BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 01:33 PM

Very interesting obituary from a resident of Everett, Washington who was 108 when she died.

link

Sept. 3, 1897 - June 3, 2006
Longtime Everett resident, Mary Landon, died Saturday, June 3, 2006, of natural causes. She was 108 years old.
In the mid 1930's, she and her husband, Clifford Victor Landon, made Everett their permanent home. Their charming Cape Cod house on Beverly Boulevard was a familiar landmark on the Bothell Highway to Everett. Every spring, the always starkly white home would be brilliantly framed at the corners with red and pink rhododendrons, and a blanket of vivid blue Lithodora along the walkway to the front doorstep. An avid gardener, Mary would greet folks with dirt smudged hands, a floppy garden hat, and a pair of clippers in her apron pocket. However, she always considered the privacy hedge along the north side of the property as "that darn hedge," which needed trimming "far too often."
Born September 3, 1897, to Thomas Paul and Hulda Abigail Furman, Mary Landon was raised on a farm in Canton, Pennsylvania. She attended grade school and was the part of the last class to graduate from the original Canton High School before it was torn down and a new one was built. Mary and her fellow senior classmates celebrated graduation with a trip to Washington, D.C., where they shook hands with President Wilson (she found his handshake cold and limp), toured the Smithsonian, the Mint and the other sights of the Capital. She met her future husband, Cliff, when they were both about age five--during a game of chase, she stole his new stocking cap and threw it down the outhouse toilet. Somehow all was forgiven and they married in 1916 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Early in their marriage, Cliff used his skills as a taxidermist to make what he thought would be a fine gift for Mary--a beautiful rattlesnake skin belt. Mary opened the gift, screamed and dropped it--little did Cliff know that she hated snakes!
For the next 18 years, Cliff and Mary, with two daughters in tow, lived and worked in Pennsylvania, Florida, California and Washington (Meadowbrook, Snohomish and Seattle). The family, now with a son, made their final move (much to Mary's relief) to Everett where they lived for 63 years. Now settled in the community, Mary's civic life blossomed. She made sandwiches for returning WWII pilots at Paine Field and organized the "Gulls Nest" club for teenagers during WWII. She served on the following organizations: Eastern Star; president of PTA and PTA Council; Youth Center Advisory Council; president of Snohomish District Washington State Federated Women's Club; president of Pilchuck Council for Camp Fire Girls and recipient of the Luther Gulick Award; Mother's Club for Boy Scouts; president and longtime member of Laurel Heights Study Club; and Daughters of the American Revolution, Marcus Whitman Chapter. With Cliff's retirement, and the children grown up, Mary pursued her love of teaching and became certified to teach adult education classes (Group Development) at Everett Community College. She continued to serve her community as a volunteer for the Snohomish County Victim/ Witness Assistance Program and the county court house. Also, she was selected to serve as a representative of the Federated Women's Club to the White House Conference on Crime in Washington, D.C.
Together, Mary and her husband shared many loves. As rock hounds (and members of the Everett Rock Club), they traversed all of the Western states and Canada in their camper, often following the back roads, usually without a plan or destination. Their basement was a treasure trove of fascinating minerals, sliced thunder eggs, prehistoric Eohippus teeth and polished agates. As card players, they enjoyed monthly group card parties, playing Pinochle, Bridge and 500, but Cribbage was the most fun for Mary, especially when skunking her husband, Cliff.
Frugal and creative, (skills learned during the Great Depression), Mary would wash used paper plates, and dry them, saving them for next time. On one occasion, however, a wet paper plate was placed in a hot oven for drying and was promptly forgotten. Frugality proved to be a rather charred affair.
Nonetheless, the Thanksgiving table was always set with Mary's Spode china "Wickerdale", a material indulgence she permitted herself later in life. The best times were spent after dinner, with servings of her cheddar cheese topped homemade Macintosh apple pie in front of each family member, talking about family history. She and Dad were the family's connection to the previous generations. Through her love of genealogy and history and her fascinating first hand stories of her parents and older brothers, and Civil War veteran and Libby Prison survivor, Grandfather Solomon Smith, the family learned about their ancestry. As she talked, she would proudly reach for an antique vase or plate from her display cupboard, saying this belonged to Mother-In-Law Florence or Sister-in-Law Rachel. Mary's favorite family heirloom was a ladies Pepperbox handgun, used for protection by the sister of a good friend of the family. As a school teacher during the Civil War, the sister had to cross both the North and the South's lines to get to school daily!
Spunky and quick to laugh, Mary loved public television, from the Forsyte Saga and Master Piece Theatre to Monty Python's "naughty bits of an ant" (a source of endless, silly laughter that left the family blue in the face and Cliff frowning). She also thoroughly enjoyed a good biography or a good mystery, and she frequently chipped away at her favorite witty Ted Shane crossword puzzle, asking others "what's a 10 letter word for xxxxxx?"
When a friend asked her at age 100, what was the most important accomplishment she had known in her life, she thought for a moment, and answered "women's rights"--not the automobile, nor the airplane, not the computer and not the moon walk. Thanks Mother for reminding us of what's important.
At the time of the death of her husband, Cliff, the two had been married for 81 years.
She is survived by her cherished children, Mary Elizabeth Landon Burns-Haley, of Renton, Washington, Frances Ella Landon Black, of Bellevue, Washington, and Thomas Edward Landon (Joyce), of Ocean Shores, Washington. As well she is survived by three generations of loving and devoted grandchildren, great-grandchil-dren and two great-great-grand-children.
We are forever grateful we had her for so many years, more years than we could have imagined-how lucky we are! We dearly miss her loving, kind heart, quick mind and sense of humor.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 06 - 01:49 PM

Storm warning for mobile phone users
link [Posted: Sun 25/06/2006]

Doctors have warned against using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather. Writing in the British Medical Journal, three doctors described the case of a 15-year-old girl who was seen being struck by lightning while using her mobile phone in a large park in London during stormy weather. She was successfully resuscitated, however one year later, she suffered complex physical, cognitive and emotional problems.

The doctors explained that if somebody is struck by lightning, the high resistance of human skin results in the lightning being conducted over the skin without entering the body. This is known as flashover and has a low death rate. Conductive materials, such as liquids or metallic objects, disrupt the flashover and result in internal injury and a higher death rate.

To the doctors' knowledge, no similar cases have been reported in medical literature. Although they did find three cases reported in newspapers in Asia, all resulting in death. "This rare phenomenon is a public health issue and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lightning strike injuries related to mobile phones," the doctors said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 07:41 AM

Well said Stilly River Sage

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 11:55 AM

What can I say? These two have great grit and determination. I remember reading about that horrible accident and wondering what would happen with the children.--SRS

link

Published: Sunday, June 18, 2006
Family First
A young couple works to keep siblings together after a tragedy.


MARYSVILLE - He never really questioned what he would do. The decision wouldn't be easy, though it was obvious. Tyler Ringen and his wife, Fawn, had to keep the family together. The children had been through enough. They deserved a place to feel safe and someone to cry and laugh with them. They needed someone to guide their futures. They needed to know they would always be loved. Tyler Ringen, 25, and his 23-year-old bride understood. It was up to them to care for Fawn Ringen's three teenage siblings after the death of her parents.

Darrell and Sandra Knapp and their son Noah, 6, of Marysville died last year after a pickup truck hauling a travel trailer smashed head-on into their car on I-5 near Marysville. The couple left behind five children. "We needed to keep the family together. What kind of person would I be if I didn't?" Tyler Ringen said. "I don't ever recall discussing what we were going to do. There wasn't anyone else."

The Ringens, who married just two months before the crash, have since moved into the Knapp family home. They live there with their son Isaiah, 2, and three of Fawn Ringen's siblings: Amber, 17; Jeanine, 14; and Tony, 13. Their brother Alex Knapp, 21, lives in Everett with his wife.

The Ringens had their first child Saturday. Dove Ringen was born at 6:34 a.m. Their courage and dedication to the family has awed those around them. "My husband and I are so proud of both of them," said Tyler Ringen's mother, Marla Ringen. "The day it happened, you could see the determination in their eyes."

The young couple is following in the footsteps of Darrell and Sandra Knapp. The Knapps were fiercely caring, compassionate and giving to children in need, their daughter said. They opened their home to more than two dozen foster children. They later adopted five children. After the crash, the Ringens became the custodial guardians for the three teens.

"They were terrified of where they would go. They'd already lost their biological parents and now this," Fawn Ringen said. "I didn't want to see them thrown back into the system." Her husband makes it possible to keep the family together, she said. He makes it possible for her to continue her parents' legacy. "He's my best friend. I don't know where I'd be without him and his family," she said. "I probably wouldn't be able to do this."

Her husband shrugs off any praise about opening up his life to his sister's siblings. He loves his wife. He loves her family.

Marriage gives strength

"In his mind, Tyler just did what he had to do," Marla Ringen said. "He stands behind Fawn, but I don't think every 25-year-old, newly married man would take on these responsibilities." The Marysville man, a boat builder at Meridian Yachts, said it was his faith in his wife's abilities that helped him believe they could take care of the children.

