News Stories

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Would that be kosher? (I doubt it so a Jew or Muslim couldn't eat that)

it is fish

[konart]

Anonymous exposes e-mails of Syrian presidential aides

A translation of the e-mail sent by Sheherazad Jaafari, a press attaché at the Syrian mission to the United Nations, to Assad aide and former Al Jazeera journalist Luna Chebel, provided helpful hints for Assad to manipulate American opinion about what was going on in Syria. The message suggested that "it is hugely important and worth mentioning that 'mistakes' have been done in the begining of the crises because we did not have a well-organized 'police force.' American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear there are 'mistakes' done and now we are 'fixing it.'"

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by konart

Anonymous exposes e-mails of Syrian presidential aides

And

Groupon disclosure, growth concerns hit stock

(Reuters) - Groupon Inc shares slumped Wednesday as the daily deal company's first quarterly results since it went public stoked concern about limited disclosure and slowing growth.

Any supporters have just been :

Holy shit they found a way around it :

Goldman Looks On The Bright Side Of The Volcker Rule

(Reuters) - Wall Street has been lashing out against the Volcker rule since it was proposed, but a senior Goldman Sachs executive said on Wednesday the trading restriction might actually help the investment bank's profitability.

I give up. Cyanide anyone?

[ganbaru]

Los Angeles school in sex abuse case gets entire new staff
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...02-09-03-53-58

[AnimeFan188]

"The government released Steve Job’s FBI file Thursday, including details of a
background check done for a presidential appointment in 1991 and a bomb threat
against him in 1985.

The background check for an appointment to the president’s export council, under
former President George H.W. Bush, included interviews with friends and
colleagues to make sure there was nothing in Jobs’s background that would open
him to blackmail.

One interviewee remarked on Jobs’s well-known drug use – which included, by his
own admission, the use of LSD during his schooldays.

Others mentioned that Jobs couldn’t be trusted and that he was able to create a
reality distortion field.

“Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist
the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,” the report notes."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...jobs-fbi-file/

[MrTerrorist]

Here's some sad news.

Kodak exits digital camera market

And here's some worse news.

Gonorrhea is becoming untreatable

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"The government released Steve Job’s FBI file Thursday, including details of a
background check done for a presidential appointment in 1991 and a bomb threat
against him in 1985.

The background check for an appointment to the president’s export council, under
former President George H.W. Bush, included interviews with friends and
colleagues to make sure there was nothing in Jobs’s background that would open
him to blackmail.

One interviewee remarked on Jobs’s well-known drug use – which included, by his
own admission, the use of LSD during his schooldays.

Others mentioned that Jobs couldn’t be trusted and that he was able to create a
reality distortion field.

“Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist
the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,” the report notes."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...jobs-fbi-file/

best part of file

One section said, “It was [redacted] opinion that honesty and integrity are not required qualities to hold such a position.”

[mechabao]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-kashgari.html

Twitter Aflame With Fatwa Against Saudi Writer Hamza Kashgari
Feb 8, 2012 6:10 PM EST
A young Saudi blogger’s tweets about the Prophet Muhammad have inflamed Islamists, who are calling for his execution. Mike Giglio exclusively interviews Hamza Kashgari.

Last week, just before the anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad’s birth, Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year-old Saudi writer in Jidda, took to his Twitter feed to reflect on the occasion.

“On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you,” he wrote in one tweet.

“On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more,” he wrote in a second.

“On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more,” he concluded in a third.

Twitter quickly flooded with responses to Kashgari, registering more than 30,000 within a day. He was accused of blasphemy, and enraged Saudis called for his death. By the time he removed the tweets and issued a long apology, backtracking on his comments and begging for forgiveness, the danger had already expanded beyond the Web. Someone posted Kashgari’s home address in a YouTube video, and, his friends say, vigilantes came looking for him at his local mosque. The Saudi information minister banned Kashgari’s local newspaper column and barred outlets across the country from publishing his work. Nasser al-Omar, an influential cleric, called for him to be tried in a Sharia court for apostasy, which is punishable by death. Other leading clerics decried Kashgari on their own, and Saudi Arabia’s council of senior scholars issued a rare and harshly worded communiqué condemning him and his tweets and demanding that he be put on trial. Yesterday, Saudi Arabia’s leading news site, SABQ, reported that the king himself had issued a warrant for Kashgari’s arrest.

