Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
DIY WiFi Antenna
This page explains the very basics of an effective homemade WiFi antenna. BTW the best side effect of getting an amateur radio licence is having to learn about radio.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Gap's Triangle Trouser factory fire
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/14/bangladesh-clothes-factory-workers-jump-to-death
Workers jump to their deaths as fire engulfs factory making clothes for Gap
At least 27 die and more than 100 are injured in blaze at Bangladesh manufacturing plant
Saad Hammadi in Dhaka and Matthew Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 December 2010 20.51 GMT
Article history
Smoke rises from the clothing factory, where two of the emergency exits were said to have been closed Photograph: Pavel Rahman/AP
Dozens of workers jumped to their deaths and more than 100 were injured when a fire swept through a Bangladeshi factory that makes clothes for high street retailer Gap today.
Witnesses said the blaze – at the factory just outside Dhaka – engulfed the multistorey building, forcing some of those trapped inside to leap from the windows. The fire comes after repeated warnings about fire safety at factories making clothes for western retailers.
Authorities said that the fire initially broke out on the building's 10th floor, where trousers were stored for shipment, and then spread up to the 11th floor where there was a canteen and a manufacturing facility. At least 27 people died in the blaze while one witness said that he saw 50 to 60 people jumping off the 10th floor to escape.
Abdur Rahim, who was injured, said most of the workers were having lunch when the fire broke out. "Heavy plumes of fire suffocated the area." He said two of the emergency exits were closed. Unable to walk down, many broke the windows to escape the fire and injured themselves.
Simon McRae, senior campaigns officer at the anti-poverty charity War on Want, said: "This latest tragedy in a factory owned by a firm which supplies UK stores underlines how workers risk their lives to make our clothes."
The factory was owned by local business giant Hameem Group in the Ashulia industrial zone, 18km outside Dhaka.The Hameem Group has two production complexes at the site, which employ about 12,000 people. The fire broke out in a building where around 6,000 people work.
Sunil Kumar Sarkar, a director at the company, said: "Since it was lunch time, most of the people were out." Hameem Group makes clothing for a number of leading brands but Sunil added: "We are yet to identify the brands that this particular factory had in stock."
A spokesman for Gap confirmed that the factory supplied clothes to its stores, adding that the company was "terribly saddened" by the fire.
"Our immediate priority is that the workers and their families receive the medical and emergency assistance they need," he said. " We have dispatched a team from our company to assist on-site and to ensure that a complete, independent investigation occurs immediately."
The spokesman added: "For more than 15 years Gap Inc has worked to bring fair and safe working conditions to factories around the world. We conduct periodic, unannounced audits of factories to ensure safety, and we were on-site in April and August at this factory. Among the many requirements of our Code of Vendor Conduct is that there are regular fire drills and other safety measures in place.''
The Bangladesh government and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) have formed two committees to investigate the fire. The home affairs minister, Sahara Khatun, said one would submit a report within seven days.
The company and the BGMEA said they would provide 100,000 takas (£868) in compensation to each family of the dead and pay for the treatment of the injured.
Workers' safety in the rapidly growing textile industry has been a major concern in recent years but the association said that it had improved.
However, labour rights groups say safety standards are still inadequate in many factories. In February, a fire at a sweater factory just outside Dhaka killed 21 people and injured dozens.
Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories that export over £6.3bn worth of products a year, mainly to the United States and Europe. Recent protests by low-paid garment workers have gripped the country. Workers demanding the implementation of a new minimum wage clashed with police at an industrial zone in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, leaving up to three people dead and 100 hurt. Smaller protests have taken place around Dhaka. On Sunday, workers in the capital blocked a busy road and set two vehicles on fire, police said.
Garment workers in Bangladesh are among the lowest-paid in the world, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, a Vienna-based labour rights group.
For those reading this who don't know why I call it the "Triangle Trouser Factory Fire" read on.
http://www.csun.edu/~ghy7463/mw2.html
Leap for Life, Leap of Death
275 girls started to collect their belongings as they were leaving work at 4:45 PM on Saturday. Within twenty minutes some of girls' charred bodies were lined up along the East Side of Greene Street. Those girls who flung themselves from the ninth floor were merely covered with tarpaulins where they hit the concrete. The Bellevue morgue was overrun with bodies and a makeshift morgue was set up on the adjoining pier on the East River. Hundred's of parents and family members came to identify their lost loved ones. 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were dead the night of March 25, 1911. The horror of their deaths led to numerous changes in occupational safety standards that currently ensure the safety of workers today.
