BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 11:08 AM

Noting that earlier post from Anchorage, one guesses that when you're dressed like a carrot you're safe from being gored?

Oh, wait, that Pamplona action wasn't part of the Alaska event.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 10:31 AM

YEah, but you still have to use coal-based grid electricity or gasoline-driven generators to compress air in the first place.

How many miles do you get from an air car per 35 kWhrs, or per 115K BTU, or per 120.6 megajoules of energy used in running the compression system to fuel it?

These values (IIRC) are approximately the energy equivalents of one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 05:36 AM

Air Car could Come to America

On the first take the notion of a car that runs on the same air we breathe sounds like something just short of a miracle. Even the MDI inventor and former Formula One engineer Guy Negre admits that only the likes of Jules Verne mused of such a vehicle.

It is no wonder then that Verne and Negre share the same birthday. For the principle behind air-driven propulsion is fairly basic. A tank with compressed air, most likely pressurized to about 4500 psi, sets the wheels in motion by delivering force directly to the pistons with little or no internal combustion. The result is a zero-emissions vehicle that can travel about 120 miles at a top speed of 70 mph.

Tata, India's largest automaker, and a number of unnamed Japanese investors have already licensed the technology. There are also unconfirmed reports that the upcoming model of MDI might even make its way stateside in the next 2 years and go for around $17,800.

At the top link you'll find the text quoted, and a video "sales pitch." (The YouTube video didn't start automatically for me, so dialuppers can click safely.) Nothing particularly revolutionary about using compressed air to run an airmotor. The pitch makes pretty good sense until about the last fifteen seconds of the video.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 02:22 AM

Physicists Demonstrate Qubit-Qutrit Entanglement
By Lisa Zyga physorg.com

For the first time, physicists have entangled a qubit with a ÒqutritÓ Ð the 3D version of the 2D qubit. Qubit-qutrit entanglement could lead to advantages in quantum computing, such as increased security and more efficient quantum gates, as well as enable novel tests of quantum mechanics.

The research team, composed of physicists from the University of Queensland, the University of Bristol, and the University of Waterloo, has published its results in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters. The researchers made qutrits with biphotons (two correlated photons), resulting in Òbiphotonic qutrits.Ó Then, they entangled these qutrits with photonic qubits (made with one photon) using a combination of linear optic elements and measurements.


A qutrit, just as it sounds, is the quantum information analogue of the classical trit. Due to its quantum mechanical nature, a qutrit can exist in superpositions of its three basis states. This is similar to how a qubit can exist in superpositions of its two states. Because of the qutritÕs 3D nature, though, it can carry much more information than the qubit. (A string of n classical bits holds 1n states, a string of n qubits holds 2n states, and a string of n qutrits holds 3n states.)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 10:22 AM

LOL!! SOmeone forgot to explain the game to the reindeer!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 04:25 AM

The Running of the ........Reindeer?

Alaska's largest city holds first reindeer run

The Associated Press
updated 9:51 a.m. CT, Mon., Feb. 25, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - From sausages to stews, reindeer are usually a main dish in Alaska.

But the antlered animals were the main event at Anchorage's first annual running of the reindeer.

A cheering crowd of hundreds lined snow-packed Fourth Avenue on Sunday to watch what was touted as Alaska's version of Spain's famed running of the bulls.

"Normally we just eat them," said Mark Berg, a spectator who has lived in Alaska since 1967. "I just made some jambalaya the other day out of reindeer sausage. I've eaten more of their cousins than they want to know."

Seven little reindeer, looking a bit bewildered, stood next to their handlers as a crowd of roughly 1,000 costumed runners chatted excitedly at the start.

The reindeer were lined up behind the first heat of runners — several hundred women in costume. One had taped a paper bulls-eye to her back. Others masqueraded as carrots and lichen, both favorite foods of reindeer.

At the signal to go, the reindeer stampeded into the crowd. Passing tourist shops, the downtown federal building and a stand selling reindeer hotdogs, the animals were well out in front by the halfway point.

"We thought, 'OK, they're just going to mosey along,' but they took off running," said Amanda Pelkola, who dressed as a carrot with a friend. "We got smoked by the reindeer."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 03:57 AM

'Lost,' ABC shows to be available on demand

The Associated Press
updated 8:54 p.m. CT, Mon., Feb. 25, 2008

LOS ANGELES - ABC said Monday it will release hit shows like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" for free over video-on-demand cable services, with the hitch that viewers will have to sit through commercials without being able to fast-forward.

The Walt Disney Co., parent company of the network, is aiming to profit from ads sold for the video-on-demand offerings while expanding its digital strategy beyond programs distributed on its Web site, abc.com.

[even on free TV ya' gotta have the popups.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 09:30 AM

German Police Dogs to Wear Shoes
From AP
February 25, 2008

BERLIN - Police dogs in the western city of Duesseldorf will no longer get their feet dirty when on patrol - the entire dog unit will soon be equipped with blue plastic fiber shoes, a police spokesman said Monday. "All 20 of our police dogs - German and Belgian shepherds - are currently being trained to walk in these shoes," Andre Hartwich said. "I'm not sure they like it, but they'll have to get used to it."

The unusual footwear is not a fashion statement, Hartwich said, but rather a necessity due to the high rate of paw injuries on duty. Especially in the city's historical old town - famous for both its pubs and drunken revelers - the dogs often step into broken beer bottles. "Even the street-cleaning doesn't manage to remove all the glass pieces from between the streets' cobble stones," Hartwich said, adding that the dogs frequently get injured by little pieces sticking deep in their paws. The dogs will start wearing the shoes this spring but only during operations that demand special foot protection. The shoes comes in sizes small, medium and large and were ordered in blue to match the officers uniforms, Hartwich said.

