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My engineering training kicked in when I saw the NASA photographs from space of New Orleans, and of the whole Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. There is an obvious solution to the New Orleans problem. The Dutch have already demonstrated it. Take New Orleans as the first and worst example. The pumps, levees and canals intended to protect New Orleans have been controlled by local authorities. They left three of the four pumping stations dependent on the local power grid. Hellooo. The precise time those pumps are most needed is during a storm when the local power grid...

The relationship between the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program and the “World’s Most Dangerous Man” became more formal Aug. 17 as the Martial Arts Center of Excellence welcomed back the newest MCMAP subject-matter expert. Ken Shamrock, the first titleholder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and former mixed martial arts world champion, returned to Quantico to teach his first clinic with Marines since the Corps designated him a MCMAP subject-matter expert for integration and combat conditioning training earlier this summer. The honor was bestowed upon Shamrock in recognition of his selfless and ongoing support of the Marines’ unique mixed martial arts...

Click on the boxes to zoom in. http://alt.ngs.noaa.gov/katrina/KATRINA0000.HTM Some samples.... This used to be a subdivision. http://mfproducts.nos.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24331209.jpg This used to be a town. http://mfproducts.nos.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24331215.jpg

There is a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of the global economy: the strong possibility of financial meltdown following a collapse of confidence in the greenback, Clyde Prestowitz tells Bruce Stannard August 29, 2005 THE nightmare scenario that haunts global strategist Clyde Prestowitz is an economic September 11 -- a worldwide financial panic triggered by a sudden massive sell-off of US dollars that would lead inexorably to the collapse of economies around the world. If that happens, Prestowitz predicts: "It would make the Great Depression of the 1930s look like a walk in the park." Australia would be sucked...

SAN JOSE, Calif. Authorities say a 34-year-old Peninsula soccer coach faces disciplinary action and misdemeanor criminal charges after he allegedly provided alcohol to four 18-year-old players and had sex with three of them. Jeff van Gastel has resigned as president of the De Anza Force, a Cupertino soccer club he founded. He has also been suspended by the California Youth Soccer Association and Menlo College, where he had recently started a job as the assistant women's soccer coach. Police say all the allegations involve players from the Force. Authorities allege van Gastel provided alcohol to players during an end-of-season party...

SYDNEY-- After decades of teaching the theory of Darwinian evolution as though it were established fact, school boards in Australia may rethink their approach. The Intelligent Design (ID) theory is making inroads with formerly skeptical members of the scientific community now that the mathematical improbability of the random and spontaneous generation of life has been more thoroughly analyzed. Australian Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson told reporters earlier this month that ID would have a place with Darwinism should parents or schools be interested. This announcement coincides with an attempt by researchers at Harvard University to debunk the Intelligent Design theory,...

Security experts have found a vulnerability in the Windows operating system that could allow malware to lurk undetected in long string names of the Windows Registry. According to a security advisory by Denmark-based IT security company Secunia, the weakness is caused by an error in the Windows Registry Editor Utility's handling of long string names. A malicious program could hide itself in a registry key by creating a string with a long name, which would allow the malicious string and any created after it in the same key to remain hidden, according to Secunia. Keys are stored in the Windows...

Links to Further Information A Matter of Life and Death From Darwin to Hitler August 30, 2005 In all our contemporary conflicts over the teaching of evolution in schools, there’s one question that nobody asks: To what does the embrace of Darwinism lead? Historian Richard Weikart explores that topic in a book called From Darwinto Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany. Despite that provocative title, Weikart is no sensationalist. He’s not out to prove that Hitler and the Nazi party were directly inspired by Charles Darwin’s theories. But what Weikart does demonstrate, through exhaustive research, is that Darwin’s...

Dinny the roadside dinosaur has found religion. The 45-foot-high concrete apatosaurus has towered over Interstate 10 near Palm Springs for nearly three decades as a kitschy prehistoric pit stop for tourists. Now he is the star of a renovated attraction that disputes the fact that dinosaurs died off millions of years before humans first walked the planet. Dinny's new owners, pointing to the Book of Genesis, contend that most dinosaurs arrived on Earth the same day as Adam and Eve, some 6,000 years ago, and later marched two by two onto Noah's Ark. The gift shop at the attraction, called...

...Note that Dees, true to communist form, spoke in deceptive 'code' rather than to use plain English. Thus the two law-breakers were redefined as 'undocumented workers' as though their only fault lie in being undocumented, when in fact they became criminals as soon as they illegally crossed into our country, and they also became trespassers when they intruded upon the private property of the rancher. Dees 'code' for the rightful owner of the ranch is, "those who…use violence" as though the rancher had no legal right to defend his property, which in Dees mind, he didn't. In the darkly twisted...

