Wino

Maybe these giant dust storms are similiar to the ones in Oklahoma in the 1930's?

SYDNEY (AFP) – A giant dust storm swept eastern Australia on Saturday, turning Sydney's air yellow and causing breathing problems just days after the worst such incident in decades caused apocalyptic scenes in the city.

Howling winds pushed the 200-kilometre (125-mile) wide cloud of desert dust through Sydney and up the coast to Brisbane, prompting a rash of emergency calls as residents choked on gritty air.

While Sydney's early-morning visibility was sharply reduced, the storm did not approach Wednesday's doomsday situation, when the city awoke to an unearthly red glow and was coated with a fine layer of grit.

Satellite pictures showed the thick band of dust sweeping from central Australia towards the east coast, with visibility in Sydney limited to five kilometres, said forecaster Barry Hanstrum.

"We've got an area of widespread dust but not as thick as it was on Wednesday," said Hanstrum.

Sydney's air quickly cleared in blustery conditions as the storm headed north. However, emergency services registered a sharp increase in call-outs for people with breathing problems.

"Thankfully, it's not as busy as it was on Wednesday with the amount of dust that has been around," Sydney paramedic David Morris told public broadcaster ABC.

"But between seven and eight o'clock this morning we still had double our jobs for breathing problems compared to yesterday," he said.

Wednesday's storm, which was visible from space and left hundreds of people needing treatment for breathing problems, was reportedly Australia's worst in 70 years.

The storm was estimated to have dumped millions of tonnes of dust on the east coast with particles later landing in New Zealand -- around 4,000 kilometres away over the Tasman Sea.

Weather bureau forecaster Jane Golding said it was extremely rare to see two large dust clouds so close together.

"(It would be) be pretty unusual if we get another one any time soon," she told ABC.

The storms have been whipped up by strong winds following the hottest August on record, gathering dust left by southeastern Australia's crippling, decade-long drought.

Residents of Young, west of Sydney, said plumes of dust whirled through the country town early on Saturday.

"Standing outside my place now looking at the clock tower, it's about half a kilometre away. You can just see it, with the thickness of it, you can just see the town lights," said Young resident B.J. Wyse.

"It's just like a red glow. I just talked to a friend of mine in Cootamundra and it's going through there as well, so yep, it's back again," he told state radio.

Saturday's storm hit with residents still clearing their homes and cars after the first, and as Queensland state firefighters battle a number of bush blazes.

Some interesting facts about Thailand

• Thailand has been ranked as 84th least corrupted country in the world according to the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International.

• Thailand was known as Siam until 1949, and it was later changed to Thailand.

• The country was never colonised, and thus the country retains its culture and religion.

• According to a 2008 survey, country’s population is around 65 million

• Thailand is world’s 49th largest country, which is larger than California state of US

• The country spends a good portion of its money on importing fuel. Thailand imported the furl worth US$18.5 billion this year.

• The country is getting extremely popular as a medical tourism destination. The country earned 36.4 billion baht (US$1 billion) in the year 2006.

• Thailand's Board of Investment (BoI) offers numerous incentives in order to promote foreign investment in the country.

• Thai people don’t like anyone touching their head. This is governed by a belief that a person’s soul resides in head. So, you should never touch a Thai on the head.

Another interesting fact is the Thai greeting "sawatdee" was invented during the Second World War. Before that, people greeted each other by asking if they had eaten yet or "Kin khao laew ru yang?"

It's not often that we can learn from a third world Country but Bangladesh has recently (under the auspices of good Governance)launched a website which aims to bring the community and the police closer together. It is felt that people are not brave enough to confront police mis-behaviour face-to-face so it is hoped they raise their concerns online. Maybe we can consider a similar project which will hopefully enable the bad apples in the otherwise good Police Force to be sorted out!

Sounds like a great idea, although I do not believe the majority of the people in Bangladesh have access to a computer (I may be mistaken). I hope they give it a go in Thailand.

Legalize it, yes, regulate it, HELL NO.

Government will not legalize prostitution without some sort of regulation and tax. I would be for legalization and regulation of safe sex through required medical check-ups. Some sort of license for the prostitute may satisfy the government's need for revenue.

This is a story that appeared in the Nation a few weeks ago. Do you think it is wise to legalize prostitution?

UDON THANI: -- Udon Thani Industrial Council chairman Prayoon Homewong has called on the government to legalise prostitution.

