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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Friday, March 19, 2010

Odds and Sods

Odds and Sods
Next time you and your pals hop in a hot-tub time machine, you might not want to set it for the 1st century A.D. in Palestine.
Fake cop arrested after pulling over a real one
An Arizona man accused admonishing motorists of traffic laws while posing as a police officer apparently picked the wrong driver to pull over.

In Cop News












Caviar fish are most endangered group of animals 

16 of the 25 sturgeon species are now critically endangered, including the much-prized Beluga sturgeon

Maryland's official song may include a line about "Northern scum" left over from the Civil War era, but the state isn't feeling so Southern anymore.

Police in Hemet, California in rural Riverside County have been on edge in recent weeks. Someone is trying to kill them.
Swiss Gruyere named world's best cheese
The Europeans are still the big cheeses.
Swiss and Austrian cheesemakers took top honors Thursday at the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, beating out some 2,300 entries from 20 countries ranging from Argentina to Switzerland.
Cheesemaker Cedric Fragniere took top honors with a Gruyere that judges lauded for its creamy texture and light hint of herbs.
"It's very smooth, it's aromatic and it has a very clean cheese flavor," said Bill Schlinsog, one of 30 judges. "It has a burst of flavor and then it settles down very nicely in the mouth."
The runner-up also was Swiss. Andeer Sennerei of Andeer, Switzerland, took second place with a smear-ripened hard cheese called an Andeerer Traum.
Third place went to Alois Pesendorfer of Gmunden, Austria, whose Gmundner Berg Premium won in the category of open class semisoft cheese.
To the cheesemakers who participate, this contest - touted as the largest international cheese and butter competition in the world - is serious business.
After Swiss cheesemaker Christian Wuethrich won in 2006 with an Emmentaler, he sold out his remaining stock of the Swiss cheese so fast he had to buy some back from his exporter to supply the local customers who make up most of his business.
"We faced a shortage because we were not prepared for this," he said.
Still, Wuethrich raised the price of his Emmentaler only nominally, from $8 per pound to $9, because he said the local market wouldn't support a larger increase.

'Being dead' proves costly for woman

Documents declaring she's deceased have made life miserable for Doris Temple.
Also:
When Alana Sanders gave birth to her fourth child, the people on hand to towel off the baby and tie its umbilical cord weren't the usual team of doctors or nurses.

A burglar who spent about five hours on a store's computer after breaking into the business gave police all the clues they needed to track him down.


A man from Maine who struck a match on a U.S. Airways flight to Boston's Logan International Airport is facing some heat - but not over matches.

Detectives searching for man who put son up for sale on Craigslist
Spokane County Sheriff's detectives are trying to track down a Spokane father who allegedly offered to sell his son on Craigslist for $5,000.

Dying woman robbed of jewelry brought to hospital for safe keeping
A dying Canadian woman, who brought her jewelry to the hospital to keep it from being stolen at home, was robbed of her possessions moments before she passed away.

Surreal Warren Buffett video stirs up buzz

The billionaire sheds his corporate image and goes full "Axl Rose" in a surprise cameo.  
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And I Quote

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. 

~ George Washington
Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold. 
 
~ Ludwig van Beethoven

In Matters Of Health

In Matters Of Health

Smart snacks that satisfy every craving

These low-calorie options should meet your urge for something salty, sweet, or savory.
Also:
Unhealthy lifestyles and a 'stiff upper lip' make men up to 70 per cent more likely to die from cancer than women, doctors have warned.

Cutting-edge treatment for tremors

Doctors fix Roger Frisch's tremors by having him play his violin during brain surgery. 
Also:
From Treehugger:
good flour food photo
Image credit: Good
It's in bread and pasta, cookies and muffins—indeed, it's in most of the food we eat—but if you're not careful, it's easy to forget about flour. That, Good tells us, would be a mistake.
Article continues: Don't Forget About Flour

Lawmaker outraged by ad with daughters

An anti-health reform group's attack breaks an unwritten rule and draws the ire of Rep. Steve Driehaus.
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Foods you don't need to buy organic

A non-organic avocado costs less and isn't likely to be contaminated with pesticide residue.  
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A perversion of the filibuster

Al Franken tells the repugicans like it is.

