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Monday, June 10, 2013
Dialect Maps of the United States
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Link Dump
You can now view a 4 billion pixel panoramic image of Mars taken by the Curiosity rover.
Three hundred members of a German (flea) circus froze to death.
Britain's youngest grandparents are 29 years old.
How to enjoy America's national parks without strenuous hiking.
The Atlantic has a set of portraits of Jahrhundertmensch (centenarians).
A video explains how to make blueberry pancakes in which the blueberries are embedded and properly distributed.
Details about the recent discovery of thousands of Roman artifacts in London: 700 boxes of pottery fragments, 100 fragments of writing tablets, the largest quantity of Roman leather ever to have been found in the capital.
A glossary of English language idioms derived from baseball.
23 photos of "unbelievable places."
Three hundred members of a German (flea) circus froze to death.
Britain's youngest grandparents are 29 years old.
How to enjoy America's national parks without strenuous hiking.
The Atlantic has a set of portraits of Jahrhundertmensch (centenarians).
A video explains how to make blueberry pancakes in which the blueberries are embedded and properly distributed.
Details about the recent discovery of thousands of Roman artifacts in London: 700 boxes of pottery fragments, 100 fragments of writing tablets, the largest quantity of Roman leather ever to have been found in the capital.
A glossary of English language idioms derived from baseball.
23 photos of "unbelievable places."
Ammach
Britain’s weirdest support group says 1,500 people are abducted by aliens each year
Anomalous Mind Management Abductee Contactee Helpline gives
support and counselling to those who believe they have had
extra-terrestrial contact
by Philip Coburn
Have you been abducted by aliens? Got an ET wife and kids? Something strange in your neighborhood?
Who you gonna call? You’re in luck as the Ammach organization, Britain’s weirdest support group, reckons there’s a lot of you – about 1,500 a year.
It was set up in 2011 to help people unfortunate enough to have had a very close encounter with an alien. They get up to five calls a week and 25 emails.
Among them is a woman who says aliens fitted implants to monitor her, a man who visits his alien wife and child several times a year, and a woman who was abducted more than 1,000 times.
At the end of the helpline Ammach co-founders Joanne Summerscales and Miles Johnston offer emotional support to traumatized “abducted” people.
Joanne said: “Many people experience ridicule, vilification, isolation besides what they’re going through. We offer non-judgmental interviews and an opportunity to talk about it.”
Ammach – Anomalous Mind Management Abductee Contactee Helpline – gives support and counselling to those who believe they have had extra-terrestrial contact.
Joanne and Miles set up and funded Ammach after meeting at a UFO conference. They hold meetings, workshops and a conference for people to meet, swap encounter tales and have their testimony videoed and posted online to encourage others to come forward.
Miles said: “We aim to get information out so people can think and talk about it and know it’s OK.” Trained therapist and part-time secretary Joanne takes the calls while Miles runs the website, featured in Thursday’s Channel 4 documentary Alien Abductee.
His house on London’s outskirts is the tech hub, where he edits video and tests people for implants, radiation or alien substances.
The former broadcast engineer uses metal detectors and more unusual gizmos to give “experiencers” answers. He explained: “A stud detector for finding nails in walls we can use to find implants. We also use magnetic field meters. I have a UV mineral lamp which shows up residues on skin.
“If you’ve been to another dimensional reality, that leaves a signature on your skin’s atoms. You can see that under UV light.”
Abductee Marie Kayali, 52, also had DNA analysis and a lie detector test to find what happened to her. Neither proved fruitful. But she said: “I’m getting close. I don’t think I’ll have too long to wait. I want to know why my life is being controlled and what's their interest.”
Sadly in November 2012 Marie’s daughter killed herself. Marie believes she returned to her “alien family” who abducted her shortly before her death.
Miles explained that the aliens are a malevolent force. He said: “People have been taken, had things stuck into them and they’re being monitored. This is a violation of people’s lives. We are under the threat of termination as a species if we do not get this sorted out.”
Joanne said: “We had someone whose child was taken off them because social services think they are nutty. A lot of people are afraid of losing friends and family if they speak out. They’re afraid people will think they’re cuckoo. ”
If you’ve been abducted by aliens, ring 07951 752 813 or go to the website
Who you gonna call? You’re in luck as the Ammach organization, Britain’s weirdest support group, reckons there’s a lot of you – about 1,500 a year.
It was set up in 2011 to help people unfortunate enough to have had a very close encounter with an alien. They get up to five calls a week and 25 emails.
Among them is a woman who says aliens fitted implants to monitor her, a man who visits his alien wife and child several times a year, and a woman who was abducted more than 1,000 times.
At the end of the helpline Ammach co-founders Joanne Summerscales and Miles Johnston offer emotional support to traumatized “abducted” people.
Joanne said: “Many people experience ridicule, vilification, isolation besides what they’re going through. We offer non-judgmental interviews and an opportunity to talk about it.”
Ammach – Anomalous Mind Management Abductee Contactee Helpline – gives support and counselling to those who believe they have had extra-terrestrial contact.
Joanne and Miles set up and funded Ammach after meeting at a UFO conference. They hold meetings, workshops and a conference for people to meet, swap encounter tales and have their testimony videoed and posted online to encourage others to come forward.
Miles said: “We aim to get information out so people can think and talk about it and know it’s OK.” Trained therapist and part-time secretary Joanne takes the calls while Miles runs the website, featured in Thursday’s Channel 4 documentary Alien Abductee.
His house on London’s outskirts is the tech hub, where he edits video and tests people for implants, radiation or alien substances.
The former broadcast engineer uses metal detectors and more unusual gizmos to give “experiencers” answers. He explained: “A stud detector for finding nails in walls we can use to find implants. We also use magnetic field meters. I have a UV mineral lamp which shows up residues on skin.
“If you’ve been to another dimensional reality, that leaves a signature on your skin’s atoms. You can see that under UV light.”
Abductee Marie Kayali, 52, also had DNA analysis and a lie detector test to find what happened to her. Neither proved fruitful. But she said: “I’m getting close. I don’t think I’ll have too long to wait. I want to know why my life is being controlled and what's their interest.”
Sadly in November 2012 Marie’s daughter killed herself. Marie believes she returned to her “alien family” who abducted her shortly before her death.
Miles explained that the aliens are a malevolent force. He said: “People have been taken, had things stuck into them and they’re being monitored. This is a violation of people’s lives. We are under the threat of termination as a species if we do not get this sorted out.”
Joanne said: “We had someone whose child was taken off them because social services think they are nutty. A lot of people are afraid of losing friends and family if they speak out. They’re afraid people will think they’re cuckoo. ”
If you’ve been abducted by aliens, ring 07951 752 813 or go to the website
Actor John Malkovich Saves a Bleeding Man in Toronto
Actor
John Malkovich may have saved the life of an American tourist in
Canada. Jim Walpole, 77, and his wife Marilyn of Defiance, Ohio were in
Toronto when Mr. Walpole tripped and cut his throat on a piece of
scaffolding:Marilyn, who is a retired nurse, was concerned that her husband might have been cut on the carotid artery or the jugular vein and yelled for help.
Malkovich acted quickly and knew just what to do to stop the flow of blood until paramedics arrived, Walpole said.Chris Mathias, a doorman from the King Edward Hotel, also sprinted to help the man when he fell on Thursday night. He said he found Walpole lying on his back in a pool of blood.“I believe (Malkovich) was having a cigarette and witnessed the whole thing happening, he placed his hand and started applying pressure to the man’s neck didn’t let go until the ambulance arrived,” Mathias said. [...]After his frightening experience, Walpole said he definitely plans on watching Malkovich’s movies.
“I never had the opportunity to see him and thank him after the incident. I asked him what his name was and he said it was John.”
