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BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 31 Jul 09 - 03:36 PM "The image of cows as placid, gentle creatures is a city slicker's fantasy, judging from an article published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reports that about 20 people a year are killed by cows in the United States. In some cases, the cows actually attack humans—ramming them, knocking them down, goring them, trampling them and kicking them in the head—resulting in fatal injuries to the head and chest. Mother cows, like other animals, can be fiercely protective of their young, and dairy bulls, the report notes, are "especially possessive of their herd and occasionally disrupt feeding, cleaning, and milking routines." The article, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, discusses 21 cases in which people were killed by cattle from 2003 to 2007 in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. In 16 cases, "the animal was deemed to have purposefully struck the victim," the report states. In 5 other cases, people were crushed against walls or by gates shoved by the cattle. Ten of the attacks were by bulls, 6 by cows and 5 by "multiple cattle." A third of the deaths were caused by animals that had been aggressive in the past. ..." (NYT) |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 31 Jul 09 - 03:44 PM It's an animals sorta day: "England (ChattahBox) - The buses in Devon has an unusual passenger to transport, who has been frequenting the lines on a daily basis. Casper the cat has been catching the 10:55 AM bus line every morning for four years, hopping on, the moment the doors open, and sitting in the back seat. He rides the line to the end of the route, and then gets off back at his stop, his round trip lasting about an hour. "Casper has always disappeared for hours at a time but I never understood where he was going," his owner, Susan Finden, tells The Telegraph. "I called him Casper because he had a habit of vanishing like a ghost. But then some of the drivers told me he had been catching the bus. I couldn't believe it at first, but it explains a lot. He loves people and we have a bus stop right outside our house so that must be how he got started - just following everyone on. "I used to catch the odd bus too so maybe he saw me and got curious what I was doing." The bus drivers are so used to seeing old Casper that they have put a notice up in their main headquarters, alerting all driver to look after the furry passenger." Chattahbox |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Aug 09 - 07:06 PM I started this thread so I could put interesting articles in one place, but I also started it with an eye to the attitudes of news content providers toward cut and paste or referrals. Looks like the Associated Press is going to try to crack down on Facebook posting of their stories--not sure how they'll do that, but here is the gist at Mashable.com.
Part of the AP's plan is to charge for use of its articles if you quote 5 words or more. They signed a deal with iCopyright in April to accomplish this goal. iCopyright is a widget that handles not only print and email, but republishing as well. Well the widget's starting to get some attention, if only for the jaw-dropping starting price the AP is charging for quoting its stories: $2.50 per word. If this is the case, then though I'll miss it, this, and the previous thread, are eligible to be deleted, of Mudcat is approached. And I'll make a point of linking and paraphrasing more, especially if it is AP stuff. I should say that for what it's worth, I think the fair use provision of the copyright law won't let AP get so exclusive about it's content. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Aug 09 - 01:36 AM An update on the AP story appeared today at Mashable: Associated Press: We Are Not Targeting Bloggers Today, the Associated Press reached out to us to clarify their position on iCopyright (the product they're using to charge for content) and on licensing its content. They explained that the form has never been aimed at bloggers quoting content and that it's unrelated to the controversy surrounding the content registry system, which aims to find what it considers illegitimate use of its content on the web. [snip] We asked for clarification and were referred to AP SVP Jane Seagrave's comments in the Columbia Journalism Review:
You'll find the rest at the top link. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 04 Aug 09 - 01:39 AM So glad to hear they are not silly.! A |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 04 Aug 09 - 11:34 AM "Reporting in the current issue of the journal Science, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School describe studies showing that the spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocytes, and that in the event of a serious trauma to the body like a heart attack, gashing wound or microbial invasion, the spleen will disgorge those monocyte multitudes into the bloodstream to tackle the crisis. "The parallel in military terms is a standing army," said Matthias Nahrendorf, an author of the report. "You don't want to have to recruit an entire fighting force from the ground up every time you need it." That researchers are only now discovering a major feature of a rather large organ they have been studying for at least 2,000 years demonstrates yet again that there is nothing so foreign as the place we call home. "Often, if you come across something in the body that seems like a big deal, you think, 'Why didn't anybody check this before?' " Dr. Nahrendorf said. "But the more you learn, the more you realize that we're just scratching on the surface of life. We don't know the whole story about anything." " NYT |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Aug 09 - 01:05 PM Darn. Moonglow lost her spleen surgically a couple of years ago. It was killing off her red blood cells (spherocytosis). One must always weigh the pros and cons--possible severe liver damage due to a bad jaundice episode, or remove it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 04 Aug 09 - 01:52 PM WEll then, tell her no heart attacks and no knife fights for her! Sorry. Mom's rules. ;>) A |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 04 Aug 09 - 02:21 PM On an even grimmer note: " A Massachusetts mother was horrified when she found her 7-month-old child's photo on popular promotions site, Craigslist, advertising his own adoption. MyFOXBoston reports that a stranger alerted Jenni Brennan of Abington, Mass. to the photo, which involved her 7-month-old son, Jake, in an online adoption scam. The ad read: "A CUTE BABY BOY FOR ADOPTION HE IS VERY HEALTHY AND READY FOR ADOPTION FOR MORE YOU COME BACK TO US." Brennan responded to the ad, receiving an email describing her son as Canadian but currently living in an African orphanage. She said the photo was from her family's blog. "I know he wasn't being physically harmed and no one was going to come to our door and try to take him, but I felt like his likeness was being violated," she told MyFOXBoston. She alerted the FBI and attorney general's office to the scam. Yahoo! has also removed the scammer's email addresses." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 07 Aug 09 - 01:56 AM Here comes the bride, and 2km-long dress pic here!! A Chinese bride has made a bid for the record books, turning up to her wedding wearing a 2,162-metre-long gown. More than 200 guests took over three hours to unroll Lin Rong's wedding train, which stretched nearly 2.2 kilometres and pin on 9,999 red silk roses for her wedding, Xinhua news agency said. Groom Zhao Peng said he wanted to challenge the current world record of 1,579 metres. "Both the length of the dress and the number of silk roses pinned on the wedding dress can make history, but it doesn't matter whether I can successfully register it on Guinness," the 28-year-old railway worker from northeast Jilin province said. Mr Zhao said he had sent an application to Guinness World Records and would also send a video of his wedding with his 25-year-old school teacher sweetheart. "I do not want a cliche wedding parade or banquet," the groom said, "nor can I afford the extravagance of a hot balloon wedding." But even so, his family was initially not too impressed at the far from frugal 40,000-yuan ($7,000) price tag. "It is a waste of money in my opinion," his mother said. "Though I understand that he wants to show his love on the big day." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 07 Aug 09 - 11:17 AM At least they didn't stretch that train out in one long straight line and expect her to drag it down the aisle! Photo. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 07 Aug 09 - 11:27 AM Humans will not stop being silly, no matter what... |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 14 Aug 09 - 08:27 PM awwwwww, how cute click on link to see pics Meet Koda, the little horse who could By News Online's Sarah Collerton Posted Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:00am AEST Updated Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:52pm AEST Koda was born to two normal-size miniature horses at a farm. It is not uncommon for workplaces to have pets. Perhaps a fish or a bird, or at most a dog or cat roaming around the waiting room of a vet's clinic. But the Yarrambat Veterinary Hospital, north of Melbourne, has its very own horse who trots around the surgery, nibbling rubbish in the bins and hanging off whoever he can. But this horse is different from most. At just 35 kilograms and 59 centimetres tall, 12-month-old Koda is said to be Australia's smallest horse. He was born the size of a cat and he is still smaller than some dogs, but what he lacks in size he makes up for with his gigantic personality. Dr Andy Lynch, who runs the clinic, says Koda - a miniature horse with dwarfism - is basking in his newfound celebrity. "He absolutely loves the attention from people, he's just soaking it up," he told ABC News Online. "Everywhere he goes he's instantly recognised and he loves it." Australia's Mr Ed has a jam-packed schedule, with plenty of bookings from local schools and nursing homes as well as a few TV appearances and photo shoots here and there. "He just had a visit from an elderly people's home," Dr Lynch said. "A van came to visit and he walked through the van and they loved him. "He's got a unique nature for a horse of his age. Normal-sized horses at 12 months can just be plain dangerous, but Koda is so trusting, he's fantastic. "His very tiny stature isn't apparent to him, he just regards himself just like any other horse." Health issues But it's not all fun and games for lively little Koda, who has spent much of his short life immobilised and sadly faces an onslaught of ailments. In fact when Dr Lynch first met Koda, he recommended that Koda be put down because of the severity of his health problems. "He had very contorted, buckley limbs that went in all different directions when he tried to stand," Dr Lynch said. "And his face was a little bit misshapen, with quite a dished nose and his nostrils were almost like a pig's snout." But luckily vet nurse Karen Stephenson, 23, saw hope in the little guy and persevered. "I fell in love with him straight away," she told ABC News Online. "Provided he wasn't going to go through too much suffering, I wanted to do whatever I could to give him a chance." Koda, who was born to two normal-size miniature horses at a farm, moved to Ms Stephenson's nearby Kinglake property, where he first came across normal-size horses. "All the larger horses were hesitant at first, but now he's one of them but just the size of a dog," she said. Costly treatment But Koda's need for extensive treatment means he has had to relocate to a small stable at the Yarrambat clinic for now. So far he has had two surgeries because of joint problems. At one stage his leg was in a cast and he faces more operations because his skull is too small for his teeth. But "buoyant" Koda doesn't let the surgeries get him down, Dr Lynch says. "He's very brave and he responds very well to pain relief," he said. The medical costs have so far mounted to $10,000 and Dr Lynch expects Koda will rack up at a bill of at least $30,000 more. "But he's well worth it," Dr Lynch said. Future for Koda And even though Koda's not expected to live a completely normal horse life, there is hope he will be around for at least a decade more. "We would be happy with 10 years, bearing in mind a normal horse lives to 25 years," Dr Lynch said. "We'd be thrilled with 20 years." Dr Lynch says Koda will probably live at the Yarrambat clinic for a few more months at least, but then he will move back to Kinglake to "play with his other horse friends" again. But this popular little horse isn't pining for his equine mates too much; he gets on with humans just as well. "He just loves attention from everyone and he knows he's loved," Dr Lynch said. "In the absence of other horses, we have become his herd and he responds to us like we're horses." And Ms Stephenson even has an idea to cater for "cheeky" Koda's social needs and growing fame. "He needs to go on tour around Australia," she said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: frogprince Date: 14 Aug 09 - 11:35 PM I'm getting very punchy, and need to go to bed. I just "flipped" the thread, read the Koda story, and then read the two previous posts as comments on it: "Humans will not stop being silly, no matter what..." seemed like a somewhat odd response. But "At least they didn't stretch that train out in one long straight line and expect her to drag it down the aisle!" seemed a lot more so! Nighty night everybody; Dean |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Aug 09 - 01:23 AM That's the William S. Burroughs approach to the thread. Makes for interesting reading. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Alice Date: 29 Aug 09 - 11:00 PM Gov't to thin wild horses in MT's Pryor Mountains BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Beginning next week, federal officials plan to thin by more than a third a wild horse herd that roams a mountain range along the Montana-Wyoming border. The Bureau of Land Management wants to reduce the number of adult horses on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range from 190 to 120 animals. Horse advocates said today that they'll ask a judge to stop the roundup. They say it could end up ruining one of the most genetically pure herds of Spanish colonial horses in the country. The roundup will capture the range's entire population, with 70 adult horses and their foals to be kept for adoption. The remaining horses will be freed. The BLM says the roundup is needed protect the range's ecological balance, which a spokesman for the agency said is threatened by overgrazing. Genetic testing has shown the Pryor herd descends from horses used by Spanish conquistadors during their drive to colonize the American Southwest. The first to arrive in the Pryors were likely brought by Crow or Shoshone Indians in the late 1700s or early 1800s. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 07 Sep 09 - 04:29 AM Trapped girls raised alarm on Facebook The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) says it is worrying that two girls lost last night in a stormwater drain raised the alert on a social networking site rather than ringing 000. The 10 and 12-year-old girls updated a Facebook status to say they were lost in a drain on Honeypot Road at Hackham in Adelaide's south. Glenn Benham from the MFS says it was fortunate a young male friend was online at the time and was able to call for help on their behalf. "It is a worry for us because it causes a delay on us being able to rescue the girls," he said. "If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000, so the point being they could have called us directly and we could have got there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 14 Sep 09 - 01:47 PM If at First You Don't Succeed September 2, 2009 Mark Wattson collapsed in agony and had to be rushed by ambulance to a hospital in Swindon, England. Doctors there told him his appendix had burst and they had to take it out. Wattson was angry and confused, since those same National Health Service doctors had operated on him just three weeks earlier to remove his appendix. No one seems sure exactly what they did the first time they cut him open. They did remove his appendix during the second surgery. But the incision became infected and Wattson had to be admitted to the hospital a third time. He says he also lost his job because his boss refused to believe he'd taken off time twice to have his appendix removed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 16 Sep 09 - 03:54 PM (AP) Three people were arrested on charges of swapping a 5-month-old boy for a downpayment on a used Dodge Intrepid and cash, police said Tuesday. Nicole Uribe, 23, is accused of trading the baby to Jose-Juan Lerma, 47, and his wife, Irene, 27, in exchange for $1,500, $500 which was to be the downpayment, Pueblo police Sgt. Brett Wilson said. Details of the dollar amount were first reported by The Gazette. The asking price for the baby was initially $10,000, but that later dropped, Wilson said quoting an affidavit. Wilson said negotiations were still under way and it was unclear whether future payments on the 2000 car for Uribe were part of the deal. All were arrested on suspicion of felony trafficking in children and were being held at the Pueblo jail under $50,000 bail each. The baby was placed in a foster home, Wilson said. Wilson said he couldn't speculate on the motives for the alleged deal. He said police found the child and arrested Uribe within hours of getting a tip on Monday. The Lermas were arrested on Tuesday. Wilson said all three were Mexican nationals and federal officials had been asked to investigate their immigration status. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Sep 09 - 02:05 PM Seems to me that a funeral home is not the place to worry about haunting. The people who passed through there died somewhere else, after all. --SRS The Two-Story Conversation Starter WHEN Jean-Marie Grenier was growing up in the Norman village of Rugles, he lived on a street called Rue du Cimetière. On funeral days, women wearing long black veils padded by behind a horse-drawn hearse, a sight that terrified him as a little boy. "Les dames en noir," recalled Mr. Grenier, 56, a sculptor who immigrated to New York in the late 1970s. "I was so afraid." In one of those great coincidences of real estate, Mr. Grenier and his wife, Jane, 50, a promotion and marketing executive at Condé Nast, now live in a sepulchral sort of place on Driggs Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, near McCarren Park. From around 1900 until the mid-'70s, the building operated as the Dekarski Funeral Home, a venerable institution in a neighborhood whose Polish roots remain strong even in the face of what Ms. Grenier describes as "hipster creep." The hit TV show "Six Feet Under" did much to familiarize Americans with the innards of funeral homes. Nevertheless, even some fairly sophisticated people find the idea of living in one more than slightly spooky. At a Valentine's Day party at the Greniers' a few years ago, one guest was so freaked out that he couldn't bear to linger under their roof. "Sitting on the couch, I just felt something," the man confessed nervously to his hosts before fleeing the premises. Almost from the moment they married in 1987, the couple had been real estate gypsies, living first in Mr. Grenier's TriBeCa loft with his roommates ("I told him married people don't have roommates," Ms. Grenier said), then in a Downtown Brooklyn loft that she describes as so enormous "you needed Rollerblades to go to the bathroom." Thirteen years ago, when they were poised to be evicted from a loft on the Lower East Side because the owner wanted the place for his own use, they decided to check out the increasingly desirable Brooklyn waterfront. One day, Mr. Grenier saw a two-line newspaper ad for an apartment on Driggs Avenue that mentioned a lot of open space. The ad made no mention of the building's previous life, and space was what he was after, so he headed off to the broker's office. "I was so excited," Mr. Grenier recalled, his words tumbling out as he described his first sight of the apartment. "I drew a little sketch on a napkin, but my hands were trembling so much, I couldn't do it." That night he couldn't sleep, afraid that someone else would nab the apartment before he and his wife could make their move. In May 1996, the couple rented the ground floor of the two-story structure for $1,575 a month. Nine years later, they paid $940,000 to buy the entire 2,000-square-foot building, which includes a rental apartment on the top floor, where the owners of the funeral home used to live. Despite the wisecracks that visitors invariably make, these days there's nothing particularly creepy about the place. Yet poignant reminders of its earlier life are visible everywhere. The facade, with its three arched doorways of dark wood — one for the bodies, a second for the office and a third for the public — looks so ecclesiastical that Ms. Grenier tells cab drivers to watch for a building that "looks like a church but it's not." The basement where coffins once awaited their final resting place has been converted to a studio where Mr. Grenier produces the sinuous white stoneware that is his trademark (examples can be seen on his Web site, jm-grenier.com). But a dusty corner is jammed with ecclesiastic bric-a-brac, including a small forest of standing aluminum candle holders. The couple's bedroom, where as Ms. Grenier is quick to remind one and all with a meaningful roll of her eyes, they "did the work," looks unremarkable. However, the adjacent bathroom is dominated by a ceramic urinal and a hip bath (why a hip bath, the Greniers have no idea), and was, the couple believe, one of a pair of his-and-hers restrooms. The urinal is Ms. Grenier's single favorite item in the house, although she is also extremely fond of the claw-footed tub that her husband acquired and installed just outside their bedroom so that she can take a proper bath. Echoes of the building's past are especially pervasive in what is now the living room-dining room area. Stained-glass windows, dark wood trim, skylights and Gothic accents like arches serve as a reminder that this was once a pair of viewing chapels where two services could be conducted simultaneously. Or so the Greniers believe; as with the hip bath, sorting