BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 03:47 PM

Some articles don't need an entire thread of their own, so I started this as one as a place to collect small pieces like this one. This might be considered the virtual version of clipping an article and leaving it for someone to read, just to think about.

The following is a short article that needs some thought. It isn't the most important piece in the paper, but it suggests a lot of "what if" possibilities that are pretty scary in the context given. I looked at several possible older threads as a place to put this, but they were closed, or it just plain didn't fit.

This may or may not generate comments, but mostly this is one of those things that needs to be thought about. How on earth did it happen, was it malicious, accidental? and look at all of the possible outcomes.

SRS

---

Saturday, April 10, 2004 · Last updated 8:24 p.m. PT

Children on Easter egg hunt find guns

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FLINT, Mich. -- A group of children hunting for Easter eggs Saturday during a church event found two loaded handguns outside an elementary school.

Flint police said officers were called to the scene and also recovered a BB gun and a broken toy gun on the grounds of Gundry Elementary School. No one was injured, Sgt. Michael Coote said.

One of the guns discharged when it was dropped, according to a police report, but it was unclear who dropped it.

The pastor of Ruth Street Baptist Church told WJRT-TV that one of the handguns had a bullet in the chamber, and the other handgun's clip had bullets in it.

"It's terrible that something like this has happened," Pastor Namon Marshall told the station.

Coote said he did not know how long the guns had been in the park.

Police opened an investigation after confiscating the weapons.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 03:54 PM

Well, perhaps we should engage in nation-wide Easter Egg Hunts (by the adult population). Could turn up all kinds of significant results...perhaps even hidden WMD's.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 04:12 PM

Someone dropped a stolen handgun in the bookdrop of the public library in American Falls, ID recently. We, on the other hand, had a bottle of Bud Light in ours.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 04:15 PM

Hands up, anyone who has had a newspaper story about something they were fully involved with, which actually had the facts straight?

(Sorry for the thread creep -- although it suits the title!)

We now return to your regularly scheduled thread...


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 04:40 PM

Okay first I'm going to let the military side of me rant:

"It's not a clip! Its a magazine! For goodness sake if you're going to do a story about hand guns lets get the terminology right!"

Okay, now that the anal retentive side of me has said what it had to say,

Sounds like another Columbine event was in the offing. I hope they weren't touched before the police got there so that maybe some fingerprints can be found.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 04:51 PM

Not only was one touched, it was dropped and it discharged!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Apr 04 - 10:13 PM

An Easter Egg Hunt account was in my local paper several years back. Early Saturday morning a dozen volunteers hid a couple ohundred brightly colored eggs on a grassy sward (love saying that) on the island across the way. They then went home to clean up, coming back that afternoon to host the hunt. Families with their excited youngsters in tow showed up for the grand event. There were cameras, reporters showed up; it was the first time anyone had thought of using the meadow with its low bushes. It was a beautiful day.

I think fewer than a half dozen eggs were found, but there were LOTS of bright bits of shell all over the place. Along with stuffed-full ravens sitting around in the trees.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 01:53 PM

Civil liberties gone amuck? Or is California just more whacko that usual?

Thursday, April 15, 2004
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169174_molester15.html

Serial child molester is set free


By VANESSA HO, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

In the spring of 1996, Blue Kartak was a baby-faced 16-year-old runaway in Seattle when he met a friendly man at a coffeehouse who promised to take him to Disneyland.
The man turned out to be a serial child molester who drugged and raped Kartak in a motel room in California.

His attacker, Edward Harvey Stokes, was convicted and given a life sentence for the crime. But last week, Stokes -- who's said he has attacked more than 200 victims -- walked out of a California jail as a free man and moved back to Washington state. The reason: A state appeals court ruled he never had a chance to confront his accuser -- Kartak -- who committed suicide before Stokes' trial.

the rest of this story is online

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:01 PM

Oh, dear gawd. Shoulda fed him to the sharks while they had the chance...so he could get a sense of how it felt.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 02:02 PM

Okay...

I understand that you have the right to confront your accuser but I would have thought that by now there would be precedent that in the case of a victim comiting suicide (more than likely because of the trauma he suffered) that the state would be considered the accuser.

Of course in some third world nations not only would the suspect be killed without a trial (and probably a rather ingeniously painful death at that) so would the accuser for being tainted.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 04:27 PM

Yeah--I didn't post this because there is an easy answer, but rather because it is an article that is very troubling, and where a really vile human being is able to take advantage of "the system."

The trouble we as a society regularly encounter is that often after something like this, a bereaved family member with hyper-emotional ammo pushes through a law that is thinly-veiled retribution. Aimed at this one particular individual and put in place to deal with "anyone else who might somehow fit some part of that scenario," the law of unintended consequences comes into play. It means that because these laws are poorly crafted and tie the hands of judges regarding things like "three strikes," a lot of people who have minor infractions end up with life sentences without parole. So the judges who made this idiotic decision have done an injustice to their colleagues in the field, to say nothing of the victims of this worm they released.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 06:23 PM

The accuser wasn't the kid, but Society as a whole -- "California v. xxxxx" or "US v. Bush" or whatever.

Then again, California...Society..... Ya gotta wonder sometimes. I just hope that in a more enlightened state than California he can get precisely what's coming to him. Heh heh heh.

(I'm considered liberal by some and conservative by others, but I'm plumb facist about this sort of thing.)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: SueB
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 01:06 AM

Didya hear the one about the Air Marshall who left his gun in the airplane lavatory? Speaking of reading things in the newspaper...

