BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 01:18 AM

There were some "interesting(?)" comments from readers at Saulgoldie's link too, although I don't know that they added much to the story.

Of course his peppermints were confiscated. How would the police know that a dangerous criminal wouldn't have cyanide embedded in them to avoid being tortured for vital information?

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 12:37 AM

Goodness, Saulgouldie--what a story!

[snip]
"The professor had hoped to spend the afternoon listening to his fellows discoursing on arcane topics. Instead, he was handcuffed to another suspect in a "filthy paddywagon" and fingerprinted in a detention centre, where his peppermints were confiscated. His bail was set at £720 and he remained behind bars for eight hours. When he told a judge his side of the story in court the next morning the case was dropped."

His peppermints were confiscated?

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 09:22 PM

...
File this to read later

Foot-dragging is worse than ever — and makes us poorer and fatter

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:48 p.m. CT Jan 11, 2007

Procrastination in society is getting worse and scientists are finally getting around to figuring out how and why. Too many tempting diversions are to blame, but more on that later.

After 10 years of research on a project that was only supposed to take five years, a Canadian industrial psychologist found in a giant study that not only is procrastination on the rise, it makes people poorer, fatter and unhappier.
... ... ... ...
In 1978, only about 5 percent of the American public thought of themselves as chronic procrastinators. Now it's 26 percent, Steel said.
... ... ... ...
Early studies looking at U.S. and Canadian cultures didn't find any differences in the two countries' procrastination problem, but Steel said when he has more time he'll get around to more cross-cultural studies.

Studying procrastination as a field has a benefit, said the professor. The more he knows about the problem and the causes, the less he procrastinates — even though he sheepishly acknowledges his study was completed five years late.

The good thing about studying procrastination, he said: "If you take a day off from it, you can always say it's field research."


My kinda job.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 10:55 AM

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-2541133,00.html

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 12:32 AM

Explanation for innocent bystanders:

Stilly River Sage is much better informed than I am about more "modern" kinds of art. Although I have some familiarity with older, more conventional stuff, I didn't find this artist; but I was sure that Stilly would know how to locate his page if she had any interest in doing so.

Not that I thought seriously that there would be any particular interest.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 12:26 AM

I almost posted that I'd leave it for Stilly to find his page, but ...

Good hit.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 11:15 PM

It seems his name is Stan, not Stephen, and here is a video of him in action.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 08:31 PM

'Butt-printing' art teacher fired

The Associated Press
Updated: 4:21 a.m. CT Jan 10, 2007

RICHMOND, Va. - An art teacher whose off-hours work as a so-called "butt-printing artist" became widely circulated among high school students has been fired.

The Chesterfield County School Board, in a unanimous voice vote, fired Stephen Murmer at a meeting Tuesday night, spokeswoman Debra Marlow said.

In its decision, the board reasoned that students have a right to receive their education in an environment free from distractions and disruptions, Marlow said. The decision also is in keeping with court rulings that hold that teachers are expected to lead by example and be role models, she said.

Jason Anthony, Murmer's attorney, called the vote "a bad day for the First Amendment." - "Chesterfield lost a tremendous asset today," he said.

Murmer, a teacher at Monacan High School, was suspended in December after objections were raised about his private abstract artwork, much of which includes smearing his posterior and genitals with paint and pressing them against canvas.

His paintings sell for as much as $900 each on his Web site.

The unique approach to art became a topic when a clip showing Murmer, wearing a fake nose and glasses, a towel on his head and black thong, turned up on YouTube.com and became the talk of the high school.

**********************

A quick search did not find the alleged website of the artist, however one "report" on the school firing also claims that he posted a video "demonstrating how he paints with his butt."

There are s.o.o.o. many levels on which one could comment that I think I'll refrain.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 10:34 AM

According to the associated press today 1/10/07:

JAMES BROWN STILL NOT BURIED:

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- The body of soul singer James Brown has yet to be buried as attorneys and his children work to settle issues surrounding his estate, including where he will be laid to rest.

For now, his body lies in a sealed casket in his home on Beech Island, said Charles Reid, manager of the C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Georgia, which handled the services.

Brown died of heart failure December 25 at age 73.

His will has yet to be filed, said Buddy Dallas, an attorney for the singer.

The room where Brown's body lies is being kept at a controlled temperature, and security guards keep watch, Reid said.

The funeral home delivered Brown's body after services December 30, Reid said.

Brown's home has been locked since hours after his death to protect his memorabilia, furnishing, clothes and other personal items, Dallas said.

"Just imagine what would have happened," Dallas said. "Items of James Brown would have left there like items off the shelves of Macy's in an after-Christmas sale."

The trustees for his will, along with Brown's children, will determine the burial site, Dallas said.

Tomi Rae Hynie, Brown's partner, said shortly after his death that she encountered locked gates as she tried to get into the home she says she shared with the singer and their 5-year-old son.

