[Warning: A photo heavy piece]
Robert Gates, the replacement for outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, has been confirmed by the senate 95-2. The two votes against Gates were cast by Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Jim Bunning of Kentucky. The senators were critical of Gates. Bunning said Gates was too critical of the action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also believes that Gates will bring rogue states to the negotiating table. Santorum took to the floor of the senate ot give an hourlong speech in which he said "How do those who deny this evil propose to save us from these people? By negotiating through the U.N. or directly with Iran? By firing Don Rumsfeld, (and) now getting rid of John Bolton? That's going to solve the problem?"In another joint conference with United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair and United States President George W. Bush, was conducted this morning. Yesterday, the Iraq War Study Group presented its conclusions to President Bush.He said "Having an international group is an interesting idea", which cracks me up. Wouldn't that be the United Nations?
Earlier today, a tornado tore through Northwest London at around 11 this morning London time. (That would be 5 hours ahead of us if you live on the east coast.) England experiences 50 or os tornadoes a year so this is not a strange occurance. However, it swept through the streets of the Kensal Rise area in London (imagine a tornado in London!), flipping cars over and ripping doors off homes. Many homes were evacuated and several more were damaged. An article on the event at BBC's UK site. The weather has been nasty in the North Atlantic lately.
You've hopefully heard about this by now: Hugo Chavez was democratically re-elected in Venezuela. This is the politician's third win. He was first elected in 1998, and then re-elected to a six year term in 2000. After winning the vote, "It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world". He won by a healthy margin and is most popular amongst the country's poor who favor his social policies.
NASA unveiled plans on December 5th to place a permanant settlement on the South Pole of the moon by 2020. This will be the first expedition to the moon since 1972. There is hopes to bring other space agencies into the project. The plan involves week long stays of four person crews to do the construction of the base. After initial materials are brough from Earth, the settlement will use hydrogen and oxygen from the moon for fuel and the obvious: air to fucking breathe!
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has reported that it is dramatically short of 20c coins. This is only weeks after issuing new coins with a new design. Why am I laughing about this?
Yesterday saw the launch of France24. It has been founded with the hope of countering the "Anglophone sphere of influence of BBC World and CNN International" especially as of late. It was created by a partnership between Groupe TF1 and France Télévisions and has an annual budget €80Million. It will be broadcast in English and French. The English simulcast will also feature 4-6 hours of French programming. There are future plans to also utilize Arabic and Spanish programming. It has not been stated whether there will be all-Arabic or all-Spanish networks or merely programs in those languages. It will be transmitted to the US by antenna and sattelite. Comcast plans to carry the network. Regardless, go there just to see it. It's free!James Kim, a senior editor at CNET, was found at noon on Wednesday in a ravine in Oregon. He had been deceased for a couple of days after being stranded in the wilderness with his wife Kati and two daughters, Penelope and Sabine, since beginning a return trip home after Thanksgiving. He had covered 8 miles in inclimate weather in street clothes and tennis shoes. Rescuers are calling the effort it took to cover that land in freezing and near-freezing temperatures "superhuman". CNET has set up a blog for people to post their memories, condolensces or anything they wish to write about James Kim.
On this day , in 1732, the Royal Opera House at the Convent Garden in London, England, opens.
In 1776, the Marquis de Lafayette, tried to enter the US military, who were bogged down in the War for Independence.
In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the constitution. Though this is not formal, it is the de jure first state.
In 1917, we declared war on Austria-Hungary and thereby, entered World War I.
On this day in 1941, Canada declared war on Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Japan. Sort of jumping the gun.
That same day and year, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, in the territory of Hawaii.
The USS Arizona's forward magazines explode.
The Damage can still be seen at Hickam Field at Pearl Harbor. US Casualties:
2,335 military and 68 civilians killed,
1,143 military and 35 civilians wounded,
4 mini-submarines sunk
4 battleships sunk,
4 battleships damaged,
3 cruisers damaged,
3 destroyers sunk,
2 other ships sunk,
188 planes destroyed,
155 planes damaged
Japanese Casualties:
55 airmen, 9 submariners killed and 1 captured,
29 planes destroyed,
4 mini-submarines sunk
In 1966, there was a fire at the Army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey that kills 68.