At the time of the fire the only safety measures available for the workers were 27 buckets of water and a fire escape that would collapse when people tried to use them. Most of the doors were locked and those that were not locked only opened inwards and were effectively held shut by the onrush of workers escaping the fire. As the clothing materials feed the fire workers tried to escape anyway they could. 25 passengers flung themselves down the elevator shaft trying to escape the fire. Their bodies rained blood and coins down onto the employees who made it into the elevator cars. Engine Company 72 and 33 were the first on the scene. To add to the already bleak situation the water streams from their hoses could only reach the 7th floor. Their ladders could only reach between the 6th and 7th floor. 19 bodies were found charred against the locked doors. 25 bodies were found huddled in a cloakroom. These deaths, although horrible, was not what changed the feelings toward government regulation. Upon finding that they could not use the doors to escape and the fire burning at their clothes and hair, the girls of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, aged mostly between 13 and 23 years of age, jumped 9 stories to their death. One after another the girls jumped to their deaths on the concrete over one hundred of feet below. Sometimes the girls jumped three and four at a time. On lookers watched in horror as body after body fell to the earth. "Thud -- dead; thud -- dead; thud -- dead; thud -- dead. Sixty-two thud -- deads. I call them that, because the sound and the thought of death came to me each time, at the same instant," said United Press reporter William Shephard. The bodies of teenage girls lined the street below. Blankets that would-be rescuers used ripped at the weight and the speed the bodies were falling. Fire Department blankets were ripped when multiple girls tried to jump into the same blanket. Some girls tried to jump to the ladders that could not reach the ninth floor. None reached the ladders. The fire escape in the rear of the building collapsed and trapped the employees even more.
Many people were outraged at the tragedy. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire helped to solidify support for workers' unions like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, were tried for manslaughter but were acquitted in 1914. Though most people were disgusted with what had happened, there were no regulations in effect that would have saved lives.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 still remains one of the most vivid and horrid tragedies that changed American Labor Unions and labor laws. The fire had come only five years after Upton Sinclair published his book The Jungle, which detailed the plight of the workers at a meat packer's plant. But instead of reforming the working conditions most people wanted to reform the health and safety regulations on food. The tragic death of 146 girls, whose average age was 19, was needed before the politicians and the people saw for the need to regulate safety in the workplace.
Pauline Cuoio Pepe was a nineteen-year-old sewing machine operator and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. "It was all nice young Jewish girls who were engaged to be married. You should see the diamonds and everything. Those were the ones who threw themselves from the window," Pepe told a Manhattan historian. "What the hell did they close the door for? What did the think we were going out with? What are we gonna do, steal a shirtwaist? Who the heck wanted a shirtwaist?" asked Pepe. The New York legislature created a commission called The Factory Commission of 1911. Senator Robert F. Wagner, Alfred E. Smith and Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, headed the commission. One of the most significant results of this commission was the creation of the Fire Prevention division as part of the Fire Department. Restrictions were made to prevent fires from happening and to prevent the blockage of escape routes.
Pauline Cuoio Pepe recounted that the workers didn't even use the regular doors to leave the factory. "...we never went out the front door. We always went one by one out the back. There was a man there searching, because the people were afraid we would take something, so that door was always locked." Even the doors that were not locked were of no use to the workers. The doors in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory only opened inward. When the girls tried to escape through the doors, the girls in front could not open the doors because of all of the girls pushing from behind. If the door opened outward, the onrush of girls would have opened the door. The factories would be required to make all doors open outward in factories. At the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, some of the doors were locked. Usually the doors were locked so that clothing could not be stolen through unwatched doors. When the girls tried to escape through the locked doors, the fire consumed them. All doors were to remain unlocked during business hours in accordance with new regulations. Sprinkler systems must be installed if a company employs more than 25 people above ground level. The girls of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company only had 27 buckets of water to save themselves from the fire. Today there are many laws that govern the condition of workplaces. Among those regulations are implemented to let people out during a fire. Multiple fire exits, unblocked fire doors, and clear pathways to exits are all required. Firefighting equipment must be maintained in the building. Fire sprinklers for higher floors and portable fire extinguishers. Education for employees is a must. All employees are to be trained on the proper use of a fire extinguisher as well as escape routes and fire drills. Emergency evacuation plans are also required in writing and posted. Written fire prevention plans must also be available. All areas that are fire hazards or that contain equipment of chemicals that could start fires must be maintained and controlled and all times. The United States Department of Labor classified this set of standards as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 would change the regulation by government of business. Before the fire government had mostly stayed away from business feeling it had no power to legislate it. After the fire government could not avoid instituting laws to protect the workers. Once the New York legislature enacted safety laws, other states in the US followed suit. Workers also began to look toward unions to voice their concerns over safety and pay. Samuel Gompers of the AFL had won a lot of trust and admiration by sitting in on The Factory Commission of 1911. The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union also won support and led a march of 100,000 to tell the New York legislature to move into action. Unfortunately not everyone had learned their history. March 25, 1990, on the 79th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the Happy Land Social Club fire in the Bronx, New York killed 87 people. Most of the people killed were not workers but customers. There was no sprinkler system, fire alarms, nor exits. The windows had iron bars on them leaving only one door to escape the inferno. On September 3, 1991 in Hamlet North Carolina 25 workers died at a poultry factory. The exits were ill marked, blocked or padlocked. The doors were padlocked to prevent theft. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire remains as a turning point in US history. Countless state and federal laws were enacted because of this incident. Unions gained numerous new workers who wanted someone to fight for their safety. Now employers in the US have a clear set of guidelines that they need to follow to ensure the safety of their employees.