She wouldn't discuss the incident Tuesday, but her lawyer said Hynie should be granted access to the home. The attorney would not say whether Hynie would take legal action.

"The hope is that all parties can sit down and figure out what the problem is and what the challenges are," attorney Thornton Morris said. "And once we figure out what the challenges are we'll see if we can't resolve something that's a win for everybody."

Meanwhile, a woman who claims Brown raped her nearly 20 years ago said Tuesday she will continue her lawsuit.

Jacque Hollander has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her sexual harassment suit, which a lower court ruled last year she had waited too long to file.

A Supreme Court decision on whether to hear the case is pending.

She argues that the two-year statute of limitations in such cases does not provide equal protection to women.

"This has been a long road that ended tragically Christmas morning," Hollander said in a phone interview with the Associated Press.

"As a rape victim, I will never get to face him in court, and it hurts," she said. "But we are moving forward. We filed against his organization, as well as him. So now his organization stands in front of him."

In her lawsuit, Hollander said Brown raped her at gunpoint in 1988 while she was his publicist. She seeks $106 million in damages.

A federal appeals court tossed out Hollander's lawsuit in August.

"There was nothing to it 20 years ago and nothing to it 20 years later," Dallas said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 01:48 PM

How right he was! I dare say that there are more occurrences of the later than the former.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 11:44 AM

As through this world you wander,
You'll meet lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

Woody



A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: freda underhill
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 02:13 AM

W Pushes Envelope on US Spying
New postal law lets Bush peek through your mail

by James Gordon Meek

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned. The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions. That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Bush's move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It caught Capitol Hill by surprise.

"Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill. Experts said the new powers could be easily abused and used to vacuum up large amounts of mail.

"The [Bush] signing statement claims authority to open domestic mail without a warrant, and that would be new and quite alarming," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington. "The danger is they're reading Americans' mail," she said.

"You have to be concerned," agreed a career senior U.S. official who reviewed the legal underpinnings of Bush's claim. "It takes Executive Branch authority beyond anything we've ever known."

A top Senate Intelligence Committee aide promised, "It's something we're going to look into."

Martin said that Bush is "using the same legal reasoning to justify warrantless opening of domestic mail" as he did with warrantless eavesdropping.

Published on Thursday, January 4, 2007 by the New York Daily News

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 02:00 AM

Poor guy, had to "settle" for the smaller chairs. :-/

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 01:47 AM

Not exactly "newspaper" but:

The Great Chair Heist on YouTube (3:42), purports to be an actual surveillance video from an apartment complex lobby in New York City - edited for YouTube of course.

The story at The Internet Finds Its Purpose affirms that this is indeed the apartment complex where a "product reviews coordinator," known as "PJ" at PC Magazine resides.

"… PJ had just directed me to the incredible YouTube video of a man casually stealing two full-sized arm chairs from PJ's co-op building lobby. It was originally taken by a surveillance camera and then edited for the viral video site. The video's "director," Tcement, added the title "The Great Chair Heist" and some funny captions throughout the 3-minute 42-second video. …"

Maybe someone knows this guy? (the thief, that is).

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 12:58 AM

Having a kid in the house makes you fatter

"Adults living with young children eat equivalent of an extra pizza a week"

I think the headline says it all. You can check out the article if you want the details.

"Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids."

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 12:53 AM

Army urged dead soldiers to re-enlist

[Who says the volunteer Army is enough. Sounds desparate to me.]

Recruitment letters mistakenly sent to 275 dead, wounded officers

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:08 p.m. CT Jan 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 Army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action. The 75 represent more than one-third of all Army officers who have died in Iraq since the war began.

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the Army said in a brief news release issued Friday night.

The Army did not say how or when the mistake was discovered. It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of wounded or dead soldiers.

"But an earlier list was used inadvertently for the December mailings," the Army statement said, adding that the Army is apologizing to those officers and families affected and "regrets any confusion."

The total number of Army officers who have died in Iraq since the war began stood at 217 as of Dec. 2, according to the latest available Pentagon statistics. In all, the Army has had 1,552 soldiers — combining officers and enlisted — killed in action in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, plus 409 who died of non-hostile causes.

The number of Army officers wounded in action in Iraq stood at 894 as of Dec. 2, out of an Army total — for both officers and enlisted — of 14,165, according to the latest Pentagon figures.

Altogether, at least 3,006 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.

© 2006 The Associated Press.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16493727/

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 12:41 AM

Gosh Stilly - at least the killer's better lookin' than the hog.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 12:23 AM

This is what I was originally looking for a minute ago when I was distracted by the last headline. Photo of hog.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 12:19 AM

Two Passers-By Catch Toddler From Falling From Four-Story Building

January 5, 2007 (link)

New York, NY (AHN) - The timely arrival of two passers-by saved a 3-year-old toddler from certain harm when they caught the boy as he fell four-stories from a fire escape in the Bronx.

