Don't know if anyone has been following developments of the Costa Concordia story. In a world where everyone gets a trophy just for showing up and sensitivity for "feelings" trumps buckling down and getting the job done, no matter how unpleasant; Italian Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco (great name!) rightfully busted a cap on Francesco Schettino, the putative captin of the Concordia.
Audio
Translated full transcript Here
Choice Excerpts:
De Falco: "I understand that, listen, t
Power out 29 October @ 1700 hrs. Lasted 5 days w/out heat & electric thanks to some mighty fine fire-building by one of our household members & the propane grill on the deck & gas water heater for showers. Succumbed to the need for heat & news and intarwebz and now household is at hotel for next night or two. "They" say 99% or our town will have power by Saturday. WMECO sort of sux. Anyone else out there get thwacked? I sorta felt like I was back in my camping days....
I posted a couple of months back about the vessel "Vasilios N", whose crew brought her safely from Misurata to international waters using only celestial navigation. The ship had been detained at Misurata for debts unpaid by the vessel owners Pantravel & Shipping located in Brindisi, Italy
Since that time the ship and crew have been held at anchor at Valletta, Malta.
P&S has not been forthcoming with the $$$ needed to repatriate the crew of six Georgians, three Ukrainians, and one
Packing up my apartment of the last 12 years. I gave Southeast VA a pile of good years. But the industry that was thriving and fun when I arrived here has shrunk by probably half. So I am taking my mad export skillz and going home. Leaving behind a ton of memories.
Hurricane Danny '97 - the former spouse and I out in the wind and rain trenching our backyard so the water wouldn't flood all his unnecessary crap stored in the garage and my thriving tomato-full garden plots. A minor incon
Submitted largely without comment.
914 for every 1000
It's not about wealth or development
those links are from The Economist.
here are more direct viewpoints on the issue.
Census numbers and stats from 2001 and 2011 perhaps provide some answers. Not "culturally sensitive" answers - but with 600,000 girls gone missing every year, perhaps it's time to trash the cultural sensitivity. The west has dropped tons of humanitarian ordnance for lesser "-cides"
So much for a reasonable, rational, and just conclusion to this latest conflict.
Way to win the war but completely lose the peace.
Enough harping goes on in OWF about alliances who choose to maintain their sovereign neutrality, but really? Are these latest published "terms" any way to convince them to engage on one or another side of the treaty web, such as it is?
Punishing an alliance for employing a wholly legitimate wartime engagement and asset conservation strategy? Are all rules
Y'all know the old axiom that starts "give a man a fish"..... The same could be said for shoes, clothing, disposable diapers, baby formula and a whole pile of other crap humanitarian development professionals refer to as SWEDOW (Stuff We Don't Want). So today is supposed to be "One Day Without Shoes" sponsored by the oh so progressive Tom's shoe brand, with a pile of dirty soled melanin challenged celebs leading the barefoot charge for all the poor chirrens of the world who ain't got shoes. B
a 9.0 earthquake. 1000 time stronger than Haiti. 500 times stronger than Izmit, the quake I am most familiar with, having worked stateside disaster relief logistics on it. Earthquake measurement is on a magnitus calculation so a 9.0 is 103 in comparison with a 7.0 (Hait) abd 102.7 compared with Izmit 7.7 in 1999.
COE-DMHA has the rundown of where Japan is at in the recover process. Already building temp housing (hard sided with floors, walls, roofs etc). This time in the Izmit quake we
Captive Georgian Ship Flees Libya, Guided By Stars
A Georgian-flagged ship whose 10-member crew had been stranded in Libya for nearly 11 months over a business dispute has arrived in Malta after seizing on confusion around the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi to make a break for it, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reports.
Their escape was guided by the stars because of damage to their navigation equipment. Full Story Here
The shipowners, not the captain or crew, were responsible for the v
"What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past"
Victor Hugo
Looks like the Thomas the Reps Engine is building a train of salon cars
"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that History has to teach"Aldous Huxley
"We intentionally set the bar too high for the (REDACTED) to comply. They need some bombing, and that's what they are going to get."
"The (REDACTED), which called on (REDACTED), was a provocation, an excuse to start bombing. (REDACTED) is not a document that any (REDACTED) could have accepted. It was a terrible diplomatic document that should never have been presented in that form."
PARTY A: "I never said that. That's the end of that. You got the wrong person and the wrong quote. That's
Somewhere along the line I realized that most mariners tales were true. The Russian owned and crewed freighter Alexandra went down with a confirmed 4 and possibly up to 11 souls. Vechnaya Pamyat.
Alexandra was launched in 1984, the year of Chernenko and the LA Olympics Boycott. 27 years is not so old for a ship that is cared for. But Alexandra probably had only a few good years. By 2000 she was flying the Honduran flag of convenience. In 2002 she was reflagged under the Cambodian regi
You're looking for comestibles in a nuclear landscape or under the budget trying circumstances of peace mode? Mother Ophelia Payne recommends the following. Bacon Pie!
Pre-made Pie Crust for a double crust pie (or make yer own and remember that using lard makes the flakiest best crusts)
1 large baking potato
1 large onion
2 or 3 apples (Rome or other good baking variety)
12-16 oz Bacon Ends and Pieces (these are dirt cheap)
8 Oz Hard Cider (last night's flat leftover Woodchuck works
When not running Juana's Tech Warehouse and Curio Emporium I have (when employed) the soon to be anachronistic occupation of arranging the movement of raw and manufactured materials from the US to ports and points worldwide. Shout outs to NEW and FOK: JCP and RTM are among my favorite ports to do business with.
But to my point and question..... what are we exporting these days with only 9% of the US workforce engaged in making anything?
We are exporting Scrap metal. scrap plastic, and s
Cybernations?
Nation (Webster 1913) The body of inhabitants of a country, united under an independent government of their own.
Military-Industrial Complex (Oxford Dictionary of Politics): Term coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to describe the powerful alliance of the military, government agencies, and corporations involved in the defence industry. Each sector has an interest, either financial or strategic, in expanding the government's arms budget.
Alliance (Webster 1828): Th
