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

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 08:54 PM

Re the Arlington story- One wing of an apartment complex not far from my neighbourhood burned, and about 80 people are homeless in a city with almost no vacancies. At first, a barbecue unit was thought to be to blame, but investigators found that spontaneous combustion of peat moss had been the cause. Several fires each summer are caused by improperly stored peat moss.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 01:17 AM

I did a doubletake on your remarks, Q--I grew up in Washington near Silvana, which is near the town of Arlington. But now I work in Arlington, Texas. At least, now, as an adult, I'm not confused about which Arlington George Washington was from. :)

The state (Texas) has been running big convoys of equipment to do Interstate highway road work now, lots of flashing lights and traffic routed off onto fewer lanes or the shoulder, and various police vehicles embedded with the convoy that includes large vehicles to act as buffers and lots of flashing lights. It doesn't seem to have helped this poor guy much:


Road worker injured by car
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A road construction worker in McKinney was severely hurt early this morning when he was struck by a vehicle on the city's north side, police said. The incident was reported at about 1:15 a.m. on southbound U.S. 75 near its intersection with Bloomdale Road on the north side of McKinney, a police dispatcher said.

KRLD radio reported that a woman lost control of her vehicle and hit the worker, who landed in hot asphalt.

The station reported that the woman tried to flee, but the man's fellow workers stopped her and turned her over to police, who found a beer can in her vehicle.

The woman failed a field sobriety test and was taken to jail, KRLD reported.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: TheSnail
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 07:39 AM

Stilly River Sage

I grew up in Washington near Silvana, which is near the town of Arlington. But now I work in Arlington, Texas. At least, now, as an adult, I'm not confused about which Arlington George Washington was from. :)

Couldn't resist bringing this in from another thread.

Arlington is in East Sussex, England, a few miles from Wilmington about twelve miles east of Lewes.

I think William Penn lived around here for a while.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 09:01 PM

a few years ago.. here in Vancouver someone was cleaning the ovens in a pizza shop (with gasoline), the fumes ignited and the explosion blew out the windows and blew the employee into the street. (minor injuries)
the place was called aptly enough Dynamite Pizza..

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 05:30 PM

Mother cuts off 61-year-old son's allowance

ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- A Sicilian mother took away her 61-year-old son's house keys, cut off his allowance and hauled him to the police station because he stayed out late.

Tired of her son's misbehavior, the pensioner in the central Sicilian city of Caltagirone turned to the police to "convince this blockhead" to behave properly, La Sicilia, one of Sicily's leading newspapers, reported on Thursday. The son responded by saying his mother did not give him a big enough weekly allowance and did not know how to cook.

"My son does not respect me, he doesn't tell me where he's going in the evenings and returns home late," the woman was quoted as saying. "He is never happy with the food I make and always complains. This can't go on."

Police helped the squabbling duo make up and the two returned home together, with the son's house keys and daily allowance restored. Most Italian men still live at home late into their 30s, enjoying their "mamma's" cooking, washing and ironing. E-mail to a friend

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 06:42 PM

And here I thought his career ended because he can't act his way out of a paper bag...


Seagal says FBI probe ruined career Fri Aug 17, 3:11 PM ET


Steven Seagal, whose action movies once were major box-office attractions, believes false allegations by FBI agents ruined his career, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

The comments in the Times are the first Seagal has made publicly about an investigation begun some five years ago by the FBI into accusations he intimidated a reporter and had ties to organized crime.

The Times said Seagal is demanding an apology from the FBI. A spokesman for the actor was not immediately available on Friday.

"False FBI accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the Mafia," Seagal told the newspaper. "These kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers -- and kill careers."

Seagal, 56, was once a major star of action movies such as 1992's "Under Siege," which earned $156 million at worldwide box offices, but now he makes straight-to-DVD releases such as "Flight of Fury and "Attack Force."

The FBI investigation stemmed from Seagal's ties to former private detective Anthony Pellicano, who once was employed by many Hollywood stars, directors and producers, but is now in federal prison awaiting trial on wire-tapping and other charges.

The Pellicano investigation dates to 2002 when a free-lance reporter for the Los Angeles Times found a dead fish, a red rose and a note saying "Stop!" on her car. At the time, the reporter was researching Seagal and a former business partner.

Seagal told the Times that he and Pellicano had not been on speaking terms since the 1990s and the Times' story said his lawyers told FBI agents that by 2002, Seagal and Pellicano had become rivals in a bitter legal dispute.

The actor said in October 2004, an FBI official told him that federal agents knew he had nothing to do with the Pellicano investigation. Still, Seagal claims they have not publicly exonerated him.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment "because of the ongoing nature of the investigation" and referred calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney was not immediately available to comment.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 12:01 AM

This one doesn't merit its own thread, no point in attacking the child, even if she had the bad luck/taste to be born into the Bush family. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say:

Jenna gonna wed ex-Rove intern
link

WASHINGTON - Wild Jenna Bush is getting married - to a former Karl Rove intern!

The 25-year-old First Daughter was engaged Wednesday to Henry Hager, 29, a former White House and Commerce Department aide and son of Virginia's Republican Party chairman.

Hager, who also worked for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, popped the question in Maine, where Jenna is staying at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport. Twin sister Barbara, who is still single, also was seen at the compound recently.

A White House statement yesterday said, "No wedding date has been set."

It could be a lengthy engagement, since Hager returns to the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business this fall.

"He's a great guy," said a Bush insider who first met Hager when he was an intern working for Rove. "He had a lot of friends at the White House, the campaign and over at Commerce."

see the rest at the link.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 01:23 PM

Feds pay $80,000 to pair arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts
The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The federal government has agreed to pay $80,000 to a Texas couple arrested and charged with trespassing in 2004 after they refused to cover up homemade T-shirts with anti-Bush slogans.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, announced the settlement on Thursday.

The Ranks were handcuffed, removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol and held in police custody for between one and two hours.

"This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia. "As a result of the Ranks' courageous stand, public officials will think twice before they eject peaceful protesters from public events for exercising their right to dissent."

An order closing the case was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

"We are pleased that this matter has been concluded," said White House spokesman Blair Jones. "The parties understand that this settlement is a compromise of disputed claims to avoid the expenses and risks of litigation and is not an admission of fault, liability, or wrongful conduct."

The recent revelation of the existence of a presidential advance manual made it clear that the government tries to exclude dissenters from the president's presidential appearances, the ACLU said in a prepared statement. "As a last resort," the manual says, "security should remove the demonstrators from the event."

The front of the Ranks' T-shirts bore the international symbol for "no" superimposed over the word "Bush." The back of Nicole Rank's T-shirt said "Love America, Hate Bush." On the back of Jeffery Rank's T-shirt was the message "Regime Change Starts at Home."

Jeffery Rank, who was a Republican who disagreed with Bush, said he found it ironic that the government manual encourages event organizers to use young Republicans as "rally squads to oppose messages like ours at presidential appearances." Rank has since changed his party affiliation, the ACLU notes in its release.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 04:37 PM

From the Herald (Everett, WA), Aug. 19, 2007

link

The fiddler on the sidewalk

EVERETT - Sometimes it's a melancholy tune that drifts on the breeze outside the Snohomish County courthouse. But wait a while and hear it shift to a hopeful reel, something almost foot-stomping. Trace it back to its source and you'll find Fred Weisz.

His eyes are focused in concentration. He wrings music from four passive strings. The violin sings. The melodies are simple. His violin case stands open. "Tips appreciated." Two women huddle and search their purses. They muster $10.