...As Blood washed Christians we assume that Jesus is on our side, in our corner. This is false. Jesus doesn't take sides. Jesus takes command. Jesus doesn't assume the role of General. Jesus is our General. We are nothing but infantry sloggers whose duty is to obey His command. Obey His command every day, every way to announce the Good News to a dying world, our own dying neighborhood. We don't need to send missionaries to China. China needs to send missionaries to Maine to lead, to teach us silent, hands in our pockets Blood washed lambs how to spread...

BAGHDAD, Aug 28 (KUNA) -- The Multi-National Forces in Iraq Sunday revealed a terrorist cell was discovered and captured Northeast of the capital, Baghdad, and said the cell is specialized in assassinations of Iraqi officials. Iraqi Army and MNF forces jointly raided "a suspected location of a terrorist cell specialized in assassinations and planning attacks against government officials in Al-Khalis," a statement said. The MNF statement added the raid was in the early hours of Friday and the operation was conducted and concluded quickly. The 11 arrestees were taken to a safe location for questioning, it was stated.

Specter Confesses to not Understanding the ConstitutionBy Henry Mark HolzerFrontPageMagazine.com | August 29, 2005 A couple of weeks ago, I wrote in these pages that Senator “Chuck” Schumer broke his own record for ignorance of  the judicial system following President Bush’s announcement of John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court.  In insisting that Roberts articulate positions on current legal issues confronting the Court, Schumer proved that he does not understand Separation of Powers, and thus the Constitution’s mandated role for a judge in the American system of government, believing instead that the judiciary is simply another political branch.  I observed...

A Georgia county is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union over its pre-meeting prayers. The suit claims one prayer at a recent Cobb County Commissioners' meeting ended "in the name of Jesus our Savior," which phrase, according to the ACLU, puts the invocation in violation of the Constitution of the United States. However, attorney Steve Crampton of the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, protests that the Cobb County officials' prayers are entirely legal, and the commission members have the right to open meetings with prayers acknowledging Jesus if they so choose. But unfortunately, the pro-family...

The following letter was written in response to a public "Die-In" held at the front gate of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, this past April. Its author, Marc Fencil, would have been on campus at the time, but, as a Marine, he was stationed in Iraq. OU's official student publication, The Post, ran his letter on April 8, 2005. We were as inspired by his forthright invitation to the antiwar protestors as we are grateful for his service. If only every college student -- let alone professor -- were endowed with as much patriotism and common sense. -- The Editors....

Paleoanthropology: Start Over?   08/22/2005     The September issue of National Geographic, featuring the African continent, has arrived in homes.  On page 1, Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post wrote about the quest for early man, asking, “Are we looking for bones in all the right places?”  The bulk of the article describes the “messy” story of human origins.  It used to be clean-cut, he said, but no longer: Scientists are good at finding logical patterns and turning data into a coherent narrative.  But the study of human origins is tricky: The bones tell a complicated story.  The cast of...

Now that the results are in, the Finance center in Limestone not only stays open, but grows to about 700 from a bit under 500. Those stationed at Limestone both Military and civilian are delighted. Brunswick Naval Air Station is going to be closed, and that is the big story ehre. For while the Civilian work force is hanging their collective heads, saying "oh woas me, oh woas me, what did Bush do to us now?" The Officers and Men assigned to NAS Brunswick are delighted. Why? Well the why concerning the civilian workforce is pretty easy, they are going...

Driving home fears Palestinian terror groups will use land gained by Israel's Gaza evacuation to launch rockets deeper inside the Jewish state, two Qassams today were fired at western Negev towns as Israeli troops prepared the Gaza Strip for handover in the next few weeks. One rocket hit the populated Negev town of Sderot, about 10 miles outside Gaza's Gush Katif slate of former Jewish communities. Another landed in an open field just outside Sderot. The Popular Resistance Committees terror group in Gaza – made up of Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants – claimed responsibility for the attack. The...

Thanks to Blurblogger for hosting the video. I received it by email this morning. THANKS FOR THE MEMORY, BOB HOPE! Bob Hope's Greatest Movie Line EVER! Upload Video and Images - PutfileThe movie was THE GHOST BREAKERS from 1940. CHECK OUT THE GHOST BREAKERS SITE

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld predicted Tuesday that a federal commission will endorse "the overwhelming majority" of his proposals to close, shrink or expand hundreds of military bases across the country. For its part, the nine-member panel has promised not to rubber-stamp the Pentagon chief's plan, and commissioners say changes are likely before they send their final report to President Bush next month. Previous commissions -- in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 -- altered about 15 percent of whatSept. 11, 2001, era. "It's not about just trying to get rid of excess capacity. It's actually about trying to...