BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JennyO
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 11:37 AM

Goodonya Joe. It's a pity there aren't more people in the world like you, who are ready to go the extra mile for their fellow human beings!

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 07:26 AM

Yayyyyy, Joe. What an offer!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 07:10 AM

Well done Joe. Of course, you may have been hurt. but what the hell, in those circumstances it seemed the right thing to do...

Out here, we regularly have stories of old pensioners beating up would be robbers muggers - thy just have to 'have a go' too.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 12:53 AM

Good guy, Joe!

And now you see why this thread is so handy? You can post this kind of article and a few folks will read it and enjoy it, but you don't have to worry about starting a new thread and all of the goofy stuff that goes with it, because all comers are welcome.

So what happened to your friend's phone between when it was grabbed and when the police grabbed him? With a $50,000 bail it looks like they mean business about keeping him.

I remember watching the news on a local Texas channel quite a few years back when a young upstart of a news reporter, on the air, actually caught a burglar in the act in a mall parking lot during his remote news segment. He asked him a couple of questions, and as the guy turned to flee, the reporter did a "what the hell" kind of look, tossed the mic down, and tackled the guy. It was great television!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 12:19 AM

Robbery Suspect Caught

Auburn, California, Monday, October 3.
The Auburn Journal, Oct 5

A Newcastle man who led police on a brief chase was behind bars in Placer County Jail Tuesday morning.
Kevin Stovall, 25, reportedly broke into a 1992 Dodge Caravan in the Auburn Town Center parking lot Monday afternoon around 3 p.m. while the owner of the vehicle was at the Flour Garden Bakery, said an officer of the Auburn Police Department.
Beverly Pando (who'd rather not tell her age) and Joseph Offer, 50 (well, 57), of Auburn, noticed the man near Pando's vehicle and walked up to him.
"(Offer) confronted the suspect who tried to give him some kind of story that he was getting the keys out of his girlfriend's car," the officer said. "The suspect gets out of the car as the victim is dialing her cell phone to call the police and he grabs it and says he's not going to go back to prison."
Stovall then fled the area and "the chase was on" (they didn't say it, but Offer did the chasing, walking rather briskly until the guy got out of sight. Then the police flushed him out and tackled him).
He didn't get far and was apprehended by an Auburn police officer.
Stovall was booked on charges of suspicion of robbery, burglary, and resisting arrest. He remains in Placer County Jail on $50,000 bail.

---

Gee, it was the first time I've ever seen a crime in progress, and I stopped it. Kind of an interesting experience. In my Walter Mitty reveries, I've wondered if I could bluff a criminal into custody by telling him to put his hands up against the car and frisking him. The guy didn't buy the bluff, so I had to chase him to try to get my friend's phone back. That didn't work, either. The cops got the guy, but not the phone.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 03:10 PM

Q: how do you spell l-a-w-s-u-i-t?


US Forest Service whistleblower fired

Last Update: 10/06/2005
By: Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - A US Forest Service official who voiced concerns about alleged pesticide misuse in forests across the Southwest has been fired. Doug Parker worked as the pesticide coordinator and assistant director of forestry health for the agency's Southwestern region.

Parker has told The Associated Press that he was removed from his duties last week because his supervisor said he failed to follow instructions.

Parker filed a whistleblower complaint earlier this year. He alleged a systemic problem when it comes to proper pesticide use across several forests in New Mexico and Arizona. Parker accused some managers of not preparing environmental risk assessments.

The Forest Service has declined to comment about Parker's case because of pending civil and legal actions.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 11:01 AM

The "inexplicable gaps" are mostly places where the record of fossils is incomplete. This is not a cognitive flaw in the fundamental mechanism described by the theory, but an artifact of momentous historical waves of time, matter, and force.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 10:40 AM

Over-arching umbrellas are remarkably unstable in a breeze, let alone a high wind. Religion and science can coexist, but religions need to stop trying to co-opt science any more than they have already.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 09:55 PM

QUOTE
The statement says Charles Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps."
UNQUOTE

as is the case in all Scientific Theories. Witness the progress of the wave/particle theory of light (electromagnetism), Quantum mechanics, etc.

The gaps are indeed 'part of the theories' - and are where the knowledge advances.

Only simple minded idiots NEED to have absolute explanations without gaps for everything in life. Unfortunately many Religious Followers need such absolute security called 'facts'.

Even more unfortunately, real life is open ended, not closed.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 03:16 PM

Witness: 'Intelligent Design' Used in Book
October 05, 2005

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Early drafts of a student biology text contained references to creationism before they were replaced with the term "intelligent design," a witness testified Wednesday in a landmark trial over a school system's use of the book.

Drafts of the textbook, Of Pandas and People, written in 1987 were revised after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June of that year that states could not require schools to balance evolution with creationism in the classroom, said Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Forrest reviewed drafts of the textbook as a witness for eight families who are trying to have the intelligent design concept removed from the Dover Area School District's biology curriculum.

The families contend that teaching intelligent design effectively promotes the Bible's view of creation, violating the separation of church and state.

Intelligent design holds that life on Earth is so complex that it must have been the product of some higher force. Opponents of the concept say intelligent design is simply creationism stripped of overt religious references.

Forrest outlined a chart of how many times the term "creation" was mentioned in the early drafts versus how many times the term "design" was mentioned in the published edition.

"They are virtually synonymous," she said.

Under the policy approved by Dover's school board in October 2004, students must hear a brief statement about intelligent design before classes on evolution. The statement says Charles Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps."

The trial began Sept. 26 and is expected to last as long as five weeks.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 12:44 PM

Maybe he'd just read Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine. :)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 11:41 AM

Missing man found driving dead deer in ambulance

Associated Press


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A man reported missing from a Florida hospital was found in North Carolina dressed like a doctor and driving a stolen ambulance with a dead deer wedged in the back, authorities said.

Leon Holliman Jr., 37, was reported missing from a River Region Human Services facility in Jacksonville last month.

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol found him driving the ambulance with the deer on Sunday.

"I don't know how the man got it up in there," said Sgt. Robert Pearson. "It was a six point buck."

It wasn't known where Holliman got the deer, which had been dead for some time, Pearson said.

Authorities tracked the stolen ambulance through three rural North Carolina counties and one county in southern Virginia before its tires were punctured and it wound up in a ditch, Pearson said.

Holliman was admitted to a North Carolina hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Police said they would decide whether to charge Holliman after that evaluation is complete.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 05:00 PM

http://www.rense.com/general67/voting.htm


Amazing Facts About
Voting In America
Watching Watchers.org
9-24-5

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

3. The vice-president of Diebold election systems and the vice president of aftermarket sales at ES&S are brothers.

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of General Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

15. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it!

16. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

17. All-not some-but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

18. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

19. Serious voting anomalies in Florida-again always favoring Bush-have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

http://watchingthewatchers.org/index.php?p=318

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 03:43 PM

This one is going to blow their on-time stats all to pieces:


Flight Leaves 43 Hours Behind Schedule
September 24, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS - A Northwest Airlines flight to Tokyo finally took off Saturday morning - 43 hours late. Mechanical problems and a lack of a crew had kept the Boeing 747-400 on the ground since its scheduled departure time of 3 p.m. Thursday.

The delay was not caused by the airline's mechanics' strike, which began Aug. 20, Northwest spokeswoman Jennifer Bagdade said. "Northwest experienced mechanical issues prior to the strike and we continue to experience them today. So this isn't new," she said. Passengers were kept on the plane for a total of nine hours over a 24-hour period, said airline spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.

Bagdade said Northwest tried to rebook all the passengers on other flights, but many of those flights were full. When the plane finally left on the more than 12-hour-long flight, it carried about 100 fewer passengers than its original 365.

Northwest apologized to the passengers and will pay for two nights' worth of food and lodging and plans to give them $700 in travel certificates. "It's certainly an unfortunate delay," Ebenhoch said. "We regret the inconvenience; we apologize. We work hard to avoid this. It happens to other airlines as well."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Sep 05 - 01:57 PM

Israeli couple fined for kissing in India
September 21, 2005 link

NEW DELHI --India may be the land of the Kamasutra, the famed ancient treatise on sex, but in the country's hinterlands, public displays of affection remain strictly taboo.

An Israeli couple discovered just how staid the small towns of India can be when they were fined 500 Indian rupees (U.S. $11) each for embracing and kissing after getting married in the Hindu holy town of Pushkar in northwestern India, the Asian Age newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Israeli Embassy in New Delhi confirmed the incident and identified the couple as Alon Orpaz and Tehila Salev, who decided to get married on a visit to India. The embassy did not provide any additional details.

The Asian Age said priests at Pushkar's Brahma temple were so incensed when the couple, married in a traditional Hindu ceremony, smooched as hymns were still being chanted that they filed a complaint with the police.

A court in Pushkar then charged the couple with indecency and ordered them to pay the fine or face 10 days in prison, the newspaper reported, adding that the couple decided to pay up.

"We will not tolerate any cultural pollution of this sort," the newspaper quoted a priest, Ladoo Ram Sharma, as saying.

Asian Age reported that the priests planned to ask the government to require tourists to be appropriately dressed when visiting the holy town and its temples

Pushkar, located on the banks of Pushkar Lake, is a popular Hindu pilgrimage spot. But it is also frequented by foreign tourists, who come for the town's annual cattle fair and camel races.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 11:14 AM

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Machias Elementary School students find a loaded handgun during recess
Friends earn high praise for their quick thinking

By Melissa Slager and Diana Hefley, Herald Writers
link

MACHIAS - A new playground at Machias Elementary School was swarming with children Monday morning, their first chance to try out the brightly colored new jungle gym. Grayson Pope, 8, was sick of waiting. So he turned instead to an old standby and one of his favorites - a big metal swing set. As he soared higher and higher, the third-grader glanced down and saw something surprising. He turned to a friend. "Hey! There's a gun in the wood chips. We should go tell a teacher."

