Jump to content

Bevo

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    15470
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Bevo

  1. Rare earth minerals
  2. I think more or less, you hit the nail on the head.
  3. 43 Killed During Horrific Church Massacre Islamic State-backed rebels killed at least 43 people during an attack on a Catholic church in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on July 27, 2025, according to multiple reports from civil society leaders and security sources. The assault occurred around 1 a.m. at a Catholic church in Komanda, located in Ituri province. Members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) stormed the church premises during a nighttime vigil, targeting worshippers with guns and machetes before setting fire to surrounding houses and shops. Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, reported that searchers found the bodies of 38 people at the church scene, including 19 men, 15 women and nine children. “More than 21 people were shot dead inside and outside and we have recorded at least three charred bodies,” Duranthabo indicated to news agencies. The death toll varies among different sources, with local civil society leaders reporting between 34 and 43 fatalities. A United Nations-backed radio station cited security sources confirming 43 deaths, while the Congolese military acknowledged a lower count of 10 confirmed fatalities in the church attack. Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, spokesperson for the Democratic Republic of Congo Army in Ituri province, confirmed that armed men with machetes conducted an incursion into the church facility. Video footage from the scene showed burning structures and bodies on the church floor, with survivors identifying victims while others stood in shock. The attackers also struck the nearby village of Machongani earlier the same evening, killing at least five additional people before taking several residents into the bush. Lossa Dhekana, a civil society leader in Ituri, reported that the fate and number of those taken remain unknown. Security sources indicated the attackers originated from a stronghold approximately 7.5 miles from Komanda’s center and fled before security forces could respond to the alarm that sounded at 2 a.m. when smoke from burning houses became visible. The Allied Democratic Forces formed in Uganda during the late 1990s from disparate groups expressing discontent with President Yoweri Museveni’s government. Following military pressure from Ugandan forces in 2002, the organization relocated its operations to neighboring Congo. The group pledged allegiance to the Islamic Statein 2019 and has since been responsible for killing thousands of civilians in the borderland region between Uganda and Congo. The ADF operates with the stated goal of establishing an Islamist government in the East African region. This attack represents the latest in a series of deadly ADF assaults on civilian populations. Earlier in July 2025, the group killed 66 people in Ituri province in what a United Nations spokesperson characterized as a bloodbath. Duranthabo condemned the violence, noting that it occurred in a town where security officials maintain a presence. He called for immediate military intervention, warning that enemies remained near the community. Some residents began fleeing toward Bunia following the attack. The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo has struggled to contain the ADF threat while simultaneously confronting renewed hostilities involving the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel movement. The complex security situation has created challenges for the overstretched Congolese military forces. Survivors at the scene prepared to bury victims in a mass grave within the Catholic church compound. The attack suspended all activities in Komanda as the community grappled with the aftermath of the violence. Eastern Congo has endured decades of conflict involving more than 100 armed groups, with roots tracing back to the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The mineral-rich Ituri province has been particularly affected by ongoing violence that has displaced approximately 7 million people across Congo’s population of 106 million. The United Nations peacekeeping mission MONUSCO warned that the church killings would exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the province. Meanwhile, security forces including the Congolese Armed Forces, Ugandan military and local police launched search operations for the attackers. The Congolese government denounced the attack as horrific, while military officials described it as a large-scale massacre conducted in retaliation for recent security operations targeting ADF positions. Sources: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/21-killed-attack-east-congo-church-islamic-state-124111635 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/east-congo-church-attack-islamic-state-backed-allied-democratic-force/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/what-to-know-about-the-attack-on-a-congolese-church-that-killed-nearly-40-worshippers https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/27/africa/eastern-congo-church-attacked-rebels-intl https://news.sky.com/story/democratic-republic-of-congo-at-least-34-people-killed-after-islamic-state-backed-rebels-attack-catholic-church-13402556
  4. Those 2 look like they are going to dominate in practice.
  5. I’m pretty sure I combined the names Robert Earl Keen and James Earl Jones. Oh well. So if I add the fact that he went to Sharpstown High School - I’ll probably screw up and find out he went to Westbury.
  6. it be nice if there was a way to weaponize them and send them to go after Putin. But, for whatever reason, they prefer to stay in the Ukraine and steal and rape there. The deserters, it seems, are as worthless as the non-deserters.
  7. If you like that selection. Choose Jerry Jeff Walker on Pandora and then don’t like or dislike anything. The mix includes Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, John Prine, The Eagles, Bob Dylan, James Earl Keene, Jerry Jeff Walker and a few others. Pandora always pisses me off except for this one mix. The John Prine station never played a single John Prine song and my Dylan Mix and my Tom Waits Mix sucked as well.
