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

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 11:12 AM

Wayward Cows Decide To Abandon Massachusetts Farm And Walk At Least 5 Miles To New Hampshire


   

(AP) Two wayward cows decided to abandon their Massachusetts farm and walk at least five miles into New Hampshire, generating 911 calls from drivers. Nashua Deputy Fire Chief Michael O'Brien said he and his partner spent 45 minutes with ropes in hand trying to chase down the cows Tuesday, WMUR reported.

One of the adolescent heifers was finally captured, found up to her neck in mud.

The farmer's daughter and son-in-law in Dunstable, Mass., are still searching for the second cow.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 03:57 PM

Bush celebrates 85th by skydiving over Maine

By DAVID SHARP – 46 minutes ago

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush marked his 85th birthday on Friday the same way he did his 75th and 80th birthdays: He leaped from a plane and zoomed downward at more than 100 mph in freefall before parachuting safely to a spot near his oceanfront home.

Bush made the tandem jump from 10,500 feet with Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott of the Army's Golden Knights, who guided them to a gentle landing on the lawn of St. Ann's Church.

"Well, we made it. It was a great day in the air," Bush said after he was removed from his harness.

He said he enjoyed it so much that he planned to do it again when he turns 90.

When he was president, Bush was an avid jogger, speed golfer, fisherman and tennis player. He said he has slowed down since then, but he doesn't intend to stop moving.

He told reporters that he jumped Friday for two reasons: to experience the exhilaration of free-falling and to show that seniors can remain active and do fun things.

"Just because you're an old guy, you don't have to sit around drooling in the corner," he said. "Get out and do something. Get out and enjoy life."

---

I'd like to emulate the guy, in this respect, twenty years from now.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 10 Jun 09 - 11:19 AM

JERUSALEM — An Israeli woman mistakenly threw out a mattress she said had almost $1 million inside, setting off a frantic search through tons of garbage at a number of landfill sites on Wednesday.

The woman told The Associated Press that she bought her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise present on Monday _ and threw out the old one.

The next day, she said, she remembered that she had hidden her life savings inside the old mattress. "I woke up in the morning screaming, when it hit me what happened," said the Tel Aviv woman, who asked not to be identified.

She went to look for the mattress, but it had already been hauled away by garbage collectors, she said. Searches at three different landfill sites turned up nothing.

She said the money was in U.S. dollars and Israeli shekels. She refused to say how she acquired such a large sum. "It was all my money in the world," she said. There was no way to verify her claims, and she refused to disclose key details.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said he was not familiar with the case and no report had been filed.

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a picture of the woman searching through garbage at a dump in southern Israel. The picture shows the woman, dressed in a white top and black pants with her back to the camera, picking through a huge pile of trash that fills the frame about 10 feet in all directions.

Yitzhak Borba, the dump manager, told Army Radio that his staff was helping the woman, saying she appeared "totally desperate." He said the mattress was hard to find among the 2,500 tons of garbage that arrives at the site every day.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 05:16 PM

It played this time; budding auctioneer?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 03:49 PM

Google the title. It's worth the trouble. (Although it plays fine for me and several others I sent it to).

If only every rescue were this easy. A Florida woman called 911 saying she was stuck inside her car with the windows up in a Walgreen's parking lot. Her engine wouldn't start, and it was getting hot. The 911 operator's advice? Unlock the door, and pull the handle. Presto.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 03:14 PM

It won't play.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 02:51 PM

Are Women BornLike This???

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: heric
Date: 09 Jun 09 - 02:24 PM

On May 21, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased "Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries" because she believed it contained real fruit. The plaintiff, Janine Sugawara, alleged that she had only recently learned to her dismay that said "berries" were in fact simply brightly-colored cereal balls, and that although the product did contain some strawberry fruit concentrate, it was not otherwise redeemed by fruit. She sued, on behalf of herself and all similarly situated consumers, some of whom may believe that there are fields somewhere in our land thronged by crunchberry bushes.

http://www.loweringthebar.net/?loc=interstitialskip

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jun 09 - 02:20 PM

Pedro Bites, Manager Gives Him the Finger...

Was it an accident, greed or revenge for being locked up? A chimpanzee called Pedro made a name for himself on Monday by biting off the forefinger of Berlin Zoo's director.

A chimpanzee called Pedro bit off the forefinger of Berlin Zoo director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz on Monday as he was trying to feed him through the bars of his cage.

Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, the director of Berlin Zoo.
A spokeswoman for the zoo said Blaszkiewitz, 55, had been leading a group round the zoo and wanted to hand Pedro a snack through the bars when the chimp grabbed his arm and bit off almost all of his forefinger. "It was just hanging by a shred of skin," local daily "B.Z." quoted an eyewitness as saying.

Blaszkiewitz was rushed to hospital where doctors tried to sew his finger back on. Zookeepers said their boss hadn't stuck to the safety rules that he kept on reminding them about -- maintaining distance to the animals. Chimpanzees are known to be potentially dangerous.

Blaszkiewitz kept calm despite his wound. "He wasn't any more upset than if someone had trodden on his foot," the spokeswoman said.

The zoo couldn't immediately be reached on Monday evening to ascertain whether the operation was successful and whether Pedro has had his banana rations cut.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jun 09 - 01:25 PM

link

Parents rammed cars into burning day care

HERMOSILLO, Mexico (CNN) -- Parents of the children trapped in a burning Mexican day care center rammed their vehicles into the building to try to free the trapped children, witnesses told CNN.

At least 41 children died when flames engulfed the building on Friday, Mexico's Public Health Ministry said Sunday. Dozens more are in hospitals in Mexico and the United States.

Neighbors described parents arriving at the day care center completely desperate, seeing it engulfed in flames and knowing there was no way to get the children out, CNN's Thelma Gutierrez reported from the scene. They say they could hear the cries of the children and the screams of their parents.

