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Comedy Night curated by ComedyFLOPs (7pm | $5 Suggested Donation)
January 25 @ 7:00 pm
An event every week that begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, repeating indefinitely
Event Navigation
ComedyFLOPs, Ithaca's improv troupe and a staple of the Ithaca area comedy scene since 2011, is teaming up with The Dock to make Thursday, the official comedy night in Ithaca! The series will soft-launch on April 13 and then officially kickoff on April 27, alternating between improv and stand-up shows. From time-to-time they anticipate there will be special guest artists.
As with past ComedyFLOPs shows, the majority of the proceeds from Thursday Night Comedy will benefit local charities beginning with Planned Parenthood of the Southern Fingerlakes. In the past the troupe has supported Healthy Food For All, Ithaca Hospicare, and Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA). Said founding member, John Fracchia, "FLOPs was founded on the principle of philanthropy so we're really excited to support a different organization each month. We think it's a great opportunity to build the comedy scene in Ithaca in a way that positively impacts our community, and we're very grateful to The Dock for recognizing it!"
Nine charities have been selected as recipients for 2017 and information about who they are will be released prior to their designated month.
Thursday Night Comedy shows will run from 7:00 – 9:00 PM.
About ComedyFLOPs
ComedyFLOPs mission is to provide high‐quality, affordable and inclusive comedy to Ithaca that serves the community through entertainment, education and philanthropy. Show donations are allocated to both ComedyFLOPs operational needs and local charities, including Hospicare, Healthy Food for All and the Community School of Music and Arts.


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The tenacity of nuclear weapons to continue to exist is evident. At the end of the Cold War, many wrote obituaries claiming that these weapons would soon be the "detritus of the Cold War." Nothing however, could have been further from the truth. Half a century later, the weapons are still around in large enough numbers to pose dangerous risks to humanity.
It is in this context that it is interesting to examine a two-year old development that has taken a new approach to the challenge of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. This is the initiative that was primarily spearheaded by Norway, Mexico, Austria, Ireland, Switzerland and New Zealand. It hit headlines in March 2013 when the first conference on humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons was held in Oslo. It focused on the impact of nuclear weapons on human life. Based on testimonies of the hibakushas (survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and presentations from factual studies on effects of nuclear explosions, 128 countries reached the conclusion that effects of the use of nuclear weapons were not constrained by borders and that no single nation or international body had the resources or the capability to deal with the consequences. Interestingly, India and Pakistan were the only nuclear-armed states that chose to participate in the conference. The five NPT nuclear weapon states, and Israel and North Korea, ignored the congregation.
Eleven months later, in March 2014, an even larger number of nations, 146 this time (though still not the NWS) came together in Mexico to further highlight the humanitarian challenges of nuclear weapon explosions. More and detailed studies were presented on the long term socio-economic impact of use of nuclear weapons. It was established that reconstruction of infrastructure and regeneration of the socio-economic parameters on which we today measure quality of life would take decades to rebuild if the world were to witness a nuclear exchange. However, the only possessors in the Conference were from India and Pakistan. Seven other nuclear-armed states, two of which own more than 90 per cent of the global nuclear stockpile, evinced no interest in the subject!
Ten months from then, on 8-9 December this year, a third Conference on the subject is being hosted by the government of Austria in Vienna. It proposes to specifically focus on the impact of nuclear explosions on human health, climate, food security and infrastructure. Also included are sessions on inadvertent nuclear use as a result of human and technical factors such as error, negligence, miscalculations, miscommunications, cyber interference, technical faults etc.
The US has expressed a willingness to participate in this third conference, though none of the other nuclear weapon states has yet joined in. The presence of the US would be welcome, but it is likely that the decision has been made with an eye on the forthcoming NPT RevCon which is less than six months away now. The three preparatory committee meetings over the last three years have not made any major breakthroughs that herald well for the outcome in 2015. Rather, the RevCon will have to bear the additional burden of vitiated US-Russia relations. Though the two have traditionally made common cause in upholding non-proliferation through the NPT (which was crafted at the height of the Cold War in 1967), the present day dynamics will make it interesting to track the RevCon.
Compared to the entrenched national positions in the NPT and its divisive nature, the more inclusive humanitarian consequences approach to universal nuclear disarmament is indeed fresh and more appealing. In fact, it is critical that the Conference continues to remain a platform that has the ability to reach across old formulations that box nations into different categories with different rights and responsibilities. It will be a challenge for the Conference to retain this distinctive character from the NPT or it could end up replicating the same divisive national mind-sets. Humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, however, would make no such distinctions. It is high time that nations come together as human congregations to address serious and urgent challenges in an inclusive and collective fashion.
Given that India believes that its national security interests are best served in a world free of nuclear weapons, it must remain engaged with the process with an open mind. No quick results are in the offing and neither should these be expected. But to the extent that the Conference can galvanise action that may incrementally lead to universal nuclear disarmament, it would be useful. In this context, the Indian intervention in the last conference for measures that reduce the salience of nuclear weapons should be actively pursued. India has long argued for delegitimisation of nuclear weapons as one way to get to disarmament. Given that Austria, the host country, has a similar view, Vienna should support India's position for its larger good instead of sticking to its NPT oriented mind-set that has not allowed it, up till now, to accept India's resolutions on the subject in the UN.
The country has a unique perspective on the issue. Unlike in any other nuclear-armed state, India's nuclear doctrine, which is meant to operationalise its nuclear strategy, begins and ends with reiterating the country's desire for nuclear disarmament. India must push for steps that make nuclear weapons lose their perceived utility. Human nature does not permit the discarding of anything that it considers to be of value. Therefore, a devaluation strategy that deprives the weapons of utility coupled with a focus on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences if they ever were to be used can prepare the ground for their eventual elimination.
Browse by Publications
Browse by Region/Countries
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The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) is the premier South Asian think tank which conducts independent research on and provides an in depth analysis of conventional and non-conventional issues related to national and South Asian security including nuclear issues, disarmament, non-proliferation, weapons of mass destruction, the war on terrorism, counter terrorism , strategies security sector reforms, and armed conflict and peace processes in the region.
For those in South Asia and elsewhere, the IPCS website provides a comprehensive analysis of the happenings within India with a special focus on Jammu and Kashmir and Naxalite Violence. Our research promotes greater understanding of India's foreign policy especially India-China relations, India's relations with SAARC countries and South East Asia.
Through close interaction with leading strategic thinkers, former members of the Indian Administrative Service, the Foreign Service and the three wings of the Armed Forces - the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force, - the academic community as well as the media, the IPCS has contributed considerably to the strategic discourse in India.
Tel: 91-11-4100-1902 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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|Rediff India Abroad Home | All the sections
Home > News > First Look
All about the Lal Masjid stand-off
July 03, 2007
It all started in January with a stand-off between the Pakistan government and the Jamia Hafsa, the girls' seminary of Islamabad's Lal Masjid.
The government served notices to 81 mosques saying that they were unauthorized constructions and had to be demolished.
Don't Miss: Musharraf's Bhindranwale
To the establishment's surprise, it was the girls who came out in protest, brandishing rifles and forcing the authorities to back off.
The girls soon became a law unto themselves, raiding places they thought were not following the laws imposed by the Masjid and even kidnapping policemen.
In February, a United States-based Pakistan research scholar said the Lal Masjid is grooming these girls as wives and mothers for jihadis.
External Link: Lal Masjid warns of civil war
In March, the girls turned their attention to music and video shops. They began visiting various music shops to persuade the owners to close down. They made rounds of various markets as part of their drive against video shops.
One of the top clerics of the mosque Maulana Abdul Aziz even came out and said those who wanted to dance should go to India.
The first serious stand-off between the mosque and the government came on May 21, when 10,000 security persons surrounded the mosque.
External Link: 'Their business is jihad'
The chief administrator of the mosque Abdul Rashid Ghazi alleged that 200 students of their mosque have been detained by police and threatened heavy retaliation if any police operation was conducted.
He also threatened retaliation by suicide bombers.
He soon shocked the establishment as he claimed that more than one lakh suicide bombers -- including 10,000 in the two madrassas controlled by him -- were present in Pakistan and were ready to explode at the command of their superiors.
As the girls continued controlling the public library during the first stand-off, and the clerics were becoming increasingly defiant, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf [Images] ordered a crackdown on madrassas.
On Tuesday, the situation snowballed, as the militant students of the Masjid clashed with the security forces.
A government spokesman alleged that the firing started after several madrassa students tried to barge into a building where the Rangers were lodged.
However, the mosque's administrator and militant cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi alleged that violence erupted when Rangers moved close to the girls' madarassa and fired tear gas shells.
The cleric accused the government of starting the fighting and demanded the immediate withdrawal of about 1500 Rangers who surrounded the radical mosque on Friday.
Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images