  8. Taylor Swift’s mom went to my high school in Houston. She’s quite a bit older, though.
  9. I bet you play a mean pinball.
  10. Fucking would be a cruel summer if I had daughters and had to listen to that shit.
  11. There should be an award for that cuz we are going to win it again.
  12. I was just having fun talking about toys. Gasoline is a more serious topic. It bugs me that the local, state, and federal governments make $0.90 cents per gallon and tax the shit out of oil companies only to hear people complain about big oil. It makes no sense.
  13. Russians pose in front of a burning oil depot in Sochi. Credit: X/JayinKyiv Ukrainian drone attacks sparked a massive oil depot fire near Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian authorities have said.
  14. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-trump-putin-nuclear-submarines-b2800764.html Donald Trump has said the US has moved its nuclear submarines “closer to Russia” in response to threats made by a former Russian president. "We always want to be ready, and so I have sent to the region two nuclear submarines," Mr Trump told US broadcaster Newsmax. "I just want to make sure that his (Medvedev's) words are only words and nothing more than that." The US president had yesterday said he had ordered to nuclear submarines to be deployed to “appropriate region”, It came after Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who is renowned for making inflammatory statements, suggested Moscow could strike the US with a nuclear weapon. # Meanwhile, Fires have erupted in a major Russian oil refinery after a huge Ukrainian drone attack which also hit a military airfield, Ukraine’s drone forces said. The Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine said they hit a refinery in Ryazan and the Annanefteprodukt oil storage facility in the Voronezh region bordering Ukraine. Kyiv’s SBU intelligence agency also said its drones had hit Russia's Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield, which has been used to launch waves of long-range drones at targets in Ukraine.
  15. My parents give a lot of money to the arts in Santa Fe and so do their friends. But I’m not sure that same charity exists in younger generations. I’m not sure what the shift has been whether it is lack of interest in the arts due to social media and video games, lack of disposable income, expectations of government, or a host of other things. I went to Novosibirsk Russia in January one year and went to the ballet. It was a huge theater and it was an entire family event. Of course, the families probably had little else to do so obviously that plays a role. But I have a feeling that if you grow up with the arts and seeing ballets, orchestra’s and plays, you are probably more likely to value those things when you get older. Few kids in the US grew up on the arts. It is a “rich persons thing”.
  16. Having quarterback issues and replacing a majority of your offensive line is not a recipe for success.
  17. timed out on me but to add a bit: PBS has always pushed the education angle and has focused on parents and educators. Why would it want profiteering off of children? Profiteering would probably run counter to the mission of much of its leadership. That doesn’t mean that opportunities didn’t exist.
  18. You don’t think you can make a toy line that competes with Barbie’s yet every fucking year there is a toy line that does just that - pet rock, tickle me Elmo, Beanie Babies, Furbies, Rubik’s Cube… what you need is a good marketing plan and good execution of the said plan. Sesame Street has plenty of good options for toys. That isn’t the problem. Of course Mr Rogers didn’t lend itself to many marketing opportunities which is obvious if you watch. That doesn’t mean that other programs don’t have potential. What holds public broadcasting back from marketing its kid’s programming is that it doesn’t try. And while I’ve never been involved in marketing kid’s toys it would not surprise me in the least to find out that there are people in the organization who discourage and even try to prevent marketing of its kid’s programs.
  19. 5 Marketing Lessons From The Craziest Holiday Fad Of All Time Summarize Karlee Weinmann2011-12-10T16:16:00Z By seandreilinger on Flickr This article originally appeared at American Express OpenForum Fifteen years ago, in all his giggly and shaky glory, Tickle Me Elmo took over. The hottest toy of the 1996 holiday season caused shoppers to turn vicious, inspired a whole new kind of black market (the $35 dolls sold at a several-thousand-dollar markup) and sparked a salacious scandal. During Tickle Me Elmo's epic reign, Tyco—the toy company behind the mega-craze—saw its sales soar from $70 million to an astounding $350 million, all thanks to a simple plush toy. Since that mania a decade and a half ago, Tickle Me Elmo remains the benchmark for products' must-have status. And there's a few things you can learn from the genius marketing behind the frenzy. Do your homework Tyco knew that Sesame Street was the most-watched kids' television program. Among its highly-recognizable cast of fuzzy, quirky and otherwise silly characters, research showed Elmo was the favorite. And so, the toy company settled on the friendly red muppet as the centerpiece for its huge holiday campaign. The takeaway? It's important to avoid making assumptions, particularly when you're developing products and services. When possible, allow yourself the time, resources and energy to conduct focus groups or survey potential consumers or clients. Their insight matters on two levels: first, as the service or product distributor, you are too immersed in ideas and their development to have a truly objective understanding of them. And second, these are the people who will dictate the success (or failure) of your new items. So who better to listen to? Don't do media outreach willy-nilly Mass emailing is a game that's hard to win. Publications receive stacks of generic press releases every week, so it's absolutely crucial to distinguish your product or idea from the heaps of uninteresting or irrelevant information. Rather than adopting the spaghetti-on-the-wall strategy, the Tyco team got specific. It came up with a list of editors