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: LadyJean
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 01:10 AM

I'm not really good at making links, but if you go to www.pghcitypaper.com, you can read my welcome to the NRA, who are having their convention here this weekend. They made it their cover story, which is nice, because I don't think they'll pay me for it.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: freda underhill
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 01:20 AM

very clever, ladyJean, well said. How can they ever respond to that one?

freda

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: LadyJean
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 01:39 AM

WOW! I MADE A LINK!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 08:24 AM

Wow -- you wrote an article on the NRA which was really good! Nice job.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 10:45 AM

Good job on the link and the essay!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Apr 04 - 04:04 PM

Here's an interesting one.

Considering the adjustments to this court were made during the Regan years, I'd sure like to know a lot more about it. Look at the kind of cases they hear. What can we learn about the outcomes?

The whole article is here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Judges%20Lifetime%20Pay

---

Judges on little-known court paid for life


By LARRY MARGASAK, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- Judges on a little-known federal court that decides claims against the government are appointed for 15 years, but collect their full six-figure salaries for a lifetime for a workload that averages fewer than two trials a year.

U.S. Court of Federal Claims jurists turn their fixed terms into lifetime jobs by remaining as senior judges. Currently, the federal claims court has 16 active judges and 13 in senior status.

A few of the senior judges handle a full workload. Some handle at least 25 percent of their former caseload. Others have an empty docket. All are paid $158,100 a year, the same as full-time federal judges.

The congressionally approved arrangement for the claims judges - described as a "charmed existence" by one legal expert - is gaining scrutiny. Two Democratic senators have prepared a bill to abolish the court, with its budget of $14.4 million.

"It's a waste of money," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. Added Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.: "The taxpayers are spending top dollar for full-time judges that don't even perform part-time work."

A Court of Federal Claims judge had an average workload [of] 45 [cases] from 1997 through 2001 and conducted fewer than two trials each in 2002, according to records compiled by the senators. In contrast, District Court judges averaged 478 cases and completed an average 19 trials a year, according to the latest statistics.

Court of Federal Claims Chief Judge Edward Damich said in an interview that the caseload numbers are meaningless because his judges must resolve "complex, high stakes litigation" that usually is settled without a trial.

The claims court has special expertise in disputes between contractors and the government, cases brought by taxpayers seeking refunds and plaintiffs complaining the government illegally seized their property. It has sole jurisdiction in lawsuits filed by unsuccessful bidders seeking government contracts.

Damich said Congress reorganized the court more than 20 years ago with the intention of allowing its judges to serve for life despite their 15-year terms. [This would be from the Regan administration]

"It was because of the fear that if we were to lose salary and benefits completely, that might influence judges in their decisions," he said. "They might be influenced in a pro-government way to get reappointed."

[snip]

When the claims judges finish their term and take senior status, the chief judge must decide whether to recall them to service and have them work for their salaries.

If they are recalled, the judges are required to handle 25 percent of an active judge's caseload to qualify for any pay increases.

Damich, who said he negotiates with each senior judge, said four of the 13 do no work while one senior judge handles only court administrative duties. The other senior judges have varying caseloads

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Apr 04 - 04:05 PM

oops. Reagan years (not to be confused with his chief of staff Regan).

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 02:26 PM

Well, I didn't read this one in an online newspaper, this information came via a link in a discussion group I belong to.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html

Introduction
My name is Elena. I run this website and I don't have anything to sell. What I do have is my motorbike and the absolute freedom to ride it wherever curiosity and the speed demon take me.

This page is maintained by the author, but when internet traffic is heavy it may be down occasionally.

Biking

I have ridden all my life and over the years I have owned several different motorbikes. I ended my search for a perfect bike with a big kawasaki ninja, that boasts a mature 147 horse power, some serious bark, is fast as a bullet and comfortable for a long trips. here is more about my motorcycle

I travel a lot and one of my favorite destinations leads North from Kiev, towards so called Chernobyl "dead zone", which is 130kms from my home. Why my favorite? Because one can take long rides there on empty roads.

The people there all left and nature is blooming. There are beautiful woods and lakes.

In places where roads have not been travelled by trucks or army vehicles, they are in the same condition they were 20 years ago - except for an occasional blade of grass that discovered a crack to spring through. Time does not ruin roads, so they may stay this way until they can be opened to normal traffic again........ a few centuries from now

Roentgens

To begin our journey, we must learn a little something about radiation. It is really very simple, and the device we use for measuring radiation levels is called a geiger counter . If you flick it on in Kiev, it will measure about 12-16 microroentgen per hour. In a typical city of Russia and America, it will read 10-12 microroentgen per hour. In the center of many European cities are 20 microR per hour, the radioactivity of the stone.

1,000 microroentgens equal one milliroentgen and 1,000 milliroentgens equal 1 roentgen. So one roentgen is 100,000 times the average radiation of a typical city. A dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Interestingly, it takes about 2 1/2 times that dosage to kill a chicken and over 100 times that to kill a cockroach.

This sort of radiation level can not be found in Chernobyl now. In the first days after explosion, some places around the reactor were emitting 3,000-30,000 roentgens per hour. The firemen who were sent to put out the reactor fire were fried on the spot by gamma radiation. The remains of the reactor were entombed within an enormous steel and concrete sarcophagus, so it is now relatively safe to travel to the area - as long as we do not step off of the roadway.......

The map above shows the radiation levels in different parts of the dead zone. The map will soon be replaced with a more comprehensive one that identifies more features.

It shows various levels of radiation on asphalt - usually on the middle of road - because at edge of the road it is twice as high. If you step 1 meter off the road it is 4 or 5 times higher. Radiation sits on the soil, on the grass, in apples and mushrooms. It is not retained by asphalt, which makes rides through this area possible.

