Vigil for troops -EXETER
- The rainy weather ended just in time for
Natalie Healy and about 20 others to gather on
the front steps of the Exeter Town Hall Wednesday
evening, in a vigil supporting U.S. troops in
Iraq.
UFO sighting in Exeter - again
-EXETER - There was something odd in the sky
last week, something that caused a Navy veteran
with 10,000 hours of flight experience to have
his own close encounter.
Jul 24, 2005
The Shooting in London
-OK, I'm sick and tired of hearing about this
horrible tragedy or so-called error made by the
London Police.
Jun 29, 2005
Residents warned of
bear, rattlesnake sightings -PEPPERELL -- The
second week of June proved a potentially
dangerous one for unsuspecting residents afoot
when a black bear and two timber rattlesnakes
were seen in Pepperell.
Leaving the Left -"Leading
voices in America's "peace" movement
are actually cheering against self-determination
for a long-suffering Third World country because
they hate George W. Bush more than they love
freedom."
'Generation Rx': Teen Abuse
Of Legal Drugs On The Rise-Gone are the days
when teens used to catch their drug fix in the
back of an alley or on a street corner. Nowadays,
most are looking no further than their parents'
medicine cabinet to get high.
Mother: 'Your brother is
going insane' -BRENTWOOD, N.H. -- Calandra
Staszewski woke up in the middle of the night and
heard her mother scream, "Get out of the
house! Call 911! Your brother is going
insane."
The 44-year-old man and his two daughters, ages 9
and 6, were skating on the football-field size
pond Friday morning when the older girl fell
through the ice, Sheboygan County Sheriff's Sgt.
Doug Tuttle said.
The father fell in while apparently trying to
rescue her, Tuttle said. The 6-year-old then ran
to a nearby home and someone called 911.
Again I feel sorry for the child, but who let's
an 11 year old go off on an ATV unsupervised?
If they were supervised, then we have more stupid
people.
In NH a child under 12 years old is not allowed
to operate any motorized vehicle at any time.
Children between 12 and 14 years old can operate
recreational vehicles as long as they are in
voice control of an adult. Children 14 to 16
years old can operate recreational vehicles as
long as they have attended a safety course.
Children 16 and older are allowed to operate
recreational vehicles.
These laws are broken on a regular basis and
children are paying the price for it.
Instead of penalizing the offenders NH decides to
force everyone to take a boater safety course.
They are working on something for ATV's. Another
example of NH's socialistic tendencies.
Anyway with winter approaching here is a good
reference on Ice safety.
Loads on Ice (Based on
Good Ice)
Required Minimum Ice Thickness in inches -
Description of Safe Moving Load
1-3/4 One person on skies
2 One person on foot or skates
3 One snowmobile
3 A group of people walking single file
7 A single passenger automobile
8 A 2-1/2 ton truck
9 A 3-1/2 ton truck
10 A 7 to 8 ton truck
When you read this website it also discusses the
distance of load separation. For one person on
foot the separation is seventeen feet!
Nov 26, 2005 7:20 am
Teacher under investigation for alleged
liberalism
BENNINGTON, Vt. --The school superintendent whose
district includes Mount Anthony Union High School
has labeled "inappropriate" and
"irresponsible" an English teacher's
use of liberal statements in a vocabulary quiz.
"I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed)
for once during a speech, but there are theories
that his everyday diction charms the
below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican
votes," said one question on a quiz written
by English and social studies teacher Bret
Chenkin.
After determining that safety gates at an Elmwood
Park railroad crossing appeared to be working
properly, federal investigators on Thursday
suggested that a crash between a Metra train and
several cars was caused by motorists who ignored
warning signs and stopped on the tracks.
So now they want to spend money to coordinate the
traffic lights with the trains because a few
stupid people stopped on the tracks at a red
light and got stuck there.
Does anybody here stop at a red light while
sitting on railroad tracks?
Some People are stupid and should not cost the
rest of us money for their own stupidity!
We should institute a stupid people tax to pay
for this stuff.
Oct 18, 2005 8:37 pm
PETA workers face 25 felony counts
in North Carolina
WINTON, N.C.
- The cats and dogs two PETA employees have been
charged with euthanizing and dumping in an
Ahoskie garbage bin were killed by injections of
pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly used to put
down animals, according to new warrants issued
and served on Friday.
Additionally, the two employees were charged with
three felony counts of obtaining property by
false pretenses. The charges allege that they
euthanized three cats from an Ahoskie
veterinarian after promising to find the animals
new homes, according to the new warrants.
PETA employees Andrew B. Cook, 24, of Virginia
Beach, and Adria J. Hinkle, 27, of Norfolk, were
served with warrants on 22 felony charges of
animal cruelty and the three felony charges of
obtaining property by false pretense in court on
Friday.
A grand jury is expected to consider formal
indictments Oct. 31, Assistant District Attorney
Donnie Taylor said.
EXETER - The rainy weather ended just in time for
Natalie Healy and about 20 others to gather on
the front steps of the Exeter Town Hall Wednesday
evening, in a vigil supporting U.S. troops in
Iraq.