Don't forget to finish your christmas shopping!!!
Workers jump to their deaths as fire engulfs factory making clothes for Gap
At least 27 die and more than 100 are injured in blaze at Bangladesh manufacturing plant
Saad Hammadi in Dhaka and Matthew Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 December 2010 20.51 GMT
Article history
Smoke rises from the clothing factory, where two of the emergency exits were said to have been closed Photograph: Pavel Rahman/AP
Dozens of workers jumped to their deaths and more than 100 were injured when a fire swept through a Bangladeshi factory that makes clothes for high street retailer Gap today.
Witnesses said the blaze – at the factory just outside Dhaka – engulfed the multistorey building, forcing some of those trapped inside to leap from the windows. The fire comes after repeated warnings about fire safety at factories making clothes for western retailers.
Authorities said that the fire initially broke out on the building's 10th floor, where trousers were stored for shipment, and then spread up to the 11th floor where there was a canteen and a manufacturing facility. At least 27 people died in the blaze while one witness said that he saw 50 to 60 people jumping off the 10th floor to escape.
Abdur Rahim, who was injured, said most of the workers were having lunch when the fire broke out. "Heavy plumes of fire suffocated the area." He said two of the emergency exits were closed. Unable to walk down, many broke the windows to escape the fire and injured themselves.
Simon McRae, senior campaigns officer at the anti-poverty charity War on Want, said: "This latest tragedy in a factory owned by a firm which supplies UK stores underlines how workers risk their lives to make our clothes."
The factory was owned by local business giant Hameem Group in the Ashulia industrial zone, 18km outside Dhaka.The Hameem Group has two production complexes at the site, which employ about 12,000 people. The fire broke out in a building where around 6,000 people work.
Sunil Kumar Sarkar, a director at the company, said: "Since it was lunch time, most of the people were out." Hameem Group makes clothing for a number of leading brands but Sunil added: "We are yet to identify the brands that this particular factory had in stock."
A spokesman for Gap confirmed that the factory supplied clothes to its stores, adding that the company was "terribly saddened" by the fire.
"Our immediate priority is that the workers and their families receive the medical and emergency assistance they need," he said. " We have dispatched a team from our company to assist on-site and to ensure that a complete, independent investigation occurs immediately."
The spokesman added: "For more than 15 years Gap Inc has worked to bring fair and safe working conditions to factories around the world. We conduct periodic, unannounced audits of factories to ensure safety, and we were on-site in April and August at this factory. Among the many requirements of our Code of Vendor Conduct is that there are regular fire drills and other safety measures in place.''
The Bangladesh government and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) have formed two committees to investigate the fire. The home affairs minister, Sahara Khatun, said one would submit a report within seven days.
The company and the BGMEA said they would provide 100,000 takas (£868) in compensation to each family of the dead and pay for the treatment of the injured.
Workers' safety in the rapidly growing textile industry has been a major concern in recent years but the association said that it had improved.
However, labour rights groups say safety standards are still inadequate in many factories. In February, a fire at a sweater factory just outside Dhaka killed 21 people and injured dozens.
Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories that export over £6.3bn worth of products a year, mainly to the United States and Europe. Recent protests by low-paid garment workers have gripped the country. Workers demanding the implementation of a new minimum wage clashed with police at an industrial zone in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, leaving up to three people dead and 100 hurt. Smaller protests have taken place around Dhaka. On Sunday, workers in the capital blocked a busy road and set two vehicles on fire, police said.
Garment workers in Bangladesh are among the lowest-paid in the world, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, a Vienna-based labour rights group.
For those reading this who don't know why I call it the "Triangle Trouser Factory Fire" read on.
http://www.csun.edu/~ghy7463/mw2.html
Leap for Life, Leap of Death
275 girls started to collect their belongings as they were leaving work at 4:45 PM on Saturday. Within twenty minutes some of girls' charred bodies were lined up along the East Side of Greene Street. Those girls who flung themselves from the ninth floor were merely covered with tarpaulins where they hit the concrete. The Bellevue morgue was overrun with bodies and a makeshift morgue was set up on the adjoining pier on the East River. Hundred's of parents and family members came to identify their lost loved ones. 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were dead the night of March 25, 1911. The horror of their deaths led to numerous changes in occupational safety standards that currently ensure the safety of workers today.
