News Clips
1) Dating 101: Everything You Know About Affairs Is Wrong… Sex/Interest
2) New York City Police Examine Several Leads in Failed Times Square Car Bombing… Islamic/Terrorism
3) Iraq begins recount of Baghdad ballots demanded by PM after his narrow loss to challenger… Iraq/Democracy
4) 17 illegals captured in search for deputy shooters… Illegal Immigration/Murders
5) Why are members of the secular media soft on Muslims but merciless on Christians?… Liberals/Anti Christianity
6) Iraq’s Economy Wakes Up… Iraq/Economics
7) Lazarus species: 13 ‘extinct’ animals found alive… Nature/Interest
In Discussing Finance, Rhodes Scholar Rachel Demonstrates Crack Journalism Skills… Media Bias/Liberals
9) Rescuers Pray for No More Victims in Tenn. Floods… Massive Flood/Tennesse
1) Dating 101: Everything You Know About Affairs Is Wrong… Sex/Interest
http://dating.personals.yahoo.com/singl
May 22, 2009
“Once a cheater, always a cheater.” “People cheat when they’re unhappy at home.” “If your mate cheats, you’ll know.” We’ve all heard these bits of conventional wisdom; they’re comforting, in a strange way. But they’re all wrong, say the experts who study infidelity. What’s worse, believing these myths can do a lot of harm, because it gets in the way of your preventing, spotting, and recovering from infidelity. (Yes, recovering — contrary to popular belief, an affair doesn’t have to destroy a relationship.) We’ve unraveled the latest research so you can protect your relationship with the facts.
More Dating Articles from Redbook:
* Five Things Super Happy Couples Do Every Day
* Would You Know If Your Man Cheated?
Myth #1: There’s a “cheater” profile.
The reality: With the right trigger circumstances, anyone is susceptible to cheating. “There are as many different profiles as there are people who have affairs,” says Douglas Snyder, Ph.D., a couples therapist and a professor of psychology at Texas A and M University. Yet the myth persists that there’s a recognizable “type” of person who’s unfaithful. That’s why it took Linda Mitchell, 43, a personal trainer in Monroe, OH, by such surprise when she found out her first mate was having an affair. “He never did anything to lead me to think he would cheat,” she says. “He’d bring me flowers, tell me how beautiful I was and what a great partner I was.”
While some people are chronic philanderers, it’s more common to unintentionally wind up in an affair. “People who have accidental affairs have no thoughts of being unfaithful,” says Snyder. “It’s not even consistent with their values system, but the opportunity presents itself.” Maybe a coworker hits on you during a business trip when you’re stressed, or your cute handyman compliments you when you’re getting over a fight with your mate.
“Here’s the best way to prevent affairs: Rather than saying, ‘We will never have one,’ instead think of the kind of person, situation and mood that would make you vulnerable,” says Barry McCarthy, Ph.D., a marital therapist and author of “Getting It Right This Time: How to Create a Loving and Lasting Marriage.” Maybe you’re so nurturing that you’d be vulnerable helping a neighbor whose wife just died, while your fun-loving sister would be susceptible during a trip to Las Vegas. It may feel contrived or scary, but having this tough conversation with your partner can help you both recognize chancy situations and be on guard.
You can also stay in safe territory with friends of the opposite sex by not confiding personal things, like airing complaints about your mate, and not keeping anything about those friendships secret. “You know you’ve crossed a line if you don’t want your mate to know about whatever you’re talking about with this person,” says Tina Pittman Wagers, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist and instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “If it starts feeling like that, then you need to pull back and reestablish closeness with your mate.”
Myth #2: It’s men who cheat.
The reality: While baby-boomer men do cheat more, women in their 20s and 30s have affairs just as frequently as men their age, according to new research. One reason: More women are working. When you have a job, you’ve got more financial freedom, which could make you more comfortable taking a gamble with your relationship. You also have opportunity; around 46 percent of women and 62 percent of men who have affairs cheat with someone from work.
Myth #3: Long-term boredom leads to an affair.
The reality: Michael, 34, a lawyer in Tampa, says his wife started having an affair before the couple’s two-year anniversary. “I never, ever thought that would happen,” says Michael. Yet the so-called honeymoon period is actually a high-risk time for infidelity. “More people have affairs the first two years of marriage than any other time,” says McCarthy. Women may experiment with a comparison affair: Would I be better off with this guy? Did I make a mistake in marrying my spouse? Men, on the other hand, are likely to cheat for reasons that have nothing to do with their relationship. Thanks to their upbringing or their circle of friends, they may believe that’s just what guys do.
An early affair may be just a last fling that a couple can work through, but it’s more likely a wake-up call to a person that his or her partner has a fundamentally different model of monogamy, says Wagers. Still, newlywed affairs don’t have to spell doom. If both partners decide that they want to give their union another shot, it’s important to figure out what factors contributed to the affair and whether there’s any hope for changing them.
Myth #4: A man is driven to infidelity when he’s not happy in his relationship.