Prosthetic Fingers for Ex-Yakuza Members
In the Japanese mafia, failure often comes at the price of a finger:
In Japan, a stunted pinkie signifies membership in the yakuza, or Japanese mafia. In a ritual known as "yubitsume," yakuza members are required to chop off their own digits to atone for serious offenses. The left pinkie is usually the first to go, though repeated offenses call for further severing. As a result, those who get out, have a hard time finding work because of the stigma attached to those missing fingers.If you can get out of the yakuza alive and want to live a normal life, how can you avoid the stigma of missing fingers and all that they imply? Dr. Shintaro Hayashi's solution was to construct highly realistic prosthetic fingers:
The doctor molds silicone prosthetic pinkies, made to seamlessly mask the amputation, making for a smoother transition to the outside world. Priced at nearly $3,000 each, the fingers are carefully painted, to match the exact skin color of the client. Former yakuza members, who make up 5 percent of Hayashi's business, often keep several sets of fingers for different seasons – the light skinned version for winter, and a tanned look for summer.One client, Shigeru Takei, described his fake fingers as essential to his post-yakuza success:
Takei's current wife convinced him to turn his life around after years spent in jail, but his missing fingers prevented him from landing a job.
"The first time I applied for a job, I got cut after the interview. I couldn't write the truth in my resume because I had been in the yakuza for 20 years," he said. "If you don't have fingers, there's no way to get a sales job."
Takei sought out Hayashi eight years ago after an extensive web search for a prosthetics maker, and credits his fingers for helping him turn his life around. He now works for a home makeover company and says he's only been questioned about his fake fingers once.
How Humans May Look Like 100,000 Years in the Future
As our understanding of the universe increases, I predict that the human head will trend larger to accommodate a larger brain. But instead of some orthogonal evolutionary path that ends up with the 210th century human a la Futurama’s Morbo the anchor-alien, the rule of viable human biology will still apply and so the entire head will trend larger, though with a bias for a greater cranium growth than facial growth; the human 20,000 years from now would look to us like someone today except we would notice the forehead is subtly too large. [...]Read the rest over at Lamm's blog: Here.
While evolution in space is only beginning to be explored today, I would hazard a guess that millennia of human space colonization of Earth-orbit and other solar system space colonies will also select for…
1. Larger eyes in response to the dimmer environment of colonies further from the Sun than Earth.
2. More pigmented skin to alleviate the damaging impact of much more harmful UV radiation outside of the Earth’s protective ozone.
3. Thicker eyelids or a more pronounced superciliary arch to alleviate the effects low or no gravity that disrupt and disorient the eyesight of today’s astronauts on the ISS.
Vegetable Oil IS Good for You
A typical American consumes approximately 3 or more tablespoons
of vegetable oil each day. Vegetable oils, like those from soy, corn and
canola, are a significant source of calories and are rich in linoleic
acid [...]
Can People Live on Only Sunlight and Water?
A Seattle woman believes she can survive without eating for months, and she's not the only one.
Our Sun Lives in a Glitzy Galactic Boulevard
We've always thought we live in a ho-hum back-ally
neighborhood of the galaxy -- but life in Orion's Arm could be a lot
more glamorous than we ever realized.
Map Shows Antarctica Without Ice and Snow
Newborn baby rescued by dog from roadside rubbish dump
A dog in Ayutthaya Province, Thailand, has been rewarded after carrying a
plastic bag containing a newborn girl from a roadside rubbish dump back
to its home.
The male Thai Bangkaew dog named Pui took the white plastic bag from a dump site in tambon Sala Loi in Tha Rua district to his master Gumnerd Thongmak's house and barked loudly to get attention. Mr Gumnerd's niece, Sudarat, 12, said she went downstairs after hearing Pui barking and found the bag on the patio. She opened it and was shocked to find a newborn baby inside.
Sudarat ran to get her mother and they took the baby to Tha Rua Hospital. She weighs 2.2kg, hospital officials said. They believed she was born prematurely, at around seven and a half months. She was later transferred to Phranakhon Sri Ayutthaya Hospital. Tha Rua district chief Withit Pinnikorn said Pui regularly wanders around the community.
The district has asked village and tambon chiefs to look for the baby's mother. Pui received a leather collar and a medal from Tha Rua district Red Cross Chapter as a token of appreciation for his clever rescue. The Miracle of Life Foundation chief volunteer also gave Mr Gumnerd 10,000 baht (£215, $330) as a reward for Pui's actions.
The male Thai Bangkaew dog named Pui took the white plastic bag from a dump site in tambon Sala Loi in Tha Rua district to his master Gumnerd Thongmak's house and barked loudly to get attention. Mr Gumnerd's niece, Sudarat, 12, said she went downstairs after hearing Pui barking and found the bag on the patio. She opened it and was shocked to find a newborn baby inside.
Sudarat ran to get her mother and they took the baby to Tha Rua Hospital. She weighs 2.2kg, hospital officials said. They believed she was born prematurely, at around seven and a half months. She was later transferred to Phranakhon Sri Ayutthaya Hospital. Tha Rua district chief Withit Pinnikorn said Pui regularly wanders around the community.
The district has asked village and tambon chiefs to look for the baby's mother. Pui received a leather collar and a medal from Tha Rua district Red Cross Chapter as a token of appreciation for his clever rescue. The Miracle of Life Foundation chief volunteer also gave Mr Gumnerd 10,000 baht (£215, $330) as a reward for Pui's actions.
Duckling dropped by seagull has lucky escape after falling into dog run at animal sanctuary
A duckling has had a lucky escape after being dropped from the beak of
seagull into an animal sanctuary. The animal was found in the dog run at
the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home on Wednesday.
The kennel manager was letting a Jack Russell terrier was let out into the run for some exercise when she spotted the duckling and managed to get to it before the dog. It is thought the bird had been plucked off the beach at Portobello by a seagull before being dropped into the center.
The bird is being cared for at the Scottish SPCA’s wildlife center in Fishcross before being let out back into the wild. Steph Grant from the charity said: "This little duck is very lucky and I think he must have nine lives. He's too young to be able to fly so it's likely a gull picked him up from Portobello Beach before dropping him into the dog run.
"The kennel manager was letting a Jack Russell terrier out for some exercise when she noticed the duckling. Thankfully, she was able to quickly catch him before the dog did. We'll care for this duckling until he's old enough to fend for himself and then we'll release him back into the wild at a much safer spot."
The kennel manager was letting a Jack Russell terrier was let out into the run for some exercise when she spotted the duckling and managed to get to it before the dog. It is thought the bird had been plucked off the beach at Portobello by a seagull before being dropped into the center.
The bird is being cared for at the Scottish SPCA’s wildlife center in Fishcross before being let out back into the wild. Steph Grant from the charity said: "This little duck is very lucky and I think he must have nine lives. He's too young to be able to fly so it's likely a gull picked him up from Portobello Beach before dropping him into the dog run.
"The kennel manager was letting a Jack Russell terrier out for some exercise when she noticed the duckling. Thankfully, she was able to quickly catch him before the dog did. We'll care for this duckling until he's old enough to fend for himself and then we'll release him back into the wild at a much safer spot."
Dog remained with dead owner in Australian bush for five weeks
A silky terrier who remained by the side of his dead master in the
Western Australian bush for almost five weeks has been found alive and
is being cared for by his owner's friends.
In the ultimate act of loyalty, the dog called Mitzi, was found alive next to the body of a man police believe is missing Bridgetown bushwalker Wayne Cornelius Coughlan. Mr Coughlan, 64, was reported missing on May 4 after a friend visited his home and could not find him. One of his dogs, a Jack Russell named Chester, was found on Peninsular Road, Bridgetown, five days later.
