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Mindful Webworks Radical Inclineblog-heap o' links
from 2007-jun
Just random links galore. Latest on top.
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SAT 2007-JUN-30
Supernatural Threatsbloomberg.com/ ... 13:04:03Cuban President Fidel Castro said that God has protected him from assassination orders he says were issued by U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush... "Now I understand why I've survived the plans of Bush and the other presidents who ordered my assassination -- the Good Lord protected me..." theaustralian.news.com.au/ ... 13:03:44CHINA today rebuffed an appeal by Pope Benedict XVI for greater religious freedoms and urged the Vatican to refrain from creating new barriers to the improvement of relations. China "hopes the Vatican can take a realistic attitude and not create new obstacles", Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. The statement reiterated China's long-standing conditions for the normalisation of relations - the Vatican must break off ties with Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, and surrender the authority to appoint members of the clergy. The Vatican "should not interfere in the affairs of China in the name of Catholicism", the spokesman said...
Data Thefthosted.ap.org/ ... 12:52:48Ohio... theft of a computer backup tape... contained personal information on state employees and the names and Social Security numbers of 225,000 taxpayers. The patrol is investigating 11 reports of missing or stolen equipment this year, 26 last year and 32 in 2005...
WW2 - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 12:32:52Japan's defense minister said Saturday that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war, drawing criticism from atomic bomb survivors. "I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped..." also said he did not resent the U.S. because the bombs prevented the Soviet Union from entering the war with Japan... The remarks, rare for a Japanese Cabinet minister, were quickly criticized by atomic bomb victims. Kyuma said later that his comments had been misinterpreted, telling reporters he meant to say the bombing "could not be helped from the American point of view." "It's too bad that my comments were interpreted as approving the U.S. bombing..."
Animals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 12:21:40WINONA, Minn... deer jumped out of the ditch about 4 p.m. Wednesday on a road near Nodine and rammed the left side of Bill MacAskill's Acura... $3,000 worth of damage to the front and rear doors... Following behind the Acura was MacAskill's wife, Jean, on a Honda motorcycle. She braked hard to avoid hitting the wounded deer and lost control... As for the deer, deputies were forced to shoot it... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:19:57AlligatorRESTON, Va... She had seen it on TV plenty of times, so for Erin Kemp, wrangling a stray alligator that wandered into her yard was no big deal...
Rage -- not a good ideahosted.ap.org/ ... 12:15:35A man who thought the clerk at a fast-food drive-through was rude for not saying "please" and "thank you" punched her in the face... [Miss Manners's #1 recommendation for teaching people how not to be rude!]
Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:13:41A fired restaurant manager was caught trying to crack a company safe after he searched the Internet for tips in the middle of the burglary... interrupted when two managers who had been in another part of the restaurant doing paperwork walked in...
Nature can be Deadlyhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:09:04Hungry victims of monsoon-spawned floods in southwestern Pakistan rioted Friday, protesting slow, meager aid reaching their marooned villages where many feared the receding waters would yield numerous bodies. Police fired tear gas and shots into the air but failed to disperse a crowd of several thousand villagers who broke into and ransacked the mayor's office... widespread flooding struck after Cyclone Yemyin dumped torrential rains on the area Tuesday... "Every family is looking for one or two members. They are all missing..."
Iraqhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:08:14More than four years after Saddam Hussein's ouster, the Security Council voted Friday to shut down the U.N. inspection bodies that helped uncover his illegal weapons programs but were then banned from Iraq by the United States. The U.S. had been trying since 2005 to get the Security Council to wrap up the work of the inspectors. Iraq's new leaders had also been lobbying for the council to stop using the country's oil revenue to pay the salaries of the inspectors, and the resolution adopted by the council frees up $60 million dollars for transfer to the Iraqi government... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:04:33Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc has said it will boycott government meetings because of legal steps being taken against one of its ministers. The Iraqi Accord Front (IAF) has six ministers, and its move is seen as a blow to the Shia-led cabinet as it tries to reconcile the two communities. Earlier this week, an arrest warrant was issued for Culture Minister Asaad Kamal al-Hashemi, an IAF member. The case concerns the killing of two sons of a Sunni politician in 2005...
Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:17:07A Palestinian TV station has killed off a controversial Mickey Mouse lookalike that critics said was spreading anti-US and anti-Israeli messages to children. The Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa channel aired the last episode on Friday, showing the character, Farfur, being beaten to death by an "Israeli agent"... washingtonpost.com/ ... 13:04:27The U.S. military is enlisting hundreds of fighters each day from tribal and insurgent groups in alliances aimed at countering al-Qaeda in Iraq, the top U.S. general in Baghdad said yesterday, calling it a "very positive development" but one that requires caution to ensure it works to promote security... reuters.com/ ... 12:51:01More than 30 civilians were reported killed and dozens wounded on Saturday in an air strike by foreign forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province... "...tens (dozens) of others have been injured..." NATO... said only "a small number" of civilians had been involved... "The remains of some people who appeared to be civilians were found among enemy fighters in a trenchline..." Foreign forces in Afghanistan frequently accuse the Taliban of using civilians as human shields... Earlier on Saturday, visiting Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told a news conference that accidental deaths of civilians should not be compared to the toll caused by the Taliban. "It is very, very foolish for any person of goodwill to try to create some sort of moral equivalence between NATO and what the Taliban does" he said. "We will make every effort to avoid civilian casualties, against the Taliban, which is making every effort to cause civilian casualties..." guardian.co.uk/ ... 12:43:17"The first casualty when war comes is truth.c"
--Greek writer/poet Aeschylus (525BC - 456BC) news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:38:01Eyewitnesses have described a Jeep Cherokee being driven at speed towards the building with flames coming out from underneath. They have also described seeing two Asian men, one of whom was on fire, who had been in the car. Strathclyde Police said two people had been arrested and detained in connection with the incident... "The car didn't actually explode. There were a few pops and bangs which presumably was the petrol..." "It looked like they had molotov cocktails with them..." Two men, one of whom was reported to be badly burned, were seen being led away in handcuffs... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:35:04a burning sport utility vehicle crashed at full speed into the terminal building at Glasgow airport in Scotland... airport was evacuated and all flights suspended... "The Jeep is completely on fire and it exploded not long after. It exploded at the entrance to the terminal... not a massive explosion..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:35:37American soldiers rolled into Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City slum on Saturday in search of Iranian-linked militants and as many as 26 Iraqis were killed in what a U.S. officer described as "an intense firefight." But residents, police and hospital officials said eight civilians were killed in their homes and angrily accused U.S. forces of firing blindly on the innocent... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:31:53Spanish police acting on a telephoned bomb threat evacuated Ibiza airport in the Balearic islands on Saturday, and later used a controlled explosion to detonate a suspicious package... Spanish authorities did not immediately say who they believed was behind the incident, reports on the Web sites of dailies El Pais, El Mundo and La Vanguardia's said three warnings had been received by the Basque newspaper Gara, which the violent Basque separatist group ETA often uses as a conduit for bomb warnings... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:09:49Londoners were on edge Friday after two explosives-packed cars were found in the city's theater district just days before the second anniversary of a bombing onslaught that killed 52 commuters, and the thwarted plot revived painful memories. "If something bad happens, you don't want to keep revisiting it," said Caroline Steadman, 35, whose brother Philip Russell was among those killed in the July 7, 2005, attack by four suicide bombers. Still, the threat of terrorism is nothing new for London. It was a frequent target of attacks by the Irish Republican Army in the 1980s and 1990s, and many residents and visitors vowed to carry on as usual... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:03:21Police have confirmed they are now investigating the discovery of two car bombs in the West End of London. Police said the second device had been found in a Mercedes hours after the car was given a parking ticket in Cockspur Street... near Trafalgar Square... and towed to Park Lane... Police were alerted after staff who had heard about the Haymarket bomb noticed a strong smell of petrol coming from it... Both bombs were similar, potentially viable and clearly linked... police patrols in central London were stepped up "to provide a visible reassurance", rather than in response to a specific threat... reuters.com/ ... 11:58:19New York police intensified patrols of tourist sites, parking garages and the transit system on Friday after explosives experts in London defused a potentially devastating car bomb in the heart of the city... critical response teams reinforced crowded areas like Times Square, the bustling theater district and a square near the Empire State Building... "We have vehicle checkpoints that we have instituted on bridges. We're checking parking garages, asking the owners and doing it ourselves, to look for suspicious vehicles." New York normally puts police on heightened alert in response to security incidents in other countries... reuters.com/ ... 11:57:04FBI head Robert Mueller visited Morocco on Friday to discuss counter-terrorism with the kingdom, a staunch U.S. ally that has vowed "no respite" in a battle against Islamist radicals after suicide bombings this year... A wave of activity by religious militants across the Maghreb in recent months has raised concern disparate groups are fusing their efforts to set up Islamic rule in the region, launch attacks on Europe and smuggle volunteer fighters to Iraq...