The reality: It’s true that the majority of women who’ve had an affair reported being physically and emotionally disengaged from their partners for at least a year before the affair. But more than half of men involved in affairs reported being happy or very happy in their marriages prior to cheating, according to a survey by the late Shirley Glass, Ph.D., noted infidelity researcher and author of NOT “Just Friends.” Lots of other factors weigh into a guy’s decision to start an affair, including chemistry, opportunity and poor impulse control. “I counseled a couple where the husband’s younger coworker made a pass at him when they were at a conference and he accepted,” says Wagers. “Even though he felt close to his wife and he felt like he had a good marriage, he was excited and flattered that this woman who was 15 years younger found him attractive.”
Many cheaters do blame their actions on a less-than-perfect home life, but researchers say they’re just rewriting history. “Often times these are retrospective reports that are now having to justify how it is that the partner violated vows,” says Snyder. Granted, lots of cheaters are unhappy on some level in their marriages. But so are many men and women who don’t have affairs. “Infidelity isn’t the only road,” says Wagers. “If you’re not satisfied in your marriage, you might also be driven to talk to your partner.” That’s why therapists say it’s so important to stay in touch with each other. For you, that might mean setting aside 20 minutes every night to talk about your day, your differences and your dreams. “It’s the whole idea of staying close to your spouse,” says Wagers. “The more disconnected you get from the relationship, the easier it is to slide down the slippery slope of infidelity.”
Myth #5: Adulterers find lasting happiness with their affair partners.
The reality: No matter how blissful they feel, affair pairings rarely get to happily ever after. A whopping 75 percent of affair partners who marry end up divorced. For one thing, the qualities that attract you to an affair partner — like impulsiveness or extravagance — might be the polar opposite of what makes you happy long-term. And during affairs, lovers are under the spell of chemical changes in their bodies that make them feel euphoric — feelings that are exaggerated even more by the secrets they’re keeping. They’re in a type of fantasy world, focusing only on each other and not getting bogged down in day-to-day stuff like bills and child rearing. “Somebody may seem like a soul mate when it’s all fresh and shiny,” says Wagers. “But you can’t assume the new-car smell is going to last 15 years.”
Myth #6: Betrayed partners know on some level when their partners are fooling around.
The reality: In many cases, the betrayed mate is totally in the dark. “A lot of cheating partners are really invested in keeping this secret and are very good at lying,” says Wagers. So true, says Dayle DeCillo, 39, a mother of five in Mission Viejo, CA, who had zero suspicion that her husband of 11 years was unfaithful — until she discovered him with another woman. “I was blindsided,” she says. “He was a paramedic and firefighter, and was gone a lot, either ‘working’ or ‘working out.’ I was never concerned he wasn’t where he said he was.”
DeCillo simply made the same assumptions most people do: You assume you’re trustworthy and your mate is, too. The possibility that he could stray isn’t even on your mind, so you don’t get suspicious if he says he has to work late or go on a golf trip with his buddies. Usually it’s not until the affair is out in the open that the betrayed mate can go back and give new meaning to history.
It’s also common after an affair is exposed for the betrayed mate to feel like he or she is facing a new truth: You never can be sure whether your partner will cheat. In reality, it’s a truth that was there all along.
Five essential tips to prevent infidelity:
1. Be each other’s number one confidant. You shouldn’t be sharing private thoughts with others that you’re not sharing with your mate.
2. Make time to connect on a regular basis. Daily moments of connection help you build a sense of togetherness and shared purpose.
3. Don’t let family time squeeze out just-the-two-of-you time. Relationships that are too child-centered are at high risk for an affair.
4. Recognize when you’re temporarily attracted to someone else. It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with your relationship — or that you have to act on it.
5. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and your relationship. If you’re ever tempted and don’t feel like you can tell your mate, you’ll have someone else to confide in who will steer you straight. And if one of you does stray, you’ll have a strong support network to help you put your relationship back together.
2) New York City Police Examine Several Leads in Failed Times Square Car Bombing… Islamic/Terrorism
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/02/ne
May 02, 2010
May 1: Armed NYPD officers talk to each other as police and fire personnel close off the area in New York’s Times Square.
New York City’s police commissioner said Sunday that authorities are examining several leads in the failed Times Square car bombing that would have caused a “significant fireball,” focusing closely on a surveillance video that captured a man fleeing the scene.
New York City’s police commissioner said Sunday that authorities are examining several leads in the failed Times Square car bombing that would have caused a “significant fireball,” focusing closely on a surveillance video that captured a man fleeing the scene.
Commissioner Ray Kelly said it was “the intent of whoever did this to cause mayhem, create casualties” and noted that some munitions of the potentially powerful bomb detonated inside the SUV parked in Times Square on Saturday.
A monitoring group said Sunday that the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bomb but Kelly said there is “no evidence” linking the group to the bomb, which prompted thousands of tourists to be cleared from the streets for 10 hours while the explosive was dismantled.
The Pakistani Taliban allegedly posted a one minute, 11 second video, saying the attack is revenge for the death of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and the recent slayings of the top leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq — Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri — who were killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops last month north of Baghdad. The tape makes no specific reference to the attack; it does not mention that it was a car bomb or that it took place in New York City.