"Oh wow ... thank you so much!" Weisz said, surprised by their generosity. After they leave, he says, "That's great. That'll buy, well, almost ... I'm trying to make enough today to buy my vitamins. That really helps." Few would suspect that Fred Weisz is an urban folk legend. And playing tunes on a downtown Everett sidewalk is a long way from playing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Forced to play

Weisz had little choice but to play the violin. "My parents were from Vienna and loved music and the violin," Weisz said. "My father forced me into playing the violin." Weisz was born in 1944 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, a safe harbor after his Jewish parents fled Vienna in 1938. Adolf Hitler had joined Germany and Austria and the family was no longer safe. "It was either join the German Army or be killed," said Weisz, who practices "middle-of-the-road Judaism." "We were running from Hitler and that (Trinidad) was one of the only places you could go."

In 1947, the family moved to New York City on a medical visa for Weisz's mother. "My mother's eyesight was failing and she needed some operations," he said. Soon, the family settled in the nice Jewish community of Passaic, N.J., Weisz said, about 12 miles from the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan. In this town, Weisz was forever changed.

"I started playing music when I was 11," he said. "I started by taking classical violin lessons." But one day, he put Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys on a record player in the hallway of his parent's home. He heard Chubby Wise and Monroe, the father of bluegrass, playing "Can't Ya Hear Me Calling." They didn't play violin. They played fiddle.

"When I first heard bluegrass, it was like magic," Weisz said. "It knocked me out. I hunted out bluegrass records and bluegrass shows, and they were sparse," he added. "I was thirsty for bluegrass music."

Jug band craze

The once-forced marriage between Fred and the violin blossomed into a love that has lasted more than four decades. In his teens, Weisz learned to play guitar and banjo, and vowed to be the best bass player in the metropolitan area of New York and New Jersey. "I think I did it," he said. "I got a lot of work - two, three, four bands - and did a lot of playing." In Passaic, Weisz went to school with David Grisman, who went on to become a famous mandolin player. The two eagerly hopped on the urban folk music craze of the early 1960s. They and the rest of the world also fell under the sway of Beatlemania. Even so, Weisz and other musicians donned matching vests and played in jug bands alongside ragtime piano, the twang of a bluegrass fiddle and washtub basses. Between the Beatles and bluegrass, "everything was so magical in those days," Weisz said.

Flyin' Fred

Weisz turned 63 on Friday. He lives a few blocks from the county courthouse in a modest studio apartment. The place is decorated with photos from his heyday. There's a framed copy of the Even Dozen Jug Band album, and black and white photos of him playing with his earliest bands. When the mood strikes him on a sunny day, he ventures out to claim a piece of sidewalk in the shade outside the county's justice hub. When he's not smiling or giving a friendly hello, his attention is riveted on the melody, the four strings, the fingerboard.

In his suspenders, T-shirt and sneakers, few would recognize him from his close-up on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1970. "That was the highlight of my musical career," Weisz said wistfully. Back then, he was "Flyin' Fred," a fiddler with Goose Creek Symphony and at the peak of his game.

"He's my favorite fiddle player of all time," said Charlie Gearhart, the man behind Goose Creek Symphony. "He's Mr. Soul, Mr. Wonderful." Gearhart invited Weisz to Phoenix to try out as a banjo player. Things went OK, but during a break he took out his fiddle and started playing. "He blew everybody away," Gearhart said by phone from Nashville. "That's when all the magic came together. Right there. When Fred came to the band, that's when we knew what the band was and where we were going."

The band had a cutting-edge sound that mixed bluegrass, country and rock. Weisz toured with the band in three-week stints. That proved hard, he said. "You drive to the show, play the show, get back in the bus and travel 500 miles in the middle of the night," Weisz said. "You wake up and the bus is still moving. It was hard for me.

"Just playing a good show made it worth it. We had a good time." Fiddlers who play with Goose Creek these days still have to learn Weisz' licks, Gearhart said.

A 'really big shew'

Weisz and Goose Creek toured eight months with Miss Bobbie Gentry in 1970. After backing her up at a show at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, the band got big news. The phone rang: Gentry and Goose Creek were booked on The Ed Sullivan Show. "She picked up a half dozen Goose people, myself included, and we did The Ed Sullivan Show, " Weisz said.

Weisz played the classic fiddle song "Fire on the Mountain." America saw Weisz in bib overalls with thick black rimmed glasses, he said. "There was at least a minute of me, close up," Weisz said. "Ed complimented me and Charlie. We were walking upstairs and he was coming down and he said to us 'You boys are mighty fine.' All I could think of was it's the very stage the Beatles played on. It was a tremendous high."

It's been years since he saw the performance. "I'm trying to locate it now, but no luck yet," he said. Weisz and Goose Creek also opened for guitarist Jimi Hendrix at the Atlanta Pop Festival, and saw him perform from just a few feet away. "When he walked past, I said, 'Hey man, you're beautiful.' He had his turquoise blue Corvette outside, and he was great. Me and David said we'd go deaf to hear Jimi Hendrix play."

A slower pace

For decades, Weisz made his living playing music, but he has struggled with mental health problems every step of the way. A nervous breakdown temporarily pulled him out of music in the 1970s, but he rejoined Goose Creek for his third and final album with them in 1975. Since then, he said he's played with other bands, on other albums.

Weisz said he came to accept that he has bipolar manic depression. "Sometimes I think I'm just normal, but I have this illness and have had it since I was 18," he said. "It's come and gone. For being in and out of hospitals, I still managed to make my mark."

He doesn't complain. He says everyone has problems. "This stretch has been particularly rewarding," he said. "I've been out six or seven years now. I feel good." In 1993, Weisz began collecting disability checks from Social Security. Things are at a slower pace he can manage. Throughout, the music has sustained him, he said.

"It's wonderful that I can play at all, and people still like my playing." Despite the drift of time, his skilled vibrato persists. His fingers still know the technical positions of dozens of tunes, but sometimes fall prey to a tremor in his hands. "Some days it's worse than others," he said. "The more I play, the better it gets."

A bad reaction to medication about six or seven years ago robbed him of some of his sense of time and rhythm, Weisz said. "I don't like to dwell on that. My tempo has slowed down quite a bit. I'd love to play bluegrass," he added, "but my tremor stops me from playing traditional bluegrass music. It calls for up-tempo playing. I just can't do it."

At the courthouse, his audience is mostly friendly, sometimes generous. "I come up here to play, make a few dollars and meet some nice people," he said. "I pretty much volunteer music. That's why I'm grateful for a few bucks. A few bucks is a few bucks." Four years ago, he raked in enough to buy himself a new guitar. But things slacked off.

"The other day I was out here in the afternoon and something clicked and I made $31," Weisz said. "So I said I'm coming back tomorrow. I did and only made like $10." In addition to his spot outside the courthouse, Weisz plays regularly with two bands that perform at Temple Beth Or and senior centers.

"I find a lot of beauty in music. It's carried me. I pretty much have it made. Like my friend David told me: We all get older, you just play the best you can and that's it."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 10:32 AM

Bears eat man at beer festival

BELGRADE, Serbia (Reuters) -- A 23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival.

The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it.

"There's a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage," zoo director Vuk Bojovic told Reuters.

