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BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 May 07 - 08:14 PM Misspelling on sign could haunt cause Star-Telegram Let's just say that for the Fort Worth school district, it wasn't a good day. Paul Harvey, the nationally syndicated radio newsman known for his twice-daily show, News and Comment, mentioned the district Friday in his lunchtime program in an item about a small protest outside the administration building. About a dozen students, parents and supporters had picketed the building Thursday in protest of a board decision this week. The board upheld a district policy prohibiting 617 students who failed one or more parts of the TAKS exit-level exam from participating in graduation ceremonies. Harvey had received a photo of the protest. "Several students who expected to be walking across the stage are instead walking on a picket line," Harvey said in his broadcast. "They are carrying protest signs. One of the signs said, 'Let our kids walk.'" But it wasn't spelled correctly, Harvey noted. "Our, as in 'our kids,' is spelled A-R-E," he said. "Let are kids walk." Then, quickly moving on with a catchphrase, Harvey said, "Page 3!" The protester in question would probably want to turn the page on that one, too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 May 07 - 03:33 PM link Lost log finds its ownerA carved log swept by floods from the yard of a Granite Falls man turns up six months later and 20 miles away - at his workplace. SNOHOMISH - Byron Petit hadn't bought lottery tickets for years. He didn't think he stood a chance of winning. A week ago, Petit bought 20 lottery tickets. He feels lucky. Petit, 48, has good reason to believe in his good fortune, given what happened to him on May 18. On that Friday afternoon, he was at Reliable Hardware & Equipment in Snohomish, where he works as general manager. He was strolling around near the Snohomish River. He happened to look at a bundle of brush, branches and garbage - all brought by last year's floods. A log amid the mess caught his eye. It was about 7 feet long and had two carved seats. Someone lost a sitting log, Petit thought. He kept looking at the log. It looked familiar. He kept looking. And it dawned upon him: It was his sitting log. "It's a miracle," he said. In 2003, floodwaters originally delivered the log to his property in Granite Falls near the Pilchuck River. He carved two seats on the log with a chainsaw. His family and friends used to sit on it around a campfire. During the Election Day flood in 2006, the river rose fast, swallowed part of his property and washed away the sitting log. The flood left a jumble of debris as it caused millions of dollars in damage around Snohomish County. To date, Snohomish County residents have reported to the county $8.8 million in flood damage to homes and property, said Mark Murphy, program manager for response and recovery at the county's Emergency Management Department. Of that damage claim, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved about $1.2 million for housing assistance and about $382,000 for other assistance, Murphy said. Businesses in the county also have filed damage claims, estimated at $4.4 million, Murphy said. The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved more than $11 million in low-interest disaster loans to people and businesses in the state. Flood damage repair projects are submitted to the federal government by the county, the PUD and diking districts, said John Pennington, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management. "I think it's very probable that more money is coming," he said. "It just filters out over a period of time." Petit said he has yet to clean up a mess left by the flood at his property. As time passed, he forgot about the sitting log. Yet more than six months after the disaster, about 20 miles away from his home, near his office, Petit spotted the log. It sat on the bank of the Snohomish River just like it used to at his property, he said. "I'm not superstitious," he said. "I'm a see-and-believe-things kind of guy. But this got me rethinking about things." So, Petit spent $20 buying 20 lotto tickets right after the reunion with his sitting log. He plans to haul the log back to his property and chain it to a tree so that another flood won't wash it away. He plans to check to see whether he's won the lottery this weekend. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 May 07 - 10:00 AM From the Chronicle for Higher Education: Term Papers for Sale -- New Google policy Term-paper and essay-writing services join prostitutes, firearms dealers, and hacking sites in Google's forbidden-advertising zone, the company announced on Tuesday. Academic paper-writing services, or "paper mills," will no longer be able to buy search terms in the Google AdWords program, and thus their ads will no longer pop up in the "sponsored links" sections of a Google search-results page. (Links to those sites could still be found among the results on the main part of the page, however.) "It's a new Google policy, just announced," said a saleswoman from Google's AdWords who did not want to give her name because she was not authorized to speak to reporters. "We're not going to be taking ads from essay services anymore." Diana Adair, a Google spokeswoman, confirmed in an e-mail message that the ban would go into effect "in the coming weeks," though she did not give a precise date. The paper mills, which offer buyers papers written to order for a fee, have been the subject of sharp complaints from universities, which view them as sources of plagiarism. The companies themselves have a different view. "We're not doing anything wrong here," said Sandra Brown, a spokeswoman for Term Paper Relief, a site that shows up as a sponsored link on Google after a search using the phrase "term paper." For $9.95 per page, the company offers "A-grade term papers" that, it says, are custom-written and completely nonplagiarized. "We've been working as a company for eight years, and we've never had a complaint from a customer," Ms. Brown said. She added that she had not heard about the new Google policy. Term Paper Relief's site notes that its papers are "for assistance purposes only" and "should be used with proper reference." That kind of disclaimer probably won't get a company past the new Google ban, though the AdWords saleswoman said she did not have the exact wording of the policy or know how it would be enforced. "We'll look at individual sites," she said. "It's going to be a work in progress." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 May 07 - 03:55 PM Useful information for us all. From YouTube. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 24 May 07 - 02:04 PM Scientists Measure Spontaneity in Drosophila. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 23 May 07 - 10:23 AM Shark's virgin birth stuns scientists |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 22 May 07 - 01:15 PM From Times OnlineMay 22, 2007 Mars rover finds evidence of water |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 22 May 07 - 06:17 AM Targeted marketing by drugmakers under fire Pharmaceutical industry data-mining raises doctor, patient privacy concerns By Christopher Lee The Washington Post Updated: 10:04 p.m. CT May 21, 2007 Seattle pediatrician Rupin Thakkar's first inkling that the pharmaceutical industry was peering over his shoulder and into his prescription pad came in a letter from a drug representative about the generic drops Thakkar prescribes to treat infectious pinkeye. In the letter, the salesperson wrote that Thakkar was causing his patients to miss more days of school than they would if he put them on Vigamox, a more expensive brand-name medicine made by Alcon Laboratories. "My initial thought was 'How does she know what I'm prescribing?' " Thakkar said. "It feels intrusive. . . . I just feel strongly that medical encounters need to be private." He is not alone. Many doctors object to drugmakers' common practice of contracting with data-mining companies to track exactly which medicines physicians prescribe and in what quantities -- information marketers and salespeople use to fine-tune their efforts. The industry defends the practice as a way of better educating physicians about new drugs. Now the issue is bubbling up in the political arena. Last year, New Hampshire became the first state to try to curtail the practice, but a federal district judge three weeks ago ruled the law unconstitutional. This year, more than a dozen states have considered similar legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. They include Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington, although the results so far have been limited. Bills are stalled in some states, and in others, such as Maryland and West Virginia, they did not pass at the committee level. The concerns