Police said a pig hunter discovered Mr Coughlan's body on Thursday night about 6km north of where he was last seen. Mitzi has been reunited with Chester and is being cared for by friends. "All of the circumstances indicate the deceased is the missing man from Bridgetown - Wayne Coughlan, however formal identification will need to be completed - most likely by DNA analysis which may take a number of weeks,'' spokeswoman Susan Usher said.
"The body was located approximately 6km north of where Mr Coughlan was last seen. Mitzi is being cared for by friends and has been reunited with (the Jack Russell) Chester.'' Police don't believe foul play was involved in the man's death.
In the ultimate act of loyalty, the dog called Mitzi, was found alive next to the body of a man police believe is missing Bridgetown bushwalker Wayne Cornelius Coughlan. Mr Coughlan, 64, was reported missing on May 4 after a friend visited his home and could not find him. One of his dogs, a Jack Russell named Chester, was found on Peninsular Road, Bridgetown, five days later.
Police said a pig hunter discovered Mr Coughlan's body on Thursday night about 6km north of where he was last seen. Mitzi has been reunited with Chester and is being cared for by friends. "All of the circumstances indicate the deceased is the missing man from Bridgetown - Wayne Coughlan, however formal identification will need to be completed - most likely by DNA analysis which may take a number of weeks,'' spokeswoman Susan Usher said.
"The body was located approximately 6km north of where Mr Coughlan was last seen. Mitzi is being cared for by friends and has been reunited with (the Jack Russell) Chester.'' Police don't believe foul play was involved in the man's death.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
The Daily Drift
Awesome
Carolina Naturally is read in 192 countries around the world daily.
Wink, Wink!? ...
Some of our readers today have been in:
Cape Town, South Africa
Bangkok, Thailand
Nairobi, Kenya
Maribor, Slovenia
Istanbul, Turkey
Belize City, Belize
Sofia, Bulgaria
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Vientiane, Laos
Manchester, England
Manama, Bahrain
Kabul, Afghanistan
Cairo, Egypt
Vancouver, Canada
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Aberdeen, Scotland
Jakarta, Indonesia
Karachi, Pakistan
Kingston, Jamaica
Kiev, Ukraine
Kathmandu, Nepal
Warsaw and Kalisz, Poland
Zagreb and Dubrovnik, Croatia
Dhahran and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Puchong, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Manila, Baguio, Davao, Mandaluyong City and Marikina, Philippines
Hanoi, Hi Phong, Ha Dong, Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh and Bien Hoa Vietnam
And across the USA in cities such as:
Bohemia, Fountain, Price and Yonkers
Today in History
1064
Coimbra, Portugal falls to Ferdinand, king of Castile.
1534 Jacques Cartier sails into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
1790 Civil war breaks out in Martinique.
1861 Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke begins working in Union hospitals.
1863 At the Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, Union and Confederate cavalries clash in the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War.
1923 Bulgaria's government is overthrown by the military.
1931 Robert H. Goddard patents a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
1942 The Japanese high command announces that "The Midway Occupation operations have been temporarily postponed."
1945 Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declares that Japan will fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
1951 After several unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam's General Vo Nguyen Giap orders Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
1954 At the Army-McCarthy hearings, attorney Joseph Welch asks Senator Joseph McCarthy "Have you no sense of decency?"
1959 The first ballistic missile-carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, is launched.
1972 American advisor John Paul Vann is killed in a helicopter accident in Vietnam.
1986 NASA publishes a report on the Challenger accident.
1534 Jacques Cartier sails into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
1790 Civil war breaks out in Martinique.
1861 Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke begins working in Union hospitals.
1863 At the Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, Union and Confederate cavalries clash in the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War.
1923 Bulgaria's government is overthrown by the military.
1931 Robert H. Goddard patents a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
1942 The Japanese high command announces that "The Midway Occupation operations have been temporarily postponed."
1945 Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declares that Japan will fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
1951 After several unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam's General Vo Nguyen Giap orders Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
1954 At the Army-McCarthy hearings, attorney Joseph Welch asks Senator Joseph McCarthy "Have you no sense of decency?"
1959 The first ballistic missile-carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, is launched.
1972 American advisor John Paul Vann is killed in a helicopter accident in Vietnam.
1986 NASA publishes a report on the Challenger accident.
What Happens if You Drop a Hot Charcoal into Liquid Oxygen?
Hit Play or go to YouTube
Last Surviving WWII Dornier bomber To Be Raised From Its Watery Grave After 70 Years
Two of its four-man crew were killed as it crashed into the sea, but the other two were captured and taken into custody as prisoners of war. The plane, which is said to be in 'remarkable condition', was one of the Luftwaffe's 'flying pencil' bombers, named for their narrow fuselage.
Did you know ...
Hey, don't blame the IRS for doing their job
Besides the IRS approved twice as many wingnut groups as liberal
That fewer people are social conservatives
That next year's Obamacare rates will be lower than expected
That Brooklyn prosecutors will stop using condom possession against sex workers
That the TSA has finally removed all its naked full body scanners
Is force feeding torture?
Did Secret Email Spying Really Help Foil NYC Terror Plot?
by Madeleine Morgenstern
The government’s broad programs to collect U.S. phone records and Internet traffic helped disrupt a 2009 plot to bomb the New York City subways, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.
But the assertion raises as many
questions as it answers because court testimony indicated the subway
plot investigation began with an email.
Over the past days, The Guardian
newspaper and The Washington Post have revealed classified documents
showing how the National Security Agency sweeps up phone records and
Internet data in its hunt for terrorists. Those programs have come under
criticism from civil libertarians and some in Congress who say they
were too broad and collected too much about innocent Americans.
In one of those programs, the NSA’s
collected daily records of millions of phone calls made and received by
U.S. citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing.
On Thursday, Rep. Mike Rogers, r-Mich., who leads the House Intelligence Committee, credited that effort with thwarting a terrorism plot. But he did not elaborate.
The senior U.S. intelligence official
who asserted Friday that the phone records program together with other
technical intercepts thwarted the subway plot would not provide other
details. The official was not authorized to discuss the plot publicly
and requested anonymity.
Afghan-American Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty in the 2009 plot, saying he had been recruited by al-Qaida in Pakistan.
The break in that case came, according
to court documents and testimony, when Zazi emailed a Yahoo address
seeking help with his bomb recipe.
At that time, British intelligence
officials knew the Yahoo address was associated with an al-Qaida leader
in Pakistan. That’s because, according to British government documents
released in 2010, officials had discovered it on the computer of a
terror suspect there months earlier.
Because the NSA and British
intelligence work so closely together and so little is known about how
the NSA monitors email traffic, it’s possible that both agencies were
monitoring the Yahoo address at the time Zazi sent the critical email in
2009.
What’s unclear, though, is how the
phone program aided the investigation, which utilized court-authorized
wiretaps of Zazi and his friends.
Based on what’s known about the
phone-records program, the NSA might have had an archive of all the
phone calls Zazi had made, which might have helped authorities look for
possible co-conspirators.
Because the phone program remains
classified, however, it’s impossible to say with certainty how the
program benefited the investigation.
National Disgrace Lush Dimbulb Compares the IRS Scandal to the Holocaust
The shame of our nation, Lush Dimbulb, hit a new low today by comparing the IRS scandal to the Holocaust.
Transcript via Lush Dimbulb:DIMBULB: Folks, here’s the thing, I guess, that gets me. I mentioned Herbert Meyer. We interviewed him for the Limbaugh Letter a few short months ago. Herbert Meyer was in the national security apparatus during the Reagan administration. He was a good friend of Ronald Reagan, and was instrumental in establishing Reagan administration policies that brought down the Soviet Union. The big news to him that’s really noteworthy, we talked about it, is that he thinks that the world’s coming out of poverty. And it is a big story, The Economist in London had a big story on it recently. We mentioned it to you, and it’s a great testament to capitalism.