Healy, of Exeter, is the mother of Dan Healy, the
Navy SEAL who died in Afghanistan this summer.
She said she organized the vigil because she
wants other Americans, al-Qaida, the Iraqi people
and the Bush administration to know that not
everyone shares the same opinion as Cindy
Sheehan.
N.H. kids will stay with family despite
squalid home
Wendy Ruff, her husband and five children, ages 9
to 17, were found living amid garbage, feces and
urine from a menagerie of 57 pets and farm
animals this week. The yard was full of junk,
roaming animals and old garbage bags. Inside,
exposed insulation hung from the walls and a
woodstove pipe poked through a hole in a wall.
Police and town Health Officer Charles Durgin
deemed the house unsafe to live in, and the
animals were taken to shelters. Local officials
were frustrated the state didn't remove the
children.
Menezes' family and the Brazilian government
reacted angrily to a statement from the British
Home Office implying that he was in Britain
illegally because his student visa expired two
years ago.
He had a stamp in his passport, apparently
granting him indefinite leave to remain in
Britain, but the stamp was not in use by British
immigration officials at the time, the British
Home Office said.
EXETER - There has been a considerable response
to Tuesday's article in the News-Letter about a
recent UFO sighting. Interested local residents
and skeptics joined UFO enthusiasts commenting
from throughout the nation, and reaction was even
received from a French "Ufologist" who
recalled two similar sightings in Europe.
EXETER - There was something odd in the sky last
week, something that caused a Navy veteran with
10,000 hours of flight experience to have his own
close encounter.
The former flight engineer, who wished to be
identified only as "David," said of the
experience, "this was like nothing I've ever
seen before."
OK, I'm sick and tired of hearing about this
horrible tragedy or so-called error made by the
London Police.
This Brazilian came from an area of London where
it is suspected that some of the terrorist
suicide bombers lived. These bombers had
explosives under their clothes or in backpacks.
This guy was wearing a jacket during the summer.
He was wearing a jacket during the summer. He was
wearing a jacket during the summer.
Then he started acting suspiciously. He acted
suspiciously. He acted suspiciously. Then when he
spotted someone following him he ran. He ran. He
ran. Then he jumped a barrier. He jumped a
barrier. He jumped a barrier.
He was wearing a coat during the summer, he acted
suspiciously, he started running, and he jumped a
barrier.
Then to top it all off he ran to a train and
tried to board. He tried to board a train. He
tried to board a train.
Now if you were a cop in London and you have had
several suicide bombers target the train system
in London, and you follow this suspicious guy who
was wearing a jacket in the summer, who acted
suspiciously, ran away, jumped a barrier, and
then tried to board a train, how would you feel
when you tackled him?
I would be a little worried about him blowing me
up and the people on and around the train.
If you were the cops how would you know if he had
a bomb or not?
What would you do?
I know what I would do, I'd put 5 in his head.
Now if all of this information is correct, then
there was no error and there were no mistakes
made by the police. The only error in judgment
was made by the dead guy.
The police in London did exactly what they had to
do.
PEPPERELL -- The second week of June proved a
potentially dangerous one for unsuspecting
residents afoot when a black bear and two timber
rattlesnakes were seen in Pepperell.
Joshua Yenetchi, emergency medical technician
(EMT) administrator, said Wednesday state
officials have confirmed reports that two timber
rattlesnakes have been seen near Nashua Road.
"The biggest thing [if bitten] is to get an
antidote," he said. "Call 911
immediately."
Yenetchi said the closest hospital that has the
antidote is St. Joseph's Hospital in Nashua, N.H.
"We've contacted them to make sure," he
said, "The other option [EMTs have] is to
fly to [the University of Massachusetts Medical
Center in] Worcester," he added. "Don't
try to capture the snake."
He said training Officer Jean Taubert has
notified all EMTs of the sightings and sent out
treatment information.
In a training update, Taubert wrote timber
rattlesnakes have been seen in the past in
Townsend
State officials have confirmed they have been
seen in Groton.
Could a hotel be built on the land
owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter?
For Release Monday, June 27 to New
Hampshire media
For Release Tuesday, June 28 to all other media
Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be
built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice
David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme
Court which was supported by Justice Souter
himself itself might allow it. A private
developer is seeking to use this very law to
build a hotel on Souter's land.
Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City
of New London" decision allows city
governments to take land from one private owner
and give it to another if the government will
generate greater tax revenue or other economic
benefits when the land is developed by the new
owner.
On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a
request to Chip Meany the code
nforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New
Hampshire seeking to start the application
process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road.
This is the present location of Mr. Souter's
home.
Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out
that the City of Weare will certainly gain
greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a
hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr.
Souter to own the land.
The proposed development, called "The Lost
Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just
Desserts Café" and include a museum, open
to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on
the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a
Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free
copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas
Shrugged."
Clements indicated that the hotel must be built
on this particular piece of land because it is a
unique site being the home of someone largely
irresponsible for destroying property rights for
all Americans.
