Games Without Frontiers

There is something chillingly Orwellian in this performance by Peter Gabriel.

Man charged after gun found in car near Obama home

Police have brought a felony gun charge against a member of a prominent Chicago family who was arrested after he approached security barriers outside Barack Obama's home.

The family of 31-year-old Omhari Sengstacke released a statement saying he had no intent to harm the Democratic presidential candidate or his family. The U.S. Secret Service also has insisted he never posed a threat to Obama.

Sengstacke was apparently intoxicated but not armed when he was arrested about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. The gun was found in his car.

Omhari Sengstacke is the grandson of John Sengstacke, longtime publisher of the Chicago Defender.

Girl's hand reattached after jump rope accident

See there are still some good people around ...

A 6-year-old girl is recovering after surgeons reattached her left hand, severed when it was caught in a loop of jump rope that had snagged on the axle of her mother's car.

Erica Rix underwent 10 hours of surgery after the accident in early September and spent nine days in intensive care before returning home.

Erica was playing with a jump rope in the back seat of her mother's car and let one end of the rope out the window to flutter in the wind.

"I wanted to see it go up and down because I thought I was going to fly," she said.

The rope caught on the car's axle and a loop of the rope tightened around the girl's wrist, slicing off her hand.

"She was screaming and screaming and so I got out of the car and at her window that was just cracked about that much, the remaining part of her hand ... most of it was gone," her mother, Allison Rix, said.

Passing motorist Jim Bailey, of Saratoga, stopped and made a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

"I was trying to wave down a passer-by," Allison Rix said Tuesday, "and he stopped immediately and ran up to the car and had to assess the situation then - just like a superhero, I like to think of him - as he whipped out his belt and did a tourniquet" while she tried to call 911.

Rix said her cell phone got disconnected but another person who stopped was able to call emergency services.

Passer-by Pat Heller spotted Erica's hand lying on the street, and she and a resident directed traffic around it.

"I took some real deep breaths. I just kept telling myself 'This is a child's hand,'" Heller said.

*****

These heroes and the doctors who reattached this young girl's hand are what we need more of in this world!

On a happy note: Doctors says even with several more surgeries on the hand , the young girl should make a complete recovery and her hand will be as if this freak accident never happened.

California tribe fears losing land if dam is raised

The federal government is considering enlarging a dam to boost the state's water supply, which would flood what little land remains above water where a Native American tribe had fished and farmed for centuries.

Nine-tenths of the ancestral land of the Winnemen Wintu was submerged in 1945, when the federal government built a 602-foot dam downstream of their ceremonial and prayer grounds.

Now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is considering enlarging Shasta Dam, flooding the remaining 22 miles of rocky, steep canyon shoreline, including two sacred rocks involved in coming-of-age rituals.

"These sacred places help keep the tribe healthy. They help keep it balanced and they help us to heal," said tribal chief Caleen Sisk-Franco. "There is no replacement. There's not an option to move it."

The desire by the few remaining tribal members to preserve the remnants of their homeland is running headlong into the desires of Central Valley farmers, the main beneficiaries of the federal proposal to enlarge Lake Shasta.

When it was filled to capacity, the lake flooded 46 square miles where tribal leaders say some 20,000 Winnemen Wintu once lived along the McCloud River. Their numbers fell to 395 at the turn of the century, with thousands massacred by western settlers and ravaged by disease during the Gold Rush. Today, the tribe counts 122 enrolled members, about a fifth of whom live in a makeshift village of trailers and a house on 42 acres of private land a few miles from the McCloud River, some 225 miles north of San Francisco.

Lake Shasta is the starting point for the federally run Central Valley Project, a system of 21 reservoirs, canals and aqueducts that funnel water to some 3.2 million acres of farmland and supplies water to about 2 million people.

Supporters say an enlarged lake is needed to meet the needs of California's growing population. The larger reservoir also would be able to store more cold water, which is needed to help the salmon that used to migrate to cooler water upstream before the dam blocked their path, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The bureau is studying whether to raise the dam by 6 1/2 to 18 1/2 feet, which would enlarge the reservoir by more than a tenth of its current size. That's enough water to serve the city of Los Angeles for more than year.

"What's so potentially promising about raising Shasta Dam, all things considered, is an opportunity to provide more storage at a facility that's already in place," said Ron Ganzfried, a supervisor in the Bureau of Reclamation's regional planning division.

A higher dam also would provide more hydropower, flood protection along the upper Sacramento River and combat future water shortages expected to come with climate change, according to a recent bureau report.