School staff, parents and police officers are praising Grayson and schoolmate Khoa Nguyen, 9, a fourth-grader, for doing the right thing - leaving the loaded gun they found untouched and immediately telling their teacher. Police say the incident could have taken a turn for the worse if one of the boys had picked up the gun. The .32-caliber pistol doesn't have an external safety, and there was a bullet in the chamber.

"If he would have picked it up and treated it like a toy, it could have been awful," said Snohomish County Sheriff's Office spokesman Rich Niebusch. "The (boys) did the right thing and should be highly commended."

Each year, about 25 children are hospitalized due to unintentional gun injuries, according to Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. Four to five children are killed in accidental shootings every year in Washington state.

Investigators don't know how the handgun ended up on the playground, Niebusch said. It doesn't appear that a student brought the gun to school. The sheriff's office didn't have any reports of shots fired in the area. Detectives are trying to track down the gun's owner using the serial number, Niebusch said. The person may be difficult to find unless the gun was purchased from a licensed dealer and is registered in a statewide database.

Both boys said they were "scared and nervous" about the discovery. "Why was it even there, and who did it?" Grayson asked.

Khoa wondered if someone from a nearby gun range "came over to play and dropped it." Either that, he said, "or it was a bad guy running and it slipped out of his pocket." Neither boy had seen a firearm up close before, but both have learned from their parents and in school assemblies and classes what to do if they came across a weapon. "They're really dangerous," Grayson said.

Francis and Alison Pope are proud of their son. "So many of these you're hearing, unfortunately, because someone got hurt," Francis Pope said. "It's kind of nice to know they're actually listening when you're talking to them."

Pope said their eldest son told him he probably would have picked the gun up, so it was a good lesson for him, too. "Grayson's my brother, and I'm proud of him," said Garrett, 11, a fifth grader at the school. The Popes took Grayson out to dinner, and the boy's soccer coach, a firefighter, gave him rolls of Lifesavers candies, telling him he had saved lives by his actions.

Khoa said his parents, Larry and Lynh Dicken, told him they were proud and let him have a sleepover that night. Principal Ginny Schilaty said custodians each morning scour the playground and adjacent fields for "stuff you don't want kids to see," such as beer bottles left by weekend revelers. Staff did not see the gun during their sweeps, she said.

The boys found the gun during the third- and fourth-grade recess at 10:15 a.m. More than 120 children were outside at the time. The recess came after two previous playtimes with about 200 younger students. The principal said she was grateful the new play equipment dominated students' attention, as well as brought out more adult supervisors than usual.

The school sent a letter about the incident home with students on Monday. When the principal on Monday led Grayson over to a sheriff's deputy to make a statement, she said the boy worried that he was in trouble. "No, honey," Schilaty told him. "You're a hero."

Keep your child safe

Parents are advised to take the following steps to protect their children from guns:

* Always lock up firearms when they are not being used. Don't assume your child will not find the gun.

* Always assume that any firearm is loaded.

* Use a locking device appropriate for the children living in your house. Do not depend on it as a sole safety measure.

* Never point a firearm at anyone, even in fun or as a joke.

* Teach your children that if they see a gun, they should not touch it and should immediately leave the area and tell an adult. Teach them that guns are not toys and that if a friend wants to show them a gun, they should immediately leave the area and tell an adult.

* Do not assume that other adults think the same way you do. Before letting your child play at someone's house, ask if there are firearms in the home and where they are.

Source: Safer Child

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 05:32 PM

You could say "use it or lose it" here also: these things are like snowmobiles, a real menace in the way they are operated by people who have no business charging around without some safety instruction first:

link

Watercraft worries climb
Inexperience often behind injuries, deaths on water

By Cathy Logg, Herald Writer

Peri-Lyn Johnson of Snohomish was driving her boat on Flowing Lake Aug. 13 when a boy flagged her down. The boy, 13, and a woman, both on Jet Ski-type watercraft, had collided. The boy was not injured, but the woman was facedown in the water. Johnson directed Snohomish High School students Josh Foust, 16, and Jon Richter, 15, to jump from her boat and rescue the unconscious woman. The boys and Johnson got her into the boat and rushed toward shore.

"She had an enormous gash over her eye," Johnson recalled. "Her shoulder was also dislocated." Johnson's husband, Mark, began administering first aid. The accident victim, Rebecca Oropeza, 48, of Lynnwood has been at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle since the accident. "Her life will never be the same," Johnson said. Oropeza was one of three Snohomish County residents seriously injured or killed in recent personal watercraft accidents.

Edward Ferguson, 45, of Everett died about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 14 when he struck an overhanging limb in darkness on the Snohomish River. His funeral was Aug. 19. And a 10-year-old Mukilteo girl lost her arm in an accident on Lake Goodwin.

According to state records, there about 26,000 personal watercraft licensed in the state in 2004, representing about 10 percent of all recreational boats. "That's just the ones that have registered," said Mark Kenny, coordinator of the state Parks and Recreation Commission's marine law enforcement unit. "Personal watercraft appeal to a wide number of people, not just young people who cowboy around," he added.

Considered the motorcycles of the waterways, personal watercraft are fast and fun, but too often are seen as water toys instead of motorized vessels that can cause serious injury and death. They're the only watercraft whose operators are required to be at least 14 years old in Washington state, but many underage youths, including two in the recent accidents, drive them anyway.

Between 1996 and 2002, all but two of those younger than 14 involved in boating accidents statewide were aboard personal watercraft, parks records say. During that period, the most common marine accident involved a personal watercraft or open motorboat shorter than 21 feet.

Authorities say that as state waters become more crowded with such watercraft, it's critical for their operators to know the vessels and their characteristics, as well as boating regulations, and to follow them.

Jet Skis and similar watercraft have grown in popularity because they are less expensive than conventional boats and are more versatile. While early models in the mid- to late-1980s were noisy and made for single riders, newer models are up to 12 feet long, can carry four people, have quieter engines and don't pollute. But they're technically a boat, and all state and federal boating regulations apply to them.

"Because people tend to view them as water toys and not as boats, they just go play with them and don't take the time to familiarize themselves with the machines and the characteristics," Snohomish County sheriff's Lt. Rodney Rochon said.

On Aug. 14, three middle school students were aboard a personal watercraft on Lake Goodwin near Lakewood, with a 13-year-old driving. A 10-year-old Mukilteo girl fell off, and her arm tangled in a rope used to pull skiers or inner tubes. The rope tightened and severed the girl's arm at the elbow. She is recovering and has subsequently been released from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Her name has not been released under federal privacy laws.

In the Flowing Lake crash, Oropeza's niece, Angela Smith, was on duty at the north county emergency dispatch center when she learned that Oropeza had been injured. Smith heard the dispatch for an airlift helicopter. "It was really awful, knowing how a lot of these calls end," Smith said. "An airlift isn't a good thing." Oropeza suffered broken ribs, a broken back, a fractured skull, internal bleeding and several ruptured or lacerated organs. Originally listed in critical condition, she is now in satisfactory condition. She is unable to breathe on her own, family members said. She's sedated and confused, so her family doesn't know what she remembers of the accident. "This is so strange. You're just out there having fun, and boom," said her sister, Kathy Scott of Oroville.

"Personal watercraft are boats; they're very powerful and very fast," Rochon said. "Because of their handling characteristics, you can get into trouble very easily and very quickly."

Even officers aren't immune to accidents. About 10 years ago, Lake Stevens police Sgt. Ron Brooks was on patrol on a personal watercraft. Another boater who was traveling too fast struck Brooks' craft, cracking its hull and knocking him into the water, Chief Randy Celori said. Brooks suffered broken ribs and missed several months of work. Rochon said the woman in that accident had only had her watercraft for a couple of hours, hadn't bothered to read the instruction manual and thought she'd be fine because she'd ridden one before.

Some riders get into trouble while being playful or because they don't know the "rules of the road" on the water. Many personal watercraft riders like to get close to boats to use their wakes for jumping, Celori said. "That's very dangerous, especially when the water is heavily populated with other boats," he said. "On a warm summer day, you'll have in excess of maybe 100 vessels" on Lake Stevens.

People also are unaware of how fast personal watercraft can go and may not realize that not all life jackets are rated for 60 to 70 mph, Celori said. At high speeds, some life jackets can be torn off as boaters hit the water. Many riders also aren't aware they can lose control of a watercraft when the throttle is released. "You reduce throttle and power out of a problem. If you completely cut the power, you have no forward thrust and no steerage," Kenny said.

"Experience is a great teacher in this. All too often, we see these accidents are the result of inexperienced operators riding a personal watercraft and not recognizing this until it's too late." People who think they're experienced because they've handled other boats don't necessarily know how to operate a personal watercraft, Rochon said.

Similarly, they may have operated boats after dark but aren't safe operating personal watercraft at night. "We were investigating the case on Lake Goodwin, and it was dark, and we still saw personal watercraft heading across the lake," Rochon said.

Another problem is operating them in hazardous areas. In Ferguson's nighttime accident, Everett police initially thought he had struck a submerged object in the water, Lt. Ted Olafson said. "There's quite a number of logs and debris and things in the water and floating down the river," he said.

Steps are being taken to improve the safety of personal watercraft. In its last session, the state Legislature mandated boating safety education for those 20 and younger beginning Jan. 1, 2008.

"We're using the time between now and the implementation of that law as a kind of grace period, but when that law goes into effect, there's going to be no excuse. They will be cited," Rochon said. He added that marine officers hand out pamphlets, and regulations are posted, but people don't read them. "We have the regulations to prevent a lot of problems already in place," Rochon said. "It's just that people have to abide by them."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Aug 05 - 07:47 PM

Use it or lose it!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 05 - 05:25 PM

Idle brain invites dementia
Researchers say daydreaming may cause changes that lead to the onset of Alzheimer's disease

link

Scientists have scanned the brains of young people when they are doing, well, nothing, and they found that a region active during this daydreaming state is the one hard-hit by the scourge of old age: Alzheimer's.

"We never expected to see this," said Randy L. Buckner, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Washington University in St. Louis. He said he suspects these activity patterns may, over decades of daily use, wear down the brain, sparking a chemical cascade that results in the disease's classic deposits and tangles that damage the brain.

