Blog-heap o' links from 2007-Oct

TUE 2007-OCT-30

Epidemic Without Bordersmedicalnewstoday.com/ ... 15:48:16HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, probably came into the US from Haiti around the year 1969, a decade earlier than most scientists believed, says new research from the US... "Haiti was the stepping stone the virus took when it left central Africa and started its sweep around the world. Once the virus got to the US, then it just moved explosively around the world..."

Under Digital Tyrannysmartphonetoday.com/ ... 15:44:46Apple has stopped accepting cash for the iPhone. Leaving credit and debit cards as the only means by which you can now buy one from the company. For Apple, the point of this new policy is to allow them to better track who buys an iPhone. Apple is also limiting iPhone sales to two per customer... the direct result of the market for unlocked iPhones...

Theftsuntimes.com/ ... 14:59:54Chicago... Three Romanian fighters from the AIBA World Boxing Championships... plus the team manager, were sent home after authorities say the fighters were caught shoplifting at Nordstrom Rack on State...

Alcohol Was Involvedhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:57:20GALLIVARE, Sweden... He may look young for his age, but 77-year-old Swedish retiree Per-Eric Henricsson was not flattered when his local supermarket asked him to show ID to prove that he was old enough to buy a case of beer...

Animals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 14:55:45ANCHORAGE, Alaska... A volunteer at the Eagle River Nature Center is recovering after being bitten... on the buttocks by a brown bear sow.... four puncture wounds... Rangers and biologist say this was a chance encounter with the sow, who also had a cub with her, and no further action was necessary...

Yuck!hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:54:15SUFFIELD, Conn... Police arrested a husband and wife after finding them and their 9-year-old daughter living in an "absolutely disgusting" house.... found piles of clothes covered in food and feces, three feet of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, a kitchen table covered with garbage and rotten food, and brown liquid running out of the refrigerator onto the floor... cockroaches... watched a rat run across the floor... A three-foot pile of clothing, pizza boxes and candy wrappers blocked the 9-year-old's bedroom door...

Transport Troublehosted.ap.org/ ... 14:52:29MEQUON, Wis... As many as 10 vehicles drove around barriers and onto freshly poured concrete on a busy thoroughfare during rush hour.... "Once someone goes around the barricade and busts through the tape, others follow..."

WW2 - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 14:51:54A postcard that a Japanese soldier mailed from a Southeast Asian battlefront during World War II has reached a recipient in Japan 64 years later, a university whose student helped deliver it said Saturday...

Digital Threatnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:45:53...The scrambled text systems used to defeat automatic sign-ups are known as Captchas or "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart". Typically they feature a disfigured word or one overlaid with artefacts that make it difficult for anyone but a human to decipher. Many computer criminals have been trying to crack these systems to get at the net-based resources, such as e-mail accounts or blogging tools, they are designed to protect... novel system for getting round Captchas uses images of a woman called "melissa" who invites victims to decipher the scrambled text. Entering the correct text produces another image and another chunk of scrambled text. Mr Genes said the Captchas seen with the first versions of the malicious program are all taken from the sign-up system for Yahoo webmail. In the past many viruses have tricked people into opening booby-trapped attachments with the false promise of seeing explicit images, said Mr Genes, but this was one of the first to actually show people more images if people respond...

Supernatural Tyrannyreuters.com/ ... 14:41:54Politicians and pharmacists in Italy responded angrily on Tuesday to an appeal by Pope Benedict for pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs such as the "morning after pill" if they object on moral grounds... Health Minister Livia Turco said that while the Pope had the right to urge young people to be sexually responsible, he could not tell professionals such as pharmacists what to do. "I don't think his warning to pharmacists to be conscientious objectors to the morning after pill should be taken into consideration..."

Nuclear is Nastynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:55:42Russia says there has been a radiation leak at a nuclear reprocessing plant in the Ural mountains east of Moscow, but that it has not harmed anyone...

Under Tyrannynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:46:41...Why, I asked her, was she sending her son to these special classes, focusing on the past when everything else in Wuhan seemed obsessed with the future? Traditional culture has many advantages, she said. The emphasis on virtue, kindness and self-discipline is good for my son. Confucius was a very wise man. This is all the more remarkable because until recently Confucius was vilified by the Communist authorities... Even today, the Party's leaders are wary. Some new Confucian schools have already been closed down. But they are meeting a need. As China freewheels through the chaos of rapid economic change, many are searching for meaning...

Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:41:20A group of pirates that hijacked a South Korean cargo ship in the waters off Somalia have been overpowered by the crew, according to one official... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:40:42A bomber blew himself up about a quarter-mile from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's office Tuesday, killing seven people... reuters.com/ ... 14:02:58A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed 30 Iraqi policemen doing their morning exercises at a base north of Baghdad on Monday, in one of the deadliest strikes on security forces in months... reuters.com/ ... 14:02:31Oct 27... A battle between al Qaeda in Iraq and a major Sunni Arab insurgent group killed at least 16 militants on Friday near the ancient city of Samarra... involved the Islamic Army, a nationalist group that has been hostile to al Qaeda since June and has fought the Sunni Islamist group in areas of Baghdad and some Sunni towns... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:47:36Oct 28... A suicide car bomb has exploded at a bus terminus in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:47:22Oct 28... About 80 Taleban fighters have been killed in clashes with forces from the US-led coalition in Afghanistan's Helmand province... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:45:15Oct 29... Azerbaijan says it has foiled an Islamist plot to carry out a terrorist attack on state agencies and diplomatic missions in the capital, Baku. Security forces raided a group planning the attacks, killing one member and arresting several others...

History - still with usreuters.com/ ... 14:42:44Karl Marx, who complained of excruciating boils, actually suffered from a chronic skin disease with known psychological effects that may well have influenced his writings... hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in which the apocrine sweat glands -- found mainly in the armpits and groin -- become blocked and inflamed. "In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to his depressing poverty, hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem... This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing..."

US Militarycontent.hamptonroads.com/ ... 15:43:11A training bomb fell off a Navy Hornet while the aircraft was approaching Oceana Naval Air Station this afternoon. No one was injured in the 12:15 p.m. incident... foxnews.com/ ... 15:37:21A group of congressmen has asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to reconsider its ban on the flag-folding ceremony at military funerals after the agency decided last month to streamline burials at federal cemeteries. "The flag folding recitation is a longstanding tradition which brings comfort to the living and honor to the deceased," Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., writes in his letter Tuesday signed by 11 other congressmen. "The recitations accompanying each fold pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and their families, the nation they proudly serve, and the beliefs that they hold dear." Veterans Affairs made the new policy decision last month, after a complaint was filed to the White House. Steve L. Muro, the director of the National Cemetery Administration's field programs office, ordered cemetery directors to stop the readings... defenselink.mil/ ... 14:30:40National Guard... October 24, 2007... This week, the Army, Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced an increase, while the Air Force announced a decrease. The Navy number remained unchanged. The net collective result is 1,672 more reservists mobilized than last week.... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel who have been mobilized to 92,971, including both units and individual augmentees....

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 14:35:46

Army Master Sgt. Thomas L. Bruner, 50, of Owensboro, Ky., died Oct. 28, in Kabul, Afghanistan from a non-combat related illness. He was assigned to the Headquarters, 2nd Brigade, 100th Division, U.S. Army Reserve, Owensboro, Ky. The incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:35:32

Army Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri, 27, of Los Angeles, Calif., died Oct. 27 in Siet, Lake Jolo Island, Philippines from injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Lewis, Wash. The incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:35:12

Army Spc. David E. Lambert, 39, of Cedar Bluff, Va, died Oct. 26, in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 237th Engineer Company, 276th Engineer Battalion, 91st Troop Command of the Virginia National Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:34:57

Army Sgt. Joshua C. Brennan, 22, of Ontario, Ore., died Oct 26 in Asadabad, Afghanistan

Army Spc. Hugo V. Mendoza, 29, of Glendale, Ariz., died Oct 25
of wounds sustained when they came in contact with enemy forces using RPG, machine gun and small arms fire during combat operations on Oct 25, in Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:34:00

Army Pfc. Adam J. Chitjian, 39, of Philadelphia, Pa., died Oct 25 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries sustained when he came in contact with enemy forces using small arms during combat operations. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:33:36The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of five U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been accounted-for and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Navy Lt. j.g. Norman L. Roggow, of Aurelia, Iowa

Navy Lt. j.g. Donald F. Wolfe, of Hardin, Mont.

Navy Lt. j.g. Andrew G. Zissu, of Bronx, N.Y.

Navy Chief Petty Officer Roland R. Pineau, of Berkley, Mich.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Raul A. Guerra, of Los Angeles, Calif.
Pineau was buried on Oct. 8 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. The dates and locations of the funerals for the other servicemen are being set by their families. On Oct. 8, 1967, Zissu and Roggow were the pilots of an E-1B Tracer en route from Chu Lai Air Base, Vietnam, back to the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. Also on board were Wolfe, Pineau and Guerra. Radar contact with the aircraft was lost approximately 10 miles northwest of Da Nang, Vietnam. Adverse weather hampered immediate search efforts, but three days later, a search helicopter spotted the wreckage of the aircraft on the face of a steep mountain in Da Nang Province. The location, terrain and hostile forces in the area precluded a ground recovery. In 1993 and 1994, human remains were repatriated to the United States by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) with information that linked the remains to unassociated losses in the same geographical area as this incident. Between 1993 and 2004, U.S/S.R.V. teams, all led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), investigated the incident more than 15 times in Da Nang city and Thua Thien-Hue Province. Between 2004 and 2005, the joint teams surveyed and excavated the crash site where they recovered human remains and crew-related items. During the excavation in 2005, the on-site team learned that human remains may have been removed previously from the site. S.R.V. officials concluded that two Vietnamese citizens found and collected remains at the crash site, and possibly buried them near their residence in Hoi Mit village in Thua Thein-Hue Province. In 2006, another joint U.S./S.R.V. team excavated the suspected burial site in Hoi Mit village, but found no additional remains. In 2007, more remains associated with this incident were repatriated to the United States by S.R.V. officials.... defenselink.mil/ ... 14:31:36

Army Staff Sgt. Robin L. Towns Sr., 52, of Upper Marlboro, Md., died Oct 24 in Bayji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations. He was assigned to the 275th Military Police Company, 372nd Military Police Battalion, Washington, D.C. National Guard. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:31:23

Army Sgt. Edward O. Philpot, 38, of Latta, S.C., died Oct 23 in Afghanistan, from a non-combat related Humvee rollover accident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 263rd Armor Regiment, South Carolina National Guard, Dillon, S.C. This incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:31:04

Army Staff Sgt. Larry I. Rougle, 25, of West Jordan, Utah, died Oct. 23 in Sawtalo Sar Mountain, Kunar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds when he was engaged by enemy small arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy. defenselink.mil/ ... 14:29:47

Navy Seaman Anamarie Sannicolas Camacho, 20, of Panama City, Fla.

Navy Seaman Genesia Mattril Gresham, 19, of Lithonia, Ga.
died Oct. 22 in Bahrain during a non-combat related incident. Both sailors held the Master-at-Arms rating and were assigned to U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 14:28:47A few nights without sleep can not only make people tired and emotional, but may actually put the brain into a primitive "fight or flight" state...

Virtual Future is Nownews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:27:05The growing number of toy-themed virtual worlds aimed at young people risks undermining the basic human values we wish to instil in children. So said industry veteran Lord Puttnam opening a London conference devoted to discussing virtual worlds. He feared that all children will learn from these virtual spaces is that they are first and foremost consumers. He urged creators to build more moral virtual worlds that instil in children the values that societies need...

Healing Ourselvesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:17:01Treatment for adrenoleukodystrophy has mainly involved bone marrow transplant, but this can be problematic due to lack of donors and rejection by the body. French doctors have now managed to modify the boys' own bone marrow... Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare inherited disorder that leads to progressive brain damage, failure of the adrenal gland and eventually death. It occurs because a flawed gene on the child's X chromosome means his body cannot produce an enzyme needed to break down fatty acids which can accumulate in the brain. There is no cure. "Lorenzo's Oil", a mixture of oleic acid and euric acid, is only really effective before the onset of symptoms...

Feeding Ourselvesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:16:10Organic produce is better for you than ordinary food, a major European Union-funded study says... contained more antioxidants and less fatty acids... But researchers did admit the study showed some variations...

Animal Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:11:51A clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived animal discovered. Scientists said the mollusc, an ocean quahog clam, was aged between 405 and 410 years and could offer insights into the secrets of longevity...

Science Marches Onnnnnnnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:11:11US researchers have created exotic new versions of atomic nuclei including one previously thought to not exist. The three new isotopes of magnesium and aluminium suggest other heavy variants of everyday elements could be created...

Evolution Isn't Easynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:10:56Some Neanderthals were probably redheads, a DNA study has shown...

Orbiting Overheadmyweb.cableone.net/ ... 14:06:58...Their joy turned to concern, however, when a rip was spotted in the second solar panel. NASA needs to get the tower up and running to prevent malfunctioning station equipment from delaying the addition of a much-anticipated European research lab. A massive rotary joint is supposed to make sure the solar panel wings on the right side of the space station are facing the sun. But the gear, which was installed in June, has been experiencing electrical current spikes for nearly two months... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:04:06Oct 20... A giant leap is about to be made for womankind. When space shuttle Discovery blasts off Tuesday, a woman will be sitting in the commander's seat. And up at the international space station, a female skipper will be waiting to greet her...

Antiquity - still with usreuters.com/ ... 14:24:58A 3,000-year-old burial site in Vanuatu containing 60 headless skeletons and skulls in pots is helping end the mystery over colonization of the Pacific and the first Polynesians... enabled scientists to reconstruct the lives and habits of the seafaring Lapita people, who settled Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa from Melanesian islands scattered to the west... hosted.ap.org/ ... 13:58:09U.S. and Puerto Rican archaeologists say they have found the best-preserved pre-Columbian site in the Caribbean, which could shed light on virtually every aspect of Indian life in the region, from sacred rituals to eating habits... stones etched with ancient petroglyphs that form a large plaza measuring some 130 feet by 160 feet, which could have been used for ball games or ceremonial rites... include the carving of a human figure with masculine features and frog legs... [probably the mascot...]

World Zookeepingnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:55:27

New Zealand scientists have found what appears to be a cure for the disease that is responsible for wiping out many of the world's frog populations. Chloramphenicol, currently used as an eye ointment for humans, may be a lifesaver for the amphibians... frogs bathed in the solution became resistant to the killer disease, chytridiomycosis... blamed for the extinction of one-third of the 120 species lost since 1980... "And even when they were really sick in the control group, we managed to bring them back almost from the dead..."

Reasons for Repealkxoradio.com/ ... 15:52:29

Yuma Sector Border Patrol... three duffel bags full of marijuana... 124 pounds... $99,000... driver was only described as a U.S. citizen from Yuma... helenair.com/ ... 15:50:50

The nation’s DEA agents can sleep a little easier tonight. They now have one less medical marijuana patient to worry about policing. That’s because Montana’s leading medical marijuana patient-activist took her own life last week, a direct result of DEA actions earlier this year... freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/ ... 15:50:26

...Pretend that humankind made it all the way to the 21st century without alcohol or marijuana. (Perhaps this would not have been possible?) Now pretend that alcohol and marijuana are simultaneously discovered, and think about what kind of laws would be put in place, if any, to govern their use. My guess is that the alcohol laws might be tougher than they are now and that the marijuana laws might be more lenient — but, again, I am only guessing. The alcohol vs. marijuana question is so speculative as to be nearly useless beyond a thought experiment. So we assembled a group of folks with expertise in this area and asked them a much more targeted pair of questions: Should marijuana be legalized in the U.S.? Why or why not?.. agi.it/ ... 15:49:31

A joke about marijuana let people think that the governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger was about to open the debate on light drugs. But then, after the beginning of complaints, his spokeswoman had to specify that the comment should be seen as a joke. The ex Hollywood star had claimed in an interview given to the British edition of the GQ magazine that he has never used drugs, even if in the past he had confessed smoking marijuana (in a 1977 documentary - 'Pumping Iron' - he was portrayed with a joint in his hands). 'It is not a drug, it's a weed, my drug was pumping up in the gym...." [Termina$$h0!e]

Missingfoxnews.com/ ... 15:43:57Search teams continue to look for a Chicago mom who disappeared Sunday during a jog in a forest preserve. Alma Mendez, 39, a mother of three, was heard from on Sunday around 2 p.m. when she left a friend a voicemail saying she had something important to talk about...

It's Only Moneyhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:56:36WINDBER, Pa... Piles of old coins worth as much as $200,000 were found in a long-abandoned home, including scores that the owner had apparently thrown down a hole in the wall... some minted as early as 1793. Some are worth about $8,500...

Energyhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:43:15The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year...

People Dienews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:41:06One of Asia's most notorious warlords, Khun Sa, has died in the Burmese city of Rangoon. He had reportedly been suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. After decades of guerrilla warfare against the Burmese government, largely funded by his drugs empire, Khun Sa signed a peace deal in 1996. He then retired to Rangoon, where he lived under the protection of the military rulers, despite the US offering $2m (£1m) for his capture...

Big Brotherhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:28:02OMAHA, Neb... A Nebraska couple sued state health officials Thursday, arguing their rights were violated when their newborn baby was seized by sheriff's deputies so a mandatory blood test could be performed... "This is a classic case of the government overreaching and violating a family's constitutional rights," said Jeff Downing, the couple's attorney...

Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:46:21Internet Service Providers urgently need to roll out the next generation of net addresses for online devices, internet pioneer Vint Cerf has said. Every device that goes online is allocated a unique IP address but the pool of numbers is finite and due to run out around 2010. A new system, called IPv6, has been awaiting roll out for 10 years. Unless IPv6 is switched on in the coming years, some devices might not be able to go online, Mr Cerf has warned... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:44:20A bill to extend a moratorium on Internet access taxes for seven years was approved 402-0 by the House Tuesday, less than two days before it was set to expire. The House initially approved a four-year ban, but last week the Senate passed a seven-year prohibition, despite considerable support for a permanent ban... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:26:41Microsoft has invested $240m (£117m) in social networking site Facebook in exchange for a 1.6% share of the company. That puts a value of $15bn (£7.3bn) on a firm that has only been in existence three and a half years. So why does Microsoft think Facebook is worth $15bn? Here are 15 possible reasons... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:26:20Like a "411" for the Internet, Whois contains information such as names and phone numbers on the owners of millions of ".com" and other Internet addresses. Bohannon and his staff at the Software and Information Industry Association rely on the free databases daily in their efforts to combat theft and fraud. Law-enforcement officials, trademark lawyers and journalists, as well as spammers, also use it regularly... Nonetheless, some privacy advocates are proposing scrapping the system entirely because they can't agree with the people who use the system on how to give domain name owners more options when they register - such as designating third-party agents. Privacy advocates say individuals shouldn't have to reveal personal information simply to have a Web site... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:25:34In the 1970s, Vint Cerf played a leading role in developing the Internet's technical foundation. For the past seven years, he's faced the more daunting task of leading a key agency that oversees his creation. After fending off an international rebellion and planting the seeds for streamlining operations, Cerf is stepping down this week as chairman of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers. "My sentence is up," Cerf said with his characteristic sense of humor, which he and others credit for helping him steer the organization through several high-profile battles from which it emerged more stable and stronger...

But is it Art?news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:11:33A 16 billion pixel image of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper has been posted on the internet, giving art lovers a detailed view of the 15th Century work... 1,600 times more detailed than those taken with a typical 10 million pixel digital camera...

Modern Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 14:08:22SHARON, Ga.... The most important rule at this remote vacation spot is simple: no white light. Even a sliver of the pupil-contracting rays coming from the window of a cabin at Deerlick Astronomy Village could ruin a neighbor's view of the Milky Way. The 96-acre village in rural Taliaferro County in eastern Georgia is designed for amateur stargazers looking for total darkness and wide-open spaces to build weekend homes...

Monarchy is Deadnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:53:52The declaration issued by Nepal's reinstated House of Representatives this week on the future of the country is much more than a piece of paper... In the most far-flung districts, people were glued to their radios on Thursday, witnessing the dismantling of ancient, feudalistic ties... Since before the Shah dynasty took power, kings here have been regarded as incarnations of the Hindu god, Vishnu. Many still believe this. But factors such as the 2001 royal massacre have undermined the belief, and now parliament has abolished Nepal's status as a Hindu kingdom, making it secular... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:53:02Parliament in Nepal is due to debate a call for the abolition of the country's 240-year-old monarchy. The Maoist former rebels want a republic to be declared before constituent assembly elections...

Sportsmanshipnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:48:27Oct 29... The Boston Red Sox have won the baseball World Series, defeating the Colorado Rockies 4-3 in a four game sweep of the best-of-seven series...

Look Who's Talking!news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 13:47:04Oct 26... Russian President Vladimir Putin has compared US plans for a missile shield in Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s...

SUN 2007-OCT-21

Supernatural Tyrannybreitbart.com/ ... 10:31:45Iran's police are to keep up their moral crackdown through the winter months, confronting couples whose behaviour in public is deemed to be inappropriate...

Animals can be Deadlyiht.com/ ... 10:30:29

NEW DELHI: A senior government official died Sunday after falling from a balcony during an attack by wild monkeys at his home in the Indian capital...

Transport Troublewcbstv.com/ ... 10:30:05...LaGuardia Airport Saturday... The American Airlines terminal was brought to a near-standstill because of an equipment malfunction, but it was the reason for the malfunction that really had people fuming... someone spilled tomato juice on an x-ray machine... knocked out one of the five units...

Disturbing Family Patternschron.com/ ... 10:16:51SPRING LAKE, N.C. — Authorities on Saturday found the body of a missing 11-month-old girl hidden in the attic of her home... had been dead for three or four weeks... Charges were expected soon against the child's mother... On Saturday, she told investigators she had found the baby dead in its crib and concealed the body in the attic of her home... The girl's father, Robert Earl Creech, had returned from a 15-month tour of Iraq on Friday to see his infant girl, whom he had seen only once, during a leave...

Supernatural Consequencesuk.reuters.com/ ... 10:15:25Hundreds of Buddhist monks, celebrating a U.S. award for the Dalai Lama, clashed with police for four days in the capital of Tibet, the far-west Himalayan region of China...

Civilization vs Gangsterismabcnews.go.com/ ... 10:14:29U.S. forces backed by airstrikes raided Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shiite district, killing 49 militants on Sunday as they targeted a militia leader accused in high-profile kidnappings... Iraqi officials said women and children were among the dead... nytimes.com/ ... 10:14:07At least 12 Turkish soldiers were killed in an ambush by Kurdish militants shortly after midnight on Sunday, in an audacious attack that sharply increased the pressure on Turkey’s government to send troops into northern Iraq...

Sick, Sick, Sickchron.com/ ... 10:05:48

DALLAS — Two men accused of baking and delivering marijuana-laced muffins to a high school teachers lounge in suburban Dallas have been sentenced to probation as part of a plea agreement... could have faced up to 10 years in prison on the original charges... 18 employees at Lake Highlands High School were hospitalized in May 2006 after eating the drugged snacks, but no one was seriously injured... a senior prank gone wrong. Both were 18 at the time of the incident...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 10:33:33

Army Spc. Wayne M. Geiger, 23, of Lone Pine, Calif. died Oct 18 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:33:19

Marine Cpl. Erik T. Garoutte, 22, of Santee, Calif., died Oct. 19 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team Company, Marine Corps Security Force Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Norfolk, Va. The incident is currently under investigation.

Science Marches Onnnnnntelegraph.co.uk/ ... 10:31:23Scientists have made a breakthrough in man's desire to control the forces of nature – unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course... Under one scheme, aircraft would drop soot into the near-freezing cloud at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm up and so reduce wind speeds... Lawyers warn that diverting a hurricane from one city to save life and property could result in multi-billion dollar lawsuits from towns that bear the brunt instead...

Orbiting Overheadchron.com/ ... 10:17:56A Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed more than 200 miles off course in Kazakhstan early today, after departing the international space station with two cosmonauts and Malaysia's first astronaut... Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov , who were ending a 197 day space station mission, were greeted by helicopter-borne recovery forces and were in good shape... Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was pronounced safe as well... capsule began a steeper than expected descent minutes after it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere for reasons that were not immediately clear...

Theory of Educationboston.com/ ... 10:18:55Between 2001 and 2005, [Massachusetts] suspended, revoked, denied, or imposed various limits on the teaching licenses of 63 educators, according to records. At least 24 of the educators were accused of sexual misconduct. The total is a tiny percentage of the state's 70,000 licensed educators...

Reasons for Repealpittsburghlive.com/ ... 10:24:19Lighten our prison load: Decriminalize marijuana... Slowly, grudgingly, the conversion process goes on. One of these days, America is going to legalize -- more exactly, decriminalize -- narcotic drugs. Even conservatives are coming around... Recently, Los Angeles author Rita Lowenthal spoke at the South Side's Joseph-Beth Booksellers about one life destroyed by drug addiction: her son's... asked if legalization wouldn't have been better. "Absolutely," she said... The economics of drug law enforcement are staggering. Narcotic substances themselves are maddeningly cheap and plentiful: poppy flowers, coca leaves, marijuana shrubs and the like. But they all inflate enormously by the time they reach the using end, mostly because they're illegal. This is 1920 liquor Prohibition all over again and worse... wtov9.com/ ... 10:22:13

WHEELING, W.Va. -- Police took nearly 100 marijuana plants off the streets in Ohio county Saturday... [WHOW! SCARY KIDS! VEGETATION!] ...some of the plants were 17 ft. tall and were hidden away in a secret camp... what they called a "sophisticated camp" in a secluded area with rough terrain in the Edgewood section of Wheeling... Nearly 100 marijuana plants... nearly $100,000 worth... [This article is especially remarkable for the way the press joins gleefully into the prohibitionist propagandizing....] montanasnewsstation.com/ ... 10:20:04

MISSOULA, Mont... Nearly a year ago, Missoula County voters supported an initiative asking law enforcement officers to make adult marijuana possession offenses their lowest priority. Now County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg has put that into a draft policy... wtrf.com/ ... 10:19:31

Wheeling police, the Ohio County Sheriffs Department and State Police unveiled their find of what they said is thousands of dollars worth of marijuana... estimated street value of $50,000... sunstar.com.ph/ ... 10:07:51

A POLICE officer from Police Station 9 in Bacolod City Friday intercepted a man carrying more than a kilo of dried leaves of marijuana plants at Purok Lawayan, Barangay Banago also in this City... azstarnet.com/ ... 10:07:26U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found nearly 1,600 pounds of marijuana inside a tour bus Thursday morning at the main port of entry in Nogales... 179 bundles of marijuana weighing a total of 1,577 pounds... [prohibition-supported inflated] estimated value of $906,775...

Digital Businessnews.com/ ... 10:04:43For a few months Comcast has been the subject of scattered reports that say it throttles BitTorrent traffic... surreptitiously interfering with file transfers by posing as one party and then, essentially, hanging up the phone... tests reported Friday... it's clear that Comcast is actively interfering with peer-to-peer networks even if relatively small files are being transferred...

History - still with usiht.com/ ... 10:02:41Pitfalls abound if U.S. labels slaughter of Armenians a genocide... It's a dispute that goes back nearly a century — yet suddenly it's overshadowing everything from America's engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq to Turkey's friendship with Israel and its drive to join the EU...

US Election 2008cbsnews.com/ ... 10:15:04Social conservatives came into this weekend’s Values Voter Summit torn over which candidate to support in the rapidly approaching primary season. By time the event was over, and after all eight GOP candidates had spoken to the summit’s approximately 2,000 attendees, it did not appear that any one of them had galvanized their support... chicagotribune.com/ ... 10:01:33

an Hillary Clinton win?.. Democratic rivals are increasingly questioning her ability to win the White House in a general election. They say her polarizing persona will keep her from defeating a Republican, hoping the seeds of doubt they plant now will cause voters to look their way come primary or caucus day...