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With thanks to Jan Alpert, RPAC Chair:
Talking Points One Pager: RecessVisitsTalkingPoints2015Final
If you have ever used the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), now is the time for you to write your United States Senator. Section 203 of the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Act, which went into effect 29 March 2014, closed access to the Death Master File (used by genealogists as the Social Security Death Index) for three years after an individual's death. Access during the three-year embargo is limited to persons certified by the Commerce Department. Certification costs $400; the annual cost to access the data is $995; the available data is limited; the search engine inadequate; and recent audit and security requirements will make access unaffordable by even professional genealogists. The Final Rule for the certification process is expected from the Commerce Department any day. Genealogists need to be further concerned because the Social Security Administration (SSA) has been reporting less information since November 2011 when several states notified the SSA that its information could no longer be released to the public. This widely used national death database is being whittled away because of concerns about tax fraud of the deceased.
The Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) and several of our participating organizations have written the Commerce Department and key legislators on this issue over the last several years. Although genealogists are also concerned about identity theft of the deceased, we strongly believe the problem can be solved by omitting the Social Security Number (SSN) of the deceased from the Social Security Death Index. In addition progress has been made by the IRS in developing filters which flag fraudulent income tax returns. The Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration (TIGTA) Reports for 2011 and 2012 said less than 2% of all fraudulent tax refunds involved the deceased.
At the end of July the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved SB 1073, Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act. The bill was approved in a "business meeting" without a hearing. RPAC is making contacts with several Senators who could introduce the Amendment from the floor. Our request is simple, amend Section 203 of the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Act so the information in the Death Master File can be released to the public except for the Social Security Number.
Congress is currently recessed until 7 September 2015. Now is a good time to contact your Senators, either in person or by writing a letter. We have included talking points that you can use to make a personal visit or write a letter. We need your support. For additional background visit the RPAC Blog at http://www.fgs.org/rpac and see the posts on 1 April 2015, "DMF—Comment Period on Proposed Final Rule Closed 30 March," and under the Publications tab, "SSDI Timeline, 19 January 2015."
The Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC), is a national committee sponsored by the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), and the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and supported by the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG), the American Society of Genealogists (ASG), and the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). Members of RPAC meet monthly to advise the genealogical community on ensuring proper access to vital records and on supporting strong records preservation policies and practices.


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Delusions of Grandeur?
British Cycling performance director and Sky team principal Sir Dave Brailsford has said that he might consider a move into football, and believes that techniques that have helped the country's cyclists find success could translate to the soccer pitch.
Brailsford, speaking at the Advertising Week Conference in London earlier this week, said "Football is something I would look at," and singled out Everton manager David Moyes as someone who "does an unbelievably good job," reports Telegraph.co.uk.
The prospect of such a move on Brailsford's part inevitably gives rise to thoughts of another sporting knight, Sir Clive Woodward.
Two years after leading England to victory in the Rugby World Cup in 2003, Woodward joined Southampton FC as its performance director and was subsequently made director of football. Things didn't go well, however, and he was out within a year.
Subsequently, Woodward became director of elite performance for the British Olympic Association, a post he left last October.
Brailsford, who was born in Derbyshire but grew up in Wales, outlined how psychological techniques used by British Cycling, including overcoming the infamous "inner chimp," could also help the England football team overcome their unfortunate habit of exiting major tournaments after losing penalty shootouts.
"In sport people talk about the zone, switch off the frontal lobe, emotional engagement," he explained. "Switch off the chimp. Penalty kicks are a great example [where] silencing the chimp would be beneficial."
While British Cycling is on good terms with neighbours Manchester City – manager Roberto Mancini visited the velodrome last year to swap advice with Brailsford and this Friday, the two organisations team up for a 24 hour charity cycling event, Velocity – Brailsford looked to the red half of Manchester for an example of a coach who gets it right.
Referring to Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, the most successful manager in English football history, he said: "You never read about conflict like you do with most other managers and clubs."
Presumably, the British Cycling supremo was otherwise engaged and missed the blanket media coverage when two of the club's biggest stars of recent years, David Beckham and Roy Keane, left after reportedly falling out with the manager.
Brailsford said he was impressed by Ferguson's "drive and ability to manage people," adding that "his knack is to retain total control about what goes on at that club."
Inevitably, given the sport he operates in, Brailsford was asked about doping, and he compared the path taken by some to the one that outside sport sees people progress from soft drugs to harder ones.
"To me [riders who doped] are not bad people as such," he maintained. "It is similar to someone having their first joint and then moving onto ecstasy or whatever. Then the next thing you know it is everyone on crack cocaine."
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.
13 comments
"Presumably, the British Cycling supremo was otherwise engaged and missed the blanket media coverage when two of the club's biggest stars of recent years, David Beckham and Roy Keane, left after reportedly falling out with the manager."
I think Brailsford was right. There was little to no conflict. No matter how big a star they thought they were, they were out, not Ferguson. It was the same with Brian Clough.
@Zombie Cucumber er, yes we did?
Our story pointed out that there had been conflict at Man Utd and that Brailsford seemed to have forgotten that fact, Pwake agreed with Sir Dave and said there hadn't. I supplied a couple of examples.
Maybe Sir Dave was confusing lack of conflict with the manager getting his own way - and Man U these days being very good at making sure news of any rows doesn't get out. The manager obviously gets his own way at Man Utd because no star is bigger than him and if anyone threatens to get too big for his boots he's out. In an interview earlier this year Brailsford said he'd asked Ferguson what was the secret to constantly having to re-build a successful team Ferguson's reported response was "get rid of the c**ts". That doesn't suggest lack of conflict it simply suggests that when there is conflict the power is all on one side.
Can't help recalling Woodward's training Southampton, and telling professional footballers how to kick a ball.
From a coaching point of view, footie is a different and more multifaceted team ethic and dynamic to cycling. It has different individual skills and needs in terms of physical and psychological preparation. When to attack, when to press, when to go expansive or stay compact, how to back up or link up with my teammates - with respect, I suspect Brailsford doesn't have much of clue what's going through a footballer's head before, during and after a game.
I'd love Brailsford for an hour or so at the end of the week if it got me off the training ground doing sprints. But ultimately, it'd be 20 blokes wanting to tell him to take his inner chimp and do some rude things with it (West Ham have a song along these lines), so we can slope off home.
The sports psychologist who went to athletics might well be useful to the England football team but there's no guarantee his input would help solve the penalty problem. That depends on regular practice from a young age (so that your technical foundation is so solid you can deal with nerves) and from my experience of watching girls' academy coaching that's not going to happen because in 4 years I never saw them practice penalties once. I've no idea if the boys' ones are any better but I doubt it.
Not sure Brailsford dealt with the Victoria Pendleton situation very well either! Cycling is a sport with very little serious international competition compared to football, so success in it doesn't prove that much. Even Man U haven't been very successful in the Champion's League in spite of their money and access to the competition. But it is possible for a country with little history of success to make it as Spain have shown and Spain had a worse history in penalty shootouts than we did. In fact Spain is the only country we've ever defeated on penalties. The solution is lots and lots of well-qualified coaches at all levels, thousands of them. That is what Spain has that gives them an edge in football and it's probably what gives British cycling its edge rather than any one individual.
The solution is lots and lots of well-qualified coaches at all levels, thousands of them. That is what Spain has that gives them an edge in football
That, and a Government sponsored doping programme that makes US Postal look like an old granny knocking out Werther's Originals.
I think Brailsford need to talk to his 'inner chump' and just say no. Marginal gains for track and road racing is a little more quantifiable than heading the ball into the net and having Dr Steve Peters Vulcan mind melding the nervous types only works if the athletes have enough brain to work with in the first place... "My mind to your mind... My thoughts to your...er? Hello..?"