"This is not a prank" said Clements,
"The Towne of Weare has five people on the
Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use
the power of eminent domain to take this land
from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel
development."
Clements' plan is to raise investment capital
from wealthy pro-liberty investors and draw up
architectural plans. These plans would then be
used to raise investment capital for the project.
Clements hopes that regular customers of the
hotel might include supporters of the Institute
For Justice and participants in the Free State
Project among others.
PLAISTOW - Police expect to arrest two people
they believe went on a BB gun shooting spree of
people, houses and cars in Plaistow and Atkinson
on Tuesday night.
EXCERPT
Baldwin said "the damage to personal
property will likely fall under criminal mischief
charges and the shots fired at people would fall
under reckless conduct."
EXCERPT
The suspects also allegedly broke a picture
window in a home on Line Brook Road in Atkinson
while a person stood behind the window
Teen charged in BB gun
spree, honored as Eagle Scout
ATKINSON - A Timberlane High School senior who
faces a felony charge for his role in a two-town
BB gun shooting spree earlier this week was
honored for his Eagle Scout work with a day named
after him.
Town officials had proclaimed yesterday
"Timothy Ryan Murphy Day" before the
incidents or the arrest.
EXCERPT
Donald Murphy said neither he nor his son would
comment about the arrest. It was unclear whether
it will affect his Eagle Scout status.
EXCERPT
"These kids aren't bad kids, they just a had
night where they made a lot of bad choices,"
said Atkinson police Sgt. William Baldwin, who is
also a family friend of the Murphys. "They
are going to have to do restitution and see
punishment as the court sees fit. ... They are
not troublemakers and they are not repeat
offenders but they did commit some criminal
actions and unfortunately they didn't think about
them before they did it. In light of all that, I
am hoping that the public will have some
understanding and forgive them down the road. And
let the court system do its job."
Ann-Margret's Spontaneous Tribute to
Vietnam Vets at a Book Signing-Truth!
Summary of the eRumor:
A warm story about a Vietnam vet who wanted
actress Ann-Margret to sign a snapshot he had
taken of her when she once performed for troops
in Vietnam. He and his wife went to a bookstore
where Ann-Margret was autographing books, but an
announcement was made that she would be signing
books only, not other memorabilia. The vet
decided to get in line anyway to at least show
her the picture and tell her how much visits like
hers meant to troops so far from home. When she
saw the photo, tears came to her eyes and she
called him one of her "gentlemen from
Vietnam" and said she would sign the photo
for him. She gave him a kiss and told the crowd
how much she appreciated the veterans for what
they had done. It was emotional for those in the
crowd, but especially so for the vet who later
told his wife it had been the first time anyone
had thanked him for his service in the Army. Like
other Vietnam vets, he returned to an America
that had been tormented by the controversial
conflict and did not offer the warmth, gratitude,
and enthusiasm enjoyed by soldiers returning from
other military actions.
"Leading voices in America's
"peace" movement are actually cheering
against self-determination for a long-suffering
Third World country because they hate George W.
Bush more than they love freedom."
"A turning point came at a dinner party on
the day Ronald Reagan famously described the
Soviet Union as the pre-eminent source of evil in
the modern world. The general tenor of the
evening was that Reagan's use of the word
"evil" had moved the world closer to
annihilation. There was a palpable sense that we
might not make it to dessert."
"When I casually offered that the surviving
relatives of the more than 20 million people
murdered on orders of Joseph Stalin might not
find "evil'" too strong a word, the
room took on a collective bemused smile of the
sort you might expect if someone had casually
mentioned taking up child molestation for
sport."
Making a Dent in Liberal
Disinformation: Leaving the Left Behind
Written by Lester Dent
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
"Keith cites as his watershed moment January
30, 2005 as he listened to the left minimize the
historic nature of the Iraqi elections. Mine came
a few years ealier, although I cannot set the
date exactly. "
"Understated in Keith's excellent piece is
something that I had a hard time understanding,
but which eventually allowed me to take the big
step of changing my label from
"liberal" to "conservative."
I was a liberal because liberals cared about
people. I believed in equality. I believed in
protecting the weak, and giving people as much
opportunity as possible. Liberals have been very
good at demonizing conservatives and claiming to
be the sole possessors of compassion. Whether it
is Bush gleefully harming the elderly on Social
Security, or ruthless Republicans
"cutting" education spending (a $3
billion increase which is less than what
educators want is hardly a "cut"),
conservatives have been effectively branded as
people who just don't care."
"What I came to understand in my political
journey is that I was better able to pursue my
values as a conservative than as a liberal."
Sometime yesterday, during a high wind gust,
Phyllis the chicken was launched out into the
world. Philis is a very special chicken. Most
chickens have very little intelligence. Phil in
an exception, she has none at all. We suspect she
cannot see very well as she is constantly walking
into things. Getting stuck in the bushes unable
to find her way out. She will come toward the
sound of a human voice. Phyllis cannot fly and if
she landed in a tree she, most likely, can't get
down.
If anyone finds her they can either keep her as a
pet [once in a while she lays a white egg] or
call me xxx-xxxx or the animal control officer.