"Now we just have to teach the dogs how to tie their shoes," he joked.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 10:14 PM

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man was arrested for trespassing this week after turning up at a high school dressed in a girl's uniform and a long wig, local police said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tetsunori Nanpei told police he had bought the uniform over the Internet and put it on to take a stroll near the school in Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday, the daily Asahi Shimbun said.

When students standing outside the gates started to scream at the sight of him, he dashed inside the school grounds, hoping to blend in with the crowds of teenagers, the paper said.

They also screamed, forcing the man to flee, losing his wig in the process. A school clerk pursued him and stopped him at a nearby riverbank, the paper said.

Police confirmed the arrest of the man in school uniform and wig but declined to give further details.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 05:06 PM

Amos -

I wasn't talking about searching this thread. I meant searching my X:\ drive where I keep all my web notes, including in full all the threads I've posted to here. (I got 'whelmed by curiosity a while back.)

It apparently hasn't caught much notice on the internet, but a local flap has been ongoing for a couple of years about the "Gordon Parks Collection."

Gordon Parks was a black filmaker and photographer who died in 2006 at age 93 and left his personal stuff sort of up for grabs. A "Gordon Parks Foundation" in New York city has been looking for a keeper for his collections and personal artifacts, and apparently - from an article in the local newsrag today - the "Wichita State University Ablah Library" has acquired "113 boxes" of his works and personal belongings. The story indicates that the first 6 boxes were opened at a "celebration" for donors, and if the contents described are representative it should make a very interesting archive.

So far as I've seen, there hasn't been an announcement of how the Library intends to use - or make available - the Parks collection. Since Parks was a very successful black person, and has an established reputation that's pretty well known, it's likely that this collection will have a rather different "personality" than a collection gathered by an "unknown," with emphasis specifically on Mr Parks.

"Gordon Parks" in Google will get quite a lot of info. Either a general or "image" search may be useful for anyone interested.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 01:10 PM

That's it, I'm sure. I knew that the collection wasn't housed only in her garage any more, that it was stored remotely as well. I sent this one to my boss (Dean of the Library, who used to be head of Special Collections--for an archivist this story is a dream, with some nightmarish moments thrown in for effect.)

I wonder if there is a similar collection somewhere for American Indian history? Chinese history? It's amazing what dedicated amateurs can come up with--but it takes someone equally insightful to recognise it for what it is and put it somewhere safe.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 11:58 AM

Doing a full content search on this thread is like setting out in a peagreen boat to make your way around   Cape Horn in mid-winter. Not a pleasant prospect....


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 11:53 AM

Stilly -

Possibly you're remembering:

Mayme Clayton Collection headed to better quarters posted in a thread titled "Some New Black History" Dec 06.

I think I also remember another collection that got some press a little more recently; but it will take about an hour for my WinXP to run a full "content" search to see if anything else comes up.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 11:27 AM

I have to stir the gray matter--I remember a story with similar elements about a home-grown collection out in California. I probably even posted the story and a link. I'll have to look back. I don't remember the subject area, but it was a similarly narrow focus.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 10:18 AM

Man's quest to document black history

As a child, Blockson was told that black people made no contributions

The Associated Press
updated 7:15 a.m. CT, Sat., Feb. 23, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - As a child growing up in the 1940s, Charles Blockson was once told by a white teacher that black people had made no contributions to history.

Even as a fourth-grader, Blockson, who is black, knew better. So he began collecting proof.

Today, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University contains more than 30,000 historical items, some dating to the 16th century. It includes Paul Robeson's sheet music, African Bibles, rare letters and manuscripts, slave narratives, correspondence of Haitian revolutionaries and a first-edition book by W.E.B DuBois.

"It's really invaluable," curator Diane Turner said. "The materials are just so wonderful and unique."

The collection has grown so much since Temple acquired it 25 years ago that it moved into a larger space on campus this month.

Blockson, 74, is a historian, lecturer and author who began amassing his collection as a boy living in the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown. His quest began after he asked a substitute teacher about famous black people in history. She replied that there weren't any.

"I set out to prove her wrong," Blockson said.

... [additional at the link]

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 06:16 PM

An Upstart Web Catalog Challenges an Academic-Library Giant
From the Chronicle of Higher Education

By ANDREA L. FOSTER

At only 21, Aaron Swartz is attempting to turn the library world upside down. He is taking on the subscription-based WorldCat, the largest bibliographic database on the planet, by building a free online book catalog that anyone can update.

Many academic librarians are wary of Mr. Swartz's project because it will allow nonlibrarians, who may be prone to errors, to catalog books. But some young librarians are rallying around the precocious entrepreneur because his work may make their collections more visible on the Web. "It really provides the potential for libraries to leap forward in terms of working with electronic books and collections of electronic books," said Jeremy A. Frumkin, director of emerging technologies and services at Oregon State University.

Mr. Swartz does have a track record that inspires hope. At 14 he helped write RSS, a popular Web tool used to alert people to new blog posts. While still a teenager he became wealthy after Condé Nast Publications bought Reddit, the Web site he had helped build that lets users rank news and other electronic content.

Now his passion is a modern library. "I saw all these great books locked up in the stacks of libraries," Mr. Swartz said. "But nobody ever found out about them, because they didn't have a spot on the Web, and people weren't browsing the stacks anymore."

The new catalog project, Open Library, is set to go live in early March with records on 20 million books. The goal is to create a comprehensive Web page about any book ever published. Each page will include not just author, title, and publisher but also links that direct users to the nearest library with a copy and to related books. Other links will allow users to buy a book online or write a review of it.

The pages will be created or updated by anyone, in the style of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Some Web pages will also connect to the full text when its copyright has expired. Or users will be able to pay about 10 cents a page to have an unscanned out-of-copyright book at a college library digitized. The Open Library is backed by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library, which gave the project $300,000 this year and will provide the full texts of materials in its own collection. (The Open Content Alliance, a book-digitization project, is another partner.)