Local media reported that police found several mobile phones inside the cage, as well as bricks, stones and beer cans.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 03:53 PM

Today I found a bunch of photos they posted after the article about Fred Weisz. Here they are.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 11:11 PM

Bird Grilled, but Lives to Tell Tale
August 21, 2007 (AP)

BENTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A wild bird is little worse for wear after being hit by a car while crossing a road, then spending two days trapped behind the car's grille. Connie Ankli said she unknowingly drove around with the bird, believed to be a quail, inside her vehicle's front end. "Oh, I love grilled poultry. But I usually buy it at the store," she said.

The bird was recovering from its experience at the home of Frank Filmore, a technician at Kepner's Precision Auto Krafters in Berrien County's Benton Township, about 175 miles west of Detroit.

Ankli said she was taking her daughter to her piano lesson Aug. 13 when she saw an animal on a road in Royalton Township. "I didn't want to hit it, so I straddled it," she told The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph. "When I was just about on top of it, it moved. I heard a thump, saw feathers out the back window, but no bird."

Two nights later, she said she noticed movement in the front of the vehicle. "I bent down and looked," she said, and saw a bird "peering out from behind the grille."

Auto shop manager Tim Markham said the bird had broken through the honeycomb-style, plastic grille, which then bent back and trapped the bird. Markham said the bird would be released or turned over to a nature center.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 11:49 AM

Mattel sues to keep Barbie off porn site

From the Associated Press
August 22, 2007

Toy maker Mattel Inc. went to court Tuesday to declare that the name of its clean-cut Barbie dolls doesn't belong on a model's pornographic website.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Mattel said the website for an adult entertainer named China Barbie has tried to benefit from El Segundo-based Mattel's success with the doll.

China Barbie's site says she is a "cordial young lady" who worked at some of the world's leading investment banking firms and ad agencies before getting into porn.

The site is registered to Global China Networks and operated by Terri Gibson of Hollywood, Fla., the suit said. It said Global China Networks used a domain name containing the word "barbie" in a "bad faith attempt to profit from Mattel's Barbie trademarks."

******

Seems a bit odd to me that, through the years, a number of adult models and performers have used "Barbie" as part of their stage names, but Mattel is choosing to sue this "Barbie" now. Surely they were all trying to "benefit from... Mattel's success with the doll". Must have more to do with the domain name than the stage name.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 07:06 PM

Actually, I think China Barbie is prettier. Here's a fan song written for her by some drooler:

Chinese Barbie Girl Song Lyric
(Sing to the tune of Barbie Girl by Aqua)

Hiya liang nui!
Hi liang jai!
Want to ride in my Honda?
Sure liang jai!
Jump in!

* I'm a Chinese girl, in a Chinese world
Eating wonton, it's perfection
I have light brown hair, Sanrio everywhere
Frustration, in my generation.

Come on bb, let's go drink tea.

I'm a Chinese girl, in a Chinese world
Playing mahjong, nothing is wrong
I have tons of flares, tight shirts everywhere
Looking cocky, just can't stop me.

I'm Chinese, Asian girl, in a white-people world
Egg foo young, just for fun, I do laundry.

You're so tall, Chinese doll, eat some jook and chow mein,
No FOBS here, egg rolls there, fortune cookie.

Eat cha siu, eat bok choi, you can say I love Sam's club.

Repeat *

Come on bb, let's go drink tea.
Ai ai ai yah.
Come on bb, let's go drink tea.
Ooh ooh

Make me cook, make me clean, do whatever is mean
I can do some kung-fu, I have loads of bamboo.

Come jump in, let's play pool, cruise around just again,
Look and stare, dye your hair, rent some movies.

Gung jai mein, I'm jook seng, I go to the library
Bot paw girls are so jean, you can say I grow string beans.

Repeat*

Oh, that guy, kui tai mut gwai?
Well liang nui, I'll use my martial arts.
Oh I love you liang jai!

Credits: Author unknown.

(I can't even imagine the tune....)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: TheSnail
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 07:35 PM

Manchester Evening News

Boy in court for throwing sausage
Mike Keegan and Stan Miller
22/ 8/2007

A BOY of 12 has been hauled before a court and charged with assault - with a sausage.

He was accused of throwing the cocktail sausage at an elderly neighbour. It allegedly hit him on the shoulder.

When the boy appeared at a youth court in Manchester, the judge said he couldn't believe the case had been brought before him and questioned the decision to take legal action. The boy's lawyer said the decision to prosecute `beggars belief'.

The boy entered a not guilty plea. It is understood the case has already cost several thousand pounds.

District Judge Tim Devas adjourned the case and urged the Crown Prosecution Service to reconsider. He compared the incident to a story from boys' adventure book Just William. William was a mischievous schoolboy who often found himself in trouble for minor instances of misbehaviour.

The judge said: "I was brought up in the era of Just William. You may not remember it but this incident sounds similar.

"Clearly there are certain things that should be done with a 12-year-old and you shouldn't be bringing them into the court system unless it's absolutely necessary. If he has done what was suggested it is very bad behaviour. But is it in the public interest to prosecute a 12-year-old boy who threw a sausage?"

The alleged incident is said to have taken place on August 11 in Wythenshawe when the victim was walking home after visiting a pub.

He claims that after a disagreement the boy threw the sausage, which hit him on the shoulder.

The boy cannot be named for legal reasons. His mother, who was by his side in court, said he was unable to sleep on the night before the case and `worried sick that he would be sent to prison'.

She said she was furious at seeing her son `dragged into court for something like this'.

The mother added: "It's beyond belief. An absolute joke, and I'm disgusted by it. The lad has been in bits panicking about it."

Defence lawyer Oliver Gardner also criticised the move. He said: "It's crazy - they are criminalising children.

"Where is the discretion or logic on the police's behalf when they charge a 12-year-old with assault with a cocktail sausage?

"It beggars belief that they have put this boy through the trauma of the criminal justice system, locking him up at the police station and then hauling him before the court.

"Where is the sense of such an exercise?"

Prosecutor Dianne Oliver said she would take the case to her superiors who would review the charge.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 08:28 PM

"Where's the Beef?"

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 12:02 AM

This has been making the rounds of college campuses for the fall semester getting ready to start:

---

Mindset List 2011

BELOIT COLLEGE'S MINDSET LIST® FOR THE CLASS OF 2011

Most of the students entering College this fall, members of the Class of 2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead.


