July 23, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, paco said: Where do you think you are, the blog? This whole place is my blog
July 25, 20241 yr Southwest Airlines is getting rid of open seating F'n finally. I'm tired of the dips***'s who fly this airline think it applies to other airlines. Hell, it's been 4 years since I've had to fly for business since the pandemic and only my flight to Columbus last week I saw someone in 10F having to be explained this.... and then having to be explained 29B means they are in the 29th row, middle seat Maybe Southwest will continue to improve and bar using trash bags as acceptable carry on luggage.
July 25, 20241 yr Author 7 minutes ago, paco said: Makes my head hurt on multiple levels: I think this is in @BFit's near future
July 25, 20241 yr 11 minutes ago, DrPhilly said: I think this is in @BFit's near future Can I write hemi on the batteries?
July 25, 20241 yr Author 4 minutes ago, BFit said: Can I write hemi on the batteries? oh yes you can https://www.sound-booster.com/en/sets/electric-vehicle.html add this thing as well
July 25, 20241 yr 2 hours ago, DrPhilly said: oh yes you can https://www.sound-booster.com/en/sets/electric-vehicle.html add this thing as well isnt that from a kevin james movie?
July 25, 20241 yr 13 hours ago, DrPhilly said: @Arthur Jackson this might work for you I wonder if she charges extra for "artisinal" gases... going on a pesto diet for week, drinking raw sheep's milk, etc.
July 25, 20241 yr Author 24 minutes ago, Arthur Jackson said: I wonder if she charges extra for "artisinal" gases... going on a pesto diet for week, drinking raw sheep's milk, etc. Yes, she said as much in an interview. Some guy paid her $1000 to eat an entire cheddar cheese block and then capture the output. At least that is what she claimed.
July 26, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, DrPhilly said: Yes, she said as much in an interview. Some guy paid her $1000 to eat an entire cheddar cheese block and then capture the output. At least that is what she claimed. Thanks! I'll be shipping her a wheel of Roquefort and some pickled herring forthwith!
July 26, 20241 yr 10 minutes ago, DEagle7 said: This makes me unreasonably upset Agreed. They waste time on that but not put resources into determining when a spicy chicken nugget ends and a boneless wing begins
July 26, 20241 yr 19 minutes ago, paco said: Agreed. They waste time on that but not put resources into determining when a spicy chicken nugget ends and a boneless wing begins That at least seems like it has some gray area where you could debate the issue. Calling something "boneless" that has bones makes me think we should just abandon Ohio as a state.
July 26, 20241 yr Place your bets.... Quote French rail lines disrupted by ‘coordinated sabotage’ ahead of Paris Olympics opening ceremony France’s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple "malicious” acts including arson on Friday, in what has been described as "an attack on France” and "coordinated sabotage” to disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The French state railway company SNCF said in a post on X that "a large number of trains were diverted or canceled,” and asked "all travelers who can to postpone their trip and not go to the station.” By Friday afternoon its services had partially resumed though widespread disruption continued. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but given their scale and precision, it is clear they are more than just random acts of vandalism. An intelligence source told CNN that French intelligence services are "fully mobilized” to find those responsible. The source added that "these methods have been used by the far-left in the past” but "there is no evidence to tie today’s actions to them.” The operator said the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines were impacted, with damage caused to several of its facilities, adding that one of the acts was "foiled” in the east after SNCF agents scared off several individuals. The Atlantic line services the west and southwest of France from Paris, the Northern line takes travelers from the French capital to Lille and the Eastern line journeys from Paris to Strasbourg. SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou told journalists on Friday that cables – which are there to ensure the security of train drivers – were set on fire and taken apart but that authorities "don’t know who is behind it.” But it was likely someone who had very "precise information” that was behind the attack, according to Axel Persson, a leader of the CGT rail union. He told CNN that a railway worker or industrial espionage might be to blame, but also underlined that it was thanks to railway workers that one of the attacks was foiled. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the attack and detailed four separate charges, relating to the damage of state property and taking part in organized crime. Some of the crimes listed are punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of €300,000 ($325,000). Outgoing French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday afternoon he was not aware of any arrests so far. Following emergency repairs, most trains on the eastern network were running with delays of about an hour by Friday afternoon but only a third of trains were running on the Atlantic side, regional SNCF director Frank Dubourdieu told reporters in a news conference. ‘We didn’t need a day like this’ Disruptions – which SNCF estimated could impact around 250,000 travelers today – were expected throughout the weekend, affecting 800,000 passengers, as work crews oversee repairs, it added. Passengers milled around outside Paris’ Gare du Nord train station and sat with their luggage on staircases as the disruption laid waste to their travel plans. Francoise, an 80-year-old from La Rochelle, was trying to get home and back to her nurse after medical treatment in Paris. She told CNN she was preparing to wait another five hours in the forlorn hope of catching a train. "We didn’t need