Political Theaterfoxnews.com/ ... 09:59:52Rush Limbaugh... turned an inflammatory letter written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and signed by 41 of his fellow Democrats into a more than $4.2 million gold mine for the kids of Marines and law enforcement personnel killed in the line of duty, all courtesy of eBay...

SAT 2007-OCT-20

Love is Strangereuters.com/ ... 11:01:59Instead of walking down the aisle of a church, a former New York couple will traipse down the aisle of a court room to settle a fight over a $48,800 diamond engagement ring...

Animals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 11:01:00Four officers investigating a burglary were attacked... [by] a swarm of fleas in a filth-ridden vacant house. The tiny, biting attackers were so overwhelming that the South Bend patrolmen had to be decontaminated and ended up being sent home early from their shifts... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:00:27

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif... deputies were stunned to find an alligator crossing an intersection in Thousand Oaks... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:00:00

BRISBANE, Australia... A man was bitten on the face by a crocodile when he accidentally collided with the reptile after diving through a wave at a surf beach in northeastern Australia... more than 40 sutures to gashes around his left eye and cheek...

Data Thefthosted.ap.org/ ... 10:59:30A New Zealand brewer is offering a lifetime supply of free beer in exchange for the return of a laptop stolen in a break-in... contains "all our financials" as well as label designs for new beers and business contacts...

Violencereuters.com/ ... 10:44:34A Texas man who earlier pleaded guilty to the attempted bombing of an Austin health clinic where abortions were performed was sentenced on Friday to 40 years in prison... [27yo] left a nail-packed bomb in the parking lot of the Austin Women's Health Center on April 25, but it failed to go off...

Threatsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:41:00The president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq has said his people will defend themselves if Turkey attacks Kurdish rebels based in the region. Massoud Barzani rejected accusations that his government provided cover for Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) fighters...

Transport Tragedyhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:37:47A twin-engine plane crashed into the ninth floor of a suburban Vancouver apartment building Friday, killing the pilot and injuring at least two people in the building... accident didn't spark a blaze... two residents of the ninth-floor apartment were taken to a hospital. One of them likely sustained "significant and serious injuries..."

Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 10:44:59President George W. Bush expanded U.S. sanctions against Myanmar's rulers on Friday, accusing them of "vicious persecution" of democracy protesters, and urged China and India to step up pressure on their neighbor. Unveiling the second package of U.S. measures in less than a month, Bush said he was adding more of Myanmar's military leaders to a list already facing sanctions and had ordered a tightening of U.S. export controls on the Asian country... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:41:30Former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto has accused former army officials of being behind twin bomb attacks on her convoy that killed more than 130 people... stressed that she was not blaming the government... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:40:40The activities of security contractors are "in conflict" with the US military's mission in Iraq, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said. But he acknowledged that the US could not manage without contractors, except by diverting thousands of troops. On Thursday, three Iraqis were injured when guards from a UK company fired into a taxi in Kirkuk in northern Iraq... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:38:18A bomb made from high-grade explosives - and likely set off by terrorists - caused the blast that killed at least nine people and wounded more than 100 at a mall in Manila's financial district, officials said Saturday... ripped through three floors of the Glorietta 2 shopping mall in Makati city on Friday... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:36:22A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus full of Shiite civilians on Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding nine as they went to visit relatives south of Baghdad... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:36:03Some are al-Qaida, some are Taliban and others are homegrown. But all of Pakistan's militants share a vision and unshakable beliefs that include a ban on a woman leading the nation and opposition to a close alliance with America...

Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 10:57:48Research in psychiatrically ill children and adolescents suggests that those with depression, anxiety and other so-called "internalizing" disorders are more likely to have allergies... reuters.com/ ... 10:57:18Women who regularly get fewer than 7 hours of sleep each night may have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure...

World Zookeepinghosted.ap.org/ ... 10:52:39

President Bush is trying to encourage more recreational fishing in state waters and adding more federal rules limiting commercial fishing of two overfished species - striped bass and red drum... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:52:20

Five rare Asiatic lions were found electrocuted Friday on the edge of western India's Gir National Park... killed by an electrified fence... [allegedly] was put up illegally by a farmer to protect crops near the sanctuary... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:51:33

A killer whale at the SeaWorld in San Antonio has died unexpectedly...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 10:51:14

Army Staff Sgt. Jarred S. Fontenot, 35, of Port Barre, La., died Oct. 18 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from an improvised explosive device and small arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Co.

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 10:50:58The Department of Defense announced today that the 33rd Brigade Combat Team, Illinois Army National Guard, has been alerted to deploy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to continue training of the Afghan National Security Forces. The majority of the approximately 2,700 service members alerted will deploy in late 2008. The department has alerted the unit of this deployment to give the soldiers the maximum time possible to conduct training specific to Afghanistan as well as provide predictability for family members and employers. This unit will maintain the current U.S. capability for performing the training mission. This rotation reflects the continued U.S. commitment to Afghanistan and development of the Afghan National Security Forces. Afghan forces continue to improve capability and assume responsibility for security. Force levels in Afghanistan continue to be conditions-based, and are determined based on the recommendations of military commanders in Afghanistan and in consultation with the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.... defenselink.mil/ ... 10:50:20The Department of Defense announced today the alert of replacement forces scheduled to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The announcement involves seven brigades from the Army National Guard consisting of approximately 18,000 personnel. Two brigades will replace two active duty brigades currently on the ground. Those units will assume responsibility for a battlespace where they will conduct the full spectrum of operations. Four brigades will have a security force mission. Those units will deploy with their subordinate elements to replace a capability currently being provided by more than 160 smaller, separate units in the country. The brigade deployments will simplify the command and control for these missions and help improve efficiency. Security force brigades will be assigned tasks which will assure freedom of movement and continuity of operations in the country. Those tasks will include base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait. One brigade will have a mission in detention operations. These units are currently scheduled to begin deployment in the summer of 2008. They are receiving alert orders now in order to provide them the maximum time to complete their preparations. It also provides a greater measure of predictability for family members and flexibility for employers to plan for military service of their employees. Specific decisions include.
Brigade combat teams: 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, North Carolina National Guard 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard Security force brigades: 56th Brigade Combat Team, 36th Infantry Division, Texas National Guard 29th Brigade Combat Team, Hawaii National Guard 81st Brigade Combat Team, Washington National Guard 45th Fires Brigade, Oklahoma National Guard Detention Operations: 50th Brigade Combat Team, New Jersey National Guard Unit deployments reflect the continued commitment of the United States to the security of the Iraqi people. The Department recognizes the continued sacrifices of these units and their family members. DoD will continue to announce major unit deployments as they are identified and those units are alerted.... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:42:47Two US marines, including a battalion commander, are to face a court martial in connection with the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005. Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani is charged with dereliction of duty and failing to report and investigate the deaths. L/Cpl Stephen Tatum is accused of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:35:49A former U.S. commander at the Iraqi jail that held Saddam Hussein was acquitted Friday of aiding the enemy but received two years imprisonment for convictions on other charges after pleading for leniency from the judge... Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele, 52, of Prince George, Va., could have faced a life sentence... The judge, Lt. Col. Timothy Grammel, convicted him of unauthorized possession of classified documents, behavior unbecoming an officer for an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter and failing to obey an order. The two-year sentence was lenient, considering Steele could have received 10 years in jail on the classified documents charge. He will also be dismissed from the service...

Big Nannyreuters.com/ ... 10:57:33The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it would hold a hearing to consider a consumer group's petition that the agency tighten regulations and labeling for salt in food...

Eye of the Beholderreuters.com/ ... 10:54:32Philadelphia is home to the least attractive people in the United States, a survey of visitors and residents showed on Friday... also found to be among the least stylish, least active, least friendly and least worldly...

Reporting Sciencehosted.ap.org/ ... 10:47:47The Antarctic ozone hole is back to an average size, shrinking about 16 percent from last year's record high, NASA said Friday. But it's still the size of North America...

Yawnreuters.com/ ... 10:46:38

...Rowling confirmed what some fans had always suspected -- that she "always thought Dumbledore was gay"... Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was "terribly let down" and went on to destroy his rival. That love, she said, was Dumbledore's "great tragedy"...

World Without Bordershosted.ap.org/ ... 10:36:47The bodies of two dozen people washed ashore Friday in southern Mexico, a state official said, after a boat believed to be carrying Central American migrants capsized in the Pacific Ocean...

FRI 2007-OCT-19

Police Riothosted.ap.org/ ... 11:14:05Jurors ruled the city of Pasadena must pay $80,000 to a quadriplegic man who sued because police officers allegedly jerked him out of his wheelchair and hung him upside down to search him...

Alcohol Was Involvedreuters.com/ ... 11:09:46An Austrian motorist too drunk to change a tire phoned a police emergency number by mistake instead of the breakdown service and wound up losing his license...

Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:16:38A burglar in Montgomery chose the wrong family to mess with, literally... "My husband Adrian caught the thief red-handed in our home.... And what is even crazier, the man even had my husband's hat sitting right on his head...." held the suspect... at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what to do. "We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabinets onto the floor..." When police arrived, [the burglar] complained about being forced to clean the home at gunpoint... "The police officer laughed at him when he complained and said anybody else would have shot him dead..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:14:57DECATUR, Ala... KL returned to her home after an extended absence and found a strange man in her bed and a woman wearing her clothes. Then another man walked up to question why she was in his house... unclear how long the intruders had been living in the house... reuters.com/ ... 11:09:29A thief caught shoplifting a packet of cheese from a supermarket in Germany tried to make his getaway in a cement mixer... arrested... at a red light a few hundred yards away...

Transport Tragedynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:59:24A passenger ferry has capsized off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, leaving at least 23 people dead...

Disturbing Family Patternsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:54:04In Bolivia, a weak economy and a shortage of jobs means some parents are moving abroad to find work and earn money for their families. But, in many cases, their children are being left behind with no one to care for them...

Violencenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:52:58The discovery of a young boy's body in a suitcase which was fished out of a pond by children has shocked Australia... thought to have been aged between four and eight... Police are scouring schools for missing children...

Sex can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 10:52:27A Canadian schoolteacher accused of pedophilia was arrested Friday in northeastern Thailand...

Civilization vs Gangsterismhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:50:37Benazir Bhutto's triumphant return to Pakistan ended in horrific scenes of carnage beneath a mural declaring, "Long live Bhutto..." The first explosion sounded like a tire had blown out... A police van was in flames, the streets were littered with the bodies of the dead. Arms, legs and other body parts were everywhere... I ran toward the truck and was about 20 yards away when the second thunderous blast hit... Limbless victims cried out to strangers for help in the darkness. Parents frantically searched for missing children as the flames sent waves of heat through the streets, fanning the smell of blood in the air... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:45:01...a roadside bomb on a police vehicle close to the border with Pakistan killed an officer and wounded three others in Khost province...
Taliban used heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades to ambush a U.S.-led coalition patrol in southern Afghanistan that wounded nine troops... near Kandahar city Wednesday... None of the wounds sustained by coalition troops were serious.... There were no report of insurgent casualties... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:43:42Turkish warplanes bombed positions of suspected Kurdish rebels Wednesday, and the prime minister said preparations for parliamentary approval of a military mission against separatist fighters in Iraq were under way...

War is Hellhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:43:15MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan... The army halted attacks on villages near the Afghan border Wednesday to give residents time for funerals after days of fighting that killed as many as 250 people...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:31:18

Army Spc. Vincent A. Madero, 22, of Port Hueneme, Calif. died Oct 17 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:30:56The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Air Force Maj. Robert G. Lapham, of Marshall, Mich. will be buried Friday in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On Feb. 8, 1968, Lapham was flying the lead A-1G Skyraider in a flight of two in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. The aircraft were alerted to join an airborne forward air controller to destroy enemy tanks that had overrun the Lang Vei Special Forces Camp. After completing one pass on the tanks, Lapham was nearing his target on the second pass when he crashed. The crew of the other aircraft involved in the mission reported seeing no parachute. Between 1993 and 1998, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), traveled to Quang Tri Province two times to investigate the incident and interview witnesses. One team also surveyed the crash site and found aircraft wreckage. In 2003, another joint team investigated the incident and resurveyed the crash site. The team found more wreckage and pilot-related evidence, including Lapham's identification tag. Between 2004 and 2006, JPAC teams traveled to Quang Tri Province four times to excavate the crash site. The teams recovered human remains, aircraft wreckage and pilot-related items....

Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 11:10:57A study shows that individuals can harbor the bacterium, Clostridium difficile, but may not become ill. However, these carriers frequently shed virus onto their skin and into the environment and, as a result, may contribute significantly to disease transmission. C. difficile is a pathogen frequently acquired in a hospital or other medical facility. It typically occurs after a course of antibiotics that destroys some of the "good" bacteria in the intestinal tract, as well as the disease-causing bacteria... reuters.com/ ... 11:10:03A test that looks for the virus found in 99 percent of cervical tumors is far more effective than a Pap smear for detecting the early stages of cervical cancer...

Animal Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:06:24

Elephants can tell whether a human is a friend or foe by their scent and colour of clothing... African elephants reacted with fear when they detected the scent of garments previously worn by men of the Maasai tribe. Maasai men are known to demonstrate their virility by spearing elephants... The elephants also responded aggressively to red clothing, which is characteristic of traditional Maasai dress... showed much milder reaction to clothing previously worn by the Kamba people, agriculturalists who pose little threat... "We were not disappointed. In fact, we think that this is the first time that it has been experimentally shown that any animal can categorise a single species of potential predator into subclasses based on such subtle cues..."

Science Marches Onnnnnnnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:05:13US scientists have unveiled a detector thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a human hair that can translate radio waves into sound...

Transport Futurehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:04:54NASA said Thursday... it informed Oklahoma City-based Rocketplane of its decision... [to drop] a multimillion-dollar contract with an aerospace company because the firm failed to secure enough private financing to develop a new commercial spaceship... Rocketplane's chairman and CEO, George French Jr., said he was still confident the company would participate in NASA commercial spaceship program in the future...

US Militaryreuters.com/ ... 11:01:38Adm. William Crowe, former chairman of the U.S. Joints Chiefs of Staff, died on Thursday at Bethesda Naval Hospital at 82... As chairman of the joint chiefs, Crowe developed a relationship with the chief of the Soviet General Staff credited with lessening the likelihood of a Cold War confrontation between the United States and the former Soviet Union... During a 43-year military career, Crowe served as commander in chief of Allied Forces in Southern Europe, commander in chief of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command...

It's All in Your Mindreuters.com/ ... 10:55:22A mechanism in the brain may explain why some people keep their cool and others crumble under stress... mice that were most vulnerable to stress had too much of a chemical in a region of the brain that processes reward signals. And they found a significant increase in this same chemical in humans with depression. It turns out that resilient mice produce a kind of protective response that allows them to recover from stress. Vulnerable mice lack this defense...

Lasting Contributionshosted.ap.org/ ... 10:45:56Deborah Kerr, who shared one of Hollywood's most famous kisses while portraying an Army officer's unhappy wife in "From Here to Eternity" and danced with the Siamese monarch in "The King and I," has died. She was 86... For many she will be remembered best for her kiss with Burt Lancaster as waves crashed over them on a Hawaiian beach in the wartime drama "From Here to Eternity..." Kerr's roles as forceful, sometimes frustrated women pushed the limits of Hollywood's treatment of sex on the screen during the censor-bound 1950s...

Music industry is deadnews.com/ ... 11:18:52Two interesting pieces of news highlight the trouble online stores will face as the price of legal song downloads approaches the price of illegal downloads (which is zero)...

Reasons for Repealkansascity.com/ ... 11:18:24

Federal authorities have charged an Independence man with manufacturing marijuana after police found more than 500 marijuana plants inside two eastern Jackson County homes... examiner.net/ ... 11:17:56

Officials with the Missouri State Highway Patrol are investigating a marijuana growing operation at a house in Blue Springs... more than 400 plants... canadianpress.google.com/ ... 11:17:25

LEWISTON, N.Y. - The driver of a charter bus carrying 55 passengers into the United States was arrested after border agents discovered $1 million worth of marijuana... 145 kilograms... in the luggage compartment...

Ummm....hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:13:36SEDONA, Ariz... Authorities have arrested a woman who told people at gas stations and hotels in Sedona that they needed to evacuate because a cloud of cyanide gas was approaching from Phoenix... arrested on charges of disorderly and unreasonable noise...

Theory of Justicehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:12:32Standing around to chat on a busy Manhattan street can certainly create an inconvenience for other pedestrians. But is it illegal? A man arrested after a confab with friends in Times Square has asked the state's highest court to dismiss the case... charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest - by flailing his arms - on June 12, 2004. Police said other people "had to walk around" him, and he wouldn't move when asked...

People Do Drugsreuters.com/ ... 11:10:32A snapshot of an average day in the lives of U.S. teens shows hundreds of thousands are smoking, drinking and ingesting illegal drugs...

Oh! The Irony!reuters.com/ ... 11:08:44At the door of the Commune Mess Hall restaurant, a young woman in loose-fitting army fatigues and a cap, with a red "Serve the People" armband and braided pigtails, greets customers. "Welcome, Comrade! How many?" she chirps. Huge portraits of Engels, Marx, Mao, Lenin and Stalin adorn a back wall and Chinese propaganda posters hang on pillars and side walls, showing chipper workers, peasants and soldiers toiling. Blocky, red characters painted on the rafters implore: "Be self-reliant, work arduously" and "Use your own two hands to have ample food and clothing." The eatery here in the capital of the booming southern province of Guangdong is a throwback to the Mao era, modeled on the communes that dotted the countryside from the 1950s to 70s. Staff dressed like the Red Guards of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution serve peasant fare. Revolutionary songs play in the background...

Digital Culturereuters.com/ ... 11:07:43Solo games live on in multiplayer world...

Digital Businessreuters.com/ ... 11:06:43Adobe Systems Inc. is working to deliver all of its software via the Web as a service rather than a packaged product, but the transition to earn money from subscriptions or advertising could take a decade...

Headline of the Dayhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:01:55Moonlight spurs corals to spawn...

Big Whoops Cascadereuters.com/ ... 11:00:35The U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday it was awarding what might have been its richest-ever single contract at $24 billion... The Air Force referred callers to Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, where the contract was handled. A base spokesman, Ralph Monson, said the real deal was for $24 million...

Being Humanhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:03:45Watson... apologized and says he's "mortified..." A profile of Watson in the Sunday Times Magazine of London quoted him as saying that he's "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really." While he hopes everyone is equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true," Watson is quoted as saying. He also said people should not be discriminated against on the basis of color, because "there are many people of color who are very talented." The comments, reprinted Wednesday in a front-page article in another British newspaper, The Independent, provoked a sharp reaction. London's Science Museum canceled a sold-out lecture he was to give there Friday. The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said his comments "represent racist propaganda masquerading as scientific fact..." Watson is in Britain to promote his new book, "Avoid Boring People..." reuters.com/ ... 10:59:08A prominent New York scientific laboratory suspended Nobel Prize-winning DNA authority Dr. James Watson on Thursday night over racially insensitive comments he was quoted as making in an interview earlier in the week... Watson made an appearance in London to promote his new book and apologized for his remarks, saying he did not mean to characterize Africans as genetically inferior... Watson, who won a Nobel Prize in 1962 for his description of the double helix structure of DNA, was suspended as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York on Thursday... In the interview Watson was quoted as saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really..."

Reporting Sciencenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:57:33Global emissions of carbon dioxide from shipping are twice the level of aviation... Some 90,000 ships from tankers to small freighters ply the world's oceans... [But how do the emissions compare on a fuel-per-cargo basis?] governments in many parts of the world are considering a clampdown as part of their efforts to tackle global warming...

People Dienews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:55:59Comedian Joey Bishop, the last surviving member of Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack", has died at the age of 89...

THU 2007-OCT-18

Big Brotherbloomberg.com/ ... 11:44:01Three of the largest U.S. telephone companies declined to answer lawmakers' questions about Bush administration efforts to spy on Americans' phone calls and e- mails, saying the government forbade them from doing so. "Our company essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight dispute between the Congress and the executive relating to government surveillance activities," ATÞ Inc. General Counsel Wayne Watts said in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that was released today by the panel...

Nicotine is a Dragcbs2chicago.com/ ... 11:32:55Smoking is now off limits at beaches, parks and playground in Chicago. The park district board voted unanimously Wednesday to pass the ban. It takes effect immediately. The penalty for violating the ban is a $500 fine... During a three hour cleanup of city beaches last month, they say they found some 35,000 butts in the sand...

Theory of Sex Educationnews.yahoo.com/ ... 11:32:11PORTLAND, Maine - After an outbreak of pregnancies among middle school girls, education officials in this city have decided to allow allow one school's health center to make birth control pills available to girls as young as 11...

Alcohol Was Involvedhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:24:20EUGENE, Ore... When RG looked up from his text message, he saw a freight train... had turned 38 the day before... charged with drunken driving and careless driving... "There are all kinds of ways to get distracted these days... We don't recommend any of them while you're driving..."

Modern Medicine can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 11:21:38...a small but growing number of parents around the country who are claiming religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children when the real reason may be skepticism of the shots or concern they can cause other illnesses. Some of these parents say they are being forced to lie because of the way the vaccination laws are written in their states... [Reasoned or personal objections are disallowed, while the most absurd religious fantasies are accepted...?]

Data Thefthosted.ap.org/ ... 11:17:26The Home Depot Inc. said Wednesday that a laptop computer containing about 10,000 employees' personal data was stolen from a regional manager's car in Massachusetts...

Scary Timesusatoday.com/ ... 11:35:50Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year... at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75%... At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials... reuters.com/ ... 11:04:59New York police are investigating a package containing white powder that was found outside the office of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on Wednesday... Quinn is openly gay and an advocate for same-sex couple rights. She is often talked about as a potential candidate for mayor in 2009...

Epidemic Without Bordersfoxnews.com/ ... 11:45:23School districts in at least six states have reported students infected with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Three youths have died as a result of the infections... West Virginia... Connecticut... New York... New Hampshire... Indiana... Virginia... reuters.com/ ... 11:04:29A county in southern Virginia closed its 21 schools on Wednesday to clean them to prevent the spread of a dangerous bacterial infection that killed a 17-year-old high school student... a drug-resistant staph infection known as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which has become a worrisome public health issue nationwide...

Supernatural Consequencesnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:03:41The Dalai Lama has been awarded a Congressional Gold Medal - the top US civilian honour - in a move that has infuriated China. George W Bush attended the ceremony in Washington, the first time a sitting US president has appeared in public with the exiled Tibetan leader. Chinese state media had warned it would "cast a shadow" over ties with the US... "I will continue to urge the leaders of China to welcome the Dalai Lama to China," Mr Bush said...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:29:24

Army Spc. Micheal D. Brown, 20, of Williamsburg, Kan. died Oct.16 in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, of a non-combat related illness after being transported from Tikrit,Iraq on Oct.15. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

US Militarywashingtonpost.com/ ... 11:34:12The Air Force has decided to relieve at least five of its officers of command and is considering filing criminal charges in connection with the Aug. 29 "Bent Spear" incident in which nuclear-armed cruise missiles were mistakenly flown from North Dakota to Louisiana, two senior Air Force officials said yesterday... defenselink.mil/ ... 11:28:30National Guard... October 17, 2007... This week, the Army and Marine Corps announced an increase, while the Navy and Air Force announced a decrease. The Coast Guard number remained unchanged. The net collective result is 477 more reservists mobilized than last week... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel who have been mobilized to 91,299, including both units and individual augmentees....

Animal Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:26:21A 1,200-pound horse is safe after rescuers used a wrecker to pull the animal from a swimming pool at a Knoxville [Tenn.] home... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:25:49

NEW YORK... a 7-foot-long python in her toilet... Plumbers had to tear apart the downstairs neighbor's pipes to capture the snake...

Healing Ourselvesreuters.com/ ... 11:22:37A steroid drug long given to treat the facial paralysis of Bell's palsy improves the rate of recovery, but the antivirus drug acyclovir does not... And in some cases, the researchers said, it may be OK not to treat the condition at all... affects up to 1 in 2,500 people per year... usually disappears without treatment... as many as 30 percent of patients do not recover completely and the best treatment has been debated... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:11:09Research into how the human body repairs damaged DNA has been described as a "major breakthrough"... used special x-rays to build 3D pictures of a particular enzyme, which recognises and fixes damaged DNA... known as T7 endonuclease 1, which played a central role in identifying damaged or "branched" DNA... The scientists said it was only DNA repair that stopped people from contracting cancer on a regular basis...

Dinosaurs -- still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:07:28The earliest evidence for the existence of reptiles has been found in Canada... 315 million-year-old fossilised tracks... suggest reptiles evolved between one and three million years earlier than previously thought...

World Zookeepingnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:10:10

Bluefin tuna may just be the coolest fish on the planet... They are big... they have evolved to be warm-blooded, allowing them to hunt from the tropics to near-polar seas... capacity to accelerate as fast as the sports cars that emulate their streamlined shapes. Unfortunately for them, they are also delicious to eat... It looks as though they may be about to gain a new iconic stature, as the fish we hunted to the very door of global extinction... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:06:44 Dolphin

The carcasses of three bottlenose dolphins - including a calf - were found dumped near a holding pen in the Solomon Islands where controversial exports of the mammals were planned. The exporting company on Wednesday denied any knowledge...

Evolution Isn't Easyhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:06:03In one of the earliest hints of "modern" living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archaeological finds show... Instead of undergoing a revolution into modern living about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago, as commonly thought, man may have become modern in stuttering fits and starts, or through a long slow march that began even earlier...

Reasons for Repealpressconnects.com/ ... 11:51:28

A Town of North Norwich man was charged by the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office with a felony and three misdemeanors after a search warrant led to the discovery of marijuana at his residence and to several marijuana plants on a neighbor’s property... wstm.com/ ... 11:51:04

Lewis County Sheriff's Deputies have arrested two people in the Town of Leyden, late Wednesday night... attempted to stop a vehicle for have no tail lights, and when they did, the driver of the vehicle fled on foot after putting into a driveway. While searching for the driver, deputies found an untagged deer in a storage shed, and a large amount of marijuana... person at the residence... was questioned, and gave permission for deputies to keep searching the home. That's when deputies charged [her] with 4th degree criminal possession of marijuana, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child because there were three children under the age of four at the residence... About two hours later, deputies located the driver... back at the residence... charged with 3rd degree criminal possession of marijuana, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, 2nd degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, unsafe fire, insufficient tail lights, no rear view mirror, possession of an untagged deer, and hunting without a license... [A tremendous cascade of damning charges because of some taboo vegetation. Now the deer, that's serious business...] visaliatimesdelta.com/ ... 11:48:07

Tulare County Sheriff’s Department deputies responding to a fight and gunfire arrested a Terra Bella man on suspicion of cultivating marijuana... timesunion.com/ ... 11:47:49

COBLESKILL -- After a monthlong investigation into suspected illegal marijuana-growing operations in three neighboring counties, State Police seized sizable amounts of the drug at a makeshift processing facility during raids conducted Tuesday night... journalgazette.net/ ... 11:47:30

Sheriff's deputies with a warrant alleging theft and assault smelled marijuana, then found a small marijuana greenhouse at an antebellum plantation home... canadianpress.google.com/ ... 11:46:57

Drug charges are pending against two men after RCMP searched a home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L... eight kilograms of marijuana... newsday.com/ ... 11:46:25

marijuana farm discovered in Queens... 300 healthy marijuana plants... narcotics investigators said they found the growing facility while on routine patrol... It was inside a home...

Transport Lawreuters.com/ ... 11:43:03Washington D.C. is dropping its quirky zone-based taxi fare system, which has baffled lawmakers, lobbyists and tourists for decades, and opting for the time-based meters used around the world... For more than 70 years, cab drivers in the U.S. capital determined a fare by how many geographic zones they crossed. Passengers puzzled over maps of the eight zones and 23 subzones to make sure they were charged the correct amount...

