Sayarim Experiment.

Sayarim Experiment. (2005) Aug 2009 ? ( 80 tons!... 11 holes!...) The GII Seismology Division has successfully conducted a series of experimental explosions with variable charge in the Sayarim Valley near Eilat, Israel (under the supervision of Dr.Y. Gitterman). The largest shot, 32.5 tons (see photo , courtesy of Dr. Y.Bartov) designed as a large-scale in-land seismic calibration explosion, intended to improve regional velocity models for calculating travel times of seismic waves to local and regional seismic stations and calibration of IMS stations. The explosion is part of the joint project of NRA, Jordan, GII, Israel and LLNL, USA: Seismic Calibration Using Mining Explosions in the Middle East, supported by the MERC program of the U.S.AID (PI - Dr. R.Hofstetter). Two smaller experimental explosions 0.3 ton and 2 tons (see photo) of 2-ton shot) were also conducted on June 13 and June 15, respectively, at the same site, in single boreholes of the same depth and diameter, thus providing (together with the calibration shot) a series for the yield-dependent analysis of regional waveforms. This experiment is part of the DOE/NNSA project: Seismic energy generation and partitioning into various regional phases from different seismic sources in the Middle East region (PI - Dr. Y.Gitterman). Ground Truth parameters of the explosions are presented in Table 1. The explosion site was located on land with the Massif Eilat Nature Reserve (see map . Geologically the area represents a graben filled by Quaternary alluvial conglomerates, underlined by consolidated limestone, chalk and chert rocks of the Cretaceous Mishash Formation (see a geological map ). A seismic refraction survey was conducted on the site by the GII team (supervisor Dr. M. Ezersky) before the experiment – to estimate thickness of near-surface soft sediments for evaluation drilling feasibility (for planned borehole large diameter and depth); and estimate a velocity model in the near-source zone (see survey results ). 13 large diameter boreholes (0.6-0.8 m) with depths of 17-21 m and spacing between holes about ~20 m, were drilled (Kodhim Shabat Ltd.) in dry alluvial subsurface layer (see photos of drilling machine, inner view of a hole and . cardboard casing The boreholes were filled with ANFO explosive (see photo of mix machines ), and fully loaded with stemming material. Detonation method design and explosion operations were fulfilled by blast manager Mr. Kobi Shimon (Arad Minerals Ltd.). The 300-kg explosion was fully contained, whereas two larger shots showed rock outburst and energy losses into the air (see video-clip of 2-ton shot and photo of 32.5 ton explosion from close location). The 2-ton explosion created a symmetric round crater of radius ~13-14 m, a number of different non-symmetric craters were created by the large explosion. Good waveform records were obtained for the explosion series in the near-source region by accelerometers at distances of 100-500 m (see an accelerogram sample for 300-kg shot) , and numerous portable and network seismic SP and BB stations in Israel and Jordan (see a map of recorded stations ). Clear Pn and Pg wave groups are observed at seismogram of the remote IMS array AS049 at Mt. Meron at distance ~ 350 km. Dry alluvium is commonly considered a low-coupling material (www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/~ota/disk2/1988/8838/883808.PDF)(see e.g. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Seismic Verification of Nuclear Testing Treaties, OTA-ISC-361, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, Chapter 6, May 1988). However, local magnitudes ML estimated by the Israel Seismic Network stations showed that significant seismic strength was achieved for experiment explosions (ML~2 for 2 ton and ML~3 for 32.5 ton) in spite of non-consolidated sediment media accommodating the explosives and low charge depth, far from fully-contained conditions. Additional information about explosion design, and obtained measurements can be provided upon request (yefim@seis.mni.gov.il).

Mossad behind the hijacking of the "Artic Sea"

Mossad behind the hijacking of the "Artic Sea"

Russia wants to weaken Israel by encouraging it to take military action against Iranian nuclear facilities. To do so, it supplies Iran with anti-edge technology. If Iran is attacked, oil prices will soar and Russia wins a fortune at the expense of Israel.

Translated by Google

Don't ask don't tell... Not in the IDF!

US should learn from IDF's tolerance of homosexuals in the army

By Ynetnews February 8, 2007

The US military needs to learn from the IDF and the tolerant Israeli model regarding homosexual soldiers and officers, a research project on gay and lesbian service in the IDF, undertaken at the University of California, in Santa Barbara concluded.

According to a Florida newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, a brigadier general quoted in the pair's study said Israelis show a "great tolerance" for homosexual soldiers.

David Saranga, a former IDF officer and now Israel's consul for media and public affairs in New York said, "It's a non-issue... You can be a very good officer, a creative one, a brave one and be gay at the same time."

The paper referenced the California study's survey of 17 heterosexual IDF soldiers: Only two said they would have a problem serving under a gay commander and three expressed concern about showering with a gay colleague. None objected to gay soldiers in general.

As one officer put it, "They're citizens of Israel, like you and me. The sexual orientation of the workers around me doesn't bother me."

Israel is one of 24 nations that allow openly gay individuals to serve in the military. Since the early nineties, sexual identity presents no formal barrier in terms of soldiers' military specialization or eligibility for promotion.