It’s not socialism, it’s not welfare, it’s not compassion and it’s not the redistribution of wealth. It’s not high taxes that are bringing people out of poverty. It’s capitalism, and none other than a leftist publication in London had to admit it. Well, Herb Meyer was the first to sound this notice some months ago. I also mentioned he wrote a piece that currently is in the American Thinker earlier this week, and it had the potential to be controversial because he used Adolf Hitler and Nazism in it, and it was his way of explaining, he made a point in the piece that nowhere, you know, people looking for a smoking gun to nail Obama on all these scandals, Herb says, “Ain’t gonna be one.”
He said whether you believe it or not, there is not one document linking Adolf Hitler to the holocaust. Adolf Hitler never put it on paper what he intended to do. There is no smoking gun. And yet what happened? We know that the Nazis engaged in the Holocaust. Herb Meyer’s point was that the people Hitler hired didn’t have to be told. They didn’t have to be given instructions. All they had to do was listen to what Hitler was saying. All they had to do was listen to what his objectives were. And he said the same thing’s happening here with this administration. He went to great pains to say: I’m not calling this administration a bunch of Nazis. I’m just using this as an illustration. I know people will get my point if I use something this notorious, the Nazi regime.
It’s a point that I’ve made here about the IRS. They say, “Well, you can’t link it in to Obama.” You don’t need to link Obama to it. He hired these people. Lois Lerner and everybody at the IRS who’s doing this is doing everything they can to please Obama. There’s not gonna be a smoking gun, but you don’t need a smoking gun to know where this administration’s doing what it’s doing.
Obama puts people in positions that mirror him. Eric Holder, you name it, they’re doing Obama’s bidding. Everybody. Susan Rice and Samantha Power, they are Obama, and there’s a context for what’s happening. Herbert Meyer, if I may quote him again, asserted that essentially what’s taking place in the United States right now is a coup, not a violent coup, and not a million artistic coup, but nevertheless a takeover of a government, and it’s being done by the Obama administration.
The idea that President Obama is staging a coup against the government is jaw dropping dumb, because Barack Obama is the democratically elected head of the government. If Obama is staging a coup against the government, that means he is staging a coup against his own administration. The idea that President Obama is staging a coup against himself was offensive to the intelligence of every American, but Limbaugh’s adoption of the comparison of the IRS scandal to the Holocaust was offensive on a completely different level.
Dimbulb was careful not to tread on Glenn Beck’s gimmick of calling the Obama administration Nazis, but the idea that making some wingnut groups provide more documentation before they got their tax exempt status could be equivalent to the mass murder of millions of Jews is nauseating. But if there is one thing wingnuts love more than anything else, it is the feeling of persecution.
It is ironic, and symptomatic of their myopic selfishness, that the privileged few like Lush Dimbulb feel so persecuted. The wealthy feel persecuted when it is suggested that they ought to pay their fair share of taxes. The super rich feel persecution when their groups get caught breaking the rules for non-profits by engaging in partisan political activities.
The conservatives who are crying persecution have no idea what real persecution is. Persecution isn’t having to fill out some extra IRS forms before you receive your tax exempt status. Persecution is losing your job, having your possessions confiscated, being moved to ghetto, and eventually a death camp because of your race, religion, disability, or any other factor that the ruling regime deems subhuman or undesirable.
Persecution is a sexual fetish for the wingnuts. They get turned on by something that most of them have only imagined, but never experienced.
No, the IRS scandal has nothing in common with the Holocaust. Anyone who thinks otherwise is insulting the memory of the millions who died at the hands of some of the most evil men that the Earth has ever seen.
Just so you know - repugicans, you have now officially overreached on the IRS scandal.
Can we really be surprised at repugican hypocrisy any more than we already are?
From Occupy Democrats
You
won’t believe what The Nation magazine obtained through a Freedom of
Information Act Inquiry: a list of 17 repugicans who secretly pursued
Obamacare’s medicaid expansion dollars while hypocritically slamming the
law in public, as well as all of their letters begging for the funds from the big, bad federal government.
Every single one of the repugican congresscritters listed below, including master hypocrite Paul Ryan, have voted over 30 times to repeal the law while privately begging for its funding from the federal government.
The Nation calls this behavior “shameless hypocrisy” as well as evidence “of the fact that the Affordable Care Act bestows tangible benefits that even congresses most extreme right wing ideologues are hard-pressed to deny to their constituents”.
While tea party repugicans literally believe “Obamacare” to be socialist Armageddon, some of their favorite representatives are making it clear that they are aware of the reality that the Affordable Care Act is a much-needed reform that will improve the life of millions of Americans, including their own constituents.
Why the corporate dominated mainstream media is likely to ignore this story, it is up to us to make some noise about the incredible hypocrisy of these repugican Congress people that publicly denounced a wonderful reform and then turn around and beg for money for its implementation.
Please do your part by sharing this and other related articles on social media forums.
Read all of their hypocritical letters here.
Senators
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX)
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)
Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT, recently joined wingnut AEI)
Congress members:
Rep Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)
Rep Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Rep. David Valadao (R-CA)
Rep John Barrow (R-GA)
Rep Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Rep Gregg Harper (R-MS)
Rep Lee Terry (R-NE)
Rep Steve Pearce (R-NM)
Rep Bob Gibbs (R-OH)
Rep Kirsti Noem (R-SD)
Rep Michael McCaul (R-TX)
Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) – his letter here
Paul Ryan and 16 Other Hypocritical repugicans Caught Begging For Obamacare Funds
Every single one of the repugican congresscritters listed below, including master hypocrite Paul Ryan, have voted over 30 times to repeal the law while privately begging for its funding from the federal government.
The Nation calls this behavior “shameless hypocrisy” as well as evidence “of the fact that the Affordable Care Act bestows tangible benefits that even congresses most extreme right wing ideologues are hard-pressed to deny to their constituents”.
While tea party repugicans literally believe “Obamacare” to be socialist Armageddon, some of their favorite representatives are making it clear that they are aware of the reality that the Affordable Care Act is a much-needed reform that will improve the life of millions of Americans, including their own constituents.
Why the corporate dominated mainstream media is likely to ignore this story, it is up to us to make some noise about the incredible hypocrisy of these repugican Congress people that publicly denounced a wonderful reform and then turn around and beg for money for its implementation.
Please do your part by sharing this and other related articles on social media forums.
Read all of their hypocritical letters here.
Senators
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX)
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)
Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT, recently joined wingnut AEI)
Congress members:
Rep Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)
Rep Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Rep. David Valadao (R-CA)
Rep John Barrow (R-GA)
Rep Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Rep Gregg Harper (R-MS)
Rep Lee Terry (R-NE)
Rep Steve Pearce (R-NM)
Rep Bob Gibbs (R-OH)
Rep Kirsti Noem (R-SD)
Rep Michael McCaul (R-TX)
Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) – his letter here
Pennsylvania jail offers tourists a taste of prison food
In a city that has become renowned for its hip and
innovative restaurant scene, a local tourist attraction is offering
decidedly different fare: prison food.
This weekend, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia will serve
visitors sample inmate meals from the 1830s, 1940s and today: broiled
salted beef with "Indian mush"; hamburger with brown gravy and beets;
and Nutraloaf -- an unappetizing concoction currently served as a
punishment.
"We hope to have a discussion all weekend long about what these policies mean to accomplish and whether they're effective," Kelley said.
The quirky tasting menu will be available Saturday and Sunday at Eastern State, a defunct prison that once housed gangster Al Capone. The centuries-old facility was abandoned in 1971 but later reopened to tourists looking for an eerie glimpse of life behind its 30-foot-tall walls.
Food samples will be prepared offsite by Freestyle BBQ, a catering company based in Langhorne that happens to be owned by Pennsylvania corrections officer John Freeman.
