BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 12:00 PM

Rats influenced by the kindness of strangers
06 July 2007
NewScientist.com news service


If rats benefit from the kindness of strangers they are more likely to assist an unfamiliar rat in future. In doing so, they provide the first evidence of an unusual form of altruism that appears to violate evolutionary theory.

Claudia Rutte and Michael Taborsky of the University of Berne, Switzerland, trained rats to pull a lever that released food for their partner in the next cage. If the rats subsequently received snacks released by lever-pulling strangers in neighbouring cages, they were more likely to lever-pull and so feed another unfamiliar rat in the future. In other words, the rats became altruistic in response to a general level of cooperation in the population.

Theoretically, such "generalised reciprocity" shouldn't exist. In large groups, dirty rats will take advantage of helpful strangers and offer nothing in return.

It persists, says Taborsky, because exploited animals move away. "An animal is more likely to leave the group if it didn't receive cooperation in the past," he says. "This leads to cooperative and uncooperative groups in a population." If cooperative groups are better at exploiting the environment, generalised reciprocity remains in the population (PLoS Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050196).

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 06:32 AM


Price of machetes drops after elections

Price of machetes drops in Nigeria after elections as political violence ebbs

Reuters
Updated: 4:14 p.m. CT July 3, 2007

ABUJA, Nigeria - The price of machetes has halved in parts of Nigeria since the end of general elections in April because demand from thugs sponsored by politicians has subsided, the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria reported.

NAN surveyed prices in the northeastern state of Gombe and found that a good quality machete was now selling for 400 naira ($3) compared with 800 naira before the elections, which were marred by politically motivated violence in many states.

"A price survey on machetes, which served as a popular weapon among political thugs in the state, indicated ... a drop in the price of the implement," NAN reported over the weekend.

Machetes are primarily used as a tool for farming in Nigeria, but they are also popular among political gangsters.

"Before the conduct of the general elections, I was selling a minimum of seven machetes daily but can hardly sell one a day now," said Usman Masi, a trader quoted by NAN.

Africa's most populous country returned to civilian rule in 1999 after three decades of almost continuous army rule, but violence remains a feature of politics, especially during the build-up to elections.

European election monitors estimated that at least 200 people were killed in politically motivated violence during months of campaigning ahead of the April polls.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited

[Get yours now before the next campaign starts and prices go up again?]

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:00 PM

1st time's charm for Miss Texas

Star-Telegram link

One should be Shilah Phillips' favorite number. The 25-year-old singer was crowned Miss Texas last year in her one and only try at capturing the title, which will be passed on to another young woman Saturday. The pageant is being held at Will Rogers Memorial Center Auditorium.

In an era when some young women spend years trying to achieve that goal, Phillips tried in her last year of eligibility.

"That was my only time," she said this week, flashing a bright smile at her naiveté about how pageants operate. "It was a one-shot thing."

Music is her passion, and she attended high school at the Denver School of Performing Arts. While a voice major at Collin County Community College, she was accepted to the University of North Texas' prestigious vocal jazz program, the same one where recording artist Norah Jones studied.

Phillips, an honor-roll student, worked three jobs but did not have enough money to pursue her dream.

"I was in a desperate situation," she said.

When friends suggested the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant and the thousands of dollars it offers, she decided to enter a preliminary pageant. In borrowed clothes and a swimsuit she'd actually worn to a pool, she was named Miss Frisco, holding her shoulders as straight as her mother's friend had taught her.

Last year, as the field narrowed during the Miss Texas pageant, she said she could only concentrate on how much her scholarship fund was growing.

As she stood with only one other contestant, she remembers telling her, "Isn't this exciting? We're going to college!"

Even as she walked the runway where she was unsure what to do, she remembers, "I wasn't thinking 'I won a crown,' but 'I'm going to college.'"

Phillips' is the first African-American Miss Texas.

She is also the first rookie to win the title since 1980, said Randy Pruett, the unofficial Miss Texas historian.

Phillips went on to the Miss America Pageant where she was named first runner-up.

Her scholarship totals have reached nearly $41,000.

"This is a miracle," she said of her ability to complete her education at UNT. "This was a blessing from God. I needed this money. It's so fortunate I had this opportunity."

While serving as Miss Texas, she has spoken to more than 100,000 schoolchildren, said her business manager, Carol Fuller.

Phillips is frequently asked to give her inspirational talk.

"Every once in a while, there comes a girl with an 'it' factor," Fuller said. "I feel Shilah is the representative of that 'it' factor."

In the past year, Phillips has made her own lists of firsts: eating a homemade biscuit at Babe's Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke, tasting Dublin's Dr Pepper, meeting Dallas Cowboy veteran Emmitt Smith and riding a longhorn.

"Dreams can come true, especially when it comes to education," she said. "But there's hope. There's always hope, even when you feel like you've done all you can. You don't just quit. I didn't give up on myself."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 02:37 PM

I bet humans scrambling over the equipment and excavating by hand are the only way to get it out, actually. This recovery job was a fool's errand by someone with dollar signs in their eyes. I'm sure it isn't a rare occurrence. This one just happened to present itself front and center where the world can pass by on the trestle and watch their progress (or lack of it).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 02:06 AM

Unfortunately, SRS, that's not a very rare kind of incident.

Recovery of a wimpy little thing like a John Deere 200 series excavator shouldn't really be that much of a problem, but skill in conventional use of heavy equipment does not necessarily qualify anyone for the specialized task of recovery of one that's gotten into the muck.

Rule number 1: Don't try to drive up close to the one that's stuck.

Obviously violated here.

A cousin fresh out of college was assigned recovery, under somewhat similar conditions, of one more similar to this one, only bigger as his first job with his new employer. It took them about three months. It was about 30 yards out into the lake (it slide down the slope for a ways after the driver bailed out), with a full bucket of mud. Part of the problem was finding anything big enough to move it.

Rule number 2: The recovery vehicle should be at least twice as big as the one that's stuck.

With a really good crew, you can cheat on #2 - sometimes. But it ain't good sense if you've got a choice.

According to some 'Nam vets, equipment left in similar conditions there was often stolen by locals using hand labor only, when they went back to get it with big recovery equipment - although I think some of my friends who related such stories may have been a little influenced by the tequila.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 06:18 PM

I've been watching this story with interest. The first excavator was lost and I figured that was the end of the story. But no, there are some intrepid sorts who don't seem to understand that if you look up "quagmire" in the dictionary there is a photo of the Ebby Slough area. :)

Ebey Island mud pit sucks in second excavator

link (and a nice photo)

An unforgiving mud pit on Ebey Island swallowed its second excavator Sunday, leaving a contractor scrambling to retrieve not one but two expensive pieces of heavy equipment. "About the best way to describe this is a case of bad luck and a bottomless pit," said Fred Gossler, one of the workers for Pacific Reign, which is based in Grays Harbor.

The company came to Everett after it agreed to pay RSC Equipment Rental of Arizona $38,000 for salvaging rights to the stuck 2006 John Deere 200. A similar excavator would fetch as much as $200,000 new. A four-man crew expected to spend just a few days extracting the excavator and walk away with a sweet deal. Then things began to sour.

"It's definitely an attraction," Gossler said of the stuck excavators, which resemble mechanical mastodons sinking into a primordial tar pit. Gossler said a number of "onlookers and tourists" stopped by and hiked past tall weeds for a closer look at the ill-fated rescue Monday and to wish the crew good luck in finding a way out of the mess. The highly visible scene is situated north of the U.S. 2 trestle, just west of an environmentally sensitive wetland preserve.

Jeff Emery, one of the partners who owns Pacific Reign, was operating the second excavator when it, too started sinking into the pit. He said he underestimated the weakness of the soil. His machine, resting on heavy wood pads, was tethered to the stuck yellow excavator with steel cables.

At first, Emery was able to budge the 20-metric-ton yellow excavator a bit from the thick mud. But it didn't take long for his orange Hitachi to start sliding off the boards and into the muck. "That stuff out there's got no mercy for nobody," said Emery, who worked until 3 a.m. Monday trying to free his rig. "I went out there blind and should've never went."

Gerry Stajcar, Emery's business partner, said a third excavator narrowly escaped getting mired. Stajcar described Emery as one of the most skilled heavy equipment operators he has ever met, good enough to guide an excavator to gracefully lift a hat off someone's head without touching a hair. But Emery apparently was no match for the mud pit of Ebey Island.

The story began when Jim Clemetson, 48, of Everett, tried to cut a road to land that his mother recently bought on the island for $65,000. Clemetson wanted to use the 4.5 acres to store trees and equipment for his landscaping business. His dreams were dashed, however, when he learned that the state Department of Transportation would not allow him to get to his land by crossing under the trestle.

