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

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 04:24 PM

That has got to be one of the strangest ever and I don't make that statement lightly. Two years on the pot. My wife thinks I take too long and I don't even read a whole magazine article.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 04:57 PM

Student suspended for buying Skittles at school

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- Contraband candy has led to big trouble for an eighth-grade honors student in Connecticut.

Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate.

School spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo says the New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy.

Michael's suspension has been reduced from three days to one, but he has not been reinstated as class vice president.

He says he didn't realize his candy purchase was against the rules -- although he did notice the student selling the Skittles on February 26 was being secretive.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 10:16 PM

That bathroom story is a head-scratcher, but I don't have the heart to make it into a thread of its own. Those people are to be pitied, not ridiculed.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 09:35 AM

Those people are to be pitied, not ridiculed.

Couldn't agree more. Just too strange.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 09:46 AM

On a more uplifting note:

School clears kids in contraband candy caper

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- School officials have decided to go light on an eighth-grader caught with contraband candy in New Haven, Connecticut.

Michael Sheridan, an eighth-grade honors student who was suspended for a day, barred from attending an honors dinner and stripped of his title as class vice president after he was caught with a bag of Skittles candy in school will get his student council post back, school officials said.

Superintendent Reginald Mayo said in a statement late Wednesday that he and principal Eleanor Turner met with student Michael's parents and that Turner decided to clear the boy's record and restore him to his student council post.

Michael was disciplined after he was caught buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate. The classmate's suspension also will be expunged, school officials said.
The New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy, school spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo said.

"I am sorry this has happened," Turner said in a statement. "My hope is that we can get back to the normal school routine, especially since we are in the middle of taking the Connecticut mastery test."

Turner said she should have reinforced in writing the verbal warnings against candy transactions.

Michael had said that he didn't realize his candy purchase was against the rules, but he did notice that the student selling the Skittles on February 26 was being secretive.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 05:23 PM

Glass Baby Bottles Make a Comeback
From Associated Press
March 13, 2008

NEW YORK - Meg Robustelli had heard reports that a chemical in most plastic baby bottles could be dangerous, but she had not done anything about it. That's when her mother stepped in and bought her glass bottles. "She's an alarmist, but I'm grateful," said Robustelli, whose daughter, Mia, is 14 months old. "I switched because of all the concerns about the plastic."

She made the change about six months ago, becoming one of a relatively small but growing number of parents turning to glass bottles amid concerns over a chemical used to make plastic bottles, bisphenol A. "I wish I was using glass from the beginning, so I could have avoided any exposure," said Robustelli, of Stamford, Conn.

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a manmade chemical used in polycarbonate plastic, the material used to make most baby bottles and other shatterproof plastic food containers. Americans are widely exposed to BPA, but opinions on its safety are mixed.

The Food and Drug Administration says current uses with food are safe. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says animal testing has shown that BPA has hormone-like effects on the reproductive system. The CDC says more study is needed to see if it could be harming people.

Some pediatricians advise families to use alternatives to polycarbonate bottles to be on the safe side.

"I can't assure parents that it's safe, and I would not use that for my own babies," said Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician and author of "Raising Baby Green." "There are a number of BPA-free bottles, and I also love glass bottles."

As parents turn to glass, manufacturers are responding with new versions of the old-fashioned favorite.

Babies "R" Us had a dramatic increase in glass bottle sales in the spring of 2007 and current sales are more than five times what they were a year ago, the company said, without releasing figures.

Dr. Brown's, which has been making a polycarbonate bottle for about a decade, introduced a glass version in early January because of customer demand, said Carolyn Hentschell, president of Handi-Craft Co./Dr. Brown's Natural Flow.

"If you're a mom and you have concerns (about BPA), here's an obvious choice*," she said. "We don't want them to feel like they have to go to another baby bottle." *Funny, I used the "other" other choice, the breast, and never had any of these problems.

Evenflo, which has made glass bottles for the last 70 years, said sales shot up by more than 100 percent between 2006 and 2007, and continue to climb this year. Evenflo and Dr. Brown's, who say glass bottles still make up less than 10 percent of bottle sales, give parents a choice of bottles. A few other companies are staying away from BPA altogether.

BornFree, a Florida company that started a few years ago with BPA-free bottles and cups, added glass bottles about a year ago. "From day one, we were free of polycarbonate products," said company President Ron Vigdor. "We saw a need for that." Glass generally costs more. A three-pack of 8 oz. Dr. Brown's polycarbonate bottles has a suggested price of $12.99, the same price recommended for a two-pack of the company's glass bottles.

Glass, of course, can break, and parents need to be careful. Once babies can hold their own bottles or walk, they should not be given a glass bottle to drink on their own, experts say.

Greene said the bottles are a great choice for parents with the youngest babies, still being safely held while they are fed. "By the time the child is big enough to be walking around, I prefer it'd be a sippy cup," he said. (Several BPA-free plastic cups are being made.)

Robustelli, the Connecticut mom, said Mia broke one bottle, which shattered when it hit the ceramic tile floor at a restaurant. "She throws them* here on the regular linoleum tile in our kitchen and on the wood floor and carpet and they are always fine," Robustelli said. "They don't break at home." *Never had a problem with breasts being thrown on the kitchen OR restaurant floor, and they never broke!

As far as cleaning, the bottles can be boiled, go in the dishwasher or a sterilizer, just like plastic. I never ever boiled my nipples. What a lot of nonsense!!! ;-D

"A lot of people think it's going to be a hassle, but they really are treated the same," said Evenflo's Frost. As for maintaining the bottles, they should be checked regularly for nicks or cracks, and replaced if any are found, manufacturers say.

Some bottle makers are also making new versions.

In November, two California companies introduced a glass bottle sheathed in a protective silicone sleeve.

"The sleeve helps protect the bottle from breakage and bumping into articles in your purse or diaper bag," said Pam Marcus, co-founder of Babylife, which makes the WeeGo bottle. "The silicone is a good insulator and provides a great tactile surface for babies' hands."

The other is the Siliskin bottle, made by Silikids.

While the research into BPA continues, the move toward glass bottles has taken hold, at least among some parents. "If I have more children, from the get-go I'll start with the glass," Robustelli said. "It seems like a no-brainer to me now."

Geez, Louise, what a lot of trouble they're going to.