1.   What Berlin wall?
2.   Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.
3.   Rush Limbaugh and the "Dittoheads" have always been lambasting liberals.
4.   They never "rolled down" a car window.
5.   Michael Moore has always been angry and funny.
6.   They may confuse the Keating Five with a rock group.
7.   They have grown up with bottled water.
8.   General Motors has always been working on an electric car.
9.   Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.
10. Pete Rose has never played baseball.
11. Rap music has always been mainstream.
12. Religious leaders have always been telling politicians what to do, or else!
13. "Off the hook" has never had anything to do with a telephone.
14. Music has always been "unplugged."
15. Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
16. Women have always been police chiefs in major cities.
17. They were born the year Harvard Law Review Editor Barack Obama announced he might run for office some day.
18. The NBA season has always gone on and on and on and on.
19. Classmates could include Michelle Wie, Jordin Sparks, and Bart Simpson.
20. Half of them may have been members of the Baby-sitters Club.
21. Eastern Airlines has never "earned their wings" in their lifetime.
22. No one has ever been able to sit down comfortably to a meal of "liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
23. Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM.
24. Being "lame" has to do with being dumb or inarticulate, not disabled.
25. Wolf Blitzer has always been serving up the news on CNN.
26. Katie Couric has always had screen cred.
27. Al Gore has always been running for president or thinking about it.
28. They never found a prize in a Coca-Cola "MagiCan."
29. They were too young to understand Judas Priest's subliminal messages.
30. When all else fails, the Prozac defense has always been a possibility.
31. Multigrain chips have always provided healthful junk food.
32. They grew up in Wayne's World.
33. U2 has always been more than a spy plane.
34. They were introduced to Jack Nicholson as "The Joker."
35. Stadiums, rock tours and sporting events have always had corporate names.
36. American rock groups have always appeared in Moscow.
37. Commercial product placements have been the norm in films and on TV.
38. On Parents' Day on campus, their folks could be mixing it up with Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz with daughter Zöe, or Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford with son Cody.
39. Fox has always been a major network.
40. They drove their parents crazy with the Beavis and Butt-Head laugh.
41. The "Blue Man Group" has always been everywhere.
42. Women's studies majors have always been offered on campus.
43. Being a latchkey kid has never been a big deal.
44. Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, autobiography can happen in real time.
45. They learned about JFK from Oliver Stone and Malcolm X from Spike Lee.
46. Most phone calls have never been private.
47. High definition television has always been available.
48. Microbreweries have always been ubiquitous.
49. Virtual reality has always been available when the real thing failed.
50. Smoking has never been allowed in public spaces in France.
51. China has always been more interested in making money than in reeducation.
52. Time has always worked with Warner.
53. Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
54. The purchase of ivory has always been banned.
55. MTV has never featured music videos.
56. The space program has never really caught their attention except in disasters.
57. Jerry Springer has always been lowering the level of discourse on TV.
58. They get much more information from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert than from the newspaper.
59. They're always texting 1 n other.
60. They will encounter roughly equal numbers of female and male professors in the classroom.
61. They never saw Johnny Carson live on television.
62. They have no idea who Rusty Jones was or why he said "goodbye to rusty cars."
63. Avatars have nothing to do with Hindu deities.
64. Chavez has nothing to do with iceberg lettuce and everything to do with oil.
65. Illinois has been trying to ban smoking since the year they were born.
66. The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.
67. Chronic fatigue syndrome has always been debilitating and controversial.
68. Burma has always been Myanmar.
69. Dilbert has always been ridiculing cubicle culture.
70. Food packaging has always included nutritional labeling.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 12:43 AM

Wow. Every year older I get, the stage grows a foot wider. Amazing.



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 11:27 AM

Tribes win key ruling; others will have to pay

It will be left to the state and counties to correct culverts that block fish, but the full effect of the decision isn't yet known.

August 23, 2007
The Herald

SEATTLE — Indians will have a much greater role in deciding how and where the state and other governments build culverts that impede salmon migration, following a federal court ruling Wednesday siding with the Tulalips and many other Washington tribes. In their federal lawsuit, the tribes said that state and local government has an obligation under the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliot to protect salmon habitat by not hindering fish passage with narrow or blocking culverts. The written decision by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez "declares that the right of taking fish secured to the tribes in the Stevens Treaties imposes a duty upon the state to refrain from building or operating culverts .... that hinder fish passage." Martinez also found that the state "currently owns and operates culverts that violate this duty."

The full effect of the decision is not known. The ruling was good news for the Tulalip Tribes, which is in the forefront of asserting their treaty rights. "This is a clear step for the tribes to enter into discussions with the state in terms of the impact to our tribal culture," Tulalip fisheries commissioner Terry Williams said.

The tribes alleged in their lawsuit that fish don't have access to 249 miles of streams that they should have, preventing the production of potentially 200,000 fish for tribal harvest. "This is very significant," Williams said. "Obviously we have to wait to see the detail of the judge's comments, but clearly what is being said is when the fish are impaired by habitat problems, that affects the reserved rights of the tribes."

The 152-year-old Point Elliot Treaty, also known as the Stevens Treaties, gave the tribes the right to take fish "at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations." That's key to this lawsuit, as it was to the landmark tribal fisheries decision of federal Judge George Boldt in 1974. "For (fish) to exist, they have to have habitat," Williams said. " The treaty right is hollow without the habitat to sustain our culture. This is a treaty obligation. That's what this comes from."

Janelle Guthrie, spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, said the lawsuit is not over. "The court said the Stevens Treaties say the state has to make sure our culverts allow fish to pass. While we currently have some culverts that don't allow fish to pass, the state has plans in place to improve or replace these culverts," Guthrie said. "The next step in the process is for the court to determine its remedy. The court has set a status conference for next Wednesday."

Whatever the remedy, it will have an effect on Snohomish County government. "How this ruling is going to affect our current business, I'm not sure," said Steve Thomson, Snohomish County public works director. "I'm sure it will have some impact. I just can't say right now." The county works with state fisheries officials on new road projects near streams, and occasionally gets grants to restore older culverts that block salmon.

The state didn't dispute that some culverts block returning salmon. According to documents, the state found 18 percent of the culverts on land managed by the Department of Natural Resources were identified as barriers to fish in a 2000 inventory. The state's attorneys argued that since 1991 the state Department of Transportation's culvert projects have also opened access to more than 410 miles of salmon habitat, Guthrie said. They also argued that there is no evidence the state is diminishing the number of fish for the tribal harvest.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 12:00 PM

ATLANTA - Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws.

The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.

"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."

The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

The proposed ordinance states that "the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments" would be unlawful in a public place. It would go in the same portion of the city code that outlaws sex in public and the exposure or fondling of genitals.

The penalty would be a fine in an amount to be determined, Martin said.

But Seagraves said any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge. She said the law could not be enforced in a nondiscriminatory way because it targets something that came out of the black youth culture.

"This is a racial profiling bill that promotes and establishes a framework for an additional type of racial profiling," Seagraves said.

---

I am glad to see that the elected representatives in Atlanta are keeping their eye on the important things in public life.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 01:20 PM

They would also be prohibited from... show(ing) a bra strap.

This is GREAT news! It means young women who choose to wear tank tops and spaghetti straps are going to be required to go braless!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 05:55 PM

My tax dollars at work (seems to me that a slap on the bum is no big deal considering the trouble these two could have gotten into):

link

Officer accused of slapping woman's behind

FORT WORTH -- A Fort Worth police officer was arrested Wednesday on allegations that he slapped the rear of a woman he caught engaging in sexual conduct in a car in Oakhurst Park in June. Officer Craig Murrah, who has been with the department since 2001, was arrested on a warrant for "official oppression," a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in a county jail and a fine of up to $4,000. Murrah is on restricted duty pending a review of the case by the Tarrant County district attorney's office.

According to a news release by the Fort Worth Police Department, the incident occurred about 1 a.m. June 22 after Murrah found a couple engaging in sexual conduct inside a vehicle at the park at 2300 Daisy Lane in north Fort Worth.

The officer directed the couple out of the car. The 18-year-old woman, nude from the waist down, got out and was placed in the back of his patrol car, the release said. Sometime during the investigation, Murrah allegedly slapped the woman on the rear, the release said.

The woman said the officer then let the couple go with only a warning. The woman told her boyfriend what the officer had done upon getting in the car, prompting him to call 911.

A subsequent internal investigation determined there was sufficient evidence to support the woman's claims, and an arrest warrant for the officer was issued.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 11:58 AM

So is Officer Craig Murrah still getting behind in his patrol work? Inquiring minds with little else to amuse them would like to know.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 12:54 PM

It's a bum rap.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 01:10 PM

Well, it certainly looks that way, but I am sure there is another side to the story.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 01:11 PM

Whatever happened to 'turn the other cheek?'

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 02:37 PM

As we go strolling through the park,
Goosing statues in the dark,
If Sherman's horse can take it,
Why can't you?

