What's in the News

Well, it appears that The U.S. and Western Europe have finally found something to agree upon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/africa/20libya.html?hp

Effort to Halt Qaddafi Attacks on Rebels in Benghazi
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, STEVEN ERLANGER and ELISABETH BUMILLER 7 minutes ago
American and European forces began strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq.

Yeah, I've been following this all morning.  The best coverage is coming from CNN; I give them the cake for sheer volume of coverage.  The most telling video for me was an interview of a local guy who reported pro-Gaddafi thugs in vehicles firing indiscriminately into houses as they drove by- until the French started bombing.

Prayers out to the Libyans.  Hope this works.

EDIT:  Boy, nothing's ever simple.  Both China and Russia have expressed "regrets" over the U.N. attack on Libya.  Now this:


African Union demands "immediate" halt to Libya attacks
AFP Sat Mar 19, 9:55 pm ET

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) – The African Union's panel on Libya Sunday called for an "immediate stop" to all attacks after the United States, France and Britain launched military action against Moamer Kadhafi's forces.

After a more than four-hour meeting in the Mauritanian capital, the body also asked Libyan authorities to ensure "humanitarian aid to those in need," as well as the "protection of foreigners, including African expatriates living in Libya."

It underscored the need for "necessary political reforms to eliminate the causes of the present crisis" but at the same time called for "restraint" from the international community to avoid "serious humanitarian consequences."

The panel also announced a meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on March 25, along with representatives from the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Conference, the European Union and the United Nations to "put in place a mechanism for consultation and concerted action" to resolve the Libyan crisis.

The AU committee on Libya is composed of five African heads of state. But the Nouakchott meeting was only attended by the presidents of Mauritania, Mali and Congo. South Africa and Uganda were represented by ministers.

The committee said it had been unable to get international permission to visit Tripoli on Sunday but did not elaborate.

Libyan generosity and Moamer Kadhafi's role in the creation of the African Union could explain the continental cautious stand, experts said.

The AU was born in the 1999 Sirte Declaration, named after a summit hosted by Kadhafi in his hometown on the Libyan coast.

The declaration said its authors felt inspired by Kadhafi's "vision for a strong and united Africa."

"The AU as an organisation has benefited significantly from Kadhafi's wealth," said Fred Golooba Mutebi of the Institute of Social Research at Kampala's Makerere University.

The pan-African body has taken a firmer stance on three west African crises: most recently Ivory Coast and previously Guinea and Niger.

Handouts aside, Libya has invested billions of dollars in sub-Saharan Africa.

It has interests in more than two dozen African countries, while its petroleum refining and distribution unit Oil Libya has interests in at least as many.

Libyan telecommunications unit LAP Green is present in five countries in the region and expanding rapidly.

Just another thing to look forward to. I really hope the internet doesn't get completely taken over by large corporations & infiltrated by propagandists…

U.S. Develops Social Media Propaganda Software

The Pentagon is developing software to secretly influence social media by developing fake online personas that can sway internet chatting on comment boards to reflect U.S. government propaganda. The Guardian of London reports a California-based firm has won a contract to create an "online persona management service" that would let military personnel control up to 10 separate fake identities at once. The identities would be used to respond to relevant online content with blog posts, tweets, chat comments and other forms of interaction. A military spokesperson said foreign audiences would be targeted, as it would be illegal to use the technology on U.S. citizens.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/18/headlines#9 < new source = D-Now (Great internet news with no commercials, no hidden agenda…)

So the pentagon had to award a special (and probably expen$ive) contract to do what trolls and people juggling multiple accounts for various reasons have done by all themselves since back in the days when newsgroups were the core of the internet.
 

Usually one asks how much the top end contractors make, but this time I think its worth asking if the front line shills will make more than 50 cents a post.

Now I know what I want for Christmas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110328/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_aircraftcarrier_sale

Can you get it online?

I think you can buy it online.  Delivery would need to be made by ocean freight.

forget it then. It'll take to long to get here. I wanted it to be on time for your wedding. Guess I'll have to go with the his'n'hers cattleprods again.

Cattle prods would be great for a wedding gift.  Go ahead and get me the aircraft carrier for Christmas.

Nah, too used. Anyway, the import tax will kill you

Nah, too used. Anyway, the import tax will kill you

Just make sure it's fully crewed and equipped.  That should be enough to end any discussions regarding import taxes.

This just in...

Forbidden City art theft embarrasses Beijing officials
(AP) By Liz Goodwin – Wed May 11, 11:40 am ET

Beijing art officials are confessing their embarrassment after a thief knocked a hole in the wall of one of the city's most historic sites and made off with millions of dollars worth of valuables that were on loan to the Palace Museum.

The May 8 theft at the famed Forbidden City was caught on security cameras, according to China Daily. Palace Museum officials held a press conference Wednesday to release photos of the stolen valuables and to apologize to the Hong Kong museum which had lent the pieces to the Forbidden City museum.

Refreshingly, no one took a "mistakes were made" approach to the theft; Palace Museum officials practically rushed to take the blame.

Museum director Ma Jige stood up and bowed in apology to Wang Xiahong, curator of the Liang Yi Museum in Hong Kong, saying he felt "very guilty and sorry." Meanwhile, Wang said her museum would continue to donate pieces to the Beijing exhibition, despite the burglary.

"Certainly we can only blame the fact that our work was not thorough enough if something like this can happen," another Beijing museum spokesman Feng Nai'en said at the press conference.

The BBC reports that this was the first theft in the city's former imperial palace in more than 20 years.

Wang said the seven stolen items were gold and silver pillboxes, some of which were encrusted with jewels. The Forbidden City contains items of much higher value--including rare scroll paintings--but they are most likely more tightly guarded, according to the AP.

Beijing curator Karen Smith told the AP that the theft was "a big loss of face" for the museum and its officials, and that security will undoubtedly be tightened around the landmark.

In the pantheon of art thiefs, the Museum Palace burglar looks like small potatoes. Just last year, a lone robber cut open a window at the Paris Museum of Modern Art, evaded at least three on-duty security guards, slipped five canvases out of their frames and made off with a $100 million roll of paintings by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger. The museum's alarm system had been malfunctioning for weeks--despite a pricey security remodeling--but it's unclear if the thief knew about the security lapse before he or she decided to steal the masterpieces.

In 2000, gunmen armed with submachine guns raided Stockholm's National Museum and stole Rembrandt and Renoir paintings worth about $30 million, before escaping in a small boat in a matter of minutes. Swedish police recovered the three paintings over the next five years, and sent eight people to prison for the robbery.