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Mindful Webworks Radical Inclineblog-heap o' links
from 2007-dec
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MON 2007-DEC-31
Transport Tragedyboston.com/ ... 12:54:15TUSCUMBIA - A helicopter crashed in thick woods early yesterday during the search for a missing hunter, killing all three people on board... washingtonpost.com/ ... 12:41:02Five people, including three members of a Maryland family, died late yesterday when their minivan was hit head-on by a pickup truck going the wrong way on a Toledo, Ohio-area interstate... gift wrap were seen strewn about the highway....
Transport Troubleonline.wsj.com/ ... 12:57:27Flying well-equipped for business and pleasure gets a bit more complicated Tuesday, as the U.S. Transportation Department bars travelers from packing loose lithium batteries in checked luggage... designed to help minimize the risk that such batteries could overheat and catch fire on board... [I'm no electrical engineer, but... aren't loose batteries much less likely to be a hazard than installed batteries?] foxnews.com/ ... 12:50:29KANSAS CITY, Mo. — United Airlines is working to find flights for more than 180 passengers after the flight they were on took a wrong turn on the runway and became stuck in the mud... msnbc.msn.com/ ... 12:31:06BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A Norwegian cruise ship carrying some 300 people lost engine power during an electrical outage and struck an Antarctic glacier, smashing a lifeboat but causing no injuries... after that "there were free drinks on the house..."
Transport Incidentcbs11tv.com/ ... 10:06:18A passenger on a Fort Worth bus says the T. Bus Service discriminated against her religion... was reading her Bible to her children when the bus driver asked her to stop or get off the bus. Lutz, a Seventh Day Adventist, and her children were on their way to church... "Anyone who is loud will be asked to be quiet.... That is a standard policy across country in the transit industry." It doesn't matter what is said... "It's only if the other passengers will complain, or it's obviously so loud it's distracting the operator, that we will ask them to stop..."
Prison Sucksreuters.com/ ... 09:34:36An Afghan detainee has died from cancer at the prison camp at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba... Abdul Razzak, 68, who was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for colorectal cancer... fifth prisoner to die in captivity...
Fireap.google.com/ ... 12:39:58More than 2,000 travelers were stranded at Red Cross shelters in the Colorado high country Monday as a threat of avalanches closed a stretch of Interstate 70 west of Denver. Deep snow drifted into more than two dozen narrow ravines in the mountainsides — known as avalanche chutes — raising the danger of potentially deadly snow slides cascading onto I-70... In addition to the avalanche threat, wind-blown snow reduced visibility to nearly zero... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:32:56two adults and one child... were killed in Western Australia after bushfires engulfed a convoy of lorries on a main road... One lorry made it through to Southern Cross, its driver suffering burnt hands... Drivers of the other lorries unhitched their trailers in order to make a quick return to Coolgardie...
Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 12:37:52Sri Lanka's air force bombed a Tamil Tiger training base in the north and nine rebels and two soldiers were killed in ground battles, the military said on Monday... voanews.com/ ... 12:37:24A new, joint force of the African Union and United Nations has taken over peacekeeping duties in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region from a smaller AU mission... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:33:15Twenty-seven people have been injured in at least three separate explosions in Thailand's insurgency-hit south... at entertainment venues in the town of Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat province, as people celebrated the holiday season... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:31:57A suicide bomber drove a truck rigged with explosives into a checkpoint manned by members of a U.S.-backed security volunteer group in a town north of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 12 people... Another three people were missing... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:31:15Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says that the number of deaths in Israeli-Palestinian violence fell sharply in 2007 as compared to 2006. But the group's annual report says that Israeli security forces killed 373 Palestinians, and 131 of these were not involved in hostilities... Palestinians killed 13 Israelis in 2007 - seven of them civilians... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:30:17North Korea appeared set Monday to miss a year-end deadline to disable a key nuclear reactor and declare all its nuclear programs, key elements of its disarmament as agreed to in an international accord... [NK doesn't make its nuclear deadlines... WHAT a surprise!...] hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:29:29Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in the south and killed 16 officers...
Seven Afghan police and soldiers were reported dead elsewhere as Afghanistan's bloodiest year since the Taliban's ouster drew to a close...
Animal Companionskitsapsun.com/ ... 12:30:16DogA woman was arrested Thursday evening for allegedly socking her boyfriend in the face during an argument over whether his dog should be in the bathroom while they were taking a shower...
History - still with uscanada.com/ ... 09:59:32...It would be three more years before the tragedy of the American Civil War erupted south of the border, but the bitter debate on slavery was already eating at the soul of our next-door neighbour. It was in 1857 that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against one Dred Scott, a black man seeking the same freedom in slave state Missouri he had enjoyed while living in slave-free Illinois. The Supreme Court denied his plea, ruling that being free in a free state didn't mean he could remain free in a slave state. The court added that, anyway, as a black man, Scott was not a citizen of the United States and therefore had no right to appeal to the court. Worldwide criticism of the decision, and the arrival of a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln on the political scene openly opposing slavery while daring to run for president, convulsed the United States from 1857 until the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, when gunfire signalled the opening of the Civil War. Four years later on April 9, 1865, with countless thousands of young Americans dead by the hand of fellow citizens, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Grant at Appomattox. A few days later, Lincoln was assassinated...
On the other side of the world, the Crimean War with its jingoistic bravado and the Charge of the Light Brigade... had come to an end in 1856. But the last hurrah had hardly been shouted in the Crimea when Indian foot soldiers in the British Army in India launched the great Sepoy revolt. The Indian Mutiny exploded in 1857. British Columbia was a year old when the mutiny was regarded as uneasily settled in 1859. For good measure, in 1858 slaves were in revolt in Haiti, there was civil war in Mexico, the French were doing battle in Indochina, and the Basuto tribe and the Boers were skirmishing in Africa as though in rehearsal for the two "official" Boer wars that followed as the 19th century ended...
Antiquity - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:44:00"People started noticing stuff eroding out of the bluff," she recalls, "and I got called out, along with the police, the real estate people and so on. "It was very clearly an archaeological burial. And the bluff was collapsing quickly, so we just got the contents out." The bluff lies virtually at the end of the Americas, on a narrow, hooked spit projecting northwards from Barrow... Now known as Point Barrow, the settlement on it was Nuvuk for at least 1,000 years, a spot presumably chosen because of its proximity to the migration path of bowhead whales which would become the cultural and nutritional centre of Nuvuk life...
Digital Future is Nowbizjournals.com/ ... 12:57:54Every other household in the U.S. owns a digital television, according to a research report released by Consumer Electronics Association... And, high-definition TV sets, which support high definition programming -- a form of digital television -- are expected to account for 79 percent of total digital television shipments in the U.S. in 2008...
Transport Pleasurestelegraph.co.uk/ ... 12:33:25The Rolls-Royce may have been the epitome of luxurious motoring for more than 100 years, but for a new breed of super-rich oligarchs and Middle-Eastern royalty, it seems a standard version of the world's most famous car is no longer enough...
