Blog-heap o' links from 2006-Jun

WED 2006-JUN-28

Scary Timesnewsday.com/ ... 22:33:16ONTARIO, Calif. -- A Southwest Airlines flight was diverted Wednesday after a passenger found a note scrawled on two tray tables that a bomb was on board, but nothing was found after a search...

Viet Nam War - still with usnewsday.com/ ... 22:32:56COLUMBUS, Ga. -- Retired U.S. District Judge J. Robert Elliott, who overturned the conviction of Army Lt. William Calley in the 1968 My Lai massacre but was later overruled by an appeals court, has died. He was 96... Calley was convicted in a 1971 court-martial of killing 22 civilians as part of the massacre of hundreds of men, women and children in the Vietnamese village of My Lai. He was the only man convicted in the case, which became a focal point of Vietnam protests...

Industrial Tragedynewsday.com/ ... 22:24:55BEIJING -- An explosion at a coal mine in north China on Wednesday killed at least 22 workers and injured 37... Five more people were missing following the explosion in the Wulong Coal Mine in Fuxin, a city in Liaoning province...

Love is Strangetoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:53:10a "host club" where women are pampered by the men of their dreams -- for a price. Around 150 such host clubs dot the streets of Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district, ranging from small ones like Club Raphael to the famed Ladies' Club Ai a few blocks away, where more than 170 gigolos are employed to ply their trade in a glitzy night spot complete with dance floor and band... newsday.com/ ... 22:21:44CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- A woman received a severed human finger in the mail along with a threatening letter from her ex-boyfriend that said, "This is my last chance to touch you..." police weren't sure which finger was removed or how, but that it appeared to have been washed before it was mailed Friday... The 32-year-old woman filed for an emergency protective order from her boyfriend last week... ex-boyfriend... has not been located...

Sex can be... disturbingnewsday.com/ ... 22:20:13A former county judge testified Tuesday that he kept a sexual device under his courtroom bench but called it a gag gift and denied ever using it, saying to have done so in open court "defies common sense...."

Nature can be Deadlynytimes.com/ ... 21:00:01Though the rains have largely ended in the region, the ground is saturated and roadways and streams in several states have become rushing torrents, deluging homes and businesses. The Susquehanna flooded parts of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., today, and emergency officials ordered 200,000 evacuated from there and surrounding communities in Luzerne County. The river also threatened to top flood walls in Binghamton, N.Y. Heavy rains undermined a section of Interstate 88 in Sidney, N.Y., 35 miles northeast of Binghamton, killing two truck drivers early this morning and forcing the closing of two highway bridges. The Roanoke River in Virginia, the Schuylkill in Pennsylvania, and the Mohawk and Neversink rivers and Esopus and Rondout creeks in New York also flooded, forcing evacuations of residents and inundating homes, offices and streets. The overflowing Cattail Brook in Livingston Manor, N.Y., suddenly swept one house entirely away. Officials said a 16-year-old girl was in the house, and is missing and presumed dead... reuters.myway.com/ ... 20:59:08WILKES-BARRE, PA (Reuters) - More than 150,000 people fled rising river waters that threatened the old coal-mining town of Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday after floods killed at least 16 people in the eastern United States. With buildings submerged, roads washed out and rivers surging after days of torrential rain, authorities declared emergencies across swathes of New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Travel along the heavily trafficked Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to New York was hard-hit, and rivers threatened to inundate major cities when they crested overnight...

