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 09 - 07:10 PM

It's good to have rational people back in the White House.

White House set to reverse health care conscience clause

link
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration plans to reverse a regulation from late in the Bush administration allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections, an official said Friday.

The Provider Refusal Rule was proposed by the Bush White House in August and enacted on January 20, the day President Barack Obama took office.

It expanded on a 30-year-old law establishing a "conscience clause" for "health-care professionals who don't want to perform abortions."

Under the rule, workers in health-care settings -- from doctors to janitors -- can refuse to provide services, information or advice to patients on subjects such as contraception, family planning, blood transfusions and even vaccine counseling if they are morally against it.

"We recognize and understand that some providers have objections to providing abortions, according to an official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The official declined to be identified because the policy change had not been announced. "We want to ensure that current law protects them.

"But we do not want to impose new limitations on services that would allow providers to refuse to provide to women and their families services like family planning and contraception that would actually help prevent the need for an abortion in the first place."

Many health-care organizations, including the American Medical Association, believe health-care providers have an obligation to their patients to advise them of the options despite their own beliefs. Critics of the current rule argue there are already laws on the books protecting health-care professionals when it comes to refusing care for personal reasons.

Dr. Suzanne T. Poppema, board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, praised Obama "for placing good health care above ideological demands."

"Physicians across the country were outraged when the Bush administration, in its final days, limited women's access to reproductive health care," she said. "Hundreds of doctors protested these midnight regulations and urged President Obama to repeal them quickly. We are thrilled that President Obama took the first steps today to ensure that our patients' health is once again protected."

But Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said, "Protecting the right of all health-care providers to make professional judgments based on moral convictions and ethical standards is foundational to federal law and is necessary to ensure that access to health care is not diminished, which will occur if health-care workers are forced out of their jobs because of their ethical stances.

"President's Obama's intention to change the language of these protections would result in the government becoming the conscience and not the individual. It is a person's right to exercise their moral judgment, not the government's to decide it for them."

An announcement reversing the current rule is expected early next week, the HHS official said. Any final action would have to be taken after a 30-day public comment period.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Mar 09 - 08:31 PM

It's quite a detailed story with photos. link
I don't think this is anything new; when I was an Urban Park Ranger there was a baboon at the small zoo in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, that used throw his own poop at people. He couldn't get his hands on rocks in his concrete enclosure, so had to "make do," so to speak. :)


Thinking Man's Chimp Shows 1st Animal 'Planning'
Swedish zoo resident would secretly stash rocks, 'missiles' to hurl at visitors for his own amusement, report details.

For years, Santino, a male chimp at the Furuvik Zoo in Lund, Sweden, was in the habit of spending two hours before the zoo opened collecting rocks and other "ammunition" to hurl at the human gawkers who started gathering outside his enclosure around mid-morning.

He stored the items at various sites around the chimpanzee island, where zookeepers were unlikely to find them and where they could be easily extracted when he was ready to "display."

This deliberate collecting, storing, then launching of rock and concrete missiles may be among the first clear evidence that an animal that is not human can engage in planning, says the author of a paper published in the March 9 issue of Current Biology.

The explanation is made all the more compelling by the fact that the chimp was in an entirely different state of mind during the planning phase of his endeavor (calm) than during the implementation phase (agitated), said the study author, Mathias Orvath, of Lund University.

"These observations fit nicely with all sorts of things apes do. I have seen apes line up feces as future ammunition," said Frans B.M. de Waal, C.H. Candler Professor of Psychology and director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University in Atlanta. "This ape must have learned that during displays he would run out of things to throw and, from this, he must have extrapolated that it would be good to have a pile of projectiles at the ready."

"Apes in captivity enjoy pelting visitors and the excited shrieks and laughs they get as a reaction, which they do on a daily basis," de Waal added.

De Waal described one ape that gathered straw from inside a heated building, then took it outside for a warm nest during cold weather. This behavior only occurred in colder seasons.

"It's harder to see such clear examples in the wild although we strongly suspect this kind of thing is going on," said Anne Pusey, a professor of ecology, evolution and behavior at the University of Minnesota, and director of Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies. "What's so nice about this [new research] is these stones have one purpose and they're collected in advance. This seems like a very clear-cut example."



Go to the web site for the rest of this.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 09 - 11:32 AM

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO â€" More prehistoric bones â€" this time, those of a giant sloth â€" have been found at the East Village construction site of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, the school said yesterday. But the bones are in poor shape and may not be salvageable.

The bones â€" part of a vertebra, as well as tooth and skull fragments â€" were unearthed Friday in a different part of the site from where whale and mammoth bones were found last month. The sloth bones were found at about the same depth as the whale bones, indicating the sloth lived about 600,000 years ago.

Paleontologist Pat Sena of the San Diego Natural History Museum, who found the sloth bones, said the bones are poorly preserved.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Mar 09 - 06:35 PM

Re Stilly's thinking chimp:

Long ago (ca. 1952) the Wichita zoo, such as it was, had a lion who would periodically decide to "perform." His act was quite carefully and deliberately planned.

He would start by pacing back and forth for a bit, then would commence "roaring" and faster pacing.

When a sufficient audience had rushed to his cage to see what the commotion was all about, he would "frolic" for a bit to give them a bit of a show, then charge the front bars of his cage and P*SS on the audience.

It was quite likely a protest against the lack of proper toilet facilities, but so far as I know the zoo never provided him a "non-splash" facility.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 03:37 PM

I enjoy watching the gorillas at the Fort Worth zoo when the primate house is empty of visitors. Turns out they hate being stared at, they prefer side glances and low posture. So if I go kind of squat or stoop down by the glass in the building where the gorilla male can see the posture, I can see him kind of "sneaking" glances, intrigued that someone is doing it his way. They usually turn their backs on gawking visitors, don't bother to try to watch them.

I've also gone through there carrying a baby and had a mother chimp come hang out on the other side of the glass with her baby. You can't have the kid in a plastic carrier or in a buggy, you have to have them tucked up against your stomach or chest so the chimp recognizes a similar of mother and child profile. And they do respond.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 09:41 PM

Used couch for $27; cat included
link

SPOKANE -- The mysterious mewing in Vickie Mendenhall's home started about the time she bought a used couch for $27.

After days of searching for the source of the noise, she found a very hungry calico cat living in her sofa.

Her boyfriend, Chris Lund, was watching TV on Tuesday night and felt something move inside the couch. He pulled it away from the wall, lifted it up and there was the cat, which apparently crawled through a small hole on the underside.

Mendenhall contacted Value Village, where she bought the couch, but the store had no information on who donated it. So she took the cat to SpokAnimal CARE, the animal shelter where she works, so it could recover, and contacted media outlets in hopes of finding the owner.

