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| bartist |
 Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:11 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| Took a couple days off from here (enjoying my favorite hobbies: snow shovel power lifting and automotive skating -- a thrilling sport!) and come back to find a geography website where Third Eye used to be. All I know is that Upper Volta has changed its name, due to a recent lawsuit from General Motors. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:27 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| It appears there are no Blanches this year. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Apparently there are Blanches, but later when people have had a chance to see more of the movies. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:20 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Just got this in my e-mail--so that's what they do when they're not on TV. Although I saw the play years ago, it might be worth seeing it again.
Link's not working. I'll try it again. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:23 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:19 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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The AP lead on Egypt:
Quote: Thousands of supporters and opponents of President Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo's main square Wednesday, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of uncontrolled violence as soldiers stood by without intervening. Government backers galloped in on horses and camels, only to be dragged to the ground and beaten bloody.
Sure makes it sound as though both sides were equally to blame for the violence and each gave as good as they got. But from what I saw on CNN, and what has been reported elsewhere, all of the molotovs were going in just one direction, into the square.
And they came on animalback with whips and sticks and were beating people, which is why they galloped in and why they were counter-attacked. And I only saw a few get pulled down and beaten.
Of course it makes you wonder when the last camel charge was in Cairo, even if they were (allegedly) camels for tourist rides/pics.
But the way that the US news tries to maintain neutrality/balance is too often a complete mockery of reporting what is occurring. Glad that wasn't my only source of info. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKcgkBa9_3c
This is a really terrible movie, but it's worth linking to just to hear the title tune, which happens about a minute-and-a-half in. Here are the words, qualifying this as perhaps the most hilariously misguided attempt at a title tune in film history:
THE NIGHT CALLER IS A MYSTIFYING NAME
FOR A DANGEROUS, INTOXICATING GAME.
THE NIGHT CALLER MUST BE PLAYED WITH MANY SKILLS,
AND THE STAKES ARE MAD, FORBIDDEN, SECRET THRILLS.
SOMEWHERE FROM OUTER SPACE
MOVES A DARK SHADOW IN THE NIGHT.
DON'T EVER GET TOO CLOSE
TO THAT PHANTOM'S EVIL EYE.
THE NIGHT CALLER CASTS A HYPNOTIZING SPELL.
FOOLS THAT TRY TO FIGHT IT NEVER LIVE TO TELL. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:59 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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[snort!]
Yeah, gromit, sometimes even video can be deceptive, the camera turned on one small cross-section of a massive street scene, so it's really hard to determine what the big picture is, who is instigating what, etc. It probably is lazy journalism, though, when the writer can't make an educated guess as to who is doing the provocation. Instead of neutrality/balance, a better stance is just to say, "...from where I was standing..." and then say what it looks like to you. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:59 pm |
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The original protesters were too full of themselves to have cooled it when Mubarak made his speech which was conciliatory and actually a surrender. Most people accepted the terms but the young protesters insisted that he should go immediately and they carried on their mass protest.
What did they think would happen? They made their bed and they had to lie in it. They got greedy. They wanted it all and they wanted it their way. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:59 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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From where I am sitting, it appears that the pro-Mubarak supporters engaged in a pre-meditated attack on the demonstrators and were surprised by the ferocity of the defence and the fact that the army may have hindered their attempt to oust the demonstators. The only question is to what extent the attack was orchestrated by the Government (methinks that they were behind it).
I think that the calculation is that ifthe demonstrators are dispersed a lot of the pressue will be taken off Mubarak to go sooner rather than later. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:20 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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marantzo wrote: The original protesters were too full of themselves to have cooled it when Mubarak made his speech which was conciliatory and actually a surrender. Most people accepted the terms but the young protesters insisted that he should go immediately and they carried on their mass protest.
What did they think would happen? They made their bed and they had to lie in it. They got greedy. They wanted it all and they wanted it their way.
My question is, what did Mubarak think would happen when he told them he wouldn't run for office again? That isn't the capitulation they were waiting for--it sounded like the same old same old. When a mob of furious citizens are yelling at you to leave, you either leave or crush them. So he's trying to crush them. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:10 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| They need a bit of a transition. Although Iran had a transition and got the mullahs anyway. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:31 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Well, I'm impressed. And remember this is still data from the first 140 days of Kepler's mission. To confirm an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-sized orbit would take three years.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/home/115102594.html |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:21 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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jeremy wrote: From where I am sitting, it appears that the pro-Mubarak supporters engaged in a pre-meditated attack on the demonstrators and were surprised by the ferocity of the defence and the fact that the army may have hindered their attempt to oust the demonstators. The only question is to what extent the attack was orchestrated by the Government (methinks that they were behind it).... |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:13 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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yambu wrote: Tonight MSNBC was reporting that those guys on horses and camels worked the tourist trade at Giza, and were pissed that they had been effectively shut down.
So they're pro-Western!
Actually JaunCole makes that point, that so much of Egypt's economy and the suk/bazaar depends on tourism, which helps make a pro-Western outcome more likely. Tourism and Suez canal transport and bribe aid for being friends with Israel constitutes a good chunk of Egyptian GDP.
Very interesting the huge disparity between the public's relationship to the police and the military.
Anyway, the camel and horse charge was weird theater, but apparently the pro-Mubarak crowds were bused in, had the same prepared chants in different areas, and have been described as "rent-a-crowd thugs." They also were widely reported to have various small arms -- straight razors, knives, sticks, etc. and clearly had fuel and a reasonably well organized molotov cocktail bar.
No reason to beleive that the ordinary Egyptian protesters suddenly became violent, and many reports were of them pleading with the military to protect them from the pro-regime thugs. Seems a classic case of bringing out thugs -- police, gov;t workers, paid hoodlums -- to cause instability and violence, and either forcing the demonstrators to disperse or providing an excuse for the regime to crack down.
So where are the police who have been pulled from the streets? Just kicking back and enjoying some time off. It's a bit like when the US disbanded the Iraqi army -- suddenly a group of armed and trained men have a lot of free time to cause mischief in support of the old regime. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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