The Ranger Olympics
April 21, 2008
Army News Service
FORT BENNING, Ga. - Staff Sgts. Michael Broussard and Shayne Cherry of the 75th Ranger Regiment crossed the finish line Sunday in first place after a grueling weekend to win the 25th Best Ranger Competition.
Brothers Capt. Jeff Soule and Maj. Greg Soule took the second spot representing James Madison University ROTC; and Sgt. Jeremy Billings and Sgt. Jeremiah Beck took third representing the 75th Ranger Regt.
This year's field of competitors included almost 30 teams from force generating units in Training and Doctrine Command to operational units from Forces Command, and both active and reserve components.
The core 2008 Best Ranger Competition events involved foot movement, engaging and destroying an enemy target, evaluating, treating and evacuating a casualty, and the demonstration of physical and mental toughness. Upon completion of the three-day competition, during which no sleep was scheduled, each Ranger team moved in excess of 60 miles, with equipment, and fire nearly 250 rounds of ammunition using multiple weapon systems.
Day one of the competition began at Camp Rogers Friday morning and included events at Malvesti Field, Todd Field, Hurley Hill/Victory Pond, Lee Field and the Malone Range Complex. Teams finished day one with the beginning of the unknown distance road march.
Day two of the competition on Todd Field tested the Ranger teams' technical proficiency on military skills, including mountaineering, demolitions, communications, medical tasks and employment of hand grenades.
As the sun set on day two, the Ranger teams began the orienteering event which ended at Camp Darby and began the third and final day of the completion.
The third day of the competition was designed to identify the most physically and mentally tough and technically competent Ranger team in the military based on a combined score of all three days of the competition. But before the winners teams could raise those pistols Monday at the Ranger Memorial for the awards ceremony, had to negotiate the Darby Queen, conduct the helocast/swim at Victory Pond and complete the Buddy Run.
The Best Ranger competition started in 1982 as a "Ranger Olympics" among the Ranger Department Ranger Camps. In 1984, it became an Armywide competition to identify the most physically and mentally tough, and technically competent Ranger team in the military. In the 27 years since Sgt. 1st Class Philip Sebay and Sgt. 1st Class Charles Light, of the 3rd Ranger Company, Benning Ranger Division, were recognized as the Best Ranger Team, the competition was suspended only twice. The first was 1991, during Operation Desert Shield, and the second was 2003, during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
(Information provided by Fort Benning Public Affairs.)
© Copyright 2008 Army News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
My new diesel powered vehicle I'm going to buy with my initial investment profits from my venture capital placed in ethanol plant and ultimate production of Algae to fuel concept.
At great risk of sounding like a broken record here, I cannot help but be absolutely enamored with the prospect of fuel for vehicles, etc. production from ALGAE!
One thing many people don’t consider (I was once in the marketing-dispensing of petroleum products both here and overseas) are all the infrastructure costs inherent in changing the entire way we fuel our vehicles. Going electric or even CNG or hydrogen will entail huge expenses (some say they will be cost prohibitive) in changing out all our methodologies as far as dispensing fuels to the public. Think about it a bit.
Creating a fuel basically similar to what we have now to power hydrocarbon based internal combustion engines (diesel as opposed to gasoline in essence) would obviate all these problems.
And this is not to mention the environmental anti-greenhouse gases effects from the utilization of the CO2 emissions from normal hydrocarbon production and refining this technology renders as a by-product!
And yes, I do care about our environment. I think this may be the wave of the future. I watched a piece on History channel the other night about Algae farms that are being put in right now in places like Arizona. It is truly fascinating stuff!
I would like to see us as a nation pursue this technology with the same fervor we are now expending on castigation of our corporations that are currently providing us with our fuels now!
http://www.boston.com/busin...
http://www.oilgae.com/blog/...
http://www.gotjuice.org/Gre...
http://www.biofuelsdigest.c...
The amount of CO2 we can take out of our emissions producing these type fuels is prodigious. Why don’t we stop just castigating our shareholder owned entities and corporate culture and get aboard this technology? Makes no sense to me………….
We Americans have a well deserved love for our internal combustion engines! I want to see that be able to continue! I love them too!
Democratic National Committee
Here's one for ya Murphy.
I don't care if its fer huntin or plinkin -- cans or critters...............
actually shootin or just ta look at..........
What is your favorite all around gun?
Rifle, shotgun, or handgun -- whatever
22 to 600 Nitro to 50 cal BMG (to your old 8" or 175mm arty piece in Army haha!)
What is your favorite and why?
Anyone want to put a caption on this one?
Cancer-killing waves gain national attention
Native of region to talk on '60 Minutes'
Saturday, April 12, 2008
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
John Kanzius is going prime time with his promising invention for cancer treatment.