Charges put spotlight back on Milton
Academy scandal
Some say discord wears
them down
MILTON -- For a little while, it seemed as if the
storm had passed at Milton Academy.
The 15-year-old sophomore girl who allegedly
engaged in oral sex with five varsity hockey
players in January was back in class after being
placed on leave. She was fitting in relatively
well, students say. Friends of the male students
involved had stopped wearing black to protest
their expulsion from school.
But the spotlight returned to the prestigious
prep school yesterday following news that two
male teenagers are now facing juvenile charges of
statutory rape.
Supreme Court ruling sparks debate
about local police enforcing immigration laws
Depending on the cases, information may be
referred to the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Office, but if people who are here
illegally don't commit crimes, they may never
appear on the radar of immigration authorities.
"We investigate crimes they may commit when
they're here, living illegally," said
Marlborough Police Chief Mark Leonard. "We
don't investigate them because they're here
illegally. Immigration violations are a federal
issue. We enforce the laws of the commonwealth.
We have limited authority and limited
resources."
But a police chief in New Hampshire thinks
differently. New Ipswich, N.H., Police Chief
Garret Chamberlain has recently charged Mexican
native Jorge Mora Ramirez, 21, of Waltham, with
criminal trespass, after stopping him for a
routine inquiry and learning he was an illegal
immigrant.
In anAssociated Press report, Chamberlain was
quoted saying that his department spoke to
several immigration officials, none of whom
wanted to take custody of the man. Last year,
Chamberlain's department also detained nine
illegal immigrants, but let them go when
immigration officials said they couldn't take
them into custody unless they are suspected of a
crime.
Police Charge Man From
Mexico With Criminal Trespass
Man Admits He Is In Country On
Forged Documents
NEW IPSWICH, N.H. -- Police have charged a man
from Mexico with criminal trespass after he
admitted that he was in the country on forged
documents.
"He's in the country illegally so obviously
he's in New Ipswich illegally," said Police
Chief Garrett Chamberlain of the arrest, which
was made after a routine inquiry Friday.
Ramirez's truck was stopped along the side of a
road and the hazard lights were on.
Ramirez, 21, who is living in Waltham, Mass., but
is from Mexico, admitted to police that he was in
the country illegally, Chamberlain said.
It's not clear whether courts will allow police
to prosecute people for crossing international
borders by using a law more commonly applied to
domestic disputes. Because Ramirez was not
indoors, the criminal trespass is a violation, a
level of severity less than a misdemeanor.
"It's a novel theory," said state
Assistant Attorney Robert Carey. "We aren't
aware of any sort of contrary authority to it, if
you look at the statute."
Chamberlain said police spoke to several
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials,
none of whom wanted to take custody of Ramirez.
The officials said the information would be
forwarded to the agency's Boston office.
'Generation Rx': Teen Abuse Of Legal Drugs
On The Rise
Gone are the days when teens used to catch their
drug fix in the back of an alley or on a street
corner. Nowadays, most are looking no further
than their parents' medicine cabinet to get high.
A new study released by the Partnership for a
Drug-Free America on Thursdayrevealed that
America's teens are now becoming a pill-popping
nation, snagging prescription drugs and
over-the-counter meds to score a fix.
"A new category of substance abuse is
emerging in America. For the first time, our
national study finds that today's teens are more
likely to have abused a prescription painkiller
to get high than they are to have experimented
with a variety of illicit drugs, including
Ecstasy, cocaine, crack and LSD. In other nwords,
'Generation Rx' has arrived," Roy Bostock,
chairman of the Partnership, said in a statement.
The study - based on a survey of 7,300 teenagers
- found that as many as one in five between the
ages of 12 to 17 (nearly 4.4 million nationwide)
admit taking prescription painkillers, such as
Vicodin, at least once in the past year. One in
10, or 2.3 million, report taking a prescription
stimulant like Ritalin, and another one in 11
(2.2 million) have abused over-the-counter
medication like cough syrup to get high. The
average age for users to start is now between 13
and 14 years old, and the younger a child begins
experimenting with medication, the more likely
they are to develop a drug habit.
BRENTWOOD - Calandra Staszewski woke up in the
middle of the night to her mother's screams. When
the 13-year-old ran downstairs, she saw her
mother, Nickoletta, kneeling in front of the
couch, blood coming from her shoulder, holding
down her brother who had been brandishing a
kitchen knife.
Nickoletta screamed to her daughter, "Get
out of the hous. Call 911! Your brother is going
insane!"
Richard "Richie" Staszewski, who had
been taking anti-depressants and had days earlier
visited Exeter Hospital claiming his heart had
stopped, was about to kill his mother, according
to court documents released yesterday.
BRENTWOOD, N.H. -- Calandra Staszewski woke up in
the middle of the night and heard her mother
scream, "Get out of the house! Call 911!
Your brother is going insane."
She saw her mother kneeling in front of the
couch, holding her brother down. Blood was coming
from her mother's shoulder.
Calandra, 13, grabbed a phone, ran to the garage
and locked herself in a car. She called 911.