"I wasn't sure how I would do, but I knew my wife was able," he said. Tyler Ringen met his wife about four years ago through a mutual friend who lived across the street from her family's Marysville home. They built a friendship. He encouraged and supported her through her pregnancy with Isaiah, calling her every day and taking her out once a week. He came to the hospital the day Isaiah was born. "My mom adored Tyler for that," Fawn Ringen said. Their friendship slowly grew into more, and the couple married in March 2005. Ringen adopted Isaiah. The little boy calls him Daddy.

In the months following the crash, the couple have been adjusting to their new roles. "It was important to both of us. We didn't want to be Mom or Dad," Fawn Ringen said. "We're not here to replace them. We're here to step in." She had helped her parents extensively with her siblings, some of whom have special needs.

At times, the new responsibilities have been challenging for her husband. He draws on what his parents taught him as they raised him and his older brother, he said. He's learning to supervise the teens' grades and school attendance, and how to hold them accountable for their chores. He's also learned to check in with his wife before he agrees to their requests, and that he needs to be bit sterner with discipline.

"I'm here to keep them going in the right direction," Tyler Ringen said. "I hope I'm learning."

Little time to grieve

The Ringens have been working through their own grief even as they guide three teens mourning the loss of their parents. The last couple of months have been especially trying as the couple have sorted through some medical and other concerns with Tony, Fawn Ringen said. "It's not easy on any of them, but had they not taken them, well, I think it would have been tougher," Marla Ringen said.

The teens also have had to adjust to the changes. "We're trying to get used to it," said Amber Knapp, 17. They like hanging out and watching "CSI" and "Stargate" with their brother-in-law. Tyler Ringen has found a "partner in crime" in Jeanine, 14, who also likes to ride four-wheelers and throw water balloons at unsuspecting targets, Fawn Ringen said.

The Ringens said they draw strength from their faith in God to see them through the rough patches. They also have had endless support from their families, the Atonement Free Lutheran Church and the community, they said. Fawn Ringen has become closer to her husband's parents, who have welcomed everyone, she said. "We're all family to them now," Fawn Ringen said.

And as the couple's household grows again, they feel they have the strength to protect and nurture what matters: their family. They know they made the right decision. "It may be too much, but it's not too much for us," Tyler Ringen said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 03:33 PM

Rat Study Shows Dirty Better Than Clean
Associated Press.June 16, 2006

WASHINGTON - Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate.

The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick.

The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. The theory, called the hygiene hypothesis, figures that people's immune systems aren't being challenged by disease and dirt early in life, so the body's natural defenses overreact to small irritants such as pollen.

The new studies, one of which was published Friday in the peer reviewed Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, found significant differences in the immune systems between euthanized wild and lab rodents.

When the immune cells in the wild rats are stimulated by researchers, "they just don't do anything they sit there; if you give them same stimulus to the lab rats, they go crazy," said study co-author Dr. William Parker, a Duke University professor of experimental surgery. He compared lab rodents to more than 50 wild rats and mice captured and killed in cities and farms.

Also, the wild mice and rats had as much as four times higher levels of immunoglobulins, yet weren't sick, showing an immune system tuned to fight crucial germs, but not minor irritants, Parker said. He said what happened in the lab rats is what likely occurs in humans: their immune systems have got it so cushy they overreact to smallest of problems.

"Your immune system is like the person who lives in the perfect house and has all the food they want, you're going to start worrying about the little things like someone stepping on your flowers," Parker said.

Challenged immune systems - such as kids who grow up with two or more pets - don't tend to develop as many allergies, said Dr. Stanley Goldstein, director of Allergy & Asthma Care of Long Island.

Parker said his study has drawbacks because he can't be sure that the age of the wild and lab rodents are equivalent, although he estimates the ages based on weight. He also could not control what happened in the past to the wild rats to see if they had unusual diseases before being captured and killed.

It would have been more useful had Parker studied extremely young wild rodents because, according to the hygiene hypothesis, that's when the protection from dirty living starts, said Dr. Stuart Levy, director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University.

Human epidemiological studies have long given credence to the hygiene theory, showing that allergy and asthma rates were higher in the cleaner industrialized areas than in places such as Africa. Parker's studies, looking at animal differences, may eventually help scientists find when, where and how environmental exposure help protect against future allergies and immune disorders, said Goldstein, and Dr. Jeffrey Platt of the Mayo Clinic in Minn., both of whom were not part of Parker's studies.

Parker said he hopes to build a 50-foot artificial sewer for his next step, so that he could introduce the clean lab rats to an artificial dirty environment and see how and when the immunity was activated.

That may be the biggest thing to come out of the wild and lab rodent studies, Platt said: "Then all of a sudden it becomes possible to expose people to the few things (that exercise the immune system) and gives them the benefit of the dirty environment without having to expose them to the dirt."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 12:37 AM

Two Killed in Severed Head Crash in Idaho
From Associated Press, June 15, 2006

BOISE, Idaho - The severed head of a man's wife flew from his pickup truck Thursday when he crashed into an oncoming car, killing the driver and her child, police said. The investigation of the deadly wreck and the head, which was tossed onto the roadway by the impact, led police to the decapitated body of 47-year-old Theresa N. Time in the garage of the home she shared with her husband, Alofa Time, said Nampa police Lt. LeRoy Forsman.

A Boise police officer was driving behind Alofa Time's truck on a busy road when he noticed the man's erratic driving and then watched him slam into the car, said police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower. Time, who was not injured in the crash, told officers that he also was involved his wife's death, officials said. An autopsy was scheduled next week to determine Theresa Time's cause of death, Canyon County Coroner Vicki DeGeus-Morris said. [uh--decapitation is one way]

Time was being held on two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Samantha Nina Murphy, 36, and her 4-year-old daughter Jae Lynne Grimes, both of Boise. Murphy's other daughter was injured and was in stable condition at a Boise hospital.

"It was one of the more horrific and complex crime scenes on memory," Hightower said. "A woman and her child killed in a crash, and a severed head from an earlier homicide: It's nothing short of bizarre and tragic."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 07:24 PM

"Somebody just made a really bad choice"

... not expecting some parent might actually have a camera with them...

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 04:51 PM

You wonder how a "good company" could even have a bus sitting around in this kind of condition? --SRS


Kids took field trip on crumbling bus
Everett first-grader's mother alerts safety officials

By David Chircop, Herald Writer link

State authorities are investigating after a local charter company shuttled Lowell Elementary School first-graders in a bus the company's owner agreed doesn't belong on the road. Lynnwood-based Journey Lines Inc. has taken the bus out of service, pending an inspection by the state, owner Steve Abegg said earlier this week.

The bus shouldn't have been on the road, but its problems were largely cosmetic, he said. "We tried to give good customer service, but it turns out we gave lousy service here," he said.

Officials were alerted by Karen Stalberger of Everett. She photographed what she believed were safety problems while accompanying her 7-year-old son's class on a field trip to view a kangaroo farm near Arlington. Stalberger said the trip began with the driver starting the bus by raising a panel and touching wires together. She photographed exposed wires, an unfastened floor panel, window trim with missing screws, a broken taillight and a black mildewlike substance on the ceiling. She sent the images to school and state officials. The state Utilities and Transportation Commission began an investigation.

Abegg said he is taking the situation seriously, and has taken the 1985 Eagle out of commission.

Stalberger said there was much about the bus that concerned her. Heavy, metal items weren't bolted down, and the students were exposed to fumes, she said. During the trip, an unbolted floor panel at the rear of the bus flew up, revealing the engine and transmission. "You heard the air and you could smell the fumes. It was like having your window open driving down the road," Stalberger said. A father on the bus held the panel down with his feet, she said.

Abegg said he doesn't believe the situation was unsafe. He acknowledged a child could have touched the engine. "All (the father) had to do was push his foot down to keep the panel in place," he said. "It sounds treacherous, like it's the opening of a big monster, but it's just an opening that you can see through."

Journey Lines was hired for the field trip by Durham School Services, the Everett School District's official carrier. Durham said it won't send the Lynnwood carrier more work until the school district gives it the green light.

The school district pays Durham about $5 million a year for bus services. State law requires fewer inspections and allows lower standards for the carrier Durham hired for the field trip than it does for most school bus lines. School buses are inspected twice annually by the Washington State Patrol. Buses belonging to charter companies, such as Journey Lines, are inspected every 18 months.

Allan Jones, director of pupil transportation for the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said Durham is permitted to hire charter services, provided the companies maintain a satisfactory safety rating. Journey Lines Inc. has a satisfactory rating, according to officials at the state Utilities and Transportation Commission. It also has been fined for safety violations, records show.

In 1992, the company was fined after an accident on a school-sponsored ski trip that sent a Marysville woman to the hospital with a concussion and caused a middle school student to fly through a pop-out window, records show. The state found that the bus's brakes had failed before it left the road and flipped on its side.

In 2002, shortly after Abegg bought the company, the state warned that Journey Lines lacked adequate safety procedures and was in jeopardy of losing state certification. The company was cited for failing to maintain driving and repair records.

An April 2004 inspection of nine buses found six with safety violations. The state sidelined two buses: one for an emergency exit that didn't work, and the other for a loose U-shaped bolt securing the vehicle's axle. Other violations included broken overhead lights, a broken seat, a broken backup light and two unsecured fire extinguishers.