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WASHINGTON (May. 18)
Seven Orthodox rabbis handcuffed themselves to the iron fence fronting the White House and denounced the Carter Administration's Middle East policy for about two hours in intermittent rain yesterday afternoon before U.S. park police received orders to sever the handcuffs and end the demonstration.
The rabbis sat of shiva stools "in mourning against the death of political morality in the White House," a spokesman said. The rabbis were identified as Abner Weiss, Avraham Weiss, Joseph Shapiro, Shlomo Riskin, Saul Berman, Rubin Dobin and Reuben Grodner, all of New York. The demonstration climaxed a protest rally by some 1500 Jewish college-age students, mainly from the New York and Washington areas.
CORRECTION: The National Religious Party convention in Tel Aviv was mistakenly identified as the Aguda convention in the May 16 Bulletin.


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Travel Photographer. If a person were to have a title describing their passion, their work, or their career, the title "Travel Photographer" is a title most of us would be pretty happy with. [Read more…]Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012-2013 Craig Shillam
Linda Lowry – Travel Photographer
June 19, 2011 by


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Topic: conditional DNS forwarding
I'm running 10.03.1-rc4 on a Buffalo wzr-hp-g300nh
I'm trying to get conditional DNS forwarding working for a single domain.
I followed the commands shown here:
I ran this command:
uci add_list dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].servers=/example.com/10.85.0.10
The change showed up in /etc/config/dhcp
config 'dnsmasq'
list 'servers' '/example.com/10.85.0.10'
It doesn't seem to work at ll though. DNS requests for the example.com domain are not being forwarded to 10.85.0.10.
Any ideas?


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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.
Steven King is one of my favorite writers, not just because he writes great stories, but because of how he writes. I grew up in New England, where he often sets a scene. While reading his stories, I can picture the scene so well I can almost smell it. He doesn't just describe the environment but has the environment interact with the character. Angela Ackerman agrees as that is one of her tips over at Elizabeth Spann Craig


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Reviving some old school
I dug up some old Interlace Ring molds the other day. They're part of the Fractal creations line of jewelry created by Jesse Jerrell . A number of years back the line was acquired by Good Art and produced in our Santa Monica shop, primarily from cast Titanium. Truly amazing designs, and now-a-days the stuff of legends amongst piercing fans, with pieces regularly traded and highly coveted. These pieces were cast from the original molds in Sterling Silver and lovingly finished by hand (of course), shown in sizes 4ga, 2ga and 0ga. I'm sure some of you are scratching your heads right now. But I know there's a few of you reading this who are completely stoked at the possibility of grabbing a pair.


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Day Hike
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Day Hike Sarajevo Reviews
3 reviews
Mar 03, 2006
A great way to see Sarajevo is from the hills surrounding the city. However, one must be careful to stay on the trails as land mines and UXOs still dot the landscape. One of the best views of Sarajevo is from the Muslim Cemetery located just above Inat Kuca. The easiest way to get there is to flag any taxi down and tell them to take you to Inat Kuca (pronounced eenat koocha). Once you reach the restaurant proceed up the hill to the right and keep walking. After about 10 minutes you will see a beautiful cemetery that offers breathtaking views of Sarajevo and the surrounding villages. Make your way back down the hill and stop at Inat Kuca for a tradition Bosnian meal. Then make your way across the river and head up into the hills above the old fortress, located opposite the cemetery. After about 20-25 minutes you should reach a fortress under construction which offers panoramic views of the city. Make your way back down through the old neighborhoods and stop at any of the bakeries along the way, as they all have delightful treats. To top off the day, make your way back into the old city and find a burek shop. Try the meat flavored (burek od mesa) and make sure to order a yogurt to wash it down.
Part of the Sarajevo travel blog
Part of the list Bosnia
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The lucreate command creates a boot environment that is based on the file systems in the active boot environment. If you want to create a boot environment based on a boot environment other than the active boot environment, use lucreate with the -s option.
If you activate the new boot environment and need to fall back, you boot back to the boot environment that was last active, not the source boot environment.
Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.
Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.
Create the boot environment.
# lucreate [-A 'BE_description'] -s source_BE_name -m mountpoint:device[,metadevice]:fs_options -n BE_name
(Optional) Enables the creation of a boot environment description that is associated with the boot environment name (BE_name). The description can be any length and can contain any characters.
Specifies the source boot environment for the new boot environment. The source would not be the active boot environment.
Specifies the file systems' configuration of the new boot environment. The file systems that are specified as arguments to -m can be on the same disk or they can be spread across multiple disks. Use this option as many times as needed to create the number of file systems that are needed.
mountpoint can be any valid mount point or – (hyphen), indicating a swap partition.
device field can be one of the following:
The name of a disk device, of the form /dev/dsk/cwtxdysz
The name of a Solaris Volume Manager metadevice, of the form /dev/md/dsk/dnum
The name of a Veritas Volume Manager volume, of the form /dev/vx/dsk/volume_name
The keyword merged, indicating that the file system at the specified mount point is to be merged with its parent
fs_options field can be one of the following:
ufs, which indicates a UFS file system.
vxfs, which indicates a Veritas file system.
swap, which indicates a swap file system. The swap mount point must be a – (hyphen).
For file systems that are logical devices (mirrors), several keywords specify actions to be applied to the file systems. These keywords can create a logical device, change the configuration of a logical device, or delete a logical device. For a description of these keywords, see To Create a Boot Environment With RAID-1 Volumes (Mirrors) (Command-Line Interface).
The name of the boot environment to be created. BE_name must be unique on the system.
When creation of the new boot environment is complete, it can be upgraded and activated (made bootable). See Chapter 9, Upgrading With Solaris Live Upgrade (Tasks).
In this example, a boot environment is created that is based on the root (/) file system in the source boot environment named third_disk. Third_disk is not the active boot environment. A description, mydescription, is associated with the new boot environment named second_disk.
# lucreate -A 'mydescription' -s third_disk \ -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t4d0s0:ufs -n second_disk