[Ithekro]

Well, judging from that, he is a dead man.

[ganbaru]

Or at the very least, he might have to emigrate...

[Ithekro]

Rossen Reports: Anyone can buy guns, no questions asked
Legal loophole permits weapons powerful enough to down aircraft to be sold without checks


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/463164...ossen_reports/

While the lack of background checks may be a problem (though If I recall that is a state by state issued law, not national), the problem I have with this report is the weapons they point out. They are all legal weapons. You can buy them legally in many states (some states have stricter laws that others).

The bullets from an Ak-47 they say: 7.62×39mm (smaller diameter to the common 9mm pistol round, though with more power behind it. I would note that hunting rifles use more powerful rounds (7.62×63mm also know as the .30-06 cartridge, or "thirty-aught-six".)

Hollow point bullets....are bullets. They are not the gun. Hollow points are banned from military use. They however are common in both police and civilian use, partly because due to the way they flatten out, they are less likely to hurt other people by punching though a wall or bouncing off something else. This goes for target shooting, hunting, police work, and home defense. With a hollow point, it is less likely that you might accidently kill your neighbor when you defend yourself against a burgler with your 7mm pistol.

The .50 cal rifle....is a moose weapon. But it is also the one they show is a bolt action rifle. You can only shoot one round at a time and have to preform an action before you can fire again. It is not automatic, nor even semi-automatic. It is a huge and powerful rifle. But it is is legal. .50 cal bullets are the maximum size granted by law outside historical pieces.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Rossen Reports: Anyone can buy guns, no questions asked
Legal loophole permits weapons powerful enough to down aircraft to be sold without checks


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/463164...ossen_reports/

While the lack of background checks may be a problem (though If I recall that is a state by state issued law, not national), the problem I have with this report is the weapons they point out. They are all legal weapons. You can buy them legally in many states (some states have stricter laws that others).

The bullets from an Ak-47 they say: 7.62×39mm (smaller diameter to the common 9mm pistol round, though with more power behind it. I would note that hunting rifles use more powerful rounds (7.62×63mm also know as the .30-06 cartridge, or "thirty-aught-six".)

Hollow point bullets....are bullets. They are not the gun. Hollow points are banned from military use. They however are common in both police and civilian use, partly because due to the way they flatten out, they are less likely to hurt other people by punching though a wall or bouncing off something else. This goes for target shooting, hunting, police work, and home defense. With a hollow point, it is less likely that you migh accidently kill your neighbor when you defend yourself against a burgler with your 7mm pistol.

The .50 cal rifle....is a moose weapon. But it is also a bolt action rifle. You can only shoot one round at a time and have to preform an action before you can fire again. It is not automatic, nor even semi-automatic. It is a huge and powerful rifle. But it is is legal.

.50 rounds are used in WWII to down German Messerschimitts as the quad .50 in WWII.

But the thing is, shooting a .50 weapon downrange with a sight is NOT EASY. I used a L96A1 chambered with a 7.62x51mm before, and the thing kicks like a mule. And if you breathe while aiming down the sight, your target is gone from the scope. I can barely imagine how shooting a .50 anti-materiel rifle would be like.

I'll let justin and fallschrimjager fill in the details as firearms owning professionals themselves. The article is totally out of whack.

P.S I think you mean 9mm pistol. I don't remember any pistol cartridge that is 7mm - only 9mm, 10mm, .45 ACP, .38 S&W, .357, 5.7mm, 22LR.

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

P.S I think you mean 9mm pistol. I don't remember any pistol cartridge that is 7mm - only 9mm, 10mm, .45 ACP, .38 S&W, .357, 5.7mm, 22LR.

