Mexican beauty queen arrested in gun-filled truck

A reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition, police said Tuesday.

Miss Sinaloa 2008 Laura Zuniga stared at the ground, with her flowing dark hair concealing her face, as she stood squeezed between seven alleged gunmen lined up before journalists.
Soldiers wearing ski masks guarded the 23-year-old model and the suspects.

Zuniga was arrested shortly before midnight on Monday at a military checkpoint in Zapopan, just outside the colonial city of Guadalajara, said Jalisco state police director, Francisco Alejandro Solorio.

Zuniga was riding in one of two trucks, where soldiers found a large stash of weapons, including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in U.S. currency, Solorio said.

State police identified one of the men caught with her as the brother of an alleged drug trafficker from Ciudad Juarez, a city on the U.S. border, and said the man appeared to have been her boyfriend.

Zuniga told police that she was planning on traveling to Bolivia and Colombia with the men to go shopping, Solorio said.

American Express Denied

Kevin D. Johnson returned from a dreamy Jamaican honeymoon in October eager to check out wedding photos and help his new wife open stacks of beautifully wrapped wedding gifts.

Before getting distracted by the fun stuff, the 29-year-old entrepreneur opened the mail. Johnson’s mood soured when he got to a letter from American Express, saying it had slashed the credit limit on his account.

Johnson was surprised, since he has a perfect payment history and a high credit score. and he was floored by one of the reasons American Express cited: it didn’t like where he shopped.

“Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express,” the letter said. Johnson complained to American Express by phone and letter.

...American Express declined to discuss Johnson’s account.

But it confirmed that it examines spending patterns. It’s just one of many tactics that credit card companies are using to try to keep default rates from growing higher. Along with studying shopping habits, American Express considers which mortgage lender a customer uses and whether the customer owns a home in an area where housing prices are declining.

More in the Atlanta Journal Constitution

39 Days, 7 Hours, 49 Minutes:

Todd Carmichael Officially Breaks Hannah McKeand’s South Pole World Speed Record

“Todd Carmichael has officially set a new solo and unsupported world speed record to the South Pole. His time of 39 days, 7 hours, and 33 minutes bested former world record holder Hannah McKeand’s time of 39 days, 9 hours, and 33 minutes set back in 2006. This is an official time coming from Todd’s tracking equipment and being reported by ExplorersWeb. How close was it? The difference between Todd and Hannah is 1 hour and 44 minutes - or less than 0.2% of the time on the ice. If the same difference was applied to a 100 meter dash, it would equal less than 0.02 seconds - just barely measurable with modern time keeping.

Along with gaining the new official solo and unsupported world speed record, Todd Carmichael has also become the first American to go solo and unsupported to the South Pole. It is still undecided if Todd will gain the record for going the longest distance on foot. When I first interviewed Todd before this journey, becoming the first American to go solo and unsupported was his biggest priority. A week before he set foot on the ice, I got an email that nonchalently stated “I might as well go for the world speed record while I’m at it. What do you think?” Todd felt that his conditioning and preparation for this journey were miles ahead of where he was with his unsuccessful South Pole expedition last year. Obviously, we can now see how far ahead Todd was.”

The Adventurist

Special Delivery: The 72-year-old milkman who delivered cannabis with the daily pint

“Robert Holding was the sort of milkman who always liked to help his customers - particularly the elderly ones. So if they left him a little note asking for something extra, he tried to get it for them. But some of their requests went beyond the usual dozen eggs or bottle of orange juice. Holding, 72, has admitted supplying cannabis to some of his older customers.

He was caught placing small bars of cannabis resin into empty egg cartons, and leaving them on doorsteps. When he was confronted by police, Holding told officers he would only ever supply pensioners with the drug to help them with their ‘aches and pains’. Cannabis has been shown in studies to help ease pain in arthritis and other conditions.

But a judge told the elderly milkman his special delivery service would inevitably lead to a spell behind bars. Burnley Crown Court has heard that Holding only delivered to pensioners on his delivery round who had found out about his extra service by word of mouth. The grandfather had 17 drug customers who would regularly ask for cannabis.”

The Daily Mail

"They say I'm crazy"

The original 1941 Woody Woodpecker.

Cats as food in Guangdong

The LA Times has an article about how cats are popular as food in the Guangdong province.

Dog is eaten in many parts of China, but only in Guangdong do people eat cat. It is rare to see a stray wandering the streets. Many cats served for supper here are shipped down from the north.

The Small Animal Protection Assn. says one Guangzhou-based business captures up to 10,000 cats per day from different parts of China. The cat snatchers are typically formerly unemployed people who use large fishing nets and are paid $1.50 per cat.