Clemetson negotiated an easement with his neighbor, and began cutting a driveway with a practically new, rented yellow excavator. When it got stuck, he called for help. But the help split with his $15,000 before getting the job done and actually made things worse, Clemetson said. The Department of Ecology is investigating the case and said Clemetson did not have proper permits to operate in the wetlands.

As far as he knows, he is still responsible for replacing the excavator and has turned to an attorney to learn about his options. Clemetson, who said getting stuck was humiliating, found some comfort in knowing that he is not alone in slipping into the mud."Do I feel less stupid? Yes," he said.

Bruce King, Clemetson's neighbor, said it is fortunate that no one has been injured. So far, it's just equipment, he said. "Swamp: 2. Excavators: 0."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jul 07 - 11:59 AM

U-Haul's practices found to raise risk of accidents

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Marissa Sternberg sits in her wheelchair, barely able to move or speak. Caregivers are always at her side. Progress is measured in tiny steps: an unclenched fist, a look of recognition, a smile for her father.

Nearly four years ago, Sternberg was a high-spirited 19-year-old bound for school in Denver. She rented a U-Haul trailer to move her belongings, hitched it to her Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road with her two dogs and a friend.

That evening, as the Land Cruiser descended a hill in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, the trailer began to swing from side to side, pushing the SUV as if trying to muscle it off the road.

"I knew something bad was going to happen," recalled Corina Maya Hollander, who was taking a turn behind the wheel. "We both knew."

The Land Cruiser flipped and bounced along Interstate 25. The trailer broke free and careened off the road. Hollander crawled from the wreckage, her head throbbing.

Sternberg, thrown from the SUV, lay sprawled on the highway, unable to move. "Where are my dogs?" she screamed. "Somebody go find my dogs!"

Sternberg fell victim to a peril long familiar to U-Haul International: "trailer sway," a leading cause of severe towing accidents.

Traveling downhill or shaken by a sharp turn or a gust of wind, a trailer can begin swinging so violently that only the most experienced -- or fortunate -- drivers can regain control and avoid catastrophe.

U-Haul, the nation's largest provider of rental trailers, says it is "highly conservative" about safety. But a yearlong Los Angeles Times investigation, which included more than 200 interviews and a review of thousands of pages of court records, police reports, consumer complaints and other documents, found that company practices have heightened the risk of towing accidents. Among the findings:

The safest way to tow is with a vehicle that weighs much more than the trailer. Yet U-Haul allows customers to pull trailers as heavy as or heavier than their own vehicles.

It often allows trailers to stay on the road for months without a thorough safety inspection, in violation of its own policies.

Bad brakes have been a recurring problem with its large trailers. The one Sternberg rented lacked working brakes.

Its small and midsize trailers have no brakes at all, a policy that conflicts with the laws of at least 14 states.

It relaxed a key safety rule as it pushed to increase rentals of one type of trailer, used to haul vehicles, and then failed to enforce even the weakened standard. Customers were killed or maimed in ensuing crashes that might have been avoided.

The company's approach to mitigating the risks of towing relies heavily on customers, many of them novices, some as young as 18. They are expected to grasp and carry out detailed instructions for loading and towing trailers, and to respond coolly in a crisis. But many renters never see those instructions -- distribution of U-Haul's user guide is spotty.

To those who receive and read it, the guide offers this advice for coping with a swinging trailer: Stay off the car's brakes and hold the wheel straight. Many drivers will reflexively do the opposite, which can make the swaying worse.

Yet when accidents occur, U-Haul almost always blames the customer.

[snip]

This is a long article. Find the rest of it here. (I read it in the Star-Telegram but the L.A. Times originated it and their version has photos).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jul 07 - 11:38 AM

Photo ID not needed to fly

Star-Telegram link

Nobody looked me in the eye. Nobody asked me any questions. I was standing at Philadelphia International Airport last week waiting to fly home after a conference. I had lost my wallet and all my photo identification cards, including my Texas driver's license.

Aside from losing my wallet, I also lost sleep. Worrying. I couldn't return home on a commercial airline without proper identification. Or could I?

The answer might surprise you as much as it did me. What I learned also raises questions about whether, in the name of security, we are being misled by the government. But according to a former presidential adviser I talked to later, it's not a security mat ter as much as a question of fairness to all paying travelers. We aren't being told what we need to know.

Here's what happened:

At the airport, I stepped up to the U.S. Airways counter, not knowing whether they would let me on the plane. I presented my boarding pass to the employee and announced: "I don't have a photo ID."

Without looking up, she replied, "You can still fly."

She scribbled with a red marker on my boarding pass the following notation: "SSSS."

I walked to the security line and presented my boarding pass to the woman inspecting photo IDs and boarding passes. The woman, a non-TSA contract employee, didn't look at me either as she sent me into a glass holding area.

A Transportation Security Administration employee took me into a corner area where the SSSS travelers go.

SSSS, according to Internet sites, apparently stands for "Secondary Security Screening Selection." But you can't be sure, as the TSA won't tell you.

"We don't go into detail about what that signifies," TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley told me later.

The secondary screeners gathered around, but again, nobody looked me in the eye or asked any questions.

One man waved a security wand around my upper torso. Then he patted me down.

Two others went through the electronic equipment in my carry-on bag. They used an Ionscan machine to test swabs for traces of explosives on my BlackBerry, cellphone, iPod and other items.

"You can fly now," a TSA screener announced, again without looking at me.

Before I flew, I had called the airline and asked what to do. I was told that I needed to file a missing wallet report with the Philadelphia police so I could get an incident number. I did, but at the airport, nobody asked me anything.

Turns out there is no requirement that you produce a photo ID when you travel on a commercial airplane.

Originally, the TSA's Web site stated, "You must present a Boarding Pass and a Photo ID to get to the checkpoint and to your gate."

The latest TSA Web site language, however, states: "We encourage each adult traveler to keep his/her airline boarding pass and government-issued photo ID available until exiting the security checkpoint [children are not required to show identification]. The absence of proper identification will result in additional screening."

The TSA spokeswoman confirms: "If a passenger doesn't have one, like yourself, because it was lost, which does happen, then we do subject them to additional screening."

The change came after an unsuccessful lawsuit filed by John Gilmore, a millionaire founder of Sun Microsystems who is now a civic activist. On July 4, 2002, Gilmore tried to fly without presenting a photo ID. He was refused and filed suit against the government.

As his case traveled through federal courts, Gilmore kept losing his quest for information on the government's actual policy.

The federal government stated in court papers that the policy was secret and could not be divulged.

In Gilmore's pleading to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case, his lawyers wrote that keeping the policy secret "purposely or inadvertently causes transportation security officials to mislead the public. Passengers are consistently advised that federal law requires them to show identification. That representation is false, however."

Now the policy's intent is clearer, but the actual written policy is considered secret and is still not publicly available.

I turned to Ohio State University law professor Peter Swire, an expert on privacy matters, for further explanation. He served as President Clinton's chief counselor for privacy.

Gilmore's case was important to travelers for two reasons, he said. But neither has to do with security, because secondary screenings should keep passengers secure, he said.

"It's important for the government to tell us the law before they punish us," he says. "What if you drive to the airport and forget your driver's license and say, 'Oh, I can't visit Grandma,' or, 'I can't go to my business meeting'? A lot of people turn back from travel because they thought they didn't have a choice, when they really did have a choice.

"So there's a basic principle that citizens should know what the law is. But there's also the practical matter: Did people change their behavior and suffer harm because they didn't know what the rules were?"

What kind of harm? Some, he said, may skip their flight or buy a more expensive ticket to fly later after they fetched their ID. None of this applies to foreign travel where passports are always required. And travelers' names are still checked against the government's No-Fly list, the TSA says.

The TSA spokeswoman told me that our personal security is not harmed by those, like me, who fly without an ID. Bags are screened. Bodies are checked for weapons.

So actually, it's all about knowing what the requirements are when you fly. And now you do.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Jun 07 - 01:34 PM

Fake Priest Arrested At Baptism

A Portugese baptism was disrupted when police stormed in to seize the fake priest conducting the service.

Just as the imposter was conducting his blessing police entered and arrested him, a member of the church was quoted by local daily Jornal de Noticias as saying.

A spokeswoman for the Portuguese police said the 34-year-old man was arrested on June 16th suspicion of impersonating a priest and had several similar arrest warrants to his name.

Spokeswoman Amelia Moutinho said, "We had to interrupt the religious ceremony to identify the suspect." The baby was later baptized by a real priest.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Jun 07 - 03:47 AM

The previously announced [see post here at 22 Jun 07 - 01:10 AM] release of the CIA "Family Jewels" has occured. Various reports and editorials are online, including at:

CIA opens the book on a shady past

Declassified 'family jewels' detail assassination plots, break-ins, wiretaps
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 3:25 p.m. CT June 26, 2007

As this and other articles editorialize mildly but don't report much that's very specific, after extensive research (i.e. I read my local newsrag yesterday) I found that the important thing to know is that you can view the actual released pages at:

http://www.foia.cia.gov/

Actually, at this last link, you can view a couple of CIA FOI releases, and lots of propaganda about how "citizen friendly" the CIA is.