Leslie Stahl will interview the Washington County native, who invented a radiofrequency (RF) generator four years ago to treat cancer, and tell his story tomorrow on CBS Television's "60 Minutes."
"It has gone from a Western Pennsylvania story to a major international story with the '60 Minutes' piece," Mr. Kanzius said from his home in Sanibel Island, Fla.
Successful inventions often end up with more uses than baking soda, and that may be the case with the Kanzius RF generator.
When he developed it years ago, his sole intent was a cancer treatment that worked without side effects.
So far, so good.
Research on his invention is on a fast track at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The growing body of research proves his generator thermally kills cancer cells spiked with RF-reactive nanoparticles.
But last year, Mr. Kanzius discovered his RF generator also burns salt water. When Rustum Roy, a Penn State University water expert and chemist, saw it demonstrated on a YouTube video, he traveled to the laboratory that Mr. Kanzius uses in Erie to witness it firsthand.
Since then he and Mr. Kanzius have signed a cooperative agreement to study and develop the technology for commercial applications, including salt-water desalination, pollution cleanup and using RF to alter solids and metals.
Dr. Roy has shown that RF causes oxygen and hydrogen atoms to separate then reunite, creating a flame more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and pure water. The RF generator is powered by electricity. The ratio of energy used vs. energy generated has yet to be determined.
"It's such an unbelievable fact -- so unbelievable that no one wants to believe it," Dr. Roy said. "It has one advantage -- an infinite and easy supply" of sea water.
Desalinating salt water while generating recoverable energy "is a tree-hugger's dream," he said. "This is a very major discovery in science."
These days Mr. Kanzius, 64, splits time between Erie and Sanibel Island, while undergoing chemotherapy for b-cell leukemia. He's raising money for the cancer research, has applied for about 50 patents and continues upgrading his inventions.
His story stands out because Mr. Kanzius is neither a doctor nor a college graduate. He holds only a technical degree from the former Allegheny Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Before retiring, he owned Jet Broadcasting Inc. in Erie, which operated radio and television stations. He never pondered a cancer treatment until he was diagnosed with cancer and witnessed the ill effects chemotherapy and radiation therapy had on fellow patients.
While on chemo, he spent sleepless nights doing research, which eventually made a pile from floor to ceiling. His goal became to kill cancer with physics rather than medicine. Within months he'd built a prototype for his RF generator by using his wife Marianne's pie pans then tested it by injecting metallic particles into hot dogs and steaks. The RF cooked only the injected areas.
His ideas drew early interest from Dr. David A. Geller, co-director of the UPMC Liver Cancer Center, then Dr. Steven Curley, a liver cancer specialist at M.D. Anderson -- the No. 1 cancer research center in the world. They now are conducting research using Mr. Kanzius' equipment and general protocol.
The current hope is to use the Kanzius treatment on a wide range of cancers with added interest in applying the procedure to fungal, viral and bacterial infections.
For now, the goal is developing a means to tag RF-sensitive nanoparticles with antigens or proteins so they infiltrate only cancer cells. Once nanoparticles are inside cancer cells, RF can heat them to deadly temperatures in seconds or minutes without affecting healthy tissue.
Last May, Dr. Curley described the Kanzius project as "the most exciting new therapy for cancer" he's seen in his 20 years of research.
In February, Dr. Geller at UPMC presented a paper to a large group of surgeons at the Academic Surgical Congress in Los Angeles that showed that tumors under the skin can be destroyed with RF when injected with gold nanoparticles developed at Pitt. The research will be published in August in the journal Surgery.
"In looking back after three years of working on the radiowave research, I have more enthusiasm than ever, in part because the machine does generate heat, and gold nanoparticles are excellent enhancers to focus the RF," Dr. Geller said.
The ideal, he said, is to create nanoparticles that serve "as homing pigeons" to cancer.
"There's no question that momentum is growing and the ongoing press coverage, as well as '60 Minutes' coverage, makes me want to be enthusiastic without providing false hope," he said, suggesting that patients seek other forms of treatment in the meantime. "The goal is to move the cancer research forward as quickly as possible to find tomorrow's cure."
Mr. Kanzius describes his experience to date as "an amazing odyssey."
"The sooner it gets into human trials, the happier I'll be," he said.
David Templeton can be reached at dtempleton@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1578.
Tim Russert asked it on MTP this morning
No one really fielded it
He showed a clip of Powell talking about the war
Wouldn't he be a great choice?
He could certainly be the seeming "voice of reason" regarding the war
And if anyone could get him on the ticket (won't be easy I reckon) McCain might just be able to...........
Obama under fire after fundraiser remarks
Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:37am EDT
TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came under fire on Friday for saying small-town Pennsylvania residents were "bitter" and "cling to guns or religion," in comments his rivals said showed an elitist view of the middle class.
