Italy’s southernmost Island flooded with North African Immigrants

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Using Middle-Eastern/Northern Africa uprisings as excuse to Immigrate for Job opportunities

From VOA "Italian Island Crowded by North African Refugees" March 6:

The people of Lampedusa, the southern-most island in Italy and the first port of call for migrants fleeing the strife in North Africa, have been preparing themselves for potential mass arrivals...

The people of Lampedusa fear it’s just a question of time. Soon, they say, their island will again be inundated with migrants fleeing the political turmoil in North Africa. After the collapse of the Tunisian regime in mid-January, more than 6,000 arrived on the tiny southern island, braving the stretch of sea that separates it from the African coastline.

Most are young men who hope they will be able to find a job and send money back to their families

Continuing:

Simona Moscarelli is the representative of the International Organizations for Migration on the island. She says they expect to see more flows from Tunisia and then migrants arriving from Libya.

Muslims riot against Christians in Egypt: Burn down Church; Priest, three others feared Burned to Death

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They were Shouting "Allahu-Ahkbar"

From Eric Dondero:

Rioters threw gas cylinders into a Church a few miles away from Cairo. A riot started during a dispute between Muslim families; a dispute that appears not to have involved local Christians.

From AINA.org (h/t Pamela Geller):

A mob of nearly four thousand Muslims has attacked Coptic homes this evening in the village of Soul, Atfif in Helwan Governorate, 30 kilometers from Cairo, and torched the Church of St. Mina and St. George. There are conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the Church pastor Father Yosha and three deacons who were at church; some say they died in the fire and some say they are being held captive by the Muslims inside the church.

Witnesses report the mob prevented the fire brigade from entering the village. The army, which has been stationed for the last two days in the village of Bromil, 7 kilometers from Soul, initially refused to go into Soul, according to the officer in charge. When the army finally sent three tanks to the village, Muslim elders sent them away, saying that everything was "in order now."

Witnesses say that the rioters burning down the Church were shouting "Allahu-Ahkbar."

Photo of Christian Coptic church in Cairo, not the one burned down.

17 Christians stoned and beaten by Muslims in Ethiopia

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Muslims shouted "Allahu-Ahkbar" as they stoned Christians and beat them with rods

From Charismag.com Feb. 27:

One of the Oma villagers started arguing with the missionaries. The situation quickly escalated as the man’s anger incited a mob that attacked the students. The Muslim mob was shouting “Allah Akbar,” which means “God is great” as they stoned the Christians and beat them with rods.

The Christian missionaries fled the village, but the angry mob didn’t end its attack. The Muslim persecutors tried to set fire to the car. The arson attempt failed, but 17 Christian college students were wounded in the Feb. 26 assault, according to International Christian Concern (ICC).

“We thank God that no one was killed,” one of the victims, who wanted to remain anonymous, told ICC. “It’s sad that we suffered the attacks despite the Ethiopian laws which say there is freedom of religion and equality in the country.”

Episode 42 Radio-Isotope Supply into the future

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Episode 42 Radio-Isotope Supply into the future
Features interviews with Dr Neil Petry From Duke in the USA, and Dr James Ballinger from Guys and St Thomas in London UK

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An eclipse from space with a two-way Moon | Bad Astronomy

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This is pretty wild: a partial solar eclipse on March 4, 2011 as seen from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory! Watch as the Moon slips in front of the face of the Sun in this video:

Cool! In this far-ultraviolet view, you can see magnetic activity on the Sun’s surface, like arcing gas eruptions and sunspots (which are dark in visible light, but very bright in the UV), and the roiling, bubbling motion as pockets of hot solar gas rise and fall. Then, suddenly, the Moon makes its appearance!

When I first saw this, I was surprised the Moon appeared to reverse direction. But after a moment’s thought I figured it out: parallax! Here’s how it works:

On the right is a diagram (not to scale, duh) I put together to illustrate the situation. SDO orbits the Earth, and I drew it so that it orbits counterclockwise. When SDO is at the bottom of the diagram, it’s moving to the right (position 1). A little while later (position 2) it’s moving to the left.

Now imagine the Sun is way off the top of the diagram. SDO stares at ...


North Carolinians may want to take a cue from Washington Staters on higher Cigarette Taxes: Just Roll your Own

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When the price of an item rises, fewer of the items are sold. The rate at which the sales of an item declines is called elasticity of demand. The greater the decline, the greater the elasticity.

