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

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

Looks like the indoctrination was successful in Florida.

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

300

SRS

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

Oh, well, close.

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

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

Another mysterious right foot floats ashore in Gulf Islands
CBC News

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

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

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

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

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

Two feet found in August

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aha! Perhaps one has already been written.

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

The Thing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



A

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

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

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

Simple, really.

John

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

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

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

Something's afoot.

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

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

Do feet have souls?

(Sorry.)

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

Woman Says She's Tired Of Being Declared Dead

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By ANDREA L. FOSTER

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pushing Books on the Web

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

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

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

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

Striking a Deal with OCLC

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

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

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

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

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

Man's quest to document black history

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

... [additional at the link]

John

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

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

SRS

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

Stilly -

Possibly you're remembering:

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

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

John

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

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


A

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

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

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

SRS

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

Amos -

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

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

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

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

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

John

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'Lost,' ABC shows to be available on demand

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

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

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

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

John

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

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

Alaska's largest city holds first reindeer run

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

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

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


A

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

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

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

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


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

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

Air Car could Come to America

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

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

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

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

John

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

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

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

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


A

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

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

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

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 11:47 AM

Warrantless Searches Removed From Legislation in Mexico

   
By MARC LACEY
Published: February 27, 2008
MEXICO CITY — Mexican lawmakers on Tuesday stripped a controversial provision from their plan to overhaul the country's judiciary that would have given police officers, who are widely mistrusted here, the ability to enter homes without obtaining warrants beforehand.

Warrantless searches would have been allowed only in emergencies and in cases of hot pursuit of criminal suspects. But human rights groups had strongly opposed the measure, fearing that a police force notorious for corruption would abuse the authority.

---

Does anyone know the tune to "The World Turned Upside Down"?



A
One newspaper labeled the plan the "Gestapo law."

The last-minute change, approved overwhelmingly by the House of Deputies, delays passage of a revamping of the country's judicial system that is meant to speed up trials that now stretch on for years and to better equip the country in its battle against narcotics traffickers.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 05:26 PM

NO OVERFLIGHTS!

Santa Fe, NM, remains a state capital without air service.
Tribal leaders at Santo Domingo Pueblo have objected to commercial flights from Los Angeles to Santa Fe because they would fly over Santo Domingo lands. As a result, a Federal environment assessment is required.
Not only would overflights be objectionable for noise and privacy reasons, but passengers might take photographs of their Pueblo and lands.
Airlines applying for permission to service Santa Fe are Delta and American Eagle. Article Feb 27, 2008.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Pueblos-concerns-snag-S-F-flights

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 06:00 PM

Does anyone know the tune to "The World Turned Upside Down"?

I'm assuming that is a rhetorical question?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 10:53 AM

As I was watching the news (CBS I believe) while getting ready for work this morning they did a story on the US economy. The housing crisis, fears of inflation and the credit crunch were all mentioned. One of the comments about the credit crunch just floored me. They were saying that banks have tightened up their lending practices which makes it more difficult for poeple to get loans. Then they said that "if people can't borrow, they can't spend."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 11:11 AM

Scary thought, isn't it? But I suppose in that context of buying a home, where most people don't have the price of a house up front, you do have to "borrow to spend."

Let me go check those numbers on last night's lotto ticket. . .

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 11:37 AM

In the context of a home loan then cleary it is true for most people (my in-laws paid cash). I like to think that is what was meant but they didn't say so explicitly. The phrase really caught my ear though, whatever they actually meant.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 11:40 AM

By the by, they could pay cash because they are tight as a drum.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 12:58 PM

Except for our house, we have paid cash for everything we have -- well, we did a few home improvement jobs on time, but with zero per cent interest for 12 months, and we made damn sure to pay them off completely before any interest became due. We buy week-to-week on credit card and pay the full amount off each billing period, and refuse to pay interest if we can possibly avoid it.

Still, it was a rhetorical question in ligth of the fact that Mexico, notorious for corruption and authoritarian priveleged leadership, is now making laws constraining warrantless search while our administration is demanding the right for warrantless search.

A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 07:02 PM

Note to all non-critical thinkers out there: When books suggest that a 4 to 8 year old child lived in Europe with wild wolves then trekked 1,900 miles across many nations to find her parents, don't believe it.