---

On the Net:

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences BPA Fact Sheet: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm

Dr. Alan Greene: http://www.drgreene.com/

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/environmental_phenols1.htm

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 08:49 PM

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese bride burned her new husband to death after he got into bed after a drunken argument without washing his feet, state media reported on Wednesday.

"Wang and his wife, Luo, were married on February 2. The couple, however, frequently fought over trivial things while still on their honeymoon," the official Xinhua news agency quoted a local newspaper as saying.

The couple, from the central province of Hubei, had another fight on the night of March 4, "and in frustration they together drank a bottle of liquor to ease their anger."

"At about 10 p.m., Luo watched her husband get into bed without cleaning or washing his feet. In a fit of anger and intoxication, she set fire to the sheet he was sleeping in," the report said.

"When he awoke, the two began fighting before a very drunk Wang collapsed. As fire engulfed the bedroom. Luo escaped to the living room, leaving her other half to burn," it added.

The woman has been arrested, Xinhua said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 11:38 PM

Another marriage up in smoke.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 05:54 AM

Sham audits may have hid theft from GOP

NRCC treasurer accused of siphoning off thousands meant for House races

By Neil A. Lewis
The New York Times
updated 12:18 a.m. CT, Fri., March. 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - The former treasurer of a Republican Congressional fund-raising committee may have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars by submitting elaborately forged audit reports for five years using the letterhead of a legitimate auditing firm, a lawyer for the committee said Thursday.

Robert K. Kelner, a lawyer with Covington & Burling, who was brought in by the National Republican Congressional Committee to investigate accounting irregularities, said a new audit showed that the committee had $740,000 less on hand than it believed. Mr. Kelner said it was unclear whether that amount represented money siphoned off by the former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward.

Mr. Ward, who is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had the authority to make transfers of committee money on his own, Mr. Kelner said.

He said an investigation with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers had "found a pattern in which Mr. Ward would transfer funds by wire out of the N.R.C.C. to outside committees." From those outside committees, Mr. Kelner said, money was then transferred to "personal and business accounts of Mr. Ward."

Mr. Kelner said that all of this was discovered on Jan. 28 after the current chairman of the committee's auditing panel, Representative Michael K. Conaway of Texas, a certified public accountant, made repeated requests to speak to the committee's outside auditors.

Mr. Conaway has said that after he was repeatedly put off by Mr. Ward, a meeting supposedly with the auditors was scheduled for that day.

But 30 minutes before it was to take place, Mr. Ward sent an e-mail message to colleagues saying that there had, in fact, been no outside audit. Party officials notified the F.B.I. and the Federal Election Commission.

Mr. Kelner said subsequent investigation showed that the five previous audits submitted to the committee by Mr. Ward for the years 2002 through 2006 were bogus. "The last genuine audit was in 2001," he said.

The audit reports, Mr. Kelner said, "looked very genuine" and carried the logotype of a recognized auditing firm that he declined to name. He said they might have appeared real to most people who were not sophisticated readers of such reports.

Ronald Machen, Mr. Ward's lawyer, declined to comment.

The committee is the chief fund-raising arm for Republicans running for the House.

Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, its chairman, briefed the Republican Congressional leadership on Thursday. In a statement, Mr. Cole said he had told them that "the information we have today indicates we have been deceived and betrayed for a number of years by a highly respected and trusted individual."

Mr. Ward was named treasurer of the national Republican committee in 2003 after serving for several years as an assistant treasurer. He had also been a partner in a political consulting firm, Political Compliance Services, that worked in 2004 on behalf of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group behind advertisements attacking the military record of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Mr. Kelner lamented the fact that the finances of the Republican committee had been set up to allow Mr. Ward to authorize wire transfers of money unilaterally.

"In hindsight, it would have been better to have had tighter controls," he said.

Copyright © 2008 The New York Times

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 12:38 AM

Man arrested for 'having sex with lamp-post'
By Bonnie Malkin
Last Updated: 1:38am GMT 07/03/2008 (U.K. Telegraph)

A 32-year-old man has been arrested in Wiltshire for allegedly simulating a sex act with a lamp-post.


The incident is the latest in a spate of bizarre sex crimes involving inanimate objects.

        

The incident was witnessed by children
A police spokesman said officers were called to a road in the town of Westbury on February 16 after they received a report of a man acting indecently outside a block of flats "occupied by several young women".

When they arrived they arrested him on suspicion of outraging public decency.

The man was released on bail, but following an investigation into the incident and several interviews with witnesses - including children - he was recalled for questioning. He has since been re-released pending further inquiries.

The Wiltshire police spokesman said: "We are awaiting a decision as to whether there should be a prosecution".

The incident echoes a similar case last week when a Polish contractor was caught on his knees with a vacuum cleaner in a hospital staff canteen.

A security guard walked in on the man in the middle of a compromising act with the Henry Hoover appliance. He later claimed he was cleaning his underpants. He has now been fired.

Last year, Robert Stewart was placed on probation for three years after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle.

The 51-year-old was naked from the waist down when two cleaners walked in on him at the Aberley House Hostel in south west Scotland.

He paused only to ask, "What is it, hen?", before continuing to "move his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex".

In 1993, Karl Watkins, an electrician, was jailed for having sex with pavements in Redditch, Worcs.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 12:42 AM

ST. LUCIE COUNTY Ñ Authorities said a man charged with exposure of sexual organs was showing a lot more than that on a stretch of U.S. 1 Thursday morning.

Callers told 911 dispatchers that David John Campbell, 41, of Fort Pierce was walking completely naked on northbound U.S. 1 near Kitterman Road. A deputy caught up with Campbell at 6 a.m. in the 6400 block of U.S. 1 as school buses were on the road, according to Campbell's arrest affidavit.

Campbell said he was under instructions from Jesus to take the nude stroll, the report said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 12:50 AM

And from WIsconsin:

FRIDAY, March 14, 2008, 11:38 a.m.
By Linda Spice
Naked run on $30 bet costs plenty more
A man ran naked across frozen Silver Lake on a $30 bet yesterday, but the cold streak cost him much more when he was busted by a Kenosha County sheriff's deputy watching from a nearby boat launch.

In this report released today, Sgt. Gil Benn, public information officer for the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department, wrote:

"The long winter has finally taken its toll.