are not merely about privacy. Proponents say using such detailed data for drug marketing serves mainly to influence physicians to prescribe more expensive medicines, not necessarily to provide the best treatment. "We don't like the practice, and we want it to stop," said Jean Silver-Isenstadt, executive director of the National Physicians Alliance, a two-year-old group with 10,000 members, most of them young doctors in training. (Thakkar is on the group's board of directors.) "We think it's a contaminant to the doctor-patient relationship, and it's driving up costs." The American Medical Association, a larger and far more established group, makes millions of dollars each year by helping data-mining companies link prescribing data to individual physicians. It does so by licensing access to the AMA Physician Masterfile, a database containing names, birth dates, educational background, specialties and addresses for more than 800,000 doctors. After complaints from some members, the AMA last year began allowing doctors to "opt out" and shield their individual prescribing information from salespeople, although drug companies can still get it. So far 7,476 doctors have opted out, AMA officials said. "That gives the physician the choice," said Jeremy A. Lazarus, a Denver psychiatrist and high-ranking AMA official. Some critics, however, contend that the AMA's opt-out is not well publicized or tough enough, noting that doctors must renew it every three years. The New Hampshire court ruling has raised new doubts about how effective legislative efforts to curb the use of prescribing data will be, but the state attorney general has promised to appeal. And state Rep. Cindy Rosenwald (D), the law's chief sponsor, vowed not to give up the fight. "In this case commercial interests took precedence over the interests of the private citizens of New Hampshire," Rosenwald said. "This is like letting a drug rep into an exam room and having them eavesdrop on a private conversation between a physician and a patient." The April 30 ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro, nominated to the federal bench in 1992 by President George H. W. Bush, called the state's pioneering law an unconstitutional restriction on commercial speech. Prescription patterns documented Since at least the early 1990s, drug companies have used the data to identify doctors who write the most prescriptions and go after them the way publishers court people who subscribe to lots of magazines. They zero in on physicians who prescribe a competitors' drug and target them with campaigns touting their own products. Salespeople chart the changes in a doctor's prescribing patterns to see whether their visits and offers of free meals and gifts are having the desired effect. "It's a key weapon in determining how we want to tailor our sales pitch," said Shahram Ahari, a former drug detailer for Eli Lilly who is now a researcher at the University of California at San Francisco's School of Pharmacy. "The programs give them [doctors] a score of 1 to 10 based on how much they write. Once we have that, we know who our primary targets are. We focus our time on the big [prescription] writers -- the 10s, the 9s, and then less so on the 8s and 7s. . . . We're dealing with individual physicians who might give us the biggest dividend for our investment." Ahari said he used the data to tout the virtues of Eli Lilly's antidepressant Prozac to doctors who favored the rival drug Effexor, noting, for example, that its longer half-life meant that if patients missed a dose over a weekend, they would experience less severe agitation and other withdrawal symptoms that might prompt them to call their doctor. He did not mention the rival drug by name or disclose that he knew the physician's prescribing habits, he said. Data-mining companies and the pharmaceutical industry argue that the practice has value far beyond the corporate bottom line. The information helps companies, federal health agencies and others educate physicians about drugs, track whether prescribing habits change in response to continuing medical education programs, and promote higher-quality care, they say. They stress that patient names are encrypted early in the process and cannot be accessed, even by the data-mining companies. A drug company might use the database to help determine whether physicians prescribing a particular high-risk drug have undergone required training about the medicine, said Marjorie E. Powell, senior assistant general counsel for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade association. "If you don't have that information, then you are in a very difficult situation," Powell said. "There is no way you can implement the risk-management plan that the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] is requiring you to implement in order to allow the drug to be on the market." The prescribing data also let "the company do more targeted marketing, which lowers the total costs of its marketing," she said. Randolph Frankel, a vice president at IMS Health Inc., the Connecticut-based health-data-mining company that challenged the New Hampshire law, said the more a drug representative knows about a physician, the easier it is to provide information that meets the needs of the doctor's practice. "We are about more information and more education, and not less," said Frankel, whose company had operating revenue of $1.75 billion in 2005, not all of it from sales to drugmakers. "The vast majority of physicians welcome these people as part of the overall educational process about drugs and their use. And any doctor in the country can close the door to these sales reps. It doesn't require legislation to do that." © 2007 The Washington Post Company [Your drug dealers are watching you ... ... ... too.] John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 May 07 - 11:08 PM Tech: How the Hatto Hoax Was Revealed The inside story of the digital sleuthing that exposed Britain's greatest pianist as a fraud. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Brian Braiker Newsweek May 20, 2007 - By the time Joyce Hatto died of ovarian cancer at age 77, she had released 119 albums. Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin—every one of them had been mastered. She was called the greatest pianist that no one had ever heard of. Fame finally came posthumously, but not for her virtuosity at the ivories. In February it was discovered that each of her brilliant records was very likely to have been plagiarized. Put on a Joyce Hatto CD and you'll really hear Yefim Bronfman, John O'Conor, Vladimir Ashkenazy and dozens more, but not Joyce Hatto. Fittingly, the Hatto myth unraveled much in the same way it was created: with a little enterprising digital tinkering. When New York financial analyst Brian Ventura loaded Hatto's alleged version of Liszt's Etudes into his computer, the iTunes' Gracenote database recognized it as Laszlo Simon's 1987 recording of the same piece. But how? In 1980, when Philips and Sony established the standard technical specifications for audio compact discs (which were subsequently adopted by the international body governing such specifications), there was no need to include anything other than music on CDs. There was no call for, say, encoding song titles and artists names into the disc because back in 1980 nobody was playing CDs on their laptops. These same standards still govern audio CD manufacturing today. So what did Gracenote see that had eluded the expertly trained ears of critics who had showered Hatto's recordings with nothing but praise? Every CD is composed of tiny chunks of audio, 1/75th of a second each, according to Ty Roberts, Gracenote cofounder and chief technology officer. When a CD is placed into a stereo or a computer, all the player can tell is how many tracks live on the disc and where they begin and end. Say track 2 of a CD starts at 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the CD. By the time the song begins, 15,750 blocks of audio, each 1/75th of a second in duration, have ticked by. (Do the math yourself: three and a half minutes is 210 seconds. Multiply that by 75 and you get 15,750 of those mini chunks of audio, called frames.). By the time you get to the 10th track, hundreds of thousands, often more than a million, of frames have ticked by. These are the numbers Gracenote reads. "It's like we're creating a phone number for the CD," says Roberts. When you stick a CD into your laptop and iTunes tells you that it's checking in with Gracenote, what it's doing is reading how many tracks and frames are on your disc and searching the 6-million-strong CD database for a match. "If you only have three or five tracks, it's very hard for someone else to have a recording that is exactly the same length to 75th of a second. The chance you have 13 tracks that have exactly the same starting position is something like 10 to the