US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 13:18:46The Department of Defense has changed the status of two soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom from duty status whereabouts unknown (DUSTWUN) to missing-captured.
Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., and
Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.,
were declared missing-captured June 27. On May 12, Fouty and Jimenez were categorized as DUSTWUN when their patrol was attacked by enemy forces. They are assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. Efforts continue for their successful and safe return. reuters.com/ ... 12:48:27The U.S. military said on Saturday it had charged two U.S. Army soldiers with the "premeditated murder" of three Iraqis. The alleged killings took place in separate incidents in the religiously mixed town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, between April and June 2007... Staff Sergeant Michael Hensley was charged with three counts of premeditated murder, obstruction of justice and of wrongfully placing weapons beside the dead bodies in an apparent attempt to cover up the crimes. Specialist Jorge Sandoval was charged with one count of premeditated murder and with putting a weapon by the body...
Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 12:12:04In many people, vitamin D levels can remain low despite abundant exposure to sunlight, research shows... Despite... abundant sun exposure, 51 percent... were found to have low vitamin D levels... "This implies that the common clinical recommendation to allow sun exposure to the hands and face for 15 minutes may not ensure vitamin D sufficiency..."
Feeding Ourselvesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:07:43Products claiming to be superfoods will be banned under new EU rules coming into effect on Sunday - unless the claim can be proved. Blueberries, salmon, spinach and soy have all been hailed as so-called superfoods... protect against cancer and heart disease, but others say there is no evidence for this....
Evolution Isn't Easynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:51:31Scientists in Spain say that they have found a tooth from a distant human ancestor that is more than one million years old... a pre-molar... at the Atapuerca site in northern Spain's Burgos Province. It represented western Europe's "oldest human fossil remain"... reuters.com/ ... 11:54:38The remains of a dodo found in a cave beneath bamboo and tea plantations in Mauritius offer the best chance yet to learn about the extinct flightless bird... remains were likely to yield excellent DNA and other vital clues, because they were found intact, in isolation, and in a cave... "The geneticists who want to get their hands on this will be skipping down the street..." should provide the first decent specimens of dodo DNA... "...must have originally flown here before evolving into flightlessness and the big, fat bird that we know.... We know it's a giant pigeon..." first discovery of dodo remains away from the coastal regions, suggesting that the bird... lived all over the Indian Ocean island... was almost certainly finished off by animals introduced by Europeans about 400 years ago...
Prehistory - still with usreuters.com/ ... 11:52:36WhaleChilean teenagers on a field trip have found what experts say could be a treasure trove of fossils from whales which died millions of years ago... fossilized jawbones, backbones and ribs of four whales... "What we have to work out is whether we're dealing with a few examples that have washed in on the tide or whether we're talking about a real whale cemetery..."
Recallctv.ca/ ... 13:07:35Health Canada is warning Canadians not to buy Chinese toothpaste or counterfeit products sold falsely under the 'Colgate' brand name. The organization has released two separate advisories to warn about the potentially harmful products. Twenty-one Chinese toothpaste products found on the Canadian market have contained unacceptable levels of diethylene glycol (DEG), says Health Canada...
Broadcast is Deadtime.com/ ... 13:06:32...Feinstein and Durbin both came out in favor of re-instituting the Fairness Doctrine, which, before being struck down in the mid-80's by the FCC, forced broadcasters to offer equal time to hosts on opposing sides of controversial issues. And Tuesday, New York City public radio host Brian Lehrer aired a clip from a months-old interview with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry in which Kerry proclaimed, "I think the Fairness Doctrine ought to be there ... One of the most profound changes in the balance of the media was when the conservatives got rid of equal time requirements. The result is that they've been able to squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views." One Republican has now decided to launch a counter-attack. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, who worked as a talk radio host for more than six years, offered an amendment Thursday to the Financial Services Appropriations bill that would deny funding to the FCC for any effort to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. The bill, with the amendment, passed the House Thursday evening...
Woman's Righthosted.ap.org/ ... 12:53:40N.H... Gov. John Lynch signed legislation Friday that made New Hampshire the first state to repeal a law requiring a parent be notified before a minor received an abortion. The 2003 law never took effect because of a court challenge, and the repeal took effect immediately...
People are Trashynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:47:02This weekend Uganda joins the growing number of East African countries which have banned the plastic bag in an attempt to clean up cities and prevent environmental damage including blocked drains... Uganda is blessed with some of the richest soil in Africa, but around the towns and villages it is laced with plastic. New strata are forming - a layer cake of polythene and poisoned soil, through which Uganda's rains can never percolate. Instead, dotted around Chitezi are stagnant pools where even the storks will not drink. Their fetid waters bubble with the methane brewing beneath them...
Lost & Foundhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:18:24SOUTH BEND, Ind... Firefighters recovered a car stolen 27 years ago, but the sparkly burgundy bowling ball that was in the trunk remains at the bottom of the St. Joseph River... blue, four-door 1973 Buick Limited... owner, former South Bend resident Annette Nichols, who now lives in Fayette, Ohio... "It was a good bowling ball..." ex-boyfriend admitted taking the car about seven years after it was stolen on July 28, 1980... gave police permission to scrap the rusty, muddy Buick... "I saw pictures of it, and it's not pretty..."
Digital Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 12:10:49The Internet's key oversight agency is on track to start testing addresses entirely in foreign characters by November, but rules for determining which ones to permit likely will take another year or two to develop. Individuals and companies outside the United States long have clamored for non-English scripts, finding restrictive the current limitation of domain names to 37 characters: a-z, 0-9 and the hyphen...
AmerIndians Todaynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:06:44Oglala Sioux... Tribal police in South Dakota have arrested three Native Americans who set up a roadblock to keep alcohol out of an Indian reservation... Four shops outside the reservation sell millions of cans of beer a year, mostly to American Indians...
Theory of Justicenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:05:55The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by Guantanamo Bay detainees that they be allowed to challenge their confinement in federal courts. The move reverses the court's decision in April, when it refused to rule on whether the men had a right to take their cases to federal courts...