Being Humanthisislondon.co.uk/ ... 11:33:47Those not blessed with height are often accused of having a chip on their shoulder. Now a study has found that they might, in fact, have an unhealthy attitude to life...

People Dieelpasotimes.com/ ... 11:33:22A 17-year-old El Dorado High School junior collapsed and died Wednesday afternoon just minutes after taking the PSAT...

Marriage Todayreuters.com/ ... 11:27:29A New York couple sued a florist for $400,000 for using the wrong color flowers at their wedding... caused them "extreme disappointment, distress and embarrassment..." had requested $465 centerpieces in "deep and dark colors of fuchsia, rust and green..." used cheaper flowers and the centerpieces appeared "predominantly pastel pink, almost white..."

World Energyhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:20:15Ann Arbor... will be installing light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to replace about 1,400 street lights... will be the nation's first to convert all downtown street lights to LED technology, which uses less than half the energy of traditional bulbs and could save the community $100,000 a year... "LEDs pay for themselves in four years..."

Music industry is deadhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:19:36The recording industry is going after an old-fashioned online bulletin board system called Usenet, filing a lawsuit against one provider on grounds it allows users to illegally distribute copyright-protected music... Music companies, represented by the trade group Recording Industry Association of America, said Internet users have been turning to Usenet and other alternatives after the entertainment industry's legal actions forced several online file-sharing services to close or transform into legal music distributors... Federal copyright law offers online providers some immunity from copyright lawsuits over their users' activities. But the recording industry might still prevail if it can prove the service provider encourages illegal activity through its advertising or promotional materials... They went after one specific provider, Usenet.com Inc. of Fargo, N.D. In their lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in New York, the labels accused the Usenet company of touting its service as a haven for sharing music in such formats as MP3... [Let us remember, there is NOTHING ILLEGAL about trading MP3s, per se...]

Digital Culturereuters.com/ ... 11:16:57Who Googles what?.. Internet users in Egypt, India and Turkey are the world's most frequent searchers for Web sites using the keyword "sex" on Google search engines... Germany, Mexico and Austria were world's top three searchers of the word "Hitler" while "Nazi" scored the most hits in Chile, Australia and the United Kingdom...

Broadcast is Deadreuters.com/ ... 11:12:11...On Thursday, [BBC] Director General Mark Thompson is expected to announce plans to cut up to 2,800 positions due to a tighter budget, with news and factual departments to bear the brunt. Staff and unions have warned the quality of its output will drop. Its bbc.co.uk/news Web site, which it says attracts about 35 million users a month from around the world, will also be affected, according to media reports. The result is plummeting morale and questions over strategy. "The mood is shocking..."

Big Nannynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:03:01Hundreds of angry residents have attacked bars and brothels in Bolivia for a second day amid reports they were selling alcohol to underage drinkers... They want local government to pass laws banning pubs and brothels near schools... The protesters - mostly families mobilised by the El Alto Parents' Federation - say the establishments are making their neighbourhood unsafe. Local newspaper reports said some bars had hidden areas for underage alcohol consumption...

US Election 2008boston.com/ ... 11:42:34..."Hillary is not the first politician in Washington to declared, 'Mission Accomplished' a little too soon," Obama said. Asked about reports that he and Vice President Dick Cheney are distant cousins, Obama replied, "Not kissing cousins." And asked about going up against Bill Clinton in the campaign, Obama said he would bet on "my girl" -- his wife Michelle -- in a debate against the former president. "You would leave your wife alone with Bill Clinton?" Leno teased... blog.washingtonpost.com/ ... 11:41:42The news that Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) will likely leave the 2008 presidential race tomorrow comes as little surprise to close watchers of the race... news.yahoo.com/ ... 11:36:06Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney called the United Nations a failure on Thursday and said he would support a new coalition of the free nations of the world... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:02:16Former US Vice-President Al Gore has ruled out again making a late entry into the 2008 presidential race...

Woman's Rightnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:09:09A contraceptive drug that avoids the side effects of hormonal birth control is on the horizon, say scientists... a technique called "RNA interference" could stop sperm entering the egg... at least a decade away - and may have its own side-effects... a gene called ZP3... produces a protein which allows the sperm to bind to the surface of the egg. If this protein isn't there, the egg can't be fertilised... "RNA interference is fantastic and there was a big hype around it, but people are starting to see what we call 'off-target' effects - where the therapy has an unwanted effect elsewhere in the body. Every single application has some degree of off target effects..." news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:02:01An estimated 20 million unsafe abortions are carried out every year around the world. They are a major cause of avoidable deaths among pregnant women, not least in Nicaragua where abortion is illegal... Nicaragua is one of Latin America's poorest countries and there is no doubt that life here is tough. There is a high rate of pregnancy among teenage girls and the health workers I spoke to mentioned significant levels of sexual abuse. I had travelled here to find out about the impact of the latest restrictions on abortion in this predominantly Catholic country...

Political Theaterhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:01:05Eight Greenpeace members prevented from leaving an Amazon town for more than 24 hours by loggers and angry residents were escorted away peacefully Wednesday by authorities. The activists, however, were unable to depart with the scorched tree trunk they wanted to take with them for an exhibit on global warming...

WED 2007-OCT-17

Threatsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:20:29Turkey's parliament has given permission for the government to launch military operations into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. The vote was taken in defiance of pressure from the US and Iraq, which have called on Turkey for restraint. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the motion does not mean a military operation is imminent...

WW3 - still with usbreitbart.com/ ... 11:18:43US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he had warned world leaders they must prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons "if you're interested in avoiding World War III..."

Epidemic Without Borderswashingtonpost.com/ ... 10:53:12A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus... The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year...

Transport Near-Tragedynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:52:05...a police officer persuaded her to leave her car just seconds before it was swept away by an oncoming train... did not realise she had stopped on the train tracks... bursts into tears as the train sweeps by, saying: "Thank you, thank you for saving me officer." ...car was reportedly sent flying more than 100m (330 ft)... At least two passengers aboard the train suffered minor injuries...

Socialism in Actionsuntimes.com/ ... 10:50:43The nation's first baby boomer applied for Social Security Monday, the start of an avalanche of applications from the post-World War II generation...

Supernatural Consequencesapnews.myway.com/ ... 11:19:07

President Bush on Wednesday staunchly defended his participation in a U.S. ceremony honoring the Dalai Lama, saying "I support religious freedom, he supports religious freedom..." voanews.com/ ... 10:47:39The Dalai Lama says his successor could be chosen among a group of senior monks, rather than through the centuries-old tradition of reincarnation... like the Pope, or he may decide to declare his own successor while he is still alive. Chinese authorities issued a new regulation in July 2007 that requires all reincarnations - including the Dalai Lama - to be approved by the government. After the second highest-ranking Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Panchen Lama, died in 1989, the Chinese government negated the reincarnation recognized by the Dalai Lama and installed its own choice...

Animals can be Dangerousreuters.com/ ... 10:41:33

An Australian woman fought off a Great White Shark Monday after it knocked her into the water from her surf ski at a popular tourist beach... "She was able to (defend herself from) the shark by striking it in the mouth with the paddle from the kayak. The shark then took off and swam away from her..." suffered only small lacerations on her right arm in the fight with the 2.5-metre (eight-foot) shark...

Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:40:12New Zealand police have arrested 17 people and seized a number of weapons during a series of anti-terror raids... targeting Maori sovereignty and environmental activists - not foreign groups... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:39:53Concerts calling for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been scrapped after Palestinian supporters were threatened... Rocker Bryan Adams was due to headline two concerts held simultaneously in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the West Bank town of Jericho on 18 October... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:39:28A blast in a cinema in the northern Indian state of Punjab has killed six people and injured at least 30 others... Hundreds of people were packed into the multiplex... Many of those inside were poor, migrant labourers enjoying a Bollywood movie. They were watching "Janam Janam Ke Saath" or "Together Through Several Lifetimes..."

Industrial Tragedynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:38:34Rescuers have ended search efforts in southern Colombia where a makeshift mine collapsed on Saturday, killing 21 people and injuring some 24 others... 16 women were among the dead... near the town of Suarez, about 350km (220 miles) from Bogota... Local residents were mining for gold with few safety measures in place...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:12:54

Army Spc. Jason B. Koutroubas, 21, of Dunnellon, Fla., died Oct 14 in Tal Afar, Iraq, from injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. This incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:12:38

Army 1st Lt. Thomas M. Martin, 27, of Ward, Ark., died Oct 14 in Al Busayifi, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:12:22

Army Pfc. Kenneth J. Iwasinski, 22, of West Springfield, Mass., died Oct 14 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Co. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:12:07

Army Sgt.1st Class Justin S. Monschke, 28, of Krum, Texas, died Oct 14 in Arab Jabour, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on patrol during combat operations. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:11:39

Army Spc. Frank L. Cady III, 20, of Sacramento, Calif., died Oct.10 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. He was assigned to the 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. . defenselink.mil/ ... 11:11:03

Army Pvt. Nathan Z. Thacker, 18, of Greenbrier, Ark., died Oct. 12 in Kirkuk, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:10:42

Army Staff Sgt. Donald L. Munn II, 25, of Saint Clairs Shores, Mich., died Oct. 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit. He was assigned to Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:10:26

Army Staff Sgt. Lillian Clamens, 35, of Lawton, Okla., assigned to the 1st Postal Platoon, 834th Adjutant General Company, Miami

Army Spc. Samuel F. Pearson, 28, of Westerville, Ohio, assigned to the 376th Finance Company, 88th Regional Readiness Command, Wausau, Wis.
died Oct. 10 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with rockets. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:09:28

Army Sgt. Jason M. Lantieri, 25, of Killingworth, Conn., died Oct. 10 in Iskandaryah, Iraq, of injuries suffered during a vehicle accident Oct. 9. He was assigned to the 725th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska. The circumstances surrounding the incident are currently under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:09:09

Army Staff Sgt. Eric T. Duckworth, 26, of Plano, Texas, died Oct. 10 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 759th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, Fort Carson, Colo. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:08:48The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of nine U.S. servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Army Air Force 1st Lt. David P. McMurray, of Melrose, Mass.

Army Air Force 1st Lt. Raymond Pascual, of Houston, Texas

Army Air Force 2nd Lt. Millard C. Wells Jr., of Paris, Ky.

Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Leonard J. Ray, of Upper Falls, Md.

Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Hyman L. Stiglitz, of Boston, Mass.

Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert L. Cotey, of Vergennes, Vt.

Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Francis E. Larrivee, of Laconia, N.H.

Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert J. Flood, of Neelyton, Pa.

Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Walter O. Schlosser, of Lake City, Mich.
Ray and Flood were buried last week in Harford County, Md., and Dry Run, Pa., respectively. The burials of the other servicemen will be at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. on a date to be determined.... On July 7, 1944, the men were aboard a B-24J Liberator that departed North Pickenham, England, on a mission to bomb a German aircraft factory near Bernburg, Germany. The plane was last seen by U.S. aircrew members in that vicinity. Captured records revealed that it had crashed near Westeregeln, about 20 miles northwest of the target in what would become the Soviet sector of a post-war-divided Germany. In 2001, a group of German citizens interested in recovering wartime relics and remains learned of a potential crash site south of Westeregeln. Later that year and in 2002, the group found the site and uncovered human remains from what appeared to be two burial locations. The remains and other personal effects, including identification tags, were turned over to U.S. officials. In 2003, a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team excavated the crash site and recovered additional remains, identification tags and non-biological material evidence....

Staying Healthyblog.wired.com/ ... 10:53:57Tests performed by a consumer safety group found that nearly two-thirds of 33 brand-name lipsticks contained lead, often in excess of the FDA's maximums for lead in candy... The FDA currently sets no limits on lead in lipstick... action is unlikely...

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 11:15:07The Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard have released "A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower," a unified maritime strategy that explains the comprehensive role of the sea services in an era marked by increased globalization and change. This is the first time a unified maritime strategy has been signed by all three of the sea services. The strategy integrates seapower with other elements of national power in addition to that of friends, partners and allies. It states that protecting the homeland and winning the nation's wars is matched by a corresponding commitment to preventing war. Additionally, it codifies the requirement for continued development and application of existing core capabilities of forward presence, deterrence, sea control and power projection, while recognizing the need for expanded capabilities of maritime security and humanitarian assistance and disaster response.... defenselink.mil/ ... 11:14:19The Department of Defense today will grant access for a civilian defense attorney to meet with Majid Khan, a Pakistani national and one of 15 high value detainees held at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. Khan is an alleged Al Qaeda operative with direct connections to the United States, having lived and attended high school in the Baltimore area. Khan also has direct connections to Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM), whom he has referred to as his uncle. KSM allegedly selected Khan as an operative for a possible attack inside the United States and tasked him with researching the poisoning of U.S. water reservoirs and the possibility of blowing up gas stations. Khan has reportedly had links to Al Qaeda operatives and facilitators, some who assisted him with false travel documents to re-enter the U.S. illegally, and involved him in a discussion of smuggling explosives into the United States using the New York office of a Karachi-based textile business. Khan exemplifies the significant and genuine threat that the United States and other countries face throughout the world. Under the Detainee Treatment Act, each detainee at Guantanamo is entitled to have his enemy combatant designation reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Providing review of such determination in a nation's own domestic courts is an unprecedented protection for captured enemy fighters in the history of warfare. There are approximately 330 detainees currently at Guantanamo. foxnews.com/ ... 10:54:43LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ (RET.), FMR. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war. For some of you just like some of our politicians, the truth is of little to no value if it does not fit your own preconceived notions, biases, or agendas... washingtonpost.com/ ... 10:52:35President Bush sent legislation to Congress yesterday to revamp the health-care and disability system for U.S troops wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan by eliminating duplicative bureaucracy and providing more assistance to families dealing with the long-term effects of their injuries. The proposals are part of a broader effort by the Bush administration to overhaul how wounded service members are treated once they come home from war, a project launched after revelations eight months ago of shoddy conditions and mind-numbing red tape at Walter Reed Army Medical Center...

It's All in Your Mindreuters.com/ ... 10:40:51A new research center -- dubbed the "restaurant of the future" -- at the Dutch university of Wageningen... tracking diners with dozens of unobtrusive cameras and monitoring their eating habits... "We want to find out what influences people: colors, taste, personnel. We try to focus on one stimulus, like light..."

Solar Systemreuters.com/ ... 10:35:09The daily weather forecast on Saturn's largest moon Titan appears to be a steady drizzle of liquid methane, at least around the bright, exotically named region known as Xanadu... New images from Hawaii's W.M. Keck Observatory and Chile's Very Large Telescope show nearly global cloud cover at high elevations and a dreary morning drizzle that seems to dissipate around midmorning local time -- which is about three Earth days after sunrise...

Digital Businessbusiness.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 11:20:11Environmentalists have threatened to sue Apple if it does not make its iPhone a "greener" product or tell consumers of the toxins allegedly used in the device’s manufacture... after a report by Greenpeace, the environmental group, which alleged that the iPhone contained dangerous levels of bromine, chlorine and phthalates – chemicals used to increase the flexibility of plastic...

US Election 2008rawstory.com/ ... 10:50:02"Tonight, I, Stephen Colbert, am officially announcing that I have decided to officially consider whether or not I will announce that I am running for president of the United States," Colbert proclaimed last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, "and I will be making an announcement of that decision very soon, preferably on a more prestigious show..."
Moments later on the following broadcast, Colbert's own Colbert Report, he was forthcoming about his would-be presidential bid. "After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call," Colbert said into the camera. "Nation, I shall seek the office of the president of the United States! I am doing it!.."

Reasons for Repealopednews.com/ ... 11:00:11

In a letter to a local paper (The Daily Star - Oneonta, NY. October 8 ) entitled, "Marijuana use is harmful," anti-cannibis crusader, Miriam Brown, claims that, "Marijuana can lead to addiction, anti-social behavior and health problems" -- yet she does not cite a single peer-reviewed study proving any serious detrimental effects for the vast majority of individuals who use marijuana. She doesn't because those studies don't exist. A 1999 study by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that, "Few marijuana users develop dependence." Some do, "but they appear to be less likely to do so than users of other drugs (including alcohol and nicotine) and marijuana dependence appears to be less severe than dependence on other drugs..." mercurynews.com/ ... 10:59:24

GRASS VALLEY, Calif.—Investigators are searching for four people suspected of breaking into a rural Nevada County home in search of cultivated marijuana and beating eight people with crow bars and baseball bats... fayobserver.com/ ... 10:59:08

CLINTON — Fifty pounds of marijuana worth $250,000 was seized Monday from a Clinton home and storage unit... thedailyjournal.com/ ... 10:58:28

COMMERCIAL -- State police arrested a North Avenue resident on pot possession charges after a tip led them to the site of recently harvested plants. Police seized 5.5 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $27,000... southcoasttoday.com/ ... 10:58:04

Wareham police arrested two people Monday after the individuals tried to pick up a package containing more than 400 pounds of suspected marijuana... venturacountystar.com/ ... 10:57:34

Citing a conflict between state and federal laws, Moorpark is joining two other Ventura County cities in banning medical marijuana dispensaries... indexjournal.com/ ... 10:57:06

An 11-year-old Lakeview Elementary School student was questioned by authorities last month after a bag of marijuana was found in his pocket at school... boy said he stopped by a friend’s house on the way to school, adding that his friend’s brother had smoked marijuana while he was there... local10.com/ ... 10:56:11

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- A Hollywood man was arrested after a half-million dollars worth of marijuana was seized from a grow house... nydailynews.com/ ... 10:48:55A Manhattan drug dealer used a crew of corrupt baggage handlers at JFK Airport to smuggle heroin and cocaine into New York City... Ten airport workers were among the 18 defendants arrested...

US Congressbloomberg.com/ ... 10:48:02A group of Democrats today will urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reconsider a pledge to have the House vote before the end of the year on a resolution declaring the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks an act of genocide. At least nine U.S. lawmakers have withdrawn their support for the resolution since a congressional panel approved the legislation last week...

Food Recallreuters.com/ ... 10:37:49Coal Valley, Illinois-based... J Meats Corp. is recalling 173,554 pounds (78.7 tonnes) of frozen ground beef products sold under "Topps" and "Sam's Choice" labels due to possible E. coli contamination... two-, three-, and eight-pound boxes of beef burgers... a complaint about illness...

People Do Drugsreuters.com/ ... 10:36:45Afghanistan, the world's biggest heroin producer, is struggling to cope with a drug problem as thousands of Afghans -- trying to cope with the traumas of war, displacement and poverty -- are becoming addicted to narcotics...

Digital Culturereuters.com/ ... 10:36:29LONDON... A teen-ager was airlifted to hospital and his father had his nose broken when gatecrashers went on the rampage at a 16th birthday party after details were posted on YouTube... More than 100 uninvited teenagers descended on the family house, stole whisky and champagne, smashed windows and started fighting...

TUE 2007-OCT-16

Police Riothosted.ap.org/ ... 18:06:12MOBILE, Ala... An 81-year-old woman shot a homeless man after finding him washing his clothes in her laundry room... hosted.ap.org/ ... 18:05:24A Scranton woman who allegedly shouted profanities at her overflowing toilet within earshot of a neighbor was cited for disorderly conduct... "It doesn't make any sense. I was in my house. It's not like I was outside or drunk... The toilet was overflowing and leaking down into the kitchen and I was yelling (for my daughter) to get the mop..." she admitted letting more than a few choice words fly near an open bathroom window... Her next-door neighbor, a city police officer who was off-duty at the time, asked her to keep it down, police said. When she continued, the officer called police...

Animals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 18:04:05KENAI, Alaska... [19yo] man awakened by a bump in the night went to investigate and... found himself face to snout with a black bear that had come in through an open window... hosted.ap.org/ ... 18:02:27WHITE HAVEN, Pa... [14yo] Boy Scout played dead when attacked by a bear during a camping trip, avoiding serious injury... curled up in the fetal position in his sleeping bag after the bear ripped down his tent... cuts and bruises...

Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 18:06:30LANCASTER, Pa... A purse-snatcher demanded $185,000 in ransom money for returning his victim's cell phone, but agreed to settle for $200. When the woman went to retrieve the phone, police accompanied her and made an arrest... hosted.ap.org/ ... 18:00:35Some fashion statements draw more attention than others, and wearing handcuffs while walking near the Tulsa County Courthouse is one that got noticed...

Rage -- not a good ideahosted.ap.org/ ... 17:59:18a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart...

Fun can be Dangerousreuters.com/ ... 17:57:34More than 10,000 children and teens go to the hospital every year in the United States after falling off or crashing their bicycles, racking up $200 million in hospital fees... [OMIGAW!! QUICK! BAN THE BICYCLE! THINK OF THE CHILDREN! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!]

Modern Medicine can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 17:58:53WOODLAND, Calif... A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases... [Especially when the breasts are LARGE and FIRM and RIGHT THERE in front of you...] hosted.ap.org/ ... 17:55:52Medtronic Inc. is stopping distribution of wires that connect some of its defibrillators to patients' hearts after learning they may have contributed to five deaths... hosted.ap.org/ ... 17:55:43Britain's health chief apologized Monday for an outbreak of a deadly bacterial infection in hospitals that left 90 people dead, but insisted the incident was an isolated one...

Digital Tyranny Threatnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:54:44Bloggers are now finding themselves prey to censorship from repressive governments as much as journalists in traditional media... Reporters Without Borders' annual study of press freedom says China is one of the worst offenders, having imprisoned 50 people for postings on the internet. The report says governments realise the internet is now a key tool in promoting democracy and are moving to curb it... Eritrea was ranked bottom on overall press freedom by the pressure group...

Sex can be Dangerousnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:01:11A suspected paedophile who appears in 200 internet images abusing young boys has been named by Thai police as a Canadian teaching English in Asia... hosted.ap.org/ ... 16:55:34A suspected pedophile being hunted by Interpol contributed to an online forum for teachers, and police say they believe he wrote under a pseudonym about the risks of catching HIV from oral sex and how to erase pornographic computer files "so no one will see..."

Socialism in Actionhosted.ap.org/ ... 16:52:58A shortage of National Health Service dentists in England has led some people to pull out their own teeth - or use super glue to stick crowns back on...

Mass Murdering Monstershosted.ap.org/ ... 16:48:29A mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home in southern Afghanistan that killed the would-be bomber, his mother... brother and two sisters were also killed... vest exploded during a struggle between the mother and her son... In a second accidental explosion, another would-be bomber died Friday in Paktika province after he identified himself to police and began taking off his bomb vest... said he changed his mind and was aborting the suicide mission because he saw people praying in a mosque...

Threatshosted.ap.org/ ... 16:46:16Turkey moved closer to opening a new front in the Iraq war Monday, with the government asking parliament to approve a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels. Still, its leaders were reluctant to stage an incursion that could hurt Turkey's standing with Washington...

Healing Ourselvesreuters.com/ ... 17:56:30Death rates from cancer continue to fall in the United States, dropping more than 2 percent per year from 2002 through 2004... "The significant decline in cancer death rates demonstrates important progress in the fight against cancer that has been achieved through effective tobacco control, screening, early detection, and appropriate treatment..." [Hmmm....]

Extraterrestrialnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:50:27The switch has been thrown on a telescope specifically designed to seek out alien life. Funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the finished array will have 350 six-metre antennas and will be one of the world's largest. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) will be able to sweep more than one million star systems for radio signals generated by intelligent beings. Its creators hope it will help spot definite signs of alien life by 2025... [I'll bet not...]

History - still with usreuters.com/ ... 17:30:54It was sensational stuff that riveted a nation: A mild-mannered American doctor poisons then dismembers his unfaithful wife, flees England in disguise with his mistress -- and is caught, tried and hanged. The problem is that the poisoned corpse that sent Dr Hawley Crippen to the gallows in London in 1910 was not that of his wife, according to new evidence found by U.S. researchers...

Feeding Ourselvesreuters.com/ ... 17:28:25Farmers in northwestern Iowa and southeastern South Dakota have found aflatoxin, a mold that can cause cancer in humans if consumed in large amounts, in their recently harvested corn... With several parts of the Midwest having gone through a scorching summer, more farmers in the Corn Belt may find aflatoxin... The highest level found was 600 parts per billion... The U.S. Food and Drug Administration limits aflatoxin for food or animal feed to 20 parts per billion. Countries importing U.S. corn often demand even lower limits...

Animal Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 18:01:25

DESTIN, Fla... Six friends went to a fishing tournament looking to catch some grouper. They caught an 844-pound shark instead... reuters.com/ ... 17:26:23

Fish might not have eyelids, but they do sleep, and some suffer from insomnia... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:25:30Chimpanzees under attack exaggerate their screams to get help from higher ranking group members...

Evolution Isn't Easynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:14:17The mystery of how an animal has survived for 80 million years without sex has been solved by UK scientists... owes its existence to a genetic quirk that offers some recompense for its prolonged celibacy... a tiny invertebrate known as a bdelloid rotifer. It lives in freshwater pools. If deprived of water, it survives in a desiccated state until water becomes available again. The secret to this novel survival mechanism lies in a twist of asexual reproduction, whereby the animal is able to make two separate proteins from two different copies of a key gene...

Solar Systemnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:13:23Scientists have determined the location of the most powerful jets spraying from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. These ejected streams of ice particles come from the hottest spots of geological fractures known as the "tiger stripes"...

Antiquity - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 17:12:54Idaho State University anthropologists are retracing American Indian trade routes by bombarding arrowheads and other stone tools with radiation that helps locate their origins...

US Militaryhosted.ap.org/ ... 16:52:23A prosecutor said Monday a former U.S. military police commander aided the enemy by letting top detainees make unmonitored cell phone calls at sites including the camp that held Saddam Hussein. But his attorney described the officer as only trying "to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis." The sides faced off at the opening of the court-martial of Army reservist Lt. Col. William H. Steele, who oversaw lockups that included the area where Saddam spent his final days... pretrial testimony... included allegations Steele approved the purchase of Cuban cigars for the toppled Iraqi dictator...

It's All in Your Mindreuters.com/ ... 16:45:42Smiles may take a while, but a horrified expression is a sure-fire attention getter, U.S. researchers said on Sunday, based on a study of how fast people process facial expressions. They believe fearful facial expressions make a beeline to the alarm center of the brain known as the amygdala, cuing humans to potential threats...

Orbiting Overheadreuters.com/ ... 16:45:05A Russian capsule carrying a new crew for the International Space Station and Malaysia's first astronaut slipped into a berthing port at the orbital outpost on Friday as the space ships sailed 220 miles above Earth...

Dinosaurs -- still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 16:51:19The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species - a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found - has been uncovered in Argentina... appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur... named it Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and "chief," and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton's excavation... walked the Earth some 88 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period... neck alone must have been 56 feet long, and by studying the vertebrae, they figured the tail probably measured 49 feet. The dinosaur reached over 43 feet tall, and the excavated spinal column weighed about 9 tons when excavated. One neck vertebra alone measured more than 3 feet high... reuters.com/ ... 16:44:38An 85 million-year-old dinosaur skull has been found in southwestern Japan, one of the oldest discoveries of its kind in the country... a herbivore called hadrosaurid... Hadrosaurids, which were seven to eight meters tall, are also known as "duck-billed dinosaurs" because of their heads' resemblance to ducks, with a wide and flat bill similar to that of a platypus...

Defending Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 18:04:39CORD, Ark... A couple thwarted a would-be robber by threatening him with a decorative ax and tearing off his mask before he fled their home...

Sportsmanshiphosted.ap.org/ ... 18:01:02An overhead NBC television camera mounted on wires collapsed onto the turf during a timeout early in Sunday night's game between the New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks, almost hitting two Seattle players and causing a 10-minute delay...

Good is Innatehosted.ap.org/ ... 17:59:51WERNERSVILLE, Pa... A woman who found $20,000 in cash at a convenience store last month is getting a $500 reward from the armored car company that lost it...