The research reported that, up until the eighties, the IDF tended to discharge soldiers who were openly gay. In 1983, the IDF permitted homosexuals to serve, but banned them from intelligence and top-secret positions.

'Israelis convinced they made the right decision'

A decade later, an IDF officer reserves officer revealed that his rank had been revoked and that he had been barred from researching sensitive topics in military intelligence, solely because of his sexual identity.

His testimony to the Knesset in 1993 raised a political storm, forcing the IDF to remove such restrictions against gays.

That same year in the United States, Congress implemented its infamous "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding military service for gays, refusing to allow openly homosexual soldiers to serve and claiming that their presence would have a negative effect on morale and discipline.

At the beginning of the year, General John Shalikashvili, who was Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (the highest US military post) in 1993 and supported the DADT policy at the time, stated in a New York Times opinion editorial that he now supports gays serving openly in America's armed forces.

Shakashvili noted that in Israel, as well as in the other 23 nations with a similar policy on homosexuals in the military, service by gay soldiers had not had an adverse effect on the military.

The St. Petersburg Times echoed Shalikashvili's sentiments, noting that in 1993 "Israel took exactly the opposite approach (from the US)...Fourteen years later, Israelis are convinced they made the right decision."


Reprinted with permission from Ynet.

---

Court rejects challenge to 'don't ask, don't tell'

Pentagon policy forbids gays, lesbians from serving openly in the military

updated 12:47 p.m. ET June 8, 2009

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down a challenge to the Defense Department policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration.

The court said Monday that it will not hear an appeal from former Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was dismissed under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The federal appeals court in Boston earlier threw out a lawsuit filed by Pietrangelo and 11 other veterans. He was the only member of that group who asked the high court to rule that the Clinton-era policy is unconstitutional.

========================

This is what drives me crazy!

BTR August 7 - Pastorius ( aka Peter Dangler )

Friday, August 07, 2009

Weekly Blog Talk Radio: August 7 - Pastorius

(This posting is a weekly promo. Scroll down for other postings)

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost.

The show broadcasts live every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.
Callers welcome!
Our guest for the full hour will be Pastorius of Infidel Bloggers Alliance. He will give us a sampling of his new radio show, The After Party. A live fatwa will be declared then and there!

Barack Obama made up as The Joker

‘Racism’ Cries a Tired Obama Double Standard

Thursday, August 6, 2009 2:19 PM

By: Pamela Geller

A real brouhaha has ensued since the appearance of the “socialism” poster of Barack Obama made up as The Joker. Once again, great Americans are being brandedas “racists.” Steven Mikulan said in the LA Weekly that the poster “has a bit of everything to appeal to the drunk tank of California conservatism: Obama is inwhite face, his mouth (like Ledger’s Joker’s) has been grotesquely slit wideopen and the word ‘Socialism’ appears below his face. The only thing missing isa noose.” And Bedlam Magazine charged: “The Joker white-face imposed on Obama’s visage has a sort of malicious, racist, Jim Crow quality to it.”

Patriots, be on notice. This is the favorite tactic of the left. Any criticism of Obama, no matter what or how legit, will be labeled racism. Tea party? Racist! Opposition to socialism? Racist! Opposition to nationalized
healthcare? Racist! Opposition to cap and tax? Racist! Opposition to the ethnic cleansing of Jewish people in Israel? Racist!

This tactic used to be effective. One case study is the 2006 Virginia Senate race, and the destruction of George Allen’s re-election campaign by the “macaca” incident. A presidential contender was destroyed by a leftopathic lie, despite the fact that the charge of racism was utter nonsense. Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s insult to Indian people went unremarked and unnoticed in the main stream media.

The media has also ignored the real significance of the Obama Joker poster. It isn’t racism; it’s a sign of America’s rude awakening. The editor of the American Thinker, Thomas Lifson, observed that the poster showed that the inevitable backlash against Obama’s far-left policies has begun: “It is starting. Open mockery of Barack Obama, as disillusionment sets in with the man, his policies, and the phony image of a race-healing, brilliant, scholarly middle-of-the-roader.” But Lifson noted that “the President’s supporters have condemned the image, calling it ‘mean-spirited and dangerous.’ ”

Mean-spirited? Dangerous? Racist?

For years I covered the left’s spiteful and malicious attacks on President George W. Bush. He was likened to Hitler. “Bushitler” was so commonly used, it became a cliché. Leftists compared the jihadi attack on the twin towers to the Reichstag fire. And other motifs came into play as well: Vanity Fair even published an image of Bush as . . . The Joker. No one said a peep. Not a word. Instead, we were told that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”

And indeed it can be, at least unless you cross our Dear Leader Barack Obama. After eight years of relentless Bush bashing and America hating, The New York Times’s opinion makers are warning about the dangers of dissent. Bob Herbert recently warned about “right-wing hate-mongers” and “gun crazies.” Frank Rich sounded the alarm about “far-right rage.” Paul Krugman worried over “the rise of right-wing extremism.” Charles M. Blow came out more or less openly for a police state: “Society needs to do a much better job of creating an environment where hateful beliefs are never ignored and suspicious behavior never goes unreported.” What kind of “hateful beliefs”?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear who these people have in mind when she lied outright about anti-Obama protesters, claiming that they’re “carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.”