I have never had problems with the dosimeter guys, who man the checkpoints. They are experts, and if they find radiation on you vehicle, they give it a chemical shower. I don't count those couple of times when "experts" tried to invent an excuse to give me a shower, because those had a lot more to do with physical biology than biological physics

This is a really interesting site. A view of a pretty scary place by a brave young woman. Many pages, lots of large photos.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 02:33 PM

It was posted on another thread here somewhere a few weeks ago, It is a real doozy of a phototour. Ya gotta wonder what Daddy's connections are to support her in such a free-wheeling lifestyle!


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 03:01 PM

I am not surprised it already appeared at Mudcat--we're a cutting edge group! I didn't think to do a search on the term "Chernobyl."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Mudlark
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 05:58 PM

Speaking of Chernobyl, I saw on Link TV the other night a fascinating documentary about a small group of villagers on Chernobyl's doorstep who refused to move. They are mostly old people now, living in small cabins around a big spring, from which they draw water daily. The voice-over moderator was the one youngish person left, a son who stayed to help his aging parents. They plant and eat their potatoes and turnips, collect chanterelles from the forest... All the old people (who down vodka by the waterglass) look like old people everywhere in Eastern Europe, tough people used to, and bowed by, a harsh climate, old men in caps, old women in babushkas. It showed these old guys felling trees in the forest, dragging them to the spring, then hand-hewing logs to box in a spring-fed laundry washing area for the women...incredibly hard work. No one had two heads or complained of health issues, which sort of surprised me.

I really like LinkTV, where this sort of programming is common. (And sorry for the thread creep...should be under "Things I saw on TV"....)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 12:19 AM

Mudlark, your contribution is great! I started this thread because there are stories out there that are just too interesting to read and set aside, yet I don't want to start a new thread for each. I like to think about them a while, and see what others think on the subjects. Your remarks are in line with what the woman on the Chernobyl thread spoke about-- those folks who were unwilling to leave are remarkable.

Critical thinking is something that once you learn how you can't turn it off. So many stories present you with what the writer thinks and no more. But there are occasionally stories out there written in such a way as to let the gaps be visible, and the warts show. They give you room to draw your own conclusions, or see the faulty arguments. Those are the ones that attract my attention. I'm glad they jump out at you also.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 01:12 PM

Here's an interesting story. And I love the "bottom line"--Einstein encouraged this woman to become a librarian. Yes!

From the Seattle P.I.

Saturday, April 24, 2004


Diary details Einstein's last years


PRINCETON, N.J. -- In the last years of Albert Einstein's life, he amused himself by telling jokes to his parrot, and avoided visitors by feigning illness, according to a newly discovered diary written by the woman known around Princeton as his last girlfriend.

While Einstein also talked about the travails of his continuing work in physics, most of Johanna Fantova's diary recalls his views on world politics and his personal life.

The writings are "an unvarnished portrait of Einstein struggling bravely with the manifold inconveniences of sickness and old age," Freeman Dyson, a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, told The New York Times in Saturday's editions.

The 62-page diary, written in German, was discovered in February in Fantova's personnel files at Princeton University's Firestone Library, where she had worked as a curator. The manuscript is the subject of an article to be published next month in The Princeton University Library Journal.

According to the article, the new manuscript is the only one kept by someone close to Einstein in the final years of his life.

"There is surprisingly little about physics in the diary," Donald Skemer, Firestone Library's curator of manuscripts, told The Times of Trenton.

Fantova wrote that she recorded her time with the renowned physicist to "cast some additional light on our understanding of Einstein, not on the great man who became a legend in his lifetime, not on Einstein the renowned scientist, but on Einstein the humanitarian."

Fantova was 22 years younger than Einstein. Although the two spent considerable time together starting in the 1940s, her journal only records their relationship from October 1953 until his death in April 1955 at age 76. She died in 1981 at age 80.

Princeton already had a collection of the poems, letters and photos Einstein sent to Fantova, who sold them after his death to Gillett G. Griffin, a retired curator at Princeton's Art Museum. He gave those documents to the library.

Griffin, invited many times to Einstein's home for dinner, said Fantova was a fixture there.

"Reading what she left gives me an immediate connection with my own experience and gives everyone the immediacy of knowing Einstein himself," Griffin said.

The diary recounts Einstein speaking about the politics of the day and portrays him as critical of speeches of Adlai Stevenson, the nuclear arms race and the anti-communist attack on the scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

"This political persecution of his associate was a source of bitter disillusionment," Fantova wrote.

Besides his politics, Fantova wrote of Einstein's popularity and how he tried to write back to strangers, some of whom tried to convert him to Christianity. He said, "All the maniacs in the world write to me," she wrote.

The diary also recounts how, on his 75th birthday, Einstein received a parrot as gift. After deciding the bird was depressed, Einstein tried alter its mood by telling bad jokes.

At times, Einstein would pretend to be sick in bed so he would not have to pose with visitors who wanted photographs. Einstein still enjoyed himself even when real illness did take hold.

"Einstein's health began to fail, but he continued to indulge in what remained his favorite of all pastimes, sailing. Seldom did I see him so gay and in so light a mood as in this strangely primitive little boat," Fantova wrote.

Einstein also wrote Fantova poems, some of which are in the diary.

Einstein, with his second wife Elsa, had arrived in Princeton in 1933 at the newly formed Institute for Advanced Study. Elsa died three years later.

Fantova first met Einstein in 1929 in Berlin. She arrived in the United States alone in 1939 and, at Einstein's urging, attended library school at the University of North Carolina.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Mudlark
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 03:50 PM

A great piece, thanks SRS. And since TV input is OK, did anybody else see the C-Span weekend Book Channel's coverage of the UCLA Book Fair, particularly, the forum on myths in American culture. Really got me to thinking. All cultures have myths, but it seems ours are fueled by corporations, promoting unncessary consumerism (as addressed by James Campos, The Fat Myth), and those that build and maintain political clout (the Myth of Fear).