Lunatic Fringe

Lunatic Fringe

Teabagger Health bill agitators jeer at man with Parkinson's disease

The lunacy of the teabaggers against health care reform has sunk to such a level that teabagger agitators on Tuesday mocked an apparent Parkinson's Disease victim, scorning him as a "communist" who is looking for "handouts."
Liars and Fools
Faux's Glen Brick lies revives witch hunt to paint Obama advisers as Marxists, Maoists and communists.

State of the health care debate: Hate radio attacks an 11-year old
Score Hate radio 0 Eleven-year-old kid 1

Marcelas Owens shows the wingnuts what a man is and he is only 11 years old!

Pundits blast boy's tragedy as 'sob story'

An 11-year-old who lost his mother gets caught in the middle of a vicious health care debate.

Also:
Wingnuts have ridiculed an 11-year-old Washington state boy's account of his mother's death as a "sob story" exploited by the White House and congressional Democrats like a "kiddie shield" to defend their health care legislation.

Marcelas Owens, whose mother got sick, lost her job, lost her health insurance and died, said thursday he's taking the attacks from Lush Dimbulb, Glen Brick and Michelle Mawlken in stride. 

"My mother always taught me they can have their own opinion but that doesn't mean they are right" 
Marcelas Owens


Virginia warns wife of Justice Clarence Thomas her group is violating law

Michele Bachmann (retard-Minnesota) lies accusing the media of ‘treason,’ claims use of ‘Deem and Pass’ warrants impeachment. And a pair of jacks beat a pair of queens, too.

Interesting In General

Interesting In General
Viacom secretly posted its videos even as they sued us for not taking down Viacom videos
In a scorching post on the company's blog, YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine accuses Viacom of going to great lengths to secretly upload videos to YouTube in order to take advantage of its promotional value even as they were suing YouTube, arguing that YouTube should be able to tell the difference between Viacom videos that were uploaded by actual infringers as opposed to Viacom employees and agents being paid to pretend to be infringers.
For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt "very strongly" that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube. Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.
Given Viacom's own actions, there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site. But Viacom thinks YouTube should somehow have figured it out. The legal rule that Viacom seeks would require YouTube -- and every Web platform -- to investigate and police all content users upload, and would subject those web sites to crushing liability if they get it wrong.
After years of trying to cloud the public mind by calling it "piracy" instead of "unauthorized downloading," key copyright industry reps are starting to realize that "piracy" actually sounds kind of cool. So now they're lobbying for the even less intellectually rigorous term "theft," which describes an entirely different offence, enumerated in an altogether different section of the lawbooks. This has all the dishonesty of calling everything you don't like "terrorism".

The planet's oldest trees

One grove of trees is the longest living thing on Earth, possibly predating people.  
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How your privacy can vanish online

Experts say bits of your personal info can be found online and combined.  
Also:

States with the most millionaires

The number of millionaires in America shrank in 2009, but these states still rank as the richest.  
Also:

Trash strewn all over the deep ocean floor

Sinks, spools of wire, and even unexploded military shells clutter the bottom.
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The Wild Rover

Just in case you haven't recovered from you hangover from green beer yet ...
The Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell

Our childhood is gone

Fess Parker Dies
 

Fess Parker, whose star-making portrayal of frontiersman Davy Crockett on television in the mid-1950s made him a hero to millions of young baby boomers and spurred a nationwide run on coonskin caps, died Thursday. He was 85.