So says Justice en Lieu!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 07:12 PM

http://www.delmarvanow.com

Could chicken houses be a terrorist target?
By Joseph Gidjunis
Staff Writer



      WASHINGTON -- Chicken houses across the country are one step
away from being named the newest terrorist targets demanding stricter
access and regulation, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security.

      As part of the DHS Chemical Security Anti-Terrorism Standards,
facilities with more than 7,500 pounds of propane gas -- 1,785
gallons -- could be considered high-risk. To determine if a facility
is a security risk, operators must process complete "Top Screen"
safety measures, including vulnerability assessments, develop site
security plans and implement protective measures approved by DHS.


      U.S. Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Tom
Carper, D-Del., have co-authored a letter to Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff demanding answers for what they describe
as a waste of government time and money.

      The rule affects nearly every poultry grower across the
Delmarva peninsula, and as many as 20,000 sites across the country,
because propane gas is the most popular chicken house heating method.
One house typically has a 1,000 gallon to 1,500 gallon tank attached
to it. There could be more than 50,000 facilities subjected to the
report in the United States, according to the National Propane Gas
Association.

      "We appreciate the fact that Homeland Security does have a
responsibility to the security of this nation, but in terms of what
is considered a threat, I would think chicken houses would be so far
down on the list that nobody would ever find it," said Worcester
County farmer Virgil Shockley, who has 9,000 gallons heating six
chicken houses. ...

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 25 Aug 07 - 12:08 PM

"In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnation without government permission."

-- Newsweek, Aug 20

---

I wonder who gets the authority to sign the passes? Maybe someone from a past dynasty?



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 25 Aug 07 - 03:06 PM

I have always believed there was something seriously missing about this Universe of ours. Now, I know:

Astronomers find gaping hole in the Universe

University of Minnesota astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies and gas, as well as the mysterious, unseen "dark matter." While earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," said Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota astronomy professor. Rudnick, along with grad student Shea Brown and associate professor Liliya Williams, also of the University of Minnesota, reported their findings in a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.


Astronomers have known for years that, on large scales, the Universe has voids largely empty of matter. However, most of these voids are much smaller than the one found by Rudnick and his colleagues. In addition, the number of discovered voids decreases as the size increases.

"What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the Universe," Williams said.

The astronomers drew their conclusion by studying data from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), a project that imaged the entire sky visible to the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, part of the National Science Foundation's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Their study of the NVSS data showed a remarkable drop in the number of galaxies in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus, southwest of Orion.

"We already knew there was something different about this spot in the sky," Rudnick said. The region had been dubbed the "WMAP Cold Spot," because it stood out in a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP) satellite, launched by NASA in 2001. The CMB, faint radio waves that are the remnant radiation from the Big Bang, is the earliest "baby picture" available of the Universe. Irregularities in the CMB show structures that existed only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.

http://www.physorg.com/news107109720.html

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: JennyO
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 08:29 AM

Interesting stuff. However I couldn't help noticing that just after the first paragraph in the article, is inserted this:

Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)

Is there Really a God? - Does He exist? How can you know? What Is Life's Meaning and Purpose?
www.ucg.org.au


Those guys never miss an opportunity!

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Aug 07 - 12:11 PM

I listen to a Sunday morning organic gardening program, and there are usually local garden center ads and the occasional Scott's Turf Builder (nasty stuff) ads inserted by folks hoping that non-discriminating listeners might think this is sanctioned (the program host slams these products any time the ad plays--advertisers are told they can't run these non-organic ads without comment). And then comes an your face loud, bossy church ad telling you how to celebrate the most famous and powerful man in history. . . yup. You got it, Mr. J. The ad is placed in such a way that it castigates anyone who is listening to a gardening show instead of sitting in a christian church.

I usually turn off the program about that point anyway. Too bad they lose listeners with that ad. It would be nice if the station would refuse that one.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 11:13 AM

Aug 24, 12:54 PM (ET)


BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - A Northern Ireland man bit his girlfriend's pet snake in half during a fight and remarked that it "tasted lovely," lawyers testified Friday.

Shane Cooke, a 33-year-old bricklayer, was arraigned in Belfast High Court on charges of assaulting his girlfriend, Coleen McGleenon, and fatally torturing her royal python Aug. 4.

McGleenon's lawyers said he headbutted her twice and picked up her pet, put it in his mouth, and threw its severed head at her. "Your snake tasted lovely," he was quoted as saying.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 07:17 PM

7News exclusive - Aussie soliders using faulty weapons

By Michael McKinnon,
27 Aug 2007

Australian soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are using faulty weapons and ammunition with up to 70,000 of the standard issue Steyr rifles having flaws causing stoppages.

A Seven News investigation can also reveal long-range patrol vehicles could not fit heavy weaponry because of wrong specifications and snipers are forced to use a cleaning agent that hurts accuracy on rifles because of orders from headquarters.

There has also been a widespread recall of the 9mm pistols used by Special Forces, and faulty ammunition and weapons have rotted from storage in extreme heat according to Defence Department documents obtained using Freedom of Information laws.

The documents reveal widespread problems, for at least a year, with the soldier's standard issue 5.56mm Steyr rifle, also used by the navy and airforce as well as the New Zealand Defence Force, with flawed springs leaving the weapon unable to be loaded.

The revelations are a challenge to Prime Minister John Howard who personally promised less than two years ago that Australian troops would have the best possible equipment.

Launching the Defence White Paper in December 2005, Mr Howard said: "Our commitment, my commitment is that we will spend the additional resources that are necessary to give the ADF the resources it needs for the tasks it has, remembering at all times that our prime responsibility in a personal sense is to give our men and women the best possible chance if they are involved in combat.

"It is just not acceptable for a country as wealthy as Australia to send men and women into the field without them having the best possible equipment and we certainly intend to ensure that happens," he said at the time.

However, Australians soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced "constant problems" with the documents revealing the Austrian-designed Steyr including "locking...jamming...misfiring" because of "faulty springs".

The Army's chief weapons expert in Baghdad has warned the problem is so grave that "persistent weapons failures on operations quickly diminishes confidence in the weapon systems".

A Defence Materiel Organisation source yesterday confirmed there had been a "large number of complaints" about the springs in the Steyr both domestically and overseas.

"There are too many defect reports to ignore and field trials are now underway to try to fix the problem," he said.

The FOI documents also show that pistols issued to the SAS in Iraq and
Afghanistan were so unreliable the commanders have recommended: "All weapon use be suspended."

The documents also show snipers are being forced to damage weapon accuracy because of the cleaning agent. When cleaned with the issued Breakfree Bore Cleaner, the powerful .50 cal sniper rifle is found to have residue in the barrel affecting the "accuracy of any sniper weapons system".

Soldiers have found another cleaner, Hoppers Powder Solvent No 9, that cleans without damage but it cannot be used after the Joint Task Force Head Quarters said it was not an "authorised cleaning agent".

"The problem still exists in this organisation that the weapons arenot being cleaned to the required standard," the Defence documents state.

"It is common within sniper cells throughout the Army to use this product."

The documents also show problems with broken heavy machine guns being delivered to the front line, along with faulty and dud ammunition.

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd yesterday called for an immediate inquiry into the weapons problems revealed by the ADF documents.

"The Prime Minister should order an immediate audit of the adequacy and effectiveness of all weaponry currently being used by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," the ALP leader said.

Opposition Defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said even with a $17 billion surplus, the Howard Government had failed soldiers on the frontline.