Kelly said during a press conference Sunday that the NYPD is analyzing a surveillance video showing a unidentified white male in his 40′s fleeing the scene. Kelly said the man is seen in the footage shedding a dark-colored shirt in an alley and putting it in a bag, revealing a red one underneath.
The police commissioner said that the identity of the vehicle’s owner has been confirmed, but he declined to release it. He also said that authorities are traveling to Pennsylvania on Sunday to examine video captured by a tourist that may contain footage of the suspect.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told FoxNews.com that the vehicle was taken to a forensics lab in Queens, N.Y., where it is being examined for fingerprints, hairs and fibers. All bomb components were taken to a separate facility in Bronx, N.Y., Browne said.
Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said on “Fox News Sunday” that federal and local law enforcement are examining fingerprints recovered from the SUV.
Investigators removed three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled five-gallon gasoline containers, two clocks with batteries, a wrist watch, a cell phone, electrical wire and other components from the back of the Nissan Pathfinder, Kelly said. A black metal box resembling a gun locker, which was detonated off site, contained “eight bags of an unknown substance as well as a bird’s nest of wires and firecrackers,” he said. Kelly added that he unidentified substance was “granular in nature” and had the “look and feel of fertilizer.”
“We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said early Sunday morning. “It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact.”
Bloomberg called the explosive device “amateurish” and Kelly said the explosives were consumer-grade fireworks but could have caused huge damage on a block of Broadway theaters and restaurants teeming with tourists.
Firefighters who arrived shortly after the first call heard a popping sound, said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, who described the sound as not quite an explosion.
Kelly said a surveillance video showed the car driving west on 45th Street before it parked between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Police were looking for more video from office buildings that weren’t open at the time.
“The full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism,” Gov. David Paterson said in a statement. Bloomberg did not describe it as an act of terrorism.
A T-shirt vendor alerted police to billowing smoke coming from the back of the vehicle at about 6:30 p.m. ET, the height of dinner hour as theatergoers rush to eat before Saturday night shows begin.
Smoke was coming from the car, its hazard lights were on and “it was just sitting there,” said Rallis Gialaboukis, 37, another vendor who has hawked his wares for 20 years across the street.
A white robotic police arm broke windows of the dark-colored Pathfinder to remove any explosive materials. A Connecticut license plate on the vehicle did not match up, Bloomberg said. Police interviewed the Connecticut car owner, who told police he had sent the plates to a nearby junkyard, Bloomberg said.
Heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city’s busiest streets, choked with taxis and theatergoers on one of the first summer-like days of the year.
Shelly Carlisle, of Portland, Ore., said police crowded into her Broadway theater after the curtain closed on “Next to Normal,” a show on the same block where the SUV was found.
“At the end of the show, the police came in. We were told we had to leave,” Carlisle said. “They said there was a bomb scare.”
The car was parked on 45th Street, and the block was closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues as a precaution, police said. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001.
The block that was closed is one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows, with seven theaters housing such big shows as “Billy Elliot” and “Lend Me a Tenor.”
The curtain at “God of Carnage” and “Red” opened a half-hour later than usual, but the shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown.
Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were shopping for souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds.
“It was a mass of people running away from the scene,” Neubauer said.
Said Saunders: “There were too many people, too many cops. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Bloomberg left early from the White House correspondent’s dinner Saturday night. President Obama, who attended the annual gala, praised the quick response by the New York Police Department, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
He has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support.
Brennan and others will keep Obama up to date on the investigation, Shapiro said.
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York responded along with the NYPD, said agent Richard Kolko.
“We have no idea who did this or why,” the mayor said Sunday, but said that the city is always a top terrorism target. The latest threat came last fall when air shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi admitted to a foiled homemade bomb plot aimed at the city subway system.
“These things invariably … come back to New York,” Bloomberg said.
The theater district in London was the target of a propane bomb attack in 2007. No one was injured when police discovered two Mercedes loaded with nails packed around canisters of propane and gasoline.
Officials said the device found Saturday was crudely constructed, but Islamic militants have used propane and compressed gas for years to enhance the force of explosives. Those instances include the 1983 suicide attack on the U.S. Marines barracks at the Beirut airport that killed 241 U.S. service members, and the 2007 attack on the international airport in Glasgow, Scotland.
In 2007 the U.S. military announced that an Al Qaeda front group was using propane to rig car bombs in Iraq.
Times Square has been a frequent target, if not for potential terrorists, then for rabble-rousers.
In December, a van without license plates parked in Times Square led police to block off part of the area for about two hours. A police robot examined the vehicle, and clothes, racks and scarves were found inside.
In March 2008, a hooded bicyclist hurled an explosive device at a military recruiting center in the heart of Times Square, producing a flash, smoke and full-scale emergency response. No suspect was ever identified.
Police have spent years trying to crack down on street hustlers and peddlers preying on tourists. But there have been two major gunfights in recent months. A street hustler armed with a machine pistol exchanged shots in December, shattering a Broadway theater ticket window, before police fatally shot the man.
Four separate instances of shootings and more than 50 arrests on a mile-long stretch of Manhattan last month around Times Square prompted the mayor to call the mayhem “wilding.”