CD/DVD/etc is Deadreuters.com/ ... 17:55:08In an industry first, 20th Century Fox is expected to announce Tuesday that the special-edition DVD of "Live Free or Die Hard" will come with an electronic copy of the complete movie that can be played on a computer and select portable video players...

World of Sexual Culturesreuters.com/ ... 17:53:55The Sex Party is upset that Canada Post refused to distribute a flyer during the 2006 federal election that outlined the group's philosophy, after deeming some its contents to be pornographic...

People Livereuters.com/ ... 17:53:31An Australian man, clad only in underwear, fell nine stories while trying to build a makeshift plank bridge into a neighbor's flat, but lived to tell the tale...

People Diereuters.com/ ... 17:52:56The body of a 76-year-old woman found dead in her Vienna flat was left there for nine days because a doctor who registered the death forgot to notify a removal service... noticed when neighbors of the deceased woman complained of a worsening stench...

Digital Cultureen.wikipedia.org/ ... 17:52:26Machinima ...a portmanteau of machine cinema,[1] is both a collection of associated production techniques and a film genre defined by those techniques. As a production technique, the term concerns the rendering of computer-generated imagery (CGI) using real-time, interactive (game) 3D engines, as opposed to high-end and complex 3D animation software used by professionals... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:51:22Machinima is a medium that has come of age. As an "emergent art", it has been around as a form of user-generated content for some ten years now: hardly emergent then... has come from subculture to a genre of its own. It is now a recognised approach to film-making, having been used by the likes of Spielberg to test special effects scenes before shooting the "real thing"... Sharing my Top 5 machinima films...

Digital Theory of Educationnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:49:59Schoolchildren in Russia are to be taught using the free, open-source Linux software in an effort to cut the cost of teaching information technology...

Music industry is deadhosted.ap.org/ ... 17:49:11Led Zeppelin, one of the last major acts to resist digital distribution, are releasing their back catalog online...

Digital Libertyreuters.com/ ... 17:48:35The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Tuesday to extend a moratorium on state Internet access taxes for four years, brushing aside calls by some lawmakers for a permanent ban. The House voted 405-2 to continue the ban, which is scheduled to expire on November 1...

Liberty Worksreuters.com/ ... 17:48:10Coinciding with his first day of hosting "The Price Is Right," Drew Carey and the libertarian think tank Reason Foundation on Monday launched a video journalism Web site that will delve into such issues as immigration and medical marijuana. Reason.tv (http://reason.tv/video/show/6.html) kicked off with an examination of traffic congestion in Los Angeles and ways the private sector -- rather than taxpayers -- can solve the problem...

Researching the Obviousreuters.com/ ... 17:47:43Gossip more powerful than truth, researchers say...

US Election 2008reuters.com/ ... 17:35:02U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama are... eighth cousins... The common ancestor was Mareen Devall... a 17th century immigrant from France...

Digital Businesshosted.ap.org/ ... 17:48:49Like a gourmet chef who rarely eats out, Google Inc. feeds advertising services to hordes of other businesses while skimping on its own marketing... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:21:35A single hard drive with four terabytes of storage (4TB) could be a reality by 2011, thanks to a nanotechnology breakthrough by Japanese firm Hitachi. The company has successfully managed to shrink the read-write head of a hard drive to two thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair...

Headline of the Daynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:20:12

Australia plagued by feral pigs...

Democracy in Actionhosted.ap.org/ ... 16:53:47British lawmakers have been granted the power to move to the head of the line at restaurants, restrooms and elevators inside the Houses of Parliament, enraging those assistants, researchers, janitors and other workers who must only stand and wait. The workers warn that Parliament is in danger of appearing decidedly undemocratic in allowing the lawmakers, in British parlance, to "jump the queue..."

THU 2007-OCT-11

Digital Threatreuters.com/ ... 12:24:55Adobe Systems Inc... said on Wednesday some of its programs contain yet-to-be-fixed flaws that make computers vulnerable to attack...

9/11 - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:23:42An increase in low birthweight babies born in and around New York in the months after 9/11 has been blamed on stress caused by the attacks...

Supernatural Tyrannykhaleejtimes.com/ ... 12:00:59Iranian police have warned 122,000 people, mostly women, about flouting strict Islamic dress codes since April and nearly 7,000 of those attended classes on respecting the rules...

Scary Timesapnews.myway.com/ ... 11:57:38The federal government will begin testing a body-scanning machine that could eventually be used instead of the metal detectors passengers walk through at airports... Passengers may request the full-body scan - which blurs faces so the person being screened cannot be recognized - instead of the traditional pat-down used across the country. The new machine uses radio waves to detect foreign objects... equal to 15 minutes of exposure to natural background radiation such as the sun's rays...

Civilization vs Gangsterismhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:16:46BAGHDAD... A series of rockets or mortar rounds struck Camp Victory, killing two members of the U.S.-led coalition and wounding 40 other people on the sprawling headquarters for U.S. forces in Iraq... those wounded... included two "third-country nationals," meaning they were not Americans or Iraqis... reuters.com/ ... 11:45:10In an unprecedented letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, 138 Muslim scholars... from around the globe called on Thursday for peace and understanding between Islam and Christianity, saying "the very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake"... reuters.com/ ... 11:44:28Hundreds of Buddhist monks rounded up by Myanmar's junta were beaten and kept in animal-like conditions without toilets or drinking water during days of interrogation, one of those freed said on Thursday... were stripped of their maroon monastic robes and treated like common criminals. "When one of us used a pronoun referring to himself as a monk, he was slapped," the monk said. "Then an interrogator said: 'You are no longer a monk. You are just an ordinary man with a shaven head.'..." news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:43:13A Burmese pro-democracy activist... Win Shwe... arrested during anti-government protests last month has died in custody... "as a result of torture during interrogation..." the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said... "His body was not sent to his family and the interrogators indicated that they had cremated it instead..." news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:42:17Two Ethiopian soldiers have been killed by a car bomb in the Somali town of Baidoa on Wednesday evening. The bomber's target was an Ethiopian military post close to the hotel where the prime minister, Ali Mohamed Ghedi, was staying...

War is Hellhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:41:43About $18 billion a year has been drained from Africa by nearly two dozen wars in recent decades...

Industrial Incidentwjz.com/ ... 01:48:42Baltimore County... Embassy Suites... glass skylight breaks loose and falls eight stories... The entire roof of an atrium... no one was hurt...

Rage -- not a good ideabreitbart.com/ ... 01:46:52LOS ANGELES... Two men were booked for investigation of attempted murder in connection with... A road-rage crash [which] critically injured a mother and her two small children, who were crushed between parked cars...

Opposing Tyrannynews.yahoo.com/ ... 01:45:42US President George W. Bush will risk angering China by attending a ceremony next week to award a Congress medal to the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, at the bastion of American democracy...

Disturbing Family Patternshosted.ap.org/ ... 12:32:12GREAT FALLS, Mont... A 43-year-old woman has been charged with a felony after prosecutors said she helped her son make pipe bombs in her home... lacrossetribune.com/ ... 01:37:21MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — A mother and two male friends face charges after being accused of sharing marijuana with her 2-year-old son and recording the incident on video clips on a cell phone... [bad parenting AND idiotic...] staggering around a bathroom "in what appears to be a confused and altered state." One of the mother’s friends can be heard asking, "Hey buddy ... Are you stoned?" Laughter and other voices are heard...

Transport Troublehosted.ap.org/ ... 12:33:42RICHFIELD, Minn... Police say a 26-year-old St. Louis Park man was asleep at the wheel of his pickup as it drove down the street before dawn on Sunday... dailyherald.com/ ... 01:33:50a hard landing at O'Hare Airport that hospitalized two... Flight 628 from Seattle flattened a tire and damaged two of its engines when it briefly left the runway during landing... one passenger and one crew member out of 127 passengers were injured... ohio.com/ ... 01:33:02PAINESVILLE: Some 30 cars from a CSX train derailed in Painesville in Northeast Ohio on Wednesday, setting off a large, smoky fire and spurring evacuation of a half-mile radius... biggest concern was a tank car of flammable liquefied petroleum gas... no injuries reported...

Mass Murdering Monstersasahi.com/ ... 12:01:22YOKOHAMA--A man suspected of murdering a suicidal woman sold sleeping drugs over his cellphone Web site to more than 10 people, including one person who committed suicide... news.yahoo.com/ ... 11:52:25A 14-year-old student who opened fire at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself, had a history of mental problems and was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students. Asa H. Coon, who had been suspended for fighting, warned classmates of an attack — but none took him seriously... washingtonpost.com/ ... 01:32:22...Most chilling is that of mastermind John Allen Muhammad, who, in a video posted by CNN on its Web site, laughs as he pronounces himself "still fighting" on death row. The origins of the video are as murky as its purpose. He says he wants to correct inaccurate statements made about his relationship with Lee Boyd Malvo. Mr. Muhammad's smirks and grins must be contrasted with the somber words of that young accomplice. In a series of phone calls with ABC News, Mr. Malvo described the pain he said that he feels in coming to terms with the devastation he caused. Mr. Malvo even placed a phone call to the daughter of one of his victims -- an Arizona man shot months before the Washington rampage. That Cheryll Witz reached out to her father's killer and wants to believe that he is truly sorry says more about the human capacity for forgiveness than about whether Mr. Malvo is to be believed... nydailynews.com/ ... 01:29:50A Cleveland 14-year-old who threatened to shoot up his school in retaliation for a beating did just that on Wednesday, opening fire on teachers and students before killing himself... Two male teachers and two male students were hit but the gunman was the only fatality. A 14-year-old girl was hurt in the panicked stampede... "I knew that dude was crazy..." "Goth" who decked himself out in black nail polish, a trench coat and Marilyn Manson T-shirts, and who claimed to worship the Devil, had been beaten up for saying "f--- God..."

Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 12:33:23

GREENVILLE, Maine... Thumper, a black Labrador retriever, is getting credit for saving a Greenville man when a fire swept through his home... fire marshal investigator believes the blaze was started when Princess, the family cat, tipped over a kerosene lantern...

Digital Future is Nowhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:28:03The ultrahigh-speed Internet2 network just got 10 times faster... Until recently, the Internet2 had a theoretical limit of 10 gigabits per second, which is thousands of times faster than standard home broadband connections. By sending data using 10 different colors, or wavelengths, of light over a single cable, operators are boosting the network's capacity to 100 Gbps. That means a high-quality version of the movie "The Matrix" could be sent in a few seconds rather than half a minute over the old Internet2 and several hours over a typical home broadband line...

Orbiting Overheadhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:15:48A rocket carrying a satellite used for communication by the United States Air Force lifted off Wednesday night... the first of at least five satellites scheduled to be placed in orbit by the end of 2008. The satellite system will replace the current Defense Satellite Communications System that has been used for military communications for the last two decades. This first satellite will cover the Pacific Zone, which includes Hawaii, Japan and Southeast Asia. Each spacecraft will cost $350 million... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:15:11A Russian spacecraft soared from the Kazakh steppe toward the international space station Wednesday, carrying a Malaysian, a Russian, and Peggy Whitson, the American who will become the first woman to command the orbital outpost... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:14:27A Malaysian doctor who will spend the last days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in space has vowed to follow the rituals of his faith even as he hurtles around Earth at 17,000 mph... Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor... has said he will fast and pray in space, even though clerics said he could delay the fast. "I am not sure how it would be done but I will share my experiences (with) all the Muslims all over the world when I get back..."

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 01:42:37National Guard... October 10, 2007... This week, the Army and Air Force announced a decrease, while the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced an increase. The net collective result is 587 fewer reservists mobilized than last week... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel who have been mobilized to 90,822, including both units and individual augmentees... defenselink.mil/ ... 01:41:57The Department of Defense announced today its recruiting and retention statistics for the Active and Reserve components for Fiscal Year 2007... All Services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for FY 2007... Four of the six Reserve components met or exceeded their accession goals for FY 2007... Losses in all Reserve components are within acceptable limits...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 01:42:49

Army Cpl. Gilberto A. Meza, 21, of Oxnard, Calif., died Oct. 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 01:40:54

Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy W. Burris, 22, of Tacoma, Wash., died Oct. 8 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. defenselink.mil/ ... 01:40:34

Army Cpl. Benjamin C. Dillon, 22, of Rootstown, Ohio, died Oct. 7 in northern Iraq of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.

Virtual Future is Nownews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:31:02A virtual character, or avatar, for all the virtual worlds in which people play is the goal of a joint project between IBM and Linden Lab. The computer giant and the creator of Second Life are working on universal avatars that can travel between worlds... Initially the partners will concentrate on creating a system that lets people move between worlds. Later will come the universal character creation system that lets people create a single avatar to venture into online worlds. The partnership was announced prior to the start of the Virtual Worlds conference taking place in San Jose, California, from 10-11 October. Virtual worlds are rapidly becoming hugely popular. When the first Virtual Worlds conference took place in early 2006 only nine such cyberspaces were widely known. In 2007 more than 30 will be on show at the Virtual Worlds meeting... reuters.com/ ... 12:27:10"CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker dropped some clues to an upcoming Second Life integration with his CBS series in his address here Wednesday at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo. Zuiker was part of a Hollywood contingent at the event, signaling the mainstream entertainment business' growing investments in the space... reuters.com/ ... 12:26:44When Cisco Systems decided to enter the Second Life virtual world, things didn't turn out exactly as the network equipment supplier expected. "We were quick. We got into Second Life and put up a big building with repurposed Web content. It was a ghost town. Digital tumbleweeds..." It turned out people wanted to log on to Second Life to hang out with friends and play casual games, not visit a 3-D version of a corporate Web site. It's an experience many companies that rushed to set up in Second Life have had in recent months, but rather than abandon its virtual homestead, Cisco changed tack. "Two or three months in we bulldozed everything we'd done. It's now a place for meetings rather than repurposed Web content..." Instead of declaring virtual worlds a failed experiment and pulling out, companies are rethinking their approaches, much as they did on the Internet a decade ago, when Web sites began evolving from little more than a few pages with brochure-style photos and information... washingtonpost.com/ ... 01:39:17...has begun to reclaim her life, thanks in part to encouragement she says she gets from an online "virtual world..." has started venturing outside more after gaining confidence by first tentatively exploring the three-dimensional, interactive world... has a form of autism that makes it hard to read social cues, learned how to talk with people more easily by using his computer-generated alter ego... just a few examples of an increasing number of sick, disabled and troubled people who say virtual worlds are helping them fight their diseases, live with their disabilities and sometimes even begin to recover. Researchers say they are only starting to appreciate the impact of this phenomenon...

Being Humanreuters.com/ ... 12:36:28An asteroid is on a collision course with the earth and you have one hour left to live. What would you do in your last 60 minutes?.. 54 percent... said they would like to spend it either with or on the phone to their loved ones... 13 percent would sit back, accept the inevitable and reach for a glass of champagne... Sex appealed to only nine percent while just three percent would turn to prayer. Two percent intriguingly said they would reach for some fatty food while another two percent decided, with just an hour's life to go, that it was time to start looting...

Lost & Foundhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:34:53PHILADELPHIA... A family recovered their mother's lost wedding rings after searching through nearly a thousand bags of [hospital] trash at a suburban landfill...

Digital Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 12:29:15...Many mobile phone addicts and BlackBerry junkies report feeling vibrations when there are none, or feeling as if they're wearing a cell phone when they're not... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:29:06It took two months and nearly 3 billion electronic probes for researchers to create a map of the Internet. Now comes the task of making sense of their data - and figuring out what they missed...

Digital Beatlesreuters.com/ ... 12:24:36

Nine albums from the late George Harrison have been made available online through retailers such as Apple's iTunes, record label Parlophone said on Wednesday, as the fourth and final member of the Beatles finally went digital...

World Energyhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:14:53China's and India's plans to produce more biofuels could cause shortages of water...

Trick or Treatnews.yahoo.com/ ... 11:58:19

...some registered sex offenders in Maryland will be asked to post signs at their homes that say "No Candy at This Residence," on Halloween...

US Election 2008reuters.com/ ... 12:17:00Republican presidential candidate John McCain outlined a proposal on Thursday to revamp the U.S. health care system by providing Americans with a refundable $2,500 tax credit as an incentive to buy insurance... news.yahoo.com/ ... 11:56:26...some registered sex offenders in Maryland will be asked to post signs at their homes that say "No Candy at This Residence," on Halloween... boston.com/ ... 11:55:48

"I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all..."

Transport Lawnews.yahoo.com/ ... 11:50:12California motorists will risk fines of up to $100 next year if they are caught smoking in cars with minors, making their state the third to protect children in vehicles from secondhand smoke... But the traffic stop would have to be made for another offense, such as speeding or an illegal turn, before the driver could be cited for smoking... [Which hasn't stopped the PuriTalibaNazi agents from finding any excuse they can to stop folks profiled as likely to have drugs like pot, or likely to be an undocumented non-citizen, so we can expect anyone seen smoking with an under-18 in the car to "coincidentally" be stopped for insignificant or fabricated traffic infractions as well...]

Theory of Educationthisislondon.co.uk/ ... 11:52:01[Global WARNing:] UK... Mr Justice Burton said former US vice-president Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, was 'one-sided' and would breach education rules unless accompanied by a warning... Mr Gore's documentary was found to contain 'nine scientific errors' by the judge... These inconvenient untruths included the claim that the snows on Mount Kilimanjaro were disapearing and solely due to the global warming and that sea levels will rise up to 20 feet in the near future... The High Court action was brought by a father-of-two who accused Labour of 'brainwashing' children with propaganda... wcbstv.com/ ... 11:47:54MAHWAH, N.J.... Bergen County... children were forced to eat their lunch on the floor... Nearly 1,000 students attend classes at Mahwah High School daily, and at lunchtime, a good majority of them are on the floor... The cafeteria holds around 300, some outside picnic tables are provided, and seniors can leave for lunch... "Kids should not be eating on the floor," one mother said. "Nobody should be eating on the floor. Animals eat on the floor." Added a student named "Samantha": "It's dirty. It's disgusting..."

But is it Art?dailymail.co.uk/ ... 12:00:30Australian [artist] has... a third ear implanted onto his arm... reuters.com/ ... 11:41:20"It looks like a modernist painting. Some of those who saw it have likened it to work by Klee... [Swiss-German artist Paul Klee, who had links with the Bauhaus school, a main player in the German modernist movement...] Through carbon dating we established it is from around 9000 B.C..." 2-square-metre... wall painting in red, black and white in northern Syria which they describe as the oldest in the world...

Reasons for Repealsmokedot.org/ ... 01:37:51

Most people use products that are more damaging to the body with out any thought to what they are doing to the body just because they were raised to think it is safe. Although heavy use of marijuana is not safe it is a lot safer than most of the common used drugs in today's market. This is article is a comparison of the effects of two popular pain killers, Marijuana and Aspirin... azcentral.com/ ... 01:36:14

...Is marijuana evil? Yes, of course, somewhat like alcohol and tobacco, but we permit the consumption of the latter two because to do otherwise would be an invitation to another illegal venture. For 21 years, I served as a federal law-enforcement agent on the Canadian and Mexican borders. I arrested smugglers, confiscated marijuana, Cuban cigars, heroin and other drugs. Having removed what I thought was a significant amount of drugs from our streets, I now sadly know I accomplished little beyond bringing a serious problem to the attention of a few caring people... We have successfully filled our prisons while supporting the lucrative sale of drugs... Whether an unconscious effort, or a hypocritical self-righteousness about evil, we are making a lot of people in the United States, Mexico and Columbia wealthy. We are relinquishing the management of drugs to the criminal segment of our society... canadianpress.google.com/ ... 01:35:16

The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld a Lower Mainland man's jail sentence and forfeiture of his home worth more than $380,000... [for] a basement full of marijuana plants with an estimated crop value of $110,000... Luu appealed, saying the house was the family home and both the sentence and the forfeiture of the home were excessive. Justice Richard Low noted in his ruling that the man's illicit drug earnings maintained the mortgage and the family's lifestyle...

Disinformation Propaganda & Spinap.google.com/ ... 01:30:36Jimmy Carter: U.S. Tortures Prisoners... [this idiot makes the headline of the day]

US Congresscharlotte.com/ ... 11:46:21...Getting a hepatitis shot is standard procedure for travelers to parts of Africa and Asia, but some congressional aides were instructed to get immunized before going to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord and the racetrack in Talladega, Ala... Staff who organized the trips advised the NASCAR-bound aides to get a range of vaccines before attending -- hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza. Rep. Robin Hayes, a Republican from Concord, took umbrage when he heard about it. "I have never heard of immunizations for domestic travel, and as the representative for Concord, N.C., I feel compelled to ask why the heck the committee feels that immunizations are needed to travel to my hometown," Hayes said in an Oct. 5 letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chairs the Homeland Security panel. "I have been to numerous NASCAR races, and the folks who attend these events certainly do not pose any health hazard to congressional staffers or anyone else..." news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:43:31Armenia's president has welcomed a vote by US lawmakers backing the description of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks after 1915 as genocide. Robert Kocharian told reporters he hoped the vote would lead to "full [US] recognition... of the genocide"... reuters.com/ ... 01:28:49The Bush administration on Wednesday urged Turkey not to take any "concrete" action after a U.S. congressional committee angered Ankara by passing a resolution calling 1915 massacres of Armenians genocide... [Congresscritters -- utterly undiplomatic and sick in the timing... as usual....]

WED 2007-OCT-10

Under Digital Tyrannyreuters.com/ ... 00:11:39Cubans go to unusual lengths to post blogs...

Civilization vs Gangsterismhosted.ap.org/ ... 00:10:03A federal judge in Washington has blocked the Pentagon from transferring a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Tunisia, where he allegedly faces torture, according to a ruling unsealed Tuesday that marked a milestone in the treatment of detainees...

Animal Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 00:11:00Pregnant moose seek out human company when they are about to give birth, moving closer to roads and camps to escape the threat of bears...

Dinosaurs -- still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 00:10:47A British palaeontologist has found what he thinks is a preserved Tyrannosaurus rex footprint. The metre-square, three-toed track was discovered in the Badlands of Montana, US...

Age is No Barrierhosted.ap.org/ ... 00:12:06BROOMFIELD, Colo... A 6-year-old boy was hungry and decided he'd go to Applebees. So he grabbed the car keys, took his booster seat from the back seat of his grandmother's car and placed it in the driver's seat, then made a go of driving himself to the restaurant Tuesday. He made it about 75 feet. Unable to take the car out of reverse, he crossed the street and ran into a transformer and communication box, knocking out electricity and phone service to dozens of townhomes...

Beatles - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 00:10:30

Yoko Ono urged the world to give peace a chance Tuesday as she unveiled a monument in memory of her husband, John Lennon. Ono lit up the Imagine Peace Tower on Videy island near the Icelandic capital's harbor on what would have been Lennon's 67th birthday...

TUE 2007-OCT-09

Fun can be Fatalreuters.com/ ... 23:34:28A four-year-old Arizona girl walking at the edge of the Grand Canyon slipped and plunged about 450 feet to her death on Tuesday... second time this year that a person has died in a fall from the crimson-hued canyon...

Violencecnn.com/ ... 23:33:43The sole survivor of Sunday's shooting rampage in Wisconsin "played dead" after a sheriff's deputy shot him three times... underwent surgery Tuesday and was in stable condition Tuesday night...

Yuck!hosted.ap.org/ ... 23:16:53RICHMOND, Va... A brain was found in a bag near an apartment complex Tuesday morning, but it wasn't clear if it was human or animal...

Digital Threathosted.ap.org/ ... 23:14:47Microsoft Corp. issued six security patches in a regular update Tuesday, among them fixes for flaws that could let hackers hijack computers using a Web browser... Microsoft used a single update to fix several separate flaws found in different versions of the Internet Explorer Web browser, including the most recent, IE7. That patch blocks any attempts by attackers to put fake content into the address bar of a Web browser - a technique used in phishing scams to convince Web surfers that a fake site is actually their bank, for example. The patch is also meant to prevent hackers from breaking into Web surfers' computers using specially crafted Web pages...

Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:16:30Three teens suspected of burglarizing vehicles were arrested after they attempted to elude a police car by turning into a police station... cbsnews.com/ ... 11:50:54...he handed a $1 million bill to a cashier at a Pittsburgh supermarket. But when the Giant Eagle employee refused and a manager confiscated the bogus bill, the man flew into a rage... Police arrested the man, who was not carrying identification and has refused to give his name to authorities... Since 1969, the $100 bill is the largest note in circulation...

Under Tyrannyreuters.com/ ... 23:21:18A critic of Jordan's royal family was sentenced to two years in jail on Tuesday for sending e-mails abroad that the court ruled to be carrying "false news" and harmful to the dignity of the state... news.yahoo.com/ ... 11:48:55China, in its latest tirade against Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday accused the exiled Nobel peace prize laureate of supporting "evil cults" like Falun Gong and Japan's Aum Shinrikyo...

Transport Tragedyreuters.com/ ... 23:13:49Search crews have found the bodies of all nine skydivers and the pilot in the wreckage of an airplane that went missing over the Cascade mountains of Washington state on Sunday... nydailynews.com/ ... 11:40:30Seven bodies of skydivers who went missing a day earlier were discovered Tuesday in wreckage of a plane by rescuers searching the Cascade Mountains near Yakima, Wash. Officials said that three others aboard are also believed to have been killed in the crash...

Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:23:42At least 19 people have been killed and dozens wounded in two car bomb attacks in... Baiji... a town north of Baghdad... Al-Qaeda in Iraq has warned it will step up attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, targeting tribal groups working with US forces... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:22:59Pakistani warplanes have attacked suspected pro-Taleban positions near the Afghan border for a fourth day. The army says a total of 45 troops and 150 rebels have died so far in battles around the town of Mir Ali. Tuesday's air strikes left 50 rebels dead, unconfirmed reports say. Locals, fleeing the area in their thousands, say many civilians died... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:22:32A car bomb has injured a man believed to be a politician's bodyguard near the centre of Bilbao in Spain's Basque Country... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:22:16Foreign private security guards escorting a convoy through central Baghdad have killed two Iraqi women in a passing car, Iraqi sources say. A Dubai-based firm confirmed one of its teams had opened fire after a car failed to heed warnings to pull away, and said it regretted the deaths... guardian.co.uk/ ... 11:40:57A car bomb exploded in the Basque city of Bilbao today, injuring at least one person... guardian.co.uk/ ... 11:15:33A car bomb exploded in the Basque city of Bilbao today, injuring at least one person... reuters.com/ ... 11:15:23Private security guards escorting a convoy of four vehicles through central Baghdad shot dead two women in a car on Tuesday, the Iraqi government and police said. There were no confirmed details about the incident or who was responsible. It came the same day the government demanded U.S. security firm Blackwater pay families of 17 people killed in a shooting last month $8 million each in compensation...

Dinosaurs -- still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:24:35The fossil of a prehistoric sea monster that lived more than 144 million years ago has been found in a river on the edge of west Belfast... the backbone of a plesiosaur...

World Zookeepingnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:24:04A vulture with an 8ft wingspan which escaped from a rescue centre in Aberdeenshire has been spotted in a tree nearby. The rare African white-backed vulture - known as Wee Man - broke free during a feeding session near Huntly... hosted.ap.org/ ... 23:15:19WICHITA, Kan...w After two years on the lam, a pink flamingo that escaped from the Sedgwick County Zoo has been spotted with a wild Caribbean flamingo in a ship channel area of southwest Louisiana...

Solar Systemreuters.com/ ... 23:19:24A NASA spacecraft observed lightning strikes at Jupiter's poles... also snapped images of the tiny rings encircling Jupiter, studied a huge, swirling storm and explored the planet's long magnetic tail... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:13:29Scientists think they are close to solving the mystery over why Saturnian moon Iapetus has a two-tone appearance. The satellite has a black surface facing in the direction it travels, and a white surface bringing up the rear. New data from the Cassini spacecraft seems to confirm Iapetus is picking up dusty material on its bow front... this material is then being warmed by the Sun's rays, making it go even darker as it loses water vapour... With this vapour then depositing itself as ice on whiter, colder areas of the satellite, there is a process in play on Iapetus which turns up the contrast...