The building had two doors, but one was padlocked shut, officials said. Windows were too high for the children to reach.

"When we went out and ran towards the nursery, teachers already had many children outside, those who could walk properly," said one man at the scene, who did not give his name.

"A pickup truck broke down the walls. The dad of one of the kids broke down one of the walls with his car driving in reverse, and that helped us a bit," he said.

One mother waited hours for information about her son, she said.

"They didn't tell us anything, nothing until like 6 p.m.," she said, when she was finally told her son was at Chavez Hospital.

"We went there and we saw that he was badly burned, 75 percent of his body was burned." The woman said they operated on the boy, but he died.

The cause of Friday's blaze remains unknown, but investigators concluded that the fire did not start inside the ABC Day Care, said Eduardo Bours, the governor of Sonora state.

As of Saturday night, at least 23 children remained hospitalized, 15 of them in critical condition, Sonora spokesman Daniel Duran told CNN. Another 10 children had been transported to other hospitals: eight to Guadalajara, one to Ciudad Obregon, and two to Sacramento, California.

A team of 29 medical experts in Hermosillo was deciding whether any more victims would be moved to the Shriners Hospital in Sacramento, or elsewhere.

In addition, six adults were injured, Duran said.

"Without a doubt this is the worst disaster we've had," Bours told CNN.

President Felipe Calderon traveled to Hermosillo on Saturday.

The president arrived with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont and Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova to get firsthand updates from doctors and investigators, the state news agency Notimex reported.

Calderon ordered the nation's attorney general to investigate the blaze.

Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation and not burns, Bours said. But the fire was serious enough for the roof to collapse, he added.

At the time of the blaze, 142 children were inside the ABC Day Care. The day care is for children ages 2 to 4, but Bours confirmed that children even younger were among the victims.

All the children at the center had been accounted for by Saturday evening, Bours said.

A severely burned 3-year-old girl arrived Saturday at the Sacramento hospital -- where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty -- and was in critical condition, according to Dr. Tina Palmieri, assistant chief of the burn unit.

The child was burned over 80 percent of her body, the doctor told reporters. She said the hospital normally can save just over half of the children with burns that severe.

In Hermosillo, a large crowd gathered outside of the emergency entrance of the city's general hospital and many people consoled each other, video from the scene showed.

"They told me that this happened in a matter of five minutes," Hermosillo Mayor Ernesto Gandara told reporters after surveying the scene.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 11:23 PM

The Alaska case is interesting because it was the Bush administration shooting itself in the foot and taking out their own (old) man.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: heric
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 11:06 PM

All four prosecuting attorneys (two of the U.S. Attorney's office in Anchorage and two of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section in Washington) are under investigation for criminal contempt by a special prosecutor appointed by the judge in the failed trial of former Sen. Ted Stevens. Their bosses, Public Integrity Chief William Welch and his principal deputy, Brenda Morris, are also under investigation.

Well, today the U.S. Justice Department admitted to undisclosed prosecutorial errors in two more criminal cases targeting political corruption in Alaska and asked for two convicted state lawmakers to be released from jail.

"Errors."

Can you believe this crap? The government is here to help us, and knows what to do about preventing fraud, torturing no one but terrorists, saving the oceans, preventing and curing economic meltdown, guiding World Peace, etc. etc. It's all under control. We have "Public Integrity."

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090604-718015.html

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: heric
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 04:26 PM

Yes, drastic. I wouldn't have expected it from that school, but I perhaps can't keep up with the modern world. Teaching abstinence by an entirely new and probably effective approach.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 03:13 PM

The thesis of Idiocracy is that over the next century it will decline because of the higher breeding rate of the less educated. Probably not a true thesis in itself, but a funny premise for the movie.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 02:40 PM

Has it declined? Or was giving the vote to the boobocracy behind the apparent decline?

Yes, a friend had some old "American Mercury" magazines and I have been reading H. L. Mencken.

An adv. in today's (June 3, 2009) online Santa Fe New Mexican-

"Receive trusted, up-to-the-minute neighborhood information directly from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office and Health Dept."

I guess that this is one way to cut expenses in a recession.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 11:30 AM

Still:

If you haven't seen Idiocracy you might enjoy it, despite raunchy parts--it is based on your very premise about the decline of human ability.


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 11:15 AM

oops - "planet" not "plant."

heric, that sounds drastic. The sledgehammer approach to sex ed?

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: heric
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 01:53 PM

I wish I hadn't sent my virgin child to school last week to look at big screen images of genitalia in highly advanced stages of various STD's.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 01:20 PM

The end of the human race won't be because of a huge meteor strike on the plant or a viral miasma taking out billions, it will be the increasing stupidity of the population as expectations are lower, the lowest common denominator becomes the favored teaching method, and zealots are allow to impose their wildly improbably world view on everyone else.

Depressing, isn't it?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 12:48 PM

"Alberta Passes Law Allowing Parents to Pull Kids Out of Class," a story carried June 2 by The Canadian Press and the CBC.ca broadcasters.
"Written notice required when sex, sexual orientation, religion covered."

Many Alberta teachers are worried that the bill is a minefield, possibly opening them to suit by parents if Johnny complains to his parents about material inadvertently mentioned by the teacher and possibly covered by the broad strokes painted in the bill.

The government said the legislation is meant "to allow parents to be more involved in their children's schooling.
Frank Bruseker, president of the Alberta Teachers Association, "said he's advised the group's lawyers to prepare to defend any teachers who are brought before the human rights tribunal."
He said, "We'll need to review curricula right across all subjects and all grades to see if there might be a minefield, if you will, that a teacher might step in and suddenly find themselves in deep trouble."
Teachers worry that inclusion of evolution in biology courses violates the 'religion' coverage notification.

