PenguinSix – Page 55

30 men lift bus off Donnette Sanz, trapped pregnant woman in New York City

And who said New Yorkers stand idly by?

Donnette Sanz, a seven month pregnant traffic warden was pinned under a ’short bus’ school bus yesterday in a horrible accident that turned out to be fatal for her. However, 20 to 30 people from a park, the sidewalk and a construction site rushed to the scene of the accident and were able to lift the school bus with their bare hands and pull out the woman’s body so that they could save the unborn baby.

Sean Michael Sanz was born yesterday by emergency c-section, 3lbs and 6 ounces. The driver of a van who caused the accident is being held for vehicular homicide. He has a suspended license since the 60s, a gun bust and a few other criminal records in his file.

]]>

Ethnic minority kids in Olympic opening ceremony were all kids from Han majority.

About two seconds after the announcer on tv said “these kids are representative of the average kids in China” my friends (from China) all said ‘bull crap”. The kids were dressed in fancy ethnic costumes of the 56 various ‘minorities’ in China but if you looked at them they were all very attractive and cute, and as we found out recently, all members of the Han majority.

Disney's small world puppets have escaped.

In other oddities, the soldiers who were inside the ‘Chinese characters’ demonstration have admitted they all wore adult diapers as they were in place, under the stadium, for upto seven hours before the ceremony with no time for a toilet break.

]]>

Does New Europe need a New NATO?

The recent crisis in Georgia has revealed the impotence of ‘Old Europe’ and NATO. Is it time for something new to meet the needs of New Europe?

Deja vu all over again?

While Russian tanks were crossing through the tunnels and passes (memo to Georgia: everyone knows you blow up the tunnels and bridges first), the leaders of Western Europe were basically caught with nothing to do. ”They haven’t shot at me” was basically the point that was on the mind of every Western European leader, followed quickly by “I don’t want to go nuclear over Georgia”. These two factors (not, in any way, who was right or who was wrong) were what kept most European leaders sitting on their hands as they watched Georgia get chewed to pieces.

When we used to study Soviet Military Power and Doctorine it was always assumed that the first time a Soviet tank went on the offensive it would be shooting at a NATO tank, and thus the decision to start fighting back would be off the table. Some 18-year-old kid in the turret of a tank somewhere in Germany was going to decide NATO’s response to a Soviet conventional attack. But in this new world, that ease of red force/blue force decision making is gone, and we’re stuck in the grey area.

You can find some contrast in the response of Europe if you take a look at the leaders of ‘New Europe. Composed of former Soviet states they were not afraid in the least to mess with the Bear, for they knew what awaited them should their countries fall back into the ’sphere of influence’. Ukraine has told the Black Sea fleet they can expect problems when they return, and leaders of many former Soviet republics flew into Georgia in the middle of the fight to provide counsel and assistance. Some in the Eastern European media are even asking if Old Europe really understands what is going on:

“Old Europe,” once again, failed to listen to the warnings of those with first-hand knowledge of Russian treachery. “Old Europe isn’t listening to Poles, Lithuanians and Ukrainians. Old Europe doesn’t want to anger Russia, and doesn’t see the integrity of Georgia’s borders as something worth risking its relationship with Moscow over,” the left-leaning daily Gazeta Wyborcza wrote. “Once again, we can only try to tell them that we’re not letting our feelings be guided by Russophobia but merely speaking from long years of personal experience.”

Unfortunately New Europe is pretty weak and the US is pretty busy elsewhere in the world. So it has me wondering if now is the time for a new, mini-version of NATO. Composed of the Eastern European states (and armed and supported by Old Europe). A NATO that does not have nukes and is not a nuclear threat to Russia, but one that is well equipped, trained, and ready to take on the Bear should it come poking around it’s old stomping grounds. A force like this might be the one needed to stop an aggressive and growing threat.