"They've eaten all their cats so they have to take ours from Beijing. People don't want to let their cats go out on the street," said Zhao Ming, a 55-year-old physician who was among about 40 people demonstrating in Beijing.

The cat trade thrives in a seemingly boundless gray area of commerce. Police are reluctant to charge the cat catchers with theft because many of the cats involved live outside and, in the famously independent way of cats, are not technically owned by humans, merely fed and nurtured.

Chinese seek to pull cats from the menu

Purple squirrel in England

This purple squirrel has been hanging around Meoncross School in Stubbington, England. Nobody is quite sure where it's unusual fur color comes from, but the school's registrar Lorraine Orridge has a suspicion.

From The Telegraph:

"We don't think he is a mutant squirrel but he may have had a mishap around the school. "The old building where we have seen him nipping in and out is a bit of a graveyard for computer printers. He may have found some printer toners in there.

Purple squirrel baffles experts

Illinois health department throws one sick Christmas party

Some health department workers in southern Illinois think they may have discovered some contaminated food - at their own office Christmas gathering.

After the Lawrence County Health Department had a buffet for 72 people at a restaurant last week, 42 of the attendees suffered stomach problems, including the head of the department, Phyllis Wells.

"I'm telling you, it got me down. I about passed out and everything else," Wells said Monday. "It's not been funny. It's taken the punch out of my whole Christmas."

Wells says the cause of the outbreak hasn't been pinpointed. But she suspects the culprit was a norovirus - something people get from contact with those infected, ingesting contaminated food or drink, or by touching contaminated items and then their mouths.

For now, Wells says the common denominator appears to be cold diced ham served in the salad bar.

"It may be that just a food handler was sick at the time and handled some of the food they prepped for the meal," she said. "Or maybe it was somebody who was sick who came to it and touched the handle and contaminated it."

Wells says it isn't lost on her that state health officials are now investigating a restaurant where food-inspection and other public health workers got sick.

"It's just my luck," she said, mustering a laugh. "Usually, it's our job to investigate other things. But us getting sick is ironic."

There was no answer Monday at the restaurant. Wells says it's her understanding the business hasn't reopened since the outbreak.

Some player could take lessons

A spectator who tackled New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau on the sidelines during the team's 47-7 win over Arizona has been charged with trespassing and assault and battery.

Thirty-one-year-old Todd Kobus, of Attleboro, made an initial court appearance Monday in Wrentham District Court, where a pretrial hearing was set for February 17.

The Patriots said the fan was removed from the stadium and arrested by police after Seau was tackled during the fourth quarter of Sunday's game.

Seau, a 12-time Pro Bowler, had sat out the season before rejoining New England for its game at Seattle on Dec. 7. He was their leading tackler Sunday in his third game with the team this season.

Alaska pulls plug on Snowzilla the giant snowman

Snowzilla is no more.

Municipal officials in Anchorage have given a cease-and-desist order to builders of the giant snowman that made appearances the last three years in an east Anchorage neighborhood. The giant snowman was a favorite for photographers and camera crews from Russia and Japan filmed the temporary sculpture. Snowzilla in 2005 rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

He was built in the front yard of the Powers family home and Billy Powers said his children collected snow from neighbors homes to add to the height and breadth.

The snowman was built even higher in succeeding years, but not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.

City officials deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard.

A few weeks ago, code enforcers left red signs at Snowzilla's bottom body ball telling its builders to cease and desist. The city also tacked a public notice on the door of the Powers home.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

When the notices went up, Snowzilla still didn't have a full torso or head.

"The kids had spent hours and hours of work on it," Billy Powers said Sunday.

Now, Snowzilla is just a big pile of snow rubble.

Mom accused of smoking marijuana with teen kids

Now Nevada is getting in on the 'stupid adults and kids' game ...

A 39-year-old woman was arrested last week on suspicion of smoking marijuana with her two teenage children. Douglas County sheriff's deputies said the woman was detained after they responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle. Deputies said the woman told them that she was teaching her son to drive, but they smelled marijuana emanating from the vehicle.

The suspect's son, whose age was unavailable, and 14-year-old daughter told deputies they had shared two bowls of marijuana with their mother.

The woman was booked into jail Tuesday on charges of child endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of a drug.

The 14-year-old was released to Child and Protective Services, while the boy was placed in juvenile detention.

Massachusetts man melting snow with blowtorch ignites home

This is why the rest of us know Yankees aren't too bright ...

Fire officials in New Bedford, Massachusetts, say a man using a blowtorch to melt ice on his back porch ended up setting his house on fire, causing up to $30,000 in damage.

Fire Capt. Scott Kruger said that no on was injured during Monday's incident at the three-story home.

Kruger says the man was using a torch hooked up to a 20-pound propane cylinder. He got too close to the building's wood frame and ignited the vinyl siding. The fire quickly spread into the building's second- and third-floor apartments.

