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BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: GUEST Date: 11 Jun 04 - 06:18 AM Not sure if anyone else pointed this out, as I just skimmed the thread, but I read recently that the chernobyl photo bike ride is a hoax. hoax |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JennyO Date: 11 Jun 04 - 11:06 AM Oh dear. Goes to show you can't believe everything you read. I was totally sucked in by that one! |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 11 Jun 04 - 12:07 PM Yeah I was disappointed to read that angle on it. But it didn't make a lot of sense for a single girl to be living that richly. As for that dog, now, it's an interesting question where the limit of this vocabulary is. You suppose they can learn verbs as well as nouns? I am remembering that wonderful fictional story about the signing gorilla named Amy who goes into the jungles as an interpreter on a scientific expedition. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 11 Jun 04 - 04:48 PM It was a Twilight Zone sort of story, and I hadn't really questioned it regarding it being an actual trip (someone had to take the photos, and they couldn't all have been by her). Here's a bit of the thread from that link:
e-POSHTA subscriber Mary Mycio writes: I am based in Kyiv and writing a book about Chornobyl for the Joseph Henry Press. Several sources have sent me links to the "Ghost Town" photo essay included in the last e-POSHTA mailing. Though it was full of factual errors, I did find the notion of lone young woman riding her motorcycle through the evacuated Zone of Alienation to be intriguing and asked about it when I visited there two days ago. I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not travel around the zone by herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone administration. She made one trip there with her husband and a friend. They traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv. She did, however, bring a motorcycle helmet. They organized their trip through a Kyiv travel agency and the administration of the Chornobyl zone (and not her father). They were given the same standard excursion that most Chernobyl tourists receive. When the Web site appeared, Zone Administration personnel were in an uproar over who approved a motorcycle trip in the zone. When it turned out that the motorcycle story was an invention, they were even less pleased about this fantasy Web site. I started this thread as a place to post interesting stories--I don't think there's a particular theme, unless it is one of "eclectic reading habits." Some of these are just head-scratchers. Others are little stories that are kind of sweet or odd, and some are there just as think pieces, like the "no comment" photo they used to run on the back inside page of Ms magazine years ago. Thanks for giving us "the rest of the story," (though I never was a Paul Harvey fan). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Jun 04 - 12:55 PM http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/04/06/13/loc_salmon001.cfm Return of the king Traditions of ceremony are passed down to a new generation By Diana Hefley, Herald Writer TULALIP - Standing side by side, young and elderly tribal members blended their voices together to welcome the first salmon of the season. They sang to bless the fishermen, to honor visiting tribes and those who have passed along tribal traditions, and they sang to greet Haik Saib Yo Bouch - Big Chief King Salmon in the Lushootseed language. Every year, the Tulalip Tribes celebrate the return of the first king salmon with a ceremony. On Saturday, hundreds gathered inside the tribal longhouse to hear how the first salmon of the season must be revered. "If we greet him and treat him with the respect he deserves, he provides for us all through the year," said Glen Gobin, who led the ceremony. Women and girls garbed in bright shawls danced around a circle of drummers. A dozen fishermen and women were blessed with a feather dipped in water. Soon a young boy ran into the smoky longhouse, announcing the arrival of the Big Chief. The drummers and dancers walked to the water's edge, where a canoe carried the treasured salmon. Joe Gobin carved this year's canoe. The tribes' master carver, Jerry Jones, taught Gobin the tradition. Jones died last fall following a traffic accident. "Our teachings have come down through the years," Glen Gobin said. "There are those who have stepped forward to keep us together as one." The gathering is an opportunity for young tribal members to understand more about their culture, said tribal member Judy Gobin. "We learn the ways of our ancestors. I think that's the greatest thing about this," she said. The ceremony proceeded as the Big Chief was placed on a bed of ferns and cedar boughs and carefully carried back to the longhouse. Tribal members ate the fish and later returned its bones to the water. Tradition says the Big Chief will return to the Salmon People and report back to the others about how he was treated. More salmon will return if the tribe has shown him enough respect. "If only we could work on the price of fish," Gobin joked during the ceremony. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Mudlark Date: 13 Jun 04 - 01:26 PM Thanks again, SRS, for continuing this thread. My local Sunday paper did not arrive this morning--the only one I take--and I've amused myself much more reading back through all these posts. I don't know about 200 words, but somehow my corgis know whether I'm going into my office, to email, mudcat or whatever, or pass by that door and continue on outside. Obviously, the 2nd alternative is far more to their liking but they preceed me by several feet thru whatever door I'm planning on choosing. They wont always quit barking, however, even when I ask them very nicely. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Jun 04 - 01:31 PM Here's another one that is just plain disturbing: http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=6&aid=D834NKI81_story. This woman is one sick puppy. I'm not going to bother to post the article so it might go away fairly soon. It's called "Virginia Death Row Woman Says Sentence Unfair." Personally I don't like the death penalty, but this sounds like the kind of person it was meant for. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 13 Jun 04 - 02:52 PM Looks like the tip of an iceberg, to me, Mag...no telling what is in the depths behind that crazy claim. Obviously she's not very good at seeing how events link together -- she even acknowledges that she "never thought of the consequences", and she can't see why plotting the murder and paying for it to be done is more heinous than being a gun for hire...I agree she seems too dumb to live, but that might be reason under law to spare her! :>) Hmm--is that a new area of jurisprudence? A breakthough? Stupidity as a defense? Wow.... A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jun 04 - 11:34 AM Web Inventor Finally Earns a Profit June 16, 2004 07:11 AM EDT HELSINKI, Finland - Tim Berners-Lee, who received a $1.2 million cash prize Tuesday for creating the World Wide Web, says he would never have succeeded if he had charged money for his inventions. "If I had tried to demand fees ... there would be no World Wide Web," Berners-Lee, 49, said at a ceremony for winning the first Millennium Technology Prize. "There would be lots of small webs." The prize committee agreed, citing the importance of Berners-Lee's decision never to commercialize or patent his contributions to the Internet technologies he had developed, and recognizing his revolutionary contribution to humanity's ability to communicate. Berners-Lee, who is originally from Britain and was knighted last December, has mostly avoided both the fame and the fortune won by many of his Internet colleagues. Despite his prize, he remained modest about his achievements. "I was just taking lots of things that already existed and added a little little bit," said Berners-Lee, who now runs the standard-setting World Wide Web Consortium from an office at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Building the Web, I didn't do it all myself," he said. "The really exciting thing about it is that it was done by lots and lots of people, connected with this tremendous spirit." Berners-Lee indeed took concepts that were well known to engineers since the 1960s, but it was he who saw the value of marrying them. Pekka Tarjanne, chairman of the prize committee, said "no one doubts who the father of the World Wide Web is, except Berners-Lee himself." Finish President Tarja Halonen presented the biennial award, subsidized by the government. The cash prize is among the largest of its kind, and Berners-Lee is the first recipient. The prize committee outlined the award to be given for "an outstanding innovation that directly promotes people's quality of life, is based on humane values and encourages sustainable economic development." "Isn't this like a definition of the World Wide Web?" Tarjanne asked. Berners-Lee first proposed the Web in 1989 while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN, the European nuclear research lab near Geneva. He never got the project formally approved, but his boss suggested he quietly tinker with it anyway. He fleshed out the core communication protocols needed for transmitting Web pages: the HTTP, or hypertext transfer protocol, and the so-called markup language used to create them, HTML. By Christmas Day 1990, he finished the first browser, called simply "WorldWideWeb." Although his inventions have undergone rapid changes since then, the underlying technology is precisely the same. His recent project - which experts say is potentially as revolutionary as the World Wide Web itself - is called the Semantic Web. The project is an attempt to standardize how information is stored on the Internet and to organize automatically the jungle of data found today on the Net into a "web" of concepts. By attaching meaning to data behind the scenes, computers can do a better job of searching for information. "It is an exciting new development that we're making," he said. In his acceptance speech, Berners-Lee focused on technology as an evolving process that was just in the beginning. "All sorts of things, too long for me to list here, are still out there waiting to be done. ... There are so many new things to make, limited only by our imagination. And I think it's important for anybody who's going through school or college wondering what to do, to remember that now," he said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 16 Jun 04 - 12:38 PM Sir Tim strikes me as a thoroughly good person. Good on him! A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jun 04 - 12:26 PM Posted on Thu, Jun. 17, 2004 Frenzy over foul ball hit close to home By Bud Kennedy (Fort Worth) Star-Telegram Staff Writer I know how Nick