3) Iraq begins recount of Baghdad ballots demanded by PM after his narrow loss to challenger… Iraq/Democracy
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/0
May 02, 2010
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials have started recounting ballots for Baghdad province as demanded by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who narrowly lost a March 7 parliamentary election.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials have started recounting ballots for Baghdad province as demanded by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who narrowly lost a March 7 parliamentary election.
Election officials have said the manual recount could take between two to three weeks.
Al-Maliki has challenged the vote results, which showed his Shiite coalition with a two-seat deficit to a bloc led by a secular Shiite and heavily backed by Sunni Arabs.
He demanded recounts in five provinces but was only granted one in Baghdad, which accounts for about a fifth of parliament’s 325 seats.
Monday’s recount and other challenges to the results have delayed the seating of the new legislature and raised fears that the political uncertainty could lead to an uptick in violence.
4) 17 illegals captured in search for deputy shooters… Illegal Immigration/Murders
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Def
5/2/2010
PHOENIX – Authorities searching for drug smugglers who shot and wounded an Arizona sheriff’s deputy in the desert south of Phoenix said they captured 17 suspected illegal immigrants Saturday, including three who may have been involved in the incident.
The three matched descriptions given by the Pinal County sheriff’s deputy who was grazed by a bullet fired by a group of about five smugglers were questioned but were not believed to have been the actual shooters, sheriff’s Lt. Tamatha Villar said.
The deputy was released from the hospital several hours after the Friday afternoon incident. He is expected to return to work next week.
The shooting came amid a growing national debate over the state’s new law cracking down on illegal immigration. A backlash over the law has erupted, with civil rights activists, concerned it will lead to racial profiling, calling for protests and boycotts.
Several hundred officers from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, assisted by several helicopters, scoured a 10-square-mile area of rugged desert about 50 miles south of Phoenix on Saturday. The search was called off as darkness fell.
The U.S. Border Patrol searched areas outside the perimeter and made additional arrests of suspected illegal immigrants. “Their numbers are much, much higher,” Villar said.
A Border Patrol spokesman said he couldn’t immediately ascertain how many detentions his agency made.
Criticism of the law figured prominently at dozens of immigrants rights marches and rallies held on Saturday across the nation, including Arizona events in Phoenix and Tucson that drew thousands.
The new law’s passage came amid increasing anger in Arizona about violence, drug smugglers and illegal immigration drop houses. The issue gained renewed attention a month ago when a southern Arizona rancher was shot and killed by a suspected illegal border crosser.
Arizona politicians called the shooting an outrage and urged the federal government to do more to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
The violence “should show the rest of the country what we Arizonans have known for too long – the unsecured border poses a very real and very immediate danger,” said U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democrat whose district includes part of Pinal County.
Deputy Louie Puroll, 53, was patrolling near Interstate 8 when he came upon a stash of marijuana bales and five suspected smugglers. At least one of the suspects opened fire on him.
A running gunbattle ensued, with at least 30 shots exchanged, probably many more, Villar said. The deputy used his pistol until it either jammed or ran out of bullets, then discarded the gun and began firing with his tactical rifle.
At some point, he was hit in the back, the bullet tearing out a chunk of flesh. The deputy believes it is likely that he shot one of the smugglers, but searchers have found no evidence of that.
Puroll used his cell phone to call dispatchers for help, setting off a frantic hourlong search for the deputy in the remote desert, Villar said.
Villar described one of the suspects as a man who spoke Spanish with a Sinaloan accent and wore a green or brown Army fatigue-type long sleeve shirt, tan-colored pants and black hiking boots.
Another suspect wore a grey “hoodie” sweatshirt, green pants and black and white tennis shoes, she said.
The area is a well-known smuggling corridor for drugs and illegal immigrants headed from Mexico to Phoenix and the U.S. interior.
There were reports that at least one helicopter came under fire during the manhunt on Friday, but Villar said Saturday that report has been largely discounted.
Puroll, a 15-year department veteran, had been on the lookout for smugglers when he discovered the suspected smugglers, two armed with rifles, authorities said.
Pinal County sheriff Paul Babeu has been warning of increased violence in the smuggling corridor where the deputy was shot.
“The stakes are higher,” Villar said Saturday. “As the violence increases on the border, as cartels continue to fight over land, and ownership rights of land to move their drugs and people through, we’re going continue to see these and we’re going to continue to see the violence escalate if we don’t take swift action.”
5) Why are members of the secular media soft on Muslims but merciless on Christians?… Liberals/Anti Christianity
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspecti
5/3/2010
The answer is much simpler than you think. It is cowardice.
Fear of Islamic swift retribution and retaliation has kept the secular media in the West hiding in their proverbial foxholes. Ever since the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard ignited a worldwide firestorm with his depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, members of the western media have been falling over themselves to praise Islamic ideologies.
Fear is a powerful fact of life. Whether it is the fear of acts of terrorism or fear of incurring the wrath of Islamic investors, both can be easily exercised with impunity.
Attacking Christians as a matter of course for causing every ill in society — from the economic crash to every form of bigotry — has become not only fashionable but desirable. You need only to read the BBC’s website on any given day and you will find countless examples of condemnation of Christians around the globe. For instance, take the case of a government registrar who refused to deny her Christian conviction by performing a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple. In contrast, you will find only praise for the courage of Muslims who fulfilled their religious duty by going to the Hajj while braving the threat of Swine Flu.