"We can never get rid of it. So, I think we should pass laws to regulate it," Prayoon said at a meeting with relevant authorities in Udon Thani.

He described "prostitution" as an old profession, which many foreign countries have recognised legally.

Prayoon added that if the flesh trade were stamped out altogether, sex crimes would soar.

"If there were laws to regulate prostitution, sex workers would be eligible for legal protection and benefits, while the government would earn income from the tax," Prayoon said. "And it would be easier to control."

He added that red-light district zoning could be imposed once laws were passed, before urging MPs and ministers to seriously consider his proposal.

Register would stigmatise

Friends of Women Foundation director Thanavadee Thajeen agreed with imposing zoning and providing prostitutes with access to social security in line with other careers, but moves towards a prostitute-regulation system could only come after consultation with relevant groups.

"There are so many karaoke lounges and other night spots with covert prostitution and some are located near temples and schools. Zoning could help solve this problem," Thanavadee said.

"However, I don't agree with the registration system because it could adversely affect sex workers. Registration means a woman is willing to be stigmatised for the rest of her life as a prostitute, which may effect her chance of finding another other job in the future," she said.

Thanavadee urged relevant agencies to organise public forums in each region for prostitutes to discuss their problems with women's rights activists. Then it would become clear whether the prostitutes want regulation or not, she said.

Regardless of whether prostitution was legalised, she said the government should help prostitutes gain access to the social security system. Prostitutes' employers should be forced to register with their Social Security Office as employers, she said.

"Campaigns among men to deter them from buying sex from women should help - if there are no buyers, there won't be sellers," she said.

This is old news but it is hard to believe the junta blames Suu Kyi and her staff for the actions of a nutty American. The nutcase goes home and Suu Kyi pays for his actions.

(New York) - The politically motivated guilty verdict against the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is a reprehensible abuse of power by Burma's military government, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on Burma's allies and other governments to condemn the verdict, demand the Nobel Prize laureate's immediate and unconditional release, and impose additional targeted sanctions against the military leadership.

On August 11, 2009, a criminal court inside Insein prison in Rangoon sentenced Suu Kyi to 3 years of imprisonment for violating her order for house arrest, with the sentence reduced to 18 months, to be served under house arrest.

"This trial was a farce, a brutal distortion of the legal process," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "By silencing prominent opponents through bogus trials, the generals are clearly showing why the elections they have been touting for next year won't bring change."

Police arrested Suu Kyi, 64, and her two assistants, Khin Khin Win, 65, and her daughter, Win Ma Ma, 41, on May 14, 2009, and transferred them to Insein prison in the commercial capital, Rangoon. They went on trial on May 18, charged with breaching the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest order by permitting the uninvited visit of an American, John William Yettaw, on May 4 and 5.

Yettaw has been sentenced to 7 years in prison with hard labor, convicted of the same charges of breaching Aung San Suu Kyi's detention order, and with breaching immigration laws. All four defendants were charged under the draconian State Emergency Act (also known as the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts).

Criminal trials of political prisoners in Burma do not meet international fair trial standards. The judges are not independent, and the defense does not have an adequate opportunity to present its case. Suu Kyi's trial lasted from May 18 to July 31, with frequent delays. The court permitted 14 witnesses for the prosecution, but only two for the defense, despite several appeals by Suu Kyi's lawyers to present additional witnesses.

The trial has been closed to the public, with foreign diplomats and the press only permitted to observe the trial on a few occasions. The prosecution claimed that Suu Kyi was jointly responsible with the authorities, who place guards around her home, for the breach of security on her residence, and, therefore, the intrusion violated the terms of her house arrest.

"There was never any doubt that the verdict would be a purely political decision," said Adams. "Any suggestion that evidence presented or excluded had any impact on the outcome of this fraudulent trial is ridiculous."

Suu Kyi's trial had already been widely condemned by the international community. US President Barack Obama called it "a show trial." The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, visited Burma on July 3 and 4, but was denied access to Suu Kyi. Even a normally close ally of the Burmese government, Singapore, expressed "dismay" at the arrest, calling it "a setback for the national reconciliation process."

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also called for her release: a statement by the ASEAN chair, Thailand, "expresse[d] grave concern about recent developments relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," reminding Burma's military government that "as a responsible member of ASEAN, [burma] has the responsibility to protect and promote human rights."