The most recent safety report, from April, found a single violation for failing to keep a maintenance file on one bus. The bus that carried Lowell Elementary students was not among those inspected. Abegg said he regrets that the bus was sent out. He described himself as a small businessman working hard to upgrade his 12-bus fleet.

The incident with Lowell Elementary School students was not reflective of his company, he said. Terrie DeBolt, Everett School District's transportation supervisor, vouched for the company. "I believe this is a real rarity for Journey Lines," she said. "It was just a bad call on their part to let the bus go. Somebody just made a really bad choice."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 07:26 PM

The world-renowned Telegraph reports on space-feline misconduct:

Web judge says cat must keep its claws off bank's address
By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor
(Filed: 06/06/2006)

A cat is not entitled to register a website that is "confusingly similar" to the name of a well-known bank, an internet arbitrator has ruled.

Morgan Stanley, the American-based investment bank that now markets platinum credit cards in Britain, complained about a website called mymorganstanleyplatinum.com.

The domain was registered last year in the name of "Meow, Baroness Penelope Cat of Nash DCB", whose address was given as a barn near Tenbury Wells, Worcs.


Asserting that this information was false, Morgan Stanley complained to the National Arbitration Forum in Minneapolis, which handles internet registration disputes.

Ruling in the case of Morgan Stanley v Meow at the end of last month, the arbitrator, Richard Hill, noted that the respondent claimed to be a cat, "that is, a well-known carnivorous quadruped which has long been domesticated".

However, Mr Hill continued, "it is equally well-known that the common cat, whose scientific name is Felis domesticus, cannot speak or read or write… Therefore, either the respondent is a different species of cat, such as the one that stars in the motion picture Cat From Outer Space, or the respondent's assertion regarding its being a cat is incorrect."

Mr Hill clearly smelled a rat. He had been told that the cat allowed Michael Woods, described as a human, to use the domain name in his work as a business consultant. Mr Woods, also from Tenbury Wells, conducts seminars in which he warns companies about the risks of not registering obvious domain names.

"If the respondent is in fact a cat from outer space," the arbitrator continued, "then it should have so indicated in its reply, in order to avoid unnecessary perplexity by the [arbitrator]. Further, it should have explained why a cat from outer space would allow Mr Woods to use the disputed domain name."

In the absence of such an explanation, Mr Hill concluded that if Meow was a cat from outer space, then it may have something to hide - "and this is indicative of bad faith behaviour."

In its defence, the cat had pointed out that a previous arbitration panel had found that Mr Woods was not acting in bad faith when he registered and used a similar domain name, morganstanleyplatinum.com.

But that case was different, the arbitrator concluded. "In that case the respondent was Mr Woods, and not a cat or someone who has misled the panel by pretending to be a cat."

Finding that by claiming to be a cat the respondent had acted in bad faith, the arbitrator transferred the disputed domain name to Morgan Stanley.

A spokesman for the investment bank said yesterday: "As Camille Paglia once said, 'Cats are autocrats of naked self-interest.' "

Meow was not taking calls.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 10:46 AM

I want this designated hitter on my team! link


Woman's quick thinking saved three men on Martha Lake

LYNNWOOD - Alana Schutt thought the fisherman were goofing off when she saw them splashing around in the middle of Martha Lake. They weren't horsing around, she soon realized. They were sinking. "I noticed their boat was taking on water," said Schutt, 22, who spotted the three fisherman from her parents' back yard the night of May 26. "I could tell this was a situation that needed some attention."

Rather than wait for help, Schutt boarded her paddleboat and pedaled out to the distressed fishermen. She hauled the men and their boat to shore, according to a Snohomish County Sheriff's Office report released Wednesday. One of the fishermen was on the verge of drowning by the time Schutt reached him, she said. "I wasn't afraid at all," she said. "We see so many people on the lake all the time playing around, so initially I didn't think it was a big problem. When it turned into one, I was calm about the whole situation. I knew it was urgent and that I had to respond quickly."

The men were "wet and cold," but uninjured, the sheriff's report said. The fisherman who owned his group's boat was cited for not having life jackets on board, the report said.

Schutt, who was raised in her family's home near the lake, is a junior at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma and a designated hitter for her school's softball team. She was talking with her parents when she noticed the fishermen about 200 yards offshore. One of the men was swimming and another appeared to be hanging onto the side of their boat. Their boat was sitting low in the water, she noticed. She tried calling out to the men, but they were too far away, she said. "Then I knew that I had to go help them," Schutt said.

Two of the fishermen were exhausted by the time Schutt reached them. They rode on her boat while Schutt swam in the water, pushing her boat from behind with help from the third fisherman. They pulled the other boat behind them as they swam. Sheriff's deputies arrived as they neared the shore.

The last time Schutt had used her paddleboat was last summer. "I hope other people would do the same thing," she said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 May 06 - 09:29 AM

Gee whiz, and I thought we saw 'the ultimate forklift' in 'Alien'...

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 May 06 - 05:10 PM

Here's an uplifting story for everyone:
link
Published: Monday, May 1, 2006

Warehouse wonder
Intermec's Forklift of the Future prototype is loaded with the company's technology

By Eric Fetters, Herald Writer

EVERETT - Dreamers of past ages envisioned what cars, jets and spacecraft of the future might look like. Few, if any, imagined what the 21st century would mean for the lowly forklift. But designers at Everett's Intermec Inc. have thought about it, creating what they unhumbly call the Forklift of the Future.

With a flashy paint job and high-tech devices, it looks cool. Behind the looks, the forklift sports an onboard computer, wireless data transmission capabilities, automatic laser bar code scanners and radio frequency-identification readers.

Right now, it's a prototype forklift - not unlike the supercool concept cars shown off at auto shows. It's an attention-getting way to demonstrate how Intermec's products can improve warehouse and inventory management. But a wired machine like this might one day be offered for sale. Intermec and its partners are talking with the forklift industry's major manufacturers. "They're not just talking to us or interested in it because it looks neat, but because they see the competitive advantage," said John Bandringa, Intermec's director of corporate design and team leader on the forklift project.

While it doesn't always get much attention, efficient inventory and warehouse management isn't a small concern for many businesses. Wal-Mart, an early adopter of radio-frequency identification tags, can credit some of its success, and untold millions in savings, to having one of the most sophisticated inventory management systems in the retail industry. Providing the data collection products related to inventory management also has been lucrative to Intermec, which earned $65 million on sales of $875 million last year.

Intermec's designers usually deal with products no bigger than handheld computers and bar-code scanners. The Forklift of the Future project gave them a chance to dream big. "I've done other projects, but this is the most exciting," Bandringa said. While inventory and data collection technology is becoming well established in many warehouses, it's usually added on to forklifts as an afterthought. The Forklift of the Future design team's goal was to integrate the technology in ways that customers wanted.

To do that, Intermec sent its designers out of the office, Bandringa said. "It's really important to listen to the voice of the customer. We didn't just listen to the warehouse manager, we listened to the information technology manager, the forklift driver ... all of whom had different perspectives," he said.

After extensively surveying customers, Bandringa's team created hundreds of concepts, designs and foam models. In addition to figuring out what data collection devices to add to the forklift, the team focused on making all the technology as durable as possible. "Anything that you put on the forklift has to be at least equal to or more durable than the forklift itself," he said.

The Intermec team put much thought, for example, into cable managers - coverings to both organize and protect the crucial wires connecting the forklift's on-board computer, control grip and radio frequency-identification equipment. It turns out cables are prone to wear out fast in the not-so-delicate warehouse environment. The computer itself, an Intermec CV-60, is covered in magnesium.

The placement of the onboard Intermec computer in the steering column also came after considerable thought, Bandringa said. Most of the time, forklift computers hang down from the machine's roof, which can be harder for the driver to see.

The 10,000-pound electric Forklift of the Future also is outfitted with location-tracking technology that can direct a driver to the right warehouse aisle when delivering or retrieving an item. A video camera can help a driver see when placing pallets on high shelves. Plus, it's all designed for the driver's comfort. From the placement of the computer and control grip to the forklift's adjustable seat, it's relatively luxurious. Intermec's partners on the project, who provided parts or equipment, included Cascade Corp., which makes lifts, Cisco and RedPrairie.

So far, Intermec has been showing off the prototype at industry trade shows, where interest has been high. Bandringa doesn't deny the feature-filled forklift was a fun diversion from more everyday design tasks. "Personally, this is the most integrated and complex system I've worked on ... but this is also the most exciting," he said.

The result also gets good reviews from at least one forklift operator. "It's a lot smoother, quieter and has a lot more functions than the old equipment," said Jeff Harrington, who works in Intermec's warehouse near the Boeing Co. plant, where the new prototype has resided in recent weeks. "It's definitely very cool."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 10:10 AM

Anger management dropout:

Pa. Man Kills Girlfriend Over Sandwiches

April 14, 2006

UNIONTOWN, Pa. - A man threw a microwave at his girlfriend, then fatally beat her after she refused to heat up sandwiches, police said. Walter S. Fordyce, 58, of Uniontown, remained jailed without bond Thursday on a charge of criminal homicide. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney.