negative 13th power." So when Gracenote told Ventura that he had loaded a Laszlo Simon disc, it was very likely something fishy was afoot. "It's a little murder-mystery thing: a shoe print in the show," says Roberts. "The shoe print doesn't fit the woman." Ventura e-mailed the composer and pianist Jed Distler, who had reviewed numerous Hatto discs. Distler then e-mailed Gramophone magazine editor James Inverne, who in turn commissioned France-based sonic expert Andrew Rose on Valentine's Day to analyze the Hatto recording—just three days before the magazine's February deadline. The alleged Hatto tracks were uploaded onto the Internet for Rose, who bought the Laszlo Simon recording at eMusic. He opened both tracks on his computer with Adobe Audition, editing software that displays sound as waves on his monitor. "The program allows me to position the tracks to play simultaneously. You can see the wave patterns," says Rose. He could tell Hatto was a fraud before he even pressed play. "I recognized immediately they were rather too similar to be recordings by different people. We had a match." What Rose discovered next was that someone—most likely Hatto's husband and producer William Barrington-Coupe, who runs the Concert Artist label she recorded for—had digitally manipulated the tonal quality of the track to make it sound different from the original. The culprit boosted the bass and reduced the treble, altering the timbre of the piano. Other songs were suspicious, as well. Another track on the CD was clearly not Laszlo Simon's playing. But was it Hatto's? Rose went online to hunt down matches. He used the 30-second sound clips shoppers hear at Amazon.com and on iTunes to find a matching Liszt performance. He found one that was close, but not quite exact, on a disc by Japanese pianist Minoru Nojima, released in 1993. Played simultaneously, the tracks sound quite similar, but then gradually slide out of synch. The one attributed to Hatto is played impossibly, almost blindingly, fast—no wonder critics raved. The waveforms on Rose's monitor, however, looked undeniably similar; Nojima's was just slightly longer. So Rose compressed it to see if it would line up perfectly with Hatto's. Naturally, it did. Someone had gone to the trouble of digitally speeding up the Nojima recording—while managing to maintain the piano's original pitch—in order to hide the origin of the "Hatto" disc. "I am really astonished at how much they had been able to get away with without making it immediately apparent," he says. Further investigating revealed plagiarism, of varying degrees of sophistication, on other discs, as well. Gramophone had its story a hair before deadline. The British media, always in love with a good hoax, leapt on board. More plagiarized discs were uncovered by passionate amateurs. ("It became a great parlor game: Spot the Joyce Hatto," says Rose.) After initial denials, Barrington-Coupe ultimately made a confession of sorts, which appeared first on the Gramophone Web site. What remains unknown is the extent to which Hatto was aware that she was part of a great swindle. To Rose, given the amount of sophisticated digital manipulation involved, it seems "inconceivable" that she didn't know. "All the evidence points to her being part and parcel of the whole thing: the interviews that she gave, the letters she wrote. I can't see how she wasn't aware of what was going on. The question is really was anyone [other than Barrington-Coupe] ever involved in handling the technical aspects of the things?" We may never know—Hatto certainly isn't talking. Indeed, she may have been "fortunate," in Rose's words, to die before her unmasking. But her story does have one last excellent ironic twist. Large portions of Gramophone had already gone to press by the time the hoax story had finally been written. Included in the pages that had been irrevocably printed in the issue that exposed Joyce Hatto: a glowing review of a Joyce Hatto CD. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 May 07 - 10:13 PM Convicted bigamist jailed again in Ga. Man says he has divorced some of 8 wives, but can't remember which ones. The Associated Press Updated: 7:29 p.m. CT May 20, 2007 ATLANTA - A traveling minister who served two years in prison on bigamy charges has been jailed again after at least four women said he proposed to them. Officials also say there is no evidence that Bishop Anthony Owens, 35, divorced the eight wives he had married before going to prison. A judge will decide whether Owens should go back to prison. Owens, who turned himself into the Gwinnett County jail April 30, declined to be interviewed. But his new fiancees aren't keeping quiet. Betty Dixon, 38, met him last March in a casino near Memphis. "He was a slick talker," the nurse said. "He told me God had sent him to me and I needed help." Nurse Cheryl Selmon, 48, says Owens proposed to her last October. A month later, he proposed to Darlene Keeler, 42, a manager of a gospel group. Then he met 43-year-old Karen Ward, a mother of two young children, and proposed to her. "He said God gave him a message that he was going to move my family to California for a better life," Ward said. "I gave up my apartment. I took my children out of school. He said he is a real man of the Lord. But he is just a mess. I hate the day that I met him." According to police reports, Owens' first marriage was in 1990 in Memphis, Tenn., Owens' birthplace. At the age of 18, he married 43-year-old Joanna Hill. He said the marriage was troubled from the start and that a misunderstanding of Mormon teachings led him to marry 41-year-old Earleen Mabien in 1992, even though he was still married to his first wife. After Earleen, Owens married six other women from 1995 to 2002 in South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. The last of those wives learned about the others and called police. Owens has said he did divorce some of the wives, but he can't remember which ones. © 2007 The Associated Press |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 May 07 - 05:22 PM Personally, I think it should be set up so people have to opt-in, not opt-out. To our readers: Bible delivery will be optional Star-Telegram As many of you may know, a Christian group called the International Bible Society has contracted with the Star-Telegram to deliver a copy of the New Testament with an edition of the paper to all subscribers in December. Because some readers have let us know they do not want it, the Star-Telegram will provide the opportunity to opt out. The International Bible Society, founded in 1809 in New York City, translates and distributes Christian Scripture. It publishes the New International Version of the Bible and has contracted with several other newspapers around the country to deliver it. The book will arrive in a pocket on the plastic newspaper bag. But subscribers will be able to request delivery of the paper without the Bible. We'll publicize a special e-mail address and phone number to call in December when the delivery date is confirmed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: frogprince Date: 18 May 07 - 10:41 PM "Queensland police denied any cover-up" What's to deny? nothing covered-up about it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 18 May 07 - 07:52 PM Australian Drought Gets SERIOUS!!! X-rated nude car wash gets go-ahead Australian officials say despite complaints, topless business within law Reuters Updated: 9:34 a.m. CT May 18, 2007 CANBERRA, Australia - A nude car wash offering an X-rated sideshow and topless cleaning in Australia's tropical Queensland state has been given the all-clear after police and officials said they were powerless to scrub it. The Bubbles 'n' Babes car wash in Brisbane prompted a flood of complaints with a topless car wash for $45 and a nude car wash with X-rated lap-dance service for $82. "If it was approved for a car wash then I can't imagine how we can stop them," Lord Mayor Campbell Newman told a council meeting with worried local lawmakers. Professional car washes have boomed in most cities with drought-stricken Australians banned from washing their own cars due to tough water restrictions. Queensland police denied any cover-up in a state where their image has been dented by past accusations of police corruption and involvement with organized crime. The raunchy wash, set up by a strip-club owner, was screened from the public and used recycled water to avoid breaching water use restrictions, they said. "We don't want any traffic accidents caused by people looking at the girls instead of looking at the road," Superintendent Colin Campbell told local media. Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 May 07 - 06:05 PM I picked this up from the Earthlink home page, but their's isn't a durable link. I googled the story and find the same author has a slightly different version at the Washington Post. Bear Wanders Into N.M. Medical Clinic May 18, 2007 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A young black bear ambled through a medical clinic's automatic door early Friday and into a gastroenterology lab, the perfect place for a tranquilizer. "I think the person in the waiting room was pretty surprised," said Todd Sandman, director of public relations for Presbyterian Health Care Services, which runs the lab in Rio Rancho, on the outskirts of Albuquerque. It was shortly before 7:30 a.m., and there weren't many people in the lab when the bear showed up, Sandman said. All the humans evacuated while animal control officers were called in to figure out what to do with the bear. "Apparently, the bear was very calm and retreated into a side room and then further into a bathroom," said Dan Williams, a New Mexico Department of Game and Fish spokesman. The department's officers used a tranquilizer gun to sedate the bear, believed to be 2 or 3 years old and about 125 pounds. Then they loaded it into a bear trap - essentially a big steel cylinder on wheels - and took it to the Manzano Mountains, where the bear was released, Williams said. Williams said the bear likely wandered in from the Manzano Mountains, about 20 miles to the southeast; the Jemez Mountains, about 35 miles to the north; or the Sandia Mountains, about 10 miles to the east. Bears occasionally show up in the Albuquerque area. Williams said the one in the clinic appeared to be a bit skinny and may have recently come out of hibernation looking for food. Officials tagged the bear on an ear before releasing it - "so we'll recognize him if we see him again," Williams said. "Visiting hours are over for that bear." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 May 07 - 05:57 PM GUEST, there are no articles in the proximity of your post resembling what you're discussing. If you're responding to another thread or an article somewhere, post a link so we can see what you're talking about. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: GUEST Date: 18 May 07 - 04:16 PM "Okay first I'm going to let the military side of me rant: It's not a clip! Its a magazine! For goodness sake if you're going to do a story about hand guns lets get the terminology right!" The article said: "The pastor of Ruth Street Baptist Church told WJRT-TV that one of the handguns had a bullet in the chamber, and the other handgun's clip had bullets in it." The paper was merely paraphrasing what the pastor said. It is not the paper's job to correct people's mis-statements, it's the paper's job to report the story. The moral to the story is: Get the facts/quotes from law enforcement/military when you're talking about guns. And Little Hawk -- "Well, perhaps we should engage in nation-wide Easter Egg Hunts (by the adult population). Could turn up all kinds of significant results...perhaps even hidden WMD's." I laughed so hard at this post milk would have shot out my nose had I been drinking. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 May 07 - 04:01 PM So the remedy to problems in the government workplace is to hold a press conference. After that shit hits the fan a few times someone may write a bill or bring another case to adjust this ruling. It is ludicrous as it stands. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 18 May 07 - 09:22 AM A brilliant remedy, but it would be short lived, I am afraid; a replacement crop would be in place faster than you could turn around. The notion that citizenhood, with its concomitant rights, is in some way subordinate, junior, lesser than one's employment is noxious, blind, and sadly, a bit fascistic. Being the agent of a free nation should make one MORE conscious of the fine balance that brings about individual freedom--not less. Grrrrr. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 17 May 07 - 02:56 PM {From my personal archives} [quote, via OCR from print] THE WICHITA EAGLE 7A TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2006 Whistle-blowers may have no choice but to go public BY KENNETH F. BUNTING Seattle Post-Intelligencer In a peculiarly parsed 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said last week that the nation's 21 million public employees do not have the protection of the First Amendment when they raise concerns about wrongdoing as part of their job duties. The decision, supported by the Bush administration and at odds with precedents from two judicial circuits, makes it easier for government employers to punish, and even retaliate against, government employees who air concerns about wrongdoing through internal grievance, complaint and communications channels. Critics, including civil libertarians and attorneys for whistle-blowers, said the impact of the ruling, which drew three dissenting opinions, could be sweeping, silencing conscientious public employees and endangering public health and safety. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority decision, said public employees aren't acting as citizens, and therefore are not entitled to First Amendment protection, when they report perceived wrongdoing as part of their ordinary job responsibilities. But "employees who make public statements outside the course of performing their official duties retain some possibility of First Amendment protection because that is the kind of activity engaged in by citizens who do not work for the government." The Bush administration is viewing the ruling as a victory of sorts. But it would be poetic justice for this excessively secretive, leak-phobic and cover-up-prone administration if the ruling's long-range impact was to inspire more whistle-blowers to go public instead of bringing complaints internally. Justice David Souter sounded more in line with previous court precedents and common sense when he remarked in his dissenting opinion that "a government paycheck does nothing to eliminate the value to an individual of speaking on public matters. And there is no good reason for categorically discounting a speaker's interest in commenting on a matter of public concern just because the government employs him." Kenneth F. Bunting writes for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. [endquote] As government employees are not citizens, and doubting that many of them are authorized to work in the US under any existing US statutes, it is hereby moved that they all must immediately be extradited to whatever nation demonstrates the immediate desire - or grudging willingnes - to take them in. It is suggested that the extraditions shall start Is an offer of assylum heard from Iraq, Iran, or Afghanistan? John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Donuel Date: 17 May 07 - 10:49 AM The Bush administration legal stance is rooted in the doctrine of sovereign immunity based on the old English maxim that "The King Can Do No Wrong." This is exactly the kind of thing I expect from the 152 lawyers in the Bush administration that were hired straight out of Pat Robertson's Regent law school. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Donuel Date: 17 May 07 - 10:39 AM http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=850 Washington, DC — The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower complaints filed by federal workers under the Superfund law and the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result, federal workers will lose protection against official retaliation for reporting cleanup failures, enforcement breakdowns or manipulation of science relating to contamination of water supplies or toxic pollution. This latest action was buried in a footnote of a legal ruling issued by the U.S. Labor Department on March 30, 2007 in a whistleblower case involving a scientist from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It expands upon a ruling last year that federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act – a ruling based upon an unpublished Administration legal opinion. The Bush administration legal stance is rooted in the doctrine of sovereign immunity based on the old English maxim that "The King Can Do No Wrong." Sovereign immunity is an absolute defense to any legal action. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 17 May 07 - 10:32 AM From a New York Times Editorial concerning the disposition of a relic of the Emperor Bonaparte, whos eowner recently died, this classic remark: "Whether the object prized by Dr. Lattimer was actually once attached to Napoleon may never be resolved. Some historians doubt that the priest could have managed the organ heist when so many people were passing in and out of the emperor's death chamber. Others suggest he may have removed only a partial sample. If enough people believe in a possibly spurious penis, does it become real? The pathos of Napoleon's penis — bandied about over the decades, barely recognizable as a human body part — conjures up the seamier side of the collecting impulse. If, as Freud suggested, the collector is a sexually maladjusted misanthrope, then the emperor's phallus is a collector's object nonpareil, the epitome of male potency and dominance. The ranks of Napoleon enthusiasts, it should be noted, include many alpha males: Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, Stanley Kubrick, Winston Churchill, Augusto Pinochet. Nevertheless, the Freudian paradigm has never accounted for women collectors, nor does it explain the appeal of collections for artists like Lisa Milroy, whose paintings of cabinet handles or shoes, arrayed in series, animate these common objects. It's time to let Napoleon's penis rest in peace. (emphasis added). Museums are quietly de-accessioning the human remains of indigenous peoples so that body parts can be given proper burial rites. Napoleon's penis, too, should be allowed to go home and rejoin the rest of his captivating body. " |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 16 May 07 - 07:51 PM How does he feel about triple-expansion steam? Cotton gins? The morality of interchangeable parts for mass production? Gee. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 16 May 07 - 07:38 PM Judge to prosecutor: 'So what's a Web site?' During Internet terrorism trial, judge asks attorneys to keep it simple By Mark Trevelyan Reuters Updated: 2:05 p.m. CT May 16, 2007 LONDON - A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet. Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals. "The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws. Prosecutor Mark Ellison briefly set aside his questioning to explain the terms "Web site" and "forum." An exchange followed in which the 59-year-old judge acknowledged: "I haven't quite grasped the concepts." Violent Islamist material posted on the Internet, including beheadings of Western hostages, is central to the case. Concluding Wednesday's session and looking ahead to testimony on Thursday by a computer expert, the judge told Ellison: "Will you ask him to keep it simple, we've got to start from basics." Younes Tsouli, 23, Waseem Mughal, 24, and Tariq al-Daour, 21, deny a range of charges under Britain's Terrorism Act, including inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism "wholly or partly" outside Britain. Tsouli and Mughal also deny conspiracy to murder. Al-Daour has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with others to defraud banks, credit card and charge card companies. Prosecutors have told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court, east London, that the defendants kept car-bomb-making manuals and videos of how to wire suicide vests as part of a campaign to promote global jihad, or holy war. Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. I'm not really surprised, even if he hadn't been the judge. And at least he asked for some explanation. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Rog Peek Date: 16 May 07 - 05:49 PM GERMANS NOT AMUSED LONDON (AFP). British tourists have left the residents of one charming Austrian village 'effing' and 'blinding' by constantly stealing the signs for their oddly named village. While British visitors are finding it hilarious, the residents of Fucking are failing to see the funny side. Only one kind of criminal stalks the sleepy 32 house village near Salzburg on the German border – cheeky British tourists with a sense of mumour and a screwdriver. But the local authorities are hitting back with the signs now set in concrete, police chief Kommandant Schmidtberger is on the lookout. "We will not stand for the Fucking signs being moved" the officer said. "It may be very amusing for you British, but Fucking is simply Fucking to us. What is this big Fucking joke? It is puerile." Local tourist guide Andreas Behmueiller said it was only the British that had a fixation with Fucking. "The Germans all wanted to see the Mozart house in Salzberg" he explained. "Every American seems to care only about The Sound of Music (the 1955 film shot around Salzberg). The occasional Japanese wants to see Hitler's birth place in Braunan. But for the British, it's all about Fucking." Guesthouse manager Augustina Lindbauer described the village's breathtaking lakes, forests and vistas. "Yet still there is this obsession with Fucking" she said. Just this morning, I had to tell an English lady that there were no Fucking postcards." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 12 May 07 - 11:25 AM Teen becomes Indiana's youngest coroner [coroner = death scene investigator, not medical examiner with scalpel ~WYS] PORTLAND, Ind. (AP) -- With her father as a role model and a love of the television show "CSI," a high school senior has become Indiana's youngest certified death investigator. Amanda Barnett, 18, was certified last month and is one of four deputy coroners working for her father, Jay County Coroner Mark Barnett. "It's kind of weird to (my friends)," she said. "To other people it's disgusting, but I think it's interesting, and somebody's got to do it." Amanda Barnett said her goal has been to follow in her father's footsteps since his first campaign for coroner 15 years ago, and she has attended numerous coroner conventions with him. Her father accompanied her on some of her first calls. "I'll ask her what she's doing and why," Mark Barnett said. "She might catch something that I don't think of." She had to receive special permission to attend a certification class given by the Indiana State Coroners Training Board because she was only 17 when it began. She scored 97 percent on the test, submitted four case reports and attended an autopsy. "I think it's great that someone her age is interested in the field," said Lisa Barker, executive director of the state training board. "She was a very good student." Barnett will soon graduate from high school, and she said she plans to attend Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in the fall to become a forensic nurse examiner. © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 11 May 07 - 06:13 PM Turkey Poop Powers Electric Plant Jackie Crosby - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune Greg Langmo likes to say he was just a "fat, dumb and happy turkey farmer" until the summer of 1998. That's when he walked into a meeting of the Meeker County Board and got blindsided by a courthouse full of riled-up residents. The mounds of manure he and other turkey growers were stockpiling on their farms to sell as fertilizer had become a nuisance, seemingly overnight. "They said, 'It smells, it creates runoff, it collects flies,' " said Langmo, 48, who raises about a million turkeys a year on his farms near Litchfield. "The commissioners told me to solve the problem or they'd solve it for me." Langmo placed an S.O.S. call to a British company he'd read about that was turning poultry litter into electricity. Nine years later, his solution has arrived: a $225 million plant an hour away in Benson that will turn poop into power. The plant, in the heart of west-central Minnesota's turkey farming region, is scheduled to begin operating June 25. It'll be the nation's first large-scale power plant fueled by poultry manure. More important, supporters say, it will be an important step in the country's quest to develop more sources of renewable energy. About half a million tons of turkey litter will be burned each year, generating enough energy for an estimated 50,000 households. But the plant comes with controversy. Even in an era when renewable energy has moved from environmental wish lists to mainstream discussions embraced by President Bush, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and labor unions, the business of burning poultry manure has ruffled some feathers. And not because of the smell, of which there promises to be none. Turkey litter is a mixture of manure and bedding material, such as wood chips, straw, sunflower shells and feathers. It has provided a low-cost fertilizer to farmers for decades. Some of them now worry that their costs will go up and that there won't be enough litter for their fields if turkey growers can get a better price at the Fibrominn plant. And although turkey litter may be a renewable source of energy - an estimated 2 million tons of it is generated each year statewide - it takes a lot of poop to make electricity. The mixture doesn't burn as hot as wood, which makes it a labor-intensive and expensive fuel source, critics say. They charge that the "gee-whiz" factor has discouraged research into more creative and economical renewable-energy solutions. "Being green means being informed and being sophisticated," said David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an energy expert and longtime critic of the litter-burning project. "Simply because you're taking a renewable resource and turning it into something else does not mean that it's environmentally benign or economically worthwhile." But