"This government can't even find the money to put proper quality control in place to ensure that our troops on the frontline have reliable weapons," he said.

Yesterday the Defence Minister Brendan Nelson was unavailable for comment however the Army Chief General Peter Leahy said the documents showed the Army's reporting system for problems was working well.

However, he said if systemic problems with the Steyr were revealed, the ADF would undertake an audit.


URL:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070827/23/14a9n.html

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 10:00 AM

DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) - A traditional medicine man in Tanzania drowned after jumping in a river and promising to resurface three days later with relevations from ancestral spirits, police said Tuesday.

The local witch doctor, named as Nyasio Alfonso, staged his ill-fated stunt last week at the village of Masingo in the western Mpanda district near Lake Tanganyika, Rukwa regional police commander Daudi Siadi told AFP.

Dozens of villagers chanted and drummed as the fortune-teller dived to confer with the riverine spirits, he said.

"The incident was reported to us by the village leadership on Sunday, four days after Alfonso threw himself into the river," he said. "His decomposing body was fished out several metres downstream."

...

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 11:02 AM

Butt-biting bug munches on Japanese tush in a quest for the golden (be)hind

Sunday Mainichi (9/9)Japan is getting tickled pink by a little fairy that goes around biting people's bottoms and making them happy, according to Sunday Mainichi (9/9).

Oshiri Kajiri Mushi, literally the Butt-Biting Bug, has struck a chord with Japanese young and old in recent months.

The Butt-Biting Bug, which is actually supposed to be one of the Little People, first appeared in June on an NHK children's cartoon. The crunching creepy crawly -- who, perhaps unsurprisingly, has roots dating back to ancient Assyria -- skyrocketed to national fame following the release of a CD and DVD on July 27, with stocks of both quickly running out.

Sales and additional orders for both the music and movie have continued flooding in, and a catchy mobile phone ringtone taken from a song about the Butt-Biting Bug and its tush tasting exploits attracts six times more downloads than any other of the dozens available on NHK's site. A children's book starring the fairy came out last week.

Sunday Mainichi notes that the Butt-Biting Bug is actually a fairy, whose nibbles on people's cabooses are supposed to bring them enormous amounts of energy.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Aug 07 - 05:21 PM

Log airlift helps fish return to their roots
link (great photo with the story)

STANWOOD — The sprawling Stillaguamish River delta once was covered with toppled old-growth trees ripped out of mountain soil and washed down the river by raging winter floods. The giant logs would clump together and their roots would tangle, creating areas for young salmon to hide and forage before they headed out to sea. Those big old trees are gone now, leaving the delta devoid of anything but mud and grass. Salmon, especially endangered chinook, have few places to hide as they move through channels carved into the mud flats. On Tuesday, some of those logs came back, thanks to a helping hand from The Nature Conservancy and a Boeing Vertol 107-II helicopter.

The Nature Conservancy flew in 26 logs with roots intact and put them into six clumps. Fish experts say that at a minimum, the logs will re-create some of the long-lost habitat that young chinook and other salmon depend on, and at best, form the beginnings of some new logjams. "If there's no wood and no cover, there's no salmon," said Rick Rogers, a project coordinator for the Stillaguamish Tribe. "When there is wood, they congregate and hide underneath that."

The tribe twice tried to drop giant "lawn darts" — logs with plywood wings and weighted tips — into the same delta. The idea was to have the tree trunks sticking up out of the mud catch and trap wood debris that flow down the river. The first time, heavy winds blew the darts sideways. The second time, they shattered on impact. The Nature Conservancy's technique was to drop 1,000-pound blocks of concrete into the mud, and then to cable the logs to the blocks. Shaped like spinning tops, the concrete blocks sank into the mud with ease, some of them sinking several feet below the surface. "This worked a lot better," said Rogers, working on the crew that bolted the logs together on Tuesday.

Danelle Heatwole, a Nature Conservancy ecologist, spent a year planning the log drop. "I'm glad that today finally got here," Heatwole said. "I feel like it went really smoothly." Humans have degraded salmon habitat in many ways, but the near-shore habitat that fingerling salmon use before they head out to sea has seen perhaps the most impact, Heatwole said. This project is a way to get some of that back, she said.

The Nature Conservancy project is a good first step, said George Pess, a research fish biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center. "The change in the amount of habitat is by far greatest in the estuarine habitat — 70 to 80 percent has been lost," Pess said. "It's a small step in the right direction. Obviously, you need to do things at a larger scale if you really want to see any significant change." The NOAA contributed most of the $70,000 in grants used to fund the log drop, said Robin Stanton, a spokeswoman for The Nature Conservancy.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 29 Aug 07 - 07:20 PM

My sister (in San Francisco) just sent this to me -- our parents were originally from the Colby/Stetsonville area of Wisconsin (Taylor & Clark Counties) so that's why we keep an eye on news from there.

Linn


Tuesday, August 28, 2007

TWO busted for drunk driving...in the same truck! At the same time!

Two Dorchester men driving one truck at the same time were arrested for drunken driving in the Abbotsford area about 170 miles northwest of Madison.

Harvey J. Miller, 43, who has no legs, steered the 1985 Chevrolet truck while Edwin H. Marzinske, 55, operated the brake and gas pedals, according to a report from the Colby/Abbotsford police.

Miller, who was sitting in the driver's seat, admitted he'd had too much to drink but argued that he wasn't really operating the truck since he had no legs to push the pedals, the report said. He received a citation for a third drunken driving offense.

Marzinske was cited for a second drunken driving offense. Both men also were cited for driving after their licenses had been revoked.

A third man in the truck, also drunk, walked himself home after the Aug. 18 traffic stop, police said.

Printed from: http://www.newstalk1130.com

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 30 Aug 07 - 10:34 AM

Interestng legal point. If steering, but not braking or accelerating a vehicle, is not "driving"; and simply stepping on the pedals is not "driving"; then both of them could get off scot-free by reason of a cunning division of responsibilities!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Aug 07 - 04:11 PM

Texan is jailed as illegal immigrant
link

A native Texan spent the night in the Arlington Jail, missed her children's first day of school and feared being deported after authorities mistook her for an illegal immigrant. "I was told I was waiting for an [immigration] officer or Border Patrol officer to interview me and then move me to another location. It was very scary," the Mansfield woman said.

Arlington and federal immigration officials say they made a mistake and apologized. "This is very unusual," Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour said "We're not aware of this having happened before. We do realize that this is unfortunate, and we do regret that we made an error." Gilfour said police overlooked fingerprints that would have shown Rodriguez was not the illegal immigrant.

Rodriguez said she does not plan to sue, but apologies do not make up for what she was put through. "I think it's ridiculous. I think it was obvious that I wasn't an illegal immigrant," she said. Rodriguez's case demonstrates the need for a balanced approach between enforcement and immigration reform, said Marisol Perez, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "We want to uphold the laws of the country, but we want to balance that with individual rights," she said.

Earlier this year, authorities wrongly deported U.S. citizen Pedro Guzman, a developmentally disabled man from California. It took his family three months to find him. Law enforcement experts say similar situations may happen again as the government creates more databases of names to fight illegal immigration, terrorism and other crimes.

"Part of the dynamic is when you identify the right person, they also say they didn't do it," said Jack McDevitt, associate criminal justice dean at Northeastern University in Boston. "So police are used to running into people who say, 'This isn't me, I didn't do it.'"