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2904 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803
(800) 737-2697
Wilmington, DE - Oil Recycling & Disposal Centers
2904 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803
600 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington, DE 19805
(302) 999-0237
1810 Lancaster Ave, Wilmington, DE 19805
(302) 421-8330
3600 N Market St, Wilmington, DE 19802
(302) 764-5282
Tips & Facts for Oil Recycling & Disposal
Ideas for Using Waste Oil
Oil recycling is one of the processes which has alternative to choose what to do with waste oil. As you can see, waste oil can be useful again after filter process. It can be reused effectively. However, waste oil should be disposed properly so that there will be no risk for both human and environment. […]
Oil recycling is very useful process to go green as there is a large number of used oil which is the stuff we used every day. Each kind of oil can be recycled into different products which has different benefit. Cooking oil is one of a kind which can be recycled into biodiesel. As the […]
Oil recycling has become a surprise for many people as it is kind of unbelievable fact that used oil can be recycled. It is such a common misconception about used oil that it has been broken down to being worthless but there are some people who do know about oil recycling that it really works. […]
Nowadays oil recycling has been concerned to reduce the current of environmental impact that waste oil has. From now on, it is the time to be getting oil recycling effectively as oil is one of the most important resources which is used widely around the world. In the future, there must be the lack of […]
· Check with your county for used motor oil recycling centers in your area. · Drain used motor oil from your car into a clean leakproof container, and close it with a screw on top. Don't use a container that stains with any type of household chemical. · Moreover, you can consider purchasing a container […]


text: On Fri, Feb 18, 2000 at 09:55:42PM -0800, Greywolf wrote: > I type 'make && make install' in .../pkgsrc/x11/wterm, and for some reason > it insists on installing into /usr/local instead of /usr/X11, and the > icon install fails completely. I want it to install into /usr/X11. > No amount of twiddling CONFIGURE_ARGS seems to help. pkgsrc is updated > here every other day. > Here's my /etc/mk.conf -- what am I doing wrong? You're not doing anything wrong... It's not your mk.conf, it's the package. The pkgsrc/x11/wterm/Makefile includes: USE_X11= YES (which triggers lib includes etc) but doesn't include: USE_X11BASE= YES It also does some tricks in the PLIST @cwd ${PREFIX} bin/wterm man/man1/wterm.1 @cwd ${X11BASE} share/WindowMaker/Icons/wterm.tiff share/WindowMaker/Icons/wtermthai.tiff And it is not the only pkg which uses @cwd in the PLIST, but there are only 6 pkgs that do it. (Note that x11/wterm uses PLIST_SUBST+=, while mail/faces uses sed and post-install) If you'd like it to behave like most X11 installs, remove the cwd lines, and add the USE_X11BASE= YES in the Makefile. Just remember it's a change that will require maintainence between sups, unless the package makes more sense all in X11BASE now and someone changes it. -- David Maxwell, firstname.lastname@example.comemail@example.com --> (About an Amiga rendering landscapes) It's not thinking, it's being artistic! - Jamie Woods


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BRITISH Airways shares fell a further 12 to a 10-year low of 196p yesterday as UBS Warburg said airlines were heading for record losses and Standard & Poor's, the debt rating agency, put much of the industry on credit watch.
The airline's shares have dropped 26pc since Tuesday's terrorist attacks in America on market fears that it is vulnerable to fewer passengers on its most profitable US routes.
Yesterday, a BA spokesman declined to comment on speculation that BA may have to cut more jobs, on top of the 1,800 already announced, and slash the dividend.
One analyst said: "If I was Rod Eddington [BA's chief executive], I would cut the dividend and now he has the perfect excuse."
Virgin Atlantic, whose 16 daily flights to the US account for two-thirds of its revenues, admitted the attacks "exacerbated an already very challenging environment".
A spokesman denied that falling revenues would lead to a cash-flow crisis at Sir Richard Branson's empire. "We're in better shape than a lot of our competitors," he said.
Samuel Buttrick, aviation analyst at UBS Warburg, said the attacks would cost the airline industry $2.1 billion this year, pushing it into record losses of $4.4 billion.
He acknowledged his estimates were "highly provisional", but said airlines would face "reduced demand, higher jet fuel costs and higher security related costs". There would be a residual impact next year, resulting in a $400m industry loss.
S&P analyst Phil Baggaley put 19 US airlines on credit watch with negative implications and added BA and Air Canada to the list. He said the hijacks created "significant risks".
Demand would fall because of "fears regarding further acts of terrorism", while a "possible US military response" would also hurt, as the Gulf War proved.
Airports operator BAA, whose traffic rose 2pc to 12.9m passengers last month, said that it had experienced falls of up to 22pc each month at the height of the Gulf War 10 years ago.
There were also growing doubts over a counterbid for TBI, whose shares fell 2.75 to 87.75, below the 90p bid by French raider Vinci. Andy Murphy, an analyst at West LB Panmure, said: "We think a counter-offeror will keep his cheque book in his pocket."


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Why am I writing about the inaugural Bing National Tailgating Championship?
Because it's the friggin' National Tailgating Championship, sponsored by Microsoft Bing and put on by the Tailgating Institute of America. That's right: the Tailgating Institute of America.
As the name suggests, Bing and the TIA are looking for the nation's best football
drunks tailgaters. Co-ed teams can enter the contest at TailgatingInstitute.com. Four teams are chosen for each of six regional tailgating competitions officially sanctioned by the TIA:
- Houston | Reliant Stadium — Nov. 7
- Denver | Invesco Mile High Stadium — Nov. 14
- New York | New Meadowlands Stadium (New Jersey) — Nov. 21
- Phoenix | University of Phoenix Stadium — Dec. 5
- New Orleans | Louisiana Superdome — Dec. 12
- Seattle | Qwest Field — Dec. 19
According to the TIA, teams will be judged by four criteria:
- Cooking — originality, presentation, regional flair, taste
- Tailgate spirit and environment — including setup and team spirit
- Parking-lot athletics — including football and cornhole
- Team and sports knowledge — trivia about your favorite team
The regional winners will then square off at the Dallas-Fort Worth Sundance Square on Feb. 3 — the Thursday before the Super Bowl in Dallas. Hardcore tailgaters, I assume, would stick around for the Big Game too.
The Commissioner of Tailgating — Joe Cahn, if you've been living in a cave since he started the Tailgating Institute of America in 1996 — will be present at all the regional competitions and the finals. Judging will be done by him and whoever the heck else he pleases.
Hadn't heard of "The Commish" before? Sheesh. Well, here's part of his bio from Tailgating.com:
There are extreme tailgaters. And then there is Joe Cahn!
As the self-proclaimed Commissioner of Tailgating, Joe may have the best job in America. He invented it. In 1996, he sold his business, the New Orleans School of Cooking, sold his house, bought a motor home and hit the road to explore what he calls "the new American community" Tailgate Parties.
Joe Cahn is the world's only professional tailgater. He tailgates at football stadiums, NASCAR tracks, and any other event where they party in the parking lot. Now in his twelfth season on the road, he has driven the JoeMobile over 500,000 miles, visited hundreds of cities, and has seen thousands of fans and has eaten his way through over 500 tailgate parties.
If your tailgating skills are a bit rusty, the basics are posted at Tailgating.com. More contest specifics are at TailgatingInstitute.com.