Human Rights Watch called on ASEAN to use the recently formed ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights, the terms of reference for which were agreed on July 20, to hold the Burmese government to account for its actions.

Burma's supporters and trade partners - namely China, Russia, India, and ASEAN member states - should denounce this verdict and explore measures to impose targeted financial sanctions against the military leadership in Burma. Countries already imposing targeted sanctions - including the US, the European Union, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada - should expand and tighten the existing targeted financial sanctions, which focus on individual abusers and companies but not the population at large.

The UN Security Council should condemn Burma strongly and finally move to take meaningful action against Burma's military rulers. This could include an international arms embargo and other targeted sanctions on Burma.

"Burma's allies, such as China, Russia, and India, need to exert pressure on Burma's military rulers to free Suu Kyi immediately," said Adams. "It's time for ASEAN, the UN, and concerned governments to match their words of condemnation with action."

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/11/burma-aung-san-suu-kyi-verdict-reprehensible

This from the Nation about two policmen arrested:

BANGKOK: -- Two Bangkok policemen arrested recently in Mukdahan province have been suspended pending further investigations into their alleged crime.

The two officers, Pol Major Phayung Meephaithoon and Pol Sr SgtMajor Thanadol Srinisai, were arrested on September 19 along with two civilian suspects - Chatchawal Khwaengchuen and Ratchanee, a woman whose surname was not revealed.

Pol Colonel Jamras Chaiyasak, chief of Don Tan district police in Mukdahan, dismissed both officers' claim that they were buying amphetamine from the two civilians as part of a sting operation. Jamras instead said they had they failed to make arrests and hand the civilians over to local police as required under normal procedure.

All suspects have been charged with possessing illegal drugs with the intent to sell, while the officers also face charges of carrying firearms without permission and reasonable cause. Jamras said a Bangkok police division, that the two officers come under, has denied that the two had been given the job of conducting a sting operation in Mukdahan.

So when it comes to getting a part of your body enhanced, come to Thailand.

I wonder if Thailand is any better for plastic surgery than say Mexico, Ecuador, India, Philippines or any other developing nation?

Seasonal flu is usually far worse among the elderly, who make up 90 percent of the deaths every year. In contrast, this flu is attacking younger adults and older children, but they are not dying of it at the same rate as the elderly, Lipsitch said.

Because the swine flu was attacking and killing people in a younger age group than the elderly, I think this alarmed governments, health care professionals, and the media. Therefore all the hype. Similiar to the hype about swine flu in the 70's.

There's nothing in the Constitution that says you have to be a lawyer in order to be on the Supreme Court.

Given some of the decisions the current court has made I'd say that clowns, serial killers, car salesmen and Delta Burke might do a better job.

How right you are. Since there are no set rules or qualifications for a Supreme Court nominee, my ten year old nephew could sit on the court if nominated by the president and passed by the senate. That being said, I do not believe there has been a Supreme Court justice in our history that has not been a lawyer.

Is Chaing Mai worth it for us tourist wise or is it mostly just a bunch of rich Thais?

Chaing Mai is worth a visit. Loy Kratong would be a good time to visit.

ON Koh Larn when you get off the ferry the busier beaches with restaurants and shops are to the left. There is a nice quiet beach to the right. The food and drink seems to be a bit higher, but you will nearly have the beach to yourself.

There are two different ferry destinations. One that lands in a little town facing Pattaya. The other ferry lands on the opposite side of the island. I think lvdkeyes is talking about the opposite side of the island.

How old is the 22 pound 8 ounce baby now? How big?

Not sure about that baby, but they say the Italain champion boxer Primo Carbera was 22 pounds at birth on October 26, 1906. He grew to a height of six feet 5.5 inches tall and died at the age of 60.

He should nominate Palin.

The hearings alone would be worth it.

That would be a good show, but I don't think Sarah is a lawyer, is she?

Google FRATERNAL TWINS and read up on the subject.

I have goggled fraternal twins and this is not the case. Fraternal twins happen and grow in one embryonic sac (one pregnancy). This is a case where a pregnancy occurred and two and a half weeks later another pregnancy occurred. Two distinct pregnancies. This is a very rare occasion in the human species. They call it superfetation.

And she was able to get married twice when she was in prison?

