CAROLINA NATURALLY

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Good Question

So, do I call an electrician or a plumber? Electrician or plumber

NYPD officers beat homeless man to a pulp

Radley Balko says: "And it wouldn’t be a police beating without the obligatory charge against the victim for assaulting the police officer’s fist with his face."

Two officers from the 71st precinct, one male and one female, arrived and woke the man. Confused as to why he was being accosted by police, the man refused the officers’ attempts to escort him outside, insisting that he had permission to be there and asking that they allow him to prove it.
His pleas fell on deaf ears, and they proceeded to place him under arrest.
When he resisted arrest, the male officer flew into a rage and began to beat the defenseless man. As can be seen in the video below, the officer assumed a boxing stance and then lurched towards his victim, pummeling him from all sides.
Over the next couple of minutes the man is also pepper-sprayed and beaten with a truncheon by the female officer, all while posing no threat to the officers’ well-being whatsoever.

Cops Beat Homeless Man

Man found with drugs in pocket claimed trousers weren't his

A neighborhood beat deputy patrolling an area in Grove City, Florida, in which had recent burglaries had been committed stopped a man on a bike, James Edwin White, whom he did not recognize, according to a news release from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

White’s hands were shaking; he was also trembling and stuttering, according to the deputy.

White gave the deputy permission to search him for any illegal weapons or drugs and denied having any contraband on his person. Twice. The deputy then reportedly found a cellophane wrapper with nine Oxycodone pills inside his right side pocket.

Just as the deputy discovered the pills, the 30-year-old Englewood man allegedly stated, “Oh, wait, these aren’t my pants!” explaining the pants belonged to his uncle and he had no knowledge of the pills. The deputy also found a blue straw, commonly used to snort drugs narcotics, which had a powdery residue inside.

Bank robber caught after returning to complain he'd been shortchanged

A bank robber was quickly captured on Monday morning when he returned to Alliance Bank, the scene of the crime, after discovering the teller had not given him the full $20,000 he had demanded, Syracuse police said.

Arthur Bundrage, 28, of East Syracuse, New York, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny. He is being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center pending arraignment in Syracuse City Court.

Police say that at about 9 am, Bundrage entered the Alliance Bank at 1001 James St., walked up to a teller and demanded $20,000 in cash. The teller told him no. When Bundrage demanded again, the teller gave him an undisclosed amount of cash. Bundrage then left and the bank immediately called 911.

As officers were responding, Bundrage discovered the teller had not given him the full $20,000 amount he had asked for. Officers found him standing at the front door attempting to get back in. He was taken into custody without incident.

Woman burned down house because of attic noises

A Carlsbad, New Mexico, woman was arrested on Friday after a nearly six-month investigation into an arson fire at her home. Carlsbad police say Valerie Hernandez, 33, burned down her home on May 18. Hernandez moved into the home in March and told police she never liked living there because she believed someone was living in the attic, though a police investigation earlier in the year revealed no such thing. Hernandez said she felt like someone was constantly watching her and had bugged the house to listen to all of her conversations. She repeatedly asked Sgt. Blaine Rennie if the person in the attic had died during the fire.

Police and fire officials say Hernandez gave them several stories about how her house caught on fire. She first told an officer she had walked to a convenience store not far from where she lived, to buy a soft drink. On her way back, she heard a loud explosion and saw smoke coming from her house. Sgt. Adrian Rodriguez attempted to confirm her story at the store, but receipt records showed she had purchased a bottle of lighter fluid instead of a soda. Hernandez then admitted that she indeed purchased the lighter fluid, but she said it was for a barbeque. She was on her way to her friend's house for a cookout when she heard the explosion and ran home to find her bedroom on fire. But Hernandez's neighbours denied hearing any type of explosion.

Hernandez's neighbour, Cody Grady, said he did not know her well, but he remembers some strange activity across the street during the weeks leading up to the fire. "She (Hernandez) would knock on my door five or six times a day and then just walk back to her house." According to the police report, the fire originated on a mattress near the southwest wall of the home. Maxwell said there was no heat source located near the area of origin, and therefore the fire had been caused by an accelerant. Police looked outside Hernandez's bedroom window to find several documents and clothes lying on the ground which appeared to have been purposely saved from the fire.

During a second meeting with police, Hernandez again admitted to buying the bottle of lighter fluid, but this time she said she returned home after buying it, staying in her room because she was scared of the person living her attic. When she gained courage, she ran out of the house and dropped the lighter fluid by the front door. Hernandez denied setting fire to her house, and she suggested that perhaps the old Christmas lights and ceiling fan in her closet could have started the fire. Hernandez's mother, Elia Hernandez, said she purchased the residence along with her daughter but moved to Clovis to get away from her. Hernandez will appear before a judge on Thursday. And as for her house, police say it is a total loss.

Superman Quits Newspaper Job to Become a Blogger

Clark Kent learns how marketable his skills are.