In 1972, the last Apollo mission, 17, is launched. The famous "The Blue Marble" photograph was taken upon the journey to the moon. Like I said previously, this was the last manned mission to the moon. This also makes it the last time anyone was 28,000 miles from Earth and capable of taking such a photo. The craft was directly between the Earth and the sun so the earth is fully lit.
In 1988, Yasser Arafat, who is now dead, recognized Israel's right to exist.
In 1995, the Galileo spacecraft, launched in 1989, arrives at Jupiter to take lots of pictures of that planet. It enetered in to orbit on this day. Its really sweet radio attenna did not deploy so they could not get as much as they wanted to for its seven year tour ofJupiter. In 2003 it crashed itself into Jupiter.In 2004, Hamid Karzai became president of Afghanistan. Thats good for us, I guess. Our first experiment with Nation building.
Oh yeah, and today.... STS-116 launched at night, no less. Here's a picture of the rollout. Just fucking awesome!
That's all from me.... whew.
Mario Scaramella, the Italian academic who met with the late Alexander Litvinenko on November 1st, has reportedly tested positive for Polonium-210. This is the same highly radioactive element that was discovered in Litvinenko's body. Scaramella had gone into hiding in fear for his life due to the demise of the former Russian spy.Related to this mess is Yegor Gaidar, a former acting Prime Minister and economist who became severely ill in Ireland. He has since been taken to a Moscow hospital where he has reportedly, been recovering. Also, one of three planes removed from service in the UK, has been cleared of radiation. Despite this, a hotel in Sussex, England, was evacuated to search for Polonium-210.
The British government is demanding cooperation from the Russian government into this case. Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of culpibility in his poisoning and Putin has denied any involvement in the matter. However, Russia has pledged that it will cooperate with the investigation.
Though there are many mysteries - even going back to the October 7th slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya - one of these is where the radioactive materials came from. So far, no nuclear labs are reproting any thefts. Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state atomic energy agency Rosatom, has stated that only 8 grams of the substance are made a month. He also said it cannot be "obtained illegally there". A lethal dose would be as little as 6.8 picograms (I really went and looked that up and even found out what a picogram is. 1 pg is 1/1,000,000,000,000 of a kilogram. This makes it awfully minute. I'm such a little investigative reporter!). It is also notoriously dangerous to handle but has a half life of roughly 138 days.
In an article posted in CNN yesterday, the Republican party wants a law outlining when fetuses feel pain. It seems the bill is less about actually creating such language in legislature but is actually an act to shore up Republican loyalty. When the Democrats take leadership of congress next year it is likely that few, if any, abortion restrictive bills make it even to the floor of either house. Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, even called the Democrats "Hardcore pro-abortion loyalists." I think thats a little generalist. There are some Democrats who are not pro-choice. And to call anyone pro-abortion is demeaning. No one is for abortion. They are for the choice. Hitler was pro-abortion.
Other news today: Typhoon Durian has killed 388 people so far. There are also 75 people missing. The Phillipines has been socked by four such storms in four months. At the same time a real whopper of a storm is pummeling the midwest with rain, snow and everything in between. Fortunately, I'm up north in Minnesota where its a balmy 23 today. Thats warm for this week!
On this day in 1941, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia signed into action the Civil Air Patrol.
On this day in 1955, Rosa parks was arrested for not getting up and moving to the back of the bus for a white person. It sparked the Montgomery bus boycott which helped catapult Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to his role as Civil Rights Leader.
Back on this day in 1990, while we were gearing up for Gulf War I, The two sides, Anglish and French, met underneath the English Channel to unite both sides of the Chunnel. It would be another 4 years before it actually did business but it made it possible to walk on dry land from England to the mainland for the first time in 8,500 years ago. This was the last ice age.
In 1991, the Ukraine voted to get the hell off the sinking ship known as the USSR. The Soviet Union's days were already numbered.
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