aimless forwardness

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Chicago Style

By the mid-1980s, the independents had mostly finished off the Daley machine?thanks mainly to the Shakman decree, still very much in force, which prevents any political consideration in hiring, firing, and promotion, with the exception of a thin layer of policy positions. This meant that when Harold Washington, a black machine politician turned reformer, was elected in 1983, he controlled only a few hundred city and county jobs, instead of the 35,000 Daley had at his disposal. By the time the younger Richard M. Daley was elected mayor in 1989, the Chicago machine was, like the Italian Mafia, more legend than force. Chicago-style pizza still exists. Chicago-style politics, equally deplorable in my view, no longer does.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=6f1ccea20459a51f9221f0b46ad92805

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Thursday, July 5, 2012

Mongolian opposition party poised for power

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mongolian-opposition-party-poised-power-161827404.html

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Officials: 3 killed in Baghdad house bombing

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-3-killed-baghdad-house-bombing-074029640.html

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Syria Crisis: Al-Nusra Front Jihadists Claim Responsibility For Attacks

BEIRUT -- An al-Qaida-inspired group claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks across Syria, the latest evidence that extremists are exploiting the chaos to make inroads in another Middle Eastern country.

The Syrian regime has long blamed terrorists for the 16-month-old revolt, and the presence of al-Qaida groups creates new difficulties for Arab and Western countries trying to help force President Bashar Assad from power.

The opposition and the rebel Free Syrian Army deny having any links to terrorism, and say they do not have the desire or the capabilities to carry out massive suicide bombings and other al-Qaida-style attacks.

On Tuesday, the SITE monitoring group, which tracks jihadist chatter on the Internet, said the Al-Nusra Front released statements on extremist websites in late June claiming the attacks were to avenge the killings of Syrians by the government.

One of the attacks targeted a pro-regime television station in the town of Drousha, south of the capital, Damascus, on June 27. Seven people were killed in the attack on Al-Ikhbariya TV.

Al-Nusra said the station is an arm of the regime and the attack sought to make the station "taste from the cup of torture" and force every member of the regime to wonder: "When will my turn come?" The statement included photos of 11 men it said were kidnapped in the attack.

Al-Ikhbariya is privately owned but often acts as a regime mouthpiece.

Other attacks in the latest claim of responsibility include dozens of armed raids and bombings ? including suicide bombings ? in Syrian cities.

Little is known about Al-Nusra, although Western intelligence officials say it could be a front for a branch of al-Qaida militants from Iraq operating in Syria. The group has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in Syria, including suicide bombings, in the past.

In February, al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims to support Syrian rebels.

"Wounded Syria is still bleeding day after day, and the butcher (Bashar Assad) isn't deterred and doesn't stop," al-Zawahri said at the time. He took over al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces last May.

Although the Syrian opposition disavows links to terror, the presence of al-Qaida among the forces fighting to oust Assad is a serious complicating factor for the international powers that say they want to help the opposition without empowering extremists along the way.

The Syrian regime is dominated by members of the Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. But Sunnis make up most of the population of 22 million and are the backbone of the opposition.

More than 14,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising began, according to activists. Despite global outrage over the crackdown by the Assad regime, the international response has been focused entirely on diplomacy and sanctions as the violence escalates.

Military intervention has been all but ruled out in Syria for now, in part because the conflict has so much potential for escalation. Damascus has strong allegiances to powerful forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Shiite powerhouse Iran.

There already are signs of a looming, regional conflict.

Syrian forces shot down a Turkish military plan on June 22. Syria says the plane violated its airspace, but Turkey said the plane was hit over international waters.

On Wednesday, Turkey's state-run TRT television said a U.S. deep-sea exploration vessel, E/V Nautilus, discovered the bodies of the two pilots.

The violence in Syria has grown increasingly chaotic over the course of the uprising, which began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests. Government forces launched a ferocious crackdown on the demonstrations, leading many people to take up arms.

The violence has become widespread and chaotic. Besides the government crackdown, rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the fray.

Syria severely restricts the media in the country, making it difficult to gain a credible account of events on the ground.

There is virtually no way to perform an independent investigation in Syria, one of the most authoritarian states in the Middle East. Assad has largely sealed off the country and prevented reporters from moving freely. A team of around 300 U.N. monitors was sent to Syria to provide an unbiased look at the violence, but they have been confined to their hotels since June 15 because of the worsening violence.

On Wednesday, the head of the U.N. observer mission called on all sides to stop fighting ? even as activists reported government shelling in five provinces across Syria.

"There is this feeling that there is too much talk in nice hotels, in nice meetings, and too little action to move forward and stop the violence," Norwegian Maj. Gen. Robert Mood told reporters in Damascus.

In Geneva on Saturday, an international conference of world powers accepted a U.N.-brokered peace plan for Syria. But the group left open the key question of whether Assad could be part of a transitional government.

The U.S. backed away from insisting that the plan explicitly exclude Assad from any role in a new Syrian government, hoping the concession would encourage Russia to put greater pressure on its longtime ally to end the violent crackdown.

But the possibility that Assad could stay made the plan a nonstarter for those fighting to topple his regime.

The opposition, too, is in disarray. A key meeting of different opposition groups in Cairo concluded Tuesday with only general agreements on a transitional period and the character of the post-Assad state.