Reasons for Repealpegasusnews.com/ ... 13:13:11According to Dallas County first assistant district attorney Terri Moore, it's simply not feasible for local law enforcement to issue citations for misdemeanor Hempmarijuana possession, an option that exists as of Sept. 1 of 2007, when a new state law went into effect. So folks found in North Texas with even small amounts of pot will continue to be hauled off the the hoosegow, even though the legislature passed the law with an eye toward easing jail overcrowding. By contrast, happy tokers in the Austin area - if caught by Travis County Sheriff's personnel holding small amounts of weed - are already being issued tickets for the offense... halifaxcourier.co.uk/ ... 13:12:23A man was caught with about half an ounce of Hempcannabis after a search of his home... sentenced to 100 hours unpaid community work with supervision and ordered to pay £43 costs... kptv.com/ ... 13:10:31A father and son are in custody after a weapons complaint led deputies to a huge Hempmarijuana growing operation in Cowlitz County... northantset.co.uk/ ... 13:10:04POLICE officers have uncovered another Hempcannabis factory in Corby... Most of the hydroponics equipment had already been removed from the now empty property by the offenders and only a small number of cannabis plants were found at the location. The house has been forensically examined and police are urging the community to report any suspicious behaviour they think may be related to cannabis cultivation... banburyguardian.co.uk/ ... 13:09:08HOME-GROWN Hempcannabis production is on the increase and landlords should keep close eyes on rented properties, according to Thames Valley Police... minotdailynews.com/ ... 13:08:42The three members of North Dakota’s congressional delegation see little hope in Congress for state farmers who want to grow industrial Hemphemp... cbs5.com/ ... 13:08:20Firefighters combating a blaze in an Antioch apartment Sunday night found Hempmarijuana plants growing inside a closet in the apartment that burned... allafrica.com/ ... 13:07:46HEALTH experts from the African Union (AU) have asked member states to ban the growing of Hempcannabis, popularly known as marijuana. They are worried that the cultivation of the drug, locally known as njagai, was affecting agricultural production and posing serious food shortage on the continent. It was also observed that cannabis users were at a higher risk of contracting HIV, among other sexually transmitted infections... chron.com/ ... 13:06:46DALLAS — Many Texans busted for misdemeanor Hempmarijuana possession are still being jailed despite a new state law that allows police to issue a citation instead of making an arrest, according to a newspaper report... rockymountainnews.com/ ... 12:32:38Ever since the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol laws in this country have been a bit nutty... In Fairbanks, Alaska, it's illegal to serve liquor to a moose. By contrast, in Ohio it's legal to serve booze to a fish, but not if you get it drunk.... bars... Some states mandate sitting, while others require standing at the bar to drink... In Iowa it's illegal to run a tab... Nebraska bars may not sell beer except when simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup...
Music industry is deadwashingtonpost.com/ ... 10:10:38...in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer... "I couldn't believe it when I read that..." The industry's own Web site says that making a personal copy of a CD that you bought legitimately may not be a legal right, but it "won't usually raise concerns," as long as you don't give away the music or lend it to anyone. Of course, that's exactly what millions of people do every day...
US Election 2008newsday.com/ ... 10:04:23HillaryHillary Clinton... Saturday night in Dubuque... arguing she risked her life on White House missions in the 1990s, including a hair-raising flight into Bosnia that ended in a "corkscrew" landing and a sprint off the tarmac to dodge snipers... news.yahoo.com/ ... 10:03:03Mike Huckabee, a Republican relying on support from religious conservatives in Thursday's hard-fought presidential caucuses, on Sunday stood by a decade-old comment in which he said, "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ..." opednews.com/ ... 09:49:57Supporters of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul seem not to want to hear any assessment of their hero. Their anger must be addressed once more... [Written by, apparently, a democrat, but somewhat interesting editorial...]
People are Trashyhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:49:17Ari Derfel leads a trashy life... 35-year-old Berkeley caterer said he has saved every piece of trash he has generated over the past year to see how much garbage one person creates. In his case, it was about 96 cubic feet...
Digital Culturereuters.com/ ... 09:48:29Digital music files just don't provide the same amount of content that a CD package does. That includes liner notes, extended album art and lyrics. Buy a digital album today and all you get are a list of tracks and (maybe) a thumbnail image of the album cover that you can't even read. It's one of the reasons music fans still turn to P2P networks for their music. In addition to providing music free of charge and free of DRM, P2P sites in many cases also include digital copies of such extras typically found in the CD. According to label sources and pirate network tracking firms, fans downloading full albums from BitTorrent sites almost universally choose files that include scans of the CD booklet over those that don't...
Broadcast is Deadreuters.com/ ... 09:45:51For the first time in recent memory, Germans spent less time in front of their TVs in 2007 than they did the year before... German kids led the exodus, boding ill for the future of the medium...
World Energyhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:43:08...Although many pumps don't announce it, almost all the gasoline sold in Missouri has contained a blend with 10 percent ethanol for at least the past several months. A law taking effect Tuesday makes Missouri just the third state - behind Minnesota and Hawaii - to implement a wide-ranging ethanol mandate. Because the corn-based fuel is cheaper than gasoline, most of Missouri's gas stations quietly made the switch months in advance...
Democracy in Actionreuters.com/ ... 09:38:31Kenyan police battled protesters in blazing slums on Monday after disputed elections returned President Mwai Kibaki to power and triggered turmoil believed to have killed more than 100 people...
New Year 2008nydailynews.com/ ... 13:06:11The Times Square New Year’s Eve ball tradition is celebrating its 100th anniversary Monday night with a shimmering orb that’s more opulent than ever... twice as bright as last year's version... nearly 10,000 computer-controlled lights, producing a kaleidoscope of 6 million color combinations... Crowds first started ringing in the new year in Times Square in 1904, and in 1907 a ball was lowered down a flagpole as part of the countdown, inspired by a Ukrainian metal worker who reenacted a centuries-old seafaring tradition to lower gold-plated balls to tell time...
Mayor Bloomberg will be joined on the Countdown Stage by Police Academy valedictorian and Iraq war veteran Karolina Wierzchowska, who will drop the new high-tech sphere suspended atop 1 Times Square. "It's so hard to believe I'm doing it," said Wierzchowska, 27, of Maspeth, Queens. "[New Year's Eve] is my mother's birthday, too. This is the greatest birthday present..." cbs4.com/ ... 13:02:48It's New Year's Eve, and if alcohol is part of your celebration, please don't overdo it…and absolutely do not drink and drive!.. fruits do contain nutrients and electrolytes that can replenish us when we're dehydrated and our blood sugar levels are off from too much alcohol... coffee may not be a good choice... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:47:15Threats to personal privacy got more severe in 2007... more nations than ever ranked as places where surveillance had become "endemic"... found no nation which consistently tried to uphold privacy or gave substantial help, legislative or otherwise, to protect personal data... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:46:36US sales from internet retailers rose 19% between 1 November and 27 December compared with the same period of 2006... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:46:23The last 12 months have been one of the best years in video game history, both critically and commercially. Gamers have been able to revel in some of the most exhilarating interactive experiences ever designed... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:46:09The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon... reuters.com/ ... 09:45:29From a Greek nunnery turned into a marijuana farm by two men posing as gardeners to a South African man with a gunshot wound told by a doctor to "walk the pain off," the world was full of weird news in 2007...
Moscow woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis...
German man left his dead mother seated in her favorite armchair at their shared home for two years...
neighbors complained of a nasty smell... a tenant with very smelly feet asleep in bed next to a pile of extremely foul-smelling laundry... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:39:00Traditional New Year's Eve fireworks in the Belgian capital Brussels have been cancelled because of a security alert... The alert follows police saying they had discovered a plot to free a jailed al-Qaeda suspect, Nizar Trabelsi... reuters.com/ ... 09:38:00Iraqis were out all day on New Year's Eve buying cakes, balloons, party decorations and new clothes to celebrate the holiday in the hope of a more peaceful 2008...
Big Nannyreuters.com/ ... 09:37:31...Tuesday... strict new bans take effect in two of Western Europe's final bastions for smokers, Germany and France. There was long and fierce resistance to the prohibitions on tobacco that other countries imposed... a gloom-filled view that has made countless small pub operators fear for their businesses... A pub owners' lobby calls the ban unconstitutional and plans a legal challenge... smoking bans led to increased pub and restaurant business in other countries...
Language Culturereuters.com/ ... 09:35:59A "surge" of overused words and phrases formed a "perfect storm" of "post-9/11" cliches in 2007, according to a U.S. university's annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned... gave first prize to the phrase "a perfect storm," saying it was numbingly applied to virtually any notable coincidence. "Webinar" made the list as a tiresome non-word combining Web and seminar... "belongs in the same school of non-thought that brought us e-anything and i-anything..." "x is the new y," as in..."