Fordyce told police he began arguing with his live-in girlfriend, Mary McCann, 58, early Thursday. After throwing her to the floor, Fordyce threw a microwave oven onto McCann's chest after she refused to heat up sandwiches for him, he told police. Fordyce also said he stomped on McCann's chest repeatedly then banged her head on the floor until she lost consciousness - but that he also said he didn't mean to kill her, police said.

"It was an accident. I didn't do it on purpose," police quoted Fordyce as saying.

Fordyce ran to a neighbor's house for help, but couldn't find anyone there to call 911, police said. After returning home and checking McCann for a pulse - and finding none - he went downstairs and drank a beer before going to another neighbor's home and asking them to call 911, police said.

Autopsy results were not immediately available.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 10:11 PM

So sad, and clearly the diagnosis should be "broken heart," not "heart attack."

Woman Slumps at Grandchild's Funeral, Dies
April 05, 2006

CHICAGO - The grieving grandmother of one of four children killed in a house fire last week collapsed in a church pew as the children's funeral was about to begin, and was later pronounced dead of a heart attack.

Verna Glenn, 58, slumped into the arms of family members as she sat looking at the small white casket holding her 6-year-old granddaughter, Marlese Glenn. Fire officials said she died of a heart attack.

"It's the kind of thing that is unimaginable, to be with this family in the worst possible time of their loss and then to have it compounded with the loss of a grandmother on the very same day," said the Rev. Alan Ragland, pastor of the South Side church where the funeral was held.

Marlese, her 2-year-old sister LeShawn Harris, and their cousins Dontrell Harvest, 8, and Tykia Harvest, 9, died in the March 29 fire. Two adults were also injured in the blaze, which fire officials have said may have been caused by an electrical malfunction.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 04:05 PM

An obituary in today's (Everett, Washington) Herald

Her grandchildren have grandchildren!

Eva Jane (Cosgrove) Charles

Eva Jane Charles passed away on March 19, 2006. She was born August 14, 1914, in Everett.

children
Eva is survived by daughter, Sonja (Gerold) Clementson; son, James F. (Katheryn) Monger; sister-in-law, Mary (Bob) Starkle, daughter-in-law, Charlene Monger; (three sons, listed at the bottom, preceeded her in death)

grandchildren Ella Faye (Guss) Sanchez, Elizabeth Monger, Christoper (Christine) Clementson, Susan (Jose) Clementson, Wynn (Tammie) Clementson, Cheryl (Don) Sept, Tim (Jenner) Hensley, Randy Hensley, Rick Monger, Mary Lou (Brian) Garrett;

great-grandchildren Kahlia, Michael, Chris, Cody, David, Andrew, Ivy, Selena, Robert, Anthony, Albert, Courtney, Bryar, Amy, Duane, Maxine, Travis, Jordan, Austin, Gretchen, Rebecca, Cody, and Melissa;

great-great-grandchildren Kristin, Devan, Alix, Samantha, Lyla, Eve, Lillian, Charles, Jordan, Anthony, Larnell, Jazlyn, Kasey, Emmit, Dorthey, Jade, and Cody;

and special loved ones, Shirley (Ken) Hensley.
She was preceded in death by husband, Anthony Charles; parents, Lena and Jimmy Cosgrove; sons, Jack Monger, Richard Monger, and Robert Monger; and aunt and uncle, Archie and May Gould.
Services were held on March 25, 2006.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Mar 06 - 10:27 AM

On campus, science embraces environmental ethics
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special to USA TODAY
link

Justin Becknell became an environmental science major because he wanted to help solve ecological problems. He is so determined to get results, in fact, that he's developing a subspecialty in ethics.
The rationale oozes scientific pragmatism. Becknell, a junior at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, ranks among a rising generation that has too often seen the world ignore what scientists recommend. So he and peers at other institutions are striving to understand deep convictions that lead to roadblocks and breakthroughs in human relationships. In a word: values.

"It's interesting that these problems (of implementation) exist, but scientists certainly don't know how to solve them," Becknell says. "We're trying to learn how to be good scientists who can be trusted to provide data. But we also understand that to solve some global problems, it's going to involve a moral, society-wide shift in how people use resources and spend money."

Values-based approaches are gradually winning converts in a field that for decades has emphasized problem-solving through hard science. Even programs that developed interdisciplinary methods as far back as the early 1970s have only in the past five years come to closely examine moral reasoning and "environmental values." Some examples of the new direction:

This winter, Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., rolled out a required course for all 2,000 freshmen to explore their "responsibility" for the global environment.

Colgate University of Hamilton, N.Y., created a faculty position in environmental ethics in 2003 and introduced a course this winter examining how indigenous religious beliefs can support environmentalism in South Asia.

Students now study environmental values at not only the University of Minnesota, but also at the University of Denver, the University of San Francisco and Wells College in Aurora, N.Y.
[they missed the entire Environmental Ethics MA at U of North Texas]

Such academic tracks on one level aim to provide a forum for students to clarify their own values by considering concepts of environmental sustainability and interdependence. Yet on another level, they also aim to equip future scientists with "bridge building" skills that could make or break what happens to solutions developed in a laboratory. "To me, this is where the forefront in the past few years is," says Frances Westley, director of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Scientists-in-training and scientists in practice are now realizing they need to develop a skill base that goes beyond merely being able to understand that other people have different ethical perspectives, but in real time being able to work with those people ... to be able to build trusts so that you say, 'Well, that's a different kind of know-ledge, but I understand the rules of evidence or the rules of truth in your system,' " Westley says.

On a recent afternoon, students tested their emergent skills in Dan Philippon's "Issues in the Environment" class at the University of Minnesota. They role-played several interest groups, each with a stake in a hot Midwest debate: prairie dogs. Some played ranchers with disdain for the creatures, whose holes can be big enough to trap and break a grazing steer's leg. Others urged protection for prairie dogs, a favorite of animal rights advocates and a primary food source for the endangered black-footed ferret. On another day, students considered how fertilizer used for crops in Minnesota kills off ecosystems downriver toward the Mississippi Delta. The goal in each case is the same: make students aware of interconnectedness, multiplicity of interest groups and the values that drive decisions.

"We could see this just as a technical problem to say, 'Well, we need to moderate our use of fertilizer on farmland,'" says Philippon, a professor of rhetoric with a specialty in environmental ethics. "But we can also see it as a question of values for how you bring that about — making the connection of what's happening in one landscape with what's happening in another."

Teachers of environmental values nevertheless face what Philippon calls "the danger of introducing advocacy into the curriculum." To minimize this risk, he says, he aims to provide a balance of viewpoints in lectures and readings. Even so, the Program in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Ethics, which he directs, embraces three core values of its own: biodiversity, sustainability and minimizing dangers to human health.

Other schools say they presuppose no particular environmental values but hope students will learn to defend their own. At Old Dominion, for instance, presenters in the required global environment course pre-test their material on colleagues, who critique whether a lecture will strike students as agenda-driven. Students "understand that maybe they need to decide on principles, but we're not going to tell them what they are," says Old Dominion president Roseann Runte. "We're not supposed to indoctrinate students. We're supposed to open their minds."

Still, some educators hope certain values will take root.

At Colgate University, assistant professor of religion Eliza Kent designed her new course, "Religion and Environmentalism in South Asia," with an eye, she says, toward urging students "to question the taken-for-granted idea that economic concerns are all that matter. I am trying to indoctrinate them with some sense of hope that these (environmental crisis) situations are reversible," Kent says. "I don't make any apologies for trying to instill in them hope that this environmental crisis can be reversed."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 10:13 PM

Here's a really scary one to read in the newspaper. I first learned of this in the Sierra Club Raw newsletter I get (this is a link to the text online). They link to the story below. It's long so I won't run the entire thing. The SF Chronicle is pretty good about keeping their archives up for a long time.

A move to ease pesticide laws
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Thursday, March 2, 2006

A little-noticed section of a congressional bill to overhaul the Endangered Species Act would give federal regulators a five-year pass from seeking expert scientific advice from wildlife agencies on the harmful effects of pesticides on rare animals and plants, a move environmentalists say would further threaten hundreds of animals including several in the Bay Area.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluates insecticides and herbicides up for registration or, every 15 years, for re-registration. Under the law as it is now, if it finds evidence that a pesticide could affect animals and plants protected by the act, the agency must consult with wildlife agencies before approving its use.

Environmental groups say it is crucial that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have an opportunity to present scientific studies showing effects of chemicals on animals and plants because the groups have used the evidence in court to force the EPA to limit the use of dozens of pesticides that could hurt salmon, steelhead and the California red-legged frog.

But under the bill by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, for five years the agency would not have to seek the expertise of wildlife agency scientists over how pesticides could affect the imperiled species.

The bill would eliminate key provisions of the nation's toughest environmental law safeguarding the 1,272 listed species of plants, birds, fish, amphibians, insects and mammals in the wild. The bill already has passed the House and is expected to find support in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The pesticide changes and other major revisions are opposed by environmental groups, and local governments and states across the nation are passing resolutions in support of the original 1973 act, including the California counties of Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz; and the city of Los Angeles.

