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

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 11:34 AM

"In Oklahoma, a convicted killer was caught in November posting photographs on his Facebook page of drugs, knives and alcohol that had been smuggled into his cell. In 2009, gang members in a Maryland prison were caught using their smartphones to approve targets for robberies and even to order seafood and cigars.

Even closely watched prisoners are sneaking phones in. Last month, California prison guards said they had found a flip phone under Charles Manson's mattress.

The logical solution would be to keep all cellphones out of prison. But that is a war that is being lost, corrections officials say. Prisoners agree.

"Almost everybody has a phone," said Mike, 33, an inmate at Smith State Prison in Georgia who, like other prisoners interviewed for this article, asked that his full name not be used for fear of retaliation. "Almost every phone is a smartphone. Almost everybody with a smartphone has a Facebook."

..."

---

Lemme see if I understand this--this little short guy serving life for the Tate murders and generally defacing Western civilization, has to have a smartphone so he can "friend" people on Facebook and mebbe Twitter his followers? Oy, tempore, oy, mores!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 11:37 AM

State officials on Monday were investigating why 80,000 to 100,000 fish washed up dead on the shores of the Arkansas River last week.

"The fish deaths will take about a month" to determine a cause, Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, told msnbc.com.

Stephens also provided the estimate of 80,000 to 100,000 dead fish.

The fish were found Thursday by a tugboat operator along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near the city of Ozark.

More U.S. news :Up to 5,000 birds fell from Ark. sky
Updated 7 minutes ago 1/3/2011 4:26:58 PM +00:00 The number of birds that fell on this Arkansas town on New Year's Eve night is now estimated at 4,000 to 5,000, a wildlife official told msnbc.com, up sharply from the initial estimate of 1,000.

---

So...what the fug is going on in Arkansas? Secret gummint experiments?



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 10:12 PM

Was Gluon barking/quacking at the fish and birds?

Oh, wait, that question is for the MOAB thread.

Never mind. :)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 06:35 PM

Taiwan bans tax evaders from taxis

Taiwan has banned repeat tax evaders from engaging in activities considered wasteful, including taking taxis.

Several people who owe more than 10 million Taiwan dollars ($331,000) in tax but have been found to be living in extravagant style have received "anti-extravagance" orders, a justice ministry official said.

"Since they owe the government a lot of money, they are banned from spending more than 2,000 Taiwan dollars ($68) on a single purchase and using expensive transportation means such as taxis or high-speed trains," the official said.

The government will monitor the spending of the repeat evaders, he added, warning they could face detention if violating the order.

Taiwan last year adopted an anti-extravagance law on tax evaders due to a public outcry after a tycoon who owed about 300 million Taiwan dollars in tax was found to be frequenting luxury boutiques.

The government last week unveiled the list of top tax evaders for the first time and encouraged the public to keep a close eye on them in a fresh bid to collect overdue tax.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 11 - 06:38 PM

another Taiwan story!!


Taiwan to curb pollution by potty training pigs

Taiwan's environmental authorities say they are planning to promote toilet training for pigs to help curb water and waste pollution.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) made the pledge following the success of a pig farm in southern Taiwan where the breeder started to train his 10,000 pigs in late 2009.

To keep his animals from defecating in nearby rivers, the breeder has established special toilets smeared with faeces and urine to attract the pigs, the EPA said in a statement.

This reduced the amount of wastewater by up to 80 per cent.

As well as making the farm cleaner and less smelly, it also helped reduce illness among the pigs and boosted their fertility by 20 per cent, the EPA added.

Taiwan has about six million pigs, most of them raised on farms in the centre and the south of the island.

Waste from livestock farms is among the main complaints about water pollution received by the EPA.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jan 11 - 04:13 PM

A 65-carat emerald was unearthed recently in a cornfield on a North Carolina farm. There's no word on its value, but it probably will fetch a life-changing amount of money when it is sold.

This Aug 17, 2009 photo provided by Terry Ledford shows the Carolina Emperor emerald prior to cutting, with a U.S. 25-cent coin in the foreground. (Associated Press)
An emerald so large it's being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

The nearly 65-carat emerald its finders are marketing by the name Carolina Emperor was pulled from a farm once so well known among treasure hunters that the owners charged $3 a day to shovel for small samples of the green stones. After the gem was cut and re-cut, the finished product was about one-fifth the weight of the original find, making it slightly larger than a U.S. quarter and about as heavy as a AA battery.

The emerald compares in size and quality to one surrounded by diamonds in a brooch once owned by Catherine the Great, who was empress in the 18th century, that Christie's auction house in New York sold in April for $1.65 million, said C.R. "Cap" Beesley, a New York gemologist who examined the stone.

While big, uncut crystals and even notable gem-quality emeralds have come from the community 50 miles northwest of Charlotte called Hiddenite, there has never been one so big it's worthy of an imperial treasury, Beesley said.

"It is the largest cut emerald ever to be found in North America," Beesley said in a telephone interview from Myanmar, an Asian country rich in precious gems.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: frogprince
Date: 07 Jan 11 - 05:32 PM

Our niece lives a couple of miles from Hiddenite; the town is actually named for the stone of that name. I forget whether we heard that emeralds were also common there.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 12:27 AM

We have Once in 100-year & even Once in 200-year floods in many areas of Australia at the moment where folks have been swept into swollen rivers & clutched at anything to save themselves, but not in this area.