When police arrived Thursday, they saw Richard
Staszewski, who was naked, walking along the
street with blood dripping from his arms. He
yelled, "Just shoot me!" and that he
had stabbed his mother and that she was dead.
BRENTWOOD - The stabbing death of a 47-year-old
mother shattered the early calm
of upscale Robinson Street Thursday morning when
police apprehended the woman's
son and charged him with second-degree murder
Wendy's ups award in
chili incident
Fast-food chain to pay $100,000 to solve finger
case
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Wendy's
International has doubled the amount of an award
it will pay for information that could put an end
to the mystery surrounding a woman's claim that
she found a portion of a finger in a bowl of
chili from one of its restaurants.
Wendy's (WEN: news, chart, profile) said Friday
it will pay $100,000 to the first person to
provide "verifiable" information about
the origin of the "foreign object"
found in the chili.
The incident has caused sales to drop in the area
and has bruised the chain's reputation
nationally, said Wendy's.
Las Vegas resident Ana Ayala, 39, said she bit
into the finger while eating at a Wendy's
restaurant in San Jose, Calif. on March 22.
Ayala's lawyer said earlier this week that she
has decided not to file a lawsuit against the
company, according to media reports.
We've all seen it. In fact,
many of us have secretly danced to it in our
rooms. Yes, I'm talking about the Numa Numa song,
appropriately lip-synched to by a chubby
19-year-old named Gary Brolsma from Saddle Brook,
New Jersey. This video, a short clip of Brolsma
lip-synching to a Romanian pop song, Dragostea
Din Tei, was filmed on his web cam and promptly
posted on newgrounds.com back in December of
2004. Since then, it's been a hit and has been
made mention of on many national television
shows, from Good Morning America to VH1's Best
Week Ever.
NASA’s
Spitzer Space Telescope, for the first time, has
detected light from distant planets that lie
external to our own Solar System. So far, about
130 extra-solar planets or exo-planets, including
two recent ones found by Spitzer, have been found
indirectly by methods called ‘wobble’
and ‘transit’. While
‘wobble’ technique shows the presence
of a planet by the gravitational force it exerts
on its parent star, thus making the star wobble,
the ‘transit’ method does so when the
planet passes in front of its star, making the
star dim or ‘blink’. Both methods,
using visible-light telescopes, indicate the size
and mass of the planets.
NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center’s (GSFC) Dr Drake Deming, who
is studying one of the two planets recently
detected by Spitzer, said, “Spitzer has
provided us with a powerful new tool for learning
about the temperatures, atmospheres and orbits of
planets hundreds of light-years from Earth.”
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’
Dr David Charbonneau, lead author of the study of
the second planet found, said, “It’s
fantastic. We’ve been hunting for this light
for almost 10 years, ever since extra-solar
planets were first discovered.”
A recent visual discovery
of 2 planets located outside our solar system by
NASA's Spitzer telescope is generating excitement
concerning the future planet searches.
Although astronomers have
identified more than 130 planets beyond the solar
system, these alien worlds remain phantoms. Too
faint and small to be imaged, each planet has
been detected only indirectly, either by the
wobble it induces in its parent star or by the
tiny amount of light it blocks when it passes in
front of its star.
The 16-year-old Minnesota outsider
who killed nine people before taking his own life
was being treated with the controversial
anti-depressant Prozac.
The revelation yesterday by
Jeff Weise's aunts, Shauna and Tammy Luscher, on
CBS News' "The Early Show" revived the
debate over whether such drugs induce homicidal
and suicidal thoughts in children and teens.
Eric Harris, one of the teen gunmen in the
infamous Columbine massacre in 1999, had been
prescribed Prozac, as had Kip Kinkel, who killed
his parents and classmates at Thurston High
School in Oregon in 1998. Minn. massacre
teen taking Prozac
Satellite imagery analyzed
by two U.N. groups — the International
Atomic Energy Agency and the Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission —
confirm that some of the sites identified by
al-Araji appear to be totally or partly stripped,
according to senior officials at those agencies.
Those officials said that they could not
comment on all of al-Araji's assertions, because
they had been barred from Iraq since the
invasion.
The disclosures by the Iraqi ministry added new
information about the thefts, detailing the
timing, the material that was taken and the
apparent skill of the operations.
Al-Araji, whose work was respected
internationally even when he worked for Saddam's
government, said equipment capable of making
parts for missiles as well as chemical,
biological and nuclear arms was missing from
eight or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq's
dormant program on unconventional weapons.
Looting "sophisticated" after Saddam's
fall
Looting at Iraq Weapons
Plants After Invasion: NYT
Mar 12, 2005 —
NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Looters systematically removed tons of equipment
from Iraqi weapons facilities, including some
with components capable of making parts of
nuclear arms, in the weeks after Baghdad fell in
2003, The New York Times reported in Sunday
editions. Looting at Iraq Weapons Plants
After Invasion: NYT
In a bizarre twist to the recent reports of a
radiation belt beneath Loch Ness, swimmers and
fishermen are being warned of a new peril.
"Super plankton" are believed to have
already attacked and killed several trout and at
least one seal.