"We see the act as a safety net for wildlife, and the Pombo bill cuts a hole in that net,'' said Sarah Matsumoto, field director of a nationwide coalition of 360 conservation, religious and hunting and fishing groups that want to save it.

In past years, the Fish and Wildlife Service has raised concerns about harm to listed species from pesticides, among them 2,4-D, atrazine, diazinon and endosulfan. In 2002, the agency wrote the EPA saying that the insecticide endosulfan, under consideration for re-registration at the time, could kill or disrupt endocrine systems of fish, birds, amphibians and mammals even at normal applications. Endosulfan should not be re-registered, the agency said.

But as of 2004, the EPA had registered 103 products with endosulfan for general use and about 60 special uses, according to Jeff Miller, wildlands coordinator at the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco.

In response to a lawsuit the group filed in the case of the red-legged frog, a judge ruled that the EPA was in violation of the act because it didn't consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service over 66 pesticides, including endosulfan. The center filed a motion in January asking the judge to restrict the use of endosulfan in key frog habitat throughout California.

A report released today by the center, titled "Poisoning Our Imperiled Wildlife: San Francisco Bay Area Endangered Species at Risk from Pesticides," says the pesticides could harm 31 threatened animals, including the San Joaquin kit fox, Alameda whipsnake, Western snowy plover, California tiger salamander, the freshwater shrimp, Lange's metalmark butterfly and the delta smelt.

Some of the 35 plants disappearing from the region are the Presidio Clarksia, Tiburon Indian paintbrush and Sebastopol meadowfoam, the report says.

The original pesticide-review requirement was written into the Endangered Species Act to protect the hundreds of sensitive species at risk of extinction from poisons used on farms, forests and households. Pesticides were a major factor contributing to the decline of the bald eagle, peregrine falcon, California brown pelican and other species, and DDT was banned in 1972.

Pesticide industry representatives have been lobbying for years to remove the requirement, and they support it in the Pombo bill. They have argued that the EPA is the expert agency and that the pesticides don't need further scrutiny from the wildlife agencies if the EPA has carefully reviewed pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Recovery Act.

(The rest is here).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 10:04 PM

I read a related article that described her as "tipping on end and going down like the Titanic." If it hit a rock, it may have been in shallow water, but then, there can be some pretty big rocks in some pretty deep water out there. You might be able to find a nautical chart online and figure out for yourself if they can pull that one back up and fix it.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 05:03 PM

Well, if your ship is going to strike a rock and sink it's nice when the lifeboats work and the crew knows how to work them. Three cheers for good training!!!

But will the Queen of the North rise again?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 02:44 PM

B.C. ferry strikes rock, sinks
Native villagers help rescue 99 aboard; fate of 2 is unclear

link

HARTLEY BAY, B.C. -- In fishing boats and speedboats, the people of this small Indian village headed into the stormy waters off British Columbia's north coast to help rescue at least 99 passengers and crew members from a large B.C. ferry that hit a rock and sank early Wednesday. David Hahn, the president of B.C. Ferries, called the orderly rescue from the ferry's lifeboats and the fact that no one was seriously hurt miraculous. "Any time you have a major incident and you have no one hurt or killed in this type of thing, I think you always think it's a miracle," Hahn said.

But the fate of two people who had reservations for the trip remained a mystery, The Globe and Mail of Toronto reported. It was not clear whether Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette, both of the central B.C. community of 100 Mile House, boarded the ferry in Prince Rupert. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has begun a search for the couple.

Canadian Coast Guard spokesman Dan Bate said the southbound Queen of the North hit the rock without warning at 12:26 a.m. off Gil Island in Wright Sound, about 6 1/2 miles southeast of here. The area is about 80 miles south of Prince Rupert and about 580 miles northwest of Seattle.

Passengers and crew members aboard the 409-foot ship began boarding life rafts less than a half-hour later and were taken aboard villagers' boats and the Canadian icebreaker Sir Wilfred Laurier, Bate said.

Capt. Trafford Taylor, B.C. Ferries' executive vice president of operations, said the Queen of the North was out of the shipping channel when it hit the rock. An inquiry has begun. Weather at the time was reported to be 45-mph winds with choppy seas. The ferry left Prince Rupert at 8 p.m. for the overnight run to Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

One passenger told Canadian Press she at first thought she was in the middle of a drill. "And then when they said to go to the other side of the boat, we knew it was real," Jill Lawrence said. "But it was very calm. Everyone seemed very calm, and the crew did an awesome job to get us off."

Nicole Robinson, a receptionist at the cultural center in Hartley Bay, a Gitk'a'ata Tribe town of about 200 residents, said many of those who arrived from the ferry were stunned and a few were treated for slight injuries. "We've just had a few patients come and go, minor injuries," she said. "The community all got together with blankets. Everybody's pretty cold, but they're all down at a community hall."

Some ferry passengers with minor injuries were flown by helicopter to Prince Rupert, Hartley Bay resident Wally Bolton said. Health officials in Prince Rupert told Canadian Press that 11 people had been treated at a hospital for cuts and scrapes.

Betsy Reece said everyone not out on the water was helping keep people warm and fed at the cultural center, where she works as a social worker. "I'm just totally amazed at how our small community banded together to assist people in need," she said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 02:36 PM

The French Vase caper was a hoak. Woe!! I am red all over, like a newspaper.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Bert
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 12:19 PM

Our local paper, The Gazette, says that Bush plans to keep troops in Iraq for another two years.


I guess they haven't killed all the Iraquis yet.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 12:08 PM

Sometimes you read an obituary that scores a "10" in the "covers all the bases" category. This one works for me: Betty June (Shair) Watson.

She sounds like a woman after my own heart. Here's one paragraph in the obit:
"At Mom's request, no services will be held, but she said we could have a party. So for those who would like to share memories of our mom, an open house will be held at her home from 12:00-4:00 p.m., Sunday, April 2,. . ." Good photos with it also. None of the grainy or stretched and pixilated things you see too often.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 01:42 AM

Less said about that the better, eh?

Here's a new one to mull over:

Mo. Drama Teacher Resigns Over Play Flap
March 17, 2006

COLUMBIA, Mo. - A central Missouri high school drama teacher whose spring play was canceled after complaints about tawdry content in one of her previous productions will resign rather than face a possible firing.

"It became too much to not be able to speak my mind or defend my students without fear or retribution," said Fulton High School teacher Wendy DeVore.

DeVore's students were to perform Arthur Miller's The Crucible, a drama set during the 17th Century Salem witch trials.

But after a handful of Callaway Christian Church members complained about scenes in the fall musical Grease that showed teens smoking, drinking and kissing, Superintendent Mark Enderle told DeVore to find a more family-friendly substitute.

DeVore chose Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a classic romantic comedy with its own dicey subject matter, including suicide, rape and losing one's virginity.

DeVore, 31, a six-year veteran teacher, said administrators told her that her annual contract might not be renewed.

"Maybe I need to find a school that's a better match," she said.

Both Enderle and the high school principal declined to discuss DeVore's resignation, citing privacy concerns. The resignation must still be approved by the school board.

Publicity over the drama debate, including a front-page story in The New York Times, has cast an unflattering light on Fulton as an intolerant small town, several of DeVore's colleagues said.

"We have become a laughingstock," teacher Paula Fessler told The Fulton Sun.

Yes they have, and rightly so!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 13 Mar 06 - 10:33 PM

This is truly mind blowing:

French archaeologists have taken pottery from ancient Pompeii and
played the grooves back like a record to get the sounds of the
pottery workshop, including laughter. Click "Telecharger la video" to
play the short video which contains a sample of the audio.

http://www.zalea.org/article.php3?id_article=496

Sounds from 70 AD recovered from the hardened clay of an ancient vase!! Wow!! What else is out there in the clay of the centuries?

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Mar 06 - 03:04 PM

"Man obsessed with doorknobs faces prison"

This would have been an open and shut case but the vandel stole the handles!

Better late than never!
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Mar 06 - 10:43 AM

I signed one of his petitions the day after the primaries.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Wesley S
Date: 13 Mar 06 - 10:34 AM

So what's up with Kinky Freidman - the next Governor of Texas ?

According to my morning paper Kinky was handed a Guinness during a St Patricks Day parade - which violates the Texas open container law since he was riding in a car at the time. Since no police saw this happen he wasn't arrested. According to Kinky - and I'm paraphrasing here - "Guinness is the beverage that kept the Irish from taking over the world - and it's my patriotic duty to drink it"

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 03:31 PM

A judge gave a former nurse who killed at least 29 patients in two states six more life sentences, raising the total to 18, after a hearing in which the defendant had to be gagged with a cloth and duct tape.

Charles Cullen, who committed one of the worst murder sprees ever discovered in the U.S. health care system, spent 30 minutes repeating the sentence, "Your honor, you need to step down," hundreds of times.

Cullen, who was sentenced last week to 11 consecutive life terms in New Jersey, administered lethal overdoses to seven patients at nursing homes and hospitals in Pennsylvania, and tried to kill three others.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Cod Fiddler
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 08:46 AM

BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4748292.stm

Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.

"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up".