It is safer to pick on Christians. After all, the essence of their faith is love, forgiveness, and peacemaking. They would never respond in similar fashion to their Muslim counterparts.
Back in 1981 when I met someone conveniently labeled (in the West) as a “militant Muslim,” his complaint to me was that “Christians are cowards.” When I inquired as to his reasons he simply said, “the name of Jesus is used as a swear word in the movies and on TV.” When I asked for his advice for Christians, he replied: “They should kill every actor and producer who would blaspheme their Jesus.”
Members of the secular media have studied the psyche of both groups and concluded that Christians are easy targets to blame for every ill and bigotry that arises in our culture. When they begin searching for an object to bear the brunt of their anger toward religion, Christians represent a bulls-eye. The secular media has come to realize that their accusations will not be challenged since the tenants of the Christian faith are to love our enemies and bless our persecutors.
But what these members of the media have failed to realize is that the God of the Christians is the One who will avenge His own name sooner or later. And that is truly a fearful and terrifying prospect.
6) Iraq’s Economy Wakes Up… Iraq/Economics
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/co
April 22, 2010
• Boosting private investment won’t be easy. Officials were “raised in a statist environment”
Customers heading for a Baghdad branch of Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank know the drill. You walk through the entrance and heavily armed guards stop you. You get body-searched at least twice. And your phone is taken away before you reach a teller. Mobile phones, of course, can trigger bombs or send a signal to armed accomplices.
Yet Dar Es Salaam (known as DES) is thriving as Iraq begins to show signs of life. Profits have grown from about $600,000 in 2004 to more than $16 million. HSBC (HBC), the giant international bank that bought 70% of DES in 2005, feels so confident that it may put its own brand on the banks. “We think the timing is right,” says James Hogan, HSBC’s country manager. “Iraqis are starting to reconnect to the outside world.”
Seven years after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, Iraq has changed. Yes, convoys of SUVs packed with heavily armed security men still roar down Baghdad’s busy streets. Armed gangs still prey on truckers. Iraq’s political class struggles to form a new government. The few expat managers in the country live like prisoners: Every night, HSBC’s Hogan holes up in a walled compound run by a security company.
Ordinary Iraqis, however, are living more normally than they have in years. Shops on Saadoun and Karrada Streets are filled with flat-screen TVs, computers, and clothing from China, Turkey, Iran, and Korea. Pedestrians have to step around the Turkish and Iranian refrigerators and stoves piled outside. At night many Baghdadis relax watching one of the privately owned television channels that have sprung up, or checking the latest Iraqi Web sites.
Oil money from rising production is powering growth, as is pent-up demand for housing and better infrastructure. Now that the government has awarded oil-field contracts worth billions of dollars to BP (BP), ExxonMobil (XOM), China National Petroleum, and others, foreign clients are besieging Hogan for help in financing everything from pipelines to power grids to workers’ camps. Suppliers are following in the majors’ footsteps: Weatherford (WFT) for drilling, Centrilift (CAM) for pumps, Cameron for valves. The International Monetary Fund figures the economy could grow 7.3% in 2010. In 2003 the economy barely had a pulse.
The central bank, buttressed by the IMF, has stabilized the dinar at about 1,170 to the dollar (it was once 1,500) and has lowered inflation to single digits from a peak of 80% in 2006. Foreign reserves stand at about $50 billion. “This definitely gives predictability,” says Marcel Cobuz, Iraq general manager of Lafarge, the French building-materials maker.
Lafarge gained its two Iraqi cement plants, both located near Sulaimaniya in Kurdistan, through its acquisition of Egypt’s Orascom Cement in 2007. From this relatively safe base—Lafarge has never experienced a security incident—Cobuz is expanding into the trickier center and south of the country. Lafarge now sells almost half its 5-million-ton annual output in Iraq to construction companies in the Baghdad area. Figuring demand for cement can only grow, Cobuz may next buy derelict state-owned plants, refurbish them, and boost production. Construction, he reckons, will be up 15% this year.
One by-product of the regime’s fixation on oil is that it has done little to encourage private investment, says Ali Allawi, a former Finance Minister: “[Officials] were raised in a statist environment. They don’t see the connection between private-sector investment and reducing unemployment.” Entrepreneurs who lack the funds to modernize their businesses struggle against better-financed rivals. Thabet Al-Beldawi, 80, owns an aluminum plant in Baghdad. He’s down to 85 employees from 250 since the fall of Saddam Hussein. “There is a growing demand,” he says. “But the market is full of cheap imports.” Sami Al-Araji, chairman of the National Investment Commission, says the government is now “trying to emphasize the role of the private investor.”
The most encouraging thing about Iraq is that outside investors press on. Schlumberger, the oil services company, is quickly moving $100 million into Iraq, in part to build a base camp that will employ 300 workers. Iraq Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, who negotiated with the oil majors last year, thinks the oil fields will eventually generate 100,000 Iraqi jobs. Schlumberger’s top brass are primed to hire: They figure the country is a Saudi-size opportunity and that up to 100 drilling rigs will be needed for what could be the biggest oil boom of all. The Iraqi people are ready.