A group of gays in Edmonton demonstrated against the bill.

Legislators in Alberta thus are following those of some states in meddling in teaching curricula.

Article of May 27 discussing Bill 44:
Bill 44

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:30 AM

Man Uses YouTube to help deliver baby

A British man put YouTube video tutorials to the test by using one to assist him in the birth of his baby.

Marc Stephens, a naval engineer from Cornwall, England decided to do a little research when his wife Jo started to feel a little discomfort.

    "I Googled how to deliver a baby, watched a few videos and basically swotted up, I can tell you one of them was called 'How to Deliver a Baby in a Taxicab.'" Mr Stephens said to the BBC.

Stephens phoned the midwife when his wife awoke having very regular contractions, but when no midwives available to come to the house, they were told to order an ambulance. When the ambulance didn't arrive in time, the YouTube tutorials kicked into gear.

    "The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier," he added.

    "My youngest daughter woke up and was standing right behind me watching the whole thing!" he told the Telegraph.

To which Jo added:

    "I wasn't panicking at all. I have to say, out of all my four labors, that was the one I enjoyed the most."

If you're keen to learn yourself, you can find the 'taxi cab' video, actually created by ExpertVillage right here.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 23 May 09 - 04:24 PM

Dang, Sniff, also....



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 09 - 04:01 PM

Just before CSUF graduation, a family reunites
Dad, 26-year-old adopted daughter get reacquainted in Fresno.
Published online on Friday, May. 22, 2009 link
By Chris Collins / The Fresno Bee

The phone rang.

Elizabeth Cox could tell from the caller ID that it was James Cliffe III -- a man she had never spoken to, but who shared the same name as her biological father. A father she had never met. Was this he?

With much hesitation, she answered.

Adopted at birth, Cox had only a handful of records with her parents' names and birth dates. For years, she debated whether she should try to find them. But what would she say? "Hi, I'm your daughter" -- it seemed too strange.

Instead, Cox endured the teasing and nagging that adopted children can go through -- "at least my parents wanted me," some of her peers told her.

That didn't stop the Clovis West High School graduate from living her life -- college, music, sports, art, traveling the world. She took it all in. At 17, she moved out on her own.

Independent and stubborn? She freely admits it.

But about a month ago -- as she was finishing up her classes and preparing to graduate from California State University, Fresno, so she could pursue a writing career -- Cox, 26, decided it was time. She was grateful for her adopted parents, Tim and Jodi Cox, but couldn't go through her whole life without knowing her flesh and blood.

She scoured the Internet and chased down a cell phone number for the Rev. James Cliffe III living in the Los Angeles area. There is no way my father is a reverend, she thought. But she called anyway. She got his voicemail.

"Hello, my name is Elizabeth Cox," she said. "Could you please call me back?"

About an hour and a half later, Cliffe called. Cox asked him if he knew a woman named Caroline Purra -- without mentioning that that was her mother's name.

For 15 seconds -- silence.

Then Cliffe's voice came through on the other end: "I've been looking for you for 26 years," he said.

For the next two hours, the father and daughter who had never met -- but had always wondered about each other -- talked about their lives, their pasts and their dreams. They raced to send photos of each other over Facebook.

Cliffe, 63, told Cox about the family she had never known -- including her older half-sister and older half-brother. He told her about his failed relationship with her mother. He told her that he had always loved her.

For the next month, neither had the chance to visit the other in person -- until Friday. Cox invited Cliffe to attend her graduation ceremony this weekend. He said he would be there.

As Cliffe drove from Los Angeles on Friday morning, Cox sat at a coffee shop fidgeting nervously. Her father -- her real father -- would be here soon.

"This is crazy. All those nights staying up wondering and questioning and thinking ... " she said, looking off into the distance and suddenly at a loss for words.

They agreed to meet at a restaurant near Fresno State. Cox went without any friends or family -- she wanted this to be her own thing.

Turning a corner, she came face to face with a slightly chubby, well-dressed man.

"There you are!" she said.

The father and daughter hugged. They took a look at each other. Then they hugged again.

"You're just like your sister," Cliffe said.

At the lunch table, the two swapped stories. The menus were left alone. When a waitress asked a third time if they were ready to order, Cox apologized.

"I'm sorry, I'm meeting my dad for the first time," she said, laughing.

Cliffe, it turns out, was not always a minister. He said he grew up in Illinois and moved to the Los Angeles area to sell insurance. He opened restaurants and bars and hired Purra at one of them.

They fell in love, but split up after about a year. The last time Cliffe saw Purra, she was eight months pregnant with his daughter. Neither he nor Cox had been able to find Purra.

Cliffe's life spiraled downward as he struggled with alcohol and drug addictions. He became homeless. Then, one night in October 1994, Cliffe said, he had a "spiritual experience" in which he felt compelled to get his life in order.

For the past 15 years, he said, he has been clean and sober.

Cliffe also went on to become a minister and start a $750,000-a-year program that provides housing and rehabilitation for parolees. His preaching became popular and he got his own television show, he said.

But throughout the years, Cliffe wondered about his daughter. Every once in a while, he would see someone who looked like she could be her, but never was. He checked hospital records, but found only dead ends.

When Cox called him last month, Cliffe said he kneeled down and thanked God.

Cliffe and Cox, it turns out, share more in common than their green eyes. They both are Dodgers fans, like sports, play pool and enjoy public speaking. And they aren't afraid to pursue life head-on.

"You'll find that as you get out into the world, you'll possess another quality of mine," Cliffe told his daughter. "Mind over matter: If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

By the end of lunch, Cliffe and Cox seemed to have known each other for years. They teased each other. No question was too personal. And when Cox warned her father that she tended to hold on to new friends and that he was "stuck with her now," Cliffe replied, "I don't feel stuck."