Reasons for Repealtucsoncitizen.com/ ... 13:16:14A semitrailer stopped for speeding on I-10 near Marana on Wednesday was carrying more than 3,200 pounds of Hempmarijuana... driver... said he was transporting bottled water to Los Angeles... estimated street value of the marijuana is $1,440,900... [thanks to the wonders of the black market, brought to you by the Prohibitionist Tyranny of the United States...] thedailyobserver.ca/ ... 13:14:56...What if we could prove a general rise in the incident of illness/cancers starting from the date that cannabis became banned in our society? What if the thing that is keeping a nation of backward people like Afghanistan without modern medicine so healthy, is the THC in the blood stream? Have you ever noticed how healthy even the elderly are in that neck of the woods? Elected officials have no right playing god according to someone's moral concepts. Every other living thing does fine as we have until recently without prohibition laws... salem-news.com/ ... 13:14:14A 47-year old Portland man has received a 16-month prison sentence over a conviction for Possession and Manufacture of a Controlled Substance... Hempmarijuana... was a valid Oregon Medical Marijuana user... police say he possessed an amount far in excess of what is legal... Oregon Medical Marijuana Card that allowed him to have one and a half pounds of marijuana to treat his medical condition, and allowed him to grow up to six marijuana plants at one time"... had over 20 pounds of marijuana in his house at the time of his arrest... freep.com/ ... 13:11:56[54yo] Grosse Pointe Farms man is in critical condition one day after his family found him bleeding from his head -- and police found 50 pounds of Hempmarijuana in his basement... street value was estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars... dozens of plants in various stages... also 10 packaged bundles of marijuana in a refrigerator... His family said he has a drinking problem, which police think might have led to a fall down the stairs... freep.com/ ... 13:09:38About $700,000 worth [yeah, sure] of Hempmarijuana that was grown by a Clinton Township family in an empty storefront church in Detroit has been seized by local police... [57yo couple] and their [34yo] son... face charges of growing and conspiracy to grow marijuana and possession of marijuana.... maximum penalty of 15 years in prison... more than 200 marijuana plants... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:57:59New Mexico has a new medical Hempmarijuana law with a twist: It requires the state to grow its own... requires New Mexico to oversee a production and distribution system for the drug... "The long-term goal is that the patients will have a safe, secure supply that doesn't mean drug dealers, that doesn't mean growing their own..." [AHHHH! More government control! AHHHHHHHH! Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!] hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:56:05Shrouded in a sweet-smelling haze, clusters of men and women unwind as they inhale fragrant tobacco from water pipes in the myriad cafes that line London's Arab quarter. But Britain is going smoke free on Sunday, and cafe regulars will soon be deprived of one of their favorite pastimes. The smoking ban applies to covered public places and brings the nation in line with the more than 35 other countries and territories... Experts say smoking bans are spreading because of soaring [group-thinky socialized] health costs... "It's going to take a big part of my social life away... I don't do pubs and this was an alternative..." "Isn't it a shame if this doesn't exist anymore," said retired lawyer Ibrahim El-Nour, raising his hands to the sky and taking a long drag of an extra-strong tobacco called saloom... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:22:05BOGOTA, Colombia... A sharp-eyed airport inspector foiled a plot to ship 20 pounds of cocaine to Panama when he discovered the drugs stuffed inside sets of false teeth... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:05:27The Senegalese authorities have found an empty sailing boat with 1.2 metric tons of cocaine on board... near the Atlantic Ocean resort of Mbour... Senegal's biggest cocaine seizure... worth some $100m on the streets of Western Europe...
Big Whoops Cascadenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:04:02A row has erupted in France after a senior leader of the governing UMP party was caught on camera calling a female political opponent a "bitch"... made the remark while congratulating a party colleague for ousting the woman MP. He has since said he "regretted his inappropriate interjection"...
US Executive Branchreuters.com/ ... 11:56:04An assistant attorney general at the Justice Department announced her resignation on Friday, becoming the seventh official to quit the department since the Democratic-led Congress launched an investigation in March into the firing of nine federal prosecutors... said she would step down on July 9. No reason was given...
World Energyreuters.com/ ... 11:50:50U.S. farmers are on track to grow their biggest corn crop ever, an astonishing 12.8 billion bushels... enough for livestock feeders and the booming fuel ethanol industry... Ethanol production is forecast to double by the end of 2008 to more than 13 billion gallons. Demand for corn will continue to grow in the near term despite mammoth crops. A bushel of corn, the major feedstock for ethanol, yields 2.8 gallons of the renewable fuel...
FRI 2007-JUN-29
Fraudseacoastonline.com/ ... 09:48:35A Russian man attempted to pass off a phony $100 bill at the New Hampshire State Liquor store... Russians are known to be staying in the city ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's scheduled visit with President Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Sunday... attempted to purchase two bottles of Scotch whiskey... The cashier used a special pen to mark the bill to test its authenticity. "It turned a color that it's not supposed to, and when he saw that, he grabbed the bill back and left..."
Theftreuters.com/ ... 09:43:09Not everybody in military-ruled Myanmar is cursing the blackouts. Thieves in the former Burma's main city, Yangon, are taking advantage of outages often lasting for more than 20 hours a day to steal the copper power cables... Sometimes, of course, they get unlucky... Innocent passers-by are also falling victim. "In one case, the broken cable end left by the thief dangled into a puddle and a woman jogger was killed when she stepped into it..."
Cold War - still with usreuters.com/ ... 09:35:35Accusations by the United States that Russia has backtracked on democracy are unfair, President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide was quoted as saying two days before Putin meets U.S. President George W. Bush...
Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:39:16Soldiers have fired on Palestinian protesters in Lebanon, killing two people and injuring about 20... The Palestinians were trying to break through a checkpoint to get back to their homes in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:38:53would have caused "carnage" if it had exploded... An ambulance crew saw smoke coming from the green metallic Mercedes... A controlled explosion was carried out on the car, packed with 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails... Bomb experts manually disabled the "potentially viable explosive device"."International elements" are believed to be involved... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:37:06A rocket has been fired at a plane carrying Ivory Coast Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who was not hurt in the attack... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:36:57Five US soldiers have been killed in an attack on a patrol in the Iraqi capital Baghdad... Seven others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:36:39Israeli troops have shot dead a Palestinian militant in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli army spokesman said troops opened fire on the armed man as he got out of the taxi. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - a militant group linked to the Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas - said the man was one of its members... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:36:21US-led coalition and Afghan troops have raided houses in the east of the country, killing at least four people... Villagers said the four men... were civilians who had nothing to do with militancy. But the coalition said it had raided compounds suspected to be "harbouring Taleban and foreign fighters"... reuters.com/ ... 09:35:55Police closed a busy street in central London on Friday and were examining a suspicious vehicle there... reuters.com/ ... 09:35:16The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Friday accused Myanmar's ruling junta of committing serious abuses against detainees and civilians, in a rare public censure from the humanitarian agency... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:35:00Police in London's bustling nightclub and theater district on Friday defused a bomb that could have killed hundreds, after an ambulance crew spotted smoke coming from a Mercedes filled with a lethal mix of gasoline, propane and nails... near Piccadilly Circus... powerful enough to have caused "significant injury or loss of life" - possibly killing hundreds... Hours after the discovery, police closed a major road on the edge of Hyde Park in response to reports of a suspicious vehicle...
Animal Companionstheage.com.au/ ... 10:00:49Cat ExcitedTHE ancestry of the world's household cats can be traced to just five lineages that lived alongside ancient settlers in the Fertile Crescent... earliest archaeological evidence for cat domestication dates to 9500 years ago... believe it started 3000 years earlier... family feline having broken ranks with its wild relatives as long as 130,000 years ago... from these five matriarchs all the world's 600 million house cats are descended... Unlike other domestic animals, cats probably domesticated themselves, which could account for the haughty independence of their descendants...
Digital Cultureextremetech.com/ ... 09:58:42Ten Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy an iPhone...
World Without Bordersnydailynews.com/ ... 09:56:06The Senate killed President Bush's immigration reform bill yesterday, ending his hopes of notching a legacy-saving victory. "A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn't find common ground. It didn't work," a somber Bush said in admitting defeat. A Senate procedural measure that would have ended debate and brought the bill up for a final showdown failed 53 to 46. The measure fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed under Senate rules. Only 12 of the 49 Republicans in the Senate supported Bush's bill...
US Election 2008thetrack.bostonherald.com/ ... 09:58:01Animal rights activists were howling for Mitt Romney’s hide yesterday after the White House wannabe’s son told the Boring Broadsheet a Clark Griswold-esque tale of strapping the family dog to the roof of the station wagon as the fam took off to Canada for summer Vacation. PETA accused the ex-gov of torturing poor Seamus. And the Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reported that the 1983 incident, detailed in the BB’s exhaustive - and exhausting - Romney coverage this week, may, in fact, be illegal... usatoday.com/ ... 09:48:53Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laid out list of political shortcomings he sees in the Bush administration but said he opposes impeachment for either President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney...
Music industry is deadbusiness.guardian.co.uk/ ... 09:47:17The eagerly awaited new album by Prince is being launched as a free CD with a national Sunday newspaper in a move that has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers... "This is the biggest innovation in newspaper promotions in recent times..." [yaawwwnnnn] One music store executive described the plan as "madness" while others said it was a huge insult to an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores. Prince's label has cut its ties with the album in the UK to try to appease music stores...