Pair rescued after sex doll river ride A woman has been rescued from the Yarra River in Melbourne after she lost her grip on the blow-up doll she was riding.

A 19-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man were floating down the river in the city's north-east about 4.30pm yesterday using the inflatable dolls for buoyancy.

The woman lost her grip on the doll when they hit turbulent water, grabbing hold of a tree while yelling for help.

A kayaker took life jackets to the pair, who escaped injury and were rescued by the SES.

============================

SES = State Emergency Service

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 11 - 01:09 PM

What a wild ride!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Jan 11 - 08:17 AM

another wild ride!

Monk caught with nun's skeleton A Cypriot monk caught at a Greek airport with the skeletal remains of a nun in his baggage on the weekend told authorities he was taking the relics of a saint back to his monastery.

The 56-year-old Cypriot was detained at Athens airport on Sunday (local time) after security staff discovered a skull wrapped in cloth and skeletal remains in a sheet inside his baggage.

He told police the woman was a saint and he was transferring her remains to a monastery in Cyprus.

The remains were those of a nun who died four years ago.

She was not a saint in the Greek or Cypriot Orthodox Churches but had once been a nun at a Cypriot convent, police said.

Revering the skeletal remains of saints is common in the Greek Orthodox tradition and a sect within the church may have venerated the nun even though she was not an official saint.

In many churches, venerated relics are put on display for the faithful to touch or kiss and a box for collecting donations from the faithful placed nearby.

"It appears to be the work of charlatans with a financial interest, that is what I suspect," Cyprus Archbishop Chrysostomos said when asked about the monk's tale.

The monk was freed after being charged with theft and desecrating the dead, a misdemeanour in Greece.

He was also suspended from his monastic duties for three months for going away without leave, Cypriot police said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jan 11 - 11:05 AM

Pet ferret eats seven fingers of baby boy

It took how long for these parents to wake to a baby crying? And can they not tell the difference between a fussy baby awake at night and the sound of horror and pain?

January 11, 2011|By Michael Martinez, CNN

A 4-month-old baby boy from Grain Valley, Missouri, was in critical condition after a family pet ferret ate seven of the infant's fingers, and the boy's parents are under investigation for neglect and failure to obtain a $100 license for the exotic pet, police chief Aaron Ambrose told CNN Tuesday.

Authorities are not releasing the names of the baby or his parents, Ambrose said.

The mother was awakened at 2:30 a.m. Monday to her baby's crying, and she awakened her husband with screams upon discovering what happened, Ambrose said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 03:08 PM

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Witnesses say they saw a woman throw herself from the 23rd story of a Buenos Aires hotel Monday and survive.

The woman landed in a sitting position on the roof of a taxi whose driver got out just before the impact deeply dented his roof and shattered the windshield.

The woman, a 30-year-old Argentine, has injuries throughout her body and is being treated in the emergency room of the Hotel Argerich, said Alberto Crescenti, director of Argentina's Emergency Medical System.

The taxi driver, who gave his name as Miguel, reportedly said he saw a policeman looking up and that prompted him to get out just before the driver's side of the car was smashed by the woman's body.

Another taxi driver, Juan Carlos Candame, told Associated Press Television News that he saw the woman climb over a barrier and jump into the void.

The woman fell from the top of the Hotel Crown Plaza Panamericano, where a restaurant overlooks the landmark Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jan 11 - 08:25 PM

"24-year-old Cal Walsh has put his aerospace engineering degree to good use by becoming the Lego Czar at The Legoland Discovery Center in Texas. Walsh beat out over 100 other Lego lovers for the $37,500 starting salary, and the chance to play with blocks for a living. From the article: "The 15 finalists were given an hour to design something that defined them and their interests. Walsh applied his engineering skills to build a spaceship, a unicycle and a running shoe that spelled out his first name. He gave credit to the children spectators at the event, who offered suggestions on what pieces to add to make the designs more interesting."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jan 11 - 08:40 PM

When my son was about 8 he had to spend a day with me because for some reason he couldn't go to school. He spent part of the day tagging along after me, and I had to visit the engineering building on campus, where they had an exhibit of scale models of things student engineers had built. Suspension bridges, vehicles, buildings, whatever. At a couple of them that my son really liked, I mentioned to the student builder that my son was a great fan of Legos. That was all it took - each of these young engineers had a fond history of the building toys.

When we left the building, my son said he'd like to be a Lego engineer. Who knew?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 12:46 AM

China tries to pass Top Gun footage as military drill China's state broadcaster is facing questions after internet users spotted that footage in a report on air force manoeuvres in a national newscast was taken from the 1980s Hollywood film Top Gun.

China Central Television, or CCTV, aired the footage in a January 23 report on a People's Liberation Army Air Force training exercise, showing a plane firing a missile at another.

The second aircraft plane was destroyed in a fiery explosion and the dramatic footage was shown in between interviews with air force officers.

However, some internet users recognised the explosion from the dogfight in the final scene of the 1986 film Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise.

The Wall Street Journal posted a side-by-side video comparison of the CCTV news report and the Top Gun scene on its website, showing the two were identical.

A CCTV representative could not comment on the similarities, the Wall Street Journal said.

The Top Gun footage was aired a week after China vowed to step up its fight to protect intellectual property rights by targeting online piracy.

