0-9 all time now.
Looks like the NIT now after falling in the first round 68-62, and that against a K-State team they spanked by fourteen in the regular season. Rather depressing after their amazing turn-around season to come into the game favored, having an outside shot at an invite to the NCAA tournament.
Did I really once say rank us?! Oh well, gig’em in the NIT, Ags.
A baby step in the right direction — getting our troops closer to the likely action and away from the whiners.
The commander of U.S. forces in Europe, General James Jones, says the United States is ready to begin negotiations with new NATO members Romania and Bulgaria about basing U.S. forces in those countries.
General Jones told a House of Representatives committee Wednesday that officers under his command have made repeated visits to Romania and Bulgaria, and the time has come to begin formal talks on basing U.S. forces in those countries.
“We are definitely at the launching point, as opposed to the conceptual point,” he said.
General Jones says the possibility of basing U.S. forces in Romania and Bulgaria fits into the Defense Department’s plans re-structure its force deployment around the world. The plan is to move away from large bases far from potential conflict zones, to smaller bases closer to where the forces might be used.
“We’re very excited at the possibility, in the European transformation, of basing an Eastern European brigade, a rotational brigade, in Bulgaria and Romania, along with the accompanying air assets and logistical assets necessary to sustain that presence,” he added.
A brigade would be between 3,000-5,000 troops, plus supporting units.
General Jones, who is also the NATO supreme commander, says talks with the two new NATO members should begin soon on details of the basing arrangements, which he said could include ports, airfields and facilities for ground forces.
“I believe that this year we will now turn to dialogue with both nations to work out the basing agreements, the status-of-forces agreements, and the most important one is the access that the United States wishes to have to its forces,†General Jones said. “I think the secretary of defense has been very strong in saying that we don’t want to put forces where we can’t get at them. And so we have to work out those agreements. But I think that in the case of Bulgaria and Romania we will.”
In the past, some countries that host U.S. forces have refused to allow those forces to be deployed directly to conflict areas, or the base facilities to be used in operations that the host country does not support. This was a problem with U.S. forces in Turkey when the Iraq war began two years ago.
But General Jones indicated he does not expect such issues with Bulgaria and Romania, which he described as “extraordinarily accommodating” and expressing a strong desire to have part of the U.S. European Command on their soil.
The general did not mention the incident last week in which U.S. forces apparently killed a Bulgarian soldier by mistake in Iraq.
After the last couple of years, I want us to completely get out of Germany and base our European forces where they can be closer to the expected fight, away from the spineless, and in a position to economically reward our current allies and friends. Put them in Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and especially Poland.
And maybe put a hell of an R&R base in England. Like Vegas with fish and chips.
I’ve added a new “My Blogroll” category to Target Centermass as a place to announce additions and to pay homage in one fashion or another to the blogs I read.
As a first post in the category, I want to list tonight’s new additions:
My usual method for trying to get out of homework consisted mainly of whining or offering pathetic excuses. This kid definitely took it several steps further.
A judge threw out a high school student’s lawsuit against mandatory summer homework, saying he and his father should have done a little more studying themselves before bringing the case.
Students in the Whitnall High School math course — honors pre-calculus — were supposed to do three assignments by certain dates over the summer. Peer Larson, 17, and his father, Bruce, had filed suit in Circuit Court, arguing that homework should not be required after the 180-day academic year is over.
The Larsons argued it was difficult for the boy to do the assignments because he had a summer job as a camp counselor. They also said students should be able to enjoy their summers free of homework.
But it’s up to school boards to decide such things, Judge Richard J. Sankovitz ruled Tuesday.
“Had the Larsons done a bit more homework,” he wrote, they would have learned that “the people of our state granted to the Legislature … the power to establish school boards.”
Bruce Larson said he had not immediately decided whether to appeal. He said the judge ignored a key issue — whether it was reasonable for a school to spring “three lengthy assignments” on students just before summer vacation began.
State Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers said he was glad the judge recognized homework is a local issue.
“It’s certainly something that could have and should have been resolved between the teacher and student,” Evers said.
The judge was absolutely correct in tossing this, leaving it to local authority.
That said, I’m torn between giving an “attaboy” to young Mr. Larson for his effort to shirk the work and condemning his father for letting the silliness get this far.
Ever since I saw the classic movie Jaws back in 1975, I have been fascinated with sharks. Although only in second grade at the time, I read Peter Benchley’s novel and was enraptured (sure, I didn’t understand the sex stuff around the affair that was left out of the movie). Although all three sequels were crap, I was so hooked that I had to see them all on the big screen. For the next seven years, I swore that I was going to grow up and become an ichthyologist, devoting my life to researching sharks.
Well, the years go by and life takes its funny twists and turns. I never went on to the shark research gig (and have little idea how I ended up doing computer work for a living). Despite this, I never really got over my interest in sharks, as evidenced by my eagerness to post this and this.
Now, there’s this unusual occurence out of England, which I feel absolutely obligated to post.
The chilly waters off northeastern England are rarely that inviting for bathers, but at least those who do venture in for a dip have been able to do so in the knowledge they are safe from sharks.
Until now, that is.
In a virtually unprecedented warning, British maritime agencies warned surfers, divers and others thinking of braving the North Sea to be on the alert for a possible shortfin mako shark.