Digital Threatnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:33:55Australia is planning tough new rules to protect children from online pornography and violence... [Hint: best method for protecting children: adult supervision....]
SUN 2007-DEC-30
To Tell the Truthwwwq.tmz.com/ ... 12:00:32A 6-year-old girl won four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert in New York with an essay that claimed her "daddy died this year in Iraq." Heartbreaking? Yes. True? No...
Transport Pre-Automationapnews.myway.com/ ... 11:34:10NATIONAL CITY, Calif... A trucker hauling a load of Volkswagen cars drove his cab and several cars into San Diego Bay after blacking out at a marine terminal... regained consciousness underwater and swam about 13 feet to the surface...
Prison Suckssacbee.com/ ... 11:32:56Public health officials are recommending that California hold off on new prison construction in the southern San Joaquin Valley because it will expose an untold number of inmates to potentially fatal valley fever. "If you put more beds down here, you can pretty much bet that some people will be very sick and perhaps die as a result of that decision..." nytimes.com/ ... 11:32:36When any of the 5,300 inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison begin coughing and running a fever, doctors do not think flu, bronchitis or even the common cold. They think valley fever; and, more often than they would like, they are right. In the past three years, more than 900 inmates at the prison have contracted the fever, a fungal infection that has been both widespread and lethal. At least a dozen inmates here in Central California have died from the disease... Endemic to parts of the Southwest, valley fever has been reported in recent years in a widening belt from South Texas to Northern California. The disease has infected archaeologists digging at the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and dogs that have inhaled the spores while sniffing for illegal drugs along the Mexican border...
Animals can be Dangeroushosted.ap.org/ ... 11:24:12JellyfishSAO PAULO, Brazil... Nearly 300 swimmers looking to cool off from a heat wave were stung by swarms of jellyfish...
Criminally Stupidhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:21:42Police arrested a man on suspicion of stealing a GPS receiver after the device apparently gave him away...
WW2 - still with usnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:50:55A British scheme to return money belonging to victims of the Nazis has paid out more than £21m, or 10 times its budget...
Monarchy is Deadnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:50:07Parliament in Nepal has voted to abolish the monarchy, as part of a peace deal with former Maoist rebels...
Indianews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:49:49Police in the eastern Indian state of Orissa shot and killed at least three people on Thursday in continuing communal violence... Police opened fire on a large crowd of Hindus after a village police station was set on fire. The crowd had been complaining about a lack of protection after Christians set fire to several Hindu homes. Christians had retaliated after 19 churches were destroyed in violence that began on Christmas Eve...
Civilization vs Gangsterismreuters.com/ ... 11:41:20Turkey has detained five people for links with al Qaeda after police operations in four cities including the capital Ankara... The arrests follow the detention at the weekend of 19 people for suspected links to the Islamist militant group... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:53:51Seven police officers have died after gunmen attacked a convoy carrying three alleged kidnappers arrested in northern Mexico... Two of the suspects were freed... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:52:04Taleban leader Mullah Omar has dismissed one of his top military commanders, Mansoor Dadullah, accusing him of not following orders. Mansoor succeeded his elder brother Mullah Dadullah when he was killed in a joint Afghan/Nato operation in May. news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:48:04Parliament in South Korea has voted to extend its country's troop deployment in Iraq for another year. It voted by 146 votes to 104 to keep some 650 Korean troops in Iraq until December 2008...
Disinformation Propaganda & Spinhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:47:38Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vowed to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape Saturday, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction..."
Pakistannews.yahoo.com/ ... 11:28:08...government released a transcript Friday of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud and another militant. "It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her," Mehsud said, according to the transcript. The government did not release an audiotape. Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaida leader who was also behind most other recent terror attacks in Pakistan, including the Karachi bomb blast in October against Bhutto that killed more than 140 people. Mehsud is thought to be the commander of pro-Taliban forces in the tribal region of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida fighters are also active... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:54:21Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son Bilawal has been chosen to take over her Pakistan People's Party, after her assassination on Thursday. He will become president in a ceremonial capacity while he finishes his studies at Oxford University. Bilawal told journalists at the Bhutto family home: "My mother always said democracy is the best revenge"... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:47:11Three days after Benazir Bhutto's killing, driving through her home province is a perilous experience. Charred vehicles, felled trees and rocks litter the highway, and nervous travelers paste her portrait to their cars to appease prowling mobs. "Long live Bhutto!" one motorist shouted to a gang armed with stones and pieces of wood manning a roadblock. After a brief discussion, he was allowed to continue on his way...
Infrastructure Threathosted.ap.org/ ... 10:46:15Wang's one-story, brick-and-concrete home rests, she says, on increasingly unsteady earth, weakened and waterlogged as rising waters turn the Yangtze into an ever-broadening reservoir behind China's mammoth Three Gorges Dam. ...At night, "I can feel the vibrations. I walk round and round the room, and I worry." For millions of Chinese living along the reservoir's shores, the dam that the government said would give them a new life is stirring fresh concern...
Iraqbreitbart.com/ ... 11:33:12The Iraqi interior ministry lauded its achievements over the past year on Saturday, saying that 75 percent of Al-Qaeda's networks in the country had been destroyed in 12 months... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:45:23Iraqi security forces were on high alert Sunday around Baghdad and in the Sunni heartland north of the capital as the country marked the one-year anniversary of Saddam Hussein's execution...
Now That's Funny!thespoof.com/ ... 12:30:37Supreme Court revises Miranda Warning
...The next part, which says something like 'Anything we can beat out of you, we can use against you' -- I guess we can keep that in..."
Solar Systemhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:41:59The chance of a football field-sized asteroid plowing into Mars next month has been increased to 4 percent... Though still a long shot, some researchers are hoping for a cosmic smash...
Animal Companionshosted.ap.org/ ... 11:20:53DogThe dogs - named Buckshot, Katie and Obu-Jet... beagle and two Labrador mixes... inherited $400,000 and a house in Hagerstown with the death last year of owner Ken Kemper. Altogether, their estate is worth about $800,000...
Staying Healthyreuters.com/ ... 11:18:19Results of a brain autopsy study indicate that most older adults have significant brain pathology (disease), regardless of the presence or absence of outward signs of dementia... reuters.com/ ... 11:17:29In the elderly, moderate alcohol consumption may protect against leg artery disease, a condition in which the arteries in the legs become narrowed or clogged with fatty deposits, reducing blood flow to the legs...
Antiquity - still with usreuters.com/ ... 11:10:02Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought... about 36 feet high... in the central Tlatelolco area, once a major religious and political centre for the Aztec elite... could have been built in 1100 or 1200, signaling the Aztecs began to develop their civilization in the mountains of central Mexico earlier than believed... also have detected a sculpture that could be of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, or of the god of the sky and earth Tezcatlipoca...
Philatelyhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:05:42One of the most famously flawed stamps in U.S. history sold for $825,000 to a New York man who bought it slightly cheaper than the record price another "Inverted Jenny" copy fetched at auction last month. The rare 1918 24-cent stamp, depicting an upside-down Curtis JN-4 biplane known as "Jenny," was sold privately this week to a Wall Street executive who did not want to be identified...
Prehistory - still with ushosted.ap.org/ ... 11:01:294-foot gray-and-brown... frozen carcass of a 37,000-year-old baby mammoth unearthed this summer in Siberia arrived in Japan on Saturday for tests... CT scans allow scientists to get 3-D pictures so detailed they allow an almost surgical view into the body...
Feeding Ourselveshosted.ap.org/ ... 11:17:12The pasteurization process at a central Massachusetts dairy connected to a deadly outbreak of a bacterial illness appears to be working properly, a state health official said Friday... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:17:01Many raw milk consumers are opposing new dairy standards set to take effect next week in California, saying they could outlaw some of their preferred products... reuters.com/ ... 10:55:19Regulators have issued a public health alert for about 14,800 pounds of missing ground beef products that may be contaminated with the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria...