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 11:53:10The Department of Defense announced today that 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, will deploy in the summer of 2008 to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. The brigade consists of approximately 3500 personnel and will deploy as a replacement unit for a formation currently operating in Iraq. Its deployment will provide commanders in Iraq the flexibility to maintain the appropriate level of effort based on their assessment of the security situation on the ground. Prior to its deployment, the brigade will be re-designated as 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. The existing 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division is currently deployed in Iraq. That unit, based in Fort Bliss, Texas, will re-deploy in the coming months. After its return to home station, it will re-designate to become part of 1st Armored Division. Unit deployments reflect the continued commitment of the United States to the security of the Iraqi people. The Department recognizes the continued sacrifices of these units and their family members....

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:52:09

Army Spc. Adam D. Quinn, 22, of Orange City, Fla., died Oct. 6 at Forward Operating Base Phoenix, near Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:51:54

Army Sgt. Joseph B. Milledge, 23, of Pointblank, Texas

Army Spc. Jason N. Marchand, 26, of Greenwood, W. Va.
died Oct. 5 in Baghdad of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit during combat operations. They were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, in Vilseck, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:51:25

Army Spc. Vincent G. Kamka, 23, of Everett, Wash., died Oct. 4 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. The Soldier's death is under investigation.

Digital Future is Nowinformationweek.com/ ... 11:42:36Google And IBM Partner To Push Cloud Computing To prepare students "to harness the potential of modern computing systems," the companies will provide universities with hardware, software, and services to advance training in large-scale distributed computing...

Food Recallkansascity.com/ ... 23:34:56ConAgra Foods Inc. voluntarily stopped production Tuesday at its Marshall, Mo., plant that makes Banquet pot pies. Health officials said the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states...

Big Brotherwashingtonpost.com/ ... 23:28:50"They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' " That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security... No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely...

Human Rightexaminer.com/ ... 23:27:43Dear Abby supports same-sex marriage...

Business Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:21:52The Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes both set new record highs on Tuesday after the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserves 18 September meeting...

Digital Privacynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:21:03Internet law professor Michael Geist wonders whether technology threatens the legal foundations of privacy law...

Big Nannyreuters.com/ ... 23:20:42Supermarket shoppers may soon be cruising the aisles with "intelligent" shopping carts that warn them if they're buying too much junk food... many would be happy enough if they could simply get their trolley to go in a straight line...

Headline of the Dayhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:17:59

Woman jailed for 50 days over cat urine...

Lost & Foundhosted.ap.org/ ... 23:16:17John Carney was dumping a load of brush at the local waste transfer station last week when he noticed a man's gold wedding band partially buried in the sand... Last week, he returned the ring to the LaCoilles' house. Ed Lacoille had lost the ring more than six months ago... the second time in just over a year the ring has been returned after being lost...

Digital Businessnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 23:20:19BT has just announced that it is asking every one of its three million broadband customers to share part of their wi-fi bandwidth by joining the FON community, and explaining this to the mass market could be a bit of a challenge. FON users, or "Foneros" as they like to be called, share their bandwidth with other people, either by using a special wireless router provided by Fon or by installing special software on other brands of router. FON-enabled routers have two separate wi-fi channels, creating a secure private channel for the owner to use and a 512kpbs open shared channel that other people can connect to... reuters.com/ ... 23:18:51The Associated Press is suing VeriSign Inc to stop its online subsidiary Moreover Technologies Inc from publishing AP news reports without permission... The Associated Press is suing VeriSign Inc to stop its online subsidiary Moreover Technologies Inc from publishing AP news reports without permission... The Associated Press is suing VeriSign Inc to stop its online subsidiary Moreover Technologies Inc from publishing AP news reports without permission... The Associated Press is suing VeriSign Inc to stop its online subsidiary Moreover Technologies Inc from publishing AP news reports without permission... telegraph.co.uk/ ... 11:50:01Some of the music industry’s biggest names are considering offering their music free online following the success of the experiment by the band Radiohead to let fans download their new album without charge... Jamiroquai and Oasis, two major names that are not contracted to a record labels, are rumoured to be considering following Radiohead by offering work for free...

It's Only Moneybreitbart.com/ ... 11:49:14A rare, flawless blue diamond has been snapped up at a Sotheby's sale here for 7.98 million US dollars, making it the most expensive gemstone in the world per carat ever bought at auction...

US Congressourmidland.com/ ... 11:48:37...the U.S. Capitol's architect won't allow God to be mentioned in certificates of authenticity accompanying flags flown over the Capitol and bought by constitutents. "This is as insulting as it is absurd..."

Reasons for Repealdiscovermoosejaw.com/ ... 23:37:33

Moose Jaw [PuriTalibaNazi tyrants] RCMP... seized a large quantity of marijuana as a result of a stop for a traffic violation on Highway # 1... 60 pounds... ktvl.com/ ... 23:36:41Crews have pulled about 187-thousand marijuana plants out of the forests in Jackson, Siskiyou, and Del Norte counties, and officials believe more may be discovered before the season is over... swtexaslive.com/ ... 23:36:27

DEL RIO, Texas – Customs and Border Protection-Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents seized over 900 pounds of marijuana in four separate incidents over the holiday weekend... eyeoutforyou.com/ ... 23:36:10

Proponents of medical marijuana were dealt a major blow Tuesday when District Attorney [and proponent of religious repression and tyranny]Ed Jagels recommended banning it across the county... blog.oregonlive.com/ ... 23:35:29

Oregon State Police seized 40 pounds of marijuana after stopping a man for speeding in a construction zone on Interstate 5 near Aurora... though the man was an Oregon Medical Marijuana Plan registered card holder, he was transporting far more marijuana than he is allowed to have... thenational.com.pg/ ... 11:46:33

MEMBERS of the Goroka police drug squad over the weekend uprooted a young marijuana plant within the perimeter fence of the Goroka airport. The presence of the plant had puzzled police authorities... A portion of the fence around the airport had been cut and this could be where marijuana users may have come through when they entered the area and planted the seed. However, Mr Visu also said the seed may have been thrown by some members of the public as it was growing close to the fence next to the pathway... [A single little plant making such news and uproar -- it's like reporting on finding a can of beer!] ksby.com/ ... 11:45:13

A neighborhood investigation for a burglary leads a Grover Beach Police officer to a pot growing operation... more than a dozen marijuana plants... 21-year-old... arrested... alternet.org/ ... 11:44:27

What would you buy if you had an extra $42 billion to spend every year? What might our government buy if it suddenly had that much money dropped onto its lap every year? For one thing, it might pay for the entire $7 billion annual increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program that President Bush is threatening to veto because of its cost -- and there'd still be $35 billion left over. Or perhaps you'd hire 880,000 schoolteachers at the average U.S. teacher salary of $47,602 per year... Why $42 billion? Because that's what our current marijuana laws cost American taxpayers each year... naplesnews.com/ ... 11:43:34

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office has charged a 40-year-old Golden Gate Estates woman with operating a grow house and possession of narcotic paraphernalia... 62 marijuana plants... worth an estimated $62,000... kptv.com/ ... 11:43:02

SALEM, Ore. -- Police are looking for thief who attempted to steal medical marijuana from a provider in Salem early Monday morning...

US Election 2008cbsnews.com/ ... 11:42:05...after helping to create huge expectations for Thompson's late entry into the Republican race, the Washington establishment has proclaimed itself underwhelmed by his early performance. Columnist George Will compared him to New Coke and said his entry into the race was "more belly flop than swan dive." This afternoon, when Republican presidential candidates gather in Dearborn, Mich., for their sixth major debate, much of the focus will be on the former actor and whether he can seize the moment, not only to distinguish himself from the rest of the field but also to rebut accusations that he is too lazy, too ill-prepared and too vague to be the GOP nominee...

MON 2007-OCT-08

Criminally Stupidreuters.com/ ... 21:09:32A thief in Germany was charred beyond recognition by a 10,000 volt electric shock when he tried to steal a live copper cable... Only because one of his hands survived incineration were officers able to identify the man... "The force of the shock was so great that the hand was severed from his body..."

Transport Incidenthosted.ap.org/ ... 21:07:54Police responded to a woman's complaint on Friday that a naked man was repeatedly driving by in a van and masturbating... reuters.com/ ... 21:03:59Air crews launched a search and rescue mission at daybreak on Monday for an airplane carrying up to 10 people that is believed to have crashed in a mountainous area of Washington state... was carrying eight to 10 people, including parachutists traveling to an event in western Washington...

Opposing Digital Tyrannycomputerworld.com/ ... 11:15:40A California man filed a lawsuit accusing Apple Inc. of violating antitrust law because its iPhone forces buyers to use AT&T Inc. as their wireless carrier and the company "bricked" phones that had been modified to call over other networks...

Fun can be Dangerouschron.com/ ... 11:13:48The basket of a hot air balloon flying in the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta tipped after hitting power lines Monday, killing a woman who was thrown out of the basket... woman and the pilot were believed to be the only people on board...

Under Tyrannyreuters.com/ ... 11:07:56More than 100 students scuffled with police and hardline supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday on Tehran University campus and chanted "Death to the dictator" outside a hall where the Iranian president spoke. "Revolutionary president, we support you," the hardline students shouted back, pushing and shoving those who were voicing opposition to Ahmadinejad...

Supernatural Tyrannynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:06:49An Islamic court in Nigeria has banned a satirical play written by a rights activist about corrupt politicians in states run under Sharia law. Shehu Sani's play Phantom Crescent lampoons officials who use Sharia laws to help them plunder state funds...

International Incidentsnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:06:30In another sign of potential friction in the warming Arctic, Canada has warned that it will step up patrols of the Northwest Passage. Record summer melting of sea-ice has made the passage fully navigable; and immediately escalated a dispute over who controls the route... Canada maintains the waterway that connects the Atlantic with the Pacific lies within its territorial waters... the United States, and other countries claim international rights to use the route for shipping...

Digital Threatnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:05:47Almost one million Chinese computers were hit by viruses during last week's national holidays, state media has reported. Three different types of viruses...

Civilization vs Gangsterismtelegraph.co.uk/ ... 21:11:28...A transformation has swept western Iraq that allows Marines to walk through areas that a year ago were judged lost to radical Islam control... Behind the shutters the Sunni Muslim residents of the province are enjoying the dividends of driving out al-Qa'eda fighters who had imposed an oppressive Taliban-style regime. The popular uprising against al-Qa'eda by residents of Anbar Province turned former enemies into American allies earlier this year. The result was a dramatic restoration of stability across Iraq's Sunni heartland... reuters.com/ ... 21:03:21Britain will halve its force in Iraq to 2,500 troops from spring next year... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:02:34Police in the Maldives say they have arrested nearly 50 people on a remote island in connection with a bomb blast last month in the capital Male... all Maldivians belonging to an Islamic militant group... hosted.ap.org/ ... 21:02:08A suicide bomber drove his truck into a police station north of Baghdad on Monday, crumbling the squat concrete building and damaging a nearby school in the deadliest in a series of blasts that killed at least 24 people across Iraq... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:03:58The Nato-led force in Afghanistan, Isaf, says it has shot dead three Afghan civilians in two separate incidents in the east of the country. Isaf said it deeply regretted the incidents in which, according to a spokesman, people had failed to heed warning signs not to approach. Two civilians were killed and three others were injured at a checkpoint in Kunar province. Another civilian was killed as he approached a convoy in Paktia province... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:03:54One of three helicopters escorting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf crashed in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir on Monday, killing four passengers and injuring five... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:03:04Two suspected al-Qaida fighters and a dozen villagers were among about 80 people killed in fierce fighting between soldiers and militants in northwest Pakistan... about 60 suspected militants and 20 soldiers died in two major clashes on Sunday in the North Waziristan region... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:59:20Sixteen militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan... Tahir Yuldash, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and an al-Qaida operational commander...

Animal Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 21:08:39

STEPHENS CITY, Va... A stray kitten has found a new mother in a golden retriever, who began producing milk for the little feline after hearing its cries...

Transport Futurereuters.com/ ... 21:06:33...Nissan... unveiled the Pivo 2, a battery-powered concept car with a fully rotating cabin that makes going backwards obsolete, since the driver can turn to face the direction they need to go. Its wheels also turn 90 degrees, making parking easier...

Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 21:05:38Donated blood quickly loses some of its life-saving properties as an important gas dissipates... explains why many patients fare poorly after blood transfusions... nitric oxide in red blood cells is the key to transferring oxygen in the blood to tissues... appears to break down almost immediately after red blood cells leave the body, rendering much of the blood stored in blood banks impaired...

World Zookeepingnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:04:57

The buzz of angry bees could provide some relief for African villagers whose crop fields are regularly pillaged by hungry elephants... The insects are able to inflict painful stings inside the animals' trunks, and it is thought that elephants have learned to avoid them... hosted.ap.org/ ... 21:04:18BUDAPEST, Hungary... Lulu, the first rhino to give birth to a calf conceived by artificial insemination, is pregnant again...

Marriage Todayhosted.ap.org/ ... 21:07:28A Michigan sheriff who said he would wed a pair of bank robbery suspects in jail if they surrendered withdrew the offer after they were arrested in Cheyenne, Wyoming... reuters.com/ ... 21:07:20...it is possible to die of a 'broken heart'... the stress and anxiety of hostile, angry relationships can boost the risk of developing heart disease. Chances of a heart attack or chest pain rose by 34 percent compared to people on good terms with a spouse or partner...

Theory of Justicehosted.ap.org/ ... 21:01:49Ending a three-year moratorium on the death penalty, Afghanistan executed 15 prisoners by gunfire, including a man convicted of killing three foreign journalists during the U.S.-led invasion...

Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:02:55The .asia regional internet domain has officially opened for business... iht.com/ ... 21:01:31Bloggers beware when you criticize the rich and powerful...

Theory of Educationaftenposten.no/ ... 21:00:36Hundreds of thousands of students had their first day of school on Monday. Some of them had to learn to carry guns and be prepared to shoot -- polar bears...

Reasons for Repealpressconnects.com/ ... 11:22:18

NORTH NORWICH -- A North Norwich man was charged Friday in connection with an excess of a pound of marijuana after police searched his residence... Police also said [he] was growing several marijuana plants on his neighbor's property and cut down several of his neighbor's trees to help the plants grow... [Well, now, that's just not helpful...] eurekareporter.com/ ... 11:21:34

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena)... On a local, seasonal topic, the county Board of Supervisors sent a letter in August asking Thompson to work toward legalizing and taxing marijuana. Thompson’s not sure about that. He said, "I think more people are talking about it now. I’m not sure that all the facts are in. A lot of people have come to think that it’s time to decriminalize it — to legalize it and tax it. I don’t think they fully know the impact. If it were legalized and taxed, I don’t think it would be quite the economic boom to Humboldt and Mendocino counties that some people think it would be. They’d be growing it in Kansas or these other places where you could grow a lot of it. So I think that information is a little bit misleading. Yes, more people are starting to talk about it, but I still think it’s a long ways away..." [waffle, waffle...] earthtimes.org/ ... 11:19:43

British police are criticizing the government's decision to downgrade marijuana possession from a class B to a class C crime. Downgrading marijuana possession sends the message that marijuana use, which has "ruined people's lives," is not serious, said Ian Johnston, president of the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales... [Prohibition has ruined infinitely more lives than mere pot ever can, and this slob is just out to save his lazy job....] ceskenoviny.cz/ ... 11:18:47

Prague- Stanislav Penc, head of the junior ruling Green Party regional organisation and an assistant to party chairman Martin Bursik, is fighting for the legalisation of marijuana cultivation, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reports... daily49er.com/ ... 11:18:24

Have you ever been to Costco? I'm sure you have, so I'm sure you know that they make you show ID at the door, since they don't let just anybody in... Now, imagine instead of baby quiche and toaster ovens, your ID card opens the door to a world of marijuana. It's the dream, isn't it?.. Prop. 215, which legalized the medical use of marijuana in 1996, made California the first state in the Union to enact such a law. It passed with a resounding 56 percent majority. To give you some perspective, the last president to receive that high a percentage of the vote was Ronald Regan in 1984, with almost 59 percent... badgerherald.com/ ... 11:17:09

Nearly 300 people gathered on Library Mall this weekend for the 2007 Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival and parade to the Capitol. Harvest Fest has been put on by the Madison chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws for the past 37 years... dailybulletin.com/ ... 11:16:33

Marijuana has been used as medicine for over 5,000 years by every civilization in human history. None has ever crumbled due to its use. Over the last 70 years, however, it has morphed into a plant so dangerous that America spends up to $20 billion a year arresting over 825,000 Americans... According to an Aug. 21 article in the Daily Bulletin, Brenda Chabot, author of the Sept. 30 Point of View column "Medical marijuana a decoy in effort to legalize all drugs," is a former probation officer and her organization, Drug Free Community Coalition, is composed mainly of members with "backgrounds in law enforcement." They are the real decoy and are organized to protect law enforcement's access to this bottomless pit of taxpayer money. Anything that has the scent of legalization threatens their livelihoods and sends her into paroxysmal fits of "the sky is falling..."

US Congressnpr.org/ ... 11:14:26Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) has refused to leave office, even after a judge in Minnesota left Craig's sex-sting guilty plea intact. Craig says he will fight to clear his name and retain his seat in the Senate. In Idaho, residents have mixed reactions about the drama surrounding their senator... foxnews.com/ ... 11:14:08NEWPORT NEWS, Va... Memorial services have been set for U.S. Representative Jo Ann Davis. Davis died at her Gloucester home Saturday after a two-year battle with breast cancer. She was 57...

SUN 2007-OCT-07

Theory of Sex Educationclick2houston.com/ ... 21:08:41HOUSTON -- Some parents in Fort Bend County are outraged after their children said they witnessed a pair of eighth-graders engaged in a sex act, right in the middle of class... happened once the teacher stepped out of the classroom... What's also disheartening for some parents was the amount of time it took for the information to get to them. It's been more than a week since the incident happened...

Transport Tragedyreuters.com/ ... 21:02:42A small aircraft used by the Syrian military crashed on Sunday near Damascus killing three people...

Theftnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:02:02A gang of intruders has broken into a museum in Paris and inflicted serious damage on a painting by Impressionist artist Claude Monet... the apparently drunken group fled after punching a 10cm (four inch) hole in the famous painting Le Pont d'Argenteuil...

Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 21:03:19Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the "war on terror" is failing and instead fuelling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday... "Combined with conventional policing and security measures, al Qaeda can be contained and minimized but this will require a change in policy at every level." He described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a "disastrous mistake" which had helped establish a "most valued jihadist combat training zone" for al Qaeda supporters... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:02:25Kurdish fighters from the separatist group, PKK, have killed 13 Turkish soldiers in an attack close to the country's border with Iraq... The Turkish military shelled the border area in an attempt to prevent the fighters from fleeing to northern Iraq... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:01:29At least 58 people, including 16 soldiers, have been killed in clashes between Pakistani troops and militants in the North Waziristan region. Security forces struck militant bases after a checkpoint was attacked in the Mir Ali area... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:00:46A Sudanese government-controlled town in Darfur has been burned down and looted, the United Nations says. The town of Haskanita is the home of the African Union peacekeeping base that rebel forces attacked last week. The UN observer mission did not say which forces destroyed Haskanita. The Sudanese government has not commented... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:00:29The top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, has accused Iran's ambassador of belonging to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Gen Petraeus said Hassan Kazemi-Qomi was a member of the Quds Force, which the US believes backs foreign Islamic revolutionary movements... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 21:00:13Sri Lanka's navy says it has sunk a ship used by the Tamil Tiger rebels, killing at least 12 people on board. It was the last seaworthy Tiger vessel, as seven were destroyed recently, navy spokesman DPK Dassanayake said...

Transport Incidenthosted.ap.org/ ... 20:58:49DUMAS, Ark.... A 10-year-old boy took a school bus and led police on a chase along a rural highway... About 44 miles later, the bus slowed down enough for a sheriff's deputy to make the stop in Pine Bluff, and officers discovered their suspect was a child... he had been part of a group caught on camera trying to pull the same prank last month...

Violencenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 20:59:53Six young people have died after a part-time police officer opened fire at a house in the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin early on Sunday. The shootings took place in the town of Crandon, in the north of the state. The suspect, who was employed by the Forest County Sheriff's office, was reported to have been killed by a police sniper... nydailynews.com/ ... 13:14:44A shirtless madman wielding stolen knives went on a bloody midtown [NYC] rampage yesterday - stabbing a restaurant worker and a psychologist walking her dog before being shot by an off-duty cop... stood wild-eyed over the dog-walker, methodically plunging a knife into her body and face over and over - even pausing to change knives as the woman lay in a pool of blood...

Theory of Supernatural Educationapnews.myway.com/ ... 13:13:49...Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts... is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign... Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa mayor... and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay. She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males..."

Industrial Troubleseattlepi.nwsource.com/ ... 12:54:24A powerful explosion rocked Tacoma Saturday afternoon, sending four injured workers to the hospital, shooting a fireball hundreds of feet into the sky, shutting down highways and banning aircraft for a five-mile radius... a tanker truck driver was loading propane into one of two stationary tanks at Atlas Castings & Technology. Two smaller explosions occurred, followed by a massive one that blew the truck apart, with the axel flying hundreds of feet in the air before landing on a state Route 16 overpass... driver... survived but is in critical condition...

Nature can be Dangerousreuters.com/ ... 12:52:44Typhoon Krosa crashed into the Chinese coast on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of 1.4 million people, after killing five in Taiwan...

Under Tyrannyvoanews.com/ ... 12:53:19Pakistan's military says at least 30 militants and six soldiers have been killed during fighting Sunday in the North Waziristan tribal region... uk.reuters.com/ ... 12:46:36The Myanmar junta reduced security in Yangon sharply on Sunday, apparently confident it would face no further mass protests against military rule, but the streets remained unusually quiet and arrests continued... The few people on the streets said they were still fearful and the Internet, through which dramatic images of the protests and sweeping security force actions to end them reached an outraged world, remained cut off... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:35:54At least 28 people have been killed and dozens more injured in Cuba after a train crashed into a bus at a level crossing... 70 people are injured, 15 critically... Buses and trains are almost always overcrowded in Cuba, where much of the infrastructure is run down...

Supernatural Tyrannynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:34:54Saudi Arabia has launched an official website to publish Islamic legal rulings, or fatwas. The move is apparently an attempt to ensure that fatwas issued by authorised scholars are given prominence. Visitors to the new website will be able to ask questions on various topics and get replies from the Council of Senior Ulema (Islamic scholars). Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy governed according to a conservative interpretation of Islamic Sharia law...

US Militarynpr.org/ ... 12:56:44Military law expert Charles Gittins says there's a good reason the Army is willing to let rumors emerge rather than release preliminary information in a death investigation. The picture of what happened in a death often changes as more facts emerge. If the military offers a preliminary conclusion and then it changes, that causes families to distrust the military... cbsnews.com/ ... 12:55:52A member of the Massachusetts National Guard found dead under suspicious circumstances in Afghanistan was laid to rest in her hometown of Quincy Saturday. Specialist Ciara Durkin was discovered, with a single gunshot wound to her head, in a secure area of Bagram Airfield last month. On Saturday the 30-year-old, born in Ireland and raised in the United States, was buried with full military honors. Durkin was promoted posthumously to corporal... The death of Durkin, who was found dead within the confines of a secure air base on September 28, were made more mysterious by news she told her family while visiting home three weeks before she was killed. Durkin's said Ciara told her she had "discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it," and asked if anything happened to her, to make sure it was investigated. Her family initially complained that military officials told them she was killed "in action," but then later said she died in a "non-combat related incident." Durkin's family met with Army investigators this week and were reassured everything was being done in the investigation. The family discounts the possibility of suicide...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 12:44:13

Army Spc. Rachael L. Hugo, 24, of Madison, Wis., died Oct. 5 in Bayji, Iraq, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked her unit using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. She was assigned to the 303rd Military Police Company, 97th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, U.S. Army Reserve, Jackson, Mich.

Sportsmanshipbreitbart.com/ ... 21:07:18In a race run in scorching heat that left one man dead, Kenya's Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by a fraction of a second Sunday. Another 250 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat- related ailments... organizers shut down the second half of the course four hours after the start... Shortages of water and energy drinks were reported along the 26.2-mile route...

Recallreuters.com/ ... 20:59:26Agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. said this weekend it is recalling about 844,812 pounds of frozen beef patties due to possible E. coli contamination after investigators found four cases of illness linked to a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Minnesota... manufactured at its plant in Butler, Wisconsin...

Theory of Justicestltoday.com/ ... 13:16:41FARMINGTON, MO... Country Mart's doughnuts — fried fresh daily in the store — sell for just 52 cents each... one man's sweet tooth got the better of him. He stole a doughnut. A single doughnut. Authorities called it strong-arm robbery. The "doughnut man," as the suspect is now known, faces five to 15 years in prison for his crime. And Farmington, a town of 14,000 people about 70 miles south of St. Louis, has been buzzing about it ever since. "That someone would take just a single doughnut, not something very expensive or extravagant, that's unique..."

Music industry is deadnews.com/ ... 13:09:55U.S. copyright law has spiraled out of control. It's been transformed from limited protections of authors' rights for 14 years to a juggernaut with criminal enforcement, sky-high penalties, and up to 120 years of legal protection. Copyright no longer abides by the fundamental principle of law, which is that the damages awarded should be related to any harm committed. No wonder Jammie Thomas got slapped with a $222,000 bill. (And I wouldn't be surprised to see attorney's fees add another $100,000 on top of it.) "It doesn't strike a regular person that by passing a CD around the neighborhood, they should have their house taken away," says Lew Rockwell, president of the free-market Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. "And by electronic means it shouldn't be any different." Copyright law is, as Berkeley law professor Pam Samuelson points out, way too verbose; it's now swollen to an unbelievable 200 pages long. It's complex, incomprehensible, designed to favor large copyright holders over defendants, and thoroughly out of touch with reality...

Reasons for Repealt-g.com/ ... 13:08:35Shelbyville absurd taboo enforcement] police arrested four suspects on drug-related charges Thursday night. Officers' senses of smell led to a mother and son admitting they'd smoked marijuana together... eventually admitted having used marijuana moments before police arrived, and previous use of crack cocaine, after scales, pipes and items which could be used to prepare and smoke pot were found... [Folks need help, not incarceration.] newsdemocrat.com/ ... 13:07:18

ABERDEEN - Several large marijuana plants were discovered and confiscated from the banks of the Ohio River Wednesday... nearly six feet tall and probably ready for harvesting. According to Investigator [and tyranny propagandist] Dan Nichols, a full grown plant can be worth more than $2,000... [thanks to the black market created by religious oppression...] middletownjournal.com/ ... 13:06:21

The Butler County [Tyranny and Oppression] Sheriff's Office's new helicopter was in the sky, but there were not many plants to spot this year. Too hot, too dry and too much trouble to keep plants growing — even for drug dealers, officials said... delawareonline.com/ ... 13:05:50Three people were arrested Friday for marijuana trafficking following an investigation in Sussex County of a large-scale marijuana manufacturing operation... [Agents of tyranny] seized 11 pounds of marijuana packaged for distribution, $2,854 in suspected drug money and a 1969 Ford Firebird... honoluluadvertiser.com/ ... 13:05:17

Large-scale marijuana cultivation in Hawai'i and particularly on the Big Island is moving indoors, and in the past two years police have uncovered increasing numbers of sophisticated indoor farming operations believed to produce millions of dollars worth of illegal crops... nationmultimedia.com/ ... 13:04:52

Nakhon Phanom - [Agents of tyranny and repression] intercepted an attempt to smuggle 512 kilogrammes of marijuana from Laos to this northeastern province early Sunday morning... arrested two Thai men... contracostatimes.com/ ... 13:03:53The raid of a large Oakland-based manufacturer of cannabis-laced candy last month was deemed by the federal government as a timely victory in the war on drugs. With Halloween only weeks away, "kids and parents need to be careful in case kids get ahold of this candy," U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Javier Pena said after the bust. But medical marijuana advocates, who dismissed Pena's Halloween reference as an "absurd" attempt at "pure publicity," pointed to the raid as further evidence that the DEA has escalated its attack on California's marijuana laws by targeting the most vulnerable medical cannabis patients. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 medical marijuana users are in the state, and the most terminal and debilitated among them cannot smoke their medicine. Instead, the elderly and those suffering from cancer or living with HIV must eat it...

