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Mindful Webworks / Radical Incline / blog-heap o' links
from 2007-mar
Just random links galore. Latest on top.
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SAT 2007-MAR-31
Theory of Sex Educationhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:57:28SPEARSVILLE, La... Two fifth-graders had sex on a classroom floor while two others fondled each other in the classroom, according to a teacher at Spearsville High School... First-year teacher Michael Walker, who teaches fifth- through eighth-grade English... Students at the kindergarten through 12th grade school are unruly, disrespectful and rarely disciplined, Walker said. "They cuss at the teachers and throw things at them, and nothing is done," Walker said. "There was even one student who grabbed a teacher in the butt and nothing was done. The students run the school..." teachers learned Wednesday about the incident, which allegedly occurred during an assembly Tuesday to talk about a 15-year-old student accused of stabbing another student to death over the weekend... [Get government out of the education business! Privatize schooling!]
Sportsmanshipnytimes.com/ ... 22:58:28today’s young cheerleaders, who perform tricks once reserved for trapeze artists, may be in more peril than any female athletes in the country... Of 104 catastrophic injuries sustained by female high school and college athletes from 1982 to 2005 — head and spinal trauma that occasionally led to death — more than half resulted from cheerleading...
Long Underwear Heroes are Deadupi.com/ ... 22:55:21"Spider-Man 3" will open in China the day before its North American premiere... during a peak movie-going season surrounding the weeklong national holiday that kicks off May 1... "It will be almost a day-and-date release because of the time difference, but China will see 'Spider-Man' first..."
Digital Cultureiht.com/ ... 22:53:14A Congressional subcommittee is calling upon Google Inc. to explain why it was "airbrushing history" by replacing post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its popular map portal with images of the region as it existed before the storm destroyed neighborhoods, uprooted trees and dashed bridges... John Hanke, Google's director for maps and satellite imagery, said "a combination of factors including imagery date, resolution, and clarity" go into deciding what imagery to provide. "The latest update from one of our information providers substantially improved the imagery detail of the New Orleans area," Hanke said in a statement in explaining the switch...
But is it Art?abc.net.au/ ... 12:11:53A Manhattan art gallery has cancelled its Easter-season exhibit of a life-size chocolate sculpture of a naked Jesus after an outcry by Catholics. The gallery's artistic director has tendered his resignation to protest the cancellation.
Reasons for Repealpaktribune.com/ ... 22:50:37HempShort-term cannabis use does not seem to adversely affect CD4+ cell counts or viral loads in HIV -infected patients, according to a report published in the August 19th issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine... t-g.com/ ... 22:49:54HempPolice say they found marijuana in a car stopped for speeding Thursday night on North Main Street. A "roach" was detected in an ash tray and seeds with a small amount of marijuana between the car's seats by drug dog... [absurd!] indystar.com/ ... 12:11:29HempIndianapolis metropolitan police seized 75 marijuana plants Thursday and arrested a 28-year-old man they say was growing and selling the drug in an Eastside house... 22 full-grown and 53 immature marijuana plants and other evidence, including a high-powered grow light... found [prohibition victim] sitting in a van near the home where, police said, he was preparing to smoke marijuana "blunt" when he saw the detectives approach his home. kpho.com/ ... 12:10:32HempPHOENIX -- The Border Patrol made a major pot bust south of Tucson... A trash truck was carrying a lot more than garbage -- almost 13,000 pounds of pot... Agents were able to stop more than $10.3 million worth [according to the BULL$#!+ prohibitionist propaganda machine] of marijuana from hitting the streets... policeone.com/ ... 12:09:23HempNOGALES, Ariz. - U.S. Border Patrol agents seized 1,100 pounds of marijuana worth about [absurdly-inflated prohibition-supported] $879,000... 45 miles east of Wellton... Agents responded to an activated ground sensor and discovered vehicle tracks leading to an unoccupied gray 2006 Ford F-250... naplesnews.com/ ... 00:12:08HempInvestigators from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office seized [grossly-inflated prohibition-supported] $202,000 worth of marijuana Thursday morning after receiving a tip that a Golden Gate Estates home was being used as a grow house... 202 marijuana plants that weighed more than 86 pounds and $20,000 worth of equipment used to grow the marijuana... [AND REMEMBER... these are just the ones they catch! Everyone who wants to smoke can still get it! REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEEEEAAALLLLL! STOP THE MADNESS!] heraldsun.com/ ... 00:10:23HempThe Durham Police Department's Interstate Criminal Enforcement (ICE) team recovered 43 pounds of marijuana during two traffic stops this week... stopped a 2007 Chrysler on Interstate 85... found 30 pounds of marijuana, with a [grossly inflated prohibition-supported] street value of approximately $30,000... stopped a Nissan Xterra on I-85... 13 pounds of marijuana, with a [grossly inflated prohibition-supported] street value of approximately $13,000... kfoxtv.com/ ... 00:09:05HempU.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers made the biggest marijuana bust at an El Paso port of entry in years... two large finds at the Bridge of the Americas Thursday... Both involved false compartments in tractor-trailers and they happened about 20-minutes apart... 430 lbs. of marijuana in the rear of a trailer.... discovered 4,700 lbs. of marijuana by drilling into the wall... This week alone, 12,000 lbs. of marijuana have been confiscated. At this time last year, that number was only at 2,500 lbs... [AND REMEMBER! This is just what they're catching, tip of the iceberg....]
FRI 2007-MAR-30
Transport Incidenthosted.ap.org/ ... 23:52:41CHAPEL HILL, N.C... A taxi driver told police he was stiffed on an $8,200 cross-country fare by a female passenger he shuttled from Beverly Hills, Calif. to North Carolina... [I would think he'd ask to see some cash up front... or at least get paid every so often....] 2,600-mile journey... rider's family paid him only $800...
Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:55:59A bank robbery suspect was arrested after leaving a trail of cyberclues, including an online search for "how not to rob a bank..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 23:53:47ATHENS, Ala.... Steve Bauer had had enough after two nights of someone breaking into his business and stealing antiques. So he armed himself with a cola bottle and a .44-caliber Magnum and spent the night at work. Soon, Bauer had his man. And a woman... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:01:16Each Wednesday night for four weeks running, the same man came into the same O'Charley's restaurant and ordered... [two] gin and tonic... and a rib-eye steak... At the end of each meal, the wait staff would present him with his bill for $25.96, and he would excuse himself to use the restroom, then skip out without paying... The man appeared a fifth time Wednesday night, but the restaurant was ready for him... Police arrested the man on preliminary charges of theft and resisting law enforcement...
Sex can be... disturbinghosted.ap.org/ ... 11:36:21CHATTANOOGA, Tenn... A statutory rape case against a 42-year-old charged as a man took on a different look after a jail shower revealed the defendant is actually a woman... she pleaded guilty... charge stems from a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl...
Yuck!wcco.com/ ... 12:17:15A Minneapolis city worker is worried about blood in the sewer system because he said, while he was cleaning the system, blood sprayed out of a hole and got all over him. "We could tell it was blood, I mean large amount of blood..." near a lab that does medical testing and dumps blood into the sewer. It is allowed but the city is now making changes to help protect workers in the future... "Blood just all over my face, in my mouth, I could taste it. It was terrible. I had it in my mouth and I kept spitting and I couldn't get rid of it..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:36:36After four suspects in a jewelry store robbery were arrested, police surmised one of the men may have swallowed a missing two-carat diamond ring worth $30,000. The theory proved correct, police said, when the ring was found Wednesday in the toilet inside Dandre Turk's jail cell... reuters.com/ ... 11:34:16The caterer at a dormitory on Bangladesh's Dhaka University has been fired after students complained they were served dog meat... or fox...
Civilization vs Gangsterismplayfuls.com/ ... 12:10:26At least 13 people -- eight civilians and five soldiers -- have died in the latest fighting in Sri Lanka between the military and separatist Tamil Tigers... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:51:15More than 800 people, many of them of school age, were arrested after clashes in Chile's capital and other parts of the country... violence erupted during an annual left-wing demonstration... In Santiago, 38 police officers were hurt... The demonstration often turns violent but this year tension was increased amid public anger over chaos caused by the capital's new transport system... Roads were blocked in central Santiago, shops damaged, and in some neighbourhoods flaming barricades were erected. Riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in the centre of the capital... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:48:08Fighting between local and foreign militants Friday killed 52 people, bringing to more than 200 the number of dead in recent days in a conflict between Pakistanis and suspected al-Qaida-linked extremists... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:33:3429 March... Ethiopian helicopter gunships have fired at a market near an insurgent stronghold in the Somali capital... hundreds of insurgents armed with rocket launchers and machine guns are battling Ethiopian troops. Ethiopian tanks are also deployed. Crowds dragged several dead bodies in uniform through the streets... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:30:31Mar 29... Five suicide bombers struck Shiite marketplaces in northeast Baghdad and a town north of the capital at nightfall Thursday, killing at least 122 people and wounding more than 150 in one of Iraq's deadliest days in years... At least 178 people were killed or found dead Thursday...
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 23:55:32SnakeA snake and his owners were reunited this week after the missing reptile was found in the glove compartment of a rented car... 4-foot red-tailed boa constrictor... disappeared two weeks ago after his owners left him in the car while they went into an east side video rental store... reuters.com/ ... 11:48:53U.S. officials said on Friday that melamine, a chemical found in fertilizers in Asia and which should not be in pet food in any amounts, has been detected in the wheat gluten used by Canada-based Menu Foods...
Geologynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:47:54A deep scar under the North Sea thought to be the UK's only impact crater is no such thing, claims a leading geologist... surveys reveal nine similar vast chasms in the area... probably the movement of salt rocks at depth, not a one-off meteorite impact...
Staying Healthynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:47:15Exclusively breastfeeding until a baby is six-months old can significantly reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission...
US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 23:59:44The Department of Defense announced today that a detainee at Guantanamo, David Matthew Hicks of Australia, has been convicted of material support to terrorism in the first trial by military commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Hicks, 31, plead guilty earlier this week to one charge of providing material support to terrorism, a non-capital offense that carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. As part of a pretrial agreement, Hick's sentence has been limited to not more than nine months confinement. A military commission panel of eight officers decided a sentence of seven years confinement, although six years and three months will be suspended per the conditions of the agreement. The sentence will be served in Australia as part of a transfer agreement with the United States. As part of the pretrial agreement, Hicks admitted to 35 facts that supported the charge. These facts included training at multiple al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and joining fighters at Kandahar Airport and frontline forces in Konduz after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Hicks will be transferred to the control of the Australian government within 60 days. Hicks affirmed that he has never been illegally treated by anyone while in U.S. custody, from the time of his capture in Afghanistan in December 2001 through his time at Guantanamo.... defenselink.mil/ ... 23:58:24Periodically, the Department of Defense conducts world-wide reviews to determine whether a continued imminent danger area designation is appropriate. Imminent danger pay is compensation paid at the rate of $225 a month to recognize duty in a foreign area in which the member was subject to the threat of physical harm or imminent danger on the basis of civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism, or wartime conditions. The Department of Defense announced today that the following locations will no longer be classified imminent danger pay zones: Angola, Georgia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Macedonia. Hardship duty-location is compensation paid to recognize members in designated hardship duty locations (i.e. areas where quality of life is substantially below that most members in the U.S. generally experience). Factors considered include physical environment, living conditions, and personal security. To ensure members in these areas are compensated appropriately, increases to hardship duty-location (HDP-L) will occur in the following areas: Angola, Georgia, and Sierra Leone are increased from $100 to $150 a month. Macedonia is increased from $0 to $100 a month. All of the above changes are effective Nov. 1, 2007. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:57:38The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of one detainee from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United Kingdom. The transfer is a demonstration of the United States' desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary. It also underscores the processes put in place to assess each individual and make a determination about their detention while hostilities are ongoing -- an unprecedented step in the history of warfare. The Department of Defense has determined -- through its comprehensive review processes -- that approximately 80 detainees at Guantanamo are eligible for transfer or release. Departure of these detainees is subject to ongoing discussions between the United States and other nations.... There are approximately 385 detainees currently at Guantanamo. hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:55:06As it increases its use of robots in war zones, the military will begin using an explosive-sniffing version that will allow soldiers to better detect roadside bombs, which account for more than 70 percent of U.S. casualties in Iraq... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:41:41SEATTLE... A group of soldiers has been busy testing a series of high-tech military concept vehicles outfitted with remote weapons systems, night-vision capabilities and enough strength to sustain the concussion of a roadside bomb. The vehicles, while only in the concept stage, are part of the Army's $60 million program to modernize its aging tactical fleet for the challenges of today's military missions...
Big Whoops Cascadehosted.ap.org/ ... 23:54:36DULUTH, Minn... An imitation volcano at the center of a swimming pool at a hotel and waterpark here... started to belch black smoke and shoot out flames... Thursday, forcing guests to flee into the parking lot in their bare feet and swimsuits...
Theory of Sex Educationhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:51:16Some parents are protesting the "sex" edition of the student newspaper at Winnacunnet High School. Several said they were especially offended by a photograph of two women kissing under the headline, "Why men love women who love women," a quiz question about anal sex, and an interview with an unnamed custodian who said he had found a vibrator in the girls' shower....
But is it Art?today.reuters.com/ ... 12:17:39A life-size sculpture of a naked Jesus made out of chocolate has angered a Roman Catholic organization and forced a Manhattan art gallery to reconsider exhibiting it during Easter week... The sculpture "My Sweet Lord" by Cosimo Cavallaro...
Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!159.54.226.83/ ... 12:14:48HempMarijuana. Legalize marijuana and tax it... Thinking differently about marijuana is hardly new to Oregon... Really, the question is not whether marijuana should be legalized. The question is how it should be legalized... I call upon the Oregon Legislature and Gov. Kulongoski to adopt a new law establishing the Oregon Marijuana Legalization Commission... Oregonians, kill the double standard. Let common sense prevail. Let the people decide. Get government off marijuana smokers’ backs and into their pockets. The potential revenue stream looks nothing less beautiful than amber, no, emerald, waves of leaves. Yeah, I know again what many of you are thinking. I don’t even use the stuff! I use other drugs, you know, the kind whose trade organization flies a state’s lawmakers to Hawaii and then pumps them full of their deadly product to assure it remains socially accepted and lightly taxed... english.vietnamnet.vn/ ... 12:12:50HempMarijuana fields of thousands of square meters have been found in provinces around the northern city of Hanoi... found a 1,000 sq.m marijuana field in Tho Xuan Commune... "Straight beds of marijuana are surrounded by banana, maize trees and only several meters from residential areas. This is the first time I saw criminals who dared to grow marijuana in such a public manner..." According to police, marijuana is planted for years without being detected because local people don’t know what a marijuana tree is. The owner of a marijuana field said that they were medicinal plants because marijuana looks like artemesia, an herbal tree...
US Executive Branchnydailynews.com/ ... 12:11:33Political mastermind Karl Rove can't sing and he has no rhythm, but his new hip-hop video was nonetheless making the rounds yesterday on YouTube.com and other Web sites. Rove got suckered into a musical skit Tuesday night at the Radio and Television Correspondents' dinner in Washington that had him jigging, swaying and flailing like a rap star - though not a very good one...
April Foolishnessreuters.com/ ... 12:02:04As April Fools' Day looms, the curator of the Museum of Hoaxes has a word of caution for those who want to believe the unbelievable -- a good hoax is hard to find...
Music industry is deadreuters.com/ ... 11:57:57Thinking of sending your band's demo CD to a music label in the hope of landing a deal? Don't try SonyBMG, who want to sample your music online instead...
World Energyreuters.com/ ... 11:44:47New technology to make ethanol from crops such as grasses and trees instead of corn could ease price spikes of the grain within a decade...
Oh! The Irony!hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:41:18WASHINGTON... Journalists hoping to learn from a Thursday teleconference the winners of the largest government telecommunications contract in history were accidentally left out of the loop for about 20 minutes due to a phone glitch...
Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:43:44Technology giant, IBM, is soon to launch a multimedia browser to make audio and video content accessible to people with vision impairments... the software was created by a blind employee in Japan... Using the A-Browser, a vision-impaired person can control media content by using predefined shortcut keys, rather than having to look for the control buttons using a mouse... also allows video to be slowed down, speeded up and can accommodate an additional audio description or narration track that is often included to make films and television programmes more comprehensible to blind people... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:48:32A move to provide free internet access to native Indian tribes to help protect the Amazon rainforest from illegal logging has been announced in Brazil... will provide satellite access to 150 isolated regions... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:40:53Buses equipped with wi-fi are being used to deliver web content to remote rural villages in the developing world...
Digital Whoops Cascadehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:38:03EASTON, Pa... A firefighter clicked on a link on the city's Web site and got a recording of a bogus dispatcher saying... "Our offices are closed because everyone is at the doughnut shop..." was accidentally left on the site by former Fire Chief Frank Chisesi, who had been hired to improve the city's Internet offerings...
Marriage Todayhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:29:40Kathleen Tarbell "fell head over my stomach" for her husband Waldo when they met at a dance. They married in 1927, during Calvin Coolidge's presidency. This weekend, they'll celebrate their 80th anniversary. Waldo is 101 and Kathleen will turn 100 in June... The 2007 Guinness Book of World Records lists a Rhode Island couple wed for 83 years as having the longest marriage among living people...
THU 2007-MAR-29
Theory of Sex Educationnews.yahoo.com/ ... 00:37:34The arrest of two women teachers on charges of having sex with their male students has brought cries of lingering racism in one of South Carolina's most conservative counties and evoked some of the South's oldest and deepest-seated racial taboos. Both women are white. The boys — six in all — are black...
It came from the skystuff.co.nz/ ... 01:03:50United States space agency Nasa is convinced flaming objects falling perilously close to an Auckland-bound jet on Tuesday night were not from a Russian satellite...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 13:21:41us-flagArmy Master Sgt. Sean M. Thomas, 33, of Harrisburg, Pa., died March 27 in Baghdad, Iraq, when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using indirect fire during combat operations. Thomas was assigned to the 28th Division Support Command, Harrisburg, Pa. defenselink.mil/ ... 13:21:18us-flagMarine Staff Sgt. Marcus A. Golczynski, 30, of Lewisburg, Tenn., died March 27 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Golczynski was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Nashville, Tenn. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:53:09Army Spc. Sean K. McDonald, 21, of Rosemount, Minn., died Mar 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. McDonald was assigned to the 9th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Wiesbaden, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:52:47Army Sgt. Curtis J. Forshey, 22, of Hollidaysburg, Pa., died Mar. 27 in Homburg, Germany, of a non-combat related illness. Forshey was assigned to the 129th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.
US Militaryassociatedcontent.com/ ... 01:07:07Marine's from all over the country are in a rush to get their tattoos of choice in an effort to beat the Sunday deadline of a new policy that bans any new, extra-large tattoos below the elbow or knee. Their reason: such body art is harmful to the Corps' spit-and-polish image... defenselink.mil/ ... 00:52:27National Guard.... This week, the Marine Corps announced an increase, while the Army, Air Force and Navy had a decrease.... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 79,896, including both units and individual augmentees...
Monarchy is Deadeuronews.net/ ... 13:16:08A Swiss man is starting a 10-year prison sentence in Thailand because he insulted the country's King... He claimed he was drunk at the time. But defacing images of the King is a serious crime in Thailand...
US Congressohionewsnow.com/ ... 13:15:43Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed through a bill Thursday requiring President Bush to start withdrawing troops from "the civil war in Iraq," dealing a rare, sharp rebuke to a wartime commander in chief. In a mostly party line 51-47 vote, the Senate signed off on a bill providing $122 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of passage while setting a nonbinding goal of ending combat operations by March 31, 2008...
Your Government at Playtownhall.com/ ... 13:15:04...When there are 10 things in a bill that you support and five things you don't, pork politics compels your vote according to your stake in the political smorgasbord. A prime example is the vote held recently in Congress on the measure to set a strict timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq. The House of Representatives voted 218-212 in favor of the Democrat-led legislation. I voted against the proposal, because I believe that a publicly-declared timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq will hurt our troops and damage national security. How disheartening that Speaker Pelosi and her House lieutenants included in the bill the worst, rawest form of political bribery - spending on the parochial pet projects of wavering Members of Congress...
Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!hendersonvillenews.com/ ... 13:20:33HempAn Alamance County daycare is closed after police found guns and marijuana inside while children were present... officers immediately smelled marijuana in the home, and after they asked, owner... handed them four ounces of marijuana... Officers also found handguns, rifles and rounds of ammunition, along with iguana, rabbits ahd other animals running through the house... [day care operators severely unclear on the concept! Even repeal won't help this kind of folk.] foxnews.com/ ... 13:18:42HempSome 960 pounds of marijuana was found hidden inside concrete pillars in the back of a tractor-trailer at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales... U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers said they pulled the truck over Wednesday afternoon for secondary inspection due to the nervous behavior [yeah, sure] of the 32-year-old Mexican driver and suspicions about the cargo's destination in Colorado... thetandd.com/ ... 01:10:21HempST. MATTHEWS – Three people were arrested Wednesday after the U.S. Postal Service delivered 50 pounds of marijuana to a Calhoun County residence in what officials are calling a controlled mail delivery. Calhoun County Sheriff Thomas Summers said his deputies, along with U.S. Postal Service agents, intercepted the parcel containing two plastic containers filled with marijuana. "This is yet another major blow that we have dealt the people who choose to deal drugs in our county," Summers said... nbc11.com/ ... 01:09:53HempOAKLAND, Calif. -- Authorities seized a dozen guns, flak jackets and more than $250,000 in marijuana during a raid of an alleged drug dealer's compound guarded by pit bulls and surveillance cameras... [33yo] arrested Tuesday after police said they found 148 marijuana plants growing in his house. Officers also discovered assault rifles, sawed-off shotguns, high powered rifles and other firearms in nearly every room, including a bathroom.... "It was like an armed camp...." nashuatelegraph.com/ ... 01:08:56HempCONCORD – A legislative move that would have allowed the chronically ill to use marijuana for a "medically debilitating" condition came up just nine votes shy of clearing the House of Representatives on Wednesday... sfgate.com/ ... 01:08:30HempDIAMOND BAR, Calif...Authorities on Wednesday seized nearly $10 million worth of marijuana being grown inside a four-bedroom home that was being used as a pot greenhouse... more than 1,800 plants in every part of the house along with lights, an irrigation system and other equipment used to cultivate marijuana...
Disinformation Propaganda & Spindawn.com/ ... 01:03:32Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Wednesday described the presence of US forces in Iraq as an ‘illegitimate foreign occupation’, drawing an immediate rejoinder from the White House that `the US soldiers are in Iraq because the Iraqi nation invited them’...
US Election 2008nysun.com/ ... 01:05:13announcement yesterday by the magazine executive and former presidential candidate, Steve Forbes, that he is endorsing Mayor Giuliani in 2008... We saw it in the interview Mr. Giuliani did this week... "The tax code needs a simplification in addition to lowering your sum taxes..." breitbart.com/ ... 00:44:14Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said the United States needs to do more to prevent a "nuclear 9-11," a threat that he argues has been neglected because the Bush administration has been consumed with Iraq. The New Mexico governor said the United States must lead an effort to secure nuclear materials in Russia and dangerous areas of the world so they can't get into terrorists' hands.....
WED 2007-MAR-28
Transport Incidentlocal6.com/ ... 12:45:52A 16-year-old girl from Hawaii was ordered off a Continental Airlines flight after she began uncontrollably coughing in her seat... was returning to Honolulu from a spring break trip to New York and Washington... [Mother:] "...Why they would do that, especially with two teachers escorting 40 children across the United States, and for the pilot to make that kind of decision..."
Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 12:19:02Insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attacked a local government building in Falluja in western Iraq on Wednesday... 15 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were wounded in the blasts and many more suffered chlorine poisoning... "Numerous Iraqi soldiers and policemen are being treated for symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting that are synonymous with chlorine inhalation..." no Iraqi or U.S. forces were killed... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:18:12Iranian state television has broadcast an interview with captured British female sailor Faye Turney [26] and footage of 14 male captured colleagues... She said her captors were "friendly", "thoughtful" people and she and her colleagues were unharmed. The Foreign Office said the footage was "completely unacceptable". Earlier Iran said it would release Leading Seaman Turney "very soon"... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:17:21Gunmen have killed up to 50 people in a Sunni district in the northwestern Iraqi border town of Talafar. The deaths were in apparent reprisal for bombings in a Shia area on Tuesday, which left about 55 people dead... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:17:09Dozens of young women from a religious school in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, have broken into an alleged brothel and kidnapped the owner... demanding the premises be shut down... The women say they have a right to end immoral activity under Islamic law... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:16:06Hundreds of militants fired rockets, killed one security official and kidnapped a school principal Wednesday in a northwestern town where police had slain two men accused of recruiting students for suicide attacks... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:57:46Up to 600 people may have been killed in last week's clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, Kinshasa... in violence between the army and armed guards loyal to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba... EU diplomats expressed concern at the government's "premature" use of force which they say led to fighting... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:56:05A suicide bomber trying to blend in with street beggars exploded himself near a top intelligence official in a crowded part of the capital early Wednesday, wounding five people... apparently targeted the investigations chief of Afghanistan's intelligence service... reuters.com/ ... 11:54:37A U.S. combat post was attacked by two suicide truck bombs and about 30 gunmen west of Baghdad on Monday, but American soldiers succeeded in repelling them and killed 15... in the Garma area, near Falluja... Eight U.S. soldiers were wounded... soldiers opened fire on two trucks loaded with explosives that tried to smash their way into the compound, detonating both of them...
US Militaryapnews.myway.com/ ... 12:47:05The Naval Academy said Tuesday it is investigating allegations of lewd behavior and heavy drinking by a group of midshipmen on a spring break Caribbean cruise. One passenger wrote that she and other women were groped, and that some of the midshipmen offered alcohol to teenage girls on the cruise...
It came from the skybreitbart.com/ ... 12:41:15Flaming space junk from a Russian satellite narrowly missed hitting a Chilean airliner over the Pacific Ocean... about eight kilometres (four miles) in front of the plane and behind it... apparently fallen into the area 12 hours earlier than the time advised by the Russians...