World Zookeepingapnews.myway.com/ ... 11:36:27CheetahPolice radio transcripts from the night of a deadly tiger attack revealed a chaotic scene at the San Francisco Zoo as zookeepers struggled to sedate the animal and medics refused to enter until they knew they would be safe... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:03:09ChimpA small monkey stashed in a man's hat during a flight to New York has died, but federal health authorities don't know why... fist-sized tamarin... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:02:24A 55-year-old Sumatran orangutan, believed to be the world's oldest, has died... Miami zoo... Nonja, who was born on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and lived in Miami since 1983, was found dead Saturday morning... "She was really a grand old dame..." news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:50:39CheetahPolice in California say the man killed by a tiger in a San Francisco zoo on Christmas Day may have died trying to save his friend's life. Police say Carlos Sousa, 17, shouted in an attempt to distract the 300lb (136kg) tiger Tatiana as it clawed his friend Kulbir Dhaliwal. The animal then killed Mr Sousa with a slash across his throat, allowing Kulbir and his brother Paul to escape...
Digital Threatnews.com/ ... 11:53:37Given that the point of Windows Home Server is to allow you to store your media files, a bug in the storage process that could result in corrupted files is bound to get attention... Microsoft has issued a support document for the 13 or so (just kidding) people using Windows Home Server...
Supernatural Threatsupi.com/ ... 11:35:48The Vatican is denying reports it plans to install more exorcists around the world so possessed people can get help quickly... dailymail.co.uk/ ... 11:35:12The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism... The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican "exorcist-in-chief," to the online Catholic news service Petrus. "Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on," he said...
Let It Go Already!dailymail.co.uk/ ... 11:31:44Harry Potter...Rowling, 42, admits... "There have been times since finishing, weak moments, when I've said 'Yeah, all right' to the eighth novel... If - and it's a big if - I ever write an eighth book, I doubt that Harry would be the central character. I feel I've already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let's give it ten years..."
New Year 2008newsoftheworld.co.uk/ ... 11:38:57The most outrageous pictures from 2007... Heather Mills McCartney doing full frontal pornography... Oscar de La Hoya (below), the bruiser boxer who caught pictured in stockings and suspenders... Lindsay Lohan playing a lethal game of knives with her female pals... [and so on...] hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:22:24Messages and wishes for the new year from people around the world will float down on the New Year's Eve revelers in Times Square when the confetti is dropped... by using the Internet to type a message on a "Wishing Wall Online" - http://tinyurl.com/2c5efd . The message-carrying pieces will be mixed among the more than one ton of confetti...
Digital Businessforbes.com/ ... 11:52:17...Steve Jobs' tiny iPod has turned his company into a category killer for the digital era--first wiping out music stores and now, potentially, the corner video store... [Welllll, he doesn't get ALL the credit...] news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:16:42Warner Music Group is making its music available for US downloads from Amazon in MP3 format without copy protection...
Digital Future is Nowhosted.ap.org/ ... 11:16:06An MIT initiative called "OpenCourseWare" makes virtually all the school's courses available online for free - lecture notes, readings, tests and often video lectures... There has never been a more exciting time for the intellectually curious. The world's top universities have come late to the world of online education, but they're arriving at last, creating an all-you-can eat online buffet of information. And mostly, they are giving it away...
Digital Culturereuters.com/ ... 11:11:49Videos by a self-styled Obama Girl, a fan's tearful defense of Britney Spears and an attack by a herd of buffaloes on a pride of lions, were among the most popular clips on YouTube.com in 2007. But the videos were not just popular because of the millions of times they were seen on the YouTube.com Web site, which allows users to post their homemade videos. The rankings, released by YouTube on Thursday, took into account the most shared, most discussed, top rated and general popularity of clips to determine which ones people were thinking and talking about most...
World Energynews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 11:10:50Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market... had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting. But Glasgow University scientists said they had resolved the problem... involves making microscopic holes in the surface of LEDs to increase the level of light they give off. This is a process known as nano-imprint lithography...
Lost & Foundsuntimes.com/ ... 11:51:33"She told us that she, in no way, meant to concoct some sort of hoax or leave the impression she fell in the water," said Bill Cunningham, chief of staff to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. "She expressed regret and embarrassment about the reaction." "She told us that she, in no way, meant to concoct some sort of hoax or leave the impression she fell in the water..." more than quarter-million-dollar search of the river near Wheeling... It all started after she told her husband... on Monday she was headed to the river to discard a broken Hindu statue used at their wedding... It’s unclear if she’s in any trouble... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:21:25LAFAYETTE, Ind... diamond ring vanished while she was making fudge for a bake sale... A relative of the woman who bought the fudge found the ring when he bit into a piece of the candy... hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:08:16BELLOWS FALLS, Vt... new owner of a hardware store made an unexpected discovery early this month when he started poking around the basement: a climate-controlled vault containing six fur coats, about a dozen suits and some dresses and hats, apparently untouched since the late 1970s... "Everyone wants to know who has been paying the electricity bill...."
Oh! The Irony!hosted.ap.org/ ... 11:05:15fire station... kitchen... overheated pan ful of Tater Tots melted and set some cabinets ablaze... in Idaho.... [double irony... fire in the fire station, caused by potatoes in Idaho!]
Supernatural Sillinesshosted.ap.org/ ... 11:20:07REEVES, La... It's taken 40 years, but this southwest Louisiana village no longer bears the mark of the beast. Beginning this month, residents and businesses can change the first three digits of their phone numbers from 666 - depicted in the Bible as the mark of the beast - to 749... [Naw, really, it's not 666 but 616. We'll have to get all excited and worried all over again somewhere else! (Area code for W Michigan...] news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:53:16The Malaysian government has reversed a decision to ban a Christian newspaper using the word Allah to refer to God. The government had threatened to refuse to give the Weekly Herald a publishing permit if it continued to use the word. The paper's editor said the word had long been used by Christians to refer to God in the Malay language. The ruling was immediately condemned by civil rights and Christian groups in Malaysia, who said it infringed their right to practice their religion. But Malaysia's internal security department demanded the word be removed, saying only Muslims could use it...
World Without Bordersnews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:51:43Some 2,000 Palestinians returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca are stranded on two boats off the Egyptian coast. Egypt is insisting that they must re-enter Gaza through Aouja, a border crossing controlled by Israel. The group is thought to include senior members of the militant organisation Hamas, and Israel believes some of them may attempt to smuggle funds into Gaza. Hamas believes that if the pilgrims travel through Aouja, Israel will arrest the Hamas members...
Reasons for Repealocala.com/ ... 11:59:30Marion County sheriff's deputies dismantled a Hempmarijuana grow house Thursday night containing 171 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of approximately $200,000, and arrested two of three men seen fleeing the area... foxnews.com/ ... 11:59:06Across the southwestern U.S. border and in northern Mexico, scientists such as Krebbs say their work is increasingly threatened by smugglers as tighter border security pushes trafficking into the most remote areas where botanists, zoologists and geologists do their research. "In the last year, it's gotten much worse," said Jack Childs, who uses infrared cameras to study endangered jaguars in eastern Arizona. He loses one or two of the cameras every month to smugglers... al.com/ ... 11:57:15Helen 'Think of the Children' LovejoyHeadline: Birmingham drug addiction expert says parents can't compare Hempmarijuana of today with that of the 1960's... [More of the same propaganda, disinformation, & spin from the PuriTalibaNazi lie machines.... And of course, if today's weed IS stronger, usage would be self-regulating, but don't think logically, think of the children! think of the children!] wandtv.com/ ... 11:55:24A northwest suburban man is being held on $250,000 bond after authorities say they found the man's 50 Hempmarijuana plants... could face up to 30 years in prison... [unless he dies of Valley Fever....] abs-cbnnews.com/ ... 11:54:36ILOILO CITY – Police recovered a huge quantity of dried Hempmarijuana leaves during a raid Saturday morning in Buenavista town in Guimaras. However, the subject of the search warrant was able to elude police by jumping into a river... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 10:51:19The Mexican army has confiscated guns from the entire police force of the town of Rosarito, near the Mexican border with the US. Mexican authorities suspect that the town's police have been colluding with drug trafficking gangs. Mexican troops carried out a similar crackdown in January on Tijuana police...