"It's not over," he said. "It's just the beginning."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 21 May 09 - 10:10 PM

What a great story!


A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 09 - 09:42 PM

Nebraska boy, 6, takes wheel after dad passes out

Thursday, May 21, 2009
(05-21) 18:18 PDT North Platte, Neb. (AP) --
link

Police say a 6-year-old boy grabbed the wheel of their pickup after his dad passed out from low blood sugar and kept them from crashing until a North Platte police officer could bring the truck to a halt.

Tustin Mains was in the back seat with his 3-year-old brother when he noticed that his dad, Phillip Mains, slumped down on Sunday evening while they were driving home from a restaurant.

"I remember getting up to about the mall — that was about 6:45," Phillip Mains told The North Platte Telegraph. "The next thing I remember was waking up to the officer and paramedics, and it was 8:15."

Tustin hopped up from the back seat to his father's lap so he could steer and see out the windshield.

His dad's foot had slipped off the accelerator, but even at idle the Chevrolet Avalanche was going an estimated 10-15 mph.

Other drivers noticed the boy driving the truck. Some maneuvered their vehicles in front or behind the pickup and turned on their emergency blinkers.

Tustin remained at the wheel for several blocks, even turning around when he got into a neighborhood he didn't recognize.

He was then spotted by North Platte officer Roger Freeze.

Freeze maneuvered his car near enough that he could stop, get out and run up to the pickup. The driver's side window was down, so Freeze reached in, grabbed the gearshift and rammed it into park.

North Platte Police Chief Martin Gutschenritter praised his officer and young Tustin.

"I will be issuing him a departmental citation for his quick, professional action on this case. That is also a very special young man. He was able to take quick action when his dad was incapacitated, and we are very proud of him, too," Gutschenritter said.

Tustin's dad was grateful to Freeze as well.

"To chase down a moving vehicle and get it stopped the way he did took a lot of nerve, and if it weren't for him, things could have turned out much worse."

For a kindergartner, Tustin did a pretty good job of driving. The pickup sustained only a minor scrape when it brushed a piece of a bridge as Tustin turned to head back into town.

When he saw his dad "fall asleep," Tustin said, he got scared, then got another fright when officer Freeze appeared at the driver's window.

But when Freeze brought the pickup to an abrupt halt?

"I was just happy," Tustin said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 15 May 09 - 03:59 PM

Trailer full of bees breaks down in Salt Lake City

By Steve Gehrke

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 05/15/2009 10:46:00 AM MDT

A trucker, en route from California to South Dakota, had trouble getting a lift when his vehicle broke down in Salt Lake City on Thursday night.

Blame it on the bees.

"Tow truck companies weren't all that interested in picking up a trailer full of 300 active beehives," said Salt Lake City Fire Department spokesman Mark Bednarik.

The man was hauling bees and hives for the Sturgis Honey Company along Interstate 80. He had reached about 2500 West at 5:30 p.m. Thursday when the trailer's axle overheated and caught fire. Crews quickly doused the burned axle, Bednarik said.

Since it was hard to find a tow, a firefighter, who also does snow plow work, helped the man get his trailer into a salt fill where he keeps his plow equipment, Bednarik said.

The man was still at the Salt Lake City garage getting his trailer fixed Friday morning and expected to be back on the road by the afternoon.

Bednarik praised the fire employees for "going well above and beyond what's expected."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 13 May 09 - 05:37 PM

LH just snagged 600.

And in his usual elevated state of enlightened non-involvement with terrestrial affairs, didn''t even mention it. What divine humility!!



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 May 09 - 02:44 PM

It's been known to rain meese in Blind River, Amos, but only on the rarest of occasions. Shane got caught in a moose shower once coming out of the Iron Horse Tavern after last call, and he was nearly killed.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 13 May 09 - 02:39 PM

Maine event: 'A moose fell from the sky'



It wasn't your typical morning commute today for one motorist in Clinton, Maine, according to assistant town clerk Shirley Bailey, who answered the phone a little after 8 a.m.

"I was driving under the bridge on Hinckley Road and a moose fell from the sky," the driver told Bailey, who described the unidentified man as "a little shook up."

"It was quite frightening, I guess," she told the Kennebec Journal.

The 500-pound yearling bull moose fell 18 feet to its death when it apparently became spooked by traffic on an Interstate 95 overpass and leaped a guardrail, police said.

A passing tow truck hauled the carcass away, the AP adds.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 09 - 12:34 PM

Obama breaks from Bush on prayer day
link. About time!

President Obama's latest break from his predecessor is drawing some ire among some Christian groups.

While former President Bush held formal events in the White House each year to mark the National Day of Prayer, Obama is opting today for a private observance and will later issue an official proclamation.

"We are disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration," Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said in a statement. "At this time in our country's history, we would hope our president would recognize more fully the importance of prayer."

The theme for the 58th annual observance is "Prayer... America's Hope" and is based on Psalm 33:22: "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

But other religious groups praised Obama for dialing back the observance, and accused the task force of trying to exclude non-Christians. Dobson is the spouse of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, a politically active Christian conservative group.

"It is a shame that the National Day of Prayer Task Force seems to think it owns the National Day of Prayer," the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement. The alliance sent a letter to Obama urging him to make this year's observance more inclusive of other faiths.

"Once again, the Task Force is misrepresenting the purpose of this national observance," Gaddy added. "President Obama is not the pastor-in-chief of the nation and Shirley Dobson's Task Force is not the spiritual judge of the president's personal or official actions."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Donuel
Date: 05 May 09 - 08:35 PM

Rose, I love your stories.

Man released from prison is re arrested and sent back to jail the same day, for wearing his prisoner T shirt outside the prison.