Identified as illegal

Arlington police pulled Rodriguez over and arrested her Sunday night after running her license-plate number. She had warrants from Dalworthington Gardens for having no insurance during a stop in that city and failure to appear in court for the insurance charge. [note: this is a common ploy/speed trap kind of setup in this tiny enclave town in Arlington, Texas. They try to get everyone on proof of insurance violations--it's how they fund the town.]

Rodriguez said the charges are valid, and she was willing to pay a fine and bail to get out of jail. But when she got to the jail, the Arlington police computer told officers that they had a woman who was in the country illegally. Gilfour said Rodriguez's name and date of birth matched. The height was off by an inch. The weight was off by 25 pounds, but the information was last updated in 1999.

Police arranged for Rodriguez to have a telephone interview with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rodriguez said the ICE officer was "very hostile" to her, refusing to believe her when she said she was born in Dallas. Rodriguez said the person on the other end of line sternly told her that she was speaking to a federal agent and had to answer truthfully or risk committing perjury. "At the time, I thought someone with my name had committed some horrible crime," Rodriguez said.

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the illegal immigrant Alicia Rodriguez had at least three claims of false citizenship on her record. That record may have led officials to doubt the Alicia Rodriguez they had in custody when she said she was born in Dallas.

In jail overnight

Rodriguez's sister, Deborah Evans, came to the Arlington Jail with cash to pay any fines or bail only to learn that her sister was being held as an illegal immigrant. "I said, 'What do you mean? She's my sister. We were born here in Texas, in Dallas,'" Evans said. "I was shocked they were telling me this."

Rodriguez spent the night in jail sleeping on a mat on the floor with a cellmate. Another sister stayed with her three children, and her ex-husband took them to school the next day. On Monday, she was transferred to Dalworthington Gardens Jail, where she had a panic attack when authorities told her immigration officials would come pick her up -- eventually. "They told me it could take up to two days to move me to the next location which to me just meant it was going to be endless," Rodriguez said. She said police gave her oxygen to calm her hyperventilating.

Evans went to the Dalworthington Gardens Jail, showed officials her sister's birth certificate and tried again to convince officials that her sister was a U.S. citizen. "I was frightened that she was going to be deported right then" to Mexico, Evans said. "We don't speak Spanish. What was she going to do, and how was I going to get there?" After trying unsuccessfully to get her sister released, Evans said she left for an appointment.

Dalworthington Gardens Sgt. David Henderson said an officer there discovered Rodriguez had a driver's license and Social Security number. Dalworthington Gardens officials eventually started working for her release, Rodriguez said. [another note: the woman doesn't speak Spanish. She sounds like a Texan. And it took this long for them to figure out she had a driver's license and a SS card?]

They finally let her out at about 3 p.m. Monday. She walked about 3 miles to get her impounded car before her sister could pick her up. Rodriguez said the whole experience was a nightmare.

"I feel like it's a political byproduct of the whole illegal immigration thing," she said, "not that illegal immigrants shouldn't be dealt with, but I'm a citizen."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Aug 07 - 08:47 PM

August 31, 2007

Texas town abuzz over sightings of mythical, bloodsucking 'chupacabras'

link (has a photo, looks like a dog)

CUERO, Texas (AP) - Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers. Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra. "It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and greyish-blue, mostly hairless skin.

Canion and some of her neighbours discovered the 18-kilogram bodies of three of the animals over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, 130 kilometres southeast of San Antonio. Canion said she saved the head of the one she found so she can get to get to the bottom of its ancestry through DNA testing and then mount it for posterity. She suspects, as have many rural denizens over the years, that a chupacabra may have killed as many as 26 of her chickens in the past couple of years. "I've seen a lot of nasty stuff. I've never seen anything like this," she said.

What tipped Canion to the possibility that this was no ugly coyote, but perhaps the vampire-like beast, is that the chickens weren't eaten or carried off. All the blood was drained from them, she said. Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Canion thinks recent heavy rains ran them right out of their dens. "I think it could have wolf in it," Canion said. "It has to be a cross between two or three different things." She said the finding has captured the imagination of locals, just like purported sightings of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster have elsewhere.

But what folks are calling a chupacabra is probably just a strange breed of dog, said veterinarian Travis Schaar of the Main Street Animal Hospital in nearby Victoria. "I'm not going to tell you that's not a chupacabra. I just think in my opinion a chupacabra is a dog," said Schaar, who has seen Canion's find. The "chupacabras" could have all been part of a mutated litter of dogs, or they may be a new kind of mutt, he said.

As for the bloodsucking, Schaar said that this particular canine may simply have a preference for blood, letting its prey bleed out and licking it up.

Chupacabra or not, the discovery has spawned a local and international craze. Canion has started selling T-shirts that read: "2007, The Summer of the Chupacabra, Cuero, Texas," accompanied by a caricature of the creature. The $5 shirts have gone all over the world, including Japan, Australia and Brunei. Schaar also said he has one.

"If everyone has a fun time with it, we'll keep doing it," she said. "It's good for Cuero."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 04 Sep 07 - 02:23 PM

LONDON, Aug. 30 The Metropolitan Police in London have agreed to pay compensation to a teenager who was put in a trash can by a police officer.

Anop Singh, 16, told The Daily Mail he agreed to the 4,000-pound ($8,000) settlement because his attorney told him he had no other recourse. The officer was given a written warning because his superiors decided that he did not act maliciously.

A teenage friend filmed the 2005 exchange between Singh and the constable. The two teenagers were filming the police response to an incident involving other young people when the constable told them to move on.

Anop Singh said he would have been jailed if he had assaulted the officer.

Gurdev Singh, the teen's father, was also angry.

"We are not satisfied and I will always be angry about the way my son was tossed around like a piece of rubbish," he said. "The officer should have been sacked."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 04 Sep 07 - 07:46 PM

irst kiss can make or break a couple's relationship
12:39 04 September 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Rowan Hooper

Evolutionary Psychology vol 5, p 621
George Gallup, State University of New York, Albany

The first kiss can make or break a couple's relationship, suggests a new study.

A kiss may contain potentially important information about your kissing partner, says George Gallup at the State University of New York, Albany, US.

He surveyed 1041 students on their attitudes to kissing (Evolutionary Psychology, vol 5, p 612).

Some views verged on the predictable: women, for example, placed more emotional importance on a kiss, valuing kisses during and after sex, and throughout a relationship.

The men tended to see kissing as a means to an end – sex – and placed less importance on kissing as a relationship progresses. Just over half the men said they would have sex with someone without kissing, compared with 15% of women. And more men than women said that a good kiss was one with tongue contact, where the partner made moaning noises.

But Gallup says the first kiss a couple share could make or break the relationship. In a separate survey within the study, 59% of men and 66% of women reported on occasion finding themselves attracted to someone, only to lose interest after kissing them for the first time.

"The complicated exchange of information that occurs during a kiss may inform evolved, unconscious mechanisms about instances of possible genetic incompatibility," Gallup says.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 07 - 10:49 AM

This is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today. I would imagine that an uncataloged injury for the father is a broken heart. . .

Man killed in collision with father near home
   
A 20-year-old Godley man was killed Friday afternoon when his car and his father's pickup collided about a mile and a half from the family's home. James Daniel III was pronounced dead at the intersection of County Road 913A and 913B in northwest Johnson County, said Trooper David Riggs of the Texas Department of Public Safety. James Daniel II, 61, remained hospitalized Tuesday night with a punctured lung and broken ribs.

"Who would ever believe the odds of it happening?" said a family member, who returned a phone call to the Star-Telegram on Tuesday but said he did not want his name published. "It was a very tragic accident."