FRI 2007-DEC-28
Missingsuntimes.com/ ... 23:06:14Anu Solanki is alive and has apparently fled the Chicago area with a man she had been in contact with for about a year... Teams had been searching the Des Plaines River for the northwest suburban newlywed since Monday. That search, estimated to have cost over $250,000, is now over... Authorities, however, do not know where Solanki and the man are, and Dart asked them — or anyone who has seen them this week — to contact authorities... 24-year-old had told her husband she was going to a riverside forest preserve near Wheeling to dispose of a broken Hindu religious statue that had been used at their May wedding. There was never any sign of that statue, though...
Nature vs Transportcbs2chicago.com/ ... 23:02:31CHICAGO... The third significant snowstorm of the season has descended upon Chicago... delays at O'Hare International Airport were 30 to 45 minutes. United Airlines officials said they were seeing delays of as much as 3 hours.... 300 cancellations at O'Hare, reduced from an earlier total of 450 for the day....
Police Riotabcnews.go.com/ ... 23:00:58Robin Garrison, an off-duty 42-year-old firefighter, was walking in Berliner Park in Columbus, Ohio, in May when he saw a woman sunbathing topless under a tree. He approached her and they started talking and getting comfortable, the woman smiling and resting her foot on his shoulder at one point. Eventually, she asked to see Garrison's penis; he unzipped his pants and complied. Seconds later, undercover police officers pulled up in a van and arrested Garrison; he was later charged with public indecency...
Nicotine is a Dragreuters.com/ ... 10:03:09Young children who were exposed to cigarette smoke as babies may be more likely to suffer certain allergies...
Violencenews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:47:27Sri Lankan commandos have rescued a government minister from a television station where he was being held hostage after he apparently tried to storm it. Journalists locked up Labour Minister Mervin Silva after one of his aides allegedly assaulted a news director. Furious journalists refused to let the minister leave until he had apologised... [Great! Journalists are another gang we have to watch out for...? :)]
Nature can be Deadlyhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:45:44Crying relatives watched in horror Thursday as rescuers pulled muddy corpses from Indonesian villages devastated by landslides and floods. At least 87 people were dead or missing, and tens of thousands have been forced from their homes...
Civilization vs Gangsterismthesun.co.uk/ ... 23:00:18DRAMATIC video footage of the attack which killed Benazir Bhutto has emerged tonight. The film shows the former Pakistani Prime Minister addressing huge crowds in Rawalpindi. But panic ensues when bullets are fired at Mrs Bhutto's convoy which was then followed by a suicide bomb blast... telegraph.co.uk/ ... 22:59:51The burial of Benzair Bhutto was today marred by heavy violence across Pakistan as a bitter row broke out over how she died... one of Miss Bhutto's aide rejected the government's explanation of her death as a "pack of lies"... "Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head. It was a serious security lapse..." breitbart.com/ ... 22:59:21Benazir Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during a suicide attack—not from bullet wounds, the government said Friday... bloomberg.com/ ... 22:51:21David Hicks, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be convicted by a U.S. military commission, was released from an Australian prison today, more than six years after being captured in Afghanistan... reuters.com/ ... 22:50:39Pakistan accused al Qaeda of killing opposition leader Benazir Bhutto... But Bhutto's party dismissed the official explanation and said President Pervez Musharraf's embattled administration was trying to cover up its failure to protect her... reuters.com/ ... 10:36:43Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal is secure despite political turmoil following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the Pentagon said on Friday... reuters.com/ ... 09:48:31The Iraqi army captured a senior al Qaeda militant in a clash south of Baghdad on Thursday... Ahmed Turki Abbas, claimed the rank of defense minister of the al Qaeda-linked group Islamic State of Iraq.... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:46:38US forces say they have killed an estimated 11 Shia militants in a raid in the town of Kut, south-east Iraq. The raid was said to have targeted members of a Shia group which has broken away from the Mehdi Army militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Separately, the US military said it had captured two militants suspected of involvement in a kidnapping in May... believed one of the suspects used his home to hide three abducted American soldiers... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:45:24The world denounced the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, paying tribute Friday to a brave, if flawed, champion of democracy. International leaders appealed for calm and held their breath to see whether violence triggered by the killing would gather momentum or fizzle out... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:45:06Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, have pledged to co-operate in the fight against Islamist militants...
Supernatural Violencehosted.ap.org/ ... 09:44:52GrinchPolice in eastern India killed at least three people when they opened fire on a group of hard-line Hindus who set fire to a police station during ongoing clashes between Hindus and Christians... in a remote corner of Orissa state... bring[s] the death toll to four since violence broke out on Christmas Eve when long-standing tensions between the Hindu majority and the small Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity... About 19 churches, most of them small mud and thatch buildings, have been ransacked and burned since Monday and several homes destroyed...
WW2 - still with usnewsday.com/ ... 09:34:22..."We welcome and accept Will Smith's statement that Hitler was a 'vicious killer' and that he did not mean for his remarks about the Nazi leader to be mistaken as praise," Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement... The Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper, recently quoted Smith as saying: "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good."'...
Disturbing Family Patternskitsapsun.com/ ... 09:33:18A 19-year-old woman who beat up her ex-boyfriend Monday after he drunkenly urinated in a closet told officers she hoped he would bail her out of jail because it was the right thing to do for their baby...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 23:03:24US FlagArmy Capt. Rowdy J. Inman, 38, of Panorama Village, Texas
US FlagArmy Sgt. Benjamin B. Portell, 27, of Bakersfield, Calif.
died Dec. 26 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered from small arms fire during dismounted combat operations.They were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:02:50US FlagArmy Sgt. Bryan J. Tutten, 33, of St. Augustine, Fla., died Dec. 25 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his position during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Feeding Ourselvesbusinessweek.com/ ... 22:55:37Privately-held meat producer American Fresh Foods on Friday warned consumers not to buy its ground beef from "questionable" vendors after one of its refrigerated trucks was stolen...
US Militarydefenselink.mil/ ... 23:04:07The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of ten detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Saudi Arabia. These detainees were determined to be eligible for transfer following a comprehensive series of review processes.... There are approximately 275 detainees currently at Guantanamo..... washingtonpost.com/ ... 22:53:10President Bush said Friday that he will veto the defense authorization bill because of Iraq's concerns that the legislation could hinder redevelopment efforts by entangling the country's assets in court claims by victims of Saddam Hussein. Bush said he is ready to work quickly with Congress in January to fix the bill, which also contains a 0.5 percent pay raise for U.S. troops and revisions to veteran health-care services. Another 3 percent pay raise for the military approved separately by Congress will not be affected by the veto...
It's All in Your Mindwired.com/ ... 23:01:18Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness. A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:52:09There could be enough computing ability in just one brain cell to allow humans and animals to feel... The brain has 100 billion neurons but scientists had thought they needed to join forces in larger networks to produce thoughts and sensations... found that stimulating just one rat neuron could deliver the sensation of touch...
Orbiting Overheadhosted.ap.org/ ... 09:50:30An unmanned Russian cargo ship docked Wednesday at the international space station carrying two tons of supplies including holiday gifts...
