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.
Nero succeeds his great uncle Claudius, who was murdered by his wife, as the new emperor of Rome.
1307
Members of the Knights of Templar are
arrested throughout France, imprisoned and tortured by the order of
King Philip the Fair of France.
1399
Henry IV of England is crowned.
1670
Virginia passes a law that blacks arriving in the colonies as Christians cannot be used as slaves.
1775
The Continental Congress authorizes construction of two warships, thus instituting an American naval force.
1776
Benedict Arnold is defeated at Lake Champlain.
1792
President George Washington lays the cornerstone for the White House.
1812
At the Battle of Queenston Heights, a Canadian and British army defeats the American who have tried to invade Canada.
1849
The California state constitution, which prohibits slavery, is signed in Monterey.
1903
Boston defeats Pittsburgh in baseball's first World Series.
1904
Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is published.
1942
In the first of four attacks, two Japanese
battleships sail down the slot and shell Henderson field on
Guadalcanal, in an unsuccessful effort to destroy the American Cactus Air Force.
1943
Italy declares war on Germany.
1944
Troops of the advancing Soviet Army occupy Riga, capital of Latvia.
1946
The Fourth Republic begins in France; will continue to 1958.
1958
First appearance of Paddington Bear, now a beloved icon of children's literature.
1967
First game of the fledgling American Basketball Association; Oakland Oaks beat Anaheim Amigos 134-129 in Oakland, Cal.
1972
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in
the Andes Mountains, near the Argentina-Chile border; only 16 survivors
(out of 45 people aboard) are rescued on Dec. 23.
1976
Dr. F.A. Murphy at Center for Disease Control obtains the first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle.
1983
The Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying seven, the largest crew to date, lands safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
1990
The Lebanese Civil War ends when a Syrian attack removes Gen. Michel Aoun from power.
2010
After being underground for a record 69 days, all 33 miners trapped in a Copiapo, Chile, mine are rescued.
Writer and children's book illustrator Ingrid Sundberg created a very useful infographic chart
for anyone struggling with color names. The writer says that she loves
to collect words that can help give her stories variety and depth. Sundberg's guide will help expand your descriptive vocabulary beyond green, red and blue.
Yet another report reveals that fracking in California has contaminated aquifers during a historical drought.…
One of America’s greatest assets are the abundant
natural resources that helped elevate a new country into a world-class
nation, and over the past century a world leader. Of all this nation’s
resources, fossil fuels are far and away the single-most valuable in
driving the industrial revolution and enriching one industry above all
others except maybe banking and agriculture. Obviously, America’s
abundant water supply should be considered as precious a natural
resource as petroleum, but that is not a consideration the fossil fuel
industry shares regardless that not only is water crucial to
agriculture, it is a fundamental necessity of human life. Water is also a
fundamental necessity for the oil industry that could not care less how
their extraction processes contaminate water used for agriculture, or
human consumption. This week, yet another report reveals that fracking
in California has contaminated aquifers during a historical drought.
In July, California state regulators, Department of Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), shut down
eleven fracking wastewater injection wells over concerns that what
precious water the severely drought-stricken state has left is being
contaminated with toxins and carcinogens; particularly in highly
productive agricultural areas. According to its due diligence, the
agency the oil industry and repugicans hate above all others, the
Environment Protection Agency (EPA), promptly ordered a report within 60
days to determine if the oil industry did indeed poison what little
water California has left and what extent, if any, the damage might have
on the agriculture industry and drinking water supply.
This past week, with little to no mention in the
conservative media, the California State water Resources Board issued a
report to the EPA confirming
that yes, at least nine of the eleven fracking sites were deliberately
dumping poisoned waste water directly into central California aquifers.
The waste water is laden with extremely hazardous toxins and
carcinogenic chemicals used in fracking and the aquifers the industry
destroyed are protected by both state laws as well as the federal Safe
Drinking Water Act. Of course, both repugicans and the oil industry
(read Koch brothers) can not countenance either California’s
environmental protections or the Safe Drinking Water Act as evidenced by
a campaign pledge by repugican Jeff
Denham, promising an all-out federal drive to abolish California’s water
regulations permanently.
