Pakistan’s only Christian minister shot dead over blasphemy law opposition
Pakistan’s only Christian minister has been shot dead by suspected militants after receiving a series of death threats over his support for persecuted Christians and his opposition to the country’s controversial blasphemy law.
via Law – Blogrunner.
http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D/5/0/pakistans_only_christian_minister_shot_dead_over_blasphemy_law_opposition/
As gasoline prices race toward $4 a gallon, jumping 37 cents in the last two weeks, Chicago’s Department of Fleet Management is benefiting from forward contracts that locked in some of the city’s unleaded and diesel purchases before prices spiked.
via The Pulse – As the Price of Gasoline Rises, the City Fleet Is Saving Money – NYTimes.com.
The Virginia State Police on Monday identified the man they said shot four police officers, two of them fatally, in southwestern Virginia last weekend, but the motive for the shooting remained unclear. The man, Gilbert Newberry, 52, was shot to death by the police on Sunday after refusing to surrender, the authorities said. He had hidden on a wooded hillside and fired a high-powered rifle at officers responding to a call of possible larceny at a scrap yard in rural Buchanan County. The state police identified the dead officers as Cameron Justus, 41, and William Stiltner, 46. The wounded officers, who were both in critical condition on Monday, were Erik Rasnake, 32, and Shane Charles, 25.
via Virginia – Gunman Kills 2 Sheriff’s Deputies – NYTimes.com.
“No one heard, ‘Stop! Police!’ ” James Carver, the president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, said.
However, someone seems to have yelled something: officers have said that a civilian at the chaotic scene — possibly a retired New York City police sergeant — was heard yelling “Gun! Gun!” or words to that effect just before Officer Geoffrey J. Breitkopf, who was in plain clothes and carrying a rifle, was shot on Saturday night, Mr. Carver said.
If the account is accurate, it adds a member of a third police department, albeit retired, to the scrum of officers outside a crime scene where a lack of recognition among officers proved fatal. The officer who fired the fatal shot was from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s police department.
The union’s account of the shooting of Officer Breitkopf, 40, a 12-year veteran of the Nassau County force, also suggests that his fellow Nassau officers knew he was a police officer but that the transit agency officer who shot him, Glenn Gentile, 33, did not.
The shooting occurred outside a home in Massapequa Park where, a few minutes earlier, a deranged man, Anthony DiGeronimo, 21, had reportedly lunged at Nassau County officers with knives after a neighbor called 911 to report that he had threatened her on the street. Officers shot and killed him in his home in what the Police Department called self-defense.
Detective Vincent Garcia, a spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department, which is investigating the shooting of Officer Breitkopf, said he could not confirm the union president’s account.
Officer Gentile, 33, has been with the transit agency’s police force for five years, and his father, Roger, who died in 2007, was a Nassau police detective. Officer Gentile had been at a nearby Long Island Rail Road station with a partner when they heard the call about the situation on the Nassau County police radio frequency and responded. Interagency shows of support are not uncommon and go in both directions.
Officer Breitkopf, a member of the Nassau police’s Bureau of Special Operations, which responds to shootings and other violent situations, arrived with his partner in an unmarked car about 10 minutes after the shooting of Mr. DiGeronimo and emerged from it, in plain clothes, carrying an M4 rifle, Mr. Carver said. The officers had radioed ahead to announce their arrival on the same radio frequency that the transit agency’s officers had been monitoring, Mr. Carver said.
Officer Breitkopf, who was wearing a badge on a chain around his neck, exchanged pleasantries with Nassau County officers across the street from the DiGeronimo house and said he was going to go up for a look, Mr. Carver said.
It is unclear where Officer Gentile was when Officer Breitkopf arrived.
According to Nassau County officers at the scene, Officer Breitkopf was wearing his rifle on a sling around his shoulder, its barrel pointed down along his right side and his hand against it to keep it from banging, Mr. Carver said.
“He doesn’t have his finger on the trigger, obviously, but he has his hand on the rifle to secure it to keep it close to his body,” Mr. Carver said.
via Cry of ‘Gun!’ Is Claimed in Fatal Shooting of Nassau Officer – NYTimes.com.