Violencenewsday.com/ ... 22:28:46Two suicide bombers attacked a U.S. military convoy Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, killing only themselves while soldiers escaped unhurt... newsday.com/ ... 22:26:43LAS VEGAS -- A teenager wanted to provoke police to kill him in a suicide attempt when he abducted a child at knifepoint and ran through a security checkpoint at McCarran International Airport, authorities said... newsday.com/ ... 22:25:59HOUSTON -- Five people -- including four teenagers -- were charged in a monthlong violent crime spree that police said included at least four murders and multiple robberies. "This may be the meanest bunch of guys we've come across," Houston police Detective Alan Brown said... english.people.com.cn/ ... 21:00:50A missile fired by an Israeli military plane hit a university in Gaza City on early Thursday, Palestinian witnesses said. The missile left a big hole in the soccer field of the Islamic University in Gaza City, said the witnesses. There was no report of any casualties... english.people.com.cn/ ... 21:00:31Israeli naval battleships fired shells at the northern Gaza Strip at small hours on Thursday... at areas used by Palestinian militants to fire homemade rockets onto Israel from the northern Gaza Strip... no report of any casualties... breitbart.com/ ... 20:57:00Israeli warplanes buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad early Wednesday, military officials said, in a message aimed at pressuring the Syrian leader to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier. The officials said on condition of anonymity that the fighter jets flew over Assad's palace in a low-altitude overnight raid near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved, and Assad was home at the time... breitbart.com/ ... 20:56:33The body of an Israeli settler kidnapped at the weekend by Palestinian militants was recovered overnight by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian security sources said, without providing further details. On Wednesday, the armed Popular Resistance Committees had displayed a photocopy of the identity papers of the 18-year-old Eliahu Asheri, a settler who was reported missing Sunday from the West Bank, and threatened to kill him unless Israel halted its offensive in the Gaza Strip... today.reuters.com/ ... 20:56:00A spokesman for gunmen in the Gaza Strip said they had fired a rocket tipped with a chemical warhead at Israel early on Thursday... al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades... recently claimed to possess about 20 biological warheads... first time the group had claimed firing such a rocket.... timesonline.co.uk/ ... 20:54:53He's just an ordinary, shy young lad, but his fate could mean war or peace in the Middle East... UNTIL he was captured by Palestinian militants last Sunday there was little to distinguish Gilad Shalit from the thousands of other teenagers doing military service in the Israeli army... forbes.com/ ... 20:54:02Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian Cabinet ministers and lawmakers from the Islamic Hamas, increasing pressure on the Islamic militants to release a captured Israeli soldier, and witnesses said tanks moved into northern Gaza, widening Israel's largest military operation in the year since Israel pulled out of the seaside territory. Adding to the tension, a Palestinian militant group said it executed an 18-year-old Jewish settler kidnapped in the West Bank. Palestinian security officials said they believed the body of Eliahu Asheri had been found in the West Bank city of Ramallah... themoscowtimes.com/ ... 15:57:26Israel launched on Wednesday its first ground offensive in the Gaza Strip since leaving the territory last year, stepping up pressure on Palestinian militants to release an abducted soldier. Tanks and infantry, backed by assault helicopters and artillery, set up an observation post at a disused airport outside the southern town of Rafah as masked gunmen waited behind barricades and in alleyways for battle to begin. Threatening "extreme steps" if Corporal Gilad Shalit was not freed, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the operation would continue "over the coming days..." news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:05:53Iraqi officials say they have arrested a key al-Qaeda member for the bombing of a revered Shia shrine in Samarra. National security adviser Mowaffaq Al-Rubaie said the man, a Tunisian identified as Abu Qudama, was one of seven men wanted for the attack... playfuls.com/ ... 10:54:55President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday instructed Russia's intelligence services to track down and destroy the killers of five of his country's diplomats in Iraq. "The president ordered the special services to use all methods to locate and annihilate the criminals..."

Family Tragedynewsday.com/ ... 22:23:02KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A woman accused of killing her 7-year-old grandson excused herself from a counseling session and fatally shot herself in an office bathroom, authorities said... www2.ktul.com/ ... 20:58:36Tulsa - Police removed five children, including an infant, from a Tulsa home early Tuesday morning after responding to a domestic dispute in the 700 block of North Quaker... officers found animal waste throughout the home... Neighbors say the people moved in several months ago and police are called out often. "They fought all the time... They drink, I'm not going to lie..." chron.com/ ... 10:53:39Yates told police she was not angry with her children, but realized she had "not been a good mother" to them and they weren't "developing correctly." She said she had had thoughts of harming them for two years. "It was time to be punished ... (for) not being a good mother," Yates said on the tape...

Animal Companionsnewsday.com/ ... 22:24:26LOS ANGELES -- Several city officials on Tuesday sharply criticized a planned bikini contest to raise money for spaying pets, saying the "Hooters for Neuters" event was degrading to women...

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 21:01:59This week, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps announced an increase in the number of reservists on active duty in support of the partial mobilization, while the Air Force numbers decreased and Coast Guard numbers remained the same. The net collective result is 1,334 more reservists mobilized than last week. At any given time, services may mobilize some units and individuals while demobilizing others, making it possible for these figures to either increase or decrease. Total number currently on active duty in support of the partial mobilization for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 82, 487; Navy Reserve, 4,863; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 7,127; Marine Corps Reserve, 7,311; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 322.This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 102,110, including both units and individual augmentees. today.reuters.com/ ... 12:24:40The U.S. military will not punish a Marine who performed an obscenity-laced song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis, the Marine Corps said on Tuesday... worldnetdaily.com/ ... 12:12:59The Navy chaplain who went without food for 18 days to protest the service's prayer policy has submitted a whistleblower complaint to Sen. Hillary Clinton and other lawmakers, charging top naval officials with violating the Constitution by affirming the actions of officers who barred him from praying "in Jesus name" and quoting certain Bible passages during an optional worship service...