According to the damning report,
over 3 billion gallons of poisoned waste-water was illegally injected
directly into central California aquifers, and that water samples
collected at water supply wells tested in the proximity of the fracking
injection sites all had extremely high levels of known carcinogenic
chemicals such as arsenic. Arsenic, besides being a cancer-causing
agent, also weakens the human immune system. The arsenic is combined
with a toxin used in rat poison, thallium, that was found in water
supplies in and around the fracking injection sites. The water wells are
useless as a safe drinking-water resource as well as worthless for the
state’s very substantial agricultural industry.
A professor of environmental studies at the
University of Redlands, Timothy Krantz, warned that these toxic
chemicals and carcinogens pose a very serious threat to public health.
He said, “The fact that high concentrations are showing up in multiple
water wells close to waste-water injection sites raises major concerns
about the health and safety of nearby residents.” Unfortunately, it is
likely that the full extent of poisoned water is still not, and may not,
be known for some time because the Central Valley Water Board has only
tested 8 out of 100 nearby water wells. The State Water Resources Board
is concerned that at least 19 other fracking injection sites are still
currently contaminating protected aquifers in the agriculture-rich
Central Valley region which already has some of the state’s worst air
and water pollution. Pollution directly attributable to the highly
dangerous impact of oil companies’ increasing and careless use of the
controversial oil extraction technique; that does not include dumping
the poisoned water into the aquifer after the extraction process is
finished.
Besides poisoning water needed by the agriculture
industry and California citizens, the oil industry’s wanton fracking is,
without question, exacerbating
the historically severe drought throughout the state and not just the
agriculture-rich Central Valley. In fact, over 80% of California is
experiencing the beginning of a decade-long (at least) “extreme” drought
conditions a handy little map
gives a clue to how devastating the drought is for the state. For any
intelligent human being, reports that billions upon billions of toxic
fracking waste water is being pumped directly into “protected aquifers”
Central Valley residents rely on for basic survival just does not make
sense; except to repugicans dependent on oil industry donations.
While the citizens of California are conserving every drop of water, the oil industry is using
at least 140,000 to 150,000 gallons “per fracking site” every day of
the year; permanently deleting it from the water cycle, mixing in poison
and cancer-causing chemicals, and putting it into whatever water their
fracking process has not yet robbed and poisoned. Still, Central Valley repugican Jeff Denham is openly campaigning on permanently
eliminating water regulations and lying that the EPA’s American Waters
Act will seize Californians’ property if they have a man-made pond in
their backyard.
An attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity,
Hollin Kretzmann, said these new revelations prove state regulators have
failed to protect Californians’ health, dwindling water supply, as well
as the environment from fracking. He, and many Californians are
demanding that Governor Jerry Brown take immediate action to prevent an
even bigger water emergency in drought-stricken California. He said,
“Much more testing is needed to gauge the full extent of water pollution
and the threat to public health, but Governor Brown should move quickly
to halt fracking to ward off a surge in oil industry wastewater that
California simply isn’t prepared to dispose of safely.” It is not just
that California is ill-prepared to safely get rid of the poisoned water,
the state can hardly afford to lose even one more gallon of the
precious necessity, and not just for agriculture use either.
One of the biggest misconceptions driven by
corporate agriculture regarding preserving what little water is left is
that it is crucial to save California billions of dollars in lost
profits. A great deal of the water shortage is due to the past few years
of irresponsible over-planting by huge corporate farms, up and down the
state, of water intensive crops; particularly almonds. Almonds, like
most nut crops, are a luxury commodity for export that not only fail to
generate many jobs other than low-wage farm labor, exports are not
taxed. The state, counties, and local communities are not profiting from
corporate agriculture that is draining wells the oil industry has
poisoned and permanently collapsed aquifers that will never, never ever,
be replenished.
The real travesty, and it is a travesty, is that
both California and the federal government have adequate regulations in
place to protect the state’s water supply for human and agricultural
use. However, like every regulation affecting the fossil fuel industry,
they do not apply according to the persistent industry practice of
disregarding both the law and health of Americans. That the industry is
wasting what precious little water resources Californian’s depend on for
survival is, although beyond the pale, a typical oil industry practice
with typical repugican support.
President Obama called out the current Congress for being unwilling
to move forward legislation that would help average Americans. …
We can’t have nice things because repugicans in
Congress refuse to move on things that used to be nonpartisan. And by
nice things, I mean a decent wage, infrastructure, a measure of
equality, and affordable education. Since Democrats historically don’t
vote in midterms, repugicans get to obstruct laws that would help
everyone.
