Corps of Engineers Oversees Complex Basrah Children’s Hospital Project

Workers at the Basrah Children’s Hospital project lay down ceramic tiles. Some 800 people are employed by the project, which is scheduled to be complete construction by July 2008. Photo courtesy of USACE.

TALLIL — One of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) largest projects in Iraq is 76 percent complete and is on track for construction to finish this summer, according to the Gulf Region South district commander, Col. Stephen Hill.

The Basrah Children’s Hospital will be a state-of-the-art acute and referral care hospital that focuses on pediatric oncology. The 19,800 square meter complex includes a 94-bed main hospital building, two utility buildings, warehouse, oxygen plant, steam autoclave building, and a 36-bed residence hall. The two-story hospital building includes two operating rooms, two special procedure rooms, emergency room, specialty clinics, pediatric and neonatal intensive care unit, dental suite, and training classrooms.

“This project is one of the largest in Iraq,” Hill said. “It’s a multi-national support system focusing on one goal and that is to provide this hospital for the children of Basrah and Iraq.”

OIF

Yes Sir…Us nasty bastard Americans….Right Obama, Clinton, Edwards and the rest of the seven Dwarfs

Wash down the Brownie with this baby….

mmmm mmmm mmmmm

S’more Brownies…Gee, Right On Top Of Cholesterol Drug…Oh Well.

Crust:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch fine saltBrownie:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
4 large cold eggs
1 cup all-purpose flourTopping:
4 cups large marshmallows

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 by-8-inch square baking pan with foil so it hangs over the edges by about 1 inch.For the crust: Lightly butter the foil with some of the melted butter. Stir the rest of the butter together with the crumbs, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Press the crumb mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.Meanwhile, make the brownie. Put the butter and chocolate in a medium microwave safe bowl. Melt in the microwave on 75 percent power for 2 minutes. Stir, and microwave again until completely melted, about 2 minutes more. Alternatively, put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl on the pan without touching the water. Stir occasionally until melted. Stir the light brown and white sugars, vanilla and salt into the melted chocolate. Add the eggs and beat vigorously to make a thick and glossy batter. Add the flour and stir until just incorporated.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is crispy and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean, with a few crumbs, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and carefully position a rack about 6 inches from the broiler and preheat on low. Layer marshmallows across the top and toast under the broiler until golden, (keep an eye on it, it can go quick), about 2 minutes. Cool on a rack, gently removing the brownies from the pan using the aluminum flaps. Carefully separate any marshmallow from the foil and fold away. Cut into 12 (2-inch) squares.

Food Network

Cholesterol Drug, In Study, Shows Mixed Results…

An eagerly awaited study suggested that the blockbuster combination cholesterol drug Vytorin didn’t provide any significant benefit versus a statin drug alone in slowing down clogging of the arteries in people with hereditary high cholesterol.

However, the study involving 720 patients also found that rates of side effects were generally similar between those taking Vytorin and those taking the statin drug simvastatin. And it showed that Vytorin reduced levels of bad cholesterol to a greater degree than simvastatin alone.

Some investors*had feared the study would show a safety problem with Vytorin and its component drug Zetia. Vytorin is a fixed-dose combination of simvastatin and Zetia.

* HEY!…I know this is capitalism..and I believe in capitalism…BUT how about the God Damn people here, HUH?!

OH…Speaking of…Watch what you are prescribed, folks.

The Wall Street Journal

2009 Dodge Ram 1500 Redesigned

THIS is what I have been waiting for:

Allpar has a fabulous preview of the all-new 2009 Dodge Ram full-sized light truck. Among the changes are a coil spring multi-link rear suspension – this thing probably rides a smoothly as any good automobile now – and a first-in-class Ram Crew configuration. You lose about a foot of bed space with the Ram Crew – it’s only 5.5′ long versus 6.5′ with the Quad Cab – but the segment is taking off, so Dodge needed a real 1500 in this layout (Instead of the 1500-badged 2500 Mega Cab they have there now).

The exterior has been totally redesigned – I really love it – but it still looks like a Dodge truck, just with more angles and creases a la contemporary design trends. Very hip.