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 05:11 PM

I always enjoy C-SPANs book talk programs when I remember to turn them on. Lately I haven't exactly been getting my money's worth out of the Dish-TV I had installed a few months ago. But these kinds of programs are what I was looking for (okay, okay, I also wanted some of the old movies and the great mystery programs--tonight I've set it up to record Boy on a Dolphin).

Sorry about the small print above--I was trying to compress it some. I think maybe I need to look into formatting the space between paragraphs (or find writers who can do better than treat every sentence as if it is a paragraph!)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Apr 04 - 12:08 AM

This one certainly describes me. I have paper clutter on my kitchen counter, my dining room table AND my office. Sheesh! Full story http://www.heraldnet.com/homeandgarden/story.cfm?file=04042218491258.cfm

Published on HeraldNet on Thursday, April 22, 2004

From chaos to order, with a little help

Susan Davies is an organization woman, one of those professional people who know how to find a place for everything and put it there.

By Christina Harper , Herald Writer

Whether it's the magazines stacked on shelves, the piles of mail on the kitchen counter or the drawers overflowing with bits and pieces, the urge to get organized arrives with spring. But for some people the overwhelming clutter and mess is too much for them to handle alone. "Things get disorganized when there is a big change" such as a move, said Susan Davies, a professional organizer based in Everett.

People don't go through their stuff before moving. They bring it with them to their new home intending to go through it there, she said. Then it just sits there. Davies says people are often more organized than they think they are. It's about being able to find what you need when you need it, even if there is a mess. "If you know where you favorite pen is in the holder, then you're organized," she said.

The problem might be that they try to put together a system, but it's the wrong system. "They try to organize but it's that factor of going from A to C right now," Davies said. People get hung up on B. That's the sorting, filing, going through things one item at a time and having to decide what to do with it. This is where they most likely give up on the project. "You have to make a decision about everything," Davies said.

She advises clients to consolidate. She says take things out of containers and go through them. Put the items to one side and the container to another. Group items in a way that works best for you. Once you've thrown away what you don't need, make a decision about what fits best in what containers. It's a good idea to group your items, then to buy containers. Often, people buy neat-o boxes and bags that are too dinky and end up not being used.

Davies says that generally home offices are the most difficult spaces to work with because there are lots of different elements such as filing, bill paying and mail. She has clients ask themselves questions about their habits. Are you going to open the mail standing over the recycle or trash can? Do you take the mail immediately to the kitchen counter? Make a system that suits you and you can stick with. Place things in a space according to your tendencies. "It's hard to break habits so work with them," Davies said.

[snip]

The desk was the first area of concern, especially since no one could find the computer keyboard. . . . [snip]

Davies describes a cluttered or messy space as a funnel. Everything come into it and gets stuck. She makes suggestions based on the client's needs, such as what supplies buy or filing system to set up. "I would say that the file system is the heart of the office," Davies said. Files are easier to see on hanging file folder tags. Forget putting manila folders inside them. Too many tags get messy. "Make it easy on yourself. Label everything," Davies said. Labeling containers or shelves makes it easy for everyone in the family to see and use.

Going through items to throw away or sell is an emotional experience for some people. They associate the thing with a memory. Perhaps Granny gave you that lime green doily that you hang onto because you wouldn't want to hurt her feelings. Get rid of it, Davies said. "The spirit of the memory will live on." Ask yourself when was the last time you used the item? Do you love it?

Davies says that you have to be a little selfish when it comes to odd or awful gifts and trinkets. Decide what you want your life to be. If you want to simplify, get rid of it. "Surround yourself with sacred things you love," Davies said. "It's all about doing what's best for you."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 11:17 AM

That Chernobyl link has changed. Now you can find it at http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 04 - 09:32 PM

Here's an interesting one. The woman can't write in anything but one-sentence "paragraphs," so I've lumped it together to save space. See the rest at the web site:

Cabbie Goes Extra Miles from the Everett Herald.

Cabbie goes extra miles
Driver took customers from Everett to Milwaukee

By Jennifer Warnick
Herald Writer

Everett cab driver Mark Forbes, an ex-military, ex-cop, ex-plumbing parts salesman, likes to say there's an adventure every day in the taxi business. What began in the wee hours of Saturday, April 10, was more. It was a big yellow odyssey. It had been a busy Friday night, with all the usual runs to Seattle nightclubs, local bars, casinos and grocery stores. Near the end of his 12-hour shift, a Yellow Cab dispatcher radioed Forbes, 62, to make a pickup at the Days Inn on Evergreen Way. He pulled into the motel parking lot and saw two men emerge from a room. He looked at his watch --5:30 a.m. The men had no luggage, so he was sure he could get them to their destination before his shift ended. To the Sikh temple near Seattle, said the taller of the two men. (Sikhism is a monotheistic religion, rejecting Hinduism's caste system, founded in 15th-century India by Guru Nanak.) The cabbie started the meter, shutting off the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice Classic's roof vacancy light. Forbes hadn't the faintest idea it would take more than nine days and 2,300 miles to get back home.

Change of plans

Forbes has the voice of a country singer -- rich with a hint of twang. His laugh comes easy, and often. A former Colorado police officer who has also played Santa Claus, his demeanor is just that: a street-smart but jolly old elf. In his cab, Forbes is as smooth as a tour guide, with the small-talk skills bartenders and their tip jars know best. As they rode down the freeway that Saturday morning, the tall man said the two were originally from Punjab, India, and that his friend speaks little English. . .