At the time of the fire the only safety measures available for the workers were 27 buckets of water and a fire escape that would collapse when people tried to use them. Most of the doors were locked and those that were not locked only opened inwards and were effectively held shut by the onrush of workers escaping the fire. As the clothing materials feed the fire workers tried to escape anyway they could. 25 passengers flung themselves down the elevator shaft trying to escape the fire. Their bodies rained blood and coins down onto the employees who made it into the elevator cars. Engine Company 72 and 33 were the first on the scene. To add to the already bleak situation the water streams from their hoses could only reach the 7th floor. Their ladders could only reach between the 6th and 7th floor. 19 bodies were found charred against the locked doors. 25 bodies were found huddled in a cloakroom. These deaths, although horrible, was not what changed the feelings toward government regulation. Upon finding that they could not use the doors to escape and the fire burning at their clothes and hair, the girls of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, aged mostly between 13 and 23 years of age, jumped 9 stories to their death. One after another the girls jumped to their deaths on the concrete over one hundred of feet below. Sometimes the girls jumped three and four at a time. On lookers watched in horror as body after body fell to the earth. "Thud -- dead; thud -- dead; thud -- dead; thud -- dead. Sixty-two thud -- deads. I call them that, because the sound and the thought of death came to me each time, at the same instant," said United Press reporter William Shephard. The bodies of teenage girls lined the street below. Blankets that would-be rescuers used ripped at the weight and the speed the bodies were falling. Fire Department blankets were ripped when multiple girls tried to jump into the same blanket. Some girls tried to jump to the ladders that could not reach the ninth floor. None reached the ladders. The fire escape in the rear of the building collapsed and trapped the employees even more.
Many people were outraged at the tragedy. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire helped to solidify support for workers' unions like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, were tried for manslaughter but were acquitted in 1914. Though most people were disgusted with what had happened, there were no regulations in effect that would have saved lives.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 still remains one of the most vivid and horrid tragedies that changed American Labor Unions and labor laws. The fire had come only five years after Upton Sinclair published his book The Jungle, which detailed the plight of the workers at a meat packer's plant. But instead of reforming the working conditions most people wanted to reform the health and safety regulations on food. The tragic death of 146 girls, whose average age was 19, was needed before the politicians and the people saw for the need to regulate safety in the workplace.
Pauline Cuoio Pepe was a nineteen-year-old sewing machine operator and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. "It was all nice young Jewish girls who were engaged to be married. You should see the diamonds and everything. Those were the ones who threw themselves from the window," Pepe told a Manhattan historian. "What the hell did they close the door for? What did the think we were going out with? What are we gonna do, steal a shirtwaist? Who the heck wanted a shirtwaist?" asked Pepe. The New York legislature created a commission called The Factory Commission of 1911. Senator Robert F. Wagner, Alfred E. Smith and Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, headed the commission. One of the most significant results of this commission was the creation of the Fire Prevention division as part of the Fire Department. Restrictions were made to prevent fires from happening and to prevent the blockage of escape routes.
Pauline Cuoio Pepe recounted that the workers didn't even use the regular doors to leave the factory. "...we never went out the front door. We always went one by one out the back. There was a man there searching, because the people were afraid we would take something, so that door was always locked." Even the doors that were not locked were of no use to the workers. The doors in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory only opened inward. When the girls tried to escape through the doors, the girls in front could not open the doors because of all of the girls pushing from behind. If the door opened outward, the onrush of girls would have opened the door. The factories would be required to make all doors open outward in factories. At the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, some of the doors were locked. Usually the doors were locked so that clothing could not be stolen through unwatched doors. When the girls tried to escape through the locked doors, the fire consumed them. All doors were to remain unlocked during business hours in accordance with new regulations. Sprinkler systems must be installed if a company employs more than 25 people above ground level. The girls of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company only had 27 buckets of water to save themselves from the fire. Today there are many laws that govern the condition of workplaces. Among those regulations are implemented to let people out during a fire. Multiple fire exits, unblocked fire doors, and clear pathways to exits are all required. Firefighting equipment must be maintained in the building. Fire sprinklers for higher floors and portable fire extinguishers. Education for employees is a must. All employees are to be trained on the proper use of a fire extinguisher as well as escape routes and fire drills. Emergency evacuation plans are also required in writing and posted. Written fire prevention plans must also be available. All areas that are fire hazards or that contain equipment of chemicals that could start fires must be maintained and controlled and all times. The United States Department of Labor classified this set of standards as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 would change the regulation by government of business. Before the fire government had mostly stayed away from business feeling it had no power to legislate it. After the fire government could not avoid instituting laws to protect the workers. Once the New York legislature enacted safety laws, other states in the US followed suit. Workers also began to look toward unions to voice their concerns over safety and pay. Samuel Gompers of the AFL had won a lot of trust and admiration by sitting in on The Factory Commission of 1911. The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union also won support and led a march of 100,000 to tell the New York legislature to move into action. Unfortunately not everyone had learned their history. March 25, 1990, on the 79th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the Happy Land Social Club fire in the Bronx, New York killed 87 people. Most of the people killed were not workers but customers. There was no sprinkler system, fire alarms, nor exits. The windows had iron bars on them leaving only one door to escape the inferno. On September 3, 1991 in Hamlet North Carolina 25 workers died at a poultry factory. The exits were ill marked, blocked or padlocked. The doors were padlocked to prevent theft. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire remains as a turning point in US history. Countless state and federal laws were enacted because of this incident. Unions gained numerous new workers who wanted someone to fight for their safety. Now employers in the US have a clear set of guidelines that they need to follow to ensure the safety of their employees.