World Zookeepingtimesonline.co.uk/ ... 12:19:14

The only documented white humpback whale in the world has been sighted off the coast of Byron Bay as it migrates along the coast of Australia... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:10:47 Dolphin

Zoologists have developed a plan to save the Yangtze River dolphin, probably the world's most endangered mammal, from extinction. They hope to take some dolphins from the Yangtze and rear them in a nearby lake, protected from fishermen... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:07:34A quail believed to have been extinct for nearly 80 years has been seen by a prominent ornithologist in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam...

Digital Future is Nownetworks.silicon.com/ ... 11:03:14Some of the world's top wireless and internet companies, including Google, Nokia and Vodafone have agreed on a set of website development guidelines aimed at making it easier to surf the net on mobile phones... The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), a group backed by 30 industry players, hopes to improve on this percentage by creating 60 guidelines for developers to design sites that are easy to use on mobile phones, which have much smaller screens and tiny keypads...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 21:01:13

Army Sgt. Terry M. Lisk, 26, of Fox Lake, Ill., died on June 26 of injuries sustained in Ar Ramadi, Iraq when his unit received indirect fire from enemy forces during combat operations. Lisk was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Friedberg, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:43:36

Marine Cpl. Jason W. Morrow, 27, of Riverside, Calif., died June 27 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on June 26. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Long Underwear Heroes are Deadtoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:54:40Bollywood's new flying superhero has asked fans, especially children, not to imitate his onscreen death-defying stunts after a man leapt off a cinema balcony in central India, breaking his leg. "The action scenes are meant to be enjoyed, not imitated. Please do not indulge in these stunts," Hrithik Roshan, who plays "Krrish," a Superman-style hero who saves the world from a mad scientist, wrote in a newspaper on Monday...

Modern Family Lifetoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:51:52BEIJING - The case of a poor mother from the Chinese countryside hired to breastfeed an affluent city-dweller's baby has stoked controversy over the ethics of the ancient practice of wet nursing. Professional wet nurses have appeared in major cities across China, the Beijing News reported Wednesday, fueled by rising incomes and a demand for healthy milk...

Headline of the Daynewsday.com/ ... 22:30:55Awkward Moments Abound in Penis Pump Trial... Serving on the jury in an indecent-exposure trial unfolding in this conservative Oklahoma town has been a giggle-inducing experience... Over the past few days, the jurors have watched a defense attorney and a prosecutor pantomime masturbation. A doctor has lectured on the lengths the defendant was willing to go to enhance his sexual performance... The white-handled sexual device sits before the jury box for hours at a time. Occasionally an attorney picks it up and squeezes the handle, demonstrating the "sh-sh" sound...

Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!newsday.com/ ... 22:27:46MOUNT HOPE, Ohio -- Arlie Stutzman was busted in a rare sting when an undercover agent bought raw milk from the Amish dairy farmer in an unlabeled container. Now, Stutsman is fighting the law that forbids the sale of raw milk, saying he believes it violates his religious beliefs because it prohibits him from sharing the milk he produces with others...

Sex can be Dangerouslifesite.net/ ... 12:23:33A new study on condom effectiveness in protecting against the cancer-causing human papilloma virus has shown a discrediting 30% failure rate.... The study relied on the journals of 82 female university students who kept daily records of their sexual behaviour, and found that 70% of the women, who reported 100% consistent condom use, were virus-free at the end of three years... The author of the study, Rachel Winer of the University of Washington in Seattle, attempted to explain the 30% infection rate which occurred despite supposedly consistent condom use by suggesting that women may have “misreported” key elements in the study...

Alcohol Was Involvedmirror.co.uk/ ... 11:29:25ENGLAND's massive army of World Cup fans is drinking Germany dry, it emerged yesterday. Breweries warned beer could run out before the final because of huge demand from our supporters...