He was charged for being in possesion of stolen merchandise.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 May 09 - 11:37 PM

This morning I heard an consultant who has worked with Chinese (national) health authorities on anti-smoking programs comment on this story. He said that the central authorities might put pressure on the regional govt. to change the policy.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 May 09 - 11:23 AM

If they're looking for income, better to pay the fine than smoke the cigarettes and pay the tax. And die early.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 May 09 - 04:51 AM

No butts: Officials to smoke or be fined

Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reports.

The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, the report said.

"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.

China has 350 million smokers, of whom a million die of smoking-related diseases every year.

More than half of all male doctors in China smoke, but the Government is now trying harder to get them to kick the habit in order to set an example for others.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 May 09 - 01:14 PM

Herald story about WASPs

Wartime pilot's service honored at long last

OAK HARBOR -- Marge Neyman Martin flew across the West during World War II, delivering aircraft parts and carrying classified military documents.

As a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, she was part of a wave of young women who took to the air to fly planes stateside while most male pilots were sent overseas on combat missions.

After her service, Martin returned to her job as a secretary.

Now, the 88-year-old former aviator could be in line for a Congressional Gold Medal.

Legislation designed to award the federal honor to Martin and other surviving WASPs throughout the country is before a Senate committee. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., are among the bill's sponsors.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," Martin said. "It gives a little recognition to the women who opened the doors back then."

The pioneering women aviators have received little acknowledgement for their wartime service. Of the 1,102 women who earned their wings as WASPs, about 300 are still alive. Twelve of those surviving pilots, including Martin, live in Washington state.

"These brave pilots have inspired decades of women service members who have followed in their footsteps," Murray said when the bill was introduced. "They took flight at a time when the idea of women aviators was thought not only improbable, but impossible. They risked their lives, but for too long their service has not been recognized."

Born in the early 1920s on Whidbey Island, Martin graduated from business school and was a secretary for Standard Oil Co. in Seattle when the United States entered World War II.

"It was a very patriotic time," Martin said. "We were all wondering what we could do to help the war effort."

When Martin read in a newspaper that the country had launched a program to train women to fly military aircraft in noncombat missions, she immediately requested a leave of absence from her job.

"Flying seemed like the thing to do to help because there was a shortage of male pilots at home," she said. "And it sounded terribly exciting."

Martin headed to Felts Field in Spokane to obtain her pilot's license. She bunked at the YWCA and in a few weeks had completed the required 35 hours of flight time. Back in Seattle, she took ground school courses and waited for the day she would be accepted into the WASP training program.

In January 1944, she arrived at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. As a native Northwesterner, Martin found the winter there harsh and the summer unbearably hot.

"Texas was terrible," she said. "But when you're young, you can manage those things."

The nine-month training program, with long days of studying and flying, was stressful physically and mentally. With the exception of combat and formation classes, the women got the same training their male counterparts received in two years of pilot preparation.

"You had to be the best you could be, because it was very competitive," Martin said. "I was always worried, wondering if I would make it or if I would wash out."

Of the 25,000 women who applied for the WASP program, only 2,000 were accepted for training and just half of those graduated and got flying assignments.

After getting her silver wings, Martin was sent to Douglas Army Airfield in Arizona. From there she flew many courier missions to California and up the West Coast.

The example set by the Women Airforce Service Pilots paved the way for the Pentagon to lift the ban on women attending military flight training in the 1970s, and eventually led to women becoming military pilots. Today, women fly every type of aircraft and mission, including fighter jets and the space shuttle.

When the war ended in 1945, the men began to return. The WASPs were told to go home, and they paid their own way to get there. The WASPs were never awarded full military status and were ineligible for officer status and veterans benefits.

The families of the 38 women who died in the line of duty were saddled with the costs of bringing home the bodies and arranging burials. It was not until 1977 that the WASPs were granted veteran status.

"I was heartbroken when we were deactivated," Martin said. "Everybody was."

She rejoined Standard Oil in San Francisco where she worked as the executive secretary in the aviation oils division. When her boss wanted to sell his private airplane, she flew it to demonstrate it for the buyers.

After marrying, Martin moved back to Whidbey Island to raise her family and occasionally flew with her husband, who also was a pilot.

When her four children were old enough, she returned to work at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. She retired in 1982 as secretary to the commanding officer at the base.

"It was a great job and my experience as a military pilot was a great help," Martin said. "People knew that I knew what I was talking about."

For many years Martin continued flying with her son, a Vietnam veteran. Now that arthritis keeps her behind a walker or in a wheelchair, she expects she's taken her last airplane ride.

Not even a public ceremony awarding her the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington, D.C., would get the grandmother of four to fly.

"That doesn't mean I wouldn't be honored to get the medal," Martin said. "I just don't feel top drawer anymore. We worked hard."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 10:13 AM

For Dallas and Donna Keen, the mission is saving thoroughbreds
Star-Telegram link to story

GRAND PRAIRIE — He's so very tall and big and red, his eye so intense, that he easily could intimidate or even frighten. But instead he lowers his head to invite a friendly pat. If ignored, he nuzzles the turned-away shoulder as if to ask, please, for just another moment of attention.

He's Lights On Broadway, the Texas-bred Horse of the Year in 2001. He's remarkably gregarious and friendly for a former racehorse, especially considering what he's had to endure. And he's so gentle that it strains understanding to contemplate the motives and the insensitivity that could have compelled, or allowed, somebody to sell him by the pound. Sell him to be slaughtered.

But Lights On Broadway was rescued. The 12-year-old returned to Lone Star Park recently, just for a visit, before going to his new home and to, well, the sort of retirement he deserves.

Lights On Broadway earned $572,445 in his 83-race career. Running for six trainers and various owners, he won 15 races, including six stakes, half of those at Lone Star.