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 08 Mar 06 - 10:12 PM

Awww, man; sometimes this kind of news just completely undermines my carefully built up cynicism about human nature, darn it! :>))

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Mar 06 - 09:54 PM

Missouri Housing Contract Comes With Dog

March 08, 2006
SCOTT CITY, Mo. - Housing contracts can get complicated in a hurry. Just consider the clause that Jared and Whittnie Essner agreed to when they bought their first home last week: "Rocky will be allowed to remain in home (with lots of love, care and attention) and negotiated visitation rights from current master. Chain link fence stays for him."

"In every offer, there's always something to be negotiated," said their real estate agent, Greg Lincoln. In this case, that something happened to be a beagle-mix dog named Rocky.

Jared, 20, and Whittnie, 19, were married last spring. They looked at more than 30 houses before settling on the quaint home at the corner of State and Mildred in this southeast Missouri town, about 100 miles south of St. Louis. The place made an instant impression on them when they toured it. So did the home's sole inhabitant: Rocky. "We thought, there honestly can't be a dog here if there's no one present," Jared said. Then, Rocky came bounding toward him.

One thing about Rocky - he's not shy. He is no bigger than a football, but covers the distance from his doghouse to the gate in a matter of seconds. He nuzzles guests and stares up at people with big round eyes. Rocky seems to smile in the way certain dogs can, with his pink tongue hanging over his lip. "He's the most lovable dog I've ever seen," Jared said.

The story of how Rocky came to occupy a 2-bedroom house by himself began three years ago. That's when a retiree named Carlos Chitty decided to get a dog. Carlos, 93, and his wife Ruby, 88, lived at the house for years. They never had kids, and life got pretty quiet after Carlos Chitty retired as owner of Carlos Grocery in downtown Scott City.

"My wife said, 'Why don't we ever have any company?'" Chitty recalled. "I said, 'Didn't you notice that all our friends have passed away and we're still hanging around? That's why.'"

Chitty saw an ad in the paper for free dogs. He said he drove to a home at the edge of town, where more than a dozen dogs were up for adoption. Again: Rocky's not shy. "Man, that little dog came running across the yard. He about licked my face off," Chitty recalled.

Twelve years ago, Ruby Chitty was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Carlos watched her personality slowly slip away. By the time Rocky came around, Ruby didn't remember Carlos, or really remember herself, Carlos said. But Rocky was always there. "I could talk to him. He would ride in my car. We were really buddies," Chitty said.

Earlier this year, it became clear Carlos couldn't take care of his wife any longer. "We'd just gone as far as we could go," he said. They moved into a nursing home. Rocky wasn't allowed. Friends and family took care of Rocky for a couple of months before the Essners saw the house. The couple didn't want Rocky to be evicted, so they wrote him into the contract.

The couple seems to be living up to their end of the deal. Rocky spends fewer nights outside and sleeps inside the house's entryway on a big pillow. Jared Essner installed a night light by the pillow recently because he thought it was too dark at night.

Carlos Chitty visited Rocky last weekend. At the retirement center, his dresser includes four pictures: Two portraits of Carlos and his wife, and two portraits of Rocky. Chitty said he wouldn't have given up the dog if he didn't have to. But it meant a lot to him when Whittnie Essner told him Rocky was still his. The couple were just dog-sitting. "I thought, well, if anybody has the dog, I'd want you to have him," Chitty said he told her.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 08:11 PM

Study Shows Babies Try to Help
By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP Medical Writer)

WASHINGTON - Oops, the scientist dropped his clothespin. Not to worry - a wobbly toddler raced to help, eagerly handing it back. The simple experiment shows the capacity for altruism emerges as early as 18 months of age. Toddlers' endearing desire to help out actually signals fairly sophisticated brain development, and is a trait of interest to anthropologists trying to tease out the evolutionary roots of altruism and cooperation.

Psychology researcher Felix Warneken performed a series of ordinary tasks in front of toddlers, such as hanging towels with clothespins or stacking books. Sometimes he "struggled" with the tasks; sometimes he deliberately messed up. Over and over, whether Warneken dropped clothespins or knocked over his books, each of 24 toddlers offered help within seconds - but only if he appeared to need it. Video shows how one overall-clad baby glanced between Warneken's face and the dropped clothespin before quickly crawling over, grabbing the object, pushing up to his feet and eagerly handing back the pin.

Warneken never asked for the help and didn't even say "thank you," so as not to taint the research by training youngsters to expect praise if they helped. After all, altruism means helping with no expectation of anything in return. And - this is key - the toddlers didn't bother to offer help when he deliberately pulled a book off the stack or threw a pin to the floor, Warneken, of Germany's Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, reports Thursday in the journal Science.

To be altruistic, babies must have the cognitive ability to understand other people's goals plus possess what Warneken calls "pro-social motivation," a desire to be part of their community. "When those two things come together - they obviously do so at 18 months of age and maybe earlier - they are able to help," Warneken explained.

But babies aren't the whole story. No other animal is as altruistic as humans are. We donate to charity, recycle for the environment, give up a prime subway seat to the elderly - tasks that seldom bring a tangible return beyond a sense of gratification. Other animals are skilled at cooperating, too, but most often do so for a goal, such as banding together to chase down food or protect against predators. But primate specialists offer numerous examples of apes, in particular, displaying more humanlike helpfulness, such as the gorilla who rescued a 3-year-old boy who fell into her zoo enclosure.

But observations don't explain what motivated the animals. So Warneken put a few of our closest relatives through a similar helpfulness study. Would 3- and 4-year-old chimpanzees find and hand over objects that a familiar human "lost"? The chimps frequently did help out if all that was required was reaching for a dropped object - but not nearly as readily as the toddlers had helped, and not if the aid was more complicated, such as if it required reaching inside a box.

It's a creative study that shows chimps may display humanlike helpfulness when they can grasp the person's goal, University of California, Los Angeles, anthropologist Joan Silk wrote in an accompanying review. Just don't assume they help for the reasons of empathy that motivated the babies, she cautioned.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 06 - 01:18 AM

Customers Cook Up Trouble With Fake Penis
AP (link)
Saturday, February 25, 2006

Pittsburgh (AP) -- A woman who claimed she was trying to cheat on a drug test was behind a bizarre incident in which a frightened convenience store clerk thought she had microwaved a severed penis, police said.

The clerk at the store outside Pittsburgh actually microwaved a prosthetic device used to cheat on drug tests, police said Friday. The incident unfolded late Thursday afternoon when a man and a woman entered the store and the man asked the clerk, "Can you microwave something for me? It's a life-or-death situation," according to an account the woman later gave police.

The man asked for paper towels, wrapped an object in them, and had the clerk microwave the item for 20 seconds, said McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero. When it was finished, the clerk handed the item back to the man and saw what she thought was a severed penis, Pero said.

After news reports Friday, a woman called police to say she was with the man in the store and gave her account of what happened, Pero said. The woman told police she was applying for a job and was required to take a drug test. She said the man had filled the device with his urine, which she planned to submit for the test, Pero said.

According to the woman, the couple stopped to warm the device in the microwave so the urine would "pass the body temperature test," Pero said — that is, be warm enough to not arouse the suspicion of those administering the test. Pero said police weren't sure why the woman was storing the urine in a device mimicking male genitalia.

The woman wasn't applying for a job at the convenience store, but Pero said he didn't know anything else about the job.

The chief said the woman planned to come to the police station for an interview. Police Friday night said they had no new information and said the chief would have to answer any further questions on Monday. Pero wouldn't release the names of the man or woman. Charges, including harassment and disorderly conduct, were possible, he said.

The clerk at the Giant Eagle Get Go! is "still visibly shaking," Pero said. Giant Eagle, which owns the convenience store, said the microwave will be discarded.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 17 Feb 06 - 12:42 PM

Not as heinous as uttering and pubolishing, but close:

Man obsessed with doorknobs faces prison

Associated Press
PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. - A man who claims he is obsessed with doorknobs faces three years in prison for a burglary spree in which dozens of them were taken from construction sites, along with tools and other materials.

A criminal complaint said Thor Jeffrey Steven Laufer told police he took a variety of items from the construction sites in the Milwaukee suburb of Mequon to disguise his obsession, "so that it would look like a typical burglary rather than someone just stealing doorknobs."

Laufer, 43, of Racine, was sentenced this week by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Joseph McCormack to the three-year prison term, plus five years of extended supervision, and ordered to pay restitution. He had pleaded no contest to felony counts of burglary.

The thefts occurred in December 2004. Laufer also faces charges in Milwaukee County for similar incidents in suburban Franklin.
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 06 - 10:31 AM

Sounds like the vernacular the reporter used left out some of the phrase. It probably has to do with uttering and publishing threats or something more concrete.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 06 - 10:05 AM

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - A man who pleaded no contest to a sodomy charge involving a sheep says he should not have to register as a sex offender.

Jeffrey S. Haynes said the state registry is intended to keep track of people who have committed crimes against humans.