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I'm working my way through some of the cool things I found on my recent trip to Burlington, Vt. My last post was on the World's Tallest Filing Cabinet. Next up: tiny houses!
I did a post a few weeks ago about 4 creative ways to recycle cassette tapes. My favorite item was the cassette-tape wallet. So I was excited to find this at the farmers market in Burlington, Vt.:
Moe O'Hara, whose business is called Recycle Moe, was selling them for $12. In comparison, the ones on Design Boom's Web site are $39 (plus shipping).
Journey and Bruce Springsteen wallets were also available, by the way. Talk about your tough choices.
I already have a wallet, so I'm using this one to hold business and blog cards:
Moe's other products include recycled envelopes made from maps and old sheet music:
Each one includes a mailing label. A packet of eight cost $5. I'm planning on using mine to mail CD mixes to friends and family.
Bob Dylan? Mark Knopfler? What more could I ask for?
Both of these are things you could figure out how to make yourself, although the envelopes would be easier. A hard part of making the wallets, Moe said, was sawing the cassettes in half without melting the plastic.
For more information on her products and how to order them, visit Recycle Moe or shop on Etsy.


text: [ On Monday, September 11, 2000 at 15:45:58 (-0400), Bill Sommerfeld wrote: ] > Subject: Re: proposal: disable *printf %n specifier in libc in NetBSD 1.5 > > Fixing and issuing advisories for format string bugs may end up > consuming a significant fraction of the security officer's bandwidth. > > I'd like someone who's advocating keeping %n enabled by default to > step forward and volunteer to handle fixing and issuing advisories for > all current and future format-string security problems discovered in > NetBSD and NetBSD packages. > > Thanks. Like Chris has said twice already, those bugs will exist with or without '%n' (i.e. they already exist and are already very dangerous) and they must be fixed anyway! Sticking one's head in the sand and pretending the problem will go away if you take '%n' support out of printf() et al is only making everyone's job harder, including that of the NetBSD Security Officer, while at the same time creating a non-standard implementation. You may as well just do `rm $(locate printf)' and start rewriting everything in an exclusively object-oriented language (i.e. not C++) if you don't want to allow these kinds of bugs! C might not have many bells and whistles, but it sure does contain lots of handy rope and many sharp edges -- it must always be used with care and understanding. -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <firstname.lastname@example.com> <robohack!woods> Planix, Inc. <email@example.com>; Secrets of the Weird <email@example.com>


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I guess she had to shave her pussy for club work. Too bad. I wish her boobs gave milk and not just dripped milk.
Kitten In Chains
Featuring: Michelle Bond
Date: January 30th, 2013
Photos: 85
The ultimate British girl-next-door, Michelle Bond does have a purring, cat-like style about her. She rarely takes on a kinky fantasy girl persona so this is a veer-off into fetish territory. But in an interview with Michelle from Portugal during the making of Big-Boob Finishing School, there's this passage. "I worked for a particular club as a showgirl. It was the world's biggest nightclub, and we did different shows, and my part every Monday night was to get dragged onstage, handcuffed and naked by a dwarf. It was wild, but it was fun, and the crowd always got a big kick out of it. Every Monday night, handcuffed, naked in front of a thousand people. " That was the long running, now closed, show called "Manumission" hosted by the club Privilege in Ibiza, off the coast of Spain and called the most debauched scene in Ibiza. "In part of the show I'd be wearing underwear, but in the part with the dwarf I was naked, and I had a collar and chain around my neck and he'd drag me on up, and I'd be wearing nothing but handcuffs, and he'd drag me around onstage. I had a good time." Milk.
What Members are saying about this update...
December 14, 2014
January 31, 2013
My dream - Michelle in hardcore
January 31, 2013
One of the most gorgeous women on the planet. Michelle Bond has beautiful eyes, boobs and buns.
January 30, 2013
I absolutely loved this photoset!
January 30, 2013
Michelle is one of the most beautiful women alive. Not to mention she has one of the most beautiful, most jerkoffable belly buttons on any woman.
January 30, 2013
beautiful set of Michelle Bond one of her best yet


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Baker Place Elementary School's Katie Holmes was named the Columbia County School system's Teacher of the Year Thursday night during a banquet at West Lake Country Club.
Holmes, an educator for five years, gave much credit to those surrounding her in the school system.
"I work with so many great educators," the first-grade teacher said.
Holmes is the first Teacher of the Year from Baker Place Elementary in the school's first year of eligibility in the county-wide program.
For her accomplishments, Holmes won several prizes that included $500, a one-year lease for a new Mercedes-Benz C250 and multiple gift cards.
Holmes is now eligible to become the Georgia Teacher of the Year. Finalists for the state honor will be named in February and a winner chosen in May.
Holmes was among five finalists nominated by a panel of educators from outside the school system.
The four other finalists were Lakeside High School history teacher Norm Cox, River Ridge Elementary School third-grade teacher Mandy Guley, Stevens Creek Elementary School third-grade teacher Angie McDaniel and Greenbrier High School science teacher Barry O'Neill.
Each district finalist received $300, an iPad 2 and other prizes.
Jennifer Pressley of Brookwood Elementary School was recognized as the county's Media Specialist of the Year.
Pressley received $300, a Hewlett-Packard computer and two subscriptions for Symphony Orchestra Augusta's Pops at the Bell concerts.
The school system also honored 27 other Teachers of the Year from each county public school. They each received $150.
Thursday's banquet and the prizes were donated by the school system's business partners.
Since 1988, Columbia County has produced eight state Teacher of the Year finalists.


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Fall/Winter 1999
From Our Readers
Dear Mr. Berggren,
I am writing in response to your article in the New York Folklore Newsletter [Spring/Summer 1999]. You state that you traveled "from Grand Central to the railroad station in North Creek where Teddy Roosevelt took the oath of office after McKinley was shot." We have been trying to dispel this misinformation for years, but it continues to be perpetuated. Even those involved in the restoration of the train station realize that although Roosevelt began his journey there, he was not inaugurated there. Authoritative sources concur. In his autobiography the former President wrote: "That evening (September 14, 1901) I took the oath of office in the house of Ansley Wilcox, at Buffalo." There are scores of newspaper and eyewitness accounts that also support this.
Ann Marie Linnabery, Chief of Interpretation, Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, Buffalo, NY
Dear Ms. Linnabery,
Thank you for your letter setting the record straight. A major distinction between history and folklore is documented facts vs. orally transmitted stories. Having grown up with the Roosevelt hunting-trip-to-presidency story, I made an assumption about its truthfulness and shouldnt have. I appreciate your calling my attention to the facts. You can be sure that when telling this story in the future, Ill put the North Creek railroad station and the Wilcox house in proper perspective.
Daniel W. Berggren, NYFS Board


text: A pair of regular-rise jeans with a slim, tapered fit. The jet black comfort stretch-denim features yarn technology to aid recovery and has been dyed with special techniques for long-lasting colour. 94% cotton, 5% polyester, 1% elastane 12oz denim Regular rise, slim fit Button fastening, zip fly Machine wash on reverse Imported


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Emmy Awards Fashion Face-Off: Chris Harrison vs. Mario Lopez
Chris Harrison. Mario Lopez. Zero Emmy Awards won between them, plenty of hosting duties, reality shows and general handsomeness to go around.
The Bachelor Pad host-pimp and the future reality show star (Mario and Courtney Mazza are getting their own for some reason) both looked great.


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HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – Last year in April and early May we were experiencing abnormally dry conditions. Farmers had to irrigate and set up sprinklers to water their fields. This year things have been much better.
"This year's a good year it's working out good so far, not too much rain. Usually we have sprinkler hoses out already and we haven't had to do that yet so hopefully it keeps up the way it is," said Bob Johnson of Johnson Farm in Deerfield.
Last April we picked up 2.29″ of rain which was below normal, this April we were well above normal with 5.18″ of rain. All the rain did lead to some spring flooding.
The water level of the Connecticut River is a lot lower than it was just a few weeks ago. You can see some of the islands again near the Holyoke Dam and fishermen are able to get into the water to do some fishing.
The wet weather may have been an inconvenience but it's also preventing us from experiencing drought conditions.
"Yeah it has but every few years that's what we get and then we get a dry season, I learn to love it here though," said Patricia Benoit of Holyoke.
All those showers back in April are making for some very nice May flowers. Last year even though April was drier than normal it ended up being a very wet May with over 6″ inches of rain.