From the following article is this paragraph:

She didn't live with a pack of wolves to escape the Nazis. She didn't trek 1,900 miles across Europe in search of her deported parents, nor kill a German soldier in self-defense. She's not even Jewish.

I haven't read this book. If I did, I wouldn't read this as nonfiction. This falls in the category of "memoir," in which a fanciful re-telling of a life is conducted by the author. Some people confuse "memoir" with "autobiography." Apparently a lot of people do, if they translated it as often and sold as many as this article says.

I wonder also that "Sharon Sergeant, a genealogical researcher in Waltham" should go to such great lengths to track all of this stuff down? Why didn't she simply say "this is utter nonsense. Prove it or call it fiction or memoir."

No common sense in this entire episode. It looks like everyone got what they diserved. At the end of the story there is a line Lee, of Newton, muttered "Oh my God" when told Defonseca made up her childhood and was not Jewish. Really? You really believed that an 8-year-old child trekked 1,900 miles and lived with wolves? Really? I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like you to invest in. . .

---

Writer Admits Holocaust Book Is Not True
February 29, 2008

BOSTON - Almost nothing Misha Defonseca wrote about herself or her horrific childhood during the Holocaust was true.

She didn't live with a pack of wolves to escape the Nazis. She didn't trek 1,900 miles across Europe in search of her deported parents, nor kill a German soldier in self-defense. She's not even Jewish.

Defonseca, a Belgian writer now living in Massachusetts, admitted through her lawyers this week that her best-selling book, "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years," was an elaborate fantasy she kept repeating, even as the book was translated into 18 languages and made into a feature film in France.

"This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving," Defonseca said in a statement given by her lawyers to The Associated Press.

"I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed. I beg you to put yourself in my place, of a 4-year-old girl who was very lost," the statement said.

Defonseca, 71, has an unlisted number in Dudley, about 50 miles southwest of Boston. Her husband, Maurice, told The Boston Globe on Thursday that she would not comment.

Defonseca wrote in her book that Nazis seized her parents when she was a child, forcing her to wander the forests and villages of Europe alone for four years. She claimed she found herself trapped in the Warsaw ghetto and was adopted by a pack of wolves that protected her.

Her two Brussels-based lawyers said the author acknowledged her story was not autobiographical. In the statement, Defonseca said she never fled her home in Brussels during the war to find her parents.

Defonseca says her real name is Monique De Wael and that her parents were arrested and killed by Nazis as Belgian resistance fighters.

The statement said her parents were arrested when she was 4 and she was taken care of by her grandfather and uncle. She said she was poorly treated by her adopted family, called a "daughter of a traitor" because of her parents' role in the resistance, which she said led her to "feel Jewish."

She said there were moments when she "found it difficult to differentiate between what was real and what was part of my imagination."

Pressure on the author to defend the accuracy of her book had grown in recent weeks, after the release of evidence found by Sharon Sergeant, a genealogical researcher in Waltham. Sergeant said she found clues in the unpublished U.S. version of the book, including Defonseca's maiden name "De Wael" - which was changed in the French version - and photos.

After a few months of research, she found Defonseca's Belgian baptismal certificate and school record, as well as information that showed her parents were members of the Belgian resistance.

"Each piece was plausible, but the difficulty was when you put it all together," Sergeant said.

Others also had doubts.

"I'm not an expert on relations between humans and wolves, but I am a specialist of the persecution of Jews, and they (Defonseca's family) can't be found in the archives," Belgian historian Maxime Steinberg told RTL television. "The De Wael family is not Jewish nor were they registered as Jewish."

Defonseca's attorneys, siblings Nathalie and Marc Uyttendaele, contacted the author last weekend to show her evidence published in the Belgian daily Le Soir, which also questioned her story.

"We gave her this information and it was very difficult. She was confronted with a reality that is different from what she has been living for 70 years," Nathalie Uyttendaele said.

Defonseca's admission is just the latest controversy surrounding her 1997 book, which also spawned a multimillion dollar legal battle between the woman, her co-author and the book's U.S. publisher.

Defonseca had been asked to write the book by publisher Jane Daniel in the 1990s, after Daniel heard the writer tell the story in a Massachusetts synagogue.