Police said that Julio Gonzales, 43, and Pedro Nevarez, 40, were passing by the neighborhood when they saw the toddler, Timothy Addo, dangling from a four-story building on Thursday. Apparently, the boy's babysitter took off her eyes from him and he was able to crawl out of the window.

Gonzales said, "He was hanging on for dear life."

The two men scrambled to position themselves under the fire escape to catch Addo when they heard people in the building scream for help as the boy slowly loosened his grip.

Nevarez adds, "No one came. We knew it was up to us."

The boy tumbled and hit the chest of Nevares so hard that knocked him off balance, but Gonzales was quick to catch him.

Timothy was treated at the hospital for a cut on his forehead.

Katrina Cosme, the 26-year-old mother of Timothy, who was at work when the incident happened said, "He's fine. He's happy. He's smiling."

Detective John Sweeney said they had questioned the babysitter and investigation is still on going.

The crucial catch came two days after a bystander threw himself onto a Manhattan subway track to save a man who had fallen, and a day after three police officers delivered a baby on a Brooklyn subway platform.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, "This is the week of heroes in New York."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 12:09 AM

Hogzilla was a Runt

Hog wild! Hunter kills 1,100-pound beast

Behemoth of a hog killed in Atlanta suburub, weighed at truck station

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:38 p.m. CT Jan 5, 2007

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - A giant wild hog boasted to be bigger than the near-mythical "Hogzilla" caught in southern Georgia a few years ago has been killed in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood.

The hog hung snout down from a tree Friday in William Coursey's front yard, not far from where the avid hunter said he shot the beast. He said he hauled it to a truck weight station, which recorded the hairy hog at 1,100 pounds.

The Department of Natural Resources did not know whether the hog was a record for the state. "We don't keep records on hogs," said Melissa Cummings of the DNR's public affairs department.

But Coursey believes his behemoth surpasses the famed super swine shot and killed in 2004 that weighed in at half a ton on the farm's scales. A team of National Geographic experts later confirmed "Hogzilla" didn't quite live up to the 1,000-pound, 12-foot hype, saying the beast was probably 7 1/2 to 8 feet long, and weighed about 800 pounds.

The news of Coursey's kill got people talking about the enormous beasts that roam the state.

"Nobody keeps official records," said Daryl Kirby, an editor with Georgia Outdoor News. "But it's one heck of a hog."

© 2006 The Associated Press.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Jan 07 - 11:51 PM

Amos - I've heard that being covered with bare fat makes people more sensitive to the cold.

IS THIS A NEW TERRORIST WEAPON?

Flour-filled condoms case finally laid to rest

Philadelphia to pay $180,000 to woman jailed 21 days in misunderstanding

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:45 p.m. CT Jan 5, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - A woman who was arrested and jailed for three weeks on drug charges for what turned out to be flour-filled condoms has settled a lawsuit against the city for $180,000.

"Under the circumstances, something went terribly wrong," Janet H. Lee's attorney, Jeffrey Ibrahim, said Wednesday. "We're trying to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again."

Lee was a freshman at Bryn Mawr College in 2003 when she tried to take three condoms filled with flour in her carry-on bag on a flight to Los Angeles. They were discovered by airport screeners, and authorities said initial tests showed they contained drugs. Lee was held for 21 days on drug trafficking charges until later tests showed she was telling the truth.

Lee said the flour-filled condoms were a phallic toy students would squeeze to deal with exam stress, and she thought they were funny and packed them to show friends at home. Lee, now a 21-year-old senior, said she did not know that drug dealers often carry drugs in condoms.

A trial had been scheduled to begin Thursday in Lee's lawsuit. Lynne Sitarski, a lawyer for the city, said the city was not admitting wrongdoing or liability.

© 2006 The Associated Press.

URL: AP via MSNBC

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 10:33 PM

Yes, but when your covered with bear-fat the windchill factor is less noticeable.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Adrianel
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 10:15 PM

Amos:
That oiled Lithuanian must have been mighty cold, naked on Christmas Eve in the Arctic.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 06:35 PM

I was quite impressed by that fish, also!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 01:34 PM

Well, it's funny. It is interesting, as she lived to be 102, and as there is so much left unsaid in the obituary. A placid and uneventful surface, probably rich with events not mentioned, naughtinesses and affections and adventures we will not know. Those student nurses, for example. What tales Mrs. Sparks could have told, had she been so inclined!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 01:28 PM

Here's an interesting and tidy little obit from today's paper:

Gertrude Sparks

Sept. 3, 1904 -Dec. 15, 2006
After 102 years of healthy good living Gertrude Sparks has gone on to be with the Lord. Born in Idaho in a town called White Bird. The Harrah family comprised about 14% of the population. There were eight girls and four boys. They had a typical family farm with wheat, garden crops, chickens, cows, cats, horse or two. Gertrude became Mrs. L. Sparks and raised a son, Richard Sparks, and daughter, Maxine Sparks Murray. She now has seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Gertrude worked as a House Mother to student Nurses at Everett General Hospital in Washington. She worked there for 19 years until the last class of Nurses graduated. She retired and spent the winter season of 1967 as a guest of Mary Fonken and liked Ramon Park so much she bought her place on Loganita Drive in 1968.