"On 3-13-08 at approx. 1620 hrs., Dep. Zarletti was parked by the Silver Lake DNR boat launch when he was alerted by a citizen that a male was running across the frozen lake in the nude. Dep. Zarletti located the subject and identified him as John F. Greely (18) a local resident. Greely was wearing nothing but socks, and he was sober. He reported that he streaked on a 30 dollar bet. Dep. Zarletti issued him a county ordinance citation ($753.00 bond) for lewd and lascivious behavior. It's unknown whether he recovered on his bet.

"Spring is juuuuust around the corner."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 01:21 AM

Amos, where do you have your browser pointed today? I detect a trend.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 01:32 AM

Too smart, Stilly -- someone sent me a link to Fark, where they collect this sort of thing.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 12:12 PM

Interesting. Still doesn't explain your one-track mind, from all of those stories, but I can see where you found them.

;->

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 12:34 PM

Lies My Government Told Me about the economy.

A keen, if sad, analysis. What do you say when the Bush administration tells you energy costs have gone down in February?


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 11:01 PM

GLOUCESTER, Mass. Ñ A meat thief is no match for an angry restaurant owner swinging a ham.

Joe Scola said he heard a noise in his Scola's Place restaurant in Gloucester and saw a man trying to get away with his arms full of meat taken from the restaurant freezer.

Scola said that when he caught up with the man and started taking back his stock, the man raised a 5-pound log of frozen Italian meat over his head as if to use it as a weapon.

The restaurant owner had a frozen ham in his hand and slammed it into the man's face, making a gash. The stunned thief dropped his loot and ran.

Police said they haven't found the man responsible for the Wednesday confrontation.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 04:51 AM

Suspected Arsonist Arrested

The Associated Press
updated 2:48 a.m. CT, Tues., March. 18, 2008

LAMBERTVILLE, Mich.

Officers were placed around homes currently under construction after police had gotten two arson complaints within the past week.

Several officers, including Detective Thomas Redmond, watched the 17-year-old walk away from his Lambertville home early Sunday carrying a bucket before he approached ... a ... vehicle.

Police say the teen unscrewed the gas cap and started siphoning the fuel before Redmond got out of the car^* and chased him.

Authorities say the teen later admitted to the two arsons as well as three other arsons in 2006.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

^* Yep, that's right. He was siphoning the gas out of the car driven and occupied by the cop who was looking for the arsonist.

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 08:24 AM

Satellite turns 50 years old ... in orbit!

Oldest artificial object still in space

By James Oberg
NBC News space analyst
updated 2:07 p.m. CT, Mon., March. 17, 2008

HOUSTON - The oldest surviving artificial Earth satellite, Vanguard 1, turned 50 years old on Monday — and continued to turn in its orbit, just as it has done since its launch at the dawn of the Space Age. The craft is in a high orbit that promises to be stable for centuries. Circling there, it has outlived almost all of the human beings who created it.

The satellite already has completed more than 197,000 Earth orbits, racking up more than 6 billion miles (10 billion kilometers) of travel. Only the Pioneer and Voyager probes, currently speeding away on the edge of the solar system, have gone farther.

Vanguard 1's current orbit ranges from 400 to 2,400 miles (653 to 3,839 kilometers) in altitude, and the high point has dropped only about 60 miles (100 kilometers) in the past half-century. It reliably records one additional orbit every 133 minutes. But the craft's orbital stability is guaranteed only as long as there's no outside interference. And now there's a chance that America's longest-lived spacefarer could have another round of "space pioneering" ahead of it.

/quote

The article is fairly lengthy, but well worth clicking over to read for any who remember - or think they do - the "good old days" of early space flight.

Recovery of the satellite to exhibit in a museum is speculatively proposed. Maybe there should be a vote(?).

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 08:36 AM

Fark fanantics fuel favorite fumers.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 08 - 10:45 AM

Watching from what seems to be a dashboard camera we watch a car racing to hit a pedestrian in broad daylight, the car careens into an apartment house playground and wham hits the black man running on foot. In another dash cam video we see a country road at night and a black man fleeing on foot as the car swerves back and forth acceserating and finally hitting the man who flys way into the air. Am I playing a Grand Theft Auto video game, no I am watching the South Carolina State Trooper dash cam footage of their current policy to run down suspects. as seen on CNN

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 08 - 02:08 PM

I didn't find that story, Don, but I did find this one:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/19/mirror.therapy/index.html

For amputees, an unlikely painkiller: Mirrors

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Army Sgt. Nick Paupore was in the lead Humvee in a convoy rolling through Kirkuk City, Iraq, when the vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.

Paupore says it wasn't a very big explosion, more like a loud firecracker. He could feel the rush going through the vehicle, the change of pressure, smoke filling the cab. He felt a burning sensation in the back of his legs, but he wasn't in pain, and he could actually move his legs. He felt lucky. He was alive. He got out of the vehicle, intending to help the others, and passed out.

When he regained consciousness, medics were working on him. The blast had ripped out a chunk of his leg, including 6 to 8 inches of an artery, and he was bleeding out. By the time they had stanched the flow, he had less than two pints of blood left. The average person has 10 pints of blood.

Paupore was flown to Germany, where doctors fought to save his life. He survived, but they couldn't save his leg.

And he was in excruciating pain -- in the leg he no longer had.

Dr. Jack Tsao, a Navy neurologist with the Uniform Services University, was looking for ways to help soldiers like Paupore. He remembered reading in graduate school a paper by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran that talked about an unusual treatment for amputees suffering "phantom limb pain," using a simple $20 mirror.

The mirror tricks the brain into "seeing" the amputated leg, overriding mismatched nerve signals.

Here's how it works: The patient sits on a flat surface with his or her remaining leg straight out and then puts a 6-foot mirror lengthwise facing the limb. The patient moves the leg, flexing it, and watches the movement in the mirror. The reflection creates the illusion of two legs moving together.

Paupore was one of the first to give it a try. At first, he was skeptical. When approached about joining a clinical trial at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to test Tsao's theory, he declined. But sometimes his phantom pains were coming five to six times an hour and lasting up to a minute.

"I was laying in bed and it just, all of a sudden, it felt like I was getting shocked," he said. "I called the nurse, 'cause I was like, 'What's going on?' " The nurse told him, "This is probably your phantom pain."

Tsao explains it this way: "It's the sensation that the limb is still present, and phantom pain in particular is the sensation that the limb is experiencing pain of some form."

That pain is intense, and often medication brings very little relief. For Paupore, it was relentless.