Don't forget to finish your christmas shopping!!!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Dick Cheney charged in Nigeria corruption case
Fucking seriously.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/dick-cheney-halliburton-nigeria-corruption-charges
Nigeria's anti-corruption police said today that they will charge former US vice-president Dick Cheney over a $180m bribery case involving energy firm Halliburton.The announcement follows a probe into the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in the conflict-ridden Niger Delta.
Halliburton's top official in Nigeria has been summoned and 10 of its Nigerian and expat staff detained for questioning after a raid on the company's office in Lagos. Cheney was head of Halliburton before becoming George W Bush's vice-president in 2001.
"We are filing charges against Cheney," said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), adding that the charges were likely to be brought next week. He declined to give any further details on what the charges were or where they would be filed.
Houston-based engineering firm KBR, a former Halliburton unit, pleaded guilty last year to US charges that it paid $180m in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6bn in contracts for the Bonny Island Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in the Niger Delta.KBR and Halliburton reached a $579m settlement in America but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.
Halliburton split from KBR in 2007 and has said that its current operations in Nigeria are unrelated.It has described last week's EFCC raid as "an affront against justice", said its offices were ransacked and personnel assaulted, and pledged to defend its staff against what it said were "completely false and outrageous actions".
"As indicated in previous legal activity in the United States, one of the participants in the (Bonny Island) project was a subsidiary of Halliburton Company for part of that period of time," it said last week.
"The Halliburton oil field services operations in Nigeria have never in any way been any part of the LNG project and none of the Halliburton employees have ever had any connection to or participation in that project."
Halliburton said last year it had "reason to believe" payments may have been made to Nigerian officials by agents of its TSKJ consortium, which built the Bonny Island facility. Albert "Jack" Stanley, a former KBR chief executive officer who had worked under Cheney when he headed Halliburton, pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges stemming from a scheme to bribe Nigerian officials.
Nigeria will hold presidential elections in April and some analysts have suggested the sudden revival of interest in the Halliburton case is no coincidence.Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan faces a challenge for the ruling party nomination from former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who was in office between 1999 and 2007. Abubakar's opponents have in the past tried to link him to the Halliburton case, allegations he has dismissed as a smear campaign.
He was quoted in September as saying there was no evidence against him and that nobody in the United States or elsewhere had sought to question him on the matter. "This is just the work of political opponents who will stop at nothing in order to destroy your political career," he said.
David Smith and Reuters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/dick-cheney-halliburton-nigeria-corruption-charges
Nigeria's anti-corruption police said today that they will charge former US vice-president Dick Cheney over a $180m bribery case involving energy firm Halliburton.The announcement follows a probe into the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in the conflict-ridden Niger Delta.
Halliburton's top official in Nigeria has been summoned and 10 of its Nigerian and expat staff detained for questioning after a raid on the company's office in Lagos. Cheney was head of Halliburton before becoming George W Bush's vice-president in 2001.
"We are filing charges against Cheney," said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), adding that the charges were likely to be brought next week. He declined to give any further details on what the charges were or where they would be filed.
Houston-based engineering firm KBR, a former Halliburton unit, pleaded guilty last year to US charges that it paid $180m in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6bn in contracts for the Bonny Island Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in the Niger Delta.KBR and Halliburton reached a $579m settlement in America but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.
Halliburton split from KBR in 2007 and has said that its current operations in Nigeria are unrelated.It has described last week's EFCC raid as "an affront against justice", said its offices were ransacked and personnel assaulted, and pledged to defend its staff against what it said were "completely false and outrageous actions".
"As indicated in previous legal activity in the United States, one of the participants in the (Bonny Island) project was a subsidiary of Halliburton Company for part of that period of time," it said last week.
"The Halliburton oil field services operations in Nigeria have never in any way been any part of the LNG project and none of the Halliburton employees have ever had any connection to or participation in that project."
Halliburton said last year it had "reason to believe" payments may have been made to Nigerian officials by agents of its TSKJ consortium, which built the Bonny Island facility. Albert "Jack" Stanley, a former KBR chief executive officer who had worked under Cheney when he headed Halliburton, pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges stemming from a scheme to bribe Nigerian officials.