Digital Businesspcmag.com/ ... 13:03:15It was bad enough that federal officials essentially deleted the ca.gov domain in the process of shutting down a hacker's redirect to porn pages on Oct. 2. What's worse: There are still fully hacked ca.gov sites up and serving redirects to drug purveyors... informationweek.com/ ... 13:02:57Microsoft has released an updated version of Internet Explorer 7 that dispenses with a cumbersome security feature designed to ensure users are running the Web browser atop legitimate copies of the Windows operating system... Microsoft programmers said the decision to drop Windows Genuine Advantage, as the security feature is known, from Explorer was made to promote the browser to a wider audience...

World Without Bordersdailybulletin.com/ ... 13:02:02A network is being created to help illegal immigrants avoid that dreaded knock on the door in the wee hours... The coalition is considering an e-mail or text-messaging network that would instantly notify hundreds of illegal immigrants that ICE is making its rounds... [Adding the possibility of RICO charges?]

US Election 2008politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/ ... 21:06:13Sen. Barack Obama... asked the multiracial crowd of nearly 4,000 people to keep him and his family in their prayers, and said he hoped to be "an instrument of God..." "We're going to keep on praising together. I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth..." sptimes.com/ ... 12:59:31...Although politicians tread carefully over this slippery terrain, it is easy to trip and ignite controversy, as John McCain did recently. The Republican presidential hopeful said he would prefer a Christian in the Oval Office over someone of a different faith... McCain was quick to add, "But that doesn't mean I'm sure that someone who is Muslim would not make a good president. I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the candidate best able to lead the country and defend our political values." The Arizona senator deserves credit for his candor... History reminds us that religion can be a force for good or bad in the world. Over the centuries religion has been responsible for wars, oppression, poverty and other ills. But in my lifetime, I have seen what it can accomplish as a force for good...

Democracy in Actionreuters.com/ ... 12:53:05Costa Ricans voted on a free-trade deal with the United States on Sunday in a referendum that has split the Central American nation like no other issue in decades. Opponents fear the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, will weaken the country's prized welfare system, among the strongest in Latin America. Supporters, led by Nobel peace laureate President Oscar Arias, say Costa Rica needs to open its economy more since it is a small country with few natural resources... latimes.com/ ... 12:46:01Lawmakers Saturday overwhelmingly endorsed a new five-year presidential term for Gen. Pervez Musharraf, according to unofficial results, but the legitimacy of the vote has yet to be decided by the Supreme Court. The lopsided balloting, held simultaneously by Pakistan's national parliament and four provincial assemblies, was denounced as a sham by Musharraf's opponents...

SAT 2007-OCT-06

Nudity can be Unappetizinghosted.ap.org/ ... 15:12:08....A sandwich called the Skinny Dip, featuring sliced prime rib in a baguette roll, has been offered free of charge anyone willing to plunge naked from The Black Frog Restaurant's dock into a lake. Since the free sandwich offer was introduced three years ago, owner Leigh Turner has found plenty of takers. "We've had two or three a week," he said. But now the promotion is running into trouble: A patron apparently suggested to selectmen that the activity be banned...

Digital Threathosted.ap.org/ ... 15:05:58Tiny splinters - whiskers, they're called - that sprout without warning from tin solder and finishes deep inside electronics. By some estimates, the resulting short-circuits have leveled as much as $10 billion in damage since they were first noticed in the 1940s. Now some electronics makers worry the destruction will be more widespread, and the dollar amounts more draining, as the European Union and governments around the world enact laws to eliminate the best-known defense - lead - from electronic devices...

Disturbing Family Patternshosted.ap.org/ ... 15:10:30Jacksonville [Fla] authorities say a mother pulled out a gun at a school bus stop because her son was being bullied... pointed the gun at other students getting off the bus and said, "Does anyone have something to say?.." hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:58:52...in her world, a child out of wedlock can lead to an "honor killing" - her murder by a relative to protect her family's honor... Honor killings, driven by the view that a family's honor is paramount, are an ancient tradition associated with Kurdish regions of Iraq, Iran and Turkey as well as tribal areas in Pakistan and some Arab societies... Here, officials who long ignored this explosive and deeply personal issue of family pride are seeking to curb the murders. Civic activists welcome the regional government's condemnations of the custom and warnings of tough penalties, but say much more education and law enforcement is needed...

Under Tyrannyhosted.ap.org/ ... 15:06:10Chinese medical officials agreed Friday not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:57:33This is democracy, Cuban style: salsa music and a show of hands on a street corner in Old Havana. The beat pours from curbside speakers, signaling to about 150 neighbors to gather and choose candidates for the capital's municipal assembly. "Just observe - it's democracy," says Mario Hernandez, a leader of his block's Revolutionary Defense Committee, jabbing a meaty finger into a reporter's chest at the corner of Villegas and O'Reilly Streets. "Here there are no rifles, no repression," adds the 71-year-old, a fat stogie clenched between his teeth. "You'll see..."

Iraqiht.com/ ... 11:34:39Two of Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders have reached an agreement to end their bitter rivalry, which has led to armed clashes in Baghdad and across the oil-rich south. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, have promised to "protect Iraqi blood and enhance cooperation between the two movements for the Islamic and national interests and to save the nation..."

Nature can be Deadlyafp.google.com/ ... 11:34:13Two men were killed, two missing and at least 17 others were injured as Typhoon Krosa pounded Taiwan with powerful winds and torrential rain...

Hospitals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 01:33:36Doctors in New Zealand lost a man's false teeth during his back surgery but found them four days later - stuck in his throat...

Epidemic Without Bordersreuters.com/ ... 01:33:07The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday...

Extraterrestrial Threatnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 01:32:46Flying mirrors could save earth from a catastrophic asteroid collision...

Transport Tragedyvoanews.com/ ... 01:22:59The death toll from Thursday's plane crash in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, has risen to at least 37 people. Rescue workers are still picking through wreckage from the crash early Friday, looking for bodies or more survivors... 22 of the dead were killed on the plane... 15 victims died from injuries sustained on the ground...

Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 15:01:45Suspected Islamist insurgents killed a Somali army general in an ambush in the capital Mogadishu... General Ahmed Jilaow Adow, his bodyguard and his driver... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 15:00:28A senior leader of Basque separatist group Batasuna has called the arrest of 23 key members a "declaration of war" by the Spanish government. Pernando Barrena is the only top leader still at liberty following a police raid on a party meeting on Thursday. Batasuna was banned in 2003 for failing to condemn violence and cut links to Eta, which has killed more than 800 people in a four-decade campaign... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:57:04Iraqi interpreters and aides who assisted British forces in Iraq will be allowed to settle in Britain... washingtonpost.com/ ... 11:33:53A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul's airport on Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier and four Afghans... 12 wounded... reuters.com/ ... 01:30:52A U.S. air strike killed about 25 suspected Iraqi militants linked to Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias on Friday and another 12 al Qaeda fighters were killed in separate raids... voanews.com/ ... 01:24:37The U.S. military in Iraq says about 25 militants were killed and two houses destroyed in a U.S. air strike near Baquba, north of Baghdad Friday... hosted.ap.org/ ... 01:21:31U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents during a raid in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, and civilians as well as militants were killed. In the country's volatile south, separate explosions apparently targeting NATO forces killed two children and a British soldier...

World Zookeepinghosted.ap.org/ ... 15:11:40CARROLLTON TOWNSHIP, Mich... skunk... whose head was stuck in an empty salad dressing jar wandered into the police station's parking lot Thursday... Officer James Kellett... grabbed a BB gun used in hunters' safety courses and shot at the jar from about 40 feet. The shots cracked and shattered the jar, leaving a glass collar around the skunk's neck. With its head free, the skunk ran off... the makers of T. Marzetti's salad dressing are sending the officer coupons good for free dressing as a reward... hosted.ap.org/ ... 15:03:19BRIGANTINE, N.J.... A blind harbor seal rescued off Cape May Point in February is headed for... The Los Angeles Zoo... hosted.ap.org/ ... 15:02:32

A federal lawsuit aimed at protecting threatened Canada lynx has ended in a settlement in which state game officials agreed to restrict trapping in northern Maine...

History - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 15:00:01A burial ground for African slaves, which had been forgotten for almost two centuries, has been opened to the public in New York... was gradually built over as New York expanded, but was rediscovered during an excavation in 1991. Some 400 remains, many of children, were found during excavations. Half of the remains found at the burial site were of children under the age of 12... a 25ft (7.6 metre) granite monument marks the site... Enslaved Africans helped create the city of New York. They worked in the docks and as labourers building the fortification known as Wall Street, which protected the city against attack from Native Americans...

Science Marches Onnnnnnfoxnews.com/ ... 11:36:39A scientist who built a synthetic chromosome from laboratory chemicals is expected to announce the creation of a new species, the first new artificial life form on Earth... The new species is a form of bacteria... expected to provoke a substantial ethical debate about the manufacturing of life forms in a test tube, as well the dangers posed by introducing a new species... the genetics specialist who spearheaded the landmark breakthrough... said the new species could lead to new energy sources and new methods for combatting global warming... [ka-ching!]

US Militaryboston.com/ ... 11:35:35A remembrance by a childhood friend of Ciara Durkin, the National Guard member from Quincy who was fatally shot on a US base in Afghanistan last week... Ciara Durkin was the first real Irish person I’d ever known. Growing up in Dorchester, many of us claimed to be Irish but we were fairly clueless as to what that actually meant... wcsh6.com/ ... 11:27:11When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge. 1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill... Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days. Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school. "Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month..."

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 11:16:27

Army Spc. Avealalo Milo, 23, of Hayward, Calif., died Oct. 4 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Vilseck, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 11:16:12

Army Sgt. Ricardo X. Rodriguez, 23, of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, died Oct. 4 near Bayji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat operations. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

People are Bornhosted.ap.org/ ... 01:35:13MARYSVILLE, Ohio... Daughter... born Tuesday, which was Oct. 2 - the same date her brothers were born... 2003... [and] 2006...

Animal Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 01:31:22

Mounting tiny video cameras to the tail feathers of crows, researchers discovered that the birds use a variety of tools to seek food, and even make their own tools, plucking, smoothing and bending twigs and grass stems...

Orbiting Overheadnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 01:20:34Japan's lunar explorer has successfully entered orbit around the Moon...

World Waterhosted.ap.org/ ... 15:04:57CANYON LAKE, Texas... A torrent of water from an overflowing lake sliced open the earth in 2002, exposing rock formations, fossils and even dinosaur footprints in just three days. Since then, the canyon has been accessible only to researchers to protect it from vandals, but on Saturday it opens to its first public tour... hosted.ap.org/ ... 15:04:10Recent tests have shown that a brain-eating amoeba is in Tucson's water supply, but experts say the microscopic bug doesn't pose any health risks... the amoeba's presence in our underground water source - probably as a result of biodegradable oil used in pumps - is a surprise to some researchers. The amoeba is usually found in surface water such as rivers and lakes...

Sportsmanshipreuters.com/ ... 15:01:24Reversing years of denials, U.S. track superstar Marion Jones pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to federal investigators and admitted using steroids, which could cost her the five medals she won in the 2000 Olympics... "It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust... I want you to know that I have been dishonest and you have the right to be angry with me... I have let my country down and I have let myself down..."

Being Humanhosted.ap.org/ ... 15:07:42Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut... Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix's job is to reboot the digestive system in that case. The appendix "acts as a good safe house for bacteria..." acts like a bacteria factory, cultivating the good germs... not needed in a modern industrialized society... If a person's gut flora dies, they can usually repopulate it easily with germs they pick up from other people... breitbart.com/ ... 11:30:07Adventurer Jason Lewis on Saturday arrived in Greenwich, ending a 13-year round-the-world trip using only the power of the human body. The 40-year-old completed the final leg of his 46,000-mile odyssey by pedalling his 7.9-metre boat Moksha up the River Thames... a journey that included capsizing in the Atlantic, breaking both legs, being chased by a crocodile and being arrested on suspicion of spying... "Thirteen years coming to an end. It's been a big, long journey. It's good to be back..."

US Election 2008desmoinesregister.com/ ... 11:28:56Charles City, Ia. – The U.S. military should scrap its "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy that punishes service members who disclose they are gay or lesbian, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said here today...

Theory of Justicehosted.ap.org/ ... 15:09:56MOBILE, Ala... A man who claimed assailants cut his tongue out actually injured himself and has been arrested and charged with stealing $200,000 from his employer... hosted.ap.org/ ... 15:08:24A man who stripped naked in a Fayette County convenience store for no apparent reason has been convicted of indecent exposure and criminal mischief... jury rejected the defense offered by 26-year-old... he didn't realize what he was doing because he had consumed a spiked drink at a party... indystar.com/ ... 11:28:35A defendant dropped down and performed 50 push-ups in court Friday, and a prosecutor dropped the charges against him. The dismissal of Chase C. Allen's misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct charges apparently helped smooth the way for the 20-year-old Marine recruit to report to boot camp... a uniformed Marine recruiter attended the hearing and gave Allen encouragement while he was doing the push-ups. Allen made it one or two push-ups past 50... breitbart.com/ ... 11:26:22A woman has sued Kmart for allegedly collecting a 7 percent state sales tax on a nontaxable item: a 12-pack of toilet tissue... told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette she was overcharged for the item at the same store twice before she filed the small claims suit last month...

Lost & Foundhosted.ap.org/ ... 01:35:50A 3-year-old boy who was lost in the dense Amazon rain forest was found after 11 days, dehydrated and scratched but apparently unharmed...

Digital Culturereuters.com/ ... 15:05:20A maturing English cheddar cheese that has attracted a devoted worldwide following on the Internet showed its patriotic colors on Friday ahead of England's World Cup quarter-final against Australia... appeared on screen on Friday with an England rugby ball perched on top... hosted.ap.org/ ... 01:34:17A Japanese bureaucrat has been reprimanded for shirking his duties to make hundreds of Wikipedia contributions about toy robots...

Good is Innatehosted.ap.org/ ... 01:34:02A county garbage operations employee found a plastic bag on the road stuffed with $65,000 Thursday - and immediately turned it in to authorities... had fallen off a Loomis armored car half an hour before...

Big Nannyreuters.com/ ... 01:33:19Norway is planning a U.S.-style effective ban on Internet gambling, the country's top legal advisers said...

Reporting Sciencenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 01:32:16Pioneering research into a "gay bomb" that makes enemy troops "sexually irresistible" to each other has scooped one of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes. Other winners included work on treating hamster jetlag with impotency drugs, extracting vanilla from cow dung, and the side-effects of sword swallowing...

Theory of Educationnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 01:31:46The teaching of evolution is becoming increasingly difficult in UK schools because of the rise of creationism, a leading scientist is warning... some teachers, fearful of entering the debate, avoid the subject totally. This could leave pupils with gaps in their scientific knowledge...

Music industry is deadnews.com/ ... 01:30:29So why did this verdict happen? 1. The RIAA was able to match a username and IP address with Thomas. There's not always a 1:1 mapping between IP address and a specific computer, of course, as people who are behind a corporate firewall probably know. But home users tend to be more easily identified, and it's trivial nowadays for a lawyer armed with a subpoena to find out who they are. Large Internet service providers have entire departments to respond to these requests...

Reasons for Repealwlwt.com/ ... 01:29:04Hundreds of marijuana plants and dozens of guns, including a machine gun, were seized at a Laurel, Ind. home on Friday morning, according to the Indiana State Police... 216 plants in various stages of growth... cbc.ca/ ... 01:28:44Police seized more than 50,000 marijuana plants and 207 kilograms of bulk marijuana buds during "Project Sabot..." [Stinking A44h0!e Bullies Overseeing Tyranny....] the seizures are intended to reduce risks associated with drug use and eliminate profits from marijuana sales that are used to finance criminal activities... [Liars, Liars, souls doomed to eternal fires...] wzzm13.com/ ... 01:27:23Oceana County - Police say one person is under arrest after teams busted an elaborate marijuana operation, which they say involved plants grown on federal forest land... independent.com/ ... 01:27:08

...I was a bit shocked. These were professionals in their late 30s and 40s. I naively thought that people like that had given up smoking dope decades ago, choosing instead to become part of the "Wine Generation" — chatting for hours and hours about vintages, varietals, and vats, etc. The only parties I go to are full of toddlers and teens, children of the people who didn’t mind a toke back in the 1970s. But I digress. I didn’t bring this up because I ventured into a small circle of people who interjected two joints into their backyard barbecue. It’s because I read a column by L.A. Times writer David Lazarus, who proposed legalizing pot in order to finance healthcare for the 7 million Californians who aren’t covered... ap.google.com/ ... 01:26:16Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised Thursday to put more drug dealers behind bars and help users kick the habit as part of a new anti-drug strategy... Harper said his Conservative government will introduce legislation in the coming weeks to make prison time mandatory for serious drug offenses... [Tyranny advances...] freep.com/ ... 01:25:27A 25-year-old man from Ontario is facing drug charges in Detroit after U.S. customs officials found nearly 145 pounds of marijuana in the truck he was driving at the Ambassador Bridge... a cab with no trailer... "The officer just had a feeling, so he asked the driver to pull up..." kesq.com/ ... 01:24:14Authorities in Humboldt County say an armed man who threatened law enforcement officers near a marijuana plantation was shot to death... sfgate.com/ ... 01:23:56

The owner of an Oakland marijuana candy factory surrendered Thursday to face federal drug charges, but not before blasting the U.S. government for what he called an unfair attack by federal bullies on ailing patients who rely on medical marijuana...

People Do Drugsreuters.com/ ... 01:23:18Several Kentucky counties filed suit on Thursday against the makers of the potent painkilling drug OxyContin, charging that abusers of "hillbilly heroin" have filled state jails and treatment centers...

Recallreuters.com/ ... 01:22:23Topps Meat Co LLC announced on Friday it was going out of business, crushed by the recall of 21.7 million pounds of beef linked to 30 cases of E. coli-related illness... fifth-largest meat or poultry recall in U.S. history... "In one week we have gone from the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large..."

World of Cultureshosted.ap.org/ ... 01:21:10An indigenous group in Guyana, backed by government decree and a U.S.-based conservation organization, has banned miners and loggers from its section of the Amazon jungle and pledged to pursue an economic strategy based on ecotourism, research and traditional crafts. The leader of the Wai Wai said the group - which has about 200 members - has developed a management plan for its homeland in remote southern Guyana, near the border with Brazil, that is intended to preserve forest, create jobs and keep young people from leaving for cities...

FRI 2007-OCT-05

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 14:04:58

Navy Seaman Apprentice Shayna Ann Schnell, 19, of Tell City, Ind., died as a result of injuries suffered from a vehicle accident. Schnell was serving as a master-at-arms assigned to Naval Security Force Bahrain, Jebel Ali Detachment, United Arab Emirates.

THU 2007-OCT-04

Disturbing Family Patternshosted.ap.org/ ... 14:41:19LAKE MARY, Fla... A mother faces felony child abuse charges after crashing while her 7-year-old daughter drove on her lap. The vehicle crashed into mailboxes and hit a palm tree, but no one was seriously hurt... told police the accelerator must have got stuck when the child mashed it down...

Animals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 14:40:36MOSCOW... A group of cranberry-pickers spent a night stranded on an island in a Russian swamp Wednesday after an encounter with a bear prevented them from leaving before dark... a brown bear...

Under Tyrannyhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:33:32The shops are full of Western pop music and movies - the latest Harry Potter film, even "The Simpsons." Young women stroll the streets in skinny jeans and short coats, their heads barely covered, arm-in-arm with boys in muscle shirts and spiky hair. This is affluent north Tehran, where clerics are rare, lifestyles are relatively liberal and Iran's growing isolation from the world is a source of deep anxiety. Not far to the south, though, in a dilapidated bureaucratic building near the city's government center, and farther to the south in Tehran's sprawling poorer neighborhoods, things are different...

Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:41:39Mooning a police officer was community activist Steven Lee Myrick's undoing. Myrick, 41, was convicted by a jury Tuesday of raping a Hawthorne woman during a burglary seven years ago. The crime was unsolved until he exposed his bare buttocks years later and a DNA sample collected by officers linked him to the rape... reuters.com/ ... 14:33:09Colombian police were tipped off Monday to the early morning murders of eight cocaine laboratory workers when relatives of the victims showed up at an undertaker in a southern town asking for coffins...

Scary Timesreuters.com/ ... 14:43:33A Thai restaurant's potent homemade chilli sauce caused a chemical scare in central London, with police shutting streets and firefighters forced to smash down the door... [Talk about 5-alarm chili!] reuters.com/ ... 12:42:45A brief bomb threat in New York ended on Wednesday afternoon when police determined that an unattended suitcase was harmless...

Transport Tragedyhosted.ap.org/ ... 12:41:08A cargo plane crashed in a residential neighborhood near the airport in Congo's capital on Thursday, plowing into homes and killing at least 25 people... Several destroyed houses... 25 people aboard the plane were killed and two survived... not immediately clear if there were fatalities on the ground...

WW2 - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 12:40:04For the first time, scholars from around the world shared documents and knowledge about the Holocaust in Ukraine at a conference this week in Paris dedicated to this poorly understood passage in Adolf Hitler's torrent of terror across the continent. The talks were not easy, as resentment, frustration and emotion bubbled repeatedly to the surface among the researchers from Israel, Ukraine, Germany, the United States and elsewhere. While no major surprises emerged, pieces of Ukraine's Holocaust story came together as never before...

Industrial Incidentnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:38:04More than 2,400 exhausted South African gold miners have been rescued from deep underground after they were trapped by a power cable accident. About 800 miners are still waiting to be lifted to safety... Some Tuesday night shift workers have been underground for 40 hours...

History - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:37:33Body parts belonging to an estimated 34 people have been unearthed along with a rusty pistol at a 19th-Century Moscow mansion undergoing renovation... at a city centre site once owned by a tsarist-era noble family, the Sheremetyevs... some of which appear to date to the 1930s... Thousands of perceived opponents and rivals of the Soviet leadership were killed by secret police in that period...

Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 14:34:33A secret CIA overseas detention program revealed by President George W. Bush last year is still active and has held at least one al Qaeda militant since then... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:34:03The police in north-west Pakistan have recovered bodies of three soldiers who they suspect have been killed by pro-Taleban militants... a day after a spokesman for the militants said they would start killing three soldiers a day unless their demands were met. The militants have demanded the release of a number of prisoners... They are still holding some 300 soldiers they kidnapped in nearby South Waziristan on 30 August... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:36:40Poland's ambassador to Iraq has been injured in a bomb attack on his convoy in the capital... does not appear to have been seriously wounded... Polish officials believe the attack... was a deliberate assassination bid... One civilian was killed and several others were injured... A total of 21 Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war began...

Mass Madnessnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:35:08At least 14 women have been crushed to death in a stampede at a train station in northern India... Thousands of pilgrims were changing trains on their way to a Hindu festival in the holy city of Varanasi. More than 40 other women were injured. Officials said a sudden platform change announcement coincided with three packed trains arriving at once...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 14:44:45

Navy Petty Officer Third Class Mark R. Cannon, 31, of Lubbock, Texas died Oct. 2 while conducting combat operations in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Cannon was a hospital corpsman assigned to 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 14:44:25National Guard... October 3, 2007... This week, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard announced a decrease, while the Marine Corps announced an increase. The net collective result is 3,996 fewer reservists mobilized than last week... This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel who have been mobilized to 91,409, including both units and individual augmentees...

Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 14:38:50Most people who undergo male-to-female sex change surgery are satisfied with the results...

World Zookeepingreuters.com/ ... 14:35:35Sibu the orang-utan has miffed his Dutch keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes... harking back to a heavily tattooed keeper who reared him...

Science Marches Onnnnnnreuters.com/ ... 14:35:00A German scientist has come up with a solution for snoring -- a computerized pillow that shifts the head's sleeping position until the noise stops... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:32:05Illegible words on church headstones could be read once more thanks to a scan technology developed in the US... The technique could one day also be used by doctors to examine a patient's tongue for signs of illness...

It came from the skyhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:31:20Residents from the Twin Cities to the southwestern corner of Minnesota and into Iowa reported seeing a flaming object shooting through the sky Wednesday, and experts said they may have been watching a meteor...

Dinosaurs -- still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 14:30:56Scientists are amazed at the chomping ability of a newly described duck-billed dinosaur. The herbivore's powerful jaw, more than 800 teeth and compact skull meant that no leaf, branch or bush would have been safe... The newly named Gryposaurus monumentensis, or hook-beaked lizard from the monument, was discovered near the Arizona line in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 2002... at least 30 feet long and 10 feet tall with a robust jaw and thick bones... hosted.ap.org/ ... 14:29:40Bones discovered in the 1990s that spurred the Legislature to declare the pleurocoelus the state's official dinosaur were misidentified and actually came from a different species... the new species should be promoted to Official Dinosaur of Texas...

Reasons for Repealreuters.com/ ... 14:43:10

Amsterdam's famed coffee shops are turning to free-range eggs for their hashish "spacecakes" to reduce the suffering of chickens...

Modern Family Lifereuters.com/ ... 14:42:51A Czech couple who decided to take a DNA test to squash persistent pub gossip and prove that their 10-month-old baby was their own got a nasty surprise... the test showed neither of the parents had the same DNA as the baby... suggesting a mix-up at the hospital...

Opposing Tyrannyreuters.com/ ... 14:39:41President George W. Bush on Wednesday vetoed a measure to expand a popular children's health care program... He said the bill's funding level would have expanded the health program beyond its original intent and taken a step toward government-run health care. "The policies of the government ought to be to help people find private insurance, not federal coverage..."

Unclear on the Conceptreuters.com/ ... 14:38:37World travel and live satellite television have fed cultural and religious tensions and alienation among nations, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a U.N. conference on Thursday...

Music industry is deadhosted.ap.org/ ... 14:38:20An attorney for six major music companies urged a federal jury Thursday to find a Minnesota woman liable for damages for illegally downloading and sharing music online, activity he said has gnawed at the industry's bottom line... Record companies have filed some 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 claiming their music's been misused, but the case against Jammie Thomas, a mother of two from Brainerd, is the first to go to trial. Many other defendants settled by paying the record companies a few thousand dollars... a spokesman for a record industry group said companies plan to keep suing listeners...

Digital Culturehosted.ap.org/ ... 14:37:00The University of California, Berkeley, is posting course lectures and other campus happenings on YouTube... reuters.com/ ... 14:36:20Welcome to Club Penguin, the MySpace of the primary school set, where kids control their penguin avatars, throw snowballs, hang out in their igloos and make friends in an online world built just for them...

Recallreuters.com/ ... 14:34:47Dollar General Inc on Thursday said it recalled nearly 63,000 Chinese-made Frankenstein tumblers due to dangerous levels of lead paint...

Mysteryreuters.com/ ... 14:32:55As many as 20 artfully carved faces, miniature versions of the Easter Island sculptures, have been deposited in sleepy villages across northern England in recent weeks, leaving the recipients intrigued and confused...

Marriage Todayreuters.com/ ... 14:32:32An Indonesian businessman's bid to make polygamy easier was rejected by the country's constitutional court on Wednesday. Indonesia allows polygamy, but according to the marriage law, a man can only get court approval to take a second wife if his first wife agrees, or if she is disabled or cannot have children...