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I've spent the last several posts analyzing the Ghouta chemical weapon attacks in Syria including:
- The lack of evidence implicating Assad.
- The lack of motives for Assad to perpetrate such an attack.
- The clear motives for the rebels to have executed such a false flag operation.
Today I want to take a big step back and look more generally at the geopolitical motivations affecting Syria.
Of course, understanding all the players and motives operating in Syria is a very tall order. I don't presume to say what follows is a complete analysis but simply a summary of the major movers and shakers I bumped into over the last several months as I tried to answer the question: Why? Why has Syria, like Libya before it, been targeted for destabilization?
A Tale of Three Pipelines
Before we run down the list of players and their motivations we need to talk a little bit about pipelines. Natural gas pipelines to be exact. Because, of course, what Middle East conflict would be complete without energy resources being a major factor.
The first pipeline to discuss in the so-called Islamic pipeline. Back in July of 2011 (not coincidentally around the time the fighting broke out in Syria) Iran, Iraq and Syria signed an agreement to construct the Islamic pipeline. This proposed pipeline would run from Iran's massive South Pars and Assalouyeh gas fields, through Iraq, and into Syria to the Mediterranean. From there the gas would be shipped to Europe via Syria's ports. Plans to extend the pipeline under the Mediterranean sea to connect directly to European markets are also being floated.
This Islamic pipeline would complete directly with the Western backed Nabucco pipeline which will connect Azerbaijan gas with Europe through Turkey. Planning for the Nabucco pipeline began back in 2002 with Turkey, the U.S. and EU all heavily invested in the project's success.
The third pipeline playing into this is the Qatar-Turkey pipeline which Qatar proposed to run from its side of the South Pars gas field (which it shares with Iran) through Saudi Arabia, Jordon, Syria and into Turkey and Europe. Qatar proposed this pipeline back in 2009 but Syria rejected the plan in favour of the Iran/Iraq/Syrian Islamic pipeline.
Here's a rough representation of the three pipelines. Note that I'm simply showing the general routes through the countries involved and not the specific route the pipeline will take through those countries. But, this is sufficient to give us the strategic perspective on the pipelines.
Next let's look at some of the religious tensions that are always boiling under the surface in any Middle Eastern conflict.
The Sunni-Shia Tension
Next to competition for scarce resources, religion is a leading cause of conflict. This is especially true in the Middle East where two branches of Islam compete: Shia and Sunni. I won't go into the differences between the two sects; suffice to say that, to many muslims in the region, the differences are important enough that they'll kill each other over them.
What's important here is to look at a map and understand the natural alliances and adversaries that form along these religious lines. This is not a hard and fast rule but still useful in the general sense.
While Shiite's only comprise 15-20% of the population in Syria, Syria has been traditionally Shia friendly. Indeed President Assad's family is in fact Shiite (well, Alawite more precisely but this is a sub-sect of Shia) though his wife is a Sunni.
With these religious divisions in mind. the Islamic pipeline and Syria's generally close alliance with Iran starts to make more sense. Likewise, the reason Syria would be inclined to partner with Iran on a pipeline while turning down the Qatar-Turkey pipeline starts to come into focus.
With that general background covered, let's look at each of the various players meddling in the Syrian civil war. In many cases we'll see that they are at least partially motivated by pipeline politics and religion.
Israel quite obviously has an interest in anything that happens in the MIddle East. In the case of Syria, lying on its north-eastern border this is certainly the case.
Recall that Israel currently occupies the majority of the Golan Heights, territory it annexed in the 1967 six day war. Since that time Israel has been steadily building settlements on the disputed land despite condemnation of this action by the international community including the U.N. (see U.N. Security Council Resolution 497). Obviously Syria has and will continue to oppose and protest this situation. But if Syria were to cease to be a viable sovereign nation, these hassles would simply disappear for the Israelis. Thus, the destabilization of Syria could allow Israel to finalize a land grab begun decades ago.
And there's a further factor with respect to the Golan Heights. The Israeli government recently awarded U.S. based Genie Energy (to which Dick Cheney is an advisor) the rights to explore the Golan Heights for oil and natural gas. Genie Energy believes that the region may hold substantial reserves.
Obviously were substantial oil or gas reserves be verified in the Golan Heights, there would be massive pressure brought to bear on Israel not to exploit these resources given the territory is still legally a part of Syria. But, if Syria no longer existed as a state having dissolved into chaos or fractured into several states along ethnic and religious lines, the way would be open for Israel to exploit any resources found.
Of course, Israel is already relatively flush with natural gas and nurturing ambitions of becoming a player in the natural gas arena. They've recently discovered two large gas fields under the Mediterranean (Tamar and Leviathan). This new-found status as a natural gas superpower could well be factoring into Israeli calculations on Syria. Destabilizing Syria would kill the Islamic pipeline and ensure that Iran's gas could not compete with Israel for supply to the European market. It would also limit the possibilities for Qatar to get their gas to market.
Taking Syria out also further isolates Israel's main adversary in the region: Iran. Iran and Syria have long been strategic allies and many analysts see eliminating Syria as simply the first step of a larger plan to take down Iran.
And finally, it's clearly in Israeli interests to have the various muslim sects in neighbouring countries fighting amongst themselves and not unified and fighting against Israel. This 'balkanization' of Syria is a well known and documented plan by Zionist elements in Israel. Many of these Zionist thinkers do hold senior positions of power within the Netanyahu government, the Likud party and Israeli military and intelligence services. The topic of Zionism and its goals is outside the scope of this post but something I will likely be researching and writing about in more detail in the future. But the basic premise applicable here is simply divide and conquer.
Qatar is a small but extremely wealthy nation just off Saudi Arabia's east coast. Qatar's wealth comes from large oil and natural gas deposits. They have recently started to put this wealth to use trying to gain influence in the region. This has include large donations both to Gaza (to the fury of the Israelis) and to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood earlier this year prior to the coup.
And, in the case of Syria, they have been far more sinister with using their wealth to influence the geopolitical realities in the region. There is clear documented evidence of at least $3 billion dollars being spent by Qatar to fund and arm the Syrian rebels. This support can be tracked right back to the very start of the civil war. Moreover Qatar makes no scruples about funding the most extremist Al Qaeda linked groups involved in the fighting. From Qatar's perspective anyone willing to take down Assad is an ally.
So the question is why? Why has Qatar been so determined to topple Assad right from the start?
One answer is the Islamic pipeline I discussed above. Recall that back in 2009 Qatar proposed the Qatar-Turkey pipeline that would give Qatar access to European markets. Syria was to be the key middle section of this pipeline. But in 2011 Syria rejected Qatar's offer and instead accepted Iran's competing offer to construct the Islamic pipeline.
It's not a coincidence that within weeks of Syria announcing its acceptance of the Islamic pipeline, Qatar started openly funding the rebels. The Islamic pipeline coupled with the religious tensions that already existed between Sunni Qatar and Shia-friendly Syria seemed to convince Qatar that Assad had to go. And, with massive wealth at their disposal, the Qataris have been one of the main funders for the rebels ever since.
Another factor that's important to document when talking about Qatar is that they have gone to great lengths, and expense, to ingratiate themselves to Western interests. Qatar hosts the U.S. military's Central Command's Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center as well as two U.S. Air Force bases and one U.S. Army base. Since 2003 the U.S. has spent over $400 million dollars building up these various installations in Qatar.
Qatar has also been keen to throw its wealth around to gain further political influence amongst Western nations. With an outsized sovereign wealth fund, Qatar has been busy buying influence throughout the Middle East, Europe and beyond. Qatar may be small but it's got big ambitions and the chequebook to back them up.
The point here is not necessarily that Qatar is aligned with Western policy on Syria, but rather that Qatar is leveraging its position to help shape Western policy on Syria and further their goal of becoming a more dominant regional player.
Saudi Arabia
The involvement of Saudi Arabia in funding and supplying the Syrian rebels is, as with Qatar, well established and known in the main stream. There's also a crazy, and seemly founded, story circulating about the head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Bandar (aka Bandar Bush), trying (and failing) to cut a deal with Putin to stop supporting Assad's government. In return for their cooperation the Saudis proposed giving the Russians large weapons orders and guarantees that, whatever regime comes into power in Syria next, it will be under the thumb of the Saudis who will ensure no pipelines get built. When this offer was rebuffed Bandar tried to sweeten the pot by offering to reduce oil supply boosting price which would benefit Russia. Still meeting resistance Bandar allegedly next threatened the Putin with unleashing the various extremists groups in the Caucuses (like the Chechens) for attacks on Russia's pipeline and disruption of the upcoming winter Olympics being hosted in Russia. Putin, as one might expect, did not take kindly to this tactic.
Historically the Saudis have been a major regional power and spent huge sums of money to maintain their influence both in the Middle East and also with Western powers. The cozy relationship between both Bush administrations and the Saudis is well known.
In this respect the Saudis can, in fact, be seen as in competition with the Qataris to a large degree. This has been most readily apparent in Egypt with Qatar financing the Muslim Brotherhood's successful ouster of Saudi backed Hosni Mubarak. The Saudis then funded and influenced to a large extent the coup against the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi.
But then why is Saudi Arabia trying to destabilizing Syria? We know there is tension between Qatar and Saudi Arabia as the two battle for regional influence. We can understand pretty easily the Qatari motives for taking Assad out. But what do the Saudis hope to gain from Assad's removal?
I'm afraid I don't have a slam dunk answer for that. If any readers out there fully understand the Saudi angle here please comment on this post and explain it. All I can come up with are the following relatively weak reasons. There's surely much more to the Saudi Arabia story that I am missing.
First, Saudi Arabia has a large Sunni majority which is mostly Wahhabi. Wahhabism is what we in the West would consider the extremist form of Sunni Islam. Many of the jihadists fighting in Syria are, in fact, Wahhabi. These Wahhabi hate Shiites and believe that they must be wiped out. Thus, the Saudi government, by supporting the rebels in Syria, appeases a large portion of its population. It also isolates Iran which has long been a major adversary to Saudi Arabia.
But there's another factor always lurking below the surface in Saudi Arabia. Despite its regional power, Saudi Arabia's ruling class of royals live in constant fear of the kind of unrest that was witnessed throughout the region during the Arab Spring. How precisely this fits into the Syrian picture is not clear to me but it's doubtlessly a factor.
Then, there's the real possibility that Saudi Arabia might have gotten involved in Syria simply to prevent Qatar from gaining dominance there. In this light Syria can be viewed as a strange kind of proxy war with the two adversaries, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both funding the same side of the conflict in an attempt to secure political influence over the state or states that emerge from the chaos.
And finally, obviously energy must be a huge factor for the Saudis. We know they are an oil production super-power. We know they have the fifth largest natural gas reserves in the world. We know that they haven't really begun to tap those reserves in a serious way. Could the Saudis be hoping to shut-out the competition by denying them Syria as a pipeline route?
Clearly the Saudis have a long term energy agenda into which they have factored their support for the destruction of Assad's government. But, as with the other elements motiving Saudi Arabia, the exact details and grand strategic picture escape me.
Turkey's long term involvement in the conflict in Syria is also well documented. Unlike Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Turkey is not directly funding the rebels to any large extent. Rather Turkey role is mainly to provide sanctuary, training and a crossing point for the rebels to enter into Syria.
Turkey's regional ambition is to become the energy cross-roads linking the Middle-East to Europe, east to west. After all, Turkey is in the enviable position of providing the only land link between the Middle-East and Europe short of detouring up through Russia (which is not feasible for practical as well as geographic reasons).
There's huge money to be made off the transit fees charged by host nations on pipelines running through their territory. This is why Turkey has spent literally years pushing the Nabucco pipeline which runs through Turkey to Europe and is vehemently opposed to the Islamic pipeline. If the Islamic pipeline were to be built it would totally undermine Turkey's geopolitical power and rob it of the massive revenues it expects from the Nabucco pipeline.
Iran's motives are probably the easiest to understand in this whole twisted network of motives and shifting alliances. Iran and Syria are longterm, steadfast allies. Further, Syria's backing of the Islamic pipeline would provide Iran with a way of getting its vast natural gas reserves to market.
If Syria was to disintegrate into warring factions or be balkanized into several states along religious lines, the vital Shia land bridge – the corridor running from Iran, through the Shiite section of Iraq, and into Syria and Lebanon – would be broken. This would further isolate Iran which is fast rising to the top of the list of nations being targeted for destabilization. Thus, from an Iranian perspective, it really comes down to a question of 'fight together or hang separate'. This has motivated Iran to provide as much support as possible to the Syrian government.
Russia, despite international pressure from Western powers, despite attempted brides and threats from the Saudis, has steadfastly supported the Syrian government in the civil war. This support has included extensive military aid, use of its veto power on the U.N. security council, and most recently the Russian's deft out-manoeuvring of the U.S. to head off what appeared to be an imminent air campaign against Assad's forces.
Starting with energy, Russian support for Assad would seem to be counter-intuitive. After all, Russia's largely government owned Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas extractor, currently has a virtually monopoly on supplying natural gas to Europe. The Islamic pipeline, supported by Syria, would obviously introduce competition into the equation.
But given the close alliances between Syria, Russia and Iran, this might not be quite as egregious to the Russians as one might think.
Russia knows that, through one pipeline or another, their stranglehold on natural gas supply to Europe will be broken sooner or later. That being the case, it's obviously in their interest to support regional allies like Syria and Iran to the detriment of their regional enemies like Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Even once the Islamic pipeline is in place and supplying gas to Europe, one can easily envision an OPEC like cartel arrangement being leveraged to control price and maximize profits for all involved. And this is not just idle speculation. Here's an article back from 2008 discussing the groundwork for precisely such a cartel being agreed upon.
Russia is also looking at Syria through the lens of a resurgent cold war. After years of U.S. and NATO powers having free-reign to pursue their geopolitical agenda around the globe, Russia has recently decided enough is enough. Once again we see Russia trying to assert herself into world politics and check U.S. hegemony. Events such as accepting NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's asylum request are clear indicators of how far-gone relations between the two superpowers really are. From this perspective the battle for Syria can be seen as a good old fashion proxy war between Western interests backing the rebels and Russia backing the Assad government.
But Russia also has a more pressing and concrete reason to keep Syria from falling into chaos and extremism: The security of Russia against those same extremists. Russia knows all too well the cost and danger associated with muslim extremists (remember Chechnya?). The fall of Syria would be yet another movement of an extremist group closer to Russia borders. This is something the Russians have every motivation to hold in check.
There are several factors drawing the U.S. into the fight. Many stem from the completely undue and corrupt influence of lobbies on U.S. foreign policy. There are two main lobbies whose influence is undeniable and which are clearly pushing the U.S. to war:
- Israeli Lobby. The Israeli lobby has an absolute stranglehold on the reigns of power in the U.S. For decades U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has, first and foremost, been about supporting Israel. As we have seen, Israel has strong motivations for pursuing the destabilization of Syria.
- Military Industrial Complex. President Eisenhower presciently warned the American people in his farewell address of the dangers of a large and omnipresent defence industry. Post 9/11 has seen U.S. defence spending more than double to $800 billion dollars a year. The defence industry's only way to justify this type of expenditure is through fear (war on terror anyone?). But fear alone isn't enough. The gears of the military industrial complex must be greased from time to time with blood. Syria is the latest manifestation of this need of the military industrial complex to flex its military might, assert its dominance, and justify the continuation of exorbitant defence spending.
Of course we could add the Saudis to this list along with other smaller players. But beyond all these lobbies and their influence on U.S. politicians and foreign policy there are other factors motivating the U.S.
The U.S. economy is in full scale meltdown. The only reason this isn't apparent is the Federal Reserve's massive quantitative easing program which at this point is outright monetizing $85 billion a month of U.S. debt. As the Fed starts to try and withdraw itself from this lunatic monetary policy the mirage that was a supposed economic recovery will vanish.
Throughout history wars have been waged to distract from economic problems at home. This time is no different. With the war on terror losing some of its luster in recent years as Americans tire of constant encroachments on their liberties, a new foreign enemy to demonize is just the distraction needed. An evil dictator who allegedly uses chemical weapons against his own people is the perfect target for such a propagandized distraction.
And, as discussed above for the Russians, there's a new cold war brewing. Syria, viewed as the first flash-point of this new war, is obviously important to the U.S. as it attempts to retain its position as the world's sole superpower. Thus, a far away conflict in little Syria suddenly becomes a strategic battle in a far larger and higher stakes war.
Untangling the web of geopolitical players and their motivations in Syria is a tall order. This post just scratched the surface to reveal why Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are so eager to stoke the flames of revolution in Syria. And, we start to understand why Iran and Russia are standing firm in their support of Assad even in the face of enormous international pressure.
The conflict in Syria ultimately boils down to natural gas pipelines, religious strife and extremism, the quest for regional power in the Middle East, and the emergence of a new cold war between the U.S. and Russia. Viewing the players and events in Syria with an understanding of those core facets brings us much closer to understanding the truth about what's really happening in Syria and why.
You may also like:
- Syria Chemical Weapon Attacks – The Case Against the Rebels
In the absence of any evidence implicating the Assad government in the August 21st chemical weapon attack against Ghouta, and with Assad having strong motives to not use chemical weapons, we must look at other possible culprits. This post will investigate the rebels' motives and means to carry out the Ghouta attack as a false flag operation with the goal of drawing the U.S. into the conflict on the side of the rebels.
- Syria Chemical Weapon Attacks – Do You Really Think Assad…
Are we honestly supposed to believe that Assad carried out chemical weapon attacks at the exact time and in the exact location that U.N. chemical weapons experts had just arrived to investigate previous allegations? Are we supposed to believe that Assad would risk giving the U.S. an excuse to commence overt military action against him? Are we supposed to believe that Assad would risk losing the moral high ground and with it his Russian re-supply lines? And finally, are we supposed to believe that Assad would risk all these things to carry out an attack of no strategic and negligible tactical importance?
- Syria Chemical Weapon Attacks – Where's the Evidence John?
The U.S. has once again started the march to a war of aggression. Once again the public is being manipulated through appeal to emotion. Let's cut through the rhetoric and analyze point-by-point the conclusions made by U.S. intelligence and cited by Secretary of State John Kerry in his August 30th, 2013 speech on the Syrian chemical weapon attacks. The reality is a complete and utter absence of hard evidence substantiating any of Kerry's claims.
- Meet the Syrian Rebels: Who Are They And What Do…
Bashar al-Assad is a brutal dictator whose forces are responsible for both long term oppression of the Syrian people and many egregious atrocities during the present civil war.
But the FSA is clearly the greater of two evils. What began as a legitimate uprising by the people has been thoroughly co-opted and dominated by foreign Islamic extremists bent on imposing Sharia law and genocide for all infidels.
- Syria and the Chemical Weapon Hype