Via Wikipedia Entry 2011 Faisalabad Bombing:
The 2011 Faisalabad bombing occurred on 8 March 2011. ((Masood, Salman (8 March 2011). “Car Bomb Kills at Least 24 Near Spy Agency in Pakistan”. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/world/asia/09pakistan-blast.html. Retrieved 8 March 2011)). At least 25 people were killed and over 127 wounded when a car bomb
blast occurred in a compressed natural gas
This underscores the target value of energy storage to terrorist attacks, which has two aspects:
Regular readers know that when Matthew L. Wald‘s byline appears in The New York Times, we pay attention. In “Obama Considers Tapping Oil Reserve, ” we suspect that space considerations forced the omission of certain important background details. First, excerpts from Mr. Wald’s piece:
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to rapidly rising gasoline prices brought on by turmoil in the Middle East, the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, said on Sunday.
“It’s something that only has been done on very rare occasions,” Mr. Daley said on “Meet the Press” on
Image by Infrogmation via Wikimedia Commons.
NBC, adding, “It’s something we’re considering.”
Administration officials have sent mixed signals about the possibility of opening the reserve, which would add supply to the domestic oil market and tend to push down prices.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Friday that the administration was monitoring prices, but he has been reluctant to endorse more aggressive steps.
“We don’t want to be totally reactive so that when the price goes up, everybody panics, and when it goes back down, everybody goes back to sleep,” he said.
A few days earlier, Mr. Chu said the administration was watching the situation closely, but it expected oil production that had been lost in Libya would be made up by production elsewhere.
Administration officials continue to emphasize the critical need for long-term steps to reduce oil use, like improving the fuel economy of cars and promoting battery-powered vehicles.
But recently, five Senate Democrats have called for opening the reserve, which is stored in four salt domes in Texas and Louisiana. And on Feb. 24, three House Democrats from New England, where oil is used to heat homes, wrote to Mr. Obama saying that while exporters could increase production, “they also profit from oil price spikes and therefore have little incentive to quickly respond with the increased supply needed to calm markets.”
“We don’t want to be totally reactive so that when the price goes up, everybody panics, and when it goes back down, everybody goes back to sleep,” he said.
A few days earlier, Mr. Chu said the administration was watching the situation closely, but it expected oil production that had been lost in Libya would be made up by production elsewhere.
Administration officials continue to emphasize the critical need for long-term steps to reduce oil use, like improving the fuel economy of cars and promoting battery-powered vehicles.
The Guardian News Blog has committed substantial resources to covering developments not only in Egypt, but in every country where popular sentiment for change has made itself known. Here’s one excerpt from the last hour or so (times are, we think, GMT):
“We’ve been very clear from the beginning that we do not want to see any violence. We deplore it. We think it is absolutely unacceptable,” Clinton told the ABC News program This Week, according to a transcript released by the network. She stopped short of calling for regime change.
“We very much want to see the human rights of the people protected, including right to assemble, right to express themselves, and we want to see reform,” Clinton said. “And so Bahrain had started on some reform, and we want to see them get back to that as quickly as possible.”
Lee Valley is offering this Trunk Organizer/Storage Bin for only $13.50 (USD). My personal experience with Lee Valley has always been good.
Lee Valley Trunk Organizer/Storage Bin
From Lee Valley’s description:
This is a product anyone can use. We designed this soft-sided interpretation of the ubiquitous milk crate after finding similar products to be overpriced or poorly executed. This one has hinged rigid panels to give the sidewalls support, while allowing the two-compartment container to collapse into a compact 3″ thick bundle, making it easy to store (and easy for us to ship!).
Made from a tough woven polyester, it has padded handles and piped edges, and measures 23-1/2″x13″x7-1/2″ when open. The coated interior surface helps to contain any spills, and makes it easy to clean. It is ideal for use in a car or truck, holding all sorts of items to keep them from sliding or rolling around as you drive, particularly for keeping grocery bags upright. In the home, it?s as useful as a basket for both storage and transport of anything from woodshop offcuts to children?s toys.
via Trunk Organizer/Storage Bin – Lee Valley Tools.