The big news for me, though, is that Cummins is developing a light-duty turbodiesel for the 1500 series in a “V” configuration for the 2010 model year. I expect it will be a V-6 in the 3.5 liter range of the Mercedes V-6 turbodiesel that is currently in the re-badged Dodge Sprinter full-sized van. In that van with the low roofline model it gives 30 MPG on the highway. This is sorely needed, as I can tell you from first-hand experience.

Above is The Beef of God’s 2002 Dodge Ram Quad Cab SLT 4×4. It has the small 4.7 liter V-8 (Instead of the optional 5.7 liter Hemi), and I’ve put a 4″ Rancho lift and 33″ tires on it. There is also a Ranch Hand Bullnose front bumper with PIAA fog lights, and an A.R.E. tonneau cover. It gets about 14 MPG on the highway at 65 MPH if I use the cruise control. As a traveling solo musician, this is killing. The small Cummins will double that, and so nearly halve my fuel expenditures (Since diesel is a bit more expensive than gas).

I almost bought a new truck last year. Glad as hell I waited!

Devastating news

Tim Blair has cancer, and will shortly have major surgery. No word as to what kind, or the prognosis, but no doubt he will welcome words of support.

I’ve never met the man face to face, but needless to say, this has left me in tears.

Found: Artifacts From the Future

Wired.com

UFO’S….OOOOOOOOOOOO.

Video ads are planned for grocery carts…All of this sounds wonderful…UNTIL..

SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp. is bringing digital advertising to the grocery cart. The software maker spent four years working with Plano, Texas-based MediaCart Holdings Inc. on a grocery cart-mounted console that helps shoppers find products in the store, then scan and pay for their items without waiting in the checkout line.

The system also uses radio-frequency identification to sense where the shopper’s cart is in the store. The RFID data can help ShopRite and food makers understand shopping patterns, and the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points — an ad for 50 cents off Oreos, for example, when a shopper enters the cookie aisle. Microsoft said it is still working on how it will present commercials and coupons.

Read it all….

As to the second snippet. Leave your cart say in the cereal section, should you have to use the restrooms. I mean, you don’t want the store personnel, laughing their asses off. ‘Cart #67 is now located near the…Buwhaaaaaaa’. Trust me, I know this happens.

Yahoo

Moment of Truth in Iraq

In January 2007, growing doubts I had about our ability to stave off an eventual genocide in Iraq were intensified by our failure to competently manage the media battlespace. Within the military I sensed a growing censorship and was myself denied access to the battlefields in 2006. After months of fighting with Army Public Affairs for access, they relented, but only due to public pressure following the publication of an article in the Weekly Standard. An expanded version of the article “On Censorship” was published as the dispatch “Al Sahab—the Cloud” on my website. The article was blunt; by then I’d been fighting for about six months to re-embed with troops.

In a counterinsurgency, the media battlespace is critical. When it comes to mustering public opinion, rallying support, and forcing opponents to shift tactics and timetables to better suit the home team, our terrorist enemies are destroying us. Al Qaeda’s media arm is called al Sahab: the cloud. It feels more like a hurricane. While our enemies have “journalists” crawling all over battlefields to chronicle their successes and our failures, we have an “embed” media system that is so ineptly managed that earlier this fall there were only 9 reporters embedded with 150,000 American troops in Iraq. There were about 770 during the initial invasion.

Many blame the media for the estrangement, but part of the blame rests squarely on the chip-laden shoulders of key military officers and on the often clueless Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad, which doesn’t manage the media so much as manhandle them. Most military public affairs officers are professionals dedicated to their jobs, but it takes only a few well-placed incompetents to cripple our ability to match and trump al Sahab. By enabling incompetence, the Pentagon has allowed the problem to fester to the point of censorship.

Read on at Michael Yon Online

Please give Michael whatever support you can.

How to Impress Your Date…

… NOT!

Another replay, FROM (lol) WTIZ…Marvin Gaye…. Got To Give It Up..

Jimmy Hendrix…Stoned….