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THIS is what I live by… don’t let the bastards grind you down…
BMD
Thursday, 6 September 2012
6 September 2012. Sergei Yolkin’s World. An Eligible Caterpillar
An Eligible Caterpillar
Sergei Yolkin
2012
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According to a paper published by biologists in the journal Nature Communications, the Egyptian Cotton Leafworm uses pheromones to advertise their sexual availability in a very unusual way… they put them on the leaves of edible plants in order to attract other larvae.
6 September 2012
Sergei Yolkin
RIA-Novosti
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6 September 2012. Greece Picking Up Medals at Paralympics… With NO Help From the Greek Rightwingers…
Paschalis Stathelakos, winner of the bronze in the shot-put and silver in the discus (image from the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing)
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Aristidis Makrodimitris, silver-medallist swimmer
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Team Greece‘s London 2012 Paralympic medal tally is up to eight after Aristidis Makrodimitris and Paschalis Stathelakos earned their second medals. On Wednesday, swimmer Makrodimitris finished second in the 50-metre backstroke S2 final to claim silver with a time of 1:04.71. On Thursday, Stathelakos added a bronze medal in shot-put F40, in addition to his silver in discus F40, with his best shot at 12.78 metres. In a statement he made later, Stathelakos said that he and his teammates in the national Paralympic squad felt that the Greek state abandoned them, “which explains the drop in the medals tally in this Paralympics”, he said, adding that, without state support, Greece might not be represented in the next Paralympics at all.
6 September 2012
George Georgakopoulos
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite5_1_06/09/2012_460055
Editor’s Note:
What makes my blood boil is that the Greek state cut funding for the Paralympians to keep tax rates on the parasite McMansion filth low. The present Greek government is moving towards a “no confidence” vote… and there’ll be new elections. SYRIZA’s in the wings… with a populist programme in hand. Trust me, the McMansion scummers who’re partying now will get it good from SYRIZA… they’ll make ‘em pay up, and if the thieves try fleeing to America with their loot, the Greek government will treat ‘em the same way the Russians treated Khodorkovsky.
THIS is what the rightwing wants… it wants to cut everything helping ordinary people so that the rich can party on, unhindered. I don’t think that I’m alone in hating and opposing that. The Greek Paralympians are more deserving of our money than any crapitalist “investor” or “owner” is… infinitely so…
BMD
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Putin Sez US Military Won’t Let Obama Get Flexible on Missile Shield
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President Vladimir Putin said US President Barack Obama is willing to revive deadlocked talks on a planned American missile shield in Europe, but that the military lobby in Congress and a “conservative” State Department are holding him back. Putin told the RT international news channel in an interview, “Is it possible to find a solution to the problem, if President Obama’s re-elected for a second term? In principle, yes, it is. Nevertheless, this isn’t just about President Obama. My feeling is that he’s a sincere man and that he sincerely wants to implement positive change. However, can he do it; will they let him do it? There’s the military lobby, and the Department of State, which is quite conservative”. Putin also emphasised the need for dialogue on the controversial shield, but said he was “not sure” that Washington was “ready for this kind of cooperation”.
Negotiations between Russia and the USA on the missile defence project stalled over Washington’s reluctance to give Moscow legally-binding guarantees that it won’t use the shield against Russia. Washington and NATO say they need the shield to defend Europe against a possible missile attack from Iran. Russia says the project could pose a threat to its national security and threatened a host of countermeasures. In May, the Russian General Staff said it didn’t rule out a pre-emptive strike against the American shield in the event of an “aggravation of the situation”.
Earlier this week, the US Democratic Party said in its 2012 national platform that if re-elected, President Obama would “move forward” with the missile shield programme, regardless of Moscow’s stance. However, Putin told RT that a unilateral move would “not enhance global stability”. He added that Russia would “have to think of how we can defend ourselves” if the United States proceeded with the shield, saying, “You also have to think about its strategic character, even if it’s built not for a year or even a decade”. He also said chances that a figure like Obama’s Republican challenger Mitt Romney… who famously described Russia as the United States’ “number one geopolitical foe”… could come to power in the USA were “quite high”, asking, “So, what are we supposed to do to ensure our security?”