Pushing Books on the Web

The project is similar to WorldCat, which is owned by OCLC, a nonprofit group that promotes technology in libraries. But it seeks to be bigger. While WorldCat has catalog records only from libraries — including about 10,000 academic libraries — that pay to be part of OCLC, the Open Library will include records from anywhere, free of charge. And while librarians maintain WorldCat, the public would maintain Open Library.

Mr. Swartz also wants to integrate his database with Wikipedia so that a citation of a book on the popular encyclopedia links to the book's page on Open Library. Another idea is to integrate Open Library with LibraryThing, a site that helps people catalog and share their own books. Eventually, Open Library may expand to include journal articles, too.

Should all those connections help increase Open Library's holdings close to the 72 million unique book records in WorldCat, Mr. Swartz's enterprise could upend the way libraries maintain records. Librarians could choose to bypass WorldCat and contribute catalog data to Open Library, jeopardizing OCLC's membership of more than 60,000 libraries and threatening a big chunk of its $235-million annual revenue.

It would be an amazing feat, especially since, at the moment, Open Library is struggling to get libraries to contribute. Librarians are not just uneasy having nonlibrarians edit catalogs; they are also afraid of offending OCLC. They rely on the organization as a broker for interlibrary loans and other crucial services. And libraries' contracts with OCLC prevent them from sharing their catalog information with for-profit institutions. That doesn't appear to be a problem for Open Library itself, because the group is nonprofit. But since there is nothing to stop Google or any other business from using Open Library's records for commercial gain, many librarians are holding back.

Striking a Deal with OCLC

Publicly, OCLC has stated that WorldCat and Open Library are complementary databases and should work together. "We have an interest in synchronizing WorldCat with digital libraries that are of interest to our member organizations, and Open Library is certainly one of those," said Chip Nilges, vice president for business development at OCLC. But one OCLC official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, said Open Library was a waste of time and resources, and predicted it would fail.

Mr. Swartz plays down the competition between Open Library and World Cat, aware that highlighting the tension won't bring librarians to his project. A beta version of Open Library even provides links to WorldCat for users seeking to find a book at a local library. "We're not in opposition with OCLC," said Mr. Swartz. "It's just that because they've built this structure over time, dependent on a particular business model, it's much harder for them to move on to the Internet than it is for a new group like us."

Most of the Open Library records to date have come from the Library of Congress and various publishers. The University of North Carolina system has provided Open Library with 4.2 million records. Additional records have come from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Talis, a British library cooperative. Mr. Swartz said he was talking with a few other academic libraries, including the University of California's, about obtaining their records.

Jessamyn C. West, a librarian based in Bethel, Vt., who runs a popular blog, Librarian.net, wants Open Library to flourish. The small libraries she counsels can't afford subscriptions to WorldCat. As a result, their holdings are invisible to Vermonters searching online. She acknowledges, though, that contributing to Open Library would be difficult for many. "The library community is comfortable having a vendor," said Ms. West, "even if the vendor is not doing exactly what they want."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 02:00 PM

Woman Says She's Tired Of Being Declared Dead

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Nashville woman said that having to prove sheÕs alive over and over is ruining her life.


Laura Todd said an 8-year-old typo is affecting everything from her credit to her tax return.

"I don't think people realize how difficult it is to be dead when you're not,Ó she said.
She said her problems started when someone in Florida died and her Social Security number was accidentally typed in.

Todd said she thought the problem had been straightened out, but when she went to refinance her house in 2002, ÒSunTrust called and said, ÔYour credit report says you're dead.Õ"

She straightened that incident out, but in 2006 the Internal Revenue Service refused to process her return.

"The IRS says IÕm dead. Everybody says I'm dead,Ó she said.

She said being dead off and on has made everyday life a hassle. She said her bank closed her credit card account and attached a note of sympathy: ÒPlease accept our condolences on the death of Laura Todd.Ó

She said the last straw came recently when the IRS once again refused to let her file her taxes electronically because she's dead.

She said that at one point it was funny, but now itÕs getting old. ÒI'm tired. I've been fighting this for eight years, and it never ends,Ó she said. ÒI'm very much alive, and would like to live out my life in peace without having this problem."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: TheSnail
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 05:11 AM

But how do they dispose of the remains? Should you give a foot a Christian burial?

Do feet have souls?

(Sorry.)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 10:37 PM

Something's afoot.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Metchosin
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 07:54 PM

Well I don't know what is traditional for the placement of the the chain, but I do know that this has probably spoiled my appetite for local dungeness crab for a very long time.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 06:00 PM

It's traditional that the chain goes around the left ankle isn't it?

So the left foot is anchored until the crabs dispose of it completely, but the right one is free to float away as soon as they gnaw off enough to loosen it.

Simple, really.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 04:01 PM

YEah. Or maybe..."You put your right foot in..." BLAM!



A

Subject: Lyr Add: THE THING (from Phil Harris)
From: Metchosin
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 03:32 PM

Aha! Perhaps one has already been written.

Maybe this was what The Thing was all about, only over the years the box has disappeared.

The Thing

While I was walking down the beach one bright and sunny day
I saw a great big wooden box a-floatin' in the bay
I pulled it in and opened it up and much to my surprise
Oh!, I discovered a (boom-boom-boom) right before my eyes
Oh!, I discovered a (boom-boom-boom) right before my eyes.

I picked it up and ran to town as happy as a king
I took it to a guy I knew who'd buy 'most anything
But this is what he hollered at me as I walked in his shop
"Oh!, get out of here with that (boom-boom-boom) before I call a cop!
Oh!, get out of here with that (boom-boom-boom) before I call a cop!"

I turned around and got right out, a-running for my life
And then I took it home with me to give it to my wife
But this is what she hollered at me as I walked in the door
"Oh!, get out of here with that (boom-boom-boom) and don't come back no more!
Oh!, get out of here with that (boom-boom-boom) and don't come back no more!"