The bottom line: Foreign direct investment is key to Iraq’s revival, but the IMF figures less than $1 billion came in last year. That number could multiply fast.
7) Lazarus species: 13 ‘extinct’ animals found alive… Nature/Interest
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilder
Rediscovered species
They’re called “Lazarus species” — creatures that have disappeared, sometimes for millions of years, only to miraculously be rediscovered again in modern times. Just as Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus in the Gospel of John, so these species manage to survive. Their rediscoveries are a bewildering reminder that when given a chance, life finds a way to survive. Here’s a short list of 13 animals long-feared extinct that, in fact, have been rediscovered.
Coelacanth
Coelacanth are an ancient order of fish believed to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period some 65-plus million years ago. That was until 1938, when one was miraculously discovered off the east coast of South Africa near the mouth of the Chalumna River. Closely related to lungfishes and tetrapods, coelacanths are among the oldest living jawed fishes known to exist. They can live as long as 100 years and swim at depths of 90 to 100 meters.
Bermuda Petrel
The dramatic rediscovery of the Bermuda Petrel has become one of the most inspiring stories in the history of nature conservation. Believed extinct for 330 years, the birds had not been seen since the 1620s. Then, in 1951, 18 nesting pairs were found on remote rocky islets in Castle Harbor. Even so, they are still battling extinction today with a global population just over 250 individuals.
Chacoan peccary
The Chacoan is the largest (by size) species of peccary, a beast that resembles a pig but hails from a different continent and cannot be domesticated. The Chacoan peccary was first described in 1930 based only on fossil records, and was believed to be extinct. Then in 1975, surprised researchers discovered one alive in the Chaco region of Paraguay. Today there are around 3,000 known individuals.
Lord Howe Island stick insect
Sometimes referred to as “land lobsters” or “walking sausages,” the Lord Howe stick insect is considered the rarest insect in the world. Believed extinct since 1930 after being wiped off its only known native habitat on Lord Howe Island, the enormous insect was rediscovered in 2001 when fewer than 30 individuals were found living underneath a single shrub on the small islet of Ball’s Pyramid, the world’s tallest and most isolated sea stack.
Monito del Monte
The Monito del Monte is a remarkable, diminutive marsupial believed to have been extinct for 11 million years until one was discovered in a thicket of Chilean bamboo in the southern Andes. The creature is more closely related to Australian marsupials than to other South American ones, and it is likely related to the earliest known Australian marsupial which lived 55 million years ago.
La Palma giant lizard
Until its recent rediscovery in 2007, the La Palma giant lizard was believed to have been extinct for around 500 years. It was found again so recently that the IUCN Red List still lists the animal as extinct. Found in the La Palma region of the Canary Islands, the lone discovered individual had an estimated age of 4 years and was a foot long. New expeditions to the area are currently planned in hopes of finding a breeding population.
Takahe
The Takahe is a flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand thought to be extinct after the last four known specimens were taken in 1898. However, after a carefully planned search effort, the bird was rediscovered in 1948 near Lake Anau. This extremely rare, odd-looking bird remains endangered today, with only 225 individuals remaining.
Cuban solenodon
This strange-looking creature is so rare that only 37 specimens have ever been caught. It was originally discovered in 1861, but no individuals were found from 1890 to 1974. Unusual among mammals in that its saliva is venomous, the Cuban solenodon was most recent sighted in 2003, an event so celebrated that the individual was given a name: Alejandrito.
New Caledonian crested gecko
Originally described in 1866 and long feared extinct, this unusual gecko was rediscovered in 1994 in the aftermath of a tropical storm. Its oddest features are the hair-like projections found above the eyes and a crest which runs from each eye to the tail. The species is currently being assessed for CITES protection and endangered status.
New Holland mouse
The New Holland mouse was first discovered in 1843. It vanished from view for over a century before its rediscovery in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park north of Sydney in 1967. The cute creatures are still fighting for their existence despite valiant conservation efforts. One of its remote Victorian populations was wiped out in the Australian wildfires of 1983, although healthier populations still exist in New South Wales and Tasmania.
Giant Palouse earthworm
Originally discovered in 1897, these giant worms were declared extinct in the 1980s until three specimens were unearthed, the most recent in 2005. Found in Eastern Washington state and parts of Idaho, these ghostly burrowers can dig down as deep as 15 feet, grow to as long as 3.3 feet in length, and are albino in appearance.
Large-billed reed-warbler
This species has been hailed as the world’s least-known bird. It is known only from a single specimen collected in 1867, and was long believed extinct. Then in Thailand in 2006, a wild population was discovered and confirmed to be large-billed reed-warblers via DNA matching to the original specimen. Today the birds largely remain a mystery, and unfortunately DNA sequence variation points to a stable or shrinking population structure.