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 12:27:30After receiving complaints from neighbors, Seattle Animal Shelter staffers found 110 parakeets Tuesday in a cage in the living room of a o ne-bedroom apartment... being kept in unsanitary conditions and were surrendered by their owner, an unidentified man in his 50s who had been collecting them for about five years... will be offered to qualified adopters...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:48:55us-flagArmy Sgt. Jason W. Swiger, 24, of South Portland, Maine
us-flagArmy Cpl. Jason Nunez, 22, of Naranjito, Puerto Rico
us-flagArmy Pfc. Orlando E. Gonzalez, 21, of New Freedom, Pa.
us-flagArmy Pfc. Anthony J. White, 21, of Columbia, S.C.
died Mar. 25 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations. They were assigned to the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Yawnmsnbc.msn.com/ ... 12:38:29Cover of the new Harry Potter book
Look Who's Talking!reuters.com/ ... 12:24:04China has called for a treaty to stop the spread of weapons in outer space...
Your Government at Playhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:23:32The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday fined the federal Energy Department $1.1 million over violations of an agreement to clean up the Hanford nuclear reservation, the nation's most polluted nuclear site...
Print is Deadnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:26:01Spending on UK internet advertising surged in 2006, overtaking newspaper ads for the first time... today.reuters.com/ ... 12:08:04Time Inc. said on Monday it would stop publishing Life, the iconic photography magazine that has been a weekly newspaper insert since 2004... It shut down in 1972, but came back in 1978 before being shut down again in 2000... It is the latest magazine to shut down as more readers desert print publications for online news and photos... the brand name will survive on the Internet... Time will make Life's collection of 10 million images available online... free for personal use...
World Energyreuters.com/ ... 12:04:34There's an old joke about the number of people it takes to change a light bulb. But because the newer energy-efficient kinds contain tiny amounts of mercury, the hard part is getting rid of them when they burn out. Mercury is poisonous, but it's also a necessary part of most compact fluorescent bulbs, the kind that environmentalists and some governments are pushing as a way to cut energy use...
Digital Culturefoxnews.com/ ... 12:44:37...what was supposed to have been a dignified end for a long-suffering single mom instead turned into what friends called a disgustingly public travesty, an example of the current Wild West atmosphere of Internet privacy issues, and a sordid showcase of just how far a beef can go. Just hours before her death, "Cathy Seipp" suddenly seemed to undo decades of hard work with an oddly written letter posted on the Web site, www. cathyseipp.com. In what came off as more bizarre rant than heartfelt apology, her supposed "very last blog entry" called her years of journalism a "shoddy," "despicable" and "irresponsible" career as a "fourth-rate hack." Her political stance? All a mistake... the letter was the work of an infamous character known as "Troll Dolls" who'd positioned himself as the blogger's archenemy and bought the domain name www.cathyseipp.com years earlier (Seipp's real Web site is www.cathyseipp.net). Troll Dolls is really Eliot Stein, a 54-year-old former online talk-show host and stand-up comedian who had taught Maia in a journalism class for a brief period in 2004, and who blamed Maia and Seipp for his departure from the school after only five weeks... today.reuters.com/ ... 12:13:58Satirical newspaper the Onion has entered the world of online video, debuting three Onion News Network clips on its site (http://www.onion.com)... today.reuters.com/ ... 12:12:44Bombarded by spam, e-mail users are eager for tools like a "report fraud" button that would help weed out unwanted messages that litter inboxes, according to a survey by the Email Sender and Provider Coalition released on Tuesday. More than 80 percent of e-mailers already use tools such as "report spam" and the "unsubscribe" button to manage their in-boxes, the survey found... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:02:47Prominent blogger Kathy Sierra has called on the blogosphere to combat the culture of abuse online. It follows a series of death threats which have forced her to cancel a public appearance and suspend her blog... The police are investigating while the blogosphere has launched its own enquiry... Ms Sierra, author of popular blog Creating Passionate Users, began receiving death threats four weeks ago... "I have cancelled all speaking engagements. I am afraid to leave my yard, I will never feel the same. I will never be the same," she said on her blog...
In Self-Defensereuters.com/ ... 11:51:44[Texas] Governor Rick Perry's office said on Tuesday that he had signed a new law that expands Texans' existing right to use deadly force to defend themselves "without retreat" in their homes, cars and workplaces. "The right to defend oneself from an imminent act of harm should not only be clearly defined in Texas law, but is intuitive to human nature," Perry said on his Web site. The new law, which takes affect [they mean "effect"] on September 1, extends an exception to a statute that required a person to retreat in the face of a criminal attack. The exception was in the case of an intruder unlawfully entering a person's home. The law extends a person's right to stand their ground beyond the home to vehicles and workplaces, allowing the reasonable use of deadly force, the governor's office said...
TUE 2007-MAR-27
Civilization vs Gangsterismdefenselink.mil/ ... 15:49:50The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of a dangerous terror suspect to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Abdul Malik, who was captured as a result of our ongoing conflict against Al Qaida, has admitted to being involved in terrorist attacks in East Africa. Malik has admitted to participation in the 2002 Paradise Hotel attack in Mombasa, Kenya, in which an explosive-filled SUV was crashed into the hotel lobby, killing 13 and injuring 80. He also has admitted to involvement in the attempted shootdown of an Israeli Boeing 757 civilian airliner carrying 271 passengers, near Mombasa. The capture of Malik exemplifies the genuine threat that the United States and other countries face throughout the world in the war on terrorism. Due to the significant threat this terror suspect represents, he has been transferred to Guantanamo. The detainees being held at Guantanamo have provided information essential to our ability to understand better how Al Qaeda operates, and thus to prevent future attacks against innocent civilians. As with all the detainees in Guantanamo, Malik will undergo a combatant status review tribunal, where he will be given the opportunity to review an unclassified summary of the evidence against him and contest his enemy combatant status. The International Committee of the Red Cross will be granted access to this detainee. With today's transfer there are approximately 385 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. chron.com/ ... 15:25:40Two nearly simultaneous truck bombs — including one detonated by remote control — ripped through markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens... breitbart.com/ ... 14:55:50Iran said Monday it was questioning 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or unintentional" before deciding what to do with them—the first sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff... ft.com/ ... 14:55:29The British government is preparing to release what it says is evidence demonstrating that its 15 naval personnel detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards last Friday were seized while in Iraqi waters and not inside Iranian territory... reuters.com/ ... 14:54:43A rocket landed in Baghdad's heavily fortified international Green Zone on Monday, rocking the U.S. embassy but causing no casualties
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 15:48:52us-flagMarine Cpl. Henry W. Bogrette, 21, of Richville, N.Y., died March 22 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 6, 2nd Marine Corps Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
us-flagMarine Lance Cpl. Trevor A. Roberts, 21, of Oklahoma City, Okla., died March 24 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Oklahoma City, Okla.ionEmail A Copy
US Militaryestripes.com/ ... 15:26:11The Marine Corps plans to notify 1,800 Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve this month that they could be mobilized for one year, to include an expected seven-month deployment to Iraq...
Science Marches Onnnnnnbreitbart.com/ ... 15:09:55A group of scientists have found a way to bend and direct liquid using only the force of light... used a laser beam to produce a surprisingly long and steady jet of soapy liquid that was narrower than a human hair. When directed at a different angle, it pushed the liquid into a hump-like shape. It is believed to be the first time a laser had been used to generate bulk flow in fluids...
Animal Companionsazcentral.com/ ... 15:14:11OTTAWA - An woman says she became violently ill after eating some of her dog's food... could be related to the tainted pet food... After noticing her dog, Missy, wasn't eating, [she] said she took bites of Iams pet food in order to trick the terrier into thinking it was people food... the mealtime routine continued for about two weeks... breitbart.com/ ... 15:08:55CALVERT, Md.... Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 15:03:17AlligatorA woman with three crocodiles strapped to her waist was stopped at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing after guards noticed that she looked "strangely fat..." "Even though she was veiled and covered, even with so many clothes on there was something strange..." reuters.com/ ... 14:59:57Global drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline faces a court case on Tuesday for misleading advertising after two 14-year-olds found its popular blackcurrant drink Ribena contained almost no vitamin C... advertising claims that "the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges" in 2004...
Theory of Justicebreitbart.com/ ... 15:20:02A Jacksonville, Fla., judge drew his handgun when an accused child molester was attacked by an alleged victim's father in court...
US Election 2008nysunpolitics.com/ ... 15:16:30* Romney's support drops to within the margin of error of not existing (that's 3% support in a poll where the margin of error is 3%).
* Giuliani's support drops 13 percentage points since the last USA Today/Gallup poll, March 2-4 (that's gotta hurt).
* Fred Thompson (not running, by the way) is now the No. 3 in the GOP field, at 12%...
thehill.com/ ... 15:05:26Half of voting-age Americans say they would not vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) if she became the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, according to a Harris Interactive poll released Tuesday...
World of Sexual Culturesreuters.com/ ... 15:01:44....a local English radio station offers a chance to join the mile high club over America.... inviting couples for the next week to go on air and describe how they are growing old in a suitably disgraceful manner. The winning couple... will be flown to Atlanta, Georgia and put onboard a private plane equipped with champagne and a double bed... reuters.com/ ... 14:58:41LONDON... Lap-dancers at one of Britain's biggest strip clubs must pay their own value added tax (VAT) bills, a senior judge ruled on Friday.... said it was the women and not their club... who should foot the bill... backed the chain's argument that the self-employed dancers provide the entertainment on offer, rather than the club....
MON 2007-MAR-26
Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 09:18:09To better tame your blood pressure and cholesterol, you may want to consult a woman doctor... Female physicians do a better job of keeping those risk factors for heart disease in check than do their male counterparts... better than men in treating fellow women with high-blood pressure and cholesterol, and they also are better at helping men control cholesterol...
AmerIndians Todayreuters.com/ ... 09:17:26Chileans are rediscovering the ancient herbal remedies of the Mapuche indigenous tribe, including a sexual energizer touted as a natural Viagra and other inexpensive alternative medicines... The natural remedies got a boost four years ago when the Mapuche community took over the administration of the Maquehue Hospital in Temuco and set up a pharmacy project using regular doctors and Mapuche healers called machis...
Animal Companionsbreitbart.com/ ... 01:45:05The Canadian company that sold tainted pet food blamed for at least 14 pet deaths expanded its product recall Saturday... said some of its pet foods, possibly tainted with a toxin used as rat poison, were still being sold...
Science Marches Onnnnnnmailonsunday.co.uk/ ... 01:44:12Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs. The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells...
US Election 2008hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:14:30HillaryDemocratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Monday to create a universal health care system if elected, saying she "learned a lot" during the failed health care effort of her husband's presidency... [She will later unveil her "5-year-plan" for top-down control of the economy, and her plan to unify all media news under the Prada news agency...]
CD/DVD/etc is Deadhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:11:05Movie pirates are spraying chemicals on their bootleg DVDs to confuse two U.S.-loaned dogs who this month helped Malaysian authorities sniff out nearly 1 million illegal discs...
Unclear on the Conceptdnaindia.com/ ... 01:42:25SYDNEY: Australia’s largest city will be plunged into darkness for an hour on Saturday in an attempt at a world first blackout to raise awareness of global warming, organisers say... The lights will go out in landmark headquarters buildings in Sydney’s central business district, on the iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House, and in tens of thousands of suburban homes...
Modern Family Lifenews.bostonherald.com/ ... 01:37:28Once a proud lesbian, she’s now a pariah in the gay community - arguing that gays don’t have the legal right to adopt children...
Digital Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 01:33:23In just six years, Wikipedia has mushroomed into one of the Web's most astonishing successes, with 1.7 million articles in English alone. The downside is that the free encyclopedia has its share of errors and juvenile vandalism, and sometimes the writing is incomprehensibly arcane. To Wikipedia fans, these blemishes are an unavoidable - and relatively small - price to pay for the dazzling breadth spawned by its "anyone can edit" open design. But Larry Sanger doesn't buy it. To Sanger - who was present at the creation of Wikipedia (in fact, call him a co-founder, although that, like many things within Wikipedia, is disputed) - its charms seem to outweigh its warts simply because it has no competition. And that's precisely what Sanger hopes to change. This week, Sanger takes the wraps off a Wikipedia alternative, Citizendium. His goal is to capture Wikipedia's bustle but this time, avoid the vandalism and inconsistency that are its pitfalls... Unlike Wikipedia, Citizendium's volunteer contributors will be expected to provide their real names. Experts in given fields will be asked to check articles for accuracy. "If there's going to be a free encyclopedia, I'd like there to be a better free encyclopedia..."
SUN 2007-MAR-25
Criminally Stupidwhptv.com/ ... 11:57:19HempPITTSBURGH... Police say a Pittsburgh attorney took marijuana and rolling papers to an inmate he was visiting in the Allegheny County Jail yesterday... [Idiot]
Theory of Sex Educationreuters.com/ ... 11:54:20Four Albanian teachers have been censured for drunken and lewd behavior in a remote village school after they had sexual intercourse behind a classroom blackboard... The Education Ministry sacked two male teachers, replaced the headmaster and put a female teacher on probation after incensed parents in Xhyre, near the Macedonia border, locked the schoolhouse to stop the drinking and fornication in class... "I saw them acting shamefully through the window and I told my friends and parents," fourth-grader... told the Shqip daily. "They saw me and threatened to expel me from school..."
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:18:25us-flagArmy Sgt. Greg N. Riewer, 30, of Frazee, Minn., died Mar. 23 in Habbaniyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive devise detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations. He was assigned to the 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 136th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Bemidji, Minn. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:17:51us-flagArmy Sgt. Adrian J. Lewis, 30, of Mauldin, S.C., died Mar. 21 in Ramadi, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:17:32us-flagArmy Spc. Lance C. Springer II, 23, of Fort Worth, Texas, died Mar. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:17:04us-flagArmy Sgt. Freeman L. Gardner Jr., 26, of Little Rock, Ark., died Mar. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol. He was assigned to the 18th Engineer Company, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 11:15:05dark chocolate improves the function of blood vessels... An upper arm artery's ability to relax and expand to accommodate increased blood flow -- known as flow mediated dilation (FMD) -- was measured using high-frequency ultrasound before and after daily cocoa or placebo consumption. Of the 39 subjects who completed the trial, FMD improved significantly in both cocoa groups -- by 2.4 percent among those who had it without sugar and 1.5 percent among those who had it with sugar. It dropped 0.8 percent in the placebo group...
World Without Borderstheaustralian.news.com.au/ ... 11:48:23THE European Union, which turned 50 yesterday, is the US's pampered godchild. But you won't find people saying that at the EU birthday party that Angela Merkel is throwing in Berlin. Instead, praise will be lavished on the two European luminaries, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, whose vision of reconciliation through united endeavours created the European Steel and Coal Community and led to the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The European Economic Community was unquestionably "made in Europe". But it would have been a sickly infant had it not been for Washington's strategic and financial support for European recovery, and for the ideal of European unity... At the age of 50, the EU should at last be able to shed its childishly defensive attitude to the US. So even should France. For only by pooling the skills and talents of Europeans and Americans will the European Union achieve its true international potential. The Times... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:10:59High-security driver's licenses aimed at letting U.S. citizens return from Canada without a passport could be adopted elsewhere if Washington state's experiment works... "enhanced" driver's licenses... They will look much like conventional driver's licenses, but will be loaded with proof of citizenship and other information that can be easily scanned at the border... Radio frequency ID chips and other advanced security features... At about $40, they also would be less expensive than a $97 passport...
SAT 2007-MAR-24
International Incidentsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:55:18Fifteen Royal Navy personnel captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces had sailed into Iran's waters illegally, its government has insisted.... UK maintains the eight sailors and seven marines had been carrying out routine duties in Iraqi waters... [Iran] accused British sailors of having illegally entered Iranian waters "a number of times"... US Navy spokesman Commander Kevin Aandahl told the BBC: "They were in Iraqi territorial waters. "We have been operating in those waters for years now. We know what the territorial lines are, we respect those territorial lines and we expect the Iranians to respect those territorial lines as well..."
Animal Companionsbreitbart.com/ ... 12:19:01Investigators have reportedly found a rodent-killing chemical sprayed on imported Chinese wheat in the tainted pet food that has killed several animals in the US and Canada....
US Militaryexaminer.com/ ... 12:01:24The top American general in Afghanistan has expelled a U.S. Marine special operations company for the way the men responded to an ambush March 4... now redeploying to Kuwait after just a few weeks in Afghanistan in what was supposed to be a six-month tour...
US Judicial Branchnews.yahoo.com/ ... 12:18:05...Justice Stephen Breyer... held his own with a panel of people who are paid to be funny on National Public Radio's "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me." Being the funniest Supreme Court justice, he said, "is like being one of the shortest tall people..."
Reporting Sciencelongmontfyi.com/ ... 12:13:18Humans don’t cause global warming, a jury of sixth graders at Trail Ridge Middle School concluded Thursday after hearing opposing arguments from their peers... With Earth’s warming accepted as a tenet, pre-teen "lawyers" and "scientists" debated whether humans have caused it...
US Election 2008nytimes.com/ ... 12:12:44Clinton...the SoulCycle spinning studio... spinning... involves riding a bike in standing and seated positions, and at alternating levels of resistance, while music plays... on the Upper West Side in Manhattan last evening, as about 35 women and 5 men paid $2,300 apiece (or per stationary bike) to hear former President Bill Clinton speak... "People tend to wear sexy spandex outfits with midriffs showing," Ms. Krupp said. "But in deference to the president, we wore these [long-sleeved white cotton T-]shirts that said, ‘Exercise Your Vote.’..." [Didn't want Bill to start drooling and lose his concentration?]
Surreality TVthisislondon.co.uk/ ... 12:04:17A [42yo] father-of-two hanged himself live over the internet in Britain's first 'cyber suicide'... after being goaded by dozens of chatroom users from across the world who initially believed he was play acting.... chatroom users immediately contacted the police... had been suffering from depression after being badly injured in a car crash last year...
Digital Culturetoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:58:26A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives... [Heh... introduce them to it properly and see how long that attitude lasts!..]
Keeping Timenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:57:40...when the nation switches to summer time in Sunday's early hours. It will be the last time a British time change will be signalled from Rugby, in Warwickshire, which has been the source of the time signal since 1927. From 31 March, the long-wave signal, used to keep the "pips" heard on BBC radio services accurate, will start to be broadcast from Anthorn, Cumbria... The national time signal is accurate to within 1,000th of a second of Co-ordinated Universal Time. It is controlled by two caesium atomic clocks housed at the antenna in Rugby... These are kept in line by comparing them to GPS signals and a suite of reference clocks at NPL in Surrey... The master clocks at NPL are in turn kept in check by comparing them with measurements from atomic clocks around the world, a task co-ordinated by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), near Paris...
FRI 2007-MAR-23
Criminally Stupidreuters.com/ ... 11:17:43A hapless German thief snapped his credit card in two while prying open a lock, inadvertently leaving behind his name and account details for police... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:13:00MANCHESTER, Conn.... A man landed in hot water after police say he hid a tiny camera in a shampoo bottle to watch two of his female roommates as they took showers... A male roommate, curious why the shampoo wasn't moved for some time, found wires protruding from the back of the bottle, then called police... no evidence he transferred the files to the Internet...
Science Marches Onnnnnnmsnbc.msn.com/ ... 14:39:49Mouse...lab mice... had their vision genetically upgraded and can now see colors normally invisible to rodents... Most mammals, mice included, have dichromatic vision. They see the world in shades of grey and a few other colors because they only have two types of light-sensitive molecules, called "photopigments," in their eyes. A genetic mutation in primates 40 million years ago endowed our early ancestors with a third photopigment sensitive to red light, vastly expanding the color palettes of their eyes... The findings testify to the remarkable flexibility of the mammalian brain, since the mice learned to distinguish colors their brains had never evolved to see...
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 17:53:56DogLA CROSSE, Wis... They were called Wallace and Gromit, a couple of abandoned yellow Labrador retriever siblings... 5 months old... when they were adopted out... to separate homes. Months later, Pat Kucera at Diggity Dog Daycare noticed two yellow Labs named Levi and Cooper would "play like crazy" every time they got the chance during visits to his facility... [Owners] hoping to set up play dates... boston.com/ ... 14:28:13Rat poison was found in the pet food suspected of causing kidney failure that killed at least 16 cats and dogs... aminopterin... not registered for killing rodents in the United States... "Any amount of this product is too much in food..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:16:19A woman said she was so worried about reports of tainted pet food she spent more than $1,000 buying all the product she could find at her local Wal-Mart... She returned Wednesday morning to buy more food and came back that night to buy even more, but Trask said store officials asked her to leave. She said store employees were taking some of the food off the shelves. Trask plans to throw the food away so no animals eat it. She figures she spent more than $1,000... Not all the food Trask bought was included in the recall...
Prehistory - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:06:44The biggest whale fossil ever discovered in Italy... five-million-year-old skeleton, 33ft (10m) in length... dug up in the northern grape-growing area of Tuscany... The vineyards of Castello Banfi... produce the famed Brunello de Montalcino wine, one of Italy's most prized... skeleton appears to be complete...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 18:02:12us-flagArmy Sgt. Nicholas J. Lightner, 29, of Newport, Ore., died Mar. 21 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol March 15 in Baghdad, Iraq. Lightner was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:07:50us-flagArmy Sgt. 1st Class Darrell R. Griffin Jr., 36, of Alhambra, Calif., died Mar. 21 in Balad, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with small arms fire during combat operations. Griffin was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:07:11us-flagArmy Pfc. Joey T. Sams II, 22, of Spartanburg, S.C., died Mar. 21 at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, of injuries suffered when he was pinned between two vehicles. His death is under investigation. Sams was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:05:49us-flagArmy Spc. Curtis E. Glawson Jr., 24, of Daleville, Ala., died Mar. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Glawson was assigned to the 610th Brigade Support Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:04:38us-flagMarine Cpl. Dustin J. Lee, 20, of Quitman, Miss., died March 21 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Lee was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Ga.
It's All in Your Mindnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:04:03[70yo] from Bedford... has a rare sleep disorder which causes him to become violent when he sleep-walks. He has destroyed furniture, attacked his wife and injured himself during the night - but remembers nothing. Doctors at Papworth Hospital have found a drug which has successfully treated [his] "unique" condition... He said: "I am not violent - I do not swear or curse and I can't believe what I do at night..."
World Zookeepinghosted.ap.org/ ... 11:10:38OXNARD, Calif... City officials have purchased 1,000 hand-held boat horns to help residents scare off coyotes... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:54:46DolphinFive of 17 trained dolphins rescued during Hurricane Katrina and taken to a marine mammal center in the Bahamas are pregnant, officials said Thursday. A sixth dolphin gave birth to a stillborn calf earlier this week, the Dolphin Cay center said in a statement. The dolphins were from a Mississippi marine park that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Some of the animals were swept out to the Gulf of Mexico following the storm. After being rescued, the dolphins were moved to a Bahamas' resort early last year. The mammals had lived at Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Miss., doing jumps and other tricks for tourists, before it was severely damaged by Katrina... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:54:10OwlAn extremely rare species of tiny owl has been seen in the wild for the first time... The long-whiskered owlet, one of the world's smallest owls, was discovered in 1976. Researchers have caught a few specimens in nets after dark but had not seen it in nature. It was spotted in the wild in February by researchers monitoring a private conservation area in Peru's northern jungle... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:53:44COLUMBIA, Mo... A Bengal tiger that once worked on the carnival circuit was recovering after undergoing surgery to correct a badly deformed right forelimb... had been abused as a cub.... condition... comparable to rickets.... On Wednesday, three veterinary surgeons at the University of Missouri-Columbia, spent six hours cutting and reorienting his leg bones so that he could eventually walk without limping.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:52:22Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park no longer need Endangered Species Act protection, the federal government said Thursday. The area had an estimated 136 to 312 grizzlies when the species was listed as threatened in 1975, but has more than 500 of the bears today...
Digital Whoops Cascadewashingtonpost.com/ ... 18:01:05Washington Post's Web site... The Democratic presidential candidate had already announced that he was continuing his campaign, despite the recurrence of his wife's cancer, when washingtonpost.com put up a headline... "John Edwards Suspends White House Bid..." For 51 seconds... "It was not an error of journalism.... It was an error of production . . . Nobody knows how it got up because nobody hit the publishing button...."
Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:59:14France's national space agency has opened its UFO files to the public by launching a website which documents sightings over five decades. So many people have already tried to look at the files that it has become impossible to access the site...
Big Whoops Cascadehosted.ap.org/ ... 17:55:10CRANBERRY, Pa... A fingertip found at a bus stop by schoolchildren, touching off a police investigation... was claimed Friday by a man who injured his hand... trying to clear a snowblower...
Reasons for Repealchron.com/ ... 14:37:02HempLOS ANGELES — A minister who was arrested on charges of marijuana possession has sued police for $30 million, contending his civil and religious rights were violated because he heads a church that uses pot during worship.... Rev. Craig X Rubin, 41, is the founder of Temple 420... Rubin has made several appearances on the Showtime series "Weeds" as the owner of a medical marijuana club... ordained in 1990 by the Universal Life Church, which ordains everyone who asks... metnews.com/ ... 14:34:37HempThe fact that a man had a medical marijuana prescription did not negate an officer’s probable cause to search his car after finding that it smelled of marijuana, the First District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday origin.elpasotimes.com/ ... 14:32:33HempU.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers performing anti-terror inspections at the Bridge of the Americas port of entry in El Paso seized 478 pounds of marijuana Thursday night... in the trunk of a vehicle being driven by a 17-year-old female U.S. citizen... [ludicrous prohib-supported] estimated street value of $478,000... stoneycreeknews.com/ ... 14:30:39HempHamilton Police Service's Vice and Drug Unit seized more than $2 million [grossly-inflated prohibition value] in marijuana contained in 12 units in an apartment building in Stoney Creek Wednesday... 2,166 marijuana plants, ranging in height from two to three feet... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:09:55New "landmark" research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like Hempmarijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems...
Digital Businesshosted.ap.org/ ... 17:58:57Neiman Marcus Group Inc. is suing a pair of domain name companies, accusing them of improperly registering more than 40 Internet addresses that resemble the department store chain's trademarks... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:08:22Activist groups sued Viacom Inc. on Thursday, claiming the parent of Comedy Central improperly asked the video-sharing site YouTube to remove a parody of the cable network's "The Colbert Report." Viacom responded by saying it had no records of ever making such a request. Although the video in question contained clips taken from the television show, MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films LLC argued that their use was protected under "fair use" provisions of copyright law.... today.reuters.com/ ... 11:05:20The U.S. Federal Communications Commission took a small step to address a growing debate on whether high-speed Internet providers like AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. should be barred from charging extra fees to guarantee access to the Internet... The concept of broadband providers treating all Internet content in the same way is also known as "net neutrality" and has been the subject of much debate among lawmakers...