.32 cal S&W is sometimes classed as 7mm, though it is more like 8mm. There was also the 7 mm "Baby" Nambu. Though I though there were more. The 9mm is much more common, but I was thinking someone had tried to get a 7mm for home defense going because "it was smaller than a 9mm" type stupid logic.


I use to shoot .44 cal Magnum rounds from a Ruger Super Redhawk at age eleven for target practise. It kicks a lot for a revolver. The 9mm is much easier. I rather like .22 long rifle shooting as it is very easy and accurate...plus the older Nylon 66 could hold 15 rounds in the tube, so you didn't have to reload as often, but it took you a while to reload. (the really old ones looked like Matel toys because they were plastic...some had black plastic stocks and chrome barrels)

(Yes I know there is a gun thread...this was an observation of what one can due under supervision. The Boy Scouts of America may shoot rifles and shotguns for merit badges under supervision, but part of that is learning responsibility, proper gun handling, and safety. As well as accuracy. They do not have one for pistols.)

[sona-nyl]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

it is fish

But sharks aren't kosher (they have to have scales to be that).

[Ithekro]

That is what I was thinking, but could not remember why I thought it wasn't kosher. Not sure it the same applies to Halal.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Usami_Haru

But sharks aren't kosher (they have to have scales to be that).

Sharks have scales, just small.

[Ithekro]

Found it finally:

Generally any animal that eats other animals, whether they kill their food or eat carrion (Leviticus 11:13–31), is not kosher, as well as any animal that was partially eaten by other animals

Both are forbidden from eating "carnivorous animals".

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Found it finally:

then fish itself isn't kosher or chicken.

[Ithekro]

Insects are not kosher, nor do they have "blood" as understood in those days.
They likely didn't know what most fish eat then...but a shark is well know as a carnivore (usually...some species are not). A lot of thing seem to have to do with blood and proper slaughter. Carnivores and birds of prey are listed as non-kosher, likely cause of the risk of blood from an improper slaughter or something like that. Or maybe just that one should only eat the flesh of a animal that has not eaten the fless of another animal for some reason.

Remember, these laws are several thousand years old (well the Muslim ones aren't as old, though they are based on the Jewish traditions which are older)


Looking around the net for a bit I find these:

Also something about that the scales don't come off easy, and thus are considered part of the skin or something.

No, they do not have the detachable fins and easily removed scales necessary for a fish to be considered kosher

Yes, they have scales, but not the type of scales that make a fish kosher. The biblical term translated as “scales” is kaskeses. This refers to scales that can be removed from the fish without tearing the skin. Scales that are one with the fish and cannot be removed without tearing the skin are not called kaskeses. Fish with such scales are not kosher

Not sure if they applies to Islamic dietary law though. I've read conflicting accounts from that crowd. Some say it is Halal because everything from the sea is halal, and others say it is Haraam because it does not have scales (in the kosher sense of the word)...both siting passages from the Quran.

[guest]

"Vonage on Wednesday unveiled a new mobile app for the iPhone and Android smartphones that affords free calling and messaging along with cheap international calling rates. Vonage Mobile allows users to make free “high-definition” voice over IP calls among each other over Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G data connections, and low-cost calls can also be placed through the app to any landline or cell phone globally. The New Jersey-based Telco says its international calling rates are 70% lower than rates from major carriers and 30% lower than Skype. ”Vonage Mobile consolidates the best features of our prior applications, while adding important functionality, better value and improved ease of use,” Vonage CEO Marc Lefar said in a statement. “It combines the best of free high-def voice and messaging along with incredible value for traditional international calls, all while using the existing mobile number and address book for unsurpassed ease of use.” Vonage’s full press release follows below."

http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/08/vonage...phone-android/

Hey! Is this for real? I really need to save money on making phone calls through cell phone. I have an Android phone. Does this mean that I just have to download their app and I can make phone calls for free?