Sure enough, Bob Killion of Spokane showed up to claim the cat on Thursday after an acquaintance alerted him to a TV story about it. Killion had donated a couch on Feb. 19, and his 9-year-old cat, Callie, disappeared at about the same time.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 07:11 PM

This story appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram but it was written by someone up at the Chicago Tribune.

link

Texas town's police seize valuables from black motorists

TENAHA — You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you're African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it — at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.

That's because the police here have allegedly found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead, they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.

More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, Ohio, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with or convicted of any crime.

Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled state highway connecting Houston with several popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking, and they call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state's asset-forfeiture law.

That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.

"We try to enforce the law here," said George Bowers, mayor of the town of 1,046, where boarded-up businesses outnumber open ones and City Hall sports a broken window. "We're not doing this to raise money. That's all I'm going to say at this point."

But civil rights lawyers call Tenaha's practice something else: highway robbery. The lawyers have filed a federal class-action lawsuit to stop what they contend is an unconstitutional perversion of the law's intent, aimed primarily at African-Americans who have done nothing wrong.

Tenaha officials "have developed an illegal 'stop and seize' practice of targeting, stopping, detaining, searching and often seizing property from apparently nonwhite citizens and those traveling with nonwhite citizens," asserts the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.

The property seizures are not just happening in Tenaha. In southern parts of Texas near the Mexican border, for example, Hispanics allege that they are being singled out.

A prominent Texas state legislator said police agencies across the state are wielding the asset-forfeiture law more aggressively to supplement their shrinking operating budgets.

"If used properly, it's a good law enforcement tool to see that crime doesn't pay," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. "But in this instance, where people are being pulled over and their property is taken with no charges filed and no convictions, I think that's theft."

David Guillory, a lawyer in Nacogdoches who filed the federal lawsuit, said he combed through Shelby County court records from 2006 to 2008 and discovered nearly 200 cases in which Tenaha police seized cash and property from motorists. In about 50 of the cases, suspects were charged with drug possession.

But in 147 others, Guillory said the court records showed that the police seized cash, jewelry, cellphones and sometimes even automobiles from motorists but never found any contraband or charged them with any crime.

Of those, Guillory said he managed to contact 40 of the motorists directly — and discovered all but one of them were black.

"The whole thing is disproportionately targeted toward minorities, particularly African-Americans," Guillory said. "Every one of these people is pulled over and told they did something, like, 'You drove too close to the white line.' That's not in the penal code, but it sounds plausible. None of these people have been charged with a crime, none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factor is that they had something that looked valuable."

In some cases, police used the fact that motorists were carrying large amounts of cash as evidence that they must have been involved in laundering drug money, even though Guillory said each of the drivers he contacted could account for where the money had come from and why they were carrying it, such as for a gambling trip to Shreveport or to buy a used car from a private seller.

Once the motorists were detained, the police and the Shelby County district attorney quickly drew up legal papers presenting them with an option: waive their rights to their cash and property or face felony charges for crimes such as money laundering — and the prospect of having to hire a lawyer and return to Shelby County multiple times to attend court sessions to contest the charges.

The process apparently is so routine in Tenaha that Guillory discovered presigned and prenotarized police affidavits with blank spaces left for an officer to fill in a description of the property being seized.

Jennifer Boatright, her husband and two young children — a mixed-race family — were traveling from Houston to visit relatives in East Texas in April 2007 when Tenaha police pulled them over, alleging that they were driving in a left-turn lane.

After searching the car, the officers discovered what Boatright said was a gift for her sister: a small, unused glass pipe made for smoking marijuana.

Although they found no drugs or other contraband, the police seized $6,037 that Boatright said the family was carrying to buy a used car and then threatened to turn their children, ages 10 and 1, over to Child Protective Services if the couple didn't agree to sign over their right to their cash.

"It was give them the money or they were taking our kids," Boatright said. "They suggested that we never bring it up again. We figured we better give them our cash and get the hell out of there."

Several months later, after Boatright and her husband contacted a lawyer, Tenaha officials returned their money but offered no explanation or apology. The couple remain plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit.

Except for Tenaha's mayor, none of the defendants in the federal lawsuit, including Shelby County District Attorney Linda Russell and two Tenaha police officers, responded to requests from the Chicago Tribune for comment about their search-and-seizure practices. Lawyers for the defendants also declined to comment, as did several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

But Whitmire says he doesn't need to await the suit's outcome to try to fix what he regards as a statewide problem.

On Monday, he introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would require police to go before a judge before attempting to seize property under the asset-forfeiture law — and Whitmire hopes to tighten the law so that law enforcement officials will be allowed to seize property only after a suspect is charged and convicted in a court.

"The law has gotten away from what was intended, which was to take the profits of a bad guy's crime spree and use it for additional crime fighting," Whitmire said. "Now it's largely being used to pay police salaries, and it's being abused because you don't even have to be a bad guy to lose your property."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Mar 09 - 01:51 AM

March 12, 2009, Daily Show/Jim Cramer interview, Part 1

March 12, 2009, Daily Show/Jim Cramer interview, Part 2

March 12, 2009, Daily Show/Jim Cramer interview, Part3

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 15 Mar 09 - 04:18 AM

The Cramer interview is priceless.

In other news:

"And finally: "With the world swirling about it, the House took a moment Thursday to honor pi, the Greek letter symbolizing that great constant in mathematics representing the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter," reports Politico. "I'm kind of geeked up about it," said Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA). Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) was a little less into it, saying, "We were never good at math in my family. I thought I was voting for p-i-e." "

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 09 - 12:41 AM

David Horsey cartoon.

Farewell, Seattle Post Intelligencer. It'll be online only, but I suspect it will be eviscerated.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 21 Mar 09 - 01:50 AM

Bomb disposal teams were called in and a nearby pub evacuated after water company engineers mistook a Monty Python film prop for a hand grenade. After nearly an hour of examination by bomb experts, they counted to three. No more. No less. Three was the number they counted, and the number they counted was three. Four they did not count, nor two, except to proceed to three. Five was right out. Once the number three had been reached, being the third number, they declared that the grenade was actually a copy of the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" used in the film Monty Python And The Holy Grail. A police spokeswoman confirmed that the device was a toy and that it had been no danger to the public.

From The Telegraph.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Mar 09 - 11:24 AM

Local businesses criticised the police for taking so long to realise there was no threat.

Alberto Romanelli, owner of the Windmill put that was evacuated, said: "I lost a good hour's worth of business."

;-D

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 06:03 PM

A classic case of profiling. link

Police delayed NFL player as relative died

03/26/2009

A Dallas police officer who detained an NFL player in a hospital parking lot despite his pleas that his mother-in-law was dying inside has been placed on administrative leave.