The original report was removed from the CCTV website after news that part of it had been lifted from the movie spread.

The gaffe has delighted many internet users who often express frustration about having to endure CCTV's propaganda-driven agenda.

"CCTV is the king of copycats," read one comment below a report posted on the video sharing website tudou.com.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:51 PM

Newser) Ð A Los Angeles County employee lay dead and slumped over her desk in an office cubicle for what could have been as long as a day before anybody noticed, police say. Rebecca Wells, a 51-year-old auditor who had recently become a grandmother, was found by a security guard Saturday afternoon, KTLA reports. She had last been seen alive at 9am Friday morning, say detectives, who suspect she died from a stroke or heart attack. (

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 11:02 PM

There is a commercial that uses that scenario. Truth is at least as strange as fiction!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Ed T
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 05:48 AM

Tyche, Giant Hidden Planet, May Exist In Our Solar System?

Tyche?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Ed T
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 05:57 AM

Hard or soft news?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 01:36 PM

A twelve year old student in Suffolk, England, recently used GPS tracking technology to track his mother's stolen mobile phone, according to the Daily Mail. The phone, an HTC Wildfire, was stolen within weeks of his mother's purchase of it. It was worth £230, and she placed it on a bar as she ordered a drink.


While the woman, Gemma Richardson, assumed it was gone, as no one had given it to the staff of the nightclub, she told her son what happened. Her son, Kristen Richardson, had previously downloaded a GPS tracking system utility to his mother's phone. This piece of software allowed him to track where it was. By logging onto her laptop, he pinpointed the precise location of the phone within four meters. The twelve year old then located the address on Google Street View.

The police were then notified of the theft. They found the home in question, and the 21-year-old resident said that he did, in fact, take the phone in the night club.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 10:32 AM

Okay, okay, so I turned the "location" thingie back on on my cell phone. In case I need to track it down with one of the other phones. :)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: curmudgeon
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 10:46 AM

From NYT, 18 Feb, 2011:

Wisconsin's Democratic state senators went into hiding to deprive the Republican majority of the quorum they need to pass Walker's agenda. The Senate majority leader, Scott Fitzgerald — who happens to be the brother of the Assembly speaker, Jeff Fitzgerald — believes the governor is absolutely right about the need for draconian measures to cut spending in this crisis. So he's been sending state troopers out to look for the missing Democrats.

The troopers are under the direction of the new chief of the state patrol, Stephen Fitzgerald. He is the 68-year-old father of Jeff and Scott and was appointed to the $105,678 post this month by Governor Walker.

Perhaps the speaker's/majority leader's father was a super choice, and the fact that he was suddenly at liberty after having recently lost an election for county sheriff was simply a coincidence that allowed the governor to recruit the best possible person for the job. You'd still think that if things are so dire in Wisconsin, the Fitzgerald clan would want to set a better austerity example.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Mar 11 - 05:35 AM

Zahida Kazmi: Pakistan's ground-breaking female cabbie

Zahida Kazmi has been hailed as Pakistan's first female taxi driver. She has driven from the crowded markets of Islamabad to the remote tribal country in the north. Here she tells Nosheen Abbas about her two decades in a male-dominated world.

In 1992 at the age of 33, newly widowed Zahida Kazmi decided to take her fate in her own hands and become a taxi driver.

Born into a conservative and patriarchal Pakistani family, she flew in the face of her family's wishes but with six children to support, she felt she had no choice.

She took advantage of a government scheme in which anybody could buy a brand new taxi in affordable instalments. She bought herself a yellow cab and drove to Islamabad airport every morning to pick up passengers.

In a perilous and unpredictable world, Zahida at first kept a gun in the car for her own protection and she even started off by driving her passengers around wearing a burqa, a garment that covers the entire body.

Her initial fears soon dissipated.

"I realised that I would scare passengers away," she said. "So then I only wore a hijab [head covering]. Eventually I stopped covering my head because I got older and was well-established by then."

Exposing herself to the hot, bustling city streets of Islamabad and by driving to the rocky and remote districts adjoining Pakistan's tribal areas, Zahida says she learned a lot about the country she lived in and its people.

The Pathans of the tribal north-west, despite a reputation for fierce male pride and inflexibility, treated her with immense courtesy on her journeys.

Eventually she became the chairperson of Pakistan's yellow cab association. Once she was established, she offered to teach young women how to drive taxis, but there was little interest. Even her daughters didn't express enthusiasm.

"They don't need to make a living," she says wistfully. "They are all married."

Zahida is not one of Pakistan's metropolitan liberal middle class - there are plenty of educational and career opportunities for privileged women in Pakistan but not for women from Zahida's background.

Pakistan has an exceptionally low number of
women in work: 33.7% according to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. Most women who work come under the category of "unpaid family workers".

Pakistan's legal system does little to protect women, so harassment is commonplace. Campaigners say it is little wonder that women do not choose livelihoods that make them even more vulnerable.

"Girls shy away from non-traditional jobs in a setting where there is a particular mindset... of intimidation," says Anees Haroon, chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women in Pakistan.

But had Zahida been starting out now, things would be quite different as she would be entering the workforce in a country torn between the forces of liberalism and Islamic radicalism.

Pakistan in 1992 was a more moderate place: it was opening up to the world; the dish antenna had been introduced; Pakistan had won the cricket world cup. Zahida says society felt fairly open to her.