Laotian rock rat
This species was first discovered for sale as meat at a market in Thakhek, Khammouan, in Laos in 1996, and was considered so unusual and distinct from any other living rodent that it was given its own family. Then in 2006, after a systematic reanalysis, the Laotian rock rat was reclassified — incredibly — to belong to an ancient fossil family that was thought to have gone extinct 11 million years ago. Return trips to Laos by the Wildlife Conservation Society have uncovered several other specimens, raising hopes that the animal may not be as rare as once thought.
In Discussing Finance, Rhodes Scholar Rachel Demonstrates Crack Journalism Skills… Media Bias/Liberals
http://bigjournalism.com/lmeyers/2010/0
Who exactly is Rachel Maddow anyway? How did she get a show on MSNBC? A quick glance at her bio shows, let’s see, no journalistic credentials whatsoever. This comes as no surprise. And yet, considering that she has a Stanford degree in public policy, a Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford, and (holy cats!) was a Rhodes Scholar, you’d think she might demonstrate those smarts by not making herself look like a total moron.
I’m talking about her screed against payday lenders. Never mind the usual blather about being “legal loan sharks”. Obviously, had the esteemed Dr. Maddow taken an elective class in economics, she’d realize that payday lenders fill a vital role in providing short-term credit to those in need, and what would happen if they didn’t exist. However, the fact that she failed to point these facts out reveal her weak journalistic skills. Oh, but I forgot, she isn’t a journalist. She’s another academic who should know better.
The sanctimonious conclusion to her hit piece, however, is particularly revelatory. She calls payday loan business model, “usury,” and demonstrates her spelling acumen by putting the correct five letters in the correct order, telling us that “it’s in the dictionary, and actually, also in the Bible.”
Alas, Dr. Maddow manages to demonstrate exactly why she isn’t a journalist. If she were, she’d be able to actually look up the real definition of “usury” in the dictionary while properly interpreting the Biblical passages that refer to it. Then she’d find they have no application to the issue and work an actual balanced story around it.
Here’s the definition of usury from a random Google search:
An exorbitant or unlawful rate of interest.
Let’s take “unlawful” first. States that permit payday loans also specify the maximum allowable fee and/or interest by statute. As long as a payday lender makes a loan within those amounts, the loans are lawful and therefore not usurious. And they do.
Let’s define “exorbitant,” per the same dictionary:
Greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation.
We must ask what “reasonable” means in the world of short-term unsecured credit.
If a lender charges a price he deems reasonable that the borrower thinks is unreasonable, the borrower will not take out the loan. If the borrower wants a price he deems reasonable that the lender thinks is unreasonable, the lender will not make the loan.
So what is “reasonable”?
It’s obvious. Ready? Here’s the earth-shaking news: we define “reasonable” to mean “that price that both the lender and borrower agree upon so that a transaction occurs.” Most call this “the free market.” Since hundreds of millions of transactions have occurred in payday loan stores across the nation, both sides must obviously think the transaction is reasonably priced, or they wouldn’t undertake it, per the analysis above.
money-changing-hands
Therefore, the interest rate is reasonable, and therefore not exorbitant.
Thus, we see that payday loan rates are not usurious because the rate of interest is both lawful and not exorbitant.
Secular usury claim debunked, Dr. Maddow. It is in the dictionary. You got that part right.
It is also in the Bible, but not anywhere close to the way Dr. Maddow thinks it does. We look to Nehemiah for what most people speak of when they mention usury.
Paraphrasing, Nehemiah, Governor of Judah, had compassion for the Hebrew people who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity. They were a crushed people. Nehemiah defended and protected them. After learning they were forced to borrow money on their fields and vineyards to pay the King’s tax, he was outraged. He brought charges against the nobles, saying, “The thing that you are doing is not good,” (5:9). “Let us stop this taking of interest,” (5:10), He persuaded them to restore all that they had exacted from their people.
The myopic and incorrect interpretation of Nehemiah 5, as provided by the Doctor of Theology Rachel Maddow, is that it fails to place blame where it is due – on the King. The Jews were oppressed due to the taxes they had to pay the King, not due to the interest they were being charged!
The parable here is that the Jews were truly powerless and starving, while being charged interest on loans for the fields where they worked their food. In this particular scenario, I’d say (as Nehemiah did), that this practice was indeed taking advantage of the poor.
However, much as Rev. Maddow wishes an analogy exists between the parable of Nehemiah and payday loans, none exists. Payday loans, when used and offered responsibly, don’t take advantage of anyone. They help people bridge financial gaps.
When used irresponsibly, the fault lies with the borrower, unless the loan was made irresponsibly. In that case, the lender bears responsibility as well, but not all of it.
Any lender who makes a loan to someone truly poverty-stricken, who already owes other lenders and/or does not have any chance to repay the loan, is being irresponsible. But since 94% of all payday loans are paid back on time, I’d say that situation rarely exists in the payday lending space. What lender wants to make a loan to someone if they don’t have a reasonable expectation of getting their principle back?
So why not just leave it up to consumers to decide what to do, Sister Maddow? I mean, why not at least mention it in your program?
Maybe because the non-journalist in her doesn’t feel required to actually present a balanced presentation. After all, she is a Rhodes Scholar.