It took 25 firefighters to subdue the blaze that damaged bedrooms in the upstairs units, and caused damage to the structure and wiring.

The homeowner will not be charged.

*****

Au contraire ... he will be charged (and laughed at) by the contractor who repairs his home.

ACLU sues Laguna Beach over treatment of homeless

Civil rights attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against this exclusive coastal town and accused its leadership of engaging in a campaign of harassment against the disabled homeless.

The American Civil Liberties Union alleged in its lawsuit that a city ban on sleeping on the street is unconstitutional, particularly because there are no year-round city-sponsored shelters.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.

"There are even more art galleries than homeless residents," said Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU's legal director for Southern California.
"Yet city leaders have chosen to attempt to eliminate the homeless, rather than eliminate homelessness."

The lawsuit seeks a change in policy, but no money for the homeless, Rosenbaum said. It deals with mentally and physically disabled homeless - terms that defines a majority of the town's homeless population, Rosenbaum said.

New Readers

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers from our newest country: Andorra.

As of this moment ...

4213 Brave men and women will NOT be returning from Iraq
ALIVE!

Take it for what it's worth ...

You had to know it would involve Wal-Mart!

In someplace called Mountain View at the Wal-Mart police arrived to investigate a report of a newborn infant found in a trash can only to find it was a burrito.

Just building steam

3000 posts and just building steam!

Huge water main break traps drivers

Rescue crews in Bethesda, Maryland, scrambled to rescue motorists stranded in at least four feet of rushing water unleashed by a massive water main break early today just outside Washington, D.C.

Television images showed two people in a minivan climbing into a basket that was lowered from a helicopter flying overhead.

A boat also was being used as rescuers attempted to reach motorists in the frigid water.

Montgomery County fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said at least a dozen people had been rescued from their vehicles as crews struggled with the swift water to reach more cars.

No injuries have been reported.

Authorities said it was a 66-inch water main that broke on River Road near the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda.

Morning temperatures are well below freezing all along the east coast, which are not helping.

How to be rid of telemarketers forever

When one calls and starts their spiel interrupt them and say quietly but firmly " this number is classified...how did you acquire it? Never mind ... remain where you are and somebody from Homeland Security will be with you in ten minutes"

Word will get around fast and calls to your number will cease!

For the deaf ones (you know the ones who won't shut up long enough to breathe, let alone hear what you say) the bullhorn blasted directly into the mouthpiece at full amplification works fine.

This too causes word to spread and calls dry up fast!

Warming trend

We are experiencing one hell of a warming trend today after yesterday!
We are at a torrid 27 degrees Fahrenheit right now!

Well, it is better than 25 degrees Fahrenheit, now isn't it?

Only Two More Days

Only Two More Days!

That's right, folks you have only today and tomorrow to do all that 'shopping' you are required to do this time of year!

Remember only you can line the pockets of the rich and provide for their comfort. And we know they need their pockets lined and their comfort, lawdy they do!

*****

Here's a thought.

Why not return to the traditional reason for the holiday season - gathering with friends and family to celebrate friends and family. Maybe exchanging small handcrafted gifts and recipes. Leaving the religious and commercial (all too damn, successful) attempts to steal the holiday away from it's true meanings behind.

What do you say ... want to celebrate the holiday as it is supposed to be celebrated?!

No Quonking Please

That's quonking - not honking -and it's something people should avoid if they are on radio or television.

Quonking ... the extra sounds, like throat clearing and sighing, that can be picked up by the microphone or that may distract the announcer or guest.

So, as of now, Carolina Naturally - ahem - has been declared a 'No Quonking Zone'!

Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio

The Ramones

This is sad ... very sad

And you wonder why the world laughs at Americans ...

More Americans Believe in the Devil, Hell and Angels than in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

That very large majorities of the American public believe in God, miracles, the survival of the soul after death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise. What may be more surprising is that substantial minorities believe in ghosts, UFOs, witches, astrology, and the belief that they themselves were once other people. Overall, more people believe in the devil, hell and angels than believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll®, a new nationwide survey of 2,126 U.S. adults surveyed online between November 10 and 17, 2008 by Harris Interactive®.

Harris Interactive

Good to see ignorance and superstition still reign supreme isn't it! When will the USA join the current century?

Science Behind Mysterious 'Fifth Taste' Revealed

It’s appetizing news for anyone who’s ever wanted the savory taste of meats and cheeses without actually having to eat them: chemists have identified molecular mechanisms underlying the sensation of umami, also known as the fifth taste.

The much-loved but historically unappreciated taste is produced by two interacting sets of molecules, each of which is needed to trigger cellular receptors on a tongue’s surface.