But by 2005, the champion had slipped into the claiming ranks. In other words, he was competing in races where all the horses were offered for sale. And indeed three times he was sold, or claimed, out of these races. The slip became a slide, then a tumble, and last year he dropped precipitately to the bottom, running for a claiming price of $2,500 at Fonner Park in Grand Island, Neb.

Shortly after that, Texas' former Horse of the Year stood helplessly in the back of a trailer on its way to a rendering plant. Just by chance, Gregg Sanders, a quarter horse trainer in Oklahoma who knew of the horse, happened upon the van. Later, the Fans of Barbaro became involved, along with an anonymous Samaritan who donated more than $2,000 to the cause, and Angelo Trosclair's Thoroughbred Transport, and Donna and Dallas Keen. They all took a stand against the insensitivity that had put Lights On Broadway in that position.

"A lot of people think thoroughbreds are too high-strung to be retrained," Donna Keen said. "But they're smart. They can do a lot of things."

The Keens, of course, have a large stable at Lone Star, where Dallas ranks among the all-time leading trainers. But they don't train only racehorses; they also have a farm in Burleson, where they prepare former racehorses for other careers. That's where Lights On Broadway went, for retraining, after his misadventures.

"He was so thin you could count his ribs," Dallas Keen said, recalling Lights On Broadway's arrival. "And he had abscesses in three of his feet."

But that's all behind him. Around the barn at Lone Star, people call him "Super Pony." He's so tractable that Donna can ride him without a bridle. He literally follows her around, like a faithful dog, and when she opens her arms, he hurries to put as much of himself between them as he can fit.

But he's just one of many success stories for the Keens.

For $500 at the Weatherford Cow Sale, Donna purchased the big gray horse, Wyatt. He has become her regular pony, and she rides him — without a bridle, of course — at the racetrack. Wyatt also went through a period of retraining. He's so smart, she explained, that he can unfasten latches and open doors. He once got out of his stall at the farm, she recalled, and let out all the other horses, too, except one, the ornery one. An escape artist, he loves to rummage through trash cans to look for doughnuts.

Dallas' pony, Eye Man Who, won his debut at Lone Star in 2006. He won two more races before an injury forced the end of his racing career. Thanks to the Keens, though, Eye Man Who still has a career. He's a saddle horse, a trick pony and a careful observer of human nature. He does just about everything but bring in the morning newspaper, and he'd probably do that, too, if he knew it contained race results.

Over the last two years, the Keens have rescued more than 35 horses. In many cases, these were former racehorses that the Keens retrained and then placed in a new home. With the arrival and placement of Lights On Broadway, the effort, Donna Keen said, has intensified.

And it now has a name, the Remember Me Rescue project.

Team Keen To learn more about the Keens' mission, their Remember Me Rescue organization or how to help retired race horses, visit www.teamkeen.com.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Apr 09 - 06:05 PM

Thanks! You know how it is, librarians are the original search engines!

Meanwhile, a man, perhaps a contestant in the Darwin Awards, caused this stir:

Man set house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter
A man had to be rescued after setting the front of his house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter.
link (Telegraph.co.uk)
Firefighters say the man, in his 40s, had been trying to set fire to the spider as it crawled up the front of the semi-detached property

But sparks reached material behind the cladding and caused a fire within the walls, shortly before midnight.

Three fire engines raced to the scene in Portsmouth, Hants, and found the man trying to put out the flames with a garden hose.

Firefighters in breathing apparatus removed the cladding and spent two hours putting the fire out.

Watch manager Steve Pearce said: "The man was trying to put the fire out with a garden hose when we arrived.

"The whole thing had clearly scared the life out of him.

"There was a gap in the cladding where he was trying to kill the spider and so the sparks got through to the material behind and started spreading upwards towards the roof.

"Our concern was that it would reach the roof and the property would be lost.

"We sent firefighters up into the loft to put it out and fortunately we were able to stop it in time.

"Surprisingly there wasn't much damage to the house other than to the cladding.

"We obviously had a chat with the man but I don't think he'll be doing this again."

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 01:40 PM

Thanks, SRS. Some interesting notes, and I bookmarked the finding aids- which seems very well organized.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 12:30 AM

Q,

I went through a few issues and didn't find the map I remember seeing, or the article about it. But this link takes you to the Compass Rose newsletter and you'll find articles about a lot of our interesting acquisitions. If you visit the Special Collections finding aids page (here) you can look for a lot of interesting stuff.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:50 PM

The URL in Q's first link includes a call to an action called "PrintStory" which apparently calls up a printer-ready format of the story, and also issues a print command. It does this even on a Mac running Safari. First time I've seen that embedded in a URL.



A

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:12 PM

The article I posted about Zebulon Pike and Governor Alencastre (correct spelling, from other sources) caused me to check other sources in my library, esp. Major Z. M. Pike, 1810, "An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, etc. etc. and a Tour through the Interior Parts of New Spain.... 1807," Binns, March of America Facsimile ser. 57; and R. E. Twitchell, 1911, "Leading Facts of New Mexico History," vol. one.

The story by Marc Simmons has errors, and parts are questionable.

Pike (mostly from his book) and his party were approached by the Spanish troops at his 'Fort' which Pike thought was near the headwaters of the Red River. The Spaniards told him it was near the headwaters of the Rio Grande del Norte, and that the Red River was some eight days hard march from Santa Fe; an escort there was offered, but his excellency (Alencastre) was anxious to see him in Santa Fe.
The escorted trip, though carried out with all courtesy, of course was mandatory. During his stay in Santa Fe, and later on the escorted journey to Chihuahua, his captive party was provided with food, clothing and animals for transport. Pike was questioned, but politely; the Spanish deprived him of his maps. Pike himself and some others were entertained at the homes of leading citizens, and Pike mentions the fine wines and gracious hospitality received in Alburquerque (original spelling).