Dr. Postna of the Institute for Bio Aquatic
Analysis told the Loch Ness Inquirer, "we
normally find microbe sized plankton living on a
diet of microbial vegetation, but this is
something new. Some of the plankton in Loch Ness
are aggressive carnivorous predators, which have
mutated and grown upto 7.5cm (3 inches) in
diameter."
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) was
created as a partnership among the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS), Yellowstone National
Park, and University of Utah to strengthen the
long-term monitoring of volcanic and earthquake
unrest in the Yellowstone National Park region.
Yellowstone is the site of the largest and most
diverse collection of natural thermal features in
the world and the first National Park.
Questions and Answers about Supervolcanoes,
Volcanic Hazards, and Yellowstone
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory March 2005
The docudrama Supervolcano dramatically explores
the impact of a large caldera-forming eruption at
Yellowstone. The scale of the portrayed eruption
is similar to the eruption of the Huckleberry
Ridge Tuff at Yellowstone 2.1 million years ago.
The movie is realistic insofar as depicting what
could happen if an eruption of this magnitude
were to occur again. Although the drama is set in
the future, it does an acceptable job of
addressing some of the issues scientists would
grapple with if Yellowstone showed signs of an
impending eruption.
New research proves existence of super volcano
beneath Loch Ness
Professor Tom Plume PhD (51) of the EU Volcanic
Research Committee has warned that the famous
fault-line, known as the Great Glen, may be about
to rip apart as a result of a Super Volcano,
which has lain dormant for millions of years.
"Loch Ness lies on the Great Glen fault-line
and its incredible depth (over 2km) has severely
hampered our research project", said
Professor Plume. Unlike some other projects, we
need to be able to see right down through the
earth's crust, but until recently, we have been
restricted to dry land. Fortunately new
developments with satellite laser topography
sonar side-scanning techniques have enabled us to
penetrate through the thick sludge that lies up
to 400m thick at the loch's bottom. What we found
shocked us: nematode worms and zooplankton the
size of a human fist that seem to be feeding on
thermal vents."
U.S. Drops One Charge
Against Abu Ghraib
Defendant
Sat Feb 5, 2005 03:43 PM ET
FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - The
U.S. government dropped the main charge on
Saturday against a female soldier who posed in
front of a pyramid of naked Iraqis at Abu Ghraib
prison. The
charge against Sabrina Harman, over viewing and
failing to prevent other soldiers from forcing
detainees to masturbate, was dropped without
discussion. The charge carried a maximum sentence
of five years. Harman
now faces five counts of maltreatment, one count
of conspiracy and one count of dereliction of
duty. When
charges were filed in March, she faced a maximum
17-year sentence. The latest dropped charge
reduced the possible maximum sentence to 6.5
years, said Capt. Patsy Takemura, Harman's
military lawyer.
EXCERPT
She is also accused of
attaching wires to a hooded detainee and telling
him he would be electrocuted if he fell off the
box on which he was standing. U.S. Drops One Charge Against Abu
Ghraib Defendant
U.S. Drops One Charge
Against Abu Ghraib Defendant
OK, sexual abuse is
unacceptable, but attaching wires to a terrorist
and threatening him with electrocution?
THIS IS WAR! Hussein
would have done much worse and already has.
Now actually
electrocuting them? That would depend on the amperage.
DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A
Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay
about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they
caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned
with paper hearts.
The pair were ordered to
pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after
neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit
complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at
her house after the girls knocked on her door,
had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to
the hospital the next day.
Citing parental neglect and
psychological problems, US District Judge Marsha
Pechman gave hacker Jeffrey Lee Parson a much
lighter penalty than the sentence of 10 years in
prison and a quarter million dollar fine, that he
could have received had he not pleaded guilty.
Associated Press
ATLANTA - Blaming a computer
software error, the government says it overstated
the nation's weight problem in a widely reported
study last year that said obesity was about to
overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in
the United States. The study, conducted by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news
- web sites) and published last March in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (news
- web sites), said that obesity-related deaths
climbed between 1990 and 2000 to 400,000 a year
— an increase of 100,000.
In Wednesday's issue of the
journal, the government ran a correction, saying
the increase was a more modest 65,000 deaths or
so.
"The combination of
diet, physical inactivity and tobacco are all
leading causes of death, causing far more than a
majority of total deaths in this country in the
year 2000," said Donna Stroup, acting
director for the CDC's coordinating center for
health promotion. "Regardless of the
controversy, it's clear to people these are the
three underlying causes of death most important
to the country." The errors in the study were
discovered soon after it was published, as
scientists inside and outside the agency began to
dispute its findings.
In what the New Hampshire Fish and Game
Department says could be a precedent-setting
case, the state has won a conviction against a
man for shooting a black bear raiding a bird
feeder in his back yard.
Fish and Game Lt. Doug Gralenski said last week
that Jocelyn Labonville of Shelburne, N.H., had
complained twice to conservation officers that a
black bear was raiding his bird feeders and he
was concerned for his grandchildren's safety.