Freeman, who works at an undisclosed state institution, started his food business on the side last year. When he heard that Eastern State needed a temporary cook, Freeman couldn't believe the serendipity -- and neither could Kelley.
"Who knows prison food better than me?" Freeman said.
While on prison duty, he eats the cafeteria food, which he describes as flavorful but low-grade. But flavorful is not how he describes the bland recipes he'll be making for Eastern State.
"It's going to be hard ... to cater something and basically not jazz it up," Freeman said.
He described the broiled salted beef as being like corned beef, and the Indian mush as basically polenta -- cornmeal and water. Kelley, who tried making the recipe himself, noted the mush was actually "very good" because it's topped with a bit of molasses.
That meal would have been delivered to inmates on carts in an era of solitary confinement. Prison officials at the time were optimistic that well-nourished inmates would be "penitent," reflect on their offenses and become better people, Kelley said.
The hamburger-and-gravy meal comes from an actual Eastern State menu for the week of April 17, 1949, which will be on display. Inmates ate communal meals that were prepared on site by their fellow prisoners who used cookbooks, Kelley said.
Current prisoners also are trained to cook in the state prison system, said spokeswoman Susan Bensinger. A current sample menu from Graterford prison includes waffles, pork barbecue and poultry and gravy, with vegetarian options for each meal. But that's for well-behaved inmates.
Prisoners being punished get the food loaf often called Nutraloaf. The recipe varies by state, but in Pennsylvania it consists of rice, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, oatmeal, chick peas and margarine. It's nutritionally sound but prisoners across the U.S. have filed lawsuits over it, calling it cruel and unusual punishment. Many states continue to serve it.
Kelley, who also made a batch and brought in to share, said he was surprised at the number of co-workers who wouldn't taste it.
"I'm curious to see if visitors really will be experimental enough to try it," Kelley said.
Cincinnati Zoo's restaurant greenest in United States
The zoo's Base Camp Cafe has just been certified by the Green Restaurant Association with four stars, its highest rating. Only 15 restaurants in the nation have achieved that distinction, and none with as many points as Base Camp received.
"It demonstrates that the world's not going to be saved by some magic wand waved by a large organization; it will be saved by hundreds of million better decisions made every day," zoo Director Thane Maynard said Thursday.
Michael Oshman, CEO and founder of the Green Restaurant Association, called the distinction a "phenomenal" achievement. "They have set a new benchmark that will serve as a model and create a nice incentive for other restaurants to hit."
Base Camp opened for the 2013 season after a remodel and retrofit. Like the rest of the zoo, it gets a quarter of its power from the zoo's solar electricity array. Kitchen equipment includes a variable-power ventilating hood that's 60 percent more efficient than most.
"Restaurants are huge energy hogs," said Mark Fisher, the zoo's director of sustainability. "It's also where you can get your money back."
He estimates the zoo spent $2.5 million to improve the restaurant, including $30,000 just to achieve green goals.
"Our projection is that it will save us about $10,000 yearly, so it will be paid back in three years," Fisher said.
Food is served in containers that can be composted along with food waste. There is a full recycling program, in the dining room and in the kitchen. The restaurant even changed its pest-control company to one with a green certification.
And in several creative ways, the cafe is increasing the amount of food that's locally grown. That includes leasing zoo-owned farmland in Mason to Green Bean Delivery, which then grows and supplies the zoo with organically grown produce. Green Bean Delivery also is a source for local foods from other area farms.A greenhouse just outside the restaurant's doors will provide year-round fresh vegetables â?? even fish, once an aquaponics project is up and running.
The Green Restaurant Association, founded in Boston in 1990, awards points for energy-saving elements from water use to composting and recycling. A 4-star rating requires 300 points. Base Camp accumulated 487.1.
The zoo has been improving its sustainability since about 2006, when it built its new, energy-efficient Education building. Since that time, the zoo also has cut water use by two-thirds and uses less electricity and gas despite substantial growth.
"It's not that we just want a plaque on the wall, though we'll have that," Fisher said. "It's the relentless pursuit of improvement. When you push for truly sustainable operations, you're doing everything: improving employee efficiency, saving money, making things simpler and living the mission."
The restaurant has to be part of the total zoo experience, Fisher said. "We didn't want our message to visitors to be, 'We're so green, just don't look at our restaurant.' "
In 2010, the zoo hired food concession operation Service Systems Associates, which runs zoo restaurants around the country.
"We're a pretty green company ourself," said SSA's Steve Wells, also general manager of Base Camp. "We're right there with them pushing to get even greener."
The Base Camp now offers a new grass-fed burger and made-to-order salads, including a strawberry salad with feta and almonds. The kids' menu features fruit, organic juice or milk and veggie and turkey burgers.
"Everybody's expectations of food are a little higher now," said Travis Kight, corporate executive chef.
Hiccuping diner hospitalized after being given oven cleaner as cure
A female diner is in intensive care in hospital after staff at a
restaurant in Paradise Point on Australia's Gold Coast accidentally gave
her oven cleaner to cure her hiccups. The woman, believed to be in her
40s, had been finishing up a meal with a friend at The Point Restaurant
last week when she began hiccupping uncontrollably.
A helpful staffer advised that vinegar was an instant cure and called for a small glass of the liquid from the kitchen. The woman downed the clear liquid that was given to her and began choking as horrified staff realised they had accidentally poured out oven cleaner instead of vinegar.
It is understood a small bottle of the corrosive cleaning fluid positioned beside a large bottle of vinegar may have been picked up in error. Paramedics arrived and took the woman to Pindara Hospital where she was held in intensive care. Police confirmed they were investigating the incident and had been interviewing staff and customers. Workplace Health and Safety officers said they were also making inquiries.
Speaking about the 'tragic mistake', The Point restaurant owner Paul Jeynes said: ''It's a hard situation, it is very unfortunate and we feel for the family and the woman. It was an accident but we accept full responsibility.'' Mr Jeynes said the situation had shocked staff. ''This is a terrible thing for the restaurant but it's not about us right now,'' he said. ''We will do everything and anything to assist her family.'' He said he was assisting authorities with their investigations.
A helpful staffer advised that vinegar was an instant cure and called for a small glass of the liquid from the kitchen. The woman downed the clear liquid that was given to her and began choking as horrified staff realised they had accidentally poured out oven cleaner instead of vinegar.
It is understood a small bottle of the corrosive cleaning fluid positioned beside a large bottle of vinegar may have been picked up in error. Paramedics arrived and took the woman to Pindara Hospital where she was held in intensive care. Police confirmed they were investigating the incident and had been interviewing staff and customers. Workplace Health and Safety officers said they were also making inquiries.
Speaking about the 'tragic mistake', The Point restaurant owner Paul Jeynes said: ''It's a hard situation, it is very unfortunate and we feel for the family and the woman. It was an accident but we accept full responsibility.'' Mr Jeynes said the situation had shocked staff. ''This is a terrible thing for the restaurant but it's not about us right now,'' he said. ''We will do everything and anything to assist her family.'' He said he was assisting authorities with their investigations.
War on Crime
How Armed Police Are Clearing Rio’s Favelas of Drug Gangs
The drug gangs who have run Rio’s favelas are notorious, and for a while
they seemed invincible, but a new police presence is trying to change
this state of affairs. More
Northeast Texas woman arrested in ricin letter investigation
Sources say that Shannon Richardson has been transported
from the courthouse to St. Michaels Hospital in Texarkana. It is
unknown at this time why she is at the hospital. Shannon Richardson was arrested Friday for allegedly sending
ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, New York City's Mayor
Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg's gun control group in Washington D.C.
