This whole Rapture thing is bananas. The thing that sucks about the Rapture (well, that would suck about it, if it were actually going to happen) is that I know some pretty awesome people, and I don’t want them to get Raptured. (That I feel that way, much less am expressing it out loud makes Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Balloon Juice Discovery Date : 20/05/2011 14:39 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …
Wheeled robots are nothing new. Flying bots are old-hat, too. But this is new: a dumbbell-shaped hybrid bot that can roll on thin, end-mounted wheels … and also fly with two sets of counter-rotating chopper blades, as depicted in the video above. Switching between the two modes involves a Rube Goldberg-esque series of maneuvers and contraptions. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Wired: Danger Room Discovery Date : 19/05/2011 21:41 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …
Wheeled robots are nothing new. Flying bots are old-hat, too. But this is new: a dumbbell-shaped hybrid bot that can roll on thin, end-mounted wheels … and also fly with two sets of counter-rotating chopper blades, as depicted in the video above. Switching between the two modes involves a Rube Goldberg-esque series of maneuvers and contraptions. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Wired: Danger Room Discovery Date : 19/05/2011 21:41 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …
At least five boys killed as rescuers dig by hand to reach 24 children and adults trapped under mud At least five children have been killed in Malaysia after a landslide buried their orphanage. Rescuers have been digging by hand to reach the 20 boys and four adults trapped when the landslide struck the orphanage in a rural village in central Selangor state. The bodies of five boys, aged eight to 17, have been recovered. Six boys and a 30-year-old warden who were critically injured have been pulled from the mud and taken to hospital, police said. The district police chief, Abdul Rashid Wahab, said around 200 firefighters, police and other emergency workers are involved in the search for another nine children and three staff at the orphanage for ethnic Malay Muslim boys. “They just had lunch at the tent by the side of the house when two landslides apparently occurred at the same time. The tent collapsed, burying 24 people as they did not have time to escape,” he said. “Rescuers have to dig using their hands and other equipment because the surrounding soil is very soft due to the rain.” He said the search would continue. The three-storey house at the foot of a hill was not damaged in the landslide but was partly covered in sludge. Several households near the orphanage have been told to evacuate amid concerns about further landslides. Mohamad Hambali Ismail, a warden at the orphanage, told local media that the children were preparing to receive visitors when the landslide hit. “I heard a loud noise. Suddenly the earth was chasing me. I had to run to save myself,” Hambali, 34, told the Malay-language Berita Harian newspaper. Malaysia Natural disasters and extreme weather guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
At least five boys killed as rescuers dig by hand to reach 24 children and adults trapped under mud At least five children have been killed in Malaysia after a landslide buried their orphanage. Rescuers have been digging by hand to reach the 20 boys and four adults trapped when the landslide struck the orphanage in a rural village in central Selangor state. The bodies of five boys, aged eight to 17, have been recovered. Six boys and a 30-year-old warden who were critically injured have been pulled from the mud and taken to hospital, police said. The district police chief, Abdul Rashid Wahab, said around 200 firefighters, police and other emergency workers are involved in the search for another nine children and three staff at the orphanage for ethnic Malay Muslim boys. “They just had lunch at the tent by the side of the house when two landslides apparently occurred at the same time. The tent collapsed, burying 24 people as they did not have time to escape,” he said. “Rescuers have to dig using their hands and other equipment because the surrounding soil is very soft due to the rain.” He said the search would continue. The three-storey house at the foot of a hill was not damaged in the landslide but was partly covered in sludge. Several households near the orphanage have been told to evacuate amid concerns about further landslides. Mohamad Hambali Ismail, a warden at the orphanage, told local media that the children were preparing to receive visitors when the landslide hit. “I heard a loud noise. Suddenly the earth was chasing me. I had to run to save myself,” Hambali, 34, told the Malay-language Berita Harian newspaper. Malaysia Natural disasters and extreme weather guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Labour leader sets out mission to regain trust of voters by admitting to past mistakes and pledging to tackle inequality Ed Miliband has said the Labour party must offer a new national mission to win back voters who deserted them for the Conservatives. In a speech to the Progress thinktank in London, Miliband pledged to tackle the “new