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 04 - 09:44 PM

Wow!! What a ride! :P>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 04 - 04:31 PM

Ada's ready with a song
Her music has made all the difference in countless lives

EVERETT - Ada Haug is Everett's Julie Andrews. Her life is just like the movies - no matter where she is, no one ever seems surprised when she breaks into song. There was the time at a foot care clinic when Haug, 87, ran into an old friend and the two started singing over pedicures. Soon, others joined in, and the whole place was full of songbird seniors with soaking feet.

Then there was the time Haug led a tin-can drive to earn money for a new wheelchair van for seniors. She rallied the community, the seniors at a Bethany Northwest Home got their van and Haug wrote a song about the whole experience.

Then there was the time last month at an Everett City Council meeting when Mayor Ray Stephanson proclaimed April 30 Ada Haug Day in the city to honor her for 40 years of community service. After saying a little something at the meeting, Haug stepped into the marble foyer, and before long was singing a Norwegian wedding song.

The rest is here.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 04 - 02:18 PM

Here's an interesting one. Dillinger paper stolen years ago turns up on a web auction:

Indiana Seeks to Reclaim Dillinger Document
May 13, 2004 11:14 AM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS - A missing prison form signed by the notorious Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger showed up at an auction, bid at $16,000. Now state officials want it back.

The document was pulled from a May 1 Internet auction after Robert Edwards Auctions of Watchung, N.J., received a phone call from state prison officials.

Dillinger, declared public enemy No. 1 for a string of bank robberies across the Midwest, was shot and killed in 1934 by federal agents in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater.

A decade earlier, he entered the Indiana Reformatory at Pendleton after a botched robbery and signed a typewritten personal information form that later disappeared from state files.

The form says Dillinger attended Sunday School for 12 years, got an 8th grade education and left home at age 16. His occupation when the crime was committed is listed as "idle." Under associates, the form stated, "Bad."

The document is valuable because only about a dozen documents signed by Dillinger are known to exist, said Robert Lifson, president of Robert Edwards Auctions.

Robert Schagrin, the president of Gotta Have It! Collectibles of New York City, which owns the item, told The Indianapolis Star it will not be sold while he considers the state's claim. He said the 80-year-old document may be public domain.

All things considered, "[S]chagrin" is a pretty good name for the "owner" of this document!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Mudlark
Date: 14 May 04 - 12:43 AM

SRS...loved the Ada Haug story! Gee, when I forget myself and burst into song while gassing up the truck, or strolling down the supermarket aisle everybody looks at me like I'm crazy. (Moi???)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Cluin
Date: 14 May 04 - 12:50 AM

Next thing, Dillinger's pickled prodigious pecker will show up on E-Bay after disappearing from J. Edgar Hoover's desk drawer back in `68.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 14 May 04 - 07:17 AM

Mudlark:

Forget yourself?? They should be so lucky!! Anyone says anything tell 'em there is no charge for those who mind their manners!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Mudlark
Date: 15 May 04 - 02:08 AM

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Amos!

This thread makes me wish I read more print media for ease of copying. I heard a fascinating discussion on NPR while driving around doing chores yesterday about studies done on height through the ages. Seems like there is a definite correlation between height and physical well being (enough to eat, adequate health care, reasonable quality of life). Also seems that average US height has been losing out to Europeans for some time now. We peaked after WWII, now the average height in Holland, for instance, is substantially higher than that of the US. We are 25th I think, among major populations in infant death.

These findings are quite at variance with the image of US as Empire.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 04 - 01:23 PM

Mudlark, if you know what program you were listening to, you can find a transcript or a recording of it online.

When my parents were alive they used to regularly mail me big manila envelopes stuffed with old magazines of local Washington State interest (The Mountaineer, for example) and lots of clippings. Various subjects, whatever they were interested in or they thought would interest me. When my father died I opened one file cabinet drawer and found the growing stack he had for me for the next mailing.

I make it a habit to print interesting stories or clip them from the paper and leave them on the dining room table for the kids to look at. Sometimes we read them out loud, if it is particularly good that way. Articles get clipped or printed because they illustrate somethine that is a concern that I want us to think about, and sometimes they discuss topics that are of interest to the kids (and I want them to know I was paying attention!)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 04 - 12:15 AM

Book Opened Orchid-growing To The World

May 15, 2004 07:16 AM EDT

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Before there was an Orchid Thief, there was Rebecca T. Northen.

Northen, whose 1950 book "Home Orchid Growing" is still the bible for growers -- amateur and professional alike -- did for orchids what Julia Child did for French cooking, said one orchid lover. Her greenhouse still contained hundreds of orchids when she died April 30 at age 93 in Des Moines, where she lived with her daughter.

"She demystified this thing that was previously the purview of the rich doctors and the wealthy," said Bill Carley, who picked up Northen's book when he was a kid and got hooked. Now a member of the Northwest Orchid Society, he's still growing them 40 years later.

And so are millions of others around the country, inspired by the woman who made orchid growing accessible to anyone with a little sun and some patience. "She's the reason we have orchids in Trader Joe's," said Northen's daughter, Betty Lyons. "Truly, she was an orchid grower's orchid grower," said Andy Easton, vice president of Kerry's Bromeliads in Homestead, Fla., one of the largest growers in the world. Kerry's produces more than 4 million plants a year, he said, "but if there's any one book I still go to on a regular basis, that's Rebecca Northen's 'Home Orchid Growing.' "

Northen discovered orchids, the hothouse hotties of the flower world, in the coldest of places: Laramie, Wyo.

Born in Detroit in 1910, Rebecca Tyson had hoped to become a doctor like her father. She studied biology at Radcliff College and received her master's degree from Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. Just after graduating, however, she heard about a summer botany camp in Wyoming, still considered the "Wild West" in those days.

She went for the adventure. Instead, love bloomed. She married her professor, Henry T. Northen, in 1937 and the two put down roots in Laramie, where they raised three children.