Obama's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain both pounced on the comments Obama made last weekend at a fundraiser in San Francisco.
Video of the fundraiser, which was closed to the press, surfaced as Obama was campaigning in Indiana, trying to highlight issues of concern to working-class voters, such as job losses and rising mortgage foreclosures.
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama, an Illinois senator, said.
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he said.
Clinton, a New York senator who is battling Obama for the Democratic nomination and the right to face McCain in the November presidential election, said in Philadelphia the comments showed Obama "looks down" on voters in Pennsylvania, which holds a closely watched nominating contest on April 22.
"Pennsylvania doesn't need a president who looks down on them," she said told a rally. "They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."
Clinton, a former first lady, once led Obama by double digits in polls in Pennsylvania, the next big battleground in their struggle for the right to face McCain in the November presidential election.
That lead has dwindled to about 4 to 6 points in several recent polls in a state that has struggled from job losses and has a big population of blue-collar voters who have been Clinton's biggest backers.
'NOTHING SHORT OF BREATHTAKING'
An aide to McCain called the fundraiser comments "remarkable and extremely revealing."
"It shows an elitism and condescension toward hard-working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking," said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to the Arizona senator. "It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
The barrage of criticism came after the comments appeared on The Huffington Post blog.
Obama responded by insisting he was not out of touch with voters and by trying to turn the tables on both Clinton and McCain.
"When I go around and I talk to people there is frustration and there is anger and there is bitterness," Obama told a rally in Terre Haute. "They're frustrated and for good reason. ... They've seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their pensions.
"Out of touch? Out of touch?" he asked, accusing McCain of failing to understand the home mortgage crisis.
"I mean, John McCain -- it took him three tries to finally figure out that the home foreclosure crisis was a problem and to come up with a plan for it."
Obama also suggested Clinton was "out of touch," accusing her of being beholden to lobbyists in the financial services industry and attacking her for supporting a bill on bankruptcy reform that was supported by companies in that sector.
Obama's comments in Indiana in turn sparked another round of criticism from his rivals. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said in a statement that "instead of apologizing for offending small town America, Senator Obama chose to repeat and embrace the comments he made earlier this week."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama "arrogantly tried to spin his way out of his outrageous San Francisco remarks."
(Reporting by Caren Bohan and John Whitesides; Writing by Caren Bohan; Editing by Bill Trott)
We all have read how the oil companies have been experiencing (I’ll use that word rather than the one I’m thinking) high profits. We’ve also read how Congress is considering placing a Windfall Tax on these profits. Oh, just in case you’re not familiar with what that is, it’s a tax the government can place on various industries or groups when certain economic conditions exist where these entities (as in this case the oil industry) is experiencing above normal profits. These taxes are placed against specific companies and industries when profits exceed what the government feels is a reasonable level of profit.
O.K., we’re all thinking that it’s about time Exxon, Mobile, Shell, Chevron and the rest of that bunch get a higher tax against their profits because, well, thirty-five to forty billion dollar profits each quarter is somewhat high, especially when gas prices keep rising and most of us can’t afford the gas just to get to work or take the kids to their activities. Like the “Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980”, we’ve had these taxes from time to time, yet the margin of profit keeps going up.
What I read this morning though was not a Windfall Tax on large corporations, or industries that have taken advantage of tough economic times. What I was reading was an additional tax on the average working class of America. A Windfall Tax on Americans who are trying to save for retirement. We’re not talking about millionaires (using a calculator, most of use will never reach that level at today’s average wage even if we put all our after essential living expenses in the bank). We’re talking about the majority of Americans. And just who is backing this plan to add this tax?
Starting at day one as Majority Leader in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been pushing a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits, and this includes all Retirement funds, 401K plans, Mutual Funds. The bulk of American’s who are trying to save money for retirement have investments in one or more of these funds. If you don’t think you do, and your employer, union, or association has a retirement benefit plan, you fall in this group. Her goal, and that of the Democratic Party, is to roll back the Bush Tax Plan. That will be the first step should her party win the Presidential election this fall. If you don’t think taxes will rise, Pelosi wants the taxes to go back to at least the Clinton years:
Taxes under Clinton 1999 Taxes under Bush 2008
Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250
These taxes, plus the Windfall Tax on Retirement Accounts will almost double the tax of every working class American. This makes me wonder if it’s worth investing if everything you save will be taxed at higher and higher rates. If you want to do your own comparison, take a look at the tax scale
http://www.taxfoundation.or... and look at your current earnings tax bracket comparing the percentage you pay today versus what you would have paid in the 1990’s. Example: Today: A family earning $50,000 is in the 15% tax bracket. In 1998 (just 10 years ago) for the same income, you would be in the 28% tax bracket. I may be wrong, but when I hear someone tell me they will not raise the tax on the working middle class, yet say they want to roll back the Bush Tax Plan to the Clinton Tax Plan… that is a tax increase. That is going from a $7,500 tax on fifty-thousand, to $14,000 (almost doubled). That on top of placing a Windfall Tax on working class retirement accounts will just about make it impossible for the American workers to save any money for retirement. Americans currently are on the low end of saving for their future, what do we think will happen with all the taxes the Democrats are waiting to install once there is no one in their way to “VETO” such a plan?
