3 feet of snow was unleashed on the corridor from Long Island to southern New England to eastern Maine Tuesday night into Wednesday.
    Actually more than a yardstick was needed to measure the 38.2 inches of snow at Savoy, Mass., which sits atop the snowstorm’s totals list that continues with:”
    “Numerous other daily snowfall records were set across New England on Wednesday. A sampling of these are given below the old record in parenthesis.
    –Bridgeport, Conn.: 15.0 inches (3.0 inches from 2004)
    –Boston, Mass.: 14.6 inches (6.7 inches from 1976)
    –Providence, R.I.: 12.2 inches (5.2 inches from 1912)
    –Bangor, Maine: 10.4 inches (5.7 inches from 1954)
    The 24.0 inches of snow in Hartford, Conn., did more than shatter Wednesday’s daily record. That amount is now the city’s all-time daily snow record, originally held by Feb. 12, 2006, and its 21.9 inches.”
    http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/44316/feet-of-snow-buries-new-englan.asp

  20. AGW More Progress Report.
    Left-liberalism: We hope; therefore, we frog.
    …-
    “Haiti earthquake: Rediscovered frog species offer signs of hope”
    The Guardian

  23. Burning toilet paper?
    “Environmentalist Starts Israel’s Worst Ever Fire: Greenpeace Blames Global Warming.
    However, it didn’t have much to say following an investigation by Israel’s fire service which discovered that the fire was started by a global warming activist at a Rainbow Camp. As the Jerusalem Post reported:
    “The cause of this particular fire was, sadly enough, the good intentions of a participant in the Rainbow Festival that was being held at the site. For ecological reasons, she burned toilet paper she had used so as not to leave it in nature, and in normal circumstances, that would have been the thing to do. However, due to the strong winds and the unseasonable hot air, the dry grasses caught on fire immediately, and the fire spread in four different directions simultaneously.””
    http://hauntingthelibrary.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/environmentalist-starts-israels-worst-ever-fire-greenpeace-blames-global-warming/

  26. The Oildrum has an interesting bit on Hugo ‘The Oil Businessman’ Chavez from Wikileaks cables.
    http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7342?nocomments
    He’s rumoured to be selling heavy oil to China for $5/bbl. And China selling oil for world prices.
    Gee, I wonder if China’s interest in Ab Oilsands involves getting access to the best techo on heavy oil extraction?
    For use in China.

  27. For those exacting people who like dancing numbers, here’s the site for you:
    http://www.worldometers.info/
    Lots of numbers for all fields of interest.
    For instance, it says that at the present rate of use, we have 42 yrs of oil left, 167 yrs of natural gas and 416 yrs of coal.
    So I guess the Jetsons will be flying coal burning rockets.

  33. So while doing a bit more reading on dear Jared of Arizona fame I came across an article saying that dear Jared of Arizona fame was a user of salvia which if true could eliminate the insanity defense. I really am not up on the drug culture but according to some, the high induced by salvia is similar to the mania of of a paranoid schizophrenic. Dear Jared’s rantings are similar to the writings of others who imbibe in salvia. Apparently it is not hard to come by as it a member of the Sage plant family and grows wild in Arizona. Of course more information needs to surface in order to verify this story but it is interesting never the less.

  34. Interestingly, Kipling wrote a poem called “The Deep Sea Cables” that starts (irrc) “The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar/ Here in the dark, the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are./ There is no sound, no echo of sound in the deserts of the deep/ On the great, grey level plains of ooze, where the shell-burred cables creep.”

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