THU 2007-MAR-22
Animal Companionsmsnbc.msn.com/ ... 10:11:14DogThe pet food linked to the deaths of 16 animals has shown no signs of contamination, the manufacturer says, and the company cannot explain why the cats and dog developed acute kidney failure and died... tests... performed by an outside company... on 10 cats that died... show only that the cats died of acute kidney failure... Call centers hired by the company received 47,000 calls over the weekend... telegram.com/ ... 10:09:02Cat ExcitedHer daughter... said she called Menu Foods’ hotline yesterday and was rudely told that the Special Kitty brand was not on the company’s list before the call taker hung up. The brand actually is on the list. She said she tried back numerous times during the day and was hung up on. She tried again with a reporter present, and the call taker apologized for the way [she] had been treated earlier and advised her to return unused food for a refund. "That’s poor public relations..."
Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 09:54:27Laser treatments do not permanently remove birthmarks known as port-wine stains... Probably the most famous stain is on the head of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev... improvement was often only temporary, even after repeated treatments... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:48:29UK universities are teaching "gobbledygook" following the explosion in science degrees in complementary medicine, a leading expert says... University College London Professor David Colquhoun urged watchdogs to act, as complementary medicine was not based on scientific evidence... cited the example of homeopathy. He said it had barely changed since the start of the 19th Century and was "more like religion than science"... suggested it would be better if courses in aromatherapy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, reflexology, naturopathy and traditional Chinese medicine were taught as part of a cultural history or sociological course... A spokeswoman for the... Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education... said there were no serious concerns about degrees being offered...
US Election 2008computerworld.co m/ ... 10:02:29The former Internet communications director for the 2006 campaign of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) claims he is "ParkRidge47" -- the creator of the "Hillary 1984" video mashup that has scored over 2 million views on YouTube Inc.'s Web site... Phil de Vellis said he created the remix of the Apple Inc. classic "1984" Macintosh television ad... "I did it. And I'm proud of it..."
CD/DVD/etc is Deadbreitbart.com/ ... 10:18:15US sales of music compact discs plummeted 20 percent in the first three months of the year as downloading of songs continued to knock the underpinnings from record studio revenues... reuters.com/ ... 09:52:31DogMalaysian movie pirates have put a bounty on the heads of two sniffer dogs who busted a fake DVD ring with a seizure of discs worth about $3 million...
Free Expressionhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:51:01A federal judge on Thursday dealt another blow to government efforts to control Internet pornography, striking down a 1998 U.S. law that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access "harmful" material. In the ruling, the judge said parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive means that do not limit the rights of others to free speech. "Perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection," wrote Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr.... mindfulwebworks.com/ ... 09:39:26Flashback: Cartoon Crisis 2006 -- Editorial cartoon reactions to the controversial cartoons depicting Mohammed -- and related issues -- critiqued & rated... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:37:19A French court cleared a satirical weekly newspaper Thursday in a case brought by Muslims who were angered by its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad...
WED 2007-MAR-21
Transport Incidenthosted.ap.org/ ... 22:08:50NEWPORT NEWS, Va....'s $385,000, state-of-the-art fire boat sank Wednesday, still tied up at a dock and without ever being put to use...
Prison Suckshosted.ap.org/ ... 21:59:47LAS VEGAS... A norovirus outbreak sickened at least 150 inmates and seven guards at the county jail
Civilization vs Gangsterismcbsnews.com/ ... 13:21:09After warning that the threat of deadly EFPs, or Explosively Formed Penetrators, was growing at an alarming rate, the U.S. military now says there's been a "dramatic" decrease in the use of the powerful roadside bombs... since December... According to... Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman... the reasons for the marked drop in EFP incidents could include the detention of three Iranians in Baghdad in December. One of the men was believed to be a high-level Operations Officer with the Quds Force of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard. Garver says the men were suspected of involvement with weapons smuggling... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:49:15The number of police deaths in Mexico in incidents involving organised crime has jumped 50% this year... At least 61 police officers have been killed in Mexico since the year began... Only last Sunday in Monterrey, the main city in the state, three police officers were shot dead after stopping a car for a routine check... Officials believe all 61 policemen died in incidents involving organised crime or drug-related violence... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:48:22Eight al-Qaeda-linked militants have been killed in fierce clashes with US and Iraqi forces near the restive city of Falluja... Five Iraqi policemen were also wounded in the battles, which went on for several hours... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:46:59At least 66 people have been killed in three days of clashes between local and foreign militants in Pakistan... at least 49 of those killed were foreign fighters with suspected al-Qaeda links. Local sources say troops have been sent in. The military denies this... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:46:30U.S. troops killed five insurgents and destroyed a bomb-making factory Wednesday north of Baghdad, and dozens more were detained after fierce clashes in a Sunni-dominated province west of the capital...
Sex can be... disturbinghosted.ap.org/ ... 22:09:41SUPERIOR, Wis... A 20-year-old man received probation after he was convicted of having sexual contact with a dead deer... was found guilty in April 2005 of felony mistreatment of an animal after he killed a horse with the intention of having sex with it... reuters.com/ ... 12:59:36South Korean carmakers plan to cut down on the number of scantily clad models at the Seoul Motor Show hoping people will look at the cars instead... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:23:52A Phoenix television station fired an employee suspected of inserting pornography into a broadcast of a news show featuring former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw...
It's All in Your Mindreuters.com/ ... 22:06:32Scientists said on Wednesday a study involving... people... with damage in a part of the brain's frontal lobe... has produced unique insights into the brain mechanics of moral decision making and showed that in some key situations emotions play a fundamental role in moral judgments...
Staying Healthynews.yahoo.com/ ... 13:22:50The West Branch schools superintendent said officials still do not know what caused students at Beloit [Wisconsin] Elementary School to break out in a rash... The school, along with West Branch Middle School, was closed Tuesday because the mysterious rash is still showing up on students... Thirty-five students and two adults were treated at nearby hospitals with symptoms of a red, itchy rash... reuters.com/ ... 12:59:05People diagnosed with clogged arteries have a one-in-seven chance of dying, having a heart attack or stroke, or of being admitted to the hospital within a year, even if they feel fine...
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 22:13:55BunnyCat ExcitedSanta Cruz County authorities have confiscated more than two dozen animals from a couple who were hoarding them in their motel room they shared with two children... 20 domestic birds, a cat and a rabbit... one dead bird in a cage and three others stuffed in the freezer... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:47:57Cat ExcitedA US woman who claims her cat died after eating tainted pet food is suing the manufacturer, Menu Foods... Chicago resident Dawn Majerczyk claims the company knew that there was a problem earlier and failed to act. Her nine-year-old cat Phoenix suffered kidney failure last week after, she says, eating just one of the pouches... Special Kitty Select Cuts... reportedly lost 6lb (2.7kg) in the four days and was unable to walk and almost blind by the time he was put down...
Dinosaurs -- still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 22:07:17...scientists have dismantled a 75-foot-long sauropod dinosaur that roamed Wyoming 150 million years ago and will rebuild it to reflect the latest paleontological research findings. The fossil display of the plant-eating Apatosaurus that had dominated the University of Wyoming Geological Museum in Laramie for about 45 years will be worked on for a year and then returned to the museum in 2008... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:38:50The fossil remains of small dinosaurs that burrowed into the ground have been found by scientists in Montana... 95-million-year-old... adult and two juveniles... first definitive evidence that some dinosaurs dug dens and cared for their young in such structures... have not been seen by palaeontologists before and have been given the scientific name Oryctodromeus cubicularis, meaning "digging runner of the lair"... estimated width of the animal fits neatly with the size of the tube it was digging...
US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 11:29:13National Guard... This week, the Navy announced an increase, while the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps had a decrease. The Coast Guard number remained the same. The net collective result is 1,034 fewer reservists mobilized than last week.... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 80,373, including both units and individual augmentees....
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:15:18us-flagArmy Sgt. Wayne R. Cornell, 26, of Holstein, Neb.
us-flagArmy Pfc. Stephen K. Richardson, 22, of Bridgeport, Conn.
died Mar. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, F ort Riley, Kansas.
defenselink.mil/ ... 22:14:48us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Gina R. Sparks, 35, of Drury, Mo., died Oct. 4, 2004, at Fort Polk, La., from a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 115th Field Hospital, Warrior Brigade, Fort Polk. The incident was under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:14:31us-flagArmy Lt. Col. Peter E. Winston, 56, of Plant City, Fla., died Nov. 13, 2006, in Kaiserslautern, Germany, from a non-combat related incident while in Iraq. He was assigned to the 143rd Sustainment Command, Orlando, Fla. The incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:28:35us-flagArmy Sgt. John E. Allen, 25, of Palmdale, Calif.
us-flagArmy Sgt. Ed Santini, 25, of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico
us-flagArmy Pfc. William N. Davis, 26, of Adrian, Mich.
us-flagArmy Pfc. John F. Landry Jr., 20, of Lowell, Mass.
died Mar. 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Texas.
defenselink.mil/ ... 11:27:42us-flagArmy Spc. Marieo Guerrero, 30, of Fort Worth, Texas, died Mar. 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Guerrero was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:27:22us-flagArmy Sgt. Ryan P. Green, 24, of Woodlands, Texas, died Mar. 18 in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol Mar. 15 in Baghdad, Iraq. Green was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Cascading Weirdnesshosted.ap.org/ ... 22:12:14McMINNVILLE, Ore... a transient, broke into the rear of... Evergreen Aviation Museum this week... smashed the glass panel of a display case... removed the coat, hat and pants from a World War II uniform and put them on... attacked two employees... punched [one] several times and bit [the other]... also accused of pulling a fire alarm and knocking a television set to the floor... second run-in with the law in less than 24 hours...
US Election 2008today.reuters.com/ ... 22:07:50a video war has erupted between supporters of Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, their opening skirmish on the new campaign battleground -- the Internet. The supporters have posted their own political versions spoofing a 1984 commercial in which Apple Computer introduced its Macintosh personal computer by attacking larger rival IBM as totalitarian...
Reporting Sciencesignonsandiego.com/ ... 13:18:14Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Wednesday that fighting global warming has turned into a a 'religion' that replaced the ideology of communism and threatens to clip basic freedoms... breitbart.com/ ... 13:17:56Al Gore... spoke out on his signature issue Wednesday, warning of a "true planetary emergency" if Congress fails to act on global warming... reuters.com/ ... 12:54:34Some of the world's leading meteorologists said on Wednesday they had no doubt that humans were responsible for global warming... Asked if natural warming cycles, as the earth has seen in the past, could be behind climate change, the director general of the Spanish National Meteorological Institute was adamant they were not... He also dismissed as over simple other theories some scientists say undermine the idea humans are to blame, such as changes in solar activity, or the theory that carbon dioxide increases are lagging behind temperature rises. "This is too complex a phenomenon to use one single scientific argument to knock it down..."
New Year 2007en.wikipedia.org/ ... 12:52:20Norouz... As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday, it is also a holy day for adherents of Sufism as well as Bahá'í Faith... Tradition dates Noruz as far back as 15,000 years ago -- before the end of the last ice age... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:51:05Kurds are celebrating the festival of Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year, which marks the arrival of Spring. Although festivities were peaceful in northern Iraq, crowds clashed with police in south-eastern Turkey...
Transport Lawhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:34:02The new Dutch transportation minister ordered a safety review of Segways and said he hoped to eventually lift a ban on the self-balancing scooters in public places...
Digital Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 12:33:38...Many owners of Internet addresses face this quandary: Provide your real contact information when you register a domain name and subject yourself to junk or harassment. Or enter fake data and risk losing it outright. Help may be on the way as a key task force last week endorsed a proposal that would give more privacy options to small businesses, individuals with personal Web sites and other domain name owners.... At issue is a publicly available database known as Whois.... Hearings on the changes are expected next week in Lisbon, Portugal, before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.... Resolution, however, could take several more months or even years.... Under the endorsed proposal - some six years in the making - domain name registrants would be able to list third-party contact information in place of their own.... The requirements for domain name owners to provide such details... contradict, in some cases, European privacy laws that are stricter than those in the United States.... Over the past few years, some companies have been offering proxy services, for a fee, letting domain name owners list the proxy rather than themselves as the contact.... some stakeholders including businesses and lawyers have pushed an alternative known as special circumstances. Domain name holders would have to make personal contact details available, as they do today, unless they can justify a special circumstance, such as running a shelter for battered women.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:30:08When a California woman recently gave birth to a healthy baby just two days after learning she was pregnant, the sudden change to her life was challenging enough. What April Branum definitely didn't need was a deluge of nasty Internet comments. Postings on message boards made cracks about Branum's weight (about 400 pounds - one reason she says didn't realize sooner she was pregnant). They also analyzed her housekeeping ability, based on a photo of her home. And they called her names.... "The thing that bothered me most was, people assumed because I am overweight, I'm going to be a bad mom...." yet another example of how the Internet - and the anonymity it affords - has given a public stage to people's basest thoughts, ones that in earlier eras likely never would have traveled past the watercooler, the kitchen table or the next barstool... There are examples everywhere of anonymous comments that cause harm. On even the most innocuous sites - a parenting message board, for example - anonymity often leads to the type of response that would hardly be likely if names were attached.... Yahoo News took down its message boards completely in December, with the goal of finding a new system that doesn't let a small group of vocal users dominate the discourse.... One entrepreneur is trying to help people recover from such attacks with a company he started last year: ReputationDefender. "It takes one person 20 minutes to destroy your reputation.... It can take you 200 hours to try to clean it up...."
Reasons for Repealnews-bulletin.com/ ... 13:14:18HempMeadow Lake, NM... An indoor marijuana grow was discovered last week in Meadow Lake, according to State Police, who estimate that it could have been sold on the streets for [government prohibition-supported black market inflated price] more than $300,000... toledoblade.com/ ... 13:10:59HempSixty-five marijuana plants with an estimated [grossly inflated prohibition-supported] street value of $104,000 were seized from a North Toledo residence after the homeowner was arrested in Wood County on domestic violence and drug-related offenses... abclocal.go.com/ ... 13:10:02HempThe Georgia House has overwhelmingly passed a measure banning the sale of marijuana-flavored candies to minors... says the candies... promote drug use... Some critics fear the Legislature is overstepping its bounds by attempting to legislate taste... measure now moves to the state Senate... oregonlive.com/ ... 13:09:11HempMultnomah County, Oregon... Parole and Probation Supervisor Shadman Afzal invited his co-workers to his home to celebrate the holidays last December, but when the host pulled out a bong and began smoking marijuana, the party was over... says he was emotionally distraught over the disease [Parkinson's] and his future ability to support his family... His resignation was effective Monday, and prosecutors announced this week that he won't face criminal charges... [Hmmm....] hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:23:23TUCSON, Ariz... An 82-year-old man who was caught trying to smuggle 170 pounds of cocaine into the country from Mexico has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison... caught trying to drive his car through the Nogales border crossing in August... admitted to agents that he was being paid to deliver the drugs...
TUE 2007-MAR-20
Iranhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:32:33Russia is pulling out its experts from the Iranian nuclear reactor site they were helping build... reflected a growing rift between Iran and Russia that could lead to harsher U.N. sanctions on the Islamic republic for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment...
Iraqnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:31:22The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says there has been an "abject denial" around the world of the humanitarian impact of invading Iraq. The UN faces an enormous task in helping countries such as Jordan and Syria cope with the huge influx of Iraqi refugees... Syria says it is home to 1.2m Iraqi refugees, with up to 800,000 in Jordan...
Animal Companionscbsnews.com/ ... 12:00:30Cat ExcitedAs many as one in six animals died in tests of suspect dog and cat food by the manufacturer last month after complaints the products were poisoning pets around the country, the government said Monday. "That's a huge number, considering when you feed pet food no animal should die..." A federal investigation is focusing on wheat gluten as the likely source of contamination... Wheat gluten, a protein source, is commonly used as filler... Menu Foods told the FDA it received the first complaints of kidney failure and deaths among cats and dogs from pet owners on Feb. 20. It began new tests on Feb. 27... The company has reported just 10 deaths, of nine cats and a single dog. "We are still trying to find out what the true picture is out there of animals. We're talking about 1 percent of the pet food (supply) and it's really just impossible to extrapolate at this point..."
Staying Healthytoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:29:13Just 15 minutes a day of kicking around a ball or swimming might be enough to keep children from becoming obese...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:16:34us-flagArmy Sgt. 1st Class John S. Stephens, 41, of San Antonio, Texas, died March 15 in Tikrit, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his patrol came under attack during combat operations. Stephens was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas.
us-flagArmy Sgt. Nimo W. Tauala, 29, of Honolulu, Hawaii, died March 17 in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, of a non-combat related injury. His death is under investigation. Tauala was assigned to the 209th Aviation Support Battalion, Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Just Random Chanceplayfuls.com/ ... 11:57:35A New Jersey couple says they will take early retirement after winning half of a record-breaking $390 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot... largest jackpot in the history of North American lotteries... The other half of the record jackpot was claimed by a Georgia man earlier this month...
Alert Citizenrytoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:50:27An 81-year-old Dutchman who saw a shoplifter flee a supermarket in The Hague chased after the thief on his bike and crashed into the man to stop him... cyclist injured his hand and shin in the fall and had to undergo treatment... Cycling is very popular in the Netherlands. The famously flat country has more bikes than people with each resident riding an average of more than 900 km (560 miles) a year...
Transport Pre-Automationtoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:49:20Driving my battered old Volkswagen Santana on the streets of Beijing, I made the mistake of stopping at a red light. It turned out I was doing the right thing. I know that, because I later checked the Chinese highway code. It was a red light on a left turn. Not one of those red lights where you don't actually have to stop. That did not prevent the drivers lined up behind me from leaning on their horns and making all sorts of gesticulations suggesting that perhaps I should get out of their way... That is the problem with driving in China... About 1,100 new cars and other vehicles hit the streets of Beijing every day. There are rules, but many, many people don't obey them...
CD/DVD/etc is Deadtoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:47:29A whiff of plastic led sniffer dogs in Malaysia to a cache of about one million pirated game and movie discs with a street value of roughly $3 million, film industry officials said on Tuesday. The fake DVDs were hidden along with replicating machines and other tools on four floors of an office building in the southern city of Johor Baru, neighboring Singapore...
Digital Businesstoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:48:04Nokia and up to three other potential bidders are interested in buying Palm Inc., which could be sold for some $2 billion as early as this week... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:47:01The market for massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) in the West is now worth more than $1bn (£511m) Games such as World of Warcraft and worlds like Habbo Hotel are fast becoming "significant platforms" in the converged media world...
Big Whoops Cascadehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:45:01...imagine wiping out a disk drive containing information for an account worth $38 billion. That's what happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account - one of Alaska residents' biggest perks - and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well. There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable... Nine months worth of applicant information for the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund was gone: some 800,000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier, the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter, and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence. And the only backup was the paperwork itself - stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes. "We had to bring that paper back to the scanning room, and send it through again, and quality control it, and then you have to have a way to link that paper to that person's file..."
Rebuildingtoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:30:17Striking a subdued tone on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, President George W. Bush pleaded for patience on Monday and warned skeptical Americans of dire consequences of a swift troop withdrawal... "Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult but it can be won... It will be won if we have the courage and resolve to see it through..."
Reasons for Repealabclocal.go.com/ ... 12:04:49HempMarch 20, 2007 (MACHESNEY PARK, Ill.) - Authorities from the U-S Drug Enforcement Administration say they seized [and absurdly prohibition-inflated] 500-thousand dollars worth of marijuana packaged in florist boxes at a northern Illinois home.... more than 300 pounds of marijuana and ten-thousand dollars in cash... nbc-2.com/ ... 12:03:48HempPORT CHARLOTTE: A traffic stop early Tuesday morning led Charlotte County sheriff's deputies to marijuana and morphine pills... he was caught doing 55 mph in a 35 mph zone... found more than 8 pounds of marijuana and 72 morphine pills.... deputy who stopped Wilkinson said he could smell the marijuana coming from Wilkinson's station wagon... also found a gym bag in the station wagon with 10 plastic bags of marijuana and two pill bottles with morphine inside.... was carrying $1,403 in cash in his front shorts pocket... [Another person partaking too much of his own product?] fox21.com/ ... 12:02:08HempShould Georgia businesses be allowed to sell candy that's flavored like marijuana to minors? The House will take up the question today when lawmakers consider a measure that would ban retailers from selling lollipops, gumdrops or other candy flavored to taste like the drug... [PLANT!] tompaine.com/ ... 12:01:42HempNew Mexico's state legislature assured that New Mexico will become the 12th state to allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana without fear of arrest. It also proved that the medical marijuana movement—based on science, compassion and plain common sense—is now unstoppable... --Rob Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C... brandonsun.com/ ... 12:01:17HempA 27-year-old Toronto woman is facing prosecution in the United States following the seizure of 10 kilograms of marijuana at the Canada-U.S. border... found 39 vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana in the spare tire... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:21:52Panamanian police seized a boat off the nation's Pacific coast carrying 21.4 tons of cocaine in one of the biggest maritime cocaine busts anywhere on record.... arrested 12 men on the boat, including Mexicans and Panamanians, and another two suspects in Panama City.... boat... was sailing under a Panamanian flag.... [And remember... this is just what they caught; consider it the tip of the iceberg....]
US Election 2008miamiherald.com/ ... 00:20:45People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami. But when he mistakenly associated Fidel Castro's trademark speech-ending slogan -- Patria o muerte, venceremos! -- with a free Cuba, listeners didn't laugh. They winced... Castro has closed his speeches with the phrase -- in English, "Fatherland or death, we shall overcome" -- for decades. "Clearly, that's something he was ill-advised on or didn't do his homework on..." latimes.com/ ... 00:19:58...it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro." The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.-wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro . He's there to assuage white "guilt"... this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic..." The senator's famously stem-winding stump speeches have been drawing huge crowds to hear him talk of uniting rather than dividing.... Speaking as an African American whose last name has led to his racial "credentials" being challenged — often several times a day — I know how pesky this sort of thing can be.... Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him...
Your Government at Playworldnetdaily.com/ ... 00:13:06A Chicago radio host who tried to trademark the phrase "It's an Obamanation" in connection with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama has not only been turned down for being "offensive," the federal government mysteriously sent him "disgusting" sexual photos and text as part of its rejection... "...a pretty disgusting, unorthodox sexual device...."
MON 2007-MAR-19
Yuck!hosted.ap.org/ ... 22:41:40MONUMENT, Colo... A dead mouse that an eighth-grader found in a bag of potato chips probably chewed its way in after the snack was delivered to the school, a company spokeswoman said Monday....
Transport Incidenthosted.ap.org/ ... 22:07:56A first-class passenger on a flight from New Delhi to London awoke to find the corpse of a woman who had died in the economy cabin being placed in a seat next to him.... "...The stewards just plonked the body down without saying a thing..." British Airways said in a statement that about 10 passengers die each year in flight....
Animal Companionsnews.yahoo.com/ ... 23:58:38DogWheat gluten was the likely cause of contamination that prompted a recall last Friday of more than 50 "cuts-and-gravy"-style labels of wet pet food made by Canada-based Menu Foods... 1 percent of all the pet food sold in the United States... timing of the complaints coincided with the use of an ingredient from a new supplier... "We're trying to find out whether or not that company may have supplied other companies..." Cat ExcitedAccording to the FDA, Menu Foods received the first of six complaints about kidney failure in pets on February 20. Seven days later, the company began an internal taste test of its food. A cat in the study exhibited signs of kidney failure and died on March 2. The FDA said at least seven, and perhaps all, of the 10 deaths, were linked to this tasting trial.... Menu Foods estimates the recall will cost it between C$30 million ($25.6 million) and C$40 million ($34 million)...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 23:45:21us-flagArmy Sgt. 1st Class Christopher R. Brevard, 31, of Phoenix, died Mar. 16 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit. Brevard was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:45:01us-flagArmy Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin L. Sebban, 29, of Chattanooga, Tenn., died Mar. 17 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit. Sebban was assigned to the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:44:36us-flagArmy Pfc. Anthony A. Kaiser, 27, of Narrowsburg, N.Y., died Mar. 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire. Kaiser was assigned to the 504th Military Police Battalion, 42nd Military Police Brigade, Fort Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:44:06us-flag Marine Lance Cpl. Harry H. Timberman, 20, of Minong, Wis., died March 17 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Timberman was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
It's All in Your Mindhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:25:47Researchers are studying a pervasive psychological phenomenon in which oh man we've got to finish doing the taxes this weekend ... C'mon, admit it. Your train of thought has derailed like that many times. It's just mind-wandering. We all do it, and surprisingly often, whether we're struggling to avoid it or not...
Reporting Sciencedailymail.co.uk/ ... 23:59:58Leading climate change experts have thrown their weight behind two scientists who hit out at the "Hollywoodisation" of global warming. Professors Paul Hardaker and Chris Collier, both Royal Meteorological Society figures, criticised fellow scientists they accuse of "overplaying" the message...
US Election 2008sfgate.com/ ... 22:55:11ust who is ParkRidge47 – the mystery figure who introduced an Internet political attack ad that has stirred the press and political junkies tuned into the early presidential campaign – and what does the videomaker have against Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton?.. The video portrays "Hillary 1984" as an ominous Big Brother figure while portraying her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, as the symbol of a new generation. Obama's campaign maintains it had nothing to do with the video...
Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!charlotte.com/ ... 23:00:10HempA student... Middle School... accused of selling brownies laced with marijuana... sunstar.com.ph/ ... 22:59:35A TOTAL of 100,000 fully-grown marijuana plants valued at P21.25 million were eradicated by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) policemen at Mt. Kasablotan in Barangay Loccong, Tinglayan, Kalinga over the weekend... failed to arrest any marijuana cultivator. Enmodias said the eradication operation is part of "Implan Green Gold-Cordillera," a massive eradication campaign in identified marijuana cultivation sites in the region... The Pdea official also had an informal audience with Tinglayan Mayor Johnny Maymaya, who informed him that the town is developing an alternative livelihood for farmers by urging them to cultivate Arabica coffee plants.... [If you want to completely eliminate the huge profit motive for this, then REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEEEEEEAAAALLLLLL!] 14wfie.com/ ... 22:58:01HempCook County police say an investigation that began with a marijuana seizure worth $2 million has led to another pot bust worth [an absolutely absurdly prohibition-inflated] $6 million... [It's just a stupid herb!!!] 95 pounds of marijuana, 300 hits of LSD and five grams of heroin. They say the pot was hydroponic marijuana, a more potent and expensive type of the drug... [ONLY BECAUSE OF PROHIBITION!] newsday.com/ ... 22:56:20HempBUFFALO, N.Y... Border agents found 22 pounds of marijuana concealed in the spare tire of a car Monday and arrested the Canadian driver... taipeitimes.com/ ... 22:55:56HempAn African-American man who was given a life sentence when he tested positive for marijuana in violation of his parole has been freed after serving 17 years in prison... [One small victory for humanity over stupid prohibitionist insanity] The governor granted Tyrone Brown a pardon last week, but he must live with his mother, see a parole officer and undergo counselling and treatment... pr-inside.com/ ... 22:53:08HempThe Florida judge who heard evidence in the ANNA NICOLE SMITH DNA paternity test has been arrested on marijuana charges... [Oh, the irony...]
