JayB

I personally hope that this incident will show the Spanish the error of their ways, and they'll pull their troops out of the Middle East, and substantially reform their imperialist policies. "Raids foiled Barcelona bomb plot, says judge Martin Hodgson and agencies Thursday January 24, 2008 The Guardian A group of alleged Islamist militants arrested in Barcelona at the weekend were planning a suicide bomb attack on the city's public transport system, a Spanish judge said yesterday. Twelve Pakistani and two Indian nationals were detained in a series of raids in the city on Sunday. After seven hours of questioning, Judge Ismael Moreno yesterday freed two of the men, but 10 suspects were held pending further investigation. All 10 deny any involvement in terrorism. Article continues Although the men have not been charged with any offence, the judge's order allows them to remain in jail while authorities gather more evidence. Moreno said the group was "very close" to "full technical capacity" in the production of explosives, and had already chosen three men to carry out the suicide attack, which was planned for last weekend. The three, named as Muhammad Shoaib, Mehmooh Khalib and Imran Cheema, arrived in Barcelona from Pakistan some time between October and mid-January, according to the judge, who said it was common for suicide attackers to arrive at their targeted site shortly before a planned attack. It was not clear which part of the public transport network was the target of the alleged plot. All of those arrested belong to Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamist party which Moreno accused of promoting the "indiscriminate" use of violence to attain political ends. In an operation led by the civil guard and the national intelligence agency, officers raided several apartments, two mosques and a bakery in the Raval neighbourhood, close to the Ramblas in the city centre. Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Spain's interior minister, said the intelligence services had acted with the help of information from foreign agencies, but it emerged in yesterday's hearing that the police had also received tip-offs from an informer. According to Moreno, officers discovered supplies of nitrocellulose, a highly flammable compound found in nail polish and varnish, which can also be used as an explosive. Local newspaper reports said intelligence officials based in Pakistan had warned the Spanish authorities that a known militant had left Pakistan for Barcelona to help launch a terrorist plot. Speaking after the arrests, Rubalcaba said that the detainees "belonged to a well-organized group that had gone a step beyond radicalisation". Photographs of material found in the raids included timing devices, a small bag of ball bearings, batteries and cables. "When someone has timers in their home, you have no option but to think violent acts are being planned," said Rubalcaba. With a general election set for March 9, Spain is on alert for terrorist attacks by Islamists or the Basque militant group ETA. On March 11 2004, 191 people were killed in Europe's worst terror attack when Islamists detonated bombs in four trains in Madrid three days before the last general election. Last year, 21 of 28 suspects tried for their role in the bombings were convicted of terrorism and other charges in connection with the bombings."

You are entitled to your opinion...provided the CHRC approves of it.

POS = Piece of...Something. I'm pretty sure I'm over the limit by a pretty fair amount as well, but the general plan was to ride the components into the ground since replacing any two of them would likely cost more than the bike is worth. Had some second thoughts until I looked at the pulleys on the deraileur, and saw that they looked like a couple of throwing stars. The teeth were actually sharp to the touch. Not sure what I'm going to do with the frame, which is also pretty well shot. Seems like kind of a shame to hacksaw it into chunks and recycle it, but I suspect that's the fate that awaits it.. What's the longest anyone's had a bike that they use consistently? This one lasted eight years, ~2.5 of which was for the occasional trail ride, the rest was for daily commuting. So - ~5.5 years of heavy use. Had to replace everything but the handlebars, the rear deraileur, and the frame/fork at least once.

Background... http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10499144 XUTFcgE1F7w o5dwUqCGJeE

What is the common perception of what corporations do with revenues that are not ultimately spent on pay/benefits, capital expenditures, distributed to shareholders as dividends, etc?

Impressive effort.

Not terribly appropos, but any Canadians who happen to click on this thread should feel free to chime in and disclose their feelings concerning the powers that the CHRC is exerting in the cases involving MaCleans and Western Standard....

Jesus christ almighty. What a terrible affliction. We can add this to genetic disorders, plagues, cancer, parasitic self-replicating elements in the genome, parasites, etc, etc, etc that buttress the case for a beneficent designer.