Theory of Educationreuters.com/ ... 14:35:59Europe's main human rights body voted on Thursday to urge schools across the continent to firmly oppose the teaching of creationist and "intelligent design" views in their science classes... saying attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted "in forms of religious extremism" and amounted to a dangerous assault on science and human rights... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 14:31:39Ex-US vice president Al Gore's climate change documentary can be shown in England's secondary schools, a High Court judge has said. An Inconvenient Truth promotes "partisan political views" but it is not unlawful to show to students, Mr Justice Burton said...

Theory of Justicereuters.com/ ... 12:43:43Oklahoma's attorney general asked the state Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday not to set any more execution dates until the U.S. high court rules on a challenge to the lethal injection method. The U.S. Supreme Court said last week that it will decide whether the commonly used lethal injection method violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment... in Alabama, Gov. Bob Riley issued a temporary stay last week postponing the execution of a convicted killer so the state could review its method of lethal injection. Analysts have said the high court's review could lead to a slowdown and perhaps even a temporary halt to U.S. executions... Oklahoma is one state closely watched by activists against capital punishment because it has had the third highest number of executions in the United States with 86 since the Supreme Court lifted a ban on the practice in 1976...

US Election 2008reuters.com/ ... 12:44:01Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson criticized his rivals on Thursday for failing to support an immediate and complete U.S. troop pullout from Iraq, saying it is time to "get all our troops out now..." reuters.com/ ... 12:42:28Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, an anti-war libertarian who has clashed with his rivals over Iraq, raised $5 million for his White House bid in the last three months... and had $5.3 million in the bank for the final push to the first nominating votes in January. The surprisingly strong performance by Paul, an obstetrician-gynecologist from the Houston area, more than doubled his $2.3 million haul in the second quarter and reinforced the grass-roots strength of his large online fan base. "Dr. Paul's message is freedom, peace and prosperity..."

World Without Bordersreuters.com/ ... 12:41:49More than 1,300 foreign-born criminals and other immigrants who ignored deportation orders have been rounded up in southern California in the last two weeks... largest sweep of its kind in the United States...

Being Humannews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:39:12A previously unknown indigenous group living in isolation has been found deep in Peru's Amazon jungle... ecologists spotted the 21 Indians near the Brazilian border as they flew overhead looking for illegal loggers... Contact with outsiders can be fatal for isolated tribes people who have no immunity to many diseases. Some groups have fled deep into the jungle to avoid contact with loggers and oil and gas prospectors... there were three palm huts on the river bank. "We've found five other sites with this kind of shelter along the same river..."

Free Expressionnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:35:44Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called for changes to a law that has allowed writers to face trial for insulting Turkish identity... told the 47-nation Council of Europe in Strasbourg that the article had harmed Turkey's bid to join the EU...

WED 2007-OCT-03

Alcohol Was Involvedreuters.com/ ... 13:29:25went home last Saturday to find his lights on and his inebriated neighbor welcoming him at the front door with a drink... had broken into the wrong house after finding that his key didn't work...

Animals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 13:26:07

MANILA, Philippines... package from Hong Kong... marked "personal clothing..." when customs officials opened it, they were stunned to see about 300 live scorpions and spiders... packed in nets, bottles and transparent plastic boxes, concealed under clothes...

Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 13:24:46SALEM, Ore... Deputy... heard a radio report that a stolen pickup truck had been spotted in northeast Salem... In the jail's parking lot, two women were in a 1984 Toyota truck to visit a boyfriend. Deputies said the women had 21 grams of methamphetamine, scales and packaging material in the truck along with them...

Industrial Tragedyreuters.com/ ... 13:00:26Five workers died on Tuesday after they were trapped deep underground at a hydroelectric plant near Georgetown, Colorado, amid a chemical fire... After the fire, the workers climbed a safe distance from the blaze and were communicating with plant operators by radio... Four other workers were able to leave the pipeline alive...

Disinformation Propaganda & Spinnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:57:17The top US drugs official has said anti-drug efforts are having the best results of the past 20 years... [Lying, scamming PuriTalibaNazi] John Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said cocaine shortages had led to a jump in prices in 37 American cities...

Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 13:00:58Seven men plotted to bring down the U.S. government by poisoning saltshakers and bombing landmark buildings, a prosecutor told Miami jurors as their terrorism conspiracy trial opened on Tuesday. The "Liberty City Seven" aimed to create chaos as part of a holy war to pave the way for al Qaeda-affiliated guerrillas to take over the United States, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Gregorie said in the prosecution's opening statement. "We need to make the people go crazy in the streets," Gregorie quoted alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste as saying. "Allah is going to take over through us..." [Talk about unclear....] news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:54:09Two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed in Israeli strikes... near the southern town of Khan Younis, Israeli forces killed a 20-year-old man. It is not clear whether he was a civilian or militant... Hamas said one of its members was killed by Israeli fire near Rafah, in the far south... Late on Tuesday, four Palestinians were killed in an explosion that appears to have resulted from a clash between Palestinian armed factions...

Nature can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 12:53:19Disaster officials began evacuating 400,000 people on Wednesday as a typhoon approached Vietnam's central coast, packing winds up to 83 mph. Typhoon Lekima...

Transport Futurehosted.ap.org/ ... 13:06:54TerraMax is a self-driving vehicle, a prototype designed to navigate and obey traffic rules - all while the people inside, if there are any, do anything but drive. During a recent test on property owned by manufacturer Oshkosh Truck Co., TerraMax barreled down a dusty road with its driver seat empty. It stopped at a four-way intersection and waited as staged traffic resolved before obediently lurching on its way. If the Defense Department gets its way, vehicles like TerraMax - about as long as a typical sport utility vehicle and almost twice as high - could represent the future of transportation for the military's ground forces...

Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 13:06:00Giving up sweets and avoiding vitamins could help you live longer, German researchers said on Tuesday... restricting glucose -- a simple sugar found in foods such as sweets that is a primary source of energy for the body -- set off a process that extended the life span of some worms by up to 25 percent... The study also for the first time points to a possible reason why antioxidants -- long thought to promote health -- might do more harm than good...

It's Only Moneyhosted.ap.org/ ... 13:28:54Edith Macefield, 86, has refused a $1 million offer from a developer to move out of her 108-year-old farmhouse to make way for a commercial complex. "I don't want to move. I don't need the money. Money doesn't mean anything..." Instead, the five-story project is being built around her, ringing the death knell for her once-thriving, blue-collar neighborhood. Macefield's house is the last on her block, though there's a restaurant nearby that's staying put as well... Gravel and cement trucks noisily work around them... "I went through World War II, the noise doesn't bother me..."

People are Bornhosted.ap.org/ ... 13:27:37RENO, Nev... Carla Dupree says God is trying to tell her that five kids is enough. That's after No. 5 was born at a freeway offramp...

Digital Whoops Cascadehosted.ap.org/ ... 13:27:18NORWALK, Ohio... A state legislator surprised a high school class when the computer he was using projected a photo of a nude woman during a lecture on how a bill becomes a law... "I have no idea where these came from," the Democrat said... said the data memory stick was a gift he received about three weeks ago from a legislative liaison from the state Library of Ohio...

Marriage Todayhosted.ap.org/ ... 13:23:45A Scottboro couple recently celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary, one of the longest marriages among living people when compared to reports in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records. Alonzo, 97, and Beulah Sims, 94, celebrated their anniversary a day early Sunday at the nursing home where they have lived since May 2002... Without their families' approval, the two teens married in 1927, when he was working at a farm, plowing fields with a mule and picking cotton for 50 cents a day... The couple, who raised six children, credit their long lives to hard farm work and eating lots of vegetables...

Supernatural Consequencesreuters.com/ ... 13:21:17...like an increasing number of Jews in the United States, she has decided not to circumcise her son, rejecting the traditional notion that it is a Biblically prescribed sign of the Jewish relationship with God. "I see circumcision as a blood ritual that I can let go of..."

Star Trek -- still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 13:02:54An asteroid between Mars and Jupiter has been renamed 7307 Takei in honor of the actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original "Star Trek" series and movies. "I am now a heavenly body," Takei, 70, said Tuesday, laughing...

Lead line of the dayhosted.ap.org/ ... 13:01:26

Getting rid of a dead blue whale is proving no easy feat...

Woman's Rightnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 12:56:17Women's groups in Turkey have condemned a new draft constitution... being prepared to replace the current one, introduced after a 1980 military coup... saying it sets the country back years in terms of gender equality... describes women as a vulnerable group needing protection... More than 80 women's groups have come together to voice strong opposition... "No we're not, we don't need protection. We need equality and ask for that, not protection...

TUE 2007-OCT-02

Sex can be... disturbingblog.washingtonpost.com/ ... 17:42:47Barbara turned to Guest Pelosi and said she has heard Whoopi say before that she'd "do Paul Newman." "And I think she'd like to do your husband as well," Walters deadpanned in that quintessential accent that made her the subject of late-night lampooning over the decades. Of course, Whoopi being Whoopi, she couldn't let that one go, which is where the speaker begins blushing. Yes, Whoopi implicitly acknowledged, she'd like to do Mr. Pelosi - but she might take his wife while she's at it...

Digital Threathosted.ap.org/ ... 17:06:02As anti-spam technology improves, hackers are finding new vehicles to deliver their malicious code. And some could be embedded in online video players... There have only been a few cases of video-related hacking so far. One worm discovered in November 2006 launches a corrupt Web site without prompting after a user opens a media file in a player. Another program silently installs spyware when a video file is opened. Attackers have also tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube. That reflects the lowered guard many computer users would have on such popular forums... Another soft spot involves social networking sites, blogs and wikis... becoming one of the juiciest targets for malicious hackers... reuters.com/ ... 17:03:49Most Americans believe their computers are protected against viruses and spyware, but scans found that a large number had outdated or disabled security software... 87 percent of Americans polled said they had anti- virus software, 73 percent said they had a firewall and 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software... But when pollsters asked to remotely scan the respondents' computers, the story turned out to be very different. While 94 percent of those polled had anti-virus software, just half had updated it in the past month... Eighty one percent had a firewall protecting private information, but just 64 percent had enabled it. And 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software, but only 55 percent had enabled it...

Scary Timesupi.com/ ... 11:26:11BOSTON... Ermiyaf A. Asfaw, an Ethiopian national, was returning to Washington from a visit to his girlfriend Saturday when an Air-Tran check-in employee asked him about stickers on his luggage from Dubai. He told her he had been in the United Arab Emirates. "No. I'm al-Qaida. I'm with them, and I'm here to blow things up," he said when she asked if it had been a trip for business or pleasure. Asfaw has been charged with making a false bomb threat. A judge set bail Monday at $1,500...

Disinformation Propaganda & Spinrushlimbaugh.com/ ... 11:22:00Rush Limbaugh: Ladies and gentlemen, in the last half hour, Harry Reid took to the floor of the Senate and proceeded to spend five-to-seven minutes denouncing me, spreading the smear that started last week on this phony soldiers business. He has prepared a letter to be sent to the CEO of the company that syndicates this program, and that letter he asked as many senators as possible to sign, offering them the opportunity to demand of my syndicator that I be condemned for something that I did not say, which Harry Reid knows I did not say....
REID: Last week, Rush Limbaugh went way over the line, way over the line.... by calling our men and women in uniform who oppose the war in Iraq, and I quote, "phony soldiers." [sic] This comment was so beyond the pale of decency, and we can't leave it alone. And yet he followed it up with denials and an attack on Congressman Jack Murtha, who was a 37-year active member of the Marine Corps, combat veteran...
RUSH:... A week ago today, ABC News, Charlie Gibson, World News Tonight, did a feature with Brian Ross, their investigative reporter, on phony soldiers! Last Monday, one week ago today. I don't see ABC being denounced. Their story was on Jesse MacBeth, the same soldier I was talking about one week ago. That video is up at RushLimbaugh.com, as well as an exposé by Brent Bozell's group, the Media Research Center, on just who Media Matters for America is. As to Jack Murtha, I just did a story today saying that he has been sued by a soldier for calling him a murderer. I just reported the news today, and yet this is reported as an attack on Congressman Jack Murtha. This is Kafkaesque...

Love is Strangehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:11:02The Lapeer [Mich.] County sheriff wants to help two bank robbery suspects tie the knot. "I'll volunteer to marry them in the jail if they surrender..." A 24-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman are suspected of taking about $5,000 in the Sept. 19 robbery of a Lapeer County Bank & Trust branch in Deerfield Township, about 60 miles north of Detroit. Detectives determined that the robbery money was used to buy wedding rings, pay back rent and pay the woman's attorney for work done in a child custody case...

Civilization vs Gangsterismnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:22:32Thousands of monks detained in Burma's main city of Rangoon will be sent to prisons in the far north of the country... jpost.com/ ... 11:14:17Israel on Tuesday began to lift its strict veil of secrecy on an air strike in Syria last month, allowing the media to report on the raid without attributing such reports to foreign sources... reuters.com/ ... 10:44:44South Korea's president... Roh Moo-Hyun... arrived in the capital of hermit North Korea on Tuesday to cheering crowds and an unsmiling leader Kim Jong-Il for only the second summit between Cold War-era foes who remain technically at war... North Koreans dressed in their finest waved pink and red plastic flowers and cheered on cue... reuters.com/ ... 10:43:19Security contractor Blackwater was involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005, said a congressional report on Monday that also panned the State Department's oversight of the company... reuters.com/ ... 10:41:46Airline passengers who pack remote-control toys in their carry-on bags should expect a little more security screening at the airport... "It appears that terrorists may have an interest to use these remote-control toys as a means to initiate devices used in a terrorist attack..." Such toys have been used to trigger improvised explosives in Iraq... They have also been used by U.S. and Iraqi troops, who ram the toys into suspected insurgent bombs to try to set them off... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:39:40One hundred shot dead outside a Myanmar school. Activists burned alive at government crematoriums. A Buddhist monk floating face down in a river. After last week's brutal crackdown by the military, horror stories are filling Myanmar blogs and dissident sites. But the tight security of the repressive regime makes it impossible to verify just how many people are dead, detained or missing... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:39:19Authorities said Tuesday they arrested a second Bosnian suspect in an apparent plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, and that the would-be bomber had contacted the embassy before the attempt... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:38:57KABUL, Afghanistan... suicide bomber detonated his payload inside... a police bus... killed 13 police and civilians Tuesday... Four children were among the 13 killed... Ten people were wounded... several of the wounded had no legs... "One woman was holding a baby in her arms, and they were both killed.... Half of the woman's face was blown off..." "This attack goes against all of Islam. There is no reason to blow up Muslims, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. My message to these people: Please stop killing Muslims..."

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 17:50:44

Army Spc. Chirasak Vidhyarkorn, 32, of Queens, N.Y., died Sept. 29 in Diwanihay, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 142nd Field Artillery Regiment, Camp Shelby, Miss. The incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:48:53

Army Sgt. Randell Olguin, 24, of Ralls, Texas, died Sept. 30 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:48:44

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Herman J. Murkerson Jr., 35, of Adger, Ala., died Oct. 1 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 2, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:48:26

Army Sgt. Robert T. Ayres III, 23, of Los Angeles, died Sept. 29 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:48:15

Army Sgt. Zachary D. Tellier, 31, of Charlotte, N.C., died Sept. 29 at Firebase Wilderness, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:48:00

Army Staff Sgt. Donnie D. Dixon, 37, of Miami, died Sept. 29 in Baloor, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:47:48

Army Sgt. 1st Class James D. Doster, 37, of Pine Bluff, Ark., died Sept. 29 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive devise and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:47:35

Army Spc. Ciara M. Durkin, 30, of Quincy, Mass., died Sept. 28 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 726th Finance Battalion, Massachusetts Army National Guard, West Newton, Mass. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:47:15

Army Sgt. 1st Class Randy L. Johnson, 34, of Washington D.C., died Sept. 27 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 17:50:34The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Army Capt. Warren R. Orr Jr., of Kewanee, Ill.
Air Force Airman 1st Class George W. Long, of Medicine, Kan.
Long was buried Sept. 30 in Medicine and Orr's burial is being set by his family. On May 12, 1968, these men were part of a crew on a C-130 Hercules evacuating Vietnamese citizens from the Kham Duc Special Forces Camp near Da Nang, South Vietnam. While taking off, the crew reported taking heavy enemy ground fire. A forward air controller flying in the area reported seeing the plane explode in mid-air soon after leaving the runway. In 1985 and 1991, U.S. officials received remains and identification tags from sources claiming they belonged to men in this crew. Scientific analysis revealed they were not American remains, but it was believed the Vietnamese sources knew where the crash site was located. In 1993, a joint/U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), traveled to Kham Duc and interviewed four local citizens concerning the incident. They led the team to the crash site, and turned over remains and identification tags they had recovered in 1983 while looking for scrap metal. During this visit, the team recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage at the site. In 1994, another joint team excavated the crash site and recovered remains, pieces of life-support equipment, crew-related gear and personal effects..... voanews.com/ ... 17:38:36President Bush lauded the lengthy service of General Peter Pace, whose military career began during the Vietnam War and who became the first Marine to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - the U.S. military's top uniformed job - in 2005. Mr. Bush praised the general as one of the most respected and accomplished military leaders he has ever known. "He helped craft America's response to an unprecedented assault on our homeland [9/11]," said President Bush. "He helped liberate two nations from brutal tyrannies and helped bring freedom to millions of people..." The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, who has pledged to travel to Iraq to see firsthand how U.S. efforts there are progressing. During his Senate confirmation hearings, the 60-year-old Mullen said he shared the American people's frustration over the course of events in Iraq...

Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 11:09:59Less than a third of U.S. children are taking vitamin and mineral dietary supplements, according to a study published on Monday by researchers who were surprised the number was so low... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:09:23Women who reported at least one full-blown panic attack during a six-month period were three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke over the next five years than women who didn't report a panic attack... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:08:56A surprising study of elderly people suggests that those who see themselves as self-disciplined, organized achievers have a lower risk for developing Alzheimer's disease than people who are less conscientious...

Digital Future is Nowhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:07:43They give them nicknames, worry when they signal for help and sometimes even treat them like a trusted pet. A new study shows how deeply some Roomba owners become attached to the robotic vacuums, and suggests there's a measure of public readiness to accept robots in the house - even flawed ones... "...If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn't have to be as reliable..." Grinter decided to study the devices after she saw online pictures of people dressing up their Roombas, the disc-shaped, self-directed vacuums made by Burlington, Mass-based iRobot Corp. "This sort of notion that someone would dress a vacuum cleaner seemed strange," she said. "A lot more was going on...." people... named their Roombas, traveled with them and one owner... introduced the machine to his parents... some would pre-clean their homes before using the machine, and that it seemed to make males more excited about the chore of vacuuming...

Virtual Future is Nowreuters.com/ ... 11:04:55Welcome to the "virtual walk" where you can raise money for charity without ever stepping out the front door. Some 1,500 women began a 31-city virtual walk across the United States on Monday to benefit breast cancer courtesy of a computer, an avatar and a $3 donation... Supporters design their own Gal avatar, or Internet representation, for a $3 donation, add clothes and accessories and a personal story and then watch themselves walk from Boston to San Francisco against a changing daily landscape. Fitzmaurice said the idea was to help busy women, no matter what their physical condition, lend their help in a fun, creative way during October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She hopes that one million walkers will sign up...

World Zookeepingreuters.com/ ... 11:02:05Two centuries after rats first landed on a remote Aleutian island from a shipwreck, wildlife managers in Alaska are plotting how to evict the non-native rodent from the island that bears their name. Rat Island... have proved devastating to wild birds that build nests in the earth or in rocky cliffs. "They pretty much made the island worthless for a lot of wildlife..." zslprints.com/ ... 11:00:00Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) album... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:59:31highlights of the Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) [photograph] album... can now be seen online... "They are particularly fascinating because the gradual transformation of ZSL London Zoo really mirrors the broader changes in our understanding of the environment and animal husbandry too..."

Prehistory - still with usreuters.com/ ... 17:02:44Chinese farmers cultivated rice along the eastern coast as far back as 7,700 years ago and used fire and flood control measures to manage their fields... reuters.com/ ... 11:03:44Neanderthals, the stocky kin of modern humans, were far more widespread geographically than previously thought, with some trekking into southern Siberia before vanishing about 30,000 years ago... "Intriguingly, their presence in southern Siberia raises the possibility that they may have been present even farther to the east, in Mongolia and China..." "They are our closest relatives.... If you saw one in the street, she or he would strike you as very robust and muscular, with a big brow ridge and bigger musculature. But they had, for example, just as big a brain as we have..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:58:11Children sacrificed by the Inca appear to have been "fattened up" in a yearlong ritual, new research suggests... The children's diet was initially focused on vegetables such as the potato, but in the last year of their lives it was enriched with corn - an elite food - and protein probably from llama meat... in their last 3-to-4 months the children began their pilgrimage to the mountains, probably from Cuzco, the Inca capital. The scientists are not certain how the children died, but think they were given maize beer and coca leaves. "It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a yearlong rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:56:38

The ancient saber-toothed cat... a study of the cat's jaw indicated it has only about one-third the biting power of a modern lion... "For all its reputation, Smilodon had a wimpy bite... had an immensely powerful body, perfect for wrestling large prey to the ground, and our models show that it needed to do this before trying a bite..."

Woman's Rightbreitbart.com/ ... 17:44:49AURORA, Ill... A suburban Planned Parenthood clinic opened Tuesday, two weeks later than planned, after anti-abortion activists raised questions about how it received its building permits. On Monday, Mayor Tom Weisner said that Planned Parenthood was "less than forthcoming" when it used a subsidiary to build a clinic in this Chicago suburb, but attorney reviews found no legal basis to deny an occupancy permit. Weisner said the city received thousands of letters and phone calls from people voicing passionate opinions about abortion while the legal reviews were pending... "The anti-choice people want to take us back to the 19th century when contraception was not available and women begged their doctors to help avoid pregnancy..."

Digital Culturenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:08:54Many websites use an automated test to tell computers and humans apart when signing up to an account or logging in. The test consists of typing in a few random letters in an image and is designed to fight spammers. Carnegie Mellon is using this test to help decipher words in books that machines cannot read by letting sites use them to authenticate log-ins... [um...]

Big Brothernews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 17:06:33Information about all landline and mobile phone calls made in the UK must be logged and stored for a year under new laws. Data about calls made and received will also be available to 652 public bodies, including the police and councils. The Home Office said the content of calls and texts would not be read and insisted the move was vital to tackle serious crime and terrorism. But critics said it was another example of Britain's "surveillance society"...

Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!ocregister.com/ ... 16:53:35

SANTA ANA – City council members voted unanimously late Monday to outlaw storefront medical-marijuana dispensaries, but they left the door open for hospitals and other state-licensed care centers to provide the drug... prohibit storefront vendors, but not medical marijuana itself... dailypress.com/ ... 16:52:43

VIRGINIA BEACH... 24-year-old teacher at Salem Middle School... charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute... newswatch50.com/ ... 16:51:42

NY.... State [religious taboo tyranny enforcement] police busted a large marijuana grow operation in the Town of Redfield and arrested two men, one of whom is a convicted felon... 78 plants growing, along with an estimated 100 pounds of marijuana drying in the residence... estimated street value of the confiscated marijuana is over $200,000... pr-gb.com/ ... 16:49:16

The first use of marijuana can be traced way back in the Neolithic age as evidenced by a burnt marijuana seed that was found in the sacrament brazier in a very old interment spot in Romania today... Marijuana use was also popular to Assyrians. These people were the ones who exposed the psychoactive ingredient through other people called Aryans. Some people used marijuana in their spiritual rites... Marijuana was also initiated to the Scythians and Thracians by the Aryans. It is also believed that Dionysus cult members also had an experienced [sic] taking this drug... According to some historians, marijuana use was really a part of lots of spiritual rites all over the world... According to some experts, marijuana use was really a part and was used as a holy sacrament of olden Jews and early Christians. It is also said that even Muslims used marijuana in different Sufi orders during the time of Mamluk period... In countries like Nepal and India, nomadic religious sadhus have been using marijuana for centuries now. And recently, a movement called Rastafari has held it as a part of their holy sacrament. For other people like the members of Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, the elders of this movement believed that marijuana is a Eucharist... mercurynews.com/ ... 16:43:38

NEVADA CITY, Calif.—A homeowner apparently engaged in a gun battle with two masked men who tried to break into his marijuana garden, killing one of the alleged assailants and ending up seriously wounded himself... seattlepi.nwsource.com/ ... 16:42:22

BOISTFORT, Wash. -- More than 2,800 marijuana plants worth at least $750,000 have been found and destroyed at a sophisticated growing operation in the Boisfort Valley... bloomberg.com/ ... 16:41:01

The price of Dutch marijuana has increased 20 percent this year because the supply is being curbed by a rise in police raids on hemp plantations. The effectiveness of one gram of Dutch-grown marijuana also has decreased by 1.5 percent... One gram of marijuana, grown in the Netherlands, costs 7.30 euros ($10.30) currently. A decrease in supply of Dutch hemp and higher prices could be causing some marijuana producers to mix the cannabis with compounds such as sand and glass pearls...

Theory of Educationcbs2chicago.com/ ... 11:25:22OAK LAWN, Ill. A southwest suburban school district has taken action, responding to the concerns of a Muslim parent. But now, as CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports, other parents are angry that traditional school holidays will be renamed or even eliminated... For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas... [The answer to this, as with the "prayer in school" and other Constitutional conflict issues is, of course, to get the government out of the education business. Repeal public schools!]

US Election 2008nytimes.com/ ... 11:23:29Senator Barack Obama will propose on Tuesday setting a goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world...

Free Expressionbreitbart.com/ ... 11:23:10European Union interior ministers debated Monday proposals to sanction or shut down Internet sites spreading "terrorist propaganda" and bomb-making instructions... "My intention of course is not to limit freedom of expression..."

Music industry is deadreuters.com/ ... 11:08:16Italian police have charged 11 people in connection with an alleged illegal music file-sharing network... "Discotequezone"...

Yeah, Sure!reuters.com/ ... 11:02:23The U.S. government has delayed the start of a program that would use spy-satellite images for domestic purposes including counterterrorism efforts, a congressman critical of the effort said on Monday...

Raising Ourselvesreuters.com/ ... 11:00:46Playing with blocks helps young children gain language skills... After six months, language scores among half of 175 children aged 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 who were sent plastic blocks were 15 percent higher than a matched group that did not receive the free blocks...

US Executive Branchreuters.com/ ... 10:42:59A federal judge on Monday tossed out part of a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep some of their presidential papers secret indefinitely. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the U.S. Archivist's reliance on the executive order to delay release of the papers of former presidents is "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with law..."

Theory of Justicehosted.ap.org/ ... 11:09:43A judge acquitted three doctors, a New Jersey company and a former Red Cross official of criminal charges Monday in a tainted-blood scandal that infected thousands of Canadians with HIV or hepatitis and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths. Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto ruled that the defendants did not show conduct displaying wanton and reckless disregard in the use of the blood and that there was no marked departure from the standards of a reasonable person... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:40:45White contractor Mark Scott-Crossley and an employee were alleged to have beaten up black former worker Nelson Chisale and thrown him to lions. Scott-Crossley was convicted of murder and given a life sentence in 2005. Now an appeal court in Bloemfontein has overturned the murder verdict and reduced his sentence to five years... The appeal court ruled that the prosecution in the 2005 trial had failed to prove that Mr Chisale was still alive when he was thrown into the lion enclosure...

MON 2007-OCT-01

Supernatural Violencebreitbart.com/ ... 10:25:20A convent in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows...

People Dieapnews.myway.com/ ... 10:17:23Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, was arrested Friday at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix after she became irate when gate crews refused to let her board a flight for which she was late... "She was a wonderful mother; she was sweet and kind and loving," said public advocate Betsy Gotbaum, the woman's stepmother-in-law. "It's obviously very, very difficult for us; we are dealing with it as best we can. My No. 1 focus is those children and my stepson..." Officers handcuffed her and took her to the holding room, where she kept screaming... They checked on her when she became quiet and found her unresponsive... may have tried to get out of her handcuffs, which ended up around her neck...