Although the price tag is steep - with preliminary costs ranging from $531.3 million to $854.9 million - it's far less than the cost of building a new dam. For example, the state estimates it could cost $3.6 billion to build a reservoir in a valley north of Sacramento that would store roughly the same amount of water as would be added behind a taller Shasta dam.

That makes it an attractive solution for California's farmers and municipal water agencies whose water supplies have dwindled after two dry winters and a federal court order that greatly reduced water diversions to protect threatened delta fish.

But conservation groups are concerned that swelling of the lower portion of the McCloud River would ruin one of the state's prized trout streams. They also question whether the additional cold water that would be stored behind a higher Shasta Dam would be saved and released for migrating salmon, as government officials claim.

Instead, environmental groups favor building bypasses for salmon to get them around the dam and into the McCloud River. They also advocate paying farmers and other users to increase water conservation efforts.

"We need to come up with permanent solutions that will increase flexibility and provide what we need for the salmon rather than reinvesting in the very projects that caused the problem," said Mindy McIntyre, a water specialist at the nonprofit Planning and Conservation League.

Federal officials say environmental organizations and the Winnemen Wintu tribe will be consulted as plans move forward over the next few years, but how much sway the tribe - which is not a federally recognized tribe - will have to block the dam project is questionable. Congress must still authorize and fund the project.

Although the tribe is small in number, its ties to the area remain central to preserving its heritage. The rocky shoreline along the McCloud River is where tribal members come at least once a year to celebrate the womanhood of their teenage girls. Medicinal plants are ground on a special rock and traditional prayers are offered.

Across the river, toddlers are introduced to another rock where tribal elders tell their ancestral stories. Both cultural spots could be swamped by the rising water if Shasta Dam is raised.

Boy, 5, dumped by school bus driver in NYC streets

A New York City mother wants to know why her first-grade son was left to wander the streets alone after being dropped off by a school bus driver at the end of the line.

School officials say they don't know who put 5-year-old Jaeden Vasquez on the bus Thursday - especially since he wasn't even supposed to be on it. He lives across the street from the school in the Bronx.

His mother, Aileen Bonilla, says the school apologized but that isn't enough.

Five-year-old children aren't supposed to be let off school buses unless an adult is waiting. Jaeden says he was ordered off the bus at the last stop, two miles from his home. A stranger brought him home.

School officials say they are investigating.

McPain says if you're here illegally...welcome!

But, only if you are Irish.

"There are 50,000 Irish men and women who are in this country illegally at this time, who are hard-working people, who want to become citizens. and I want to assure you that we will enact comprehensive immigration reform, after they do certain things, obviously, give them a path to citizenship in this country as part of an overall immigration reform package."

So much for the 'Brown People', Huh?

Britney's Sister in Porn Scandal

From the "Why is this even news?" Department:

Here is how Europeans view the absurdity that is the US

A picture of 17-year-old JAMIE LYNN SPEARS breastfeeding her baby has sparked a police pornography investigation in the States.

Read the full story here.

Or if you prefer the view from Down Under read it here.

Feds ask to put wolves back on endangered list

Federal wildlife officials have asked a judge to put gray wolves in the Northern Rockies back on the endangered species list - a sharp reversal from the government's prior contention that the animals were thriving.

Attorneys for the Fish and Wildlife Service asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula to vacate the agency's February finding that more than 1,400 wolves in the region no longer needed federal protection.

The government's request Monday follows a July injunction in which Molloy had blocked plans for public wolf hunts this fall in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho pending resolution of a lawsuit by environmentalists.

"What we want to do is look at this more thoroughly," Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Sharon Rose said. "We definitely have a lot of wolves out there, but we need to address some of (Molloy's) concerns in a way that people feel comfortable with."

At issue is whether a decade-long wolf restoration program has reversed the near-extermination of wolves, or if - as environmentalists claim - their long-term survival remains in doubt due to proposed hunting.

"This hit everybody really cold," said John Bloomquist, an attorney for the Montana Stockgrowers Association. "All of a sudden the federal defendants are going in the other direction."

The government's request to remand, or reconsider, the issue was filed in response to an April lawsuit from a dozen environmental and animal rights groups.

"I would call that victory. What they're requesting is to go back to the drawing boards," said Doug Honnold, an Earthjustice attorney representing the plaintiffs. They include the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States and other local and national groups.

If Molloy goes along with the government's request, the Fish and Wildlife Service would embark on a re-evaluation of wolves that could last for months or even years. The agency would again open the issue to public comment before returning with a new decision.

