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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: 30 Jan 07 - 12:38 PM Let's hope they have the good sense to leave it as a prank and get that young man out of jail, out of the courtroom, and back into his classes. Why on earth should he be sitting in jail? Clearly he wasn't armed! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 30 Jan 07 - 04:49 AM Naked student interrupts lunch Prank 'went a little farther than he intended,' police officer says The Associated Press Updated: 9:36 p.m. CT Jan 29, 2007 WESTERVILLE, Ohio - A high school lunch period was disrupted Monday by a greased, naked student who ran around screaming and flailing his arms until police twice used a stun gun on him, authorities said. Taylor Killian, 18, had rubbed his body with grapeseed oil to keep from being caught, and got up after the first time he was shocked to continue running toward a group of frightened students huddled in a corner at Westerville North High School, Lt. Jeff Gaylor said. "That prank went a little farther than he intended, I guess," Gaylor said. Officer Doug Staysniak was monitoring the lunch period when Killian, with long hair and a full beard, ran in the room toward students, who screamed and ran away. The officer is normally assigned to a middle school and did not recognize Killian as a student, Gaylor said. Police said that an administrator ordered Killian to stop, but that the student made a sexual gesture and kept running. Killian is charged with inducing panic, public indecency, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He was being held at the county jail Monday, and it was not known whether he had a lawyer. School officials reported that Killian was a good student, Gaylor said. There was no indication of substance abuse or a medical problem. © 2007 The Associated Press Must have been a very slow day at the schoolhouse, and a rather dull time at the newsroom for this one to get in; but do note that last paragraph. Sorry girls, no pictures with the article. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 29 Jan 07 - 09:39 PM Judge orders new trial after juror sips vodka during proceedings LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A judge ordered a new trial in a case in which a juror sipped vodka throughout the trial. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Geoffrey Morris said in his order that new trials may be granted only in the most extreme circumstances. But he said "the inexcusable, disruptive behavior of this juror was so extraordinary as to render this relief appropriate." The case involved a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she was injured when a garbage truck ran into her car. The jury foreman told Morris that the juror had been disruptive and uncooperative during deliberations, and eventually became so inebriated she could not participate. MORE at COURTTV.COM |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 28 Jan 07 - 05:29 AM New Mother Lied About Her Age The Associated Press Updated: 1:17 a.m. CT Jan 28, 2007 LONDON - A 67-year-old woman who is believed to be the world's oldest new mother told a British Sunday newspaper she lied to a U.S. fertility clinic — saying she was 55 — to get treatment. Carmela Bousada said in her first interview since she gave birth to twin boys on Dec. 29 that she sold her house in Spain to raise $59,000 to pay for in vitro fertilization at a California clinic, The News of the World reported. "I think everyone should become a mother at the right time for them," Bousada said in a video of the interview provided to Associated Press Television News. "Often circumstances put you between a rock and a hard place and maybe things shouldn't have been done in the way they were done but that was the only way to achieve the thing I had always dreamed of and I did it," she said. Bousada turned 67 this month but said she told the Pacific Fertility Center in Los Angeles she was 55 — the clinic's cut off for treating single women, the report said. She said the clinic did not ask her for identification. Dr. Vicken Sahakian, the clinic's medical director, confirmed late Saturday that he treated Bousada, but said clinic procedures would have required her to provide her passport. "I did not know that she was 66," Sahakian told The Associated Press, declining to comment on her case further. "We do check identity." Looking for a husband Bousada now hopes to find a younger husband to help raise her two sons, Pau and Christian, the newspaper said. The retired department store employee lived with her elderly mother for her entire life in Cadiz, in southern Spain. She hatched her plan to have children after her mother died, at an unspecified age, in 2005, the newspaper said. She kept her plan secret from her family and when she finally told them she was two months pregnant, they thought she was joking. "Yes, I am old of course, but if I live as long as my mom did, imagine, I could even have grandchildren," she said in the video. She was hospitalized during her pregnancy after she collapsed in a supermarket, but said her health has been good since she delivered. "When the doctors said they had to make an incision for the Caesarian, I told them, 'Make it really low so that I can still wear a bikini,"' Bousada was quoted as saying. The twins, who were born seven weeks premature, remained in hospital for three weeks, but are now healthy and at home with Bousada, the report said. Romanian citizen Adriana Iliescu gave birth to baby Eliza Maria in January 2005, also at the age of 66. Bousada was 130 days older than Iliescu when she gave birth. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 27 Jan 07 - 08:56 PM I thought his momma's statement was 'bout half way there: "What he done was wrong, but he knows his mama don't have long," John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 27 Jan 07 - 07:08 PM I didn't get to see my dyin' mama, Lying on her deathhbed, on her back, But at least I got to steal a tour-bus And watch those NASCAR drivers round the track. Yeah, there's some kinda ballad in there. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 27 Jan 07 - 06:23 PM But he couldn't stay away from them NASCAR tracks: Police arrest escapee at NASCAR track Christopher Daniel Gay, 32, was arrested around 11 p.m. Friday at the Daytona International Speedway where he had been watching a race, said Lt. Patrick Myers, spokesman for Daytona Beach Police. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 27 Jan 07 - 01:14 PM This could be a song challenge, but I think the song's already been written - several times: Cops: Escapee surfaces at NASCAR track Fugitive driving singer Gayle's bus says he was to give racer Stewart a ride The Associated Press, Updated: 4:01 p.m. CT Jan 26, 2007 NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It has all the makings of a country song: an escaped prisoner, his terminally ill mother, a Wal-Mart truck, NASCAR and a Nashville singer's tour bus. Since Christopher Daniel Gay, 32, escaped from a prisoner transport van Sunday in South Carolina, police say, he has evaded a five-state manhunt by stealing a pickup, a big rig and the bus that belongs to singer Crystal Gayle. No one has been reported injured, and the search for him continued Friday. Initially, police say, his motive for fleeing was simple. "I take it he was just trying to see his mom," said Michael Douglas, the police chief in Pleasant View, Tenn., near the home where Gay's mother is dying of cancer. Gay, who has a history of theft involving trucks and other heavy equipment, escaped during a bathroom break in Hardeeville, S.C., as he was being taken from Texas to face felony theft charges in Alabama. The van was taking a route allowing it to pick up prisoners in other states. He stole a pickup truck in South Carolina and made his way more than 300 miles northwest to Manchester, Tenn., where he stole a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer filled with $300,000 worth of merchandise, police said. On Tuesday, Gay got to within 50 yards of his mother's home, about 25 miles northwest of Nashville, but abandoned the Wal-Mart truck1 and fled into some woods, authorities said. "What he done was wrong, but he knows his mama don't have long," his mother, Anna Shull, told The Tennessean this week. Efforts to contact Gay's family were unsuccessful Friday. Authorities don't think Gay got to see his mother. Since then, authorities believe he stole the bus belonging to Gayle — the younger sister of Loretta Lynn, known for her long hair and hits such as "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." A man believed to be Gay arrived Thursday night at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Fla., telling the track's manager he was there with NASCAR racer Tony Stewart and asking him for help getting a new generator for the tour bus he was driving, officials said. The Speedfest 2007 event is being held there this week, but there are no plans for Stewart to appear. "His story just started having a lot of inconsistencies, so we asked him for some identification," said speedway President Bill Martino in a phone interview Friday. The man, who Martino said was clean-cut and dressed nicely, refused and fled. Track officials, suspicious of the man's story, provided authorities with the license plate number of the tour bus. 