The glitch is that apparently the most recent release can only be viewed one page at a time, and there reportedly are about 700 (one report said 670?) pages. There is an input box where you can skip to a specific page, so if someone finds something that actually is interesting - PLEASE REPORT A PAGE NUMBER so the rest of us lazy b...ds can go look.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Jun 07 - 04:17 PM

From: The Register

Man Diagnosed With Heavy Metal Addiction


By Jan Libbenga → Published Wednesday 20th June 2007 12:52 GMT

The lifestyle of 42-year-old dishwasher Roger Tullgren from Hässleholm in southern Sweden has been classified as a disability by the Swedish Employment Service, which has agreed to pay part of Tullgren's salary, and his new boss has given him special dispensation to play loud music at work.

According to Swedish online newspaper The Local, Tullgren first developed an interest in heavy metal when his older brother bought a Black Sabbath album in 1971. Since then, Tullgren is a classic (albeit softly spoken) heavy metal head with tattoos and skull and crossbones jewellery. Last year he attended almost 300 heavy metal shows, while playing bass and guitar in two rock bands, including Silverland.

Tullgren says he has always had difficulty holding down a job, mainly because he is absent most of the time.

Psychologists decided Tullgren's obsession is nothing less than an addiction, which puts him in a difficult situation in the labour market. Tullgren said he has been fighting for recognition for a long time.

Many occupational psychologists in Sweden, however, are totally baffled by the decision. "If somebody has a gambling addiction, we don't send them down to the racetrack. We try to cure the addiction," deputy employment director Henrietta Stein for the Skåne region told The Local. ®

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Jun 07 - 08:51 AM

Hell, I was really confused for a few seconds over the Joe Kennedy annulment thing. I immediately thought of clan patriarch Joe, father of JFK, RFK and Ted. Was wondering if the Pope was planning on excommunicating the old bootlegger post mortem. But I'm awake now and it's all better.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Jun 07 - 01:33 AM

Thus far, MSNBC thinks the big news of the day is:

1. Paris Hilton gets out of jail on Tuesday.

2. The Vatican revoked the annulment of Joe Kennedy's first marriage.

I can't see that either of these needs a big diversion(?).

Or maybe they're part of the diversion.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jun 07 - 11:41 PM

That's the question of the hour, all right, John!


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Jun 07 - 01:13 AM

The CIA release obviously is going to cause a lot of commotion amongst the media.

My question is:

What are they doing that merits a distraction of this magnitude at this time.?

What are we supposed to not notice while everyone's pointing fingers over this release?

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Jun 07 - 01:10 AM

WP: CIA to air decades of dirty laundry

Assassination attempts, domestic spying among the abuses

By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus
The Washington Post
Updated: 10:52 p.m. CT June 21, 2007

The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency's worst illegal abuses -- the so-called "family jewels" documenting a quarter-century of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday.

The documents, to be publicly released next week, also include accounts of break-ins and theft, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, wiretaps and surveillance of journalists, and a series of "unwitting" tests on U.S. civilians, including the use of drugs.

"Most of it is unflattering, but it is CIA's history," Hayden said in a speech to a conference of foreign policy historians. The documents have been sought for decades by historians, journalists and conspiracy theorists and have been the subject of many fruitless Freedom of Information Act requests.

In anticipation of the CIA's release, the National Security Archive at George Washington University yesterday published a separate set of documents from January 1975 detailing internal government deliberations of the abuses. Those documents portray a rising sense of panic within the administration of President Gerald R. Ford that what then-CIA Director William E. Colby called "skeletons" in the CIA's closet had begun to be revealed in news accounts.

An article about the CIA's infiltration of antiwar groups, published by New York Times reporter Seymour Hersh in December 1974, was "just the tip of the iceberg," then-Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger warned Ford, according to a Jan. 3 memorandum of their conversation.
Kissinger warned that if other operations were divulged, "blood will flow. For example, Robert Kennedy personally managed the operation on the assassination of [Cuban President Fidel] Castro." Kennedy was the attorney general from 1961 to 1964.

Worried that the disclosures could lead to criminal prosecutions, Kissinger added that "when the FBI has a hunting license into the CIA, this could end up worse for the country than Watergate," the scandal that led to the fall of the Nixon administration the previous year.

In a meeting at which Colby detailed the worst abuses -- after telling the president "we have a 25-year old institution which has done some things it shouldn't have" -- Ford said he would appoint a presidential commission to look into the matter. "We don't want to destroy but to preserve the CIA. But we want to make sure that illegal operations and those outside the [CIA] charter don't happen," Ford said.

Treasure-trove of documents

Most of the major incidents and operations in the reports to be released next week were revealed in varying detail during congressional investigations that led to widespread intelligence reforms and increased oversight. But the treasure-trove of CIA documents, generated as the Vietnam War wound down and agency involvement in Nixon's "dirty tricks" political campaign began to be revealed, is expected to provide far more comprehensive accounts, written by the agency itself.

The reports, known collectively by historians and CIA officials as the "family jewels," were initially produced in response to a 1973 request by then-CIA Director James R. Schlesinger. Alarmed by press accounts of CIA involvement in Watergate under his predecessor, Schlesinger asked the agency's employees to inform him of all operations that were "outside" the agency's legal charter.

This process was unprecedented at the agency, where only a few officials had previously been privy to the scope of its illegal activities. Schlesinger collected the reports, some of which dated to the 1950s, in a folder that was inherited by his successor, Colby, in September of that year.

But it was not until Hersh's article that Colby took the file to the White House. The National Security Archive release included a six-page summary of a conversation on Jan. 3, 1975, in which Colby briefed the Justice Department for the first time on the extent of the "skeletons."

Operations listed in the report began in 1953, when the CIA's counterintelligence staff started a 20-year program to screen and in some cases open mail between the United States and the Soviet Union passing through a New York airport. A similar program in San Francisco intercepted mail to and from China from 1969 to 1972. Under its charter, the CIA is prohibited from domestic operations.
Colby told Ford that the program had collected four letters to actress and antiwar activist Jane Fonda and said the entire effort was "illegal, and we stopped it in 1973."

Among several new details, the summary document reveals a 1969 program about CIA efforts against "the international activities of radicals and black militants." Undercover CIA agents were placed inside U.S. peace groups and sent abroad as credentialed members to identify any foreign contacts. This came at a time when the Soviet Union was suspected of financing and influencing U.S. domestic organizations.

The program included "information on the domestic activities" of the organizations and led to the accumulation of 10,000 American names, which Colby told Silberman were retained "as a result of the tendency of bureaucrats to retain paper whether they needed it or acted on it or not," according to the summary memo.

CIA surveillance of Michael Getler, then The Washington Post's national security reporter, was conducted between October 1971 and April 1972 under direct authorization by then-Director Richard Helms, the memo said. Getler had written a story published on Oct. 18, 1971, sparked by what Colby called "an obvious intelligence leak," headlined "Soviet Subs Are Reported Cuba-Bound."

Getler, who is now the ombudsman for the Public Broadcasting Service, said yesterday that he learned of the surveillance in 1975, when The Post published an article based on a secret report by congressional investigators. The story said that the CIA used physical surveillance against "five Americans" and listed Getler, the late columnist Jack Anderson and Victor Marchetti, then a former CIA employee who had just written a book critical of the agency.

"I never knew about it at the time, although it was a full 24 hours a day with teams of people following me, looking for my sources," Getler said. He said he went to see Colby afterward, with Washington lawyer Joseph Califano. Getler recalled, "Colby said it happened under Helms and apologized and said it wouldn't happen again."
Personal surveillance was conducted on Anderson and three of his staff members, including Britt Hume, now with Fox News, for two months in 1972 after Anderson wrote of the administration's "tilt toward Pakistan." The 1972 surveillance of Marchetti was carried out "to determine contacts with CIA employees," the summary said.

'A very different time'

CIA monitoring and infiltration of antiwar dissident groups took place between 1967 and 1971 at a time when the public was turning against the Vietnam War. Agency officials "covertly monitored" groups in the Washington area "who were considered to pose a threat to CIA installations." Some of the information "might have been distributed to the FBI," the summary said. Other "skeletons" listed in the summary included:

The confinement by the CIA of a Russian defector, suspected by the CIA as a possible "fake," in Maryland and Virginia safe houses for two years, beginning in 1964. Colby speculated that this might be "a violation of the kidnapping laws." The "very productive" 1963 wiretapping of two columnists -- Robert Allen and Paul Scott -- whose conversations included talks with 12 senators and six congressmen. Break-ins by the CIA's office of security at the homes of one current and one former CIA official suspected of retaining classified documents. CIA-funded testing of American citizens, "including reactions to certain drugs."