of toy trade publications and other journalists they figured would help decide the must-have toys that season. Tyco hosted a hands-on preview event for those writers (and, more important, their children). Tickle Me Elmo went on to win several awards from top trade publications, which can rightly be attributed to both its quality and Tyco's thorough outreach. The takeaway? It might be tempting to rapid-fire a news release at every journalist in your market, but remind yourself that investing time in figuring out the key players will likely yield a greater return for you. If you can tailor your e-mails to the individual journalist you're trying to reach, he or she will be more likely to open it, read it and consider following up. Be sure to explain why your news item is worthwhile, relevant and different. You probably don't have the robust resources that Tyco had for its outreach efforts, but you probably don't need them either. Seek out prominent partners Perhaps Tyco's best move to get Tickle Me Elmo into the spotlight was to bring him into thousands of living rooms every day. Back before people lost interest in the first incarnation of comedienne Rosie O'Donnell's talk show, Tyco outfitted her staff with 200 of the dolls to use in promotions. Producers devised a "secret word" contest during which audience members could win one of the toys, an effective way to build hype leading up to the holiday shopping rush. Tyco also distributed the toy to other popular outlets, including national morning news programs and other talk shows. The takeaway? People trust the famous faces they see on television, in movies and around town. Even if you don't have the kind of pull a giant company like Tyco does, you can still find innovative ways to partner with well-known figures. Start out by considering the audience you're trying to reach. What do they do? What do they watch? Who do they trust? If your business is localized to a specific community, network with on-air news personalities or hometown athletes. If your company's focus is a bit broader, seek out industry leaders or experts to endorse your products and boost your reputation. Narrow your focus Tickle Me Elmo's popularity inspired Tyco to pursue a whole line of Sesame Street toys geared toward preschool-aged children. In 1997, one year after Tyco's monstrous Elmo craze, offshoot toy Sing and Snore Ernie became the holiday season's top seller. Instead of trying for a multitude of successful products at once, Tyco instead invested its resources into perfecting a single one and later building on that successful campaign. That move kept Tyco at the forefront of toy manufacturing for the Tickle Me Elmo demographic, because it has established its ability not only to compete, but to dominate by offering the hottest item. The takeaway? Keep it simple. If you try to do too much at the outset, it'll lead to mediocrity all around. Commit to executing one project well—even if your long-term vision is to expand that effort—and you've got a more viable shot at success, both immediately and later. Know your actual audience Tickle Me Elmo's target demographic, youngsters between 18 months and 4 years old, are surely the ones who enjoyed the toy most. But Tyco didn't advertise to them as much as they did another group: the parents, grandparents and other caregivers who ponied up for the toy. Creating a desire among kids to have the toy is a component of the strategy, but convincing the older group that the doll is one their children and grandchildren would enjoy spurs much more significant benefits. Especially because toddlers simply can't make their own purchasing decisions, going after those who make those calls for them is crucial. The takeaway? Think critically about the groups you must actually rely on to see your brand, product or idea take off, and prioritize accordingly. Be aware of any and all intermediaries between you and your ideal consumer or client.
  20. Here's a summary of the revenue collected by the US and state governments from oil and gas: 1. Federal government The U.S. federal government primarily collects revenue from oil and gas through royalties on production from federal lands and waters, as well as bonuses and rents on leases. In fiscal year 2023, oil and natural gas leases on onshore federal lands generated $8.497 billion in revenue. From 2012-2022, companies paid the federal government $74 billion in oil and gas royalties. The federal fuel excise tax (on gasoline and diesel) also contributes to the Highway Trust Fund and is a significant source of revenue from the industry, totaling $36.4 billion in fiscal year 2016. 2. State governments State and local governments collect revenue from oil and gas production through a variety of sources, including severance taxes, local property taxes, state oil and gas lease revenues, and a portion of federal lease revenues. On average, state and local governments collect roughly 10% of oil and gas revenue, though this can range from less than 1% to nearly 40% depending on the state. Severance taxes are the largest source of state and local oil and gas revenue. In 2021, state and local governments collected $11.8 billion in severance taxes. State and local governments collected a combined $53 billion in motor fuel taxes in 2021. In Summary Both the US federal and state governments collect substantial revenue from the oil and gas industry through royalties, taxes, and other mechanisms. The federal government primarily relies on royalties from federal leases and fuel taxes, while state governments derive revenue from a wider range of sources, particularly severance taxes. The specific amount collected by individual states varies significantly, depending on production levels and tax policies. US state and local oil and gas revenue sources and uses - ScienceDirect Jan 15, 2018 — Highlights. • States and localities receive substantial revenue from oil and gas production. We quantify these revenues, and their uses, across 16 states for fi... ScienceDirect.com
  21. Tickle me Elmo says you are a dumbass
  22. So Wingo and Campbell had issues with dehydration which caused them to miss two days of practice.
  23. Pretty ankles, beefy ankles, bones ankles, an anklet?
×
×
  • Create New...