'There's got to be a country song ...' Gayle didn't know the bus was missing from the Nashville garage where it was parked until speedway officials called Thursday night, police said. Her husband and manager, Bill Gatzimos, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Friday, but he told WSMV-TV, "There's got to be a country song in having your bus stolen and taken for a joyride by a fugitive." © 2007 The Associated Press. 1 "big rig from Walmart" would probably scan better in your song.(?) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Jan 07 - 12:02 AM Mountain Lion Attacks Hiker in California January 25, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO - Wildlife officials on Thursday credited a woman with saving her husband's life by clubbing a mountain lion that attacked him while the couple were hiking in a California state park. Jim and Nell Hamm, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next month, were hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the lion pounced. "He didn't scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground," Nell Hamm said in an interview from the hospital where her husband was recovering from a torn scalp, puncture wounds and other injuries. After the attack, game wardens closed the park about 320 miles north of San Francisco and released hounds to track the lion. They later shot and killed a pair of lions found near the trail where the attack happened. The carcasses were flown to a state forensics lab to determine if either animal mauled the man. Although the Hamms are experienced hikers, neither had seen a mountain lion before Jim Hamm was mauled, his wife said. Nell Hamm said she grabbed a four-inch-wide log and beat the animal with it, but it would not release its hold on her husband's head. "Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said, 'I've got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye,'" she said. "So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn't want to go in as easy as I thought it would." When the pen bent and became useless, Nell Hamm went back to using the log. The lion eventually let go and, with blood on its snout, stood staring at the woman. She screamed and waved the log until the animal walked away. "She saved his life, there is no doubt about it," said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game. Nell Hamm, 65, said she was scared to leave her dazed, bleeding husband alone, so the couple walked a quarter-mile to a trail head, where she gathered branches to protect them if more lions came around. They waited until a ranger came by and summoned help. "My concern was to get Jim out of there," she said. "I told him, 'Get up, get up, walk,' and he did." Jim Hamm, 70, was in fair condition Thursday. He had to have his lips stitched back together and underwent surgery for lacerations on his head and body. He told his wife he still wants to make the trip to New Zealand they planned for their anniversary, she said. Nell Hamm warned people never to hike in the backcountry alone. Park rangers told the couple if Jim Hamm had been alone, he probably would not have survived. "We fought harder than we ever have to save his life, and we fought together," she said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:19 AM U. of N.C. goofs, tells 2,700 they're in |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:19 PM Woman leaves town a $4 million surprise By ANGELA K. BROWN, The Associated Press link GRANDVIEW [Texas]-- Wynonia Pallmeyer never lived in Grandview. But once a month for more than a decade, she drove 35 miles from her home in Fort Worth to this small town she had grown to love. Few here knew the unassuming and sometimes tenacious silver-haired woman, other than people involved in the nursing home where her husband, Edward, lived the last years of his life. Now Pallmeyer has made a lasting mark on the town, leaving it nearly $4 million, almost a third of her $14 million estate. "I'm not surprised by her generosity -- just that she had that much money," said Martha Bennett, a Grandview Bank vice president who served with Pallmeyer on the nursing home's board. "You just don't run into people like that." Pallmeyer's relationship with Grandview, a town of about 1,400, began in the mid-1980s after her husband became ill and needed long-term care. Someone referred her to the not-for-profit Grandview Nursing Home, ranked among the best in Texas. She was so pleased with the home that she joined its board and continued to serve long after her husband's death. When the facility needed something -- an ice cream machine, a whirlpool, a van, money for a chapel -- Pallmeyer provided it, administrator Barbara LeBaron said. Although she wore diamond jewelry and drove a Mercedes, Pallmeyer never flaunted her money, friends said. She lived in a modest 2,000-square-foot house built in 1959 and valued at $150,500. Pallmeyer, who died at 86 in June 2005, apparently didn't know the total value of her estate -- which she amassed over decades with her husband by buying real estate and mineral rights. Friends said she had a keen business sense. So Pallmeyer, who had no children or other relatives, requested in her will that three of her friends form a committee to decide how her riches would be distributed after her death. "For some odd reason, she didn't want to make those choices herself," said the Rev. Donnie Voss, a senior associate pastor at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, which Pallmeyer attended for decades. "But she was clear in her intent that the money would go to charitable causes." Committee member Rudolph McDuff, a former Grandview mayor who knew Pallmeyer for 25 years, said she was "a nice lady who knew what she wanted to do and didn't listen to nobody." She never discussed leaving her money to the town but said she wanted the nursing home taken care of, McDuff said. So all of McDuff's recommendations -- charities and churches -- involved Grandview. The nursing home will receive about $2 million. LeBaron said she had no idea how much it was receiving until she and a co-worker opened an envelope and found a check for almost $1 million last fall, after the will was finalized. The rest of the money will arrive later. "We had to look at it," LeBaron said with a laugh. "To think what an effect it could have for us and that somebody could be that generous." The nursing home had already borrowed nearly $1.5 million from the federal government to build a therapy wing, beauty salon and break room. Now the board expects to be able to repay the loan sooner, LeBaron said. The Grandview Youth Association, which has received about half of its $200,000, has already built a youth football field. It plans to build baseball and soccer fields and a pavilion to be named after Pallmeyer, said Janet Smith, an association board member. The Grandview community center, closed for more than a year, plans to use its $600,000 for much-needed renovations, and the town's library will use its $200,000 for expansion. "Knowing her the way I did, I knew she'd be satisfied with giving it to different groups instead of one person or organization," McDuff said. Among the other beneficiaries are several universities in North Texas and a homeless shelter and a charitable foundation in Fort Worth. The other two committee members were a minister at Pallmeyer's church and one of her neighbors in Fort Worth. Community leaders say Pallmeyer's legacy and what her gift will mean can't be overestimated. "It's hard to describe in words how you feel," said Robert Stewart, president and CEO of Grandview Bank. "In Grandview, we have a very small business community, and obviously they struggle for funding. These gifts are going to go a long way toward taking care of the needs these organizations have." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Jan 07 - 10:03 AM I saw that earlier, then read the child behavior thread that has been going to a couple of days. It sounds like those parents set this kid up for the tantrum. They're lucky they were offered extra flights, let alone reimbursement for the original fare. Temper tantrums aren't difficult to avoid, but it means you have to head them off before they get started. There are all sorts of ways to do that. I have two kids, and we never had a tantrum because no one ever let them consider getting so wound up. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:42 AM Yeah Stilly, 12 x 50 is hardly 400 - which I knew; but I couldn't resist tweaking Robin. Airline defends removing family from flight AirTran Airways backs decision to boot parents, toddler for temper tantrum The Associated Press, Updated: 3:06 p.m. CT Jan 23, 2007 ORLANDO, Fla. - AirTran Airways on Tuesday defended its decision to remove a Massachusetts couple from a flight after their crying 3-year-old daughter refused to take her seat before takeoff. AirTran officials said they followed Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seat belt upon takeoff. "The flight was already delayed 15 minutes and in fairness to the other 112 passengers on the plane, the crew made an operational decision to remove the family," AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said. Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly. "We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday. The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied. She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, Graham-Weaver said. The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day. They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said. The father said his family would never fly AirTran again. © 2007 The Associated Press. What an abominable shame that the whole world can't stop for a spoiled 3 year old, -- -- or is it? John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:13 AM Yours was actually post 571. That 400 is just a phantom. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:33 PM The counts says 400. I wonder if Foolestroupe will tell of if it's off again. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:32 PM I have no idea what the kennel clubs have to say about it, but the "Mexican hairless" (Chihuahua?) term was always, so far as I saw, applied to little lap dogs with white (or pink) skin. The Peruvians appear to be of a rather different kind; but the world is full of so many different and remarkable things that I can't quibble. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jan 07 - 09:17 PM I poked around that Google page of images and found the following:
Humans probably brought this canine to the Americas 2,000 to 3,000 years ago during the migration from Asia across the Bering Strait. Ceramics from pre-Incan cultures show these dogs growling, giving birth, suckling and copulating. The Inca and other pre-Columbian cultures highly valued this breed, which is now surging in popularity in the United States and Europe, but ironically declining in status in Peru. It was adjacent to this photo on this page. Lots of search terms, should you be so inclined! Me, I'll stick with a really short-haired Am. Staff. Terrier and a Catahoula mix. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 07:35 PM Stily - Excellent picture of the hairless, although this one seems to be missing the tail-tuft hair that the first article indicated was "characteristic." Some variation within the breed is likely, of course. There have been several articles recently on various locales where large numbers of disappearances, almost invariably of women or children, have been reported, with some being confirmed as murders (sexual or otherwise), others attributed to "sex slavers," and some just "traditional brutality." It might merit a separate thread, but I can see that as being extremely depressing if many of them were all visible together in one place. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:50 AM Good news for our science readers and writers! The flaws of Wikipedia are being addressed: Scholarpedia |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:01 AM This post is going to be a mixed bag of sorts. I found photos of the hairless dogs via Google. This particular pooch seems to counter something I read, probably at Mudcat at one time on some trivia thread, about male dogs having nipples. I think the statement was that they don't, but this pooch clearly does. In the "for what it's worth" department--which may be nil. And though the biggest problem is in Ciudad Juarez, opposite El Paso, that last post triggered a memory of a troubling and unsolved mystery in Mexico, the murder of hundreds of young women. If you're subscribed to read the Washington Post you should be able to read this article. It is from Dec. 16, 2005, and starts: Unresolved Murders of Women Rankle in Mexican Border City New State Officials Seek Justice in Hundreds of Bungled Cases By Sylvia Moreno Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 16, 2005; Page A30 CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Almost 18, Laura Berenice Monarrez was a serious student with dreams of a big future. She wanted to be a medical examiner, she told her mother in a long conversation on Sept. 18, 2001. Boys were just a distraction from her career plans, she said. Three days later, "Bere" Monarrez disappeared. Seven weeks after that, her body and those of seven other pretty young women were found in an abandoned cotton field beside a busy boulevard near downtown. All had been raped and strangled. Today the so-called campo algodonero or "cotton field" case remains unsolved, as do many of the 377 slayings of women and girls over the past 12 years in this gritty, industrial border city. "For us, four years have passed and we have a lot of programs, but we have no justice," said Benita Monarrez, 43. Although government funds have been established to compensate families of murder victims, she said, the money means nothing as long as her daughter's killer remains at large. "For me, that is injustice." For years, the mysterious deaths and disappearances of women have frustrated officials and terrified families in Juarez, a transient city where thousands of women live in shantytowns and work in maquiladoras, the factories on the U.S. border that produce electronic circuit boards and auto parts. About a fourth of the victims were kidnapped, raped and strangled in a similar way, leading victims' families to believe that a sexual serial killer remains on the loose. The whereabouts of almost 40 other women who have disappeared since 1993 are still unknown. And this year, the number of homicides with female victims has surged to 30, although authorities attribute 80 percent of them to domestic or family violence. find the rest online. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 04:39 AM Tijuana police issued slingshots Guns confiscated amid allegations of collusion with drug runners The Associated Press Jan 23, 2007 TIJUANA, Mexico - The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers. Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists. Tijuana's police force of 2,000 officers has been without guns since Jan. 5, but some patrol alongside armed state police. President Felipe Calderon sent 3,300 soldiers and federal police to Tijuana at the beginning of January to hunt down drug gangs. The soldiers swept police stations and took officers' guns for inspection amid allegations by federal investigators that a corrupt network of officers supports smugglers who traffic drugs into the U.S. The weapons are still being checked. About 100 police demonstrated outside Tijuana town hall on Monday demanding the return of their guns. "The arms are our tools for work," said officer Juan Manuel Nieves. "Do they want more police to be killed?" More than 300 people were slain in Tijuana last year including 13 police officers. © 2007 The Associated Press John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 12:46 AM How to save a hairless dog? 