Kentucky inmate who escaped jail returns on own

And the Booby Prize goes to ...

Chad Toy's escape from jail wasn't what shocked his jailers; it was his plea to be let back in. "When I rang the bell at the jail and told them who I was, they were surprised," Toy told The Paducah Sun newspaper. "I guess they haven't seen that before."

Toy, 21, was in the McCracken County Regional Jail in western Kentucky awaiting trial on charges stemming from a July home invasion. He's also serving a four-year sentence for theft.

Officials said he escaped early Monday while on a cleanup detail in the lobby. He bolted after a guard unlocked the front doors to clean trash from a breezeway.

But Toy returned that afternoon, wet and covered with grime. He told authorities his sister had persuaded him to surrender because his family feared for his safety.

Jailer Bill Adams said he doubts Toy's account. He thinks the escapee spent his brief liberty hiding beside the Tennessee River.

Adams said it was the first time in his 14 years as a deputy and jailer that he's seen an escaped convict willingly return.

Toy told the newspaper, "It was a spur of the moment decision. I saw an open door and just ran through it."

He added, "I am sorry about what I did. If I had it to do over again, I would have never run out the door."

The 20 Healthiest Places in America

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a massive report that assesses the health of the U.S. population according to a number of measures — from leisure time physical activity to smoking rates and incidence of heart disease.

Read more: The 20 Healthiest Places in America

The 15 Least Healthiest Places in America

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens loses re-election bid

One for the good guys ...

Yet another moron from Alaska bites the dust. You remember Ted Stevens, right? Besides being an 84 year-old convicted felon, he's also know as the "Internet is a Series of Tubes" guy.

Ted Stevens loses

Texas House members spend $140K to renovate lounge

While state agencies are being told to rein in their spending, Texas House members have ordered at least $140,000 in renovations for their members-only lounge, including antique chandeliers, granite counter tops and big screen televisions.

According to records, an "estimated budget" for the renovations lists a little over $140,000 in equipment and labor costs so far.

Among the expenditures listed are the two brass chandeliers at $14,500 each; custom wood cabinets with granite counter tops and back-splash at $61,200; a Scotsman Touchfree air-cooled flake ice maker at $3,425; and two Sharp 42-inch LCD TVs at $2,198.

The renovations come as state agencies are cutting expenses at the request of Gov. Rick Perry, who doesn't oversee spending by the Legislature, which operates independently of the executive branch.

"It's the height of hypocrisy for legislators to be out spending money feathering their lounge when everybody else has to cut back," said Tom "Smitty" Smith of the liberal watchdog group Public Citizen. "There's no more classic definition of a private club than that part of our capitol."

The records don't indicate what the final price tag for the renovation will be or who's coordinating the makeover. House Accountant Steve Adrian said "no particular person" initiated the renovation and he didn't foresee the costs exceeding that amount.

One person named in the documents is Nadine Craddick, the wife of GOP House Speaker Tom Craddick. She approved a new sink and oversaw the selection of the granite used for the countertops.

She wrote Adrian Oct. 29 about the possible purchase of a new couch. "This is my favorite," she said in the e-mail containing pictures of three Hancock-Moore sofa designs.

Asked if the e-mail prompted any expenditure, Adrian said: "Nothing has been purchased yet."

The records don't show Nadine Craddick has been paid a salary for her services.

Tom Craddick's spokeswoman, Alexis DeLee, did not return several calls from those seeking comment on Mrs., Craddick’s involvement.

State officials have given conflicting answers about who is coordinating the renovations. This week, Adrian called it a "joint project" between the House and the Texas State Preservation Board.

Last month, DeLee said the project was being coordinated by the House Administration Committee. But the committee chairman's name doesn't appear in the records.

New theory says autism and schizophrenia same disease

This could change everything ...

Their idea is, in broad outline, straightforward. Crespi and Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression.

In short: Autism and schizophrenia represent opposite ends of a spectrum that includes most, if not all, psychiatric and developmental brain disorders. The theory has no use for psychiatry’s many separate categories for disorders, and it would give genetic findings an entirely new dimension.

See the full story in the Chronicle Herald

Bill threatens lien, penalty to elderly, blind homeowner who owes one cent

South Attleboro, Massachusetts - home of the brightest, most sympathetic city employees in the whole world!

South Attleboro resident Eileen Wilbur's bill from the city is for one penny.