inequality” between the rich and the rest of society, but also admitted the gap had grown under the last Labour government. The party would only succeed in regaining power if it could counter the “shrivelled, pessimistic, austere” vision of David Cameron and the Conservatives, he said. In a direct pitch to middle-class voters in the south of England, Miliband said their living standards were being squeezed in the same way as those in poorer parts of the country. Labour needed the humility to acknowledge that the inequality between “those at the top and everyone else” had grown under the last Labour government, although the coalition was exacerbating the problem. “Inequality is no longer an issue just between rich and poor. But between those at the top and those both in the middle and on lower incomes,” he said. “Since 2003, those at the top have seen their living standards continue to rise at extraordinary rates, while those of the rest have stagnated. “This is about the middle-income people in the south of England and elsewhere who don’t consider themselves rich even though they may be higher-rate taxpayers.” Miliband said the recent local elections showed that the party was winning back disaffected Liberal Democrat voters who felt betrayed by their leadership, but it had yet to make inroads into the Conservative vote. To win back those former Labour voters, the party needed to own up to its past mistakes, including being too relaxed about the impact of cheap migrant labour on wages, he said. “Eastern European immigration did place downward pressure on wages. People can argue about the extent. We were too relaxed about that.” Miliband offered little policy detail in his speech, focusing instead on his broad vision of how Labour would approach the next general election. He attacked what he said was the Conservatives’ “almost Maoist contempt” for any institution that did not conform to their ideological beliefs. “That’s why they tried to sell off our ancient forests. It’s why [universities minister] David Willetts saw nothing wrong with the suggestion that the wealthy should be able to buy their way into university,” he said. However he warned that the party could not afford to simply “hunker down and benefit from an unpopular government”. “I hear it quite a lot – let’s be a louder, prouder opposition,” he said. “But to think that is enough is to fail to understand the depth of the loss of trust in us and the scale of change required to win it back.” He said he was committed to tackling Britain’s budget deficit, but that the current government’s austerity measures were loading more of the financial burden on to those who were already struggling. Improving jobs and wages would mean “asking less of the state”, although he did not eloborate on whether this meant something akin to Cameron’s “big society”. “The truth is that we cannot create a society that is equal to the aspirations of the British people in a world of wide and growing inequalities – a world in which there are bailouts for bankers and austerity for the rest. “Asking more of our economy, good jobs and wages, means asking less of the state. At times, we hung on to a picture of Britain in which people were either poor, and desperately in need of our help, or affluent, aspirational, and doing OK. “We failed to understand that for millions of people in the middle, life was becoming more and more difficult. “In the future the Labour offer to aspirational voters must be that we will address the new inequality by hard-wiring fairness into the economy.” The Conservative party deputy chairman, Michael Fallon, dismissed the speech, saying the Labour leader had failed to set out a credible alternative. “He says the public want more from his party and he’s right, they want to know his plan to deal with the appalling deficit that the last Labour government left the country,” he said. Ed Miliband Labour Equality Recession Economics guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Labour leader sets out mission to regain trust of voters by admitting to past mistakes and pledging to tackle inequality Ed Miliband has said the Labour party must offer a new national mission to win back voters who deserted them for the Conservatives. In a speech to the Progress thinktank in London, Miliband pledged to tackle the “new inequality” between the rich and the rest of society, but also admitted the gap had grown under the last Labour government. The party would only succeed in regaining power if it could counter the “shrivelled, pessimistic, austere” vision of David Cameron and the Conservatives, he said. In a direct pitch to middle-class voters in the south of England, Miliband said their living standards were being squeezed in the same way as those in poorer parts of the country. Labour needed the humility to acknowledge that the inequality between “those at the top and everyone else” had grown under the last Labour government, although the coalition was exacerbating the problem. “Inequality is no longer an issue just between rich and poor. But between those at the top and those both in the middle and on lower incomes,” he said. “Since 2003, those at the top have seen their living standards continue to rise at extraordinary rates, while those of the rest have stagnated. “This