the technology, which applies to turkey and chicken litter, appears to be catching on. As cities expand into farming areas, residents' concerns over disease and run-off pollution from manure are mounting. Fibrowatt, which built three smaller litter-fired plants in England, has sold them and moved its headquarters to Newtown, Pa. The company has plans for five projects in the poultry-rich states of Arkansas and North Carolina in the next two years, and is looking at sites in Maryland and Mississippi, said Carl Strickler, the chief operating officer. In Benson, a prairie town of about 3,300 about three hours west of the Twin Cities, many residents consider the litter-burning plant a sign of hope and pride, despite some early fears - and snickers. Benson Mayor Paul Kittleson admits that he considered the litter-burning plant a featherbrained idea at first. But after giving the sniff test to a plant in Thetford, England, he warmed to the idea. "Believe me, if it had stunk, they wouldn't be here," he said. Copyright Scripps Howard News Service 2007 |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 May 07 - 11:48 AM Well now, the Texas governer wasn't able to sustain legislation that would make in mandatory for girls to receive Gardasil to protect them from cervical cancer. I wonder of those overstuffed-male legislators will think twice now that their throats and equipment come into the picture? Oral sex can lead to throat cancer Globe and Mail May 10, 2007 The same virus that causes cervical cancer is the principal cause of throat cancer, according to a new study. The research also suggests that unprotected oral sex is a major reason people are contracting throat cancer - not just smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, as previously believed. "It's the human papillomavirus that drives the cancer," said Maura Gillison, assistant professor of oncology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., and lead author of the study. She said the more oral-sex partners a person has, the greater the risk of contracting oral cancers (located in the tonsils, back of the tongue and throat). The good news is that the risk remains low over all. "People should be reassured that oropharyngeal cancer is relatively uncommon, and the overwhelming majority of people with an oral HPV infection probably will not get throat cancer," Dr. Gillison said. A new vaccine protects against infection by several strains of HPV, including the one associated with oral cancer, HPV-16. However, Dr. Gillison said it has not been specifically tested for its effectiveness against oral cancer. The new research is published in today's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, which features several articles about HPV and the effectiveness of the vaccine. Sold by Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. under the brand name Gardasil, the vaccine prevents infection by four strains of human papillomavirus that account for roughly 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer. Gardasil offers protection that lasts for at least three years, according to newly published data in the New England Journal of Medicine. Another study, published today in the journal, suggests the vaccine protects against cancer of the vulva and cancer of the vagina, which are principally caused by HPV. (Penile cancer is also caused largely by the virus, although the effectiveness of the vaccine in men has not yet been demonstrated.) In the most recent federal budget, the Conservative government set aside $300-million for an HPV vaccination program, which would target girls aged 9 to 11. Health groups are divided on the wisdom of an immunization program, given the cost of the vaccine (more than $400 for the required three doses) and the limited data on its long-term effectiveness. There is also debate about whether vaccination should be limited to girls, and whether the vaccine should be offered to older teens who are already sexually active. The new research should help assuage fears a bit, and broaden the appeal of the vaccine because of its effectiveness against other types of cancer. About 1,350 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2007, and an estimated 390 will die. By contrast, approximately 3,200 Canadians will be diagnosed with oral cancer this year, and 1,100 will die, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. Dr. Gillison's study involved 100 men and women who were newly diagnosed with oral cancer. They were compared to 200 similar people without cancer. Dr. Gillison and her team found that those with HPV infection were 32 times more likely to have developed cancer. By comparison, the risk increased threefold for smokers and twofold for drinkers. Study participants who reported having oral sex - be it fellatio or cunnilingus - with six or more partners were at greatest risk of contracting oropharyngeal cancer. There is no screening test for oral cancer; it is usually detected when there is a sore in the mouth that does not heal. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 09 May 07 - 07:58 PM Two from a WaPo blog: 1) How To Fail Your Driving Test In 1 Easy Step Step one, show up drunk. A German man in the western town of Bendorf flunked his driving test for "attempting the examination while three times over the legal alcohol limit." Despite reeking of booze, the 27-year-old assured his examiner that he was sober and got behind the wheel. However his performance was so bad that "the examiner directed him to toward the police station," whereupon he was forced to take a sobriety test -- he then failed his second examination of the day. 2) The Art of Roadkill If, when the Lord gives you lemons you're supposed to make lemonade, then I suppose when He gives you roadkill you should do this: Southern Illinois University graduate art student Jessica May has dressed, manicured and gilded a numerous array animals killed by automobiles around Edwardsville. The 24-year-old from West Lafayette, Indiana, has positioned the made-over corpses along a highway, in order to find out if people will give more thought to "animals if they were somehow given human attributes." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 09 May 07 - 10:58 AM Bear Kills Moose in Alaska DrivewayBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: May 9, 2007 Filed at 12:10 a.m. ET HOMER, Alaska (AP) -- Odd sounds outside their home woke Gary and Terri Lyon early Sunday morning, so Gary got up to check it out. He looked outside and saw a 500-pound grizzly bear killing an adult moose in their driveway. ''I saw this wildlife spectacle of a full-grown brown bear on a moose and the moose fighting for its life,'' Gary said. The couple put their dog inside, grabbed their cameras and started filming the attack as the grizzly battled the moose down the driveway, finally killing it. They posted the video on YouTube. ''She tore apart the chest cavity, ripped out the heart and ate it,'' Gary said. ''It was like she knew that's what kept it alive.'' Only a few mouthfuls later, the bear left the carcass and ran into the woods. The Lyons contacted authorities, who sent state wildlife biologist Thomas McDonough to remove the dead moose. He brought it a half-mile down the road and contacted a chartity to harvest the meat. But he suspected the bear would return. The prediction was right. The bear returned later that night, judging by the fresh tracks found Monday morning. The Lyons are now locking their doors, trying to avoid a more dangerous confrontation. ''I've lived here for almost 30 years, and I've never had to shoot anything out of defense of property,'' Gary said. ''It was just doing its own thing that the species has done forever. Unfortunately, it was in our yard.'' |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 May 07 - 12:53 AM Pierce County man first in state charged under new bestiality law Seattle Times link A Spanaway, Pierce County, man has become the first person charged under the state's new felony bestiality law. Michael Patrick McPhail, 26, was charged Thursday with one count of first-degree animal cruelty after his wife allegedly caught him having sex with the family's pit bull, according to charging papers filed in Pierce County Superior Court. The woman snapped two photos with her cellphone camera, then dialed 911, authorities said. McPhail was bailed out of jail on Friday, two days after the alleged incident. According to Rita Morgan, national cruelty coordinator for Pasado's Safe Haven, McPhail is the first person in the state charged under the new law, which makes bestiality a Class C felony, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The law was spurred by the case of a Seattle man who died last year after having sex with a horse at an Enumclaw farm. Because the Enumclaw case involved filming the sex acts, the law also says that anyone videotaping could be convicted under animal-cruelty laws. People who allow bestiality on their property might also face prosecution. Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, who sponsored the bestiality law, said she hopes McPhail's case sends the message that anyone who "abuses animals in this way" deserves to be punished. Neither McPhail, who was released on $20,000 bail Friday morning, nor his wife, could be reached for comment. A condition of McPhail's release is that he can't have contact with animals, said Deputy Prosecutor Karen Watson. Morgan said she was trying to reach the family to offer safe housing for the 4-year-old dog. The tan-colored dog was left with McPhail's wife after his arrest, deputies said. "We see this as a case of animal cruelty; this man is subjecting this animal to intentional cruel behavior," Morgan said. "He's certainly in need of counseling." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 07 May 07 - 11:54 PM Did you ever ask yourself, seriously now, what eighteen thousand nude Mexicans kneeling would look like?? Tell the truth.... A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 07 May 07 - 09:17 PM ALMOST material for a song challenge, perhaps; but I just couldn't bring myself to punt it too far out in the open. Serial sock snatcher refuses to toe the line Illinois man with long history of sock-related offenses charged again The Associated Press Updated: 5:56 p.m. CT May 7, 2007 BELLEVILLE, Ill. - James Dowdy has admitted his hankering for women's hosiery has been his undoing, earning him three stints in prison and repeated scoldings from judges over the years. So police say it's no surprise the 36-year-old man is knee deep in trouble again because of his lust for leggings. St. Clair County prosecutors charged Dowdy on Friday with felony attempted burglary for his uninvited visit to a parked car and with misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge for dropping stolen socks "in an unreasonable manner, as to alarm and disturb." "He's obviously got some problems," Belleville police Capt. Don Sax said Monday of Dowdy, who remains jailed on $50,000 bond. "We can't crawl into his head and come up with a particular answer to why he does this. We have to assume it's part of his sexual deviation." Authorities have no evidence that Dowdy has ever threatened anyone. "To the best of our knowledge, he's just after the socks," Sax said. "Generally, they are almost always female socks." In the weeks leading to his latest arrest, Sax said, witnesses in Dowdy's neighborhood reported seeing a suspicious person slinking about, at times peeking through windows. Often, Sax says, socks were left behind, though it's unclear whether the culprit dropped them clumsily or as a calling card. Police responding to one of the reports saw Dowdy — who fit the description of the man reported by neighbors — trying to crawl into his house through a basement window, socks in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Witnesses picked Dowdy from a photo lineup, Sax said, but he wasn't arrested at the time. Dowdy was arrested April 28, after someone reported seeing him near or in a parked car — and after a woman's sock was found in a backyard near where witnesses claimed Dowdy had been. His troubles stretch back at least 13 years. In 2004, Dowdy was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted residential burglary, a felony reportedly tied to his strolling into a female neighbor's home for her socks. Seven years earlier, Dowdy got a six-year sentence for breaking into another woman's home and stealing socks. And in 1994, Dowdy was sentenced to three years for trying to burglarize a home, ultimately getting caught by police with a bag of socks. "I know what I did was wrong," he told the judge back then during sentencing. "And the thing with the socks, I would like to get help with it so I can get over it, get it out of my life and get on with my life." Messages left Monday for some of his relatives in Belleville were not immediately returned. Dowdy has been assigned to be represented by the county public defender's office, though no specific counselor there has yet been assigned to him, officials said Monday. "Obviously, our hope is that he either be incarcerated in jail or a hospital someplace where this can be dealt with," Sax said. "Sneaking around a house in today's society, at some point, someone is going to get hurt." © 2007 The Associated Press John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 07 May 07 - 06:12 PM Not from a paper, but from YouTube: Snake coughs up a whole small hippotamus. Musta hurt sompn awful. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 06 May 07 - 05:03 PM CENSORSHIP IN BRAZIL!!! Brazil orders online ad be removed The Associated Press Updated: 3:22 p.m. CT May 5, 2007 RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The government has ordered an Internet auction site to remove an advertisement in which a Brazilian man offered to sell his wife for about $50. The Secretariat of Public Policies for Women announced late Friday it had ordered Mercado Livre, partially owned by eBay Inc., to remove the ad and warned it was violating a law banning the offer or sale of "human organs, people, blood, bones or skin." The advertisement was no longer visible on the site Saturday. It was posted by a man who gave his name as Breno and said: "I sell my wife for reasons I prefer to keep short ... I really need the money." The described his wife physically and listed her qualities as a homemaker and companion. He reportedly said she was 35 and "worth her weight in gold." The Estado news agency said it wasn't clear if the ad was meant as a joke. It said Mercado Livre told it the ad hadn't been noticed earlier because of the large number of products offered on the site — nearly 1 million. There was no answer Saturday at phone numbers for Mercado Livre or its public relations agency. © 2007 The Associated Press It's gettin' really hard to make a buck anymore - almost everywhere. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 May 07 - 11:09 PM 700 |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 May 07 - 11:09 PM Now that the numbers are back on track, it looks like I left my thread hanging out there for poachers. So . . . |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 May 07 - 08:00 PM You're right, I didn't mention the rights of institutions (corporations, primarily) because I thought your eyes might glaze over if I went that far in my answer. There's an interesting book that came out many years ago. In 1972 Christopher Stone wrote Do Trees Have Standing? to discuss the rights of large trees to exist separate from human use. They still don't have rights. The fact that corporations have rights, a form of "personhood," is actually an early political coup on the part of wealthy business owners. Another book to consider is Arran Gare's Postmodernism and the Environmental Crisis. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 05 May 07 - 05:10 PM I can't comment on whether Austria might be inclined toward unusual interpretations of the law, but the concept of a "person" is deeply imbedded in US legal tradition, and can have many different meanings. The early US Supreme Court, under John Marshal as Chief Justice beginning in 1801, is credited with establishing and intrenching the concepts, that I'll state somewhat tritely: 1. Only a person can have rights (and be subject to the law). 2. An organization or association of persons can be a "person" in and of itself, if such an association is recognized by the law. i.e. John Marshal "formalized" the US concept of corporations (and partnerships) in the form that they usually are observed in US law. (Too bad he's been so thoroughly forgotten by the current lawmakers and administrators.) Bernard Schwartz, A History of the Supreme Court is a good (albeit perhaps somewhat boring) summary, particularly of John Marshall's years. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 May 07 - 03:19 PM I skimmed the article--it was late and I probably should have turned off the computer earlier. I saw a few keywords and went from there. I looked at that other thread one time, and made this remark: The web citations so far are entirely iffy. Angelfire, for example, sends red flags for me. This is lunatic fringe stuff, an ass-backwards interpretation of law and individual rights. This capital letter versus lower-case stuff is nonsense. I'll go with my first assessment of his "contributions." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 05 May 07 - 02:27 PM So Stilly, you haven't read the contributions by the eminent legal scholar Guest,Natural Guest? And a judge has already ruled: Judge Barbara Bart rejected her request, ruling Hiasl didn't meet two key tests: He is neither mentally impaired nor in an emergency. Couldn't "not mentally impaired" be presumed in this case to imply that the opinion was "relative to the abilities of an ordinary person?" - already implying acceptance by that court ... . John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 05 May 07 - 01:29 PM The problem in part is the nature of our categories, a legacy from white-supreme Victorian science, which in turn goes back to Aristotle's hierarchies. The anecdotal evidence for what most people think of as personhood in dolphins, apes, whales, and some dogs -- a sense of individual being and self-determination above the simple biological ipulses of the body -- is quite strong. Ask anyone who has looked into the eye of a big cetacean. If we had some metric by which to assess this "individual life force" attribute, we might have some grounds for assigning personhood. But unfortunately, we might find ourselves granting person-rights to some vultures, or eagles, or individual bears, and actually finding some humans didn't measure up. :D Intriguing theme for a sci-fi book, isn't it? Some kind of elan-meter whch rings loud tones in the presence of enough life-energy to constitute competent personhood. Take it to the Republican National COnvention and see if it breaks. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 May 07 - 12:38 PM Animal Rights is an interesting topic. But since "rights" of all sorts are perceived by and assigned by humans, it isn't going to happen. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 05 May 07 - 01:11 AM Activists want chimp declared a person Activists seek designation for Austrian chimp after sanctuary goes bankrupt The Associated Press Updated: 10:02 p.m. CT May 4, 2007 VIENNA, Austria - In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV. But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person — at least not yet. In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26-year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person." Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests. "Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights," said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group. "We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions," Theuer said. "We're not talking about the right to vote here." The campaign began after the animal sanctuary where Hiasl (pronounced HEE-zul) and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years went bankrupt. Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless if the shelter closes. Both have already suffered: They were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled in a crate to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter. Their food and veterinary bills run about $6,800 a month. Donors have offered to help, but there's a catch: Under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal donations. Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Hiasl, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But without basic rights, they contend, he could be sold to someone outside Austria, where the chimp is protected by strict animal cruelty laws. "If we can get Hiasl declared a person, he would have the right to own property. Then, if people wanted to donate something to him, he'd have the right to receive it," said Theuer, who has vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. Other efforts of rights for apes Austria isn't the only country where primate rights are being debated. Spain's parliament is considering a bill that would endorse the Great Ape Project, a Seattle-based international initiative to extend "fundamental moral and legal protections" to apes. If Hiasl gets a guardian, "it will be the first time the species barrier will have been crossed for legal 'personhood,'" said Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International, which is working to end the use of primates in research. Paula Stibbe, a Briton who teaches English in Vienna, petitioned a district court to be Hiasl's legal trustee. On April 24, Judge Barbara Bart rejected her request, ruling Hiasl didn't meet two key tests: He is neither mentally impaired nor in an emergency. Although Bart expressed concern that awarding Hiasl a guardian could create the impression that animals enjoy the same legal status as humans, she didn't rule that he could never be considered a person. Martin Balluch, who heads the Association Against Animal Factories, has asked a federal court for a ruling on the guardianship issue. "Chimps share 99.4 percent of their DNA with humans," he said. "OK, they're not homo sapiens. But they're obviously also not things — the only other option the law provides." 'I'm not about to make myself look like a fool' Not all Austrian animal rights activists back the legal challenge. Michael Antolini, president of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said he thinks it's absurd. "I'm not about to make myself look like a fool" by getting involved, said Antolini, who worries that chimpanzees could gain broader rights, such as copyright protections on their photographs. But Stibbe, who brings Hiasl sweets and yogurt and watches him draw and clown around by dressing up in knee-high rubber boots, insists he deserves more legal rights "than bricks or apples or potatoes." "He can be very playful but also thoughtful," she said. "Being with him is like playing with someone who can't talk." A date for the appeal hasn't been set, but Hiasl's legal team has lined up expert witnesses, including Jane Goodall, the world's foremost observer of chimpanzee behavior. "When you see Hiasl, he really comes across as a person," Theuer said. "He has a real personality. It strikes you immediately: This is an individual. You just have to look him in the eye to see that." © 2007 The Associated Press. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 03 May 07 - 11:15 PM I'll see your article and raise you some research here. There are also sensitivities to all sorts of modern smells and chemicals. A recent lecture at my university included the discussion of a 1995 film called Safe. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: GUEST,saulgoldie Date: 03 May 07 - 10:57 AM And you think YOU've got it bad! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=450995&in_page_id=1879 |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Apr 07 - 04:49 PM I remember that other primates were discussed in the Vanity Fair article. That's one reason I mentioned it. He looked into the crossover theory. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 26 Apr 07 - 04:19 PM Vanity Fair has come up with some excellent articles on occasion. I can believe they'd have had something to say about it all. The earliest articles I remember, however, were long before it was even agreed that an infectious agent was involved; and were well before the names AIDS and HIV were invented. The references to the genetically ancient orang epidemic, when that was proposed much later, didn't cause much of a flap; so it must be assumed that by the time that theory was proposed it was fairly well accepted that the virus had been around for a rather long time, and probably that it had affected humans in some isolated areas long before it was recognized as a serious public health issue. My main interest, at the time, for looking for the original article was that it totally refuted the nut cases who were claiming it was a newly minted "God's punishment," specially created (last week or the week before according to some) as retribution for a "moral crime." I suppose, by now, it doesn't much matter except as a matter of curiosity. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Apr 07 - 02:37 PM Alex Shoumatoff, "In Search of the Source of AIDS." It was the longest study of the disease I'd seen at the time, and was comprehensive in its examination of the evidence. I don't have the exact date, but the Vanity Fair was volume 51 (the citation peters out after that in Google, and the actual page is through a full-text journal I don't have access to, but it was in about 1986 of 1987). The essay was apparently reprinted in his 1990 collection African Madness . The Amazon review is mixed, and I think this reviewer doesn't like Shoumatoff in general. I remember reading his Dian Fosse article also (I subscribed to Vanity Fair back in the 1980s, before I had kids so I still had time to read it!) and thinking it was very good. I've posted a new review over at Amazon to rebut, somewhat, the first review. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Apr 07 - 01:26 PM John, The most detailed article I first read about AIDS, including information about that flight attendant, came from a surprising source. It was in Vanity Fair magazine, and it was a long one, and came out in the 1980s. They should have won a Pulitzer for that one (if they didn't). I'll see if I can figure out when it was written. I may have the author tracked down, but I'll send the whole citation when I get it. SRS |