O'Brien feels. Some guy ripped me off at a game 33 years ago. I've never forgotten. I'll admit that this was no plain old foul ball -- not like the one 4-year-old Nick lost Sunday in Arlington, when a former youth minister plowed over him for the grab. Matt Starr of Sachse has apologized for the now-infamous Showdown in Section 22. No, when I got robbed, I got robbed big-time. I lost a basketball. A grown man grabbed it from under my feet after I caught it in a halftime giveaway at a pro game. I use the word pro loosely, but back then the Texas Chaparrals were the only pros we had, even if they played with a red-white-and-blue basketball that looked more like a beach ball to the curious few watching in what is now the Fort Worth Convention Center. Today, the Chaparrals are the San Antonio Spurs, and that basketball would be worth about $3,000. The last time I saw it, some man in a camel-brown topcoat was running away with it down the arena concourse, charging the lane harder than the Chaparrals' Rich Jones or Ron Boone had all night. For a few fleeting moments, I was the proud owner of one of three ABA basketballs thrown to the crowd by the Chaparrals, struggling in a failed attempt to draw Fort Worth fans to a few token home games for Dallas' first pro basketball team. Unlike Nick O'Brien, I actually caught the ball. But I stashed it under my seat. It was my first pro basketball game. I didn't know that you're supposed to cover a loose ball. When the second half started, I heard a rustling noise behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, all I saw was the man and the back of that brown topcoat -- and a red flash of the basketball. Now that I look back, the odds of catching a basketball that night weren't all that bad. The Chaparrals only drew about 2,000 fans to games in Fort Worth, as few as 200 some nights. I don't remember anybody sitting around me being upset that I lost my basketball. Then again, I don't remember anybody sitting around me. Come to think of it, that man in the brown topcoat might have been some Chaparrals employee making a steal for future reuse. I went home and back to playing with my favorite toy of all: a manual typewriter. Not that I would have been any good at basketball. Even back then, I could never leap any higher than the top pantry shelf. As a victim of unrestrained fan greed, Nick O'Brien has come out much better. The Plano boy is getting autographed bats, baseballs and gifts from all over the country. He was in New York on Wednesday morning, grinning shyly on ABC's Good Morning America as Charlie Gibson gave his family a New York Mets bag and tickets to a Mets game. Gibson said the boy was "practically steamrolled by a bully." Then Gibson showed the now-famous TV clip of Starr smirking as Rangers broadcaster Tom Grieve said, "Yeah, you got the ball, buddy. Nice going. You took it away from a little kid. ... You know, there's a jerk in every park, and there is the biggest jerk in this park." The aggressive fan was identified as a 28-year-old Sachse landscaper and former youth minister at the Sachse Assembly of God Church. Friends are praying that reporters will learn more about his church mission work, the newspaper said. Until he offered an apology Wednesday, the fan himself had not been found. His only explanation had been the one he gave Rangers broadcasters Sunday: "I just caught the foul ball." When Starr fell into their laps, shoving Nick O'Brien aside to catch the foul ball, Nick's mother Edie O'Brien began swatting the intruder with a lineup card that she had been using as a hand fan. On GMA, she remembered the man's first words to her: "Don't hit me again." When she told him he had just pushed a 4-year-old boy, he only shrugged and said sarcastically, "Oh, well." The Dallas Morning News credited a Fort Worth man, Mike Hall, with starting the chant of "Give him the ball!" Even a woman with Starr seemed to be pleading for him to give Nick the ball, Edie O'Brien said on ABC. "He didn't care," she said. The famous foul ball inspired days of headlines. The Tucson Citizen played up the religious aspect: "4-year-old gets windfall after ex-youth minister knocks him aside." Other newspapers have called it the "Foul Ball Foul-Up" and christened Nick the "Foul Ball Boy." Starr's defenders also came forth Wednesday -- if not in public, at least on the KXAS/Channel 5 message board at www.nbc5i.com. Anonymous writers were saying that he only caught a foul ball and fell accidentally, and that he should not be expected to give Nick the ball. I just want to know whether he owns a brown topcoat. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jun 04 - 12:44 AM First I saw the cartoon by David Horsey for June 18, 2004 and wondered what it was about. So I looked it up and found this. I've trimmed it for the sake of not taking up too much Mudcat space. It's interesting but depressing. Sounds like this guy is a real huckster and is getting away with it. Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Gambling industry bankrolls Eyman Out-of-state casino dollars pour into I-892 campaign (Seattle P.I.) Led by casino operators based in Nevada and Canada, the gambling industry in just two and a half months has poured nearly $300,000 into an initiative effort to legalize electronic slot machines in Washington's non-tribal casinos. Tim Eyman, the prolific, for-profit initiative promoter, is sponsoring Initiative 892 as well as Initiative 864, a property tax-cutting measure, but it is the former that has become his cash cow. The gambling industry has given so generously to I-892 that Eyman is paying himself $3,100 a week -- a total of $27,900 in the first nine weeks -- to run the campaign. A leader of an opposition campaign, backed by casino-operating Indian tribes, suggested yesterday that Eyman might be diverting donations for the tax-cutting initiative to help cover expenses of I-892. The gambling initiative likewise would reduce property taxes, by whatever amount of tax revenue the electronic slots produce. Eyman yesterday flatly denied mixing money between the two initiatives. "Both campaigns are kept separate and all expenses are kept separate," Eyman said in an e-mail to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Every campaign is different and the mix of expenses is always different. That's the way it's always been." However, his campaign finance reports through the end of May show that his I-864 committee has spent more than $147,000 on postage, mailing permits and printing, but his campaign committee for I-892 has spent only $8,400 on those items. His past tax-cutting initiative campaigns typically have each spent $80,000 or more for such expenses. Rollin Fatland, who is running No on I-892, a campaign mostly financed so far by the Muckleshoot Tribe, said of Eyman's two initiatives: "Both are petition-driven campaigns. Why would one have (high) printing (costs) and the other not? Why would one have postage and the other not? It doesn't compute." Fatland, a consultant to the Muckleshoot Tribe, which has a casino on its reservation, said: "There is something very suspicious about how he is funding these two campaigns. If I were some of his supporters (of Initiative 864), I would be looking for an explanation here." Critics of I-892 are betting that tax-opposing voters who form Eyman's political base are also opponents of expanded gambling. I-892 would allow non-tribal gambling licensees -- bowling alleys, bars, taverns and mini-casinos -- to operate as many electronic slot machines as Indian tribes are authorized to have, currently more than 14,000. It would impose a 35 percent tax on gambling profits and use the proceeds to lower the state property tax. I-864 would lower most local property tax levies by 25 percent. But while the gambling industry has infused I-892 with quick money, contributions to Voters Want More Choices, Eyman's campaign committee for I-864, have come in more slowly and in smaller amounts, a total of $218,650 in five months. To reach the November ballot, each initiative must obtain at least 197,734 valid signatures by July 2. Eyman's principal focus appears to be on I-892, by far his most personally remunerative campaign ever. He has spent $133,945 on paid signature gatherers for I-892 but only $40,000 for paid signatures for I-864. [snip] And a new anti-I-892 drive, the Campaign for Tribal Self-Reliance, has been launched with $96,131 contributed by the Nisqually Tribe's Red Wind Casino and $500 from the Washington Indian Gaming Association. The campaign co-chairmen are Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and of the Washington Indian Gaming Association, and Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribe. But those two efforts combined haven't matched the money pouring into Just Treat Us the Same, Eyman's campaign committee for I-892. Of the $300,441 given to I-892 as of May 31, at least $292,000, and possibly more, has come from non-tribal casino operators, gambling licensees and contributors associated with the gambling industry who would benefit from expanded gambling in this state. [snip] |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Jun 04 - 05:35 PM Health & Lifestyle News - June 22, 2004 Here's a distorted "News" report Estrogen Pills May Raise Alzheimer's Risk June 22, 2004 03:00 PM EDT CHICAGO - Estrogen pills appear to slightly increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in postmenopausal women, a study found, echoing recent findings involving estrogen-progestin supplements. The findings contradict the long-held belief that The research involved nearly 3,000 women, ages 65 to 79, who had had hysterectomies and had taken daily estrogen-only pills, sold by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals as Premarin, for an average of about five years. Dementia was diagnosed in 28 women who took estrogen, compared with 19 taking dummy pills. Those results were not statistically significant because the numbers were so small, but the trend was troubling, said co-researcher Stephen Rapp, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at Wake Forest University. "Translated to a population of 10,000 older women taking estrogen alone, there would be an additional 12 cases of dementia per year," said lead author Dr. Sally Shumaker of Wake Forest University. In addition, 76 women on "No matter which outcome we're looking at, there is no evidence of benefit," Rapp said. The pills offer "no protection against dementia, and in fact the likelihood increases on hormone therapy." The research "succeeded in resolving the important issue that hormone therapy should not be given to women older than 65 years to prevent or delay onset of dementia, or with any expectation for meaningfully improving cognitive function," said Dr. Lon Schneider of the University of Southern California. Whether different results would be found in younger women or with lower estrogen doses is unknown. SRS note: Now this really chaps my hide: they do this study using horse urine, and make no note that bioidentical estrogen is available and the results might be vastly different. I'd like to see someone study that! What this tells me is that taking horse hormones isn't good for human women! Dr. Gary Stiles, Wyeth's chief medical officer, called the results disappointing and said Wyeth is continuing to develop new products for treating menopause symptoms, which can include hot flashes and vaginal dryness. Estrogen-only pills have been linked to uterine cancer. Because of that, most women who take hormones at menopause have used combined estrogen-progestin pills. But use of both types has dropped steeply in the past two years as the WHI results have trickled out. Worldwide sales of Wyeth's estrogen and progestin pills fell from $2.1 billion in 2001 to $1.27 billion last year. Most doctors now advise women to take the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time. The initial WHI results, announced in 2002, found that Wyeth's estrogen-progestin pills, sold as Prempro (SRS note: a synthetic hormone), increased older women's risk of breast cancer, strokes and heart attacks. The WHI study was government-funded. The analysis by Shumaker, Rapp and colleagues was funded by Wyeth and Wake Forest. Shumaker has served as a consultant for Wyeth. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jun 04 - 12:29 PM Read this one today online. It has been a long time coming. Would that Bush and Ashcroft try to do something USEFUL while they're in office. Instead of sneaking outrageous penalties for "indecency" in broadcasting into miltary funding bills, why don't they do something useful like look at the knee-jerk mandatory-sentencing legislation that has totally run amok in the last 20 years. photo cutline: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy gestures during a news conference on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 in Washington. Kennedy said that society should re-examine how it spends money and makes choices about who goes to prison, how long they stay and what happens when they get out. Kennedy accepted the first copy of a report from the American Bar Association that determined that many get-tough approaches to crime don't work and some, such as mandatory minimum sentences for small-time drug offenders, are unfair and should be abolished. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ABA: End Mandatory Minimum Prison Terms June 23, 2004 10:34 AM EDT WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said Wednesday that society should re-examine how it spends money and makes choices about who goes to prison, how long they stay and what happens when they get out. He accepted the first copy of a report from the American Bar Association, which found that many get-tough approaches to crime don't work and some, such as mandatory minimum sentences for small-time drug offenders, are unfair and should be abolished. Laws requiring mandatory minimum prison terms leave little room to consider differences among crimes and criminals, an ABA commission studying problems in the criminal justice system found. More people are behind bars for longer terms, but it is unclear whether the country is safer as a result, the ABA said. Long prison terms should be reserved for criminals who pose the greatest danger to society and who commit the most serious crimes, the report said. States and the federal government should find alternatives to prison terms such as drug treatment for many less serious crimes. "The costs of the American experiment in mass incarceration have been high," the report said. It said states and the federal government spent $9 billion on jails and prisons in 1982 and $49 billion in 1999, an increase of more than 400 percent. Kennedy noted that while prison populations are rising, schools cannot afford sports and music programs for students. "Society ought to ask itself how it's allocating its resources," he said. The report, nearly a year in the making, follows up on blunt criticism of the criminal justice system from Kennedy, a moderate conservative placed on the court by President Reagan. Kennedy asked the nation's largest lawyers' group to look at what he called unfair and even immoral practices throughout the criminal justice system. "The phrase `tough on crime' should not be a substitute for moral reflection," Kennedy said. The ABA conducted a lengthy study and recommended changes in sentencing laws and in other areas. In the case of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, state legislatures and Congress would have to pass new legislation to repeal the existing laws. The ABA, the nation's largest lawyers' group with more than 400,000 members, will vote in August on whether to adopt the recommendations as official positions of the organization. The ABA's policies are not law, but are influential. "For more than 20 years, we have gotten tougher on crime," said ABA President Dennis Archer. "Now we need to get smarter." The ABA report also urged governors and the president to pardon more deserving prisoners, and recommended stronger efforts to reduce racial disparities in sentencing and in the prison population. Based on current trends, a black male born in 2001 has a one in three chance of being imprisoned during his lifetime, compared with a one in six chance for a Latino male and one in 17 for a white male, the report noted. The report said that the likelihood that someone living in the United States will go to prison during his or her lifetime more than tripled to 6.6 percent between 1974 and 2001. An end to mandatory minimum prison terms is among the report's most specific recommendations, and probably one of the hardest to achieve. Mandatory minimum sentences have proliferated over the past two decades, and are often politically popular. They often respond to a specific new threat or phenomenon, such as the spread of crack cocaine in the 1980s. In 1986, Congress required certain long federal prison terms for possession of crack that were longer than sentences for the powder form of the drug. For example, possession of just five grams of crack yields a mandatory prison term of at least five years. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 23 Jun 04 - 12:35 PM Interesting idea. Mandatory minimums assume a lot of certainty about what happened. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jun 04 - 08:17 PM Mandatory minimums give the judge no opportunity to BE a judge, to make a measured decision regarding the case at hand. They need to get rid of all of those "three strikes" laws also. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Jul 04 - 01:38 PM Kitten found swimming 3 miles at sea July 9, 2004 10:24 AM EDT CLEARWATER, Fla., Jul 09, 2004 -- A boatload of friends gathering scallops on Florida's west coast said a 9-inch-long kitten was found desperately paddling along three miles from shore. Those in the boat picked him up Saturday and he has been adopted. But no one knows how he got there, The St. Petersburg Times reported Friday. When the apricot-colored kitten was spotted, the boat, traveling at 35 mph swerved around and picked it up. The kitten spent the rest of the day near Maggie Rogers, director of finances at the Clearwater, Fla., Marine Aquarium. After the others completed the day of scalloping, he was taken home, checked by a veterinarian and adopted by Rogers' sister-in-law, who named it Nemo, after the movie, "Finding Nemo." The question of how the kitten got there remains. Some suggest he might have fallen off another boat. Another idea was he was an unwanted pet thrown overboard to die and still another was that he was being used as shark bait. Fishing guides said they had never heard of anyone doing that. "My opinion is somebody that sick should be put on a hook himself," said Wade Osborne, of Afishiando Guide Services and a cat owner. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 09 Jul 04 - 02:48 PM Three miles??? He must have been dropped or thrown from a boat. Talk about one lucky little cat. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Jul 04 - 01:52 PM Officials smell a clue Posted on Mon, Jul. 12, 2004 Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A strong odor led airline officials to what they believe is the 40 pounds of halibut a traveler reported missing from his checked bags two weeks ago. Brenee Davis, a general manager for Continental Airlines in Anchorage, said the company's baggage handlers discovered "a ton of rotting fish" under a luggage conveyor belt recently at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. There's no way to be certain, but she suspects it was the halibut that Ray Bolanos reported missing from a fish cooler he checked on a flight June 24 from Anchorage to Seattle. The fish smelled terrible and was thrown away immediately. "We've gone through a few cans of Lysol," Davis said. She said there is a new baggage belt system in the room, which has been in use for only a few weeks. Her theory is that Bolanos' cooler wasn't properly secured and came open on the conveyor belt. Bolanos is not sure he buys that explanation. When his fish cooler came off the luggage carousel in Seattle, he said he found a rope he had tied around the chest inside and his 40 individually wrapped one-pound chunks of halibut gone. Reached on his cell phone Saturday in Kenmore, Wash., Bolanos told the Anchorage Daily News he had already heard from a Continental official about the rotten fish. "She was trying to say that maybe the new conveyor chewed off my rope," Bolanos said. "It's not something that was chewed off. It was a clear cut." He said he made arrangements to send the rope to the woman so she could investigate further. He also passed along the name of another passenger who flew round trip to Anchorage from Seattle on Continental around the same time he did. That woman, Marian Maxwell, said about 20 pounds of halibut, a box of .38-caliber bullets and some fishing tackle vanished from her checked bags. Maxwell also believes her bags were pilfered. She said her two fish boxes came out last on the carousel, with their lids open and the nylon cords that had been tied around them sitting on top. Officials at Continental's headquarters in Houston, Texas, could not be reached for comment over the weekend because their office was closed. In Anchorage, Continental shares a baggage room with Frontier Flying Service, and Davis said usually five to 10 handlers are working in the area at a time. Davis said when the smell first arose in the days after Bolanos' flight employees thought it was related to construction at the airport. Then it got worse. "We started to get this huge smell like sewer," she said. "There was mass migration down there to figure out what the smell was." Davis wasn't sure how many pieces of fish had been found. "We're still finding it," she said. "We've got a long bag belt system." Several airport officials confirmed that rotten fish had been found, though none were directly involved in the discovery. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Jul 04 - 11:31 AM Published: Thursday, July 15, 2004 http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/04/07/15/loc_lawsuit001.cfm Man jailed by mistake sues county A Marysville man was forced to change his name after it was used for years by a criminal. A criminal stole Christopher Ryman's name. Then the people who maintain law and order in Snohomish County took his peace of mind. The Marysville man this week headed to court to try to win back some of what he lost. Ryman, 35, on Monday filed a lawsuit against Snohomish County alleging that he was unlawfully imprisoned for two days in June 2002. It's a case of mistaken identity that never should have happened, maintain Ryman and his attorney, Brian Phillips of Everett. "You can't even imagine what this has done to me and my family," Ryman said. "I have no confidence in Snohomish County whatsoever." The lawsuit seeks damages for negligence, claiming that a sheriff's deputy and corrections officers at the county jail in Everett ignored evidence that a crook for years had been using Ryman's identity as an alias. The truck driver and father of six was arrested when a computer check during a routine traffic stop turned up arrest warrants issued in his name. Ryman wound up behind bars even though he was carrying a letter from an Eastern Washington prosecutor explaining that his name was being used as an alias by another man with a history of drug and traffic offenses. Ryman obtained the letter after close calls elsewhere in 1997 and 2001. In each case, he was detained for a couple of hours but was released after police determined he wasn't the person sought on the warrant. In his letter, the prosecutor suggested that Ryman "carry this letter with you for the purpose of identification to advise law enforcement that your name is indeed being used as a stolen alias," Phillips said in court papers. Ryman had the letter in his wallet, but the Snohomish County deputy who placed Ryman under arrest refused to look at the letter, according to court papers. Jail officials did read the letter, but told Ryman they didn't have authority to release him, Phillips said. He was set free the next day after being moved to a jail in King County, where officials checked his fingerprints and confirmed that he wasn't the man sought on the warrants. Ryman said he lost a $20-an-hour trucking job because of the arrest. He also lost his faith in law enforcement. Ryman last year went to court and convinced a judge to legally change his first name, which enabled him to get a new Social Security number. He no longer is known by the identity that was connected to his arrests. He asked that his former name not be printed in this story. The man who took his name is a stranger, and he wants nothing to do with the legal mess that man created, Ryman said. "That's what is scary. I don't know how this individual got my information," Ryman said. "He's worked under my name. He's committed crimes under my name." This week's lawsuit comes after the county did not take action on a $70,000 claim for damages Ryman filed earlier this year. County officials have discussed settling the case, but no agreement has been struck, deputy prosecutor Michael Held said. "I think the spirit of working toward a resolution exists," he said. Held said he was unaware of any changes in policy or procedure governing arrests in the county, but added that "the wisdom of such changes are being explored." Susan Neely, who oversees criminal justice matters for County Executive Aaron Reardon, said county officials are aware that steps to prevent similar mistakes need to be taken, but said she couldn't discuss details. Ryman was pleased to hear that changes may be coming. All he initially wanted was for the sheriff's office to pay the impound fees on his pickup truck. "All they had to do was give me my $369. They didn't even need to say they were sorry," he said. Sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen declined to discuss the case because the lawsuit is pending. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 15 Jul 04 - 11:37 AM Woman sues doctor who inseminated her with wrong sperm NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Laura Howard was hoping her trip to a fertility specialist would make her dream of a child with the man she loves come true. But as she left the office, the doctor suddenly ran out to the lobby and called her back. There was a grave mistake. Instead of being inseminated with the sperm of her fiance, she received a vial of semen from another man. (COURT TV WEBSITE) ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Jul 04 - 02:54 PM I saw some of a story about that this morning on Good Morning America. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 15 Jul 04 - 04:37 PM Great quote: "Stupidity is the only infinitely renewable resource" ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Bagpuss Date: 16 Jul 04 - 09:17 AM 'Drowned' toddler brought back to life Gerard Seenan Thursday July 15, 2004 The Guardian The parents of a two-year-old boy who was resuscitated more than seven hours after he fell into a garden pond yesterday spoke of their joy at his remarkable recovery. Doctors at Heartlands hospital, Birmingham, thought they had little chance of reviving Joe Towey after he was brought to casualty with no heartbeat. But for seven hours they massaged the toddler's heart and managed to bring Joe back to life. He has sustained no long-term damage from the accident. The toddler's parents, Michael Towey and Jennifer Nock, were at Joe's bedside as doctors worked on him. Ms Nock noticed something was wrong on Boxing Day when she called Joe and received no response. She went to look for him and discovered him lying in a pond at the bottom of the garden. In the hospital, doctors noticed his body temperature had plummeted and a faint hope grew. Nick Makwana, who led the recovery team, said: "His temperature was only 26 degrees, when it should be 36.5. We knew that if he had been cooled very quickly there was a chance." When the body cools rapidly the brain and other organs can go longer without oxygen and glucose. Joe spent five weeks in hospital, but is now back home and fully recovered. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jul 04 - 02:15 PM That's that Mammalian dive reflex for you! But that resuscitation certainly took a longer time than one usually hears about. He's one very lucky little boy. I just looked up some drowning statistics. Scary and fast, especially down here where the water is so warm this time of year (Texas). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: saulgoldie Date: 16 Jul 04 - 04:04 PM From a piece on NPR's Morning Edition: Moose draws on a dirty tunnel wall in Leeds, England. Credit: Alex Coley © Symbollix 2003 July 15, 2004 -- A British street artist known as Moose creates graffiti by cleaning dirt from sidewalks and tunnels -- sometimes for money when the images are used as advertising. But some authorities call it vandalism. Moose, whose real name is Paul Curtis, tells NPR's Steve Inskeep that he got the idea when he saw that people had written their names with their fingers on dirty tunnel walls in his hometown of Leeds. Moose does some freehand drawing, but also uses the grid from wall tiles to create perfect shapes and letters. The tools are simple: A shoe brush, water and elbow grease, he says. British authorities aren't sure what to make of the artist who is creating graffiti by cleaning the grime of urban life. The Leeds City Council has been considering what to do with Moose. "I'm waiting for the kind of Monty Python court case where exhibit A is a pot of cleaning fluid and exhibit B is a pair of my old socks," he jokes. Link: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3379017 |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jul 04 - 03:14 AM Obscenity Charge Vs. Texas Woman Dropped July 18, 2004 01:16 AM EDT CLEBURNE, Texas - An obscenity charge has been dropped against a woman who received nationwide attention when she was arrested for selling two sex toys to undercover police officers posing as a couple. A judge dismissed the case against Joanne Webb, Johnson County Attorney Bill Moore said Friday in a statement. He said he asked the judge for the dismissal to prevent wasting county resources, but didn't say when the dismissal occurred. No one answered the phone at Moore's office Saturday morning. Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher, started selling erotic toys and other adult products last year. The Passion Parties Inc. consultant hosts what she calls Tupperware-type parties for suburban housewives who feel more comfortable buying marital aids in a private home than at an adult bookstore or on the Internet. Webb was arrested Nov. 13, about a month after the undercover officers approached her at her husband's business in Burleson, about 10 miles south of Fort Worth, and bought two products. Had she been convicted of violating Texas' obscenity law, she could have been sentenced to a year in jail. Webb's attorney, BeAnn Sisemore, said she and her client are pleased with the dismissal. "We knew that it was a possibility, but we weren't contacted," she told the Cleburne Times-Review for its Sunday edition. According to the state's obscenity code, an obscene device is a simulated sexual organ or an item designed to stimulate the genitals. Adult stores get around the law by posting signs that say "sold only as novelties." Moore said a pending federal lawsuit filed by Sisemore would determine the constitutionality of the obscenity statute Webb was accused of violating. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Jul 04 - 04:04 PM Another Texas story: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/9196663.htm Posted on Tue, Jul. 20, 2004 Lost tortoise gets a quick lift home By Shirley Jinkins, Star-Telegram Staff Writer Olive the traveling tortoise is home, thanks to a kindhearted driver who spied her crossing Curt Lane in southwest Arlington. Olive's family, Paul and Frances Venable and their children, posted signs in the neighborhood and talked to the Star-Telegram last week in their quest to find their pet of 13 years. "She has a little bit of eye irritation, probably from walking through tall grass, but other than that she seems just fine," Frances Venable said Monday. The rare desert tortoise escaped through a breach in the Venables' fence on July 8. Grant Morris spotted Olive about 5:30 p.m. Sunday as he was returning home from a game of disc golf at Veterans Park. "He said it was really huge," reported Morris' mother-in-law, Sudhe Mahajan, who is visiting from Delhi, India. "He saw the sign and then the turtle, and then it hit him, 'Oh my God, that's the turtle!' " Morris hustled the roaming reptile into his car and called the Venables, and Olive was home before dark. "Olive ate some flowers this morning and drank some water," Venable said Monday. "She went right into her burrow and seems happy to be home." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jul 04 - 10:44 AM Leaping to conclusions, one can presume that this guy isn't so subtle a murderer as Scott Peterson or O.J. Simpson. . . with this guy's last name, you'd think he'd be more careful. And murder, of course, is the logical answer for any "underachiever." What an odd story. Missing Jogger's Husband Hospitalized July 23, 2004 08:07 AM EDT SALT LAKE CITY - Around the time Mark Hacking called police to report that his pregnant wife never returned from her morning jog, he was at a furniture store buying a new mattress, according to news reports. Hacking, 28, has not appeared publicly since Monday, the day he said his 27-year-old wife, Lori, vanished. Family members say he has since been hospitalized for stress. The Deseret News and television station KSTU reported Thursday that police found Hacking at a hotel about a half-mile from the couple's apartment early Tuesday. The station said he was running around naked outside the motel and was hospitalized. Police said only that they were called to a disturbance involving Hacking and that the matter was turned over to medical personnel. Detective Dwayne Baird said police considered Hacking a person of interest in the case but not a suspect, and that he had been interviewed as recently as Wednesday. Lori Hacking was five weeks pregnant when she disappeared just days before the couple was to move to North Carolina, where Mark Hacking said he was going to attend medical school. But he had lied to his wife and family - he never graduated from college, nor was he accepted to any medical school, authorities said Thursday. Meanwhile, The Salt Lake Tribune and KSL TV reported that Monday morning, in the minutes before he called police to report his wife missing, Mark Hacking was buying a new mattress. The owners of a Salt Lake furniture store told the Tribune that Hacking came in about 9:45 a.m. Lisa Downs, the wife of store owner Chad Downs, said the credit-card purchase went through at 10:23 a.m.. Police have said Hacking called them and reported his wife missing at 10:49 a.m. Friends told the Tribune that he had called them about 10 a.m. about his wife's disappearance and said he had twice run his wife's usual jogging route, three miles each way. Police removed a number of items from the couple's apartment Monday. They would not say what they have taken from the apartment, but television news footage showed paper bags, boxes and a box spring being removed. Police impounded a large trash bin from behind the apartment complex. Mark Hacking's family and in-laws said they were stunned to learn Wednesday that he had not graduated from college or been accepted at a medical school, as he had claimed. Thelma Soares, Lori Hacking's mother, said that she was certain her daughter had not known about the discrepancies. "Up to the time when I spoke with her last, she was deceived also," she told KUTV-TV. Douglas Hacking said even though his son is incapacitated by grief, they spoke of the deception Wednesday night at the hospital. "He has two older brothers who are high achievers, a physician and the other is an electrical engineer," he said. "He felt under some pressure to excel as well. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Aug 04 - 09:05 AM That last one has become a national story and is still playing it self out--to no happy ending, apparently. Here is one that is also troubling, for different reasons. It busts some myths, but at the same time, concurs that these events do happen. Survey paints different portrait of online abuser August 2, 2004 04:50 AM EDT HONOLULU -- Contrary to popular view, child molesters who look for their victims online typically aren't after young children to abduct and rape. These adults flatter teenagers, most of them girls ages 13 to 15, who willingly meet them and usually agree to sex, according to a national survey, the first of its type. It was reported Sunday at the American Psychological Association meeting. Media reports have emphasized kidnappings of very young children lured through Internet contacts, "but that very seldom happens," says psychologist Kimberly Mitchell of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. The survey of 375 law enforcement agencies, partially financed by the U.S. Department of Justice, focused on 129 arrests of suspected molesters who "met" victims online. The cases accurately reflect the estimated 500 such arrests a year, says Mitchell, who analyzed findings with co-authors Janis Wolak and David Finkelhor. Among myths challenged by the survey: When teenagers do meet the adults, sex or oral sex almost always occurs, but only 16% of the children are coerced, police investigators say. Although molesters favor girls, about a quarter of the arrests were for abusing teen boys. These boys may be struggling with feelings of being gay and searching for support online, Mitchell says. "Our prevention strategy needs to change," she says. Parents have been warned to monitor kids' Internet use; filtering software can protect teens too, but many know how to bypass the programs. Parents should be open about discussing sexual topics and make it clear that sex with an adult is a crime, Mitchell says. Depressed or otherwise troubled children are most likely to form close online ties, studies show, and they might be particularly vulnerable to molesters, she says. Molesters capitalize on teens' yearning for acceptance, adds San Jose, Calif., psychologist David Marcus: "Being understood is a powerful aphrodisiac." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JennyO Date: 02 Aug 04 - 11:04 AM This little article was in the Sydney Morning Herald today. I always knew that glass of wine was doing me good, what with the antioxidants and things, and this is even better! Pass the bottle, I need a little think. August 2, 2004 It is news guaranteed to raise a cheer among those who enjoy a glass or two: drinking half a bottle of wine a day can make your brain work better, especially if you are a woman. Research to be published today by academics at University College, London, has found that people who even drink only one glass of wine a week have significantly sharper thought processes than teetotallers. The benefits of alcohol can be detected when a person drinks up to four or five bottles of wine per week. In the research, part of a study set up in 1967 to monitor the long-term health of British public servants, required more than 6000 people to sit psychometric tests. Questions ranged from verbal and mathematical reasoning problems to tests of short-term memory. The public servants' performance was then matched against their drinking. The study in the American Journal of Epidemiology took into account all alcohol consumption and was not specific to wine. But the results showed those having just one glass of wine a week did much better in the tests than more abstemious drinkers. The benefits were most marked among women and showed no sign of flattening out with increasing consumption. The researchers say women might benefit more than men because of the different way they metabolise alcohol. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Aug 04 - 11:22 PM Jenny, that's great. I'm glad to see when others post articles here--I didn't intend this to be my own personal reading room, but a place to stick interesting articles that don't necessarily require their own thread. I just wish that glass of wine in the evening didn't add so many calories--I've stopped having a glass each evening because I have been trying to take off a few pounds. The trick seems to be to have the wine at dinner, not later by itself. Your article is more appealing than this next one, though when you get past the "yuck" factor it has great news for folks with severe infections: Maggots Make Medical Comeback August 2, 2004 02:16 PM EDT WASHINGTON - Think of these wriggly little creatures not as, well, gross, but as miniature surgeons: Maggots are making a medical comeback, cleaning out wounds that just won't heal. Wound-care clinics around the country are giving maggots a try on some of their sickest patients after high-tech treatments fail. It's a therapy quietly championed since the early 1990s by a California physician who's earned the nickname Dr. Maggot. But Dr. Ronald Sherman's maggots are getting more attention since, in January, they became the first live animals to win Food and Drug Administration approval - as a medical device to clean out wounds. A medical device? They remove the dead tissue that impedes healing "mechanically," FDA determined. It's called chewing. But maggots do more than that, says Sherman, who raises the tiny, wormlike fly larvae in a laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. His research shows that in the mere two to three days they live in a wound, maggots also produce substances that kill bacteria and stimulate growth of healthy tissue. Still, "it takes work to convince people" - including hospital administrators - that "maggots do work very well," said Dr. Robert Kirsner, who directs the University of Miami Cedars Wound Center. "They'll probably be easier to use now that they're FDA-approved, and we'll talk about it more and think about it more," Kirsner said. He estimates he uses maggots in about one in 50 patients where conventional therapy alone isn't enough. This has been quite a year for wormlike critters. In June, FDA also gave its seal of approval to leeches, those bloodsuckers that help plastic surgeons save severed body parts by removing pooled blood and restoring circulation. And in the spring, University of Iowa researchers reported early evidence that drinking whipworm eggs, which causes a temporary, harmless infection, might soothe inflammatory bowel disease by diverting the overactive immune reaction that causes it. There's a little more yuck factor with maggots. Most people know of them from TV crime dramas, where infestations of bodies help determine time of death. Actually, maggots' medicinal qualities have long been known. Civil War surgeons noted that soldiers whose wounds harbored maggots seemed to fare better. In the 1930s, a Johns Hopkins University surgeon's research sparked routine maggot therapy, until antibiotics came along a decade later. Today, despite precise surgical techniques to cut out dying tissue, artificial skin and other high-tech treatments, hard-to-heal wounds remain a huge problem. Diabetic foot ulcers alone strike about 600,000 people annually and lead to thousands of amputations. It's not unusual to spend two years and $30,000 treating one, says Dr. David G. Armstrong, a Chicago specialist who first tried maggot therapy in frustration about seven years ago and says he's now used it on several hundred patients. Drop maggots into the wound and cover with a special mesh to keep them in place. Two to three days later, after the maggots have eaten their fill, lift them off and dispose. Wound size determines how many maggots, and how many cycles of therapy, are needed. It typically costs a few hundred dollars, says Armstrong, of the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. One of Sherman's studies found 80 percent of maggot-treated wounds had all the dead tissue removed, compared with 48 percent of wounds surgically debrided. Armstrong is about to publish research that suggests maggot-treated patients also spend fewer days on antibiotics. Patients say it's not that hard to accept. Pamela Mitchell of Akron, Ohio, begged to try maggots when surgeons wanted to amputate her left foot, where infection in an inch deep, 2-inch-wide diabetic ulcer had penetrated the bone. It took 10 cycles of larvae, but she healed completely. How did they feel? On day 2, when the maggots were fat, "I could feel them moving, because they were ready to come out," she recalls. But, "if you're faced with amputation or the maggots, I think most people would try the maggots." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JennyO Date: 02 Aug 04 - 11:40 PM SRS - yes, I had actually seen something about the maggot therapy on TV a while ago, and although the idea of it sort of grosses you out, it does sound like it works. I hope I never need it, I must say. Actually, I have a collection of newspaper articles in a folder that I have collected from time to time - they go back years, long before I had a computer. Quite often it's the creative and amusing headings that attract me. I wonder if any of them are still online anywhere? Must spend some time browsing.... Jenny (looking forward to my healthy glass of wine tonight) |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 03 Aug 04 - 12:43 AM What do ya know. I am impressed!! Shows you you should be careful what you categorize and how, doesn't it?? A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Aug 04 - 09:19 AM This story is one that is so depressing that it needs an examination for many reasons. On the surface as a cautionary tale about anger management and a sense of proportion, but from a societal viewpoint, as an examination of mental health. Who raised this guy and his partners in crime, how, and what did he learn in prison? This man was caught trespassing. He and the three youths he hired got worked to such a frenzy that they would not only bludgeon, but render un-identifiable, these people over their impound of a video game. Here is the whole story 4 Officers Fired Over Custody Allegation Four Probation Officers Fired for Allegedly Letting Murder Suspect Slip Through the Cracks (AP) TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Aug. 9, 2004 — The state fired a probation officer and three supervisors Monday for allegedly failing to keep custody of an ex-convict who is the lead figure in the vicious beating and stabbing deaths of six people last week. Crosby had no answer for why Victorino slipped through the cracks. [snip] Police said the killings were the brutal culmination of an argument between Victorino and one of the victims, believed to be Erin Belanger, 22. She was singled out for a beating so brutal that even dental records were useless in trying to identify her. Victorino and three teenage defendants have been charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary. The four were denied bond and appointed public defenders Monday during their first court appearance. Authorities say the source of the dispute was an Xbox video game system and clothes owned by Victorino. Belanger's grandparents, from Maine, own a Florida winter home that was supposed to be vacant this summer, but police said Victorino and other squatters used it in July as a party spot. Joe Abshire, Belanger's brother-in-law, said Erin had talked to him recently about heading to the vacant house to go swimming one day and finding about six people living there. The squatters were kicked out, but they left behind the Xbox and clothes. Belanger took the items back to the three-bedroom rental home she shared with friends. Over the next days, deputies were called to the grandparents' house six times. The victims also reported a tire-slashing at their home and a threat. The squatters warned Belanger that "they were going to come back there and beat her with a baseball bat when she was sleeping," Abshire told The Sun of Lowell, Mass., for Sunday editions. All four suspects were armed with aluminum bats when Victorino kicked in the locked front door, according to arrest records. The group, who wore black clothes and had scarves on their faces, grabbed knives inside and attacked victims in different rooms of the three-bedroom house as some of them slept, authorities said. Victorino, the last to leave the house, took the Xbox, police said. The victims, who ranged in age from 18 to 34, were found in bloody beds, and on bloody floors, and there were crimson spatters on the walls and the ceiling. "This is the worst thing that I've ever seen in my career," said Sheriff Ben Johnson, a 33-year veteran of law enforcement. "The brutal force used against the victims ... it's indescribable." [snip] |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Aug 04 - 10:16 AM Dogone! Washington Man Jumps Off Ferry to Rescue Dog August 16, 2004 06:11 AM EDT BREMERTON, Wash. - When Jeff Fisher noticed his dog had gone overboard, he wasn't sure if the ferry would stop to retrieve Ruben. So the Bremerton man jumped off the ferry into Puget Sound's chilly waters to save his beloved Labrador-blue heeler mix. "He's as much a part of our family as our baby will be," Fisher said as he dried himself off after being pulled out of the water Friday evening. He and his wife are expecting their first child. It all started when the ferry Hyak had engine trouble and stopped on the way from Seattle to Bremerton. Fisher and Ruben got out of their car to see what was going on and while Fisher was talking to some other dog owners, Ruben disappeared. "A guy said, 'Your dog just jumped overboard!'" Fisher told The (Bremerton) Sun. Ruben apparently went overboard as the ferry was starting up again. Fisher said he ran to the back of the boat, saw someone point to a dog in the water, then grabbed a life buoy, jumped in and started swimming. Once in the water, he could no longer see Ruben. "It was really hard to see in those big waves," he said Saturday in an interview with KIRO Television. The ferry stopped, backed up and sent out a life boat to rescue both Fisher and Ruben. "I was expecting to be in trouble ... but they totally understood that I had to get my dog," he said. Fisher said the ferry crew were "nothing but nice the whole time," although they advised him to keep his dog on a leash next time. "We obviously do not encourage people to jump into the water from the ferry," said Patricia Patterson, spokeswoman for Washington State Ferries. "But I understand the reaction. If it were my dog, I likely would have done the same thing." Fisher didn't need to jump, though. Ferry crew members are trained to stop to rescue any pet that goes overboard. Samantha Fisher said she was "freaked out" when she saw her husband in the water. "I didn't want to lose a husband and a dog five weeks before I had a baby," she said. "But it didn't surprise me that he jumped. He's been a lifeguard for a long time, and he loves dogs." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Aug 04 - 07:53 PM Many of the Nigerian children could stand to be rescued as well. Children abandoned in Nigeria restart their lives in Texas August 18, 2004 04:46 PM EDT Houston, Texas (dpa) - Seven children who returned to the United States after being left to fend for themselves in Nigeria by their adoptive mother are restarting their lives in foster care, reports said Wednesday. The three boys and four girls ranging in age from 8 to 16 were discovered August 4 living in squalor in an orphanage by Warren Beemer, a youth pastor from a San Antonio church who was in Nigeria on a tour of his church's missions. The children returned to Houston on Friday. Beemer said he was shocked to discover the children whom he recognized as American when he heard one of the girls speaking English. "She said in a very strong, spirited way, 'Houston', when I asked where she was from," Beemer said on CNN Wednesday. "She told us all her brothers and sisters were there and led us to a dark room where they just sat there along a wall looking at us." The children told Beemer that their mother, who adopted the two sets of siblings in 1996 and 2001, had taken them to Nigeria in October and enrolled them in a school. A relative of their mother's fiance lives in Nigeria, Estella Olguin, a child protective services official in Harris County Texas told the Houston Chronicle. But he apparently deserted them, and the children were sent to the orphanage after their tuition money stopped. The children's mother returned to Houston about a month after taking them to the western African country. The Chronicle reported that the woman, who has not been charged with any crime, went to Iraq as a civilian food-service worker in April, but is now back in Texas. She had been approved for the adoptions after passing an evaluation conducted by a nonprofit child welfare agency in Houston, Olguin said. Beemer told CNN that the children said their mother consistently used support money she received for the children to buy things for herself and had taken them to Nigeria because she didn't want them any more. The woman recieved monthly payments of 512 dollars per child, according to the Chronicle. The amount was based on their status as minority siblings wishing to stay together, which made them a special needs case considered hard to adopt. Houston child protective services cut off the payments in March when the service learned the children were not living with her. The children told Beemer they had informed numerous people in Nigeria that they had been abandoned by their adoptive mother, but they had begun to believe they would never get home to Houston. Beemer quizzed them about their lives in Texas. He said they talked enthusiastically about Houston's professional sports teams. Then, Beemer said, they put their hands over their hearts and sang the American national anthem. "I promised them they would be going home," Beemer told the Chronicle Tuesday. "I said, 'Guys, in no uncertain terms, you will be going home.'" Olguin said child protective services officials were trying to get medical and psychological care for the children and enroll them in school. Three of the children were treated for malaria after returning to Houston. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Aug 04 - 11:41 AM Published: Friday, August 27, 2004 Doctors transplant jawbone grown on man's back Stem cells may have played part in pioneering operation By Emma Ross, Associated Press LONDON - A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has enjoyed his first meal in nine years - a bratwurst sandwich - after surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it into his mouth in what experts call an "ambitious" experiment. According to this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal, the German doctors used a mesh cage, a growth chemical and the patient's own bone marrow, containing stem cells, to create a new jaw bone that fit exactly into the gap left by the cancer surgery. Tests have not been done to verify whether the bone was created by blank-slate stem cells, and it is too early to tell whether the jaw will function normally in the long term. But the operation is the first published report of a whole bone being engineered and incubated inside a patient's body, and then transplanted. Stem cells are the master cells of the body that go on to become every tissue in the body. They are a hot area of research, with scientists trying to find ways to prompt them to make desired tissues, and perhaps organs. But while researchers debate whether the technique resulted in a scientific advance involving stem cells, the operation has achieved its purpose and changed a life, said Stan Gronthos, a stem cell expert at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide, Australia. "A patient who had previously lost his mandible (lower jaw) through the result of a destructive tumor can now sit down and chew his first solid meals in nine years ... resulting in an improved quality of life," said Gronthos, who was not connected with the experiment. The operation was done by Dr. Patrick Warnke, a reconstructive facial surgeon at the University of Kiel in Germany. The patient, a 56-year-old man, had his lower jaw and half his tongue cut out almost a decade ago after getting mouth cancer. Since then, he had only been able to slurp soft food or soup from a spoon. Artificial jaws made from plastic or other materials are not used because they pose too much of a risk of infection. Warnke and his group began by creating a virtual jaw on a computer after making a three-dimensional scan of the patient's mouth. The information was used to create a thin titanium micro-mesh cage. Several cow-derived pure bone mineral blocks the size of sugar cubes were then put inside the structure, along with a human growth factor that builds bone and a large squirt of blood extracted from the man's bone marrow, which contains stem cells. The surgeons then implanted the mesh cage and its contents into the muscle below the patient's right shoulder blade. He was given no drugs other than antibiotics to prevent infection from the surgery. The implant was left in for seven weeks, when scans showed new bone formation. It was removed about eight weeks ago, along with some surrounding muscle and blood vessels, put in the man's mouth and connected to the blood vessels in his neck. Scans showed new bone continued to form after the transplant. Four weeks after the operation, the man ate a German sausage sandwich, his first solid meal in nine years. He has reported no pain or any other difficulties associated with the transplant, Warnke said, adding that he hopes to be able to remove the mesh and implant teeth in the new jaw about a year from now. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 01 Sep 04 - 06:00 AM The Australian: Safe space protest ends in eviction [September 01, 2004] Safe space protest ends in eviction Brendan O'Keefe September 01, 2004 THREE Wollongong University students campaigning for a safer space for gays on campus have described as "overkill" an operation by 10 armed riot police to eject them from a room they had occupied for 47 hours. The students, the remainder of an original group of 16 who entered a booked function room on Thursday and locked it down hours later, were evicted on Saturday afternoon. Spokeswoman Annaliese Constable told the HES that about 20 officers, including armed riot squad police, members of the police rescue squad and regular police officers either burst into the Belmore Room or were on hand outside to arrest the three. Ms Constable and two others, Daniel Brown and Dominika Grossy, were charged with trespass. A university spokesman said the eviction was a "hygiene issue". "If it was a hygiene issue, why didn't they send up a bar of soap?" Ms Constable said. The students, from the Allsorts gay and lesbian group, had been campaigning for "a couple of years" with letters to and meetings with the university for a safe space on campus. Once inside the Belmore room, the students declared it their space. Their present room is off-campus and is not patrolled by university security. It is prone to flooding and rainwater runs down internal walls near powerpoints. Earlier this year, a female student was trapped in the queer space by a man who blocked the door with his bike and threatened to "burn the woman to death" for being a lesbian, Allsorts said in a statement. The students want the university to move them on to campus and to provide security patrols and better health and safety standards. Mr Brown, queer delegate on the Students Representative Council, said of the raid: "It was total overkill. We had 10 armed riot police with helmets and shields burst into the room. I was totally and utterly speechless and shocked. "The fact that a peaceful student protest was burst into by 10 riot police ... we were leaning against the door and getting smashed against it. The police were totally high on adrenalin and quite aggressive." Mr Brown said he was frisked twice and that Ms Constable and Ms Grossy were frisked at Wollongong police station. Acting vice-president (administration) Chris Grange was unable to comment in detail because charges were pending. In a statement, however, he said students "should follow the proper procedure of raising their concerns through the SRC [to bring] the relevant issues forward to university management". The occupation was the culmination of Sexuality Week activities at the university, during which, Ms Constable said, Allsorts banners were stolen, torn down and stomped into the dirt and a petition was stolen and defaced with messages such as "die fags". Allsorts will tomorrow present vice-chancellor Gerard Sutton with its award to Wollongong as the "most homophobic university in Australia". |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:42 PM The story as it appears here was at an Earthlink news site that isn't a stable URL. I found a similar story here. But the one below is pretty interesting, and not that long, so I posted all of it. MIT Works to Power Computers With Spinach September 23, 2004 BOSTON - "Eat your spinach," Mom used to say. "It will make your muscles grow, power your laptop and recharge your cell phone... " OK. So nobody's Mom said those last two things. But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have used spinach to harness a plant's ability to convert sunlight into energy for the first time, creating a device that may one day power laptops, mobile phones and more. Photosynthesis, the process by which plants use light beams for energy rather than eating food like animals, has been known to scientists for decades. But attempts to combine the organic with the electronic had always failed: Isolate the photosynthetic proteins that capture the energy from sunlight, and they die. Inject the water and salt needed to keep the proteins alive, and the electronic equipment is destroyed. That was until Shuguang Zhang, associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering, discovered that protein building blocks called detergent peptides could be manipulated to keep the proteins alive up to three weeks while in contact with electronics. "Stabilizing the protein is crucial," said Zhang, who collaborated with researchers from MIT, the University of Tennessee and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, including electrical engineers, nanotechnology experts and biologists. "Detergent peptide turned out to be a wonderful material to keep proteins intact." The scientists, whose findings were first reported by in NanoLetters, a publication of the American Chemical Society, then created a "spinach sandwich." Why spinach? In reality, any number of plants could have been used. But the researchers chose spinach because "it is cheap and is easily available from the grocery store," Zhang said. The spinach was ground up and purified to isolate a protein deep within the spinach cells. A top layer of glass was coated underneath with a conductive material and a thin layer of gold to aid the chemical reaction. In the middle, the spinach-peptide mixture sits on a soft, organic semiconductor that prevents electrical shorts and protects the protein complexes from a bottom layer of metal. By shining laser light on the "sandwich," researchers were able to generate a tiny current. While one device by itself can't generate much energy, billions of them together could produce enough electricity to power a device. "It's like a penny," Zhang said. "One penny is not much use, but 1 billion pennies is a lot of money." Practical applications are still a decade or so away, but the advantages include the technology's lightweight qualities, portability and environmental friendliness. "There is no waste," Zhang said. The researchers suggest the technology could be used as a backup energy supply for battery-powered portable devices. "We have crossed the first hurdle of successfully integrating a photosynthetic protein molecular complex with a solid-state electronic device," said Marc Baldo, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Sep 04 - 11:54 PM An article from Scientific American.com. Ancient Long-Necked Reptile Was Stealthy Suction Feeder Scientists have unearthed the fossil of an ancient aquatic reptile that sported a neck almost twice as long as its meter-long body. The 1.7-meter-long neck appears to have been too rigid to twist around in search of prey, however, so its function was at first uncertain. "This animal was one of those things that comes along and says 'wait a minute, you don't know as much as you thought you did'" about what long necks are good for, says Michael LaBarbera of the University of Chicago, one of the authors of a paper detailing the find published today in Science. The Guanling limestone formation in China, where the new specimen was found, was deposited on the ocean floor about 230 million years ago in the Triassic period, when dinosaurs were becoming prevalent on land. The fossil belongs to the carnivorous species Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, which scientists first described only last year. It is a protorosaur, a group of reptiles that includes Tanystropheus, whose ludicrously long neck has stimulated debate since its discovery in the 1850s. Unlike Tanystropheus, however, Dinocephalosaurus had flipper-shaped limbs, indicating a largely aquatic lifestyle. The authors suggest that the long, thin neck enabled Dinocephalosaurus to sneak up on prey in murky water without revealing its full size. In addition, the 25 neck vertebrae bore ribs running along the spine. Straightening the spine and extending the ribs could have rapidly increased the volume of the neck, sucking in both prey and water. Some modern fish rapidly expand their mouths to accomplish a similar "suction feeding." --Don Monroe |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Mudlark Date: 26 Sep 04 - 02:58 AM Dinocephalosauras sounds suspiciously like what's been hiding in Loch Ness... |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Sep 04 - 03:20 AM Yes, it does! Have any tourists been sucked off of the surface of the lake lately? |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 26 Sep 04 - 03:42 AM I wonder if it's related to the Snufflufugus that lives in Sesame Street? |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Sep 04 - 09:26 AM Naw--everyone knows Snuffy has a long NOSE, not a long neck! (You could make a stronger case for Big Bird.