DC Comics is planning major changes for the life of Superman/Clark Kent. For example, he's going to quit writing for the Daily Planet and engage in independent journalism. Comic book writer Scott Lobdell explains:

"Rather than Clark be this clownish suit that Superman puts on, we're going to really see Clark come into his own in the next few years as far as being a guy who takes to the Internet and to the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth."
Entertainment reporter Cat Grant also quits the Planet with him, and Lobdell says she'll be bringing "a whole other set of skills" to their next venture. It probably won't be at another media outlet in Metropolis, though.
"I don't think he's going to be filling out an application anywhere," the writer says. "He is more likely to start the next Huffington Post or the next Drudge Report than he is to go find someone else to get assignments or draw a paycheck from.

Yeah, he'll make a fortune in the blogging business. Once again, DC is appealing to unrealistic fantasies.
More

Random Photo

The Wheel of Urine

Feeling ill? Urine luck! Spin the Wheel of Morality Urine. Doctors in the Fifteenth Century used it to evaluate a patient's health:

The Urine Wheel was used for diagnosing diseases based on the color, smell, and taste of the patient’s urine in the early 16th century....Many diseases affect metabolism and many changes in metabolism can be detected in the urine. For example, diabetics will excrete sugar in their urine–sometimes enough sugar that it can be fermented into whisky. There are many other diseases that change the smell of a person’s urine, including the very descriptively named Maple Syrup Urine Disease or Sweaty Feet Syndrome, now much more likely to be diagnosed by electronic sensor arrays than actually tasting the urine.

Colette Taylor is a molecular biologist and crafter who makes some rather lovely pieces, including the amino-acid inspired necklace shown here (which I saw in person tonight), which reads "We are star-stuff."

There are certain phrases or ideas which sometimes need reminding. Just to keep us sane, to remind us what is important. This is We Are Star Stuff in Amino Acids. This is a big one for me, a reminder from Carl Sagan that we are all made of the same building blocks, and the same amazing pieces. Not only are we made of the same stuff, it is particles of the universe. This is a reminder of not just how insignificant an individual is, it’s a reminder that every individual is a beautiful and brilliant thing. It’s so awesome that a person, made of the same thing as everyone else, manages to carve out a unique and original existence. This is a reminder that being is pretty much the coolest thing ever, and should never be taken for granted.

The Efforts of a Scientist and Compulsive Crafter

Exercise Your Brain

Brains have a tendency to shrink as people get older, but regular exercise can help to prevent that from happening. Read more

Watermelon shown to boost heart health, control weight gain in mice

Eating an apple a day may keep the doctor away, but eating watermelon may just keep the cardiologist at bay.

Hyenas and humans live in harmony

Large hyena populations are living alongside human communities in Africa without coming into conflict, a study finds. BBC Nature