The city sent Wilbur a letter dated Nov. 10 stating that if the 1 cent balance is not paid by Dec. 10, the city will assess a lien of up to $48 on Wilbur's next property tax bill.

"They wasted taxpayer money on the letter," Wilbur said, noting the 42-cent charge for a stamp.

City Collector Debora Marcoccio said the bill was sent out along with more than 2,000 others as the city tries to recoup outstanding balances before resorting to putting liens on property.

A computer automatically printed the letters for any account with a balance remaining, and they were not reviewed by staff before being sent out, Marcoccio said.

"It would be fiscally irresponsible for me to have staff weed through the bills and pull out any below a certain amount," Marcoccio said. " And what would that amount be?"

City wants her cent

Trader attempts suicide on Brazilian exchange floor

The economic meltdown continues to spread unabated ...

A trader on the floor of Sao Paulo's Bovespa stock exchange shot himself in the chest. According to the Associated Press, Paulo Sergio Silva's condition is not known.

From the Associated Press:

It was not clear if he shot himself due to the recent sharp losses in Brazilian stocks or for other reasons.

Trading was halted for a few minutes after the shot was fired on Monday.

"Trader shoots himself on stock exchange floor"

Defining failure

Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure.

~ Errol Flynn.

And I Quote

Have you ever noticed?
Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.

~ George Carlin.

Vision Test

From the beginning Carolina Naturally has always been a place where nudity was no biggie. It has been a while since there was any nudity here, so it's about time right?!

How is your vision!?

TSA "behavior detection" is wrong more than 99 percent of the time

Like, Duh!

Remember when the TSA rolled out its "behavior detection" system whereby those highly-skilled monkeys - excuse me, I mean - TSA security officers at our airports would be trained to recognize your "micro expressions" and single you out on the basis of a twitchy eyelid or a sweaty upper lip?
Well, it turns out that over 99 percent of the IDs generated by the system are false positives - less than one percent lead to arrests
Also, the article doesn't say how many convictions come out of those.

"That's an awful lot of people being pulled aside and inconvenienced," said Carnegie Mellon scientist Stephen Fienberg, who studied the TSA program and other counterterrorism efforts. "I think it's a sham. We have no evidence it works."...

The TSA has not publicly said if it has caught a terrorist through the program. The agency says that some who are arrested, particularly on fake ID charges, may be scouting an airport for a possible attack.

Some scientists say the TSA effort is just as likely to flag a nervous traveler as a terrorist.

"The use of these technologies for the purpose that the TSA is interested in moves into an area where we don't have proven science," said Robert Levenson, a psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley.

Although observers can perceive whether someone appears anxious or is acting deceptively, they can't tell whether that person is planning an attack or something such as an extramarital affair, Levenson said.

Levenson and Fienberg were part of a National Academy of Sciences team whose report last month said "behavioral surveillance" has "enormous potential for violating" privacy.

TSA's 'behavior detection' leads to few arrests

Transient ordered to pay $101M for setting fires

Oh, the logic of it all ...

A homeless man has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $101 million for starting two fires, including one that burned more than 163,000 acres in California two years ago.

Fifty-year-old Steven Emory Butcher was convicted in February of starting blazes in the Los Padres National Forest in 2002 and 2006.

The 2006 fire raged for more than a month and cost more than $78 million to suppress. It injured 18 people, destroyed 11 structures and was the fifth-largest fire in California history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The 2002 blaze burned 70 acres.

*****

He is homeless, people. How is he going to pay $101 million dollars to the state of California?
The state of California is going to pay for his room and board for nearly four years as it is while he serves his prison term - they have already paid for his attorney(s) and the cost of his trial not to mention the investigation.

His going to prison is the right thing. But, if California thinks they will ever see a cent of that $101 million I have some land about three miles east of Miami I am looking to unload - I mean sell - cheap, it has an ocean view and everything.

Funny thing about English

English has changed quite a bit over the years and words mean different things today than they did originally or they are pronounced differently than they originally were or they are spelled differently than originally spelled.

Sometimes these changes are dramatic - so much so that Old English is totally indecipherable to today's English speakers.

Take the name for the town of Nottingham in England (yes, that of Robin Hood fame) it was named for a man 'of means' who originally settled there back in the day by the name of Snott (and yes that was his real name - smarty).

Nottingham literally means Snott's House ... doesn't look quite like Snott's House but that is what it means.

How do you like them apples?

Old School Rock'N'Roll

Neil Young and Crazy Horse kicking it live!

There's more to the picture than meets the eye ...