The CIA documents scheduled for release next week, Hayden said yesterday, "provide a glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency."

Barred by secrecy restrictions from correcting "misinformation," he said, the CIA is at the mercy of the press. "Unfortunately, there seems to be an instinct among some in the media today to take a few pieces of information, which may or may not be accurate, and run with them to the darkest corner of the room," Hayden said.
Hayden's speech and some questions that followed evoked more recent criticism of the intelligence community, which has been accused illegal wiretapping, infiltration of antiwar groups, and kidnapping and torturing terrorism suspects.

"It's surely part of [Hayden's] program now to draw a bright line with the past," said National Security Archive Director Thomas S. Blanton. "But it's uncanny how the government keeps dipping into the black bag." Newly revealed details of ancient CIA operations, Blanton said, "are pretty resonant today."

© 2007 The Washington Post Company

Check frequently as the information is published, to see if your name's there.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jun 07 - 12:56 AM

What you want to be the Herman Munster story makes it onto Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me! this week?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Jun 07 - 12:45 AM

Not fiction? Herman Munster's identity stolen

Thieves apparently didn't realize he is a fictional 1960s TV character

By Ted Bridis
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:51 p.m. CT June 20, 2007

WASHINGTON - Did Internet thieves steal Herman Munster's MasterCard number? Crooks in an underground chat room for selling stolen credit card numbers and personal consumer information offered pilfered data purportedly about Herman Munster, the 1960s Frankenstein-like character from "The Munsters" TV sitcom.

The thieves apparently didn't realize Munster was a fictional TV character and dutifully offered to sell Munster's personal details — accurately listing his home address from the television series as 1313 Mocking Bird Lane — and what appeared to be his MasterCard number. Munster's birth date was listed as Aug. 15, 1964, suspiciously close to the TV series' original air date in September 1964.

CardCops Inc., the Malibu, Calif., Internet security company that quietly recorded details of the illicit but wayward transaction, surmised that a Munsters fan knowledgeable about the show deliberately provided the bogus data.

"The identity thief thought it was good data," said Dan Clements, the company's president.

Clements said evidence indicates the thief, known online as "Supra," was operating overseas. "They really stumble over our culture. He's probably not watching any reruns of 'The Munsters' on TV Land."

Herman Munster was portrayed by Fred Gwynne, who died in July 1993.
"Phishing" thieves often trick consumers into revealing financial secrets by sending e-mail requests that appear to originate from banks. A consumer's financial details can be worth $4 and $40 among online thieves, who can use the information to open fraudulent credit accounts.

CardCops eavesdrops on conversations among thieves in underground Internet chat rooms to monitor for stolen credit card numbers being sold or traded. It offers monitoring services to alert consumers whose information is compromised by hackers.

© 2007 The Associated Press.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 12:34 PM

Tokyo - Japan has returned to using the prewar name for the island of Iwo Jima - site of one of World War II's most horrific battles - at the urging of its original inhabitants, who want to reclaim an identity they say has been hijacked by high-profile movies like Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima." The new name, Iwo To, was adopted Monday by the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute in consultation with Japan's coast guard.

Surviving islanders evacuated during the war praised the move, but others said it cheapens the memory of a brutal campaign that today is inextricably linked to the words Iwo Jima.

Back in 1945, the small, volcanic island was the vortex of the fierce World War II battle immortalized by the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press showing Marines raising the American flag on the islet's Mount Suribachi.

Retired Marine Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, who was a 24-year-old captain in the regiment that raised the flag on Mount Suribachi, was surprised and upset by the news.

"Frankly, I don't like it. That name is so much a part of our tradition, our legacy," said Haynes.

Haynes, 87, heads the Combat Veterans of Iwo Jima, a group of about 600 veterans that travels to the island every year for a reunion. He is working on a book about the battle called "We Walk by Faith: The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Battle of Iwo Jima." He doesn't plan to change the name.

"It was Iwo Jima to us when we took it," said Haynes. "We'll recognize whatever the Japanese want to call it but we'll stick to Iwo Jima." Before the war, the isolated spit of land was called Iwo To - pronounced "ee-woh-toh" - by the 1,000 or so people who lived there. In Japanese, that name looks and means the same as Iwo Jima - Sulfur Island - but it has a different sound.

The civilians were evacuated in 1944 as U.S. forces advanced across the Pacific. Some Japanese navy officers who moved in to fortify the island mistakenly called it Iwo Jima, and the name stuck. After the war, civilians weren't allowed to return and the island was put to exclusive military use by both the U.S. and Japan, cementing its identity.

Locals were never happy the name Iwo Jima took root. But the last straw came this year with the release of Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Flags of Our Fathers," war films that only reinforced the misnomer.

In March, Ogasawara, the municipality that administers Iwo To and neighboring islands, responded by adopting a resolution making Iwo To the official name. Ogasawara residents and descendants of Iwo To evacuees petitioned the central government to follow suit.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: frogprince
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 10:23 AM

"I can't help,
falling in love, with, you..."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 09:32 AM

Naked couple die from S.C. rooftop fall

June 20, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. --Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths.

The bodies were found on the road by a passing cabdriver around 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex. Their identities were not released.

"It's too early to rule out anything," Columbia police Sgt. Florence McCants said, but McCants said a preliminary investigation didn't show any sign of foul play.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 12:00 PM

CDC warns that antiques, such as clocks and thermometers, can pose mercury hazard
June 19, 2007 link

ALBANY, New York - Careful with that antique clock. It could pose a mercury hazard. The silvery, skittering, and toxic liquid can be found in some antiques. Mirrors can be backed with mercury and tin; Clock pendulums might be weighted with embedded vials of mercury; and barometers, thermometers and lamps may have mercury in their bases for ballast.

The problem is that mercury in old items can leak, particularly as seals age or when the items are moved, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ask Ann Smith, whose heirloom clock's pendulum leaked mercury onto the carpet of her gift store in rural Delhi, New York, as a cleaner moved it. An attempt to vacuum the tiny silver balls off the carpet only made things worse, requiring a hazardous materials team to be dispatched to Parker House Gifts and Accessories last summer. "I didn't really think it was the hazard that it became," Smith said. "I grew up in the days when you played with the mercury that spilled out of a thermometer and nobody knew it was a problem."

Exposure to high levels of mercury can cause damage to the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system. Even the few ounces found in some antiques can be dangerous. Aptly nicknamed quicksilver, it's hard to clean up, and can become an inhalation hazard if it vaporizes.

Dr. Wanda Lizak Wells of the New York state Department of Health, co-author of the study, suggests getting professional help if even a few ounces spill from an old barometer.

And never use a vacuum. "That is one of the worst things that people can do," she said. The mercury can be heated up by the vacuum motor and vaporize. That was the mistake Smith's clock cleaner made at her shop near the Catskill Mountains. The vacuum was discarded as hazardous waste.

The amount of mercury in a fever thermometer, however, can be safely cleaned without expert assistance as long as proper steps are taken, like wearing old clothes and rubber gloves, according to Wells.

The study highlighted five other cases from 2000 through 2006 in New York state, which collects hazardous response data in a way that allowed researchers to identify cases involving antiques.

Among other examples in the report: A house in Long Island was cleared after two cups of mercury spilled onto a carpet from an antique clock that tipped over. Four workers at a New York City antique store were sent to the hospital for evaluation when mercury spilled from an antique clock column. A hazardous materials team was called to clean up more than an ounce of mercury from a Syracuse road after a spill involving an antique lamp.

Researchers said none of the incidents caused acute health problems. The CDC report noted that about a dozen states restrict the sale of products with mercury. Antiques experts say there are relatively few items that still contain it.

Among those that do are old barometers and thermometers, which account for only a small slice of the market.

Donald R. McLaughlin, a veteran antiques dealer in Ohio and president of the World Antique Dealers Association, said many such pendulum vials broke decades ago.

"There aren't many left," he said. "I rarely see them anymore, and I'm out every day."

Still, researchers urge people to inspect old items containing mercury to make sure the seals are tight. They recommend removing or replacing mercury components when possible, though they warn never to drain the mercury. When moving a piece containing mercury, researchers suggest placing it in a leak-proof container. And moving slowly.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 09:09 PM

Britain, U.S. smash pedophile ring

700 investigated; 31 children rescued as authorities shut global operation

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:11 a.m. CT June 18, 2007

LONDON - British police, aided by U.S. authorities, have smashed a global Internet pedophile ring that broadcast live-streamed videos of children being abused, investigating more than 700 suspects worldwide and rescuing 31 children in a 10-month probe, officials said Monday.