The regions identified are active when people daydream or think to themselves, Buckner said. When these regions are damaged, an older person may not be able to access the thoughts to follow through on an action, or even make sense of a string of thoughts. The study appears this week in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The scientists used a variety of brain-scanning devices in more than 760 adults of all ages. Usually, scanning is done when volunteers carry out a particular mental task, such as remembering a list of words. This time, they were scanned without anything to do.

What emerged on the images was what Buckner and his colleagues call the brain's "default" state. The brain remains in this state when it's not concentrating on a task like reading or talking. It's the place where the mind wanders. This default region lines up perfectly with the regions that are initially damaged in Alzheimer's.

"It may be the normal cognitive function of the brain that leads to Alzheimer's later in life," Buckner said. He suspects the brain's metabolic activity slows over time in this region, making it vulnerable to mind-robbing symptoms.

The scientists say this finding could prove useful diagnostically - a way to identify the disease early, even before symptoms appear.

"You have to get to this pathology before it has its biggest effect," said William Klunk, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and a co-investigator in the current study. Klunk developed an imaging tool that tracks amyloid plaque deposited in the brains of living Alzheimer's patients.

The next step will be to see whether the sticky amyloid-filled plaques are dependent on the brain's metabolism. If so, there could be novel ways to attack the disease.

The latest thinking among Alzheimer's scientists is that the underpinnings of the disease may be decades in the making. About a decade ago, David Snowdon of the University of Kentucky Medical Center published what has become a classic study of health and aging. He followed 678 nuns, ranging in age from 75 to 107, and analyzed journal entries and essays written when they joined the order as young women. He identified an association between the writing and the risk for Alzheimer's far into the future. The richer the detail in the essays, the less likely the writers were to develop Alzheimer's.

Others have confirmed these findings, including a study by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers. They recently published a study using high school records from the 1940s to identify nearly 400 graduates. They tracked their health status through adulthood into old age. A higher IQ in high school reduced the risk of Alzheimer's by about half.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 04:03 PM

DUmber than a wagon-load of creek rocks, I reckon, to use my pasl Bobert's expression.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 03:49 PM

Well, duh. . . how do you suppose anyone can tell THIS is a scam? I'd think that anyone stupid enough to follow those directions should be arrested for being too idiotic to walk around free in public. . .


Con Artists Using Forged Arkansas Checks
August 15, 2005

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A check scam operation is sending job seekers forged checks from the state of Arkansas and asking them to wire the money overseas, state officials said Monday.

Some checks were successfully cashed, but state officials did not say how much money was involved. The checks are not honored when they reach Arkansas, and the state has not lost any money in the scam, state Treasurer Gus Wingfield said.

Reports of the forged checks have come in from 18 other states, officials said.

"These scam artists are using Arkansas' name to commit their crime," Attorney General Mike Beebe said. "Our state agencies will continue to investigate and trace these checks to put a stop to this activity."

The con artists are targeting job hunters posting resumes online. Job seekers are "hired" by a company calling itself Void Computers Inc., and are then asked to help the company cash checks worth $5,200 from Arkansas, which it says is one of its clients.

Checks were mailed from Turkey with instructions to cash the checks and wire the money to an address in Latvia, minus a 10 percent fee the consumer may keep. Applicants are urged to avoid banks, and instead go to a check-casher, liquor store or similar business.

No arrests were announced, but Beebe said his investigators have consulted with the U.S. Postal Inspectors Office and the FBI.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 10:39 AM

Here's a little something about life along the river that is my Mudcat namesake:
story link and photo link.

Festival attendance surges Life with the Stilly
Powwow packs in crowds at Stillaguamish Tribe's Festival of the River
By Bill Sheets, Herald Writer

Dancers are coming from all over the western United States. And some of the spectators are from other parts of the world. "I've never seen such a thing," said Vildan Islam of Anacortes, and a native of Turkey, of the 16th annual Festival of the River at River Meadows County Park east of Arlington on Sunday. Islam lived in New York for 17 years until moving to the Northwest recently. "For me it's very interesting," she said while watching the American Indian dancers at the festival's powwow.

An American Indian dancer performs during the traditional grand entrance of the dancers Sunday at the Stillaguamish Tribe's 16th annual Festival of the River at River Meadows County Park outside of Arlington. The Stillaguamish Tribe's event, which started as a way to promote education about the condition of the Stillaguamish River, has grown into a diverse, two-day event with live music, traditional dancing and drumming, a logging show and competition, storytellers, puppeteers, a birds-of-prey display, food and arts and crafts.

Final numbers weren't available Sunday, but attendance at the alcohol-free festival has reached an all-time high, organizers said. "This is bigger than we've ever had," said tribal member Mikki Swimmer, a powwow organizer. Another boost to the festival the past two years could be the absence of the Love Israel family's Garlic Festival, which was held nearby. The festival, last held two years ago, folded after bankruptcy forced the family to give up its land. "I think in the end it probably does have an effect," said Eddie Goodridge Jr., the tribe's executive director, adding that some attending the festival in the past went to both events in the same day.

At the Festival of the River, the live music packs 'em in and is probably the event's biggest draw, Goodridge said. But the powwow is catching up. "The attendance at the powwow's gone way up, it's a huge draw," Goodridge said. Some festival visitors said Sunday they enjoyed the variety at the event. But most said they were there to see the dancers, who dress in full regalia. "We're totally in awe," said Miki Durand of Mukilteo. She and her husband attended the festival for the first time after a friend told her about it.

"I like to see the Indian dancing and pretty costumes," said Louise Vienneau of Mount Vernon, also at the event for the first time. She brought a group of exchange students from Japan to the festival, she said.

About 200 American Indian dancers came in different types of regalia, all of it colorful. Some is a modernized style for "fancy dancing," as it's called, while other dress was from different traditions of the Plains, Southwest and Northwest coastal tribes, Swimmer said. Some of the young Stillaguamish dancers are learning the tribe's own traditional dances, which had nearly been lost, she said. "You get a chance to see some of the traditional native culture blended together with the modern way," said Gene Wiggins of Everett, who with his wife, Jessie, has attended the festival for several years. "The sense of community here, the closeness, I enjoy and appreciate (it)," he said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:23 AM

How sad. The best of luck to her in getting through this.

Christopher Reeve's widow announces she has lung cancer
AP--Posted on Tue, Aug. 09, 2005

NEW YORK -- Dana Reeve, who spent nine years caring for her paralyzed husband, Christopher Reeve, until his death last year, announced Tuesday that she has lung cancer.

Reeve, 44, said she decided to disclose her illness following rumors about her health in the media.

"I have recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, and am currently undergoing treatment," Reeve said in a statement. "I have an excellent team of physicians, and we are optimistic about my prognosis."

"Now, more than ever, I feel Chris with me as I face this challenge," she said. "As always, I look to him as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope in the face of life's adversities."

Reeve, who starred in the Superman films, was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995. He died Oct. 10, 2004.

Dana Reeve, an actress, was a constant companion and supporter of her husband during his long ordeal and his work for a cure for spinal cord injuries.

She is chairwoman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which funds research on paralysis. To date, it has awarded $55 million in research grants and $7.5 million in quality of life grants.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Aug 05 - 11:38 PM

Another link and a lot more detail.

Marilyn from beyond the grave
Did Hollywood's greatest female star really take her own life? Newly released transcripts of her final messages to a psychiatrist will only fuel the conspiracy theories. David Usborne reports
Published: 06 August 2005

Some mysteries never die even if they are meant never to be resolved. The death of Marilyn Monroe, found naked with her face down on her bed in her Los Angeles home 43 years ago yesterday, is one of those: was it really suicide, or something different? Only Marilyn herself could clear this one up.

But no one gets to speak from the grave, not even the biggest of all big Hollywood stars. Except that Marilyn has - sort of. Listen and you might be surprised and not just by the tittle-tattle about her faked orgasms, her enemas or her love-hate respect for Laurence Olivier. She talks like a person possessed but about the future, not by thoughts of death. She wants to love more, to act Shakespeare. (It is her plan to play Juliet and have sexual intercourse on stage with Romeo.) She is also plotting to fire her housekeeper.

It may be, in fact, that the entire mythology surrounding an actress who for the 15-year span of her film-making career stopped the hearts of men the world over - from ordinary cinema-goers to, it is said, a sitting American president - may be about to be re-written all because of a transcript of a tape she allegedly made very shortly before her death. A tape she handed over to her psychiatrist.

Responsible for causing this sudden upheaval in Monroe lore is John Miner, a former Los Angeles prosecutor who for some time has been telling researchers of the tape and of the written transcript he apparently made of it. Some authors have included some references to the transcript's contents in their works. But never before has anyone taken it seriously enough to broadcast it fully to the public.

But that changed yesterday when The Los Angeles Times, apparently confident enough in the credibility of Mr Miner, splashed the story on its front page to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of her passing. The significance of the lengthy text seems unmistakable: that she was not thinking about death at the time. Implication: her death was either accidental or prompted by a third party.

Mr Miner was in the District Attorney's office in Los Angeles at the time of her death - she was just 36 - and participated in her autopsy. It was during the investigation that he interviewed the psychiatrist, Dr Ralph Greenson, who revealed the existence of the tape, saying it was a gift from Ms Monroe just a few days before she died. He did not give the tapes to Mr Miner. He did allow him, however, to listen to them and take extensive notes - thence the transcripts that now come to light for all to read.

"There was no possible way this woman could have killed herself," Mr Miner argues. "She had very specific plans for her future. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. She was told by [acting coach] Lee Strasberg, maybe ill-advisedly, that she had Shakespeare in her and she was fascinated with the idea."

Arguments will break out over the reliability of Mr Miner, now 86, and, indeed, of the decision by The Los Angeles Times to run with his claims. His intention, it seems, is to persuade his successors in the DA's office once more to re-open the investigation into the actress's death. (Her body was found with a fatal overdose of the barbiturate Nembutal.) A brief stab at re-opening the affair was made in 1982. The DA's office said then that there remained "factual discrepancies" and "unanswered questions" in the case, but declined to open a criminal investigation.