Parker, who played another pioneer American hero on television's "Daniel Boone" in the 1960s before retiring from acting a decade later and becoming a successful Santa Barbara hotel developer and Santa Ynez Valley winery owner, died of complications from old age at his home near the winery, family spokeswoman Sao Anash said.

Parker was a struggling 29-year-old actor in 1954, with rugged, boyish good looks and a soft Texas drawl, when Walt Disney was looking for someone to play the lead in a three-part saga about Crockett. The three hourlong shows were scheduled to air during the premiere season of Disney's weekly "Disneyland" TV show, which began on ABC that fall.

James Arness was one of the many actors considered for the role. But although Disney watched Arness during a screening of the science-fiction thriller "Them!" another young actor in a small part caught his eye: the 6-foot-6 Parker.

"Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter," the first of the initial three Crockett adventures, aired on "Disneyland" on Dec. 15, 1954, and unexpectedly turned Parker into an overnight sensation.

TV's "King of the Wild Frontier" also touched off a merchandising frenzy: 10-million coonskin caps were sold, along with toy "Old Betsy" rifles, buckskin shirts, T-shirts, coloring books, guitars, bath towels, bedspreads, wallets -- anything with the Crockett name attached.

Viewers also fell in love with the show's catchy theme song. Bill Hayes' version of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" soared to No. 1 on the hit parade and remained there for 13 weeks. And there were a couple of dozen other recordings of the song, including those by Tennessee Ernie Ford, Burl Ives, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians and Parker himself.

"It was an explosion beyond anyone's comprehension," Parker recalled decades later. "The power of television, which was still new, was demonstrated for the first time."

Even Disney was taken by surprise.

"We had no idea what was going to happen to 'Crockett,' " he later said. "Why, by the time the first show finally got on the air, we were already shooting the third one and calmly killing Davy off at the Alamo. It became one of the biggest overnight hits in TV history, and there we were with just three films and a dead hero."

The studio quickly rebounded, rushing two Crockett "prequel" adventures into production for the second season of "Disneyland" and editing the first three episodes into a feature film, "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," which was released in May 1955. The two later TV segments, again featuring Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick George Russel, were turned into a 1956 feature film, "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates."

During a cross-country personal appearance tour in the summer of 1955, as many as 20,000 fans reportedly showed up to greet the actor when he landed at each city's airport.

Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger already HAD captivated television's first generation of young viewers when the first Crockett adventure aired, but nothing before had equaled the effect of the buck-skinned hero.

"Those Davy Crockett episodes really brought American history -- indeed, a Disney version of American history -- to the playground as well as to the American living room," Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, told The Times some years ago.

"You not only could watch these programs, but you could play them, dress up like them, make the Davy Crockett aesthetic infiltrate every part of your life," said Thompson. "And, of course, those coonskin caps: No self-respecting kid under the age of 12 could go through American life without one."

But although "you can merchandise and market and promo something like crazy," Thompson said, "I think, in the end, for something like this to succeed, you've got to have an actor who can pull it off, and Fess Parker made a great Davy Crockett."

Born in Fort Worth on Aug. 16, 1924, and reared in San Angelo, Texas, Parker served in the Navy during World War II. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Texas on the G.I. Bill in 1950, but by then he had developed a new interest: acting.

Moving to Hollywood in the summer of 1950, Parker landed an agent but discovered it wasn't as easy to land a screen test: "They weren't interested in wasting film on a tall, gangly guy with a broken tooth and a funny drawl."

With a year left on his G.I. Bill, Parker enrolled at USC with the goal of getting a master's degree in theater history. But small acting jobs soon got in the way of that goal.

By the summer of 1951, he had gotten a job as a $32-a-week extra in the national company of "Mr. Roberts." And by that fall, he was on location playing a small role in "Untamed Frontier," starring Joseph Cotten and Shelley Winters.

Other small parts followed, including playing a rookie cop in an episode of "Dragnet." By the time Disney offered him the star-making role as Crockett in 1954, Parker had only $300 in the bank.