World Zookeepingapnews.myway.com/ ... 10:27:18CheetahThe director of the zoo where a teenager was killed by an escaped tiger acknowledged Thursday that the wall around the animal's pen was just 12 1/2 feet high - well below the height recommended by the accrediting agency for the nation's zoos... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:53:38ElephantAlmost 80% of the Earth's surface has experienced a sharp fall in the number of large mammals as a result of human activities, a study suggests... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:53:20CheetahTwo Siberian tiger cubs have been found dead in a refrigerator at a Chinese zoo less than a week after another incident involving the endangered species... On Thursday a female Siberian tiger was found dead in the same area. Thieves had broken into its cage, tranquillised the animal, then butchered it... Tiger body parts are treasured as medicines in China... Only an estimated 400 Siberian tigers still remain in the wild... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:52:25Plans are in the pipeline for beavers to be released into the Scottish wild for the first time in 500 years... will improve the eco-system and boost tourism... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:50:09Thailand's parks and wildlife reserves could hold up to 2,000 wild tigers, about three times their current level, but only if the government steps up efforts to control poaching, researchers said Monday... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:50:00Federal marine mammal experts in Alaska studying the effects of global warming on walrus, polar bears and ice seals warn there are limit to the protections they can provide. They can restrict hunters, ship traffic and offshore petroleum activity, but that may not be enough if the animals' basic habitat - sea ice - disappears every summer...
History - still with usbusinessweek.com/ ... 09:32:22A new book claims to have definitive evidence of a long-suspected technological crime -- that Alexander Graham Bell stole ideas for the telephone from a rival, Elisha Gray... journalist Seth Shulman argues that Bell -- aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner -- got an improper peek at patent documents Gray had filed, and that Bell was erroneously credited with filing first... German inventor Philipp Reis... beat them both with 1860s telephones that employed a different principle...
Broadcast is Deadinformationweek.com/ ... 23:09:49One out of every two U.S. households has a digital television as the nation moves closer to switching to all-digital broadcasting...
Reasons for Repealwalb.com/ ... 22:56:46Investigators seized more than 20 pounds of Hempmarijuana in Echols County and arrested two suspects... cfnews13.com/ ... 22:56:20Marion County deputies busted up a grow house, catching nearly 200 Hempmarijuana plants and arresting two people... One managed to get away...
Transport Pre-Automationreuters.com/ ... 22:44:29Chicago... The driver of a minivan who interrupted a local TV newscast while it was on the air by crashing into the station's glass-walled studio, was charged on Monday with reckless driving...
Unclear on the Conceptreuters.com/ ... 22:44:02A Hummer owner in Russia's second city St. Petersburg has given antiglobalists the green light to pelt his oversized vehicle with rotten eggs... "Luxury is a false value, clouding modern society's vision. Advertising posters, TV shows and slick marketing constantly tells us that buying things is the most important value in our society..." antiglobalists said throwing eggs and tomatoes at the Hummer will help draw attention to their cause... owner said he will then sell it and donate the proceeds to an orphanage...
People Diesptimes.com/ ... 22:43:2028-year-old went to the Brass Flamingo, an all-nude gentleman's club... sat near the center stage... spending money freely... she invited him to the "Champagne Room" for a private dance... paid for one 30-minute dance, then wanted another, and another... private session lasted more than two hours... was "drinking heavily..." "It's not very often," [Pasco sheriff's spokesman Doug] Tobin said, "that we have somebody go in the Brass Flamingo and wind up deceased..."
Big Nannysuntimes.com/ ... 10:46:51At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, Illinois will ban virtually all indoor smoking in public spaces, including bars and restaurants. Bad timing, said Sheila O’Grady of the Illinois Restaurant Association. "To become effective in the middle of New Years Eve celebrations is not ideal..." Smoking will still be allowed in private rooms in nursing homes, in up to 25 percent of hotel rooms and in tobacco shops and hookah bars that don’t serve food or alcohol... washingtonpost.com/ ... 10:44:12New Jersey this week launched one of the most ambitious efforts in the country to control mother-to-child transmission of HIV, making screening tests mandatory for all pregnant women in the state beginning next year...
World Climatebloomberg.com/ ... 10:31:03...The most conspicuous doubter in France is Claude Allegre, a former education minister and a physicist by profession. His new book, "Ma Verite Sur la Planete" ("My Truth About the Planet"), doesn't mince words. He calls Gore a "crook" presiding over an eco-business that pumps out cash. As for Gore's French followers, the author likens them to religious zealots who, far from saving humanity, are endangering it...
US Election 2008calendarlive.com/ ... 10:30:16ObamaWinfrey's website has been buzzing for weeks with angry postings about her involvement in the Illinois senator's campaign, something Hollywood, which always keeps its eye on the public mood, is bound to notice -- this is a town, after all, that measures success by weekly grosses and daily TV ratings. One posting on her site, Oprah.com, accused the talk diva of being a traitor... weblogs.chicagotribune.com/ ... 10:29:07Republican Mike Huckabee took his presidential campaign for a quick pheasant-hunting expedition in Iowa on Wednesday... At one point, Huckabee’s party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the group’s heads. This, friends, is dangerously bad hunting form... Huckabee emerged happily from his hunt, three dead pheasants in tow, Oliphant reports. Asked for a metaphor to describe the hunt, he replied, "Don't get in my way. This is what happens..." [This man should never be heard from AGAIN!] latimesblogs.latimes.com/ ... 10:27:00HillaryBefore the brief Christmas break, the New York senator had been setting aside time after campaign speeches to hear from the audience. Now when she’s done speaking, her theme songs blare from loudspeakers, preventing any kind of public Q&A. She was no more inviting when a television reporter approached her after a rally on Thursday and asked if she was "moved’’ by Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Clinton turned away without answering. Her daughter, Chelsea, had the same reaction when a reporter approached her with a question. Hillary Clinton’s no-question policy didn’t sit well with some of the Iowans who came to see her speak...
Christmas 2007guardian.co.uk/ ... 10:31:28GrinchTwo men, one with a suspected broken jaw, have been airlifted from the Antarctic's most remote research facility after an incident described as a "drunken Christmas punch-up"... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:14:51GrinchDUBLIN, Ohio... Thieves ruined Christmas for one woman this year by stealing the pair of 6-foot-tall nutcracker statues from in front of her house. "We didn't know anyone could be so mean.... It's terrible to say, but this just took my whole Christmas spirit away..." found [one] torso at a roadside about a mile away the next day, and Dublin police found other splintered parts nearby... appeared the statue had been dragged through the streets by a car... other statue was found in a field, partially burned with several parts missing...
Marriage Todayhosted.ap.org/ ... 10:04:36...Christmas Eve 1942... "I didn't know I was getting married, I just went to spend Christmas with him and I got down there, he had the wedding all arranged..." On Monday, staff at the senior facility arranged the same surprise for their 65th anniversary. The couple renewed their vows in front of three generations of teary-eyed family and friends... "As my mother always said, when you are married, you are married for life and that's what we did," Ruth said. "It's just life, that's what it is. Just life..."
It's Only Moneyreuters.com/ ... 10:02:04A college student withdrew from school after winning the 5 million yuan ($683,000) jackpot in a lottery in China' eastern city of Nanjing... The Communist Party abolished lotteries in China after taking power in 1949, denouncing them as a practice of decadent capitalists. But the country launched state-run lotteries in 1987 amid market-oriented reforms...
Digital Future is Nownews.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:58:55His latest creation, the Fentix Cube, is generating a lot of interest from toy manufacturers and buzz on the internet, based on a few clips he put on YouTube... A small plastic cube with playful lights... contains a large battery, an array of LEDs and crucially three accelerometers which can detect the pitch and yaw of the device, and sensors on the inside surface for touch control. Mr Fentem says: "You instinctively know how to use it. The way you understand the world as a young child is through physical and spatial awareness, up or down. It's how you learn and communicate." The accelerometers are essentially chips which can sense the direction of gravity; once you know that, you can work out which way is up and down...
New Year 2008news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:57:39It has been an interesting year in computing, with new interfaces, operating systems, access devices, network protocols and online services to keep us all entertained and intrigued. We've had privacy gaffes, malware wars, network outages and continuing calls to bridge the digital divide. But the year was also notable for its anniversaries...