Police Chief David Kunkle said Thursday that Officer Robert Powell will be placed on leave with pay pending an internal investigation over the March 18 incident with Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats.

The officer had pulled over Moats as he and relatives were hurrying to see his dying mother-in-law. Powell drew his gun, threatened the NFL player and held him in the parking lot, officials said. By the time Moats got inside, the woman had died.

Kunkle said the department is "embarrassed and disappointed."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 06:23 PM

More. . .

This page has a YouTube series with the traffic stop.

Here's an editorial. And there are quite a few other stories out there.
link

Officer's actions at hospital damage public trust, undercut colleagues

02:32 PM CDT on Thursday, March 26, 2009

It took 13 minutes for Dallas police Officer Robert Powell to shame his profession and his department, to give the city an embarrassing black eye and to set off an ugly, sullen public argument about cops and race.

Pretty fast work. But if you watch the 13-minute dash-cam video of Powell bullying and lecturing a driver whose mother-in-law was dying in a nearby hospital room, it seems to last forever.

It's painful viewing. You can feel Ryan Moats' helpless desperation as the minutes tick past.

You share his silent rage at this officious cop who is purposely detaining him as the precious minutes tick away.

You experience his disbelief that, in what is literally a life-and-death circumstance, the policeman cares only about making a show of who's the boss here, of who holds the high poker hand of ultimate authority.

You feel the enormous effort it must cost Moats to maintain his self-control, even though he is rightfully emotional and distraught.

It's too bad they don't have a screening process for this mindset at the outset, some police-academy Rorschach test that reveals which of these earnest rookies will turn into a petty street tyrant once equipped with badge and gun. Powell may have technically acted within the scope of his authority, but he did a lot of damage.

Moats, a Frisco resident and NFL running back, was held in a hospital parking lot while his mother-in-law passed away.

Even though hospital personnel told Powell that the woman, Jonetta Collinsworth, was dying, he was unsympathetic.

He treated Moats – who had run a red light while rushing to the hospital – as if he were a criminal. Worse, perhaps, he lectured him as though he were a child.

"Attitude's everything," he loftily catechized, finally wrapping up this long, long lesson in domination and control. "All you had to do was stop, tell me what was going on. More than likely, I would have let you go."

Hey, that would have been big of him, but it was too late. Jonetta Collinsworth, by then, was dead.

We trust police officers with a great deal beyond the authority to enforce the law. We give them a measure of discretion, the leeway to balance enforcement and compassion. We credit them with having enough street sense to make judgment calls, to consider the circumstances surrounding events.

Surely we expect them to know when somebody needs a lecture, and when they need a break.

A man who runs a light and is slow to pull over because he's trying to get his wife to the bedside of her dying mother is not in the same category with a smart aleck who needs a little verbal smack down for his cavalier treatment of the law. How hard is that to grasp?

And, as miserable fate would have it, Moats and his family are black, while Powell is white.

You may not believe that race didn't play any role in this encounter, but you're not going to change the minds of those who would believe otherwise.

What Powell has done is undercut all his colleagues who are above this kind of trivial abuse. He has reinforced the worst suspicions of those who automatically assume white cops will not give a black man a fair shake, that they take a malicious pleasure in humiliating prosperous, professional civilians of color.

Powell has made the job of those anxious to assure the public that most officers aren't like that a great deal more difficult. Every time he told Moats — who was desperately trying to explain his situation — to "shut your mouth," he dealt his own colleagues a setback.

His betrayal goes far beyond Ryan Moats.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 03:14 PM

GOOGLE EARTH 60ft penis painted on roof


Teenager painted 60 ft penis on roof of his parents £1,000,000 house.
Word is he will have to



ahem







rub it off.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 11:45 AM

MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) ―

A Monterey County jury has ordered the state to pay $8.6 million to a motorcyclist who was severely injured when he struck six wild boars on a state highway in 2003.

The jury ruled Friday that the state was responsible for Adam Rogers' injuries because officials knew that wild pigs regularly crossing a stretch of Highway 1 just south of the Carmel River were creating a dangerous situation, but they did nothing to address it.

Rogers, a 45-year-old former karate teacher and champion kickboxer, suffered serious injuries and is now confined to a wheelchair. He and his wife sued the state Department of Transportation in Monterey County Superior Court.

DOT attorneys argued that the state wasn't responsible for the actions of wild animals and said Rogers was under the influence when he struck them. A test found Rogers had a blood-alcohol level of more than .10 after the crash, but the jury concluded that wasn't a major factor in the crash.

Rogers' attorney, Larry Biegel, argued that the state knew the pigs were crossing the road to feed on vegetation in a nearby environmental restoration project. The state later put up a pig-crossing sign and used hunters to help control the pig population.

"This was a situation that they, the state, created, and then once they created it and saw what was happening they did nothing to stop it," Biegel said Saturday.

Most of the $8.6 million award will go toward Rogers' medical bills. Biegel said Rogers requires around-the-clock care and won't walk again. He said he still suffers from gaps in memory as a result of massive head injuries he suffered when he was thrown from his motorcycle.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 04:06 PM

N.H. police net alleged shrimp shoplifter
        

The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 24, 2009; 9:01 PM

SALEM, N.H. -- It appears that shrimp was his weakness. Police said a man wanted for crimes in two states was identified as a suspect in the disappearance of frozen shrimp from the same supermarket four times this month valued at over $500.

On Monday, managers at the Market Basket confronted a 46-year-old man, telling police he was attempting to take more shrimp and that he pushed a manager to try to get away. Police took the man into custody.

He was arrested on charges of shoplifting, simple assault and being a fugitive from justice. He was arraigned and held on $100,000 bail.

Police said the man was wanted in Oklahoma on a charge of drug trafficking and in Massachusetts on a larceny charge.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 04:45 PM

You're not going to tell use where he hid the shrimp? That much shrimp can't be easy to hide. ANYWHERE!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: curmudgeon
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 12:49 PM

This particular grocery chain sells gigantic frozen shrimp in two pound bags for $19.95.

Because of the lay-out of these stores, it would be possible for a miscreant to purchase a few cheap items, and then wheel his/her cart back around to get some single "forgotten" item, and while doing so, stuff two or three bags of shrimp into the bags holding the purchased items, and then check out again with something like a bottle of wine or a six-pack to go along with the shrimp. And if the person was using spacious reusable fabric shopping bags, which this chain sells for .99, it woud be even easier.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 02:29 PM

The grocery store I used to shop at regularly a few years back started arranging their carts to block all but one door at night. It seems very brazen shop-lifters used to stack toilet paper around the outside of a cart, fill the interior with expensive cuts of meat, then when they were near the door go flying out.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 09:15 PM

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- About 18,500 issues of the Daily Universe student newspaper at Brigham Young University were pulled from newsstands because a photo caption on the front page misidentified leaders of the Mormon church as apostates instead of apostles.