Leave aside whether she killed herself, bungled her pill taking or was actually murdered. This text of personal musings (or, as she called them, " mental meanderings") on its own isn't going to put an end to the matter. But they do make a good read, especially if you are not already a Monroe fanatic. This reader didn't know she had been sleeping with Senator Robert Kennedy or that sex between her and Arthur Miller had been so lousy.

At the very end of the tape, she frets that Bobby Kennedy is in love with her and says she had thought about asking John F Kennedy, the President, to let him down gently. She decides against it, because "he is too important to ask". She goes on: "I think what happened to Bobby is that he has stopped having good sex with his wife for some time ... Well when he starts having sex with the body all men want, his Catholic morality has to find a way to justify cheating on his wife. So love becomes his excuse."

As ever, the currents of the actress's life were hardly smooth at the time. She had not long before been fired by the Fox studios, where she had been on contract to make Something's Got to Give. Fox had let her go for chronic lateness and drug dependency. And there was the hangover from two failed marriages, to Miller, the playwright, and to the baseball great, Joe DiMaggio. But if Ms Monroe was depressed at all, it apparently had nothing to do with her enduring ability to attract men. Though gravity was beginning to show, she was apparently still more or less satisfied with her extremely popular figure.

"I stood naked in front of my full-length mirrors for a long time yesterday. I was all made up with my hair done," she tells Dr Greenson. "What did I see? My breasts are a beginning to sag a bit. My waist isn't bad. My ass is what it should be, the bester there is. Legs, knees and ankles still shapely. And my feet are not too big. OK, Marilyn, you have it all there."

The purpose of making the tape appears to be to express gratitude to Dr Greenson, who died in 1979 and who has since been named by some biographers as a possible suspect in her death. She repeatedly credits him with helping her overcome neuroses, suggesting at one moment that she would love to become his daughter. (She expresses a similar fantasy over Clark Gable, recalling a dream where she is sitting on his knee.) Apparently, it was the doctor's success in giving her the ability to enjoy sex that she celebrates the most, however.

"What I told you is true when I first became your patient. I had never had an orgasm. I well remember you said an orgasm happens in the mind, not the genitals ..." The actress reminds the doctor of how he also instructed her on how best to stimulate herself. She recalled him telling her "when I did exactly what you told me to do I would have an orgasm ... What a difference a word makes. You said I would, not I could. Bless you Doctor. What you say is gospel to me.

"By now I've had lots of orgasms. Not only one, but two and three with a man who takes his time. I never cried so hard as I did after my first orgasm."

There are also passages that briefly dissect the failed marriages. Though she was Joe DiMaggio's wife for only nine months, in 1954, she makes clear her enduring affection for him. She admits, however, that she erred in marrying Miller. "Marrying him was my mistake, not his. He couldn't give me the attention, warmth and affection I need. It's not his nature. Arthur never credited me with much intelligence. He couldn't share his intellectual life with me. As bed partners, we were so-so. He was not that much interested; me faking with exceptional performances to get him more interested. You know I think his little Jewish father had more genuine affection for me than Arthur did."

Sex is part of what defined the public image of Monroe. No one will be much surprised that it weaves its way through so much of the transcript. Some may rock back, however, at the passages about sex with Joan Crawford.

"Oh yes, Crawford ... We went to Joan's bedroom ... Crawford had a gigantic orgasm and shrieked like a maniac ... Next time I saw Crawford she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn't much enjoy doing it with a woman. After I turned her down, she became spiteful." Other items not to be forgotten: that while Monroe liked an occasional enema, Mae West depended on them. "She is given an enema every day and she has at least one orgasm a day ... Mae says her enemas and orgasms will keep her young until she is 100."

Slightly more serious in tone, though arguably no less startling, is Monroe's apparent determination to change gear professionally, and take on Shakespeare on film. Maybe this had to do with Monroe's belief that, after 30 films and one Golden Globe Award, for Some Like it Hot, the critics were still not taking her seriously. The plan, she says, is eventually to " produce and act in the Marilyn Monroe Shakespeare Film Festival". She says she will dedicate a whole year to studying Shakespearean acting with Lee Strasberg and then will go to Olivier for additional help that he once promised her.

Monroe and Olivier had been in the film The Prince and the Showgirl. Her feelings for him seem a bit mixed. "The Prince was real ... He was superficial - no, that's not the word - supercilious, arrogant, a snob, conceited. Maybe a little bit anti-Semitic in the sense of some of my best friends are Jews. But, damn him, a great, great actor. She recalls a party where Olivier regales the guests with the Bard for two straight hours. " I sat and cried with joy for being so privileged," she says.

What you read in the supermarket queue may be gripping but is rarely believable. The Monroe transcripts may seem to fall in that category. But it is not just The Los Angeles Times that takes them seriously. Parts of the text were also used by the British author Matthew Smith for his book Marilyn's Last Words: Her Secret Tapes and Mysterious Death. He remains convinced Mr Miner is credible. "I believe he is a man of integrity. I've looked at the contents of the tapes, of course, and, frankly, I would think it entirely impossible for John Miner to have invented what he put forward - absolutely impossible."

Similarly convinced is James Bacon, 91, a former columnist who saw Monroe shortly before she died. She was drinking vodka and champagne and popping pills. But Mr Bacon, who took part in a symposium last night in Los Angeles dedicated to exploring alternatives to the suicide theory, insisted: " She wasn't the least bit depressed. She was talking about going to Mexico. She had a Mexican boyfriend at the time. I forget his name. This was the first house she ever owned. She was going to buy some furniture. She was in very good spirits that day. Of course, the champagne and vodka helped."

You are the only person I have never lied to

Dear Doctor, you have given me everything. Because of you I can now feel what I never felt before ...

Isn't it true that the key to analysis is free association. Marilyn Monroe associates. You, my doctor, by understanding and interpretation of what goes on in my mind get to my unconscious, which makes it possible for you to treat my neuroses and for me to overcome them.

You are the only person in the world I have never told a lie to and never will ...

Oh yes, dreams. I know they are important. But you want me to free associate about the dream elements. I have the same blanking out. More resistance for you and Dr Freud to complain about.

I read his "Introductory Lectures", God, what a genius. He makes it so understandable. And he is so right. Didn't he say himself that Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky had a better understanding of psychology than all the scientists put together. Damn it, they do.

You told me to read Molly Bloom's mental meanderings (I can use words, can't I) to get a feeling for free association. It was when I did that I got my great idea.

As I read it something bothered me. Here is Joyce writing what a woman thinks to herself . Can he, does he really know her innermost thoughts. But after I read the whole book, I could better understand that Joyce is an artist who could penetrate the souls of people, male or female. It really doesn't matter that Joyce doesn't have ... or never felt a menstrual cramp. Wait a minute. As you must have guessed I am free associating and you are going to hear a lot of bad language. Because of my respect for you, I've never been able to say the words I'm really thinking when we are in session. But now I am going to say whatever I think, no matter what it is.

While reading Molly's blathering, the IDEA came to me. Get a tape recorder. Put a tape in. Turn it on. Say whatever you are thinking like I am doing now. It's really easy. I'm lying on my bed wearing only a brassiere. If I want to go to the refrig or the bathroom, push the stop button and begin again when I want to.

And I just free associate. No problem. You get the idea, don't you? Patient can't do it in Doctor's office. Patient is at home with tape recorder ...

Well, that's something for you to sleep on, Doctor.

Good Night.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 06 Aug 05 - 03:47 PM

Holy Moly!! My one true love has now spilled her guts tot he world. Dang!! I need to think about this...


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Aug 05 - 03:15 PM

Monroe sex secrets
By MICHELLE CARUSO link (I don't think it is a durable link)

LOS ANGELES - In private tapes for her psychiatrist, screen goddess Marilyn Monroe never hinted she romanced JFK, but she bemoaned her lack of "courage" to break off an affair with his married brother Bobby, a bombshell report says.

**

Monroe also revealed a one-night-fling with actress Joan Crawford and her undying love for her ex Joe DiMaggio, but she griped about the "so-so" sex with former hubby playwright Arthur Miller, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

On the 43rd anniversary of Monroe's death, former L.A. County prosecutor John Miner gave the newspaper never-before-published transcripts of tape recordings the actress reportedly made for Dr. Ralph Greenson shortly before she died.

Greenson reportedly destroyed the actual tapes before his own death, but Miner says he took detailed notes when the psychiatrist played them for him during a probe of Monroe's drug-overdose death in 1962.

Miner, now 86, released the transcripts because he doesn't think the star of "Some Like It Hot" and "The Misfits" took her own life and he believes the therapy tapes prove she was happy and looking forward to the future, the newspaper said. Miner did not return phone calls yesterday.

Far from the desperate woman on the brink of self-destruction often portrayed in media accounts, the 36-year-old Monroe was upbeat, the transcripts show. She credited the shrink with curing her

sexual dysfunction and frankly discussed her husbands, lovers and friends, including DiMaggio, former President John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra.

In her own words (she sometimes referred to herself in the third-person), here's what Monroe had to say, according to the transcripts:

On JFK: "Marilyn Monroe is a soldier. Her commander in chief is the greatest and most powerful man in the world. The first duty of a soldier is to obey her commander. He says 'Do this.' You do this. . . . This man is going to change our country."
Despite years of rumors, and her breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at his Madison Square Garden bash, Monroe didn't confess to a fling.

On Robert F. Kennedy: "As you see, there is no room in my life for him. I guess I don't have the courage to face up to it and hurt him. I want someone else to tell him it's over. I tried to get the President to do it, but I couldn't reach him."
Some past accounts have claimed Monroe was madly in love with RFK and was badgering him with phone calls right up to the bitter end.

On a one-night fling with Crawford: "Next time I saw Crawford, she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn't much enjoy doing it with a woman. After I turned her down, she became spiteful."

On baseball great DiMaggio: "Joe D. loves Marilyn Monroe and always will. I love him and I always will. But Joe could not stay married to Marilyn Monroe, the famous film star. Joe has an image in his stubborn Italian head of a traditional Italian wife. . . . Doctor, you know that's not me . . . . Anytime I need him, Joe is there. I couldn't have a better friend." The ex-Yankee slugger sent roses to Monroe's Westwood, Calif., grave for decades after she died.