a day like this!” she said. Meanwhile, a couple stuck at Gare Montparnasse were forced to watch their friends’ wedding ceremony by phone on Friday. Alexandre and Camille were hoping to reach the western city of Poitiers for the civil ceremony, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV, but watched it on a video call since they were unable to rent a car. They should be able to get to Poitiers for the secular ceremony over the weekend, Alexandre added. "I don’t know where to go. I was only here to change trains,” Marguerite, a 24-year-old professor, told CNN in Gare Montparnasse as she tried to make her way home to Brittany, northwest France. "I’m trying to call friends to see where I can sleep tonight … We are blocked here.” Two trains carrying Olympic athletes were also affected. Dubourdieu told journalists that "of all four Olympic trains, only two were able to run, one was canceled and a third is being prepared.” Repair works should take at least a day but could take longer on the Atlantic line, Dubourdieu said, as the company attempts to source cables from all over France. Farandou explained that they have to pull the damaged cables back together one by one, reconnect and test them. "It’s a question of security,” he said. "We have to make sure we test them so when trains are back up and running, they are safe.” Eurostar, the high-speed train service that connects the United Kingdom with France, is canceling a quarter of its trains this weekend due to the "coordinated acts of malice” on French lines. It is encouraging customers to postpone their trip if possible, it said in a statement. These incidents come just hours before the Olympic torch relay concludes and the opening ceremony begins, with more than 320,000 spectators expected to attend along the River Seine. The opening ceremony will go ahead as planned, a Paris 2024 spokesperson told CNN, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told reporters he has "full confidence” in the French authorities and security protocols already in place. ‘Coordinated sabotage’ Speaking to BFMTV, Oudéa-Castera condemned the attacks in the "strongest possible terms,” and said it is "truly appalling.” The French minister of sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, said the disruption to the train lines are "a sort of coordinated sabotage.” "We will assess the impacts on travelers, athletes, and ensure the proper transport of all delegations to the competition sites,” she said. Other French officials agreed that the attacks were intentional. Attal said the incidents were "prepared and organized” in a way that "shows a kind of knowledge of the network in order to know where to strike,” while the SNCF called the disruption an "attack on France.” In response to the attacks, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said Friday that police are stepping up security and focusing manpower on the capital’s train stations. Security in Paris had already been bolstered in recent weeks. France plans to deploy around 35,000 police each day during the Games, peaking at 45,000 for the opening ceremony, a spokesperson at the French interior ministry previously told CNN. In addition, 10,000 soldiers will be deployed in the Paris region – an effort supported by 1,800 police officers from around the world, they added. Nicolas Nordman, deputy Paris mayor in charge of security, recently told CNN that authorities had been working for months to try to anticipate what might happen and were confident the ceremony would be safe. Bach, the IOC president, said that intelligence agencies of other countries are also involved in the games’ security. "The French authorities are assisted by 180 other intelligence services around the world. Not only by information, some of them are even deploying their human resources, so we have good reason to have full confidence,” he said. There has been growing domestic unrest in France, powered in part by recent national elections that saw a battle between the left and far-right. Interior Minister Darmanin confirmed security forces had detained a "member of the extreme-right” this week who was "suspected of wanting to commit violent action during the Olympic Games.” According to Darmanin, the man had an "intention to intervene during a phase of the torch relay.” At the same time, France has been among many European countries impacted by a wave of attacks that have been linked by officials to Russia. They have included arson and acts of sabotage against infrastructure. Russia has not responded to the allegations. Earlier this week, French authorities detained a Russian citizen in Paris, accusing him of preparing destabilizing events during the Olympics. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia did not have any information on the arrest. I'm going with Just Stop Oil
July 30, 20241 yr https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3geyvpxpeyo A group of scientists say they have found new evidence to back up their theory that complex life on Earth may have begun 1.5 billion years earlier than thought. The team, working in Gabon, say they discovered evidence deep within rocks showing environmental conditions for animal life 2.1 billion years ago. But they say the organisms were restricted to an inland sea, did not spread globally and eventually died out. The ideas are a big departure from conventional thinking and not all scientists agree. Most experts believe animal life began around 635 million years ago. The research adds to an ongoing debate over whether so-far unexplained formations found in Franceville, Gabon are actually fossils or not. The scientists looked at the rock around the formations to see if they showed evidence of containing nutrients like oxygen and phosphorus that could have supported life.
July 30, 20241 yr I am NOT @Gannan. As such, I did NOT once rent a movie called Gaywatch: Fire Island Patrol from the curtained-off area in the back of the video store then turn it in without rewinding it. To reiterate, I did NOT do these things because I am NOT @Gannan.