An apostate is a person who has abandoned religious faith, principles or a cause.

The photo was of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the weekend general conference.

The caption called the group the "Quorum of the Twelve Apostates."
The papers were replaced with corrected copies later Monday.

University spokeswoman Carri Jenkins says the typo, caused when a copy editor was running spell check, was an honest mistake. BYU is owned by the church.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: curmudgeon
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 09:28 PM

"...the typo, caused when a copy editor was running spell check, was an honest mistake."

More of a stupid mistake. Can't the copy editor read for himself? Not much of an education at that school - Tom

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 01:41 PM

An American crew has seized back control of a container ship that was commandeered by pirates in the Indian Ocean today, according to the Pentagon.

The military official said the crew was holding one pirate in custody while the others were reported to "be in the water". The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm how the Somalis found their way into the ocean.

Somali pirates hijacked the US-flagged container ship off the Horn of Africa, the first such attack on American interests.

John Reinhart, the CEO of Maersk, which owned the vessel, said the company was working to contact families of the crew. "Speculation is a dangerous thing when you're in a fluid environment. I will not confirm that the crew has overtaken this ship," he said.


All 20 American crew members aboard the Maersk Alabama were believed to be unharmed, according to Andrew Mwangura, who monitors piracy for the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme.

The ship was travelling to the Kenyan port of Mombasa and her cargo includes 232 containers of relief food destined for United Nations feeding programmes in Somalia and Uganda.

She was snatched after a sustained assault involving several pirate skiffs about 400 nautical miles east of Mogadishu. The attack lasted five hours as the ship tried unsuccessfully to evade the assault.

American officials said their first priority was the safety of the crew.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 02:00 PM

Derrick Munoz, an Amityville (N.Y.) High School student, is expected to recover from head injuries he sustained when a woman leaped to her death and landed on him at a mall, Newsday said.

Derrick, 17, was on the first floor of the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst on Wednesday when the 56-year-old woman landed on him after jumping from a third-floor balcony, Munoz's family told WPIX/Channel 11. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

"He was sitting there minding his own business," Derrick's father, Ruben Munoz, told WPIX. "It was pretty shocking."

Witnesses told the television station that the unidentified woman appeared to argue with other people, believed to be her relatives, before taking off her shoes and jacket and dropping her purse. She then dangled from a balcony railing and let go, witnesses said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Apr 09 - 09:25 PM

Here is a story I am glad to see about the way the Obamas can get a good start with their new dog.

'Dog Whisperer' Cesar Millan's advice for First Dog Bo Obama

Now that we know the Obamas' pet is a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog named Bo, we turned to dog trainer extraordinaire Cesar Millan for advice on how the Obamas can get off on the right foot with the dog. (It might help if the Obamas tuned in to Millan's show, Dog Whisperer, on National Geographic Channel Fridays at 8 p.m.)

The word is that Bo came from a Texas breeder, was sold to a family and then brought back. Knowing how spirited Portuguese water dogs can be, that makes us a little nervous for Bo. How can the dog make sure his first 100 days in the White House are a success? Millan had the answers:

1. Bo is going to be the world's most famous dog with nearly every bark and misbehavior chronicled. What are the most important training tips for a dog getting all that attention?
Establish leadership from day one! Start off with a nice, long walk. This is the best way to bond with the new dog. Make sure Bo is next to you or behind you. Canine pack leaders walk in front. Establish rules, boundaries and leadership right from the start, and be consistent. Don't send Bo a mixed message. Then, at the end of the day when he is in resting mode, you can share all that affection you've been storing up!

By starting off right, the family can help prevent bad behavior down the road, such as excessive barking, leash-pulling or biting White House reporters.

2. Bo is new, but the house is old and rich in history. How can the Obamas make sure that this new dog doesn't rough up the Lincoln bedroom or the new White House vegetable garden?
Set rules, boundaries and limitations. Let Bo know that certain places are off-limits by claiming the area. Use your body, your mind and your calm-assertive energy to create an invisible wall that the dog is not allowed to cross.

If the family decides an area is off-limits for the dog, the dog should always be supervised in those areas. He should never be left alone there, especially in the first six months.

3. What does Barack Obama's style of leadership as a president tell us about how he'll be as a pet owner?
President Obama is a calm and assertive leader. If he applies those skills to his relationship with Bo, he'll be on the right path and a great role model for the world!

4. The president and first lady have made a point of saying that their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will have responsibilities for walking and cleaning up after Bo. Is that realistic?
Absolutely! It is important for the whole family to be involved, and walking is one of the best ways to bond with Bo. It can also help the dog to see the girls as pack leaders, and of course, it is the humans' responsibility to clean up after the dog. The girls are definitely old enough to respect an agreement to walk Bo and clean up afterwards. I would keep the routine very simple and playful.

5. If the Obamas only took one piece of advice from you about raising Bo, what should it be?
Never work against Mother Nature, always work with her. I received this piece of advice from my grandfather, and I keep it in mind every day. Animals need a balanced pack leader, and when they live with us, we can all be balanced pack leaders!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 12:49 PM

SAN DIEGO -- Harbor police officers who pulled over a driver for vehicle towing code violations found nearly 600 pounds of marijuana on the boat he was pulling, authorities said Monday.

Police arrested Brualio DeJesus and Jacyln Cisneros, both 31, on suspicion of transportation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale, said San Diego harbor police Lt. James Jordan.

Harbor police officers tried to pull over DeJesus for vehicle code violations on the 1500 block of Rosecrans Street around 6:45 p.m. Sunday, Jordan said.

DeJesus refused to comply and instead drove several blocks while followed by light-flashing, siren-blaring police cars. DeJesus finally stopped but came out of the vehicle and ran away along Rosecrans Street, Jordan said, adding he was pursued and arrested a short time later.

A harbor police dog found 589.5 pounds of marijuana in the boat being towed, Jordan said.

DeJesus was taken to San Diego Central Jail, with bail set at $70,150, according to jail records. He's scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Cisneros, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was arrested at the scene and taken to Las Colinas Detention Facility, with bail set at $60,150, according to jail records. Cosmeros is scheduled to make her first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 05:05 PM

link

Geriatric porn star an inspiration for the old
Mon Apr 13, 2009

ICHIKAWA, Japan (Reuters) - He is a typical man of age -- a few white hairs cover his round head and he wears dentures.

But 75-year-old Shigeo Tokuda sat on a movie set on Monday wearing just a silk kimono and loin cloth about to have sex on film with a woman who is younger than his daughter.