is about the middle-income people in the south of England and elsewhere who don’t consider themselves rich even though they may be higher-rate taxpayers.” Miliband said the recent local elections showed that the party was winning back disaffected Liberal Democrat voters who felt betrayed by their leadership, but it had yet to make inroads into the Conservative vote. To win back those former Labour voters, the party needed to own up to its past mistakes, including being too relaxed about the impact of cheap migrant labour on wages, he said. “Eastern European immigration did place downward pressure on wages. People can argue about the extent. We were too relaxed about that.” Miliband offered little policy detail in his speech, focusing instead on his broad vision of how Labour would approach the next general election. He attacked what he said was the Conservatives’ “almost Maoist contempt” for any institution that did not conform to their ideological beliefs. “That’s why they tried to sell off our ancient forests. It’s why [universities minister] David Willetts saw nothing wrong with the suggestion that the wealthy should be able to buy their way into university,” he said. However he warned that the party could not afford to simply “hunker down and benefit from an unpopular government”. “I hear it quite a lot – let’s be a louder, prouder opposition,” he said. “But to think that is enough is to fail to understand the depth of the loss of trust in us and the scale of change required to win it back.” He said he was committed to tackling Britain’s budget deficit, but that the current government’s austerity measures were loading more of the financial burden on to those who were already struggling. Improving jobs and wages would mean “asking less of the state”, although he did not eloborate on whether this meant something akin to Cameron’s “big society”. “The truth is that we cannot create a society that is equal to the aspirations of the British people in a world of wide and growing inequalities – a world in which there are bailouts for bankers and austerity for the rest. “Asking more of our economy, good jobs and wages, means asking less of the state. At times, we hung on to a picture of Britain in which people were either poor, and desperately in need of our help, or affluent, aspirational, and doing OK. “We failed to understand that for millions of people in the middle, life was becoming more and more difficult. “In the future the Labour offer to aspirational voters must be that we will address the new inequality by hard-wiring fairness into the economy.” The Conservative party deputy chairman, Michael Fallon, dismissed the speech, saying the Labour leader had failed to set out a credible alternative. “He says the public want more from his party and he’s right, they want to know his plan to deal with the appalling deficit that the last Labour government left the country,” he said. Ed Miliband Labour Equality Recession Economics guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
enlarge I’ll bet that you didn’t know that one of the real advantages for women getting caught up in today’s scheduled Rapture is that it makes your boobs perky. Very perky. enlarge I have no idea what it will do for guys. But my guess is that Viagra won’t be needed. In the meantime, the rest of us damned-for-all-eternity schlubs are looking forward to the Tribulation, because it means we won’t have to put up with smug Bible-thumping zombies any more. Woo hoo! The thing is, Pastor Camping’s prophecy is really rather grim : Click here to view this media “The whole universe is going to be destroyed by fire,” said California preacher Harold Camping… and the whole world listened. It’s his second apocalyptic prophecy promising the end on May 21st. He got the doomsday date wrong in 1994. This time it seems more people are talking about it largely in part because he’s spreading it online. His website sent out customized warnings in nearly every language. This all reminds me of our old friends at the Church Universal and Triumphant, Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s cult who made for some interesting journalistic work back in the 1980s and ’90s in Montana : Primarily due to its doomsday predictions and attempts to establish a self-sufficient community on its 32,000 acre ranch in Montana, the Church Universal and Triumphant has come into considerable conflict with local residents and federal officials alike. The church was propelled into the national spotlight when Prophet predicted a massive Soviet missile strike on the United States for April 23, 1990. She now states that this date did not mean nuclear holocaust, but rather marked the beginning of a 12 year cycle of negative karma for the organization. Nevertheless, members from around the world streamed to the group’s ranch, paying up to $12,000 each for space in one of the underground bomb shelters built by staff members. The state of Montana has since banned the church from ever using the shelters again. My recollection was that when the date came and went, Prophet declared that the cult’s fervent prayers had convinced the Lord to spare the Earth for now — so they saved the world and then went home. I rather expect we’ll hear something like that on Sunday, too.