Some 200 suspects are based in Britain, said the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center, a government agency. Of the 31 children, some only a few months old, more than 15 were in Britain, the center said. British authorities would not give a breakdown of where the other suspects or children came from, but said more than half the suspects in Britain were already being prosecuted.

The ring was traced to an Internet chat room called "Kids the Light of Our Lives" that featured images of children being subjected to horrific sexual abuse, including the streaming live videos.
Authorities said they used surveillance tactics normally used against terrorism suspects and drug traffickers to infiltrate the pedophile ring at its highest level.

Officials said the United States, Canada and Australia were Britain's main partners in the investigation, which involved agencies from 35 countries. The international investigation dated back to August 2006 until the ringleader's sentencing Monday.

The international probe began after Canadian officials — conducting their own long-running pedophile investigation — tipped off authorities in London about a possible British link.

A Canadian official said authorities there have arrested 24 Canadians and rescued seven Canadian children since late 2005.

[I'll omit the rest of the article, as MSNBC should keep the article up for a reasonable time. I just don't care to read it again to proof the post...]

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 10:58 PM

HONEST GUYS, I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY!

F-16s stop 'hostile takeover' pilot

Turns out he was talking about business, not terrorism

The Associated Press
Updated: 2:05 p.m. CT June 13, 2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - F-16s intercepted a small plane after officials misinterpreted a phrase uttered by the pilot as his aircraft flew over military airspace: "hostile takeover."

The pilot was talking about business, the plane's owner said. But a frantic air traffic controller couldn't confirm that because the pilot had turned off his radio, said Maj. Roger Yates of the Clay County Sheriff's Department.

Within minutes, federal aviation authorities scrambled the fighter jets to intercept the plane Monday evening just outside of Oklahoma City and escort it to the Clay County airport near Mosby.

Once it was on the ground, more than a dozen armed federal agents and tactical deputies surrounded the plane. Federal authorities, who interviewed the pilot for two hours, said Tuesday that there was no threat to anyone and no charges would be filed.

"People should be very careful in this heightened state of security about comments they make regarding airplanes and air traffic," said FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza.

The plane's owner, Dr. Kenneth E. Mann, said the pilot was heading back to Kansas City after dropping him off in Oklahoma, where Mann regularly travels to provide treatment at several hospitals. Neither he nor authorities would identify the pilot.

Authorities said the pilot was flying over Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma on his way back to the Kansas City area when he notified the air traffic tower at the air base that he was entering the base's airspace.

When asked what his destination was, the pilot said he preferred not to say because competitors could use such information to steal clients. He was not required to give a destination, Mann said. He said the pilot was concerned because he worked "in a hostile business environment."

The pilot was speaking about a "hostile takeover" of a company, Yates said.

Mann said FBI agents were at his home less than an hour after the incident.

"Mistakes happen," he said, "and in the times we live in after 9/11, it's better to overreact than not react at all."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 12:31 PM

Mexico City plans to legalize prostitution

Leftist lawmakers' bill is the latest in a string of liberal changes
Reuters: Updated: 9:57 p.m. CT June 13, 2007

Mexico City's leftist lawmakers plan to legalize prostitution, the latest step toward making the sprawling capital the most liberal in Latin America, following laws allowing abortion and same-sex unions.
Juan Bustos, a legislator with the leftist party that holds a majority in the city assembly, presented a bill this week to legalize sex work in the capital.

"This activity must be regulated, it can't just take place without control, without health support for the users or the workers," he said Wednesday.

Prostitution is widespread both on seedy street corners and in swanky brothels in Mexico, and authorities frequently turn a blind eye to it. The lack of control has allowed child prostitution to flourish in the city, Bustos said.

The legislator, who heads the assembly's human rights commission, said he hoped the bill would be voted on within a month. He said there were no clear estimates about the number of sex workers in the city, but that it could be as high as 50,000.

The left-wing Party of Democratic Revolution runs Mexico City's government and has a majority in the city assembly.

Controversial changes

Since the new legislative period began last year, the assembly has pushed through laws approving same-sex unions and abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The changes have outraged the Roman Catholic Church and conservative sectors of society and provoked Pope Benedict to threaten politicians with excommunication if they supported abortion. The abortion law has been challenged by the federal government in Mexico's Supreme Court.
Most of Latin America is strongly Catholic and while many people disagree with the church on issues like contraception, few places in the region have gone as far as to legalize abortion, considered by the church to be a grave sin.

Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Mexico City archdiocese, said the Catholic Church was concerned the city government was spending time passing laws that affected minorities rather than resolving issues like crime and water shortages.

"We have problems of drug dealers in front of schools and churches, and they do nothing to stop it. We have problems of family violence, a whole series of truly urgent situations," he said.

He said the church also disagreed with language in the bill describing prostitution as "dignified work."

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 10:29 AM

Bork versus Bork

Published: June 14, 2007

There are many versions of the cliché that "a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged," and Robert Bork has just given rise to another. A tort plaintiff, it turns out, is a critic of tort lawsuits who has slipped and fallen at the Yale Club.

Mr. Bork, of course, is the former federal appeals court judge who was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987 but not confirmed by the Senate. He has long been famous for his lack of sympathy for people who go to court with claims of race or sex discrimination, or other injustices. He has gotten particularly exercised about accident victims driving up the cost of business by filing lawsuits. In an op-ed article, he once complained that "juries dispense lottery-like windfalls," and compared the civil justice system to "Barbary pirates."

That was before Mr. Bork spoke at the Yale Club last year, and fell on his way to the dais, injuring his leg and bumping his head. Mr. Bork is not merely suing the club for failing to provide a set of stairs and a handrail between the floor and the dais. He has filed a suit that is so aggressive about the law that, if he had not filed it himself, we suspect he might regard it as, well, piratical.

Mr. Bork puts the actual damages for his apparently non-life-threatening injuries (after his fall, he was reportedly able to go on and deliver his speech) at "in excess of $1,000,000." He is also claiming punitive damages. And he is demanding that the Yale Club pay his attorney's fees.
(NY Times)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 14 Jun 07 - 10:00 AM

PETERBOROUGH, Ontario -- A judge has ruled that a 24-year-old Canadian man is not allowed to have a girlfriend for the next three years.

The ruling came after Steven Cranley pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several charges stemming from an assault on a former girlfriend.

Cranley, who has been diagnosed with a dependent personality disorder, attacked his girlfriend in an argument after their breakup.

He tried to prevent her from phoning the police by cutting her phone cord and punched and kicked her. He finally stabbed himself with a butcher knife when police did arrive, puncturing his aorta.

Doctors say Cranley has difficulty coping with rejection and runs a high risk to re-offend if he becomes involved in another intimate relationship.

Justice Rhys Morgan said Cranley "cannot form a romantic relationship of an intimate nature with a female person.

"That is the only way I can see the protection of the public is in place until you get the counseling you need."

Cranley had already served 146 days in pre-trail custody, which Morgan said was enough jail time in this case.

His lawyer says the no girlfriend order is the first of its kind that he has encountered.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 04:51 PM

Ah but Stilly, with MSNBC one really doesn't know.

It may have been removed "for political reasons" or merely to make room for another popup/insert/Flash Ad from a paying entrepreneur.

[Another rhetorical comment, mainly because some of these "pages" are getting incredibly long and we need to break them up with a few short posts occasionally.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 03:26 PM

I did, John. I don't see a statement that says "Rice asked that this be removed" or "Gates follows in Rumsfeld's footsteps, tampers with media," etc.

It was more rhetorical, anyway. We know who had it removed.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 03:05 PM

Check the other thread?

It appears that there has been a whole lot of bear-baiting about "giving weapons to the enemy" elsewhere around the world.

This one article is the only thing I've seen thus far in "US" press about it, so one would suspect that we're just "not supposed to know?"

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 11:40 AM

I wonder who pulled strings to have it removed?

Thanks, John.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 07:46 AM

Preceding post linked at:

BS: Arming Select Sunnis

for those curious.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 07:31 AM

The following appeared yesterday at MSNBC but is no longer there. It also does not appear to be at the Washington Post site where it originally appeared, and is not included in a search on the writer's articles. It may be applicable to discussion in another thread here, so:

Originally at WP: U.S. unit allies with ex-insurgents [link dead as of this posting]

Soldiers in Baghdad give police powers, guns to former insurgents
By Joshua Partlow
The Washington Post
Updated: 11:22 p.m. CT June 8, 2007

BAGHDAD, June 8 - The worst month of Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl's deployment in western Baghdad was finally drawing to a close. The insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq had unleashed bombings that killed 14 of his soldiers in May, a shocking escalation of violence for a battalion that had lost three soldiers in the previous six months while patrolling the Sunni enclave of Amiriyah. On top of that, the 41-year-old battalion commander was doubled up with a stomach flu when, late on May 29, he received a cellphone call that would change everything.
"We're going after al-Qaeda," a leading local imam said, Kuehl recalled. "What we want you to do is stay out of the way."
"Sheik, I can't do that. I can't just leave Amiriyah and let you go at it."
"Well, we're going to go."