That is the state of California. Take away the fruits and nuts, all you have are flakes.

What do you do to keep yourself healthy?

To name just a few:

1). I gave up smoking years ago.

2). I try and do everything in moderation. Doesn't always work because I like to eat and drink too much.

3). Keep active. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk as much as possible. Active sex life.

4). Try to eat more fruits and vegetables, although I like meat and potatoes alot.

5). Try not to let the little annoyances in life bother me. Don't sweat the small stuff.

6). Take vitamins and a cholestrol pill.

7). Monitor my blood pressure.

It's good to see Obama isn't another George Bush who pig-headedly continued along paths which were leading nowhere!!

I don't like the idea of engaing with the Military Junta but trying to cut them off hasn't worked so I guess we have to try friendly persuasion even though the type of persuasion they use on dissenting countrymen is a long way from friendly!!!

I don't like talking to the nasty military junta, either but I think it is better than what we have done in the past. Talking doesn't really hurt anything. Maybe we will start talking to the Cubans, as well.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized overnight for treatment of anemia. Seems anemia is a side effect of the chemotherapy she is receiving for her pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is a hard cancer to beat. Let's hope the 76 year old justice can win this battle. Does anyone remember who was number two and three on the list behind Sonya Sotomayor?

I can already chart her career path.

As soon as Glenn Beck or O'Reilly get caught with a dude in a bathroom stall and get fired, she'll be hired to replace them and make millions talking shit on Fox News.

Then, when she gets caught having banged Levi Johnson, she'll quit, penthouse will pay her $5 million for a pictoral spread and she'll start charging $500 an hour at The Bunny Ranch in Nevada.

That is a very good scenario for Sarah. A much better scenario than running for President of the United States.

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch, Ap Special Correspondent

LOS ANGELES – Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson whose remorseless witness stand confession to killing pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 shocked the world, has died. She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer.

Atkins' death comes less than a month after a parole board turned down the terminally ill woman's last chance at freedom on Sept. 2. She was brought to the hearing on a gurney and slept through most of it.

California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said that Atkins died late Thursday night. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008, had a leg amputated and was given only a few months to live.

She underwent brain surgery, and in her last months was paralyzed and had difficulty speaking. But she managed to speak briefly at the Sept. 2 hearing, reciting religious verse with the help of her husband, attorney James Whitehouse.

She had been transferred to a skilled nursing facility at the California Central Women's Facility at Chowchilla exactly one year before she died.

Tate, the 26-year-old actress who appeared in the movie "Valley of the Dolls" and was the wife of famed director Roman Polanski, was one of seven murdered in two Los Angeles homes during the Manson cult's bloody rampage in August 1969.

Atkins was the first of the convicted killers to die. Manson and three others involved in the murders — Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles "Tex" Watson — remain imprisoned under life sentences. Thornton said that at the time of Atkins death she had been in prison longer than any woman currently incarcerated in California.

Atkins, who confessed from the witness stand during her trial, had apologized for her acts numerous times over the years. But 40 years after the murders, she learned that few had forgotten or forgiven what she and other members of the cult had done.

Debra Tate, the slain actress's younger sister, told the parole commissioners Sept. 2 that she "will pray for (Atkins') soul when she draws her last breath, but until then I think she should remain in this controlled situation." Debra Tate noted that she would have a 40-year-old nephew if her sister had lived.

Atkins' prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, had spoken out earlier in favor of release, saying the mercy requested was "minuscule" because Atkins was on her deathbed.

Atkins and her co-defendants were originally sentenced to death but their sentences were reduced to life in prison when capital punishment was briefly outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s.

During the sensational 10-month trial, Atkins, Manson and co-defendants Krenwinkel and Van Houten maintained their innocence. But once they were convicted, the so-called "Manson girls" confessed in graphic detail.

They tried to absolve Manson, the ex-convict who had gathered a "family" of dropouts and runaways to a ranch outside Los Angeles, where he cast himself as the Messiah and led them in an aberrant lifestyle fueled by drugs and communal sex.

Watson had a separate trial and was convicted.

One night in August 1969, Manson dispatched Atkins and others to a wealthy residential section of Los Angeles, telling them, as they recalled, to "do something witchy."

They went to the home of Tate and her husband. He was not home, but Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and four others were killed. "Pigs" was scrawled on a door in blood.