LIE! This has never happened at any of our rallies and protests. The left employed the swastika for years against Bush; the right has never engaged in this. Pelosi is spreading more lies and smears of good, decent folks. At the leftist rallies, the hatred against Bush was pushed and promoted relentlessly. The rallies that were organized by the far left infrastructure for years never hesitated to orchestrate the most vicious attacks on Bush. But when one poster mocking Obama appears in Los Angeles — a poster that was not orchestrated, not
part of any moveon.org strategy — and it’s the shot heard round the world.What happened to “dissent is the highest form of patriotism”?The left should be warned: The libelous smear of racism has lost its sting.

If everything is racism, then nothing is. The charge has lost its power. The more that leftists pull this evil trick,the more folks will shrug. The sad and terrible thing is that by using this tactic, the left has obscured the true evil of genuine racism. The fact is, when the left makes everything about race, and sees everything through a prism of “racism,” it shows us who the real racists are.

Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs Web site and former associate publisher of the New York Observer.

Her Op-Eds have appeared in the Washington Times, News max, Human Events,World Net Daily, the American Thinker,Israel National News, and other publications.

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Hillary Clinton:- “deeply regrettable” and “provocative.”

U.S. Keeps Israel on the Hot Seat

By: P. David Hornik

FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, August 07, 2009

The State Department has complained to Michael Oren, the recently appointed Israeli ambassador to the U.S., for at least the second time in recent weeks.
Last time it was because of Israel’s plans to build 20 apartments in sovereign Israeli territory in East Jerusalem. This time it’s over Israel’s eviction of two Palestinian families from homes in sovereign Israeli territory in East Jerusalem.

Israel’s liberal Supreme Court, which has often ruled in favor of Palestinians in property disputes, this time ruled that the properties belonged to Jewish families who claimed ownership. That didn’t stop Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—in addition to State officials’ phone call to Oren—from dubbing the evictions “deeply regrettable” and “provocative.”

The Obama administration, in trying to propel diplomatic activity between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab states, has been accused of putting one-sided pressure on Israel. The administration claims it’s also trying to get Arab states to make gestures toward Israel, and the Palestinians to stop anti-Israeli incitement. But State’s latest admonition to Oren gives the lie to any such claim to a balanced approach.

If the administration wanted to publicly accost the Palestinian Authority for behavior such as incitement, it could easily do so. Palestinian Media Watch has reported, for instance, on a Fatah-sponsored high school graduation ceremony in the West Bank (watch the proceedings here) where “high school graduates in a speech identify the Israeli cities Haifa, Acre, Jaffa and Jerusalem as part of ‘Palestine.’” A female and male graduate bellow things like “In the name of the Shahids [Martyrs], in the name of the prisoners, in the name of the stone and the rifle,” and “Fatah is [still] with the rifle. And our rifles are not rusty even if they have fired thousands of bullets.”

More blatant incitement—high school graduates in an official ceremony calling for Israel’s violent destruction—could hardly be imagined. But it’s not as if State has called anyone at the PLO’s mission in Washington (Obama signed a waiver in April allowing it to keep operating) to transmit a rebuke.

Or if that proved too cumbersome, it could have been done directly through the US Consulate in Jerusalem itself. But as noted this week in a full-page newspaper ad by the American Israeli Action Coalition, the consulate, albeit now located in pre-1967 West Jerusalem where Israel has been sovereign since 1948, is hardly an objective body. Its website is concerned solely with West Bank and Gaza Palestinians and not at all with Israel and Israelis, appears in English and Arabic but not in Hebrew, and so on.

State’s bias in not recognizing any part of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is, of course, familiar. Practically blotting Israel out of the Jerusalem consulate’s website, however, and presenting the consulate as almost solely a delegation to the Palestinians, has something strikingly less than evenhanded about it.

With such prevailing biases, there can be no realistic hope that the extremism being displayed in this week’s sixth General Assembly of Fatah in Bethlehem will be seriously noted by the administration or divert it from its path of trying to push Israel into concessions.

As opposed to perfectly legal measures by Israel like building homes or evicting illegal residents from other homes, the administration will not take the Palestinians to task, for instance, for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s statement to the assembly that “we…reserve our authentic right to legitimate resistance”—a codeword for terror—or the fact that “large posters featuring Palestinian children brandishing rifles decorated the conference hall and public squares in Bethlehem.”

Even many of those who believe in a genuine Israeli-Palestinian peace process as an imminent possibility are disturbed by the administration’s negative focus on Israel. To be fair, both the Clinton and Bush II administrations (and not a few Israeli leaders) shared the ability to overlook Fatah’s objectionable actions and words. But this administration’s spotlighting of Israel as the alleged bad boy—whatever the administration’s protestations—goes on. It causes unnecessary frictions in the relationship and does nothing to promote peace or U.S. interests, while continuing to chip away at Israel’s already badly maligned image.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/. He can be reached at pdavidh2001@yahoo.com.

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