On Sinatra: "What a wonderful friend he is to me. I love Frank and he loves me. It is not the marrying kind of love. It is better because marriage can't destroy it."

On Miller: "Marrying him was my mistake, not his. He couldn't give me the attention, warmth and affection I need. It's not in his nature. Arthur never credited me with much intelligence. . . . As bed partners we were so-so. He was not that much interested."

On how Dr. Greenson taught her to achieve orgasm: "You said there was an obstacle in my mind that prevented me from having an orgasm . . . . Bless you, doctor. By now I've had lots of orgasms. Not only one, but two and three with a man who takes his time."

Originally published on August 5, 2005

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jul 05 - 12:18 PM

Hiker Survives Five Days in Lava Field
July 24, 2005

WAIMEA, Hawaii - A hiker lost for five days in a lava field near a volcano says he survived by drinking water he squeezed from moss in a mostly barren landscape. Gilbert Dewey Gaedcke III, 41, was rescued Friday afternoon after a teenager on a helicopter tour spotted him stumbling across the rocky lava, trying to attract attention with a mirror from his camera. Gaedcke had been missing since Sunday night, when he decided to take a hike across desolate lava fields near Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to get a closer look at an active volcano. The experienced hiker from Austin, Texas, said he saw no water, but there were pockets of jungle-like vegetation sprinkled throughout the old lava flow.

Gaedcke said he crawled beneath the vines and lick moisture off leaves. Then he found moss growing on trees, and was able to squeeze enough water from it to drink. "It was muddy, green, mossy water, but it worked," he said Saturday. "If I hadn't found that I'd be dead right now," he said.

Gaedcke said tour helicopters had flown overhead all week, but he was unable to attract attention because clouds blocked the sun. Then, late Friday afternoon, another one flew over. Aboard was 15-year-old Peter Frank, who spotted the odd glint in the late afternoon sunlight. "It was the only thing like that out there," said Frank, of Pasadena, Calif. "As we got closer we realized it was a man."

Gaedcke, dehydrated, but otherwise OK after surviving five days in the heat, was lost amid acres of blackened volcanic rock. "I wound up on some of the most vicious terrain I've ever seen," he said as he rested at a friend's home before flying home. "It's all gray rock - terrible stuff - then vegetation like an oasis, then more gray rock." Gaedcke's rented car had been found days earlier at the end of a road near an old lava flow bordering the east side of the 333,000-acre national park. Police had few leads to follow.

Fire crews and rangers from the park searched for days on foot and on horseback. Helicopters buzzed the area, but there was no sign of Gaedcke.

Then, Frank spotted what looked like a toy pinwheel glinting in the sunlight. His mother, Diann Kim, said her son asked Blue Hawaiian Helicopters pilot Cliff Muzzi to get a closer look. "As we got closer you could see the man flashing a mirror and waving a dark orange fabric," she said. "As he was coming down the path, clearly he couldn't move that well." Kim's daughter, Hannah, and a friend wrapped bottles of water in airsickness bags to drop to the distressed hiker. "It was so amazing," Kim said. "To see a person out there was like seeing a person on the face of the moon.

After returning his passengers to Hilo International Airport, Muzzi headed back to retrieve Gaedcke, then whisked him back to the airport about 17 miles to the northeast. Medical crews were waiting to take him to Hilo Medical Center.

Gaedcke said he saw the bright glow of the lava and then turned to go back to his car, but missed it as he walked in the dark. He hiked inland, expecting to intersect with the road, but by morning, he was lost. "My feet feel like I had a 30-day adventure," he said. "And if it weren't for my feet, I'd be dancing a jig right now."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:07 AM

SRS, somewhere back up there, told us:

It means that because these laws are poorly crafted and tie the hands of judges regarding things like "three strikes," a lot of people who have minor infractions end up with life sentences without parole. So the judges who made this idiotic decision have done an injustice to their colleagues in the field, to say nothing of the victims of this worm they released.

There is in the law a maxim that "Bad law makes hard cases, and hard cases make bad law."

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:49 AM

Rose, The actual and official LAPD response was
"We did not have a choice."

NOT "we do not negotiate with terrorists."

Subject: RE: BS: I heard it on NPR
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:43 AM

While recently serving as a judge in Washington DC the current Supreme Court nominee Roberts upheld the arrest of a little girl who was placed in handcuffs and removed to jail in a windowless van for eating 4 french fries while on a subway train.

His comment was "No one is happy with this situation but the law is the law."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 05 - 06:07 PM

States Trying to Blunt Property Ruling
July 19, 2005

CHICAGO - Alarmed by the prospect of local governments seizing homes and turning the property over to developers, lawmakers in at least half the states are rushing to blunt last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding the power of eminent domain. In Texas and California, legislators have proposed constitutional amendments to bar government from taking private property for economic development. Politicians in Alabama, South Dakota and Virginia likewise hope to curtail government's ability to condemn land. Even in states like Illinois - one of at least eight that already forbid eminent domain for economic development unless the purpose is to eliminate blight - lawmakers are proposing to make it even tougher to use the procedure.

"People I've never heard from before came out of the woodwork and were just so agitated," said Illinois state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Democrat. "People feel that it's a threat to their personal property, and that has hit a chord."

The Institute for Justice, which represented homeowners in the Connecticut case that was decided by the Supreme Court, said at least 25 states are considering changes to eminent domain laws.

The Constitution says governments cannot take private property for public use without "just compensation." Governments have traditionally used their eminent domain authority to build roads, reservoirs and other public projects. But for decades, the court has been expanding the definition of public use, allowing cities to employ eminent domain to eliminate blight.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that New London, Conn., had the authority to take homes for a private development project. But in its ruling, the court noted that states are free to ban that practice - an invitation lawmakers are accepting in response to a flood of e-mails, phone calls and letters from anxious constituents. "The Supreme Court's decision told homeowners and business owners everywhere that there's now a big `Up for Grabs' sign on their front lawn," said Dana Berliner, an attorney with the Institute for Justice. "Before this, people just didn't realize that they could lose their home or their family's business because some other person would pay more taxes on the same land. People are unbelievably upset."

Don Borut, executive director of the National League of Cities, which backed New London in its appeal to the high court, said government's eminent domain power is important for revitalizing neighborhoods. He said any changes to state law should be done after careful reflection. "There's a rush to respond to the emotional impact. Our view is, step back, let's look at the issue in the broadest sense and if there are changes that are reflected upon, that's appropriate," he said.

In Alabama, Republican Gov. Bob Riley is drawing up a bill that would prohibit city and county governments from using eminent domain to take property for retail, office or residential development. It would still allow property to be taken for industrial development, such as new factories, and for roads and schools. In Connecticut, politicians want to slap a moratorium on the use of eminent domain by municipalities until the Legislature can act. One critic of the ruling has suggested local officials take over Supreme Court Justice David Souter's New Hampshire farmhouse and turn it into a hotel. Souter voted with the majority in the Connecticut case.

Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina and Washington already forbid the taking of private property for economic development except to eliminate blight. Other states either expressly allow private property to be taken for private economic purposes or have not spoken clearly on the question.

Illinois state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, a Republican who is considering a run for governor, said the state's blight laws need to be more restrictive. "The statutory definition of blight in Illinois is broader than the Mississippi River at its mouth," he said. "They have taken everything from underdeveloped lakefront property to open green-grass farmfields as being defined as blighted."

Action also is taking place at the federal level, where a proposal would ban the use of federal funds for any project moving forward because of the Supreme Court decision. And the Institute for Justice said it will ask the Supreme Court to rehear the New London case, but acknowledged that the prospects of that happening are dim. "One of the things, I think, that is elemental to American freedom is the right to have and hold private property and not to interfere with that right," Rauschenberger said. "For Americans, it's like the boot on the door. You can't kick in the door and come in my house unless I invite you."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 01:01 AM

Don,

I read that and thought you were pulling a sick trick. Then I heard part of that story today. Geez. My apologies for thinking that you'd come up with a story so disturbing it couldn't possibly be true.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 01:57 PM

Today's story (the way I would have written it for FOX)


An LAPD officer was wounded in the shoulder when a father run amok began firing a pistol while holding his baby daughter. The mother screamed to police to let her husband cool off but cooler heads prevailed and a hail of police gunfire successfully ripped through the baby and killed the gunman.
The mother is taking this rather hard and is now screaming for yet another frivilous investigation. A spokesperson for the police department has reminded the public that they do not negotiate with terrorists. We are currently at a partial code orange.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 10:14 AM

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

From the Chicago Sun Times:

Newsweek: Rove gave Time reporter OK to testify
July 11, 2005

Top presidential adviser Karl Rove was the anonymous source who released a Time reporter from his promise of confidentiality, allowing the journalist to avoid jail, Newsweek says.

In a story published today, Newsweek reveals more details about the celebrated case stemming from the leak of an undercover CIA agent's name in 2003.

The publication of Valerie Plame's name by Chicago Sun-Times syndicated columnist Robert Novak set off an investigation because it's a crime to knowingly identify an undercover CIA official.

Prosecutors trying to find who leaked Plame's name wound up issuing a subpoena to Time reporter Matthew Cooper. He also was working on a story involving Plame in 2003 and wound up facing jail because he wouldn't reveal his secret source.

At the 11th hour last week, Cooper got permission to talk from his source -- identified by Newsweek as Rove.

The magazine said Rove's lawyer confirmed that he gave Cooper the OK to testify before a grand jury.

Newsweek quoted an e-mail from the reporter to his boss that showed Rove had discussed Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, with Cooper.

It was Wilson who went on a CIA-sponsored trip to Africa to learn about Iraq's alleged attempts to buy uranium there.

He subsequently criticized the Bush administration on the Iraq war, a move that critics think led the administration to leak his wife's name as punishment.

Newsweek says that while the e-mail shows that Rove talked to Cooper about the couple, the e-mail doesn't suggest that Rove revealed Plame's name or CIA status.