Digital Businessreuters.com/ ... 10:40:22Online retailer Amazon.com has signed on Warner Music Group to its music download service, which aims to compete with Apple Inc's industry-dominating iTunes online store... biz.yahoo.com/ ... 10:27:58Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has closed an online movie download service it launched less than a year ago. The retreat for Wal-Mart, which accounts for about 40 percent of all DVD sales, follows the company's 2005 decision to abandoned efforts to build an online DVD rental service. The world's largest retailer instead turned its rental service over to Netflix Inc... reuters.com/ ... 10:01:11...Samsung... said on Thursday it had developed a 31-inch ultra-thin organic screen, raising the stakes in an accelerating worldwide race for organic displays... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:59:37Apple and 20th Century Fox studio are to announce a deal that will allow consumers to rent the studio's films through iTunes... They will have a limited time to watch... [Stillll unclearrr on the concept] hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:56:22Sony is dropping its money-losing rear-projection TV business worldwide to focus on two flat panel technologies - liquid crystal display and organic light-emitting diode...
Transport Futurenbc10.com/ ... 09:29:54A small group of daring skydivers hope to evolve a wingsuit to allow them to land without a parachute... These days, the cutting-edge of flight is the wingsuit... like a flying squirrel... relies on a parachute to land safely...
Digital Culturepcworld.com/ ... 22:55:18An historic name in software will effectively pass into history in February as AOL discontinues development and active support for the Netscape browser... will keep delivering security patches for the current version of Netscape until Feb. 1, 2008, after which it will no longer provide active support for any version of the software... Netscape was the original mass-market Web browser and helped to popularize the Internet in the mid-1990s, but it has long taken a back seat to Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Firefox itself traces its roots back to Netscape software that was made into open source... As of this month, Netscape had only 0.6 percent of the browser market... Internet Explorer with more than 77 percent... Firefox was gaining, however, with market share just over 16 percent... reuters.com/ ... 09:55:08...BlogTalkRadio, Talkshoe and Skypecasts are among the Web sites that have become popular for would-be radio jocks, and all it takes is a computer and a telephone... news.wired.com/ ... 09:28:50Think twice before you copy someone on an e-mail or hit "reply all." Such practices have made today's workers less productive, a research firm concludes. After years of naming a product or person of the year, Basex Inc. decided to forecast "information overload" as problem of the year for 2008. "It's too much information. It's too many interruptions. It's too much lost time," Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira declared. "It's always too much of a good thing..." Workers get disoriented every time they stop what they are doing to reply to an e-mail or answer a follow-up phone call... workers can spend 10 to 20 times the length of the original interruption trying to get back on track... such disruptions cost the U.S. economy $650 billion in 2006...
THU 2007-DEC-27
Disturbing Family Patternswinknews.com/ ... 14:27:16Collier County [Fla] sheriff's deputies discovered nine children, including an infant, left home alone in an Immokalee apartment for nearly a week after their parents left for Haiti over the holidays... 4-year-old girl... told deputies that her parents went to Haiti and that her brother was taking care of her and her siblings. She said her brother was at work and did not know how to contact him... apartment was filled with garbage, food and roaches... Four children were running around naked. In a back room, the infant was laying in a crib with crumbs and roaches crawling all over...
Nature vs Infrastructurebreitbart.com/ ... 13:51:07Around 5,700 homes across Los Angeles were without power early Thursday as fierce winds gusted across the city, downing power lines and knocking over trees...
Nature vs Transportwlos.com/ ... 13:41:36More flights have been canceled in Colorado as another winter storm threatens to drop 20 inches of snow around the state... United Airlines has scrapped 66 flights in an efforts to keep planes that would pass through Denver from getting stranded there...
Nature can be Deadlybreitbart.com/ ... 00:00:37Soldiers, police and volunteers dug for survivors of landslides that killed as many as 78 people Wednesday in western Indonesia, including dozens who were celebrating the cleanup of a mud-covered home... floods... inundated thousands of houses elsewhere in the country...
Animals can be Deadlycnn.com/ ... 00:11:42CheetahAn escaped tiger killed a zoo patron and injured two others in a cafe at the San Francisco Zoo Tuesday afternoon...
Modern Medicine can be Dangerousfoodconsumer.org/ ... 13:44:55A 16-year-old girl named Javona Peters slipped into a vegetative state after a routine brain surgery at Montefiore Hospital in New York City on Oct. 17, ABC News reported Dec 27. The hospital blamed the tragedy on an unforeseeable reaction to a routine anesthesia agent...
Missingsuntimes.com/ ... 13:35:31Divers waded into the swirling waters of the Des Plaines River today to search for a woman who vanished two days ago after telling family and friends she planned to stop by a forest preserve that borders the river. Anu Solanki, a 24-year-old gift shop worker, told relatives on Monday she was going to stop after work at the Potawatomi Woods Forest Preserve near Wheeling to dispose of a broken Hindu religious statue that must be placed near water...
Iranbreitbart.com/ ... 13:50:47A sharp rise in inflation has provoked fierce criticism of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—not only from his reformist opponents, but also from senior conservatives who helped bring him to power but now say he is mismanaging the economy...
Civilization vs Gangsterismlvrj.com/ ... 14:26:09Visiting Iraq for the first time, Rep. Shelley Berkley [D-Las Vegas] said Monday the U.S. military and Iraqi police have made more progress than she expected in quelling violence that had beset portions of the country... has been a war critic and had disapproved of the troop "surge" when President Bush announced it early this year... on Monday she acknowledged the infusion of 28,500 U.S. soldiers had a positive impact... forbes.com/ ... 13:23:16Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shot dead Thursday at a political rally by an attacker who then set off a blast that left 20 others dead...
Police Riotfoxnews.com/ ... 14:25:23Idaho law enforcement officials say they are "mortified" by a slogan chosen by the latest group of state police academy graduates. The slogan, "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it," was emblazoned on the Dec. 14 graduation programs for 43 officers who completed the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy's latest course... worldnetdaily.com/ ... 00:08:41A Wisconsin man is reportedly planning to take legal action after he and his wife were blasted by a police Taser as they were finishing their holiday shopping Christmas Eve at a mall in Madison... "I didn't think it was right. A bunch of people were in here shopping. There were kids in here..." general manager at Arby's [said].... "It's not right to do that on Christmas..."
Supernatural Violencecnn.com/ ... 13:34:24GrinchGreek Orthodox and Armenian priests attacked each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning on Thursday... Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can touch off vicious feuds... [Jesus would be so proud....]
Violencedailymail.co.uk/ ... 00:06:54GrinchA wealthy pensioner who murdered his wife... dumped her body among Christmas presents... before killing himself in a car crash had been discharged from a mental hospital just days earlier... breitbart.com/ ... 00:04:49GrinchHindu extremists attacked Christians celebrating Christmas in eastern India, ransacking and burning at least six village churches... One person was killed...
Healing Ourselvesfoxnews.com/ ... 14:30:45Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and nonhealing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature's original antibiotic — honey — is making a comeback... foxnews.com/ ... 13:45:34HempCertain marijuana components may suppress the tumors of highly invasive cancers, a new study finds...