One day, the professor came home with a flask of tiny orchid seedlings, enough to start hundreds of plants. Northen fell under their spell immediately, and hard.

"There was something magical about them that captivated her," said her grandson Trent Northen of Arizona, who got his own start growing orchids from doing chores in his "Grandbecca's" greenhouse when she later lived in California.

Those first seedlings rapidly took over every surface in the house, including the bathtubs. Soon thereafter, the Northens built their first greenhouse. To support her proliferating hobby, and pay the heating bill, Northen sold Cattleyas, or corsage orchids, by the prom-load.

find the rest of the story here.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 04 - 02:09 PM

From the Everett Herald:

Women's project offers a comfortable setting to swim
By Katherine Schiffner, Herald Writer

EVERETT -- Nadaa Aliat glances up at the YMCA pool's glass entryway before easing into the chilly shallow end. A long white curtain covers the door and the window beside it. No one can peek inside. Time to swim. This is the only place Alait and most of the two dozen other women in the pool can swim laps, learn new strokes and soak in the hot tub. For religious and modesty reasons, they won't appear in swimsuits in front of men. This swim time, twice a month, is just for women and children.

"Because we are Muslim, we can't show the body to other people," Aliat said. "If this program were gone, we couldn't do anything." Aliat, 30, who moved to Everett from Iraq 10 years ago, wears a head scarf and long black cloak in public. She has come to the Sunday swims for a year now. "Before, we didn't know how to swim, but now we're swimming and enjoying it," Aliat said. "Last time, my daughter was able to float without anybody helping. The kids have learned so fast."

The women-only swim was started by Therese Quinn, leader of Snohomish County's Woman to Woman project, which aims to bring together women from different cultures. Woman to Woman, which also offers cooking classes, discussion groups, sewing circles and roller-skating nights, added the swim time at the suggestion of several Muslim high school girls. The informal gatherings, "give us the opportunity to learn from each other," Quinn said. "One of the women involved in the program had this notion that people from the Middle East were not like us," Quinn said. "After she got to know some of the women from the Middle East, and their children played together, she realized she was wrong."

The swim times are open to all women and young children. Sisters Gerri Johnson and Barb Heckathorn of Marysville say they feel more comfortable doing water aerobics there. "It gives us an opportunity to get out and get moving without showing our rolls to men," Johnson said with a smile.

Women-only swim

The Woman to Woman Project hosts women's swims 9:30-11:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Sundays of every month. Women, girls and young boys swim in privacy at the Everett Family YMCA, 2720 Rockefeller Ave. Suggested donation: $1.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 04 - 12:17 AM

There is a photo with this story.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Homeward, healed
By Victor Balta, Herald Writer

SEATTLE - The scene couldn't have been more different. Eight-year-old Tae-Wau Ryu was near a ticket counter at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport throwing a baseball in the air, dishing out smiles for pictures, joking and laughing. Seven months ago, he wouldn't speak. Lost, confused and tired from a long flight, he only shook his head no, regardless of the question. "The poor kid just sat on the floor, hugged his photo album and cried for about four days," said David Cash of Lynnwood, Tae-Wau's host father.

Tae-Wau was one of three South Korean boys brought to Snohomish County by Healing the Children, a nonprofit group. The boys suffer from microtia, a condition in which the ear, usually the right one, never fully develops. Monday, the boys went home, each sporting a significantly improved ear on the right side of his head. Tae-Wau was still unhappy. "Not good," he said about his new ear, although it didn't seem to dampen his spirits.

Dr. Ron Krueger, a Healing the Children board member who did the surgery, doesn't take Tae-Wau's reaction personally. He can understand that after 26 office visits and four surgical procedures, Tae-Wau might have expected more. "It's imperfect. It doesn't look exactly like the other side, but these kids can walk through public and not be scrutinized," Krueger said. "The sad part, for me, is that I don't get to see the parents' reaction. I think his parents are going to be ecstatic." The operation, though cosmetic, is valuable in Tae-Wau's home country, where people with physical disabilities are often shunned, even by their own families. At a glance, Tae-Wau's ear appears normal, but a closer look shows that his upper ear is not quite released from the side of his head. Still, most people don't notice any deformity and are surprised to learn about the surgery.

Since he arrived, David and Cheryl Cash and Tae-Wau have shared memories that will last all of their lifetimes. His English improved tremendously, along with his confidence. He abruptly decided several months ago that "Peter" would be his name in America. He quickly made friends at Oak Heights Elementary School in Lynnwood, where he enrolled six weeks ago and had a "birthday" cake in class Friday. (His birthday isn't until August.)

His love for fishing also came to light as he spent hours scouring through rods and tackle at G.I. Joe's or Wal-Mart stores, and more time on the area's lakes. And he developed the true taste of the Pacific Northwest. "He's been one of Starbucks' best customers," Cash said. "They're going to see a little dip in their income and say, 'Oh, that's when Tae-Wau went back to Korea.'" After sucking down his last grande chocolate chip frappuccino on Monday, Tae-Wau gave his final hugs and headed for the departure gate with an escort and the two other boys.

His host parents stood side by side, their arms pulling each other close, as Tae-Wau turned to give them one last smile and waved goodbye.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 20 May 04 - 02:27 AM

MAn, that is a good news tale. Thanks!


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 20 May 04 - 12:18 PM

Stilly River SAge (somewhere up in there) said, in part:

the law of unintended consequences comes into play. It means that because these laws are poorly crafted and tie the hands of judges regarding things like "three strikes,"

There is in the law a maxim that "Hard cases make bad law, and bad law makes hard cases."