Theory of Educationbreitbart.com/ ... 09:46:12Putting its recent ruling on student speech into practice, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a school district's appeal of a ruling that it violated a student's rights by censoring his anti-Bush T-shirt...
Big Nannyreuters.com/ ... 09:43:26China plans to sack all officials found to have secretly "kept and supported" mistresses, in a move aimed at raising social morals...
THU 2007-JUN-28
Thefthosted.ap.org/ ... 23:28:59TvWal-Mart... West Monroe [La.] man... carried a 42-inch Sanyo Plasma TV to a self-checkout aisle after switching the original price tag of $984 with one for only $4.88. Wal-Mart Loss Prevention officers witnessed the alleged transaction and called police...
Transport Troublehosted.ap.org/ ... 23:26:43LOGAN, Utah... 76-year-old woman has been barred from the bus station after giving unwanted birth-control advice to mothers with large families... "She's been making comments to some of the Hispanic passengers that they should be on the pill, that they're taking over our society..."
Nature can be Deadlyreuters.com/ ... 23:15:11LightningThe biggest misconception people have about getting struck by lightning, one of the world's leading experts on lightning strike injuries says, is that it won't happen to them... people are thousands of times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the lottery...
Missinghosted.ap.org/ ... 22:18:56Spanish police arrested an Italian man Thursday with possible links to Madeleine McCann, the 4-year-old British girl who vanished nearly two months ago during a vacation in Portugal...
Policing Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 23:14:31RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled 'bots for the police and the Pentagon. By adding Tasers to robots it already makes for the military, iRobot Corp. says it hopes to give soldiers and law enforcement a defensive, non-lethal tool... some observers fear such developments could ultimately lead to robots capable of deciding on their own when to shoot and kill... reuters.com/ ... 12:00:32Dutch farmer watched in disbelief as a driver under the influence of cocaine drove a slalom course through his corn field, only to be joined by two police vehicles in hot pursuit, adding to the damage... "Shoot out two tires... then the problem is solved," irate farmer Ad van Schendel told police... he estimated the damage to his field... at 7,000-8,000 euros...
Under Sexist Tyrannyreuters.com/ ... 11:59:06Egypt strengthened its ban on female genital cutting on Thursday by eliminating a legal loophole allowing girls to undergo the procedure for health reasons... after an 11-year-old girl died while undergoing the procedure at a private medical clinic... heavy dose of anesthetic... The Egyptian doctors' syndicate has... warned doctors against performing the procedure either in homes or medical facilities, citing "detrimental health effects" on girls... A 2005 UNICEF report found 97 percent of Egyptian women between ages 15 and 49 had been circumcised...
Epidemic Without Bordersreuters.com/ ... 11:54:05The number of HIV-positive people in India could be nearly two thirds lower than previously estimated... India is said to have 5.7 million people living with the virus, the world's highest caseload, but faulty data-collection methodology could have resulted in the number being inflated by between 2.5 million and 3.5 million. A senior official closely associated with India's AIDS program said the new estimate, drawing from a recent population-based survey, would be lower by at least 43 percent and possibly by as much as 61 percent. "The new number (of HIV-positive people) will be between 2.2 million and 3.2 million..."
Cold War - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 22:21:16The top U.S. missile defense official warned Thursday that the ballistic threat from Iran and North Korea was rapidly growing and defended Washington's plans to base parts of its anti-missile shield program in Central Europe... hosted.ap.org/ ... 22:20:54Russia successfully tested a new sea-based ballistic missile Thursday after several previous failures... dailymail.co.uk/ ... 11:14:03Russian leader Vladimir Putin has made an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic, giving himself claim to its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth. His audacious argument that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole is likely to lead to an international outcry. Some commentators have already observed it is further evidence of growing Russian assertiveness under its authoritarian president...
Criminally Stupidreuters.com/ ... 11:05:09Two German teenagers robbed a girl but accidentally left their own pictures behind for police on a discarded mobile phone...
Hospitals can be Dangerousreuters.com/ ... 11:04:33Surgeons in training are accidentally stuck with a potentially contaminated needle once every seven months, increasing the risk that they will develop AIDS or hepatitis... Many do not bother to report it... If reported immediately and treated within 24 hours, the chance of getting the AIDS virus following a needlestick from an infected patient is almost zero... Half of the surgical residents failed to report such injuries to their employee health center, usually saying they were too busy. Two-thirds of the injuries were self-inflicted, often while putting in stitches...
Prison Suckshosted.ap.org/ ... 22:20:36Thousands of tubes of contaminated Chinese-made toothpaste were shipped to state prisons and mental hospitals in Georgia... Officials with the state prison system and with the agencies that run mental hospitals and juvenile detention centers said they knew of no health problems stemming from the Chinese products. They said the toothpaste contaminated with diethylene glycol, which is often found in antifreeze, was immediately taken out of use as soon as federal officials notified the state about the problem... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:03:43PHILADELPHIA... [32yo] officer who ordered two women to put on a "sex show" in a jail cell will be fired... ordered the two women to kiss and touch each other and expose their breasts... The two had been picked up on suspicion of drug possession, but they had no drugs and were not charged with a crime...
Rage -- not a good ideahosted.ap.org/ ... 11:02:23REDDING, Calif... A 49-year-old truck driver has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting his wife after she failed to renew his driver's license... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:01:35FishySHEBOYGAN, Wis... A man accused of stomping a pet tropical fish to death during a dispute with a girlfriend faces charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property... also broke a stereo and shattered a picture window...
Transport Incidenthosted.ap.org/ ... 11:00:29The Washington State Patrol says a trooper arrested two men speeding 141 mph... trooper thought he was hearing an airplane... a 2005 BMW 330i with a 2007 Honda Accord...
Under Tyrannynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:48:39Iran's top security body has ordered local journalists not to report on problems caused by petrol rationing, a day after its surprise introduction... The authorities switched off the mobile text messaging system in Tehran overnight to prevent motorists from organising more protests... government is trying to rein in fuel consumption over fears of possible UN sanctions over its nuclear programme. Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and it imports about 40% of its petrol...
Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:11:05Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has accused the Farc rebel group of murdering 11 politicians they were holding captive last week. The rebels have said the hostages died in crossfire when one of their camps, in a western region, was attacked... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:52:13"The actual threat for Europe is high, very high indeed," Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a top investigator of Islamic terrorism in France, told a press conference in Madrid. "The Iraqi conflict has nurtured the Islamic groups living in Europe," he said, adding that Iraq also remains a magnet for the recruitment of Islamic extremists. Bruguiere said militants heading to Iraq are increasingly going with the goal to train, and then return to their home countries in Europe to plot attacks. He said that among the leading threats to Europe is an apparent effort by al-Qaida to unite terror trainees in Iraq with the militants in North Africa, especially Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, better known by its French initials GSPC... He specifically mentioned France as a target... followed by Spain and Italy... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:46:40A car bomb has killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad... bomb was left in a parked car at a bus terminal in the mainly Shia district of Bayaa... explosion tore through crowds of commuters waiting for buses during the morning rush hour, tearing vehicles open and injuring about 40 people...
Relatives of 11 Iraqis killed by US troops in the village of Khalis last week have demanded compensation, and have called for the Americans to withdraw claims the men were from al-Qaeda...
Twenty headless bodies without identification have been found on the banks of a stream near the Tigris river close to Baghdad...
Three British soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in Basra, in southern Iraq. A fourth soldier was wounded... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:45:06Police backed by helicopters raided a notorious Rio shantytown and killed 19 suspected drug traffickers in pitched gunbattles. Police recovered 13 bodies and six more were left, apparently by the drug gangs, inside a van parked outside a police station near the scene of Wednesday's fighting... the worst urban combat in a two-month siege of the Alemao shantytown, where fighting has killed at least 40 people and injured more than 80 since May... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:44:38Lebanese troops killed at least six Islamic militants during a gunbattle in northern Lebanon on Thursday... Other militants took refuge in nearby forests, pursued by troops backed by helicopters... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:44:19A suicide car bomber hit a convoy of security contractors in the Afghan capital Thursday, killing an American and a Nepalese citizen and wounding three other Americans... Two Afghan civilians were wounded...