Speaking to a crowd of an estimated 200 supporters
at a sold out DNC event held at the San Francisco W Hotel Friday night,
President Obama called out the current Congress for being unwilling to
move forward legislation that would help average Americans.
The President reminded the audience that their
vision was shared by the majority of Americans, but “we don’t have a
Congress right now that is willing to move to them forward.”
President Obama explained that while “there’s almost
no economic measure by which we’re not doing better than we were six
years ago… People are still worried … because for about 20, 30 years
now, the trend has been that gains in the economy go to folks at the
very top, and ordinary folks — the middle class, people working to get
into the middle class — their income and wages have not gone up.”
The President acknowledged that some of this pain is
from globalization and trends that we can’t control with policy, but
“some of it is that we’re not taking the steps that would grow the
economy even faster and give workers a stronger position to be able to
get wages that are higher, and incomes that are higher, and more
stability and security in their lives.”
Guess why we’re not doing this? It’s not because the
majority of Americans don’t agree. They do. It’s “not because I haven’t
proposed them. It’s not because I haven’t fought for them.”
“It’s because we don’t have a Congress right now that is willing to move to them forward,” the President told the crowd.
Obama laid down some more facts about the minimum
wage, equal pay for women, infrastructure and making education
affordable and accessible. He pointed out that these ideas used to be
nonpartisan, “And all these ideas historically have not been partisan
ideas. And yet, we’ve got a House of Representatives in particular, and
a small faction within the other party, that simply says no to every
single step that could be taken to help working families.”
Someone yelled, “Yes sir!” at this point, clearly feeling impatient with Republican obstruction.
The President challenged the crowd, “(T)he question
now is, what are we going to do about it? I heard, when I mentioned the
other party, I heard a few “boos.”
“And I always say, don’t boo, vote. Vote.”
These specific Democratic policies are supported by
the majority of Americans. Obama said, “The fact is that our vision is
shared by the majority of Americans. The majority of Americans believe
in raising the minimum wage. A majority of Americans believe in
investing in early childhood education. A majority of Americans think
we should rebuild our infrastructure. A majority of Americans think we
should be investing in the research and technology and innovation that’s
always been the hallmark of the American economy. A majority of
Americans believe in equal pay for equal work. So on the issues, the
public is on our side.”
So why can’t we have nice things?
Because Democrats don’t vote in midterms.
“But there’s a congenital problem that we have as
Democrats, and that is, in non-presidential elections, in midterm
elections, we don’t vote. We don’t vote,” The President charged. “So
my main argument today is that it’s nice that you all came here to hear
Maxwell – or look at Maxwell. It’s nice that some of you took a picture
with me. I’m glad to do it. But the main thing that I need right now
is votes.”
The President tasked his supporters, “We’ve got to
mobilize, we’ve got to organize. We’ve got to knock on doors. We’ve
got to make phone calls. If our people vote, if our — if young people
vote, if women vote, if people of color vote, if people who care about
the environment vote, if people who care about LGBT rights vote — that’s
a majority. That’s a majority.”
President Obama is fighting hard for policies to
help the working class of America. But many of his policies are
gathering dust because of the deliberate choice of repugicans to
obstruct everything Obama is for. The problem with this is not that
Obama is a good person who doesn’t deserve this; the problem is that
President Obama’s policies would have helped and could help millions of
Americans. They are suffering because of repugican obstruction.
After reading this story, I really tried to avoid the urge to vent out
against this stupidity. But then I made the mistake of reading it twice -
and I just had to say a few words.
While I know "birthers" still exist, and always will (after all, there
are still people who think we faked the mood landing), it really does
amaze me how many of them there still are. While this ridiculous
movement has clearly died down from its peak around 2009/2010, there
still remain a decent chunk of conservative Americans who don't believe
President Obama is actually an American.
Well, right-wing legal
activist Larry Klayman has taken this nonsense a step further by filing
paperwork with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to get President
Obama deported.
Klayman said:
"No, Obama is not incompetent or ill prepared, as politically
correct commentators shade it. The African-American "Muslim in Chief"
knows exactly what he is doing, and it is done at the expense of the
rest of us. As set forth in a deportation petition I filed just today,
it's time that he be deported back to his native country and for him to
leave us alone. He has no legitimacy to be president, and he must be
tried, convicted and removed from our shores before he destroys
everything the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us."