Playing Bridge was a SPECIAL favorite of hers, but she liked most card games and always enjoyed Bingo. Gertrude was seldom idle. She was a knitter and liked to go fishing. Her trophy fish was caught in Powell River B.C. Canada where she caught a 60-pound salmon.

Gertrude moved into Merrill Gardens in Seattle in the late l990's.
Gertrude had been struggling with mobility the last couple months and in December she fell and ended up in Providence Hospital where she was able to see all of her grandchildren before her passing on December 15, 2006.

A celebration of her Life will be at 11 a.m., Friday, January 5, 2006, at Washington Memorial Funeral Home in SeaTac, Washington.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 12:07 PM

Man saved from garbage truck after call

Associated Press

OAK PARK, Mich. - A man who awoke inside a garbage truck that was about to compact its load was rescued after making a frantic cell phone call to police, authorities say.

The man, who is unemployed but not homeless, was scavenging for bottles Thursday when he fell asleep in a Dumpster, said police Lt. Mike Pousak. He awoke when the container was unloaded into a truck.

He told police he didn't know which truck he was in but gave a dispatcher the location of the Dumpster he fell asleep in, Pousak said.

He had tried yelling for help but no one heard him.

Police soon lost contact with the man when his cell phone battery became dislodged, Pousak said. Police checked several trucks, including one in a parking lot.

"An officer went and pounded on the side of the truck and somebody pounded back," Pousak said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 11:59 AM

Oiled prisoner slips out of Norway jail

Associated Press
OSLO, Norway - A Lithuanian held on suspicion of theft in an Arctic Norway jail slipped out of custody - literally - by stripping naked, smearing himself with vegetable oil and sliding through the prison bars, police said Wednesday.

"He slipped through the bars on Christmas Eve," said Svein-Erik Jacobsen, operation leader for the Oest-Finnmark Police District. The unusual escape made national news in Norway on Wednesday. [snip]

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 06:21 AM

And then there's those Beautiful People of New York:

[quote]

Associated Press: 9:33 p.m. CT Jan 2, 2007

NEW YORK - Sick subway passengers, most of them dieters who faint from dizziness, are among the top causes of train delays, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

After track work and signal problems, ill passengers rated among the main reasons for subway disruptions between October 2005 and October 2006, according to an analysis of MTA statistics, AM New York reported Tuesday.

Asim Nelson, a transit emergency medical technician, told the paper that fainting dieters topped the "sick customer" list.

"Not eating for three or four days, you are going to go down," Nelson said. "If you don't eat for 12 hours, you are going to get weak."

Although the agency doesn't keep an official record of the nature of each rider's illness, the paper said that an average 395 delays each month are caused by sick customers.

Fainting spells caused by missed meals topped other "sick customer" causes, including flu symptoms, anxiety attacks, hangovers and heat exhaustion, according to Nelson.

Nelson is part of the MTA's "sick Customer Response Program," which consists of emergency medical technicians and registered nurses. When a rider becomes sick, the train conductor must stay with the passenger until emergency responders arrive.

[endquote]

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Jan 07 - 06:11 AM

UFOs has some additional comment on the reported sightings at O'Hare airport (01 Jan 07 - 11:12 PM above); but the more interesting thing is a link in the article to a web site/page devoted to some really gorgeous clouds (including kinds that could maybe be mistaken for UFOs(?))

Take a peek at Strange Clouds

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jan 07 - 01:45 AM

I heard about that on the radio today. Real interesting!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 11:12 PM

UFO at O'Hare
KXAN-TV similar report

Nearly identical reports on what must have been a slow day in the news room.

Air Traffic Control confirmed that "someone asked" if they'd seen something. Radar and visual checks showed nothing unusual. The FAA is assuming "weather phenomena" due to a fairly clear day with low cloud ceilings and lots of ground lights.

At least one O'Hare controller, union official Craig Burzych, was amused by it all:

"To fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable," he said.

Some commercial pilots might say "but not unusual."

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 12:38 PM

On Africa's Great Peaks, Glaciers Are In Retreat
Recent Report Blames Loss of Equatorial Ice On Post-'70s Warming

Associated Press
Sunday, December 31, 2006; Washington Post, A18

NARO MORU, Kenya -- Rivers of ice at the Equator -- foretold in the 2nd century, found in the 19th -- are melting away in this new century, returning to the realm of lore and fading photographs.