Disinformation Propaganda & Spincnsnews.com/ ... 12:15:19Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told a religious conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. "We're about to enter the '60s again...." he is looking for "the age of enlightenment led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision.... The problem is when we hit that '60s spot again, which I am optimistic we're about to hit, we have to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes...." Later in his speech Tuesday, Dean appeared to backtrack. "I'm not asking to go back to the '60s; we made some mistakes in the '60s.... If you look at how we did public housing, we essentially created ghettoes for poor people" instead of using today's method of mixed-income housing... Another mistake Democrats made in the '60s, Dean acknowledged, was that "we did give things away for free, and that's a huge mistake because that does create a culture of dependence, and that's not good for anybody, either," he noted, a reference to the Great Society welfare programs created by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s... washingtonpost.com/ ... 12:13:45President Bush calls the conduct of the New York Times "disgraceful." Vice President Cheney objects to the paper having won a Pulitzer Prize. A Republican congressman wants the Times prosecuted. National Review says its press credentials should be yanked. Radio commentator Tammy Bruce likens the paper to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Even by modern standards of media-bashing, the volume of vitriol being heaped upon the editors on Manhattan's West 43rd Street is remarkable -- especially considering that the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal also published accounts Friday of a secret administration program to monitor the financial transactions of terror suspects. So, in its later editions, did The Washington Post... sfgate.com/ ... 11:28:58A U.S. Marine and one-time recruiter who appeared in Michael Moore's acclaimed documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" has died in a roadside bombing in Iraq. Although Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar willingly appeared in a segment of the 2004 film, his father, Raymond, said Tuesday that his son didn't realize that it was for a movie critical of the war. Raymond Plouhar said that all his 30-year-old son ever wanted to do was serve his country... breitbart.com/ ... 11:28:38PHOENIX... A Spanish news agency apologized for a report that described a Republican gubernatorial candidate's proposed work program for illegal immigrants as "concentration camps." The story last week caused an international stir when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted candidate Don Goldwater as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting." EFE Executive Vice President Emillio Sanchez said a freelance writer for the news agency inaccurately described Goldwater's plan... epw.senate.gov/ ... 11:27:28The June 27, 2006 Associated Press (AP) article titled “Scientists OK Gore’s Movie for Accuracy” by Seth Borenstein raises some serious questions about AP’s bias and methodology. AP chose to ignore the scores of scientists who have harshly criticized the science presented in former Vice President Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” In the interest of full disclosure, the AP should release the names of the “more than 100 top climate researchers” they attempted to contact to review “An Inconvenient Truth.” AP should also name all 19 scientists who gave Gore “five stars for accuracy.” AP claims 19 scientists viewed Gore’s movie, but it only quotes five of them in its article. AP should also release the names of the so-called scientific “skeptics” they claim to have contacted... [US Senate majority press release] news.yahoo.com/ ... 11:26:10The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy... [By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer]

Good is Innatenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:09:16The feeling of being watched makes people act more honestly, even if the eyes are not real, a study suggests... They found people put nearly three times as much in when a poster of a pair of eyes was put above the box than when the poster showed flowers...

World Without Bordersnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:07:18A South Korean man believed to have been kidnapped by North Korea in 1978 has been allowed to meet his mother and sister for the first time. The meeting was part of three days of mass reunions for families divided since the Korean War...

Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:10:12An internet cafe offering connections 50 times faster than typical broadband services has opened in Cornwall. Computers at Goonhilly satellite station, on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, are connected to BT's global internet protocol network. That means users can download data at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps). It is thought to be the first time such high speeds have been seen at a UK internet cafe. The service will be free to visitors... "It would be possible to use the cafe's computers to download in less than 15 minutes a file the equivalent size of the DVD version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with its 19,000 illustrations, 629 audio and video clips and 100,000 articles. A standard broadband connection would typically take in excess of five hours..." sci-tech-today.com/ ... 11:03:51PC manufacturers are doing a better job producing machines that won't break down before they become obsolete, but nearly one in five laptops sold today most likely will have a major malfunction during its life expectancy...

Theory of Justicetoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:02:22A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that failing to tell foreign nationals of their right under an international treaty to contact their consulate when arrested should not result in throwing out anything they say to police...

Unclear on the Conceptfoxnews.com/ ... 10:59:54In one of its unsigned editorials titled "Finances of Terror," The Times insisted to Bush that: "Much more is needed, including stricter regulations, the recruitment of specialized investigators and greater cooperation with foreign banking authorities." So the Bush administration goes out and does just what The New York Times says. It institutes a legal program to keep an eye on international banking transactions. And what happens? Five years later The New York Times decides it has to reveal the existence of this program, effectively rendering it useless...

Ummm....today.reuters.co.uk/ ... 10:54:19Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday stopped on a walk through the Kremlin to speak to a young boy before lifting up the boy's shirt and kissing the astonished youth on his stomach... The Russian president then patted the boy on the head and walked off through a crowd of astonished tourists...