While under contract at Disney, the post-Crockett Parker starred in "The Great Locomotive Chase," "Westward Ho the Wagons!," "The Light in the Forest" and "Old Yeller."

But as far as Parker was concerned, Walt Disney did his burgeoning film career no favors.

One day, Disney offhandedly told Parker that director John Ford had wanted him for the role that went to Jeffrey Hunter in "The Searchers" opposite John Wayne. Disney told Parker he had turned down the role on his behalf.

Ford "never forgave me for that," Parker said. "He thought it was my decision."

Parker said he also turned down a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in "Bus Stop" based on Disney's advice that "I don't think this is something you should do."

But Parker was determined to play modern roles, preferably in romantic comedies.

"While I regard Mr. Disney as a good friend and a genius, he's set in his ideas," Parker said in a 1958 interview. "We don't exactly see eye to eye on my new ambition to spread out."

After playing what he considered an inconsequential role in "Old Yeller" in 1958 and being offered a small part in another film, Parker recalled, "I went to Walt and I said, 'I can't do this.' He disagreed."

In the end, the studio agreed to let the disgruntled actor walk away.

Although he was under contract at Disney, Parker later told The Times, "the studio had no experience dealing with live human beings as performers. They were really all animation.

"I simply don't believe they understood the value of an actor they had placed in a prominent position in the marketplace."

After leaving Disney in 1958, Parker spent four years at Paramount, but he didn't fare much better in landing movie roles.

In 1962, he starred as a junior congressman in the ABC series "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which was based on the Frank Capra screen classic. But the series was canceled after 26 weeks.

In the fall of 1963, Parker was touring in a road company of "Oklahoma!" when he suddenly found himself being bombarded by an unusually high number of requests for autographs. Disney, it turned out, had re-broadcast the three original Crockett episodes on his weekly TV series and the King of the Wild Frontier was again a hit with new crop of young viewers.

Thinking he could capitalize on his celebrity status, Parker interested producer Aaron Rosenberg in doing a weekly TV series with him starring as the frontiersman. But when Parker asked Disney to release the Davy Crockett name to him, Disney refused.

"We were going to do it anyway because Crockett is in public domain, but neither Lloyds of London nor Fireman's Fund would insure us against lawsuits from Disney if I played the part," Parker told The Times in 1964.

Instead, Parker and Rosenberg decided to do a TV series about another famous frontiersman.

"Daniel Boone" had a successful run on NBC from 1964 to 1970, with Parker owning 30% of the series. He later made a pilot for a modern-day family TV series, "The Fess Parker Show," but it remained unsold.

By the mid-1970s, Parker had a partnership in a large mobile-home park in Santa Barbara, where he was a longtime homeowner, as well as other real estate holdings, and he decided to turn his attention full time to his business interests.

He bought 32 1/2 prime waterfront acres previously owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad and, in 1986, opened Fess Parker's Red Lion Resort. Since renamed Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort, the hotel and conference center not only enhanced the city's waterfront but also have been a boon to the city's economy.

"We didn't have a big convention facility in the city before the Doubletree was built," Janice Hubbell, project planner for the city of Santa Barbara, told The Times in 2001.

But because Parker initially pushed for a much larger hotel and convention center complex, she said, "a lot of people have mixed emotions about him. In many respects, he's done good things for the community, but on the other hand there are people who feel he's pushed too hard and pushed for more than is appropriate."

In 1987, Parker bought a 714-acre ranch in Los Olivos, in Santa Barbara County's Santa Ynez Valley. Although he had planned to live there and run cattle on the land, the climate and the soil were ideal for a vineyard.

The Fess Parker Winery & Vineyards had its inaugural harvest in 1989. By 2001, wines from Parker, whose label included a tiny, gold coonskin cap, had won more than 30 medals.