From mile-high Naro Moru, villagers have watched year by year as the great glaciers of Mount Kenya, glinting in the equatorial sun high above them, shrank to white stains on the rocky shoulders of the 17,000-foot peak.

Climbing up, "you can hear the water running down beneath Diamond and Darwin," mountain guide Paul Nditiru said, speaking of two of 10 surviving glaciers.

About 200 miles due south, the storied snows of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tropical glaciers first seen by disbelieving Europeans in 1848, are vanishing. And to the west, in the heart of equatorial Africa, the ice caps are shrinking fast atop Uganda's Rwenzoris -- the "Mountains of the Moon" that the ancient Greeks surmised were the source of the Nile River.

The total loss of ice masses ringing Africa's three highest peaks, projected by scientists to happen sometime in the next two to five decades, fits a global pattern playing out in South America's Andes Mountains, Europe's Alps, the Himalayas and beyond.

Almost every one of more than 300 large glaciers studied worldwide is in retreat, international glaciologists reported in October in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. This is "essentially a response to post-1970 global warming," they said.

Even such strong evidence may not sway every climate skeptic. Some say it's lower humidity, not higher temperatures, that is depleting Kilimanjaro's snows, for example.

Stefan Hastenrath of the University of Wisconsin, who has climbed, poked, photographed and measured East Africa's glaciers for four decades, says what's happening is complex and needs more study. But on a continent where climatologists say temperatures have risen an average 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century, global warming does play a role, he says.

"The onset of glacier recession in East Africa has causes different from other equatorial regions. It's a complicated sort of affair," he said by telephone from Madison. But "that is not something to be taken as an argument against the global warming notions."

In Kampala, Uganda's capital, veteran meteorologist Abushen Majugu agreed. "There's generally been a constant rise in temperatures. To some degree, the reduction of the glaciers must be connected to warming," he said.

It was 10 years ago, on the 100th anniversary of the first expedition to the Rwenzoris, an Italian effort, that Majugu and his colleagues were struck by a gift from Italy to Uganda: photographs from 1896 showing extensive glaciers atop the spectacular, remote, three-mile-high mountains.

In a scientific paper this May, Majugu and British and Ugandan co-authors reported that this ice, which covered 2.5 square miles a century ago, is less than a half-square-mile today.

The glaciers are "expected to disappear within the next two decades," they concluded. And because the 2nd century Greeks were at least partly right, that means a secondary source of Nile River waters will also disappear.

At Mount Kenya, too, "it's a dying glacier," Hastenrath said, referring to the mountain's big Lewis Glacier, once a mile-long tongue of ice draped over a saddle between peaks. "At the rate at which it goes, the end could come soon," he said.

In a meticulous new summary, the Wisconsin scientist, who first investigated Mount Kenya in 1971, shows that its ice fields have shrunk from an estimated 400 acres to less than one-fifth that area in the past century. After decades of work, he has concluded that several interrelated phenomena were responsible.

In the early years, sparser clouds and precipitation in East Africa allowed solar radiation to evaporate exposed areas of ice, which then wasn't adequately replenished, Hastenrath said. But more recently, the reduction in ice thickness has been uniform, pointing to general warmth, not limited sun exposure, as the cause. Eight of 18 glaciers have disappeared.

"Northey's gone. Gregory's about finished," said John Maina, as if mourning old friends. The 56-year-old guide knows Mount Kenya's glaciers and peaks well, having led climbers up its face since he was a teenager. As he prepared for yet another trek from Naro Moru, he recalled how it once was.

"We used to be able to ski on Lewis, but now it's all crevasses," he said. "We would climb all the way up Lewis on ice to Lenana peak, but now it's climbing on rocks. And the ice is weak. We're seeing blue ice, weak ice."

Up at 10,000 feet, where he mans a weather station in the clouds, another longtime guide, Joseph Mwangi, 45, makes his own projections. "In five years, Lewis Glacier will be gone," he said.

Mwangi worries that the water loss may unravel the unique ecosystem that surrounds him, with its high-altitude trees and bamboo groves, blue monkeys and giant forest hogs. "The lobelia trees might die," he said.

Animals are already dying in the foothills and plains below.

Glaciologists say "terminal" glaciers often discharge -- and waste -- large amounts of water in the early years, then release increasingly less as they shrink. Villagers here seem to confirm that: The Naro Moru River and other streams off Mount Kenya ran very high some years back, they say, but are now growing thin. A years-long drought magnifies the problem.

"The more the snow goes down, the lower the rivers," said Roy Mwangi, the area water officer here.