As to the 'fort' described in Simmon's article, its origin and use is questionable.
1. It resembles a pueblo structure, esp. the clustered rooms; the round towers on the walls occur on some early pueblo-Anasazi settlements; at least one such tower is preserved at a still-active pueblo.
2. There is no mention in Spanish archives of such a structure; if Twitchell and subsequent historians had found any information, they would have noted the fact.
It seems likely that the 'fort' was an abandoned pueblo, but since it now is under water, proof is lacking. I do not have information on archaeological work in the area, but field studies may have been done there.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 07:25 PM

SRS, wasn't aware of printable pages doing that.

Some years ago, I visited the archives in Seville. When I saw this article, I wondered if there were some unseen reports from Alencaster there.
Everything in the archives has been filed carefully, but sometimes it is hard to find just how it was done.
When I was young, I remember a Santa Fe lawyer going there to check grants and titles with regard to a land dispute.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:58 PM

Q, your link was to a printable page, and it tried to run my printer. :)

This link goes to the regular web page.

We have a lot of information about that territory and this ill-fated expedition at UT Arlington in Special Collections. There is a newsletter called Compass Rose in which I think we ran an article about a map that Sparks drew--we have a copy of it in our collection. It would have been from that expedition.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:22 PM

Invasion of New Mexico by Americans a worry 40 years before the Mexican War.

Zebulon Pike was sent to explore the southern limits of the Louisiana Purchase. Pike and his party wandered into Spanish Territory, south-central Colorado.
The party was arrested and taken to Santa Fe, held for a while, later sent to Chihuahua and released.
John Sparks, with Pike's expedition, told New Mexico governor Joaquin Real Alencaster, that Pike'a superior would assume capture and send a large party to New Mexico on a rescue expedition.
Gov. Alencaster took steps to challenge it and had a fort built to the east as a measure against the possible invaders.
The remains of a fort were briefly investigated in the 20th c, and in 1980 an aerial photograph showed a large cluster of small rooms surrounded by a wall with turrets (photo included in article).

The Santa Rosa dam flooded the area, and the site is under water, so further study is impossible.
The story is told in more detail by Marc Simmons, historian, in the Santa Fe New Mexican, 4/17/2009.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/PrintStory/Fort-likely-a-response-to-Pike-s-expedition

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 12:42 PM

Renowned Pentagon tech-tomfoolery agency DARPA has announced a new plan to create mighty artificial intelligences. The so-called "Deep Learning" machines will be used to trawl through petabytes of video from robot aircraft prowling the skies - initially, apparently, seeking out threatening horses and cows.

According to DARPA boffinry chiefs, setting out the rationale for "Deep Learning" technology, the US military and spook communities are hip-deep in surveillance and intel data, and sinking fast. Hence the need for artificial intelligence (ha ha):

    A rapidly increasing volume of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) information is available to the Department of Defense (DOD) as a result of the increasing numbers, sophistication, and resolution of ISR resources and capabilities. The amount of video data produced annually by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) alone is in the petabyte range, and growing rapidly. Full exploitation of this information is a major challenge. Human observation and analysis of ISR assets is essential, but the training of humans is both expensive and time-consuming. Human performance also varies due to individuals' capabilities and training, fatigue, boredom, and human attentional capacity.

    One response to this situation is to employ machines ...

It seems there are already plenty of basic "shallow learning" AIs in use, including such Stone Age expedients as "Support Vector Machines (SVMs), two-layer Neural Networks (NNs), and Hidden Markov Models (HMMs)". But these are scarcely better than a human with poor "attentional capacity"*. The trouble with the shallow learners is that they can learn, erm, only at a shallow level:

    Shallow methods may be effective in creating simple internal representations ... A classification task such as recognizing a horse in an image will use these simple representations in many different configurations to recognize horses in various poses, orientations and sizes. Such a task requires large amounts of labelled images of horses and non-horses. This means that if the task were to change to recognizing cows, one would have to start nearly from scratch with a new, large set of labelled data.

In essence, a specialised horse-spotter machine unable to recognise a cow isn't much use for sorting the sheep from the goats. (We're plainly in the War On Livestock here.) That's why DARPA want "deeply layered" learning machines, able to apply horse sense to recognising cows, sheep and goats.

    Deeply layered methods should create richer representations that may include furry, four-legged mammals at higher levels, resulting in a head start for learning cows and thereby requiring much less labelled data when compared to a shallow method. A Deep Learning system exposed to unlabelled natural images will automatically create high-level concepts of four-legged mammals on its own, even without labels. (The Register)

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 03:17 PM

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A carrier pigeon in Colombia gave new meaning to the term "jailbird" when officials discovered that it was trying to smuggle cell phone parts into a high-security prison, a news report said.

The carrier pigeon has Colombian authorities concerned there may be a new way to smuggle goods into prisons.

The carrier pigeon has Colombian authorities concerned there may be a new way to smuggle goods into prisons.

The bird was carrying the contraband on its back in a little suitcase, the Caracol news outlet said Monday.

Heavy rains prevented the plumed smuggler from entering the prison in north central Colombia, said the police chief in Boyaca state, Juan Carlos Polania.

Authorities are worried, Polania said, because this is a newly discovered way of smuggling goods into the prison, and officials have no way of combating it. They also are wondering whether any of the many pigeons that live in or near the prison are pulling double duty.

As for the miscreant bird, he was taken to an animal shelter in the city of Soraca.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 07:27 PM

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday claimed its own version of Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, after the birth of a cloned camel in Dubai this month.


"This is the first cloned camel in the world," said Dr Nisar Wani, researcher at the Camel Reproduction Centre.