Daniel and Defonseca fell out over profits received from the best-selling book, which led to a lawsuit. In 2005, a Boston court ordered Daniel to pay Defonseca and her ghost writer Vera Lee $22.5 million. Defonseca's lawyers said Daniel has not yet paid the court-ordered sum.

Daniel said Friday she felt vindicated by Defonseca's admission and would try to get the judgment overturned. She said she could not fully research Defonseca's story before it was published because the woman claimed she did not know her parents' names, her birthday or where she was born.

"There was nothing to go on to research," she said.

Lee, of Newton, muttered "Oh my God" when told Defonseca made up her childhood and was not Jewish. She said she always believed the stories the woman told her as they prepared to write the book, and no research she did gave her a reason not to.

"She always maintained that this was truth as she recalled it, and I trusted that that was the case," Lee said. "I was just totally bowled over by the news."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 07:07 PM

"We always paid for everything except our house"
I'm one up on you Amos

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 04:19 PM

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.

"(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control," he said.

The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning.

Girotti, in an interview headlined "New Forms of Social Sin," also listed "ecological" offences as modern evils.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 04:25 PM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian tank crashed through a villager's house after the crew stopped to buy more vodka at a nearby shop.

Footage from a mobile phone camera showed the tank hitting a corner of the house and a laughing, and apparently drunk, driver awkwardly trying to clamber aboard with two bottles of vodka.

"Get him out of the tank," screamed a woman in the village in the Urals.

The army promised Friday to pay compensation and said the tank must have been broken and fallen behind a column heading to a test site for exercises. Earlier it said the vehicle slid on melting ice.

"Of course, there were violations but the crew acted in good faith to catch up with its unit," said Colonel Konstantin Lazutkin, spokesman for Russia's Volga-Urals Military District.

"Thank God, they didn't shoot," the house owner said on the video.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 08:44 PM

I heard about the tank on the news this morning. We have lots of tanked drivers here too, it's nothing new, drivers hitting houses. There is one guy a few miles from here who has had to rebuild his garage TWICE because of drunk drivers.

My mother told a story about a relative's house that was situated on a corner out in a rural part of the county road apporaching the tiny town of Silvana, in Washington State. He had a big lilac hedge around that corner, and every so often a drunk driver would plow into it. He would fine them for damaging his hedge.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 10:48 PM

DOnuel:

Our house is paid for; we just didn't have the price in cash to hand when we bought it, so we used a mortgage and paid down principle on alternate 15 day intervals until it was paid off.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 10:52 PM

We have one house in Wichita that was repeatedly slammed by inattentive drivers. It's at a "T" intersection where a "one-way" street dead-ends and a turn is required. Lots of cars didn't make the turn.

After the fifth or sixth rebuild, and inadequate compensation from city and insurers, the owner erected a four foot tall by four foot thick brick (faced) wall reinforced with railroad track in place of normal Re-Bar. He was subsequently forced to install heavy plantings to "slow them down" before impact to avoid a "growth of ugliness" in the wall.

The city threatened to sue on grounds that the wall was a "hazard to motorists," but in recent years have cooperated by not repairing any potholes in the three or four blocks approacing the intersection, and with the resulting slow-down in traffic there have been no recent reports of further crashes.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 10:57 PM

I'm the target in a T intersection, and have been slowly building a berm in the front yard right there at that point. It isn't very big yet, might send a car airborn if it's going very fast. But I'm working on it. There is a tree in front of it, but the last one was a dud and has about died. I'll plant a new one this spring.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 11:35 AM

BOULDER, Colo. -- A Boulder woman said she will fight a $1,000 fine she was given for coloring her miniature poodle pink.

Joy Douglas said she colored Cici pink to help raise awareness for breast cancer. The salon owner said she has used beet juice -- and occasionally Kool-Aid -- for four years now to "stain" her dog.

Officials at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley told the Daily Camera Douglas was warned several times before she was issued the ticket on March 1.

Douglas is accused of violating the city's code that says "No person shall dye or color live fowl, rabbits, or any other animals." It's a code meant to keep people from dyeing rabbits and chicks at Easter...