Federal investigators began focusing on the area after learning that the
letters were postmarked in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Shannon's husband, Nathan Richardson, was named as a person of
interest after Shannon contacted authorities about a suspicious
substance she found in their refrigerator. Nathan Richardson was
questioned by the FBI last week and released. Colt Caywood, a Richardson
family friend, says that FBI officials have been interviewing some of
the family's friends.
Attorney John Delk says his client Nathan Richardson approached him about getting a divorce a year before the FBI searched the couple's house.
Richardson's wife reportedly alerted authorities to suspected ricin in the couple's New Boston home.
"We have very good reason to believe it was a setup," said Delk.
FBI haz-mat teams have been in and out of the home since Friday.
The couple has been married since October 2011 and are expecting a child. Shannon Richardson already had five children when they married. While the divorce papers have been filed, the divorce will not be final until Shannon gives birth.
Attorney John Delk says his client Nathan Richardson approached him about getting a divorce a year before the FBI searched the couple's house.
Richardson's wife reportedly alerted authorities to suspected ricin in the couple's New Boston home.
"We have very good reason to believe it was a setup," said Delk.
FBI haz-mat teams have been in and out of the home since Friday.
The couple has been married since October 2011 and are expecting a child. Shannon Richardson already had five children when they married. While the divorce papers have been filed, the divorce will not be final until Shannon gives birth.
Horrific acid attack on 17 y.o. coed is sadly typical of India’s routine mistreatment of women
A beautiful 17 year old Indian college student didn’t respond to the
advances of three fellow students. So one day the young men came up to
Sonali Mukherjee and threw acid in her face. Her face literally melted
away, and she instantly lost the ability to see, hear, eat, walk and
talk.The men who maimed her for life? Two years in jail. They’re out now.
Welcome to life as a woman in India.
It’s a gruesome story with horrific images. But you really need to watch it. At the very least, click through and look at the photo at the top of the page on CNN. It’s horrible. Ghastly. Disturbing. And necessary for you to see, so that you can share this story with others. It’s a story about the officially-sanctioned misogyny that is India, and it’s something that really needs to stop, now.
By now, many of you are probably familiar with the problem of rape in India, and more generally, the officially-sanctioned mistreatment of women by men in private families and in government.
Sonali Mukherjee, before and after the acid attack that took away her ability to see, hear, eat, walk and talk.
I’d written about one particularly nasty recent story, which led to nationwide protests, in which an Indian woman, traveling with a male friend on a public bus, was attacked by six men who beat and raped her, and even went so far as inserting an iron rod into her body. She was left with a lung infection and brain damage, and died shortly thereafter.
The official Indian government react to the rape was, shall we say, somewhat lacking. The President’s son described the women protesting the rape as “dented and painted,” comparing them to a damaged car. And India’s Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde equated the protesters to Maoist rebels.
As for the authorities generally, India’s police have a long history of ignoring rapes. They routinely belittle rape victims and refuse to file cases against their attackers.
In one famous incident, an Indian woman was gang-raped last November, and police of course refused to file charges and instead started harassing the girl who was raped. The women committed suicide a month after reporting the rape to the police.
Enough already.
India is now more than 17% of the world’s population. So in a very real way, the abuse of women in India is abuse faced by nearly 1 in 5 of the world’s women.
Fortunately, people are beginning to pay attention. India’s growing reputation as a place for foreign women to be gang-raped has not exactly helped spur tourism. And the solution needs to be far beyond passing news law. It’s about changing a culture of sexism and misogyny:
Welcome to life as a woman in India.
It’s a gruesome story with horrific images. But you really need to watch it. At the very least, click through and look at the photo at the top of the page on CNN. It’s horrible. Ghastly. Disturbing. And necessary for you to see, so that you can share this story with others. It’s a story about the officially-sanctioned misogyny that is India, and it’s something that really needs to stop, now.
By now, many of you are probably familiar with the problem of rape in India, and more generally, the officially-sanctioned mistreatment of women by men in private families and in government.
I’d written about one particularly nasty recent story, which led to nationwide protests, in which an Indian woman, traveling with a male friend on a public bus, was attacked by six men who beat and raped her, and even went so far as inserting an iron rod into her body. She was left with a lung infection and brain damage, and died shortly thereafter.
The official Indian government react to the rape was, shall we say, somewhat lacking. The President’s son described the women protesting the rape as “dented and painted,” comparing them to a damaged car. And India’s Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde equated the protesters to Maoist rebels.
As for the authorities generally, India’s police have a long history of ignoring rapes. They routinely belittle rape victims and refuse to file cases against their attackers.
In one famous incident, an Indian woman was gang-raped last November, and police of course refused to file charges and instead started harassing the girl who was raped. The women committed suicide a month after reporting the rape to the police.
Enough already.
India is now more than 17% of the world’s population. So in a very real way, the abuse of women in India is abuse faced by nearly 1 in 5 of the world’s women.
Fortunately, people are beginning to pay attention. India’s growing reputation as a place for foreign women to be gang-raped has not exactly helped spur tourism. And the solution needs to be far beyond passing news law. It’s about changing a culture of sexism and misogyny:
Analysts feel that India needs more than just a new rape law that came into force in March this year as rape incidents continue to make headline.And let’s not even get into India’s long-standing problem with female infanticide, where young baby girls are murdered because, of course, it’s better to have a boy than a girl:
Women’s rights activist Madhu Mehra said: “Have we ever looked at the kind of Indian masculinity that is promoted in this country? What is considered normal for an Indian man is predatory and offensive to Indian women. I think that needs to change. We need to tackle the way we bring up our boys. We still live with very strict gender stereotype and if we are expecting men to be kind, benevolent and protective towards women, that’s not equality, that’s paternalism. We don’t want paternalism.”
One-month-old baby girl Khushi, which means “happiness” in Hindi, would not have been alive had her mother, Sumanjeet, given in to pressure from some relatives and neighbors.At some point, India has to pay an international price for its inaction on this issue. Foreign trade is reportedly 35% of India’s GDP. Perhaps it’s time that India’s politicians were put on notice that they’re no longer going to be given a pass on mistreating 1/5 of the world’s women. Enough is enough.
“They would cry and yell, ‘What are you doing giving birth to a girl? Push her off the roof of the building, kill her! Why are you keeping her?’” the 25-year-old mother says.
Sumanjeet says people kept telling her to get an ultrasound check and abort all four of her daughters. They told her she wouldn’t have enough money for a suitable dowry. Although Sumanjeet wasn’t quite sure how she was going to raise them, she knew it was a crime to get rid of them.
Man stole grass from park as it ‘would look well in his back garden’
A green-fingered thief rolled up a length of grass from a community park
area and walked off with it under his arm. Michael Archibald committed
the crime because he thought the section of turf would look nice in his
back garden, Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court heard. His solicitor Barry
Gray told justices that this was the first time in his 40–year career
that he had ever represented anyone who had stolen a roll of grass, and
questioned whether the court had ever had to deal with such an offense.
Mr Gray said: “It’s true to say that I’ve never represented anybody before on theft of turf, and I dare say the court has never had to deal with a case of theft of turf before. He simply believed that this turf would look well in his back garden and thought it wouldn’t be missed from the place where he took it. It was just a case of rolling it up and walking off with it. It was cheeky and dishonest of course, but it was without an awful lot of thought. He said it was like a rug and he just rolled it up and walked off with it under his arms.
“I have no idea whether it’s back in situ, but you would think that there’s no great skill required for relaying the turf. It’s an inconvenience and for that he apologizes. It was an inconsiderate and cheeky offense.” Prosecuting, Peter Milne outlined the offense, which happened in Thornton Street, Hartlepool, saying: “It was 6.45pm on May 17 when the police received a call from a resident in Thornton Street saying they were watching a man pulling up the turf and making off with it. “He was stopped at the bottom of the street by a police community support officer. Archibald was found in possession of the turf and he was arrested at the scene.
