You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September, 2006.
Having lots of fun.
This place is great!
I love Spanish people and their language.
You’re gonna be jealous when you see my photos. Here’s a teaser:
J
(PS: My hotel doesn’t have internet access for guests, but someone in the area does and is unknowingly sharing it with me.
I’m heading to the train station right after I post this. Have a good one, all.
I’ll leave you with the latest Hamster update from The Sun
By TONY COLLIVER
September 28, 2006RICHARD HAMMOND was flown by air ambulance from Leeds General Infirmary to a Bupa hospital in Bristol, just before 1pm.
He arrived with his wife Mindy and appeared to be in good spirits as he waved to reception staff.
The hospital boasts the only private intensive care ward in south-west England and also has a full range of facilities to help people recover from serious injuries.
The star’s consultant neurosurgeon Stuart Ross predicted he could be “back to his old self” within six months.
He said: “He has had what I have already termed a significant brain injury.
“He has to rest and allow his brain to recover and that takes time. I’m sure that once that period is over he will be back to his old self.”
The 36-year-old presenter was taken into hospital just over a week ago after the jet-powered Vampire dragster he was driving was involved in a high-speed crash at Elvington airfield, near York.
When is the USA gonna do something about guns? This horrible situation is happening as I write and is completely insane, but far from unheard of in the US. I don’t understand how gun proponents can be so steadfast.
Officials: Gunman takes hostages at high school
POSTED: 3:44 p.m. EDT, September 27, 2006
BAILEY, Colorado (AP) — An adult gunman took at least four people hostage at the high school in this tiny mountain town Wednesday and several shots were reported fired, authorities said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Adjoining Jefferson County sent a bomb squad and SWAT team to Platte Canyon High School and hundreds of students were evacuated.
The evacuation of the high school and a nearby middle school came after a loud noise, said Jan Howard, a secretary to the superintendent of schools.
“I don’t know what the noise was,” she said. She said students were taken to a safe location, but predicted parents would not be able to immediately reach them because the only highway in and out of town had been shut down.
Jefferson County authorities are all too familiar with school attacks: The sheriff’s office handled the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in which two students killed 13 people before taking their own lives.
The town is 35 miles southwest of Denver.
Police: School gunman says he has bomb
POSTED: 4:29 p.m. EDT, September 27, 2006
Cnn
(CNN) — Two schools were evacuated Wednesday after a gunman claiming to have a bomb opened fire and took hostages at a high school near Bailey, Colorado, officials said.
One hostage, a young girl, was released, but the gunman was still holding four others Wednesday afternoon, said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Public Safety Department. The Colorado State Patrol is assisting, Clem said.
Several shots were fired at the school, and the gunman is inside, said Jefferson County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jackie Kelley.
She had no information on injuries, but said a bomb squad and SWAT team had been dispatched to the scene.
The Park County Sheriff’s office would not provide further details, but said it is dealing with a hostage situation.
The lack of information from police and the school system was concerning parents who have children at the school, according to the Denver Post.
“We’ve had no phone calls from the district. We don’t know what’s going on,” said Pat Bramelette, who has two children, one attending the high school, one in middle school.
His wife, Susan, told the newspaper, “The most I got was off the bottom of the TV screen.”
Sally Impson told the Denver Post that she hopes her 17-year-old son, Andrew, will find a way to contact her, although his cell phone doesn’t work in the school and the road to the school is shut down.
“I’m so shook,” she said. “It’s just scary. You don’t know what’s going on. You hear shots are fired. I hope to God that everything is OK.”
The 450 students at Platte Canyon High School and the 340 youngsters at the adjacent Fitzsimmons Middle School were evacuated, officials said.
The students were evacuated to a safe place about 12:10 p.m. (2:10 p.m. ET), the Park County School District superintendent’s office said.
Bailey is about 35 miles southwest of Denver.
When is the USA gonna do something about guns? This horrible situation is happening as I write and is completely insane, but far from unheard of in the US. I don’t understand how gun proponents can be so steadfast.
w,Officials: Gunman takes hostages at high school
POSTED: 3:44 p.m. EDT, September 27, 2006
BAILEY, Colorado (AP) — An adult gunman took at least four people hostage at the high school in this tiny mountain town Wednesday and several shots were reported fired, authorities said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Adjoining Jefferson County sent a bomb squad and SWAT team to Platte Canyon High School and hundreds of students were evacuated.
The evacuation of the high school and a nearby middle school came after a loud noise, said Jan Howard, a secretary to the superintendent of schools.