The trouble has already begun, he said. Miles downstream on the Naro Moru, where the river now vanishes in the dry season, livestock are dying of thirst. Desperate nomadic herdsmen have raided points upriver, blocking intakes for farm irrigation systems, he said.

"There's a lot of suffering on the lower side. These are armed men. I'm afraid there will be conflict," Mwangi said.

Hardship may spread even to Nairobi, Kenya's capital. Most of the country's shaky electric grid relies on hydropower, and much of that is drawn from water streaming off Mount Kenya. In a U.N. study issued in early November, scientists predicted that the glacial rivers of Mount Kenya and the rest of East Africa may dry up in 15 years.

"The repercussions on people living down the slopes will be terrible," said Grace Akumu, a Kenyan environmentalist.

Many scientists say similar repercussions could follow wherever human settlements depend on steady runoffs from healthy glaciers -- in Peru and Bolivia, India and China. It could also extend beyond that to coastal settlements, they say, as oceans rise because of the melting of land ice.

The October report by European and North American glaciologists in Geophysical Research Letters estimates that glacier melt contributed up to one-third of the one- to two-inch rise in global sea levels in the past decade. And that contribution is accelerating. Since 2001, they report, dying glaciers apparently have doubled their runoff into the world's rising seas.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 10:24 AM

Ils sont tous les meme animaux.

Doesn't matter where they were born!

:D


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Jan 07 - 12:45 AM

Washington Post: Scientists announce mad cow breakthrough

A research company has succeeded, apparently, in producing a dozen calves in which the gene that codes for the production of prions has been "knocked out," leaving the animals with no normal prions.

Mad cow disease is caused when malformed prions introduced into an animal pass their deformation to existing normal prions present in the animal. Prions cannot reproduce themselves, but can transmit their deformity to "good prions" that happen to be present.

The implication of these "genetically engineered" cattle is that they should be completely immune to mad cow disease, as they have no natural prions.

These experimental stock were produced to permit production of sera for other medical uses that would not be susceptible to inclusion of the mad cow prions. They were not intended, at this time, for use as food. The FDA has approved use of cloned animals for food, but has not yet approved "genetically engineered" animals for such use; and it is likely that gaining approval will be much more difficult than for clones.

It is estimated that it will take at least 6 months to be reasonably assured that the calves produced will survive without problems, although at present they appear "normal" in all respects. Some researchers have believed that normal prions are required in some biological processes, particularly in brain development; but for now the absence of prions in these dozen critters doesn't seem to have harmed them.

Stay tuned for more - maybe in about a year...

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 11:49 PM

I still need to brush up on my French!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 11:15 PM

Amos -

The MSNBC article indicated that the UFO collection won't be up until "sometime later." The expected date was vague.

"Jacques Arnould, an official at the National Space Studies Centre, said the French database of around 1,600 incidents would go live in late January or mid-February."

That would seem to be a "promise from a politician." I don't know if a promise from a French politician is more or less reliable than from any other kind.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 07:29 PM

The CNES page has an English version reached by clicking on the word "English".

But I don't seem to find their UFO collection.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 06:47 PM

Our Founders were illegal immigrants

By William Hogeland
December 28, 2006

Every nation is a nation of immigrants. Go back far enough and you'll find us all, millions of potential lives, tucked in the DNA of our African mother, Lucy. But the immigrant experience in the United States is justly celebrated, and perhaps no aspect of that experience is more quintessentially American than our long heritage of illegal immigration.

You wouldn't know it from the immigration debate going on all year (the bipartisan immigration bill-in-progress, announced this week, is unlikely to mention it), but America's pioneer values developed in a distinctly illegal context. In 1763, George III drew a line on a map stretching from modern-day Maine to modern-day Georgia, along the crest of the Appalachians. He declared it illegal to claim or settle land west of the line, all of which he reserved for Native Americans.

George Washington, a young colonel in the Virginia militia, instructed his land-buying agents in the many ways of getting around the law. Although Washington was not alone in acquiring forbidden tracts, few were as energetic in the illegal acquisition of western land. And Washington was a model of decorum compared with Ethan Allen, a rowdy from Connecticut who settled with his brothers in a part of the Green Mountains known as the Hampshire Grants (later known as "Vermont"). The province of New York held title to the land, but Allen asserted his own kind of claim: He threw New Yorkers out, Tony Soprano style, then offered to sell their lots to what he hoped would be a flood of fellow illegals from Connecticut.

Meanwhile, illegal pioneers began moving across the Alleghenies and into the upper Ohio Valley, violating the king's 1763 proclamation and a few more besides. (George would today be accused of softness on immigration; he kept shifting the line westward.) Immigrants from such diclassi spots as Germany and Ireland violated the laws and settled where they pleased. The upper Ohio was rife with illegal immigrants, ancestors of people who, in country clubs today, are implying a Mayflower ancestry.