'Hairless dog' species beats extinction Peru protects 'punk' animal given its ancient lineage By Andrei Khalip , Reuters, Jan 22, 2007 LIMA, Peru - His eyes gleaming with joy underneath a natural yellow mohawk, Josh the Peruvian Hairless Dog heads out to greet tourists at Lima's Pucllana ruins. About the size of an English pointer, Josh and his kin are not guard dogs, instead they are guarded behind the walls of this and other historic monuments on the Peruvian coast — the hairless hound's habitat for more than 3,000 years. ... Its history is long and rather sad, especially after the Spanish conquest starting in 1532. Native pre-Incan civilizations used the dogs for hunting and as pets for company. They are represented on the ceramic pottery of the Chimu, Moche and Chancay cultures found on the coast. They were sometimes mummified and buried along with people to help the departed find their way to the world of the dead or to continue serving their owners in the afterlife. The Spanish brought giant war dogs to fight the natives and would often amuse themselves by setting off one such dog against a small pack of the smaller local breed. "There are reports it could tear four, five hairless dogs in pieces easily," Vargas said, caressing Josh's head. For centuries afterwards, it mostly ceased being a pet animal and would roam along the coast feeding on mollusks, often hunted by people simply for fun or for skins, believed to help with arthritis and used sometimes as thermal bags due to a popular myth that they retain heat. As a result, the breed got to the 21st century on the brink of extinction, and that's when the government decided to safeguard it by ordering all archeological sites along the coast to have at least a pair -- after Huaca Pucllana's 1989 initiative. They are now also Peru's only own world-registered breed. "We know there are quite a few now, and there are people breeding them and people buying them here and for export — it is a luxury dog now," Vargas said, adding though there was still a lot of prejudice against the dog's naked skin. "Ugly dog, they call it, dirty dog, 'punk' dog. But it is much cleaner than hairy dogs — leaves no hair around the place, has no fleas, does not provoke allergies. And it is a great company and a live thermal bag in winter." Josh, his mother, Jala, and brother, Cuni, feel quite at home at the Lima ruin, where the breed had lived for millennia. "It's rather curious," Vargas said. "As soon as the museum closes it's like they say: 'Our home is ours again,' and start walking up and down the walls of the ruin. They are the masters here." Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. [If you wanna dig, you gotta get TWO DOGS!] [Full story and photo at link, for now] |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Jan 07 - 01:11 AM Thief chooses wrong pickup to steal Lake Stevens man jumps in truck bed, subdues thief at high speed The Herald (Everett, WA) link CLEARVIEW - When he stopped to do the right thing, he never expected it would turn into a hair-raising ride at freeway speeds standing in the back of his pickup truck. It was a stunt usually performed by Jackie Chan but instead pulled off by Clint Lucas, a Lake Stevens construction manager. After witnessing a car accident at the intersection of 180th Street SE and 35th Avenue SE, Lucas, 26, stopped to make sure everyone was OK. That's when police believe Trinidad Mendoza, who was involved in the high-speed crash, got into Lucas' 2006 Ford F-350 and started to drive away, according to a police affidavit filed in Everett District Court. Lucas, who stands 6-1 and weighs 200 pounds, jumped into the bed of his $40,000 truck. He held on as Mendoza sped off, the court papers said. "I don't really know how I was feeling," Lucas said. "I just had a lot of adrenaline going through me. It's a hard thing to describe. I just knew I needed to get the truck stopped, and I needed to get him out of it." Lucas was balancing in the bed as his truck swerved west on 180th Street. Mendoza stopped briefly, perhaps so Lucas could get out, but then started driving again, Lucas said. "He seemed pretty scared, like he didn't know what he was doing. I think he expected me to jump out of the truck," Lucas said. Lucas wasn't going anywhere. "By that point, I was pretty committed," he said. With the truck moving at freeway speeds, Lucas kicked in the back window with his steel-toed work boots. Lucas clubbed the man with rolled-up construction plans and an old trowel. Finally, Mendoza stopped about a half-mile down the road, according to the court document. "I needed to stop him. He just stole my truck, and I wasn't going to let him get away with it," Lucas said. Lucas jumped out of the back of the pickup, gave chase, and wrestled Mendoza to the ground. Two other men, who had seen what happened, helped subdue the renegade driver. They used plastic zip ties to cuff Mendoza's wrists until police arrived. "I knew I wanted to get him stopped," Lucas said. Mendoza is being held at the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of car theft and a warrant for parole violations. Bail is $10,000. Lucas suffered scrapes on his knee and forearms, he said. His willingness to help out was bruised, too. "It happened when I was trying to help somebody," Lucas said. "I will definitely think twice next time I see something." Still, he realized the whole incident could have been a lot worse. He could have been seriously injured and the driver could have put up more of a struggle. And just as he was trying to do the right thing for someone else, others stopped to help him. "That people actually decided to stop and help me," he said, "That was great." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jan 07 - 03:22 PM Foolestroupe - Bee-dubya-ell reported the denial in the thread BS: Canadian Spy Coins. "Discussion" already posted there. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 20 Jan 07 - 08:08 AM http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419961 Spy report poor value for money 7:15AM Saturday January 20, 2007 The US Defence Department has acknowledged that an espionage report it produced warning about Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside was not true. The Defence Security Service has started an internal review. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jan 07 - 06:43 AM DNA exonerations put heat on Texas county 12th person cleared in Dallas County, more than most states The Associated Press Updated: 2:33 a.m. CT Jan 20, 2007 DALLAS - In a case that has renewed questions about the quality of Texas justice, a man who spent 10 years behind bars for the rape of a boy has become the 12th person in Dallas County to be cleared by DNA evidence. That is more DNA exonerations than in all of California, and more than in Florida, too. In fact, Dallas County alone has more such cases than all but three states — a situation one Texas lawmaker calls an "international embarrassment." James Waller, 50, was exonerated by a judge earlier this week and received an apology from the district attorney's office after a new type of DNA testing on hair and semen showed he was not the rapist who attacked a 12-year-old a boy living in Waller's apartment building in 1983. The boy had been the chief witness against him. ... ... ... ... Only New York, Illinois and Texas have had more DNA exonerations than Dallas County, which has a population of 2.3 million, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. ... ... ... ... Since the nation's first DNA exoneration in 1989, 26 defendants have been cleared in Illinois, including 11 in Chicago's Cook County, according to the Innocence Project. There have been 21 exonerations each in Texas and New York, nine in California and six in Florida, the organization said. In Dallas County, about 400 prisoners who filed wrongful-conviction claims have received DNA testing, leading to the 12 exonerations, said Trista Allen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. New District Attorney Craig Watkins, who took office two weeks ago, is determined to look into the underlying causes, she said. [end quote] It was noted that even though cleared of the crime, it will require separate legal action to remove his name from the "registry of sex offenders." Personal observations: BUT WHAT IF - the percentage of false convictions in Dallas County is NOT different than elsewhere, and the rest of them just aren't looking as hard? [not an assertion, just a question] It generally is not a trivial matter for someone once convicted to get a DNA test in an old case, and many places put significant restrictions on reopening cases to consider "new evidence," even when evidence as potentially compelling as a DNA result is claimed. (It took this fellow 7 years to get his test, and to get it admitted.) Twelve exoneratons out of 400 tests implies an error rate in convictions of 3% of those tested, from a few cases where presumedly there was reason to expect an error might be found. The 400 who were tested are a very small fraction, one supposes, of those who'd like to have a re-hearing. (Has anyone ever heard of a convicted person who didn't want one?) Texas doesn't have a particularly sterling reputation, with lots of claims of "frontier justice" and "lynch mob convictions;" but the information in this article doesn't necessarily support the implied conclusion (and slur) of the article. (A more complete set of statistics might support an entirely different set of lies?) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jan 07 - 04:06 AM Sex offender applies to school — as 12-year-old The Associated Press Updated: 2:34 a.m. CT Jan 20, 2007 The article is rather long, but summarizing: A 29 year old convicted sex offender convinced two "old guys" (61 and 43) that he was a 12 year old kid, and moved in with them where they reportedly had regular sex. The scheme came apart when one of the old fellows tried to enroll the 29 year old in school (in Phoenix, AZ) as a 12 year old, claiming to be his grandfather. It is reported that the two old guys were "greatly offended" to learn that they'd been conned by the 29 y.o. Four arrested, the fourth being a former cellmate(?) of the "kid." Reports indicate he was enrolled in some other schools, but it's not yet known whether he actually attended any of them. And alternate possibility: they all knew exactly what was going on, and were attempting to get him into the school to find "new juveniles." If it's too bizarre to be believed, someone's probably tried it. (opinion) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jan 07 - 02:36 PM You can see the video here. It's today's video--if you wait to view it you may need to go to the January 18 videos, if they archive them. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 18 Jan 07 - 01:27 PM NORMAN, Oklahoma (AP) -- The pilot of a TV news helicopter used the wind from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up. A small crowd had gathered to watch the deer struggling, its hooves repeatedly slipping, near the shore of Lake Thunderbird around 4 p.m. Wednesday. With the helicopter's camera rolling, KWTV pilot Mason Dunn used the wind from the rotor to push the deer, initially sending it into a break in the ice where the animal managed to hold onto the ice with its front legs. Dunn then lowered the helicopter and the wind sent the deer sliding on its belly across the ice until it reached shore and scampered into a nearby wooded area. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Thomas the Rhymer Date: 18 Jan 07 - 10:10 AM UPI international, today... Would-be groom jailed for swallowing ring DORCHESTER, England, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A would-be groom is in jail for 12 weeks for allegedly trying to get a free weeding ring for his future bride by swallowing it in a British jewelry store. While visiting a jewelry store in Dorchester, England, Simon Hopper allegedly swallowed the ring, worth nearly $3,500, and was arrested for attempted theft, Sky News reported. Hopper had been looking at rings with jeweler Fred Burgess, when he allegedly swallowed the ring while the other man's back was turned. When Burgess asked where the ring had gone, Hopper responded by claiming he had already returned it to him. Suspicious, Burgess contacted the police and only discovered the ring when one of the responding officers used a metal detector to search Hopper. Burgess said the crime was one thing, but waiting the next few days for it to return to him naturally was another matter. "He managed to hold on for four days but then the inevitable happened and I got the ring back," he told Sky News. "It's had several good cleans. I'm not sure I'll be revealing its background to the future buyer." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Metchosin Date: 18 Jan 07 - 10:09 AM This may be a spoof or old news as it came to me in an email titled My Kind of Nursing Home. Hopefully it wouldn't be my kind, this is rather sad, they booted the poor old buggers out for showing a little iniative too. Nine Oldsters booted out of nursing home -- for trying to have an orgy! By MIKE FOSTER - Weekly World News LONDON -- A group of nine love-hungry codgers were booted out of an old folks home after they tryed to have an orgy in the recreation room! The unidentified oldters, who ranged in age from 73 to 98, had apparently planned the unauthorized after-hours get-together for weeks. according to Melinda Helterford, spokesperson for the well-respected Edith Scarborough Nursing Home. "They somehow got it in their heads to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of the women with a kind of sex party," said Miss Helterford. "This may sound harmless or amusing to some people, but Scarborough has a reputation to uphold. We cannot tolerate that kind of conduct." The nursing home made a concerted effert to keep the bizarre story out of the press and so details are difficult to come by. But according to British papers, the let-it-all-hang-out party took place just after midnight on October 28. The three wrinkly Romeos and six sagging seductressess gathered together in the rec room and stripped to the buff. "They really set the scene", a nursing home staffer who was not identified told a London tabloid. "They'd got their hands on candles which they lit, and even put on music to create the mood." The nude geezer gala went on for about 20 minutes before orderlies heard rumba music coming from the recreational room and went to investigate. When they opened the doors, they were shocked to find old-timers crowded together in their birthday suits, slathered in baby oil. "They hadn't got too far--I guess it was taking some of the gents a while to get started," the staffer said. "But they were all naked. Believe me, it was the scariest thing I've seen in my life." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 18 Jan 07 - 12:56 AM Wow. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jan 07 - 12:27 AM Great story! I knew this fellow when I worked in Darrington in the Forest Service. And you should see his house. . . I was tempted to practice my rock climbing on his fireplace wall. Rescuer survives his own scare A Darrington helicopter pilot who has helped save dozens of lives is injured in a crash in the snow. By Kaitlin Manry (The Herald, Everett, Washington) January 17, 2007 It was over in four seconds. Anthony Reece was working 140 feet in the air, piloting his helicopter as part of a logging operation in the mountains of Skagit County. About 1 p.m. on Jan. 4, the Darrington man noticed that the sky had darkened. Snow started to fall. He knew icy weather could cause problems. So he decided to call it a day and head in. In the five decades he spent flying, he had never been injured in a crash. At 70 years old, he didn't want to start. But on his way in, someone radioed him and asked him to pick up a final load of cedar. As he readied his Hughes 369 for the load, the helicopter's engine quit. Using the chopper's last bit of inertia, he pointed upward at the snowy sky, giving a colleague working on the ground time to run out of the way. The blades slowed. He fell. As his chopper neared the ground, Reece thought "God darn, this is gonna hurt." The next thing he remembers is a loud crunch, then someone pulling at his feet. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. As co-workers moved Reece into a pickup truck and rushed him down the mountain, his wife of 48 years, Sue Reece, got a call from her brother. He was working near the wreck. Anthony crashed, he told her. Firefighters and emergency medical technicians were on their way up. Her husband was injured, but moving. Sue Reece hopped in her car and drove from Darrington to Mount Vernon. "I thought, 'Well, maybe he'll be all right,'" she recalled. "Of course I worried about him. I've been doing that real regular for 48 years." She met her husband at a Mount Vernon hospital and rode in an ambulance with him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Diagnosed with three cracked vertebrae and a split sternum, Reece spent four days in the hospital. On Jan. 8, he returned to his house in the woods of Darrington. Balloons and flowers from well-wishers filled his living room. A borrowed hospital bed sat by the window. Sue Reece said she tried to pay for the bed, but the owner refused. Anthony Reece had plucked her son from a raging river years ago. As a pilot, Reece has participated in hundreds of search and rescue missions. He's found lost hikers and carried injured climbers to safety. He's also transported the bodies of fallen outdoorsmen home, so their families could see them one last time. "I would describe him as one of my heroes," said Kelly Bush, district ranger and search-and-rescue coordinator at North Cascades National Park. "He's definitely saved lives. There are dozens of lives - people that have been in the last hours of living that are critically injured - and if it were not for his