"All of a sudden, it was like someone kept turning on and off the Taser, and my whole leg started twitching. ... I sat up, and I was holding on to my stump, and it just wouldn't stop. At that time, I was hooked up to the Dilaudid [a powerful narcotic], and I was pushing it. But you can push all the medicine in the world, and it won't stop it."

Paupore and 17 other amputees who joined Tsao's mirror therapy trial were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group used the mirror to look at their reflected image as they tried to move both legs. The second group used a covered mirror and did the same. And members of the third group were asked to visualize moving their amputated limbs.

After a month of treatment, all of the patients in the mirror group had significantly less phantom pain. In the covered mirror group, only one patient experienced a decrease in pain, and for half of those patients, the pain worsened. Sixty-seven percent of the patients visualizing their limbs got worse instead of better. The pain decreased in almost 90 percent of the patients who then switched to mirror therapy.

It worked wonders for Paupore, 32. Within five months, he was off painkillers completely. Tsao says the difference is like night and day.

"To see him walking, he's able to drive his car; he works downtown; I mean, that is incredibly gratifying!"

Phantom limb pain plagues as many as 95 percent of amputees, Tsao said.

He says even though phantom pain dates to Civil War days, no one knows what causes it. The current thinking is that it has to do with how the brain interprets signals from the pain pathways that are left after amputation.

The neurons that control leg movement are still there, but in the absence of a limb, they are not sure what they're supposed to do and begin firing randomly. Proprioception, the body's ability to sense the position of a limb, tells the body that the limb is still there, sending mismatched signals to the brain.

"The visual neurons are still intact, and they're firing off, telling the brain one thing," Tsao said. "The propriaceptive neurons are firing off, telling the brain something else. ...My thinking is that there is some sort of center in the brain that coordinates these signals. ... Somehow, this mismatched feedback is what's generating the sensation that the limb is frozen or in pain."

Since the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq began, more than 750 amputees have returned home from that area. Walter Reed has treated more than 550 of them. On any given day, between 100 and 125 amputees are there, working to rebuild their lives.

At Reed, mirror therapy is now offered routinely. Tsao says this treatment has the potential to benefit amputees worldwide, and the best part is, no special training is required to do it. He gives interested parties instructions over the phone or by e-mail.

And he's already taken this therapy halfway around the world to Cambodia, a country Tsao says has a large and growing amputee population because of mines left over from its civil war.

Saundra Young is a senior producer with CNN Medical News.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 21 Mar 08 - 09:49 AM

Early Wednesday morning, a spot of light just barely visible to the human eye (about fifth magnitude in astronomical parlance) appeared in the constellation Bootës. Astronomers say it was the toasted remains of one of the most titanic examples yet of the explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. News about the burst, in a galaxy seven billion light years away, began circulating by e-mail in the astronomical community when it was detected by NASA's Swift satellite on March 19.

Gamma ray bursts are some of the most violent and enigmatic events in nature. Astronomers surmise that they might mark the implosion of a massive star into a black hole, or the collision of a pair of dense neutron stars.

The visible glow from this burst, said Neil Gehrels of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, was 10 million times as bright as a supernova at that same distance. The universe is some 14 billion years old, which means that the news of this cataclysm has been on its way to us for half the age of the universe. Whatever stars went to their grave then have been dead since before the Sun and Earth were born.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Mar 08 - 11:36 AM

Will it gradually get brighter for us, do you think? Interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 21 Mar 08 - 12:29 PM

A recently declassified US Army report on the biological effects of non-lethal weapons reveals outlandish plans for "ray gun" devices, which would cause artificial fevers or beam voices into people's heads.

The report titled "Bioeffects Of Selected Nonlethal Weapons" was released under the US Freedom of Information Act and is available on this website (pdf). The DoD has confirmed to New Scientist that it released the documents, which detail five different "maturing non-lethal technologies" using microwaves, lasers and sound.
Released by US Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Meade, Maryland, US, the 1998 report gives an overview of what was then the state of the art in directed energy weapons for crowd control and other applications.

A word in your earSome of the technologies are conceptual, such as an electromagnetic pulse that causes a seizure like those experienced by people with epilepsy. Other ideas, like a microwave gun to "beam" words directly into people's ears, have been tested. It is claimed that the so-called "Frey Effect" – using close-range microwaves to produce audible sounds in a person's ears – has been used to project the spoken numbers 1 to 10 across a lab to volunteers'.

In 2004 the US Navy funded research into using the Frey effect to project sound that caused "discomfort" into the ears of crowds.
The report also discusses a microwave weapon able to produce a disabling "artificial fever" by heating a person's body. While tests of the idea are not mentioned, the report notes that the necessary equipment "is available today". It adds that while it would take at least fifteen minutes to achieve the desired "fever" effect, it could be used to incapacitate people for almost "any desired period consistent with safety."

Less exotic technologies discussed include laser dazzlers and a sound source loud enough to disturb the sense of balance. Both have been realised in the years since the report was written. The US army uses laser dazzlers in Iraq, while the Long Range Acoustic Device has military and civilian users, and has been used on one occasion to repel pirates off Somalia.

However, the report does not mention any trials of weapons for producing artificial fever or seizures, or beaming voices into people's heads.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 21 Mar 08 - 02:56 PM

From The Onion:

Rock-Bottom Loser Entertaining Offers From Several Religions

FINDLAY, OH—Local resident Owen Pritchard's recent downward spiral into drug addiction, unemployment, and complete and utter hopelessness has sparked the intense interest of several top world religions, each of which is vying for his services as a devotee, the 39-year-old uncommitted prospective convert reported Monday.

"I've finally reached a point in my life where all the big religions want me," said Pritchard, whose two failed marriages and mounting gambling debts have left him penniless and in a state of blind despair. "Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism—you name it, they've come to me. I have no job, no family, no direction whatsoever. So right now, I'm totally in the driver's seat."

Some top faiths have noticed Pritchard's ability to plummet to the very depths of depravity.

After declaring his intention to drink himself into oblivion two months ago, Pritchard received pamphlets, letters, and VHS tapes from various religions, all urging him to join their faith. Most deals reportedly guarantee a lifetime of salvation, with additional incentives such as entrance into paradise, the promise of a new and better life, and the ineffable reward of union with a supreme deity. Christianity emerged as an early favorite to land Pritchard Tuesday, after confirming that it had offered him an eternity-length contract with a signing bonus of everlasting bliss.

