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blog-heap o' links
A naked man was
saved from the jaws of a 12-foot (3.6-metre) alligator by Florida deputies
after reports of a man screaming in a lake in the early hours... later
described as critically ill in hospital... unclear why he was in the water in
the early hours, but he had admitted taking crack cocaine... 
Army 2nd Lt. Scott B.
Lundell, 35, of Hurricane, Utah, died Nov. 25 in Oruzgan Province,
Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his unit came in contact with enemy
forces using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades while on patrol
during combat operations. He was assigned to I Corps Artillery, Utah National
Guard, Camp Williams, Utah. defenselink.mil/ ... 21:06:58Marine Lance Cpl.
Michael A. Schwarz, 20, of Carlstadt, N.J., died Nov. 27 from wounds
suffered while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was
assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine
Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 21:06:45Army Staff Sgt.
Daniel M. Morris, 28, of Clinton, Tenn., died Nov. 25 in Al Judiah,
Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near
his vehicle. He was assigned to 1st Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd
Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 21:06:30Army Cpl. Nathan J.
Goodiron, 25, of Mandaree, N.D., died Nov. 23 in Qarabagh, Afghanistan, of
injuries suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small
arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. He was assigned to National Guard's
1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery, Grand Forks, N.D. defenselink.mil/ ... 21:06:13Army Capt. Jason R.
Hamill, 31, of New Haven, Conn.Army 1st Lt. David M. Fraser, 25, of
Texas.Army Pvt.
Joshua C. Burrows, 20, of Bossier City, La.Army
Master Sgt. Robert V. Layton, U.S. Army, of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is to
be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C. Layton was
assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry
Division (making up the 31st Regimental Combat Team). The RCT was engaged
against the Chinese People's Volunteer Forces along the Chosin Reservoir, North
Korea. After intense fighting from Nov. 27-Dec. 1, 1950, the battalion was
forced to abandon its position, leaving its dead behind. Layton was listed as
missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, and was later presumed killed in action.
Between 2002 and 2004, joint U.S. and Democratic People's Republic of North
Korea teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, seven times excavated
a mass burial site associated with the 31st RCT along the eastern shore of the
Chosin Reservoir. The team found human remains and other material evidence,
including Layton's identification tag and part of his billfold containing a
newspaper clipping reporting on a Bronze Star being awarded to "Sgt. Robert
Layton" circa 1944.... Marine Cpl. Nicholas
P. Rapavi, 22, of Springfield, Va., died Nov. 24 from wounds sustained
while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned
to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine
Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.Marine Cpl. Michael C. Ledsome, 24, of Austin,
Texas, died Nov. 25 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province,
Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine
Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.Marine Lance Cpl.
Jeromy D. West, 20, of Aguanga, Calif., died Nov. 25 while conducting
combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary
Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. defenselink.mil/ ... 20:53:39Marine Lance Cpl.
James R. Davenport, 20, of Danville, Ind., died Nov. 22 while conducting
combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.Marine Pvt. Heath D. Warner, 19, of
Canton, Ohio, died Nov. 22 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar
province, Iraq.Army Sgt. 1st Class
James D. Priestap, 39, of Harwood, Mich., died Nov. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq,
of injuries suffered when he came in contact with enemy forces using small arms
fire during checkpoint operations. He was assigned to the 46th Military Police
Company, Kingsford, Mich. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:50:46Army Pvt. Reece D.
Moreno, 19, of Prescott, Ariz., died of injuries suffered in a non-combat
related incident in Balad, Iraq, on Nov. 24. Moreno was assigned to the 92
Engineer Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort
Stewart, Ga. The incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:50:33Army Command Sgt. Maj.
Donovan E. Watts, 46, of Atlanta, Ga., died Nov. 21 in Bayji, Iraq, of
injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV
during combat operations in Siniyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd
Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. 
Ziggy the cat used up at least one of his nine lives after
surviving for 17 days without food on a 2,300 mile voyage that took him from
northern Israel to England... as a stowaway in a 40-foot container... wandered
into a consignment of plastic goods which were then sealed in Afula in
Israel... he emerged, exhausted, starving and dehydrated, at a warehouse in
Whitworth in Lancashire on Friday... not only survived but was able to resist
capture for five hours... background or owners remain a mystery... 
Obesity has become such an issue of political
incorrectness that two brothers appeared in court yesterday charged with
allowing a dog to get too fat... ballooned to more than 11½ stone
(161lb, 73kg), the ideal weight for a large-boned 6ft (1.82m) woman, but not a
retriever... had trouble standing up, and after no more than five paces he had
to sit down again, breathless. He looked, magistrates at Ely, Cambridgeshire,
were told yesterday, more like a seal than a dog... 
A
prehistoric Jaws that terrorised the oceans 400 million years ago had the most
powerful bite of any creature yet known... 
Scientists
at a U.S. weapons laboratory say they have trained bees to sniff out explosives
in a project they say could have far-reaching applications for U.S. homeland
security and the Iraq war... Researchers at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory... trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis... when they smell
explosives... By exposing the insects to the odor of explosives followed by a
sugar water reward... the bees could be carried in hand-held detectors the size
of a shoe box... or even placed in robot bomb disposal equipment... the next
step would be to manufacture the bee boxes and train security guards in their
use... 
Humpback
whales have a type of brain cell seen only in humans, the great apes, and other
cetaceans such as dolphins... might mean such whales are more intelligent than
they have been given credit for, and suggests the basis for complex brains
either evolved more than once, or has gone unused by most species of animals...
a type of cell called a spindle neuron in the cortex, in areas comparable to
where they are seen in humans and great apes... Although the function of
spindle neurons is not well understood, they may be involved in cognition --
learning, remembering and recognizing the world around oneself. Spindle cells
may be affected by Alzheimer's disease and other debilitating brain disorders
such as autism and schizophrenia... 
Yoko Ono has
placed a full-page ad in the New York Times calling upon the world to mark the
anniversary of her husband John Lennon’s death as a day of healing for
those who have suffered violence or war... "I don't know if I am ready yet to
forgive the one who pulled the trigger," notes Ono. "But healing is what is
urgently needed now in the world..." 
A Canadian
police search for marijuana grow operations mushroomed as officers discovered
22 units in a Toronto high rise were being used to cultivate the illegal drug,
four times more than expected... over 6,000 marijuana plants