Tokuda is Japan's oldest pornographic movie star and was shooting his latest film in which he portrayed a master of sex.

The director said the films showed people that their sex lives did not have to end with old age, and in 16 years of making such movies Tokuda has acted up with women ranging from their 20s to as old as himself.

"I debuted at 59, and have played in more than 200 porno movies since then," he said, using his screen name, not his real one in an interview on the set.

"I wanted to challenge what ordinary people did not, so I decided to be a porno actor."

In Monday's film he used vibrators, whips and candle lights to show the master satisfying a 36-year-old actress. The film was not scripted.

Tokuda turned to the pornographic industry late. He lived a typical Japanese office worker's life as a travel agent after graduating from one of Tokyo's elite colleges.

The career sideline came about because he was unsatisfied with a lack of story lines in sex movies he'd seen, which led to a discussion with a film producer about whether he could do better.

It took a couple of years of thinking about it but Tokuda eventually took his pants off for the camera.

Since then, he has became a popular figure in porn movies for rent in Japan, with its rapidly aging population and long life expectancy. One in five Japanese is over 65 years-old.

"Other old men think they can do it because he can. The elderly can feel secure and encouragement when they see his films," said Gaichi Kono, the director of Tokuda's latest film.

Japan's elderly are rejecting the idea that growing old means slowing down, said Chineko Araki, a professor of social welfare from Den-en Chofu University.

"More than 50 percent of men over 65 are eager to have a sexual relationship with their partners," she said in an email interview.

Tokuda's films will soon be offered to Japanese retirement homes, exports beckon and they may be shown on the Internet.

Tokuda says his wife and daughter pretend not to know and his friends will never guess.

"But my job makes me keep alive," he says, adding he plans to keep going at least till he hits 80 years old.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 06:10 PM

Library patrons: no open drinks, no noise, no stink.

Public libraries: Poor hygiene might get you tossed
Schaumburg Township District Library adds 'offensive bodily odors' to its prohibitions

Chicago Tribune
April 13, 2009

Patrons of the Schaumburg Township District Library have never been allowed to bring in the noise. Now they can't bring in the funk.

The library recently added "offensive bodily odors" to its list of prohibitions, joining more traditional no-nos such as running, rowdiness or toting an uncovered beverage.

Director Stephanie Sarnoff said the aroma would have to be so overpowering that it interfered with others' use of the facility. And while the policy stemmed from complaints about an apparently homeless person, Sarnoff said it would apply just as much to an overuse of perfume as an underuse of soap.

"People who use libraries are usually very understanding about the foibles of others," she said. "So when one or more library users complain that another person's hygiene is of such poor quality that it is prohibiting them from pursuing what they want to do, their problem becomes our problem."

Though it's a new issue for the Schaumburg library, other book lenders around the Chicago area have long imposed such bans. They say they must balance their mission of welcoming all segments of society with the need to maintain an orderly building.

Advocates for the homeless, though, say it's not easy for a person living on the street to stay clean. Shelters can be full or far away, and places with sinks or showers are often unwilling to let the destitute use them.

"I really can't think of any cases where I've met someone who says, 'I like the fact that I smell,' " said Todd Stull, director of the HOPE Center in Palatine. "It really is a fact of not enough money and not enough places willing to help them stay clean. They sort of become these victims of circumstance."

Public libraries are bustling these days, thanks in part to the swelling ranks of the jobless, but they have always been a haven for people with nowhere else to go. In some towns, that includes a fair number of people with unpleasant hygiene.

Jim Johnston, director of the Joliet Public Library, said some visitors have reeked so mightily that they have literally prompted others to vomit. Less dramatic cases can still interfere with someone's right to use the library in peace, he said, and such patrons are told to leave until they clean up.

"We still try to be humane about it," he said. "The citizens have a right to use the library. That doesn't really depend on their economic status. But what you cannot do is keep someone else from using and enjoying the place."

Unpleasant odors were not a major concern at the Aurora Public Library until recently, when a rearranging of the furniture created a pod of comfy chairs around the magazines and newspapers.

"It has caused those patrons who had a problem with body odor to be congregating in groups," director Eva Luckinbill said.

The library's code of conduct is silent on the issue of hygiene, and Luckinbill said she might like to have an explicit guideline to which she could refer a quarrelsome patron. But she is conflicted about it.

She takes pride in the library's openness to all and has rejected calls from nearby businesses to bar the homeless from her building. But she said a minimal level of hygiene and decorum is not too much to ask, noting that some residents of a nearby shelter are model library patrons—quiet, respectful and tidily kept.

"As long as they obey the library code-of-conduct guidelines, we don't judge," she said.

When someone feels as though he is being judged, though, it can sting even years later. Antoine Smith, 25, who said he spent time on the streets after being kicked out of his home as a teenager, still recalls the humiliation of being told to leave the Legler branch of the Chicago Public Library.

"It's like people just picking on you for no reason," Smith said. "Like you're just there and they can do whatever they want. They don't care if you're human."

Aside from patrons with offensive hygiene, Chicago's public libraries ban those who carry more than two bags or who try to bathe, shave or wash their clothes on the premises. But spokeswoman Ruth Lednicer said those policies were not aimed at transients; the bag guideline, for instance, is meant to keep the aisles clear and has been invoked when out-of-town visitors bring in suitcases, she said.

The comparatively prosperous village of Schaumburg does not face such overt issues of homelessness. Some frequent visitors said they have never noticed a problem.

"I honestly think [the ban] is building on stereotypes, that we have to keep them away from the normal citizens," said Sittie Jackson, 27.

But Sarnoff, who said no one has gotten an odor warning since the policy was enacted in February, maintained that a librarian must balance everyone's rights. That extends far beyond olfactory matters.

The library will next address the propriety of sleeping amid the stacks (many libraries already ban extended snoozing). The staff also has had to tell a group that occasionally prayed in a stairwell that it would have to confine its worship to meeting rooms for safety reasons.

Even so, Sarnoff said, such issues are still relatively minor in a library that sees more than 1 million patrons a year.

"A bigger problem," she said, "is wheelie shoes."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 10:35 PM

DENVER - One Colorado woman's love for tofu has been judged X-rated by state officials.

Kelly Coffman-Lee wanted to tell the world about her fondness for bean curd by picking certain letters for her SUV's licence plate. Her suggestion for the plate: "ILVTOFU."

But the Division of Motor Vehicles blocked her plan because they thought the combination of letters could be interpreted as profane.

Says Department of Revenue spokesman Mark Couch: "We don't allow 'FU' because some people could read that as street language for sex."

Officials meet periodically to ensure state plates stay free of letters that abbreviate gang slang, drug terms or obscene phrases.