In the southern province of Zabul... militants beheaded a 15-year-old boy whom they accused of spying for the Afghan government and foreign troops in the country...
Taliban militants released 17 Afghan deminers kidnapped last week in Ghazni province... freed with the help of the local elders... Afghanistan is one of the world's most heavily mined countries...
Feeding Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 23:17:03Farmed seafood has now joined tires, toothpaste and toy trains on the list of tainted and defective products from China that could be hazardous to a person's health... hosted.ap.org/ ... 23:16:34All lots and sizes of Veggie Booty Snack Food are being recalled... following a report of 51 cases of salmonella poisoning that may be associated with the product... in 17 states... Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain... sold in supermarkets, health food stores, vending machines and online in the United States and Canada...
Orbiting Overheadhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:12:51A new inflatable, unmanned test module for a proposed private space station was launched into orbit Thursday aboard a Russian rocket, the U.S. company developing the technology said... [inflatable space stations... heh!]
Antiquity - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 23:11:42Agriculture was taking root in South America almost as early as the first farmers were breaking ground in the Middle East, new research indicates. Evidence that squash was being grown nearly 10,000 years ago, in what is now Peru, is reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science. A team led by anthropologist Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt University also uncovered remains of peanuts from 7,600 years ago and cotton dated to 5,500 years ago in the floors and hearths of sites in the Nanchoc Valley of northern Peru...
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 23:25:12DogLAS CRUCES, N.M... a report of animal hoarding - the fourth in the Las Cruces area since mid-May... at least 10 dogs in the front yard of the residence and 12 to 18 more in the back... two goats and numerous chickens and ducks... believe more animals are inside the home, judging by the smell coming from it... resident was not cooperative... reuters.com/ ... 12:04:32DogIsrael... police came to take [NF], convicted of attempted murder, to a sentencing hearing... he was gone without a trace. "After we searched the house we saw that he somehow managed to take the monitor off his leg and place it around he neck of his dog, who continued to walk around the house..."
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 22:53:17us-flagArmy Sgt. Frank M. Sandoval, 27, of Yuma, Ariz., died June 18 in Palo Alto, Calif., of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked by insurgents using small arms fire Nov. 28, 2005, in Tikrit, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Artillery, Fort Sill, Okla. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:52:22us-flagArmy Staff Sgt. Daniel A. Newsome, 27, of Chicopee, Mass., died June 27 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 22:51:20us-flagArmy Sgt. 1st Class Nathan L. Winder, 32, of Blanding, Utah, died June 26 in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:43:18us-flagArmy Capt. Darrell C. Lewis, 31, of Washington, D.C., died June 23 in Vashir City, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked by insurgents using rocket propelled grenades, mortars and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:38:56us-flagArmy Sgt. Joel A. Dahl, 21, of Los Lunas, N.M., died June 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:38:24us-flagArmy Pfc. Andre Craig Jr., 24, of New Haven, Conn., died June 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:38:06us-flagMarine Cpl. Derek C. Dixon, 20, of Riverside, Ohio, died June 26 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 11:47:58Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Safety and Occupational Health Alex Beehler will represent the Defense Department in a ceremony today that marks the delisting of the bald eagle from the Department of the Interior's Endangered Species List. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will host the ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial at 10 a.m. EDT. The bald eagle has made a remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there were only about 400 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the United States in 1963, but today there are over 10,000 nesting pairs. This successful resurgence has been largely due to the cooperative efforts between federal, state, tribal, local, and private partners. The Defense Department played a significant role in that success. The Department of Defense manages lands that host more than 440 active bald eagle nests on Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps facilities. Further, since the bald eagle is migratory, many hundreds of other bald eagles use DoD-managed lands as part of their habitat. Defense Department environmental scientists, policy officials, and servicemembers worked together to plan and implement bald eagle management plans for each of these sites, in order to control human behavior and protect the natural habitat for the birds. The bald eagle is not the only wildlife species that the Defense Department works to preserve. DoD lands support approximately 320 threatened and endangered species and nearly 550 species at risk. DoD has spent over $470 million on management of threatened and endangered animals. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:37:40National Guard... This week, the Army and Navy announced an increase, while the Marine Corps and Air Force had a decrease. The Coast Guard number remained the same. The net collective result is 1,254 more reservists mobilized than last week... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 93,716, including both units and individual augmentees. cbsnews.com/ ... 11:25:08The body of a pilot whose F-15 fighter jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean has been recovered, the Oregon Air National Guard said Wednesday... The plane crashed Tuesday afternoon during a training exercise that pitted F-15s from Oregon Guard against F/A-18s from a Marine Corps Reserve unit stationed near Fort Worth, Texas...
History - still with ustelegraph.co.uk/ ... 11:12:15The Leaning Tower of Pisa no longer leans quite so much after a £20 million project to save it was hailed a complete success yesterday... was on the verge of collapse, has been straightened by 18 inches (45 centimetres) returning it to its 1838 position... The tower, which has been leaning almost since building work first began in 1173, was closed to the public in 1990 because of safety fears. The 183-foot tower was nearly 15 feet off vertical and its structure was found to have been weakened by centuries of strain... The last attempt at straightening the tower was carried out under orders from Benito Mussolini, who wanted it to be perfectly vertical. Concrete was poured into the foundations, but the result was that the tower sank further into the soil...
Digital Future is Nowhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:32:41How the IPhone Breaks Industry Rules... The iPhone can handle phone calls, e-mail, Web browsing, music and videos. There are already cell phones that do those things. What's unusual is that on the iPhone, Apple software is behind all those functions. The music and video store will be Apple's iTunes, rather than a proprietary music store run by the carrier. The Web browser is a version of Apple's Safari browser. With the iPhone's relatively large 3.5-inch screen, the gadget will give relatively easy access to the Web at large, unlike the Web snippets, chosen by the carrier, that are available on most other phones. In another example, Apple has said that about 10,000 videos from Google Inc.'s YouTube will be available on the iPhone at launch, and the rest this fall... reuters.com/ ... 10:59:02A Japanese company has created a home appliance the size of a paperback novel that can warn of earthquakes seconds before they strike... Using the early warning system network and data provided by Japan's Meteorological Agency (JAMA) via the Internet...
Healing Ourselvesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:58:13Symptoms of mental retardation and autism have been reversed for the first time in laboratory mice... by inhibiting the action of an enzyme in the brain... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:57:40A puppy found hobbling in the Kuwaiti desert has ended up at Colorado State University, where she might be a candidate for an experimental prosthesis that could one day help humans... candidate for new research on grafting prosthetics to bone, which would prevent her from losing more of her leg...
World of Culturesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:10:29A Nigerian man who arrived in Ireland as an asylum seeker seven years ago has become the country's first black mayor...
Diplomacy in Actionnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:09:46US President George W Bush has appealed for people to give his strategy in Iraq a chance - holding up Israel as a model for defining success there...
Transport Pre-Automationhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:31:15Oscar Mayer... Wienermobile was on the road for a promotion... was in a construction zone in downtown Tucson Wednesday, slowing traffic. Officer Korey Lankow caught up to it and ran its "Y-U-M-M-Y" license plate to make sure it was street legal. The plate came back as stolen... reuters.com/ ... 12:01:26Drivers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, one of Canada's worst cities for auto thefts, will have to install electronic immobilizers on new or "high-risk" cars in order to qualify for auto insurance...