Some caveats: There’s no lid, so it’s either got to end up on the top of things – or at least without anything on top of it. On the other hand – for quick hauling of anything – perhaps to and from a vehicle, or other hastily assembled packages, one or more might do well kept in their folded state. My calculations suggest about 2291 cubic inches; corrections or confirmations from readers welcome.
And here are some additional images:
In Stucknation: 911 Off the Hook, WNYC’s Bob Hennelly outlines the current problems – basic problems – with the nation’s 911 emergency telephone reporting/dispatch systems in coping with the proliferation of mobile phones:
Almost a decade after the attacks of September 11th the nation’s most essential emergency local lifeline — 911 — remains a local patchwork of antiquated technology vulnerable to failure when people need it most.
In 2010 the Congressional Research Service, CSR, reported the nation’s underlying 911 local call systems “operate exclusively on an analog technology using an architecture of circuits and switches” that date back to when ATT was the “regulated monopoly providing most of the nation’s phone service.”
That monopoly was broken up in 1984, 27 years ago. As we know, digital technology and cell phones have been dominant for years.
Yet even now, CSR finds 911 systems across the country are “unable to accommodate the latest advances in telecommunications technology and are increasingly out-dated, costly to maintain, and in danger of failure.”
Consider the tragic case of the Virginia Tech students in 2007 caught up in that grisly mass shooting. Many thought they could text 911. They could not. And yet even today the overwhelming number of Americans cannot text 911. The college kids must have thought that surely, by 2007, the grown-ups would have figured out how to make that possible and made it happen. Continue reading
Google Chrome – Get a fast new browser. For PC, Mac, and Linux.
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* Helicopter Rope Suspension Technique
[edit] References
1. ? [1]
2. ? FMFM 7-40 Helicopter Rope Suspension Training (HRST) Operations
3. ? Bruce F. Meyers, Fortune Favors the Brave: The Story of First Force Recon, (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000).
via Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction – Wikipedia.
Media related to Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction at Wikimedia CommonsThe Special Personnel Insertion/Extraction was first designed by the Marines of 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, the Marine division’s 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing riggers. They created and combat tested several versions of the SPIE before it was officially recommended to be tested. In May 1970, the commanding general of 3rd Marine Amphibious Force coordinated input from the 1st Marine Division and his 1st Marine Air Wing. A request was sent to the Commandant of the Marine Corps and to the Development Center for certification of the SPIE rig and to its safety and use.[3]
The parachute test jumpers of the Naval Parachute Unit (NPU) and Marine Corps, all qualified parachutist designers and engineers, assembled together at El Centro for the initial testing and evaluation of the SPIE rig. After a few test dummies were tried, Marine Major Bruce F. Meyers, and along with four Navy NPU parachutist engineers, successfully attempted the first flight on the SPIE assembly.
[edit] See also
* Helicopter Rope Suspension Technique
[edit] References
1. ? [1]
2. ? FMFM 7-40 Helicopter Rope Suspension Training (HRST) Operations
3. ? Bruce F. Meyers, Fortune Favors the Brave: The Story of First Force Recon, (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000).
[edit] External links
* Media related to Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction at Wikimedia Commons
GlobalSecurity.org article
via Fulton surface-to-air recovery system – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Fulton surface-to-air recovery system
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Fulton system in use
The Fulton system in use from below
The Fulton surface-to-air recovery system (STARS) is a system used by the CIA, United States Air Force and United States Navy for retrieving persons on the ground from an MC-130E Combat Talon I aircraft. It involves using an overall-type harness and a self-inflating balloon which carries an attached lift line. An MC-130E engages the line with its V-shaped yoke and the individual is reeled on board. Red flags on the lift line guide the pilot during daylight recoveries; lights on the lift line are used for night recoveries. Recovery kits were designed for one and two-man retrievals.
This system was developed by inventor Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. for the Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1950s. It was an evolution from a similar system that was used during World War II by American and British forces. The earlier system did not use a balloon, but had a pair of poles that were set in the ground on either side of the person to be retrieved, with a line running from the top of one pole to the other. An aircraft, usually a C-47 Skytrain, would trail a grappling hook and engage the line, which was attached to the person to be retrieved.
via Fulton surface-to-air recovery system – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