I wandered all around the town until I chanced to meet
A hobo who was looking for a handout on the street
He said he'd take 'most any old thing - he was a desperate man
But when I showed 'im the (boom-boom-boom) he turned around and ran
Oh!, when I showed 'im the (boom-boom-boom) he turned around and ran.

I wandered on for many years, a victim of my fate
Until one day I came upon St. Peter at the gate
And when I tried to take it inside, he told me where to go
"Get out of here with that (boom-boom-boom) and take it down below!
Oh, get out of here with that (boom-boom-boom) and take it down below!"

The moral of this story is if you're out on the beach
And you should see a great big box and it's within your reach
Don't ever stop and open it up - that's my advice to you
'Cause you'll never get rid of the (boom-boom-boom) no matter what you do
Oh, you'll never get rid of the (boom-boom-boom) no matter what you do

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Metchosin
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 03:23 PM

There's gotta be a song somewhere in this....a morbid one, but a song nevertheless.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Metchosin
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 03:20 PM

Well I've heard of having two left feet, but in the waters off the east coast of our Island, we seem to have an excess of right ones. Now what would be the statistical probability of something like this happening?

Another mysterious right foot floats ashore in Gulf Islands
CBC News

For the third time in six months, a right foot wearing a sneaker has washed up on the shores of the Gulf Islands, in the Strait of Georgia.

The latest foot was found on the east side of Valdez Island, near Nanaimo.

Last August two other right feet, both male and both wearing size 12 sneakers, washed ashore on nearby Gabriola and Jedediah Islands.

Those cases are still under investigation, and so far no links between the three discoveries have been established, police said.

The latest appendage has been turned over to the B.C. Coroner's Service, and the RCMP is reviewing missing-persons files that could shed light on its discovery.

Two feet found in August

Police have yet to determine whether foul play had anything to do with the feet.

The discovery of the first two feet last summer prompted speculation that they might have belonged to men who died in a plane or boating accident.

The first was discovered Aug. 20 on Jedediah Island by a 12-year-old girl from Washington state, who found a black-and-white Adidas shoe with a sock and foot still inside.

The second was found six days later on Gabriola Island by a Vancouver couple who were hiking along the beach when they came upon a Reebok running shoe with human remains inside.

"We have been informed that it looks like both feet had separated from the body by natural decomposition, possibly while in the water,'' Cpl. Garry Cox of Oceanside RCMP on Vancouver Island said in August.

Cox said a cleanly cut foot would have been very suspicious, but natural decomposition suggests the victims might have drowned.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:48 PM

Oh, well, close.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:47 PM

Looks like the indoctrination was successful in Florida.

There's a reason for separating chuch and state. It helps protect children from other children's stupid parents. :-/

300

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:46 PM

That is so dumb. Why can't they have full-tilt education in CHristian traditions in the humanities department, or the religion department while they teach evidence-based reasoning in the science department?


Folks YOU CAN HAVE BOTH!!! Jaysus. Makes me want to stamp my li'l foot.



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 02:36 PM

Public: Faith trumps science

Proposed teaching standards are at odds with what most Floridians believe.
By Ron Matus and Donna Winchester, Times Staff Writers
Published February 15, 2008

Florida parents don't have much faith in evolution.

Only 22 percent want public schools to teach an evolution-only curriculum, while 50 percent want only faith-based theories such as creationism or intelligent design, according to a new St. Petersburg Times survey.

"I have a very firm religious background," said Betty Lininger of Lecanto, who is raising her 15-year-old niece and thinks public schools should teach intelligent design but not evolution. "I can't just shove it out the door."

The survey findings stand in stark contrast to the state's proposed new science standards, which describe evolution as the pillar of modern biology and do not include alternative theories.

If the state Board of Education approves them Tuesday, the new standards will guide what Florida students are taught and tested on.

The Times survey - which included questions about evolution and a host of other education issues - was administered to 702 registered voters Feb. 6-10, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

It revealed a huge gulf between scientists and the public.

While the vast majority of scientists consider evolution to be backed by strong evidence, nearly two-thirds of those polled were skeptical.

Twenty-nine percent said evolution is one of several valid theories. Another 16 percent said evolution is not backed up by enough evidence. And 19 percent said evolution is not valid because it is at odds with the Bible.

"It just shows we have a lot of work to do," said Christopher D'Elia, a marine biologist who is an interim vice chancellor at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

Fundamentalist Christians, often portrayed as the heart of the antievolution opposition, weren't the only ones who expressed doubt. While only 9 percent of respondents who described themselves as evangelicals or fundamentalists wanted an evolution-only curriculum, the numbers still weren't very high for Protestants overall 16 percent or Catholics (21 percent).

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 08 - 08:34 PM

I just sent the link and a note to my boss. Maybe we should try to get a performance set up on my university campus (at Arlington, TX, about 30 miles from Dallas).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Feb 08 - 07:35 PM

AND YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT PROBLEMS WITH BOOKING AGENTS?

Chinese acrobats stranded in shelter

Stranded by circus promoter, 16 young performers get stuck in Dallas

The Associated Press
updated 9:59 a.m. CT, Thurs., Feb. 14, 2008

DALLAS - A team of 16 young Chinese acrobats arrived here ready to dazzle Americans with their backflips, cartwheels and human pyramids, but their U.S. tour began with two nights at a homeless shelter.
A mysterious circus promoter from Wisconsin failed to meet the performers when they arrived Monday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Instead, he called Bill Thompson, executive director of the Union Gospel Mission homeless shelter.

The promoter, who gave only his first name, Gary, told Thompson he had run out of money and needed someone to pick up the acrobats, who range in age from 13 to 20.

"He sounded desperate, no doubt," Thompson said. "From what I know, it seems to be poor planning more than anything else."