New Jersey repugican Jeff Bell, who is running against incumbent Democrat Cory Booker in New Jersey’s US Senate race, told a New Jersey newspaper Thursday
that he is behind Booker because single women are “wed” to the
Democratic Party due to their reliance on government benefits. In a
conversation with the Asbury Park Press, Bell lamented about
his double-digit deficit in the polls to Booker, the former Newark mayor
who was elected to the Senate last year via special election.
In Bell’s mind, the huge gender gap he is dealing
with in the polls is solely based on single women feeling that they have
to vote Democratic if they want to keep the benefits they need to
survive.
“I’ve done a lot of
thinking about this and looked at a lot of different polls, I think it
has more to do with the rise in single women. Single mothers
particularly are automatically Democratic because of the benefits. They
need benefits to survive, and so that kind of weds them to the
Democratic Party. But single women who have never married and don’t have
children are also that way. If you take married women, they aren’t that
different from married men. So it’s really a problem with the decline
in marriage rates. The Democrats do benefit from that.”
With his foot placed firmly in his mouth, Bell decided to keep spouting out the broad stereotypes.
“Even before the gender
gap appeared, men were more willing to vote for change. They’re more
bomb-throwers. Women are more cautious. If you’re doing well among men,
that is something that an insurgent candidate needs.”
Currently, Bell is well behind Booker in the polls
with less than a month to go before the election. Bell hasn’t been
considered a serious threat to Booker this entire time, and these latest
tone-deaf comments aren’t going to help his cause. While a recent Stockton poll has Booker ‘only’ up by nine points and 11 points with women, that appears to be an outlier. A survey by Monmouth University shows Bell down 15 points with women favoring Booker by 23 points. Quinnipiac’s most recent poll shows Booker with an 11-point advantage and a 20-point lead with women.
These comments will make Bell more widely known
among New Jersey voters. Even in the most recent polls, most New Jersey
voters either have not heard of Bell of have no opinion of him. While
this will increase Bell’s notoriety, it won’t help him at all. Oddly
enough, when you say offensive things about women, or any specific group
or class of people, they tend to not like you afterwards. Then again,
we can’t go a week without some member the repugican cabal saying
something awful about women and minorities. Sometimes, they’ll just go
out and make pandering sexist ads
with the idea that women only care about wedding dresses and getting
married, like the college repugicans did less than two weeks ago.
The repugicans are already shopping around for a friendly wingnut judge to uphold their blatant voter suppression laws.
On Thursday, Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos in Texas blocked that state’s attempt to block as many people as possible from voting:
Just
weeks before the mid-term elections a federal judge in Corpus Christi
struck down on Thursday Texas’ contentious voter ID law, describing it
as a “poll tax” and finding that it discriminated against minority
voters.
Federal District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ruled
that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act
and barred the state from enforcing it in the coming November election.
“There
has been a clear and disturbing pattern of discrimination in the name
of combating voter fraud in Texas,” Ramos wrote in her opinion issued
late Thursday.
This is the same pattern that the five wingnut Justices on the Supreme Court denied the existence of when
they gutted the Voting Rights Act. Because even when repugicans have
been caught repeatedly saying that Voter ID laws exist explicitly to
keep people from voting, some people *coughSCALIAcough* will simply
pretend the repugican cabal is just trying to protect the integrity of elections.
Texas
Attorney General Greg Abbott (currently running for governor against
Wendy Davis) has vowed to appeal the decision, no doubt hoping to find a
friendlier (read as: wingnut ideologue) judge that will happily
rubber stamp the so-blatant-it’s-comical attempt to keep minorities,
students and the poor away from the voting booth.
This is why it’s
so important to have a Democrat in the White House. Contrary to what
the lazy and misinformed claim, both parties are not “the
same.” There is no conceivable circumstance in which a liberal
dominated Supreme Court would have gutted the Voting Rights Act to clear
the way for repglican controlled states to undo half a century’s worth
of civil rights gains. For frak’s sake, repugicans are even using the
same arguments as last time!:
During closing arguments, the state countered that the law is constitutional, popular and essential to combat voter fraud.
However,
Ramos found in her ruling that many other voting laws that were found
to discriminate against minorities – like the poll tax and literacy
tests – were also justified on those grounds.
“There has been a
clear and disturbing pattern of discrimination in the name of combating
voter fraud in Texas,” she wrote. “The only voter fraud addressed by
(voter ID) is voter impersonation fraud, which the evidence demonstrates
is very rare.”