quick response and skill they wouldn't be living today." Among the missions Reece participated in are several well known rescues. In 2005, he flew the bodies of Mountaineers leader Johanna Backus and two other climbers after they died in a rockslide on Sharkfin Tower in the North Cascades National Park. He flew their injured climbing partner to safety. The previous year, he responded when Nigel Aylott, a well-known Australian adventurer, was killed by a falling boulder near Darrington during the Subaru Primal Quest adventure race. He's also credited with saving Seattle Weekly writer Brian Miller after he fell while climbing 8,815-foot Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades park. "A number of people owe their lives to his skillful piloting," Bush said. "We rangers are a dime a dozen. A good pilot is really what it's all about." In 2005, 81 pilots died in the United States. When you add in people who fly bush planes, crop dusters or ferry around celebrities, it's easy to see why pilots have the third most dangerous job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As he's flown through his youth into old age, Reece has lost many pilot friends to accidents. He always has accepted the risk, all the while doing everything he can to minimize it. He says he doesn't scrimp on maintenance and avoids unnecessary danger. People who've flown with him say he's an expert at reaching difficult areas safely. Dave Doan, aviation manager for the state Department of Natural Resources, has flown with Reece for 30 years, fighting forest fires and managing the department's timber. He said Reece is known throughout the Pacific Northwest as a safe, reliable pilot. "I felt very comfortable and very safe whenever I was with him," Doan said. "He never took chances. He never did anything that would scare you or anything like that. Comparing him to other pilots, he was in the top tier." As is standard, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. Reece thinks a chunk of ice slid off the chopper into its air intake valve, instantly killing the engine. As for flying again, it's not on the schedule anytime soon. Reece wears a brace to support his broken bones and gets around with the help of a walker. He sleeps in the hospital bed and is under the watchful eye of his wife. She's not in any rush to see him return to the skies. However, flying has always been a part of Reece. Ever since he was a boy he's been enamored with planes, always dreaming of soaring above the clouds. And much to his wife's dismay, the gray-haired grandfather is not sure he can drop the urge to fly. "God knows," he said, shaking his head. "It's hard to tell what an old, dumb guy like me will do." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jan 07 - 11:37 PM Mom has the numbers right at MOAB but this one is still low. Printer friendly shows the last message was number 551, not 380, but clearly someone is in the Mudcat workshop tinkering with the software. Thank you, whoever it is! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jan 07 - 01:45 PM Runaway, 9, Sneaks on Flight to Texas From Associated Press January 17, 2007 LAKEWOOD, Wash. - A 9-year-old boy with a history of stealing cars and running away sneaked onto a plane bound for Texas, getting caught after flubbing an airport connection, officials said. Semaj Booker apparently found a Southwest Airlines boarding card and made it through airport security Tuesday, hopping two separate flights but landing in San Antonio, Texas - short of his Dallas destination, police said. "The only thing I have to offer on that is that were looking into it," Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin said. The fourth-grader remained Wednesday in juvenile custody in San Antonio. He had been trying to get to his grandfather in Dallas, where he used to live. The boy was unhappy after his family moved to Lakewood, outside Tacoma. His odyssey began Sunday when he stole a car that was left running outside a neighbor's house, only to be spotted by police near the interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 512. Police pursued Semaj at speeds up to 90 mph until he took an exit and the engine blew, after which the car went over a curb and coasted into a tree. He refused to come out of the car, so officers broke a window to unlock a door and immediately recognized him as a frequent runaway and car thief, Lakewood police Lt. David B. Guttu said. Last month he also crashed a stolen car before being caught by police in Tacoma, and more recently he was caught in Seattle in a stolen car that had run out of gas, said his mother, Sakinah Booker. She believes he learned to drive from playing video games on a PlayStation. Booker said she had hoped to soon move her four sons back to Dallas, but Semaj grew tired of waiting. Semaj was "incredibly motivated to get to Texas," Guttu said. "He doesn't want to live in Washington state." Booker said her son dislikes the neighborhood where the family lives and is afraid of a sex offender who lives nearby. "He does not like it here at all," she said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jan 07 - 01:18 PM Labradoodle Awakens Owner During Fire From Associated Press January 16, 2007 SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - A savvy Labradoodle has one lucky owner. Firefighters said Bella, a mix of poodle and Labrador retriever, saved the life of her owner Matt Carcerano on Monday, waking him before his Santa Cruz cottage went up in flames. At 3:30 a.m. Bella woke Carcerano, a 32-year-old welder, with a combination of growling, whimpering and barking. "It was weird. I was sound asleep and she made noises I'd never heard before," Carcerano said. "I opened my eyes and it was just orange." The floor-to-ceiling wall heater in the 50-year-old, two-room cottage was on fire, and Carcerano rushed out in socks and pajamas just as the entire place went up in flames. All of his belongings were destroyed except for a few photo albums he was able to grab. The cottage had no smoke detectors. Fire department battalion chief Mike Venezio called Bella a lifesaver. Carcerano said he planned to take Bella for a two-hour romp on her favorite local beach, once he took care of some personal issues. "I gotta go buy shoes," he said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jan 07 - 11:41 AM I don't think I'll post this on the James Brown obit thread, it's really a side issue. It has been my understanding that major events like marriage and divorce tend to make some wills void. There was an ancient one at my Dad's house, written before all of us were born and naming some man I had never heard of as our guardian if both parents died. Birth, divorce, lots of things made that obsolete. Brown's was more recent, but it seems logical that the spouse (whether married or common law) and the child have a good case to be included in the estate. Huff seems to be trying to set up the playing field to suit the adult children heirs--another thing I was told was that if you actually intend to disinherit someone, you should name them and say so in your will, because otherwise they have a case for having been missed or excluded by accident. The result in Dad's case was that he died intestate because there was nothing to work from on the old one. It would be a shame if that is the case for Brown--because the majority of his intentions could be ignored and a fight ensue. Estates are hard to work on, even WITH a will. Brown's will drawn up before marriage Associated Press AUGUSTA, Ga. - James Brown's will, which was read last week and excludes his partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, and their 5-year-old son, was drawn up 10 months before the child's birth and more than a year before their marriage, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The will was signed Aug. 1, 2000, Strom Thurmond Jr., Brown's probate attorney in Aiken, S.C., told The Augusta Chronicle. Brown, who died last month in Atlanta at age 73, married Hynie in December 2001. James Brown Jr. had been born six months earlier, on June 11. The exclusion has added to a dispute about the soul singer's legacy. Brown's attorneys contend that Hynie is not Brown's widow because she was still married to another man when they said their vows. They have said Hynie later annulled her previous marriage, but she and Brown never remarried. Hynie says she was legally married to Brown. The will calls for Brown's personal effects to be divided equally among the singer's six adult children. North Augusta, S.C., lawyer James Huff said that if a will specifically names some children but excludes others, the excluded children have no claim to the parent's assets, regardless of when they were born. Huff represented Brown when he sought to annul his marriage to Hynie in 2004, a petition the singer later dismissed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JennyO Date: 16 Jan 07 - 11:07 AM SRS - the thread "You must leave now" has also been affected showing 2587 posts when it should be 2956. Jenny (another bean counter) |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jan 07 - 10:11 AM It was certainly a missed opportunity to discover what else she could divine through the ether. I originally read that story some months ago, and thought they'd gotten around to pardoning her. I guess not. For any bean counters in the audience, this post is number 547. I think there are only a few Mudcat threads that have the numbers scrambled, those I regularly participate on are this one and the MOAB. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 16 Jan 07 - 09:33 AM This raises some interesting questions, dunnit? actually thought she was on the inside as a spy with information from somewhere. They were fearful she had access to official secrets. The case was ridiculous.", quotha. Well it WAS ridiculous, but I would like to know -- if it was not witchcraft -- by what means she was able to announce unknown events that turned out to be correct, such as the sinking of the Barham. If it occurred by ordinary means (gossip, for example), then the accusations are even more ridiculous. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 16 Jan 07 - 07:59 AM Pardon for U.K.'s last convicted witch? Woman was jailed for 9 months during World War II as threat to Britain Reuters Updated: 8:56 a.m. CT Jan 15, 2007 LONDON - The granddaughter of Britain's last convicted witch has launched a fresh campaign to gain a posthumous pardon for Helen Duncan, jailed at the height of World War Two as a threat to the nation. "I will carry on fighting to clear her name," said Mary Martin who still vividly remembers being taunted in the playground in 1944 as "witch spawn." "The memories are still fresh. It was so unfair. She was totally innocent. It was ludicrous she was ever taken to court," the 72-year-old told Reuters. Duncan, a medium who conducted seances across Britain, was arrested at a time when officials feared details of the upcoming D-Day landings in France could be revealed. She disclosed -- allegedly through contacts in the spirit world -- the sinking of two British warships long before the news was officially made public. She also told the parents of a missing sailor that his ship, HMS Barham, had sunk. That was true, but to preserve morale, the sinking was not announced. Found guilty of witchcraft, Duncan was jailed for nine months. Martin said wartime leader Winston Churchill called the conviction "tomfoolery." When re-elected in 1951, Churchill repealed the 1735 witchcraft act but Duncan's conviction was never quashed. She died in 1956. 'A real stigma' Martin petitioned Britain's Home Secretary (Interior Minister) in vain in 1999. Now she is determined to try again, bolstered by support from Gordon Prestoungrange, holder of a medieval Scottish barony. In 2004 he used his position as the local baron in the coastal town of Prestonpans to pardon 81 women and men executed for witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries. "When Mary Martin was growing up as a youngster, it was a real stigma," he told Reuters. "The wound is still open today." He said the campaign on www.prestoungrange.org/helenduncan/ had taken on an international dimension with backing from the Witch Museum in the Massachusetts town of Salem, where in 1692 20 girls, men and women were executed for witchcraft. Prestoungrange says the time is right for a pardon in Britain: "The 300 soldiers executed for cowardice in the First World War have been pardoned... we are now also apologizing for the slave trade... "This was a bizarre decision. They were looking at some way of silencing the lady. They actually thought she was on the inside as a spy with information from somewhere. They were fearful she had access to official secrets. The case was ridiculous." Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 16 Jan 07 - 06:06 AM Man's cell phone ignites in pocket [quote] Fire burned his hotel room and caused severe burns over half his body The Associated Press Updated: 9:11 p.m. CT Jan 15, 2007 VALLEJO, California - A cell phone apparently ignited in a man's pocket and started a fire that burned his hotel room and caused severe burns over half his body, fire department officials said. Luis Picaso, 59, was in stable condition Monday with second- and third-degree burns to his upper body, back, right arm and right leg, Vallejo Fire Department assistant chief Kurt Henke said. Firefighters arrived at the residential hotel Saturday night to find Picaso lying on the bathroom floor after a malfunctioning cell phone in his pants pocket set fire to his nylon and polyester clothes, Henke said. The flames spread to a plastic chair, setting off a sprinkler that held the fire in check, he said. Authorities declined to name the phone's manufacturer and model. The fire and water caused $75,000 damage to the room and a business on the ground floor, Henke said. © 2007 The Associated Press. [endquote] While the article doesn't specifically say so, most cell phones, and many other kinds of small portable devices, use the same general kind of Lithium batteries recently recalled by nearly every laptop computer maker in the world due to some "spontaneously flaming computers". There is a substantial history of other similar smaller recalls by makers of computers and of several kinds of other devices. The problem is not apparent in the majority of batteries sold; but is at least "disconcerting" when it appears, and does not appear to have been completely solved. Wearing polyester(?). John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Jan 07 - 10:16 PM What a sad, idiotic way to die. How many people at that radio station had to work to promote a contest like that, and did no one say to them that this could be dangerous? |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 14 Jan 07 - 08:29 PM WomanDiesDrinkingWater Woman in water-drinking contest dies Water intoxication eyed in 'Hold Your Wee for a Wii' contest death The Associated Press Updated: 9:24 p.m. CT Jan 13, 2007 SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A woman who competed in a radio station's contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died of water intoxication, the coroner's office said Saturday. Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban Rancho Cordova home hours after taking part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest in which KDND 107.9 promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner. "She said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad," said Laura Rios, one of Strange's co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento. "She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her." It was not immediately know how much water Strange consumed. A preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death," said assistant Coroner Ed Smith. John Geary, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Sacramento, the station's owner, said station personnel were stunned when they heard of Strange's death. "We are awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred," he said. Initially, contestants were handed eight-ounce bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes. "They were small little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy," said fellow contestant James Ybarra of Woodland. "They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk." Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles. "My bladder couldn't handle it anymore," he added. After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink. "I was talking to her and she was a nice lady," Ybarra said. "She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for kids." © 2007 The Associated Press. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Charley Noble Date: 13 Jan 07 - 09:39 PM BlackBerry thumb, BlackBerry thumb, It's so dumb to get BlackBerry thumb! BlackBerry thumb, BlackBerry thumb, I'd rather strum than get BlackBerry thumb! Anyone want the tune? Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 13 Jan 07 - 04:02 AM Spas soothe pain in the 'tech neck' 'BlackBerry thumb,' other workplace maladies prompt new therapies Reuters Updated: 6:08 p.m. CT Jan 12, 2007 NEW YORK - When massage therapist Grace Macnow first heard the term "BlackBerry thumb," she didn't know what it meant. Now, treating it is a new and booming part of her spa business. Therapies to treat workplace woes such as a sore thumb from tapping on a hand-held computer, the aches of "tech neck" from typing on a laptop or even skin irritation from chatting on a cell phone are the latest rage to hit high-end spas, where the weary can seek relief at the end of an arduous workday. "It's huge," said Cindy Barshop, the founder of Completely Bare salons in New York, who has introduced Purity Plus facials to help clean clogged pores and breakouts tied to cell phone use. "I'm pretty shocked," she said about the popularity of the new service. "Everybody's calling me about it. I think a lot of people have that problem." The Purity Plus facial at Completely Bare, complete with herbal mask, steam treatment and massage, costs $185 and takes roughly an hour. Joe Silverman, 31, was one of the first clients to sign up for the new tech neck massage at the Dorit Baxter New York Day Spa in midtown Manhattan. "I've been feeling such pain with keyboards and BlackBerry typing and always being on the go," said Silverman, who owns technology company New York Computer Help. "We don't take care of ourselves, whether it's our posture or just pressure. "You go home and you go to sleep, and you start to turn over or you are trying to move, you definitely feel it," he added. "It definitely takes a toll." Macnow, at her spa Graceful Services, started offering specialized massages for BlackBerry thumb and tech neck last month after getting requests from clients. They've proved to be among her most sought-after services. "When they first called me, I didn't know what BlackBerry thumb was," she said. "Now I know." Her massages feature deep muscle pressure intended to relax the shoulders, neck and arms. Named after Ontario-based Research In Motion Ltd's popular personal digital assistant, the stress-related injury BlackBerry thumb was recently recognized by the American Physical Therapy Association as an official workplace malady. Aida Bicaj, who offers cell phone facials at $225 a session in a townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side, says she has found a wealth of clients among stressed-out professionals and office employees who are overworked in competitive jobs. "With that, you have a lack of sleep and you have stress," she said. "It's identified in your face right away." Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 12 Jan 07 - 06:15 PM First Bloggers, now Floggers Sponsored blogs stir controversy The curtain has been pulled on a deceptive new advertising tactic in which companies camouflage ads as product praise in online postings masquerading as independent blogs. Several companies have been exposed for launching fake blogs - known as "flogs" - in a practice that coincides with an increase in the number of real bloggers secretly paid to endorse products. Blogs, a term derived from "web logs," are rampant on the Internet and are considered online journals in which people post personal opinions, musings, rants and more. Online firm Technorati reported on last week it was tracking more than 63 suspicious blogs. Wily marketers have infiltrated the blogging world, paying for favourable commentary on products. However posting product commentary without alerting readers that bloggers were compensated for their opinions is unethical and potential illegal, according to US Federal Trade Commission rules. Sony Computer Entertainment America, a subsidiary of Japan-based Sony, admitted last week that it created a bogus blog baptised "All I want for Christmas is a PlayStation Portable." The blog was passed off as the work of an amateur hip-hop musician named "Charlie," who enthusiastically praised the PlayStation. In a short message on the Charlie blog, Sony apologised for being "a little too clever." The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, came under fire in October for a blog portrayed as an online journal kept by a typical US couple, named Laura and Jim, as they travelled across the country in a motor home. The couple's blog praised Wal-Mart for letting them park their hulking recreational vehicle overnight in store parking lots and told of encountering Wal-Mart workers nationwide that praised their jobs and their employer. Business Week magazine revealed that the couple's cross-country trip was sponsored by Wal-Mart - a fact unmentioned in the online postings. Companies such as PayPerPost and ReviewMe, which link bloggers and advertisers, are fueling the phenomenon. PayPerPost, a five-month-old pioneer in the practice, is true to its name regarding favourable online blog postings. On ReviewMe, bloggers in any language can offer to post their thoughts on products for $US500 a review. ReviewMe explains on its site that it cannot guarantee favourable reviews, but that most of the posted opinions are positive. "We do not allow advertisers to require a positive review," the company said in a statement. "The vast majority of reviews are measurably positive, although many do contain constructive criticism." Blog-for-hire publicity campaigns can be comprised of thousands of postings, according to a PayPerPost spokesman that wished not to be identified. Fake "independent" blogs by companies or secretly manipulated by advertisers break US law by misleading consumers, according to federal regulators. The FTC warned this month that "such connection must be fully disclosed" and that its staff "will determine on a case by case basis whether to recommend law enforcement actions to the commission." Faced with the FTC threat, PayPerPost announced this week it would change it service agreement to require bloggers who were being paid to say so in their postings. Previously they had left it to the blogger's discretion. Many PayPerPost competitors have yet to adopt such a rule, and the torrent of user-generated videos, images, and text flooding the internet has aspiring advertisers navigating uncharted waters. Attention seekers from fledgling music bands to major corporations have seen clever online content "go viral" - lingo for being spread for free worldwide by people using email and online links. Both video-sharing website YouTube and teen-oriented social networking MySpace, for example, have become venues for companies to establish promotional pages. (just kidding) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Jan 07 - 02:32 PM I seem to have stumbled into the shipping news today. This story begs the question--why did this oil tanker go from Alaska to Long Beach, CA, then BACK to Washington to unload the last of it's cargo? Why not unload at Cherry Point on the way there and have less to haul and expend less energy in the second leg of the trip? I can't believe the harbor at Anacortes is too shallow to accept the full ship--they've been in and out of there for decades. Anyway. . . Anchors fall off two oil tankers from Alaska THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEATTLE -- Anchors fell off two oil tankers during heavy weather as they were carrying crude oil from Alaska to Long Beach, California. The anchors were discovered missing when the tankers were being unloaded at Long Beach. The ships were allowed to continue to Washington where they finished unloading at a refinery at Cherry point. Now they are waiting -- one at Port Angeles and one at Seattle -- for new anchors. The Coast Guard, the state Ecology Department and the Alaska Tanker Company of Beaverton, Oregon, are investigating what went wrong. The company C-E-O Anil Mathur (ahn-HEEL' MAHTH'ur) says one anchor was lost from each ship -- Alaskan Frontier and Alaskan Navigator, in storms late last month. Each ship has a total of two anchors and the remaining anchor on each ship is cracked. He says the company is flying four anchors -- 15 tons each -- from Holland to be installed next week. Officials say there was no harm to the environment. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 12 Jan 07 - 02:24 PM And the Bush propaganda machine will soon tell us it's an invasion by Chilean radical extremists? (Not too unbelievable, perhaps.) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Jan 07 - 02:15 PM Boat washed off freighter found on Washington coast THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ABERDEEN, Wash. -- A 25-foot boat that apparently was knocked off a freighter in a storm washed ashore about two miles south of the Queets River on the Washington coast. The Grays Harbor County sheriff's office says the boat was part of a shipment of four boats made in Port Townsend [Washington] for the Chilean Navy. The boat found yesterday near Cape Elizabeth had "Armada de Chile" painted on it. |