Continue reading …
enlarge I’ll bet that you didn’t know that one of the real advantages for women getting caught up in today’s scheduled Rapture is that it makes your boobs perky. Very perky. enlarge I have no idea what it will do for guys. But my guess is that Viagra won’t be needed. In the meantime, the rest of us damned-for-all-eternity schlubs are looking forward to the Tribulation, because it means we won’t have to put up with smug Bible-thumping zombies any more. Woo hoo! The thing is, Pastor Camping’s prophecy is really rather grim : Click here to view this media “The whole universe is going to be destroyed by fire,” said California preacher Harold Camping… and the whole world listened. It’s his second apocalyptic prophecy promising the end on May 21st. He got the doomsday date wrong in 1994. This time it seems more people are talking about it largely in part because he’s spreading it online. His website sent out customized warnings in nearly every language. This all reminds me of our old friends at the Church Universal and Triumphant, Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s cult who made for some interesting journalistic work back in the 1980s and ’90s in Montana : Primarily due to its doomsday predictions and attempts to establish a self-sufficient community on its 32,000 acre ranch in Montana, the Church Universal and Triumphant has come into considerable conflict with local residents and federal officials alike. The church was propelled into the national spotlight when Prophet predicted a massive Soviet missile strike on the United States for April 23, 1990. She now states that this date did not mean nuclear holocaust, but rather marked the beginning of a 12 year cycle of negative karma for the organization. Nevertheless, members from around the world streamed to the group’s ranch, paying up to $12,000 each for space in one of the underground bomb shelters built by staff members. The state of Montana has since banned the church from ever using the shelters again. My recollection was that when the date came and went, Prophet declared that the cult’s fervent prayers had convinced the Lord to spare the Earth for now — so they saved the world and then went home. I rather expect we’ll hear something like that on Sunday, too.
Continue reading …
(AP) DENVER — It would be a “moral disaster” if the United States were to default on its debts and become unable to pay its obligations, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said at an appearance in Colorado Thursday evening. The U.S. is the financial linchpin of the world, and the economic effects of the U.S. defaulting could be “potentially catastrophic,” he said at a dinner for the University of Colorado Denver Business School. “It will dwarf Lehman,” Dimon said, referring to the 2008 collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, which contributed to the beginning of a global financial crisis. Dimon’s comments came in response to a question about the federal deficit from moderator Tom Petrie, a vice chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Congress is debating raising the country’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit. White House officials say the government will run out of cash to pay expenses Aug. 2, but lawmakers have said they want spending cuts before they agree to raise the debt ceiling. Dimon got a standing ovation at the dinner, a marked contrast to JPMorgan’s annual meeting in Ohio on Tuesday, when more than 400 demonstrators shouted outside. The protests were organized by a coalition of clergy and unions, which is pushing for action and legislation around banking practices that hurt troubled homeowners. Along with all the major banks in the country, JPMorgan Chase has been criticized for its handling of mortgage foreclosures. After Petrie noted The New York Times recently called him America’s least hated banker, Dimon quipped he never expected to be in a business where he’d be on the receiving end of so much anger. “Our people work hard, they give a damn, they help their communities,” he said. During the crisis, JPMorgan Chase bought Bear Stearns Cos. and what was left of Washington Mutual Inc. after it failed. It also accepted aid from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, even though it didn’t need to, Dimon said. Dimon has said government officials told him that taking the aid would boost the health of the financial system and reduce the stigma of only a few banks accepting aid. At the time, Dimon called TARP money a scarlet letter. Once JPMorgan repaid the aid, Dimon said he was tempted to include a note to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that said, “P.S. During the whole time you were lending us $25 billion, we were loaning you $200 billion” in the form of Treasury instruments the company holds.
Continue reading …