Nigeria will hold presidential elections in April and some analysts have suggested the sudden revival of interest in the Halliburton case is no coincidence.Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan faces a challenge for the ruling party nomination from former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who was in office between 1999 and 2007. Abubakar's opponents have in the past tried to link him to the Halliburton case, allegations he has dismissed as a smear campaign.
He was quoted in September as saying there was no evidence against him and that nobody in the United States or elsewhere had sought to question him on the matter. "This is just the work of political opponents who will stop at nothing in order to destroy your political career," he said.
David Smith and Reuters
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
After an hour long comcast outage I figured I would put something up about the cablegate release. Wikileaks has apparently only released 219 of the 250000+ cables so this will be ongoing.
Wikileaks explanation of cable structure
Understanding cables
Every cable message consists of three parts:
Every cable message consists of three parts:
- The top box shows each cables unique reference number, when and by whom it originally was sent, and what its initial classification was.
- The middle box contains the header information that is associated with the cable. It includes information about the receiver(s) as well as a general subject.
- The bottom box presents the body of the cable. The opening can contain a more specific subject, references to other cables (browse by origin to find them) or additional comment. This is followed by the main contents of the cable: a summary, a collection of specific topics and a comment section.
Here is a pdf file from state.gov detailing acronyms and oft used terms you may be unfamiliar with. Just copy the term or acronym and paste it into search of the pdf as the file 115 pages long.
So now for some cables
Finally, Qadhafi relies heavily on his long-time Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska, who has been described as a ”voluptuous blonde.” Of the rumored staff of four Ukrainian nurses that cater to the Leader’s health and well-being, XXXXXXXXXXX emphasized to multiple Emboffs that Qadhafi cannot travel without Kolotnytska, as she alone “knows his routine.” When Kolotnytska’s late visa application resulted in her Security Advisory Opinion being received on the day Qadhafi’s party planned to travel to the U.S., the Libyan Government sent a private jet to ferry her from Libya to Portugal to meet up with the Leader during his rest-stop. Some embassy contacts have claimed that Qadhafi and the 38 year-old Kolotnytska have a romantic relationship. While he did not comment on such rumors, a Ukrainian political officer recently confirmed that the Ukrainian nurses “travel everywhere with the Leader.”
http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2010/01/10BERLIN128.html
Embassy Berlin strongly recommends that the Washington Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) and data privacy experts currently scheduled to visit Brussels next week also visit Berlin to discuss TFTP and U.S. data privacy policy with German officials. Germany is critical to the debate on data protection issues within the EU and we need to engage German government interlocutors, parliamentarians and opinion makers. The exaggerated data privacy views of the current minority governing partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), have contributed to a domestic discussion that distorts U.S. policy and is negatively-influencing the European debate. Embassy believes we will be most successful if we address German data privacy concerns in a comprehensive way, including various information sharing programs such as HSPD-6, TFTP, and Passenger Name Records.For context: TFPT Maybe this has something to do with how we are adopting china's standards on the internet.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704693104575639692746020382.html?mod=googlenews_wsjhttp://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/07/09TEGUCIGALPA645.htmlIn our view, none of the above arguments has any
substantive validity under the Honduran constitution. Some
are outright false. Others are mere supposition or ex-post
rationalizations of a patently illegal act. Essentially:
-- the military had no authority to remove Zelaya from the
country;
-- Congress has no constitutional authority to remove a
Honduran president;
-- Congress and the judiciary removed Zelaya on the basis
of a hasty, ad-hoc, extralegal, secret, 48-hour process;
-- the purported "resignation" letter was a fabrication and
was not even the basis for Congress's action of June 28;
and
-- Zelaya's arrest and forced removal from the country
violated multiple constitutional guarantees, including the
prohibition on expatriation, presumption of innocence and
right to due process.So that means that even though the state department is touting the foreign investment oppurtunities in Honduras, they recognize the illegality of the Honduran coup.http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/02/09ASHGABAT218.html¶1. (S/NF) A Turkmen customs official told an Embassy LES on February 13 that an Iranian Embassy diplomatic container with AK-47's, sniper rifles and ammunition hidden in it had been discovered one week earlier at the Serdar Uli (Gaudan) customs point in Ashgabat, where vehicles and containers arriving from or bound for Iran are inspected. The weapons were reportedly hidden underneath two Turkmen carpets that the Iranian Embassy was shipping to Iran.
¶2. (S/NF) The LES went to the Ashgabat Customs Point (a different location) to inquire about an Embassy pouch shipment arriving by truck, and an issue arose about opening the Embassy's container for inspection. The customs official, who is a close friend of LES, then brought up the Iranian container incident. He said that a local shipping employee of the Iranian Embassy had been present when another official, acting on a "hunch that something was not right," opened the Iranian Embassy container. The customs official told LES that the official who discovered the cache was honored for his actions and received a promotion.