Headline of the Dayktva.com/ ... 22:44:44Runner-up for headline of the day...
Bong Hits in court...
hosted.ap.org/ ... 22:36:10Study Casts Doubt on Duct Tape Wart Cure... [Is this news? I thought I read this months ago!]
Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:34:11a new generation of IT workers has grown up, people who turn a laptop, a wireless connection and a café into an office and work wherever they happen to be... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:33:15News of a website for leakers and whistleblowers worries Bill Thompson. Wikis, or user-editable websites, are one of the most interesting and potentially empowering technologies available on today's internet..." Wikileaks, seems to represent a lot that is bad about having web pages that just anyone can edit... Wikileaks calls itself "an uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis" and claims to combine "the protection and anonymity of cutting-edge cryptographic technologies with the transparency and simplicity of a wiki interface..."
Lead line of the daytoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:31:17Dr. Carla Pugh seems an unlikely patron of porn shops...
Disinformation Propaganda & Spinfoxnews.com/ ... 22:23:15Anti-war protests may have lost some of their sting, say others, because like the anti-globalization protests of recent years, radical elements representing myriad far-left causes that don't appeal to "mainstream" Americans seem to have hijacked many of the demonstrations. One of the major organizers, ANSWER, which stands for "Act Now to Stop War & End Racism," has links to the socialist Workers World Party, which has expressed support for the Communist governments in China and Cuba. ANSWER's major public supporters include former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, now a defense attorney for deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "They're crazy," Rocco DiPippo, a conservative columnist who edits The Autonomist Web blog, said of today's protesters. "Decent people look at that and they say they don't want to be a part of it..." today.reuters.com/ ... 22:15:51Police arrested more than 100 Iraq war protesters in San Francisco and New York City on Monday as the nation marked the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Uniformed police outnumbered the fewer than 100 protesters outside the stock exchange building at the corner of Broad and Wall streets in New York's historic financial district. "Stop the money, stop the war," demonstrators chanted as police hauled away limp-bodied protesters...
Free Expressiontoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:15:23In its first major student free-speech rights case in almost 20 years, U.S. Supreme Court justices struggled on Monday with how far schools can go in censoring students. In a case involving a Juneau, Alaska, high school student suspended for unfurling a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," several justices seemed wary about giving a principal too much authority at the expense of the student's right to express his views. "It's political speech, it seems to me. I don't see what it disrupts," a skeptical Justice David Souter said... "And no one was smoking pot in that crowd," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said...
Order & Disordertoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:13:37"A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder..." a new book that argues neatness is overrated, costs money, wastes time and quashes creativity...
Rebuildingtoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:12:20Four in five Iraqis have little or no confidence in U.S.-led forces and most think their presence is making security worse, but despite that only about a third want them to leave now, a poll showed on Monday... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:12:05Iraqis are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the future of their country and unhappy about their lives, a survey suggests...
Pure Mathematicsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:04:46An international team of mathematicians has detailed a vast complex numerical "structure" which was invented more than a century ago. Mapping the 248-dimensional structure, called E8, took four years of work and produced more data than the Human Genome Project... E8 is a "Lie group", a means of describing symmetrical objects. The team said their findings may assist fields of physics which use more than four dimensions, such as string theory... Lie groups were invented by the 19th Century Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie (pronounced "Lee")...
SUN 2007-MAR-18
Civilization vs Gangsterismapnews.myway.com/ ... 10:55:20The U.S. military on Sunday announced the deaths of seven more troops in Iraq, including four killed by a roadside bomb while patrolling western Baghdad... A U.S. official, meanwhile, blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for chlorine bomb attacks that struck villagers in Anbar province earlier this week but said tight Iraqi security measures prevented a higher number of casualties... The attacks killed at least two people and sickened 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops... at least one of the attackers detonated his explosives after he was unable to get past an Iraqi police checkpoint in Amiriyah, just south of Fallujah, killing only himself... After the explosion that killed four U.S. soldiers on Saturday, the unit came under fire and another soldier was wounded. During this month's crackdown in the capital, the battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs and helped rescue a kidnap victim... An explosion in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad killed another soldier Saturday and injured five. A sixth soldier died Saturday in a non-combat related incident... A U.S. Marine also was killed Saturday in fighting in Anbar... alertnet.org/ ... 10:40:31The Taliban said on Sunday they had handed a kidnapped Italian journalist to tribal leaders, but added they would recapture him unless all their ransom demands were met by the Afghan government... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:23:14Hundreds of Mexican federal police and soldiers surrounded the headquarters of Tabasco's state police and arrested top current and former commanders in a raid apparently linked to an assassination attempt against the state's public safety secretary... at Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco located 410 miles east of Mexico City... After the raid, state police officers returned to their duties with only nightsticks, while armed federal officers performed patrols... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:21:56SABAYOI, Thailand... Bamrungsart Pondok boarding school was attacked Saturday evening as 75 boys were sleeping. Attackers lobbed explosives and sprayed dozens of bullets into a dormitory, killing a 12-year-old and two 14-year-olds... sparking a riot by angry Muslim villagers.... After the school attack, suspected Muslim insurgents stormed a nearby charcoal factory Sunday, killing two Buddhist workers and wounding at least two others... raising fears that a festering insurgency that has already taken more than 2,000 lives could erupt into open combat between the Muslim and Buddhist communities..... police believe Muslim insurgents staged the school attack in an attempt to convince villagers that authorities were responsible and win them over to the insurgents' cause. Villagers, however, refused to believe Muslims were behind the violence and blamed government security forces, he said. Thai authorities also blamed insurgents for a bombing at a mosque and a grenade attack at a tea shop last Wednesday that killed two Muslims in neighboring Yala province.... hours after suspected Muslim insurgents killed eight Buddhist passengers in a commuter van in the same district of Yala.... Separately, a Buddhist man riding a motorcycle was gunned down. Thailand is overwhelmingly Buddhist, but the country's far south is predominantly Muslim, and residents of the region have long felt that they are treated like second-class citizens. The southern Muslim provinces have hundreds of religious Islamic schools, and authorities have accused some of them of harboring insurgents and serving as a training ground for violence. .... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:18:10KABUL, Afghanistan.. A two-hour clash between suspected Taliban militants and police left two officers dead in western Afghanistan... Taliban attacked the highway police checkpoint Saturday night in the Bakwa district of Farah province...
Separately, a U.N. mine-clearing worker was wounded by suspected Taliban militants during an ambush on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces north of Kabul.... hit in the shoulder and treated by a paramedic traveling with him.... No Afghan or coalition forces were wounded or killed in the attack....
Animal Companionsmenufoods.com/ ... 10:52:21Information page on pet food recall, cat and dog food brands recalled listed columbiatribune.com/ ... 10:47:53DogCat ExcitedPET FOOD RECALL ...millions of containers of dog and cat food sold at major retailers across North America were recalled. Menu Foods, the Ontario-based company that produced the wet pet food, said yesterday it was recalling dog food sold under 48 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands, including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba... Select cans of Schnucks-brand cat food and dog food... At a Petsmart store in Union, N.J., Silviene Grzybowski became worried when the four types of Iams products she buys for her cat, Smokey, vanished from shelves. The cat was very sick and had not been eating for days, she said. "The vet told us to buy her her favorite food, but I’m going to call the vet right now..."
Staying Healthyhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:32:10Surgery for back pain is also on the rise, leading some doctors to question whether they're seeing an epidemic of back pain or an increase of back pain complaints and treatments... researchers agree that a more sedentary lifestyle combined with the country's obesity problem isn't helping people's backs. Americans are also staying active longer, which puts new strains on old backs... I stopped doing back exercises and my right leg started to hurt...
Earth-Moon Systemnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:27:36Scientists are investigating the possible threat posed to astronauts by inhaling lunar dust... the smallest particles in lunar dust might be toxic, if comparisons with dust inhalation cases on Earth apply... Nasa has set up a working group to look into the matter ahead of its planned return to the Moon by 2020...
US Election 2008msnbc.msn.com/ ... 10:56:35A leading indicator of his intentions could be Gore's waistline. The theory is that slimming down will be a signal he intends to run. "He has lost a few pounds, and Hillary can read into that what she wants," says a longtime adviser... [An Inconvenient Contender]
Reporting Sciencejpost.com/ ... 10:44:39I just saw a very inconvenient movie. Not An Inconvenient Truth, starring Al Gore, but a new documentary that aired last week on BBC 4 called The Great Global Warming Swindle, which can be seen in its entirety over Google Video. The film is not inconvenient because it predicts environmental disaster, but because it forced me to think heretical thoughts. As Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, said in the film, questioning the global warming orthodoxy has become tantamount to denying the Holocaust... Global warming has become a religion not only in the sense of intolerance toward dissent, but also as the animating moral crusade of our age. Here too, it is not harmless, if environmentalism is allowed to trump ethics. Our children should not be taught that the height and essence of being good is to be green... To do good, one must first do no harm. Global warming extremism, by harming the poorest of the poor and by substituting for real moral causes, fails this test...
Music industry is deadnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:28:15In the 80s, according to record companies, home taping was killing music. Fast forward some 20 years and the devices we use to listen to music may have changed, but the recording industry is still claiming that the illegal copying of their product harms future production. When a piece of music is purchased you might assume you can listen to it in on any number of different devices: at home, in the car or on a portable music player. But, in the UK at least, you would be wrong...
St Patricktoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:24:54Again this year thousands of Tokyoites took the streets on Sunday to watch what may be the world's most unlikely St. Patrick's Day parade... Dressed in green clothing and sporting shamrocks painted on their faces, many of the onlookers appeared unfazed by the fact that they weren't Irish, or that the parade was held a day after the Irish national holiday. "Irish people are friendly," said Masahito Aitsuki, a 45-year-old man who was wearing a luminous green blazer and emerald-colored shoes... They have something spiritual about them, which is kind of like the Japanese spirit...
SAT 2007-MAR-17
Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:44:38MILWAUKEE... A 28-year-old mother was arrested after her 6-year-old daughter tipped police off to her drug dealing ways.... father reported she had been hit in the face with a curling iron while visiting her mother... the girl was wise to her mother's cocaine dealing, telling them she chops up a white substance, puts it in bags and takes them - and the girl - to alleys. There, people gave the mother money for the bags...
1960s - still with ussmh.com.au/ ... 10:16:16...Bobby Kennedy's affair with the screen idol Marilyn Monroe has been documented, but a secret FBI file suggests the late US attorney-general was aware of - and perhaps even a participant in - a plan "to induce" her suicide... detailed three-page report implicates the Hollywood actor Peter Lawford, Monroe's psychiatrist, staff and her publicist in the plot... compiled by an unnamed former special agent working for the then Democrat governor of California, Pat Brown, and forwarded to Washington by Curtis Lynum, then head of the San Francisco FBI. Despite a disclaimer that it could not be sourced or authenticated, it was considered important enough to immediately circulate to the FBI's five most senior officers, including director J. Edgar Hoover's right-hand man, Clyde Tolson... was in effect buried for decades as a classified document, and even the released version contains censored sections... details aspects of Kennedy's on-and-off affair with the movie star, including sex parties and a lesbian dalliance, as well as her emotional departure from 20th Century Fox and descent into depression... gives no precise reason why she would be killed but hints it may be linked to her threats to make public her affair with Kennedy... "Robert Kennedy made a telephone call from St Charles Hotel, San Francisco, to Peter Lawford to find out if Marilyn was dead yet..."
US Militaryvoanews.com/ ... 09:47:55US Army Sergeant Raymond Girouard... has been convicted in the shooting deaths of three Iraqi detainees last year [by a] military jury... three counts of negligent homicide in the May 2006 incident.... also convicted of obstruction of justice and other charges... jury acquitted him of premeditated murder, which could have earned him a life sentence.....
Staying Healthyplayfuls.com/ ... 09:51:50Heart attack victims do twice as well with chest compressions alone and no mouth-to-mouth help in breathing as with traditional CPR... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:34:53Office workers glued to computer screens are at greater risk of deadly blood clots forming in their legs than long-distance air travelers... Deep-vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a condition in which a blood clot forms in the deep veins of the legs. The condition can be fatal if part of the clot breaks off and blocks a blood vessel in the lungs. The condition has been linked to long-haul flights and dubbed "economy class syndrome," because passengers traveling coach often do not have the space or opportunity to stretch enough to reduce the risk of blood clotting...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:43:43us-flagArmy Spc. Forrest J. Waterbury, 25, of Richmond, Texas, died Mar. 14 near Ramadi, Iraq, when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:43:17us-flagArmy Spc. Joshua M. Boyd, 30, of Seattle, died Mar. 14 at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device exploded near his unit Mar. 5 in Samarra, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 08:50:50us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Blake M. Harris, 27, of Hampton, Ga.
us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Terry W. Prater, 25, of Speedwell, Tenn.
us-flagArmy Sgt. Emerson N. Brand, 29, of Rigby, Idaho
us-flagArmy Pfc. James L. Arnold, 21, of Mattawan, Mich.
died Mar. 15 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit during combat operations. They were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Rebuildingtimesonline.co.uk/ ... 22:52:56MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today... One in four Iraqis has had a family member murdered... In Baghdad, the capital, one in four has had a relative kidnapped and one in three said members of their family had fled abroad. But when asked whether they preferred life under Saddam, the dictator who was executed last December, or under Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, most replied that things were better for them today...
Reporting Sciencetheage.com.au/ ... 22:51:43"Before this century is over, billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic," predicted James Lovelock, a renowned environmental scientist.... Some don't buy any of this "climate porn", as a UK think tank recently described such talk. Al Gore's movie is "bullshit from beginning to end", according to Ray Evans, a former Western Mining executive and author of the Lavoisier Group's Nine Facts About Climate Change (2006). For Evans and many others, man-made climate change panic is a bugaboo, perhaps even a hoax...
St Patrickhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:46:31DUBLIN, Ireland... Lithuanian musicians, drum-beating Punjabis and West African dancers used Dublin's St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday to celebrate their place in a booming Ireland that has become a land of immigrants. One man dressed as St. Patrick in papal hat and sunglasses did the samba, while another float nearby featured "Miss Panty," Dublin's premier drag queen... Dublin's freewheeling parade drew a half-million spectators and included Christine Quinn, the first openly gay leader of the New York City Council. Quinn is boycotting the more conservative New York parade because the organizers refuse to let gay and lesbian groups march...
Oh! The Irony!boston.com/ ... 10:11:52Mass... a group of religious leaders started walking across the state Friday to bring attention to global warming... The nine-day haul from downtown Northampton to Copley Square in Boston was planned far before forecasts called for a weekend of snow and sleet just a few days before the start of spring. "It was windy and cold. I was walking on the front of the line and I felt like I was bow of a ship with the wind just coming into my face..."
Disinformation Propaganda & Spinchron.com/ ... 10:09:13"My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior government officials in both the White House and the State Department," [Valerie] Plame testified to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform... She said the security breach may have endangered agency officials but also "jeopardized and even destroyed entire networks of foreign agents, who in turn risk their own lives and those of their families to provide the United States with needed intelligence. Lives are literally at stake." Plame said she had long been aware that her identity could be discovered by foreign governments. "It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover," she said, and did so "from purely political motives..."
Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!kndo.com/ ... 10:05:20HempHERMISTON, Ore... Houston Police Department told Hermiston Law Enforcement that dogs had smelled marijuana in a box addressed to Hermiston. When the box arrived in Hermiston, police got a search warrant for the house it went to... found a 6-pound block of marijuana. Neighbors couldn't believe it.... "I was shocked. I would not want my cousins around that thing...." [What a hoot of a "neighbor" quote. This report smacks of small-town 1960!] [Three suspects were] arrested on seven counts, including unlawful delivery of marijuana within one-thousand feet of a school.... southcoasttoday.com/ ... 10:02:02HempWAREHAM — A canine search team from the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department located three small bags of marijuana at Wareham High School.... Ten K-9 teams, including teams from other counties, participated in the search... [Ten teams from multiple counties to catch three high school kids' small stashes. Overkill!] localnewscomesfirst.com/ ... 10:00:47HempThe Oregon Senate has passed a bill that would allow businesses to prohibit the use of medical marijuana in the workplace.... [Not exposing others to second-hand pot smoke: understandable. Not allowing those who allegedly need to smoke for medical reasons: unacceptable. But there's always brownies instead....] midhudsonmostwanted.com/ ... 09:59:25HempWest Nyack – A Fed Ex box arrived at a business on West Nyack Road in West Nyack the other day and when an employee didn’t recognize the name on the box, he opened it and found 20 pounds of marijuana inside. He called the police who believe someone was supposed to intercept the delivery before getting into the business.... a second package also containing 20 pounds of pot was intercepted... estimated wholesale value of the two shipments is [an absurd prohibition-inflated] $120,000.... Both packages were shipped from Georgia.... californiaprogressreport.com/ ... 09:58:01HempLast week, as President Bush was touring South America, there was another story about the failure of our $4 billion program to eradicate Colombia's coca crop. Yet even as U.S. ports, refineries and chemical plants remain famously vulnerable to attack, and as Afghanistan produces record amounts of opium, the feds continue to bust up little California marijuana dispensaries and try to send the marijuanistas to prison. It's obvious that the war on drugs, our longest war, is another war we're not winning. It's gone on for 75 years and, like the war on terror, it's been pursued with fatally counterproductive strategies. If Washington doesn't alter course, it could last forever. There's now a chance, albeit slim, that things could change... Now there are also signs that the new Congress, though unlikely to soon roll back the longer sentences and other punitive laws passed by its predecessors, isn't disposed to pass more. There's even a chance that it may begin to exercise some oversight over the zealotry of the drug cops... key members in both houses are backers of drug war reform and/or supporters of legislation that would bar the feds from cracking down on medical marijuana in the states that have legalized it... Among them: Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who heads the House committee that has oversight over Walters' office; Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin, chair of the House Operations Committee; Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois; and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, whose own state twice voted to approve medical marijuana... Courage is scarce, so don't expect too much, certainly not before 2008... insidebayarea.com/ ... 09:55:27HempSAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Friday gave a prosecutor one month to decide — and a lecture to guide his way — on whether to continue the government's case against "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal.... The government already has said it won't seek more than the one-day jail sentence Rosenthal already served for his original conviction should he be convicted anew on the marijuana crimes. [U.S. District Judge Charles] Breyer made it clear Friday he'd like to see the case go away, suggesting the government should weigh whether its time and energy, and the court's, is best spent on the trial of a man who already has served his sentence... Breyer... ordered everyone back to court on Friday, April 13, and chuckled over the date's superstitious connotation. "I can't imagine a better day," he said dryly. "How about 4/20?" Rosenthal quipped...
FRI 2007-MAR-16
Ummm....today.reuters.com/ ... 11:26:35Border guards in Kazakhstan have arrested a man for trying to smuggle a home-made grenade in a pot of honey... a Russian citizen, was traveling by train from the Russian town of Omsk.... told police he did not know it was a grenade and that his wife had given it to him as a present for her relatives in Kazakhstan...
Yuck!hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:25:36COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo... A middle school student's claim of finding a mouse inside a bag of Frito-Lay barbecue potato chips purchased at a school lunch line appears credible...
Prison Sucksnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:21:14Eleven detainees have escaped from a British military prison in southern Iraq.... Ten of them had "swapped" places with visitors over the past week... the prisoners had been held without charge for the past two years...
Violencetoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:21:33The mayor of Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in Baghdad, was wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car and a senior police officer was killed... foxnews.com/ ... 11:05:10BRUNSWICK, Ga. — An autopsy will be performed Friday on the body of a 6-year-old Georgia boy who was found in a trash bag not far from his home.... had been missing for a week in coastal Georgia... obvious the child had been slain.... County Police Chief... expected to file murder charges against four people already in custody... a 32-year-old convicted sex offender; his parents... and family friend... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:02:52At least four people have been killed by a bomb in the busy Colombian port of Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast. Officials said all the victims were passers-by. At least five people were wounded in the blast... The city has been hit by violence involving left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers... theaustralian.news.com.au/ ... 11:02:31FOR those who like their irony raw and bloody, I recommend The Herald, the state-run newspaper mouthpiece of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's brutal, ageing autocrat... Here was a violent threat, disguised as journalism... All tyrannies have a tipping point, a moment when the power of the dictator crumbles, and he reads the writing on the wall... For Mugabe, the symbolic image that marks the end may be the photograph of... Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean opposition leader... emerging from police captivity, head gashed and face swollen, his wrist broken, with brain injury and a suspected fractured skull...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:38:12us-flagArmy Pfc. Alberto Garcia Jr., 23, of Bakersfield, Calif., died Mar. 13 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire and an improvised explosive device. Garcia was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:37:53us-flagMarine Lance Cpl. Raymond J. Holzhauer, 19, of Dwight, Ill., died March 15 from a non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. His death is currently under investigation. Holzhauer was assigned to 2nd Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:37:31us-flagArmy Sgt. Robert M. Carr, 22, of Warren, Ohio, died Mar. 13 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Carr was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:37:05us-flagArmy Spc. Stephen M. Kowalczyk, 32, of San Diego, died Mar. 14 in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire. Kowalczyk was assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:36:43us-flagArmy Cpl. Brian L. Chevalier, 21, of Athens, Ga., died Mar. 14 in Mufrek, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near him. Chevalier was assigned to the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:36:23us-flagArmy Spc. Adam J. Rosema, 27, of Pasadena, Calif., died Mar. 14 south of Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during recovery operations. Rosema was assigned to the 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:35:59us-flagMarine Lance Cpl. Steven M. Chavez, 20, of Hondo, N.M., died March 14 from a non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Chavez's death is currently under investigation. Chavez was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
That's Not Funny!today.reuters.com/ ... 22:34:18Comedian Carol Burnett has filed a copyright infringement suit against the makers of Fox TV's cartoon sitcom "Family Guy" over an episode poking fun at the performer and her variety show from the 1960s and '70s... claims "Family Guy" violated Burnett's exclusive rights to her name and likeness by depicting her signature cleaning-woman character in a segment last April without her consent... A spokesman for 20th Century Fox Television, which produces "Family Guy," said on Friday the suit was without merit and that references to Burnett and her show in an 18-second sequence of the cartoon amounted to parody...
Let It Go Already!thisislondon.co.uk/ ... 22:32:21A painter fascinated with best-selling conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code committed suicide after becoming convinced she was the subject of a real-life murder plot... [38yo] moved to Italy to pursue her interest in Leonardo Da Vinci, but her mind became "muddled" by the mysteries surrounding his work, her father said... suffered paranoid delusions that she and her family were in danger "because of the knowledge that she had" of Leonardo after working on an exhibition about his paintings...
Defending Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 22:31:26SOUTHAVEN, Miss... [Two Kroger grocery baggers]... bagged a man who police said had grabbed a customer's purse and tried to flee... "They tackled him hard... His collarbone was broken when he hit the pavement...." [The thief will probably sue the store and the baggers... sigh!]...
US Election 2008breitbart.com/ ... 22:33:22CEDAR FALLS, Iowa... Republican presidential contender John McCain on Friday.... discussing federal involvement in custody cases... he said, "For me to stand here and ... say I'm going to declare divorces invalid because of someone who feels they weren't treated fairly in court, we are getting into a tar baby of enormous proportions and I don't know how you get out of that...." [Whoops!] news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:20:31California has brought the date of its 2008 presidential primary elections forward by four months to 5 February. The move is intended to give the most populous US state more clout in choosing presidential nominees...
Reasons for Repealdunndailyrecord.com/ ... 11:16:13Sampson County Sheriff's deputies seized more than $9,000 worth of marijuana following a routine traffic stop [yeah, sure] Tuesday on Indiantown Road near Tram Road in Clinton... the deputy who made the seizure was a member of the Highway Enforcement Awareness Team, which patrols high-crime areas on the alert for suspicious activities... [routine, sure] observed suspicious behavior... [yeah, sure] The license plate did not belong on that vehicle... [idiots] "Two pounds of marijuana is a substantial seizure," Sgt. Stroud said. "It could have affected a number of people..." [that wanted to be affected on purpose, by the way. REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEAL!] news.balita.ph/ ... 11:14:36Police Regional Director Leopoldo Bataoil has ordered no let-up operations against production and shipment of marijuana plants soon after a mini-dump truck was intercepted by the police in Sugpon, Ilocos Sur on Tuesday with 15 kilograms of dried marijuana concealed in its luggage... click2houston.com/ ... 11:13:50MAUMELLE, Ark. -- Three men posing as paramedics were arrested after investigators found nearly 400 pounds of marijuana in an ambulance... [Giving new meaning to "medical marijuana"?] after suspicious activity was reported at a gasoline station... "An individual, that was actually an off-duty police officer, called and said that he just felt like things were out of sort..." [yeah, sure] [absurdly inflated prohibition-reinforced] street value of about $500,000...
Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:24:57Two dogs trained in Northern Ireland are getting a break in the movie business, by sniffing out pirates. Female black Labradors, Flo and Lucky, are being used by the authorities in Malaysia in the battle against music and film rip-offs. They are believed to be the first dogs in the world trained to sniff the chemicals used to make optical disks. They can lead handlers to disks labelled as other items, but cannot tell which are real and which are fake.... [well, duh!] informationweek.com/ ... 11:12:07Google says it will change some of the digits in logged IP addresses and alter cookie file information to anonymize users. The technical details have yet to be worked out. Don't expect a guarantee of anonymity, however... David McClure, president and CEO of the U.S. Internet Industry Association... points out that the cost of keeping a gigabyte of data for a year is about $7.60, twice that if the data is stored in a secure data center. According to an IDC study commissioned by storage vendor EMC, 161 exabytes of digital information were created and copied in 2006. One exabyte equals a billion gigabytes. By 2010, IDC expects the volume of data created and copied to rise sixfold to 988 exabytes, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 57%. Privacy suddenly looks a lot like savings... fin24.co.za/ ... 11:09:43Googleoogle is faced with two lawsuits in as many weeks, from two different companies - both for massive copyright infringement; doesn't this sound like a conspiracy?.. Microsoft, on behalf of a group of publishers, is suing Google for scanning hardcopy material. Viacom... the holding company of MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon... is suing YouTube, which Google... for hosting copyright material that was broadcast on some of the Viacom media networks... newsfactor.com/ ... 11:07:49Many industry watchers believe the Viacom lawsuit could represent the beginning of a copyright-owner onslaught from all sides... Whether those "fans" to which Viacom referred mind Google making money from the traffic they drive to the video-sharing site is not the issue. Whether the fans are liable in future copyright suits is. According to some legal experts, YouTube's uploading community could find itself in the line of fire...