The only reason repugicans are being
so transparent in their push to suppress voting rights is because they
know that as long as there are five right wing ideologues on the Supreme
Court and hundreds of conservative extremists (many with lifetime
appointments) infesting the Judicial Branch, they’ll have a free hand to
do whatever they want. There’s a reason repugicans are blocking
Obama’s appointments: They’re hoping that a repugican will take the
White House in the next presidential election so they can pack the
courts with more pro-business, anti-democracy judges.
If this
story does not convince you of how critical it is to keep repugicans
away from the judiciary, you’re not part of the solution; you’re a very
large part of the problem.
"At least 10 ISIS fighters
have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas" and there
are "dozens more that did not get caught by the Border Patrol."
— Duncan Hunter on Tuesday, October 7th, 2014 in an interview with Greta Van Susteren of Faux News
by Dylan Baddour and W. Gardner Selby
Duncan
Hunter, r-California, made his comment about the Border Patrol capturing
ISIS fighters on Faux News Oct. 7, 2014.
Duncan Hunter this week declared terrorists have been crossing the Rio Grande.The California repugican, speaking to Greta Van Susteren on Faux News
Oct. 7, 2014, said he’d learned from the U.S. Border Patrol that
Islamic State fighters had been nabbed trying to enter the country from
Mexico. "ISIS is coming across the southern border," Hunter said, adding
a moment later: "I know that at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught
coming across the Mexican border in Texas."
Border Patrol agents "caught them," Hunter also said, but "you know
there's going to be dozens more that did not get caught by the Border
Patrol."
Our eyebrows were raised. We sought detail. No federal or state confirmation
No state or federal law enforcement agency confirmed Hunter’s account
when we inquired, and Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper declined to reveal
the congressman’s sources.
Faux News, in its original Oct. 8,
2014, online news report on Hunter’s declaration, quoted the Department
of Homeland Security disputing his account.
Homeland Security toldPolitiFact Texas that no such
apprehensions have occurred. An agency spokeswoman, Marsha Catron,
emailed: "The suggestion that individuals who have ties to ISIL have
been apprehended at the Southwest border is categorically false, and not
supported by any credible intelligence or the facts on the ground. DHS
continues to have no credible intelligence to suggest terrorist
organizations are actively plotting to cross the southwest border."
And after Hunter spoke, the Texas Department of Public Safety wrote
state legislators, saying in an Oct. 8, 2014, email it "does not have
any information to confirm" statements about Islamic terrorists or ISIS
fighters entering the country. A DPS spokesman, Tom Vinger, confirmed
the message’s authenticity.
In the message, a DPS deputy director, Robert Bodisch, mentioned the Hunter interview and an Oct. 8, 2014, news report
by Judicial Watch, a conservative news website, stating Islamic
terrorists had entered the country from Mexico. According to
unidentified Homeland Security sources, Judicial Watch said four
terrorists had been apprehended in the previous 36 hours by federal
authorities and the DPS in McAllen and Pharr.
In the message to legislators, Bodisch further wrote: "An unsecure
border is certainly a vulnerability that can be exploited by criminals
of all kinds, and it would be naïve to rule out the possibility that any
criminal organization would not look for opportunities to take
advantage of security gaps along our international border. That said,
DPS does not have any information to confirm the specific statements
recently reported in the press."
On Sept. 17, 2014, PolitiFact in Washington analyzed an August 2014 Judicial Watch story, finding Mostly False
another congressman’s claim that "we know that ISIS is present in
Ciudad Juarez," which neighbors El Paso. Research did not turn up any
law enforcement official or news outlet that independently verified or
corroborated the claim, making the declaration that "we know" with
certainty ISIS is in Juarez a big stretch.
For this fact check, a terrorism expert said Hunter’s claim doesn’t make much sense.
"It’s implausible given the way the criminal-justice system works to
have 10 ISIS fighters arrested at the border and never charged," said
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, director of the Center for the Study of
Terrorist Radicalization at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in
Washington.
Gartenstein-Ross said by phone he knows of "no reporting coming
through DHS suggesting that a large number of ISIS fighters have been
intercepted at the border. I’ve talked to a large number of people
within the department, and the department has unequivocally denied it.
There’s not one shred of evidence this is the case."
Kasper, informed we'd not confirmed Hunter's statement, said Hunter stands by what he said.