August 1, 20241 yr Man, they rushed this one through the courts Quote US reaches plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed The US has reached a plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants accused of plotting the 2001 terror attacks, according to the Defense Department. The pretrial agreement – reached after 27 months of negotiations – takes the death penalty off the table for Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa al Hawsawi, prosecutors said in a letter, obtained by CNN, sent to the families of 9/11 victims and survivors shortly before the Department of Defense announced the news in a press release Wednesday evening. After beginning negotiations in March 2022, the three men agreed to plead guilty to all charges, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charging sheet, the families were told. Mohammed and his co-defendants will enter guilty pleas at a plea hearing that could come as early as next week, according to the letter. "We recognize that the status of the case in general, and this news in particular, will understandably and appropriately elicit intense emotion, and we also realize that the decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement will be met with mixed reactions amongst the thousands of family members who lost loved ones,” prosecutors wrote in the letter. "The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case.” ‘The least bad deal’ The plea agreement avoids what would have been a long and complicated death penalty trial against Mohammed. "This is the least bad deal in the real world that would ever happen,” said Peter Bergen, a terrorism expert and CNN national security analyst who has written extensively about Osama bin Laden. The government faced the difficult challenge of advancing a case that had stalled over the course of the two decades since Mohammed’s capture in Pakistan in 2003 for his alleged involvement in the terror attacks. "They were still in pre-trial hearings,” Bergen told CNN. "Getting some kind of deal is better.” In 2008, Mohammed was charged with a list of crimes including conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, and terrorism and material support of terrorism. The US had said it would seek the death penalty for Mohammed. But the military trial against Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators was delayed for years as the US tried to determine how to handle the issue of torture used against Mohammed and others at secret CIA prisons in the 2000s. The issue posed a legal problem for prosecutors about whether evidence obtained through torture was admissible in court. The trial was set to begin on January 11, 2021, but delays brought about by the resignation of two judges and the coronavirus pandemic pushed the date back again. The three alleged conspirators will still face a sentencing hearing where the parties will present evidence to argue for an appropriate sentence short of the death penalty. That sentencing hearing will not occur before next summer, according to the letter sent to families. "During the sentencing hearings in this case, there may be an opportunity for a member of your family to testify about the impact the September 11 attacks have had on you and your loved ones, and to provide a victim impact statement that will be considered by the military jury in determining a sentence,” prosecutors said in the letter. The letter notes that prosecutors met with families for feedback about possible plea agreements as is required by law. As part of the agreement, the defendants agreed to answer written questions from the surviving victims and victims’ families about their roles and reasons for conducting the attacks. The families now have 45 days to submit questions to be answered by the alleged co-conspirators by the end of the year, the letter says. According to the letter, the prosecutors plan to travel to meet with the families in person this fall to discuss the plea agreements. Families of victims push back But some families pushed back on the plea agreements Wednesday. Brett Eagleson, the president of 9/11 Justice, an organization that represents 9/11 survivors and family members of victims, said in a statement that the families are "deeply troubled by these plea deals” and pushed for more information about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the attacks. "While we acknowledge the decision to avoid the death penalty, our primary concern remains access to these individuals for information. These plea deals should not perpetuate a system of closed-door agreements, where crucial information is hidden without giving the families of the victims the chance to learn the full truth.” "We urge the administration to ensure that these deals do not close the door on obtaining critical information that can shed light on Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks. Our quest for justice will not waver until the full truth is revealed, and justice is served for the victims and their families,” Eagleson said. Terry Strada, the national chair for 9/11 Families United, said the news came as a gut punch as she stepped out of a Manhattan federal courthouse Wednesday afternoon from a daylong hearing in the families’ ongoing litigation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Strada expressed concern that the plea deal news will overshadow the newly unsealed evidence in the families’ fight to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its purported role in the terror plot. The kingdom has denied any involvement in the attacks. "No family member knew this was coming,” she said. "I’m very suspicious of the timing of it. This is the biggest day in our entire case. Biggest day in 23 years of trying to obtain justice for the murder of our loved ones. And they offer those guys a plea deal.” It’s unclear where Mohammed and his co-defendants will serve out their sentences. The Biden administration has made it a priority to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba where the defendants have been held, repatriating several detainees who were no longer considered significant threats to national security. But dozens of detainees still remain in the facility. TL;DR: 3 mass murdering terrorists who planned 9/11, including the head honcho, no longer will get the death penalty.
August 1, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, paco said: Man, they rushed this one through the courts TL;DR: 3 mass murdering terrorists who planned 9/11, including the head honcho, no longer will get the death penalty. How in the hell are we 23 years from the event and 16 from their capture and they're still in pre-trial motions? WTF?
August 1, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, JohnSnowsHair said: How in the hell are we 23 years from the event and 16 from their capture and they're still in pre-trial motions? WTF?
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