In the meantime, the killing of some wolves by government wildlife agents or ranchers would continue. More than 180 wolves were killed last year in response to wolf attacks on livestock.

A recent inventory of wolf populations in the three states showed their population in decline this year for the first time in more than a decade. Federal biologists say the decline occurred because wolves had filled up the best habitat in the region.

Honnold questioned whether disease, illegal hunting or other factors might have contributed to the drop, which saw wolf numbers decline from 1,545 during the summer of 2007 to 1,455 this summer.

Under the federal rule that took the animal off the list in February, authority over the region's wolf populations had passed to state agencies in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

In his July injunction, Molloy put that authority back in federal hands. The judge questioned whether wildlife laws within the three states - particularly Wyoming - would be enough to protect wolves from excessive or indiscriminate hunting.

Molloy also questioned whether packs had been intermingling enough to avoid inbreeding - a concern raised by recent research into wolf genetics.

Helpful Hints:

For Guys: A Guide to Girl Talk

By Amy Spencer

"Baffled by what women are getting at half the time you talk to them? Then keep this translation manual handy to decode her most misunderstood lines.

If you’ve ever spoken to a woman, it’s fair to say you’ve been confused by one. Yes doesn’t always mean yes, no doesn’t always mean no, and most of us have once in our lives even admitted, “Well, I may have said that, but I didn’t mean it.” What’s with all the mixed messages? “Women communicate by giving subtle suggestions instead of being literal, so we can check for positive reinforcement before we continue. We want to be careful about the impact we have on the other person,” explains Sharyn Wolf, CSW, a psychotherapist in New York City. But while figuring out what women really want can be difficult, it’s not impossible. So follow this guide to girl-speak. These are some of the things you might hear a woman say as you meet, date and woo her—and the code for reading between the lines."

Read the rest here.

Gunman kills 9 at school in Finland, shoots self

Another Fine US Export: School Shootings

A gunman whose violent YouTube postings made police bring him in for questioning opened fire Tuesday at his trade school in western Finland, killing nine people before shooting himself, authorities said.

It was Finland's second school massacre in less than a year.

The gunman had been questioned by police just one day before the attack about YouTube postings in which he is seen firing a handgun, Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said. He was released because there was no legal grounds to hold him, she said.

Witnesses said panic broke out as the hooded gunman entered the school in Kauhajoki, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki, and began firing in a classroom where students were taking an exam. The shootings began just before 11 a.m. local time (0800GMT), as about 150 students were at Kauhajoki School of Hospitality.

"Within a short space of time I heard several dozen rounds of shots, in other words it was an automatic pistol," school janitor Jukka Forsberg told Finnish broadcaster YLE. "I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning and one managed to escape out of the back door."

Kauhajoki Mayor Antti Rantakokko confirmed that nine people were killed. At least one other woman had a gunshot wound to the head before the gunman shot himself in the head, authorities said.

Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported that police had identified the gunman as Matti Juhani Saari, a 22-year-old student. Authorities would only confirm that he was a student at the school, born in 1986.

The Finnish news agency STT said the school building was on fire and the gunman reportedly had explosives on him.

The gunman and the wounded woman were taken to a hospital in Tampere, two hours away, the hospital's medical director Matti Lehto told the AP.

"(He is) shot in the head so he is severely injured," Lehto said.

College rector Tapio Varmola told YLE the school had 150 students at the time and the shooting started in a classroom where 20 people were taking an exam.

Tuesday's rampage happened almost a year after another gunman killed eight people and himself at a school in southern Finland, an attack that triggered a fierce debate about gun laws in this Nordic nation with deep-rooted traditions of hunting in the sub-Arctic wilderness.

Power cut contributed to woman's death

I see corporate disregard for humans is not only in the United States!

An energy company's decision to cut off electricity to a New Zealand woman's home because of an unpaid bill contributed to her death from morbid obesity, a coroner's court ruled Tuesday.

Folole Muliaga, 44, a nursery school teacher, died two hours after the oxygen machine she used to help her breathe shut down when the government-owned utility Mercury Energy cut power to her home.

Muliaga's death on May 29, 2007, outraged New Zealanders, with Prime Minister Helen Clark denouncing the company's actions as heartless and intolerable.

Coroner Gordon Matenga said he agreed with two of four medical experts who presented evidence to the hearing that cutting the power had contributed to Muliaga's death.

"The cessation of oxygen therapy and the stress arising from the fact of the disconnection (as opposed to the way in which the power was disconnected) have contributed to her death," he said in his ruling.