Nicotine is a Dragreuters.com/ ... 10:11:32Teenagers who feel relaxed after their first drags on a cigarette are most likely to become addicted to smoking, a sign that some people's brains are more susceptible to nicotine...

Modern Medicine can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 09:53:30TUCSON, Ariz... A cancer patient says she was left alone in a CT scanner for hours after a technician apparently forget about her, and she finally crawled out of the device, only to find herself locked in the closed clinic... had trouble sleeping since last week's incident... "I think and think and think, but I can't understand it..." the group has revised its closing procedures...

Disturbing Family Patternshosted.ap.org/ ... 09:47:49HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) -- A Farmington woman accused of driving for half a mile with her husband on the hood of her car and her 9-year-old child in the front passenger seat... However, [she] told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that her husband climbed on the car while it was parked. "He was very threatening, and I wanted to leave..."

Theftreuters.com/ ... 10:01:06A German factory worker stole over a million screws from his employer and skewed the market with his cheap stolen goods... Over two years, the 33-year-old assembly plant worker smuggled between 2,000 and 7,000 screws out of work each night, and auctioned them on an Internet site... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:54:12FOND DU LAC, Wis... someone has been repeatedly stealing toilet paper from the men's public bathrooms at the Fond du Lac City County Government Center since June... The thefts haven't been a big loss. "We don't buy the best toilet paper..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:46:40FLAGSTAFF, Ariz... A thief... slipped off with hundreds of bras from a Victoria's Secret store in broad daylight... anti-theft tags hooked on the bras did not trigger a store alarm... was not captured by surveillance cameras... worth an estimated $15,000...

Alcohol Was Involvedreuters.com/ ... 10:00:36After finding his friend was not at home, the 27-year-old climbed on to the roof of a neighboring building at about 2 a.m. Thursday and headed for what he thought was a gap in the wall between the two houses. He found himself sliding almost 30 meters (98 feet) head first into a chimney... got stuck... for 12 hours... An 82-year-old janitor from the hotel next door eventually heard the man's calls for help... reuters.com/ ... 09:45:41...Alcohol, UK researchers found, seems to temporarily drain a person's hearing -- particularly when it comes to discerning the sounds of conversation... as participants drank, their hearing became less acute. Lower-frequency hearing, which is necessary for discerning speech, suffered the most... so-called "cocktail party deafness" may not result from the noisy drinking environment alone...

WW2 - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:33:23A line of bedspreads named the "Nazi collection..." swastika next to the name... has caused anger among India's small Jewish community... The owner of the company claims the name has nothing to do with Hitler or Nazi Germany... claims the acronym Nazi stands for "New Arrival Zone of India..." There are an estimated 5,000 Jews in India, the majority of them living in and around the financial capital Mumbai...

Nature can be Dangerousdailymail.co.uk/ ... 10:19:51A massive volcano eruption triggered by an earthquake has ripped apart a tiny island in the Red Sea... lava spewing hundreds of yards into the air with plumes of volcanic ash also rising from the site... part of Jazirt Mount al-Tair, which is about 80 miles from Yemen, had collapsed after the eruption... A huge rescue operation was still underway for survivors with at least four soldiers reported dead and another five still missing... the entire island was "aglow with lava and magma as it pours down into the sea..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:08:51A volcanic explosion rocked a tiny Yemeni island in the Red Sea, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air and forcing Yemeni authorities to evacuate a military base. NATO and Yemeni ships Monday were searching for eight missing soldiers... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:31:39Two high-magnitude earthquakes have hit different parts of the Pacific Ocean... 7.3 magnitude quake struck at 0525 GMT south of New Zealand's South Island, with no reports of injuries... Earlier, the US territory of Guam was shaken by weaker tremor. Islanders in high-rise buildings felt the quake but reported no damage...

Civilization vs Gangsterismnydailynews.com/ ... 10:30:50THE WHITE HOUSE is planning "surgical" strikes in Iran to cripple agents the United States says support Iraqi insurgents fighting American soldiers... Seymour Hersh writes in this week's New Yorker magazine... citing former intelligence officials and diplomats, Hersh reports the revised bombing plan is gaining support from the military leadership and the British government. But the idea is being resisted by the Israelis, who would rather see Iran's nuclear facilities targeted directly... reuters.com/ ... 10:30:00Austrian police arrested a Bosnian man on Monday after he tried to enter the U.S. embassy in Vienna carrying a backpack with explosives... dailymail.co.uk/ ... 10:20:55Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand..." reuters.com/ ... 10:09:22Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Monday after he flew to Myanmar's new jungle capital to persuade the junta to end its crackdown on the biggest pro-democracy protests in 20 years. The U.N. office in Yangon said he remained in the former Burma, but it gave no further details... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:08:30PESHAWAR, Pakistan... A burqa-clad woman blew herself up and killed at least 15 people Monday at a crowded police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan... injured 22 others... believed to be the first time a female suicide bomber has struck inside the country... reuters.com/ ... 09:35:07Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Sunday blamed opposition groups behind a tourism boycott campaign for a homemade bomb that wounded 12 foreign tourists in the remote Indian Ocean island chain on Saturday. Police have arrested seven people in connection with the blast.... tourists... are the linchpin of Maldives' $1 billion economy.... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:34:15At least 12 people were killed after Kurdish separatists ordered them off a bus in south-east Turkey and opened fire... Civilians and government-backed guards were said to be among the victims of the ambush... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:31:52A spokesman for Taleban militants in Afghanistan has rejected another offer for talks by President Hamid Karzai... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:29:41African peacekeepers were searching for more than 20 members of their force still missing and feared wandering the wilderness of Darfur on Monday after rebels overran their base in an unprecedented attack that stunned the international force... In Sunday's attack, around 1,000 well-armed rebel gunmen overwhelmed the small Haskanita base of about 150 troops before dawn after hours of fighting, during which some of the African soldiers ran of ammunition. The battle killed at least 10 peacekeepers... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:28:51Deaths among American forces and Iraqi civilians fell dramatically last month to their lowest levels in more than a year, according to figures compiled by the U.S. military, the Iraqi government and The Associated Press...

Threatshosted.ap.org/ ... 09:27:18Taiwan's ruling party passed a resolution Sunday asserting the island's separate identity and calling for a referendum on its sovereignty, but failed to put any real force behind it, apparently out of fear of provoking rival China...

Mass Murdering Monstershosted.ap.org/ ... 09:20:41The morgue scene couldn't have been more grim: As doctors worked to retrieve evidence from 33 bodies riddled by gunfire, they were unnerved by the ringing of victims' cell phones, signaling loved ones seeking reassurance they would never get. In yet another gruesome snapshot of the Virginia Tech massacre in April, a new report from the state's chief medical examiner describes how forensic investigators handled the tragedy... "Seeing young people just struck down like that was very traumatic for our staff..." report cites a need for better training of communications officers who deal with victims' families and the public.... that training has already begun...

Antiquity - still with uscnn.com/ ... 10:45:02Museum-goers gasped at the well-preserved mummy of an Inca maiden that is on display for the first time, a serene gaze etched on her face hundreds of years ago when she was sacrificed and froze to death in the Andes...

US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 10:40:04

Army Pfc. Mathew D. Taylor, 21, of Cameron Park, Calif., died Sept. 26 in San Antonio of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle July 23 in Sarobi District, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:39:46The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Air Force 1st Lt. James W. Blose of Sharpsville, Pa., will be buried Sept. 29 in Hermitage, Pa....
On April 22, 1942, Blose and another pilot, 2nd Lt. William S. Shaw, departed Nausori, Airdrome, Viti Levu Island, Fiji, on an airborne alert mission. Soon after takeoff, bad weather forced the pilots to fly below the level of several mountaintops in the area and land their P-39D Airacobras at Nandi Airdrome. Shaw successfully landed his plane, but Blose was not seen or heard from again. Initial ground searches in the thick jungles and rugged terrain were unsuccessful. In late 2004, a Fiji citizen reported to a U.S. official in Fiji that he located possible aircraft wreckage on Viti Levu Island. The official visited the site and saw the wreckage bearing a data plate that correlated to Blose's plane. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) investigated the crash site in early 2005 and collected additional data plate information. In 2006, a JPAC team excavated the site and recovered human remains and other items including a pilot's microphone electrical plug with Blose's initials on it.... defenselink.mil/ ... 10:38:06

Army Pfc. Christopher F. Pfeifer, 21, of Spalding, Neb., died Sept. 25 in San Antonio, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire Aug. 17 near Kamu, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Schweinfurt, Germany.

World Zookeepinghosted.ap.org/ ... 09:55:50

TRUCKEE, Calif... A 250-pound bear stranded under a bridge near Lake Tahoe was saved by an army of rescuers, a tranquilizer dart and a nylon net bought at an Army surplus store... "I've been on a lot of bear rescues... and this is the most intense bear call that I've been on..." [Okay, I don't have a bear icon, but the Panda is called a bear....] hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:50:13

MANSFIELD, Ohio... volunteers came to the aid of a raccoon with a plastic peanut butter jar stuck on its head... once its plastic prison was cut off, the raccoon made a run for it into the brush... [Okay, I don't have a racoon icon... the Panda is a relative....] reuters.com/ ... 09:36:22

Fishermen like Diego Crespo have trapped the giant tuna swarming into the warm Mediterranean for over 3,000 years, but he says this year may be one of his last. Japanese demand for its fatty flesh to make sushi has sparked a fishing frenzy for the Atlantic bluefin tuna... stocks dangerously close to collapse... The environmental impact would be catastrophic, she said: "The bluefin is a top predator so the whole ecology of the Mediterranean would be destabilized..."

Orbiting Overheadhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:28:29When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph... the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age... In a series of interviews in recent days with The Associated Press, Chertok and other veterans told the little-known story of how Sputnik was launched, and what an unlikely achievement it turned out to be...

US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 10:41:12The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of eight detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Six detainees were transferred to Afghanistan, and one each to Libya and Yemen.... There are approximately 330 detainees currently at Guantanamo. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:40:41The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of one detainee from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Mauritania... There are approximately 340 detainees currently at Guantanamo. military.com/ ... 10:23:13The Air Force Reserve... technicians angry over a new policy mandating daily uniform wear on the job... Bristling at the new regs, some reservists intend to pressure the Air Force into scrubbing the new uniform policy - a demand that could have a ripple effect on Air Force missions in Iraq and Afghanistan... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:23:53...an emerging group of war veterans: the economic casualties. More than in past wars, many wounded troops are coming home alive from the Middle East. That's a triumph for military medicine. But they often return hobbled by prolonged physical and mental injuries... Treatment, recovery and retraining often can't be assured quickly or cheaply. These troops are just starting to seek help in large numbers, more than 185,000 so far. But the cost of their benefits is already testing resources set aside by government and threatening the future of these wounded veterans for decades to come...

Healing Ourselvesthisislondon.co.uk/ ... 10:20:26A boy of 12 suffers from so many allergies that he is able to eat only five foods... violently ill every time he is given dishes containing dairy products or wheat, gluten, eggs, lactose and soya. The sole foods he is allowed are chicken, carrots, grapes, potatoes and apples... To help him survive, minerals and vitamins are pumped directly into his stomach through a tube... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:09:31A daily dose of specially-formulated dark chocolate may help cut chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:22:48A study released Thursday credits New York's 2003 Clean Indoor Air Act with an 8 percent drop in heart attacks statewide because of reduced exposure to second-hand smoke... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:21:21the season in which a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer may affect his survival... men diagnosed in the summer and autumn months have a better chance of survival than if they were diagnosed in the spring and winter. The scientists say this may be linked to vitamin D that can be provided by sunlight... Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in American men outside of skin cancer... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:18:06....some doctors believe there is not enough evidence yet to prove the experimental cooling therapy Green advocates works on people with spinal cord injuries...

Unsorted from Last Monthmindfulwebworks.com/ ... 11:18:00This section has stories accumulated over September which didn't get blogged. nytimes.com/ ... 11:16:26She had, she said, survived the terror attack on the World Trade Center despite having been badly burned when the plane crashed into the upper floors of the south tower... no part of her story, it turns out, has been verified... daytondailynews.com/ ... 11:15:36Sep 26... ...The investigation started after [her] husband... contacted the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office on Aug. 6. He said his wife was having sexually explicit communications with minor males via the Internet, according to an FBI affidavit released Tuesday... time.com/ ... 11:14:29Sep 28... JUAN WILLIAMS... It started with Bill O'Reilly's grandmother. And it blew up into charges of O'Reilly being called a racist and me being attacked as a "Happy Negro" (read that as a lackey or Uncle Tom)... denverpost.com/ ... 11:13:22Sep 24... NEW YORK—A startup has come up with a new way to make money from phone calls connected via the Internet: having software listen to the calls, then displaying ads on the callers' computer screens based on what's being talked about... nytimes.com/ ... 11:12:07...Rudolph Giuliani. There are several versions of the former mayor. Understandably, he prefers to project the ones that would get any politician dreaming about a spot on Mount Rushmore... New Yorkers are well acquainted with at least one other version. That would be Rudy the loopy. The weirdness factor, as some have called it, is as much a part of the Giuliani package as 9/11, banished squeegee men and shuttered porn parlors... msnbc.msn.com/ ... 11:11:01Lonely, marginalized and suddenly suspicious that he was losing his grip over the organization he helped create, Osama bin Laden finally decided that enough was enough. At least that's the explanation sources close to him are giving for why, after three long years of silence, the Qaeda leader has released one video and two audiotapes in the past month... bin Laden recently learned that a faction within his own organization had been conspiring to sideline him, insisting—unnecessarily, bin Laden now believes—that he remain secluded for security reasons. CIA officials told NEWSWEEK they could neither confirm nor reject the theory... news.ninemsn.com.au/ ... 11:09:31Sep 20... A teenager performed oral sex on her teacher while he drove a minibus and talked on a mobile phone... seattlepi.nwsource.com/ ... 11:08:52Sep 23... Man beheads tame hotel duck... seattlepi.nwsource.com/ ... 11:08:27Sep 23... REDWOOD CITY, Calif... Father finds son dead in vat of acid... apparently being overcome by fumes... at a circuit board factory where they both worked... dailymail.co.uk/ ... 11:07:33Sep 24... um... the utterances that slow down our sentences actually make us better understood, according to scientists. They found that "ums", "ers" and "ahs" - known as "disfluencies" - force a listener to pay attention... timesonline.co.uk/ ... 11:06:52Sep 23... there are twice as many men as women in the brightest 2% of the population... men also cluster at the opposite extreme, with twice as many men as women stuck in the least intelligent 2%... sciam.com/ ... 11:05:31Sep 20... Scientists have known for more than 70 years that the one surefire way to extend the lives of animals was to cut calories by an average of 30 to 40 percent. The question was: Why?.. Researchers report in the journal Cell that the phenomenon is likely linked to two enzymes—SIRT3 and SIRT4—in mitochondria... a cascade of reactions triggered by lower caloric intake raises the levels of these enzymes, leading to an increase in the strength and efficiency of the cellular batteries... seattletimes.nwsource.com/ ... 11:04:30Nukes on the loose: How it happened... usatoday.com/ ... 11:03:17One in five shipments of Chinese wheat gluten were refused entry into the USA in recent months because regulators weren't sure they were free of the contaminant that led to last spring's pet-food recall. The refusal rate is high for a product that was rarely inspected before because it was considered low risk. It's also contributing to higher prices for an ingredient widely used in pet food, as well as breads... jpost.com/ ... 11:01:01Sep 18... Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in Jane's Defence Weekly, which reported that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria... the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas... talklikeapirate.com/ ... 10:59:59September 19th (every year) is International Talk Like A Pirate Day... gocomics.com/ ... 10:59:32Pirate cartoons for Talk Like a Pirate Day... foxnews.com/ ... 10:58:14Sep 17... President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to take over any private schools refusing to submit to the oversight of his socialist government, a move some Venezuelans fear will impose leftist ideology in the classroom... foxnews.com/ ... 10:57:32Sep 15... Several thousand protesters marched Saturday from the White House to the Capitol to demand an end to the Iraq war, and at least 160 people were arrested when they jumped a barricade at the foot of the Capitol steps... foxnews.com/ ... 10:56:25Sep 15... Police found a newborn girl kidnapped in Michigan found alive in South Carolina Saturday... 27-year-old mother left the baby in the care of her 24-year-old sister to visit the hospital for medical issues. The sister fell asleep, and when she awoke, the baby was gone... abducted by a 17-year-old... foxnews.com/ ... 10:55:16Sep 15... One of the horses that pulls carriages around Central Park... became startled by a street performer playing a drum... died Friday after breaking loose and running into a tree... the crash spooked a second horse that took off into the busy street, carriage still attached. The buggy collided with a Mercedes Benz sedan, and both vehicles sustained minor damage... wxyz.com/ ... 10:53:37Sep 14... Federal authorities are investigating a Wayne State University medical student who was arrested in a Dearborn park with a loaded AK-47... money.aol.com/ ... 10:52:59Sep 13... A short-skirted, gyrating teacher in a hamburger TV ad has been expelled for conduct unbecoming a corporate spokesmodel... news.com/ ... 10:52:08Sep 12... Researcher: Bin Laden's beard is real, video is not... "As far as my tools can detect, there has been no image manipulation of the bin Laden portion of the image beyond contrast adjustment. His beard really does appear to be that color..." the video contained many visual and audio splices, and that all of the modifications were of very low quality... apnews.myway.com/ ... 10:51:14Sep 13... David Hanson has two little Zenos to care for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's the robotic Zeno. It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions... telegraph.co.uk/ ... 10:50:34He may be the hero of the environmental movement for his crusade against global warming but Al Gore is about to be targeted by animal rights activists over his carnivorous contribution to greenhouse gases... Citing United Nations research that the meat industry is worse for the environment than driving and flying, animal rights groups are directing a campaign at the former American vice-president's diet... the message: "Too chicken to go vegetarian? Meat is the No 1 cause of global warming"... nydailynews.com/ ... 10:49:48Sep 8... Freshly minted GOP White House hopeful Fred Thompson puzzled Iowans yesterday by insisting an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side... foxnews.com/ ... 10:48:51Sep 7... The popular all-American comic-book military man and action figure dating back to the 1940s is undergoing a significant transformation for the Paramount Pictures-distributed "G.I. Joe" film... In the politically correct new millennium, G.I. Joe bears no resemblance to the original... the name G.I. Joe will become an acronym for "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity" — an international, coed task force charged with defeating bad guys. It will no longer stand for government issued, as in issued by the American government... foxnews.com/ ... 10:47:28Sep 8... A McDonald's worker in Union City, Ga., was arrested and jailed Thursday night for putting too much salt and pepper on a police officer's hamburger... she said, too much salt and pepper accidentally spilled into the bowl. Bull said her manager was working with her, and continued to make patties out of the meat. [She] grilled and ate one of the over-seasoned burgers for her dinner break and grilled the remaining burgers from the batch... police accused [her] of purposely pouring the salt and pepper on the burger and charged her with reckless conduct...

Theory of Educationcbs2chicago.com/ ... 10:24:52OAK PARK, Ill... local middle school wants the embracing to stop. "Last year we would see maybe as many as 10 students on one side (of the hallway), 10 on the other and then, going in opposite directions, would sort of have a hug line going on and you could see where that would be a problem... Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls..." although hugs are supposed to be handshakes from the heart some times they don't seem so innocent. "Too long, too close, and usually between boys and girls..." High-fiving in the hallways is also frowned upon...

Music industry is deadtelegraph.co.uk/ ... 10:18:30Radiohead, the internationally renowned band, has taken the unusual step of telling fans that they can pay as much or as little as they like for the band's new album In Rainbows... has told fans "it's up to you" what they pay to digitally download the album...

Sex -- always attractivereuters.com/ ... 10:13:55South Africans queued to learn about sex toys and pole-dancing this weekend, at the first sex fair ever held in a country founded by conservative Christians and still home to many sexual taboos...

Coincidentallyhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:13:31Melody Kloska and Matt Behrs take it as a sign they were meant to get married. After tying the knot on a Lake Michigan beach on Aug. 18, they released a bottle containing their wedding vows. A few weeks later, the bottle was found by Fred and Lynnette Dubendorf, of Mears, Mich., who were also married on a beach - exactly 28 years before Kloska and Behrs...

Raising Ourselvesreuters.com/ ... 10:12:55"A number of studies have demonstrated negative effects of heavy television viewing. However, timing of exposure is an important consideration," said study author Kamila Mistry of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Reducing viewing to acceptable levels can reduce the risk of behavioral and social problems..." American Academy of Pediatrics... has issued guidelines that discourage television viewing among children younger than 2 years, and recommend children older than 2 limit their viewing to less than two hours daily. The group also recommends against having a television in a child's bedroom... The researchers analyzed interviews conducted three years apart with the mothers of roughly 2,700 children to learn the children's viewing habits and whether they tended to be anxious, depressed, have sleep problems, have trouble concentrating, exhibit aggressive behavior or lack social skills... "Children who reduced their viewing by 5-1/2 years of age were not at greater risk for behavior or social problems..."

Digital Businessreuters.com/ ... 10:11:13Sony Corp said it will launch an ultra-thin flat TV in December, the world's first television based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology into an $82 billion market dominated by LCD and plasma models...

Democracy in Actionreuters.com/ ... 09:59:23So many candidates are running in Bulgaria's local elections next month that ballots stretch to 2 meters (6-1/2 ft) and won't fit into the country's largest envelopes...

Vital Newshosted.ap.org/ ... 09:59:08FRANKLIN, Pa... A Pennsylvania man... Russell "Rock Bottom" Byars... cast a stone that skipped on water a whopping 51 times, shattering the old world record of 40... traveled about 250 feet... "I actually threw 40 stones that day, but that was the first skip that I threw..."

Love is Strangehosted.ap.org/ ... 09:57:38BLOOMSBURG, Pa... Kevin Weaver's engagement to Karen Slusser got off to a smashing start - he painted his proposal on a car and drove it in a demolition derby...

Your Government at Playhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:56:47Washington, D.C.... As many as 70,000 condoms given away in a citywide campaign to reduce HIV and AIDS were returned this week by community groups. Another 100,000 condoms were returned in early September because of complaints their paper packaging can be easily damaged and could make the condoms ineffective... this week they will distribute brand-name substitutes...

World Energyhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:51:22Brazil's national electricity grid is laying on extra energy to avoid a nationwide blackout Friday when the final chapter of the hit soap opera "Tropical Paradise" airs... TV Globo expects that 90 percent of television viewers in the country of 186 million people will tune in for the final chapter... "We are worried about a possible blackout caused by a sudden surge in electricity at the end of the program... When it is all over, millions of people will get up from their armchairs and sofas to turn on the lights of their living rooms, open the refrigerator for a cold beer or heat a meal in the microwave oven..."

Digital Culturereuters.com/ ... 10:10:25TV Guide is trying to muscle in on YouTube's considerable turf... Online Video Guide, a search service that will attempt to filter out the junk and leave users with the best of Internet video that is related to television... Searching for video content of "24" or "The Office," for example, at Google, Yahoo or any other search engine leads to a painful array of too many choices... At TVGuide.com, though, a search of "24" at the new search device will first point users to free episodes available at Fox.com, and then to all the other professionally produced content related to the show... en.wikipedia.org/ ... 09:39:58An exabyte... is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quintillion bytes. It is commonly abbreviated EB... 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes — 10246, or 260... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:38:30While the current state of web streamed TV might be considerably less than high definition quality, the ability to watch TV from around the world on-demand could completely change when and how we enjoy our favourite shows... "One of the challenges is that the internet really isn't set up to deliver high resolution video, and so it needs assistance, help and support to enable it to do so," said Phill Robinson of CacheLogic. "There are basically two exabytes of traffic that flow over the internet. We have got to that level of traffic growth over the last 20 years. It's going to rise and quadruple over the years to eight exabytes. That's a huge volume of data that's going to be shipped over the internet, and the reason is the delivery of video, which has huge file delivery requirements sitting behind it..."

Reasons for Repealasianpacificpost.com/ ... 10:37:30

Competing Canadian-based Asian organized crime syndicates are setting up elaborate marijuana grow-ops in Southern California selling highly potent "B.C. Bud" for up to $6,000 a pound... usatoday.com/ ... 10:36:50

Kentucky goes after 'Marijuana Belt' growers... newswatch50.com/ ... 10:36:37

A Hogansburg man was busted last week with 48 pounds of marijuana thanks to the good memory of a Federal agent at a roadblock... mpp.org/ ... 10:35:04Marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers $41.8 billion every year in law enforcement expenses and revenues lost to government at all levels... www.drugscience.org/bcr/index.html... "a massive waste of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of eradicating a government-forbidden plant, and the financial waste hit all-time high levels last year..." costs $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues annually... cfnews13.com/ ... 10:33:35

The Polk County Sheriff's Office has made what it calls one of the biggest marijuana busts in the county's history... a grow house with about 350 mature plants inside a Lakeland home... nearly $1 million worth of high-grade marijuana... foxnews.com/ ... 10:31:43

The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled against a Big Island man who claimed he had to smoke marijuana to practice his religion in what he called the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry. The court decided that Joseph Sunderland's freedom of religion didn't give him the right to smoke marijuana, but it didn't rule on whether Hawaii's strong privacy protections would have shielded him... [Religious right... medical right... just repeal! Repeal! REPEAL!] news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:30:54The UK and six other nations are launching a fresh effort to intercept drug smuggling runs across the Atlantic into Europe from Latin America. A special centre is being opened in Portugal to co-ordinate rapid response naval operations against the trade... [Gee, how much trouble, money, and oppression could we save if, instead, we repeal? Repeal! REPEAL!]

US Election 2008allheadlinenews.com/ ... 10:35:58

Blunt-talking Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain campaigned hard in New Hampshire Sunday, amid reports of rising poll ratings and increasing campaign contributions... He displayed his Conservative values by telling a wheel chair bound Linda Macia of Manchester that he would not support the medical use of marijuana for pain management that she said she needed... "I still would not support medical marijuana because I don't think that the preponderance of medical opinion in America agrees with your assertion that it's the most effective way of treating pain..." news.independent.co.uk/ ... 10:21:26They call it the Clinton cackle. It comes out of the blue, lasts a few seconds and leaves those who witnessed it wondering if they have missed a joke. Hillary Clinton's deployment of the full belly laugh is the latest weapon used by the leading Democratic presidential candidate when she is being pummelled by reporters or rivals. Friends say the cackle is her way of deflecting aggressive questioning. It may also be a sign of nervousness over Iowa... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:30:02Influential Republican conservative Newt Gingrich has ended months of speculation by announcing that he will not run for the US presidency in 2008. Mr Gingrich, 64, said new campaign finance laws meant he could not be a candidate while remaining head of his tax-exempt political organisation...

Big Nannyhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:09:03Residents of big cities like New York and London must accept that they are under constant watch by video cameras, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:57:00China has banned television and radio ads for push-up bras, figure-enhancing underwear and sex toys in the communist government's latest move to purge the nation's airwaves of what it calls social pollution... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:25:56Congressional Democrats have chosen an unlikely source to pay for the bulk of their proposed $35 billion increase in children's health coverage: people with relatively little money and education... 156 percent increase in the federal cigarette tax, taking it to $1 per pack from the current 39 cents. Low-income people smoke more heavily than do wealthier people in the United States, making cigarette taxes a regressive form of revenue... Democrats, who wrote the legislation and provided most of its votes, generally portray themselves as champions of the poor. They do not dispute that the tax plan would hit poor communities disproportionately, but they say it is worth it to provide health insurance to millions of modest-income children... "I'm very happy that we're paying for this," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev... "In the long run, maybe it'll stop people from smoking..." [Studies and experience have shown that not only will higher prices not have much impact on whether people smoke, higher taxes tend to encourage black markets....]