Thompson and other shelter workers arrived at the airport in three vans and no clue how to find the troupe. Thompson finally found a group of 18 people who fit the bill -- 16 acrobats and two adults -- and broke through the language barrier by saying "the one word we could all agree on: acrobat."

The Shanghai-based Guanhua Acrobatic team spent two nights at the mission, but first, Thompson took them to a McDonald's. "They all ordered the No. 9: grilled chicken," Thompson said.

The troupe put on an impromptu show for reporters Wednesday, tossing straw hats like boomerangs and performing acrobatic moves with ease. They also seemed remarkably sanguine about their situation, saying it was status quo for circus performers.

The acrobats, who planned a 10-month U.S. tour, said through a translator that they were looking forward to possible performances in the Dallas area, Chicago, Wisconsin and Las Vegas.

'We're used to waiting'

"I have a confidence we can find a tour in the U.S.," said Wenbin Gao, one of the adults traveling with the acrobats. "We're used to it. We're used to waiting."

Contacted by The Associated Press, the circus promoter refused to give his last name during a telephone interview. He called the mistake "a little scheduling snafu," saying trailers he purchased for the group never arrived in Texas because of recent snowstorms in the Midwest.

The promoter said he has lined up performances for the troupe, but refused to give specifics.

"Nobody is trying to do anything shifty," he said. "I'm trying to do something nice, not something dastardly. It's already fixed."

By Wednesday afternoon, the promoter said he arranged for the group to stay at a ranch near Dallas owned by another performer. Thompson confirmed they had left.

"They are going to another performer's place and they are warm and getting fed," the promoter said. "We're going to get them performing and get them happy."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 08 - 03:41 PM

Researchers have discovered two planets in a solar system 5,000 light-years away that appears to be structured in some important ways like our own.

The planets are gas giants similar to but smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, and their relative sizes are also similar. In addition, they circle their star at a distance proportional to the distances of Jupiter and Saturn from the sun.

"This is the first time we've found a Jupiter-like planet in the same system as a Saturn planet," said Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University, lead investigator on the project. "There's reason now to believe there are probably many more solar systems like it."

The discovery, published today in the online edition of the journal Science, lends support to the long-held belief of many astronomers that there are many planets orbiting their stars in ways similar to our solar system. Most of the more than 260 planets discovered so far have orbited their suns far more closely than theorized, and the planets have been larger than expected.

Gaudi said that was most likely a result of the techniques used to search for the planets, techniques that work best at finding large planets that orbit close in. His group used a different method -- called gravitational micro-lensing -- that required collaboration with professional and amateur astronomers from around the world.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 08 - 03:17 PM

Researchers: Why are thousands of hibernating bats dying in NY and Vermont?
February 14, 2008

ROSENDALE, New York - Scientists in hazmat suits are crawling into dank caves to find out why bats in New York and Vermont are mysteriously dying off by the thousands, often with a white ring of fungus around their noses. "White nose syndrome," as the killer has been dubbed, is spreading at an alarming rate, with researchers calling it the gravest threat in memory to bats in the U.S. "This is definitely unprecedented," said Lori Pruitt, an endangered-species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bloomington, Indiana. "The hugest concern at this point is that we do not know what it is."

A significant loss of bats is chilling in itself to wildlife experts. But - like the mysterious mass die-offs around the country of bees that pollinate all sorts of vital fruits and vegetables - the bat deaths could have economic implications. Bats feed on insects that can damage dozens of crops, including wheat and apples. "Without large populations of bats, there would certainly be an impact on agriculture," said Barbara French of Bat Conservation International of Austin, Texas.

White nose syndrome has afflicted at least four species of hibernating bats, spreading from a cluster of four caves near Albany last winter to more than a dozen caverns up to 130 miles (210 kilometers) away. Alan Hicks, a wildlife biologist with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, said he fears a catastrophic collapse of the region's bat population and is urgently enlisting experts around the country to find the cause.

It is not even clear if the fungus around the bats' noses - something scientists say they have never seen before - is a cause or a symptom. It may be a sign the bats are too sick to groom themselves, said Beth Buckles, a veterinary pathologist at Cornell University. The deaths could be caused by bacteria or a virus. Or the bats could be reacting to some toxin or other environmental factor. Whatever it is, afflicted bats are burning through their winter stores of fat before hibernation ends in the spring, and appear to be starving.

The Northeast has generally had mild winters in recent years. But Hicks said he doubts that is the culprit in some way, since there are no reports of large die-offs in warmer states. Nor are there any known links between what is wiping out the bees and what is killing the bats. The cause of the bee deaths is still a mystery, though scientists are looking at pesticides, parasites and a virus not previously seen in the U.S.

Researchers said there is no evidence the mysterious killer is any threat to humans. Scientists venturing into the caves wear hazardous-materials suits and breathing masks primarily to protect the bats, not themselves. Hicks said it is possible that a cave explorer introduced the problem in the Albany-area caves and that it spread from there. "It could have been some caver in Tanzania with a little mud on his boot and a week later he's in a cave in New York," he said. New York officials are asking people to stay out of bat caves in case humans are unwittingly spreading the problem. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking people not to enter caves with gear or clothing used in any New York and Vermont cave within the past two years.

The first inkling of trouble came in January 2007, when a cave explorer spotted an unusual number of bat carcasses around the mouth of a cave in the hills west of Albany. Within a month, people in the area were calling in with reports of bats flying outside in the middle of the day. "We didn't know anything other than bats were coming out and they were just dying on the landscape," Hicks said. "They were crashing into snow banks, crawling into wood piles and dying." By winter's end, 8,000 to 11,000 bats were presumed dead in the four caves. The mystery affliction has spread much farther this winter. Death counts are not in yet for this winter since affected bats die slowly. But Hicks said there are 200,000 or more bats hibernating in caves where white nose has been detected.