Kasper also expressed doubt federal agencies are revealing the facts about fighters getting caught.
"Problem here is that this is always a zero-sum game," Kasper wrote.
"We make the point. Official channels deny. Then, maybe in a few years
from now the information will pop up on the front page of the Washington Post," much like that newspaper this week reported new details about the Secret Service prostitution scandal, Kasper said. Our ruling
Hunter said "at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across
the Mexican border in Texas" and there are "dozens more that did not
get caught by the Border Patrol."
No government agency confirms anything remotely close to the idea
that at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the
Mexican border. Notably, too, the lead Texas agency entrusted with
public safety alerted legislators of its own lack of confirmation.
Similarly, the idea there are "dozens more that did not get caught by
the Border Patrol" is missing a factual basis.
All told, this statement strikes us as incorrect and ridiculous. Pants on Fire!
A DIY enthusiast whose house was in urgent need of repair is facing a
fine from local officials after he stuck crumbling concrete beams back
together with Sellotape.
Home-owner Kang Hsiao, 36, was told he needed to repair the outside of
his apartment in Lishan East Road in eastern China’s Jinan City after
housing officials noticed the supporting beams were a health and safety
hazard.
But instead of buying new ones or getting professionals in to help, nifty Kang decided to stick them together with sticky tape.
Kang said: "I’ve used the tape before for many things and it’s always proved to be durable, strong and effective.
So when they told me I needed to repair the beams it was the obvious choice and a lot cheaper than new beams.
"
But now Kang is facing a hefty fine from city officials who have slammed
the shoddy DIY after receiving complaints from worried neighbors.
One local said: "I like Kang and I like his attitude, he takes a
hands-on approach to problems and has always been keen to do things
himself rather than get others to help him.
But this is just insane.
"How he seriously thinks tape will hold that lot together beggars
belief.
We feel unsafe and can’t help covering our heads with our hands when we
are coming and going," he added.
A spokesman for the city said: "We have told him that he needs to
improve the safety of his building or be fined for endangering people’s
lives."
By her own recollection, Megan Campbell, an employee of St. Paul Parks
and Recreation in Minnesota was driving a supply van back from a city
storage building when she turned a corner, causing serious front-bumper
damage to a parked car.
The damaged 2001 Nissan Pathfinder in question wasn't just anybody's
vehicle. It was her own. Now, Campbell has filed a claim against the
city seeking $1,600 to $1,900 from public coffers for damage caused to
her personal vehicle by a city worker - herself.
"Because I was working for the city and driving the city vehicle, I feel they are responsible for paying for the damage done to my car," Campbell wrote in a "notice of claim" form received this week by the city clerk's office.
Campbell, a 2014 college grad, has worked for the Parks and Recreation Department since May.
"I think I can safely say this is a very unusual claim," said City Clerk
Shari Moore.
Parks department spokesman Brad Meyer said the incident will be reviewed
by the city's accident review board, as is customary for any accident
involving city employees driving city vehicles.
"The outcome of that will determine next steps with the employee ... and
help inform the claim proceedings," he said.
Police in Florida did not buy a tar-smeared man’s story that he was
visiting family on the roof of a convenience store at 3am on Tuesday.
Joshue Holoman, 30, covered in roofing tar from trying to break into the
Sunoco in Daytona Beach through an air conditioning shaft, was charged
with two counts of attempted burglary of an unoccupied structure,
possession of burglary tools and criminal mischief.
Holoman of Orlando was also seen earlier on the roof of another
business, the comedy club Grandview Live, police said.
Officers were called to the closed business by a witness who heard a
strange noises like whistling, snorting, a torch sound and rattling
fence coming from the back of the business, police said.
When police arrived, they saw Holoman on the roof, covered in tar. He first said he was visiting family and
then changed his story, saying he was an air conditioning technician
trying to fix the units because he could hear them making noise from the
ground.
Holoman then said he was on the roof sleeping and rubbed roofing tar on
his body so he could not be seen from the ground.
Police found Holoman with a makeshift prying tool used on the Sunoco’s
air conditioning shaft.
While being taken to jail, Holoman became violent and broke a $500 metal
panel inside the prisoner transport vehicle, police said. He remains
jailed on $4,000 bail.
A fire that damaged the roof at Southside Cremation Services Henrico,
Virginia, was likely caused by a “rather large body,” according to fire
investigators.