Parallels to today's illegal immigration are striking. Then as now, it was potentially deadly to bring a family across the line. But once across, illegals had a good chance of avoiding arrest and settling in. Border patrols, in the forms of the British Army and provincial militias, were stretched thin. The 18th century forest primeval, like a modern city, offered ample opportunities for getting lost. Complex economies thrived in the virgin backwoods, unfettered by legitimate property titles.

When conflicts developed between the first and second waves of illegals, some salient social ironies arose, too. By the early 1770s, George Washington had amassed vast tracts to which his titles were flatly invalid. The Revolution rectified that. With British law void, Washington emerged from the war with his titles legal by default. But he acquired another problem: low-class illegals were squatting on his newly authenticated, highly valuable property.

Washington harbored no fond feeling for breakers of laws that he too had recently flouted. "It is hard upon me," he lamented without irony, "to have property which has been fairly obtained disputed and withheld." He went to court to have the squatters evicted, complaining that they had "not taken those necessary steps pointed out by the law." He was appealing to righteousness from atop a high but wobbly horse.

Descendants of the great immigration experiences of the 19th and 20th centuries visit the Ellis Island Immigration Museum to learn of the tribulations of ancestors who risked much to become Americans. Those of us whose ancestors risked everything as illegal immigrants, and in the process helped found a nation, owe our forebears a debt of gratitude, too. Without their daring disregard of immigration laws, we might not be here today.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hogeland is the author of "The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 06:40 PM

I was able to connect just now. I'll have to brush off my French!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 04:56 PM


France to publish UFO archive online

CNES has collected statements and documents for almost 30 years

Reuters
Updated: 9:31 a.m. CT Dec 29, 2006

PARIS - The French space agency said it will publish its archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online, but will keep the names of those who reported them off the site to protect them from pestering by space fanatics.

Jacques Arnould, an official at the National Space Studies Centre, said the French database of around 1,600 incidents would go live in late January or mid-February.

He said the CNES had been collecting statements and documents for almost 30 years to archive and study them.

It consists of around 6,000 reports, many relating to the same incident, filed by the public and airline professionals. Their names would not be published to protect their privacy, Anould said.
Advances in technology over the past three decades had prompted the decision to put the archive online, he said, adding it would likely be available via the CNES Web site.<sup>1

1</sup> The CNES site appears to be attempting to connect, but today everyone seems "out to lunch" as it won't complete the page download for me. Perhaps later.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 03:31 PM

Whoa now there's a woman with a unique future. She might market a little video of her future employment interviewers as she makes the diclosure of "malicious castration."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 03:16 PM

Woman charged with malicious castration


LILLINGTON, N.C. (AP) -- A woman attacked a man in his genitals during a Christmas party, injuring him badly enough that he needed 50 stitches, authorities said Friday. Rebecca Arnold Dawson, 34, was charged with malicious castration in a fight early Tuesday at a party hosted by the 38-year-old man's girlfriend, police said.

All three were heavily intoxicated, police Chief Frank Powers said.

Dawson is accused of grabbing the man's genitals. Police said a weapon was not used. He declined to elaborate.

"I believe he needed more than 50 stitches to repair the damage, but he is back home at this point," police Cpl. Brad Stevens said. "All we can tell you is that the injury was done with her hands."

Dawson does not have a listed phone number.

State law describes malicious castration as cutting off, maiming or disfiguring a person's genitals with the intent to hurt or render the victim impotent.

Dawson, who was released Wednesday on $50,000 bond, also was charged with offenses including assault causing serious bodily injury.

The castration arrest was the first of its kind in Lillington, a town of about 3,000 roughly 30 miles south of Raleigh, Powers said.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Dec 06 - 03:54 PM

Interesting, from the same article:

The county did not spend any money on the study, but officials at King County's Wastewater Treatment Division said they were happy to cooperate because they expected the results to reinforce their message: What goes down the drain has to come out somewhere. That goes both for pesticides and industrial chemicals as well as vanilla and cinnamon. "It's an ability to look at a whole population's behavior through one pipe," said Randy Schuman, a county science and technical support manager who helped arrange the wastewater testing.

Keil's findings present a light side of what scientists say is potentially a serious situation. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies have documented that antibiotics, contraceptives, perfumes, painkillers, antidepressants and other substances pass through the sewage system into waterways.

King County researchers several years took caffeine measurements to try to learn whether the city's coffee drinking habits had any effect on the sound. Caffeine was found in more than 160 of 216 samples in water as deep as 640 feet.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Dec 06 - 02:09 PM

Spices impact Puget Sound

Tests of treated sewage in Seattle area find spike in cinnamon, vanilla

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:09 p.m. CT Dec 26, 2006

SEATTLE - Researchers at the University of Washington say all that holiday baking and eating has an environmental impact — Puget Sound is being flavored by cinnamon and vanilla.