That is, to make a rule of law (whether case law or statutory) as a result of uncertain or aggravated cases makes law that is uncertain or draconian. As a result of such bad law, other cases down the line get prosecuted, tried, or punished badly.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 04 - 03:23 PM

This one is very important, and could actually be its own thread. A search brings this up in many papers; the link I'm using may require a free membership.

HEALTH STUDY SAYS WORMS MAY HELP BOWEL DISORDERS

(05-21-2004) - Having intestinal worms actually may be a good thing, say scientists studying treatments for irritable bowel disorders. University of Iowa researchers have been using pig whipworms to treat Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, having patients ingest parasitic worm eggs in a glass of Gatorade. Raymond Fiedler, 65, of Clinton, a study participant, said he wasn't squeamish about drinking them down. "What you don't see can't hurt you," he said.

Dr. Joel Weinstock, lead researcher, said the theory is that the deworming of people in industrialized countries may be responsible for the increased incidence of disorders such as Crohn's and colitis. Both are painful, chronic inflammatory bowel disorders that can cause diarrhea, cramping and numerous complications. The worms, which are thin as a hair and can grow to half an inch long in the patient's intestine, may provide chemicals which suppress certain immune-system responses to antigens and keep the digestive tract healthy. "We assume that good hygiene is great, but maybe we don't want it," Weinstock said. "Being very, very clean ... we could be failing to get exposed to the healthy ones in our attempts to avoid the bad ones." He said the incidence of Crohn's and colitis in the United States was once 1-in-5000. Today, that ratio is about 1-250. "It's increasing and becoming a major health problem," Weinstock said.

The study, funded by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America and the California-based Broad Foundation, examined about 120 people who suffer from irritable bowel disease. Some were given a drink with 2,500 worm eggs, while others were given a placebo. Weinstock said it didn't take much arm-twisting to persuade patients to ingest the worm eggs, because many were taking 25 pills or more a day for their condition. Some drugs raise their risk of cancer, he said. "If you came to me and I said you could take something that was safe with no side-effects every two to three weeks, what would you do?" Weinstock said. "The eggs are microscopic, so you can't see them, you can't taste them, nothing comes crawling out of you," he said. "It's not that icky when you're ill."

Weinstock said patients in the study showed significant improvement. Of 54 patients with ulcerative colitis, 24 were given a placebo and 30 drank the worm eggs. After three months, 13 of those given the egg drink improved. Only four of those given the placebo showed improvement. Twenty-nine patients with Crohn's disease swallowed the eggs. After three months, 82 percent of them were in remission. After six months, that number had risen to 91 percent. Fiedler, a retired middle school teacher, said he is now symptom free. "I feel fine - I feel great," he said.

While Fiedler wasn't officially told whether he received the placebo or the worm drink, a videotape of a colonoscopy, done about a year after the study began, showed the worms in his intestine. "From what I've seen in the videotapes and photographs, they just attach themselves to the intestine and gobble away," Fiedler said. Weinstock presented the study's finding this week at a Digestive Disease Week conference in New Orleans. Telephone messages left Thursday for other experts in gastroenterology were not immediately returned.

Weinstock said the pig whipworms were used because they're safe and live only a short time in humans, and cannot be transmitted to another person. By comparison, human whipworms can live in a person for up to two years, he said. Weinstock said no one before has studied the positive aspects of worms, which have always been considered to be negative. "I suspect, and this is total speculation, that it could be we want people to have worms - that the positive effects of worms would be good," Weinstock said. The research could lead to the development of drugs from chemicals produced by the worms, he said, adding that such drugs - and maybe even the worms themselves - "may be important not only for treating diseases but for prevention as well."

Meanwhile, Fiedler continues to drink the worm egg concoction. "They're training me now to mix them myself, so I can keep them in my refrigerator here, so I don't have to travel to Iowa City as often," he said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Mudlark
Date: 22 May 04 - 12:45 PM

This is another item from Link TV, often the best thing on the box...

Program notes: The Hole in the Wall...(watching these kids find and experiment with these computers is a total feel-good experience. Given the current administration and the tenor of most of the news, this made me feel great!)

" A revolution in information technology is redefining poverty, as how much you know is becoming just as important
as how much you own. "The Hole in the Wall" examines one possible solution to the growing technological gap
between rich and poor -- the so-called 'digital divide' -- that threatens to consign millions to an "information
underclass." When Indian researcher Sugata Mitra embedded a high-speed computer in a wall separating his
firm's New Delhi headquarters from an adjacent slum, he discovered that slum children quickly taught
themselves how to surf the net, read the news, and download games and music. Mitra then replicated the
experiment in other locations. Each time the results were similar: within hours, and without instruction, the
children began browsing the Internet.

Can children -- given only access and opportunity -- really teach themselves the rudiments of computer literacy with no instruction? "The Hole in the Wall" experiment, and the documentary film that chronicles it, show the answer to be a "Yes!" Mitra estimates that, given access to one hundred thousand computers, one hundred million Indian children could teach themselves computer literacy within five years. The film concludes by noting that the spread of information technology is changing societies around the world, and the implications of Mitra's experiment are profound -- particularly for poor people."

What a GREAT idea!!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 22 May 04 - 12:57 PM

Wow, Nancy, that one is a pure-dee positive beat!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 04 - 06:14 PM

Glad I live in the UK

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 04 - 09:23 PM

Lots of American cultural baggage goes with this story, and it is a classic definition of the term "meal ticket."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2601550

May 31, 2004, 5:34PM

Last widow of a Civil War veteran dies at 97

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died on Memorial Day, ending an unlikely ascent from sharecropper's daughter to the belle of 21st century Confederate history buffs who paraded her across the South. She was 97. Martin died at a nursing home in Enterprise of complications from a heart attack she suffered May 7, said her caretaker, Dr. Kenneth Chancey. She died nearly 140 years after the Civil War ended.