The fire started when the furnace used to cremate the 500-pound body got
too hot, Henrico Fire spokesman Capt. Daniel Rosenbaum said.
They were mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives. But above all these
women were warriors. All across time, and all around the globe, they
brandished swords and guns, fought battles, and faced off with royalty.
Though outnumbered by their bands of brothers in battle, these fearsome female fighters have each made an indelible mark on history.
Eucalyptus deglupta, commonly known as the rainbow eucalyptus, is the
only Eucalyptus species found naturally in the Northern Hemisphere. Its
natural distribution spans New Britain, New Guinea, Seram, Sulawesi and
Mindanao.
The unique multi-hued bark is the most distinctive feature of the tree.
Patches of outer bark are shed annually at different times, showing a
bright green inner bark. This then darkens and matures to give blue,
purple, orange and then maroon tones.
A new NASA study has revealed that the ocean abyss has not
warmed in the past few years. What does this mean for global warming?
Crystal Dilworth is here to explain.
In Pakistan, a black scorpion weighing 60 grams sells for around
$50,000 to medical researchers. Al Jazeera's Maham Javaid investigates
the country's scorpion trade and its possible harm to the country's
ecosystem.
From Al Jazeera:
Shahid and Sohail, two friends who grew up together in a housing
colony in Sindh province's Thatta district, have never been scared of
the scorpion's venomous sting.
"As teenagers, we caught and killed scorpions as a game," Sohail told Al
Jazeera. "Last year we found out that if we caught a live one, we could
be instant millionaires."
On the hottest nights of the year, these hunters search for the
nocturnal creatures in the 200-hectare dry forest behind their colony.
Scorpions hibernate in cold weather, so Sohail says it is easier to
catch them when it's hot.
Their broker, Faraz, is constantly in contact with other brokers who can
sell the scorpion to foreign companies for thousands of dollars.
"I spend all my spare time connecting scorpion buyers with sellers,"
Faraz, who also works at Karachi Port Trust, told Al Jazeera. "When a
big deal goes through, it will be like winning the lottery."
Lampreys
are eel-like water creatures that can grow up to 40 inches in length.
While only 18 out of the 38 lamprey species actually suck blood, both
the non-blood sucker and vampire lampreys (scientific name: vamp lamps)
have a menacing appearance, with tooth-lined, suction cup mouths.
Lampreys
inhabit both fresh and salt waters and are considered invasive. In
fact, a number of bodies of water in the U.S. are strictly controlled
with regard to the lamprey populations, using barriers and a chemical
solution called "lampricide."
When the Great Lakes were first
connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Erie Canal, lampreys invaded and
rendered several native species of lake fish extinct. In rare cases,
lampreys have been known to attack humans as well.
Read about other blood-sucking animals here.
Toronto
has a problem with raccoons. For years, the critters have been
overturning garbage cans and entering people’s homes to find food, and
they are good at it. Design a new garbage can lit, and the raccoons will
figure out a way to get in. In fact, research shows that raccoons that
live in a city are smarter than their woodland counterparts.
Suzanne
MacDonald, a comparative psychologist who studies raccoon behavior at
York University in Toronto, has compared the problem-solving skills of
rural and city raccoons. The result? Urbanites trump their country
cousins in both intelligence and ability. For the past few summers, she
videotaped rural and urban racoons toying with containers baited with
cat food. While both rural and city racoons readily approached familiar
containers, they dealt differently with unfamiliar ones. Where rural
raccoons took a long time to approach novel containers, city raccoons
would attack them the moment she turned her back.
One
particularly persistent urban raccoon even learned to open doors leading
into MacDonald’s garage, where she keeps her garbage bins. It stood up
on an overturned flowerpot, and kept pulling and pushing on the round
knob of the door handle with its five-digit paws until it turned.
“Normally, they can’t do that, they can’t grasp and turn things very
easily,” MacDonald says. “Raccoons in the city are extraordinary, not
only in their ability to approach things, but they have no fear, and
they stick with it, they will spend hours trying to get food out of
something.”
I dunno, is that intelligence or
desperation? It’s possible that rural raccoons may be less interested in
solving a difficult problem because they have other food sources that
are easier to deal with and they aren’t as hungry as a city raccoon
anyway. Nevertheless, the urban raccoon’s persistence results in
learning. And Toronto is having a hard time staying ahead of them. Read
about the city’s effort to outsmart the urban raccoon at Nautilus.