The father, who headed toward home on 913B about 1:30 p.m., stopped at the two-way sign at the intersection of 913A before turning, Riggs said. He "eased his way" into the intersection because weeds were high, making it hard to see around the corner.

His son had just left home and was driving his 2003 Nissan 350Z east on 913A, Riggs said. A witness said he appeared to be driving well over the 40 mph speed limit, Riggs said. The son's car crashed into the father's truck, he said. "It happened so fast there was nothing either of them could do," Riggs said. "The dad couldn't stop, and the son couldn't stop."

The mother arrived at the scene soon after the crash, he said, but later left to be with her husband at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, where he was flown by helicopter ambulance. The father was wearing his seat belt, Riggs said. His son was not.

The father recognized his son's car, Riggs said. "Of course, he was upset," Riggs said. "It was a real sad deal." The collision remains under investigation, Riggs said. "I have little doubt in my mind that if the son had been wearing his seat belt, he could have survived," Riggs said.

The younger Daniel was a graduate of Godley High School, where he played basketball on a team that narrowly lost in the regionals of the state tournament, said Ronnie Stephens, the school's athletic director, on Tuesday. "He was good basketball player and a fun-loving person," Stephens said. "A lot of people knew him around here." The Godley community is heartbroken, he said. "It was unbelievable," he said. "It happened to a real good family."

The Daniel family appreciates the support it has received, the family member said. James Daniel II "will be OK physically," he said. "But a tragedy like this is going to strike you in more ways than your health."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 07 - 01:45 PM

Here's one a little more upbeat.

Photo link to the Herald (Everett, Wa)

A lumberjack for life
By Suzanne Schmid, Herald Photographer

There's no lumbering with this lumberjack. At 65, Alvie Marcellus of Spokane is still sawing trees with speedy finesse. In fact, he and his brother, Earl Marcellus, 63, who sawed with him at the Evergreen State Fair, began competing at 13 and 11 years old, and have won world championships.

In less than ten seconds, Alvie and Earl can blaze through a log with a saw that was once known as the mystery whip. "A lot of people think it's all arm, but there's a lot of leg and hip involved," Alvie explains.

When not performing for the International Lumberjack Show at the fair, Alvie coaches others in the art of sawing, chopping, and axe-throwing. "Technique is everything," he says.

Alvie recalls two students he once taught together. One was a 275-pound weightlifter and the other was a slim 138 pounds. After one month of training, the smaller student using correct method could out-saw the man with muscles. "A few ounces of pressure make all the difference," he says.

Performing three shows every day can leave Alvie with sore hands, but for a guy whose favorite hobby is chopping wood, Alvie has no interest in hanging up his blades. According to him, being a lumberjack is wonderful exercise. "I don't need any sleeping pills to get me to sleep."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: TheSnail
Date: 05 Sep 07 - 04:06 PM

Wandering water buffalo named Shakespeare dies in car accident

Martin Wainwright
Wednesday September 5, 2007
The Guardian


A pet water buffalo called William Shakespeare was a victim in a collision which left two car drivers and a passenger with minor injuries. The huge animal crumpled the front of a Fiat Punto after roaming on to the A590 where it skirts the Lake District at Dalton-in-Furness. Firefighters had to cut the car's 19-year-old driver free, although he escaped with bruises and a few cuts. Two other cars, a Ford Focus and a Nissan Micra, collided while trying to avoid the debris or because their drivers were distracted by the accident.

Article continues

The driver of the Nissan was taken with minor injuries to Furness general hospital in Barrow, where his woman passenger was treated for whiplash.
William Shakespeare, who died at the scene, weighed more than a tonne and belonged to an enthusiast in nearby Walney. He had a record of trying to escape. Cumbria police said: "William Shakespeare was very well known in the area, but he tragically sustained fatal injuries in the collision and died at the scene. There will be a normal police investigation into the collision."

Expertise in similar crashes is concentrated in Canada and the northern US, where even a relatively small state such as Massachusetts clocks up some 50 accidents involving cars and moose every year.

The collision rapidly made international headlines yesterday, including an informative piece in Pravda online, which explained to Russian readers that Cumbria "is better known for its herds of cattle and rugged hill-dwelling sheep".

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 07 - 08:05 PM

Connecticut Man Gets Anthrax From Drums
(this is an AP story. Another one is linked below)

DANBURY, Conn. - A musician and a family member both contracted a non-contagious form of anthrax, apparently from imported animal skins used to make drums, officials said Wednesday. Mayor Mark Boughton described one of the individuals as a renowned African drummer and drummaker who stored untanned animal hides obtained from areas of the world where anthrax is common.

A spokesman for the state Department of Public Health, Bill Gerrish, said a second member of the same family also had the disease. Both apparently had the cutaneous form of anthrax, which is not contagious and can usually be treated with antibiotics. The public's health is not threatened, Boughton said at a news conference.

Cutaneous anthrax, the most common form of the bacterial infection, can cause reddening and swelling of the skin. There usually are only one to two cases per year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FBI agents were notified, but state public health officials were handling the investigation, said Marybeth Miklos, a spokeswoman for the FBI's New Haven field office. "We are aware of it, but as of right now it is not anything terrorism-related," Miklos said.

The state Department of Public Health took about a dozen hides that had been stored in a shed on the man's property. The drums were not finished, so officials said anthrax would not have spread beyond where the man had worked.

State officials said the hides were part of a recent shipment believed to be from Africa. The FBI and U.S. Department of Agriculture were working to determine whether hides from the same shipment had been sent elsewhere in the country.

The owner of the home, Donald Lombardo, identified the tenant as Ase-AmenRa Kariamu and said he has not seen Kariamu for several weeks. Kariamu is the director of the West Afrikan Drumming program at the Danbury Music Centre. His private phone number is unpublished. Messages seeking comment were left for him at the music center.

Dr. Gary Schleiter, chief of infectious diseases at Danbury Hospital, said the man went to his doctor a few weeks ago with what looked like a scab on his arm. When it didn't get better, he went to the hospital, where tests confirmed late Monday he had anthrax.

The other family member, who also was not identified, went to a pediatrician because of a similar spot. Both were treated and released and are fine now. There was an 80 percent chance they would have gotten better without treatment, Schleiter said.

In a similar case in February 2006, a New York City man contracted anthrax while handling drums he had covered with goat skin he brought from Ivory Coast. Health officials believe he inhaled anthrax spores while making the instruments.

Local Danbury newspaper link.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 10:01 AM

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Ben & Jerry's is offering five years worth of free ice cream for the arrest of a man caught on surveillance video stealing $160 from a tip jar at a store in Melbourne.


Police said a man was videotaped at the Melbourne Ben & Jerry's store located on Hibiscus Boulevard near the Premiere Theaters Oaks Stadium 10 reaching into the cow-shaped jar and removing the money.

"It's pretty despicable that someone would steal tip money from teenagers," store owner Matt Solomon told Local 6 News partner Florida Today. "These kids work hard behind this counter."

Ben & Jerry's is offering one free scoop of ice cream -- cone or cup -- every week for five years to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest. Solomon estimated the reward's value at $1,000.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 10:08 AM

That happened to Moonglow and her friends at work one day also, at the local Dairy Queen. They were able to watch the surveillance camera and found the few frames where a mall maintenance worker walked past and grabbed the whole tip jar and made off with it. Guy was fired. Too bad he ditched the tip jar so they could never find it--it was a good one that people recognized and actually used. A cup on the counter with a hand-lettered word "tips" just doesn't work as well.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 10:21 AM

Here we are again, moving into a new "decade" of interesting news stories.