"Even something as fun as baking for the holiday season has an environmental effect," said Rick Keil, an associate professor of chemical oceanography. "When we bake and change the way we eat, it has an impact on what the environment sees. To me it shows the connectedness."

Keil and UW researcher Jacquelyn Neibauer's weekly tests of treated sewage sent into the sound from the West Point treatment plant in Magnolia showed cinnamon, vanilla and artificial vanilla levels rose between Nov. 14 and Dec. 9, with the biggest spike right after Thanksgiving.

Natural vanilla showed the largest increase, "perhaps indicative of more home baking using natural vanilla," Keil and Neibauer wrote.


[The article continues to say that snickerdoodles aren't a significant environmental pollutant (a matter of opinion) but the presence of "spice contamination" in measurable quantities clearly illustrates the effects of all the other crap (pun intended) we flush down the toity.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Dec 06 - 02:45 AM

Post Offices Catch Up After Snowstorm
From Associated Press
December 24, 2006

DENVER - An army of 1,500 mail carriers fanned out across Colorado and Wyoming on Christmas Eve, making rare Sunday deliveries in a bid to get hundreds of thousands of blizzard-delayed packages to their destinations on time. "This is an unprecedented effort," Postal Service spokesman Al DeSarro said. They all volunteered for the extra duty, he said. Normally, about 100 carriers would be working on Sunday, he said.

A blizzard dropped up to 3 1/2 feet of snow on Colorado and Wyoming last week, disrupting mail service for parts of three days amid the Christmas delivery crunch. The storm also shut down roads, businesses, schools and airports - including Denver International, the nation's fifth-busiest. That delayed mail arriving from elsewhere as well as deliveries within the two states. "There were flights of packages that didn't get in until Saturday morning," DeSarro said, adding that 300,000 packages arrived at post offices in the two states on Saturday and Sunday.

Mail carrier Robin Smith, who was delivering packages in suburban Aurora, said she volunteered for the gratification of helping other people. "I have two little girls, a 10- and a 6-year-old, and they think it's really cool that I'm playing Santa Claus," she said. Smith said one elderly woman was overwhelmed when she knocked on her door and handed her a package. "She looked very lonely and her car was buried" in snow, Smith said. "She was like, 'I didn't know I would see this.' I gave her a great big one. It was to 'Grandma.'"

Mail carrier Danny Chavez said some people in Aurora were surprised to see him but others expected it. "They say 'Thank you very much and Merry Christmas' and I say the same to them," he said.

DeSarro said about 500 carriers would make deliveries on Christmas Day. "It's going to be a huge load," he said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Dec 06 - 01:25 PM

Pigs is pigs! But I'm sure there will be some glowing reports with regard to the progress of this project.

Can you imagine what will happen when the fluorescent pigs escape their pen and are seen by some half drunken motorist on his way back home after a hard evening's work at the local watering hole?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Dec 06 - 12:22 PM

Do you suppose when they mate they experience a spectacular afterglow?

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Dec 06 - 10:25 AM

Here's something fascinating, glowing pigs! This is just what the world has been waiting for:

Click here for website

Scientists Create Fluorescent Pigs
Date: Friday, 13 January 2006 @ 17:33:16 GMT - Topic: General

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three "glow in the dark"
pigs. While other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, these
are claimed to be the only pigs in the world which are green through and
through, reports the BBC:

The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from
jellyfish into a normal pig embryo. The researchers hope the pigs will
boost the island's stem cell research, as well as helping with the study
of human disease.

In daylight, the researchers say the pigs' eyes, teeth and trotters look
green. Their skin has a greenish tinge. In the dark, shine a blue light
on them and they glow torch-light bright. The scientists will use the
transgenic pigs to study human disease. Because the pig's genetic
material is green, it is easy to spot.

BBC - Taiwan breeds green-glowing pigs (by Chris Hogg)

Naturally, scientists need more fluorescent pigs before such tests can
begin, and the team hopes the three little pigs will mate and produce
glow-in-the-dark offspring. And, of course, they will have a nice
fundraising sideline in knocking out fluorescent bangers for the kids'
novelty food market.

Charley Noble, bringing home the bacon

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Dec 06 - 11:25 AM

Patrons toss dead cat through drive-thru

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- An employee working the drive-through window at a McDonald's will have a tale to tell. When the worker went to the open window thinking the car pulling up had already ordered, the people in the car threw a dead cat through the window, police said.

Cedar Rapids Animal Control officer Matt McAtee said the black domestic shorthair appeared to have been dead for a while.

"It looked like somebody had picked it up off the road," McAtee said.

Police were called to the restaurant about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday.

The people in the car drove off. A description of the car was not available, but employees knew the people in the car, police said.

No charges had been filed. The investigation was continuing.

McDonald's officials declined comment.

---
Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazetteonline.com/
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.