Reasons for Repealhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:23:51SANTA BARBARA, Calif.. [31yo f.] Goleta Valley Junior High School teacher is facing charges for allegedly smoking Hempmarijuana with two students... two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one count of furnishing marijuana... had tutored [14yo] at her home... smoked pot with the teen on three occasions... second 14-year-old student participated one of those time... reuters.com/ ... 12:06:08Britain is proposing to remove the term "prostitute" from the criminal statutes because it carries too much stigma... a new bill that the Justice Ministry has drafted refers simply to persons who sell sex persistently -- defined as twice or more in three months... "We just wanted to remove the stigma of the label 'common prostitute'.... It's been around since 1824, so it was a bit outdated. It just wasn't really helpful to label people..." new bill introduces measures to try to get sex workers out of the industry, and in effect decriminalizes prostitution for those who are not considered persistent... ktar.com/ ... 11:33:28Phoenix police found nearly 1,500 pounds of Hempmarijuana in a residential neighborhood Wednesday night... 50 packages of marijuana... [with a prohibition-inflated grossly over-]estimated street value of around $600,000... medicalnewstoday.com/ ... 11:30:56Scientists at the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility can tell whether Hempmarijuana confiscated in a traffic stop in Fairbanks likely came from Mexico or the Matanuska Valley. They're also working on a way to determine whether it was grown indoors or out. A few more years and enough samples and they hope to have something even more precise: an elemental fingerprint that could tell police where and under what conditions a sample of marijuana was grown... [Which would all be cool and neat if it weren't for how it will serve PURITALIBAN RELIGIOUS TABOO TYRANNY!] cbs4denver.com/ ... 11:29:45DENVER... Citizens for a Safer Denver have collected enough signatures on a petition to get another Hempmarijuana initiative on the city's November ballot... would make marijuana possession by adults the city's lowest law enforcement priority... allafrica.com/ ... 11:28:00Kampala... THE days of local artistes who smoke Hempmarijuana may be numbered. The commandant of the Violent Crime Crack Unit has threatened to arrest any musician and other members of the public got smoking the weed... freep.com/ ... 11:27:29The 911 call a Dearborn cop made after he overdosed on Hempmarijuana brownies has become fodder for Internet humor... winnipegsun.com/ ... 11:26:24Winnepeg... [56yo] former longtime city cop is facing drug charges after more than a dozen Hempmarijuana plants were found in his East Kildonan home... Reached at his home, [he] said the marijuana was for personal use, not for sale...
Theory of Justicerawstory.com/ ... 11:16:50...juries get the verdict wrong in one out of six criminal cases and judges don't do much better, a new study has found... And when they make those mistakes, both judges and juries are far more likely to send an innocent person to jail than to let a guilty person go free...
US Election 2008fastcompany.com/ ... 11:11:06Al Gore's $100 Million Makeover... The untold story of how an epic loser engineered what may be the greatest brand makeover of our time...
World Without Bordersnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:52:28US senators have failed to limit debate on a landmark plan for immigration reform backed by President George Bush, making a final vote unlikely this year... knbc.com/ ... 11:09:22Officers said they discovered three undocumented Mexican citizens -- two women and a man -- hiding under the hood as the truck attempted to cross into the Otay Mesa port of entry... After the man driving the truck, a resident of Tijuana, gave inconsistent answers...
Theory of Educationreuters.com/ ... 11:06:17PALERMO, Italy... A teacher who forced a pupil to write "I am a retard" 100 times was acquitted by an Italian court on Wednesday of abuse charges... forced the punishment on the 12-year-old boy after he blocked a fellow pupil from going to the toilet and called him "gay" and "girly..." In Italian, she made the boy write: "Io sono deficiente," which literally means "deficient" but is more commonly used as a disparaging term meaning "moron" or "mentally retarded." "I explained, discussing with him and his classmates, that deficient means 'lacking'. He was 'lacking' sensitivity for one of his classmates..."
Digital Businessreuters.com/ ... 10:59:48Network neutrality proposals, backed by Internet content companies like Google Inc. and eBay Inc., would bar Internet providers from charging extra fees to guarantee access to the Internet or give priority to some content. In a report, the FTC sided with high-speed Internet providers such as AT&T and Verizon, saying the government should be cautious about imposing such regulations...
Human Rightnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:49:14Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered that a couple jailed for perjury in a row over the husband's sex should be released on bail... The couple say they are man and wife, but the Lahore high court ruled last month that the husband was, in fact, a woman, despite sex-change surgery. The case is thought the first of its kind in Pakistan where homosexuality and trans-sexuality are largely taboo...
Supernaturalhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:42:34Pope Benedict XVI has approved a document that relaxes restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries until the modernizing reforms of the 1960s...
WED 2007-JUN-27
Transport Incidentnbc10.com/ ... 11:30:45A 4-year-old wanted apple juice and when the stewardess didn't get it quick enough, the child threw a tantrum... Delta commuter flight forced... to make an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport...
Sex can be... disturbingpoconorecord.com/ ... 11:17:06Stroudsburg Area Regional Police are investigating complaints of a private golf outing featuring lap dance stations, threesomes and naked women at the Cherry Valley Golf Course on Monday...
Modern Medicine can be Dangerousnews.yahoo.com/ ... 11:15:30Doctors could soon be storing essential medical information under the skin of their patients, the American Medical Association says... could give emergency room doctors quick access to the records of chronically ill patients... The main concern is protecting the privacy of the information stored on the devices. There are also health concerns... their small size could allow them to move to other parts of a person's body... may also cause interference with electrical devices like defibrillators and it has not been determined what impact they would have on prescription drugs...
Police Riotkatv.com/ ... 11:13:11Hot Springs... Video from the popular internet web site YouTube that was posted by one of six people arrested for skateboarding in downtown hot springs is causing quiet a stir... "The kid didn't know that he was coming after him. He kind of just grabbed him from behind and took him to the ground and started choking him..." Now that so many people have seen the incident on YouTube, the Hot Springs Police Department is being forced to take a strong look at one of their own...
Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:57:22At least 12 Palestinians - including militants and civilians - have been killed in Israeli raids in Gaza... About nine Palestinians - mostly militants - were killed after Israeli tanks moved into Gaza City. One of the civilians was a 12-year-old boy... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:56:54In Gaza, everyone, even the smallest child, knows that a simple colour can get you in trouble... Hamas gunmen had checked ID numbers before deciding what to do with people. Anyone whose number began with a four was suspect... Why? Because that is how Israel, which granted the permits, signified any Palestinian who returned from abroad after the Oslo peace accords in 1993. And the largest number of these belonged to Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction...
Iraqhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:53:05An arrest warrant against a Sunni Cabinet minister... Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi... is another step by the Shiite-led government to marginalize the country's Sunni minority, the official's political organization said Wednesday...
Transport Near-Tragedyhosted.ap.org/ ... 00:31:43COTTONWOOD, Ariz... A 2-year-old boy went for a wild ride when the parked pickup he was in rolled out of a driveway, across a road and down several embankments, taking out a gas line, trees, and eventually the porch of a home and a chain link fence... wasn't hurt...
Love is Strangehosted.ap.org/ ... 00:30:33JUNEAU, Wis... A 24-year-old man faces a pair of charges on allegations he chased his ex-girlfriend with his car after an argument... the couple had argued about the woman moving out of their apartment... hosted.ap.org/ ... 00:29:25PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla... A woman was arrested Tuesday after her husband woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible headache and later learned he had a bullet lodged in his head... eventually told authorities she accidentally shot her husband...
Nature can be Deadlycbs2chicago.com/ ... 11:14:13CHICAGO... Both city crews and homeowners have a big cleanup project ahead of them on Wednesday, after a torrential downpour flooded streets, underpasses and hundreds of Chicago houses.... thunderstorms are expected again in the afternoon. Some may be heavy and even produce more floods... bloomberg.com/ ... 11:11:00Johannesburg recorded its first confirmed snowfall for almost 26 years overnight as temperatures dropped below freezing in South Africa's largest city, grounding flights at its main airport... apnews.myway.com/ ... 11:09:51Residents in parts of Texas and Oklahoma braced for more storms Wednesday, a day after heavy flooding led to the dramatic rescue of stranded motorists and the death of a teenager. In central Texas, emergency officials received multiple reports Wednesday of people trapped in fast moving water atop vehicles, on roofs or clinging to trees... In Oklahoma, about 20 firefighters using a raft rescued 16-year-old twin sisters from bumper-deep flood waters surrounding their car Tuesday... A 13-year-old boy died in the Dallas suburb of Garland Tuesday night after he was swept off a bridge pillar and washed down a flooded creek... chron.com/ ... 00:04:09Rescuers used boats and jet skis to help evacuate residents of about 50 homes in a subdivision near Lake Granbury late Tuesday as Robinson Creek spilled out of its banks after another day of heavy rains in Texas. Some of the people waited on the roofs of their homes... firefighters searched a flooded creek in the Dallas suburb of Garland for a teenager who was swept downstream as they tried to rescue him... The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for White Rock Creek, which feeds White Rock Lake in Dallas, as the creek rose 4 feet above flood stage during the evening and was expected to crest at 7 feet above flood stage after midnight... More rain was likely on Wednesday across the state...