Products will vary greatly in their elasticity. Necessary products like fuel and medicine tend to be less elastic. This is because they are quite vital to the running of the economy. Though an increase in fuel prices will decrease its use, it will not make it fall as rapidly as the rise in cost of a leisure product, for example, the price of lawn gnomes. -- Indepthinfo.com

•The number of close substitutes for a good / uniqueness of the product – the more close substitutes in the market, the more elastic is the demand for a product because consumers can more easily switch their demand if the price of one product changes relative to others in the market. -- Tutor2U.com Price Elasticity of Demand

From Eric Dondero:

It's a well-known principle of free market economics - Henry Hazlitt, Frederich Hayek, Milton Friedman - that when Price goes up due to factors such as increased taxation, consumers will seek "replacement" goods.

A strong tradition has developed in Washington State in recent years to just roll your own cigarettes. Washington State has some of the highest cigarette taxes in the Nation.

From the Seattle Times "New Port Orchard tobacco business for DIY smokers":

Taxes on cigarettes have increased since the passage of the federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. Smokers in Washington now pay just more than $3 of federal tax and just more than $1 of state tax on a pack of cigarettes typically costing around $7.50, according to Mike Gowrylow, spokesman for the state's Department of Revenue.

The Times gives an example of a local resident beating the system. Continuing:

Kathryn Davis, 78, lives on a fixed income, and has at times passed up grocery items to buy cigarettes.

On Thursday, Davis made her first visit to DIY Tobacco in downtown Port Orchard, where customers purchase loose tobacco and roll their own smokes at a deep discount.

Davis inserted a tray of paper tubes with filters into a large machine, dumped the tobacco in the top and waited. The contraption hissed and banged methodically, churning out the equivalent of a carton of smokes in about eight minutes.

The cost for materials and use of the machine is about $33 for 200 smokes, half to two-thirds of what Davis might pay for a carton of commercially manufactured cigarettes.

North Carolina is on the verge of boosting the State's cigarette tax by an astounding $1.00 a pack.

As John Stephenson of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU.org) points out:

Cigarette taxes are notoriously unreliable sources of revenue. The projection that North Carolina will see a windfall of more than $300 million does not account for the losses of revenue that will surely result from higher taxes as smokers seek out cheaper alternatives from other lower-tax jurisdictions or smugglers.

Meanwhile, the "roll-your-own" shops appears to be a growth industry in Washington, with similar stores opening up throughout the State.

Could North Carolinians and smokers in other states learn from Washington State's example?

Reason’s Nanny-Stater of the Month: Well-known Democrat leader, now Fireburning Anti-Prostitution Crusader

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From Eric Dondero:

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, surprised many Nevadans and observers nationwide, with an out-of-the-blue rant last week against legalized prostitution in rural counties in his home State.

Some have speculated that since Reid won urban Las Vegas overwhelmingly, and lost big time in rural Nevada to Republican Sharron Angle, it's payback time.

Whatever the reason, his comments have won him Reason's Nanny-Stater of the month distinction.

Republicans come out in opposition to Reid’s plan to close Nevada Brothels

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Newly-elected Gov. Sandoval backs local control

From Eric Dondero:

Harry Reid's call for making prostitution completely illegal throughout Nevada is being met with fierce opposition from those in the industry, and even strong opposition from Republicans.

From CNN "Reid takes on Nevada brothels":

Under Nevada law, prostitution is illegal in major cities such as Las Vegas and Reno. More sparsely populated rural counties, however, have the option of allowing brothels. Ten counties currently do so.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a first-term Republican, has said he believes that any decision to ban prostitution should continue to be made by county governments.

Dennis Hof, owner of the famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch, slammed Reid on Wednesday, calling the senator's proposal a "red herring" to compensate for his "lack of performance" in office.

"We're not rolling over," Hof said. "Reid will have to pry the keys to the cathouse out of my cold dead hands."

Church-going Republicans say keep the Brothels open

Some even believe Reid is pursuing this course as a sort of revenge against rural Nevada, which voted in big numbers for staunchly conservative Republican candidate Sharron Angle.

Republican Senator John Ensign also expressed his opposition to Reid's call to close down the brothels.

And this from MSNBC:

Ed Goedhart, a church-going Republican widely considered the most conservative in the state Assembly, blasted Reid's stance as an attack on freedom and an attempt to "legislate morality."

"This is a transaction that's conducted on the acceptance of both individuals, and I don't believe that we should go there," Goedhart said. "Nevada is still one of the last, best free places. We should be embrace that heritage of freedom and libertarianism and that's going to bring people out here."