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A British overseas base was used for American "torture" flights the Government has been forced to admit, despite categorical denials of British involvement from both Tony Blair and Jack Straw.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, was forced to apologise to MPs and Gordon Brown said he shared the "disappointment with what has happened."
In a major embarrassment for ministers Mr Miliband told the Commons that new information from the American Government had revealed that Diego Garcia, a British air force base in the Indian Ocean, had been used for two rendition flights.
America has used flights interrogate terror suspects – in particular since the attacks on America on 9/11.
One of the flights that has now come to light was stopping off on the way to the American detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Miliband said he was "very sorry indeed" to have to correct previous statements made by then Prime Minister Mr Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that rendition flights had not used British bases.
He said the cases involving Diego Garcia had not come to light before because of an "error" in an earlier US records search.
He said: "The House and the Government will share deep disappointment at this news, and about its late emergence. That disappointment is shared by our US allies.
"They recognise the absolute imperative for the British Government to provide accurate information to Parliament. I reaffirm the Government's commitment to that imperative today."
Mr Miliband said that in each of the two cases, the aircraft involved had been carrying a single detainee - neither of them British - who did not leave the plane while it was on the ground at Diego Garcia.
He told MPs that neither suspect was subject to "water-boarding". One of those detainees has since been released but the other is still being held by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay.
The revelation brought a stinging attack from Mike Gapes, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, who had been told by ministers and Mr Blair that rendition flights had not involved Britain.
He said the United States and the Bush administration had "misled and lied" to "our Government."
In December 2005 Mr Straw told MPs that "careful research by officials has been unable to identify any occasion since 11 September 2001, or earlier in the Bush administration, when we received a request for permission by the United States for a rendition through UK territory or airspace, nor are we otherwise aware of such a case."
And in January last year Mr Blair gave an assurance to the Intelligence and Security Committee that he was satisfied that the US had at no time since 9/11 rendered an individual though the UK or its overseas territories.
Mr Miliband said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shared his "deep regret" that the information had only recently come to light.
He said Ms Rice "has underlined to me the firm US understanding that there will be no rendition through the UK, UK airspace or Overseas Territories without express British Government permission".
Mr Miliband made clear that the Government expected the US to seek permission if it wanted to render terrorist suspects through UK territory and airspace.
He said that permission would only be granted if the Government was satisfied that it was in accord with British law and the UK's international obligations, including those under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.