In that case I'll use it to partially offset the amount that I send in when I file...

Better sink it into the TIPS variant...

Money is going the other way... I expect the government will use it to go on a bender.

There's also some fun, family-friendly flatwater kayaking available there. Can't remember the name of the river, but you could pretty easily bring along the tike for the paddle, and the hike to a nice waterfall/pool at the end of the paddle. I think the hike is about a mile long, over flat ground, through a rain-forest. Can't remember the name of the river, but it's pretty much the only one on the island. There's also a very scenic beach with a nice reef protecting the water near the shore near the NaPali coach that'd be a good one for families with small kids that want some protection from the waves. Link a map of Kauai and I could point out both....

When someone asks where they should ski in, say, Summit County - I'm glad to know that you'll be there to inform them that relative to the global aggregate, all of the resorts are a)really expensive b)really crowded and c) really developed. Seems like flights were leaving every half-hour or so, and the flights were something like ~30-45 minutes long.

Maui = more people, more development, more condos, more of the aggro-tropical-redneck-poly-mullet localism. Good news is that if you are into meth/crack/heroin, it will take all of 3 minutes in Wailuku/Kahalui for someone to roll up and offer you and/or your kids any/all of the above, so Maui has that going for it.

Been to Kauai and the others and Kauai is the only one that I'd have much interest in returning to.

The street level arbitrage that the average consumer has been using against the price fixing scheme is rather amusing...

Why people are whining about poor Chinese folks using the only comparative advantages that they have to lift themselves out of poverty...when they could walk the talk and buy custom gear that satisfies *all* of the perogatives of the economically-illiterate-protectionist-bargain-hunters-decrying-the-excesses-of-consumerism-while-searching-for for-a-high-end-niche/boutique/consumer-product posting on this thread is "beyond" me... www.beyondclothing.com I buy their stuff for other reasons, but if you need something that slakes the pain of the affluowesternconsumo angst in addition to actually working well for its intended purpose, the stuff that they make should do the trick.

Play follow-the-leader and hit up the Sovereign Wealth Funds.

Must not have been talking about the 360's...(?)

I took a closer look at the top chainring last night, and the cogs are worn enough that the thing could almost double as a circular saw. Thankfully I can use the other two for the time being until I figure out whether the repair vs POS acquisition strategy makes the most sense...

Get an appraiser who will "hit the number" and take out a home equity loan that you use to fund the purchase of several cash-flow negative investment properties with no-doc, neg-am, I/O, 2/28, option-ARM loans with significant prepayment penalties and your prosperity is guaranteed.

That's how mine started and it pretty quickly degenerated into complete uselessness. If the top of the cogs on the chainring have worn to the point that the ends are sharp, chances are the chainring wear is far enough along that it might need replacing. If that's the case, I suspect that you'll wind up replacing the chain as well since supposedly chain stretch + chainring wear go together and old chains don't work well with new chainrings...but let me know if you have any luck messing around with the rear deraileur. Anything that can prolong the life of the beater without requiring additional money would be welcome...

LaSportiva K4S boots might be worth a look if you can find a pair. Insulated, crampon compatible, with synthetic material below the cuff, leather above the cuff.

Leaning strongly in that direction myself. May have found a good candidate for the sacrificial POS... http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bik/548907457.html

Cold is a given, but today's big nuisance was the chain skipping off of the top-chainring whenever I exceeded a certain amount of pressure. Thinking the chain, the chainring, or both might need replacing. Not sure if the outer chainring is replacable on the eight-year-old beater, and having epoxied the crank-arm in place recently I'm pretty sure that the crankset can't be replaced. I was planning to subject the old-beast to the final salt/slush/grime assault this winter, then pick up a new ride once I'd finished serving the sentence back here, but that may not happen. The new dilemma might be whether to go for a POS that I can leave on the porch with a flimsly lock, and not have to worry about taking care of, or a decent ride that will last for a few years. Leaning towards the POS option at this point....