But the Taliban presence in many parts of Pakistan has intensified over the years.

Zahida has had to drive long distances on treacherous routes to northern areas such as Balakot, Chitral, Dir and even the Swat valley.

"Police at checkposts would be interested in why I was driving a taxi, but they were simply curious and amazed," she said.

Passengers seek her out as well. Adnan Waseem, a businessman from Haripur, told me that he always books Zahida for his journeys.

I saw her and the first thought that came to my mind was that she's my mother's age. I liked her driving and in these days where one feels insecure in Pakistan I felt very relaxed," he said.

Another traveller, Sohail Mazhar, had to be driven through rocky terrain up to the northern city of Abbottabad.

"Even the policemen who stopped us at security checkpoints also knew her... we were so happy to see a woman driving a taxi."

Although Zahida has been feted for being Pakistan's first female taxi-driver, she still has many bitter memories of her struggles as a single mother working hard on the road.

Her own mother disapproved of her career choice and only resentfully accepted it when the media gave her positive coverage.

And she is estranged from her children now.

"I am old now and I get tired. It's hard for me to drive all the time but what can I do? My sons don't help," she said.

"If I had a chance I would have become a doctor."

Just as she said that to me, a passing taxi driver stopped his car and got out to reverentially greet Zahida.

Despite her travails, she is clearly a respected presence on the streets of Islamabad.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 01:36 AM

Great story, Sandra. And Curmudgeon, good to see you posting on this thread!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 10:52 AM

March 21, 1936 London Hopes Reich Accepts

Germany's reply to the Rhineland peace proposals contained in the agreement reached here by the Locarno powers tonight [March 21] was expected tomorrow or Monday. Whitehall hoped Chancellor Adolf Hitler will not risk the dangers of a flat rejection, but will make counter-proposals as a basis for further discussion. "We must hope for the best," remarked Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler's Ambassador at Large, this afternoon before he took off from Croydon aerodome for Berlin. Von Ribbentrop would not comment further, but another member of the German delegation to the League said: "We are returning to Berlin in a definitely hopeful spirit."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 09:18 PM

Recent articles have lamented the rise in back pains and other disorders from the popularity of "man bags" in some places.

The woman in the following report probably has had similar difficulties, and appears to have found an alternative to carrying a heavy purse/handbag:

Police: Cavity search produces 50 bags of heroin

Associated Press
3/21/2011 10

SCRANTON, Pa. — Police in northeastern Pennsylvania say they recovered more than 50 bags of heroin, cash and loose change from a woman following a cavity search.

Authorities say 27-year-old Karin Mackaliunas was detained last weekend following a crash. Scranton police say they found three bags of heroin in her jacket and after being taken to the police station she told investigators she had more hidden in her vagina.

A doctor performed a search and recovered 54 bags of heroin, 31 empty bags used to package heroin, prescription pills and $51.22.

Mackaliunas was jailed on $25,000 bail on charges including possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. It was not clear if she had an attorney.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday.

[end quote]

But would the guys (those who might use a "man bag") lack similar capacity to replace a shoulder bag with equal efficiency?

John

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 09:31 PM

Mind-boggling.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Apr 11 - 01:40 AM

Man discovers rich deposit under outback dunny


A geologist sitting on a bush toilet in a remote part of the Northern Territory has discovered a potentially lucrative mineral deposit.

Rum Jungle Resources chief executive David Muller said the company was already looking for phosphate on a site near Barrow Creek, north of Alice Springs, but it was not expecting to find anything of value where it had set up its camp toilet.

"One observant geologist was sitting on it one day and kicking the rocks around and he suddenly identified some nodules and he thought, 'Oh we better assay this'," he said.

"And they put the hand-held spectrometer over it and sure enough it was full of phosphate, which is what we were looking for - and we thought we were on sterile ground."

Mr Muller said the discovery of phosphate under the toilet encouraged the company about the size of the phosphate deposit.

"Obviously, you don't put the camp where you're meant to be drilling so this actually found some phosphate and we all had a bit of a laugh about it.

"But it also gave us a bit of encouragement that this blanket of mineralisation is very widespread."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 11 - 11:26 AM

Revisiting a radio story from this date a few years ago.

One Man's Sad Goal? Make Opera Positive

by Alice Furlaud

April 1, 2006

On Cape Cod, an impresario seeks rewrites of the world's great tragic operas. He wants to give them a happy ending for performances by his children's opera company. Some might call it a fool's errand.

JOHN YDSTIE, host:

IF you found that last piece a little bleak, here's something to cheer you up. Cape Kids Opera, a small summer company producing children's operas in Eastham on Cape Cod, is getting a new name and undergoing a total makeover. That's because the company has recently acquired a very rich sponsor. Reporter Alice Furlaud has the story.

ALICE FURLAUD reporting:

Hamilton Banks is a first time impresario at he age of 75. A new resident of Wellfleet, he's long been an opera fan, and the huge fortune he acquired from enterprises ranging from software to real estate has inspired him to bring opera to the Cape. His kind of opera. I spoke to Mr. Banks in his massive new house overlooking Cape Cod Bay.