Embracing one-time enemies

The week that followed revolutionized Kuehl's approach to fighting the insurgency and serves as a vivid example of a risky, and expanding, new American strategy of looking beyond the Iraqi police and army for help in controlling violent neighborhoods. The American soldiers in Amiriyah have allied themselves with dozens of Sunni militiamen who call themselves the Baghdad Patriots -- a group that American soldiers believe includes insurgents who have attacked them in the past -- in an attempt to drive out al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Americans have granted these gunmen the power of arrest, allowed the Iraqi army to supply them with ammunition, and fought alongside them in chaotic street battles.

To many American soldiers in Amiriyah, this nascent allegiance stands out as an encouraging development after months of grinding struggle. They liken the fighters to the minutemen of the American Revolution, painting them as neighbors taking the initiative to protect their families in the vacuum left by a failing Iraqi security force. In their first week of collaboration, the Baghdad Patriots and the Americans killed roughly 10 suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq members and captured 15, according to Kuehl, who said those numbers rivaled totals for the previous six months combined. He is now working to fashion the group into the beginnings of an Amiriyah police force, since the mainly Shiite police force refuses to work in the area.

"This is a defining moment for us," said Kuehl, who commands the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 1st Infantry Division.

'A deal with the devil'

But aligning Americans with fighters whose long-term agenda remains unclear -- with regard to either Americans or the Shiite-led government -- is also a strategy born of desperation. It contradicts repeated declarations by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that no groups besides the Iraqi and American security forces are allowed to bear arms. And some American soldiers worry that standing up a Sunni militia could have dire consequences if the group turns on its U.S. partners.

"We have made a deal with the devil," said an intelligence officer in the battalion.

The U.S. effort to recruit indigenous forces to defend local communities has been taken furthest in Anbar province, where tribal leaders have encouraged thousands of their kinsmen to join the police. In the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, about 2,000 people unaffiliated with security forces are now working with Americans at village checkpoints and gun positions.

Kuehl said he recognizes the risks in dealing with an unofficial force but decided the intelligence that the gunmen provided on al-Qaeda in Iraq was too valuable to pass up.

"Hell, nothing else has worked in Amiriyah," he said.

Taking on al-Qaeda

It was about 2 a.m. on May 30 when Capt. Andy Wilbraham, a 33-year-old company commander, first heard military chatter on his tank radio about rumors that local gunmen would take on al-Qaeda. Later that morning, a noncommissioned officer turned to him with the news: "They're uprising."

"It was just a shock it happened so fast," Wilbraham said.
By noon, loudspeakers in mosques throughout Amiriyah were broadcasting a call to war: "It is time to stand up and fight" al-Qaeda. Groups of men, some in black ski masks carrying AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, descended on the area around the Maluki mosque, a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq base of operations, and launched an attack. For the most part, Kuehl's soldiers stood back, trying to contain the violence and secure other mosques, and let the gunmen do their work.

The next day, a Thursday, al-Qaeda counterattacked. Using machine guns and grenades, its fighters drove the militiamen south across several city blocks until they were holed up in the Firdas mosque, soldiers said. "I was getting reports every 10 minutes from one of the imams: 'They're at this point. We're surrounded. We're getting attacked. They're at the mosque,' " Kuehl recalled. He dispatched Stryker attack vehicles to protect the militiamen.

"We basically pushed that one back just by force," said Capt. Kevin Salge, 31, who led the Stryker team of about 60 men to the mosque. "We got in there. Our guns are much bigger guns. Then freedom fighters, Baghdad Patriot guys, started firing."

Spec. Chadrick Domino, 23, was with a Stryker unit that drove north of the mosque to set up a perimeter to prevent others from joining the fight. About noon, he was the first member of his team to walk into a residential courtyard. He may not have had time to see the machine gunner who killed him.

'We need them and they need us'

To the Americans, the fighters on both sides appeared nearly identical. They wore similar sweat suits and carried the same kind of machine guns. "Now we've got kind of a mess on our hands," Salge remembered thinking. "Because we've got a lot of armed guys running all over the place, and it's making it very hard for us to identify which side is which."

By afternoon, the Americans had secured the Firdas mosque and were helping treat the wounded who lay in the courtyard. Kuehl drove out from his headquarters to meet with the leaders of the militiamen and work out the terms that would guide their collaboration in coming days. Kuehl agreed to help if the militiamen did not torture their captives or kill people who were not affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq. The militiamen agreed to hold prisoners for no more than 24 hours before releasing them or handing them over to the Americans. They in turn wanted the Americans not to interfere and to provide weapons.

"We need them and they need us," Kuehl said. "Al-Qaeda's stronger than them. We provide capabilities that they don't have. And the locals know who belongs and who doesn't. It doesn't matter how long we're here, I'll never know. And we'll never fit in."

Experience in the ranks

The militiamen, who call themselves freedom fighters, are led by a 35-year-old former Iraqi army captain and used-car salesman who goes by Saif or Abu Abed. In an interview, he said he had devoted the past five months to collecting intelligence on al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters in Amiriyah, whose ranks have grown as they have fled to Baghdad and away from the new tribal policemen in Anbar province. He has said his own group numbers over 100 people, but American soldiers estimate it has closer to 40. At least six were killed and more than 10 wounded in the first week of collaboration with Americans.

"These guys looked like a military unit, the way they moved," Wilbraham said. "Hand and arm signals. Stop. Take a knee. Weapons up."
Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, a leader of the Sunni Dulaimi tribe who works in Anbar and Baghdad, said many of the fighters in Amiriyah belong to the Islamic Army, which includes former officers from Saddam Hussein's military and is more secular than other insurgent groups. The fighters have been organized and encouraged by local imams.
"Let's be honest, the enemy now is not the Americans, for the time being," Suleiman said. "It's al-Qaeda and the [Shiite] militias. Those are our enemies."

Equipping the new troops

The American soldiers initially asked their new allies to wear white headbands and ride around in the Strykers to point out al-Qaeda households. But the joint patrols didn't work because the local fighters were disoriented after riding in the enclosed Strykers and couldn't find the right houses, Salge said.

Before long, he added, "people everywhere were wearing headbands, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of them were al-Qaeda."

The Americans then supplied reflective armbands that could be seen from their vehicle scopes, and had the fighters ride in Iraqi army Humvees instead of Strykers. They also gave the fighters plastic flex cuffs, to subdue captives, and flares -- red to use if they are in trouble and green to signal when a raid is over.

On June 1, a Friday, the fighters directed the soldiers to a large weapons cache. Sniper rifles, Russian machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition were stashed in a secret room, accessible only by removing a circuit-breaker box and crawling through a hole. While the Americans were tallying the haul, an explosive detonated outside, wounding several soldiers, including one whose feet were blown off.

Lingering suspicion

In return for their services, the militiamen had one request: Give us the weapons in the cache.
"Who are these guys really?" Salge remembered worrying. He told them to talk to the battalion commander.
Kuehl said later that he would probably supply weapons to the militiamen, but in limited amounts. The fighters have given the Americans identification, including fingerprints, addresses and retinal scans, so the soldiers believe they could track down anyone who betrayed them. "What I don't want them to do is wither on the vine," Kuehl said.

On Wednesday, a week after the fighting broke out, the Islamic Army issued a statement declaring a cease-fire with al-Qaeda in Iraq because the groups did not want to spill more Muslim blood or impede "the project of jihad." American soldiers played down the statement and suggested it did not reflect the sentiments of the men they are working with in Amiriyah.

Later that night, Wilbraham led his tank unit on an overnight mission to allow the militiamen to arrest seven al-Qaeda in Iraq members. The raids were to begin at 1 a.m., but two hours later the tanks were waiting on deserted streets, with no sign of the group. Then Wilbraham was told the militiamen had called off the raids.
The tank driver, Spec. Estevan Altamirano, 25, expressed skepticism about his new partners.
"Pretty soon they run out of al-Qaeda, and then they're going to turn on us," he said. "I don't want to get used to them and then I have an AK behind my back. I'm not going to trust them at all."

© 2007 The Washington Post Company

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:18 AM

What Would Jesus Drive?

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 02:44 PM

SOWETO, South Africa (Reuters Life!) - Jesus wants you to drive a brand new Nissan Navara 4x4. He'd also like you to live in a classy house, use the latest cell phone and wear the snappiest designer clothes.

That was the message from a recent Sunday sermon at the new Soweto branch of Brazil's huge Pentecostal-style Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG).

UCKG is expanding fast in Africa and bills its gleaming new cathedral in Soweto -- which seats 8,000 and has room for hundreds of plush cars in its vast underground car park -- as the biggest church on the continent.