The next night, a wealthy grocer and his wife were found stabbed to death in their home across town. "Helter Skelter" was written in blood on the refrigerator.

"I was stoned, man, stoned on acid," Atkins testified during the trial's penalty phase.

"I don't know how many times I stabbed (Tate) and I don't know why I stabbed her," she said. "She kept begging and pleading and begging and pleading and I got sick of listening to it, so I stabbed her."

She said she felt "no guilt for what I've done. It was right then and I still believe it was right." Asked how it could be right to kill, she replied in a dreamy voice, "How can it not be right when it's done with love?"

The matronly, gray-haired Atkins who appeared before a parole board in 2000 cut a far different figure than that of the cocky young defendant some 30 years earlier.

"I don't have to just make amends to the victims and families," she said softly. "I have to make amends to society. I sinned against God and everything this country stands for." She said she had found redemption in Christianity.

The last words she spoke in public at the September hearing were to say in unison with her husband: "My God is an amazing God."

She spent 37 years in the California Institution for Women at Frontera. When she fell ill, she was moved to a medical unit at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. She died there.

Susan Denise Atkins was born May 7, 1948, in the Los Angeles suburb of San Gabriel. Her mother was stricken with cancer and died when she was 15. Her father, reportedly an alcoholic, sent her and her brother to live with relatives.

While still in her teens, she ran away to San Francisco where she wound up dancing in a topless bar and using drugs. She moved into a commune in the Haight Ashbury district and it was there that she met Manson.

He gave her a cult name, Sadie Mae Glutz, and, when she became pregnant by a "family" member, he helped deliver the baby boy, naming it Zezozoze Zadfrack. His whereabouts are unknown.

The Manson slayings remained unsolved for three months, until Atkins confessed to a cellmate following her arrest on an unrelated charge. Police found Manson and other cult members living in a ranch commune in Death Valley, outside Los Angeles.

Besides Tate, their other victims were celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, filmmaker Voityck Frykowski and Steven Parent, a friend of Tate's caretaker; and grocery owners Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Atkins also was convicted with Manson of still another murder, of musician Gary Hinman, in July 1969.

Atkins married twice while in prison. Her first husband, Donald Lee Laisure, purported to be an eccentric Texas millionaire. They quickly divorced. Whitehouse, her second husband, is a Harvard Law School graduate and had recently served as one of her attorneys.

They are fraternal twins. By definition fraternal twins are when two eggs are fertilized by different sperm resulting in two embryo in the same pregnancy. They could even have different fathers (maybe of different races) and be fraternal twins. Very weird!

According to doctors, they are not fraternal twins. They call it superfetation. Pregnacy one happened and then two and a half weeks later pregnacy two occured.

No woman is going to voluntarily go through labor twice during a two week period. I'm sure she'll insist on a C-Section to take both of them out at the same time.

I think one C-section would be the most likely case, if the younger fetus is developed enough.

HONG KONG — Former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, emerged in Asia on Wednesday to share her views from "Main Street U.S.A." with a group of high-flying global investors.

In her first trip to the region, the former Alaska governor addressed an annual conference of investors in Hong Kong in what was billed as a wide-ranging talk about governance, economics and U.S. and Asian affairs.

Two US delegates left early, according to AFP, with one saying "it was awful, we couldn't stand it any longer." He declined to be identified.

"I'm going to call it like I see it and I will share with you candidly a view right from Main Street, Main Street U.S.A.," Palin told a room full of asset managers and other finance professionals, according to a video of part of the speech obtained by The Associated Press. "And how perhaps my view of Main Street ... how that affects you and your business."

Palin spoke out against government intervention in the economy. "We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place," Palin said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom," she added.

She also praised the conservative economic policies of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, according to another attendee who declined to be named because he didn't want to be seen as speaking on behalf of his company.

She claimed that if taxes were cut and the capital gains tax and estate tax eliminated, the world would "watch the U.S. economy roar back to life."

Palin argued that many average Americans are uncomfortable with health care reforms that infringe on private enterprise, Chris Palmer, an American fund manager for Gartmore Investment Ltd., told reporters.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/palin-hong-kong-speech-im_n_295812.html

Did you hear about the Arkansas woman that is pregnant with two children. They are not fraternal twins. They were conceived two and a half weeks apart. Something doctors say is very rare. Separate due dates are in order, but I do not know how the doctors are going to manage that. How weird?