Pritchard, however, said he was in no rush to accept just any offer, as he expects to remain at the end of his rope for a long time.

"Obviously, I bring a lot to the table," Pritchard said. "I'm a broken shell of a man with nowhere else to turn and I will believe just about anything at this point, so if a religion really wants me, they're going to have to sweeten the pot. For instance, Hinduism is promising me rebirth as a king and the unlocking of all the secrets of the universe. But at this stage, that's not enough. How about throwing in some final redemption, or a car, or complete and total spiritual transcendence?"

"You're going to have to do better than eternal life," Pritchard added. "Everyone's offering that."...

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 22 Mar 08 - 01:17 PM

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Two sisters from Virginia sold their Illinois-shaped cornflake on eBay Friday night for $1,350.


Two sisters from Virginia sold this cornflake for $1,350 on eBay.

"We were biting our nails all the way up to the finish, seeing what would happen," said Melissa McIntire, 23. "There's a lot of relief involved."

The winner of the auction, which lasted more than a week, is the owner of a trivia Web site who wants to add the cornflake to a traveling museum.

"We're starting a collection of pop culture and Americana items," said Monty Kerr of Austin, Texas. "We thought this was a fantastic one." See another oddly shaped food item È

Kerr owns TriviaMania.com and said he will likely send someone to Virginia to pick up the flake by hand, so it won't be damaged.

This isn't the first cornflake that Kerr has tried to buy. He said he purchased a flake billed as the world's largest, but that by the time it was delivered it had crumbled into three pieces.

McIntire and her sister Emily, 15, listed the cornflake on eBay last week, but eBay canceled the auction, saying it violated the Web site's policy against selling food.

The sisters restarted their eBay auction, advertising a coupon redeemable for their cornflake instead of the cereal itself.



The McIntires said they'll likely use the money for a family vacation.

Copycat items have popped up on eBay, including cornflakes shaped like Hawaii and Virginia. There's also been a potato chip shaped like Florida, and Illinois cornflake paraphernalia, including T-shirts and buttons.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Mar 08 - 02:08 PM

I looked at that corn flake and the copy-cats. eBay is a great place for some lowest-common-denominator commerce. :)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Mar 08 - 06:43 AM

Horse tries to drop in on hospital patient

The Associated Press
updated 4:40 a.m. CT, Sun., March. 23, 2008

LIHUE, Hawaii - A man hoping to cheer up an ailing relative at Wilcox Memorial Hospital hadn't considered one of the visitation rules: No horses allowed.

The man thought the patient would enjoy seeing his stallion, said Lani Yukimura, a spokeswoman at the hospital. He and the horse entered the hospital earlier this month and rode an elevator up to the third floor, where they were met and stopped by security personnel.

Security managed to get the man and the horse out of the hospital, with "just a few scuff marks," she said.

The hospital has a pet visitation policy, but it's for dogs and cats, not horses.

"On Kauai, we have a very warm inviting atmosphere at Wilcox," Yukimura said. "We just hope people understand this is not a place for a horse."

The man's good intentions were further dashed when his relative was brought out to see the horse.






"That's not my horse," the patient said to hospital staff.

John
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 23 Mar 08 - 08:54 PM

A Cheeto Cheese Puff in the form of Jesus has been named "Cheesus".


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Mar 08 - 12:13 AM

Naw, it's just a Smurf with a hard-on. :)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 01:38 AM

Faith the two-legged dog.

Her name could also be Patience, considering all of the people she sees in a visit.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 08:49 PM

I have a piece of paper that's shaped like Colorado. Wonder what I can get for it?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Peace
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 08:54 PM

Another 49 States and ya jus' might have somethin' there.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Peace
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 08:57 PM

(That's wasn't meant to denigrate Colorado.)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 10:21 PM

Hey, BWL, long time no see. Have you been making pots all winter? Coming out for a breath of fresh air and planning your tornado season strategy?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Wesley S
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 04:47 PM

Is that a Fender Strat in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

Stratocaster shoplifted

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 01:13 PM

Baby with 2 faces born in north India

By GURINDER OSAN
Associated Press Writer

SAINI SUNPURA, India (AP) -- A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.

The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated - she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.

"My daughter is fine - like any other child," said Vinod Singh, 23, a poor farm worker.

Lali has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini Sunpura, 25 miles east of New Delhi. When she left the hospital, eight hours after a normal delivery on March 11, she was swarmed by villagers, said Sabir Ali, the director of Saifi Hospital.

"She drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time," Ali said.

Rural India is deeply superstitious and the little girl is being hailed as a return of the Hindu goddess of valor, Durga, a fiery deity traditionally depicted with three eyes and many arms.

Up to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings, Singh told The Associated Press.

"Lali is God's gift to us," said Jaipal Singh, a member of the local village council. "She has brought fame to our village."

Village chief Daulat Ram said he planned to build a temple to Durga in the village.

"I am writing to the state government to provide money to build the temple and help the parents look after their daughter," Ram said.

Lali's condition is often linked to serious health complications, but the doctor said she was doing well.

"She is leading a normal life with no breathing difficulties," said Ali, adding that he saw no need for surgery.

Lali's parents were married in February 2007. Lali is their first child.

Singh said he took his daughter to a hospital in New Delhi where doctors suggested a CT scan to determine whether her internal organs were normal, but Singh said he felt it was unnecessary.

"I don't feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems," he said.

Blue Clicky

Click on the picture in the story and it will enlarge.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 01:18 PM

Looks like she is a chimera, though there usually isn't an outward sign of the double faces. There was a story on NPR on one of the weekend programs about this condition a couple of weeks ago. It amounts to being your own twin, having absorbed a Siamese twin that might have formed.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 01:27 PM

I can't but wonder what she will be like as she grows older (assuming she survives). Will both mouths be able to eat, speak and breathe? Will all four eyes work? All controlled by a single brain or is there some split there as well? I wish her well.

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

67 Bodies Secretly Exhumed From NM Grave
AP link. It's from the AP site itself so I don't know how durable it is, but there are a couple of photos.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Working in secret, federal archaeologists have dug up the remains of dozens of soldiers and children near a Civil War-era fort after an informant tipped them off about widespread grave-looting.

The exhumations, conducted from August to October, removed 67 skeletons from the parched desert soil around Fort Craig — 39 men, two women and 26 infants and children, according to two federal archaeologists who helped with the dig.