Hicks recently led a team of scientists into an abandoned mine in this Hudson Valley town about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of New York City. He directed his headlamp on a cluster of seven brown bats, smaller than mice, hanging high on the limestone wall. Four had the telltale white flecks on their muzzles.

He tapped one of the afflicted bats with a long stick, and it fell, already dead. Another groggily spread its papery wings on Hicks' gloved hand. The sickly bat was put into a cardboard takeout-soup container to be put to death and studied, since it was doomed anyway.

A group of Indiana bats, a federally protected endangered species, was spotted hanging lower down in the mine for cooler air, a common strategy for sick bats.

Hicks whispered grimly: "These guys are toast."

---

On the Net:

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html

http://www.batcon.org/home/contact.asp

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Feb 08 - 03:58 PM

More on BlackBerry:

Outages could damage BlackBerry's icon status: Two major service interruptions occur in less than a year

Cause of BlackBerry outage still unknown: Disruption left subscribers in U.S., Canada without service on Monday

The previous BlackBerry outages have prompted angry backlashes against RIM because of the company's lengthy silences about what caused them and the cryptic and jargon-laden explanations that eventually emerge.

RIM waited two days after the April outage before telling customers what happened.

The last major failures were nearly two years before that. The company angered users by waiting hours before confirming the problem, then issuing a confusing technological description of what happened.

'BlackBerry blackouts' aim for balance: Canadian government ministry urges employees to limit use of devices

(This last one simply says that one Canadian ministry thinks BlackBerry users should "get a life.")

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Feb 08 - 02:26 PM

BlackBerry out of service in North America Next Article in Technology

   
NEW YORK (AP) -- An outage has disconnected BlackBerry smart phones across North America.

AT&T Inc. says the disruption Monday is affecting all wireless carriers. AT&T first learned about the problem at about 3:30 p.m. ET.

There's no word on the cause or when the problem might be fixed.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion did not immediately return a phone call.

I love the last sentence.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 10:46 PM

Half of U.K. men would swap sex for 50-inch TV

LONDON - Nearly half of British men surveyed would give up sex for six months in return for a 50-inch plasma TV, a survey — perhaps unsurprisingly carried out for a firm selling televisions — said on Friday.

Electrical retailer Comet surveyed 2,000 Britons, asking them what they would give up for a large television, one of the latest consumer "must-haves."

The firm found 47 percent of men would give up sex for half a year, compared to just over a third of women.

"It seems that size really does matter more for men than women," the firm said.

A quarter of people said they would give up ... ... chocolate.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 11:56 AM

Feds Nab Woman Accused of ID Thefts
February 04, 2008

TINLEY PARK, Ill. - A woman suspected of stealing other people's identities and duping some of the country's top universities into admitting her and giving her student loans has been arrested in a Chicago suburb, federal investigators say.

Esther Elizabeth Reed, 29, was arrested on a federal warrant Saturday in Tinley Park, said Malcolm Wiley, spokesman for the Secret Service.

Reed, who had been one of the Secret Service's most wanted fugitives, was indicted in September by a federal grand jury in Greenville, S.C., on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, false identification documents and aggravated identity theft.

Reed used sophisticated scams to steal identities she used to gain entrance to California State University at Fullerton, Harvard and Columbia University, where she studied criminology and psychology, investigators said.

Reed also used the stolen identities to obtain more than $100,000 in student loans, according to the Secret Service.

She attended Columbia for two years as a graduate student under the name Brooke Henson before investigators discovered her identity was false, the Secret Service said. The real Henson, of Travelers Rest, S.C., has been missing since 1999., but investigators have said they do not believe Reed had anything to do with Henson's disappearance.

Wiley did not know when Reed would next appear in court.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 07:12 PM

I found the guy--his eBay id is Idd1863. Link to page (I don't know how long this will stick around. It is item number 290198663242.)

I clicked on his name for listings and then selected "completed listings" to see that he has over $3000 in sales in the past 10 days. It's pretty scary when you let a fox guard the hen house.


Man arrested in eBay sale of historic documents
Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:21pm EST
By Christopher Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state employee who had access to government-owned archives has been arrested on suspicion of stealing hundreds of historic documents, many of which he sold on eBay, authorities said on Monday.

Among the missing documents were an 1823 letter by U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun and copies of the Davy Crockett Almanacs, pamphlets written by the frontiersman who died at the Alamo in Texas.

Daniel Lorello, 54, of Rensselaer, New York, was charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and fraud. He pleaded innocent in Albany City Court on Monday.

He was found out by an alert history buff who saw the items posted on the online auction site and alerted authorities, the state attorney general's office said in a statement.

Lorello, a department of education archivist, pleaded not guilty to the charges although he previously admitted in a written statement to stealing documents and artifacts since 2002. The attorney general's office released a copy of his statement.

In 2007 alone, Lorello stated he took 300 to 400 items, including the four-page Calhoun letter, which drew bids of more than $1,700 while investigators were monitoring the sale.

Officials recovered some 400 items from his upstate New York home, which Lorello estimated was 90 percent of everything he had taken, but they have yet to determine how many items were sold online.

The state library's extensive collection includes an original first draft of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and complete set of autographs from the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

EBay auctions posted by Lorello included a Currier & Ives lithograph that he described as "in excellent condition." The Calhoun letter auction said "100 percent satisfaction is guaranteed."

Other items Lorello admitted in his statement to stealing and selling included an 1835 Davey Crockett Almanac, which fetched $3,200, and a Poor Richard's Almanac which went for $1,001.

EBay was cooperating with state officials in the probe.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 02:11 PM

IN any case, no Hahvahde smahty has any right to not include Connecticut in the collective of New England. We shall not have our place in history belittled, adulterated, lifted from us nor denied!!!



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 01:53 PM

It's CT, not CN.

That story must have made quite a lot of headlines to "stick" in such a way that it became an identifier for the state. Seems a little shaky to me.