US may soon become world's top oil producer

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By JONATHAN FAHEY

Driven by high prices and new drilling methods, U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons is on track to rise 7 percent this year to an average of 10.9 million barrels per day. This will be the fourth straight year of crude increases and the biggest single-year gain since 1951.
The boom has surprised even the experts.
"Five years ago, if I or anyone had predicted today's production growth, people would have thought we were crazy," says Jim Burkhard, head of oil markets research at IHS CERA, an energy consulting firm.
The Energy Department forecasts that U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons, which includes biofuels, will average 11.4 million barrels per day next year. That would be a record for the U.S. and just below Saudi Arabia's output of 11.6 million barrels. Citibank forecasts U.S. production could reach 13 million to 15 million barrels per day by 2020, helping to make North America "the new Middle East."
The last year the U.S. was the world's largest producer was 2002, after the Saudis drastically cut production because of low oil prices in the aftermath of 9/11. Since then, the Saudis and the Russians have been the world leaders.
The United States will still need to import lots of oil in the years ahead. Americans use 18.7 million barrels per day. But thanks to the growth in domestic production and the improving fuel efficiency of the nation's cars and trucks, imports could fall by half by the end of the decade.
The increase in production hasn't translated to cheaper gasoline at the pump, and prices are expected to stay relatively high for the next few years because of growing demand for oil in developing nations and political instability in the Middle East and North Africa.
Still, producing more oil domestically, and importing less, gives the economy a significant boost.
The companies profiting range from independent drillers to large international oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, which increasingly see the U.S. as one of the most promising places to drill. ExxonMobil agreed last month to spend $1.6 billion to increase its U.S. oil holdings.
Increased drilling is driving economic growth in states such as North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana and Texas, all of which have unemployment rates far below the national average of 7.8 percent. North Dakota is at 3 percent; Oklahoma, 5.2.
Businesses that serve the oil industry, such as steel companies that supply drilling pipe and railroads that transport oil, aren't the only ones benefiting. Homebuilders, auto dealers and retailers in energy-producing states are also getting a lift.
IHS says the oil and gas drilling boom, which already supports 1.7 million jobs, will lead to the creation of 1.3 million jobs across the U.S. economy by the end of the decade.
"It's the most important change to the economy since the advent of personal computers pushed up productivity in the 1990s," says economist Philip Verleger, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.
The major factor driving domestic production higher is a newfound ability to squeeze oil out of rock once thought too difficult and expensive to tap. Drillers have learned to drill horizontally into long, thin seams of shale and other rock that holds oil, instead of searching for rare underground pools of hydrocarbons that have accumulated over millions of years.
To free the oil and gas from the rock, drillers crack it open by pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure, a process is known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
While expanded use of the method has unlocked enormous reserves of oil and gas, it has also raised concerns that contaminated water produced in the process could leak into drinking water.
The surge in oil production has other roots, as well:
— A long period of high oil prices has given drillers the cash and the motivation to spend the large sums required to develop new techniques and search new places for oil. Over the past decade, oil has averaged $69 a barrel. During the previous decade, it averaged $21.
— Production in the Gulf of Mexico, which slowed after BP's 2010 well disaster and oil spill, has begun to climb again. Huge recent finds there are expected to help growth continue.
— A natural gas glut forced drillers to dramatically slow natural gas exploration beginning about a year ago. Drillers suddenly had plenty of equipment and workers to shift to oil.
The most prolific of the new shale formations are in North Dakota and Texas. Activity is also rising in Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio and other states.
Production from shale formations is expected to grow from 1.6 million barrels per day this year to 4.2 million barrels per day by 2020, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm. That means these new formations will yield more oil by 2020 than major oil suppliers such as Iran and Canada produce today.
U.S. oil and liquids production reached a peak of 11.2 million barrels per day in 1985, when Alaskan fields were producing enormous amounts of crude, then began a long decline. From 1986 through 2008, crude production fell every year but one, dropping by 44 percent over that period. The United States imported nearly 60 percent of the oil it burned in 2006.
By the end of this year, U.S. crude output will be at its highest level since 1998 and oil imports will be lower than at any time since 1992, at 41 percent of consumption.
"It's a stunning turnaround," Burkhard says.
Whether the U.S. supplants Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer will depend on the price of oil and Saudi production in the years ahead. Saudi Arabia sits on the world's largest reserves of oil, and it raises and lowers production to try to keep oil prices steady. Saudi output is expected to remain about flat between now and 2017, according to the International Energy Agency.
But Saudi oil is cheap to tap, while the methods needed to tap U.S. oil are very expensive. If the price of oil falls below $75 per barrel, drillers in the U.S. will almost certainly begin to cut back.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that global oil prices, which have averaged $107 per barrel this year, will slip to an average of $89 over the next five years — not a big enough drop to lead companies to cut back on exploration deeply.
Nor are they expected to fall enough to bring back the days of cheap gasoline. Still, more of the money that Americans spend at filling stations will flow to domestic drillers, which are then more likely to buy equipment here and hire more U.S. workers.
"Drivers will have to pay high prices, sure, but at least they'll have a job," Verleger says.

Hawaii Volcano's Lava Lake Threatens to Overflow

The lava lake inside Halema'uma'u crater, at the top of Mount Kilauea in Hawaii, is closer than ever to spilling out over the crater floor. Read more

Awesome Pictures

How The Octopus Got Its Rings

Imagine for a moment that you're snorkeling in the exquisite cerulean waters off the coast of Australia, when you notice amidst the rocks a small octopus. It's well camouflaged against its background, but, upon seeing you, the startled cephalopod's body suddenly lights up in a brilliant pattern of blue rings.

Instead of recognizing what is obviously the animal's colorful warning display and backing off, you move in to get a closer look, at which point the panicked animal promptly bites your outstretched hand. You've just been bitten by the blue-ringed octopus - one of the more venomous creatures in the Pacific Ocean.

Ancient Armored Fish Had The First Teeth

Around 430 to 360 million years ago, fierce-looking armored fish called placoderms roamed the world's oceans. Most illustrations show them with jaws and teeth. But whether or not they actually had what we'd now describe as teeth has long been the subject of intense debate among scientists.

Now, using a particle-accelerator called a synchrotron, a UK-led team of researchers from the University of Bristol has discovered that these early jawed fish did indeed have pearly gnashers. And probably sharp ones at that.

Live shark found wriggling around on 12th tee of golf course

A 2-foot-long shark was spotted thrashing about on the 12th tee box of at San Juan Hills Golf Club, California, on Monday. The shark was discovered at around 4 pm by an on-duty course marshal, who immediately called the clubhouse to report the displaced fish.
“It was just wriggling around,” Director of Club Operations Melissa McCormack said. “Honestly, this is the weirdest thing that’s happened here.” The marshal picked up the shark, placed it in the back of his golf cart and drove it back to the clubhouse.

There, staff placed the shark briefly in some fresh water before an employee drove it out to Dana Point, where it was released back into the ocean. McCormack believes the shark was picked out of the water by a predatory bird and was dropped onto the course, which is less than 4 miles away from the Pacific Ocean.

The shark was found bleeding from puncture wounds near its dorsal fin. “It had a little blood on it, but it was still alive,” McCormack said. “We didn’t want to waste any time. Poor guy, he got dropped onto a golf course.” McCormack said the shark was light brown in color with black spots and could have been a leopard shark.