“This opens the door to designing better, more potent and more selective umami enhancers,” said Xiaodong Li, a chemist at San Diego-based food-additive company Senomyx. Li co-authored the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Four other basic tastes — bitter, sweet, salty and sour — were identified 2,400 years ago by the Greek philosopher Democritus, and became central to the western gastronomic canon.

In the late 19th century, French chef and veal-stock inventor Auguste Escoffier suggested that a fifth taste was responsible for his mouth-watering brew. Though Escoffier's dishes were popular, his theories were dismissed until 1908, when Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda showed that an amino acid called glutamate underlies the taste of a hearty variety of seaweed soup.

Read the rest here.

Welcome new readers

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers in our 155th country: Niger

Men convicted of conspiracy to kill US soldiers

Five Muslim immigrants accused of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were convicted of conspiracy Monday.

The case tested the FBI's post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist plots in their earliest stages.

The men could get life in prison when they are sentenced in April.

The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel.

But they were acquitted of attempted murder after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack and did not necessarily have a specific plan.

Four defendants were also convicted of weapons charges.

The federal jury deliberated for 38 hours over six days.

The government said after the arrests in 2007 that the case underscored the dangers of terrorist plots hatched on U.S. soil.

Although investigators said the conspirators were inspired by Osama bin Laden, they were not accused of any ties to foreign terror groups.

Abrupt Climate Shifts May Come Sooner, Not Later

The United States could suffer the effects of abrupt climate changes within decades—sooner than some previously thought--says a new government report.

Percent of area affected by drought in the western United States over time. Examples of “mega-droughts” are indicated by the red arrows. The modern era is highlighted in yellow for comparison.

Read the rest here.

Topics: Diabetic heart disease

A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on 16 December 2008 has found that those with type 2 diabetes who had a diet high in low-glycemic foods such as nuts, beans and lentils had greater improvement in glycemic control and risk factors for coronary heart disease than those on a diet with an emphasis on high-cereal fibre.

The study gives further weight to the lifestyle advice currently recommended for the control of diabetes, says Professor Lars Ryden (Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden), ESC Spokesperson for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, who adds: “Treatment of type 2 diabetes should always be initiated with structured life-style advice. This is clearly highlighted in the ESC/EASD Guidelines for diabetes, pre-diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Results from the JAMA study suggest that such advice may be as effective as some drug interventions.

“The JAMA study also shows that a well balanced diet will improve not only blood glucose tolerance but also blood lipid levels, which are of great importance in decreasing cardiovascular complications. If drugs are still needed in these circumstances, their dose and number may be lower.

“Subjects with type 2 diabetes should also be aware that it is important to avoid excess weight, and the diet described in the study may help achieve this goal.”

Speaking specifically about the study Professor Joep Perk (Oskarshamn District Hospital, Sweden), an ESC spokesperson on the subject of cardiovascular prevention, said that the study was of relatively short duration (six months) in 210 patients; a diet high in low-glycemic foods resulted in a modest decrease in HbA1c levels when compared to a high-cereal fibre diet.

”The main finding of the study – a significant increase of HDL levels and a greater reduction in the LDL/HDL ratio - may provide the rationale for long-term interventional studies. However, in the absence of these studies it is still premature to change the current practice of dietary counseling for type 2 diabetes patients,” said Professor Perk.

Check out more here.

This just might explain it

A study of WWII soldiers who all took the same IQ tests when they were children suggests that more intelligent soldiers are more likely to die in battle. This would mean that -- logically speaking -- the more wars we have, the more of our best and brightest are killed. Hmm. From an evolutionary perspective, that would seem to suggest that the more wars we have, the dumber we all become, since only the dumber people are left to breed.

I guess that could explain why America -- which has insisted on staying on a more or less constant war footing since the end of WWII -- ended up allowing Republican politics to dominate it so much since. We're literally becoming too stupid to vote for smart choices in many of our elections. And so stupid that too many of us actually believe the lies spewed by entities like Fox News. So that a single rich and ill-intentioned man like Rupert Murdoch can come very close to simply buying many elections by way of propaganda.

If America's war footing truly has been causing us to 'devolve' in this manner, that would also help explain the increasingly frail health and stunted height of many Americans today, compared to Americans in the days before our policies of perpetual war. For we'd not only be dumber on average, but smaller and more frail too, if mostly the substandard among us are left to breed after the best of us have been spent on war.

University of Edinburgh, via NewScientist

Now, this does not completely true. This old war horse made it through and his IQ scores are above quite (and quite above, to boot), a few others. So further extrapolation of this theory would indicate that the most intelligent soldiers would make it through a war alive. But, then again they're only a few of us to begin with ...

Daily Horoscope

My horoscope for the day says:

You concentrate on producing results, and you're good at that.

Now, just aren't I though!