UCKG's "prosperity gospel" message, which tells members to expect financial blessings from God as long as they give "sacrificially" when the collection plate comes around, is proving a hit in the world's poorest continent.

And it holds special resonance for the faithful of Soweto -- a sprawling township once gripped by violence and poverty and now home to a burgeoning black middle class.

"God doesn't want you to be poor and ashamed -- he wants you to drive a new car," the preacher at the new Soweto church yelled into a microphone, to delighted whoops from thousands.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jun 07 - 01:56 AM

Drought Uncovers Artifacts in Florida Lake
June 04, 2007
link
MIAMI - A drought that has bared parts of the bed of Florida's largest lake has exposed human bone fragments, pottery and even boats - and archaeologists are trying to evaluate the artifacts before water levels rise again.

Archaeologists said there have been no large-scale digs in Lake Okeechobee; most of the finds have been easily spotted along the surface, some by passers-by who called in what they found.

Palm Beach County Archaeologist Chris Davenport said scores of bone fragments ranging from only a few inches to 8 inches long have been spotted in Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake in the continental U.S., behind Lake Michigan. The lake is at its lowest level since record keeping began in 1932, at about 8.96 feet deep on Monday. That's about 4 to 5 feet below normal, exposing many areas for the first time in years.

"Right now, it's just a rush to identify things before they go back under water," said Chris Davenport, the archaeologist for Palm Beach County.

More than 17 sites have been identified in Palm Beach County's part of the lake in the last three months. They are scattered over miles of terrain. The drought has bared a rim around the lake up to a mile and a half wide at some points.

"It looks like it's part of one of the American Indian settlements that were there - people that were intentionally interred at some point," said State Archaeologist Ryan Wheeler.

The state has alerted the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes of the bones, but no decision has been made on their fate. No studies have been done on the human remains, but Wheeler said they likely were 500 to 1,000 years old, or possibly older.

Further examination will be necessary to more accurately pinpoint the bones' age, though he noted they show extensive wear, he said.

An examination of the style of pottery found in the lake bed might do more to tell of the tribes who lived in the area than the bones themselves, because the human remains are so fragmented, Davenport said. No complete skeletons, skulls or other large fragments have been found.

However, the boats uncovered are relatively intact. They include a steam-powered dredge believed to have been used to dig a canal; the remnants of a steam ship scattered across a mile and a half; a wooden, motorized canoe; an early 1900s fishing boat with a large one-cylinder engine; and a fifth boat so badly decayed its purpose has yet to be determined.

Wheeler said one of the vessels is 50 to 60 feet long.

Archaeologists have left most of the discoveries where they were found, though an anchor, bottles, tools and some pottery have been excavated from the huge lake.

It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience to examine the dry lake bed, Davenport said. But with thieves also interested his discoveries, he is yearning for the lake to rise again.

"I'm hoping that the rains come back," he said. "Once it's covered, it's protected."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Jun 07 - 11:32 AM


Hustler offers $1 million for sex scandal

Flynt seeks evidence of illicit encounter with high-ranking official

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:32 p.m. CT June 3, 2007

WASHINGTON - Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt offered $1 million Sunday to anyone who could provide proof of an illicit sexual encounter with a high-ranking government official.

In a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post, Flynt asked for "documented evidence of illicit sexual or intimate relations with a Congressperson, Senator or other prominent officeholder." He said he would pay up to $1 million for material that could be verified and published in Hustler.

Flynt ran a similar ad in October 1998, during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to the impeachment of President Clinton.

The publisher took credit for the demise of Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., who admitted he had had extramarital affairs after word got out that Flynt was investigating him. Livingston announced his resignation in December 1998, days before he had been expected to become speaker of the House.

© 2007 The Associated Press

Allright folks. Time to get acquainted with your public officials, and keep those recorders and cameras charged up.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Jun 07 - 08:31 AM

A little bit lengthy to post the entire article, but it really should be read completely before getting too far afield with snap comments:

WP: Does virtual reality need a sheriff?

[extracted]

Reach of law enforcement is tested when online fantasy games turn sordid

By Alan Sipress
The Washington Post
Updated: 1:30 a.m. CT June 2, 2007

UNITED NATIONS - Earlier this year, one animated character in Second Life, a popular online fantasy world, allegedly raped another character.

Some Internet bloggers dismissed the simulated attack as nothing more than digital fiction. But police in Belgium, according to newspapers there, opened an investigation into whether a crime had been committed. No one has yet been charged.

Then last month, authorities in Germany announced that they were looking into a separate incident involving virtual abuse in Second Life after receiving pictures of an animated child character engaging in simulated sex with an animated adult figure. Though both characters were created by adults, the activity could run afoul of German laws against child pornography, prosecutors said.

[end extract]

Japanese authorities have already tried and convicted one "virtual criminal" for muggings in a "virtual world." (He was selling the "virtual property" he stole in the real world.)

The FBI, at the invitation of "Second Life" created "investigator avatars" and toured the virtual casinos to make sure no laws were being broken.

etc.

Yes, they really are serious, and concerned, about all this. ... I think ... maybe ... or ... ?????

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 07 - 12:32 PM

This one really turns my stomach.



Police: Man tried to buy 9-year-old for sex
Star-Telegram link   

DALLAS -- Kevin Russell Moake was having a difficult time deciding whether he wanted to "rent" a 9-year-old girl for sex or buy her, police said. His main concern? Where he would stash his underage acquisition, police said.

The 49-year-old Flower Mound man was arrested on the spot at a fast-food restaurant after he gave an undercover Dallas police officer $100 to spend the night with the nonexistent Mexican child Wednesday, police said. The cash was a down payment in a "rent-to-own" scheme, said Lt. C.L. Williams, head of the Dallas Police Department's child exploitation unit. Moake could not be reached for comment. The sting has left police officers horrified.

"It really speaks volumes about what these criminals think," Williams said. "For him to take a cold call from someone and think he could buy sex with a child is almost mind-boggling."

Moake was in the Dallas County Jail late Thursday on suspicion of attempting to traffic in humans and attempting sexual performance with a child -- second- and third-degree felonies. His bail was set at $100,000.

Dallas police said Moake did not have a criminal history in Dallas County, and public records do not reflect a criminal history in Tarrant County. Moake has worked for several communications companies. He was married as of 2003 and has at least four children ages 11 to 19, public records indicate. The operation began after police learned about noon Wednesday that Moake was trying to buy a child for sex, Williams said.

An undercover officer telephoned Moake and told him that a girl from Mexico was available, Williams said. Initially, Moake was going to buy the girl for about $2,000, but he became indecisive because he did not have a place to keep her, Williams said. Moake decided to "rent-to-own" the girl, Williams said.

During the negotiations, Moake asked the undercover officer at the other end of the phone line, "You aren't police, are you?" and laughed, Williams said.

The deal went down less than 12 hours after police began investigating. Moake initially agreed to meet the undercover officer at a hotel on Walnut Hill Lane but changed his mind. Instead, he met the undercover officer about 11:45 p.m. in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant near Love Field, Williams said. Moake handed the undercover officer five $20 bills and officers took him into custody.

"This really says something about what motivates people," Williams said. "They'll risk their family, home, job and reputation just because they are so blinded by their one desire. It's a scary thought."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 31 May 07 - 06:01 PM

EVERY month, the International Crisis Group makes predictions it hopes won't come true. The non-profit organisation, which has its base in Brussels, Belgium, monitors regions where conflict is brewing. By tracking precursors of armed struggle, such as political instability, it raises awareness about looming wars in the hope of stopping conflicts before they begin. And as of this month, it will start talking about whether to include another variable in its analyses: climate change.

The discussions come after a wave of interest in the link between climate change and conflict. Last month, a group of retired US admirals and generals said global warming would act as a "threat multiplier", with events such as droughts toppling unstable governments and unleashing conflict. The UN Security Council has devoted time to the matter, and media reports have described the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, as the first "climate change war", due to the decades of droughts that preceded the conflict.

"Global warming could act as a 'threat multiplier', with events such as droughts toppling unstable governments"

Marc Levy at Columbia University in New York, who is working with the ICG, is one of the few researchers who have been able to support these speculations with data. In a forthcoming paper, he and colleagues combine databases on civil wars and water availability to show that when rainfall is significantly below normal, the risk of a low-level conflict escalating to a full-scale civil war approximately doubles in the following year.

Parts of Nepal that witnessed fighting during the 2002 Maoist insurgency, for example, had suffered worse droughts in preceding years than regions that were conflict-free. Although Levy is not sure why the link should exist in this case, studies of other conflicts suggest explanations. Drought can cause food shortages, generating anger against governments, for example. "Semi-retired" armed groups may return to conflict in these situtations. ...