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Honor Flight
A documentary about four living World War II veterans and a Midwest community coming together to give them the trip of a lifetime. Volunteers race against the clock to fly thousands of WWII veterans... View more >
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The New Encyclopedia of Golf
Thoroughly revised records and reference section includes the last 10 years of golf, women in golf, and the designers of modern courses. Full page colour photographs capture the action and drama of recent tournaments. Walk-the-course commentaries highlight the significant features of 53 of the greatest championship courses so you feel you are actually standing on the fairway yourself. This popular reference book has been fullly updated and expanded to include the latest international tournaments and celebrated names as well as new championship courses. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of stunning full-colour photographs and with a new introduction focusing on the modern game and its players this is a perfect companion for anyone with a passion for golf.
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Sale Agreed
REA Brophy Farrell are delighted to present to the market this well presented first floor apartment. Located in Oldtown Demesne, Ornamental Gardens is a quiet residential block of exclusive apartments. Each block has lift access, and automatic lobbly lighting. The development is extremely well managed & maintained. The apartment boasts open plan living with access to private balcony, two double bedrooms, one ensuite and a full bathroom with Jacuzzi bath. There is well designed storage and designated parking. Viewing is highly recommended.
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Bathroom: 2.4m x 2.2m Fully tiled, Jacuzzi bath with overhead pump shower, w.c., w.h.b.
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BER: C2 BER No.106198542 Energy Performance Indicator:177.15 kWh/m²/yr
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PSRA Licence No. 00-1230