Theory of Justicetheaustralian.news.com.au/ ... 11:00:28Heavily armed Pakistani police last night fired volley after volley of tear gas to disperse hundreds of lawyers gathered outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad in defiance of a ban on all gatherings in the capital. The lawyers had gathered to support chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as he appeared before the Supreme Judicial Council on charges of misconduct brought by President Pervez Musharraf... Despite the Government's massive show of strength, and with roads and buildings barricaded with barbed wire, hundreds of lawyers and prominent opposition figures marched towards the Supreme Court, clashing with security forces. Even before the march started, police detained hundreds of opposition figures across the country. During the march they swooped to arrest Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the hardline Islamic party the Jamiaat-i-Islami, or MMA. Ahmed has been in the forefront of the protest at the chief justice's treatment and had planned to say Friday prayers outside the Supreme Court...
THU 2007-MAR-15
Vertically Challengedhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:09:05KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia... Malaysian police detained an eight-member gang of small-sized robbers dubbed the "midget gang," who allegedly confessed to committing 14 break-ins over the past three months... All the gang members, aged between 14 and 23 years, were diminutive... newspaper said without saying whether they were dwarfs or just small...
Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:06:06VALPARAISO, Ind... A teenager clocked driving at 93 mph told a deputy he had to get home in time to catch the school bus... [had been sentenced] to ride the bus to school after an earlier speeding conviction.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 22:04:51HAMPTON, Virginia... courthouse... Security officer... told [RH] to empty his pockets. Out tumbled [his] cell phone and a half-ounce bag of Hempmarijuana. "You can't bring that crap in here...." [22yo RH] took the phone and the drugs and hid them in the bushes outside, then passed the security checkpoint.... [Guard] summoned a police officer, who waited for Hall to return and watched as he retrieved the phone and the pot.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 21:57:11BETTENDORF, Iowa... A burglary suspect was arrested after he left behind a Corrections Department identification card he used to jimmy a lock...
Mass Murdering Monsterswashingtonpost.com/ ... 22:24:20Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's claims that he was responsible for dozens of successful, foiled and imagined attacks in the past 15 years relies on a loose definition of the word "responsible." Officials say the 9/11 mastermind was key to some plots but a bit player in others... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:55:40Police in Morocco have arrested 18 people in connection with a suicide bomb attack on Sunday at an internet cafe in the port city of Casablanca... six other suspects remained at large... hosted.ap.org/ ... 21:55:25Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's capture four years ago didn't shut down al-Qaida or bring the Americans to Osama bin Laden. But if his mega-confession is to be believed, his arrest was a crushing blow to bin Laden's plans for even more deadly attacks in the wake of 9/11... today.reuters.com/ ... 21:53:10Iraq... a roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers... killed in eastern Baghdad when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicles... Separately, four car bombs, two of them in Baghdad, killed another 16 people in Iraq... today.reuters.com/ ... 11:29:27Four car bombs, two of them in Baghdad, killed 16 people in Iraq on Thursday... In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber targeting an Iraqi army and police checkpoint killed eight policemen and soldiers in the Karrada district of central Baghdad.... wounded 25 people, including two bodyguards of city mayor Sabir al-Issawi, who was unhurt... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:26:00Communist rebels armed with rifles, hand grenades and petrol bombs attacked a police post in the jungles of eastern India on Thursday, killing at least 49 officers...
Iraqtoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:56:51A struggle for power among sectarian groups and criminals is now the main feature of the Iraq war, the Pentagon said in a report released on Wednesday... also said violence reached a new high in early 2007, although the figures were compiled before U.S. and Iraqi forces began a security crackdown in Baghdad...
Sex can be... disturbinghosted.ap.org/ ... 11:13:42The secret behind Japan's plunging birth rate? A record 39.7 percent of Japanese citizens ages 16-49 have not had sex for over a month - up 5 percentage points from two years ago... Among married couples, the rate was only slightly lower, at 34.6 percent... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:55:12MESA, Ariz... A cable news program... a health show featuring former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw... was temporarily replaced with hard-core pornography... Monday night on KPPX-TV... "an act of human sabotage..." "Maybe five or 10 minutes into the show there was no volume.... I thought it was the TV, but when I looked up, there were these images...."
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 11:12:04TurkeyWALES TOWNSHIP, Mich... Taking time to remember a wild turkey may seem strange, but a church will hold a moment of silence this Sunday for what the pastor called a model member of his congregation.... the turkey regularly attended Sunday services and greeted people as they arrived.... The turkey died last week after it was hit by a car on a road near the St. Clair County church... The fowl never missed a service... had been hanging around since late last year, when residents began feeding it.... Some people said it would show up like clockwork each morning at the community's bus stop, where it would chase children. Others enjoyed watching the bird strut down the middle of the street, trying to impress a group of female turkeys... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:05:37PigLINZ, Austria... A housebroken pet pig with an unusual black hide was mistaken for a wild boar and shot by a hunter in woods near its owner's farm.... officials... concluded there was no way the unidentified hunter could have realized the pig not the wild quarry he was after.... [Hunter] brought the carcass to the owner, who shared the pork...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:18:57us-flagMarine Pfc. Angel Rosa, 21, of South Portland, Maine, died March 13 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Rosa was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:53:28us-flagArmy Sgt. 1st Class Douglas C. Stone, 49, of Taylorsville, Utah, died Mar. 11 in Iraq of wounds suffered from a non-combat related incident. His death is under investigation. Stone was assigned to the 96th Regional Readiness Command, Salt Lake City.
US Militaryhosted.ap.org/ ... 21:55:01Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback... Kansas senator... is backing the Pentagon's top general over his remarks that homosexual acts are immoral... Brownback's letter called the criticism [of Marine Gen. Peter Pace] "both unfair and unfortunate..." today.reuters.com/ ... 21:52:19A U.S. Marine charged with murdering 18 unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, said in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" he regretted the deaths but would make the same decisions today. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich admitted shooting five unarmed Iraqi men in the back in the interview and said his actions were justified because he believed the men had hostile intent toward the Marines.... "...Those are decisions that I made in a combat situation and I believe I had to make those decisions..." defenselink.mil/ ... 10:53:00The Department of Defense notified Congress today that the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team (WMD-CST) of the Wyoming National Guard is now certified. The 84th WMD-CST of Cheyenne, Wyo., is fully ready to assist civil authorities in responding to a domestic weapon of mass destruction incident and possesses the requisite skills, training and equipment to be proficient in all mission requirements. The team certified today brings the total number of teams certified by DoD to 48. Congress has authorized a total of 55 WMD-CSTs, which is enough to field at least one team in every state, territory and the District of Columbia. The remaining seven teams will be certified by September 2007.
US Congressbloomberg.com/ ... 22:24:37The Senate rejected Democratic- backed legislation that calls for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq just hours after a House panel approved a plan to bring the troops home...
CD/DVD/etc is Deadtoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:13:19HANOVER, Germany... The Blu-ray disc association said on Thursday it aimed to replace the DVD storage format within three years... Blu-ray, which offers five times more storage capacity than DVDs for storing high definition films and other content, will first have to beat the rival HD-DVD format which offers somewhat lower storage capacity but claims cheaper production of players, burners and discs... [Spinning discs are ultimately out. Solid-state memory is the future....]
Headline of the Dayhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:09:23What's that smell? Oh, it's the police...
Marriage Todayhosted.ap.org/ ... 22:07:05KANSAS CITY, Mo... Even in the messy legal world of dividing property after a failed romance, this case was exceptional. A Jackson County judge was asked to consider whether a transvestite had misled a former male fiance into believing she was a woman...
Digital Culturetoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:01:07Condolences flowed for U.S. comedian Sinbad after the online encyclopedia Wikipedia announced his death on Thursday, but it turned out the grieving was premature and the comic was alive and well... although the error was quickly caught and changed, some Internet users had sent e-mails with a link to the old version... "This caused people to inadvertently change the entry throughout the day to the vandalized version..." "We are currently looking into who made this edit, and have protected the page. We regret any confusion or distress this may have caused Sinbad and his fans everywhere..." today.reuters.com/ ... 22:00:14Latino adults in the United States are less likely than their white or black counterparts to use the Internet... 56 percent of adult Latinos in the United States reported using the Internet compared to 71 percent of white adults and 60 percent of blacks...
Digital Businesscbronline.com/ ... 11:48:55Linux distributor Red Hat Inc has launched version 5 of its Enterprise Linux offering, including a new Advanced Platform version that enables users to run an unlimited number of virtual operating system images. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based company has repackaged both the desktop and server versions of its operating system, as well as delivering improved customer support and application stack capabilities...
US Election 2008allheadlinenews.com/ ... 22:26:19After Gen. Peter Pace's claim that "homosexuality is immoral" prompted outrage among the gay and lesbian community, many politicians have still been hesitant to publicly criticize Pace for his comments... Obama told Newsday, "I think traditionally the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman has restricted his public comments to military matters. That's probably a good tradition to follow." Hillary handled the question similarly, unwilling to explicitly say she disagrees with Gen. Pace's comments on homosexuality when asked by reporters. The New York Senator instead told ABC News, "Well, I am going to leave that to others to conclude..." [And lo, the waffling begins....] thehill.com/ ... 11:41:21"I want to wait and hear what John Edwards has to say, he’s kind of good-looking..." -Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)...
During an appearance in West Burlington, Iowa, the phrase appeared again, this time with Edwards as "kind of cute..."
World of Sexual Culturestoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:35:10A brothel in Germany hopes to capitalize on the growing number of retirees by offering them a 50 percent discount for sex in the afternoon... for clients aged 66 and above -- provided they can prove they are old enough...
Researching the Obvioustoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:31:30Young people, wealthy families and graduates use the Internet more than the elderly, poor or unqualified, according to a report that highlights Britain's growing "digital divide..." news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:21:36New York University researchers have found that to be found attractive, a woman had to move in a feminine way - swaying her hips... men were more attractive if they moved with a "shoulder swagger"...
Big Whoops Cascadetoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:16:48A [42yo] Hong Kong woman... slipped... somehow swallowed her toothbrush but still managed to dial 999 and call for an ambulance... today.reuters.com/ ... 11:16:04A 91-year-old German sparked a rescue operation when he slipped mending his roof and got stuck fast in tar "like a beetle on its back..."
Theory of Medicinetoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:23:04Sleep deprivation may lead not only to bleary-eyed mornings, but clouded moral judgment as well... Army researchers found... lack of shut-eye seemed to hinder participants' ability to make decisions in the face of emotionally charged, moral dilemmas... today.reuters.com/ ... 11:22:24People who have heart attacks on weekends are more likely to die and get poorer care than those stricken on weekdays... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:15:33CHICAGO... Bradley Bernstein's parents say an electric cattle prod is the only thing that stops him from banging his head and violently punching his eyes, nearly blinding himself. The Illinois couple's fight to continue shock treatment on their severely autistic 48-year-old son and the uproar over a Massachusetts school that uses similar treatment, have pulled back the curtain on this extreme form of behavior modification. Critics call it outmoded, barbaric and unethical... "The beauty of it is there's no side effects.... It's a temporary painful experience for two seconds..."
Theory of Justicehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:04:16a [32yo] pediatric nurse... A tenant in court defending herself from a civil complaint by her landlord... was speaking when she noticed that the [77yo] plaintiff... appeared stricken. "...she just started shaking and her eyes rolled back.... noticed that she wasn't breathing...." placed [landlord] on the floor and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. A court clerk assisted.... paramedics arrived and used a defibrillator to regain a heartbeat.... was in stable condition Wednesday.... [What we need here is a follow-up... did the landlord drop the suit?]
Reasons for Repealwww1.whdh.com/ ... 11:52:55HempHAMPDEN, Mass. -- Three members of the same Hampden family are facing charges that they imported thousands of pounds of marijuana from Canada... 56-year-old... his 26-year-old son... and his 24-year-old son-in-law... after an investigation that started about a year and a half ago.... brought more than four-thousand pounds of pot worth [absurd prohibition-inflated] millions of dollars into the U.S.... Police say the three Hampden men were part of a much larger smuggling operation... sfgate.com/ ... 11:50:56HempThe federal government's five-year effort to throw one of the nation's most prominent advocates of marijuana in prison appears to be all but dead after a judge ruled that prosecutors had vindictively piled on charges against the Oakland man after he successfully appealed his pot-growing convictions. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Wednesday that prosecutors had illegally retaliated against Ed Rosenthal, 62, last fall when they added tax-evasion and money-laundering charges to his previous indictment for growing marijuana for medical patients... [One small victory for human liberty... One giant war yet to be ended... REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEAL!] hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:56:16HempA woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges... the latest legal defeat for Angel Raich, a mother of two from Oakland suffering from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments who sued the federal government pre-emptively to avoid being arrested for using the drug. On her doctor's advice, Raich eats or smokes marijuana every couple of hours to ease her pain and bolster her appetite...
WED 2007-MAR-14
Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:51:30HILLSIDE, N.J.... [41yo man] raised suspicions Monday morning when he stopped by his daughter's school in Hillside, saying he had left his keys in her jacket.... staff... would not let him in because [he] was not the girl's legal guardian.... [Guardian] grandmother arrived, saying she wanted the girl's jacket. It was all so strange that principal... called police.... officer checked the coat and found 25 vials of cocaine and a half-ounce rock of crack in the pocket inside....
It's All in Your Mindtoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:43:48One socially crushing moment -- think schoolyard bullies -- can challenge the survival of new nerve cells in the brain and may even lead to depression.... In a study of young rats threatened by aggressive, older rats, the bullied ones were able to generate new nerve cells in key memory and emotion regions of the brain but most of those cells later died....
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 10:12:09us-flagArmy Sgt. Thomas L. Latham, 23, of Delmar, Md., died March 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:11:48us-flagArmy Sgt. Daniel E. Woodcock, 25, of Glennallen, Alaska, died Mar. 11, in Ad Dawr, Iraq, of wounds suffered from a building explosion while on combat patrol. Woodcock was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:11:22us-flagMarine Lance Cpl. Nathanial D. Windsor, 20, of Scappoose, Ore., died March 13 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Windsor was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
US Militarynews.yahoo.com/ ... 11:08:54The Navy temporarily lost communication with a submarine off Florida's coast and sent ships and aircraft to search for the USS San Juan before the vessel was contacted early Wednesday... no problems with the Los Angeles class sub... defenselink.mil/ ... 10:13:01National Guard... This week, the Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced an increase, while the Army and Navy had a decrease. The net collective result is 645 fewer reservists mobilized than last week.... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 81,407, including both units and individual augmentees.... defenselink.mil/ ... 10:10:54A Statement From Gen. Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Yesterday, during a wide ranging interview with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, I was asked if I think the current policy as codified in U.S. Code, generally referred to as "Don't Ask Don't Tell," should still hold. People have a wide range of opinions on this sensitive subject. The important thing to remember is that we have a policy in effect, and the Department of Defense has a statutory responsibility to implement that policy. I made two points in support of the policy during the interview. One, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" allows individuals to serve this nation; and two, it does not make a judgment about the morality of individual acts. In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct. I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views.
Reporting Sciencebusinessweek.com/ ... 11:13:10venture capitalist John Doerr... "I'm scared," he told the audience, looking down at his 15-year-old daughter in the front row. "I don't think we're going to make it." [Might expire from panic?] Doerr issued a passionate call to action for everyone to make environmental concerns their "next big thing..." summitdaily.com/ ... 11:12:25Global warming is the hottest story of our time, and it will get even bigger as the full implications of melting ice caps and rising sea levels percolate through the media pipeline and into general public awareness, a panel of journalists said last weekend during the American Bar Association's environmental law conference... even though the basic global warming science — heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere — is "third-grade" stuff, according the Wall Street Journal's John Fialka, the issues have been clouded by a massive, industry funded propaganda and disinformation campaign aimed at creating uncertainty... "We live in a country where more people care about the death of Anna Nicole Smith than the death of a planet," said moderator Judy Muller, a long-time NPR contributor... Colorado Springs Gazette editorial page editor Sean Paige, took a contrarian view... "Maybe the wolf is at the door now," Paige said, referring to global warming. "But the public has tuned out. We (journalists) haven't been skeptical enough of the environmental anxiety industry..." Paige also said he sees a form of eco-McCarthyism on the rise, with the fixation on "consensus" leading to a muzzling of dissenting voices. "Let's silence everybody who doesn't agree..."
It's Only Moneyhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:53:33DENVER... new presidential dollar coin they found last week... [couple] found one with nothing stamped on either flat side. It does have "In God We Trust" on the edge. What's missing is the image of George Washington on the front and the Statue of Liberty on the back.... could be worth thousands of dollars, maybe more... will depend on how many similar misprints are found, but [theirs] will always be worth more because it will be the first one independently authenticated...
Digital Businesstoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:39:23Google Inc. is confident its popular video-sharing site YouTube and other Web services Google offers have strong legal protections under current copyright law... said their actions are squarely within the protections offered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 and they were prepared to defend the company aggressively... DMCA... limits liability for firms that act quickly to block access to pirated materials once they are notified by copyright holders of specific infringement...
Holy Landnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:26:27A UN report will call for an immediate halt to work by the Israeli authorities at a Jerusalem site holy to both Muslims and Jews... will say Israel must draw up a new work plan for the site... also call for consultation between Israel, the Muslim authorities and Jordan over the excavation works.... Israeli newspapers have reported the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) will also say Israeli excavations comply with international standards....
TUE 2007-MAR-13
US Military Casualtieshosted.ap.org/ ... 10:27:53The air force bombed a strategic Tamil Tiger jungle base in eastern Sri Lanka, killing at least eight rebels, including two senior guerrillas... tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in recent weeks due to an escalation of fighting..... The rebels... confirmed the air raid, but denied there were any casualties... defenselink.mil/ ... 10:12:37us-flagArmy Spc. Jonathan K. Smith, 19, of Atlanta, died Mar. 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, of a non-combat related incident, which is under investigation. Smith was assigned to the 115th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Only Rock n Rollhecklerspray.com/ ... 18:12:03...Take Van Halen, for example. When it was announced that they'd be inducted into this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Van Halen promptly reformed and announced plans for a stadium tour. But come actual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame night, and Van Halen were in tatters - Eddie Van Halen was in rehab, Alex Van Halen didn't turn up because Eddie Van Halen was in rehab and David Lee Roth didn't turn up because the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame organisers wouldn't let Van Halen perform because Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen weren't going to turn up...
Reasons for Repealdaytondailynews.com/ ... 18:17:15DAYTON — Ohio Highway Patrol troopers seized 350 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Preble County. [38yo] of Los Angeles, Calif., was charged with second-degree felony trafficking and fifth-degree felony possession... also cited for speeding... estimated the street value of the marijuana at [prohibition-inflated absurd value of] $794,500. ...stopped ...for a speed violation [yeah, sure!]... One of the patrol's drug-detection canines was used to check the vehicle and alerted to the presence of drugs.... could face up to nine years in prison on each charge and a fine of up to $17,500... nj.com/ ... 18:11:07Hemp...The first arrest came shortly before noon on Friday when cops responded to a reported break-in.... When they arrived on the scene, cops noticed that the boyfriend of the resident who called in the burglary... had left a partially smoked marijuana joint and a pipe in plain view.... [stupid on the boyfriend's part, but still not right] Shortly before midnight Saturday night, Bayonne cops made another arrest when they caught two men passing a joint while crossing Silver Street near Orient Street.... [Now, don't we all feel safer thanks to these officers' vigilence!! NOT!!!] t-g.com/ ... 18:08:50Hemp...Officer Gregg Loyd said he smelled marijuana after making a traffic stop of a car driven by [20yo male]... early Sunday on Depot Street. [Driver] allowed a vehicle search [yeah, sure], Loyd said, and a partially-burned, hand-rolled cigar ["blunt"] containing a substance believed to be marijuana was found within a Newport cigarette box in the console.... [Driver] was initially stopped for allegedly weaving in and out of a traffic lane [yeah, sure], Loyd said... [If you've ever been stopped and hassled by an officer on these trumped-up premises, or seen how police can fudge facts on their reports, you begin to be very skeptical of police reports...]
Digital Businessportableplanet.co.uk/ ... 18:05:29Intel Corporation announced today its entry into solid state drives with the Intel Z-U130 Value Solid-State Drive. Based on NAND flash memory with industry standard USB interfaces... With advantages over hard disk drive (HDD) or removable universal serial bus (USB) storage devices, Intel’s Solid State Drives deliver faster boot times, embedded code storage, rapid data access and low-power storage alternatives for value PCs, routers, servers, gaming and industrial applications... today.reuters.com/ ... 10:32:01Media conglomerate Viacom Inc. said on Tuesday that it was suing Google Inc. and its Internet video-sharing site YouTube for more than $1 billion over unauthorized use of its programming online... accuses the Web search leader and its unit of "massive intentional copyright infringement..." contends that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of its programming have been uploaded onto YouTube's site and viewed more than 1.5 billion times... Viacom said its decision to sue Google followed "a great deal of unproductive negotiation" with the company...
MON 2007-MAR-12
Sex can be... disturbinghosted.ap.org/ ... 16:25:22Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador... Two weeks ago, El Salvador police found [him] naked outside his residence, tied up, gagged and drunk... wearing several sex toys....
Staying Healthytoday.reuters.com/ ... 23:30:09Exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss.... Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.... MRIs [of humans]... found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise....
US Militarywashingtonpost.com/ ... 23:40:06The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly... likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral... said he supports the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell policy" in which gay men and women are allowed in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation private... defenselink.mil/ ... 23:24:40The Department of Defense announced today its recruiting and retention statistics for the active and reserve components for the month of February. All Services met or exceeded recruiting goals for February.... The Army, Marine Corps and Air Force are meeting or exceeding overall retention missions.... The Navy is expected to meet its end strength targets.... Two of the six Reserve components met or exceeded accession goals for February 2007.... Army National Guard retention was 114 percent of the cumulative goal of 13,446, and Air National Guard retention was 97 percent of its cumulative goal of 4,209. Both the Army and Air Guard are currently at 99 percent of their end strength. Losses in all reserve components for January are well within acceptable limits. Indications are that trend will continue into February....
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 23:22:36us-flagArmy Sgt. Gregory D. Fejeran, 28, of Barrigada, Guam
us-flagArmy Sgt. Christopher J. C. Fernandez, 28, of Dededo, Guam.
died Mar. 5 in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. The incident is under investigation. The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry Regiment, Barrigada, Guam.
Animal Companionstoday.reuters.com/ ... 23:34:44ChickenNew Mexico outlawed cockfighting on Monday in a victory for animal welfare groups, leaving Louisiana as the last state in the country where the controversial practice is legal... mtexpress.com/ ... 16:55:44Cat ExcitedA Hailey [Idaho] woman [in her 60s] was... attacked by her own cat... numerous bite wounds.... "Somebody came to her door with another cat that they thought was her cat. She went to the door, and her cat went berserk...."
Antiquity - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 23:28:33YORKTOWN, Ind.... A circular formation discovered in a wooded area next to a highway slated for widening is likely some sort of an earthen enclosure built by prehistoric Indians.... Workers... found the earthen structure more than a year ago while studying contours on a large topographical map.... The 150-foot diameter feature was likely constructed by excavating a circular ditch around a space archaeologists call a central platform.... believed to be the work of prehistoric, Woodland Indians, although the property's owner has not permitted an examination of the site to determine its true origins.... aside from Mounds State Park, most of east-central Indiana's 300-plus known mounds and enclosures built by the Hopewell-Adena people about 2,000 years ago have been completely or partially destroyed by agriculture, development and artifact hunters.... the structure is so prominent it shows up dramatically on Google Earth.... such earthen enclosures were probably gathering places for American Indians for ceremonies, dances and feasts during particular religious events, such as the winter solstice.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 16:16:36CHICAGO... The Field Museum... a new [permanent] exhibit called "The Ancient Americas" shows that the Western Hemisphere was home to hundreds of diverse societies established long before European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries... a major overhaul of the museum's old exhibit, which dated to the 1950s and focused on the archaeology of the Americas... The hunter-gatherers of the Clovis society of North America... The Tairona culture of present-day Colombia... in 500 A.D., more people lived in the city of Teotihuacan in central Mexico than in Rome... the Pueblo people of the North American Southwest... the Zapotec of Oaxaca, Mexico... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:12:21Archaeologists have found traces of a Roman settlement at a 5,000-year-old landmark man-made hill in Wiltshire. English Heritage believes there was a Roman community at Silbury Hill about 2,000 years ago...
Science Marches Onnnnnnnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:11:27UK scientists have identified a way of using light to rapidly detect the presence of bacteria. The technology could have wide applications in wound healing, counter-terrorism and screening patients for MRSA infection...
It's All in Your Mindtoday.reuters.com/ ... 16:04:23...a hormone produced by the body in response to stress that normally serves to calm adults and younger children instead increases anxiety in adolescents... may help account for the mood swings and anxiety exhibited by many adolescents...
World Energytoday.reuters.com/ ... 23:31:19CHICAGO... A new, more efficient method for manufacturing biofuels could generate enough fuel to supply the entire U.S. transportation sector while sharply reducing the amount of raw material required to make it.... By recycling the carbon dioxide wasted in current manufacturing methods, scientists at Purdue University in Indiana believe they could reduce the amount of plant and plant-derived material required to make biofuels....
Disinformation Propaganda & Spinnewsbusters.org/ ... 16:53:09Of the broadcast network evening news shows, on Friday the NBC Nightly News uniquely covered the "history-making" federal court ruling striking down Washington, D.C.'s restrictive gun control laws. While anchor Brian Williams made the story his show's lead item, with correspondent Pete Williams calling it "the most important gun control ruling in 70 years," the CBS Evening News and ABC's World News ignored the story entirely...
Big Whoops Cascadehosted.ap.org/ ... 16:45:15COLBERT, Okla... A woman looking for a cocaine dealer called a number on her son's cell phone only to discover later that she had phoned a police officer... "Her son had told her that if she ever needed help with anything to give me a call. I think she misunderstood. She thought she was talking to a drug dealer..."
US Election 2008worldnetdaily.com/ ... 16:52:28U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican known for his libertarian views, today announced he will vie for the GOP presidential nomination next year... voanews.com/ ... 16:39:12Among those who could decide on a White House bid in the coming months is Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel [R]... former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson [R] is considering a presidential run next year...