The boutique winery was a family affair. Parker's son, Eli (Fess III), became president and director of winemaking and vineyard operations, and Parker's daughter, Ashley, became vice president of marketing and sales. Parker's wife, Marcella, whom Parker married in 1960, reportedly was largely responsible for the landscaping and interior décor.

In 1998, the Parkers bought the landmark Grand Hotel in Los Olivos, which they turned into Fess Parker's Wine Country Inn & Spa.

A 150-room waterfront hotel next door to his Santa Barbara resort hotel is also in the planning stages.

For many of his rural Santa Ynez Valley neighbors, Parker's good-guy TV image was shattered in 2004 after he announced his intentions to sell 745 acres of Santa Ynez Valley ranchland to the local Chumash Indians in a joint venture calling for building up to 500 luxury homes, a resort hotel, two championships golf courses and an equestrian center.

Because the land would be annexed by the tribe on sovereign land, The Times reported, the development would not have to adhere to county zoning laws and land-use regulations.

In protest, many residents boycotted businesses that served Parker's wines and placed "Fess" stickers on stop signs. Others, including some of Parker's friends, even shunned the actor-turned-businessman.

"I just can't find anything in this whole thing to regret," Parker told The Times. "It does give me great pleasure to do this for the Indians. If they don't deserve to live in the most beautiful portion of this valley, who does?"

In October 2005, however, Chumash leaders and Parker abandoned their development plans after they failed to agree on the size of the hotel, the value of the land and other details.

Parker said at the time he wanted to preserve most of the property as open space. "We're going to run cattle, maybe plant some alfalfa and maintain it as part of my family's holdings," he told The Times. And though he reportedly would continue to face certain local opposition, he said he envisioned building a smaller "first-class" resort of up to 80 Spanish-ranch-style rooms on about 30 acres.

Parker said he hoped his proposed scaled-down project could be built within four years "if people realize I'm willing to go through the process. But I want to be welcomed, and I want support from the community."

Although he had severely strained his relations with many in the valley, he remained popular with tourists.

Parker, who for many years divided his time between homes in Montecito and the Santa Ynez Valley, often greeted visitors to his winery, many of them aging baby boomers who would reach out to shake the hand of the gray-haired man who had once portrayed Davy Crockett or have their picture taken with him.

"I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world," Parker told a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1994. "I've lived long enough and observed enough to make myself very comfortable with the realization that the Disney films and particularly Davy Crockett gave me an image that is unbelievably durable. It's been 40 years and people are still talking about it.

"Had I played Hamlet and starred in a number of Broadway shows or motion pictures as a very versatile actor, I wouldn't have had the identity, recognition and, most importantly, the welcome I've been accorded by most of the homes of viewers. It's like we're old friends."'

Besides his wife of 50 years, Marcella, and his children, Parker is survived by 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
[More]