Mr. HAMILTON BANKS (Opera Impresario): I've been an opera fan all my life. And for a long time I've worried about the gloomy feeling a lot of these operas give you. An opera like Madame Butterfly. She kills herself, for God's sake, must have a very negative effect on the opera-goers. We're in troubled times and we don't need -- I've been a kind of disciple of the late, great Norman Vincent Peale, the power of positive thinking. I used to hear him preach at the Marble Collegiate Church on 5th Avenue in New York. What a speaker. So I started thinking, what if I applied Dr. Peale's positive thinking to some of my favorite operas.

FURLAUD: How are you going to do this, Mr. Banks?

Mr. BANKS: Well, I've given them happy endings. Yes! And I bought this little opera company and we're going to perform the happiest operas you've ever heard.

FURLAUD: Banks is calling his new venture the Positive Opera Company, and he's actually launching it with a Mozart opera, the one he calls the Positive Don Giovanni.

Mr. BANKS: Remember how Don Giovanni, Don Juan, has seduced and abandoned over a thousand women? Terrible womanizer. And he's killed the father of one of these ladies in a duel. He's a military officer. At the end, there's this scary scene where a statue of this father, the commendatory, comes alive and tries to scare Don Giovanni into repenting.

FURLAUD: I remember, and he says, Don Giovanni, and he clutches him with his marble hand.

Mr. BANKS: Right. And when he won't repent, the commendatory sends him to hell. That's terrible, isn't it? Listen, I'll play some of the last scene to you.

(Soundbite of the opera Don Giovanni)

Mr. BANKS: Doesn't cheer you up, does it? Now, in my libretto, Don Giovanni does repent; in fact, he's born again. Born again. And he marries Donna Elvira and it's beautiful.

FURLAUD: Banks insists the radical plot shift will do no damage to Mozart's music.

Mr. BANKS: With Don Giovanni, that's no problem. You remember the soprano aria, Batti, batti, bel o bel Basetto. Well, I'm giving that to Don Giovanni to sing about being born again. And the ending, well, you remember the happy, peasant wedding music from act one? All that la, la, la and being happy? That one was easy. Now for the positive La Boheme...

FURLAUD: Don't tell me, Mimi is cured of TB?

Mr. BANKS: And my General Director, Jim Bryant(ph), the one who's run kids opera all these years, is taking the Puccini ending and composing his own Puccini ending. He happens to be a natural composer. So far, he's only composed hymns, but they're great hymns.

(Soundbite of piano music)

Mr. JIM BRYANT (Director, Composer, Positive Opera Company): The orchestra swells right here.

FURLAUD: I went to see director Bryant at his little opera house behind Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Store in Eastham, the next town to Wellfleet. He was onstage, trying out new endings for La Boheme.

Mr. BRYANT: And gradually the orchestra swells to a nice, happy, positive ending. So it's very rough, still, but that's what we're working on at the moment.

FURLAUD: I asked Jim Bryant how he felt about the Positive Opera Company as a permanent addition to culture on Cape Cod.

Mr. BRYANT: Well, I think it's quite a challenge. As you know, we've only produced children's opera up until now. So tackling some of the powerhouses of the grand opera world is really quite a daunting thing. But it's very invigorating at the same time. It's a very big challenge. But Hamilton has just been so wonderfully optimistic and enthusiastic about the whole project that it really is infectious to all of us who are involved in it, and of course we're very grateful to have the funding that we have. I don't know if you've been up to his house, but I think it has something like 19 rooms.

FURLAUD: Before buying Mr. Bryant's children's opera company, Hamilton Banks asked several famous composers, John Williams for one, to compose his happy opera endings, but all of them turned him down. So has the Metropolitan Opera and the distinguished Boston Lyric Opera Company. I telephoned Linda Cabot Black, one of the Company's board members and a consultant, to get her take on the project.

Ms. LINDA CABOT BLACK (Board Member, Boston Lyric Opera Company): Oh, yes, Hamilton Banks did approach Boston Lyric Opera and offered us a fortune to change the endings. Of course we turned him down, thought it was a silly idea. People want to be moved, they want sob. Look at Butterfly, people flock to it so they can cry their eyes out. Why on earth doesn't he just simply go and produce the comic operas and the operas with happy endings? There are many of them, some by Mozart. How on Earth would Puccini and Wagner and the other great composers, what would they think about changing the endings? It would be just ludicrous.

FURLAUD: I put that question to Hamilton Banks on the Positive Opera Company's stage.

Mr. BANKS: I'll tell ya, Alice, I'm convinced that if Puccini and Verdi and Wagner and librettists had been able to read The Power of Positive Thinking, you know, and if the wonderful anti-depressant drugs we have today had been available, they'd never have written those depressing endings and maybe they'd never written the whole opera. Now, here's my most exciting plan. Tristan and Isolde, Wagner's love-making music, remember? And poor old Tristan dies of his wounds after that.

(Soundbite of the opera Tristan and Isolde)

Mr. BANKS: Liebestod, the love death. I'm going to make it the love life. Listen, here's what happens. Isolde comes across the sea to find Tristan's wound is only a scratch, it's not even infected. Jim, how are you getting on with that end?

(Soundbite of piano music)

Mr. BRYANT: Well, Mr. Banks, I'm having a little bit of trouble sounding Wagnerian, but...

Mr. BANKS: Oh, I can hear it, it's good. Maybe a flute or oboe?

Mr. BRYANT: Yes, as orchestra swells, I was also hearing some French horn crescendo.