The Newsweek article quotes Cooper's e-mail as saying, "it was, KR said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jul 05 - 09:47 AM

I agree with the tribal police chief: the complaints are entirely racial, and if people in Washington thought about it, they'd realize they've been lucky for years that the tribe didn't enforce strict laws on the highway. They are probably entitled to, should they choose to. Visit tribal lands in many other states and there are signs telling you you've entered the tribal domain. I think the Tulalip administration should do the same. (Tulalip isn't a tribal name, it represents an amalgam of tribes who reside on this reservation).

Let them get revenue from the speeders, and at the same time, that one act would lower the death rate on this dangerous stretch of road. I'd hazard a guess that speed is the single most significant factor in the many crashes that take place here.

SRS

---

Published: Friday, July 8, 2005

Use of Tulalip police on I-5 prompts complaints

By Diana Hefley and Scott North, Herald Writers

MARYSVILLE - An effort to crack down on speeders along a dangerous stretch of I-5 near Marysville has added fuel to a smoldering dispute between Tulalip tribal police and the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. County officials and Sheriff Rick Bart said they received complaints about Tulalip police officers stopping cars along I-5 over the weekend. They've asked the county prosecutors and the state Attorney General's Office to study whether it was legal.

The tribal officers were part of a multiagency patrol on the freeway between Marysville and Smokey Point coordinated by the Washington State Patrol. That's where the state recently lowered the speed limit from 70 mph to 60 mph in an effort to reduce accidents. "The whole mission is to save lives, and we can't do it alone," State Patrol Capt. Jim Lever said.

Bart said Thursday that he didn't know tribal police were involved, and he was unprepared to answer questions when he began getting complaints.

Tulalip Police Chief Jay Goss said his officers were asked to participate and have the authority to make stops on the freeway where it runs through the reservation.

"I agree with the state's position to lower the speed limit," Goss said. "We participated as part of another law enforcement agency."

State Patrol troopers have focused on the freeway since July 1, when the new speed limit went into effect. In addition to tribal officers, they sought assistance from police in Everett and Monroe, as well as the sheriff's office. The effort was part of the Pro-Active Community Enforcement patrols that police have used throughout the county to crack down on drunken drivers, seat-belt violators and aggressive drivers.

The State Patrol has good relationships with the Tulalip tribal police and the sheriff's office, Lever said.

The patrols were primarily to warn drivers to slow down and observe the speed limit. Tribal officers did not participate once the focus shifted to writing tickets.

County officials early this week began fielding complaints about the tribal officers' participation. Some questioned their authority to make freeway stops.

County Councilman John Koster, whose council district includes the stretch of I-5 where the controversy was brewing, said he wished there would have been more communication.

"I had calls," he said. "I saw the Tulalip police with people stopped."

Koster said the people who contacted him asked whether tribal police could legally enforce traffic laws on the interstate.

"Apparently, the State Patrol didn't even notify the sheriff," Koster said.

Tulalip officers typically don't patrol the freeway, but they have authority to do so because the section from Fourth Street to 140th Street NW is on tribal trust land, Goss said.

That stretch of road is being scrutinized by the state Department of Transportation after a number of fatal crashes. Engineers are evaluating the use of cable barriers in the median. While accident data show the barriers work the majority of the time, an analysis by The Herald found that in a three-mile stretch the cables failed to stop cars crossing the median 20 percent of the time between 1999 and 2004.

Goss said his office took one complaint.

"The vast majority were complimentary" about the officers' efforts, he said.

Bart said five people complained to him. He said tribal officers can't stop people on the freeway without explicit permission from him, and that Goss should have asked first.

The sheriff said disputes about tribal police jurisdiction have been ongoing, and he has asked for direction from the county prosecutor's office and Attorney General's Office.

"Until these questions are answered, we're going to have problems," he said.

The prosecutor's office hasn't heard complaints from anyone who actually got a ticket from a tribal police officer, said Mark Roe, the county's chief criminal deputy prosecutor.

Roe said he phoned Goss when he heard some were asking questions. He said the two have long enjoyed a good working relationship.

"As with any situation, it all boils down to facts, what happened and what didn't," Roe said. "If they were asked to help tell people, 'Hey, you need to slow down or the next time you get a ticket,' I don't' see any problem with that."

Goss, however, believes there is more to the issue than questions about jurisdiction and unhappy speeders.

"I think people need to examine in their hearts why they are objecting," he said. "I think it's about race. They weren't complaining about the other officers."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 05:38 PM

I wonder what the recipee was?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jun 05 - 08:33 AM

Whopper Mudcat caught

No, this isn't one of Bee Dubya Ell's tall stories. . .

Fish whopper: 646 pounds a freshwater record
Researchers cite Thai catch to stress extinction dangers

Thai fishermen netted a catfish as big as a grizzly bear, setting a world record for the largest freshwater fish ever found, according to researchers who studied the 646-pound Mekong giant catfish as part of a project to protect large freshwater fish.

"It's amazing to think that giants like this still swim in some of the world's rivers," project leader Zeb Hogan project leader said in a statement. "We've now confirmed now that this catfish is the current record holder, an astonishing find."

"I'm thrilled that we've set a new record, but we need to put this discovery in context: these giant fish are uniformly poorly studied and some are critically endangered," added Hogan, a fellow with the World Wildlife Fund, which is partnering with the National Geographic Society. "Some, like the Mekong giant catfish, face extinction."

'Largest fish species disappearing'
Hogan said his study of giant freshwater fish "is showing a clear and global pattern: the largest fish species are disappearing.

"The challenge is clear," he added, "we must find methods to protect these species and their habitats. By acting now, we can save animals like the Mekong giant catfish from extinction."

Hogan's project includes two-dozen other species, including the giant freshwater stingray, the dog-eating catfish, the dinosaur-like arapaima, and the Chinese paddlefish – "all of which remain contenders for the title of the world's largest fish," the researchers stated, pending the final results of their work.

"Long shots for the title include caviar-producing sturgeon, goliath Amazon catfish, giant lungfish, razor-toothed gars, massive cods, and Mongolian salmon," they added.

Didn't survive capture
The Mekong giant catfish was caught and eaten in a remote village in Thailand along the Mekong River, home to more species of giant fish than any other river in the world, the researchers said.

Local environmentalists and government officials had negotiated to release the fish so it could continue its spawning migration in the far north of Thailand, near the borders of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China, but the adult male later died.

The researchers said the Mekong giant catfish is declining as a species due to habitat destruction and upstream dams.

The Mekong River Basin is home to more species of massive fish than any river on Earth, they added, and Mekong fish are the primary source of protein for the 73 million people that live along the river.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 04:50 PM

That's a nice story. Probably these were female lions, assuming the story is true.

I wonder if the alledged abductors will try "lying" about this incident.

Cheerily,
Charles Ipcar
Returned Peace Corp Volunteer, Ethiopia 1965-68

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 02:47 PM

Lions Rescue, Guard Beaten Ethiopian Girl
June 21, 2005

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.

The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men who wanted to force her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, speaking by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.

She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.

"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said.

"If the lions had not come to her rescue, then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.

Tilahun Kassa, a local government official who corroborated Wondimu's version of the events, said one of the men had wanted to marry the girl against her wishes.

"Everyone thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people," Wondimu said.

Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said the girl may have survived because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.

"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn't eat her," Williams said.

Ethiopia's lions, famous for their large black manes, are the country's national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Despite a recent crackdown, Hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1,000. Williams estimates that only 1,000 Ethiopian lions remain in the wild.

The girl, the youngest of four siblings, was "shocked and terrified" after her abduction and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Wondimu said.

He said police had caught four of the abductors and three were still at large.

Kidnapping young girls has long been part of the marriage custom in Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where most of the country's 71 million people live.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 05 - 12:19 AM

A saucy bear named "Beaver" is a pretty good pun in English, also!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 24 May 05 - 08:30 PM

Could be a good Teddy Bears Picnic.

If you go down to the woods today
Your sure of a big surprise
Cos all the bears that ever there was
Are into leather and ties.....

Hardcore teddy banned from Zurich bear parade
Tue May 24, 2005 10:22 AM BST
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ZURICH (Reuters) - A giant dominatrix teddy bear wearing a leather mask and brandishing hand-cuffs has been banned from sober Zurich's street display of man-sized model bears, the project's artistic director said on Tuesday.

While tourists pose for snaps next to a brightly-painted and benign array of models such as the "schoolteacher bear" and the "skier bear", "Baervers" -- a pun on the German for perverse -- has been deemed too steamy for the financial capital's streets.

"This bear is perverse, dominatrix and hardcore. We had to ban it because of the children," Beat Seeberger-Quin, the project's art director, told Reuters.

The offending bear, which sports bright red lipstick, a corset and thigh-length leather boots, stands atop a pedestal bearing the words "first class service".

Some 600 teddies, variously decorated by artists, stud the streets of Zurich and its airport in the "Teddy-Summer" project.

The controversial model had been allocated a place near Zurich's Paradeplatz, home to Switzerland's top banks such as Credit Suisse and UBS, before Seeberger-Quin spotted the final design and decided to ban it.

The dominatrix bear's creators now seek a private home for their sadomasochist teddy. At least "Baervers" will not face the same hazards as his publicly-displayed peers, some of which have been vandalised or even kidnapped.

"Two or three of the bears have been splashed with paint, and one bear -- a nice small bear wearing a little dress -- has been stolen," Seeberger-Quin said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 05 - 03:27 PM

I don't know if there's a song in this, but here's the "rest of the story," as obnoxious Paul H used to say:

Mother: Wendy's Finger Used to Settle Debt
May 18, 2005

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A man who lost part of his finger in a workplace accident was the source of the fingertip used in an alleged scam against Wendy's restaurants, and gave it away to settle a debt, his mother said. "My son is the victim in this," Brenda Shouey said in an interview published in Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle. "I believe he got caught in something, and he didn't understand what was going on."