We keep hearing the chant “CHANGE” from some politicians, and “Words have meaning” from others… I agree, some change is needed, but let’s not dump the good with the bad. There are so many issues in the world today that we in America need to be concerned with. One of the biggest at this time is our economy and our financial futures. Change for the sake of change only is not always the best direction to take. Americans need to look at the total package of what these changes will mean to them, not just for today, but for the future. Think before voting and don’t be swayed just by words. Look at the agenda behind the person and how it will affect each and every one of us and our children’s future. If you don’t think repeal of our current tax structure will not hurt your pocket-book or wallet, you had better do some more research.
modbee.com
I was on a board talkin about "No Country for Old Men" movie and he posted this and I answered him below:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by MLeafer
Here are the political conclusions drawn from NCFOM:
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by MLeafer
Bomb Iran and wipe out any chance of them getting nukes, because Islamic Terror is demonic, and you can't bargain with the devil.
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Mleafer, I'm not pickin at ya with this OK? But let me relate a little piece that makes me hesitant (I could just be weak) to just bomb ANYBODY!
I was walkin patrol not too far from base camp one time and my boot kicked this thing stickin outa the dirt. I pulled it out and it was a piece of metal about a half inch thick,4 to 6 inches in width and about two feet long. It was sharp as a razor on the edges and heavier'n any machete you ever hefted. Even out there with the spectre of charlie possibly around us it sent chills up and down my spine.
It was the casing from one of our fast mover's 750 high drag bombs. I had a mental image of that sucker flyin through the air at 100 mph -- it coulda sliced through me in an instant (and a hundred other me's). Made me think. I got nothin against them flyboys in fast movers, them and their napes and high drags saved our asses many a time, but it just make me think. Again, mebbe I think too much (he who hesitates is dead -- but if ya hesitates ta think? -- I digress, I guess).
Anyway, when people talk about just bombing the crap outa people I think of that day and that piece a metal. I put it in ruck and humped it back with me. Had an AF Lt Col once I met in a bar at Phu Hiep tell me all about it. I gave it to him (was gonna try and bring it back to the world but probably couldn't anyway). He allowed as he could have a flyboy mechanic bolt it up into a panel on one of the A/C that was being ferried back and have someone at Hickam AFB in Hawaii? take it out for him. I figgered it was better to go with him......
But I have somethin just about as good. That mental image of the thing. It will never leave me. and I think about it every time someone talks about bombing others......... I know I sound like a wuss here, mebbe I am, but it gives me pause.......... (when bombing people comes up in conversation).
Not puttin ya down at all........ we need to fight our enemies....... mebbe I'm weakened by my experiences...... I sincerely hope not.........
I sincerely am asking, am I a wuss because I think about such things? It honestly makes me feel weak somehow............ 
Sonny Bono 'assassinated' by hitmen
By staff writers
April 04, 2008 10:58am
SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers who feared he was going to expose them, a former FBI agent claims.
Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.
"It's nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There's zero evidence in this autopsy report... to show such an accident happened. Instead, there's powerful proof he was assassinated.
"This was an evil plot that was carried out to almost perfection by ruthless assassins," Mr Gunderson told the paper.
The former agent, who has been researching Bono's accident for the past decade, said top officials linked to an international drug and weapons ring feared the singer-turned-politician was about to expose their crimes - so they had him killed on the slopes.
rest of article
Come on now......................
A Black Ball thrown at White Pins with Red Necks?
Come on
Obama bowled a 37!
Numerous gutter balls. He shoulda just said NO!
Just ask Hillary!
I think bowling is racist.
(now.....where's Bubba "Tiger" Woods?
I think I saw one a these in back of pick-up just ahead of me.
Know what it is?
If it ain't and its just a cross, think it coulda been Blue Heeler and Border cross?
Whaddya think?
1) One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your |tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.
2) Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....yer gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the |gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. Unlike service stations, at the sellers, every truck that they load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
3) If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
4) And lastly, when yer a pumpin thet amber gold, remember how much of each gallon yer payin for goes to an entity that did absolutely nothin to produce it. Yep out of each buck ya pays, a third goes to the Govt. think about that next time some pinhead gripes about the oil cos. and their "obscene profits" that they actually pump back into the co. or pay shareholders with. The Govt just pays it ta undeserving layabouts or corrupt cohorts fer the most part!