Matenga also noted that Mercury Energy acknowledged it hadn't complied with Electricity Commission guidelines for identifying vulnerable customers at the time of Muliaga's death.

Muliaga family spokesman Brenden Sheehan said the family would instruct its lawyers "to explore all legal avenues" for compensation following the findings.

"The coroner established there was a cause and effect over her death, and that Mercury Energy didn't follow the guidelines of the Electricity Commission," Sheehan said.

Sheehan said he hoped the family and the agencies involved could reach an out-of-court agreement.

Olinda Woodroffe, lawyer for Muliaga's husband, said she was confident there were strong legal grounds for compensation.

A police investigation last year found no grounds for criminal charges against the utility.

Coroners in New Zealand can order inquests into unusual deaths to assess the circumstances so they can make recommendations to prevent future occurrences. The inquest does not assign blame.

At the time of Muliaga's death, the family believed it owed Mercury Energy 34.44 New Zealand dollars (US$26.67); the company later put the amount at NZ$168 (US$130.12).

Small accidents mean big trouble for supercollider

Scientists expect startup glitches in the massive, complex machines they use to smash atoms.

But the unique qualities of the world's largest particle collider mean that the meltdown of a small electrical connection could delay its groundbreaking research until next year, scientists said Sunday.

Because the Large Hadron Collider operates at near absolute zero - colder than outer space - the damaged area must be warmed to a temperature where humans can work. That takes about a month. Then it has to be re-chilled for another month.

As a result, the equipment may not be running again before the planned shutdown of the equipment for the winter to reduce electricity costs. That means Friday's meltdown could end up putting off high-energy collisions of particles - the machine's ultimate objective - until 2009.

"Hopefully we'll come online and go quickly to full energy a few months into 2009 so in the long term, this may not end up being such a large delay in the physics program," Seth Zenz, a graduate student from the University of California, wrote on the site of the U.S. physicists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN.

"It's obviously a short-term disappointment, though, and a lost opportunity," he wrote.

CERN spokesman James Gillies said the repair operation will last until close to the usual winter shutdown time at the end of November. There has been some discussion that the new equipment could operate through the winter, but no decision has been made, he said.

The melting of the wire connecting two magnets Friday would have taken only a couple of days to repair on smaller, room-temperature accelerators that have been in use for decades, Gillies said.

Gillies said particle accelerators using superconducting equipment at Fermilab outside Chicago and at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state had similar problems starting up, but have been operating smoothly since then.

"Once they settled in they seem to be pretty stable," Gillies said.

At the Sept. 10 launch of the collider, beams of protons from the nuclei of atoms were fired first at the speed of light in a clockwise direction though a fire-hose-sized tube in the tunnel. Then proton beams were fired in the counterclockwise tube.

Jos Engelen, CERN's chief scientific officer and deputy director-general, said the startup showed that the LHC can handle complex operations.

"We have encountered a weakness in one particular connection during very final hardware commissioning," Engelen told The Associated Press by e-mail. "It is tough, but it can happen. We will make the repair and resume the very successful operation of the accelerator."

A transformer failed outside the cold zone about 36 hours after the collider's launch. That was repaired and the machine was ready again a week after it was shut down.

But the goal of the LHC - shattering protons to reveal more about how the tiniest particles were first created - was still weeks away because the equipment has to be gradually brought to the higher energies possible at full power.

"This was the last circuit of the LHC to be tested at high current before operations," Gillies said. "There are an awful lot of these connections between wires in the machine. They all have to be very well done so that they don't stop superconducting, and what appears to have happened is that this connection stopped being superconducting."

Superconductivity - the ability to conduct electricity without any resistance in some metals at low temperatures_ allows for much greater efficiency in operating the electromagnets that guide the proton beams.

Without the superconducting, resistance builds up in the wires, causing them to overheat, he explained.

"That's what we think happened," Gillies said. "This piece of wire heated up, melted, and that led to a mechanical failure."

Gillies said experts have already gone down into the 27-kilometer (17-mile) circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border to inspect the damage.

"By Monday I suspect we'll know more," he said.

Gillies said there is plenty for scientists at CERN to do between now and the startup of experiments, including studying cosmic rays that pass through collider's massive detectors.

Passenger charged in Canada bus attack

What is it with Canada and buses recently?

Police charged a man Monday with an attack on a Greyhound bus in northern Ontario that left a passenger hospitalized, just weeks after a suspect was accused of stabbing and beheading a fellow traveler on a Greyhound.