Reporting Sciencetelegraph.co.uk/ ... 16:34:00Scientists who questioned mankind's impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have been shunned by the scientific community. They say the debate on global warming has been "hijacked" by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions...
Print is Deadnytimes.com/ ... 16:33:19Time magazine is coming out with a new look and editorial approach on Friday. In: A cleaner, simpler design, heavy on labels at the top of each page and the names of its columnists in World War II size type — the better to brand with. Out: The last remnants of Time’s signature syntax, parodied by the humorist Wolcott Gibbs with his phrase, "Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind..."
Transport Lawhosted.ap.org/ ... 16:26:16An EU official called on Germany to give up the famous freedom of its highways and impose speed limits on the autobahn to fight global warming - a demand that drew angry responses on Sunday in a country that cherishes what it calls "free driving for free citizens..."
Digital Businesshosted.ap.org/ ... 16:43:33Attention owners of primitive TVs: If you still use an antenna to watch "American Idol," your picture will disappear at midnight on Feb. 17, 2009, unless you buy something called a digital converter box. No one knows how much these boxes, which have yet to be produced, will cost. But the government will help you pay for them, at least until the money runs out... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:13:39Tests have been carried out to see if spelling internet domains with non-English characters will disrupt the smooth running of the net. The tests are a step towards the formal use of non-English character sets such as Chinese and Arabic in domain names. Internationalised domain names will make the net easier to use for the majority of net users who do not have English as their first language...
Digital Beatlesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 16:13:16Paul MccartneyThe Beatles' record label has moved to dampen rumours that the band's music is about to become available online. The Fab Four are the last major act to withhold their back catalogue from stores like iTunes and Napster....
What's in a Number?hosted.ap.org/ ... 16:03:13once a year many of them gather to talk about pi, rhapsodize about it, eat pi-themed foods (actual pie, sure, but so much more), have pi recitation contests and, just maybe, feel a little less sheepish about their unusual passion. That day falls on Wednesday this year: March 14. Or 3.14. Obviously... they start talking about some very simple ideas. Like the beauty of a number that seems to go on forever and yet has no discernible pattern to it... the world record belongs to Chao Lu, a Chinese chemistry student, who rattled off 67,890 digits over 24 hours in 2005. It took 26 video tapes to submit to Guinness...
Star Trek -- still with ustoday.reuters.com/ ... 15:58:47A Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his Web site into Klingon, used in the TV series "Star Trek..."
SUN 2007-MAR-11
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:46:26us-flagMarine Lance Cpl. Dennis J. Veater, 20, of Jessup, Pa., died March 9 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Veater was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's Marine Wing Support Squadron 472, Marine Wing Support Group 47, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Wyoming, Pa.
US Election 2008nypost.com/ ... 12:44:59HillaryHeadline: HILL: I'M THE JFK OF 2008... [Umm... Hillary? Isn't making that comparison tempting fate just a tad, considering his ultimate fate?...]
Recallfreep.com/ ... 12:35:18Chrysler Group announced recalls on almost half a million Jeep Liberty, Dodge Avenger and Dodge Durango vehicles on Friday for various problems. Owners of 2006-07 Jeep Liberty compact SUVs will be notified beginning in May of a recall to replace the heating-ventilation-air-conditioning blower motor on 149,605 vehicles. The company said the motors could fail under heavy use in hot weather. Owners of 2008 Dodge Avenger cars will be notified that 10,994 vehicles will be recalled to fix a front door latch mechanism. Owners of 2004-06 Dodge Durango SUVs will be notified in April that 328,424 vehicles are being recalled to fix an issue with the instrument cluster and interior lighting. A circuit in the instrument cluster may overload during certain conditions. The company said no accidents or injuries have been reported...
Music industry is deadreuters.com/ ... 12:34:46Record labels need the digital music market to take off. So why aren't they helping it any? Physical CD sales have been in decline for the last five years, and according to various estimates are expected to fall another 15%-20% again this year. And while digital revenue is on the rise, it is not yet reversing the trend. Sony BMG global digital business president Thomas Hesse says that if physical revenue drops by 15%, digital revenue must rise by 60% to compensate. This year, he expects net revenue to fall. So what are labels doing other than licensing their music to digital services that they hope will become successful? According to many service providers and industry analysts, the answer is -- nothing...
AmerIndians Todaytheaustralian.news.com.au/ ... 12:32:22An elite group of Native American trackers is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan's borders. The unit, the Shadow Wolves, was recruited from several tribes, including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache. It is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to pass on ancestral sign-reading skills to local border units. In recent years, members of the Shadow Wolves have mainly tracked smugglers along the US border with Mexico.... The unit has earned international respect for its tracking skills in the Arizona desert. It was founded in the early 1970s to curb the flow of Hempmarijuana into the US from Mexico and has since tracked people-smugglers across hundreds of square kilometres of the Tohono O'odham tribal reservation, southwest of Tucson...
Repeal Daylight Savings Time!npr.org/ ... 12:24:05How COMMERCE, not energy savings, is really behind the Daylight Slavings Time plot. (RealPlayer or Windows Media player required) Features Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time. "Daylight Saving increases gasoline consumption.... Retail stores love Daylight Saving.... Americans tend to go shopping... The first and most persistent lobby for Daylight Saving in this country was the Chamber of Commerce.... For 25 years, candy makers have wanted Halloween to be covered by Daylight Saving...." npr.org/ ... 12:14:52Saving energy has long been the main argument for resetting our clocks; it's why Benjamin Franklin argued for the practice, which he said would save on candles... [Note Wikipedia link below: Ben did not argue for resetting our clocks. He argued for "early to bed, early to rise."] Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, says it's not clear that, say, golf courses will benefit as much in wintry March, "because it's obviously true that in Boulder, or in Bangor, Maine, people are going to have to shovel off their greens if they want to tee up." Downing says there are other minor problems, too. International airlines have had to change schedules, because many other countries won't spring forward until next month. Schoolchildren will spend more time at dark bus stops. Orthodox Jews who pray after sunrise may have to wait until 8:30 a.m. or even later, in some places, making it hard for them to get to work on time. Plus, darker mornings could simply depress millions of people who have seasonal affective disorder... en.wikipedia.org/ ... 12:08:15Governments often promote DST as an energy conservation measure because it substitutes summer afternoon sunlight for electrical lighting. However, in some cases DST can increase energy costs... DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett.[4] An avid golfer, he disliked cutting short his round at dusk. The proposal attracted many eminent supporters... On March 19, 1918, the U.S. Congress established DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The wartime measure, however, proved unpopular among farmers, and Congress repealed it in 1919. Woodrow Wilson, another avid golfer, vetoed the repeal but the veto was overridden... DST can adversely affect farmers and others whose hours are set by the sun. For example, grain harvesting is best done after dew evaporates, so when field hands arrive and leave earlier in summer their labor is less valuable... U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) studies estimated in 1975 that DST would reduce the country's electricity usage by 1% during March and April.[7] A study after Mexico reintroduced DST in 1996 estimated a reduction of national electricity consumption by 0.7% and of peak load by 500 MW... In 2000 when parts of Australia began DST in late winter, overall electricity consumption did not decrease, but the morning peak load increased... Clock shifts disrupt sleep patterns, and correlate with decreased economic efficiency. Researchers estimated in 2000 that the daylight saving effect implies a one day loss of $31 billion on the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ alone... Critics also suggest that DST is, at its heart, government paternalism. They "detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:00:25The US has switched to daylight saving time, or summer time, three weeks earlier than usual to cut fuel consumption and help the environment.... Representatives Edward Markey and Fred Upton... sponsored the amendment to the original bill.... [Markey:] "Ultimately, daylight saving just brings a smile to everybody's faces." Critics of the measure say the early switch may potentially lead to computer failures and cause minor headaches such as electronic calendars being out of synch, leading to missed appointments. Canada also advances its clocks this weekend, with all provinces moving forward an hour, except Saskatchewan which does not observe Daylight Saving Time... [HOORAY FOR SASKATCHEWAN! This is all B!S! Energy savings, if any, are not cost-effective.]
Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!themaneater.com/ ... 12:38:41HempIn a lecture sponsored by the MU chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law, attorney Dan Viets taught students about their rights when dealing with law enforcement... He also said it is a mistake to accept promises made by the police. "Lying is a tool of law enforcement..." students should avoid talking to the police, if possible... Columbia Police Department Capt. Zim Schwartze said Viets is wrong about police intentions and is narrow-minded in his views. "Individuals who attend the meetings are only getting one side of the story..." columbiamissourian.com/ ... 12:37:51HempThe National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible Drug Policy held their 2007 state conference at the MU Arts and Science building Friday and Saturday. About 35 people attended to hear professionals and activists discuss how to change drug policies at the university, city and statewide level. The conference schedule included educational sessions on industrial and medical marijuana use, lobbying and strengthening student activism and social events like dinner at the Grand Cru restaurant... For this year’s conference, Randall said an important focus is to raise awareness of a Missouri bill in the House of Representatives that calls for the medicinal use of marijuana to be legal on a statewide basis with doctor’s approval. In Columbia, since two propositions on the November 2004 ballot passed, possessing 35 grams or less of marijuana is legal if a person receives approval from a doctor. The other proposition passed on the ballot decriminalizes the possession of 35 grams or less of marijuana, allowing a maximum fine of up to $200, but no jail time. The charges are handled through the municipal court, rather than the state and federal courts... [Incremental decrim is B!S! REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEAL for personal adult use just like those deadly and addictive recreational substances alcohol and tobacco.] freenewmexican.com/ ... 12:36:02HempNew Mexico.... The state Senate on Saturday resurrected the medical marijuana issue, passing a new bill allowing people suffering certain serious medical conditions to smoke cannabis to treat their symptoms. The action came two days after the House voted 37-32 to defeat the original bill... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:56:51HempCalifornia was the first of 12 states to allow the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes, mainly pain control, and is regarded as having the loosest regulations... Oakland, Santa Rosa and even famously permissive West Hollywood are among cities that have imposed moratoriums on new clinics amid concerns owners and buyers are abusing the law. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has called for a similar moratorium in his city. The DEA also has taken notice, embarking on a stepped-up effort targeting clinics run by people who appear to flout the reasonable compensation provision. Federal officials raided 11 Los Angeles-area dispensaries in one day in January, the largest such crackdown. They returned to one of the clinics in West Hollywood this past Wednesday, breaking down a door and seizing additional records...
Democracy in Actiontoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:55:53The U.S. Justice Department told the village of Port Chester [NY] to rewrite its election laws because they have denied Hispanics a seat in the local government, and the all-white board is fighting back. At issue is whether Port Chester is violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965... Although they make up 46 percent of Port Chester's population, no Hispanic has been elected to the board governing the town of 28,000 people... Many of the Latino immigrants whose rights are at stake remain at the margins of the debate, whether due to a language barrier, economic hardship or fear of deportation... [ummm.... shouldn't those in "fear of deportation" be outside this debate about voting citizens?...]
SAT 2007-MAR-10
Digital Culturesfgate.com/ ... 10:47:08The wife of a Chinese man imprisoned in Beijing for promoting democracy lashed out at Yahoo Inc. for turning over information about him to authorities and said she will sue the Internet portal for what she called its betrayal...
Ummm....hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:06:54WINSTED, Conn... Bank robbers, terrorists and prowlers have given ski masks a bad name for years, but a Connecticut man is wearing them around town to prove that not everyone who dons one is plotting mayhem...
Music industry is deadtoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:01:10In what is becoming an unfortunate tradition, Wilco's new album, "Sky Blue Sky," has leaked online, more than two months prior to its May 15 release date. The group's 2002 album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" was online for nine months before it was eventually released in stores, and 2004's "A Ghost Is Born" also hit the Internet well before street date...
Digital Theory of Educationtoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:00:29The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will become by year's end the first U.S. university to offer all of its roughly 1,800 courses free on the Internet...
Reasons for Repealorigin.sltrib.com/ ... 10:30:40HempThe odor of burning marijuana is insufficient to allow police to enter a residence without a warrant, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday... aid only a limited number of circumstances create an exception to the warrant requirement, such as preventing the imminent destruction of evidence. Smelling pot is not one of them... "The aroma of marijuana must be accompanied by some evidence that the suspects are disposing of the evidence, as opposed to casually consuming it..." latimes.com/ ... 10:16:06HempThree tons of marijuana worth an estimated [prohibition-inflated prohibitionism-vaunting by-the-joint value of] $20 million on the street was found in a rental truck abandoned on a freeway onramp this week... No one was around, and nothing appeared to be wrong with the vehicle... truck was unlocked and its engine still warm... "Somebody's going be in some major trouble for walking away and leaving that quantity sitting on the side of freeway.... I'm glad I'm not him..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:04:46CHANDLER, Ariz... A man who started a small fire while cooking methamphetamine drove to a Wal-Mart to buy a fire extinguisher when he couldn't put out the flames... was greeted by Maricopa County deputies when he returned... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:04:01HempSAGINAW, Mich.... Police said they caught an 8-year-old trying to sell marijuana to other children at a counseling center... found the marijuana in a box of Lego toys... boy is enrolled in a program for students with disabilities... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:59:14Thousands of Russians may have been poisoned by bootleg alcohol containing medical disinfectant causing drinkers' skin to turn yellow before they fall dangerously ill or die... There is something about the light - or the lack of it - that eats the soul in Russia, that makes you drink. The dark days in winter, the grimness of ordinary life. They say one in six Russians is an alcoholic. That is why President Putin, the former KGB man, is something of a puritan - at least in public. He has brought in a series of laws, tripling the price of vodka and threatening dire penalties if people drink black market moonshine... And that is, of course, what everybody who can't afford shop-bought vodka does...
US Election 2008today.reuters.com/ ... 09:54:25Nevada Democratic Party officials said on Friday they were canceling a presidential debate co-sponsored by Fox News, following a joke chairman Roger Ailes made about Democratic candidate Barack Obama... Fox News Vice President David Rhodes responded with a written statement criticizing the Democrats for caving in to MoveOn.org. "News organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus, which appears to be controlled by radical fringe out-of-state interest groups, not the Democratic Party..."
Cartoons Countmsnbc.msn.com/ ... 09:47:53The Walt Disney Co. has started production on an animated musical fairy tale called "The Frog Princess," which will be set in New Orleans and feature the Walt Disney Studio’s first black princess... a girl named Maddy who lives in the French Quarter in New Orleans... also is the first hand-drawn film Disney has committed to since pledging last month to return to... traditional animation... scored by composer Randy Newman... Disney introduced its first non-white animated heroine in 1992's "Aladdin": a Middle Eastern character named Jasmine. Three years later an American Indian princess appeared in "Pocahontas." The creation of the Chinese heroine from "Mulan" came in 1998. Other Disney princesses are the main characters from "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid..."
Modern Family Lifenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:45:46It looks like an ordinary family scene, but Patrick is Susan's brother and they are lovers. "Many people see it as a crime, but we've done nothing wrong... We are like normal lovers. We want to have a family. Our whole family broke apart when we were younger, and after that happened, Susan and I were brought closer together..." Patrick and Susan have been living together for the last six years, and they now have four children. The authorities placed their first son, Eric, in the care of a foster family, and two other children were also placed in care. "Our children are with foster parents. We talk to them as often as possible, but the authorities have taken away so much from us..." Incest is a criminal offence in Germany... Patrick Stuebing has already served a two-year sentence... and there is another jail term looming if paragraph 173 of the legal code is not overturned...
FRI 2007-MAR-09
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 15:14:32DogANDERSON, Ind... A collie named Lassie roused her owners and enabled them to escape their burning home but died in the fire.... "Even the firemen said that. Isn't that amazing? It gives me goose bumps..." "...she was a wonderful dog..."
It's All in Your Mindhosted.ap.org/ ... 15:12:54Doctors have long advised that a good night's sleep is important for memory - but researchers now say a familiar scent wafting in the bedroom might help sometimes, too.... it only worked for some kinds of memories and during one stage of sleep, meaning it's not the answer for people hunting a quick memory boost.... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 15:08:31The brain does register subliminal images even if a person is unaware they have seen them... suggests subliminal advertising is probably effective... first used in the 1950s, has been banned in the UK, but is still permitted in the US... first time researchers have provided physiological evidence of the impact...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:14:45us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Christopher R. Webb, 28, of Winchester, Calif.
us-flagArmy Spc. Shawn P. Rankinen, 28, of Independence, Mo.
us-flagArmy Spc. Michael D. Rivera, 22, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
died Mar. 7 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
defenselink.mil/ ... 15:04:27us-flagArmy Pvt. Mark W. Graham, 22, of Lafayette, La., died Mar. 7 at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol Mar. 2 in Baghdad, Iraq. Graham was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 15:04:01us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Justin M. Estes, 25, of Sims, Ark.
us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Robert M. Stanley, 27, of Spotsylvania, Va.
us-flagArmy Sgt. Andrew C. Perkins, 27, of Northglenn, Colo.
us-flagArmy Spc. Ryan M. Bell, 21, of Colville, Wash.
us-flagArmy Spc. Justin A. Rollins, 22, of Newport, N.H.
us-flagArmy Pfc. Cory C. Kosters, 19, of The Woodlands, Texas
died Mar. 5 in Samarra, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit during combat operations. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Theory of Educationwbir.com/ ... 22:19:14HempSAN DIEGO -- Officials at the Grossmont Union High School District have sent letters home to parents, notifying them that a number of students have been caught on campus with medical marijuana cards.... In the letters, parents, students and faculty are reminded that even if the cards are valid, it is against the law to have marijuana on school property.....
Reasons for Repealnzherald.co.nz/ ... 15:34:51HempA woman who called Napier [New Zealand] police this morning to report a burglary became so upset she broke down in tears - although the police communications officer who took the initial call couldn't stop smiling.... called to report the theft of three marijuana plants which she had growing in pots outside.... bitterly complained that it was the fourth year in a row someone had sneaked on to her Ahuriri property and made off with her marijuana plants.... told the communications operator she was a good person and was sick and tired of "low-lifes" stealing her things... ketv.com/ ... 15:33:31Hemp[47yo] Omaha man was arrested Thursday after police said they found more than 120 marijuana plants in his home.... found the plants inside along with more than 2 pounds of packaged pot... stopthedrugwar.org/ ... 15:32:49HempThe New Mexico House killed the medical marijuana bill there today on a vote of 36-33. The debate was filled with the usual bigotry, hypocrisy, and ignorance parading as expertise. I'm particularly irritated with Rep. John Heaton (D-Carlsbad), who, because he works as a pharmacist, apparently thinks he is an expert on medical marijuana.... wcsh6.com/ ... 15:32:14HempSome California teens... are finding easy access to medical marijuana cards and presenting those cards to school authorities as a legitimate excuse for getting high.... the law doesn't apply to schools which are subject to federal law. The district also says the students most recently suspended for being high with cards in hand, didn't have major illnesses. "Students are getting them for things like sleeplessness and stress, it just draws into question how easy is it for people to get their hands on these cards...."
Digital Businesshosted.ap.org/ ... 15:22:06The high-flying Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of 2006 has given way to a company in financial peril, saddled with debt and bleeding from a brutal price battle with... Intel Corp.... subject of rumors of a possible takeover or private-equity cash infusion.... shares have plunged more than 60 percent over the past year on fears about the company's ability to continue gaining share without hurting profit margins. Meanwhile, Intel's stock is down just 4 percent. Investors are concerned AMD is spending too heavily to keep up with Intel's aggressive transition to next-generation manufacturing technology...
Digital Democracytoday.reuters.com/ ... 15:20:50Politicians failed to tap the youth vote even after record turnout in the 2004 U.S. presidential election and will need the Internet to draw this block, a Harvard University survey showed on Friday. Young Americans were largely ignored by political campaigns during the 2006 congressional election, but their ballots helped decide two tight U.S. Senate races for Democrats....
Love is Strangetoday.reuters.com/ ... 15:18:36A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck...
Digital Whoops Cascadetoday.reuters.com/ ... 15:18:11The mayor of a small town in Germany on Thursday called on Google Earth to delete a reference to a nearby "Mount Hitler" from its geographic image service, saying it was misleading.... had been known as Mount Hitler for a short time during the Third Reich but had been given back its original name of Heigelkopf after World War Two.... Google Germany spokesman Stefan Keuchel said the Hitler name had appeared due to a "technical accident..."
Modern Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 15:16:44Springfield, the Oregon one, is on a list of like-named towns competing for the big-screen debut of Homer, Bart and the rest of the TV Simpson family this summer... [Why would any town want to be the Simpsons' "Springfield"?]
Digital Culturetoday.reuters.com/ ... 15:10:35Calls made on cell phones do not affect hospital medical devices, U.S. researchers said on Friday, but store anti-theft alarms might make implanted heart devices misfire...
Free Expressionhosted.ap.org/ ... 15:10:13Turkey lifted its ban on YouTube Friday... two days after a court ordered the Web site blocked...
Big Nannyblog.washingtonpost.com/ ... 22:19:50His own party's club won't let him light up, so House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been sneaking over to the National Democratic Club to smoke. Ironic, and a tad scandalous -- considering Boehner sits on the board of the Capitol Hill Club, where Republican members of Congress do their boozing and schmoozing... upi.com/ ... 22:18:03A Swedish woman has been sued for smoking in her own garden. Her neighbor... a lawyer, demands 15,000 kroner ($2,000) in damages for her previous smoking plus another 2,000 kroner ($280) every time she lights up in the future.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 15:12:16Full-page ads in college newspapers Friday call on university leaders, athletic conferences and the NCAA to "stop the madness" by banning alcohol marketing from college sports.... The ad claims that the alcohol industry spent more than $52 million to advertise its products during televised college sports in a recent year.... NCAA limits alcohol ads to one minute per hour of broadcast, won't allow ads for hard liquor and encourages "responsibility themes and messages" in the ads. The beer industry maintains the NCAA tournament draws a largely adult TV audience... with a median age of 48.... today.reuters.com/ ... 15:06:12European homes, offices and streets will have to use energy-efficient lighting by the end of the decade, EU leaders decided on Friday.... German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chaired the summit, told a news conference: "We're not saying people should throw out all the bulbs in their house today but people should start looking at what's in the shops. Most of the light bulbs in my flat are energy-saving bulbs. They're not yet quite bright enough. When I'm looking for something I've dropped on the carpet, I have a bit of a problem...."
THU 2007-MAR-08
Prison Suckstoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:31:22A Paraguayan man walked free on Wednesday after spending 19 years in prison without ever being tried.... [39yo] was held in the psychiatric wing of the Tacumbu prison in the capital Asuncion, but at his first court hearing in nearly two decades he was cleared of wrongdoing and immediately released.... originally detained on accusations of violent conduct, but he was never tried for any crime.... had been abandoned by his relatives and that jail wardens had not been able to contact them....
Betrayaltoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:06:43Police in Arizona arrested a former U.S. Navy sailor on charges of spying and providing material support to terrorists.... suspected of providing classified information to a London-based organization called Azzam Publications and knowing that it was to be used in a conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens.... related to disclosure [of] a U.S. Navy battle group movements as it traveled from California to the Gulf in 2001...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 10:47:32us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Darrel D. Kasson, 43, of Florence, Ariz., died Mar. 4 in Tikrit, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle at Bayji, Iraq. He was assigned to the 259th Security Forces Company, Phoenix. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:47:05us-flagArmy Spc. Blake Harris, 22, of Pueblo, Colo., assigned to the 1st Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
us-flagArmy Spc. Ryan D. Russell, 20, of Elm City, N.C., assigned to the 1st Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
us-flagArmy Pvt. Barry W. Mayo, 21, of Ecru, Miss., assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
died Mar. 5 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit.
defenselink.mil/ ... 10:45:48us-flagArmy Sgt. Brandon A. Parr, 25, of West Valley, Utah
us-flagArmy Sgt. Michael C. Peek, 23, of Chesapeake, Va.
us-flagArmy Sgt. Ashly L. Moyer, 21, of Emmaus, Pa.
died Mar. 3 in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle. They were assigned to the 630th Military Police Company, Bamberg, Germany.
Military Culturetoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:21:43An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades. The VIPeR, roughly the size of a small television....
Dinosaurs -- still with ustoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:20:25scientists estimated the size of the genome -- the genetic composition of an organism -- for 31 species of dinosaurs and extinct birds, and found that the meat-eating types like T-rex had relatively small genomes...
Long Underwear Heroes are Deadindystar.com/ ... 10:41:46Captain America... Wednesday, the comic world was stunned to learn that the venerable superhero had been killed by a sniper in the latest issue of his namesake comic. It ended a long run for the stars-and-stripes-clad character, created in 1941. Over the years, 210 million copies of Captain America comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment, have been sold in 75 countries.... As word of the storyline spread among collectors, comic shops across the country -- including Indianapolis -- began selling out within hours.... In the comic-book universe, death isn't always final. Marvel Entertainment Editor in Chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback isn't impossible. But even if Captain America turns out to have met his end in print, he may not disappear entirely. Marvel is developing a Captain America movie...
It's Only Moneytoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:32:14In God We Trust. In machines? Not so much. An unknown number of new U.S. $1 coins bearing the image of George Washington are missing the words "In God We Trust" and other lettering along the edges, the U.S. Mint said on Wednesday.... were supposed to have the inscriptions "In God We Trust," "E Pluribus Unum," the date and the mint mark around the edge. It is unclear how the mistake occurred or how many of the coins are in circulation....
Reasons for Repealfreshplaza.com/ ... 10:38:13HempEight people were arrested after police busted what they believe is the largest indoor marijuana grow operation ever found in eastern Ontario. Ontario Provincial Police seized 3,100 marijuana plants from the Imperial Mushroom Farm in North Stormont, Ont., on Tuesday.... They estimated the farm would have earned millions of dollars annually if it had been in full production... usatoday.com/ ... 10:37:28HempWEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — A decade ago, the Rev. Scott Imler co-wrote and organized the ballot initiative that made California the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use. Now Imler shakes his head with dismay over what his law has wrought: scores of storefront marijuana shops across Southern California with menus of pot varieties for sale to anyone with a doctor's note.... "It's really become a way of skirting the law for the recreational use of marijuana," Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon says... [Legalization... live with it!] elpasotimes.com/ ... 10:36:19HempA former El Paso trucking manager convicted of transporting marijuana in his tractor-trailers was sentenced this week to life in prison by a North Carolina judge.... firefightingnews.com/ ... 10:35:46HempOregon - A fire in an Aloha home this morning revealed an apparent marijuana growing operation.... firefighters discovered what appeared to be marijuana plants and grow lights in the large attic space... the renter was growing upwards of 100 marijuana plants in the attic of the house... appears that the fire started in the same area of the attic where the marijuana plants were growing... star.txstate.edu/ ... 10:34:48HempThe penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana could be reduced if a bill in the Texas House of Representatives is passed.... would reclassify possession of up to one ounce of marijuana from a Class B to a Class C misdemeanor.... offenders do not receive jail time for a first offense... would only be required to pay a fine. The current law states possession of up to two ounces is considered a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a maximum fine of $2,000.... [THIS IS B!S! REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEAL!] hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:26:21Britain's drug policy has failed and should be replaced with a system that recognizes drinking and smoking can cause more harm than some illegal drugs, according to an independent study published Thursday.... New laws are needed that acknowledge that "whether we like it or not, drugs are and will remain a fact of life.... On that basis, the aim of the law should be to reduce the amounts of harms caused to individuals, their friends and families, their children and their communities..." said current laws are "driven by moral panic," with large amounts of money wasted on futile efforts to stop supply rather than going after the criminal networks behind the drugs on British streets... [URK! Still wrong! REPEAL! REPEAL! REPEAL!] also called for jail sentences to be given for only the most serious drug-related crimes and for addicts to be given jobs and housing as part of treatment...