¶3. (S/NF) COMMENT: Turkmenistan imposes stringent controls on the importation of any type of firearm, and Chiefs of Missions' security detail are all unarmed. Even assuming that the weapons in question were intended for the Iranian Embassy's internal security, this would not explain the presence of offensive weapons such as sniper rifles, in the cache. The Embassy has no official confirmation about the incident, which was, we note, relayed second-hand to our LES. END COMMENT.http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/10/09KABUL3068.htmlAfghans don't get democracy. (C) In answer to a question from the RoCK and the SCRabout the credibility of the elections, A[hmad]W[ali]K[arzai] said democracy
was new for Afghanistan, and that people in the region did
not understand the point of having one election, let alone
two. "The people do not like change," he said. "They think,
the President is alive, and everything is fine. Why have an
election?"
http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2010/02/10KABUL693.htmlKarzai's paranoia is justified.
¶11. (S//Rel NATO, ISAF) AWK was eager to engage and rarely stopped talking in the two hour meeting. While he presentedhimself as a partner to the United States and is eager to be
seen as helping the coalition, he also demonstrated that he
will dissemble when it suits his needs. He appears not to
understand the level of our knowledge of his activities, and
that the coalition views many of his activities as malign,
particularly relating to his influence over the police. We
will need to monitor his activity closely, and deliver a
recurring, transparent message to him of where are redlines
are and what we expect of him in the months ahead.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Wikileaks Drinking Game
http://www.hindustantimes.com/US-warns-Britain-India-over-new-WikiLeaks-revelations/Article1-631705.aspx
Whistleblower website WikiLeaks is set to release some three million documents online, and some of these could potentially damage the US relations with many countries, including Britain and India, according to reports on Saturday. It is not known what the documents are about, or whether India ismentioned. But State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said, "We have reached out to India to warn them about a possible release of documents."
"We do not know precisely what WikiLeaks has or what it plans to do. We have made our position clear. These documents should not be released," Crowley said.
But in London the Daily Mail reported that among the documents about to be released are secret papers related to the US assessments of then British premier Gordon Brown's personality and his prospects of winning the general election.
Anticipating damages, British Prime Minister David Cameron was warned on Friday night by the US that secrets of the "special relationship" are about to be laid bare, the Daily Mail said.
Canada has been informed by the United States of the potential leak of sensitive diplomatic correspondence by the Wikileaks website, a foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
"We have learned about this potential leak through a variety of sources," Melissa Lantsman told AFP, adding that US ambassador David Jacobson had telephoned Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon about the matter
http://www.dawn.com/2010/11/27/wikileaks-plans-to-release-94-papers-about-pakistan-2.html
The WikiLeaks is expected to put 94 documents about Pakistan on its website this weekend, diplomatic sources told Dawn.
The documents mainly contain telegrams sent by the US Embassy in Islamabad to the State Department in Washington.
Some of these papers relate to US observations about Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan, the debate within Pakistan on the war against terror, Islamabad’s cooperation with Washington and other military and intelligence matters.
Some documents also contain US reservations about Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
The sources said that changes in the US communication system allowed an anti-war activist access to more than 400,000 secret documents who handed them over to the whistleblower website.
US officials have warned that Afghanistan, China, Russia, Central Asian Republics, Canada, Britain, France, Turkey and Nato will all be affected by this unprecedented leak.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has reached out to several countries about the expected release of classified State Department cables by the WikiLeaks website.
Clinton reached out to leaders in Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, France and Afghanistan, spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a tweet Friday evening.
Separately, Crowley confirmed that Clinton spoke Friday by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi about the release.
Washington has warned its ally Israel of potential embarrassment from the expected release of US diplomatic cables on whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, an Israeli newspaper said on Thursday.
A senior Israeli official, quoted in Haaretz, said it has been informed that WikiLeaks plans to release hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, some of which could include confidential reports from the US embassy in Tel Aviv.
"The Americans said they view the leak very seriously," he told the paper, on condition of anonymity.
"They don't know when they will be released on the Internet and what exactly they say, but they didn't want us to read about it in the newspapers," the Israeli official said.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/wikileaks-docs-may-hurt-us-russia-ties-1.877633
New files about to be dumped onto the Internet by WikiLeaks contain embarrassing diplomatic cables that could harm Moscow's relations with Washington, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday.
The confidential cables contain general assessments of the political situation in Russia and “unflattering characteristics” of Russian leaders, the respected business daily reported citing a top source at the whistleblowing website.
“The documents include recordings of US diplomats' conversations with Russian politicians, assessments of Russia's most notable events, and analyses of what is happening in the country and in its domestic and foreign politics,” the newspaper wrote.