One by one, the old Soviet empire could be rebuilt by a resurgent Russia and a placid NATO. Georgia, Ukraine, Lativa, Estonia, etc. They could fall without most Americans even noticing to be quite honest. But if they fought together, they might actually have a chance. Perhaps it is time for New Europe to look for a new alliance to help them in the new reality they now face.

]]>

How the iPhone is changing radio forever.

Steve Jobs doesn't need an anti-satellite missile to knock out XM & Sirius

I’ve already written a bit about my thoughts on the iPhone and how it will kill Satellite radio and a review of the iPhone radio applications, but Doc Searls is writing today about his similar experiences using the iPhone as the radio interface in his car. He raises a number of interesting points including:

4) The cell phone system will become a data system that carries telephony, rather than the vice versa we have now. The same goes for the Net at home as well. What we still have in both cases is dial-up: data piggy-backing on telephony or cable TV. In terms of provider priorities, that’s the way it’s been for awhile, but the flip is going to come, and the sooner we all adjust to that, the better.

5) The iPhone is less a phone than a platform for mobile Internet applications that start with telephony. Voice will always be the primary personal mobile communications activity; but it will be one application, or set of applications, among many. Radio is another of those applications.

Radio has had a decade of on again off again experience with the Internet and streaming, but it’s just never caught on due in large part to the ‘tethered to the computer’ experience that was required. People simply weren’t about to replace their clock radios with a PC and Internet radio devices just never could get a hold into the market (despite a lot of us trying). And on top of that, it didn’t work in the car (where many people do their radio listening). In short, the radio stations had it easy because it was so hard to listen to the competition.

But that’s over. The iPhone changes EVERYTHING. Yea it’s not the first to do streaming, nor is it the fastest of cheapest platform, but it is the first MASS MARKET adaptation of Internet radio to the car and other places that we’ve seen. You take all the Internet radio devices sold from when I came up with the idea nearly 10 years ago to now and you have less than the number of people who downloaded the Pandora radio application for the iPhone in the first six days. There are now nearly 4 million iPhones out there in the last year, with some of the free radio applications being the top downloads. It took XM six years to get to that number of subscribers. Who do you think is going to win the race for a listeners’ ears?

Quite simply, radio stations who are not paying attention will be radio stations who are out of business in the next five to ten years.

]]>

Somebody is riding the bikes I guess

Ride one of these if you want to remain a bachelor.

Saw a flock of DC Smartbikes today (they just sort of appeared overnight). Judging from the open spaces on the end someone is riding them.

This gaggle was located at 14th and I just a few blocks from the White House. It’s actually close the McPherson Square Metro Station but I’m not sure how many Metro riders put up with the Orange Crush line and then get on one of these to go battle the 14th Street chaos (for those not in DC, 14th Street is the road that heads over the bridge to Virginia. Basically a great deal of the DC to VA traffic heads down this road. It can get ugly)

]]>

Olympians unhappy with religious center at Olympic village

A quiet protest is underway at the Olympic village by a number of athletes unhappy with the services. At all Olympics, a religious center is set up to handle athletes spiritual needs. Chaplins and Imans and other religious persons were brought in from around the world with multi-lingual abilities to help athletes prepare mentally before their events. But in China, the government steadfastly refused to allow any foreign religious leaders in, and instead is making do with Chinese volunteers, few of which speak the language of the athletes fluently.

The quality of the religious services center came into sharper focus on Saturday after the fatal attack against Todd Bachman, the father-in-law of the coach of the U.S. men’s volleyball team, at a popular tourist spot in Beijing. To help athletes with their grief, the U.S. team had to scramble for official permission to get a chaplain who spoke English fluently into the village.

Phelim Kine, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group, said the ban on foreign chaplains runs counter to the Olympic charter’s “dedication to fundamental ethical principals and freedom of expression.” He also said the International Olympic Committee shares the blame.

“This is yet another example of IOC’s failure to enforce and to stand up to China’s efforts to roll back basic freedoms that have been taken granted at previous Olympics,” Kine said.

]]>