Mr. BANKS: French horn, oh, I adore the French horn.

FURLAUD: Whether or not Jim Bryant can pull that one off, he's gonna have a good try. With Mr. Banks' bankroll behind him, he's obviously thinking as positively as he can. For NPR News, I'm Alice Furlaud on Cape Cod.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 02:47 AM

This is so good (thanks Amos) it really deserves its own thread

Electric Highways!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 May 11 - 06:04 AM

Man answers phone during pizza store break-in A man who broke into a pizza shop in Adelaide (Australia) answered the phone while in the premises.

Police said the store in Bank Street in the city was broken into just after midnight, activating an alarm.

When the alarm monitoring company rang the pizza store, the offender picked up the phone.

Police arrived and arrested a 27-year-old man outside the store.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 May 11 - 12:06 AM

Human snail completes marathon after 26 days A man dressed as a snail has completed the London Marathon 26 days after the race began.

Lloyd Scott, a former professional footballer, inched his way along the 42-kilometre course face down on a metal sled for up to eight hours a day.

His costume, a children's television character called Brian, was equipped with a periscopic camera to see where he was going.

Mr Scott was attempting to raise money for children with mobility issues.

Crossing the finishing line, he admits it was a relief to finish.

"It was very difficult. I had consistent nose bleeds, I had to go to hospital to have my nose cauterised and treated, I kept being sick in the snail," he said.

"I even slept in the snail as well. I've chosen to make this difficult for myself but these kids don't have that choice.

"I mean, it's the children that are here today that's really been foremost on my mind and have been driving me forward."

clik on link for photo!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 May 11 - 10:01 AM

since when is Comic Sans ugly - it's my favourite font!

==============

Ugly font may improve learning Inspired by comic strips and hated by font designers, new research suggests Comic Sans may help people remember what they read.

Comic Sans was released by Microsoft in 1994, as a font that looked friendly and childlike but most importantly did not look 'techie'.

But the font does not enjoy overwhelming support. A few years ago there was an internet campaign to have it banned, and there are forums where designers and typographers whinge about the font's awkward weighting and haphazard kerning.

US researchers from Princeton University and Indiana University decided to test what affect 'difficult to read' fonts such as Comic Sans have on learning and retention.

They recruited 28 volunteers to complete a task that involved remembering a set of features for three fictional characters.

One group received the list in 16-point Arial font, while the other two groups received lists printed using 12-point Comic Sans MS or 12-point Bodoni MT.

Connor Diemand-Yauman, lead author of the study published in the journal Cognition, says the results showed Comic Sans has its advantages.

"The study in our paper found that in a very controlled laboratory setting we could improve our subject's memory of certain facts by having them read information that was written in a font that was slightly more difficult to read," he told ABC Radio National.

"Participants remembered the information significantly better if it was in a font that was harder to read. We were real excited by this finding."

In the second part of their study, Mr Diemand-Yauman and colleagues moved their experiment into the classroom.

"For the second study all we did was take the reading material of students from six different classes, over 220 students, and we just changed the fonts to make it a little more difficult to read," Mr Diemand-Yauman said.

Students were randomly assigned to a disfluent group and given reading material in a hard-to-read font such as Comic Sans or Monotype Corsiva, or to a control group.

"Students [in the disfluent group] significantly remembered the information better because it felt slightly more difficult," Mr Diemand-Yauman said.

Challenging our visual cortex

Jonah Lehrer is a neuroscience writer and a contributing editor to Wired Magazine. He fears that e-readers, with their crisp fonts and clear display, could make our brains lazy.

"I do worry that it will become so easy for the brain to read on an e-reader that we may actually start to see a decrease in what we remember and take away from a book," Mr Lehrer told ABC Radio National.

"This is all just speculation, but what really interests me is this surprising link between the difficulty of reading and what we actually remember from it."

But according to Mr Lehrer our brains are likely to adapt in order to deal with the new technology, we just do not know how that will happen.

"It's important to remember that a good third of our visual cortex ... is devoted to literacy, reading. This 5000-year-old cultural invention has usurped a huge chunk of the brain," he said.

"One of the trade-offs of this is that people who can read are a little worse at 'quote-unquote' reading the natural world and remembering objects such as plants and animals, because so much of our visual vortex is devoted to letters, syllables, and words."

Mr Lehrer suggests using cognitive psychology studies such as Mr Diemand-Yauman's to improve our learning.

"Maybe we should read every book on an e-reader in Comic Sans," he said.

"Little things like that could help us do a better job of dealing with the inevitable tradeoffs."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 11 - 10:52 AM

Sandra, I like this one also! You should have posted the article in comic sans ms!

Comic Sans was released by Microsoft in 1994, as a font that looked friendly and childlike but most importantly did not look 'techie'.

But the font does not enjoy overwhelming support. A few years ago there was an internet campaign to have it banned, and there are forums where designers and typographers whinge about the font's awkward weighting and haphazard kerning.

US researchers from Princeton University and Indiana University decided to test what affect 'difficult to read' fonts such as Comic Sans have on learning and retention.

They recruited 28 volunteers to complete a task that involved remembering a set of features for three fictional characters.

etc.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 May 11 - 09:33 PM

thanks, stilly - had I but known how ...

but you fixed it!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Jun 11 - 09:34 AM

Boat owner pays price for Titanic mistake Most people would think twice before buying a boat named Titanic II.