Under Tyrannyhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:55:30Iranians angered by abruptly enforced fuel rationing torched or damaged more than a dozen gas stations in the country's capital Wednesday, while others grumbled and lined up to fill their tanks. The government has been warning for weeks that it would start rationing, but the announcement Tuesday night - only three hours before the measure went into effect at midnight - startled Iranians and send them rushing to fill their tanks. Long lines turned violent at several gas stations... washingtonpost.com/ ... 00:10:21Conoco Phillips is pulling out of its Venezuelan oil ventures after failing to agree on new contract terms with the populist government of President Hugo Chávez, and Exxon Mobil said it had also reached an impasse in negotiations there... Four other major oil companies... Chevron, Statoil, Total and BP... signed deals yesterday giving the Venezuelan state oil company 60 to 83 percent interests in their ventures.... Conoco, which said it expects to take a $4.5 billion write-off this quarter while it continues to negotiate with Caracas over compensation. Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst for Oppenheimer & Sons, said Conoco would lose about 5 percent of its crude oil production and about 10 percent, or more than 1 billion barrels, of its total oil and gas reserves... chron.com/ ... 00:02:53In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the ruling "does serious violence to the First Amendment." Students in public schools don't have the same rights as adults, but neither do they leave their constitutional protections at the schoolhouse gate, the court said in a landmark speech-rights ruling from Vietnam era. The court has limited what students can do in subsequent cases, saying they may not be disruptive or lewd or interfere with a school's basic educational mission. Frederick said his banner was a nonsensical message that he first saw on a snowboard. He intended it to proclaim his right to say anything at all... sfgate.com/ ... 00:01:56In its 1969 Tinker decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an Iowa public school could not expel students who wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War because students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a muddled ruling -- with four justices agreeing, one partially agreeing and three dissenting -- that restricts those free-speech rights, even outside the schoolhouse gate... washingtonpost.com/ ... 00:01:22The Supreme Court fractured on a case involving student speech rights this week. The result was not good for First Amendment freedoms on campus...
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority: "The 'special characteristics of the school environment' . . . and the governmental interest in stopping student drug abuse -- reflected in the policies of Congress and myriad school boards, including [that of Juneau-Douglas High School] -- allow schools to restrict student expression that they reasonably regard as promoting illegal drug use..."
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his dissent: "To the extent the court independently finds that 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' objectively amounts to the advocacy of illegal drug use -- in other words, that it can most reasonably be interpreted as such -- that conclusion practically refutes itself. This is a nonsense message, not advocacy..."
Justice Stephen G. Breyer noted, the fact that illegal drugs are harmful to students is not a sufficient explanation for banning a broad category of campus expression. The same reasoning can apply to any number of contentious issues. In addition, Mr. Roberts's language suggested that the stated policies of local school boards or other relevant governmental entities should determine in part whether expressing a particular view is permissible at school. Two members of the majority -- Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Anthony M. Kennedy -- explicitly rejected that argument in a concurring opinion, so the court's decision did not enshrine it. But the principle is nonetheless disturbing and, if applied in different cases later, has the potential to shut down student speech on a range of controversial subjects...
World Climatehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:04:21An ice sheet in Antarctica that is the world's largest - with enough water to raise global sea levels by 200 feet - is relatively stable and poses no immediate threat, according to new research...
Science Marches Onnnnnnreuters.com/ ... 11:02:39Hybrid animal-human embryos created for medical research should be viewed as human and permitted to develop into children, Roman Catholic bishops have urged the British parliament... Under draft legislation to be debated in the British parliament this year, the chimeras would have to be destroyed within 14 days and it would be against the law to implant them in a woman's womb. But Catholic bishops of England and Wales want women to have the right to bear the chimeras, which would be more than 99 percent human, as their own children... Scientists, who have been pushing for approval of hybrid embryos because of a shortage of human eggs for research, said the bishops misunderstood the science. "If we are using cow eggs, there is no woman involved," Dr Stephen Minger, stem cell researcher at Kings College in London, told Reuters on Wednesday....
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 10:46:46us-flagArmy Sgt. Trista L. Moretti, 27, of South Plainfield, N.J., died June 25 in Nasir Lafitah, Iraq, when her unit was attacked by insurgents using indirect fire. She was assigned to the 425th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:37:00us-flagArmy Spc. Eric C. Palmer, 21, of Maize, Kan., died June 24 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by insurgents using small arms fire June 21 in Bayji, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:36:28us-flagArmy Sgt. Michael J. Montpetit, 31, of Honolulu, died June 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. His death is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:36:03us-flagArmy Pfc. Henry G. Byrd III, 20, of Veguita, N.M., died June 24 in Landstuhl Germany, from a non-combat related illness sustained June 18 while in Iraq. His death is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:35:39us-flagArmy Sgt. William E. Brown, 25, of Phil Campbell, Ala., died June 23 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:34:57us-flagArmy Spc. Dominic N. Rodriguez, 23, of Klamath Falls, Ore., died June 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. His death is under investigation.
World Zookeepingnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:05:07The government of Jammu and Kashmir in India has started a new scheme in which microchip tags are used for all registered Tibetan antelope products. They hope that this will check illegal trade in valuable wool that comes from the creatures used to make shawls... to implement a total ban on antelope wool known as shahtoosh. It has been welcomed by conservationists... reuters.com/ ... 11:03:09The bald eagle... is expected to be removed on Thursday from the list of creatures classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The "de-listing," if it happens as conservationists predict, would be a recognition of remarkable efforts to bring the bald eagle back from the brink, including the banning of the pesticide DDT in the United States... hosted.ap.org/ ... 00:27:47MOFFIT, N.D... The Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge has at least two rare snowy plover nests...
Staying Healthyfoodconsumer.org/ ... 00:08:59Echinacea Could Cut Chances Of Catching A Cold By More Than Half...
Digital Future is Nownews.zdnet.com/ ... 00:08:28Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard announced on Tuesday an extension of their long-running collaborative sales and marketing pact... aim to give high-performance computers more "mass market" appeal...
Modern Culturenypost.com/ ... 12:12:48[Classic NY Post gossip bomb and we hope this story has now run its cycle...]
PigPARIS WAS PIG IN A POKEY
FREED JAILBRAT LIKED TO 'GRUB' OFF THE GUARDS...
scurried home to Mommy and Daddy yesterday... an army of photographers and news helicopters in tow... celebrity skank... jailhouse pig... 1.75-ounce jar of Vaseline... deputies act as her personal errand boys... celebucon...
Music industry is deadoregonlive.com/ ... 11:16:42A disabled single mother from Beaverton has filed a federal lawsuit against the Recording Industry Association of America, claiming that she is the victim of abusive legal tactics, threats and illegal spying as part of an overzealous campaign to crack down on music pirating... Andersen claims in a suit she filed last week in U.S. District Court in Oregon that the recording industry refused to drop its case after its own expert supported her claims of innocence. Instead, industry officials threatened to interrogate Andersen's 10-year-old daughter, Kylee, if she didn't pay thousands of dollars. The intimidation included attempts to contact Kylee directly...
US Election 2008thehill.com/ ... 11:11:51With the second quarter drawing to a close, the presidential campaign of former North Carolina senator John Edwards (D) on Wednesday again turned to one of its most reliable "fundraisers," Ann Coulter...