People Livehosted.ap.org/ ... 10:23:21COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo... A woman who went into a vegetative state more than six years ago awoke this week for three days and spoke with her family and a local television station before slipping back. "I'm fine," Christa Lilly told her mother on Sunday - her first words in eight months. She has awakened four other times for briefer periods since suffering a heart attack and stroke in November of 2000.... also got to see youngest daughter, Chelcey, now 12 years old, and three grandchildren.... mother and caregiver Minnie Smith said: "The good Lord let me know she's alright, he brings her back to visit every so often and I'm thankful for that..."
Digital Businesstoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:21:10The on-line collaboration responsible for Wikipedia plans to build a search engine to rival those of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., the founder of the popular Internet encyclopaedia said on Thursday. Wikia Inc., the commercial counterpart to the non-profit Wikipedia, is aiming to take as much as 5 percent of the lucrative Internet search market....
Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:56:11Thousands of prospective university students are using the internet to cheat in their applications, analysis by admissions service Ucas reveals. Checks on 50,000 personal statements found 5% had borrowed material... done after the 15 October deadline for Oxbridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary science applications. Almost 800 drew on three example medicine statements on a free website, including a story about burnt pyjamas...
WED 2007-MAR-07
Love is Strangehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:01:44SALT LAKE CITY.... a groom is in jail, accused of trying to run over his new wife after a weekend wedding in Las Vegas.... [29yo bride] apparently got out of the car and started to walk away when [33yo groom] drove off the road and hit her with the car, pushing her into a snowbank... not seriously injured but might have a broken leg... Both have jail records and are "well known to the sheriff's office..."
Wasn't the Potcanada.com/ ... 11:12:24ORANGEBURG, S.C.... A car with 43 pounds of Hempmarijuana crashed into a trooper's cruiser... causing minor injuries to the trooper behind the wheel, Williamson said. Officers found two large duffel bags in the trunk with 43 pounds of marijuana in plastic bags, worth [prohibition-inflated black-market value] more than $150,000... also found a few marijuana cigarettes and cocaine.... 54-year-old driver from Daytona Beach Shores, Fla., was charged with driving under the influence, possession of cocaine and trafficking marijuana... [What an idiot!] hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:59:20STEVENS POINT, Wis... 24-year-old man called police to tell them he was trying to break into a church, but he wasn't having much luck.... told them he had hoped to get married in the church and was trying to use a metal shovel to break through the doors.... figured they could help. Officers search the man and found marijuana. He then invited them to his home, where he told them they would find more drugs.... showed them his stash of Hempmarijuana and stolen prescription drugs... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:57:39SHEBOYGAN, Wis... 22-year-old man was arrested for drug possession after police found a Hempmarijuana pipe and drugs stashed in his underwear.... after they found the man's car stuck in a ditch in Wilson.... the man's pants were undone and officers asked if there was anything illegal in his clothing.... found a pipe and a small amount of marijuana.... charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, felony marijuana possession and operating a vehicle after having his license revoked...
Iraqhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:26:44Iran will attend the international conference on Iraq that will be held in Baghdad on Saturday.... A deputy foreign minister will lead the Iranian delegation to the conference of Iraq's neighbors and the Big Five of the U.N. Security Council....
US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 10:13:57National Guard... This week, the Navy and Marine Corps announced an increase, while the Army, Air Force and Coast Guard had a decrease. The net collective result is 794 fewer reservists mobilized than last week.... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 82,052, including both units and individual augmentees.... defenselink.mil/ ... 10:13:13The Department of Defense announced today the completion of the second round of annual administrative review boards (ARB) conducted for enemy combatants detained at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.... Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, the designated civilian official (DCO) for the ARB process, has now made final decisions on all 328 board recommendations consisting of 55 (17 percent) transfers and 273 continued detentions.... More detainees have been released or transferred than remain in Guantanamo, underscoring the fact that the United States has put in place processes to assess each individual and make a determination about whether they may be released or transferred during the course of ongoing hostilities. This process is discretionary, administrative and is not required by the Geneva Convention or by U.S. or international law.... The number of detainees currently at Guantanamo is approximately 385, of which more than 80 have been designated for release or transfer, pending discussions with other nations or pending resolution of litigation in U.S. courts. All of the detainees remaining at Guantanamo are enemy combatants and represent a threat to the United States and our allies. Although individuals in the U.S. and in the international community have called for closing Guantanamo, no one has suggested a viable option to deal with these dangerous men. Guantanamo remains the most secure and efficient environment to process and contain these individuals....
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 10:10:37us-flagMarine Lance Cpl. Raul S. Bravo, 21, of Elko, Nev., died March 3 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Bravo was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Your Government at Playcbs4denver.com/ ... 11:17:55The city of Denver has recycled old parking meters to help in the fight against homelessness. The old parking meters have been placed at various locations in downtown, including Skyline Park. The idea is to encourage people to put the money into the parking meters instead of giving to panhandlers. Money raised from the meters will go to organizations fighting homelessness...
Just Random Chancechron.com/ ... 11:07:38At least two people can claim a share of a record $370 million lottery jackpot, and there could be more winners — California was still checking its Mega Millions results... One winning ticket was traced to a liquor store in Woodbine, N.J., and another to a market in Dalton, Ga.... odds of hitting it: about 1 in 176 million...
Digital Businesstoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:56:07Dell... is considering offering the Linux operating system as an alternative to... Windows on its personal computers....The only operating system that Dell currently offers on its PCs is Windows, with one exception.... It sells high-end Linux desktops designed specifically for use in oil and gas exploration... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:51:23Internet music broadcasters worry that a new ruling could put many of them out of business by drastically increasing the royalty payments they have to make to record labels and artists. The new rates, which are retroactive to last year, were decided on Friday by the Copyright Royalty Board, a panel of three copyright judges, and made public Tuesday on the board's Web site, http://loc.gov/crb. The ruling could have the greatest impact on startup companies that make their living from broadcasting music online and selling advertising to pay for it.... former rate structure... called for paying royalties of 12 percent of revenues to music publishers.... the new rates... charge per song and per channel regardless of how much advertising money is being generated.... increasing [one company's] 2006 royalty bill from $48,000 to $600,000....
Digital Culturetoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:48:32MTV Networks, owner of the MTV and Comedy Central channels, is pushing a risky new Web strategy to win back young viewers from the likes of YouTube and MySpace. The network, which already has 150 Web sites in 162 countries, plans to build literally thousands more, hoping to draw viewers by letting them watch, contribute and even re-edit its television shows....
Free Expressionmediainfo.com/ ... 11:10:46At least two more daily newspapers -- The Oakland Press of Michigan and The Mountain Press of Sevierville, Tenn. -- have dropped Ann Coulter's column. A daily in Pennsylvania had dropped the column two days ago. Oakland Press Editorial Page Editor Allan Adler, when reached this morning by E&P, said Coulter's use of the word "faggot" in a Friday speech was "definitely a factor" in the decision.... today.reuters.com/ ... 10:39:47More than 30 Vermont towns passed resolutions on Tuesday seeking to impeach President Bush, while at least 16 towns in the tiny New England state called on Washington to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Known for picturesque autumn foliage, colonial inns, maple sugar and old-fashion dairy farms, Vermont is in the vanguard of a grass-roots protest movement to impeach Bush over his handling of the unpopular Iraq war... [Grassroots movements can be so cuuuute!] news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:36:43Access to... YouTube has been suspended in Turkey following a court order.... imposed after prosecutors told the court that clips insulting former Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had appeared on the site. According to Turkish media, there has been a "virtual war" between Greek and Turkish users of the site, with both sides posting insulting videos. The clip prompting the ban reportedly dubbed Ataturk and Turks homosexuals.... The European Union, which Turkey is hoping to join, has long called for an easing of Article 301 - the law which prevents insults to Turkish culture - arguing that the law places severe restrictions on free speech in Turkey. About 50 writers in the country have been put on trial for allegedly contravening the rule... though most cases have eventually been dismissed by the judge...
Reporting Sciencetoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:18:08Reclusive spiders living in the Arctic may yield clues to the impact of global warming [Say "implact of climate change" rather than "impact of global warming" to be scientifically accurate and non-politicized... sigh!...] just like bigger, better-known predators such as polar bears, a researcher said on Tuesday. Any disruptions to tiny Arctic spiders, little studied and living much of their lives under snow, could ripple through the food chain since they prey on insects and are in turn eaten by birds, said Michael Nickel of Stuttgart University in Germany. Nickel is to study Arctic spiders during a U.N.-sponsored International Polar Year in 2007-08, a 60-nation project to probe polar areas on the front lines of climate change. There are about 70 species of spiders in Greenland alone...
TUE 2007-MAR-06
Iraqnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:10:09Iraq's prime minister has called for an investigation into Sunday's raid by Iraqi and British forces in Basra on an intelligence agency detention centre. Nouri Maliki issued a statement calling for those behind the "illegal and irresponsible act" to be punished. The British military said the raid was part of an operation led by Iraqi counter-terrorist forces who were seeking a "known death squad leader". It said evidence of torture had been found at the southern Iraqi facility...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:43:01us-flagArmy Spc. Christopher D. Young, 20, of Los Angeles, Calif., died March 2 in Safwan, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to Company C, 3rd Battalion, 160th Infantry Regiment, California Army National Guard, San Pedro, Calif. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:42:40us-flagNavy Cmdr. Morgan C. Tulang, 36, of Hilo, Hawaii, died from apparent natural causes March 2, 2007, in Kuwait. Tulang was assigned to U.S. Central Command Deployment Distribution Operations Center, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
us-flagNavy Hospitalman Lucas W.A. Emch, 21, of Kent, Ohio, died March 2, 2007, when an Improvised Explosive Device detonated in his vicinity while conducting combat operations in Al-Anbar Province, Iraq. Emch was a hospital corpsman assigned to 1st Marine Logistics Group, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
defenselink.mil/ ... 11:42:03us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Paul M. Latourney, 28, of Roselle, Ill.
us-flagArmy Spc. Luis O. Rodriguez-Contrera, 22, of Allentown, Pa.
died March 2 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle while on combat patrol. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
defenselink.mil/ ... 11:41:28us-flagMarine Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Gould, 28, of Longmont, Colo., died March 2 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Gould was assigned to 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Geologyhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:31:10A pair of cave divers said Monday they have found subterranean passages in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula that constitute the world's longest underwater cave system... found flooded underground passages connecting two previously known cave systems - a discovery that shows how interconnected and vulnerable the Yucatan's fabled underground water system is...
Digital Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:38:26A new study that estimates how much digital information is zipping around (hint: a lot) finds that for the first time, there's not enough storage space to hold it all... determined that the world generated 161 billion gigabytes - 161 exabytes - of digital information last year. That's like 12 stacks of books that each reach from the Earth to the sun. Or you might think of it as 3 million times the information in all the books ever written... estimates that the world had 185 exabytes of storage available last year and will have 601 exabytes in 2010. But the amount of stuff generated is expected to jump from 161 exabytes last year to 988 exabytes (closing in on 1 zettabyte) in 2010...
Digital Whoops Cascadenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:26:31...Wikipedia... controversy... a prominent editor had assumed a false identity complete with fake PhD.... described himself as a professor of religion at a private university.... was in fact [24yo]... college student from Kentucky who used texts such as Catholicism for Dummies... had the authority to arbitrate disputes between authors and remove site vandalism....
Theory of Educationtoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:55:11BARI, Italy... An irate Italian family beat up a principal because they were unhappy with the grades a young relative had received and a ban on cell phones at school...
Business Culturetoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:54:12Starbucks Corp. is opposing Indian entrepreneur Shahnaz Husain's plans to start a chain of coffee shops called Starstrucks.... "Why should I give it up? Hundreds of others are deceptively similar. What to do? They have opposed and we will fight..." plans to open 25 stores in a year. The shops will have a glamour theme, with posters of movie stars, the paper said. "My concept's totally different..."
SUN 2007-MAR-04
Iraqnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:35:22More than 1,100 Iraqi and US troops have carried out an operation in Baghdad's Shia stronghold of Sadr City, the US military has said. It said no weapons cache had been found or suspected militant arrested. Meanwhile five people were detained in an early-morning raid by UK and Iraqi troops in the southern city of Basra.... In Basra, five people were held by British and Iraqi forces on suspicion of involvement in roadside bomb attacks against the multinational forces and Iraqi civilians, as well as kidnaps, torture and murder. As a result of information obtained, Iraqi counter-intelligence forces then raided the National Iraqi Intelligence Agency headquarters, where "further evidence of significant criminal activity such as torture" was found and a number of prisoners released.... Meanwhile the US military announced the death of three more servicemen in Anbar province.... chicagotribune.com/ ... 11:32:29The U.S. military has reached an agreement with representatives of the Shiite community in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave that will allow American forces to maintain a permanent presence in the militia stronghold for the first time since 2004...
Violencecbsnews.com/ ... 11:31:15WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, March 4, 2007... A man suspected of killing and dismembering his wife was captured Sunday as he fled searchers, running through snow in northern Michigan... police discovered what they believe to be the torso and other body parts of his wife, Tara Lynn Grant, in and around the couple's house in a suburb of Detroit... arrested in Bliss Township in northern Michigan, some 225 miles from his home... eitb24.com/ ... 11:29:52US military said a "complex" ambush involving a suicide car bomb and militant gunfire killed 16 Afghan civilians and wounded 34 people... involving a suicide car-bomb attack and militant gunfire... Afghan authorities said 10 civilians were killed and more than 30 wounded, at least eight of them when U.S. troops opened fire after the blast. They said they were not aware of the convoy coming under fire from gunmen after the blast... The U.S. military said its troops had returned fire in defence after a "complex ambush" but it did not make clear how the 16 civilians were killed and 24 wounded. The incident was being investigated by U.S and Afghan forces, it said... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:14:14Eleven civilians and a police officer have been killed by a suicide car bomber in the Iraqi city of Ramadi.... the US military said it had killed several "key" insurgents north of Baghdad whom it blamed for shooting down a number of US helicopters.... The US says another air strike near Baghdad kills seven al-Qaeda suspects it blames for a large number of suicide car bombs.... Six Sunni Arab men are killed after receiving death threats for attending reconciliation talks with local Shia in Youssufiyah... Gunmen kidnap... a senior adviser to the Iraqi defence ministry in Baghdad...
Nature can be Deadlyhosted.ap.org/ ... 21:40:05Avalanches killed at least five skiers in the Swiss and French Alps on Sunday following days of heavy snow... At least four other people died in unrelated mountain accidents... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:00:39At least 40 people have been killed and scores more are missing in landslides on the Indonesian island of Flores... Indonesia is in the middle of its rainy season, which each year sparks dozens of landslides...
US Military Casualtieshosted.ap.org/ ... 21:24:26CAIRO, Egypt... The Iraqi government is responsible for defusing the sectarian violence tearing the country apart and should redraft the constitution and rescind laws that give preferential treatment to Shiites and Kurds, Arab foreign ministers said in a statement Sunday.... strongest sign yet from the mostly Sunni Muslim Arab governments in the Middle East that they blame the Iraqi government for the country's sectarian strife.... defenselink.mil/ ... 20:20:16us-flagArmy Pvt. Wesley J. Williams, 23, of Philadelphia, Pa., died March 2, in Baghdad, of a non-combat related injury. Williams was assigned to the 163d Military Intelligence Battalion, 504th Military Intelligence Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 20:19:49us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Karl O. Soto-Pinedo, 22, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, died Feb. 27 in Baghdad from wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire. Soto-Pineda was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.
Dinosaurs -- still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 11:12:16A new dinosaur species was a plant-eater with yard-long horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary middle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the small-horned creatures that followed... horns, thick as a human arm, are like those of triceratops - which came 10 million years later.... belonged to a subfamily that usually had bony nubbins a few inches long above their eyes.... "It was sort of the grandfather or great-uncle of the really diverse horned dinosaurs that came after it...." Albertaceratops nesmoi, after the region and Cecil Nesmo, a rancher near Manyberries, Alberta, who has helped fossil hunters.... was about 20 feet long and lived 78 million years ago. The oldest known horned dinosaur in North America is called Zuniceratops. It lived 12 million years before Ryan's find, and also had large horns. That makes the newly found creature an intermediate between older forms with large horns and later small-horned relatives, said State of Utah paleontologist Jim Kirkland, who with Douglas Wolfe identified Zuniceratops in New Mexico in 1998. He predicted then that something like Ryan's find would turn up. "Lo and behold, evolutionary theory actually works," he said...
Digital Family Patternshosted.ap.org/ ... 21:33:44...a new breed of genealogists who are doing things that would have been impossible in the not-so-distant era of dusty archives and whirring microfilm readers. He has found so many of his relatives that he needs a computer database to keep track of them all - all 1.7 million of them.... new technologies have made it possible to achieve incredible genealogical feats with relatively modest effort...
Your Government at Playcontracostatimes.com/ ... 11:33:21SACRAMENTO... The state-run lottery has run out of luck with its in-state lotto and controversial participation in multistate Mega Millions, suffering a drought of big jackpots that is forcing a cut in allocations to schools -- $136 million less than last year... [Gambling with education. How about this: government has no place being involved with gambling OR schools...!]
People Do Drugstoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:19:34For the first time since 1990, the percentage of adults who drink a daily cup of coffee exceeds those who drink a soft drink every day...
US Election 2008nytimes.com/ ... 21:44:38Three of the leading Republican presidential candidates on Saturday denounced one of their party’s best-known conservative commentators for using an antigay epithet when discussing a Democratic presidential contender at a gathering of conservatives here. The remarks by Ann Coulter, an author who regularly speaks at conservative events, were sharply denounced by the candidates, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Their statements came after Democrats, gay rights groups and bloggers raised a storm of protest over the remarks... Ms. Coulter, asked for a reaction to the Republican criticism, said in an e-mail message: "C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean..." suntimes.com/ ... 11:32:13Daley could easily take Giuliani... The only big-city mayor to be elected U.S. president was Grover Cleveland, back in the 19th century. I see no reason to tamper with that single precedent. But if the Repubs want to raise the bar by running a mayor for president, the Dems should do the same. How about this dream match-up: Time magazine's Man of the Year vs. Time magazine's Top Big-City Mayor? It would be the clash of the titans. And, when the dust settled, I'll bet it won't be Giuliani time... today.reuters.com/ ... 11:16:39Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani, virtually tied with John McCain in a January poll, held a 25-point lead over the Arizona senator in a Newsweek magazine survey released on Saturday...
That's Not Funny!hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:10:22SharkLINZ, Austria... A mystery triggered this week by the bizarre discovery of the carcass of a 3-foot-long shark in a freshwater river in northern Austria ended Saturday when a man confessed he had put it there as a joke... The prankster, an apprentice chef working at a hotel in the province of Upper Austria, told the newspaper Oesterreich that he put the dead shark in the river Voeckla after it began to smell while he was thawing it out for a buffet...
Big Whoops Cascadehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:07:57CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich.... Two packages containing human body parts - including a liver and part of a head - meant for a medical research lab instead were delivered to a home.... sent from China.... "My husband started to unwrap one and said, 'This is strange, it looks like a liver....' He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear...." Authorities believe 28 more bubble-wrapped human organs and body parts could be dispersed across the country.... Two of five packages headed to the northern Michigan lab broke open, scattering their contents.... [Big YUCKY whoops cascade of gore!]
Digital Cultureinformationweek.com/ ... 11:06:05Ning is making it easier for users to create their own, more elaborate social networking sites. Version 2 of the 3-year-old social networking development platform lets users create Web sites that have videos, photos, blogs, and discussion forums, among other features--all the functions you'd expect on MySpace or Facebook, but with more control...
Reasons for Repealcsmonitor.com/ ... 21:31:46HempSNELLVILLE, GA.... Raids on 40 houses in 12 suburban Georgia counties over the past two weeks are one recent sign of what police say is a national trend in marijuana marketing: growing the illicit crop year-round indoors, using suburban homes as "grow-houses...." "It's the most impressive thing I've seen in 20 years of law enforcement," says Lt. Jody Thomas of the Fayette County Drug Taskforce.... signals that "production is moving closer to consumption...." Alarm about suburban pot-growing is rising, and some worry that efforts to eradicate crops grown outdoors are driving the illicit industry to become more entrenched in middle-class America, a la Showtime's hit TV show "Weeds," about a suburban mom who sells pot.... In the early 1980s, 80 percent of marijuana on US streets was imported, mostly from Mexico, according to... NORML... Today, 40 percent of the supply is grown domestically – about half of it indoors... 14wfie.com/ ... 21:28:57HempHigh school officials in suburban Barrington are alerting parents after tainted marijuana sent two teenagers to the hospital.... Police believe the teenagers smoked marijuana that was laced with cocaine, PCP or embalming fluid.... school urges parents to talk with their children about the dangers of drug use [especially the dangers of "bathtub gin" under the insanity of a black market supported by DANGEROUS PROHIBITION].... waltontribune.com/ ... 21:27:02HempWALTON COUNTY — Calling it the largest drug bust in county history, 900 pounds of marijuana was seized at a dead end on Loth Wages Road Wednesday.... had been placed in 18 bags and left in a pile at the end of the road and discovered by a man who was later arrested.... believed to be part of a ring in Metro Atlanta that utilizes grow houses in suburban neighborhoods.... Officials say the bags may have been dumped because the growers thought police may have been closing in on them... estimated street value [obscenely inflated by the insanity of prohibition ] of $2.7 million... mlive.com/ ... 11:36:32MEDICAL MARIJUANA advocates are hailing... a victory Feb. 27. By a 1,777-1,101 vote, Flint became the fifth Michigan city to approve legally puffing pot for health reasons. Use remains illegal under state and federal law.... Other Michigan cities that have approved medical pot-use measures are Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale and Traverse City. Lansing is the next target, says NORML... Medical marijuana use is legal in 11 states.... The biggest fear coming from law enforcement circles is that legalized medical marijuana use could lead to additional abuse and wider recreational use.... [GASP!] Yet the abuse of prescription drugs, the International Narcotics Control Board said last week, is about to exceed the use of "practically all illicit drugs with the exception of cannibis...." origin.insidebayarea.com/ ... 11:03:56HempThe owner and several employees of a business that produced marijuana-laced foods and drinks for medical marijuana clubs were sentenced to federal prison terms Friday.... five years and 10 months behind bars as well as a $250,000 fine.... "Munchy Way" candy bars... "Pot Tarts..." "Trippy" peanut butter... patients say Affolter's "Beyond Bomb" line of products were appetizing ways of taking their medicine. Medical use of marijuana is legal under California law but remains banned by federal law.... [Lord! When will this madness end? Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!]
Supernatural Sillinesssantacruzsentinel.com/ ... 10:59:55I always feel a little funny defending Jesus Christ against the latest supposed threat to him from something like a James Cameron TV show or Dan Brown thriller. After all, the Bible says people will be drawn to Christ by the love of his followers, and by God's grace, not by some preacher's clever response to the latest conspiracy theory. But, people get worked up and then they ask us pastors what we think, and then we get worked up, too, until we stop and realize that these pop culture moments really are great opportunities for discussion. As long as we don't get distracted from the main thing.... here's why I think these are unlikely to be the ossuaries of the family of the biblical Jesus:
1. The opinion of the expert who knows these ossuaries best.... "...There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb. They were a Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem...
2. The names are common.... 71 other ossuaries have been found in Jerusalem with the name "Jesus" and two with "Jesus, son of Joseph...." One scholar estimates that 48 percent of women living at the time were named some form of "Mary...." imagine someone finding tombs in England with the common names "George," "William" and "Mary" and claiming they were the tombs of British royalty.
3. The probable misidentification of the Mariamne ossuary. The filmmakers... continually refer to the occupant as "Magdalene" when, in fact, the word "Magdalene" appears nowhere in the crypt.... the filmmakers show an agenda to perpetuate the popular Jesus-was-married-to-Magdalene storyline at the expense of other alternatives....
4. The misidentification of the James ossuary.... filmmakers contend that another ossuary reading "James, the brother of Jesus" was stolen from the group shortly after the tomb was found.... But the original documentation of the ossuaries plainly lists that 10th ossuary as having "No Inscription" If it had no inscription in 1980, how can it be the inscribed "James" ossuary today?... many scholars have already called the ossuary inscription "brother of Jesus" a modern-day forgery.
5. The opinions of other experts. Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar... is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the caskets was read correctly. He thinks it's more likely the name "Hanun...." Anthropologist Joe Zias, who... personally stored and numbered the ossuaries... said "...they've simply tried in a very, very dishonest way to con the public into believing that this is the tomb of Jesus or Jesus' family. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus.... Projects like these make a mockery of the archaeological profession."
6. The track record of these filmmakers on biblical documentaries. Jacobovici and Cameron earlier made "Exodus Decoded," which claimed that the 10 plagues of the Exodus were caused by a volcanic eruption on a Greek island. None of the relics — or arguments — cited in that show has been accepted by archaeologists or any prominent institution as proof for the theory, and their interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphics was ripped apart by experts in Biblical Archaeology Review.... The hype surrounding this latest show... heightens the sense that the new documentary is more Erich Von Daniken than Ken Burns....
for Christians, it's now time to get back to the mission Jesus gave us... to show his love in practical ways and teach his gospel in respectful ways....
René Schlaepfer... senior pastor at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos....