In 2010, Obama scrapped the previous Bush administration‘s plans to deploy an anti-ballistic missile defence system in Czechia and Poland, in a move welcomed by Moscow. However, later, Washington announced it’d replace it with a reconfigured system that they’d eventually deploy in the Mediterranean, Poland, Romania, and Turkey.
6 September 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/world/20120906/175798904.html
Editor’s Note:
There are no planned ABM sites in CONUS. NONE. That means that the rhetoric that ABM forces are “defensive” is lies. Iran is no threat to Europe or the USA in the near or middle future. Indeed, it’s hard to see it being a threat in the far future (a generation from now). In short, it’s all a gigantic lie… it’s actually an attempt to try to decapitate the Russian strategic offensive forces.
The USA, unfortunately for it, believes its own propaganda. No ABM system can destroy all outgoing missiles. Under current plans, there are no ABM sites in CONUS to protect American cities from re-entry vehicles of ICBMs that evade the (rather leaky) ABM net. In short, it’s a massive boondoggle… a cornucopia of corruption and boodle for defence contractors and their One Percent investors. You see, the Eurasian ABM deployments would be reachable by Russian SRBMs… and their flight-time is so short that the ABM interceptors would be useless against them.
That is, the USA is playing with hand grenades with the pins pulled out. If the last twenty years have taught us anything, it’s that the USA is a reckless rouge state, especially under Republican rule. The USA didn’t learn a lesson when the Russians handily defeated their Georgian clients in ’08… they remain juvenile bullies. The only good thing is that so-called ABM defence is unfeasible technically and unaffordable financially (the Bush wars and tax cuts saw to that).
God save the world from the USA.
BMD
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6 September 2012. The Team Russia Payloader Keeps Diggin’ Up Those Medals at the Paralympics
Konstantin Lisenkov, after winning the men’s 100-metre backstroke
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Denis Tarasov and Konstantin Lisenkov, winners of the silver and gold in swimming
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Darya Stukalova took bronze in women’s swimming
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Svetlana Moshkovich, winner of the bronze in women’s cycling
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The sixth day of the London Paralympics saw Team Russia win seven golds, two silvers, and four bronzes in a variety of disciplines. Swimmers Konstantin Lisenkov and Olga Savchenko, runners Yelena Pautova and Fyodor Trikolich, as well as shot-putter Aleksei Ashpatov grabbed gold medals. Silver medals went to swimmers Denis Tarasov and Alexander Nevolin-Svetov, whilst swimmers Alexander Golintovsky, Darya Stukalova and Olesya Vladykina, as well as archer Stepanida Artakhinova took the bronze. Right now, Russian athletes hold third position in the overall standings.
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British police investigated an incident where someone fired a shot at the bus of the Russian Paralympic volleyball team. According to the police, it wasn’t a gunshot; someone threw a rock at the bus. Russian Paralympic team officials met with the British police. Vladimir Lukin, the President of Russian Paralympic Committee, said, “They offered apologies on behalf of the British authorities and said they’d do their best to effectively ensure the safety of the Russian team until the end of the games”.
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After six days at the Paralympics, Team Russia has 63 medals under its belt, making it the biggest medal winner after China and the UK. In the gold medal count, it is neck-and-neck with the hosting country.
Day Six brought 13 medals… seven gold, two silver, and four bronze. The bronzes were in swimming and archery. Both silvers were in swimming, in the men’s 100-metre backstroke and the men’s 100-metre freestyle race. The winners were Denis Tarasov and Alexander Nevolin-Svetov, respectively. Both say their silver medals are good stimuli to win gold one day. Tarasov already won gold on Day Five. Of the seven gold medals, five were in track, and two in swimming. The swimmers are Konstantin Lisenkov, who bagged the top award in the men’s 100-metre backstroke, and Oksana Savchenko, who took gold in the women’s 100-metre freestyle event.
Oksana Savchenko spoke to VOR, saying, “My Spanish competitors were very strong, as were the girl from Poland and the girl from Azerbaijan. The latter struck me with her absolute serenity ahead of the race. Anyway, their presence was very stimulating”. Oksana’s gold is her third at the current Paralympics.