They also found scores of empty graves and determined 20 had been looted.

The government kept its exhumation of the unmarked cemetery near the historic New Mexico fort out of the public's eye for months to prevent more thefts.

The investigation began with a tip about an amateur historian who had displayed the mummified remains of a black soldier, draped in a Civil War-era uniform, in his house.

Investigators say the historian, Dee Brecheisen, may have been a prolific looter who spotted historical sites from his plane. Brecheisen died in 2004 and although it was not clear whether the looting continued after his death, authorities exhumed the unprotected site to prevent future thefts.

"As an archaeologist, you want to leave a site in place for preservation ... but we couldn't do that because it could be looted again," Jeffery Hanson, of the Bureau of Reclamation, told The Associated Press.

The remains are being studied by Bureau of Reclamation scientists, who are piecing together information on their identities. They will eventually be reburied at other national cemeteries.

Most of the men are believed to have been soldiers — Fort Craig protected settlers in the West from American Indian raids and played a role in the Civil War. Union troops stationed there fought the Confederacy as it moved into New Mexico from Texas in 1862.

The children buried there may have been local residents treated by doctors at the former frontier outpost, officials said.

Federal officials learned of the looting in November 2004, when Don Alberts, a retired historian for Kirtland Air Force Base, tipped them off about a macabre possession he'd seen at Brecheisen's home about 30 years earlier.

Alberts described seeing the mummified remains of a black soldier with patches of brown flesh clinging to facial bones and curly hair on top of its skull. Alberts said the body had come from Fort Craig.

"The first thing we did was laughed because who would believe such a story," Hanson said. "But then we quickly decided we better go down and check it out."

Weeks later, Hanson and fellow archaeologist Mark Hungerford surveyed the cemetery site and found numerous holes — evidence of unauthorized digging.

While records show the cemetery had been disinterred twice by the Army in the late 1800s, it wasn't known how many bodies remained. Hanson said ground-penetrating radar revealed the Army left behind about one-third of the bodies.

A lack of funding and various federal procedures delayed the excavation until last summer.

Brecheisen's son told authorities where the mummified remains from his father's home were, and a person who hasn't been publicly identified handed over a more-than-century-old skull packaged in a brown paper bag. Alberts said that skull, which still had hair attached, was the one he'd seen years earlier.

Authorities also found some Civil War and American Indian artifacts in Brecheisen's home, but the display rooms that showcased Brecheisen's collections had already been emptied out and auctioned off by his family after his death, Hanson said.

Investigators believe Brecheisen did most of his looting alone, but they also know he dug with close friends and family at the Fort Craig site. Some who accompanied him led authorities to the grave sites, Hanson said.

Brecheisen was a decorated Vietnam veteran and flew for the Air National Guard during a 26-year military career. His family described him as "one of the state's foremost preservationists of historical facts and sites" in his obituary.

Those close to Brecheisen said his looting may have been motivated by anger toward the Bureau of Land Management, but no further details were available. Alberts described him as a collector; it wasn't clear whether Brecheisen sold any of the items.

Investigators believe he also dug up grave sites in Fort Thorn and Fort Conrad in southern New Mexico as well as prehistoric American Indian burial sites in the Four Corners region.

Hungerford said they also believe he may have taken the Fort Craig burial plot map, which is missing from the National Archives.

The criminal case against Brecheisen was closed upon his death and there are no plans to investigate his family members, assistant U.S. Attorney Mary McCulloch said.

Alberts said he asked Brecheisen to come clean.

"I had urged him to simply return the remains, about 10, 15 years before he got ill. I offered to act as an honest broker to the deal and see that they were returned, but I didn't get a response," Alberts said. "I didn't want to get a friend in trouble."

He added: "But you look back and think you would have done everything differently if you would have known everything was going to disappear."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 12:02 PM

'Darwin chip' brings evolution into the classroom
10:58 08 April 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Ewen Callaway


A new "Darwin chip" could make evolution as easy as pressing play.

Researchers have created an automated device that evolves a biological molecule on a chip filled with hundreds of miniature chambers.

The molecule, which stitches together strands of RNA, became 90 times more efficient after just 70 hours of evolution.

"It's survival of the fittest," says Brian Paegel, a biochemist at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, California, who led the study with colleague Gerald Joyce.

The experiment could be used in the future to evolve molecules – or even cells – to sense environmental pollutants, Paegel says.

Dispelling doubts

And by demonstrating natural selection in real-time, the device could also help dispel doubts over evolution in the classroom and beyond, says Joyce. "There's a whole bunch of people who think evolution is only theory, including some former presidential candidates."

While Darwin used natural selection to explain differences between species, his principles also work at the level of molecules.

RNA is usually used to create proteins from genes. But some kinds of RNA can perform tasks similar to protein enzymes. Paegel's team used just such an RNA molecule, or ligase, in their work.

In the process, the ligase sews another strand of RNA to itself and is then duplicated by a pair of proteins.

Because of occasional errors in copying, the new ligase molecule might work differently from its predecessor – sometimes better, and sometimes worse. Paegel's team wanted to see if they could evolve a better ligase by natural selection.

Evolving ability
To do this, they took a form of ligase that is not very good at recognising RNA molecules, and dumped it in a pool of RNA. After letting it duplicate for a while, the researchers gradually reduced the number of RNA molecules in the pool, meaning that only the more efficient copies of the ligase could survive.

All the reactions occurred in a miniature chamber on the "evolution chip". After reaching a specified level of efficiency, a miniature pump automatically sucked up a small amount of the contents and plopped it into a new chamber. This started another round of selection.

After 70 hours and billions of duplications, Paegel's team stopped the reaction and analysed the last few batches. The ligase molecules they pulled out were able to find and stitch RNA molecules 90 times more efficiently than the ligase the team started with.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 09:48 AM

Decomposing body found in dead woman's closet

CHARLES TOWN, West Virginia (AP) -- The daughter of a woman made a gruesome discovery while going through her bedroom closet after she'd died -- the decomposing body of another woman wrapped in plastic, blankets and a sleeping bag.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is trying to identify the corpse found April 3, a day after Beatrice Magaha suffered a stroke outside her home and hit her head. She died on the way to the hospital.

The next day, the daughter and her husband called police after being overwhelmed by the smell coming from the closet. Sgt. R.S. Sell said Wednesday he found the body of an elderly woman wrapped in layers on the closet floor.