The discovery of a series of dead porpoises washed up onto beaches in northeast England, some with large chunks apparently bitten out of them, has prompted the warning, the Daily Mail newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Around 45 porpoises have been found along with the headless bodies of seals and remains of other large fish.
Experts say this points to the presence of a large mako shark nearby. The shark, which grows up to 12 feet (3.65 metres) in length, is known to be found in the North Sea but rarely ventures near shore.
It is thought that conservation efforts off northeast England which have greatly increased the local porpoise population might have attracted a shark, the paper said.
“We would advise all those using the water, including surfers, fishermen and divers, to be especially careful and vigilant,” the Maritime and Coastguard agency said in a statement.
“There have been no reported sightings of this shark yet, but we cannot rule out the possibility that one might be out there.”
Some of the porpoise bodies have been sent to London’s Natural History Museum so the cause of death can be determined, the paper added.
Just as a little added tidbit, the mako was the ridiculously-oversized species featured in the silly, disappointing flick Deep Blue Sea.
An Italian government official and the U.S. Army are in sharp disagreement on the speed of the car that was carrying alleged hostage and anti-American journalist Giuliana Sgrena and the late intelligence officer Nicola Calipari.
Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told his country’s parliament today that the shooting was an accident, but he contradicted the U.S. military’s account of the incident. The U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, which controls Baghdad, said in a statement that the vehicle was “traveling at high speeds” and did not stop at the checkpoint, despite a number of warnings. The military said U.S. soldiers only opened fire after the car ignored the warnings.
Fini, however, said the car was traveling no faster than 25 mph, and disputed the U.S. military’s assertion that several warnings were given. He said the U.S. government must conduct a thorough investigation, “that responsibilities be pinpointed, and, where found, that the culprits be punished.”
Okay, so we’ve established with some degree of certainty the vehicle was traveling somewhere over a 75+ mph range. I’m sure that’s a clue somehow. Oh yeah, it’s a clue that Sgrena’s a liar, as she’s on record as saying the driver had almost lost control. And perhaps Fini can explain why he wants to punish the “culprits” of an admitted accident.
Meanwhile, pictures of the car have been released that cast further doubts on Sgrena’s tale of an “avalanche of gunfire” from the American’s so-called ambush. Dr. Rusty Shackleford, on the story at the Jawa Report since the beginning, has them and links to a solid collection of other blogs’ postings on the matter.
If you’ve got any blogs to suggest, leave them in the comments.
I loved my 105mm on the M60-A3 and M-1. I really loved my 120mm smoothbore on the M1-A1. But, as much as it pains me to admit, the guns of the world’s navies have managed some things that are absolute masterpieces of killing art.
So beautiful, they bring tears to my eyes.
Sometimes, being an assassin is hard.
The Israeli Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin to have conjugal visits with the woman he says he married by proxy.
Yigal Amir, who is serving a life term for the Nov. 4, 1995, killing of the prime minister, had sought permission to have conjugal visits with Larisa Trimbobler.
In its ruling, which upheld a lower court decision, the Supreme Court said that Amir has not abandoned his violent aims, has shown no remorse and has become a role model for extremists. It also said it would be difficult to supervise such visits.
Trimbobler and Amir, both Orthodox Jews, insist they were married secretly over the phone by a rabbi last year. But rabbis and the Israel Prisons Service dispute the claim, saying the wedding was not valid under Jewish law because Amir was not joined by two witnesses.
Prison officials have barred him from consummating the marriage with Trimbobler, a divorced mother of four who fell in love with Amir while he was in prison.
“This entire affair is an example of sadistic maltreatment of us. They can kill us but they can’t separate us,” Trimbobler told Army Radio.
Amir, an ultranationalist Jew, said he killed Rabin to stop the handover of land in Israeli-Palestinian peace deals and has shown no regret. The assassination was a major blow to peace efforts.
Israeli authorities have grown increasingly concerned about extremists as the government prepares to pull out of the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements this summer.
Although a rare occurrence, killers who experience an erection for more than four hours should seek immediate medical attention.
Tshwane (Not Pretoria).
In a symbolic break with apartheid, officials in South Africa’s capital voted Monday to rename the city Tshwane, retaining the name Pretoria for the city center only.
The decision was taken at a special meeting of the governing African National Congress-dominated metropolitan council, the South African Press Association reported.
“By embarking on this process and project of transformation, our country is making a clear distinction between the old and the new, the past and the present,” Executive Mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa was quoted as saying during a four-hour debate.
The city of 2 million, established by white settlers in 1855, was named after Andries Pretorius, a leader in the Afrikaners’ “Great Trek” into the interior of the country. Tshwane, which means “we are the same,” was the name used by some of the region’s earliest African settlers.
The South African Geographic Names Council is expected to approve the change when it convenes in October and begin the process of changing the city’s name on maps.
Monday’s vote is the latest in a series of geographic name changes since South Africa’s first all-race elections in 1994 ended decades of white-minority rule.
The government says South Africans should not have to live in cities, towns and streets named after the people responsible for their racial oppression.
Opposition councilors argued Monday that the process was a waste of money, and said the move to rename Pretoria threatens to split the capital along racial lines.
Why did Pretoria get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the South Africans.
(Apologies to They Might Be Giants and their incredible rendition)