So I propose we get together and read through the cables and every time we find something that will piss off an ally of America or about how we are oppressing populations in the third world for American hegemony we take a drink. I assume we will die about a day or two in. What do you think?
Friday, November 26, 2010
Cyriak
I've seen this guy a lot, but for some reason I have never posted his stuff on the blog. Anyway, check out this guy's Youtube channel.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Beard on Beard
Seriously, go to this guys user page. He has 31 episodes of this up and it's fucking hilarious.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/283140/lucille_ball_mother_of_science_fiction_pg2.html?cat=I Love Lucy is often regarded as the most beloved sitcom ever. Star Trek is often regarded as the most beloved sci-fi television show ever.
What do they have in common? Lucille Ball.
The wacky red head comedian along with Cuban born husband Desi Arnaz not only gave us a ground breaking comedy classic, but with their studio Desilu brought to TV audiences the science fiction masterpiece Star Trek. If Gene Roddenberry was its loving father, Lucy was its nurturing, entertainment savvy mother.
It was 1964. Seven years earlier, America had said goodbye to the Ricardos as I Love Lucy ended. Through careful business dealings, Desi and Lucy had amassed an enormous fortune and Desilu, their studio created in 1951 produced everything from sitcoms to spy shows. Gene Roddenberry, a former LA police officer turned screenwriter was pitching a new television series about a galaxy traveling starship or as he described it "wagon train to the stars."
Some at Desilu balked at Roddenberry's sci-fi concept, thinking it was childish fare or mere escapist action oriented science fiction like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. While Roddenberry may have gained inspiration from those two pioneering sci-fi properties, he invested thoughtfulness, intellectual stimulation and philosophy into Star Trek that caught the attention of Lucille Ball. She both liked Gene Roddenberry and felt his idea had huge potential. After rejecting the pilot, The Cageas being "too cerebral" - it's said Lucy stood firmly behind the show, prompting NBC to order a second pilot - something exceedingly rare in the television business.
Star Trek premiered on NBC in 1966. After three seasons, the network canceled the show citing dismal ratings. Shortly thereafter, executives realized the most valuable audience segment - the favored demographic of males 18-49 were primary viewers. This is advertising gold. If NBC had known this fact before cancellation, Star Trek may have had additional seasons.In syndication, Star Trek saw new life and lived long and prospered. Fans who missed Captain Kirk's adventures loved the reruns, while new generations discovered it. The rest is history, as in television, film and book publishing history. It spun off four additional programs and at this count ten feature films with an eleventh being produced and directed by JJ Abrams and scheduled for release in December 2008.
Evidently Lucy not only knew funny, she knew great science fiction too.
So Lucille Ball is the reason we have Star Trek. Well, I now unveil a deeply buried piece of nerd gold.
Song Parodies -> Lucy's In Production Of Star Trek
| Original Song Title: | "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" |
| Original Performer: | The Beatles |
| Parody Song Title: | "Lucy's In Production Of Star Trek" |
| Parody Written by: | Steve Kalafut |
This is the second, and hopefully last, time I'll step on Johnny D's concept album. I couldn't resist this because the original Star Trek involved a real-live Lucy, as in Lucille Ball, co-owner of the studio which first produced the series. NBC would eventually run the show, but rejected its pilot episode, called "The Cage". Mr. Roddenberry then had to scrap all the original characters, except one, and would base his new Captain on a certain American president.
Picture yourself with a new TV pilot
With starships which travel and warp through the skies
Everyone tells you, you must rearrange things
Before they will give it a try
None of your characters they let you keep
But for one with pointy ears
Look for the woman with bright orange hair and she's here
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
Follow their orders to find a new Captain
With Kennedy's daring to do what he'll do
None of the studios wanted your program
Except for one named Desilu
Afterwards Star Trek is on for three years
Space is the final frontier
Sit on the bridge, have the helmsman engage and you're gone
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
Picture your show in rerun syndication
The Next Generation and movies compare
Suddenly someone stands in the transporter
The woman with bright orange hair
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
With starships which travel and warp through the skies
Everyone tells you, you must rearrange things
Before they will give it a try
None of your characters they let you keep
But for one with pointy ears
Look for the woman with bright orange hair and she's here
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
Follow their orders to find a new Captain
With Kennedy's daring to do what he'll do
None of the studios wanted your program
Except for one named Desilu
Afterwards Star Trek is on for three years
Space is the final frontier
Sit on the bridge, have the helmsman engage and you're gone
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
Picture your show in rerun syndication
The Next Generation and movies compare
Suddenly someone stands in the transporter
The woman with bright orange hair
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek
Lucy's in production of Star Trek, aaaah
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Bill Maher hits it on the head.
He said it much better than I could (or Mark Ames for that matter) but this is pretty much my problem with the rally for sanity.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
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