The state library offers these two possibilities (maybe Amos was here already)

The "Nutmeg State"
According to the book State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols by George Earlie Shankle (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1941):

"The sobriquet, the Nutmeg State, is applied to Connecticut because its early inhabitants had the reputation of being so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell wooden nutmegs. Sam Slick (Judge Halliburton) seems to be the originator of this story. Some claim that wooden nutmegs were actually sold, but they do not give either the time or the place."

Yankee peddlers from Connecticut sold nutmegs, and an alternative story is that:

"Unknowing buyers may have failed to grate nutmegs, thinking they had to be cracked like a walnut. Nutmegs are wood, and bounce when struck. If southern customers did not grate them, they may very well have accused the Yankees of selling useless "wooden" nutmegs, unaware that they wear down to a pungent powder to season pies and breads." Elizabeth Abbe, Librarian, the Connecticut Historical Society; Connecticut Magazine, April 1980.


Hmmm. The name "Halliburton" creeps into it. Light is dawning. . .

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 01:26 AM

It was not named for growing them but for the wandering peddlars who used to sell them, I think. I have forgot. Or perhaps they used to counterfeit them -- carving imitations out of wood. One historical reference site says:

"Nutmeg, the powder used for seasoning foods, is ground from the seed of the fruit of the Nutmeg Tree, Myristica fragans. A couple of stories exist as to the origin of this nickname. One story has it that this nickname came about as a comment on the ingenuity and shrewdness of the citizens of the state. In a story, perhaps originated by Sam Slick, it is claimed that the people of Connecticut were so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell "wooden" nutmegs to unsuspecting buyers. A variation on this story maintains that purchasers did not know that the seed must be ground to obtain the spice and may have accused yankee peddlars, unfairly, of selling worthless "wooden" nutmegs. It may be that these wooden nutmegs were whittled by idle sailors on ships coming from the spice island and sold as souvenirs."



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 12:59 AM

Amos - I guess I was using the Boston definition for New England. I do vaguely recall one of the Boston locals admitting that CN was part of New England, but he sort of dismissed it as "but nobody ever goes there" so I forgot about it.

(Of course if you had relatives, there might be a reason to go(?).

It's still quite a ways past the end of the proposed tunnel, and still needs a bunch of public highway work to make a connecti(cut)on to anyplace.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 11:57 PM

I thought nutmegs were tropical things. You're telling me they're from Connecticut? (Assuming that's what you mean--it connects to NY--I used to go there all the time when I lived in Brooklyn and my great aunt lived in Ansonia, near New Haven.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 10:32 PM

JiK:

It may have escaped your attention that the New England states included the Nutmeg state, which borders New York State right up from Rye.



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 07:31 PM

A standard question on freshman math tests when I was in college was "a real tunnel." A straight-line tunnel from Washington DC to Boston (430 miles) would of course be sloped down for the first half of the distance and then rise for the rest of the way to the end. A "train" starting at one end would thus accelerate going downhill for the first half of the distance and then coast uphill, losing speed to come to a stop at the other end. (Friction and wind resistance are generally ignored for freshman spot-tests. Sophomores get a tougher test.)

The usual questions included calculating how deep the tunnel would be at the center, maximum speed at the half-way point, and how long it would take the train to make the trip. For extra credit sometimes one could calculate how much shorter the tunnel was than a "great circle" route on the surface.

Recollection is that it would be about a half hour trip (a simple pendulum period calculation). Speed at the center was "very fast" but I don't recall just how many zeros were in the answer, and I'm too lazy to work it out again.

That would be closer to a real New York to New England tunnel, although New York to Boston is only about half as long (210 miles?).

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 06:24 PM

Personally, I wouldn't travel that far in a tunnel like that. Gives me the creeps. There are several ferries that run from places on Long Island to places along the coast northeast of New York City. I've been on a couple of them myself. Orient Point (northwest of Montauk) to New London, near Mystic, CT, is a pleasant and very efficient trip.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 05:10 PM

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS HEADLINE?

Long Island-New England tunnel proposed

A brief excerpt from the article:

Drivers would pay $25 for shortcut, but towns worry about extra traffic
The Associated Press
updated 12:22 p.m. CT, Sun., Jan. 27, 2008

OYSTER BAY, N.Y. - It would be the world's longest highway tunnel, running more than 16 miles under the west end of Long Island Sound.
The cost is estimated at $10 billion — and it wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. A developer wants to build the tunnel with private money, recouping his costs by charging drivers $25 each way and by selling advertising.

Comment:

Whoever wrote the headline didn't read the article and/or is totally ignorant of US geography.

An 18 mile long tunnel is proposed from Long Island, NY to Rye, NY.

The closest "New England" town to New York City (that shows on a normal highway map) is Hopkinton, RI which is 138 miles from NYC. (And there's not really much reason anyone would want to go there.)

The "developer" proposing this project states with fair accuracy:

Developer Vincent Polimeni says the tunnel between Oyster Bay and Rye on the New York mainland would let travelers going between Long Island and New England avoid crowded New York City highways and help alleviate traffic congestion.

Comment: The existing "preferred route" from Oyster Bay (Long Island) to Rye, NY is about 40 miles, so the 18 mile tunnel would be shorter. HOWEVER, Oyster Bay is now nearly 20 miles via "city streets" from the nearest "highway." (For the arithmetically lazy: 20 miles on back streets + 18 miles in the tunnel = 38 miles vs 40 miles on existing major arteries) So the developer is apparently expecting NY State to provide 20 miles of new "superhighways" to feed his tunnel on the Oyster Bay end. Infrastructure required to support feeding/dumping traffic at the other end would be somewhat less, but would still require significant "new roadwork" - from public funds and not included in the developer's "no cost to the public, privately funded project."