The body appeared to have been there for a while. While an autopsy turned up no evidence of foul play, the death is being treated as suspicious.

DNA samples were taken from the body in an attempt to identify the remains. It could be several weeks before lab results are available, Sell said.

Sell said another woman had lived with Magaha but family members had not seen her for a year or two. The couple told Sell that whenever they visited Magaha, she would not allow them inside her home, about 15 miles south of Martinsburg.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Apr 08 - 12:49 PM

Lake Stevens teen's pregnancy hoax fools teachers, friends
link

LAKE STEVENS -- In December, Danica Esau started to complain about sore breasts and feet. The Lake Stevens High School senior ate pickle, tofu and banana sandwiches for lunch in front of her grossed-out classmates. She just craved them, she explained.

Over the weeks, as her belly grew, she traded jeans for elastic maternity pants, evading classmates' questions as long as she could. Are you going to keep the baby? When are you due? What does your boyfriend think?

In February, she broke down and told everyone she was pregnant.

Then last month she told the truth: It was all a hoax.

"I just wanted to see what it would be like," said Esau, 18. "I'm very dramatic, so this was perfect. It was like a big Danica play for four months."

Every day, she wrapped T-shirts around her belly to create a baby bump believable enough to fool friends, co-workers at Target and strangers she passed on the street. She rarely went out without it.

People who knew her were shocked. A student leader, active in several school groups, Esau also is a very vocal, and controversial, supporter of safe sex.

Known as the "condom lady," she takes orders for prophylactics and delivers them in brown paper bags to boys and girls at school. She gets the condoms free from a sexual health organization she volunteers with.

"I'm a condom dealer," said Esau, pulling a condom out of her gray clutch purse. " 'Danica Esau,' at my school, is related to free condoms and free information about sex ed."

District policy on sexual education is abstinence based, spokeswoman Arlene Hulten said. Administrators did not know of the fake pregnancy, or that Esau was handing out condoms at school, something they now will tell her to stop. "Our procedure does not warrant providing condoms for students," Hulten said.

During her fake pregnancy, Esau was always acting.

A veteran of school plays, she consulted Web sites on how to fake pregnancies, learned to sit and walk like a pregnant woman and ate salt to make herself bloated.

She shopped with friends for maternity clothes when the baggier outfits wouldn't do any more. She ran to the bathroom when anyone walked by with strong perfume. When she missed school because of laryngitis, she said she "had appointments."

Some friends were really excited and offered to organize baby showers.

"One of the first things I said was, 'I'll totally baby-sit,'" said Tatiana Bogdanoff, a senior who believed the ruse. "It wasn't like everyone was talking about it, but it got around."

Others talked behind Esau's back or confronted her boyfriend.

Senior Kyle Alford agreed to play along because his girlfriend was so excited to try her experiment. So he'd rub her belly in class and said he kept the truth to himself.

He didn't think it was a big deal, until his family complained that people were questioning them about the pregnancy. That put an end to the ruse, which Esau originally hoped to carry to full term.

"I have a younger sister, and she was hearing crap about it," Alford said. "Lake Stevens isn't that big of a town. It spread quickly. My dad works in Lake Stevens and people would confront him about it. Since he's my dad, he went along with it, too.

"Eventually it got to the point where my parents weren't too happy about it," Alford said. "It brought unneeded drama to my family in general and unneeded attention."

Bibiana Esau said she couldn't walk outside without people questioning her about her daughter's pregnancy.

She struggled to keep her mouth shut when parents of girls who had grown up with her daughter offered sympathy.

She believed in her daughter's cause but feared retribution. Their home was egged last summer after Danica wrote a letter to a local newspaper about sex education.

"When this first came up, it took the wind out of my sails," said the divorced mother of two. "I thought, 'What are you trying to do to our family? Do you want the house to get burned down?' But I had to back her up."

Bibiana Esau was unmarried and 20 years old when she had Danica. Her pregnancy scandalized her neighborhood, and she remembers the pain well.

Danica Esau said she now understands her mother's distress. While she didn't find much overt discrimination, some people treated her differently and shot her dirty looks.

Since she's come clean about the pregnancy experiment, Esau said she's lost friends and had people accuse her of trying to get attention or of mocking pregnant teens.

"I don't want people to look at it as an attention-getter," she said. "There's so many other ways I could get attention than to be bad-mouthed for three months."

She insists she staged the pregnancy to help girls who are going through the real thing.

In 2006, 4.2 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in the U.S. gave birth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pat Paluzzi, president and chief executive of the Healthy Teen Network in Washington, D.C., said this is the first time she's heard of a teen faking pregnancy.

Paluzzi liked the idea.

Though federal law prohibits schools from discriminating against pregnant students, some schools encourage pregnant girls to transfer to alternative schools or don't give them desks big enough for their growing bellies, she said. The Healthy Teen Network, a national teen pregnancy organization, has tried to study this discrimination but has struggled to get reliable data, she said.

"If she really thought she was seeing discrimination at her school and she really wanted to see and experience that firsthand by going undercover and deceiving people -- if that was her intent -- I don't suppose that's a horrible, horrible thing," Paluzzi said. "I think it's kind of interesting and I'd like to talk to her."

Students do sometimes get pregnant, and Esau's experiment has the potential to shed some light on the issues those teens face, said Micheal Furoy, who teaches TV and video production at Lake Stevens High School.

"I kind of saw it more as a story that would be a great story," he said. "People will try to be African-American or they'll try to be white if they're African-American and try to live in each others' shoes. I thought it was kind of interesting."

Esau plans to film a documentary about her experience for Viking TV, the school's internal station. Standing in her bedroom, Esau, a fan of MTV's "The Real World," filmed video diary entries about her pregnancy.

Before faking her pregnancy, Esau envisioned herself giving birth early and becoming a young, chic mom.

Not anymore.

Being a fake teen mom was difficult enough.

She's not ready for the real thing.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 12:29 PM

1,600 cases of beer stolen; thirsty thieves sought

April 24, 2008

TAMPA -- If someone shows up at a party with 1,600 cases of Icehouse longnecks, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office would like you to give them a call.

Deputies said an entire Great Dane semitrailer truck containing the beer was stolen sometime between 8 a.m. and midnight on April 21 from 6408 Causeway Blvd. The owner of the cab parks on the leased lot and reported the truck stolen.