The 38-year-old Coffman-Lee says tofu is a staple of her family's diet because they are vegan and that the DMV misinterpreted her message.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 10:12 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY. Another story along the lines of Paul Potts.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 07:27 PM

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday claimed its own version of Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, after the birth of a cloned camel in Dubai this month.


"This is the first cloned camel in the world," said Dr Nisar Wani, researcher at the Camel Reproduction Centre.

Injaz, a female one-humped camel, was born on April 8 after more than five years of work by scientists at the Camel Reproduction Centre and the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, The National newspaper reported.

"This significant breakthrough in our research programme gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk producing camels in the future," Dr Lulu Skidmore, scientific director at the Camel Reproduction Centre, said in a statement.
Injaz, whose name means achievement in Arabic, is the clone of a camel that was slaughtered for its meat in 2005, the National said.

Scientists used DNA extracted from cells in the ovaries of the slain animal and put it into an egg taken from the surrogate mother to create a reconstructed embryo, it said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 03:17 PM

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A carrier pigeon in Colombia gave new meaning to the term "jailbird" when officials discovered that it was trying to smuggle cell phone parts into a high-security prison, a news report said.

The carrier pigeon has Colombian authorities concerned there may be a new way to smuggle goods into prisons.

The carrier pigeon has Colombian authorities concerned there may be a new way to smuggle goods into prisons.

The bird was carrying the contraband on its back in a little suitcase, the Caracol news outlet said Monday.

Heavy rains prevented the plumed smuggler from entering the prison in north central Colombia, said the police chief in Boyaca state, Juan Carlos Polania.

Authorities are worried, Polania said, because this is a newly discovered way of smuggling goods into the prison, and officials have no way of combating it. They also are wondering whether any of the many pigeons that live in or near the prison are pulling double duty.

As for the miscreant bird, he was taken to an animal shelter in the city of Soraca.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 12:42 PM

Renowned Pentagon tech-tomfoolery agency DARPA has announced a new plan to create mighty artificial intelligences. The so-called "Deep Learning" machines will be used to trawl through petabytes of video from robot aircraft prowling the skies - initially, apparently, seeking out threatening horses and cows.

According to DARPA boffinry chiefs, setting out the rationale for "Deep Learning" technology, the US military and spook communities are hip-deep in surveillance and intel data, and sinking fast. Hence the need for artificial intelligence (ha ha):

    A rapidly increasing volume of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) information is available to the Department of Defense (DOD) as a result of the increasing numbers, sophistication, and resolution of ISR resources and capabilities. The amount of video data produced annually by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) alone is in the petabyte range, and growing rapidly. Full exploitation of this information is a major challenge. Human observation and analysis of ISR assets is essential, but the training of humans is both expensive and time-consuming. Human performance also varies due to individuals' capabilities and training, fatigue, boredom, and human attentional capacity.

    One response to this situation is to employ machines ...

It seems there are already plenty of basic "shallow learning" AIs in use, including such Stone Age expedients as "Support Vector Machines (SVMs), two-layer Neural Networks (NNs), and Hidden Markov Models (HMMs)". But these are scarcely better than a human with poor "attentional capacity"*. The trouble with the shallow learners is that they can learn, erm, only at a shallow level:

    Shallow methods may be effective in creating simple internal representations ... A classification task such as recognizing a horse in an image will use these simple representations in many different configurations to recognize horses in various poses, orientations and sizes. Such a task requires large amounts of labelled images of horses and non-horses. This means that if the task were to change to recognizing cows, one would have to start nearly from scratch with a new, large set of labelled data.

In essence, a specialised horse-spotter machine unable to recognise a cow isn't much use for sorting the sheep from the goats. (We're plainly in the War On Livestock here.) That's why DARPA want "deeply layered" learning machines, able to apply horse sense to recognising cows, sheep and goats.

    Deeply layered methods should create richer representations that may include furry, four-legged mammals at higher levels, resulting in a head start for learning cows and thereby requiring much less labelled data when compared to a shallow method. A Deep Learning system exposed to unlabelled natural images will automatically create high-level concepts of four-legged mammals on its own, even without labels. (The Register)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:22 PM

Invasion of New Mexico by Americans a worry 40 years before the Mexican War.

Zebulon Pike was sent to explore the southern limits of the Louisiana Purchase. Pike and his party wandered into Spanish Territory, south-central Colorado.
The party was arrested and taken to Santa Fe, held for a while, later sent to Chihuahua and released.
John Sparks, with Pike's expedition, told New Mexico governor Joaquin Real Alencaster, that Pike'a superior would assume capture and send a large party to New Mexico on a rescue expedition.
Gov. Alencaster took steps to challenge it and had a fort built to the east as a measure against the possible invaders.
The remains of a fort were briefly investigated in the 20th c, and in 1980 an aerial photograph showed a large cluster of small rooms surrounded by a wall with turrets (photo included in article).

The Santa Rosa dam flooded the area, and the site is under water, so further study is impossible.
The story is told in more detail by Marc Simmons, historian, in the Santa Fe New Mexican, 4/17/2009.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/PrintStory/Fort-likely-a-response-to-Pike-s-expedition

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:58 PM

Q, your link was to a printable page, and it tried to run my printer. :)

This link goes to the regular web page.

We have a lot of information about that territory and this ill-fated expedition at UT Arlington in Special Collections. There is a newsletter called Compass Rose in which I think we ran an article about a map that Sparks drew--we have a copy of it in our collection. It would have been from that expedition.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 07:25 PM

SRS, wasn't aware of printable pages doing that.

Some years ago, I visited the archives in Seville. When I saw this article, I wondered if there were some unseen reports from Alencaster there.
Everything in the archives has been filed carefully, but sometimes it is hard to find just how it was done.
When I was young, I remember a Santa Fe lawyer going there to check grants and titles with regard to a land dispute.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:12 PM

The article I posted about Zebulon Pike and Governor Alencastre (correct spelling, from other sources) caused me to check other sources in my library, esp. Major Z. M. Pike, 1810, "An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, etc. etc. and a Tour through the Interior Parts of New Spain.... 1807," Binns, March of America Facsimile ser. 57; and R. E. Twitchell, 1911, "Leading Facts of New Mexico History," vol. one.

The story by Marc Simmons has errors, and parts are questionable.

Pike (mostly from his book) and his party were approached by the Spanish troops at his 'Fort' which Pike thought was near the headwaters of the Red River. The Spaniards told him it was near the headwaters of the Rio Grande del Norte, and that the Red River was some eight days hard march from Santa Fe; an escort there was offered, but his excellency (Alencastre) was anxious to see him in Santa Fe.
The escorted trip, though carried out with all courtesy, of course was mandatory. During his stay in Santa Fe, and later on the escorted journey to Chihuahua, his captive party was provided with food, clothing and animals for transport. Pike was questioned, but politely; the Spanish deprived him of his maps. Pike himself and some others were entertained at the homes of leading citizens, and Pike mentions the fine wines and gracious hospitality received in Alburquerque (original spelling).