Response from "public officialdom" reportedly has been "tepid" at best.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 10:16 AM

Posing As Girl, Retired Cop Nabs Prey
January 25, 2008

DIAMOND, Mo. - No one will ever confuse Jim Murray with a teenager. His tall frame, broad shoulders and clipped gray hair give him away for the grandfather he is. But the 69-year-old retired police chief of this small Missouri town cuts a credible figure as a 13-year-old girl surfing the Web, looking for friends. He knows all the instant-messaging shorthand, the emoticons.

Murray's retirement job from a rural home office has netted 20 arrests since he started in 2002. His latest catch was the biggest: four felony enticement charges against a town mayor, who after his arrest called Murray up and begged him to make the case go away. Nineteen other defendants have included a Missouri furniture company executive, an Arkansas professor and a Tulsa, Okla., school security guard. Ten of those men have been convicted and sent to prison. One was deported. The other cases are still pending. The defendants ranged in age from 24 to 62, with an average age of 39.4 years, and mainly come from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, Diamond police said.

Internet child safety experts say police officers like Murray are heroes who do good work at the cost of wading through the muck of online pedophile fantasies. "He's a trailblazer. 2002 was very early for smaller police departments to start doing this," said Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org, a children's Internet safety group.

Murray, who taught elementary school for 27 years before switching to police work, is more humble. "This is really about the kids," he said. The first thing he hands a reporter at the start of an interview is a neat packet of newspaper stories about Kacie Woody, a 13-year-old girl in neighboring Arkansas who was abducted, raped and killed by a man she met online. It's not a case Murray worked on. Instead, he said, it's "a motivator."

Murray said he manages to shake the online conversations out of his head after a while, but they can still make him angry. "There'll be times when you just want to reach through the screen and choke them or slap them," he said. "To think they could talk that way to a girl."

The latest defendant is Allen Kauffman, 63, who resigned as mayor of Collins and pastor of Temple Lot Church after he was arrested Jan. 11 at home in his small town about 110 miles southeast of Kansas City. Kauffman declined Wednesday to discuss the specifics of his case, including how he plans to plea and his lawyer did not return a phone message.

Kauffman did not propose an actual meeting in any of the exchanges listed in the charging documents. But according to court documents, prosecutors say Murray was logged into a Yahoo! chat room as a 13-year-old girl named "cindyndiamond" using the screen name "Cin" when he was first contacted Nov. 15 by "duke dukead," who prosecutors allege was Kauffman.

Duke contacted Cindy again the next day and said he was 55 years old. The exchange included:

Cin: i like to french kiss ... senior boy taught me.

duke dukeadk: but it depends on where you want to be kissed at lol.

In at least five instant-message sessions through mid-December, Duke allegedly went on to tell Cindy he wanted to have sex with her, asked for nude photos of her and suggested Cindy have sex with another girl in front of a Webcam so that Duke could watch.

Murray has arrested other men arriving for trysts they believed they were setting up with the detective's teenage persona.

Murray was chief of police in the farm town of Diamond from 1995 to 2000. He got a personal computer after retiring and discovered chat rooms and was angered when he was offered pictures of young girls. He contacted experts in the field of Internet sting operation and got training from the National White Collar Crime Center on basic computer data recovery. Now, Murray patrols the Web from a cramped home office divided between his police computer and a personal computer ringed with photos of his six grandchildren and three adult kids.

Murray remains a detective on reserve status with the Diamond police but he donates his investigation time. He says he only spends about 30 minutes a week on average in chats but several hours more going over hard drives of arrested suspects looking for contacts with other potential victims. "Several people have stopped me at Wal-Mart and the filling station and said they appreciate what we're doing on the Internet stuff. And that's a good feeling."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 09:23 AM

Scientists Take New Step Toward Man-Made Life


By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: January 24, 2008

Taking a significant step toward the creation of man-made forms of life, researchers reported Thursday that they had manufactured the entire genome of a bacterium by painstakingly stitching together its chemical components.

Complete Chemical Synthesis, Assembly, and Cloning of a Mycoplasma genitalium Genome (Science Express)While scientists had previously synthesized the complete DNA of viruses, this is the first time it has been done for bacteria, which are much more complex. The genome is more than 10 times as long as the longest piece of DNA ever previously synthesized.

The feat is a watershed for the emerging field called synthetic biology, which involves the design of organisms to perform particular tasks, such as making biofuels. Synthetic biologists envision being able one day to design an organism on a computer, press the "print" button to have the necessary DNA made, and then put that DNA into a cell to produce a custom-made creature.

"What we are doing with the synthetic chromosome is going to be the design process of the future," said Dr. J. Craig Venter, the boundary-pushing gene scientist. He assembled the team that made the bacterial genome as part of his well publicized quest to create the first synthetic organism. The work was published online Thursday by the journal Science.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 09:27 PM

The world's fastest street-legal car

Boutique automaker unveils a 1,183-horsepower road rocket
By Stuart Schwartzapfel
Business Week
updated 2:33 p.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 24, 2008

On Sept. 13, 2007, the Shelby SuperCars' Ultimate Aero became the fastest production car in the world. The event took place on a temporarily closed, two-lane stretch of public highway in Washington State. In accordance with Guinness World Records' strict policies, the car had to drive down the highway, turn around, and make a second pass in the opposite direction within one hour.

The Ultimate Aero posted 257.41 mph on the first pass and 254.88 mph on the second for an average of 256.18 mph. Official data were collected via a GPS tracking system from Austrian data acquisition company Dewetron. Guinness World Records later verified data for an official top-speed announcement on Oct. 9, 2007. At that speed the Ultimate Aero broke the official record held by the Koenigsegg CCR (242 mph) and the unofficial record (253 mph) held by Volkswagen's $1.6 million Bugatti.

A nice picture and some specs at the link. List price only $600,000 but the car used for the test is reportedly the only one (of 50 planned for this model) ready for sale to a customer. Get your order in now!!!!

John