Digital Businessnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:06:33The advert for Burnout Dominator showed a wrecked sports car, broken glass and a burning tyre, and had the slogan "Inner peace through outer violence". The Advertising Standards Authority ordered the London Tube poster not to be used after receiving 37 complaints... Those who complained thought the poster was offensive and likely to encourage violence, dangerous driving or vandalism... Electronic Arts said the advert deliberately did not show people, so the focus was on the game and not real life... reuters.com/ ... 11:05:43Google Inc. sought to close in on its China market rival Baidu.com by allowing users of its Chinese site to find news by first searching for images carried within articles. The Web giants are vying for market share in the world's second-largest Internet market. Google's move was mainly aimed at catching up with Baidu -- which already offers a similar search function -- as many Chinese Web surfers tend to be drawn more to images rather than immediately seeking out text articles...
Disinformation Propaganda & Spinreuters.com/ ... 11:03:53China has seized two fruit shipments from the United States and warned it would apply greater scrutiny to U.S. cargoes, even as it tightens the screws on manufacturers of unsafe food at home...
Democracy in Actionhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:55:03Former Treasury chief Gordon Brown became British prime minister Wednesday, promising "a new government with new priorities," after Tony Blair resigned to end a decade in power. Power changed hands traditionally and quietly behind closed doors in Buckingham Palace as Blair first called on Queen Elizabeth II to submit his resignation, and Brown arrived soon after to be confirmed as the new prime minister... an emotional Blair received a warm send-off in the House of Commons - from his opponents as well as members of his own Labour party - after one final appearance at the weekly question time session. "I wish everyone - friend or foe - well. And that is that. The end," he said...
Big City Storieshosted.ap.org/ ... 10:53:45Some 3.3 billion people - more than half of humanity - will be living in cities by next year, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday. By 2030, cities will be home to close to 5 billion. Without proper planning, cities across the globe face the threat of overwhelming poverty, limited opportunities for youth, and religious extremism...
Defending Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 00:33:50GRAND RAPIDS, Mich... Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash. He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened. "I guess he thought I was an easy mark," Barnes, 72, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Tuesday... served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron worker...
Reasons for Repealstopthedrugwar.org/ ... 00:21:59"Dude, I totally thought Hempweed was legalized in New Mexico," police say a man with 67 marijuana plants in the trunk of his car told them... ktvz.com/ ... 00:20:18[40yo] Sherman County man has been arrested for manufacturing marijuana after a large indoor growing operation was found in the town of Wasco [Oregon]... 50 Hempmarijuana plants in a sophisticated hydroponics environment... [they're always "sophisticated"... funny, that!] also found more than three pounds of dried marijuana... additional arrests are expected... sunstar.com.ph/ ... 00:18:05BAGUIO CITY –- An estimated P2-million worth of confiscated Hempmarijuana was burned by heads and representatives of various government line agencies and non-government organizations at the Burnham Park football field Tuesday morning... held in commemoration of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, was led by Mayor-elect Reinaldo Bautista Jr., chairman of the City Anti-Drug Abuse Council, and Superintendent Oliver Emnodias, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency regional director for the Cordillera. According to Enmodias, the 50 bricks of the illegal drug marijuana or cannabis sativa burned Tuesday was confiscated in Ambabo, Tinglayan, Kalinga last April 1, while the rest or five more bricks and 22 kilos of dried marijuana included in the burning, were seized in a buy-bust operation conducted in La Trinidad, Benguet last September 16... examiner.com/ ... 00:16:21Maryland Transportation Authority Police arrested two men in Baltimore County Tuesday after a search found nearly 42 pounds of Hempmarijuana in their car. Police say an officer stopped the car for speeding and following too closely on I-95 south of White Marsh... [Test your cynicism. Pick one of the following: a. They must've been smokin' their own stash if they wee speeding and following too closely with 42 pounds in the car! b. Nobody could be that stupid; the cops 'typed them and made up charges just to pull them over...] azcentral.com/ ... 00:12:58Border officials recently seized over half a ton of marijuana from smugglers in San Luis. U.S. Customs and Border Protection valued the 1,063 pounds of marijuana at more than $1.7 million... Two men, a U.S. citizen and a Mexican citizen, gave conflicting answers to routine questions at the San Luis port of entry on Sunday... The San Luis port of entry is located near U.S. 95 and the International Border in southwestern Arizona and scans about 27,000 vehicles daily... [headline should be: Imagine all the ones they DIDN'T catch!...] iht.com/ ... 00:11:26Indonesia... Cooks in Aceh province and other regions in the north of Sumatra island say they use tiny amounts of crushed Hempmarijuana leaves or seeds as a spice in certain dishes. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Vice President Yusuf Kalla said that there was "no way" Indonesia would legalize or decriminalize marijuana as some countries in western Europe have done. "It is all right to use it as a food seasoning, but it should not be fully legalized," Kalla was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post...
People Livethedailyworld.com/ ... 00:06:53Bill Messenger, 51, chose to cut off the tips of his middle and index fingers with a pocketknife after he and his daughter’s fiance... were caught between a sinking drift boat and a log jam for nearly 20 minutes Sunday on the Wynooche River... surgery to reattach the fingertips... appears to have been a success...
TUE 2007-JUN-26
WW2 - less with usorigin.twincities.com/ ... 23:57:42Chuck Lindberg looked every inch a Marine. In the photo from 1945, a young Cpl. Charles Willard Lindberg stands atop the broken chunks of lava that made up Iwo Jima, the gun of the M2-2 flamethrower clenched tightly in his right hand, a grenade in the left. His helmet is tipped up over his right eye, and as he looks off into the hazy distance, there's a hint of hell in his face. "On the battlefield, he was just extraordinary. He was an authentic hero, no doubt about it...." Lindberg, of Richfield, died Sunday, two days before he would have turned 87. He was the last surviving member of the five Marines who, braving small-arms fire, mortars and artillery, climbed Mount Suribachi, the highest point on Iwo Jima, and raised the American flag. It wasn't the group of Marines captured in the iconic Joe Rosenthal photo, which was of a second flag-raising that took place four hours later, when the battle largely had been won. While the five Marines and single Navy corpsman in that photo earned a measure of fame, Lindberg and other members of his platoon who survived the battle spent years trying to correct the record, trying to tell people they had been the first to raise the flag...
Sex can be... disturbinglocal6.com/ ... 23:48:44Two women in Seminole County, Fla., are accused of performing sex acts in front of children at a community pool bathroom while a third woman photographed them...
Disturbing Family Patternslocal6.com/ ... 23:47:13Fla. -- Two Orange County parents face child abuse charges after riding the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Walt Disney World -- with their toddler left in a stroller in the sun for about 45 minutes... concerned guests moved a sleeping girl's stroller out of direct sunlight Monday and into some shade and called for help... They were with a group of other adults and children, and each parent thought the other had the girl... According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, the girl was found in the sun, turning red, covered in sweat and nearly lifeless. Paramedics revived the girl after taking her indoors and giving her water...
Criminally Stupidreuters.com/ ... 23:03:54Philippine police chased down an unfit thief on Tuesday after he ran out of breath and asked his pursuers for a "time out..." using hand signals...
Nature can be Deadlybreitbart.com/ ... 23:44:00Sizzling temperatures in Greece, Italy and Romania has brought power cuts and brush fires in a heatwave that has led to at least 31 deaths in south-east Europe in recent days... Albania, Romania and Serbia have also been hard hit by the heat. Nineteen people in Romania and seven in Serbia were reported to have died of heat-related causes in this first severe heat-wave of the season. The heat has been blamed for five deaths in Greece... news.sky.com/ ... 23:43:02The death toll in the severe flooding that has swamped large areas of Britain has risen to four... Police searching for a motorist missing in Worcestershire floods have found a body in a submerged vehicle... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 22:21:11Thousands of people have been evacuated from along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast to escape a cyclone which is bringing more chaos to the south of the country. The navy is searching for a number of boats missing or sunk in the storms... Heavy rain in Pakistan's biggest city in recent days has left at least 200 dead. Reports of damage to coastal areas near Karachi are still coming in...