Local Hospitality

Local Hospitality
Michael Barnes 76
Charlotte City Council member Michael Barnes on Thursday called on the council to investigate an allegation that one of its members sexually harassed a female city staffer.
BusinessWeek honors Huntersville
BusinessWeek magazine has ranked Huntersville the fourth-most affordable suburb in the United States.
Internationally televised tournament returns March 24-27
An estimated 300 top anglers will compete in the FLW National Guard Open bass fishing tournament March 24 through 27.
The daily launch takes place at Blythe Landing, and the weigh-in moves to the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center in Concord.
This is the fourth consecutive year Visit Lake Norman and a local organizing committee have hosted the internationally televised event, one of only two communities to ever host a FLW Tour event four consecutive years.
The event will be broadcast to 75 million Versus and World Fishing Network subscribers throughout the U.S., and more than 429 million households in Europe, Africa and Asia through a distribution agreement with Matchroom Sport.
The past two years, the tournament provided $1.5 million to local businesses, with some visitors staying in local hotels 11 nights, according to Visit Lake Norman. For more information, contact Travis Dancy, sports marketing manager at Visit Lake Norman, at 704-987-3300 or tdancy@lakenorman.org.
Library only open six weeks now it is closing ...
http://media.wcnc.com/images/469*264/031910-Library+Will+Close+sign.jpg 
The Hickory Grove branch of the Mecklenburg County Library system opened with fanfare February 6. It's doors will be padlocked--along with 11 others--April 3. "To me, that's wasting taxpayer money," Duane Hill, a patron, said Thursday. "This is awful. They have to change this. This can't stay."
The 5,100-square foot branch was a $4,956,400 project to replace a much older, much smaller library just across Hickory Grove Road. The building is LEED certified and outfitted with a new computer lab, larger and improved meeting rooms for the community, and resources to encourage early childhood reading and school curriculum.
"I heard about the cuts," mom Tabitha Jones said, "but not this one!"
In making the tough decisions to cut half of the library branches in Mecklenburg County, the Library Board used four criteria: cost of operation, usage level, proximity to other libraries, and size.
Robin Branstrom, chairwoman of the Mecklenburg Library Board, said those criteria--and those criteria only--were applied in order to be fair. Recent investment, she said, was not on the list.
Mecklenburg County Commission Chairwoman Jennifer Roberts, who helped cut the ribbon on the Hickory Grove branch six weeks ago, said she was confused to see it and the Beatties Ford library on the list of closures. (Beatties Ford is currently being renovated.)
"To turn around and close it surprised me," she said. "They have a longer life span. We just invested, so the maintenance is going to be really low right now. The efficiency is higher."
http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2010/03/19/12/jordan150.highlight.prod_affiliate.138.jpg
Illness-plagued cruise liner back in South Carolina

A cruise liner hit by an outbreak of intestinal illness for a third straight trip from Charleston returned a day early Thursday as operator Celebrity Cruises brought in extra crew to scrub the ship down for three days.
The company said 369 of more than 1,800 passengers became ill following a March 8 departure.
Hundreds of passengers got sick with the norovirus on the two previous Celebrity Mercury cruises this year from Charleston. The norovirus can spread quickly in closed quarters. Its symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the cause of the outbreak on the latest cruise has not yet been determined.
"They just couldn't have done more. They had clear plastic over all the food at the buffet line. You didn't touch anything, they put stuff on your plate," said passenger Beth Lawton, 81. "At every doorway they had wipes or sprays."
Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said the line is bringing 50 additional crew members to Charleston to help clean, and a local company will steam the carpets in all staterooms and public areas. Celebrity Cruises is owned by Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Budget cuts are responsible for most of the loss of almost 4,000 teaching jobs in North Carolina, and school officials fear the losses will be worse next year when federal stimulus money dries up. 

The State Of The Nation

The State Of The Nation

Teacher out of job after stabbing student with pen for persistent farting

A Hawkins County teacher is out of a job, three months after repeatedly stabbing a student in the arm with a pen. Hawkins County School Board members voted to fire Pathways Alternative School teacher Lucia Carico Thursday night.

According to allegations presented to the board, on December 16, 2009, Carico stabbed a seventh grade student multiple times after he continued to pass gas and sing in class.


“Ms. Carico will now receive notice that this board has voted that if these charges are true, then dismissal is warranted,” Hawkins County Director of Schools Charlotte Britton said. The Hawkins County School System first hired Carico in 1973. Up until recently, there was not a single blemish in the tenured teacher’s file.

According to the allegations of fact, when Carico stabbed a student seven times in the left arm with a pen, a camera caught it all on tape. Hawkins County would not turn over that tape to us. The evidence showed Carico lied about what really occurred inside the classroom, Britton said. In the charge for dismissal, Britton gave five reasons that warranted Carico’s termination: unprofessional conduct, incompetence, inefficiency, insubordination, and neglect of duty.

And speaking of farts ...
WHAT MAKES A FART
Did you know that no two farts are exactly alike? It’s true. Farts are sort of like snowflakes in that regard. Little, invisible, smelly, snowflakes.