“I don’t know what the noise was,” she said. She said students were taken to a safe location, but predicted parents would not be able to immediately reach them because the only highway in and out of town had been shut down.
Jefferson County authorities are all too familiar with school attacks: The sheriff’s office handled the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in which two students killed 13 people before taking their own lives.
The town is 35 miles southwest of Denver.
Spain sees smoking ban take hold
BBC
Monday, 2 January 2006, 12:20 GMT
A ban on smoking in the workplace is being put to the test in Spain as staff resume work after the New Year holiday.
The ban went into effect on Sunday, when many businesses were closed for the holiday.
The new law bans smoking in offices, shops, schools, hospitals, cultural centres and on public transport.
Businesses occupying more than 100sq m have eight months to set up a separate smoking area. Smaller premises have to indicate whether they are smoke-free.
The government says the ban is necessary because smoking is the biggest killer in Spain, with 50,000 smoking-related deaths annually.
Surveys show that about 30% of Spaniards smoke.
A government-sponsored opinion poll released in December showed more than 70% of respondents backed the ban.
A current ban on tobacco advertising on TV will be extended to billboards.
The law was passed by the Spanish parliament on 15 December, with 297 of the 350 deputies in the lower house voting for it.
Similar bans have been imposed in Ireland, Italy and Norway.
Come on, Germany, get your act together and follow suit!
For many reasons that I won’t be sharing, I have been enduring Germany for about a week now, not enjoying it. Sure, I’ve been savouring the few bright spots that have happened (Farewell Dinner on Thursday, sunrise on Sunday, etc), but overall I haven’t been all that happy.
I need to get the hell out of this country for more than just a weekend.
I have a couple students from the Czech Republic that are here in Germany for a few months for training for the global company they work for. Learning English is also a priority for them due to the fact that once the return to their country, they’ll have to liaison with colleagues in Germany, Shanghai and the USA.
They went home for the weekend a while back and before they did, I asked them what plans they had. One was going to hang out with his parents, siblings and friends. The other told me that he’d be exploring more of Czech Paradise (where they live (near Jablonec)) with his wife and three year old daughter.
Czech Paradise? Having visited the Czech Republic I do know that it’s lovely, but I had no clue as to what he was talking about, so he started telling me about what the area has to offer and that it was so lovely that it was called ‘Czech Paradise’ in his country. I was cuious to learn more and asked him if he’d take photos for me and burn them to CD, and in return I burned him a CD of various places I had been that he hadn’t (like Thailand).
I try not to get too political on here, but sometimes there are unreported things (as far as the mainstream news goes) that people should be made aware of. Here are two:
Yubanet.com
Bush Declares Eco-Whistleblower Law Void for EPA Employees
Stealth Repeal of Clean Water Act Protections by Invoking “Sovereign Immunity”
By: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Published: Sep 4, 2006 at 08:40
The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.
Citing an “unpublished opinion of the [Attorney General's] Office of Legal Counsel,” the Secretary of Labor’s Administrative Review Board has ruled federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act. The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity which is based on the old English legal maxim that “The King Can Do No Wrong.” It is an absolute defense to any legal action unless the “sovereign” consents to be sued.
The opinion and the ruling reverse nearly two decades of precedent. Approximately 170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies are affected by the loss of whistleblower rights.
“The Bush administration is engineering the stealth repeal of whistleblower protections,” stated PEER General Counsel Richard Condit, who had won several of the earlier cases applying environmental whistleblower protections to federal specialists. “The use of an unpublished opinion to change official interpretations is a giant step backward to the days of the secret Star Chamber.” PEER ultimately obtained a copy of the opinion under the Freedom of Information Act. etc.
Buzzflash
Bush Closes EPA Libraries Without Approval from Congress
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Wed, 09/20/2006 – 12:12pmThe Bush Administration’s decision to reduce EPA funding and eliminate several scientific research libraries has been challenged by Democratic House Ranking Members Bart Gordon, John Dingell, and Henry Waxman in a letter to the GAO. “We have grave concerns of this plan on the EPA’s ability to protect the environment, and we question whether the plan will actually save the government money,” they wrote.
President Bush’s proposed 2007 budget slashed 80% of the funding for the library network, which contains 50,000 unique documents not found elsewhere along with vast resources relied upon by agency staff, scientists in academia and industry, and the general public. The EPA has already begun preemptively closing facilities despite the fact that Congress has yet to actually approve the president’s budget. By September 30, 15 states will have lost their libraries, and other states will begin losing hours and services. etc
I wonder how much more damage he’ll do before he leaves office?
or so it appeared at sunrise.
The show continued an hour later.
click to enlarge