SAT 2007-MAR-03
Criminally Stupiddfw.com/ ... 11:18:54HempWATAUGA -- A 17-year-old man was arrested after Fort Worth police searching his Watauga home on a burglary warrant found a videotape that appeared to show someone helping his 2- and 5-year-old nephews smoke marijuana... found the video Feb. 22 on a camera seized in connection with area burglaries they suspected [17yo] and [18yo] of Fort Worth had committed.... [Criminally stupid in multiple ways...!]
US Militarynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:09:14The Bush administration has selected the design for America's first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades... will replace existing missiles.... will be used to replace Trident missiles on submarines... Democratic Senator Dianne ["Perpetually Unclear on Concepts"] Feinstein was among the critics in Congress... "This could serve to encourage the very proliferation we are trying to prevent..." National Nuclear Security Administration... has said the destruction of ageing warheads will mean that in five years' time, the number held by the US will be at its lowest since the 1950s....
History - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 11:04:37RALEIGH, N.C... A shipwreck off the North Carolina coast believed to be that of notorious pirate Blackbeard could be fully excavated in three years... 10 years of research... has been conducted since the shipwreck was found just off Atlantic Beach.... ran aground in 1718, and some researchers believe it was a French slave ship Blackbeard captured in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge... 25 cannons... an uncommonly large number to find on a ship in the region in the early 18th century... Blackbeard, whose real name was widely believed to be Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, settled in Bath and received a governor's pardon. Some experts believe he grew bored with land life and returned to piracy. He was killed by volunteers from the Royal Navy in November 1718 - five months after the ship thought to be Queen Anne's Revenge sank...
Just Random Chancelotterypost.com/ ... 11:22:27The $340 million jackpot for Tuesday's Mega Millions lottery drawing will be the largest since The Big Game became Mega Millions in May of 2002... $365 million [Powerball] jackpot on February 18, 2006... currently stands as the largest lottery jackpot in history.... The odds of winning the top prize are approximately 1 in 176 million...
US Election 2008foxnews.com/ ... 11:33:03Democratic Party boss Howard Dean demanded that Republican presidential candidates denounce conservative columnist Ann Coulter after she referred to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards as a "faggot" during a speech Friday at a national conservative gathering... "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word "faggot," so I — so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards..." chicagotribune.com/ ... 11:20:54Seeking to woo Jewish votes and contributions, Sen. Barack Obama told an audience in Chicago Friday that he considers Iran "one of the greatest threats to the United States, Israel and world peace" and pledged he would try to end that nation's uranium enrichment program.... [yet] suggested that the danger posed by neighboring Iran has grown in recent years because of U.S. policy in the Middle East... [Can Obama have his yellowcake and eat it too?]
Defending Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 10:53:52HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C... A man toting a 3-foot sword... broke into his ex-girlfriend's apartment: The woman's roommate... a sword collector... grabbed a sword of his own and sliced the intruder...
FRI 2007-MAR-02
Prison Suckstoday.reuters.com/ ... 11:57:38An inmate at an El Salvador jail was caught with a hand grenade stuffed up his backside -- a novel attempt to disguise his apparent escape plans... V40 grenade, about the size of a golf ball... They also caught another 16 inmates who each swallowed a mobile phone...
Criminally Stupidthesmokinggun.com/ ... 12:33:47Police tonight arrested two young women, a bank teller, and a fourth accomplice in connection with Tuesday's robbery of a Bank of America branch in Acworth, Georgia... While the incident first appeared to be a bank robbery, cops now consider it a felony theft and have charged the quartet accordingly... arrested less than two days after Cobb County Police Department officials circulated three surveillance photos showing the so-called Barbie Bandits wearing disguises consisting solely of the kind of oversized sunglasses favored by Hollywood starlets... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:49:32MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich... A 16-year-old fugitive believed to have posted a "Catch me if you can" message on his MySpace Web page was captured Friday, three days after his escape from a detention center... "What a smart aleck," [his] grandmother and guardian [said]...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 21:56:23us-flagArmy Sgt. Richard A. Soukenka, 30, of Oceanside, Calif.
us-flagArmy Cpl. Lorne E. Henry, Jr., 21, of Niagara Falls, N.Y.
us-flagArmy Spc. Jonathan D. Cadavero, 24, of Takoma Park, Md.
died Feb. 27 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle. They were assigned to the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
Science Marches Onnnnnntimesonline.co.uk/ ... 21:43:17Scientists have created the thinnest material in the world and predict that it will revolutionise computing and medical research... layer of carbon has been manufactured in a film only one atom thick that defies the laws of physics... [um... hyperbolically speaking...] graphene, was created two years ago but could be made only when stuck to another material. Researchers have now managed to manufacture it as a film suspended between the nanoscale bars of scaffolding made from gold... thought to be able to exist because rather than lying flat it undulates slightly. Un- dulation provides the structure with a third dimension that gives it the strength to hold together...
Big Whoops Cascadesfgate.com/ ... 21:47:21The 22-year-old author of a column titled "Why I Hate Blacks" in the regional newspaper AsianWeek has been dismissed, and the paper's editors said Wednesday that they suffered "a serious lapse in editorial judgment" when they published his column...
Defending Ourselvesnbc6.net/ ... 21:46:33MIAMI -- A man may have gotten away with [woman's] car, but he didn't take her children, thanks to a brave 6-year-old girl.... [man] was able to get inside the car.... speed out of her driveway... The two children were still in the back seat... "I was trying to stop the car and he didn't let me. That's why I smacked him on the head with my book," the 6-year-old said. "I was trying to fight him because he was bad and he wanted to steal the car because he wanted a car to steal. That's why it's rude." The carjacker let [the children] out of the car a few blocks from their home... unharmed...
Reporting Sciencenews.nationalgeographic.com/ ... 12:45:38Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human- induced—cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory... Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun. "The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars..."
Business Culturenytimes.com/ ... 12:38:38Wal-Mart... John Fleming, the new chief merchandising officer, and Stephen Quinn, the new chief marketing officer, said that after a year of intense research, the discount giant is seeing its 200 million customers as belonging to three groups... "brand aspirationals" (people with low incomes who are obsessed with names like KitchenAid), "price-sensitive affluents" (wealthier shoppers who love deals), and "value-price shoppers" (who like low prices and cannot afford much more)...
US Election 2008breitbart.com/ ... 21:51:22Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday blamed Bush administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons... baltimoresun.com/ ... 21:49:16Many people know that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas. But an intriguing sliver of his family history has received almost no attention until now: It appears that forebears of his white mother owned slaves, according to genealogical research and census records... one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Ky. The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves... msnbc.msn.com/ ... 12:32:43HillaryThe senior thesis of Hillary D. Rodham, Wellesley College class of 1969, has been speculated about, spun, analyzed, debated, criticized and defended. But rarely has it been read, because for the eight years of Bill Clinton’s presidency it was locked away.... examining the tactics of radical community organizer Saul D. Alinsky... few realize that it is no longer kept under lock and key.... is available to anyone who visits the archive room of the prestigious women’s college outside Boston.... The confident young student... began with a feminist jab at the clichés of male authors: "Although I have no ‘loving wife’ to thank for keeping the children away while I wrote, I do have many friends and teachers who have contributed to the process of thesis-writing." She thanks particularly "Mr. Alinsky for providing a topic, sharing his time and offering me a job..." The old Jewish radical was famous as a community organizer from Chicago's Back of the Yards... "Democracy is still a radical idea," she wrote, "in a world where we often confuse images with realities, words with actions..." In the end, she judged that Alinsky's "power/conflict model is rendered inapplicable by existing social conflicts" — overriding national issues such as racial tension and segregation. Alinsky had no success in forming an effective national movement, she said, referring dismissively to "the anachronistic nature of small autonomous conflict..."
Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!kpua.net/ ... 12:21:39HempHONOLULU... A new study has found legalizing marijuana in Hawaii would save ten (m) million dollars spent each year on law enforcement efforts.... also found regulating marijuana in much the same way as alcoholic beverages are regulated would lead to 23 (m) million dollars in savings and new revenues annually.... nashuatelegraph.com/ ... 12:20:11HempIf the statewide movement to decriminalize marijuana is ever made into a movie, a Hollywood producer would probably ask Sean Penn to reprise his celebrated role as the unmotivated stoner Jeff Spicoli. But that would be the sort of typecasting that misses the point of New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy, its members say. Among those pushing for decriminalization are a soccer mom, selectman and two doctorate students. Perhaps more telling of how coalition members don’t fit the pot-smoking stereotype, they say, is that four of them don’t use the drug, while two others say they need it for medicinal purposes. "I don’t smoke, and I don’t drink. But I’m a really strong believer in decriminalization of marijuana.... I’m a 48-year-old mother of two teens.... I listen to people say marijuana corrupts our youth . . . but that’s a bunch of baloney. There’s no science behind it. We’re living with a myth. Prohibition is not working..." komotv.com/ ... 12:18:15HempVERNONIA, Ore... State and federal authorities have arrested a [46yo] Vernonia mail carrier... on charges of distributing marijuana, sometimes from his postal delivery truck.... distributed pound quantities of the drug to underage buyers... at [his] home... an indoor marijuana-growing operation was found... [Another idiot not helpful to the cause of repeal! But children are safer from alcohol and cigarets because they're legal than they are from illegal drugs....] wfmynews2.com/ ... 12:16:17HempFayetteville, NC... A ton of marijuana and 26 kilograms of cocaine were seized in a nearly yearlong investigation... confiscated about $3 million in cash, a house and eight automobiles. The first arrest was last April when a person was caught receiving five kilograms of cocaine... a Fayetteville-centered business with connections in Texas." Ten people, who have known each other since high school in Fayetteville, have been charged.... marijuana had a street value [obscenely and absurdly inflated by prohibition] of about $9 million and the cocaine was worth about $2.6 million...
Headline of the Dayhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:56:41Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein
routine training exercise... [170] Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein... just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality... nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed... Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army...
People Do Drugsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:44:37Physical differences in the brain may increase the chances of a person choosing to take drugs... The scientists used a game in which the rats had to wait to press a button and receive a reward, coupled with detailed brain scans, to see if those with the fewest dopamine receptors were impulsive, a type of behaviour often linked with drug use in humans. This was the case - even in rats which had no contact with drugs. When the 'impulsive' rats were introduced to the drugs, and given the opportunity to taker them, they were much more likely to do so than the rats with more dopamine receptors... the reasons for humans becoming addicted to any drug were more complex than simply their genetic make-up... [And may be associated with some of the traits which make some humans constantly rise above their dull and mundane fellows.... But we'll "cure" them anyway because they might do drugs...]
THU 2007-MAR-01
Theory of Sex Educationwltx.com/ ... 10:25:12CLINTON, S.C.... Authorities say a 23-year-old female middle school teacher was arrested Thursday, accused of having sex with five boys in locations including the school, at a motel, in a park and behind a restaurant.... 14- and 15-year-old victims... could be more victims.... between December and earlier this month.... police began investigating... after a note containing inappropriate messages was given to school officials....
Civilization vs Gangsterismtoday.reuters.com/ ... 22:21:58Dozens of loud explosions rocked southern Baghdad in quick succession on Thursday evening... part of a new security offensive against militants in the capital, Iraqiya state television reported... hosted.ap.org/ ... 22:11:05Pakistan arrested a former Taliban defense minister regarded as a top figure in the Afghan insurgency, a Pakistani intelligence official said Friday. Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, considered a key associate of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is the most senior leader from the hard-line militia to be arrested since U.S.-led troops ousted it from power in 2001. ...among five Taliban suspects arrested in a raid on a home in the southwestern city of Quetta earlier this week... today.reuters.com/ ... 10:35:45Iraqi security forces killed dozens of al Qaeda militants who attacked a village in western Anbar province on Wednesday, during fierce clashes that lasted much of the day... today.reuters.com/ ... 09:56:21BAGHDAD... Fierce clashes between insurgents and police left at least eight people dead and 11 wounded south of Baghdad on Thursday.... in the religiously mixed town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad... both sides suffered casualties. A police source said the clashes were still in progress and they expected the casualty toll to rise.... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:53:17A senior Taliban commander says Osama bin Laden is alive and in contact with leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents... Mullah Dadullah said he had not met bin Laden since the fall of the Taliban regime after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but said "we know he's still alive.... He's not yet martyred. Such information would be easy to get - his comrades stand shoulder to shoulder with us. They keep us informed...." playfuls.com/ ... 01:33:11U.S. Director of National Intelligence Jack McConnell said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan organizing new terrorist training camps... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 00:16:08Four pirates who are part of the gang that have hijacked a United Nations-chartered cargo ship in Somali have been arrested... authorities in Puntland arrested the gunmen when they went to purchase supplies in Bargal port...
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 22:13:02DogGARBERVILLE, Calif... A woman found driving a U-Haul truck with 33 cats and three dogs inside claimed she was rescuing the animals....
Geologynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:59:01Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive "open wound" on the Earth's surface. ...Earth's crust appeared to be completely missing in an area thousands of kilometres across.... midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.... not unique, but was recognised as one of the most significant.... an "open wound on the surface of the Earth", where the oceanic crust, usually 6-7km thick (3.7-4.3 miles), was simply not there. The crust does not seem to be repairing itself.... will test theories... including the possibility the missing crust was caused by a "detachment fracture".... "...the mantle did not melt as much as usual and that the normal amount of mantle was not produced." As a result, the mantle is exposed to seawater, creating a rock called serpentinite....
Healing Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 22:14:09ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.... She sipped pickle juice, held her breath, breathed into a bag, even went to a neurologist, but for more than five weeks nothing would stop a 15-year-old girl's rapid hiccups - until they finally just stopped on their own... around 5 p.m. Wednesday. No one is certain why. "Right now, my nose is burning and my throat hurts...." hiccuping Jan. 23 close to 50 times a minute... only stopped when she was sleeping... foodconsumer.org/ ... 10:15:35Antioxidant vitamins may not always as good as intended, according to some researchers. A new meta-analysis of 68 randomized trials with 232,606 participants suggests that treatment with beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase risk of death whereas the effect of vitamin C and selenium on the death risk remains unclear... has drawn immediate criticism from the Council of Responsible Nutrition which issued a statement suggesting that the analysis is inadequate because the studies used in the analysis differ greatly in terms of their designs, size and quality... bloomberg.com/ ... 01:40:29In 1996, scientists solved a mystery surrounding certain gay men who were immune to AIDS. This year, Pfizer Inc. will sell the first drug based on that discovery.... a gene mutation... provides natural protection against HIV... This week, culminating an 11-year race among three drugmakers, Pfizer released successful studies of a new pill specifically designed to mimic the gene defect.... maraviroc... combined with other medicines... is more effective than existing therapies in treating AIDS patients.... Canadian and Kenyan investigators reported that 60 prostitutes in Nairobi didn't become infected after being repeatedly exposed to the virus over 10 years.... The gay men of European descent, the scientists found, were shielded from HIV infections by inheriting a defective version of the cell receptor, called CCR5.... drug... worked by binding to the CCR5 receptor, thereby blocking the doorway HIV uses to infect cells....
It's All in Your Mindtoday.reuters.com/ ... 00:34:04People with schizophrenia cannot hear false notes in music as well as healthy people do, and often cannot make out important tones that convey meaning in speech...
World Zookeepingbreitbart.com/ ... 00:47:40CISARUA, Indonesia... A pair of month-old Sumatran tiger twins have become inseparable playmates with a set of young orangutans... at the Taman Safari zoo where they share a room in the nursery... After being abandoned by their mothers shortly after birth, the four play fight, nipping and teasing each other, and cuddling up for a shared nap when they are worn out... hosted.ap.org/ ... 00:20:23LAWRENCE, Kan... during cold, wet nights, salamanders find the weather a perfect time to go outside and look for a partner. And that's a problem for salamanders who live along busy 31st street and in the nearby Baker Wetlands in Lawrence.... They move - very slowly - across the street to their breeding grounds. The animals have some help in their annual dangerous trek during the next couple of weeks.... an amateur naturalist, went out last Saturday to be a crossing guard for the salamanders.... met another man from Overland Park on Saturday night who was also concerned... The two men picked up a half-dozen of the creatures and moved them to the other side of the road.... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 00:15:22BeeHoneybees are vanishing at an alarming rate from 24 US states, threatening the production of numerous crops. The cause of the losses, which range from 30% to more than 70%, is a mystery, but experts are investigating several theories... "I have never seen anything like it," California beekeeper David Bradshaw, 50, told the New York Times. "Box after box after box are just empty. There's nobody home..." bee losses range from 30 to 60% on the West Coast... East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70%... Beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20% in the offseason to be normal...
US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 22:12:11Secretary Gates On Walter Reed Leadership Change -- endorse the decision by Secretary of the Army Fran Harvey to relieve the Commander of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "The care and welfare of our wounded men and women in uniform demand the highest standard of excellence and commitment that we can muster as a government. When this standard is not met, I will insist on swift and direct corrective action and, where appropriate, accountability up the chain of command." hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:35:04A U.S. Army helicopter made a "hard landing" in northern Iraq on Thursday, but the military said the problem was mechanical and not the result of hostile fire.... defenselink.mil/ ... 00:09:45National Guard... This week, the Navy and Marine Corps announced an increase, while the Army, Air Force and Coast Guard had a decrease. The net collective result is 872 fewer reservists mobilized than last week.... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 82,846, including both units and individual augmentees....
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:28:13us-flagMarine Sgt. Chad M. Allen, 25, of Maple Lake, Minn., died Feb. 28 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Allen was assigned to 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
us-flagMarine Pfc. Bufford K. Van Slyke, 22, of Bay City, Mich., died Feb. 28 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Van Slyke was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Saginaw, Mich.
defenselink.mil/ ... 22:24:40us-flagArmy Pfc. Daniel Zizumbo, 27, of Chicago, Ill., died Feb. 27 in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. Zizumbo was assigned to 1st Transportation Movement Control Agency, 21st Theater Support Command, Kaiserslautern, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:10:30us-flagArmy Sgt. William J. Beardsley, 25, of Coon Rapids, Minn., died Feb. 26 in Diwaniyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Beardsley was assigned to the 260th Quartermaster Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Troop Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:10:09us-flagMarine Lance Cpl. Anthony Aguirre, 20, of Channelview, Texas, died Feb. 26 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Aguirre was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:09:05us-flagArmy Spc. Ethan J. Biggers, 22, of Beavercreek, Ohio, died Feb. 24 in Indianapolis, Ind., of wounds suffered while on combat patrol in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 5, 2006. Biggers was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
Reporting Sciencehosted.ap.org/ ... 22:20:00NORMAN, Okla.... Former Vice President Al Gore told Oklahomans on Thursday that dire environmental consequences will result if changes are not made to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that humans put into the air and sea. Gore spoke before a mostly supportive crowd estimated to be about 7,000 people at the university's Lloyd Noble Center, drawing a larger crowd at the arena than the Sooners have for some basketball games this season...
Yeah, Sure!hosted.ap.org/ ... 22:15:15...The Watson Post Office is one of the nation's 37,000 post offices in which clocks have been removed from retail areas as part of a "retail standardization program" launched last year. The effort is designed to give the public-service areas a more uniform appearance, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Thursday editions. "We want people to focus on postal service and not the clock," said Stephen Seewoester, Dallas spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service...
Big Whoops Cascaderealcities.com/ ... 10:28:01...It wasn't hard to figure out who was doing the talking when the White House released a transcript of a question-and-answer session this week aboard Air Force 2, Vice President Dick Cheney's plane. One big clue: The unnamed official used the pronoun "I" when discussing Cheney's visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan...
Your Government at Playwashingtonpost.com/ ... 10:11:40WASHINGTON -- While Democrats try to restrict how President Bush can spend the $100 billion he wants for Iraq, they also hope to load his measure up with $10 billion in add-ons -- from aid for avocado growers to help for children lacking health insurance.... money for drought relief in the Great Plains, better levees in New Orleans and development of military bases that are closing down.... The expected battle with the White House over the add-ons is getting far less attention than debate over Iraq, but it could reveal a lot about how much Democrats will be able to rewrite the Republican president's budget later this year...
Digital Whoops Cascadenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:03:34...Some old installation discs that simplify the task of configuring a PC for broadband have refused to work on machines loaded with Vista. One reader was warned by Virgin Media that it would be "weeks" before its software worked with Vista. Other net service firms have also admitted that the appearance of Vista has caused some hiccups for users.... businessweek.com/ ... 01:47:15The New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday continued its mop-up from the technical glitches that bottlenecked its trading system and triggered a temporary shutdown of electronic transactions during Tuesday's market plunge.... Investors encountered delays when they tried to bail out of stocks as a computer malfunction caused the Dow Jones industrial average to plummet 178 points in a minute. A backlog in the tracking of trades by a computer at Dow Jones & Co. produced the appearance of a plunge in its 30-stock benchmark index about 3 p.m. when the process was switched to a backup computer that caught up with the heavy volume. But, the question still being asked is why did the Big Board, Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and major brokerages have problems executing trades....
Big City Storiessuntimes.com/ ... 01:36:47Mayor Daley on Tuesday shook off three years of corruption scandals to earn the right to make history -- by becoming Chicago's longest-serving mayor. Against two African-American challengers who hammered him incessantly about corruption, Daley captured all 50 wards on his way to a sixth-term victory that cemented his reputation as a master of coalition politics... 71.6 percent of the vote... csmonitor.com/ ... 01:36:15Why Chicago sticks with its Daleys
Mayor Richard M. Daley, reelected Tuesday in a landslide, overcame little-known opponents and whiffs of scandal...
Supernatural Justicewashingtonpost.com/ ... 01:32:52The [US] Supreme Court, for the first time under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., confronted yesterday the devilishly complicated issue of church-state separation, and whether ordinary taxpayers have the right to sue over the Bush administration's embrace of faith-based organizations.... the justices bombarded the lawyers before them with questions about what kinds of government action could warrant a taxpayer suit. A church built by the government? The number of times a president appears at prayer breakfasts?.. Roberts even wondered whether opponents of the administration's initiatives would extend their concerns to the court itself, which opened yesterday's session, as it always does, with a marshal appealing for God to "save the United States and this honorable court..."
Unclear on the Conceptnews-press.com/ ... 00:46:39TALLAHASSEE -- A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents... "An alien to me is someone from out of space..."
Theory of Educationtoday.reuters.com/ ... 10:37:35Exam supervisors at a German university stuck to rules so rigidly that a man with a bladder dysfunction had to urinate in a bottle in front of 120 fellow students because they would not let him go to the toilet... None of the three supervisors would accompany the man to the toilet despite other students' protests. Eventually one female student emptied her water bottle so the man could go to a corner of the room and relieve himself... today.reuters.com/ ... 00:44:02MILAN... teacher cut an unruly 7-year-old pupil's tongue with scissors to silence him... five stitches to close the wound.... Police are trying to find out whether the injury was inflicted intentionally or was a joke gone wrong...
Digital Theory of Educationhosted.ap.org/ ... 00:42:32Victoria, Australia's second most populous state... has banned the video Web site YouTube from government schools in a crackdown on cyber-bullying... after a gang of male school students videotaped their assault on a 17-year-old girl on the outskirts of Melbourne...
People Do Drugstoday.reuters.com/ ... 00:33:41Drinking a small amount of wine appears to extend men's life expectancy by a few years... Drinking a small amount of alcohol -- less than a glass per day -- was associated with lower rates of death from cardiovascular causes and overall causes... hosted.ap.org/ ... 00:32:36Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide...
US Election 2008today.reuters.com/ ... 00:43:02Sen. John McCain made it official on Wednesday that he is seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and said he plans a formal announcement in April... made the announcement during an interview on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman..." today.reuters.com/ ... 00:18:34Top White House candidates unveiled their own YouTube video channels on Thursday, pushing the 18-month-old Web video-sharing site even farther into the U.S. political mainstream... Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson have signed up to have their own channels. So have Republicans John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani...
Reasons for Repealnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:22:50Opium production in Afghanistan reached record levels last year... Poppy production rose 25% in 2006... Four years after the US and its British allies began combating poppy production, Afghanistan still accounts for 90% of the world's opium trade... The US has recently given the Afghan government more than $10bn in assistance, but most of that money will be spent in security rather than encouraging alternative sources of income... wyomingnews.com/ ... 10:27:10CHEYENNE [Wyoming]... Gov.... [signed] bill that permanently removes the sales tax on groceries.... gwinnettdailypost.com/ ... 10:19:37HempDACULA - Sheriff's deputies raided two homes Wednesday, finding marijuana-growing operations in rural areas of Dacula.... hundreds of marijuana plants.... [Neighbor] who watched the deputies work... said the homeowners would occasionally wave to her but were not friendly. "But I still would never expect this two doors down.... It's kind of freaky...." tcpalm.com/ ... 10:18:09HempPolice suspect at least one of two homes raided Tuesday night was being used to receive multiple-pound shipments of marijuana through the mail... found more than 13 pounds of pot at a home in the 900 block of Southwest Haas Avenue along with a handgun that was stolen from South Carolina... gorkhapatra.org.np/ ... 10:17:23HempKATHMANDU... Police arrested [RR], 20, of Thakre-VDC, Dhading with 98.5 kilogram of marijuana Wednesday.... iht.com/ ... 10:16:31HempMarijuana, the wonder drug...
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years. The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy. It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis... As all marijuana research in the United States must be, the new study was conducted with government-supplied marijuana of notoriously poor quality. So it probably underestimated the potential benefit...
news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 00:17:54The authorities in the United States say they have arrested more than 400 people and seized 18 tonnes of drugs. The operation targeted a major Mexican drugs trafficking network... over a 20-month period throughout the country... the ring - allegedly run by Victor Emilio Cazares Gastellum - distributed cocaine, marijuana and other drugs throughout the United States... 66 arrests in recent days across four states... seized $6.1 million in property and assets, about 100 weapons and 94 vehicles...
Free Expressionnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 00:16:45The city council of New York has voted to ban the use of the word "nigger". The resolution to ban the so-called "N-word" is largely symbolic as it carries no weight in law and those who use the word would face no punishment...
Theory of Justicenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:23:24A US military judge has filed terror charges against an Australian held without trial at Guantanamo Bay for five years. David Hicks, 31, is charged with "providing material support for terrorism"... despite Australian officials asking the United States not to bring such charges. Mr Hicks was detained in Afghanistan, where he allegedly fought alongside the ruling Taleban against US-led forces... first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be charged under a new US law authorising special military trials of "enemy combatants"... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 00:13:43The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a high school teacher from Arizona sentenced to 200 years in jail for possessing child pornography... he was living in Arizona when he was caught with thousands of images of child abuse on his computer... Mr Berger's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal. They argued the sentence was wildly disproportionate - much longer than that for rape or even second degree murder and claimed it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The state of Arizona argued each image of child abuse was a separate crime so the sentences had to run consecutively...
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