out certain details of the building's history can be tricky. The old funeral home office is now a tiny but impressively outfitted kitchen. On one wall hangs a formidable assortment of inky cast-iron skillets; on another is a string of garlic that the Greniers brought back from France, where they have a summer house. The refrigerator is a basic Kenmore model — with a Sub-Zero magnet affixed to one side to add a little class. In the back of the house is what is officially the garden, though thanks to the arrival of a new building literally inches away, the area feels more like an enclosed box. "A Zen garden," Ms. Grenier said. It is surrounded by slats of ipê, a Brazilian hardwood, and home to a single potted philodendron. While the smell of embalming fluid has long since disappeared, she has embraced rather than repressed the building's past, although to be safe she cleansed the place upon arrival by burning sage to encourage "any troubled spirits" to go elsewhere. "I'm very conscious of all the end-of-life moments that had taken place here," she said. "And I wished all the spirits well." That Mr. Grenier, who grew up seeing hearses pass the house of his childhood, now lives in a converted funeral home seems the work of fate. So does the fact that Ms. Grenier, some of whose ancestors came from Poland, has ended up in what has long been the city's premier Polish neighborhood. And she is delighted that many of the artisans who have done work on the Greniers' house are local Polish-Americans. "It feels like kismet," she said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Oct 09 - 01:19 PM Isn't the account of the extortion attempt against David Letterman the strangest thing you've heard? A producer of a true crime program was so un-savvy that he wrote out his demands, and then took them to a meeting with an attorney (an officer of the court) present? Geez. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/02/entertainment/main5358649.shtml A CBS News employee has been indicted in an alleged blackmail plot against David Letterman, who was forced to acknowledge sexual relationships with female staffers on his show after the man tried to blackmail him for $2 million, the Manhattan district attorney said Friday. Robert J. "Joe" Halderman, a producer for the true-crime show "48 Hours," was arrested Thursday and indicted on one count of attempted first-degree grand larceny, punishable by five to 15 years upon conviction, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said. "Our concern here is extortion, and that's what we're focusing on," Morgenthau said. The district attorney's office said Halderman left a letter and other material for Letterman early Sept. 9. He wrote that he needed "to make a large chunk of money" by selling Letterman a screenplay treatment. The letter told Letterman that his world would "collapse around him" when information about his private life was disclosed. He said it would lead to "a ruined reputation" and severe damage to his professional and family life. Letterman immediately contacted his lawyer, who arranged a meeting with Halderman. At the meeting, Halderman demanded $2 million to keep the material secret, the district attorney's office said. After the meeting, Letterman and his lawyer contacted the DA's office and the investigation began. In an extraordinary monologue before millions of viewers, the late-night host admitted that he had sexual relationships with female employees. Letterman said that "this whole thing has been quite scary," but he mixed in jokes while outlining what had happened to him. Read the rest at the link. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 15 Oct 09 - 03:55 PM LEBANON, Pa. -- Police in central Pennsylvania say they've nabbed a real pothead. They said an officer spotted 29-year-old Cesar Lopez inside a convenience store with a bag of marijuana stuck to his forehead. Investigators said Lopez was seen peering inside his baseball cap early Saturday morning in Lebanon, about 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia. When Lopez looked up, the officer noticed a small plastic bag appearing to contain marijuana stuck to his forehead. Police said the officer peeled the bag off Lopez's forehead and placed him under arrest. He has been charged with drug possession. Police do not know whether Lopez has an attorney. Authorities say the sweatband of a baseball cap is a frequent hiding place for drugs. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 21 Oct 09 - 04:46 AM Crime-busting leech goes international Tasmanian police are attracting worldwide attention after using blood from a leech to solve an eight-year-old crime. On Monday, Peter Alec Cannon, 54, pleaded guilty to aggravated armed robbery after he stole money from a 71-year-old woman in September 2001. Police found a blood-filled leech at the crime scene and matched the DNA to Cannon seven years later, when he was arrested on drugs charges. Detective Inspector Mick Johnston says he has been inundated with media attention. "'The Times' of London's the furthest away I've spoken to today about this and a lot of the media attention's been asking me questions about it, but this was a team effort," he said. "None of these things happen because of the actions of one person. I guess we expected some kind of interest, because it is unique, possibly a world first." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Oct 09 - 04:11 PM Before you place that online order, watch out for other charges you have to opt out of link It was a cold January evening when Chuck and Peggy Walton of North Richland Hills decided to try out Pizza Hut's new pasta dish and to order it through the company's Web site for home delivery. They gave the pasta mixed reviews. "It was OK for emergency rations — when you're hungry and don't feel like going out or cooking," Peggy Walton said this week. But the ultimate cost — more than $100 as charges accrued in subsequent months from ongoing debits to their checking account — got a definite thumbs down. "I felt stupid because I monitor our checking account regularly for irregular charges because I'm an online shopper," she said. When Chuck Walton placed the order, he had apparently clicked on a loyalty program offered by a Pizza Hut promotional partner, Webloyalty.com. The Waltons say they didn't realize they were enrolled in a discount coupon program at a cost of $12 a month. "I don't know how I missed that for almost nine months," Peggy Walton said of the charges that were listed for "Complete Savings" on her bank statement. The Connecticut-based Webloyalty settled a class-action lawsuit in August that accused it of enrolling customers without their knowledge. Loyalty programs are usually designed to offer discounts, coupons or even cash back to encourage repeat business from Web site customers. But Webloyalty.com operates differently. It is much like the entertainment coupon books that customers buy for a set price and that provide hundreds of dollars in discounts, two-for-one offers and other benefits from participating retailers. In Webloyalty.com's case, customers signed up for a free 30-day trial and got $10 off their next purchase or some other discount at the partner retailer, Pizza Hut in the Waltons' case. Thereafter, they can go to the company's Web site before going out to dinner or the movies, for example, and download coupons for discounted meals or tickets, Webloyalty.com spokeswoman Beth Kitchener said. She said Webloyalty.com takes complaints from customers seriously and does not intentionally deceive them. Its process requires participants to enter their e-mail address twice as verification that they read and understood the offer, Kitchener said. The company also sends seven e-mails during the first month reminding consumers to use the $10 discount and alerting them that the free trial is ending, she said. But its enrollment practices have taken a beating from the Better Business Bureau and a group of enrollees who say their participation in Webloyalty.com programs was unwitting. "The essence of our lawsuit was that consumers were being enrolled in programs without their knowledge," said David George, a lawyer in the Boca Raton, Fla., practice Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins L.L.P., which represented the plaintiffs. The suit covered enrollees in Webloyalty.com programs dating to 2000, George said. Plaintiffs' lawyers said their clients disregarded the company's e-mails as spam or the e-mails were automatically diverted to spam folders. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Ed T Date: 24 Oct 09 - 04:13 PM Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2009 |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 25 Nov 09 - 07:44 PM The world's oldest intact computer is turning 60. The CSIRAC - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research organisation Automatic Computer - is housed in the state's museum and has today been granted heritage listing as part of its birthday celebrations. It is the first computer ever to be made in Australia; the fourth computer ever to be made in the world; and the only first generation computer that remains intact. Museum Victoria's senior curator of information and communication, David Demant, describes himself as the computer's caretaker. He says the CSIRAC represents the beginning of the modern computer age. "It is one of the first computers that started the digital technology revolution, which has completely changed the planet," he said. "The potential of what is happening today was in CSIRAC... you couldn't do the same things back then because it didn't have the power or the memory or whatever, but essentially in principle the structure of computers has remained the same since CSIRAC." Mr Demant says the computer can be explained simply as the first iPod. "You could say that CSIRAC was the first iPod if you like... you would feed in your paper tape and CSIRAC played the music," he said. "And today you have a little chip in which you record your music, you put your recorded music onto the iPod, and the iPod - which is basically a computer - plays your music." The CSIRAC was designed from scratch and hand built in 1949. It was run off paper tape, which Mr Demant says probably now constitutes the worlds oldest software library. "It consisted of nine cabinets, which are about seven foot high and very wide, and there was a console and the computer was driven," he said. "It wasn't automatic like we know today, you actually had to intervene every now and then in running a program and it ran off paper tape... so its output was paper tape and there was no screen as such." Earliest computer games The CSIRAC was used for a range of scientific and industrial purposes including crystallography, electronics, building frame analysis, loan repayments and weather forecasting. In 1951 it generated the world's first computer music and it could also host games. "People were trying to explore its capabilities and they tested everything," Mr Demant said. "In one of the games there was a string of lights on one of the cabinets and the computer had to predict your next move. "So if you moved the light to the left and the computer predicted that you were going to do that it would shift the light to the left, but if it had failed to predict you it would move the light to the right. "They were very simple games, but nevertheless they were games." Mr Demant says Australia's first generation of software programmers were trained on the CSIRAC. "It was the training ground for computer software programmers in Australia," he said. "It was the beginning of the Australian software computer industry because it wasn't just a hardware computer, it produced software as well." Heritage Victoria's director of collections, Elizabeth Triarico, says the CSIRAC is significant historically, scientifically and technologically. "It is the first technology object to be put on our state register which is quite a significant thing in itself," she said. "It is something of very high significance to Australia and not just Victoria." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 07 Dec 09 - 10:34 AM As nations attempt to put their energy consumption in order, the need for better ways to store electrical power is becoming apparent: wind and solar power installations don't always provide power when it's most needed. Batteries are one option – although they'll have to improve before they are practical for large-scale storage – but another is converting excess electricity into hydrogen and feeding it through a fuel cell later to generate electricity. Now Vincent Artero at Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, and colleagues have shown that a cheap catalyst could be used to both generate hydrogen to store energy, and also to consume it to extract stored power. Until now, almost all hydrogen-generating catalysts have been made with the expensive metal platinum, making scaling up their use impractical. A platinum-free catalyst for hydrogen formation was developed in 2006, but it required water-free conditions that were incompatible with conventional methods of making the gas. Artero and his colleagues have solved that problem, coating the platinum-free catalyst in a membrane that lets hydrogen ions reach the catalyst, but not water molecules. Gas factory The team attached the catalytic molecules to a carbon nanotube electrode and sealed it in the waterproof membrane. Then they ran an electric current through the electrode and dipped it into dilute sulphuric acid. They found that hydrogen ions from the watery acid solution travelled through the membrane to the catalyst, where they picked up electrons from the circuit to become hydrogen gas. The team also found that the new design can work in reverse, to split up gaseous hydrogen into ions, and release electrons to provide power. "That's useful because the customer would buy just one device [that can both generate and oxidise hydrogen]," says Artero. So far, though, the device can't compete with the power output of a conventional platinum-catalysed fuel cell, although the team haven't yet begun to optimise it for that use. Right direction Earlier this year Fraser Armstrong's team at the University of Oxford showed how a bacterial enzyme – a hydrogenase – could perform a similar role. "The reversibility [shown by the new system] is important, as the system now resembles a hydrogenase," he says. Some people think such enzymes will ultimately provide the best way to make hydrogen. "But their production can hardly be scaled up, and the enzymes require special conditions in terms of humidity, pH and temperature," says Artero, who thinks artificial catalysts will probably be the first to enable wide-scale use of hydrogen to store energy. Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1179773 |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 07 Dec 09 - 01:10 PM Great article, great idea. Thanks! |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:29 AM WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency has terminated a contract with the security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide that allowed the company to load bombs on C.I.A. drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Friday. Related Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret C.I.A. Raids (December 11, 2009) The contract gave employees with the company an operational role in one of the Central Intelligence Agency's most significant covert programs, which has killed dozens of militants with Predator and Reaper drones. The company's involvement highlighted the extent to which the C.I.A. had outsourced critical jobs to private companies since the 9/11 attacks. The contract with the company, now called Xe Services, was canceled this year by Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, according to a C.I.A. spokesman. In August, The New York Times first revealed the existence of the contract, which was run by a division of the company called Blackwater Select, which handles classified contracts. George Little, the C.I.A. spokesman, said that Mr. Panetta had ordered that the agency's employees take over the jobs from Xe employees at the remote drone bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that Mr. Panetta had also ordered a review of all contracts with the company. "At this time, Blackwater is not involved in any C.I.A. operations other than in a security or support role," Mr. Little said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Dec 09 - 11:38 AM Blackwater is trying to shake a lot of shit off of their coat tails by changing the name to "Z" - they've bailed on anything that remotedly even comes from the other end of the alphabet. :) |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 14 Dec 09 - 02:19 PM An octopus and its coconut-carrying antics have surprised scientists. Underwater footage reveals that the creatures scoop up halved coconut shells before scampering away with them so they can later use them as shelters. Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team says it is the first example of tool use in octopuses. One of the researchers, Dr Julian Finn from Australia's Museum Victoria, told BBC News: "I almost drowned laughing when I saw this the first time." He added: "I could tell it was going to do something, but I didn't expect this - I didn't expect it would pick up the shell and run away with it." Quick getaway The veined octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) were filmed between 1999 and 2008 off the coasts of Northern Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia. The bizarre behaviour was spotted on four occasions. Octopus inside coconut (Roger Steene) The octopuses use the coconuts as a shelter The eight-armed beasts used halved coconuts that had been discarded by humans and had eventually settled in the ocean. Dr Mark Norman, head of science at Museum Victoria, Melbourne, and one of the authors of the paper, said: "It is amazing watching them excavate one of these shells. They probe their arms down to loosen the mud, then they rotate them out." After turning the shells so the open side faces upwards, the octopuses blow jets of mud out of the bowl before extending their arms around the shell - or if they have two halves, stacking them first, one inside the other - before stiffening their legs and tip-toeing away. Dr Norman said: "I think it is amazing that those arms of pure muscle get turned into rigid rods so that they can run along a bit like a high-speed spider. "It comes down to amazing dexterity and co-ordination of eight arms and several hundred suckers." Home, sweet home The octopuses were filmed moving up to 20m with the shells. And their awkward gait, which the scientists describe as "stilt-walking", is surprisingly speedy, possibly because the creatures are left vulnerable to attack from predators while they scuttle away with their prized coconuts. Veined octopus (Mark Norman) The veined octopus is a meaty feast for predators The octopuses eventually use the shells as a protective shelter. If they just have one half, they simply turn it over and hide underneath. But if they are lucky enough to have retrieved two halves, they assemble them back into the original closed coconut form and sneak inside. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Dec 09 - 08:02 PM Las Posadas in New Mexico December 13 saw the tradition of Las Posadas in northern New Mexico, including the capital of the state, Santa Fe. Facing demons, the holy couple finally found refuge at the Palace of the Governors, after being told many times that there was no room at the inn. Some 1500 people in their entourage, carrying candles, braving catcalls and refusals on the way to find shelter, with demons shouting abuse from rooftops. The passage of the holy couple, Las Posadas is a nine day celebration of the holy family, Dec. 16-Dec. 24, held throughout the Hispanic southwest and Mexico. The period of celebration extends into the old calendar Christmas, with the giving of gifts by the Three Wise Men. "Las Posadas: Facing Demons, finding haven," Dennis Carroll, Santa Fe New Mexican, E-mail edition, December 14, 2009. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Las-Posadas-Facing-demons-finding-haven |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 15 Dec 09 - 06:36 PM NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - The book Stanley Dudek finally returned to the New Bedford Public Library this week wasn't overdue by a week, a month or even a year. It was nearly a century overdue. "Facts I Ought to Know about the Government of My Country" was supposed to have been returned on May 10, 1910. Dudek told the Standard Times newspaper he came across the book while going through things that had belonged to his mother, who died about 10 years ago. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: frogprince Date: 15 Dec 09 - 06:39 PM How much was the fine? |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: gnu Date: 04 Jan 10 - 01:41 PM No McNuggets? |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Jan 10 - 12:03 AM Who knows what they were rinsed with at the factory. She's better off getting over that addiction. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Jan 10 - 01:49 AM Ewww. . . Broken Teeth? I haven't read much on this Tiger Wood story, but clicked on one this evening, finally, and found this: Tiger Woods lost some teeth after his wife hit him in the face with a 9-iron on Nov. 27, the night he crashed his SUV outside his Florida home, according to an account that former NHL coach Pat Burns gave to Montreal radio station CKAC on Tuesday, the Toronto Star reports. Burns said a friend of his in the Florida highway patrol was among those who visited Woods' home the night of the crash. Burns worked with the police in Florida before coaching hockey, according to the newspaper. After eating dinner that night, Woods was watching football while sending and receiving text messages from Rachel Uchitel, one of his alleged mistresses, Burns said. Later, Woods left his phone on the coffee table when he went to play poker at a friend's house. But Uchitel continued to text. Here is Burns' account of what happened next: "His wife (Elin Nordegren) saw the message. When he returned, around 11:30 p.m. or midnight, she waited at the door. She asked what it was, these messages, and who was this woman. "He kept saying there was nothing there. He went to watch television. ... then suddenly, bang! A nine-iron in the face! "He left the house running without shoes. Elin followed him with the club. He left in his Escalade. She followed him and broke two or three windows. That's why he hit the tree." Doctors in the Orlando hospital Woods was taken to said he needed plastic surgery to repair the broken teeth, and that the facility best able to perform the operation was in Phoenix, Arizona. Woods was then transported to Phoenix. "This explains (Woods') absence when the police wanted to meet him the following days," Burns said. Woods has not been seen in public since the crash. Burns' version of the story is consistent with those that have been attributed to Woods' neighbors and others who claim to know what happened that night, the Star notes. -------------- And then comes Vanity Fair, rushing these 2006 Libovitz photos to the cover: Tiger, Tiger, burning bright (apologies to Blake). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: gnu Date: 06 Jan 10 - 02:09 PM Big Mac ATTACK? |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 06 Jan 10 - 02:25 PM What is it with these women who get mad at McDonald's and decide to take physical corrective action of the most extreme prejudicial nature? Are guys doing this sort of thing, too? Or is the betrayal of the alimentary and gustatory system a special province of upset for the fairer sex? I can sorta see that. But they sure are playing hardball! A |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: gnu Date: 06 Jan 10 - 05:53 PM Men are just not as picky or violent as women.... usually. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 09 Jan 10 - 08:41 PM LOS ANGELES – A West Hollywood antiques dealer faces charges of selling a fake Picasso drawing for $2 million. Tatiana Khan allegedly had the forgery made for only $1,000, according to the FBI. FBI agents also seized a $700,000 de-Kooning painting that the prosecutors allege was purchased with proceeds derived from the sale of the bogus Picasso. Khan, 69, who owns and resides at the Chateau Allegré gallery on La Cienega Boulevard, allegedly hired an artist to fabricate the Picasso drawing—a 1902 pastel called "La Femme Au Chapeau Bleu," or "The Woman in the Blue Hat"—by giving the artist a photo of the drawing and telling her the real Picasso artwork had been stolen from one of Khan's clients and that Khan needed the copy to play a trick that would help catch the thief. Khan paid the artist $1,000 for the fake Picasso in 2006, and soon after sold the drawing for $2 million. A criminal complaint filed in United States District Court yesterday afternoon alleges that Khan told the purchaser that the fake Picasso was worth much more than $2 million, but that she was able to sell it for less than market value because it came from the Malcolm Forbes family estate. Khan allegedly told the purchaser that she was acting as the broker for the Forbes family, which wanted their paintings sold privately due to a dispute within the family. The FBI began investigating the sale of the artwork in 2009 after the purchaser contacted a Picasso expert, who offered the opinion that the drawing was fake. After being contacted by the FBI, Khan allegedly contacted the artist who made the copy and told the artist not to divulge that she had created the purported Picasso. When Khan herself was interviewed by the FBI, according to the complaint, Khan claimed that she had obtained the drawing from a cosmetologist who worked near Chateau Allegré as collateral for a $40,000 loan. The criminal complaint charges Khan with wire fraud, making false statements to the FBI and witness tampering. When the summons was served, the FBI also seized a painting by abstract expressionist artist Willem de Kooning that Khan allegedly purchased with $720,000 of the proceeds derived from the fraudulent sale of the fake Picasso. If she is convicted of the charges alleged in the criminal complaint, Khan faces a statutory maximum sentence of 45 years in federal prison. The buyer's name was not divulged. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jan 10 - 01:40 PM The wonderful old Perry Mason series got a lot of mileage out of art theft and fraud stories. Great stuff! Thanks for the story. I can just see Robert H. Harris as the forger. (You probably won't know his name, but you'll instantly recognize his face. Great character actor). Here, also. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 Jan 10 - 07:25 PM Radio-collar lynx poached in Summit County (Denver Post) One of the first lynx reintroduced into Colorado from Canada was killed near Green Mountain Reservoir last weekend, ending the life of the 13-year-old female hundreds of miles from her original Colorado home. Sean Shepherd, DOW's district manager in Summit County, said investigators have no doubt the lynx was killed by a human. The lynx is a protected species. The Colorado Division of Wildlife reintroduced lynx into the San Juan Mountains in 1999. The lynx killed over the weekend in northern Summit County was one of the first relocated to the San Juans from Canada. The collar on the female lynx provided years of information to officials monitoring her travels. In recent years, she had often moved from the Vail Pass area to Rocky Mountain National Park. Shepherd said during her life, she had continued to move north through Colorado and was continuing that northward journey with her jaunts into Rocky Mountain National Park. She had most recently lived above Cataract Lake above Green Mountain Reservoir and was last seen along Heeney Road on the afternoon of Jan. 16. A mortality signal from the radio collar that the lynx was wearing was received Jan. 18. DOW investigators recovered the collar, but the carcass of the lynx was missing. Officers determined from evidence found in the area that the lynx was likely killed nearby. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the DOW Hot Sulphur Springs Office at 970-725-6200, or Operation Game thief at 1-877-265-6648. A reward is available to anyone providing information leading to conviction of the crime. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 01 Feb 10 - 12:07 PM Court fines adulterers 4 buffaloes, 1 pig Posted: Feb 01, 2010 5:21 AM PST Updated: Feb 01, 2010 5:21 AM PST Text/Email Alerts More>> Find out first with Breaking News Alerts Sign up for Traffic Alerts Local News More>> Collier County arrests 01/31/10 Mug shot gallery Jan. 31 Lee County arrests 1/31/10 2 teens escape from Charlotte detention center Suspects sought in deadly I-75 crash in Fort Myers 1 dead in another crash into a Collier County canal Police beat firefighters 7-6 in charity football game Haitian children get a fresh start at Lee schools Church's Haiti fund boosted by 5k Pugs party in togas at Bell Tower Shops KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - The wages of sin are four buffaloes and a pig. At least in Malaysia. A court has ordered a couple caught in an affair to compensate their communities with livestock. They also were fined about 300 bucks. The man's wife complained, after catching her husband in shorts and her colleague in a sarong. The court rejected their claim that they were just "best friends.' |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 01 Feb 10 - 12:24 PM Man caught at airport with 44 lizards in pants Posted: Jan 26, 2010 9:39 PM PST Updated: Jan 29, 2010 8:40 AM PST WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A German man who stuffed 44 small lizards into his underwear before trying to board a flight has been sentenced to prison in New Zealand for plundering the country's protected species. Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, will spend 14 weeks behind bars and must pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine before being deported to Germany as soon as he is released, District Court Judge Colin Doherty ruled onTuesday. Kubus was caught by wildlife officials at Christchurch International Airport on South Island in December, about to board an overseas flight with 44 geckos and skinks in a hand-sewn package concealed in his underwear. He admitted trading in exploited species without a permit and hunting absolutely protected wildlife without authority, pleading guilty to two charges under the Wildlife Act and five under the Trade in Endangered Species Act. Department of Conservation prosecutor Mike Bodie told the court Kubus could have faced potential maximum penalties of NZ$500,000 ($355,000) and six months in prison. Bodie said the department sought a deterrent sentence for "the most serious case of its kind detected in New Zealand for a decade or more." The geckos may have been worth 2,000 euros ($2,800) each on the European market, he noted. Customs records showed that Kubus had also been to New Zealand in 2001, 2004, 2008, and 2009. In 2008, he had been with a Swiss reptile dealer. Doherty said Kubus had come to New Zealand and set about poaching the animals in a premeditated way which would have had an impact on particular colonies. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 18 Feb 10 - 01:04 PM Prison walls were no obstacle for a man in western Germany who was being separated from his love. But breaking into her cell every night turned out to be a very bad decision. Ah, love. It drives us to do the craziest things: climb the highest mountains, run through the fields, scale city walls or walk for miles. Love even drove one man in the western German city of Bielefeld to break into prison. And not only once, but night after night -- until he got caught. The suspect, 33-year-old Daniele E., was arrested in November for scaling a steel fence to break into the prison where his girlfriend was serving time for drug-related offenses, according to the local daily Westfalen-Blatt. On Tuesday, the Bielefeld public prosecutor charged Daniele E. with trespassing and announced a trial date in March. Lawyer Carsten Ernst, who is representing Daniele E., said he thought the charges were excessive. "Couldn't we have just laughed this one off and cancelled the trial?" he commented. Snitches Torpedo Love According to the indictment, things got pretty hot in Cell 13 of Detention House C 7 -- not to mention loud. As Friedhelm Sanker, the deputy head of the minimum-security prison, told the paper: "Some of the other women felt that their sleep was being disturbed, while others feared that the man might try to come and visit them, too." In response to the complaints, prison officials installed a video surveillance camera. Nov. 8 proved to be the fateful night for Daniele E. When prison officials noticed a man climb over the fence and enter the building where the woman was being held, they called the police. Using dogs, the police sniffed the unlucky lover out -- in his girlfriend's cell. "I love her -- we're engaged!" Daniele E. reportedly pleaded with the arresting officers. Lonely at Night The nightly prison break-ins surprised and confounded prison officials. "The two of them could have visited each other during the day, seeing as the woman was in a minumum-security prison," Sanker told the paper. "But they apparently felt very lonely at night." Since his arrest, things have only gone from bad to worse for Daniele E. He is now being held in prison on suspicion of having robbed a number of gas stations. In addition, his requests to be granted conjugal visits with his lover have been turned down. Prison policy states that such visits will only be permitted when they concern "relationships deserving of support." Unfortunately for Daniele E., his girlfriend gave the name of another man as her partner when she was first admitted to prison. (der Spiegel) |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 25 Feb 10 - 05:46 PM The mother of a 13-year-old Montgomery County middle school student is demanding an apology from a teacher who had school police escort the youngster from a classroom for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The unidentified student was mocked by other children in her class and has been too traumatized to return to Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown, according to Ajmel Quereshi, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland who is representing the family. A school spokesman said Tuesday that the teacher's actions were a clear violation of the school's regulations, which are based on state law. The teacher, who also has not been identified by either side, will have to apologize to the student, spokesman Dana Tofig said. "The policy is very, very clearly stated," Tofig said. "Our teachers are expected to know the students' rights and responsibilities. . . . A mistake has been made, and it will be rectified." Quereshi said that as of Tuesday afternoon, no one from the school had contacted the girl or her family to resolve the issue. The teen's mother tried to schedule a meeting with school officials but was told they would not meet with her if she wanted to bring a lawyer, Quereshi said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: frogprince Date: 25 Feb 10 - 11:05 PM I just spotted the Feb 18 post. Is that what they mean by that term "jailbait"? |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 26 Feb 10 - 09:45 AM January 27, 2010 - Stray Dogs in Moscow, Russia, Evolving Greater Intelligence in Mastery of Subways. Moscow stray dog waiting for the 8:10 subway to Tverskaya, Russia. Reporter Susanne Sternthal of the U.K.'s Financial Times reported on January 16, 2010,from her Moscow base, about seeing a German Shepard-type dog "waiting on a metro platform. When the train pulled up, the dog would step in, scramble up to lie on a seat or sit on the floor if the carriage was crowded, and then exit a few stops later. There is even a website dedicated to the metro strays, www.metrodog.ru, on which passengers post photos and video clips taken with their mobile phones, documenting the savviest dogs of the pack that use the public transport system like any other Muscovite." Click here for full story. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 03 Mar 10 - 01:05 PM From "Politiken.DK" in Copenhagen: "...Surprised police officers listened as the man, who admitted to being an habitual hash smoker, told police he wanted to complain about a bad cube - as he had never had such a bad trip. Police officers had difficulty containing themselves as the man said that after his smoke, his television seemed to begin talking to him and his girl friend turned in to a dolphin. After ten years of hash smoking, the man said he knew a bad trip from a good one, adding that his cube must have been laced, and asked the authorities to run an LSD test on a piece he had brought with him. Skånskan, which reported the case, said the man claimed the trip had left him 'shaky and scared'. Eslöv Police declined, although said that in theory the supplier could be charged if the quality of his product had been laced with a substance the purchaser had not been aware of. "It could possibly be classified as an attack, if the hash did in fact contain LSD. But prior to acceding to the man's request, officers said they needed to know the supplier's name – something the angry young man was not prepared to disclose. " |