And sure enough, when Briton Mark Wilkinson took the 4.8-metre cabin cruiser out for its maiden voyage, it promptly sank.

"If it wasn't for the harbourmaster, I would have gone down with the Titanic," Mr Wilkinson, who had to be fished out of the sea at West Bay harbour in Dorset, southern England, told local media.

"It's all a bit embarrassing and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg."

Mr Wilkinson, in his 40s, had only recently bought the boat and brought it by road from his home in Birmingham in central England for its first outing.

After a successful fishing trip, things started to go wrong when he entered the harbour and the boat began taking on water.

Mr Wilkinson was forced to abandon ship and pictures showed him clinging to a rail before he was rescued.

One eyewitness said: "It wasn't a very big boat - I think an ice cube could have sunk it!"

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 01:19 AM

Didn't want to start a new thread, so decided to put this in here, though it isn't as funny, well not at all funny, as some of the other postings. I hope some of you will decide to sign the petition found HERE. I don't believe a mother, whose 4 yr old was struck and killed by a drunk driver, herself also injured, should have to go to prison for her son's death because she didn't use a crosswalk! Please read the petition. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: saulgoldie
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 09:27 PM

Do they know how stupid they look?

The reporter on Current TV (where Olberman landed) was doing a documentary on the "drug trade" in Mehico. He was being filmed as drug agents were, get this, burning a huge marijuana crop in several fires all around the reporter. After several minutes "documenting" the activity, the reporter "suddenly" realized that he was effectively taking a huge bong hit. And another, and so on. And the agents??? Jayzus f***ing Keerist! Are they really that daft??!!!

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 07:27 AM

follow the link to see a pic!


Jaywalking croc captured on busy Cairns street (northern Australia) Authorities have captured a crocodile on a busy street in Cairns in far north Queensland.

Road workers were cleaning a drain on Mulgrave Road when the two-metre reptile emerged.

It was an anxious wait for wildlife authorities to arrive, with a policeman using a broom to keep the croc away from onlookers.

ABC producer Phil Staley, who witnessed the wrangling attempt, says there were some tense moments when a ranger approached.

"It jumped up and its tail started thrashing. No-one knew what to do," he said.

Staley says the ranger threw a towel over the croc's head as several men restrained it.

"So you had a RoadTek bloke, a Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger and a police officer sitting on the back of this crocodile on the main street of Cairns," he said.

"The police officer has got the croc by the tail, there's a bloke on the croc's back, and there's a bloke holding the croc's jaw closed with a towel."

The crocodile is now in the custody of Queensland Parks and Wildlife.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 11:21 AM

Breaking news on Sky:
NOTW targeted Sarah Payne's mother's phone. The number was given by Rebekah Brooks, says The Guardian.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Sep 11 - 02:56 AM

Claus for concern as shopping mall cancels Santa Australia -

Traders in the Albury Centro shopping centre in New South Wales have started a petition urging centre management not to cancel Santa this year.

Centro management told retailers on Tuesday that Santa would not be making an appearance in the busy shopping centre this Christmas.

John McMillan, who runs a store in the mall, has started a bring-back-Santa petition.

He says traders have been told the centre cannot afford Santa this year.

"We had a meeting with management, the traders that is on Tuesday and they just matter-of-factly announced it," he said.

"We were just dumbfounded. It's Christmas without Santa in a shopping centre."

He says a number of reasons were given for cancelling Santa.

"One was budgetary, the other was they were lacking room in the centre, which I find amazing," he said.

"Apparently Santas are difficult to get because of all the issues that go with working with children."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Sep 11 - 10:26 AM

I see there is a petition to bring back Santa. Probably lots of signatures in crayon. :)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 08:05 AM

Speeding driver trying to dry his car A Tasmanian motorist caught driving 45kph over the speed limit told police he had just washed his car and wanted to dry it.

The Hobart Magistrates Court heard Adam White was clocked at 125kph in an 80kph zone on the Brooker Highway near Hobart in April.

Magistrate Glen Hay told the father of two it was the strangest reason he had heard for driving while disqualified.

White was given a 28-day suspended jail sentence and a 12-month good behaviour bond.

He was disqualified from driving for 10 months and fined $900, and lost six demerit points.

Mr Hay told him it would have been cheaper to buy a couple of hairdryers.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 10:19 PM

Police find gun in patient's artificial leg Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital went into lockdown yesterday as police investigated a patient with a gun hidden in his artificial leg.

The concerns were first raised when a doctor called police saying there was a gun in a 66-year-old patient's room.

Police were called and the hospital was locked down while officers investigated.

When they arrived at the level nine room, they found the man, his 18-year-old son, and the son's 23-year-old girlfriend.

The gun was found in a stocking covering the patient's prosthetic leg.

The man's son and girlfriend were found to have two bullets for the gun.

The 66-year-old and the 18-year-old have been charged with illegally possessing a gun and ammunition and the 23-year-old woman has been charged with possessing ammunition.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 12:22 PM

Every so often, after you've concluded you won't find a more bizarre story, something like this comes along:

Not a Halloween Costume: Washington Man Cuts Off Arm With Guillotine

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (CBS Seattle) — A Washington man loses his arm from a homemade guillotine.

The guillotine unexpectedly dropped on his shoulder Thursday morning at a camp he was living at, severing his arm.