But Calhoun County Circuit Court Judge Conrad Sindt told Haynes at his sentencing hearing that once he is released from prison, he must register with the Michigan State Police Public Sex Offender Registry.
Haynes, 42, of Battle Creek, was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years to 20 years in prison. He entered the plea in January. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
...
Police said Haynes had sex with a sheep at a Bedford Township farm on Jan. 26, 2005. The animal's owner caught him on the property and the sheep was found injured.

Haynes was arrested in June after a DNA sample taken from the animal matched Haynes' genetic material.

Haynes has prior convictions for burglary, home invasion and uttering and publishing, and was on parole for burglary at the time of the sex crime.

---

I didn't know you could be convicted for uttering and publishing. And how come raping a sheep isn't a parole violation? And if it isn't, then why should he have to register?

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 01:32 PM

Cupid connects, thanks to doctor
An Everett urologist helps his patient pop the question after kidney stone surgery.
link

It was a first for Everett urologist Dr. Gary Stack, playing cupid in the recovery room.

The patient, Delancey Woods, had asked for a little help surprising his girlfriend.

Stack walked into a room early Tuesday morning at Providence Everett Medical Center's Pacific Campus to brief Woods on having his kidney stones removed. Woods asked, "Can you do something for me?"

He pulled out a ring box and asked if Stack would help surprise his girlfriend. He had planned to propose on Valentine's Day before the kidney stone procedure was scheduled.

His girlfriend, Linda Hinen, wouldn't suspect his plan if he popped the question in the recovery room, Woods said.

Stack agreed, taking the ring box and putting it in his locker.

Later, when Woods was in the recovery room, Stack walked in shaking a small plastic specimen container with an orange screw top.

"Do you want to see your (kidney) stone?" Stack asked.

Woods, 40, turned to his girlfriend and asked if she wanted to see it.

Hidden inside was a rock, all right - a white-gold engagement ring.

"Linda Marie, will you marry me?" Woods asked.

Gazing at Woods, still dressed in his hospital gown and hooked to monitoring equipment, Hinen quipped, "I don't know. You're not down on your knee."

Recovery room nurses, tipped to the surprise, burst into applause when they heard Hinen, 48, say "yes" to the proposal.

"Every nurse in the hospital recovery room knew, but not me," Hinen said.

Woods had secretly phoned Hinen's family Monday evening to tell them of the plan.

The couple, who have been together almost four years and live near Bothell, were all smiles as they walked out of the hospital Tuesday afternoon. Caught up in the excitement of the moment, they said it was too early to talk about their wedding plans.

"Who would have thought?" Hinen wondered aloud.

"Me!" Woods retorted.

"I always tell him you gotta be pretty quick to pull one over on me," Hinen said. "Well, he got me."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: frogprince
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 03:52 PM

Amen, brothers and sisters!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 01:40 PM

You just gotta love it when the media focuses on somepositive story like that. They invest so much effort in the discovery of the shocking, dismaying, heartbreaking and disgusting ones, this is a pleasant change.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 12:51 PM

Nice story from today's Star-Telegram:

Overcoming obstacles is nothing new for this Arlington Heights freshman
link

FORT WORTH -- For two glorious minutes, Trevor Davis raced up and down the court in the Arlington Heights High School gym as the crowd stood and chanted: "Trevor!" "Trevor!" "Trevor!"

With one minute left in the final quarter, Trevor caught the ball to the left of the basket behind the three-point line. He aimed and fired. Swish! The crowd erupted. Trevor, 15, a freshman at Arlington Heights, is the manager of the varsity, junior varsity and freshman boys basketball teams.

Trevor also was born with spina bifida, a congenital spinal-cord defect that occurs when the spine fails to close properly in utero. The defect is known to cause paralysis and in some extreme cases, brain damage. But Trevor's brain is normal, and he has full use of most of his body. The only noticeable effects are in his legs and feet. He wears braces on both legs and has no muscle mass from the knees down. He's 4 feet 8 inches tall.

But Trevor has been infatuated with basketball since he was 5, he said.

Last year, he was team manager and played in several games at Monnig Middle School. This season, Trevor has practiced with all three basketball teams. That hard work paid off in the final minute of Monday's evening's freshman game against Western Hills High School, which Heights won, 77-43.

Coach J. W. Briscoe let Trevor play for two minutes because of his commitment to the team. "He's really an inspiration to all of us," said Seth Dahle, a starting guard on the Heights freshman basketball team.

In the front row was Trevor's 80-year-old grandmother, Dona Horsley. "When Trevor was born, they told my daughter that he would never walk," Horsley said. "There's been a lot of surgeries throughout his life. He didn't learn to walk until he was 3, but he's suited up today." Trevor has lived with Horsley since his mother was killed in a wreck three years ago. His father left the home soon after Trevor was born.

Harris Hughey, Arlington Heights' varsity coach, said Trevor is a dedicated manager. "He encourages all of us," Hughey said. "He's sharp as a tack and has drawn up plays that he gives to all of the coaches."

When Trevor enrolled at Heights, his goals included making good grades and earning a letter jacket. Hughey said he expects that Trevor will earn his letter after the basketball season of his sophomore year.

But Trevor has one more wish for this season: He'd like to attend a Dallas Mavericks game, something he's never done. "I do pretty much what every regular kid does," Trevor said. "I just live life."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 10:35 AM

Arson was for kicks, agents told
In court papers, one suspect says they set the Edmonds condo fire to show they could.
link

EDMONDS - They wanted to start a fire and watch a big building burn just because they could. That was the reason two men gave federal agents for allegedly igniting a fire that destroyed a downtown Edmonds condominium building in December, according to court documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Random S. Haug, 21, and Daniel W. Shreve, 18, both of Everett, were charged in federal court Monday. Two teenagers, a girl and boy, also face arson charges in connection with the Dec. 17 blaze that caused $4.5 million in damage. If charged, the two teens would be prosecuted in Snohomish County Juvenile Court.

On the night of the fire, the four had been at a birthday party in Edmonds. Afterward, they filled half a small juice bottle with gasoline, according to court documents. Shreve told investigators the group targeted The Gregory, a 90,000-square-foot condominium and retail building, because some friends were working on the project, and they knew it would be unoccupied, according to documents.

They allegedly lit the bottle, threw it into the building and then drove up the hill and watched it burn for 20 minutes. They returned a second time after filling up a larger juice bottle with gas at a nearby station to create a bigger fire. This time they allegedly threw the gas on a stairway and hall and lit it, according to court records. They returned a third time and threw additional combustibles on the fire, charging documents say. About two hours later, the group returned to watch as the building was engulfed in flames. Shreve told investigators it was a "nice fire," and Haug described it as a "cool fire," according to court papers.

Haug told investigators that he felt bad that someone lost money and residents were evacuated, but said it was only property that was damaged, according to documents. The fire was set to make a statement that "we could do this," Haug told investigators, documents say. Both men told officers they didn't expect the entire building to burn down. "They did want only two to three rooms to burn," according to documents. Shreve also allegedly admitted that they had previously improvised gas bombs, throwing one at a billboard.

Haug and Shreve turned themselves in Thursday night at the Everett Police Department after law enforcement officers began speaking with people they knew, and one was given a lie-detector test, documents say.

Federal agents started focusing on the two men's friends after someone called a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tip line identifying Haug and Shreve as possible suspects. One acquaintance who was interviewed worked for the construction company that was building the Gregory, documents say.

Haug and Shreve are expected to appear today in federal court. The arson charge could net each of them between five and 20 years in prison.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Feb 06 - 05:24 PM

Someone will no doubt start a whole thread to do with this.

Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter
From Associated Press
February 12, 2006

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday. Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.

Armstrong said Whittington was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Whittington was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and his wife at the hospital on Sunday afternoon. Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shot at a covey of quail late afternoon on Saturday.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and found a second covey. Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong told the Associated Press in an interview. "The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic. "It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood. "Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year. She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together. "This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 05:04 PM

This is just so odd.

Suicidal man had destructive past

By Kirk Mitchell
DenverPost.com

A 56-year-old Miami man who apparently committed suicide on a United Airlines flight that was diverted to Denver Wednesday night had torched a North Miami car delearship over the weekend causing more than $1 million in damage. Gerald Georgettis was a passenger on a flight from Washington Dulles airport to Los Angeles when his body was discovered strangled by a rope in the lavatory, according to the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. "It is apparent this was a suicide," said Virginia Quiñones, Denver police spokesperson.

On Saturday afternoon, Georgettis plowed his brand new SUV into the showroom window of North Dade Metro Ford, doused his car and others with gasoline and lit them up, according to a Miami Herald report. Police arrested him and charged him with first-degree arson, and felony criminal mischief. He posted a $1,500 bond on Sunday.

United flight #209 was diverted to Denver International Airport for an emergency landing at 4:20 p.m. after Georgettis' body was discovered. His body was taken to Fitzimmons Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 5:12 p.m., according to a Denver police report. Georgettis, an Australian, had for the past seven years managed the municipal theater for North Miami Beach. He scheduled concerts, graduations, seminars and plays in the 900-seat theater, said Harriet Orr, director of North Miami Parks and Recreation. He rented out the theater to producers and supervised technicians.