David Roberts, 28, was charged Monday with aggravated assault and breach of probation in the latest attack.

Police said the 20-year-old victim, who was not further identified, was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Ontario provincial police Constable James Searle said the victim and his attacker didn't appear to know each other and that investigators were trying to determine a motive for Sunday's attack.

Police wouldn't confirm the victim was stabbed but witnesses said the attacker had a knife.

Anita Daher, a Winnipeg author sitting behind the driver on the bus traveling from Toronto to Winnipeg, Manitoba, said Monday that she heard a commotion from the back of the bus and saw a man clutching his chest in pain.

She said Roberts then demanded to be let off the bus before passengers called police on cell phones. Police said the suspect was arrested a short while later.

The attack came less than two months after the gruesome slaying of Tim McLean, 22, on a Greyhound traveling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg with 37 passengers. Police said an assailant stabbed McLean dozens of times before severing his head in an unprovoked attack. Vince Weiguang Li is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is competent to stand trial for the killing.

Passengers who witnessed the latest attack questioned why police put Roberts on the bus.

"I certainly want to know how this happened," Daher said. "I would certainly like to see some security measures put in place.

Ontario Provincial police say they were assisting local officers with the alleged attacker shortly before he boarded the bus. But Searle said he couldn't comment further.

Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh declined to comment on the incident.

Washington man gets 27 months in dragging death

A man convicted in the dragging death of an Eastern Washington University student has been sentenced to 27 months in prison.

Wendell C. Sinn Jr. was sentenced Monday. Last week, the 45-year-old entered an Alford plea to second-degree manslaughter, meaning he didn't admit guilt but felt he would be found guilty if he went to trial for the death of Jerid S. Sturman-Camyn.

The 20-year-old student was dragged more than 13 miles to his death by a pickup driven by Sinn's teenage son in November 2007.

Sinn was arrested after witnesses say he placed a noose around Sturman-Camyn's neck and attached it to the back of his pickup.

Justin Sinn, told investigators he didn't know he'd been dragging Sturman-Camyn. He hasn't been charged.

NYPD officer gets 5 years for stealing handguns

A former New York City police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing handguns from a police evidence room and trading them for painkillers.

Hubertus Vannes, of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., pleaded guilty in May to criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a firearm. He had been an NYPD officer for two years when he was arrested last fall.

Prosecutors say Vannes admitted trading three stolen guns to a man for painkillers. He had 76 tablets of prescription painkillers in his possession when he was arrested.

A Metaphor

Catholics versus Jews

In the Fourteenth century, the Pope decrees that all Jews living in Italy must convert to Catholicism, or be thrown out of the country.
A huge outcry erupts and it is decided that a religious debate between the leaders will decide the fate of the Jews.
The Pope and an aged and wise Rabbi meet, neither understands their language, so it is decided to have a silent debate, using gestures.
Firstly the Pope raises his hand and shows three fingers
the rabbi responds with one finger.
Secondly the Pope waves his finger around his head
the Rabbi responds by pointing to the ground.
Finally the Pope brings out a communion wafer and some wine.
The Rabbi pulls out an apple.

With that the Pope declares himself beaten, and the Jews are allowed to stay in Italy.

Later on the Pope meets his cardinals to explain what happened
The Pope said "First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity, he held up one finger to remind us that one God is common to both our beliefs
Next I waved my hand to show that God is all around us, he responded by pointing to the ground to show that God was here with us, and finally I brought out wine and wafers to show that God absolves us of all our sins, he produced an apple to remind us of the original sin, with that I realized he had won the argument"
The Rabbi returns to his people and is asked how he had won

The Rabbi replies "Not got a clue, first he told me we had three days to get out of Italy, I gave him the finger. Next he tells me the country would be rid of Jews, and I told him we were staying right here"
What then? He was asked, "Who knows, he took out his lunch, and I took out mine"

*****

There's story in there somewhere ...

Eve of Destruction

As true today as it was then ...

... except today we are well into the day of destruction ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival

"Well I'm here to tell you
each and every mother's son.
You better learn it fast,
you better learn it young.
'Cause Someday never comes."

Street corner science lessons with a Nobel Laureate

This is a cool idea ...












In 1988, Leon Lederman shared a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work to understand elementary particles called neutrinos. ScienCentral set Lederman up with a desk on a street corner and encouraged curious passersby to ask science questions. The two-part video was part of SciCentral's Web show series called "Street Corner Science." Lederman talked about time travel, nuclear power, and, particle physics.

Street Corner Science with Leon Lederman