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 01:23 AM

Today, March 11, has been a historical day.

The people of Mississippi turned out in record numbers to vote for a balck President.

And the House decided to improve itself ethically:

WASHINGTON Ñ In the wake of a string of Congressional misconduct and corruption cases, the House on Tuesday created an independent panel to investigate suspected wrongdoing by lawmakers, despite deep reservations from rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties.

The new Office of Congressional Ethics was promoted by Democratic leaders as a way to restore credibility to an internal policing process that had been seen as largely ineffective in recent years, even as individual lawmakers were indicted, rebuked and jailed for various offenses. The vote to establish the office was 229 to 182.

By creating a panel of six people of Òexceptional public standing,Ó the House, for the first time, delegated the authority for regulating behavior in the House to nonlawmakers. Current members of the House, federal employees and anyone who has been a registered lobbyist in the past year would be ineligible.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 09:31 AM

Actress from 'Gilligan's Island' serving probation under plea

DRIGGS, Idaho (AP) -- Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island," is serving six months' unsupervised probation after allegedly being caught with marijuana in her car.

She was sentenced February 29 to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving.

Under a plea agreement, three misdemeanor counts -- driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance -- were dropped.

On October 18, Teton County sheriff's Deputy Joseph Gutierrez arrested Wells as she was driving home from a surprise birthday party that was held for her.

According to the sheriff's office report, Gutierrez pulled Wells over after noticing her swerve and repeatedly speed up and slow down. When Gutierrez asked about a marijuana smell, Wells said she'd just given a ride to three hitchhikers and had dropped them off when they began smoking something. Gutierrez found half-smoked joints and two small cases used to store marijuana.
The 69-year-old Wells, founder of the Idaho Film and Television Institute and organizer of the region's annual family movie festival called the Spud Fest, then failed a sobriety test.

Wells' lawyer, Ron Swafford, said that a friend of Wells testified he'd left a small amount of marijuana in the vehicle after using it that day, and that Wells was unaware of it. Swafford also said several witnesses were prepared to testify that Wells had very little to drink at the party and was not intoxicated when she left. He said she was swerving on the road because she was trying to find the heater controls in her new car.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 10:52 AM

MaryAnn is 69? How can that be?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 01:15 PM

Jeb's charter could close

   When it opened in 1996, the Liberty City Charter School sparked a movement.

Headed by Jeb Bush , not yet governor, and T. Willard Fair , not yet State Board of Education chairman, the school in an impoverished section of Miami signaled the beginning of Florida's new initiative in which private groups would get public funds to run schools and be held to state accountability measures.

''Our opening had national implications,'' principal Katrina Wilson-Davis recalled to the Miami Herald. "I remember CNN and MSNBC coming down to our school site. Everybody wanted to see what accountability was all about. We were leading the charge.''

Hundreds of other charters followed, as did the rise in state politics for Bush and Fair.

Today, the charter movement continues. But the Miami-Dade School Board will consider shutting down Liberty City Charter, the Miami Herald reports. The school has faced a "financial emergency" for two years.

"I understand the position that the School Board is in, but I wish they would give us a little more time to get our finances in order,'' Wilson-Davis told the Herald. "We've done enough good work over the last 12 years to merit a second look.''

If not, the school's 200 or so students will be transferred to other schools in the district.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 03:50 PM

Weird. Just plain weird. I'd have them both taken in for examination. This is a low-functioning couple, no doubt about it.


Sheriff: US woman sat on boyfriend's toilet for 2 years; didn't want to leave bathroom
March 12, 2008

WICHITA, Kansas - Deputies say a woman in western Kansas became stuck on her boyfriend's toilet after sitting on it for two years. Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend. "She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."

He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.

"And her reply would be, `Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."

The house had another bathroom he could use.

The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.

Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.

"She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said.

She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) southeast of their home in Ness City. She was listed in fair condition. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.

Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.

Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.

The case has been the buzz of Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.

"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said.

Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.

He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.

"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said of the bathroom incident. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

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

So...lemme see if I have this right...she refused to get off the throne for TWO YEARS before he finally figured it had gone on long enough??? Jaysus... some folks have a really, really, long lag as far as responding to events.

I guess in another two years, he'll probably notice she's gone.

A