Georgettis formally was the concert manager for the rock group Pink Floyd, Orr said. "He was a terrific guy," she said. "He did a great job for us." Not once had Georgettis ever given an indication he had a hot tempter, Orr said. "We don't understand it," she said. "It's devastating to us."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 10:57 PM

I have one I saved from a while back, that I found during a Mudcat crash:

Thai Floods Leave Behind Gold Rush
January 14, 2006

THAM THA MAUK, Thailand - Severe floods that washed away homes, bridges and lives apparently have compensated hapless villagers in southern Thailand with a treasure - gold.

Hundreds of fortune-seekers armed with shovels and pans are flocking to the stream of Tham Tha Mauk village in search of the precious metal, which surfaced from stream banks after the deluge.

"The spirit of Tha Mauk (Grandfather Mauk) has given us worshippers a treasure to compensate for what we lost in the flooding," said 60-year-old Sangad Chankhaew as he flashed a broad smile after a buyer gave him $30 in cash for a gold nugget the size of a rice grain. Sangad found the nugget 30 minutes after starting his day of panning for gold.

He was among about 50 gold diggers on the banks of the Tha Mauk stream, scooping sand and mud into wooden pans and hopefully swishing them around in the water one recent morning.

November's flooding - the worst the area has seen in 40 years - caused landslides and the collapse of the stream's banks, exposing an area for gold digging.

"The gold is more plentiful than in the past years," said Sanguan, Sangad's older brother who goes by only one name. He said his family has made about $2,000 since they began panning after the water receded.

Sanguan's house was lightly damaged by the floods, and a part of his pineapple plantation was washed away.

The flooding swept away houses, roads and bridges in Prachuab Khiri Khan province's Bangsaphan district, 180 miles south of Bangkok, where the stream is located. Six people were killed in flash floods in Bangsaphan in November.

Gold diggers have offered flowers, incense and sweets to Tha Mauk's small spirit house, which was erected near the stream. Local folklore says that the spirit of Tha Mauk owns the gold-rich forest of the area and that he occasionally gives to worshippers from his stores.

Some gold buyers see their purchases here as his sacred gifts.

"This gold is a present from the holy spirit, so I bought it to keep for prosperity in my life," said Pradit Sawangjit, 42, a pineapple plantation owner who bought the nugget from Sangad.

Many gold diggers had left jobs at pineapple and coconut plantations to look for gold.

Ruangsri Polkrut, 52, traveled more than 60 miles from Chumpon province to sit on a rock by the stream for more than six hours a day to search.

"I've earned about 5,000 baht ($120) from three days panning for gold. It's not big money but enough for the school fee of my daughter for next term," Ruangsri said.

Tham Tha Mauk used to be a gold mining village, but gold digging ended some 30 years ago when vast swathes of forest were converted into private pineapple plantations.

"This area used to be a national forest, but the rich people turned this land into their private pineapple plantations," Sanguan said. "But after the water washed way part of the plantation and the banks of stream, we had every right to look for gold again."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 11:32 AM

This is not an obit. But close...

"Human chain pulls hunter from crocodileAssociated PressHARARE, Zimbabwe - A human chain of villagers pulled a hunter from the jaws of a man-eating crocodile in northeastern Zimbabwe, state media reported Monday.
Letikuku Sidumbu, 32, was attacked by the crocodile while trying to cross the swollen Mubvinzi river in the Goromonzi district, about 25 miles east of Harare, during an early morning hunting expedition with his uncle.
As the crocodile clenched it jaws on his right arm, a human chain of villagers tugged him from its grip in a struggle that also left him with a broken leg and chest and stomach injuries, Sidumbu told the state Herald newspaper from his hospital bed in Harare.
Crocodiles are the most dangerous animal to man in Zimbabwe. In recorded cases last year, they dragged away and ate 13 people - including children - according to the Communal Areas Management Program, a conservation group.
"I called out to my uncle to hit the crocodile with an ax," The Herald quoted Sidumbu saying.
But, he said, commotion by the two men's hunting dogs enraged the crocodile. He heard the voices of fellow vilalgers arriving from nearby Chitana Mafengu to help.
Before rescuers dragged him free, "one thing was clear that they wanted to salvage at least a piece of my flesh for burial should the crocodile get the better of them," Sidumbu said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 06:02 PM

Here's another obit from a large family, and as it happens, I went to school with his oldest daughter. Didn't realize she came from such a huge family. Not so many as the mormon family--evidently my generation put the brakes on the huge families. There are a few tall stories included in this obit. I'm including only the first couple of paragraphs.

Patrick Henry Caudle, age 87, died peacefully at home on January 27, 2006. He had just put on his hat and boots, after telling family members he was ready to go home.
He was husband to the one love of his life, Clara; father to ten children; grandfather to 26; great-grandfather to 44; and great-great-grandfather to four more. He is loved by every one of them. Most would show up for numerous celebrations of holidays, anniversaries, and birthday parties at his home. A favorite holiday was St. Patrick's Day when Pat would grow a beard and dye it green. He was born in Davenport, Washington, to Manlove Graham and Mary Alice Caudle on March 17, 1918. He weighed only two and one half pounds, slept in a shoe box, and was fed coffee and whiskey to keep his little body going. When he was 12, his mom and dad packed up Pat and his seven older siblings, Sid, Claude, Graham, John, Willard, Frances, and Effie, and moved to Cashmere, Washington, for a year and then settled in Everett. As a child he picked apples, milked the cow, and taught himself the harmonica. He often played at the Grange dances he loved to attend and he continued to play the Harmonica masterfully his entire life. From amateur radio shows, to impromptu concerts, to last Christmas's family gathering, his music entertained everyone.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 06 - 11:10 PM

Ah. . . my namesake is acting up. Beautiful river. Lots of family stories from this area.

article

Crews battle to save homes along the Stilly
River washes away land as it flows past slide

OSO - Standing near the edge of his crumbling front yard Monday afternoon, Lon Slauson eyeballed the advance of the North Fork Stillaguamish River on his home. Behind him, the warning beeps of graders and dump trucks echoed. Crews hastily cut an emergency road through his back field, hoping to bring boulders to the river's edge in an attempt to save his home. Slauson gauged how fast the crews worked. He watched how swiftly his land vanished as the current gnawed away at the soil at a rate of 25 feet per hour. "Looks like the river's ahead of them," he said.

The race against the Stilly started Wednesday when a landslide plugged the river with an estimated 1 million cubic feet of debris. The debris dam forced the river to swing south. It plowed a new course through a tangle of alder and cottonwood trees - straight toward Slauson's home. On Monday, Slauson's back field was the frontline of the fight. If the river claimed his home, officials feared that a half dozen more would be lost in the neighborhood about 15 miles east of Arlington.

A key moment came about 4 p.m. Monday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished its emergency road. Crews still needed permission from Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon to build a bulwark with boulders, said Doug Weber, manager of the Corps' emergency program. Reinforcing a river bank with rocks, known as rip rap, is not normally allowed under environmental rules designed to protect fish. "There needs to be a decision made quickly," Weber said as the clock ticked. "Definitely today. We're ready to start as soon as we get permission. We would work through the night."

Just before dusk, Reardon and other county officials decided the rocks were the best way to control the river's fury. "We wanted to save one house and potentially save five or six others," Reardon said after visiting the site. Steve Thomsen, acting county public works director, said the river's new course may actually help fish by creating new habitat under tree cover.

By about 6 p.m., an excavator was dropping four washing machine-sized boulders into the water every minute. Floodlights lit the area like a high school football game. "We want to stand and fight right here," Noel Gilbrough, a Corps flood engineer, said as he stood on Slauson's porch. By 6:30 p.m., the water level was dropping, and the home appeared to be in the clear -until the next storm.

Crews had worked throughout the weekend keeping the river's new path clear of trees and other debris. They feared that the river could dam up and spill through the neighborhood. Then heavy rain Sunday night and early Monday sent the water rising. By first light Monday, Slauson's front yard started to dissolve like sugar in the surging brown water. His well pump house, firewood shed and a neighbor's trailer drifted away. Meanwhile, the air trembled as huge alder trees crashed into the water as the bank washed away. "Nobody around here got any sleep last night," Slauson said.

"The scary thing is, this is not even a very big (flood) event," said John Engel of the county's public works department. "This is a really minor event, and it's up to the bank-full here. There isn't any overflow (space). The overflow now is going to be through the neighborhood." Larry Forsman on Monday still clung to the hope that his retirement home could be saved. "We're too old to pick a new spot," Forsman said. "If we have to, we have to. But our intention is staying."

The National Weather Service is forecasting more rain throughout this week. However, officials don't anticipate the same volume of rain that pelted the region starting Sunday, said Johnny Burg, a weather service meteorologist. Everett was nailed with 1 1/2 inches of rain from 4 a.m. Sunday to 4 a.m. Monday. So far this year 6.31 inches of rain have fallen in Everett, nearly two inches more than normal.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jan 06 - 11:06 AM

I told a friend at work about this obit--she said she was from a large family and grew up with a great grandmother who never remembered her name, but she did know who Karen "belong to" (which of her children and grandchildren). Recognizing family lines was all the woman could manage in her old age.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Skivee
Date: 28 Jan 06 - 01:35 AM

Seems to me that Brother Dickson really liked kids...or somethin'.