“In interview the defendant said about 10 minutes prior to his arrest he was in the park area of Thornton Street. He pulled it up, rolled it up and made off with it. He admits the offense and said he wanted to put the turf in his own back garden.” He added: “A supervisor at Hartlepool Borough Council has stated that although the turf has been recovered it will be re-used if possible and if it can’t be re-used then they will have to replace it. The turf measured roughly 6ft by 12ft.” Archibald pleaded guilty to theft of the grass. Chairman of the magistrates’ bench John Taylor sentenced Archibald, of Dent Street, Hartlepool, to a six-month conditional discharge, ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Mr Gray said: “It’s true to say that I’ve never represented anybody before on theft of turf, and I dare say the court has never had to deal with a case of theft of turf before. He simply believed that this turf would look well in his back garden and thought it wouldn’t be missed from the place where he took it. It was just a case of rolling it up and walking off with it. It was cheeky and dishonest of course, but it was without an awful lot of thought. He said it was like a rug and he just rolled it up and walked off with it under his arms.
“I have no idea whether it’s back in situ, but you would think that there’s no great skill required for relaying the turf. It’s an inconvenience and for that he apologizes. It was an inconsiderate and cheeky offense.” Prosecuting, Peter Milne outlined the offense, which happened in Thornton Street, Hartlepool, saying: “It was 6.45pm on May 17 when the police received a call from a resident in Thornton Street saying they were watching a man pulling up the turf and making off with it. “He was stopped at the bottom of the street by a police community support officer. Archibald was found in possession of the turf and he was arrested at the scene.
“In interview the defendant said about 10 minutes prior to his arrest he was in the park area of Thornton Street. He pulled it up, rolled it up and made off with it. He admits the offense and said he wanted to put the turf in his own back garden.” He added: “A supervisor at Hartlepool Borough Council has stated that although the turf has been recovered it will be re-used if possible and if it can’t be re-used then they will have to replace it. The turf measured roughly 6ft by 12ft.” Archibald pleaded guilty to theft of the grass. Chairman of the magistrates’ bench John Taylor sentenced Archibald, of Dent Street, Hartlepool, to a six-month conditional discharge, ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Former policewoman cleared of burglary after being judged too drunk to have intent to steal
A former policewoman has been cleared of burglary after a
jury agreed she was too drunk to have the intent to steal. Ceri Ann
Rees, 35, was filmed entering a staff area at Swansea's Aspers
casino and rummaging through handbags. Ms Rees, from Panteg, Llanelli,
returned to the casino's restaurant with an
iPhone and charger.
But a jury at Swansea Crown Court found Ms Rees not guilty. She was sacked by her police force for misconduct two months after the incident. During her trial, the court heard Ms Rees had stuffed the "phone down her top before slumping on to her side". Her colleague, policewoman Samantha Dawson, retrieved the phone after they were challenged by casino staff.
Ms Rees was arrested and charged with burglary because she had entered an area of Aspers casino in Wind Street, Swansea, which was not open to the public. The ex-police officer told the jury she did not have an "off button" once she started drinking. She said she still could not remember even being in the casino, and woke up in a police cell.
"It was my worst nightmare," she said. "I rubbed my eyes hoping that when I opened them again I would be somewhere else," she said. She told the jury she had been sacked two months after the incident for misconduct. She said she did not dispute what casino staff said she had done, or what the CCTV cameras had recorded, but said she had never intended to permanently deprive the casino worker of her mobile and charger. The jury took just 40 minutes to find her unanimously not guilty.
But a jury at Swansea Crown Court found Ms Rees not guilty. She was sacked by her police force for misconduct two months after the incident. During her trial, the court heard Ms Rees had stuffed the "phone down her top before slumping on to her side". Her colleague, policewoman Samantha Dawson, retrieved the phone after they were challenged by casino staff.
Ms Rees was arrested and charged with burglary because she had entered an area of Aspers casino in Wind Street, Swansea, which was not open to the public. The ex-police officer told the jury she did not have an "off button" once she started drinking. She said she still could not remember even being in the casino, and woke up in a police cell.
"It was my worst nightmare," she said. "I rubbed my eyes hoping that when I opened them again I would be somewhere else," she said. She told the jury she had been sacked two months after the incident for misconduct. She said she did not dispute what casino staff said she had done, or what the CCTV cameras had recorded, but said she had never intended to permanently deprive the casino worker of her mobile and charger. The jury took just 40 minutes to find her unanimously not guilty.
Lady who stabbed husband after fight over TV remote control defecated on police officers
An Aiken, South Carolina, woman is facing an attempted murder charge
after police say she stabbed the man she married about two months ago.
According to an Aiken Public Safety news report, Cynthia Pruett Siau, 60, stabbed Louis Harrell Siau III, 60, in the head and back with a kitchen knife at about 10pm on Tuesday after they had been drinking and arguing about the remote control at their home. When officers arrived, they found the husband covered in blood.
Louis informed officers that he was stabbed by his wife who used a kitchen knife. He also told officers that he and his wife had been drinking beer and wine before the argument about the remote control. The suspect, Cynthia Siua, was captured at the scene, but not before a struggle.
"While these three officers were trying to place the suspect under arrest, she defecated on two of the officers, Lt. Turner and Cpl. Comer," the report reads. The officers said both the suspect and victim appeared to be highly intoxicated. Cynthia was transported to the Aiken County Detention Center, where she was booked for attempted murder.
According to an Aiken Public Safety news report, Cynthia Pruett Siau, 60, stabbed Louis Harrell Siau III, 60, in the head and back with a kitchen knife at about 10pm on Tuesday after they had been drinking and arguing about the remote control at their home. When officers arrived, they found the husband covered in blood.
Louis informed officers that he was stabbed by his wife who used a kitchen knife. He also told officers that he and his wife had been drinking beer and wine before the argument about the remote control. The suspect, Cynthia Siua, was captured at the scene, but not before a struggle.
"While these three officers were trying to place the suspect under arrest, she defecated on two of the officers, Lt. Turner and Cpl. Comer," the report reads. The officers said both the suspect and victim appeared to be highly intoxicated. Cynthia was transported to the Aiken County Detention Center, where she was booked for attempted murder.
Man swimming in lake says fish bit him, leaving a mark
A man in Madera County, California, has quite a fishy tale to tell. He
says a fish bit his leg - and it left a mark. Bass Lake is known as a
popular spot for boating, fishing, and swimming, but now it's the scene
of a bizarre attack. Jason De La Cruz says he suffered a flesh wound
from a large-mouth bass.
The father of four was swimming his usual route from Marina View to a tiny island near the Bass Lake dam on Sunday when he felt something hit his leg. "And I turned around and at that point, I couldn't believe it, but there was about a 2-foot fish coming toward me," De La Cruz said. Jason says he tried pushing the fish away, but it circled around and came right back at him. "So the second time I had to actually punch it for it to move," he said. He finally made it to the island and had a chance to check out the injury.
A sheriff's deputy on boat patrol then guided him back to the shore, where Jason showed his children. "And I told him well believe it or not kids, I gotta show this, a fish bit me out there on the water, I couldn't believe it," he said. Tom Tuso, Bass Lake Boat Rentals Manager, said: "If that is a bite mark, it is much more likely to be a cat fish than a bass. It's certainly not the Loch Ness Monster, that much we're certain of, but that would be a pretty big bass to get its mouth open that large,"
Tuso has worked in this area for more than 30 years and says families have no reason to fear the water. "It's a very good user friendly lake, and I would welcome everyone to come up here, and let's see who can catch that guy," Tuso said. Jason agrees it's no reason to avoid this refreshing recreation spot. "I will swim here again, and my family will still swim here, so it's not dangerous here, but it is quite a story I'll have to tell my grandkids," he said.