Gralenski said Labonville was told to stop
feeding birds and the bear problem would go away,
but he shot and killed the bear while it fed at
his bird feeder June 14.
"Birdseed is not birdseed to a bear, it's
bear seed," Gralenski said. "The case
boils down to this: If you insist on feeding
birds or purposely create a situation that
attracts bears, you can't just kill that
bear."
Labonville was convicted Tuesday in Gorham
District Court of taking wildlife during a closed
season. He was fined $240 and will lose his
hunting license for one year.
Several states, including Vermont, have laws
prohibiting direct and indirect feeding of black
bears.
New Hampshire's Fish and Game Department is
researching such legislation but has not formally
proposed rules regarding the feeding of black
bears, Gralenski said.
Laws regarding protection of property from animal
damage give New Hampshire homeowners the right to
dispatch bears "causing substantial property
damage."
But "a bear being shot as it raids a
backyard bird feeder does not meet the intent of
the property damage law," Gralenski said.
The case, Gralenski said, is the first in New
Hampshire to address that issue, and likely will
set a precedent regarding what constitutes
wildlife damage.
Indonesia blasts likely meteor shower
Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:06 AM GMT
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Several loud blasts believed
to be caused by a meteor shower have echoed
across the Indonesian capital Jakarta and nearby
towns, startling residents who reported seeing
flying objects in the sky.
Police said they had found no evidence that the
blasts were caused by bomb attacks. An official
from the Indonesian space centre LAPAN told the
official Antara news agency the explosions were
likely to have been caused by a meteor shower.
"It's suspected that a fireball originating
from a big meteor entered the earth's atmosphere
... This created the explosion," said LAPAN
space expert Thomas Djamaluddin on Sunday.
Police, on high alert after warnings from Western
governments of possible terror attacks over the
Christmas and New Year period, had said they were
investigating the blasts.
Residents heard them around 7.30 a.m. in Jakarta,
the satellite city of Tangerang, and Serang in
West Java province.
"The police have searched throughout the
regency and we found nothing to indicate a bomb
or meteor," said one officer on duty in
Tangerang.
Indonesian air force spokesman Sagom Tambun said
there had been no radar readings indicating a
meteor.
One caller to El Shinta radio from Bogor, just
south of Jakarta, reported seeing a large object
hit the earth in the distance.
Western governments, especially Australia, have
warned that an international hotel could be
targeted for attack, possibly one of the three
Hiltons in the world's most populous Muslim
nation.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department issued a
fresh warning late last week for Americans to
avoid non-essential travel to Indonesia, saying
"the terrorist threat continues and may
increase over the December-January holiday
period".
"Reports indicate that terrorists are
planning attacks against a wide variety of
targets," the State Department said.
Police have tightened security across the
country.
Islamic militants from Jemaah Islamiah, seen as
the regional arm of al Qaeda, have launched bomb
attacks in recent years in Indonesia, hitting
nightclubs in Bali, the JW Marriott Hotel in
Jakarta and the Australian embassy in the
capital.
In the worst attack, 202 people were killed in
Bali two years when militants bombed two
nightclubs. The dead included 88 Australians.
Police have deployed an additional 18,400
personnel for Christmas and New Year to protect
churches and entertainment centres across
Indonesia.
Failing new emissions
test: Fix the car or junk it
Fix it or else
Preventive or not, owners whose cars fail will
have no choice but to make repairs - regardless
of cost.
New Hampshire officials said there is no appeals
process and no waivers will be available to those
who might spend hundreds of dollars trying to fix
a problem to no avail. The state will give an
owner 60 days to fix the car and pass a new
emissions test. Those failing to do this will
have their plates confiscated, said Tom
Hettinger, an administrator with the Department
of Motor Vehicles.
'Check engine'
The OBD test equipment downloads the information
stored a vehicle's on-board diagnostic computer
(thus the term "OBD"). The vehicle will
be rejected if the computer has stored codes
indicating a problem with the engine or emission
control components.
When the computer is sensing such a problem, the
driver should see a dashboard warning light such
as "check engine" come on.
Mike Alton, owner of ProImage Racing repair shop
in Manchester, said these problem codes are
permanently stored in the computer.
"If that check engine light comes on, even
if it goes out by itself, the car most likely
won't pass the emissions test. That failure today
will show up when you get an inspection in
August," he said.
My Toyota Tacoma has had it's sensors reset
several times. The computer has shown no problems
at all and the mechanic believed that it may have
just been a dirty sensor.
OK, Now What? I can see it coming!
I think I'll talk to my mechanic at my next oil
change!
So now the government is downloading all the
issues your car has had and then determining if
your car "may" pollute in the future.
If your car is shown to be a possible polluter
than get ready for some repair bills with no
guarantee of success and no way to challenge the
results.
WOW, a slippery slope indeed!
Also don't forget that many car models now have a
black box type chip that records your last
several actions in the car as in steering and
braking. This black box chip will be used to
determmine if you were at fault in an accident.
We are slipping big time and big brother is
standing over us!
I can see an increase of unregistered cars in
people's yards with no hope of sellng them. Who
is going to buy a car that can't pass this test?