He left the arm behind after the accident and rushed to Bellingham Urology Specialists.

Evelyn Leuther, who works at the clinic, told CBS Seattle a woman passing by said, "I hope that's a Halloween costume," referring to the man missing his arm at the shoulder.

But the gore was real. Seconds later, another woman ran by screaming for someone to call 9-1-1.

Doctors and nurses from the office rushed to help.

"It was a sight," she said. The scene lasted for 10 minutes before an ambulance took him to the hospital two blocks away.

Officers checked a wooded area near the clinic and discovered a camp believed to be the temporary home of the individual. At the camp, officers located the severed arm and a homemade guillotine, which the police then dismantled.

The condition of the victim is not known at this time, but Bellingham police said in a release he was being transferred to Harborview in Seattle for further treatment.

MANY unanswered questions in this story.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Nov 11 - 10:12 PM

Camera lost at sea returned with the help of social networking Just how tough is your average DSLR memory card? Apparently tough enough to survive a year at the bottom of the ocean.

Naturalist and aspiring photographer Markus Thompson was scuba diving in Deep Bay near Vancouver, British Columbia, when he found a Canon EOS 1000D. Curious, he brought it to the surface and took out the SD card, and was actually able to recover about 50 photos.

With a bounty of pictures and a desire to find the camera's owner, Thompson took to social networking for help. He posted his find to Google+, including pictures of the camera itself as well as the photos he was able to recover from the SD card.

"Approximately 50 pictures on the card from a family vacation. If you know a fire fighter from British Columbia whose team won the Pacific Regional Firefit competition, has a lovely wife and (now) 2 year old daughter — let me know. I would love to get them their vacation photos," he posted.

The social network's hive mind then went to work. Details on just who the camera belonged to were slim at first, but after social network sleuths began scouring the photos, more information began to surface. The camera contained images that were shot at a region firefighting competition, and appeared to suggest that the camera's owner was on the winning team. After comparing faces to those on various websites that covered the event, the possibilities were narrowed down.

The owner, a firefighter from British Columbia, was finally identified. His station was then contacted, bringing an end to the pricey camera's unlikely journey. The waterlogged Canon — which can cost upwards of $500 in new condition — made its splash in August of 2010, and had been soaking ever since. Unfortunately, not further details are available on just how the device managed to find a home on the ocean floor, but we imagine a bump off the side of a leisure boat is a likely explanation.

We've seen the power of social media to spread information about important events and natural disasters, and it's nice to see it work on a much smaller and more personal scale. And while obviously the camera is a total loss, the family was able to secure their vacation photos, not to mention a story they'll be able to share for a lifetime.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Nov 11 - 10:26 PM

Remarkable that the card still was readable. I hope the photos were of the guy's wife and not of his mistress!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 03:43 AM

Supercars crash on Japanese highway - check out the video

There has been a pile-up with a difference on a highway in Japan - involving a small fleet of expensive supercars.

Japanese police say eight Ferraris, two Mercedes Benz and a Lamborghini crashed into each other when the lead car hit a central barrier as they drove through the country's west.

Speeding was mentioned as a possible cause for the crash, with witnesses saying they thought the lead car was travelling too fast before it slid across a wet road surface.

TV footage showed wreckage spread across over 400 metres of highway in Yamaguchi prefecture, as well as a trail of crumpled red sports cars.

Some of the damaged Ferraris are believed to be worth several hundred thousand dollars.

Police say 10 people - five men and five women - sustained slight injuries in the accident and were taken to hospital.

"It is highly possible that they were driving in couples," highway patrol lieutenant Eiichiro Kamitani said.

Police say the lead car slid into a guard rail and those behind slammed on their brakes, but for many of them it was apparently too late.

"I've never seen such a thing," lieutenant Kamitani said.

"Ferraris rarely travel in such large numbers."

"Many of them were probably on their way to Hiroshima," some 130 kilometres to the east, for a gathering of supercars there, lieutenant Kamitani said.

He said the lead Ferrari was being driven by a 60-year-old self-employed man from Chikushino, near Fukuoka, on the southern island of Kyushu.

"Speeding was possible but we have yet to determine the exact cause," he said.
'Great mess'

An unidentified male eyewitness told the TBS network: "A group of cars was doing 140-160 kilometres per hour. One of them spun and they all ended up in this great mess."

The speed limit on that section of the highway is 80 kilometres per hour.

"The front car crashed into the left embankment and bounced off toward me," another man told public broadcaster NHK.

One of the Ferraris was reported to be a F430 Scuderia, a model with a top speed of 320 kilometres per hour.

Japanese media says the total cost of the pile-up could run to nearly $4 million.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 12:31 PM

That had to hurt - the drivers, the owners of the cars, and the insurance companies.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 10:37 PM

Teddy bear among the bins

A giant teddy bear, perhaps resigned to its fate, sits among the wheely bins at Mt Druitt in western Sydney.

I hope he was rescued!

A few months back I saw a slightly smaller damaged bear sitting on top of a neighbour's wheelie bin & took him home for repairs (he needed 2 small seams re-sewn.) While he was in my place he needed a chair to sit on & I had a struggle getting him up the road with 2 shopping bags of other unwanted stuff to the charity (goodwill) shop & I'm sure he found a good home, where someone had a spare chair for him.

sandra