Mixed message on immigration fuels anger

Frustration mounts over the slow pace of what President Obama once hailed as a top priority. 
Also:
Hacker gets back at boss who fired him ...

Payteck
More than 100 car owners in and around Austin, Texas recently discovered that their cars wouldn’t start. Or that their horns wouldn’t stop honking — all night long. Or that their vehicle leases were suddenly (and luckily, temporarily) transferred to deceased rapper Tupac Shakur.
All of these annoyances were thanks to a former collection agent for Austin-based car dealership Texas Auto Center, who is accused of taking revenge on his former employer by remotely disabling more than 100 customer cars. Twenty-year old Oscar Ramos-Lopez reportedly gained unauthorized access into the dealership’s remote vehicle immobilization system, which allowed him to stop customer vehicles from starting or cause their horns to honk continuously. Ramos-Lopez is also said to have deleted customer accounts and swapped celebrity names for the names of actual customers, according to a report by Austin NBC affiliate KXAN.
The vehicle disabling technology, powered by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies (PayTeck), is only supposed to be used when someone fails to meet their auto loan or lease obligations. Austin police arrested Lopez on Wednesday charging him with breach of computer security.

Terror suspect admits scouting for Mumbai massacre
 
Terror suspect admits scouting for Mumbai massacre.
A Chicago man admitted in court Thursday that he scouted out the Indian city of Mumbai before a 2008 terrorist attack that left 166 dead and helped plan an attack a Danish newspaper that never took place.

As The World Turns

As The World Turns

Tourist imprisoned in Australia for importing tea

A Filipino tourist spent five days in custody after Australian officials mistook packets of tea for amphetamines. Maria Cecilia Silva, 29, was stopped as she arrived in Melbourne airport when drug-detection dogs reacted to tea in her luggage.

Ms Silva, traveling from the Philippines, was handed over to the Australian Federal Police after customs determined there were amphetamines in three packets of lemon-flavored iced tea. Follow-up tests, however, were negative, and prosecutors withdrew the charge of importing drugs.

A tearful Ms Silva clung to a female prison guard as she was led through the court to a waiting friend.


"She's a totally innocent young lady who has experienced five days in an horrendous situation having her liberty taken away and placed in cells with some serious offenders," said her lawyer, Michael Penna-Rees. "She's traumatized, she's lost a lot of weight and she'll be seeing a doctor."

He said the tea was purchased in a Philippine supermarket and had never been opened.

Melbourne Judge Jack Vandersteen ordered the director of public prosecutions to pay 5,000 Australian dollars ($4,600) to Maria Cecilia Silva for her ordeal.
TV Presenter Gets Death Sentence for 'Sorcery'
Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery." In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in TV show.
Chinese man 'ate child's brain' to cure epilepsy

A Chinese cannibal allegedly killed an 11-year-old boy and ate his brain in order to cure his epilepsy.

It was said that Wang Chaoxu, of Qixian village in Yunnan, southwest China, believed an old wives' tale that eating a child's brain could cure fits.

Police said the boy, Li Xuetang, was found buried nearly 5km away in a grain field in a neighbouring village.


The top of his head was peeled back and part of his brain removed.

Wang Chaoxu was arrested and told police he believed eating the brain with earthworms and ants would cure his illness.

Wang said he was married to a nurse, but she left him because his illness meant he was unable to work.

Five Indian children may have been 'sacrificed' by childless couple

Five children poisoned to death in a village in India may have been "sacrificed", police say.

They say that the children were killed in Digras - close to the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra by a childless couple in a suspected black magic ritual to enable them to conceive.

The couple and parents of the accused husband have been arrested. Officials say post-mortem results are awaited.


Police say they are looking for the tantrik, or witch doctor, who advised the couple to "sacrifice" 11 children in accordance with black magic rituals.