Deputies said the trailer is white with red stripes along the top and bottom and is valued at $10,000. The cab is a white 1993 Freightliner model valued at $15,000. Deputies provided a picture (left) of a similar cab.

Authorities valued the hooch at $20,000.

Deputies ask anyone with information to call [phone] or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8744.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 01:07 AM

Police say Austrian man raped daughter, fathered 6 children
April 27, 2008 From Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria - A woman who went missing in 1984 was found by police over the weekend and told investigators that she had been held by her father in a cellar, where she was repeatedly raped and gave birth to at least six children, police said Sunday.

Authorities said that the father may have told acquaintances and relatives that his daughter had joined a cult and disappeared.

Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, told reporters that the father, identified as Josef F., had been taken into custody. Police said Josef and his wife had been raising three of their daughter's children. The other three grew up in the cellar.

"We are being confronted with an unfathomable crime," Interior Minister Guenther Platter said.

The case unfolded after a gravely ill teenager was found unconscious on April 19 in the building where her grandparents live, and taken to a hospital in the town of Amstetten. Told that the sick 19-year-old's mother was missing, authorities publicly appealed for her to come forward.

Officers received a tip and picked up the mother near the hospital on Saturday, police said.

The mother, whom authorities identified as Elisabeth F., told officers that she had just been released after two decades of captivity at the hands of her father. She said that on Aug. 28, 1984 her father had sedated her, handcuffed her and locked her in a room in the cellar of the family's apartment building.

In an interview with AP Television News, Polzer said that Josef F. had given police a code to unlock a hidden door, revealing the area where Elisabeth and the children had been held.

It had several rooms, an uneven floor and a very narrow hallway, Polzer said, adding that the door was very small, and that one had to bend one's head to get through.

"Everything is very, very narrow and the victim herself ... told us that this was being continually enlarged over the years," Polzer said.

The area also contained sanitary facilities and small hot plates for cooking, Polzer said.

On its Web site, ORF reported that the rooms were at most 5.6 feet high and that the area had a TV.

The area also included a "padded cell," Hans-Heinz Lenze, a senior Amstetten district official, said in remarks broadcast late Sunday.

Elisabeth said her father had been sexually abusing her since she was 11. According to the police statement, Elisabeth said that she and her children got food and clothing only from her father and her mother, Rosemarie, had not been involved.

Police said Elisabeth F. appeared "greatly disturbed" during questioning and agreed to talk only after authorities assured her she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be cared for.

Police said Josef, 73, and Rosemarie had raised three of Elisabeth's children in their apartment in a two-story building in Amstetten, a small town about 80 miles west of Vienna.

Josef and Rosemarie registered the children with authorities, saying that they had found them outside their home in 1993, 1994 and 1997, at least one with a note from Elisabeth saying she could not care for the child.

The three other children apparently remained in the cellar with Elisabeth, police said.

"Elisabeth F. taught them how to speak," Polzer was quoted as saying by the Austria Press Agency.

Police said the sick 19-year-old, Kerstin, had been found unconscious on April 19 in the apartment building, with a handwritten note purportedly signed by Elisabeth, asking that she be given care.

After Kerstin was hospitalized, police said, Josef F. freed Elisabeth and the two remaining children from the cellar and told his wife that their daughter and the children had come back to them.

The Austria Press Agency reported that, in addition to Kerstin, three of the children are boys and two are girls, the youngest of whom is 5.

All are in psychiatric care, along with Elisabeth and Rosemarie, police said. DNA tests are expected to determine whether Josef F. is the father.

Police cited Elisabeth as saying that she gave birth to twins in 1996 but one died several days later because it was not properly cared for, according to police, who said they are investigating.

Josef, the alleged abuser, then apparently removed the corpse from the cellar and burned it, the police statement said. It was not immediately clear if the twin who allegedly died was included in the police total of six children.

Sunday's developments are reminiscent of the case of Natascha Kampusch, which shocked Austrians less than two years ago.

Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. She was held for the next 8 1/2 years by Wolfgang Priklopil, who largely confined her to a tiny underground dungeon in his home in a quiet Vienna suburb. Priklopil threw himself in front of a train just hours after Kampusch's dramatic escape on Aug. 23, 2006.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 01:51 PM

"Three days after a high-speed train accident caused by sheep on the line, a German regional train has hit a herd of cattle. No passengers are dead, but eight cows have lost their lives. The accidents have raised concerns about safety on the German rail system.

A train rumbling between the villages of Arnstadt and Ilmenau in rural Thüringia, central Germany, plowed into a herd of cows at a rail crossing late on Tuesday morning, said a police spokesman in the nearby town of Gotha. "We don't know any other details, the accident just occurred at 11 a.m.," the spokesman said.

The accident comes three days after a higher-profile derailment caused by a herd of sheep near Fulda, in the state of Hesse. That train was travelling at 220 kilometers per hour when it struck the animals and hopped the rail in a tunnel between Fulda and Würzburg on Saturday evening. Nineteen people were injured, and twenty sheep killed. "

Spiegel


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 01 May 08 - 03:31 PM

HONOLULU (AP) — A group of Native Hawaiians on Wednesday locked the gates of Iolani Palace, the former home of Hawaiian royalty, and took over the grounds.

The group, Hawaiian Kingdom Government, said it would occupy the palace grounds indefinitely and start carrying out the business of what it considers the legitimate government of the Hawaiian Islands.

State deputy sheriffs were not allowing anyone else to enter the palace grounds as unarmed security guards from the group blocked all gates to the palace, a major tourist attraction in downtown Honolulu.

Workers inside the palace itself had locked the doors and were not letting the group inside.

The group said it learned from Police Chief Boisse Correa, who is a Native Hawaiian, that arrest warrants were being prepared with the expectation they would be served on the 60 or so protesters.

Protest leaders said they were prepared to be arrested and would go peacefully.

The group's leader, Mahealani Kahau, said the group did not recognize Hawaii as an American state.

The group is one of several Hawaiian sovereignty organizations in the islands, which became the 50th state in 1959.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 02 May 08 - 01:51 PM

A neo-Nazi rally of about 700 people in Hamburg sparked a violent counterreaction from anti-Nazi left-wingers which ended up in riots worse than any previously seen in Hamburg. CArs were burned, stones were flung, arrests were made.

Spiegel has photos of the unrest, demonstrations and street violence.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 May 08 - 08:19 PM

I heard on Mudcat that there is someone trying for Double zero posts !