The track golds were in the men’s 400 metres, the women’s 1,500 metres, the men’s 100 metres, the women’s 4×100-m relay, and the men’s shot put. The shot-putter was Aleksei Ashpatov. His gold medal is his fourth in his Paralympic career, and it marked a new Paralympic shot-put record of 16.20 metres. He said, “This result is my best ever. I put it down to strong support from the terraces and I dedicate it to my girlfriend. We’re going to get married shortly”.
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On Wednesday, Russian athletes won five gold, three silver, and three bronze medals at the Paralympic Games in London. The two “golds” were won by Russian swimmers, Oksana Savchenko, who won the women’s 100-metre backstroke and Aleksandr Nevolinsvetov, who won the analogous race in the men’s competition. Track n’ fielder Gocha Kugaev won in the long jump. Russian athletes also excelled in the 4man x100 meters men’s relay and in archery. “Silver” was won by Russian national team athletes Yegor Sharov and Nikol Rodomakina and swimmer Olesya Vladykina. Bronze medals were won by Vladimir Sviridov in the long jump, Dmitri Kokarev in the 50-metre backstroke, and Svetlana Moshkovich in cycling.
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5/6 September 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_05/Russia-third-in-Paralympic-medal-count/
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_05/British-police-Stone-throwing-not-shooting/
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_05/Russia-massive-Paralympic-medal-hauler/
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Putin Warns West’s Syria Policy Could Backfire
Tags: Afghan War (Soviet), al-Qaeda, Arab Spring, Bashar al-Assad, China, diplomacy, diplomatic relations, Egypt, Libya, Libyan Civil War, Middle East, Middle Eastern, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Muammar Gaddafi, political commentary, politics, RT, Russia, Russian, Russian diplomacy, Soviet Union, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Tunisia, UN, UN Security Council, UN Security Council resolutions, United Nations, United States, USA, USSR, Vladimir Putin, Yemen
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President Vladimir Putin warned the Western powers that their “dangerous” stance on the Syria crisis could come back to haunt them. In a wide-ranging interview with the RT international news channel, Putin said, “Today, some want to use militants from al-Qaeda or some other equally-radical groups to accomplish their goals in Syria. This policy is very short-sighted and is fraught with dire consequences”.
Putin compared alleged Western funding of radical Islamist militants to help topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with American support for Afghan rebels after the USSR’s 1979 invasion of its Central Asia neighbour, saying, “When someone aspires to attain an end they see as optimal, any means will do. As a rule, they’ll try and do that by hook or by crook… and hardly ever think of the consequences. That was the case during the war in Afghanistan. At that time, our present partners supported a rebel movement there and basically gave rise to al- Qaeda, which later backfired on the USA itself”.
Putin also hit out at Western criticism of the Kremlin’s refusal to back proposed UN sanctions against the Assad régime over the continuing bloodshed in Syria and dismissed suggestions that Moscow would alter its position, saying, “How come Russia’s the only one who’s expected to revise its stance? Don’t you think our counterparts in negotiations ought to revise theirs as well? Because if we look back at the events in the past few years, we’ll see that quite a few of our counterparts’ initiatives haven’t played out the way they were intended to. Look at what’s going on in Arab countries. There have been notable developments in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, etc. Would you say that order and prosperity have been totally ensured for these nations? Besides, what’s going on in Iraq? In Libya, there are armed clashes still raging among the country’s various tribes”.
Putin suggested the key to ending the conflict in Syria was to halt weapons deliveries to Damascus, saying, “I believe that the first thing to do is to stop shipping arms into the warzone, which is still going on. We should stop trying to impose unacceptable solutions on either side, because it’s a dead-end. That’s what we should do. It’s that simple”. The Kremlin said its arms shipments to Syria don’t violate international law and don’t include equipment that could be used against “peaceful protesters”.
On 19 July, Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution on Syria over fears that it would lead to foreign military intervention in the country, a move that American UN Ambassador Susan Rice called “paranoid if not disingenuous”. The resolution has its basis in Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which provides for the use of force to put an end to conflict. Russia said that it has no special interest in seeing Assad remain in power, but that the “Syrian people” should decide his fate. Earlier this year, Putin vowed not to allow a repeat of the “Libya scenario”, which saw the ouster and murder of long-time Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi after a NATO military campaign last year.
6 September 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20120906/175798858.html