As to the 'fort' described in Simmon's article, its origin and use is questionable.
1. It resembles a pueblo structure, esp. the clustered rooms; the round towers on the walls occur on some early pueblo-Anasazi settlements; at least one such tower is preserved at a still-active pueblo.
2. There is no mention in Spanish archives of such a structure; if Twitchell and subsequent historians had found any information, they would have noted the fact.
It seems likely that the 'fort' was an abandoned pueblo, but since it now is under water, proof is lacking. I do not have information on archaeological work in the area, but field studies may have been done there.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:50 PM

The URL in Q's first link includes a call to an action called "PrintStory" which apparently calls up a printer-ready format of the story, and also issues a print command. It does this even on a Mac running Safari. First time I've seen that embedded in a URL.



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 12:30 AM

Q,

I went through a few issues and didn't find the map I remember seeing, or the article about it. But this link takes you to the Compass Rose newsletter and you'll find articles about a lot of our interesting acquisitions. If you visit the Special Collections finding aids page (here) you can look for a lot of interesting stuff.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 01:40 PM

Thanks, SRS. Some interesting notes, and I bookmarked the finding aids- which seems very well organized.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 06:05 PM

Thanks! You know how it is, librarians are the original search engines!

Meanwhile, a man, perhaps a contestant in the Darwin Awards, caused this stir:

Man set house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter
A man had to be rescued after setting the front of his house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter.
link (Telegraph.co.uk)
Firefighters say the man, in his 40s, had been trying to set fire to the spider as it crawled up the front of the semi-detached property

But sparks reached material behind the cladding and caused a fire within the walls, shortly before midnight.

Three fire engines raced to the scene in Portsmouth, Hants, and found the man trying to put out the flames with a garden hose.

Firefighters in breathing apparatus removed the cladding and spent two hours putting the fire out.

Watch manager Steve Pearce said: "The man was trying to put the fire out with a garden hose when we arrived.

"The whole thing had clearly scared the life out of him.

"There was a gap in the cladding where he was trying to kill the spider and so the sparks got through to the material behind and started spreading upwards towards the roof.

"Our concern was that it would reach the roof and the property would be lost.

"We sent firefighters up into the loft to put it out and fortunately we were able to stop it in time.

"Surprisingly there wasn't much damage to the house other than to the cladding.

"We obviously had a chat with the man but I don't think he'll be doing this again."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 10:13 AM

For Dallas and Donna Keen, the mission is saving thoroughbreds
Star-Telegram link to story

GRAND PRAIRIE — He's so very tall and big and red, his eye so intense, that he easily could intimidate or even frighten. But instead he lowers his head to invite a friendly pat. If ignored, he nuzzles the turned-away shoulder as if to ask, please, for just another moment of attention.

He's Lights On Broadway, the Texas-bred Horse of the Year in 2001. He's remarkably gregarious and friendly for a former racehorse, especially considering what he's had to endure. And he's so gentle that it strains understanding to contemplate the motives and the insensitivity that could have compelled, or allowed, somebody to sell him by the pound. Sell him to be slaughtered.

But Lights On Broadway was rescued. The 12-year-old returned to Lone Star Park recently, just for a visit, before going to his new home and to, well, the sort of retirement he deserves.

Lights On Broadway earned $572,445 in his 83-race career. Running for six trainers and various owners, he won 15 races, including six stakes, half of those at Lone Star.

But by 2005, the champion had slipped into the claiming ranks. In other words, he was competing in races where all the horses were offered for sale. And indeed three times he was sold, or claimed, out of these races. The slip became a slide, then a tumble, and last year he dropped precipitately to the bottom, running for a claiming price of $2,500 at Fonner Park in Grand Island, Neb.

Shortly after that, Texas' former Horse of the Year stood helplessly in the back of a trailer on its way to a rendering plant. Just by chance, Gregg Sanders, a quarter horse trainer in Oklahoma who knew of the horse, happened upon the van. Later, the Fans of Barbaro became involved, along with an anonymous Samaritan who donated more than $2,000 to the cause, and Angelo Trosclair's Thoroughbred Transport, and Donna and Dallas Keen. They all took a stand against the insensitivity that had put Lights On Broadway in that position.

"A lot of people think thoroughbreds are too high-strung to be retrained," Donna Keen said. "But they're smart. They can do a lot of things."

The Keens, of course, have a large stable at Lone Star, where Dallas ranks among the all-time leading trainers. But they don't train only racehorses; they also have a farm in Burleson, where they prepare former racehorses for other careers. That's where Lights On Broadway went, for retraining, after his misadventures.

"He was so thin you could count his ribs," Dallas Keen said, recalling Lights On Broadway's arrival. "And he had abscesses in three of his feet."

But that's all behind him. Around the barn at Lone Star, people call him "Super Pony." He's so tractable that Donna can ride him without a bridle. He literally follows her around, like a faithful dog, and when she opens her arms, he hurries to put as much of himself between them as he can fit.

But he's just one of many success stories for the Keens.

For $500 at the Weatherford Cow Sale, Donna purchased the big gray horse, Wyatt. He has become her regular pony, and she rides him — without a bridle, of course — at the racetrack. Wyatt also went through a period of retraining. He's so smart, she explained, that he can unfasten latches and open doors. He once got out of his stall at the farm, she recalled, and let out all the other horses, too, except one, the ornery one. An escape artist, he loves to rummage through trash cans to look for doughnuts.

Dallas' pony, Eye Man Who, won his debut at Lone Star in 2006. He won two more races before an injury forced the end of his racing career. Thanks to the Keens, though, Eye Man Who still has a career. He's a saddle horse, a trick pony and a careful observer of human nature. He does just about everything but bring in the morning newspaper, and he'd probably do that, too, if he knew it contained race results.

Over the last two years, the Keens have rescued more than 35 horses. In many cases, these were former racehorses that the Keens retrained and then placed in a new home. With the arrival and placement of Lights On Broadway, the effort, Donna Keen said, has intensified.

And it now has a name, the Remember Me Rescue project.

Team Keen To learn more about the Keens' mission, their Remember Me Rescue organization or how to help retired race horses, visit www.teamkeen.com.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 May 09 - 01:14 PM

Herald story about WASPs

Wartime pilot's service honored at long last

OAK HARBOR -- Marge Neyman Martin flew across the West during World War II, delivering aircraft parts and carrying classified military documents.