Injaz, a female one-humped camel, was born on April 8 after more than five years of work by scientists at the Camel Reproduction Centre and the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, The National newspaper reported.

"This significant breakthrough in our research programme gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk producing camels in the future," Dr Lulu Skidmore, scientific director at the Camel Reproduction Centre, said in a statement.
Injaz, whose name means achievement in Arabic, is the clone of a camel that was slaughtered for its meat in 2005, the National said.

Scientists used DNA extracted from cells in the ovaries of the slain animal and put it into an egg taken from the surrogate mother to create a reconstructed embryo, it said.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 10:12 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY. Another story along the lines of Paul Potts.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 10:35 PM

DENVER - One Colorado woman's love for tofu has been judged X-rated by state officials.

Kelly Coffman-Lee wanted to tell the world about her fondness for bean curd by picking certain letters for her SUV's licence plate. Her suggestion for the plate: "ILVTOFU."

But the Division of Motor Vehicles blocked her plan because they thought the combination of letters could be interpreted as profane.

Says Department of Revenue spokesman Mark Couch: "We don't allow 'FU' because some people could read that as street language for sex."

Officials meet periodically to ensure state plates stay free of letters that abbreviate gang slang, drug terms or obscene phrases.

The 38-year-old Coffman-Lee says tofu is a staple of her family's diet because they are vegan and that the DMV misinterpreted her message.

Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 06:10 PM

Library patrons: no open drinks, no noise, no stink.

Public libraries: Poor hygiene might get you tossed
Schaumburg Township District Library adds 'offensive bodily odors' to its prohibitions

Chicago Tribune
April 13, 2009

Patrons of the Schaumburg Township District Library have never been allowed to bring in the noise. Now they can't bring in the funk.

The library recently added "offensive bodily odors" to its list of prohibitions, joining more traditional no-nos such as running, rowdiness or toting an uncovered beverage.

Director Stephanie Sarnoff said the aroma would have to be so overpowering that it interfered with others' use of the facility. And while the policy stemmed from complaints about an apparently homeless person, Sarnoff said it would apply just as much to an overuse of perfume as an underuse of soap.

"People who use libraries are usually very understanding about the foibles of others," she said. "So when one or more library users complain that another person's hygiene is of such poor quality that it is prohibiting them from pursuing what they want to do, their problem becomes our problem."

Though it's a new issue for the Schaumburg library, other book lenders around the Chicago area have long imposed such bans. They say they must balance their mission of welcoming all segments of society with the need to maintain an orderly building.

Advocates for the homeless, though, say it's not easy for a person living on the street to stay clean. Shelters can be full or far away, and places with sinks or showers are often unwilling to let the destitute use them.

"I really can't think of any cases where I've met someone who says, 'I like the fact that I smell,' " said Todd Stull, director of the HOPE Center in Palatine. "It really is a fact of not enough money and not enough places willing to help them stay clean. They sort of become these victims of circumstance."

Public libraries are bustling these days, thanks in part to the swelling ranks of the jobless, but they have always been a haven for people with nowhere else to go. In some towns, that includes a fair number of people with unpleasant hygiene.

Jim Johnston, director of the Joliet Public Library, said some visitors have reeked so mightily that they have literally prompted others to vomit. Less dramatic cases can still interfere with someone's right to use the library in peace, he said, and such patrons are told to leave until they clean up.

"We still try to be humane about it," he said. "The citizens have a right to use the library. That doesn't really depend on their economic status. But what you cannot do is keep someone else from using and enjoying the place."

Unpleasant odors were not a major concern at the Aurora Public Library until recently, when a rearranging of the furniture created a pod of comfy chairs around the magazines and newspapers.

"It has caused those patrons who had a problem with body odor to be congregating in groups," director Eva Luckinbill said.

The library's code of conduct is silent on the issue of hygiene, and Luckinbill said she might like to have an explicit guideline to which she could refer a quarrelsome patron. But she is conflicted about it.

She takes pride in the library's openness to all and has rejected calls from nearby businesses to bar the homeless from her building. But she said a minimal level of hygiene and decorum is not too much to ask, noting that some residents of a nearby shelter are model library patrons—quiet, respectful and tidily kept.

"As long as they obey the library code-of-conduct guidelines, we don't judge," she said.

When someone feels as though he is being judged, though, it can sting even years later. Antoine Smith, 25, who said he spent time on the streets after being kicked out of his home as a teenager, still recalls the humiliation of being told to leave the Legler branch of the Chicago Public Library.

"It's like people just picking on you for no reason," Smith said. "Like you're just there and they can do whatever they want. They don't care if you're human."

Aside from patrons with offensive hygiene, Chicago's public libraries ban those who carry more than two bags or who try to bathe, shave or wash their clothes on the premises. But spokeswoman Ruth Lednicer said those policies were not aimed at transients; the bag guideline, for instance, is meant to keep the aisles clear and has been invoked when out-of-town visitors bring in suitcases, she said.

The comparatively prosperous village of Schaumburg does not face such overt issues of homelessness. Some frequent visitors said they have never noticed a problem.

"I honestly think [the ban] is building on stereotypes, that we have to keep them away from the normal citizens," said Sittie Jackson, 27.

But Sarnoff, who said no one has gotten an odor warning since the policy was enacted in February, maintained that a librarian must balance everyone's rights. That extends far beyond olfactory matters.

The library will next address the propriety of sleeping amid the stacks (many libraries already ban extended snoozing). The staff also has had to tell a group that occasionally prayed in a stairwell that it would have to confine its worship to meeting rooms for safety reasons.

Even so, Sarnoff said, such issues are still relatively minor in a library that sees more than 1 million patrons a year.

"A bigger problem," she said, "is wheelie shoes."