Editor's note - This website was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Brian Sandoval for Governor.

Yea or Nay for Energy-saving Appliances?

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With the cost of energy continuing to rise and decades-long discounts for all-electric homes falling by the wayside, energy-efficient appliances are undoubtedly the wave of the future. That being said, what kind of premium in per cent, would you be willing to pay for a major appliance? And, what kin

Would You Buy an Electric Car?

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People in the electric power industry know more about the problems and benefits of electric cars than the general public. You probably know about battery technology, battery replacement costs, wiring 220Vac into your garage, the availability of charging stations, and the problems it will cause elect

Graphene: Problem or Panecea?

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While some researchers in nanotechnology and surface engineering are exploring the many promising facets of graphene, others experts are warning that graphene might not be all its cracked up to be, especially in the world of electronics. Is the research too esoteric to find real world application? W

Healthcare Delivery via Supercomputer

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A new research initiative will combine the analytic capabilities of IBM's Watson computer system with Nuance Communication's speech recognition technology for healthcare industry application. Developers envision deploying Watson to consider all available literature in helping physicians treat and di

US SENATE: Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Mexico and Virginia could be GOP pick-ups for 2012

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From Eric Dondero:

It's still way early. But The Hill is saying that Republicans have a good shot of picking up the Senate for 2012. Five seats are seen as very vulnerable for Democrats due to retirements, and other factors.

The first edition of The Hill's 2012 race ratings puts five Democratic-held seats in the toss-up column. Republicans need a net gain of at least three seats to win the Senate.

Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) are the two incumbents that top of the list of vulnerable Senate Democrats in 2012. And, thanks to retirements, another three Democratic-held seats are toss-ups -- the ones held by Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.), Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) and Jim Webb (Va.).

Nebraska and North Dakota are virtually certain GOP pick-ups with only nominal Dem opposition emerging to strong established GOP contenders. Montana near certain with Cong. Mike Rehberg on the GOP side.

Note - Hawaii too has become open with the recent retirement announcement of Dem Sen. Danial Akaka.

Photo of fmr. NM Cong. Heather Wilson, likely GOP nominee.

BP Oil is Still in the Water – and the Seafood

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This is Robert Naman, an analytical chemist with over 30 years of experience and the president of Act Laboratory Inc in Mobile, AL. ACT is a private environmental testing laboratory. . . . .   In the latest Project Gulf Impact video, Naman discusses the EPA’s role in determining acceptable PAH levels, and how those acceptable limits are set higher than what is safe for children and the average adult. He also addresses recent water testing performed in Orange Beach, AL, which found some of the highest levels of oil and grease to date. Naman also has an interesting viewpoint on seafood consumption — he has personally decided to not eat seafood out of the Gulf.

From the Huffington Post regarding one of his most recent samplings: “Naman tested various samples for petroleum, and said he expected to find no more than 5 parts per million (ppm). Instead, Naman found results that far exceed his expectations: 16 ppm from waters at Katrina Key, and 29 ppm at Orange Beach.

The most shocking results came from a sample of water collected near boom at Dauphin Island Marina. When Naman combined the sample with an organic solvent that separates the oil from the water, which he did for all the other samples as well, it exploded in his lab, breaking the container and destroying the sample in the process. Naman thinks the reaction was caused by the presence of methane gas or Corexit, the dispersant that BP has been using in the Gulf.” — Source

It’s interesting that he notes that the BP disaster of last year was the first time ever that dispersants had been injected under the surface of the water and mixed with water at all levels.  Previously, it was used only on the surface of the water.  Why did the EPA allow BP to do that in our waters off our coast?

Besides seafood, this brings up another question — how has the severe pollution affected the living wildlife in the waters in the Gulf? Recently over 90 bottlenose dolphins were washed up dead on the beaches in the Gulf states, which is far more than usual for this time of year. The Guardian has concluded they were probably poisoned by the dispersant Corexit, and oil that remains in the water.

Since the start of the year, 87 bottlenose dolphins have washed up on the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and along the Florida panhandle, Kim Amendola, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. That’s about 12 times higher than typical strandings at this time of year.

Forty-six of those were infants or still-born.

The coastal areas were the worst affected by BP’s blown-out well, which spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The die-off had prompted fears that exposure to toxins from the BP spill had interfered with last year’s calving season, causing miscarriages.

However, scientists at the Dauphin Island sea lab [...]