Prehistoric hunters may be off the hook in the
latest twist of a prehistoric whodunit that tries
to explain why bison populations sharply crashed
thousands of years ago. Proponents of the overkill theory
blamed the first Americans to cross an ice-free
corridor - connecting what's now Alaska and
Siberia - for hunting bison within a whisper of
disappearance. Those super hunters are also
faulted for pushing massive mammals, like woolly
mammoths, short-faced bears and North American
lions into extinction.
A team of 27 scientists
used ancient DNA to track the hulking herbivore's
boom-and-bust population patterns, adding to
growing evidence that climate change was to
blame. The team collected 442 bison fossils from
Alaska, the lower 48 US states, Canada, China and
Siberia.
"The interesting thing
that we say about the extinctions, is that
whatever happened, it wasn't due to humans,"
said the paper's lead author, Beth Shapiro, a
Research Fellow at Oxford University.
By the time people
arrived, "these populations are already
significantly in decline and on the brink of
whatever was going to happen to them in the
future".
The story written into the
bison's DNA is one of an exponential increase in
diversity with herd sizes doubling every 10 200
years. Then, 32 000 to 42 000 years ago, the last
glacial cycle kicked in, beginning a lengthy
cooling trend. Bison
genetic diversity plummeted. A significant wave
of humans didn't appear in the archaeological
record at eastern Beringia until more than 15 000
years later, the authors write in the latest
edition of the journal, Science. Beringia is the region surrounding
the land bridge that connected North America and
Asia.
Police issue warning on mountain lion
November 11, 2004
Acton Police Chief Frank J. Widmayer III urged
local residents to stay away from wooded areas,
following reports Monday morning of the possible
sighting of a mountain lion.
Acton police received a call at 1:30 a.m. Monday,
after residents of Mohawk Drive reported hearing
a loud growling noise outside their home.
Responding officers said they saw several deer
running away from the area and also heard a
growling noise.
At one point, the officers saw an animal, which
they described as a crouching tan cat,
approximately 5 to 6 feet in length.
Environmental police informed Widmayer that they
believe the animal is living in the Acton,
Westford, Chelmsford, and Littleton area,
possibly in the Westford Quarries. The animal,
which is believed to be a mountain lion, is
nocturnal by nature, and environmental police
have warned residents to use caution between dusk
and dawn. The environmental police added that
though mountain lions eat coyote, their prey of
choice is deer.
Monday's sighting was the second within a week in
Acton. The other was reported on the morning of
Nov. 3.
"Environmental police informed Widmayer that
they believe the animal is living in the Acton,
Westford, Chelmsford, and Littleton area,
possibly in the Westford Quarries."
Who said this?
Expert Casts Doubt On Mountain Lion Claims
'Big Cat' May Be Big Dog, Expert Says
UPDATED: 1:45 pm EST November 10, 2004
ACTON, Mass. -- The "big cat" that was
seen in the town of Acton may in fact have been a
big dog.
That's the word today from state wildlife
biologist Marion Larson. She said experts have
examined some large tracks found in the area
where the large animal that some believed to be a
mountain lion was spotted. They determined that
the tracks were likely left by a large canine --
a coyote, perhaps, or a domestic dog such as a
Great Dane.
Acton residents have been on edge since the
sightings, one of which was credited to a police
officer. Police posted a flashing electronic sign
warning that a mountain lion might be loose.
But Larson says there is no reason to believe
that a wild animal would attack a person.
The military has begun punishing some of the 19
Army reservists who balked at what they called a
"suicide mission" and a "death
sentence" in Iraq last week.
Some members of the South Carolina-based 343rd
Quartermaster Company refused to transport fuel
between the Iraqi cities of Tallil and Taji
Wednesday morning, saying they had no protection
for the dangerous trip.
And yesterday, as the Army started demoting or
reassigning the suspected ringleaders of the
mini-mutiny, unit members told families back home
that not only was the mission suicidal, it was
pointless because their helicopter fuel was
contaminated with diesel, and had already been
rejected at one air base.
Sometimes it is easy for us to spot the villain -
to point a finger and say, "Ah, you are at
fault" for the transgression or lousy
decision or ill-conceived notion. Other times,
the circumstances are not so clear cut, and there
is blame enough to go around for all. This is the
situation in Epping, as town officials grapple
with residents doing battle with home improvement
giant Lowe's over its plans to build a
162,927-square-foot store at Epping Crossing.
At
the heart of this dispute is Lowe's intention to
drive 947 steel piles into the ground when it
begins construction on its new store at Epping
Crossing. Residential homeowners abutting the
site first learned of plans to use the pile-drive
method of construction in August. That's when
they received a letter from an engineering firm
hired by Lowe's informing them the firm would be
conducting preconstruction surveys of their homes
in case there was damage from vibrations during
the ensuing building.
TWO NEW HAMPSHIRE LEGISLATORS are surprised to
learn their vehicles are equipped with electronic
devices, popularly referred to as "black
boxes," that record a driver's behavior
seconds before an accident.