World Zookeepingsfgate.com/ ... 13:33:11Cheetah...The minimal evidence found at the scene included a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, raising questions about what role, if any, the victims might have had in accidentally helping the animal escape. The three victims, all young men from San Jose, were visiting the zoo together. They were all present just outside the tiger's grotto when the tiger escaped... The injured victims fled, leaving a trail of blood, which police believe the tiger followed for 300 yards up a zoo pathway. As the tiger cornered and attacked one of the brothers, four police officers arrived, distracted the animal and shot it dead... Authorities were looking into whether the tiger escaped by latching on to a leg or body part... blogs.usatoday.com/ ... 13:31:46CheetahThe tiger that killed one man and mauled two others Tuesday at the San Francisco Zoo may have been taunted... One of the three attacked by the cat may have "climbed over a waist-high fence and then dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of a moat that kept the big cat away from the public..." seattletimes.nwsource.com/ ... 13:30:49CheetahIf a Siberian tiger escaped on its own to fatally maul a teenager at the San Francisco Zoo, it would be a feat that reshapes what is known about the animal. "They don't jump very high, and they don't jump very far..." While Tilson is trying to keep an open mind about early accounts that suggested the tiger somehow crossed a wide moat and a tall fence, "something about this is just contrary to too much history" of observed tiger behavior... sfgate.com/ ... 13:29:32Cheetah"She was everything that a tiger is supposed to be," said big-cat expert Ronald Tilson. "She was essentially shot and killed for being a tiger..." A year ago, she mauled her keeper, devouring the flesh from her arm. Should Tatiana have been put down at that time? "There was no reason whatsoever," said Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo... "They don't dwell on things. The only thing they dwell on is if someone mistreated them..."
Lasting Contributionsnydailynews.com/ ... 13:25:50Bhutto: A life devoted to Pakistan...
The charismatic Bhutto, whose father was hanged in their homeland after a late '70s military coup, led a life blotted with bloodshed and controversy. Bhutto, 54, was the daughter of former Pakistani president and prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was executed in 1979, two years after his government was ousted. One of her brothers died in 1980, with the family insisting he was poisoned. A second brother was killed during a 1996 shootout with police in Karachi. Her father sent Bhutto to study at Harvard and Oxford, and she returned to their homeland after his death with a promise to continue his work. She served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She left Pakistan in 1999, just prior to a corruption conviction. She and her husband of 20 years raised their three children in Great Britain and Dubai as they monitored the volatile situation in Pakistan. The corruption verdict was eventually overturned, but Bhutto did not return until President Pervez Musharraf granted her amnesty...
US Military Casualtiesdefenselink.mil/ ... 00:18:06US FlagArmy Sgt. Peter C. Neesley, 28, of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., died Dec. 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of an undetermined cause in a non-combat environment. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:17:52US FlagAir Force Senior Airman Nicholas D. Eischen, 24, of Sanger, Calif., died Dec. 24 in Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 60th Medical Operations Squadron, Travis Air Force Base, Calif. The circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:17:25US FlagArmy Pfc. George J. Howell, 24, of Salinas, Calif., died Dec. 21 in Riyadh, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was attacked by an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Infantry Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, New York.
Mass Media is Deadbloomberg.com/ ... 13:50:26Jeffrey Bewkes, who takes over as chief executive officer of Time Warner Inc. next week, may be measured by how quickly he can dismantle the world's largest media company. Bewkes may spin off the cable-television division and sell the AOL Web and Time Inc. magazine units, said Gamco Investors Inc. fund manager Chris Marangi and National City Bank analyst Daniel Poole. The remaining company, anchored by the film studio and cable-TV networks, would resemble Viacom Inc. -- and accordingly command higher multiples, Marangi said...
Reasons for Repealwftv.com/ ... 13:47:39MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Melbourne police said an anonymous tip led them to a drug house and the teenager [19yo] who ran it... 48 Hempmarijuana plants... amherstdaily.com/ ... 13:47:04SPRINGHILL - A residential Hempmarijuana grow operation has been busted after members of the North Cumberland Street Crime Unit conducted a search of a Church Street, home on Friday... a quantity of marijuana plants, several pounds of cultivated marijuana and equipment used for the grow operation were seized... news.xinhuanet.com/ ... 13:46:18The Mexican army seized 2.95 tons of Hempmarijuana in the northern state of Sonora on Tuesday night... officers spotted a suspicious car and found 354 packets that contained "a dry green herb with the characteristics of marijuana..." four AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition...
World Energymarketwatch.com/ ... 13:45:16Crude-oil futures rose for a fourth day on Thursday to above $97 a barrel after government reports showed U.S. crude inventories fell for a sixth week and as geopolitical tensions escalated after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated...
New Year 2008worldnetdaily.com/ ... 00:27:06What WND thinks are the Funniest news stories of 2007
US Election 2008washingtonpost.com/ ... 00:11:02Call them the "hangdog" candidate photographs: They capture the politician with eyes downcast, looking tired, stressed... [Photo of Hillary: "Don't you think she looks tired?"]
Christmas 2007telegraph.co.uk/ ... 14:27:58GrinchInstead of "Little donkey, carry Mary safely on her way", the youngsters were told to sing "carry Lucy" for fear of offending non-Christians. The incident, at the school's Christmas concert, appears on a new calendar alongside 11 other examples of extreme political correctness from around Britain... desmoinesregister.com/ ... 13:52:14Santa HatFirefighters had to rescue the 77-year-old when he got stuck in the opening to his septic tank. He had dug a hole and reached inside to find a clog when he lost his balance and became wedged... "It was the worst Christmas Eve I've ever had..." upi.com/ ... 00:15:08Santa HatA beefy gent wearing a red Santa hat and purple G-string in Los Angeles this holiday season not only didn't pass for Santa but failed a Breathalyzer test, too... denverpost.com/ ... 00:14:43Christmas StarJesus may save, but Christians spend Evangelical buying power is growing, and more companies are answering the call of the almighty ... dollar...
Theory of Educationorlandosentinel.com/ ... 00:01:41Teachers saw the [10yo] child using a 4 1/2 inch kitchen knife to cut her steak at lunch on Dec. 13. They notified the Marion County Sheriff's Office and she was arrested on a felony weapons charge. She was also suspended from school for three days... The State Attorney's Office has decided not to prosecute...
WED 2007-DEC-26
Transport Tragedycnn.com/ ... 23:50:02The bodies of a California businessman, his teenage daughter and the Panamanian pilot of a plane that crashed over the weekend were found Tuesday in Panama's mountains, officials said. A 12-year-old American girl... survived and was hospitalized with hypothermia and multiple traumas...
Civilization vs Gangsterismmsnbc.msn.com/ ... 23:37:22BAGHDAD - Two separate suicide attacks, including one apparently targeting workers in a northern oil hub, killed at least 34 people on Tuesday, shattering more than a week of relative calm...
Supernatural Threatsdailymail.co.uk/ ... 23:32:45Muslim plans to broadcast a loudspeaker call to prayer from a city centre mosque have been attacked by local residents who say it would turn the area into a "Muslim ghetto". Dozens of people packed out a council meeting to express their concerns over the plans for a two-minute long call to prayer to be issued three times a day, saying that it could drown out the traditional sound of church bells...
Violenceking5.com/ ... 23:19:44Two people were arrested Wednesday evening after the bodies of six people, likely family members and including two young children, were found earlier in the day at a rural property east of Seattle... One of two suspects in the slayings of six people near Carnation is the [29yo] daughter of the oldest victims... cause of death was most likely gunshots... most likely killed late afternoon or early evening on Christmas Eve...
World Without Bordersynetnews.com/ ... 23:58:19The Bat Yam resident recounts the horror that followed. “I ended up at an army checkpoint…and they let me through even though I was wearing a kippah and had Israeli license plates… I ended up in the center of Ramallah, stuck in traffic and surrounded by Arabs," he says. "I still didn’t realize where I was because I relied on my GPS..." "He began to yell ‘a Jew, a Jew’... This mugging was soon the least of Ochana’s problems, as a lynching almost ensued... foxnews.com/ ... 23:51:28Greeted by joyous relatives and a crowd of Israeli TV reporters, about 40 Iranian Jews landed in Israel Tuesday, leaving behind their lives in an increasingly bellicose Islamic regime for new homes in the Jewish state... took a covert route, facilitated by the Israeli government and backed with funding from American evangelical Christians who see their efforts as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy... "I was scared in Iran as a Jew.... I would never be able to wear a skullcap in the streets there." Others said they felt safe in Iran...
Reasons for Repealradiojamaica.com/ ... 23:41:29A drug ring which used couriers to smuggle cocaine into Canada in Bible