The father of four was swimming his usual route from Marina View to a tiny island near the Bass Lake dam on Sunday when he felt something hit his leg. "And I turned around and at that point, I couldn't believe it, but there was about a 2-foot fish coming toward me," De La Cruz said. Jason says he tried pushing the fish away, but it circled around and came right back at him. "So the second time I had to actually punch it for it to move," he said. He finally made it to the island and had a chance to check out the injury.
A sheriff's deputy on boat patrol then guided him back to the shore, where Jason showed his children. "And I told him well believe it or not kids, I gotta show this, a fish bit me out there on the water, I couldn't believe it," he said. Tom Tuso, Bass Lake Boat Rentals Manager, said: "If that is a bite mark, it is much more likely to be a cat fish than a bass. It's certainly not the Loch Ness Monster, that much we're certain of, but that would be a pretty big bass to get its mouth open that large,"
Tuso has worked in this area for more than 30 years and says families have no reason to fear the water. "It's a very good user friendly lake, and I would welcome everyone to come up here, and let's see who can catch that guy," Tuso said. Jason agrees it's no reason to avoid this refreshing recreation spot. "I will swim here again, and my family will still swim here, so it's not dangerous here, but it is quite a story I'll have to tell my grandkids," he said.
The 100 Most Endangered Species in the World
A brilliantly interactive infographic that counts down the 100 most
endangered species, filtering results according to species type and
where on Earth they each remain. More
Government moves to wrap up gray wolf recovery
Maps show the current population and potential habitat for Gray wolves in North America
Federal officials are declaring victory in their four-decade campaign to rescue the gray wolf, a predator the government once considered a nuisance and tried to exterminate.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday
proposed removing the animal's remaining protections as an endangered
species across the Lower 48 states. The exception would be in the
Southwest, where the recovery effort for the related Mexican gray wolf
is lagging.Despite criticism from some scientists and members of Congress who consider the move premature, agency director Dan Ashe said the wolf can thrive and even enlarge its territory without continued federal protection.
"Taking this step fulfills the commitment we've made to the American people - to set biologically sound recovery goals and return wolves to state management when those goals have been met and threats to the species' future have been addressed," Ashe said.
The proposal will be subject to a 90-day public comment period and a final decision made within a year.
Wolves once roamed across most of North America. But trapping, poisoning and aerial shooting encouraged by federal bounties left just one small remnant, in northern Minnesota, by the time they were placed on the protected list in 1974.
By then, attitudes had shifted. Wildlife managers acknowledged the role predators play in providing balanced ecosystems, and the then-new Endangered Species Act mandated protections.
More than 6,100 wolves have now spread across portions of 10 states, primarily in the Northern Rockies and the western Great Lakes regions. Most are in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Packs also have formed in portions of Washington and Oregon, and individual wolves have been spotted in Colorado, Utah, the Dakotas, California and the Northeast.
But they have yet to return to vast additional territory that researchers say has suitable habitat and abundant prey, including parts of the Pacific Northwest, the southern Rocky Mountains, upstate New York and New England.
Environmental groups say wolves could make their way to those places - but only if legal protections remain to prevent them from being shot. Removing them now would put wolves "at serious risk for ever achieving natural recovery," said Diane Bentivegna of the National Wolfwatcher Coalition.
Colorado alone has enough space to support up to 1,000 wolves, according to Carlos Carroll of California's Klamath Center for Conservation Research. He suggested wildlife officials were bowing to political pressure, exerted by elected officials across the West who pushed to limit the wolf's range.
"They've tried to devise their political position first, and then cherry-pick their science to support it," Carroll said of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Maggie Howell of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y., said the Adirondack Mountains and other parts of the Northeast are "screaming for a predator like the wolf" to thin an out-of-control deer herd.
Ashe, however, said it's unrealistic to think wolves can return to all or even most of their former range, even if scientifically feasible.
"Science is an important part of this decision, but really the key is the policy question of when is a species recovered," he said. "Does the wolf have to occupy all the habitat that is available to it in order for it to be recovered? Our answer to that question is no."
The wolf's resurgence has been unpopular among
ranchers and others unhappy about attacks on livestock and popular sport
animals - even as hunters and trappers in the last several years killed
some 1,600 wolves after protections were lifted in Montana, Wyoming,
Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Government wildlife agents responding to
livestock attacks have killed thousands more in recent decades.Removing legal protections could ease the hostility in the West, where many ranchers complained they're helpless to protect their herds from marauding attackers.
Hunting advocates also have complained as elk herds dwindle in some areas.
"We can't just say, let them go and let the predators manage the big game. That's not going to work in this day and age," said David Allen, president of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Yet the former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton said the agency's proposal "is a far cry from what we envisioned for gray wolf recovery when we embarked on this almost 20 years ago."
"It's a low bar for endangered species recovery," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, who was with the agency when wolves were reintroduced in Idaho and Wyoming in the mid-1990s. She now heads the group Defenders of Wildlife.
David Mech, a leading wolf expert and senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in St. Paul, Minn., said wolves already occupy about 80 percent of the territory where people are likely to tolerate them.
The Center for Biological Diversity vowed to challenge the government in court if it takes the animals off the endangered list.
The Humane Society of the United States, which has filed a lawsuit challenging the removal of protections from Great Lakes wolves, is reviewing the government's latest proposal, spokesman Kaitlin Sanderson said.
Ashe said the plan had been reviewed by top administration officials, including new Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. But he dismissed any claims of interference and said the work that went into the plan was exclusively that of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
He said the agency wants to focus future recovery efforts on a small number of wolves belonging to a subspecies, the Mexican gray wolf. Those occur in Arizona and New Mexico, where a protracted and costly reintroduction plan has stumbled in part due to illegal killings.
The agency is calling for a tenfold increase in the territory where biologists are working to rebuild that population, which now numbers 73 animals. Law enforcement efforts to ward off poaching in the region would be bolstered.
Family caught brazen bear breaking into their car
Car thieves come in all shapes and sizes but a family in Maple Ridge,
British Columbia, Canada, got the surprise of their lives when they
caught a bear brazenly breaking into their car. Rebecca Moore says she
and her husband were awakened by a noise outside at about 5:30am on
Tuesday.
"By the time we got out of bed, [the bear] was actually inside one of our cars. We saw the car door open and it was just coming out one of our cars," she said. "We saw him just open the door of the truck, just easy as anything.… He was obviously used to accessing vehicles."
Moore said she just had to capture the "unbelievable" sight on camera. "It was just the amazement, really. You just couldn't believe what you were seeing," she said. "It was just too amazing not to take a video." Moore says she and her husband chased the bear away from the property as soon as they stopped filming.
Conservation officer Denny Chretien believes the three-year-old bear has broken into other cars in the area. "It's not a common behaviour but it is occurring." The Moores, meanwhile, say they're just glad they didn't leave the keys in the ignition.
"By the time we got out of bed, [the bear] was actually inside one of our cars. We saw the car door open and it was just coming out one of our cars," she said. "We saw him just open the door of the truck, just easy as anything.… He was obviously used to accessing vehicles."
Moore said she just had to capture the "unbelievable" sight on camera. "It was just the amazement, really. You just couldn't believe what you were seeing," she said. "It was just too amazing not to take a video." Moore says she and her husband chased the bear away from the property as soon as they stopped filming.
Conservation officer Denny Chretien believes the three-year-old bear has broken into other cars in the area. "It's not a common behaviour but it is occurring." The Moores, meanwhile, say they're just glad they didn't leave the keys in the ignition.
The Tiniest of the Tiniest Deer
What's cuter than one of the world's smallest deer? A baby of one of the world's smallest deer. This adorable fellow here is a Southern Pudu recently born at Nordens Ark in Sweden. Even when he's full grown, he'll still only weigh around 25 pounds.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
The Daily Drift
Sing it out loud!
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