Article here.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: MMario
Date: 31 May 07 - 03:51 PM

Be nice if they could cut back on it; in recent days up to 95% of internet traffic is spam. Overall I believe it is about 87% of all internet traffic.

People don't realize that the amount *seen* is only the teensiest tip of the iceberg.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 31 May 07 - 12:27 PM

I sincerely hope so; pirating anothers CPU cycles should be as much a crime as, for example, tapping in to a water line paid on someone else's bill, running up another's phone charges for personal use, or draining another's electricity. It is more deeply criminal to deny others the fruitful use of a viable communication line by glutting it with irrelevancy and offensive, deceptive material, but that may be beyond legal definitions at present.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 May 07 - 10:47 AM

The prior civil lawsuits didn't seem to have much effect on this one.

It remains to be seen whether a conviction and appropriate sentencing will come out of this, but at least there seems to be some recognition that criminal charges can be applied.

If criminal convictions result, and a precedent is established that the activity is criminally antisocial, it may be a lot easier for governments to be more effectively involved. Until now, the only legal actions have been civil suits that have been enormously expensive to pursue and with virtually no ability to enforce the judgements obtained.

These suits may be a fairly significant step forward(?)

- or maybe not.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 07 - 09:41 AM

I bet this just gives a little more elbow room for the other 9 top offenders.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 May 07 - 08:03 AM

GOOD NEWS!!

SpammerArrested

1 of world's top 10 spammers arrested

Feds say computer users will notice decrease in junk e-mail following arrest

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:55 a.m. CT May 31, 2007

SEATTLE - A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.

Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.

"He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day."

A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that — even with four bank accounts seized by the government — he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer. He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp.

A public defender who represented him for Wednesday's hearing declined to comment.

Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called "zombies" because owners typically have no idea their machines have been infected.

He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else's Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face.

... ... ...

Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said.

People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said.

... ... ...

[some more at the link]

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 May 07 - 12:25 AM

Prisons offer sweat lodges to Indian inmates

Many permit ceremonial saunas; for some, security remains a major worry

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:57 p.m. CT May 29, 2007
ESTANCIA, N.M. - Melvin Martin was once seething behind bars. But the Navajo inmate says these days he is feeling relaxed, respectful and reconnected to his culture — all because of weekly sessions in a traditional Indian sweat lodge.

Many prisons around the country are allowing ceremonial saunas for American Indian inmates, just as they offer religious services for prisoners of other faiths.

Prison officials have learned that sweat lodges — which are supposed to cleanse the body, mind and soul — can have a calming influence on inmates and help keep order behind bars.

Martin, 40, is serving a federal sentence for assault at the privately run Torrance County Detention Center, which has a canvas-and-willow-branch sweat lodge.

"We look beyond these wires," he said, pointing to the fences and razor wire that separate the prison from the prairie. "Me and the brothers here, we look beyond all that, even though we know we're within. Once we get the ceremony going, our minds go back home, they go back to the places of our people, our land. We can get away from this place."

It has been three decades since the first sweat lodge was built in a Nebraska prison, but native prisoners in some states only recently won access to such religious ceremonies, and others are still fighting for it.

The chief objections are usually security-related. Prison officials worry, for example, that the tobacco used in the sweat lodges will find its way back into the general prison population. Also, colored beads are used in some ceremonies, and the colors could be associated with certain gangs.

In Maine, a group of prisoners is suing for access to sweat lodges or ceremonial music and food. In New Jersey, Indian inmates are pursuing an 8-year-old lawsuit over religious rights.

Lenny Foster, a Navajo spiritual adviser and head of the tribally funded Navajo Nation Corrections Project, built his first sweat lodge for inmates at Arizona State Prison in 1980 and said he has seen the positive effects.

"The intense heat or the steam, what we call grandfather's breath, opens up not only the pores, the physical aspect, but it opens up the mind and the spirit, and there's a real purification and a cleansing of the soul that takes place," he said.

He noted that a lot of the inmates are locked up because of problems with drugs, alcohol and anger.

"They need to detox and purify themselves so they have a clarity of mind and realize the mistake that they made that led them into prison," he said.

To prison officials in Torrance County, the sweat lodge is both a right and a privilege for prisoners. As long as they behave, prisoners can look forward to sweating on the weekend.

"Having an inmate spiritually look within themselves and leave their services a different person, even for a while, that's helpful to us security-wise," said prison spokeswoman Ivonne Riley. "Security is the No. 1 thing, but anything to help anybody to make it a little better, we look forward to that."

Riley said a few inmates take advantage of the sweat lodge as a way to spend time outside and smoke tobacco, which is otherwise forbidden in prison. But she said most Indian prisoners take the lodge seriously and won't do anything to jeopardize their participation.

On a recent day on the prison grounds, inmates tended to a fire surrounded with lava rocks, while others draped blankets and canvas tarps over a frame of willow branches to form the lodge. They rolled and smoked tobacco, using their free hand to catch the smoke and let it wash over themselves as they prayed.

Then they disappeared into the canvas dome, not to be seen again for about an hour, as the prison guards waited in the hot sun. The silence was eventually broken by a drum beat and chanting, after which the men crawled out of the lodge, smiling and laughing and jumping in puddles left from the rain the night before.

"We tell them that they're free when they're out here," Foster said. "They join the sunlight, the fresh air, the wind."

Martin, who is from Crownpoint, N.M., on the Navajo reservation, said the sweat lodge "keeps me with a sound mind."

© 2007 The Associated Press.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 29 May 07 - 03:15 PM

JERUSALEM — A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.

"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."

Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.

Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.

Du Mosch's cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.

Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 May 07 - 02:55 PM

Your Money And Your Phone Number

Give me all the cash — and your number, baby!

Thief hits on employee-victim after he and accomplice rob Milwaukee store
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:46 a.m. CT May 29, 2007

MILWAUKEE - A thief found out the hard way that robbing a woman isn't the best way to capture her heart.

Two men robbed a U-Haul truck rental store around 3 p.m. Sunday, taking an unspecified amount of cash, according the store's owner. But instead of fleeing, one man lingered and tried to strike up a conversation with the woman he had just robbed.

"He stuck around and was trying to get the female employee's number," U-Haul store general manager Patrick Sobocinski said. "She said he was just saying, 'Hey, baby, you're pretty fine.'"

According to Sobocinski, one robber went behind the counter, put his hands around both employees' waists and demanded money.

The robber forced one employee to open the register and grabbed cash. Then he forced the workers to the ground and fled, but his accomplice waited for a few moments and then asked one clerk whether she'd go out with him, he said.

"She said he was saying, 'Can I get your number and go out sometime?'" Sobocinski said.

No surprise ending here — the woman turned him down, and he fled.

© 2007 The Associated Press

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 29 May 07 - 02:33 PM

Alabama Boy Kills 1,051-Pound Monster Pig, Bigger Than 'Hogzilla'

An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog that just may be the biggest pig ever found.

Jamison Stone's father says the hog his son killed weighed a 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.

If the claims are accurate, Jamison's trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.

(Full story here.)

---

That is one awesome pig.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 May 07 - 07:29 PM

Coffee may cut risk of gout
Four or more cups a day can stop painful joint disorder
Reuters
Updated: 12:24 p.m. CT May 25, 2007

CHICAGO - If men ever needed a reason to justify that extra cup of coffee, here it is: four or more cups of coffee a day appear to reduce the risk of gout, Canadian researchers said on Friday.
Gout is a painful joint disorder caused by a buildup of uric acid in the blood. It affects about 6 million people in the United States, and tends to be a bigger problem for men than women.

In the past, patients at risk for gout were advised to avoid coffee, but Dr. Hyon Choi of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston wanted to see just what effect coffee might have on the condition.

Choi and colleagues analyzed data from a U.S. health and nutrition survey between 1988 and 1994.

The study is based on a survey of about 50,000 men aged 40 to 75 with no history of gout. They filled out detailed questionnaires about dietary habits, including what they drank.

Over the 12 years of the study, during which 757 men developed gout, the risk was lower for those who drank more coffee, Choi reported in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

"We found that when they are drinking four to five cups of coffee, there was a 40-percent reduction. Drinking six or more cups resulted in a 50- to 60-percent reduction (in the risk for gout)," Choi said in a telephone interview.

Men who drank decaffeinated coffee also benefited, Choi said, but tea appeared to have no effect.

The researchers found significantly lower levels of uric acid in the blood of those who consumed large quantities of coffee. Uric acid is the compound that causes gout. Choi said the findings appear to suggest that something in the coffee other than caffeine -- such as a strong antioxidant — may be helping to reduce uric acid levels.
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. More than half of Americans drink about two cups a day.

Choi said people should not rush out to the corner coffee shop to treat their gout. But "if you are drinking coffee already and have gout or are at higher risk of developing gout ... there is no need to reduce or stop coffee consumption," he said.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited

John