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 26 Sep 04 - 09:41 AM Big Bird's Grandparents lived in Loch Ness? |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:48 AM Bill Berkowitz Working For Change 03.10.04 Salvation Army discriminates One of nation's largest charities sued by employees for religious discrimination All is not well with one of the nation's largest charities. Eighteen current and former employees of the Salvation Army's social services arm have filed suit against the organization, accusing it of "imposing a religious veil over secular, publicly financed activities like caring for foster children and counseling young people with AIDS," the New York Times reported in late February. "I was harassed to the point where eventually I resigned," said Margaret Geissman, a former human resources manager who told the Times that her superior asked for the religions and sexual orientations of her staff. "As a Christian, I deeply resent the use of discriminatory employment practices in the name of Christianity." The employees, "including senior administrators and caseworkers that are Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and nonreligious," filed their lawsuit in United States District Court in Manhattan. They're being represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union and by Martin Garbus, a well-known First Amendment lawyer. At a press conference announcing the suit, Garbus pointed out that it strikes at the heart of the president's faith-based initiative and the separation of church and state. Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, added that "It's critical at this stage of the game to put a stop to proselytizing with government money." According to Reuters, the Salvation Army Greater New York Division receives $89 million a year in taxpayer money, mostly from the state, New York City and Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island. Anne Lown, a plaintiff and an associate director of the Army's children's services agency in New York, said that the charity employs nearly 900 people and provides services for more than 2,000 children. The Salvation Army is no stranger to controversy revolving around issues related Bush's faith-based initiative. Six months after the initiative's unveiling in late January 2001, it was revealed that top-level administration officials had been conducting secret meetings with the Salvation Army to enlist its political and financial support for the then-flagging project. According to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, the meetings, which included Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, and Don Eberly, the then Deputy Director of the newly opened White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, had been going on for several months. An internal Salvation Army document indicated that in exchange for its support, "which included plans for an Army-sponsored $100,000 public relations campaign," the charity would receive assurances that any bill passed by Congress would contain a provision allowing religious charities to sidestep state and local anti-discrimination measures barring discriminatory hiring practices on the basis of sexual orientation. After the Washington Post's story broke, the administration moved into denial mode, the Salvation Army backtracked, and congressional opponents of the initiative were furious. Salvation ArmyGate was one reason Bush's faith-based initiative languished legislatively on Capitol Hill for more than three years. In retrospect, it appears that the Salvation Army didn't need any special exemption to discriminate against its employees. According to the New York Times, the plaintiffs are charging the Salvation Army's New York division of coercing them into "sign[ing] forms revealing the churches they had attended over the past 10 years, name their ministers and agree to the Army's mission 'to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.'" Some litigants claimed they were let go "after years of working in secular jobs when they objected to signing the forms. "Others," the Times reported, "said the new religious focus violated the social workers' ethics code and could have chilling effect on their work... for example, preventing them from giving condoms to people infected with H.I.V. or forbidding abortion counseling." Responding to the suit, the Salvation Army said in a statement that it was "reviewing the issues outlined in the complaint and look[ing] forward to responding openly about our work and our employment practices as they relate to The Salvation Army's Mission." The organization pointed out that its "policies and procedures were entirely consistent" with laws governing the employment practices of religious institutions. "In the past," the New York Times reported, "local Salvation Army officials said that the forms had long been in use around the country and that their policies were permitted under terms of contracts with New York City and New York State. No employees are forced to uphold church beliefs unless they are in a position of ministry, they have said." According to Family News in Focus, an online news service of Dr. James Dobson's Christian-based organization, Focus on the Family, in September, the Salvation Army "began... to require that employees acknowledge and support the religious mission of the Army -- which is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Employees in the social services and child-welfare programs are also required to identify their church affiliation, going back a decade." That date runs parallel to the issuance of a position paper on a concept called "religious hiring rights" by the administration. In "Protecting the Civil Rights and Religious Liberty of Faith-Based Organizations: Why Religious Hiring Rights Must Be Preserved," Team Bush argued that religious organizations receiving government grants retained the right to hire anyone they pleased, based on whatever criteria is in concert with their organization's religious mission. Several pieces of legislation with "religious hiring rights" provisions were under consideration by Congress last year including "The School Readiness Act of 2003," H.R. 2210, which allows religious organizations receiving government funds for providing Head Start services to discriminate in their hiring practices, and the $4 billion Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act, which passed the House on a 220-204 vote. In early February, a few days after the Bush White House issued a "Statement of Administration Policy" calling on the House to defeat any amendments to the Community Services Block Grants Act, H.R. 3030, requiring faith-based agencies receiving federal funding to comply with federal civil rights standards, and threatening a veto of any bill amended to prohibit discrimination by faith-based agencies funded by American taxpayers, the House defeated three Democratic-sponsored provisions. Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, indicated that he thought the employee suit was an attempt to ratchet up the fight against federal dollars going to faith-based groups. "There is a caveat written into the law that an organization that is religious cannot lose its religious identity if it accepts federal funding," Cromartie told Family News in Focus. However, as Arthur Eisenberg, legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, pointed out: "For years, The Salvation Army has run these programs very successfully without injecting religion into the workplace. Religion is irrelevant to the success of these programs and it should remain so." For more please see the Bill Berkowitz archive. Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement. His Working ForChange column Conservative Watch documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the American Right. According to Reuters, the Salvation Army Greater New York Division receives $89 million a year in taxpayer money. (c) 2004 Working Assets Online. All rights reserved |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 11 Nov 04 - 11:10 AM This UPI story was linked to from my Internet Provider's front page:
November 11, 2004 09:32 AM EST HOUSTON, Nov 11, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A pregnant baboon escaped while being loaded onto a jetliner at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday. The animal was among primates being shipped to a zoo in the San Francisco area when she got out of a cage and ran from the Continental Airlines plane. "They were going to load her cage into the belly of the plane with the other animals," said Houston airport system spokesman Roger Smith. "In the process of loading, the door came open and she escaped." The baboon climbed into the rafters below an elevated terminal concourse but never got into a passenger area, Smith said. Airport workers were able to contain her, and Houston animal control specialists called to help took special precautions because of her pregnancy were able to subdue her. She was put back into her cage but had to wait for a later flight, as the other primates had already left. When I read the headline I thought there was going to be some sort of "all species treated equal" story about heavy Americans forcing airlines to use more fuel to get the planes up in the air. i.e., perhaps they would start by bumping fat animals and then move up to bumping heavy people. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Paco Rabanne Date: 11 Nov 04 - 11:36 AM 99 |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Paco Rabanne Date: 11 Nov 04 - 11:36 AM 100 I thank you. ted - 1 leadfingers -0 |