As a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, she was part of a wave of young women who took to the air to fly planes stateside while most male pilots were sent overseas on combat missions.

After her service, Martin returned to her job as a secretary.

Now, the 88-year-old former aviator could be in line for a Congressional Gold Medal.

Legislation designed to award the federal honor to Martin and other surviving WASPs throughout the country is before a Senate committee. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., are among the bill's sponsors.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," Martin said. "It gives a little recognition to the women who opened the doors back then."

The pioneering women aviators have received little acknowledgement for their wartime service. Of the 1,102 women who earned their wings as WASPs, about 300 are still alive. Twelve of those surviving pilots, including Martin, live in Washington state.

"These brave pilots have inspired decades of women service members who have followed in their footsteps," Murray said when the bill was introduced. "They took flight at a time when the idea of women aviators was thought not only improbable, but impossible. They risked their lives, but for too long their service has not been recognized."

Born in the early 1920s on Whidbey Island, Martin graduated from business school and was a secretary for Standard Oil Co. in Seattle when the United States entered World War II.

"It was a very patriotic time," Martin said. "We were all wondering what we could do to help the war effort."

When Martin read in a newspaper that the country had launched a program to train women to fly military aircraft in noncombat missions, she immediately requested a leave of absence from her job.

"Flying seemed like the thing to do to help because there was a shortage of male pilots at home," she said. "And it sounded terribly exciting."

Martin headed to Felts Field in Spokane to obtain her pilot's license. She bunked at the YWCA and in a few weeks had completed the required 35 hours of flight time. Back in Seattle, she took ground school courses and waited for the day she would be accepted into the WASP training program.

In January 1944, she arrived at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. As a native Northwesterner, Martin found the winter there harsh and the summer unbearably hot.

"Texas was terrible," she said. "But when you're young, you can manage those things."

The nine-month training program, with long days of studying and flying, was stressful physically and mentally. With the exception of combat and formation classes, the women got the same training their male counterparts received in two years of pilot preparation.

"You had to be the best you could be, because it was very competitive," Martin said. "I was always worried, wondering if I would make it or if I would wash out."

Of the 25,000 women who applied for the WASP program, only 2,000 were accepted for training and just half of those graduated and got flying assignments.

After getting her silver wings, Martin was sent to Douglas Army Airfield in Arizona. From there she flew many courier missions to California and up the West Coast.

The example set by the Women Airforce Service Pilots paved the way for the Pentagon to lift the ban on women attending military flight training in the 1970s, and eventually led to women becoming military pilots. Today, women fly every type of aircraft and mission, including fighter jets and the space shuttle.

When the war ended in 1945, the men began to return. The WASPs were told to go home, and they paid their own way to get there. The WASPs were never awarded full military status and were ineligible for officer status and veterans benefits.

The families of the 38 women who died in the line of duty were saddled with the costs of bringing home the bodies and arranging burials. It was not until 1977 that the WASPs were granted veteran status.

"I was heartbroken when we were deactivated," Martin said. "Everybody was."

She rejoined Standard Oil in San Francisco where she worked as the executive secretary in the aviation oils division. When her boss wanted to sell his private airplane, she flew it to demonstrate it for the buyers.

After marrying, Martin moved back to Whidbey Island to raise her family and occasionally flew with her husband, who also was a pilot.

When her four children were old enough, she returned to work at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. She retired in 1982 as secretary to the commanding officer at the base.

"It was a great job and my experience as a military pilot was a great help," Martin said. "People knew that I knew what I was talking about."

For many years Martin continued flying with her son, a Vietnam veteran. Now that arthritis keeps her behind a walker or in a wheelchair, she expects she's taken her last airplane ride.

Not even a public ceremony awarding her the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington, D.C., would get the grandmother of four to fly.

"That doesn't mean I wouldn't be honored to get the medal," Martin said. "I just don't feel top drawer anymore. We worked hard."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 May 09 - 04:51 AM

No butts: Officials to smoke or be fined

Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reports.

The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, the report said.

"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.

China has 350 million smokers, of whom a million die of smoking-related diseases every year.

More than half of all male doctors in China smoke, but the Government is now trying harder to get them to kick the habit in order to set an example for others.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 May 09 - 11:23 AM

If they're looking for income, better to pay the fine than smoke the cigarettes and pay the tax. And die early.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 May 09 - 11:37 PM

This morning I heard an consultant who has worked with Chinese (national) health authorities on anti-smoking programs comment on this story. He said that the central authorities might put pressure on the regional govt. to change the policy.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Donuel
Date: 05 May 09 - 08:35 PM

Rose, I love your stories.

Man released from prison is re arrested and sent back to jail the same day, for wearing his prisoner T shirt outside the prison.

He was charged for being in possesion of stolen merchandise.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 09 - 12:34 PM

Obama breaks from Bush on prayer day
link. About time!

President Obama's latest break from his predecessor is drawing some ire among some Christian groups.

While former President Bush held formal events in the White House each year to mark the National Day of Prayer, Obama is opting today for a private observance and will later issue an official proclamation.

"We are disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration," Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said in a statement. "At this time in our country's history, we would hope our president would recognize more fully the importance of prayer."

The theme for the 58th annual observance is "Prayer... America's Hope" and is based on Psalm 33:22: "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

But other religious groups praised Obama for dialing back the observance, and accused the task force of trying to exclude non-Christians. Dobson is the spouse of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, a politically active Christian conservative group.

"It is a shame that the National Day of Prayer Task Force seems to think it owns the National Day of Prayer," the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement. The alliance sent a letter to Obama urging him to make this year's observance more inclusive of other faiths.

"Once again, the Task Force is misrepresenting the purpose of this national observance," Gaddy added. "President Obama is not the pastor-in-chief of the nation and Shirley Dobson's Task Force is not the spiritual judge of the president's personal or official actions."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 13 May 09 - 02:39 PM

Maine event: 'A moose fell from the sky'



It wasn't your typical morning commute today for one motorist in Clinton, Maine, according to assistant town clerk Shirley Bailey, who answered the phone a little after 8 a.m.

"I was driving under the bridge on Hinckley Road and a moose fell from the sky," the driver told Bailey, who described the unidentified man as "a little shook up."

"It was quite frightening, I guess," she told the Kennebec Journal.

The 500-pound yearling bull moose fell 18 feet to its death when it apparently became spooked by traffic on an Interstate 95 overpass and leaped a guardrail, police said.

A passing tow truck hauled the carcass away, the AP adds.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 May 09 - 02:44 PM

It's been known to rain meese in Blind River, Amos, but only on the rarest of occasions. Shane got caught in a moose shower once coming out of the Iron Horse Tavern after last call, and he was nearly killed.