9) Rescuers Pray for No More Victims in Tenn. Floods… Massive Flood/Tennesse
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/03/fl
May 05, 2010
Water submerged parts the Grand Ole Opry House, considered by many to be the heart of country music, and the nearby Opryland Hotel could be closed for up to six months.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The dark waters of the Cumberland River slowly started to ebb Tuesday as residents who frantically fled the deadly flash floods returned home to find mud-caked floors and soggy furniture. Rescuers prayed they would not find more bodies as the floodwaters receded.
The river and its tributaries had flooded parts of middle Tennessee after a record-breaking weekend storm dumped more than a foot of rain in two days, rapidly spilling water into homes, roads and some of Music City’s best-known attractions.
At least 28 people were killed in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky by either floodwaters or tornadoes. Water submerged parts the Grand Ole Opry House, considered by many to be the heart of country music, and the nearby Opryland Hotel could be closed for up to six months.
The flash flooding caught many here by surprise, and efforts to warn residents to not drive on flooded streets were hampered by power outages. As the water began to recede, bodies were recovered late Monday from homes, a yard and a wooded area outside a Nashville supermarket.
By Tuesday, the flash floods were blamed in the deaths of 17 people in Tennessee alone, including nine in Nashville. Authorities initially said 10 people were killed by floods in Nashville, but on Tuesday, they said one of those people died of natural causes.
Hundreds of people had been rescued by boat and canoe from their flooded homes over the past few days. Those rescue operations were winding down in Nashville on Tuesday, though emergency management officials were checking a report of a house floating in a northern neighborhood, trying to determine if anyone was in it.
It remained unclear how many — if any — people were missing in Tennessee. Authorities in southcentral Kentucky searched Tuesday for a kayaker who was last seen Monday afternoon in the swollen Green River.
“Those in houses that have been flooded and some of those more remote areas, do we suspect we will find more people? Probably so,” Nashville Deputy Fire Chief Kim Lawson said. “We certainly hope that it’s not a large number.”
The Cumberland River also deluged some of Nashville’s most important revenue sources: the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, whose 1,500 guests were whisked to a shelter, the adjacent Opry Mills Mall, and the Grand Ole Opry House.
Parts of the hotel remained flooded on Tuesday, and officials estimated it could stay closed for three to six months with more than $75 million in damage.
At the Grand Ole Opry, which is moving its shows to alternate concert halls, water reached the stage and the first floor of the Minnie Pearl building was flooded over the doors, said customer service representative Rita Helms. The Acuff Theater had four floors flooded, and the Gaslight Theater also was under water, she said.
Floodwaters also edged into the Country Music Hall of Fame and LP Field where the Tennessee Titans play, though the Ryman Auditorium — the longtime former home of the Grand Ole Opry — appeared to be OK. It was not immediately known how much damage the Hall of Fame or LP Field received, though the Titans’ logo, which had been submerged by floodwaters on Monday, was once again visible on the stadium’s field Tuesday.
Businesses along Nashville’s riverfront lost electricity early Tuesday, and restaurants and bars clustered on a downtown street popular with tourists were closed. Laurie Parker, a spokeswoman for Nashville Electric Service, said a main circuit failed before dawn, knocking out power to downtown businesses in a 24-square-block area, including the 33-story AT&T Building, a Hilton hotel, the arena where the Nashville Predators NHL team plays and honky-tonks in the country music tourism district.
Parker said the power in that district would be out the rest of the week.
“It will be Friday at the earliest,” she said, “depending on how fast the water level falls.”
In one neighborhood west of downtown, residents scoured through debris, trying to determine how much they’ve lost.
Luke Oakman finally got a look at the room he and his wife designed for their 11-month-old daughter after the family fled their home on Sunday.
It was ruined. Baby toys and books sat on a mud-coated floor and a wooden bed leaned back against a wall. A rocking chair was propped up by the child’s dresser that had been knocked over.
“I broke down when I saw that,” the 32-year-old lab worker said.
Damage estimates range into the tens of millions of dollars. Gov. Phil Bredesen declared 52 of Tennessee’s 95 counties disaster areas after finishing an aerial tour from Nashville to western Tennessee during which he saw flooding so extensive that treetops looked like islands. The flooding also prompted election officials to delay Nashville’s local primary, which had been set for Tuesday.
The Cumberland topped out around 6 p.m. Monday at 51.9 feet, about 12 feet above flood stage — the highest it’s reached since 1937. It began to recede just in time to spare the city’s only remaining water treatment plant.
The severity of the storms had caught everyone off guard. More than 13.5 inches of rainfall were recorded Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, making for a new two-day record that doubled the previous mark.
The water swelled most of the area’s lakes, minor rivers, creeks, streams and drainage systems far beyond capacity. It flowed with such force that bridges were washed out and thousands of homes were damaged. Much of that water then drained into the Cumberland, which snakes through Nashville.
The weekend storms also killed six people in Mississippi and four in Kentucky, including one man whose truck ran off the road and into a flooded creek. One person was killed by a tornado in western Tennessee.
About 30 National Guard troops assisted local authorities in southcentral Kentucky on Tuesday, where flooding washed out roads and bridges and shuttered post offices, schools and government buildings.
“It’s serious out there still,” said Mark Marraccini, spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife. “These waters are very dangerous.”
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