They failed to create a unified leadership and papered over many other key differences.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/04/al-nusra-front-syria_n_1649248.html

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All Predatory Dinosaurs May Have Sported Fluffy Feathers

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/predatory-dinosaurs-may-sported-fluffy-feathers-142753870.html

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Ooma Linx extender makes a visit to the FCC, lets phones go the extra DECT distance

For a VoIP phone company, Ooma has been unusually quiet since it showed us the HD2 handset at CES this January. Thankfully, an FCC filing spotted by Dave Zatz has let slip that the company is getting chattier in the near future. As the helpfully provided manual tells us, an upcoming Linx adapter will let a conventional phone talk to a Telo base station over DECT. The goal is to let Ye Olde Wired Phone in the basement join the 21st century without having to move the Telo or otherwise jump through hoops -- it'll even bring your fax machine onboard, if you're still holding on to 1994. We can't glean from the clearance just when the Linx will be ready to shake the dust from our antiquated phones, but with all the documentation seemingly in order, the wait isn't going to be too long before that landline handset enters the modern world.

Ooma Linx extender makes a visit to the FCC, lets phones go the extra DECT distance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 05:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/k1oL1V8yNWM/

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US manufacturing shrinks for first time in 3 years

FILE- In this Friday, June 22, 2012, file photo, Tesla Model S frames are shown in the assembly area at the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, reported Monday, July 2, 2012, that U.S. manufacturing is declining for the first time in nearly three years. Manufacturing activity fell in June to the lowest reading since July 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly three years, adding to signs that economic growth is weakening.

Production and exports declined, and the number of new orders plunged, according to a monthly report released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management.

The slowdown comes as U.S. employers have scaled back hiring, consumers have turned more cautious, Europe faces a recession and manufacturing has slowed in big countries like China.

"This is not good," said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at BTIG, an institutional brokerage. Though the report "does not mean recession for the broader economy, it is still a terribly weak number."

The trade group of purchasing managers said its index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.7. That's down from 53.5 in May. And it's the lowest reading since July 2009, a month after the Great Recession officially ended. Readings below 50 indicate contraction.

Economists said the manufacturing figures were consistent with growth at an annual rate of 1.5 percent or less. That would be down from the January-March quarter's already tepid annual pace of 1.9 percent.

"Our forecast that the U.S. will grow by around 2 percent this year is now looking a bit optimistic," said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics.

Stocks fell sharply after the report was released at 10 a.m. But investors appeared to shake off the bad manufacturing news by the end of the day. The Dow Jones industrial average recovered most of its early losses to close down just 8.7 points at 12,871. And broader indexes ended the day up.

Most economists aren't yet predicting another recession. Though the ISM report suggests manufacturing is contracting, it typically takes a sustained reading below 43 to signal the economy isn't growing.

Still, U.S. manufacturing, which has helped drive growth since the recession ended, is faltering at a precarious time.

Americans have pulled back on spending, which drives roughly 70 percent of growth. Europe's economy is likely in recession, which has hurt U.S. exports.

And China's manufacturing sector grew in June at its slowest pace in seven months, according to a survey released Sunday by the state-affiliated China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

Manufacturing will likely stay weak for the next few months. The ISM's gauge of new orders, a measure of future activity, plunged from 60.1 to 47.8. That's the first time it has fallen below 50 since April 2009, when the economy was still in recession.

Fewer new orders reflect growing concerns of businesses. In addition to slower global growth and less spending by U.S. consumers, many companies worry that U.S. lawmakers won't extend a package of tax cuts at the end of the year.

Bricklin Dwyer, an economist at BNP Paribas, said the uncertainty "has left businesses unwilling to invest."

A gauge of production in the ISM's survey fell to its lowest level in more than three years.

U.S. factories are also reporting less overseas demand. A measure of exports dropped to 47.5, its lowest level since April 2009.

A gauge of employment edged down but remained at a healthy level of 56.6. That suggests factories may still be adding jobs. Manufacturers have reported job gains for eight straight months.

Overall hiring has slowed sharply this spring. Employers added an average of only 73,000 jobs per month in April and May. That's much lower than the average of 226,000 added in the first three months of this year. The unemployment rate rose in May to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent, the first increase in a year.

Worries about slowing job growth are outweighing the benefits of lower gas prices. A measure of consumer confidence fell in June for the fourth straight month.

Slower job growth and falling confidence are weighing on consumers' willingness to spend. Americans cut back on purchases of autos and other long-lasting factory goods in May, the government said Friday.

The sharp drop in U.S. factory activity overshadowed more positive news on housing.

Construction spending rose 0.9 percent in May from April, the Commerce Department said in a separate report Monday. It was the second straight monthly increase, even though the level of spending still isn't healthy.

The increase was driven by a surge in residential construction. Home sales are up from the same month last year. Mortgage rates are at the lowest levels in history. And prices have begun to stabilize in most markets.

The economy could also get a boost this summer from lower gas prices, which have tumbled more than 60 cents per gallon since peaking in April. The result is that consumers have more money to spend on other goods, from autos and furniture to electronics and vacations, that fuel economic growth.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-07-02-Economy-Manufacturing/id-cbdd149e3b904313a965c55f2db4e98f

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