They say that Vitthal and Vandana Mokle were married for 12 years but were unable to conceive despite frequently visiting doctors.

Investigating Officer Sheikh Abdul Rauf said that after initial inquiries they suspected foul play in the deaths of the children. All the children were aged between two and four and were related to each other.
Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight
Skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime
An African Lion much like this is responsible for the death of 28 Cambodian Midgets
Spectators cheered as entire Cambodian Midget Fighting League squared off against African Lion Tickets were sold out three before the much anticipated fight, which took place in the city of Kâmpóng Chhnãng.
The Cambodian Government allowed the fight to take place, under the condition that they receive a 50% commission on each ticket sold, and that no cameras would be allowed in the arena.


North Korean finance official blamed for currency crisis executed by firing squad

A government official in North Korea blamed for the nation's currency devaluation has been executed by the state. "Pak Nam-gi, who was reportedly sacked in January as chief of the planning and finance department of the ruling Workers' Party, was executed at a shooting range in Pyongyang."

Afghanistan: Taliban chops off nose, ears of 19-year-old girl for "shaming" her in-laws
aisha.jpg"When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out." Bibi Aisha, 19, of Afghanistan, who was punished by the Taliban for "shaming" her in-laws when she ran away to escape torturous domestic abuse. Her father sold her to her abusive husband when she was 10.
Atia Awabi, a CNN International correspondent based in Kabul, says "If you are moved by [this] story you can help by donating to womenforafghanwomen.org." CNN interviewed this young woman in January, and ABC News followed recently.
Women for Afghan Women has posted an update on her story here (some people may find the full image of her brutally disfigured face disturbing).
Her husband "kept her in the stable with the animals until she was 12 (when she got her first menstrual period)."

More:
Aisha has been recovering these past months from the unimaginable trauma she has suffered. She has brought criminal charges against her father for giving her away in the illegal practice of "baad." She would like to also bring charges against her husband, but since he is a Talib in Uruzgan, he is unreachable. Aisha has decided after weighing all the options before her that she would like to come to the United States for her surgery and post-operative care. Just as important as her surgery, will be the support system we organize for her recuperation. We are currently engaged in setting up that support system for Aisha.
You can donate here.

Mexican Marines Raid Rown Police Force, 8 Cops Arrested
Mexican marines detained more than half the police force of a northern rural town Wednesday for suspected ties to drug cartels.

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
You're doing your best to navigate an emotional minefield blindfolded. No one -- absolutely no one -- seems willing to guide you. But you don't need them. Distract yourself any way you can. Try to remember that time really does heal all wounds, and that you have your own life to live. In other words, make your plans with confidence. Your loved ones will get over it. Or not. Either way, remember you can only do so much and move on.

Some of our readers today have been in:
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Quezon City, Manila, Philippines
Seoul, Kyonggi-Do, Korea
Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France
Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, India
London, England, United Kingdom
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Stockholm, Stockholms Lan, Sweden
Rio De Janeiro, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Leeds, England, United Kingdom
Lyon, Rhone-Alpes, France
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Chatswood. New South Wales, Australia
Canberra, Australian, Capital Territory, Australia
Moscow. Moskva, Russia

as well as Spain and the United States in such cities as Cadott, Aliso Viejo, Mora, Oxnard, Killeen and more

Today is Friday, March 19, the 78th day of 2010. 
There are 287 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:
National Chocolate Carmel Day

It's The Economy Stupid

It's The Economy Stupid                                                         

School fundraising tactic sparks debate

Cash-strapped districts are turning to a controversial solution that some say sends the wrong message.
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A service industry for malware is making it possible for anyone with basic computer skills to launch state-of-the-art cyber-attacks. 

Nasty surprise for hurting homeowners

A government plan to aid homeowners on the verge of default leaves some fuming. 
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7 things never to say to your boss

These phrases may seem harmless, but try reading these from your supervisor's point of view.
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