Anna Ayala, 39, was arrested April 21 at her Las Vegas home on suspicion of attempted grand theft for allegedly costing Wendy's millions of dollars in a plot to shake down the company by claiming she found the finger in a bowl of chili in a restaurant in San Jose. Ayala was to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

Shouey, of Worthington, Pa., said her son, Brian Paul Rossiter, 36, of Las Vegas, lost part of his finger in December in an accident at a paving company where he worked with James Plascencia, Ayala's husband. His hand got caught in a mechanical truck lift, she said. She said he gave it to Plascencia to settle a $50 debt.

San Jose police announced last week the finger was obtained from an associate of Plascencia, but they have refused to identify him because he is cooperating in the investigation. They did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking comment on the newspaper's account. Shouey said her son had showed the severed finger to co-workers in a macho display of humor and was desperate for cash when he gave it away "to this character, James."

"My son is a happy-go-lucky guy. He thought it was cute to show" the severed finger, Shouey said. "It's like a man thing." Shouey declined to give details of how the finger was preserved or whether Rossiter knew why Plascencia allegedly wanted the finger. She said her son told her of his role only this week and is keeping a low profile after undergoing intense police questioning.

Plascencia was arrested earlier this month on unrelated charges of failing to pay child support in a previous relationship.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 05 - 12:01 PM

Looks like bits of the story are still falling into place. You may just get the name you're looking for, Charlie! And the term "tipster" takes on a whole new meaning in the context of this story. :)

Tailgate Blamed for Finger in Chili Claim
May 15, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO - The finger that a woman claimed she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili was severed in the tailgate of a truck during a work accident, an employee of an asphalt company said. Pat Hogue, an estimator with a Las Vegas asphalt maintenance company, told the San Francisco Chronicle for a story in Sunday's editions that a man he was working with lost the tip of his finger on a job five months ago.

Both men were working with James Plascencia, the husband of Anna Ayala - the Las Vegas woman who claimed she found the finger in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, Hogue told the paper. Authorities believe the injured man gave the finger to Plascencia. Ayala is accused of trying to shake down the fast-food giant with a bogus tainted-food claim.

"I saw it on the news. I didn't know the lady at first was married to that James guy until after he was arrested," Hogue said in a telephone interview from his home in North Las Vegas. Hogue and investigators have refused to identify the man with the severed finger, but police have said he's cooperating with authorities.

Ayala, 39, is in jail on suspicion of attempted grand theft. She claimed she bit into the finger on March 22 and filed a claim against the restaurant chain shortly afterward. The publicity resulted in a major loss of business for Wendy's. Ayala later withdrew her claim as she came under scrutiny and investigators found at least 13 cases in which she has filed claims in her name or her children's. Plascencia, 43, is being held in a Las Vegas jail on unrelated charges. He is awaiting extradition to California.

San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis said a tipster led investigators to the Nevada man with the missing finger. Investigators have refused to say how the finger was preserved or transported from Las Vegas to San Jose. Police said more arrests were possible.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 05 - 12:17 PM

Are you thinking about writing a song, Charlie?

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 May 05 - 05:30 PM

Well, good! I figured someone would provide a tip sooner or later. Be nice to have the man's name, just to see what it rhymes with.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 05 - 05:03 PM

Wendy's Finger Lickin' Good Mystery Solved At Last!!!

I wonder who is going to collect the hundred grand reward?

Finger Traced to Woman Who Blamed Wendy's
May 13, 2005

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The finger that a woman said she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili came from an associate of her husband who lost the digit in an industrial accident, police said Friday.

"The jig is up. The puzzle pieces are beginning to fall into place, and the truth is being exposed," Police Chief Rob Davis said.

The man is from Nevada and lost a part of his finger in an accident last December, Davis said. His identity was traced through a tip made to Wendy's hot line, he said.

He said authorities "positively confirmed that this subject was in fact the source of the fingertip."

Anna Ayala, the woman who said she found the finger, was arrested last month at her suburban Las Vegas home and is charged with attempted grand larceny.

Ayala, 39, said she bit down on a 1 1/2 inch-long finger fragment while dining with her family in March at a San Jose Wendy's. But authorities had said they believed the story was a hoax.

Ayala's husband, Jaime Plascencia, was arrested earlier this month on a fugitive warrant at the couple's home to face charges unrelated to the Wendy's case. San Jose police had said he used his children's personal information in a fraudulent manner for personal gain.

Authorities are considering additional criminal charges against Ayala and her husband, Davis said.

"We are exploring all other options and avenues available to see that those involved in this charade will be investigated," Davis said.

The man who lost the finger, whose name was not released, had given the finger fragment to Plascencia, Davis said. Davis would not disclose details of the investigation but said the man was cooperating.

A phone call to Ayala's attorney on Friday was not immediately returned.

Wendy's has offered a $100,000 reward and has said it has lost millions in sales since Ayala made the claim. Dozens of employees at the company's Northern California franchises also have been laid off.

"There are victims in this case that have suffered greatly," Davis said.

The news initially aroused sympathy for Ayala, but suspicions grew as questions were raised about her story.

Wendy's had said no employees at the San Jose store had missing fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy's ingredients had reported any finger injuries. Authorities said there was no evidence the finger had been cooked, and also said Ayala had a history of filing claims against businesses.

As scrutiny mounted, Ayala withdrew a claim she had filed against the chain.

In addition to attempted grand larceny in the Wendy's case, his wife is charged with grand larceny in an unrelated matter.

Plascencia remains in jail in Nevada, but Davis said he would be extradited soon to San Jose. He was charged with identity theft, fraudulent use of official documents, failure to pay child support and child abandonment in the case involving his children.

Police received a number of tips about the possible source of the finger, including one about a rural Nevada woman whose finger tip was bitten off by a spotted leopard kept as a pet. Police also recently searched a ranch north of Guadalajara, Mexico, owned by a relative of Plascencia.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 05 - 03:01 PM

Interactive 'Clickers' Changing Classrooms
May 13, 2005

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Professor Ross Cheit put it to the students in his "Ethics and Public Policy" class at Brown University: Are you morally obliged to report cheating if you know about it? The room began to hum, but no one so much as raised a hand. Still, within 90 seconds, Cheit had roughly 150 student responses displayed on an overhead screen, plotted as a multicolored bar graph - 64 percent said yes, 35 percent, no. Several times each class, Cheit's students answer his questions using handheld wireless devices that resemble television remote controls.

The devices, which the students call "clickers," are being used on hundreds of college campuses and are even finding their way into grade schools. They alter classroom dynamics, engaging students in large, impersonal lecture halls with the power of mass feedback. "Clickers" ease fears of giving a wrong answer in front of peers, or of expressing unpopular opinions. "I use it to take their pulse," Cheit said. "I've often found in that setting, you find yourself thinking, 'Well, what are they thinking?'"

In hard science classes, the clickers - most of which allow several possible responses - are often used to gauge student comprehension of course material. Cheit tends to use them to solicit students' opinions.

The clickers are an effective tool for spurring conversation, for getting a feel for what other students think, said Megan Schmidt, a freshman from New York City. "It forces you to be active in the discussion because you are forced to make a decision right off the bat," said Jonathan Magaziner, a sophomore in Cheit's class. Cheit prepares most questions in advance but can add questions on the fly if need be. His setup processes student responses through infrared receivers that are connected to a laptop computer.

Clickers increased class participation and improved attendance after Stephen Bradforth, a professor at the University of Southern California, introduced them to an honors chemistry class there last fall, he said. Bradforth uses the clickers to get a sense of whether students are grasping the material and finds that they compel professors to think about their lesson plans differently. He says it's too early to say whether students who used the clickers are doing better on standardized tests.

Eric Mazur, a Harvard University physics professor and proponent of interactive teaching, says clickers aren't essential but they are more efficient and make participation easier for shy students. Many colleges already use technology that allows teachers and students to interact more easily outside the classroom. For example, professors can now post lecture notes, quizzes and reading lists online. Several companies market software, such as Blackboard and Web CT, that provide ready-made course Web pages and other course management tools.

Mazur envisions students someday using their laptops, cell phones or other Internet-ready devices for more interactivity than clickers offer. At least one company, Option Technologies Interactive, based in Orlando, Fla., markets software that allows any student with a handheld wireless device or laptop to log onto a Web site and answer questions, just as they would with a clicker.

For now, the clicker systems appear to be selling. Two companies that make the systems say each of their technologies are in use on more than 600 university campuses worldwide. Some textbook publishers are even writing questions designed to be answered by clicker, and packaging the devices with their books. Versions of clickers have been available since the 1980s, but in the past six years several more have entered the market and advances in technology have made them both cheaper and more sophisticated.

Most universities that use clickers require students to buy them, although at Brown they're loaned through the library. Made by companies including the Maryland-based GTCO CalComp, eInstruction Corp., of Denton, Texas, and Hyper Interactive Teaching Technology, of Fayetteville, Ark., the devices cost about $30. The clickers communicate with receivers by infrared or radio signals, which feed the results to the teacher's computer. Software allows the students' responses to be recorded, analyzed and graphed. While each company offers slightly different features, the systems typically allow instructors to display the class's results as a whole, or to record each student's individual response. The clickers themselves vary among companies but generally allow students to respond to multiple choice questions or key in a numeric answer.

The clickers can also be used to give quizzes that can be graded automatically and entered in a computerized gradebook, saving professors time. But several professors said they have avoided that so students will see the handheld devices as positive, rather than punitive.

At the college level, the devices originally took hold in science classes, but they are finding their way into the social sciences and humanities, where the anonymity they offer may be an advantage. Cheit said that's especially true when it comes to sensitive topics, such as affirmative action. "People that are against it will click," Cheit said, "But they might not raise their hand and say it."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 May 05 - 11:49 AM

News photo puts a familiar face on compassion in a war zone
The wife of a Stryker Brigade officer is deeply moved by sight of a soldier helping an Iraqi child -- and more so when she recognizes him

photo link
story link

By MIKE BARBER, SEATTLE P-I

On Tuesday, as she does every night, Amy Bieger went to her computer to write an e-mail to her husband, Mark, in Iraq. Her eyes moistened when she logged on looking for news and saw a heart-wrenching photo of a U.S. soldier cradling the limp body of a 2-year-old girl wounded in a terrorist attack the day before. The helmeted soldier's face, unseen, is pressed reassuringly into the girl's. He clutches her close to his heart. Bieger could almost hear it beat faster as he ran to save the girl.