Her May-December marriage in the 1920s to Civil War veteran William Jasper Martin and her longevity made her a celebrated final link to the old Confederacy. After living in obscurity and poverty for most of her life, in her final years the Sons of Confederate Veterans took her to conventions and rallies, often with a small Confederate battle flag waving in her hand and her clothes the colors of the rebel banner.

"I don't see nothing wrong with the flag flying," she said frequently. Chancey said she loved the attention. "It's like being matriarch of a large family," he said. "She was a link to the past," Chancey said Monday. "People would get emotional, holding her hand, crying and thinking about their family that suffered greatly in the past."

Wayne Flynt, a Southern history expert at Auburn University, said the historical distinctiveness of the South, which is so tied to the Civil War, has been disappearing, but Martin provided people with one last chance to see that history in real life. "She became a symbol like the Confederate battle flag," he said.

The last widow of a Union veteran from the Civil War, Gertrude Janeway, died in January 2003 at her home in Tennessee. She was 93 and had married veteran John Janeway when she was 18.

In 1997, Martin and Daisy Anderson, whose husband was a slave who ran away and joined the Union Army, were recognized at a ceremony at Gettysburg, Pa. Anderson, who lived in Denver, died in 1998 at age 97. Janeway wasn't invited to the Gettysburg event because, at the time, no one outside her family knew her whereabouts.

Alberta Stewart Martin was not from the "Gone With the Wind" South of white-columned mansions and hoop skirts. She was born Alberta Stewart to sharecroppers on Dec. 4, 1906, in Danley's Crossroads, a tiny settlement built around a sawmill 70 miles south of Montgomery. Her mother died when she was 11. At 18, she met a cab driver named Howard Farrow, and they had a son before Farrow died in a car accident in 1926. Stewart, her father and her son moved to Opp. Just up the road lived William Jasper Martin, a widower born in Georgia in 1845 who had a $50-a-month Confederate veteran's pension. The 81-year-old man struck up a few conversations with the 21-year-old neighbor and a marriage of convenience was born. "I had this little boy and I needed some help to raise him," Alberta Martin recalled in a 1998 interview. They were married on Dec. 10, 1927, and 10 months later had a son, William.

She said her husband never talked much about the war, except the harsh times at Petersburg, Va. "He'd say it was rough, how the trenches were full of water. They were so hungry in Virginia that during the time they were fighting, they had to grab food as they went along. They came across a potato patch and made up some mashed potatoes," she said. Asked if she loved her husband, Martin said: "That's a hard question to answer. I cared enough about him to live with him. You know the difference between a young man and an old man." William Jasper Martin died on July 8, 1931. Two months later, Alberta Martin married her late husband's grandson, Charlie Martin. He died in 1983.

She became the focus of a dustup over the depiction of her and her late Confederate husband in the 1998 book "Confederates in the Attic." Among other things, the book by Tony Horwitz described William Jasper Martin as a deserter. A group that defends Southern heritage disagreed, contending there were at least two William Martins who served in Company K of the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment and that Horwitz got the wrong one. Horwitz said his research was carefully checked and the book was accurate. The state government considered Martin's record clean enough to award him a Confederate pension in 1921 and to give Alberta Martin Confederate widow's benefits in 1996.

Martin's older son, Harold Farrow of North Little Rock, Ark., died last June. Her younger son, Willie Martin, lives in Elba. Alberta Martin is to be interred at New Ebenezer Baptist Church six miles west of Elba, in an 1860s-style ceremony following her funeral June 12.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jun 04 - 10:57 PM

Finally, an Old Dog That Can Learn New Tricks

By JAMES GORMAN, Published: June 11, 2004

Reports from owners notwithstanding, scientists have yet to discover a dog that can talk. But German researchers say they have found one that listens and learns like a human child. In a report being published today in the journal Science, the researchers say a 9-year-old border collie named Rico was able to learn the name of a new object in one try, by a process of elimination. Told to fetch an unfamiliar object with a name he had not heard before, Rico picked out the novel item from a group of familiar ones.

Even more important, Rico proved in other tests four weeks later that he remembered what he had learned, said Dr. Julia Fischer, an author of the report who is a senior research fellow in the evolution of communication at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. She said that Rico was displaying a kind of learning by inference that is called fast mapping. It was thought to be a language-learning ability specific to humans, but Rico's ability suggests it may be more widespread.

Rico was not picked at random for the study. His abilities were known to television audiences in Germany long before the scientists started working with him. In fact, said Dr. Fischer, it was Rico's performance retrieving a variety of objects on a popular game show, "Wetten, Dass?" (roughly "Want to Bet?"), that brought him to her attention. The owners say the dog knows the names of 200 objects. The scientists did not test this claim but said anecdotal evidence supported it.

The report is unlikely to surprise owners of border collies. The breed is known for its intelligence and intensity. Warren Mick, a border collie owner and trainer in upstate New York who is president of the Northeast Border Collie Association, said, "I've had dogs that could pick up something with one experience." He also said he had no doubt the dogs learned specific words.

In a commentary accompanying the Science article, Dr. Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale, wrote that the proper scientific controls were used in the experiment to avoid the possibility of cues from the owner other than the command. Such hidden cues have invalidated other impressive achievements of animals, most famously those of a horse known as Clever Hans who was said to have done arithmetic but was actually responding to unconscious cues from his owners. Dr. Bloom added that without further experiment, it was unclear that Rico's performance was related to the way children learn words. "It is too early to give up on the view that babies learn words and dogs do not," he concluded.

Dr. Fischer said the conclusions in the report were limited to Rico and could not be extrapolated to other border collies, or dogs in general, until more research was done. Rico might be a special case among dogs, she said, adding, "Maybe he's Albert Einstein."

This came from the New York Times