"I was just taking it in. It was emotional," she said from her home in DuPont.

Since the soldier's face couldn't be seen, the photo seemed to represent every soldier in Iraq. But Amy Bieger, the Army wife who knew from the lightning bolt insignia on the soldier's sleeve that it was her husband's Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade, wondered if she could learn more.

She double-clicked on the photo to magnify it.

"I saw the insignia, then rank, major. Near the girl's blanket you could see the last four letters on a name tag, 'e-g-e-r.' That sealed the deal. I knew it was Mark," she said. "The way he was cradling her, his body language, I knew that was him. That's what he always has done with our three children and any child in need. Heartbreak just went through me," she said.

The compassionate face beneath the helmet is that of Maj. Mark Bieger, 35, who writes home about the children he sees there, how he'd like to reach out to help them, how they remind him of his own children. A 14-year veteran and West Point graduate from Arizona, Mark Bieger is operations officer for Fort Lewis' 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The unit left in October for a yearlong deployment in Iraq.

His battalion, nicknamed "Deuce Four," has felt more than its share of pain since then. "They have been through a lot and lost a lot of incredible guys, but that makes them want to fight harder to give these people peace," Amy Bieger said. Her husband hasn't had a chance to talk much about the little girl he was rushing to save or what happened Monday.

Nor, isolated and busy in Iraq, does he seem to comprehend the national attention his act of tenderness has drawn, she said. "To him the picture represents great sadness because they lost a little girl. He kept saying it was a sad day. I knew it tore him up and not to press him," she said.

Bieger has told his wife in e-mail only that he and others in Mosul responded to a suicide bomber whose car hit a Stryker vehicle while little kids were crowded around it. "He just says he didn't do anything that none of the other guys are doing."

Michael Yon, the freelancer who took the photograph for The Associated Press, told ABC News that Bieger "wanted to get the girl to American surgeons immediately. So Maj. Bieger wrapped the little girl up in the blanket. He was telling soldiers, 'We're moving out.' "

Bieger, whom the photographer saw rescue U.S. troops a week ago, tried to comfort the toddler as he cradled her, stopping every so often to talk to her, Yon said.

American surgeons could not save the girl or another child. The suicide bomber injured 15 people.

In a message on the Stryker Brigade News Web site at www.strykernews.com/, Yon said Stryker soldiers were angry because the terrorist easily could have waited a block or two and attacked only their patrol, leaving the children out of it. The soldiers returned to the neighborhood the next day to ask people what they could do to help and were warmly received, Yon said.

Stryker families who follow the site posted their own reactions:

A woman who signed herself "Stryker sister" said, "I couldn't stop crying. I went to the bathroom and cried and cried like a baby. Just thinking how our soldiers go through this everyday. This photo is imprinted in my mind, and the image is just always flashing b4 me. Thanks Amy Bieger for your soldier for giving love to this little girl in her final moments."

Another, Erin, said:

"I don't know if I have ever been that moved by any photograph, seeing that patch on our soldiers shoulder, knowing that my son wears that same patch, I wanted everyone to know that our soldiers are so much more than just that. The body language of that soldier is so intense -- for lack of a better word and I could feel the pain in that moment across the miles. I don't know how else to describe it, but if that were my child, my grandchild that he was holding, I don't think that I could ask for anything more."

As such national attention mounted Wednesday, Amy Bieger figured she'd better clue in the couple's three sons, ages 4, 9 and 10.

"I wanted them to see the picture and hear an explanation from me before they heard it from someone else," she said.

"It was hard for them to look at because they miss him so much. They weren't surprised. They said, 'Dad's helping everyone.' They look up to him so much."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 May 05 - 08:13 PM

This newspaper printing plant, where Rusty lives, is about three blocks from my house. I pass his enclosure regularly. We'll miss him!



The end of the trail arrives for Rusty

By Barry Shlachter, Star-Telegram Staff Writer
link

Rusty, a Texas longhorn steer who long served as the Star-Telegram's mascot and won fame by competing against investment experts as a stock picker, is headed for the last roundup.

The gentle 20-year-old bovine, often the highlight of printing plant tours for thousands of schoolchildren every year, was examined at Texas A&M University in College Station last week. Veterinarians determined that eight lumps below his jaw are tumors, some nearly 4 inches wide.

"I would say multiple tumors is typically considered not treatable," said Dr. Wesley Bissett, an assistant professor at A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine.

The steer is expected to be returned to Fort Worth this afternoon and euthanized.

Rusty racked up a creditable record in choosing stocks each year by dropping cow pies on a numbered grid in a pen. Each square represented either a locally based company or a major local employer.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Rusty was more successful during bull markets. He realized a 62.9 percent gain in 1997, his first year of stock picking, against the experts' gain of 22.6 percent. Overall, Rusty won four out of eight years, although he's trailing in 2005.

"It's quite humbling when Rusty wins by putting the cow pies on certain squares -- and it's also revealing to those competing just how difficult it is to select individual equities, and succeed year after year after year," said Jerry Singleton, 65, president of Signal Securities.

Singleton, who competed against Rusty four years without losing, said North Texas financial professionals risked "ridicule and happy hour jibes" by signing up to go toe-to-hoof with the steer.

"Frankly, I've heard people say they dared not do it -- 'What if the bull beat me? How would I look?' " he said.

Rusty was highlighted on CNBC's Power Lunch stock market program, in BusinessWeek magazine, on National Public Radio's The Motley Fool Radio Show and on numerous regional TV and radio reports.

Stock picking wasn't the steer's only claim to fame.

At the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America 2000 World Expo, Rusty took first place for conformation, meaning his physical characteristics were that of a classic longhorn, said Larry Barker, an association official. Rusty's hide is speckled red with a white lineback.

"Rusty is a magnificent steer with a great set of horns, a true-to-type longhorn," Barker said. "He could have made it up the trail just like his ancestors did 125 years ago."

Despite horns measuring 62.5 inches from tip to tip, Rusty never damaged property or injured admirers, said Donnie Legrand, his handler. Neither curious children reaching out to pet him, dogs barking at his feet nor rides on escalators triggered a mean response.

The steer gracefully passed through 24-inch gates without mishap, slightly turning his head for clearance, he said.

By the end of this year's Stock Show where Rusty was a regular feature, Legrand began noticing the longhorn had lost weight. Alvarado veterinarian Clint Calvert discovered the lumps, and Rusty, by then 400 pounds below his normal weight of nearly 1,600 pounds, was taken to A&M for a biopsy.

That led to a diagnosis of terminal cancer on April 28, the day he turned 20, a ripe old age for a longhorn.

Rusty came from champion bloodstock. His grandsire, Texas Ranger JP, was one of the "greatest longhorn bulls of all time," Barker said. The steer's full name was FF Rusty. Pasture-bred, he was born in LaVeta, Colo., on April 28, 1985. The breeder was Red McCombs Ranches of Johnson City, owned by the San Antonio entrepreneur and owner of the Minnesota Vikings football team.

In 1995, the Star-Telegram made the winning bid on Rusty at a charity auction, and the good-natured steer was soon carrying out various public duties.

"I think Rusty has added a lot to our image and our brand in the community," said Wes Turner, the paper's president and publisher. "At any event with children, you'd see the pure joy in kids running up, calling his name. It was part of Fort Worth's 'culture and cowboys.' "

And just as the University of Texas at Austin replaces its mascot when a Bevo retires, "we have to find Rusty II," Turner said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 May 05 - 11:03 AM

I hope no one thinks I'm ducking the previous issue, but I logged on this morning to post this story:

Downtown D.C. Duck, Offspring Get New Home
photo (probably not a durable link)
ADELE STARR May 02, 2005

WASHINGTON - The hottest new tourist site in the nation's capital is no more. After a boffo four-week run, the Treasury duck has been moved from her prime nesting spot in the midst of heavy tourist traffic a block from the White House to a more peaceful setting along a quietly flowing stream.

The mallards in the classic children's book "Make Way for Ducklings" may have only needed the help of the Boston police department for their relocation, but their Washington relatives got assistance from several federal agencies. The Secret Service uniformed division provided security during the four weeks the mother mallard, given various nicknames from T-bill to Quacks Reform, was sitting on her eggs. A metal barricade was constructed and then expanded it as the tourist crowds wanting to get a look grew larger.

The ducklings all hatched on Saturday, and surprisingly there were 11, not nine. Biologists had missed two eggs when they made their initial count. The wildlife experts picked Sunday as moving day, believing the ducklings needed one day to get acclimated to their mother in the original nest.

The transfer had been mapped out like a military operation. Officials of the Treasury Department, where the expertise runs to money matters not wildlife, called for help from specialists from the National Park Service and the Agriculture Department. The mother mallard, who had gained fame from appearances on national television and in newspapers around the world, squawked only briefly as USDA biologists gently nabbed her and the 11 ducklings and placed them in cages for the 15-minute motorcade to Rock Creek Park.

Once at the park, the ducks were placed in a holding pen to get used to their new surroundings. There was some concern among the biologists that the mother duck could become so alarmed by the move that she might fly off, abandoning her offspring. However, those worries proved unfounded. After just a few seconds, the mother found an opening in the pen and waddled out, heading straight for the nearby creek.

Her ducklings scurried behind in a single line - all but Duckling No. 11, who had a little trouble getting going. It stumbled at first, landing on its back with its webbed feet waving in the air. But it quickly righted itself, only to trip again and then tumble down the muddy creek bank, plopping into the water. From there, all 11 ducklings formed a line paddling after their mother and set out to explore their new surroundings.

"We have a healthy duck population here and we are happy to take the new additions under our wings," said Laura Illige, chief ranger at Rock Creek Park.

Back on Pennsylvania Avenue, the metal barricades had already been dismantled and the former duck nesting place was once again just a mulch pile surrounding an elm tree.